Disney sues to keep its Avengers copyrights assembled

Disney

Disney-owned Marvel is suing relatives of Steve Ditko and other Marvel comics creators to retain control of classic characters, including Iron Man, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Black Widow.

The lawsuits, covered earlier today by The Hollywood Reporter, were filed in New York and California against the heirs of Steve Ditko, Don Rico, Don Heck, and Gene Colan, as well as Stan Lee’s brother and Marvel collaborator Lawrence Lieber. They ask courts to declare that Disney has sole ownership of comics like The Avengers, Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Strange Tales, and Tales of Suspense — including the characters and story elements that have formed the basis for Disney’s lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the...

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Twitter lets you add Topics to Spaces, but they’re limited to start

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is bringing Topics to Spaces so that hosts can tag their Spaces with up to three relevant Topics, according to the Spaces Twitter account. It’s a small addition to start: there are only 10 Topics to choose from, limited to English, for some people on the Android app. Twitter says it will expand to iOS and add more Topics and languages soon.

The initial 10 Topics — including Entertainment, Gaming, and World News — align with the ones that currently exist across Twitter, which people can choose to follow to get related content on their timelines. Adding Topics to Spaces brings it even closer to how Clubhouse works, with different topics to explore and clubs to join based around those topics.

new in Spaces: Topics!

when creating...

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The Lightning port isn’t about convenience; it’s about control

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The European Commission shook the iPhone world to its roots this week, announcing a new policy that would require all smartphones to adopt USB-C ports for physical charging in an effort to reduce e-waste.

Apple, of course, doesn’t offer a USB-C iPhone, having argued to the European Commission in the past that “Legislation would have a direct negative impact by disrupting the hundreds of millions of active devices and accessories used by our European customers and even more Apple customers worldwide, creating an unprecedented volume of electronic waste and greatly inconveniencing users.”

Apple obviously prefers Lightning to USB-C

Switching to USB-C, Apple says, would actually be more wasteful than sticking with Lightning, since...

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Here’s how much that free iPhone really costs

Prices for iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone Pro Max, as announced at the 2021 Apple Event. | Sean Hollister

With all the carriers dangling sweet, sweet trade-in and upgrade offers to essentially give you a “free” iPhone 13 (or two) this year, one can’t help but wonder: which one is the best deal? In this case, that would be the offer that costs you the least money but gets you the iPhone you want. Between all the convoluted conditions and confusing industry jargon, the carriers certainly don’t make it easy to compare different offers or make clear what you’re signing up for.

Carriers might be eager to sign up new customers for their bottom lines, but you need to look out for yours too. After all, is it better to opt for a cheaper unlimited plan that requires a 36-month commitment or get instant trade-in credits to pay a little less sales tax...

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Huawei CFO has reportedly made the plea deal that will finally let her go home

Photo by DON MACKINNON/AFP via Getty Images

Reuters and the CBC report that Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou will appear in a Brooklyn federal courtroom today via streaming and plead guilty to US charges against her. Canadian authorities arrested the Chinese executive in December 2018 on suspicion of violating US sanctions, and she has remained there on house arrest ever since, fighting US attempts at extradition. Hearings in her extradition case ended in August, with the ruling scheduled for October 21st.

Meng was indicted on fraud charges claiming the Chinese technology and telecommunications company misrepresented its relationship with an Iranian affiliate, along with accusations it stole intellectual property from T-Mobile.

Spokespeople for the US Attorney’s Office and Huawei have not...

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China’s central bank bans cryptocurrency transactions to avoid ‘risks’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said Friday that cryptocurrency transactions are illegal, saying such currencies “do not have legal tender status” and therefore “cannot be circulated as currency in the market.”

In a statement, the bank said that bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions have disrupted economic and financial order, contributing to a rise in “money laundering, illegal fund-raising, fraud, pyramid schemes, and other illegal and criminal activities.”

Crypto transactions are now considered criminal financial activity in China, the bank said, and the country will “resolutely curb the hype of virtual currency transactions, severely crack down on illegal financial activities and illegal criminal...

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The iPhone 13 Mini still gets slower MagSafe charging speeds

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The iPhone 13 Mini is out Friday, and while it has a number of welcome improvements over the 12 Mini, it shares one limitation with its predecessor: the 13 Mini is still limited to peak power delivery of up 12 watts over MagSafe wireless charging, according to an Apple support document (via MacRumors). That means it, like the 12 Mini, has a lower maximum MagSafe charging speed than the rest of the iPhone 13 lineup, which can all charge at up to 15 watts over MagSafe.

While it might be disappointing to hear that the smallest iPhone can charge slower over MagSafe, it does have improved battery life. Apple says you should get up to 1.5 hours more battery life than you would with the iPhone 12 Mini, so you may not need to charge the 13 Mini...

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Gig work is precarious no matter the country

Photo by Ashish Vaishnav/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The lives of delivery workers in major US cities are dangerous, surprisingly expensive, and largely only possible because of the support app-based laborers offer each other. But a new editorial series from Rest of World shows that the experiences of US-based gig workers aren’t unique — trying to make a living while at the whims of indifferent platforms is difficult no matter what country you’re in.

Rest of World’s overview is based on a survey of over 4,000 gig workers across the world. The publication’s findings are extensive — there’s plenty to examine from just about every angle you can imagine — but the similarities drawn between workers in different countries is striking:

Many [workers] — more than 60% — said that they were...

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Elon Musk and Grimes are now ‘semi-separated’

Photo credit should read ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk and Claire “Grimes” Boucher have “semi-separated,” according to the SpaceX founder. Musk told Page Sixthat the two would continue to co-parent their one-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii, but that working in different parts of the country had led to them taking more separate paths.

“We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently, and are on great terms,” Musk told Page Six. “It’s mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas, and her work is primarily in LA. She’s staying with me now, and Baby X is in the adjacent room.”

The two started dating in 2018 after an exchange about a thought experiment popular in the tech world known as Roko’s Basilisk, and...

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Making Elizabeth Holmes’ cringey texts public is the ultimate crime deterrent

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Elizabeth Holmes trial has made me more determined than ever to avoid doing crimes. I’ll be sticking to the law from here on out, thank you very much. It’s not for any noble reason — I don’t have any new sense of morality or sudden desire to be a very good person. No, I am zealously sticking to the law because doing crimes could, theoretically, put me in the same position disgraced Theranos founder Holmes is in right now: having my text message history revealed in court.

Dozens of text messages between Holmes and her ex-boyfriend (and ex-business partner) Sunny Balwani were read aloud during Holmes’ trial for fraud this week. Thousands were released by the prosecution and more were obtained by CNBC. Some of the messages talked about...

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It’s Friday, here are fat baby bears

Background: Brown Bear mother with cub, Ursos arctos, Katmai Alaska. | Photo by: David Tipling/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

I don’t know about you, but pumpkin spice lattes just aren’t cutting it for me as motivation to get excited about the fall. One thing I can rally around: fat baby bears.

There’s an adorable twist this year to Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week. Today is the final day to cast your vote for its “junior” competition. Four cubs faced off yesterday for a chance to compete against the grown-ups when Fat Bear Week officially starts on September 29th. Now, only two cubs remain in the final round of junior voting; the cub who garners the most votes today will move on to the Fat Bear Week bracket.

The park identifies the cubs by their mothers. You can cast your vote for Bear 128’s yearling, who already has the distinction of catching...

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California will require all autonomous vehicles to be zero-emission starting in 2030

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

California will require all light-duty autonomous vehicles (AV) to emit zero emissions starting in 2030. On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill sponsored by environmental groups that would eventually prohibit gas- and hybrid-powered autonomous vehicles from operating in the state.

It was the latest move by Newsom to restrict the sale and use of internal combustion engine vehicles amid a broader effort to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the governor signed two executive orders: one requiring all commercial trucks and vans sold in the state to be zero-emission starting in 2045 and another requiring only the sale of zero-emission passenger vehicles by 2035.

California was the first state in the US to...

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Vergecast: iPhone 13 reviews and Microsoft’s fall Surface event

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

Last week on the show, The Vergecast went through all of the announcements at Apple’s fall hardware event. This week on the show, it’s review time! Nilay and Dieter are joined by Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior editor Tom Warren to discuss what they learned from spending time with the iPhone 13 and the iPhone 13 Pro. A bigger battery and a smaller notch: is it worth the upgrade?

The second half of the show is dedicated to another fall hardware event — this time from Microsoft. On Wednesday, we saw a few new devices under...

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The iPhone 13 Pro’s camera bump is a problem for the Backbone controller

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

The new and very good iPhone 13 Pro lineup has a thicker camera bump than previous generations (7.65mm vs. 7.4mm in the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max). It sounds negligible, but it’s enough to cause a few small issues with accessory compatibility. For instance, the iPhone 13 Pro apparently doesn’t fit perfectly onto the MagSafe Duo dual charger because of its size. And based on my colleague Sam Byford’s first-hand experience, it also doesn’t fit all that well when placed inside of the Backbone One, the best iOS controller you can currently buy.

The Backbone One has a, for lack of a better word, backbone that connects each side of the controller. The iPhone 13 Pro’s camera bump causes the phone to rest unevenly while nested in the Backbone...

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A teenager on TikTok disrupted thousands of scientific studies with a single video

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Researchers were caught by surprise after a short video sent a flood of new users to a survey platform

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Amazon is reportedly working on an Alexa-powered soundbar and wall-mounted Echo

What’s next for Amazon’s family of Alexa-powered devices? A little bit of everything, according to a new report from Bloomberg News, which has a great overview of products the company is reportedly working on.

The e-commerce giant has never been afraid of throwing products at the wall to see what sticks, and its plans certainly seem to follow this ideology. Indeed, they even include a new big-screen Echo device that can be mounted on walls. Very appropriate.

Here’s what Amazon has in the hopper, according to Bloomberg:

• Wall-mounted Echo: Following the launch of the display-equipped Echo Show line, Amazon is supersizing the screen with a “roughly 15-inch display.” The device is designed to be either mounted on the wall or placed on a...

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The M1 MacBook Air is $150 off at multiple retailers right now

The M1 MacBook Air, our current pick for the best laptop, is on sale for its best price to date. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

There’s no shortage of accolades for the latest MacBook Air with its vaunted M1 CPU. Our review last November simply stated that “the new MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 chip is a triumph.” And right now, both the 256GB and 512GB configurations are available at Amazon and Best Buy for $150 off, their largest discount to date. This version of the MacBook Air marks some of the most profound improvements to Apple’s hardware architecture and specs. Whisper-quiet operation, a faster processor, and extensive battery life make the 2020 Air the perfect travel companion, even for Windows die-hards.

This deal must be popular, as most configurations are backordered until mid-October currently. Some are available sooner; make sure to check both...

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How to buy the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro

All of the colors of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini. | Apple

Apple announced a fleet of new products at its “California Streaming” event. Chief among them — you guessed it — was the iPhone 13. This one is coming in various sizes and colors, but with smaller notches, the new A15 Bionic chipset, and with redesigned and improved cameras located around the back. Going from smallest to largest, Apple will soon release the iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and finally the iPhone 13 Pro Max. With the Pro and Pro Max, you’ll be able to get the first iPhone to ship with 1TB of storage, along with 120Hz refresh rate displays.

If you’re looking forward to ordering any of the four iPhone 13 models, the good news is you no longer need to preorder and wait around. If you haven’t already ordered one,...

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Someone is using old Jawbone patents to sue Apple and Google

Jawbone is best known for its fitness trackers, but the recent lawsuits focus on noise-isolation tech used in its earphones.

Wearables company Jawbone is long-dead — it went out of business in 2017 — but its patents live on, and someone is using them to sue Apple and Google.

As first reported by Bloomberg News, an entity named Jawbone Innovations LLC filed lawsuits against the two tech giants this week in federal court in Waco, Texas. The suits allege that Apple and Google infringed eight patents previously belonging to Jawbone and focused around noise-isolation algorithms originally developed for DARPA.

The suit against Apple names the infringing devices as “all versions and variants of Apple iPhone, iPad, AirPods Pro, and HomePod products,” while the suit against Google is similarly broad, naming “all versions and variants of Google smartphones [...] tablets...

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PSA: Update your new iPhones and iPads to avoid Apple Music bug

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’re an Apple Music user and recently bought a new iPhone 13 model, new ninth-generation iPad, or a sixth-generation iPad Mini, there’s an important update to download to avoid an annoying bug. A new Apple support document says a bug affecting those devices restored from a backup can prevent users from accessing the Apple Music catalog, Apple Music settings, or using the services’s Sync Library feature. My colleague Chris Welch reports that he ran into this bug on iOS 15.

Thankfully, the fix is very simple, according to Apple. Just head into the “General” section of the “Settings” app, select the “Software Update” option and hit “Install Now,” to get the update. _MacRumors_notes that its release notes don’t explicitly mention the...

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How to get the free Windows 11 upgrade early

After months of testing, Microsoft is releasing the final version of Windows 11 to its Release Preview channel today. It’s the final step before it’s released more broadly to existing devices on October 5th. If you don’t want to wait until October 5th, you can switch to the Release Preview in Windows 10 today and get the free Windows 11 upgrade early.

Here’s how to upgrade to Windows 11 early:

• Check to see if your PC is compatible with Windows 11, using Microsoft’s PC Health App (download here).
• If your PC is supported, you’ll need to register as a Windows Insider over at Microsoft’s site to get the Windows 11 upgrade early.
• On your existing Windows 10 PC, head into Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program

...

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How to use Microsoft Edge’s new tab groups feature

Tab groups can be given a name and an identifying color. | Screenshot: The Verge

Microsoft Edge’s new tab grouping feature arrived this month with version 93 of the browser. It was officially detailed alongside a grab bag of new tools for September, which include new shopping and vacation planning options. Tab groups have existed in Edge for a few months as an optional feature you could manually enable in the browser’s settings, but now they’re rolling out to all users.

To use the tab grouping feature, hold down Ctrl and left click all the tabs you want to group together, then right click and select “Add tabs to new group.” Tab groups can be given names and distinct colors for easy identification, and minimized to reduce clutter.

Image: Microsoft

Grouped tabs can be minimized to reduce...

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Xbox gets a new Edge browser that can play Stadia games, access Discord, and more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is rolling out a new Xbox dashboard that includes an updated version of the Edge browser. After six months of testing, the Chromium version of Edge is now available to all existing Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X consoles, and the new capabilities allow Xbox owners to stream Google Stadia games, access Discord on the web, and lots more.

The Xbox version of Edge looks almost identical to the version available on PC or Mac. It even includes features like vertical tabs and Collections. Like Edge on PC and mobile, the Xbox version also syncs all your settings, favorites, tabs, and web history. The only feature it’s really missing is extensions, and the ability to switch into developer mode to alter User Agent strings or access a...

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Apple’s rumored MacBook Pros could get higher resolution screens, according to beta leak

Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pro with an M1 chip. | Photo by Alexander Kramer for The Verge

The latest macOS Monterey beta contains clues about the resolution of Apple’s rumored 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, MacRumors reports. The seventh beta of the upcoming operating system contains references to “3456 x 2234 Retina” and “3024 x 1964 Retina,” which are two resolutions not supported in any of Apple’s current Macs.

MacRumors theorizes that the two new resolutions correspond to Apple’s much rumored 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which are widely expected to launch this year with new designs and a new Arm-based Apple processor called the M1X. For reference, the current 16-inch MacBook Pro has a resolution of 3072 x 1920, while the current 13-inch MacBook Pro’s display sits at 2560 x 1600. If the new resolutions are accurate, both...

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DJI Mavic 3 Pro leaks out with two cameras, 46-minute flights and a Four Thirds sensor

Image via Jasper Ellens

DJI may be about to upend the world of aerial photography yet again — by introducing a drone with drastically improved battery life and two cameras instead of one. DroneDJ and leaker Jasper Ellens are both independently reporting that the Mavic 3 Pro is real, coming this November, and it sounds like it’ll have some significant improvements over the three-year-old Mavic 2 Pro and even the Mavic Air 2S introduced earlier this year.

While DJI’s standard-sized drones have typically topped out at just half an hour in the air before requiring a battery swap or recharge, DroneDJ’s source says we’re now looking at up to 46 minutes of flight time. And that’s despite the additional hardware on board: an entire second camera (with its own sensor...

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Apple’s Foundation starts out big, lavish, and a little boring

Image: Apple

Verge editors discuss the debut episodes of Apple TV Plus’ new series

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One of the Steam Deck’s biggest hurdles just disappeared: EAC has come to Linux

Valve promised it would work with anti-cheat software makers EAC and BattlEye to ensure some of the most popular games will run on its upcoming Steam Deck Linux-based gaming handheld, and one of those companies is now officially on board — Epic Games announced today that its Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) now supports Linux and Mac. Not only that, it’s specifically set up to work with the Proton and Wine compatibility layers that Valve’s relying on to bring Windows games to the Deck.

While developers would still need to patch their games, this immediately means some of the most popular games on Steam are now theoretically within reach, including Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight and _War Thunder,_which are all among the top 25 games on Steam. Other...

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Nintendo Direct: the biggest announcements and trailers

In preparation for the busy holiday season, the latest Nintendo Direct was filled with what fans can expect on the Switch in the near future. We already knew about some of the big titles — including new Metroid and Mario Party games — but there were a handful of surprises, including a new Kirby game, an expansion of Switch Online, and a star-studded cast for the Super Mario animated movie. If you missed the event, here’s all the big news.

The Super Mario movie has a date — and a cast

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about the Super Mario movie, which is being made in collaboration with Minions studio Illumination, but Nintendo had a lot to say about it. The film will be out on December 21st, 2022, and will feature quite the cast,...

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Bayonetta 3 finally has a new trailer

Nintendo

Let’s go boys! At long last, there is finally a new Bayonetta 3 trailer. Revealed during a primetime Nintendo Direct showcase, the new _Bayonetta 3_trailer puts an end to four years of near radio silence on Platinum Games’ leggy, fashionable, witch.

Bayonetta first debuted back in 2009 as a sexy, raunchy beat ‘em up to rival Capcom’s Devil May Cry. In 2012, Platinum Games announced the sequel, Bayonetta 2, would release exclusively on Nintendo’s Wii U.

We got an initial glimpse of Bayonetta 3 way back during 2017’s Game Awards. The clip was little more than a 50-second teaser featuring a wounded Bayonetta and a fractured logo. In the years since a dearth of updates sparked rampant speculation about the game’s status. On several...

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Docking a Surface Pen to your Surface Duo 2 phone will cost $65

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has a new phone of its own, the Surface Duo 2, arriving October 21st — and if you buy an optional “Surface Duo 2 Pen Cover,” you’ll be able to magnetically dock and wirelessly charge the company’s optional $130 Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus and use it with the Android phone.

The need for a special cover wasn’t quite made clear during the company’s presentation last week, nor a price or release date, but Microsoft confirmed to _Windows Central_today that it’ll cost $65 on October 21st. While that’s the same day the Surface Duo 2 is slated to launch, it strangely didn’t go up for pre-order alongside the phones, and still isn’t available to add to a cart now. You can find its product page here, with the Pen Cover listed as “Coming...

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