The rumored Noctua-equipped RTX 3070 appeared on Asus’ Facebook page

Wccftech

There have been rumors that Asus partnered with Noctua, maker of very quiet PC case fans and this silent, fan-less CPU cooler, to make a custom Nvidia RTX 3070 desktop graphics card that looks like no other. While its existence has leaked a few times, picked up by PC Gamer in recent months, Wccftechwas quick to spot that an Asus employee in Vietnam posted images of the graphics card and other info to the Asus ROG Vietnam Facebook page. Those assets have since been taken down, but not before _Wccftech_was able to snag the photos and take note of the details.

This new GPU, apparently called the RTX3070-08G-NOCTUA, won’t be as affordable as your average RTX 3070 (MSRP of $499), plus the cost of a couple of Noctua fans. Asus’ Facebook page...

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The Stagg electric kettle has the best boiling button

It’s a strange thing that one of the most enjoyable physical interfaces I use in my day-to-day life is on a kettle. The Stagg EKG Electric Kettle, specifically, a $150 appliance that’s almost entirely controlled through a single, magnificent dial that is a strong contender for the best way to turn on a kettle (a competition that, admittedly, lacks much competition).

Using the Stagg is a delightful experience of tactility. The main control is a single dial/button located on the front right of the base. Turning it on takes just a single press, a deep, solid click that lets you know through touch and sound that you’ve turned on the kettle. Turning it off is a similar single press, another resonant click to announce that the kettle is off.

...

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Epic Games makes children’s privacy services free for developers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games announced Thursday that it would be making its parent verification services free for all developers in order to make it easier to build games that keep kids safe online.

Epic Games bought SuperAwesome, a safe kidtech company, last September. With this new addition to the company, Epic Games was able to launch its Kids Web Services (KWS) program, allowing developers to “verify the identity of parents or guardians when granting their children permission to use features that collect personal information.” Once a parent is verified through the system, they receive what Epic calls the “ParentGraph,” which makes it simpler to offer verification through other games on the Epic platform.

Epic says that this system not only protects...

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Nreal’s new AR sunglasses are made for binge watching TV

The Nreal Air smart glasses. | Image: Nreal

Augmented reality company Nreal is launching a cheaper, iOS-compatible, more compact version of its smart glasses. The new Nreal Air glasses are supposed to ship starting in December 2021 across Japan, China, and South Korea. The price isn’t set, but Nreal says they’ll cost “a fraction of the price” of its earlier Nreal Light glasses, which started selling for around $600 last year.

Based on Nreal’s description, the new Nreal Air glasses have some core similarities with the Nreal Light glasses from 2020. Both are designed to look like relatively normal sunglasses and pitched as ideal for projecting a virtual big-screen display in front of your eyes. They’re both using micro OLED displays for their augmented reality optics and are powered...

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BlueStacks X is a new and free way to play Android games in your browser

Bluestacks X brings Android games to the browser. | Image: Bluestacks

BlueStacks started off life as an Android emulator for Windows more than 10 years ago, allowing anyone to run native Arm-based or x86 Android apps on Windows PCs and tablets. Now BlueStacks is transitioning to the cloud, bringing Android games to the browser and across iOS, Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux devices, and even inside Discord.

BlueStacks X launches today as the only cloud gaming service that offers free streaming of mobile games across multiple platforms and devices. BlueStacks has built its hybrid cloud technology under its now.gg brand to make this possible, combined with Amazon’s AWS Graviton servers. BlueStacks X also offloads part of the compute and graphics rendering to local devices thanks to advancements in modern...

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Sonos Beam (second-gen) review: Atmos(t) a minor upgrade

Dolby Atmos isn’t the reason you should buy it

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Spotify expands interactive podcast polls and Q&As to even more shows

Spotify

Spotify is making podcasts on its platform more interactive. The company announced today that podcasters who create their shows in Anchor, its creation software, will be able to build interactive polls and Q&As into their programs. Listeners across 160 markets will be able to engage with them. For now, the functionality is only available to Anchor podcasters — not even for people who use Megaphone, Spotify’s podcast hosting platform — and it only works on the Spotify app.

To view a poll or Q&A, you’ll see it at the bottom of your Spotify mobile app. Once you respond to a poll, you’ll be able to see how others voted, while Q&A answers will be sent to the podcaster privately. These podcasters can then choose to pin and publicly display the...

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DISH bets on 5G by making its own $280 5G phone for Boost Mobile

DISH and Boost Mobile hope to bring in new 5G customers with their own phone, the Celero5G. | DISH/Boost Mobile

After acquiring Boost Mobile as part of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger in 2020 and snapping up Republic Wireless for its 5G network earlier this year, Dish is finally ready to turn Boost Mobile into the fourth wireless carrier that the FCC envisioned.

Its opening salvo? The satellite television provider is introducing an exclusive budget 5G phone for Boost Mobile’s prepaid customers.

The Celero5G is a “custom-built phone” for Boost Mobile, according to its spokesperson. Just like T-Mobile’s Revvl or AT&T’s Radiant, it has unique branding that you won’t find anywhere else. For a carrier that is trying to expand its user base, this is certainly an unusual way to get there. After all, most other carriers try to dangle the latest flagship...

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Fairphone’s latest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year warranty

The Fairphone 4’s updated design makes it look like a modern smartphone. | Image: Fairphone 4

Fairphone, the manufacturer focused on making easy to repair smartphones made out of ethically sourced materials, just took the wraps off its fourth-generation handset. The Fairphone 4 uses a modular design that’s similar to the company’s previous phones, only now with more powerful internals, a five-year warranty, and a promise of two major Android updates and software support until the end of 2025. Prices start at €579 / £499 for the phone, which will ship on October 25th.

I’ve been using the Fairphone 4 for a couple of days as my primary phone, and while I’m not ready to give a final verdict just yet, it feels like a big step forward compared to the dated designs and low-power components found in the company’s previous phones. Stay...

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Xbox Cloud Gaming launches in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is launching its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service in Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan. The software giant has been testing streaming Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games in these markets over the past few months, and is now ready to greatly expand the reach of its xCloud technology.

XCloud will be available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in Brazil and Mexico later today, meaning it technically launches in Australia and Japan in the early hours of October 1st. Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available through the dedicated Android and Xbox Windows apps, or via the web for iOS and other devices.

Microsoft is now offering Xbox Cloud Gaming in 26 countries, thanks to this big expansion. “Since cloud gaming is powered by custom...

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Xbox chief warns console supply constraints will last into 2022

Xbox Series X console. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, says console supply issues will continue into 2022. In an interview with The Wrap, spotted by Video Games Chronicle, Spencer admits the Xbox supply issues will last for the rest of the year and into 2022 due to supply chain complications beyond just a chip shortage.

“I think it’s probably too isolated to talk about it as just a chip problem,” says Spencer. “When I think about, what does it mean to get the parts necessary to build a console today, and then get it to the markets where the demand is, there are multiple kind of pinch points in that process. And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year and into the next calendar...

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Honda is doubling down on rockets, robots, and flying cars

Honda is increasing its research and development spending in three futuristic areas: rockets, robots, and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), otherwise known as flying cars.

The automaker will spend $45 billion (5 trillion yen) on R&D over the next six years. But Honda won’t say what fraction of that amount will be spent on developing rockets, robots, and flying cars, nor even if it plans on pursuing those projects as commercial businesses.

In fact, Honda sees robots, rockets, and eVTOL aircraft as an extension of its main business of manufacturing automobiles. If the company can get a better electric vehicle platform out of it, for example, then it will be worth the investment. Basically, it wants to see if it can...

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A grueling day in Elizabeth Holmes’ trial ended with evidence that Theranos’ tests sucked

Getty Images

A preview of arguments to come

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Amazon settles with the activists it fired

Amazon has settled a dispute with two workers that the National Labor Relations Board said were fired for their activism. In April 2020, the company fired Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa after they had organized a protest against Amazon’s work with oil and gas companies, as well as raising concerns with the company’s coronavirus measures at its warehouses. In a joint statement, Costa and Cunningham said that the company would have to pay them lost wages as well as inform employees that they couldn’t be fired for organizing. They haven’t mentioned whether they would be getting their jobs as UX designers back.

At the time of the NLRB’s ruling, Amazon said that it disagreed with the findings, and that Costa and Cunningham had been fired...

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This is Facebook’s internal research on the mental health effects of Instagram

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook has shared the internal research about the impact of Instagram on teenage mental well-being reported on by The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal reported that the files showed Instagram knew the social media network has a negative affect on teens’ mental health. Facebook has pushed back on the WSJ’s characterizations of its research, saying that “it is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is ‘toxic’ for teen girls.”

The research slide decks are available on Facebook’s newsroom here, split into two PDFs. We’ve also embedded the PDFs at the bottom of this story. Notably, the two PDFs have been annotated by Facebook in an effort to provide context.

“teens who have lower life...

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Nintendo categorically denies that a 4K Switch Pro is in development

It is rare for a big company to come out and categorically deny an entire report, but that’s what Nintendo just did today — the Japanese corporate entity has issued a press release insisting that Bloomberg’s seeming revelation that Nintendo was pushing developers to build 4K-resolution games for an upcoming but potentially canceled “Switch Pro” handheld was entirely incorrect.

Nintendo writes the report “falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support” and insists that it’s “not true.” Separately, it says that it has no plans for any new Nintendo Switch other than the slightly refined OLED model that’ll be out next week.

While there’s always a possibility that...

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Chinese companies are suing Amazon after getting banned for paid reviews

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Several Chinese companies have filed a class-action complaint against Amazon for banning them from the Amazon marketplace over their use of paid reviews, a new complaint filed on September 13th claims. In the last year, Amazon has cracked down on companies soliciting paid reviews on its platform, claiming to have permanently banned 600 Chinese brands across 3,000 seller accounts.

The companies listed in the complaint, doing business as Sopownic, Slaouwo, Deyixun, Cstech, Recoo Direct, Angelbliss, and Tudi, are seeking “recovery of funds that are being illegally and improperly withheld by Amazon” and are filing the class action to “stop any further misappropriation and misuse of funds that are legally and rightfully due to thousands of...

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FAA clears Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for flight after probe into July incident

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Virgin Galactic is cleared to resume flights of its SpaceShipTwo space plane, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Wednesday, after capping a safety investigation into issues that came up during the company’s July flight carrying its founder Richard Branson. During that mission, SpaceShipTwo strayed from its designated airspace on its descent from space, and Virgin Galactic didn’t tell the FAA about it when it was supposed to.

With the investigation now closed, the FAA required Virgin Galactic to make changes “on how it communicates to the FAA during flight operations to keep the public safe,” it said in a statement. Virgin Galactic said that includes “updated calculations to expand the protected airspace for future flights”...

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The Switch Pro was real

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Don’t get me wrong; we’re excited about Nintendo’s new OLED Switch — the number of preorders in The Verge newsroom confirms it. But what about the more powerful Switch that so many of us thought was around the corner? A new Bloomberg report suggests that the global chip shortage is why plans fell through for a “Switch Pro” with upgraded hardware from Nvidia and 4K resolution.

The outlet previously reported on the device and backs up those reports by saying it’s identified at least 11 developers, like Zynga, who have received 4K Nintendo Switch development kits. Specifically, Bloomberg claims employees heard from Nintendo that they should design games to target the higher resolution. In response, Nintendo told Bloomberg its reporting was...

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TikTok settles lawsuit with actress over its original text-to-speech voice

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok has agreed to settle a lawsuit with Bev Standing, the voice actress who said she was behind the app’s original text-to-speech voice. Standing sued TikTok in May, saying that the app was using her voice without permission. A robotic version of what sounded like Standing’s voice had been in the app for months, speaking over what felt like every other video at the time.

A lawyer for Standing said the settlement was still being finalized and details around payment could not be disclosed. “They’ve reached an amicable resolution,” Robert Sciglimpaglia, who represents Standing, said in a phone call with The Verge. Sciglimpaglia said TikTok would license Standing’s voice as part of the agreement, but it’s up to TikTok whether or not to...

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Cadillac axes Escalade’s hands-free driving feature due to chip shortage

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

The 2022 Escalade is heading into production, but it’ll be missing a key feature when the first customers pick up their new ride: the hands-free driving mode known as Super Cruise. It’s the latest feature to get the axe as a result of the global semiconductor shortage, which has been an especially big drain on the auto industry.

The shortage is also forcing Cadillac to hold off on adding Super Cruise to the CT4 and CT5 sedans, according to Roadshow. With the Bolt currently not on sale due to the massive battery recall, that means parent company General Motors’ most advanced technological feature is currently not available on any new car.

“[W]e’re confident in our team’s ability to find creative solutions to mitigate the supply chain...

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Google says a new wired Nest doorbell is coming next year

A new version of the excellent Nest Hello video doorbell (pictured) will arrive in 2022. | Photo by Florence Ion for The Verge

Google is working on a successor to the excellent Nest Hello doorbell, which it recently rebranded the Nest Doorbell (wired). The new Nest Doorbell will support 24/7 recording, will work with the Google Home app (not the Nest app), and should launch in 2022.

Rishi Chandra, GM of Google Nest, shared the news in a blog post on the Google Nest Community forum today. “We commit to being more transparent with you on where we are taking the camera portfolio,” writes Chandra. “We know that those with wired doorbell connections prefer to have a doorbell that can also support 24/7 continuous video history (via the Nest Aware subscription). We are excited to share that we will be launching a 2nd generation of Nest Doorbell (wired) in 2022.”

There...

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Twitch announces new safety tools in the fight against hate raids

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitch is adding new tools in the fight against harassment on the platform. Twitch announced it will be adding phone verification chat controls that will allow streamers to require a viewer to have a verified phone number in order to chat. Additionally, Twitch is tweaking the existing email verification settings to give creators greater control over who gets to chat.

Today we're putting more power in the hands of the community, by enabling phone verified chat! Now creators and mods can require viewers to verify their account via phone number (or email) before they can chat. For more information review the blog: https://t.co/TlqCS4OzQC

— Twitch (@Twitch) September 29, 2021

With these new tools, creators can set email or phone...

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Sonos says Google is blocking it from offering more than one voice assistant at once

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Sonos developed a system called “Concurrency” that could make multiple voice assistants interoperable on its smart speakers but had to put its plans on hold because of Google, a new Washington Post report explains.

Concurrency does more or less what its name suggests by allowing Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa to be used side by side. “Sonos today sells speakers that let you choose between Alexa and Google, but only one can operate at a time — you have to disable one before you can use the other. In the Concurrency demo, talking to both of them required nothing more than saying their names,” The Washington Post shares about Sonos’ demo.

Sonos wants voice assistants to work together

The basic idea behind relying on multiple...

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Amazon sent us a 13-page PDF to prove Elon Musk is as litigious as Jeff Bezos

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

On Tuesday, Elon Musk accused Jeff Bezos and his companies of using the legal system to slow SpaceX’s progress during a talk at the 2021 Code Conference. Just a few hours later, Amazon — which is working on a competing satellite-based internet project — sent The Verge an unsolicited 13-page list of lawsuits, government petitions, and other legal actions that SpaceX has taken over the years.

“Attached is a list of some of the times SpaceX has sued the U.S. government on procurement matters and protested various governmental decisions,” a spokesperson for Amazon’s satellite division, Project Kuiper, wrote in the email. “It is difficult to reconcile their own historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions.”

“...

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Microsoft Surface Pro 7 vs. Pro 8: what’s the difference?

The Pro 8 offers Thunderbolt 4 support, a 120Hz display, a better camera, more storage, and more.

During its recent Surface event, Microsoft launched the largest upgrade of its flagship Intel-powered Surface Pro lineup in years: the Surface Pro 8. The new 2-in-1 machine boasts a 120Hz display, Thunderbolt 4 support, and new processors, but all of those improvements come at a cost — literally. Whereas the Surface Pro 7 starts at $549.99, the Surface Pro 8 starts at $1,099.99, meaning it’s nearly double the price. And that’s also before you factor in the cost of Microsoft’s new stylus and detachable keyboard, two add-ons that are more like necessities if you intend to use the 2-in-1 as advertised.

With all that said, is it worth upgrading or picking up the Pro 8 over the last-gen model when it launches on October 5th? To help make your...

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You can finally rate Apple’s apps on the App Store

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

For years, Apple has let you redownload many built-in apps from the App Store that you may have deleted, but store listings for those apps had a distinct difference from others: there was no way to leave a rating or review. That appears to have changed recently, though, as you can now review Apple’s apps in the store.

In a cursory, unscientific scan of some of Apple’s apps, many of them don’t have overwhelmingly positive scores. Files, Apple Maps, and Home all had ratings between three and three-and-a-half stars. Apple News is currently sitting at 2.3 stars. As 9to5Mac observed, Podcasts has a whopping two-star rating.

There aren’t a lot of ratings yet

That said, most of Apple’s apps just don’t have many ratings — many don’t break triple...

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Remember when beta testing was free?

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

These days, you have to pay for the privilege

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GM’s new software platform will enable over-the-air updates, in-car subscriptions, and maybe facial recognition

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

General Motors announced a new “end-to-end” software platform for its cars called “Ultifi” — a play on the name Ultium, which is the automaker’s new electric vehicle battery architecture. GM says the new software will enable over-the-air (OTA) updates, in-car subscription services, and “new opportunities to increase customer loyalty.”

The automaker envisions the new software powering everything from the mundane, like weather apps, to potentially controversial features like the use of in-car cameras for facial recognition or to detect children to automatically trigger the car’s child locks. The Linux-based system will also be available to third-party developers who may want to create apps and other features for GM customers.

GM is...

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You can charge your iPhone 13 Pro Max much faster with the right power brick

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The iPhone 13 Pro Max can charge a bit faster than other models, according to tests done by YouTuber ChargerLAB (and backed up by other tests), which show that the phone sips up to 27 watts of power when plugged into a compatible charging brick. If you have a 13 Pro Max and want to fill up its massive battery as fast as possible, you may want to look into getting a 30W charger that, according to tests cited by @duanrui1205, can charge it from zero to full in less than 90 minutes.

This appears to be an upgrade from the previous generation — 9to5Mac reports that the iPhone 12 caps out at around 22W charging speeds. That’s about a 5W boost, which is nothing to sneeze at. The benefit of a bigger charger is limited to the Pro Max, according...

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