Sony is offering free trials of Death Stranding and Sackboy in the UK

Sony appears to be reintroducing an old concept for two of its newer Playstation 5 games — game trials. Sony will now let you try the PS5 versions of _Death Stranding: Director’s Cut_and _Sackboy: A Big Adventure_for free if you live in the United Kingdom, for six hours and five hours, respectively.

PlayStation owners first spotted Sony’s new offervia email. “Ever wanted to try some of the most popular games from PlayStation Studios before committing to the full game? Now you can,” the email reads. Sony says the games are redeemable on the PlayStation Store until October 28th at 11:59PM, and the trial starts as soon as you select “Download Trial” on console or “Add to Library” on the web. The Verge has reached out to Sony for more...

Continue reading…

How to switch languages using the Android Gboard keyboard

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Learning a new language on an Android device? If the language uses a different alphabet or employs accents that your primary language does not, you may need to add a new software keyboard to your phone.

Luckily, Google’s standard Gboard keyboard includes a plethora of language-related keyboards; at last count, it offered over 500 languages over 40 different writing systems. If you’ve already installed Gboard in the US, you’re likely already set up with US English. But it’s not difficult to add one or more new keyboards and quickly switch from one language to another. Here’s how to install and use one or more of the many languages available. (Note: this was tried out using a Pixel 3 phone and Android 12; your interface may vary.)

First,...

Continue reading…

Vergecast: Amazon’s fall hardware event, Google’s Search On event, and Code Conference 2021

Photo by Dan Seifert / 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.

This week: lots of events and showcases! Nilay, Dieter, and Verge managing editor Alex Cranz start the show with coverage of all the devices announced at Amazon’s fall hardware event. Say hello to Astro — Alexa on wheels — along with a video chat gadget for kids, an Echo Show to hang on your wall, new wearable devices, and a whole lot more.

Google also held an event this week focusing on its core search functions with products like Google Maps, Google Lens, and of course, shopping and e-commerce. The crew discusses the important...

Continue reading…

Go read this story about the parents fighting to stop drug deals on Snapchat

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NBC has an excellent story that takes a look at the trend of young adults attempting to buy prescription or recreational drugs from dealers on Snapchat — and ending up with fentanyl instead. The report tells the story from the perspective of several parents who have lost children and who suspect that they bought the pills using the popular chatting app. It also goes into how Snapchat is trying to deal with the problem and the difficulties that come with that moderation, both for parents and law enforcement.

Some parents suspect their children were trying to obtain painkillers to deal with various pains that weren’t being addressed by doctors or dentists, while some say their kids were trying to escape a world of emotional turmoil. In at...

Continue reading…

CDC emails show that vaccine cards are supposed to fit in your wallet

Photo by EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP via Getty Images

Since the dawn of time (around five or six months ago), people all over the world (Twitterusers in the United States) have been puzzling over a very important question: why doesn’t the COVID-19 vaccine card fit in a wallet?

I tried to figure out why the vaccine cards are too big for your wallet https://t.co/3JZ7LzZ6KR

— Amanda Mull (@amandamull) August 10, 2021

The card is too big for a standard wallet card slot and, as Amanda Mull pointed out in The Atlantic, still small enough that it’d be easy to lose. It’s like a reverse Goldilocks: just wrong. A handful of people speculated to Mull in August that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might not have thought about the size of the cards all that much.

But it turns out...

Continue reading…

Discord is ending its Stage Discovery tool but says Stage Channels are doing well

Discord is ending its Stage Discovery | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Discord said Friday it’s going to sunset its Stage Discovery tool on October 4th, less than six months after it launched.

Rolled out in June, Stage Discovery was designed to help users find its social audio rooms called Stage Channels. It used machine learning to curate a list of channels a user might be interested in joining. Stage Channels have been a hit, Discord says, but it’s been keeping an eye on Stage Discovery to evaluate whether it’s meeting its goal of helping people find community.

“In listening to our communities and admins directly, we’ve learned that we still have work to do in regards to server onboarding and moderation,” Discord said in a release announcing the decision. “We’re going to take some time to rethink the...

Continue reading…

Twitch is testing a feature that lets viewers pay to promote streamers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Days after announcing new safety tools designed to protect streamers against hate raids, Twitch is experimenting with a new feature that will allow users to pay money to promote a stream. Rumors have been circulating on social media that the new feature is in the works, and a Twitch spokesperson has now confirmed to The Verge that it is testing the feature with a small number of streamers.

“We are launching an experiment to a small number of growing channels that enables their communities to purchase promotions to highly visible parts of Twitch,” a Twitch spokesperson said.

Twitch went into detail about the new paid boost feature during its Patch Notes program. Check out the relevant portion of the program here.

The promotion works like...

Continue reading…

South Korean ISP SK Broadband sues Netflix for millions in bandwidth usage fees

Image: Netflix

South Korean internet service provider SK Broadband is suing Netflix to pay for the increased network costs and bandwidth usage the streaming service’s content has drawn in South Korea, Reuters writes. The company cites Squid Game and D.P., two popular Korean Netflix dramas, as part of the cause.

SK Broadband’s demand for payment isn’t unfounded. A South Korean court sided with the ISP in June, The Korea Herald writes, suggesting Netflix was responsible for the demands its content puts on SK. Counter to Netflix’s request that it not be charged — since customers are the ones streaming, and they already pay for it — the court said the company has “the obligation of paying the price for the services to SK Broadband.” SK estimates the cost...

Continue reading…

Google halts plans for Google Pay-based banking service

Image: Google

Google has stopped working on its Plex service, which aimed to let you do your banking through the Google Pay app. The service was supposed to let users sign up for checking or savings accounts offered by a variety of traditional banks that the user would then manage through the app. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Google canceled the project due to a series of missed deadlines and because an executive who pushed for the project left the company.

Plex wasn’t meant to put Google in direct competition with banks, according to reports that came out before the company revealed the program and information from its official announcement. Instead, Google planned to partner with a variety of financial institutions that would...

Continue reading…

Judge shelves Nikola’s $2 billion patent lawsuit against Tesla

Photo: Nikola Motor Company

A federal judge has administratively closed a $2 billion patent infringement lawsuit hydrogen trucking startup Nikola filed against Tesla in 2018, essentially pulling it off the Northern District Court of California’s docket because the two companies stopped responding. Nikola has until October 6th to show cause as to why the case should continue. Otherwise, the case of Nikola v. Tesla will be dismissed.

Nikola “has dropped the ball, and this 2018 action is languishing without explanation or apparent good cause,” Judge James Donato wrote in an order to show cause published this week. “Consequently, the case is administratively closed. Nikola is ordered to show cause in writing by October 6, 2021, why the case should not be dismissed for...

Continue reading…

What’s the deal with Seinfeld’s aspect ratio on Netflix?

_Seinfeld_has officially moved over to stream on Netflix today, with a new 4K upgrade that promises to make the show look better than ever. But while Netflix has upgraded the iconic “show about nothing” to even crisper resolution, Netflix is hewing to the same strategy that Hulu and other HD releases of the show have used: a more modern-looking 16:9 aspect, instead of offering the original 4:3 aspect ratio in which the show originally aired.

The aspect ratio isn’t a new problem for Seinfeld fans, dating back to the original HD remaster that was produced in 2008 for TBS HD’s syndicated reruns, which were newly made scans of the original film (hence the ability to add back the wider frames that never made it into the initial broadcast) in...

Continue reading…

Apple updates iOS 15 to fix the iPhone 13’s Apple Watch unlock bug

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup just launched last week, but some users ran into a frustrating issue where they couldn’t use their Apple Watch to unlock their new phones while wearing a face mask. The company had promised that a fix was on the way, and it appeared earlier this week in an iOS 15.1 beta, but now, the fix is live for everyone as part of the iOS 15.0.1 release.

Apple’s official patch notes also say that the update includes other bug fixes, but the company didn’t specify what those might be. The update clocks in at 553.7MB on my iPhone 12 Mini.

Here are Apple’s iOS 15.0.1 update notes, taken from my iPhone 12 Mini.

In April, Apple added the ability to use your Apple Watch to unlock a Face ID-equipped phone while...

Continue reading…

Ring and Blink: Conglomeration not consolidation

Ring’s founder Jamie Siminoff announced a new video doorbell this week, from another company. | Image: Blink

In December 2017, Amazon spent $90 million to acquire Blink, a Kickstarter-funded startup that developed a super energy-efficient chip to power its battery-operated smart home security cameras. In January 2018, Blink announced its first video doorbell. The next month, Amazon dropped a cool billion on Ring, a smart home security camera company known for essentially inventing the video doorbell. The writing was on the wall for Blink. It seemed apparent to industry analysts that it had been snapped up for its innovative tech, which surely would be pumped into the bigger, badder Ring.

Fast forward three years, and Ring’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, walks out onstage at Amazon’s latest hardware bonanza event and announces Blink’s first-ever...

Continue reading…

Samsung seems to have pulled ads from its stock apps, as promised

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

A major annoyance of using a Samsung phone is finally getting fixed, as the company seems to have finally pulled ads from some of its stock apps. One Verge staffer reports that they aren’t seeing ads in the Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Health apps, though they said they had to force quit and reopen the Health app to remove the ad banner. 9to5Google says that it’s seeing that ads have been removed as well.

The move is expected — the company had promised in August that it would remove ads from apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme “later this year” — but it’s good to see that Samsung is following through.

When asked for comment, Samsung didn’t confirm that the removals were effective now, pointing to...

Continue reading…

Get a full year of PlayStation Plus for only $37

PS Plus subscribers gain access to online multiplayer, monthly freebies, and more. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Anyone who owns a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 should consider becoming a PlayStation Plus subscriber — it’s one of the best deals in gaming, after all. Thankfully, if you’re not currently a subscriber or want to extend your membership, you can pick up a year of PS Plus at Eneba for $37 by using promo code VergePSPLUSat checkout. Once subscribed, you’ll be able to take advantage of a variety of perks, including 100GB of cloud storage, online multiplayer, exclusive member discounts, and free monthly titles. If you own a PS5, you’ll also be able to play select PS4 games like _God of War_and _The Last of Us_through the PS Plus Collection. Our _Verge-_exclusive deal is only valid through October 3rd, however, so you’ll want to hustle.

If...

Continue reading…

Sen. Blumenthal’s ‘finsta’ quote wasn’t that bad

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

When video of a congressional hearing goes viral, it’s often for all of the wrong reasons. Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing into the mental health effects of Instagram on teenagers was no different.

A clip of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) went viral on Twitter Thursday, contextless, asking Facebook Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis if the company would “commit to ending finsta?” A seemingly absurd and laughable question to anyone under the age of 30. A “finsta” isn’t a Facebook or Instagram product; it’s a slang term used by younger users to describe a secondary shitposting account not beholden to the perfection expectations of one’s primary account and grid. There are no Lightroom Presets gleaning over a finsta post, and...

Continue reading…

New accessibility features are coming to Halo Infinite

343 Industries has added improved accessibility features to_Halo Infinite_.

“343 Industries’ goal is to make the newest journey into the Halo universe more accessible to as many gamers as possible,” Xbox shared in a press release. “That includes those who are brand-new to the Halo franchise, as well as those who struggled to play due to barriers that hadn’t previously been accounted for.”

The features include accessibility standards like enhanced colorblind settings and the ability to rebind mouse, keyboard, and gamepad controls. 343 is also adding new innovations like the movement-assisted steering feature, which allows users to add more controls to help steer vehicles like the Warthog and Mongoose.

Here’s a list of Halo Infinite’s...

Continue reading…

Xbox is making it easier to find accessible games in its stores

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Xbox is making it easier to find accessibility information for games, according to an announcement from the company at its Accessibility Showcase. Games in the Microsoft store will have accessibility feature tags, so players with disabilities can make sure games have the features they need before buying or downloading them. The tags are appearing in the store for members of the Xbox Accessibility Insiders League (XAIL) starting today and will eventually roll out to all Xbox users.

The tags address an issue commonly expressed by players with disabilities: they often have to do their own research to figure out which games they can play. Listing certain features in the store consolidates information that can be frustrating to track down,...

Continue reading…

Microsoft announces Office 2021 features and pricing

Microsoft is launching Office 2021 on October 5th, and the company is finally detailing the features and pricing today. Office 2021 will be the next standalone version of Microsoft’s Office suite, designed for businesses and consumers who want to avoid the subscription version of Office.

Office Home and Student 2021 will be priced at $149.99 and include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Teams for PC and Mac. Office Home and Business 2021 is priced at $249.99 and will include everything in the Home version and Outlook for PC and Mac, alongside the rights to use all of the Office apps for business purposes.

Image: Microsoft

The new Office 2021 design.

Office 2021 will include the collaboration...

Continue reading…

Nigeria says it will lift Twitter ban if the company meets certain conditions

Twitter is currently banned in Nigeria | Illustration by Alex Castro

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday that he would lift the country’s ban on Twitter if the company met certain conditions. Nigeria’s government suspended Twitter “indefinitely” in June, accusing the social media platform of “activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.” The ban followed a few days after Twitter removed a threatening tweet by Buhari that it said violated its policy against abusive behavior.

According to a transcript of Buhari’s Friday remarks, which he made during a televised speech commemorating Nigeria’s Independence Day, Twitter had reached out to the Nigerian government to try to resolve the ban. He said a presidential committee had “engaged” with Twitter to address key...

Continue reading…

Hisense’s 55-inch 4K QLED TV is cheaper than ever

Hisense

Hisense’s U6G QLED TV in the 55-inch size is discounted at Amazon and Best Buy today. Normally $649.99, you can pick it up from either Best Buy or Amazon for just $520. Its quantum dot LED-backlit display should offer better contrast and color accuracy than the many low-end models available around the $400-$500 price range. It has Google Assistant built in, too, along with support for a bevy of streaming apps, including YouTube, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more. It has four HDMI ports and a native refresh rate of 60Hz.

It might be of importance to you that Hisense includes this model in its “100 Day No Regrets Guarantee.” You can try out the TV for 100 days, and if you don’t like it, Hisense will refund you after you send it back. Both...

Continue reading…

We bought gadgets from Amazon’s banned brands and it was a piece of cake

If you’re a reputable Chinese gadget manufacturer with millions of dollars at stake because Amazon banned your ass for inflating user reviews... do you roll over? File a lawsuit? Or change a single letter in your name and try to sneak back onto Amazon anyhow?

It sure seems like Sunvalley, parent company of the popular RavPower, Vava and TaoTronics brands, chose door number three.

We recently spotted all three banned brands back on the Amazon storefront under the flimsiest of disguises: Vava had changed its name to “Vav,” TaoTronics became “Taotronic,” and RavPower was simply “Rav.” We took screenshots for posterity:

They’re not the only ones, either. Banned brand Choetech didn’t even need...

Continue reading…

On The Verge is happening October 22nd and 23rd, and you’re invited

Join us in New York City for live performances, amazing artists and creators, and much more

Continue reading…

Humble Bundle has raised $200 million for charity thanks to generous gamers

If you play video games on the PC then there’s a good chance at some point in your life you’ve purchased something from Humble Bundle: a digital storefront that regularly announces time-limited, pay-what-you-want game bundles, each of which sets aside a slice of the proceeds for charity. This week, the company announced that it’s now raised more than $200 million for good causes around the world — so: well done, gamers.

The Humble Bundle concept first appeared in 2010, pioneered by indie game studio Wolfire Games, but was soon spun off into its own entity, with a dedicated store and publishing subsidiary, Humble Games. Now the company offers bundles for books, comics, and software, as well as a monthly subscription service, Humble...

Continue reading…

Neopets are being turned into NFTs because of course they are

Neopets was a hugely popular virtual pet adoption site launched in 1999.

Virtual pet franchise Neopets is getting into NFTs — a seemingly inevitable move for a site with a long and varied history that has spawned a dizzying array of merchandise and offshoots, from magazines and cards to mobile games and a (promised) animated series.

You may not be familiar with Neopets, but it was a staple for many who grew up online in the early to mid-2000s. The basic concept is that users adopt virtual pets, and then spend hours farming games and events to attain items and customize their little darlings. It sounds simple, but the site was hugely popular in its day (thanks in no small part to a thriving and addictive internal economy), boasting more than 30 million active users around 2005.

Neopets had more than 30...

Continue reading…

Google says Bing users search for Google more than anything else

“Google” is the most searched term on Bing “by far,” according to a lawyer working for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. According to Bloomberg, Google made the argument while trying to get its $5 billion antitrust fine from the EU overturned, using the statistic as evidence that people use Google by choice, not force.

The fine Google faces is from the European Commission, which says that Google has abused its position as the maker of Android. The regulator says that Google will have to stop forcing handset makers to pre-install Chrome and Google search if they want to have Android. Google’s argument? That most people would just use its search engine anyway.

According to statistics compiled by SEO company Ahrefs, “google” is indeed the...

Continue reading…

YouTube TV and NBCUniversal agree to ‘short’ extension to avoid channels disappearing

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Following a public standoff earlier this week, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have agreed to a “short” extension over the streaming service carrying several of the broadcaster’s channels. That means that at least for now, YouTube TV will continue to carry more than a dozen major NBCUniversal-owned channels, including NBC regional sports networks. But it also means YouTube TV’s monthly subscription cost won’t be getting $10 cheaper.

Had talks broken down, NBCUniversal programming would have been removed from YouTube TV at midnight ET. “NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have agreed to a short extension while parties continue talks,” an NBCUniversal spokesperson tells Protocol and Vulture. “NBCUniversal will not go dark on YouTube TV at midnight...

Continue reading…

EA promotes Laura Miele to COO, making her one of the most powerful women in gaming

Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Electronic Arts is promoting chief studios officer Laura Miele to chief operating officer, the company announced Thursday. The change is a big promotion for Miele, who already had significant leadership at the company overseeing 25 different studios. The new role will give Miele greater oversight over the company and arguably makes her the most powerful woman in gaming, an industry where there are few female executives, fewer in the C-suite, and where those C-suite execs are often in charge of HR or finance rather than the company’s products.

Ubisoft did make Virginie Hass its chief studios operating officer last August, following scandals over a toxic culture including sexual harassment and misconduct that went as high as the C-suite...

Continue reading…

Zoom won’t buy Five9 after all

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Five9 will remain independent — its deal to be acquired by Zoom is off. Though a press release from Five9 says it was “terminated by mutual agreement,” it’s also the case that Five9 shareholders rejected the $14.7 billion deal.

Zoom originally announced the acquisition on July 18th. Five9 automates managing customer contacts for businesses, and the deal was supposed to bolster Zoom’s business offerings. Its major competitors are behemoths like Microsoft and Google, and the deal would have helped the smaller company expand.

This was supposed to be an all-stock transaction, but unfortunately for Zoom, its stock price has lost more than a quarter of its value since they announced the acquisition. Usually, when a company is bought,...

Continue reading…

Disney and Scarlett Johansson have settled their lawsuit

Image: Marvel Studios

Three months after Scarlett Johansson sued Disney over its streaming release of Black Widow, arguing she stood to lose millions of dollars because her salary was based on the box office performance of the film, the suit has now been settled, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and The New York Times and others. Representatives for Johansson confirmed the settlement to The Verge as well.

While the terms of the settlement don’t appear to be public, _Deadline_cites a source saying that the deal was in the “tens of millions.” Both parties have paid lip service to continuing to work together: Johansson told The Hollywood Reporter that she was “happy to have resolved our differences with Disney,” and “look[s] forward to continuing our...

Continue reading…