The Verge
Lenovo Smart Clock 2 review: a good dock with an okay clock
A decent alarm clock on a slightly pointless smart display, it’s the new charging dock that makes this worth considering
The VergeThe VergeAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max review: the one to buy
The improvements are minor but worth the extra cash
The VergeThe Nintendo Switch OLED model is now available online
Nintendo’s newest hybrid console packs in a seven-inch OLED display and a few subtle enhancements. | Image: Nintendo
Update October 8th, 11:42AM ET : It seems like Nintendo’s stock of Switch OLED consoles has depleted for the time being, though other retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon may gearing up to release some more. We’ll update this post as the situation develops.
The newest version of the immensely popular Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch OLED model, is now available online. So far, they’ve popped up at GameStop, but they quickly went out of stock. Though, a few _Verge_staffers have found success buying one through Nintendo’s online shop. The key to their success was persistence and patience (and a lot of refreshing that seems hopeless, until it’s not), and of course, you’ll need to login to your Nintendo account to make the purchase...
The VergeThe Grand Theft Auto trilogy is getting remastered for PC and consoles, including Nintendo Switch
Rockstar Games
After several rumors, Rockstar Games has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas are each getting HD remasters. They’ll be released in a package called Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. The collection is coming to PC (via the Rockstar Games Launcher), PlayStation, Xbox, and, more surprisingly, the Nintendo Switch will host them, too. It will come to iOS and Android in the first half of 2022. Pricing and release date info hasn’t been shared.
The company hasn’t explicitly mentioned what kind of technical improvements were made, nor has it shared any footage yet. But it says that each of the games has gotten “across-the-board upgrades including graphical improvements and modern gameplay...
The VergeHow to change your default browser in Windows 11
If you’ve updated your PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you may have noticed that when you click on a link for a website, a PDF document, or a variety of other file types, you will now be sent to Microsoft’s Edge browser. In its new version of Windows, Microsoft seems to have become especially aggressive in pushing its own apps over the apps that had been installed as defaults before the upgrade. In other words, Edge suddenly became your default browser.
Normally, the first time you go into another browser that is not Edge — say, Google Chrome — the not-Edge browser will ask if you’d like to make it the default instead. However, the process for changing your defaults in Windows 11 has become more complicated than it was in Windows 10....
The VergeVergecast: Facebook’s week of outages and whistleblowing
Illustration by Alex Castro / 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, Nilay and Dieter bring in Verge policy editor Russell Brandom and managing editor Alex Cranz to cover the series of unfortunate events for Facebook: the _60 Minutes_whistleblower interview on Sunday, the massive Facebook outage on Monday, the whistleblower Senate hearing on Tuesday, and the fallout and response the following days.
The _Vergecast_crew discusses whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony, how these events stood out amongst the various Facebook scandals of the past, and what could happen next with tech regulation.
...
The VergeTar balls, oiled birds, and months of cleanup on California’s beaches
As the oil spill spread across Orange County, an aerial view of Laguna Beach Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. | Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Coastal communities are still reeling from a recent oil spill off Southern California that coated shorelines and marine life in black tar. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after a pipeline ruptured late last week, unleashing an oil slick spanning 8,320 acres on waters near some of California’s most iconic beaches. Officials are still investigating the cause of the spill but think that a cargo ship’s anchor might have snagged and tore through the pipeline, the Los Angeles Times reports.
It could take months to assess and clean up some of the mess, and longer for ecosystems to recover. To learn more about what to expect, The Verge spoke with Steve Murawski, a fisheries biologist and marine ecologist at the University of...
The VergeMicrosoft Surface Laptop Studio review: back to the drawing board
Microsoft rethinks what a creator-focused laptop should be and is mostly successful
The VergePSA: Don’t peel off the protective cover on your OLED Switch’s glass screen
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
If you’re the owner of a Nintendo Switch OLED console, make sure you don’t try to peel off the integrated screen protector on your new device.
While the OLED Switch’s display is technically made of glass, you won’t actually ever come in contact with it directly. That’s because Nintendo has stuck an “anti-scattering adhesive film” to the front of the display for added protection. Anti-scattering films are typically used to prevent glass from breaking into sharp shards in the event of damage, in addition to helping protect from scratches.
The original Switch and Switch Lite didn’t have that concern, given that they both had plastic displays, but it’s a helpful addition to make sure that the glass display doesn’t cause problems if you...
The VergeTwitch defaced with pictures of Jeff Bezos
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Hackers have managed to deface Twitch for a few hours this morning, replacing a number of background game images with photos of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Users reported seeing images of Bezos in the listings for GTA V, Dota 2, Smite, Minecraft, Apex Legends, and many more on the Amazon-owned service.
It’s not clear how the background images were changed or whether this latest incident was aided by a huge security breach at Twitch earlier this week. Hackers were able to exploit a server misconfiguration and steal hundreds of gigabytes of information. Twitch is still investigating the breach, and so far a wealth of information pertaining to the website’s source code, unreleased projects, and even how much the top streamers make has been...
The VergeApple’s 2020 iPad Air is down to its lowest price yet today
The Magic Keyboard is, unfortunately, sold separately. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Apple’s fourth-generation iPad Air with a refreshed design and USB-C charging instead of Lightning is down to its best price yet at Amazon. You can get the 64GB Wi-Fi model in the color of your choosing for $489 — $10 less than the starting price for the new iPad Mini that has a similar design. For the price, you’re getting a far bigger tablet. If you’ve been in the market for a high-end iPad but don’t want to put down iPad Pro-levels of cash, this could be exactly what you’re after. Read our review.
For the first time since launching earlier this year, the navy-colored Apple AirTag Loop is selling for $19 instead of its typical $29 at Adorama. The simple, polyurethane loop allows you to add your AirTag — which lacks a lanyard hole — to...
The VergeFacebook bans developer behind Unfollow Everything tool
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A developer who made a tool that let people automatically unfollow friends and groups on Facebook says he’s been banned permanently from the social networking site.
Louis Barclay was the creator of “Unfollow Everything,” a browser extension that allowed Facebook users to essentially delete their News Feed by unfollowing all their connections at once. Facebook allows users to individually unfollow friends, groups, and pages, which removes their content from the News Feed, the algorithmically-controlled heart of Facebook. Barclay’s tool automated this process, instantly wiping users’ News Feed.
As Barclay wrote of his experience using the tool in a recent article for Slate:
I still remember the feeling of unfollowing everything for the...
The VergeTikTok is coming to LG’s recent smart TVs
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
TikTok has launched an app for LG’s 2020 and 2021 smart TVs, the TV manufacturer has announced. The app arrived on these recent webOS 5.0 and webOS 6.0 models with a firmware update that started rolling out on October 7th, but will also be coming to older 2019 TVs “in the coming months.”
In its press release, LG did not specify which regions the TikTok app will be available in. That’s notable since TikTok’s smart TV apps for Samsung TVs, Android TV, and Fire TV have been focused on European countries like the UK, France, and Germany. Meanwhile in the US, TikTok released a more limited “More on TikTok” app on Fire TV devices last year. We have followed up with both LG and TikTok to ask which regions the new smart TV app will be available...
The VergeGoogle Search adds guitar tuner to its smorgasbord of built-in features
You play a note, and the software tells you whether you’re in tune. | Screenshot: Google.com
Google Search now has a handy built-in tuner, letting you use the microphone on your phone or computer to tune a guitar, _Android Police_reports. To access the feature, which was added this week, just search for “Google tuner.” The interface is similar to the dozens of guitar tuning apps that are already available. You play a string on the guitar, and Google will detect the note you’re aiming for, and tell you to “tune up” or “tune down” as required.
Like other guitar tuning apps, the effectiveness of Google’s tuner seems to depend a lot on the hardware you’re using it with. My iPhone 12 Pro (via Safari) or Windows desktop with a Blue Snowball USB microphone (via Edge) had no trouble hearing and helping me tune an unamplified electric...
The VergeThe OLED Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a Pentile screen
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
The new Nintendo Switch OLED Model doesn’t have a Pentile screen.
That might not mean much to you, and it wasn’t something we were able to confirm definitively during our review process — other than to say that the screen is a huge improvement. Which it is. But there’s been speculation ever since the OLED Switch was announced that its panel might use Pentile technology, which could have had big implications for image quality. Nintendo devices don’t tend to have the best screens, after all.
Pentile is a trademark owned by Samsung that refers to various subpixel matrix layouts most commonly used in OLED display panels. In casual conversation, or as casual as conversations about OLED subpixel layouts can really be, Pentile is now...
The VergeSVP of Android offers open invitation to help Apple put RCS texting on the iPhone
In a tweet earlier today, Google SVP Hiroshi Lockheimer called on Apple to support RCS, the next-generation texting standard that’s supposed to supplant SMS. He offered an “open invitation to the folks who can make this right” and said “we are here to help.” Translation: the “folks” are Apple and “we are here to help” is Google’s offer to assist Apple in implementing the new standard.
RCS is finally starting to gain traction around the world. Its biggest champion has been Google, which finally landed on using it as the default texting solution for Android phones after trying every other solution. RCS is far from perfect, but it’s clearly superior to SMS (which is, of course, a low bar). After securing deals from US carriers to commit to...
The VergeYouTube says its auto livestream captions are now available for all creators
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube has announced that its automatic livestream captions should now be available for all creators, instead of being limited to channels with more than 1,000 subscribers like they were during the feature’s initial rollout. This change, along with some future improvements the company details in its blog, should help make the platform more accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing people.
Some of those updates include making live auto captions available to 12 more languages instead of just English (including Japanese, Turkish, and Spanish), the ability to add multiple audio tracks to a video to support multiple languages (and audio descriptions for those with limited eyesight), and the expansion of the auto-translate captions feature to...
The VergeCalifornia just made it a lot harder for companies to cover up harassment and abuse
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
California governor Gavin Newsom signed the Silenced No More Act on Thursday night— a historic piece of legislation, authored by state senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), that should protect workers who speak out about harassment and discrimination even if they’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma began pushing the bill forward last year, after coming forward with allegations of racism against the tech company. She knew she was partially protected by the Stand Together Against Non-Disclosures Act, a Me Too-era law that banned NDAs in sexual harassment cases, but soon realized the bill did not provide protections for other forms of abuse.
Now, that’s changing. Workers in California will be legally...
The VergeA friendly reminder that Hulu’s price is going up October 8th
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Hulu’s prices are going up beginning Friday, October 8th for both its monthly and annual subscription tiers.
It was initially reported in September that Hulu’s monthly cost would increase by $1 per month or $10 per year (ad-supported) to $7 monthly (ad-supported), $13 monthly (no-ads), and $70 per year, respectively. Both Hulu’s base ad-supported and ad-free monthly subscription prices are going up in price by a dollar, but neither of its live TV tiers will be impacted. (Those plans got a price increase late last year.)
In a recent email to subscribers, Hulu wrote that the price hike “will be reflected in your first billing cycle on or after October 8.” Users will be charged the new price unless they cancel their subscription on or...
The VergeNintendo engineers suggest Switch Joy-Con drift will never be fixed
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
One of the Nintendo Switch’s persistent flaws has been Joy-Con drift, a phenomenon where players observe false inputs when they aren’t even touching the joysticks on the controllers. Nintendo has been relatively quiet on the subject for years, and the company refused to say whether the new OLED-equipped Nintendo Switch OLED had fixed the issue. But today, the company is breaking its silence in a big way — and suggesting that Joy-Con drift may never be fully addressed.
In a new Q&A about the development of the Nintendo Switch OLED, the company reveals that it has steadily been making improvements to the Joy-Cons to try and make them more reliable. The joysticks that came with 2019’s Switch Lite aren’t the same as those in the original...
The VergeMicrosoft has promised to actively look into right to repair
Microsoft has agreed to have an independent third-party study the potential impact of it making its devices easier to repair and to make changes based on those findings by the end of 2022, according to Grist and the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. The agreement was made after As You Sow filed a shareholder resolution asking Microsoft to look into the potential impact that it could make by making it easier for consumers to get their devices repaired. As You Sow has withdrawn its resolution in return for Microsoft conducting the study and making parts and documentation more available to repair shops that aren’t official Microsoft service providers based on the study’s results.
As You Sow calls Microsoft’s commitment “an encouraging...
The VergeTesla is moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas
Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the company is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, where it has been building a new factory for a little more than a year.
Musk said Tesla will continue to operate its electric vehicle factory in Fremont, CA, and that he even plans to try and increase production there by 50 percent. “Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California,” he said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “So this is not a matter of Tesla leaving California.”
Musk had previously threatened to pull Tesla’s entire operations out of California because he disagreed with the shelter-in-place orders the state leaned on early in the coronavirus pandemic....
The VergeIreland’s status as tax haven for tech firms like Google, Facebook, and Apple is ending
Google in Dublin | Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ireland said Thursday it would join an international agreement that sets taxes on profits for multinational corporations at a minimum rate of 15 percent. This is a major shift for the country that is the European headquarters for many large US pharmaceutical companies, as well as tech firms, including Google, Apple, and Facebook.
An increase from Ireland’s current 12.5 percent to 15 percent may not seem that large by itself. The so-called Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Inclusive Framework agreement, outlined in July, is actually a two-pillar plan aimed at helping end tax avoidance and making international tax rules fairer and more transparent. The OECD has estimated that a 15 percent tax rate would generate...
The VergeThe easy way to install Windows 11 on unsupported CPUs
Did you take one look at our hefty Windows 11 upgrade checklist and _nope_right out of there? It turns out there’s a _dramatically_easier way to install Windows 11 on computers with older CPUs — with no need to reformat your drive, erase your files, or even burn the ISO to an external USB drive.
If you’re currently seeing “This PC doesn’t currently meet Windows 11 system requirements” or “The processor isn’t currently supported for Windows 11,” there’s a Microsoft-approved registry hack that should instantly make it better.
(We’ve tested this method working on a Dell XPS 15 with Core i7-7700HQ and a Microsoft Surface Go with Pentium Gold 4415Y, neither of which are on Microsoft’s compatibility list.)
Here’s the whole process from start...
The VergeFirefox’s address bar has ads now, but you can disable them
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Mozilla introduced a new suggested search result feature in the Firefox address bar as part of the 93.0 release of its browser. That’s not too surprising — Firefox Suggest, Mozilla’s feature for “surfacing relevant information and sites to help you accomplish your goals,” is similar to suggestions offered by most browsers. But as How-To Geek spotted in the company’s support pages, it also includes content from paid advertisers.
“When contextual suggestions are enabled, Firefox Suggest uses your city location and search keywords to make contextual suggestions from Firefox and our partners, while keeping your privacy in mind,” the support post reads. The “relevant suggestions” from “trusted partners” appear at the bottom of the usual...
The VergeSamsung’s browser is now available for its Wear OS smartwatches
Samsung’s latest smartwatches. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge
Samsung has brought its Samsung Internet web browser to the new Wear OS-based Galaxy Watch 4 (via 9to5Google). Browsing on a watch doesn’t sound like my ideal way to surf the web for a long period of time, but I could see how it could be useful for small tasks like checking a name or looking up a place.
I don’t have a Galaxy Watch 4, so I can’t give you hands-on experience of how the Samsung Internet browser works. But based on 9to5Google’s testing, it seems like Samsung has thought of some neat tricks to make it possible to navigate the web on your wrist:
An obvious question about a web browser on your wrist is how exactly that tiny, circular display can manage to show full webpages. Samsung’s answer is with gestures. A guide will come...
The VergeFoundation is getting a second season on Apple TV Plus
Image: Apple
Foundation has been renewed for a second season on Apple TV Plus, Apple announced today, ahead of the release of the fourth episode of the first season on Friday.
The renewal is a vote of confidence from Apple, as one of the flagship shows on Apple TV Plus, meant to help bring in viewers as a prestige genre show in the same way that Game of Thrones does for HBO, The Mandalorian does for Disney Plus, or The Witcher for Netflix. That said, outside of today’s press release (where Apple calls the show “a global hit” that “quickly proved to resonate with audiences”), the company hasn’t even provided vague estimates of how popular the show has been so far.
“With season two, our audience will get to visit more of Asimov’s indelible characters...
The VergeHere are the best Apple Watch deals right now
The Product Red edition of the Series 6 has often recieved the biggest discounts. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It might be tempting to preorder one of the recently announced Series 7 models, but new Apple hardware always comes at a premium. The latest version of the Apple wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability but is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.
Each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen more than its fair share of discounts over the last year. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?
There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The latest model — and the highest end — is the Apple Watch Series 7,...
The VergeGoogle and YouTube will cut off ad money for climate change deniers
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google will no longer allow advertisers, publishers, and YouTube creators to monetize content that denies the existence of climate change. The company detailed the changes in a support document on Thursday.
“Today, we’re announcing a new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators that will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” the Google Ads team said in the document. “This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to...
The VergePhil Lord and Chris Miller’s next project is a murder mystery for Apple TV Plus
Image: Apple
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the producers behind Into the Spider-Verse and the writer-directors of The Lego Movie, are bringing their talents to Apple TV Plus. The Afterparty is a new eight-part murder-mystery comedy series created and directed by Miller, with both Lord and Miller serving as showrunners and executive producers.
The new series “centers on a murder mystery at a high school reunion,” Apple says, with each episode featuring “a retelling of the same night told through a different character’s perspective, each with its own unique visual style and film genre to match the teller’s personality.”
The show stars Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, and Ilana Glazer, among several other comedy stars (and apparently Dave...