The Worst Thing on Earth

Long before the introduction of the Apple Store, if you wanted to get your Mac fixed, you went to an independent repair shop like TekServe.

It was a different time — the ’90s, for one. But it was also a world where Apple wasn’t yet a commercial and cultural behemoth. Apple was a computer company that made incredibly specific products for a very specific kind of nerd — like the LaserWriter II, a much-loved, underappreciated printer that took us out of the dot-matrix era and into the next one.

Tamara Shopsin’s debut novel LaserWriter II is not about a printer but about the people who can fix it. They’re the squirrely bunch of enthusiasts who work at New York City’s TekServe. (Idiosyncratic seems like an understatement?) But as the book’s...

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Apple’s ‘Unleashed’ Fall 2021 Mac Event: rumors, news, and announcements

Image: Apple

The event kicks off at 1PM ET / 10AM PT today

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Sony’s WH-1000XM4 are $100 off for the first time at Amazon

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones that Sony released in August 2020 have seen a couple of price drops, but none as big as today’s $102 discount at Amazon. Normally $350, you can snag a set of these noise-canceling wireless headphones in the black, blue, or silver colorways for just $248. The deal gets sweeter if you have an Amazon credit card, as you’ll get 10 percent back on this purchase through December 20th. Whether this deal actually lasts that long remains to be seen, but this is a solid indicator that we may, at least, see the price fall again during the holiday shopping season.

The XM4 was built on the strengths of Sony’s prior model, offering plenty of comfort with a swiveling ear cup design, excellent sound quality, and...

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The Pixel 6: what to expect from Google’s thoroughly pre-announced phone

Image: Google

We’ve seen the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Google’s decision to announce and thoroughly tease its new high-end flagship was revealing and confusing but, given all the leaks that followed, ultimately not that consequential.

The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro feature an all-new, in some cases, quite colorful design, with an in-display fingerprint sensor, Google’s new Tensor SoC, and the Titan M2 security chip. The standard Pixel 6 has a 90Hz 6.4-inch screen, while the Pro gets a 120Hz 6.7-inch, but the big difference might end up being the cameras. Both devices have new wide and ultrawide cameras, but the Pro comes with an additional 4x optical zoom periscope lens.

But now that company is planning on launching its new phones on October 19th, you might be...

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Look like your favorite Metal Gear Solid character, Cool Glassesman, with these Hideo Kojima shades

Legendary video game designer Hideo Kojima has collaborated with French eyewear specialist Jean-François Rey to produce a limited-edition quartet of shades, specs, and a 3D-printed mask. The capsule collection is available to preorder now for unknown prices, with delivery slated for March 2022.

The designs were apparently inspired by the look and feel of Kojima’s Death Stranding(not the first time that particular game has led to high-fashion collaborations), but I feel they would fit happily into a number of Kojima’s near-contemporary or futuristic game worlds. Perhaps they’d even adorn the face of one the many wonderfully-named Metal Gear Solid characters. May we suggest: Cool Glassesman. (It’s no worse than Hot Coldman.)

The...

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The M1 chip saved the MacBook — but now Apple has to win back the Pros

It’s been hard to be an Apple power user for the last half-decade. The glory days of the original Retina MacBook Pro have long since vanished into the sunset, and recent years have seen computers with too many compromises and too few ports.

And while Apple’s first wave of M1-powered computers have been excellent, they’ve all been — relatively — low-powered. The MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac are the cheapest computers Apple makes, meant more for checking email, writing essays, and the occasional light photo editing than they are for cranking out 4K video or Photoshop projects hundreds of layers deep.

That may be about to change with the presumed announcement of new, high-end MacBook Pro models, computers that are...

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Cowboy 3 electric bike review: better safe than sporty

Whoa boy

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An all-black PS5 sure would go great with Sony’s new midnight black Pulse 3D headset

Sony

Sony’s second colorway for the Pulse 3D headset for PS5 and PS4, clad in midnight black instead of white, is coming out this week. It’s the same $99.99 price as before, and nothing is different about it that I’ve noticed, aside from the matte black headband. If you’re one for embracing dark mode in both your apps and devices, you probably know if you want this already.

The Pulse 3D headset was made to be a technical showcase for Sony’s Tempest 3D audio engine built into the PS5 — and it is. At its cost, this model supplies better-than-average sound quality and good positional audio. Games made by PlayStation Studios, like Returnal, Demon’s Souls, Astro’s Playroom, and others, seem to make the most of the 3D audio tech, so try those out...

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How to watch Apple’s October ‘Unleashed’ event

Apple

Apple is hosting its next big hardware event at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. The event is titled “Unleashed,” and while we’re not totally sure what Apple will be unleashing, the dotted-font design on the invitation could be a hint at the higher-res miniLED displays expected for new MacBook Pros. These new, more powerful MacBook Pros will probably come in 14- and 16-inch screen sizes, and, may have SD readers and HDMI and MagSafe ports.

And possibly (finally) Apple may release new AirPods as well. It also seems likely we’ll get a release date for macOS Monterey, which was announced at the same time as iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, but remains in beta. The rumor mill also has been predicting the end of the Touch Bar.

WHAT TIME IS THE APPLE “UNLEASHED”...

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OnePlus Harry Potter smartwatch cashes in on millennial nostalgia

How much do you still like Harry Potter? Enough to put up with a device that our own Dan Siefert called “basic and boring” and which Gizmodo’s Victoria Song called “the worst smartwatch I’ve ever used”? Well boy do I have a limited edition tie-in for you.

The OnePlus Watch Harry Potter Limited Edition is a new version of the company’s disappointing debut smartwatch themed around the boy wizard. It’s currently listed for ₹16,999 (around $225), and will be available exclusively in India where it releases on October 21st. That’s a small premium over the ₹14,999 (around $200) the regular version of the watch retails for in the country.

Image: OnePlus

The watch includes custom faces and a Harry Potter-themed design.

...

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Ikea’s Bluetooth speaker with Spotify Tap is also a lamp

Ikea’s Vappeby is one of the first Bluetooth speakers with a dedicated Spotify Tap button. | Image: FCC

Ikea’s Vappeby Bluetooth speaker just leaked courtesy of an FCC filing. And because it’s Ikea, this mushroom-shaped speaker with an IP65 rating — which means it’ll resist dust, rain, and low pressure jets of water — also features an integrated 20 lumen (2700K) bulb to pull double-duty as a portable lamp. But that’s not the only surprise.

The Vappeby speaker also has a Spotify Tap button, in what would appear to be a first for Bluetooth speakers. Spotify Tap lets you resume your music from wherever you last stopped, or tap the button again to get a different recommendation tailored for you. Spotify Tap is already available on a range of Bluetooth headphones from Samsung, Microsoft, Bose, Jabra, and others.

Image: FCC ...

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UK schools are using facial recognition to take pupils’ lunch money

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

A group of nine schools in the UK have started using facial recognition to verify children’s payments for school meals. The schools in North Ayrshire in Scotland claim that using the technology is faster and more hygienic than taking payments using cards or fingerprint scanners, but privacy advocates warn that the move is normalizing biometric surveillance.

“With Facial Recognition, pupils simply select their meal, look at the camera and go, making for a faster lunch service whilst removing any contact at the point of sale,” reads a flyer distributed to parents by the schools. An FAQ sheet says that children’s biometric data is stored in an encrypted form and deleted when a child leaves the school. Parents have to opt-in for children to...

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The Pixel 6 might start at a relatively affordable $599

The Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro lineup. | Image: Google

The Pixel 6’s price could start at $599 with 128GB of storage, while the 128GB Pixel 6 Pro could start at $898, according to early US pricing at Target stores spotted by M. Brandon Lee and Evan Lei. Lei posted a photo of pricing already displayed on Target’s shelves, while Lee has images of the retailer’s inventory system showing the same prices. A “street date” for both phones (aka their release dates) is listed as October 28th.

Lee has previously reported that the European starting prices of the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro will be €649 and €899 respectively, while WinFuture’s Roland Quandt has discovered Amazon UK listings that show the 128GB Pixel 6 Pro priced at £849, with a shipping date of November 1st. The Pixel 6 Pro with 256GB...

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New trailers: The Beatles: Get Back, Narcos: Mexico, The Batman, Hawkeye, and more

The Beatles prepare for their final live show, part of a “new” documentary from Disney. | Disney

Happy Succession day to all of us who are celebrating, the show returns tonight and I look forward to being welcomed back by the dissonant piano chords of its theme song and the utter lunacy of the Roy family.

Yesterday at DC FanDome we got to see a slew of new trailers for games, TV shows, and movies; the biggest of course was the latest trailer for The Batman, with the Black Adam teaser a close second. Plenty of non-superhero trailers this week as well, including a new teaser for The Tragedy of Macbeth, a new season for _Narcos: Mexico,_another peek at _Hawkeye,_a time-traveling flick with a corny name, and a look at the “new” Beatles documentary.

The Beatles: Get Back

As the story goes, a film crew got access to document The Beatles...

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Facebook disputes report that its AI can’t detect hate speech or violence consistently

Facebook is disputing a report that says its artificial intelligence isn’t effective at detecting hate speech. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook vice president of integrity Guy Rosen wrote in blog post Sunday that the prevalence of hate speech on the platform had dropped by 50 percent over the past three years, and that “a narrative that the technology we use to fight hate speech is inadequate and that we deliberately misrepresent our progress” was false.

“We don’t want to see hate on our platform, nor do our users or advertisers, and we are transparent about our work to remove it,” Rosen wrote. “What these documents demonstrate is that our integrity work is a multi-year journey. While we will never be perfect, our teams continually work to develop our systems, identify issues and build solutions.”

The post appeared to be in response to a Sunday article in the Wall...

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Hollywood union reaches contract agreement over streaming pay to avoid strike

IATSE members were planning to strike over working conditions | Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The union representing thousands of film and television production workers has reached a tentative agreement with studios, averting an strike that was set to begin Monday.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) had been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents major production studios like Netflix, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Disney. IATSE sought improved working conditions, including weekend rest periods and higher pay scales on streaming shows for its members, who work in many behind-the-scenes roles in Hollywood, such as broadcast technicians, animators, and makeup artists.

The new three-year deal, which still has to be ratified by members,...

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Apple’s October ‘Unleashed’ event: what to expect

Apple has announced an event for October 18th, with a video containing the title “Unleashed.” If you’ve been watching the rumor mill, it won’t come as a surprise — the company still has a lot of products that are expected to come out this year but haven’t shown up in an Apple keynote.

Chief among those are new, more powerful MacBook Pros, which will follow the incredible Apple Silicon-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro that launched last November. The company is also expected to release new AirPods, and it’s got an entire OS that was announced but hasn’t shipped. Read on for a deep dive into the rumors surrounding these products and more.

Redesigned MacBook Pros

Most of the rumors about the event concern redesigned MacBook Pros, which are e...

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Russian spacecraft returns to Earth with movie crew aboard

Actress Yulia Peresild was part of a film crew that went to the International Space Station to film scenes for a movie. She returned to Earth Sunday along with Klim Shipenko and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky. | Photo by Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images

A Russian actress and director-producer who spent 12 days aboard the International Space Station returned to Earth early Sunday along with cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy who had been in space for 191 days. Actress Yulia Peresild and director-producer Klim Shipenko went up to the ISS on October 5th, to film scenes for the upcoming movie The Challenge, about a Russian doctor, played by Peresild, who travels to the space station to treat a sick cosmonaut.

The three were aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, which landed at 12:35AM ET in rural Kazakhstan, and will return to Russia later Sunday. Novitskiy arrived at the ISS on April 9th for his third mission, and has now spent a total of 531 days in space.

The Soyuz craft the three were on had a...

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The biggest announcements from DC FanDome

Black Adam was one of the trailers on display at DC FanDome Saturday | DC/WarnerBros

DC Comics and Warner Bros. held their second annual Fandome

The Batman shows off Robert Pattinson’s gritty hero

We got a second trailer for The Batman, at last (and FanDome saved the reveal for the very end of the day). We’re not even sure if he thinks he is a hero, but Pattison’s Batman is definitely Going Through Some Stuff. We didn’t learn a heck of a lot more about the characters in Matt Reeves’ interpretation of the Dark Knight’s saga. But the trailer showed off a Selina Kyle/Catwoman who seemed to be a master of disguises, and a Riddler with a much scarier vibe than we’ve seen in previous iterations. After several pandemic-related delays, The Batman comes to theaters on March 4th, 2022.

An early look at Dwayne Johnson as...

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The latest trailer for The Batman sees Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight face off against the Riddler

WarnerBros

The Batman debuted a brand new trailer at DC FanDome on Saturday, showing off the best look yet at Robert Pattinson’s take on the Dark Knight and promising an even darker, grittier version of Gotham’s Caped Crusader than any that have hit film before.

Set just a few years in Batman’s career as a superhero, _The Batman_promises to show not just a look at the early days of Batman but numerous other proto-villains and allies, including Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Colin Farrell as The Penguin.

The new trailer also gives the first real look at Paul Dano’s take on the iconic Batman villain the Riddler, who appears to be going for a far creepier, serial killer-esque style version of the...

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Some Instacart shoppers plan Saturday strike over pay and work conditions

An Instacart shopper chooses items for a grocery order. Some workers plan to strike Saturday in protest of pay and work conditions | Image: Instacart

Some Instacart shoppers are striking on Saturday, to protest the company’s pay structure and failure to communicate directly with workers. The Gig Workers Collective (GWC), which represent some of the company’s shoppers, want the Instacart to address five of its policies. The group is calling for Instacart to pay shoppers by order instead of by batch, reintroduce its item commissions, fix fraud issues with its rating system, provide occupational death benefits, and raise the default tip for shoppers on the platform from 5 percent to 10 percent.

The group said the company ignored its demands, which led to the decision to walk off the job on Saturday. “Instacart has refused to finally address these fixes that workers have been begging...

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Analogue’s Pocket will have an extremely fancy OS to save games to and from cartridges

There’s still no firm release date for the delayed Analogue Pocket (outside of the broader “December 2021” window that the company last provided in September), but Analogue is looking to whet players’ appetites with the next best thing: a deep look at AnalogueOS, the new custom software that will power the Pocket whenever it does actually arrive.

As one might expect for a retro gaming device, AnalogueOS features a minimal, pixel-art style design that’s meant to get you into games as easily as possible.

But Analogue is taking its goal of making the ultimate retro gaming device seriously. There’s a new “Library” feature, with a massive database that the company has built from the ground up with the goal of serving as a...

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International Space Station tilted after thrusters on a Russian craft fired unexpectedly

The International Space Station | Getty Images

The International Space Station was unexpectedly tilted on Friday after a test firing of thrusters on Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft continued longer than expected. First reported by the New York Times, the personnel aboard the ISS were never in danger according to a statement from Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.

Ground teams for NASA and Roscosmos were able to regain control of the station about 30 minutes after it lost positioning control at 5:13AM ET. But it’s the second such incident aboard the ISS within the past year, and it occurred with a craft that is supposed to return to Earth early Sunday morning.

The incident started when cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky was testing the engines aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, which is docked...

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A brief chat with the fired #AppleToo organizer

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On October 14th, Apple fired a leader of the #AppleToo movement for allegedly failing to comply with an internal investigation. The employee, Janneke Parrish, has been working behind the scenes for months to organize fellow employees who’ve faced harassment and discrimination.

Now, Apple appears to be cracking down on those efforts — under the guise of trying to stop internal information from leaking to the press. In September, Apple fired Ashley Gjøvik for allegedly violating her confidentiality agreement. Then, it placed software engineer Cher Scarlett on medical leave.

Both Gjøvik and Scarlett have filed claims with the NLRB. Parrish’s lawyer, Vincent P. White of White, Hilferty and Albanese, tells The Verge that Parrish plans to...

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NASA launches its Lucy spacecraft to study the Jupiter Trojan asteroids

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Lucy spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on October 16th | (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA’s Lucy space probe launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Saturday, the beginning of a 12-year mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.

The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off at 5:34AM ET aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Lucy sent its first signal to Earth from its own antenna to NASA’s Deep Space Network at 6:40AM ET. Scientists believe the Trojan asteroids, which orbit the Sun along the same path as Jupiter, may hold clues about the formation of our solar system. It’s NASA’s first-ever single-spacecraft mission to explore so many different asteroids, the agency said.

Lucy is named for the fossilized human skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974, which provided key insights into human evolution....

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Snag a Samsung soundbar for a low price from Newegg

This slim soundbar from Samsung is currently available for its lowest price ever at Newegg, down to just $298. This 38-inch soundbar comes packed with 9 forward-firing speakers and a wireless subwoofer for a soundbar that punches well above its weight. There are a couple of things to keep in mind, however. This soundbar only comes equipped with a single HDMI input and output port, so you’ll need to rely on a switcher, or utilize the built-in Bluetooth connectivity if you’re using this soundbar for multiple devices. Another small drawback is the lack of additional rear-channel speakers, which shouldn’t be an issue for smaller rooms, but if you have a particularly large living room, you may want to invest in a pair of tertiary speakers.

A...

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Dbrand pulls its PS5 Darkplates from sale after Sony threatens legal action

Earlier this year, Dbrand started selling matte black PS5 side plates that it called Darkplates, and when it did, it baited Sony right on the product’s info page to “Go ahead, sue us.” We got our hands on some, and they look exactly like you expect, making the sides of your PS5 black instead of white. They even have their own tongue-in-cheek take on the PlayStation icon microtexture.

As of Saturday, though, you can’t buy Darkplates anymore, as Dbrand has removed them from sale after (perhaps unsurprisingly) receiving a cease and desist letter from Sony. (If you visit the Darkplates site right now, it just shows a list of news articles, including ones from The Verge).

Dbrand shared the letter with The Verge, which we’ve included at the...

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After seeing new leaked photos of the Pixel 6, I think I finally get the phone’s unusual design

The Pixel 6’s distinctive look is easy to spot at a distance. | Image: Evan Blass on Twitter

We’re just a few days away from Google’s October 19th launch event for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, but if you want an early look at what to expect, you might want to check out this big thread of leaked images from prolific leaker Evan Blass. The thread includes what appear to be official renders of both phones, images of cases, and some photos of people using the phones — and it’s that last category of images that were the most interesting to me.

Ever since early rumored renders of the Pixel 6 lineuphit the web, I wondered exactly why Google decided to make the massive camera bar across the back of both phones. It never really appealed to me, and since the bar isn’t flush with the back of the phones, I’ve been worried it’s going to...

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A year later, Apple’s MagSafe continues to underwhelm

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

One year ago yesterday, I wrote how MagSafe could be the biggest reason to buy an iPhone 12. I believed it, too. It looked like Apple had cracked the code to effortlessly accessorize the iPhone and even add modular new capabilities. The company showed its pricey new MagSafe cases and wallets seemingly snapping into place, plus faster wireless charging. The future looked bright.

But if you became an early adopter like me, you might have wound up disappointed. As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman points out, two of Apple’s first overpriced MagSafe accessories are already out of date. First, we just learned Friday that Apple’s $129 MagSafe Duo Charger can’t fast-charge an Apple Watch Series 7. Second, Apple has already replaced the $59 MagSafe...

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US Treasury says ransomware payouts in 2021 could top entire past decade

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The ransomware business is booming this year and could be bringing in billions for some of its top players, according to a report released by the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN (via The Record). The report analyzed the massive growth in ransomware payments in the first half of 2021 by looking at suspicious activity reports from financial institutions and was even able to estimate how much some hacking groups were making by analyzing blockchain transactions linked to their wallets.

The report found that reports of suspicious ransomware-related transactions totaled around $590 million from January 2021 to June 2021. One of the most shocking numbers in the report is that the top 10 hacking groups have...

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