Nintendo delays its Advance Wars remaster to spring 2022

A screenshot from_Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp._ | Image: Nintendo

Nintendo has delayed its upcoming remaster of the first two Advance Wars games. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp had been set to release on December 3rd, but it will now be coming out sometime in spring 2022. “The game just needs a little more time for fine tuning,” Nintendo said in a tweet on Friday.

The company announced the remasters of Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Risingat E3 2021, and Nintendo says they’re “reimagined and rebuilt from the ground up.” You can check out the board game-inspired aesthetic in the game’s debut trailer and in an E3 gameplay demo.

Advance Wars is one of many recent game delays. In September, EA’s Battlefield 2042 was bumped nearly a month from October 22nd to November 19th. Last week,...

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Samsung’s unique Frame TV is $500 off

The 65-inch LCD version is $1,500 today. | Samsung

Samsung’s The Frame doubles as both wall art and an HDR-compatible QLED TV. The television offers a decor-friendly design while also displaying customizable images when somebody’s in the room. When turned on, however, it transforms into a smart 4K TV with Alexa built in that boasts a 120Hz refresh rate to display content smoothly. Right now, you can pick it up for its lowest price yet. For a limited time, you can buy the 65-inch 2021 model for $1,500 instead of $2,000 from Amazon.

Samsung lovers, you’re in luck: we’ve got another great deal for you, this time on phones. Right now, Amazon is taking $280 off of Samsung’s recently released Galaxy Z Fold 3 – which supports Samsung’s stylus, the S Pen – when you buy the 256GB version...

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Nest Cam (indoor) review: Google’s pretty little camera takes one step forward and three steps back

It might look good, but it doesn’t perform well

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It’s party time, smash the EXTRA BASS button

The button is simple, almost plain. A flat black circle, simple dye-sublimated letters, and a small LED pinprick to let you know that it’s on. “EXTRA BASS,” it declares in tall, bold capitals. For indeed, the EXTRA BASS button only does one blindingly obvious thing: it adds extra bass.

The speaker in question here is a Sony XB90 Extra Bass High Power Audio System. It is a product without pretension, without guile or duplicity. It has Extra Bass in the name, and the eponymous button is a microcosm of the device, a thing that encapsulates the form and function in a neat, tidy shorthand.

This is not a speaker for listening to soft sonatas of Mozart or enjoying the sonic subtleties of a rare acoustic studio recording. It is a...

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Micro Center leaks specs and pricing for Intel’s new Alder Lake Core i9 CPU

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Even though someone managed to secure early purchases of a couple of Core i9-12900K CPUs, we still didn’t have detailed information about Intel’s upcoming line of Alder Lake chips. Now, a sale page has popped up on Micro Center, suggesting the chips will be available for $669.99 when they launch on November 4th.

The spec sheet reveals this chip will have a 3.2GHz operating frequency, capable of 5.2GHz in Turbo Mode, with 16 cores and 30MB of L3 cache. As expected, the specs reveal it also supports DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen 5, and the Intel Z690 chipset motherboards that should go on sale at the same time.

During its Architecture Day 2021 event in August, Intel promised Alder Lake chips with 16 cores using eight performance...

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The Verge Merch Store is back!

The Verge is celebrating its 10th birthday on November 1st, so we thought this would be the perfect occasion to relaunch our online merch store! Check out the store here. We partnered with DFTBA on some new products we’re really excited about — including a special edition Verge 10-year design by artist Richard Parry — as well as some classic favorites.

This is just the start for _Verge_merch, and we’re excited to work on even more all-new designs in the future. If there’s anything you think we should make, let us know in the comments.

Now, what are you waiting for? There’s an EMAILS shirt with your name on it. (Well, not literally. But let us know if embroidery is something you’re interested in.)

Special thanks:
Richard Parry, Will...

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Watch the first trailer for the GTA remastered trilogy, launching November 11th

The new Claude in GTA III remastered.

Rockstar Games finally showed off a trailer for the remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy, including GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, showcasing many graphical and quality-of-life improvements made to each game.

The Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition collection will launch digitally on November 11th for $59.99 (£54.99). You’ll be able to play them on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and the newer Series X/S consoles, and PC via the Rockstar Games Launcher. In the first half of 2022, it’ll come to iOS and Android. It’ll get a physical release on December 7th. It launched a site where you can see more details.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers will get instant access to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — The...

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Intel’s unreleased Core i9-12900K processor goes on sale early

Intel’s Core i9-12900K hasn’t even been officially announced yet. | Image: Seby9123

Intel hasn’t even officially announced its new Core i9-12900K processor, but it’s already been sold by a retailer. The unreleased CPU is expected to be the flagship for Intel’s new line of Alder Lake processors, offering a chance to reclaim the performance crown from AMD.

A Reddit poster, spotted by Techspot, managed to purchase two Core i9-12900K processors in retail packaging from an unnamed retailer for $610 per CPU. A similar mix-up happened earlier this year, when retailers started selling Intel’s Rocket Lake CPUs nearly a month before their launch.

This unreleased CPU is useless without a new motherboard

The Reddit poster has published a number of photos of the unreleased Core i9-12900K processor in its retail packaging, which...

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Elgato’s app that turns iPhones into webcams gets AR Snap Lens support

Image: Elgato

EpocCam, the app from streaming brand Elgato that lets you repurpose your iPhone as a webcam for your PC or Mac, has been updated with native support for Snap Lenses augmented reality filters, Elgato’s parent company Corsair has announced. The functionality comes thanks to a partnership with Snap, who already offers similar filters natively in the Snapchat app, as well as with its Snap Camera software. Now the functionality is included natively in the EpocCam app.

There are a total of 15 Snap Lenses for EpocCam, which include virtual backgrounds, virtual masks, and customizable filters. “Become your digital avatar, colorize your hair, interact with animated characters, and much more,” promises Elgato’s website, which also notes that the...

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PUBG: New State arrives on iOS and Android on November 11th

Image: Krafton

PUBG: New State, the upcoming free-to-play mobile game, will release on iOS and Android on November 11th, its publisher Krafton announced today. The game is set in the year 2051, and will offer a futuristic take on the multiplayer-focused PUBG formula with new features like weapon customization and in-game drones. New State will be available in over 200 countries and 17 languages at launch.

New State is a significant launch for the PUBG series, which popularized the battle royale genre after the launch of its first title in 2017. Although _New State_isn’t its first mobile entry, following the launch of PUBG Mobile in 2018, it’s the first to have been made by the game’s original developer, PUBG Studios. Development of the original PUBG...

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Apple’s new M1 Max MacBook Pro may get a virtual turbo button for High Power Mode

Apple wants you to think of its new M1 Max MacBook Pro as a beast of a machine — it actually calls it a “beast” in the ad — but it seems the upcoming macOS Monterey, which ships alongside the new Macs, will unleash its full potential. _MacRumors_contributor Steve Moser has discovered a new “High Power Mode” in the operating system’s recent beta release that can “optimize performance to better support resource intensive tasks,” and apparently, spin up the fan to compensate for that.

Found more information on the high power power mode in the macOS RC: “Your Mac will optimize performance to better support resource-intensive tasks. This may result in louder fan noise.” https://t.co/4q3zlbyLnfpic.twitter.com/0mKVekGa0M

— Steve Moser...

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iFixit took a peek underneath the Apple Watch Series 7’s larger display

Apple Watch Series 7 teardown | Image: iFixit

In our review of the Apple Watch Series 7, Dieter Bohn called it the best smartwatch while noting the new model’s changes as “smaller iterations” year-over-year than we previously expected. Even those small improvements required some reengineering. To appreciate those efforts, the folks from iFixit teamed up with former Apple engineers to investigate the new parts and get some insight into how the changes came to be.

Ex-Apple product designer Tobias is now with Instrumental. He points out in a video that by looking at the back of the display, we can see that for the Series 7, Apple removed a ribbon cable, combining touch and display signals into one cable instead of two. That helped shrink the device’s bezels, but Tobias says in a video...

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Twitter is finally letting everyone create Spaces

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter first launched Spaces in November 2020 as an attempt to eclipse Clubhouse’s success with its own version of audio-centric chatrooms — but the ability to actually host a Space was limited to Twitter users with 600 followers or more. Now, almost one year later, Twitter is finally giving all of its users the ability to host a Space, which is a privilege that arguably should’ve been granted long ago.

Twitter is a bit behind on its own schedule, considering it promised that everyone would be able to start up a Space back in April. The Spaces team sent out a tweet to announce the change, noting that users on both Android and iOS will now be able to host Spaces. It also offers a GIF that briefly refreshes users on how to host a Space,...

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Rare Apple VideoPad prototype scrapped by Steve Jobs set to be auctioned

Apple VideoPad 2 | Photo: Bonhams

The long-lost Apple VideoPad 2 prototype is going up for auction in November as part of a History of Science and Technology auction by Bonhams, an international auction house, in Los Angeles. The VideoPad will be auctioned alongside other Apple prototypes and Steve Jobs memorabilia and is estimated to sell between $8,000 and $12,000.

Developed between 1993 and 1995 with VideoPad 1 and 3 (the only two examples shown to the public), this only surviving PDA prototype was Apple’s next attempt after the Newton Message Pad. Unlike the Newton Message Pad, the fold-up screen apparently included a built-in camera for video conferencing.

Despite being designed to be ahead of its time, it was canceled along with Newton OS after Jobs’ return to...

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Microsoft fixes Windows 11 AMD CPU performance issues with new update

Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 update today that fixes some of the AMD CPU performance issues. AMD and Microsoft found two issues with Windows 11 on Ryzen processors at launch, with one causing L3 cache latency to triple and slowing performance by up to 15 percent in certain games. Microsoft is now fixing this particular issue with Windows 11 Build 22000.282, available to all Windows 11 users today as an optional update in Windows Update.

While the last Windows 11 update made these issues worse, today’s patch should fix them for good on the L3 cache latency side. The second outstanding issue affects AMD’s preferred core technology, which shifts threads over to the fastest core on a processor. AMD says this second bug could...

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Intel CEO warns chip shortage won’t end until at least 2023, as laptop sales get hit by supply issues

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The ongoing global chip shortage is going to be a problem for a lot longer, according to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who reiterated today ahead of the company’s Q3 earnings that he expects the shortage to extend until at least 2023.

“We’re in the worst of it now; every quarter next year, we’ll get incrementally better, but they’re not going to have supply-demand balance until 2023,” Gelsinger told CNBC in an interview.

Intel rival AMD seemed to have more optimistic expectations, with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su commenting at the 2021 Code Conference that while supply would be “likely tight” for the near future, “it’ll get better in 2022” as production capacity continues to ramp. “It gets better next year, not immediately, but it’ll gradually get...

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Snapchat ‘family center’ might let parents know who is in their teens’ DMs

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

While Instagram and Facebook face increased scrutiny on how they manage their teenage audience, Snap is taking steps to ensure a safer experience for its youngest users by working on a set of family safety tools.

In an interview this week on WSJ Tech Live(via TechCrunch), CEO Evan Spiegel spoke of his vision for allowing parents to hold their teens’ hands while the kids are navigating Snapchat. “One of the goals with the product is to open up a dialogue between parents and their children about their experiences on the app,” said Spiegel, hoping to align with parents in a time where similar platforms are negatively affecting young teens. During this interview, Spiegel also mentioned that there is an in-house parental control system in...

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Stardew Valley creator reveals next game, Haunted Chocolatier

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone — better known as ConcernedApe — has announced his second game: ConcernedApe’s Haunted Chocolatier, which looks to expand on the Stardew Valley formula with a more fantastical setting and “magical haunted ghost chocolate.”

“In this game, you will play as a chocolatier living in a haunted castle. In order to thrive in your new role, you will have to gather rare ingredients, make delicious chocolates, and sell them in a chocolate shop,” the game’s website explains.

The new title looks similar to Stardew Valley in many respects, with Barone’s meticulous pixel art and animations (at least at this stage of development) appearing virtually identical to his previous title. Barone isn’t saying whether the new...

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Tesla offers a glimpse of a future without Elon Musk

Photo by Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Elon Musk may seem inseparable from Tesla, but on Wednesday night, the company offered the first real taste of what it might look like without its billionaire CEO.

Tesla held a regularly scheduled conference call to discuss its quarterly financial results, but — as he’d previously teased — Musk did not attend. His absence took what’s normally a venue for his rants and ramblings, dismissals of Wall Street, and attacks on the press and turned it into a coherent (if scripted) presentation of the company’s recent progress.

There were fewer sideshows and a more measured tone, though the executives who spoke in Musk’s place still made some contradictions. If Musk were to leave his post atop the company, it’s likely that Tesla would look and...

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AT&T is white-labeling Google Stadia to give you free Batman game streaming

Months after we predicted that Stadia would soon become a white-label cloud-gaming service, AT&T appears to be taking Google up on the idea. AT&T is offering a free browser-based version of Batman: Arkham Knight exclusively for wireless customers that makes use of Stadia’s technology.

AT&Tconfirmed that its new game streaming experience runs on Google Stadia’s tech (via 9to5Google). Google announced the shutdown of its internal Stadia game studio in February. While Stadia is still available and supported by Google, the studio shutdown means Google is relying on third parties to provide all the games, and it opens up the potential for Google’s partners to use the tech.

AT&T is apparently the first of those partners — it...

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Your Xbox Series X’s dashboard can now display in native 4K

Microsoft’s October update for the Xbox Series X includes the long-awaited jump to a native 4K resolution dashboard. Previously, the system software upscaled 1080p to 4K, by which enthusiasts, including several people who work for The Verge, were not totally satisfied.

The improved picture quality extends across the home dashboard on the Series X (but not the Series S), as well as the My Games & Apps screen, the Xbox Guide, and “many other experiences.” Microsoft says that game art and button prompts will have “increased sharpness and improved text readability.” Microsoft provided an image for comparison, shown below, and the difference is clear.

Now, you can endlessly stare at the TV in true 4K wondering what to play or watch while...

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Snap blames revenue hit on iOS ad tracking changes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snap has some things to be happy about this quarter. It crossed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, added 13 million daily users, and doubled submissions to Spotlight, its relatively new TikTok rival. But it has also ran into a serious and ballooning problem: Apple’s ad tracking changes, which have already led to millions in lost ad dollars.

The company missed its revenue target by $3 million in the third quarter, largely because of Apple’s changes, Snap announced this afternoon. That’s not a huge miss on its own, but Snap expects the impact to continue next quarter and says its revenue growth will slow meaningfully as a result.

“A more significant impact on our business than we had expected”

“We grappled with industry changes to...

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HBO Max and HBO’s US subscriptions dip following Amazon exit

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

HBO Max is still growing — but the service appears to have felt the impact of its exit from Amazon Prime Channels earlier this quarter.

HBO Max and HBO subscriptions collectively grew to 69.4 million internationally from 67.5 million the previous quarter, the company reported during its second-quarter earnings presentation. But its combined subscriptions to both services dropped in the US from 47 million last quarter to 45.2 million this quarter — a difference of 1.8 million subscribers.

So while its total subscription numbers were up 1.9 million subscribers for the quarter (and up 12.5 million, year over year) — meaning they’re still ballooning — the combined services still saw a loss in US subscriptions. AT&T said in its earnings...

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Android 101: how to free up space on your phone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It can happen all too easily, especially if you’ve got an Android phone with less than 128GB of storage: one day, you try to install a cool new game or an intriguing new app, and you can’t. You’ve run out of space.

Don’t panic. If you’re not ready to buy a new phone, and your phone doesn’t have a handy microSD slot for some extra storage, you can probably still pick up a decent amount of free space with some simple house cleaning. Here are some suggestions on how to get back some of that storage.

Note: These were tested using a Pixel 3 phone running Android 12. Depending on your phone’s make and operating system, your directions may vary slightly.

Use Android’s “Free up space” tool

Android has a built-in tool to help you increase the...

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‘Driverless’ Tesla crash in Texas wasn’t actually driverless, NTSB says

Matt Dougherty/KHOU

The driver and passenger seats were both occupied in a Tesla Model S that crashed into a tree outside of Houston on April 17th, killing both occupants, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The crash made news when local investigators on the scene initially reported that neither body recovered from the Telsa was behind the wheel. Mark Herman, a constable from Harris County Precinct 4, told KHOU that one of the men killed was in the front passenger seat of the car, while the other was in the back seat.

“They are 100 percent certain that no one was in the driver seat driving that vehicle at the time of impact. They are positive,” Herman told KHOU.

Federal investigators quickly swooped in to determine the accuracy of the...

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Locke and Key’s second season is darker but loses the magic

Image: Amanda Matlovich / Netflix

Netflix’s show about teens fighting demons with magical keys is back, but Locke and Key’s second season makes some big changes. The pace is faster, the tone is darker, and with that, it loses some of the magic that made the show so interesting in the first place.

Things don’t start out so dark, though. At the outset of Locke and Key’s second season, things are going well for the Locke family. After dealing with the death of their father and surviving a fight with a demon in season 1, they’re able to spend the summer relaxing with friends and their keys. It’s one of the rare times in the series we see magic used for having fun; Kinsey (Emilia Jones) is relaxing inside her own head (literally), and younger brother Bodie (Jackson Robert...

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Mythic Quest has been renewed for a third and fourth season on Apple TV Plus

Mythic Quest has been renewed for a third and fourth season on Apple TV Plus, Apple announced today, marking the biggest commitment yet to one of its streaming originals.

The show stars Rob McElhenney (who co-created the series) as Ian Grimm, the ambitious and self-centered creative director of a popular fictional video game, along with Charlotte Nicdao as Poppy Li, the lead engineer and co-creative director who works — and often fights — with Grimm over the direction of the titular Mythic Quest game. The show’s ensemble cast also features Murray Abraham, Danny Pudi, Imani Hakim, Ashly Burch, Jessie Ennis, and David Hornsby as members of the game’s development, creative, and testing teams.

BREAKING: Big announcement from Sir Anthony...

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Tesla’s driving data storage system hacked by Dutch investigators

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A team of Dutch forensic researchers have decrypted Tesla’s data storage system, providing access to a trove of information that could be useful in crash investigations. (The news was first reported by Reuters.)

It’s no secret that Tesla records information about its customers’ driving behavior, both to improve its advanced driver assistance system, Autopilot, and also in the event of a crash, to provide to investigators.

But researchers at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) discovered that Tesla’s vehicles store far more detailed data than previously known, including speed, accelerator pedal position, steering wheel angle, and brake usage. Some of this data can be stored for up to a year, the institute said.

speed, accelerator...

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Razer’s Kraken V3 headsets offer a redesigned look with refined sound

The middle-of-the-road Kraken 3 HyperSense is shown here. It costs $129.99 and plugs into devices via its USB-A plug. | Razer

Razer has announced the Kraken V3 lineup, which has a refreshed design and new features. At the top of the offering is Razer’s wireless Kraken V3 Pro, which costs $199.99 and has built-in haptics. If wireless isn’t important to you, the Kraken V3 HyperSense for $129.99 has the same haptics feature, but with a few other tweaks. The $99.99 wired Kraken V3 doesn’t feature haptics, but it’s otherwise the same as the Kraken V3 HyperSense.

Compared to the previous generation, the V3 looks less bulky and garish. Many of Razer’s headsets have skewed toward looking more like over-ear headphones, and this one’s no exception. Some of its features are borrowed from other Razer headsets. Each Kraken V3 headset has Razer’s 50mm TriForce drivers that...

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Razer’s futuristic Zephyr mask is available today, starting at $99.99

The Zephyr is apparently light enough to accompany you on a jog, assuming you want some extra attention. | Razer

Razer’s Zephyr face mask is available to the public after several months of tweaking features and beta testing with Razer super fans. You can purchase it starting tonight at 11PM ET / 8PM PT from Razer.com in two configurations. The most basic kit for $99.99 includes the mask, a carrying tote, a USB-C charging cable, anti-fog spray, and three sets of replaceable N95 filters that will cover you for nine days of use. If you want more filters included with your purchase, a $149.99 version includes everything mentioned above, plus 33 sets of filters for 99 days of filtered use. You can purchase filters by themselves in sets of 10 for $29.99, which will get you 30 days of use.

The Zephyr is a completely different kind of product for Razer and...

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