Tesla pulled its latest ‘Full Self Driving’ beta after testers complained about false crash warnings

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla’s decision to test its “Full Self Driving” advanced driver assistance software with untrained vehicle owners on public roads has attracted scrutiny and criticism, and that was before this latest release.

Version 10.3 began rolling out on Saturday night / Sunday morning with a long list of release notes. The list mentions changes starting with introducing driver profiles that can swap between different characteristics for following distance, rolling stops, or exiting passing lanes. It’s supposed to better detect brake lights, turn signals, and hazard lights from other vehicles, along with reduced false slowdowns and improved offsetting for pedestrians.

However, on Sunday afternoon Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla is “Seeing some issues...

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Tesla quietly raises prices on four of its EVs

Four of Teslas EVs got price hikes this weekend | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Tesla quietly raised prices of four of its electric vehicles this weekend, a few days after the automaker announced a record $1.6 billion profit in its third quarter. First reported by Electrek, the base Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles are each priced $2,000 higher, at $43,990 and $56,990 respectively. In addition, the base Model S and Model X vehicles will each cost $5,000 more, at $94,990 and $104,990

Tesla had a banner third quarter despite the global semiconductor shortage that has plagued other carmakers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in June that Tesla’s incremental price hikes on the Model 3 and Model Y during the first half of 2021 were due in large part to supply chain shortages. But the company was able to rewrite its vehicle...

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New trailers: King Richard, Uncharted, Ozark, and more

Will Smith stars as Venus and Serena Williams’ father in King Richard | Warner Bros.

Succession is back, thank goodness, and with it the awkward bravado of Kendall Roy, who would like his Twitter to be off the hook and whose plan to take over his family’s empire is essentially a series of hashtaggable platitudes. Still the squirmiest show on streaming!

Here’s this week’s trailers roundup:

King Richard

Will Smith stars in _King Richard,_the story of Serena and Venus Williams, told from the point of view of their father, whose determination (which is putting it mildly) helped drive his daughters to be the greatest tennis players of their generation. Smith’s performance in King Richard, which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in September, is already generating Oscar buzz and honestly it’s not hard to see why from...

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Estimated ship times for preorders of new MacBook Pro models now into late November, early December

Ship times for MacBook Pro models have slid into December

Shipping estimates on the Apple Store for new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro pre-orders have started sliding into late November and early December. As of Sunday morning, estimates for the standard configurations of the 14-inch MacBook Pro were showing delivery dates between November 16th and 23rd. Customizing a 14-inch Pro could push the estimated delivery into mid-December.

For the 16-inch MacBook Pro, standard configurations are showing estimated shipping times between November 23rd and December 1st, with customized options also showing mid-December ship dates depending what you choose.

screen grab

The Apple Online Store showing estimated shipping dates for the new 16-inch MacBook Pro as of October 24th.

A...

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Sounds like the Halo Needler is finally getting the Nerf blaster it deserves

The _Halo_Needler is one of the most memorable video game weapons ever designed: an alien rifle that shoots homing spikes of crystalline plasma that explode. While clearly taking some inspiration from The Fifth Element’s “replay gun” in shape and functionality, it’s gained a following of its own. Now, Hasbro has announced a foam-firing Nerf replica of the Needler that might finally do it justice.

The $100 Nerf LMTD Halo Needler follows the company’s Aliens Pulse Rifle and _The Mandalorian_Amban Phase-pulse blaster in asking the question: what if Hasbro built a cosplay-grade Nerf blaster for its biggest fans instead of something that needs to sell like a toy? The answer is a 10-round fully automatic blaster with light-up spikes whose lights...

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Microsoft reverses controversial .NET change after open source community outcry

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is reversing a decision to remove a key feature from its upcoming .NET 6 release, after a public outcry from the open source community. Microsoft angered the .NET open source community earlier this week by removing a key part of Hot Reload in the upcoming release of .NET 6, a feature that allows developers to modify source code while an app is running and immediately see the results.

It’s a feature many had been looking forward to using in Visual Studio Code and across multiple platforms, until Microsoft made a controversial last-minute decision to lock it to Visual Studio 2022 which is a paid product that’s limited to Windows. Sources at Microsoft, speaking on condition of anonymity_,_ told The Verge that the last-minute change...

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Clubhouse will soon let you pin links to the top of rooms

Image: Clubhouse

Clubhouse is making it possible for people to share outside links and monetize their work on the platform. Today at The Verge’s On The Verge event, Clubhouse CEO Paul Davison and global head of marketing Maya Watson announced a new pinned links feature, which allows moderators to place outside links at the top of a room. These links can direct listeners to whatever moderators want, like a Patreon page, a news article, or a podcast.

Certain links won’t be allowed for security and moderation reasons. Davison didn’t explicitly name the types of links that _wouldn’t_be allowed, but he suggested links to OnlyFans wouldn’t be accepted because links to porn are banned. Anyone can add, change, or remove a link, so long as they’re a moderator of a...

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With official Matter support, Eero mesh routers could soon run your smart home

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

We are literally right nowcelebrating The Verge’s 10-year anniversary in New York City, but we couldn’t throw an epic two-day event without also bringing you a teensy bit of tech news — and Eero co-founder and CEO Nick Weaver just did that at _On The Verge._Weaver says that Eero, an early adopter of the Thread protocol, will be upgrading all its Thread-equipped Wi-Fi routers to fully support Matter as well. Matter is the upcoming 2022 standard that should allow for easier setup of smart home devices, with any compatible Matter host able to discover and work with any Matter client. Amazon smart home rivals Apple and Google are also on board with Matter.

“It does feel different this time,” Weaver says, asked about his company’s long...

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T-Mobile delays shutdown of Sprint 3G network

T-Mobile has delayed its plans to shut down Sprint’s CDMA network | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile said it will delay its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network by three months to ensure its “partners” have time to help customers with the transition. It had originally planned to phase out the network in January; that date has now been pushed to March 31st, 2022.

“Recently it’s become increasingly clear that some of those partners haven’t followed through on their responsibility to help their customers through this shift,” the company said in a statement. “So, we’re stepping up on their behalf.”

T-Mobile’s statement doesn’t mention it by name, but likely is referring to Dish Network. The two sides have tangled over T-Mobile’s announcement it was shutting down Sprint’s legacy network, because of the impact it would have on...

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Will Apple’s Mini LED MacBook Pros avoid the iPad Pro’s downsides?

Image: Apple

When Apple announced the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Mini LED backlighting earlier this year, I knew it was time to upgrade from my 2018 model. And I wasn’t disappointed. The improved brightness (especially when watching movies in HDR) and superior contrast have made the purchase worthwhile — even if iPadOS continues to underwhelm and disappoint in other ways. It’s a wonderful screen that makes me want to use the iPad wherever I can instead of my laptop.

As a refresher of what Mini LED is, there are thousands of tiny LEDs behind the display — much smaller than those in conventional TVs or LCD displays — that allow for more precise backlighting. In turn, this leads to deeper black levels and all of the other benefits mentioned above. Apple’s...

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Get a year of PlayStation Plus for just $37 this weekend

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

For this weekend, you can get a whole year of Playstation Plus at Eneba for just $37 by using the code 365USVERGEat checkout. Anyone who owns a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 should consider becoming a PlayStation Plus subscriber. By becoming one, you get access to a variety of perks, including online multiplayer, cloud storage for saves, and complementary games every month, as well as exclusive discounts. This discount is only valid through Saturday, October 23rd, though, so you’ll have to move fast.

A sharp, new entry in the Logitech arsenal of gaming accessories is the Logitech G305, which is currently available for just $40 at Amazon, bringing it down to its lowest price since January. This false ambidextrous, wireless mouse...

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Urbanista Los Angeles review: solar-powered headphones deliver on a lofty promise

Almost infinite listening, so long as the weather’s kind

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A new Facebook whistleblower has come forward with more allegations

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A second Facebook whistleblower has come forward with a new set of allegations about how the social media platform does business. First reported by the Washington Post, the person is a former member of Facebook’s integrity team and says the company puts profits before efforts to fight hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

In the affidavit, copies of which were provided to The Verge, the whistleblower alleges, among other things, that a former Facebook communications official dismissed concerns about interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election, assisted unwittingly by Facebook. Tucker Bounds said, according to the affidavit, that the situation would be “a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. And then...

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Twitter’s research shows that its algorithm favors conservative views

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A post on Twitter’s blog reveals that Twitter’s algorithm promotes right-leaning content more often than left — but the reasons for that remain unclear. The findings drew from an internal study on Twitter’s algorithmic amplification of political content.

During the study, Twitter looked at millions of tweets posted between April 1st and August 15th, 2020. These tweets were from news outlets and elected officials in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US. In all countries studied, except Germany, Twitter found that right-leaning accounts “receive more algorithmic amplification than the political left.” It also discovered that right-leaning content from news outlets benefit from the same bias.

“Negative posts about...

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Microsoft angers the .NET open source community with a controversial decision

Microsoft has spent the past 10 years embracing open-source software and, at several points, even admitting it loves Linux and the open source community. The Linux Foundation even praised Microsoft for working with the open source community after the company joined the foundation nearly five years ago. All of this goodwill could be about to come crashing down, thanks to a storm that’s brewing in the .NET community — Microsoft’s flagship development toolkit and core software framework.

A controversial business decision inside Microsoft has left many questioning the company’s commitment to open source. Multiple sources at Microsoft tell The Verge that it has also angered lots of developers inside the company but that they’ve effectively...

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NASA now aims to launch massive next-generation rocket on debut flight in early 2022

NASA/Frank Michaux

NASA is aiming to fly its massive, next-generation rocket, the Space Launch System, for the first time in February of 2022, a critical test flight on NASA’s journey to send people back to the Moon. However, plenty of tests still need to go well before the much-delayed vehicle can finally take flight.

Confirmation of the new target date, which was rumored in August, comes a day after engineers fully stacked the Space Launch System, or SLS, inside NASA’s massive hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Standing at 322 feet high, the SLS rises taller than the Statue of Liberty. On top of the stack is NASA’s Orion crew capsule, a new spacecraft that’s been developed to carry people into deep space. However, when the SLS flies for the first...

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Overwatch’s cowboy hero is now named Cole Cassidy

Blizzard Entertainment

Jesse McCree, Overwatch’s cowboy hero, has been renamed Cole Cassidy.

Meet Cole Cassidy.

Rides into Overwatch October 26. pic.twitter.com/CT6PmaNXNs

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 22, 2021

The name change is part of a number of updates Blizzard is making to its games to remove references to problematic people or themes that have come to light in the wake of several discrimination and harassment suits filed against the company. Last month, World of Warcraft removed NPCs that referenced former senior creative director Alex Afrasiabi, who was named in the harassment suit as participating in the infamous “Cosby Suite” incident. Jesse McCree — a former lead designer — was also a part of that incident and for whom Overwatch’s cowboy...

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How to stop annoying robocalls on your iPhone or Android phone

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Mobile spam calls have been a nuisance for years. I get between four and six robocalls daily, and a quick survey of friends shows that I’m not alone. Every waking day brings with it a new barrage.

Robocallers have upped their game by masking their spam with local, genuine-looking phone numbers. Sometimes their nonsense is amusing — like when you get a threatening voicemail about your impending arrest over owed back taxes — but the vast majority of the time, it’s an unwelcome distraction. It’s all too easy for these scammers to wield the power of the internet and fire off countless calls with ease. And once even just a few people fall for a scam, they’ve made enough profit to cover their trivial expenses.

Estimates put the number of...

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Google Meet hosts will be able to keep participant mics and cameras off

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Google Meet hosts will soon be able to turn off participants’ microphones or cameras and prevent them from turning them back on, the company announced in a Workspace blog. The feature could be a useful way for hosts to keep noisy or rowdy attendees from continually interrupting meetings even after they have already been muted.

The microphone and camera lock feature will be off by default; hosts will have to turn it on during meetings if they want to use it. If your meeting has breakout rooms, any audio and / or video locks made in the main will apply in those, too. The opposite isn’t true, though, meaning that locks applied in individual breakout rooms won’t apply to other breakout rooms or the main room.

Image: Google...

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Satechi’s USB-C hub can hold an SSD if you have more money than ports

Noted hub-maker Satechi has come out with a new dongle that combines extra ports and a slot for an M.2 SATA SSD for expanding both your computer’s IO and storage while only taking up one of your precious ports. It doesn’t come with an SSD, but it does have a catchy name: the Satechi USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter. The concept has been done before by lesser-known brands, but if you’re considering it now that Satechi is making one, maybe hold off for just a moment while we break down the caveats and the potentially better options.

As a hub, it’s pretty standard and unobjectionable: it has 100W USB-C PD passthrough (that will supply your computer with around 85W after it takes the energy it needs to operate), two USB-A 3.0 ports, and an...

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Ford nabs $884 million incentive package for EV ‘mega campus’

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Tennessee lawmakers have approved an $884 million incentive package for the “mega campus” near Memphis where Ford plans to make batteries and electric vehicles, according to the Tennessean.

The money — which is coming from Tennessee’s current $2.1 billion budget surplus — is the single largest investment in the history of the state. It comes at a time when many major automakers are looking to build new facilities in the US dedicated to EVs, batteries, or other supply chain components necessary for electric vehicles.

Ford itself has committed to spending more than $5 billion on the Tennessee project with South Korean battery company SK Innovation, which it calls “Blue Oval City.” Ford is also simultaneously spinning up battery factories...

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Lyft’s first-ever safety report reveals over 4,000 assaults between 2017-2019

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Warning: this story contains descriptions of sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing.

Ten people were killed in physical altercations and over 4,000 people were assaulted during Lyft rides from 2017-2019, the company revealed in its first-ever safety report. Also during that period, 105 people died in fatal vehicle crashes involving a Lyft car.

The report was long overdue, coming at least two years after Lyft originally said that it would be published. It represents the first set of publicly available data regarding the safety of Lyft’s ride-hailing platform and how it compares to national US averages. The company is currently facing multiple lawsuits from victims of sexual assault and rape.

the numbers appear to paint a...

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Feds reportedly take down top ransomware hacker group REvil with a hack of their own

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The government has successfully hacked the hacking group REvil, the entity behind the ransomware that’s been linked to leaked Apple leaks, attacks on enterprise software vendors, and more, according to a report from Reuters. The outlet’s sources tell it that the FBI, Secret Service, Cyber Command, and organizations from other countries have worked together to take the group’s operations offline this month. The group’s dark web blog, which exposed information gleaned from its targets, is also reportedly offline.

Reports about the group going offline started surfacing earlier this week, with TechCrunch writing that its Tor website was no longer available on Monday. There was speculation of a hack, fueled by a forum post from one of the...

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Twitter will let you subscribe to a newsletter right from a tweet

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter bought out the email newsletter service, Revue, earlier this year, hoping to engage journalists and writers who want to share long-form content without feeling limited by Twitter’s 280 character limit. Now, the newly integrated service is getting an update.

We’ve got big news. (You’re really going to like this.)

Starting today, your followers can subscribe to Revue newsletters directly from Tweets in their timeline.

This is already enabled for all Revue writers on desktop and mobile web, with iOS and Android to follow soon. ✨ pic.twitter.com/6eBxvGWyxH

— Revue (@revue) October 22, 2021

In a tweet, Revue revealed that users can now subscribe to a newsletter just by clicking on a link in a Tweet. And if a user’s email address...

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Apple’s latest sci-fi drama Invasion starts out too dang slow

Image: Apple

For a show about an alien invasion,Invasion is decidedly lacking in aliens thus far. The latest sci-fi drama on Apple TV Plus, the series debuts with three episodes, which, theoretically, should give viewers a good sense of what to expect. Instead, those episodes oh-so-slowly introduce you to characters and stories without giving much of a hint as to how it all connects aside from the teaseist of teases. Three hours in, and I’m still not even sure what it’s about.

The big hook of Invasion is that it’s a global story. The idea is that you’ll be able to see the impact of this event from a bunch of different perspectives, and at the very least, it succeeds at that (albeit with the expected American-centric viewpoint). Over the first few...

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Trump’s social network has 30 days to stop breaking the rules of its software license

Photo by James Devaney/GC Images

The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) says former President Donald Trump’s new social network violated a free and open-source software licensing agreement by ripping off decentralized social network Mastodon. The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) has 30 days to comply with the terms of the license before its access is terminated — forcing it to rebuild the platform or face legal action.

TMTG launched a special purpose acquisition company fundraising effort yesterday with promises to build a sweeping media empire. Its only product so far is a social network called Truth Social that appears strongly to be forked from Mastodon. While anyone can freely reuse Mastodon’s code (and groups like right-wing social network Gab have already...

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Home Alone is now a $250 Lego set, and it might be the most impressive fan-inspired model yet

Complete with treehouse zip line and traps

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New US rules on spyware exports try to limit surveillance tech like Pegasus

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The US Department of Commerce announced a new rule to prevent the sale of hacking tools to China and Russia, The Washington Post reports. The Commerce Department outlined the change in a press release on Wednesday, which requires US companies to have a license in order to sell spyware and other hacking software to countries “of national security or weapons of mass destruction concern.”

The rule is complex and purposefully so. If a US company wants to export spyware to a government that poses a national security concern, the company would need a license. But if the software is specifically for cyber defense and not sold to anyone associated with the government, no license would be needed. As The Post explains, companies will need a...

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How to customize your iPhone’s app icons

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Have you ever wanted to make your iPhone your own, with your individualized style and flair? Sure, you can change your home screen wallpaper. But if you really want to personalize your phone, why not create your own app icons?

It’s doable, using Apple’s built-in Shortcuts app. You actually won’t be replacing the icons that the apps came with — rather, you’ll be creating separate shortcuts that lead to the app. It’s a tedious and time-consuming process, but in the end, you can have a fully customized iPhone home screen.

Here’s how you do it:

• Before you begin, it’s a good idea to find an icon for your new shortcut. There are a bunch of icon sources online (Flaticon, for example), or if you’re artistic and / or ambitious, you can create...

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Vergecast: Apple and Google’s competing events this week

Photo by Becca Farsace / 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 on The Vergecast, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and senior reporter Alex Heath join Nilay and Dieter to discuss Facebook’s plan to rebrand the company with a new name, the products announced at Apple’s Unleashed event, and what happened at Google’s Pixel 6 event.

You can listen here or in your preferred podcast player for the full discussion.

• On The Verge is happening October 22nd and 23rd, and you’re invited
• Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name
• The 8 biggest announcements from Apple’s...

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