Tempo’s simplified smart home gym uses an iPhone to track your workouts

Dock an iPhone into the Tempo Move and it’ll output workouts to a connected TV. | Image: Tempo

Tempo, the smart home gym that uses computer vision to track your workouts and offer guidance in real time, has gone on a diet. Today it’s launching the Tempo Move, a new home workout setup that ditches the original’s 42-inch touchscreen with Microsoft’s Azure Kinect sensors built in, in favor of using existing TVs combined with the sensors built into the iPhone XS / XR and up.

It means that the Tempo Move’s setup is slimmed down compared to the original Tempo Studio, but there’s still a lot of hardware here. At the center is what Tempo’s calling the “Core,” which is effectively an iPhone dock that can connect to a TV via HDMI. The kit also comes with a storage unit containing “smart weights” including plates and dumbbells. With a...

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Apple gains two big subscription podcast partners

BBC Studios on Apple Podcasts | Image: BBC

Wow, November 2nd. Can you believe it’s Christmas already?!

In all seriousness, though, we do have a lot of presents for you today. Specifically: Three! exclusive! announcements! Also, if you don’t know me yet — hey! I’m Aria, Ashley’s Hot Pod sidekick. I publish mostly on Fridays for our Insider audience, which is another great reason to subscribe over there. I’m in for Ashley today, as she traverses the depths of hell, aka moves across NYC.

Now, guided by my trusting hand, let us go! To the news!

EXCLUSIVES

BBC brings exclusive podcasts abroad

As of today, Apple has another big partner for its paid podcast channels: BBC Studios. And unlike other subscription products, which mostly offer perks like ad-free listening for existing...

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Amazon Music launches its first true podcasts feature: synced transcripts

Amazon Music

Amazon Music first put podcasts on its platform last year, and now it’s launching its first feature built around them. The service plans to roll out automatically generated, synchronized transcripts on both iOS and Android in the US starting today, meaning the transcripts will match the audio you’re hearing, and you can toggle around them to jump to specific parts of the audio. The transcripts are interactive and can be viewed full-screen or on top of the album art within the app.

For now, the transcripts are only coming to certain Amazon Music and Wondery shows, along with partner programs that have worked with Amazon on the feature, like This American Life and Crime Junkie. (The third-party launch partners include American Public...

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Zoom is testing showing ads to free users

Zoom is piloting showing ads to users on its free “Basic” tier, the company has announced in a blog post. Ads will appear on the browser page shown to users at the end of a call. Zoom says ads are being rolled out to free users in “certain countries,” though its blog post doesn’t detail exactly which these are. Users on the service’s Basic tier will only see ads if they join a meeting hosted by another Basic tier user.

Although ads won’t be shown during meetings themselves, it’s still a potentially big shift for the videoconferencing service. Zoom has typically imposed only minor restrictions on its free tier, which helped the service explode in popularity last year as people around the world adapted to working and socializing from home....

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Zillow reportedly needs to sell 7,000 houses after it bought too many

Image: Zillow

Zillow is trying to offload around $2.8 billion worth of houses onto investors after it bought them with the intent of selling them to hopeful homeowners and landlords, according to a report by Bloomberg. This follows another Bloomberg report that the real estate browsing website had to stop buying houses when it found itself with excess inventory after the company told investors it planned on ramping up its flipping business.

Some readers may be surprised that Zillow buys and sells houses, rather than just acting as a place for real estate agents to post listings — I was too when I first heard about it, but the company has actually been doing this for years through its Zillow Offers program. According to its site, the idea is that...

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Beats discontinues several products including Powerbeats, Solo Pro, and Beats EP

The Beats Solo Pro on-ear headphones are being discontinued despite being newer than models that will remain available. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

On the same day that it announced the new $200 Fit Pro earbuds, which are receiving universal praise in early reviews, Apple’s Beats brand is thinning out the rest of its product lineup.

As noticed by MacRumors, the company has quietly discontinued the Powerbeats, noise-canceling Solo Pro headphones, and entry-level Beats EP headphones. All three products are no longer available directly from Apple, and while stock may remain at third-party retailers, they’ll be gone once current inventory is sold through.

A Beats spokesperson confirmed the news, but declined to go into detail on why these specific products have gotten the axe. It’s reasonable to speculate that their sales came in well below the company’s more established hits. Clearly...

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The Chinese version of Fortnite is shutting down in mid-November

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

Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite, is shutting down the battle royale in China in mid-November (via CNET). A translated post on Fortnite’s website reveals that the “test” of the game “has come to an end.”

The post says users will no longer be able to sign up or download Fortnite starting Monday. On November 15th, Epic Games will shut down Fortnite’s servers completely and bar users from logging in. The notice thanks players for “boarding the bus” and participating in the game. Epic didn’t provide any additional information on why it decided to close out the game.

Epic Games doesn’t provide any additional information on why it decided to close out the game

However, it may have something to do with China’s new gaming restriction...

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Ecobee acquired by generator company Generac for $770 million

An Ecobee smart thermostat

Toronto-based smart home thermostat startup Ecobee is being acquired by Generac Holdings for $770 million, the companies announced Monday.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Ecobee CEO and founder Stuart Lombard told The Verge that he will stay on as CEO, and the company will operate as a subsidiary of Generac. It has no plans to move out of its Toronto office and has plans to “significantly” grow the office later this year, Lombard said.

Ecobee was founded in 2007 and has expanded from the smart thermostats it’s known for, adding a voice-controlled home security camera that doubles as a home security system to its lineup. Generac, based in Waukesha, Wisconsin, was founded in 1959 and makes backup residential...

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Chris Pratt, the voice of Mario, will also be voicing Garfield

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Chris Pratt’s next big role has been revealed: he’ll voice Garfield in a new animated film based on the famous comic strip cat, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Pratt does have big shoes (paws?) to fill, as he’ll be following Bill Murray’s take on Garfield from Garfield: The Movie and _Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties._Additional details on the new movie are light, though, and we still don’t know exactly when we’ll be able to hear Pratt as Garfield scarf down some lasagna. THR does report that Garfield creator Jim Davis will serve as an executive producer, though.

The surprising revelation that Pratt will play Garfield follows _another_huge Pratt Cast(ing): Nintendo announced in September that Pratt will voice Mario in the Mario movie...

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Tesla starts selling home charger that works with other EVs

Image: Tesla

Tesla has launched a new at-home wall charger that works with other electric vehicles, as spotted by Electrek. The new Level 2 wall charger was quietly added to the company’s online store on the same day it started allowing non-Tesla EVs to charge at Supercharger stations in the Netherlands — the first step in a much larger plan to open up access to Tesla’s charging network around the world.

The new charger uses a standard J1772 connector, not Tesla’s proprietary one, meaning it should work fine with other electric vehicles in North America. It’s competitively priced, too, at $415 (though it has to be installed by a professional electrician). Tesla says it can charge at up to 9.6kW and is designed for both indoor or outdoor...

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Apple is bringing car crash detection to the iPhone, says the Wall Street Journal

“Have you experienced an accident?” | Nilay Patel

Apple is reportedly working on a new iPhone and Apple Watch feature that detects if you’re in a car crash and dials 911 automatically. The current plan is to roll out such a feature next year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Google’s Personal Safety app on Pixel phones already includes a feature to call for help when it detects car crashes, just like connected car services in modern vehicles do, including GM’s OnStar, Subaru’s Starlink, and Fiat Chrysler’s Uconnect. Many cars on the road today are not equipped with any connectivity features, so getting crash detection on an iPhone too means more drivers can get the help they need in an accident as long as they have one in their pocket or mounted to their dash.

The rise of unsafe...

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Amazon lifts mask mandates for vaccinated warehouse employees

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is lifting its mask mandate for fully vaccinated warehouse workers in the US (via CNBC). The company reportedly sent out a notice to operations employees, stating that vaccinated workers are no longer required to wear masks starting November 2nd. Masks will still be required if state or local laws mandate them, however.

Amazon will continue to evaluate its COVID-19 safety measures

“Vaccines are universally available across the US, and vaccination rates continue to rise, which enables the ability to return to our previous mask policy,” the notice reads (via CNBC). An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to _The Verge_that the company will be lifting its mask mandates for vaccinated employees and emphasized that Amazon will continue to...

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US Treasury says stablecoins should be regulated like banks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The US Treasury Department is urging Congress to pass legislation that would require stablecoins to be issued by banks subject to federal banking laws in a new report (.pdf) from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, a panel headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

The report recommends legislation that would guard against stablecoin runs, address concerns about payment system risk, and address additional concerns about systemic risk and economic concentration of power.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency typically backed by a fiat currency like the US dollar or the Euro, though it may also be backed by a basket of investments; the “stable” part comes from how the coin is pegged to its backing. Stablecoins are used...

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Twitch’s new Animals livestream category may give you that fuzzy feeling

Twitch is giving streamers who focus on furry friends a place to group their streams with its new Animals, Aquariums, and Zoos category, which may just end up being the greatest page on the internet. The company says that the category, launched as part of its Animal Week, is meant to bring together a bunch of streams from zoos, conservation projects, and animal owners that had been spread out over the site, making it easier for people to find them.

If you’re looking for something relaxing, the category makes it pretty easy to find. As I write this, the category’s page features a New York wolf conservancy’s den livestream, video from an otter enclosure, and a stream from the Monterey Bay Aquarium that features a beautiful oceanside view...

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Facebook verified a fan page posing as Elon Musk

This is the fan page verified as Elon Musk.

A Facebook fan page for Elon Musk with 153,000 followers has been verified as the official page representing the Tesla Technoking — in violation of Facebook’s own rules.

To be clear, the page isn’t_pretending_ it’s Musk; it openly states that it’s a fan page in its About section (emphasis ours):

Musk owns a Tesla Roadster car 0001 (the first one off the production line) from Tesla Motors, a company in which he is an early investor. The Roadster is a battery electric sportscar with a 220 mile range.

This is a fanpage, uploading tweets etc from him

Here is the page’s description, which states it’s a fan page.

There are only 10 posts on the page, with the earliest dating from October 21st. One is a photo of Musk, one...

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The PS5 and Xbox Series X are now available at Walmart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you haven’t been able to secure Sony or Microsoft’s latest consoles yet, this might be your chance. Today at 3PM ET / 12PM PT, Walmart will be selling the disc-based PlayStation 5, the disc-less Digital Edition, and the Xbox Series X. It’s the kind of big restock event that’s becoming increasingly rare as we get closer to the holidays.

We originally thought that Walmart was going to just open up the floodgates and let people buy them, but shortly after the consoles went up, we noticed that Walmart has incorporated a new queueing system. If you load one of these pages, you’ll get a place in line, and you can keep browsing Walmart’s site as a timer runs down to let you purchase a console, assuming there’s still stock left.

This should...

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Google says Pixel 6 Pro ghostly display flickers will be fixed in December

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

Google says it’ll fix the ghostly screen flickering that some users have reported seeing when pressing the Pixel 6 Pro’s power button while the phone is completely powered down (via Android Central). From most reports, the flickers don’t happen when just the screen is off, like it would be if the phone was sleeping, though at least one person says that it’s happened while the phone was on and in use. Google describes the issue as occurring when the power button is pushed “with slight pressure but not enough to turn [the Pixel 6 Pro] on.”

In a support document for the issue, Google says the fix is coming in a December software update and that you can avoid it by not pressing the power button when the phone’s powered down. While that could...

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TikTok’s Fire TV app is available in the US

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is making its way to Fire TVs in the US and Canada, according to a blog post from Amazon. This comes just four months after TikTok launched a Fire TV app in the UK, France, and Germany — a TikTok representative confirmed to The Verge that the US version is the same. Once you download TikTok from the Amazon Appstore, you can open the app by simply saying, “Alexa, open TikTok.”

Unlike the existing More on TikTok Fire TV app, which limited viewing to a curated selection of videos, this newly launched app functions just like TikTok on mobile. You can sign in or create an account and begin exploring the For You, Following, and the Discover pages just as you normally would.

The app has an AutoPlay feature that allows you to play a...

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Amazon’s Project Kuiper hopes to launch first two prototype satellites in late 2022

An artistic rendering of ABL Space System’ RS1 rocket with Amazon’s prototype satellites on board | Image: ABL Space Systems

Amazon’s ambitious satellite-internet project, Project Kuiper, aims to launch its first two prototype satellites in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to an experimental launch license the company filed with the Federal Communications Commission today. Called KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2, the two prototypes are supposed to launch on an experimental new rocket called the RS1, currently being developed by startup ABL Space Systems based in El Segundo, California.

Kuiper’s goal is to launch a giant constellation of up to 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit over the next decade in order to provide low-latency broadband internet coverage to the surface below. The plan is to serve rural communities and other areas where it’s difficult to...

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Snapchat’s deal with NBCUniversal brings audio from The Office, SNL, Shrek, and more to your snaps

Photo by Snap

Snapchat’s newly signed deal with NBCUniversal will bring audio from The Office, Bridesmaids, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and more to the platform (via The Hollywood Reporter). Users can add the audio clips to their snaps — just like TikTok — and then send them to their friends.

Anyone who receives a clip with audio from an NBC title can swipe up to view more information about the content. Tapping the Play This Sound button will show users which streaming services they can use to watch the show or movie.

Ben Schwerin, Snapchat’s senior vice president of content and partnerships, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “NBCUniversal has an iconic catalog and we know Snapchatters will love adding quotes from their...

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Tesla is letting non-Tesla EVs use its Supercharger network for the first time

Tesla launched a pilot project in the Netherlands this week in which non-Tesla electric vehicles will be allowed to use its Supercharger network, representing the first time that the automaker is opening up its proprietary charging stations to EVs from other companies.

Tesla’s Supercharger network is often held up as the best possible example of an EV charging network: fast, reliable, and plentiful. But Tesla’s network is also exclusive to Tesla owners, meaning someone driving a Volkswagen or Ford EV wouldn’t be able to use it. But that’s now starting to change.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has, foryears, talked about opening up his company’s vast Supercharger network to other electric vehicles. And over this past summer, he started revealing...

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The Book of Boba Fett’s first trailer teases the spinoff fans have been waiting for

Lucasfilm Ltd.

The Book of Boba Fett just got its first trailer ahead of its debut on Disney Plus on December 29th, giving an initial look at the upcoming spinoff for the galaxy’s most infamous bounty hunter.

The spinoff has been a long time coming: Boba Fett has long been one of Star Wars’ most popular characters since his introduction (in the otherwise reviled Star Wars Holiday Special). He’s captured the imagination of fans with his action-figure-worthy costume and ice-cold demeanor in The Empire Strikes Back and_Return of the Jedi_, despite scant minutes of screentime and just four lines of dialogue across the two films.

Fett’s character was later expounded upon in subsequent Star Wars novels, an introductory backstory in the prequels, and...

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You can buy an orange Apple HomePod Mini now

Apple’s HomePod mini is now available in three new colors — orange, yellow, and blue — in addition to white and space gray. | Apple

You can now buy Apple’s HomePod Mini in new colors yellow, orange, and blue (in addition to the standard white and space gray), and the $99.99 devices are available for in-store pickup today. Apple announced the new colors at its October Unleashed event, where it unveiled its new MacBook Pro models.

It’s also where Apple announced its new Apple Music Voice subscription, a cheaper tier of its music streaming service that you access only via the Siri voice assistant, although there will be a limited app option; it arrives later this year for $4.99 per month and will work with the Mini.

The new speakers will have the HomePod mini’s tinted touch surface, fabric mesh, volume icons, and power cable, along with color-matched details. Apple’s...

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Luigi’s Mansion expansion sets join Lego’s Super Mario World collection

Photo by Lego

Just months after Luigi joined Lego’s interactive Super Mario World collection, Lego has announced three Luigi’s Mansion expansion sets that give the green-clad plumber the attention he deserves (via Engadget). With the $30 Lab and Poltergust set, you can equip Luigi with a Poltergust and use it to capture the Gold Ghost.

The $40 Mansion Entry set lets you step into a haunted mansion, where you’ll encounter Boo as you grab the Golden Bone for Polterpup. Finally, the $80 Haunt-and-Seek set offers an experience that’s just like the Luigi’s Mansion game — build and wander through a series of rotating hallways filled with ghosts and hidden gems to find.

You can attach all three sets for the ultimate ghost-hunting experience, or use each...

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Beats Fit Pro review: sporty AirPod Pros with better sound

The latest Beats earbuds are the company’s best product since the Powerbeats Pro

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Verge 10

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Beats announces Fit Pro earbuds with wing tip design and $200 price

Image: Beats

Beats today announced its latest wireless earbuds, the $199.99 Beats Fit Pro. The new product slots into the Apple-owned brand’s lineup between the Studio Buds, which were released earlier this year, and the Powerbeats Pro / Powerbeats. The Fit Pros have active noise cancellation, IPX4 water and sweat resistance, and up to seven hours of continuous playback (or 30 hours of total listening when you include case recharges).

The most noticeable thing about the new earbuds are the wing tips that are a permanent part of their design. Beats says it did a ton of research and user testing to land on the right material and level of flexibility. The wing tips are intended to help the Fit Pros stay locked in your ears no matter how strenuous your...

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How to use iPhone’s location tracking

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Your iPhone uses information from your cell service, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS to pinpoint its location, and since you almost always have your phone on you, your location as well. That information can be useful for a lot of things, such as letting others know where you are or finding your phone when it’s lost. Other times, it’s just more data that services and companies collect about you, creating privacy concerns.

The good news is you can tighten your controls so that apps are only accessing your location when it’s necessary.

Toggling your location settings can differ from phone to phone, depending on what model of iPhone you have and what version of iOS it’s running. The following directions were tested on an iPhone 11 running iOS 15;...

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Google’s Nest Audio speaker is almost half off this week

Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge

November 1st has brought on a huge wave of great tech deals, perhaps as a sign of even greater things to come later in the month with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Google has marked down many of its latest Nest smart home and audio devices to their all-time low prices, and generally, good deals can be had on a multitude of devices from other companies, including Eero, Sony, and more.

The most eye-popping deal of the day is on Google’s Nest Audio smart speaker. This cloth-covered device is Google’s latest model, and normally it costs $99.99. We’ve seen it drop by around $20 before, but this week’s $40 price drop is unprecedented. At $60, it outperforms other smart speakers in that price range, which normally includes devices like...

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Illustrator Micha Huigen on creating a multifaceted collage for The Verge’s 10th anniversary

Illustration by Micha Huigen

_The Verg_e is turning 10, and a look back at the last decade’s worth of stories provides not just an encapsulation of what _The Verge_has covered but also a snapshot of how quickly the tech that informs our lives transforms. And since we’re _The Verg_e, we can’t just look behind us. Celebrating the last 10 years is also about examining what might come next. Micha Huigen is the perfect artist to distill this intersection into a single image because Micha’s images never actually confine themselves to one space. His surreal illustrations function like scenescapes within which we get to explore close-ups of tiny modular worlds and expansive reimagined realities at once. Though he inks and colors digitally, his art maintains an analog quality,...

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