Honeywell Home’s T9 smart thermostat gets HomeKit support, finally

The Honeywell Home T9 smart thermostat will now work with Siri and Apple HomeKit. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The Honeywell Home T9, Resideo’s first consumer thermostat to support remote temperature sensors, has finally brought a long-promised feature to its users: HomeKit.

The brand, which is licensed by Resideo and spun out of Honeywell in 2018, already has support for Apple’s smart home system in its T5 thermostat, also known as Lyric T5, but that device doesn’t have external sensors. Sensors can help make sure you’re comfortable in the room you’re in, rather than just maintaining the desired temperature where the thermostat is.

As_Verge_ editor Dan Seifert wrote in his review of the Honeywell T9, its sensors are very good and able to measure humidity in addition to temperature, something neither Nest nor Ecobee’s remote sensors can do. They...

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Animal Crossing’s new turnip price tracker doesn’t tell you the most important thing

The new Turnip Tracker isn’t showing today’s price.

Nintendo quietly added a turnip price tracker for _Animal Crossing: New Horizons_to the Nintendo Switch Online app, but it’s not as useful as I was hoping. Disappointingly, the tracker doesn’t show the current turnip price on your island. Instead, it lists historical prices over the past week.

To see the tracker, which is cleverly dubbed the Turnip Tracker, you’ll need to be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber. If you are, open the Nintendo Switch Online app, tap the _Animal Crossing: New Horizons_icon, tap the “Island Newspaper” on the list of NookLink apps, and scroll down to the bottom.

Below is an image of what the tracker looks like on my iPhone 12 Mini, taken as I was writing this article. You can see it’s missing the current price...

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Yes, your Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro can be MagSafe-friendly with this Moment case

Moment has a whole ecosystem of accessories that will now work with the Pixel 6, thanks to its new M(force) case. | Moment

Your dangerously slippery Pixel 6 or 6 Pro just arrived, and you’re scrambling to find an available case that will protect your new baby. Whether you are a MagSafe-curious Pixel owner or recently ditched your iPhone for the Pixel but have some MagSafe accessories you don’t want to waste, Moment’s (M)Force case for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro could be the bridge to more platform agnostic mobile accessories.

As a mobile accessory maker, Moment embraces the idea that its ecosystem of lenses and mounts for content creators should be compatible with different phone brands and models. After all, each case is compatible with Moment’s catalog of accessories that shares the same mount design — just like the way camera lenses work with various camera...

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The FBI has put out a PSA about an interesting crypto scam

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The FBI is warning people of a new breed of scam involving cryptocurrency ATMs. A con artist convinces a person to put cash into a cryptocurrency ATM and send the purchased coins to the scammer using an address stored in a QR code (via CoinDesk). While the actual scamming is relatively low-tech, it’s an interesting misuse of technology and shows how criminals are using crypto to “improve” on old methods.

As the agency describes it, the scammer will contact their victim and somehow convince them that they need to send money, either with promises of love, further riches, or by impersonating an actual institution like a bank or utility company. After the mark is convinced, the scammer will have them get cash (sometimes out of investment or...

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Google removes its algorithmic ‘Your News Update’ from Assistant

Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge

Google has quietly removed its “Your News Update” feature from Assistant, axing the algorithmically personalized audio digest in favor of the company’s existing (and more traditional) news briefings, as spotted by 9to5Google.

Originally launched in 2019, Your News Update was an attempt at bringing the same kinds of algorithmic feeds that had been so successful on Facebook or other areas of Google’s products to audio news.

Instead of users picking their three specific new sources (like NPR, The New York Times, or CNN), Your News Update would rely on Google’s wealth of personal data to offer far more specific and relevant news updates from a broad range of partners that Google was licensing news from.

As The Verge’s Dieter Bohn pointed...

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Apple fixes bug that could cause macOS Monterey to brick Macs with a T2 security chip

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Since macOS Monterey was released, there have been several Apple users who said that installing the update bricked their computers. It was unclear what might have caused the issue until today, as Rene Ritchie reports, he has received this statement from Apple citing an issue with the firmware of its T2 security chip (via 9to5Mac).

We have identified and fixed an issue with the firmware on the Apple T2 security chip that prevented a very small number of users from booting up their Mac after updating macOS. The updated firmware is now included with the existing macOS updates. Any users impacted by this issue can contact Apple Support for assistance.

There aren’t any specifics on the models affected, possible settings or configurations that...

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Microsoft is hosting an education-focused event on November 9th

Microsoft just launched the affordable Surface Go 3, but maybe it will reveal new hardware at an education-focused event on Tuesday. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Microsoft is hosting an event next week focused on education technology. It’s taking place November 9th at 12PM ET.

Details are light, but here’s Microsoft’s description of the event:

Join us at 9 a.m. PT on Tuesday, Nov. 9, as we share an inside look at the latest tech solutions while examining gaps in learning left by the pandemic. Hear from Microsoft partners, school leaders and a few special guests, and learn about new and existing technology from Microsoft Education.

The event arrives just over a month after the company released Windows 11, its next major operating system. Perhaps the company will detail upcoming education-focused updates on the way for Windows 11.

Microsoft’s vague hint about “new and existing technology” indicates...

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Some new BMWs won't have touchscreens thanks to chip shortage

Image: BMW

BMW is dropping touchscreens from many of its new cars due to the chip shortage, according to a forum post on BimmerFest and later confirmed by the car company to Edmunds and AutoBlog. While we’ve seen other auto manufactures have to pause production or cut other features, this omission is a big deal — nowadays, touchscreens are a fairly standard feature in cars, and not having one will affect how you interact with the car almost every day.

According to the BimmerFest post, some affected vehicles (which include the 3 Series sedans, and X5, X6, and X7 SUVs / crossovers) will also lose access to the backup assistant feature as well, which automatically backs into spots for you after recording how you drove through them going forward. The...

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The US has big, new plans to pull CO2 out of the air

Collector containers at the ‘Orca’ direct air capture and storage facility, operated by Climeworks AG, in Hellisheidi, Iceland, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Startups Climeworks and Carbfix are working together to store carbon dioxide removed from the air deep underground to reverse some of the damage CO2 emissions are doing to the planet. | Arnaldur Halldorsson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Despite the efforts of delegates at this month’s climate summit in Glasgow, the world is still careening toward potentially catastrophic levels of global warming. Now, some countries and corporations are turning to new technologies to pull carbon out of the air.

Today, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a bold new plan to make those technologies, called carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, cost-effective and scalable with the launch of a new “Carbon Negative Shot” initiative. Through this initiative, the agency seeks to bring the cost of CDR down dramatically this decade — to less than $100 a ton — so that it can be deployed at a big enough scale to remove “gigatons,” or billions of tons, of carbon dioxide from the...

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Microsoft fixes Windows 11 features failing due to an expired certificate

Microsoft has fixed several Windows 11 features failing to load after an expired certificate was discovered earlier this week. Some Windows 11 users haven’t been able to open apps like the Snipping Tool, touch keyboard, or emoji panel since a certificate expired on October 31st. Microsoft warned Windows 11 users about the problems earlier this week and has now released an out-of-band update today.

The issues also affected voice typing and the getting started and tips sections of Windows 11. Microsoft started testing a patch for the problems with Beta and Release Preview testers of Windows 11 late yesterday and has now released the fix for all Windows 11 users today.

Microsoft is releasing an Out-of-band (OOB) update (KB5008295) today...

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Animal Crossing’s big update has sucked me back in

It’s been a long time since I’ve been surprised by Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I played the Nintendo Switch game regularly for the first year it was out, checking in virtually every day to see how my village was progressing. I experienced every holiday and special event and spent my evenings catching fish and tending to my gardens before bed. But, despite a handful of updates, I eventually got bored. There’s only so many sea bass you can catch before it becomes monotonous. I haven’t touched the game in eight months (as my villagers have been quick to point out), but the latest, biggest, and final update has really sucked me back into island life.

Perhaps the most surprising part of this is that I haven’t even experienced the most...

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Nintendo says its next ‘gaming system’ will release in the year 20XX

This is the OLED Switch, not Nintendo’s next console. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

The Nintendo Switch with an OLED screen isn’t even a month old, but the company is already talking about some kind of successor to its wildly popular console / handheld hybrid — although vaguely.

In a presentation to investors, Nintendo hints toward some of its plans in an extremely unspecific way. The company plans to “continue to expand its business around the core concept of creating unique integrated hardware-software products,” which I’m taking to mean that the company will (brace yourself) make more video games and video game hardware in the future.

On the slide, which you can see for yourself on page 41 here (PDF), Nintendo also has a timeline of some of its hardware efforts and specifically includes its “next gaming system”...

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Amazon Glow review: fun but unfinished

There’s a lot to like about this intergenerational calling device, but Amazon is a bit bossy

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Walmart has PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles online today at 3PM ET

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s November, and the holiday shopping season is well upon us. Early Black Friday deals have already begun, and there’s sure to be a lot more in store for us come actual Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But the hottest tickets of the season, just as they were last year, are the still-hard-to-get consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Today, we bring some good news for you. Walmart is launching a restock of Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles at 3PM ET / 12PM PT today, Friday, November 5th.

The consoles are hard enough to come by, but we don’t always get a drop of both Sony and Microsoft consoles at the same time — Walmart has been the only one doing so recently. Today’s restock will include the disc-based PlayStation 5 for $500 and its...

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EV startup Workhorse faces Department of Justice probe

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into struggling electric vehicle startup Workhorse, according to The Wall Street Journal. The probe is reportedly being led by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which often investigates financial crimes.

Workhorse is already part of an investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission that first came to light in September, when short-selling research firm Fuzzy Panda released a report accusing the EV startup of fraud. It’s the third EV startup under investigation from both agencies, following Nikola (whose founder was indicted on fraud charges earlier this year) and Lordstown Motors (which Workhorse has deep ties, too). Both of those startups came...

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Vergecast: Microsoft’s metaverse, Beats Fit Pro review, and Craig Federighi on sideloading

Image: Microsoft

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, The Verge_’s Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, Alex Cranz, and Tom Warren discuss Microsoft’s take on the metaverse at the Ignite event this past week.

In the next segment, Verge editor Chris Welch joins the show to discuss his review of the Beats Fit Pro and how they may have the AirPods Pro beat.

In segment three, the crew discusses Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi’s speech at Web Summit 2021, where he spoke out against the European Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act, which, if passed, would allow...

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Apple’s Dr. Brain is a bold, genre-bending thriller

Image: Apple

A decent Korean original series debut for the platform, helmed by a seasoned director

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Facebook sued by defunct photo app Phhhoto on antitrust grounds

Facebook sued by founders of defunct photo app Phhhoto for putting it out of business | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Defunct photo app Phhhoto is suing Meta, formerly Facebook, on antitrust grounds, claiming the social media platform feigned interest in working with it, but then copied its features and hid its name from search results, effectively driving it out of business.

Phhhoto’s technology allowed users to capture five frames “in a single point-and-shoot burst,” which could be looped into a short video (a phhhoto) to be shared either on its platform or Instagram. Sound familiar? That’s because, according to Phhhoto, Facebook copied Phhhoto’s main feature and released it on its Instagram platform as Boomerang in 2015, after blocking Phhhoto from Instagram’s API and from being pre-populated in Instagram posts.

“The actions of Facebook and...

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Lime raises over $500 million, confirms plans to take its electric scooter company public

Lime announced today that it raised $523 million in debt financing, a sign that investors are feeling more optimistic about the long-term survival of shared electric scooters in a post-pandemic world. Lime must be feeling more optimistic, too, because a spokesperson confirmed that the company plans on going public sometime in 2022.

Last September, _Insider_reported that Lime was hoping to raise up to $200 million in convertible debt from Uber and other previous investors. The scooter company was also reportedly in talks with investment bank Evercore about going public via a reverse merger with a special acquisition company, or SPAC, but _Insider_says those talks fizzled.

Now, Lime says that its most recent funding round was...

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Pfizer says its antiviral pill reduces hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Pfizer’s antiviral pill is highly effective at preventing people who catch COVID-19 from becoming seriously ill, the company said today in a press release. A clinical trial showed that the pill, which has the brand name Paxlovid, cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent for adults at high risk of developing severe disease when it was given within three days of symptoms appearing.

The company said it plans to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization “as soon as possible.”

This is the second effective anti-COVID-19 pill. The first, developed by pharmaceutical company Merck, cut risk of hospitalization and death by about half. The United Kingdom’s health agency authorized the...

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A fake press release claiming Kroger accepts crypto reached the retailer’s own webpage

Photo Illustration by Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Cryptocurrency and blockchain news presents many headlines that are hard to believe, so when a seemingly authentic press release ties a major retail outlet to second-tier crypto, it can take a moment to find out the truth. That was the case with a fake “Walmart takes Litecoin” release in September, and again this morning as PR Newswire published an illegitimate announcement claiming Kroger will start accepting Bitcoin Cash.

Because Kroger’s webpage pulls in the releases from PR Newswire, the fake release actually appeared on Kroger.com until it was removed. Kroger has been linked to cryptocurrency but does not accept it as payment. A partnership announced with Lolli late last year allowed users of that rewards program to earn small...

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The latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro is selling for its lowest price yet

The new $1,399 12.9-inch iPad Pro is selling for $1,249 instead | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you need a powerful iPad with plenty of storage and a gorgeous display, Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 512GB, Wi-Fi version of the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro for its lowest price yet. Normally $1,399, the retailer is selling it for $1,249 instead. In Dieter Bohn’s review, he deemed this the best and nicest iPad out there. Powered by Apple’s M1 processor, the 2021 iPad Pro is a speed demon and it comes with features like Thunderbolt connectivity, Wi-Fi 6 compatibility, Apple Pencil support, as well as Face ID unlocking.

As we noted yesterday, if you’re looking for something cheaper and smaller, Apple’s 2021 11-inch iPad Pro (128GB, Wi-Fi) is also on sale, selling for $699 instead of $799 at at Best Buy and Amazon.

Supply might...

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The Dune movie flushed away a chance to talk about wastewater

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures

Stillsuits reclaim more than just sweat and tears

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Code suggests Google’s folding Pixel will return to 12-megapixel camera next year

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

Google’s rumored foldable device could release next year with similar camera hardware to what older Pixel phones used prior to this year’s big Pixel 6 overhaul, _9to5Google_reports. Reports about the device first emerged this summer, at which point it was expected to launch before the end of the year. Now the device, whose codename appears to have changed from “Passport” to “Pipit,” seems to be on track for a launch in 2022.

These latest details have emerged thanks to code discovered in the Google Camera app. In particular, they suggest that the foldable will use a 12.2-megapixel IMX363 sensor for its main camera. That suggests the foldable won’t be equipped with the same 50-megapixel Samsung GN1 camera sensor Google used on this year’s P...

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Asus’s latest overkill gaming phones arrive in Europe with up to 18GB of RAM

The ROG Phone 5S Pro, which has a small display on its rear. | Image: Asus

Asus has announced pricing for the ROG Phone 5S series in Europe, following their launch in Taiwan in August. The ROG Phone 5S costs €999 for 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, while €1,099 gets you a step-up model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The top of the line 5S Pro has an excessive 18GB of RAM and the same 512GB of storage and retails for €1,299. Meanwhile in the UK, Pocket-Lint reports that the 16GB model will cost £999, and the 18GB Pro model will set you back £1,099, but there’s no mention of pricing for the 12GB model.

The ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro are functionally minor updates to the ROG Phone 5 and 5 Ultimate that Asus released earlier this year. They have a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus processor and their...

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Google Stadia will finally let you join multiplayer games without an invite

Image: Google

Google is finally allowing Stadia players to join multiplayer games without needing an invite. This basic feature is available on most console platforms and PC launchers, but it has taken Google nearly two years to add it to Stadia. A new support page confirms the feature is live in Far Cry 6_on Stadia,_ so friends can join you without you having to dig into menus and issue an invite.

Google mentions the feature is only available in “select games,” and is disabled by default. 9to5Google noticed that the feature is actually enabled by default, and we’ve confirmed it’s also been enabled on one of our Stadia accounts. The join without an invite feature is also available in the Stadia app for Android, and is available through the web version...

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US government offers $10 million bounty for information on Colonial Pipeline hackers

The Colonial Pipeline attack targeted key fuel pipelines, like these pipes seen in Canvey Island, in the UK. | Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images

In May, a ransomware attack shut down a pipeline carrying 45 percent of the fuel used on the US East Coast. The Colonial Pipeline incident led to panic buying and heightened fears about the threat posed by simple hacks to national infrastructure. Now, the US State Department is offering a bounty of up to $10 million to anyone who can supply the “identity or location” of the leaders of the group responsible — an outfit known as DarkSide.

In addition to the $10 million bounty, the state department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction “of any individual conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in a DarkSide variant ransomware incident.” What exactly that means isn’t...

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Twitter makes it easier to search tweets from specific accounts

The search button appears on the top right of a user’s profile page on iOS. | Screenshot: Twitter

Twitter has added a new search button on profile pages that makes it easier to search through tweets from a specific user. Social media consultant Matt Navarra noted that the button had started appearing for a small number of users last month, but now XDA Developers says that the feature has rolled out widely in the service’s iOS app.

Being able to limit a search to a single user’s tweets is not a new Twitter feature. You can achieve the same result by using the format “from:[Twitter handle] [search term]” in the regular Twitter search box. So, for example, if you wanted to search my (bad) tweets for every time I mentioned the word “keyboard,” you could tap the search icon in the app and enter:

from:jonporty keyboard

The new button...

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DJI releases new flagship Mavic drones — Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine

Courtesy of DJI

One of the most anticipated drone releases is finally out. Actually, it’s two drones. Today, DJI has released the Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine.

There are a few big headline features shared between both of the new drones, but let’s start with the one reserved for the $4,999 Mavic 3 Cine. The Cine model is capable of filming Apple ProRes 422 HQ footage at 5.1K up to 50FPS, and it has a built-in, but not user-replaceable, 1TB SSD.

The cheaper $2,199 Mavic 3 doesn’t come with ProRes or a built-in SSD but shares the same dual-camera system powered by a 4/3 CMOS sensor. Both drones are capable of filming in 4K at up to 120fps and capturing 20MP photos. In addition to the main 24mm lens, there is also a hybrid zoom lens capable of 28x digital...

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How Instagram and Twitter buried the hatchet

Image: Clay Banks / Unsplash

Today let’s talk about how two of the world’s most important social networks settled an ancient grudge, and what it tells us about the prospects for a more open internet as tech giants work to build a metaverse.

On Wednesday, Instagram delivered an announcement nine years in the making. Since 2012, Instagram photos shared to Twitter have appeared only as plain text links. From now on, Instagram links will include a preview of the image — just as they did before Instagram sold to Facebook, and competitive pressures and professional rivalries combined to worsen our collective user experience.

“They said it would never happen,” Instagram tweeted Wednesday. And indeed, this reversal was one that few saw coming. The path to peace involved...

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