The Verge
Podcasts always had instrumental music — now some have singing, too
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
It ain’t over ‘til the podcaster sings
The VergeThe VergeGoogle Maps on iOS now has a dark mode, here’s how to enable it
Google Maps’ dark mode on iOS. | Image: Google
In August, Google announced its iOS Maps app would soon be getting a dark mode. But although the feature fully launched at the beginning of September, it arrived quietly enough that several Verge staffers hadn’t even noticed its appearance until we started receiving in-app notices. If you’ve also been in the dark, rather than the dark mode (sorry), here’s how to enable the feature.
From the main Google Maps interface on iOS, tap your profile picture in the top right of the screen. Pick “Settings” from the menu, then select “Dark Mode” from the Using Maps section. Here you have three options: On, Off, and “Same as device setting” (which automatically turns dark mode on or off depending on what you have enabled at the OS level).
If...
The VergeYelp will soon have a scrolling feed of local restaurant pics
Image: Yelp
Yelp is joining almost every other site on the internet by giving you a feed to scroll through until you can’t scroll no more. Yelp says this feature will be showing up on its users’ homepages in almost 150 US metro areas starting today, and that the feed will feature “visual content from local restaurants,” including photos from other Yelpers, posts from restaurant owners, and some popular dishes being served in your area.
Yelp says in its press release that a few things could happen when you tap on one of the posts in the feed. If the post is a picture of a popular dish (which are meals that pop up a lot in the restaurant’s reviews), you’ll see more photos of it, along with some reviews so you can tell if it’s really as good as it...
The VergeNetflix tests a TikTok-style feed for kids
Kids Clips uses a landscape interface to show content. | Source: Netflix
This week, Netflix’s iOS app is starting a test of a new feed for kids that’s designed to show short clips taken from its library of children’s content, Bloomberg News reports. The “Kids Clips” feature uses a similar interface to TikTok or Instagram Reels in an attempt to surface child-friendly content. But while competing services are primarily formatted for viewing in portrait, Kids Clips’ videos are designed to be viewed in landscape.
Kids Clips joins a similar feature Netflix launched to promote its comedy content earlier this year called “Fast Laughs.” Both features have a similar aim: to promote Netflix’s content using short clips similar to what users are already watching on social media. A screenshot of the Kids Clips interface...
The VergeWhy Niantic is a dark horse in the metaverse wars
Niantic
Today let’s talk about a concept that we can all agree is well defined and no one is yet sick of talking about: the metaverse.
OK, maybe you are a little tired of hearing about it. For a company often accused of being unable to do anything but copy, Facebook-now-Meta’s announcement this summer that it would pivot to the metaverse has already inspired a remarkable number of clones. As David Pierce notes at Protocol today, the tech world has recently announced “a fashion metaverse, an industrial metaverse, an entertainment metaverse, a gaming metaverse, [and] a shark metaverse.” (He forgot Match Group’s forthcoming dating metaverse, though in fairness I’m trying to forget it too.)
But as oppressive as this wave of announcements can feel,...
The VergeNvidia wants to fill the virtual and physical worlds with AI avatars
Nvidia has announced a new platform for creating virtual agents named Omniverse Avatar. The platform combines a number of discrete technologies — including speech recognition, synthetic speech, facial tracking, and 3D avatar animation — which Nvidia says can be used to power a range of virtual agents.
In a presentation at the company’s annual GTC conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang showed off a few demos using Omniverse Avatar tech. In one, a cute animated character in a digital kiosk talks a couple through the menu at a fast food restaurant, answering questions like which items are vegetarian. The character uses facial-tracking technology to maintain eye-contact with the customers and respond to their facial expressions. “This will be...
The VergeSpaceX successfully brings crew of four home from the International Space Station
A nighttime view of the Crew Dragon capsule just before splashdown | Image: NASA
A crew of four astronauts successfully returned to Earth this evening, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Pensacola inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Their arrival back on the planet brings an end to a more than six-month-long stay aboard the International Space Station, and it paves the way for another crew of four to launch to the ISS in the coming week.
The crew includes two NASA astronauts, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency. The group launched to the space station on April 23rd atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, part of a mission called Crew-2.
Their flight marks the...
The VergeValve says supporting the Steam Deck with BattlEye anti-cheat is as easy as an email
Image: Valve
We knew from the beginning that Valve’s upcoming $400 Steam Deck handheld wouldn’t play every Steam game perfectly out of the box. It runs Windows games on Linux using the Proton compatibility layer, and some of the biggest games on Steam use anti-cheat software that, historically, hasn’t worked with Proton. But on Friday, Valve revealed that this should no longer be a problem for BattlEye, one of the biggest anti-cheat vendors out there.
“BattlEye on Proton integration has reached a point where all a developer needs to do is reach out BattlEye to enable it for their title. No additional work is required by the developer besides that communication,” writes Valve, adding that Mount & Blade II Bannerlord and _Ark: Survival Evolved_are...
The VergeGoogle’s Pet Portraits lets you find art look-alikes for your furry friend
Image: Google
Google has announced an exciting new feature for its Arts and Culture app: the ability to search through thousands of paintings to find a look-alike for your pet. The company says its “Pet Portraits” feature will let you take a picture of a dog, cat, fish, bird, reptile, horse, or rabbit, and have a machine learning algorithm find pieces of art that feature a similar-looking animal. The process only takes a few seconds, and as a bonus you’ll be able to tap on the pieces of artwork to learn more about them. You can even save a video slideshow of your results.
I tried out Pet Portraits on my cat, Aslan, and the results were mixed — while the app was able to generate a beautiful (okay, mostly tan) color palette based on his fur, most of the...
The VergeAMC boss says company is exploring how to accept Shiba Inu along with other crypto
Image: The Verge
AMC boss Adam Aron said today that the theater chain is exploring how it can accept Shiba Inu in addition to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin. In addition, AMC is evidently exploring its own cryptocurrency, which would truly cement the company as king of the memestocks.
That AMC appears to be flirting with the idea of accepting (another) meme currency in exchange for actual goods and services isn’t entirely surprising. AMC was effectively rescued midway through the pandemic by meme stock Reddit traders, and Aron has been leaning heavily into the company’s relationship with these shareholders ever since. Hearing about AMC’s crypto ambitions has not only come to be expected during the company’s meetings with shareholders,...
The VergeAn alleged member of the REvil ransomware gang has been arrested in Poland
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Justice Department has announced the arrest and indictment of an alleged member of the REvil hacking group, linked to ransomware attacks on IT firm Kaseya, an Apple supplier, and more. According to the department, Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi is facing extradition to the US after Polish authorities detained him in October and after the US indicted him for cybercrimes in August, as revealed by a now-unsealed court document. The arrest, along with the government seizing assets it says are linked to REvil’s operations, is another step in the fight against ransomware, which has been a growing issue for US-based companies.
The DOJ also says it has seized $6.1 million in assets from the FTX crypto trading exchange, allegedly...
The VergeA pair of PS5 hacks could be the first steps towards jailbreaking Sony’s latest console
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Hackers may have just made some big strides towards possibly jailbreaking the PlayStation 5 over the weekend, with the hacking group Fail0verflow claiming to have managed to obtain PS5 root keys allowing them to decrypt the console’s firmware.
Additionally, Andy Nguyen (a security engineer at Google who’s better known under his handle, theflow0) managed to access the PS5’s debug settings menu on a retail PS5 over the weekend, too. Both exploits were spotted by Wololo.net.
Another one bites the dust pic.twitter.com/Y1ty93AvaE
— fail0verflow (@fail0verflow) November 8, 2021
The two exploits are particularly notable due to the level of access they theoretically give to the PS5’s software. Decrypted firmware — which is possible...
The VergeYou’ll be able to pay for Amazon purchases with Venmo starting in 2022
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
If you want to buy anything on Amazon.com, you’ll generally need a credit or debit card — but in 2022, the online retailer will begin accepting Venmo as well. Venmo parent company PayPal announced the news (via GeekWire) during its Q3 earnings call on Monday.
We’re pretty sure that’s the first third-party payments platform Amazon has embraced in recent memory. You can’t use PayPal itself to buy things on Amazon! (Here’s a list of the payment methods Amazon does accept as of today). You might cite Amazon’s recent buy-now, pay-later partnership with Affirm, but that still requires credit. Venmo, by comparison, acts more like a bank account for some mobile users, complete with a (sometimes expensive) check-cashing feature.
Details on the...
The VergeVirgin Galactic sells 100 tickets to space at higher price after reopening sales
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Space tourism venture Virgin Galactic says that 100 people purchased more expensive tickets to fly on the company’s suborbital spaceplane after it reopened ticket sales this August. That means that the company has roughly 700 ticket holders now for quick tourist trips to space, about 300 less than the 1,000 tickets Virgin Galactic is hoping to sell ahead of starting commercial flights of its vehicles. The company announced the news during its third-quarter earnings release out on Monday.
Virgin Galactic reopened ticket sales just a month after the company successfully flew its founder, billionaire Richard Branson, to the edge of space and back on the company’s primary spaceplane, called VSS Unity,in July. Taking off from Spaceport...
The VergeRobinhood says a hacker who tried to extort the company got access to data for 7 million customers
Robinhood says more than 7 million customers affected by ‘data security incident’ | Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge
Trading platform Robinhood said Monday that personal information for more than 7 million customers was accessed during a data breach on November 3rd. The company said in a news release that it does not appear that Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or debit card numbers were exposed, and no customers have had “financial loss” due to the incident.
An unauthorized third party “socially engineered a customer support employee by phone,” Robinhood said, and was able to access its customer support systems. The attacker was able to get a list of email addresses for approximately 5 million people and full names for a separate group of 2 million people. For a smaller group of about 310 people, additional personal information,...
The VergeFinal Fantasy XIV Endwalker expansion delayed two weeks
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker has been delayed for two weeks, arriving December 7th instead of November 23rd. In a blog post, game director Naoki Yoshida says the delay was to ensure adequate quality assurance testing in the final days of development.
Yoshida says the decision to delay the game arose from a desire to ensure Endwalker’s story was something that befit 11 years of_Final Fantasy XIV_’s epic storytelling.
“We remained firmly resolved to adjust down to the smallest nuances and ensure our writing covers even the finest points of the vast and intricate story that has spanned these past 11 years since the original FFXIV to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy their adventure in Endwalker,” Yoshida writes. However, the time it took...
The VergeGoogle’s parent company briefly hits $2 trillion valuation
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, briefly hit a market cap of $2 trillion. The tech behemoth’s market cap is currently at a comfortable $1.98 trillion, but crept over the $2 trillion mark midday Monday, later closing out at $2,987.03 per share. Alphabet’s market cap has just about doubled from $1 trillion since January 2020.
In the third quarter of 2021, Alphabet had a record quarter, earning a hefty $65.1 billion. The company reported that its revenue soared by 41 percent, while its profits jumped by almost 69 percent. Google Search saw a slight increase in profit, climbing to $37.9 billion from $35.8 billion in the previous quarter. YouTube, another Alphabet company, earned $7.2 billion in the most recent quarter.
Throughout the...
The VergeApple will accept app updates during the holidays in a break from tradition
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple will continue to accept App Store app submissions through the holidays, marking a shift from the company’s approach in the past. Typically, Apple doesn’t let developers make submissions through the App Store Connect portal for a few days around Christmas, meaning that they would have to rush to release apps or updates ahead of when many people receive new Apple devices or gift cards as holiday presents. With this change, it seems as if the App Store will hum along largely like you’re used to this holiday season.
However, Apple is already suggesting that developers try to stay ahead of things during one of the busiest times of the year. “Due to anticipated high volume, plan to send time-sensitive submissions early,” Apple said in a s...
The VergeControversial Bitcoin tax provision passes Congress with infrastructure bill
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
On Friday, Congress passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden for his signature. But while the measure makes historic investments in roads and bridges, it also maintains a controversial new cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement that the Treasury Department could apply to miners.
Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires brokers to report trader information on transactions of more than $10,000 to the IRS. The provision was added to the Senate version of the bill in late July after the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would offset $28 billion of infrastructure costs over the next decade.
The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would offset $28...
The VergeHow Bezos’ latest plan to protect forests could backfire
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc., speaks during the Action on Forests and Land Use session at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, U.K., on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. | Robert Perry/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jeff Bezos’ $2 billion plan, announced last week, to plant trees and restore landscapes across Africa and the US has already raised red flags for some conservation experts and activists. Last year, after he pledged $10 billion to fight climate change, activists in the US called him out for not doing enough to cut down Amazon’s pollution or work with local communities while crafting his environmental plans. This time, he’s facing similar criticisms on a global scale.
The Bezos Earth Fund announced its latest round of funding on November 1 during a high-profile United Nations climate summit taking place in Glasgow. There aren’t many details out yet, but the fund says it will funnel $1 billion towards planting trees and “revitalizing”...
The VergePeloton finally adds a pause button for its on-demand classes on its bikes
Peloton has announced that it’s finally added a pause button for its on-demand classes for its Bike and Bike Plus devices, allowing users to temporarily pause workouts in the middle of a class and then resume them.
It’s a feature that bewilderingly hasn’t been available until today — and, technically, still isn’t even available on all of Peloton’s products, as the pause button is only rolling out to its cycling bikes for now. The Tread treadmill is set to get a similar update sometime “in the future” — but for now, you’ll have to do your runs all at once.
While it’s easy to joke at Peloton’s expense for the outsized deal the company is making over adding so small a feature, it is worth noting that adding a pause button to Peloton...
The VergeRivian will start selling electric vans to non-Amazon companies in 2023
Image: Rivian
Rivian says it will start taking orders for its electric delivery vans in 2022 and will deliver them to fleet customers in “early 2023,” calling into question the status of Amazon’s exclusive rights to the vehicle.
The buzzy EV startup — which is slated to go public this week at a valuation of $50 billion or higher — quietly announced the details about its fleet sales plans in a new section of its website that went live Friday afternoon. It also said it will sell fleet versions of its R1T electric pickup truck and R1S electric SUV, meaning it will compete with Ford’s commercial version of the F-150 Lightning, as well as a fleet management platform called FleetOS and a charging infrastructure solution.
Electric vans, plus fleet versions...
The VergeFortnite halts sale of Travis Scott emote days after concert tragedy
The “Out West” emote, which features audio of the Travis Scott song “Out West,” has been removed from the Fortnite Item Shop. In fact, the entire section of _Fortnite’s_Item Shop that housed the dance emote is gone. According to a report from Eurogamer, the “Daily” section of the Item Shop has disappeared with no explanation, and Epic declined to comment to The Verge.
It’s known that the "Daily" section of the Item Shop has been disabled. This is intentional and the "Daily" section will return with the next Item Shop refresh. pic.twitter.com/rc6Kqh7qoW
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) November 8, 2021
The emote was apparently on sale to coincide with Scott’s music festival Astroworld, which ended prematurely when eight people died...
The VergeFord is already sold out of its electric crate motor but won’t say how many
Days after Ford started selling its first-ever electric crate motor, it already sold out (via Ford Authority). Ford just isn’t saying how many were sold.
Ford caught the attention of EV and Ford enthusiasts alike when it showcased the Eluminator in an all-electric 1978 F-100. The $3,900 crate motor is the same one that powers the Mustang Mach-E GT, sporting 480 horsepower with 634 pound-feet of torque. Batteries and other components aren’t included with the motor, although Ford plans on making those parts available individually.
“Demand has exceeded expectations,” a Ford spokesperson told The Verge. At this point, it remains unclear how e-crate motors were sold or if those numbers surpassed the typical sales for Ford’s gasoline-powered...
The VergeNiantic launches platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps
Niantic
Niantic is releasing a platform for building what it calls “real-world metaverse” apps. Called Lightship, the platform is “built around the parts necessary to stitch together the digital and the real world,” CEO John Hanke tells me.
According to Hanke, Lightship will let mobile apps identify whether a user’s camera is pointed at the sky or water, map the surfaces and depth of an environment in real time, or place a virtual object behind a physical one.
Niantic is best known for creating one of the most successful mobile games ever, Pokémon Go_._With Lightship, Hanke says the company is “opening the vault of tech that we’ve been using to build our products” to help others build “planet-scale AR apps.”
Lightship has been in development for...
The VergeBuy two games and get one free at Target or Amazon
Clear off some room on your bookshelf because Target and Amazon are having a “buy two, get one free” sale on video games. This sale is unfortunately restricted to physical copies but includes new titles like Call of Duty: Vanguard and Guardians of the Galaxy. While we’re definitely here for the video games, it’s worth mentioning that this deal includes tons of classic and contemporary board games as well, like Exploding Kittens, Animal Crossing Monopoly, and Sushi Go!. If you’re looking to fill out your game collection, we’ve linked to the landing pages for both retailers below.
“Buy two, get one free” video games: Amazon
“Buy two, get one free” video games: Target
The HyperX Cloud II Wireless is one of the best gaming headsets for...
The VergeThe Israeli army is using facial recognition to track Palestinians, former soldiers reveal
The Israeli military has deployed an extensive facial recognition program to track Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a new report by The Washington Post.
Former Israeli soldiers told the Post about a smartphone technology called “Blue Wolf,” which takes photos of Palestinians and stores them in a large-scale database. Once an image is captured, Blue Wolf matches that picture to a person in its database, and as the_Post_ describes, soldiers’ phones will then flash a specific color that signifies if that individual should be arrested, detained, or left undisturbed.
“People worry about fingerprinting, but this is that several times over”
The_Post_ notes that the Israeli army has been filling up the database with...
The VergeFully’s standing desks, chairs, and more are discounted ahead of Black Friday
Photo by Jay Peters / The Verge
There are countless brands that make standing desks, but Fully makes some of the best. And now through November 30th, the day after Cyber Monday, you can get 15 percent off every item available on its online store. That includes its Jarvis standing desks and handy accessories you might want with one, like a monitor arm, powered grommet covers that give you extra plugs and USB charging ports, and more. These deals don’t completely change that these are still pricey products, but if you have a home office, you stand to level up a few rungs on the ergonomic ladder by taking advantage of these deals.
If you’re looking for a real wood tabletop for your desk instead of less durable MDF material, the Jarvis standing desk with a bamboo top...
The VergeApple macOS 12 Monterey review: the best is yet to come
It’s fine, but Apple has unfinished business
The VergeSecurity software company McAfee acquired for $14 billion
McAfee has been acquired for $14 billion | Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Security software company McAfee is going private via a buyout from an investor group in a deal valued at more than $14 billion, the company announced Monday. Bloomberg first reported last week that a likely deal was imminent.
McAfee was founded in 1987 by John McAfee and became known for its computer antivirus software. McAfee, the founder, left McAfee, the company, in 1994, and the company was acquired by Intel in 2010 for $7.68 billion. In 2014, Intel announced it was phasing out the McAfee brand name for the security software and rebranding it as “Intel Security.”
Last October, the company returned to the public stock market. McAfee said in the announcement that it will continue as a “pure-play consumer cybersecurity” company after...