Apple’s unexciting 2021 Mac and iPhone software prove it should take a break from annual OS updates

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Apple’s fall software updates, iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, are officially out in the world for everyone. But Apple’s latest software has arrived with more of a whimper than a bang; the two updates aren’t so much bad as they are boring. Which has me wondering: why is Apple still clinging to its annual release schedule at all?

There are two problems that Apple’s annual cadence causes. The first, as is the case this year, is that iOS and macOS are increasingly mature operating systems with fewer issues to fix or missing features to add. Which, in turn, means that there are fewer opportunities for sweeping upgrades like there were in the early days when the iPhone getting copy and paste support was headline news. Short of Apple changing its...

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Microsoft is emailing out 50,000 Microsoft Store gift cards for the holiday season

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Double-check your inbox and your spam folder because Microsoft might have left something in there for you. Earlier this week, a few people noticed gift cards for the Microsoft Store suddenly appearing via email, and the company has confirmed it sent out 50,000 of the codes to US customers.

Per a Microsoft spokesperson:

To help spread holiday cheer, Microsoft Store has surprised a total of 50,000 U.S. customers with virtual gift cards via email. 25,000 customers will receive a $100 Microsoft Gift Card while 25,000 others will receive a $10 Microsoft Gift Card ahead of this holiday season. These randomly selected recipients can redeem their gift card on Microsoft Store through December 31, 2021 and spend it within 90 days of redemption.

If...

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Ten top weather apps for Android phones

Photo by Eduardo Sanz / Europa Press via Getty Images

One of the more popular uses for phones (besides taking photos and watching TikTok videos) is to check out the weather. As a result, there are myriad weather apps out there, making it really hard to pick which one to use. So we’ve put together this guide to what we think are some of the better ones out there.

With the exception of one that used to be very well-liked: Dark Sky. Back in March 2020, Dark Sky was acquired by Apple and almost immediately removed from the Google Play app store. Originally, the Dark Sky API was going to be pulled as well — leaving a lot of third-party apps desperately looking for a substitute — but that’s been put off until at least the end of 2022. (By the way, if you use the iOS version of Dark Sky, that’s...

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Spotify is acquiring an audiobook company

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify has announced plans to acquire the audiobook services and distribution company Findaway for an undisclosed price. The company operates multiple businesses, including distributing audiobooks to various platforms and offering audiobook creation services under its business Findaway Voices. The company pairs authors with narrators, which could become a new and valuable source of revenue for Spotify.

It also makes Spotify both a commercial bookseller and a publisher of audiobooks, a title the company has been hesitant to accept for its podcasting efforts.

“With this acquisition, we’re going to be able to accelerate the addition of an audiobook catalog onto the platform so that users can effectively get all of the audio content that...

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Apple Pay seems buggy with external Magic Keyboard Touch ID

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Publications like 9to5Mac and Macworld have reported some odd behavior when trying to use Apple’s Magic Keyboard with Touch ID to authenticate for Apple Pay — specifically, that it won’t work if you’re trying to do it with a MacBook that has its display closed, as it would be while running it in “clamshell mode” hooked up to an external monitor.

Obviously, when the MacBook’s lid is closed, you can’t use the built-in Touch ID sensor, so it’s easy to see how this limitation was put in place. But in a world where Apple sells an external keyboard with the sensor (starting at an eye-watering $150), the limitation is so awkward that it feels like a bug. That’s especially true given that the keyboard’s Touch ID functionality only works with...

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You can watch Valve’s Steam Deck developer event at 1PM ET Friday, even if you’re not a dev

We’ve known for a little while that Valve is giving developers a huge five-hour tour of its upcoming Steam Deck gaming handheld on Friday, November 12th starting at 1PM ET. Now, we’re learning you can come watch even if you’re not a developer — Valve is telling press that “anyone can watch the event.”

The five-hour virtual conference will include discussions of the hardware; games that will appear “on Deck”; how the Linux handheld can play Windows games via a Proton compatibility layer; a deep dive on the AMD APU that powers it by AMD itself; and of course tips for Steam developers on how to make those things work in their favor.

It’s free to watch

The initial announcement made it seem like you had to be a Steamworks developer “to...

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I just bought a $329 Nvidia RTX 3060 for $329, and all I had to do was wait nine months in line

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Nearly nine months ago, Nvidia said it would launch its most affordable RTX 3000 graphics card yet — the $329 RTX 3060. Good luck actually finding one at that price, right? That’s why I subtitled my review “$329 with an asterisk sign.” And sure enough, they were nigh-impossible to find on launch day for Nvidia’s sticker price.

But that same day, February 25th, I signed up for EVGA’s graphics card waiting queue on a whim. And after waiting in that queue for so long that I completely forgot I ever signed up, I got a surprise. On Monday, I received an email from EVGA letting me know I could actually purchase that $329 card for $329.

So I did. Yesterday afternoon, a brand-new RTX 3060 arrived for $379.41 after tax and shipping. That’s a...

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

When it comes to smart speakers, Amazon has a slew of voice-enabled Echo devices to choose from, one for practically every occasion. Maybe you want to add Alexa to a room, for example, or you’re looking for an Echo device that will allow you to easily manage your lighting or other smart home products. Regardless of the reason, this is one of the best times of the year to pick up an Echo device, especially as early Black Friday deals begin to ramp in preparation for the main event.

Below, we’ve curated a list of some of the very best Amazon Echo deals available right now. Be sure to keep an eye on our Black Friday hub as well, which will continue to highlight the latest Black Friday news, tip, and deals through the end of November.

The...

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DJI Mavic 3 review: a pricey drone that performs

The Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine are incredible photo and video tools — for a price

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SpaceX’s Starlink reveals new smaller, rectangular user dish to connect to satellites

SpaceX’s internet-from-space initiative Starlink has unveiled a new rectangular dish that interested customers can buy to tap into the company’s growing satellite constellation in low Earth orbit. It’s a thinner and lighter weight option than the circular dish that Starlink beta users have been testing over the last year.

Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite internet project, which aims to launch nearly 12,000 satellites into low Earth orbit where they can provide broadband internet coverage to people on the ground — notably those in remote and rural areas where traditional internet infrastructure is lacking. With so many satellites in low orbit at once, the idea is to have at least one satellite in view over every patch of the Earth,...

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Panic’s Playdate handheld delayed to early 2022

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Panic has delayed the first shipments of its Playdate handheld, which is kind of like a Game Boy but with a crank, to early 2022. The company said that initial units shipped with batteries that didn’t work as expected, forcing it to send the units back to Malaysia to get new batteries.

Panic also said that it has been affected by the global chip shortage in a significant way. Additional supply of the Playdate’s current CPU won’t be available for two years, according to Panic. To get around that, Playdate units coming later in 2022 will have a revised main board that uses a more readily available CPU.

If you preordered a Playdate, you should be receiving an email that says when your Playdate is now estimated to ship. Orders have now...

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Amazon will let you easily share clips from its Prime Video content

Image: Amazon

Amazon has announced that it’ll let you easily share video clips showing up to 30 seconds of some of its Prime Video content, right from the iOS app. The feature will only be available for a very limited number of shows initially, but letting users share video from shows is a very different attitude than the one displayed by some other streaming providers.

According to Amazon’s press release, its video-sharing feature will be available on iOS devices. When you’re watching a show, the Share Clip button will show up alongside the rest of your controls. Tapping it will create a 30-second video clip, which you can then fine-tune to make sure it contains the part of the show you’re trying to share. From there, you can share it using iOS’s...

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MoviePass’ co-founder has bought back the company and wants to relaunch it next year

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

MoviePass might be making a comeback soon, after Stacy Spikes (one of the service’s original co-founders) successfully bought back the company out of bankruptcy earlier this week, according to a report from Insider. Spikes is hoping to relaunch the company sometime next year, although there are few details on that yet.

“I can confirm that we acquired MoviePass out of bankruptcy on Wednesday,” Spikes commented in a statement to Insider. “We are thrilled to have it back and are exploring the possibility of relaunching soon. Our pursuit to reclaim the brand was encouraged by the continued interest from the moviegoing community. We believe, if done properly, theatrical subscription can play an instrumental role in lifting moviegoing...

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Twitch is now on the Switch

A screenshot of Twitch on the Nintendo Switch. | Image: Twitch

There’s now a Twitch app for the Nintendo Switch. It’s a free download that’s available now on the eShop.

The app is pretty straightforward. There’s a Home tab with recommended streams for you to watch, a Browse tab to look for streams by game or category, and a Search tab. I checked out a couple streams, and they looked great, especially on the Switch OLED’s screen. The app is only for watching streams; you can’t use it to stream your gameplay.

Image: Twitch

Nintendo’s profile on the Nintendo Switch Twitch app.

The Switch Twitch experience is somewhat more limited than what you might be used to from the Twitch website or app. One big change is that you can’t see a stream’s chat on your Switch’s screen or a TV...

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Russian “King of Fraud” sentenced to 10 years in prison for Methbot digital ad scheme

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Russian man convicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges for his role in the Methbot digital advertising scheme was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday.

The Department of Justice said between September 2014 and December 2016, Aleksandr Zhukov, 41, and several co-conspirators made deals with ad networks to place online ads but used a bot farm and rented servers to simulate users visiting spoofed versions of websites like the New York Times and the New York Daily News. The ads were never shown to human users, but Zhukov raked in $7 million running the fake traffic scam (which became known as “Methbot,” after the name of his phony ad network Media Methane), according to the DOJ.

“Sitting at his computer keyboard in...

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The PS5 is available now at Best Buy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you still haven’t been able to land one of Sony’s next-gen consoles, Best Buy is giving you another shot right now. The $499.99 PS5 with a disc drive and the $399.99 digital edition are available.

Unlike some of Best Buy’s console restocks, this one is available to the general public online and not just for its TotalTech subscribers. Restocks like these may happen more frequently as we get closer to Black Friday. Still, we recommend heading to the link of choosing as quickly as possible to hop in the queue.

A few must-haves for PS5 owners

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Discord CEO says the company won’t add a crypto wallet — for now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Monday, Discord CEO Jason Citron struck fear (or joy) into the hearts of Discord fans by tweeting a screenshot of what appeared to be crypto wallets in the app, but Wednesday evening, he said the company doesn’t actually plan to ship what he was showing off.

“Thanks for all the perspectives everyone,” Citron said. “We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we’re focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems we need to work through at our scale. More soon.” Discord told The Verge this week that the image was from an internal hackfest.

Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we're focused on...

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GM is building a prototype for the US military based on the Hummer EV

Image: General Motors

The Hummer has been resurrected as an electric vehicle, and now its military counterpart may be as well. General Motors is making a prototype vehicle for the US military that is based on the forthcoming Hummer EV in 2022, CNBC reports.

The so-called “electric Light Reconnaissance Vehicle,” or eLRV, will use modified versions of the Hummer EV’s frame, electric motors, and GM’s new Ultium battery pack, though it may not look exactly like the consumer version.

GM resurrected its defense unit in 2017 and said last year that it believes there’s a $25 billion market for creating new vehicles for the military, including EVs. It has already nabbed a $214 million contract to build infantry squad vehicles for the Army, including one version that...

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Patreon’s building native video hosting for creators to sidestep YouTube

Image: Patreon

Patreon is building a video hosting solution and native player. CEO Jack Conte confirmed the project to The Verge, alongside news that he is joining many executives before him in launching a podcast called The Creator Economy.

“We already host podcasts, and now we’re starting to host video, as well,” he says. “We’re building a video product ... So in terms of how we’ve approached our strategy, and what exactly it is that we’re building, we’re building the horizontal architecture for any creator, no matter their medium, or no matter the upload format, to be able to build a business around their work.”

Conte didn’t share more details on the product, but it’s presumably a way for creators to host and share video without leaving the...

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Now Dollar General will do same-day deliveries via DoorDash

Image: Dollar General

Besides its European expansion, DoorDash is reaching into new areas within the United States via an expanded partnership with Dollar General that’s already available via 9,000 locations. Gig economy services initially proliferated in urban areas, using venture capital money to push the convenience of getting everything from cold medicine to a single candy bar hand-delivered within the hour. However, if you don’t live around tall buildings, the services become fewer and farther between, and so do the shops that work with them.

Now the two promise same-day delivery with no time slot or minimum order size required. A pilot program started this summer with 600 Dollar General locations, and a press release states that more than 10,000 will...

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Apple’s second-gen AirPods are back down to their lowest price ever

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Grab the second-gen Apple AirPods at Walmart for just $89, matching the lowest price we’ve seen for these earbuds. This model normally costs around $120 and doesn’t include the wireless charging case. This model of the ubiquitous white earbuds wasn’t a big step forward compared to the first iteration, but our reviewer was still happy with their wireless performance and overall reliability.

A pair of Samsung’s best QLED TVs have been marked down at Amazon and Best Buy as part of their early Black Friday deals. QLED TVs aren’t quite as feature-packed as competing OLED models, but they come closer to reaching parity with their brightness and contrast ratios than cheaper LED TVs. The 65-inch QN90A from Samsung is currently marked down to...

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Subaru reveals the Solterra SUV, its first electric vehicle

Here’s our first good look at the 2022 Subaru Solterra, the Japanese automaker’s first electric vehicle. Coming to the US, Canada, and Europe in 2022, the Solterra SUV will be powered by an electric vehicle platform that Subaru has been co-developing with Toyota.

The Solterra will come in both front-wheel and all-wheel drive variants, with either a 150kW (201 horsepower) AC synchronous motor driving just the front wheels or a pair of 80kW (107 hp) motors, one powering each axle, for a total output of 160kW (214hp).

Both models sport a 71.4kWh battery beneath the floor of the vehicle, which Subaru estimates will supply approximately 530km (329 miles) of range based on the WLTC standard in Japan. (The EPA rating in the US is likely to be...

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Rivian’s mega IPO is a good test of the meme stock craze

‘Lmaoooo 80B do they think we’re fucking stupid?’

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Lord of the Rings keycap sets will transport your keyboard to Middle-earth

The Elvish Tengwar keycaps | Image: Drop

It began with the forging of the Great Keyboards. Sixty-eight keys were given to the 65 percent designs, smallest and most compact of all decks. Eighty-four keys to the 75 percent designs, great typists and gamers of the digital halls. And 108 keys were gifted to the race of full-size keyboard users, who above all else desire power. For within these keyboards was bound the strength and the will to govern any device.

But they were all of them deceived, for another keyboard was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Jony Ive forged a master keyboard, and into this butterfly keyboard he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. — excerpt, The Lord of the Keys

The Lord of the...

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Microsoft’s Windows store is finally becoming more Steam-like for games

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft will finally allow Windows users to install PC games from the Microsoft Store or Xbox Game Pass for PC to any folder of their choice with unrestricted access. The move will allow PC gamers to access the folders of games and mod them freely, or let Windows users move games freely to any folders or drives of their choice.

Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell _The Verge_that the changes are part of an Xbox app update for Windows that’s currently being tested internally. The Xbox app update will finally address a big pain point of installing games from Xbox Game Pass for PC, where players would run into issues with the Microsoft Store, the restricted WindowsApps folder, or just the inability to fully control where games were...

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Latest iOS beta blurs nude images for children using Messages app

Promotional images of the feature released earlier this year. | Image: Apple

iOS 15.2’s latest beta adds an Apple Communication Safety feature to the Messages app, MacRumors reports. The opt-in feature is designed to protect children from inappropriate imagery by scanning incoming and outgoing pictures for “sexually explicit” material. Any images meeting this description are blurred, and the child will be warned about its contents and told it’s ok not to view it. The feature, which ties into Apple’s existing Family Sharing system, is also designed to offer resources to affected children for them to get help.

The version of the feature that’s released in iOS 15.2’s latest beta has one crucial difference from what Apple originally announced in August: it won’t send notifications to parents if a child decides to...

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iCloud for Windows gets a built in password generator

iCloud for Windows’ password manager in action. | Screenshot: iCloud for Windows

A new update for Apple’s iCloud Windows app has added a password generator, as well as support for Apple’s ProRaw and ProRes photo and video formats to the cloud storage utility. The update, which was first spotted by MacRumors, also adds the ability for participants of a shared iCloud Drive file or folder to add or remove other users.

The addition of a password generator makes Apple’s iCloud keychain a much more viable cross-platform password manager. It follows an update in August which allowed Windows users to access (but not generate) passwords from their iCloud account. Together with the Chrome iCloud extension Apple released at the beginning of the year, Windows iCloud users now have access to basic password management features...

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Sony reportedly making even fewer PS5s due to component shortage

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony is struggling to make PlayStation 5 consoles and has internally lowered its production forecast for the current financial year, according to a report in Bloomberg. While the company was expecting to assemble 16 million units between April 2021 and March 2022, that figure is reportedly now at around 15 million.

Sony had publicly predicted that it would sell 14.8 million PS5 consoles this financial year, so while this isn’t a large downward revision, it shows just how tight the supply is likely to be for the foreseeable future. The figure of 16 million units would have allowed Sony to meet that goal while securing additional stock for the following year.

Sony is said to be having trouble with logistics as well as the supply of...

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Judge buys Rittenhouse lawyer’s inane argument that Apple’s pinch-to-zoom manipulates footage

Photo by Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images

As Kyle Rittenhouse took the stand to answer questions about the sequence of events before he shot and killed a man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the jury was forced to watch the video evidence play out in miniature — because Rittenhouse’s defense lawyer came up with the wild notion that Apple has “artificial intelligence” that manipulates footage when you pinch-to-zoom on an iPad, and Judge Bruce Schroeder totally bought into that possibility.

The word he’s looking for is algorithms, but that’s beside the point

“iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three-dimensions and logarithms,” the defense insisted. “It uses artificial intelligence, or their logarithms, to create what...

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SpaceX successfully launches four astronauts on Crew-3 mission to the space station

Crew-3 launching on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center | Image: NASA/SpaceX

This evening, SpaceX successfully launched another crew of four on their way to the International Space Station, marking the fifth time the company has sent people to space. Riding inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, the spacefarers will now spend roughly the next day in orbit lapping the Earth, before docking with the ISS.

The mission, called Crew-3, is carrying three NASA astronauts — Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron — and one German astronaut, Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency. After a number of launch delays, the foursome finally took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 9:03PM ET, launching on top of one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. After successfully boosting the Crew Dragon...

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