Apple’s latest beta fixes macro mode confusion for iPhone 13 Pro

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s latest iOS 15.2 beta is making the iPhone 13 Pro’s macro mode simple by adding a button to let you turn it on and off (via 9to5Mac). The icon, which looks like a little flower, pops up whenever you’re close enough to an object to take a macro photo and lets you easily switch between having Auto Macro mode on and off without having to go into settings.

A video from ZolloTechshows how the feature currently works in iOS 15.2 beta 2: if you have Auto Macro turned off, the button will appear when you get close to something. Tapping it seems to basically turn Auto Macro back on, and your phone will switch into macro mode. Tapping the button again turns Auto Macro off and switches you back to the regular camera.

When the iPhone 13...

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You probably can’t afford this hideous Gucci Xbox

There are only 100 of these Xboxes available. | Image: Gucci

Microsoft and the fashion brand Gucci have teamed up on a ridiculously expensive Gucci-themed Xbox Series X that will be released in limited quantities next week.

It looks bad, in my opinion; the Gucci Xbox Series X has double G patterns plastered all over it, which I feel ruins the sleek aesthetic of the console’s original design. And it’s completely unaffordable to the average person, costing a cool $10,000, according to Gucci’s website.

Image: Gucci

All this for just $10,000.

With that five-figure sum, you do get a few extras, including two Gucci-themed Xbox controllers, a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (though it’s unclear for how long), and an Xbox-branded suitcase in which to carry the console...

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Nintendo’s new Game & Watch is the cutest way to play classic Zelda games

Image: Zelda

It’s not hard to play the original Legend of Zelda games. With each new hardware release, Nintendo trots out its 8-bit Hyrule adventures again, giving players a chance to relive (and rebuy) the games that started it all. If you’re a Switch Online subscriber, for instance, you can play them right now on your Switch. Even still, there’s something pleasing about Nintendo’s new standalone Game & Watch handheld. It’s a niche little toy that does nothing more than let you play three classic games and keep track of the time. But it does a great job at it — and it’s so darn cute.

This latest retread of nostalgia is a sequel of sorts. Last year, amidst the height of next-gen hype, Nintendo released a small plastic-and-metal machine that played...

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Genshin Impact’s creators have opened the door for commercial fanfiction writers

MiHoYo, the company behind the popular free-to-play game Genshin Impact,has given fanfiction writers the all-clear to create their own stories with the game’s characters or universe — even if they want to make money from their works (via Kotaku). Commercialized fanfiction has long existed in a legal gray area, and MiHoYo making clear rules about how fans can sell it and physical merchandise is a big move for such a popular video game.

In an update to the rules for fan-made merchandise, posted on MiHoYo’s community site, the company said that “novels or stories written by fans” won’t need to be officially declared, “whether for profit or not.” That means that creators won't have to fill out any forms letting the company know they intend...

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Manchin blasts union-made EV tax break at Toyota event

Image: Joe Manchin

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) wants to kill a $4,500 federal tax credit for union-made electric vehicles because he thinks they’re “wrong” and “not American.” And he picked an awfully tone-deaf moment to say this: at an event hosted by Toyota celebrating a $240 million investment in its West Virginia facility, where he accepted three giant novelty checks for charity from the Japanese automaker.

The $4,500 tax credit proposal would be in addition to the $7,500 federal tax credit that currently exists (and which the White House is trying to extend) for electric vehicles. It would only go to buyers of EVs that were made by a union workforce — meaning pretty much just the Detroit-based automakers. Toyota has vehemently opposed the union-made...

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Biden’s pick for FDA chief works at Google

Robert Califf is expected to be Biden’s nominee for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. | Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Biden has selected Robert Califf as his pick for the next head of the Food and Drug Administration, the White House announced today. Califf is currently a senior advisor for Verily Life Sciences and Google Health, two divisions of parent company Alphabet. He was brought on in 2019 to lead health strategy and policy for the groups.

Califf, a cardiologist, previously served as the FDA commissioner during the last year of the Obama administration. He also founded the Duke Clinical Research Institute, which runs clinical trials.

“As the FDA considers many consequential decisions around vaccine approvals and more, it is mission critical that we have a steady, independent hand to guide the FDA,” Biden said in a statement. “I am...

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Marvel embraces the Sad Wolverine meme to announce X-Men ‘97, a new animated Disney Plus show

The classic_X-Men: The Animated Series_ is getting a sequel series on Disney Plus in 2023: the newly announced X-Men ‘97,which “explores new stories in the iconic ‘90s timeline of the original series.” The announcement was made in the most fitting of fashions, of course: the “Sad Wolverine” meme from the original show.

Beau DeMayo will be the head writer for the upcoming show, with original X-Men: The Animated Series showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald and director Larry Houston set to help consult on the show.

Additionally, returning cast members Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Alison Sealy-Smith, Chris Potter, Catherine Disher, Adrian Hough, and Christopher Britton will be part of X-Men ‘97, although Marvel’s...

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Marvel reveals Disney Plus slate including Agatha: House of Harkness and Spider-Man: Freshman Year

As part of its Disney Plus Day — which included a number of new releases hitting the streaming service today — Marvel revealed a big slate of upcoming projects, some new, some previously announced. That includes the official title for WandaVision’s Agatha spinoff, and a new Spider-Man animated series. Unfortunately there aren’t any new trailers, but instead a whole lot of logos. Here’s the full list, courtesy of Marvel:

• Echo:a series starring Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, who will be introduced in Hawkeye.
• Ironheart: a series starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
• Agatha: House of Harkness**:**a series starring Kathryn Hahn as her character from WandaVision....

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Vergecast: How EV startup Rivian achieved a record-breaking IPO

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay and Dieter, along with managing editor Alex Cranz and senior reporter Sean O’Kane, discuss electric vehicle startup Rivian becoming a publicly traded company after executing one of the biggest initial public offerings in history. This leads to a discussion on how Rivian got to this point where other EV startups have failed.

• Rivian goes public in one of the biggest IPOs ever
• Rivian’s mega IPO is a good test of the meme stock craze

There’s a whole lot more news covered on the show, especially from...

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Secretlab really built its extra-small gamer chair that started as an April Fools’ joke

Image: Secretlab

When it comes to gaming chairs, most of the focus is on how they can support and comfort your next 5,000 IQ play, but the fact is that most of them are designed to be large and imposing. After teasing a miniaturized version of its Titan chair as an April Fools’ joke, Secretlab decided to send it to production, creating this Titan XXS.

The Titan Extra Extra Small has matching materials and even a five-year warranty just like the full-size chairs, and it even has height-adjustable armrests. It has child-locking casters and supports up to 70kg (~154lbs), so it should be safe enough for pets, kids, or anyone else who wants a small seat in front of the RGB keyboard and mouse.

The chair will be available globally in “limited quantities,” so if...

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TikTok tics are a symptom of a much bigger problem

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mental illness doesn’t work like measles

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What’s on your desk, Adi Robertson?

A space to feel good working in

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Instagram Reels now have text-to-speech and voice effects just like TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram has added text-to-speech and voice effects to its TikTok competitor Reels, two features TikTok has had for some time. The robotic voice-overs used as narration for videos grew so ubiquitous on TikTok in fact, that voice actor Bev Standing sued the company in May, saying it didn’t have permission to use her voice. In September, TikTok reached a settlement with Standing that included a licensing agreement.

While it’s popular among TikTok creators, more importantly, text-to-speech is a widely used accessibility feature that allows blind people and those with low vision to hear spoken versions of written text.

To use text-to-speech in Reels, open the Instagram app and go to the Reels camera, record or upload a video, and add text...

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Invasion’s creepy alien reveal was worth the wait

Image: Apple

It took half of a season, but we’re finally here: the aliens have shown themselves in Invasion. The Apple TV Plus series got off to a slow start when it debuted in October. The first handful of episodes were tense character drama, focusing on a few characters spread across the globe, each of whom was dealing with some personal issues in addition to the titular attack on the planet. That was all well and good, but the sci-fi elements were so scant that you could blink and miss them. No one even said the word “alien” until episode five. But now that we’re halfway through the season, that’s changed. The latest episode finally shows the creepy off-world invaders, and it has given the show the purpose it needs — along with some scares.

If you...

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Hospitals are at a high risk of cyberattacks, but patients don’t realize it

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Southern Ohio Medical Center, a not-for-profit hospital in Portsmouth, Ohio, canceled appointments for today and is diverting ambulances after it was hit by a cyberattack on Thursday. It’s part of a series of escalating attacks on healthcare organizations in the past two years — a trend that could have serious consequences for patient care.

But while information technology experts are well aware that the risk of cyberattacks that compromise patient data and shut down computer systems is on the rise, patients don’t seem to be, according to a new report by cybersecurity company Armis. In fact, over 60 percent of people in the general public surveyed in the new report said they hadn’t heard of any cyberattacks in healthcare in the past two...

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Tesla vehicle in ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta mode ‘severely damaged’ after crash in California

A Tesla Model Y in “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) beta mode allegedly crashed on November 3rd in Brea, a city southeast of Los Angeles, marking what is likely to be the first incident involving the company’s controversial driver assist feature. No one was injured in the crash, but the vehicle was reportedly “severely damaged.”

The crash was reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has multiple, overlapping investigations into Tesla’s Autopilot system. The incident report appears to have been made by the owner of the Model Y. A spokesperson for NHTSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the report:

The Vehicle was in FSD Beta mode and while taking a left turn the car went into the...

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The Verge’s 2021 holiday gift guide for creators

Illustration by Richard Parry

Gifts for the aspiring and established content creators

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Disney partners with TikTok for official text-to-speech voices from Stitch, Chewbacca, Rocket Raccoon, and more

Disney is teaming up with TikTok to add official character voices to the popular social media app’s text-to-speech feature, allowing you to have your captions read by Lilo and Stitch’s Stitch, C-3PO, Chewbacca, a Stormtrooper from Star Wars, and Rocket Raccoon from _Guardians of the Galaxy._The new character voices are rolling out in the app today as part of the Disney Plus Day promotional holiday celebrating the two-year anniversary of the service.

Disney is partnering with TikTok for new themed character test-to-speech voices, a feature that will surely be used only in a mature and appropriate fashion. pic.twitter.com/3Hz2NPZFor

— Chaim Gartenberg (@cgartenberg) November 12, 2021

Using the voices works similarly to the regular...

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The Nintendo Switch is back on top in the US after OLED launch

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Last month, the PS5 ended the Nintendo Switch’s nearly three-year-long reign as the best-selling console in the US. That proved to be short-lived, however. In October, thanks in large part to the release of the new OLED model of the Switch, Nintendo is back on top.

According to Nintendo, the Switch sold 711,000 units overall in the US during October, and 314,000 of those were the OLED version. The NPD Group says that these numbers made the Switch the US’s best-selling console that month “in both units and dollars.” (The analyst firm also says that the PS5 remains the top seller in 2021 in terms of dollars, while the Switch is on top when it comes to units sold.)

“We see this as a strong start for the Nintendo Switch OLED model and a very...

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More than a dozen new titles are coming to Disney Plus today

Image: Marvel

If you’ve been holding off to catch Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings or Jungle Cruise on Disney Plus, today’s the day. More than a dozen films and series are arriving on the service today as part of the service’s Disney Plus Day celebration.

The event kicks off at 6 AM PT/9 AM ET and will give viewers access to exclusive looks, teasers, trailers, and more. These will be unveiled throughout the morning, and fans will be able to follow along from Disney Plus’s official Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. In addition, Disney Plus is dumping a veritable truckload of content onto its streaming service today, including:

• Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
• Jungle Cruise
• Home Sweet Home Alone
• Olaf Presents
• A collection of...

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The latest Nest Learning Thermostat is $70 off for Verge readers

Image: Google

It’s Friday once again, and two more Fridays from now will be the big one: Black Friday. I bet you’re also thinking to yourselves, “Just where has the time gone?” Well, it’s flying by for all of us, and while our excellent (if I say so myself) Verge Deals team has been hard at work on our beautiful _Verge_Holiday Gift Guide for you to peruse and adding a bunch of hot early Black Friday deals to shop, we even have some exceptional deals for you today.

First up, we have an exclusive deal on the Google Nest Learning Thermostat (third generation) for _Verge_readers. You can save $70 on the Nest Learning Thermostat at Wellbots. Use the coupon code THEVERGENESTthrough December 1st to bring the price of the stainless steel, white, or polished...

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World’s first USB-C iPhone sells on eBay for $86,001

A modified iPhone X that has a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port has sold on eBay for the princely sum of $86,001. The phone, which is the work of robotics engineering student Kenn Pillonel, can use the physical connector for both charging and transferring data. But Pillonel warns that the buyer shouldn’t use the groundbreaking device as a regular phone, take it apart, or update the OS — any of which could risk breaking it.

The fact that the mod has sold for over eighty times its original sale price shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Although Pillonel has open-sourced his work on the project in a Github repository containing technical details, CNC instructions, and information on the custom PCB the design uses, actually...

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Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 review: the 15-inch Chromebook to beat

A pricey but delightful surprise

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Xbox Design Lab controllers have rubberized grips and metallic finishes again

Microsoft is bringing back options for rubberized grips and metallic finishes on Xbox Design Lab controllers. The Xbox maker originally paused its Design Lab program ahead of the Xbox Series X launch last year, before bringing it back in June without the rubberized grips and metallic finishes options.

These two original customization options are available again, alongside some new additions. The black rubberized grips are now available on both the back case and side grips, and there are three new color options for the controller parts. Microsoft is also adding 19 new metallic finish colors, including a variety of blue, green, and pink options.

Image: Microsoft

The updated rubberized grips.

Xbox Design Lab...

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Instagram offers creators up to $35,000 to post videos to its TikTok clone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is offering massive sums of money to creators to post videos on its TikTok competitor Reels, as highlighted in a pair of reports from TechCrunch and Business Insider. Instagram announced its bonus program for Reels in July when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would be paying $1 billion to creators through 2022.

These reports shed new light on exactly how much individual creators are being offered for their Reels, and how many views they need to get in order to receive the maximum bonus payout. On the high end, TechCrunch points to one Reddit post where someone has been offered as much as $35,000 if their Reels get 58.31 million views in a month. That’s in line with what Business Insider reports was offered to Sam and...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The Product Red edition of the Series 6 has often recieved the biggest discounts. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It might be tempting to order one of the new Series 7 models, but new Apple hardware always comes at a premium. The latest version of the Apple wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability but is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.

Thankfully, each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen its fair share of discounts over the last year — and we’re bound to see far more as Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?

There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The...

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HTC’s Vive Focus 3 update could free arcades from VR backpacks

Photo by Adi Robertson / The Verge

HTC is adding a few big updates to its Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset, aiming to make it better for big, free-roaming multiplayer VR games.

The Vive Focus 3 — a $1,300 non-consumer-focused wireless headset — is adding a new feature called Location Based Entertainment, or LBE Mode. LBE Mode greatly expands the headset’s tracking distance to 33 by 30 meters. Meanwhile, an additional feature called Map Sharing lets multiple headsets share the same virtual world in the same location.

Together, these features mean the Focus 3 can more easily support the group VR sessions you’d find at an immersive free-roam arcade space like Zero Latency or The Void. HTC has also added a few other options. There’s a mode that immediately calibrates the...

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The best early Black Friday deals you can get right now

The Verge

Black Friday officially starts on November 26th, however, we’re already starting to see significant discounts on some of this year’s most popular pieces of tech. Starting in October, many retailers — including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart — began lowering prices on goods ranging from Apple’s AirPods to LG’s C1 OLED as a part of their early Black Friday sales. The great news is these stores are now starting to drop prices even more aggressively as we approach the big day, and many of them have price-matching policies that guarantee you’ll get the lowest price. Below we’ve compiled some of the best early Black Friday deals available so far, along with some information about upcoming Black Friday sales so you can prepare and score...

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Lordstown Motors delays Endurance EV pickup after announcing Foxconn deal

Cash-strapped EV startup Lordstown Motors is delaying the launch of its electric pickup truck, the Endurance, one day after announcing the sale of its Ohio factory to iPhone assembler Foxconn.

Lordstown Motors said Thursday that it now plans to ship the Endurance in the third quarter of 2022, not the second as previously targeted, because of supply chain shortages. It announced a third-quarter loss of $96 million and said it will finish the year with just $150 million to $180 million in cash — including a $100 million payment from Foxconn toward the purchase of the factory. Lordstown Motors is also still building pre-production versions of the truck at the Ohio factory despite saying as recently as August that it would be making...

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The global chip shortage is a nightmare before Christmas

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The global chip shortage has had a massive effect on the entire technology industry for more than a year, but a wave of gaming hardware news over the past week and change has shown that things aren’t going to get better anytime soon. Gaming companies big and small are going to be feeling the sting well into next year, and it’s not just Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles that could be hard to get a hold of.

Nintendo was arguably the first to kick off the waterfall of news, revising its Nintendo Switch sales forecast for the fiscal year down by 1.5 million on November 4th “due to the effects of the global semiconductor shortage,” according to the company. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa elaborated further in a Q&A, saying that...

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