Midnight Protocol is a cyberpunk hacking RPG that cuts out all the filler

Iceberg Interactive

Video games have taught me that hacking mainly involves two things: capturing little computer-shaped nodes and typing in a command line. Midnight Protocol is no exception. Released last month by Iceberg Interactive, it joins a glut of cyberpunk games from the past couple of years, and it doesn’t add any single standout innovation to a pretty familiar formula. But it’s one of the best iterations of that formula I’ve seen: mechanically elegant, narratively economical, and crafted with care.

Midnight Protocol is noir cyber-crime by way of turn-based roleplaying games and spatial puzzles. When you log into its slightly airspace-looking simulated computer desktop, you’ll learn that your pseudonym is Data, and you’re a master hacker who just...

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The best phone to buy right now

William Joel / The Verge

Buying a new phone can be a chore, but we’ve done the work for you

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Win a mystery bag from The Verge jam-packed with free stuff

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Everybody loves bags. They are essential in our day-to-day lives, and there are a million styles out there to suit everyone’s individual tastes. Do you know how bags can get even better, though? When _The Verge_loads them with free tech and gives them away to one of our lucky readers!

Here at The Verge, we are always checking out the latest in tech — reviewing and trying out the latest gadgets — and sometimes we end up with extra stuff that we know someone out there is going to love. This is your shot to win the stylish bag you see in the picture above along with whatever mystery tech we managed to cram into its inner depths.

The bag is an older model of the Nomatic 40L Travel Bag. It’s a large backpack valued at $280 on its own, and...

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How to watch the Xbox 20th anniversary event

Microsoft is holding a special Xbox anniversary event today to celebrate 20 years to the day since the original Xbox debuted alongside Halo: Combat Evolved. “While we won’t announce any new games, this broadcast will be a special look back at all the memories we’ve shared with the Xbox community over the past two decades,” says Microsoft.

While the event is designed as a celebration rather than a news event, that doesn’t mean there won’t be news. Rumors suggest we may well see an early beta of Halo Infinite multiplayer to mark 20 years of Halo, and plenty of Xbox fans have spotted suspicious updates to existing original Xbox and Xbox 360 games.

We’re expecting the event to run for around 30 minutes in total.

WHAT TIME IS THE XBOX 20th...

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Microsoft blocks EdgeDeflector to force Windows 11 users into Edge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has already made it more difficult to switch default browsers in Windows 11, and now the company is going a step further by blocking apps like EdgeDeflector. Third-party apps like EdgeDeflector and even Firefox have offered workarounds to Microsoft forcing people to use Edge in Start menu search results, even if their default browser is not Edge.

Microsoft has been forcing Windows 10 and Windows 11 users into Edge and its Bing search engine in the Start menu search results, and now with the new Widgets panel in Windows 11. It’s a frustrating part of Windows that doesn’t respect your default browser choice. EdgeDeflector lets you bypass these restrictions, and open Start menu search results in your default browser of choice.

The...

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Samsung releases Android 12-powered One UI 4 for Galaxy S21 phones

One UI 4 includes redesigned widgets. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is making its One UI 4 software update available for the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra starting today, the company has announced. The update is based on this year’s Android 12, was released in public beta in September, and adds new theming options, keyboard tweaks, and privacy settings.

The new features coming with the latest version of Samsung’s software should look familiar to anyone who’s been keeping up with Android 12’s upgrades. First up is a Material You-style overhaul, including the ability to change the operating system’s color scheme based on your chosen wallpaper, and there are also redesigned widgets. New privacy-focused features include a Privacy Dashboard that keeps track of how often apps are requesting...

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This is the OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man Edition

There are eight Pac-Man-themed wallpapers installed.

OnePlus has announced a special Pac-Man Edition of the Nord 2. It’s a new version of the company’s latest mid-range smartphone with design tweaks inspired by the classic ‘80s arcade game. But underneath the new theme this is fundamentally the same hardware as the excellent OnePlus Nord 2 released in July this year.

The Pac-Man enhancements made to the phone are mostly cosmetic. Its back has a small Pac-Man logo on it and glows in the dark to reveal a Pac-Man maze, and there’s also a semi-translucent themed case featuring the titular character alongside ghostly antagonists Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. Boot up the phone and you’re presented with a dynamic Pac-Man-themed wallpaper, one of eight in total. There’s a Pac-Man themed...

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Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop has heart, style, and some rough edges

Image: Geoffrey Short / Netflix

Two perspectives on the live-action series

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Go read this report about how Amazon tries to evade responsibility in delivery vehicle crashes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon’s fleet of delivery drivers may be detached from Amazon warehouses, but the company still monitors its drivers; it installed always-on cameras in its delivery trucks and even asked drivers to consent to yawn-detecting AI surveillance. However, it’s that very surveillance system that puts Amazon in the crosshairs of a lawsuit that claims Amazon is at fault for a life-altering car accident.

This Bloomberg report describes the details of the accident, as well as how one lawsuit may change the way legal teams approach similar situations in the future. The accident happened earlier this year, when 24-year-old Ans Rana was riding in the backseat of a Tesla Model S on a bustling Atlanta highway. After the car came to a stop behind a...

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Apple’s Business Essentials subscriptions support small businesses that only use Apple

Apple Business Essentials | Image: Apple

This week Apple unveiled another beta program, but instead of offering early previews of software for your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, it’s a new initiative called Business Essentials. In line with Apple’s recent shift toward selling services, it’s a subscription package aimed at small businesses with three different plans and a move that has been anticipated since it acquired the device management platform Fleetsmith a little over a year ago.

Starting at $2.99 per device per month, they can cover employees across a single device, more than one device, or a more expensive plan that covers multiple devices and adds more cloud storage. An AppleCare+ package will be available when it launches full in spring 2022, adding 24/7 phone support,...

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Apple is reportedly relying on states to pay for digital ID rollouts

Image: Apple

Apple will soon let users in participating states digitally store their driver’s licenses or state IDs on their iPhone’s wallet, but according to a report by CNBC, the initiative will be partially funded by the states — and their taxpayers.

CNBC got ahold of contracts signed by Georgia, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, and found that Apple will maintain tight control over its deployment. It reports that Apple gets “sole discretion” over a number of aspects of the program, including its device compatibility, the service’s launch date, states’ marketing campaigns, as well as how states report on the initiative's performance.

Apple gets “sole discretion” over a number of aspects of the program

The contract also says that each state will...

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The FBI’s email system was hacked to send out fake cybersecurity warnings

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hackers targeted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) email servers, sending out thousands of phony messages that say its recipients have become the victims of a “sophisticated chain attack,” first reported by Bleeping Computer. The emails were initially uncovered by The Spamhaus Project, a nonprofit organization that investigates email spammers.

The emails claim that Vinny Troia was behind the fake attacks and also falsely state that Troia is associated with the infamous hacking group, The Dark Overlord — the same bad actors who leaked the fifth season of Orange Is the New Black. In reality, Troia is a prominent cybersecurity researcher who runs two dark web security companies, NightLion and Shadowbyte.

These emails look like...

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Twitter shouldn’t be hiding basic app improvements behind its Blue paywall

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter launched its new subscription product, Twitter Blue, in the US this week — it’s a $2.99 per month service that promises to make Twitter “more customizable, more frictionless, and simply put — better.”

Let’s start just by looking at what’s actually included in a Twitter Blue subscription.

• Ad-Free Articles (a take on Scroll, for articles you click through on Twitter)
• Top Articles (a take on Nuzzel, for articles discussed on Twitter)
• Themes
• Bookmark folders
• Customizable navigation
• An “undo button” for Tweets
• A “Reader” mode for reading threads
• Twitter Blue Labs for early access features, including longer videos and pinned DMs

Looking at that list, there are two different categories of things here: features that enhance or support...

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Google’s new floodlight camera is bright but not beautiful

Speedy smart alerts and good lighting control make up for an odd design

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The White House allegedly challenged Intel’s plans to increase chip production in China

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Intel’s efforts to speed up chip production in China have reportedly been contested by the Biden administration, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that Intel proposed making silicon wafers in a Chengdu, China factory, which could start production towards the end of 2022. However, Intel’s plans were “strongly discouraged” by White House officials due to potential security issues.

Since Intel needs to secure funding from the government in order to ramp up production, the administration’s opinion holds some weight on Intel’s path forward. As Bloomberg notes, Intel said it currently has “no plans” to produce silicon wafers in China after discussing it with government officials, and that it...

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‘Deep regret’: Global climate summit fails developing nations once again

Delegates walk past a neon light art installation by artist Cornelia Parker during COP26 at the SEC on November 03, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.  | Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

At high-profile climate negotiations in Glasgow, rich nations stuck poor nations with a big bill. Wealthy countries responsible for the most planet-heating pollution have reneged on commitments to help developing nations adapt to a warming world.

That means delegates and activists from the places most vulnerable to climate change will wind up paying the price back home after leaving the United Nations climate summit that closes today. They’ll need to scrounge together funds for new infrastructure that can safeguard them from rising sea levels, devastating droughts, or monstrous storms — or suffer the losses of living without it.

“We are failing people”

“We are failing people,” says Harjeet Singh, a senior advisor on climate impacts for...

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Tesla has reportedly been shipping out some cars without USB ports

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Some Tesla customers have noticed that their newly-purchased Model 3s and Model Ys have missing USB ports, an issue first spotted by Electrek. Tesla has reportedly been telling customers that the chip shortage is behind the lack of ports.

As noted by Electrek, the issue didn’t seem to start cropping up until November 11th, and only seems to be affecting Model 3s and Model Ys. Recentbuyers have turned to Reddit to voice their concerns about the missing ports, noting that the USB-C ports on the center console and near the rear seats are missing — many also claim that their EV’s wireless charger also isn’t working (via Electrek).

Users will have to deal with driving a pricey battery-on-wheels that can’t even charge their own devices

To...

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Another Samsung Galaxy S21 FE leak shows the device from more angles

Photo by Coinbrs

The yet-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy S21 Fan Edition (FE) has become the victim of another leak, according to a report by Android Police. Just like its S20 FE predecessor, which serves as the affordable counterpart to the S20, the S21 FE is supposed to be the budget-friendly alternative to the flagship S21.

Photo by Coinbrs

Marketing images leaked by Coinbrs show several images of the device, and it, unsurprisingly, closely resembles the S21. The images show us much of what we saw in the S21 FE’s user manual that was previously leaked in September.

As noted by Coinbrs, the device will reportedly have three cameras on its rear: a main 64MP sensor, a depth sensor, and an ultra-wide-angle sensor. On the front, it’s...

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The remastered GTA Trilogy has been unavailable on PC for over a day

Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition became unavailable on the Rockstar Games store the same day it launched. The Trilogy, which comes packaged with the remastered versions of GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas, was supposed to be playable on November 11th, but due to maintenance and other issues, it’s been anything but that.

The Rockstar Games Launcher is now online, but GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is unavailable to play or purchase as we remove files unintentionally included in these versions. We're sorry for the disruption and hope to have correct ones up soon. https://t.co/NiMNXUKCVh

— Rockstar Support (@RockstarSupport) November 13, 2021

Rockstar Support sent out a tweet saying that the...

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The early Black Friday tech deals are coming on strong

Illustration by Richard Parry

You made it to the weekend. Good job. In exchange for making it to arguably the best time of the week, we owe you some deals. That’s just how it works. Below, you’ll find a potent mixture of this week’s best tech deals.

Before we get started, however, a little bit of housekeeping. We published a massive holiday gift guide this week. Its art (by Richard Parry) is so good that I’ve attached it above for you to peep.

As we get closer to the holidays, you might want to subscribe to our Verge Deals newsletter. If you’re not the kind of person who checks deals every single day, we think you’ll appreciate our bi-weekly dispatch filled with the best deals we’ve seen during the week.

We also want to remind you that our sister site, The...

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The Verge’s favorite unrealistic gift wishes for 2022

Let’s face it — somewhere inside us all is a greedy five-year-old who wants that wonderful, beautiful, fascinating toy that seems completely out of reach. But what that toy is depends very much on who we are. So, just out of curiosity, we asked the staff of The Verge to tell us something that they would love to get for the holidays — if money (and opportunity) was no object. (And the rule was that idealistic longings like world peace or the end of the pandemic didn’t count — for this once, we were not going for idealism.)

So let’s see what hidden longings lie in the hearts of The Verge’s staff...

Garmin inReach Mini

There’s something magical about getting lost in the woods and having to find your way out with just a map and a compass,...

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Steam Deck: Five big things we learned from Valve’s developer summit

“Purp.” | Image: Valve

On Friday, PC gaming giant Valve invited the developer community to learn more about its Steam Deck, a $400 handheld gaming PC with a comparatively powerful AMD chip. It’s akin to the Nintendo Switch of gaming PCs, and there’s a lot we already knew about the delayed handheld from its announcement, our trip to Valve’s headquarters, and an official teardown. But today, we learned even more.

Here are the highlights — unless, of course, you’d like to watch Valve’s entire livestream or breakout sessions for yourself. That’s fine too!

Aerith lives

The AMD chip inside the Steam Deck has a name: it’s the Aerith SOC, a clear reference to the famous Aerith from Final Fantasy VII_._It’s an APU with a power envelope of between 4 and...

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The best deals on true wireless earbuds right now

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

When it comes to true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. Whether you enjoy the unconventional design of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live or prefer Jabra’s compact Elite 75t, there’s a pair of wireless earbuds for just about everyone.

Regardless of which brand you prefer, we’ve compiled some of the best deals on wireless earbuds available right now, some of which are featured in our guide to the best early Black Friday deals. Of course, if you want to do more research before making a buying decision, we also encourage you to read our guide to the best wireless earbuds, which can help you determine which pair of earbuds are right for you.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A...

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AMC Theaters now lets you buy movie tickets with Bitcoin

Image: The Verge

AMC Theaters, which is perhaps the king of the memestocks, promised in August that you’d be able to pay for tickets and concessions with Bitcoin by the end of the year, and now, you can do just that.

Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency you’ll be able to use; AMC is also accepting Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin for online purchases, according to a tweet from CEO Adam Aron (via CoinTelegraph). He also says you can pay online with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal.

Big newsflash! As promised, many new ways NOW to pay online at AMC. We proudly now accept: drumroll, please… Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin. Also Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal. Incredibly, they already account for 14% of our total online transactions!...

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Some Echo speakers can now detect people

Echo Dot speakers just got the ability to detect if there’s motion in a room. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Starting this week, newer Echo and Echo Dot speakers can use ultrasound to detect occupancy in your home and turn on and off other connected devices such as lights or your Fire TV. First mentioned at Amazon’s fall hardware event in September, the Echo and Echo Dot fourth-gen speakers can now emit an “inaudible ultrasound wave” to detect if there are people present in a room.

You can enable or disable this feature in the Alexa app, where you can also set up occupancy routines to use this new capability to do things like turn on lights when you enter a room and then off again when the room is empty. You could also have Alexa play music or a radio station when motion is detected near an Echo device during a set time and then shut down the...

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Meta CTO thinks bad metaverse moderation could pose an ‘existential threat’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta (formerly Facebook) CTO Andrew Bosworth warned employees that creating safe virtual reality experiences was a vital part of its business plan — but also potentially impossible at a large scale.

In an internal memo seen by Financial Times, Bosworth apparently said he wanted Meta virtual worlds to have “almost Disney levels of safety,” although spaces from third-party developers could have looser standards than directly Meta-built content. Harassment or other toxic behavior could pose an “existential threat” to the company’s plans for an embodied future internet if it turned mainstream consumers off VR.

At the same time, Bosworth said policing user behavior “at any meaningful scale is practically impossible.” FT reporter Hannah Murphy...

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Metaverse, schmetaverse — take me to the Icelandverse

The Icelandverse looks great. | Image: Inspired by Iceland

Mark Zuckerberg’s extensive video about Facebook / Meta’s pivot to the metaverse has become something of a meme, but perhaps the best parody of the presentation was done this week by, of all places, the country of Iceland.

In a nearly two-and-a-half-minute video, a man who is identified as Chief Visionary Officer Zack Mossbergsson begins a discussion about “a revolutionary approach on how to connect our world without being super weird.

“Some said it’s not possible,” he continues. “Some said it’s out of reach. To them, we say, it’s already here.” He then gestures in the general direction of a beautiful, snow-covered Icelandic landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see. “Seriously, look, it’s right here.”

The rest of the video is...

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Google says a fix is coming for update that erased major Pixel 6 feature

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

According to reports from some users, an update to Google Photos removed one of the Pixel 6’s big features: the Magic Eraser tool that lets you remove unwanted objects or people from your photos. If your Pixel downloaded the affected version (5.67, according to Android Central), fear not: Google says it’s working on a fix.

While the version of Photos with the Magic Eraser erased doesn’t appear to be available in the Play Store anymore, its presence on APK Mirror confirms that it was at one point (though we wouldn’t recommend downloading it). According to one user, the broken version displayed a tip about the object removal feature, despite it no longer being accessible in the app.

Google says a fix is coming

Google spokesperson Alex...

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Nvidia’s GeForce Now has been quietly capping its founders’ frame rates

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service just leapfrogged Google Stadia in performance, with a new $200-a-year tier that practically gives you the power of an RTX 3080 desktop graphics card in the cloud. But if you’re grandfathered into the original $4.99 a month “Founders” tier, or pay $100 a year for “Priority” access, you may not be getting quite what you expected — because Nvidia has quietly revealed it’s capping the frame rates of 12 specific games to ensure consistent performance.

Nvidia now has an official support page (via 9to5Google) explaining the practice, after Redditors and others revealed that a variety of games were locked to frame rates lower than 60fps. It appears that Nvidia’s been doing this for quite a while but only...

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Rittenhouse trial judge still baffled by pinch-to-zoom

 Judge Bruce Schroeder takes a moment to take a personal call as the court waits for and evidence video to be played as Kyle Rittenhouse, left, and his attorney Mark Richards look on at the Kenosha County Courthouse on November 12, 2021 in Kenosha, Wisconsin | Photo by Sean Krajacic-Pool/Getty Images

The prosecution and defense continue to argue over evidence in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse for killing two people during a protest in Wisconsin, with a surprising amount of confusion from both the defense and Judge Bruce Schroeder about what happens when you pinch-to-zoom on a touchscreen device.

On Wednesday, Schroeder stated it was up to the prosecution to prove that zooming on a video in with an iPad doesn’t alter or manipulate the footage. “iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three-dimensions and logarithms,” the defense said as part of its objection, adding that the iPad “uses artificial intelligence, or their logarithms, to create what they believe is...

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