The Verge
The best wired or wireless gaming headsets to buy
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A few options for each platform
The VergeThe VergeEpos H3Pro Hybrid review: the complete package
Minor issues aside, these are an incredible value for gamers who need to multitask
The VergeHow to control your Apple Watch hands-free
Assistive Touch is a new accessibility feature introduced in watchOS 8. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Starting with watchOS 8, Apple introduced a new accessibility feature called Assistive Touch. The cool thing about this feature is that it allows you to control the watch via gestures and your arm movements. Meaning, now you don’t even need to touch the Apple Watch screen to use it.
The tech behind it is pretty neat. Using on-device machine learning, the feature makes use of the watch’s accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart rate sensor to read how your muscles and tendons move. The result is that the watch can tell when you’re pinching your fingers or clenching your fists. You can also enable a motion-based cursor that works like a mini-mouse when you tilt your arm.
To be clear, Apple developed Assistive Touch to make the Apple...
The VergeQualcomm’s next-gen CPU for PCs will take on Apple’s M-series chips in 2023
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Qualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans for a next-generation Arm-based SoC “designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs” that would be able to go head to head with Apple’s M-series processors.
Dr. James Thompson, Qualcomm’s chief technology officer, announced the plans for the new chips at the company’s 2021 investor day event, with the goal of getting samples to hardware customers in about nine months ahead of product launches with the new chip in 2023.
The new chip will be designed by the Nuvia team, which Qualcomm had bought earlier this year in a massive $1.4 billion acquisition. Nuvia, notably, was founded in 2019 by a trio of former Apple...
The Verge20 years later, and streaming Harry Potter is still too complicated
Image: Harry Potter/Warner Brothers
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone(or Philosopher’s Stone, depending on your locality) hit movie theaters 20 years ago today. It kicked off the eight-film adaptation of the massively popular children’s book series, which concluded with the release of _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2_a decade ago in 2011.
In that time, the _Potter_films have become a magnet for marathoning, driven in no small part by fan-favorite Freeform (née ABC Family) broadcasts of the films. ABC actually picked up the rights to the series just weeks after the first film had even hit theaters, reportedly spending roughly $140 million to be able to broadcast the first two movies.
The network spent the next decade collecting the broadcast rights to the...
The VergeWhy the future of work is the future of travel, with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge
From losing 80 percent of your business to an IPO in nine months
The VergeThe Verge’s 2021 holiday gift guide for kids
Illustration by Richard Parry
Great gifts that will cultivate curiosity, creativity, and so much more
The VergeSnap’s deal with Sony Music means it now partners with all three major music labels
Photo by Snap
Snapchat is adding audio from Sony Music Entertainment to its Sounds library, according to a report by Variety. This means that Snap has now inked deals with all three major music labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. Aside from the Big Three, the platform also partners with Warner Chappell, BMG, Kobalt, and more.
The platform has seen 521 million videos created with Sounds since the feature’s launch
Snapchat will also start rolling out Sound Lenses, as noted in a press release on the Snap newsroom, featuring pre-selected songs and visual effects that make the subject look like they’re singing. It plans on adding Cameo Sound Lenses as well, which lets two users appear together in an animated...
The VergeLet’s chat about RCS
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Every Tuesday on The Vergecast, we’re pulling apart a different new tech standard that is designed to replace tech standards before it. Last week, we explored the fractious history and fraught future of USB-C. This week, we’re talking about Rich Communication Services, or RCS. Will it replace SMS? Google is trying to make it happen.
To really understand why Google is going all-in on RCS, you have to understand that there’s a rich and complicated history of messaging apps at Google and also RCS’s own history that’s entirely separate from Google. On the Vergecast RCS special, Verge executive editor Dieter Bohn walks you through the messy past and uncertain future of the texting standard.
Dieter also talks with Sanaz Ahari, senior...
The VergeBose’s new QuietComfort 45 are seeing their first price drop
The headphones are selling for a discounted $279 today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy right now are Bose’s QuietComfort 45, and they’re selling at the lowest price we’ve seen yet. Just two months following their release, you can buy them for $279 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Adorama as a part of their early Black Friday sales. It’s a solid $50 price drop.
If comfort is key, these are some of the most cozy headphones to wear. Like previous QuietComfort models, these can fold up and be stowed in the included zip-up case. They offer up to 24 hours of battery life per charge — you can even enjoy three hours of usage with just 15 minutes of charging.
With the rare combo of being dynamic wall art and a 4K QLED TV in one, Samsung’s unique Frame TV is back down to its lowest...
The VergeBeyond Bebop: a guide to the works of Shinichiro Watanabe
Carole & Tuesday. | Image: Netflix
Thanks to its heavy Western pop culture influences and long life in reruns on Adult Swim, Cowboy Bebop has long been one of Americans’ most successful gateway drugs to anime. With the original anime now streaming on Netflix in advance of its live-action adaptation premiering November 19th, even more new viewers can discover “the work which becomes a new genre itself.” However, while Bebop is as close to a household name as adult-oriented anime get in the States, director Shinichiro Watanabe’s other works have never found the same level of mainstream success, despite featuring much of the same stunning animation, beautiful music, and sharp post-modernist sensibility that made Bebop a hit.
If you’ve enjoyed Bebop, here’s a guide to help...
The VergeTwitter stops auto-refreshing timelines so tweets won’t disappear while you’re still reading them
Twitter has updated its web platform to prevent users’ feeds from auto-refreshing | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter has updated its platform to prevent auto-refreshing of users’ feeds that caused some tweets to “disappear” while they were reading them. The platform first announced it was working on the update in September, saying “we know it’s a frustrating experience” when tweets disappeared from view mid-read, and the fix is now rolling out to Twitter’s web platform. Users will be able to load new tweets by clicking on a tweet counter bar that will appear at the top of their timelines above existing tweets in their feed.
An update to the disappearing Tweet experience is rolling out for web! Now you can choose when you want new Tweets to load into your timeline –– click the Tweet counter bar at the top.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) N...
The VergeOprah went on Clubhouse; only 23K people tuned in
Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Happy Tuesday, peeps. We’re so close to Thanksgiving, I can taste the cornbread casserole. Yes, that is my dish, and yes, I’m from the Midwest. No further questions, please! We have a relatively light one today, which seems to be because many companies are taking it easy through the rest of the year. The social audio companies, however, are continuing to land the deals and make the news. No rest for the startups. Although I have lots of things to say about Spotify’s audiobook company acquisition from Thursday, I’m saving it for hopefully later this week. (If you work in the literary world and have some thoughts on the audiobook market, feel free to reach out!) Otherwise, let’s get to it.
The New York Timessays COVID misinformation is...
The Verge1Password 8 arrives on Windows with a new design and big performance improvements
1Password 8 now includes a dark mode for Windows. | Image: AgileBits
1Password is getting its first major design update in more than three years today, with the launch of 1Password 8 for Windows. It includes a new design with a dark mode that better matches some of the recent UI improvements across Windows 10 and Windows 11. 1Password is also now built on Rust, to improve performance.
The entire desktop app now looks a lot more like the web or 1Password browser extension interface, with updated item icons, detailed views for items and vaults, and a redesigned sidebar. There’s also a new quick find feature and improvements to search results to make it easier to find the login entry you need.
Image: AgileBits
The editing experience in 1Password 8 is a lot easier.
It’s also a lot...
The VergeDon’t take Nvidia’s word for it — try Nvidia’s awesome new image comparison tool, instead
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
Nvidia wants you to know that AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is a mere pretender, nothing like the Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technique its GPUs can use to boost the framerate and/or image quality of your games. To prove it, Nvidia is trying an interesting new tactic by releasing a remarkably powerful image comparison tool called Nvidia ICAT, for free, so that anyone can see for themselves.
ICAT, short for “Image Comparison And Analysis,” is a very simple program that lets you view a stack of gameplay screenshots and even recorded videos side-by-side, automatically lining up the frames, and allowing you to fluidly pan across each scene, zoom in and out, on all of those images or videos _simultaneously._It’s got a...
The VergeWindows 11’s Black Screen of Death is changing back to blue
Microsoft is changing its Black Screen of Death in Windows 11 back to the original blue color. The software giant originally changed its infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) to black in Windows 11 earlier this year, to match the new black logon and shutdown screens. It was the first major change to the BSOD since Microsoft added a sad face to the screen in Windows 8.
That change is now being reverted in a Windows 11 update that’s due to be released any day now. “We changed the screen color to blue when a device stops working or a stop error occurs as in previous versions of Windows,” admits Microsoft in recent patch notes, spotted by Windows Central, for the Windows 11 update.
Microsoft first introduced the BSOD in Windows 3.0, offering...
The VergeAmazon’s cashierless tech makes first appearance in a rival store outside the US
An Amazon Go store in the US in 2018. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Amazon has reportedly landed its first customer outside the US for its cashierless retail technology. According to Bloomberg News, the UK’s second largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s, will use Amazon’s system of AI-powered surveillance cameras to power a cashierless grocery store in London.
Sainsbury’s own FAQ for the store, which is reportedly due to open to the public on November 29, says that the technology is being provided by an unnamed “third-party supplier.” But _Bloomberg_says that supplier is Amazon, citing a source “familiar with the matter.” We reached out to Sainsbury’s for comment but the company provided only a generic statement saying it was “currently testing” cashierless tech at the store in question.
The shop,...
The VergeGoogle’s latest Maps features help you avoid the holiday shopping crowds
The “Busy area” label appears when you might encounter crowds. | Screenshot by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Google is adding a handful of new features to Google Maps in time for the holiday season, which collectively should make getting around a slightly less fraught experience. The new features were announced in a blog post today.
A new “Area Busyness” feature provides information on how popular neighborhoods are rather than just specific destinations, while the app’s “Directory” tab is rolling out globally to give more info on the stores and amenities _inside_locations like malls and airports. Google Maps is also expanding its grocery pickup tracking feature to cover more stores across the US, and is attempting to make its restaurant reviews more detailed.
Image: Google
The Directory tab gives information about stores...
The VergeFortnite’s Naruto collab includes more than just skins
Characters from_Naruto Shippuden_are joining_Fortnite._ | Image: Epic Games
After a tease last week, Fortnite’s highly anticipated collaboration with Narutois finally here. Starting Tuesday, you’ll be able to play as characters from the hugely popular anime series Naruto: Shippuden in Epic Games’ hit battle royale. There will be four Naruto characters that are now available in the in-game item shop — Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Kakashi Hatake — as well as a _Naruto_glider, two emotes, and two loading screens.
But Fortnite isn’t just getting Naruto skins. A throwable paper bomb kunai is being added as a weapon to the game. You’ll be able to meet Kakashi Hatake as an NPC on the Fortnite island and get quests from him. And there will be an entire Naruto-themed Creative map you can explore...
The VergeThe Balmuda Phone is a compact Android phone from a high-end toaster company
The Balmuda Phone has a 4.9-inch 16:9 1080p display.
Japanese design company Balmuda today announced its first smartphone at a press event in Tokyo. The straightforwardly titled Balmuda Phone is the debut product from Balmuda Technologies, a new division of the company previously known for stylish, premium home appliances like air purifiers and rice cookers. Balmuda’s toaster in particular has a cult following in Japan.
As you’d expect, the Balmuda Phone is quite a bit different to other phones on the market. CEO Gen Terao said on stage that he felt that smartphones have gotten too big and unwieldy in recent years, so the Balmuda Phone was designed with compactness and elegance as the primary goals. It has a very sharp 4.9-inch 16:9 1080p display and is roughly comparable to a 4.7-inch...
The VergeJPMorgan says Tesla owes the bank $162 million
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
JPMorgan has sued Tesla, claiming that the electric car company owes the bank $162 million related to a 2014 stock warrant agreement. The dispute centers around adjustments the companies made to the agreement following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s 2018 “[f]unding secured” tweet and the resulting fallout.
The lawsuit was filed late Monday in the Southern District of New York. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and has disbanded its US press team.
According to the suit, which was first reported by Reuters, JPMorgan purchased a number of warrants from Tesla in 2014 — back when the company was still trying to fund the construction of the original Gigafactory.
Stock warrants give the buyer (JPMorgan, in this case) a right...
The VergeIATSE members vote to ratify contracts that include better streaming pay
A major Hollywood union has voted to ratify a pair of contracts to improve labor conditions for production workers — though narrowly — after previously voting to authorize a strike over stalled negotiations with major studios.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced today its members narrowly voted to ratify both the Basic Agreement and the Area Standards Agreement, three-year contracts that included provisions for things like meal times and breaks, increased base pay for the union’s lowest-paid members, and better terms for productions from streaming services. Both votes were extraordinarily close, and the vote around the Basic Agreement, in particular, is contentious.
IATSE uses an electoral...
The VergePeloton is suing its rivals over its on-demand classes
Peloton’s on-demand classes and leaderboard are at the heart of both lawsuits. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Peloton isn’t too happy with its rivals. The company has filed lawsuits against Echelon and iFit, claiming each company violated patents related to Peloton’s on-demand classes, Bloomberg Law reports.
The issue at hand is that Peloton says Echelon and iFit are gaining “free rides” from its technology. In court documents, the company specifically pointed to its leaderboards and the ability to participate in live classes with other users. In its case against iFit, Peloton says that before it came along, iFit “only allowed subscribers to follow along with pre-recorded exercise classes on their machines, without any sort of community engagement.” It also takes issue with iFit’s ActivePulse and SmartAdjust features, which automatically adjust...
The VergeThe soundtrack for Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop hits streaming platforms on November 19th
Yoko Kanno and Cowboy Bebop star Daniella Pineda. | Image: Netflix
The early reaction to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebophas been mixed, but there’s one thing that everyone seems to agree on: the soundtrack is killer. Yoko Kanno, who gave the original anime its distinctive jazzy songs, returned as composer on the Netflix series, while her band the Seatbelts performed the tracks. The soundtrack includes a few original songs along with rerecorded classics. Thankfully, it’ll also be available to listen to outside of the show very soon. Netflix revealed that the soundtrack will be on streaming services — that includes Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon, and Tidal — starting November 19th, the same day the 10-episode series lands on Netflix.
In the meantime, you can enjoy this photo of C...
The VergeCanoo moves to Walmart’s hometown
Image: Canoo
EV startup Canoo is moving its headquarters from California to Walmart’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas — though it didn’t announce any deal with the retail giant. Canoo said it will open a new manufacturing facility in Bentonville but didn’t say much about what will be done there or who will build it. The startup also said Monday that it is moving up its timeline for making its first electric vehicles to “before Q4 2022.”
Canoo CEO Tony Aquila said it will use the Arkansas facility to make “vehicles for unique use cases” and accelerate its pre-production testing program. It still plans to build a factory outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, which it announced in June. Moving forward, Canoo said it will have parts of its R&D, software...
The VergeDisney’s text-to-speech TikTok voices censored words like “gay” and “lesbian”
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
TikTokers have demonstrated that Disney’s text-to-speech TikTok voice, meant to sound like Rocket the Raccoon, would refuse to read words like “gay,” “lesbian,” or “queer” out loud. This decision seems to have been reverted — you can now get the voice to read out those words, but it’s unclear why it was happening. The change, however, is very recent — The Verge confirmed that the voice wouldn’t say the words, but it started to do so in a subsequent test minutes later on Monday afternoon. TikTok hasn’t commented on why this happened, but videos posted to highlight the issue still have the words blanked out.
Rocket’s voice was introduced to TikTok’s text-to-speech feature as part of a Disney Plus Day promotion last week. Other voices, like...
The VergeAmazon fined $500,000 for failing to notify California workers about COVID-19 cases
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon has been ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 for hiding the number of COVID-19 cases at its California workplaces from employees. First reported by the Los Angeles Times, the company agreed to pay the fine and improve the way it tracks cases and notifies workers and local health agencies. Amazon must also inform its warehouse workers in California of the “exact number of new COVID-19 cases in their workplaces” when cases arise.
This is the first fine related to California’s COVID “right to know” legislation
California attorney general Rob Bonta said in a press release that the penalty comes after a complaint filed against Amazon alleged that the company didn’t properly notify warehouse workers and local health agencies about new...
The VergeElizabeth Holmes will take your $1.2 million but not your phone calls
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty Images
We met an investor who won’t take a hint — or even a command
The VergeFaraday Future launches investigation into financial fraud allegations
Faraday Future is launching an investigation into recent allegations of financial fraud at the startup, including claims from a recent short-seller report by J Capital. The EV startup’s board of directors has formed a “special committee of independent directors,” which has hired a law firm to perform the investigation.
J Capital had accused Faraday Future of lying about the number of reservations it had collected for its ultra-expensive electric SUV, the FF91. It also accused Faraday Future’s founder Jia Yueting of unfairly benefitting from the startup’s recent public listing, which it accomplished after merging with a special purpose acquisition company.
“Faraday Future seeks to do business in the most ethical and transparent way,” the...
The VergeThe US finally adopts a national recycling strategy
A worker carries bags of used drink cans and bottles for recycling at a collection point in Brooklyn on October 18, 2021. | Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new national recycling strategy today, the agency’s first ever such commitment, according to the Washington Post.
It’s a roadmap for the US to achieve a goal of recycling at least half of its municipal waste by the end of the decade. That’s a steep rise considering the US’ recycling rate has actually declined since 2015, and was only at about 32 percent of all municipal waste in 2018 (the most recent year for which there’s EPA data).
The recycling plans the EPA announced today are just the first piece in “a series” of forthcoming documents the agency plans to release to work towards a “circular economy,” or an economy where resources are recovered and reused to make new products rather...