The Verge
An artistic rendering of the DART spacecraft approaching Dimorphos | Image: NASA/John Hopkins APL
Takeoff of DART is scheduled for 1:21AM ET on November 24th
The Verge
Image: Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel Studios
Hawkeye is a few different things. It’s a chance to spend more time with one of the lesser-known Avengers, it’s an origin story for an up-and-coming hero, and it’s a detective drama set amidst the backdrop of Christmas in New York City as the MCU adds yet another genre to its all-enveloping fold. Most importantly, though, it’s a Marvel series that doesn’t take itself too seriously — making the first two episodes unexpectedly fun.
This review contains some light spoilers for the first two episodes of Hawkeye.
Though it’s named after the bow-wielding Avenger, Hawkeye really is a story about two people. Yes, one of those is Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), a surly hero and one-time vigilante who is now doing his best to enjoy life with his...
The Verge
Electric boat startup Arc has raised $30 million just five months after coming out of stealth mode and has started putting its first prototype through its paces. The Series A funding round was led by Greg Reichow, a partner at Eclipse Ventures and a former vice president of production at Tesla. The round also includes existing Arc investors like Andreessen Horowitz and celebrities like Will Smith, Kevin Durant, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, who first put money into the startup in October through their own funds.
Arc aims to sell a limited number of its first electric boat, the 24-foot Arc One, at an extraordinary price of $300,000 before moving on to making more affordable boats. It plans to justify that price by promising a much lower cost of...
The Verge
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
In the fight against ongoing allegations of harassment, discrimination, and complaints of insufficient action to address such allegations, Activision Blizzard’s board of directors has announced that the publisher is forming a new committee.
The Activision Blizzard board of directors today announced that it has formed a ‘Workplace Responsibility Committee,’ initially comprised of two independent directors, to oversee the company’s progress in successfully implementing its new policies, procedures, and commitments to improve workplace culture and eliminate all forms of harassment and discrimination at the company.
The press release — delivered at an extremely late hour during an employee holiday week granted hours before the release of a...
The Verge
Croatian electric bike manufacturer Greyp Bikes has a new majority shareholder: Porsche. The sports car manufacturer’s venture capital arm, Porsche Ventures, has held a stake of around 10 percent in the e-bike company since 2018.
Greyp (pronounced like the fruit) was founded Mate Rimac — aka “Croatia’s Elon Musk” — the brainchild behind electric supercar startup Rimac Automobili. The company makes highly connected, extremely powerful electric mountain bikes, including the $10,000 flagship, full-suspension G6. The company sells its bikes in Europe and recently launched its US operations based in San Pedro, Calif.
The investment is another sign of Porsche’s confidence in Rimac’s business prowess
The investment is another sign of...
The Verge
Photo by Reddit
Reddit will shut down its short-form video platform, Dubsmash, on February 22nd, 2022. After February, the app will no longer be available on apps stores and will stop functioning on devices that already have the app.
A competitor to TikTok, Dubsmash was acquired by Reddit late last year with the purpose of embedding its video creation tools into the larger platform. Now that the integration is nearing completion, Reddit is introducing a slew of new video creation tools to its own TikTok-like video feed, courtesy of the Dubsmash team that came over with the buyout.
“Our primary focus, in terms of the acquisition, was around bringing in the expertise from the team, as well as bringing in the technology that we had built over the past five...
The Verge
2015’s Fairphone 2. | Photo by James Vincent / The Verge
Sustainable smartphone manufacturer Fairphone has released an Android 10 update for the six-year-old Fairphone 2, a device that originally launched with Android 5 in 2015. The update is in beta for the time being, but the company says it hopes to release a stable version early next year. Alongside it, the company also plans to start beta testing an Android 11 update for the 2019 Fairphone 3 and 2020 Fairphone 3 Plus.
Although getting an Android update two years after its original release wouldn’t normally be cause for celebration, it’s basically unheard of for an Android manufacturer to still be updating a handset six years after its original release. Only Apple comes close to these kinds of support periods and recently released its...
The Verge
Getting the LG C1 OLED TV won’t be cheap, but it’s among the best options out there. | LG
4K TVs of all sizes and specs see price cuts several times throughout the year, but the time when we usually see the highest concentration of stellar deals is right now, as Black Friday hits and Cyber Monday is just around the bend. You’ve ended up in the right place if you’re looking for a TV deal, and yes, that includes people interested in a TV that has every bell or whistle, with the highest contrast ratio and the right features to eke all of the visual splendor from PCs and the latest gaming consoles or something that’s quite the opposite. We’ll be highlighting affordable TVs, too.
Our team at The Verge is hard at work on compiling the best Black Friday deals, running the gamut of retailers participating, as well as breaking it down...
The Verge
Photo by Spotify
Spotify has introduced a new hub that’s home to all the music from Netflix’s shows and movies. A post on Spotify’s newsroom explains that both free and premium users can access the Netflix hub by searching for “Netflix” on Spotify.
There, you’ll find official playlists from Netflix TV shows like La Casa de Papel, On My Block, and Bridgerton, along with the official soundtracks from Cowboy Bebop, Bruised, Squid Game, and more. It also includes some of Netflix’s official podcasts, such as Okay, Now Listen, Netflix Is a Daily Joke,10/10 (Would Recommend), and The Crown: The Official Podcast, all of which you can access from this single location.
Spotify has rolled out an “enhanced album experience” for Netflix’s The Harder They Fall
S...
The Verge
Microsoft has created an Xbox metaverse museum where you can roam around and discover the history of Xbox consoles. It’s designed to celebrate 20 years of Xbox and includes some infamous mistakes like the Xbox 360 red ring of death or Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Nintendo in spring 2000.
As you roam around this Xbox museum, you’ll see fellow Xbox players interacting with the digital exhibits and charting the progress of the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and the latest Xbox Series X / S consoles. Each moment in the 20-year timeline has an associated story, usually with a video documenting the milestone.
The Xbox museum is a metaverse full of achievements and failures.
There’s even a personal Xbox museum, so if...
The Verge
For years, Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise has been split in half. There’s the game and animated film series built closely around Shinji Mikami’s 1996 survival horror game. Then there’s the live-action series, a half-dozen barely related blockbusters starring Milla Jovovich. But the newly released Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City aims to change that. It’s a jump-scare-filled live-action adaptation of the earliest Resident Evil games, and it plays out like a 107-minute fan film — which isn’t entirely a bad thing.
The following includes mild narrative and thematic spoilers.
Welcome to Raccoon City, written and directed by Johannes Roberts, merges the plots and characters of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. In the year 1998, the...
The Verge
Wireless earbuds make a great holiday gift for others or yourself. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
One of the most sought-after gifts every holiday — at least, ever since Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone — has been true wireless earbuds. They are often the favored listening device of many people because they offer the most convenience, and they’re a product category that frequently goes on sale. Full-size headphones offer superior sound, and those have their fair share of early Black Friday discounts to be had, but most casual listeners often prefer earbuds.
Here, we have rounded up all the best early Black Friday deals we can find on wireless earbuds from Apple, Samsung, Bose, Jabra, Beats, and even Google, as well as a couple of lesser-known brands. Each has its own unique qualities or value proposition to...
The Verge
Acast
Hello, hello. Welcome back to Tuesday; I hope everyone has found ways to keep “working” ahead of the holiday and isn’t daydreaming too much about the hoards of food we here in the US will be eating in just a couple days. Today’s issue is a hodgepodge of things — a nice mix. Today, we’re talking about what happens when a podcast app gets acquired, ExxonMobil “duping” The Daily, and more.
EXCLUSIVE: Acast acquired RadioPublic in February; now podcasters say the company has gone dark on them
In February, Acast, the Europe-based hosting and monetization company, acquired RadioPublic, a podcast player and company known for its creator-centric technology. The acquisition was billed to me as a way for Acast to take over the podcast space and...
The Verge
One of the best affordable smart speakers you can get is just $20 today. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
If our roundup of the best early Black Friday deals under $50 was outside your budget, don’t worry: there’s also plenty you can buy for under $25. Several retailers are now heavily discounting popular tech products in the short lead-up to Black Friday, discounting everything from Bluetooth trackers and smart speakers to the latest gaming subscriptions.
For your convenience, we’ve curated a list of some of the best sub-$25 options below. If you’re looking for more holiday gift ideas that won’t break the bank, however, we’ve also put together separate budget-based gift guides for items under $25 and $50.
For iPhone owners planning on traveling this holiday season, Amazon’s offering a great deal on Apple’s official AirTag Loop. Given that...
The Verge
The $499 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and $579 AMD Radeon RX 6800 are still selling well above MSRP. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Sony, Microsoft, Nvidia and AMD say they’re doing everything in their power to put a console or graphics card in your hands. But judging by eBay resale prices, their best won’t be nearly good enough this holiday season. One year after the next generation of gaming was supposed to arrive (narrator: it did not) people are still forking out hundreds of dollars over MSRP for a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, and and they’re often still paying double what a new PC graphics card was originally supposed to cost.
Remember March 2020, when I told you how the two graphics cards in the photo above were worth a combined $2,570 on the open market? That was a shocking leap compared to the $1,660 total they could fetch in December 2020, already well...
The Verge
Qualcomm reportedly has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Windows on Arm licenses. The pair launched Windows on Arm laptops in 2016, and so far we haven’t seen any devices launch without a Qualcomm chip. _XDA-Developers_reports that Qualcomm has had an exclusivity deal on Windows on Arm, but that it’s set to expire soon.
The report comes days after MediaTek held its executive summit with members of the media last week, where it shared its ambitions to build its own chip for Windows on Arm PCs.
If Microsoft’s exclusivity deal is about to end with Qualcomm, this could open the door for many more vendors supporting Windows on Arm. Samsung, MediaTek, and even Apple’s M1 chips could eventually support Windows on Arm.
P...
The Verge
Samsung already has a presence in Austin, Texas. | Image: Samsung
Samsung is expected to officially announce a new advanced chip-making plant in Texas later today, that’s estimated to cost around $17 billion and could create 1,800 jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new plant will reportedly be located in the city of Taylor, roughly 30 miles away from Austin, where Samsung has an existing facility. The new site is roughly 1,200 acres in size, making it larger than Samsung’s Austin plant, the _WSJ_notes.
The announcement could come as soon as 5pm local time today, when Gov. Greg Abbott is due to make an “economic announcement.” However, the plant isn’t expected to actually start producing chips until the end of 2024, according to previous filings. Eventually, Samsung is expected to begin using the...
The Verge
Microsoft’s new emoji for Windows 11. | Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is making its Fluent-style emoji available in Windows 11 this week. A new optional update for the OS is rolling out that includes a number of important bug fixes and the new emoji Microsoft previewed earlier this year. While it’s a totally new style, it’s not the 3D look that Microsoft previously promised — the company opted for 2D instead.
The new emoji in Windows 11 includes the return of Clippy, as Microsoft has replaced the standard paperclip emoji with its Clippy character. The emoji have also been redesigned to include bright and saturated colors, but lack the 3D aspects that made them pop.
“The new emoji style is only available in Windows 11 and is 2D,” explains Microsoft in a quiet update to its design blog from July....
The VergeThe ecosystem isn’t quite ready
The Verge
Image: Roku
Roku says it’s working to fix issues that users have been reporting following its 10.5 software update. TechCrunch reported the problems earlier on Monday, citing posts on Reddit and Roku forums where users said that apps like HBO Max, ESPN, Disney Plus, and more wouldn’t allow them to watch any video content after updating the OS on their smart TVs.
According to Roku, “certain older Roku TV models or older Roku Ultra players” are affected by the problematic update. In a post on its forum, the company instructs users with Roku Ultra models 4660, 4661, 4662, or 4670, and users with a Roku TV model 7XXX to manually check for a software update, and tells owners of other devices to subscribe to the thread for future details.
System update...
The Verge
Sony just got a restock of the PS5 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
If you’re still trying to get your hands on a PlayStation 5, lining up at Sony’s digital storefront is one of the more reliable ways to snag Sony’s next-gen console. Sony has reopened the digital queue on its direct store to place orders for the $500 disc-based PlayStation 5, as well as the $400 PlayStation 5 Digital Edition.
Provided you’ve already registered and logged into your PlayStation account, you should be able to line up once you’ve hit the landing page. Once you’ve entered the queue, you’ll be given an ETA of when you’ll be able to check out and, once that timer hits zero, it's all systems go. It's no secret that these consoles go quick and getting into the queue doesn’t necessarily guarantee a console, but Sony’s direct store...
The Verge
Photo by AMY OSBORNE/AFP via Getty Images
“A success was that we had successfully achieved the objectives of the program.”
The Verge
DoorDash settled with San Francisco for $5.3 million | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Food delivery platform DoorDash has agreed to pay $5.3 million to the city of San Francisco to settle allegations it failed to provide healthcare and paid sick leave to some 4,500 delivery drivers, as the city requires. The company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, most of which will be used to reimburse drivers who made deliveries in the city between 2016 and 2020, before a new state law covering gig workers took effect.
California’s gig workers law, which voters approved in November 2020 as ballot measure Proposition 22, allows companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to treat workers as independent contractors, not employees. A judge ruled in August that the law was unconstitutional, but it remains in effect pending...
The Verge
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Tile popularized marking items and tracking them from your phone with its small Bluetooth tags, but is suddenly facing more competition from giants like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung. Now the company that started out of an incubator and crowdfunding campaign has announced it will be acquired by Life360, which calls itself a “leading family safety platform.” The deal is valued at $205 million and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
Tile has developed its product line over the years with a variety of different trackers, as well as partnerships with other companies to use its technology. However, the game may have changed once Apple and Google started building their own item-locating features into iPhones and Android...
The Verge
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve Verizon Wireless’ purchase of Tracfone in a deal worth more than $6 billion, positioning Verizon to become one of the largest prepaid service providers in the US.
Tracfone is the largest reseller of wireless devices in the US and maintains over 20 million subscribers with more than 90,000 retail locations. Verizon’s Tracfone acquisition combines the largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) with the largest wireless provider in the country. When Verizon first proposed the deal last September, the company said that the acquisition would bolster Tracfone’s networks while making low-income wireless services more competitive.
“After rigorous review, the Commission found...
The Verge
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...
The Verge
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon and EA will be giving away free PC games and content through Amazon’s Prime Gaming program for the next few months, so it may be time to check in on the gaming service if you’ve forgotten that it comes included with Prime. This month, Prime subscribers will be able to get a free Origin code for the surprisingly decent remaster of 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Amazon says that four more of EA’s “most popular titles” will be coming in 2022 (though given the starting game, it may be worth keeping your expectations in check).
If it’s still November when you’re reading this, you can also snag EA’s Dragon Age Inquisition for free from Prime Gaming. Amazon’s partnership with EA also includes skins for games like Apex Legends...
The Verge
Just last week, Walmart made headlines by launching its first commercial US drone delivery service within a 50-mile radius of Pea Ridge, Arkansas — dropping parachute-laden packages from an autonomous Zipline plane to a “hand-selected group of recipients.” Now, it’s already expanding those drone deliveries in another, small way: customers who live in Farmington, Arkansas, can now order small items like cans of tuna, baby supplies, and paper plates starting today. That’s thanks to a partnership with DroneUp, which will also provide drone delivery stations in Rogers, AR and Bentonville, AR “in the coming months.”
While it’s kind of exciting for drone delivery watchers, you should know that it’s also very much baby steps. DroneUp’s...
The Verge
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Dodge will cease production of its gas-powered Charger sedan and Challenger coupe in 2024 in order to make way for the automaker’s first electric vehicles.
Dodge Brand CEO Tim Kuniskis shed some new light on the timeline in an interview this week with Motor Trend. The company will roll out its first electric muscle concept car in 2022, followed by a plug-in hybrid vehicle and a mysterious third vehicle.
Dodge had previously announced its intention to produce its first EV in 2024 during a July event covering electric vehicle strategy by the automaker’s parent company, Stellantis. During the event, Kuniskis proclaimed that Dodge would not “sell electric cars — it will sell eMuscle,” which is apparently Dodge branding for its future EVs....
The Verge
Microsoft is currently offering savings across the Surface lineup. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft has kicked off its Black Friday sales offering some solid discounts on its line of Surface laptops and related accessories, with some models being discounted by as much as $600. Many of these models are also available as a bundle deal that allows you to get discounts on services like Microsoft 365 and accessories like the Surface Headphones 2 and the Surface Pen.
While some of these extras only receive a discount if you purchase them as part of a bundle, we’ve included a few of the accessories you can buy individually that are currently marked down. And if you’re looking for more sweet deals this week, make sure to check out our Black Friday hub in addition to our roundup of the best early Black Friday deals.
The top-tier...