GTA Trilogy’s next big patch fixes spelling errors, rain, and CJ’s face covering the camera

The patch apparently fixes some problems with rain. | Image: Rockstar

Rockstar’s next Title Update for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition looks to address a huge list of issues with the buggy remasters.

The game has had a rough launch, and many of the fixes appear to clean up some of the more meme-worthy problems with the games. A lot of the fixes are about rain. Many spelling errors have apparently been fixed. I spotted two fixes for “a hole in the game world” in _Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition._There are also two fixes for CJ’s face obscuring the camera in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition, which (sadly) may address the absolutely incredible bug shown in this video:

I've changed my mind, the GTA remasters are perfect.

(this is looking...

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BMW shows off its new XM hybrid concept vehicle

The BMW Concept XM | BMW

BMW has revealed a new concept plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the first in its M class to get an electric motor, the company announced. The BMW XM will go into production at the company’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant beginning in late 2022, the company said in a news release.

The concept BMW XM has a V8 engine combined with an electric motor to provide 750 horsepower and 737 foot-pounds of torque. BMW spokesman Jay Hanson clarified in an email to The Verge that while the production version of the XM will have a V8 engine paired with a plug-in hybrid system, “horsepower and torque figures should be considered preliminary at this time.”

The company said the unusual front-end design, with two large nostril-shaped openings, shows off...

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Netflix’s genre slate for 2022 includes The Sandman and The Witcher: Blood Origin

Netflix still has some big releases in store this year — including Don’t Look Up and the second season of The Witcher — but the streaming service is also looking forward to its 2022 lineup. Today, the company released its slate for genre shows and movies coming next year, and while we knew some of them (last month, Netflix revealed that Stranger Things 4 would be coming out next summer), there were also some new confirmations. Most notably, both the live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and The Witcher spinoff Blood Origin will debut on the streaming service in 2022.

Outside of those heavy hitters, there are also plenty of shows returning — Alice in Borderland’s season 2, Locke & Key season 3, The Umbrella Academy season 3...

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Square Enix warns players that servers might struggle with FFXIV’s next big expansion

With Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker launching in early access this week and officially on December 7th, Square Enix is warning players that they might face the longest log-in queues and wait times the game has ever seen.

In a blog post, Square Enix stated that while it has optimized servers in anticipation of heavy traffic, the global chip shortage has prevented the addition of new servers that would help alleviate congestion problems. As such, players can expect to wait longer than normal to log into game servers, visit new Endwalker specific areas, and experience instanced content-like duties.

Square Enix also offered tips that players can use to ensure their Endwalker experience is the best it can be. If players are experiencing higher...

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Elon Musk says Raptor engine production is a ‘disaster’ that puts SpaceX at risk of bankruptcy

Photo by PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

On Black Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent an anxious email to his company’s employees, urging them to work over the weekend on SpaceX’s Raptor engine line and describing the production situation as a “crisis.” In the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, Musk argued that the company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if production doesn’t increase to support a high flight rate of the company’s new Starship rocket next year.

The Raptor is SpaceX’s massive methane engine that will be used to propel the company’s next-generation launch system, called Starship. SpaceX plans to use Starship to take people to deep space, and in April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop Starship as a lunar lander to transport...

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Twitter bans posting pictures of ‘private individuals’ against their wishes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter will now let private individuals request takedowns of pictures or videos featuring them. The company announced the change this morning, extending an existing ban on private information to cover media. It’s aimed at preventing harassment or invasions of privacy and includes exceptions for posts that are “shared in the public interest or add value to public discourse.”

“Sharing personal media, such as images or videos, can potentially violate a person’s privacy, and may lead to emotional or physical harm,” reads a Twitter Safety blog post announcing the change. “The misuse of private media can affect everyone, but can have a disproportionate effect on women, activists, dissidents, and members of minority communities.” Twitter will...

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Google engineers claim they were fired for following its ‘don’t be evil’ policy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Three ex-Google employees claim that Google has a contractual obligation to abide by its well-known “don’t be evil” policy, and they are suing the company for allegedly terminating them for calling out Google’s “evil” doings, via NPR.

“Don’t be evil” has been a part of Google’s Code of Conduct since the early 2000s

The former workers Sophie Waldman, Rebecca Rivers, and Paul Duke were fired — in addition to a fourth employee, Laurence Berland — in November 2019 for allegedly violating the company’s data security policies, however, they claim they didn’t leak any confidential information. Earlier this year, the acting head of the National Labor Relations Board said that Google “arguably violated” US labor laws by firing the three...

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Razer’s Qualcomm-powered handheld console leaks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Qualcomm appears to be collaborating with Razer on a new gaming handheld developer kit built around its upcoming Snapdragon G3X processor. Leaked slides published by VideoCardz call the device a “Snapdragon G3X Handheld Developer Kit,” suggesting it will primarily be aimed at software developers and manufacturers to help them build their own software and hardware powered by Qualcomm’s mobile gaming technology.

Alongside it, VideoCardz has also obtained slides detailing Qualcomm’s next flagship smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The name shows off Qualcomm’s new branding for its mobile chips announced last month. The processor will reportedly be manufactured using a 4nm process, with a CPU that’s 20 percent faster and 30...

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How an Excel TikToker manifested her way to making six figures a day

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Taking an unconventional route to a conventional business

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Procedural storytelling is exploding the possibilities of video game narratives

Unexplored 2: The Wayfarer’s Legacy.

Authorship takes on an all-new meaning in games where the plot is yet to be written

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A dating app — not Facebook or Clubhouse — cracked getting audio to go viral

Hello! I’m back from Thanksgiving break and now have mashed potatoes for brains. Really, I’ve eaten mashed potatoes five days in a row. I can stop, but I won’t stop until the leftovers are gone. Anyway, in between mashed potato servings, I did my best to “log off” and not think about audio — no offense — so instead, I binged the entire new season of Selling Sunset and played many crosswords. I’m back for you now, though, and we have a big issue ahead. We’re talking about how a dating app stumbled upon viral audio success, and I chatted with the CEO of podcasting’s latest $100 million-funded company, Podimo. Plus, an update to my RadioPublic story from last week and new Apple charts. Lots! Of! Stuff(ing)! On we go.

EXCLUSIVE: Hinge makes...

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NASA delays spacewalk due to threat of space debris

The International Space Station | Image: NASA

Early this morning, NASA postponed a spacewalk scheduled to occur outside the International Space Station today, after getting word of a possible safety threat from some nearby space debris. It’s unclear where the debris is coming from, but the delay comes about two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in orbit, creating thousands of dangerous fragments that threatened the space station.

NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn were all set to don spacesuits and leave the confines of the ISS this morning at around 7:10AM ET, in order to replace an antenna on the outside of the station. It would have been the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn and the first for Barron.

NASA says that it didn’t have enough time to...

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The best Cyber Monday deals you can still get

If you missed out on a few great deals during Cyber Monday or Black Friday, don’t worry, you still have another chance to save big on some popular tech products. It’s “Cyber Week,” meaning that many retailers are still delivering some of the best deals of the year for you to grab all week long. Below, we’ve curated some of the top discounts you can still take advantage of on wireless noise-canceling headphones, earbuds, phones, laptops, TVs, video games, and more. Take a look, and if you like what you see, you may want to buy the product sooner than later. These particular deals could disappear at a moment’s notice.

If they do sell out, fret not. It’s very likely that December will bring some repeat deals, plus new sales because of the...

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The NBA is partnering with Infinite Objects to put your Top Shot NFTs on display IRL

NBA Top Shot moments are one of the most high-profile NFT successes so far, part of the initial early hype wave for the blockchain-based art that’s become one of the biggest buzzwords of 2021. And thanks to a new partnership with Infinite Objects, Top Shot owners will soon be able to immortalize their favorite clips in the real world with officially licensed looping video frames from Infinite Objects.

Starting today, Top Shot owners will be able to log into Infinite Object’s portal, connect their Dapper account, view all their currently owned moments, and order a “Video Print” of the clip. Only the owner of an NBA Top Shot moment will be able to buy an Infinite Object frame with the associated video clip on it, and each frame will come...

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iRobot Roomba update uses AI to avoid knocking over your Christmas tree

The Roomba j7 Plus, released this year. | Image: iRobot

iRobot has released a holiday-themed update for its latest robot vacuum cleaners to help them handle the cleaning demands of Christmas trees. The j7 and j7 Plus robovacs can also now identify and avoid shoes and socks.

The festive trees, shoes, and socks feature builds upon iRobot’s latest navigation and control software, which first released in August last year. This software uses machine vision to identify furniture and specify “clean zones.” For example, you might have a dining table you want a Roomba to specifically clean under after chaotic family meals. There are also “keep out zones” which a Roomba might suggest avoiding, like the area under a TV stand filled with cables for it to get caught on.

Mapping data can now be...

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Rocket League’s mobile spinoff is now available worldwide

Rocket League Sideswipe, a mobile version of the popular car-based soccer game, is now available on iOS and Android. The game started rolling out on November 15th in Oceania, but is now available worldwide, albeit in a “pre-season” mode ahead of Season 1’s kickoff at an unannounced later date, according to 9to5Google.

The free to play game, which was first announced in March, is a simplified version of the original Rocket League released in 2015. The biggest change is that the mobile version is played in 2D, rather than offering a fully three-dimensional stadium to drive around. You control your car with a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen, while buttons on the right handle jumping and boost. with touch controls.

Rocket...

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BBC iPlayer finally arrives on PS5 with 4K support

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The BBC is finally bringing its iPlayer app to the PS5 in the UK today, more than a year after the console’s original release. Brits have been waiting patiently for BBC iPlayer on the PS5, especially as the app is already available on more than 15,000 devices, including Xbox Series X / S consoles.

The BBC iPlayer app is now available in the media tab on the PS5 home screen, and it includes support for streaming 4K content from the service. “From today, PS5 owners can add the BBC iPlayer app by going to the Media tab on the PS5 home screen and selecting BBC iPlayer from the All Apps section,” explains Neil Hall, head of product at BBC iPlayer. “This will add BBC iPlayer to the apps library and make it available to use direct from the...

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Meta ordered to sell Giphy by UK regulator

Meta, the company formally known as “Facebook.” | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The UK’s competition regulator has officially ruled that Facebook parent company Meta’s acquisition of Giphy should be unwound, a year and a half after the social media giant first said it was acquiring the popular GIF-making and sharing website. In a press release, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that it had come to the decision after its investigation found an acquisition could harm competition between social media platforms, and that its concerns “can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety to an approved buyer.”

The CMA said the acquisition could be used to deny or limit other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs and drive more traffic to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. It also raised concerns that...

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FIFA is trialling limb-tracking tech to catch offside players

Photo by Harriet Lander/Getty Images

FIFA, the global governing body of the sport variously known as football and soccer, is trialling new technology that tracks players’ limbs to detect whether they’re in an offside position. The system will be employed at the 2021 Arab Cup, which kicks off today in Qatar, the host of next year’s World Cup.

FIFA calls the system “semi-automatic offside technology.” It involves a camera setup installed on the roof of the stadium, with limb data extracted from the video and sent to the match officials’ operating room so the offside line can be calculated in real time. The BBC reports that 10 to 12 cameras collect up to 29 data points for each player 50 times a second.

Semi-automated offside technology explained ahead of FIFA Arab Cup....

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Elizabeth Holmes says Theranos’ former president abused her

Getty

“I have molded you,” Sunny Balwani texted

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Jack steps back

Photo by MARCO BELLO/AFP via Getty Images

One day in 2011, Jack Dorsey called an all-hands meeting at Twitter. The company was in the middle of a push to redesign Twitter’s mobile apps, and the effort had led to anger and burnout. Dorsey, who had co-founded the company in 2006 with Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass, was then serving as its executive chairman.

The company prepared for what it assumed would be a pep talk from the most eccentric of Twitter’s co-founders. And they got one, of a sort. As the meeting began, the lights at Twitter headquarters dimmed. An acoustic guitar began playing over speakers. Dorsey encouraged everyone to listen to the lyrics.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting...

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Ludwig, the streamer who broke the all-time Twitch subs record this year, is moving to YouTube Gaming

Ludwig posted a video announcing the move Monday. | Image: Ludwig (via YouTube)

Ludwig Ahgren, a streamer perhaps best known for his month-long subathon that took place earlier this year, is moving from Twitch to stream exclusively on YouTube Gaming. Ahgren’s first stream on YouTube will take place tomorrow, November 30th.

Ludwig leaves behind a significant presence on Twitch. He has 3.1 million followers, and TwitchTracker’s metrics indicate he has more than 27,000 subscribers as of this writing. And by the end of his subathon, he had broken the all-time Twitch subs record — TwitchTracker says he peaked at 283,066 subscribers. But he won’t be starting from nothing on YouTube, where he already has 2.08 million subscribers.

:) pic.twitter.com/717LGs0Cvk

— ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) November 29, 2021

Ahgren is the...

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eBay purchases sneaker authentication service Sneaker Con

Image: eBay

eBay has bought out sneaker authentication service Sneaker Con, a company that gives sneaker-lovers the peace of mind that the kicks they’re purchasing are real. The acquisition builds upon eBay’s existing relationship with the service, which began back in October 2020 when eBay first launched its sneaker vetting process.

When select sneaker brands are purchased for over $100 on eBay, the shoes go through Sneaker Con before reaching the buyer. There, the sneakers are thoroughly vetted by experts who ensure that the sneakers are authentic and match the description of the original listing.

1.55 million sneakers have been authenticated on eBay

The sneakers are then sent to the buyers with tags showing that they’ve been verified. eBay notes...

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Many T-Mobile customers report they can’t call Verizon, AT&T, or other T-Mobile numbers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile customers have been reporting issues making and receiving calls all afternoon, with problems frequently linked to Verizon numbers. This all started around 2PM ET this afternoon, with hotspots showing in most major metro areas on Downdectector. Initial reports suggested Verizon might be having issues, but Verizon spokesperson Kevin King tells The Verge that its network is operating “business as usual.”

User reports indicate T-Mobile is having problems since 1:49 PM EST. https://t.co/LExjRid785 RT if you're also having problems #TMobiledown

— Downdetector (@downdetector) November 29, 2021

Image by Downdetector

Downdetector map showing T-Mobile outage concentrated along the East Coast and Midwest.

A n...

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xCloud’s new Clarity Boost promises clearer streams, but it’s only on Edge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft’s new Clarity Boost feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming (aka xCloud) is intended to make your cloud gaming streams a little bit less fuzzy, but it will only be available on the company’s Edge browser.

Clarity Boost “uses a set of client-side scaling improvements to improve the visual quality of the video stream,” Microsoft’s Milena Gonzalez said in a blog post. I tried Clarity Boost in a few games, and I felt that it made a noticeable difference. Games were generally less blurry, and many smaller details like leaves and bricks looked much sharper than they do with Clarity Boost off. It doesn’t dramatically change the way games look, in my opinion, but if you want xCloud games to be a little more clear, I’d recommend flipping Clarity...

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An introduction to Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s new CEO

Twitter has a new CEO: Parag Agrawal, who’ll be taking over for Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the longest-serving chief executive in the company’s 15-plus-year history.

Agrawal isn’t the most well-known of names either inside or outside of Twitter. He’s been with the company for over a decade, though, working his way up from an engineer to become its top executive (and a close friend of Dorsey’s). Agrawal first started at Twitter back in October 2011 with a focus on ad products, and he became the first recipient of the company’s “Distinguished Engineer” title. He was later appointed chief technology officer in October 2017, during which time he’s jumped in to address high-profile problems (like a large-scale password security issue)...

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Four more gaming PCs you might actually buy for an RTX 3080 Ti, 3070 Ti, or 3060 Ti on Cyber Monday

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

On Black Friday, I introduced you to an extremely curated selection of gaming PCs that might actually be good value for the money and deliver serious GPU oomph at a time when those GPUs are incredibly expensive and hard to find. Let’s do it again for Cyber Monday, shall we?

RTX 3080 Ti — $2,400

If you’re looking for Nvidia’s top gaming card — because while the RTX 3090 exists, it’s overkill — HP’s Omen 30L is perhaps the best all-around prebuilt deal. There’s one specific system you can nab for $2,399 with the powerful 4K graphics card and a powerful Core i7-11700K chip, and it doesn’t skimp on the memory or storage this time around: you get 32GB of RAM, a 512GB solid-state drive, and a 2TB hard drive, all powered by an 800W Gold PSU.

S...

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Amazon must redo Bessemer union election, orders labor board official

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered a new election at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama site, a tentative victory for organizers who had sought to unionize workers at the company’s fulfillment locations. The decision, issued by the regional director overseeing the case, builds on a previous recommendation from the hearing officer assigned to the case.

“I agree with the hearing officer’s recommendations,” Monday’s decision reads. “Accordingly, I affirm the hearing officer’s rulings, I adopt her recommendation to sustain certain objections, and I order a second election.”

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I order a second election”

No date has been set for the second election, and Amazon will have ten...

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Amazon and Target play ‘outsized’ role in port congestion and pollution, report finds

Container ships at anchor outside the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. | Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Amazon and Target are playing a big role in the port pollution crisis along the US West Coast, according to a report published today. These retail giants are among the top importers in the US and rely heavily on shipping routes between China and California.

Communities near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have some of the worst air quality in the nation thanks in large part to Americans’ shopping habits. Online shopping, which increased during the pandemic, has made the situation worse. So has the supply chain crisis that’s caused traffic jams just offshore of the twin ports, which make up the busiest port complex in the Western Hemisphere.

“It is past time to hold these retailers accountable for their responsibilities at the...

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It’s time to study the health impacts of TikTok, researchers say

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

People have flocked to TikTok in droves over the past few years — but research into the social media giant’s potential health impacts hasn’t kept up. Despite the fact that TikTok now has over 1 billion users, public health researchers know very little about the health effects it might be having on the platform’s (mostly young) users. That’s concerning, because researchers know social media platforms can be harmful, especially to the health of some groups of teens and adolescents.

“The platform is so massive, but there’s almost no scholarly investigation into it,” says Marco Zenone, a health policy researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Zenone believes it’s urgent for researchers to start figuring out if TikTok...

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