Sony shows off a robot grabber, 4K OLED panels for VR, and more

Image: Sony

Sony’s holding its Technology Day event to show off what it’s been working on in its R&D labs, and this year, we got some great visuals of tech the company’s been working on. Amidst the rehashes of the PS5’s haptics and 3D audio and a demo reel of Sony’s admittedly awesome displays for making virtual movie sets, we got to see a robot hand that Sony said could figure out grip strength depending on what it was picking up, a slightly dystopian-sounding “global sensing system,” and more.

Perhaps the most interesting thing Sony showed off was a headset that featured OLED displays with “4K-per-inch” resolution. While the headset Sony used in its presentation was very clearly something intended for lab and prototype use, the specs Sony laid...

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Biden wants the US government to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday outlining a sweeping plan for the federal government to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Under the plan, the government would spend billions of dollars to purchase electric vehicles, upgrade federal buildings, and leverage the power of the government to shift to cleaner forms of electricity.

It won’t be a completely seamless transition, though. The government would stop purchasing gas-powered passenger cars in 2027 but would only achieve 100 percent electric vehicle purchases by 2035.

Biden’s order would direct the government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by the end of the decade

Biden’s order would direct the government to reduce its greenhouse gas...

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Epic v. Apple ruling put on hold after appeals court grants a stay

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

An appeals court has paused one of the most consequential parts of the Epic v. Apple ruling, placing a stay on the enforcement of the injunction issued by the lower court. As a result of the stay, Apple can maintain its IAP system as the sole source of in-app payments on iOS, despite the district court’s earlier ruling that the exclusive arrangement is illegal.

The stay, issued Wednesday afternoon, does not reverse the earlier ruling but puts enforcement on hold until the appeals court can fully hear the case, a process that will likely take months.

“Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions on the merits of the district court’s determination,” the ruling reads. “Therefore, we grant Apple’s motion to...

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Apple and Hyatt begin rolling out hotel keys in Apple Wallet

Using a hotel key stored in Apple Wallet | Photo by Hyatt

Apple is partnering with Hyatt to give some hotel guests the ability to store their room keys in their Apple Wallets, as announced in a post on Hyatt’s newsroom. Instead of checking your pockets for your room key, you’ll now be able to use your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock your room, as well as any other areas around the hotel that require a key for entry.

Photo by Hyatt

Your Apple Watch can unlock your hotel room at participating Hyatt hotels.

There are currently only six Hyatt hotels in the US that support this feature, although Hyatt says it plans to eventually include it in hotels worldwide. But for now, the participating hotels include: Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, Hyatt Centric Key West Resort and Spa,...

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Blizzard victim says she was demoted after reporting sexual harassment

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, in front of Blizzard Entertainment’s Irvine, California headquarters, Christine (her last name withheld to protect her privacy) held a press conference in which she spoke about her experiences of sexual harassment and retaliation while employed at the embattled game developer.

Content warning: This story contains discussions of sexual harassment.

Christine gave a tearful statement detailing how working at Blizzard was her “dream job” but how she was then subjected to inappropriate touching, rude comments about her body, and invitations to have sex with her supervisors. When Christine complained to HR, she said she was told the people who made those comments were “just joking” and that they “did nothing wrong by law.” She further...

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Google releases first Android 12L beta for large-screen devices

One of Android 12L’s biggest features is a two-column UI for things like the notification shade and lock screen. | Image: Google

Google has announced its Android 12L update — the one designed to give its OS a better experience on tablets and large folding phones — is getting its first beta release today. While Beta 1 still seems very much pointed toward developers, it could be a chance to see what Google’s working on in a (slightly) more polished state than the developer preview.

With Android 12L, Google is adding a two-column layout for devices with larger screens, which will let you get at more information at once. For example, your quick settings and notifications can display side by side. Google’s also working to improve multitasking, letting you drag an app into split-screen mode from the taskbar (which you can also use to quickly switch between apps).

...

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The best wired or wireless gaming mouse you can buy

Whatever your budget or grip style is, we’ve found the best gaming mouse for you. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Multiple picks for all budgets

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The best budget laptop of 2021

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

The best cheap laptops under $800 from HP, Lenovo, and more.

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Twitter is testing a new way to let you add content warnings to posts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is piloting a new feature that will let users add specific content warnings to individual photos and videos sent out in tweets. The platform noted that the feature would be available to “some” users during the test.

People use Twitter to discuss what’s happening in the world, which sometimes means sharing unsettling or sensitive content. We’re testing an option for some of you to add one-time warnings to photos and videos you Tweet out, to help those who might want the warning. pic.twitter.com/LCUA5QCoOV

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) December 7, 2021

Although Twitter currently has a way to add content warnings to tweets, the only way to do it is to add the warning to all your tweets. In other words, every photo or video...

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Over 40 million people had health information leaked this year

Illustration by Ana Kova

Over 40 million people in the United States had their personal health information exposed in data breaches this year, a significant jump from 2020 and a continuation of a trend toward more and more health data hacks and leaks.

Health organizations are required to report any health data breaches that impact 500 or more people to the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, which makes the breaches public. So far this year, the office has received reports of 578 breaches, according to its database. That’s fewer than the 599 breaches reported in 2020, but last year’s breaches only affected about 26 million people.

Since 2015, hacks or other IT incidents have been the leading reason people have their health...

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DeepMind tests the limits of large AI language systems with 280-billion-parameter model

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Language generation is the hottest thing in AI right now, with a class of systems known as “large language models” (or LLMs) being used for everything from improving Google’s search engine to creating text-based fantasy games. But these programs also have serious problems, including regurgitating sexist and racist language and failing tests of logical reasoning. One big question is: can these weaknesses be improved by simply adding more data and computing power, or are we reaching the limits of this technological paradigm?

This is one of the topics that Alphabet’s AI lab DeepMind is tackling in a trio of research papers published today. The company’s conclusion is that scaling up these systems further should deliver plenty of...

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Facebook’s new professional profiles let creators unlock audience-growing tools

Turning on professional mode lets creators earn money for their Reels. | Photo by Facebook

Facebook is rolling out professional mode for profiles, letting creators take advantage of additional monetization tools. The new mode also gives creators access to features that help track the growth of their audience, something that was previously only available with Pages.

Professional mode lets creators partake in the Reels Play bonus program

Turning on professional mode allows creators to partake in the Reels Play bonus program. Reels, Instagram’s short-term video feature, became available on Facebook in September. The bonus program lets creators earn up to $35,000 / month, all depending on how many views their Reels rack up. However, all creators aren’t eligible for the program — it’s currently invite-only, and creators must comply...

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Tesla allows drivers to play video games in moving cars, raising safety concerns

You could play Sky Force Reloaded while driving — but you shouldn't. | Image: The Verge

Tesla updated its software allowing vehicle occupants to play video games on the center touchscreen while in motion, raising questions about safety and driver distraction. Previously, video games were only playable while the vehicle was in park.

But according to The New York Times, an over-the-air software update was pushed out last summer enabling the ability to launch some games regardless of whether the car was stationary or not, raising serious concerns about safety.

The Verge confirmed the ability to play video games while the vehicle is in motion

The Verge confirmed in a Tesla Model 3 that Sky Force Reloaded, Solitaire, and The Battle of Polytopia are playable on the center touchscreen while the vehicle is in motion. A...

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Masahiro Sakurai on the future of Smash: ‘I’ve been doing too much of the work myself’

Image: Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is finally complete. After launching in 2018 with a roster that included every single character from the series’ long history, it has since been steadily updated with new fighters, culminating in the addition of Sora from Kingdom Hearts in October_._The game’s last major update came on December 1st.

Three years and countless charming video presentations later, series creator Masahiro Sakurai — an infamous workaholic — seems to finally be taking it easy. “I have more free time now than I’ve probably ever had since I started working in game development,” he tells The Verge over email. That career has been tightly intertwined with _Smash,_a series he has not only led but also been a key developer on for more than...

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GTA Online’s next big update brings back Franklin and adds Dr. Dre

Image: Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games is releasing new story content for GTA Online featuring Franklin Clinton, one of the key characters from Grand Theft Auto V. In lieu of releasing standalone single-player expansions, the company is weaving new story-focused missions into its massive online mode on December 15th. Despite what sounds like a more low-key approach, Rockstar seems to be going big with this one, including Dr. Dre’s likeness, as well as new, unreleased music from the legendary rapper.

The story apparently picks up in the years following the events that transpire in Grand Theft Auto V, and Rockstar got Franklin’s voice actor, Shawn Fonteno, to reprise the role. Aside from new missions, the content drop will include lots of new music. There will be...

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Instagram head Mosseri to face questions about child safety in Senate hearing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday afternoon, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will appear before a Senate Commerce subcommittee to answer questions about whether the photo-sharing app is harmful to children’s health. It’s Mosseri’s first appearance before Congress and the first hearing to specifically address Instagram separately from Facebook.

The hearing, titled Protecting Kids Online: Instagram and Reforms for Young Users, will be streamed live from the Senate beginning at 2:30PM ET.

Instagram has been the focus of growing concern from lawmakers and parents, following a bombshell report in The Wall Street Journal based on documents provided by whistleblower Frances Haugen. Those documents suggested that Facebook was well aware that Instagram is “toxic” for...

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Roku settles YouTube dispute and locks down apps in ‘multi-year’ deal

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Roku has reached a deal with Google to continue distributing the YouTube and YouTube TV apps on its platform. The two had been at odds over a contract extension, sparring over what Roku described as onerous demands by Google for more data and more prominent placement on its devices.

If they hadn’t reached an agreement by tomorrow, Google planned to pull the YouTube app from Roku — a loss for basically everyone involved, but especially Roku users who would have no longer been able to download a key video service.

“This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform,” Dallas Lawrence, a Roku spokesperson, wrote in an email to The...

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Japanese billionaire launches to the International Space Station while waiting for SpaceX Moon ride

(From L to R) Yusaku Maezawa, Alexander Misurkin, and Yozo Hirano  | Photo by SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Three new spacefarers launched to the International Space Station this morning, a crew consisting of a Russian cosmonaut and two Japanese space tourists. One of the tourists on board was Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire whoannounced his intention a few years back to fly around the Moon on SpaceX’s future Starship rocket one day.

The trio lifted off on top of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan at 2:38AM ET, docking with the space station around six hours later at 8:40AM ET. Maezawa’s crewmates include Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japenese tourist Yozo Hirano, who is Maezawa’s producer and manager. The group is slated to spend roughly 12 days on the ISS before heading back to Earth on December 19th.

part of Russia’s...

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Amazon’s excellent Smart Thermostat is even more affordable today

You can use the Alexa app to control Amazon’s Smart Thermostat, which is currently enjoying its first discount. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Even without a discount attached to it, Amazon’s surprisingly great Smart Thermostat is a good deal in itself. After our reviewer spent a decade testing almost every smart thermostat since the launch of the Nest Learning Thermostat, she found it to be one of the best yet. That’s saying a lot, and it’s pretty impressive given this is an affordable smart thermostat.

The thermostat is discounted for the first time today, selling for $47.99 at Amazon — a 20 percent discount on its typical $59.99. Built in collaboration with Honeywell Home, this gadget is capable of learning and adapting to your schedule, just like more expensive thermostats out there. With the price in mind, it does lack some features. Perhaps the most egregious omission is...

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How to keep some of your Twitter data away from advertisers

Illustration by Ori Toor

You can’t keep Twitter out of your data completely, but you can lessen the damage

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Sonos announces plans to make its products more efficient and repairable

Background: A group of Sonos wireless speakers, including Arc, Sub, Move and One models taken on September 28, 2020. | Photo by Neil Godwin/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Sonos announced plans today to make its speakers and other products last longer and use less energy. It’s part of the company’s larger plan to make itself more sustainable, with a focus on minimizing e-waste and the pollution that drives climate change.

A big part of Sonos’ new plans is to extend product lifespans by making its devices easier to repair and recycle.This year, the company started a “Design for Disassembly” program that it wants to guide the development of all of itsnew speakers starting in 2023. That includes changes like swapping out adhesives for fasteners, which can make it easier for consumers to take apart Sonos products forrepair.

Minimizing e-waste and the pollution that drives climate change

There isn’t much...

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How to create an NFT — and why you may not want to

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NFTs have been a cultural phenomenon throughout 2021, constantly making headlines as celebrities dabble in the space and as shenanigans, scams, and legal fights ensue. With some creators making millions off NFTs, though, it’s understandable why you’d want to try your hand at it or play around with the tech to get a better feel for it.

We’re going to go over how to create an NFT using two of the most popular marketplaces, but before we get to that point, let’s cover some of the basics of what an NFT is and the decisions you may have to make before deciding to sell one. (If you’re relatively up to speed, you can go to Step 3 to begin the journey of actually creating a token.)

Step 1: Figure out what an NFT is

Listen, there’s no judgment if...

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Betting is the next battleground in sports streaming

Illustration by Kristen Radtke

With more cord-cutting options to choose from than ever before, sports fans have a veritable cornucopia of live services from which to pick. And as those services come up with new ways to win over viewers and keep them tuned in, some appear to be coalescing around a big new feature: betting.

Streaming services across the industry have started to add betting features alongside their sports feeds, offering a way to increase engagement and open a new revenue stream in the process. Disney, DAZN, FuboTV, Sling, and others have either launched betting companion features or have expressed an interest in entering the space in the US — and why wouldn’t they? Any savvy sports service would recognize betting has been synonymous with matches for as...

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Reddit’s top three posts of 2021 were all from WallStreetBets

Stonks go brr. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit is taking a look back at some of the site’s biggest moments and trends from 2021, and perhaps unsurprisingly, posts from r/wallstreetbets were the most upvoted posts of the year. r/wallstreetbets became hugely popular after GameStop’s stock price skyrocketed in January and as people followed updates from Keith Gill(aka DeepFuckingValue / Roaring Kitty),the trader who invested heavily in GameStop ahead of the stock’s surge.

Here are the top five most upvoted posts, according to Reddit:

• On r/wallstreetbets, a user bought a billboard in Times Square reading “$GME GO BRRR” and got more than 433K upvotes
• A screenshotted tweet on r/wallstreetbets alleging Robinhood hid popular meme stocks and encouraging users to “take all the cash...

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Crossing the border, refugees scramble for a working SIM card

Illustration by Ori Toor

‘When there was no internet, I was left with nothing’

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Microsoft updates OneDrive for faster syncing on Apple M1 Macs and Windows on Arm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has released a OneDrive sync app for Windows on Arm and Apple’s M1 Macs for its cloud-based storage service. The public preview of the updated OneDrive app is available as an opt-in download for both Windows on Arm and macOS, and allows the app to run natively on these devices.

This should improve the performance of the OneDrive sync app, as the OneDrive process will no longer run emulated on Windows on Arm. The jump to 64-bit is also useful for OneDrive users with lots of files or large files.

Microsoft’s OneDrive support for Apple’s M1 Macs and Windows on Arm comes after Dropbox revealed it’s testing its own native app. Dropbox is currently supported on Apple’s M1 Macs through Rosetta, but an updated app is arriving next...

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How Snap is sidestepping the metaverse

AR creator Andre Elijah in Spectacles. | Photo by Snap

More than other recent years, in 2021 the tech industry focused a great deal of its energy on a single question: who will build and own the next generation of the internet?

In one corner you have the scrappy upstarts eager to topple the existing world order and rebuild it from scratch on the blockchain. These companies give their effort the aspirational name “Web3.”

In the other corner you have the existing tech platforms, who envision the next generation of the internet as a slightly more interoperable version of the existing web. What will set it apart is new hardware: augmented reality glasses and virtual reality helmets that will bring us together in a series of linked experiences that occupy an ever-increasing share of our waking...

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Bowser agrees to $10 million fine for selling Nintendo Switch hacks

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Canadian hacker Gary Bowser has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a Nintendo lawsuit against him over piracy charges. Bowser is a member of the Team Xecuter group that have created mod chips or jailbroken the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, NES Classic Edition, and other consoles.

Team Xecuter’s most well-known product is a USB device called the SX Pro that allows the Nintendo Switch to run pirated games. Nintendo has been chasing Switch hackers for years, and Bowser was arrested and indicted last year in a separate federal case. He was ordered to pay $4.5 million for charges related to Nintendo Switch hacks. In total, Bowser is paying Nintendo at least $14.5 million in restitution.

Bowser made a business out of selling console mods, a...

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Oppo teases retractable rear camera for phones

Oppo has released a brief video hinting at a new type of camera design for smartphones. The company’s “self-developed retractable camera” is shown extending from the phone’s body before retracting back inside. The video suggests that the mechanism is waterproof and that it’ll automatically retract the camera if the phone is dropped.

Unlike pop-up selfie cameras that hide themselves inside a phone until needed, moving the camera back and forth on the Z-axis could have implications for image quality, though Oppo hasn’t yet claimed anything about any optical advantages of this design. It doesn’t appear to be a zoom lens, given it’s marked simply as 50mm, but it could theoretically help improve telephoto performance.

Most pop-ups are...

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Elizabeth Holmes smiles on the stand as her trial nears an end

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

A scattershot day in court

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