Netflix is making a live-action Mega Man movie

Video game adaptations are on a _tear —we got new trailers for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the Halo live-action TV series just last week. And of course, Chris Pratt is playing Mario, and an_Uncharted_ movie is nearly here. Amid these heavy hitters comes the news that Netflix is ready to bring us another franchise as well: Mega Man,_the Capcom “blue bomber” who’s been blasting his way through retro side-scrollers since 1987 on the original NES.

Technically, a Mega Man movie’s been in the works since 2015 at Chernin Entertainment, and it became a little more formal in 2018 when Capcom officially announced it’d be a live-action film (!) with Henry Joost and Rel Schulman, perhaps best known for Catfish, attached to write and direct. But...

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Researchers trigger new exploit by renaming an iPhone and a Tesla

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Security researchers investigating the recently discovered and “extremely bad” Log4Shell exploit claim to have used it on devices as varied as iPhones and Tesla cars. Per screenshots shared online, changing the device name of an iPhone or Tesla to a special exploit string was enough to trigger a ping from Apple or Tesla servers, indicating that the server at the other end was vulnerable to Log4Shell.

In the demonstrations, researchers switched the device names to be a string of characters that would send servers to a testing URL, exploiting the behavior enabled by the vulnerability. After the name was changed, incoming traffic showed URL requests from IP addresses belonging to Apple and, in the case of Tesla, China Unicom — the company’s...

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Universal Control won’t be coming to macOS Monterey until sometime this spring

Apple’s Universal Control feature has been delayed again, with the company’s website updating today to note that the drag-and-drop feature won’t be arriving until sometime “this spring,” as spotted by the AppleSWUpdates Twitter account.

Universal Control was originally announced alongside macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 at WWDC back in June, but the feature — which promises to bridge Apple’s Mac and iPad devices, allowing users to use a single mouse and keyboard for both and to drag and drop content between the two — has yet to materialize in either macOS or iPadOS. Apple hasn’t even started offering Universal Control to developers or beta users to test yet.

Apple had previously updated its website in October to indicate that Universal...

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Alpha Motor’s EV designs look cool, but will they ever get made?

The Alpha Motor Ace electric coupe design. | Images: Alpha Motor Corporation

Alpha Motor Corporation is nominally an electric vehicle startup. It has spent the last year pumping out retro-futuristic design after retro-futuristic design, one of which just won the award at this year’s LA Auto Show for best electric coupe. But for every new vehicle design Alpha Motor Corporation has released, there are more questions left unanswered. How is the startup funded? What are its plans to build these vehicles? What exactly _is_Alpha Motor Corporation?

Bengt Halvorson at _Green Car Reports_put up a mighty effort trying to track down some of those answers in August. He found some, sort of — it appears that the startup was founded, and perhaps funded, by the same person (or people behind) another EV startup called Neuron, which...

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TikTok’s 2021 music recap says it’s getting even better at creating billion-listen megahits

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok says that around 430 songs exceeded 1 billion video views on the platform this year, three times as many songs as last year, as noted in 2021’s Year on TikTok Music Report. Some of the most popular songs in this bracket garnered around or above 20 billion views in videos that use them as soundtracks.

Over 175 trending TikTok songs made it to the Billboard Hot 100 this year

TikTok’s yearly recap also includes some numbers on how these songs performed when not attached to a TikTok video. Over 175 trending TikTok songs made it to the Billboard Hot 100 this year, up from 90 in 2020. TikTok also takes credit for helping a number of artists skyrocket themselves to stardom, like ex-Verizon employee Tai Verdes, who made it to the...

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Apple releases Android app to help find sneaky AirTags

Tracker Detect works on Android 9 and above. | Image: Apple

Apple has released an app called Tracker Detect, which the company says will let Android users search for AirTags or other Find My-compatible trackers, such as the Chipolo One Spot tracking tag (via CNET). According to the app, it looks for devices that have been separated from their owners — if it finds any, it will let you play a sound on it so you can locate it, and it will give you instructions on how to figure out who the AirTag belongs to and how to disable it if need be.

Apple announced that this app was coming in June, promising that it would allow Android users to find potentially malicious trackers being used without their knowledge. Unlike on iOS, though, it doesn’t seem like this app will constantly do scans in the background...

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Walmart is selling PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles at 3PM ET today

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you haven’t been able to secure a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, you might be in luck. Walmart is opening orders for Sony’s $499.99 PS5 Disc Edition and Microsoft’s $499.99 Xbox Series X (online only) at 3PM ET today, December 13th.

Several previous drops have been limited to people who pay for its Walmart Plus subscription, but this one is open to everyone in the US — no extra fees necessary.

Remember, it’s usually the first who gets the worm, but not always. If you miss out on the first wave at Walmart, the retailer usually releases more in 10-minute intervals, with the next being at 3:10PM, 3:20PM, and so forth until it runs out of stock. For your best chance, try reloading the page just a few seconds before 3PM ET, and possibly...

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Microsoft is now selling an Xbox Red Ring of Death poster for $24.99

Microsoft is now selling its own Xbox Red Ring of Death poster to commemorate the release of the Power On: The Story of Xbox docuseries. The six-part documentary is a warts and all look at 20 years of Xbox highs and lows, including the infamous red ring of death.

The Xbox 360’s red ring of death was represented by three out of the four LEDs on an Xbox 360 turning red, a problem that affected a lot of initial consoles as failure rates were incredibly high. It indicated a hardware failure, and it meant Xbox 360 owners had to send their console in for repair.

In chapter five of Power On, former Xbox chief Peter Moore reflects on the mistake that cost Microsoft more than $1 billion to fix. “By the time we looked at the cost of repairs, the...

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Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series take top slots in US console sales as shortages continue

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

We’ve heard you: many of you are still trying to secure a new video game system, and we’ve done what we can to help people find them. But now, a year after the “next-gen” PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles debuted, they’re still in short supply — and the same goes for Nintendo’s Switch and Switch OLED.

The retail sales trackers at NPD Group said console hardware sales in November have fallen off by 38 percent to $883 million in November compared to the same month in 2020, which is when the new PlayStation and Xbox launched.

That drop comes despite a still-intense desire to obtain the systems, as well as the availability of a new version of Nintendo’s console. This past November, the Switch still dominated sales,...

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Apple releases iOS 15.2 with App Privacy Report, Digital Legacy, and more

You should now be able to download iOS 15.2 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple’s iOS 15.2, which includes a ton of features and fixes, has started to become roll out to iPhones after an extensive beta period. According to Apple’s release notes, posted by 9to5Mac and MacRumors, the update includes:

• The Digital Legacy program, which lets you designate who gets access to your data when you die
• The App Privacy Report, which shows what permissions your apps use, and what websites they connect to
• Apple’s $4.99 voice-only plan for Apple Music
• A fix for the somewhat confusing state of the 13 Pro’s macro mode

The update also brings with it some of Apple’s communication safety features, one of which will blur iMessages sent to children that an on-device scan tags as potentially being explicit. The feature was...

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Biden launches federal effort to make online benefits less painful

White House / Flickr

President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Monday that would make it easier for Americans to access a broad swath of federal services and benefits, like renewing a passport or accessing retirement benefits.

“This executive order is really focused on how the federal government delivers services to the public and ensuring that we deliver a high quality product to the public,” Neera Tanden, senior advisor to the president, told reporters on a press call on Monday. “So, we looked at the points of greatest friction for people with their government like filing taxes, applying for Social Security benefits, waiting in TSA lines, and focused on ways to reduce that friction.”

The executive order streamlines government services that...

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$300,000 Bored Ape NFT sold for $3,000 because of misplaced decimal point

Or just right click > save image to save yourself $$$. | Image viaOpenSea

How much have you ever lost on a typo? Probably not hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that’s just what happened to one unlucky individual this weekend, who accidentally sold a Bored Ape NFT for $3,000 instead of $300,000 — all because of a misplaced decimal point.

As first reported by CNET_,_the NFT’s owner Max (or maxnaut) listed the NFT for sale on Saturday. Max, who describes himself as a “solo-traveller, bored ape, marketing agency owner & NFT investor,” had meant to price the NFT at 75 ether (around $300,000) but accidentally typed 0.75 ether instead (roughly $3,000). Before they could correct the mistake, the NFT had been snapped up, apparently by a bot programmed to find and buy undervalued listings. You can see the drama play...

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Adobe launches Creative Cloud Express, a new app that simplifies its powerful editing tools

Adobe knows there’s a bigger audience of would-be creators out there than full-on pros, so it’s launching a new app that attempts to open up some of its more powerful tools to amateurs. The app, called Creative Cloud Express, offers basic versions of image and video editing tools, letting users work with layers, AI effects, and a huge font library, all with a simplified interface that’s supposed to make the features easier to use.

“A lot of people need something simple and more accessible, and these customers are increasingly content-first and more focused on outcomes than process,” Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer, tells The Verge. Creative Cloud Express is designed so new users don’t have to “endure the learning curve” of...

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Analogue Pocket review: Game Boy games have never looked so good

A modern handheld that celebrates the classics

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Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle brand LiveWire is merging with a SPAC to go public

LiveWire, the electric motorcycle company spun out of Harley-Davidson, is going public by merging with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. The transaction will net LiveWire approximately $545 million at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.77 billion, Harley-Davidson says in its announcement. LiveWire is the latest electric vehicle company to go public by merging with a SPAC, which are also known as “blank check” companies.

LiveWire is merging with AEA-Bridges Impact Corp. (ABIC), a SPAC formed by John Garcia and Michele Giddens, two private equity executives based in New York and London, respectively. Garcia and Giddens teamed up last year with the express purpose of merging with a business that is working toward the...

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Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio is $200 off for the first time at Best Buy

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Microsoft’s intriguing Surface Laptop Studio with an articulating display and a plinth platform to keep cool is seeing its first decent price drop since its release a few months ago. The base configuration that normally costs $1,599.99, and comes with an Intel Core i5-11300H processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, is down to $1,399.99 at Best Buy for today only. That’s more than a tithe off the plinth, though you’ll need to have a free Best Buy account to get this deal.

This is a good price if you want a laptop that has a display that can be positioned in multiple arrangements, much like the Surface Studio desktop. Though, this deal isn’t for everyone to whom the Surface Laptop Studio tries to appeal, namely creative types who need...

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How to sneak into a Bored Ape Yacht Club party

You need to own an NFT that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or do you?

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Takedown notices are threatening online thrift shops — just as business is exploding

Small businesses say their livelihoods are threatened even when they aren’t running afoul of copyright and trademark

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Sony’s new PS5 faceplates come in black and colorful options

Sony’s new PS5 covers. | Image: Sony

Sony is finally announcing its own custom covers for the PS5. The console covers will be available in black, red, pink, blue, and purple, and will work on both the regular PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. Sony is releasing the black and red PS5 console covers in January in most markets where the PS5 is sold, with the other colors to follow in the first half of 2022.

The new covers are designed to match the colors found on new pink, blue, and purple DualSense controller options. These new colors will be available in January, with the purple version being sold in the UK, US, and Germany through Sony’s PlayStation direct early access program. Other retailers will stock the purple DualSense controller on February 11th.

Image:...

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Peloton responds to surprise death in And Just Like That... with new commercial

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Peloton has responded to a plot-line in HBO Max’s new Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That..., turning around a commercial in less than 48 hours after the company’s stock continued to plummet in reaction to events on the TV show over the weekend.

(Spoiler warning: the following discusses a major plot point from the first episode ofAnd Just Like That...)

The plot point in question involved the sudden death of Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who suffers what appears to be a heart attack after enjoying a 45-minute Peloton workout. That workout happened to be led by a character played by a real-life Peloton instructor (Jess King).

Peloton says it approved King’s appearance in the show, but knew nothing about Big’s death. “We were not made...

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Toyota is going to make you pay to start your car with your key fob

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Toyota is charging drivers for the convenience of using their key fobs to remotely start their cars. According to a report from The Drive, Toyota models 2018 or newer will need a subscription in order for the key fob to support remote start functionality.

As The Drive notes, buyers are given the option to choose from an array of Connected Services when purchasing a new Toyota, and one of those services — called Remote Connect — just so happens to include the ability to remotely start your car with your key fob.

The key fob’s remote start functionality is tied to the audio package that comes with the car

Buyers are offered a free trial of Remote Connect, but the length of that trial depends on the audio package that’s included with the...

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Chris Wallace leaves Fox News to host weekday show on CNN’s new streaming service

Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images

Long-time Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is leaving the network to join CNN’s upcoming streaming service, CNN Plus, as noted in a press release from CNN.

The new show will be available when its streaming platform launches in 2022

The 18-year Fox News veteran announced his departure during his final Fox News Sunday, stating that he “wants to try something new.” Sources close to the situation told CNN that Wallace’s long-term contract with Fox was expiring this year, and he wasn’t looking to renew it.

Shortly after Wallace’s announcement, CNN revealed that Wallace will be hosting a weekday show on CNN Plus that features interviews with figures from the world of politics, sports, business, and culture. The new show will be available...

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Sony WF-C500 earbuds review: basic ain’t bad

Sony’s entry-level buds stick to the fundamentals

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Tesla hit with another lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, and retaliation by management

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A second Tesla employee within one month has filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment at the workplace, according to reports by Reuters and Business Insider. Erica Cloud, an assembly line worker at Tesla, filed a lawsuit in California’s Alameda County Superior Court, claiming that she experienced “continuous and pervasive” sexual harassment in the factory where she worked.

Cloud’s managers are allegedly retaliating against her

As noted by Reuters, Cloud’s lawsuit alleges that her manager hugged and massaged her, and claims that she was also subject to her manager’s vulgar and sexual remarks. It also accuses Tesla of not doing enough to address possible sexual harassment in the workplace. Cloud’s managers are allegedly retaliating...

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How to stop Alexa from ruining holiday surprises

Echo smart displays — like this Echo Show 15 — can show you when your Amazon packages are arriving. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Echo smart speakers and smart displays have a handy feature that can show and tell you when there’s a package sitting on your doorstep and even what’s in it. While this can be helpful most of the time, around the holidays it could seriously ruin some surprises.

Avoid making any Grinch-like moves this holiday and manage your Amazon shopping notifications in the Alexa app to help keep the magic alive. Alongside options for tailoring package announcements, the notifications section of the app also has a number of settings you can toggle on or off to help make the voice assistant a little more helpful when it comes to purchases you make on Amazon. Below are a few of the most useful that you might want to tweak this holiday season.

How to...

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Install the Microsoft Teams update for Android now to fix 911 calling bug

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Microsoft Teams has rolled out a fix for the dangerous bug that could prevent Android users from calling 911 — and you’ll want to install it ASAP (via Android Police). In his analysis of the issue on Medium, Mishaal Rahman, the senior technical editor at Esper, explains that Microsoft has corrected the issue in an update for the Teams app.

If you didn’t end up uninstalling Teams, make sure to update it as soon as you can

A user on Reddit initially discovered the bug when trying to call 911 from their Pixel 3, prompting an explanation from Google. The company said that the issue is triggered by an “unintended interaction” between the Android operating system and the Teams app. It only affects users with devices running Android 10 or...

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DraftKings signs up real NFL players to use in ‘gamified NFT collections’ next season

New England Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore (24) stretches during the New England Patriots practice session in Foxborough, MA on Oct. 22, 2020. | Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

You only have to look at the negative response to Ubisoft’s NFT gaming announcement and the number of people chortling along with Keanu Reeves to confirm that reactions to non-fungible tokens range from disbelief to outright dislike. However, that hasn’t stopped DraftKings and the NFL Player’s Association from signing a new deal for a “gamified NFT collaboration.” The sports betting company plans to launch its collections during the 2022 - 2023 season.

As far as how the operation will work, the details are scarce. The press release describes a combination that sounds similar to the NBA Top Shot / NFL All Day model with buying and trading, plus the ability for registered owners of NFTs to use their collectibles like many trading...

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Halo Infinite is getting four new playlists on December 14th — including Slayer

Image: Microsoft

_Halo Infinite_is getting Slayer, Free-For-All (FFA), Tactical Slayer (SWAT), and Fiesta playlists, according to a Reddit post from u/ske7ch343, otherwise known as 343 Industries’ community director Brian Jarrard (via Windows Central). Jarrard confirmed that the four playlists are coming to the game via an update on December 14th.

Halo Infinite MP is getting four new playlists on December 14th: Slayer, Fiesta, FFA, and Tactical Slayer (SWAT) https://t.co/DeTJQEz5zypic.twitter.com/hzTLFGA2De

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) December 11, 2021

343 Industries previously said that Fiesta, SWAT, and FFA playlists would be coming to the game by the end of the year, while a Social Slayer playlist wouldn’t arrive until sometime in 2022. In his...

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Amazon Web Services says overwhelmed network devices triggered outage

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided an explanation as to what caused the outage that downed parts of its own services, as well as the third-party websites and online platforms that utilize AWS. In a post on the AWS website, the company explains that an automated process caused the outage, which began around 10:30AM ET in the Northern Virginia (US-EAST-1) region.

The spike in congestion prevented the company’s operations team from using its real-time monitoring system

“An automated activity to scale capacity of one of the AWS services hosted in the main AWS network triggered an unexpected behavior from a large number of clients inside the internal network,” Amazon’s report says. “This resulted in a large surge of connection activity...

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Apple’s app tracking transparency feature isn’t an instant privacy button

Image: Apple

A report from the Financial Times acts as a reminder of what Apple’s App Tracking Transparency settings do and do not do to protect your privacy (via Ars Technica). While asking apps to not track you does keep them from collecting and selling data tied to your personal advertising identity, it doesn’t keep developers from collecting any information about you at all.

The feature, introduced in iOS 14.5, is meant to prevent app-makers from tracking what you do and selling that information to advertisers. Companies like Facebook cried foul when it was introduced, saying that it would hurt their ability to show targeted, personalized ads, and therefore hurt businesses that relied on those ads.

Companies have turned to aggregated and...

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