PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles are available at Target

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Look, nobody is happy about the current state of new consoles and their availability. While the hunt for a good deal is something we’re all about, having to search just to find a normal, full-price product is a whole lot less fun. That’s why we are always doing our best to help you score a new console whenever the chance arises, and today is no different.

Target’s online listings for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have just gone live, which means there is a narrow window to order one this morning. The PlayStation 5 is available in the standard $499.99 flavor with a disc drive as well as the Digital Edition for $399.99. The Xbox Series X is also available for its usual $499.99. The listings show sold out to start, but the early bird...

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Huawei’s P50 Pocket is a stylish clamshell foldable launching this month

The P50 Pocket appears to have a small external circular screen. | Image: Harper’s Bazaar China

Huawei is set to announce a new foldable phone later this month called the Huawei P50 Pocket, according to a post on the company’s official Weibo account. Unlike its previous Mate X foldables, which fold from a device the size of a tablet into a smartphone, the P50 Pocket has a clamshell design that folds out to the size of a smartphone. It’s a similar design to Samsung’s Z Flip devices, or the Motorola Razr.

A Harper’s Bazaar China photoshoot of the P50 Pocket posted on Weibo makes it look like a stylish little foldable. It appears to have a similar dual-ring camera bump to the Huawei P50, but its lower ring has been repurposed to work as a small external screen, which appears to be able to show notifications or work as a camera...

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Uber expands its same-day local delivery business to more cities

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber Connect, the ride-hail company’s same-day courier service, is expanding to more cities. It’s also getting a few new features to make sending and receiving items easier for customers and drivers.

Uber Connect is now available in 6,000 cities and towns in the US, including major markets like New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. The service was initially launched in April 2020 as a means to diversify Uber’s business during the early months of the pandemic. Since then, the company has seen incredible growth in Uber Connect, registering a 200 percent increase in trips since the first week of January 2021.

Uber Connect is now available in 6,000 cities and towns in the US

In addition to...

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Ford launches new EV charging project to help commercial customers go electric

Ford is launching a new project to help its commercial customers switch to electric vehicles by selling them EV charging installation equipment and software management tools.

The automaker says it expects to sell over 300,000 electric vehicles to businesses and government agencies over the next decade. To help ease the transition, Ford is launching a new project, called Ford Pro Charging, to offer the necessary software and hardware to aid in the charging of their electric vehicles.

Ford’s commercial vehicles will come with the automaker’s telematics software, which makes it easier for fleet owners to keep tabs on the location, charging status, or the health of their vehicles. This software will help commercial fleet operators figure...

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TikTok tests PC game streaming app that could let it take on Twitch

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is testing a new piece of desktop streaming software called TikTok Live Studio that lets users broadcast live footage from games and other desktop applications, TechCrunch reports. The software is currently being tested with a small number of users across some Western markets, TikTok says, but its official page on TikTok’s site appears to have been taken down as of publication.

If released, TikTok Live Studio could mark an interesting change for TikTok’s live streaming strategy. Rather than being focused on users streaming directly from mobile devices, it could expand TikTok Live’s focus to include game streaming, bringing it into competition with the likes of Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming.

It's super basic in its...

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Adidas is launching an NFT collection with exclusive access to streetwear drops

Adidas’ NFT-exclusive hoodie. | Image: Adidas

Adidas is getting into the NFT game. The apparel company is launching a line of NFTs on Friday, called Into the Metaverse, which will offer buyers access to what’s essentially a very exclusive fan club. NFT holders will be able to purchase special merch drops, and Adidas says members will help to shape what kinds of products and experiences the company puts together for its NFT-owning community.

“Adidas is in the metaverse,” Tareq Nazlawy, Adidas’ senior director of digital growth, tells The Verge. “We want to figure out what would be the dopest thing to do in that space and start involving the communities we’re activating through this [NFT] in how we should manifest in the virtual world.”

The launch comes after a couple weeks of crypto...

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Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt will pay just $1.85 million in proposed class-action settlement

Image: CD Projekt Red

Last week, we reported that game developer CD Projekt was negotiating to settle a class-action lawsuit over the infamously botched launch of Cyberpunk 2077, a game that came riddled with bugs and poor enough performance on consoles that Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store and many storefronts offered refunds. CD Projekt says those negotiations are now concluded, and here’s how much it’s agreed to pay: $1,850,000 USD.

While the settlement will likely have to be approved by a court, it sounds like the lead plaintiffs and their lawyers negotiated for a fairly tiny sum here in exchange for “relinquish[ing] any and all claims against the Company and members of its Management Board.” That’s when you consider that the game had a...

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Reddit files to take the company public

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit announced late Wednesday that it has started the process of taking the company public, by filing a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The number of shares to be offered, and the price range for the proposed offering haven’t been determined yet, the company said, adding that it was in a quiet period and could not provide further details for regulatory reasons, which is standard practice.

The company has been rumored to be considering an IPO for some time, and in August announced it had raised a $700 million round of funding at a valuation of more than $10 billion.

In the August announcement, Reddit said it had made $100 million in ad revenue for the second quarter of 2021, a nearly 200 percent increase...

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This ransomware may have stolen Christmas in cities, states, and companies across the US

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A ransomware attack is disrupting operations at many major companies, and some workers are concerned that it could affect their last paychecks before the holidays — because their payroll provider, Kronos, is the one that’s dealing with the ransom. The incident has left entire cities and states trying to come up with a plan to get paychecks out to their workers, and could affect HR operations at organizations like New York City’s Metro Transit Authority, Honda, GameStop, and more.

One Whole Foods worker told NBC News that there’s “a real fear about our paychecks this upcoming Friday,” saying that employees had been to to use “a paper punch sheet to keep track of our hours.”

Ransomware has disrupted HR operations around the world

Kronos...

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Here’s where you can buy a Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch OLED model boasts a vibrant, 7-inch display and slate of minor upgrades. | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite in multiple color configurations and models, giving those who struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s versatile console.

We’re keeping an eye across the web to find where you can buy a Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console), and the new Nintendo Switch OLED model, as well as any bundles that seem like good deals.

Where can I buy a Nintendo Switch or Switch Lite right now?

• Over at Amazon, you can buy an updated Nintendo Switch model with gray Joy-Cons, plus a 64GB SanDisk MicroSD...

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DirecTV Stream and satellite TV are raising their prices next month

DirecTV’s satellite and Stream services are getting price increases in January — hikes that the company attributed to rising programming costs as well as “higher-than-normal inflation across our suppliers.”

Beginning January 23rd of next year, customers of both groups are likely to see their bills increase — though specifically by how much will depend on the service. Most of DirecTV’s satellite customers will see their monthly costs increase anywhere between $1 and 10, depending on which package they pay for.

Additionally, regional sports network costs will be determined by ZIP code. While this means some customers could see a monthly increase of $2 more per month, others will see a decrease, and some customers will see no change at all...

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $50

Illustration by Richard Parry

Great gifts don’t always require you to splurge

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We didn’t need an AR version of Snake, but AT&T just gave us one anyway

Warp Speed Worm is an AR filter for Instagram and Messenger and has tenuous connections to 5G at best.

AT&T has re-imagined the classic Snake game in a new, interactive, and wholly unnecessary way in an effort to promote the capabilities of its 5G network. Called Warp Speed Worm, it’s an AR effect that can be used on Instagram and Facebook Messenger video calls.

Snake was, of course, the game of choice on your early Nokia phone. Or, depending on your age and general level of apathy toward high school mathematics, you may recognize it as the game you played on your TI-83 graphing calculator while you were supposed to be learning about coefficients. Not that I know anyone who would do that.

In any case, this newest contribution to the great Snake game genre is an AR filter in which the titular worm is controlled by your head movements....

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Ted Lasso gets a cute claymation holiday short

Season 2 of Ted Lasso ended on something of a dark note, but everything is all nice and friendly again in a new holiday short. It’s called “The Missing Christmas Mustache,” and, like many classic holiday specials, it’s rendered in cute and charming claymation.

It features voices of the main cast — including Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, and definitely-not-CGI Brett Goldstein — as they search for a missing mustache. It’s only four minutes long, so I won’t spoil too much, only to say you should at least watch to learn a little more about Roy Kent’s eyebrows.

If nothing else, it makes up for the poorly-timed Christmas episode of Ted Lasso that aired in August — and threw my sense of time and date even further out of whack. And it’s a...

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Hulu offers a first glimpse at Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes

Photo by Hulu

Hulu has finally given us a glimpse of Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes in its own take on the real-life Silicon Valley drama. The Dropout is a limited series that centers around Holmes’ fraudulent blood-testing startup, Theranos, and is based on an ABC podcast that goes by the same name.

Naveen Andrews, best known for starring in Lost, will play Sunny Balwani

Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon was originally supposed to take the leading role, but she reportedly dropped out of the production in February. Seyfried was confirmed to take McKinnon’s place back in March. So far, it looks like Seyfried fits the role quite nicely; she sports the same updo, red lipstick, and signature black turtleneck that Holmes is known for. Naveen...

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New York becomes largest US city to ban new gas hookups

The New York City skyline seen from the Summit One Vanderbilt observation deck on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. | Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Big Apple just became the biggest city yet to say goodbye to gas hookups in new construction. New York City Council passed a bill today that prohibits the combustion of fossilfuels in new buildings, effectively phasing out the use of gas for cooking and heating.

Addressing building emissions is critical to New York City meeting its climate goals; they’re responsible for 70 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The ban will apply to structures under seven stories tall starting in 2024 and to larger buildings in 2027. The measure will drastically cut down on pollution that fuels climate change: according to a recent study by clean energy think tank RMI, it’ll slash 2.1 million tons of CO2 emissions by 2040, which has about...

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Apple delays full office reopening and promises $1,000 equipment bonuses

Photo by Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Apple has indefinitely delayed the date which corporate employees will have to return to the office, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and NBC News’ Zoe Schiffer. CEO Tim Cook sent an email to staff on Wednesday saying the return-to-work date is “yet to be determined.” The company confirmed to The Verge that the date hasn’t been determined. Cook also announced that Apple would be giving each corporate employee $1,000 to use for home office equipment, both Gurman and Schiffer reported.

The delay comes as COVID-19 cases rise and the omicron variant begins to spread. Workers were previously set to return to offices on February 1st in a hybrid work pilot announced internally in November. That itself was already delayed; the company has...

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Amazon Luna runs on Windows — and yet it’s hiring Linux gaming engineers

Image: Amazon

When Amazon’s cloud gaming service Luna launched last October, the fact it ran on Windows set it apart. Unlike Google Stadia, it wouldn’t necessarily need to convince developers to painstakingly port their games to an unproven platform. But it now appears that Amazon is considering a shift to Linux-based servers, too — the company is hiring three software engineers to bring Windows games to Linux (via Phoronix).

Like Valve’s Steam Deck — an upcoming gaming handheld that also runs on Linux — the idea isn’t to abandon Windows games. Both the Steam Deck and Amazon’s seemingly new Luna initiative will still run Windows games, but both of them will do it _through_Valve’sProton compatibility layer.

“[T]his role involves working with Proton -...

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Swift Playgrounds 4 is live on the App Store

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds 4 is upon us. Announced earlier this year at Apple’s WWDC, the new app allows users to develop apps for iOS and iPadOS directly on an iPad. You can preview apps in real time while you work on them and send them directly to the App Store when you’re done. The program is now live on the App Store for iPad.

“Swift Playgrounds is the best and easiest way to learn how to code,” Apple claimed in its announcement on Apple’s developer website.

Image: Apple

Friendly, colorful interface.

Previous iterations of Swift Playgrounds have largely been targeted at children. They’re meant to teach beginners how to code in Swift, and they do so through a series of friendly and colorful puzzles. It has...

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Intel thinks the metaverse will need a thousand-fold increase in computing capability

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Intel made its first statement on the metaverse on Tuesday — its first public acknowledgement of that sometimes-nebulous future of computing which promises an always connected virtual world that exists in parallel with our physical one. But while the chip company is bullish on the possibilities of the metaverse in abstract, Intel raises a key issue with realizing any metaverse ambitions: there’s not nearly enough processing power to go around.

“The metaverse may be the next major platform in computing after the world wide web and mobile,” an editorial begins from Raja Koduri, a senior vice president and head of Intel’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group. But Koduri quickly pours cold water on the idea that the metaverse is...

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The Verge’s 2021 holiday gift guide for moms

Illustration by Richard Parry

Gift ideas that go beyond the flower bouquet

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Ray-Ban Stories get software update adding Facebook Messenger support

Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge

The Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are getting the ability to let you send and receive Facebook Messenger messages right from your face, according to a Wednesday post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He says that the features being rolled out are just the beginning for the product, which was made in partnership with eyewear titan Luxottica.

Zuckerberg says that you’ll be able to use the glasses’ built-in mics, speakers, and assistant to send messages, have messages read out to you, and make audio calls using Facebook Messenger. He also promises that more updates will be coming in 2022.

Sending messages using your glasses feels very Black Widow or Iron Man

Adding the ability to use the Stories as a Tony Stark-esque communication device makes...

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Apple closes three more retail stores as COVID-19 infections rise

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has closed three of its retail stores following increased COVID-19 exposures and cases among employees, according to Bloomberg.

The stores, which are located in the Brickell City Centre in Miami; Annapolis, Maryland; and downtown Ottawa, Ontario, will be closed temporarily. Right now, Apple’s website says the Miami store is closed until Friday and the Annapolis and Ottawa stores are closed until Saturday. Apple reportedly closed a store in Southlake, Texas last week due to a COVID-19 outbreak, though the company’s website currently indicates that store is open.

The closures are happening as COVID-19 infections are on the rise. Though the omicron variant is beginning to spread, the delta variant “continues to be the main variant...

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VR workrooms app Spatial is now an NFT art platform

Spatial

Spatial, an early player in virtual reality workroom apps, is changing its focus to virtual art galleries showcasing non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The company announced the news yesterday alongside a $25 million funding round. It’s a potential indication of where some “metaverse” tech might be going in the near future — namely, away from VR-heavy, work-focused experiences and toward more entertainment.

Spatial’s original pitch was a virtual workspace where people could don VR headsets, talk to co-workers in virtual meetings, and collaborate by examining virtual items. But over the past year, that’s changed. The company says it’s gone from 80 percent of its users wearing VR headsets to 80 percent accessing it through the web and mobile...

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Minecraft crosses 1 trillion views on YouTube

Long before the metaverse became the premier destination of tech companies and newlyweds, there was Minecraft. It is a platform that started as a video game about dodging explosions from hissing cactus-shaped creatures and became the blank canvas on which millions of players create their content, upload it, and generate trillions of views — literally. Today, YouTube, in collaboration with _Minecraft_developer Mojang, is celebrating an unprecedented trillionth view (trillion with a T) with a snapshot of the game’s unique and transformative history on the platform.

Minecraft’s chief storyteller Lydia Winters attributes the game’s trillion views to her team’s respect for the myriad ways players use Minecraft to tell their stories.

“We have...

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Nvidia’s Matrix PCs can’t play The Matrix Awakens, but they look cool

Photo by Nvidia

Nvidia has teamed up with Warner Bros. Pictures and professional PC builders to deliver three custom gaming rigs that embody The Matrix — and it’s giving them all away as part of the lead-up to The Matrix Resurrections’ release on December 22nd. You can find instructions on how to enter for a chance to win one on its site.

Nvidia is also giving away five Matrix-themed backplates for the GeForce 3080 Ti

The first gaming computer, dubbed the Digital Storm Backup Operator, was made by artist Stefan Ulrich in partnership with Digital Storm. Small monitors and keyboards come mounted on the case, along with some crazy-looking wiring and fans, giving off the impression that you can actually slip into the Matrix with this machine. In terms of...

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The Verge’s 2021 fitness and wellness gift guide

Illustration by Richard Parry

Help your loved ones stay healthy and happy with gifts suitable for all budgets

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Ubisoft is remaking the original Splinter Cell

Just don’t put NFTs in it. | Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft announced that a remake of the original Splinter Cell is in the works, and it’s promising to both keep the stealthy spirit of the 2002 game while making it comfortable to play for modern gamers. It’s being developed by Ubisoft Toronto, and the company says it’ll use the Snowdrop engine it co-developed (and has used in games like The Division and Mario + Rabbids) to take advantage of the tech offered by new consoles_._

According to Ubisoft’s announcement post, the remake won’t go open-world. Instead, there’ll be linear levels where “every square inch is part of a choice, or directly offers a choice.” The team working on the game has also said that it’ll have updated visuals (a good call, since the original came out almost two...

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FCC proposes new rules to make emergency alerts more accessible for people hard of hearing

The FCC wants to update its emergency alert system | Illustrator by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing new rules for emergency alerts to make them more accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing. The agency said in a news release that the proposal is part of a larger examination of measures to “enhance the system’s overall functionality and accessibility.”

The legacy versions of emergency alerts broadcast on over-the-air television with a test pattern screen and a loud alert noise followed by spoken instructions. The FCC says it wants broadcasters, cable systems, and other participants in the emergency alerts system (EAS) to use the internet-based Common Alerting Protocol version of the alerts when possible instead. And for the TV alerts, the FCC wants to see...

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GM teases upcoming GMC Sierra Denali electric pickup truck

The GMC Sierra Denali full-size pickup truck is going electric. The automaker teased the first image of the upcoming EV much in the same way it did with the Hummer EV truck — by only showing off its front end.

The square-shaped nose of the truck is set off by L-shaped headlights and an illuminated logo in the middle. The massive grille on the gas equivalent has been smoothed out — a clear indication there is no internal combustion engine under this hood in need of cooling. And it appears we’ll be getting some sort of lighting system that indicates when the vehicle is charging, much like the Hummer EV.

The electric Sierra will only be available in GMC’s popular Denali trim

Other than that, details are slim. The electric Sierra will only...

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