Sidewalk Labs will be folded into Google as CEO steps down for health reasons

Sidewalk Labs will be folded into Google as its CEO steps down for health reasons. | Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff is stepping down for health reasons, and the six-year-old company and its products will be folded into Google, he wrote in a blog post Thursday. Doctoroff says he’s been diagnosed with what may be ALS and wants to spend more time with his family.

“Starting next year, Sidewalk products Pebble, Mesa, Delve, and Affordable Electrification will join Google, becoming core to Google’s urban sustainability product efforts,” Doctoroff wrote in the post. “These products will continue to be led by Sidewalk Labs President of Urban Products Prem Ramaswami and Chief Technology Officer Craig Nevill-Manning, both Google alumni, and the teams will continue to execute on their vision and serve customers.”

Google parent...

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GameStop is selling PlayStation 5 console bundles in-store on December 17th

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

GameStop has announced a special in-store sales event for the hard-to-get Sony PlayStation 5 console, taking place on December 17th. The restock event requires a subscription to GameStop’s Pro membership — which normally runs $14.99 per year but is currently discounted to $9.99 once added to your cart. GameStop lists all its participating retail locations on its site, which spans over 700 stores across the US. While this event is being hosted at many locations, GameStop has indicated that quantities will be limited.

Despite launching over one year ago, Sony’s PlayStation 5 is still very difficult to buy. If you have been struggling to luck out on recent online console restocks from GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart, or other vendors, this may...

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Meta adds sign language interpreters for Portal video calls

Portal now offers sign language interpreters | Meta

Facebook parent company Meta is adding video relay services (VRS) to its Portal video calling devices, allowing users to bring English or Spanish sign language interpreters into video conversations. The new feature is part of a collaboration with ZP Better Together, a tech firm that makes communication solutions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing users.

Meta spokesperson Lisa Auslen explained in an email to _The Verge_that users will need to apply for a ZP account to confirm they’re eligible for the service, which is federally funded under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Both the service and the Portal devices are free for those who qualify; they must be VRS users in the US who communicate using ASL.

Once the user has their ZP account and...

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As promised, Nokia phones started getting Android 12 this week

The Nokia X20 is HMD Global’s first device to get Android 12.

HMD Global offered its first Android 12 update this week, starting with the midrange Nokia X20. The company says users in this first wave will receive the update by December 17th.

Good. That’s what HMD said it would do, and it’s doing just that. We love to see it.

You’re forgiven if you forgot that the Nokia X20 exists — it’s a mostly unremarkable device with a 6.67-inch 60Hz display, Snapdragon 480 processor, and four rear-facing cameras. In fact, its most compelling features might just be its healthy support policy (three years of OS updates) and an unusually generous three-year warranty.

Generally speaking, the Android 12 rollout has been a rocky one

That’s a great policy in theory — as my colleague Jon Porter pointed out in his...

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US Treasury claims DJI assists Chinese surveillance of Uyghurs and blocks investments

Courtesy of DJI

DJI is one of the biggest drone companies in the world, and last year, the US government added it to the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, which marked it as a national security concern and banned US-based companies from exporting technology to it. Today, the Treasury Department placed further sanctions on DJI, including it as one of eight Chinese companies added to the Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies (NS-CMIC) List.

US Treasury:

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified eight Chinese technology firms pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13959, as amended by E.O. 14032. These eight entities actively support the biometric surveillance and tracking of ethnic and...

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Spotify’s latest acquisition is about making money off radio shows turned into podcasts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify continues to beef up its audio product arsenal. Today, it announced the acquisition of Whooshkaa, a nearly six-year-old Australian company focused on helping radio broadcasters monetize, edit, and distribute their shows as podcasts. Spotify says some radio broadcasters, like the Australian Radio Network, already rely on its podcast hosting platform Megaphone, and this Whooshkaa radio technology will be integrated into it. The selling price was not disclosed.

Radio networks will be able to prepare shows for publishing by capturing live broadcasts and using the Whooshkaa tech to edit and remove ads to make room for podcast-only spots. From there, Megaphone can host the shows, and Spotify can help the shows monetize by encouraging...

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The PlayStation 5 is available at Best Buy right now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’re currently shopping for a PlayStation 5 console and have been recently striking out with restocks at Walmart, Costco, and other retailers, you have another chance right now at Best Buy. The electronics retailer just opened up a fresh batch of PlayStation 5 consoles for $499.99. Best Buy is only selling the disc-based version, however, not the Digital Edition.

Be sure to log in and queue up on Best Buy’s site, with your billing and shipping info saved. Click the “Add to Cart” button on the right to jump into the waiting line, and stay calm. You don’t need to refresh the automated system, though, you may be prompted to verify your account when it’s your turn. After that, you should be able to see if there are any PS5 consoles...

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Bungie’s head of HR steps down following reports of harassment at studio

Days after IGN’s report highlighting Bungie’s years-long struggle with harassment, abuse, and crunch conditions, Gayle d’Hondt, head of HR, is stepping down.

According to a report from IGN, d’Hondt served at Bungie for 14 years before stepping down from her role as head of HR effective immediately. It is not yet known if she will remain with the company in another role. In an email obtained by IGN, d’Hondt shared her experiences at Bungie, which included “deeply challenging interpersonal conflicts” and reporting her own abuse.

Last week, IGN reported that the culture at the studio was at times at odds with its image of being a progressive video game development company. The report captured incidents of a manager yelling frequently at...

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The Verge’s 2021 holiday gift guide for dads

Illustration by Richard Parry

Clever gift ideas to satisfy the pickiest of dads

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Apple is reportedly going to make more of its own chips

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is reportedly working to design more chip components in-house, with the company said to be establishing a new office with the aim of replacing components that Apple currently sources from Broadcom and Skyworks, according to Bloomberg.

The new office is said to be in its early stages but will eventually focus on “wireless radios, radio-frequency integrated circuits and a wireless system-on-a-chip,” in addition to “semiconductors for connecting to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi,” Bloomberg says.

While the A-series and M-series SoCs that contain the CPU and GPU for Apple’s iPhones and Macs get most of the attention, there are tons of additional chips inside those devices, handling things like power management, USB connectivity, wireless...

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After 21 years Google Toolbar is finally gone, so we installed it one last time

Success! You just installed the last Google Toolbar. | Screenshot by Umar Shakir / The Verge

I was lost and in search of myself after hearing the devastating news on Ars Technica: Google Toolbar had been put down by the search giant after nearly 21 years — longer than most projects the company lets live. (A recent newsletter effort didn’t make it past three months).

There was no ceremony, no announcement, no moment of silence, nor any closure — just a “no longer available.” That’s what Google has now on its Install Google Toolbar help page; it tells you how to uninstall the Google Toolbar and install Chrome instead.

How to “install” Google Toolbar — the result may surprise you.

It feels unreal for Google to silently forsake a tool that was, in 2008, responsible for 12 percent of all Google searches — and...

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Amazon Echo Show 15 review: Alexa’s on your wall

This Echo Show on the wall is the fairest of them all, but it’s not that smart

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Log4j is patched, but the exploits are just getting started

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Peter Membrey, chief architect of ExpressVPN, remembers vividly seeing the news of the Log4j vulnerability break online.

“As soon as I saw how you could exploit it, it was horrifying,” says Membrey. “Like one of those disaster movies where there’s a nuclear power plant, they find it’s going to melt down, but they can’t stop it. You know what’s coming, but there are very limited things you can do.”

Since the vulnerability was uncovered last week, the cybersecurity world has kicked into overdrive to identify vulnerable applications, detect potential attacks, and mitigate against exploits however possible. Nonetheless, serious hacks making use of the exploit are all but certain.

“As soon as I saw how you could exploit it, it was horrifying”

...

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Google Chrome’s last-minute holiday shopping tools track prices and abandoned carts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

With time ticking away before shipping deadlines put a stop to your online holiday shopping, Google is highlighting a few new Chrome features that might help you out. Still, it’s not lost on us that these features used to keep track of stuff to help you shop are also useful for the nearly $2 trillion company that makes most of its money from serving up relevant advertisements and making sure shoppers hit the “buy” button.

But you will probably use Chrome anyway, so you should know that a new feature in the mobile browser on Android will show updated pricing for items inside your open tabs grid, so you’ll know if the prices suddenly drop. Google says iOS Chrome browsers will get the feature “in the coming weeks.”

Image:...

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An Afghan refugee who drove for Uber was killed in San Francisco — his family is seeking answers

The family of a slain Uber driver wants the company to help them | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Ahmad Fawad Yusufi, a refugee from Afghanistan and father of three, was shot and killed last month in San Francisco during what police said was a botched robbery attempt. His family says Yusufi, a former interpreter with the US Army who lived in Sacramento, was in San Francisco to drive for Uber, a job which was their sole source of income.

The ride-hailing company has said Yusufi appeared to be “offline” at the time of the shooting, meaning he was not on duty, but his brother Ilyas says Yusufi worked all night Sunday driving for Uber, which was his reason for being in San Francisco at the time of the shooting early on a Monday morning. He’s written a letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, chief legal officer Tony West, and senior VP for...

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OnePlus’ latest true wireless earbuds offer noise cancellation for $99

The Buds Z2 in black and white. | Image: OnePlus

OnePlus’ latest pair of true wireless earbuds are the $99 OnePlus Buds Z2. They’re double the price of the $49.99 OnePlus Buds Z from last year but now benefit from active noise cancellation, a shorter stem, and a more lightweight construction. They’re available now in the US and will release in the UK and EU on December 20th for £99 and €99, respectively.

Although the Buds Z2’s price sits halfway between the Buds Z and OnePlus’ more premium $150 Buds Pro, it actually has better battery life than both of them. Battery life from the earbuds themselves is around five hours with ANC turned on, rising to seven hours when you turn it off, and combined with the case you get up to 38 hours total (dropping to 27 hours with ANC on). In...

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Waymo says test vehicle was in manual mode when it struck a pedestrian in San Francisco

A Waymo vehicle apparently struck a pedestrian in Lower Haight in San Francisco | KWillets on Reddit

A Waymo autonomous vehicle struck a pedestrian in San Francisco Wednesday night, according to a post on Reddit. A spokesperson for the Alphabet-owned company confirmed the incident on Twitter but clarified that the vehicle was in manual mode at the time of the collision.

The incident took place in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco, where Waymo has been testing its vehicles since last summer. The Reddit user KWillets, who claims to have witnessed the collision, posted a photo of a Waymo vehicle stopped in the middle of the road with the driver-side door open. A firetruck is parked to the side, while a number of firefighters and bystanders are gathered in front of the vehicle. According to KWillets:

Just when we thought 2021...

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The House is a creepy stop-motion anthology coming to Netflix in January

Courtesy of Netflix

Once the holidays are over, and the Home Alone marathons are done, you might be looking for something a little gloomier to watch — and it looks like Netflix has just the thing. The company just revealed the first trailer for its upcoming stop-motion anthology The House, which debuts next month. It’s described as an “eccentric dark comedy about a house and the three surreal tales of the individuals who made it their home” that also has talking cats and mice for some reason. Each episode of the anthology is helmed by a different director — that includes Emma de Swaef and Marc Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza — and it’s produced by Nexus Studios. It also looks like it has quite the cast, with voice talent including Helena...

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Comcast adds a Ring-style video doorbell to its Xfinity Home package

Xfinity Video Doorbell | Image: Comcast

For customers who’ve chosen to trust Comcast with their home security, it’s adding a new Xfinity Video Doorbell that pops up a notification both in your Xfinity app and on your TV through a Flex or X1 box when someone is at the door. There are many options for video doorbells these days, but Comcast’s includes HD video quality, two-way audio so you can speak to visitors even if you’re not at home (or don’t want to get off of the couch), motion alerts, and 24/7 video recording.

Image: Comcast

Xfinity Video Doorbell

If you want a video doorbell but have already gone the Ring, Nest, or Wyze smart home route, it’s unlikely to sway you, but it’s an option that slots in with the rest of the company’s security...

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TikTok says it’s varying For You recommendations to avoid harmful content holes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is changing its For You Page algorithm to prevent users from seeing too many similar videos that could be harmful when viewed in clusters, the company said today. The goal is to steer users away from clusters of videos that might “reinforce a negative personal experience,” listing extreme dieting, sadness, and breakup content as examples.

“At TikTok, we recognize that too much of anything, whether it’s animals, fitness tips, or personal well-being journeys, doesn’t fit with the diverse discovery experience we aim to create,” the company says in its release. The For You feed uses metrics like how long a viewer lingers over content to recommend videos.

TikTok’s personalized recommendations algorithm has been the subject of scrutiny....

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You can soon rate your favorite podcast on Spotify

Spotify

Spotify is coming for Apple Podcasts’ star rating system with one of its own. The company announced today that it’s launching a five-star rating system for podcasts. Listeners will be able to leave a rating after they listen to a show for at least 30 seconds, and the average rating will be displayed on a show’s landing page once at least 10 have been submitted. Spotify says the feature is meant to make it “easier for listeners to decide when to try out a new podcast” and that these ratings will “serve as the first chance to draw new listeners in.”

The company explicitly encourages podcasters to shout out Spotify and tell listeners to rate them there. This is likely the primary motivator for Spotify. The trope of “rate and review” on...

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Hyundai’s new four-wheeled robot is designed to carry anything you want it to

South Korean automaker Hyundai is used to making machines that move, but the company is now tackling the problem of mobility on a much smaller scale than usual. Instead of new cars, it’s announced at CES this year a four-wheeled robot named MobED that’s designed to carry, well, anything you like — from parcels to people; TV screens to trays of drinks.

MobED is about the size and shape of a dolly you might find in a workshop or garage. It’s 67cm long and 60cm wide, with four 12-inch pneumatic tires that can be controlled independently via a trio of motors at the end of each axel. A complex suspension system means its central platform can be tilted in any direction, letting MobED keep goods level when driving up or down a ramp and adjust...

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Can we regulate social media without breaking the First Amendment?

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, helps us answer the question

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Apple’s latest AirPods are currently cheaper than they were on Black Friday

Apple’s second-gen AirPods are just $89.99 right now at Amazon. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s AirPods are always a popular gift, but they can be expensive, regardless of which model you opt for. Thankfully, you can currently nab the entry-level model for less than $100, making them a great present for friends and family if you don’t mind waiting until after the holidays.

Right now, Amazon is selling Apple’s second-gen AirPods with delayed shipping for $89.99, matching their lowest price to date. It’s also less than what we saw them for on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when they were selling for around $110. The last-gen earbuds may be older and lack the wireless charging case found on the more expensive configuration, but they still offer great wireless performance, reliable battery life, and excellent ease of use,...

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Final Fantasy XIV sales suspended to try to help server congestion

Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion pack launched this month. | Image: Square Enix

Square Enix has temporarily halted sales of Final Fantasy XIV’s Starter and Complete editions, in an attempt to ease the server congestion that’s been plaguing the game since the release of its _Endwalker_expansion. Writing in a blog post, the game’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida said the company is halting deliveries of the physical version of the game, digital sales, and is also suspending registrations for the game’s free trial.

_Endwalker_released in early access on December 3rd and got an official release days later on December 7th. But limited server capacity has meant that players have often found themselves having to wait hours just to log into the game and have been stuck in queues of upward of 4,000–8,000 other players. As...

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Final Fantasy VII Remake on PC just about gets the job done

There was a time when PC versions of Japanese games tended to be terrible, if they existed at all. But in recent years, Japanese publishers have put more effort into their ports. They’re not always the most full-featured conversions, but games like Monster Hunter World and Final Fantasy XV are great examples of titles that run much better on PC than their console equivalents. The days of games like Dark Souls locking PC users to low resolutions and frame rates are mostly over.

The long-anticipated PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which launches today, isn’t exactly an example of the latter. But it doesn’t feel well-tailored to the PC either. If you’ve been waiting to play this game because you don’t have a PS4 or a PS5,...

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Fortnite’s holiday event has a frozen banana and Tom Holland

It’s that time of the year — when you get free gifts in Fortnite. Developer Epic Games has detailed this year’s big holiday event, where players have two weeks’ worth of daily quests to complete in order to unlock free items. That includes things like a frozen version of Peely the banana — I’m not sure if the ice makes him more or less naked than normal — and a new character called Krisabelle, who is basically a winter-themed version of an existing in-game witch. There are a total of 14 things to collect, and you have until January 6th at 9AM ET to get them all.

Outside of all the free stuff, there will also be new items in the shop tonight tied to the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That includes the Tom Holland version of Spidey,...

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Chrome OS tablets are getting fancier but not better

HP and Lenovo are aiming higher with their latest tablet Chromebooks

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Nvidia’s $200-a-year RTX 3080 in the cloud is ditching the waitlist today

Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service got a huge upgrade this October with its RTX 3080 tier. “Nvidia just kicked Google’s butt,” I declared at the time. My colleague Tom Warren was wowed as well. But if you went to sign up, you might have found yourself facing a _preorder_page — yes, preorders to effectively rent time on a server in the cloud. Today, that should no longer be a problem: Nvidia now says the RTX 3080 waitlist is gone.

To catch you up, Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a bring-your-own-games service that supports many (but definitely not all) of your existing Steam, Epic, and Ubisoft Connect / Uplay PC games, letting you play them over the internet from what’s effectively an Nvidia GPU-equipped gaming PC in the cloud. You can...

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Google still ran ads on climate denial, despite promising to stop

Google closeup logo displayed on a phone screen. | Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Google has struggled to uphold its recent pledge to stop running ads on content that promotes climate change denial, according to a new report from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

The new research identified 50 articles that include lies about climate change and that still featured Google ads after the date that Google said they would be banned. Google announced a new policy in October that prohibits “ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.” The new policy was supposed to kick in for Google advertisers, publishers, and YouTube creators on November 9th.

“They have not followed through with real action”

“In...

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