The best noise-canceling headphone deals

Sennheiser’s Momentum Wireless 3 headphones are just $241 instead of $399.99 at Adorama.

With many people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions.

That’s why we’ve curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a buying decision,...

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Google is now requiring office workers to get weekly molecular COVID-19 tests

The company is implementing new policies as COVID-19 cases rise across the US. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google will require anyone going to one of its US offices or facilities to have received a negative molecular test for COVID-19, the company informed employees Thursday in a memo obtained by CNBC. Workers going to the office regularly will have to get tested weekly, chief health officer Karen DeSalvo said in the memo, and employees have been asked to report their vaccination statusand wear surgical-grade masks indoors.

Google spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson confirmed to The Verge that a new temporary COVID-19 policy is now being implemented, one where “anyone accessing our sites in the US are expected to obtain a recent negative COVID-19 molecular test before coming onsite” and that it’s offering various kinds of tests at no cost.

G...

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Nvidia’s AI-powered scaling makes old games look better without a huge performance hit

Nvidia says its AI-powered upscaling is more powerful than regular super-resolution. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s latest game-ready driver includes a tool that could let you improve the image quality of games that your graphics card can easily run, alongside optimizations for the new God of War PC port. The tech is called Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution, or DLDSR, and Nvidia says you can use it to make “most games” look sharper by running them at a higher resolution than your monitor natively supports.

DLDSR builds on Nvidia’s Dynamic Super Resolution tech, which has been around for years. Essentially, regular old DSR renders a game at a higher resolution than your monitor can handle and then downscales it to your monitor’s native resolution. This leads to an image with better sharpness but usually comes with a dip in performance...

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Google’s critical Pixel 6 January update is here for some

The January update promises to fix numerous bugs reported by Pixel 6 owners. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

Google appears to be getting ready to release a much-anticipated update for Pixel 6 phones. Android expert Mishaal Rahman notes that Google has posted OTA and factory images for the January 2022 patch to its developer site. That means anyone can side-load the update to their Pixel phone now, but it also means the official over-the-air update will be coming to your device soon — and it might be best to wait until then, given the trouble caused by December’s update.

The January update should include numerous bug fixes that Pixel 6 owners have been anxiously awaiting. Google had originally intended to ship them in the December update but halted and ultimately removed the files from its site when users complained of connectivity troubles...

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White House: COVIDTests.gov will distribute free rapid tests starting January 19th

The site is live, but you won’t be able to order tests until Wednesday.

The White House has announced that people will be able to order free COVID-19 tests from COVIDTests.gov starting on Wednesday, January 19th. This follows a promise that the government would be setting up a website to distribute 500 million tests, which President Joe Biden announced in December.

You’ll only have to put in two pieces of info to get a test shipped to you — your name and address. In its announcement, the White House said the tests will ship through the US Postal Service “within 7–12 days of ordering.” Currently, the limit is four tests per residential address.

To order their tests, the only two things people will need are their name and residential mailing address. Tests will typically ship through the mail within 7-12...

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The FTC is reportedly investigating Meta’s VR division for antitrust violations

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The US Federal Trade Commission and at least three states are investigating Meta for antitrust violations in its virtual reality division, according to Bloomberg. The report says the FTC and attorneys general from New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina began speaking last year with third-party VR developers who have concerns about Meta’s business practices. It’s one of multiple probes into Meta’s dominance in the small but growing market of VR.

The Bloomberg report references well-known controversies around Meta (formerly Facebook) and its VR division (formerly Oculus). Regulators have reportedly asked developers if the Oculus app store discriminates against third-party apps whose features overlap with its own offerings, and they’ve...

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Netflix raises prices on all plans in US

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix is raising prices across all of its plans in the US today. The company’s standard plan will rise to $15.50 per month from $14, while the 4K plan will rise to $20 per month from $18. The basic plan, which doesn’t include HD, is also rising to $10 per month from $9. Prices are rising in Canada as well.

The price hikes go into effect immediately for new subscribers. For existing subscribers, the changes will be rolled out “gradually,” with Netflix promising to email members 30 days before the price hike goes into effect.

Prices for a Netflix plan have steadily gone up in recent years. In late 2020, the standard plan went to $14 per month, after previously rising from $11 to $13 in 2019.

The price hikes come during a successful but...

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Eero could be close to launching a Wi-Fi 6E mesh networking system

Eero might be upgrading its Pro line to support Wi-Fi 6E. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon-owned Eero seems to be close to announcing new routers sometime soon, as new FCC filings appeared this week for devices that appear to be called the Eero 6 Plus and the Eero Pro 6E. That 6E branding for the Pro could indicate it will support Wi-Fi 6E, meaning it can take advantage of 6GHz spectrum for faster connections.

Router makers have slowly been introducing Wi-Fi 6E-capable mesh routers, though some have been quite expensive, such as this $1,500 Orbi system from Netgear and Linksys’ $1,200 option. While we don’t know how much Eero’s 6E-capable system could cost, it could be more affordable than those options, given that a 3-pack for the Eero 6 Pro launched at $599.

The new router names show up on labels Eero included in the...

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Google’s Sonos lawsuit dodge might let other phone makers do what Pixel cannot

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

You might think a Google phone would be the best choice to control your Google-branded speakers, but that’s not necessarily true: Google’s actions have potentially opened the door for other manufacturers to do what the Pixel legally cannot, writes Android sleuth Mishaal Rahman at Esper.

Last week, we wrote how “Your Google home speakers are about to get slightly worse because Sonos sued and won.” If you’re using a Google Pixel, that’s true — among other things, you won’t be able to control the volume of a multi-zone Google Cast speaker group. That’s because the US International Trade Commission ruled that Google copied Sonos’ technology and threatened to block imports unless Google implemented five specific software tweaks. One of the...

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Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai were involved in ad collusion plot, claims court filing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Friday, a coalition of state attorneys general led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a new antitrust complaint (PDF) against Google, giving more details into the company’s alleged collusion with Facebook in programmatic ad markets. The filing was first reported by Politico.

First filed in November, the initial complaint (PDF) alleged broad collusion between the two companies, particularly in a collaborative project codenamed “Jedi Blue” that saw the companies joining together to limit header bidding practices.

“this is a big deal strategically”

Drawing on internal emails, Friday’s complaint shows that the Jedi Blue deal was reviewed at the highest levels of both companies, with personal involvement from Sundar Pichai,...

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Bethesda will follow up Fallout 4’s real-life Pip-Boy with this Starfield smartwatch

Starfield, Bethesda’s upcoming space-themed game, may feature an in-game smartwatch that you’ll be able to get and wear in real life, based on an early copy of a manual found by Reddit user SquiddyVonn. The manual details the real-life watch’s functions, which include showing the weather and step tracking, and it even includes pictures that give us a good look at the interface. It also shows us that the watch is being made by a well-known replica company that’s worked with Bethesda in the past.

According to “The Wand Company LPV6 Chronomark Smartwatch User Manual,” the watch will be able to receive forecast information from a phone, display notifications, and show various sets of information on a series of watch faces. It also shows the...

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Peacemaker actually knows how to exist in a cinematic universe

Warner Bros,

Warner Bros. went out of its way to make sure that James Gunn’s The Suicide Squadwasn’t exactly looked at as a direct sequel to David Ayer’s Suicide Squad even though that’s what it was. In the case of HBO Max’s new Peacemakerspinoff series, though, the studio’s taking a much different approach to addressing the connections between its rather messy cinematic universe.

It’s become commonplace for spinoff superhero series informed by the events of big superhero movies — Marvel’s latest batch of Disney Plus series all come to mind — to dance around the specific details of how they fit into the larger picture until about halfway through the season. Though you can usually infer that these sorts of shows are set after the events of the...

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Apple’s long-in-the-works VR / AR headset may not launch until 2023

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Rumors have swirled for years about Apple releasing some kind of virtual reality / augmented reality headset. While reports had pegged a possible 2022 release for the company’s first mixed reality headset, the device is hitting some development snags and may not release until 2023, according to Bloomberg.

Apple planned to reveal the headset at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, but “development challenges related to overheating, cameras and software have made it harder to stay on track,” Bloomberg reports. The issues mean the reveal may happen at the end of the year — or even later — with the headset going on sale in 2023. And Apple had apparently, at one point, planned to reveal the device even earlier; Bloomberg reports the...

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Russia’s FSB says it has taken down REvil hacker group at US request

Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, has arrested numerous members of the REvil hacking group at the request of the US government, the FSB said on Friday. The move, which marks an unusual degree of cooperation between Russian and US agencies, comes amid increasingly aggressive Russian military activity on the Ukrainian border and tense diplomacy as the United States attempts to prevent armed conflict.

Reporting by the Russian Interfax news agency claimed that the FSB seized 426 million rubles ($5.6 million) in a raid against 14 members of the group, along with more than $600,000 worth of cryptocurrency and 20 luxury cars. The FSB told Interfax that it was acting at the request of US authorities and had informed them of the...

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Clean energy tech needs to be designed for recycling, experts say

Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

Companies like Apple and Samsung aren’t the only ones making high-tech devices that are hard to take apart and recycle. So are the manufacturers of critical clean energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicle (EV) batteries — and unlike the consumer tech industry, which is slowlystartingtoreverse some of its unsustainable design practices, there isn’t much being done about it.

Batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines are all essential tools for combating climate change. However, these technologies take considerable energy and resources to make, and the best way to ensure we can keep making more of them sustainably is to recycle those resources at end of life. But today, clean energy recycling is limited...

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Vergecast: Wordle’s App Store clones, FTC’s Meta lawsuit moves forward, and PC’s big year

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where we discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on_The Vergecast_, Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and Russell Brandom start the show with news of federal judge James Boasberg allowing the FTC to proceed with an antitrust lawsuit against Meta. The crew explains why the case can go forward after a dismissal last year and what can happen next.

The next topic of discussion focuses on the viral success of the web-based puzzle game Wordle and the race to clone it. The Vergecast walks you through the drama, resulting in a bunch of Wordle clones being removed from Apple’s App Store.

Later in the show,Verge deputy...

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These are the video game studios leading the charge for a four-day workweek

An illustration of Die Gute Fabrik’s studio space.

Some game companies are spearheading the idea that employees should work less rather than more

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EV startup Bollinger ‘indefinitely’ delays its rugged electric trucks to focus on delivery vans

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Bollinger, a Michigan-based startup, announced today that it was postponing its plans to manufacture electric trucks in order to focus on commercial delivery vans.

Bollinger burst onto the scene several years ago with a pair of rugged, box-like electric truck prototypes: the four-door B1 (which is shaped like a Jeep Wrangler) and the B2 (which is longer and has a pickup bed). It’s the latest EV startup to run into speed bumps as it attempts to build a complicated vehicle manufacturing business from scratch.

Bollinger has already delayed both vehicles, so their postponement may not come as a huge shock to close watchers. The trucks were originally scheduled to go into production in 2020, but that date was moved to late 2021, with the...

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Build a speedy USB-C drive with this discounted M.2 SSD enclosure

You’ve got yourself a small weekend project. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In most cases, people purchase M.2 NVMe drives to stick into their desktop PCs or laptops for more of that good, fast storage. But there are some other, more practical applications that don’t require opening up your hardware. You can get one of these fast SSDs, then stick it into a small enclosure, and suddenly you’ve made yourself a convenient and speedy portable USB-C drive that’ll cost you as little as $93 with today’s deals.

If that sounds like something you’d like to add to your tech repertoire, Sabrent’s tool-free USB-C Gen 3.2 enclosure is down to just $22.94 (usually $40) at Amazon. Adding an M.2 drive to it is simple, just pop the top off and follow the instructions for carefully guiding the drive into the slot. Then, you fasten...

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Final Fantasy XIV sales to resume January 25th

Your case of Final Fantasy XIV FOMO is nearing its end. Last night, game director Naoki Yoshida wrote on the Final Fantasy XIV website that Square Enix will resume digital sales of the popular MMO on January 25th.

Final Fantasy XIV grew so popular with the launch of its latest expansion Endwalker that the queues to log into game servers were thousands of people long and took hours to get through. Servers were so congested that in December, Square Enix suspended the sale of digital versions of the game. As more players progress through the content, levels of server congestion are finally starting to even out, permitting sales of the game to resume. Yoshida also acknowledged that FFXIV’s meme-able free trial offering will remain...

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How God of War’s impressive PC port came to life

Mouse and keyboard, meet boy and Kratos

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Bill Gates’ climate fund looks to funnel billions into carbon removal, green hydrogen, and more

Founder of Microsoft and chairman of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, to establish the Breakthrough Energy Europe investment fund, Bill Gates looks on during a press conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels on October 17, 2018. | Photo by JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images

Bill Gates’ climate investment fund is moving forward with plans to funnel billions of dollars into emerging green technologies. This week, the fund, Breakthrough Energy, put out a Request for Proposals for projects in Europe through Breakthrough Energy’s Catalyst program. It comes after the Catalyst program released its first RFP for similar projects in the US last month.

The Catalyst program, launched last June with the aim of enablinga zero-carbon economy through public-private partnerships**,**says it has fundraised $1.5 billion over the past six months and hopes to raise $3 billion by the middle of next year. It plans to use that money to boost four different kinds of technologies: green hydrogen fuels, sustainable aviation fuels,...

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Jack Dorsey’s Block is working to make Bitcoin mining easier

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Block, the payment company formerly known as Square, is working on building an “open Bitcoin mining system,” its CEO Jack Dorsey has announced. In a thread, Block’s general manager for hardware Thomas Templeton outlined the company’s goals for the system, which is for it to be easily available, reliable, performant, and relatively power efficient compared to its hashrate.

The overall aim is to make mining more decentralized, in turn making the overall Bitcoin network more resilient. As the cryptocurrency’s value has increased, and it’s become more challenging to mine without economies of scale, there have been fears that the network has become centralized on too small a group of miners. Making mining more decentralized is “a long-term...

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How to send private messages and make calls in Slack

Illustration by Samar Haddad / Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

While Slack began as a workplace instant-messaging tool, over the last few years it has become popular as a way for anyone to keep in contact with a group of friends, colleagues, or family. It now even offers a way for groups to create in-the-moment “huddles,” in which two or more people can move from text to audio — if you’re on a paid plan.

Although Slack is largely intended for group collaboration, it also has tools if you just want to chat one-on-one with somebody. Here, we’re going to go over some of the ways you can have a private text, audio, or video conversation with one other person via the free version of Slack.

Text conversations

Using the Slack desktop app:

• If you’ve recently sent a personal message to someone, you’ll find...

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Garmin Vivomove Sport review: the right mix of form and function

Finally, a Garmin hybrid that checks off all the boxes

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Microsoft commissions third-party review of its harassment and discrimination policies

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft’s board of directors is hiring a law firm to review the company’s policies on sexual harassment and discrimination after years of complaints of wrongdoing at the company. The review, which will be conducted by law firm Arent Fox, will include a public transparency report “assessing the effectiveness of the company’s workplace sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies, training, and related policies.”

It will also include an assessment of Microsoft’s previous investigation into allegations against the company’s co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates. _GeekWire_reports that this review won’t reinvestigate Gates’ affair with a company employee in the year 2000. Bill Gates resigned from the Microsoft board in March 2020,...

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Google TV exploring fitness, smart home control, and other new features for 2022

Google’s 2020 Chromecast with Google TV. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Google TV’s director of product management Rob Caruso has outlined what the company’s plans are for its TV operating system in 2022 in a new interview with Protocol. While Caruso stopped short of making any specific feature announcements, he said that the company is interested in offering fitness and video conferencing services though Google TV, and better smart home controls.

Caruso called fitness a “big area of exploration,” and cited Android’s recent smart home control changes (which, for example, made them easily accessible from a phone’s power menu) as a clue for what might come to Google TV. Zoom was cited as a potential addition to the platform (Google’s own Duo video calling service is already available), and he said Google is...

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‘Massive cyber attack’ hits Ukraine government websites as tensions with Russia escalate

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hackers attacked a number of Ukrainian government websites on Friday, temporarily disabling sites and leaving messages warning readers to “be afraid and expect the worse.”

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry described the incident as a “massive cyber attack,” according to reports from Bloomberg and Sky News, but noted that no content on the sites had been altered and no personal data had been leaked.

Websites for the government’s cabinet, security and defense councils, and ministry for education were among those affected. “Our specialists are already working on restoring the work of IT systems, and the cyber police opened an investigation,” said the spokesperson.

Russian troops have been gathering on Ukraine’s border for...

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Tesla now lets you buy some merch in Dogecoin

Giga Texas Belt Buckle now costs 835 DOGE.

Tesla now lets customers buy select items of merchandise using Dogecoin, the company’s CEO Elon Musk has announced. Products buyable with the meme-based cryptocurrency include the Cyberquad for Kids (12,020 doge / around $2,320), the Giga Texas Belt Buckle (835 doge / around $161) and the Cyberwhistle (300 doge / around $58). _Business Insider_notes that Dogecoin was up 16 percent to around $0.20 following the news.

The initiative was initially announced by Musk on Twitter on December 14th when he said that the company would “see how it goes” with the cryptocurrency payment option. It’s unclear if or when Tesla might eventually accept payment for its vehicles in Dogecoin, which Musk has previously said may be his favorite cryptocurrency.

...

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PUBG’s developer is suing Apple, Google, and the developer of lucrative PUBG lookalike Free Fire

PUBG-maker Krafton filed a big lawsuit Monday. | Image: Krafton

PUBG-maker Krafton filed a big lawsuit Monday: it’s suing the developer of two mobile games that it accuses of copying PUBG: Battlegrounds, the hit PC battle royale shooter, and it’s suing Apple and Google for distributing those games on their app stores. Krafton even accuses Google of hosting YouTube videos with gameplay of the two games in question, as well as “numerous posts containing a feature-length Chinese film that is nothing more than a blatantly infringing live-action dramatization of Battlegrounds.”

The games Krafton takes issue with are called Free Fire and Free Fire Max, offered by developer Garena. On both the App Store and Google Play, they show up as Garena Free Fire and Garena Free Fire Max. Both are available for free...

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