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Polar Grit X Pro review: a fitness watch that matches your fit
It’s not perfect, but there’s a lot to like for outdoorsy athletes
The VergeThe VergeWarner Music Group is launching a metaverse concert hall where you can pay to be its neighbor
A Snoop Dogg experience inside The Sandbox. | The Sandbox
Warner Music Group will open an outpost in virtual world The Sandbox, and it hopes music buffs will express their fandom by acquiring nearby property. In an announcement, WMG described its new home as a “combination of musical theme park and concert venue.” It will work with The Sandbox to host concerts and other “musical experiences.” But so far, it’s only discussed one specific event: a special sale of digital real estate called Land, which Sandbox users can buy “coveted” plots of in March.
Concerts have become a fixture of virtual worlds
The Sandbox has previously partnered with individual artists like Snoop Dogg for experiences, but this is apparently a larger and more ambitious installation. “Warner Music has secured the equivalent...
The VergeEpic will keep giving away free games in 2022
More free games are on the way to add to your backlog. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
One of the hallmarks of the Epic Games Store is its regular offerings of free games, and the company confirmed in a blog post that it will continue give games away in 2022. Some of the games Epic has offered in the past have been quite notable, including Control, Civilization VI, and even the store-crashing Grand Theft Auto V, so it seems likely the company will make some good freebies available this year.
Epic also announced that its store has more than 194 million users, up 34 million year over year. Valve hasn’t released its own year-in-review numbers for Steam, so it’s hard to directly determine how well Epic is competing, but comparing peak concurrent user counts indicates Epic still has a ways to go to catch up. Epic reported a...
The VergeSearch Party found enlightenment in the doomsday cult of fandom
HBO Max
Have you seen this woman?
The VergeRoborock’s S7 Plus is the first hybrid robot vacuum and mop worth buying
The S7 is the best robot vacuum that can also mop, but skip the “Rock Dock” auto-empty station
The VergeElon Musk says ‘don’t forget about my robots’ as Roadster, Semi, Cybertruck deadlines slip
The Tesla Bot concept. | Image: Tesla
What’s more important to Elon Musk? A hugely successful business selling critically lauded electric vehicles or the sci-fi dream of a humanoid robot that doesn’t exist outside of a slide deck?
Well, if you’re familiar with Musk’s modus operandi, you won’t be surprised that Musk has declared the latter — a non-existent robot — to be Tesla’s “most important product development” in a recent earnings call. Discussing the company’s product map for the years ahead, Musk noted that the Roadster and Semi (originally set to launch in 2020) and Cybertruck (first slated for 2021) would be in production “hopefully next year”(emphasis ours) before smoothly switching gears to talk up the Tesla Bot — a humanoid robot concept unveiled by the company l...
The VergeThe Verge’s 2022 Valentine’s Day gift guide
Photo by Alex Castro / Amelia Holowaty Krales
These gift ideas ran Cupid’s arrow right through us
The VergeMaster & Dynamic MG20 review: pricey doesn’t mean good
A deluxe headset that should cost considerably less
The VergeAmy Klobuchar leads her final assault on Big Tech’s power
Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota poses for a portrait in her office in Washington, D.C. on January 19th, 2022. | Photo by Leigh Vogel for The Verge
Antitrust reform is on the horizon, and tech is spooked
The VergeThe latest GoPro Hero 10 action camera has plunged to its lowest price yet
You can buy the GoPro Hero 10 for $349.98 from GoPro today. | Image: Becca Farsace / The Verge
It’s nearly the end of January, which means the holidays are sadly a month behind us. If you’re understandably already starting to crave another break, channel your wanderlust by preparing for your next vacation with this GoPro Hero 10 deal. Right now, you can take great photos and video clips on your next trip while saving big now that GoPro’s latest action camera has reached an all-time low.
Typically $499.99, GoPro is selling the camera — alongside a one-year GoPro annual subscription, a SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSDXC, and free express shipping — for $349.98. The service typically costs $49.99 per year and offers unlimited cloud backup as well auto uploads, GoPro.com discounts, unlimited access to premium editing tools in the Quik...
The VergeModerna starts trial of an omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Moderna gave its omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine to the first participant in a clinical trial, the company announced Wednesday. The report comes a few days after Pfizer / BioNTech launched a trial of its shot targeting the fast-spreading variant.
The announcement coincides with the release of data showing that the two-dose series of Moderna’s original vaccine struggled to block the omicron variant of the virus, which has mutations that help it dodge those antibodies. A booster shot restored much of its ability to neutralize the virus — and while that protection weakened over time, it still stuck around for at least six months.
Still, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement that the omicron variant is enough of a threat that...
The VergeNvidia’s cloud gaming service arrives on LG TVs
GeForce Now is exiting beta on LG TVs. | Image: Nvidia
Nvidia’s GeForce Now app for LG TVs has exited beta, the graphics card manufacturer announced today. The cloud gaming service was released in beta last November for select LG televisions and lets you stream games off Nvidia’s servers bought on stores like Steam and the Epic Games Store.
If you’ve got a compatible 2021 LG TV, you can download the GeForce Now app from the LG Content Store. To celebrate the launch, Nvidia is offering six months of GeForce Now’s Priority tier free with qualifying LG TV purchases between February 1st and March 27th.
Although it’s previously been possible to access Nvidia’s streaming service on the Nvidia Shield, being able to access the service directly from a TV itself is a much more streamlined solution....
The VergeA lawsuit could accelerate research on tear gas and menstrual changes
Tear gas in Portland, Oregon during summer 2020. | Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Proving tear gas directly causes menstrual changes is tricky
The VergeHow to find keyboard shortcuts for Zoom
Photo by Felix Zahn / Photothek via Getty Images
When you’re in the middle of a Zoom video meeting at home and your cat suddenly decides to start bawling for its dinner, you’ll want to mute your audio in a hurry. In that case, you have a choice: you can either reach for your mouse or touchpad and start searching for the “Mute” button or you can use a quick keyboard shortcut to cut off that noise immediately.
Zoom has a long list of keyboard shortcuts that you can use before or during a videoconference. By using these shortcuts, you can quickly join a meeting; mute and unmute the audio; start, pause, and stop recording; switch views from Speaker (a large image of the person speaking) to Gallery (several equally sized images, no matter who is speaking); and perform a variety of other...
The VergeNetflix officially lists HDR support for Google’s latest Pixels
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Fans of inky blacks and bright highlights rejoice: Netflix now officially lists HDR support for Google’s Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and more affordable 5A. That’s according to one of the streaming giant’s support pages, spotted by 9to5Google, which appears to have been updated some time after January 14th. The update also appears to have listed the phones as supporting HD on the service.
The update should mean owners of Google’s latest smartphones won’t have any problem watching HDR or HD content on Netflix. Although the streaming service often lists new devices as compatible on the day of their release, as with the Galaxy S21 series, there are occasionally times when it doesn’t list support until much later, like with the OnePlus 8.
It’s not...
The VergeGaming-focused Chromebooks are in the works
Google’s ambitions for gaming-focused Chromebooks might be close to reality. After years of teasing Steam for Chrome OS and even Nvidia demoing support for DLSS and ray tracing on Arm-based Chromebooks, references to new gaming Chromebooks have now been spotted in test versions of Chrome OS.
Google revealed two years ago that it was working on Steam support for Chromebooks, but we’ve heard very little ever since.
_9to5Google_reports that three codenames for potential gaming Chromebooks have been spotted, all with RGB keyboards. The publication speculates that both HP and Lenovo could be testing gaming Chromebooks, based on employee contributions to Chrome OS code. A third mysterious device, codenamed Ripple, appears to be a tablet with a...
The VergeStudio Ghibli’s theme park to open in Japan on November 1st
Image: Studio Ghibli
A theme park based around the work of legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli will open on November 1st in Nagakute, Japan, the company’s official Twitter account has announced. Plans for the park, which shouldn’t be confused with the existing Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, were initially announced in 2017.
Ghibli Park will be located on the site of the 2005 World’s Fair in the city of Nagakute, around 90 miles east of Kyoto and 150 miles west of Tokyo. A recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s house from _My Neighbor Totoro_was already built on this site for the fair, but the new park will expand on this with new attractions based on other Ghibli films.
『ジブリの大倉庫』の目玉です。 pic.twitter.com/w6GsIgaGdc
— スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) January...
The VergeAmazon has disbanded the Twitter army it paid to tweet about how great Amazon is
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon has shuttered a controversial influence campaign in which it paid workers to tweet about how much they love working at Amazon, reports The Financial Times. Employees at the retailer’s warehouses (which it calls fulfillment centers) were paid to share positive impressions about the company and to deny widely-reported workplace failings — like employees being forced to urinate in bottles in order to meet performance targets.
According to internal documents shared by The Intercept in 2021, the scheme launched in 2018 in response to waves of criticism of Amazon’s safety standards and working conditions. Workers were selected for their “great sense of humor” and told to respond “in a polite — but blunt — way” to the company’s critics,...
The VergeLamborghini releases its first NFT, which is the most Lamborghini thing ever
Photo by Andrew Hawkins
Lamborghini is accelerating into the world of the blockchain with the release of its first NFT (non-fungible token) next month. The Italian automaker, which is in the midst of an ambitious shift to hybrid and electric sports cars, announced that it would auction off a series of NFTs that it produced in collaboration with Swiss artist Fabian Oefner, as well as NFT Pro and Sotheby’s.
Oefner’s image depicts a Lamborghini breaking down into its core components as it rockets through the inky blackness of space. It’s less amateurish in its design than many of the more popular NFTs, like the Bored Ape series, which raises questions as to how it will be received by the crypto community.
Lamborghini is fully embracing the astronomical theme
L...
The VergeYouTube announces 135 creators in its 2022 Black Voices Fund
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube is announcing 135 creators who will take part in the #YouTubeBlack Voices Fund, including a slate of 40 in the US and Canada. The fund provides one year of support, including seed funding for channels, development programs, workshops, and networking opportunities.
“Black creators have played an important role in shaping the culture on YouTube. From fashion and comedy to politics, learning and wellness, Black creators have propelled our platform forward,” the company said in the announcement.
The grantees of the fund, now in its second year, include creators from a variety of backgrounds like lawyers, athletes, lifestyle vloggers, comedians, dermatologists, and pop culture commentators.
YouTube announced the fund in 2020,...
The VergeiPhones will soon accept contactless payments directly, says report
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Small businesses will soon be able to use iPhones to accept payments without the need for Square-style extra hardware, according to a Bloomberg report. The feature has been anticipated since Apple bought contactless payment startup Mobeewave in 2020, and Bloomberg now says it could be coming via a software update “in the coming months.”
Mobeewave previously worked with Samsung on similar NFC functionality, trialling a system called Samsung POS in the startup’s home country of Canada in 2019 before launching it worldwide. Samsung POS enabled Samsung phones to accept payments directly from contactless cards and NFC payment services like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay.
Bloomberg’s report says it’s unclear if Mobeewave’s technology...
The VergeSamsung sets revenue records with stronger product sales
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Samsung Electronics broke both its quarterly and annual records for revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021, making 13.87 trillion won (~$11.5 billion) in operating profit off 76.57 trillion won (~$63.6 billion) in revenue in the three-month period. The full-year numbers were 51.63 trillion won ($42.9 billion) in operating profit and 279.6 trillion won (~$232.4 billion) in revenue.
Samsung attributes the 24-percent year-on-year revenue growth to increased sales of consumer products like premium smartphones, TVs, and appliances. The more profitable semiconductor business drove operating profit growth of 52 percent year on year, despite supply chain issues limiting production of RAM and flash storage.
Looking to 2022, Samsung expects...
The VergeThe best deals on 4K TVs
Several retailers are selling the 55-inch LG C1 OLED TV for $1,296.99 instead of $1,499.99, its lowest price to date. | Image: LG
With CES 2022 having just wrapped, the future looks bright if you’re looking to nab a great TV deal. At CES, many manufacturers — including LG and Samsung — announced new versions of some of their most popular models, ranging from The Frame to LG’s new C2 lineup. That means we’re probably going to start seeing prices fall on last-gen models as newer models become available throughout the rest of the year.
For those looking to pick up a solid deal before the new models arrive, however, fret not, as retailers are already discounting TVs in the run up to the Super Bowl next month. There are currently a number of 4K TVs available to choose from, spanning a wide variety of prices, size configurations, and feature sets. Whether you want a...
The VergeA union election is moving forward at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is moving forward with unionization efforts at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse after having “reached a sufficient showing of interest” to hold an election, according to National Labor Relations Board spokesperson Kayla Blado. The NLRB says that it’s scheduled a hearing for February 16th, after which the specifics and date for the election will be decided. This is only the second time Amazon’s warehouse workers have made it to this point in the unionization process, as Vice reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley pointed out on Twitter.
On Wednesday, the ALU tweeted that its petition had been accepted and that “the fight is just beginning.” It’s been working to unionize Amazon workers in New York for a while: in October 2021, it...
The VergeE-bike maker Cowboy joins the exclusive $100 million club
The Cowboy 4 e-bike which just launched in the US. | Image: Cowboy
Brussels-based electric bike maker Cowboy now has an additional $80 million in funding to help fuel its expansion into the US and beyond. The company has raised over $120 million since its founding in 2017, putting it on track to “reach over 100,000 riders by 2023,” according to a press release announcing the new funding round.
The capital injection propels Cowboy into the ranks of a select few boutique e-bike companies like Seattle-based Rad Power and Amsterdam-based VanMoof, who are riding a tidal wave of investment after interest in e-bikes exploded globally during pandemic lockdowns. In September, VanMoof announced that it was the “most funded e-bike company in the world” with a $128 million investment round that brought its total...
The VergeDavid Bowie’s The Man Who Fell to Earth is becoming a new graphic novel
Dev Pramanik/Titan Comics
Though director Nicolas Roeg’s _The Man Who Fell to Earth_from 1976 was itself an adaptation of Walter Tevis’ sci-fi novel of the same name, David Bowie’s performance in the cinematic adaptation has become so iconic that Titan Comics plans to lead with it in its upcoming graphic novelization from writer Dan Watters and artist Dev Pramanik.
Like the film before it, Titan’s _The Man Who Fell to Earth_will tell the story of Thomas Jerome Newton, a humanoid alien with Bowie’s signature heterochromatic eyes who comes to Earth on a desperate mission in search of water that his home planet desperately needs. In a press release about the new book, Watters reflected on how the original story was always a rumination on humanity’s relationship with...
The VergeApple rolls out fix for a bug that could break iCloud syncing
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Apple has identified and is rolling out a fix for the bug that intermittently prevented third-party apps from syncing in iCloud (via 9to5Mac). In a response to a developer on Apple’s community forum, Apple says it has “investigated this issue on the CloudKit backend, and have implemented a fix.”
The company still didn’t specify exactly what went wrong — it said the errors “resemble request-throttling that may be affecting a specific user, or the container as a whole,” and vaguely blamed “an underlying issue” for causing the widespread syncing problems.
Some users received a “Request failed with HTTP status code 503” error code
As 9to5Mac reports, developers have been dealing with this issue since November, which hasn’t been publicly...
The VergeAT&T CEO suggests Netflix’s price hike is great news for HBO Max
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Netflix keeps getting more expensive — and HBO seems to think that’s great news for its own business. During the earnings call for HBO Max parent AT&T on Wednesday, the company’s chief executive John Stankey said the higher price of competitors will help HBO grow in the US.
“We said the market was going to come to us on pricing, and lo and behold, we are no longer the high-priced offer in the market,” Stankey said. “The nice part about that is we think it’ll allow us to have domestic growth as we move forward.”
While he didn’t specifically cite Netflix, the company recently raised its prices across all of its plans, bumping its popular standard plan to $15.50 from $14 per month. Its 4K plan, meanwhile, now costs $20 per month. That means...
The VergeTesla Cybertruck delayed until at least next year, Elon Musk confirms
You’ll have to wait even longer now. | Image: Tesla
Tesla’s Cybertruck and Roadster will be delayed to “hopefully next year,” the company’s CEO Elon Musk said in an earnings call Wednesday. The announcement confirms earlier reports that the electric pickup truck would miss its earlier production date of late 2022.
“If we were to introduce new vehicles, our total vehicle output will decrease,” Musk said. “We will not be introducing new vehicle models this year.”
Musk was also asked about the availability of a $25,000 electric car, to which he responded “We are not currently working on a $25,000 car.” Musk has been promising a low-cost Tesla for years, based in part on the company’s work to bring down the costs of battery production.
Indications that the Cybertruck would be delayed...
The VergeID.me does use facial recognition to match against databases, CEO admits
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
ID.me, a facial recognition company that has been contracted by the IRS to verify taxpayers’ identity, uses a powerful facial recognition technique to match faces against a larger database, despite earlier claims to the contrary.
According to a LinkedIn post made by CEO Blake Hall Wednesday and spotted by reporters at CyberScoop, the company does use a technique known as one-to-many face matching in which a target face is compared against a database of other known faces to find possible matches.
This contradicts previous public statements made by the company, including a press release issued just days ago, where comments attributed to Blake Hall said the company used only a less powerful form of facial recognition known as one-to-one...