Ford will let you 3D-print your own cupholders for the Maverick truck

Maverick owner Robert Trapp designed and 3D-printed this cupholder for the Ford Maverick. Available on Trapp’sthingiverse page. | Photo by Robert Trapp / Ford

Ford is encouraging its customers to 3D-print new accessories for the company’s new 2022 Maverick truck. This week, Ford released CAD files of the Maverick’s storage area under the rear seats and also for its slotted accessories called the Ford Integrated Tether System (FITS).

There are a total of eight FITS slots in the vehicle: one behind the center console where a cupholder would normally go in many vehicles and seven under the rear seat bench. It’s designed to be modular, allowing customers to order a set of accessories to fit different needs, like storage dividers to separate cleats and footballs or grocery bag hooks.

Image: Ford

Ford’s $50 3D-printed FITS accessory pack, available when building a new 2022...

Continue reading…

I hid a $5,000 camera rig in Brooklyn

Cognisys’ scout camera box kept my Canon 5D MIV and Canon 16-35mm lens safe from the elements.

When I think of wildlife photography, I think of powerful animals photographed using long lenses in epic environments. That was until I met ex-ventriloquist-turned-wildlife-conservation-photographer Carla Rhodes. She has captured over 25 different species of wild animals in the backyard of her Catskills home, and most of the time, she isn’t even there to hit the shutter button.

Carla Rhodes setting her camera trapping box.

A weather-proof flash attached to a tree, high above an animals eye-line.

A break beam sensor is used to trigger the camera.

Instead of camping out in a single spot and waiting for wildlife to walk by, Carla studies wildlife patterns and then...

Continue reading…

Epic says there are now more than 500 million Epic Games accounts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games announced Wednesday that there are now more than 500 million Epic Games accounts. It’s a notable milestone as Epic continues to build the Epic Games Store as a competitor to Steam and bring in new players for titles like Fortnite and _Rocket League._Epic didn’t share further details about that 500 million, however, so it’s unclear how many of those accounts represent segments like people that only play Epic’s own games (such as Fortnite) or those who have only used Epic’s store.

The company has put a huge amount of resources behind growing its PC games store — and therefore, getting more people to sign up for accounts — since it launched in December 2018. One document from the Epic v. Apple trial, for example, showed that Epic...

Continue reading…

Apple’s Severance turns office life into purgatory

True work-life balance can be as hard to achieve as inbox zero. It’s so challenging, in fact, that the characters in Severance go to a particular extreme to reach it: brain surgery. The show, which is streaming on Apple TV Plus, takes its name from a surgical procedure in which someone’s brain is essentially severed in two, creating two distinct persons: one for work, one for home life. The result is a show that feels a bit like a cross between Black Mirror and The IT Crowd, exploring the horrors of capitalism and technology with a banal kind of cheer.

At the center of the story is a company called Lumon Industries, an Amazon-style megacorporation that dabbles in a little of everything. (“What don’t they make,” one character asks early...

Continue reading…

Why you can’t rebuild Wikipedia with crypto

Whenever a fresh disaster happens on the blockchain, increasingly I learn about it from the same destination: a two-month old website whose name suggests the deadpan comedy with which it chronicles the latest crises in NFTs, DAOs, and everything else happening in crypto.

Launched on December 14th, Web3 Is Going Just Great is the sort of thing you almost never see any more on the internet: a cool and funny new website. Its creator and sole author is Molly White, a software engineer and longtime Wikipedia contributor who combs through news and crypto sites to find the day’s most prominent scams, schemes, and rug pulls.

Organized as a timeline and presented in reverse chronological order, to browse Web3 Is Going Just Great is to get a sense...

Continue reading…

Jaguar Land Rover says all of its cars will come with Nvidia’s Drive computers by 2025

Jaguar Land Rover is teaming up with Nvidia to install high-powered computers in its vehicles to enable advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving features. Starting in 2025, all JLR vehicles will come with Nvidia’s end-to-end Drive Hyperion platform installed, the companies said.

Hyperion is the latest iteration of Nvidia’s Drive platform that allows automakers to customize their own driving features. And Orin is the chipmaker’s system-on-a-chip, similar to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving chip or Intel’s Mobileye EyeQ. This new hardware will form the basis for a new suite of driving features, including advanced driver assistance systems, automated parking, and autonomous driving, the companies said.

Starting in 2025, all JLR vehicles...

Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red veterans are launching a new studio and making a dark fantasy RPG

Here’s concept art for the studio’s first game. | Image: Rebel Wolves

Veterans of CD Projekt Red (CDPR) are launching a new studio called Rebel Wolves, and they shared the first details about the new venture on Wednesday. Fans of CDPR’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might be pleased to hear that Rebel Wolves’ first game sounds like it could be a spiritual successor to the hit title.

In an email to The Verge, co-founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz described it as “a dark fantasy, story-focused open world AAA RPG,” and it’s based on a new franchise from Rebel Wolves co-founder and narrative director Jakub Szamałek, who also worked on The Witcher 3_and_Cyberpunk 2077. “Overall, the game will have a similar scope to the Blood and Wine expansion for The Witcher 3 but will be far more non-linear,” Tomaszkiewicz said. Rebel...

Continue reading…

No Man’s Sky’s newest update brings big changes to combat and enemies

No Man’s Sky Sentinel is the game’s first update of 2022. | Image: Hello Games

No Man’s Sky is getting its first update of the year on Wednesday, dubbed Sentinel, and developer Hello Games is promising some big changes to combat and enemies.

“The Sentinel update brings an overhaul of the combat systems in game and enemies you meet, to create something much more challenging and exciting,” the studio says. “No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration, but our universe has always been one filled with hazards and danger. Sentinels police the planets you explore, and have long been an element of the game we wanted to make more interesting, deep and fun — whilst also allowing players to defeat and overcome them in a more meaningful way.”

There’s a new giant mech enemy

There will be a lot to check out in the Sentinel...

Continue reading…

Waymo will test its autonomous trucks in Texas with brokerage firm CH Robinson

Waymo announced a new partnership with CH Robinson, a Fortune 500 company and global logistics provider, to test its autonomous trucks in Texas. It’s the latest deal that highlights the Alphabet company’s growing autonomous truck venture, Waymo Via.

As part of the new collaboration, Waymo and CH Robinson will oversee a pilot in which Waymo’s test fleet of autonomous trucks will make deliveries, traveling a 240-mile route between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. The company is also testing deliveries for UPS along the same route.

Waymo divides its autonomous initiatives into two divisions: Waymo One, its consumer ride-hailing service, and Waymo Via, which is focused on goods delivery in both trucking and local delivery formats.

Waymo has...

Continue reading…

2021’s crypto bull market made criminals much richer

Most of it comes from stolen funds. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

At the end of 2021, cybercriminals had over $11 billion in cryptocurrency tied to illicit activity, a meteoric rise from the $3 billion they held at the end of 2020, according to a report from blockchain data company Chainalysis. The most lucrative crime was theft — 93 percent of the funds in criminals’ crypto wallets were made up of stolen coins worth $9.8 billion, according to the firm.

To find these numbers, Chainalysis looked at how much crypto was in wallets that it’s “attributed to illicit actors.” This means wallets that receive funds from things like darknet markets, ransomware operations, scams, or crypto theft.

Chart: Chainalysis

The value of the crypto owned by criminals at the end of the year, broken...

Continue reading…

It’s already time to get nostalgic about your 2022 Apple Music listening

Apple Music Replay 2022. | Screenshot: Apple Music

A month and a half into 2022, Apple Music’s roundup of your listening habits throughout the year is already live, _9to5Mac_reports. Unlike Spotify, whose Wrapped feature launches each December, Apple’s competing Music Replay feature is available from now until the end of the year. So if you’re an Apple Music subscriber keen to see what your music tastes have been like over the past 47 days, now’s the time.

Of course, there’s a decent chance you haven’t actually listened to enough music this year for Apple Music to generate your Replay summary. As 9to5Mac notes, the summary shows your top 100 most played songs, your top 10 played albums, and your most listened to artists. You can find your stats by heading over to replay.music.apple.com,...

Continue reading…

Uber will now let you see how many one-star ratings you got from drivers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

For the first time, Uber is allowing its customers to see how many five-star ratings they’ve received from drivers — as well as how many shameful one-star reviews they’ve racked up.

For years, the two-way rating system has fueled Uber’s power over its riders and drivers. Low-performing drivers — those with an average of four stars or less — were at risk of deactivation. Even some poorly behaved passengers could get kicked off the platform if they received enough one-star ratings. Now, Uber is offering its customers fresh insight into how they are perceived by drivers.

Customers will be able to access a breakdown of their average ratings in the Uber app’s new privacy menu, which will be available to customers globally starting today.

...

Continue reading…

Realme 9 Pro and Pro Plus announced with color-changing new design

The “sunrise blue” Realme 9 Pro Plus turns red in sunlight.

Realme has announced the Realme 9 Pro and Pro Plus, two new phones that now sit at the top of its extremely popular mid-range numbered series. We reviewed the 8 Pro last year and found it to be one of the best value phones available anywhere — except the US, of course, where Realme doesn’t have a presence.

The two new 9 Pro phones are big upgrades on the 8 Pro. The physical design is all new, combining thin flat sides with a curved back panel that, at least on the “sunrise blue” model, uses a photochromic layer that changes color under exposure to sunlight. Take the phone outside on a reasonably sunny day and it’ll change from blue to a reddish tint in a matter of seconds. Vivo, which shares the same BBK ownership as Realme, launched a...

Continue reading…

The best deals on MacBooks right now

The 2020 MacBook Air, one of the best laptops you can get, is now available at B&H Photo starting at $949.99.

With multiple configurations and various models to choose from, including ones equipped with Apple’s M1 processor, finding a deal on a MacBook or Mac Mini is not all that difficult. It’s a slightly different story for the newer M1 Pro and M1 Max-equipped MacBook Pros, but any bit of savings you can get on the new Pro models is sure to be worthwhile.

Here, we’ll run through the discounts that are currently available for the latest MacBook models, as well as any deals to be had on the Mac Mini. Of course, there are still some lingering discounts available for older, Intel-based configurations — which are compatible with macOS Monterey — but we strongly recommend opting for a newer model now that Apple has introduced its M1 chips across the...

Continue reading…

Nintendo won’t let you buy digital games for Wii U and 3DS after March 2023

Nintendo is winding down new purchases on its Wii U and 3DS marketplaces.

The Nintendo Switch has been Nintendo’s main console for years now, but the company has still kept the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS’s eShop open for people who want to buy games on those platforms. In March 2023, though, that will no longer be the case — Nintendo won’t let you buy things on the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS eShop “as of late March 2023,” the company announced on Tuesday.

Nintendo will be slowly making changes to eShop purchases up until that deadline:

• On May 23rd, 2022, you won’t be able to use a credit card to add funds to your eShop accounts on Wii U or 3DS devices.
• On August 29th, 2022, you won’t be able to use eShop gift cards to add funds to your accounts on those devices, either.
• If you have any download codes, you won’t be...

Continue reading…

Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Apple’s latest Apple Watch, the Series 7, currently starts at $349 instead of $399. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch to help you achieve your New Year’s fitness goals? It might be tempting to order one of the Series 7 models, but new hardware always comes at a premium. Apple’s latest wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability but is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.

Thankfully, each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen its fair share of discounts over the last year. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?

There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The highest-end is the Apple Watch Series 7, which starts at...

Continue reading…

The best deals on true wireless earbuds right now

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

When it comes to true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. Whether you need something with noise cancellation to drown out your morning commute like Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 2, or a fitness-focused pair like the Beats Powerbeats Pro, there’s a pair of wireless earbuds for nearly every occasion. Some, like the UE Fits, even conform to the shape of your ear to provide a secure fit that's uniquely yours.

Regardless of the brand or model that speaks to you, however, we’ve scoured the internet to find the best deals currently available on true wireless earbuds. Of course, if you’re still trying to find the right make and model for you, make sure to check out our guide to the best wireless...

Continue reading…

A first look at Microsoft’s new Windows 11 Android apps support

On February 15th, Microsoft released its first big public update to Windows 11 with the long-awaited ability to use Android apps. What are they like? Well, we covered that when they originally hit the Beta Channel for Windows 11 insiders, and so far it feels largely identical — so here’s our October 2021 story and video.

Original story:

Microsoft has released the first preview version of its Android apps support in Windows 11. It’s available to testers in the Beta Channel version of Windows 11, which means you’ll need to opt into the Windows Insider program to get access. I’ve installed the preview version on two systems — a gaming rig with a Core i9 11900K and Microsoft’s Surface Pro X — to get a feel for exactly how well Android apps...

Continue reading…

Super Pumped is getting a second season about Facebook

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Showtime’s anthology series Super Pumped is getting a second season, and this one will be about Facebook with a focus on founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s relationship with COO Sheryl Sandberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

There are some big names in the cast of the first and forthcoming Uber-focused season — Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Uber founder Travis Kalanick, Kyle Chandler plays venture capitalist Bill Gurley, and Uma Thurman plays Arianna Huffington — so we have to wonder who will be tapped to play Zuckerberg and Sandberg season two. (Perhaps Showtime will bring Jesse Eisenberg back to reprise his role from The Social Network?)

It seems that the relationship between the two Facebook (now Meta) leaders will be...

Continue reading…

GM will resume Chevy Bolt production in April

Photo by Andrew Liptak / The Verge

GM is set to resume production of its electric Chevy Bolt in April after halting production to address a battery recall, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and The Detroit News. The automaker originally predicted it wouldn’t start building Bolts until at least the end of January 2022.

GM paused production of all Bolts last August

“GM will resume production at its Orion Township, MI, plant the week of April 4, 2022,” GM spokesperson Dan Flores said in a statement obtained by The Detroit News. “We remain committed to Bolt EV and EUV and this decision will allow us to simultaneously replace battery modules and resume retail sales soon, which were strong before the recall.”

Recalls for the 2017-2019 Chevy Bolt started in 2020...

Continue reading…

Mercedes-Benz announces high-performance AMG version of its EQE electric sedan

Mercedes-Benz continues to make good on its promise to go all-electric by 2030 with the announcement of the AMG EQE, a high-performance version of the automaker’s electric E-class sedan.

The AMG EQE is the second battery-electric production car from the automaker’s in-house performance AMG subsidiary, following the AMG EQS sedan announced last September. Both cars will be built on Mercedes’ EVA2 platform, which underpins the EQS, the smaller EQE, and several SUV sister models. The EVA2 is designed for medium and large vehicles, while the automaker’s MMA (Mercedes Modular Architecture), debuting in 2025, will be for electric compact cars such as the EQA and EQB.

The new Mercedes-AMG EQE will be wicked fast

The new Mercedes-AMG EQE will...

Continue reading…

Baby Shark is getting a full-length movie

Image: Pinkfong

“Baby Shark” — the impossibly catchy viral earworm of a children’s song that’s also the most-watched YouTube video in history — is getting a full-length film, set for release in 2023, Paramount announced.

The film won’t technically be Baby Shark’s first foray into a cinematic format: the hour-long Pinkfong and Baby Shark’s Space Adventurehad a limited theatrical run, although it was primarily a Netflix release, at least in the US. But the upcoming film appears to be a more traditional full-blow theatrical release, which is an impressive jump for the 2-minute, 16-second YouTube video.

Baby Shark swims to a full-length film

There are virtually no details on what the Baby Shark movie (which is set to be co-produced by Nickelodeon...

Continue reading…

Ukrainian defense ministry hit by DDoS during tense standoff with Russia

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence suffered from a DDoS attack that prevented users from accessing its website, and two Ukrainian banks lost access to online banking services, according to statements from the government.

In a tweet posted at around 7PM local time (12PM ET), the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said that its website was probably being hit with a DDoS attack and that work to restore service was underway. Four hours later, the site still could not be accessed.

PrivatBank faced a “massive DDoS attack” that blocked online banking services, including payments and balance inquiries

The DDoS attack comes as Russia has claimed to be de-escalating potential conflict by withdrawing troops from the Ukraine border — a statement...

Continue reading…

TSMC’s Arizona fab reportedly runs into construction delays

Photo credit should read Long Wei / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

TSMC’s new Arizona chip-making plant has run into construction delays, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia, which notes work has fallen three to six months behind schedule due to a mixture of labor shortages, COVID-19 surges, and complexities in obtaining construction licenses.

According to Nikkei Asia’s report, TSMC originally hoped that the construction of facilities would have reached the point that it’d be able to start moving in chip-making equipment by September. It’s now expecting to have to push that to early 2023 instead.

It’s important to note that the delays here aren’t actually directly related to chip-making — it’s not that TSMC can’t get a hold of enough semiconductor production equipment. Rather, it seems the...

Continue reading…

Paramount Plus is getting an Idris Elba-helmed Knuckles TV show

Knuckles is getting his own series. | Image: Paramount

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 won’t be the only time we get to hear Knuckles voiced by Idris Elba. At an investor presentation on Tuesday, Paramount announced that a series focused on the red echidna is in the works for its Paramount Plus streaming service, and Elba will reprise his role. And that’s not the only Sonic news from Paramount: even though we’re still weeks away from the April 8th release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Paramount also said Tuesday that a third movie is in development.

#SonicMovie3 is officially in development from @ParamountPics and @SEGA! Plus, next year a new original #Knuckles series with @IdrisElba is coming to #ParamountPlus. #SonicMovie2 hits theaters April 8! pic.twitter.com/M0EM3NNd2p

— Paramount+ (@paramountplus) F...

Continue reading…

The Halo TV show is already renewed for a second season

Image by Paramount Plus

The live-action Halo show on Paramount Plus has been renewed for a second season, just over a month before the first season is set to premiere. According to a press release, David Wiener (who’s worked on shows like Fear the Walking Dead, Homecoming, and Brave New World) will act as showrunner and executive producer for the second season. The news was announced during an investor event, where ViacomCBS also said that it’s rebranding as Paramount as part of its focus on streaming.

Announcing a season two renewal early might help pull in skeptical viewers who remember incidents like Netflix’s live-action _Cowboy Bebop,_which was abruptly canceled shortly after season one aired. The live-action Halo has already been through a long development...

Continue reading…

ViacomCBS rebrands to Paramount in focus on streaming

ViacomCBS is getting a new name: Paramount.

The media behemoth — which was created through the merger of CBS and Viacom in 2019 — said the rebrand is meant to focus on the company’s goal of becoming a major player in streaming. It is also, plainly, just a better name.

Paramount intends to “turn streaming into a sustainable business for the future,” Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said during an investor event this afternoon, “and know this, we are committed to that future and creating that value.”

Paramount Plus will get exclusive streaming rights in 2024

The company intends to hit 100 million streaming subscribers by 2024 — up from its previous goal of 65 million to 75 million during the same timeframe. The company plans to further its...

Continue reading…

Rivian shows off the R1T’s Gear Guard security features

Rivian’s Gear Guard features keep watch over your truck and stuff. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Rivian has come out with a video about the Gear Guard system for the R1T, which shows off the electric pickup’s ability to record video if people get too close and to send a notification to an owner’s phone if there’s an event significant enough to set off the car alarm. As Rivian’s UX designer explains in the video, Gear Guard isn’t one specific feature, but rather a suite of systems that can work together — the video monitoring system is part of Gear Guard, but so is the cable which you can use to lock bikes, kayaks, and more to the truck.

In the video, which you can watch below, Rivian employees explain the R1T’s video monitoring system, which uses five of the built-in cameras to record a 360-degree view if it detects that someone is...

Continue reading…

New federal guidelines could boost carbon capture in the US

The smoke stacks at American Electric Power’s (AEP) Mountaineer coal power plant in New Haven, West Virginia, October 30, 2009. In cooperation with AEP, the French company Alstom unveiled the world’s largest carbon capture facility at a coal plant. | Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

On Tuesday, the Biden administration issued new guidelines for federal agencies on how to assess proposals to capture and sequester carbon dioxide pollution. The new guidance lays out steps that could encourage “widespread deployment” of a controversial form of climate tech, as well as the network of pipelines and other infrastructure that come along with it.

The bipartisan infrastructure law passed last fall included more than $12 billion for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration (CCUS) projects. The US will likely need such technologies to reach Biden’s climate goals, the new guidelines say. But the technologies, which draw CO2 out of smokestack emissions or the ambient air, are a divisive strategy for slowing climate change....

Continue reading…

How to set up and use email templates in Gmail

Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images

If you, like me, find yourself writing the same email over and over again or copying and pasting the same message multiple times, Gmail gives you an easier option. By creating and saving email templates, you can insert them the next time you compose a message and save yourself some time.

You can store up to 50 templates at a time, so it’s easy to create different templates for different situations. Here’s how.

Create an email template:

• Click on the cog icon in the top right corner of your screen.
• Select “See all settings.”
• Open the “Advanced” tab.
• Scroll down to “Templates” and select “Enable.”

Make sure you’ve selected “Enable” under “Templates.”

• Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the menu.
• This will take...

Continue reading…