New York Times pressures ‘unauthorized’ Wordle Archive into shutting down

The New York Times said the Wordle Archive’s use was “unauthorized.” | Photo by Mike Kemp / In Pictures via Getty Images

The Wordle Archive, which let you play Wordles of days past, has been forced offline at the request of The New York Times, according to a report from Ars Technica. Navigating to the Wordle Archive yields a disappointing message: “Sadly, the New York Times has requested that the Wordle Archive be taken down.”

It’s still unclear what went down legally between the NYT and the Wordle Archive, but a spokesperson for the news outlet vaguely told Ars Technica that the archive’s “usage was unauthorized, and we were in touch with them.”

The Wordle Archive previously displayed a list of old playable puzzles that were great for when you finished your daily Wordle just a little too fast and were left wanting more. Luckily, our old friend the Web...

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GTAV’s improved next-gen load times make the game so much faster

For all of its open-world excess, Grand Theft Auto V is also a game about repetition: you go through missions multiple times, trying to finally complete that high-speed pursuit or violent shootout successfully. This can often mean reloading the same mission repeatedly, and — in previous iterations of the game — that time could add up quite a bit and become a frustrating nuisance. But after replaying the first few hours of the game’s new next-gen release, the thing that has struck me most is just how fast things move.

GTAV is out now on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S (I’ve been playing the PS5 version), and it features the usual assortment of next-gen upgrades. That means support for 4K visuals, ray tracing, and 60fps gameplay,...

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The last-gen iPad Air is matching its lowest price at Amazon

The last-gen iPad Air is down to $500 at Amazon

The announcement of the latest iteration of the iPad Air at Apple’s Peek Performance event last week has resulted in price cuts for the last-gen model. Usually, the 2020 model of the iPad Air can only be found for $599.99, but Amazon currently has the 64GB model of this tablet in all colorways for $499.99. While the newer iPad Air comes with Apple’s M1 processor, the A14 Bionic chip in the 2020 model still provides more than enough power for a vast majority of applications. The iPad Air uses a 10.9-inch retina display with a resolution of 2360x1640, but for more details on the specs of the latest version of this tablet, feel free to read our review by Dan Seifert.

It’s been a while since we showed off this deal from Amazon that drops...

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How to set your content rating in Disney Plus

Image: Disney

Starting on March 16th, 2022, when you first sign in to your Disney Plus subscription, you’re going to be asked to select content ratings for all of the users in your family — a reflection of the network’s new parental controls. When you open the app, you’ll be asked if you want to change your content rating from TV-14, which is somewhat restricted to TV-MA (no restrictions). If you don’t choose, you will be automatically slotted into a TV-14 rating.

(Why the new TV-MA rating on what was a very family-friendly service? Perhaps because it’s also bringing in a group of Marvel shows, such as Daredevil and Luke Cage— shows that do not fall into the category of “family-friendly.”)

Here’s how the process works on a computer; you will see a...

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BMW teases the upcoming i7 electric sedan — and its massive grille

Image: BMW

In a few weeks, BMW plans on unveiling its latest electric vehicle, the i7 luxury sedan. Ahead of that, the German automaker is offering a few teaser images, some interesting specs, and — of course — confirmation that this EV will have an absolutely massive, entirely unnecessary kidney-shaped grille.

To be fair, the grille is an indelible part of the automaker’s identity. It’s how you know a BMW is a BMW. So it stands to reason that the company would include it on its upcoming EVs, despite the vehicle lacking an engine under the hood in need of cooling.

To be fair, the grille is an indelible part of the automaker’s identity

BMW claims that the i7’s grille has been “completely reinterpreted to achieve a modern and distinct look.” For...

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Universal Control is Apple’s most impressive new feature in years

Universal Control links multiple Macs and iPads together under a single mouse and keyboard. | Image: Apple

It’s been a good month for Mac desktop setup aficionados. Apple just released the Studio Display, its first vaguely affordable (as in not $6,000) new monitor in more than a decade. But there’s another new option that I’ve been testing that flips the entire idea of an external monitor on its head. Universal Control is now available in iOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3, and if you can make it work in your setup, you really ought to try it.

If you haven’t heard of Universal Control, it basically lets you use your Mac’s keyboard and mouse or trackpad to control your iPad (or another Mac, though I haven’t been able to test that). Just nudge your cursor to the side of your Mac’s monitor, and it’ll jump on over to the iPad like it was another...

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Apple iPad Air (2022) review: it’s the nice one

The new iPad Air is a blend of familiar features with predictable results

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Please don’t kill the iPhone mini

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

On Sunday, one of the most trusted sources of Apple rumors revealed that we can expect four new iPhones later this year: two with 6.1-inch screen sizes likely to be the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, and two with 6.7-inch screens likely dubbed the iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Four phones in total.

The tweet made me gasp because of what’s missing. There’s nothing even close to the 5.4-inch screen size of my beloved iPhone mini.

I know, I know, many people prefer big screens, and the iPhone mini wasn’t exactly a success according to supply chain reports.

But that didn’t keep me and 11 other Verge staffers from buying one – and when I polled my colleagues this week, seven of us still agree that the rest of the world’s too-big phones...

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Microsoft’s first AI-powered smart camera launches for the Surface Hub 2

The Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is launching its first AI-powered camera for the Surface Hub 2. Businesses that have bought fully into Microsoft’s future-of-work vision with the Surface Hub will now be able to upgrade its camera capabilities. The new Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera supports automatic reframing, a wide field of view, and image correction features that will all improve meetings.

“Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera reframes, adjusts lighting, and enables incredibly wide angles of view, all without any warping, distortions, or depth-of-field issues that might otherwise limit what is visible,” explains Steven Bathiche, corporate vice president of Windows and devices at Microsoft. “The team put tremendous work into tuning the experience to capture and frame...

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Microsoft updates Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint to be hybrid work ready

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft was one of the first companies to warn other businesses that the pandemic would forever change work habits. Two years later, Microsoft has embraced remote work both in its products and in practice with regard to how and where its employees get work done. Today it’s announcing changes to Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, and even Surface hardware to improve the hybrid realities of remote and office work.

As more businesses return to offices and contemplate a mix of remote and office work, Microsoft is updating Outlook to make it easier to see if colleagues are planning to attend meetings in person or not. A new Outlook RSVP feature will appear in public preview in the web version of Outlook in Q2 that allows meeting...

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Instagram’s promised parental controls arrive in the US

Instagram’s parental control features in action. | Image: Meta

Instagram’s new parental controls, announced in December, are launching today in the US. The service’s head, Adam Mosseri, refers to them as the company’s “first set” of parental supervision tools, allowing parents and guardians to view and set limits on the amount of time their teens are spending on Instagram, get updates on which accounts they’re following and being followed by, and receive notifications when they report another user.

The controls are being introduced after the Meta-owned social network came under fire for its impact on younger users. Leaked internal research from the company suggests that Instagram usage has detrimental effects on the mental health of its younger users, particularly teenage girls. Shortly after the...

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Google Docs update lets you draft emails and send them to Gmail with a click

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is rolling out a new feature in its Docs that’s designed to make it easier to use its word processor to draft emails, the company has announced. It’s part of Google’s “smart canvas” initiative, which aims to seamlessly weave together the search giant’s productivity software like Meet, Docs, and Gmail.

Much like Google Docs’s other smart canvas features, the email draft template is accessed with the @ symbol, before selecting “Email draft” from the context menu. You can then draft the email, including defining recipients, a subject line, and its body text. When it’s ready to send, click the Gmail icon on the left to open the email service.

Image: Google

Draft an email, then send it to Gmail with a click.

...

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Tesla fired employee who reviewed its driver assist features on YouTube

Image: YouTube / AI Addict

Tesla has a complicated relationship with customers who pay to test the beta version of its “Full Sell Driving” software. Often, these people are diehard fans, keen to promote the company’s prowess and show off its new driver assist features. Sometimes, though, they overshare — posting videos that show exactly when and how Tesla’s software gets it wrong.

When the person sharing these clips also works for Tesla, things are even more complicated. John Bernal, a former Tesla employee who reviewed the company’s FSD Beta software on his YouTube channel AI Addict says he was fired by the company last month after posting a video that showed his Tesla hitting a bollard.

Bernal says he was told his YouTube channel was a “conflict of interest”

As...

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Spotify buys naming rights on FC Barcelona’s massive stadium

Spotify’s name will be featured on FC Barcelona’s jerseys for the next four seasons. | Image by FC Barcelona/Spotify

Camp Nou, one of the most iconic soccer stadiums in the world, is being rebranded as Spotify Camp Nou as part of a sponsorship agreement with Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona that gives Spotify naming rights to the stadium. Spotify’s name will also appear on the jerseys of both the men’s and women’s teams for the next four seasons starting in the 2022/23 season.

The deal still has to get ratified by FC Barcelona’s Extraordinary Delegate Members Assembly in a vote that will take place on April 3rd. It likely won’t have much trouble passing, however, as FC Barcelona is in a huge amount of debt and sought to sell a stake in its media production division last year.

The deal is reportedly worth $310 million. It could have been worth more,...

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Google Domains is finally out of beta after more than seven years

These people seem really thrilled about their websites. | Image: Google

Google Domains, the company’s domain registration service, is losing the beta tag after first launching more than seven years ago, Google announced Tuesday. The service is now generally available in 26 countries, and the company says it already has “millions of active registrations.”

If you register with Google Domains, you can pick from more than 300 different domain endings, have access to “high performance DNS” (Google says it’s the same infrastructure it uses for itself), “around-the-clock customer support from real people,” and more. The company is also offering a 20 percent discount off “any single domain registration or transfer-in to Google Domains” for new and returning users with the code DOMAINS20.

However, if you register a...

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NFTs will be on Instagram soon, according to Mark Zuckerberg

He provided some details, but didn’t talk specific features. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mark Zuckerberg said that Meta would add NFTs to Instagram, according to Engadget and The Daily Beast. While he didn't describe exactly what that would look like, he said during a session at South By Southwest that "over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment."

There have been rumblings that this was coming. Last year, Instagram lead Adam Mosseri said the team was "actively exploring NFTs" but didn't have any actual announcements. In January, we heard a report that teams at Facebook and Instagram were working on NFT integrations. The report mentioned that there was progress on features to let you use an NFT as a profile and mint NFTs on the...

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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? It might be tempting to order one of the Series 7 models, but new hardware always comes at a premium. And while Apple’s latest wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability, it 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 $399. The last-gen model, the Series 6, has...

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Apple Park partially evacuated after envelope with white powder substance was discovered

Photo by Tayfun CoÅkun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Part of the Apple Park campus in Cupertino was evacuated after first responders discovered an envelope containing a white powder substance, NBC Bay Area reports. Emergency personnel since have determined that the situation is under control, and employees apparently have been allowed to go back inside, according to the publication. It’s unclear what the substance may have been.

Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment about what might be going on.

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Super73 announces a bunch of new models, including an electric motorcycle and e-bikes for kids

Super73

Super73, the electric mobility company popular with YouTubers and celebrities, introduced its first electric motorcycle — though it’s just a concept for now. The company also unveiled a host of other battery-powered vehicles, including an e-bike for kids, in a dramatic expansion of its product lineup.

The Super73 C1X Concept cuts a slimmer profile than most motorcycles, with 15-inch wheels and a 31-inch seat height. The 51-inch wheelbase is significantly shorter than other electric motorcycles, like Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire (58.7 inches) and Zero’s SR/F (57.1 inches). It also isn’t as fast as most two-wheelers on the road, gas or electric, with a top speed of 75mph. That still makes it one of the fastest vehicles to come out of the...

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Verizon makes Fios free for low-income customers through federal program

A discount brings the price from $20 a month to $0 a month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon is introducing a new discount to its Fios Forward plans, which should let low-income customers get fiber internet for free when combined with discounts through the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The free tier, which is normally $40 a month, includes 300Mbps speeds as well as a $10 discount on a Verizon Unlimited Wireless plan. Customers who need more bandwidth (and are able to pay more) can get a gigabit connection for $50 a month with the ACP discount, which also includes more benefits and a larger cell plan discount.

Verizon says Fios Forward is available to people who qualify for the government’s Lifeline program. The 200Mbps tier used to cost $20 a month, according to a Wayback Machine archive from November, so...

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Disney employees are staging walkouts over Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In the days since The Walt Disney Company first came under fire for giving money to the politicians behind Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, CEO Bob Chapek has apologized for initially having nothing to say, and he subsequently announced the corporation’s plans to “pause” its political donations in Florida for an undetermined amount of time. In the eyes of many of Disney’s queer employees, those steps are simply not enough, and now they’re taking action to make that point as clear as they can to the company’s leadership.

In response to Disney’s actions and Chapek’s emails, a number of Disney employees are now planning to stage a week of virtual 15-minutes walkouts beginning this afternoon, culminating in a day-long walkout on March 22nd....

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How to locate your Android phone with Google’s Find My Device

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Phones have become so much a part of our daily lives that it can be immediately traumatic if you suddenly can’t find your phone — whether you’ve left it in a cab, accidentally dropped it out of your pocket, or lost it under your bed. If you have an Android phone, you can use the Find My Device feature to (hopefully) locate your phone.

Find My Device depends on two things being enabled: the feature itself (of course) and Google’s Location services. In addition, the phone also has to be turned on and signed in to a Google account.

The Find My Device feature comes as part of the standard OS on Pixels and several other Android phones and is usually turned on by default. Be aware that some Android models may offer a different app; for...

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Microsoft will reveal ‘the future of hybrid work’ with Windows 11 on April 5th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Within the last year, Microsoft not only revealed a new generation of Windows, it fully dived in by launching Windows 11 last fall, and now it’s scheduled another preview event to discuss the “exciting future” of “Hybrid Work, Powered by Windows.” Set to take place on April 5th at 11AM ET, it will feature Windows exec Panos Panay showing off Microsoft’s security, productivity, and management features, both in the client and the cloud.

Image: Microsoft

A Microsoft Teams interface demo showing off a remote meeting.

What exactly does that include? The event page doesn’t say much and Microsoft hasn’t openly discussed the event, but we’ve seen plenty of clues about the kind of hybrid work solutions and security...

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FCC requires new on-air disclosures for foreign-backed broadcasts

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced new rules for foreign broadcasting in the US. | Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission rolled out new rules requiring broadcasters to disclose when foreign governments lease time on their airwaves, an issue that has become more urgent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In light of recent events, this effort — which is all about transparency — has taken on new importance,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement Tuesday. “It is essential that audiences know when a broadcast station has been compensated to air content coming from a foreign government.”

While foreign governments can purchase airwave time, they cannot directly hold a broadcasting license. Tuesday’s rules force broadcasters to provide an on-air disclosure whenever a foreign government, foreign...

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Google says Steam has arrived on Chromebooks, let us know if you find it?

Steam was briefly mentioned during a developer keynote. | Image: Google

Google has announced that some ChromeOS users will finally be able to start testing Steam. During the Google for Games Developer Summit, Google’s product director for games, Greg Hartell, announced that “the Steam alpha just launched” for select Chromebooks.

It was a brief mention, but the software has been a long time coming — Google announced that it was working on Steam support for ChromeOS in the beginning of 2020, and there hasn’t been much info since. There have been whispers that we’d see it soon, though, as recent reports indicated that companies are working on gaming-focused Chromebooks.

Google talked about Steam for all of 13 seconds during its Google for Games Developer Summit keynote

Despite how long we’ve been waiting, the...

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Astra successfully returns to flight just a month after launch failure

Astra’s LV0009 rocket ahead of today’s flight from Alaska. | Image: Astra

Space startup Astra successfully returned to launch today, a little more than a month after its last launch failed mid-flight. Taking off from Kodiak, Alaska, Astra’s LV0009 rocket deployed the satellites it was carrying into orbit for three commercial companies, marking the company’s first successful commercial mission.

There was a brief moment during the flight, however, where it seemed like today’s mission might have been a failure. Soon after reaching orbit, the vehicle was supposed to deploy the satellites it was carrying (except for one that was to remain attached to the rocket). However, Astra did not immediately receive confirmation that the payloads had deployed and ended its livestream of the flight before getting word about...

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A phone relay capture may be the latest of Russia’s communications woes in Ukraine

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

In the latest communications setback to hit the Russian military, the Security Service of Ukraine (abbreviated as SBU) claims to have captured a hacker who was helping to provide communications services for Russian troops inside Ukrainian territory, VICE reports.

The SBU shared details in a tweet and Telegram message posted at around 10AM local time (4AM ET), including pictures alleged to show the hacker and their communications system, though the reports have not been independently confirmed.

According to the SBU’s Telegram post, the hacker was helping to route calls from within Russia to the mobile phones of Russian troops in Ukraine, and also sending text messages to Ukrainian security officers and civil servants proposing they...

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Polk crammed Dolby Atmos and a ton of features into this 15-inch soundbar

Image: Polk

How small can a soundbar get while still offering Dolby Atmos? According to Polk, the answer is 14.5 inches. That’s the width of the company’s new $499 MagniFi Mini AX, which supports both Atmos and DTS:X. In addition to the very compact soundbar, Polk is also including a wireless subwoofer for that price.

The Sonos Beam — which itself is what I’d consider a small-ish soundbar — measures 25.63 inches wide. The MagniFi Mini AX manages to hack over 10 inches off of that, and frankly its dimensions and top-panel controls make it look more like a Bluetooth speaker than home theater gear. On the front is an OLED ticker for relaying key information like sound adjustments.

Image: Polk

Most soundbars dwarf an iPhone in...

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Elden Ring speedrunners race to the bottom

Image: Bandai Namco

Elden Ring is just so massive and its bosses are so tough that the average player will probably take over 60 hours to beat it. But speedrunners, assisted by some traditional speedrunning tricks and the game’s own open design, have somehow managed to beat the sprawling game in under 30 minutes.

For a speedrunning enthusiast, the first days of a game’s release are extremely exciting. New techniques and optimizations are constantly being discovered, as boss behaviors and the runner’s own luck work with or against them, making almost every run a possible world record. While every runner is ostensibly competing against the clock, two runners have emerged in the Elden Ring speed community, each racing to post lower and lower times.

Lil Aggy is...

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Apple’s latest watchOS update includes a recovery mode, of sorts

Fixing a bricked Apple Watch used to require a mail-in repair. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s latest watchOS update, 8.5, now has a recovery mode that can help you restore your Apple Watch if it gets stuck on the dreaded red exclamation point screen (via 9to5Mac). The update is laid out in a support article that was updated on Monday — while the previous version of the article just recommended trying to reboot the watch, then setting up a mail-in repair with Apple support, it now describes the process of recovering your Watch at home.

Apple’s article says that you’ll need an iPhone running iOS 15.4 to go through the steps. If your Watch is showing an animation of a phone and a watch being brought together, or a red exclamation point, the process to fix it is relatively simple:

• Put your Watch on its charger
• Unlock your...

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