The first NBA broadcast rendered with volumetric video puts basketball in the uncanny valley

Image: ESPN/NBA

Tonight the Brooklyn Nets and the Dallas Mavericks game is notable for reasons other than the basketball genius of Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic, it’s the first opportunity for us to watch a full game broadcast live with new technology. This season the Nets local broadcasts on Yes Network have used volumetric video capabilities for “Netaverse” highlight clips, replays, and in-arena video, but this time ESPN is using it to broadcast an entire game start to finish.

Built with Canon’s Free-Viewpoint Video tech, it uses 110 data capturing cameras placed around the court to carefully track player movement. Then it combines that data in real-time with 3D models that have been built of each player, and renders it, very similar to how things...

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Mike Myers returns to multi-character comedy in his Netflix show The Pentaverate

Myers is cast as eight characters. | Image: Netflix

Mike Myers is making a return to comedy in a new, six-episode Netflix show called The Pentaverate, after years of rare movie appearances_._If the trailer that premiered on Wednesday is anything to go by, it’ll be the type of project where Myers makes up almost half the cast — he’s playing eight different characters, according to Deadline.

The show, which will start streaming on May 5th, also stars comedians like Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jennifer Saunders. It centers on a shadowy, and possibly world-controlling, secret society called the Pentaverate. According to the voice-over in the trailer, which you can watch below, it was started by five people who were labeled as heretics after discovering that the Black Plague was caused...

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James Webb Space Telescope’s latest selfie marks a milestone for the space observatory

Image: NASA

New images from the James Webb Space Telescope show the latest big milestone for the space observatory: its 18mirrors are now aligned enough to act as one massive mirror. The new images released by NASA today includea “selfie” from JWST showing the mirrors’ progress along with updated images of a single star.

Since reaching its final orbit, the telescope’s combined 18 mirrors have been focused on the isolated star HD 84406, which the researchers are using as a target to align the mirrors. Images presented last month showed 18 images of the star that werecaptured individually on each mirror segment. NASA’s latest image of HD 84406 shows what it looks like when all 18 mirrors work together with the Near-Infrared Camera orNIRCam. They...

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Bored Ape Yacht Club creates a cryptocurrency to fund games, events, and merch

The ApeCoin logo. | Image: ApeCoin DAO

Yuga Labs took its next step toward trying to build a broader media empire around the Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT) series today with the announcement of a cryptocurrency called ApeCoin that will be the “primary token for all new products and services” from the company. That includes a newly announced play-to-earn blockchain game that the company plans to release later this year in partnership with the developer nWay.

ApeCoin’s initial use will be as in-game currency, but it’s being pitched as something that can be used beyond the confines of Yuga Labs’ titles. Starting tomorrow, it’ll be supported in Benji Bananas, a game from Animoca Brands, which also owns nWay. And the hope seems to be that it could be adopted in even...

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Google Home app gets much-needed redesign with interactive buttons

Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

The Google Home app is getting a fresh design that should make it a lot more intuitive, according to a report from 9to5Google. The upcoming 2.49 update will let you interact with your devices from a single screen, resembling the device control panel on phones with Android 11 and up.

Sideloaded Google Home 2.49 and enabled the new UI. I quite like it - makes controlling your smart home devices much easier, similar to the device controls interface. https://t.co/jBePftcOtapic.twitter.com/5uToZKCuHg

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) March 15, 2022

Judging by the update’s release notes on the App Store, it seems Google is hoping to make the app a lot more user-friendly than what it is right now, saying it should help you “quickly find...

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Google’s Android Auto will now tell you if your USB cable is bad

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The latest Android Auto update adds a diagnostic feature that checks if your USB cable or port isn’t working as expected, as shown by former XDA Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman on Twitter. If your phone isn’t connecting to your car, the diagnostic tool might be able to help pinpoint if the USB connection is where the issue lies.

In images shown by Rahman, the tool, seemingly called “USB Startup Diagnostics,” will check if a USB cable connects and checks the cable quality. On a support page, Google recommends using the cable that came with your phone or one that’s less than three feet long and doesn’t “use USB hubs or cable extensions.”

The tool checks if Android is able to send data through USB, which might not be possible if...

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Audi A6 Avant E-tron concept is an elegant electric wagon that looks production-ready

Audi

Audi unveiled its latest concept car, the A6 Avant E-tron, a luxury executive car that appears to be relatively close to production-ready.

Audi surprised us last year with a concept version of an all-electric A6 sedan, which will be built on a new EV platform the company is co-developing with sister company Porsche. The two Volkswagen group companies are calling the new EV architecture Premium Platform Electric, or PPE. They first started talking about it a few years ago, and it’s slated to power the larger vehicles in Audi’s and Porsche’s forthcoming electric stables.

It’s also at least Audi’s fourth distinct platform for its EVs

It’s also at least Audi’s fourth distinct platform for its EVs. Audi adapted one of its internal...

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Google I/O takes place May 11th and 12th, and it will be fully available online

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Google’s big annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place May 11th and 12th, the company announced Wednesday. The event will once again be fully online, though it sounds like at least some of the conference will be streamed live from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, a frequent Google I/O venue.

“This year’s event will be broadcast in front of a limited live audience, and is completely free and open to everyone virtually,” Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert said in a statement to The Verge. That limited audience will be comprised primarily of Google employees and some partners, according to a Google statement shared with Axios’ Ina Fried.

Registration will be free and will begin sometime this month, according to an FAQ. There...

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Facebook removes ‘deepfake’ of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, removed a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issuing a statement that he never made, asking Ukrainians to “lay down arms.”

The deepfake appears to have been first broadcasted on a Ukrainian news website for TV24 after an alleged hack, as first reported by Sky News on Wednesday. The video shows an edited Zelenskyy speaking behind a podium declaring that Ukraine has “decided to return Donbas” to Russia and that his nation’s war efforts had failed.

In the video, Zelenskyy’s head is comically larger than in real life and is more pixelated than his surrounding body. The fake voice is much deeper than his real voice as well.

As a matter of principle, I never post or link...

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Coinbase Pay lets you add funds directly to your wallet

Coinbase Pay is available through the Coinbase Wallet Google Chrome extension. | Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is introducing a new tool, called Coinbase Pay, that’s supposed to simplify the process of loading cryptocurrencies into your wallet.

As outlined on Coinbase’s site, you can access Coinbase Pay through the Coinbase Wallet extension for Google Chrome. You’ll have to connect your wallet to your Coinbase account if it’s your first time using the extension. Once you’ve done that, you can add funds by selecting the “Add crypto with Coinbase Pay” button. From there, you can select the currency you want to add to your wallet, enter the amount, finalize the transaction, and your funds will be available.

Image by Coinbase

You can use Coinbase Pay to purchase and transfer crypto directly to...

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Xbox’s latest indie showcase had a Hollywood mystery, cursed golf, and Pope T-Pain

ID@Xbox, the Xbox indie game showcase, unveiled a host of new titles hitting the console and Game Pass. Over 20 games were presented during the event, which included live developer interviews, an appearance from T-Pain, and more. Watch the two-hour event (you heard me) here or check out the highlights below.

Immortality, new game from Telling Lies and Her Story developer, Sam Barlow.

Half Mermaid Productions, developers of the intriguing and unique Telling Lies and Her Story is back with another live-action mystery game, Immortality. Like Telling Lies and Her Story, Immortality is a game composed of full-motion videos and films that the player will sift through to solve the disappearance of a famous actress. I...

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Examining AMC’s ‘embarrassingly stupid’ investment in a literal gold mine

Image: The Verge

AMC threw both its analysts and memestock shareholders for a loop this week after the company announced it was acquiring a 22 percent stake in a mining company. Not a crypto mining company — a company that mines actual silver and gold. It’s a baffling investment for a movie theater chain, enough so that one analyst we spoke to called it a “complete misuse of shareholder capital.”

To acquire a minority stake in Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation, AMC is spending close to $28 million, a not-insignificant chunk of change for a company that not so long ago was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Hycroft, owner of the 71,000-acre Hycroft Mine in Nevada, is sitting on “some 15 million ounces of gold deposits and some 600 million ounces of...

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The original Winamp skin is selling as an NFT

The Winamp 1.0 skin | Winamp

Winamp will sell a non-fungible token (NFT) linked to its media player’s original 1997 graphical skin, becoming the latest company to blend nostalgia and crypto. Winamp will put the NFT up for auction through OpenSea between May 16th and May 22nd, followed by a separate sale of 1997 total NFTs based on 20 artworks derived from the original skin. The proceeds will go to the Winamp Foundation, which promises to donate them to charity projects, starting with the Belgian nonprofit Music Fund.

The NFT sale appears to be a combination of a publicity move and a fundraising effort. Winamp is sourcing the derivative art NFTs by asking artists to submit Winamp-based works between now and April 15th, then giving selected artists 20 percent of the...

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Amazon workers in New York and Maryland are protesting for better wages

Around 60 workers banded together to demand a $3 raise. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Early Wednesday morning, Amazon workers staged a walkout in two states, quitting work and even shutting off a machine to demand a $3 raise. The workers also demanded that Amazon bring back 20-minute breaks — a “perk” introduced during COVID that the company has since replaced with 15-minute breaks, according to Vice. The actions are part of a wave of labor activism at Amazon as more employees band together to demand better working conditions, compensation, and representation.

The roughly 60 workers were employees at three different warehouses in New York and Maryland, working the night shifts. The walkout was organized by Amazonians United, a group that includes workers from at least nine warehouses nationwide, according to Vice. In...

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GTA Online’s next-gen version is prettier and easier to get into

Image: Rockstar Games

With this week’s launch of the next-gen versions of GTA Online for the Xbox Series X and PS5, Rockstar has made it easier and faster to jumpstart your life of crime in the best-looking and best-playing version of its online open-world mode. All of the same graphical and quality-of-life changes that recently arrived in GTA V, which my colleague Andrew Webster reported on here, can also be found in GTA Online.

Whether you’re a new player, or you’re migrating a character from a previous console, one of my favorite improvements is that it’s easier to be funneled into the kind of content you want to play. From the main menu, you can enter heists, free mode (where you can just roam about with no immediate objective), or be directed to new...

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Ireland fines Meta for bad record-keeping

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In 2018, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) was alarmed when Facebook notified the commission, between June and December, of 12 separate data breaches that affected up to 30 million users, _TechCrunch_reports. The DPC began to investigate and now Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been fined 17 million euros ($18.6 million USD).

The DPC concluded from its investigation into the breaches that Meta violated Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to its press release, the DPC identified 12 data breach notifications that occurred between June and December 2018. “As a result of its inquiry, the DPC found that Meta Platforms failed to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures which would...

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A short list of Russian yacht seizures

Image: Getty

Russian oligarchs have been looking for ways to park their money outside Vladimir Putin’s control for a long time, and the tackiest method available to them is the megayacht — so obviously, there are a lot of them. It is remarkably satisfying to see the yachts get seized.

An expensive toy for worthless people, the megayacht is the epitome of conspicuous consumption. For instance, the Amore Vero, linked to Rosneft CEO Igor “Darth Vader” Sechin, has a swimming pool that converts to a helicopter platform. This boat exists only to please Sechin and impress his guests; it has a similar relationship to regular boats as handmade silk toilet paper does to Charmin.

Here is a short and delightful list of megayacht action:

• Sechin attempted to...

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Storms and sea level rise could cost ports billions

 South Korean workers observe collapsed container cranes after Typhoon Maemi pounded the southern port city of Busan on September 13, 2003 in Busan, about 450km (281 miles) southeast of Seoul, South Korea. | Photo by Getty Images

Ports around the world stand to suffer billions of dollars in losses if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, a new report finds. Extreme weather, flooding, and rising sea levels would all damage vital seaport infrastructure, disrupting global supply lines.

Losses from storms and climate-related port disruptions could near $10 billion a year by 2050, according to the report, commissioned by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). By 2100, without action on climate change, those costs could balloon to more than $25 billion a year. For context, that last figure is more than the total operating profits for the entire global container shipping industry in a year.

Many ports are already overwhelmed after the COVID-19 pandemic...

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Sunny Balwani’s Theranos trial has been complicated by The Dropout

Image: Hulu

In the week ahead of former Theranos COO Sunny Balwani’s fraud trial, which was set to begin today before being postponed due to a juror being exposed to someone with COVID, the Santa Clara County Superior Court was hard at work screening potential jurors from the pool of local citizens.

This is a typical part of court cases meant to ensure that a jury’s makeup is representative of the larger community. But the process is a bit trickier with high-profile cases like those of Balwani and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, given the potential for jurors’ opinions to be influenced by information from outside of the trial; things like, say, a flashy 8-episode streaming miniseries based on a podcast by the same name.

While the amount of...

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Keywords from hallucinogenic experiences can help find parts of the brain affected by drugs

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

People have vast, spiraling experiences on psychedelic drugs, often returning from a hallucinogenic trip full of new outlooks on their life or even changes to their personality. They describe the trips with vivid, emotional language — which might be able to tell researchers what parts of their brains are reacting to the drugs.

In order to figure out how and why hallucinogenics trigger certain experiences, a research team used machine learning to pull common words and phrases out of people’s testimonials about their trips. Then, in a new study published Wednesday, the researchers linked those words to the parts of the brain impacted by the drugs.

It’s a different approach to studying drugs and the brain: normally, researchers looking to...

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Netflix is testing profile transfers to new accounts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix is testing a feature that will make it possible to transfer a specific profile to an entirely new account, potentially as a way to encourage streaming freeloaders to sign up for their own subscriptions, as first reported by Variety. As described in a post on Netflix’s site, this feature — and another that enables you to add sub-accounts for people you don’t live with — is currently being tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.

Netflix notes that users can transfer profiles to new accounts, or the sub-accounts that subscribers will have to pay an additional fee for. This lets users retain their viewing history, My List, and recommendations when they complete the transfer to a new account. Netflix first rolled out user profiles in...

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Netflix is testing ways to end password sharing and push viewers to pay extra

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Just a few weeks after announcing its latest price hike, Netflix announced it’s cracking down on the widespread practice of password sharing between people who don’t live in the same household by prompting them to pay an extra fee for the privilege.

In a blog post, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation, says, “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”

During a test period, Netflix will try out its approach in three countries: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. There, in addition to the ability to transfer viewing profiles into...

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Tunic is a Zelda-style adventure that rekindled my love of strategy guides

Image: Finji

As a kid, I was obsessed with Nintendo’s official player’s guides. I loved poring over the maps, hints, tips, and information in them so that I could use what I learned the next time I sat down in front of the TV. I have a particular fondness for the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask guides — without them, I would have never been able to find all of the pieces of heart or masks hidden in the games.

Thanks to the internet, I don’t really need player’s guides anymore, as there’s now a helpful article or video for almost every conceivable puzzle or challenge. (I’m embarrassed by how many Elden Ring tutorials I’ve googled.) And in exploring the world of Tunic, a new game from a small team and Chicory: A Colorful Tale...

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Google's deal with McLaren puts Android and Chrome on its 2022 F1 car, and in the garage

The McLaren MCL36. | Image: Google

Season five of Formula 1: Drive to Survive could potentially include scenes of McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown smashing a Chromebook or Android tablet, Tom Brady-style, thanks to a new arrangement between the team and Google.

In 2020, McLaren exited its deal with OnePlus that produced several powerfully-specced black and orange Android phones, but there’s no indication of a similar branding exercise coming to the Pixel series anytime soon.

Instead, the new “multi-year” agreement between Google and McLaren is putting branding on the MCL36 (spot the Android logo peeking along the engine cover, while the familiar colors of Google Chrome will be on the wheel covers) driven by Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, their race suits and helmets, and...

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Netflix makes Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People show available to stream

Volodymyr Zelenskyy once played Ukraine’s president in a comedy series. | Photo by Sergei Supinsky / AFP via Getty Images

The comedy satire series_Servant of the People,_ which stars former actor and current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is available once again on Netflix in the US, the streamer announced Wednesday. In the show, which was on Ukrainian television from 2015 to 2019 and first aired on Netflix from 2017 to 2021, Zelenskyy played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president of Ukraine after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.

The show ended production when Zelenskyy decided to run for president of Ukraine in 2019 as a member of the Servant of the People political party (he won in a landslide). Zelenskyy campaigned on promises of building a new Ukraine, telling supporters in his acceptance speech, “I will never fail...

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FromSoftware hopes to expand Elden Ring ‘beyond the realm of games’

Image: Bandai Namco

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has been nothing short of a smash hit, hitting 12 million copies sold worldwide since its release last month. But like any pop culture success in 2022, Elden Ring isn’t going to stop at one great game: it’s going to be a franchise, with FromSoftware telling fans to “please look forward to more of ‘_ELDEN RING’_as an IP (characters and other intellectual property) in hopes of expanding beyond the realm of games.”

“Much effort was placed into creating ‘ELDEN RING’ so that we could exceed the expectations of our fans worldwide. In like manner, we will continue our efforts in expanding the brand beyond the game itself, and into everyone’s daily life,” commented Yasuo Miyakawa, the president and CEO of Bandai Namco,...

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New Google Classroom tool gives hints on tough homework problems

Here’s a resource a student might pull up. | Image: Google

Imagine if your old trig worksheets stepped in to help you out when you were stumped on a question. That’s Practice Sets, the newest Google Classroom tool, in a nutshell.

Google Classroom, for folks who went to school before the internet was everything, is a widely used gaggle of web tools that allows teachers to post assignments, students to submit them, and teachers to return them online. With Practice Sets, not only will teachers be able to send out problem sets, but they’ll be able to make those problem sets interactive.

An algorithm will provide hints to students who seem stumped. It will automatically grade the sets as well. Shantanu Sinha, head of product efforts for Google Education, says the algorithm will recognize when...

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Ukrainian influencers bring the frontlines to TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Weeks ago, Ukraine-based influencer Kristina Korban’s TikTok was a steady stream of gym motivation and personal finance tips punctuated by trending audio. In bold title text, she told her followers to “STAY CONSISTENT” and “DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!” Aside from one lighthearted reference to the escalating situation with Russia, Korban’s page stayed on message: “YOU CAN BE AN INVESTOR.”

Then, on February 23rd, the facade of normalcy fell apart. In a video that’s been viewed more than 9 million times, the Kyiv-based influencer recorded herself from bed, describing explosions in the distance that rattled her home. “This might be the beginning of something serious,” she says.

For weeks, TikTok users have watched Russian troops and military...

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Slack overhauls iPad app with interface inspired by its desktop app

Slack’s upgraded iPad interface. | Image: Slack

Slack is giving its iPad app a much needed upgrade that will see it inherit many features of its desktop version, the company has announced. The app is getting a new two-column layout that shows a list of available channels and messages on the left, and their contents on the right. The left-hand sidebar is also being updated, and the app is getting better support for accessibility features like Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader.

None of these are particularly revolutionary features, but they’re welcome additions to an iPad app that can sometimes feel more like a giant iPhone app. Slack is marketing the update as serving the needs of newly emerging hybrid workplaces, which should hopefully make it easier to keep up with workplace...

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Start11 brings back Windows 11 taskbar ungrouping

Start11 supports a lot of Windows 11 Start menu customization. | Image: Stardock

If you’re like me and you’re disappointed by the taskbar in Windows 11, there are plenty of apps to bring back missing functionality. One of the most fully featured is Stardock’s Start11, and it’s being updated today (version 1.2 beta) to include support for ungrouping apps on the taskbar in Windows 11.

Microsoft doesn’t currently support ungrouping app icons on the taskbar in Windows 11, nor small icons or even the ability to resize the taskbar. These key missing features are all supported in Start11, with multi-monitor support to independently define window grouping on secondary monitors.

Image: Stardock

Centered icons and Start button on the left.

There’s even a new option so you can left-align the Start...

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