NASA would get $26 billion in new budget request

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

President Joe Biden is requesting a whopping $26 billion for NASA for 2023, roughly $2 billion more than the space agency received for the current fiscal year, according to newly released budget documents from the White House. If enacted as is, a third of that budget would go toward NASA’s Artemis program – the agency’s ambitious initiative to send humans back to the Moon.

Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis, which aims to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon as early as 2025. Part of that funding will go toward the development of a new lunar lander capable of taking humans to and from the lunar surface— a recent addition to the Artemis master plan.

Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis

...

Continue reading…

Oscars 2022: Apple’s CODA wins big, while Dune dominates technical awards

Coda producers Philippe Rousselet (L), Fabrice Gianfermi (R) and Patrick Wachsberger (C) posing with Code’s Best Picture award. | Frederic J. Brown/Getty

After years of Hollywood working to re-establish the Oscars as a must-see TV event with tweaks to the ceremony and broadcast, the 94th Academy Awards singlehandedly reminded its viewership that nothing lands quite like genuinely unscripted moments that take everyone by surprise as they’re captured and broadcast in real time.

Though Netflix brought more than a few contenders that were favored to win at to this year’s Academy Awards, Apple’s _Coda_made history last night by becoming the first streaming movie to nab a statue for Best Picture — an achievement made even more impressive by how few Oscars the film was nominated for (three) compared to the competition. While _The Power of the Dog_didn’t take home _the_award of the night, director...

Continue reading…

Lapsus$ cyberattacks: the latest news on the hacking group

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A prolific hacking group run by teens

Continue reading…

How to run Geekbench on your phone or PC

For the next few weeks, we’re showing you how to run various commonly used benchmarks on your PC. Reviewers like myself find these very helpful in comparing laptops we test to each other. But you don’t have to rely on us — you can easily run these benchmarks yourself on your own PC. Geekbench is one of the easiest and fastest ones to run and will show you how your device stacks up against the competition in a few key areas.

Within Geekbench 5 (the latest release), there are a few different tests you can run. Geekbench CPU measures your processor’s performance, simulating both single-core and multi-core usage scenarios. When the test is complete, you’ll get both a single-core and a multi-core score. Geekbench Compute, by contrast, e...

Continue reading…

Apple TV Plus is first streaming service to win Best Picture at the Oscars

Coda’s stars after winning big at the awards. | Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images

CODA has become the first film from a streaming service to win best picture at the Oscars, in a sign of the growing dominance of streamers like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony. The Apple TV Plus film follows the struggles of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member in a deaf family, as she tries to explore a life away from her family. Apple acquired the rides to CODAfor $25 million in a bidding war after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last year.

As well as winning best picture, CODA’s Troy Kotsurwon best supporting actor for his role in the film, and its writer-director Siân Heder also took away the award for best adapted screenplay. Kotsur is the first Deaf actor to have...

Continue reading…

Amazon workers say they weren’t all alerted as smoke spread through a warehouse

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon workers claim they weren’t all properly alerted as what they thought was smoke filled the third floor at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse on Friday, according to a report from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) (via Input). While workers on the third floor were told to clock out, go on unpaid voluntary time off, and evacuate, employees on the other floors were allegedly left to continue working as an unidentified vapor spread throughout the facility. The “smoke” was later found to be vaporized oil from a malfunctioning compressor.

According to the RWDSU’s timeline of events, workers on the third floor evacuated around 1:30PM. Hours later, workers on the first floor started seeing the smoke-like substance and...

Continue reading…

Crunchyroll ends free streaming for new and continuing series

Users could previously watch delayed simulcasts for free on Crunchyroll. | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Crunchyroll will no longer offer free ad-supported streaming for newly-released episodes, the anime streaming service announced in an update on its site (via Gizmodo). Viewers who want to watch episodes of new or continuing series will have to upgrade to one of Crunchyroll’s premium plans, which start at $7.99 / month.

Users didn’t need a subscription to watch simulcast titles before the change, but there was a tradeoff — Crunchyroll would delay the release of new episodes by one week for free users, while subscribers could watch them one hour after their premiere in Japan. This was something I (and a lot of other people using Crunchyroll for free) happily dealt with as long as I actually got to watch the new episodes.

The new policy...

Continue reading…

Apple will reportedly release an iPad Pro with an M2 chip this fall

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is reportedly planning to release an iPad Pro with the rumored M2 chip sometime between September and November of this year, according to Apple tracker Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. Gurman expects Apple to issue a major update for the upcoming generation of iPad Pros, which will supposedly include support for MagSafe charging.

As Gurman points out, Apple last gave the iPad Pro a significant update in 2018, when Apple introduced a design with harder corners, an edge-to-edge display, and a USB-C connector. This update came about a year and a half after the release of the iPad Pro 10.5 in 2017.

The new iPad Pro is also rumored to have a glass backing

Apple is on track to repeat the same pattern this year, as it launched the most...

Continue reading…

How to stream the 94th Academy Awards

Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The Academy Awards return this weekend to celebrate a standout year of film releases. With vaccinations now widely available, theaters saw record-breaking ticket sales as moviegoers seemed more willing to return to auditoriums to watch highly anticipated releases. But theaters haven’t completely edged out streamers — Netflix swept up a dozen nominations for its critically acclaimed drama The Power of the Dog and several more for its doomsday comedy Don’t Look Up.

Folks with traditional cable bundles or an antenna are already teed up to watch the event live on ABC when it airs this evening. But if you’re short the hardware or a cable box, several services will carry the coverage as well.

Who is hosting the Oscars?

Wanda Sykes, Regina...

Continue reading…

Apple Pay closes loophole that allowed Russian users to pay with Mir cards

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple Pay will no longer support Russian card payment system Mir, closing a loophole that let Russians continue to use the service amid economic sanctions put on the country, according to a report from Reuters.

“Apple has informed NSPK [Russia’s National Payment Card System] that it is suspending support of ‘Mir’ cards in the payment service Apple Pay,” a translated announcement on Mir’s site reads. “Since March 24, uploading new ‘Mir’ cards to the service has been unavailable.” The company also notes any Mir cards previously added to Apple Pay will stop working over “the next few days.” Apple Pay first added support for Mir cards last year.

Many Russian users have already been cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay

According to The...

Continue reading…

Uber granted a 30-month license to continue operating in London

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber has secured a 30-month — or two-and-a-half-year — license to keep its ridesharing services up and running in London, according to a report from the BBC. This marks the close of a lengthy battle with the city’s transportation agency, Transport for London (TfL), over Uber’s safety protocols.

We’re delighted to announce @TfL has granted Uber a new 30 month licence in London. TfL rightly holds our industry to the highest regulatory and safety standards and we are pleased to have met their high bar.

— Uber UK (@UberUK) March 26, 2022

“We’re delighted to announce @TfL has granted Uber a new 30 month licence in London,” Uber announced in a tweet on Saturday morning. “TfL rightly holds our industry to the highest regulatory and safety...

Continue reading…

Samsung’s art-inspired Frame TV is on sale today for its best price ever

When not in use, Samsung’s Frame TV can be used to display more than 1,400 works of art. | Image: Samsung

Now that Samsung’s new Frame TVs are available for preorder, the 2021 model is selling at a new all-time low in multiple configurations until April 5th (or while supplies last). Typically $1,499.99, Woot is selling the HDR-compatible, 55-inch QLED TV for $899.99, which is $100 cheaper than the previous low we saw during Black Friday and in the run-up to the Super Bowl. The 65-inch model is also on sale for $1,399.99 instead of $1,999, and both TVs come with a one-year warranty from Samsung.

While the 2021 model lacks the matte, anti-reflective display found on this year’s model, they’re both designed to display artwork when not in use, allowing them to blend in more easily with your home’s decor. When turned on, they function as...

Continue reading…

FCC adds Kaspersky to its list of national security threats

US government agencies are already barred from using Kaspersky products. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The US Federal Communications Commission has added Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to its list of entities that pose an “unacceptable risk to US national security,” according to a report from Bloomberg. This is the first time a Russian company has been added to the list, which is otherwise made up of Chinese companies, like Huawei and ZTE.

Businesses in the US are barred from using federal subsidies provided through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to purchase any products or services from the companies on the list. In addition to Kaspersky, the FCC also added China Telecom and China Mobile International USA to its list on Friday.

Kaspersky says the decision was “made on political grounds”

“I am pleased that our national...

Continue reading…

Amazon Games boss Mike Frazzini is stepping down

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Amazon Games studio head Mike Frazzini is stepping down from his role to focus on family, according to a report from Bloomberg. Frazzini has helped lead Amazon’s game division since 2009 and played a role in building the company’s game studio.

“Mike was there at the beginning of Amazon Games, and his leadership and perseverance helped build the games business from the ground up,” Amazon spokesperson Ryan Jones said in a statement to Bloomberg. “Our recent successes with New World and Lost Ark are the result of the long-term, customer-focused vision for games he helped establish. We are very grateful for all his contributions, and wish Mike the very best.”

Amazon didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment.

Amazon Games...

Continue reading…

The Verge’s favorite pet tech

Olivia | Photo by Helen Havlak / The Verge

If you’ve got a pet, it’s likely you have something cool that you use to either feed the pet, amuse the pet, watch the pet, track the pet, or travel with the pet. Well, the folks here at _The Verge_are no different: many have animal companions whom they feed, pamper, worry about — even obsess about — and totally enjoy.

We asked our co-workers to tell us about some of the techie (and not-so-techie) gadgets that they use to keep their pets clean, fed, and amused — along with portraits of the much-loved dogs and cats. We’ve got some great photos to show you. Enjoy.

Aslan

Mitchell Clark, news writer

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Aslan

We got the WOPET automatic feeder after our vet informed us that our cat...

Continue reading…

Global science project links Android phones with satellites to improve weather forecasts

Collecting satellite data for research is a group effort thanks to this app developed for Android users. Camaliot is a campaign funded by the European Space Agency, and its first project focuses on making smartphone owners around the world part of a project that can help improve weather forecasts by using your phone’s GPS receiver.

The Camaliot app works on devices running Android version 7.0 or later that support satellite navigation. The way satellite navigation works, phones or other receivers look for signals from a network of satellites that maintain a fixed orbit. The satellites send messages with the time and their location, and once it’s received, the phones note how long each message took to arrive, then use that data to figure...

Continue reading…

Honey, I decapitated the MacBook

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Converting a laptop into a ‘slabtop’ is surprisingly freeing

Continue reading…

Go read former Tesla employees’ experiences with racism in their own words

Tesla has been sued by civil rights watchdogs for racial segregation at its Fremont, California factory. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Los Angeles Times has a great piece that interviews three former Tesla employees about their experiences with racism, discrimination, and retaliation at the company, which is well worth a read. The story acts as a way to contextualize a lawsuit that the automaker is currently facing, where the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleges that the company has a “racially segregated workplace.”

While the experiences described in the lawsuit and in the Times’ story are similar (and equally disturbing), being able to read actual interviews helps connect names, faces, and individual experiences to the situation at Tesla’s facility in California.

“They were waiting for me to make a mistake”

The workers have unique...

Continue reading…

Steam Next Fest kicks off in June and will offer ‘hundreds of demos’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Valve’s next Steam Next Fest, an event where players will be able to try out demos of upcoming PC games right from Steam, will take place from June 13th through June 20th, the company has announced.

Valve is promising there will be “hundreds of demos” this year, and while it hasn’t shared what might be playable for the upcoming event, there were some notable games featured last June, including Sable and Toem. It seems likely that Valve will promote games that are great for the Steam Deck, and hopefully by that time, many more people will have gotten their highly-anticipated reservations. (Sadly, my projected Q3 order availability means I’ll very likely miss out, at least when it comes to trying games out for the handheld.)

The mid-June...

Continue reading…

The latest Pixel 6 update turned notification vibrations way down

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

This may sound familiar, but there’s something wrong with the latest software update for Google’s Pixel 6 phones. As Google tweaks the version of Android it distributes to phones running its custom Tensor chip, there have been some odd issues, but instead of problems with Wi-Fi or a slow thumbprint scanner, this time, it’s affecting another key feature: notifications. They still pop up on the phone just as regularly, but for some reason, the strength of the vibration is now significantly weaker than it was before.

Adjusting the vibration settings has no effect

I’ve had my phone’s sounds set to silent for years, so any difference in the notification buzz is immediately an issue. It’s also noticeably softer for incoming calls, and some...

Continue reading…

Where is Fitbit’s Wear OS watch?

No kidding. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

2022 is going to be a big year for Wear OS. Google’s rumored to be making its own Pixel Watch (again). Older Wear OS 2 watches are expected to finally make the transition to Wear OS 3. Samsung’s promised that Google Assistant will be coming to its Galaxy Watch 4 in the “coming months.” But there’s something notably missing from this Wear OS lineup: Fitbit.

Since Google and Samsung first announced their partnership at last year’s Google I/O, Fitbit CEO James Park hasn’t been coy. He’s said multiple times that a premium Fitbit smartwatch running Wear OS was in the works. This year will be the one where Wear OS 3 debuts on a wider scale. It would’ve been stellar timing to unveil a Wear OS Fitbit. However, a _9to5Google_report notes that...

Continue reading…

Video game history is colliding: Sierra founders are bringing a seminal text adventure game to VR

Roberta and Ken Williams, founders of Sierra and influential game designers | Photo by John Storey/Getty Images

Ken and Roberta Williams, two of the most influential figures in video game history, are bringing the original 1976 text adventure Colossal Cave Adventureto virtual reality, as well as Mac and Windows PC.

It sounds pretty straightforward when I put it like that, right? And then I remind you that the game in question looked like this:

Photo by Autopilot (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Colossal Cave Adventure running on a PDP-11/34 with a monitor.

And then I remind you that Roberta and Ken have been retired for the past 25 years.

And then I remind you that — while Roberta and Ken made King’s Quest and Phantasmagoria AND are credited with the first graphical adventure game ever in _Mystery Quest_AND founded...

Continue reading…

Gran Turismo 7’s developers apologize for the grind, promise fixes and a million free credits

Screenshot: Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital is apologizing for the changes recently introduced to the game’s economy and is promising improvements, along with a million free credits. These changes come after the game had a massive outage last week, which was the result of an update that also made changes to how players could earn credits by actually playing the game rather than through microtransactions.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi apologized for “the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in, not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to our community.” As a “goodwill gesture,” the...

Continue reading…

Google Fiber contractors vote to join union

Google contract workers voted on whether to join a union | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A group of workers for a Google Fiber subcontractor in Missouri has voted to unionize, the first of its kind at Google’s parent company Alphabet. The votes were counted Friday in a Zoom hearing with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The workers are employees of Google contractor BDS Connected Solutions, a staffing agency in Kansas City. Ten of the 11 workers signed union cards in January to organize under the purview of the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), which is part of the larger Communication Workers of America union. On Friday, the official count found there were nine votes in favor of joining the union, with one vote against.

The AWU will be a members-only union, representing those workers who join voluntarily, rather than...

Continue reading…

Bloodborne Kart is a new fan project from the makers of the PSX demake

Lilith Walther

Bloodborne’s seventh anniversary was earlier this week, and even though FromSoftware lets fans languish without a PC port, Lilith Walther — creator of the popular Bloodborne PSX demake — continues to keep the community fed, watered, and loved with her new fan project: Bloodborne Kart.

An announcement: pic.twitter.com/miydPUzZbR

— Lilith.zip ️‍⚧️ (ps1 goth girl) BLM ACAB (@b0tster) March 25, 2022

Bloodborne Kart seems to be exactly what the name implies: a Bloodborne kart racer. It has the same graphics and overall vibe of the PSX demake, but instead of felling foul beasts, the Hunter will now get the opportunity to roam the streets of Yharnam and possibly beyond on a sweet-ass motorcycle. I’m hoping there will be the opportunity...

Continue reading…

Bose’s noise-canceling QuietComfort Earbuds are more than $50 off today

The Bose QuietComfort earbuds are discounted to just $219.99 at Amazon and Best Buy right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you have yet to pick up a decent pair of true wireless earbuds, you can still buy the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds at Adorama and Amazon for $219.99 instead of $279.99, one of the lowest prices we’ve seen on these earbuds since Black Friday. There’s no shortage of noise-canceling earbuds available right now; however, we think these are worth your attention thanks to their excellent sound quality, impressive fit, and wireless — albeit, bulky — charging case. Even with newer options available like the Sony WF-1000XM4 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 2, we still count these among some of the best wireless earbuds you can buy, especially if superb noise cancellation is what you’re after. Read our review.

If you’re looking for a solid discount on...

Continue reading…

Googling ‘March Madness’ still defaults to men’s games

UConnn’s Paige Bueckers faces off against UCF players Tay Sanders and Alisha Lewisin in the second round of the tournament. | Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Sweet Sixteen games in this year’s March Madness tip off tonight and tomorrow — all exciting games (like reigning national champions Stanford vs. Maryland) and one that is going to be deeply stressful for me personally (Connecticut vs. Indiana — go Huskies).

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the games started yesterday, though. As of this writing, searching “sweet sixteen march madness” pulls up a schedule box for the men’s tournament, which did have that round start yesterday. The women’s games are relegated to a ribbon at the bottom.

This is the first year that the women’s college basketball tournament is able to use the high-profile March Madness branding. The change cameafter an uproar over the embarrassingly inequitable...

Continue reading…

Epic isn’t satisfied by Google’s app store billing stunt

Google has announced a pilot to allow for alternative payment systems in Android apps. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google announced on Wednesday that it would test letting Android developers use their own billing systems in their apps, the first step in what could lead to a dramatic reshaping of the app economy. However, Epic Games, which has been a strong proponent for opening app marketplaces and sued Google after the search giant removed Fortnite from Google Play for including direct payments, still isn’t happy. It plans to continue advocating for an app ecosystem that offers more choices, according to a statement the company shared with The Verge.

“Apple and Google continue to abuse their market power with policies that stifle innovation, inflate prices and reduce consumer choice,” Corie Wright, Epic’s VP of public policy, said in the statement....

Continue reading…

GTA Online is adding a new subscription service

Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games has announced it’s offering a new subscription service to GTA Online players. Dubbed_GTA_Plus, the subscription service grants players exclusive perks for $5.99 a month. According to the announcement:

Being a GTA Plus member gets you a recurring monthly GTA$500,000 direct deposit to your Maze Bank account, plus the opportunity to claim properties in and around Los Santos that unlock gameplay updates you may have missed out on, special vehicle upgrades, Member-only discounts, GTA$ and RP bonuses, and more each month.

Notably, this membership is only available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X players, with no word on if the service will come to previous-gen systems or PC.

Here’s a full list of the first month’s rewards:

...

Continue reading…

Spotify is suspending its services in Russia

Spotify is the latest company to suspend its services there. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify is suspending its services in Russia as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its second month. In a statement, the company appears to reference Russia’s new law that punishes spreading fake news about the military with up to 15 years in prison as the primary reason for why it’s shutting down in the country.

“Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try and keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information in the region,” according to a Spotify spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of “the situation in Russia.” “Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and...

Continue reading…