The best deals on Nintendo Switch games right now

Moonlighter is one of many recent titles available for a discount on the Nintendo eShop | Image: 11 Bit Studios

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles ever released, one with an ever-expanding library of games to choose from. Odds are if a game is capable of working on the Switch’s hardware, it’s either already available or it will be soon.

Thankfully, a number of games are currently receiving price breaks if you’re looking to expand your collection, including first-gen offerings like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey to remasters like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2. However, if you want to add some less conventional indie titles to your collection, 11 Bit Studios is also discounting most of its digital titles and DLC on the Nintendo eShop, including Moonlighter and Children of Morta,both of which are...

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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei scheduled to return to Earth in Russian space capsule

Mark Vande Hei on board the ISS | Image: NASA

Record-breaking NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is set to return to Earth from the International Space Station on early March 30th, coming back in a Russian Soyuz rocket along with two Russian cosmonauts. His scheduled journey back to the planet has been an ongoing source of strife these last few weeks, as tensions have dramatically soured between the United States and Russia after the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vande Hei has been on the ISS since April 2021, when he launched from Kazakhstan on another Soyuz rocket. He was originally going to stay on board for just six months, the standard length of stay for most astronauts on the ISS. But in September, NASA announced that Vande Hei’s stay had been extended to better accommodate a few...

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5G analysis shows C-band is helping Verizon, but it and AT&T still trail T-Mobile

Verizon’s network has gotten a noticeable speed bump. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon and AT&T’s recent 5G rollout could put them in a better position to compete with T-Mobile, which has had similar tech rolled out for years, according to data from Opensignal. The company’s analysis showed that when Verizon turned on its C-band equipment in January, its average 5G speeds jumped — and where carriers have their new tech rolled out, they’re all achieving similar speeds.

When looking at the average 5G download speeds for each carrier, there’s a clear bump in Verizon’s numbers after the carrier took its C-band equipment online in January. The increased speeds that were available to customers in the rollout area brought its average up by around 15 megabits per second, according to Opensignal. Despite also rolling out...

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The Lotus Eletre is an electric SUV with hints of hypercar

British sports car maker Lotus is jumping on the electric bandwagon with the reveal of the Eletre, a plug-in crossover SUV with design language inspired by the automaker’s Evija hypercar. The Eletre will also be the first of three new EVs that Lotus plans to roll out over the next four years, including a sports car (natch), a coupe-sedan, and another SUV.

Previously called Type 132, the Eletre is the Geely-owned automaker’s second electric vehicle and will feature futuristic components like camera-only side-view mirrors and a lidar sensor affixed to the front and rear of the roof.

As is befitting its sports car legacy, Lotus is emphasizing the performance capabilities of its new electric SUV. The Eletre will be able to sprint from...

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Social media might be bad for teens’ mental health at certain age windows

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Social media use is more strongly linked to bad mental health for adolescents and teenagers during years around puberty and when they’re probably about to leave home, according to a new study. Teenagers who used social media more frequently in those periods scored lower on measures of life satisfaction one year later.

Many researchers say things like Instagram and TikTok probably aren’t entirely bad for all adolescents. They’re not entirely good, either, and can cause documented problems with body image, but the impact varies: for some kids at some points in time, it might help them socialize and build relationships; for others at other times, it might be a hit to their self-esteem.

The challenge has been figuring out which teens are...

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Messenger gets new shortcuts that let you send silent replies

The new shortcuts give you new tools for your chats. | Image: Meta

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is introducing Slack-like shortcuts to Messenger that let you do things like send a message silently or quickly call up a GIF while you’re chatting with your friends.

Two of the shortcuts are available today, March 29th, according to Meta: @everyone and /silent. @everyone will let you notify everyone in a chat, which could be useful if you want to make sure to get everyone’s attention. (On behalf of your friends’ notifications, I beg you to please use this one responsibly.) However, if you want to send a message without pinging the whole group, you’ll be able to use the /silent shortcut, Meta says.

In “the coming weeks,” there will be a few more shortcuts. /pay will let you send or request money...

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watchOS 8.5 may have broken fast charging on the Apple Watch Series 7

The Series 7 was the first Apple Watch to get fast charging. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While the Apple Watch Series 7 didn’t come with longer battery life, it did offer faster charging — at least, it did until last week. Some users are now complaining the feature no longer works after updating to watchOS 8.5, according to a 9to5Mac report.

Fast charging is exclusive to the Series 7. With it, Apple says the Watch’s battery can go from 0 to 80 percent in roughly 45 minutes. However, Series 7 owners on Reddit, Apple’s support forums, and MacRumors’ forum are saying their Watches are now charging at a snail’s pace. A couple of Reddit users claimed that the Watch would only charge roughly 5 percent in 15–20 minutes. Meanwhile, a user on Apple’s forum claimed the Watch only charged 5 percent in an hour. For context, Apple says...

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A hacker stole $625 million from the blockchain behind NFT game Axie Infinity

Sky Mavis

Roughly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from Ronin, the blockchain underlying popular crypto game Axie Infinity. Ronin and Axie Infinity operator Sky Mavis revealed the breach on Tuesday and froze transactions on the Ronin bridge, which allows depositing and withdrawing funds from the company’s blockchain.

Sky Mavis says it’s working with law enforcement to recover 173,600 Ethereum (currently worth around $600 million) and 25.5 million USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) from the culprit, who withdrew it from the network on March 23rd. The attack focused on the bridge to Sky Mavis’ Ronin blockchain, an intermediary between Axie Infinity and other cryptocurrency blockchains like Ethereum. Users could...

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Steam Deck, one month later

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

We kept using Valve’s handheld game console — here are answers to your burning questions

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Elon Musk cites Eminem song in latest volley with the SEC

Elon Musk | Photo by Asa Mathat

The latest court filing in Elon Musk’s battle to wrest back control of his Twitter account from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) includes a citation of the 2002 song Without Me by rapper Eminem. Yes, really (see the filing embedded below).

In the song, the rapper complains that “The FCC won’t let me be or let me be me so let me see/ They tried to shut me down.” That’s a reference to a 2002 penalty the Federal Communications Commission handed out to a Colorado radio station for playing Eminem’s 2000 song The Real Slim Shady(after clutching its collective pearls for a bit, the FCC ultimately decided not to fine the radio station).

In the Tuesday court filing, Musk’s lawyers just substituted “SEC” for “FCC” to make the...

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Climate campaign pushes Bitcoin network to drop energy-hungry code

This photo taken on April 1, 2021 shows a worker adjusting cryptocurrency mining rigs at a cryptocurrency farm in Dujiangyan in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. | Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Greenpeace and other environmental groups launched a new campaign today to push the Bitcoin network to slash its growing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the campaign, dubbed “Change the code, not the climate,” is to switch up the energy-hungry process of verifying transactions and mining new Bitcoins.

The cryptocurrency uses more electricity annually than global gold mining operations or the entire country of Norway, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Burning through so much energy generates some serious greenhouse gas emissions, but campaign organizers argue that it doesn’t have to be that way. Other cryptocurrencies use just a fraction of the energy Bitcoin requires because they use a different system to...

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How the new PlayStation Plus compares to Xbox Game Pass and Switch Online

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

A comprehensive look at the pricing and offerings of the console subscription services

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Amazon will have the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition for sale on March 30th at 11AM ET

Sony’s PlayStation 5 is still one of the hottest hard-to-get items in gaming. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you’ve been tracking new console restocks along with us, you may have noticed that Amazon has taken a backseat for months to the likes of Walmart and Best Buy. While the online giant has had its share of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles from time to time, availability has been infrequent and riddled with issues, particularly when it comes to adding products to your cart; Amazon lacks a proper queue system like other retailers have set up, making it more susceptible to bots. But now, Amazon is hyping a restock of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition on Twitter, one set for Wednesday, March 30th, at 11AM ET / 8AM PT. We haven’t seen this kind of buildup from Amazon for just the Digital Edition before, so hopefully it’s a sign that...

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Verizon blames ‘bad actors’ for the spam text you got from your own number

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Yesterday, I wrote about receiving a spam text that bizarrely looked as though it came from my own phone number. But what initially seemed like a random, spoofed spam message is increasingly starting to look like a focused effort targeting Verizon Wireless, one of the largest telecoms in the United States. Today, the carrier confirmed it’s aware of the situation and is investigating the matter with the help of US law enforcement.

“Verizon is aware that bad actors are sending spam text messages to some customers which appear to come from the customers’ own number,” Verizon spokesperson Rich Young told The Verge by email. “Our team is actively working to block these messages, and we have engaged with US law enforcement to identify and stop...

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How to use your phone as a two-factor authentication security key

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you want to verify your Google login and make it harder to access by anyone but yourself (always a good idea), one way is to use your iPhone or Android smartphone as a physical security key. While you can set up a third-party 2FA app such as Authy or even use Google’s own Authenticator, these require that you enter both your password and a code generated by the app. Google’s built-in security allows you to access your account by just hitting “Yes” or pressing your volume button after a pop-up appears on your phone. You can also use your phone as a secondary security key.

Use your phone to sign in

To set this up, your computer should be running a current version of Windows 10, iOS, macOS, or Chrome OS. Before you start, make sure that...

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FDA authorizes second COVID-19 vaccine booster for vulnerable groups

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Food and Drug Administration authorized a second booster dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for people over 50 or who are immunocompromised, the agency announced Tuesday.

The decision comes as the United States heads into yet another wave of infections, this time driven by an even more transmissible version of the omicron variant of the virus. The FDA said in a statement that an additional dose could bolster any waning protection from the vaccines in these groups.

Once again, the FDA is leaning on data from other countries as the foundation for its decision-making around COVID-19 vaccines — in this case, data from Israel, which found a lower rate of serious illness and death in older adults who had two...

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CNN Plus launches with Reddit-like interactive Q&As

A screenshot of CNN Plus’ interface. | Image: CNN Plus

CNN’s premium streaming service launches today. The service, CNN Plus, will debut with about a dozen weekly shows, more than a thousand hours of on-demand content, and a Reddit-like interactive tool for asking reporters and guests questions about the day’s biggest news. It’s a major bet on viewers being willing to pay not just for news but for _more_news — and that the CNN brand can beat out other often freely available options.

CNN Plus isn’t just a digital library for coverage from its cable sibling. Available on Amazon Fire TV, Android phones and tablets, and Apple devices, the app will launch with new shows from Audie Cornish, Anderson Cooper, and Jake Tapper, among others.At its core, it’s a product for people who — god help them —...

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Steve Aoki on why he’s a ‘crypto believer’

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Are NFTs the future of the music business?

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The PlayStation 5 is available now at Best Buy for TotalTech subscribers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

For those who have yet to nab Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, Best Buy just published its listing for its TotalTech subscribers. Right now, you can get a chance to buy the disc-based PS5 for $499.99.

To make sure you get the best chance possible, log in double-check your billing and shipping details are current while you queue up. You’ll need to click the “Add to Cart” button on the right to jump into the queue, however, there’s no need to refresh the page as it uses an automated system. You may, however, have to verify your account while in line, so be prepared for that. Try not to open multiple tabs, either, as Best Buy’s recently-updated queue system doesn’t always work well when you do so. It’s also a good idea to keep your phone...

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New EU law could spark gold rush of iMessage alternatives

iMessage running on an iPhone. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

At the moment, getting access to iMessage’s features on non-Apple devices is a complete pain. In fact, getting access to any messaging platform’s features outside of its native apps can range from difficult to almost impossible. Whether it’s Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Signal, in every case, the services’ developers want you to stick to their own software to message on their platforms.

But new rules announced by the European Union last week could pave the way for the barriers around these walled platforms to be dismantled. The new Digital Markets Act (DMA) includes a clause that says large messaging services could be compelled by other companies to offer interoperability with their platforms. It wouldn’t force Apple to make iMessage...

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YouTube TV is testing surround sound on Android TV, Google TV, and Roku

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube TV is testing support for Dolby 5.1 surround sound on Google TV, Android TV, and Roku devices. In a tweet, the platform said 5.1 audio will “launch on those devices next” if “everything runs smoothly” during the test.

If you were hoping to get surround sound while watching YouTube TV on your Apple TV, Fire TV, Xbox, or PlayStation, however, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The platform says it’s still working “internally and with partners” to get 5.1 support on these platforms.

We’re still working internally and with partners to enable 5.1 on Apple TV, Fire TV, and game consoles. We don’t like keeping you waiting, but we’re excited for you to hear 5.1 audio soon. Our current compatible devices can be found here: h...

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Sennheiser adds AirPlay 2 and other new features to its $2,500 Ambeo soundbar

Image: Sennheiser

Sennheiser is introducing a new operating system that runs on the company’s premium Ambeo soundbar. Known as Ambeo OS, the big firmware update also adds support for new ways of playing audio on the Ambeo. Sennheiser says it now offers AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect in addition to the Chromecast feature that the Ambeo originally shipped with.

The company says Ambeo OS also provides a more responsive user experience, as it now uses Wi-Fi to connect with Sennheiser’s Smart Control mobile app instead of Bluetooth. The Smart Control app itself has been given a makeover on both Android and iOS, with new Sound Check and Sound Zones features.

Image: Sennheiser

The Smart Control app for Android and iOS is...

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sequel is delayed to spring 2023

The still-unnamed sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been delayed to spring 2023, producer Eiji Aonuma announced today in a video update. The game had previously been set for a 2022 release window.

“We have decided to extend our development a bit and change the release to Spring 2023,” Aonuma said. “In order to make this game’s experience something special, the entire development team is working diligently on this game, so please wait a while longer.”

Nintendo first revealed that it was working on a sequel to Breath of the Wild in 2019, followed by a brief look at the upcoming title’s new gameplay at E3 2021 last year. According to Aonuma will see gameplay extend up into the skies of the vast, open-world iteration of...

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Three ways the European Union might ruin WhatsApp

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart on how the Digital Markets Act could upend encryption, privacy, and product design

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Fortnite introduces new Zero Build mode

As part of its latest season, Fortnite removed building, one of the game’s most iconic features. And now, developer Epic appears to be making the change a more permanent part of the experience with the introduction of Zero Build mode. As the name implies, the mode is a combat-focused option where players can’t gather resources to build defensive structures; Fortnite recently introduced a new shield and more mobility options to make up for it, making for a faster-paced experience.

Zero Build is available to play across solo, duos, trios, and squad modes, and it joins an ever-growing list of ways to play Fortnite, including Creative, Impostors, and the violence-free Party Royale. However, at the time of this writing, the standard battle...

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Spotify tests a podcast discovery feed

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Good morning, dear readers! The temperature went from 55 to 25 overnight, and my sinuses are in so much pain that I’ve been hanging upside down in the dark for relief. Like a bat.

Why podcasts pop up to cover Ukraine

New this morning, I reported a piece for The Verge about why so much coverage of Ukraine has taken the form of pop-up podcasts. The labor required to report out and produce a show isn’t easily condensed to match the breakneck speed of the news cycle, yet NPR, The Telegraph, independent teams, and more have rallied resources toward the medium.

A lot of these teams have reason to believe that this commitment is worth it — and many of them have a lot of the same reasons for thinking so. Many, after all, have quickly started...

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Amazon’s second-gen Echo Buds are just $50 today

You can buy a pair of Amazon’s second-gen Echo Buds with a wired charging case for just $49.99 at Amazon. | Image: Chris Welch

In the market for a quality pair of noise-canceling earbuds that don’t cost a fortune? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out today’s deal on Amazon’s second-generation Echo Buds. Right now, Amazon is taking a whopping 59 percent off, selling its popular wireless earbuds with a wired charging case for just $49.99 instead of $119.99. The ones that include a wireless charging case cost $139.99. (If you really want the wireless charging case, buying it separately costs $69.99.)

That’s a new all-time low on a pair of Bluetooth earbuds that offer very good sound quality for the price, along with an excellent passthrough mode that allows you to hear your surroundings. Their noise cancellation tech may not be as good as the more expensive...

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Microsoft is finally making it easier to switch default browsers in Windows 11

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is finally making it easier to change your default browser in Windows 11. A new update (KB5011563) has started rolling out this week that allows Windows 11 users to change a default browser with a single click. After testing the changes in December, this new one-click method is rolling out to all Windows 11 users.

Originally, Windows 11 shipped without a simple button to switch default browsers that was always available in Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft forced Windows 11 users to change individual file extensions or protocol handlers for HTTP, HTTPS, .HTML, and .HTM, or you had to tick a checkbox that only appeared when you clicked a link from outside a browser. Microsoft defended its decision to make switching defaults harder,...

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Moon Knight marks the return of Marvel’s resurrection machine

Oscar Isaac stars as the man of many masks

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Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Evo is finally more camera than toy

Dials and buttons, oh my!

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