Riot Games reportedly drops masking and vaccination requirements ahead of return-to-office order

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Another major California-based video game developer is initiating a return-to-office order. According to a report from Vice, League of Legends developer Riot Games announced it will be requiring employees to return to its Los Angeles headquarters while also eliminating vaccine and masking requirements. Riot is also no longer requiring regular COVID-19 testing for employees who have not shown proof of vaccination.

The Vice report spoke to several current and former Riot employees who expressed anger that the new policy would danger employees’ health. “It’s a foolish and pointless policy being done at a poor time and being handled without real guarantee of our safety,” one anonymous employee said to Vice.

However, despite these concerns,...

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Google is using AI to update business hours that are out of date on Google Maps

It looks at data like Popular Times, images from street view, and more. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has shared how it’s using artificial intelligence, including its restaurant-calling Duplex tech, to try and keep business hours up to date on Google Maps. The company says that if it is confident enough in the AI’s prediction of what a business’s hours should be, it will update the information in Maps.

In a blog post, Google outlines the various factors its AI analyzes to determine whether it should do these updates. First, it looks at when the business profile was last updated, other similar shops’ hours, and Popular Times data to decide how likely it is that the hours are incorrect. For example: if Google sees that a lot of people visit the shop when it’s supposedly closed, that may be a red flag.

Google only updates hours with...

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US labor board moves to block Amazon’s favorite anti-union tactic

Companies like Amazon often use mandatory meetings to persuade workers against unionizing. | Photo by Yana Paskova / For The Washington Post via Getty Images

The National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel plans to ask the board to rule that mandatory meetings about organizing are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act, a significant potential victory for labor groups. Sometimes called “captive audience” meetings, mandatory meetings are often used by company management to present anti-union rhetoric at meetings that employees are required to attend while at work.

Employees trying to unionize Amazon warehouses in Bessemer, Alabama, and New York City have previously filed complaints with the NLRB claiming that the company held such meetings to try to convince workers to vote against the union efforts. The NLRB has historically allowed such meetings, but a new memo from NLRB...

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How to run the PugetBench benchmark for Adobe Premiere Pro

If you’re currently a video creator or are interested in trying it out, you may want to know how well your PC can perform various tasks in Adobe Premiere Pro. One of the best ways to do that is the Puget Systems benchmark for Premiere Pro.

Puget Systems is a PC manufacturer that specializes in professional workstations. They offer a number of different benchmarks for testing hardware in a variety of applications, but the Premiere Pro benchmark is the one we use the most. It will have your computer try all kinds of things, including live playback, export, GPU effects, and CPU effects, and see how it stacks up to the competition. While there are many benchmarks that try to simulate a professional video workflow, this one gathers data from...

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The best Chromebook deals you can get right now

Lenovo’s ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook is selling for $349 instead of $599. | Image: Monica Chin / The Verge

If you’re looking for an affordable laptop alternative, Chromebooks are a great option to consider. Yet there are several kinds on the market these days, and it can be overwhelming to pick the right for you and your needs. Some are better suited for basic work tasks, for example, while some of the higher-end models can even rival some of the best laptops you can buy. Moreover, just because one Chromebook has more features than the other doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you or the best value for your money.

That’s why we’ve curated this comprehensive list of the best Chromebook deals. Each varies in price and comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, but all of them come recommended for one reason or another. And if you’d like to do...

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Activision Blizzard is giving a thousand game testers full-time jobs and pay bumps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Activision Blizzard has just announced that all temporary and contingent QA workers of its Activision Publishing and Blizzard divisions are being converted to full-time employees — meaning nearly 1,100 temp game testers are getting full-time jobs with benefits. They’ll be making higher wages, too, with a new minimum hourly rate of $20.

Here is a full statement from Jessica Taylor, Activision Blizzard’s vice president of corporate communications:

Across Activision Blizzard, we are bringing more content to players across our franchises than ever before. As a result, we are refining how our teams work together to develop our games and deliver the best possible experiences for our players. We have ambitious plans for the future and our...

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How to change the font on your Samsung Galaxy phone

Follow a few quick steps to download and apply a new font to your Galaxy phone. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

One of the best things about a Samsung Galaxy phone is that it isn’t a “one size fits all” experience. Case in point: your phone’s font. If you’re not happy with the default choice, you can change it to something that’s easier to read or something that expresses your personal style a little more. After all, you probably spend hours every day checking your phone, so you should really like the font you’re looking at. Here’s how to change and adjust the font on a Samsung Galaxy phone.

I used a Samsung Galaxy A53 5G running One UI 4.1 for the following steps:

• Go to Settings > Display.
• Scroll down and select Font size and style. On this menu page, you can choose to bold the current font, which might spice up the look of your font enough for...

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TCL’s excellent 6-series 4K TV is $290 off today

TCL’s 6-Series TVs combine Mini LED panels with two HDMI 2.1 inputs for gaming. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

OLED may be the pinnacle of TV panels, but they’re still pricey — even after discounts. One very good alternative, the Mini LED-backlit TCL 6-Series with HDMI 2.1 ports, has dropped to a new low price today.

TCL’s 55-inch 6-series model with Google TV is discounted to just $659.99 ($290 off) at Best Buy. Mini LED backlighting serves as a great substitute if paying OLED prices is off the table. It has excellent brightness with more control than standard LED and can maintain deeper black levels while displaying great color contrast. Sound a little familiar? It may not be _quite_as good as OLED, but it’s playing in the same ballpark.

Plus, this TCL TV has two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for variable refresh rates up to 120Hz at 4K...

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The best Etsy alternatives for selling your crafts

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Since its launch in 2005, Etsy has become well known as the place to go for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind items from a wide variety of creators. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that rosy reputation has darkened a bit. To begin with, buyers have been noticing an influx of mass-market goods that are noticeably not handmade.

But there has been a lot of discontent online from sellers as well, due both to the increased number of manufactured goods and to increased expenses such as mandatory market plans. The final straw may have come In early April of this year when Etsy announced it is raising seller transaction fees from 5 percent to 6.5 percent.

As a result, a large number of Etsy sellers plan to go on strike between April 11th and...

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Chrono Cross remains strange and spellbinding in new remaster

Chrono Cross got off to a, let’s say, difficult start. It was billed as a follow-up to Chrono Trigger, one of the most beloved role-playing games ever created, but while the two take place in the same world, there are some big differences. Chrono Trigger was created by a superteam of developers including Final Fantasy mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi, long-time Dragon Quest steward Yuji Horii, and Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. It’s frequently cited as one of the greatest games ever made. That all-star team didn’t continue on with the series, and though Chrono Cross was largely well-received at launch, its legacy never reached the same heights as its predecessor. It’s always been that weird follow-up with parallel worlds, a confusing...

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Epic and Lego partner to build a metaverse for kids

Ariana Grande performing in Fortnite.

Two of the biggest names in entertainment are coming together to create a virtual space aimed at kids, through a new partnership between Fortnite developer Epic Games and Lego. “We are excited to come together to build a space in the metaverse that’s fun, entertaining, and made for kids and families,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement.

Details are scarce — and the concept of a metaverse remains a murky one — but the companies say that whatever it is they end up building will be designed as a family-friendly virtual space from the beginning. “The Lego Group and Epic Games will combine their extensive experience to ensure that this next iteration of the internet is designed from the outset with the wellbeing of kids in mind,” the...

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Corsair’s K70 gaming keyboard updated with more responsive optical switches

Corsair is announcing an updated version of its K70 mechanical keyboard today that comes with more responsive OPX optical mechanical switches. It costs $149.99, $10 more than the standard K70 released last year with more traditional Cherry mechanical switches. Aside from the switch change, the new K70 is broadly identical to last year’s model, with a detacheable USB-C cable, RGB lighting, and a tenkeyless layout.

The reason you might want a gaming keyboard with optical switches comes down to debounce delay, which typically affects keyboards with traditional mechanical switches. When you press a mechanical switch, there can be a brief period when its metal contacts clatter together before eventually settling, and this means the keyboard...

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How to pick the best sleep tracker for you

Fitbit has great sleep tracking insights. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the best things you can do for your health. And yet we live in the age of Netflix binges, a never-ending scroll of TikToks, and late-night video gaming marathons_._But if you’re determined to build better sleeping habits, you can always try tracking your sleep.

Before we dive in, a quick note: sleep tracking can be a helpful tool, but there are limitations as to what it can do. The jury is out on how accurate sleep trackers are, and you shouldn’t treat your results as an official diagnosis for any sleeping disorders, especially since these devices are not cleared by any regulatory body. Instead, you should view these devices as a means of learning about your sleep habits to help improve your sleep...

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Nvidia won’t make you sign into Steam or Epic to try its free new cloud gaming demos

Image: Nvidia

Cloud gaming isn’t for everyone, but it’s getting easier to tell if it’s for you, because Nvidia and Google are now letting you try their virtual gaming PCs for free. Following Google’s recent announcement that any Stadia developer will be able to offer an instantly accessible free trial of their game without needing to log into a Google account, Nvidia’s GeForce Now is now pushing reduced-friction demos as well — starting with Chorus, Ghostrunner, Inscryption, Diplomacy Is Not an Option and The Riftbreaker: Prologue.

Typically, you’d need to log into an Nvidia account, then log in again to a Steam, Epic Games, or Ubisoft account to play one of these demos on GeForce Now, and you’d have to search for them as well. Now, the Nvidia account...

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Google now lets you search for things you can’t describe — by starting with a picture

You like the way that dress looks, but you’d rather have it in green. You want those shoes, but prefer flats to heels. What if you could have drapes with the same pattern as your favorite notebook? I don’t know how to Google for these things, but Google Search product manager Belinda Zeng showed me real-world examples of each earlier this week, and the answer was always the same: take a picture, then type a single word into Google Lens.

Today, Google is launching a US-only beta of the Google Lens Multisearch feature it teased last September at its Search On event, and while I’ve only seen a rough demo so far, you shouldn’t have to wait long to try it for yourself: it’s rolling out in the Google app on iOS and Android.

...

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The weird computers and claustrophobic hallways of Severance

Image: Apple

In the vast underground office of Lumon, the megacorporation at the heart of Apple TV Plus’ thriller Severance, the computers are downright bizarre. At first they look a bit like an old Mac, but the closer you look, the more strange they become. The CRT display is somehow a touchscreen. The beautiful blue keyboard is saddled with a gigantic trackball. The goal, production designer Jeremy Hindle tells The Verge, was to design a device that doesn’t make a lot of sense, mirroring the purgatory-like world that exists only within Lumon’s basement. “The idea was that anything you could see underground doesn’t exist up top anywhere,” says Hindle. “You’ll never see that computer or that keyboard.”

This article contains light spoilers for...

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Hacking group posted fake Ukrainian surrender messages, says Meta in new report

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Belarus-aligned hacking group has attempted to compromise the Facebook accounts of Ukrainian military personnel and posted videos from hacked accounts calling on the Ukrainian army to surrender, according to a new security report from Meta (the parent company of Facebook).

The hacking campaign, previously labeled “Ghostwriter” by security researchers, was carried out by a group known as UNC1151, which has been linked to the Belarusian government in research conducted by Mandiant. A February security update from Meta flagged activity from the Ghostwriter operation, but since that update, the company said that the group had attempted to compromise “dozens” more accounts, although it had only been successful in a handful of cases.

Where...

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Google Play Store cracks down on outdated apps

Image: Google

Google is preparing to limit the availability of outdated apps on the Play Store, the company has announced. From November 1st, all existing apps in the store should aim to target an API level within two years of the latest major Android OS release. If they don’t, Google says it’ll place limits on which users are able to discover or install them.

The changes are meant to ensure that software available from the Play Store makes use of Android’s latest privacy and security features. Device owners “expect to realize the full potential of all the privacy and security protections Android has to offer,” Google product management director Krish Vitaldevara writes in a blog post. “Expanding our target level API requirements will protect users...

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Apple brings Putin opposition app back to Russia App Store

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A voting app run by supporters of prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny is once again available for download on Apple’s Russian App Store, The Washington Post reports, citing independent researchers and Navalny’s chief of stall Leonid Volkov. Both Apple and Google removed the app last year after the Kremlin threatened to criminally prosecute company employees in the country.

The “Smart Voting” app contains over a thousand endorsements of Russian political candidates, WaPo notes, with the idea being to help citizens consolidate votes against the ruling United Russia party, which has Vladimir Putin as its de facto leader. Pressure to remove the app came ahead of Russia’s legislative election in September. WaPo reports that Google restored...

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After $600 million crypto heist, Axie Infinity team raises $150 million and launches another NFT game

Axie:Origin screenshot | Image: Sky Mavis

Last week Sky Mavis, the Vietnam-based company behind the crypto game Axie Infinity, revealed that a hacker stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto from its blockchain. Sky Mavis realized it had been attacked when a user could not make a withdrawal six days after the breach, and the company froze transactions on its compromised Ronin Network bridge.

Now Sky Mavis has announced it’s received $150 million in investments that “will be used to ensure that all users affected by the Ronin Validator Hack will be reimbursed.” At nearly the exact same time, it’s launching a new version of the game, Axie Infinity: Origin. According to Sky Mavis CEO Trung Nguyen, “As a team, we have made an intentional decision to focus on what lies...

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Meta is reportedly making ‘Zuck Bucks’

Libra / Diem may be shut down, but “Zuck Bucks” could be coming next. | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Meta may have given up on its Diem cryptocurrency, but the company is still exploring finance products, according to a new Financial Times report. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reportedly has a few irons in the fire, including virtual currency employees have apparently taken to calling “Zuck Bucks.”

Zuck Bucks, seemingly named for Meta founder, chairman, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are “unlikely” to be a cryptocurrency. “Instead, Meta is leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps such as the Robux currency in popular children’s game _Roblox,”_according to the FT. Roblox has built a huge business selling Robux, and Meta could try to emulate...

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Ford and Chevy’s supply chain woes are affecting the cool cars now

Some Cadillacs are also affected. | Photo by Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images

Ford and Chevrolet are reportedly halting production on their respective flagship performance cars, the Mustang and the Camaro, for a week thanks to supply chain issues (via Jalopnik). While the pauses probably won’t make it that much harder to get a muscle car, they are just the latest in a string of automotive delays caused by shortages of chips and other supplies.

According to WXYZ Detroit, Ford is explicitly citing the chip shortage as the reason it’s not producing cars at its Flat Rock assembly plant where Mustangs are made. This isn’t the first time the company has struggled with supply issues — it’s had to cut back on the production of the F-150 and other vehicles multiple times, and earlier this year, it started selling Explorers...

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Army Corps of Engineers closes SpaceX Starbase permit application citing lack of information

A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship rocket on the launchpad at Starbase in Texas | Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

The US Army Corps of Engineers has closed a permit application for a proposed expansion of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas — a potential snag in the company’s plans to add new launch and landing pads to the area, as well as substantially grow the site. In a letter viewed by The Verge, the Corps cited SpaceX’s failure to provide requested follow-up information about the proposed changes as a reason for closing the permit.Among other things, the Corps wanted more details about what mitigation measures the company would take to limit the loss of water and wetlands surrounding the site.

SpaceX first purchased land in Boca Chica, Texas, in 2012, with the intention of creating a facility to launch its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While some of the best iPad deals happen around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can still find plenty of great discounts if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable Apple tablet, the entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere you may be interested in.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at _The Verge_are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, some of which are outgoing models with freshly introduced replacements.

The...

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Here are the best tablet deals right now

Best Buy is currently discounting a bundle that contains Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8 and Surface Pro keyboard. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Tablets exist in a space between phones and laptops that is becoming increasingly muddled. As phones become more powerful and gain larger displays, laptops continue to get lighter. Tablet manufacturers haven’t been resting on their laurels, though. Many of the more recent tablets we’ve seen are looking to bridge the gap in terms of performance and, in select cases, handle some tasks more efficiently than both phones and laptops.

The tablet spectrum is varied, too. Inexpensive models like the Amazon Fire HD 10 make for excellent media streaming devices, while those in Microsoft’s versatile Surface lineup can easily serve as ad-hoc laptops when paired with an optional folio-style keyboard. Then there’s the ubiquitous iPad, a slate that has...

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Max Payne remakes are on the way

A screenshot from the first_Max Payne._ | Image: Remedy Entertainment

Remedy Entertainment is remaking Max Payne and _Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne._The company is establishing “a new development agreement” with Rockstar Games for the remakes, which will be released as a single title for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S.

“We were thrilled when our long-time friends at Remedy approached us about remaking the original Max Payne games,” said Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser said in a press release. “We are massive fans of the work the Remedy team has created over the years, and we can’t wait to play these new versions.”

New Max Payne 1&2 Project

The game, which the press release refers to somewhat awkwardly as New Max Payne 1&2 Project, is “currently in the concept development stage.” No estimated release...

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Paramount won’t stop making Star Trek NFTs

Are you ready for the Star Trek metaverse? | Image: Paramount

Paramount is launching its NFT marketplace / metaverse / annoying marketing stunt that fans are already angry about with Star Trek non-fungible tokens (or NFTs.) The company partnered with Recur to create a platform called Paramount.xyz, which it says will “bring Paramount’s beloved entertainment entities, brands and characters to the metaverse.”

Paramount is aping what’s worked for big NFT projects in the past; the Star Trek NFTs will depict “algorithmically-generated starships” and can be purchased at the low, low price of $250 per pack. Packs, by the way, contain a single ship — which only has around an 11 percent chance of looking like the Enterprise. You can (but absolutely should not) guarantee that you’ll get a cool ship by buying...

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Creators say Instagram is cutting Reels payouts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Creators making money using Instagram Reels say their payouts have been slashed in recent weeks and target metrics for monetization have ballooned, according to the Financial Times. Payments are down as much as 70 percent per view and videos need millions more views for creators to get paid.

The Reels Play Bonus Program, announced in July, offers financial rewards to creators who post on Reels, Instagram’s TikTok-style short-form video clone. Payouts ranged from $600 to as much as $35,000 if videos hit a target view count, but creators expressed confusion over how payments and goals were determined. The bonus program is part of a promise by Meta, which owns Instagram, to pay $1 billion to creators through 2022.

Creators say changes in...

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Apple adding iPhone X TrueDepth camera repair option for easier Face ID repairs

Image: Apple

Apple reportedly will soon provide a new Face ID repair option for iPhone X that doesn’t involve replacing the whole device (via MacRumors). The option comes after Apple’s recent shift to soon provide a TrueDepth Camera service option that can fix the face unlock feature of the 2018 iPhone XS and newer models but didn’t previously include the 2017 iPhone X.

Repairing just the Face ID component can be difficult since it’s a fairly complex system involving four components: a flood illuminator (a part of the display assembly, more on that later), dot projector, “TrueDepth” front camera, and IR camera. If any of these components malfunction, you could lose the face unlock feature and have to resort to entering a password.

Apple’s old method...

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Instacart claims it’ll now protect workers’ tips even when asshole customers bait and switch

Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

It takes a special kind of asshole to promise a big cash tip to your grocery delivery worker, only to snatch it away at the last minute. But as we reported in 2020, tip-baiting is a real problem for Instacart — and the company has introduced a new policy where it claims it will protect some of those tips.

Here’s the policy straight off the company’s press release:

Instacart’s first-of-its-kind tip protection offering will protect shoppers from customers who remove a tip without reporting an issue with the order. This protection will apply when a customer zeroes out their tip after delivery without reporting an order issue. Instacart will cover the amount of the zeroed-out tip, up to $10, to ensure shoppers are not adversely affected....

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