Snapchat’s new tool builds Stories based on ESPN, Bloomberg, and Vogue articles

A new feature from Snap will let publishers on Snapchat automatically create posts based on stories published to a website. According to Axios, more than 40 publishers from the US, the UK, France, and India will begin using Dynamic Stories to automatically share published content to Snapchat.

Dynamic Stories uses a publisher’s RSS feed to create posts that go directly on a newsroom’s Snapchat Stories. Early partners include CNN, ESPN, _The Washington Post,_British_Vogue,_and more.

“By tying publishing on Snapchat into our partners’ existing workflow, we’ve created an easy way for them to create daily content and significantly lower costs,” Snap says in an announcement. “This new format will also play a significant role in supporting our...

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Beats announces new Studio Buds colors, Locate My Beats for Android

Image: Beats

Beats has announced new colors of its Studio Buds earbuds that will go on sale beginning tomorrow: blue, gray, and pink. They join the existing black, white, and red options that have been available since last year. The price remains unchanged at $149.99.

All colors of the Studio Buds can be purchased from Apple, but they’re being divvied up among third-party retailers: Amazon gets gray, Best Buy will have the blue, and Target is selling the pink buds. Beats says the Studio Buds have become “the fastest-selling Beats product to date, globally” in their first year on the market. Alongside some new hues, Beats is also adding new features for Android phone owners.

Image: Beats

The Studio Buds also remain available...

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Spotify adds live audio programs and rebrands Greenroom app as Spotify Live

Spotify is relaunching Greenroom as Spotify Live. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify is rebranding its Greenroom live audio app as Spotify Live and will bring its features into the main Spotify app, the company announced Tuesday. Spotify Live will be available as both a standalone app and a livestream feature in the main app. At present, the main app will include select live content from original programming, and the standalone Spotify Live app will be open to all independent creators.

“Listeners will be able to tune in to live programming on Spotify via the creator’s podcast or artist page, and if they want to participate in the chat or join the host onstage, they can head to the Spotify Live app to do so,” according to a blog post on the company’s website.

Say hi to Live

You can now livestream real-time...

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Nomad’s Base One Max adds an Apple Watch stand to its fancy MagSafe wireless charging pad

Nomad’s Base One Max is better-looking than most wireless chargers. | Image: Nomad

Nomad is expanding the range of its MagSafe charging accessories with the new Base One Max. The Max follows the Base One from March and adds an Apple Watch charger to the heavily weighted MagSafe pad. It retails for a similarly heavy $149.95 and is available to purchase starting on April 12th.

The Base One Max effectively looks like what happens when you double the width of the Base One and add an integrated Apple Watch charger. Unlike the MagSafe section, which remains flat, the Apple Watch charger sits vertically so your Watch can display its nightstand mode and show the time. Made out of aluminum, glass, and soft-touch rubber, the Base One Max weighs a beefy 900 grams (just under two pounds).

Image: Nomad

The...

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Chris Dixon thinks web3 is the future of the internet — is it?

Chris Dixon | Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Plus, why a16z has spent $3 billion on web3 startups

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TikTok opens AR effects tool to all users

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is rolling out its augmented reality effects tool to all creators and developers after launching a closed beta test last fall.

Effect House allows creators to make their own AR camera effects that can be used by other TikTok users in videos. In an announcement, the company says the effects platform will be open to “all creators, designers, and developers from around the world” and will include tools and learning resources.

“Whether you’re teleporting into new worlds with Green Screen or freeze-framing with Time Warp Scan, creative effects empower creators to express themselves, entertain, and share stories through a wide array of engaging and immersive formats,” the company wrote.

TikTok says submitted effects...

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Drop’s MT3 keycap sets are buy one, get one free until April 18th

Interchangeable keycap sets offer an endless range of customization for mechanical keyboards. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

There’s nothing better than some extra clickity-clackity deals on colorful mechanical keyboard accessories — well, to me at least. Drop is once again here with another buy one, get one free deal on base or ortholinear kits of its exclusive MT3 keycaps. This is the return of a deal we saw in February, though there has been a restock of select colorways that quickly sold out of stock last time around, like the Cyber set by designer MiTo. Most keycap sets run $110 to $120 for a base kit that includes your essential keys for most boards. Add two sets to your cart and use the code MT3BOGORETURNS at checkout, and the second set of equal or lesser value becomes free.

These sculpted keycaps are designed to fit Cherry-style switches, and they...

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The best wired or wireless gaming mouse you can buy

Whatever your budget or grip style is, we’ve found the best gaming mouse for you. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Multiple picks for all budgets

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DuckDuckGo’s privacy-centric browser arrives on Mac

Image: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo’s privacy-focused browsing app is available in beta on Mac, but you’ll have to join a private waitlist to gain access. Just like the mobile browsing app, DuckDuckGo on Mac uses the DuckDuckGo search engine by default, automatically blocks web trackers, and comes with the famous “Fire” button that burns up your browsing history and tabs in a single click.

The browsing app also comes with a new feature that’s supposed to help block those pesky cookie consent pop-ups that appear when you first open a website. DuckDuckGo says it will clear them on 50 percent of sites, while automatically selecting the option that blocks or minimizes the cookies that track you.

Image: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo’s privacy feed...

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Google’s Pixel 6A appears at FCC, hinting at May release

Last year’s Pixel 5A was a fantastic product, but like the Pixel 4A before it, the phone’s August release didn’t do it any favors. Google’s original A-series budget phones — the Pixel 3A and 3A XL — shipped around the same time as the company’s I/O conference in May, a more sensible mid-year release that gave them more time to shine before the next flagship Pixel arrived.

But supply chain issues and remote work challenges pushed both the 4A and 5A deep into the summer. Last year’s $449 Pixel 5A wasn’t even sold by any carriers or retailers other than Google itself.

However, it seems like Google is getting things back on track in time for the upcoming Pixel 6A. As noted by Droid Life, the next budget Pixel recently passed through the...

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The incredible sci-fi mystery 13 Sentinels is a perfect fit for the Switch

To enjoy 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is to embrace confusion. The game, which originally launched in 2020 on the PS4, is hard to describe, with gameplay that spans multiple genres and a non-linear storyline that involves everything from time travel to android doppelgängers and only gets weirder from there. It demands a lot from players, but the result is one of my favorite science fiction stories in years — and, unsurprisingly, it’s a great fit for the Switch, with a new version for Nintendo’s tablet that launches today.

For a more detailed rundown, here’s my review from when 13 Sentinels first debuted. But the short version is: the game is a mix of a visual novel and a real-time strategy game, which follows more than a dozen characters...

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Stranger Things 4’s new trailer teases a guitar battle in the Upside Down

Courtesy of Netflix

Even though we’ve seen a few teasers of Stranger Things’ upcoming fourth season, none of them really let on just how much larger and epic in scope this next chapter seems like it’s going to be.

While Stranger Thingshas explored the larger world outside of Hawkins, Indiana, in the past, the show’s fourth season is set to switch things up by splitting its story across a handful of disparate, important locations. Though the story will presumably return to the Upside Down and catch up with Jim Hopper in Russia, Stranger Things’ first season four trailer makes clear that a significant part of its next chapter will unfold in California, where Joyce and the rest of the Byers family have moved.

Vol. 1 of _Stranger Things_season 4 premieres on...

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The best webcam to buy right now

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Some standout options for multiple budgets

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It’s hard to believe Samsung’s new, matte The Frame is actually a TV

A matte finish makes The Frame’s signature trick even more convincing

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I saw Samsung’s first-ever QD-OLED TV, and it’s impressive

QD-OLED isn’t some revelatory improvement, but you can see the difference

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A series of patent lawsuits is challenging the history of malware detection

Illustration by Beatrice Sala

Cybersecurity firm Webroot claims that competitors’ software infringes on a decades-old patent

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The video game that is also an art museum

The Zium Museum.

The Zium Society is creating virtual spaces for digital art

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Luminary gets into the exclusive album game

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Hi, everyone. Before we get into the news today, I have a very exciting announcement to share.

Later this month, Ariel Shapiro will join Hot Pod as our new lead writer. Ariel pioneered the podcast beat at Forbes, where she created the publication’s first top earners list for podcasters, reported on big tech’s swift moves into the space, and broke news about massive audio industry deals. She could not be a better fit, and I’m thrilled to have her joining the team.

We have a formal announcement out in The Verge’s newsroom with more details, and… would you look at that, there’s even more news hidden in there: The Verge’s publisher, Helen Havlak, shares that we’ve got some exciting growth plans for _Hot Pod_this year, including “another hire,...

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Apple plans to add features to the iPhone health app this year

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is planning an expansion to the iPhone health app this year that would include additional sleep tracking and a tool to remind people to take medication, Bloomberg reported. The company could also add body temperature sensing to the Apple Watch this year and is still working on developing a blood pressure monitor.

The new medication tool would let users scan pill bottles and track when they took the medication. Not all planned features would be available at launch_._

A body temperature sensor could help expand fertility tracking features on the Apple Watch. Body temperature changes over the course of the menstrual cycle, and that data can help predict when someone might get their period or the window when they’re most likely to...

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How Elon Musk got everything he wanted out of Twitter

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Fiduciary vs. fun

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SteelSeries adds two new options to its lightweight Aerox lineup

You’ll probably know whether you need this many buttons on your mouse.

SteelSeries has expanded its IP54 waterproof and lightweight Aerox Wireless lineup to include two new options available starting today: the Aerox 5 Wireless and the Aerox 9 Wireless. The Aerox 9 Wireless, pictured above, is SteelSeries’ take on a mouse made for MMO and MOBA games that have myriad commands that you might need to fire off. It has a whopping 12 buttons on its left side, and SteelSeries claims that, at 89 grams, this is the lightest mouse of this type on the market.

This mouse is going up against Razer’s Naga Pro, another wireless, many-buttoned option. The Aerox 9 has IP54 waterproofing and impressive battery life claims, but the Naga Pro’s modular nature might make it the preferred option for some gamers. Both mice cost...

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GoPro ripped out the guts of the Hero10 Black to give its bones to drones

When GoPro said it was going to build more specialized cameras this year, we didn’t quite know what it meant. Today, it’s revealing the GoPro Hero10 Black Bones, a cut-down version of its flagship camera meant explicitly for FPV drone pilots like the one who famously blazed through that bowling alley last year. The idea is that pilots will strap one of these to their drone to film brilliant footage while using a separate low-latency analog camera and a pair of FPV goggles to see where their drone is going.

When I say cut down, I mean there’s no screens, no speaker, no door, no waterproofing, _and no battery_inside this thing: the $500 camera ($350–$400 with subscription) is the first GoPro ever made that requires soldering skills, the...

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Adobe’s including Frame.io collaboration software in Creative Cloud subscriptions

Frame.io is now built into Adobe’s video editing software. | Image: Adobe

Adobe announced on Tuesday that Creative Cloud subscriptions will now include Frame.io, its software made for collaborating on video projects. It’s building the software into the latest versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects, which have some updates of their own — the company gave its video editing software a visual refresh, and its compositing software will finally be Apple Silicon native.

Adobe bought Frame.io last year, so including the service in its video editing subscription makes sense. Frame.io makes collaboration easier for remote editors by letting them quickly download footage or audio captured on set or location and easily share draft edits for comments or approval. The Frame.io subscription included with Creative Cloud...

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Ariel Shapiro Joins The Verge as Lead Reporter for Hot Pod

Ariel Shapiro

The Verge today announced Ariel Shapiro is joining the site as the lead reporter for Hot Pod, the preeminent publication covering the podcasting industry. Beginning her role on April 25th, Shapiro will write Hot Pod’s paid and free newsletters. Continuing The Verge’s investment in Hot Pod, she’ll be joined by an additional reporter in the coming months.

“We are so excited to have hired the perfect reporter for Hot Pod in Ariel,” says Helen Havlak, publisher of The Verge. “She’ll continue to deliver the breaking news, sharp analysis, and industry scoops that our free and paid subscribers have come to know and love. And we have big plans for Hot Pod this year — another hire, a refreshed look, and more in-person events.”

Prior to joining...

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Therabody launches a massage gun for your face

Therabody has a new massage gun for your face. It also does LED light therapy. | Image: Therabody

Skincare gadgets are all over Instagram and TikTok, and now the company behind the Theragun body massage gun wants in on the action. Today, Therabody announced it’s launching the TheraFace Pro — a facial massage gun that can also deliver microcurrent and light therapy with interchangeable magnetic attachments.

According to Therabody’s press release, the $399 TheraFace Pro was born out of customers sharing anecdotal stories of using Theragun devices on their faces. For the record, the company emphasized it does not recommend that particular use case for its devices. However, given the demand, Therabody says it then tasked its engineering and product team to address facial muscle tension, headaches, and jaw soreness.

Like the Theragun, the...

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The Lectric XP Lite folding e-bike costs just $799

The Lectric XP Lite comes in four colors and ships in 4 to 5 weeks. | Image: Lectric

Lectric, the US-based maker of budget electric bikes, has a new foldable that costs just $799, before taxes. That’s incredibly inexpensive at a time when transportation costs, combined with chip and component shortages, are driving up prices across the e-bike industry. Better yet, it’s apparently not junk.

Electrek’s Micah Toll, who’s ridden more US e-bikes than anyone I know, had the chance to ride the new Lectric XP Lite ahead of production. He says it’s “the #1 electric bike I will recommend to anyone shopping on a tight budget.” High praise.

The Lectric XP Lite iterates on the company’s XP and XP 2.0 models, only it’s now lighter (but not light at 53 pounds / 24kg with battery) and more compact, while also being more maneuverable...

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The Biden administration gives a green light to a fuel that could be even dirtier than regular gas

A gas pump is seen situated while pumping gas at a Shell gas station on April 01, 2022 in Houston, Texas.  | Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In an attempt to lower high gas prices, the Biden administration wants to turn to a fuel that’s potentially even dirtier than regular gasoline, the White House announced today. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue an emergency waiver that will allow the year-round sale of a fuel called E15, which is banned in most of the US during summer months when smog is a bigger risk.

E15 is a gasoline blend with up to 15 percent ethanol — a fuel made with plant material. The move is supposed to save Americans money while reducing dependence on foreign oil supplies because ethanol can be made with domestically-grown corn.

The move is supposed to save Americans money while reducing dependence on foreign oil

Most gasolinein the US is...

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Plex will end podcast support on Friday

Plex podcast support is ending. | Screengrab: Thomas Ricker / The Verge

On Friday, Plex will end support for podcasts, a feature it added in 2018. Plex is also removing the dedicated Web Shows section, but most of this content will still appear elsewhere in the app.

Plex doesn’t explicitly say why it’s ending podcast support, only that it’s no longer worth the company’s time. “As part of our ongoing effort to make sure we’re spending our time and energy in ways that best serve our awesome user community, we’ve made the decision to end support for Podcasts and Web Shows within Plex,” reads the announcement from the company. “We recognize this decision will impact several of you greatly, and we apologize for the inconvenience it will cause. You can continue to access these features within Plex until Friday,...

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Deliveries package tracking app loses FedEx access, says blame shipping companies

The app will no longer support tracking FedEx packages. | Image: Junecloud

The developer of Deliveries, a package tracking app that’s listed as an App Store editor’s choice and that some people here at The Verge rely on, has said that they’re “no longer able to maintain the same service” thanks to a lack of support from delivery companies. In an April 5th post written by developer Mike Piontek, the company says that “Deliveries relies on many different shipping companies, and without their help it’s not possible for the app to continue working the way you expect.”

The impetus for the post seems to be the fact that Deliveries is no longer able to track FedEx packages. While the app can usually let users track their package’s progress on a map, or receive notifications if something changes, the app currently...

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Here’s where you can buy a Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch OLED model boasts a vibrant, 7-inch display and a slate of minor upgrades. | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch was, like most consoles during the pandemic, once in short supply. Thankfully, retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart now routinely stock the Nintendo Switch, Switch Lite, and upgraded Switch OLED model in multiple color configurations, giving those who have continually struck out ample opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s incredibly popular handheld console.

If you’re not sure where you can pick up a Switch as of right now, we’ve vetted stock and rounded up where you can purchase the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite, and the Nintendo Switch OLED model both online and in-store. We’ve also scoured the web for any bundle that seems like a good deal, as well as discounts that might be applicable.

Where can...

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