The Verge
OnePlus 10 Pro review: settling in
It’s a likable device, but OnePlus still has some work to do
The VergeThe VergeIn his first Amazon shareholder letter, CEO Andy Jassy talks AWS, Prime, and labor
Jassy calls 2021 a “crazy and unpredictable year.” | Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Andy Jassy, who became Amazon’s CEO last year, has released his first annual letter to shareholders, which acts as a recap of how the company did in 2021 and outlines its goals for the future. The letter starts by extolling Amazon Web Services’ role in helping businesses during the pandemic — familiar subject matter for Jassy, whose previous role was as CEO of AWS. The letter also discusses familiar subjects like supply chain disruption, labor shortages, and Amazon’s focus on getting out more Prime packages faster.
Labor is a hot-button topic for Amazon right now. Beyond the difficulty of getting new employees, Jassy does address reports that the company has significantly higher injury rates than the industry average for warehouse...
The VergeHere are the best Amazon Echo deals right now
The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Amazon’s current Echo lineup offers a broad selection of smart speakers and displays that can fit just about anywhere in your home. Whether you want to place a voice assistant in your living room, replace the bulletin board in your office, or pick up a touchscreen-enabled device to showcase recipes in the kitchen, there's an Echo device for just about every occasion and use case.
Regardless of why you might want one, there’s always a way to save on an Echo device, from the last-gen Echo Dot to Amazon’s latest Echo Show 10. Even when they’re selling for full price, Amazon offers a 25 percent discount when you trade in select devices, meaning there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are on sale.
Below, we’ve...
The VergeI tried to duo with ‘Let me solo her’ in Elden Ring, and it didn’t go well
Malenia, Goddess of Rot (AKA one of the toughest bosses in the game)
Before I reached Malenia, a notoriously tough boss in Elden Ring, I had already heard a bit about the player named “Let me solo her,” who — as their name implies — is fully capable of taking on the two-phased foe by themselves. I was surprised to find their summon sign last night and even more delighted that they hadn’t been quickly summoned by numerous other players who’d read all about their skills (they wear next to nothing for protection, and they wield two katanas). They arrived in my game, and it was like seeing a celebrity. They even waved. I used my prattling pate and said, “You’re beautiful.” We walked into the battlefield together.
I was so excited to have “Let me solo her” in my game that I, in fact, did not let them solo her....
The VergeGoogle’s handy scrollable Snapshot of your day has disappeared from phones
Take a good look — it’s the last you’ll see of Snapshot.
Google’s Snapshot feature, which was introduced back in 2018 and occasionally (but not often) updated, is finally gone, according to an article at 9to5Google.
The Android feature, which could be accessed via a small and easily overlooked inbox icon on the Assistant screen, would show all your current information via a scrollable interface — things such as appointments, weather forecasts, traffic, and reminders. It was a small but useful feature — unfortunately, though, it was also not easy to find unless you knew where to look. As a result, it’s probable that not many Android users actually knew about it.
So it was almost inevitable that Google would eventually announce that Snapshot was going to be sunsetted — which it did when it...
The VergeSegway’s Ninebot Engine Speaker adds engine noises to your electric ride
Image: Segway
Segway has a new speaker accessory attachment for its electric scooters that makes V8 engine noises. The Ninebot Engine Speaker is a Bluetooth wireless speaker that straps onto a number of Segway’s personal transport vehicles. It can not only get rowdy with your favorite beats but also cause a ruckus like there’s a neighborhood drag race (via_Gizmodo_).
The Engine Speaker comes with a mounting system that straps onto Segway / Ninebot electric scooters, GoKarts, electric bikes, and even its self-balancing vehicle offerings. The speaker then slides right on, looking like an add-on battery pack for the scooter. But really, the speaker runs on its own 2,200mAh battery that can play for up to 23 hours and charges via USB-C. The speaker is also...
The VergeThe Twitter board is reportedly not interested in Elon’s takeover offer
Twitter’s board may have its work cut out for it. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Twitter’s board could be in for a fight with the company’s single largest shareholder. According to a report from The Information, it views Elon Musk’s offer to take over the company as unwelcome. This follows Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $43 billion earlier today. The company hasn’t publicly indicated how it’s planning on responding to Musk’s offer, but it’s reportedly planning to address it at an all-hands meeting at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today.
Twitter’s board is also reportedly considering using a “poison pill” strategy to make it more difficult for Elon to acquire a large stake in the company and avoid a hostile takeover. Poison pills can, as one example, flood the market with shares once an investor acquires stock above a...
The VergeOverwatch 2’s new hero Sojourn was a long time coming
Blizzard Entertainment
An exclusive chat with developers about Overwatch’s first Black female hero
The VergeYouTube will exclusively stream 15 MLB games this season
Photo by Brandon Wade/Getty Images
YouTube and Major League Baseball have renewed their streaming pact for the 2022 season, which will result in 15 regular-season games being shown exclusively on the platform. The first will be streamed on May 15th between the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies.
The news continues MLB’s effort to reach viewers across many different streaming services. Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening over the current season:
- Apple TV Plushas Friday Night Baseball, a weekly doubleheader available in eight countries exclusively on Apple TV Plus throughout the regular season.
- Peacock will stream 18 early Sunday games beginning May 8th, with all but one exclusive to the platform.
- Amazon Prime Video is exclusively streaming 21 New York...
The VergeThe OnePlus 10 Pro now works on Verizon 5G
The OnePlus 10 Pro now works on two out of three major US carriers’ 5G networks. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
The OnePlus 10 Pro officially went on sale today in the US today, and as expected, the phone has received certification to work on Verizon’s 5G network just in time for new owners. That 5G support includes C-band Ultra Wideband — that good mid-band 5G spectrum that’s coming online over the next few years — but not the super-fast millimeter wave (mmWave). That’s no great loss; mmWave is impressively fast but has a very short range and is likewise hard to find. Realistically, C-band strikes the right balance between speed and signal range, so it’s great to see it supported on the 10 Pro.
The OnePlus 10 Pro’s availability in North America and Europe was announced at the end of March. At that time, OnePlus said it was working with Verizon on...
The VergeASUS launches that Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition with the mini OLED screen on its lid
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
ASUS has officially launched the Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, and it’s available for $1,999.99 on Newegg and Amazon. The laptop comes with a 12th Gen Intel i9-12900H plus integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics — but its futuristic design is what really makes it stand out.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The company first previewed the Space Edition Zenbook at CES in January, and my colleague Monica Chin got to experience the spacey-ness firsthand. One of the most noticeable things about this laptop is the mini 3.5-inch display on the lid. It’s there to display notifications, animations, and customizable other text, such as the date and time.
You’ll also see various engravings across the laptop’s entire...
The VergeElon Musk says the SEC’s investigations into Tesla are ‘like having a gun to your child’s head’
Elon Musk took the Securities and Exchange Commission to task during a TED appearance Thursday, claiming he had the funding to take Tesla private despite the agency concluding that he had not.
“I should say actually... with Tesla back in the day, funding was actually secured,” Musk said. “I want to be clear about that.”
Musk has been trading blows with the SEC over the agency’s order that his tweets be reviewed by a lawyer before being publicly posted. The order is based on Musk’s decision to send the now-notorious “funding secured” tweet on August 7th, 2018, in which he claimed to have the finances to take Tesla private at $420 a share. (Tesla has been a publicly traded company since 2010.)
“funding was actually secured”
The SEC...
The VergeHow to customize your Apple Watch workouts
Customizing the Workout app on your Apple Watch can help you close your rings more easily. | Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
While you can use any compatible fitness app to track activities on the Apple Watch, the native Workout app gives you a ton of options. That said, the default settings may not always be to your liking. This is especially true if you’re following a training plan, have specific targets you’d like to hit, or want to choose which metrics you see on screen during your activity.
The good news is that you can totally customize the Workout app to better suit your needs. Here’s how to get started.
Setting a workout goal
Image: Apple
This is what the Time goal looks like for a hiking activity.
Starting an activity in the Workout app will default to an “open goal” session, which means you don’t have any particular goal...
The VergeWhat else could Elon Musk buy for $43 billion?
Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge
This morning, Elon Musk, the current wealthiest man in the world, offered to buy Twitter outright for $43 billion and take the company private. That is quite a lot of money to spend on a company that allows users to post their thoughts in 280-character increments.
The shocking move had many at The Verge wondering: what else could Musk spend $43 billion on? We thought we could provide some options in case Twitter’s board decides they don’t like the offer.
Return to the Moon
Elon’s biggest dream is to start a settlement on Mars, but first, he is eager to construct a base on the surface of the Moon. “If you want to get the public real fired up, we got to have a base on the Moon,” Musk said in 2017. “That’d be pretty cool.” He’s reiterated...
The VergeElon Musk’s new troll is buying Twitter — will it work?
Elon Musk demonstrates his enthusiasm at a “Cyber Rodeo” | Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images
Epic shitposter representation
The VergeBuying Twitter ‘is not a way to make money,’ says Musk in TED interview
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Speaking for the first time since news broke of his attempts to buy all of Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his offer had been made for the public good.
Musk emphasized that he was motivated by the public interest value of the platform. “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square. So it’s just really important that people have the both the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,” Musk said.
Musk was speaking at Ted 2022 conference in Vancouver; the interview was opened up for live streaming earlier this morning.
Asked why he wanted to buy Twitter, Musk opened with a joke. “I don’t know,” Musk told a live audience. “A little bird tweeted in my ear, or something.”
To protect...
The VergeCyberpunk 2077’s first expansion is coming in 2023
Image: CD Projekt Red
Now that Cyberpunk 2077 is in a somewhat more stable position, developer CD Projekt Red is talking more about the future — including the game’s first expansion. Today, the studio revealed that the previously announced expansion for the game will be launching in 2023. Unfortunately, that’s all we know; there’s no information on what to expect from the first major content update for the game. CD Projekt Red says to expect more details “later this year.”
The news was revealed as the studio outlined its upcoming production plan, which includes continued work on Cyberpunk, development of the next Witcher game (which kicks off “a new saga for the franchise” and is built in Unreal Engine 5), and the next-gen update for The Witcher 3, which is...
The VergeYouTube Shorts now allows creators to splice in long-form videos
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Creators making YouTube Shorts will now be able to use video clips from billions of YouTube videos in new Shorts, the company announced today in a blog post.
In YouTube Shorts — the company’s TikTok clone — creators were previously only able to splice short audio clips from other videos on the platform. This most recent update will allow users to clip 1- to 5-second segments from eligible long-form videos and Shorts to use in new short-form content.
When a new Short is created with a clip from an existing video, the original video is credited via a link. The library of videos available for remixing is vast, though creators have the option to exclude their content from being remixed, and videos with a copyright claim or...
The VergeWhatsApp is getting emoji reactions
You can react to messages with a thumbs up, heart, laughing face, shocked face, crying face, and prayer hands. | Image: WhatsApp
WhatsApp announced on Thursday that it’s adding emoji reactions to its chat app, letting you express your feelings toward a message without having to send an individual emoji as a message. Although the company announced reactions alongside its new communities feature, Meta spokesperson Joshua Breckman told The Verge that reactions will be available on all chats when they launch, which will be “soon.”
The feature will be relatively limited to start, only letting you react with six emoji (though, in my opinion, WhatsApp has picked most of the important ones). However, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said that it will support “all emojis and skin-tones” in the future.
We’re excited to announce that reactions are coming to WhatsApp...
The VergeApple successfully pushes suppliers to use more renewable energy
SunPower Station in Hongyuan county, Sichuan province, southwest China on 24th June 2015. Sunpower stations at Hongyuan and Zoigê County are the first of Apple major solar projects in China. | Photo by Jie Zhao/Corbis via Getty Images
Apple suppliers have more than doubled their clean power over the past year, the company announced today. The renewable energy projects they support prevented 13.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution from entering the atmosphere. That has almost the same impact as taking 3 million cars off the road for a year, the company says.
It’s part of Apple’s efforts to curb climate change by becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. The climate pledge the company made in 2020 set it on a path to reduce greenhouse emissions by 75 percent this decade and find ways to draw down its remaining climate pollution.
Apple has gone a step farther by pledging to slash emissions from its supply chains
Unlike other companies that have only...
The VergePeloton cuts prices of exercise equipment while raising subscription costs
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Peloton announced in a press release today (via CNBC) that it plans to raise the cost of its all-access subscription for live and on-demand classes from $39 / month to $44 / month starting on June 1st, 2022. However, new, lower prices for Peloton’s exercise equipment are set to go into effect at 6PM ET today, according to CNBC — the Bike will cost $1,445 (including a $250 shipping fee) instead of $1,745, the Bike Plus will go for $1,995 instead of $2,495, while the Tread will drop to $2,695 (including a $350 shipping fee) from $2,845.
The change only applies to customers in the US and Canada and doesn’t affect the $12.99 / month app-only membership. As noted by CNBC, the subscription price in Canada will go from $49 CAD to $55 CAD, but...
The VergeYou can watch Elon Musk’s live TED Talk for free, right now
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk just blew up the entire tech news cycle this morning with his offer to buy 100 percent of Twitter at $54.20 in cash, days after quietly becoming one of its largest shareholders and then rejecting a previously accepted seat on the board. And amazingly, he’s _also_giving a TED Talk this morning, right now, which the TED organizers have graciously decided to make public.
This is the link to watch the newly public livestream of Elon Musk.
It lets you rewind, too, so you should be able to scrub back if you’re seeing this late.
We have no idea what he will say. But now, you can watch for free.
The VergeJudge slashes Tesla’s payout to Black employee who alleged rampant racism
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A judge reduced the amount of money that Tesla will have to pay to a Black former employee who successfully sued the company for racial harassment and discrimination.
Last October, a jury awarded Owen Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator at Tesla for nine months in 2015–2016, $137 million in damages after he accused the company of ignoring racial abuse and discrimination.
On Wednesday, US District Judge William Orrick issued a ruling that said that Tesla was liable to Diaz but that the amount awarded to Diaz by jurors was “excessive.” Orrick slashed it by nearly 90 percent to $15 million while also rejecting Tesla’s motion to reduce the award amount to $300,000.
The judge said the amount awarded to Diaz by jurors was “excessive”
I...
The VergeRon Gilbert’s Monkey Island announcement was a joke ‘18 years in the making’
A mysterious and dangerous location on Monkey Island. | Image: Terrible Toybox
Read on for an interview and the first screenshots from Return to Monkey Island
The VergeWhatsApp’s new Communities tab creates a way for group admins to message thousands
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Starting this week, the concept of group messaging on WhatsApp is significantly expanding.
WhatsApp has primarily been about messaging with people you know since before Facebook bought it in 2014. The experience is intentionally intimate: you need someone’s phone number to add them, and group chats are capped at 256 participants.
Now, a new tab, first rolling out to a small, select number of groups, will let thousands participate in a Community that hosts multiple sub-group chats. The idea is that various organizations, from a school to a business whose employees communicate on WhatsApp, can more easily organize discussions and have their admins message everyone across different groups.
If you ask WhatsApp, Communities is a response to...
The VergeSome must-play Nintendo Switch games are $20 off
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
If you’re a newcomer to the Nintendo Switch, or perhaps you’re buying for someone who needs a boost to their game library, it’s always wise to snag the console’s best games when they go on sale, as they rarely do. Best Buy is listing several games that I consider to be must-play experiences for $20 off — both in physical and digital formats. Other retailers, like Amazon and Walmart, are honoring the price cuts, too. Better yet, there’s a range of games included in this sale, suiting people who want a shooter, a turn-based strategy game, or a good ol’ 3D Mario platformer.
Super Mario Odyssey is an inviting and delightful take on the traditional 3D Mario game, giving Mario a throwable cap to vastly extend his move set and to possess...
The VergePerformance art is horror in Crimes of the Future’s first trailer
Though director David Cronenberg is capable of inhabiting a number of artistic modes as a storyteller, his deft command of body horrors like Neon’s upcoming Crimes of the Future is what he’ll always be known for, and with good reason. Hard as it’s been to believe some of the early buzz about Crimes of the Future being a controversial feature that’s going to polarize audiences, the movie’s first teaser trailer and some new details suggest that the hype might be warranted.
_Crimes of the Future_tells the story of Caprice (Léa Seydoux) and her partner Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), a performance artist who’s made a name for himself with his avant-garde projects like his latest: a showcase of his organs going through a metamorphosis. While...
The VergeHow to deactivate your Twitter account
There’s no questioning the benefits of Twitter. It’s a convenient way to get your memes, world news, and pop culture hot takes all in one place.
But being an active Twitter user requires sifting through a daily deluge of toxic characters, including QAnon, white supremacists, bots, deepfakes, and more (although you can’t find Donald Trump there anymore). Plus, there’s no denying the stress and anxiety that the fast pace of Twitter’s news cycle and the strain of constantly debating reply guys can bring.
Hear me out on this: you don’t actually have to use Twitter. I know it might seem like everyone else is using it, but you can be the change you want to see in the world. You can just delete your account.
Don’t worry: it doesn’t have to...
The VergeDavid Pierce returns to The Verge to join the cast of The Vergecast
David Pierce
The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network today announced that David Pierce is returning to The Verge as editor-at-large to join the cast of the site’s namesake podcast The Vergecast_._Pierce begins his role on April 18th, appearing on _The Vergecast_for the first time since he left The Verge in 2015 on the show’s April 22nd episode.
Pierce will co-host _The Vergecast,_which each week unpacks the tech news of the week. This marks a homecoming for Pierce, who was previously deputy editor at The Verge, and a frequent guest on _The Vergecast_during his original stint at the site. In addition to his hosting duties, Pierce will also write and report for The Verge, focusing on major tech companies and consumer technology.
“David was one of our...
The VergeCoachella is coming to Fortnite
Fortnite is adding Coachella to its long, long (long) list of in-game collaborations. The annual music festival announced today that it’s partnering with developer Epic Games to release Coachella-themed skins and in-game features for its first foray into gaming.
These days, Coachella is equally known for its performances as it is for the outfits attendees wear — so it’s fitting that both are coming to Fortnite. Coachella will release two series of skins to coincide with weekends one and two of the music festival, beginning April 14th and April 22nd. The outfits, inspired by the Coachella style, react to music playing in the game. The first group of items goes on sale in the Fortnite shop at 8PM ET tonight.
In addition to the skins,...