T-Mobile will now let you test drive its home internet for free

T-Mobile is opening up its try-before-you-buy program to home internet. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

T-Mobile launched its 5G home internet service around this time last year with the promise of a low $50 monthly rate, easy setup, and data speeds at least as good as traditional broadband internet. In reality, it’s kind of a mixed bag. This year, it’s hoping to tempt more people away from traditional internet providers with some new offers, starting with a 15-day trial period for the service. Customers who cancel within 15 days of starting the service will get a refund as long as they return the provided internet gateway.

The company is also offering to cover early termination fees if you leave your current internet provider for T-Mobile — up to $500 by way of a prepaid Mastercard. Home internet subscribers are also now included in the...

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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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Apple’s $159 Thunderbolt 4 cable is here, and it’s still your only extra-long option

The day has arrived: you can now spend $159 on a USB cable and actually feel somewhat justified! That’s because Apple’s three-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro Cable isn’t just any ol’ cord — it’s still the only Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C / USB 4 cable on the market at anywhere near its length.

Want a cable that can transmit 40 gigabits per second of Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 data, up to 8K video, and 100W of USB-C PD power to a big MacBook Pro nearly 10 feet away? It’s your only game in town. Every other company that sells a Thunderbolt 4 cable — including Belkin, CalDigit, CableMatters, CTG, OWC, and Plugable — tops out at two meters (6.6 feet). Which makes those other cables roughly just half a foot longer than Apple’s previous 1.8-meter Thunderbolt...

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Clippy is in Halo Infinite

The smugness remains.

Clippy, the beloved(?) paperclip-shaped assistant for Microsoft Office, has made an appearance in Halo Infinite as a series of unlockable items.IGN points out that it’s not quite clear yet how to unlock the decals, but it seems likely that equipping them won’t suddenly cover your screen in a barrage of “helpful” hints and tricks (which is unfortunate for total scrubs like me).

The tweet that brought the character’s appearance to our attention shows both a Clippy nameplate and gun charm, but the character shows up in a few other places, too: you can spray paint them onto the hood of your Warthog or your Spartan’s chest. Interestingly, in most places the character shows up as “Clipster.” Clippy has also gone by Clippit, but “Clipster”...

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TikTok will start to share ad revenue with creators

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is opening up a new way for creators to make money. The company plans to start sharing a cut of revenue with top creators when their videos run alongside certain ads. The program mirrors how YouTube pays out creators, and it could lead to more significant payouts from the platform, which has yet to offer a substantial way for creators to make money.

The new program, called TikTok Pulse, allows ads to be specifically run alongside “the top 4% of all videos on TikTok,” the company wrote in a blog post today. Creators and publishers with at least 100,000 followers are eligible to receive a cut of revenue when their videos are included. But for now, TikTok isn’t saying what that cut is or how many creators it’ll accept into the...

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Slashing prices on Star Wars gear for May the 4th

Prices on games and gear that won’t cost you an arm... we promise.

The 4th of May is upon us, which means that retailers everywhere are offering discounts on all of their Star Wars-inspired wares. Everything from rugs to pet toys is available for less than MSRP today. However, we’re focusing mainly on games and tech from the Star Wars galaxy. Many of these sales last only for today, so you’ll have to move fast to take advantage of these savings.

A galaxy of games

You can find nearly every game from the Star Wars library available for a discount today, whether you play on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch. You can even find classics like Star Wars Episode 1 Racer and Star Wars Republic Commando, but here are a few contemporary titles that we think deserve special attention.

Mobile Accessories

Both...

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Exclusive: Sonos is about to introduce its own voice assistant

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sonos is preparing to introduce its own voice assistant service within the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The voice functionality will let customers play and control music on Sonos’ whole-home audio platform.

It will be part of a forthcoming software update set to arrive first to customers in the US on June 1st, with an international rollout to follow. Sonos Voice will serve as an alternative to Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which Sonos already supports on its smart speakers and voice-enabled soundbars. All Sonos products that run the company’s S2 software will support Sonos Voice Control.

Sonos has recently posted job openings related to the “Sonos Voice Experience,” with the company saying...

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Moon Knight ends strong by getting straight to the action

Image: Marvel Studios

Marvel’s Moon Knight has taken a meandering path to its big, boisterous finale. Over the first five episodes, there have been detours into the afterlife, the fractured psyche of a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder, and locales ranging from the great pyramids of Egypt to a museum gift shop in London. It’s been about as confusing and disjointed as you’d expect for a show about a mercenary possessed by the spirit of an ancient, vengeful god. After all, the show has had to explain a lot: the history behind the multiple personalities; the motivations of two competing, powerful deities; the machinations of a cult-like militant organization. There’s even a backstory for a seemingly innocuous catchphrase.

If you stuck it out,...

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Leviton’s new smart light switches don’t require a neutral wire

Leviton’s latest smart switch doesn’t require a neutral wire.

If you are in an older home and want to upgrade to smart switches, I have good news. This week, lighting control company Leviton released two smart switches that don’t require a neutral wire. The Decora Smart No-Neutral Dimmer ($49.99) and Switch ($44.99) both work with the plug-in Decora Smart Wi-Fi Bridge ($19.99). Both are compatible with Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa for smart home and voice control, as is Leviton's entire Decora Smart Wi-Fi line.

Most smart light switches require a neutral wire to work. As they weren’t standard in most home wiring until the mid-1980s many houses have very limited options for upgrading to smart switches. While there are choices — the popular one being Lutron Caseta — the selection is...

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Second Apple Store officially files petition to hold union election

Employees at Apple’s Towson Town Center may soon be voting on whether to unionize. | Image: Apple

Employees at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland have officially filed a request to hold a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to Dave DiMaria, an organizer with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW). The store is the second to do so. In April, employees from an Apple Store in Atlanta filed their own petition to hold a union election, which Apple recently agreed to. That vote is set to start on June 2nd.

On Tuesday, organizers at the store announced their intentions to unionize with the IAMAW. The group of employees calls itself AppleCORE, with CORE standing for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees. According to a report from The Washington Post, they...

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Stack Overflow’s copy / paste keyboard now comes with RGB

Now with hot-swappable switches and RGB. | Image: Drop

Last year, Stack Overflow collaborated with mechanical keyboard manufacturer Drop on The Key, a bizarre miniature 3-key keyboard designed to copy and paste text. It did exactly that, but with a level of polish that was surprising for a $29 novelty that started out life as an April Fools’ gag. Now Drop, Stack Overflow, and designer Cassidy Williams are back with a follow-up — The Key V2.

The Key V2 is a very similar product to its predecessor. It costs $29, it has just three keys that are dedicated to Ctrl, C, and V out of the box, and you can still customize these buttons to do pretty much anything else. But The Key V2 is also RGB enabled this time around, so you can have it light up like a Christmas tree along with your other gamer...

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The Verge Partners with Vox Media Studios and 21 Laps on New Netflix Series

• Netflix is set to release The Future Of..., a new documentary series produced by The Verge, 21 Laps Entertainment (Unsolved Mysteries), and Vox Media Studios (Explained). The series will be released globally in two batches - with the first six episodes on Tuesday, June 21, and the remaining six episodes on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
• Logline: What if we could look into the future to see how every aspect of our daily lives – from raising pets and house plants to what we eat and how we date – will be impacted by technology? We can, and should, expect more from the future than the dystopia promised in current science fiction. The Future Of… will reveal surprising and personal predictions about the rest of our lives — and the lives of...

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SoundCloud buys AI that claims to predict hit songs

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

SoundCloud has acquired audio AI company Musiio, which makes tech that can “listen” to new music and purportedly identify the hits. The acquisition, announced Tuesday, is meant to help SoundCloud sort through its immense library of amateur music and will “become core to SoundCloud’s discovery experience,” the company said in a statement.

As DIY music distribution platforms like SoundCloud lower the barrier to entry for amateur artists and flood platforms with new music, identifying and promoting the good stuff has become even more challenging. SoundCloud claims that Musiio’s tools can quickly sift through countless hours of (mostly bad) music and pick out the songs that have patterns and characteristics that correlate with chart-toppers.

...

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ESPN Plus streams its first exclusive NFL game on October 30th

Trevor Lawrence at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 17, 2021, in London, England. | Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

Last year when the NFL signed new broadcasting deals, they included a healthy package of digital distribution streaming rights for Disney (ESPN Plus), Amazon, NBCUniversal (Peacock), Fox (Tubi), and CBS (Paramount Plus). The deal between the NFL and Disney included one international game that will be exclusive to ESPN Plus streaming, starting with the 2022 season, and now they’ve announced that game will be the Broncos vs. Jaguars matchup in London on October 30th.

The ESPN Plus exclusive game is going to be an annual occurrence through 2033, but since it’s restricted to an international match, a 9AM game with the Jaguars playing looks like less of a draw for Disney’s streaming bundle than anything Star Wars or Marvel-related.

Just...

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Windows 11 basics: how to uninstall apps

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

There are several reasons you might want to uninstall applications and / or programs from your Windows 11 PC. You may be trying to free up space, or you no longer use that application, or the program came with your PC and you don’t really need it.

There are actually several different ways to uninstall an app depending on what you’re trying to remove. If one method doesn’t work, try another.

Be warned: not every app can be uninstalled using the methods described here. Some built-in apps, such as Microsoft Edge, can only be uninstalled using the command prompt. Tom’s Hardware has some directions on how to do that, but since there is some debate as to whether that would create more problems with the OS than it’s worth, you may want to...

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GitHub will require all code contributors to use two-factor authentication

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

GitHub, the code hosting platform used by tens of millions of software developers around the world, announced today that all users who upload code to the site will need to enable one or more forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) by the end of 2023 in order to continue using the platform.

The new policy was announced Wednesday in a blog post by GitHub’s chief security officer (CSO) Mike Hanley, which highlighted the Microsoft-owned platform’s role in protecting the integrity of the software development process in the face of threats created by bad actors taking over developers’ accounts.

“The software supply chain starts with the developer,” Hanley wrote. “Developer accounts are frequent targets for social engineering and account...

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Everything Everywhere All At Once is an immigrant horror story about tax season

Everything Everywhere All At Once. | Image: A24

Even a sci-fi tale about the multiverse can’t escape taxes

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Apple claims startup hired employees to steal chip secrets

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple has sued a startup for allegedly stealing trade secrets to build a competing chip lineup. The company filed a lawsuit late last week in California, naming the Santa Clara-based Rivos as well as two former Apple employees, Bhasi Kaithamana and Ricky Wen. It claims the company mounted a “coordinated campaign” to attract Apple employees and encourage them to copy confidential documents before leaving, violating their contract with Apple.

The case pits one of the biggest tech companies against a much newer rival, which Apple claims gained an unfair advantage by poaching dozens of its employees to get access to internal files.

Rivos was founded in May 2021 and has operated for months in stealth mode, hiring employees from several major...

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Garmin Vivosmart 5 review: fifth time’s the charm

The physical button makes a huge difference

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Buying Wordle brought ‘tens of millions of new users’ to The New York Times

Screenshot: Wordle

Buying the hit puzzle game Wordle was apparently a good bit of business for The New York Times. The company announced its quarterly earnings on Wednesday and credited Wordle for a huge jump in new subscribers. “Wordle brought an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times,” Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said in an earnings release, “many of whom stayed to play other games” and drove the company’s best gaming-related quarter ever.

The Times acquired Wordle from creator Josh Wardle back in January, and said it paid “an undisclosed price in the low seven figures” to do so. Now it’s in the Times’ collection of games, which also includes two daily crosswords, Spelling Bee, Sudoku, Vertex, Letter Boxed, and Tiles. (By the way,...

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A visit to the human factory

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

How to build the world’s most realistic robot

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Mental health app privacy language opens up holes for user data

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In the world of mental health apps, privacy scandals have become almost routine. Every few months, reporting or research uncovers unscrupulous-seeming data sharing practices at apps like the Crisis Text Line, Talkspace, BetterHelp, and others: people gave information to those apps in hopes of feeling better, then it turns out their data was used in ways that help companies make money (and don’t help them).

It seems to me like a twisted game of whack-a-mole. When under scrutiny, the apps often change or adjust their policies — and then new apps or problems pop up. It isn’t just me: Mozilla researchers said this week that mental health apps have some of the worst privacy protections of any app category.

Watching the cycle over the past...

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Lenovo’s excellent Chromebook Duet has dropped below $200 for the first time

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is a budget-friendly 2-in-1 that’s selling for just $189 today. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

With graduation just around the corner, Best Buy’s current deal on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet — our favorite budget-friendly Chromebook — couldn’t have arrived at a better time. If you’re looking for a useful present that’s available for under $200, Best Buy is selling Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for just $189, more than $100 off the Chromebook’s typical retail price of $299.99.

That’s the best price we’ve seen on the Chromebook Duet, a 2-in-1 that impressed us with its long battery life and affordable price point. During our testing, we were able to use it for nearly 11 and a half hours on a single charge while we made Zoom calls and ran through a variety of tabs and apps, including Gmail, Slack, and...

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Obi-Wan Kenobi’s latest trailer shows him trying (and failing) to train Luke

Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. | Image: Disney

A second trailer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series has been released to celebrate Star Wars Day, May the 4th. In it, we see Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan trying to convince a reluctant Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) to let him train a young Luke Skywalker. “Like you trained his father?” Owen snaps back at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to premiere on the streaming service on Friday, May 27th and will run for six episodes.

The series is set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, while Obi-Wan is in hiding on Tatooine and keeping an eye on a young Luke Skywalker from afar. At this point in the Star Wars story, the Empire is now in control of the galaxy and all remaining Jedi are now being hunted down and killed by Vader’s...

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Amazon-owned PillPack settles DOJ insulin lawsuit for $6 million

Amazon-owned online pharmacy company PillPack agreed to pay nearly $6 million after admitting to giving patients more insulin at a time than Medicare and Medicaid allow, according to a settlement announced by the Department of Justice on Monday.

Government healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid put limits on the supply of drugs they’ll cover at one time, which restricts the amount of the drug a pharmacy can distribute to a patient. According to the settlement, PillPack would give patients a full box of insulin pens (which contains 300 units of insulin), an amount that exceeds the limits. It would then falsely report the supply of insulin given to patients in its reimbursement claims submitted to the health programs. Patients...

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Exclusive: Sonos’ next soundbar will be called the Sonos Ray

A 3D recreation of the upcoming Sonos soundbar. | 3D product render by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

The upcoming budget soundbar from Sonos will be marketed as the Sonos Ray, according to internal documents and people familiar with the company’s plans. Expected to cost around $249 and go on sale in a matter of weeks, the Ray will be the cheapest soundbar from Sonos yet and serve as an entry-level option beneath the pricier Beam and flagship Arc.

The Verge previously spilled the full details and design of the new device, which is model S36 and internally known by the codename Fury. The images included here are 3D recreations of genuine photos seen by The Verge.

To reach the lower price, Sonos has omitted features like built-in mics, Dolby Atmos, and HDMI connectivity; the Ray also has fewer speakers than the company’s existing...

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Why fossil fuel companies see green in Bitcoin mining projects

A Bitcoin mining site powered by otherwise lost gas from an oil well near Linden, Texas, on April 4th, 2022. | Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images

Of all the corporate climate hype floating around this spring, ExxonMobil’s secret project to cut down its pollution by mining Bitcoin has to rank up there as one of the strangest.

Exxon launched a pilot project in 2021 to mine Bitcoin in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, according to reporting by CNBC in March. The US’s biggest oil and gas company is also thinking about doing the same in Alaska and parts of Nigeria, Argentina, Guyana, and Germany, Bloomberg reported. And it’s not alone. Other oil companies, including ConocoPhillips in North Dakota, see the energy-hungry cryptocurrency as a way to offload some of their climate footprint and maybe make some cash in the process. The US has become the biggest hub for Bitcoin mining...

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Xbox mobile app will let you share game content as Snapchat-style Stories

The Stories interface in action. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is updating the Xbox mobile app on iOS and Android to let you share your game moments in the form of Snapchat-style Stories, the company has announced. Gameplay clips, screenshots, and achievements are all compatible with the new sharing format, which is accessible by tapping the “+” button next to your gamertag on the Xbox app’s home screen. Content will then be shown on your profile for 72 hours. There are also new network management features coming to Xbox.

Stories were all the rage a couple of years ago, with everyone from Instagram, to LinkedIn and Spotify imitating the format in their respective apps. Although the trend seems to have abated recently with the focus shifting to TikTok-style scrolling feeds, I can see how...

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Elon Musk suggests charging governments and corporations a ‘slight cost’ to use Twitter

Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter hasn’t been finalized yet, but the world’s richest man is keeping busy by kicking around ideas for potential changes to the platform. His latest suggestion? Charging corporations and governments to tweet.

“Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing,” tweeted Musk. “Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users.”

As is often the case with Musk, there’s no commitment to this plan: the guy’s just tweetin’. But it does fit in with what we’ve previously heard about Musk’s ideas for the platform. Reuters reported last month that, when pitching banks on his acquisition, Musk suggested he might...

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Tesla Model S with motorized tilting screen spotted in the wild

The refreshed Model S interior and large center display. | Image: Tesla

A Model S with a factory-equipped motorized, swiveling center screen has been spotted in the wild thanks to a video posted to Twitter by Larry Li. In it, Li can be seen tilting the display from center, to left, and then to right, with the tap of a button on the screen. Note that the motorized front trunk (aka, the “frunk”) seen in the video is an aftermarket modification.

A swiveling center screen represents a small quality-of-life improvement for Tesla owners. Rather than the display being static, and positioned so that both the driver and passengers can see it, it can be moved for optimum visibility by the driver when operating the vehicle, or by a passenger when parked, for example.

Tesla finally added screen swivel to the...

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