The new Eero Pro 6E mesh Wi-Fi router is already 15 percent off

Eero’s new mesh Wi-Fi router looks familiar but achieves higher speeds. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

It’s not every day that you get sizable discounts on products that just came out, but today is an exception. The new Eero Pro 6E mesh Wi-Fi router, which The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy just reviewed, is already on sale at Amazon for 15 percent off. It’s the new, top-of-the-line model from Eero, sporting a 6GHz band that eclipses gigabit speeds via Wi-Fi — at least in devices that support it. It’s also got Thread support for easier smart home integration with compatible products, and the signal from one unit can cover up to 2,000 square feet. These mesh routers also come in a two-pack to cover 4,000 square feet or a three-pack for big, multi-floored homes.

That lone Eero Pro 6E router normally costs $299, but Amazon has it...

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Eero’s top-of-the-line mesh Wi-Fi router is faster but flakier

The Eero Pro 6E is the company’s first 6GHz-capable router

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Amazon’s Outer Range brings the weird fiction mindset to Westerns

Josh Brolin in Outer Range. | Image: Richard Foreman/Amazon Prime Video

A show about cowboys, small town drama, and one big hole

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Microsoft teams up with VW to make HoloLens work in cars

HoloLens showing a driver an upcoming left turn. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has officially announced a new “moving platform” feature for the HoloLens 2, which is designed to let the augmented reality headset work in places like cars. It addresses a long-standing HoloLens issue of moving environments confusing the headset’s sensors. The enhancement was developed in collaboration with Volkswagen, which has been experimenting with using the headset as a heads-up display in its vehicles.

As Microsoft’s blog post explains, its augmented reality headset tracks movement using a combination of camera sensors and an inertial measurement unit (which typically includes accelerometers and gyroscopes). But in a car, the readings from these two sensors can conflict; the headset senses movement but sees a static...

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Blizzard is hoping Overwatch 2 leads to a superb OWL season 5

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Overwatch League commissioner Sean Miller shares his thoughts on what a new game will do for the League

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These features make the Meta Quest 2 even better

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Meta Quest 2 is one of those rare products that keeps getting better. Part of this has to do with the hardware, which has received several useful updates since we reviewed it in late 2020, including 120Hz refresh rate support for some games, Air Link to wirelessly connect to a gaming PC, and more. Better yet, Meta shows no signs of slowing down its cadence of updates.

But almost of equal importance to the Quest 2’s long-lasting success are the interesting ways that the VR community has modified aspects of the hardware or crafted its own software with the goal of going beyond what’s usually possible in an off-the-shelf Quest 2 VR headset.

In this video, I’m diving into a handful of those tips and tricks, both on a software and...

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Meta, TikTok and YouTube may finally have to start sharing data with researchers

Sen. Chris Coons, who led Wednesday’s hearing on tech transparency, during a previous hearing in March. | Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

On Wednesday, Congress was treated to the unfamiliar spectacle of highly intelligent people, talking with nuance, about platform regulation. The occasion was a hearing, titled “Platform Transparency: Understanding the Impact of Social Media,” and it served as a chance for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider the necessity of legislation that would require big tech platforms to make themselves available for study by qualified researchers and members of the public.

One such piece of legislation, the Platform Transparency and Accountability Act, was introduced in December by (an ever-so-slightly) bipartisan group of senators. One of those senators, Chris Coons of Delaware, led the Wednesday hearing; another, Sen. Amy...

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Elon Musk may be temporary CEO of Twitter after deal closes, report says

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk is expected to take on the CEO role at Twitter in a temporary capacity after his purchase of the company closes later this year, according to CNBC reporter David Faber. Faber says Musk detailed the plans in presentations to possible funders for the takeover.

Musk hasn’t publicly said what will happen to the company’s C-suite once the deal is complete, and current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal — who’s been in the role for just five months — has remained vague about his prospects of remaining on the job.

With Musk’s commitments to Tesla and SpaceX, where he’s also CEO, there had been speculation from big tech observers that he would have to hand off the top role at Twitter. Now, it sounds like that may happen — but not right away.

R...

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Elon Musk got $1 billion from Larry Ellison for his Twitter takeover

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk has secured $7.1 billion in new financing for his takeover of Twitter — which CNBC reports will include assuming the role of “temporary CEO” — with this round of funding coming from a group of sometimes high-profile outside investors. At the top of the list is Larry Ellison, with the co-founder and current CTO of Oracle committing $1 billion to the purchase.

Ellison has said that he is “very close friends” with Musk, and he was added to Tesla’s board in 2018. As one of the richest people alive — a superlative he shares with Musk — and an estimated net worth of over $100 billion, the investment is relatively small change for him. Back in 2012, Ellison bought nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai for around $500 million.

A...

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Leaked Sonos Ray marketing photos offer a better sense of the soundbar’s size

Image: SnoopyTech (Twitter)

After The Verge yesterday revealed the name of Sonos’ latest soundbar and a retailer accidentally posted images of the device, the leak floodgates have now seemingly opened. Twitter user SnoopyTech has shared a number of marketing shots of the Sonos Ray, offering a closer look at the upcoming product’s size and design.

The images showcase the Ray in both black and white and offer a higher-quality peek at the soundbar’s design. Similar to the Arc and Beam, the Ray has a ton of perforated holes cut into the plastic front grill.

Image: SnoopyTech (Twitter)

The Sonos Ray shares design traits with the more expensive Arc and Beam.

Around back is the connect button, power, optical, and ethernet — confirming The...

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How Samsung’s SmartThings is thinking about Matter and the future of the smart home

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mark Benson, the new head of SmartThings US, on why it’s best positioned for the arrival of Matter

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Apple, Google, and Microsoft will soon implement passwordless sign-in on all major platforms

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On May 5th — World Password Day — we might have come one step closer to passwords being a thing of the past.

In a joint effort, tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft announced Thursday morning that they have committed to building support for passwordless sign-in across all of the mobile, desktop, and browser platforms that they control in the coming year. Effectively, this means that passwordless authentication will come to all major device platforms in the not too distant future: Android and iOS mobile operating systems; Chrome, Edge, and Safari browsers; and the Windows and macOS desktop environments.

“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, senior...

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Nvidia’s GeForce Now 4K streaming hits Mac and PC, no longer exclusive to Shield TV

Image: Nvidia

Nvidia kicked Google’s butt last October with a huge upgrade to its GeForce Now cloud gaming service — but only those with the company’s Shield TV streaming gadgets could experience it in glorious 4K. Today, Nvidia is fixing that by adding 4K to its native apps for Mac and Windows PC, including a newer version for Macs with Apple’s M1 chips.

In addition, Nvidia’s expanding its high-refresh-rate 1080p 120Hz mode to Samsung’s flagship phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S22, S22 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 3, Z Flip 3, and also the OnePlus 9 Pro. Previously, it was only available on Samsung’s S21 models, the Note 20 and S20 FE, the ASUS ROG 5 Series and the Google Pixel 6 Pro.

4K is for 4K screens — mostly

Back to 4K: those new 4K60 streams are...

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AMD is finally putting its best CPU cores in Chromebooks with Ryzen 5000 C-Series

Believe it or not, there was no such thing as an AMD Chromebook until 2019. Also, the first ones were sluggish, and whi;e AMD’s second stab at Chromebooks was quite a bit better, they still containedrebranded CPUs whose Zen cores were years out of date. Today, AMD is putting a better foot forward — with the new Ryzen 5000 C-Series chips, including the “first 8-core high-performance x86 processor for Chromebooks.”

I mean, AMD’s still not putting its best foot forward, because these APUs will still sport last-gen AMD Vega graphics rather than the newest RDNA 2 stuff you’ll find in the company’s Ryzen 6000 chips (not to mention the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Steam Deck). And the new Ryzen 7 5825C, Ryzen 5 5625C, and Ryzen 3 5425C aren’t...

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Acer’s new Chromebook Spin 514 has faster AMD Ryzen processors and NVMe SSDs

The new Spin 514 features two upward-firing speakers. | Image: Acer

Acer is launching a new version of its Chromebook Spin 514 for 2022 with support for the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series processors. The 14-inch 2-in-1 laptop will launch in Q3 2022 with a $579.99 starting price, which is significantly higher than the 2021 model. But the price hike might be justified if you want a faster Chromebook. Acer says that these Zen 3 processors are “performance-oriented” with AMD Radeon graphics. Speedy PCIe 3.0 NVMe storage is also built into each configuration, which trounces the slower eMMC storage used in last year’s model.

The starting model of the Spin 514 has a 14-inch 1080p touchscreen, AMD’s Ryzen 3 5125C, 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB of NVMe SSD storage. Prices weren’t disclosed for...

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This is the premium Chromebook’s biggest test

Gaze upon it. | Image: HP

HP’s Dragonfly Chromebook is the most exciting Chromebook I’ve seen in a while. The device, which mixes high-end specs with premium hardware design, was announced at CES back in January. And now,HP has finally revealed the price of this thing: the consumer version of the Dragonfly Chromebook is expected to ship this summer, and it will cost — brace yourselves — $1,149.

Okay, so that’s not as bad as it could’ve been. The Enterprise model of the Dragonfly is listed with an MSRP of $2,165 as of this writing, which is the highest starting price I’ve ever heard of a Chromebook having. Still, $1,149 is... a lot.

For that high price,this Dragonfly device will include all kinds of high-end features. It will be the first Chromebook with Intel’s...

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Leak confirms Sony flagship headphone design, casts doubt on improved battery life

Apparent retail packaging for the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. | Image: u/Chez5160

Pictures of the apparent retail packaging for Sony’s upcoming flagship headphones, the WH-1000XM5, have leaked on Reddit, suggesting the successor to the excellent WH-1000XM4 could be just around the corner. The images appear to confirm the previously rumored design for the new headphones, which includes a thinner headband and redesigned connector with the left and right earcups.

Unfortunately, the new leak calls into question a previous report from TechnikNews, which claimed that the headphones would see improved battery life when used with active noise cancellation (ANC). The retail packaging says the headphones will have a battery life of 30 hours, 10 hours less than the 40 hours that was previously reported, and the same as what the...

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Watch a swarm of drones autonomously track a human through a dense forest

Scientists from China’s Zhejiang University have unveiled a drone swarm capable of navigating through a dense bamboo forest without human guidance.

The group of 10 palm-sized drones communicate with one another to stay in formation, sharing data collected by on-board depth-sensing cameras to map their surroundings. This method means that if the path in front of one drone is blocked, it can use information collected by its neighbors to plot a new route. The researchers note that this technique can also be used by the swarm to track a human walking through the same environment. If one drone loses sight of the target, others are able to pick up the trail.

In the future, write the scientists in a paper published in the journal Science...

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Lenovo’s new Yoga AIO 7 is a rotating second screen for your smartphone

Lenovo has refreshed the AIO 7, its 27-inch, 4K, all-in-one desktop PC with a screen that can rotate 90 degrees. The new AIO will not be sold in North America but will be available in “other select geographical markets.” Pricing has not been announced, but last year’s model started at $1,599.

New to this model is that owners can wirelessly cast their smartphone’s screen to the 27-inch rotation monitor. (Your phone must support DLNA, AirPlay, Miracast, or LElink.) The rotating form factor has gained recent popularity in part due to the growth of vertical video formats across social media, and this feature could perhaps be attractive to creators who edit video and photos in that space. It could also be a potentially hilarious way to...

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Lenovo’s Slim 7i Carbon has 12th Gen chips and weighs just 2.13 pounds

This is the Slim 7i Carbon.

Lenovo has refreshed a number of models in its Slim line (known as Yoga Slim in some markets). A model I find interesting is the Slim 7i Carbon, one that Lenovo has subtitled “The Art of Mobility” in its press release.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because this looks to be a similar package to the AMD-powered IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (or Yoga Slim 7 Carbon outside of North America), which made a splash upon its announcement last year as the lightest 14-inch laptop to feature an OLED screen. (It’s 2.37 pounds.) Not only did that panel have a 90Hz refresh rate, but it could reach 600 nits of brightness, which is exceptionally bright for a consumer laptop (and especially for an OLED — those tend to be on the dimmer side).

With the...

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AWOL LTV-3500 ultra-short throw projector review: the bright stuff

Can replace a TV if you don’t mind an even bigger gray rectangle

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Starlink’s new Portability feature brings internet to vanlifers

Starlink Portability lets your take your SpaceX internet anywhere. | Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge

Starlink’s internet-from-SpaceX service has gone mobile with a new Portability feature. For an additional monthly fee, Starlink subscribers can now take their “dishy” anywhere on their home continent that provides active internet coverage. That opens up connectivity to remote places that will likely never be covered by 5G — a potential boon to the increasing numbers of work-from-anywhere types spawned by the COVID 19 pandemic.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to one happy Starlink camper saying, “Starlink is awesome for RV’s, camping or any activity away from cities.”

Starlink is awesome for RV’s, camping or any activity away from cities

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 3, 2022

Starlink doesn’t support use while driving yet, but the company...

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Google Assistant’s automatic password updater gets wider rollout

The feature offers to automatically change a compromised password. | Image: Max Weinbach

A Google Assistant feature designed to automate the time-consuming process of changing your passwords after a breach appears to be getting a wider rollout. That’s according to a tweet from leaker Max Weinbach and a report from Android Police.

One of Weinbach’s screenshots shows a dialog box warning that Chrome on Android has detected that a used password appeared in a breach, and offers the option to “Change automatically.” The second includes a confirmation box, asking the user to agree to “Let Google Assistant help you change your password.”

Google Assistant being able to change breached passwords >>>>> pic.twitter.com/Dfcnvhs1S5

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) May 3, 2022

The Google Assistant feature was announced back at Google...

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The company behind celebrity cameo videos has laid off a quarter of its workers

The company apparently grew too large during the pandemic. | Image: Getty

Cameo, the company that lets you pay a celebrity to record a custom message or hop on a video call with you, has announced that it’s laying off 87 people, or around a quarter of its staff, according to The Information. According to the report, employees got the news at an all-hands meeting on Wednesday.

The company’s co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis says the layoffs are a “course correction” after Cameo grew massively during the pandemic. The company went “from just over 100 to nearly 400” employees during lockdown, according to Galanis’ statement to Variety. Since then, he says, “market conditions have rapidly changed.” Early in 2021, Variety reported that the company’s revenue was 4.5 times higher in 2020 than it had been in 2019....

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Google bought a MicroLED display company that could help make AR headsets better and cheaper

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh confirmed that the company has acquired Raxium, a five-year-old startup with MicroLED technology that could be key in building a new generation of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality headsets.

This adds to the evidence that Google’s next big AR move is growing closer: it previously acquired the glasses maker North in 2020, and is reportedly hiring engineers to build an augmented reality operating system. We learned in January that Google Labs is building an AR headset called “Project Iris,” under the same management as the Project Starline high-res video chat demo shown during its I/O event last year.

Image: Raxium

When The Information first reported Google’s Raxium...

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Intuit owes you money if it tricked you into paying for TurboTax “Free Edition”

But will I have to claim that as income on my taxes?

Intuit, the company behind TurboTax, has agreed to pay out $141 million after it “cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services,” in the words of New York Attorney General Letitia James. Most of that money will go to consumers that were tricked into paying for its service. This comes as the result of an agreement it made with the AG (and officials from all 50 states and DC), which will also require the company to change its marketing practices.

According to the Attorney General’s press release, Intuit will owe people $30 for every year they were tricked into paying for TurboTax between 2016 and 2018. The document notes that “impacted consumers will automatically receive notices and a check by mail.”

TurboTax...

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Twitter’s decentralized, open-source offshoot just released its first code

Bluesky

Bluesky, Twitter’s open-source offshoot, has released early code for a decentralized social network protocol. The system is dubbed the Authenticated Data Experiment (or ADX) and is available on GitHub for developers to test, although Bluesky emphasizes that it’s incomplete. It’s one of the most substantive windows into Bluesky’s workings since the project was conceived in 2019 and formally incorporated in early 2022.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber writes that ADX will be the start of a semi-public development process. “We’re going to take a middle path of releasing work before it’s complete, but also giving ourselves time to workshop new directions at early stages,” Graber says. The GitHub repository includes an overview of ADX’s goals and...

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Dish’s 5G network is finally live in Vegas — and it has NFTs

Project Gene5is lives. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Dish Network has taken a big step forward on its journey to becoming the country’s fourth wireless carrier — one that it should have taken, oh, let’s say many months ago. As reported by Axios, its 5G network, aka Project Genesis, has finally launched to paying customers in Las Vegas, graduating from the beta program that began late last year. For $30 per month it includes unlimited 5G data, talk, text, and, uh, this: “Additionally, we include a white-glove delivery experience and exclusive access to the Project Genesis app where you can earn rewards.” Rewards including... NFTs.

As part of T-Mobile’s deal to buy Sprint, Dish Network has been tasked by the FCC with taking Sprint’s place as our fourth carrier. It’s taking an unconventional...

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Starbucks plans a ‘global digital community’ around coffee with an NFT loyalty program

Starbucks

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, along with executive vice president and chief marketing officer Brady Brewer, explained to investors during their Q2 2022 earnings presentation that the coffee company will add “new concepts such as ownership and community-based membership models that we see developing in the Web 3 space.” Brewer went further, saying “Imagine acquiring a new digital collectible from Starbucks, where that product also serves as your access pass to a global Starbucks community, one with engaging content experiences and collaboration all centered around coffee.”

A post on the company blog does more to explain what all of that means:

We plan to create a series of branded NFT collections, the ownership of which initiates...

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VW’s 2022 supply of EVs is ‘basically sold out’ in the US and Europe

Volkswagen’s ID 4 EV.

Volkswagen’s CEO, Herbert Diess, says that the company is “basically sold out on electric vehicles in Europe and in the United States” for the year, according to a report from the Financial Times. This means that anyone hoping to get an EV from VW, Audi, or any of the group’s other brands may have to wait until 2023, as the company tries to navigate the chip shortage and production issues from COVID shutdowns in China.

According to the report, VW expects its backlog of orders to keep growing. It currently has plenty of people on the list waiting to get an EV and expects to add more throughout the year. But supply chain issues will make those difficult to fill. Almost every automaker has had to halt or slow down production thanks to a...

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