Marvel Studios is licensing Stan Lee’s likeness from the company he sued before his death

Stan Lee as he appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. | Image: Marvel Studios

Even though Stan Lee has been dead since 2018, a new deal between Marvel Studios and POW! Entertainment may be a sign that the legendary comics creator’s going to be appearing in more than a few Marvel-branded projects in the near future.

POW! Entertainment, the production house Stan Lee co-founded in 2001 and subsequently sued in 2018 for allegedly forging his signature on legal documents, has entered a licensing agreement with Genius Brands and Marvel Studios granting the Hollywood giant the right to use Lee’s likeness in its upcoming projects. In a press release about the 20-year deal, Genius Brands CEO and chairman Andy Heyward expressed feelings of pride and stewardship for “the incredibly valuable rights to Stan Lee’s name,...

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Fewer Americans think Big Tech should have more regulations

How people feel about Big Tech has changed since last year.

A new study from the Pew Research Center found that fewer people in the US want more regulations for Big Tech companies. This decline, which spans across the political spectrum, showed that 44 percent of Americans are in favor of more government regulation compared to 56 percent of those surveyed last year.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all in favor of less regulation; for example, 32 percent of liberal Democrats surveyed say that the currentamount of regulation is just right compared to the 23 percent who thought so in 2021. However, 27 percent of moderate or liberal Republicans do support less regulation, up from 13 percent, and 36 percent of conservative...

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Why tech giants’ cash is a hidden source of greenhouse gas emissions

Climate activists target banks in Germany’s financial capital.

Even tech companies that have promised to slash their greenhouse gas emissions have a big climate-related blind spot, according to a new report published by three environmental groups. With their cash and investments, Google, Apple, Meta, and other tech giants are indirectly financing fossil fuel companies.

While these companies might have taken steps to cut down on pollution withintheir own operations and supply chains, the financial institutions they bank with still funnel Big Tech’s profitsinto heavily polluting industries. Emissions associated with that financial activity are so significant that they actually far exceed emissions from each company’s operations, the report finds.

Financial institutions they bank with still funnel...

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New York says Amazon doesn’t accommodate pregnant and disabled workers

An investigation will follow the complaint. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The New York State Division of Human Rights has filed a complaint against Amazon for failing to accommodate reasonable changes requested by workers who were pregnant or disabled, according to a Wednesday press release from Governor Kathy Hochul.

Even in cases where the company agreed that workers should be accommodated, the complaint alleges that managers would still force them to do work they shouldn’t be doing. According to one example listed in the press release, a pregnant worker filed a request to avoid strenuous activity, specifically lifting boxes over 25 pounds. Amazon approved the request, but the worker’s manager allegedly refused to adhere to the accommodation, and Amazon didn’t intervene despite internal complaints. The...

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Night Sky is a warm, comforting sci-fi with too much filler

J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek in Night Sky_._ | Image: Chuck Hodes / Amazon Prime Video

Irene and Franklin York are a lot like other older couples. They keep on top of each other about following doctor’s orders, joke about their complicated daily intake of pills, and, when the mood is right, they put on some Sam Cooke and dance in the living room, just like in the good old days. In short, they’re adorable. But there’s one key difference between the Yorks and most retired couples: hidden away in their shed right behind a wooden sign that says “to the stars” is a portal to another world.

This is the basic setup for Night Sky on Amazon Prime Video. The show’s first episode debuts this week and, early on, follows Irene (Sissy Spacek) and Franklin (J.K. Simmons) as they go about their life, which just so happens to include the...

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Apple’s hidden setting instantly makes your video and audio calls sound better

Image: Apple

Whenever possible, I like to use FaceTime Audio or WhatsApp instead of making regular phone calls. The people I’m calling see it like a normal phone call, but the audio quality is leaps and bounds better than a good old-fashioned phone call.

But! It turns out I wasn’t even doing my internet calls the right way. Today, I learned that there’s a newish feature buried in the Control Center that instantly improves the quality of your microphone during calls, whether you’re audio-only or on video.

It’s called Voice Isolation, and it works on most iPhones, iPads and Macs from the last few years as long as you’re running iOS 15 or macOS Monterey. (Anything that supports Spatial Audio seems to also support Voice Isolation.) It’s weirdly hard to...

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Google’s Russian branch plans to file for bankruptcy

Photo by Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images

Google’s Russian subsidiary will file for bankruptcy, according to a report from Reuters, with the company stating it can no longer keep the branch. The Russian branch reported making 134.3 billion roubles (about $2.086 billion USD) in Russia in 2021 and employed over 100 workers.

“The Russian authorities’ seizure of Google Russia’s bank account has made it untenable for our Russia office to function, including employing and paying Russia-based employees, paying suppliers and vendors, and meeting other financial obligations,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “Google Russia has published a notice of its intention to file for bankruptcy.”

In March, Google suspended the sale of ads in Russia shortly after Russia...

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Peacock’s Queer as Folk looks ripped from the headlines in first trailer

Armand Fields as Bussey | Alyssa Moran/Peacock

Both the original British and American Queer as Folk series were celebrations of queer culture that also took the time to tell stories about the violence and hatred queer people face simply for existing. In its first trailer, Peacock’s upcoming Queer as Folk reboot from Stephen Dunn appears to be following in its predecessors’ footsteps as it pulls its cast of clubgoers together for a night of drag and debauchery at Babylon, a club in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The new Queer as Folk follows recent med school dropout Brodie (Devin Way) as he journeys from Baltimore to Louisiana in search of anything but a committed relationship. Though Brodie’s glad to be reunited with old friends like debutant Brenda (Kim Cattrall) and pop culture nerd...

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Honda teases upcoming Prologue, its first electric SUV to be sold in the US

Honda

Honda released a teaser image of the upcoming 2024 Prologue electric SUV, the company’s first battery-electric vehicle to be sold in the US. The company also touted its hybrid vehicles as a way to address questions that it has been slow to roll out an EV strategy as compared to its rivals.

The Prologue will be the first of two vehicles that Honda is co-developing with General Motors, using the US automaker’s Ultium battery packs. The other vehicle will carry the Acura nameplate and will also be developed jointly with GM, but the company hasn’t revealed any new information about it at this time. The Prologue, which will go on sale in 2024, also marks the beginning of a wave of 30 hybrid, battery-electric, and fuel-cell vehicles that...

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This Final Fantasy XIV music video is going to make you cry

Square Enix

Today, Square Enix released the music video for “Flow,” one of the main theme songs of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, and friends, it’s a doozy. If you have work to do or need to be productive in any way today, do not, and I cannot stress this enough, watch this music video.

I have already shed half of my body’s moisture in tears. It was cathartic and necessary and so very much on time. And, for as much as I don’t appreciate trying to see through a curtain of water that just don’t seem to end, I deeply and truly appreciate this music video’s ability to just get me to stop and feel.

Life, right now, isn’t normal. People are dying of a disease we don’t seem to care enough about to stop. People cannot afford to live; people cannot afford...

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YouTube now highlights the most replayed parts of videos to let you skip the boring parts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube will now highlight the “most replayed” parts of videos in its web player and mobile apps. The feature was previously available as an experiment for YouTube Premium subscribers but is launching for all users today.

You’ll be able to identify the most popular parts of a video from a graph that appears behind its progress bar. Says YouTube: “If the graph is high, then that part of the video has been replayed often. You can use the graph to quickly find and watch those moments.”

“most-replayed” will be another signal for creators to steer content

Pretty simple! But, it’s interesting to think how this might split the attention of viewers — or, indeed, steer the work of creators, giving them yet another signal to identify exactly what...

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Wear OS users can finally stream music on the YouTube Music app

Google is expanding its app options ahead of the Pixel Watch launch later this fall. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

After a lengthy wait, Wear OS users can now use the YouTube Music app to stream their tunes over Wi-Fi and LTE. And, as a bonus, users can also add the app as a widget for quicker access to recently played playlists or YouTube Music’s browse page.

In a user community post, Google says you’ll be able to access 80 million songs via the app. On top of ad-free streaming, the app supports Google’s Smart Downloads feature that automatically refreshes songs downloaded to your Wear OS watch whenever it’s connected to Wi-Fi. There are a few caveats. For instance, you have to be a YouTube Music Premium subscriber. Also, cellular streaming isn’t available for iOS Wear OS 2 users.

The road to a Wear OS YouTube Music app had many twists and turns. In...

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Anker’s pint-sized 100W USB-C charger is on sale, but supplies are sold out until late June

Image: Anker

At CES 2022, Anker announced an addition to its Nano II USB-C charger lineup with this more powerful version sporting two USB-C ports capable of outputting up to 100W, plus an old school USB-A charging port. Now, the Anker Nano II 100W (also known as the Anker 736 charger) has popped up for sale on Amazon (via MacRumors) and quickly sold out on Friday. As of Monday afternoon at 2:33PM ET, it is available to order on Amazon for $75.99 but with delivery dates scheduled for the end of June.

Now, on May 18th, the 736 charger is available on Amazon in white for $79.99.

The Nano II chargers use the company’s second-generation version of gallium nitride-based components that replace older charger’s silicon components to pump out more power in a...

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Pokémon: Hisuian Snow is everything that’s beautiful and brutal about the Hisui region

Alec and his new Hisuian buddy, Zorua. | Image: The Pokémon Company

Unlike the Pokémon anime and games set in the present day, where humans and Pokémon live in harmony as friends and competitors, Pokémon: Hisuian Snow — a new limited series of digital shorts based on Pokémon Legends: Arceus— takes place in the distant past at a point when people did not yet fully understand pocketable monsters.

Like Arceus, Hisuian Snow’s first episode, “Onto the Icy Blue” from writer Taku Kishimoto and director Ken Yamamoto, tells the story of a young person learning firsthand just how unforgiving the Hisui region can be. Rather than focusing on a time traveler who arrives in Hisui by way of a rift in the sky, Hisuian Snow details how its protagonist Alec (Lizzie Freeman) and his father (Steve Kramer) made lives for...

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Drop is taking 20 percent off select keycaps exclusively for Verge readers

Nothing brings the cool factor to mechanical keyboards quite like colorful keycaps. | Image: Drop

If you’re reading The Verge and you’re a mechanical keyboard fan (and why wouldn’t you be both?), we’ve got an exclusive deal right up your alley. Drop is running a 20 percent discount on some of its popular mechanical keyboard keycap sets, just for you.

Aside from typing feel and sound, the colorful stylings of keycaps are the thing that often draws people to mechanical keyboards and has helped fuel this recent resurgence in the scene. There’s just something so cool about a board with some exquisitely vivid colors that pop. While there are many, many styles out there — some of which are clones of popular designs — Drop collaborates with designers to offer a variety of quality keycaps.

This sale includes options like the RedSuns GMK...

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Escape Academy captures the fun of escape puzzles, without the cramped rooms

Coin Crew Games

Friends, it’s been exceedingly difficult to naturally produce enough feel good brain juice to function as a normal person. Even the things that I normally take so much joy in, like video games, are just not hitting like they used to for so many reasons. But after spending some time with Escape Academy by playing a little and talking to the developers, I think I have the serotonin delivery system I’ve sorely needed.

Escape Academy by Coin Crew Games is a narrative puzzle game formatted to look and feel like real-life escape rooms. You play as an escape room enthusiast invited to a secretive academy where students can train to become the best Escapist. The people at Coin Crew games actually worked on real in-person escape rooms and,...

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Sony announces $200 LinkBuds S with ANC and lightweight design

The LinkBuds S come in black or white. | Image: Sony

Sony is indeed adding a new product to its lineup of earbuds. Today, the company announced the $199.99 LinkBuds S. While they share branding with the open-design LinkBuds released earlier this year, the “S” model have a more conventional form factor and in-ear fit. Available in black, white, or beige (exclusively at Best Buy), the LinkBuds S have a compact design and weigh just 4.8 grams each.

Despite their small presence on the scale, Sony’s latest earbuds don’t go light on features: they include active noise cancellation, an ambient sound / transparency mode, and support for the company’s LDAC Bluetooth codec. Like the standard LinkBuds, Sony is positioning these as earbuds you can wear all day and “link” your outside and digital...

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Sony LinkBuds S review: supreme comfort doesn’t come cheap

An airy fit, ANC, and LDAC all in one pricey package

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The Verge’s 24 favorite kitchen gadgets

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon and Alex Castro / The Verge

When you’re stuck at home because of pandemics, bad weather, or just because you don’t feel like going out, there’s nothing more satisfying than cooking something really fantastic. Even if you’re not an experienced or enthusiastic cook, sometimes it’s really satisfying to create a new and tasty dish for you, your friends, and / or family.

We asked the staff of The Verge what kinds of equipment, gadgets, and tools they use to make their kitchen adventures better tasting, easier, or just more fun. Here are some of the answers we got.

Pots, pans, and cookers

Air fryer

Photo: GoWise

GoWise air fryer.

We just received a GoWise Air Fryer as a quarantine gift, and we couldn’t be happier with it! It replaces our...

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How to set up Emergency SOS on your smartwatch

Several smartwatches will allow you to make emergency calls. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

While smartwatches have always been able to relay notifications, the ability to make emergency calls was a big step forward in making them standalone devices.

Generally, Emergency SOS features have two functions. The first is to call local emergency responders if you find yourself in a bind. For instance, if you take a nasty spill and can’t make it to the phone, your watch can call 911. The second is to relay your location to a select group of trusted contacts. For folks who want to leave their phone at home, these features can ensure that your loved ones will be able to find you if you’re injured or need help.

You don’t necessarily need a cellular watch to make use of Emergency SOS. However, a cellular watch is the best option if you...

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Shadow adds latest generation Nvidia and AMD GPUs to cloud gaming service

Shadow’s focus has historically been on cloud gaming. | Image: Shadow

Shadow is adding a new subscription tier to its cloud gaming service with access to the equivalent of Nvidia and AMD’s latest generation of graphics cards for an additional $14.99 a month. The new Power Upgrade tier is an optional add-on to Shadow’s existing $29.99 subscription service, bringing the total cost to a little under $45. Alongside it, the company is announcing an expansion to more countries, a new online storage service, and a service that makes its cloud-based machines available to professional users.

Unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service or Google Stadia, which only let you stream their games, Shadow’s functionality is a lot broader. It essentially offers you remote access to a Windows 10 desktop in the cloud...

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Hisense launches its first-ever Fire TV for $529

Image: Hisense

Hisense’s new 4K Fire TV (50U6HF) costs $529 and has a 50-inch 60Hz display with a bezel-less design. It uses Hisense’s proprietary ULED technology — a more affordable version of QLED that Hisense says boosts color, contrast, and brightness. The TV also comes with support for Dolby Vision HDR and Quantum Dot technology for color enhancement.

With Fire TV built-in, you can expect everything that typically comes with Amazon’s Fire OS, including a lineup of streaming apps and an Alexa-enabled voice remote, allowing you to call on the smart assistant to control volume, playback, and TV power, as well as search for something to watch. You can also use Alexa to control any compatible smart devices around your home.

Hisense’s Amazon TV is here...

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Why Elon Musk should read Facebook’s latest transparency report

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

Today, let’s talk about Facebook’s latest effort to make the platform more comprehensible to outsiders — and how its findings inform our current, seemingly endless debate over whether you can have a social network and free speech, too.

Start with an observation: last week, Pew Research reported that large majorities of Americans — Elon Musk, for example! — believe that social networks are censoring posts based on the political viewpoints they express. Here’s Emily A. Vogels:

Rising slightly from previous years, roughly three-quarters of Americans (77%) now think it is very or somewhat likely that social media sites intentionally censor political viewpoints they find objectionable, including 41% who say this is very likely.

Majorities...

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Google’s Pixel 4 and 5-series phones are discounted today at Woot

The Pixel 5 in its Sorta Sage color. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

There’s been a lot of talk about new Pixel phones lately, with last week’s Google I/O showing off not just a new Pixel 6A but a brief glimpse of the upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. But Woot is showing love for some slightly older Pixels with a sale event that’ll end later today. Somehow, Woot got its hands on phones that are all still new in the box with full one-year warranties.

This includes the soon-to-be-replaced Pixel 5A for $429.99, 2020’s Pixel 5 for $449.99, and 2019’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL for $329.99 and $349.99, respectively. Now, yes, the Pixel 5A is not that old and it’s still available for sale from Google. But who would expect that in 2022 there would still be Pixel 4 available new-in-box?

Now, if you are tempted by that...

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This 200W charging station provides one-stop top-ups for all your gadgets

Ugreen Nexode is a capable and fiddly charger at a high price

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With new Acer Swift 3, OLED marches toward the mainstream

Contrast isn’t the luxury it once was. | Image: Acer

It wasn’t too long ago that the phrase “OLED laptop” implied a luxury product. But, over the past few years, that tide has slowly begun to shift. Samsung has begun mass-producing OLED panels for more portable form factors. And while they’re still not exactly commonplace, we’ve begun to see sub-$1,000 OLED devices trickle onto shelves.

But Acer made an announcement today that should make folks who want to see more affordable, accessible OLED (like myself) very excited. The Acer Swift 3 — hailed by many outlets, The Verge included, as one of the best student laptops on the market — is getting an OLED screen. This doesn’t sound like one of those cheaper FHD OLEDs you sometimes find on ultraportables, either. It’s going to have 2.8K...

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Acer’s new Chromebook Tab 510 puts LTE into a super tough, super bulky tablet

The Chromebook Tab 510 is all rubber and rugged. | Image: Acer

The Acer Chromebook Tab 510, which Acer announced on Wednesday, is not a very attractive tablet. Let’s just get that out of the way right up front. But what this blocky, rubbery brick lacks in aesthetics, Acer’s hoping it makes up for with raw get-stuff-done ability, including a keyboard attachment, an integrated stylus, and an optional LTE connection — still an uncommon feature among Chromebooks.

The Tab 510 is a 10.1-inch slate with a 1920 x 1200 display that runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7c chipset along with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. None of that qualifies the $399 device for high-end status, but the 7c does have a solid reputation for battery life, and Acer seems to imagine the device more like a rugged companion you can...

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Acer’s new Spin 714 could be 2022’s best Chromebook

New name, new look.

I’ve reviewed quite a few Chromebooks in the past few years, but the one that has consistently topped the competition is the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. Not only is it fast with good battery life but it also sports one of the best screens and port selections you can find in the Chromebook category. But there is one complaint I’ve had about multiple Spin 713 models: they’re just kind of ugly.

The Spin 714, the company’s newest premium Chromebook certified through the Intel Evo platform, looks like a similar package to the 713 in many ways. It has up to a top-notch Core i7-1260P, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. There’s an option for a high-resolution 2560 x 1600 display covering a claimed 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut.

But Acer...

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Acer’s new Predator Helios 300 supports glasses-free 3D content

Peep the SpatialLabs camera array at the top of the Helios 300. | Image: Acer

Acer has debuted another round of new gaming laptops for 2022. This time, it’s focused on more unique entries, having gotten most of its yearly refreshes out of the way a couple of months ago. Its 15.6-inch Predator Helios 300 is getting the SpatialLabs treatment with a display that supports glasses-free, stereoscopic 3D content that includes “over 50 popular games at launch,” with a commitment to add support for new games moving forward.

The description for the built-in camera on this Helios 300 is wild. Acer says that its 15.6-inch 4K panel has “a liquid crystal lenticular lens optically bonded on top of it.” Because of that, the display can toggle between 2D and 3D modes. In case you’re curious how this SpatialLabs implementation...

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Amazon’s new Fire 7 tablet finally has a USB-C port

The Fire 7 looks the same as ever but has some upgrades under the hood. | Image: Amazon

Amazon is updating its small and inexpensive Fire 7 tablet for the first time in three years, and it’s bringing some crowd-pleasing features: the updated tablet will feature USB-C charging, better battery life, and faster performance. Amazon is, however, raising the starting price tag a tad — from $49.99 to $59.99.

Amazon says that the tablet’s quad-core processor is “30 percent faster” and that it’ll have 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. In theory, the extra memory should make it so you can load more web pages at a time, and you won’t have to wait around for apps to start back up as often when you’re switching between them. The company also says the tablet will last about 40 percent longer between charges, estimating you’ll be able to do...

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