Why France signing NASA’s lunar exploration pact is the most important signature yet

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (far right) and Philippe Baptiste, president of CNES, signing the Artemis Accords at the French Ambassador’s Residence in Washington. | Image: NASA/Keegan Barber

On Tuesday evening, France officially signed onto NASA’s Artemis Accords — the space agency’s set of guidelines and principles for how the US and other countries should explore the Moon in the future. France’s addition, long considered a big get for the Artemis Accords, brings the total number of signatory countries to 20, strengthening the international agreement ahead of NASA’s planned return to the lunar surface this decade.

When the finalized Artemis Accords were presented during the Trump administration in October 2020, NASA announced that eight countries had signed onto the document — including the United States. But there were some notable absences from that list. Two of the world’s largest space superpowers — China and Russia —...

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Ms. Marvel reimagined Kamala Khan’s powers to give her stronger ties to the MCU

Kamala Khan testing out out her limits in the field. | Image: Marvel Studios

Disney Plus’ Ms. Marvel series is one of the MCU’s better recent entries, but Kamala Khan’s new live-action superpowers have been a point of contention for fans of the comics who are concerned about the show’s ability to translate the source material across mediums. Comics Ms. Marvel’s main thing is smashing stuff with her humongous fists. But her polymorphic “embiggening” powers are also a metaphor for the ways that Kamala, a Muslim-American teen born to Pakistani immigrants, moves through the world, and the creative team behind Ms. Marvel very much wanted that to be part of the show as well.

In Marvel’s comics, Kamala develops the ability to morph her body into a variety of shapes in sizes, but in Ms. Marvel, she instead discovers that...

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These little satellites could bring big advances to tropical storm forecasts

Hurricane Ida is seen in an image taken aboard the International Space Station in August 2021. | Image: European Space Agency via NASA

NASA is gearing up to launch tiny satellites into space that will help forecasters keep a closer eye on tropical storms as they develop in a mission called TROPICS. Crucially, if the launches are successful, the satellites will mark a big advancement in our ability to watch rapidly intensifying storms.

At the moment, NASA’s weather satellites can only check in on a storm every four to six hours. “So we’re missing a lot of what’s happening in the storm,” Bill Blackwell, principal investigator for the TROPICS mission and a researcher at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, said in NASA’s announcement yesterday.

Image: NASA/NOAA

Images taken from current weather satellites. Both the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder...

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Meta is adding social hangouts to the Quest’s VR home space

Meta Quest virtual reality headsets will soon offer an option for hanging out with other people in your homescreen. The v41 Quest update will add a multiuser Horizon Home space, which Meta announced last year at Connect. Horizon Home lets people put on their headsets and immediately invite other Quest users to jump into social experiences, including watching VR videos as a group. It’s a step toward a larger Horizon-branded “metaverse” that Meta has been rolling out piecemeal over the past few years.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Home’s rollout in a video with Free Solo climber Alex Honnold, offering a brief demo of the system. Zuckerberg and Honnold appear as Horizon’s traditional legless avatars and pop into a 360-degree video of...

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Activision Blizzard will begin negotiations with QA testers union at Raven Software

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After Activision Blizzard refused to voluntarily recognize the union formed by QA testers at Raven Software — a subsidiary that works on the Call of Duty games — the testers went through the election process and voted to form a union last month. Now, Activision Blizzard’s current CEO Bobby Kotick told employees in a letter that the company recognizes the union and will “engage in good faith negotiations to enter into a collective bargaining agreement.”

Getting here comes after news of layoffs late last year, followed by an employee walkout and a five-week strike. There was also the part where Activision Blizzard engaged in tactics that smelled of union busting, like suddenly converting other testers in the company to full-time jobs with...

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This Week in Elon: Texas gets involved in the Twitter deal for some reason

Image: Dami Lee

So, noted shitposter Elon Musk wants out of his Twitter deal, and he’s gotten his lawyers to write a lil letter to Twitter about it. According to the letter, Twitter is a bunch of big meanies that aren’t giving Musk the information he needs to close the transaction, specifically about bots and spam. According to the letter, this is very important for Twitter’s business model. There was a time to have this conversation, and it was during due diligence, which Musk waived. I’m very unsympathetic to both Musk and his lawyers here.

Now, Bloomberg’s Matt Levine has helpfully written about how M&A law works. Basically, Musk views this letter as a pretext for ending the deal:

I mean, to be clear, it isn’t a good pretext. It is, for instance,...

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Lightyear says its $263,000 solar-powered car will go into production later this year

EV startup Lightyear revealed its first solar-powered electric vehicle, dubbed Lightyear 0, at an event this week in the Netherlands. The vehicle, which Lightyear describes as production-ready, has 388 miles of range, 44 miles of which are derived from solar power alone.

The Lightyear 0 is the product of six years of research and development from its engineering team. That said, it doesn’t look too dissimilar from the sleek sedan prototype first revealed by the company in 2019. The specs are a little more down to earth: 388 miles versus the prototype’s 450 miles — but the overall shape and design of the vehicle appear mostly unchanged.

Drive for months without having to plug the vehicle in

The inclusion of solar panels, which is rare...

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Chromebook 101: how to use Android apps on your Chromebook

One of the advantages that Chromebooks offer is the ability to run many of your favorite Android apps alongside Chrome OS windows. For the most part, any Chromebook that was launched on or after 2019 will run Android apps; if you’ve got an older system, Google has a long list of the Chromebooks that can run Android apps, but it’s not difficult to see if yours is one of them by doing the following:

• Go to Settings (click on the clock in the lower-right corner and select the gear icon).
• Click on the Apps link in the left-hand menu.

Click on the Apps link in the Settings menu.

• In the main window, look for Google Play Store. (It should be near the top.) If it’s there and invites you to Install apps and games from Google...

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Vergecast WWDC: iOS 16, new M2 processor, macOS Ventura, and more

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, editor-at-large David Pierce, and managing editor Alex Cranz discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

This week on the show, the crew runs through all the announcements from Apple’s WWDC keynote event on Monday: the new features added in iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, the expansion of CarPlay, the new flagship M2 processor, a redesigned MacBook Air, and a whole lot more.

Keep listening for the other important tech news from this week, including the EU legislation to force all future smartphones to use USB-C and Xbox’s game streaming app coming to TVs.

Stories mentioned in this...

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You can get a 48-inch LG C1 OLED TV for its lowest price ever

Another awesome discount on the LG C1 OLED TV. | Image: LG

If you’re still struggling to find a gift for Father’s Day, you’re in luck. The 48-inch model of the LG C1 OLED is currently on sale for its lowest price ever at BuyDig. Normally $1,299.99, this model is currently discounted to 896.99. The C1 remains one of our favorite OLED TVs for gaming and is heartily endorsed by several members of The Verge staff. Oh, and if you purchase through BuyDig, you’ll even get a $50 Visa gift card to sweeten the deal.

The display of the C1 not only has a 120Hz refresh rate but also is equipped with FreeSync and G-Sync adaptive sync technologies support that provides a much smoother image while gaming at higher frame rates on PC. In addition to helpful usability features like Apple AirPlay 2 and built-in...

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Oracle thinks it can fix healthcare’s biggest tech issue

Larry Ellison, Oracle board chairman and chief technology officer. | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Just after closing a $28 billion deal to acquire electronic health records company Cerner, tech giant Oracle said it thinks it can solve one of the biggest tech problems in healthcare: patient records.

The combined companies will create a national health records database that pulls in data from thousands of hospitals, said Larry Ellison, Oracle board chairman and chief technology officer, during a press briefing. Patient data would be anonymous until individuals give consent to share their information. “We’re building a system where all American citizens’ health records not only exist at the hospital level, but they also are in a unified national health records database,” Ellison said.

Ellison outlined the well-trodden problems with the...

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How DALL-E could power a creative revolution

“Teddy bears on the moon, digital art,” created by DALL-E.

Thoughts on my first week with OpenAI’s amazing text-to-image AI tool

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I hope we see Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 next week

Image: Square Enix

The long-awaited second part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake could be revealed on June 16th, or at least I hope it will. Square Enix’s Twitter account for promoting that game sent out a Save the Date PSA for June 16th at 6PM ET / 3PM PT, when it’ll go live on Twitch and YouTube with a brief 10-minute presentation. It appended “please be excited” to the end, which, I’ll admit, made me excited.

Is Part 2 releasing in 2023? Will there be a Part 3? Is the first installment ever going to be released on the Xbox? So many questions.

“We will be streaming “FINAL FANTASY VII 25th Anniversary Celebration”. At only around 10 minutes long, it will be short and sweet, but we have packed in lots of information, so I hope everyone can look forward...

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds reminds you filler TV is fantastic

Ethan Peck’s Spock is about to engage in some shenanigans. | Image: John Medland/Paramount Plus

In the age of thunderingly loud blockbusters and hyper-serial prestige television, Star Trek has struggled. The J.J. Abrams films tried to reinvent Star Trek for the mega action film era, and Star Trek: Discovery tried to reinvent it for serial TV. And others, like Picard and Lower Decks, have just tried to play to the fans with intense nostalgia and in-jokes.They’ve all been Star Trek, but they haven’t had quite the same impact as the original series or the Star Trek series of the ‘90s. Watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds feels like watching The Next Generation or Voyager or even The Original Series. It’s Star Trek updated pitch perfectly for 2022, and that’s in large part because it knows what we want: filler episodes.

The...

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A trip to the GaryVee convention, where everyone is part of crypto’s 1 percent

Gary Vaynerchuk (left) spent hours taking selfies with fans.

Hype and hustle at Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT conference

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The graffiti economics behind Williamsburg’s wall of NFTs

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Another NFT on the wall

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Firefox and Chrome are squaring off over ad-blocker extensions

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Mozilla will let extensions use the most privacy-preserving blocking techniques on network traffic

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Withings Sleep review: same hardware, better software

The device now tracks breathing disturbances and generates a comprehensive sleep report

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Twitter overhauls process for reporting rule-breaking idiots

The new reporting flow in action. | Image: Twitter

Twitter’s redesigned process for reporting policy violations on its platform is now widely available, the company has announced. It’s designed to handle everything from reports about misinformation and spam, to harassment and hate speech. The redesign has been in testing since December last year, and uses a so-called “symptoms-first reporting flow” that’s designed to make it easier to report bad behavior. It’s now available in “most countries” across web, iOS, and Android.

The company outlined how the new process works in a blog post last year. Previously, Twitter’s process would ask which policy has been broken, and then ask for more details. Instead, the new flow asks for details on what’s happened, before getting more granular about...

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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey criticized for launching ‘Bitcoin Academy’ in rapper’s childhood home

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Rapper Jay-Z and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey have teamed up to launch a bitcoin-focused financial literacy project named The Bitcoin Academy. The project consists of free bi-weekly classes, offered in-person and online, for residents of the musician’s childhood home: the Marcy Houses public housing complex in Brooklyn, New York City.

The team-up is not surprising considering the pair’s long, shared history in business and bitcoin. Dorsey’s digital-payments company Block (née Square) bought a majority share in Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service in 2021, and the two have used their personal bitcoin holdings to fund a trust designed to promote the use of cryptocurrency in Africa and India.

Attendees will be learn “about Bitcoin specifically...

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Brompton recalls folding e-bikes over risk of front wheel lockup

This is second Brompton e-bike recall since April 2021. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

If you own a Brompton folding electric bicycle sold between May 2019 and March 2022 you should stop riding it immediately. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) agency in the US, ten owners of Brompton e-bikes have reported objects getting trapped between the mudguard and front tire causing the wheel to lockup and crash. So far, this has resulted in two hospitalizations and nine injuries including “head and facial impact, broken bones, shoulder dislocation, bruising, and chipped teeth.”

Owners of the recalled models — which include the Brompton Electric M2L, H2L, M6L, and H6L — are urged to contact an authorized Brompton dealer to request a free repair. The fix involves replacing the front mudguard stay and flap to...

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Ikea announces record player that might actually make it to stores this time

Ikea’s upcoming record player. | Image: Ikea

Ikea, which has never been scared to dive into new product categories, has announced plans to release a record player as part of its new Obergränsad collection this fall. The record player was designed in collaboration with house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia, and has a chunky design in line with a lot of the other consumer electronics Ikea has produced. Alongside it, the Swedish retailer has also announced an armchair and desk as part of the collection.

This technically isn’t the first record playing device that Ikea has announced. Way back in 2018 it announced a turntable made in collaboration with Teenage Engineering that it hoped to release the following year. But according to a Teenage Engineering support page, the player...

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Ikea announces record player that might actually make it to stores this time

Ikea’s upcoming record player. | Image: Ikea

Ikea, which has never been scared to dive into new product categories, has announced plans to release a record player as part of its new Obegränsad collection this fall. The record player was designed in collaboration with house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia, and has a chunky design in line with a lot of the other consumer electronics Ikea has produced. Alongside it, the Swedish retailer has also announced an armchair and desk as part of the collection.

This technically isn’t the first record playing device that Ikea has announced. Way back in 2018 it announced a turntable made in collaboration with Teenage Engineering that it hoped to release the following year. But according to a Teenage Engineering support page, the player...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

Apple’s latest Apple Watch, the Series 7, boasts a larger display and faster charging than its last-gen predecessor. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? It might be tempting to order one of the Series 7 models, but newer hardware always comes at a premium. And while Apple’s latest wearable offers a slightly larger display and some improvements to durability, it is largely the same Apple Watch we’re familiar with.

Thankfully, each Apple Watch model offers ample functionality and has seen its fair share of discounts over the last year. So which ones should you consider if you’re in the market for Apple’s popular smartwatch while trying to shop smarter?

There are currently four Apple Watch models to choose from, all of which support watchOS 8. The highest-end is the Apple Watch Series 7, which starts at $399. The last-gen model, the Series 6,...

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Windows 11 rolls out a test build with tabs in File Explorer

Windows 11 File Explorer with a Home page and Tabs | Image: Microsoft

It’s been about four years since Microsoft tested and then abandoned an attempt at adding tabbed browsing to the File Explorer in Windows 10, and now a new Windows 11 preview build released today is giving it another shot. EarTrumpet developer Rafael Rivera spotted hints of the test in March before Microsoft confirmed that the feature, as well as the new Home screen for File Explorer you can see above, is coming to Windows 11.

A post on the Windows Insider Blog explains that Build 25136 is testing a File Explorer browser with tabs so you can jump back and forth across folders without popping open a new window. However, even if you’re a Windows Insider and your PC is set to receive Dev Channel builds (for people who are willing to...

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Insteon customers turned Insteon’s lights back on

Insteon users have rescued the failing company. | Image: Insteon

Following the report yesterday that smart home company Insteon’s servers had mysteriously fired up overnight, there is good news: Insteon is back, and it was resurrected by its customers. This message appeared on the Insteon blog today, posted by the company's new CEO Ken Fairbanks:

We are a small group of passionate Insteon users that have successfully acquired Insteon. Like many of you, our homes are powered by Insteon’s amazing dual-mesh technology and highly configurable products.

Insteon’s servers went offline last April when SmartLabs, the company that owned the smart lighting system, ran into “financial difficulties.” A financial services firm had been appointed to sell its assets, but this “group of passionate users” stepped in...

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Summer Game Fest 2022: all the news and trailers

Striking Distance Studios

Everybody’s going to space

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Apple’s AirTag item trackers drop to their lowest price yet

Apple’s AirTag location tracker is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you’re an iPhone owner planning on traveling this summer, today’s deal on Apple AirTag location trackers has arrived at the perfect time. Right now, you can buy Apple’s ultra wideband-capable Bluetooth tracker to keep track of your luggage and other items for just $24 instead of $29 from Amazon and Best Buy (until 10PM PT today or June 10th at 1AM ET). That might be a small discount, but it’s also a rare one and the best price we’ve seen.

This is an excellent tracker that works best with Apple devices and is thus ideal for those deeply embedded within the Apple ecosystem. It’s conveniently also IP67 water and dust resistant with user-replaceable batteries. Plus, the tracker also offers a few privacy and security features, like...

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The first version of Meta’s AR glasses will be for developers only

Image: Meta

Meta has decided to not sell the first version of its full-fledged AR glasses, codenamed Orion, and will instead distribute them to developers so they can build software experiences for the device and future versions, a person familiar with the matter told The Verge. The company is also shelving plans to release a smartwatch with a detachable display and two cameras in favor of a design better suited to control a later version of the glasses.

The first version of the AR glasses, which have been in development for three years, was always going to be geared toward developers and early adopters, but executives hadn’t decided whether to sell them broadly until now, the person said. Employees working in Meta’s Reality Labs division building...

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Meta will stop making Portal for consumers

The Portal Go, released in 2021. | Photo by Jennifer Pattisson Tuohy The Verge

Meta plans to stop making consumer versions of its Portal video calling hardware and instead pivot the product line to focus on use cases for businesses, like conference calling.

The change in strategy, first reported by The Information and confirmed to The Verge by a source familiar with the matter, comes as Meta is reassessing its ambitious hardware plans against investor concerns about the billions of dollars it’s spending on projects that have yet to pay off financially. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.

The Portal line debuted in 2018 with two displays meant as dedicated video calling stations. They also supported apps for activities like listening to music on Spotify and streaming videos on the Food Network. But the...

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