Raspberry Pi announces the Pico W, a $6 microcontroller equipped with Wi-Fi

Raspberry Pi has introduced a successor to last year’s Pico, a $4 microcontroller based on the RP2040 chip the company designed itself. The new model is called the Pico W. It’s basically the same hardware, but it adds, as the name suggests, an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, making it useful for putting together IoT projects and the like. It’s also more expensive than the standard Pico, coming in at $6.

A 50 percent price jump isn’t insignificant (especially if you plan on buying a ton of these), but it’s understandable why the W version costs so much more than the original. Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton told The Verge’s Nilay Patel that adding radios to products is very expensive. “Just the radio conformance for a modern Raspberry Pi product is the...

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How to delete your period tracking app data

Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Warnings to delete cycle tracking apps flooded social media in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal abortion protections. The data those apps contain, people feared, could be weaponized in court.

As abortion starts to be criminalized in parts of the country, fears around personal data aren’t unfounded. People who seek abortions in jurisdictions where it is now banned aren’t wrong to worry that their data could be used against them. But experts say that data from period tracking apps probably isn’t the biggest risk in a post-Roe landscape. People should be more worried about more mundane data — things like search history and text messages.

Even if they aren’t the primary weapons...

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EA’s ‘pre-pre-pre-alpha’ video of the new Skate still looks pretty great

Image: EA

EA announced in 2020 that a new Skate game was on the way, and on Thursday, we got our first look — well, sort of. The company debuted a trailer with what it calls “pre-pre-pre-alpha” footage of the upcoming skateboarding sequel, and even in this early form, the game looks like it has a lot of promise.

The footage, unsurprisingly, mostly features skateboarding, though much of it has what’s clearly placeholder graphics and art. A later part of the video has more complete-looking graphics, and it appears this new Skate entry will continue the series’ realism. There are glimpses of a few more outlandish ideas, too, like some hilariously tall ramps and a building that looks inspired by a pachinko board. And many of the shots show a lot of...

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Why big tech companies are so quiet on abortion rights

Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, companies across the tech industry rushed out messaging on where they stood. Apple said its health plan had long covered travel costs for out-of-state reproductive health care; Microsoft said it would expand its health coverage to include travel costs for abortion; Google even said it would pay for employees to relocate in light of the ruling, no questions asked.

For the most part, they were quick, makeshift policies aligning these companies with the right to choose and granting benefits that supported that stance. But by and large, their responses weren’t full-throated repudiations of the Supreme Court’s ruling, let alone stands against any state that would seek to ban abortion.

...

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Now Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app with live TV and DVR content is available on Apple TV

Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app on Apple TV | Image: Comcast

Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app replaced the old Xfinity TV setup in 2017, allowing cable TV subscribers (who haven’t cut the cord yet) to pull up live channels, DVR content, and on-demand video, and now it’s available in the App Store on Apple TV boxes. Comcast and Apple announced a deal last October to make this happen, as well as an Apple TV Plus app for Comcast’s X1 platform, which launched in March for compatible cable boxes, Xfinity Flex, and XClass Smart TVs. Other platforms with the Xfinity Stream app include Roku, Amazon Fire, LG smart TVs, and Samsung smart TVs.

Comcast senior VP of strategic development Michael DelCiello said in a statement that “With today’s launch of the Stream app on Apple TV, our customers now have a new...

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The Samsung Z Fold 3 has never been more af-fold-able at Amazon

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

While several retailers are gearing up for the long July Fourth weekend with some exciting sitewide sales, there are plenty of standalone deals worth checking out ahead of Captain America’s birthday (oh, you didn’t know?). Starting off, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is currently discounted to its lowest price ever at Amazon. The 256GB configuration of this foldable phone typically costs $1,799.99 but is currently on sale for $1,249.99. This sizeable discount extends to the 512GB configuration as well, knocking its usual $1,899.99 price tag down to a more reasonable $1,349.99 instead.

The Z fold 3 proved that Samsung could make a good and durable foldable phone, particularly for multitasking on its 120Hz refresh rate display that can extend...

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Pokémon Go developer Niantic is rolling out its Campfire social network

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Pokémon Go maker Niantic has made a social app for its games — and it’s coming out very soon. The developer says that the app, called Campfire, will kick off its global rollout “in the coming days.” Campfire was originally announced in May and has been in a testing phase with Ingress players over the last few months. The initial rollout will be available for “select groups of Pokémon Go players throughout the summer,” according to the developer.

The core of Campfire is a map that includes information about nearby in-game events and activities, theoretically making it easier to find folks to play with or arrange meet-ups with friends. It includes a group and private messaging tool for your in-game friends; in Pokémon Go, for instance, you...

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Ron Gilbert won’t post about the new Monkey Island anymore following online abuse

Return to Monkey Island is coming to Switch and PC in 2022. | Image: Terrible Toybox

This week, we finally saw the first gameplay trailer of Return to Monkey Island, a follow-up to the first and second Monkey Island games that’s headed up by Ron Gilbert. Much of the game’s rollout has been delightful — an apparent April Fools’ joke by Gilbert about a new Monkey Island game turned out to be a real announcement. But there’s been some sour discourse following the new trailer, and on his personal blog, Gilbert said he won’t be posting about Return to Monkey Island anymore (via Eurogamer).

“I’m shutting down comments,” Gilbert said in a post featuring the new trailer. “People are just being mean and I’m having to delete personal attack comments. It’s an amazing game and everyone on the team is very proud of it. Play it or...

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Sega wants to turn Persona into a live-action show or movie

Persona 4.

Over the years Persona has seen a steady rise from a niche RPG series to a bonafide hit — so the next natural step is a live-action adaptation. While there’s nothing officially in the works just yet, Toru Nakahara, producer on the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movies, says that it’s something that Sega is exploring.

“Atlus’ worlds are filled with high drama, cutting-edge style and compelling characters,” Nakahara told IGN. “Stories like those from the Persona franchise really resonate with our fans and we see an opportunity to expand the lore like no one has seen — or played — before.” More directly, he said that “together, Sega and Atlus, are working to bring these stories and worlds to life through new mediums and for new audiences.”

T...

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Biden to call on FTC to protect abortion seekers’ data privacy

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As early as this week, President Joe Biden plans to ask the Federal Trade Commission to protect consumer data privacy following the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new report from Axios.

Biden’s request is expected to come by way of a letter to the FTC, asking the agency to protect the privacy of women and birthing parents online. Specifically, Axios reported that Biden “will say the FTC should not tolerate unfair or deceptive practices related to reporting, surveillance, sharing or sale of personal information — including sensitive health-related information — in any state.”

Soon after the Supreme Court released its ruling last week, privacy advocates and lawmakers warned that data obtained from...

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Chrome password manager update will let you manually add credentials on all platforms

Adding a password manually to Google’s password manager. | Image: Google

Google is updating its built-in password manager for Chrome and Android as it attempts to position it as an alternative to standalone services offered by 1Password and Bitwarden, the company announced today. Most significant is the ability to manually add passwords to the service, rather than simply relying on Chrome’s offer to save credentials when you use them. There had previously been signs of this feature on Chrome on desktop, but now Google says it’s making it available across “all platforms.”

The search giant also says it’s working to unify the design of the password manager between Chrome and Android with “a simplified and unified management experience” and says this includes a feature that will automatically group multiple...

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Airline cancellations are spiking as July Fourth looms

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Ahead of the July Fourth weekend, airlines are facing a wave of concern over flight cancellations — and new pressure from Washington to make sure they’re not leaving travelers in the lurch.

Wednesday saw more than 2,000 cancellations in a single day, according to FlightAware data, with uncertainty continuing into the holiday travel season. The surge in canceled flights is particularly bad because it’s happening across all airlines, straining the system’s capacity and leaving many travelers unable to reach their destinations. A Washington Post report on Tuesday detailed the human cost of those cancellations, with travelers sleeping on airport floors or canceling trips altogether.

A deeper look at the data shows cancellations really have...

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Virgin Orbit scrubs first night launch due to propellant temperature being ‘out of bounds’

Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl, with LauncherOne under its wing | Image: Virgin Orbit

Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit postponed its first night launch on Wednesday after finding that the temperature of its rocket propellant was “slightly out of bounds.” The company is figuring out when to move ahead with the launch in the next few days.

This mission — called “Straight Up” in homage to the 1988 song by Paula Abdul — is for the US Space Force and will carry seven small satellites for the Space Test Program. It’ll be the fifth mission for Virgin Orbit and the second one since the company went public through a SPAC merger. The launch was originally set to occur out of Mojave, California, during a launch window that opened at 1AM ET, which would have marked the first launch at night for the company.

We are standing...

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Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight 4e review: budget e-reader with buttons

The buttons are nice, but the trade-offs are hard to ignore

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COVID-19 booster shots should target omicron variants, FDA says

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers should include the newer forms of the omicron coronavirus variant in booster shots thisfall, the Food and Drug Administration recommended today.

The agency said it wants vaccine manufacturers to create booster shots that include two forms of the virus — the original strain, which is what’s in current vaccines, and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant. Those lineages have taken over as the most common form of the virus circulating in the United States. They’re highly contagious and are even better at evading the immune system than some previous versions of the virus.

Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax have already been testing omicron-targeted versions of their vaccines, which...

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BMW is the latest to adopt Android Automotive

Image: BMW

Google’s Android Automotive OS has been gaining traction in the industry, and this week, BMW announced it will be adopting the platform for some future vehicles. The company plans to develop their BMW Operating System 8 infotainment software using Android Automotive for some vehicle models beginning in March 2023 but also maintain the current Linux-based version for others.

BMW Group’s lead developer for the digital driving experience, Stephan Durach, said it’s about having a second technological approach. “We are integrating the best aspects of all worlds — that could be our own in-house developments, Open Source or commercial software products, depending on what the specific solution looks like,” said Durach.

Android Automotive is a...

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Samsung’s gaming TV hub launches with Xbox, Stadia, and GeForce Now streaming

Image: Samsung

Samsung is launching its gaming hub for its 2022 smart TVs and monitors today. The hub brings together the best game streaming apps into a single location, with quick access to Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Google Stadia, Utomik, Twitch, and Microsoft’s new Xbox TV app. Even Amazon Luna will be available soon, neatly integrated into the Samsung Gaming Hub UI.

The gaming hub doesn’t act only as a launch point for cloud gaming, though. HDMI-connected video game consoles will feature inside the hub, alongside passthrough controller inputs so you can use a single controller instead of having to pair multiple ones. That means popular Bluetooth headsets and controllers will work across multiple apps, services, and devices through the Samsung Gaming...

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YouTube is cracking down on tricks that spammers use to impersonate creators

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has been having a tough time with spammers lately. Earlier this year, a bunch of big creators like MKBHD and Jacksepticeye made videos highlighting the seemingly endless hordes of bad actors swarming their channels who reply to other commenters with fake giveaways and other scams. YouTube has been responding to these complaints and, today, announced a few new changes to try and stem the tide.

There are three new policies. First, channels will no longer be able to hide their subscriber count — a move often used by spammers to help camouflage themselves. This is because checking a channel’s subscriber count is a quick way to verify that they are who they say they are (aka Big Name Content Creator X).

Second, YouTube is limiting...

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Robot umpires could be coming to Major League Baseball in 2024

Don’t like the strike call? Take it up with the robot. | Photo by Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Two years from now, in baseball stadiums around the US, the umpire behind home plate might be little more than a mouthpiece for a robot. Major League Baseball plans to introduce robot umpires in the 2024 season, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN this week. He framed the change as a way to speed up games, but anyone who’s watched baseball the last few years will tell you that a machine would almost certainly call balls and strikes better than the humans do.

There are two ways the “Automated Ball-Strike System,” which is the technical term for these robot umpires, might be implemented. One is the fully automated version, in which the AI-powered system calls every pitch a ball or a strike and relays the call to the umpire. Or the MLB...

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The seven best secure messaging apps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’re looking for a way to keep your conversations over text private, it’s crucial to choose your messaging app carefully. Not all of them are end-to-end encrypted (E2EE), and others might have security holes that compromise your privacy.

Simply put, E2EE means that only you (the sender) and your recipient can see the contents of your messages. This — most importantly — excludes any third parties, like your mobile carrier, internet service provider (ISP), and phone manufacturer. Some users may want this extra layer of protection to help prevent any outside snooping from the government and other organizations that may try to use your private conversations against you.

All of the apps listed here are free and offer E2EE, so you can...

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How one of gaming’s most intimidating genres spawned a legion of hits

Inscryption.

The slow-burn rise of the roguelike deckbuilder

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The Steam Deck’s best button is its software

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Steam Deck has a lot of buttons. There’s a D-pad, all the typical face buttons, two control sticks that also respond to capacitive touch and can be pushed down like buttons, two trackpads with haptic feedback that are also pressure-sensitive buttons, two shoulder bumpers, two analog shoulder triggers, and four buttons on the back of the device behind the grips.

Somehow, they all feel like they’re exactly in the right place while you’re holding the device, and in writing the latest in our long-running Button of the Month series, you might think that I’d wax poetic about just one of them. But for me, the true magic of the Steam Deck is that any button can be the awesome button, thanks to the device’s excellent software.

...

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The Playdate’s launch was a unique opportunity for small game developers

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

The team at indie games studio RNG Party has always loved handheld gaming, particularly Nintendo’s quirky portable devices. So when they noticed a new handheld making waves on Twitter, one that looked a lot like a tiny yellow Game Boy, they knew they had to be a part of it. “With pretty much every major console maker now gone from this space, unless you count the Nintendo Switch, this kind of thing might only ever be possible for us once,” explains RNG’s Ben Busche. “And we didn’t want to miss out.”

That device was the Playdate, a handheld from longtime Mac software developer Panic, which is defined both by its miniature stature and the crank sticking out of its side. It finally released earlier this year, and those who purchased one...

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These cheeky handmade mirrors are perfect for TikTok

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge

Annemarie Rose is bent over a sheet of glass, hair tucked into a messy half ponytail, tracing the outline of a heart into its glossy surface. She breaks it apart, sands the edges, and etches a simple message across its smooth surface: spit in my mouth. “Something hot for Valentine’s Day,” the description reads on her TikTok video.

Commenters go wild, a chorus of desire filling the section. “WHERE CAN I BUY,” writes one enthusiastic viewer with a grip on their caps lock. Another helpfully adds a backstory: “I NEED THIS because I got blocked for telling my crush to spit in my mouth and pull my hair so sad.” Back in the real world, a dumbfounded Annemarie watches as the numbers on her video skyrocket. Refresh. 100 new followers. Refresh....

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Amazon restricts LGBTQ searches and products in the United Arab Emirates

Amazon sponsors LGBTQ issues in the US, including this Pride float from NYC in 2018. | Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images

Amazon has restricted search results and inventory related to LGBTQ topics in the United Arab Emirates after being pressured to do so by the government, reports The New York Times. Same-sex relationships and sex acts are illegal in the UAE, and are punishable by fines and imprisonment.

A number of books related to LGBTQ topics were removed from sale in the UAE (including Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir), and search results have been hidden for more than 150 keywords. These include broad search terms like “lgbtq” and “pride,” as well as targeted queries like “transgender flag” and “chest binder for lesbians.”

The Times notes that it’s not clear what penalties Amazon was threatened with by the UAE...

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Apple lets apps in South Korea use third-party payment systems

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Developers of apps released in Apple’s South Korean App Store no longer have to use the company’s own in-app payment system, the iPhone maker has announced in a developer update. Instead, developers will be able to take payments using the third-party service providers pre-approved by Apple.

The change comes in response to an amendment to South Korea’s Telecommunications Business Act passed last year, which prevents large platform holders like Apple and Google from forcing developers to use their first-party in-app payment systems. Both Apple and Google opposed the legislation, with Apple arguing that it would make it harder for its users to manage their purchases, undermine their privacy protections, and put them at risk of fraud.

D...

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Biden administration launches $1 billion effort to correct racist highway designs of the past

I-81 in Syracuse was responsible for the displacement of hundreds of Black residents when it was built in the 1960s. | Image: Getty Images

The Biden administration announced a $1 billion effort to rectify racist infrastructure decisions of the past, such as highways that were built by bulldozing Black communities.

The program, which the Department of Transportation is calling “Reconnecting Communities,” will in some cases tear down highways that were built with the expressed purpose of creating physical barriers between mostly Black and minority communities. Other projects will focus on building new infrastructure, like greenways to promote cycling and walking or transit programs, like rapid bus lines to reconnect communities to urban cores.

“Our focus isn’t about assigning blame. It isn’t about getting caught up in guilt or regret. It is about fixing a problem,” said...

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Samsung beats TSMC to production of 3nm chips

Samsung employees hold up 3nm wafers at the company’s production line. | Image: Samsung

Samsung has started producing 3nm chips, beating rival chip manufacturer TSMC to the more power efficient fabrication process, Bloomberg reports. TSMC’s 3nm process isn’t expected to go into mass production until the second half of 2022.

Samsung says the new fabrication process is 45 percent more power efficient than its previous 5nm process, has 23 percent higher performance, and 16 percent smaller surface area. In the future, it hopes its second generation 3nm process can reduce power consumption and size by 50 percent and 35 percent respectively, and increase performance by 30 percent.

The announcement is a key milestone in Samsung’s efforts to compete with TSMC, which dominates the market for contract chip production and is the...

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Substack CEO says he’s ‘very sorry’ about laying off 13 people

Image: Substack

Substack is the latest tech company to announce layoffs, with the company’s CEO Chris Best tweeting on Wednesday that he’s letting 13 workers go. According to Axios, that’s around 14 percent of Substack’s workforce. In his letter and follow-up tweets, Best cites “market conditions” as the reason behind the layoffs.

He also admits that the move may be a surprise to some employees. “Not so long ago, I told you all that our plan was to grow the team and not do layoffs,” he says, also noting that the company is “still hiring for specific key roles” and has money saved. However, Best says that the company needs to change tactics, as it could be facing “an extended period” where the economy goes from bad to worse. He says that the layoffs are...

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Now iFixit has genuine repair parts for Google Pixels, from the 2 to the 6 Pro

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

In April, Google announced plans to join the expanding list of tech companies that work with iFixit. The repair mavens distribute parts and tools for people interested in performing DIY electronics repairs, and starting today, iFixit’s store offers genuine Google parts for a number of Pixel phones.

You can order what you need to repair everything from the Pixel 2 to the latest Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, as well as the tools to install them and step-by-step guides to walk you through the process. (Aftermarket parts are also available if you’re looking to fix an OG Pixel or Nexus device.)

Want to make your Pixel last even longer?

Starting today, @iFixit has the genuine Pixel spare parts you need to give your Pixel 2 through 6 a hardware...

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