This video finally proves LG’s Rollable phone was real

Image: LG

Just three months before it quit the smartphone business for good, LG insisted it had actually built — and would shortly sell — a rollable phone. But did it really make one? The only proof was a brief teaser at the top of a virtual press conference that could have totally been CG, and the phone never saw the light of day, unless you believe the rumor that the company sold a handful to its own employees in Korea.

GIF by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Rollable unrolls.

But now, for the first time, we can see a real LG rollable phone unrolling its screen in the wild (via NotebookCheck). It’s a dead ringer for the image that Korea’s Agency for Technology and Standards regulatory body revealed last March, and we see...

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Here’s how the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope stack up to Hubble’s epic shots

The Hubble Space Telescope, still going strong after more than 30 years in space. | Image: NASA

A stellar showdown

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The Magic Leap 2 launches September 30th for $3,299

Image: Magic Leap

The Magic Leap 2 headset is launching on September 30th for a starting price of $3,299. The mixed reality device is a smaller and lighter successor to the 2018 Magic Leap, and among other improvements, it features a wider field of view — but also, as expected, a higher price.

Magic Leap has already distributed the Magic Leap 2 to a limited set of partners, including neurotech company SyncThink and other medical companies. In September, it will be available for general purchase in several markets, including the US (where it’s selling through retail partner Insight), Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Launches in Japan and Singapore are planned for the end of 2022.

The headset comes in three...

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Donald Trump tweets incited Capitol violence, Twitter employee tells January 6th Committee

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Tweets from former President Donald Trump inspired the violence at the US Capitol on January 6th, a former Twitter employee who worked on platform and content moderation policies told congressional investigators in testimony released on Tuesday.

The employee, whose identity remains anonymous, specifically pointed to a December 19th tweet from Trump, which asked his supporters to join him in “protest” of the 2020 election results. “Be there. Will be wild,” the tweet said. According to the anonymous employee, that message was seen by many within Twitter as directly responsible for the violence that followed, which left five dead and has resulted in more than 700 arrests.

“Be there. Will be wild”

That impression was confirmed by testimony...

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The New York Times is fixing one of Wordle’s most annoying problems

Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

The New York Times will soon let you link your Wordle stats to a NYT account, a change that should fix one of the most annoying aspects about the online puzzle game.

Right now, your Wordle stats don’t sync across browsers or devices, meaning that if you want to keep your streak going, you have to play the game on the same browser and the same device. With this upcoming change, though, your stats and streak will sync “across *all* the devices you play Wordle on,” the NYT said in a tweet from its Games account.

You’ll be able to link your Wordle stats to a free or existing NYT account, and the option will be available “soon.” (The option wasn’t live for me yet when I checked Tuesday’s puzzle in Chrome on my laptop and in Safari on my...

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Google already broke its new YouTube UI on old Chromecasts

The phone as a remote experience has just gotten much worse.

Google has seemingly outdone itself when it comes to discontinuing products and experiences in a short amount of time — as 9to5Google reports, after rolling out a new interface for some older Chromecasts last winter, the company has basically made it useless. In a reply to a customer on Twitter, the company says you’re no longer able to log in to your YouTube account on older versions of the streaming puck, leaving you better off just casting from your phone (especially if you pay to see an ad-free YouTube).

While choosing videos on your phone and sending them to your TV through the Chromecast was originally how the device was supposed to work, Google recently added to that experience. Last year, users got the ability to use their phones...

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How to enable Android’s TalkBack screen reader

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A screen reader is an accessibility tool designed for people with vision impairments. It can read any text, buttons, or image descriptors aloud on a wide variety of devices, including the phones or tablets that run Android.

On most Android devices, the screen reader tool is called TalkBack, and there are several ways you can enable it. On Samsung devices with software versions earlier than One UI 3.1, TalkBack is occasionally labeled as “Voice Assistant.” Despite having different names, Samsung says TalkBack and Voice Assistant offer the same functionalities.

For this article, I used a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, so your experience might be slightly different depending on which type of Android device you’re using.

Enable the screen reader...

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Netflix’s Resident Evil may cause déjà vu, confusion, and the urge to pick up a controller

MARCOS CRUZ/NETFLIX

Netflix’s Resident Evil series puts the Albert Wesker and his family in the spotlight

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Kirby is always there for us

Nintendo

I am convinced that somewhere deep in the bowels of Nintendo HQ, there is a cabal of game developers in charge of strategically deploying Kirby when things get dire. I mean, how else can you explain the fact that we get not one but two cute as fuck Kirby games in the same calendar year?

You can’t.

Kirby is the shining light of the world, and he comes when we need him the most. He showed up in 2002 with Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland. And in 2017-2018, Nintendo must have known we were going through it because it released four games in quick succession: Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Kirby’s Blowout Bash, Kirby Battle Royale, andKirby Star Allies. Yes, none of these games were particularly memorable,but I choose to believe that Nintendo looked...

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These are the best laptop deals around for Amazon Prime Day 2022

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day is one of the few times each year when almost every kind of tech product, including laptops, gets big discounts. We’re bundling some of the best deals to be found on laptops, satisfying people who are looking for something powerful, like a gaming laptop, or something with long-lasting battery life. If you’re looking for deals on products in multiple tech categories, check out our main roundup that we’re frequently updating here. Otherwise, we’re about to hook you up with some stellar laptop deals.

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook-meets-tablet with an OLED screen and detachable keyboard is $299.99. This model features a 13.3-inch 1080p screen, the Qualcomm Snapdragon SC7180 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. It...

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Hunter Biden phone hack claims test platforms’ misinformation policies

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Once again, search and social media platforms are facing moderation challenges tied to data allegedly leaked from the president’s son’s devices.

Over the weekend, users of 4Chan’s /pol/ messageboard were whipped into a frenzy of excitement by one poster claiming to have hacked into Hunter Biden’s phone. Exact details are hard to confirm, but the original poster suggests they have used a tool called iPhone Backup Extractor to recover backup copies of the contents of an iPhone and iPad belonging to Hunter Biden — possibly by compromising his iCloud account and downloading the data from the cloud.

at least some of the images shared on 4Chan haven’t previously appeared anywhere else online

The 4Chan poster shared further instructions about...

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Elon Musk’s Twitter battle ignites the right’s online agitators

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s short-lived push to buy Twitter has made him a lot of enemies — but it’s delivering exactly what a certain set of Republican influencers want. Right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. have already hailed Musk’s decision to back out of the deal. For them, the goal is no longer to control Twitter but to embarrass it.

“Maybe Elon never intended to buy Twitter after all,” Charlie Kirk, podcaster and CEO of Turning Point USA, said in a tweet on Friday. “Maybe he just wanted to expose it.”

“Maybe he just wanted to expose it.”

“Twitter has lied from [its] conception and continually about the scale, scope, depth, source and ubiquity of BOTs versus actual human users,” Bannon, former White House chief strategist...

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How to use multi-stop routing in iOS 16 using Apple Maps

You can now split your trip into segments.

Whenever I plan a trip, especially a road trip that will last more than a day, I always plan more than one stop. Not only bathroom and meal breaks, but interesting attractions, public parks and nature preserves, friends who may live along the route — I like to include them all.

Until recently, if I were using an iPhone, I’d skip Apple Maps in favor of Google Maps for iOS, which has had the ability to create multi-stop maps since 2016. Finally, however, in iOS 16, Apple Maps lets you plan a route with multiple stops. It’s a cinch to use.

Just tap on “Add Stop,” add another destination, and then move it to wherever you want it.

• Open Apple Maps
• Enter your starting and ending points. Maps will calculate your route (or...

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Now that Nvidia’s RTX 30-series cards are easier to find, they come with more free games

Doom Eternal and its expansions are included in the deal. | Image: Bethesda

The GPU shortage is over, and if you’re considering picking up one of Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics cards, the company is running a deal until August 1st that tosses in some Bethesda games for free.

Beginning Tuesday, if you buy “a select GeForce RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, 3090, 3090 Ti desktop, laptop, or GPU” from participating retailers, you’ll get Ghostwire: Tokyo, Doom Eternal, and the Doom Eternal: Year One Pass, which includes the game’s two Ancient Gods expansions, according to Nvidia.

The company seems to be a big fan of Doom Eternal. It offered a bundle last summer that included an RTX 3080 Ti, Doom Eternal, a $100 gift card to the Bethesda store, and some Doom Eternal gear — but this year’s deal applies to a larger number of cards...

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Microsoft will sell you a $60 T-shirt with the Windows XP background

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is launching a new “Hardwear” clothing collection that includes a Windows XP T-shirt. If you’ve always wanted to wander the streets with the Windows XP bliss wallpaper strapped to your back, now is your time. The famous blue sky and green hill are emblazoned on a mustard or black tee, available for $60.

The nine-piece collection of T-shirts, hats, sweats, jackets, and pants is part of a collaboration between Supervsn founder Gavin Mathieu and Microsoft. It’s Microsoft’s first capsule collection of clothing and merchandise, and the software maker clearly wanted to create a trendy nerd vibe with its collaboration.

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s “Hardwear” clothing collection.

“The collection is reflective...

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The best Apple deals available for Amazon Prime Day 2022

The Apple Watch Series 7 is cheaper than ever. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day is a great time to score stellar deals on Amazon devices, but it also provides a rare opportunity to purchase pricey Apple products for a lot less. Right now, for example, you can save big on Apple’s AirPods Pro and the third-gen AirPods models, as Amazon is offering both for nearly their lowest price to date. If you’re not in the market for a pair of true wireless earbuds, however, fret not, as you can also take advantage of deals on the latest Apple Watch, MacBook Air, and a range of other Apple products.

Below, we’ve listed some of the best Apple deals you can get this Prime Day. If you’re interested in sales going on outside of the Apple ecosystem, you can also check out our guide to the best Prime Day deals, which...

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How to change your iPhone lock screen in iOS 16 beta

Lock screens are a whole lot more fun with iOS 16.

Your lock screen can do a lot more in iOS 16: this platform update provides a level of lock screen customization that iOS has never offered before, including widgets and wallpaper options. Even better, you’re not stuck with just one lock screen — you can create several to reflect the time of day, the weather, or your mood.

It’s an amount of personalization that’s uncharacteristic of an Apple device. But beyond the entertainment value of turning your wallpaper into a grid of poop emoji, iOS 16 makes it possible to get useful information at a glance that once required you to unlock your phone — and that deserves a thumbs-up emoji for sure.

iOS 16 is available to the public now in beta — we used the public beta 16.0 to follow the steps...

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Lofi Girl is back online after ‘abusive’ copyright strikes

Image: Lofi Girl

YouTube interrupted the beloved Lofi Girl radio channel this week over copyright notices that YouTube later called “abusive” and false. The channel’s streams, which had been running for over two years, relaunched today after being removed on July 10th. The takedown stemmed from a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) demand apparently from record label FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia. YouTube reversed the strikes soon after, but Lofi Girl used the incident to call for more rigorous controls on the notoriously exploitable system.

The operator of Lofi Girl (formerly ChilledCow) tweeted a copy of the DMCA takedown notice for its two lo-fi hip-hop “beats to relax/study to” video streams on Sunday, calling the reports “false copyright strikes.”...

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YouTube TV hits 5 million subscribers and is looking like the future of cable

YouTube TV is the biggest thing in internet cable. | Image: YouTube

When YouTube decided to build a cable TV-like product back in 2014, a big part of the goal was just to create a better relationship with Hollywood. After seven years of fighting with Viacom about widespread copyright infringement, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wanted a way to work with networks and studios, not against them. She hired Christian Oestlien, who is now a VP of product management at YouTube, and gave him a broad mandate: “figure out what YouTube might be able to do with the larger media companies, with a focus around television.”

Seven years later, YouTube TV, the company’s live cable streaming bundle, is a hit. The company announced today that 5 million people are currently either paying for or testing out YouTube TV, which...

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Texas heatwave and energy crunch curtails Bitcoin mining

An aerial view of the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9th, 2021. The long sheds at North America’s largest Bitcoin mine look endless in the Texas sun, packed with the type of machines that have helped the US to become the new global hub for the digital currency. | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images

Bitcoin miners in the Lone Star State are powering down this week as a punishing heatwave stresses the power grid. Texas’ grid operator asked residents and businesses to conserve energy on Monday with “extreme hot weather driving record power demand across Texas.”

Bitcoin mining companies in the state responded by turning off their machines that otherwise would have used over 1,000 megawatts of electricity, according to the Texas Blockchain Council. That freed up about 1 percent of the grid’s total capacity.

“They are shutting down for several reasons but primarily because it is the right thing to do to be a good ‘grid citizen,’” Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, said to The Verge in an email. There are also...

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Marvel at the first batch of full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO

All the cosmic photos!

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Nothing officially announces flashy Phone 1, starting at £399

The Nothing Phone 1. | Image: Nothing

After weeks of teases, Nothing is finally announcing its debut smartphone — the Nothing Phone 1 — at a launch event today. Led by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, it’s the well-funded startup’s second product released following last year’s Ear 1 true wireless earbuds. You can check out my colleague Allison Johnson’s hands on impressions of the device right here.

The big news is that the Nothing Phone 1 will be sold with a modest starting price of £399 (the equivalent of around $475 USD, though it’s not getting a widespread release in the US) when it goes on sale on July 21st. £399 gets you the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while stepping up to £449 (around $535 USD) gets you 256GB of storage. The model with 12GB of RAM and...

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There’s something familiar about the Nothing Phone 1

With today’s announcement, Nothing’s Phone 1 is fully illuminated.

Unusual back panel, usual everything else

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Prime Day 2022: the best headphone and earbud deals

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Prime Day is an excellent opportunity to save big on those new headphones or earbuds you’ve been eyeing. Amazon is offering substantial savings and discounts on many well-reviewed sets from brands including Sony, Bose, Samsung, Beats, and more. Many of our favorite recommendations are on sale.

You can take advantage of these Prime Day deals between July 12th and 13th. Whether you’re looking for over-ear noise-canceling headphones or a pair of earbuds for the gym, there’s something for pretty much everyone on this list.

THE BEST PRIME DAY DEALS ON EARBUDS AND HEADPHONES

• Sony’s fantastic WF-1000XM4 noise-canceling earbuds — still our top pick in the category — are on sale for $198, way down from their usual $279.99. The 1000XM4s offer...

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You might be able to bundle HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video again soon

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A year after HBO left Amazon Prime Video, its streaming successor, HBO Max could be returning. Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon and HBO Max’s owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, are in talks to make it easier to subscribe to HBO Max directly from Amazon Prime.

Before Warner Bros. Discovery had ambitions to go toe to toe with Netflix and Disney in the great streaming wars, it did respectable business playing nice with other streamers and bundling its service with other subscriptions. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, and even Hulu would all take your $15 a month so you could watch HBO directly from those apps instead of the HBO one. The tactic was similar to how HBO operated in the cable TV space —essentially functioning as a premium add-on...

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Genetically engineered pig hearts transplanted into dead people

Researchers gave pig hearts to brain-dead patients. | Image: NYU Langone Health

Researchers successfully transplanted genetically modified pig hearts into two recently deceased peopleconnected to ventilators, the New York University team announced today. The surgeries are the latest step forward in the field of animal-to-human transplants, or xenotransplantation, which has seen a flurry of successes so far this year — raising hopes for a new, steady supply of organs to ease shortages.

The only thing different about these heart transplants from a normal human-to-human heart transplant was the organ itself, the research team said in a statement. “Our goal is to integrate the practices used in a typical, everyday heart transplant, only with a nonhuman organ that will function normally without additional aid from...

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Spotify is getting deeper into video

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s a big ol’ Spotify day here at Hot Pod. The company is making moves, acquiring Wordle-inspired music trivia game Heardle, expanding its video podcast reach to new countries, and taking another hit podcast exclusive.

Plus, a roundup of the best Prime Day audio deals. Let’s get into it.

Spotify acquires music trivia game Heardle

Spotify announced Tuesday that it has purchased Heardle, one of the many themed trivia games that cropped up in the wake of Wordle’s blockbuster success. Heardle is Spotify’s first game acquisition, and the company hopes it will play a dual role: in addition to keeping music nerds engaged, it can act as a music discovery tool. You can read all about it here.

Spotify expands video podcasts to six more countries

A...

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Kirby’s rolling to your Switch this summer in Dream Buffet

Image: Nintendo

Kirby’s getting yet another Switch game; this time, it’s a four-player competition to see who can gobble up the most strawberries. The trailer for Kirby’s Dream Buffet has Kirby and friends rolling across food-themed obstacle courses while shapeshifting into desserts, like a cupcake or chocolate bar, that grant him different powers.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet looks kind of like Super Monkey Ball, only Dream Buffet swaps bananas for strawberries and a plastic ball for, well... Kirby. As the four players consume more strawberries, they grow bigger to prepare for what Nintendo describes as a final “fruity fight atop a floating platform.”

He big.

At the end of the trailer, Kirby and his three blue, green, and yellow companions...

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The best Prime Day 2022 gaming deals

The best deals on games and accessories you can find on Prime Day | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day is finally upon us, and with it comes a variety of excellent deals on gaming hardware and accessories, not to mention games. This year, you can even grab some cool odds and ends to round out your gaming setup at home, whether you’re looking to personalize your peripherals or elevate the production of your Twitch stream.

While it’s still a bit ambitious to expect discounts on next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, we’re definitely keeping our ears to the ground for restocks of the console at Amazon and other retailers.

Virtual reality deals

We can wholeheartedly recommend picking the Meta Quest 2 for its ease of use and accessibility, but Amazon has also discounted the HTC Vive for anyone planning to...

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Best smartwatch and fitness tracker deals for Amazon Prime Day 2022

You can find discounts for the Apple Watch Series 7 on Prime Day. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

It’s Amazon Prime Day 2022 — which means it’s a good time to find a discount on a smartwatch or fitness tracker to help your health goals — especially if you’re hunting for a full-featured wearable that’s usually out of your price range. You can also take a look at our buying guides for Apple Watches, Fitbits, and fitness trackers for some inspiration.

Here are the best Prime Day deals for smartwatches and fitness trackers. Keep in mind that you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription to get access. And once you’re done sussing out which wearable to buy, you can always head back to our best Prime Day deals guide to see if anything else catches your fancy.

The best Apple Watch Prime Day deals

Let’s face it. If you’re on iOS, the Apple Watch...

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