FDA warnings aren’t stopping illicit weight-loss supplements

Photo by Gabe Souza / Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Warning letters from the Food and Drug Administration aren’t enough to push potentially dangerous weight loss supplements off the market, according to a new analysis published in JAMA.

Dietary supplements fall into a regulatory grey area in the United States. They don’t have to be reviewed or approved by the FDA before going on the market, but the agency is still responsible for overseeing the supplements that are sold in the country. To be classified as dietary supplements, these products have to be things like vitamins, minerals, or enzymes — ingredients that are actually part of people’s diets.

If groups are making supplements that contain things that aren’t dietary ingredients, the FDA can crack down and issue warning letters,...

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Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro review: low profile and low ambitions

Old ideas shouldn’t cost this much

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Razer’s low-profile DeathStalker keyboard returns with mechanical switches

The Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro. | Image: Razer

Razer has announced a trio of new mechanical keyboards today that revives its decade-old DeathStalker range. Unlike the original DeathStalker models, which had laptop-style membrane switches, the new DeathStalker V2, V2 Pro, and V2 Pro Tenkeyless feature low-profile optical mechanical switches, which should be longer lasting, feel more tactile, and respond quicker than the old model. You can read my colleague Alice Newcome-Beill’s in-depth, hands-on review of the DeathStalker V2 Pro right here, or read on for a summary of the whole range.

The wireless, full-size DeathStalker V2 Pro is available today for $249.99, while the two other models will follow in the third quarter of this year. The DeathStalker V2 Pro Tenkeyless maintains the...

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Verizon starts selling Xbox consoles as another example of 5G ‘innovation’

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Did you know that Verizon sells game consoles? The carrier has stocked the PlayStation 5 on its online store at times, and today, it announced a partnership with Microsoft that will see Verizon offer both the Xbox Series X and Series S through the All Access monthly financing program.

Both will be available starting July 28th, and Verizon is offering deals like 50 percent off an Xbox Elite 2 controller to sweeten the somewhat strange notion of buying an Xbox subscription from your phone company.

To Verizon, none of this is strange at all. If you’ll mostly be playing from the couch, the company says its home internet offerings — Fios and 5G Home — are the perfect solution for multiplayer gaming. And if you want to take advantage of Xbox...

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Elon Musk’s lawyers say Twitter is making the pretrial process impossible

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk’s lawyers have filed a letter to the Delaware Chancery Court saying, essentially, that Twitter isn’t playing nice in the pretrial process and should be forced to do so. The letter, which you can read in full below, is addressed to Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick — who will ultimately decide the case over whether Musk can get out of his contract to buy Twitter for $44 billion — and also requests that the trial should be scheduled to begin on October 17th.

Last week, McCormick decided that the trial will start in October. Twitter had pushed for proceedings to commence as early as possible, arguing that the ongoing shenanigans are hurting the company and that things should be resolved as quickly as possible. (Twitter, of course,...

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Xiaomi 12S Ultra field test: an occasionally incredible camera

The 12S Ultra features Leica branding and a bigger than usual sensor.

Bringing better hardware to the computational photography fight

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Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman thinks fashion rental is inflation-proof

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

The company’s roller-coaster journey from COVID crash to wedding boom

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Saudi Arabia’s new mirrored city looks like a huge dystopian wall in the desert

The structure is supposed to be 500 meters tall — 50 meters higher than the Empire State Building. | Image: Neom

Often, on the internet, completely deranged CGI infrastructure concepts cooked up by bored design students go mildly viral, like those public transit “discs” that ride above traffic on stilts or that idea for a nuclear-powered “flying hotel.” Very rarely these half-baked renders are backed by one of the wealthiest sovereign wealth funds in the world. But such is the case with Saudi Arabia’s plan to build what looks like a huge mirrored wall in the desert.

If you’ve not been following this saga, let me get you up to speed. Saudi Arabia has a lot of money, and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has a lot of ambition. In order to leave his mark on the world, MBS plans to develop a huge city in the desert named Neom,...

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PlayStation VR2 lets you broadcast yourself stumbling around in VR games

Image: Sony

Sony is teasing some more details about its upcoming PlayStation VR2 headset today. After detailing the design of PS VR2 earlier this year and some games that will support it, Sony is now confirming that the headset will include a see-through view to see your surroundings, a broadcast mode for filming yourself while you play, and a cinematic mode where you can display non-VR games and media content on a virtual cinema screen.

Sony’s PS VR2 see-through view will let players keep the headset on, thanks to cameras embedded in the front of the headset. “It comes in handy when you want to easily check where the PS VR2 Sense controllers are in your room without taking the headset off,” explains Yasuo Takahashi, senior staff product manager at...

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Meta’s private messaging app for couples is shutting down

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Another one of Meta’s social experiments is shutting down. It’s called Tuned, and if you’re like me, this is probably the first and last time you’ll ever hear of it (via TechCrunch).

Tuned launched in 2020, back when Meta was still Facebook, as an app designed for couples looking to connect even when they’re apart. The app comes from Meta’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team, which develops experimental apps and services. Through Tuned, couples can privately share their thoughts and moods as well as send notes to one another. There are also games that couples can play to get to know each other better, in addition to Spotify integration for exchanging music.

As noted by TechCrunch, Meta has started notifying Tuned users that the app...

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Russia says it plans to withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024

Russia announced it has decided to withdraw from the International Space Station partnership after 2024, the Russian state news site TASS reported. Yuri Borisov, the new head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, reportedly told President Vladimir Putin the news during a meeting on Tuesday.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich, you know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station,” Borisov said, according to a translated report from TASS. “Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision [on] leaving this station after 2024 [has] been made.”

“Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners”

The decision seemingly reaffirms statements...

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Instagram leader: we’re gonna keep adding more video

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Instagram’s leader wants you to know that the company is going to keep leaning into video. In a short video this morning that seems like it’s aimed at No. 2 Instagram user Kylie Jenner, Instagram head Adam Mosseri lays out bluntly that the app is going to keep shifting away from its photo roots.

“I need to be honest. I do believe that more and more of Instagram is gonna become video over time,” Mosseri said.

The app will continue to support photos, but Mosseri says the move away from them is driven by user behavior. Sharing and viewing of videos is growing, and “we’re gonna have to lean into that shift.”

Mosseri’s comments come a day after Jenner and her sister Kim Kardashian shared an image complaining about all of the app’s changes....

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is as enjoyable as it is inscrutable

Prepare to spend considerable time and brain power playing this game

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Leap seconds cause chaos for computers — so Meta wants to get rid of them

Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

Since 1972 there have been 27 leap seconds: additional seconds added to the world’s common clock — Coordinated Universal Time or UTC — to account for changes in the Earth’s rate of rotation. Historically, our concept of time is defined as a fraction of the length of the solar day, but as the Earth’s rate of spin is somewhat irregular (slowing and speeding based on various factors) it means solar time and universal time tend to drift apart. So, in order to compensate, we add leap seconds. And this really confuses computers.

I mean, just imagine you’re a computer. You have a very clear sense of time. You know that there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute: all neat and tidy. Then, on some random day as...

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GM just secured enough cathode material for 5 million electric vehicles

General Motors needs a lot of cathode active materials (CAM) if it’s to reach its goal of making enough electric vehicles to become a completely carbon neutral company by 2040. How much is enough? How about 950,000 tons of the stuff.

GM now says it’s reached a deal with LG Chem, one of South Korea’s premier battery making firms, to lock down a supply of CAM starting later this year. CAM is basically what makes a battery a battery, consisting of components like processed nickel, lithium and other materials, and representing about 40 percent of the total cost of a battery cell.

CAM is basically what makes a battery a battery

The majority of EV battery cathodes are made with NCM — nickel, cobalt, and magnesium. Cobalt is a key component in...

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VW starts ID.4 production in Tennessee, promising cheaper EVs

VW

The Volkswagen ID.4 electric crossover SUV is now being built at the German automaker’s vehicle factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s the company’s first EV to be manufactured in the US and signals that a more affordable version of the ID.4 is on the horizon.

VW says it plans on ramping up production at its Chattanooga facility to 7,000 vehicles per month “later this year,” with the goal of making even more vehicles per month in 2023. The first customer deliveries are expected in October 2022.

The ID.4 is VW’s most popular EV, having delivered 190,000 vehicles to customers globally since its release in 2021. VW CEO Herbert Diess, who is stepping down in September, said in May 2022 that the company was “basically sold out on electric...

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Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 color is so purple it named it twice

The Galaxy S22, now in purple. | Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 is launching in a new purple color today, which is officially called “Bora Purple.” As the company’s press release helpfully points out, “Bora” is the Korean word for “purple,” meaning that the new color is effectively called “purple purple.” It goes on sale on August 10th for $799.99, the same price as the original Galaxy S22.

Since launch, the base model of Samsung’s latest flagship series has been available in a very similar color the company calls “violet.” But this previous color was a lot lighter, verging on pink, and was also two-tone, with gold detailing on the camera bump and around the phone’s frame. The new purple is entirely uniform, with more or less the same color across the phone’s back, camera bump,...

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Nubia’s latest gaming smartphone has an RGB-equipped fan and ten layers of cooling

From left to right, the RedMagic 7S Pro’s Supernova, Obsidian, and Mercury colors. | Image: Nubia

If you’re the kind of gamer who won’t rest until every last component is equipped with RGB lighting, right down to the case fans in their PC, then do I have a smartphone for you. Nubia has just launched its RedMagic 7S Pro gaming smartphone internationally and, much like last year’s RedMagic 6S Pro, some models feature transparent backplates to let you see their internal RGB-equipped fans. These fans aren’t just for show, and can spin at up to 20,000rpm to keep the phone’s internals cool as part of what Nubia calls a “ten-layer multi-dimensional cooling system.”

The phones are a mid-year refresh of the RedMagic 7 released in February, indicating there’s enough interest in these handsets to warrant multiple releases per year. Like Asus’s...

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Zuck turns up the heat

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales and Alex Castro / Sculpture: Okamoto Studio Custom Ice

As Meta’s growth slows, Mark Zuckerberg is pushing even harder. Will his employees melt under the pressure?

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Amazon is raising Prime prices in Europe by up to 43 percent a year

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

Amazon is raising the price of its Prime subscription across Europe in September by up to 43 percent a year. In an email to customers overnight, Amazon revealed its annual Prime cost will jump 20 percent in the UK from £79 to £95 from September 15th. In France the price hike is even more acute, moving from €49 per year to €69.90 — a 43 percent increase.

Amazon will also hike prices in Spain and Italy by 39 percent annually, with the company’s second-biggest market, Germany, seeing an annual 30 percent rise. Amazon’s Prime price increases in Europe come just months after the price of Prime in the US rose to $139 per year, up from the previous $119 annual fee. Amazon Prime typically includes fast shipping, access to sales, and free movie /...

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Logitech’s new ‘gender-inclusive’ PC gaming accessories come with the pink tax

The keyboard, headset, and mouse (complete with color add-ons for each) cost a cool $639.97. | Image: Logitech

Logitech has announced a lineup of PC gaming accessories that are designed to be more gender-inclusive — and specifically geared toward women — than any of its previous releases. Companies shouldn’t be trying to market consumer technology by gender in 2022 and should instead recognize the wide variety of tastes and physical needs consumers have. But Logitech’s gone and done it anyway.

And the gadgets in the Aurora collection do seem cool, and notably, they’re new — not just new colorways of existing products. But aside from a few interesting features across the entirety of the Aurora collection, it still feels like a case of the pink tax at work.

With its latest collection of gaming accessories (and the many pricey add-ons you can...

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Amazon’s best-selling new charcoal grill is... the Pixel Buds Pro?

Pixel Buds Pro. | Image: Google

Prepping for a summer cookout? If you head over to Amazon right now, you can pre-order the retailer’s hottest new charcoal grill: the Google Pixel Buds Pro.

Yes, that sentence you just read didn’t make a lot of sense, but Amazon’s search engine thinks it does! The algorithm has apparently decided that not only do the new charcoal colored earbuds count as a “charcoal grill,” they’ve apparently been the best-selling product in that category for over 24 hours now (via Reddit and Mishaal Rahman) without Amazon doing anything about it.

See for yourself:

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

One of these things is not like the others.

“#1 new release in charcoal grills,” reads the badge provided...

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Dell is getting out of the phone syncing game

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Remember when everyone wanted to own your phone and your laptop? Dell’s finally tossing in the towel (via Windows Central).

On a support page, Dell announced that it’s discontinuing Mobile Connect, the program that syncs your phone’s texts, calls, and notifications to your computer. While Dell is stopping downloads on November 30th for users in the US, Canada, and Japan, it will no longer be available to use starting January 31st, 2023. The service is shutting down even earlier for users outside these three countries, with downloads stopping on July 31st and a total shutdown occurring on November 30th.

Dell Mobile Connect — sometimes called Alienware Mobile Connect — made its debut in 2018 and is, naturally, supposed to work best with...

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Best Buy is testing a tiny digital-first store that opens its doors Tuesday

Best Buy’s first digital-first location will open on Tuesday, July 26th, in Charlotte, North Carolina. | Image: Best Buy

Best Buy is opening a digital-first, small-format store on Tuesday in Monroe, North Carolina, that takes a very different approach than most of its “big box” retail locations. The 5,000-square-foot location is only about 15 percent as big as the typical 35- to 40,000-square-foot Best Buy location and is even smaller than many smaller Apple Stores, which are typically between 6,000 to 8,500 square feet.

Bloomberg reported last year that Best Buy was testing downsized locations of about 27,000 square feet to as small as 15,000 square feet, but this is much smaller, squeezing nearer to the now-closed Best Buy Mobile footprint. This test store is in the Charlotte area, where Best Buy also launched five other test stores last year, trying...

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Teenagers spotted the largest gas pipeline spill in US history

A Colonial Pipeline storage site in Charlotte, North Carolina | Photo by LOGAN CYRUS / AFP via Getty Images

A giant pipeline spewed millions of gallons of fuel into a nature preserve for more than two weeks until two teens on four-wheelers noticed the spill and alerted authorities.

The teenagers discovered the leak in the Colonial Pipeline in August 2020 in the Oehler Nature Preserve outside Charlotte, North Carolina, E&E News reports. Just how massive the leak actually was — about 2 million gallons — came to light recently on Friday, July 22nd.

Colonial Pipeline Company was required to give an updated estimate of the damage because of a recent consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The company had previously reported that the spill released 63,000 gallons of gasoline shortly after the spill was discovered.

...

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Anti-vax dating site exposed data for 3,500 users through ‘debug mode’ bug

Illustration by Carlo Cadenas / The Verge

Unsurprisingly, it seems like the type of people who shun vaccinations are not great at preventative cybersecurity either.

As reported by the Daily Dot, “Unjected” — a dating site specifically for people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 — failed to take basic precautions to keep users’ data secure, leaving sensitive data exposed and allowing potentially anyone to become a site administrator.

The “Unjected” site was set up to leave the administrator dashboard fully accessible to anyone who knew how to look for it. Through this dashboard, an administrator could access user information for any member of the site, including name, date of birth, email address, and (if provided) their home address.

The configuration error was discovered...

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Genshin Impact’s next major update will add two beautiful new biomes

Image: MiHoYo

Genshin Impact’s impending Sumeru update is set to add some beautiful new areas to explore, and the game’s developers shared a look at some of the new zones in a new video.

The new areas will be divided into two major zones: a rainforest and a desert, environment artist Jax Huang says in the video. The rainforest is filled with rolling hills, lush vegetation, and towering trees. The desert biome, on the other hand, is more sparse but also contains ruins with intricate architecture. Both look like natural additions to Genshin Impact’s rich and colorful environments.

Two mysterious robots can be found

Each biome has some more fantastical elements, too. The forest has a city built on a huge tree and zones with giant, glowy plants, while the...

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The Kardashians hate the new Instagram

Image: Instagram

If you’ve opened Instagram recently and noticed more Reels on your feed or less engagement on your posts and felt the platform was beginning to look a liiiittle too much like TikTok, you’re not alone. The app’s second most-followed person agrees.

Kylie Jenner shared a screenshot of another user’s post on her Instagram Stories today, longing for the good old days of Instagram as a photo sharing app.

“Make Instagram Instagram again,” the post says. “(Stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends). Sincerely, everyone.” Her sister Kim Kardashian also shared the same post, which has over 1.1 million likes. The associated Change.org petition has nearly 100,000 signatures.

Image: Instagram

I...

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US resurrects green energy loan program that helped put Tesla on the map

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

The Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which famously helped put Tesla on the map, is set to hand out its first loan in over a decade. The department will announce a $2.5 billion loan to a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution to help fund the construction of a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility, the company confirmed. (The news was first reported by Reuters.)

The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing, or ATVM, program, has attained almost mythical status in the EV startup world thanks to its timely $465 million loan to Tesla, which is credited with helping save the company from an early death. Since then, a number of cash-strapped EV startups have also requested...

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The Gollum video game won’t be launching with Amazon’s LOTR show anymore

The game’s going to be releasing “a few months” late. | Image: Sony

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a video game where you play as the titular jewelry fan, has been delayed from its September 1st release date. According to a statement posted on Twitter by the game’s developers, Daedalic Entertainment, it’ll be releasing “a few months” later, with the exact date coming soon.

Game delays are exceedingly common these days, but this does make it so the Gollum game won’t be launching alongside Amazon’s Prime Video show, The Rings of Power, which is premiering on September 2nd. While the show is set long before Sméagol ever got his hands on the Ring, it’s easy to imagine the game getting a bit of a boost if it came out a day before a blockbuster show from the same franchise.

A message to our community p...

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