Nier: Automata community is in shambles after player finds a secret church

Image: PlatinumGames

A 45-second clip has sent the Nier: Automata community into a collective state of euphoria, confusion, conspiracy, and good-ass memery.

Reddit user sadfutago uploaded a clip to the Nier: Automata subreddit containing a never-before-seen section of the Copied City.

Someone randomly posted a video on the Nier Automata subreddit showing they found a secret room in the Copied City. So far no one else has worked out how they managed to make this secret door appear. Literally 1 person on earth has accessed this room and we are uttered mind blown pic.twitter.com/g7W4JxiNDg

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) July 25, 2022

In the clip, sadfutago opens a hidden door and descends a long ladder into a trippy new area. He passes through another...

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Playing video games all summer won’t make you feel worse

Animal Crossing: New Horizons won’t hurt or help your mental health

Video games aren’t hurting people’s mental health, and they’re not helping it. In fact, they don’t do much to move the needle at all, according to a new study of tens of thousands of gamers.

For years, policymakers and public health bodies have expressed concern about the potential for video games to be addictive or harm mental health. This study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, offers one of the more comprehensive looks at the relationship between video games and well-being. It builds on previous research from the same team that also didn’t find bad effects on mental health.

The research team worked with video game publishers to recruit nearly 39,000 peoplewho played one of seven games: Animal Crossing: New...

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The Dune bible crypto collective wants to sell its Dune bible

Image: Spice DAO

The cryptocurrency collective built around a copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune script bible will no longer be a collective and is trying to sell its Dune bible.

Spice DAO (short for decentralized autonomous organization) recently began “Redemption Phase One,” a fundamental shift in its direction. After a series of setbacks in an ambitious plan for a crypto-powered media studio, the group is letting people who hold its $SPICE token cash out by withdrawing their money from the group’s treasury. It will change its name to “Spice Club,” a “members only group” instead of a body with a formal voting structure. And it will cut its upkeep expenses to the bare minimum, a process that includes handing off the fragile and valuable book that...

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Manchester City is making a smart scarf

The Connected Scarf aims to track fans’ emotional response to matches. | Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The sports world has generally embraced wearable technology with open arms — though it’s usually for the athletes themselves. However, English soccer club Manchester City is hoping to keep track of its fans’ biometrics, too. The club has partnered with Cisco to create a connected scarf embedded with a biosensor to “get a better understanding of the emotion at the heart of the world’s beautiful game.”

The Connected Scarf features an EmotiBit sensor that basically sits on a fan’s neck. According to Manchester City’s product site, it includes a PPG sensor, accelerometer, temperature sensor, and an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor. All of these are typical sensors you’d find in a fitness tracker, and the EDA sensor was one of the marquee...

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Vergecast: Instagram is TikTok now, BeReal is everywhere, and the return of our hotline

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Every Wednesday and Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where our editors make sense of the week’s most important technology news. On Wednesdays, editor-at-large David Pierce leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives — and which ones you should bring into your home.

Today’s episode starts with a discussion between David and deputy editor Alex Heath about the changes coming to Facebook and Instagram and how everything is turning into TikTok.

Later in the show, contributing editor Casey Newton chats with David about another social media app: BeReal. The two discuss why it’s breaking out and whether it will succeed on its own before it gets...

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Google is making it easier to edit PDFs on Chromebooks

I am salivating over how convenient this looks. | Image: Google

Starting next week, editing PDFs on a Chromebook is going to be a breeze. Users will be able to highlight text, fill out forms, sign documents, and add text annotations directly within the Gallery app.

Gallery is the default photo editing app on Chromebooks. Similar to Photos on Windows, it’s where a batch of photos first appears when you open it. Most Chromebooks don’t come with a PDF editor by default, and while free third-party options exist, their features tend to be limited, and editing directly in Gallery seems like it would involve significantly less hassle.

This could be a big help for students, a demographic among which Chromebooks are widely used. Not only could they more easily mark up texts and assignments but also they can...

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Apple’s new Home app in iOS 16 is better but still half-baked

Apple’s redesigned Home app makes it easier to control your lights, locks, and other smart home devices. | Image: Apple

A new Home View and a bit of ‘jiggle mode’ make the HomeKit app more usable, but there’s still a long way to go

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Roblox’s new ‘oof’ sound is a big oof

Roblox removed the “oof” noise over licensing issues.

Roblox has gotten rid of the iconic “oof” sound your character makes when dying (that even I, as an adult, can find some semblance of joy in). In a thread on Twitter (via Kotaku), Roblox explains it removed the sound “due to a licensing issue” and replaced it with a new noise that, in my opinion, sounds weird as hell.

Roblox has had problems with the “oof” sound before. As Kotaku points out, Intellivision founder Tommy Tallarico originally created the noise for a 2000 game called Messiah. Tallarico took issue with the fact Roblox was using the noise, and in 2020, Roblox started charging creators $1 (or 100 Robux) to include the sound in their games to settle the dispute. It’s unclear what led Roblox to remove the sound entirely, though....

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Drop’s MT3 keycaps are buy one set, get one free through July 31st

Drop’s selection of keycaps range from clean aesthetics to cringey Marvel collaborations. | Image: Drop

Nothing livens up your desk like some colorful mechanical keyboard keycaps, and Drop’s buy one, get one deal has returned to brighten up your hump day. You can buy one base or ortholinear kit of MT3 keycaps from Drop’s selection and get a second one of equal or lesser value for free. This sale includes some returning favorites like the two-tone blue Dasher set that’s reminiscent of the keyboards in Severance. You can see them in action by our own Dan Seifert in this Verge TikTok video.

This BOGO promo includes some sets we haven’t seen looped into deals before. In addition to offering a few Lord of the Rings sets (Dwarvish and Elvish), the sleek Godspeed R2 and retro 9009 sets are also in the mix. Most sets cost $120 before the...

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Google brings Street View back to India

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Street View has returned to select parts of India, Google announced today at an event hosted in New Delhi and on its blog. The 360-degree street-level viewpoint debuted in the country in 2011 but was then rejected by its government in 2016 due to security concerns. The navigation feature can be particularly useful for spotting landmarks that might help you find your way around.

According to Google’s blog post, this feature is rolling out in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar. Google says it expects to provide Street View to 50 Indian cities by the end of 2022.

Exactly how Street View is relaunching in India is the most fascinating part of this story. Instead of getting...

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GTA VI could finally let you blow up Miami as a woman in 2024

GTA V was released almost nine years ago. | Image: Rockstar

Grand Theft Auto VI, the next entry in Rockstar’s blockbuster open-world franchise, will reportedly be the first to let you play as a female character in its story mode. That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg, which just published a lengthy feature on the game’s development. The report also includes new details on the game’s release, which sources suggest is likely to be at least two years away.

Rockstar has reportedly made efforts to overhaul its internal culture ever since the release of its last major title, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2, was marred by reports of poor working conditions at the studio. According to Bloomberg, morale at the company has improved significantly since then, and the development of GTA VI is being...

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Tesla driver using Autopilot kills motorcyclist, prompting another NHTSA investigation

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

A motorcyclist in Draper, Utah, was killed early Sunday morning when a Tesla driver using Autopilot slammed into the rear of his bike. It is the latest crash involving Tesla’s advanced driver-assist system to draw scrutiny from federal investigators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The incident occurred just after 1AM Sunday on southbound Interstate 15, according to local reports. The motorcyclist, who has not been identified, was traveling southbound near the Salt Lake and Utah County lines when the Tesla approached from behind. The Utah Department of Public Safety said the Tesla driver collided with the back of the motorcycle, throwing the motorcyclist to the ground and killing him instantly.

The Tesla...

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Microsoft returns to in-person tech events in October with Ignite

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is holding an in-person tech event in October, the first since the coronavirus pandemic began more than two years ago. Microsoft Ignite, an annual conference for developers and IT professionals, will take place in Seattle between October 12th and 14th, and Microsoft says “space will be limited.”

The software maker is planning to open registration for Ignite in late August, and it will be free to attend virtually. Microsoft is planning in-person events in cities around the world, with a central event at the Seattle Convention Center. “The Seattle in-person experience will include highly interactive and immersive activities at the Seattle Convention Center,” explains an FAQ from Microsoft. The FAQ doesn’t cover how Microsoft...

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TikTok to provide researchers with more transparency as damaging reports mount

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok is making it easier for researchers to delve into the data and protocols that make up the platform. In a blog post, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas announced the company will soon grant researchers access to the framework behind the platform and its moderation system.

Pappas says TikTok will soon provide access to the “public and anonymized data” on the platform so “selected researchers” can “assess content and trends or conducts tests.” The company will also give researchers a way to probe its existing moderation system, evaluate the content on TikTok, and experiment with different types of content to see what gets rejected. Later this year, researchers will have access to TikTok’s moderation tools at its transparency center, a virtual...

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Harley Quinn’s sexy season 3 puts the important things like love, trust, and Poison Ivy first

HBO Max

In Harley Quinn’s third season, love is in the air

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Hulu backs down on ad policy after Dem outcry

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After weeks of mounting pressure from Democrats, Hulu will begin accepting political issue and candidate ads, according to a new report from Axios on Wednesday.

Disney, a majority owner of Hulu, made the decision amid a controversy over the streaming platform’s decision to ban ads discussing abortion, gun reform, climate change, and other issues central to the Democratic Party’s midterm agenda.

“After a thorough review of ad policies across its linear networks and streaming platforms over the last few months, Disney is now aligning Hulu’s political advertising policies to be consistent with the Company’s general entertainment and sports cable networks and ESPN+,” Disney said in a statement to Axios on Wednesday.

“Disney is now aligning...

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Pinocchio’s first proper trailer shows Guillermo del Toro’s new take on the classic

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. | Image: Netflix

After some teasing on Twitter, Netflix has released the latest trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, showing a dark and beautiful rendition of the classic tale — with the gorgeous attention to detail the director is known for.

We first got a glimpse at the stop-motion film through a short teaser at the beginning of the year. It stars Ewan McGregor as Cricket and David Bradley as Geppetto, with Gregory Mann in the titular role. Del Toro — best known for films like The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, and Pan’s Labyrinth — is co-directing Pinocchio alongside Mark Gustafson, and he has previously described the movie as something of a passion project.

“After years of pursuing this dream project, I found my perfect partner in Netflix,” he...

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Meta might let anti-vax posts back onto Facebook and Instagram

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Today, let’s talk about a settled question that Meta has decided to re-open: what should the company do about misinformation related to COVID-19?

Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Meta has sought to remove false claims about the disease from Facebook and Instagram. And for just as long, the company has faced criticism that it hasn’t done a very good job. A year ago this month, asked about the role “platforms like Facebook” played in spreading misinformation about the disease, President Biden said “they’re killing people” — though he walked his statement back a day later.

Still, Biden voiced a fear that is deeply held among Meta critics: that the platform’s huge user base and algorithmic recommendations often combine to help fringe...

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What the future of lab-grown meat could look like

Lab-grown meat seems to be everywhere these days. Last year, cultured meat and seafood companies raised $1.38 billion in investment, and more and more startups are popping up to develop their own products. A lot of people are betting that cultured meat is part of the future of food — and we wanted to find out why.

The creation of cell-based meat starts with a biopsy from an animal. From there, the cells are cultured in a lab and given the right nutrients to grow and multiply. Once there are enough cells, the batch is transferred into a bioreactor, where the cells continue to multiply until the end result is enough cells to sink your teeth into.

This process takes a lot of time and resources, and according to the Good Food Institute, no...

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How to flip screen orientation on a smartwatch

The Apple Watch supports flipping watch orientation. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

When it comes to watches, southpaws often get the short end of the stick. Unless lefties buy a destro watch, they have to learn to wear watches on their dominant hand instead of the nondominant hand as recommended. But that doesn’t have to be the case with all smartwatches. Because smartwatches have touchscreens, some watch manufacturers have given lefties the option of flipping the screen orientation so it appears “upside down.” This, in turn, gives users greater control over where the watch’s buttons are, making it easier to use a device worn on the right hand.

While not every smartwatch allows you to switch screen orientation, two of the biggest players — Apple and Samsung — do. For Wear OS, you currently have to use third-party apps...

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Spotify has stopped making its Car Thing dashboard accessory

The Car Thing in action. | Photo by Ashley Carman / The Verge

Spotify has stopped manufacturing Car Thing, a dashboard accessory designed to make it easier to control the streaming service on your phone from a car. The change was quietly announced as part of the company’s latest earnings release, which notes the decision cost the company €31 million (around $32 million). “Reported Gross Margin was negatively impacted by our decision to stop manufacturing Car Thing,” the release reads.

“Based on several factors, including product demand and supply chain issues, we have decided to stop further production of Car Thing units,” a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch. “Existing devices will perform as intended. This initiative has unlocked helpful learnings, and we remain focused on the car as...

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Spotify’s subscribers rise to 188M amidst podcasting setbacks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Spotify’s number of premium subscribers rose to 188 million in its second quarter, while its monthly active users (MAU) now sit at 433 million, the company announced in an earnings release today. That’s a year-over-year increase of 14 percent and 19 percent respectively, and compares to the 182 million and 422 million figures it announced last quarter. The company says its growth in MAUs was its largest ever in a second quarter, and exceeded its guidance.

The earnings come at the end of a quarter in which Spotify’s big push into podcasts has experienced some hiccups. One of its biggest podcasts, Reply All, broadcast its final episode on June 23rd after co-hosts Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi decided to leave production company Gimlet....

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Independence Day director Roland Emmerich is making a gladiatorial epic for Peacock

This is a picture from Independence Day’s sequel, but you get the idea.

Roland Emmerich, the director behind disaster movies such as Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and Moonfall, is making a “gladiatorial epic” series for NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock. The show, which will be titled Those About to Die, is based on the book of the same name by Daniel Mannix (which, incidentally, previously served as the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator). The series is set to be written by Robert Rodat, whose previous work includes Saving Private Ryan.

Those About to Die is the first TV show created by Emmerich. Although he previously directed 2012 TV movie Dark Horse, the director’s career has otherwise been focused on the big screen, with a filmography packed with summer blockbusters. It sounds...

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AMD releases its own noise suppression tool to take on Nvidia’s RTX Broadcast

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

AMD accidentally leaked its Noise Suppression feature last week, and now it’s officially making it available as part of its Adrenalin software. The latest Adrenalin Edition 22.7.1 update includes AMD Noise Suppression, which will reduce background audio noise using a real-time deep learning algorithm.

AMD Noise Suppression works very similarly to RTX Broadcast, allowing you to filter unwanted background noise from your own microphone or even from someone else’s device if you’re on a call. AMD has integrated its Noise Suppression feature directly into the Adrenalin interface, so you don’t need to download a separate app like Nvidia requires to use RTX Broadcast.

To take advantage of AMD Noise Suppression, you’ll need a Ryzen 5000 series...

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Google is adding Flyover-like aerial views to Maps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is adding “photorealistic aerial views” to almost 100 landmarks in Google Maps, the company announced on Wednesday. The views, which remind me of Apple Maps’ Flyover feature, give you an overhead look at landmarks in cities including Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, according to Google.

You can get an idea of what the new aerial views look like in this GIF from the company:

The aerial views are a “first step” toward launching the “immersive view” the company showed off at Google I/O, according to a blog post from Google Maps director of product Amanda Leicht Moore. Immersive view will also include indoor views and information like traffic and the weather layered on the map, Google spokesperson...

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Google, like Amazon, will let police see your video without a warrant

It’s probably good to read the privacy policy when you’re putting a camera in your home. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Arlo, Apple, Wyze, and Anker, owner of Eufy, all confirmed to CNET that they won’t give authorities access to your smart home camera’s footage unless they’re shown a warrant or court order. If you’re wondering why they’re specifying that, it’s because we’ve now learned Google and Amazon are doing just the opposite: they allow police to get this data without a warrant if police claim there’s been an emergency.

Earlier this month my colleague Sean Hollister wrote about how Amazon, the company behind the smart doorbells and security systems, will indeed give police that warrantless access to customers’ footage in those “emergency” situations. And as CNET now points out, Google’s privacy policy has a similar carveout as Amazon’s, meaning law...

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OneWeb and Eutelsat merger sets up a European satellite internet giant to take on SpaceX, Amazon

A OneWeb satellite on the opening day of the Story of a Satellite summer exhibition at Spaceport Cornwall on Aug 2, 2021 in Newquay, England. | Photo by Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

Satellite companies OneWeb and Eutelsat have agreed to a $3.4 billion merger to create a player in global internet connections that competes with SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper. Combined, the two companies say they will tie together low Earth orbit satellites that offer faster connections with less lag and geostationary satellites that have more capacity and cover wider areas, with OneWeb continuing to operate as its own brand under Eutelsat.

France-based Eutelsat provides television and internet via 36 satellites in geostationary orbits around the Earth’s equator. OneWeb, which launched its first internet-broadcasting satellites in early 2019, currently has about 428 satellites in orbit out of the 648 it plans to have as part of...

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The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake is reportedly on pause

A screenshot from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake trailer. | Image: Aspyr Media

Development of the upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake for the PS5 and PC is on pause, according to Bloomberg. The game’s art director and design director were also fired earlier this month after the development team showed a demo of the game to Lucasfilm and Sony.

The Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR)remake was first announced at Sony’s big fall showcase last September, but developer Aspyr Media, which is owned by Embracer Group, hasn’t yet shared a release timeframe for the title. The remake has been in development for three years, and while the original plan was to release the game by the end of 2022, a more “realistic target” is now 2025, Bloomberg reports.

Saber Interactive, another Embracer Group studio, is...

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Adam Mosseri confirms it: Instagram is over

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You know, I didn’t want to join Instagram, but I had adopted a kitten with an internet following, and the following wanted to know how the kitten was doing. For a while, I dutifully updated once a week. But then Instagram started to change.

Two big things happened in 2016. First, there were the changes to the feed. Algorithmic. Well, all right. Then, the Snapchat imitation: the Story. It was whatever. I didn’t mind it. After a while, I stopped posting photos in favor of posting Stories because more people looked at the Stories. There started to be more ads clogging the Stories, so I stopped watching as many. And I stopped posting photos or Stories as often.

Come now the Kardashians, who have said that the new Instagram sucks

Then came...

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Nest co-founder Matt Rogers invests in EV conversion company Everrati

Everrati and Irvine, California-based Aria Group take apart a Porsche 911 to begin its EV rebirth. | Image: Everrati

When we last spoke with Everrati CEO Justin Lunny, his UK-based restomod company that converts iconic cars to electric vehicles was expanding into the US market. Since then, the company set up headquarters in Calabasas, California, and in April, it partnered with Irvine-based manufacturer Aria Group to work on state-side electric conversions of Porsches and other prestige vehicles. Now Aria Group is helping build the first Everrati Porsche in California, and the owner of that car is a major investor: former Nest CEO Matt Rogers.

Rogers’ car is a Porsche 911 (type 964) wide body, similar to his father’s that he has fond memories of riding in as a kid. Since then, he promised himself that he’d get one, too, but only if it were electric....

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