The electricity demands of data centers are making it harder to build new homes in London

Photo by Zhu Haipeng/VCG via Getty Images

The power demands of data centers can be staggering, with larger facilities using as much electricity as tens of thousands of homes. Now, in parts of London, those energy requirements are reportedly stopping developers from building new houses because there’s simply not enough electricity to go around.

According to a report from The Financial Times, which shared letters sent to housing developers by London’s local governing body (the Greater London Authority, or GLA), the issue is affecting new developments in three west London boroughs: Ealing, Hillingdon, and Hounslow. The GLA said west London’s electricity grid was at capacity, and told one developer there may not be “sufficient electrical capacity for a new connection” until 2035.

I...

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Daniel Radcliffe’s Weird Al biopic gets November release date

Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al Yankovic. | Image: Roku

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a biopic about the musician starring Daniel Radcliffe, will release on November 4th on The Roku Channel, the streaming company has announced. The film will be available to stream everywhere where Roku’s free service is available, and is the latest step in the company’s push into producing original content that reportedly includes as many as 50 shows.

The biopic covers the life of musician Weird Al Yankovic including his “rise to fame in the music industry to his celebrity love affairs” according to Roku. It’s being directed by Eric Appel (who most recently directed all ten episodes of Quibi show Die Hart) and is written by Appel and Weird Al himself. Alongside Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood and Rainn Wilson...

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The Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV is an electric truck made for cops

Image: Ford

Ford, the leading automaker when it comes to making and selling specially designed vehicles for law enforcement, revealed the F-150 Lightning Pro SSV, an electric truck specially designed for law enforcement.

The truck is a variant of the F-150 Lightning Pro, which is a version of Ford’s electric pickup that’s aimed specifically at commercial customers and fleet owners. Ford is pitching the F-150 Lightning Pro SSV (which stands for “Special Service Vehicle”) as an ideal fleet vehicle with all the features cops have come to rely on over the years, as well as other advantages specific to EVs, like quick acceleration and a lower total cost of ownership.

an ideal fleet vehicle with all the features cops have come to rely on over the years

A...

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Snap’s first AR game is a spooky ‘found phone’ mystery

Ghost Phone. | Image: Snap

Snap has launched its first in-Snapchat augmented reality game, a spooky “found phone” title called Ghost Phone. In the game, you’ll work to solve the mystery of what happened to the previous owner of a smartphone, and you’ll quickly learn that things are just a little bit... ghastly.

The core of the game is using the camera on your actual smartphone to find AR ghosts that appear in your nearby surroundings. You’ll complete different types of activities to find and capture the ghosts — for one, I had to track three floating energy balls around my office to make a ghost appear. As you capture more ghosts, you’ll unlock additional things you can check out the “phone,” such as new text messages and more apps.

Ghost Phone is Snap’s take on...

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Sony starts testing 1440p support for PS5

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sony is starting to test 1440p resolution support for its PlayStation 5 console, a highly-requested addition. Testers will get access to a new PS5 system software beta today that includes 1440p support, curated gamelists for their library, and new social features.

The new 1440p video output option will allow PS5 owners to choose this resolution on compatible TVs and monitors. If games support 1440p then native 1440p output will be supported, but otherwise 4K games will benefit from improve anti-aliasing by supersampling down to the 1440p output.

Image: Sony

1440p resolution on the PS5.

PS5 owners with the beta software will be able to check if their HDMI-connected display supports 1440p in the screen and...

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Twitter goes full circle with Status feature test

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A new Status feature has started appearing for some Twitter users that lets them assign one of several pre-written labels to their tweets. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the limited test in a statement given to TechCrunch, while Twitter users have been sharing screenshots of the feature in action.

“For a limited time, we are testing a feature that allows you to add a status topic from a predetermined list to your Tweets to provide more context for your followers,” the Twitter spokesperson said. “So whether you are about to drop a hot Tweet thread, share your shower thoughts, or have a bad case of the Mondays, your Tweets can better convey what you are up to.”

I don't know how twitter managed to release a more embarrassing...

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These 26 Amazon workers want the feds to investigate racist death threats

Amazon reportedly told workers they could take unpaid time off if they felt uncomfortable coming into work. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Over two dozen Amazon workers claim the company didn’t respond appropriately to racist death threats against Black workers at its MDW2 facility in Joliet, Illinois, and retaliated against an employee who spoke out, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune (via Engadget). The 26 workers have reportedly filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

In late May, workers said they found messages reading “[n-word]s gonna die” and “fuck these [n-words] at MDW2” written on bathroom walls in the facility, according to the advocacy group Warehouse Workers for Justice. A day or two later, according to a report from local outlet Herald-News, employees learned that someone anonymously called the facility with...

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You can finally see a live feed of your Google Nest cameras on your TV

Google’s latest Nest security cameras can stream a live feed to a Chromecast with Google TV. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Google is finally bringing an old feature to its new Nest cameras. Starting this week, you can stream the video feed from all your Nest cameras and video doorbells to your TV using a Chromecast with Google TV. Google announced the feature in a blog post on the Google Nest Community forum Wednesday morning.

“What?” You ask. “Couldn’t you already do this?” Well, yes and no. It was possible to view the video feed from older Nest cameras — such as the Google Nest Doorbell (wired), the now discontinued Nest Cams, and the camera inside the Nest Hub Max — on the biggest screen in your home.

But, as I noted in my review of the new Nest Cam (indoor, wired), none of Google’s newer cameras could stream to Chromecast devices. (All Nest cameras can...

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Facebook and Instagram are going to show even more posts from accounts you don’t follow

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you already have strong feelings about your Instagram feed increasingly showing Reels from accounts you don’t follow, just wait until next year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will more than double the amount of content from recommended accounts people see while using Instagram and Facebook by the end of 2023. He said that such recommendations currently account for roughly 15 percent of the content on Facebook, and that the percentage is already higher on Instagram.

The push, which Zuckerberg calls building the “Discovery Engine,” is a radical departure from Facebook and Instagram’s historical focus on showing posts from a user’s social graph, or list of friends. The shift is intended to compete with TikTok’s heavy use of...

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Xbox is campy now

Enjoying the outdoors, absolutely decked out in Xbox gear. | Image: Microsoft

Xbox has released a clothing and accessory collection dedicated to camping. No, not the video game kind that esports organization 100 Thieves lambasted with its own clothing line — Microsoft’s is about actually getting outside and touching grass. The camper collection includes a variety of shorts, shirts, and headgear, along with things like a hammock and camping chair.

Given that most people don’t usually associate gaming with going outdoors, some of the items in the lineup actually seem decent. Xbox’s camp chair looks like a clone of the design popularized by the Helinox Chair Zero (to be fair, so does pretty much every other camp chair), but electric green and twice as heavy. Given that it’s significantly cheaper than the Helinox,...

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London paid a record price for electricity during its heatwave

Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images

Last week, the UK reached its highest temperature on record — 40 degrees Celsius, or more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit. On July 20th, as the record-breaking “Red Extreme” heatwave continued to linger, a Bloomberg op-edreports officials made the decision to pay a record price of £9,724.54 (about $11,685) per megawatt to ensure electricity for South London residents — about 5,000 percent higher than its usual average price of £178 per megawatt hour.

To avoid an energy short squeeze in 2021, the UK paid about £1,600 (more than $1,900) per megawatt to import energy.

Yesterday #gas produced 43.0% of British electricity, more than wind 23.5%, nuclear 15.1%, biomass 7.2%, solar 6.0%, imports 3.8%, coal 0.8%, hydro 0.7%, other 0.0% *excl....

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Spirit and Frontier Airlines throw out merger agreement

Spirit has continually rejected JetBlue’s offer.

Spirit and Frontier Airlines have tossed out their proposed merger agreement, leaving room for Spirit’s other suitor, JetBlue, to swoop in and score a deal, as first reported by CNBC. Shareholders were expected to reject the deal during a vote today, possibly because of JetBlue’s higher offer, according to The Washington Post.

Frontier and Spirit first announced the proposed merger in February, a move that would’ve combined the two budget airlines to create the fifth largest in the US. But not everything went as planned — JetBlue countered Frontier’s initial $2.9 billion offer with an attractive all-cash $3.6 billion bid that Spirit later rejected. In May, JetBlue launched a hostile takeover of Spirit Airlines and kept attempting to s...

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Steam now supports Nintendo’s classic controllers for Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch Online NES Controller | Image: Nintendo

Steam’s latest update adds support for Nintendo’s classic controllers that it makes for Nintendo Switch. Valve doesn’t specify exactly which controllers are compatible — the language in the patch notes is that Valve has “Added support for Nintendo Online classic controllers” — but the change presumably means you can now use the Switch-specific NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis controllers with your PC games.

If you want to pick up one of those controllers to use with Steam, you should know that you can only purchase them if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber. You can grab the NES and SNES controllers right now, but the N64 and Genesis controllers are currently out of stock. Nintendo’s website doesn’t indicate when they...

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AT&T is not building a cloud gaming business — but it might be angling for a cut

Image: AT&T

For many months, AT&T has been dangling a tantalizing possibility: what if its network let you instantly try blockbuster games for free? The company started by generically bundling free six-month subscriptions to Google Stadia and then began letting its customers stream full copies of Batman: Arkham Knight and Control over the internet. Next, it hinted at something even more intriguing: a try-before-you-buy game service where you could try a game directly from a search result, buy and download a full copy once you determine you like it, and pick up right where you left off.

No current cloud gaming service offers anything of the sort.

But, after speaking to the man in charge of these AT&T initiatives, we’ve learned that AT&T isn’t...

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Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its employees

Rivian wants to produce 25,000 vehicles by the end of the year.

Electric automaker Rivian is laying off around 6 percent of its 14,000 employees, or around 800 people, Amy Mast, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed in an email. The company made the decision in part to speed up development on future versions of its electric trucks and SUVs, she said.

“Today we announced the difficult decision to reduce the size of the Rivian team by approximately 6%,” Mast wrote. “This decision will help align our workforce to our key business priorities, including ramping up the consumer and commercial vehicle programs, accelerating the development of R2 and other future models, deploying our go-to-market programs and optimizing spend across the business.”

This follows a report from earlier in the month that...

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Facebook reports drop in revenue for the first time

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg | Photo illustration by William Joel | Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images

Facebook’s decade-long streak of nonstop revenue growth has come to end.

The social network reported its first-ever yearly decline in revenue for the second quarter, announcing a 1 percent drop to $28.8 billion, and predicted that growth in the third quarter could fall even more. The overall profit for its parent company, Meta, fell 36 percent to $6.6 billion. The Reality Labs division responsible for building Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse dreams lost $2.8 billion in the quarter.

While the first-ever drop in revenue growth was expected on Wall Street going into Wednesday’s earnings report, it solidifies how challenged Meta’s business has quickly become on all fronts. Apple’s “ask app not to track” prompt on iPhones has made its ads much...

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Gmail’s new look is now rolling out to everyone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

We’ve been tracking the progress of Google’s interface refresh for Gmail since February, and as promised, the company says it’s now becoming available for all Gmail users. The rework pulls Meet, Chat, and Spaces closer together as part of the overall experience and includes elements from Google’s Material Design 3.

It’s not stopping there and says that, later this year, we should see improvements to Gmail for tablet users, better emoji support, and more accessibility features, among other upgrades.

Image: Google

The new Gmail UI sets buttons for Gmail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet on one rail.

If you use Gmail for work, it may have already rolled out to your account. For those who just can’t stand the change, you...

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Netflix’s upcoming Running with the Devil documents John McAfee on the run

Image: John McAfee in Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022

Netflix’s new documentary depicts the antivirus founder turned fugitive John McAfee and his life on the run after becoming a suspect in the 2012 murder of his neighbor in Belize (via Deadline). McAfee asked a film crew to document his experience as he evaded the authorities — and the Mexican cartel, apparently.

The documentary, called Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee, has video journalists thrown into the whirlwind that is McAfee’s life. With guns, drugs, and alcohol in tow, the group traverses through Belize and Guatemala and somehow winds up on a boat headed to the Bahamas.

To say McAfee had an interesting history would be an understatement. After making a name for himself as the creator of the McAfee antivirus...

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Russia reportedly tells NASA it’s staying with the International Space Station until at least 2028

After insinuating that it planned to leave the International Space Station partnership after 2024, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has told NASA that it intends to remain in the program until at least 2028, according to a report in Reuters. Roscosmos plans to stay involved with the ISS until it gets a new Russian space station up and running, with 2028 as the target date.

Roscosmos caused turmoil yesterday when its newly appointed director, Yuri Borisov, told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a decision had been made to leave the ISS partnership after 2024. However, the statement was vague and did not specify when after 2024 Roscosmos planned to leave, only saying that Russia hoped to transition focus to a new space...

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Tesla’s ‘unlimited’ connectivity plan, including navigation, now expires after eight years

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

Tesla made a change to its free data connectivity tier that could potentially have a big impact on the way its customers use their vehicles. The included Standard Connectivity package, which adds basic navigation features without live traffic views or satellite maps and the ability to stream music over Bluetooth, will now expire after eight years (via Electrek).

Eight years is still a significant duration of time to have the included navigation and Bluetooth features, but it’s just one lessened note for potential buyers. In a time when car companies are looking for more revenue streams by imposing subscription fees to use already included features (looking at you, BMW), Tesla’s move to impose a time limit on data usage certainly weakens...

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Microsoft says it caught an Austrian spyware group using previously unknown Windows exploits

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft’s security and threat intelligence teams have reportedly caught an Austrian company selling spyware based on previously unknown Windows exploits.

The new details were released on Wednesday in a technical blog post from Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC), published to coincide with written testimony given by the software company to a House Intelligence Committee hearing on commercial spyware and cyber surveillance.

The spyware developer — officially named DSIRF but which Microsoft tracks under the codename KNOTWEED — made spyware known as Subzero that was used to target law firms, banks, and consultancy firms in the UK, Austria, and Panama, Microsoft said. Analysis from MSTIC found that exploits used by DSIRF to...

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Google delays blocking third-party cookies again, now targeting late 2024

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

We’re still at least two years away from ditching the invasive cookies, fingerprinting, and other tech that track user information and behavior across multiple sites for advertising to using Google’s preferred Privacy Sandbox set of replacements. Google originally published its intention to phase out support for third-party tracking cookies in Chrome within two years in early 2020 — now about two and a half years (and one global pandemic) ago.

In a blog post published today, Google Privacy Sandbox vice president Anthony Chavez writes, “we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024.” Regulatory pressure spurred a previous delay that pushed the window into 2023, but its current development...

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Apple will let you see iMessage edit history in iOS 16

Hello.

Apple has added an edit history to iOS 16’s new iMessage editing feature in the latest developer beta released on Wednesday (via 9to5Mac). You’ll be able to check the edit history by tapping on the “Edited” text that sits below an edited message, and when you do, all of the edits will appear above the latest one. You’re also now only allowed to make five edits to an individual message.

You can get an idea of what the new edit history looks like in this screenshot from a message I sent to Mitchell Clark and then edited as many times as I could:

Hi, Mitchell!

And if you happen to have the edit history of a friend’s message unfurled, any additional edits they make will appear as the primary one. In the below example, I...

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Sony’s queue to buy a PS5 is open again

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Does it feel like deja vu all over again? It should if you track console restocks at all. After yesterday’s public queue of a PlayStation 5 restock, Sony has another one today that’s just started. You can jump on in right here and try your luck at getting a PS5 — most likely in a bundle with Horizon Forbidden Westfor $549.99 for the regular PS5 with a disc drive or $449.99 for a Digital Edition.

If recent public queues from Sony are any indication, this one may last well over an hour now that it’s been pumping out more of these bundles. So if you’re jumping in late, be persistent. It’s not uncommon to see an estimated wait time on Sony’s site of more than an hour and yet possibly get in much sooner than that. Just be ready to log in to...

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The Facebookification of Instagram

Instagram showing a Timehop post in 2014. | Photo: The Verge

When Facebook made a bid to buy Instagram in 2012 for a record-setting $1 billion, many people thought Mark Zuckerberg was making a mistake.

But purchasing Instagram turned out to be one of the best tech acquisitions of all time, helping secure Facebook’s dominance in social media for years to come. It did that by quickly imprinting its influence on the famously simple photo-sharing app, adding new features that helped it grow to over 1 billion users.

This kind of change could be controversial, even internally. Case in point: some early employees resisted getting rid of Instagram’s old requirement that every photo on the app had to be square-shaped.

“It sounds so small now, but at the time, it was a sacred cow of the company,” said...

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FTC files to block Meta from buying VR fitness studio Within

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint to block Meta from acquiring Within, the company behind the virtual reality fitness app Supernatural. The FTC claims Meta bought Within to absorb competition in the fitness market, where it already owned the similar app Beat Saber. The complaint follows months of speculation that regulators might intervene in Meta’s growing dominance of the consumer VR market, as well as an FTC probe reportedly opened in December of 2021.

“Meta in recent years has set its sights on building, and ultimately controlling, a VR ‘metaverse,’” the FTC’s complaint says. It alleges that Meta saw fitness as a “killer app” market that would help it dominate the nascent VR medium, and Within threatened the...

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Eight Yakuza games will be added to PlayStation Plus this year

Pictured: Sony summoning the Yakuza games to PlayStation Plus.

Sony has announced that it’s bringing eight games from the (mostly) beloved Yakuza series to PlayStation Plus throughout the rest of the year, with the first hitting the service in August. Be warned, though — if you’re subscribed to the base PlayStation Plus Essential tier, you’ll only get one of the games.

The whole thing is kicking off with Yakuza: Like a Dragon (a great place to start for those new to the series), which will be one of the PlayStation Plus monthly games for August. That means that you’ll be able to claim it with any PS Plus subscription — no matter which tier you pay for. The other monthly games are some heavy hitters, too. There’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, which my colleague Andrew Webster said “might just be...

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Spotify amps up fiction podcast effort with new leader of scripted content

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On the heels of Spotify’s blockbuster audio drama Batman Unburied, the company is promoting Gimlet executive Mimi O’Donnell to head of scripted fiction at the streamer, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge.

Batman Unburied notably unseated The Joe Rogan Experience when it debuted in May and appears to be a turning point for the streamer. While Spotify has already bulked up on licensing deals with hosts like Rogan and Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper, Batman will likely open the door for more Hollywood series.

Julie McNamara, Spotify’s head of talk studios, told staffers that O’Donnell will help produce the streamer’s next ambitious fiction programs, including an upcoming Jordan Peele project and the English adaptation of Caso...

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Joe Biden’s new plan: solar power for everyone, not just the rich

Photo by Derek Davis/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

The Biden administration has new plans to get lower-income households hooked up to solar energy. The White House announced two new programs today aimed at expanding access to “community solar” projects among subsidized housing residents and households that receive federal assistance to pay their utility bills. It also launched a new rewards program for existing community solar projects.

“Community solar” essentially lets many different households share the benefits of one shared solar array. The most common way this takes shape is through a subscription program. A solar company or nonprofit organization will build out a solar farm, and then households that subscribe tothe program get credit back on their electricity bills for the energy...

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Gmail’s new search tweaks will make sure you’re emailing the right person

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google’s improving Gmail’s search results, which should make it easier to find a specific contact. In a blog post, Google explains it’s rolling out “intent matching for names and email addresses,” as well as new “personalized suggestions” in Gmail.

With intent matching, a machine learning tool Google uses to help you find topics related to your search, Gmail should narrow down your search results and help you find exactly what you’re looking for. When you conduct a search, Gmail will now also display email addresses and first names that match your query before showing matching last names. This should come in handy if you’re used to searching for contacts based on their first name, as these results will now appear at the top. Google...

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