The PlayStation 5 is almost easy to buy

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Throughout the pandemic, it has brought me extreme joy to pen articles celebrating that hard-to-find tech is getting easier to buy at retail cost. First, it was the Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch OLED, then the Series X, and almost all Nvidia and AMD GPUs followed a few months after. We’re getting very close to being able to say that the PS5 will soon join the club.

Yesterday, we wrote that Sony had kicked off another one of its once infrequent (but becoming much more frequent) PS5 restocks, and the $549.99 console bundle that includes the PS5 with a disc drive along with Horizon Forbidden West is still in stock about 19 hours later. Even after everyone has had the chance to run through the queue and make a purchase, there’s still...

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To fight climate change, we need to start biking like the Dutch

Photo by Erhan Demirtas / NurPhoto via Getty Images

If people around the world were as enthusiastic cyclers as they are in the Netherlands, we could cut an impressive amount of planet-heating pollution. The Dutch use bicycles to get around more than folks in any other country, cycling about 2.6 kilometers (1.62 miles) a day.

If that was the trend across the world, it would slash 686 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution a year, according to the authors of a new study published this week in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. That’s enormous — roughly equivalent to erasing one-fifth of CO2 emissions from passenger cars globally in 2015.

That’s enormous

Cleaning up pollution from transportation is a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to slowing down the climate...

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The best gaming headset deals you can get right now

Logitech’s budget-friendly G435 boasts color and comfort as well as a host of solid features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A good gaming headset is practically a necessity these days. Clean and precise audio is essential for competitive gaming, allowing you not just to pinpoint your enemies but also to communicate effectively with your teammates. Moreover, recent developments in spatial audio and virtual surround sound have allowed headsets to meet — and occasionally surpass — more expensive audio setups, allowing even the most budget-conscious gamer to obtain a competitive edge at a fraction of the price.

While you could always invest in a massive pair of speakers, they’re likely to earn you the dubious distinction of the worst roommate of the decade. Thankfully, the right headset will allow you to keep the running and gunning to yourself, which is why...

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Go read this report about Dan Price, the ‘ethical’ tech CEO accused of predatory behavior by a dozen women

Photo by Hutton Supancic/Getty Images for SXSW

You’ve probably seen posts from Dan Price, a Seattle-based tech CEO who regularly goes viral for his activism-tinged posts about treating employees well, politics, and how he’s not like other guys when it comes to his leadership style.

“An actual good CEO would never do layoffs ever,” reads one. “A male president was so angry he lost that he incited a mob against the U.S. Capitol. I never want to hear again that women would be ‘too emotional’ to be president,” goes another.

But for years, Price used the progressive good boss persona he cultivated online to allegedly lure, assault, and abuse women, according to a detailed investigation by The New York Times. Price, who was the head of Gravity Payments, resigned as CEO on Wednesday, the...

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Meditation apps also experienced a post-pandemic fall-off

Photo by Edward Smith/Getty Images

I’ve really tried to meditate. I know it would probably be good for me! But no matter how much I tried (and if my therapist asks, I definitely tried), I couldn’t make the habit stick. So I gave up. And I’m not alone: over the past two years, fewer and fewer people have been using meditation apps like Calm and Headspace, according to some new data from app research firm Apptopia.

User sessions at the top 10 meditation apps in the United States peaked in the first half of 2020. That’s not a huge surprise — at the time, we were dealing withthe emergence of a global pandemic that upended life around the world and fundamentally changed people’s day-to-day routines. But usage has been steadily falling since then, according to the report. The...

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Google brought back the timer, and it’s about time

The timer and stopwatch have returned | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Google’s handy timer and stopwatch that you can use right from Search have returned. The tools have been unavailable for weeks, but Google public search liaison Danny Sullivan announced that the timer was back in a tweet on Wednesday.

To use the timer, just type “set a timer for [however long you need],” and the top result will be a timer that automatically starts to count down. If you want to edit the timer, click on the numbers counting down. To use the stopwatch, Google “stopwatch” and click the “start” button on the box that appears. You can also tab back and forth between the timer and the stopwatch if one of them already appears in your search results.

Welcome back "Google set a timer for X minutes." Kudos to the team that...

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Are we dreaming? The Sandman just released a two-part bonus episode

Tom Sturridge reprises his role as Morpheus / Dream of The Endless in a new bonus episode of The Sandman_._ | Image: Netflix

Netflix has just released a bonus, full-length episode for The Sandman, its critically acclaimed live-action series based on Neil Gaiman’s DC Comics series of the same name. This new episode is split into two parts, each covering a standalone short story from the original dark fantasy comic series.

The first is an animated adaptation of “A Dream Of A Thousand Cats,” which features voice acting talents from Neil Gaiman himself, as well as Sandra Oh, Rosie Day, David Gyasi, David Tennant, Michael Sheen, and James McAvoy.

The second half of the episode is “Calliope,” starring Melissanthi Mahut in the title role, alongside Arthur Darvill, Nina Wadia, and Derek Jacobi. Tom Sturridge reprises his role as Morpheus / Dream of The Endless for...

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How to create an Alexa Routine

All Echo smart speakers and displays can run Alexa Routines. | Samar Haddad / The Verge

If you’ve got an Echo smart speaker sitting on your kitchen counter and all you’ve used it for so far is to set an egg timer, play some music, and maybe enjoy the occasional “pull my finger” joke, you’re missing out.

Alexa, the virtual assistant built into Echo devices and other speakers (and a thermostat), is a powerful tool, one that can help your household run more smoothly, remind you to take out the trash, and attempt to entertain you — among many other things. All you need to do is set up a few Routines, and Amazon’s digital butler will take care of things for you.

An Alexa Routine is a shortcut for all the things — or “actions” — Alexa can do. A Routine can perform one or multiple actions, from playing your favorite Spotify...

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Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review: to the loyal go the spoils

More comfortable, much better sound, and improved ANC

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Vergecast: Android 13 arrives, Galaxy Watch 5 review, and Instagram gets competitive

Illustration by Samar Haddad / 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 Fridays, Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, editor-at-large David Pierce, and managing editor Alex Cranz discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.

On today’s episode, the crew discusses the Android 13 update, the battle between the vertical video apps, and a lightning round of tech news.

Android 13 is here, and newer Pixel phones are able to upgrade to it (my Pixel 3A did not make the cut). The Vergecast discusses why this is Android’s “Snow Leopard” release, how it affects the greater Android phone world, and whether an...

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How to reprogram the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5’s buttons

You can reprogram the buttons on the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 series. | Samar Haddad / The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 offers more customizability at launch than its previous watches. Part of that is the ability to reprogram the home button and back keys to better suit your daily needs or workflows. And now that Google Assistant is available on Wear OS 3, you don’t have to settle for Samsung hard-coding Bixby as your default smartwatch assistant.

Out of the box, you can double-press the home button to go to the most recent app you used or long-press to bring up Bixby. The back button will bring you back to a previous screen with a short press and launch Samsung Pay with a long press. If these don’t work for you, you can edit these controls — with the exception of launching Samsung Pay. For whatever reason, Samsung won’t let you...

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How a viral NFT project survived the crypto crash

Image: lootproject.com

A year ago I told you about Loot, a collection of non-fungible tokens that had inspired an energetic community to form around it. A series of brief, text-based descriptions of fantasy genre items like swords and amulets, Loot captured the imaginations of builders and speculators who wondered if the underlying NFTs might someday serve as the basis for graphic novels, movies, video games and more — an open-source art project that could eventually become the foundation of a crypto-flavored Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Loot was also the first NFT project that I found personally compelling, at least as a subject for journalism. Its creator, Dom Hofmann, was well known to me as a co-founder of the short-form video pioneer Vine and the...

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Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is nearly matching its Prime Day pricing

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is $39.99. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

A streaming stick should definitely be on your back-to-school list if you’re heading back to college. After all, a good one can provide you with hours of budget-friendly entertainment when you need to unwind after studying. Buying one seems especially attractive today now that Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K Max is at the lowest price we’ve seen since Prime Day.

Regularly $54.99, Amazon and Best Buy are selling the streaming stick for $39.99, which is only $5 shy of the device’s all-time low. We think the Fire TV Stick Max is the best streaming stick for those embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem, namely because it integrates quite nicely with Alexa and allows you to reliably make voice commands with the included remote. We also found that it...

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 review: almost there

The Flip 4 is refined and lovely to use, but it’s not quite finished

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Elon Musk says a lot of wild things — and somehow we have to believe him

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Fifteen years or so ago, the sportswriter Bill Simmons coined the phrase “The Tyson Zone,” which refers to a rare situation in which you would believe absolutely anything someone told you about a person. (The stories about Mike Tyson are still horrifying and wild to read about.) It’s a high bar to clear because for someone to enter the Tyson Zone, you have to be willing to believe the sentence “Did you hear that he ___” no matter how the sentence ends. Charlie Sheen did a stint in the Tyson Zone during his “WINNING” era. Lindsay Lohan was there for a while. Dennis Rodman married himself and then went to North Korea and practically built a house in the Tyson Zone. Nilay Patel, The Verge’s editor-in-chief and my boss, flirts with the Tyson...

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Jetpack Joyride 2 is worth an Apple Arcade subscription on its own

In Jetpack Joyride 2_, you get a gun._ | Image: Apple

Jetpack Joyride 2 is the first mobile game I’ve loved in a very long time.

I was obsessed with staying on top of the best iOS games in the early days of the iPhone — titles like the original Angry Birds, Hook Champ, and Ridiculous Fishing — but as the vast majority of mobile games have shifted to a time- and money-gobbling free-to-play model, I’ve largely stopped playing them. I have enough entertainment to juggle already; managing yet another free-to-play game just isn’t appealing.

But to my surprise, I kept finding myself opening Jetpack Joyride 2 when I had a few minutes to burn. It happened during my Dedicated Video Game Playing Time, too. Over the course of a few days, I just couldn’t stop collecting coins, dodging missiles,...

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Death Stranding arrives on Microsoft’s PC Game Pass service next week

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s official PC Game Pass Twitter account has been teasing the arrival of Death Stranding all week, and now it’s official: Death Stranding arrives on PC Game Pass on August 23rd. Spearheaded by Hideo Kojima, the developer best known for his work on the Metal Gear series, Death Stranding originally launched as a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2019 before its PC release two years ago.

Death Stranding’s arrival on PC Game Pass is a boost to the service, but it doesn’t mean the game is any closer to an Xbox release. Sony published Death Stranding on PlayStation in 2019, but 505 Games publishes the PC port. Sony still controls where Death Stranding lands on console, so it’s unlikely we’ll see it appear on the Xbox version of Game Pass.

s...

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House of the Dragon is a grim remix of an already gruesome song you’ve heard before

Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen | HBO Max

HBO’s new Game of Thrones prequel is a history lesson hellbent on recapturing lightning in as bottle

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This site exposes the creepy things in-app browsers from TikTok and Instagram might track

Using in-app browsers could give easy access to your private information. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Did you know you’re potentially being tracked when you load an in-app browser on iOS? A new tool reveals exactly how, showing how applications like TikTok and Instagram can potentially use JavaScript to view sensitive data, including your address, passwords and credit card information, without your consent.

The tool can be found at InAppBrowser.com. All you need to do is open the app you want to check and share the InAppBrowser.com URL somewhere within it — such as DMing the link to a friend or posting it in a comment. From there, you can tap the link and get a report from the website on what scripts are running in the background.

All you need to do is open the app you want to check, and share the InAppBrowser.com URL somewhere within it

...

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Transcription service Otter is making free users pay to access older recordings

Image: Otter.ai

Automated transcription service Otter is making some big changes to its offerings for both free and paying customers. Mostly, the company is downgrading its features — reducing the number of audio imports users can make; the length of audio they can transcribe each month, and so on — though it is giving free users access to some new tools.

One of the biggest changes, though, is that free users will no longer be able to access their full back catalogue of recordings. Instead, they’ll only have access to the most recent 25. The rest will be “archived” — that is, they’ll still exist on Otter’s servers, but users will have to either delete other conversations to access them, or pay to upgrade to Otter’s “pro” plan.

This and other changes to...

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O No, Lenovo doesn’t like Framework’s circular power button

The offending power button on one of Framework’s designs. | Image: Framework

Framework, the startup that produces modular laptops that are designed to be repairable and upgradable, says it’s in a spot of legal trouble over the design of one of its power buttons. In a tweet, the startup claims to have been contacted by Lenovo’s legal team, who say the circular design of the power button on one of Framework’s designs is too similar to the stylized “O” Lenovo uses in the wordmark for its “Legion” brand of gaming laptops.

“Consumers could believe that Framework’s Broken O Case or the motherboards they cover are produced by, sponsored, endorsed, licensed, or otherwise affiliated with Lenovo, when that is not the case,” a screenshot of the legal letter from Lenovo posted by Framework reads.

The offending power...

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I am once again asking you to update your Apple devices

Most updates are like this now, but that doesn’t make them less important. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Well, here we are again: I’m writing an article to tell you that you should really update your iPhone, iPad, or Mac as soon as possible, because the latest software for them fixes some pretty nasty bugs. The security notes for iOS / iPadOS 15.6.1 and macOS 12.5.1 describe fixes for bugs in the OS’ kernel (basically the core that controls everything) and WebKit that could allow attackers to run malicious code on your device. The notes also warn that the bugs may have actively been exploited.

This is, unfortunately, something like the third or fourth time I’m writing a post explicitly asking people to update their iPhones or Macs to patch some pretty serious security flaws. And the truth is, I could’ve written this exact post even more...

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The best laptop deals you can get right now

The MacBook Air equipped with Apple’s M1 processor is our favorite affordable laptop and is often on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you want a great laptop, you’re going to have to fork over a ton of money, right? Not necessarily. There are dozens of good laptops on the market at various price points. While it can feel overwhelming to find the right one for your needs (some are better suited for, say, college students, whereas others are ideal for gamers), that’s why we’ve come up with this list of some of the best laptop deals available right now.

In addition to the latest deals, we’ll share each discounted model’s best features (and downsides) to give you more clarity during your shopping journey. And if you need to do more research, you can also check out our guides to the best laptops on the market and the top cheap laptops as well.

Photo by...

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Here’s what Embracer Group can (and can’t) do with Lord of the Rings

Image: New Line Cinema

Embracer Group’s purchase of Middle-earth Enterprises opens up a wealth of opportunities to put all kinds of new spins on the characters, stories, and places of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. I am a horse girl at heart, and so a video game company purchasing the various rights to the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit universe means my dreams of a horse game involving the Rohirrim are that much closer to fruition. But Embracer didn’t just buy the gaming rights to Middle-earth; it bought (almost) all the rights. What else can Embracer do with all those juicy IPs, and how much of Middle-earth does the Swedish holding group own?

Does Embracer Group own The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?

Short answer: no. Long answer: Nooooooo. To be clear,...

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A new way to smash the ‘forever’ out of ‘forever chemicals’

Absorbent booms are used to contain aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) from spilling into the surface water in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, on February 7th, 2019. AFFF used in fighting fires can contain PFAS. | Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto via Getty Images

“Forever chemicals” have a reputation for being indestructible, persistent, and just about everywhere — including many places where they shouldn’t be, like our drinking water.

But now, there’s excitement about a new way to essentially smash these molecules to bits so that they don’t cause environmental and health problems. It’s described in research published today in the journal Science. There are caveats to the process, but to many experts’ delight, it’s surprisingly simple for such a tough substance.

“It truly goes against everything I’ve known for the past 10 years. And that’s really cool because someone else can then take this information and exploit it and adapt it to technologies that we need,” says Shira Joudan, an environmental...

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Rivian customers ‘enraged’ after company cancels its most affordable electric truck

Basically a price hike. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

Rivian canceled the entry-level version of the R1T, effectively raising the price of its base model electric truck by over $6,000, according to an online forum for customers and later confirmed by the company.

The company said in an email to customers that it was canceling the base “Explore” model, which started at $67,500, in favor of the $73,000 “Adventure” trim. Customers can either upgrade to the more expensive trim level or cancel their orders, the company advised. Rivian has also “discontinued” the less expensive trim for its R1S electric SUV, which is expected to start shipping to customers later this year.

In an email to preorder holders, a copy of which was shared with The Verge by Rivian spokesperson Tanya Miller, the company...

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John Fetterman’s Senate campaign has officially joined TikTok

Photo by Nate Smallwood / Getty Images

Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman’s campaign to troll Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz into defeat has dominated Facebook and Twitter over the last few weeks.But on Thursday, the campaign announced it is launching an official TikTok account to expand the reach of its already viral videos.

The campaign formally launched the TikTok account with a video of Fetterman wearing his signature black hoodie and speaking directly to the camera. In the short video, Fetterman makes an expected jab at Oz and the festering controversy over the authenticity of the Trump-endorsed candidate’s Pennsylvania roots.

“I’m on TikTok now. Woo hoo!” Fetterman says at the end of the video.

The campaign’s decision to join TikTok comes on the heels of a...

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Def Con banned a social engineering star — now he’s suing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In February, when the Def Con hacker conference released its annual transparency report, the public learned that one of the most prominent figures in the field of social engineering had been permanently banned from attending.

For years, Chris Hadnagy had enjoyed a high-profile role as the leader of the conference’s social engineering village. But Def Con’s transparency report stated that there had been multiple reports of him violating the conference’s code of conduct. In response, Def Con banned Hadnagy from the conference for life; in 2022, the social engineering village would be run by an entirely new team.

Now, Hadnagy has filed a lawsuit against the conference alleging defamation and infringement of contractual relations.

The l...

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It looks like streaming ruled monthly TV viewing for the first time ever

There are many, many streaming services that people are spending their time with. | Image: Comcast

More people spent their TV time watching a streaming service than cable or broadcast last month, according to a report from Nielsen (via The Wall Street Journal). The audience measurement company says that this is the first time ever that streaming services have accounted for the biggest chunk of people’s viewing habits.

The report says that services like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu made up 34.8 percent of people’s watch time, while cable made up 34.4 percent. Broadcast TV made up for 21.6 percent. Added together, traditional TV services still beat streaming, but streaming had the biggest piece of the pie.

Image: Nielsen

No one streaming service came close to beating cable on its own.

Neilson says that part of...

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Lego’s new motorized lighthouse has a working fresnel lens

Image: Lego

In 1822, Augustin Fresnel invented a lens made of ringed prisms that could concentrate beams of light more effectively than reflectors or huge convex pieces of glass. These days, they’re used in spotlights and even most VR headsets. But originally, he designed them for lighthouses — it’s the invention that’s said to have saved a million ships — and today, Lego has announced a motorized lighthouse with its very own fresnel lens.

Image: Lego

Make no mistake: it’s a toy — and, at $300 for the 2,065-piece set, a pretty expensive one, too! But Lego’s new light-up Motorized Lighthouse is packed with clever touches, like most of its modern sets aimed at adult budgets. It’ll go on sale on September 1st.

I’m particularly...

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