Tech companies are still figuring out their healthcare lanes

Amazon Pharmacy is built on top of PillPack. | Image: Getty Images

It was only last year that Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, called Amazon Care one of the most exciting innovations at the company. But on Wednesday, employees learned that Amazon Care would shut down at the end of the year, an abrupt end to a program once central to its plans to reshape healthcare.

The abrupt shutdown doesn’t mean Amazon is getting out of healthcare — it might just mean a reframing. It recently bought the subscription-based primary care company One Medical, which offers similar services to Amazon Care. Reports indicate Amazon is also interested in at-home healthcare technology company Signify Health. Amazon still wants to take on healthcare, but it’s clarifying its approach: instead of building from scratch, it’s taking over...

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Praise the sun! Dark Souls 3’s PC servers are back up

After more than 200 days offline, Dark Souls 3 servers are back up. | Image: FromSoftware

According to tweets from FromSoftware Player Support and the official Dark Souls Twitter account, the PC servers for Dark Souls 3 have been restored after being taken offline since early January. The servers were initially disabled by FromSoftware to prevent a malicious remote code execution (RCE) exploit that allowed hackers to take control of players’ computers. FromSoftware has been working to patch its servers and restore service ever since, and it seems that for one game, the time has finally arrived.

FromSoftware took action soon after the exploit popped up during a Twitch stream that went viral, drawing attention to the bug. The developer disabled PVP servers for Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls Remastered beginning on...

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The O․MG Elite cable is a scarily stealthy hacker tool

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Is that phone charger doing more than you think it is?

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Now we know who is in charge of Netflix’s Horizon Zero Dawn TV show

Aloy takes on a fearsome enemy in Horizon Zero Dawn_._ | Image: Sony

We may have just learned that The Umbrella Academy’s next season will be its last, but we also now know that showrunner Steve Blackman will be developing Netflix’s series based on the PlayStation game Horizon Zero Dawn. Blackman’s involvement in the upcoming show — and his new multiyear deal with Netflix that also includes developing the sci-fi show Orbital — was reported by Deadline on Thursday.

“Horizon Zero Dawn and Orbital are elevated, event-level projects grounded in characters that fans will love and relate to, which are hallmarks of Irish Cowboy productions,” Blackman said in a statement to Deadline. “We’re thrilled to be working with Netflix and all of our partners on developing these ground-breaking stories.”

In an interview...

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Google has opened up the waitlist to talk to its experimental AI chatbot

Image: Google

Earlier this year, Google unveiled AI Test Kitchen — an Android app that lets users talk to one of its most advanced AI chatbots, LaMDA 2. Today, the company is opening up registrations for early access. You can sign up here, and Google says it will soon be letting people download the app and start chatting. (Though it’s limited to US users right now.)

It’s interesting, considering that Meta made an almost identical move just earlier this month, opening up its latest and greatest AI chatbot, BlenderBot 3, for public consumption. Of course, people quickly found that they could get BlenderBot to say creepy or untruthful things (or even criticize the bot’s nominal boss, Mark Zuckerberg), but that’s kind of the whole point of releasing these...

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Biden plans a speedy rollout for chips funding

Image: White House (Erin Scott) / Flickr

President Joe Biden isn’t wasting any time in rolling out the $280 billion law to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. On Thursday, Biden signed an executive order to get the money flowing out to companies like Intel who want to build fabrication sites in the US.

Biden officially signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law two weeks ago, but Thursday’s order sets the sweeping American innovation project into motion. Biden’s swift implementation signals the administration’s urgency to boost US competitiveness against China and alleviate an incessant chip shortage that’s affected a wide variety of industries like automakers and gaming devices.

It’s still unclear when the Commerce Department will officially make its $52 billion in...

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NASA’s megarocket is about to blast off toward the Moon

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

Here’s a cheat sheet for the Artemis I mission

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Google’s Waze is shutting down its carpooling service

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google-owned navigation service Waze is shutting down its six-year-old carpooling service, citing shifting commuting patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting in September, the company will begin the process of winding down its carpooling service, which had been available in the US, Brazil, and Israel. Waze said it will explore other ways it can help serve the 150 million customers worldwide that use its navigation app.

“While Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes,” the company said in a statement provided to The Verge. “This means we have an opportunity to find even more impactful ways to bring together a global community to share...

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MyFitnessPal’s barcode scanner made counting calories easy — now it’s being paywalled

MyFitnessPal’s planned change comes after new ownership in late 2020 and a recent app redesign. | Image: MyFitnessPal

The popular nutrition and weight loss app MyFitnessPal is moving its free barcode scanning feature behind the paywall. For years, users with free accounts have been able to use this tool to scan food barcodes for easy logging and tracking of daily calorie intake, but the company recently announced that beginning October 1st, a premium account will be required.

MyFitnessPal’s daily calorie counting is a key component of the app, with the barcode scanner offering a shortcut to finding nutritional value for a specific food item in the app’s vast database of food. Much of that database is user-generated, with both free and premium users able to add any food by entering the nutrition facts and barcode off a label. Once October 1st rolls...

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The Umbrella Academy’s upcoming season 4 will be its last

Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts, David Castañeda as Diego Hargreeves, Justin H. Min as Ben Hargreeves, and Aidan Gallagher as Number Five. | Image: Netflix

Though Netflix has picked up The Umbrella Academyfor a fourth season that will continue the story of the Hargreeves family, the next chapter will be the series’ last.

Netflix announced today that its live-action adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s The Umbrella Academy will come to an end with its upcoming fourth season that will see all of the series’ core cast returning to reprise their roles.

Family meeting, Brellies: We're going on a fourth and final adventure. ☂️ pic.twitter.com/0zOYDb6Jwm

— Umbrella Academy (@UmbrellaAcad) August 25, 2022

In a statement to Variety, showrunner Steve Blackman said that The Umbrella Academy’s fourth season would bring the Hargreeves’ journey to a “fitting end” after season 3 left the...

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Tesla wants videos of its cars running over child-sized dummies taken down

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla is demanding that an advocacy group remove videos of its vehicles running over child-sized mannequins, escalating the debate over the safety of the company’s Full Self-Driving software.

Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Dawn Project, an anti-Tesla group fronted by software developer Dan O’Dowd. In it, the company alleges the videos are defamatory and misrepresents the capabilities of its driver-assist technology. (The letter was first reported by The Washington Post.)

New video of Master Scammer Musk's Full Self-Driving @Tesla ruthlessly mowing down a child mannequin wearing a safety vest in a real school crosswalk. No cones. Room to swerve. Video of pedals.

Everything is real except the child, bc you know what would...

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HP’s first ‘IPS Black’ monitor really stands out with Thunderbolt 4

The Z32K G3 has slim bezels all around. | Image: HP

HP isn’t the first company to debut a monitor with an IPS Black panel, a technology that doubles the contrast ratio of IPS to provide richer contrast and darker blacks. Dell has that distinction. However, HP’s 31.5-inch Z32K G3 4K 60Hz monitor stands out with its Thunderbolt 4 support, allowing 100W charging and speedy 40Gbps data passthrough, as well as the unique ability to be daisy-chained with another 4K display — all through just a single cable connected to your PC.

It can also act as a bonafide hub, supporting accessories like webcams and mice with its four USB-A 3.2 ports, and you can plug an Ethernet cable into it. It’s flush with video inputs, including the aforementioned Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, one HDMI 2.0 port, and two...

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Twitter is a mess — but in the Elon Musk trial, it might not matter

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

In a fight between rich tech guys who like to move fast and break things, there isn’t always a “good” side. This was underscored on Tuesday when Twitter’s former security head Peiter “Mudge” Zatko accused the company of hiding a wealth of risky behavior — and, in the process, put himself in the middle of Twitter’s legal battle with Elon Musk. The report isn’t great for Twitter, but you’re probably already asking the obvious question: is it bad for Twitter in the courtroom?

The best answer I’ve found is: probably, yes. But on Twitter’s fancy leaked threat matrix scale, the company’s odds are more “impaired” than “physically destroyed”... with a healthy dose of “known unknown we really should know.”

The Twitter threat...

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iHeartRadio is trying out a Fortnite ‘metaverse’ concert arena

iHeartLand is a virtual event center for concerts, created by... well, iHeartMedia, funnily enough. | Image: iHeartMedia

Radio juggernaut iHeartMedia is launching its own dedicated space in Fortnite to host events and concerts. The virtual park, which has been given the rather obnoxious name of iHeartLand, is being developed using the game’s creative mode and will feature several different areas.

The park includes a main stage called State Farm Park (in collaboration with, you guessed it, insurance company State Farm), mini-games, and a digital “headquarters” for iHeartMedia. The mini-games could change as the park evolves, but the handful that will be featured on launch day include car racing, an obstacle course, and a building game.

The State Farm Park virtual stage features a massive screen for watching performances

The headquarters itself includes a...

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Microsoft Flight Simulator’s helicopters and gliders arrive on November 11th

Helicopters in Microsoft Flight Simulator. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is adding helicopters and gliders to Microsoft Flight Simulator on November 11th. The 40th Anniversary Edition of the game will be available free to existing owners or Xbox Game Pass members and includes helicopters and gliders for the first time since 2006.

“In addition to the helicopters and gliders, we will introduce another highly-requested community feature: a true-to-life airliner, the sophisticated Airbus A-310 where nearly every single button works just as expected,” explains Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Image: Microsoft

An Airbus A310 in Microsoft Flight Simulator_._

The 40th Anniversary Edition is a rather big update for Microsoft Flight Simulator, as it also includes...

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Google’s Nest Wifi mesh router bundles are up to $150 off right now

You can save up to $150 when you buy Google’s latest mesh router system. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Tired of your Wi-Fi slowing down depending on where you are in your house? It might be a good idea to extend your Wi-Fi coverage, especially now that we’re currently seeing some excellent deals on Google’s Wi-Fi 5-capable Nest Wifi routers and Points. Right now, for instance, you can buy the Nest Wifi router and two Points for $199 instead of $349 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Wellbots.

The router claims to cover up to 2,200 square feet on its own, while the two additional Points should be able to provide a speedy, reliable Wi-Fi signal that’s good for up to 5,400 square feet and 300 devices. That makes it perfect for larger spaces or homes with thick walls. Moreover, each included Point doubles as a Google Assistant-equipped smart...

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Walmart can now put your groceries in your garage with a myQ smart garage door opener

Walmart can deliver your groceries to your garage. | Image: Walmart

Walmart is expanding its Walmart Plus InHome program, adding Chamberlain’s myQ smart garage door controller technology to its list of in-home / in-garage delivery partners. Starting in September, Walmart Plus InHome delivery customers can have their groceries securely delivered into their garage if they have a myQ smart garage door controller. And if they don’t have one, the company will install one for free.

Walmart’s in-home delivery service currently works with the Level Lock smart lock and the Aladdin Connect Genie smart garage door opener, as well as any keypad-controlled lock or garage door. Even without the free offer, partnering with Chamberlain will greatly expand the number of customers who are equipped to use the service; The...

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The new DJI Avata let me swoop and soar like no beginner drone I’ve used before

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

I wish it had a beginner price to match

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You can now sign up for whatever the new MoviePass is going to be

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

MoviePass is back, kind of. Starting today, you can sign up to be on a waitlist to become a MoviePass subscriber, and if you want to, you should move quickly since the waitlist will only be open for five days. The new MoviePass is scheduled to launch around Labor Day, and its first users will be those at the top of the waitlist.

If you’re wondering what, exactly, this new MoviePass is going to be... join the club. This is the company that once promised all the in-theater movies you could watch for $10 a month, only to quickly discover that business plan both infuriated theaters and effectively set millions of dollars on fire. It got so bad so fast that Helios and Matheson Analytics, the parent company of MoviePass, went bankrupt last...

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Anyone can sign up for DuckDuckGo’s privacy-protecting @duck.com email address

DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection dashboard. | Image: DuckDuckGo

After rolling out its Email Protection service in private beta last year, DuckDuckGo has announced that it’s finally available to all users. Email Protection is a forwarding service that assigns you a free “@duck.com” email address and intercepts email trackers before they hit your personal inbox.

If you need a refresher on exactly what DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection service does, it lets you use either a personal or private “duck” address to shield your real email address from companies. Before the email hits your inbox, DuckDuckGo strips it of the trackers that snoop on your location when opening an email, when you opened it, and the device you used. It also breaks down how many trackers it removed, as well as which companies they were...

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The HP Dragonfly Folio G3 is the most fun I’ve had with a laptop this year

Yep, another one of these.

Listen. Is a $2,379 folio-style laptop an impractical and illogical purchase for most people? Yes. But is it a heck of a lot of fun to use while coveting a more luxurious life? Also yes.

I’m currently typing this on a prototype unit of the HP Dragonfly Folio G3, announced today. HP is following in the footsteps of some other laptop manufacturers this year and replacing the traditional 2-in-1 form factor of its high-end convertible line with something a bit more (I guess, in theory) versatile.

Just another clamshell? Guess again! Haha, I love this thing.

For those who don’t obsessively follow the convertible laptop space (and first of all, how could you be so ignorant? Go stand in the corner), the folio design puts a...

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Corsair’s new gaming monitor bends into a curved display

Can’t decide between buying a flat or curved monitor? Corsair thinks it might have the solution to your (admittedly, niche) woes with the Xeneon Flex 45WQHD240: a flexible OLED gaming monitor that you can literally bend by hand to switch form factors.

The transforming display is possible thanks to a W-OLED panel from LG Display, which Corsair worked closely with to develop the Xeneon Flex. Interestingly, in contrast to a prototype LG Display showed off at CES last year which used motors to transform between flat and curved modes, Corsair has you manually bend its monitor into shape with a pair of handles that extend from the left and right sides of the display, as this video from YouTuber Bitwit explains. You can even adjust the...

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Twitter whistleblower to testify in Congress over damning security revelations

Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s former security chief-turned-whistleblower. | Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Twitter’s former security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko will testify in Congress next month after he went public with damning allegations about the social media company’s security practices and attempts to mislead regulators, the Washington Post reports. Zatko is scheduled to speak at a hearing on September 13th and is expected to address the privacy and national security concerns raised in his complaint.

“Mr. Zatko’s allegations of widespread security failures and foreign state actor interference at Twitter raise serious concerns,” said the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill) and the committee top Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) in a joint statement_. “_If these claims are accurate, they...

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Ethereum’s long-awaited proof-of-stake transition set to start on September 6th

Nick Barclay / The Verge

The Ethereum Foundation has announced that September 6th will be the starting date for the system-wide transition known as the Merge. The first domino will be toppled on the 6th with the activation of the Bellatrix upgrade, which will then set the rest of the Merge process in action, with a completion date expected between September 10th and 20th.

The Merge refers to the switchover of Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake — two different methods of validating transactions on the blockchain. If you’re not particularly interested in world of crypto, then the technical differences between the two approaches are a little arcane (The Guardian has a good explainer here). But the big upshot is that the new proof-of-stake method will...

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Nvidia to announce next-gen GPU architecture in September amid RTX 4090 rumors

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Nvidia is getting ready to announce its next-gen GPU architecture, codenamed Lovelace. Ampere is the current GPU architecture that powers Nvidia’s RTX 30-series GPUs, after Turing debuted with the first RTX cards in 2018. Nvidia is now expected to detail its Lovelace GPU architecture at GTC 2022 in September, with CEO Jensen Huang hinting at an announce during the company’s recent earnings call.

“We’ll get through this over the next few months and go into next year with our new architecture,” said Huang, while discussing a slowdown in gaming GPU demand. “I look forward to telling you more about it at GTC next month.”

A new GPU architecture announce doesn’t mean we’ll see RTX 40-series GPUs immediately, though. Nvidia first unveiled its...

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Sony hikes price of PS5 in Europe, Japan, and more

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony is increasing its PS5 prices in the UK, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Mexico, and Canada. Prices are jumping by 10 percent in Europe, and by around 6 percent in the UK as inflation rates impact Sony and many other companies. While Sony is increasing PS5 prices in many parts of the world, it says there won’t be a price increase in the US.

“We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries,” explains Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “Based on these challenging economic conditions, SIE has made the difficult decision to increase the recommended retail price (RRP) of PlayStation 5 in select markets across Europe,...

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Starlink lowers monthly subscription prices for many

Starlink is getting a little cheaper for some. | Image: Starlink

Starlink, Elon Musk’s internet-from-space service provided by SpaceX, is notifying customers with some good news: their monthly subscriptions have been reduced in response to “local market conditions.”

I received one for my Starlink RV service that normally costs me €124 each month in the Netherlands. It says, “Effective 8/24/2022, Starlink is reducing your monthly service fee to €105.” Well, ok.

The price cut is welcome at a time when everything else is getting more expensive due to inflation. “The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” reads the announcement.

The situation in the US is less clear

Others are reporting similar discounts in...

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My iPhone is calling to me with a different voice

Sing me the new song of your people. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple’s upcoming iOS 16 update brings with it a lot of new features — things like the ability to customize your Lock Screen, edit iMessages, or copy written text from a video. But Apple’s also made an under-the-radar change to some of the iPhone’s sounds, which some of us hear at The Verge noticed while using the betas.

When you go to the Find My app and choose the “play sound” option for an iOS / iPadOS 16 device, you’ll now be greeted with what sounds like an electronic xylophone, instead of the pinging sound that played on iOS 15 and before. The change also applies to when you ask your Apple Watch to ping your phone for you, except the sound plays once instead of over and over. One of my co-workers described the new sound as higher...

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Masahiro Sakurai might already be my favorite YouTuber

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of games like Kirby and Super Smash Bros., has revealed his next big project: a YouTube channel. The gaming folk hero teased that he was working on something new earlier this week, and now you can super smash that like button and subscribe to his new channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games.

As of this writing, there are three videos: one that’s all about the channel, one covering what games Sakurai has worked on (like one of the DS greats, Meteos), and one diving deep about how to use in-game pauses for certain effects (like “hit stop” moments you might see in Smash when landing a punch).

Sakurai, of course, is no stranger to appearing on video; he’s been Nintendo’s primary Super Smash Bros. presenter...

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Wordle snags a place inside the New York Times Crossword app

Photo by Mike Kemp / In Pictures via Getty Images

Wordle is now available in _The New York Time_s Crossword app for both iOS and Android users. The addictive guessing game joins both The New York Times Crossword variants, Spelling Bee, and more. Users can also continue to play the game on their desktop and through the mobile website.

The word-guessing game became an immediate phenomenon after it was released in October 2021. The Times then acquired Wordle from its creator Josh Wardle in January. That decision was not without complaints, as users began speculating that the game had become harder and some of their streaks were ruined. Despite complaints after its acquisition, The Times said that the game allowed The Times to see a jump in new subscribers at its earnings meeting in May and...

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