The Verge
SwitchBot Lock review: a tiny robot hand that unlocks your door
Yes, it looks as weird as it sounds, but it works well as a basic smart lock
The VergeThe VergeNetflix’s Resident Evil has already been canceled
Image: Marcos Cruz / Netflix
Netflix’s Resident Evil series has been canceled a little over a month after its initial debut, according to a report from Deadline. The streamer reportedly decided against renewing the series due to lackluster ratings and viewership.
Like the many other Resident Evil adaptations, Netflix’s live-action series attempts to put yet another spin on the video game franchise it’s based on. The show, which was helmed by Supernatural’s Andrew Dabb, flashes between two different timelines, centering around Umbrella executive Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick) and his two daughters (played by Tamara Smart and Siena Agudong).
In our review of the series, my colleague Charles Pulliam-Moore notes that it “keeps things feeling fresh up to a point,” but...
The VergeSatellite-to-phone companies are thrilled about SpaceX and T-Mobile, actually
There are a few companies that want to keep you connected when you’re in remote areas. | Image: SpaceX
On Thursday, Elon Musk got on stage with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert to announce that SpaceX is working with the carrier to completely eliminate cellular dead zones. The companies claim that next-generation Starlink satellites, set to launch next year, will be able to communicate directly with phones, letting you text, make calls, and potentially stream video even when there are no cell towers nearby. What’s more, Musk promised all this is possible with phones that people are using today, without consumers having to buy any extra equipment.
It’s a bold proclamation from the carrier — Verizon and AT&T don’t offer anything like it. However, SpaceX and T-Mobile aren’t the only companies looking to use satellites to directly communicate with...
The VergeGoogle opens the door for Android apps that work across all kinds of devices
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
Google’s trying to make it easier for developers to create Android apps that connect in some way across a range of devices. In a blog post, Google explains that it’s launching a new cross-device software development kit (SDK) that contains the tools developers need to make their apps play nice across Android devices, and, eventually non-Android phones, tablets, TVs, cars, and more.
The SDK is supposed to let developers do three key things with their apps: discover nearby devices, establish secure connections between devices, and host an app’s experience across multiple devices. According to Google, its cross-device SDK uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ultra-wideband to deliver multi-device connectivity.
Image: Google
G...
The VergeXbox Game Pass ‘Friends & Family’ leak suggests you can share with friends
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A leak of potential branding for Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox Game Pass family subscription suggests you’ll be able to share a subscription with friends, too. Microsoft started testing its Xbox Game Pass family plan in Ireland and Colombia earlier this month, and now Twitter leaker Aggiornamenti Lumia has spotted “Game Pass Friends & Family” branding.
The leak could mean Microsoft isn’t thinking about restricting Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to sharing their benefits with just immediate family members. The current preview allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to pay €21.99 per month in Ireland (instead of the regular €12.99 per month) for an unnamed test plan that includes sharing subscription benefits with up to four others....
The VergeNetflix is working on gamertags
Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge
Netflix is testing gamertag-style handles that users can create and publicly display when playing its selection of mobile games, as first spotted by mobile developer Steve Moser (via TechCrunch). This should let members identify and invite other users to play games based on their handles, as well as see where they rank on leaderboards.
I got to experience the feature for myself after updating my Netflix app and downloading Into the Breach and Mahjong Solitaire. Netflix gave me the option to create and manage the game handle associated with my particular Netflix profile in both games. Just like creating your gamertag (or public-facing username on any other gaming platform), your game handle must be unique, which Netflix will automatically...
The VergeHow to watch NASA’s Artemis I SLS megarocket launch
Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images
NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) is almost ready for liftoff. This highly anticipated rocket launch has been over a decade in the making and marks NASA’s return to crewed missions to the moon. This mission is called Artemis I, and while there won’t be any astronauts on board during this launch, it will serve as a test for the future goal of putting the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.
During its first launch, the SLS will catapult NASA’s Orion capsule into space, where it will embark on a voyage around the Moon that could take anywhere from 39 to 42 days. Last week, NASA rolled the 322-foot rocket to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — a four-mile journey that took nearly 10 hours.
Now...
The VergeAsus Zenfone 9 review: one for the small phone superfans
A little phone with big performance
The VergeApple’s base iPad is $20 cheaper than the previous low price
Image: Apple
It’s the weekend, which means that our Verge Deals team is kicking back and recharging for next week. But we have a few time-sensitive deals to pass your way in case you feel like making some additions to your repertoire of gadgets. Starting things off is the ninth-generation iPad, which is discounted to $279.99 at Best Buy, Amazon, and Target ($50 off). Target’s site says this deal will end Saturday, though we don’t currently know if that applies to the other retailers.
If you just need an affordable yet relatively powerful iPad, this 2021 model is likely the one for you. It has a 10.2-inch display, and it runs on Apple’s capable yet not cutting-edge A13 Bionic chip. There isn’t much you won’t be able to do on this iPad compared to...
The VergeHBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery seem to be on fire, and that’s on purpose
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The plan is to make a lot of money as cheaply as possible
The VergeMark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg won’t be deposed over the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were in line to give hours of depositions in response to a lawsuit over Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, but now that won’t happen — the company has reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. As reported earlier by Reuters, a court filing reveals the parties have reached an agreement in principle and requested a stay of 60 days to finalize their written agreement. Without the settlement and stay, they would have been deposed before September 20th.
You can read the document for yourself below, but so far, there are no details about the terms of the agreement. Meta, as the company is now known, declined to comment via a spokesperson, while lawyers for the plaintiffs...
The VergeNetflix’s ad-supported tier could cost between $7 and $9 per month
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Netflix’s forthcoming ad-supported tier may cost between $7 and $9 per month, according to a report from Bloomberg. Depending on which plan you currently pay for, that could be a significant savings; the company currently offers plans at $9.99, $15.49, and $19.99 per month.
After the company reported that it lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, co-CEO Reed Hastings indicated in April the company was ready to consider a cheaper offering supported by advertising, despite years of spurning the idea of ads. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed the ad tier was in the works in June, and Netflix announced Microsoft as the technological partner helping to deliver ads in July.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ad-supported tier will...
The VergeMeta’s VP of Horizon is leaving the company
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Meta’s Vivek Sharma, the company’s VP of its Horizon social VR platform, is leaving the company, as reported by Reuters. Meta spokesperson Bryan Pope confirmed Sharma’s departure to The Verge and said that Sharma is leaving to pursue an unrelated career opportunity.
Sharma’s departure is happening at a somewhat awkward time for Horizon. The metaverse is an enormous bet for Meta, with Horizon as one of its centerpieces, but the whole effort became something of a meme last week. To help promote Horizon Worlds’ launch in France and Spain, CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot in Horizon that prominently featured his dead-eyed avatar, which nearly instantly became a popular joke around the internet. Zuckerberg shared concept art of a more...
The VergeTwitter shopping features could lead to ‘individual or societal harm,’ according to leaked memo
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Shopping features on Twitter pose content moderation risks and could be used “in a way that leads to individual or societal harm,” according to an internal memo sent to a team of Twitter employees.
The memo, a portion of which was obtained by The Verge, was sent in early July to a group of Twitter employees across various teams, according to a person with knowledge of it. In the email, some existing and not-yet-released features of Twitter shopping are categorized as high risk, with the email warning that content moderation hasn’t been prioritized in shopping.
First rolled out last summer, Twitter shopping allows brands to list items for sale and pin a handful of products at the top of a merchant’s profile. Unlike similar features on...
The VergeNASA’s Space Launch System: everything to know about the big launch
NASA’s Space Launch System at its launch pad in July 2022 ahead of a rehearsal. | Photo by GREGG NEWTON/Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images
The SLS is finally ready for its big debut
The VergePSA: Bandcamp Fridays are coming back
Time to buy some jams. | Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Bandcamp is bringing back its Bandcamp Fridays promotion where it waives its cut of any money you spend buying music from artists or their labels on its marketplace. Historically, the company ran the promotion on the first Friday of every month, and that appears to be the case this time around, too. According to its update page, it has Bandcamp Fridays scheduled for September 2nd, October 7th, November 4th, and December 2nd.
Bandcamp says that when you buy music during a Bandcamp Friday, 93 percent of that money goes to the artist or label on average (with the rest going to payment processing fees). That’s compared to an average of 82 percent the rest of the time. It started the promotion in 2020 in response to the pandemic’s impact on...
The VergeLastPass confirms attackers stole some source code
But source code isn’t a skeleton key. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Earlier this week, LastPass started notifying its users of a “recent security incident” where an “unauthorized party” used a compromised developer account to access parts of its password manager’s source code and “some proprietary LastPass technical information.” In a letter to its users, the company’s CEO Karim Toubba explains that its investigation hasn’t turned up evidence that any user data or encrypted passwords were accessed.
Toubba continues on to explain that the company has “implemented additional enhanced security measures” after containing the breach, which it detected two weeks ago. The company wouldn’t comment on how long the breach had been going on before it was detected.
Don’t panic, LastPass users
As LastPass explains,...
The VergeLooks like Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC film franchise might have found its new leader
Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told investors earlier this month that his grand vision to revitalize the company included finding a new Kevin Feige type to lead its embattled DC Films division to a new era of Marvel Studios-like success. While nothing’s been finalized yet, it seems as if the studio’s found its pick in longtime producer Dan Lin.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Lin — the producer behind The Lego Movie, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series — is the top contender to replace Walter Hamada as the new head of DC Films as part of a larger corporate restructuring that would streamline the company’s internal hierarchy. Post-restructuring, a single executive — potentially Lin...
The VergeFeds are thinking about an antitrust case against Apple
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
So far, the biggest tech antitrust cases have focused on Facebook and Google — but Apple may soon be joining the pack. Politico is reporting that the Department of Justice is in the early stages of drafting an antitrust case against Apple, alleging that the company “abused its market power to stifle smaller tech companies, including app developers and competing hardware makers.”
It would be the first such case against Apple by a US federal agency, although European antitrust regulators have raised similar cases over the company’s App Store fees and the iPhone’s treatment of tap-to-pay technology. The company has also fended off a number of civil cases from rival companies — most notably, the App Store challenge from Epic Games, which...
The VergeDemocrats are getting comfortable clowning on Republicans online
Rob Flaherty, White House director of digital strategy
There’s only a few weeks until the midterms, and President Joe Biden is starting beef on Twitter.
Earlier this week, Biden announced that the federal government would cancel up to $20,000 worth of federal student loans for millions of borrowers. While the internet’s reaction to the news was typical, the White House’s response to that reaction was not.
On Thursday, the White House’s official Twitter account called out Republican lawmakers who spent the last few days criticizing the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. In a series of tweets, the White House name-dropped Republicans like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) and Matt Gaetz (FL) for taking out business loans during the pandemic that were later forgiven by the federal...
The VergeWatch some robots assemble and test Samsung’s newest foldables
Samsung made big strides with last year’s foldables in terms of durability — the Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3 were the first devices in the series to offer serious water resistance and an IPX8 rating. This year’s phones aren’t a whole lot tougher, but the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 are still something of an engineering marvel. We got a glimpse at the foldable assembly line last year, and as the newest Flip and Fold go on sale today, Samsung is giving us another peek at how the sausage is made. And it’s pretty flippin’ cool.
The video — spotted by XDA Developers — mostly features the Fold 4, starting from the moment its back cover is pressed into place and ending with a look at the folding phone dunk tank. Along the way, various functions are tested,...
The VergeGoogle brought back Duo (kind of) because its Meet transition is so confusing
Why are you like this?
Google’s plan to consolidate its communication services into Meet was supposed to (finally) make things simpler and more straightforward. It was meant to bring about some sense and order for a company that has always overthought this stuff and made it confusing — to a truly impressive degree. Earlier this month, the company rebranded its Duo video chat app as Meet and brought over Meet’s features. That left the original, to-be-phased-out Meet app with a new “Meet (Original)” name. It also made for an all-time great headline.
But apparently, not all customers have been happy with Duo’s sudden identity change. With the latest update to the Meet app for Android, Google has brought back the original Duo icon and name as a separate shortcut...
The VergeVerizon’s Visible customers are missing calls, texts, and data after ‘upgrades’
The big changes have come with big problems. | Image: Visible
Last week, Verizon’s budget-focused carrier Visible announced some sweeping changes, introducing new plans that utilize an entirely different network infrastructure. The carrier told customers that if they chose to upgrade, they’d get better roaming coverage and latency as well as extra features if they sprung for the $45 a month Visible Plus plan.
Reviews among those who have successfully upgraded or signed up seem to be largely positive — most report seeing better speeds and significantly improved latency. (Though there are a few who say they don’t really notice any difference between the legacy plan and the new one.) But for many other customers, the switch has been fraught with service and customer support issues.
“Just swapped the...
The VergeNew Hue bulbs have leaked and they look amazing
Three new Lightguide smart LED bulbs from Philips Hue appeared on Amazon.de this week.
Signify looks set to release a stunning new line of light bulbs for its Philips Hue brand, as the company continues to innovate its LED-based smart lighting line. The new Lightguide line features oversized dimmable smart bulbs that come in three shapes and are designed for open lighting fixtures. These look like they could add some seriously stylish mood lighting to any setup.
The new full-color and white ambiance bulbs appeared on Amazon.de this week — first spotted by Fabian over at HueBlog.com. According to him, the bulbs will start at 75 euros ($75 USD). That’s each. These bulbs are not cheap, even by Hue standards.
Philips Hue Lightguide Triangle (top), Ellipse (left), and Globe...
The VergeThe Last of Us remake on PS5 will have extensive accessibility options
Image: Sony
We’re just a week out from the release of Sony’s The Last of Us remake for PS5, and on Friday, the company detailed the many accessibility options that will be available in the game.
For the remake, developer Naughty Dog used the suite of accessibility features included with The Last of Us Part II as a “baseline” and built upon those, according to a blog post from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Gillen McAllister. One useful new option is audio descriptions for cutscenes, which will work with “all our localized languages,” director Matthew Gallant said in the blog.
Another option that I’m particularly keen to try is feeling dialogue as haptic feedback in the DualSense controller. “That way a deaf player can feel the way a line is...
The VergeThe Xbox Series S comes with a free game at Best Buy
Free games are the perfect pairing for this digital-exclusive console. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge
If you were looking for something to occupy your time this weekend, the team at The Verge Deals has got you covered. Right now, you can score a free digital game when you buy an Xbox Series S at Best Buy. Simply add an Xbox Series S to your cart for its regular price of $299.99, then head to this link to pick one of the available games that you can get for free. Some of the qualifying titles that are part of this deal include Dying Light 2: Stay Human Ultimate Edition (normally $99.99), Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Chaotic Great Edition (normally $89.99), and Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition (normally $99.99). While the Series S doesn’t have the same power as the Series X, it’s still an excellent digital-exclusive console that’s small enough...
The VergeVergecast: Apple Watch rumors, Twitter whistleblowing, and this week in streaming
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 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.
Today’s show starts with Apple announcing the date for its annual iPhone event, slated for September 7th. Apple is also expected to announce new Apple Watches at the event, so the crew discusses the various rumors of redesigns the next watches may have.
Later in the show, the topic shifts to the latest news in streaming: Warner Bros. Discovery’s new streaming service may be called...
The VergeHouse of the Dragon season 2 is a go for HBO
Paddy Considine as Viserys I Targaryen and Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra Targaryen. | Image: HBO
Though House of the Dragon’s only just premiered, HBO’s already making it quite clear that the Game of Thrones prequel is here to stay, at least for a while.
Today, HBO announced that Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin’s House of the Dragonhas been renewed for a second season of stories all about Westeros’ infamous family of inbred dragon riders. In a statement about the renewal, HBO executive vice president of programming Francesca Orsi sang House of the Dragon’s praises and expressed confidence in the ability of the creative team behind the show to tell compelling stories.
“Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV,”...
The VergeNo more paywalls for public research, says White House
The White House has instructed federal agencies to make publicly funded research freely available immediately after publication, ending a loophole that let journals put it behind a paywall for a year. The updated guidance will take effect by the end of 2025, and it expands rules first announced in 2013 but criticized as insufficient by President Joe Biden.
The new Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo on public access was released yesterday. Individual agencies must draft new policies based on it within a year, or 180 days for larger agencies. They’ll govern the specifics of the deal, but they must implement several changes, including the following:
- If a peer-reviewed scholarly publication is based on federally funded...
The VergeNintendo says it has ‘no plans’ to increase Switch prices
Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge
Nintendo’s Switch console won’t be added to the list of price-hiked tech products impacted by inflation. The company gave a statement to Eurogamer, reiterating what company president Shuntaro Furukawa told shareholders in June, saying it had “no plans to increase the trade price of its hardware.”
Here’s the full statement shared with Eurogamer:
“As our president Mr Furukawa stated at the 82nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in June:
‘While we cannot comment on pricing strategies, we currently do not have any plans to change the price of our hardware due to inflation or increased procurement costs in each country. We will determine our future pricing strategies through careful and continued deliberations.’
“While the final price...