Halo Infinite’s co-op and Forge modes delayed to November

Image: 343 Industries

343 Industries is delaying its next season of Halo Infinite to March 2023, extending its current season that started in May to 10 months long instead of the original promised three months. While Halo Infinite players are desperate for fresh content, the long-awaited Forge beta has also now been delayed and will launch on November 8th alongside the co-op mode.

Forge was originally planned for September, and it will allow Halo Infinite players to edit multiplayer levels and build new maps to share with fellow players. It was hugely popular in previous Halo games, and leaks have shown that Forge in Halo Infinite looks like it will be a lot of fun for players. 343 Industries is launching two new multiplayer maps alongside Forge on November...

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Is Elon Musk’s pal messing with Twitter to score bro points?

Legal filings about clout chasing are forum drama for sophists. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

So the thing about Elon Musk is that he’s cliqued up — specifically with the so-called PayPal Mafia. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a group of influential men in Silicon Valley who all used to work at PayPal.

Today, I’d like to focus our attention on a member of the PayPal Mafia: David O. Sacks, the former COO of PayPal and current venture capitalist. Sacks’ battle with Twitter over a subpoena the company issued in its lawsuit against Musk is a direct demonstration of the downside of being a made man.

A Freudian would have a field day!

If you’re in a group with Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, and the literal co-founders of YouTube and Yelp, you know, you’re in pretty rarified air. In fact, for a long time, it...

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The Razer Kishi V2 controller for iPhone is a better competitor against Backbone

Image: Razer

The Razer Kishi V2 for iPhone is available to purchase today for $99.99, following the release of the Android-only Kishi V2 in July. This is the brand’s second generation of Nintendo Switch-like controllers for iOS devices that make mobile gaming feel more like a real console experience.

If you were thinking of upgrading from the original Razer Kishi or iOS controller, then there are a few benefits. Two new multi-function shoulder buttons can be remapped in the Nexus app (Razer’s own gaming hub) if you enjoy playing more complex games, and there’s a dedicated button that will take you to the Nexus app directly, though its capabilities of handling iOS integration remain to be seen given that Apple doesn’t allow for native app streaming.

C...

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Lenovo’s 120Hz Chromebook promises a smooth scroll

Lean, mean gaming machine | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad 5i Chromebook — a device that looks fairly unremarkable but has a potentially standout screen. The device will be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in September 2022 with a starting price of €549 — US pricing and availability are still to be announced.

The IdeaPad 5i is Lenovo’s first 16-inch Chromebook, and it’s a substantial one at 4.10 pounds and 0.8 inches thick. The display has a 2.5K resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a maximum brightness of 350 nits — but what really has the Chromebook community buzzing is that it also has a 120Hz refresh rate. That means you can see up to 120 frames per second when you’re gaming (on GeForce Now or Stadia, for example). It should also make for a...

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YouTube’s recommendations pushed election denial content to election deniers

A video of Trump at the hearings investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol | Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool / Getty Images

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm pushed more videos about election fraud to people who were already skeptical about the 2020 election’s legitimacy, according to a new study. There were a relatively low number of videos about election fraud, but the most skeptical YouTube users saw three times as many of them as the least skeptical users.

“The more susceptible you are to these types of narratives about the election…the more you would be recommended content about that narrative,” says study author James Bisbee, who’s now a political scientist at Vanderbilt University.

In the wake of his 2020 election loss, former President Donald Trump has promoted the false claim that the election was stolen, calling for a repeat election as recently...

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The newest Pokémon is a loner artist

A new Pokémon means, well, lots of new pokémon. And the lead-up to Pokémon Violet and Scarlet has been full of monster reveals, the most recent of which is an artist who stays up all night and is a bit of a loner.

Grafaiai, as it’s called, was revealed today in a clever documentary-style video clip that really makes me want a David Attenborough narrated series all about pocket monsters. The toxic monkey pokémon is cute, of course, but as with many of its adorable contemporaries, things get pretty dark when you look at the details. Here’s the official description:

Grafaiai is a moody pokémon with a fastidious disposition. It doesn’t form packs, preferring to roam alone, and it is constantly caught up in territorial struggles with other...

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Apple’s AirPods Max are back down to their best price of $429 at Amazon

The AirPods Max are the most premium listening device offered by Apple, but don’t pay full price. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Holy hell, it’s September. A major Apple event is next week, and summer is pretty much over (except for the crippling heat, that is). Before you know it, we’ll be talking about “Techtober” and holiday shopping. Wait, before you throw your keyboard or phone at me, I’ll get to the deals.

First up, you can pick up the AirPods Max in select colors (silver, pink, blue, and green) for $429, which is a cool $120 off their full price. This is the best possible price for a new pair of AirPods Max so far. They are regularly discounted to $479, so you should never pay full price, but this deal doesn’t come around all the time.

While $429 is still a sizable amount for headphones, the noise-canceling AirPods Max are some of the best options around...

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The best Bluetooth speakers to buy right now

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Water resistance and lengthy battery life are now standard

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The ticking time bomb of modern free-to-play games

Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost is shutting down at the end of 2022. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

When games like Dragalia Lost shut down for good, what happens next?

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iOS basics: how to quit an app or restart your iPhone

Samar Haddad / The Verge

Even iOS apps occasionally misbehave — they can crash, or freeze, or otherwise stop working. If you’re new to iOS or just haven’t had this happen before, you may not know how to actually quit an app (as opposed to just swiping it off your screen). Here’s how to quit an app and, if you need to, shut down your phone. (We used a phone loaded with a beta of iOS 16, but this will work with earlier versions of the OS just as well.)

Quit an app

• Open the App Switcher by either swiping up from the bottom of the screen and then pausing in the middle or (if you have a Home button) double pressing the Home button.
• You’ll see an overlapping view of all your open apps. Swipe to the right or left until you find the app you want to quit.
• Swipe up on...

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TCL’s latest 6-Series Roku TV has serious gaming chops

Image: TCL

TCL finally made a Roku TV with excellent gaming specs. The company is in a tick-tock release pattern of sorts with its popular 6-Series TV. One year, there’s a Roku version; the next year, we get a Google TV edition, and now, the company is upgrading the Roku model again. Like previous 6-Series TVs, the latest one features Mini LED backlighting, which utilizes thousands of tiny LEDs spread across hundreds of local dimming zones to create top-notch brightness, impressive contrast, and deep black levels. This panel has up to 360 dimming zones. And it uses quantum dot color, with “a measured 100 percent color volume in the DCI-P3 Hollywood reference color space,” according to TCL.

For the 2022 6-Series Roku TV, TCL is putting a big...

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Google pledges $20 million to expand computer science education in the US

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and 4-H CEO Jennifer Sirangelo at a 4-H event. | Image: Google

Google has announced $20 million in new commitments to expand computer science education among communities that are underrepresented in the field. The company expects its funds to improve educational access for more than 11 million American students.

“If we don’t get this right, the gaps that exist today will be exacerbated” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday. “Technology will end up playing such a big role in the future. That’s the fundamental reason we do it.”

Google’s goal in distributing funds, Pichai says, was to support groups with “deep expertise in education” who work with underrepresented communities — including students in rural areas, as well as racial and gender minorities.

The slate includes a mix of newer...

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Samsung’s Galaxy A23 brings 5G and a 120Hz display to the US for less than $300

The Samsung Galaxy A23 5G in black, featuring a 120Hz adaptive display. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is bringing the Galaxy A23 5G to the US today, providing fast 5G connectivity and a 120Hz full HD display for just under $300.

The US release only includes a single color (black), with prices starting from $299.99 at AT&T, T-Mobile, and elsewhere. It was previously announced that this handset would also hit the Taiwanese market in blue and peach versions in addition to black.

The Galaxy A23 5G comes with a 6.6-inch 1080 x 2408 LCD display with adaptive 120Hz refresh to allow for smoother scrolling and gameplay. It features a Snapdragon 695 processor and will ship with Android 12 running Samsung’s One UI 4.1. Memory is available in 4GB, 6GB or 8GB and you get a choice of either 64GB or 128GB for storage. If that isn’t sufficient,...

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Motorola Edge (2022) review: a passing grade

A step forward for Motorola, but not a category leader

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Twitter starts testing an edit button, but you have to pay for it

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is now testing its highly-requested Edit Tweet feature. After years of memes and jokes, editable tweets will be available to some Twitter Blue subscribers later this month. The feature is currently undergoing “internal testing,” and appears to mimic Facebook in its edit style, with a linked edit history for tweets that we saw in leaks earlier this year.

“Tweets will be able to be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication,” according to a Twitter blog post. “Edited Tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp, and label so it’s clear to readers that the original Tweet has been modified.”

Image: Twitter

An edited Tweet.

The edit label will include a complete edit history, with past...

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Microsoft pleads for its Activision Blizzard deal as UK regulator signals in-depth review

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is publicly pleading for its Activision Blizzard deal to go ahead, just as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed concerns. Microsoft surprised the gaming world earlier this year with its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal, by far the biggest ever in gaming. Now regulators are starting to take notice.

The UK’s CMA says it’s “concerned that Microsoft’s anticipated purchase of Activision Blizzard could substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services.” After an initial research phase, the CMA is signaling it will move to what it calls a phase 2 investigation if Microsoft isn’t able to answer its concerns within 5...

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Apple’s Lightning cable turns 10, but its time is over

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In September 2012, Apple introduced the iPhone 5 — it was bigger, faster, and more powerful than its predecessor, but perhaps the most revolutionary change was how you charged it. Onstage to introduce the new phone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller announced that the company was switching from the 30-pin connector that had been on every iPhone to date over to a small new port called Lightning. Lightning seemed to be everything its predecessor and competitors were not: reversible, compact, and robust. Schiller called it “a modern connector for the next decade.”

Fast forward to 2022, and the connector has lasted the decade Schiller promised. Every iPhone still comes with a Lightning cable, and the cable remains a reliable method for...

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The EU wants to enforce better phone battery life and spare parts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The European Commission is seeking to improve phone and tablet battery life and spare parts availability. In draft proposals published this week, European regulators are planning to force phone manufacturers to supply at least 15 different parts to professional repairers for five years after a device first goes on sale. Consumers will also get guaranteed access to replacement batteries, displays, chargers, back covers, and even SIM / memory card trays for five years.

The draft proposals are designed to improve repairability of smartphones and tablets and reduce their carbon footprint across Europe. The Financial Times reports that extending smartphone lifecycles by five years would be roughly the equivalent of removing 5 million cars...

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US restricts sale of AI training chips to China

Nvidia’s DGX A100 workstation is affected by the new restrictions. | Image: Nvidia

The US government has imposed new export restrictions on high-end computers chips used to conduct AI research, citing possible military applications for the technology. Two leading manufacturers, Nvidia and AMD, have been blocked from selling certain chips to China and Russia, with the restrictions forming part of the United States’ ongoing strategy of limiting tech exports to curb the rise of rival powers.

Nvidia and AMD disclosed the new restrictions on Wednesday, with Nvidia noting in a regulatory filing that the ban affects its A100 and H100 GPUs. The US government told Nvidia it wishes to “address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia.” AMD c...

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Garmin beefs up battery for new Venu Sq 2

The new Venu Sq 2 has a slightly bigger screen and nearly double the battery life. | Image: Garmin

Garmin is launching two new wearables at IFA 2022. The $249.99 Venu Sq 2 is an update to its affordable GPS smartwatch line, while the $89.99 Black Panther version Vivofit Jr. 3 gets a new special edition band.

The Venu Sq 2 is mostly an iterative refresh. The OLED screen is a smidge bigger at 1.4 inches. It’s also included its Health Snapshot feature, which lets users log a two-minute session that simultaneously records metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, respiration, and stress. Both of these updates are fine, but the most significant change is that it’s nearly doubled battery life from six days to 11 days. Like the original Venu Sq, it’ll also come in a Music version that can store up to 500 songs on...

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HMD claims its latest Nokia smartphone is its most ‘eco-friendly’ yet

The Nokia X30. | Image: HMD

HMD is announcing a trio of new smartphones today — the Nokia G60 5G, C31, and X30 5G — and says the X30 5G is the “most eco-friendly smartphone” it’s ever produced. The three phones are focused on Europe, and are distinct from the range of devices that HMD sells in the US.

As well as being sold outright, the Nokia X30 5G will be one of a handful of phones available via HMD’s new subscription service called “Circular,” where customers can subscribe to get a handset for a monthly fee and receive incentives to use a phone for as long as possible. Circular will initially be available in the UK and Germany, but HMD says it’s planning a global launch “in the coming months.”

HMD justifies its eco-friendly claims about the Nokia X30 5G with...

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Disney is exploring a ‘Disney Prime’ membership program

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney is exploring a membership program in the style of Amazon Prime, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The program could offer various exclusive perks, discounts, and other enticements for subscribers to spend more money on Disney products and services. A secondary benefit would be allowing the company to collect more information on customers’ tastes and habits, improving its ability to cross-sell across its various businesses — from streaming services to theme parks to merchandise.

According to the WSJ, discussion of the membership program is very much in its early stages. It’s not clear what segments of Disney’s audience it would target, how much it would cost, or when the program might launch. Internally, some...

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Eve gets an Android app and launches a Thread version of its smart switch

Eve’s latest light switch has Thread and will work with a new Eve Android app. | Image: Eve

After years as an Apple-only smart home company, Eve is finally turning to the ~~dark~~ other side and launching an Android app. At the IFA tech show, the company announced that its suite of smart home products – which include smart plugs, smart light strips, smart switches, and smart sensors – will get their own Android app in late 2022. Most Eve products will also become compatible with other smart home systems, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.

This giant shift (which we did see coming at CES, but still, we’ll have to see it to believe it) is largely down to the upcoming smart home standard Matter. Matter’s primary raison d’etre is to make more devices work with more platforms, removing the confusion and...

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Ring’s latest gadget makes your apartment intercom smart

Ring Intercom adds smart doorbell capabilities to audio intercoms. | Image: Ring

Smart door locks and video doorbells are great conveniences for those who live in single-family homes, but what about the millions of people who live in flats, apartments, and condos? They might also like to answer their front door from their phone — whether they’re home or not — and perhaps buzz their visitor in without getting off the couch or rushing home from the office. Ring, maker of the original video doorbell, thinks it has a solution.

Ring Intercom is a DIY, retrofit device that attaches to the intercom inside your home and connects via Wi-Fi to the Ring app on your smartphone. It’s specifically designed for European apartment buildings where multiple flats (or apartments) have one entry point and only an audio intercom system...

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Philips Hue’s new Lightguide bulbs have landed

The Philips Hue Lightguide bulb and pendant cord together start at $129.98. | Image: Signify

It’s official, Philips Hue’s gorgeous Lightguide bulbs are real. Signify, which owns Philips Hue, announced the new white and color ambiance light bulbs at the IFA tech conference in Berlin this week, confirming The Verge’s earlier report of the imminent arrival of the oversized dimmable smart bulbs designed for open lighting fixtures.

Other new products incoming to Hue’s smart lighting line include a Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip for PCs, a slimmer downlight for low-profile ceilings, and a tunable white filament candle bulb. Signify also announced a partnership with Samsung SmartThings to sync music with your smart lights, and new features for its Hue app, including the ability to set automatic away lighting — which Hue is calling “Mimic...

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Philips Hue is leveling up with lighting strips for your monitor

The Philips Hue Play lightstrips will support monitors up to 34 inches. | Image: Philips

Signify is making further inroads with the gaming community with its new lineup of Philips Hue Play gradient lightstrips for PCs. Much like the 55-inch Play lightstrip explicitly made for TVs, the PC versions of the Play lightstrips provide flexible accent lighting that attaches to the back of your monitor.

The lightstrips will be available in bundles sized for displays ranging from 24 to 27 inches ($169.99) or 32 to 34 inches ($189.99) and an additional bundle that supports a trio of 24 to 27-inch monitors ($279.99). The new family of Play lightstrips can sync with other connected lighting in the Philips Hue ecosystem and will be available starting September 13th.

Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

The flexible...

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The Sony Xperia 5 IV puts powerful features in all three rear cameras

Sony’s excellent autofocus capabilities come to all three rear cameras in the Xperia 5 IV. | Image: Sony

Sony is renewing its “compact” phone for another season with the announcement of the Xperia 5 IV. It’s a step down from the 1 IV in size, price, and features but shares the same emphasis on parity across its camera system. That means all three of the phone’s rear cameras — standard wide, ultrawide, and telephoto — include the company’s excellent Real-time Eye AF for better portraits and are capable of super-fast burst shooting speeds even with HDR enabled. It has other flagship specs to back up its camera features, too, and comes with an equally flagship-y price: $999.

The Xperia 5 IV (side note: what are they going to call next year’s phone? The 5 V?) includes a 24mm-equivalent standard wide, 16mm-equiv ultrawide, and 60mm-equiv...

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Kobo announces a new waterproof Kobo Clara 2E to compete with the Kindle Paperwhite

Image: Kobo

Kobo’s announced its first fully waterproof six-inch e-reader, the Kobo Clara 2E, will be available on September 22nd. However, you can preorder it now from Kobo for $129.99.

Kobo says the new e-reader is also the Rakuten-owned company’s first built from over 85 percent recycled plastic, with ocean plastic accounting for 10 percent of that. These changes are a part of Kobo’s goal to offset 100 percent of the carbon emissions related to shipping its e-readers to customers. Made from FSC-certified recycled paper and printed with soy ink, its magnet-free packaging is also supposed to be more eco-friendly.

On the features front, the new e-reader also differs from its predecessor, the Clara HD, in that it supports Bluetooth so you can listen...

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Lenovo’s second-gen X1 Fold could be the game-changer the first one wasn’t

It’s just another ThinkPad...or is it?

I reviewed Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold, the first PC with a foldable screen, in late 2020. At the time, it was a very cool idea, but not particularly, shall we say, usable. Today, Lenovo has announced its second go at this, the “Next-generation” ThinkPad X1 Fold. I spent a few minutes with the device, and let me tell you: I am much more optimistic about this one.

Much of this new X1 Fold will be familiar to fans not just of the previous X1 Fold, but of the ThinkPad line in general. The device is outfitted with the series’s standard black and red color scheme, with the staple ThinkPad X1 logo on the lid. There’s a ThinkPad-style keyboard with a trackpoint and inverted-T arrow keys. It’s well-built, sturdy, and sleek.

But some changes have...

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Qualcomm’s server and laptop ambitions may be in trouble

The issue stems from its 2021 startup purchase. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Arm is suing Qualcomm and Nuvia, a startup the chipmaker acquired in 2021, claiming that the companies violated the licenses they have to use Arm’s processor designs and architecture (via Reuters). Arm’s argument is that the licenses it gave Nuvia before it was acquired aren’t valid now that it’s under new ownership. If Arm wins its suit, Qualcomm could be forced to destroy any work it’s done with the particular licenses in question — a significant setback for its ambitions to create desktop and server chips using Nuvia’s technology.

Qualcomm hasn’t been quiet about its goals, or the role that Nuvia’s acquisition plays in them. Earlier this year, Cristiano Amon, its CEO, told The Verge: “As soon as I got named CEO, I made the acquisition...

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