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The Verge’s 2022 back-to-school gift guide
All the best backpacks, laptops, tablets, and wearables for the new school year. | The Verge
Our favorite laptops, bags, and gadgets for students
The VergeThe VergeTwitter had a new plan to fight extremism — then Elon arrived
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
The company had an ambitious plan to fight extremism on the platform. So what happened to it?
The VergeChina is all in on foldables — and Honor’s CEO thinks the rest of the world is ready, too
George Zhao announcing Honor’s first foldable, the Magic V, in early 2021 | Image: Honor
Honor is planning to release its second foldable next year, and unlike the Honor Magic V, the company hopes to actually release the device outside of China. Honor’s CEO, George Zhao, confirmed the plans in an interview with The Verge ahead of this year’s IFA trade show in Berlin and said the company expects to launch its next foldable device in the first quarter of next year.
“We’ve made the decision that next year, in Q1, we’ll bring our latest foldable smartphone to international markets,” including Europe, Zhao said. The CEO didn’t confirm any specifics or details for the new device but indicated that Honor’s major areas of focus for its foldables are making them thinner, lighter, and more affordable.
A release in the first quarter...
The VergeHonor 70 review: no deal-breakers, no showstoppers
There’s nothing to hate but nothing to truly love about Honor’s latest midrange device
The VergeJudge agrees Musk’s buddy David Sacks is fighting a subpoena for podcast clout
Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter’s lawyers argued David Sacks’ main reason for trying to fight a subpoena filed in their case against Elon Musk is because he said he would on a podcast, and in a ruling issued Friday, the judge agreed.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick (pdf):
In an apparent effort to keep Sacks’s promise to his podcast listeners, the movants created the very burden of which they now complain.
The Motion to Quash is denied.
This closes a side story to the main event of Twitter suing Elon Musk over his attempt to get out of their $44 billion acquisition agreement after the company’s lawyers subpoenaed Sacks as “a potential investor in the merger Musk seeks to escape.” Sacks is a venture capitalist and, along with Musk, is a member of the...
The VergeProfessional AI whisperers have launched a marketplace for DALL-E prompts
A Verge-generated application of a Midjourney prompt for “futuristic succulents.”
AI art isn’t just an experiment — it’s a side hustle
The VergeApple Maps turns 10 — and it’s finally worth using
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
It’s getting there, slowly but surely
The VergeSo you just discovered BTS
Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Every fan of every band has, at some point, been there. You spotted them performing at the Grammys, working out with James Corden, taking over Grand Central, or hanging out with Joe Biden. You heard Butter on the radio, and you were like, “Hey, that’s catchy.” You’re intrigued — you like their music, and they seem like cool guys. You’re ready to be a fan. So what’s the next step? How do you get into the band?
I have good news for you: Army (the name of BTS’s fans) is a welcoming group. The prospect of joining an established fandom can be intimidating at times — but in general, we here in Army-land are very, very accustomed to being inundated by new, curious fans after every big award show, hit single, or other event that puts BTS all...
The VergeChromeOS tests keyboard controls for touchscreen-only Android games
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
In a move that feels a little late, coming years after Chromebooks got access to Android apps and games, Google says that ChromeOS users will get access to an “early Alpha” of game controls optimized for certain touchscreen-only games. Mobile games are obviously made for use on phones with touchscreens, which many computers don’t have. To bridge the gap, starting with ChromeOS 105, Google’s operating system can turn key presses into simulated touches.
According to Google, “We see game controls as a way to overcome initial challenges with the ChromeOS gaming experience while users wait for developers to fully optimize their apps for ChromeOS,” even as it pushes for game developers to include input support that works across phones,...
The VergeLG’s MoodUp is a fridge that’s as flashy on the outside as I feel on the inside
The LG MoodUp can flash in time with music streamed to its built-in Bluetooth speaker.
In case anyone is needing extra RGB lighting in their lives, LG’s new MoodUp fridge has you covered. The refrigerator, which the South Korean electronics giant announced this week at IFA in Berlin, has LED light panels on its front that can illuminate in over a dozen different colors (22 for the upper panel, 19 for the lower). There’s also a built-in Bluetooth speaker (I know).
You control the light panels through LG’s app, where there are a series of preset color schemes to match different seasons and moods. But of course, you can also take full control to create a gloriously ugly kitchen color scheme of your own devising. I was helpfully shown such an abomination during an in-person demonstration on the show floor, and it was quite...
The VergeGoogle expands Play Store billing altneratives to many more countries
Third-party billing options to Google’s Play Store roll out globally. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google has quietly expanded its “User Choice Billing” pilot to let more developers of non-gaming Android apps offer third-party payment options as alternatives to Google Play’s. Developers will see their service fees of 15 to 30 percent reduced by 4 percent when users select a new third-party billing option, which the developer — not Google — must support in case of customer issues. The news was first reported by 9to5Google.
Now, as of September 1st, registered developers from the European Economic Area (EEA), India, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia can participate in User Choice Billing, according to this enrollment page. Google contends that 99 percent of developers using the company’s own Play Store billing qualify for the 15 percent...
The VergeAnother Apple Store union election is brewing
Nick Barclay / The Verge
Workers at the Penn Square Apple Store in Oklahoma City have filed with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election, becoming the third US location to have done so. According to a press release, over 70 percent of the store’s salespeople, genius admins, technicians, creatives, and operations specialists, have signed cards to say they’re interested in being represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
The NLRB’s bar for a sufficient showing of interest for an election is 30 percent of workers signing union cards.
The filing was reported previously by Bloomberg, and the outlet writes that Michael Forsythe, an employee and organizer at the Oklahoma City store, said workers are looking for “more transparency...
The VergeApple settles lawsuit over its App Store moderation and power
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Developer and App Store critic Kosta Eleftheriou has settled his lawsuit with Apple, according to a report from TechCrunch. The suit, filed in March 2021, argued that Apple made it difficult for him to sell his app, Flicktype, on the App Store, after it seemingly lost interest in acquiring the tech.
The lawsuit alleged that Apple used its monopoly power as maker of the iPhone and as the company in charge of the App Store to “crush” developers competing with it through “exploitive fees and selective application of opaque and unreasonable constraints.” Eleftheriou also accused Apple of doing little to stem the tide of copycat scam apps that tricked potential users of his app, a swipe-based keyboard for the Apple Watch. (This was, by the...
The VergeMicrosoft confirms new Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan and its pricing
The service will cost around €21.99 a month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
After a leak revealed Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family branding over the weekend, Microsoft has gone official with its new plan and revealed its pricing in Ireland and Colombia. The new subscription will allow Xbox Game Pass members to share with up to four other friends or family members at €21.99 per month in Ireland, and 49,900 COP in Colombia.
Microsoft isn’t restricting this new Game Pass plan to just family members, and the only restriction is that people who are added to the Friends & Family plan need to be in the same country. Microsoft is currently testing this new Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan in Ireland and Colombia, with pricing at €21.99 per month instead of the regular €12.99 per month for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate....
The VergeHere are the best tablet deals right now
Best Buy is currently discounting a bundle containing the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Pro keyboard to $999.99. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Tablets exist in a space between phones and laptops that is becoming increasingly muddled. As phones become more powerful and gain larger displays, laptops continue to get lighter. Tablet manufacturers haven’t been resting on their laurels, though. Many of the more recent tablets we’ve seen are looking to bridge the gap in terms of performance and, in select cases, handle some tasks more efficiently than both phones and laptops.
The tablet spectrum is varied, too. Inexpensive models like the Amazon Fire HD 10 make for excellent media streaming devices, while those in Microsoft’s versatile Surface lineup can easily serve as ad-hoc laptops when paired with an optional folio-style keyboard. Then there’s the ubiquitous iPad, a slate that has...
The VergeHang on, is LG secretly bringing back curved TVs?
Outside of 3D, curved TVs are probably one of the industry’s most ill-advised gimmicks. Unless you sat at a very specific point in front of them, they resulted in a warped image, harsh reflections, and a generally unpleasant viewing experience, for close to no benefit. Seriously, they were terrible. It felt like curved TVs happened because companies could make them, rather than because they should.
It took me a little while to realize it, but LG’s new 42-inch OLED Flex, which it’s announced this week at IFA and hopes to bring to market this fall, effectively marks the return of curved TVs. It may have a monitor-style stand featuring some gamer-styled RGB lighting, and LG may have confused things slightly by placing the OLED Flex on top...
The VergeThe T-Mobile / Sprint merger hasn’t created jobs — it’s cut thousands
T-Mobile has promised that the merger would be “jobs-positive.” | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Wall Street Journal reports T-Mobile’s engineering and network operations teams are experiencing waves of layoffs, which have included managers and executives, on top of thousands of jobs eliminated by restructuring after the company merged with Sprint in 2020. T-Mobile execs promised then that the merger was “all about creating new, high-quality, high-paying jobs, and the new T-Mobile will be jobs-positive from Day One and every day thereafter.”
In April 2020, the companies had about 80,000 workers combined; however, as the Journal points out, T-Mobile’s most recent annual report (pdf) said it ended 2021 with 75,000 full- and part-time employees.
Employees
As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 75,000 full-time and...
The VergeSennheiser’s more-affordable soundbar is still a premium-sounding beast
It’s still a large soundbar, but it’s more compact that Sennheiser’s first. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge
Sennheiser’s debut soundbar, released in 2019, was a niche product for a couple of reasons. The first was the price. At $2,499.95, it rivaled the cost of many traditional surround sound systems comprised of AV receivers and multiple speakers. But perhaps more important was its size. I say this with love, but the original Ambeo Soundbar (which has now been renamed the Ambeo Soundbar Max) was a chunky boy, which hardly made it an easy sell for anyone looking to tuck it discreetly in front of their TV.
So although it’s $1,000 cheaper, I think price might only be the second most important change with Sennheiser’s second soundbar, the $1,499.95 Ambeo Soundbar Plus, which the company launched today at an event in Berlin. Instead, I think its...
The VergeHere are the best Kindle deals right now
Amazon’s ad-supported base Kindle from 2019 remains the cheapest Kindle you can buy at $64.99. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.
Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons.
Below, we’ve listed each model currently available. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one or any of the products — which is...
The VergeMicrosoft Edge’s new sidebar banishes recipe stories, shows you email
Thanks for the review, I guess?
Microsoft has added a new sidebar to its Edge browser with buttons that let you see information about a site, check your email, access Microsoft Office, and even strip the essential elements of a recipe out of an overly long post (via Windows Central). The new feature seems to build on the “Search in sidebar” function added to Edge in 2020, but it adds even more multitasking abilities.
The sidebar includes some small but useful panes, like the one that lets you search the web and quickly read articles, or the one that includes a variety of widgets, such as a calculator, dictionary, internet speed test, and unit convertor. Some of the panes are more fully featured; the Outlook one, for example, lets you read and send emails, as well as...
The VergeLenovo’s Glasses T1 let you bring a private big screen display with you
Image: Lenovo
Lenovo is the latest company promoting a USB-C monitor made for your face. The company’s new Glasses T1 put a Full HD OLED screen in front of each of your eyes and were revealed today during IFA and on Lenovo’s virtual showcase.
This wearable private display, as Lenovo puts it, is very much like other consumer smart glasses, including TCL’s NxtWear Air, which puts two 1080p micro-OLED screens in front of your eyes, just like Lenovo’s T1. Another similar product is the Nreal Air, though that one has a 90Hz screen refresh rate compared to the T1’s 60Hz.
You aren’t getting any VR or AR experiences with these types of glasses, and you can’t safely walk around wearing them as your vision would be entirely obscured, and the cable keeps them...
The VergeNext-gen USB promises to be twice as fast, using cables you may already own
Double the speed of USB 4 version 1 and Thunderbolt 4 | Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge
The next version of USB could be one of the fastest connectors we’ve seen yet. The USB Promoter Group says that USB 4 version 2 will be capable of speeds up to 80 Gbps, double what the original USB 4, and even Thunderbolt 4, are capable of.
The actual technical specification from the USB Implementers Forum, which is in charge of the standard itself, hasn’t been released yet, but the details coming out today are a little stunning. The Promoter Group writes in a press release that USB 4 version 2 cables will use the USB-C connector, which is to be expected, but the real bombshell is this line: “Key characteristics of the updated USB4 solution include: Up to 80 Gbps operation, based on a new physical layer architecture, using existing 40...
The VergeMicron launches $15 billion Idaho project amid federal push for US tech manufacturing
Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images
On Thursday, Micron announced that it would invest $15 billion to build a new semiconductor plant in Idaho — just weeks after Congress passed $52 billion in new money to boost domestic chip manufacturing.
Micron’s announcement is just the latest in a series of multi-billion-dollar plans to jump on the Biden administration’s recently approved CHIPS and Science Act. Last month, Micron said it would use the act’s new subsidies to invest $40 billion into US-based memory fabs, or fabrication plants, by 2030, creating an estimated 40,000 new jobs. The new Boise plant is expected to create 17,000 new jobs, including 2,000 Micron jobs, over the next eight years.
“In our future, we will make EVs, chips, fiber optics, and other critical...
The VergeHouse of the Dragon co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik has left the show
Photo by CHRIS DELMAS / AFP via Getty Images
Though House of the Dragonreportedly gave HBO its biggest premiere of all time and has already been renewed for a second season, co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik’s getting ready to exit the series for his next big thing.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sapochnik is leaving House of the Dragon just as he’s signed a new first-look development deal with HBO that will give the network priority consideration for whatever projects he starts developing next. Sapochnik will remain attached to House of the Dragon as an executive producer alongside newcomer Alan Taylor, who will also serve as an executive producer and direct episodes in the series’ second season. In a statement about his exit, Sapochnik said that it’d been an “honor and a...
The VergeSennheiser’s new $1,500 Ambeo Soundbar Plus will probably sound incredible
Image: Sennheiser
When it comes to getting the most immersive audio presentation from a standalone soundbar, no one has managed to outclass Sennheiser’s Ambeo. And considering that device’s sky-high $2,500 price, you’d expect it to deliver a sublime home theater experience. At IFA 2022, Sennheiser is adding to the Ambeo lineup by introducing the new Ambeo Soundbar Plus. The price is slightly lower but will likely still leave this one out of reach for many consumers. It costs $1,499.95, and preorders begin today.
The Plus model is advertised as “the world’s first 7.1.4 standalone soundbar.” Sennheiser’s original Ambeo will remain for sale and is now being rebranded as the Ambeo Soundbar Max. It’s still larger than the new Plus, so the name makes sense in...
The VergeCalifornia’s power grid is struggling to cope with extreme heat
The Ski Inn bar and restaurant amid a heatwave on the shore of the Salton Sea on August 31st, 2022, in Bombay Beach, California. | Photo by Ariana Drehsler / Getty Images
A long, brutal heatwave is expected to grip California at least through the holiday weekend, stressing the power grid. Officials are begging residents to conserve electricity in an effort to prevent outages.
The state is now in its second day of a “Flex Alert” issued by the state’s power grid operator, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Under the Flex Alert, Californians are urged to voluntarily curb their electricity use between 4PM and 9PM. That’s the time of day when the grid is under the most pressure because it’s when power demand typically rises as people come home from work, and there’s less solar energy available as the sun sets.
Officials are begging residents to conserve electricity
Cutting down on energy use...
The VergeLeica is now making a Cine 1 laser projector that sits just inches from the wall
The Cine 1 looks best when projected onto an ALR screen, which Leica will also sell. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge
Today, Leica — yes, the camera company — announced its first ultra-short throw (UST) laser projector at the big IFA show in Germany, capable of producing a 4K image of up to 100 inches with Dolby Atmos sound.
This isn’t Leica’s first foray into digital projectors, which it once sold under the Pradovit brand. It’s also collaborated with other projector makers, including this obscure UST model from last year.
The announcement was light on details, so my colleague Jon Porter chased down a demonstration of an early Cine 1 prototype at the Leica booth. Here’s what we learned from Ross Slavov, head of product management in Leica’s newly formed smart projection business unit, about the company’s current thinking about specs, pricing, and...
The VergeAn AI-generated artwork won a state competition, and people don’t know what to think
The AI-generated artwork entered by Jason Allen into the Colorado State Fair | Image: Jason Allen via Discord
A game designer has sparked controversy after submitting an image created by an AI text-to-image generator to a state art competition and taking home first prize.
Jason Allen entered the artwork titled “Theatre d’Opera Spatial” in the “Digital Arts / Digitally-Manipulated Photography” category of the Colorado State Fair fine arts competition but created the piece using a popular text-to-image AI generator named Midjourney.
A Twitter post describing Allen’s win went viral earlier this week (and was first covered by Vice). The post elicited a strong response, with many users claiming that Allen had been deceptive in submitting the piece, particularly as most of the public is unaware of how text-to-image AI generators work. Allen, though,...
The VergeWithings’ new smart scale measures your nerve and artery health
Withings first teased measuring nerve health back at CES. | Image: Withings
Withings has a few nifty ideas when it comes to smart scales, and for IFA 2022, it’s announced the Body Comp. What makes the Body Comp stand out is it can assess the health of your arteries and nerves in addition to “normal” body composition. Withings is also introducing a new Health Plus coaching service alongside the scale to help users meet their goals.
Smart scales like the Body Comp all use BIA to send a weak current through your body to determine how much muscle, water, bone, and fat you have. (Though, you should always take these scales’ accuracy and health claims with a grain of salt.) What’s novel here is users can assess their vascular age, visceral fat, and nerve health from a single device. Visceral fat refers to the fat...
The VergeJabra announces the Elite 5 earbuds, its new midrange pair for everyone
Image: Jabra
At IFA 2022, Jabra is announcing the new $149 Elite 5 earbuds. Serving as the company’s midrange pair of buds — akin to something like the older Elite 75t — these will offer up to seven hours of continuous playback with active noise cancellation turned on. They also feature multipoint Bluetooth for two simultaneous connections, IP55 dust and water resistance, and codec support that includes aptX, AAC, and SBC.
The Elite 5s contain 6mm drivers and customizable EQ. As for the design, Jabra says they’ll provide “a discreet, comfortable, and compact fit.” The earbuds share a teardrop shape that’s similar to the rest of the current Elite series and have six mics onboard for enhanced voice call performance with wind suppression. You also get...