Bannon surrenders to New York prosecutors over border wall crowdfunding campaign

Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

Steve Bannon, Trump ally and former White House adviser, surrendered himself to the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday and is expected to face charges related to his role in an online crowdfunding effort to fulfill Trump’s promise to build a wall along the US’s southern border with Mexico, according to CNN.

Bannon and three others were previously arrested and charged with defrauding donors to their “We Build the Wall” online fundraising campaign. The group raised over $25 million to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, promising to use “100 percent” of donations to fund the wall’s construction. But the group was found to have paid more than $1 million to cover personal expenses, including boats, an SUV, and cosmetic...

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Microsoft starts testing new Xbox Home UI that will arrive in 2023

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is starting to test new changes to the Xbox Home UI that will eventually arrive for everyone in 2023. The changes will include tweaks to the layout and design to make it easier to find Xbox games and apps or navigate to areas like the settings interface. Microsoft will conduct a variety of Xbox Home experiments over the coming months before launching its new Xbox Home UI in 2023.

“We know the Xbox homepage is where our gamers spend the most time, and it’s a space that’s very personal,” says Ivy Krislov, senior product manager lead of Xbox experiences. “We also know we can always be listening and learning how we can do better here while keeping your experience fast and familiar. With that, we’re kicking off a multi-month series...

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EV startup Bollinger acquired by Mullen Automotive for $148.2 million

Bollinger’s B1 and B2 electric trucks were put on pause, but now Mullen says they will go into production. | Image: Bollinger

Mullen Automotive has acquired a controlling stake in electric vehicle startup Bollinger Motors, buying up 60 percent of the struggling company’s stock for $148.2 million, the companies announced Thursday.

Mullen said it will add Bollinger-designed medium-duty trucks and sport utility trucks to its inventory. The deal “positions Bollinger to capture the electric sport utility and commercial vehicle markets,” the company added.

Mullen is a relatively unknown Southern California electric vehicle manufacturer with the stated goal to build “the next-generation of premium electric vehicles that are affordable and built entirely in the United States.”

Mullen is a relatively unknown Southern California electric vehicle manufacturer

Bollinger...

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‘Moonwalking’ spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis III mission will be built by Axiom Space

A photo illustration of Axiom Space’s space suit | Image: Axiom Space

NASA is already packing for its next Moon landing, and it’s ordering some new spacesuits for the trip. It has awarded a $228.5 million contract to Axiom Space to make a “moonwalking system” for the agency’s return trip to the lunar surface, NASA announced Wednesday.

Axiom was one of two companies in the running to make spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis program, which is aiming to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. NASA already has a limited supply of spacesuits for use on the International Space Station, but lunar spacesuits will have to be very different. In addition to extreme temperature swings, they’ll have to contend with the Moon’s gravity and the notoriously problematic lunar dust that has a...

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RIP to the iPhone Mini — not dead but not updated

The big phones have won. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Well, that’s it then — after just two iterations, Apple seems to be done with the iPhone Mini. Sure, it’ll still sell you a new one; last year’s 128GB iPhone 13 Mini is currently available for $599, but the new iPhone 14 lineup doesn’t include any models with the smaller 5.4-inch screen that some people have come to love.

I may be disappointed, but I’m not surprised. Rumors of the Mini’s death have been swirling almost since it debuted in 2020. In early 2021, reports started to surface that Apple had vastly overestimated demand for the phone and had to slash production of it and that it only accounted for single-digit percentages of all iPhone sales.

The Mini wasn’t perfect, and it was niche — a perfect formula for a cult classic

P...

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Here’s how much energy crypto mining gobbles up in the US

A worker installs a new row of Bitcoin mining machines at the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, on October 9th, 2021 | Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty Images

Crypto industry operations in the US use about as much electricity as all of the nation’s home computers combined, according to a report released today by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The report paints the clearest picture yet of what crypto operations are costing both power grids and the environment in the US. It also lays out some potential actions the Biden administration could take to address these challenges.

Democratic lawmakers in particular have been worried about whether the crypto industry that has exploded in the US over the past year might derail climate goals. And as extreme weather pushes power grids to their limits across the US, there’s growing concern that the most electricity-hungry...

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Humble is bundling several great PC games for just $16

A screenshot from Borderlands 3_._ | Image: Gearbox Software

Humble is hosting an excellent bundle of PC games right now, straight from 2K Games’ vault. For your $16 contribution, you can get the big suite of games, including Borderlands 3 Super Deluxe, XCOM: Ultimate Collection, PGA Tour 2K21, BioShock: The Collection, and more. You can, of course, pay more if you want as well as customize how your pledge is split among Take-Two Interactive, Humble, and the Covenant House charity that provides care and services to youth experiencing houselessness and trafficked young people. This deal will end in about two weeks.

There’s another stellar deal happening for a limited time. Disney is offering a one-month subscription of its Disney Plus service to new and eligible returning subscribers for just...

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What makes a good laptop?

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

One of the things about this job is that everyone in your life — from friends to relatives to distant acquaintances and strangers on the internet — asks you questions about laptops all the time. A very common one I hear is also one of the harder ones to answer: “What makes a good laptop?”

Unfortunately, my dear question asker, that answer — as is the case with so many answers in life — is subjective. Sometimes I will hate a laptop that my fellow reviewers love, and vice versa. (I’m always the one who’s right, of course. Don’t listen to them.)

But this question has prompted me to step back and do a bit of introspection (as one does). What distinguishes a laptop that I like from a laptop that is good?

First off, it’s much easier to...

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Rivian and Mercedes-Benz partner up for electric vans

Image: Mercedes-Benz / Rivian

Mercedes-Benz and Rivian have formed a new joint venture to build “bespoke large” commercial electric vans, the companies announced Thursday.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to start a strategic partnership that will invest in a new plant, with its target set on using an existing Mercedes-Benz site in Central or Eastern Europe. This marks Rivian’s first foothold in the continent; the automaker only has one manufacturing facility in the US.

There will be two van models, one built on Mercedes’ Vans Electric Architecture (VAN.EA) platform and the other on Rivian’s second-generation electric van platform, called Rivian Light Van (RLV). Mercedes-Benz has been building commercial vans for more than two decades and has...

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Guns are also out in the first trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Netflix finally dropped the first trailer, technically a teaser, for Glass Onion: A Knifes Out Mystery. The film is set in the same universe as Knives Out, the award-winning murder mystery from 2019.

The new film is as notable for how much it cost Netflix as it is for its very large cast, which includes Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., David Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, and Edward Norton. Daniel Craig also returns as the Foghorn-sounding detective Benoit Blanc.

The original film was a bit of an unexpected hit, which led Netflix to spend an eye-watering $469 million to secure the rights for two sequels. Glass Onion is the first of those films.

You just need a good story.

It’s a little odd that Netflix waited...

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Nvidia teases RTX 40 series announcement with ‘GeForce Beyond’ event

Nvidia is teasing next-gen GPUs. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia wants the world to know it’s getting ready to launch its next-gen 40-series GPUs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will hold a special “GeForce Beyond” keynote at the company’s GTC 2022 conference on September 20th.

Nvidia is widely expected to announce its 40-series GPUs at this event after the company confirmed it would discuss its next-gen GPU architecture at GTC. Codenamed Lovelace, the next GPU architecture will usher in the new RTX 40-series graphics cards to replace Nvidia’s existing Ampere architecture.

#ProjectBeyond pic.twitter.com/aPTrpi8BXa

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) September 7, 2022

Rumors continue to suggest Nvidia is working on RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs. The monster RTX 4090 was originally rumored as a July...

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The 2024 Chevy Equinox EV is priced to be everyone’s first electric vehicle

The 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV is intended to play a major role in GM’s quest to sell more electric vehicles than Tesla. | Image: Chevy

The new midsize SUV, which starts at around $30,000, is intended to be an ‘EV for everyone’

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Uber Eats and Nuro sign a 10-year deal to do robot food delivery in California and Texas

Uber and Nuro have been negotiating for nearly four years. | Uber

Uber Eats customers in California and Texas may soon have their takeout delivered by a driverless delivery pod after the company signed a 10-year deal with autonomous driving startup Nuro.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of over four years of start-and-stop negotiations between the two companies. Uber wanted to use Nuro’s vehicles to make deliveries in Houston back in 2019, but those plans never panned out. Now, the two companies have struck a decade-long deal to expand robot deliveries to more customers than ever.

Starting this fall, Uber and Nuro will deploy autonomous delivery vehicles in two cities: Mountain View, California, and Houston, Texas. Neither company would disclose the number of vehicles nor the expected number...

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The Razor EcoSmart Cargo is an electric scooter that looks suspiciously like an e-bike

Razor, the company that helped kick off the scooter craze over two decades ago, is expanding its lineup of vehicles for adults with the EcoSmart Cargo, a pretty rad-looking electric scooter that borrows a lot from the world of e-bikes.

The scooter features a number of stylish design touches, including an olive green body and roomy bamboo deck. The scooter also sports a high-torque, 1,000-watt motor and chain drivetrain and can reach speeds up to 19.9mph (32 kilometers per hour) and boasts a range of up to 16.6 miles (26.7km).

The fastest and most powerful scooter in Razor’s lineup

That makes the EcoSmart Cargo the fastest and most powerful scooter in Razor’s lineup. As a company that mainly markets its products to kids, Razor is...

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Insta360’s latest 360 camera comes with a big screen upgrade

It’s not hard to tell the X3 (left) and One X2 (right) apart. | Photo: Becca Farsace / The Verge

Insta360 has announced the X3, an all-in-one 360 camera that is a successor to the One X2 released in late 2020. Looking at the two cameras side-by-side, the X3’s biggest upgrade is obvious — the company dropped the mildly confusing “One” from the camera’s name. Oh, and instead of a small, circular touchscreen, the X3 now sports a 2.29-inch rectangular display, which you can use to preview and review footage and control the device. (Ironically, the X2’s biggest upgrade was also in the display department.)

At $449.99, the X3 is slightly more expensive than its predecessor and still has the same 5.7K max resolution as the X2 did. However, the company says the camera’s 1/2-inch sensors have gotten an upgrade for “big resolution and image...

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You can get a month of Disney Plus right now for $1.99

For a limited time, you can get a month of Disney Plus for a mere $1.99. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the day you can stream Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder from the comfort of your home, you can do so while saving today. In honor of Disney Plus Day, the House of Mouse’s annual celebration of all things streaming-related, the company is offering both new and eligible returning subscribers one month of Disney Plus for $1.99 instead of $7.99.

That means you won’t just be able to watch Marvel’s latest theatrical release for the price of a cup of coffee but also other content released today as part of the service’s Disney Plus Day celebration. This includes the live-action Pinocchio adaptation, the fourth episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the premiere of the Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return documentary, and...

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Brydge’s SP Max Plus is a pricey tank of a Type Cover replacement

The SP Max Plus has a hefty build that’s comparable in weight to a full-size laptop. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Brydge’s latest keyboard case for the Surface Pro 8 is a little different than the company’s previous versions. The $229 SP Max Plus consists of a rugged, backlit keyboard and a rugged, detachable case for Microsoft’s current-gen Surface tablet — all of which have an antimicrobial coating. Notably, it operates with a physical connection, not a wireless one. Getting connected via Bluetooth isn’t (usually) that finicky, but you won’t have to worry about that at all here.

The two pieces connect via Brydge’s new proprietary, very strongly magnetized SecureConnect pogo pins, allowing the keyboard to run off the tablet’s battery once attached, instead of needing to be recharged on occasion.

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The...

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Jeep vows four electric SUVs by 2025, including all-new Recon and Wagoneer S

© 2022 Stellantis

The two electric SUVs will arrive in North America starting in 2024

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Apple might have fixed the notch by putting it on an island

The Dynamic Island may be a goofy name, but its real good looking. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Before there were commercials and whole branding exercises hailing the notch on the Apple iPhone there was a long row of iPhones Xs devices in the lobby of the Steve Jobs theater. The iPhone Xs was part of the second generation of notched iPhones so it was all kind of about the notch—but it was also about the fancy OLED display that showed off perfect blacks compared to the Xr’s traditional LED. Which is why Apple put a vibrant wallpaper with bright pops of color on the Xs and the notch disappeared into the perfect black of the OLED display. There was something timid about the choice to hide it in the wallpaper. Like Apple wasn’t quite as confident of its now fairly iconic screen cutout. With the iPhone 14 Pro it looks like Apple has...

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Will the Apple Watch Ultra make Garmin the next Nokia?

Apple Watch Ultra. | Image: Apple

I had a funny feeling watching yesterday’s announcement of the Apple Watch Ultra: I’ve seen this show before. It wasn’t until Garmin watch fans on Reddit and Twitter started lampooning Apple that it hit me… this is Nokia all over again.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I’m a longtime Garmin watch fan. Most of my friends and family have all purchased svelte Apple Watches. It’s a great smartwatch but I wanted a great outdoor adventure and fitness watch to pair with my iPhone instead. That’s why I’ve been wearing big hulking Garmin watches like the Fenix and Epix series despite their clumsy software interfaces. I’ve used them to obsessively track and measure my performance in a variety of activities that include kitesurfing, trail...

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Tim Cook says ‘buy your mom an iPhone’ if you want to end green bubbles

Getty Images for Vox Media

Apple CEO Tim Cook dismissed the idea of adopting RCS messaging to put an end to the green bubbles that surround messages when iPhone users text someone on an Android device.

“I don’t hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy in on that at this point,” Cook said when asked how Apple founder Steve Jobs would feel about using the RCS standard in iMessage during Vox Media’s Code 2022 event on Wednesday night.

But the person who asked the question, Vox Media’s LiQuan Hunt, came back with a valid complaint, saying that his mother can’t see the videos he sends her. It all comes down to a lack of interoperability between iMessage and RCS, both messaging systems that could allow higher-quality images and videos — if they worked...

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Steve Jobs’ friends and family just launched an archive to celebrate his life

The Steve Jobs Archive is live now. | Image: Apple

The friends and family of Apple founder Steve Jobs have launched the Steve Jobs Archive, an organization that celebrates the technology titan. You can visit the archive at stevejobsarchive.com.

Right now, the site is simple. At the top, there’s a poetic email Jobs sent to himself about his admiration for humanity. Scrolling down reveals some notable quotes from Jobs, including some from his famous 2005 commencement address at Stanford. At the end, there’s a short “About Us” description for the archive. Video and audio clips of Jobs are laced in along the way.

“With respect for the past and excitement for the future, the Steve Jobs Archive offers people the tools and opportunities to make their own contribution,” the site reads. “We are...

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Jony Ive doesn’t think your car should rely on multitouch

Ive spoke at Vox Media’s Code conference alongside Tim Cook and Laurene Powell Jobs. | Getty Images for Vox Media

Jony Ive isn’t a fan of cars using too many touchscreen controls, and says they’re an example of an interface “being driven inappropriately by something like multitouch.”

During a panel with the former Apple design lead, Tim Cook, and Laurene Powell Jobs at Vox Media’s Code conference tonight, journalist Kara Swisher asked Ive what he thought of current design trends. Ive said that there were “fabulous affordances with interfaces like multitouch,” but said that they may have gone too far in places — and it might be time for a shift back toward more physical controls.

“Potentially the pendulum may swing a little to have interfaces and products that are more tactile and more engaging physically,” Ive said. Swisher suggested that cars were...

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Tens of thousands of viewers watched a fake Apple crypto scam on YouTube

A screenshot from a bogus Apple live stream that actually seems to be a crypto scam. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Someone on YouTube was live streaming an old interview with Tim Cook that was seemingly being used to attract attention to a crypto scam — and when it was live, tens of thousands of viewers were tuning.

If you’ve seen crypto scams on YouTube before, you would have recognized a lot of hallmarks of what was going on. The fake live stream was getting attention by filling its description with an array of Apple keywords in both the title and description. But when you actually opened it up, it was filled with odd messages linking to a shady-looking crypto site.

“Apple Crypto Event 2022”

The stream had plenty of signs of being fake. It had a strange title — “Apple Event Live. Ceo of Apple Tim Cook: Apple & Metaverse in 2022.” — and it’s was...

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Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Laurene Powell Jobs, live at Code

Apple CEO Tim Cook. | Laura Normand / The Verge

A conversation about the legacy of Steve Jobs

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Apple’s low power mode isn’t just for the new watches

It’s a watchOS 9 feature, not a Series 8 one. | Image: Apple

When Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 8 on Wednesday, it introduced a new low power mode feature that lets the wearable double its battery life by turning off a few features. It won’t be limited to Apple’s latest devices, though — during the presentation, Apple said low power mode is coming to “the Series 4 and later” with watchOS 9, which is launching September 12th.

The company didn’t say whether the mode would be as effective on older devices as it claims it will be on the Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra (Apple says its bigger watch will be able to go from 36 hours of runtime to 60 with the mode turned on). But based on what we know about how it works, it’s clear that it’ll be less effective on at least a few models.

Apple...

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Now Nvidia is including Spider-Man as a pack-in with new GPUs

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Nvidia is bundling its higher-end RTX 30-series graphics cards with a copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered. If you purchase a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080 GPU — or a qualifying desktop or laptop that comes with those cards — Nvidia will include a free digital copy of the $59.99 game.

Spider-Man Remastered, which is currently one of the top-selling titles on Steam, is the latest freebie Nvidia’s using to try to get users to buy its cards. After the original Spider-Man got rave reviews on PlayStation 4, the remastered version of the game just launched on PC (and Steam Deck) in August. The PC version of the game supports both ultrawide monitors and Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which should enable...

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Everything Apple didn’t announce at its iPhone 14 event

Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple just wrapped up its Far Out event, giving us a glimpse at the new iPhone 14, three new Apple Watch models, and the next generation of AirPods Pro earbuds. But what about everything Apple didn’t announce?

Some rumors we’ve been hearing for the months leading up to the event just didn’t end up panning out, and some of our long-shot hopes were deflated along the way. Here’s everything that could still come in the future — or may have proven to be a bust.

The mixed-reality headset

Apple’s mixed-reality headset has become the elephant in the room at its events, with rumors about the device only getting more detailed. While there was no sign of the headset at the Far Out event, that wasn’t necessarily a surprise.

We aren’t expecting the...

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GameStop’s crypto era brings FTX gift cards to its video game stores

The two companies announced a partnership. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

GameStop is doubling down on crypto, and as part of its growing expansion into blockchain technologies, it announced a new partnership with crypto exchange FTX on Wednesday.

The two companies haven’t spelled out too many details about what the partnership will actually mean, but they did share a few tidbits. According to a press release, “the partnership is intended to introduce more GameStop customers to FTX’s community and its marketplaces for digital assets.”

GameStop is becoming FTX’s “preferred retail partner”

One concrete aspect of the partnership is that GameStop will start carrying FTX gift cards in “select stores.” GameStop is also FTX’s “preferred retail partner” in the US, which could suggest that FTX will sell other sorts of...

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Apple’s Lightning-only charging case for the third-gen AirPods doesn’t make sense

Worth noting: the MagSafe charging case also has a Lightning port.

Apple has quietly introduced a new option for its third-generation non-Pro AirPods — a Lightning-only charging case (via MacRumors). On the surface, that’s reasonable: forgoing wireless charging on the second-gen AirPods saved you $40. But this time around, you’re only saving _ten doll_ars: they cost $169, compared to $179 for the MagSafe version (which can also be charged with a Lightning cable).

For those looking to trade convenience for savings, foregoing wireless charging used to be a genuinely good option, saving you 20 percent. Now, you can just as easily save $10 on third-gen AirPods with two seconds of Googling — the MagSafe versions are on sale for $169 at both Amazon and Target. If you’re willing to wait, you could probably snag...

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