Microsoft was right all along

Could this be the future? | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

If you’ve been following the laptop space over the past two or so years, you’ve probably noticed that the detachable laptop is on the rise. Several high-profile models that were previously traditional 2-in-1s (that is, an old-school-looking laptop that can also bend backward) have slowly but surely been converted to detachable keyboard form factors.

This is in no way a new idea — the Surface Pro has been a thing for years on end. But as more and more companies add the form factor to their premium lines, it seems like the space in general is warming up to the idea that Microsoft was right all along.

Recent examples include:

• Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1, once one of the best traditional convertibles you could buy, has become a folio-style...

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Memories in Google Photos are getting a new look and fresh features

You can now screate scrapbook-inspired collages with your favorite snaps on Google Photos. | Image: Google

Google Photos is redesigning its Memories feature to better display your cherished snaps, featuring new interactions, memory types, and memory sharing. Some creative updates are also coming in the form of a new collage editor and Styles feature to help you curate your images.

From today, videos are getting more of a spotlight within the redesigned Memories experience, with Google Photos automatically selecting and trimming down longer footage to focus on key moments. Still images will have a subtle zoom effect applied, which is visually different from the full dynamic zoom featured on Cinematic Photos. A small update is also coming to interactions, adding the ability to swipe up or down to move between Memories in addition to the...

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Newegg has so many extra GPUs that it’s bundling them with free monitors

Newegg is handing out free monitors when you purchase an RTX 3060 or 3070. | Image: Gigabyte

In a strange turn of fate, it seems that Newegg somehow has too many 30-series graphics cards. Right now, you can get a free 24-inch 1080p gaming monitor when you buy an RTX 3060 for $399.99. Another solid offer bundles a free 27-inch curved QHD monitor with a purchase of an RTX 3070 for $599.99. A deal like this is tough to beat; even if you don’t need the monitor, you’re still getting a 30-series graphics card at close to retail price, which was damn near impossible a year ago. This is likely a response to the leak of 40-series RTX cards that have been making their rounds on the internet.

If you’ve been biding your time in adopting one of the 30-series graphics cards, you aren’t going to find many opportunities that are better than...

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How to quickly update all of your iPhone apps on iOS 16

Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apps are what make the iPhone useful. Without them, you wouldn’t really be able to do much with your smartphone, which is why it’s important to keep them up to date. By making sure to update them, you’ll ensure you’ll benefit from the latest security and feature updates. Luckily, iPhones can automatically update apps for you, or you can manually update one or all of them by yourself — and it’s a pretty quick and easy process, too.

Here, we’ll show you just how to update your iPhone iOS 16 apps — automatically or manually — in a few simple steps that should take next to no time.

How to automatically update apps on iOS 16

First, to save time, you can instruct your iPhone to automatically update any individual app — or all of them — if...

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Pearl is a slasher prequel that makes the original even better

Mia Goth as Pearl in Pearl_._ | Image: A24

When X came out earlier this year, it was a capable, well-crafted homage to ’70s slasher flicks from director Ti West, but there wasn’t much to it beyond that. It turns out the project is much bigger than that one-off story. As was teased at the end of X, we now have a prequel, Pearl, that tells the origin story of its titular bloodthirsty killer. On their own, the two films each offer a satisfying amount of scares and gore. But it’s when you put them together that they become much more intriguing.

This review contains spoilers for both Pearl and X.

X told the story of a group of young folks attempting to film a porn movie in a rented farmhouse before being steadily killed by the murderous elderly couple they were renting from. Pearl...

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Discord starts rolling out new Forum Channels to help organize conversations

Discord Forum Channels will be available across PC and mobile. | Image: Discord

Discord is launching its new Forum Channels feature today in a bid to help server owners organize conversations. Forum Channels act like threaded topics of conversation that direct Discord users to talk about a particular subject. They’ll be useful for busy servers where it’s easy to interrupt ongoing conversations.

Forum Channels appear like sub-channels and can be used by server owners to branch off conversations about particular topics or to avoid having to create yet another channel for focused conversations.

“Like Threads and Text in Voice before, Forum Channels let focused conversations thrive without hogging a channel,” explains Discord in a blog post. “No more watching an interesting discussion get drowned out, hijacked, or...

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HBO Max and Discovery Plus’ reinvention might come with some new costs

The HBO Max and Discovery Plus logos | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

In the coming months, there’s a very good chance that Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max and Discovery Plus platforms are both going to go through massive reinventions meant to bring the streamers more in line with CEO David Zaslav’s vision for their path to success. Much of the speculation about what the future holds for the streaming services has revolved around all of the content being pulled from them ahead of their fusing to become something new, But according to the company’s CFO, customers might also be looking at some noticeable price hikes as Warner Bros. Discovery reconsiders just how much it should be charging people to access its catalog on demand.

At this year’s annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, Warner Bros....

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Today, for three hours only, you can get Samsung’s M8 Smart Monitor for $469

From certain angles, the M8 Smart Monitor (especially its more splashy colorways) looks like Apple’s latest iMac. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The recent Discover Samsung deals — happening totally coincidentally during iPhone 14 release week — are actually pretty stellar. Whether you’ve been looking for discounts on Samsung’s last-gen Galaxy Watch 4 or price cuts on its latest foldable phones, the sale event continues to perk up our ears. One of today’s discounts is great if you’ve been waiting on a price cut on the interesting M8 Smart Monitor.

The M8 is its 32-inch 4K display that’s both a smart TV and a USB-C monitor in one, complete with a magnetically attaching webcam to do video chats, regardless of whether there’s a computer connected to it. While it’s typical to find a $100 discount on this model (it originally sold for $699.99), you’ll be able to grab one for $469.99...

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Google’s Pixel Buds Pro are 10 percent off exclusively for Verge readers

The Pixel Buds Pro in their unique, yellowy lemongrass color | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Today marks a lot of things: it’s hump day, it’s iPhone 14 and 14 Pro review day, it’s the second day of our newly redesigned Verge site (don’t worry, I won’t keep counting in every post), and it’s also a day we can bring an exclusive deal just for you, our valued readers.

The Pixel Buds Pro wireless earbuds are discounted between now and September 18th at Wellbots for $180 when you use code VERGE10 at checkout. That’s about a $20 savings on Google’s excellent buds with active noise-canceling, great battery life, and multipoint connectivity. The deal covers three of the four available colors the Pixel Buds Pro are offered in: charcoal, fog, and lemongrass (the best color, obviously). Whichever you pick, you get a white case that charges...

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Zoom is reportedly working on calendar and email tools to take on Office and Google

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Zoom may be getting ready for its biggest expansion yet: the company is preparing to launch email and calendar apps, The Information reported, and could do so before the end of this year. That would turn Zoom, which has already evolved from a video chat platform to a competitor to Slack and whiteboard apps and even your office phone, into a full-fledged competitor to Google Workspace and Microsoft Office.

Getting into other work apps would seem like a departure for Zoom, but it makes sense the company would go after them. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has long said he prefers to be a partner to other work tools rather than replace them, but as Zoom’s own platform ambitions have grown, so has the company’s desire to own more of the work ecosystem.

C...

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Sega announces Yakuza 8 and a slew of other Yakuza games

These two men are the biggest real estate owners in all of Japan who occasionally do light crimes. | Image: Sega

KIRYU-CHAN!! Ahead of the Tokyo Game Show starting on September 15th, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio — developers of the gritty gangster series Yakuza, the noir detective series Judgment, and in sharp and hilarious contrast, the Super Monkey Ball series — shared its upcoming release schedule, and it’s a doozy. Yakuza 8 makes its debut along with several other Ryu Ga Gotoku games that’ll have you up to your eyeballs in hostess clubs, batting cages, crane games, and just a smidge of gangster action as a treat.

First, RGG fans will be blessed with the samurai-flavored Yakuza spinoff, Like a Dragon: Ishin! Revealed yesterday during Sony’s State of Play event, Ishin trades fists for swords and ditches the neon-lit streets of Kamurocho in favor of Kochi...

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The Sims 4 base game is going to be free next month

The Sims 4. | Image: EA

Nearly a decade after it first launched, The Sims 4 is going to be free. Today, EA announced that the base game — meaning it won’t include the plentiful expansions — will be free to download on October 18th on PC (Origin and Steam), PlayStation, and Xbox.

The news doesn’t seem like it will impact the rate of updates for the game, which regularly gets new features and expansions; just this year, The Sims 4 expanded its sexual orientation options and added a virtual thrift store. EA says that “the team is more dedicated than ever to developing new and meaningful experiences for players, and will continue to develop and release packs, kits, and Sims delivery express drops into the foreseeable future.” As part of today’s announcement, the...

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Listen to our podcast about our website redesign

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 Wednesdays, editor-at-large David Pierce leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives — and which ones you should bring into your home.

You may have noticed The Verge looks different: new colors, new typefaces, new layouts. This new version was two years in the making, and now we can finally talk about it. On today’s Vergecast, David chats with editor-in-chief Nilay Patel all about the ideas behind the redesign, including the Storystream news feed, embedding a whole bunch of stuff right on the homepage, and N...

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Ford dealers who want to sell EVs will have to spend money to make money

Ford dealers who want to sell EVs can opt in to a two-tier certification system. | Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Ford outlined a series of requirements for its dealers who want to sell the automaker’s electric vehicles, such as setting no-haggle prices and investing upward of $1.2 million in upgrades like charging, according to Automotive News. The company framed the investments as necessary if Ford is to compete with — and perhaps overtake — direct-sale competitors like Tesla.

Dealers were given until October 31st to opt in to two EV certification tiers, with varying investment levels into charging and staff training. Dealers in the higher tier, which carries upfront costs of $900,000, will receive “elite” certification and be allocated more EVs, executives said. Those dealers who don’t opt in will be relegated to selling the company’s legacy...

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Northeastern University VR lab targeted in mail-bomb attack

Image: Jess T-R / Flickr

Law enforcement officials are investigating an apparent mail-bomb attack on the virtual reality center at Northeastern University after an employee was injured in an explosion Tuesday evening. Authorities say the package was sent in a hard plastic case and triggered to detonate upon opening.

The attack appears to be politically motivated by fear of VR technology, as it was accompanied by a rambling note attacking Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and broader academic research on augmented reality devices, per CNN.

The employee, who works at the VR center, suffered lacerations to his hands but was not seriously injured.

Northeastern University hosts a number of VR-oriented facilities, including an Immersive Media Labs Suite that “includes...

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Apple iPhone 14 review: meet the iPhone 13S

A slight camera upgrade, new emergency features, and... not a whole lot else

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Apple iPhone 14 Pro review: early adopter island

The Dynamic Island is a potentially good idea that’s waiting for the next step

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The GoPro Hero 11’s big upgrade is a smaller version

New sensors come in small packages. | Image: GoPro

GoPro has announced its new Hero 11 Black camera, which has a larger sensor than its predecessor, capable of shooting at up to an 8:7 aspect ratio at 5.3K, “the largest vertical field of view ever on a GoPro,” according to the company. It also lets you shoot even wider in the more common 16:9 aspect ratio in a mode called “HyperView.” GoPro says HyperView will make action look even faster, which will hopefully help capture how epic / scary a downhill descent or big wave ride really was.

Ironically, the biggest news with the Hero 11 is that it’ll come in a smaller, less expensive version, starting next month. Like the GoPro Sessions of old, the GoPro Hero 11 Black Mini is a compact action cam that lacks the touch and front-facing screens...

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DJI’s Osmo Action 3 brings stabilized 4k/120fps recording and a penchant for portrait

The DJI Osmo Action 3 can be used in temperatures below 0 degrees. | Image: DJI

DJI has announced the Osmo Action 3, the latest addition to its family of compact action cameras. This new offering from the world’s leading drone manufacturer features a complete redesign, sporting two touchscreens and a focus on portrait-mode shooting.

The Osmo Action 3 bears very little resemblance to its predecessor, the DJI Action 2, which featured a modular design supported by a suite of magnetic accessories. Instead, this latest offering from DJI sports a look that more closely resembles the first model in the series, the original DJI Osmo Action.

The camera packs a 1/1.7-inch imaging system capable of shooting in 4K resolution at 120fps with a wide 155-degree field of view. It packs DJI’s RockSteady 3.0 image stabilization that...

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Flo period tracker launches ‘Anonymous Mode’ to fight abortion privacy concerns

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Shutterstock

Period tracking app Flo released an “Anonymous Mode” on Wednesday, which lets people use the app without linking their data to their name, email address, or IP address.

The new feature — which the company says it hopes will set a new standard for privacy protections in health apps — is a direct response to privacy concerns stemming from the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June. Following the ruling, reproductive justice advocates raised the alarm over the possible use of the sensitive data collected by period tracking apps in prosecuting abortion seekers.

“The world is not designed for privacy,” said Roman Bugaev, chief technology officer at Flo, in an interview with The Verge. “We need to rethink all of the internet with this in mind.”

“...

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We finally got our hands and eyes on the PlayStation VR2

Verge reporter Victoria Song wearing the PSVR2. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

And it’s pretty good

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Nothing boasts of six figure Phone 1 sales in its first month of sale in India

The Nothing Phone 1. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

It’s only been on sale for less than two months, but Nothing has already revealed some early sales figures for the Phone 1 in India, where it released on July 21st.

Speaking with GSMArena, Nothing’s vice president and general manager for India, Manu Sharma, said the company had sold over 100,000 Phone 1s in 20 days of sales in the country via retailer Flipkart (its exclusive sales partner), and that over 10 million users had signed up to be notified when the phone went on sale. Sharma says the phone was the bestselling handset on Flipkart in the ₹30,000-plus (around $378) price category.

Not bad for a first effort, but those figures pale in comparison to the total Indian smartphone market, where analysts IDC report that around 35...

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Windows Terminal now supports colorful themes to spruce up your dev environment

Choose your fighter. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is adding full theme support to its Windows Terminal this week. The customization support allows Windows Terminal users to alter the appearance of tabs, the window, and even background images for the Terminal interface. Microsoft has also tweaked Windows Terminal to always use a dark theme, rather than following the Windows system theme.

Creating themes for Windows Terminal isn’t a simple process unless you’re a developer, though. Themes are only editable using a JSON file, and they’ll appear in the theme dropdown in the settings section of Windows Terminal. Microsoft has provided some sample JSON to get people started, and you’re free to get as creative as you want with a combination of colors and background images.

Microsoft...

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Google loses appeal over illegal Android app bundling, EU reduces fine to €4.1 billion

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The EU has upheld a 2018 antitrust charge against Google, confirming that the company imposed “unlawful restrictions” on Android phone manufacturers in order to promote its search engine on mobile devices.

Google has been attempting to appeal the charge, which was announced in 2018. It included a record-breaking €4.3 billion fine, which the EU’s General Court this morning reduced to €4.1 billion after announcing that it “largely confirms” the ruling. This confirmation is a serious blow for Google and strengthens the position of the EU’s antitrust advocates, who, led by Margrethe Vestager, have targeted the abuses of Big Tech.

Google forced phonemakers to pre-install its apps alongside the Play Store

The original 2018 charge against...

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Logitech’s new webcam has a neat built-in privacy shutter

Logitech’s new Brio 500. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

Logitech’s Brio 500 is a new webcam with a compact design that features a neatly integrated physical privacy shutter and a “Show Mode” designed to broadcast what’s on your desk. It’s 1080p rather than 4K, the same as Logitech’s classic C920 webcam. It’s going on sale this month for $129 alongside a new Bluetooth headset called the Zone Vibe 100, which will retail for $99.99.

The Brio 500 has a cylindrical design, with its 4-megapixel camera flanked by a pair of beamforming microphones that are designed to reduce background noise during calls. The privacy shutter design is pretty slick and can be brought down by turning a dial on the right side of the webcam. Showing off your desk is achieved by “tilting the camera angle towards the...

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Here are the first not-an-NFT “digital collectibles” for PlayStation Stars

Image: Sony

During its State of Play even on Tuesday, Sony gave us a look at some of the first “digital collectibles” that’ll be available as rewards for its PlayStation Stars loyalty program. The items — which Sony insists are not NFTs or based on the blockchain — are basically little virtual statues of devices like the PlayStation 3 and the PocketStation PDA / handheld gaming device, as well as characters from games like Ape Escape 2, and Sony mascots like Polygon Man.

When Sony announced the PlayStation Stars program earlier this summer, it said that members will be able to earn points alongside digital collectibles. It’s not entirely clear what the points will do yet, but the company has hinted that you may be able to buy some PlayStation Store...

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The biggest announcements from Sony’s September State of Play

I don’t think this monster is going to live. | Image: Sony

Sony just wrapped up its September 2022 PlayStation State of Play show. The big highlight was a brand new trailer for God of War Ragnarok (which is coming out in less than two months!), but we also got a reveal of a new Tekken and some details on an upcoming game from Team Ninja.

Here’s our roundup of the biggest news from the event.

God of War Ragnarok gets a story trailer

Sony debuted a new God of War Ragnarok trailer that gave us some more hints about the game’s story and showed off a closer look at the action in the game. In the trailer, Santa Monica Studio also shared some peeks at new mystical realms that look otherworldly. And if you like branded accessories, Sony revealed a Ragnarok-themed DualSense controller. The controller...

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God of War Ragnarok’s story trailer teases a hellish trip ahead for Kratos and Atreus

Sony

Today’s just been a day of pleasant, video game flavored surprises. To cap off a neat but ho-hum State of Play, Sony dropped the story trailer for God Of War Ragnarok.

Ragnarok sees the return of Kratos and Atreus as the two seemingly fend off (or, perhaps initiate) the arrival of Ragnarok — the end of the world in Norse mythology. Along the way, it seems like the father-son odd couple make new friends and enemies as they beat the shit out of every living creature in their path.

The trailer talks of fate, and features Kratos imparting his hard learned lessons about what it means to defy the fate destiny has laid out at their feet. And Atreus, just like his father, seems to have secrets of his own that will require him to build an even...

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Judge throws out Facebook collusion claims in Google antitrust suit

A Google G logo. | The Verge

A federal judge has allowed crucial elements of an antitrust case against Google to proceed, including allegations that Google illegally monopolized the ad-tech market. However, Judge P. Kevin Castel dismissed claims of collusion between Google and Facebook (now Meta) in the “Jedi Blue” program.

Castel’s ruling (spotted by Bloomberg reporter Leah Nylen) says states have plausibly alleged Google has a monopoly in ad servers and ad exchanges and that its actions have had anticompetitive effects. It also says Google may have unfairly competed with operations like Project Bernanke, a secret program that allegedly edged out competitors by using Google’s access to data.

The suit, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is one of several...

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NASA has a new launch date for its Artemis I megarocket

NASA’s Artemis I rocket | Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images

NASA’s Artemis I rocket is now set to take off on September 27th, with a “potential” backup date planned for October 2nd if things don’t go as planned. The agency originally considered retrying the launch as early as the 23rd but decided on a later date after “careful consideration of multiple logistical topics.”

The Artemis I mission will use NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket to catapult an uncrewed Orion capsule around the Moon as part of the agency’s push to bring humans back to the lunar surface by 2025. While NASA’s first launch attempt was cut short due to an engine issue, the second attempt on September 3rd ended prematurely after the Artemis I team detected a hydrogen leak that engineers couldn’t fix.

To ensure things...

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