Baby Yoda is a Tamagotchi now

The Grogu Tamagotchi comes in two flavors. | Image: Bandai Namco

It’s a wonder it took so long, but Grogu, better known as Baby Yoda, has now become a Tamagotchi.

The virtual pet toy will let you take care of the Mandalorian’s cuter half by feeding it squid chowder and macarons, playing some mini-games, and unlocking a bunch of outfits. But watch out: apparently “if you feed the Grogu Tamagotchi too much squid chowder, the squid will jump on him.” Considering that Grogu’s main personality trait is “hungry,” this seems like a perfect fit. Though it does appear that there are some dark possibilities depending on how well you take care of the little guy. The tagline reads, “Will you be able to successfully nurture Grogu or will the Dark Trooper take him away first?”

The humble Tamagotchi has been making...

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Nintendo is cutting off Facebook and Twitter logins soon

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nintendo is ending support for account logins and creation through Twitter or Facebook (via Eurogamer). Starting October 25th, you’ll have to log in using your Nintendo account username and password or through your linked Google or Apple account.

If you’re asked to sign in again once the new policy goes into effect, simply enter the email address or username associated with your Nintendo account to sign in. You can also use your Google or Apple account (given that you’ve previously linked them to your Nintendo account).

As of 10/25/2022, it will no longer be possible to sign in to a Nintendo Account using a Facebook or Twitter account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

More info on signing in from 10/25/2022:https://t.co/hxcwFP1O9s

—...

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The souped-up Surface Pro 8 is down to $1,299 at Amazon

Amazon is discounting select configurations of the Surface Pro 8 by as much as $600. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Not everyone gets up in the morning ready to spend $1,300, but just in case you are, Amazon is currently offering an excellent deal on a 512GB configuration of the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, discounting this variant of the high-end tablet to $1,299.99. Normally available for $1,899.99, this is the best price we’ve seen — by far — for this model of the Surface Pro 8, which includes 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Intel Core i7 CPU. Amazon’s discount, unfortunately, doesn’t include the Type Cover as part of this deal, but the handy protective peripheral can still be purchased piecemeal from Microsoft for $179.99. We’re expecting Microsoft to announce a successor to the Pro 8 in the coming months, but with nothing confirmed just yet, this...

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Can software simplify the supply chain? Ryan Petersen thinks so

Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge

The Flexport CEO’s tweetstorm changed how a major US port moves your stuff

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Amazon’s annual product launch marathon is happening September 28th

Amazon’s big devices event is next week. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon is holding an event next week to announce new devices, features, and services. The fully virtual event will kick off at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on September 28th and is expected to include the usual deluge of Amazon devices announcements just in time for fall. Amazon confirmed the event in an email invitation to The Verge today.

It’s reasonable to assume there will be new Echo devices, new Ring products or services, and perhaps some surprises, too. Last year’s Amazon fall devices event was chock-full of news, including its new Astro home robot, the Echo Show 15, a Fibit-like fitness tracker, and even a new smart thermostat.

There haven’t been any substantial rumors about what to expect from Amazon this year, but as it has been two years...

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Hacker steals $160 million from crypto trading firm Wintermute

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In the latest eye-watering crypto heist, Wintermute, a market-making firm, has been hacked for $160 million, according to its CEO.

Early Tuesday morning, CEO Evgeny Gaevoy posted on Twitter that the company was experiencing an ongoing hack that had drained the funds from its decentralized finance (DeFi) operations.

On blockchain tracking service Etherscan, a transaction flagged as an exploit showed tens of millions of dollars worth of Dai stablecoin, USD Coin, Tether, Wrapped ETH and other currencies transferred from the company to a wallet address labeled as “Wintermute Exploiter.”

Market-making firms like Wintermute play a crucial role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, providing liquidity to exchanges by holding large amounts of...

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Texas has teed up a Supreme Court fight for the future of the internet

Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool / Getty Images

Late last week, a US court effectively declared social media moderation illegal in Texas. The ruling doesn’t change anything for now. But it just set the stage for a Supreme Court decision that could transform the internet. And with that context... it’s remarkably bad.

The case I’m talking about is NetChoice v. Ken Paxton, a fight over a law called HB 20, which we’ve discussed before. HB 20 bans large social networks from deleting (or hiding or demonetizing or downranking) content or users based on “viewpoint.” It’s positioned as an anti-“Big Tech” censorship bill, but it’s poised to cover many sites beyond your average Facebook or YouTube behemoth. It would require a radical reworking of many major services, plausibly including an end...

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Dozens of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon and MGM to cancel Ring Nation reality show

Wanda Sykes, the host of Ring Nation_._ | Image: MGM Television

Amazon and MGM are marketing Ring Nation, their upcoming reality TV show hosted by comedian and former NSA agent Wanda Sykes, as “a new twist on the popular clip show genre.” But over 40 different civil rights organizations are now speaking out against the program for being a dangerous piece of pro-surveillance corporate propaganda and are calling on the studios to cancel the show before it ever sees the light of day.

Today, Fight for the Future, MediaJustice, Action Center on Race and the Economy, and dozens of other civil rights groups affiliated with the Cancel Ring Nation campaign published an open letter addressed to MGM leadership warning them about “the dangerous precedent MGM is setting in normalizing and promoting Amazon’s...

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Spotify now sells audiobooks

Spotify is launching audiobooks within the app. | Image: Spotify

There is a lot happening today, so I won’t dally. Spotify is finally launching its audiobooks feature, Adnan Syed of Serial is free, and we are opening up the Hot Pod Summit lottery.

Spotify launches audiobooks in the US

Spotify is bringing audiobooks to its app today. At launch, the feature functions much like a traditional audiobook service, requiring users to buy each book they want to listen to. But the company has teased more unique business models that could come in the future and look more like the freemium approach listeners have become used to with music and podcasts.

Users in the US can buy individual audiobooks from a library of 300,000 titles at prices set by publishers, similar to Apple Books. Listeners can browse and sample...

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AMD announces Ryzen 7020 mobile processors for ‘the everyday laptop’

The first of the Ryzen 7000 series | Image: AMD

AMD has announced its new “Mendocino” Ryzen 7020 and Athlon 7020 series of mobile processors. The chips, competing with the likes of Intel’s Core i3, are meant to power lower-cost and lower-powered devices — in the words of AMD’s presentation, “the everyday laptop.” These are technically among the first chips we’re seeing from AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 mobile line, though not all that much about them is new.

The first three Mendocino chips to launch are the Ryzen 5 7520U, the Ryzen 3 7320U, and the Athlon Gold 7220U. All three have 8-15W TDP and Radeon 610M graphics. The two Ryzen chips have a 6MB cache and four cores / eight threads, while the Athlon has a 5MB cache and two cores / four threads. The chips are built with AMD’s “Zen 2”...

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Slack’s new Canvas feature puts a document editor in your chat window

A canvas is a document that lives inside — and works with — Slack. | Image: Slack

Slack is becoming a document editor. The Salesforce-owned company announced today at its developer conference that it is building a new feature, called Canvas, that will let users create and edit full docs from within the Slack interface. It’s one of Slack’s biggest announcements in a while and maybe its biggest departure ever from its email-killer roots.

The idea behind bringing documents to Slack seems to have been to match everything about Slack that’s productive and useful but pull it out of a fast-moving chat window and into a more permanent and findable space. Canvas documents (which Slack calls canvases) can obviously contain text and images, but one big advantage they have is Slack’s ability to grab important content from any...

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Here’s another example of the frustrating ‘Adobe upsell’

Adobe has come under fire for restricting its users to sharing files via it’s Creative Cloud. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Adobe has come under fire by Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of popular iOS camera app Halide, for removing Apple’s ubiquitous AirDrop sharing feature from Photoshop and disrupting his workflow. De With expressed his frustrations on Twitter directly at Scott Belsky, chief product officer at Adobe, asking “Could someone at Adobe please throttle the user-hostile cloud upselling that’s happening?”

Belsky responded saying that “retrofitting 30+ yr old legendary desktop products” to give them next-gen cloud features while preserving workflows is the hardest challenge he’s ever faced in his product career.

Since the release of Photoshop 23.3, Adobe has required users to save their work as a cloud document before it can be directly shared with...

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Peloton Row hands-on: pretty much what you’d expect

The Peloton Row comes with a 23-inch HD touchscreen that you can swivel for floor workouts.

It’s $3,195

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How to watch Nvidia’s RTX 40-series announcement

Nvidia’s RTX 40-series are expected today. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nvidia is getting ready to announce its next-generation GPUs today. We’re expecting to see the new RTX 40-series, and rumors suggest there could be two RTX 4080 models and an RTX 4090.

Nvidia has been teasing its RTX 40-series launch for a number of days now, and even has a 40-hour countdown that includes references to Ada Lovelace. Lovelace is Nvidia’s rumored next-gen GPU architecture that we’re expecting to hear a lot more about during today’s special broadcast at Nvidia’s GTC AI conference. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will hold a keynote at the opening of GTC today.

When does the Nvidia event start?

The Nvidia event is set to begin September 20th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET.

Where can I watch the Nvidia event?

A livestream for the Nvidia...

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OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E can now edit human faces

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

OpenAI is letting users of its AI art generator program DALL-E edit images with human faces. This feature was previously off-limits due to fears of misuse, but, in a letter sent to DALL-E’s million-plus users, OpenAI says it’s opening up access after improving its filters to remove images that contain “sexual, political, and violent content.”

The feature will let users edit images in a number of different ways. They can upload a photograph of someone and generate variations of the picture, for example, or they can edit specific features, like changing someone’s clothing or hairstyle. The feature will no doubt be useful to many users in creative industries, from photographers to filmmakers.

“With improvements in our safety system, DALL·E...

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Apple to hike App Store prices across Europe and some parts of Asia next month

Apple’s App Store prices are going up outside the US. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple says it will increase App Store prices across Europe and in some Asian markets next month as currencies weaken against the strong US dollar. The price increases will effect both in-app purchases and regular apps on the App Store starting on October 5th.

All countries using the Euro, Sweden, South Korea, Chile, Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Japan will be affected by the price hikes. All Euro markets, except Montenegro, will see the base €0.99 app pricing move to €1.19 next month, a 20 percent jump. In Japan the hikes are more than 30 percent, amid the yen dropping to a new 24-year low against the US dollar.

The strong US dollar is impacting pricing

Apple hasn’t detailed exactly why prices are going up, but with the euro...

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YouTube’s ‘dislike’ and ‘not interested’ buttons barely work, study finds

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Even when users tell YouTube they aren’t interested in certain types of videos, similar recommendations keep coming, a new study by Mozilla found.

Using video recommendations data from more than 20,000 YouTube users, Mozilla researchers found that buttons like “not interested,” “dislike,” “stop recommending channel,” and “remove from watch history” are largely ineffective at preventing similar content from being recommended. Even at their best, these buttons still allow through more than half the recommendations similar to what a user said they weren’t interested in, the report found. At their worst, the buttons barely made a dent in blocking similar videos.

To collect data from real videos and users, Mozilla researchers enlisted...

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Microsoft eased up on one DRM hurdle for disc games on Xbox

Put a disc in and play. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Microsoft is making it easier to play games on your Xbox Series X, even if it’s offline — as of the 2208 update released earlier this month, you won’t be forced to do an online compatibility check to play a game from an Xbox One disc (via Windows Central). Instead, you can just pop the disc in, install the game, and play; no internet connection required.

The change, which isn’t listed as a feature of the 2208 update on Microsoft’s site, was confirmed by Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie, who tweeted that the check was removed because it wasn’t necessary “in the vast majority of cases” when playing a cross-generation game on the Series X.

Yes, this is true since the 2206 update. We examined data since Series X|S launch & determined the...

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Emoji statuses and ‘infinite’ reactions are among Telegram’s latest features

A new menu allows you to quickly select most used reactions. | Image: Telegram

Telegram’s throwing a bone to its non-premium users this month by extending them access to more emoji reactions. The feature now lets all users choose from “dozens” of emoji that they can drop onto message bubbles as an alternative way to contribute to the conversation. And if you’re paying the $4.99 a month for Premium, don’t worry, you’re now getting an endless supply of reaction options by way of the custom animated emoji packs released last month, as well as other new features.

Paying Telegram Premium subscribers can now use all animated emoji as a status, in addition to the default seven that can change colors based on the theme. For instance, you can choose a rotating controller emoji to indicate you’re busy fragging on your Xbox....

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Gmail will start spam-proofing political fundraising emails this week

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Gmail users could start seeing more campaign fundraising emails hitting their inboxes over the next couple days as Google starts rolling out a new political filtering system.

Google told Axioson Monday that it was launching a controversial new pilot program to keep campaign emails out of spam folders this week. The program was announced back in June and allows candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees to apply for spam folder exemptions.

In August, the Federal Election Commission narrowly voted to approve the program after Google asked for the agency to sign off on it earlier this year.

The move comes after months of criticism from Republicans who fear Google disproportionately flags GOP emails...

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Beyond Meat COO reportedly attempts to consume human nose

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Memo to Beyond Meat COO Doug Ramsey: human noses aren’t vegan.

Ramsey was arrested in a road rage incident at a parking garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas. According to local news outlet KNWA, which cited law enforcement, the incident started when “a Subaru ‘inched his way’ in front of Ramsey’s Bronco, making contact with the front passenger’s side tire.”

Ramsey came out swinging, and the Subaru’s owner said Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body” before he “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose,” according to KNWA. Reportedly, Ramsey also threatened to kill the other driver.

Maybe Ramsey was on edge because Beyond Meat shares have fallen 92 percent from their peak closing value of $234.90 in...

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Here’s what it sounds like when Mars gets smacked by a space rock

Craters from a meteorite impact on Mars that was picked up by NASA’s InSight instrument | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Bloop. That’s the sound a rock makes when it slams into Mars. At least, that’s what NASA’s InSight instrument picked up last September when it captured the faint — and, frankly, hilarious — sound of a meteoroid crashing into the Martian atmosphere, exploding into multiple pieces, and hitting the surface hard enough to leave a mark.

Bloop, bloop, bloop. But don’t take my word for it. Listen for yourself.

The noise sounds so funny in part because of how the soundwaves from the impact moved through the dry atmosphere of Mars. In certain conditions, like deserts on Earth, lower-pitched sounds move faster than high-pitched ones. “An observer close to the impact would hear a ‘bang,’ while someone many miles away would hear the bass sounds...

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Adnan Syed freed after judge vacates murder conviction

Officials escort Serial podcast subject Adnan Syed from the courthouse on Feb. 3rd, 2016, following the completion of the first day of hearings for a retrial in Baltimore. | Photo by Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun / Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Adnan Syed was set free on Monday after more than 20 years in prison for being convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in a case that spawned intense interest after it was documented in the podcast Serial. The New York Times reports Judge Melissa M. Phinn of Baltimore City Circuit overturned Adnan Syed’s murder conviction after prosecutors filed documents questioning the trial and the evidence presented.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the judge ordered Syed unshackled in court and to remain on GPS monitoring pending another trial, while the prosecutors have 30 days to determine whether to try him again or drop the charges.

The judge rejected a request to postpone the decision from a lawyer representing Lee’s family,...

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Twitch streamers say one of their own scammed them for gambling money

Image: Sliker / Twitch

Several prominent Twitch streamers, including HasanAbi, are calling out fellow streamer ItsSliker after he allegedly scammed them out of money to fuel what he describes as a gambling addiction. Over the weekend, streamers took to Twitch and Twitter, sharing voice messages, videos, and DMs in which the UK-based streamer begged them for money. He used well-known financial scamming strategies, claiming that his bank account had been frozen and that he needed funds to pay bills and otherwise stay afloat until his bank would release the funds. Sympathetic streamers then sent him large sums of money with the expectation they would be paid back, but it would take months or sometimes years for the money to be repaid, if it was at all.

“Seek...

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Apple’s fixing the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera shake

What’s shakin’? Hopefully not your cameras. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple will release a software update to fix an issue with the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max where using the camera in third-party apps like Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok would lead to a shaking image and grinding or buzzing noises coming from the camera bump. The company is “aware of the issue and a fix will be released next week,” according to a statement emailed to The Verge by Apple spokesperson Alex Kirschner.

When reports of the bug started hitting over the weekend, it wasn’t clear if the issue was with the third-party apps themselves or with iOS 16, though the cameras functioned just fine in Apple’s own app. Given that it’s Apple releasing an update, it appears that the issue is with the iPhone and its APIs rather than the third-party...

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OnePlus’ flagship phone finally works on all major 5G networks in the US

Behold, all of the 5G. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The OnePlus 10 Pro gets its third piece of the 5G triforce today. Company spokesperson Hayley Lavin says that the device “is now officially certified on AT&T’s 5G network,” so it’s now compatible with the next-generation wireless networks of all three major US carriers.

That’s kind of an important feature on a phone that’s meant to compete with the Galaxy and Pixel flagships of the world, which offer full network compatibility right out of the gate. Now, the 10 Pro and the more recent 10T work with all of the 5Gs, and that’s a real step in the right direction.

This whole 5G certification wasn’t a problem until a couple of years ago because, you know, there wasn’t a 5G network to connect to. Things started to change once Samsung and A...

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Twitter’s latest feature is a tool to make your feed more accessible

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is expanding a feature that makes images on the platform more accessible to people who use screen readers, the company announced today. Alt text reminders were first announced in July but were only available to a small group of users. All users globally will be able to turn on reminders this week.

Alternative text, or alt text, is a written description of what’s in an image that can be picked up by screen reader software used by internet users who are blind or visually impaired. Without alt text, the countless images that get posted and retweeted daily on Twitter are inaccessible to people who can’t experience them visually.

The introduction of alt text reminders is a long time coming — disability activists and allies have...

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Uber blames Lapsus$ hacking group for security breach

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber said that a hacker associated with the Lapsus$ hacking group was to blame for a breach of its internal systems last week, while reiterating that no customer or user data was compromised during the attack.

The hack, which was discovered last Thursday, forced the company to take several of its internal systems offline, including Slack, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.

It occurred a few days before video game maker Rockstar Games was also breached by a hacker who claims to be the same person who attacked Uber. Dozens of videos of the company’s unreleased Grand Theft Auto VI were leaked online. In its security update, Uber references the Rockstar Games hack but does not confirm it was the same attacker.

The company...

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Metal: Hellsinger might be the only rhythm game I’m good at

Metal: Hellsinger’s rhythm mechanics are a match made in hell.

Metal: Hellsinger is the rhythm game that I always wanted but never knew. I’ve always liked rhythm games on a conceptual level, but despite being a child of the Dance Dance Revolution, none have evoked the same visceral reaction or trance-like state I got from Metal: Hellsinger. This is a game that drew tears from my eyes because I hadn’t blinked in over a minute and had me sighing after I defeated a boss because I’d been subconsciously holding my breath. And I needed more.

With clear inspiration from the reimagined Doom franchise, Hellsinger is a highly mobile first-person shooter available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 5 that has you performing everything to the beat of a metal soundtrack that features contributions from vocalists like...

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Sony’s first major PS5 redesign will reportedly have a detachable disc drive

Could the disc / digital divide be on its way out? | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The next revision of the PlayStation 5 could include a removable disc drive, potentially letting you play games using a drive connected via USB-C, according to Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming. The report says that we could see this new model of PS5 around September 2024.

The PS5 currently comes in two versions: one with a disc drive built in and a “Digital edition” that can’t read discs, even if you plug a USB drive into it. It sounds like Sony’s trying to do away with that digital / disc divide, instead selling the same console with or without the drive bundled in. Hopefully, this means that you’ll be able to upgrade the console with a disc drive later on, even if you opted to save some money when you first bought the PS5 — that option...

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