Overwatch 2 loses lead hero designer just before sequel launches

Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2 lead hero designer Geoff Goodman has left Blizzard. First reported by PC Gamer, the long-time Blizzard employee decided to leave the company “earlier this year,” according to a statement from Blizzard to The Verge. Blizzard’s full response reads:

“We thank Geoff for his many years of service at Blizzard and wish him all the best. His ability to bring to life Overwatch’s diverse hero roster through gameplay has been incredible, and the mark he’s left on the Warcraft and Overwatch teams will be felt for years to come.”

The loss of Overwatch 2’s lead hero designer is an ironically timed blow, as a few short days ago, Kiriko, the game’s 35th hero, was revealed.

For generations, her family has followed traditions. Now, it's...

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Razer releases cheaper, more compact Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar

Razer’s Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar. | Image: Razer

Razer’s new Leviathan V2 X PC soundbar is a smaller, stripped-down version of its full-featured sibling that Razer released earlier this year. The 15.7-inch soundbar comes at a cheaper $99.99 price point but still offers a decent amount of features for the cost.

In terms of audio, you can expect two full-range drivers and two passive radiators with a maximum volume output of 90dB when one meter away. It’s missing the subwoofer and THX Spatial Audio that the standard $249 Leviathan V2 comes with, so you might miss out on more immersive, bass-rich audio that my colleague Cameron Faulkner said “sounds pretty fantastic” in his review.

Image: Razer

Just look at that RGB.

Like its more expensive counterpart, the...

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The new Quest update will stabilize your shaky VR recordings

Share your sick gameplay footage without actually making people ill. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta is rolling out the v44 software update for Quest headsets, and its big new feature is good news for anyone who likes sharing videos of themselves in virtual reality. There are new advanced camera settings that let you manually adjust how much stabilization is added and record 16:9 videos (or 9:16 vertical videos, which are perfect for TikTok) in addition to square ones — something that used to only be available through third-party software.

The settings are currently listed as experimental for reasons that are about to become obvious, but they do provide a decent amount of control; alongside the aspect ratio and stabilization controls are options that let you pick your frame rate and compression quality, though Meta’s blog post...

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Streamer involved in Twitch gambling saga now embroiled in sexual assault allegations

Mizkif / YouTube

The fallout regarding a Twitch streamer’s gambling scam has taken a dramatic and disturbing turn as one streamer involved has been accused of “covering up” a sexual assault.

Yesterday, news broke that ItsSliker scammed fellow streamers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to support a sports gambling addiction. That news, in turn, prompted several prominent streamers, including Pokimane, Asmongold, and HasanAbi, to call for the banning of slot gambling on Twitch despite the fact Sliker’s gambling wasn’t slots. One of the streamers calling for the Twitch gambling ban and a potential boycott of Twitch to further the issue was Mizkif, owner of OTKNetwork, a popular streaming network that counts content creators like Emiru and...

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Turning on haptic keyboard feedback in iOS 16 could affect your battery life

The haptics could come at a cost. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

iOS 16 added a feature that finally lets you turn on haptic feedback while typing, meaning you’ll feel a small vibration under your fingertips every time you press a key on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. But those small vibrations might come at a price: in a new support document, Apple says that turning on the haptic feedback could affect your iPhone’s battery life (via 9to5Mac).

Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t specify how much the setting could change your battery expectancy; the note on the support page only says that “turning on keyboard haptics might affect the battery life of your iPhone.” While I can’t imagine the haptics are too much of a battery drain, if you’re looking for ways to save as much battery as possible, turning off the...

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Judge cuts $7 billion Charter Spectrum verdict for family of a murdered customer to $1 billion

Spectrum Vehicles van. | Image: Charter Communications

A judge slashed a $7 billion ruling down to closer to $1.15 billion in the case of an 83-year-old woman who was stabbed to death by a Charter technician in 2019. Dallas County Court Judge Juan Renteria did not specify why he reduced the amount in his decision (pdf). The company says it will appeal.

According to lawyers for the family of Betty Jo McClain Thomas, the massive award was assigned by a jury in July for two reasons: “systemic safety failures that led to the robbery and stabbing death of an 83-year-old woman by a cable repairman and for using forged documents to try to keep a jury from hearing the lawsuit.”

Jurors found Charter Spectrum tried to use a forged document to force the case into arbitration

Charter submitted a terms...

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Google search can help you buy train tickets in select countries

Google rolled out new features in Google Travel | Illustration: The Verge

Google announced a new feature that will allow you to buy train tickets through search in select countries, including Japan, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The company says this could make it easier for users to choose more emission-conscious travel options when booking travel.

According to Google, simply searching two destinations, such as “Berlin to Vienna trains,” will give you access to various listings in a Google search. From there, you can click on a direct link that will take you to the partner website to buy your ticket.

Image: Google

Users can book train tickets via Google search.

Google is also rolling out a new search tool that will allow you to narrow down flight and hotel options that have lower...

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Apple makes the battery indicator better in new iOS 16.1 beta

This is the old version. The new one will fill in based on how much battery you have. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s latest iOS 16.1 beta addresses a major complaint about the battery percentage indicator that was introduced with iOS 16: now, the battery icon will be filled in based on how much juice it actually has. The battery percentage still appears within the icon, which personally isn’t my favorite design, but now the whole thing looks a lot closer to how it should have been from the start.

Here’s an example of the revised indicator from a colleague running the newest iOS 16.1 beta. Users in the iOS beta subreddit shared examples as well.

The battery, at 76 percent, is mostly filled in.

The improved indicator isn’t the only battery status update. iOS 16.1 beta 2 can also show the battery percentage above the time on...

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YouTube will let creators monetize videos with licensed music

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube is working on a new program to let creators monetize their longform videos that use licensed music.

At its Made on YouTube event today, the company announced Creator Music, opening up a catalog of popular music for content creators to use in their videos without getting their monetization dinged. Creators have a few options: they can either license tracks directly and keep all of the revenue (besides the 45 percent cut YouTube takes) or share revenue with the license holders. According to Billboard, that share is 27.5 percent each to the video creator and artists.

Using music has been a challenge for YouTube creators, who have generally had to use royalty-free music in order to keep their videos from being demonetized. Using even...

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The Midnight Club’s first trailer looks like The Fault in Our Stars but with vengeful ghosts

Iman Benson and Igby Rigney in The Midnight Club. | Netflix

The seven terminally ill youths at the center of Netflix’s upcoming horror mystery series The Midnight Clubfrom Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong all know they’re probably going to die before any of them are ready. But in the show’s first full trailer, the thing that has all of the kids at Brightcliffe hospice running scared isn’t the prospect of meeting their ends naturally — it’s how something from the great beyond seems intent on hastening their deaths.

Though Brightcliffe is technically a facility where young people go to spend their final days, the new trailer establishes it as the kind of remote, occasionally scenic boarding school situation that residents could find almost charming. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Georgina Stanton...

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A Tesla Megapack battery is on fire at a PG&E facility in California

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Tesla Megapack battery caught fire this morning at the local utility company PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California, as reported by local news stations KSBW Action News 8 and KRON4.

The fire started at around 1:30AM this morning, according to PG&E’s operations comm manager, Jeff Smith. Smith tells The Verge that PG&E is working with fire and emergency services to provide enough space to safely stop the spread of the fire. As of 1:55PM ET, it appears that the fire is still burning.

Caltrans confirmed the fire closed a section of Highway 1 as fire crews deployed units to handle the blaze and followed up with another tweet noting that as of 1:20PM ET, a hard closure remains in effect. No injuries were...

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Motorola’s new budget phones look surprisingly nice

The Motorola e22 embraces a more modern look. | Image: Motorola

Motorola announced a couple of new budget phones — spotted by Phone Arena — for markets outside the US. That’s not notable — it does that all the time — but the Motorola e22 and e22i caught my eye because, damn, they look pretty good. Budget Motorola phones — particularly the ones sold in the US over the past couple of years — have all looked very much the same, with curved edges and pill-shaped camera bumps crammed with as many lenses as the price point allows. But these new e-series phones look a little different, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.

Right off the bat, you can see the flat back panel and side rails on the two devices that set it apart from other recent Motorola phones. Ever since Apple brought back the flat design...

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American Airlines reveals data breach — two months after it was discovered

The accounts were compromised as the result of a phishing campaign. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

American Airlines is alerting some of its customers to a data breach, where an “unauthorized actor” got access to names, birthdays, mailing and email addresses, phone, driver’s license and passport numbers, and “certain medical information” by compromising employee email addresses (via Bleeping Computer). According to a sample letter from the company, dated September 16th, the airline discovered the breach in July and began an investigation with a third-party security cybersecurity firm.

I asked the company if it knew how long the attackers had access to the email accounts before the breach was discovered. In response, spokesperson Andrea Koos sent the airline’s statement, which contains a few details about what happened but doesn’t...

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Netflix’s new Sonic show will be released this winter

Image: Netflix

Sonic Prime, Netflix’s upcoming animated series about Sega’s speedy blue blur, will be released sometime in “winter 2022,” according to a new teaser trailer for the show released on Tuesday. Previously, we had known that Sonic Prime would be out this year, and now we have a slightly more specific window for when the show will actually be available to stream.

At first glance, the new trailer doesn’t reveal too much about the show itself; we can see that Sonic will be fighting Shadow, one of his many rivals, as well as the villainous Eggman. (Big the Cat also makes another appearance.)

But text in Tuesday’s trailer mysteriously teases that Sonic will “shatter your world.” That line appears to reference the show’s multiverse aspect,...

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Hulu’s Hellraiser reboot is full of puzzles and promise in new trailer

An intricate puzzle box in the Hellraiser film reboot. | Image: Spyglass Media Group

Halloween is a little over a month away, which means spooky season is upon us — and that means it’s time for some horror movies. One of the new flicks due out in time for the big day is Hulu’s reboot of Clive Barker’s classic Hellraiser. Based on the first trailer, the new iteration looks to retain the mixture of seduction and scares that made the original so distinct, with some very satisfying puzzle box scenes thrown in as well.

The reboot is directed by David Bruckner and will feature Sense8 star Jamie Clayton taking on the role of Pinhead. According to the official description, the new Hellraiser will follow “a young woman struggling with addiction” who “comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to...

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Here’s how Microsoft is rolling out its first major update to Windows 11

Windows 11 2022 Update arrives today. | Alex Castro / The Verge

The Windows 11 2022 Update is officially here. Microsoft’s latest OS update includes app folders in the Start menu, drag and drop on the taskbar, new touch gestures and animations, and lots of accessibility improvements. You can find our full overview of all the new features right here.

Microsoft has moved to the “Windows 11 2022 Update” naming instead of the 22H2 update moniker it has been using for months. This new simplified naming comes as the software maker commits to continuing with annual updates to Windows 11, despite recent rumors. “We will still have an annual release that will be available one time per year, and it will be available in the second half of the year,” says Nicci Trovinger, senior director of Windows product...

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Windows 11’s 2022 Update has something new for everyone

Windows 11’s 2022 Update is available today. | Image: Microsoft

The first major Windows 11 update makes the renovations feel more complete

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Deals PSA: Today’s the last day to buy Vampire Survivors on Steam for just $2.99

The slow-burn of escalating on-screen chaos in Vampire Survivors is part of its beauty. Also, the sound of the gem pickups is incredibly satisfying. | Image: Poncle

If you play games on PC or own a Steam Deck, the time is now to pick up Vampire Survivors. The indie megahit is inching very close to its 1.0 release, but before that, the price is set to increase tomorrow, September 21st. Developer Poncle has not yet disclosed what the full price of the game will be, but it’s going to be higher than the current $2.99 you can get it for on Steam.

Vampire Survivors launched in Steam Early Access back in December, and it’s remained that cheap, even as it grew a huge following and the developers added much more content to it through frequent updates. It’s also available to subscribers of Microsoft’s PC Game Pass, but this is your last chance to get it on Steam for about the price of a cup of coffee.

If...

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Apple quietly bankrolled a lobbying group for app developers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One of Washington’s loudest tech groups, The App Association (ACT), says it proudly represents thousands of app developers across the world. But according to a new report from Bloomberg on Monday, the group receives more than half of its funding from Apple.

The report paints Apple and the ACT as strange bedfellows, especially as the company’s App Store frequently finds itself at odds with the developers whose software it hosts. Over the last few years, major software developers like Epic Games and Spotify have accused Apple of running an anti-competitive online marketplace by requiring them to use the company’s in-app purchasing system while taking a stiff 15 to 30 percent cut from all sales.

The report paints Apple and the ACT as...

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Nvidia shows off DLSS 3, the new version of its impressive upscaling tech

The claimed performance improvement of DLSS 3 in Cyberpunk 2077. | Image: Nvidia

During today’s launch of its RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 cards, Nvidia has given an early look at the next version of its Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) upscaling technology. Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says DLSS 3 can boost performance by up to four times compared to simply rendering at native resolution. Nvidia says more than 35 games and applications are already integrating the technology, with the first games expected to launch in October.

In a demonstration, Nvidia showed off how DLSS 3 was able to boost the framerate of Cyberpunk 2077 from under 30fps to around 100fps. With its older DLSS 2 tech, performance was only boosted to around 60fps. In a second demonstration, Microsoft Flight Simulator saw its frames increase from the mid-50s...

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This US political site has started using AI to illustrate its articles

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Bulwark, a US political news and analysis site, has quietly started using AI to help illustrate its articles. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a publication use machine learning art generators in this way, but it is, to this reporter’s knowledge, the first time said publication has not made a whole song and dance about it — which is significant news.

In the past, magazines like The Economist have turned their AI-generated covers into cover stories, or writers have accidentally become stories through their use of AI illustrations. But, as far as we can see, The Bulwark hasn’t even publicized this change. Instead, it’s just started doing it — a sign of a maturing technology. The news was spotted by Wagner James Au on his blog and...

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GM will sell 175,000 electric vehicles to Hertz over the next five years

The Chevy Equinox EV will likely be among the vehicles purchased by Hertz. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

General Motors is teaming up with Hertz to expand the number of electric vehicles available on the rental car company’s platform. GM announced it will sell 175,000 EVs to Hertz over the next five years, a deal that the companies are calling the largest of its kind yet.

The new EVs will come from all of GM’s brands, including Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Buick, and BrightDrop, the automaker’s commercial vehicle division. The announcement follows a similar move by Hertz to purchase 100,000 vehicles from Tesla and 65,000 EVs from Polestar.

The first vehicles, a batch of Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUVs, will be delivered to Hertz beginning in the first quarter of 2023, GM said. Vehicle deliveries will continue until 2027, at which point Hertz...

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The original Portal is getting a free ray-tracing update in November

This is a triumph. I’m making a note here; “Huge success” | Nvidia

At Nvidia’s September event, where it announced the new RTX 4080 and 4090 graphics cards, it also showed off an upcoming mod for the original Portal on PC that injects gorgeous, ray-traced visuals into the game. It’ll be available for free to all current owners of the game on Steam sometime in November.

Whether you’ve played the game numerous times (raises hand) or you’re about to get it for the first time (I envy you), it’ll look even better if you have a Nvidia RTX-series graphics card in your laptop or desktop. This launch follows Nvidia’s past visual treatments that spruced up classic games, including Quake II and Minecraft. Check out Nvidia’s blog post for the full details.

Nvidia also announced a modding tool called RTX Remix,...

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Andor is a sobering reflection on the human costs of Star Wars’ never-ending conflicts

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor. | Lucasfilm/Disney Plus

Disney Plus’ Andor gets down to brass tacks about what it takes to win a war

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Google is finally making its to-do list and reminder tools work together

Google Tasks is now the one place to see your tasks across Google. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google is working on a big update to Google Tasks, the company said today. It’s bringing a couple of new features to the app, making it easier to add tasks, and finally integrating its reminder system across Google Assistant, Calendar, and the rest of the Google suite of apps. The new changes should make Tasks a better to-do list app and might also make Google’s overall task management tools make sense. Finally.

Going forward, Google views Tasks as a hub for all your tasks across Google products. Hit the button that adds any Gmail thread to your to-do list so you can get to it later. Create reminders in Google Calendar, and they’ll show up both in your schedule and in Tasks. Say “hey Google, remind me to take out the trash at 9” to the...

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EA is making a single-player Iron Man game

A promotional image for the new Iron Man game. | Image: EA

EA is teaming up with Marvel to make a new single-player Iron Man game, EA announced on Tuesday. The game is being developed by Motive Studio, which is working on the upcoming Dead Space remake.

EA is describing this new Iron Man title as an “all-new single-player, third-person, action-adventure” Iron Man video game that will feature an “an original narrative that taps into the rich history of Iron Man, channeling the complexity, charisma, and creative genius of Tony Stark, and enabling players to feel what it’s like to truly play as Iron Man.”

It’s currently in preproduction

The new game is currently in preproduction, so it seems as if it could be quite a while before we’ll actually be able to play it. The development team is led by...

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Krafton shows off a ‘concept trailer’ for its ambitious fantasy epic

Image: Krafton

Krafton, the company behind PUBG, is hoping to build a medium-spanning epic with its adaptation of the Korean fantasy novel The Bird That Drinks Tears. It’s still early days, but the company has released a “concept trailer” for the project designed to give a sense of what players and viewers can expect.

The trailer was built in Unreal Engine 5 and is based on concept art from Iain McCaig, who previously worked on projects ranging from Star Wars to The Avengers. Krafton is working on a game based on the novel and says that it will also be releasing an art book later this year and a graphic novel in 2023. The multimedia project is currently dubbed “Project Windless.”

In a press release, Krafton said that “in addition to the untitled game...

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Nvidia announces next-gen RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 GPUs

RTX 4090 arrives next month. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia is officially announcing its RTX 40-series GPUs today. After months of rumors and some recent teasing from Nvidia, the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 are now both official. The RTX 4090 arrives on October 12th priced at $1,599, with the RTX 4080 priced starting at $899 and available in November. Both are powered by Nvidia’s next-gen Ada Lovelace architecture.

Nvidia is offering the RTX 4080 in two models, one with 12GB of GDDR6X memory and another with 16GB of GDDR6X memory, and Nvidia claims it’s 2-4x faster than the existing RTX 3080 Ti.

The RTX 4090 is the top-end card for the Lovelace generation. It will ship with a massive 24GB of GDDR6X memory. Nvidia claims it’s 2-4x faster than the RTX 3090 Ti, and it will consume the same amount...

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Remote Alaskan towns are proof of concept for virtual hearing care

Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Digital health tools could help detect early signs of hearing loss and prevent further damage, a new analysis highlights. Virtual care, coupled with newly available over-the-counter hearing aids, could make it easier for people living in rural areas and far from specialists to keep their hearing sharp.

“We can really meet people where they are,” says Samantha Robler, study author and an audiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Millions of people around the world have some type of hearing loss, which can make it harder for them to do well in school, have fulfilling relationships, and get good jobs. Most of this hearing loss — like the kind caused by exposure to loud noises or infections — is preventable. But the...

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The best Chromebook for 2022

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

The best Chromebook for anyone who wants Chrome OS on their laptop

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