The new NBA app introduces a TikTok-like vertical video feed

The TikTok-like video feed will feature content from games. | Image: NBA

TikTok’s vertically-oriented, curated approach to social video has transformed feeds for better and worse, and the NBA is next in line with its newly redesigned app for Android and iOS.

A major part of its individualized user experience is a “For You” vertical video feed that will show highlights from NBA games featuring “behind-the-scenes access to players and teams,” NBA-related shows, content from influencers, and the SiriusXM show NBA Today as well as showcase partnered channels like Turner Sports and Bleacher Report.

Another modern social media feature the new NBA app includes is its “stories.” Similar to Snapchat, Instagram, and others, it has a horizontal selection of expiring videos that show top plays or dunks and other...

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Sky Stream arrives next month to give you Sky TV without a satellite dish

Sky Stream arrives on October 18th in the UK. | Image: Sky

British satellite broadcaster Sky is launching a Sky Stream puck next month that will let people access TV content over Wi-Fi instead of a satellite dish. While Sky launched its Glass platform in the UK last year, you had to buy a whole new TV to get access to Sky TV over the internet. Sky Stream launches on October 18th, and it means you can connect a puck to any TV and get Sky TV content over Wi-Fi or ethernet.

The Sky Stream device will plug into a pocket socket and a TV’s HDMI input, and it only requires a minimum speed of 10Mbps broadband. It’s capable of streaming HD as standard, but you can also add 4K and HDR streaming add-ons. It’s the latest move in Sky’s ambitious effort to move away from the satellite dishes that have defined...

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Bose’s ultra-comfy QuietComfort 45 headphones are $80 off today

The QC45 offer some of the best active noise cancellation you can get in a pair of headphones. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Whether you’re working from a noisy cafe or commuting on a train, a comfortable pair of noise-canceling headphones can prove invaluable in the right setting. Thankfully, Bose’s QuietComfort 45 are currently matching their best price to date at Best Buy, where you can pick them up for $249 instead of $329 — a discount we haven’t seen in a while.

The lightweight QC45 are some of the most comfortable over-ears we’ve ever tested and can even last 24 hours on a single charge. That means you can don them for hours on end without worrying about running out of battery or ear fatigue. And when you do need to recharge them, you can do so quickly thanks to their support for USB-C. You can even customize their bass response and other EQ settings...

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Nreal’s $379 AR glasses launch in the US today

The Nreal Air glasses. | Image: Nreal

Augmented reality company Nreal is launching its stripped-down Air glasses in the United States. The Nreal Air glasses, unveiled for Asian markets last year, are available on Amazon starting today for $379. The initially Android-exclusive glasses are also getting iPhone compatibility — but only with a $59 dongle. It’s the Chinese startup’s latest move into the global AR market as it races Apple, Meta, and other tech giants for the growing niche.

The Nreal Air glasses are a cheaper alternative to the Nreal Light, which launched for $599 in the US last year. They’re smaller and lighter than the Nreal Light — which look like a bulky pair of sunglasses — but come with significantly pared-back capabilities. Most notably, where the Light use...

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WhatsApp discloses critical vulnerability in older app versions

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

WhatsApp has published details of a “critical” vulnerability that has been patched in a newer version of the app but could still affect older installations that have not been updated.

Details were disclosed in a September update of WhatsApp’s page on security advisories affecting the app and came to light on September 23rd.

The critical bug would allow an attacker to exploit a code error known as an integer overflow, letting them execute their own code on a victim’s smartphone after sending a specially crafted video call. Remote code execution vulnerabilities are a key step in installing malware, spyware, or other malicious applications on a target system, as they give attackers a foot in the door that can be used to further compromise...

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Skullcandy’s new wireless gaming headset has a quirky design and Tile integration

The PLYR has a unique (definitely divisive) design. This model, in particular, costs $129.99. | Image: Skullcandy

You’d be forgiven for forgetting, or just not knowing, that Skullcandy once had some skin in the game of putting out gaming headsets. The company owned Astro Gaming throughout most of the 2010s, which it later sold to Logitech in 2017. It’s been relatively quiet on the gaming front since then, but Skullcandy’s now back with a new lineup of headsets. There are three, ranging in price and functionality — each accented with a slightly different-looking printer color test page pattern on their sidearms (my interpretation, not Skullcandy’s). There’s the $59.99 wired SLYR, the $99.99 wired but more feature-packed SLYR Pro, and finally, the $129.99 PLYR wireless headset, pictured above, that has the full range of bells and whistles.

Skullcandy...

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After three months, Dish’s 5G service still feels like a beta

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The company is expanding Project Genesis’ coverage, but there are still basic features missing that make it clear the service isn’t for the general public.

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Please don’t let ads on transparent OLED ‘windows’ ruin train journeys

LG Display’s ‘Transparent OLED for Subway Trains’ are already in use within some Chinese trains and Japanese subways. | Image: LG Display

LG Display is showcasing its “Transparent OLED for Subway Trains” at InnoTrans 2022, the world’s largest trade fair for transport technology, where it will feature as a replacement for windows in a concept train from Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway company. The OLED window can be transparent or opaque depending on what it’s displaying. LG Display is using the show in Berlin to expand transparent panel sales to North American and European transport companies.

LG Display has been supplying transparent OLED displays to transport companies in China and Japan since 2020, so we can already see it in action within a number of subway trains in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Fuzhou, as well as within some of...

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Walmart launches ‘metaverse’ experience in Roblox to sell toys to children

Walmart has launched a pair of “immersive experiences” in online gaming platform Roblox. The retailer is presenting the launch as an ambitious move into the metaverse, but the “experiences” — two online worlds dubbed Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play — are really just ways to advertise toys to children. Roblox may seem trivial, but it has more than 50 million daily active users, two-thirds of which are under the age of 16. That means it’s probably Walmart experimenting with virtual worlds to try and hook this market.

Walmart Land and Universe of Play are virtual lobbies. Inside are a variety of minigames and experiences, including a Ferris wheel, “interactive piano walkway,” and DJ booth, most of which serve to funnel players...

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Roomba’s latest robot vacuum has a robot mop on top

The Roomba Combo j7 Plus is iRobot’s first combination robot vacuum and mop. | Image: iRobot

Robot vacuums that can also mop have been around for a while, but most make you remove the mop before they can vacuum your carpets — unless you like slightly damp carpets. iRobot’s newest bot looks to solve this problem with a retractable robot mop arm that can lift itself up and under the vacuum to mop when it’s needed and stow itself up top when it’s not.

The Roomba Combo j7 Plus costs $1,099 and is available to preorder today. It will ship on October 4th, and is only being sold with the auto-emptying Clean Base at launch. The two-in-one vacuum mop uses a new combination of acoustic sensors to detect the different types of flooring in a home and “decide” when to lift its pad to avoid thread counts and when to lower it to clean hard...

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Eight states sue crypto lender Nexo over security sales and misleading marketing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing crypto company Nexo, alleging that the company misled customers by saying it was registered to sell securities and commodities and that it wasn’t approved to offer services like its “Earn Interest Product” that promised returns on deposited crypto. It’s the latest legal move in a fight between regulators and crypto companies looking to offer interest-earning accounts, often insisting that they shouldn’t be classified as securities.

Seven other states — California, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, and Vermont — are also filing “administrative actions” against the company, according to a press release from the New York AG. The release also quotes James as saying:...

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NASA just crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid to see what would happen

The surface of Dimorphos moments before the DART spacecraft slammed into it. | NASA

A NASA spacecraft slammed into the surface of a distant asteroid at 7:14PM ET on Monday night, the climax of the agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).

An hour before impact, the target asteroid, Dimorphos, wasn’t even visible in the images from the spacecraft. In some of the early images sent back to Earth, even Dimorphos’ larger companion Didymos, looked like a single speck against a sea of black. The DART spacecraft was moving at 14,000 miles per hour, and details quickly came into view. Viewers on Earth saw the rough surface of Didymos zip by as the spacecraft cruised autonomously towards Dimorphos. Boulders filled the screen just before it went bright red, indicating a loss of signal — DART had reached its final...

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How to buy a PlayStation 5

Nearly two years later, it’s a little easier to get your hands on Sony’s PlayStation 5. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

As Sony’s PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition approach their second birthday, it seems that supplies of both next-gen consoles are finally catching up with demand (even with a new model reportedly on the way). Restock events are still the norm for snagging a console online, but things get a little more forgiving if you’re willing to visit a brick-and-mortar store, especially if you’re okay with paying a little more upfront for a bundle. What’s more, we’re beginning to see online stock stick around for several days if not longer, giving would-be buyers a better chance at securing Sony’s next-gen console without ever having to step foot outside the door.

With a little patience, determination, and luck, you can still get a PS5...

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Sony is selling a PlayStation 5 bundle right now

Sony is once again selling a PlayStation 5 bundle today. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Still on the hunt for a next-gen PlayStation 5? Right now, Sony is selling the disc-based PlayStation 5 with a digital copy of Guerrilla Games’ excellent Horizon Forbidden West for $549.99, which is $10 less than the cost if you were to buy the two individually. The best part? You don’t even have to wait in line in order to pick one up.

While we’ve been seeing Sony and other retailers offer stock for longer than usual recently, speed is still the name of the game here. We can’t suggest any hacks that will guarantee you’ll land the console today, but as detailed in our guide on how to buy a PS5, there are a few things you can do to improve your chance of securing one. For one, remember that you must log in with your PlayStation Network ID...

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Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for Terra stablecoin co-founder Do Kwon

Kwon co-founded Terraform Labs whose stablecoin, TerraUSD, collapsed earlier this year. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Do Kwon, a co-founder of Terraform Labs, has insisted that he’s not on the run after the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, but Interpol is apparently under the impression he’s a fugitive. According to South Korean publication Yonhap and The New York Times, South Korean prosecutors said that Interpol has issued a “red notice” asking for help from worldwide law enforcement to find and arrest Kwon.

Interpol:

Red Notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.

Earlier this month, South Korea issued a warrant for the arrest of Kwon and five other...

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Wait, are you guys bringing your phones into the shower?

Just because you can bring a waterproof phone into the shower doesn’t mean you should. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

There’s one last place in my life where the alerts, texts, pings, and emails, emails, emails! can’t find me: the shower. It is a sacred space where I process information, brainstorm, and sometimes, as a treat, anxiety-spiral over something dumb I said 15 years ago. But it has come to my attention that some of you are violating the sanctity of Shower Thought Time by actually inviting your phones into the shower. When this came to my attention, I did some digging and discovered dozens — dozens! — of waterproof phone mounts designed for the shower. Truly, I am shocked. You guys are bringing your phones into the shower?

I did a little research and polled my Verge colleagues: do you bring your phone into the shower? While it seems that most...

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iFixit teardown looks at the guts of the Apple Watch Ultra

iFixit’s video details the inner workings of Apple’s new premium watch. | Image: iFixit

The right-to-repair enthusiasts at iFixit have published a video providing a screw-by-screw breakdown of the Apple Watch Ultra. The entire video serves less as a review of the capabilities of the Ultra and more of an intimate examination of the tech and engineering that goes into Apple’s powerful timepiece.

iFixit’s breakdown exposed some vulnerabilities in the Apple Watch Ultra, not only in terms of its repairability but also its durability. The raised lip of the Ultra, which is intended to protect the screen, only really works against side-on impacts. As the video points out, any kind of head-on collision with the screen still risks a screen replacement. Getting to the battery on the Ultra requires you to remove the screen rather than...

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How Twitch lost the battle for its soul

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

The news that Twitch will be reducing top streamers’ revenue share from 70 / 30 to 50 / 50 signals that the platform is no longer the ‘creator first’ entity that made it so popular.

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Meta’s new switcher puts all of your Facebook profiles and finstas in one place

Image: Meta

Meta is testing a new way to add and switch between your accounts on Instagram and Facebook by integrating its Accounts Center into the apps. The features should help make things easier for anyone who constantly bounces between various accounts on the two apps or people who have a lot of Instagram profiles to separate their Online Brand, personal life, and business.

The new account switcher for Facebook and Instagram will show you all the accounts and profiles you’ve added to the Accounts Center. While Instagram has let you switch between different profiles for years, the new system lets you throw Facebook accounts in the mix, making it easier to jump over to Facebook if you need to do something on that app. It’ll also show you some...

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It only took a month to turn a Steam Deck deposit into a purchase

Even for the midrange 256GB model, the time to wait after placing a reservation is pretty short. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

I was one of the people who rushed to put down a deposit for Valve’s Steam Deck the first moment that I could. However, I pulled out of the queue after seeing how long others were having to wait near its launch. Now, after seeing time and time again that Valve has increased production of the Deck to shorten wait times, it eventually made me rejoin the queue, if only as an experiment to see how quickly I could get to the front of the line.

As it turns out, I only had to wait a month. I placed a deposit for the $529 256GB model on August 25th, and I just received my email confirmation that it was available for purchase. That wasn’t so bad. With a wait this short, there’s no reason to pay higher-than-retail costs for a Deck through sites...

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If you still miss Google Reader, Substack has a new web-based RSS client

Image: Substack

Substack’s the latest company trying to resurrect Google Reader from the dead — well, in spirit at least.

Nearly a decade after Google’s popular RSS feed aggregator shut down, Substack has launched a desktop RSS client alternative: Substack Reader for the web.

Now, users can organize all of their Substack subscriptions in one webpage that they can view from their laptop or PC. The app also integrates with third-party RSS feeds so users can check out posts from other publications, too.

The new desktop client keeps old Google Reader users in mind with familiar keyboard shortcuts, for example, yet also sports new settings like dark mode.

Image: Substack

Substack’s new desktop RSS client supports dark mode.

S...

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Instagram starts testing a home feed without a shopping tab

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is testing home feeds without a shopping tab, marking a shift in how the platform treats e-commerce.

Some Instagram users (including some of us here at The Verge) have noted in recent days that the shopping tab, previously on the bottom navigation bar, has been replaced with a notifications tab. Shopping, meanwhile, has been moved to a second menu, buried among options like settings and saved posts.

Meta spokesperson Anne Yeh confirmed the changes as part of a limited test.

“As part of our continued work to simplify your Instagram experience, we are testing a few changes to the main navigation bar at the bottom of the app with a small number of people,” Yeh says.

Moving the tab is a conscious decision on the part of Instagram...

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Gudetama the lazy egg looks uncomfortably real in first Netflix trailer

Image: Netflix

Gudetama is easily my favorite Sanrio character, mostly because it’s so relatable: just a little blob of egg who never wants to do anything. Same. In the upcoming Netflix series, dubbed Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, we get a glimpse at how that might look in the real world. The show sees the egg teaming up with a little chick — who considers them “siblings” — as they leave the fridge into the big wide world. In the show, Gudetama looks much more realistic than its cartoon origins, but the attitude is the same; when it says, “Why bother trying?” I felt a deep connection.

The series starts streaming on December 13th, and the new trailer was a part of a series of Japan-centric announcements from its Tudum event, which also included...

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Hurricane Ian pushes NASA to roll back Artemis I rocket

Thunderstorms move over Artemis I at launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on August 27th, 2022. | Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Threateningweather will force NASA to send the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from its currently precarious position on the launchpad back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for safekeeping. The move will delay the agency’s highly anticipated launch of its Artemis I mission around the Moon.

Due to weather predictions related to Hurricane Ian, @NASA teams will roll the #Artemis I @NASA_SLS rocket and @NASA_Orion spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at @NASAKennedy.

First motion is targeted for 11 pm ET tonight: https://t.co/Bx7oanmpa4 pic.twitter.com/wwPds84R36

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) September 26, 2022

NASA made the announcement this morning as Hurricane Ian barrels toward Florida. The storm is expected to...

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The Last of Us’ first trailer is bleak and brutal

Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us. | HBO

Apropos of it being Monday, HBO’s dropped the first full-length trailer for its upcoming adaptation of The Last of Us,starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal as Joel and Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey as Ellie. To say that the trailer makes it seem like the show might be something of a banger would be an understatement.

Like Naughty Dog’s games, HBO’s The Last of Us from co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann tells the story of Joel (Pascal) and Ellie (Ramsey), two people living in a world devastated by the outbreak of a deadly fungus that mutates those it infects into horrific monsters. Rather than focusing on the monsters themselves, The Last of Us’ trailer instead puts more energy into spotlighting just how much of its first...

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WhatsApp adds one-click links to join a call and tests 32-person video chats

WhatsApp users will soon be able to invite up to 32 people to a group call. | Image: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature that allows users to share a direct link to a call, making it easier to stay in contact with your loved ones. The Call Links feature will start to appear on WhatsApp this week and can be accessed through a banner located at the top of the Calls tab. WhatsApp users who want to try the Call Link feature will need the latest version of the app.

Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature on Facebook, saying that WhatsApp users will be able to share a link to a call with “a single tap.” The ability to share a call link with up to 32 users was teased back in April during the announcement of another upcoming feature, WhatsApp Communities.

The Call Links feature will support both audio and video calls, and...

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Australia to overhaul privacy laws after massive data breach

Illustration by Beatrice Sala

Following one of the biggest data breaches in Australian history, the government of Australia is planning to get stricter on requirements for disclosure of cyber attacks.

On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Australian radio station 4BC that the government intended to overhaul privacy legislation so that any company suffering a data breach was required to share details with banks about customers who had potentially been affected to minimize fraud. Under current Australian privacy legislation, companies are prevented from sharing such details about their customers with third parties.

The policy announcement was made in the wake of a huge data breach last week, which affected Australia’s second-largest telecom company Optus....

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E3 2023 kicks off in the middle of June

E3 2019 attendees check out a game at the show. | Photo by Getty Images for E3

After a year off, E3, the big gaming industry convention, is set to take place from June 13th through June 16th, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and event organizer ReedPop announced on Monday. The event will be back as an in-person show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and there will be dedicated days for industry attendees and gaming fans to hit the show floor. E3 also plans to support digital gaming events that will take place beginning June 11th.

The “E3 Business Days” will be happening from June 13th through June 15th. These days of the show will be exclusively for games industry attendees for them to network, meet up, and go hands-on with upcoming games. The “E3 Gamer Days” are set for the last two days of the...

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Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin had a cardboard fire

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla’s dealing with the aftermath of a fire on the grounds of its Gigafactory in Berlin early this morning. According to local reporting, Tesla’s factory fire brigade called for the assistance of local firefighters at 3:33AM, and more than 50 firefighters were involved in helping to extinguish a large burning pile of cardboard, paper, and wood (via Electrek).

The fire occurred on the northeastern side of the property near a recycling facility. Tesla reportedly has a contracted recycling company that shreds materials there, but the cause of the fire remains unknown.

“We demand a production stop until the causes and circumstances have been clarified”

Local groups in Germany that have long opposed Tesla’s factory due to environmental...

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The last-gen but still great Apple Watch Series 7 with LTE is $170 off

The LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 7 is currently on sale for its best price yet. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

You can have it in any color you want, as long as it’s green, red, or cream. Best Buy and Walmart are currently offering the green, red, or cream colorways of the 41mm Apple Watch Series 7 for its best price ever. The GPS and cellular-equipped configuration of the Series 7 is typically priced at $499 but is available for just $329. While Apple has everyone focused on the new Series 8, the Series 7 is still every bit the excellent Apple wearable we’ve come to expect. The Series 7 offers a larger screen than its predecessor, and it can charge faster than generations that came before it.

Unless you can’t live without some of the newer features rolled out with the Series 8, like its temperature sensors for menstrual tracking, or you’re more...

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