Google’s new wired Nest Doorbell is nothing new

The Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen) comes in four colors. | Image: Google

Google has finally released its long-awaited successor to the Nest Hello video doorbell. The new Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen), which was first teased last year, costs $179.99 and is available now at retailers such as Best Buy and at the Google Store.

A wired version of Google’s Nest Doorbell (battery), the new Nest Doorbell is meant for homes with existing doorbell wires. A wired doorbell doesn’t need to be recharged frequently, although if the power goes out, it won’t record video, unlike its battery-powered counterpart.

The design of the new doorbell is almost identical to the existing battery version; it’s just slimmer and, at 5.2 inches tall, about an inch shorter. It comes in the same four colors as the Nest Doorbell (battery):...

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How to create and save Chrome tab groups

Samar Haddad / The Verge

I usually have at least half a dozen or more projects going at once: I can be writing or updating several short pieces, editing one or two others, getting ready for Apple or Google or some other company to announce their latest and greatest, or dealing with some other project. Each of these projects usually involves several tabs on my Chrome browser: one for the article itself, several for online sources that I need to read or link to, and perhaps also a document or spreadsheet that I’m sharing with my team. And that’s not even counting the tabs for my email accounts (work and personal), calendars (ditto), and other social networking.

Once upon a time, I would have had to create bookmarks for all those tabs if I wanted to keep them in...

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How to make a telescope out of the sun

One of the most exciting aspects of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is its ability to image and gather information about exoplanets. But while JWST will give us tons of informationabout these celestial bodies, there’s something that it can’t do: take a high-resolution image of an earth-like exoplanet — specifically, an image where we can clearly see evidence of possible life on another world, such as land masses, clouds, and bodies of water.

Slava Turyshev of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a solution that would give us a clearer picture of an exoplanet.This method would use a phenomenon called gravitational lensing to capture that kind of an image. Gravitational lensing occurs when the gravity of a massive...

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Google brings Wi-Fi 6E to its routers with the Nest Wifi Pro

Google says that “color was an important consideration when designing the Nest Wifi Pro.” | Image: Google

Google’s beefing up its mesh networking offerings. On Tuesday, it announced the Nest Wifi Pro, a router that supports tri-band Wi-Fi 6E for faster potential speeds and that can connect 100 devices per router for a maximum of 300 devices. In terms of speed, it’s a big upgrade compared to the regular Google Nest Wifi, which was released in 2019 and is equipped with dual-band 802.11ac capabilities (nowadays known as Wi-Fi 5).

If you do have one of those previous systems, though, you should know that you won’t just be able to add a Wifi Pro node or two to it. In a briefing, Google Nest solutions lead Ben Brown called the new devices “a self-contained system” that “doesn’t have that hybrid backwards compatibility with Nest Wifi, and Google...

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Google overhauls Home app as it prepares for Matter

Google has redesigned its smart home app. | Image: Google Home

The redesigned Google Home app fixes the camera view, adds favorites, and lets you use sensors for automations. But there’s still limited support for older Nest cams.

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Xiaomi’s 12T Pro launches with high-resolution 200-megapixel camera

The Xiaomi 12T Pro in blue. | Image: Xiaomi

Xiaomi has officially announced its flagship smartphone lineup for the second half of the year — the Xiaomi 12T and 12T Pro. The latter is notable for being the first Xiaomi phone to make use of Samsung’s 200-megapixel HP1 camera sensor, while the non-Pro version “only” has a 108-megapixel camera.

In mainland Europe, both phones will be available on October 13th, with the 12T starting at €599 and the 12T Pro starting at €749. Meanwhile, in the UK, both phones will be available on October 20th. The 12T will start at £499, while the 12T Pro will start at £699. Xiaomi is offering early bird pricing on both handsets between October 20th and the 24th, which reduces the starting price of the 12T to £399 and the 12T Pro to £599. Both are...

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Netgear’s latest mobile hotspot has faster 5G and better Wi-Fi

The unlocked version of the M6 is visually similar to the AT&T model. | Image: Netgear

Netgear is releasing an unlocked version of its Nighthawk M6 mobile hotspot router designed for use at home or on the go. Like the AT&T version of the M6, this new one supports C-band 5G — but now, it also supports faster 2.5Gbps internet service on supported network plans. It also features a new In-Home Performance Mode that allows it to better serve as a primary home router when needed.

The new M6 (MR6150) model can cover 2,000 square feet with Wi-Fi, according to Netgear. That Wi-Fi range boost doesn't work in portable mode, though; it only works if you plug it into power and remove its 5,040mAh battery. It’s still good to have that versatility and perhaps increase the useable life of the battery, though it would shut off in the event...

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YouTube locks 4K playback behind Premium subscriptions in latest test

YouTube is placing its 4K videos behind a YouTube Premium subscription as part of an experiment. | Image: u/Ihatesmokealarms

YouTube is running a test that places its 4K videos behind a YouTube Premium subscription. In recent weeks, some users have reported seeing playback of 2160p resolution video restricted with text labeling it as a premium feature. YouTube has since confirmed via Twitter that those seeing the new restrictions were part of an experiment to better understand the feature preferences of Premium and non-Premium viewers.

It isn’t clear if YouTube will actually restrict all non-Premium users to 1440p video quality, however, the company did direct its users to leave feedback on the restrictions in order for the Google subsidy to “make improvements.” Google did not provide further clarification when contacted by The Verge for comment.

So, after...

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Here’s why you couldn’t see anything on House of the Dragon

This still is not from last night’s episode, which is one reason you can see what is happening. | Image: HBO

Things got dark on House of the Dragon last night as characters stole dragons and other characters made super incestuous life choices. And all of it was done under the cover of darkness, leading many viewers wondering if their TVs were busted.

But your TV is not busted. Your TV is a victim of the episode’s director, Miguel Sapochnik. The man can presumably see in the dark because this is the second time he’s directed an episode in the Game of Thrones franchise cast in such darkness people questioned their own eyes.

Back in 2019, Sapochnik directed “The Long Night,” a harrowing hour of TV where the many characters of Game of Thrones gathered to finally end the Night King’s invasion of Westeros. Zombies were decapitated. Beloved...

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Zero Dawn remaster on the horizon

The original Horizon Zero Dawn released on the PS4 just five years ago. | Image: Sony

Next up on the list of remasters that nobody really asked for, Sony Interactive Entertainment might be working on a remastered version of Horizon Zero Dawn for thePlayStation 5. An unnamed source within Sony cited by MP1ST and VideoGamesChronicle pointed to a remastered version of the open-world PlayStation 4 title.

Details on the remaster are scarce at the moment but reportedly include new character models, lighting, and animations. It’s also likely that it will incorporate new accessibility features, quality of life improvements, and compatibility with the DualSense controller, mirroring some of the improvements we saw with the remastered version of The Last of Us, which came out in early September.

Here are some graphical...

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Here’s when Overwatch 2 launches in your region

Blizzard

As the servers for Overwatch prime sunset sometime around 12PM ET today, heroes old and new are now looking forward to when we can officially welcome Overwatch 2.

Image: Blizzard

Depending on where you are in the world, your Overwatch 2 launch time may vary from the 12PM PT / 3PM ET start time. London and Paris will get their game late on October 4th, while Seoul and Sydney will get access early on October 5th. If you’re an Overwatch prime player or purchased an Overwatch 2 Watchpoint Pack, you have the ability to preload Overwatch 2 on your PC right now. Unfortunately, console players will have to wait until 9AM PT on October 4th for that privilege.

Developers, Overwatch League pros, and Overwatch prime diehards...

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Reminder: Hulu’s going up in price next week

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hulu’s raising its prices on October 10th. First announced in August, the price increase means you’ll have to pay $7.99 / month instead of $6.99 / month (or $79.99 / year) for the ad-supported version of Hulu and $14.99 / month instead of $12.99 / month for the ad-free plan.

The prices for Hulu’s bundled plans with ESPN Plus and Disney Plus aren’t changing just yet, but Hulu has a price hike planned for later this year. Once Disney Plus rolls out its ad-supported tier on December 8th, the bundle with ad-free Disney Plus, Hulu with ads, and ESPN Plus will cost $14.99 / month instead of $13.99 / month, while the price for ad-free Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus will stay at $19.99 / month. Disney, Hulu’s parent company, is also rolling...

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The perfect smart home controller almost exists — but you probably can’t buy it

The Ava Remote smart home controller | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Last week, I visited the world of the professionally installed smart home. This is the promised land. Everything just works, your voice assistant doesn’t try to sell you toilet paper, and you can control your whole home with just one app. Of course, you pay a hefty price and have to give up lots of control for the privilege.

The Ava smart remote could be the love child of an iPhone and a Logitech Harmony remote

I was at CEDIA Expo 2022, the annual trade show of the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (think CES, but less weird stuff and more stuff you — or someone with more money than you — can actually buy).

Here, I got to hold the almost perfect smart home controller: a sleek touchscreen, wrapped in a smooth...

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The Pixel 4 and 4 XL’s last guaranteed software update has arrived

The Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL have reached the end of their three years of guaranteed software support. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google has released this month’s Pixel security patch, and as Android Police points out, it’s the last one that the Pixel 4 and 4 XL are scheduled to receive. By no coincidence, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro are set to be announced later this week. (When one device’s software support window closes, another one opens.)

While the more recent Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6A all come with a promised five years of security updates, the Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL launched in 2019 with three years of guaranteed security updates. This isn’t necessarily the very end of the road for the Pixel 4 since Google tends to issue one final security patch for end-of-life devices a bit after the official support window has closed. More than anything, it’s kind of symbolic:...

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Valve’s next Steam Next Fest is live now with hundreds of demos to try

One game you can try is Soulstone Survivors_, which looks to take some inspiration from games like_ Vampire Survivors and Diablo_._ | Image: Game Smithing Limited

Valve has just kicked off another Steam Next Fest, where you can check out hundreds of free demos for upcoming games.

With so many games to potentially check out, it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start, but Valve has a few tools to make it easier to find something you might like. Right from the Steam Next Fest homepage, you can see a list of popular demos, most wishlisted games, and which demos have the most active players as well as filter each of those lists by things like genre and specific features. One that has already caught my eye is Soulstone Survivors, which looks like an interesting spin on whatever genre Vampire Survivors is.

Developers will also be hosting livestreams throughout the week to show off their...

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How to turn your Mac desktop folder icons into emoji

Why have boring blue folder icons on your desktop when you can turn them into cats? Well, cat emoji at least. As CNET first pointed out, it turns out you can quickly customize your Mac desktop folders with emoji of your choice. It’s a fun, amusing trick that’s also useful if you’re looking for a visual way to organize the folders on your laptop or PC. You can, for instance, choose a briefcase emoji so you can more easily identify work files or organize travel documents with a plane emoji.

Here, we’ll guide you through the quick process step by step so you can start transforming your blue folder icons into whatever your heart desires, whether it’s Halloween pumpkins, hearts, or even poop — we’re not judging.

How to turn your desktop...

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Pixelated clothing at Paris Fashion Week is metaverse fashion flipped on its head

Photo by Thierry Chesnot / Getty Images

At the Loewe fashion show at Paris Fashion Week this weekend, models stalked around an enormous model of an anthurium plant emerging from beneath bleach-white floors. As a whole, the show was largely what one would expect at one of fashion’s most high-profile events attended by industry people, celebrities, and influencers. But tucked between the diaphanous blouses and textured shoes were a few looks that made viewers do a double take: hoodies, T-shirts, and pants with jagged edges and smudgy shadows, like the clothes had just glitched mid-walk.

The Loewe brand presented clothes in the style of Minecraft - at Paris Fashion Week they showed a "pixel" collection. #Minecraft #우리도_언제나_찬이를_지켜줄게 #Live #women pic.twitter.com/Kq1KMZplrA

— ...

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FCC threatens to block calls from carriers for letting robocalls run rampant

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Federal Communications Commission is threatening to block calls from voice service providers that have yet to take meaningful action against illegal robocalls.

On Monday, the FCC announced that it was beginning the process to remove providers from the agency’s Robocall Mitigation Database for failing to fully implement STIR/SHAKEN anti-robocall protocols into their networks. If the companies fail to meet these requirements over the next two weeks, compliant providers will be forced to block their calls.

“Fines alone aren’t enough”

“This is a new era. If a provider doesn’t meet its obligations under the law, it now faces expulsion from America’s phone networks. Fines alone aren’t enough,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a...

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Twitter’s actually rolling out editable tweets

Get ready to start seeing edited tweets in the wild. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is rolling out the ability to edit tweets to Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to a tweet from the company, it’ll be coming to subscribers in the US “soon.”

Last week, we got to see an example of what edited tweets would look like when the company made one of its own. The tweet will appear as normal, but there will be a pencil icon next to the date, along with text that lets readers know the last time the tweet was edited. Clicking on the icon shows you a page with the edited tweet, as well as a history of the edits. The person who tweeted will have up to 30 minutes to make changes and will only be able to make five edits, according to a Twitter support document.

now that Edit is rolling...

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Apple hopes you’ll forgive Will Smith by Christmas

Image: Apple

Despite Will Smith’s Oscars slap, Apple will be releasing an upcoming film starring the actor this year. Emancipation, which stars Smith as Peter, a man who has escaped slavery and is on the run to try and return to his family, will debut in theaters on December 2nd and on Apple TV Plus on December 9th, according to Deadline. Apple has also released a teaser trailer.

Apple landed the rights to Emancipation, from director Antoine Fuqua, in a huge deal in 2020, and it’s expected to be an Oscars contender. Smith’s performance is “volcanic,” according to The New York Times’ sources. But the company was put in a tricky position after Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage at this year’s show (where he also won the award for best actor), which led...

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NASA’s aircraft will elevate the hunt for critical minerals in the US

A photo of a NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft with the AVIRIS instrument installed. | Image: NASA

NASA and the US Geological Survey plan to deploy aircraft to spot critical minerals buried across the southwest US. They’ll take to the skies to map the minerals, which are crucial to the Biden administration’s plans to build up American clean energy industries.

GEMx is the name of the joint research effort, which will launch with $16 million in funding made possible through the bipartisan infrastructure law, which passed last year. Over the next five years, NASA’s ER-2 and Gulfstream V aircraft will fly over parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico to collect data that could point to where critical mineral resources are most abundant.

Bothaircraft will carry a powerful instrument, NASA’s Airborne Visible / Infrared Imaging...

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How to turn off case sound effects on Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro

Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro have more powerful noise cancellation and better sound quality than the original pair, but the company has also made significant improvements to the charging case. Aside from the new lanyard loop, the case itself now contains a speaker that can emit sounds when you’re trying to track it down using Apple’s Find My app.

By default, the case also plays sound effects when you plug it in for charging. Inevitably, some people won’t be a fan of that feature, but thankfully it’s fairly easy to turn off the extra sounds and use the speaker purely for location tracking purposes.

How to disable charging sounds

• With your AirPods Pro connected to your iPhone, open the Settings app.
• Tap on the AirPods shortcut...

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Modders have jailbroken the PlayStation 5 on year-old firmware

Sony is likely not pleased. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

While it’s thankfully getting much easier to buy a PlayStation 5, the nearly two-year-old console has had enough time with modders to slowly (very slowly) get picked apart. Now, hackers have demonstrated how a recent IPV6 kernel exploit utilizing a Webkit vulnerability can allow users access to a Debug Settings Menu in the PS5’s dashboard. This menu allows a user to poke and prod around settings usually reserved for developers, including a package installer that can install PKG files for PS4 and PS5 games.

While this may sound like the trappings of a bustling homebrew scene and fertile ground for pirates, the use cases are still fairly limited at this time. In addition to the usual risks of getting your PSN account banned, voiding your...

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The Trevor Project cuts ties with student surveillance software after online backlash

Gaggle monitors students’ work on school-owned accounts for potentially “harmful” keywords. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides crisis support to LGBTQ-plus youth, will cut ties with student-focused monitoring software company Gaggle after the partnership sparked backlash from activists.

The organization began listing Gaggle as a “corporate partner” on its website in May, according to a report from The 74, and took what it’s since confirmed to be a $25,000 donation. Gaggle still has The Trevor Project listed as a resource for LGBTQ students in multiple areas of its website.

Gaggle makes and markets software products purporting to review students’ online behavior in school-issued accounts and, using machine learning technology, flag “concerning content” for their districts. Items that its products can monitor, per...

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To whom it may concern: Twitter’s Status feature is starting to look like a good idea

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter’s Status feature seemed a bit strange at first. When it first came out that the company was testing a way to attach Status badges to your tweets, Twitter explained it as a way “to provide more context for your followers.”

Context is all well and good, but Twitter’s uneditable list of choices didn’t make much sense. Adding a “Traveling” status might have made sense in the original what-you-had-for-lunch conception of Twitter, but no longer. And is there anything more cringe than tweeting your grumpiness with a “Case of the Mondays” badge?

Now, it appears Twitter’s statuses are becoming much more... Twitter-y. Jane Manchun Wong, an engineer and a notable internet sleuth, recently found a bunch of new Status options that make a lot...

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Firefly’s Alpha rocket has reached orbit for the first time

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket has successfully reached orbit, achieving its objectives and deploying three satellite payloads on board. | Image: Everyday Astronaut

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket successfully reached orbit following its launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday. The launch was announced as a “100% Mission success” while deploying three satellite payloads on board, which according to Firefly, makes it “the first company to launch and reach orbit from US soil in only its second attempt.”

Firefly Aerospace is a private spaceflight company that develops launch systems for commercial customers. The first unsuccessful Alpha test flight containing its own payload of teeny satellites exploded midflight back in September 2021. The string of bad luck for Firefly then persisted, with three previous launch attempts for Alpha 2 being aborted in September due to technical...

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Netflix’s latest Stephen King film is about the horrors of phone addiction

Jaeden Martell and Donald Sutherland in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone_._ | Image: Netflix

Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is a thriller with an iPhone as the villain and the rare King adaptation that truly captures the entirety of the source material

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Rape kit DNA protected under a new California law

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In California, DNA collected from sexual assault victims during an investigation can no longer be used for other purposes, including investigating other crimes. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Friday.

The bill was introduced in California after the district attorney’s office discovered that the San Francisco Police Department had used DNA collected from a victim during a sexual assault investigation to tie that victim to a property crime. In a sexual assault case, a victim’s DNA is collected in order to exclude their genes from an investigation, but the district said the police department was adding that information to its general genetic database.

The victim whose arrest kicked off the revelations sued the...

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Experts’ judgment on the much-hyped Tesla Bot: Elon Musk speedruns robotics 101

A “rough development” version of Optimus is unveiled at Tesla’s AI Day. | Image: Tesla

Elon Musk has finally unveiled a prototype of the much-hyped Optimus robot — a bipedal machine that the Tesla CEO imagines will one day be sold as a “general purpose” bot that’s cheaper than a car and equally capable of working in factories and doing chores at home.

The presentation of Optimus at Tesla’s AI Day was laced with the usual Musk intoxicants of hype and misdirection. But it also offered roboticists an admirably detailed look at some of the machine’s actual capabilities. Their judgment? That Tesla’s engineers have done incredible work in such a short space of time but that Optimus is still more hype than reality: a research robot that will take many years to develop into anything meaningful.

Before we dive into the experts’...

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The Supreme Court will determine whether you can sue platforms for hosting terrorists

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Supreme Court will take up two cases testing legal protections for apps and websites, according to a newly released list of orders. The first case is Gonzalez v. Google, a dispute over whether sites’ recommendation systems are covered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The second is Twitter v. Taamneh, which covers the standard for finding a site illegally supporting terrorists.

The cases will offer the Supreme Court a chance to dramatically reshape the online legal landscape — not only for huge companies like Twitter and Google but also smaller web services that are protected by laws like Section 230. They may soon be joined by a case covering sites’ right to moderate objectionable user posts. Petitioners will argue...

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