How to find the best deals during Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Normally, Prime Day happens but once a year. The retailer has different plans for 2022, however, and plans to hold a Prime Early Access Sale ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Prime members will be able to get in on the deals starting Tuesday, October 11th, through Wednesday, October 12th. Like Prime Day, this is a two-day stretch wherein Amazon Prime members will likely find some of the best prices yet on popular tech products, including video games, peripherals, laptops, 4K TVs, phones, and more.

If you plan to shop for Prime Early Access deals on Amazon, you’ll need to sign up for Amazon Prime. However, as was the case for Prime Day, not all of the best deals will live on Amazon. Many other retailers, including Best Buy and...

Continue reading…

The best deals on MacBooks right now

The 2020 MacBook Air, one of the best laptops you can get, is frequently on sale.

With multiple configurations and various models to choose from, finding a deal on an M1-equipped MacBook or Mac Mini is not all that difficult. It’s sometimes a slightly different story for the MacBook Pros with the beefier M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs, but any savings you can get on those Pro models is sure to be worthwhile. As for the newer 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with M2 processors, it may take time to see sizable savings.

Here, we’ll run through the discounts that are currently available for the current MacBooks, as well as any deals to be had on the Mac Mini. And with the Amazon Prime Early Access sales event about to hit, there are hopefully going to be some extra-special deals cropping up on M1 Macs of all kinds.

Of course,...

Continue reading…

The best Prime Early Access deals on Amazon devices

Amazon’s latest ad-supported Kindle Paperwhite is on sale right now for $99.99 instead of $139.99. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

If you missed out on the steep discounts we saw on Amazon devices during Prime Day, it appears you have another chance. That’s because many of the same deals we saw in July are currently resurfacing in the run-up to Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale (aka, Prime Day 2.0), which is set to take place next week on October 11th and 12th.

What’s more, Amazon’s current discounts are some of the steepest we’ve seen this year, which isn’t all that surprising given Amazon recently announced a slate of new devices during its fall hardware event. That makes now a good time to snag an older Echo Show model, the last-gen Echo Dot, or even Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite.

Like with our Prime Day coverage, we’ve curated a list of the best discounts...

Continue reading…

Meta’s shutting down its Substack competitor after less than two years

The platform will shut down “by early 2023.” | Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will be shutting down its newsletter platform, Bulletin, “by early 2023,” according to a statement emailed to The Verge by spokesperson Morgan White. A report from The New York Times says that Meta sent creators on the platform an email letting them know that the service would be going away.

Meta announced Bulletin in June 2021, pitching it as a platform “focused on empowering independent writers, helping them reach new audiences and power their businesses.” The idea was similar to Substack; readers could subscribe to newsletters from writers they liked, and writers could charge money for their work and other perks. Some of the writers that were signed onto the service (Meta manually added people; there wasn’t a signup process)...

Continue reading…

Overwatch 2 is less of a sequel and more of a remix

Blizzard

Second verse, same as the first

Continue reading…

The new iOS is more exciting than the new iPhone this year

This year’s iOS update will make a bigger difference to most people than a new system status indicator. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been carrying one of the new iPhone 14 models with me as my daily driver. When I’ve met up with friends — blissfully unaware of consumer tech goings-on — they’ll ask how work is going, as a matter of etiquette. At that point, my eyes gleam, and I pull the phone out of my tote bag.

“Well,” I say, “I’m testing the new iPhones.” I pause for dramatic effect, and my friend nods politely as I continue.

“It has this new feature called Dynamic Island. Here, let me start a timer and show you...” nodding continues but eyes glaze over at this point.

“And because the sub-pixel array...” At this point in the presentation, my friend is glancing desperately around the room for a convenient out as I explain how it’s...

Continue reading…

When will the iPhone be forced to use USB-C?

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Today, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of new legislation that would eventually require all mobile phones sold in the EU to use a USB-C port for wired charging. The proposed rules, which lawmakers reached an initial agreement on back in June, mean that Apple is likely to have to remove the decade-old Lightning connector from its phones and switch to USB-C if it wants to continue selling them in one of its most lucrative global markets.

The EU’s aim is to reduce e-waste. If more devices are interoperable with the same cables, then the EU thinks fewer electronic devices and chargers will get thrown away. According to its estimates, every year, 11,000 tonnes of disposed of and unused chargers end up in landfill, which...

Continue reading…

American utilities aren’t living up to their climate pledges, new report finds

Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-fired power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority | Photo by Paul Harris / Getty Images

A damning new report gives American electric utilities failing grades on addressing climate change. Instead of transitioning quickly to clean energy, according to the report, many utilities in the US are propping up aging coal plants andexpanding polluting gas infrastructure.

“These companies’ supposed climate commitments are mostly greenwashing,” says the report published yesterday by environmental group Sierra Club and University of California, Santa Barbara associate professor Leah Stokes. In other words, utilities are paying lip service to climate change without doing enough to actually tackle the crisis.

“These companies’ supposed climate commitments are mostly greenwashing”

The assessment of US utilities includes 77 operating...

Continue reading…

Spark’s new app wants to fix how you email — even if it has to force you

The new Spark app wants you to spend way less time looking at your inbox. | Image: Readdle / David Pierce

Spark has long been one of the best and most popular third-party email apps. Its developer, Readdle, managed to build a tool that is clean, fast, and simple in a market where very few apps check all three of those boxes. It works across multiple platforms, handles multiple accounts with ease, and is free for practically everyone.

But Spark’s new app, which is available now for Mac (though the App Store version is still behind), Windows (for the first time), iOS, and Android, takes a completely different approach. It asks — and sometimes forces — you to be more thoughtful about how often you look at your inbox. The new desktop app no longer also includes a calendar view and focuses entirely on email. It has very specific ideas about where...

Continue reading…

Pat Gelsinger came back to turn Intel around — here’s how it’s going

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge.

How CEO Pat Gelsinger changed the culture at Intel and bet big on the silicon heartland

Continue reading…

Samsung unveils ambitious five-year plan to manufacture advanced chips

Samsung reminds us all that it still makes chips in recent announcement. | Image: Samsung

Samsung has announced a five-year plan to expand its production capacity for advanced chips by 2027. The timeline could help the company regain ground from semiconductor giant TSMC.

In its Tuesday press release, following an announcement at the annual Samsung Foundry Forum event, Samsung committed to expanding its production capacity for advanced nodes “by more than three times” by the year 2027. The company also plans to introduce a two-nanometer process in 2025 and a 1.4nm process by 2027.

The company says it’s responding to “significant market growth in high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), 5/6G connectivity and automotive applications,” which has made “innovation in semiconductor process technology critical...

Continue reading…

Judge says Twitter can search Musk team’s texts for Twitter whistleblower details

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Delaware Court of Chancery says Twitter can proceed with a limited probe to figure out whether whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko contacted billionaire Elon Musk’s lawyers before he backed out of the deal. The decision was released shortly before Musk reportedly asked to close the deal on its original terms.

Musk and Twitter contested how much information Twitter could seek about Zatko, who has alleged that Twitter concealed important information about its bot problem before Musk proposed acquiring it. Zatko revealed his claims publicly in August, and he’s denied contacting Musk or any of his representatives before that. But in court, Musk and Twitter have been fighting over an “unusual” email sent to Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro from...

Continue reading…

Combination flu and COVID-19 tests are in the works for virus season

Cue has a COVID-19 test and wants to add on a flu test. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

The past two years have seen relatively quiet flu seasons — a welcome development as hospitals and the public health system focused on managing waves of COVID-19. But experts are expecting flu to make a comeback this winter, and people will need to differentiate between the two illnesses with very similar symptoms.

At-home testing companies are asking the Food and Drug Administration to authorize combination tests that can scan for both COVID-19 and influenza in a single sample. Lucira Health asked the agency to sign off on its dual test in May, and Cue Health just submitted its request Tuesday. The FDA authorized a combination test made by Labcorp in May, but that test requires people to swab their nose and mail it to a lab.

Having a...

Continue reading…

Elon Musk vs. Twitter: all the news about one of the biggest, messiest tech deals ever

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Stay up to date with the latest in the Musk-Twitter saga

Continue reading…

How to use the Apple Watch Ultra’s siren

The Apple Watch Ultra introduces a siren for emergencies. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apple includes excellent safety features on all its Apple Watch models, but there’s one that's exclusive to the new Apple Watch Ultra: the siren.

The siren is designed to draw attention to yourself if you’re ever injured or lost when exploring. To do that, Apple included a second speaker on the Ultra that can emit an 86db sound with a range of up to 600 feet. When activated, the siren switches between two sound patterns that sound similar to distress and well-known SOS signals.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You’ll be able to see how much battery percentage you have left when you activate the siren.

Once you’ve turned the siren on, your watch screen will show a red border and a call button so you...

Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red is working on a new franchise and new Witcher and Cyberpunk games

Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 | Image: CD Projekt Red

CD Projekt Red (CDPR) is working on more games set in The Witcher and Cyberpunk universes, as well as a brand new franchise that’s being created entirely in-house, the studio announced in a strategy update on Tuesday.

Let’s start first with what was announced for The Witcher. CDPR announced what it called a “new saga” in March, and we now know that the first game in what is planned to be a trilogy will be codenamed “Polaris.” The game is set to be developed using Unreal Engine 5. CDPR plans to deliver the games over a six-year period “starting from the release of Polaris,” Adam Kiciński, joint CEO of CDPR, said in a video.

There are two other new Witcher games in the works, too. One, referred to as “Canis Majoris,” is a “full-fledged” W...

Continue reading…

Amazon’s fast Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back down to its lowest price

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is tiny but formidable when it comes to specs. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

We’re one week out from the next Amazon Prime Day — wait, I mean Amazon Prime Early Access Sale. But you don’t need to wait until then to start getting great deals that don’t require a Prime membership. Amazon is selling a selection of its Fire TV Sticks for up to 50 percent off. Its cream of the crop stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, is $34.99, and you can even get an additional 20 percent back if you trade in an old Fire TV Stick. Though, even if you don’t have an older device to trade, this $20 discount is matching the cheapest price ever on Amazon’s highest-end Fire TV Stick — matching the lightning deal price we saw from Prime Day a few months ago.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is loaded with good specs for its price, including 4K...

Continue reading…

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Last year’s terrific Kindle Paperwhite is on sale for as low as $99.99, nearly matching its best price to date. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the forthcoming Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks...

Continue reading…

Elon Musk said to offer to buy Twitter, again, for $54.20 a share, again

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk is said to have sent another offer letter to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share, the same price he originally proposed in April before trying to back out of the deal, Bloomberg reported based on anonymous sources.

Trading of Twitter shares was briefly halted.

The messages were notable for what wasn’t in them: any discussion of concerns about bots

Musk and Twitter have been battling for months now about the Twitter takeover. After offering to buy the company, Musk tried to cancel the deal, claiming that Twitter had lied about the number of bot accounts on the platform. Twitter sued Musk to try to get him to abide by the contract he negotiated, and a trial date has been set for October 17th.

Last week, an embarrassing tranche of text...

Continue reading…

Matter 1.0 is finally finalized — so what’s next?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The smart home standard is open for certification at last. We could see Matter devices in our homes as soon as this month.

Continue reading…

How to set up medication reminders in iOS 16

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Of all the Health app features introduced in iOS 16, the new Medications feature may be the most practical. According to the CDC, 48.6 percent of Americans take at least one prescription medication a day. Unfortunately, an NIH study found that 30 to 50 percent of patients don’t adhere to long-term medications — in other words, they don’t keep to their medication schedules. This is a problem that costs the healthcare system hundreds of millions of dollars per year. In iOS 16, however, you can log and schedule which medications you take and set up reminders on your iPhone or Apple Watch. You can also share your medication list with loved ones or healthcare providers.

30 to 50 percent of patients don’t keep to their medication schedules

T...

Continue reading…

Russia fines TikTok $51,000 for content violating anti-LGBTQ laws

Nick Barclay / The Verge

A Russian court fined TikTok 3 million rubles (about $51,000) for failing to delete content on the platform that violates the country’s anti-LGBTQ “gay propaganda” law, Reuters reports.

The fines are based on charges that TikTok was promoting “non-traditional sexual values, videos featuring LGBT, feminism, and distorted representation of traditional sexual values,” according to Russian news outlet Interfax. The 2013 law restricts individuals and entities from discussing and promoting LGBTQ rights and has been used to crack down on content online. Russia warned TikTok of the fines in August.

Along with the fine on TikTok, Russia also issued a 4 million rubles ($68,000) penalty on Twitch for hosting an interview with Ukrainian adviser to...

Continue reading…

Isaac goes out on a limb in new Dead Space remake gameplay trailer

EA Motive

The developers at EA revealed a new Dead Space remake gameplay trailer just in time to mark the arrival of spooky season. In the trailer, engineer Isaac Clarke arms himself with all sorts of industrial tools to make bloody work of the vicious Necromorphs that have overrun the USG Ishimura.

EA is remaking the 2008 survival horror game, splattering it with a fresh coat of dark and grimy paint. Rebuilt in the Frostbite engine, the dark corners of the haunted spaceship seem even darker, and the enhanced wet squelching noises that come when Isaac curbstomps a Necromorph will undoubtedly send the misophonia sufferers running for the hills. (It’s me, I’m misophonia sufferers.) In a press release, EA shared that this new Dead Space also features...

Continue reading…

These beautiful Elden Ring art prints will make your walls look less tarnished

Image: Cook and Becker

A new series of high-quality prints from Cook and Becker will ensure your living room isn’t maidenless

Continue reading…

Facebook Oversight Board to review Iranian protest content

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

The Facebook Oversight Board announced Tuesday that it was reviewing a company decision to remove a post calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wake of nationwide protests in the country.

In its Tuesday announcement, the board describes the July post as depicting a caricature of Khamenei grasping “a woman wearing the hijab” with his beard. The image is captioned calling for death to the “anti-women Islamic government” and its “filthy leader Khamenei.” While Facebook removed the post for encouraging violence against a political leader, the company later reinstated it in August once the board chose to review the decision, the announcement said.

“As we cannot hear every appeal, the Board prioritizes...

Continue reading…

Someone is tricking Chinese YouTube users with a spyware version of the Tor Browser

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Researchers at Kaspersky have found malware hidden in a modified version of the anonymity-preserving Tor Browser, distributed in a way that specifically targets users in China.

According to details published in a blog post on Tuesday, the malware campaign reaches unsuspecting users through a Chinese-language YouTube video about staying anonymous online. During the research period, the video was the top result for the YouTube query “Tor浏览器,” which translates to “Tor browser” in Chinese. Beneath the video, one URL links to the official Tor website (which is blocked in China); another provides a link to a cloud-sharing service that hosts an installer for Tor, modified to include malicious code.

Once the file is executed, it installs a...

Continue reading…

Disney Plus relaunches on PS5 — now with 4K HDR playback

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney has announced that a new Disney Plus app is now available globally for Sony’s PlayStation 5. Unlike the previous version, which was just a PS4 app running on the newer console, the new software is designed natively for PS5. The key difference for viewers is that Disney Plus now supports 4K HDR playback; the previous app had been limited to 1080p for all this time.

That means you can now watch the service’s catalog and recent originals like Andor, Hocus Pocus 2, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law in all their Ultra HD glory. You can download the new PS5 Disney Plus app from the media section of the homescreen. Those in Latin America can download a Star Plus app — also now based on native PS5 code.

“A key part of our global expansion...

Continue reading…

Asus Vivobook S 14X OLED review: pretty pixels for a pretty price

This is a tech demo for a remarkable display panel

Continue reading…

Micron’s investing $100 billion to bring the country’s ‘largest semiconductor fabrication facility’ to New York

Micron plans to start constructing its new hub in 2024. | Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Semiconductor company Micron is pledging $100 billion to build a chip factory near Syracuse, New York, the company announced in a press release on Tuesday. Micron says it's the “largest semiconductor fabrication facility in the history of the United States.”

The move comes as Micron looks to take advantage of the funding from the Biden administration’s $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed in August. As part of the legislation, President Joe Biden is allocating $52 billion in funds to encourage chip companies to build fabrication sites in the US and recently signed an executive order to get the money to companies faster.

Announcing our plans to invest up to $100B over the next 20+ years to construct a new,...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s early Windows 8 concepts shown in new video

It’s been nearly 10 years since Windows 8 launched to the world as part of Microsoft’s big tablet push. While we’ve seen two heads of Windows since then, former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has shared some early concept images for Windows 8 in a new video. The images show concepts for the Start menu, multiple monitor support, File Explorer, Internet Explorer, and lots more.

Windows 8 development began in the spring of 2010, and Microsoft held an all-team event for the Windows org (around 5,000 people) at the Seattle Convention Center. “This video was played as the meeting ended and the team departed the Seattle Convention Center,” explains Sinofsky. “It is a highlight or sizzle reel of the many months we spent planning the release and...

Continue reading…