Google’s including its VPN service with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro

The Pixel perks are back. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge

Google has announced that Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro users will be getting access to its Google One VPN at “no extra cost.” The company says this makes them the first phones to include VPN access.

The perk usually comes as part of Google’s $9.99 a month premium One plan, which also includes 2TB of cloud storage as well as other benefits. There are some restrictions to the deal though — according to a tweet from the company, some data won’t be transmitted through the VPN, and the benefit won’t be available in all countries. The company didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment on what data wouldn’t be allowed through the VPN.

Peace of mind when you connect online ✨

Later this year, #Pixel7 and 7 Pro will be the only...

Continue reading…

Watch 14 minutes of new details on Pokémon Violet and Scarlet

Nintendo

At this point, there’s not much information Nintendo can share about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet short of just giving us the game already, but it’s sure gonna try. Today, Nintendo released a honking huge 14-minute long trailer, squeezing out the last bit of juicy details ahead of the game’s launch on November 18th.

The informative trailer reminded us of the Paldea region and the unique phenomena of Terastallization by which you can crystalize your pokémon empowering its abilities and potentially changing its type. We also got a glimpse of the new “Let’s Go” command in which a trainer orders its pokémon out into the field to battle other ‘mon in real time. New in Scarlet and Violet is the ability to craft TMs made from materials dropped...

Continue reading…

Amazon Prime Early Access Sale: the latest news, deals, and coverage

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Everything you need to know to score the best deals possible

Continue reading…

Need for Speed Unbound’s first trailer shows a slick cel-shaded racer

Image: EA

EA finally shared details about its next Need for Speed game, titled Need for Speed Unbound, in a new trailer that premiered Thursday. The most notable thing about Unbound is its new look, with a cel-shaded art style that helps differentiate it from the many realistic racers out there. The trailer also features rapper A$AP Rocky, both with his music and as an in-game character. Here’s the official description:

Race against time, outsmart the cops, and take on weekly qualifiers to reach The Grand, Lakeshore’s ultimate street racing challenge. Pack your garage with precision-tuned, custom rides and light up the streets with your style, exclusive fits, and a vibrant global soundtrack that bumps in every corner of the world.

The most recent...

Continue reading…

HTC teases a new smaller Vive VR headset

HTC Vive VR teaser: “go small or go home.”

While Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance battle to be the premium social media / metaverse company making virtual or augmented reality hardware, HTC is reminding everyone that it has a place in the game, too. Without providing any extra details, it released this simple teaser tweet on Thursday morning, promising to “go small or go home.”

A brief HTC press release sent to The Verge described the tweet as a teaser for “a new headset” and noted that it’s been a year since the Vive Flow — HTC’s early stab at a consumer VR headset that looks (sort of) like sunglasses. It references the Flow as the “first” headset made under Project Proton, a super-small headset initiative HTC discussed in 2020. Coupled with the tagline on the tweet, our best...

Continue reading…

Logitech G and Herman Miller team up again for the Vantum gaming chair

There are three colorways in total: black, red, and white. Here’s the white colorway with black upholstery and white detailing. | Image: Herman Miller / Logitech

Logitech G and Herman Miller have jointly debuted the Vantum gaming chair. It’s available to order now for $995, which is a significant price difference from the $1,500 Embody, the partnership’s first gaming chair I had the pleasure to sit on for many hours in mid-2020. While the Embody was a gamer-friendly twist on a preexisting design in Herman Miller’s catalog of chairs, the Vantum appears to be a new chair altogether. It’ll come in multiple color options (white, red, and black), each including a 12-year warranty.

Here’s a side view of the Vantum, showing off its thoracic support pad. Herman Miller says this is the first gaming chair to offer such a thing.

Like the Embody, it’s tough to tell exactly what kind of...

Continue reading…

Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch event live blog

Illustration: The Verge

Come check out Google’s latest phone — and its first smartwatch

Continue reading…

The best deals on true wireless earbuds right now

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

When it comes to true wireless earbuds, there are a ton of brands and products to choose from. Whether you need something with noise cancellation for your daily commute like the Apple AirPods Pro or a fitness-focused pair like the Beats Powerbeats Pro, there’s now a pair of wireless earbuds well suited for nearly every occasion. Some, like the UE Fits, even conform to the shape of your ear to provide a secure fit that’s uniquely yours. And since there are so many to choose from, there are often many opportunities to get a set of buds on sale — like this upcoming Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, which is sure to have some earbud deals if past Prime Days and Black Fridays are anything to go by.

Regardless of the brand or model that speaks...

Continue reading…

Volvo’s EX90 electric SUV will have bidirectional charging capabilities

The EX90 will be based on Volvo’s Concept Recharge.

Volvo’s upcoming flagship electric vehicle, the EX90 SUV, will feature bidirectional charging capabilities with enough battery capacity to power a customer’s home, the company announced.

Bidirectional charging is quickly becoming a highly sought-after feature in many electric vehicles. And it works exactly like it sounds: with unidirectional (one-way) EV chargers, electricity flows from the electric grid into the electric vehicle; with bidirectional (two-way) EV chargers, electricity can flow both ways.

Volvo’s EX90, which will have its official debut in November, is the latest to boast the capability. Customers in “select markets” will be able to use the car’s lithium-ion battery to “power their homes and portable devices,” the...

Continue reading…

A former Facebook engineer wants to help you make your own cell network

What does it take to build a cell network? According to Ukama, these devices. | Image: Ukama

A new company wants to let you become your own cell carrier, using your internet connection even when you’re away from home — and roaming onto the networks of other people doing the same. The company, helmed by former Facebook engineer Kashif Ali, is called Ukama, and it’s launching a crowdfunding campaign on engineering and maker-focused site Crowd Supply to get its devices out to people willing to try out the tech and start building the network.

Ukama’s selling a few different pieces of hardware, set to be delivered next summer, according to Ali. The main piece is the $799 Tower Node, which is made to be mounted outside on a roof or building so it can broadcast out your home internet connection via a signal that can reach over half a...

Continue reading…

The 2024 Honda Prologue EV will be bigger than the biggest CR-V

The 2024 Honda Prologue will be the company’s first EV targeted at the North American market. | Image: Honda

Honda released new details about the upcoming Prologue electric SUV, including sizing (bigger than a CR-V) and styling (neo-rugged?), as the automaker inches closer to the full reveal.

The 2024 Prologue will slot in between the compact CR-V and the midsize Passport SUV. It will be about eight inches longer and about five inches wider than the current CR-V. That means more cabin space and cargo room, which will be crucial if Honda is to win the increasingly competitive electric midsize SUV segment.

Honda

Perched on 21-inch wheels, the Prologue will have a riding height closer to the Passport. The exact dimensions are as follows: 121.8-inch wheelbase; 192-inch length; 78.3 inches wide; and 64.7 inches tall.

Inside,...

Continue reading…

Peloton CEO gives company six months to prove it can survive on its own

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Peloton is cutting another 500 jobs, or 12 percent of its workforce, as it attempts to turn around its struggling connected fitness business, CEO Barry McCarthy announced in a memo to staff on Thursday. McCarthy says the company, which has lost money for six quarters straight, has six months to get back on its feet or else it may not be viable as a standalone company, The Wall Street Journal reports.

This is Peloton’s fourth round of layoffs this year after it let go of around 2,800 employees in February, 500 in July, and almost 800 in August. Combined, the cuts mean that the company’s workforce will now sit at around 3,800 employees globally. That’s a big drop from Peloton’s peak of 8,600 employees last year but not far off from the...

Continue reading…

How to watch the Super Mario Bros. movie’s big trailer reveal

Image: Nintendo

It’s been a long time coming, but the time is almost here: we’re going to get a look at Nintendo’s upcoming S_uper Mario Bros._ movie. The animated feature was officially announced way back in 2018 as a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio behind Minions, and today, the companies are releasing the first trailer.

Since then, we’ve learned small details, most notably about the cast, which will include Jack Black as Bowser, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, and — most controversial of all — Chris Pratt as Mario. Pratt has described his take on the iconic plumber’s voice as “unlike anything you’ve heard in the Mario world before.”

View this post on Instagram ...

Continue reading…

Uber is back in the robotaxi game after signing 10-year deal with Motional

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 will be Uber and Motional’s robotaxi of choice. | Image: Uber / Motional

Nearly two years after selling its autonomous vehicle research division to a competitor, Uber is finally back in the robotaxi business. The company signed a 10-year multimarket deal with Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, to deploy autonomous vehicles on its ride-hailing and delivery platforms, the companies announced.

Motional’s autonomous vehicles will ferry both passengers and delivery items for Uber and its Uber Eats division, with trips expected to start later this year. The deal isn’t exclusive: Motional also operates an autonomous taxi service in Las Vegas with Uber’s main competitor Lyft, while Uber has a 10-year deal with Nuro to use the company’s driverless delivery pods in California and Texas. (Uber also...

Continue reading…

The clock is running out for Google to put a dent in the duopoly

It’s now or never, Google. | The Verge

Google’s fall hardware event comes at an uncomfortable time. The company just unceremoniously announced that it would shut down its Stadia cloud gaming service in early 2023. The company also canceled its upcoming Pixelbook well into its development and redistributed the team working on it to other parts of the company.

Google has never had the best track record for sticking with its hardware concepts, but with increasingly ominous messages coming from the top about cost cutting and hiring slowdowns, now seems like a particularly unlucky time to be Made By Google.

This is the backdrop against which Google will fully unveil the long-teased Pixel 7 and 7 Pro and the even longer-teased Pixel Watch. Regarding the latter, the assignment is...

Continue reading…

Google demos two new text-to-video AI systems, focusing on quality and length

Last week, Facebook’s parent company Meta shared a new AI model that turns text prompts into short, soundless videos. But it turns out Google has been working on the same problem, and recently released two new AI text-to-video systems, one of which focuses on image quality while the other prioritizes the creation of longer clips.

Let’s a take a look at the high-quality model first: Imagen Video. As the name suggests, this model builds on techniques honed in Google’s earlier text-to-image system Imagen, but straps in a bunch of new components to the pipeline to turn static frames into fluid motion.

The AI-generated videos are incredible, uncanny, and unsettling

As with Meta’s Make-A-Video model, the end results are simultaneously...

Continue reading…

Elon Musk’s Twitter deposition reportedly delayed as companies work to close deal

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk will no longer be deposed by Twitter’s lawyers on Thursday morning, after both sides agreed to a delay as they worked to close the $44 billion purchase of the social media network, the Financial Timesand Bloomberg report. Musk was scheduled to be deposed for two days in Tesla’s home of Austin, Texas starting at 9:30AM, ahead of the trial’s scheduled start on October 17th. His deposition was previously pushed back from its original September 28th date due to COVID-19 exposure concerns.

Both sides are reportedly working to close the deal, after Musk informed Twitter this week of his intention to proceed with his original offer of $54.20 a share (though the New York Times reports that he had attempted to lower the price in...

Continue reading…

Apple iPhone 14 Plus review: a big deal

Excellent battery life and a large display make the 14 Plus upgrade-worthy

Continue reading…

Blizzard gives most Overwatch 1 players a pass on verifying phone numbers to play Overwatch 2

Blizzard

Two days into the launch of Blizzard’s revamped and now free-to-play Overwatch 2 experience, a Wednesday night post on its support forum addressed problems players have had with connections, SMS Protect, and missing account items or account merge troubles.

In terms of the connection issues and long queues for entry that are keeping many of us stuck at the loading screen (Login queues, server crashes, and stability problems), a critical login server has been patched to help it hold up under the load. Blizzard says it’s also slowly scaling up the nodes in its player databases to help them handle the onrush of players diving in.

Blizzard said: “In all cases, no player data has been wiped or lost.”

Beyond the ability to connect to the...

Continue reading…

Former Uber security chief found guilty of covering up massive 2016 data breach

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Former Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan has been found guilty of charges that he covered up a 2016 cyberattack where a hacker downloaded the personal information of more than 57 million people. The information stolen from Uber included names, email addresses, and phone numbers for more than 50 million Uber riders and 7 million drivers, as well as driver’s license numbers for another 600,000 drivers.

As reported by the New York Times and Washington Post, the jury convicted Sullivan on two counts: one for obstructing justice by not revealing the breach to the FTC and another for misprision, which is concealing a felony from the authorities.

This is believed to be the first time a company executive faced criminal prosecution over a...

Continue reading…

Know the price-matching policies for Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Nothing is more frustrating than buying a new pair of headphones, an OLED, or a backpack just to find out that you could have gotten it for a lot cheaper somewhere else. In order to keep customers happy — and prevent them from going elsewhere — many retailers offer price-matching policies where they promise to match a lower price that you’ve found elsewhere. That’s information that could come in handy, especially given Black Friday is right around the corner and Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale kicks off on October 12th.

What follows are the price-matching policies for a variety of major retailers. There are a few things to make note of here. First, all price-matching policies have a number of rules attached to them. We’ve summarized...

Continue reading…

Phones from and by Google: a visual history of the Pixel and its predecessors

The 2016 Google Pixel next to the 2017 Google Pixel 2. This is the midpoint in Google’s journey of delivering phones by Google. | Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge

Several years ago, if someone told you they had an Android phone, then it would have been safe to assume they were not talking about Google’s Pixel. Until recently, “Android” had a much stronger association with hardware from Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, or even LG when it was still making phones. But that mindset may finally be shifting as the Google Pixel slowly gains more name recognition amongst the Galaxies of the world.

The goal of the Pixel is to bring out the best of Android and invite manufacturers and consumers to see what Google’s operating system could — and perhaps even should — look like. After all, the iPhone’s always been known for its consistent interface and cohesive ecosystem across Apple’s devices, while Android phones...

Continue reading…

Here are the best iPad deals right now

Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While some of the best iPad deals typically occur around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere you may be interested in. Plus, with Amazon’s Prime Early Access sale about to drop on us, it should hopefully present some nice discounts.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get...

Continue reading…

How to use Microsoft’s new Windows HDR Calibration app

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Back in February, Microsoft announced that an HDR Calibration app to help Windows 11 users optimize color accuracy and consistency for gaming on their HDR displays was on its way. The app, spotted by Thurrott, has now arrived and is available for download.

The app includes three test patterns, which you can use to test for the darkest and brightest visible details you can see on your display as well as its maximum brightness. You can customize how vividly colors will appear for both HDR and SDR content.

In order to use the app, you’ll need a PC running Windows 11 and an HDR-capable display with HDR turned on. In terms of GPU, you’ll need an AMD RX 400 series or later, an AMD Ryzen processor with Radeon Graphics, an Intel...

Continue reading…

The biggest Pixel 6 frustrations that Google should fix with the Pixel 7

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro might be Google’s “fastest-selling Pixels to date,” but they haven’t been what I’d consider a slam dunk in the hardware department. I’m not talking about aesthetics here: I’m a fan of the camera bar look, personally, though I detest curved displays. To each their own. Looking at the big picture, I think the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are among the best phones that Google has made — the camera is superb (for stills), and the Tensor chip’s voice typing and dictation capabilities are genuinely next level — but they’re not without some faults. Google has successfully tackled many of the early software bugs, but some lingering hardware concerns remain.

A year in, based on my own time using both devices for extended periods and...

Continue reading…

Overwatch 2’s launch problems include prepaid cellular bans, failed account merges

Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2’s launch has been beset by all of the typical problems that come with the arrival of a hotly anticipated title. Server queues are tens of thousands of players long, and once you do get to the end of your long wait, you’re either booted right then to unceremoniously rejoin the queue — or, as I was, lose your connection at a far more inconvenient time, like in the middle of a match.

According to multiple Blizzard developers, the team is hard at work fixing server stability, including fending off at least two DDOS attacks, but the game’s launch problems extend beyond server uptime, namely to account merging and SMS Protect.

Image: Blizzard

Overwatch 2’s arrival brings with it cross-progression. If you had...

Continue reading…

Twitter’s letting you combine photos, videos, and GIFs in one tweet

Tweets with multiple pieces of content will show up side-by-side or in a grid. | Image: Twitter

Twitter’s rolling out a new feature on both Android and iOS that lets you combine text, photos, videos, and GIFs in a single tweet. The feature was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi back in April, with Twitter later confirming it was working on multimedia posts in July. Previously, you could only share one piece of media per tweet.

Now that the feature is here, all you need to do is tap the photo icon in the tweet composer and add the media of your choice. The content you add will show up side by side or in a grid-like format, depending on how many images, videos, or GIFs you add. You can see how this might look in these tweets shared by Twitter.

Create a whole vibe pic.twitter.com/BDFnwC0pn9

— Twitter Support...

Continue reading…

Elon Musk is buying Twitter again — what does that mean for Tesla?

What will happen to Tesla if Elon Musk owns Twitter? Probably near-term stock volatility and long-term foreign influence campaigns. | Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

Tesla shareholders may be experiencing déjà vu this week watching the company’s stock fall on the news that Elon Musk said he’d buy Twitter at the original offer price after all. He had previously tried to back out of buying the company, but Twitter sued him to go through with the purchase.

The drop was not as precipitous as it was earlier this year — a 1.5 percent decrease this week versus a 12-point slide last April, wiping $125 billion off the electric automaker’s market valuation. It wasn’t clear if this week’s price drop was because of the Twitter news or residual mockery from the reveal of Tesla’s humanoid robot last week.

Tesla is a loose collection of vibes and feelings around Musk’s pole position as a prognosticator

But Tesla...

Continue reading…

Spotify is ramping up its efforts to find misinformation in podcasts

Spotify says the company has already been “critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety.” | Nick Barclay / The Verge

Spotify is acquiring Kinzen, a startup that specializes in using machine learning to analyze content and report potentially harmful statements to human moderators. In a press release, Spotify says the acquisition is meant to help it “deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world,” even as it ramps up its focus on user-generated podcasts and audiobooks, which could potentially contain misinformation or other violations of Spotify’s policies.

Spotify has already been working with Kinzen, claiming that it’s been partnered with the company since 2020 and that the startup’s tech has been “critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety.” According to Kinzen’s site, its tech is capable of analyzing audio content...

Continue reading…

I want Google’s camera app level in all my cameras

The Pixel 6A is one of many Pixels with a virtual horizon since software updates brought it to models as old as the Pixel 3A. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Ever since the Pixel 5 came out in 2020, Google implemented a handy level feature in its camera app that I truly love using. It’s so good, I’m convinced that just about every other smartphone and camera manufacturer should just blatantly rip it off for our collective betterment.

The Pixel camera app automatically calls up some nifty virtual horizon lines by default when you hold the phone steady to line up a shot. You guide the two tilting white lines toward a static yellow one, and when your picture is perfectly level from side to side (roll) and front to back (pitch), they all align and turn yellow. You even get a nice haptic buzz once your horizon reaches an even zero degrees. The UI for this assistive tool changes when you point the...

Continue reading…