The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer is here (and so is Chris Pratt)

Image: Nintendo

Few things in video games have been so hotly anticipated than the reveal of Chris Pratt’s Mario. Today, at 4:05PM ET, Nintendo finally revealed a first look at the new Mario movie.

The official teaser trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie is here!

❤️ this tweet to Power-Up with exclusive updates from #SuperMarioMovie ! pic.twitter.com/MnaZAdzDrB

— Super Mario Movie (@supermariomovie) October 6, 2022

The internet has gone slightly feral as it awaited the Mario movie trailer reveal. When Nintendo posted the link to the livestream, thousands of viewers flocked to the YouTube page to wait as though they were queuing to buy the next Nintendo console. Earlier this week, we got a glimpse of the poster for the movie, which features a shot...

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Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will briefly hit theaters in November

Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Image: Netflix

Netflix’s first Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, will hit theaters from November 23rd to November 29th. That means you’ll be able to catch the movie in cinemas just about a month before it premieres on Netflix itself on December 23rd.

The film will be showing in about 600 theaters across the US, including theaters from all three of the big US theatrical companies — AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. Internationally, the film will be in theaters in countries including Canada, the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand, Netflix says in a press release. Tickets go on sale October 10th at glassonionmovie.com.

In his spoiler-free review, Andrew Webster said the movie “solidifies Knives Out as the...

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Spotify is axing 11 original podcasts

Illustration Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Spotify is canceling 11 of its original podcasts from in-house studios Gimlet and Parcast. Among the shows ending are How to Save a Planet, Crime Show, and Medical Murders, according to Spotify spokesperson Grey Munford_._

Other shows that will end over the next month or so include Every Little Thing from Gimlet and Female Criminals, Crimes of Passion, Dictator, Mythology, Haunted Places, and Urban Legends from Parcast. Parcast’s Horoscope Today will wrap up in the second quarter of 2023.

Less than 5 percent of Spotify’s staff on original podcasts will be laid off or reassigned, according to Munford. The Ringer and Spotify Studios will not be affected.

Among the shows ending are How to Save a Planet, Crime Show, and Medical Murders, a...

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Biden pardons thousands of marijuana offenses, urging governors to do the same

Image: White House / Flickr

In an official presidential statement on Thursday, President Joe Biden pardoned all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession and said that his administration plans to review whether marijuana should still be classified as a Schedule I drug like heroin, LSD, and ecstasy.

More than 6,500 people in the District of Columbia with prior convictions of simple marijuana possession will be affected, according to CNBC. Biden also said that his administration would request that all US governors pardon all similar statewide offenses.

Additionally, Biden urged Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to launch a review into how marijuana is classified under federal law.

Too many lives have...

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The best gaming headset deals you can get right now

Logitech’s budget-friendly G435 boasts color and comfort, as well as a host of solid features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A good gaming headset is practically a necessity these days. Clean and precise audio is essential for competitive gaming, allowing you to pinpoint your enemies and communicate effectively with your teammates. Moreover, recent developments in spatial audio and virtual surround sound have allowed headsets to meet — and occasionally surpass — more expensive audio setups, allowing even the most budget-conscious gamer to obtain a competitive edge at a fraction of the price.

While you could always invest in a massive pair of speakers, they’re likely to earn you the dubious distinction of the worst roommate of the decade. Thankfully, the right headset will allow you to keep the running and gunning to yourself, which is why we’ve rounded up a...

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Peloton’s CEO doesn’t understand why people aren’t happier he laid off 500 people

It hasn’t been a good day for the company. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

This morning’s news that Peloton is cutting 12 percent of its workforce doesn’t immediately read as a promising sign for the beleaguered smart fitness company.

But in a memo sent to employees on Thursday afternoon, CEO Barry McCarthy explains that he thought a background discussion with The Wall Street Journal ahead of announcing the cuts would lead to a headline about Peloton’s potential growth. He’s apparently surprised to learn that the report accentuated the negative and said the CEO “is giving the unprofitable company about another six months to significantly turn itself around and, if that fails, Peloton likely isn’t viable as a stand-alone company.”

Now, McCarthy is refuting the idea that the company only has six months to...

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The Steam Deck is now available with no reservations required (mostly)

Reservations could come back if there are too many orders. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

You no longer need a reservation to buy a Steam Deck, according to Valve, the company behind the gaming handheld that launched earlier this year. Each model should be available to buy now, and at the time of writing, Valve’s estimating one- to two-week delivery on all of them (though there has been some wonkiness with the page like there was for the just-released dock for the console).

The company says that it’s worked through its queue of reservations and that the Deck is now in stock. It does warn that if there are enough orders, the estimated delivery times will get longer and that “at a certain point we’ll flip back into reservation mode until we’re able to catch up.” Valve also notes that it’s expanding the global availability of...

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Did Google fix its terrible cases for the Pixel 7? Sort of

Google’s first-party cases for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro didn’t go over so well. In the year since those phones were released, the cases have earned an unfavorable reputation for staining and warping out of shape. This 9to5Google article is a good summary of what was so bad about the $29.99 accessory.

Some Pixel fans have called for Google to return to the fabric-coated cases that were available for previous generations of its phones. But the company hasn’t gone that route. Instead, the new Pixel 7 and 7 Pro cases are similar in material to the Pixel 6 cases — but they’re now solid colors instead of being semitransparent. That should at least address the staining and yellowing issue. Google has chosen colors that match the hues of the new...

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Disposable vapes supplanted Juul as the youth nicotine problem

Puff Bar is the most popular e-cigarette brand with teenagers. | Image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Kids are still finding ways to use flavored e-cigarettes despite the Food and Drug Administration’s crackdowns, according to new data from federal agencies. And even though youth vaping rates appear to be falling, 2.5 million kids still said they use the products.

The most popular brand of e-cigarettes with middle and high school-age kids is Puff Bar, according to the data, which was collected through the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey and published by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Puff Bar makes disposable vapes that come in a variety of flavors, and it was able to skirt FDA regulation by switching to synthetic nicotine — which the agency didn’t regulate until this year.

In April, Congress passed a law...

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Climate change made drought 20 times worse this year, and there’s no relief in sight

A palm tree stands above agricultural fields amid ongoing drought on August 26th, 2022, near Bakersfield, California | Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images

Severe drought limited crops, cut power supplies, and fueled out-of-control blazes throughout the summer in North America, Europe, and Asia. Those disastrous summer drought across the Northern Hemisphere were made 20 times more likely because of human-induced climate change, according to a sweeping new study from an international group of researchers with the World Weather Attribution initiative.

In August, officials noted that Europe was likely in the thick of its worst drought in 500 years. The same month, Southern China officially entered its longest drought in 60 years of record keeping. Perennially parched California has just had its three driest years on record.

What might have seemed outrageous in the past is quickly becoming the...

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Here’s how the Google Pixel 7 and iPhone 14 phones stack up

A close-up shot of the Google Pixel 7 Pro, revealing its three rear-facing camera lenses. | Image: Allison Johnson

We now know pretty much everything about Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, the first flagship phone competition for Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup for late 2022. And though comparing iOS and Android devices is an exercise that’s not exactly straightforward (I’m trying to avoid the apples versus oranges phrase for once in my life), lining up the specs should at least tell you which phone might deliver the right kind of performance or camera quality for your budget.

Each of these phones is built on custom processors from their respective creators. And as is usually the case, Apple is being quiet about the usual specs that it doesn’t disclose about its phones, like RAM count and the exact size of the battery, so keep that in mind. All that said,...

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Matter: what you need to know

Illustration: The Verge

Your burning questions about the new smart home standard, answered

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Valve’s Steam Deck Dock is now available to order

It’s (almost) here. | Image: Valve

Valve is now selling the official Steam Deck Docking Station for $89. When we first published this story, there was a button to make a reservation, though that has changed to a “Buy now!” button, even in an Incognito Chrome window. Currently, Valve says the estimated delivery is within one to two weeks.

Valve’s official dock is intended to make it easier to hook up the handheld gaming PC to a monitor or television. The dock has three USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a gigabit ethernet port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and an HDMI 2.0 port. It connects to your Steam Deck via a USB-C cable that plugs into the USB-C port on the top of the device. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, using the dock won’t increase the power of your Steam Deck; it only lets you...

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Twitter’s edit button is rolling out in the US for paying subscribers

It’s finally arriving. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter’s edit button is finally arriving in the US. The company will begin gradually rolling out the long-awaited feature to Twitter Blue subscribers in the US on Thursday afternoon, Twitter spokesperson Joseph Nuñez said in an email to The Verge. Lucky subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have had the ability to edit their typos since Monday, and now it’s coming to the US.

I’ve already seen a bunch of edited tweets on my timeline. The key has been to look for a little pencil icon on tweets in your feed or in tweets themselves. If you want to see an edit history, click on a tweet and then on the pencil. Tweets can be edited up to five times and only 30 minutes after someone has posted the tweet. See it for yourself in this...

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A Plague Tale is coming to GeForce Now, ray tracing and all

You should see me in a cloud. | Image: Focus Entertainment

Nvidia has revealed the new titles that will arrive on its GeForce Now cloud gaming service in October. The headliner is A Plague Tale: Requiem, which will support ray-traced effects. This can allow GeForce Now users (or those who are RTX 3080 and Priority members, at least) to experience the game’s full graphical bells and whistles, even if they don’t own a powerful gaming PC or next-gen console.

The Asobo Studio title is also one of a few dozen games that have been confirmed to support Nvidia’s DLSS 3. That feature displayed impressive results when the company showed it off last month, boosting Cyberpunk 2077 from under 30 frames per second to around 100 frames per second. It won’t be supported on 30-series GPUs, but GeForce players...

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Marvel’s experimental Werewolf by Night is like nothing else in the MCU

Gael García Bernal in Werewolf by Night_._ | Image: Marvel Studios

Most everyone now associates Marvel with its gigantic roster of superheroes and their blockbuster movies, but it was, once upon a time, a publisher of pulp comics. This was a time when it was known as Atlas Comics. These books spanned many genres, from sci-fi and Westerns to, my personal favorite, horror. And now that the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe is starting to experiment with genre more than ever — think the cosmic sci-fi of Thor, She-Hulk’s courtroom drama, and even the recent horror-tinged adventures of Doctor Strange — it only makes sense for Marvel to embrace pulp. And with Disney Plus, there’s a ready-made platform for more experimental ventures, which is where Werewolf by Night comes in.

Werewolf by Midnight is a...

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Here’s how the Google Pixel 7 stacks up to the Pixel 6

The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro next to the Pixel 6A. | Image: Google

The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are now available for preorder, releasing on Thursday, October 13th. Google is claiming that these are the company’s best phones ever, unsurprisingly, launching with improved camera capabilities, a more buttoned-up design, and jumping from the Tensor in the Pixel 6 to the new Tensor G2 processor. We’ll only know whether these improvements are worth the money once we review them, but there’s a lot that we can glean about their supposed improvements right now from the spec sheet.

If you own or are considering buying a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro, we think it’d be handy if you had a comprehensive graph that compares Google’s latest models to its now-last-gen phones. So, we’ve made one for you.

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Hands-on with the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro: something familiar

The Pixel 7 Pro gets a slight face-lift but no major exterior changes for 2022.

This has been a refrain over the past couple of months, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro look and feel a lot like the devices that came before them: the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Their price tags — $599 and $899, respectively — remain unchanged, too, which is a welcome sight in this Year of Price Hikes and Relentless Inflation. But aside from a slight design tweak and more subdued color options, the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro don’t have much to show on the surface that’s new.

Google’s official listed dimensions for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro suggest that they’re ever so slightly smaller than their predecessors, just by a millimeter here and there. In reality, they both still very much look and feel...

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How to preorder the Google Pixel Watch

The Pixel Watch goes for a different look with its circular domed design that’s quite minimal (except for the bezels). | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The Pixel Watch was announced in May during Google’s I/O presentation. It was introduced alongside the Pixel 6A and Pixel Buds Pro, though, unlike those devices, it was left up in the air as “coming this fall.” Now, after an extended wait, Google has finally announced all the details on the forthcoming smartwatch, along with details regarding the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and other new Google hardware and features. The Pixel Watch is shipping on October 13th for a starting price of $349.99, with preorders open now.

If it’s been so long that you’ve forgotten what the Pixel Watch is all about, it’s the first in-house smartwatch from Google, one that’s launching well over a full year after the company’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit. This...

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Pixel Watch hands-on: Google’s taking a page from Apple

The all new Pixel Watch is here. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

I’ll admit it: the Pixel Watch didn’t look all that impressive in official renders. It was a circular watch with a digital crown. Big whoop — it’s not like we haven’t seen smartwatches with a similar vibe before. But those renders don’t really do the Pixel Watch justice. In person, it’s actually a lot more impressive.

Looking at the Pixel Watch, it really does feel like Google decided to give some folks the circular Apple Watch they’ve been clamoring for. It’s got the curved glass display, a minimalist and techy feel, a digital crown, and a flat side button. Those elements aren’t unique to Apple Watches, but they serve similar functions here. That said, even with the Apple-esque design, it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb when you put...

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How to preorder the Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro

The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are available for preorder through Google and other retailers

Google has pulled back the curtain on its new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, which are now available for preorder at Google and other retailers, with units shipping out on October 13th. These new iterations of the Pixel Phone are equipped with further improvements to the already impressive camera array and a second-generation Google Tensor CPU.

The base model of the standard Pixel 7 comes with 128GB of storage and is priced at $599, while the Pixel 7 Pro starts at $899 for its 128GB configuration. The standard Pixel 7 has a larger configuration available with 256GB of storage, while the 7 Pro can be configured with up to 512GB of storage.

What’s new with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro

Both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro look very similar to their...

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The biggest announcements from Google’s Pixel 7 event

Image: Google

Google just wrapped its big fall event, where it showed off its Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and the Pixel Watch. (We’ll have hands-on looks up on the site shortly.) The company also offered more details on its upcoming Pixel Tablet coming in 2023. All said, there wasn’t much in the way of surprises this year since Google already spilled its own hardware beans at Google I/O, but it was great to see these devices up close and to get firm prices, release dates, and more.

In case you missed out on the event as it happened (you can always scrub through our live blog to see our first takes), we’ve built this post that will tell you every single major announcement that took place.

Image: Google

Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro...

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Google’s Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will fix your old blurry photos

Google’s not just promising better photos with the Pixel 7 — it wants to enhance your old photos as well. | Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge

Google says that you’ll be able to use the Pixel 7 to go back through your Google Photos library and fix old blurry photos, using a feature called Photo Unblur. So far, the feature is exclusive to Google’s latest phones, similar to the Magic Eraser feature launched with the Pixel 6.

Like the feature meant to erase distractions from your images, the Photo Unblur results Google showed off in its presentation were a little hit-or-miss — though some were truly impressive, like the one in the tweet below. Like many of the Pixel 7’s features, the company says this image processing is made possible by its next-gen Tensor G2 processor.

Unblur photos—even ones not taken on #Pixel

With just a few taps, #Pixel7 and Pixel 7 Pro bring new life to...

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Disabling these Windows 11 security features could improve gaming performance

Microsoft has discovered that Windows 11 security and visualization features could be impacting gaming performance. | Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has found that some Windows 11 virtualization features can impact gaming performance, and is providing instructions for gamers to disable them — at their own risk.

In a support document posted today, the tech giant says that “continued testing and feedback from users” established both Memory Integrity and the Virtual Machine Platform (VMP) could impact system performance in games.

“Gamers who want to prioritize performance have the option to turn off these features while gaming and turn them back on when finished playing,” reads the newly published support document. “However, if turned off, the device may be vulnerable to threats.”

“Our recommendation remains that for the best protection people keep features on.”

Memory...

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Anti-social media lawsuits are coming for Roblox and Discord

The Discord logo. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Roblox and Discord are among the platforms sued for allegedly harming children and teens in a new lawsuit. The suit, which also targets Meta’s Facebook platform and Snap’s Snapchat, alleges that the companies’ services “contain unique product features which are intended to and do encourage addiction, and unlawful content and use of said products, to the detriment of their minor users.”

Filed in California state court, the suit is one of many brought against large social media companies. But comparatively few of these have covered Discord and Roblox, both of which are popular with young users. (Over half of US children were on Roblox as of 2020.) It comes shortly after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring sites to...

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All Twitter users in the US will start to see crowdsourced fact checks on tweets

Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is further expanding its community moderation program, Birdwatch, to all US users beginning today, the company announced.

Birdwatch, first announced in 2021, is one of Twitter’s attempts to curb misinformation on its platform by inviting users to contribute to the fact checking process. The program allows a small group of Twitter users to add notes to potentially misleading tweets; the notes that are voted as helpful appear as context for the public to see. Birdwatch has been slowly expanding — now, helpful notes will be visible to all US users, though not everyone will be able to add context or rank other contributions.

Image: Twitter

Birdwatch notes only appear on tweets if they’re deemed helpful by...

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Google thinks smartwatches are the future again — are you buying it?

The Pixel Watch is mostly a Fitbit — but that’s just the start of the plan. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google has been right about wearables for nearly a decade. Now, the company swears it’s serious about them, too.

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Google once again slams Apple for not adopting RCS

Google’s Brian Rakowski talking RCS at the company’s Made by Google event. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Onstage at its big Pixel event on Thursday, Google called out Apple for not adopting RCS for better text messaging. Google didn’t say the word “Apple,” but it’s pretty obvious who the company was referring to.

“When it comes to text messages, Pixel uses RCS for enhanced media sharing and end-to-end encryption,” Google’s Brian Rakowski said at the event. “RCS is the modern industry standard for messaging, and it’s already been adopted by most of the industry. We hope every device maker gets the message and adopts RCS, making texting better for every smartphone user.”

Google once again called out Apple for not adopting RCS. Follow our live blog: https://t.co/VvMEZvCIzB pic.twitter.com/rsIrmJvvni

— The Verge (@verge) October 6, 2022

G...

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Google’s Pixel Watch marks a new chapter for Wear OS

There won’t be any third-party Pixel Watch bands at launch. | Image: Google

The Pixel Watch has been heavily leaked and teased over the past year, but today, Google finally revealed the complete details of its first-ever smartwatch. There aren’t too many surprises, but the fact that Google is actually launching the smartwatch marks a new chapter for Android wearables. While the tech giant was once an indifferent bystander, it’s now an active player.

The $349.99 ($399.99 for cellular) Pixel Watch’s design isn’t anything we haven’t seen before at Google I/O or in leaked renders. It’s essentially what the Apple Watch would look like if it had a circular display, complete with a digital crown and side button. That said, the Pixel Watch’s official measurements are much smaller than other premium smartwatches that...

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The Pixel 7 and 7 Pro double down on Tensor-fueled features

The Pixel 7 Pro’s telephoto camera gets a boost to 5x, but it’s not the season for big hardware changes otherwise. | Image: Google

Google has formally unveiled the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro at its fall hardware event, with a second-gen Tensor chipset — and prices unchanged from last year’s models. The $599 Pixel 7 and $899 Pixel 7 Pro lean on Tensor G2 to improve on existing features and introduce a few new ones to the mix. There are a few hardware tweaks and updates here and there, but mostly, this is a story about software.

The Pixel 7 gets a slightly smaller 6.3-inch 1080p screen compared to the Pixel 6’s 6.4-inch display. Google also says that the bezels are slimmer than the Pixel 6’s, though the 90Hz top refresh rate remains the same. The 7 Pro has a 6.7-inch 1440p LTPO display with up to a 120Hz refresh rate — all in line with the 6 Pro. According to Google,...

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