EA’s new PC app is here to replace Origin

A screenshot of EA’s new PC app. | Image: EA

EA’s new PC app, designed to replace its Origin platform, is now available to download, the company announced on Thursday. This new app is designed to offer a “faster, more reliable, and more streamlined gaming experience,” according to EA’s blog post, with features like automatic game downloads and background updates.

For players currently using Origin, you’ll “soon” be invited to switch over. “By the time you receive your invite, all your games and content, including games previously installed, will be ready and waiting for you on the EA app,” EA says. Saves and your friends list will transfer over as well. But if you don’t want to wait, you can download the app right now from EA’s website.

The app has been a long time coming, as EA...

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She-Hulk gets very real about the rage-inducing horror of revenge porn

She-Hulk barely managing to contain her rage at a gala. | Image: Disney Plus / Marvel Studios

She-Hulk’s penultimate episode took a dark turn to dig into what makes revenge porn such an infuriating act of violence

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The best Xbox controller to buy right now

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Basic, premium, affordable, and customizable — lots to pick from

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Toyota is fixing the problem that could have caused the bZ4X’s wheels to fly off while driving

Those wheels look pretty secure, but you never know. | Photo by Abigail Bassett for The Verge

The 2023 Toyota bZ4X’s wheels will stay on while driving after the automaker says it is in the process of fixing the safety issue that halted sales of the new battery-powered model for more than three months. Production of the EV has resumed and customers should start to receive their vehicles, which will come with four wheels that stay attached while traveling at a variety of speeds, apparently.

In June, Toyota issued a global recall for the bZ4X electric crossover SUV over hub bolts on the wheels that could come loose following a sharp turn or hard braking. It represented a major setback for the world’s largest automaker, which has pledged to spend $17.6 billion to roll out 30 battery-electric models by 2030.

The bZ4X, which had only...

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Twitter would like you to share that tweet instead of screenshotting it

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter knows when you screenshot tweets to share somewhere else, and it’d prefer if you gave it some credit instead.

Some Twitter users are starting to see a new pop-up prompting them to share a link to tweets instead of a screenshot. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong spotted the new pop-up that appears immediately after a user screenshots a post; the prompt reads, “Share Tweet instead?” Users are seeing a few different versions, like “Copy link” and “Share Tweet” buttons. Some staff at The Verge got the “Copy link” pop-up, which grabs a link to the screenshotted tweet.

Twitter is trying to persuade me to Share Tweet or Copy Link instead of taking a screenshot of the Tweet pic.twitter.com/vwFYNsf003

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) O...

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Amazon, Target, and Best Buy are throwing in up to $200 in gift cards when you buy the Pixel 7

Amazon, Target, and Best Buy will give you up to $200 in gift cards when you preorder the Pixel 7 Pro (left) and Pixel 7 (right). | Image: Allison Johnson

Google only just announced its new Pixel 7 phones yesterday, but we’re already seeing some terrific preorder deals on them. Right now, Amazon and Target will give you a $100 store gift card when you buy the Pixel 7 unlocked for its full retail price of $599, while the Google Store will also give you a $100 gift card if you choose them instead. You can also get $200 in store gift cards when you purchase the unlocked Pixel 7 Pro for $899 from Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and the Google Store, which is also its full price. Just be mindful that you won’t receive the phones until after they officially release on October 13th.

But before you take your credit card out and buy those, make sure to check Google's great trade-in offers,as you could...

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Google remembered the phone part of the smartphone

The new Pixel 7 Pro. | Image: Google

Watching Google officially announce the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro yesterday, I was struck by how much of its presentation focused on the most fundamental of smartphone features: the phone call. Smartphones may have become miniature handheld computers, capable of doing everything from office work to filming movies, but Google refuses to forget about the phone part of its smartphones. How refreshing.

“Pixel 7 is designed to be the best phone for actual phone calling,” said Google product manager Brian Rakowski from the stage, before outlining the specific improvements coming with this year’s Pixel. There’s Clear Calling for improving the audio quality of voice calls and an upgraded Direct My Call to make it quicker and easier to navigate...

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Yes, even Signal is doing stories now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Signal has increasingly been bringing mainstream chat features to its encrypted communications app over the last couple years, and now it’s adding stories to the mix. Yes, stories are available to Signal’s beta testers as of this week. Just like on Snapchat and Instagram, Signal’s take on stories “lets you create and share images, videos, and texts with your friends on Signal that will automatically disappear after 24 hours.”

It wouldn’t be Signal if the feature weren’t end-to-end encrypted, and that privacy must-have is still present with stories. In a forum post announcing the beta release, Signal’s Greyson Parrelli explained exactly who can see your stories on the app:

You are always fully in control of who you share your stories...

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Palmer Luckey’s military firm is building loitering explosive drones

Anduril’s new drone is adapted from its Altius drone platform, seen here. | Image: Anduril Industries

Anduril, the military technology company founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey, has announced its first weapon system: an adaptation of its Altius drones that turn the aircraft into a “loitering munition” — a type of weapon designed to hover in a designated area before striking a target in the air or on the ground.

The news is notable for two reasons. First, because Anduril has previously focused on surveillance and reconnaissance tech, developing systems of interconnected drones and sentry towers for the US border. And second, because developments in machine learning have enhanced the capabilities of loitering munitions in potentially troubling ways.

Loitering munitions have been in development since the 1980s, initially to strike...

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Splatoon 3’s next Splatfest asks a difficult question: what’s the best pokémon type?

A green inkling, a red octoling, and a blue inkling representing the three teams for the next Splatfest. | Nintendo

As lighthearted as the theme of Splatoon 3’s desert island-focused Splatfest was, the game’s next big event may very well tear friends and families apart as players pick sides to answer an impossible question: which pokémon starter type is the best?

Today, Nintendo announced that the next Splatfest set to take place in November will be Pokémon-themed and give players the ability to choose whether to rep grass types, fire types, or water types during the three-day-long battle. The Splatoon x Pokémon event comes just as Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are set to debut on the Nintendo Switch, making this a timely little bit of corporate synergy, but the question being asked is an eternal one.

Image: Nintendo

The...

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A day with the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3

Lenovo has made a solid budget computer — for the right workload

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Netflix’s The Midnight Club is a haunting collection of teenage ghost stories

Annarah Cymone in The Midnight Club_._ | Image: Netflix

Mike Flanagan’s latest horror series is a little uneven, but the kids make it work

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No Man’s Sky 4.0 trailer shows off streamlined UI and new relaxed mode

Image: Hello Games

Sci-fi adventure No Man’s Sky makes its debut on the Nintendo Switch today, and alongside that launch comes the next major update, bringing the game up to version 4.0.

Dubbed “Waypoint,” it’s the 21st free update for the game (it’s available across all platforms, not just the Switch), and it includes a number of notable features like a streamlined save system, improved inventory, a new relaxed mode, and an increased level cap for longtime spacefarers. Many of the changes are designed to make the game easier to pick up and play, given its new portable home. In an interview with The Verge earlier this week, Hello Games’ Sean Murray described the update as a chance to “focus on some of the fundamentals” of the game.

You can check out all of...

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Hacker steals $570 million of crypto tokens from Binance’s BNB Chain

Hackers withdrew 2 million BNB tokens worth about $570 million. | Nick Barclay / The Verge

It’s been a rough year for cryptocurrency, and things are not looking any better after over half a billion dollars of cryptocurrency tokens were stolen from crypto giant Binance on Thursday night.

The exploit hit the Binance Bridge, a cross-chain bridge that allows for the transfer of tokens between two related blockchains operated by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, and collectively known as BNB Chain. According to well-known smart contract analyst samczsun, the attacker was able to forge transactions that allowed them to withdraw two million BNB tokens from the bridge, worth roughly $570 million.

Funds estimated at around $87 million were removed from the BNB ecosystem entirely; but the remaining funds could not be immediately...

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Elon Musk is buying Twitter, probably?

Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge

Okay. So it looks like I don’t need to go to Delaware this October. There’s a stay in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Twitter — which is meant to give the parties time to close the deal. If the deal doesn’t close, the court case is back on for November.

What a year this week has been! On October 4th, Musk filed a nice letter with the SEC saying that, actually, he did intend to do the Twitter deal, and he did intend to do it at $54.20 a share — just as long as the court proceedings stopped. Coincidentally I’m sure, Musk’s twice-delayed deposition was to take place October 6th.

“Yes, we also think Elon Musk should buy us for $54.20 a share in the deal he negotiated himself.”

Look, there are a lot of lawyers in my life, and I love you all...

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AI tool can scan your retina and predict your risk of heart disease ‘in 60 seconds or less’

Eye scans could provide a non-invasive way to screen for cardiovascular disease. | Image: Getty Images

Software developed using machine learning can be used to predict someone’s risk of heart disease in less than a minute by analyzing the veins and arteries in their eye.

The new research, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, paves the way for the development of quick and cheap cardiovascular screenings, if the findings are validated in future clinical trials. These screenings would let individuals know their risk of stroke and heart attack without the need for blood tests or even blood pressure measurements.

“This AI tool could let someone know in 60 seconds or less their level of risk,” the lead author of the study, Alicja Rudnicka, told The Guardian. The study found that the predictions were as accurate as those produced...

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New Windows 11 Insider build supports third-party widgets and a slick new Teams video feature

The new video calling experience for Chat from Microsoft Teams, which will open to your own video feed. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is rolling out support for third-party widget development and new video calling functions for Chat from Microsoft Teams in its latest developer build of Windows 11. The new features in Preview Build 25217 are available for folks enrolled in the Windows Insider program.

Now, developers can create and test widgets that can be added to the Windows 11 widgets panel. New third-party widgets can only be tested locally on the latest Insider Preview build for now, but can later appear in the Microsoft Store for the shipping version of their apps once the build is formally released to the public. Microsoft says that Widgets can only be created for packaged Win32 apps at this time, but support for Progressive Web App (PWA) Widgets is...

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Amazon stops field tests of its delivery robot Scout

Amazon’s is scaling back its plans to build a delivery robot, Scout, but insists that the project is not finished.

Bloomberg first reported that the company has shut down tests of the machine, and that the Scout team, constituting around 400 employees globally, is being disbanded. However, a spokesperson for Amazon, Alisa Carroll, told The Verge that the company is “not abandoning the Scout program” entirely: “We are scaling the program back and still have a team dedicated to Scout.”

“There were aspects of the program that weren’t meeting customers’ needs”

“During our Scout limited field test, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but learned through feedback that there were aspects of the program that weren’t meeting...

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Robot makers including Boston Dynamics pledge not to weaponize their creations

A quadrupedal robot armed with a machine gun built by Ghost Robotics, which has not signed the pledge. | Photo by Chris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A group of robotics companies including Boston Dynamics — makers of the well-known quadrupedal robot Spot — have pledged not to weaponize their most advanced robots. However, the pledge will likely do little to stop the wider weaponization of this technology.

In an open letter addressed to the entire robotics industries (and first reported by Axios), the companies said they “believe that adding weapons to robots that are remotely or autonomously operated ... raises new risks of harm and serious ethical issues.”

“We pledge that we will not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots”

“We pledge that we will not weaponize our advanced-mobility general-purpose robots or the software we develop that enables advanced robotics and...

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Kojima confirms internet’s suspicions that Elle Fanning will star in upcoming project

To coincide with last month’s Tokyo Games Show, Kojima Productions — the development studio from Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima — posted a cryptic teaser for a forthcoming project. “Who am I?” read the teaser, overlayed on the silhouette of an unidentified person.

“You’re Elle Fanning,” the internet immediately responded, “star of Super 8.”

Well guess what? A QR code erected at Australian gaming convention PAX Aus this week has confirmed exactly that. The code was found next to a poster of the same cryptic silhouette, but where the overlaid text reads “Where am I?” Scan it, and you end up on a webpage where the silhouette is revealed to be... *drumroll please* Elle Fanning! In case there was any doubt, the...

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Apple’s billion dollar antitrust fine in France cut to $366 million

It’s a big discount. | Kristen Radtke / The Verge

An appeals court in France has slashed Apple’s antitrust fine from €1.1 billion to €372 million (about $366 million), calling the original penalty “disproportionate” and saying that the new amount was “sufficient” to dissuade the company from bad behavior, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg. The fine is originally from 2020, and was levied by the French competition authority Autorité de la Concurrence, which accused Apple of manipulating the retail market for its products.

According to the authority, which began its investigation in 2012, Apple had agreed to not compete with two of its wholesalers, and it restricted some retailers from lowering prices on its products. It also accused the company of limiting how many iPads it...

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Acer’s Swift Edge could be the 16-inch OLED laptop we’ve all been waiting for

Is this the OLED future? | Image: Acer

The race to market a truly portable, affordable, and long-lasting OLED laptop is on. Asus is currently the major player. Not only has it made several attempts this year, but it’s come the closest so far with its AMD-powered Zenbook S 13.

But Acer, today, is throwing its hat in the ring. The new Swift Edge is a 16-inch, 3840 x 2400 OLED device that weighs just 2.58 pounds — which would make it the lightest 16-inch laptop in the current market (though LG’s Gram 16 is very close).

And here’s the really good news: it’s got AMD Ryzen inside. Specifically, the model being sold in North America includes the Ryzen 7 6800U, the same eight-core processor that powers the Zenbook S 13.

Image: Acer

That’s a screen, all right.

...

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Meta’s flagship metaverse app is too buggy and employees are barely using it, says exec in charge

Mark Zuckerberg recently demonstrated the current quality of Meta’s Horizon Worlds avatars. | Mark Zuckerberg / Meta

Meta’s VR social network Horizon Worlds — the company’s flagship “metaverse” app — is suffering from too many quality issues and even the team building it isn’t using it very much, according to internal memos obtained by The Verge.

In one of the memos to employees dated September 15th, Meta’s VP of Metaverse, Vishal Shah, said the team would remain in a “quality lockdown” for the rest of the year to “ensure that we fix our quality gaps and performance issues before we open up Horizon to more users.”

Horizon Worlds lets people build and interact in virtual worlds as legless avatars,sort of like Roblox meets Minecraft. It’s a key initiative following CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranding of Facebook to Meta; the company is spending billions per...

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Tesla’s first Semi trucks will be delivered to Pepsi in December

The Semi Truck is finally entering production. | Image: Tesla

Tesla has started production on its long-awaited Semi truck, and plans to start delivering it to Pepsi by December 1st, according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk. The soft drink company ordered 100 of the electric transport vehicles in December 2017, just a month after it was announced.

Tesla promises that the Semi can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 20 seconds even when “fully loaded” and keep up “highway-level speeds even up steep grades.” It also promises that you’ll be able to recharge up to 70 percent of its 300 or 500-mile range in 30 minutes. And according to Musk, it’s “super fun to drive.”

500 mile range & super fun to drive

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2022

Before 2022, news about the semi was relatively scarce. Then, in...

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How the Pixel, Apple, and Galaxy watches compare on paper

Breaking down the features and capabilities of the Pixel, Apple, and Galaxy Watches. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Google has announced the Pixel Watch, its first flagship wearable. While it has a clean circular design, the company is just now getting into a field that competitors like Apple and Samsung have been succeeding in for years. While detailed impressions of the Pixel Watch’s real-world performance and battery life will have to wait for a full review, let’s take a look at how it compares on paper.

The Pixel Watch’s design vs. the Apple Watch

Aesthetics are obviously subjective, but there are some design aspects that we can compare and contrast objectively. One of the most notable is shape and controls; like the Galaxy Watch 5 series, the Pixel Watch has a circular design, whereas the Apple Watch’s case is a rounded rectangle. Like Apple’s...

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The best anti-Prime Early Access Sale tech deals happening at Target

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

If you’re not an Amazon Prime member (or prefer not to shop at Amazon), Target’s competing with the upcoming Prime Early Access Sale with deals of its own — no membership needed. Through Saturday, October 8th, the retailer is holding the Target Deal Days event, offering discounts on a variety of tech products. These include gaming accessories, headphones, TVs, and a range of other items that are up to 50 percent off for a limited time. Plus, if you end up finding a cheaper price elsewhere, Target will match it within 14 days of purchase until December 24th. The retailer is also offering free, contactless pickup if you want to go that route.

We’ve sorted through the full offering of deals to compile a list of the best tech deals at...

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Blizzard is taking Overwatch 2 offline to make some fixes

Blizzard will be taking down the Overwatch 2 servers twice on Thursday evening. | Image: Blizzard

Blizzard is planning to take down the Overwatch 2 servers two times Thursday evening to implement some major fixes. The servers will go down first from 6PM to 7PM ET and then again from approximately 9PM ET to 12AM ET. If you’re playing on PC, you may have to update your client.

The game has had a rough launch since it was officially released on Tuesday, with players experiencing issues like long queue times and connection errors. Here are Blizzard’s detailed explanations of the downtimes and what they’re intended to fix, from the Overwatch 2 forums:

3:00-4:00 p.m. PDT: Servers will be down while we’re rolling out a fix to address some bugs related to account merge, login, and the First Time User Experience. Players won’t be able to...

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The Elon Musk vs. Twitter trial is on hold until October 28th

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

The pending trial between Elon Musk and Twitter is suddenly on hold, as Judge Kathaleen McCormick granted the Musk side’s request for a stay, pending the closing of their deal for Musk to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, just like the two sides agreed to on April 25th.

The two sides have been engaged in negotiations to complete the acquisition, and earlier this week, Musk filed a letter insisting that he would go through with the purchase after all. As my colleague Liz Lopatto wrote in today’s This Week in Elon email, Musk’s change of heart and request for a stay is happening just in time to put off his deposition in the case, which had already been rescheduled to take place today.

Musk’s lawyers argued “Twitter will not take yes for an...

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Here are the best tablet deals right now

Best Buy is currently discounting a bundle containing the Surface Pro 8 and Surface Pro keyboard to $999.99. | Image by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Tablets exist in a space between phones and laptops that is becoming increasingly muddled. As phones become more powerful and gain larger displays, laptops continue to get lighter. Tablet manufacturers haven’t been resting on their laurels, though. Many of the more recent tablets we’ve seen are looking to bridge the gap in terms of performance and, in select cases, handle some tasks more efficiently than both phones and laptops.

The tablet spectrum is varied, too. Inexpensive models like the Amazon Fire HD 10 make for excellent media streaming devices, while those in Microsoft’s versatile Surface lineup can easily serve as ad-hoc laptops when paired with an optional folio-style keyboard. Then there’s the ubiquitous iPad, a slate that has...

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The best deals on Nintendo Switch games right now

Right now, there are discounts on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a handful of other essential Switch titles. | Image: Nintendo

Our roundup has discounts on some of our favorite physical and digital Switch titles including Hades, Spiritfarer, Hot Wheels: Unleashed, and more.

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