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Exclusive: Ikea’s new Dirigera hub and Home smart app deliver big improvements
Easier to use and stable. But let’s check in again after a few months.
The VergeThe VergeIndian news outlet The Wire retracts its story on Meta
Nick Barclay / The Verge
The Wire, an independent news outlet based in India, retracted its story that accused Meta of granting an Indian politician special permissions to remove posts on its platforms. In an update posted on Sunday, The Wire says it has decided to retract its report after “certain discrepancies” emerged in the evidence it used to back up its claims.
“Our investigation, which is ongoing, does not as yet allow us to take a conclusive view about the authenticity and bona fides of the sources with whom a member of our reporting team says he has been in touch over an extended period of time,” the outlet explains. “We are still reviewing the entire matter, including the possibility that it was deliberately sought to misinform or deceive The Wire.”
So...
The VergeFacebook warns it could block news in Canada over proposed legislation
Nick Barclay / The Verge
Facebook might ban news sharing in Canada if the country passes legislation forcing the company to pay news outlets for their content (via The Wall Street Journal). In a post shared on Friday, Facebook parent company Meta says Canada’s proposed Online News Act falsely presumes that it “unfairly benefits from its relationship with publishers.”
First introduced in April, the Online News Act compels online platforms like Facebook and Google to share revenue with the publishers they aggregate their news from. The goal of the bill is to ensure news outlets are fairly compensated for their work. Canada’s House of Commons Heritage Committee held a meeting about the legislation last week, but Meta says it wasn’t invited.
If this type of law...
The VergeThe new Mac Pro chip could double or quadruple the power of the M2 Max
Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro. | Photo by Avery White for The Verge
The next Mac Pro is rumored to come with chip options “that are at least twice or four times as powerful” as the not-yet-released M2 Max. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says Apple has ramped up testing of the high-end Mac in preparation for its expected launch next year.
In his Power On newsletter, Gurman says the machine will feature new and more powerful in-house chips, nicknamed the “M2 Ultra” and “M2 Extreme.” The two variations pack 24 and 48 CPU cores, respectively, along with 76 and 152 GPU cores, and 256GB of memory. That’s compared to the base M2, which comes with 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, and the rumored M2 Max, which will supposedly feature 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores.
Gurman also shares a Mac Pro...
The VergePopGrip JumpStart review: what if a battery bank were also a PopSocket?
PopSocket’s battery bank isn’t a small accessory. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge
We’re smack in the middle of new phone season and getting close to the time when some of us are going to have to start worrying about wish lists and stocking stuffers, so I want to look at an accessory that may be on some people’s radar: the PopGrip JumpStart, a $35 battery bank that attaches to your phone via PopSocket’s quick release mechanism and provides around a 50 percent charge via a built-in Lightning or USB-C cable.
When I first heard about it, I hoped that the JumpStart would be both a good battery bank and a good way to hold my phone. Unfortunately, I found that it was relatively mediocre at the first job and worse at the second, making it a bit unclear who exactly this product is for.
I will say a few nice things before I...
The VergeA history of the horny side of the internet
Vincent Kilbride / The Verge
From the very beginning, people on the internet have been obsessed with sex.
That’s the argument laid out in a new book by journalist Samantha Cole, How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex. Cole digs through early internet history to show how sexual content and communities were part of the internet from its earliest days and had a profound effect on how the online space deals with identity, community, and consent. From identity play on early bulletin board sites to the rise of online pornography as an industry unto itself, Cole makes the case that you can’t make sense of the internet without sex — even if today’s major platform companies would like to.
Content note: This interview describes multiple sexual practices in...
The VergeWhatsApp is getting Facebook’s Bitmoji-style avatars
The Verge
After Facebook’s Bitmoji-style avatars invaded Instagram and Messenger, now they’re coming to Whatsapp, too. According to a report from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is rolling out support for customizable avatars in the latest 2.22.23.9 beta on Android, but only for some users.
Those with access to the feature will see a new “Avatar” category in their settings menu that they can use to customize the digital version of themselves. Just like on Meta’s other apps, WhatsApp will then generate a sticker pack with the avatar in various poses, which users can use to express themselves when messaging family and friends.
WhatsApp is releasing the ability to set up an avatar to some lucky beta testers on WhatsApp beta for Android!
An avatar is the best...
The VergeLeak suggests Ecobee’s entering the video doorbell space
Ecobee’s next product could be a video doorbell. | Image: ZatzNotFunny
Ecobee, a company best known for its line of smart thermostats, may be working on a video doorbell. A leaked image from ZatzNotFunny shows what looks like an Ecobee-branded video doorbell with rounded corners and a button outlined in blue.
As noted by Zatz, the doorbell features a green light status light, as well as two small holes, one of which could be a microphone, placed directly beneath the camera. Its overall design seems to glean elements from existing doorbells on the market, such as the bright blue light used by the Amazon-owned Ring and Blink, and the rounded edges featured on Arlo and Nest devices.
But aside from this one picture, we don’t know much else about the device, including whether it will be wired or...
The VergeEarly access for Kerbal Space Program 2 lifts off on February 24th
The Kerbals prepare for liftoff
After several delays, Kerbal Space Program 2 is finally entering early access on February 24th, 2023. Developer Intercept Games initially announced that it was working on KSP2 back in 2019, but only revealed the early access release date for the Kerbal Space Program sequel last week, outlining its expectations in a roadmap leading up to the eventual 1.0 release. KSP2 is currently available to wishlist on Steam and will also be available on the Epic Games Store, and will cost $49.99
The original Kerbal Space Program is a brutal, rewarding, and occasionally hilarious simulation of the complexities of space flight that allows you to construct your own rockets, shuttles, rovers, and other interstellar vehicles. All manned by the ambitious...
The VergeRepublicans sue Google over ‘discriminatory’ spam filtering practices
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is suing Google for allegedly sending “millions” of campaign emails to users’ spam folders (via Axios). According to the lawsuit filed in California’s Eastern District Court on Friday, the RNC accuses Google of “throttling its email messages because of the RNC’s political affiliation and views.”
For months, the RNC has been complaining about Google’s alleged spam filtering bias, claiming it disproportionately puts Republican-backed political emails in spam folders when compared to messages sent by Democrats. The RNC’s frustration was only exacerbated by a North Carolina State University study that suggested Google was sending RNC emails to spam folders more frequently, leading a group of...
The VergeLG Gram 17 review: big-screen energy
There is nothing else like this on the market
The VergeApple’s second-gen Magic Trackpad is on sale at Woot for its lowest price ever
Apple’s second-gen trackpad is compatible with Windows or Apple devices via Bluetooth | Image: The Verge
Happy Saturday, everybody! Everyone on the Verge Deals team is enjoying their weekend and we hope you are, too. If you were looking to engage in a little retail therapy or do a little window shopping, we’ve collected a handful of deals we think you’ll want to check out.
Normally $129.99, you can currently pick up Apple’s second-gen Magic Trackpad at Woot right now with a 90-day warranty for just $84.99, which matches the peripheral’s lowest price to date. The clever trackpad makes for an excellent addition to any desktop or laptop setup thanks to its comfortable glass surface, which provides you with more real estate than the trackpad found on MacBooks and brings multi-touch gesture controls and Apple’s Force Touch technology to your...
The VergeTiVo is making its case as a smart TV platform
TiVo OS looks like other interfaces you might be familiar with. | Image: Xperi
Remember TiVo? It still exists, even if you probably haven’t used a TiVo device in quite awhile. (Unless you’re one of the few who tried the company’s Android TV dongle.) Even though the vast majority of people have since moved to TV software that is built into their device or runs on a dedicated piece of hardware like the Apple TV, TiVo owner Xperi is getting into the TV software game with TiVo OS.
Yes, that means there will be yet another company vying to run the software that powers your TV. But TiVo’s angle with TiVo OS is to be a “first-of-its-kind neutral platform,” which means in part that equipment manufacturers will have more control over the experience.
Right now, the US TV software market is largely dominated by Roku, which...
The VergeBelkin’s MagSafe Continuity Camera mount is an easy webcam upgrade
And you might actually want to keep it on your phone, solving the issue of having to carry it around and remember it
The VergeElon Musk’s Twitter deal could tank the leveraged buyout market
Congratulations to Morgan Stanley, Bank of America. and Barclays! You are holding the beer | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty IMages
Elon Musk’s antics have made it hard for his banks — Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays — to sell the debt required to do the Twitter deal. So they’re just going to hold it, all $13 billion of it, The Wall Street Journal reports. Truly a next-level “hold-my-beer” move, because it threatens to bring leveraged buyouts to a halt.
Typically, a bank sells the debt used to create a buyout, and moves on to the next deal. But since they’re holding Musk’s beers, they don’t have a free hand to hold anyone else’s. Or, as The WSJ puts it, “The Twitter move threatens to bring the faltering leveraged-buyout pipeline to a standstill by tying up capital that Wall Street could otherwise use to back new deals.”
Part of the reason for holding...
The VergeHouse of the Dragon’s season finale has leaked online, and HBO isn’t happy
Image: HBO
House of the Dragon’s season finale is apparently following in Game of Thrones’ footsteps, leaking onto the internet a few days before it was meant to air. In a statement given to IGN and Variety, HBO says it’s “disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show” and is “aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet.”
For fans, this could mean that spoilers will be floating around social media — though a colleague who watches the show tells me that’s not necessarily a new thing, given that it’s hewn pretty close to its source material, George R. R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. Still, it’s easier to avoid a Game of Thrones wiki than someone tweeting about something that...
The VergeTwitter’s icons are getting a new look
If you’ve noticed some changes, you’re not the only one. | Image: Twitter
Twitter is introducing a brand-new look for the icons used across the social network, the company confirmed in a thread on its design account on Friday. To my eyes, the icons use slightly thicker lines, and everything feels a bit more angular.
“The goal was to create a cohesive set of icons that are bold in shape and style yet still relatable and a little cheeky where possible,” Twitter said in the thread. Two tweets from the thread make it easy to see what’s changed. This one shows what they looked like before and now. The one after shows a whole bunch of them in one picture.
We’re so excited to share this with you all, and we’ll be continuing to add to the set.
Which icons are your favorite so far? pic.twitter.com/y3Z37apdYu
—...
The VergeVerizon’s new prepaid plans are cheaper — but not really
It’s basic wireless plan ABC’s: Always Be Confusing. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Yesterday, Verizon announced new prepaid phone plans with lower prices — but thanks to some clever shuffling of plan discounts, they’re not actually getting any cheaper. While the published prices on its unlimited and 15GB prepaid plans are indeed $5 lower, the company will no longer let you apply autopay and loyalty discounts — meaning the lowest price on each plan stays exactly the same.
Here’s how it adds up: the “standard” price on Verizon’s top-tier prepaid plan, Unlimited Plus, is now $70 per month, reduced from $75. After the first month, you can apply a $10 / month autopay discount to bring that cost down to $60.
Image: Internet Archive
Previously, you could combine a $5 autopay discount and $10 loyalty...
The VergeGo read this special Nature issue on racism in science
From left: Mbambi Mbungu and Jacob Chiza lead the march during “Justice for Black Lives” at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 6th, 2020. | Image: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The journal Nature published a special issue on racism in science this week. In it, Black and Indigenous scientists, doctors, and researchers share how they’ve experienced racism in their work. Many of them experienced discrimination as they entered their chosen fields, then faced backlash as they called out wrongdoing in those same places. It takes bravery to share this kind of pain so publicly. Their stories are raw and revelatory.
This special issue of Nature came about as part of the journal’s own efforts to grapple with racism. After the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020, there was an upswell of voices calling out systemic racism in all areas of society, including in academia and science. Ahead of a “Strike for...
The VergeLG’s new Smart Monitor is a work-from-home TV
LG’s 32-inch 4K Smart Monitor with Ergo Stand. | Image: LG
LG’s new 4K monitor can pull double duty if you work from home and don’t have the energy (or space) to flop over to the couch to engage in binge-watching. The $499 LG Smart Monitor (32SQ780S) (via HomeKit News) has a 31.5-inch display, a built-in USB-C hub providing power and ports for your work laptop, and comes with a desk-mounting and height adjustable Ergo Stand that’s similar to the one that comes with LG’s unusual taller-than-it-is-wide DualUp monitor.
What makes the LG Smart Monitor more like a TV is that it supports the company’s Bluetooth Magic remote (though it’s unfortunately sold separately), and it runs webOS just like LG smart TVs, along with support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. It’s similar in concept to the StanbyMe...
The VergeMasahiro Sakurai shows off a prototype of the game that would become Smash Bros.
Image: Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai is a YouTuber now, and in his latest video, he showed off a “never-before-seen” clip of the prototype that would eventually become Super Smash Bros. You can feast your eyes on Dragon King: The Fighting Game beginning at 1:25 in the video at the top of this post or jump directly to that moment by clicking this link.
The Dragon King footage is clearly from an early stage of development, but you can already see elements that are now core to the Smash franchise, like percentages representing health, the iconic three-platform “Battlefield” stage layout, and characters flying off the edges of the screen to their deaths. Fighters were just polygonal humans — not Nintendo characters — and they could use moves like smash...
The VergeScorn’s slithering spookiness is only slightly scary
Image: Ebb Software
In Scorn, the survival horror game that slithered onto Game Pass last week, it’s just another day at the flesh factory. A couple of hours in, that’s what it feels like. I’m just a guy, clocking in at H.R. Giger & Sons to hit buttons, stick my fingers into prehensile holes, and scoop the innards out of screaming human meat things. Just all in a day’s work for a blue collar working stiff like me.
I wanted to try Scorn because, well, it’s on Game Pass, which obliterates my usual hesitation in trying weird games that look like they’ll trigger the shit outta my misophonia. I also wanted to try it because it’s the high holy days of Spooky Season, and Scorn itself generated a lot of buzz on social media despite receiving little fanfare or...
The VergeI hope someone makes memes out of these funny animal photos
Image: John Chaney / Comedy Wildlife 2022
I learned today that there is a contest called the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, which selects the funniest animal photos submitted by professional and amateur photographers each year. The gallery of finalists includes some true gems, like a bear getting hit in the face by a fish, a zebra falling over, and a waving penguin.
The competition is for a good cause — every year, it supports a conservation organization, and this year, it’s working with the Whitley Fund for Nature, a charity in the United Kingdom.
It also seems like great fodder for memes. But I am only medium funny, so I’ll leave it to others to come up with some better ideas than I possibly could. These are some of my personal favorites from the finalists! I hope that...
The VergeSmart rings have a long way to go
The Oura Ring is the only smart ring that’s found any real commercial success. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Smartwatches stole the spotlight from phones this fall, but there’s another wearable form factor waiting in the wings: smart rings. Korean outlet Naver recently reported that Samsung has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a smart ring of its own, complete with EKG and smart home control. And while it’d be awesome if Samsung did kick down the doors next fall with a new wearable, the reality is it’ll be a long, long time before this kind of futuristic smart ring is ready for prime time.
It’s easy to see why smart rings are an attractive prospect. Compared to smartwatches, they’re more discreet, fingers are better for heart rate measurement, and rings are way more comfortable to wear 24/7. They’d be ideal health...
The VergeHow to organize your Slack channels
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
If your workplace (or organization, or friends group, or whatever) is anything like mine, and you’ve used Slack for more than, say, a month, you have no doubt amassed a lot of channels (also known as conversations). This can result in a lot of scrolling — I mean, a lot of scrolling — to find the channel you want to use. You can also spend a lot of time trying to figure out which channels you need to pay attention to now and which ones you can save until later.
Luckily, there are several ways you can organize that long list of channels on the left side of your Slack app to make it at least somewhat easier to deal with. Unluckily, this is only available in paid versions of Slack. Normally, we try to only describe free features; but perhaps...
The VergeGoogle’s Pixel Buds Pro and select Nest products are $50 off today at Wellbots
The Pixel Buds Pro are a sharp-looking pair of earbuds, especially in this lemongrass color. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
You feel that? It’s Friday, and it’s time to take some good deal vibes into the weekend. Wellbots is currently discounting a bunch of great tech from Google, including the Pixel Buds Pro, Nest Audio, Nest Hub Max, and the latest Nest Hub and Nest Mini — and frankly, they’re all bangers.
First up are the excellent Google Pixel Buds Pro, a pair of wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation and a mic that can combat the stiff winds of an NYC ferry. Now through October 29th, they’re on sale for an all-time low of $149.99 at Wellbots when you use promo code VER50 at checkout, which knocks $50 off their regular price of $199.99. The Pixel Buds Pro are the ideal earbuds if you just got a Pixel 7 phone, as they offer great sound quality and...
The VergeThe best workout earbuds you can buy right now
Beats, Sony, Jabra, Sennheiser, and others rank as our favorite picks for fitness earbuds — each for unique reasons
The VergeTikTok livestreaming is shaping up to be the short-form video giant’s next push
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
TikTok’s meteoric rise came through its focus on bite-size videos, delivered with eerie specificity and the ability to scroll endlessly. But now, as competitors get serious about giving TikTok a run for its money, the company appears to be increasingly focused on its livestreaming program — and particularly, how it can be used to sell things.
The question of whether livestream shopping will catch on outside of Asia has lingered for a while. And so far, TikTok’s experiments in other markets have been mixed, according to reports: first, the Financial Times reported that TikTok was axing plans to expand live shopping in Europe and the US after disappointing results in the UK. But earlier this month, another Financial Times report suggested...
The VergeNow Pixel 7 owners can test Google’s Clear Calling tech
Clear Calling is now available for testing on Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices, ahead of its official launch in December. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Android 13 QPR1 Beta 3 is now available on the Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, and with it comes the opportunity to try out Android’s Clear calling feature ahead of its full release (via Android Police). The Clear Calling feature is designed to reduce background noise from persons on the other end of a Pixel 7 phone call using machine learning.
Clear Calling has been available to other Google Pixel handsets since it was introduced in the first Android 13 QPR (Quarterly Platform Release) public beta back in September. However, Google’s latest Pixel phones were not eligible for the program at launch.
Image: Google / Android Police
After signing up for the beta, Pixel 7 users will find the Clear Calling option in Android’s...
The VergeApple’s lead hardware designer Evans Hankey is leaving
Nick Barclay / The Verge
The person in charge of the physical look and feel for Apple’s iPhones, Macs, and everything else is leaving the company, as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported. Industrial design vice president Evans Hankey will only remain with Apple for another six months. Hankey took over hardware design three years ago after longtime chief design officer Jony Ive exited to start his own design firm.
No replacement or next step for Hankey has been publicly announced. However, Bloomberg reports her departure was announced internally this week and quotes a statement from an Apple spokesperson saying, “The senior design team has strong leaders with decades of experience. Evans plans to stay on as we work through the transition, and we’d like to thank...