Microsoft’s DirectStorage 1.1 arrives to boost PC game load times with GPU decompression

PC gaming on Windows 11 is set to get faster. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is releasing DirectStorage 1.1 this week, and the biggest new addition is GPU decompression for Windows PC games. GPU decompression is the next natural step in an industry-wide effort to improve game load times on modern PCs. Microsoft originally launched DirectStorage earlier this year, but developers have been calling out for GPU decompression support, and it now arrives with DirectStorage 1.1 this week.

GPU decompression works by offloading the work needed to decompress assets in games to the graphics card instead of the CPU. Right now, game assets are typically compressed when they are packaged up for distribution and then decompressed once a game is played.

The problem is most compression techniques are designed for CPUs,...

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Google is starting to process Stadia refunds

If you bought a Stadia controller on the Google Store, you should expect a refund. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Ahead of Google Stadia’s imminent January shutdown, Google is starting to process its promised refunds for Stadia games, add-ons, and subscription fees (other than Stadia Pro). Beginning Wednesday, Google will try to refund your transactions to their original form of payment, according to the company’s newly updated Stadia shutdown FAQ.

Watch your email to know if Google has tried to process your refunds. If you made 20 or fewer purchases on the Stadia store, Google says you’ll get an email for each of those transactions. If you’ve made 21 or more purchases, you’ll get a single email that summarizes the refund attempts.

If Google can’t issue a refund to that form of payment, the company says it will email the Google account you used for...

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Google is bringing its VPN to Mac and Windows PCs

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is bringing its VPN access to desktop today. Google One subscribers on Premium plans (2TB or higher) can now download VPN apps for Windows and macOS, allowing users in 22 countries to mask their IPs on desktop and reduce online trackers.

While Google is expanding its VPN service, it still comes with the same restrictions as Android and iOS. You’ll only be able to use the service in one of the supported countries, and you won’t be able to use Google’s VPN freely to avoid geo-restrictions on live sports or other streaming video.

Image: Google

Google’s VPN service on Windows.

Much like Apple’s iCloud Plus VPN service, the Google One VPN won’t let you assign an IP address from a different country manually....

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Several retailers have the God of War Ragnarök PS5 bundle in stock

An actual photo of our readers trying to get a PlayStation 5 | Image: SIE

If you’re still on the hunt for a PlayStation 5, you’re in luck. Currently, Sony’s PlayStation Direct store and Walmart have the God of War Ragnar_ö_k bundle in stock — no queues or memberships necessary. While you can just check out at Walmart, you’ll have to sign in with a PlayStation account to buy one from Sony. Either one is an excellent opportunity to grab the elusive console and an excellent exclusive title in one purchase.

Walmart has the $559.99 bundle that includes the disc-based version of the PlayStation 5 and a digital copy of God of War Ragnar_ö_k. However, if you’d prefer to pick up the digital-only version of the console for $459.99, PlayStation Direct has both the disc-based and digital models of the console available. T...

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Spotify’s redesigned Apple Watch app is easier to use and nicer to look at

Image: Spotify

In a blog post today, Spotify shared details of a revamped Apple Watch app that makes improvements to usability and offline playback. It also adds more visual polish with bigger album art and new animations. “You’ll be able to more easily browse and choose your favorite music and podcasts in Your Library, as well as more quickly download music to listen offline from the watch itself,” the post reads. “There’s also a new sleek design with larger artwork, animations, and added functionality—like swiping to like a song.”

Unfortunately, Spotify doesn’t mention whether Apple Watch users can now download higher-quality music files; the wrist-worn version of the app has so far limited downloads to a fairly low bitrate.

The post also...

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is full of wonder in new trailer

Image: Netflix

The season of Guillermo del Toro on Netflix continues. Following the release of the horror anthology Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities in October, the streaming service has now turned its attention to the film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. The latest trailer — which follows a teaser from the summer — shows a much more fantastical take on the story, with all the inventive creatures and evil villains you’d expect from a del Toro production.

The Shape of Water director teamed up with renowned stop-motion animator Mark Gustafson on the film, as well as quite the cast. Pinocchio stars Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake...

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The Polar Ignite 3 comes with a daily ‘alertness’ forecast

The Ignite 3 is meant for casual users, an audience that isn’t too familiar with Polar. | Image: Polar Electro

Folks who like to optimize their days might get a kick out of Polar’s latest fitness watch. The $329.95 Ignite 3 comes with a new feature that claims to predict when you’ll be at your most alert during the day based on your circadian rhythms.

The new feature, dubbed SleepWise, is an extension of Polar’s existing sleep tracking. It purportedly analyzes your sleep quality, timing, and duration to determine your sleep-wake cycles. That, in turn, generates a daily report that predicts when you’ll be most alert during the day. The gist is to help users determine when’s the best time to plan a workout or block off time to focus on projects. Conversely, it’s also meant to help you visualize when might be a better window of time to take it...

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Razer made a customizable PS5 controller that — you guessed it — is very expensive

The V2 Pro is similar to the Xbox-themed V2 Chroma, aside from some PlayStation-specific inputs, like the touchpad and PS home button. | Image: Razer

PlayStation 5 owners have yet another pricey, customizable wireless controller to consider. Razer’s Wolverine V2 Pro is launching today with PS5 and PC support for $249.99, $50 more than Sony’s DualSense Edge, which is coming in early 2023. The Wolverine V2 Pro includes fewer goodies than the Edge, besides lacking rumble and active triggers. But it has some perks that some people (who can swallow this kind of cost for a controller) might enjoy.

Notably, the Wolverine V2 Pro has an Xbox-style analog stick arrangement, with sticks positioned diagonally instead of being next to each other. Razer’s new controller includes two additional stick caps that can be swapped magnetically: one that’s short and convex and another that’s tall and...

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The Ubertooth One lets you take a bite out of Bluetooth

Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge

When you think about getting hacked, you mainly think of the basics: infrared, RFID, Wi-Fi, network security, door locks, etc. This is what people are usually worried about. But what about Bluetooth? What risks does it pose? And are there any tools in a DIY hacker’s arsenal to exploit it?

The answer is yes. Enter the Ubertooth One.

What is it?

The Ubertooth One is a small, open-source USB device with an antenna powered by an ARM Cortex-M3 chip and a CC2400 wireless transceiver. Plug it into your computer’s USB port, and you can sniff and monitor Bluetooth signals from nearby devices.

The Ubertooth itself is older technology, originally created by Michael Ossmann of Great Scott Gadgets back in 2011. There were Bluetooth monitoring...

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Amazon’s leaked ‘Clinic’ would connect patients to telemedicine

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon might have a new healthcare offering coming soon, according to a leaked video. A video published to the company's YouTube page Tuesday — and then quickly taken down — described “Amazon Clinic,” an online care program that would offer treatment for “common conditions” like allergies and acne.

A screenshot taken from the now-unlisted video originally posted on the Amazon YouTube page.

As described in the video, people could fill out a questionnaire about their symptoms and pay a fee. A clinician would review their answers and provide a diagnosis and prescriptions as needed. “Telehealth services are offered by third-party healthcare provider groups,” according to the text in the video. The video directs people...

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YouTube Music and Premium gained 30 million subscribers in just one year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube’s Music and Premium services added 30 million paid global subscribers over the course of about one year, bringing its total to 80 million. This marks a major jump from the 50 million subscribers YouTube reported last September as more users look to gain access to the perks that come with either service.

These new numbers indicate that YouTube Music and Premium are growing even faster this year than the last. In last year’s report, YouTube said it added 20 million subscribers across both its services in just one year. Google doesn’t break down its numbers in either report, so it’s not clear what features users are subscribing for and how many subscribers each individual service has. It also includes those on free trials, which...

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Affinity Version 2 arrives to take on Adobe Creative Suite

Affinity V2 is now available, featuring a new look and introducing a host of new creative tools and features. | Image: Serif

Software developer Serif has launched V2 of its Affinity creative suite, bringing new features and enhancements to its trio of graphic design and content creation applications that undercut Adobe on price.

Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2, and Affinity Publisher 2 have all been visually redesigned and introduce some new features for designers and creative professionals. Just some of the new additions to the Affinity Photo 2 photo editing software include nondestructive RAW development (allowing designers to change develop settings, even after adjusting a file), compound masking, live mesh warping, and the ability to save different visibility states of your layer stack.

Image: Serif

The new X-Ray View shows...

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iPhone 14 Pro vs. S22 Ultra vs. Pixel 7 Pro: what 1,000 photos tell us

I took 1,000 photos with the iPhone 14 Pro, the Pixel 7 Pro, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

After so many years of megapixel stasis, Apple finally upgraded the iPhone’s camera to a 48-megapixel sensor this year. Previously, the iPhone’s most advanced camera was the 12-megapixel main wide-angle sensor on the iPhone 13 Pro. This hardware update brings it closer to the Google Pixel 7 Pro’s 50-megapixel main sensor but nowhere near the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 108-megapixel main sensor.

But more megapixels doesn’t always mean better photos, and the only way to really know how well a camera performs is to use it a lot. So for the second year in a row, I set out to take 1,000 photos on the iPhone 14 Pro, the Pixel 7 Pro, and the S22 Ultra in order to name the best camera on a smartphone.

With my pockets full of phones, I trekked...

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $25

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Gift-giving can be pricey. Thankfully, we’ve pulled together a list of budget-friendly recommendations so you can gift more for less.

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Twitter’s new gray ‘official’ checks are rolling out to some high-profile accounts

Twitter’s new gray “official” checkmark and label shown on the @Verge Twitter account. | Image: Twitter

Twitter’s solution to breaking its own verification system is beginning to roll out.

Several celebrity and publisher accounts now have a gray “official” checkmark — in addition to the blue verified badge. News outlets, including Reuters, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone, are now double-badged, in addition to public figures, politicians, and other official brand accounts. Our @Verge handle is one of the accounts marked official, as of this writing, while Twitter’s reluctant new owner, Elon Musk, is not.

A lot of folks have asked about how you'll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why we’re introducing the “Official" label to select...

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The Volvo EX90 is a powerful computer that also happens to be an impeccably designed EV

Your new computer has arrived. | Image: Volvo

The Swedish automaker’s new flagship electric vehicle will have 300 miles of range, a starting price under $80,000, and a host of high-powered tech from suppliers like Google, Qualcomm, Luminar, Nvidia, and more.

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Here are our favorite ways to survive Thanksgiving

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

We discuss some devices and strategies that can keep your turkey hot and your temper cool.

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Zoom is coming to Tesla for in-car conference calls

Image: Zoom

Zoom will soon be added to Tesla vehicles according to an official announcement from the maker of the popular video conferencing app, allowing drivers to participate in video and audio calls without using a mobile device (via Drive Tesla Canada).

The announcement was made by Zoom’s Group Product Manager Natasha Walia during the Zoomtopia 2022 Event on Tuesday, alongside a brief video demonstration of it working in a Tesla Model Y. The Zoom app would likely use Tesla’s in-cabin camera located above the rear-view mirror, allowing Tesla owners to see exactly what that camera monitors and use it as a live feed.

Zoom is coming to all new Tesla models in the near future

The cabin camera’s main function is to monitor driver attentiveness while...

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Meta announces huge job cuts affecting 11,000 employees

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta has announced it will lay off 11,000 employees or around 13 percent of the company’s total staff. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this news in a blog post, saying he was at fault for being overoptimistic about the company’s future growth based on a pandemic surge.

“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” said Zuckerberg. “Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”

Zuckerberg said the company would shift more resources on “a smaller number of high priority...

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Forza Horizon 5 on PC gets improved ray tracing, DLSS, FSR, and more

Image: Playground Games

Forza Horizon 5 players now have access to in-game ray tracing and DLSS or FSR upscaling support on PC. The latest series 14 “Donut Media” update arrived yesterday, and it now allows Forza Horizon 5 players to enable ray tracing in free roam areas and races at ultra or extreme settings.

You’ll need a powerful PC to play with 4K extreme settings, but Playground Games has also added in Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology alongside AMD’s very latest FSR 2.2 support. Both upscaling technologies will take a 1080p image and upscale it to 4K, improving the performance in Forza Horizon 5.

Image: Playground Games

New ray tracing settings for Forza Horizon 5.

If you have an Nvidia RTX card then DLSS support will be...

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Elon Musk offloads another $3.9 billion in Tesla shares

Wow! More stock sales | Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk has sold another $3.4 billion in Tesla shares, according to a series of forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. Musk has offloaded almost $20 billion in Tesla shares this year, mostly to finance his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

Musk sold $8.4 billion in shares in April and another $6.9 billion in August. After his sales in April, he tweeted, “No further TSLA sales planned after today.” Then after the sales in August, he again said that he was done selling, and that those shares were offloaded in case he had to buy Twitter — at the time, he was embroiled in a lawsuit for attempting to back out of the deal.

Twitter has been struggling. Some major advertisers have paused spending on Twitter because of...

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Apple is apparently working on a new ‘streamlined’ accessibility mode for iOS

Your homescreen could look different with the new mode. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple is working on a brand new “Custom Accessibility Mode” for iOS, according to evidence found by 9to5Mac in the second iOS 16.2 developer beta. The company apparently says this mode offers a “customizable, streamlined way to use your iPhone and iPad,” which seems to mean you’ll be able to adjust some settings to make your iOS devices easier to use.

With the new mode, “users will be able to set things like UI and larger text, apps available on the Home Screen, allowed contacts, and access to hardware buttons for when Custom Accessibility Mode is enabled,” 9to5Mac reports. In screenshots shared by the outlet, you can see how the mode enables things like much larger app icons, a big back button, and a simpler UI in the Messages app.

...

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Gmail’s new interface is here to stay

Google’s new interface isn’t all that bad. | Image: Google

Gmail’s permanent switch that moves everyone over to a new integrated view starts this month.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Google announced it’s getting rid of the option to revert back to the previous Gmail UI, so we’re all just going to have to get used to the bubbly — and very blue — interface. That includes its Material Design 3 font and Google Sans Text.

Google calls Gmail’s new layout the “integrated” view because it comes with options for Mail, Chat, Spaces, and Meet on the far-left sidebar. While hovering over these buttons reveals a small pop-out menu, clicking on them makes the app fill the whole screen.

In case you find the extra buttons distracting, you can disable Meet and Chat from your Settings menu. This saves...

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Nvidia’s selling a nerfed GPU in China to get around export restrictions

Nvidia’s A100 card, which is the basis for the A800 being sold in China. | Image: Nvidia

Nvidia has released a cut-down version of its high-end A100 GPU as a way to get around restrictions the US government recently imposed to limit how companies can sell AI training equipment to countries like China and Russia. The card, known as the A800, should have the same massive computing capabilities as the original but can only communicate with other cards in a computing cluster at 400 gigabytes per second instead of 600Gbps. According to The Wall Street Journal, that means the A800 should be just as good for simple tasks but will be significantly less effective when it’s part of something like a supercomputer.

An unnamed Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters that the card is an “alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers...

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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 TV, 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 you’ve found elsewhere. That’s information that could come in handy this holiday season, especially since Black Friday and Cyber Monday are once again right around the corner.

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 some of the rules...

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40 percent of US Disney Plus subscribers picked the bundle with ESPN Plus and Hulu

Nick Barclay / The Verge

Disney Plus added over 9 million subscribers in the US in the last several months, and many people in the US are opting for its bundle that includes Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus. In its earnings report on Tuesday, Disney also revealed that it added 12.1 million Disney Plus subscribers globally, making for 164 million in total, as well as 14.6 million subscribers across all its services.

Christine McCarthy, the chief financial officer at Disney, said during an earnings call that 40 percent of Disney Plus subscribers have the bundle with Hulu and ESPN Plus, which its pricing makes it increasingly hard to pass up. It provides access to all services for $14.99 per month for the ad-supported versions of Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus or...

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Twitter’s solution for ruining verification is another check mark

Twitter heard that everyone likes checkmarks. | Image: Twitter

Twitter is rolling out another type of check mark to help distinguish accounts that users actually need to know are real. Although you can pay $7.99 per month for a blue check mark with the new version of Twitter Blue, select accounts for governments, companies, or public figures will get a gray “Official” check mark, according to a thread from Twitter’s Esther Crawford, who is heading up the new Twitter Blue initiative.

“A lot of folks have asked about how you’ll be able to distinguish between @TwitterBlue subscribers with blue checkmarks and accounts that are verified as official, which is why we’re introducing the ‘Official’ label to select accounts when we launch,” Crawford says.

Not all previously verified accounts will get the...

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Kindred’s first trailer channels Octavia Butler’s brilliance into horror

Mallori Johnson as Dana James.

The beauty of Octavia Butler’s Kindredis how the novel frames empathy and care for others as forces powerful enough to move people through space and time. But the first trailer for FX’s upcoming series based on the book makes it seem like this take on Kindred’s going to be much more focused on scaring viewers with the horrors of time-traveling while Black.

Kindred tells the story of writer Dana (Mallori Johnson) and her partner Kevin (Micah Stock), an interracial couple who’ve just moved into a new home in Los Angeles. While both Kevin and Dana are excited to begin the next chapter of their lives together in a new city, the unshakable unease Dana feels as she tries to settle in LA soon reveals itself to be much more than just a feeling....

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Peacock is adding live TV from every local NBC station

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Peacock is adding live TV to its repertoire in a big way, but only for subscribers that pay for the service’s top-tier Premium Plus plan. Today, NBCUniversal announced that customers in all 210 affiliate markets will be gaining 24/7 access to their local NBC station. Peacock Premium Plus costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually.

Once the new feature is available in your market — some are going live as early as today, and everyone will have live TV by November 30th — you’ll see a new channel on the Peacock homepage that matches your local broadcast network.

The 24/7 live stream means you’ll be able to watch local news and sports, plus NBC’s primetime hits like Law & Order: SVU, Young Rock, Chicago Fire, and Dateline NBC. And we can’t...

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Burning a Frida Kahlo drawing to sell NFTs is a bad idea

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s hard out there for NFT enthusiasts — the market has slowed down significantly, sales have plummeted since peaks, and the people involved in the space are grasping for ways to get their projects some attention.

For crypto businessperson Martin Mobarak, the best way he knew how to do that was to destroy art by Frida Kahlo, valued at $10 million. In July, at a party for Mobarak’s Frida.NFT project, the art collector burned a drawing by Kahlo to a cheering crowd, according to the Miami Herald, promising to use the profits from NFT sales for charity.

“I’m proud to say this event will solve some of the world’s biggest problems in honor of Frida Kahlo,” reads a title slide in a video produced by the NFT company.

But according to The New...

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