Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue will relaunch on November 29th

Mark your calendars? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue, which lets you pay $7.99 per month for a blue verification check mark next to your name, will relaunch on November 29th. In a tweet, he said he would be “punting” the relaunch to the new date “to make sure that it is rock solid.”

It’s safe to say that the original Blue launch didn’t go super smoothly. Twitter first started rolling out the new Blue subscription on iOS earlier this month. However, the platform pulled Blue signups a few days later after a wave of fake verified accounts popped up on the platform.

Punting relaunch of Blue Verified to November 29th to make sure that it is rock solid

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022

The mayhem resulted in a fake Nintendo account that posted an...

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 gives us a glimpse of 2023’s Android flagships

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 builds on its predecessor’s AI capabilities. | Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm has announced all the details of its next flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, with a focus on better and more efficient performance for AI-related tasks. That extends from its updated AI-centric Hexagon processor to smarter image processing and a new modem designed to wring the best performance out of 5G networks. It also supports Wi-Fi 7 because the numbers just keep going up.

Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the Gen 2’s Kryo CPU includes one prime core based on Arm Cortex-X3 at 3.2GHz. There are also four performance cores (one more than last year) at 2.8GHz and three efficiency cores at 2.0GHz — all between 200 and 300MHz faster than last year’s hardware. Qualcomm says the CPU is 35 percent faster than the previous...

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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s new trailer teases a radical new way to play the game

Image: Blizzard

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s prelaunch battery of content, including a new launch cinematic, the pre-expansion release of the new Dracthyr class, and especially the allure of being able to party up with my Horde buddies, is doing a lot to get me to come back to WoW. (To say nothing of the serendipitous brand synergy between this latest expansion and the recent Game of Thrones spinoff.)

Like a lot of players, I felt burned by the developments of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. The expansion’s story was wildly unpopular, with a character celebrated for making the best out of a bad situation turning to full-on war crimes. Left with that bad taste in my mouth, that “Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV...”...

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NASA’s megarocket is about to blast off toward the Moon

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge

Here’s a cheat sheet for the Artemis I mission

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Twitter says 2FA still works, but it’s looking into a ‘few cases’ where it didn’t

If you log out, you should be able to get back in. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has confirmed that two-factor authentication is still up and running on the service, despite concerns that it had inadvertently been shut down or broken. A tweet from Twitter Support says the company is “looking into the few cases where SMS codes aren’t being delivered,” but it doesn’t give much indication of how many people were affected.

On Monday, a few tweets went viral on the platform featuring screenshots of error codes about how SMS codes couldn’t be sent, with some users linking the issues to CEO Elon Musk saying that the platform would be shutting down unnecessary parts of Twitter’s infrastructure. However, our tests showed that the service wasn’t completely broken, and when we put out a public call asking people if...

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Nearly 1 in 5 Americans listen to a podcast every day

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

I know saying that Normal Gossip is a must-listen podcast is a room temperature take, but if you have not tuned in yet, I implore you to listen to its most recent episode. I will not spoil it beyond the fact that niche pocket watch community drama is spicier than I could ever imagine.

On to the news! Anchor users around the world can now upload video podcasts, Acast has a fancy new tool for advertisers, and Edison has some promising new research on the growth of podcast listening.

Anchor users around the world can now publish video podcasts on Spotify

As YouTube becomes a bigger player in the podcasting industry, Spotify is expanding its video podcast capabilities to creators across the globe. Anchor users in 180 markets can now publish...

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Walter Hamada is joining Paramount Pictures following his Warner Bros. Discovery exit

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Following his recent departure from the studio formerly known as DC Films, Walter Hamada is heading over to Paramount Pictures to head up the studio’s upcoming horror projects.

Paramount Pictures announced today that it’s entered an exclusive multiyear deal with Hamada that will see him heading up all of its horror genre films for both theatrical and streaming releases. In a public statement about the deal, Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins called Hamada “the ideal partner and visionary” to take point on the company’s horror-focused endeavors. He also pointed to the success of director Parker Finn’s Smile, which was released theatrically after originally being meant for Paramount Plus, as an example of the kind of...

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Elon Musk is firing Twitter employees even when they criticize him in private

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

After purging half of Twitter’s staff with a snap of his fingers and firing as many as 5,500 additional contract employees without so much as a goodbye, “free speech” maximalist Elon Musk is now additionally getting rid of anyone who dares criticize him, both on Twitter and even in the company’s private Slack.

Yesterday, Musk admitted to firing an engineer who attempted to correct him publicly on Twitter, and Eric Frohnhoefer wasn’t the last to go that way — Twitter software engineer Sasha Solomon also tweeted that she got “fired for shitposting” after a series of now-deleted tweets criticizing Musk, adding “kiss my ass elon.”

More Twitter employees are publicly criticizing Elon for making up stories about how Twitter works and...

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The best Black Friday deals you can already get at Target

Right now, you can save on Vizio’s M6-Series QLED and other cool tech as part of Target’s ongoing Black Friday sale. | Image: Vizio

The holiday shopping season has begun and several retailers, including Target, have already kicked off some spectacular Black Friday deals in the lead-up to the annual shopping event. Some of the best discounts we’re currently seeing extend to wireless earbuds like the Beats Studio Buds ($99.99), as well as TVs like Vizio’s 50-inch M6-Series QLED (now $399.99).

Here, we’ve collected some of the best discounts you can find at Target, many of which will be available through the week of Thanksgiving and price matched elsewhere. Target also intends to roll out new deals every Sunday so we’ll be updating this page on a weekly basis as new deals and discounts become available. As usual, we’ll make sure to give you a heads-up as to which deals...

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Apple’s latest iOS beta gives you more control over the iPhone’s always-on display

The current version of the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on display can be a bit... distracting. | Image: Apple

iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max owners could be getting more control over their phone’s always-on display. The latest developer beta for the upcoming iOS 16.2 includes toggles that let you hide the wallpaper and notifications while using the feature, according to reports from MacRumorsand 9to5Mac.

Turning off both with always-on activated will make it so you just see a clock and your lockscreen widgets when your phone is locked, according to an image tweeted by 9to5Mac editor Chance Miller. On the currently shipping version of iOS, it’s all or nothing; you can have the always-on display that’ll show a wallpaper and notifications, or you can turn it off, leaving your phone’s screen blank when it’s locked and asleep, the way iPhones always have...

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NASA’s Artemis I mission: everything to know about the big launch

NASA’s Space Launch System at its launchpad in July 2022 ahead of a rehearsal. | Photo by GREGG NEWTON/Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images

The Space Launch System is finally ready for its big debut.

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YouTube is bringing shopping features to Shorts as it chases TikTok

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

New shopping features are coming to YouTube Shorts, including affiliate marketing and the ability to purchase items through Shorts, as first reported by the Financial Times (via TechCrunch).

The long-form video giant is testing shopping features with US-based creators and audiences in the US, India, Brazil, Canada, and Australia, allowing influencers to tag their own products in Shorts that viewers can then purchase, according to the report. An affiliate marketing program, open to select US influencers, adds yet another way for creators to monetize their Shorts, with YouTube, the creator, and the merchant all taking a cut of sales, according to the Financial Times.

YouTube didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

S...

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How DeviantArt is navigating the AI art minefield

A DreamUp generation for “a man in a 1950s business suit defusing a bomb at a table in the style of Norman Rockwell.” | Image: DreamUp

Artificial intelligence is learning to make art, and nobody has quite figured out how to handle it — including DeviantArt, one of the best-known homes for artists on the internet. Last week, DeviantArt decided to step into the minefield of AI image generation, launching a tool called DreamUp that lets anyone make pictures from text prompts. It’s part of a larger DeviantArt attempt to give more control to human artists, but it’s also created confusion — and, among some users, anger.

DreamUp is based on Stable Diffusion, the open-source image-spawning program created by Stability AI. Anyone can sign into DeviantArt and get five prompts for free, and people can buy between 50 and 300 per month with the site’s Core subscription plans, plus...

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Microsoft’s Xbox streaming console ‘Keystone’ was pushed back because of its price

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has revealed why the company delayed its plans to introduce an Xbox streaming console, speaking to Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel on The Verge’s Decoder podcast this week.

“It was more expensive than we wanted it to be when we actually built it out with the hardware that we had inside,” said Spencer, discussing the Keystone prototype device that recently appeared on his office shelves. “We decided to focus that team’s effort on delivering the smart TV streaming app.”

Microsoft delivered an Xbox TV app in partnership with Samsung instead, but it doesn’t mean the idea for a streaming-only Xbox console is fully over. “With Keystone, we’re still focused on it and watching when we can get the right...

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Apple’s seemingly abandoned ‘Magic Charger’ appears in new photos

Image: @TheBlueMister (Twitter)

Apple’s first-party lineup of MagSafe charging accessories for the iPhone is fairly limited: you’ve got the standard MagSafe puck, the MagSafe Duo, the underwhelming MagSafe Battery Pack, and well... that’s it. But new images indicate that Apple at some point considered releasing a metal stand with an integrated MagSafe charger.

The photos and related details were shared by Twitter user @TheBlueMister and subsequently covered by MacRumors. @TheBlueMister is among a hobbyist group of collectors on Twitter that share details about prototype and prerelease Apple devices and accessories. More than one person has gotten ahold of the “Apple Magic Charger” (that’s what it’s identified as when plugged into a Mac), which helps lend some credence...

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The best Black Friday deals you can already get at Walmart

Walmart is selling the first-gen AirPods Pro for just $159, which is a $90 discount. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Just like Best Buy and Target, Walmart has already started to release some of its Black Friday deals ahead of the main event next week. The retailer began rolling out discounts online as part of its Deals for Days event earlier this month, and will continue to add more deals every Monday at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

Although it’s possible we’ll see prices drop even further when Black Friday officially lands, Walmart is already offering some steep discounts on a range of popular products, including the first-gen AirPods Pro. For your convenience, we’ve curated some of the best tech deals at Walmart for you to check out here. If you’re looking for even more deals, be sure to check out our roundup of the best early Black Friday deals available at...

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2022 will hit a new record for climate pollution

A chimney from the Linden Cogeneration Plant is seen in Linden, New Jersey, on April 22nd, 2022. | Photo by Kena Betancur / VIEWpress

The world is quickly approaching a new level of climate catastrophe as greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 reach record levels.

Carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels is on track to exceed pre-pandemic highs set in 2019, according to the latest Global Carbon Budget report produced by an international team of over 100 researchers. Now the world is in danger of surpassing a key climate threshold in just nine years if business continues as usual, the report finds.

In that timeframe, without deep cuts to planet-heating pollution, we’ve got a 50 / 50 chance of global warming climbing more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. At that point, the outlook for many communities’ and ecosystems’ ability to adapt gets...

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Lucid gives first look at its luxury Gravity SUV as it begins to deliver cheaper Air Touring EV

Lucid’s all-electric Gravity SUV is finally revealed. | Image: Lucid

Lucid Motors is finally giving a first look at its luxury all-electric Gravity SUV. New images released by the automaker Tuesday show off a spacious three-row interior with dual center seats that have leg rests that can recline and an exterior that features a swooping all-glass roof.

Gravity is the automaker’s second vehicle model to be revealed. In a press release, Lucid’s SVP of design Derek Jenkins says the company is “sparing no opportunity to build on everything we learned with Lucid Air,” the automaker’s luxury electric sedan and first vehicle.

None of the images show off the front interior, but Lucid is promising a next-generation “Glass Cockpit” with high-resolution displays that will run on a new version of its Lucid UX...

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Netflix will now let you kick your ex out of your account

Netflix is gearing up for some big changes. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Netflix is rolling out a new feature called Manage Access and Devices that lets you see the devices associated with your account. Based on a screenshot from Netflix, you’ll be able to see things like which devices are connected to your account, which profile watched something on that device, and where they watched it from. If you want to log somebody out of the account, you can click the “sign out” button.

In a blog post, Netflix positions this new feature as a way to log out of a device you might add your account to while traveling for the holidays, and it could be handy if you need to kick someone off your account, like an ex or an old roommate. But it might get a lot more use after Netflix starts charging users for sharing their...

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Pentiment teaches players through food on the table

Image: Obsidian Entertainment

In Pentiment, you’ll spend a lot of time eating at dinner tables. Conversations touch on all sorts of topics, and the discussions help you learn more about the fictional Bavarian town of Tassing and the mysteries you’ll be investigating. Every so often, you’ll get to take a bite of bread or cheese of varying quality depending on who you’re eating with. Occasionally, somebody might ramble on. It honestly felt like a warm-up for Thanksgiving (though at my Thanksgivings, I’m not trying to figure out who committed a murder).

But pay attention, and you’ll notice that Pentiment uses the meals to subtly teach you about the people the game’s protagonist, Andreas Maler, is eating with. Wealthier companions offer nicer food on finer dishware....

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DoorDash now lets couriers drop and block rude customers without penalty

DoorDash is rolling out new in-app safety features to help protect both customers and delivery workers using the platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

DoorDash has expanded its safety toolkit, rolling out new features that will automatically check in with delivery workers and provide easier ways to report incidents that could impact the safety of both its customers and employees.

As the first line of defense, the company has introduced SafeChat: an automated message monitoring system that detects any offensive or abusive language used within the app’s chat function and issues a warning to whoever sent the message — whether they’re a customer or a DoorDash employee.

Image: DoorDash

SafeChat will detect any offensive or abusive language used within its chat feature and allow delivery drivers to unassign themselves from the order to avoid in-person interaction.

...

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The Pixel Watch just got slightly better at sleep tracking

If you logged 14 nights of sleep in October, you’ll get your Sleep Profile on November 22nd. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Pixel Watch, Fitbit Sense 2, and Fitbit Versa 4 make for a somewhat confusing lineup. The problem is that Google nerfed each — removing smart features from the Fitbit devices and removing some basic features from the Pixel Watch — to justify the existence of the rest. Thankfully, it looks like Google is taking some steps to reverse that. Today, it announced that one of the features omitted on the Pixel Watch, Fitbit’s Sleep Profile feature, is coming to the Pixel Watch starting next week and that Google Wallet is finally arriving on the Sense 2 and Versa 4 today.

Fitbit Premium’s Sleep Profile categorizes your sleep patterns based on one of six cartoon animals. The feature tracks 10 sleep-related metrics so users can get a...

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Sam Bankman-Fried oversaw FTX’s meltdown, and the fallout is reaching DC

Sam Bankman-Fried testifies on Capitol Hill, before his fall from grace | Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

He had friends in high places — and they are probably embarrassed right now.

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Lego’s new Eiffel Tower set is taller than an average seven-year-old child

This massive Lego set is deserving of its own living room. | Image: Lego

Who needs to travel the globe when you can bring the world’s biggest landmarks to your own home in plastic brick form? Lego has announced its tallest set to date with the new 10,001-piece Eiffel Tower, soaring 149cm / 59 inches tall when fully built. It’s the latest in Lego’s Icons line, joining the ranks of other legendary hallmarks of human history such as the Titanic, the Roman Colosseum, and the Atari 2600 — naturally. The Lego Eiffel Tower will be sold in Lego stores and on its site beginning November 25th for $629.99.

The Eiffel Tower may be the tallest of all Lego sets so far, but it’s the second-biggest in terms of brick count — trailing the Lego World Map by about 1,700 pieces. Though if you’re anxious about its massive height...

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Taylor Swift crashed Ticketmaster

Tough day for Taylor Swift fans. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Presale tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest concert tour went on sale today, and the massive demand has already crashed Ticketmaster. The company’s support account tweeted that fans “may be experiencing intermittent issues,” and Ticketmaster has “temporarily paused” the virtual ticket queue for one Verge staffer waiting to buy tickets.

Ticketmaster’s tweet says that it is “urgently” working to resolve the problems, which have extended to 503 errors on pages across the ticketing giant’s website. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve.

— Ticketmaster Fan Support (@TMFanSupport) November 15, 2022

...

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Twitter might tragically stop telling you what phone (or fridge) tweets are coming from

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Amid his endless spitballing of new features for the social media network he reluctantly bought, CEO Elon Musk has announced plans for Twitter to no longer display which device a tweet was sent from, whether it’s an iPhone, Android phone, or Twitter’s web client. “We will finally stop adding what device a tweet was written on,” Musk tweeted, adding that he thinks the feature is a “waste of screen space & compute.”

“Literally no one even knows why we did that,” he added.

And we will finally stop adding what device a tweet was written on (waste of screen space & compute) below every tweet. Literally no one even knows why we did that …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2022

Okay, so three things. First off: who knows whether this...

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Rimac Nevera hits top speed of 256 mph to become world’s fastest production EV

Image: Rimac

Rimac announced that its Nevera supercar hit a top speed of 412 kmh (256 mph), making it the fastest electric production car in the world.

The record was set on October 28th at the Automotive Testing Papenburg track in Germany, an oval-shaped racetrack with twin straights that were long enough — 4 km, or 2.48 miles — for the Nevera to achieve its top speed.

The Nevera, a quad-motor, 1,914 horsepower demonstration of electric absurdity, has a top speed of 258 mph — though its speed is limited to 219 mph — and an ability to leap from 0–60 mph in less than two seconds.

Miro Zrnčević, Rimac’s chief test and development driver, was behind the wheel during the test. Here’s how the company described the experience of breaking the EV speed...

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How to watch NASA’s Artemis I SLS megarocket launch

Photo by Joel Kowsky / NASA via Getty Images

NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) is almost ready for liftoff after facing multiple setbacks, including two scrubbed launch attempts and two hurricane-caused delays. This highly anticipated rocket launch has been over a decade in the making and marks NASA’s return to crewed missions to the Moon. This mission is called Artemis I, and while there won’t be any astronauts on board during this launch, it will serve as a test for the future goal of putting the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.

During its first launch, the SLS will catapult NASA’s Orion capsule into space, where it will embark on a voyage around the Moon that is expected to last until December 11th, when it will splash back down into the ocean. On...

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Asus’ Steven Harrington Vivobook is a cool-looking laptop with uncool battery life

Asus’ Vivobook 13 Slate Steven Harrington Edition puts a bold, funky look on a pretty OLED display. It’s a cool collaboration and a convenient form factor. But a slow processor holds it back from being great.

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Razer is upgrading the 2022 Blade 14’s two USB-C ports to USB 4

The software update is available for all 2022 Blade 14 laptops, whether it’s black, silver, or pink. | Image: Razer

Razer’s 2022 Blade 14 gaming laptop now comes in silver, making it look even more MacBook-like. But in bigger news, the company is releasing a software update for all 2022 Blade 14 models that upgrades its two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports to the more feature-rich USB 4 spec along with Thunderbolt support.

It’s unheard of that ports on preexisting laptops can get better (unless you have a modular Framework Laptop), and it’s even rarer that laptops with AMD-based CPUs like this one have Thunderbolt support since Thunderbolt is an Intel technology. Acer’s 2022 Nitro 5 with an AMD processor is the only other one that comes to mind.

The company has also activated a Microsoft Pluton security processor that has apparently been lying dormant in these...

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