Sony is slashing prices on PS5 games and accessories ahead of Black Friday

It isn’t just the white color scheme of the DualSense that’s $20 off. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony switched on some very good holiday deals on digital video games for PS5 and PS4, as well as PS5 accessories, like the DualSense controller. I won’t list out all of the game deals available at the PlayStation Store, but here’s the best way to frame the significance of the game discounts: you can get three PS5-exclusive games, like, say, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, and Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, for less than $100 ($30 each). That’s a far cry from the original $70 cost for just one of these titles. Newer games, like Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7, are a bargain at $39.89 each for the PS5 versions. And then there’s the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which costs just $19.89.

Onto the hardware, G...

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Apple’s latest AirPods Pro are on sale at Woot for more than $50 off today

You can score a $51 discount on Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro, but only for a limited time. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It looks like the real Black Friday deals have officially landed because Woot’s current deal on the new AirPods Pro is the best we’ve seen on the excellent true wireless earbuds to date. Right now, the retailer is selling Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro for just $197.99 instead of $249, which is the steepest discount the buds have received since launching in September. You’ll have to act fast, though. Woot’s current offer is set to expire at 1AM ET on Sunday, November 20th, but we expect these buds to sell out long before then.

For the unfamiliar, the latest pair of AirPods Pro boast noticeably better noise cancellation and improved sound quality over their last-gen predecessor. They also allow you to adjust their volume by simply...

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Musk has already axed the Twitter ad exec he reportedly convinced to stay

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Robin Wheeler, Twitter’s head of ad sales, seems to have left the company yet again, just over a week after Elon Musk reportedly had to convince her not to resign.

On Friday evening, Platformer’s Casey Newton reported that Wheeler had been fired from the company, though the details of why are currently unclear. Shortly after, Wheeler herself tweeted: “To the team and my clients….you were always my first and only priority,” followed by the salute emoji that has become a sign that you’re leaving the company. She did not immediately reply to The Verge’s request for confirmation that she had been fired. Twitter doesn’t have a communications department to take such requests.

To the team and my clients….you were always my first and only...

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Nvidia thinks RTX 4090 cables melted because they weren’t fully plugged in

The company says it’s heard around 50 reports of issues. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Weeks after Nvidia announced that it was investigating reports that the power cables for its RTX 4090 graphics card were melting and burning, the company says it may know why: they just weren’t plugged in all the way.

In a post to its customer support forum on Friday, Nvidia says that it’s still investigating the reports, but that its findings “suggest” an insecure connector has been a common issue. It also says that it’s gotten around 50 reports of the issue.

Nvidia’s flagship card uses what’s known as a 12VHPWR power connector, a new standard that isn’t natively supported by most of the power supplies that people already have in their PCs. Because of that, it ships an adapter — or “power dongle,” as Friday’s post calls it — in the...

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SwiftKey is unexpectedly back on iOS

It’s returned! | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft’s SwiftKey keyboard has unexpectedly returned to the App Store. The company officially discontinued support for the keyboard and removed it from the App Store in October, but now it’s available for iOS users once again.

“Based on customer feedback, SwiftKey iOS has been relisted on the Apple App Store,” Microsoft’s Caitlin Roulston said in statement to The Verge. “Please visit Support.SwiftKey.com for more information.”

Despite the return, SwiftKey’s latest update is still from August 11th, 2021. It’s unclear if or when it will be updated — users had complained about issues ahead of the discontinuation — but it seems like there will be some changes to look forward to. Vishnu Nath, Microsoft’s VP and GM of OneNote and the Office...

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Epic alleges Google paid $360 million to keep Activision from launching its own app store

We could live in a world with more app stores. | Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge

Activision Blizzard and Riot Games at one point told Google they might launch their own mobile app stores, according to new documents filed in Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the search giant. The details came to light as part of allegations about major deals signed with the two companies. Google allegedly agreed to pay Activision about $360 million over three years and Riot about $30 million for a one-year deal.

In one document, Google exec Karen Aviram Beatty is reporting back from a conversation with Activision Blizzard’s now-CFO Armin Zerza one month before the two companies signed the huge deal. “If this deal falls through, [Zerza] claims that they will launch their own mobile distribution platform (partnering with another “major...

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Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 electric streamliner makes its US debut, revealing 340-mile range

Hyundai Ioniq 6 on stage at the LA Auto Show’s press and trade event AutoMobility. | Image: Hyundai

Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 electric sedan made its official stateside debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, revealing some new details on the US version. The Magic Mouse-shaped “streamliner” car that was first unveiled this summer will have a max estimated driving range of 340 miles (not EPA-rated yet) on the rear-wheel-drive model.

The range is a bit less than the initial 379-mile target announced and even further from the European WLTP estimates of 382 miles. Still, 340 miles is an excellent achievement, succeeding the Ioniq 5’s 300-mile range while running on a similar 77.4kWh battery along with a shared E-GMP (Electric Global Modular Platform) architecture that underpins it.

With E-GMP, the Ioniq 6 is one of few vehicles in the US...

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The best Chromebook deals you can get right now

Samsung’s vibrant Galaxy Chromebook 2 is on sale in various configurations right now. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you’re looking for an affordable laptop alternative, Chromebooks are a great option to consider. Yet there are several kinds on the market these days, and it can be overwhelming to pick the right for you and your needs. Some are better suited for basic work tasks, for example, while some of the higher-end models can even rival some of the best laptops you can buy. Moreover, just because one Chromebook has more features than the other doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you or the best value for your money.

That’s why we’ve curated this comprehensive list of the best Chromebook deals. Each varies in price and comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, but all of them come recommended for one reason or another. And if you’d like to do...

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Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to over 11 years in prison

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to 135 months, or just over 11 years, in prison, according to journalist John Carreyrou. She will have to report to prison on April 27th, 2023, and will have an additional three years of supervised release once she’s out, according to Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan.

Judge Edward Davila, who has overseen the case, declared that the charges she had been found guilty of made her responsible for defrauding 10 victims out of $121 million, according to The New York Times’ Erin Griffith. Davila said that Holmes’ refusal to accept responsibility for the fraud counted against her in his sentencing decision, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A jury found Holmes guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one...

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Taylor Swift versus Ticketmaster: the latest on the tour that may break up a giant

It’s me, hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.

After Ticketmaster’s site crumbled under the load of Taylor Swift fans trying to get concert tickets, the DOJ is reportedly investigating whether it’s part of an entertainment monopoly.

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Nutrition labels for broadband internet are finally nearly here

Photo via Getty Images

Six years after we saw the FCC formally propose “nutrition labels” for your carrier’s potentially confusing array of plans, the agency says it’s finally happening. This week, it’s ordering US internet service providers to adopt the label format you’re looking at below — or it will, as soon as some last bureaucratic elements get worked out.

Image: FCC

2022’s Broadband Facts nutrition label format.

They’ve changed a bit since 2016 — now, each plan will apparently have its own label rather than ISPs trying to cram all of them into a single sheet, they don’t warn you about coverage, and apparently, ISPs will be able to point you to their network management policy legalese instead of having to ding themselves for...

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Netflix’s 1899 is mysteries all the way down

Isabella Wei in Netflix’s 1899. | Image: Netflix

We’re living in a good time for fans of puzzle box TV shows. Between the Yellowjackets plane crash, _Severanc_e’s creepy-ass office, and the big hole in Outer Range, there’s lots to occupy your fan theory group chats. Joining that ever-growing list is 1899 on Netflix — and it’s a doozy. The eight-episode-long series packs a frankly astonishing number of mysteries and twists into its runtime, making it an ideal binge. I’m still not entirely sure what, if anything, it all means, but I had a blast trying to fit the pieces together.

1899 comes to us from Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, the same creative team behind another Netflix thriller, the German series Dark. 1899 is a multilingual affair. It takes place on a passenger ship during...

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What matters about Matter, the new smart home standard

The Verge

A comprehensive guide to which products work with Matter — the Amazon, Google, Apple, and Samsung-backed smart home standard — and what you can buy right now.

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The best deals on 4K TVs

We’ve collected deals on all sorts of TVs, ranging from affordable (yet feature-packed) models to high-end OLED and QNED TVs that’ll impress the most discerning viewers. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The future looks bright for those who are looking to nab a great TV at a substantial discount. It’s not just low-end 4K TVs that are getting the best price cuts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So far in 2022, we’ve seen many of the latest mid- and high-end models from Sony, LG, Samsung, and more selling for hundreds less than their original list price. So, whether you want a cheap and simple 4K TV with built-in streaming capabilities or you want to spend more money on something like Samsung’s artistic The Frame or LG’s fantastic C2 OLED, we’ve got you covered with all the best deals of the year.

Right now, there are currently a number of discounted 4K TVs to choose from, spanning a wide variety of prices, size configurations, and...

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Matter’s plan to save the smart home

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Matter is a new standard that promises to fix smart home interoperability — but can it deliver?

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The long-awaited US broadband internet maps are here — for you to challenge

Here’s how much of the US allegedly has access to fiber internet. There’s a lot of white and gray. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

We’ve shown you — repeatedly, both with data and anecdotally — that the internet is broken in the United States. We pay more for less and deal with lots of bullshit. And one huge reason is that the wolves guard the henhouse. The FCC has relied on internet service providers themselves to truthfully say which houses they cover, data that the FCC didn’t audit.

So if you think internet access is important, do every like-minded person a favor: type your address into the FCC’s long-awaited new broadband maps and see if internet service providers are lying about offering coverage to your home. If so, hit the little “Availability Challenge” button and submit your proof.

Today, the FCC has finally put the first “pre-production draft” version of...

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The DOJ has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster’s owner

Ticketmaster had major issues with this week’s Taylor Swift concert presale. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

The Department of Justice is investigating Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation Entertainment over antitrust concerns, The New York Times reported Friday. Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010 but have come under scrutiny for largely dominating the live event ticket sales market. Ticketmaster has received renewed attention after it dropped the ball with Taylor Swift ticket sales this week.

The DOJ has reached out to venues and “players in the ticket market” in recent months to ask about the company’s practices, according to the NYT, meaning the probe predates this week’s debacle. DOJ spokesperson Arlen Morales declined to comment. Live Nation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many government officials have...

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PSA: sign up for our Verge Deals newsletter ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Our whole deals team is here to help you save.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday bearing down on us, it’s as good a time as ever to subscribe to our Verge Deals newsletter. Whether you’re a longtime reader of The Verge or a newcomer, you know that we love tech — but we’re also a bunch of penny-pinchers who especially love saving money on our fanciful gadgets whenever possible.

We know what devices and gadgets are actually worthy of your hard-earned money, and we want to share opportunities for you to get that same tech while saving as much as possible. In addition to our daily coverage here on the site, our twice-a-week newsletter — which goes out on Wednesday and Friday — is an opportunity to let the curated deals come straight to you.

What kind of deals can you expect every week...

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Robot delivery startup Nuro is laying off 20 percent of its workers

Nuro, the autonomous delivery startup, is laying off 20 percent of its staff, or about 300 employees, the company said in an email to employees that was later published online. (TechCrunch was first with the news.)

The company’s founders said it grew too rapidly in the past year thanks to an abundance of capital and a growing sense of competition. But Nuro has since run into economic headwinds that are challenging the entire tech industry, and it could no longer sustain the size of its workforce. The layoffs were the latest piece of bad news to hit the AV industry, which just saw one of its more prominent names, Argo AI, shut down in recent weeks.

“Laying off team members is always the last resort, but unfortunately it was needed after...

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Elon Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and Babylon Bee

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images

Elon Musk has begun reinstating Twitter accounts that were previously subject to lifetime bans, taking the first steps toward his promise of lighter moderation on the platform. Announced Friday, the first affected accounts belong to author Jordan Peterson, comedian Kathy Griffin, and conservative parody outlet The Babylon Bee.

Notably, two of the three accounts were banned because of tweets misgendering trans people. Peterson was banned in July for tweets misgendering trans actor Elliot Page, which he said he would “rather die” than delete. The Babylon Bee was banned in March for similar tweets misgendering Rachel Levine, a trans woman currently serving as US assistant secretary of health.

Notably, The Babylon Bee was one of the outlets...

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LightSail 2 just met its fiery end, but solar sailing is just getting started

The last image taken by LightSail 2 before it re-entered the atmosphere. | Image: The Planetary Society

After three years in space, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission burned up in the atmosphere on Thursday, November 17th. During its mission, the crowdfunded spacecraft made 18,000 orbits of the planet using its giant reflective sail and demonstrated that controlled solar sailing is possible.

LightSail may now be over, but it has opened the door to the use of solar sailing in space exploration. “It doesn’t fit every situation, but now it gives another arrow in the quiver of options for types of propulsion you can use,” said Bruce Betts, Chief Scientist and LightSail program manager.

LightSail 2 operated in Earth orbit, while future solar sailing missions would likely be in deep space. That makes the requirements somewhat...

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After The Merge, can Ethereum erase its historic emissions, too?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

There’s a new effort to tackle Ethereum’s legacy of pollution, even after the cryptocurrency drastically reduced its greenhouse gas emissions this year. Ethereum software company ConsenSys launched a newinitiative alongside more than a dozen tech and Web3 companies yesterday duringthe United Nations climate summit taking place in Egypt. The aim of the initiative, called the Ethereum Climate Platform, is to “redress and counteract” the climate pollution Ethereum left behind from its inception in 2015 until this year.

In September, Ethereum completed The Merge — a highly anticipated software update that slashed the blockchain network’s electricity use by 99.988 percent. But prior to that update, Ethereum used an enormously energy-hungry...

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Verizon will now let you test drive its 5G network for free

Verizon Test Drive makes full use of eSIM technology by allowing potential customers to trial the service before they commit to signing up. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon has introduced a new early access program that allows you to test its network for up to 30 days. There’s no SIM card involved. Instead, it’s a showcase for eSIM technology to allow folks from other carriers to compare between services.

The Verizon Test Drive program, like rival eSIM-based trial programs from T-Mobile and AT&T, is completely free but does require an unlocked and compatible phone. Ultra Wideband 5G, 5G Nationwide, and 4G LTE are available to try out in addition to 100GB of data and unlimited talk and text.

The program can be used alongside your existing provider, allowing users to compare the two services

To get started, you need to download the My Verizon app via a QR code and follow the instructions — no credit...

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Ticketmaster yanked its explanation for the Taylor Swift ticket debacle

Where did the explanation go? | Photo by Sven Hoogerhuis / BSR Agency / Getty Images

Ticketmaster has taken down its explanation for why buying a ticket to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour was an absolute disaster. The explanation, titled “The Taylor Swift Onsale Explained,” was live in two places on Ticketmaster’s website on Thursday and is now gone from both. But because the internet never forgets, you can still read it thanks to Google’s cache, and in case that fails, we’ve embedded it at the bottom of this article.

In its post, Ticketmaster said that despite spending out 1.5 million invites to Verified Fans for Tuesday’s presale and putting 2 million fans on a waiting list, it saw “3.5 billion total system requests,” which the company said was four times its previous peak. Ticketmaster also shared a somewhat vague chart...

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Taylor Swift is just as mad at Ticketmaster as you are

Except she’s made a massive bag of money from the whole thing. | Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Taylor Swift has spoken out about the boondoggle that was the Ticketmaster sale for her Eras Tour, and it doesn’t seem like she’s saying sorry just for show. In a statement posted to her Instagram story, which you can read in full below, she says that she’s “trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward” but that she’s “not going to make excuses for anyone.”

She doesn’t mince words when talking about her fans’ experiences with Ticketmaster, saying that “it really pisses me off” what people had to go through to get tickets. She also thanks her fans for wanting to come to her shows, saying they “have no idea how much that means.”

In case you missed it, the millions of people trying to get tickets for the upcoming...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The Series 8 starts at $399, and it offers the most comprehensive set of features and sensors (outside of the $799 Ultra). | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? The timing is always right to find at least one model selling at a deep discount, especially since the big Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping holidays are here. Apple recently launched its latest batch of smartwatches for 2022, including the $399 Series 8, the new $249 SE, and the first-ever $799 Ultra, which is aimed at outdoor enthusiasts and swimmers. There are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before, so you have plenty to choose from.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? If you can decide based on specs, here’s a handy breakdown to make it easy to see what one model offers over another. But generally speaking, try to buy the newest watch you can...

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The best wireless earbuds to buy right now

The current earbuds lineup is the strongest to date.

The best from Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony, Beats, Google, and more

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AirPods Pro might help you hear better, but they’re not hearing aids

The AirPods Pro may let you boost your hearing, but that’s not enough to make it a hearing aid. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The line between hearing aids and hearables has blurred ever since over-the-counter hearing aids hit shelves last month. Case in point: a new iScience study that claims a $249 pair of AirPods Pro can sometimes perform as well as prescription hearing aids that often cost thousands more. But while AirPods may seem like an affordable hearing aid alternative, it’s not quite that simple.

Researchers recruited 21 participants in the study to test how well second-gen AirPods and AirPods Pro performed compared to a premium hearing aid costing $10,000 and a basic aid costing $1,500. The participants were asked to repeat verbatim short sentences that were read to them while wearing each device. The AirPods Pro were found to be comparable to basic...

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The brand-new Echo Dot just got its first big discount

The new Echo Dot features an integrated temperature sensor and snappier performance than before. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

While we’re going to be knee-deep in Black Friday deals a week from now, there are plenty of sales to check out if you’re planning to do some spending this weekend. If you’re gearing up for the main event taking place next week, make sure to bookmark our Black Friday hub for regular updates on all the latest deals.

Our first deal to send off the workweek is the first significant discount we’ve seen on the fifth-generation Amazon Echo Dot. Currently, you can pick up the newest Echo Dot for $39.99 at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy, knocking $20 off the regular price of the clock model; however, if you prefer your Echo Dot sans clock, you can also pick up the clock-less Echo Dot for just $24.99 ($49.99).

The latest Echo Dot doesn’t look...

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The Verge’s 2022 holiday gift guide for dads

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Ideas for all the types of dads you may have in your life, from gadget-hounds to wannabe woodsmen with a penchant for the great outdoors.

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