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Gran Turismo chief says devs are ‘looking into’ a PC port

An image showing a vehicle in Gran Turismo 7

Image: Sony

Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi isn’t ruling out a PC port for the long-running racing sim franchise. In an interview with GTPlanet (via Eurogamer) during the Gran Turismo World Finals on Sunday, Yamauchi told the outlet that the Polyphony Digital development team is “looking into” bringing the series from PlayStation to PC.

“Gran Turismo is a very finely tuned title,” Yamauchi told GTPlanet, while also expressing some concern about getting the game to consistently run in 4K at 60 frames per second across all platforms. “It’s not a very easy subject, but of course, we are looking into it and considering it.”

Gran Turismo 7 was released exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 back in March, and its potential jump to PC...

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A bunch of Sonos speakers are 20 percent off for Cyber Monday

An image of the front of the Sonos Arc soundbar with a TV in the background.

The Arc is 20 percent off. Still expensive though. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Here’s a good deal: a big swath of Sonos’s speakers and soundbars are 20 percent off through Cyber Monday. The sale is now live at Sonos’s website as well as Best Buy, Target, and other retailers. Pretty much everything is at its lowest price ever, and while there are some notable exclusions — including the Sonos Roam, Five, and Sub Mini — it’s still a great time to fill out your Sonos system.


Deals on Sonos soundbars and subwoofers

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The best early Cyber Monday deals under $100

The Kindle Paperwhite e-reader turned on resting on a bunch of analog books.

The latest Kindle Paperwhite starts at $94.99 with 8GB of storage and ads.. | Image: Amazon

Deals on new LG OLED TVs are nice and all, but not everybody can afford to spend over $1,000. If you’re trying to keep your holiday shopping on a budget, we’re here to help. We found plenty of terrific Cyber Monday discounts under $100 that make for good gifts, ranging from deals on streaming services like Hulu’s to e-readers like the latest Kindle Paperwhite. We’ve curated the cream of the crop here, but if you’re on an even tighter budget, check out our guides to the best Cyber Monday deals under $50 and under $25.


The best early Cyber Monday deals under $100

The best deals on streaming services and devices

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The Verge

Today I learned LG makes a space-saving cubicle monitor

An image of LG’s Libero Monitor hanging on a cubicle

The LG Libero sits flush against partitions. | Image: LG

Desk space is pretty limited when you’re working inside a cubicle, but LG’s 27-inch Libero Monitor could help you clear up a little more room. The monitor, which LG released back in August, comes with a two-way stand that lets you either hang it up on the wall of your workspace or have it stand on its own.

The Libero’s design is pretty clever. It actually hangs upside down when hooked to the included partition hanger, and then flips right side up when set atop your desk. LG says it automatically adjusts its screen orientation when flipped, and it also comes with a detachable webcam (along with two webcam ports), so you can partake in video calls no matter how it’s mounted.

That said, it seems like a useful external monitor or a...

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Behind the voice: an interview with TikTok’s text-to-speech actress

The image shows the TikTok logo superimposed on a white background.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

As a radio host for Canada’s 91.5 The Beat, Kat Callaghan struggled to keep her role as TikTok’s new text-to-speech voice under wraps. When her voice appeared on the app last year, listeners started sending her countless TikToks pointing out the similarities. “Have you heard this? It kind of sounds like you,” she recalls listeners saying.

But it wasn’t until last month that Callaghan confirmed what her listeners had long suspected: “Finally, I can tell you guys,” she said in a TikTok video, the first she’d ever posted. “It is me.” The video went viral almost immediately, amassing more than 45 million views since it went live.

Callaghan’s voice, known as “Jessie” in the app, has become a popular way for creators to convey their thoughts...

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The Verge

Frontier Airlines shut down its customer service phone line

Frontier employees and executives physically pull a 46-ton Airbus A320 out of the Frontier Airlines hanger at Denver International Airport in Denver.

Frontier described its one-on-one voice calls as “unscalable, inefficient, and expensive” during an investor presentation. | Kathryn Scott Osler/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Frontier, the budget-friendly airline that charges for everything from in-flight snacks to carry-ons, is looking to cut costs even more by doing away with its customer service phone line (via CNBC). Customers with questions about their reservations can now only contact Frontier’s agents through the live chat on its website, via WhatsApp, or on social media.

In an emailed statement to The Verge, company spokesperson Jennifer De La Cruz confirmed that Frontier’s customer service has “transitioned to fully digital communications,” which is supposed to help “ensure customers get the information they need as expeditiously and efficiently as possible.” When customers try to call the phone number that Frontier removed from its website (but...

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The Genki Covert Dock Mini lets me put an entire gaming system in my purse

Genki Mini dock in-hand.

That’s it. That’s the dock. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Friday afternoons growing up meant a trip to the video store. It was an utter thrill, like a little weekly Christmas, where my mom would turn my sister and me loose among the laminated, empty VHS boxes to pick out something to rent for the weekend. And as a rare treat, she would sometimes relent to our whining and let us take home the Holy Grail of rentals: a Sega console. A teenage Video Updateemployee would retrieve it for us and make sure that the controllers and cords were all accounted for in a massive, nuclear-code-style suitcase.

That’s what carrying an entire game console looked like in 1993. Things are a little different now. A few weeks ago, I packed our game console to take it along on a family vacation. This time, it all...

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The best early Cyber Monday deals you can get now

An illustration by The Noc Design made for The Verge.

The Noc Design / The Verge

You know how most streets in US towns look exactly the same, barring a few differences? That’s kind of how Cyber Monday is to Black Friday. Many of its deals should be familiar if you’ve been paying attention throughout the Thanksgiving weekend, even though it’s taking on another name. If you haven’t been tuned in, well, you’re in for a treat. There are so many best-ever deals on tech like noise-canceling headphones and earbuds, iPads, video games, budget-friendly gadgets, and a lot more (pour one out for the $569 48-inch LG A2 OLED TV at Best Buy, which is no longer available).

We’re serving you the best-of-the-best deals right up top, just below a handy table of contents that’ll help you zip around to your preferred product category.

...

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The Verge

A Twitter executive got a court injunction to prevent Elon Musk from firing her

A blue Twitter bird logo with a repeating pattern in the background

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sinead McSweeney, Twitter’s Ireland-based global vice president of public policy, secured a temporary injunction from the High Court of Dublin to prevent her from getting fired, according to a report from The Irish Times. McSweeney claims she was locked out of her work accounts and Twitter’s Dublin office after not responding to the email Elon Musk sent to employees, which asked workers to reply “yes” to commit to Twitter’s “extremely hardcore” culture, or otherwise leave.

Musk sent out the email shortly after his Twitter takeover on November 16th, and gave employees a little over a day to confirm whether they wanted to stay at the company. If an employee didn’t click “yes” on the form included in the email, Twitter said it would “treat...

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The Verge

The Nintendo Switch is on sale with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for just $299.99

My actual face after destroying my nephews with a blue shell.

The holidays (excluding Black Friday) are truly a time to show a little extra compassion and empathy toward our fellow humans, but if you feel the need to use that blue shell, don’t hesitate. Right now, multiple retailers still have an excellent Nintendo Switch bundle that includes a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a three-month individual membership to Nintendo Switch Online, and a standard Nintendo Switch. Normally, the combined price of everything included in this bundle would cost roughly $368, but it’s currently available at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy for just $299.99.

Mario Kart is a game that needs no introduction, but Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is arguably the best entry in the series to date thanks to not only the portable...

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Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is still available for its Black Friday price

The Kindle Paperwhite lying on a bunch of physical books while turned on.

The latest Kindle Paperwhite is still available for its best price yet at Amazon and elsewhere | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Despite the arrival of Amazon’s latest entry-level Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite remains one of the best e-readers on the market. Currently, you can still find the ad-supported model of the 8GB Kindle Paperwhite discounted to $94.99 at Amazon (normally $139.99). The ad-free model is also available for $114.99 through Amazon instead of $159.99. If you’re doing your shopping elsewhere, you can find the ad-supported model discounted to $94.99 at Best Buy, and Target as well. While 8GB can still hold roughly 2,000 individual pieces of literature, if you’re planning on using your Paperwhite to listen to audiobooks, there are also substantial discounts on the 16GB model, lowering the price of the $149.99 ad-supported model to $99.99, and the a...

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The Verge

The DOJ is reportedly investigating rent-setting software company RealPage

An image showing the Department of Justice lettering

Image: TC Sottek / The Verge

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has reportedly opened up an investigation into RealPage, the real estate technology company accused of contributing to higher-than-normal rent prices. According to a report from ProPublica, the DOJ is looking into whether the company’s rent-setting software allows landlords to coordinate and raise rent across the nation.

This comes after last month’s report from ProPublica, which revealed that RealPage’s YieldStar software uses an algorithm to “help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants.” As noted by ProPublica, YieldStar’s algorithm uses the non-public rental rates gathered from the landlords and property managers that are its clients. YieldStar then repackages that...

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The best Black Friday deals that you can still get

The Noc Design / The Verge

Black Friday is now in the past, but many of the year’s best deals on TVs, video games, wireless earbuds, and much more are still available this weekend. So, no, you haven’t missed out on much at all. Hopefully, you were able to spend some quality time catching up with family. Most of what’s listed below should look familiar if you’ve already been shopping online, though there will likely be several adjustments taking place throughout the weekend leading into Cyber Monday.


The best Black Friday deals

Black Friday standouts

  • You can buy Apple’s new second-gen AirPods Pro for $199.99 at Amazon and Best Buy instead of $249, which is about their all-time low. Apple’s newest premium earbuds boast better noise cancellation...

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The Verge

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is the most versatile gadget you can buy

The size of the Fold 4’s inner display changes how you think about what a smartphone can do. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

It’s easy to see the appeal of folding phones — they are big screen devices that get smaller to fit in your pocket. It’s also easy to see the drawbacks; as much as Samsung tries to hide it with trade-in promotions, there’s no denying the Galaxy Z Fold 4’s $1,800 price tag is too steep for the vast majority of people. The question of durability is also hard to ignore — it doesn’t take much searching to find tales of randomly cracked Fold screens.

But until you commit and start using a device like the Fold 4 for some time, it’s hard to see the value that a folding phone can bring. I’ve owned a Fold model since 2020’s Fold 2 (and owned the Fold 3 for a year before upgrading to the Fold 4 thanks to Samsung’s aggressive, if fiscally...

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The best Black Friday deals you can get at Walmart

The last-gen AirPods Pro sitting on a desk near an iPhone and a MacBook.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Black Friday has arrived, and while Walmart dropped many of its Black Friday deals ahead of the main event as part of its Deals for Days event earlier this month, it is now featuring a load of excellent deals. In fact, some items, such as the latest Beats earbuds, have been dropped an extra few dollars since we last checked. We’re seeing 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 Black Friday deals available at all retailers. We’ve also put together retailer-specific roundups for Target, Amazon, and Best Buy,...

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The Verge Holiday Gift Guide 2022

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Check out our top gift ideas for the tech-savvy and non-techies alike.

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The Internet Archive just put 565 Palm Pilot apps in your web browser

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Yes, I am playing Dope Wars on a Palm Pilot inside my iPhone. It’s thanks to The Internet Archive, which is once again launching a giant collection of software you can instantly play on any web browser, up to and including your touchscreen-equipped phone. There are currently 565 classic Palm apps in all, including games, widgets, and even free trials from both the greyscale and color eras.

Reach out and touch a 1996 pocket computer with your 2022 pocket computer

And it’s more than just the individual apps, too: the entire Palm OS is loaded with each launch, including its full selection of default apps (like the calculator and memo pad) and a working Graffiti touchscreen writing system. I cannot emphasize this enough: you can reach out...

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Sony’s noise-canceling WF-1000XM4 earbuds are on sale for $100 off

Sony’s WF-1000XM4 are still on sale for $178 instead of $279.99, which is an all-time low. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Whether you’re on the hunt for an excellent pair of noise-canceling earbuds to tune out fellow passengers while traveling or simply a good gift, you can’t go wrong with Sony’s WF-1000XM4 earbuds. The XM4s remain our favorite pair of noise-canceling wireless earbuds — even when pitted against standouts like Bose’s excellent QuietComfort Earbuds II — and are a particularly good buy today given they’re currently on sale for around $178 instead of $279.99 at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. This Black Friday price isn’t unheard of, however, it does bring the wireless earbuds back down to their lowest price to date.

In terms of specs, the XM4s balance superb noise cancellation capabilities with excellent sound quality and long battery life....

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iRobot’s terrific Roomba i3 Plus EVO is on sale for $200 off for Black Friday

The iRobot Roomba i3 Plus EVO robot vacuum lying on a wooden floor.

The iRobot Roomba i3 Plus EVO is on sale for just $349 right now. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Cleaning is probably one of the most tedious tasks for many people, which is why the right robot vacuum can make for a fantastic gift (and cat Uber, of course). And while there are plenty of heavily-discounted robovacs available right now for Black Friday — including the top-of-the-line Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra and Roomba j7 Plus — the iRobot Roomba i3 Plus EVO offers great bang for your buck, especially since it’s currently available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target promotion for around $350 ($201 off), matching its best price to date.

In addition to doing a terrific job of cleaning your house, the i3 Plus Evo comes with a few perks that just make life easier. Its advanced mapping features, for instance, mean you can program it to...

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The FCC just banned these Chinese cameras and telecom hardware from reaching the US

An illustration of a large eye surrounded by other eyes

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Hytera, and Dahua all sell telecommunications equipment and video surveillance technology into the United States, but many of their future security cams and radio hardware will no longer be welcome. The Federal Communications Commission has just announced it’ll no longer authorize some of their equipment — which is a big deal, because companies can’t legally import or sell anything with a radio in the US without that authorization.

But as I’ll explain, it’s not a blanket ban, either. Clearly-marked consumer products are likely going to be exempt.

Weren’t these companies already banned? Not exactly. You’re probably remembering how the Trump administration didn’t make Chinese telecom companies feel particularly...

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The God of War Ragnarök PS5 bundle is back in stock at Walmart

Screenshot from God of War Ragnarök in which Atreus is petting a giant wolf

The excellent bundle isn’t on sale, but it does include one of the best games of the year. | Image: Santa Monica Studio

If you’ve been hunting for a PlayStation 5, Walmart is hosting yet another restock event today for Sony’s next-gen console. For the second time this week, Walmart is selling the disc-based PS5 with a digital copy of God of War Ragnar_ö_k. This time, though, the bundle is available to everybody — not just premium Walmart Plus subscribers.

As usual, we recommend logging in to an account you might already have or creating one. It can help to have your billing and shipping info already saved in your account, thus reducing the time it takes for you to check out and minimizing the chance of errors.

If you don’t nab a console today, fear not — we will continue serving you with details when more restocks happen. If you’re looking for more Black...

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Get a year of Hulu’s ad-supported streaming for just $2 per month

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Black Friday discounts on streaming services may not seem impressive next to huge deals fancy gadgets, but it’s a clever way to put dozens of dollars you would have spent back in your pocket. We’ve highlighted several such deals in our roundup, which contains attractive subscription discounts for HBO Max, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, and more. One particularly good deal is on Hulu’s ad-supported plan.

The service normally costs $7.99 per month, which per year amounts to $95.88. But through November 28th (Cyber Monday) at 11:59PM PT you can get the entire year for just $24. This deal is available to new and previous Hulu subscribers, with the only caveat for previous members being that you canceled at least one month ago.

Hulu is a...

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The Verge

A Little to the Left is the perfect calming game to wind down with

Key art from A Little to the Left featuring a broken plate and cat paw prints and the silhouette of a cat over the words “A Little to the Left”

Image: Max Inferno

A lot of the games that I loved at Summer Game Fest are slowly starting to make their way into the wider world beyond previews and demos. A Little to the Left is one of those games — and I could not be more jazzed to tell you about it.

A Little to the LeftALTTL for short — is one of those quiet and peaceful indie games that conceal complex design behind a deceptively simple premise. In it, you’re tasked with setting right your home after the entropy of life (and a very mischievous cat) have mucked it up. To do that, you repair, replace, and reorder household objects in a series of bite-sized puzzles.

In one puzzle, you might have a scattered array of broken pottery pieces that you must order correctly to repair a broken vase. In...

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Everything in the Verge merch store is half off for Black Friday!

The Verge logo

Happy holidays, sports fans. As is tradition, we’re offering our beloved Verge audience a special discount in our merch store from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. We suggest you act quickly, because a deal this good won’t last.

Now through 11:59PM ET on Monday, November 28th, everything in our merch store is 50% off. There’s no promo code required. Can’t decide between our Light Mode and Dark Mode tees? No worries — now get them both for the cost of one. Or sail the peaks and valleys of the web with our USB Sea shirt.

We’ll have a lot more in store over the next year, so stay tuned. And, as always, if there’s something you’d like to see us make, let us know in the comments. Also be sure to subscribe to our Verge Deals newsletter for...

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The best Black Friday deals you can get at Target

Child sitting on bed playing video game on large TV screen.

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, are offering some spectacular Black Friday deals for this 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). And if you’ve been putting off buying up until now, this may be the day to do it: many of the deals that Target is offering have been dropped still lower for Black Friday itself.

Here, we’ve collected some of the best discounts you can find at Target, many of which will be available through Thanksgiving weekend and price matched elsewhere. Target has been rolling out new deals every Sunday so we’ll be...

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Spotify wanted amateurs to make podcasts — now one of their shows is topping the charts

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

This story originally ran in Hot Pod Insider, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here.


Last year, Australian psychology graduate Jemma Sbeg had a straightforward idea for a podcast: apply the psychological concepts she had learned to the common issues faced by people in their 20s. Sbeg, 22, signed up for Anchor, Spotify’s DIY podcast creation and distribution tool, and started recording in the back of her Subaru Forester. Covering topics like jealousy, climate anxiety, and attraction, she accrued about 15,000 downloads in her first 10 months. Not bad for an Anchor podcast but nothing to write home about.

Then, a switch flipped — in April, she published an episode on loneliness that took off. She...

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The best Black Friday deals you can get at Best Buy

Close-up of Waypoint creation screen

The Apple Watch Ultra has received its first big price cut at Best Buy, knocking $60 off. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

This is it, Black Friday. Best Buy is offering its best deals of the year, much like it has been for the past several weeks. But now that Thanksgiving is wrapped up, we took a spin through Best Buy’s catalog to see what else it might have added to the sale. You’ll find its best online and in-store deals below on video games, 4K TVs, headphones, smartwatches, and so much more. We’ll keep this page updated throughout the weekend, as well as during Cyber Week.

A few important things to note from Best Buy’s frequently asked questions page: it isn’t offering rain checks on Black Friday deals that sell out, though its great price-matching policy won’t be in effect from now through Cyber Monday, which is November 28th. For items purchased...

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The best Black Friday deals under $50

Roku’s streaming stick supports 4K resolution and Dolby Vision for just $25. | Image: Roku

With all the deals, discounts, and promotions running around, it can be awfully tempting to spend a mint over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But for those trying to stay thrifty and keep their spending in check, we’ve gathered some of the Best Black Friday deals you can currently find for less than $50. There are plenty of deals on wireless earbuds, smart home devices, and Bluetooth speakers that fall below the $50 mark, many of which we’d normally recommend picking up at full price.

If you’re planning to do some spending on bigger ticket items, we’ve also rounded up all the noteworthy discounts that are currently live at retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, as well as the best Black Friday deals overall.

The best...

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The Verge

The best Black Friday deals you can get at Walmart

The last-gen AirPods Pro sitting on a desk near an iPhone and a MacBook.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Black Friday has arrived, and while Walmart dropped many of its Black Friday deals ahead of the main event as part of its Deals for Days event earlier this month, it is now featuring a load of excellent deals. In fact, some items, such as the latest Beats earbuds, have been dropped an extra few dollars since we last checked. We’re seeing 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 Black Friday deals available at all retailers. We’ve also put together retailer-specific roundups for Target, Amazon, and Best Buy,...

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Peloton Row review: the price isn’t right

Peloton gets a lot right with its long-awaited rower, but charging $3,200 is a baffling business choice for the struggling company.

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