Twitter advertisers aren’t happy with ads appearing on pages of white nationalists

Laura Normand / The Verge

Ads for around 40 high-profile brands and organizations have been spotted on the Twitter pages of white nationalists, according to a report from The Washington Post. Ads from brands including Amazon, Uber, Snap, and GoDaddy, media companies like USA Today and Morning Brew, and even one government organization, the US Department of Health and Human Services, were seen on the offending Twitter pages.

The ads were spotted on the profiles of Andrew Anglin and Patrick Casey. Anglin is the editor of neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, while Casey previously led white nationalist group Identity Evropa (later rebranded as the American Identity Movement). The two were banned from Twitter in 2013 and 2019 respectively. After Elon Musk’s takeover...

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Microsoft reaches 10-year deal with Nintendo for Call of Duty

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft says it has reached a 10-year agreement with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo consoles if the Activision Blizzard acquisition closes. The deal is similar in length to what Microsoft has offered Sony, and the Xbox maker has also committed to continue to offer new versions of Call of Duty on Steam at the same time they launch on Xbox.

The deal is clearly designed to put pressure on Sony to accept a similar offer, just days after Microsoft president Brad Smith said “Sony has emerged as the loudest objector” to Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition and that “it’s as excited about this deal as Blockbuster was about the rise of Netflix.”

I'm also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to...

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WhatsApp is adding official support for Meta’s Bitmoji-style avatars

The 3D characters can be sent as one of 36 stickers. | Image: Meta

Avatars, the customizable characters that are already available across Meta services like Facebook and Instagram, are officially launching on WhatsApp. Meta has announced that they can be used as a profile picture on the messaging service or sent in the form of one of 36 custom stickers. The feature “will be rolling out to users everywhere from today,” according to Meta’s press release.

WhatsApp’s avatars feature has been steadily rolling out to beta testers for a couple of months now. They’ve been available to some (but not all) beta users on both Android and iOS since at least October, according to WABetaInfo, but they’re expected to become available for all users on mobile over the coming weeks.

Meta’s avatars are one of a number of...

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Tim Cook and President Biden came to Arizona to announce plans for American-made chips

Tim Cook joined other tech leaders in touting the advantages of buying chips made in the US.

Apple plans to start using processors made in America following the opening of an advanced new chip factory in Phoenix, Arizona.

For the plant’s customers, which also includes AMD and NVIDIA, the new facility means a more secure supply of chips and quicker production timelines. The chip fabricator, TSMC, also said today that it would start construction on a second factory in Phoenix next year, increasing the site’s annual output.

“These chips will power iPhones and MacBooks, as Tim Cook can attest,” President Joe Biden said at an event outside the Arizona factory on Tuesday. “Apple had to buy all the advanced chips from overseas. Now we’re going to do more of their supply chain here at home.”

Biden and Apple CEO Tim Cook were on hand in...

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Chrome ‘@’ shortcuts search tabs, bookmarks, and history right from the address bar

Image: Google

Chrome tab jockeys and bookmark hoarders, rejoice: you can now quickly swift through your whole browser mess with a new simple “@” shortcut in the address bar. Available on the latest Chrome version 108 for desktops, the feature will help simplify tasks like getting to that article tab you know you left open somewhere without needing to conduct another web search.

If you’re like me, you might have a whole lot of troubleshooting articles saved as bookmarks, but when someone needs help with some specific problem, you just Google it again instead of looking for what you’ve saved. Now, you can type “@bookmarks” or just “@,” then hit the space bar and click “Search Bookmarks,” and start typing some key terms.

Screenshot: The...

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Alexa’s shopping list feature is now a little easier to use on your phone

A new Alexa Shopping List widget could make those trips to the grocery store run more smoothly. | Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Adding an item to your shopping list with just your voice is a modern convenience you quickly get used to. But the pain of wrangling the app you added it to on your smartphone while wheeling a shopping cart through a crowded store can have you yearning for simpler days — and paper.

A new homescreen widget for Amazon’s Alexa’s shopping list feature makes it easier to keep an eye on your items while making a beeline for the produce aisle. The widget is available on iPhone and Android and shows your list right on your homescreen. Now the convenience of adding items to your shopping list using Alexa smart speakers doesn’t have to end when you leave the house.

To install the widget, you need to have the latest Alexa app on your phone, then...

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Apple’s new App Store policies add more price points, going all the way up to $10,000

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Just days ago, Elon Musk took aim at Apple’s App Store policies while dragging it into the political and culture war crosshairs, highlighting how important the storefront is to so many developers and services. Today, Apple announced it’s changing long-standing App Store policies that put tight restrictions on what developers are allowed to charge their customers, following up on a pledge made last year while settling a class-action lawsuit.

At the time, developers were restricted to fewer than 100 possible price points in the App Store, which Bloomberg reports previously started at a minimum of 49 cents for subscriptions and 99 cents for apps, with a max price of $999.99.

Image: Apple

App Store price flexibility...

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Ford is demanding its dealers get serious about EVs — two-thirds say they’re in

Photo by Eric Thayer / Getty Images

Many barriers are holding up the automotive industry’s wide-scale transition to electric vehicles. Getting battery costs down, getting range up, and convincing car buyers to break up with gasoline for good are just some of the more commonly known ones. But there’s also one very powerful group that hasn’t been much help so far: the car dealers.

Increasingly, car companies are giving their dealership partners an ultimatum: get on board or get out. And at least some of Ford’s dealers seem to be taking the message.

At the Automotive News Congress this week, an event put on by the eponymous industry publication, Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said that 1,920 of America’s roughly 3,000 Ford retailers have agreed to sign up for the company’s EV...

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Elon Musk loves Twitter Spaces, but much of the team building it is gone

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

I hope you all had a good weekend. We have a surprisingly newsy week, so let’s get into it: the former Twitter Spaces team looks for a new gig, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s audio producer leaves on a high note, and Wondery’s subscription strategy pays dividends.

Former Twitter Spaces team looks for a new home

Given that Twitter has about one-third of the staff it did before Elon Musk took over, it is no surprise that the Spaces team would be among those who were laid off or chose to resign during the “hardcore” reset. As the future of Spaces at Twitter seems increasingly murky, members of the team that built the audio vertical are advertising themselves as a package deal to other tech companies.

Last week, former senior engineering...

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A new video shows how your voice can help you fight zombies in Dead Island 2

“Hey zombie!” | Image: Deep Silver

We already knew that Dead Island 2 will let you taunt zombies with your voice with Amazon’s new Alexa Game Control technology, and during Tuesday’s Dead Island 2 showcase on Tuesday, developer Deep Silver gave us a better idea of how the feature might work in practice.

In a prerecorded and staged skit (the conceit is that the people in the video are actually on the run from zombies and just so happen to find a working copy of Dead Island 2), the video showed how certain voice commands will activate certain actions in the game. “Hey zombie” gets the attention of a nearby zombie in-game. “Get me my ax” has the player draw an ax that is shooting fire for some reason. “Time to go loco” activates some kind of super mode.

While the feature...

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How I learned that Google Lens is more than a gimmick

Image: Google

Last Saturday, I discovered two things: I needed to buy a doorbell for my mother’s apartment, and Google Lens could be a really useful time-saver.

Here’s what happened: my mother lives in a large apartment complex that was built in the 1970s — and I suspect the doorbells on the apartment doors are the same that were installed then. They click more than they actually ring. I’ve got perfectly good hearing, and I have trouble hearing when somebody presses the doorbell; for my mother, who wears hearing aids, it’s nearly impossible. Recently, I finally decided to do something about it.

The photo isn’t great, but Google Lens was able to identify the bell on the neighbor’s door.

I spent a couple of hours shopping online....

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Apple still can’t figure out what kind of car it wants to make

You’re still going to want to start saving your pennies. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple’s long-rumored car could cost less than $100,000 when it’s finally available to buy, according to Bloomberg. But the car may have less ambitious self-driving capabilities than first planned and arrive a year later than originally expected.

While the car had been reported to be a fully autonomous car like prototypes from EV startup Canoo, the current design for the car will have more conventional car features like a steering wheel and pedals, Bloomberg reports. This new version won’t be fully autonomous; instead, users will apparently only be able to activate the self-driving features on highways, closer to driver-assist options like GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. (Perhaps Apple is wary of running into the issues Tesla has...

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Google will show you suggested keywords right under the search bar

There are about to be new buttons on Google. | Image: Google

Google is going to start adding recommended keywords beneath the search bar to help you filter down results, according to a Tuesday blog post from the company. It calls the feature “topics” and says it’ll make it easy to add and remove qualifiers to your query without having to do an entirely new search.

As an example of how this system will work, Google shows a search for dinner ideas. In the filters section, where you usually see buttons that let you switch to an Images or Shopping search, are new buttons that let you add modifiers like “easy,” “healthy,” “vegetarian,” and “high protein.” Tapping them narrows your results down, and you can add several of them at once if you want to get really specific. It’s similar to adding more words...

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Vampire Survivors might finally be getting vampires in new expansion

Not seeing any vampires in this screenshot... | Image: Poncle

Despite the name, Vampire Survivors currently doesn’t have any vampires among its 41 playable characters and hordes of enemies, but that could change with the game’s first DLC expansion. On the Steam page for the newly announced expansion, Legacy of the Moonspell, developer Poncle is hinting that we might finally see vampires in the game.

“Legacy of the Moonspell is the first DLC for Vampire Survivors, and introduces a brand new stage, new characters, new monsters, and new weapons to slaughter them with,” Poncle writes. “There might even be some hidden mysteries for those of an inquiring mindset, but we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of vampires…”

Regardless of whether vampires show up, the DLC looks to be a good expansion. In...

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You can save $30 on Disney Plus by signing up today before the price hike

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Want to stream She-Hulk: Attorney at Law or Andor? Then you might want to quickly sign up for a Disney Plus subscription. On Thursday, December 8th, Disney will debut a new ad-supported tier that’ll cost $7.99 / month. The existing ad-free plan, meanwhile, will increase from $7.99 / month to $10.99.

However, the good news is that you can avoid the price hike so long as you subscribe to an annual ad-free plan before the end of Wednesday, December 7th. Even better, you don’t need to be a new subscriber, either. Right now, in fact, both new and returning customers can still subscribe to a year of Disney Plus for $79.99 before it increases to $109.99 on Thursday.

In case you’re wondering, the ad-free annual plan offers a few extra perks,...

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The global energy crisis ‘turbocharged’ renewable energy growth

Recently installed solar panels at the Defence School of Transport on September 29th, 2021, in Leconfield, England. | Photo by Christopher Furlong / Getty Images

Right now, there’s “unprecedented momentum behind renewables,” the International Energy Agency says. Renewable power growth has been “turbocharged” by countries scrambling to tackle a global energy crisis spurred on by war in Ukraine, according to new analysis from the agency. Over just the next five years, as much renewable power is expected to come online globally as was added over the past two decades.

Renewables will make up a whopping 90 percent of electricity capacity expansion in that five-year span, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). By 2025, renewable energy is expected to topple coal to become the world’s biggest electricity source.

Solar and wind power make up the vast majority of that...

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The FTC is investigating crypto firms for possible misconduct following FTX collapse

Illustration: The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating multiple crypto companies over allegations of deceptive conduct, as first reported by Bloomberg on Monday.

“While we can’t comment on current events in the crypto markets or the details of any ongoing investigations, we are investigating several firms for possible misconduct concerning digital assets,” an FTC spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge Tuesday. “We cannot comment on the nature of the investigations.”

On top of several civil suits, the FTC is just the latest US agency to probe the crypto industry following the sudden implosion of popular trading exchange FTX last month. The Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Future Trading Commission, and...

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TikTok’s best of 2022 shows its most viral videos are getting smaller

Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok’s roundup of the biggest moments of 2022 is here — there’s a giant chocolate giraffe, musician Rosalía chewing gum, and a viral remix of Tariq, aka “Corn Kid.” But one thing stands out: the view count on TikTok’s top clips is a lot smaller than in years past.

The videos in TikTok’s FYFaves list all have millions of views and are supposed to represent the most viral content on the app. The list is curated, though, and leaves out other videos with high views and engagement, so it isn’t a direct representation of the top-performing clips on the platform this year.

Still, the list offers some insight into what’s been successful on TikTok, and over the past three years, views on the No. 1 spot have been trending downward.

@...

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Google’s Nest Hub smart display is $70 off with a free WiZ smart bulb

The second-gen Nest Hub makes a handy bedside display. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

We’re getting well beyond Black Friday, but the deals are still coming up strong. First off, the latest Google Nest Hub has fallen to a new all-time low price of just $39 at Walmart. And in addition to being a $70 discount, this deal comes with a WiZ smart bulb for free.

The second-gen Nest Hub is the most recent seven-inch smart display from Google. This little portal to the Google Assistant gives you the weather, news updates, and access to music streaming, and it makes a great digital picture frame if Google Photos is your preferred cloud photo platform. It’s also a handy smart home controller since you can use your voice to set timers, pull up videos on a Chromecast-connected TV, or turn smart lights on or off. If you snag this deal...

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HBO Max returns to Amazon’s Prime Video Channels

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Good news for those who hate switching apps on their TVs: HBO is making a return to Amazon’s Prime Video Channels in the US. Customers who subscribe to Prime Video can add HBO Max for $14.99 per month and get access to all the Warner Bros. Discovery content like House of the Dragon in the same place they watch The Boys.

Both Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery were reportedly in talks this summer to get their relationship rolling again. In 2020, WarnerMedia, the former AT&T-owned iteration of HBO’s parent company, launched the standalone HBO Max service that eventually replaced the previous HBO Go and Now streaming-only services. When Max went live, HBO began its attempt to transition to its new sovereign platform by removing its service...

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Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume hits theaters in April 2023

Image: Crunchyroll

Suzume, the next feature from the director behind Weathering With You and Your Name, is releasing internationally next April. Crunchyroll announced the news today, revealing that Makoto Shinkai’s next feature will be in theaters outside of Asia starting on April 12th (it debuted in Japan last month).

Here’s the full schedule:

• April 12th — France and Malta
• April 13th — Australia, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and New Zealand
• April 14th — Austria, Belgium, Canada, Gibraltar, Ireland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, and United States

The distributor says that additional 2023 dates for Latina America and EMEA will be announced in the future.

Alongside the release news, we also got a new trailer showing off the magical realism of the film’s world,...

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CD Projekt Red is ending Gwent support

Image: CD Projekt Red

In a video outlining Gwent’s 2023 roadmap, the developers at CD Projekt Red shared an important if sad update: no more new cards will be released post 2023 and active support for the game will be ending.

The game’s final batch of 72 cards will be released in three groups in April, July, and September 2023. In the video, the developers said they’ll take time after the final batch of cards is released to monitor cards and ensure the meta is balanced before handing over balance decisions to the players themselves.

“We want to give you, the Gwent community, the right tools and opportunities to drive the balance changes of the game going forward,” said one of the developers in the roadmap video. They also said that they’re working on an...

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Disney’s CEO drama explained, with Julia Alexander

Photo Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge

The best of Bobs, the worst of Bobs.

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Apple Music is getting a karaoke mode

Perfect for the holidays. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple on Tuesday announced Apple Music Sing, a karaoke experience that will be built right into the Apple Music app. With Apple Music Sing, you’ll be able to follow along with Apple Music’s real-time lyrics and adjust the volume of the vocals so that you can better hear your singing voice. (I’ll personally be keeping the vocals up as loud as possible to hide my imperfections.)

There are a few features designed to make it easier to sing with others, too. Background vocals can appear independently of main vocals, according to Apple, and there will be a duet view as well if you want to sing along with a friend. Apple will have more than 50 “dedicated companion playlists” featuring karaoke-ready songs that you can pick from.

...

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Elden Ring is getting a free colosseum update for multiplayer bloodbaths

You can use your spirit ash summons to help you in battle against other players. | Image: Bandai Namco

As if there weren’t enough stuff to do already in Elden Ring, Bandai Namco announced that the open-world fantasy game is getting a multiplayer update that adds a new colosseum environment made expressly for player versus player (PvP) bloodbaths. This update will arrive on December 7th for every platform the game is on (PC, PlayStation, Xbox).

While you can already engage in PvP battles across many memorable Lands Between locales, there’s nothing like a flat, circular arena to do your bidding. And in the colosseum, you’ll be able to use your spirit ash summons in battle, as you can against the game’s many bosses.

The trailer above doesn’t share many details about this new colosseum, like where it is or how you’ll get there and assemble...

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My weather app is now a dating sim

Filling up the heart meter gets you gifts. | Image: Carrot

One of Carrot Weather’s main selling points, besides the fact that it’s a genuinely very good app for getting the forecast, is its character. The app has an “AI” that will serve up scalding insults and timely jokes alongside the “feels like” temperature (the only measure that matters, don’t at me). The latest update is taking that experience to a whole new level: according to the app’s developer, Brian Mueller, you’ll be able to “improve your relationship with the homicidal AI” and even “start a ‘romance’ with her.”

You endear yourself to Carrot through “bonding activities,” which will increase the number of hearts you have with the app. Those include “debugging” the app (which involves shaking your phone), “charging its servers,” and...

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How to Replace the Sky

Matt Huynh / The Verge

How to Replace the Sky, a comic by Matt Hyunh.

At the end of 2020, the painting software I’d used my entire professional life updated itself with a new button.

Illustration of a Photoshop window, with the Sky Replacement tool selected in a menu.

I made my living as a commercial illustrator, making pictures for advertising agencies, book publishers, and magazines.

Illustration of a small propped-up tablet and keyboard.

I usually painted with ink and brushes, but I also used drawing tablets and apps for jobs that needed flexibility for changes and a quick turnaround.

Matt appears in front of the tablet.

I was up-to-date with the latest tools, but I couldn’t imagine why I would need to replace the sky.

The walls of an office appear around...

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Polestar 2 gets an over-the-air performance boost ‘without the hassle of a subscription’

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Polestar is offering an over-the-air (OTA) software update that boosts the electric Polestar 2’s performance by 68 horsepower. And rather than lock it behind an annual paywall as other automakers have done, the Chinese-Swedish company says it will only charge a one-time fee of $1,195.

The upgrade adds 68 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque to the existing 408hp and 487 lb-ft of torque currently offered by the Polestar 2’s dual-motor powertrain, for a total output of 476hp and 502 lb-ft. Because the upgrade is software-based, the performance boost can be downloaded directly to the vehicle without needing to take it to a service center. The performance upgrade is only available to owners of the long-range dual-motor version of the...

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Mickey 17, the next film from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, is out in 2024

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

You’ll have to wait a bit to see Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s next project. The sci-fi film, called Mickey 17, will hit theaters on March 29th, 2024. The news was revealed via the briefest of teaser trailers, which shows star Robert Pattinson hanging around shirtless in some kind of tube.

The film is based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, which is about a “disposable employee” out on a quest to colonize an icy new world for human habitation (no word yet on where all the extra Mickeys came from). In addition to Pattinson, the film stars Steven Yeun (Nope, Okja), Naomi Ackie (The Rise of Skywalker), Toni Collette (Knives Out), and Mark Ruffalo (everything with the incredible Hulk in it). Outside of the cast, Joon-ho is also...

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You can now play some Ubisoft games you own for PC on Amazon’s cloud gaming service

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is one of the games you’ll be able to play on Luna if you already own it. | Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft and Amazon will now let you play some titles you own for PC via Ubisoft Connect on Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service, the two companies announced on Tuesday. That means it will be just a bit easier to play some of those games when you may not be right in front of your typical machine thanks to the power of internet streaming.

Amazon’s blog post specifically names Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Uno, and Far Cry 6 as titles that will work with this new integration. But in blog posts, both Ubisoft and Amazon are careful to say that this only applies to “select” titles, so it could be a limited batch to start. That said, if you like the experience of playing Ubisoft games over Luna and want to check out more of them, you can...

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