Oppo’s next foldable is actually getting a release outside of China

Oppo’s Find N2 Flip foldable clamshell. | Image: Oppo

Oppo has announced a pair of new foldables in China today, and the smaller of the two is actually getting a release outside of its domestic market. The Find N2 Flip has a clamshell design similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and starts at ¥6,000 (around $861) while the Find N2, its larger sibling, has a larger tablet-style form factor that’s closer to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and starts at ¥8,000 (around $1,148).

XDA Developers reports that the Flip will see an international launch but that the regular Find N2 is sticking to China for now, just like its predecessor, the Find N, did. Expect to see the Find N2 Flip appear in European markets in the first quarter of next year, but it’s unlikely to get an official US release given Oppo historically...

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Where are all the new Macs?

Two Mac Studios don’t quite make an Arm Mac Pro. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Does anyone else vividly remember the day of June 22nd, 2020? I sure do. That was the day when Apple announced that its Macs were going to transfer away from Intel processors to the company’s own silicon. That transition, Tim Cook himself claimed, would take two years.

Reader, it has been well over two years since that fateful day. Even if you start the clock at the November 2020 launch of the M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, we are past due. Apple’s ambitious timeline has not come to fruition.

I wasn’t lying. This is what they said.

Let us peruse the items that are currently for sale on Apple’s website. The MacBooks have all moved over to Arm processors — we’ve got the M1 and the M2 MacBook Airs, and we’ve got the M...

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Lucid Air Grand Touring review: a dream made real

The Lucid Air is the first product from the California-based company.

Lucid’s sedan is sublime to drive, if a bit strange in appearance. Can the Air unseat the Tesla Model S as the leader in the luxury EV market?

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What in the world is nuclear fusion — and when will we harness it?

To create fusion ignition, the National Ignition Facility’s laser energy is converted into X-rays inside the hohlraum, which then compress a fuel capsule until it implodes, creating a high-temperature, high-pressure plasma. | Image: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Nuclear fusion is back in the news.This week, the US Department of Energy announced what it called a “major scientific breakthrough” in fusion power research: for the first time, a fusion experiment had produced more energy than the energy used to kick off the reaction. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about fusion progress. There have been decades of headlines touting breakthroughs large and small, usually implying that we’re closer than ever to generating all the clean energy we’ll ever need from nuclear fusion.

A “major scientific breakthrough” in fusion power research

It’s a lot to take in, so The Verge put together this guide to fusion power with the help of some experts. Below, we’ve summarizedscientists’ dreams for fusion,...

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Grand Theft Auto 5’s new ray tracing on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S looks fantastic

Grand Theft Auto V now has ray-traced reflections on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S consoles. A new patch, spotted by Eurogamer, brings ray-traced reflections to the game’s fidelity mode (30fps), adding a lot more realistic detail to vehicles, characters, windows, and basically any glossy surfaces. The results are truly impressive.

Now if you walk up to a window your character’s reflection will appear, or if you venture into areas where there is water or puddles you’ll see reflections of the objects nearby. Much like the ray tracing we’ve seen in Cyberpunk 2077, it makes the game feel more immersive.

The chrome paint job has RT reflections, it looks awesome! pic.twitter.com/KxHSTvbCXa

— Ben (@videotech_) December 13, 2022

Grand Theft Auto...

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Thursday’s top tech news: leaving, on an @ElonJet plane

Plus, more fun features coming to Google Docs.

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Ex-Twitter employee receives over three years in prison for spying for Saudi Arabia

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia, Reutersand NBC News report. Ahmad Abouammo was employed by Twitter between 2013 and 2015, during which time he used his position as a media partnerships manager for the Middle East and North Africa to access personal information of users critical of the Saudi government and pass it to Saudi officials.

Reuters notes that Abouammo received a $42,000 watch as a gift from a Saudi official, as well as two $100,000 wire transfers. In exchange he looked up information on two Twitter users, including phone numbers and birth dates. After leaving the company in 2015 Abouammo continued to attempt to...

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Elon Musk bought Twitter, and here’s everything that happened next

Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk is now the owner, CEO, and sole director of Twitter. His “Twitter 2.0” era has so far included mass layoffs and rapidly changing policy decisions.

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Crypto collapse: it’s looking like a long, cold, contagious winter

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

FTX is just the latest company facing an uncertain future as cryptocurrency values drop, revealing flaws in risky financial strategies that fueled the recent crypto and NFT boom.

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Elon Musk sells yet another $3.58 billion of Tesla shares

Money pit | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Elon Musk has sold another $3.5 billion in Tesla shares, according to a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. Since November 2021, the high point of Tesla’s share price, Musk has sold more than $39 billion of shares, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Musk last filed with the SEC about Tesla share sales in November, when he sold $3.4 billion. Before that, he sold $8.4 billion in April and $6.9 billion (nice) in August. He said he was done selling twice, once in April and once in August.

Musk has been running his social media site, Twitter, into the ground after closing the deal to acquire the company on Oct. 28th. Advertisers have fled the company, and in November, visits to Twitter’s ad manager fell 85 percent...

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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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Resident Evil Village’s VR mode will launch alongside Sony’s PSVR2 as a free update

I think Lady Dimitrescu will be very scary in VR. | Image: Capcom

Resident Evil Village’s VR mode will be available on the PlayStation VR 2 the same date Sony’s new VR hardware launches in February, Capcom announced on Wednesday. And even better, it’s being added as a free update for owners of the game.

You’ll be able to play the game’s entire campaign in VR, according to a PlayStation blog post from Capcom’s Kanda Tsuyoshi. You’ll be able to use the PSVR2’s new Sense controllers to “feel the vibration, recoil, and resistance as you interact with objects in the world and fire weapons,” Tsuyoshi says.

Image: Capcom

Dual-wielding will (hopefully) make the game a little less frightening.

In combat, the Sense controllers “enable intuitive movements like putting your arms up to...

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The Verge’s 2022 home tech holiday gift guide

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

The wrong gift for someone’s home can quickly become clutter, which is why we’ve put together a selection of great gift ideas they’ll cherish, appreciate, and — most importantly — put to use.

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The best deals on Nintendo Switch games right now

Right now, there are discounts available on Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and a handful of other essential Switch titles. | Image: Nintendo

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most popular consoles ever released, one with an ever-expanding library of games to choose from. Odds are if a game is capable of working on the Switch’s hardware, it’s either already available, or it will be soon.

Thankfully, a number of games are currently receiving price breaks if you’re looking to expand your collection, including first-party offerings like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and remasters likeTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. However, if you want to add some less conventional titles to your collection, Portal Companion Collection and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim are also discounted right now.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the deals on Nintendo Switch games. In many instances, the...

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Google’s making code formatting a breeze in Docs

Code blocks in Docs. | Illustration: The Verge

Google Docs is getting a new feature that will make it easier to show code in an easy-to-understand way. The company announced that it’s adding code blocks to its “smart canvas” system, which will automatically add the proper spacing and color-coding for a variety of programming languages, such as Python, C, and Javascript.

Before this, getting code to look nice in Google Docs required workarounds or add-ons, which weren’t necessarily the most convenient. While that wasn’t the end of the world, making sure code displays properly is important for documentation, and having different parts of the code display in different colors makes it much easier to read if there’s more than a single line or two.

GIF: Google

D...

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Twitter bans @ElonJet’s creator and links to other Elon Jet trackers

Twitter doesn’t seem to like the jet-tracker’s creator. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Hours after suspending @ElonJet, an account that tracked the trips taken by Elon Musk’s private plane, Twitter has now banned the account’s creator, Jack Sweeney. Twitter is also blocking links to versions of the tracker on other platforms, like Instagram and Facebook.

If you try and visit Sweeney’s account, you’ll see a message that the account has been suspended. Attempting to tweet certain links to Sweeney’s Elon Musk jet tracker on other platforms will display a message that the link is “potentially harmful,” as spotted by Tony Webster.

Twitter has now blocked the ability to post a link to the ElonJet Instagram account. pic.twitter.com/qNEcn6uVDF

— Tony Webster (@webster) December 14, 2022

It seems Twitter doesn’t currently have...

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How researchers recorded the sounds of a Martian dust devil for the first time

A dust devil captured by instruments on the Perseverance rover. From the study authors: “These are images taken of the direct dust devil encounter by the rover’s Navigation Camera (Navcam). The images have been processed to show the quantity of dust. The colour scale ranges from lowest dust content (blue) to highest dust content (yellow).” | Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/ISAE-SUPAERO

On September 27th, 2021, a dust devil whirled past the Perseverance rover on Mars. The rover not only caught the dust devil on its cameras and with its weather sensors but also picked up the faint, eerie sounds of the dust devil on its microphone, the first instrument of its kind to record sounds on Mars.

“We were convinced that the microphone was going to give us a whole load of new observations of atmospheric features on Mars that we hadn’t been able to see before,” Naomi Murdoch of the University of Toulouse, lead author of a Nature Communications paper about the research, said to The Verge. “And we haven’t been disappointed!”

Rovers have been exploring Mars for decades with cameras, spectrographs, and weather sensors, giving us a...

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Microsoft and Viasat are using satellites to bring 10 million people online

Microsoft’s Airband program has traditionally focused on fixed wireless, TV white spaces, fiber optics, and Citizens Broadband Radio Service. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As a variety of organizations and companies are working to expand (and sometimes restore) electricity to the hundreds of millions of people who don’t have it, tech companies are working to make sure that people will have internet as soon as they get devices that can access it. Microsoft and Viasat are partnering to expand internet access to 10 million people living in places like Africa and North and Central America. The move is part of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, which has used old TV spectrum and other tech to connect millions of people — though this will be the first time that a satellite internet company is getting involved.

The Viasat partnership will cover 5 million people in Egypt, Senegal, Angola, Nigeria, and the Democratic...

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The Nier: Automata anime is coming to Crunchyroll in January

Image: Aniplex

Nier: Automata, Yoko Taro’s quirky but heartfelt action RPG, is being adapted into an anime that will be streaming on Crunchyroll early next year. The show, which was first announced in February and officially titled Nier: Automata Ver1.1a, will begin streaming January 7th, Crunchyroll spokesperson Tyler Schirado said in an email to The Verge.

Based on the official synopsis from Crunchyroll, it seems like Nier: Automata Ver1.1a’sstory sticks relatively close to the game, though Taro said in a recent video that there will be some changes. Part of what’s interesting about the game is its 26 different endings and a narrative that takes place across a few different perspectives, and we’ll have to wait and see if and how the show ends up...

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Here are 37 last-minute gifts you can still get before the holidays

I dare anyone to turn their nose up when receiving a shiny iPad Air for the holidays. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The holiday shopping window is closing fast, but there’s still time to pick up a few things that will arrive in time for your favorite nondenominational gift exchange. Whether you’re looking for stocking stuffers or still have a few names on your list you need to cross off, we’ve rounded up our favorite fire-and-forget gift ideas for all the procrastinators out there.

The collection we’ve put together here includes small-ish gifts that will travel well, like the Apple Watch Series 8, as well as presents that don’t even need to be gift-wrapped, such as a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. If you’re looking for more gift suggestions, our deals team has also put together a vast selection of thoughtful ideas for everyone on your...

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FuboTV was down during a World Cup semifinal game

FuboTV had issues in the hours leading up to the game. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

FuboTV was down during the World Cup, preventing users from watching the entire semifinal game between France and Morroco. According to FuboTV’s status page, it’s still down now and has been experiencing issues since 9:20AM ET, affecting account creation and management as well as streaming. When I try to open the FuboTV app on my TV, the service displays an endless loading screen.

“Apologies to customers who are having issues with the France vs Morocco game. We are addressing the issue.” FuboTV wrote on Twitter during the match. The service also included a link to stream the game on Fox’s website, but this obviously doesn’t offer the same experience as watching it on your TV.

Apologies to customers who are having issues with the France...

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The golden age of the streaming wars has ended

Image: Getty Images

For a few years, there was a boon of content, and we were all wonderfully spoiled. And now that’s over.

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A completely free Unreal Tournament 3 just leaked on Steam

The goo gun was the best. | Image: Epic Games

Epic just closed some doors, but it may be opening a very attractive window indeed. Today, it appears to have inadvertently announced a new completely free version of the excellent Unreal Tournament 3 that you’ll be able to crossplay with friends across Steam, the Epic Games Store, and even GOG (via Wario64).

It’s called Unreal Tournament 3 X, and according to its Steam page, there’s no catch — “No microtransactions and no strings attached. This is the fully-featured, award-winning first-person shooter you fell in love with... completely free.”

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

The Unreal Tournament 3 X page on Steam.

And, assuming the listing is accurate, the game will still include all its primary...

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A God of War TV show is officially coming to Amazon Prime Video

A live-action show featuring Kratos is in the works. | Image: Sony

Amazon’s rumored God of War TV adaptation is a go. Deadline reported in March that Amazon was in talks to make a Prime Video series about the popular video game franchise, and on Wednesday, Amazon announced it had officially ordered the series.

Based on a synopsis shared by Deadline on Wednesday, it sounds as if the show will follow a similar story as Sony’s excellent God of War reboot from 2018:

The series follows Kratos, the God of War, who, after exiling himself from his blood-soaked past in ancient Greece, hangs up his weapons forever in the Norse realm of Midgard. When his beloved wife dies, Kratos sets off on a dangerous journey with his estranged son to spread her ashes from the highest peak—his wife’s final wish. Kratos soon...

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Verizon’s Plus Play hub for digital subscriptions comes with a free year of Netflix

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon’s launching the beta of its Plus Play service and is offering a year-long subscription to Netflix’s $19.99 per month premium plan to those who sign up. That adds up to savings of about $240, but as is the case with many Verizon products, there’s a catch: you’ll have to sign up for an annual subscription to one of the platforms offered through Plus Play first.

Introduced by Verizon earlier this year, Plus Play provides a consolidated hub where you can access and manage your streaming subscriptions in one place, including Netflix, Discovery Plus, HBO Max, Disney Plus, NBA League Pass Premium, AMC Plus, and the recently added NFL Plus. It also offers access to other non-streaming services, like Peloton, the Calm relaxation app, and...

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Twitter’s newsletter tool is shutting down on January 12th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter will be shutting down its newsletter product, known as Revue. Reports have been saying that the service would be axed for over a month, but now we finally have confirmation and a date: January 12th, 2023.

People won’t be able to access their accounts after that date, and all the service’s data will be deleted, according to a help article on the Revue site. Before then, authors who used the service will be able to download lists of their subscribers, as well as an archive that includes their analytics and writing. Revue also alerted its users to this information via email and has said that it’ll cancel paid newsletter subscriptions starting December 20th, so people won’t be charged for newsletters they won’t get.

After 8 years,...

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Meta’s VR battle royale adds Fortnite-like level building tools

Population: One’s new Sandbox mode will be available on Wednesday. | Image: Meta

Population: One, Meta’s VR battle royale title, is opening up its new Sandbox mode in early access to all players on Wednesday, allowing them to make their own levels with custom rules. With the new mode, developer BigBox VR follows in the footsteps of big multiplayer games like Epic Games’ Fortnite and Microsoft’s Minecraft in giving players tools to create their own 3D environments, but with Population: One, you’ll be able to do it in VR.

I got to try Sandbox mode myself last week, and I was impressed with the tools at my fingertips. While building, you’ll be able to pick from a big catalog of objects and structures to place around your level. And there are a lot of ways you can manipulate those pieces, like scaling them up and down or...

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Epic is shutting down online services for classic Rock Band and Unreal Tournament games

The Beatles: Rock Band is just one of many games affected. | Image: Harmonix

Epic Games is beginning to shut down online services for a large selection of its older games, including Rock Band 1 through 3, The Beatles: Rock Band, and Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004. The company is making the changes as “we move to solely support Epic Online Services with its unified friends system, voice chat features, parental controls, and parental verification features,” it said in a blog post on Wednesday.

The shutdowns will begin on Wednesday. For the below games, online services will be fully disabled by January 24th, though you can still play single-player or offline multiplayer. Epic is also beginning to remove the games from digital storefronts (where you could still buy them) and disabling in-game DLC purchases.

1000...

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WhatsApp is testing picture-in-picture mode for video calls on iOS

The Verge

WhatsApp is working on a picture-in-picture mode for iOS that will let you open up other apps while on a video call. In a post on the WhatsApp blog, the company says the feature’s currently in beta testing and that it will become widely available starting next year.

The feature, which WABetaInfo first spotted earlier this month, should minimize your call while allowing you to access other apps. While some Android devices already let you use picture-in-picture mode with certain apps, including WhatsApp, the messaging service doesn’t support the iPhone’s picture-in-picture feature released in iOS 14. Either way, it sounds like natively integrating the feature should come in handy when collaborating on a project during a video call (or...

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65’s first trailer leaves Adam Driver stuck millions of years in the prehistoric past

Adam Driver as 65’s protagonist Mills. | Sony

The idea of the modern-day world becoming overrun by genetically engineered dinosaurs is only but so alarming because, at the end of the day, they’re just animals who probably aren’t well-suited to survive on the planet as it currently exists. But the situation in Sony’s upcoming sci-fi survival thriller 65 from co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods is far, far more unsettling as it flings humans from the distant future into the prehistoric past and leaves them with nothing but their wits (and a few guns) to battle against T. rexes.

65 tells the story of pilot Mills (Adam Driver) and his passenger Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) as the pair fight to survive on what at first appears to be an alien planet after their spaceship collides with an...

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