How NASA’s newest satellite will monitor lakes and rivers from space

An illustration of the SWOT satellite in orbit. | Image: CNES

Early tomorrow morning, a new Earth monitoring instrument called the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, or SWOT, will launch into space on a SpaceX rocket. The satellite will take the first global survey of Earth’s freshwater systems from space, observing not only the oceans but also lakes, rivers, and coastal regions. It will be able to measure the height of water in these systems for the first time.

“It will help us understand where water is, where it’s coming from, and where it’s going,” Katherine Calvin, chief scientist and senior climate advisor at NASA, explained in a press conference.

Understanding Earth’s water and how it moves is crucial for both modeling climate change over the long term and dealing with urgent events...

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The Verge’s 2022 holiday gift guide for working from home

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Elevate your workspace aesthetic or just become a more productive human with our work-from-home gift guide.

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Tim Sweeney wants Epic to help build a metaverse that’s actually positive

Geralt will be joining Fortnite shortly. | Image: Epic Games

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney laid out what he called his “grand vision” for the company in a livestream on Thursday, and it might not be surprising that the company that builds Fortnite wants to help usher in the best version of the metaverse.

While the metaverse doesn’t exactly have a firm definition, Fortnite is perhaps currently the easiest metaverse idea to grasp in that it allows players to easily hang out in 3D virtual worlds and take on avatars ranging from Epic-designed human characters to Goku from Dragon Ball. But Epic doesn’t just develop Fortnite; it also makes the Unreal Engine development tools used by both gaming studios and film productions, operates a Steam competitor in the Epic Games Store, runs Rocket League and Fall...

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Belkin’s Continuity Camera mount for desktops is here

For those dedicated to magnetically mounting a phone to their screens so they can have that good webcam quality. | Image: Belkin

When Belkin released its Continuity Camera mount for Mac laptops in October, it promised that a version for desktops would be coming soon. Now, it’s finally here. You can get the accessory that attaches to your display and magnetically holds your phone so you can use it as a webcam from the Apple Store for $29.95 — though it is worth noting that price may not stick around, as Belkin spokesperson Cassie Pineda tells me that the correct price is $39.95 and that the company is working on getting it fixed.

Compared to the mobile-friendly version, which is designed to stay on your phone and latch onto your computer with a little hook, the Belkin iPhone Mount for Mac Desktops is a bit more flexible. It has a tilting mechanism that lets you...

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Google is beta testing digital state ID cards in its Android Wallet app

Google announced the digital ID feature at its 2022 I/O developer conference. | Image: Google

Maryland was one of the first states to make state IDs available on Apple’s Wallet app for iPhones, and now Google is beta testing support for the “Digital Driver’s License” in the Wallet app on Android phones. The Apple Wallet integration can already be used to get through TSA at airports like the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport that allow the use of digital state IDs, which should be similar on Android.

Users running Android 13 who are in the Google Play Services beta program (specifically, version 48.22) should now see a new option for “ID Card (beta)” when adding a new card to the Google Wallet app. This shows up on Pixel smartphones, but because of Google’s hardware requirements, it’s unclear whether it...

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World of Warcraft veteran Chris Metzen returns to Blizzard

Work work! Once the resigned cry of orcs in Warcraft will now be Chris Metzen’s new mantra as he emerges from retirement to rejoin the team at Blizzard. Today, John Hight, senior vice president and general manager of World of Warcraft, announced that longtime WoW veteran Metzen, also known for his work across Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch, would return to the company.

pic.twitter.com/Mwi6pXUcPi

— John Hight (@JHight_Gamer) December 15, 2022

Metzen started at the company in 1994 as an artist on the original Warcraft. From there, he lent his artistic talents to other Blizzard games, contributing to lore, storytelling, and cinematics. He also lent his voice, as Metzen is the longtime voice behind the orc hero Thrall. He even...

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $50

Photography by Joel Goldberg for The Verge

Great gifts don’t always command a high price tag. If you’re looking to limit your spending this holiday season, we’ve mustered a selection of affordable picks suited for everyone on your list.

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Hitman players about to be abandoned by Stadia will be able to transfer their progress

Agent 47 is really going to miss Stadia. | Image: IO Interactive

Ahead of the impending shutdown of Google Stadia, Hitman developer IO Interactive has detailed how Stadia players will be able to bring their progress from Hitman — World of Assassination to other platforms. Players will be able to do a one-time transfer, what IO Interactive is calling the Stadia Progress Carryover, to any of the platforms where Hitman 3 is available, including PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

IO Interactive expects to launch the transfer tool a week before Stadia shuts down on January 18th, but you can prepare now by linking your Stadia account to your IOI Account. If you don’t do this before Google shuts down the Stadia servers, IO Interactive warns that you won’t be able to bring your progress over. You’ll have until...

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A plasma physicist explains what’s next after this week’s nuclear fusion breakthrough

Scientists, engineers and administrators from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories following the announcement of a breakthrough in fusion research on December 13th, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Scientists need better targets to shoot and even more advanced lasers.

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Death Stranding is getting a film adaptation

Death Stranding | Image: Kojima Productions

The Death Stranding cinematic universe is getting a little bigger. Not long after a sequel to the 2019 video game was announced, now comes newsthat a film is also in the works.

The project will be a joint collaboration between developer Kojima Productions and Hammerstone Studios, led by Alex Lebovici, who served as a producer on the horror film Barbarian. According to a press release, the plot for the film is being kept quiet for now, but it will “introduce new elements and characters within the Death Stranding universe.”

The news shouldn’t be too surprising. Last year, Kojima Productions launched a film and TV division for just this sort of thing, and director Hideo Kojima is not shy about his love of film, which often results in H...

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Apple is expanding Mythic Quest with a new spinoff series

Ashly Burch, who stars in Mythic Quest_, is part of the team heading up the new series._ | Image: Apple

Apple is building on the success of its Apple TV Plus comedy about game development, Mythic Quest, with a new spinoff series titled Mere Mortals. The eight-episode series will be more like the excellent episodes in the main show that focus on a time and place outside of the primary settings and characters, Variety reports. “Mere Mortals will explore the lives of employees, players and fans who are impacted by the game,” according to Apple in a press release.

Ashly Burch, who plays Rachel in Mythic Quest, is part of the team writing Mere Mortals alongside John Howell Harris and Katie McElhenney. Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney (Ian on Mythic Quest), David Hornsby (David Brittlesbee on Mythic Quest), and Charlie Day will be executive producers.

...

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The Echo Show 15 with Fire TV: a major upgrade with a major flaw

Fire TV comes to the Echo Show 15, but you need to use a remote.

The Echo Show 15 now comes with the Fire TV interface, thanks to a software update that started rolling out last week. Amazon’s largest smart display already offered a few streaming apps, but the update brings more streaming services, more live TV options, and a native YouTube app on an Echo device for the first time since 2017. It makes the Echo Show 15 a better television but a slightly worse smart display.

If your main beef with the Show 15 was the limited video options, this is a great update. But it does remove some touch functionality from the Show 15 and makes it more reliant on either voice control through Alexa, a new physical remote option, or a truly baffling on-screen remote.

When Amazon launched its big-screen Echo Show...

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Some Peacock originals are coming to JetBlue’s in-flight entertainment system

Some new content for the in-seat screens. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Peacock original show Bel-Air doesn’t actually have anything to do with flying, but you may be able to watch it next time you’re in the air. JetBlue has announced that it’s partnered with NBC’s streaming service to bring some of its content to the seatback screens on its planes — including the Fresh Prince spinoff, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, and Rian Johnson’s comedy caper show Poker Face.

You’ll also be able to stream anything from Peacock’s catalog using your own device and the in-flight Wi-Fi, according to the airline’s Thursday press release, though you’ll need an active Peacock subscription to do so, according to JetBlue spokesperson Emily Martin.

The “exclusive” streaming partnership will go into effect in spring 2023....

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You’ll be able to do push-ups and pet a cute pup in Fire Emblem Engage’s main hub

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo released a new trailer about the main hub zone of Fire Emblem Engage, a floating fortress called the Somniel, and it looks like it will improve on the academy in Fire Emblem: Three Houses in just about every way.

One of the new areas in the Somniel, for example, is a “training yard” that lets you do workout mini-games to temporarily boost your stats. I was instantly reminded of the workout mini-games in Final Fantasy VII and the remake, and I’m glad they’re making an appearance in Fire Emblem. Who needs a whole strategy game when I can just get swole?

You’ll also be able to pet and feed a mysterious and adorable dog-like creature. (If you told me it was a pokémon, I’d believe you.) According to the video, “legend says that good...

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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches on PS5 in fall 2023

The Spideys are back in the fall of next year. | Image: Sony

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from PlayStation’s Insomniac Games will officially be launching on PS5 in fall 2023, Sony announced on Thursday. While we don’t have any more specific timing than that launch window, it means that there will be one more major game for next year that you might want to add to your list of things to look forward to.

Sony also shared a brief and vague synopsis. “Following the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the Spider-duo of Peter Parker and Miles Morales are back in the next blockbuster action chapter of the Marvel’s Spider-Man series,” Sony’s De’Angelo Epps wrote. Sony debuted a brief teaser trailer for the game last year that revealed Venom will be featured as a villain.

While S...

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Apple’s planned classical music app is still MIA as 2022 winds down

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

When Apple acquired classical music streaming service Primephonic back in 2021, the company revealed plans to launch a standalone app with many of Primephonic’s best features by the end of this year. But we’re now in mid-December. iOS 16.2 was just released without any sign of the app — believed to be called Apple Classical — and it’s not present in the latest iOS 16.3 betas, either.

With many Apple employees nearing holiday vacation, it seems increasingly unlikely that Apple Classical will be a year-end surprise.

In its original press release from August of last year, Apple said Apple Music Classical would combine “Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features.” (The Apple Classical app...

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You can save $250 on the HP Spectre x360 today

The HP Spectre x360 is a slick convertible laptop with excellent battery life. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

A capable and steeply discounted configuration of the HP Spectre x360 13 is kicking off our deal roundup for today. It’s available at HP for $999.99 (normally $1,249.99). This 2-in-1 convertible laptop has a 1920 x 1280 13.5-inch touchscreen, an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. If you want more power and storage, the Spectre x360 can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, or an even faster processor for an additional fee, but all configurations are subject to the same $250 discount. If you can look past some of its preinstalled bloatware (which can be removed), you’re getting a well-designed laptop with excellent battery life. Read our review.

A pair of our favorite Jabra earbuds, the Elite...

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Corsair’s Xeneon OLED flexes on them other gaming monitors

When it’s flat, it’s impossible to tell that the Xeneon Flex is hiding a clever bending mechanism behind it. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You’re either on team flat or team curved when it comes to how you prefer your gaming monitors to look. Corsair’s new $1,999 Xeneon Flex, a new 45-inch OLED option that’s shipping early next year, doesn’t make you pick sides. It can morph between the two modes — sadly, not by pressing a button — but by primitively squeezing the screen together with its two handles. It requires a surprising amount of force to pull it into a curve and to push it back into a flat panel, letting out faint clicks when each side has reached its destination.

After testing a non-final version of the Xeneon Flex for several days, my fear of breaking it has nearly subsided, but my fun with switching its modes hasn’t. Using HDR with its 240Hz refresh rate and 21:9...

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Amazon is publishing the next Tomb Raider game

Rise of the Tomb Raider | Image: Square Enix

Amazon’s latest foray into video game publishing will star Lara Croft. The company announced a new deal with developer Crystal Dynamics, which will see it publish the next entry in the long-running Tomb Raider series. Crystal Dynamics will handle development, with Amazon “providing full support and publishing the game globally.”

The studio revealed it was working on a new Tomb Raider earlier this year as part of a showcase for Epic’s Unreal Engine game-making tools. Very few details are available at the moment, but it’s described as “a single-player, narrative-driven adventure that continues Lara Croft’s story in the Tomb Raider series.” Amazon says the game, which will utilize Unreal Engine 5, will be multiplatform and is currently in...

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Instagram launches new tool to help hacked users regain account access

Image: Instagram

Instagram users who are victims of hacking now have a new way to try to claw back their account. The company announced Instagram.com/hacked today, a new feature for reporting and trying to resolve account access problems.

The new platform is an all-in-one account support page. Users can ask for help recovering hacked accounts, report impersonation accounts, or get help if they’ve forgotten their passwords. The most pressing issue for many is likely getting help when an account has been hacked — something that users have struggled to get in the past.

Recovering a hacked Instagram account hasn’t been easy; a 2018 Motherboard report detailed how some users have paid ransoms to hackers who’ve held their accounts hostage. A separate report...

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Nothing starts opening up its Android 13 beta for the Phone 1

Nothing’s Android 13 update for the Nothing Phone 1 has started rolling out in open beta, the company announced today. The update is version 1.5 of the company’s Nothing OS Android skin and contains unique additions like an all-new Nothing-themed weather app alongside Android 13 features like the ability to set language options on a per-app basis and a new QR code scanner in quick settings. Its official release is scheduled for early next year.

In an interview with Android Authority, Nothing CEO Carl Pei shed some light on why its Android 13 update has taken so long to release. Apparently, the Phone 1 originally launched with software developed by an outsourced team from another Android phone manufacturer of around 400 engineers. But in...

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HoloLens 2 now has full Microsoft Teams integration

The new Microsoft Teams view in HoloLens 2. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has long supported real-time video calls using Microsoft Teams on HoloLens 2 headsets, but now the company is bringing full Teams integration to its mixed reality headset. HoloLens 2 users will now be able to freely call people directly, browse and add Teams contacts to calls, and even view calendars and join group meetings.

Microsoft is also allowing HoloLens 2 users to see what people are sharing in meetings, too. A new live video stream of shared screens will appear as a hologram that can be moved and resized.

Image: Microsoft

A Microsoft Teams meeting in HoloLens 2.

Microsoft Teams has largely been used on HoloLens 2 for remote assist scenarios where an engineer or support person would dial into...

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Apple is seriously screwing up its big play for an Oscar

Will Smith as Peter in Apple’s Emancipation. | Image: Apple

Apple’s historical action drama Emancipation is being called out for playing irresponsibly fast and loose with crucial details about its complex, painful subject matter.

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Valve answers our burning Steam Deck questions — including a possible Steam Controller 2

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Nine months (and 90-plus updates) after the Steam Deck launched to early adopters, here’s an idea of what’s next.

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How to order free rapid covid tests from the US government — again

Samar Haddad / The Verge

Winter is here, and once again, warnings are going up about the spread of the covid-19 virus — along with the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus. To try to minimize the upsurge, the US government is restarting a program that it canceled on September 2nd, 2022, and is once again offering free home rapid antigen tests to each US household. This is the fourth round of free tests that’s been made available; according to the government website, orders will start shipping the week of December 19th.

As before, it’s extremely simple to put in your order. You will not need to submit a credit card or any other financial information.

• Go to COVIDTests.gov.
• Tap on the button reading Order Free At-Home Tests.
• If you don’t see the button...

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How to use Instagram’s new Notes feature

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Instagram is adding several new features to its app, and the first to roll out is called Notes. The feature allows you to send short 60-character messages to groups of your Instagram friends; the message will hang around for 24 hours before it disappears.

It’s an interesting idea — a way to send a quick note to a bunch of friends. (For example, “I just got a new TV — come on over!”) However, there are some things you should know about Instagram’s Notes before you start:

• First, you will not be notified that a friend has posted a Note — you’ll have to check your Inbox to see it. And since Notes will disappear within 24 hours, you’ll have to check frequently.
• You can’t send individual Notes — unless you only have one “close friend” (more...

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Uber Eats will use sidewalk robots to make food deliveries in Miami

Uber will use robots from Cartken to make deliveries in Dadeland. | Image: Uber

Uber is expanding its use of autonomous delivery vehicles with the announcement that it will soon deploy sidewalk robots developed in Miami, Florida.

The six-wheeled delivery robots will come from Cartken, an Oakland-based AI company founded by a team of ex-Google engineers known mostly for deploying its vehicles on college campuses.

The robots will deliver items offered by a slate of businesses in the Dadeland area of Miami-Dade County, with plans to expand into larger areas of the city and some additional markets in 2023. Uber claims that its partnership with Cartken represents the robotics company’s “first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app beyond college campuses.”

Sidewalk delivery robots are becoming a...

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Google Nest and Android devices are now Matter compatible — yes, right now

Google Home now supports Matter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google announced today that it has completed the initial rollout of Matter to its Google Nest products and Android OS. This means the Matter smart home standard, first developed by Google, Apple, Samsung, Amazon, and others, now has the foundation in place to start delivering on its ambitious promises: interoperability, simplicity, security, and a smart home that just works.

Over the past few weeks, Google has updated millions of Google Nest smart speakers, displays, and Wi-Fi routers as well as billions of Android phones and tablets to Matter. The company says the transition will be completed today, December 15th. Android devices need to run Android 8.1 and up and Google Play Services 22.48.14, while Google Nest devices need the latest...

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HearUSA will add Sony’s OTC hearing aids to its stores in 2023

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Soon, you’ll be able to pick up a pair of Sony’s OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aids at one of HearUSA’s 350 hearing centers or through its online store. Founded in 1987, HearUSA operates a network of retail stores that help consumers directly buy prescription — and now OTC — hearing aids.

Both Sony’s CRE-C10 and CRE-E10 models will be available starting in early 2023, though no firm date was provided. Sony, which has long been a leading headphone maker, first announced it was entering the OTC hearing aid market back in September.

The partnership between HearUSA and Sony isn’t surprising. HearUSA is owned by Denmark’s WS Audiology, which also owns popular hearing aid brands Signia and Widex, among others. It’s also the company Sony...

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Dell’s repairable Concept Luna laptop has a long road ahead of it

Here is a robot removing the Dell Concept Luna’s keyboard. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

Almost a year ago today, Dell announced the “Concept Luna”, a fully repairable and upgradable laptop incorporating sustainable materials. With everything removable and replaceable, from the memory and SSD to the keyboard and the screen, it looked to be a similar concept to the groundbreaking Framework Laptop — and potentially a huge win for both sustainability and right-to-repair advocates. The problem: it was not anywhere close to a real thing you could buy.

Well, it’s been a year. Concept Luna is still not on shelves. Dell still has no concrete plans to put it on shelves.

However, Dell does claim it’s made some progress on it. Specifically, it has “worked over the last year to further refine the modular design of Concept Luna,...

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