Apple Arcade is getting a remake of a 3DS game from the developer of Pokémon

_Yes, Game Freak has made non-_Pokémon games. | Image: Game Freak

Game Freak may be best known as the developers of Pokémon, but in an early 2023 surprise, one of the studio’s few non-Pokémon games is getting a refreshed new release for Apple devices. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, a remake of the 3DS title Pocket Card Jockey, is coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV via Apple Arcade on January 20th.

Pocket Card Jockey is a “solitaire and horse-racing hybrid,” Game Freak writes on the game’s App Store listing. “Focus your mind and clear cards with subsequent numbers in quick succession. The more cards you clear, the better your horse’s mood will be—which helps them charge energy during races!”

I’ll admit that I’ve never played the original, and I don’t completely get it even after watching a video...

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Sony breaks from tradition and won’t announce new TVs at CES 2023

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

If there’s one brand that’s inherently linked to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it’s Sony. Every year, the company unveils its latest and greatest 4K TVs and shows off other home theater hardware at the Las Vegas gathering. If anything is a safe bet at CES, it’s seeing a bunch of fancy new TVs.

But not this time. At least not from Sony — yet.

Sony Electronics isn’t planning to introduce a new TV lineup at CES. Instead, it appears likely to use the event as yet another showcase for the upcoming PlayStation VR2 virtual reality device. It’s right there in the YouTube link for the press conference. Sony has also teased automotive news for the show.

In a statement from Sony Electronics provided by spokesperson Chloe Canta, the...

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Asus’ new 27-inch OLED gaming monitor has a heatsink to keep cool

Welcome to the 27-inch club, Asus. | Image: Asus

Asus is one of many brands jumping into making smaller OLED gaming monitors for 2023. Acer and LG took their shots. Now, the model Asus had been teasing is real, and it’s got a clunky name: the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM. Screen-wise, what it’s offering matches the others; it’s a 27-inch, 1440p, matte-coated OLED that runs at a fast 240Hz refresh rate with a .03-millisecond response time. But it does have one big difference: a heatsink to keep it cooler and prolong its lifespan.

I haven’t seen this one in person yet, but its display seems like a delight to look at. It covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, so digital artists and other creators might be able to use it — when they aren’t gaming, that is. Like other OLEDs, this one...

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Henrik Fisker wants to sell you an EV you can actually afford

Henrik Fisker is facing a make-or-break year for his startup. | Image: Henrik Fisker

In a wide-ranging interview, the Fisker Inc. CEO talks about avoiding production hell, making an actually affordable electric car, and why 2023 will be a pivotal year for EVs.

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Twitch is recovering from its the outage that took down everyone’s stream pages

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch is recovering from its first major outage of 2023. During the incident, the streaming site showed blank pages for accounts or “an error has occurred,” which made it appear to some like a streamer deleted their account.

The Twitch outage affected both desktop and mobile users, with iOS and Android users seeing an “error loading followed channels” when opening the app. The search feature didn’t let Twitch mobile users navigate to streamers, either.

️ We have fixed the issues impacting multiple areas of Twitch and services should be back to normal. If you're experiencing an issue loading part of the site please refresh your browser tab to see if this resolves it. Thank you again for your patience

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport)...

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Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud, money laundering charges

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at Manhattan federal court on January 1st, 2023, in New York City. | Photo by Gotham / GC Images

CNBC reports that Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the eight criminal charges he’s facing, accusing the former crypto billionaire of committing fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, appeared in a New York City courtroom nearly two months after his crypto exchange FTX declared bankruptcy.

Now billions of dollars from investors and customers are missing, and the Department of Justice, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have all accused his empire of operating as a fraud practically from the very start.

According to Bloomberg, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan tentatively set a start date for the trial on October 2nd, “after US prosecutors said they...

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Louisiana now requires a government ID to access Pornhub

Graphic by James Bareham / The Verge

A Louisiana law requiring age verification for adult websites has kicked in, renewing long-standing concerns about online privacy. The policy, Louisiana HB 142, requires sites composed of “thirty-three and one-third percent” or more of pornographic content to verify that people accessing them are 18 or older. That includes services like Pornhub, which has started requiring a government-issued ID for access.

Pornhub didn’t confirm the new policy, but video posted to Twitter apparently demonstrates what users see in Louisiana. It asks users to verify their age with AllpassTrust, which works with the Louisiana digital ID service LA Wallet. Vice confirmed the report using a VPN service, adding that other adult sites like XVideos didn’t...

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Dell’s new 32-inch 6K monitor gives Apple’s ProDisplay XDR some competition

Dell’s 32-inch 6K display comes with a 4K webcam and other handy features. | Image: Dell

With Dell’s new 32-inch 6K UltraSharp monitor, the Apple Pro Display XDR is no longer in a category of its own. Dell’s new monitor does things a little differently, though, blending elements from Apple’s $4,999 monitor and the $1,599 Studio Display, providing a possible best of both worlds when it comes to productivity and performance.

Though the UltraSharp 32 matches the Pro Display XDR for size and resolution, it doesn’t quite have the same specs and construction. Dell’s 6144 x 3456 pixel monitor uses the LG Display-developed IPS Black technology, which allows for better contrast and deeper blacks, and provides up to “1.2 times better color accuracy” when compared to conventional IPS monitors. It supports 1.07 billion colors and 99...

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ROG puts 18-inch screens in its latest Strix gaming laptops

The Strix G18 (right), and Strix Scar 18 (left) are both equipped with 18-inch displays. | Image: Asus

Asus is announcing a pair of new ROG gaming laptops equipped with 18-inch displays at CES 2023 today: the Asus ROG Strix G 18 and ROG Strix Scar 18. While it’s not uncommon to see gaming laptops with displays up to 17.3 inches, these new additions are taking portable displays to a new level.

The 18-inch models of both laptops will have configurations available that use Asus’ new Nebula HDR technology that’s capable of up to 1,100 nits of brightness and is Dolby Vision compatible. You’ll also have the option to pick between either 165Hz or 240Hz refresh rates for both models.

Image: Asus

The Strix G 18 will also have configurations with transparent WASD keys.

Beyond the impressive new displays, there are...

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The ROG Zephyrus G14 is getting a Mini LED screen

Here are a bunch of Zephyri. | Image: Asus

Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of the hottest mainstream gaming laptops around, and its 2023 iteration is sure to be one of the most anticipated releases of this upcoming year. Not only is it one of a few gaming laptops that can provide all-day battery life but also it’s one of very few 14-inch gaming rigs that can achieve competitive frame rates on many modern games.

It’s hard to imagine how Asus could improve on what was already such a successful package. But the company has found perhaps the one thing the G14 was really missing — and frankly, it’s been a long time coming. This year, the 14-inch Zephyrus will have a Mini LED display option.

Mini LED should really be in more laptops by now. Unlike typical LCD screens, which use the same...

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Asus’ convertible gaming laptops return with new hardware and more staying power

The ROG Flow X16 is just one of three convertible laptops Asus showed off at CES 2023. | Image: Asus

The hits from CES 2023 just keep coming. Asus is rolling out a bevy of new hardware announcements for its ROG gaming brand, and among those are refreshed models of its Flow lineup. The Flow X13, X16, and Z13 are all getting hardware improvements, including the latest processors and mobile GPUs — but perhaps the most notable improvement with these gaming laptops is their larger batteries.

Asus’ Flow line is relatively unique among gaming laptops, sporting 2-in-1 displays and — in the case of the X16 and Z13 — compatibility with an Asus-made external GPU to boost gaming performance. However, the most recent iterations of these laptops suffered from abysmal battery life, something Asus is trying to amend with the new models of the X13 and...

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Acer’s Aspire all-in-one is impressively sleek

Image: Shutterstock / Rawpixel.com

Acer’s latest Aspire S all-in-one PC packs a desktop computer into an aluminum chassis that could almost blend in as a standard monitor. The display, which has an extremely slim bezel around a 1440p panel, comes in either 27- or 32-inch sizes and is on a stand that handles power, ports, and ergonomic adjustments — and which includes a few surprises, too.

The 27-inch model, which starts at $1,199.99, can be equipped with 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1240p or i7-1260p processors, according to Erin Davern, an Acer spokesperson. Davern also said that the larger version, which will cost at least $1,699.99, uses a 13th Gen Core i7-1360p. It’s worth keeping in mind that those are mobile chips, rather than desktop ones, which isn’t exactly a surprise...

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Acer’s new Predator Helios laptops can pack a bright 250Hz Mini LED screen

The Helios 16 and 18 look similar in pictures due to each having a tall 16:10 aspect ratio display. | Image: Acer

The Predator Helios is at the top end of Acer’s lineup of gaming laptops, and it has some special updates in store for 2023. The Helios comes in two new sizes, including 16- and 18-inch models, just like the latest releases from Alienware and Razer. These new Helios laptops have impressive specs that I’ll dig into below, but I’m most looking forward to trying out one thing in particular: their top-of-the-line 250Hz Mini LED display option.

This is big news because Mini LED-backlit displays are still rare, usually reserved for high-end TVs, pricey tablets like the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and now some beastly laptops. OLED still delivers better picture quality, but Mini LED is brighter, and it narrows the gap in quality by squeezing more...

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Acer goes Intel-only with the latest Aspire laptops

Acer’s Aspire 5 lineup comes only with a 13 Gen Intel Core processor. | Image: Acer

Acer’s ditching AMD in its latest lineup of Aspire 3 and Aspire 5 laptops. The company’s new Aspire 5 devices come only with options for Intel and Nvidia products, ranging up to a 10-core Intel 13th Gen Core i7 1355U, along with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 graphics card.

That’s a sizeable bump from the (up to) four-core Intel i7-1165G7 processor (or the up-to-eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5700U) offered in the Aspire 5 lineup released last year, although a newer model now comes with a 10-core Intel 12th Gen Core i7-1255U. Just like the previous generation, Acer’s newly released lineup also features three display sizes: 14 inches, 15.6 inches, and 17.3 inches.

The Aspire 5 comes with storage options that max out at 32GB of DDR4 RAM and a...

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Alienware’s 500Hz desktop gaming monitor might be the actual world-first

The Alienware AW2524H is a 24.5-inch, 500Hz, 1080p monitor. | Image: Dell

If you’re having a strong sense of déjà vu, you’re not alone — last January, I brought you word of the first prototype 500Hz gaming monitor, and Asus announced what should have been the first actual 500Hz gaming monitor nearly seven months ago. But today, I’m here to tell you about the Alienware AW2524H, which could well be the first 500Hz gaming monitor you can actually buy.

See, we hadn’t heard a word about the Asus monitor between its original announcement and this very morning — when Nvidia namedropped a “ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP 540Hz 24” 1080p G-SYNC display with Reflex” whose website isn’t yet live as I write these words. But I digress.

Image: Dell

The Alienware AW2524H.

Why would you want to buy a...

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Acer’s Halo Swing is a glowing smart speaker that costs $229

Image: Acer

Acer is introducing the Halo Swing, a portable smart speaker with glowing lights and a simple display that can show you weather, alerts, and more. The Halo Swing is compatible with Google Assistant, so you can use it to set alarms and control other smart devices with just your voice.

Like the older Acer Halo, the Halo Swing stands out because of its unique appearance. The Halo Swing shares the Halo’s RGB-lit base, which emanates colorful lights and thus makes the speaker double as a light source. These lights also respond to the beat of your music, making this a speaker clearly well-suited for parties. Plus, they even change colors while interacting with Google Assistant.

Image: Acer

The other highlight here is the...

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Acer has a new bike desk for overachievers

The eKinekt BD 3 in “working” mode, allowing the rider to sit upright while typing. | Image credit: Acer

In case your New Year’s resolutions include more multitasking, Acer has a new bike desk for that. Called the eKinekt BD 3, the bike desk is meant to allow you to work, exercise, and generate your own clean electricity all at once. Pedaling the bike produces a small amount of kinetic energy that you can use to charge devices from the desk.

Cycling at a somewhat leisurely pace of 60 RPM (revolutions per minute) for an hour can generate up to 75 watts of power, according to Acer. Converting that to kilowatt-hours (assuming you use those 75 watts in an hour) and plugging it into the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, you might prevent emissions equivalent to walking rather than driving 0.132 miles in a gas-fired car.

In a...

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Razer expands to 16- and 18-inch Blade laptop models

The screens on the Blade 16 (left) and the Blade 18 (right) appear to have taller aspect ratios than what I’ve seen on Razer’s previous gaming laptops. | Image: Razer

Razer has announced the Blade 16 and Blade 18 gaming laptops at CES 2023, two new sizes that will stock the latest Intel and Nvidia chips. Specifically, they’ll get Intel’s high-end 13th Generation Core i9 HX-class CPUs, with support for up to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 mobile graphics.

Several other companies have gone live with similar announcements today. Alienware debuted its new 16-inch X16 and 18-inch M18, and Acer has the Helios 16 and Helios 18, to name some examples.

2023’s gaming laptops may have some big changes internally, but it seems like the industry’s major players are dancing to the same beat when it comes to sizing. 16- and 18-inch laptops are in, and companies are moving away from the 15- and 17-inch sizes that were...

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Crypto collapse: FTX’s fall is one piece of a long, cold, contagious crypto 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 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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Intel’s 13th Gen mobile processors include the first 24-core laptop CPU

Image: Intel

Intel’s 13th Gen desktop CPUs have already delivered impressive performance to beat their AMD counterparts, and now Intel is bringing Raptor Lake to its mobile processor lineup. The flagship Core i9-13980HX is built for upcoming gaming laptops, and there are also the regular H-, P-, and U-series chips for a variety of more mainstream laptops.

Intel’s Core i9-13980HX is the star of the show with a 5.6GHz turbo frequency and 24 cores. It’s the first time a laptop CPU has supported a 24-core configuration, and Intel claims it’s the “world’s fastest mobile processor.”

Image: Intel

Intel’s top 13th Gen HX mobile processors.

Image: Intel

Intel’s 13th Gen H-series lineup.

Intel has...

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GE Lighting launches new ‘Dynamic Effects’ Cync bulbs, panels, and light strips

Cync’s new Dynamic Effects Neon Rope lights can be configured into any shape you want. | Image: Cync

GE Lighting announced a big expansion of its smart lighting brand Cync’s Dynamic Effects line this week. The new entertainment-themed products position Cync even more squarely as a cheaper Philips Hue and Nanoleaf competitor.

New hexagon wall panels, neon-style rope lights that can be shaped how you like, and A19 and BR30 bulbs join the full-color gradient indoor and outdoor light strips Cync launched late last year, which are around $40 cheaper than comparable Hue versions.

All Dynamic Effects products can display 16 million colors, tunable white light, and preset and custom lighting effects similar to Hue and Nanoleaf products. The LEDs are addressable and can display multiple colors simultaneously — even the A19 and BR30 bulbs,...

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Apple patent application describes Apple Pencil that can sample real-world colors and textures

The Apple Pencil 2 was released back in 2018, and I’m still eagerly awaiting a next-gen upgrade. Perhaps this new Apple patent could bear some fruit in that regard. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple has filed a patent for an Apple Pencil stylus that can identify and digitally replicate colors and textures from real-world objects. Patently Apple spotted the application last week (which we saw via MacRumors), which describes a stylus equipped with a color sensor, light detector, and light emitter within its “pencil” tip. According to the patent doc, the stylus can wirelessly transmit “color sensor measurements, texture measurements, and associated angular orientation measurements” to external devices like an Apple iPad.

The patent says that the stylus is capable of measuring texture by detecting how lighting and angles affect an object’s surface. Similarly, a combination of optical sensors can be used to measure how reflective...

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Shower pods are here to turn your bathroom into a spa

Sprig Shower Infusion System. | Image: Kohler

Ever wish you could bring the spa home with you? Well, now you kind of can. Kohler announced a new aromatherapy shower infusion system at CES 2023 that will add a spa-like experience to your daily showers — just get ready to add shower pods to your shopping list.

Kohler’s Sprig Shower Infusion System consists of a gadget capable of attaching to any showerhead paired with Sprig Shower Pods. Once the shower is on, Kohler’s Sprig Shower Pods infuse the water stream with acombination of scents, like eucalyptus, chamomile, and lavender, as well as ingredients that are supposed to be good for the skin, like hyaluronic acid and sodium. Kohler says the pods are safe to use on the entire body and should run for “several minutes.”

While you can...

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Samsung Display’s new QD-OLED TV panels can hit 2,000 nits of peak brightness

Samsung Display’s 77-inch QD-OLED TV panel. | Image: Samsung Display

Although Samsung is yet to officially reveal its lineup of QD-OLED TVs for the year, its display division has just teased a couple of key specs: a maximum peak brightness of 2,000 nits, and an increase in power efficiency of up to 25 percent.

2,000 nits of peak brightness is around double what Samsung’s debut QD-OLED TV, the S95B, was able to put out last year. It also appears to be higher than the 1,800 nits that an LG spokesperson told FlatPanelsHD that its 2023 G3 model should be able to reach (although LG’s TV may go higher depending on exact picture settings).

Although peak brightness isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of picture quality, brighter screens tend to produce better HDR with more impact and vibrancy. And if they’re able to...

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Tuesday’s top tech news: CES kicks off 2023 with a bang

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The world’s biggest tech show is here once again, which means there are gadgets in the air.

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Samsung Display’s latest foldable concept can both slide and fold

The left side of the Flex Hybrid folds, the right side slides. | Image: Samsung Display

Samsung Display’s Flex Hybrid is a new prototype device with a display that’s both foldable and slidable. The left side of the concept “smart mobile device” can be unfolded to reveal the display, while the right side can then slide outwards for even more screen real-estate. It’s being shown off at CES 2023 alongside a new 17-inch slidable display, as well as automotive panels designed for self-driving cars.

Although there’s no detail on specs like resolution or peak brightness, Samsung Display says the Flex Hybrid can expand from a 10.5-inch 4:3 display to a 12.4-inch screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s not hard to imagine the display eventually being used in a foldable smartphone, allowing the device to be unfolded for a small...

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Sony’s $529 InZone M3 gaming monitor is now available

This image shows the pricier 4K InZone M9, but its design is virtually identical to the M3. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The more affordable, lower-spec companion to Sony’s $899 InZone M9 gaming monitor has arrived. The InZone M3 is launching for $529 and is available now, with an identical 27-inch size and a PS5-esque white on black design. This monitor rounds out Sony’s interesting year in making hardware that appeals to more than just core PlayStation fans. It’s attempting to build credentials and popularity in the PC gaming space, which it brands like LG, Samsung, MSI, Acer and many others are the top choice.

As for what’s different, the biggest change is its IPS panel’s drop from 4K resolution to 1080p. The PS5 natively supports 1440p, but this monitor doesn’t. The M3’s screen also lacks full-array local dimming, which gave the M9 spectacular...

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LG’s 2023 OLED TVs are brighter (again) and make webOS smarter

WebOS has been slightly redesigned and streamlined on the 2023 lineup. | Image: LG

Last year, LG cranked the brightness on its G2 and C2 series TVs up to new highs, bringing a meaningful improvement to the company’s already-fantastic OLED lineup. These TVs are considered by some to be the best on the market dollar for dollar thanks to their perfect black levels, incredible contrast, and top-notch gaming capabilities. So how is LG going to improve upon that with the new models it’s introducing at CES 2023?

It’s going to push the brightness even higher while also focusing on image processing and software enhancements.

The G3 succeeds the G2 and “incorporates brand-new light control architecture and light-boosting algorithms to increase brightness by up to 70 percent,” according to LG’s press release. That number is in...

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Arlo is taking away security camera features you paid for

When I set out to buy my first home security cameras, the Arlo Q was my obvious pick — every reviewer pointed out that it offered seven days of free cloud storage instead of forcing you into a subscription. Heck, Arlo even advertised it on the packaging.

But on January 1st, 2024, the company’s killing that feature for many Arlo cams — and reserving the right to eliminate all cloud functionality, including email alerts, push notifications, and other “bundled services or features,” for any camera that hasn’t been manufactured for four years.

Image via Chris Rauschnot (YouTube)

“Watch Anywhere With 7 days FREE Cloud Recordings,” Arlo advertised.

Arlo’s delivering that news in the form of a new retroactive...

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