Gran Turismo 7 is getting a free VR upgrade for PSVR2’s launch

Jim Ryan reveals Gran Turismo 7’s VR update at CES 2023. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Gran Turismo 7 will be getting a free upgrade to let you play the game on PlayStation VR2, PlayStation head Jim Ryan announced during Sony’s CES 2023 press conference on Wednesday. The update will be available when PSVR2 launches in February, and more than 30 games are “on track” for the PSVR 2’s launch, Ryan said.

Sony also revealed a big new title coming to PSVR2: Beat Saber, which is arguably one of the marquee titles for VR. It’s now “in development” for the platform, according to Ryan, and more details about the release will be shared in the “near future.” Developer Beat Games is owned by Meta, but a PSVR2 release of Beat Saber isn’t completely out of the blue; the game is already available for the original PSVR.

PSVR2 promises to...

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Sony and Honda just announced their new electric car brand, Afeela

Sony and Honda’s joint mobility venture announced a new vehicle brand, Afeela, for the company’s first electric car, set to go on sale in North America in 2026. A prototype was unveiled during Sony’s presentation at CES in Las Vegas Wednesday.

Much is still unknown about the new brand, but Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said the car would leverage Sony’s experience with AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality to present a unique EV.

“Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility”

“Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility and where mobility can detect and understand people and...

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Amazon’s confirms its massive layoffs will affect 18,000 employees

That’s a higher number than expected. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon’s ongoing layoffs will affect around 18,000 workers, according to a memo from CEO Andy Jassy, which says that the “majority” of the roles being eliminated will be in Amazon Stores and People, Experience, and Technology organizations.

That’s significantly more than previously rumored — in November, The New York Times reported that the company was aiming to cut its workforce by around 10,000. In September 2022, the company said it had around 1.5 million employees in total.

Amazon will have laid of 18,000 people between the November cuts and the ones announced today

The news of the expanded layoffs was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said that they would affect “over 17,000 workers.” Jassy’s email notes that...

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Lego will let you — yes, you — compete to design a limited-edition Lego set

The Modular Lego Store, one of the first official unofficial Lego sets. | Image: Krisnow

Have you ever wanted to be a Lego designer? Now’s your chance — if you create an original Lego set starting February 1st, 2023, you can compete to be one of up to five unofficial sets that Lego will officially produce. Up to 20,000 of your set will be sold to fans around the world, and you’ll even get paid — designers get 5 percent of the proceeds.

They won’t come in a traditional Lego box, mind you, and they won’t be sold in stores. They’ll exclusively be part of the online “BrickLink Designer Program,” where the boxes look like this:

Image: Lego

The Modular Lego Store in its Bricklink box, from an earlier competition.

But make no mistake — these are sanctioned, sold, produced, and shipped by Lego itself,...

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The tech industry’s moment of reckoning: layoffs and hiring freezes

Companies have been cutting costs. | Photo by Natt Garun / The Verge

Over the past few months, the economy has started to turn, and tech workers are being hit hard. Meta, Twitter, and more have fired thousands, and others are slowing or freezing hiring.

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Coming soon: smart homes where the electricity isn’t so dumb

The Schneider Pulse smart electrical panel, one component of this system. | Image: Schneider Electric

I don’t know if Schneider Electric will be the one to crack it, but I like what it’s promising here at CES 2023 — a smart home where the electrical circuits themselves are smart enough to keep your house powered, save on your energy bill, manage solar, and charge electric vehicles, all through a single app.

Schneider Electric isn’t a household name, but there’s a good chance you’ve got one of its Square D circuit breakers in your home — the company says four in 10 US households already do. Today, it’s announcing an ecosystem of gadgets that won’t be hidden inside your walls, including:

• an entire smart main electrical panel called the Schneider Pulse that can control its own relays and acts as the brains
• a 7.6kW inverter large enough...

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Uranium and arsenic are in drinking water — but some communities have it worse than others

Signs warning of health risks are posted outside the gates of an abandoned uranium mine in the community of Red Water Pond on Monday, January 13th, 2020. | Image: The Washington Post / contributor via Getty Images

A new analysis of uranium and arsenic contamination in drinking water shows ugly evidence of how environmental racism persists in the US.Counties with more Latino residents and American Indian residents have been burdened with “significantly higher” concentrations of arsenic and uranium in their drinking water, the newresearch shows. In some of the most contaminated areas in the US, largerproportions of Black residents havealso been linked to more of the toxic metals in public water systems.

“The racial and ethnic makeup of your community should really not be connected to the quality of the water that you drink. And this is something that needs to be taken very seriously,” says Irene Martinez-Morata, lead author of the research...

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Philips Hue is getting a $130 app for TVs

The new Hue app will sync lights to your TV content. | Image: Signify

Signify, owner of the Philips Hue brand, is launching a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs. The $129.99 app will be available on Samsung’s 2022 or newer QLED TVs (Q60 or above) on January 5th and will synchronize everything you see on a TV to Philips Hue smart lights.

It’s effectively the software version of the $250 Play HDMI Sync Box, which scanned HDMI inputs to sync lights to movies and TV shows. This $129.99 app will do the same, but it also works on native apps like Netflix and Disney Plus, which didn’t work on the Play HDMI Sync Box.

You’re really paying $129.99 for the software side of this setup, as you don’t get any hardware like the Play HDMI Sync Box. There are cheaper alternatives, too. The Govee Immersion Kit is just...

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Luminar acquires lidar data company Civil Maps

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Lidar hardware company Luminar announced it has acquired Civil Maps, a lidar data company based in San Francisco. The acquisition brings ultra-detailed and automatically updating 3D maps of various cities into Luminar’s fold as it plans to bring fully autonomous vehicles into reality.

Luminar will integrate the Civil Maps assets, which include navigation data, into its Sentinel platform. Sentinel is the company’s full-stack software suite solution that’s currently in development for lidar-equipped cars, like the upcoming Volvo EX90.

The news comes during CES 2023, where Luminar is set to showcase vehicles from its partners, Volvo and Chinese automaker SIAC. The vehicles are equipped with fully integrated lidar systems, including a fairly...

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Samsung’s new smart home hub is hidden inside a wireless charger

Samsung’s new SmartThings Station is a smart home hub, a wireless charger, and a SmartThings Find device. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

A little over three years after getting out of the smart home hardware game, Samsung is back with a new smart home hub. And this time, Samsung has figured out a way to make you actually want to put a device hub in your home: by building it into a wireless charging pad.

The SmartThings Station is a chunky charging puck that supports Matter and Thread to connect devices like TVs, speakers, thermostats, lighting, and plugs to SmartThings. It also works with the new smart home standard Matter to onboard devices to any Matter platform.

And, of course, it can charge your gadgets. The Station doubles as a 15W fast wireless charging pad for Galaxy smartphones and earbuds (it will charge other phones, just not as fast). I am definitely here for...

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We were all fans of Ken Block

Photo by Massimo Bettiol/Getty Images

Ken Block, who died tragically in a snowmobile accident this week, was an entrepreneur, a racer, and a social media god. But at his core, he was always an enthusiast. We were all fans.

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TCL has a screen ready for every version of reality

TCL’s NXTWear V headset concept is just one way the company hopes to put screens on your face. | Image: TCL

TCL’s displays are in TVs, smartphones, and maybe in the near future, the metaverse, too. At least, the company wants to make the screen that gets you there. At CES 2023, the company is announcing its latest experiments with wearable displays, including a VR headset and mixed reality glasses. Plus, its personal display glasses, which have only been available in limited markets, are now heading for the US. It’s kind of a “cover-all-your-bases” strategy for whatever the future of display technology looks like.

The company’s NXTWear S glasses are the latest version of its wearable display — kind of like a TV contained in a pair of (sort of) ordinary-looking glasses. They aren’t AR or VR glasses; they plug into a device like your phone or...

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TCL’s 2023 TVs have new branding and are gaming powerhouses

Image: TCL

TCL is overhauling its TV strategy for 2023 by ditching the company’s long-running 6-Series, 5-Series, and 4-Series branding in favor of two new lines: higher-end sets will be part of the Q-Series, while more value-focused TVs will fall under the S-Series. Within the two segments are six different models in all.

Let’s cover the best first, shall we? With its flagship QM8, TCL is promising double the peak brightness of its best Mini LED TVs from 2022 — and those were already fairly impressive in their own right. Set to come in screen sizes between 65 inches and 98 inches, the largest QN8 packs in more than 2,300 dimming zones. TCL claims that’s the most of any 4K Mini LED TV on the market — and even more than 8K models. The QM8 features...

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The new Asus ZenBook Pro 14 leads a line of impressively refreshed OLED laptops

Image: Asus

From the beginning, the Asus Zenbook was an attempt to beat Apple’s MacBooks at their own game — using knowledge Asus originally obtained while helping to build those laptops for Apple. Why do I bring that up? We’re wondering whether the new Asus ZenBook Pro 14 and 16X might give them a run for their money.

It’s definitely not a given, given the incredible performance and battery life we’ve seen from Apple’s homegrown processors, but Asus is pushing hard. Last year, it went all in on OLED displays, including high-refresh-rate 120Hz panels that look absolutely stunning in person, and this year, it’s going even harder, aiming no fewer than nine machines with Intel and Nvidia’s latest chips against Apple’s creator audience alone —...

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Asus debuts an impressive (glasses-free) 3D display on its new Vivobook Pro

It’s on the fancier ProArt Studiobook, too. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

For some companies that sell gaming and creator-oriented laptops, glasses-free 3D has become a bit of a dream. Acer first tried it back in 2021. Its SpatialLabs technology, which uses a combination of a stereo camera, optical lens, and real-time rendering technology to create decently realistic 3D images, has since made its way to a number of laptops, including the Predator Helios 300 gaming rig.

This year, it’s Asus’ turn. The company has announced Spatial Vision, a “glasses-free (autostereoscopic) 3D OLED technology.” The screens are 3D, 3.2K, OLED, and 120Hz. In a similar manner to Acer’s tech, machines that support Spatial Vision will use a combination of a lenticular lens and advanced eye-tracking camera technology. They render...

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Asus’ new TUF models fix one of the biggest problems with today’s gaming laptops

The F15 and F17 come with up to an Intel Core i9 processor, while the A15 and A17 have AMD’s Ryzen 9 (Zen 4). | Image: Asus

Asus has announced upgrades to its four TUF Gaming models: the F15, F17, A15, and A17. The devices have new processors and GPUs inside, but what’s especially good to see is that all four models now have a dedicated MUX switch supporting Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus technology.

Previously, these models have included an MUX switch, which allows users to disable their integrated graphics, but not Nvidia’s feature for automatically turning it on and off. When the switch is on, instead of needing to route frames that a discrete GPU generates through its integrated GPU, a laptop will send them directly from the dGPU to its screen (as a desktop PC does). This will meaningfully impact battery power, so you wouldn’t want to do it if you’re out and...

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This Asus Chromebox doubles as a 15W wireless charging pad for your phone

If you want a hockey puck of a computer to easily deploy on a desk or behind a monitor, you’ll find plenty on sale, from the Mac Mini to Intel’s bare-bones NUC. But Asus is adding a “why didn’t anyone think of that?” feature to its new Chromebox 5 this year: a built-in 15W wireless charger for your phone and / or earbud case.

Okay, technically, someone did think of that before: you could buy an aftermarket wireless charging “lid” for some Intel NUCs, and Intel even added the feature itself to a few NUCs. But it’s rare, and this is the first time I’ve seen it on a Chromebox. Last generation, Asus simply advertised that its Chromebox 4 could deliver USB-PD power to a phone with a cable, which, well, duh.

Image: Asus ...

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Disney Plus IMAX Enhanced streaming is expanding to include ‘signature sound’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Disney Plus has been streaming movies in a taller-than-usual “IMAX Enhanced” format for more than a year now, and now it will roll out a new wrinkle for the home theater certification, with IMAX signature sound by DTS. Set to roll out at some point this year, the format says its intent is “preserving the full dynamic range of the original mix.”

There aren’t a lot of specifics about exactly what will be different, but audio and surround sound specialist DTS (and its parent company Xperi, which also owns other brands like TiVo) says its IMAX Enhanced label establishes a set of qualifiers ensuring viewers will get the best audio and video experience.

Unlike the extra-tall 1.90:1 aspect ratio IMAX Enhanced Disney Plus titles (mostly Marvel...

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Stellantis will mass-produce Archer’s electric air taxi as part of $150 million deal

Image: Archer

Stellantis announced a deal with air taxi startup Archer to mass-produce the company’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. The deal, which was announced during CES at Las Vegas, designates Stellantis as the exclusive contract manufacturer for Archer’s Midnight eVTOL aircraft.

As part of the deal, Stellantis will provide $150 million in equity capital for Archer to use “at its discretion” in 2023 and 2024, Archer said. The two companies entered into a definitive agreement to allow Archer to access Stellantis’ supply chain and manufacturing expertise back in January 2021. Now, they’re taking things a step further.

Archer has since gone public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company called Atlas Crest...

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Samsung ViewFinity S9 first look: a sleek alternative to Apple’s Studio Display

The ViewFinity S9 is the first true 5K monitor to come from Samsung.

Samsung announced its ViewFinity S9 monitor earlier this week. With a 5K (5120 x 2880) resolution and stylish aluminum enclosure, it seems like Samsung is trying to square off with Apple’s Studio Display — likely for a lower price — and LG’s high-resolution monitors. I had a chance to check out the ViewFinity S9 up close at Samsung’s First Look event here at CES 2023, and my first impressions were quite positive.

It definitely looks the part of a prosumer desk monitor. The design is premium, and having a matte finish by default is nice (even though you might lose a touch of saturation and sharpness). And you get plenty of I/O around back: I count one Thunderbolt 4 port, three USB-C ports, and DisplayPort. The ViewFinity S9 can charge...

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The Prestige 13 Evo is MSI’s new lightest laptop

Image: MSI

MSI’s new Prestige 13 Evo trades the company’s typically hefty gaming laptop designs for an ultraportable profile that weighs just a little over two pounds. Just like the Prestige Evo devices before it, the laptop retains a similarly impressive selection of I/O ports despite its size, including a DC input, HDMI 2.0 port, headphone jack, microSD card reader, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and even a USB-A port.

The Prestige 13 Evo has a pretty sleek chassis that comes in either gray or white, as well as a 13-inch full HD plus display (1920 x 1200) capable of running at 60Hz. But the laptop’s lightness doesn’t mean it’s super thin — it’s 0.67 inches thick, likely to fit all the ports on the sides of the device. That’s thicker than the 13-inch M2...

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MSI’s new laptop is see-through but not see-through enough

One of the coolest parts of the Cyborg 15 will remain out of sight while you use it — a shame. | Image: MSI

There’s something wrong with the seemingly hundreds of laptops that have been birthed so far during CES 2023: almost none of them are translucent. Using a see-through design is proven [no citations found] to make more people want to buy a product because, for one, it looks cool, and two, the company must be pretty confident in its engineering handiwork to want to show it off like that.

The thing is, if a company uses translucent plastic on your gadget, it’s got to go for it 100 percent or go home. And that’s where MSI goes wrong.

At CES 2023, the company is announcing the Cyborg 15, a gaming laptop that uses see-through plastic to show off its internals. Sadly, only the bottom of the laptop (and the trim around its top lid) is...

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MSI’s Stealth Studio takes aim at the Zephyrus G14

Look how tiny. | Image: MSI

There are a number of 14-inch gaming laptops floating around, but the most notable one by far is Asus’s ROG Zephyrus G14. It’s a powerhouse and an easy recommendation to anyone seeking a portable device that can really game.

But this year, MSI has decided to throw its hat in the ring. It’s just announced the new Stealth 14 Studio, which it’s boldly claiming is “the most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop.” That is a tough title to live up to, considering that the G14... exists (not to mention Razer’s Blade 14, which is also a strong, and sometimes even stronger, performer).

The main reason I’m skeptical of this claim is that the Stealth 14 Studio appears to max out at an RTX 4070, while the Zephyrus G14 goes all the way up to the RTX 4090....

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Citizen’s new Wear OS watch will use AI to help you battle fatigue

The second-gen Citizen CZ Smart comes with an AI-powered self-care advisor. | Image: Citizen

Last year was a big year for Wear OS smartwatches, and it looks like Citizen is continuing that momentum at CES 2023. The company announced its second-gen CZ Smart smartwatch, which will not only run Wear OS 3 but also feature an AI-powered “self-care advisor” that leverages the tech of NASA and IBM Watson.

The self-care advisor comes in the form of the CZ Smart YouQ app. The app uses neural networks developed via IBM Watson to try to determine a user’s chronotype — basically, whether you’re a night owl, an early bird, or something in between — after collecting seven to 10 days’ worth of sleep data. Users can also take short daily gamified tests based on NASA’s Psychomotor Vigilance Test, which was originally developed to give astronauts...

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Looney Tunes and The Flintstones are the latest victims of the HBO Max purge

The HBO Max streaming platform has removed half of its Looney Tunes and The Flintstones cartoon libraries. | Image: Warner Bros. Discovery

At one point in history, the Warner Bros. name (now Warner Bros. Discovery) was almost synonymous with its catalog of iconic cartoon shorts, featuring characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Wile E. Coyote. Despite that legacy, Warner Bros. Discovery has now pulled hundreds of classic Looney Tunes shorts from its HBO Max streaming platform, alongside 78 episodes of The Flintstones.

Variety has confirmed that seasons 16–31 of Looney Tunes have been removed from HBO Max as of December 31st, totaling 256 episodes that originally aired between 1950 and 2004. Some iconic shorts pulled from the service include “What’s Opera, Doc?,” “Feed the Kitty,” “Rabbit of Seville,” “Duck Amuck,” and “One Froggy Evening” (via Vulture).

256 episodes of...

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Ireland fines Meta over $400 million for its targeted advertising practices

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Meta over its handling of user data, following hundreds of millions of dollars in similar fines and potentially putting parts of its ad business at risk. The DPC announced today that Meta must pay €210 million (around $222 million) for violating European Union privacy rules with Facebook’s practices, plus €180 million (around $191 million) over similar violations with Instagram.

The fines stem from two 2018 complaints about how Meta — formerly Facebook — complied with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect that year. Both Facebook and Instagram’s terms of service began requiring users to accept a new terms of service contract that included the processing...

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Support for spatial audio arrives on the Google Pixel

The Pixel Buds Pro. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Google Pixel’s January update is here, and it adds a new spatial audio feature for the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 7, and 7 Pro phones. Android researcher Mishaal Rahman has verified that a toggle for the feature is appearing in the settings menu of the Pixel 6 Pro with the stable update, which is rolling out now to Pixel devices.

According to Google’s support page for the feature, it’s able to take audio from apps that offer 5.1 surround sound audio and make it sound like it’s coming from in front and behind you, as though you’re surrounded by speakers in the real world. Google notes that it should work with “any connected headset.” That even includes wired headphones, according to a Google blog post from last year.

Spatial audio has been...

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Samsung’s $200 Galaxy A14 5G comes with an upgraded display

The A13 5G comes with a big 6.6-inch 1080p display, an upgraded selfie camera, and a 50-megapixel rear camera. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is starting off 2023 with a budget phone refresh, making some smart upgrades with the Galaxy A14 5G — at least on paper. The A14 will cost $199, which is $50 lower than the A13 5G’s list price. Compared to its predecessor, it comes with a higher-res display and selfie cam while leaving many other core specs alone. Samsung will also offer up to four years of security updates and two OS version upgrades, which is a significant step up from the two or three years of security updates that are much more common at this price.

The A14 5G has a MediaTek 700 chipset and 4GB of RAM, just like the A13. That’s fine — the A13 delivered good performance with that combination, so Samsung isn’t trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. There’s...

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Panasonic’s new mirrorless camera gets the autofocus overhaul we’ve been waiting for

It’s a black camera, but trust me when I say it could be blacker. And thankfully Panasonic will soon do something about that. | Image: Panasonic

Panasonic’s new cameras are finally making the leap to a new autofocus system, potentially putting them in line with the latest offerings from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. At CES, the company is announcing the Lumix S5II and its stealthy, blacked-out cousin, the S5IIx — a duo of 24-megapixel full-frame mirrorless hybrid cameras for both stills and video, due out in January for $1,999 and May for $2,199, respectively. Also announced alongside them is a $799 14-28mm f/4-5.6 S Macro lens, arriving in February.

Unsurprisingly for Panasonic cameras, the S5II pair have a lot of video features, like 6K recording with real-time LUTs. This year, they ditch the dated and clunky contrast-detect autofocus for a new hybrid phase-detect system Panasonic...

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Eve’s new gadget turns retro rollers into smart blinds

The kit includes mounting brackets, covers, and adapters to ensure a proper fit with your blinds. | Image: Eve

The purpose of Eve’s MotionBlinds Upgrade Kit for Roller Blinds is apparent right from the name: it’s a device meant to make your regular old shades smart by adding a motor and a way to talk to your existing smart home setup. That means you’ll be able to add automations that close or open your blinds when doing so can save you energy or just ask your phone or voice assistant to let some light in without having to shell out for an entirely new window covering.

The company says that the device can be “easily installed without any wiring or technical know-how,” though you’ll have to charge it via its built-in USB-C port. The battery should last “up to a year with regular use,” according to Daniel Turk, a publicist working with Eve, and the...

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