Meta’s done making new features for the Quest 1 — all updates will end next year

Image: Oculus

Meta is planning to stop supporting the original Quest VR headset with new software updates, and soon anyone using the older hardware will be locked out of some social features.

Several users on Reddit and Twitter, along with journalist Janko Roettgers, have posted screenshots of an email saying the company will stop shipping new features to the Quest 1 and that some features are going away. The headset will, however, be getting “critical bug fixes and security patches until 2024.”

The email says that original Quests will keep working, but users won’t be able to “create or join a party” and that users “who currently have access to Meta Horizon Home social features will lose access to these features on March 5, 2023.” Those features...

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Apple is reportedly making an all-in-one cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chip

The chip would be a major addition to Apple’s lineup. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple is working on a new in-house chip that would power cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth functionality on its devices, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is also developing its own chip that would replace the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip it currently uses from Broadcom, Bloomberg says, which it wants to begin using in devices in 2025.

Bloomberg also shared some new information about Apple’s efforts to develop its own cellular modems to replace Qualcomm’s. While Qualcomm recently said it expects to have the “vast majority” of 5G modems for 2023 iPhones, Bloomberg says Apple will use its own modems “by the end of 2024 or early 2025.” It will apparently start by using its custom modem in one product and fully transition them over...

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How to make the most of Android’s accessibility features

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Voice control, larger text, and other assistive features

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The flagship Apple Watch Series 8 is currently on sale right starting at $369 ($30 off). | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Thinking about picking up a new Apple Watch? The timing is always right to find at least one model selling at a deep discount. In fact, Apple recently launched its latest batch of smartwatches for 2022, including the $399 Series 8, the new $249 SE, and the first-ever $799 Ultra, which is aimed at outdoor enthusiasts and swimmers. There are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before, so you have plenty to choose from.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? If you can decide based on specs, we’ve put together a handy breakdown to make it easier to see what one model offers over another. Generally speaking, however, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software...

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The $3,000 totally wireless Displace TV is the definition of CES absurdity

Four hot-swappable batteries can keep the Displace running at all times.

Our time at CES 2023 might be over, but it’s still worth highlighting some standouts at the show. One of those that’s gotten quite a bit of attention is from an upstart company called Displace. LG’s brand-new Signature OLED M eliminates every wire except for the power cord, but Displace is trying to nix that one, too. In Las Vegas, the company demonstrated a completely wireless 55-inch 4K OLED TV that runs off four hot-swappable batteries. This is a dream that has existed since the earliest days of The Verge.

Are we seeing an imperfect sneak peek of the future, or is this a solution in search of a problem? Is the Displace another classic example of CES vaporware? Will it actually ever ship? All I know for now is that it seems to make...

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Meta is still adding basic moderation features to its VR playscape

Meta will show you a notification when you violate the rules. | Image: Meta

Meta is adding some new moderation features to Horizon Worlds, the company’s VR social platform, as part of version 91, according to a blog post published Friday. While the features are welcome upgrades, they also feel like relatively basic additions that should have been in place sooner.

For example, users who violate the platform’s policies will now get a notification spelling out what they did. (You can see an example at the top of this post.) And with the Account Status menu, which is accessible from the Safety tab in settings, you can see a list of your violations. “With this added level of transparency, we hope to increase awareness of our policies, prevent repeated violations, and promote positive behavior to keep our community...

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A GameCube-style Switch controller without stick drift (thank god)

The NYZX Wizard Wireless Joy-pad, with Hall effect sensors. | Image: NYZX

How many joy-cons have you gone through? I think I have like three with some degree of drift, and I am not that hard on my Switch. That’s why I’m pumped that NYXI has jumped on the bandwagon along with Gulikit and 8BitDo, announcing a retro-styled Switch controller called the NYXI Wizard Wireless Joy-Pad that features drift-free Hall effect sensors.

If you are like me, few things fill you with a berserker-level rage like a broken controller that you shelled out 70 bucks for a few months ago. It can feel like a cop-out to say that “they don’t make them like they used to,” but when it comes to controllers, this is absolutely the case. The quality of goods is getting worse, and this absolutely should not be an issue.

I...

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The best deals on MacBooks right now

The 2020 MacBook Air, one of the best laptops you can get, is frequently on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

With multiple configurations and various models to choose from, finding a deal on an M1-equipped Mac is not all that difficult. It’s sometimes a slightly different story for the MacBook Pros with beefier M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs, but with a little luck, you can score those excellent laptops for as much as $400 off. As for the most recent batch of M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, they, too, get their fair share of modest savings with some regularity.

Here, we’ll run through the discounts that are currently available for Apple’s latest MacBooks, all of which run Apple’s own silicon. If you come across any deals on older, Intel-based configurations still lying around, we strongly recommend avoiding them. While the last bastions...

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Instagram is kicking the shopping tab out of the home feed

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram users will soon have a revamped navigation bar on their home feed.

Beginning next month, Instagram will remove the shopping tab from the main bar at the bottom of the screen, and the button to create a new post will move down. The Reels tab, which is currently front and center on the navigation bar, will take the place of the Shop tab.

Image: Instagram

The new nav bar will roll out in February globally.

Instagram began testing a main feed without a shopping button back in September, saying it wanted to “simplify [the] Instagram experience” for users. But the test was part of a larger pivot on Instagram’s part, according to a report by The Information, as the company pulls back on its shopping...

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The government has questions about Elon Musk’s Full Self-Driving tweet

Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reached out to Tesla with questions about a tweet by Elon Musk suggesting he would remove an important safeguard from the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.

An NHTSA spokesperson confirmed that the agency has reached out to Tesla to gather information about the Musk tweet, in which the controversial billionaire suggested he would eliminate a driver monitoring function that warns users to keep their hands on the steering wheel while using FSD.

The information gathering by NHTSA is part of a broader investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot, which has been linked to over a dozen crashes involving stationary emergency vehicles.

T...

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Google’s bringing new features to older versions of Android

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is taking another shot at bringing new features to phones that haven’t gotten OS updates in years. It’s releasing something called the “Extension Software Developer Kit,” which should let developers use features like Android 13’s new photo picker in apps running on some versions of Android 11 and 12. In a blog post announcing the change, the company says the feature lets it “extend the support of certain platform functionality to existing Android versions.”

While more access to the photo picker previously exclusive to Android 13 is definitely nice, Google seems to have much bigger plans for the Extension SDK. “This update also sets the stage for expanding Privacy Sandbox testing on Android,” says Scott Westover, a Google...

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The Houston Texans’ plan to offset its pollution is backed by Big Oil and Gas

Photo by Justin Casterline / Getty Images

The Houston Texans, the NFL team reppin’ the city that’s arguably the oil and gas capital of the world, says it wants to go green. So of course the team is working with an oil and gas giant to try to tackle climate change.

A subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation called 1PointFive announced a new agreement and sponsorship with the Houston Texans on Friday. 1PointFive is Occidental’s huge new initiative to pull planet-heating carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in an effort to limit climate change. It can then sell credits for each ton of CO2 it captures to other companies trying to offset their own climate pollution. Essentially, Occidental can now make money from both its oil and gas business — and from emissions generated by...

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A celebrity photo lawsuit claims Twitter’s copyright process is broken

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As Twitter slashes staff and pares back moderation under Elon Musk, it may soon run into a problem it can’t ignore: its potential liability for copyright infringement. TorrentFreak reported last week that the company faces a lawsuit by celebrity photo agency Backgrid. Backgrid says that Twitter systematically failed to take down unauthorized copies of its pictures, arguing it shouldn’t be protected by American safe harbor laws for copyright. The allegations leave plenty of questions unanswered, but claims like them could pose a problem for Musk’s increasingly bare-bones operation.

Backgrid’s claims predate Musk’s ownership of Twitter, dating to at least September 2021. The complaint, filed in a California court in late December, alleges...

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England just made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

New laws have also been introduced to make it easier to install gigabit internet into existing flats and apartments across the UK. | Image: The Verge

My years-long battle to get gigabit internet installed may soon be over, thanks to new rules introduced by the UK government that make it easier to install faster broadband into apartments and flats across the UK. Additionally, a new law has been introduced that requires new properties in England to be built with gigabit broadband connections, sparing tenants from footing the bill for later upgrades.

Amendments to Building Regulations 2010 were announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) on January 6th that mandate new homes constructed in England to be fitted with infrastructure and connections required to achieve gigabit internet connectivity.

New homes in England must now be built with #GigabitBroadband...

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MSI says Afterburner isn’t abandoned, despite its developer’s doubts

Image: MSI

The future of popular overclocking utility MSI Afterburner has been called into doubt after developer Unwinder claimed MSI has “semi abandoned” the project and has “stopped performing [its] obligations.” Unwinder, who TechPowerUp reports is Russian national Alexey Nicolaychuk, suggests that MSI hasn’t been paying him for the better part of a year and that he may need to drop development of Afterburner “and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills.”

But in a statement, MSI says it intends to continue developing the software. A spokesperson for the company tells PC Gamer that it “fully [intends] to continue with MSI Afterburner.” They added that MSI has been working toward a solution and expects it to be resolved “soon.”

D...

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John Deere commits to letting farmers repair their own tractors (kind of)

John Deere has stood at the center of the right to repair debate for years. | Image: Getty Images

John Deere has finally committed to giving farmers the tools they need to fix their own equipment. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the agricultural lobbying group, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), on Sunday, an agreement that’s also supposed to ensure that farmers can take their machines to third-party repair shops, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

For years, John Deere has been at the center of the right-to-repair debate, and not in a good way. The company put software locks on equipment that only authorized dealers can disable, preventing farmers or an independent repair shop from diagnosing and fixing a machine. It can also remotely shut down machines at any time (like it demonstrated when R...

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BMW recalls over 14,000 iX, i4, and i7 electric vehicles for faulty battery software

Photo by Roberto Baldwin for The Verge

BMW issued a recall notice for over 14,000 electric vehicles for a software malfunction that could lead to a loss of power and an increased risk of a crash.

The automaker said that the recall covers certain iX SUVs and i4 and i7 sedans produced between October 14th, 2021, and October 28th, 2022. The software issue relates to the high voltage battery electronic control unit. According to BMW:

The high voltage battery electronic control unit software may, during certain vehicle operating conditions, cause an interruption of electrical power. Specifically, a misdiagnosis can sporadically occur within the battery management electronics, which could cause the electronic control unit to reset. If a reset occurs, this could cause an...

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The last-gen iPad is $80 off, a whole $200 less than the newer model

It’s technically old news, but the ninth-gen iPad might still be a great fit for you. | Image: Apple

The latest products might be worth the price hike if you get cooler features and drastically better performance than what the last-gen version offered. In the case of Apple’s spruced-up starter iPad released in October 2022, the model that came before it is easier to recommend to most people — even more so when it costs a whole $200 less. At Best Buy, the ninth-gen 64GB iPad is $249.99 in space gray or silver, a deal that knocks $80 off the original cost.

Compared to the 10th-gen model, it doesn’t have a USB-C connector, an iPad Air-like design overhaul with a bigger screen, or a selfie cam located in the middle (perfect for landscape usage / laptop mode). However, it’s still one of the speediest tablets available for this price, and it...

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Microsoft looking at OpenAI’s GPT for Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has been reportedly experimenting with building OpenAI’s language AI technology into its Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook apps. The Information reports that Microsoft has already incorporated an unknown version of OpenAI’s text-generating GPT model into Word in its autocomplete feature, and has been working on integrating it further into Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Microsoft has reportedly been using OpenAI’s GPT technology to improve Outlook search results so users can find what they’re looking for without having to search using keywords in emails. Microsoft is also said to have looked at how these AI models could suggest replies to emails or recommend document changes to improve Word users’ writing. It’s not clear if...

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Oreo’s Xbox-themed cookies unlock Forza, Halo, and Sea of Thieves skins

The Xbox Oreo cookies. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft has teamed up with Oreo once again to create Xbox-themed Oreo cookies. There are six custom Xbox cookie designs in total, with one featuring the Xbox logo and additional cookies for each controller button and a directional arrow.

The cookies are based on Oreo’s classic cookie-and-creme combination, but the packs will include special codes to unlock Oreo-themed armor packs or vehicle skins. In Halo Infinite there is Oreo-themed armor, which literally looks like a Spartan that has been dunked in an Oreo-flavored milkshake. Forza Horizon 5 players will get access to a vehicle skin that looks very cookie-like, and Sea of Thieves players get an entire ship skin that’s more black than it is white.

These special edition cookies will...

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Monday’s top tech news: an Apple headset this year? Finally?

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Plus more camera tech for the Raspberry Pi, and we say goodbye to this year’s CES.

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The makers of the Stem Player made a small projector that’s Kanye West-free

The new Stem Projector. | Image: Kano

Kano Computing’s Stem Player is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve ever used. It’s a strangely soft puck-shaped device that lets you manipulate parts of songs in real time just by swiping up and down. But because the Stem Player was linked heavily with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West who has taken an extremely antisemitic turn, I wasn’t much of a fan lately.

Now, Kano is back with its next Stem device, and not only is it Ye-free, but it’s a different type of gadget entirely: a video projector called the Stem Projector. The company is also teasing some wild future concepts for Stem products, like Stem food — yes, food — but we’ll get to that later.

Like the Stem Player, the projector is another small circular puck made of a...

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Steam hits 10 million concurrent in-game players in record-breaking weekend

Steam surpassed its previous records for both concurrent in-game players and online users on January 7th, 2023. | Image: The Verge

Valve’s game distribution platform Steam had a record-breaking weekend, exceeding 10 million concurrent in-game players for the first time, while also surpassing 32 million concurrent online users. According to SteamDB (a non-Valve affiliated database), Steam racked up 10,082,055 active in-game players and 32,186,301 concurrent online users — folks who were online, but not necessarily playing a game — on Saturday, January 7th, surpassing previous user milestones.

In fact, Steam has already surpassed the record for concurrent online users in the last 24 hours since SteamDB’s initial announcement on Saturday, with a new all-time peak of 33,078,963 users being reported by the database website.

Steam has reached 10 million concurrent...

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Raspberry Pi launches higher resolution camera module, now with autofocus

The new Camera Module 3. | Image: Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is launching a new camera module for use with its diminutive DIY computers — the Camera Module 3. Its upgraded Sony IMX708 sensor is higher resolution, but perhaps more important is that the new module supports high dynamic range photography and autofocus. Alongside it, Raspberry Pi is also releasing a new camera board for use with M12-mount lenses.

Combined, the new features mean the Camera Module 3 should be able to take more detailed photographs (especially in low light), and can focus on objects as little as 5cm away. The autofocus uses a Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) system, with Contrast Detection Autofocus used as a backup. In contrast, previous versions of the camera module had fixed-focus lenses, which Raspberry...

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Apple could soon open its first brick-and-mortar stores in India

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple has already started hiring to fill out its not-yet-announced stores in India, as first reported by The Financial Times. The company’s recent job listings show new openings for 12 retail roles at “various locations” throughout the country, including store leaders, senior managers, Genius Bar workers, and more.

The job listings, which include both full-time and part-time positions, directly refer to the Apple Store, although there’s no indication of how many roles are available. According to The Financial Times, at least five employees located in Mumbai and New Dehli shared on LinkedIn that they have already been hired for the upcoming stores, while Apple’s head of recruiting in India, Renu Sevanthi, “celebrated” the news of their...

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Elon Musk wants to move trial away from San Francisco over ‘local negativity’

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk has asked a judge to move an upcoming trial for a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco, citing concerns that the jury may have a bias against him, as reported earlier by CNBC. In a Friday filing, Musk requests that the judge relocate the trial to West Texas due to the “local negativity” in the Bay Area surrounding Elon Musk and his businesses, preventing a fair trial.

The shareholder class action lawsuit, which accuses Musk of manipulating Tesla’s stock, stems from the billionaire’s now-infamous 2018 tweet that claimed he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Tesla’s stock reached extreme highs and lows in the weeks following the tweet, and resulted in a $40 million fine from the Securities and Exchange...

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Apple may finally debut its mixed reality headset this spring

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple’s getting ready to launch its long-rumored mixed reality headset this spring, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company’s reportedly planning to reveal the device ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference in June and will start shipping it this fall.

The headset, which could cost as much as $3,000, is expected to provide both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences using Apple’s new xrOS operating system. Gurman says Apple has already shown off the Reality Pro-branded device to “a small number of high-profile” developers so they can start creating third-party apps for it.

(2/3)
As a result, it is increasingly unlikely that Apple will hold a media event for the new device in January. At...

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Disney’s Magical Companion debuts at CES with some help from Amazon

“Hey Disney!” is a smart voice assistant that wants to bring some magic into your home. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Alexa’s got some company. I met Disney’s new voice assistant at CES this week, and it’s pretty cute. Called “Disney’s Magical Companion,” the disembodied voice is born from fairy dust and lives inside Amazon’s Echo smart speakers and displays. Its purpose is to call up various characters — including Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars faves — to help you out with common voice assistant chores (timers, alarms, weather), as well as entertain with stories, games, and other sprinkles of Disney magic.

You conjure the assistant with the phrase “Hey Disney!” — here’s a quick demo I did at CES this week:

“Hey Disney!” showing some of its tricks which include jokes, trivia, and stories.

One neat thing about the integration is you never know which...

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The Verge’s best of CES 2023

Rounding up the best and boldest tech news to come out of Las Vegas in 2023.

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TweetDeck.com is down, but TweetDeck still works

I ran into a bit of a surprise when I tried to log into TweetDeck. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

I ran into a bit of a surprise when I tried to log into TweetDeck today: it didn’t work.

When I started typing the word “tweetdeck” into my URL bar, my browser suggested the rest of the URL, tweetdeck.com, like I’m used to. But after I hit the Enter key, my browser unexpectedly took a few seconds to attempt to load TweetDeck and then showed me this error message on a largely blank page:

upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection failure

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This isn’t what I wanted to see.

I ran into the same error in two different Chrome profiles and then began to panic. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, I haven’t been tweeting as much, but I still...

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