Marvel Snap’s bundle pricing is out of control

Image: Second Dinner

Marvel Snap’s first patch of 2023 is here. And while it comes with an interesting set of buffs and long-asked-for nerfs, it also brings a new bundle in the shop that’s finally causing me to give my favorite mobile game ever a bit of side-eye.

As mobile games go, Marvel Snap’s been really good about its monetization scheme. You spend $10 a month if you want that season’s new card / premium battle pass filled with premium prizes, which feels fairly standard. You can also spend money on gold, which is used to buy credits that cosmetically upgrade your cards. As you upgrade your cards, you gain collector levels that, as your level increases, reward you with newer, more powerful cards. While that does sound slightly like “pay-to-win,” you can...

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Intel’s new Wi-Fi chip promises a better way to tether your Meta Quest VR headset

Why yes, that is a Frankenquest, adding a Vive Deluxe Audio Strap. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge

Intel and Meta have teamed up on a new way to directly connect your Oculus Quest headset to a gaming PC. If you buy or build a computer with its AX1690 Wi-Fi chip — and possibly others, we’re checking — you should be able to directly connect your headset to the computer instead of relying on your router to do the lifting (via Wi-Fi Now).

If you ask me, the Oculus Quest’s coolest feature is that you can tether it to a gaming PC, playing intensive titles like Half-Life: Alyx or Star Wars: Squadrons over Wi-Fi or wired USB-C. But if you’ve ever struggled to configure your router for the best Virtual Desktop or Oculus Air Link experience, like me, this might let you remove it from the equation.

Interestingly, the new feature is based on an...

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iPhone 16 Pro models could feature under-display Face ID

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple could finally bring under-display Face ID to the iPhone 16 Pro. According to a report from the Korean outlet The Elec (via MacRumors), the technology used for Face ID will live directly under the screen, blending in with the rest of the display once it’s turned on and revealing only the cutout for the front-facing camera.

While rumors about the under-display tech first emerged last year, this never ended up panning out on the iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone 15 isn’t expected to come with it, either. The Elec’s reporting tracks with predictions from supply chain analyst Ross Young, who tweeted last year that he expects the iPhone 16 Pro to come with under-display Face ID.

The reason it hasn’t happened before now is that the technology...

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There is exactly one game I can confirm RDNA 3 mobile can run

Look at me, a gamer, playing the Sackboy game. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Last week, AMD announced its upcoming Ryzen 7000 mobile CPUs and RDNA 3 laptop GPUs, and we got some very brief hands-on time with them. Well, okay — hands-on time is a stretch. I was able to play one specific title on one specific all-AMD system in the company’s demo area at CES 2023 last week. But that does at least confirm that these chips are real and functional in this year’s gaming laptops.

The company had a number of upcoming laptops from partners on display at the show, including some of the most anticipated models from Asus and Alienware that we covered over the course of last week. Most of them were running videos that showed off the laptops’ displays but did not clue us in about how the chips inside might perform.

But there...

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The petite DJI RS 3 Mini could be all you need to stabilize full-frame cameras

Image: DJI

DJI has announced the DJI RS 3 Mini, a more compact and lightweight alternative to the larger RS 3 and RS 3 Pro gimbals. Weighing just 1.75 pounds (795g), the RS 3 Mini is the smallest entry to the third-generation Ronin series of stabilizers designed for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Being around half the weight and size of the RS 3 Pro, the RS 3 Mini should be a lot easier to toss into a bag for traveling and allows some users to shoot stabilized video with one hand.

It might have mini in the name, but the compact RS 3 Mini can support cameras up to 4.4 pounds in weight, so provided you can lift a little more than six pounds with one arm, you should be able to use this thing in just one hand. DJI has provided a full list of supported...

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Microsoft’s next Surface Duo might have a truly foldable screen

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Microsoft has reportedly scrapped plans for a dual-screen Surface Duo 3 and is moving to a truly foldable design instead. Windows Central reports that the next Surface Duo will be more like devices like the Vivo X Fold or Honor’s Magic Vs, after Microsoft reportedly spent a year prototyping and experimenting with its current dual-screen design.

A Surface Duo 3 was reportedly planned for the end of 2023 with the typical dual-screen design and narrower and taller displays, wireless charging, and other design changes. Microsoft has reportedly scrapped that design to fully focus on bringing a foldable display to the Surface Duo.

Microsoft originally resisted a truly foldable display for the Surface Duo, preferring glass instead. “It wasn’t...

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Everyone deserves a Pinecil

This guy rules. | Photo by Christopher Person / The Verge

Learning to solder was a life-changing experience for me, but it can seem daunting. You aren’t just screwing and unscrewing parts — you are melting hot metal with a scorching tip. While that seems like something out of reach for most people, I am here to assure you that it’s never been easier to do, and that’s in part thanks to the Pinecil.

The Pinecil by Pine64 (makers of single-board computers and affordable Linux laptops) is an efficient, nimble soldering iron that runs on an open-source firmware called IronOS by Ralim. It has a bright little OLED screen, easy-to-understand controls, a 32-bit RISC-V SOC, and can be powered by either a DC adapter or a USB-C charger. Hell, you can even run it on a power brick, and I definitely have done...

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Best Buy is now offering free shipping with no purchase minimum

Best Buy is removing purchase minimums for anyone with a free My Best Buy account. | Image: Best Buy

Best Buy is bringing some changes to its rewards program in the new year. Beginning on January 9th, My Best Buy members are eligible to get free shipping with no required minimum purchase. However, My Best Buy members will no longer be eligible to earn rewards points beginning on February 14th, restricting that benefit to Best Buy credit card holders.

If you currently have an active My Best Buy account, you can still accrue points on eligible purchases before the new terms and conditions go into effect, and you’ll still be able to redeem any points you’ve accumulated without having to apply for a My Best Buy credit card.

I’m not going to tell anyone to run out and apply for a Best Buy credit card, but if you’re looking for free...

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Nothing Phone 1 comes to US via $299 beta program

Image: Nothing

Nothing is finally giving people in the US a way to purchase its debut smartphone… sort of. After its CEO teased a “US launch” last month, the company has officially announced a new US-focused beta program. Customers can pay Nothing $299 and, in return, receive the black version of the smartphone with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to test. At launch last year, the phone was only officially sold in European and Asian markets.

This is far from a full US launch — and not just because the devices are being distributed to test Nothing’s beta Android 13 software. The company’s website cautions that the phone “may not work with all US carriers,” so it sounds like you shouldn’t expect to be able to rely on it for day-to-day usage.

5G is only...

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Earth’s ozone layer is on the mend

In a report released October 3rd, 2000, the Goddard Space Flight Center said satellites have observed an 11.5 million square-mile hole, a severe thinning of Earth’s protective ozone layer, over Antarctica. | Image: Newsmakers via Getty Images

For decades, the Earth’s ozone layer, which protects life on our planet from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays, has taken a beating from common chemicals used in everything from refrigerants to hairspray. But now the holes in the ozone layer are diminishing, thanks to a decades-long global effort to repair it, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed yesterday.

Scientists first discovered a gaping hole over the Antarctic in 1985. A couple years later, countries around the world adopted the Montreal Protocol, a global effort to phase out “ozone-depleting substances.” And now, thanks to that work, scientists expect the ozone layer to start looking more like its normal, healthy self in the coming decades. That lowers the...

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Why Matter mattered at CES

Matter made a big splash at CES 2023. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The new smart home standard had a huge presence at CES this year. We break down all the big product announcements and new devices and look at the challenges Matter faces as its backers — including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung — prepare to monetize this newfound interoperability.

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Meta is further limiting how advertisers can target teens on Facebook and Instagram

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta is further restricting how advertisers on its platforms target users under 18, the company announced today.

Starting next month, the company is removing the ability for advertisers to target kids on Facebook and Instagram by gender, though they’ll still be able to use age and location. In 2021, Meta rolled back ad targeting based on the interests and activity of teen users, a catch-all term for the trove of data the company collects about your internet activity. With this most recent tightening of rules, advertisers will also no longer be able to target teens based on in-app engagement, like Instagram and Facebook pages they follow and like.

Beginning in March, teens will also have more tools available to (somewhat) control what...

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George Hotz wants to ‘make driving chill’ with next-gen Comma 3 hands-free driver assist

The Comma 3 is slightly bigger than an iPhone and plugs into your vehicle’s CAN bus. | Image: Comma

George Hotz just wants to build robots. You can see the desire in the Comma 3, the next-generation assisted driving hardware from his company, Comma.ai.

“It’s got two eyes,” he tells me, pointing to the two forward-facing cameras. He then holds the device up to his face so I can see the cameras are spaced about as far apart as a set of eyes on a human.

Hotz goes on, “It has a mouth for speaking. It can breathe air to cool itself… We’re building a human head.”

“We’re building a human head.”

You may remember Hotz when he went by the hacker name “geohot” to jailbreak an iPhone at the tender age of 17. Since then, he’s been a thorn in Elon Musk’s side, dissing Tesla’s Autopilot technology. And he’s pissed off Sony by breaking into a...

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Amazon’s opening up Buy with Prime, pulling other US retailers into its ‘free’ shipping subscription

Image: Amazon

Amazon’s expanding the availability of its “Buy with Prime” button. Starting on January 31st, more online stores in the US can start offering the benefits of a Prime subscription, such as free shipping and next-day deliveries, on their own websites.

Of course, customers who actually want to use the feature will have to pay for a Prime membership, which went up from $119 to $139 per year last February. The main difference between ordering on Amazon and ordering through Buy with Prime is that you can’t track your orders on Amazon.com and that you’ll instead have to click the link in your shipment confirmation email to get information about your order’s status.

If you do decide to use the Buy with Prime button, it’s worth noting that Amazon...

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What is chokepoint capitalism with authors Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin

Photography by Ivanna Oksenyuk and Paula Mariel | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Last year, I spoke with Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin about their new book, Chokepoint Capitalism. It’s a book about artists and technology and platforms and how different kinds of distribution and creation tools create chokepoints for different companies to capture value that might otherwise go to artists and creators. In other words, it’s a lot of Decoder stuff.

As we were prepping this episode, the Decoder team realized it previews a lot of things we’re going to talk about in 2023: antitrust law; Ticketmaster; Spotify and the future of the music industry; Amazon and the book industry; and of course, being a creator trying to make a living on all of these platforms.

The best part of the book is that Rebecca and Cory have some good...

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Kobo Clara 2E review: slow reader

There’s a lot to like about Kobo’s Clara 2E. It’s waterproof, has a high-resolution display, and comes with audiobooks. Unfortunately, its slow performance is hard to ignore.

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There’s plenty to be afraid of in the first trailer for Beau Is Afraid

Joaquin Phoenix in Beau is Afraid. | Image: A24

The title for Beau Is Afraid really seems to nail the premise — at least based on the first trailer. The A24 film is the latest from Midsommar and Hereditary director Ari Aster, and it stars Joaquin Phoenix as a stressed-out guy who goes “on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother.”

Apparently, that involves traveling through a papercraft fantasy world and meeting versions of himself from various time periods. To get the latter point across, the film features an extremely de-aged version of Phoenix that’s more than a little creepy, though Beau Is Afraid doesn’t seem to be quite as terrifying as Aster’s previous work. That might just be the trailer, though.

If that wasn’t enough to get you interested, the film also features a killer...

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HBO Max offloads European shows to Comcast and Paramount

Image: SkyShowtime

SkyShowtime, a European streaming service jointly operated by Comcast and Paramount, has swooped in to acquire the exclusive streaming rights to 21 local HBO Max shows across the continent, the streaming service announced today. Rights to the shows became available after HBO Max halted its original programming plans in Europe last year in attempts to save money. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 21 shows include three brand-new European series that have completed production but which are yet to air (ID, The Winner, and Warszawianka) as well as preexisting shows like Lust and Kamikaze. Upcoming shows will be branded as “SkyShowtime Originals” when they release. Existing shows were removed from HBO Max as part of last...

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The lightweight OnePlus Buds Pro are nearly half off today

The OnePlus Buds Pro are currently on sale in white for a mere $79.99. | Image: OnePlus

If you ask me, one of the best things about new products releasing is seeing the steep discounts on older models. With the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 set to debut next month, we’re starting to see some terrific deals on their soon-to-be-predecessor, the OnePlus Buds Pro. In fact, the wireless earbuds are on sale in white right now at Amazon for just $79.99, their lowest price to date.

For this price, the OnePlus Buds Pro bring a very compelling set of features. They offer good sound quality and effective noise cancellation along with an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance. They also feature multipoint support — a somewhat rare thing for earbuds in this price range — along with a comfortable fit that should accommodate most ear shapes. If...

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New Avatar: The Last Airbender mobile game will let you play with avatars from across the series

Image: Navigator Games

The Avatar: The Last Airbender content machine is ramping up with a new mobile RPG. Ahead of the live-action movie and rumors of a new animated series, Paramount is launching Avatar Generations, a mobile RPG that will feature characters throughout the Avatar universe.

Developed by Navigator Games, Avatar Generations will allow players to relive the best moments with the Gaang and Korra and avatars old and new like Kyoshi, Sozin, and more.

The Avatar franchise (not the blue one) had been a bit quiet since the end of The Legend of Korra eight years ago. But everything changed when the Fire Nati — excuse me, Netflix — signed on to produce a live-action movie bringing back showrunners Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. (Before...

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Servant’s final season gets off to a blistering start

Nell Tiger Free, Rupert Grint, Katie Lee Hill, and Toby Kebbell in season 4 of Servant on Apple TV Plus. | Image: Apple

As the Apple TV Plus thriller from M. Night Shyamalan kicks off its fourth season, the mysteries continue to pile up.

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Coinbase lays off a fifth of staff as crypto downturn continues

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is the latest tech company to announce mass layoffs. In an email to staff on Tuesday, CEO Brain Armstrong said the company would be letting 950 employees go as it attempts to “weather downturns in the crypto market.” The email was made public on the Coinbase blog, and the company also submitted an 8-K filing with the news.

In a not-so-subtle reference to the collapse of major cryptocurrency player FTX, who’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has subsequently been charged with money laundering and fraud, Armstrong cited “the fallout from unscrupulous actors in the industry” as one of the reasons fueling Coinbase’s cost-cutting efforts. Armstrong says the layoffs are part of a plan to reduce Coinbase’s operating...

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The UK’s first-ever rocket launch ends in failure

The LauncherOne rocket (visible under the left wing) was carried by the modified 747 Cosmic Girl to its launch destination over the Atlantic Ocean. | Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

What should have been a historic moment for the UK ended in failure last night after an undisclosed “anomaly” prevented the country’s satellite mission from reaching orbit. The Virgin Orbit “Start Me Up” mission was the first-ever rocket launched from British soil.

The first stage of the mission proved successful — Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl (a converted Boeing 747 acting as a carrier aircraft) took off from Spaceport Cornwell on January 9th as planned and released the LauncherOne rocket over the Atlantic Ocean at 11:11 PM GMT (6:11 PM ET). According to the live Virgin Orbit mission updates on Twitter, the LauncherOne rocket experienced a successful stage separation and second-stage engine ignition.

We appear to have an anomaly that...

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Tuesday’s top tech news: the next step in Apple’s chip plans

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Plus a new trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and YouTube Shorts starts paying.

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Improved voice typing in Google Docs is coming to more browsers

Google Docs’ voice-typing feature in action. | Screenshot by Barbara Krasnoff / The Verge

Google Docs’ voice-typing feature, which lets you “type” and edit text using your voice and a microphone rather than your hands and a keyboard, is getting a couple of key upgrades.

First is that the feature is expanding to “most major browsers.” Currently, Google’s support page notes that it’s “only available in Chrome browsers.” Second is that it is being upgraded to “reduce transcription errors and minimize lost audio during transcription.”

As 9to5Google notes, voice typing has been available in Google Docs for over half a decade, allowing users to get words on the (virtual) page even if their hands are full or otherwise not in a position to be able to traditionally type. It can also work as a handy transcription tool in a pinch,...

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HBO’s The Last of Us is a compact adaptation that puts you in the passenger seat

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s The Last of US TV series is a faithful adaptation of the beloved video game, but it doesn’t feel distinct as an apocalyptic survival series.

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It’s Kang’s world in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s newest trailer

As silly as Jonathan Majors’ Lokivillain was, it’s been kind of hard to imagine how the actor might bring Kang the Conqueror to life in director Peyton Reed’s upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But the movie’s latest trailer makes it crystal clear that while the Avenger Kang’s fighting might be something of a goofball, Kang himself is going to be all business as he tries to tear reality itself apart.

Quantumania’s new trailer re-introduces Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne, and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne as they and Scott’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) are accidentally sucked into the Quantum Realm that Janet first escaped in the second Ant-Man film.

The idea of returning to the Quantum Realm...

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Google Docs adds a feature we thought it already had: non-printing characters

If you’ve ever needed to see exactly where your line breaks and spaces are, I have great news. | Image: Google

Google is adding a feature to Google Docs that lets you see non-printing characters such as spaces, tabs, and various types of breaks, the company announced in a blog post on Monday. The option, which will be available in the View menu, can help make editing a document easier by showing you exactly how its formatted rather than making you rely purely on what you can see to tell whether something is a tab or a bunch of spaces. It can also be more helpful when troubleshooting messed up formatting.

Before now, people have had to rely on third-party add-ons for Google Docs to see the non-printing characters. While it’s not a feature that many people will have much use for (more on that in a second), there was definitely demand for it. A...

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Meta’s new ad system addresses allegations that it enabled housing discrimination

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta’s launching a new ad distribution system in the US as part of the settlement it reached with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last year. In an announcement on its site, Meta says its new Variance Reduction System (VRS) will create a more “equitable distribution of ads” on the company’s platforms, addressing claims that the platform propagated housing discrimination by letting advertisers exclude protected groups from their marketing campaigns.

Meta has contended with these kinds of accusations for years, dating back to a 2016 report from ProPublica that reveals how advertisers could shut out users based on their race.

Things came to a head when the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a lawsuit against the...

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YouTube will start sharing ad money with Shorts creators on February 1st

The money machine is coming. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube has announced that creators can start making ad revenue on Shorts starting February 1st, following a promise from September that the monetization option was on its way. The change is coming as part of a broader update to YouTube’s Partner Program, which will require everyone who’s currently part of it to sign new agreement terms, whether or not they’re looking to make money from Shorts.

Creators have been able to make some money from the format that rolled out in 2021 for a while via things like Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund that the company had set up, but that model wasn’t all that much better that TikTok’s monetization scheme. What TikTok doesn’t do, though, is directly share ad revenue with...

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