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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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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
Tired of comparing your behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel on Instagram? (To quote Steven Furtick.) The social network has its charms, but for many, it can be a place that’s littered with envy-inducing photos and videos of everybody else’s “perfect” lives. If you’re not careful, it can trigger all sorts of insecurities — sometimes even to the detriment of your mental health.
That’s why it’s important to be mindful of the type of Instagram content you’re consuming on a daily basis. While it’s easy to unfollow accounts from influencers, though, you can’t exactly unfollow or full-on block a friend or a family member without hurting some feelings. That’s where Instagram’s “mute” feature comes in handy: it lets you mute...
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Kaina of the Great Snow Sea. | Image: Crunchyroll
Fans of Tsutomu Nihei — the creator of manga and anime series like Blame! and Knights of Sidonia — generally know what to expect from his works. There’s usually a sliver of humanity living perilously in some dark future, an alien or technological force they have to overcome, and all kinds of incredible ships, weapons, and architecture for design nerds to ogle over. They’re the kinds of bleak sci-fi tales that can make you feel small and insignificant. But his latest, called Kaina of the Great Snow Sea, softens things up a little bit.
The series, which is on Crunchyroll, once again sees Nihei team up with Polygon Pictures, the animation studio that worked on the Knights of Sidonia series and Blame! film (along with my personal favorite...
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Image: LG
If you love digital window shopping and you’re in the market for a TV, a gaming console, or a new monitor, then we’ve got a great deal for your perusal. At eBay, you can get an additional 20 percent off a wide range of tech products when you use code NEWYEARTWENTY on a qualifying item at checkout until 11:59PM PT January 15th / 2:59AM ET January 16th.
This deal can knock a significant chunk of change off some big-ticket items, like getting LG’s 55-inch C2 OLED for $1,117.59 (normally $1,396.99), the Nintendo Switch OLED for $294.80 (normally $349.99), the LG DualUp monitor for $646.08 (regularly $699.99) or the Logitech G502 X Plus Lightspeed wireless mouse for $127.99 (regularly $159).
Now, you’ll notice that those last two aren’t...
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Land of the Giants, the Vox Media Podcast Network’s award-winning narrative franchise, today announced the launch of its seventh season, Dating Games. Marking a collaboration between two of Vox Media’s editorial brands, The Cut and The Verge, the six-episode series will examine the multi-billion dollar dating app industry and explore whether the business goals of the companies behind them are aligned with users’ romantic aspirations. Hosted by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz (senior staff writer, The Cut) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (host, Paired by the People), the season will feature interviews with the founders of apps like Tinder and Bumble, Match Group executives, as well as former Tinder engineers, data scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists,...
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Angela Bassett holding her Golden Globe at the 80th Golden Globes. | Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer / FilmMagic
After concerns about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s ethics and egregious lack of diversity led to the Golden Globes not being televised in 2022, the long-running awards show returned last night with host Jerrod Carmichael headlining an evening of surprising wins. While the atmosphere in the room appeared to be a bit awkward and, at times, tense as the ceremony unfolded, it was also punctuated by a number of moving, poignant speeches from some of the industry’s brightest stars.
While Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans took home the most awards on the film side of things this year, it was Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan who moved the Globes audience...
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The new Hub is starting to roll out now. | Image: Roblox
Roblox is officially completing its rollout of the Creator Hub, a new hub that gives developers more tools and centralizes things like documentation and a developer forum into one place. Making the information easier to find seems like it could be quite helpful for developers, and that has an important aftereffect for Roblox, too: Roblox makes its money by taking a cut of what its developers earn, so it’s incentivized to make things better for the creators on its platform.
Creator Hub aggregates five Roblox resources, Nick Tornow, Roblox’s VP of engineering, tells The Verge:
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The NFL star once served as an ambassador for FTX. | Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
Tom Brady’s weighty investment in FTX is on the verge of evaporating. New bankruptcy filings show that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback holds over 1.1 million common shares in the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, while his ex-wife and fashion model Gisele Bündchen holds around 680,000, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and Insider.
The NFL star and his then-wife have served as brand ambassadors for FTX since 2021 and even appeared in a series of commercials for the exchange (which really haven’t aged well). According to an estimate from Forbes, Brady’s investment was valued at around $45 million, while Bündchen’s was worth about $25 million. In its report, Insider notes, “During typical bankruptcy proceedings, only bond holders are...
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The Texas Gigafactory, constructed last year, serves as the Tesla global headquarters and is the “equivalent to three Pentagons,” according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. | Image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has notified the state of Texas of its plans to spend upward of $770 million expanding its already immense Austin-based factory.
According to registration documents filed on January 9th with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (via CNBC and the Austin Business Journal), Tesla intends to construct additional facilities for what appears to be a battery cell testing lab, cathode and drive unit manufacturing facilities, a die shop, and an undisclosed 693,093-square-foot facility called Cell 1.
Some of these projects are due to start construction within a matter of weeks.
Image: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation
The Texas Department of Licensing and...
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Image: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
No matter what language you speak or what part of the world you call home, one thing is certain: no one wants to miss out on a good deal.
This has proven especially true in China for existing Tesla customers, who are so unhappy about recently announced price cuts to the cars — discounts they missed out on when they bought their cars — they’ve been staging protests across the country for several days now.
Reuters and other outlets have reported that hundreds of Tesla owners gathered at showrooms and delivery centers in Shanghai on Saturday to express their anger over major price drops to the Model 3 and Model Y. Moreover, videos posted on social media platforms show protests in other Chinese cities like Chengdu, Henan, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and...
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Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is moving some Microsoft Teams features over to its more costly Premium edition. Microsoft Teams Premium has been available as a 30-day trial since last month and will soon have exclusive access to features like live translated captions, custom Together Mode scenes, and virtual appointment options.
The Register spotted that Microsoft revealed the changes in a licensing guide update late last month. Microsoft admits “some Teams features will move from Teams licenses to [a] Teams Premium license” once the Premium edition launches fully in February. Microsoft will keep the features inside the regular Microsoft Teams offering for 30 days once Premium launches, though. Here’s the full list of features affected:
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A Chevy Silverado EV. | Image: GM
Some big names in smart homes, solar power, and electric vehicles launched a coalition yesterday to develop standards and policies for virtual power plants.
The effort was initially funded by Google Nest and General Motors and will be spearheaded by the clean energy advocacy nonprofit RMI. The new coalition is called the Virtual Power Plant Partnership, or VP3, and its founding members also include Ford, solar energy companies SunPower and Sunrun, as well as smart electrical panel maker SPAN and several other energy management companies.
Virtual power plants (VPPs) tap into the idea that electric vehicles and home solar systems can serve as backup power sources for the electricity grid
Virtual power plants (VPPs) tap into the idea that...
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When Tinder launched in 2012, its creators didn’t think much of it. “We put together what would eventually become Tinder in about six to eight weeks and launched it,” says Jonathan Badeen, one of Tinder’s co-founders and inventor of the swipe. The swipe was kind of like Tinder’s secret weapon — it seems obvious now, but a decade ago, swiping transformed mobile dating by turning it into a kind of game.
Swiping was fun and compulsive, keeping users on the app for hours on end. It releases dopamine, a chemical in your brain that gives you a sense of pleasure, which, according to Dinesh Moorjani, another of Tinder’s co-founders, kept users hooked on the platform. “We had some users that were using the app north of 30 to 40 times a day.”
“You...
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Another CES has come and gone. And after spending a few days reflecting on what I saw at the big trade show, it’s clear that 2023 will be a relatively quiet year for TVs on the whole. There were no major breakthroughs or new standards demonstrated at the show — at least none that will make it into your living room this year.
Instead, we saw a lot of iterative, predictable evolution of current home theater tech. TCL and Hisense offered up Mini LED TVs with more dimming zones than we’ve ever seen. Samsung and LG are producing the most impressive OLED TVs yet. And nearly TV maker is talking up AI and deep learning gimmicks that cover everything from adding more depth to an image to rethinking the concept of picture modes.
Let’s cover some...
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Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
A critical Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) system has suffered a glitch, grounding flights across the US according to media reports. The FAA posted an advisory notice early Wednesday which notes that the United States NOTAM (Notice to Air Mission) system has “failed” and that engineers are working to bring it back online.
At 7:19AM ET, the agency said it had “ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures” until 9AM ET to give it time to “validate the integrity of flight and safety information.” At least one airline, United, issued a notice prior to the latest FAA directive saying it’s grounded all flights.
“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System,” the FAA said in an earlier statement. “We are performing...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
ChatGPT is a sensation — but one that’s burning a hole in creator OpenAI’s pocket, with the company thought to be paying millions of dollars a month to keep the chatbot free to use. It’s no surprise, then, that as OpenAI seeks billions in funding from close partner Microsoft, the company is experimenting with ways to monetize its software.
In the official company Discord, OpenAI shared a waitlist for what the company is calling “ChatGPT Professional” — an “experimental” paid version of ChatGPT with all the benefits you’d expect. OpenAI says ChatGPT Professional will be “always available,” offer “fast responses” with no throttling, and give users “at least” twice the daily number of answers compared to the free version of the chatbot.
“...
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Andrew Tate (seen left, holding a book) and his brother Tristan (right of Andrew) lost their appeal against the decision to extend their pre-trial detention from 24 hours to 30 days. | Image: DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images
A court in Bucharest, Romania upheld the 30-day arrest of controversial influencer Andrew Tate on Tuesday, rejecting his appeal against a judge’s earlier decision to extend his arrest from 24 hours to 30 days. Tate, 36, a dual British-US citizen, was arrested on December 29th along with his brother Tristan (34) on charges of organized crime, human trafficking, and rape. Two Romanian women were also taken into custody.
In a court document obtained by ABC News, the judge said “the possibility of them evading investigations cannot be ignored,” and that they could “leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition.”
“I am very disappointed. The measure seems excessive to me,” said Eugen Vidineac, the Tate brother’s lawyer,...
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An unofficial render of Samsung’s Galaxy S23. | Image: OnLeaks / Digit
Plus, problems at Parler, and rumors of Apple-designed MicroLED displays.
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Unofficial renders of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. | Image: Onleaks / Smartprix
Samsung’s upgrades for this year’s Galaxy S23 lineup include higher-resolution camera sensors and improved low light photography, according to a pair of teaser trailers posted by Samsung China. The new phones are expected to be officially announced in three weeks on February 1st at Samsung’s first in-person smartphone event since the start of the pandemic.
Both teasers show off a trio of camera lenses, which are likely to represent the main, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras that’ll be seen on the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus (rumors suggest the S23 Ultra will have an additional periscope lens). One trailer says that “wow-worthy resolution is coming” with “megapixels that’ll make you say wooow.” The second says “stunning night photos...
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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Apple is reportedly working on designing its own in-house microLED displays to use in devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The report says that the screens could start showing up on devices as early as next year, following almost five years of planning and development.
Currently, Apple uses displays designed and produced by a variety of vendors — the OLED panels for the iPhone 14s are reportedly made by Samsung, LG, and BOE. According to Gurman, Apple will likely still have other companies produce its displays, but they’ll be doing so using Apple’s designs and specifications rather than another firm’s.
It’s a similar move to the company using its own chip designs in laptops and desktops,...
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A collection of 100 Thieves apparel. | Image: 100 Thieves
100 Thieves, a popular gaming, esports, and lifestyle brand, laid off about 30 employees on Tuesday, according to esports journalist Jacob Wolf. The cuts hit roles in sales, marketing, content and human resources as well as senior positions including chief revenue officer, director of people, director of talent, and head of partnerships, Wolf reports.
Matty Lee, the former chief revenue officer, wrote a blog post about his departure on LinkedIn. Other former staffers have been tweeting about being laid off, including one who produced and edited a splashy film released Tuesday hyping 100 Thieves’ 2023 esports jerseys.
Today was my last day at @100Thieves but not before producing and editing this piece. It's been fun and truly thankful...
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RIP to the Twitter star. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter is changing how you move between the algorithmically-driven timeline and the reverse chronological one and making the algorithmic feed the default.
In a change rolling out to iOS users first, the company has taken away the star button at the top right that let you switch between two feeds. In its place are two tabs — one labeled “For You” and the other “Following” — and when you open the app, you’ll see the For You tab first.
Gif: Jay Peters / The Verge
What swiping between the two timelines looks like.
For You, which shares a name with TikTok’s algorithmically-driven feed, is similar to the old “Home” option, which shows you tweets from the people you follow out of order, interspersed with tweets it...
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Illustration: The Verge
Parlement Technologies, the parent company of “censorship-free” social media platform Parler, has laid off a majority of its staff and most of its chief executives over the last few weeks. The sudden purge of staff has thrown the future of Parler, one of the first conservative alternatives to mainstream platforms, into question.
Parlement Technologies began laying off workers in late November, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. These layoffs continued through at least the end of December, when around 75 percent of staffers were let go in total, leaving approximately 20 employees left working at both Parler and the parent-company’s cloud services venture. A majority of the company’s executives, including its chief...
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The iPhone 14 Pro’s built-in Crash Detection feature is causing problems for some emergency dispatchers. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Despite Apple’s best efforts to ensure that its new Crash Detection feature is only triggered when there’s real trouble, winter recreation is proving to be a perfect storm for false alarms.
Minnesota Public Radio(as spotted by 9to5Mac) reports that false alarms from the new feature are a growing problem for emergency responders, particularly as people engage in winter activities like skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. They provide a unique set of factors — fast starts, stops, and jolts that can fool iPhones and Apple Watches into thinking there’s been an accident, while winter weather gear makes it hard to know that your watch or phone is sounding an alert. It’s a tricky problem without an obvious, immediate solution.
Apple i...
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Samsung is bringing the spotlight back in an in-person event on February 1st. | Image: Samsung
Mark your calendar: Samsung is hosting its next Galaxy Unpacked on February 1st. The company is officially confirming a date that it kinda accidentally confirmed a few days ago. The event will take place at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, and although Samsung isn’t saying exactly what will be announced, it’s almost certainly the Galaxy S23 series.
The company is also bringing back its preorder reservation incentives for those who are eager to claim a yet-to-be-named device. By putting in a reservation, you’ll get $50 of Samsung store credit if you follow through and preorder one device or $100 when you preorder two devices — that’s all assuming that people are actually able to place preorders, which proved tricky last year....
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For over a year, the rollout of C-Band 5G around airports has been contentious. | Photo: Mitchell Clark / The Verge
The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a solution to the long-running dust-up between the airline and cellular industries over 5G rollouts: stricter requirements for radio altimeters in airplanes, which would potentially go into effect early next year (via Bloomberg).
The piece of safety equipment, which ties into several systems for most commercial jets, operates using radio frequencies that are similar to the 5G C-band radio waves that Verizon and AT&T have been rolling out after acquiring licenses to use the bands for billions of dollars. C-band is almost critical for 5G to live up to all the hype; it’s what allows carriers to offer incredible speeds without the minuscule range of mmWave.
In theory, this shouldn’t be a...
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Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
While the best iPad deals come around during major sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere you may be interested in.
Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, including the latest ones...
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You can save money when you buy two Sonos One SL speakers. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Most would agree that Sonos offers some of the best speakers and soundbars currently available. That’s because Sonos makes speakers that — more often than not — boast great sound quality, support for all the major streaming platforms, and simple multi-room functionality. Unfortunately, however, those perks often come at a high price. Sonos products aren’t cheap, and, outside of the occasional rogue discount, they rarely go on sale. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t ways to save at least a few dollars on Sonos gear.
You can often, for example, score discounts on even more Sonos devices if you’re comfortable buying refurbished ones. We also occasionally see sales on Sonos’ collaborative series with Ikea and discounted...
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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.
Hope you all had a great weekend. I don’t have any podcast thoughts today, but I did see the Roundabout Theater’s gender-reversed 1776, and it absolutely slapped. As my friend Olivia said, 1776 was made as propaganda and has no business being as good as it is (it’s also more clear-eyed about American politics than Hamilton, but I digress). Plus, the movie version has Mr. Feeny as John Adams — what a gift.
Anywho, on the docket today: Apple makes it easier for podcasters to deliver the goods to their subscribers, Microsoft is making leaps in the text-to-speech AI space, and we have some exciting Hot Pod Summit news!
Announcing Hot Pod...
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Turtle power! | Image: Netflix
Netflix is bringing some turtle power to its suite of mobile games by adding Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, a modern take on the classic TMNT arcade games. Shredder’s Revenge was first released for PC and consoles in 2022, but now, you can play it on iOS or Android if you have a Netflix subscription.
Shredder’s Revenge does a lot to capture the spirit of the old-school beat ‘em up games: it has beautiful pixel art, side-scrolling levels, and lets up to six people play at the same time. But the game is also designed to be welcoming to people who may not have grown up with the original TMNT arcade games, which might make it easier for new players to jump in. If you want to learn more, you can read Andrew Webster’s...