The end is nigh for gas-powered cars

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce tough new tailpipe emission standards designed to effectively force the auto industry to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars. It’s an ambitious — and risky — move by the Biden administration to cement its climate goals by boosting the sale of electric vehicles while also ushering in the end of the era of the internal combustion engine (ICE).

But it won’t be as easy as banning the sale of gas-powered cars or mandating that companies only sell vehicles with electric powertrains. Rather, the new EPA rules would set an emissions limit on the total number of new cars each automaker sells in a year. That limit would essentially ensure that two-thirds of vehicles they sold...

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Netflix is making a Stranger Things animated series

Image: Netflix

Stranger Things is getting an animated spinoff. On Monday, Netflix announced that the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, are working on an animated Stranger Things series that will air on the streaming service.

Netflix didn’t share much about the show — it didn’t even reveal any art — and didn’t say when the series might be released. But thanks to a quote from the Duffer brothers, you might be able to imagine what the Stranger Things series will look like: “We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling.”

It’s disappointing that Netflix is revealing so little about this series, but the company is...

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YouTube is giving Premium subscribers higher-quality video than everyone else

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube’s introducing an “enhanced” 1080p HD video quality for Premium subscribers — but it’s only available on iOS for now, with the option coming to web soon. According to YouTube, the new 1080p Premium option is “an enhanced bitrate version of 1080p” that’s supposed to make things look crisper, particularly with videos heavy on detail and motion.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because YouTube started testing this feature earlier this year and had some worried that the company would nerf the existing 1080p option for nonsubscribers. Fortunately, the standard 1080p option isn’t going anywhere, not even for Premium members.

You’ll still get to use the standard 1080p option on videos (even the ones with 1080p Premium). Not all videos...

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You can try The New York Times’ new math-based puzzle game right now

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

The New York Times has announced a new math-based puzzle game, Digits, and you can play the beta test right now at this link.

In Digits, you’re given six numbers that you can add, subtract, multiply, or divide together to reach a goal number. You’re not just limited to those six numbers; you can, for example, multiply two of the numbers together and then add that total to one of the others. You get three stars if you reach the exact goal number, but if you’re close, you’ll get one or two stars.

Take the below picture from The New York Times. This person was given the starting numbers of 4, 9, 7, 10 (based on the computation at the top), 1 (also in the computation), and 20, and they are trying to total them up to 235. The player chose to...

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Bing, Bard, and ChatGPT: AI chatbots are rewriting the internet

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge

How we use the internet is changing fast, thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.

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Tesla’s next Megapack battery storage factory will be in Shanghai

Tesla Shanghai and Lin-gang Special Area administrators sign the project off in a ceremony. | Image: Tesla

Tesla’s building a new “Megafactory” in Shanghai, the automaker announced yesterday at a signing ceremony. The facility will be designed to manufacture Tesla’s commercial Megapack battery energy storage units, with the goal of eventually producing about 10,000 systems per year, according to the automaker.

Tesla currently produces its Megapack energy storage units at its Gigafactory in Nevada, where it also makes battery packs for Tesla vehicles and Tesla Energy products like the Powerwall battery. Unlike the Powerwall, which is largely designed for residential battery backup and pairs with Tesla’s solar energy offerings, the Megapack is designed for major commercial projects.

The company is in the process of moving Megapack production to...

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Mario games on Nintendo Switch are $20 off to keep the movie hype going

The Super Mario Bros. Movie made $140 million, and now you can save $20 on his games. | Image: Universal

There are a bunch of deals on first-party Nintendo games right now, coinciding with all the hype and opening weekend success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Retailers like Best Buy are selling various Nintendo Switch games for a discount of $20. For example, you can get New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for $39.99 ($20 off) at Best Buy, Amazon, or Target. Or you can “get Luigi’d” with Luigi’s Mansion 3 for $39.99 ($20 off) at Walmart, Best Buy, or Amazon. Also, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is discounted to $39.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

While many of today’s discounted titles are remasters from the old Wii U generation, there are still some gems worth playing in 2023 if you missed out on them years ago. It’s...

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Hashtags are everything on Mastodon — why not give them a home?

Image: The Verge

Mastodon has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Twitter’s ongoing meltdown, and since I started seriously using it late last year, it’s won me over. While I still use Twitter for monitoring news and talking to the occasional source, Mastodon is my new home for shortform posting. But Mastodon has one significant problem: it’s veryannoying to find things I like.

I’m not talking about “discoverability” in the sense of some tailored suggestion algorithm. I mean that by design, information on Mastodon’s many servers is diffuse and relatively obscure. Back on Twitter, I kept several columns of search terms open — some for serious topics I was covering, some for personal interests like my favorite games, all of them a potential gateway...

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Google cuts off third-party smart displays as Assistant support dwindles

Illustration: The Verge

Google has stopped pushing updates for some third-party smart displays, reflecting a broader shift away from Assistant products. On a support page spotted by 9to5Google, the company says it will no longer provide software updates for the Lenovo Smart Display, JBL Link View, and the LG Xboom AI ThinQ WK9 Smart Display.

All three displays made their debut in 2018, just months after Google first announced the Smart Display platform and its own Home Hub (now called Nest Hub) as it sought to compete with Amazon’s Alexa. While Google provided some new features to these devices in the years that followed, they never received the same kind of attention it gives to its Nest Hub displays.

Google’s decision to end support for its third-party...

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The best Android phone to buy in 2023

Image: The Verge

Whether you want everything but the kitchen sink or top-tier performance for a midtier price, you’ve got options.

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Domino’s now lets you order pizza via Apple CarPlay

The Domino’s app, now on Apple CarPlay. | Image: Domino’s

Domino’s already lets you quickly order pizza at the tap of a button on your phone, but now, it’s enabling you to do it on your car’s infotainment screen via CarPlay. Announced today, the new feature puts a simplified version of the Domino’s app on your dash and lets you “Tap to Order,” which instantly signals your main store to start making your favorite order for pickup. Alternatively, you can tap “Call to Order” and talk to someone hands-free to order something else — that’s the only way you’ll be able to customize your options.

“We know how frustrating it can be to wait in a [fast food] drive-thru line just to place an order,” Domino’s SVP chief digital officer Christopher Thomas-Moore states in the press release. “Domino’s app on...

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A Texas court ruling just threatened abortion pill access nationwide

Judge Kacsmaryk attempted to keep oral arguments for the case secret. | Photo by Moises Avila / AFP via Getty Images

A Texas judge ruled on Friday that the Food and Drug Administration improperly approved the abortion-facilitating pill mifepristone more than 20 years ago, just as a Washington state judge issued a directly conflicting ruling — setting up a likely Supreme Court fight and potentially threatening nationwide access to reproductive healthcare.

In Texas, District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a long-awaited decision on a suit from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed on behalf of antiabortion medical groups and doctors against the FDA. Kacsmaryk — nominated by former President Donald Trump — ruled largely in the group’s favor. While he didn’t outright reverse the FDA’s decision, he issued a stay that’s supposed to revert mifepristone...

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Google Pixel 7A leak reveals new blue color

The Pixel 7A is expected to be announced at Google I/O next month. | Image: MySmartPrice / OnLeaks

We’re getting closer and closer to Google I/O 2023, and it’s looking like this year’s event will come with new hardware in tow. Google is expected to announce its latest midtier phone, the Pixel 7A, at the May 10th I/O keynote. The company has a long history of sheer incompetence when it comes to containing leaks and product secrecy, and the 7A has been no exception.

Now, we’re getting a look (via 9to5Google) at what appears to be Google’s official marketing renders of the phone — and they show off a new blue color option that will be available alongside black and white. It’s a muted blue and still a far cry from the “really blue” original Pixel; Google seems very hesitant to go bold on colors again, which is a shame.

Worth waiting for...

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A better ChatGPT app: Poe wants to build the universal AI messaging client

Poe isn’t a chatbot — it’s an app for all your chatbots. | Image: Poe

ChatGPT is a remarkable piece of technology and a really crappy consumer product. Load OpenAI’s revolutionary chatbot at any given time, and after a long wait, you’ll be greeted with… well, likely as not, a message saying ChatGPT is over capacity and you can’t use it anyway. It’s slow even in the best of situations, and its blocky white-and-gray interface doesn’t exactly scream high design. There’s not even a mobile app.

Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of Quora, sees that as something of an opportunity. Since last summer, just before the chatbot craze swept the tech industry, Quora has been feverishly working on an app called Poe that D’Angelo says he hopes can make bots easier for everyone to use by bringing them all in one place. “We have a lot...

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Star Wars: Visions Volume 2’s first trailer is spectacular in every sense of the word

There’s been quite a bit of live-action news out of this year’s Star Wars Celebration Europe event, but in case there was any doubt that Star Wars: Visions’ return is truly what we should all be looking forward to, a new season 2 trailer’s here to correct the record.

Even though none of the nine shorts that make up Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 will be truly canonical, the heart and soul of Star Wars storytelling’s palpable in damn near every shot of the new trailer, which makes clear that the show’s next season will feature two stop-motion animated episodes. Once again, Visions seems as if it’ll put particular focus on stories about young Force sensitives first coming into their powers as well as more skilled Jedi and Sith using their...

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The Steambox is an electric lunchbox looking for a problem to solve

As a steam-reheating lunchbox, it’s pricey but serviceable. But if you’re just looking for a warm meal, there are better ways to get it.

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Succession’s last season is finally getting interesting by taking some risks

Brian Cox as Logan Roy.

The third episode of the show’s final season feels like the true beginning of the end — and exactly the sort of jumpstart the series needed.

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Hatch Restore 2 review: TikTok made me try it

Ironically, the app that usually convinces me to spend too much on junky products led me to the best piece of sleep tech I’ve tested in a while.

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Substack CEO pushes back at Elon, says Twitter situation is “very frustrating”

Quick recap: Substack, the popular subscription newsletter platform for writers, launched a new feature in its app called Notes last week, which is fairly similar to Twitter.

Twitter, the world-historical clown car of a company currently operated by Elon Musk, responded by blocking the ability to like or retweet any posts containing the word “Substack,” throwing up a warning message if users clicked on Substack links, and finally blocking even the word Substack from being searched. Substack users, the vast majority of whom are independent small business owners who depend on Substack as an enterprise software provider, mostly responded to this by saying they would leave Twitter and use Substack Notes. (There’s more here, but it’s a combo...

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Organizing my pretty pile of garbage

Photo by Mia Sato / The Verge

There’s really no other way to say this: I like to save trash. Receipts from favorite stores or meals, pamphlets and maps from trips, ticket stubs, and clothing tags — if some scrap is from a cherished memory or even simply well-designed, I tuck it away in random corners of my home and mostly forget about it until I go looking for something else.

The impulse to hoard documentation is likely annoying to anyone who lives with me. Unfortunately for them, it’s also very good for my job. At least one Wayback Machine tab stays open at all times, and I have a terrifying number of screenshots, recordings, transcripts, and notes bogging down every device I own. But unlike the physical ephemera packed away in drawers and boxes, files on my...

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Here are the best Amazon Echo deals right now

Like Amazon’s Echo speakers, its various smart displays come in a range of sizes. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Amazon’s current Echo lineup offers a broad selection of smart speakers and displays that can fit just about anywhere in your home. Whether you want to place a voice assistant in your living room, replace the bulletin board in your office, or pick up a touchscreen-enabled device to showcase recipes in the kitchen, there's an Echo device for just about every occasion and use case.

Regardless of why you might want one, there’s always a way to save on Echo devices, from the last-gen Dot to the wall-mounted Echo Show 15. Even when they’re selling at full price, for instance, Amazon offers a 25 percent discount when you trade in select devices, meaning there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are on sale.

Below,...

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Have a Nice Death is a punishing roguelike with a dark sense of humor

Magic Design Studios / Gearbox Publishing

We’ve got a while to wait until Hades 2, and if you’re in need of a roguelike to fill the hole Hades left behind, then Have A Nice Death should do nicely. I had the opportunity to try the game first at GDC and then again now that it’s out on PC and Nintendo Switch, and I was immediately smitten with its dark humor and easy-to-pick-up (but difficult-to-master) combat.

You play as Death, the CEO of Death Incorporated, who has outsourced the job of reaping souls to their trusted underlings who, after untold millennia of processing mortals, decide to go rogue and gunk up the well-oiled machine of death and dying. As their boss, it’s your job to traverse the bowels of the Death Inc campus, defeating these so-called “thanagers” (which is an...

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Apple’s latest AirPods Pro have hit their all-time low at Amazon

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro offers better noise cancellation and sound quality than their predecessor. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Did you give up on your New Year’s resolution to get fit a long time ago? Hey, join the club! The good news is spring brings with it sunnier days, so the idea of going out for a run should at least start to become more appealing. But in case you need an extra motivator, we’ve got another piece of good news to share: Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are once again on sale for $199.99 at Amazon and Walmart, matching their best price to date.

The new AirPods Pro offer better noise cancellation than their predecessor, making it super easy to tune out distractions while jogging outside or at the gym. They sound better, too, and boast some new perks, including swipe-based controls and a built-in speaker in the case that allows you to easily...

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11 ways to power up your gaming on your PS5

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Playing games on your PlayStation 5 is, of course, much more exciting than digging through menus and configuration options — but if you invest a bit of time in getting these settings set up right, you’ll get the benefit in your gameplay.

From avoiding spoilers to taming notifications to enabling all of the graphical flourishes that your PS5 has to offer, there’s a lot to dig into here. All these options can be found via Settings. Just begin by selecting the cog icon in the top right corner of the PS5 home screen.

Save power on the controller battery

If you want to maximize the amount of time you get between recharges of the DualSense wireless controller, you can get it to automatically turn itself off after a certain amount of...

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In celebration of the dumb phone, a rare sanity-saving gadget

Photo by Juho Sarvikas‏ / HMD Global

I miss the phone. No, not that slab in my pocket that we call the smartphone.

Yes, that device can act like a phone. But it also doubles as a portable laptop, camera, alarm, console, TV, wallet, and so many other things — I’m not sure what it is. But one thing’s for sure: calling an iPhone just a “phone” has never felt quite right.

It’s easy to lose sight of just how utterly vast a smartphone’s capabilities are. Hidden inside our pockets is a powerful machine that seems like it really can do everything, everywhere, all at once.There’s a reason the courts recently restricted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to just a dumb phone. A smartphone is a powerful tool, especially in the hands of a math nerd who lost billions of other people’s money...

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Dell XPS 13 review: Dell is coasting (and that’s fine)

The latest XPS 13 is good enough — but no longer good enough to top the market.

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Are Amazon Sidewalk’s privacy protocols ready for the real world?

The Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is one of many Sidewalk bridges that can help extend connectivity beyond your home’s Wi-Fi. | Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge

Last week, Amazon opened its Sidewalk protocol to third-party developers. Sidewalk is a large mesh network that draws on people’s home internet connections across the US. It’s a service that requires a lot of trust, and so far, most of the devices on it happen to be Amazon’s own products. But that’s about to change — and as a result, Sidewalk’s privacy safeguards are about to be tested at a much larger scale.

No connected device is ever truly 100 percent private or secure. But so far, despite some initial concerns, Sidewalk has avoided any major privacy disasters. Here’s a rundown of how Sidewalk works, the risks it might pose to you as a user, and what we know about Amazon’s plans to defuse them.

Are Amazon Sidewalk’s privacy protocols...

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Halo veteran Joseph Staten is leaving Microsoft

Image: 343 Industries

Joseph Staten, a Bungie veteran who worked on the first three Halo games and was brought on to help get Halo Infinite over the finish line, is leaving Microsoft, the company confirmed to IGN on Friday.

Staten switched from Xbox’s global publishing arm to the Halo Infinite development team at 343 Industries in August 2020, and by then, the game had already been delayed to 2021 from its original November 2020 launch date. He helped get Infinite out the door in December 2021, but the game had some post-launch troubles, including delays of its campaign co-op and Forge modes that meant they didn’t launch until November 2022.

In January, Staten left 343 Industries following layoffs at the studio to rejoin Xbox’s publishing division. Now, he’s...

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Twitter is now marking Substack links as unsafe

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has started marking links to Substack as unsafe. If you click on a link on Twitter with substack.com in the URL, Twitter will show a separate notice warning you that “the link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe.”

Don’t be alarmed — the links we’ve checked appear to be perfectly safe. This notice seems instead to be Twitter’s latest hostile move toward Substack after the email newsletter platform announced its own Twitter-like “Notes” feature on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Twitter blocked people who use Substack from embedding tweets into their stories. Then, late Thursday or early Friday, Twitter started blocking engagement on tweets containing links to...

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Microsoft locks down game emulation on the Xbox Series X and Series S

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is barring users from running game emulations on the Xbox Series X | S. On Thursday, Twitter user @gamr12, who’s involved with the distribution of the RetroArch emulation software on Xbox, posted the error message they received when attempting to launch emulated content.

“Unable to launch this game or app,” the message reads. “The game or app you’re trying to launch violates Microsoft Store policy and is not supported.” Other users with emulation software on the Xbox Series X | S report running into the same issue.

When Microsoft first launched the Xbox Series X | S in 2020, users found that they could install and run emulation software. This made it possible to play a whole range of classic titles on the Xbox Series X | S, i...

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