Disney delays a pantheon of Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar movies

Image: Disney / Lucasfilm

Disney is delaying many of its upcoming Marvel, Star Wars, and Avatar movies in part because of production delays caused by the Writers Guild of America strike, according to Deadline.

Let’s start with Marvel. In the “near” term, Captain America: Brave New World moves from May 3rd, 2024, to July 26th, 2024, and Thunderbolts has been delayed from that July slot to December 20th, 2024. (Last month, reports claimed that Thunderbolts was delaying filming due to the writers strike.) Blade has been pushed from September 6th, 2024, to February 14th, 2025, and Fantastic Four is moving from that February date to May 2nd, 2025. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty has been pushed from that May date by an entire year to May 1st, 2026, while the follow-up, A...

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It’s not just you — flights are getting more turbulent

Photo by Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via Getty Images

An especially insidious form of turbulence has gotten worse because of climate change, according to new research. It’s turbulence that forms in cloudless skies that’s typically invisible to a plane’s radar, called clear-air turbulence. And it’s projected to become a bigger problem as the world warms.

Severe clear-air turbulence (CAT) has already become more common, according to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters last week. On a typical flight route over the North Atlantic, there was a 55 percent increase in clear air turbulence between 1979 and 2020. While the increase in turbulence was the most pronounced over the US and North Atlantic, the study also found significantly more turbulence along popular routes...

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Overwatch 2’s new story missions will be paywalled

Image: Blizzard

You’re gonna have to pay to play Overwatch 2’s new story missions.

During Xbox’s Summer Game Fest presentation, we got a tease of Overwatch 2’s story missions. Though the content won’t be arriving until August 6th, a Game Informer story and a developer blog shared details about the new story missions, including one big, unexpected twist: that unlike any new game mode or seasonal event that’s launched after Overwatch 2 went free-to-play, these story missions would not be free.

For $15, you’ll get access to three story missions, a legendary skin for Sojourn, and $10 in Overwatch premium currency. There’s also a premium bundle for $40, which will give you the missions, legendary skins for Sojourn, Cassidy, and Kiriko, $20 of premium...

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Google Home’s script editor is now live

The new Google Home script editor is now available to those in the public preview. | Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Google has finally launched its script editor tool, offering more powerful automations for your Google Home-powered smart home. Available starting Tuesday, June 13th, to those in the Google Home public preview, the script editor is part of Google’s new home.google.com web interface, which also has live feeds for any Nest cams on your account. The script editor will be coming to the new Google Home app preview starting June 14th. There’s no date for general availability.

Automations in the smart home let you string multiple devices together to automate tasks such as turning lights on, playing music, locking doors, and so on. The Google Home script editor includes more advanced options for automations than are currently available in the...

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Nomad’s new MagSafe-compatible Stand and Base charge slower but cost less

Who needs 15W charging when you can have these murdered-out looks and $30 left in your pocket? | Image: Nomad

Want a fancy-looking charger for your MagSafe-compatible iPhone but don’t want to pay such a hefty premium price? Nomad is offering a new pair of chargers that do just that, and the key is cutting out Apple’s true MagSafe compatibility and its required Made for iPhone tax.

The $70 Nomad Base and $80 Nomad Stand launching today are nearly identical to the existing Base One and Stand One, but unlike those models, these new chargers are not officially “Made for MagSafe.” Instead, they are simply wireless Qi with magnets for alignment, and they top out at 7.5W rather than the 15W of true MagSafe, but the compromise on charging speed is made for the sake of your wallet.

Image: Nomad

The Nomad Base keeps your phone flat...

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OpenAI reportedly warned Microsoft about Bing’s bizarre AI responses

Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI reportedly warned Microsoft to move slowly on integrating GPT-4 into its Bing search engine to avoid the inaccurate and unpredictable responses it launched with. The Wall Street Journal reports that the OpenAI team warned of the negative risks of pushing out a chatbot based on an unreleased version of GPT-4 too early.

Microsoft went ahead, despite warnings that it might take time to minimize the inaccurate and strange responses. Days after Bing Chat launched in February, users discovered the chatbot was unpredictable and could insult users, lie to them, sulk, gaslight people, and even claim to identify its enemies.

Microsoft was quick to limit Bing Chat responses to stop the AI from getting real weird, and it has taken months of...

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Paul McCartney says AI tools helped rescue John Lennon vocals for ‘last Beatles record’

McCartney performing at Glastonbury Festival in 2022. | Photo by Dave J Hogan / Getty Images

Former Wings frontman Paul McCartney has said AI has been used in the production of a “last Beatles record” to be released later this year. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program to promote a new photography exhibition, McCartney mentioned the track in response to a question about AI being used to recreate early Beatles’ vocals. If you’re in the UK, you can hear his response directly at the 29:30 mark here.

According to McCartney, technology developed for the recent Beatles documentary Get Back was able to extract former bandmate John Lennon’s vocals from a low-quality cassette recording in order to create the foundation for the track.

“So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record — it was a demo that John...

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Instagram’s status update now includes what song you’re listening to

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is adding more features to Notes, the text-based updates reminiscent of AIM away messages and statuses.

Image: Instagram

Now, users will be able to attach a 30-second clip of a song to their status update, along with a short caption next to the track. Friends can then tap into the song to listen to the snippet. Instagram is also adding a translation button below Notes for posts in other languages.

First introduced in December, Notes are part-Twitter and part-away message. With a 60-character limit, the feature is meant to be an ever-changing status that’s smaller than a post on the grid or even on Stories. The addition of music feels like a throwback to AIM away messages but revamped: now, you can link...

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The best Father’s Day sales happening now

The Sonos Roam is just one of many potential gifts on sale in the run-up to Father’s Day. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Father’s Day is swiftly approaching — and you know what that means. Everyone from The Home Depot to Amazon is hosting a Father’s Day sale in the run-up to the holiday this weekend, and some retailers are even offering better deals than those we saw during Memorial Day. What’s more, a number of those discounts apply to items that will make for great gifts, allowing you to snag a Sonos Roam, the latest AirPods Pro, or Google’s 4K-ready Chromecast at a fraction of the cost.

As always, we’ve scoured the web and rounded up some of the best Father’s Day tech deals you can get. Take a look, and be sure to also check out our main Father’s Day gift guide and our budget-friendly version for some extra inspiration.

Streaming device and...

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Apollo’s Christian Selig explains his fight with Reddit — and why users revolted

Christian Selig is Apollo’s lone developer and at the center of the fight taking over Reddit. | Image: Christian Selig

‘Reddit has plugged its ears and refuses to listen to anybody but themselves. And I think there’s some very minor concessions that they can make to make people a lot happier.’

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Every smartphone should be a flip phone, starting right now

The perfect flip phone doesn’t yet exist — but someone needs to make it. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

The most immediately enticing thing about a flip phone, at least if you ask a gadget lover older than about 30, is just the way it feels when it flips. The smartphone industry has never recaptured the way it felt to thwack your phone closed at the end of a phone call or the badassery of flicking it open as you bring it to your face.

Ironically, the only real downside of the current crop of flip phones is that they can’t replicate this feeling, either. Because they’re bigger, thicker, and heavier than the waif Razrs and Nokias of the early 2000s, the only way to flip them open with one hand is to shimmy your finger between the two parts and then pry-slash-wiggle the device until it opens up. After a few minutes, you figure it out. But it...

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Diablo’s dark world finally gets the villain it deserves

Image: Blizzard

With Diablo IV’s Lilith, the franchise now has the kind of antagonist that makes the rest of the story feel more complex and contemplative.

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Private equity bought out your doctor and bankrupted Toys“R”Us — here’s why that matters

Photo illustration by Will Joel / The Verge

Author and federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou explains why private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates, how this system is broken, and what can be done to fix it.

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How to install the iOS 17 developer beta

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Until recently, you had to be a developer (or willing to pay to be considered a developer) in order to access the earliest version of iOS. However, things have changed: you can now download the latest developer beta releases for free — at your own risk, naturally. Here’s how to install the beta software on your iPhone or iPad once it’s available for your device.

Before we get started, a word of warning: beta software is inherently unfinished and may contain bugs. Apple’s public betas (which are usually released around July) are generally more stable, but its developer betas are less so, and you should think carefully before installing them on any device you depend on. They also may not include all the features that will be in the final...

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Foundation’s season 2 trailer is a battle 100 years in the making

Image: Apple

It’s going to be a sci-fi summer over on Apple TV Plus. The streaming service is getting a second season of the epic series Foundation in July, and a new trailer gives a good sense of what viewers can expect: namely, a much more action-packed experience compared to season 1.

The new season takes place a century after the previous one and has the Empire, led by a menacing Lee Pace as Brother Day, preparing for an all-out conflict with the titular Foundation, a group led by Hari Seldon (Jared Harris).

Here’s the basic setup:

As the Cleons unravel, a vengeful queen plots to destroy Empire from within. Hari, Gaal, and Salvor discover a colony of Mentalics with psionic abilities that threaten to alter psychohistory itself. The Foundation has...

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Microsoft’s dirty supply chain is holding back its climate ambitions

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge

The Verge reviewed dozens of emissions reports from Microsoft’s suppliers and found some of them power their entire operations with fossil fuels.

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YouTube is lowering the eligibility requirements for creators to make money

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube will allow more creators to monetize their presence on the platform, including creators with smaller followings.

The company announced today it is lowering the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program and opening up a handful of monetization methods to smaller creators, including paid chat, tipping, channel memberships, and shopping features.

Under the new eligibility policy, the YPP will be open to creators once they reach 500 subscribers — half the number that YouTube previously had. Other benchmarks are changing, too: participating creators will need 3,000 valid watch hours instead of 4,000, or 3 million Shorts views compared to the original 10 million. The lower requirements will initially roll out in the US,...

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Stack Overflow survey finds developers are ready to use AI tools — even if they don’t fully trust them

Image: Jens Büttner / picture alliance via Getty Images

A survey of developers by coding Q&A site Stack Overflow has found that AI tools are becoming commonplace in the industry even as coders remain skeptical about their accuracy. The survey comes at an interesting time for the site, which is trying to work out how to benefit from AI while dealing with a strike by moderators over AI-generated content.

The survey found that 77 percent of respondents felt favorably about using AI in their workflow and that 70 percent are already using or plan to use AI coding tools this year.

Only 3 percent of respondents said they “highly trust” AI coding tools

Respondents cited benefits like increased productivity (33 percent) and faster learning (25 percent) but said they were wary about the accuracy of...

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How to start a smart home using Google Home

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

The smart home isn’t perfect. No matter how many times a company claims “seamless” integration with third-party devices or “effortless” use of voice commands to bend your connected gadgets to your will, there’s no one platform that gets everything exactly right. Depending on your specific needs, any of the major options — Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit (now just Home), Google Home, Home Assistant, or Samsung SmartThings — could be the best fit for you and your home. Recently, I’ve been taking a long look at Google Home.

The Google Home app has recently been updated.

Google got a lot right when it bought Nest in 2014, but it ramped up too slowly, releasing only a modest trickle of new connected home hardware before e...

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A moonshot for infrastructure

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

The Biden administration is requesting funding for a program called ARPA-I, a ‘skunkworks’-style R&D project for infrastructure. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the goal is to design things ‘we can’t even imagine today.’

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How Reddit set itself up for a fall

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

This is Platformer_, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer._ Sign up here.

I.

Today, let’s talk about the Reddit protests that temporarily took down the site on Monday — and how, after years of working successfully to devolve power to its user base, the company wound up regretting it.

For most of its existence, Reddit has felt like an underachiever relative to its potential. A chaotic corporate history, long periods of inattention to harassment and hate speech, and slow growth compared to its peers have at times made it easy to dismiss. Sure, nerds all seem to love it, and for some searches it has been the only site that could make Google feel usable. But while Reddit remains...

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Our updated Asus ROG Ally review

A big step forward for Windows handhelds — but is Windows the way forward at all?

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How to start a smart home using Samsung SmartThings

Illustration by Samar Haddad for The Verge

Before the smart home was as popular as it is today, monitoring or automating your home was something limited to the more technically minded. Then along came Samsung’s SmartThings, providing a user-friendly, organized way of controlling a smart home.

I came across the system back in 2015 and immediately found that it provided that missing piece of my smart home: a way to automate my home via motion and door sensors, smart locks, Philips Hue lights, and Sonos smart speakers.

In addition, SmartThings was built to be open, with a hub that supported both of the main smart home protocols: Z-Wave and Zigbee. Although SmartThings launched with its own range of sensors and a smart plug, the idea was that third-party devices would also work with...

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Telo is the adorable little electric truck America needs to want

Telo’s cute little mini Truck. | Image: Telo

Telo is a new American EV company setting out to build a small, modular, electric truck in a country filled with monolithic workhorses like Ford’s F-150 pickup. But even though Telo’s truck will be mini and cute, it’s still apparently work-capable — the company claims it’s got “Toyota Tacoma capability,” but in the footprint of a Mini Cooper. That’s just about 152 inches.

The Telo, like electric vehicles in general, can easily be compacted since it doesn’t need an engine bay up front and gas tank somewhere in the back. Instead, batteries that power it can be stored in the floor and motors can fit within a cylindrical area around the axles.

With that saved real estate, the Telo can accommodate seating for five and have a five-foot bed...

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After months of teasing, Nothing’s Phone 2 has a launch date

Phone 2 will stick with the blinking indicator lights on the back panel. | Image: Nothing

We knew that the Nothing Phone 2 would arrive next month, and now we have a precise date: July 11th, a day shy of the Phone 1’s first birthday. It’ll include a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset and a bigger battery, and it will launch in the US this time. We know all of this because Nothing has said so in a series of spec teasers, a tactic that founder Carl Pei loved to employ at the last company he helped found: OnePlus.

Based on a teaser image accompanying today’s news, the Phone 2 looks like it will continue to offer the “glyph” notification lights featured on the back of the Phone 1. On that device, they’re partly a style flourish and partly practical since they can indicate different types of incoming notifications by flashing in...

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Windows 11’s Android integration gets long-requested file sharing

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Microsoft is starting to enable file sharing in its Android feature for Windows 11. An update to the Windows Subsystem for Android is now available for all Windows Insiders to test and includes file sharing, drag and drop support, camera improvements, and the usual bug fixes.

“We’ve been listening to the community, and many of you have been asking us to support sharing files between Windows and the Subsystem,” says the Windows Subsystem for Android team in a blog post. “We are pleased to announce that Windows Subsystem for Android can now share your Windows user folders, like Documents and Pictures, with the Subsystem, so scenarios like uploading a photo to a social media app or editing a video in a creative app work seamlessly.”

Folder...

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Netflix is reportedly getting ready to stream its first-ever sporting event

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Netflix’s first live-streamed sporting event could be coming this fall. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is in talks to create a new, celebrity-driven golf tournament in Las Vegas that would include some of the stars of other sports content on the service like Drive to Survive and Full Swing. (Disclosure: Vox Media Studios produced Full Swing, and The Verge recently produced a series with Netflix.)

The talks are apparently early, but a custom, talent-driven golf tournament makes perfect sense as Netflix’s first foray into sports streaming. Streaming live sports is high-stakes, hard, and expensive, and the deals for big-name events are ever more cutthroat. (Netflix was reportedly trying to wrest Formula 1 coverage away...

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This third-party Reddit app may survive — but only with a paid subscription

Image: Relay for Reddit

Many third-party Reddit apps will be shutting down due to the platform’s prohibitively expensive API changes, but I found one app that might survive — and only by dropping a free version of the app and switching fully to a monthly subscription.

In a post on Sunday, the developer of the Relay for Reddit app for Android outlined how they might be able to keep the app running in spite of the increased API fees. “There’s no possibility to continue the free version of Relay; a monthly subscription price of $3 (or less) might be achievable,” the developer, “Dave,” wrote in the post.

Dave said that there’s “no financially viable way for me to continue to offer a free version of Relay,” which may not come as a surprise given the apparent $20...

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In the bid to grow at all costs, Instant Pot is cooking itself

Photo: Instant Pot

Last week I made a pound of pinto beans in my Instant Pot. They were very good beans and I didn’t have to worry about burning them or leaving them unattended to cook like I do when I cook them on the stove. I didn’t have to worry about them exploding like I did with my mom’s ancient pressure cooker as a kid, either. The Instant Pot cooks the beans very well. It cooks quite a few things very well. It's reliable and affordable, and while it sucks at searing, it really does feel like a multipurpose device.

And right now, Instant Pot, despite making a very good product, is not doing so hot — today, its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while saying that a new deal for $132.5 million in financing from its lenders will support the...

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The biggest news and trailers from Capcom Showcase 2023

Dragon’s Dogma 2. | Image: Capcom

If events from Xbox, Ubisoft, and Summer Game Fest over the past few days weren’t enough for you (not to mention the PlayStation Showcase from last month), Capcom also had its own digital showcase today. It’s already been a solid year for the company, with releases like Street Fighter 6 and the Resident Evil 4 remake. And today’s showcase had the usual big names from the company — Mega Man, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter — but much of the focus was on newer properties like Path of the Goddess, Exoprimal, and Pragmata.

If you couldn’t catch the show live, here are all the major reveals, announcements, and trailers:

Path of the Goddess still looks gross (in a good way)

Things kicked off with a fresh look at Kunitsu-Gami:...

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