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Image: Square Enix
The game is hindered by its reliance on tropes inspired by Game of Thrones, but its combat and character performances more than make up for a ho-hum story.
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DPReview has found a new home under Gear Patrol_, sparing it from being shut down by Amazon’s cost-cutting measures._ | Image: DPReview / Gear Patrol
DPReview has been acquired by Gear Patrol — a publisher focused on varied product reviews and buying guides. Scott Everett, general manager for DPReview, announced the acquisition on Tuesday, saving the beloved camera reviews website from closure almost three months after the site announced it was being shut down by its former parent company, Amazon. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
“Gear Patrol is a natural home for the next phase of DPReview’s journey, and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together,” said Everett. “Thank you for your continued support of our team and legacy. We appreciate it and can’t thank you all enough.”
DPReview will continue to operate as it did before the acquisition
Everett says in his...
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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.
After a bruising week of protests and locked-down forums, things started to get back to normal Tuesday on Reddit, as — oh wait, what’s this?
A handful of subreddits have classified themselves as not safe for work (NSFW) to protest Reddit’s recent treatment of the platform’s volunteer moderators, and as a result, some non-porn communities are starting to get a lot of porn.
Subreddits that have made the NSFW switch include r/interestingasfuck, r/TIHI (Thanks I Hate It), r/formula1, r/videos, r/HomeKit, and r/HomePod.
As Jay Peters writes in that piece, designating forums as NSFW annoys Reddit Inc. in a...
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With Dash, you can search all your files everywhere, all at once. | Image: Dropbox
Dropbox is launching two different but related AI-powered services into its platform. The first is simple and obvious: a tool for summarizing and querying documents. This is neat and useful and the sort of feature you’ll see in most tools in this category over time.
The other thing Dropbox is launching is much more ambitious and interesting. It’s a universal search engine that can access your files in Dropbox but also across the entire web. It’s called Dash and comes from Dropbox’s 2021 acquisition of a company called Command E. The idea behind Dash, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston tells me, is that your stuff isn’t all files and folders anymore, and so Dropbox can’t be, either. “What used to be 100 files or icons on your desktop,” he says, “is...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft is going head-to-head with the FTC starting June 22nd.
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Otter Chat AI can generate copy based on what has been discussed, such as drafting an email with action points from the meeting. | Image: Otter.ai
Automated transcription service Otter.ai is launching a new chatbot feature that can “attend” online meetings to help users summarize information and recall details they may have missed, like dates or figures. Otter Chat — described by the company as an “AI meeting genius/participant” — can answer questions and generate content like to-do lists based on what’s being discussed in a call. The feature is rolling out worldwide to all Otter users today, June 21st.
Otter Chat can be used on recorded conversations that have already been transcribed and during live meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams that the platform is actively transcribing. The feature will be available to all Otter users at no additional cost, though free...
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Image: Nintendo
It’ll be 40 minutes of announcements — almost definitely including some surprises.
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The Lunar System’s main home battery unit contains cells and an inverter, with add-on battery modules stacked underneath. | Image: Lunar Energy
Lunar System — from Tesla’s former head of energy — is a solar energy backup system with modular battery units that can power your whole home. It might even make you some money... eventually.
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Image: Square Enix
Stay up to date with Square Enix’s grittier take on the classic RPG.
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Garmins aren’t just multisport behemoths anymore. | Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge
Garmin may be best known for its hardcore fitness watches, but it’s got an extensive line of lifestyle offerings, too.
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Nintendo is holding its second Direct showcase event of the year, and it sounds like it’ll be a big one. Back in February, the company showed off Tears of the Kingdom, released a remastered Metroid Prime, added Game Boy games to Switch Online, and gave us a release date for Pikmin 4. This time around, the focus will be on Switch games coming out through the rest of 2023.
That includes the next Pikmin, which launches in July, but it’s also likely we’ll see what big game or games Nintendo has in store for the always-important holiday season. Right now, the only major release on the calendar is the first expansion for Pokémon Violet and Scarlet, which is due out in the fall. The Nintendo Direct showcase is expected to last around 40...
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Image: Google
I woke up at 7AM yesterday and discovered that two of my Nest cameras were showing as offline. After hours of troubleshooting and hard resetting the cameras to get them working again, I realized the problem was a peculiar issue on Google’s end. Hundreds of Nest Cam owners have reported their cameras showing as offline over the past week or so, but Google hasn’t notified owners or even posted the issue on its Nest service status page.
Reddit users in the UK started reporting Nest Cam outages yesterday with similar reports on Google’s own support forums. Twitter is littered with complaints about offline Nest Cams. 9to5Google even reported on the issues earlier this month, but over the past day the problem has affected a lot more Nest Cam...
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Spotify’s new desktop interface. | Image: Spotify
Spotify has officially announced a redesign for its desktop app that aims to offer easier access to details on the song or podcast you’re currently listening to, and give you new ways to organize your playlists and other content. According to a blog post published yesterday the changes — which Spotify calls “one of its biggest revamps yet” — are rolling out to “all Desktop users worldwide” from this week.
The biggest change you’re likely to notice after the update is the Your Library sidebar on the left of the screen. Rather than showing a simple text list of playlists, the interface now includes colorful icons. It also shows recently played artists and albums to quickly jump back into, alongside playlists. You can minimize the sidebar...
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Amazon’s Prime Day will take place in mid-July. Other retailers will likely also hold competing events around that time. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
It’s that time of year again. Amazon once again announced its annual sales event for Prime members. Amazon Prime Day officially kicks off at 3AM ET / 12AM PT on Tuesday, July 11th, and runs through Wednesday, July 12th.
If you can’t wait until the Black Friday / Cyber Monday holiday shopping season, Prime Day offers some of the best deals you can get on a range of goods. That’s assuming, of course, Amazon won’t surprise us again with another “Prime Early Access Sale” (aka, Prime Day 2.0) as it did in early fall last year.
We don’t yet know everything that is going to be on sale, but one thing is almost certain based on past trends: the best discounts will likely land on Amazon devices. Historically, we’ve seen everything from Amazon’s...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Discord plans to give creators a new way to make money from their communities by selling digital products via one-time purchases. These new “Downloadables” can be things like a recipe ebook, a gaming guide, or a digital wallpaper, and the company plans to begin experimenting with them “over the coming months,” Discord’s Derek Yang wrote in a Tuesday blog post. Downloadables will be available to purchase from a Server Shop, which is also in testing.
The new Downloadables and Server Shop add to Discord’s server subscriptions as ways for creators to monetize their servers. Server subscriptions are getting an improvement, too: the company is adding tier templates to make it easier to decide what subscriptions to offer to your community....
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Reddit has started removing moderator teams managing subreddits that switched the labeling on their communities to Not Safe For Work (NSFW) in the latest protests against the site. In addition to applying an age gate for desktop viewers and restricting access on mobile devices to logged-in users in the Reddit app, Reddit also doesn’t show ads on subreddits tagged NSFW. This cuts into its ability to monetize them, which is a major part of Reddit’s disputed push to charge apps for using the API.
CEO Steve Huffman told me in an interview last week, “90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay...
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Apple IDs now support passkeys, but only in betas for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma. | Illustration: The Verge
It appears that passkeys are now supported for Apple IDs, but only if you have the first beta for iOS 17 (or iPadOS 17 or macOS Sonoma). Beta users of Apple’s operating systems then have the ability to sign in anywhere that supports signing in with your Apple ID — covering not only Apple.com and icloud.com, but also anywhere else your Apple account is linked to — sans passwords, using just the biometrics on their iPhone or MacBook and a dream.
It works anywhere that supports signing in with your Apple ID. For example, if I want to sign in to Reddit and look at my favorite John Oliver-themed subreddits, I can tap the “Continue with Apple” button on the sign-in screen, and I’ll be given the option to sign in by scanning a QR code with my...
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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Twitch is replacing its Mature Content toggle for livestreams with new “Content Classification Labels,” according to a blog post published Tuesday. The new labels are more descriptive, meaning streamers can be more specific about what viewers might see.
Twitch says streamers can now mark if their stream features:
Any games you play with an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) of Mature will automatically get the “Mature-rated game” label, and if you change to playing a non-M-rated game, the label will be removed. And any labels you have will be automatically applied to VODs.
W...
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The M2 generation of MacBook Air now comes in two sizes, and both are discounted. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple now sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro at $2,499 (not counting anything you can spec out to the stratosphere). And while it’s great to have options, it’s even better to find the right one for you on sale. The good news is that finding a deal on a Mac with an M1 or M2 chip — or a higher-end Pro or Max version — is usually not too difficult.
At this point, we don’t recommend buying any older Intel-based Macs. They’re just completely outclassed by all the newer models unless you have some super-niche Windows Boot Camp needs.
Alternatively, purchasing...
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Normal Autopilot and Full Self-Driving beta settings menu (FSD version 10.8). | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Tesla CEO Elon Musk might have his very own supersecret driver mode that enables hands-free driving in Tesla vehicles.
The hidden feature, aptly named “Elon Mode,” was discovered by a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly. The anonymous hacker has dug deep into the vehicle code for years and uncovered things like how Tesla can lock you out of using your power seats or the center camera in the Model 3 before it was officially activated.
Impressions after nearly 600 miles on 11.4.3 with Elon mode (could not get a non-Tesla car to try in time).
It went much better than the prior experiment obviously.
Many contributing factors. I was not as late so I did not mind as much (still ended up 5 minutes late solely— green...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft is sending CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, and many other Xbox executives to defend against its Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case for its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Both Nadella and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will appear in court this week to defend against a potential preliminary injunction against Microsoft’s giant $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. If the FTC is successful in winning an injunction, then Microsoft has admitted in court filings that the deal could well be over.
The list of Microsoft and Xbox executives also includes Sarah Bond, head of Xbox creator experience, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, and Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart. Lori...
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Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Gas stoves release worrying amounts of benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia and other blood cell cancers, according to a new study from Stanford researchers. Benzene that gas-burning stoves release inside homes can reach concentrations even higher than what’s typical in secondhand smoke, according to the paper published last week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
The study adds ammunition to efforts to phase gas connections out of homes and buildings. There’s a growing body of evidence on the risks gas stoves pose to public health and the environment. The fossil fuel industry, however, has pushed back hard against policies to shift to clean energy by playing on people’s attachment to gas stoves.
“Seeing the...
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Illustration: The Verge
Gannett filed a federal lawsuit against Google and parent company Alphabet on Tuesday, alleging that Google has monopolies on the ad tech market that have hurt local news. “The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace and end Google’s monopoly, which will encourage investment in newsrooms and news content throughout the country,” Gannett wrote in a press release.
In its lawsuit, Gannett argues that although the digital ad market has exploded, publishers do not see as much of that money because Google and Alphabet have “acquired and maintain monopolies” for ad tech used to buy and sell ads by linking Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) with the AdX exchange where publishers sell their inventory....
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The Federal Communications Commission currently has four members. | Image: Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a proposal to investigate broadband internet data caps and their effect on consumers. To help with the investigation, the FCC has opened up a portal asking for public comment on how they’ve been affected by data caps — that is, limits on how much internet data a customer can use before being charged more money or having their service slowed down.
The FCC especially wants to hear about the effects of data caps on “those with disabilities, low-income consumers, and historically disadvantaged communities” as well as their impact on education, the ability to access public safety services, and more.
A lot of ISPs suspended data caps during the covid pandemic, with...
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Image: Domino’s
Domino’s can deliver your pizza directly to you — instead of to a specific address — while you lounge by the beach or picnic at the park this summer. That’s with the new Pinpoint Delivery feature, as first reported by Business Insider, which lets drivers deliver to locations without addresses at no extra cost to the customer.
As a result, all you need to do is simply drop a pin of your location in Google Maps from within Domino’s mobile app to receive your order. From there, you’ll be able to track drivers’ GPS locations, check wait times, and receive text updates about your order.
Sadly, though, you can’t get your pizza delivered straight to your beach chair. That’s because you’ll have to meet your driver wherever the app deems the...
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Robloxrecently partnered with the Parsons School of Design on a course that had college students design virtual avatars. | Image: Roblox
Roblox has been signaling that it wants to be more than a gaming platform for kids. Today, the company is making another push in that direction by letting its creators make experiences specifically for people who are 17 and older.
The new age category will allow for more graphic content and adult themes than Roblox has permitted to date, including depictions of heavy bloodshed and alcohol use, chief product officer Manuel Bronstein tells me. To keep underage users from accessing 17 and older experiences, Roblox will require that people scan their driver’s licenses and submit a selfie before they can access the new category.
Thirty-eight percent of Roblox’s daily users last year were over 17, and its fastest-growing user age group is...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A handful of subreddits have classified themselves as not safe for work (NSFW) to protest Reddit’s recent treatment of the platform’s volunteer moderators, and as a result, some non-porn communities are starting to get a lot of porn.
More than 8,000 subreddits went dark last week in protest of the company’s API pricing changes that are set to shut down popular third-party apps. But as the protests went on, Reddit started to push back. In an interview with The Verge, CEO Steve Huffman said that, while the platform allows the protests, “the users are not in support of it now. It’s like a protest in a city that goes on too long, and the rest of the citizens of the city would like to go about their lives.” In an interview with NBC News,...
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It’s a big year for the Code Conference — Vox Media’s annual tech-and-media gathering founded by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg has a new location and new hosts: CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, Platformer’s Casey Newton, and... me. It’s going to be a big one, with lots to discuss: it feels like the internet itself is changing as social platforms reinvent themselves in controversial ways, big players push for platform changes like VR, and — of course — as AI disrupts everything.
The first guest we’re announcing is a big one: newly-installed Twitter/X CEO Linda Yaccarino. Linda’s taking over a company that Elon Musk reinvented in dramatic ways — most notably by laying off huge numbers of people, but also by refocusing its mission on a...
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OceanGate CEO holds the Titan submersible’s Logitech controller. | Image: CBS News Sunday Morning
On Sunday morning, an OceanGate submarine vessel with five people aboard went missing in the Atlantic about an hour and forty-five minutes into a planned trip to explore the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. Made of carbon fiber and titanium, the vessel has enough air for 96 hours; however, as word of the emergency has spread, there’s also shock at the wireless Logitech F710 gamepad used for steering.
The Titan advertises “state-of-the-art lighting and sonar navigation systems plus internally and externally mounted 4K video and photographic equipment,” and this CBS News Sunday Morning segment from David Pogue, taken last summer, showed the reporter laughing as he was shown its controls. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush holds up the F710, saying,...
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The new Nomad x Peak Design rugged iPhone 14 Pro case is designed to take a beating and support Peak Design’s range of SlimLink mounts. | Image: Nomad / Peak Design
If you’re in the market for a rugged iPhone 14 Pro case with a little utility, then you’re in luck. Nomad, a reputable producer of phone cases, has collaborated with camera bag and accessory designer Peak Design to release a limited-edition phone case for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The Nomad Rugged Case is available to purchase today from $60 with immediate shipping from either Nomad or Peak Design’s website.
The new Nomad Rugged Case supports MagSafe charging and features Peak Design’s SlimLink magnetic attachment technology, making it compatible with all Peak Design mobile mounts, chargers, and accessories. Supported Peak Design mounts — which allow a mobile device to be attached to walls, bikes, motorcycles, cars, and...