This cute retro handheld comes in Capcom and Taito flavors

Image: Blaze Entertainment

The team behind the Evercade line of retro hardware is back with a cute new handheld. It’s called the Super Pocket, and it is downright tiny — it measures in at 78mm x 125mm x 25mm — and relatively cheap. It’ll cost you £49, $59, or €59 depending on region.

At launch, the Super Pocket comes in two varieties. There’s a Capcom version with 12 built-in games (including Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Final Fight, 1942, and Mega Man) and a Taito version with 17 games included (like Space Invaders, Elevator Action, and Bubble Bobble). Equally as important, each version has its own color scheme.

Outside of the built-in games, each handheld also has a cartridge slot that supports the same game carts from the Evercade handheld and h...

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Xbox will now let you clip and report audio to clean up Call of Duty lobbies

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Xbox is adding reactive voice chat moderation. Rolling out today to Xbox Insiders, the new reporting feature will allow players to capture and submit 60-second audio clips of inappropriate voice chat messages, which will then be reviewed by the Xbox safety team.

In an interview with The Verge, Xbox GM of Trust and Safety Kim Kunes said that voice chat moderation represented the next step in Xbox’s holistic approach to ensuring player safety.

“If a player experiences something in our community that they don’t like and they want to report that to us, they have a variety of different options for doing that,” Kunes said. “We do moderation proactively on text, on images, and videos, and launching reactive voice moderation is about that audio...

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Chinese hackers breached US government emails via Microsoft Cloud exploit

Around 25 organizations and government agencies are believed to be affected by the breach. | Illustration: Beatrice Sala

In two blog posts published on Tuesday, Microsoft disclosed that a China-based hacking group — which the company refers to as “Storm-0558” — is intent on “gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection.” It said the espionage-focused group breached an unidentified number of email accounts linked to around 25 organizations, including some related individual consumer accounts and government agencies in Western Europe and the US.

According to The Washington Post, it was the US government that notified Microsoft of the exploit. “Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service,” National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodges said to the publication. “We continue to hold...

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Senate committee approves nominee to break FCC deadlock

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Anna Gomez to become the third Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday.

In May, President Joe Biden nominated Gomez, a career telecommunications attorney, to unlock a more than two-year FCC stalemate that’s prevented the agency from voting on major telecom regulations like net neutrality. Now, her nomination advances to the floor for a final full-Senate vote.

“Ms. Gomez is a dedicated public servant with 25 years of experience in the telecom industry,” Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said in her opening remarks on Wednesday. “Ms. Gomez has demonstrated she has the experience and judgment to be highly effective in this role as Commissioner.”

“Ms. Gomez has...

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One of Apple TV Plus’ best hidden gems is back for season 2

Image: Apple

One of the biggest problems with modern streaming services is how easy it is to miss stuff. There’s just so much that even the good shows can pass right by you. And it’s just as true for a platform like Apple TV Plus as it is for more stuffed services like Netflix. With all of the focus on big, splashy projects like Foundation or Severance or the latest movie from Martin Scorsese, it’s not hard for something like The Afterparty — a quirky murder mystery that plays around with film history — to fly under the radar.

Well, good news if you did miss it: season 2 kicks off today, making it a great time to jump in.

Season 1 took place in the aftermath of a party that followed a high school reunion, where the host — a pop star named Xavier...

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The Roku Channel is now streaming on Google TV

Image: Roku

The Roku Channel, Roku’s free streaming app that comes installed on the company’s streaming hardware boxes, has made its way to Google TV and other Android-powered TV platforms. The app provides subscription-free TV shows and movies without the need to log in or create an account, and according to Roku, it reached over 100 million people in the US by the end of last year.

The excellent background noise available on The Roku Channel includes selections descended from the Quibi library Roku acquired, like Die Hart 2: Die Harter in addition to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and Most Dangerous Game: New York.

There’s also The Great American Baking Show to help inspire you to bake a lemon drizzle or Victoria sponge cake — which might make...

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Staff favorites that are on sale for Prime Day right now

Photo: Zojirushi

Whenever the staff of The Verge is asked to describe their favorite pet toys, summer tech, desktop accessories or whatever, they are free to describe something that is recently bought, 10 years old, or that has been sitting around the house for decades. Inevitably, though, some of the items have popped up in Amazon’s Prime Day sale. We thought we’d offer a curated list of a few of them.

Insect vacuum

Christopher Grant, group publisher, The Verge and Polygon

If you don’t have Spotted Lanternflies in your area, just wait; they’re coming. The insect, native to China and first detected in my home state of Pennsylvania in 2014, is an invasive species that loves to snack on trees, along with other plants and crops. As a result, local...

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Disney Plus will start streaming Cinderella in 4K in August

Image: Disney

Disney Plus is getting a restored version of the classic Cinderella movie. Starting on August 25th, you can stream the 1950 animated film in 4K.

Disney says it worked with the experts at the Walt Disney Animation Studios to enhance both the look and sound of the film, all while preserving “the rich colors, contrast, and accuracy of the original cels and artwork.” You can get a glimpse at how this might look in the before and after image embedded above.

A dream come true. ✨

A stunning new restoration of the animated classic, Cinderella, is coming to #DisneyPlus on August 25 during #WorldPrincessWeek! #Disney100 pic.twitter.com/LJZYF6SmB7

— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) July 12, 2023

To create the restoration, Kevin Schaeffer, the director of...

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FTC v. Microsoft: all the news from the big Xbox courtroom battle

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Microsoft won its courtroom 1v1 against the FTC, but the fight isn’t over yet.

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Honor’s latest foldable is almost as thin and light as a regular smartphone

The Honor Magic V2, folded.

If there’s one thing Honor wants you to know about its new Magic V2, it’s how thin and light it is. The thinnest vegan leather version of the new foldable, which is launching in China today, is just 9.9mm thick when folded and weighs 231 grams. That’s thinner and lighter than Honor’s major competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 (14.2mm and 263g), Google’s Pixel Fold (12.1mm and 283g), and Huawei’s Mate X3 (11.8mm and 239g) when folded.

In fact, hold the folded Honor Magic V2 in your hand, and it almost feels like a non-folding smartphone. The Magic V2’s weight (like its 6.43-inch exterior screen size) sits somewhere between an iPhone 14 Pro (206g) and iPhone 14 Pro Max (240g). It’s not as thin in its smartphone-style folded form...

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Google hands over its tool for estimating flight emissions to an independent advisory group

Image: Getty

Google is setting up an independent advisory board to manage its Travel Impact Model (TIM), an open-source tool for predicting the per-passenger carbon emissions produced by an upcoming flight.

Previously, Google drove decisions about TIM, but now, the company says it will merely manage the technical aspects of the model while all the major decisions will be handled by the new independent advisors. The advisory panel, which is comprised of airline industry executives, regulators, climate experts, and consumer advocates, will convene on a regular basis to weigh possible changes to the model.

According to Google, the panel will “discuss and approve updates to the model by incorporating the latest scientific knowledge in the field of...

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Delivery app holdout Domino’s will list its pizzas on Uber Eats in the US

Domino’s pizzas listed in Uber Eats. | Image: Domino’s

Domino’s, the world’s largest pizza company in terms of sales and stores, has signed a deal with Uber to list its menus on its Eats and Postmates delivery apps in the US, the company has announced. Although orders will continue to be delivered by uniformed Domino’s drivers, the company hopes that listing its menus on the apps will expose it to more potential customers.

The pizza chain has been a notable holdout in the shift towards third-party delivery apps in the US, which The Wall Street Journal previously reported can increase sales but harm profit margins and interrupt the direct relationship between restaurant and customer. Fellow pizza brands Papa John’s and Pizza Hut already work with third-party delivery apps in the US. One...

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Microsoft’s Activision deal could face ‘new merger investigation,’ UK regulator warns

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is throwing caution over the idea of a quick resolution to its concerns around Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft and UK regulators were extremely quick to issue statements over their intention to pause their Activision battle to negotiate after Microsoft won a key FTC legal fight yesterday. But now, the UK regulator says Microsoft’s proposals may “lead to a new merger investigation.”

In a statement to The Verge, supplied by CMA media officer Billy Proudlock, the regulator warns that the discussions with Microsoft are at an early stage:

Whilst merging parties don’t have the opportunity to put forward new remedies once a final report has been issued, they can...

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The best entertainment of 2023

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. | Image: Nintendo

Right now, we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. TV shows, movies, and games all come out at such a fast and furious pace that it’s hard to keep up. Not all of them are worth your time, of course — which is where we come in.

Our team spends a lot of time immersed in the various realms of pop culture so that we can handpick our favorites for you. That could mean a hot new indie game you might’ve otherwise missed or the streaming series that will become your new obsession. Either way, if you’re finding it hard to sort through the flood, this is the place to find a curated selection of the best stuff.

And like last year, this page will be updated regularly throughout the year — so make sure to check back in...

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The best Amazon Prime Day tech deals going on right now

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge

Welcome to the final day of Prime Day 2023, everybody’s favorite mid-summer shopping event hosted by Amazon. If you thought the deals would start to fade now that we’ve entered day two, well, you’re only somewhat mistaken. Yes, a few items are no longer around, but many of the best remain, with new ones being added every hour. Other retailers are even matching Amazon’s prices in many cases, which means there are still deals available even if you don’t have a Prime membership.

To save you both time and money, we’ve combed through thousands of Amazon’s so-called “deals” to find a selection of Verge-approved picks, all tested and vetted by our team of ace writers and editors. Like yesterday, we’ll be continuously updating this piece with...

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Oxenfree II is a perfect spooky sequel — and one of Netflix’s best games

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals. | Image: Netflix

When the original Oxenfree debuted in 2016, it was hard not to make Stranger Things comparisons: from the synth-heavy soundtrack to its story of kids grappling with the supernatural, the vibes were very similar. So it made a lot of sense when, in 2021, Netflix acquired Oxenfree developer Night School Studio as part of its burgeoning games effort. Now we have Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, which is an ideal sequel: it’s another creepy adventure game that stands on its own but also builds on the original in smart ways. It might also be the best video game released under the Netflix label so far.

As a game, not much has changed in Lost Signals. It’s a 2D adventure where you wander around a beautiful small town, doing lots of talking and...

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Democrats call on DOJ to investigate tax sites for sharing financial information with Meta

Photo by Michael A. McCoy / Getty Images

A group of Democratic senators is urging federal law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute some of the most popular online tax filing companies for allegedly sharing millions of taxpayers’ financial data with Meta and Google.

On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and others asked the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Treasury Department, and the IRS to investigate whether TaxSlayer, H&R Block, and TaxAct violated taxpayer privacy laws by sharing sensitive user information with the two tech firms.

Senators also released their own report Wednesday detailing the accusations, first raised by The Markup last November. The report alleges that for years, tax preparation companies infused...

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is on sale for Prime Day

A worthwhile Zelda deal has dropped. | Image: Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been dominating the gaming zeitgeist since its release in May, but it’s finally time for a wave of patient deal hunters to descend on Hyrule. Amazon and Walmart are now discounting the Nintendo title that normally runs $69.99, selling it for $51.99. Full disclosure: both deals are through a third-party seller, but that doesn’t give me too much cause for concern given they carry mostly positive ratings and are fulfilled by the retailers.

There has been a way to get the digital version of the game for cheaper this whole time, but if you prefer a physical cartridge for your Nintendo Switch games, this deal is the way to go. Though, if prior Zelda discounts are anything to go by (as few as...

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The best Amazon Prime Day deals under $25

Amazon’s Echo Pop is so cheap for Prime Day that for $25 you can buy one with a smart bulb and still have plenty left over for some pop-themed snacks. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Everybody wants to save big during major deals events like Amazon Prime Day, but the little purchases are often the ones we end up using all the time. Whether it’s a quality HDMI 2.1 or USB-C cable, a convenient charger for your phone, or a quirky little accessory you never knew you needed — nothing beats a great deal on something affordable that you get tons of use from.

However, there’s a plethora of crap on sale at these prices, too. That’s why we’re here to sift through all the dreck that Amazon drums up every Prime Day, so we can hand-select a list of good deals at affordable prices that you should be able to buy with confidence. So let’s go ahead and be extra-frugal together, as here are some great deals at very low prices.

Smart...

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Amazon’s audio game shows no signs of stopping

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Hope everyone is staying cool this summer. Today, I take a look at Audible’s new chief content officer and what her role will entail in Amazon’s bigger audio strategy. I also have an exclusive interview for you from the creators of iHeartMedia’s NextUp Initiative, a six-month fellowship for underrepresented podcast creators.

The Chief Audio Officer Summit begins tomorrow in Los Angeles. Spotify and Wondery will both be hosting summits on Thursday, too. I’ll be in attendance, so you can look forward to my recap in another edition of Hot Pod.

Finally, this just in before publication time: Trisha Paytas is cutting ties with Colleen...

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Silk Road’s top lieutenant gets 20 years behind bars

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Silk Road was once synonymous with online “dark web” criminal activity, and today, its number two organizer, Roger Thomas Clark, aka Variety Jones, was sentenced to 20 years. Clark’s sentence was, according to Wired, the maximum he could have faced as part of his plea deal.

Clark was extradited to the US from Thailand almost five years ago and, before that, had served almost three years in detention in Thailand. According to the US Attorney’s Office of New York’s Southern District, he was accused of “conspiring to distribute massive quantities of narcotics.” At the time of extradition, Clark gloated that there was no hard evidence against him and that being sent to the US would be “an impossible circumstance.”

Authorities said Clark...

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OpenAI’s DALL-E will train on Shutterstock’s library for six more years

Image: Shutterstock

Shutterstock is extending its partnership with OpenAI for six more years, allowing the AI company to train its models using Shutterstock’s sprawling library of images, videos, music, and metadata during that time.

The stock image site’s partnership with OpenAI first began in 2021. That’s when Shutterstock started letting the company use its images to train its text-to-image model, DALL-E — a deal OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described as “critical” to the model’s training. Last year, Shutterstock launched a “Contributor Fund” to compensate artists when their work is used to train OpenAI’s models.

At that time, Shutterstock also integrated OpenAI’s image generator directly into its website and banned the sale of AI-generated images that weren’t...

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Classic action game Karateka is being turned into a playable documentary

Image: Digital Eclipse

Last year, Digital Eclipse released Atari 50, a sprawling, interactive tour through Atari’s long history. I described it as “a cross between an interactive documentary and a virtual museum exhibition,” and it really set a new bar for retro game collections. Now, the studio is tackling another project: Karateka, the game Jordan Mechner made before the iconic Prince of Persia.

Called The Making of Karateka, the new project sounds much like Atari 50, only focused on a specific game. It includes “pixel-perfect versions” of the original Karateka releases and early prototypes you can actually play, along with a host of design documents and documentary-style video features. There’s even a brand-new remastered version of the action game. “What...

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Barbenheimer is just the beginning of this year’s summer blockbuster season

Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer and Margot Robbie as Barbie in Barbie_._ | Image: Universal / Warner Bros. Pictures

After all the mermaids, superheroes, talking robots, and superspies that have already invaded theaters over the past few weeks, you might have gotten the sense that this year’s season of summer blockbusters was already upon us. It’s wild to consider given all the new movies that have recently debuted, but the truth is that things are only just beginning — especially for the film buffs who’ve been patiently waiting to take in Barbie and Oppenheimer (Barbenheimer, if you will) double features. Here’s a little guide to all the features we’re looking forward to seeing and digging into.

Barbie

July 21st

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Barbiemovie from director Greta Gerwig has already so thoroughly saturated the pop culture discourse that the...

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Tesla settles class action lawsuit on Solar Roof price increase

Image: Tesla

Tesla has agreed to settle on a class action lawsuit over sudden price increases the company pushed on Solar Roof buyers in 2021, CNBC reports. Tesla said it will pay just over $6 million in the settlement, which involves thousands of customers who had committed to purchasing the novel roof-replacing solar shingles product.

According to the court filing, the settlement class included 8,636 customers, 6,307 of whom had canceled their orders. About 1,600 of the remaining customers completed their full contract at the original prices, and the rest are either scheduled for install or are pending. One of the lead plaintiffs had their Tesla contract increase from about $72,000 to $146,000, while others were offered a free Powerwall home...

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The best anti-Prime Day deals at Walmart, Best Buy, and other retailers

The Bose QuietComfort 45 are just one of many noise-canceling headphones significantly discounted at multiple retailers. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s easy to feel left out of Amazon Prime Day if you’re not a Prime member. Watching everyone else quickly grab deals you don’t have access to can inspire a major case of FOMO; however, you might want to wait before handing over your credit card for a Prime subscription.

The good news is that other retailers are offering their own competing sales, many of which don’t require you to pony up for a premium subscription. Right now, for example, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are holding their own sales events and offering some good deals on noise-canceling headphones, robot vacuums, and other gadgets. In fact, in some cases, they’re actually matching Amazon’s prices. There are a lot of deals available, but we’ve gone ahead...

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The FCC aims to stop SIM swappers with new rules

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has introduced a new set of rules it says will “protect consumers against scams that aim to commandeer their cell phone accounts,” it announced on Tuesday. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says the new rules will maintain citizens’ “well-established freedom to pick their preferred device and provider.”

Under the proposed regulations, wireless providers would be required “to adopt secure methods of authenticating a customer” when they swap SIM cards to a new device or port their phone number over to another carrier. They would also have to notify customers when a SIM change or port-out request is initiated and do other things to protect customers from phone hijacking fraud.

The FCC said it was l...

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Meta-provided Facebook chats led a woman to plead guilty to abortion-related charges

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Norfolk, Nebraska, woman pleaded guilty to helping her daughter have a medication abortion last year. The charges came after Facebook, by court order, provided police with evidence that bolstered a Madison County prosecutor’s case against her.

Last year, it emerged that the two were charged after police acquired Facebook messages that proved the two had acquired abortion medication intended for first-trimester abortions. In a June 2022 affidavit, the officer investigating Celeste Burgess, the daughter who was charged along with her mother, Jessica Burgess, said he’d served Meta a warrant seeking their messages, and the company quickly complied.

The charges include having an abortion after 20 weeks, false reporting, and tampering with...

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Netflix just made it easier to transfer your profile from your ex’s account to your new partner’s

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is forcing you out of your ex’s account, now it’s easier to transfer your profile to the old account you just reactivated (or maybe even your new partner’s). In an update on Tuesday, Netflix says you can now use its profile transfer tool to send your viewing history and recommendations to an existing account.

Before this change, Netflix only let you transfer your profile to newly created accounts. This was pretty inconvenient if you already had an inactive account with Netflix that you wanted to start using again or if you planned on sharing an existing account with someone you’ve just moved in with.

Image: Netflix

Netflix rolled out its profile transfer tool last year as a...

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Meta is going to let you make video calls as your avatar

Image: Meta

Meta is rolling out the ability to show up on video calls in Messenger and Instagram as your virtual Meta avatar, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature marks a notable expansion of what you can do with its avatar system, which it has been slowly building out as part of its metaverse vision.

Based on a short video in Meta’s blog post about the news, it appears using your Meta avatar in a call will look somewhat like using one of Apple’s Memoji avatars on a FaceTime call. Meta’s avatars also follow your facial expressions and mouth movements, which could make it easier to tell what someone is actually saying while they’re chatting with you as an avatar. The video shows users switching over to some sillier animal-themed avatars,...

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