Your Starbucks order is not ready

Oh, goody! Wait, I’ve ordered nothing. | Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge

It’s been a long time since I personally ordered from Starbucks, but today, I thought the streak was broken when my iPhone buzzed with a gleeful “Your order is ready!” notification.

But wait a minute — I didn’t order anything!

I turned to social media and quickly found that a bunch of other people were getting the same message stemming from their Starbucks app.

Starbucks is now sharing that the notification was a glitch. “Earlier today, a push notification from the Starbucks app was sent as an error, customers were not charged for an order if one was not placed,” reads a company statement sent to Insider. The company says it was due to the app suffering a partial outage.

Looks like Starbucks is being hacked today. Got a notice my...

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How Dell dodged a class action suit over Alienware Area-51m GPU upgrades

The Alienware Area-51m. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

In 2021, Dell got sued — because one year after hyping up an Alienware laptop that supposedly let you upgrade its discrete GPU, the company didn’t follow through.

The story of the Alienware Area-51m is pretty dang relevant today because Framework just opened preorders for another laptop that offers the same.

But it turns out Dell never had to meaningfully face that lawsuit. Area-51m buyers never successfully banded together in a class action case. Dell was able to force them into binding arbitration, I found, when I went looking to see what happened to the suit.

In July 2022, Judge Vince Chhabria told plaintiffs they had already agreed to binding arbitration “when they clicked ‘Accept’ on the start-up screen of their computers,” and...

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DoorDash fired an employee for trying to organize a union, NLRB alleges

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Bloomberg reports a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint alleging that DoorDash illegally fired an office employee who tried to organize a union in Arizona. The complaint also says DoorDash threatened to reprimand workers who attempted to assemble and lied to them, saying it’s unlawful to discuss worker conditions on days off.

The NLRB specifically accuses DoorDash of violating employees’ federal rights by “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees,” the May 30th filing reads. DoorDash denies making any attempts to block unionization efforts. “These allegations are part of a personally motivated attack and entirely without merit,” DoorDash representative Liz Jarvis-Shean wrote in a...

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Instagram embeds don’t violate copyright laws, court rules

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram isn’t liable for copyright infringement when images are embedded on third-party websites, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Monday (via Torrent Freak). The decision came in response to a class action lawsuit filed by two photographers, Alexis Hunley and Matthew Brauer, who accused Instagram of violating copyright laws by enabling Time and BuzzFeed News to embed their copyrighted photos in online articles.

In 2016, Time published an article titled “These Photographers Are Covering the Presidential Campaign on Instagram,” which included Brauer’s embedded Instagram photo of Hillary Clinton. BuzzFeed News similarly posted an embedded photo taken by Hunley in its 2020 article about the Black Lives Matter...

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The official Windows launch of Nearby Share adds some new features

Image: Google

Google is officially launching Nearby Share for Windows, the company’s AirDrop-like tool that lets you send things like documents and photos between your Android device and your PC. The company first released the app for Windows in beta earlier this year.

As part of Wednesday’s launch, Google says Nearby Share now has “improved performance” and some new features: the tool now shows the estimated time for file transfers to finish and shows an image preview in device notifications. Google also says that it’s partnering with companies such as HP to “include the Nearby Share app on select Windows PCs,” which sounds to me like Nearby Share will be preinstalled on those select devices at some point.

If you want to set up Nearby Share on your...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The latest Kindle Paperwhite is on sale as a part of a bundle. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...

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US antitrust enforcers lay down plans to block Big Tech mergers

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Federal antitrust enforcers released new draft guidelines for evaluating anti-competitive mergers Wednesday, redoubling their aggressive scrutiny over digital markets.

The rules, proposed by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, direct enforcers to examine mergers by online platforms more broadly than ever before. The proposal doesn’t explicitly name tech companies like Amazon, Meta, or Google, but many of the rules implicate parts of their merger and business strategies.

“We are updating our enforcement manual to reflect the realities of how firms do business in the modern economy,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Wednesday.

Specifically, the rules set a new focus on “multi-sided” platforms, or online companies...

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Nissan is on board with Tesla’s charging revolution

Photo by Roberto Baldwin for The Verge

Nissan is announcing support for Tesla’s winning charging connector for the North American market. The automaker is not only the first Japanese brand to agree to add the charger but also the first Asian one. Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) is the port that many major automakers, including Ford, GM, Volvo, and Mercedes-Benz, have accepted to use in the US.

For Nissan in particular, this is a big deal. The company is one of the pioneers of the electric vehicle revolution thanks to its early release of the Nissan Leaf in 2010. Nissan currently uses two different port standards for its models: CHAdeMO on the Leaf and CCS1 on the Ariya. “We are happy to provide access to thousands more fast chargers for Nissan EV drivers,”...

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I don’t know where to post about the World Cup

Photo by Roland Krivec / DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Starting tomorrow, my sleep schedule is going to be in complete disarray. The 2023 Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand on July 20th, which means that I’ll be getting up very early — and staying up pretty late — in order to catch as much of it as I can. It’s an exciting moment because the women’s game has never been as popular as it is today, and the field for this year’s tournament truly feels wide open. There’s just one problem: I have no idea where to post about it.

For years, the answer was obvious. Twitter may not have been the global town square it aspired to be, but during live sporting events, it was pretty darn close. World Cups, the Olympics, and the NBA Finals turned into two-screen experiences. While you...

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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 — read our review

July 21st

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

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Oppenheimer is an unrelenting stream of bombastic vignettes in need of a narrative chain reaction

Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. | Image: Universal

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer epic offers a series of visceral glimpses into the life of the father of the atomic bomb but gets too busy to reach its full potential.

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Blizzard games are coming to Steam

Image: Blizzard

Some of your favorite Blizzard games are coming to Steam. Today, Blizzard announced that it plans to offer a selection of its games on the PC storefront.

“Though we remain committed to continually investing in and supporting Battle.net, we want to break down the barriers to make it easier for players everywhere to find and enjoy our games,” the announcement read.

The first Blizzard game coming to Steam will be Overwatch 2, and it’ll be available on August 10th — just in time for Steamers (that’s what they’re called, right?) to participate in the Overwatch 2: Invasion event that introduces the long-awaited PvE story missions.

Players on Steam will still have to connect Overwatch 2 to a Battle.net account, but they’ll have access to all...

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Meta’s AR glasses reportedly won’t feature the high-end displays it planned

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

The first part of Meta’s augmented reality glasses it sells to the public won’t come with the high-end displays originally planned for the device, according to a new report from The Information. Sources tell the outlet that Meta’s AR glasses will instead feature older glass lenses and display technology.

As reported last year by The Verge, Meta’s first pair of consumer-facing AR glasses, codenamed Artemis, are set to be released in 2027. Meanwhile, the company is making its first-generation pair of AR glasses meant for select developers and internal testing next year.

Instead of including MicroLED displays for its consumer AR glasses, Meta will reportedly use Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) instead, an aging display technology that was...

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Reddit is bringing back r/Place at perhaps the worst possible time

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit is bringing back r/Place — a collaborative project where individual users can edit pixels on a giant canvas — at a time when users are still furious over things like Reddit’s API pricing that forced beloved third-party apps to shut down, the company’s decision to remove chat history from before 2023 with hardly any warning, and its recent announcement that it would be sunsetting the current system to give Reddit Gold. The 2023 version of r/Place kicks off on Thursday, July 20th.

As you might expect, users are already using the announcement post to air their grievances toward the company. The current top comment in reply to the post just says “fuck u/spez” (“spez” is CEO Steve Huffman’s Reddit username), and many of the other...

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Apple is testing an AI chatbot but has no idea what to do with it

Image: The Verge

Apple is creating its own AI-powered chatbot that some engineers are calling “Apple GPT,” according to a report from Bloomberg. The company reportedly doesn’t have any solid plans to release the technology to the public yet.

As noted by Bloomberg, the chatbot uses its own large language model (LLM) framework called “Ajax,” running on Google Cloud and built with Google JAX, a framework created to accelerate machine learning research. Sources close to the situation tell theoutlet that Apple has multiple teams working on the project, which includes addressing potential privacy implications.

As other tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft, and Google, have moved quickly releasing generative AI products of their own to businesses and the...

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Apple’s cheapest iPad has returned to its all-time low price at Amazon

The ninth-gen iPad may feature big bezels and an outdated design, but it’s also the lone iPad with a headphone jack. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

We’re now a week out from Amazon Prime Day, and while steep discounts currently seem somewhat in short supply, we’re starting to see some of the best Prime Day deals return. Case in point: the stellar deal we saw on the last-gen iPad from last week has returned, dropping Apple’s entry-level tablet to just $249.99 ($79 off) in the base configuration at checkout.

If you’re planning to travel with kids this summer, Apple’s ninth-gen iPad remains a solid pick, especially when paired with a rugged case of some kind. The budget-friendly model still offers plenty of power via its A13 processor, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and the same 64GB and 256GB storage options you’re afforded with the iPad Air. More importantly, the 10.2-inch slate...

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‘Welcome to EV dongle town’

I want to be very clear: this is not my car. An Audi E-tron parked across multiple spots in order to access a Tesla Supercharger. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge

Earlier this year, I purchased my first electric vehicle, a 2023 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S — moonstone gray, moon roof, all-wheel drive. I knew that the car would start losing value as soon as I drove it off the dealer lot — just like the old saying goes. What I didn’t realize was that the whole charging system that my shiny new EV relied on was about to become obsolete.

In May, Ford and Tesla announced a surprise deal in which the Blue Oval would adopt Elon Musk’s charging connector, named the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Tesla’s Supercharger network is widely considered vastly superior to the junky, bug-riddled public charging network in the US. Ford made a strategic decision to throw its lot in with the winners.

The dominoes...

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WhatsApp is rolling out to Wear OS smartwatches

WhatsApp is now a Wear OS 3 app. | Image: Meta

First teased at Google I/O, Meta just announced that WhatsApp is officially rolling out to Wear OS smartwatches starting today, provided you have a Wear OS 3 smartwatch.

The app itself isn’t complicated. It’ll allow users to start new conversations, reply to messages, and take calls from the wrist. They’ll also be able to respond with voice messages, emoji, regular text, and quick replies. And if you have an LTE-capable Wear OS 3 watch, you’ll be able to respond to messages without needing your phone nearby.

The main thing here is timing and reach. For starters, the Samsung Unpacked event is next week, where we’re expecting to see the new Galaxy Watch 6 and, if rumors are to be believed, the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. There’s a good...

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Samsung debuts the industry’s first GDDR7 memory chips

Samsung is first out of the gate with GDDR7, but it might be a while before we see it installed into market-ready products. | Image: Samsung

On Wednesday, Samsung announced that it has completed the development of the industry’s first GDDR7 DRAM, the next generation of graphics memory that will feature in future computing, vehicle, and gaming hardware releases. The company’s key partners can expect to install the new chips into their next-gen systems later this year for testing. If all goes well, we could see products running Samsung’s GDDR7 memory hitting the market sometime next year.

“Our GDDR7 DRAM will help elevate user experiences in areas that require outstanding graphics performance, such as workstations, PCs and game consoles, and is expected to expand into future applications such as AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive vehicles,” said Yongcheol Bae,...

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How Tesla almost went out of business — and then broke the auto industry

Image: Vox Media

During the development of the Tesla Model S, one top engineer would tick off certain milestones in his mind whenever the tiny, almost bankrupt startup would hit certain goals. A particular number of cars built, for example. And one milestone he distinctly remembers is when the Tesla team completed more than 9,000 cars.

Why? Because that’s all the cars DeLorean ever made before it went out of business. Today, Tesla is rewriting the future more than any DeLorean ever did.

The new season of Vox Media Podcast Network’s award-winning narrative podcast Land of the Giants is debuting next week, and it’s all about Tesla. Tesla has become a giant in the auto industry, dethroning legacy car companies one by one. It is the disruptor of all...

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Beats Studio Pro headphones review: leaning on a legacy

They look like a lazy refresh from the outside, but the noise-canceling Studio Pros include a ton of new features like transparency mode and lossless USB-C audio. And they solidify Beats’ unique appeal as a dual-ecosystem brand.

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Beats’ new Studio Pros are its first flagship headphones since 2017

You can order the Studio Pros beginning today. | Image: Beats

For the first time since 2017, Beats is announcing a brand-new pair of flagship headphones. Today, the Apple-owned company is introducing the $349.95 Beats Studio Pros. They’re available to order beginning today and will be in Apple retail locations (and other stores) on July 20th.

As recent leaks have given away, the external design is largely a carryover from the prior Studio 3 headphones. But looks can be deceiving, and Beats has made a number of upgrades to the Studio Pros focusing on sound, noise cancellation, comfort, and more. Technically, these are the first Apple headphones to support lossless USB-C audio playback. And they continue Beats’ efforts to appeal to both iPhone and Android users by including support for native...

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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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Netflix just axed its basic ad-free plan in the US and UK

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

After Netflix dropped its cheapest ad-free plan in Canada last month, it’s now doing the same in the US and UK, as first spotted by Cord Busters. Netflix’s support page in both countries states that the $9.99 (£6.99) / month basic plan is no longer available “for new or rejoining members.”

If you’re already subscribed to the basic plan, you can keep the subscription as long as you don’t cancel it or change plans. But if you were looking to downgrade your Netflix subscription to a cheaper ad-free plan, you’re out of luck. With this change, Netflix now only offers a $6.99 (£4.99) / month ad-supported tier, the $15.49 (£10.99) / month standard plan, and the $19.99 (£15.99) / month premium plan.

Image: Netflix

Netflix...

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Nothing CEO Carl Pei on the Phone 2, AI, and the future of gadgets

Nothing CEO Carl Pei knows better than most how hard it is to make a dent in the hardware world. | Image: Nothing

Nothing wants to invent the future. But you don’t get to invent the future if you can’t first make it in the smartphone biz.

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Pikmin 4 embraces the series’ hidden horror roots

Image: Nintendo

If you haven’t played a Pikmin game before, you might be surprised to learn that the series can get quite dark. Sure, it stars a bunch of adorable plant-like beings — the titular pikmin — who navigate a huge world full of similarly cute creatures. It’s bright and colorful in the way that Nintendo games tend to be. But it’s also pretty creepy at times, with unsettling enemies to go up against, dark caverns to explore, and the way the pikmin will throw themselves into battle, with hordes able to overwhelm and kill larger creatures, whose corpses they then cart off to be repurposed. Pikmin is light on the surface but darker the more you think about it — and the latest entry takes things a step further with a survival mode and some ghostly...

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Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agree to extend merger agreement to October

Photo by Hakan Nural / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to extend their merger agreement pending the outcome of negotiations with UK regulators. Both parties will now have until October 18th to finalize the transaction, after missing yesterday’s original deal deadline.

“The recent decision in the US and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming,” tweeted Lulu Cheng Meservey, Activision Blizzard’s CCO and EVP of corporate affairs. “Given global regulatory approvals and the companies’ confidence that CMA now recognizes there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorized the companies not to...

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Activision Blizzard lays off esports staff as it faces potential dramatic changes for the Overwatch League

Image: Joe Brady

Amid layoffs in the Activision Blizzard esports department, Overwatch League franchise owners will vote on whether to continue the league in its current format.

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The self-transforming Optimus Prime now has a $1,700 dinobot friend

ME GRIMLOCK.

How much would fans pay for the ultimate action figure? A company named Robosen seems determined to find out — with Transformers toys that transform themselves like they do in the classic cartoon.

First, it was a $750 self-transforming Optimus Prime robot, then a $750 transforming trailer to go with it — $1,500 total to bring the leader of the Autobots to life.

Now, Hasbro and Robosen are introducing Grimlock so you can own the king of the Dinobots, too, for a cool $1,700 all by itself.

@verge

Grimlock, king of the Dinobots. #toys #toy #transformers #sdcc #sdcc23

♬ original sound - The Verge

The result is glorious. Thirty-four servo motors make for a spectacular transformation and let Grimlock walk, talk, attack, and even...

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Readers pick the best tech books of all time

We asked you for your favorites, and you delivered.

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