How to find your forgotten Gmail accounts

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

A little over two months ago, Google announced that it was planning to delete any accounts that hadn’t been used in two years (with a few exceptions, such as accounts that have YouTube videos). Well, just today, I got an email from Google warning me that accounts that have not been accessed for two years will indeed be eligible for deletion starting on December 1st, 2023.

I’ve been wandering around Google’s apps for some time now, and it occurred to me that I could possibly have unused Google accounts that I haven’t used for years — and which, if I didn’t check them, might have content I’d want to save. I knew I had three active Google accounts, and suspected I had at least one other that I hadn’t visited in a while, but I wasn’t quite...

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Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: how to watch and what to expect

Image: Samsung

Samsung’s second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year is just days away, and it’s going to be filled with new products. In addition to the highly anticipated launch of Samsung’s next-gen foldables, we’re also expecting Samsung to announce updates to its Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Tab lines.

If you’re curious about the upcoming Unpacked, we’ve rounded up all you need to know about the event below.

When is Samsung Galaxy Unpacked?

Samsung will hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 26th, 2023, at 7AM ET or 4AM PT. Unlike Galaxy Unpacked events in the past, this one will take place in Seoul, South Korea.

Where can I watch Galaxy Unpacked?

There are several places on the web where you can watch Galaxy Unpacked, including live from Samsung’s website or on S...

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Data breach exposes personal information of 4,000 Roblox developers

The original data breach may date as far back as December 2020. | The Verge

Sensitive information identifying thousands of Roblox creators has been exposed following a data breach impacting attendees at a conference for Roblox developers, which allegedly remained undisclosed by the company for at least two years. As reported by PC Gamer, the leak contains personal information from people who attended the Roblox Developer Conference between 2017-2020, including names, usernames, date of birth, physical addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, and even T-shirt sizes.

“Roblox is aware of a third-party security issue where there were indications of unauthorized access to limited personal information of a subset of our creator community,” said a Roblox spokesperson to PC Gamer. “We engaged...

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Marvel brings first three episodes of Disney Plus’ Secret Invasion to Hulu

Samuel L. Jackson in Marvel’s Secret Invasion. | Image: Marvel Studios

Ahead of the release of the sixth and final episode of Secret Invasion on Disney Plus, Marvel is bringing the first three episodes of the series to Hulu. The episodes, which star Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury as he attempts to fend off an invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls, is now available to stream on Disney’s other US streaming service until August 17th. Any viewers wanting to watch the final three episodes will have to watch them on Disney Plus, where the season’s final episode will be released on July 26th.

Deadline notes that this isn’t the first time an original Disney Plus series has streamed on Hulu. American Born Chinese and Star Wars spinoff Andor both saw select episodes appear for a limited time. The...

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Meta, Google, and OpenAI promise the White House they’ll develop AI responsibly

The White House is bringing in AI’s top seven companies Friday to make a series of voluntary promises to protect users.

The companies — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI — have all agreed to a series of asks from the White House to address many of the risks posed by artificial intelligence. The promises consist of investments in cybersecurity, discrimination research, and a new watermarking system informing users when content is AI-generated.

The companies have entered into these agreements voluntarily, so there are currently no consequences if they fail to live up to their promises. Many of these commitments are not expected to roll out on Friday, but the companies are expected to work on...

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Cowboy insists it’s not the next VanMoof as it raises prices to ‘stay healthy’

The new Cowboy Cruiser. | Image: VanMoof

Company launches cheaper Core e-bike configurations while predicting profitability starting this quarter.

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Reddit takes over one of the biggest protesting subreddits

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit is now in charge of r/malefashionadvice, which for a time was the biggest subreddit still closed in protest of the platform’s API pricing changes. The subreddit is now open, meaning Reddit users can browse content in the community once again, though in a restricted mode, meaning only certain users can make new posts.

As we reported last week, the moderators of r/malefashionadvice, a subreddit with than 5 million subscribers, had taken the community private and were pushing its users toward Discord and Substack instead. At the time, the moderators expected to be removed after receiving a message from a Reddit admin (employee), ModCodeofConduct, telling them they would be replaced if they didn’t reopen.

Three former moderators of...

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FTC withdraws its in-house challenge to Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard deal

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suspending its administrative challenge (PDF) seeking to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard. The FTC had taken a two-pronged approach against the $68.7 billion deal, filing this case last December that was scheduled to go before its own administrative judge on August 2nd.

The other part was its pursuit of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would have stopped Microsoft closing its deal while the FTC’s administrative process continued. A US federal judge denied the injunction request earlier this month, and an appeals court also turned down its request to put an emergency hold on the deal. The FTC is still appealing the preliminary injunction denial, though.

M...

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Epic Games is taking 75 percent off select titles as part of its summer sale

The summer promos just keep coming. | Image: Epic Games

If you were looking to stock up on some PC games, you might want to head on over to the Epic Games Store. That’s because from now until August 3rd at 11AM ET, Epic Games is taking 75 percent off hundreds of titles as a part of its annual summer sale. What’s more, you can earn 10 percent back — double the usual amount — from both game and app purchases, which you’ll receive 14 days after making your purchase.

The sale offers a fantastic opportunity to pick up some older games you may have been curious about but perhaps missed. This includes Alan Wake Remastered, the predecessor to the forthcoming Alan Wake 2, which is on sale for just$11.99 ($18 off). Other older titles worth considering include Far Cry 6 for $14.99 ($45 off) and Red...

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Spider-Man 2’s new story trailer and PS5 bundle are consumed by Venom

We knew Peter Parker and Miles Morales would return to fight Kraven and Venom on October 20th, but we had very little hint as to the plot. Now, Sony and Insomniac have released the first full story trailer for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 — and it’s an epic one.

You can watch it above.

Also, Sony has revealed a limited-edition PS5 bundle you can buy alongside the game, which comes with its own controller, both featuring the symbiote consuming Spider-Man’s shiny red and turning it pure black:

If you’ve already got a PS5, Sony will sell the same console covers and controller separately, too, though it hasn’t shared prices yet. (Previous console covers have cost between $55 and $65 for a set.)

They’ll all go up for preorder next Friday, July...

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AMC scraps plan to make the best movie theater seats more expensive

Illustration: The Verge

No, getting seats in AMC Theaters will not be like booking tickets for flights, sporting events, or the theater. As previously reported by Bloomberg, the company is done testing ways to offer tiered pricing that would have customers paying extra for more desirable seats at the cinema and less for the ones no one wants.

The now-canceled Sightline plan was being tested in three US markets, and AMC notes customer response “clarified” things enough to end the pilot. The company stated that it “saw little or no incremental lift in front-row attendance, even with a price reduction applied to those seats” in the testing markets.

AMC notes, probably most importantly, that its competitors didn’t try to match the scheme, and so it will go in...

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AOC is going to stream on Twitch again

A screenshot from Ocasio-Cortez’s October 2020 Twitch stream. | The Verge

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is going to stream on Twitch again this weekend. On Thursday, she announced that she’ll be streaming with Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker and “special guests” on Saturday, July 22nd at 7:30PM (presumably ET).

Ocasio-Cortez’s debut Twitch stream, which took place in October 2020, peaked at more than 426,000 viewers, according to TwitchTracker, instantly making it one of the highest-viewed streams on record at that time. Although some Twitch streams have since gone on to hit millions of peak simultaneous viewers, Ocasio-Cortez’s stream still ranks highly in TwitchTracker’s records.

Ocasio-Cortez’s first stream was packed with special guests, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), HasanAbi, and Pokimane, who all...

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The Federal Reserve’s 24/7 payment system could deposit your paycheck instantly

Image: Federal Reserve via Flickr

Your paycheck could arrive even sooner, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s newly launched payment system. The system, called FedNow, is an instant-payment service that operates on a 24/7 basis — even on holidays.

First announced in 2019, FedNow acts as a “common network” between banks and credit unions, making it easier for them to route funds across different institutions. So far, there are only 35 participating banks and credit unions, along with the US Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

Once it’s widely adopted, though, it will let you transfer funds between different bank accounts instantly or even pay your credit card bill on a bank holiday without worrying about it being late. And, if you have direct deposit,...

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Feast your eyes on the first 11 minutes of the Pokémon Horizons dub

Liko and her partner, Sprigatito. | The Pokémon Company

Ahead of its premiere at some point in the near future, The Pokémon Company’s just released a lengthy preview of Pokémon Horizons: The Series, the new anime inspired by Pokémon Scarlet and Violetthat introduces a pair of new protagonists to replace Ash Ketchum, in addition to a cavalcade of new pokémon.

Today, during its panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, The Pokémon Company revealed an all-new trailer for Pokémon Horizons: The Series as well as an 11-minute-long video featuring basically half of the first episode of the series, which introduces Liko, a young student from the Paldea region who becomes partners with an ornery Sprigatito.

Along with the new looks at Pokemon Horizons, The Pokémon Company also announced that Pokemon...

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TSMC delays Arizona factory that will eventually build chips for iPhones and AI

TSMC is also predicting a 10 percent decline in revenue for 2023 amid falling demand for consumer electronics. | Photo by VCG via Getty Images

The world’s biggest chipmaker is pushing back the start of 4nm chip production at its new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, to 2025, blaming labor shortages. Apple has said that it intends to eventually source chips for its iPhones and MacBook models from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plant in the US, while Nvidia and AMD have also committed to using its production capacity.

The chipmaker’s first Phoenix-based fab, which began construction in 2021, was originally projected to start producing 4nm chips next year. A second fab that will produce smaller, more complex 3nm chips is scheduled to open in 2026.

During the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday, TSMC chairman Mark Liu said that the company was “encountering...

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Samsung Wallet now supports student IDs

Samsung Wallet can now be used to access things around campus without needing a physical card. | Image: Samsung

Samsung’s now offering new digital student ID support in its own Wallet app. Galaxy users, specifically those who have recent A, S, or Z series devices, will be able to pull up their campus card to access facilities and food at a tap around supported institutions just as easily as using Samsung Pay.

The news comes as Samsung gets ready to announce new devices, including its latest foldable phones, at its yearly Unpacked event next Wednesday.

Back in my day, we had to carry around ugly plastic student ID cards to tag ourselves into smelly weight rooms and grab dry burgers on a meal plan. Today, some students have gone through school and earned a four-year degree without ever needing to carry a physical card.

Early on, Android phones...

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The Borderlands movie comes out next year

A screenshot from Borderlands 3_._ | Image: 2K

The Borderlands movie, which has been officially in some sort of development since 2015, will finally be released on August 9th, 2024, according to a post from the movie’s Twitter account. The film is directed by Eli Roth (who also directed horror movies like Hostel and The Green Inferno) and stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The Borderlands movie Twitter account didn’t share anything else besides the below image; if you were hoping for a trailer, you’re going to have to keep waiting.

Image: Lionsgate

If you scroll back on that account, though, it’s shared some images that could give us a hint of what to expect. Here’s one of Claptrap the robot,...

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Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation workers are organizing to form a union

Image: The Animation Guild

A group of Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation production workers — the staff of different managers, assistants, IT specialists, and coordinators who play vital roles in bringing the studios’ projects to fruition — have announced their intention to form a union with The Animation Guild.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, 66 of the production workers behind Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation shows including Harley Quinn, Teen Titans Go!, Craig of the Creek, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Batman: Caped Crusader, and We Baby Bears have filed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board asking for it to hold and oversee a union election. The staffers are also requesting that Warner Bros. Discovery voluntarily recognizes their...

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Meta is improving Quest VR hand tracking and adding system-level live captions

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta’s newest update for its Quest VR headsets, v56, will add a lot of welcome upgrades, including improved hand tracking, system-level live captions, and the return of livestreaming to Facebook.

The improved hand tracking, which Meta is calling Hand Tracking 2.2, focuses on “hands responsiveness” to bring “the experience closer to controllers,” and to help show it off, the company released the Move Fast demo app as part of its App Lab. Meta is also adding swipe typing on its virtual keyboard, which could be an easier way to spell things out than hunting and pecking on virtual keys midair.

I tried out hand tracking and Meta’s Direct Touch technology on the Quest 2 earlier this year, and while it was quite finicky, I thought it was still...

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Here are the best noise-canceling headphone deals we could find

The Sennheiser Momentum 4 (right) offer improved noise cancellation and better comfort than the prior model (left). | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

With more people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, for instance, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions.

That’s why we’ve curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a...

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Leaked Galaxy Watch 6 specs list a bigger screen and slimmer bezels

This is what the Watch 6 Classic could look like. | Image: OnLeaks / MySmartPrice

The upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 could come with a larger display thanks to its slimmed-down bezels. A specs list posted by leaker SnoopyTech (via 9to5Google) suggests that the 40mm Watch 6 will come with a 1.31-inch OLED display, while the 44mm version will feature a 1.47-inch OLED display.

The specs sheet indicates that the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will get a similar upgrade, featuring the same display sizes across its rumored 43mm and 47mm options. According to the specs sheet, the 1.2-inch display might come with a 432 x 432 resolution, while the 1.47-inch screen may have a 480 x 480 resolution. That’s a slight upgrade from the 1.2-inch and 1.4-inch displays on its Galaxy Watch 5 predecessor.

pic.twitter.com/3lLBhBuddT

— SnoopyTech...

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Dolphin emulator gives up on Steam — but won't remove Wii decryption key

Image: Dolphin

Don't wait around for Dolphin to help bring Nintendo GameCube and Wii games to Steam — it's officially no longer happening. Nearly two months after postponing the release “indefinitely,” the Dolphin Emulator team now says it’s completely given up on the idea. “We are abandoning our efforts to release Dolphin on Steam,” they write.

Remember when we showed you the receipts where Valve torpedoed the launch, telling Dolphin it would have to get permission from Nintendo if it wanted a place in the store? Today’s Nintendo was never going to give that permission, and Dolphin is now coming to terms with that:

Valve ultimately runs the store and can set any condition they wish for software to appear on it. But given Nintendo’s long-held stance...

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Neopets is moving into a ‘new era’ — and leaving NFTs and the metaverse behind

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

It might be time to log into your Neopets account again.

Neopets, a virtual pet website that first launched in 1999, certainly isn’t the phenomenon that it was in the early days of the internet. I have fond memories of the site — as a kid, I remember spending hours taking care of my dog-like Lupe character — but I haven’t paid any serious attention to Neopets for two decades because a lot of the site felt stuck in the past. Much of Neopets’ design is straight 2005, a lot of the old games built on Adobe Flash don’t work anymore, and some of the more recent attempts to revive interest, including an NFT project, feel out of touch in their own ways.

The many dedicated fans who still visit the site got some promising news this week. The team...

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ChatGPT can now remember who you are and what you want

Image: The Verge

The newest feature of ChatGPT is designed to help you type a little less. It’s called “custom instructions,” and it gives you a place to tell your chatbot the things it should always know about you and how you’d like it to respond to your questions. The feature is in beta, works everywhere ChatGPT does — it should be particularly helpful on mobile devices — and is available today on an opt-in basis to ChatGPT Plus subscribers everywhere but the UK and EU. (Those are hopefully coming soon.)

“Right now, if you open up ChatGPT,” says Joanne Jang, who works on model behaviors and product at OpenAI, “it doesn’t know much about you. If you start a new thread, it forgets everything you’ve talked about in the past. But there are things that...

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Best gaming laptop in 2023: seven laptops to get your game on

All the best gaming laptops at every size and price

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The best Chromebook for 2023

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

The best Chromebook for anyone who wants Chrome OS on their laptop

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Reddit’s r/Place is going about as well as expected

A screenshot of r/Place. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Reddit officially launched the 2023 edition of its r/Place collaborative art project on Thursday morning, and so far, it’s already littered with messages protesting Reddit and Reddit’s CEO. You can see the current iteration of the canvas on the r/Place subreddit or by following the prompt at the top of the app. (Note that you can’t access r/Place on Old Reddit; you’ll need to be on New Reddit or one of the company’s mobile apps.)

In r/Place, individual users can drop a single pixel of color every five minutes on a huge canvas, including overriding other pixel placements if you want to try and claim some turf. In the utopian version of this idea, r/Place becomes an ever-changing piece of art where users work together to draw all sorts of...

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How tree trimming became the latest Hollywood drama

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images

Don’t get it twisted: trees are a crucial lifeline during a severe heatwave like the one gripping the US right now. So the tree trimming controversy that unfolded this week during the screenwriters and actors strike is anything but trivial.

In case you missed it, union members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined picket lines outside Universal Studios despite temperatures soaring above 90 degrees Fahrenheit this week. In a tweet that went viral, writer Chris Stephens pointed out on Monday that trees that would have shaded the protesters were suddenly quite bald.

“Trees are essential to providing Angelenos with significant environmental...

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Sleep gadgets to help you catch those Zzzs

Sleep trackers, earbuds, and smart beds | Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Sleep tech is more than tracking. It can also help you fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up earlier.

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All 500-plus Whole Foods stores will soon let you pay with a palm scan

Image: Amazon

Amazon is bringing its palm-scanning technology to even more Whole Foods stores. By the end of this year, Amazon says you’ll be able to pay for your purchase using just the palm of your hand at the over 500 Whole Foods locations it has throughout the US.

The palm-scanning tech is part of Amazon One, a service that lets you link your Amazon account and payment information to your palm print. Once your palm print is in Amazon’s system, you can hover your palm over an Amazon One scanner, and it will charge the payment method that’s tied to your Amazon account.

After first rolling out the palm scanners to some of its Go stores, it later introduced the tech to over 200 Whole Foods locations in California, New York, Texas, and several other...

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