The Boys spinoff Gen V looks like a bloody bacchanal in new trailer

Amazon’s live-action adaptation of The Boyshas always been a uniquely blood-filled superhero series, and the same has seemed to be true of Gen V — the streamer’s upcoming spinoff show focused on college-aged superheroes training for the big leagues. But unlike the thick, red liquid pouring out of The Boys — which has always felt like an excessively gorey detail meant to emphasize how violent the world Vought International runs really is — Gen V’s blood seems to serve an interesting purpose judging from a new trailer.

Gen V focuses on the lives of a number of students matriculating at Godolkin University School of Crimefighting — Vought’s school for people gifted superpowers after being exposed to Compound V. Like many of the kids at...

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Apple is taking applications for Vision Pro developer kits

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple announced that developers can now apply to get a Vision Pro headset on the company’s website.

In addition to the Vision Pro headset, the dev kit also includes help setting up the device, code-level support requests, and “check-ins” with Apple experts about designing and developing an app for visionOS.

Apple Vision Pro developer labs are opening soon around the

Cupertino
London
Munich
Shanghai
Singapore
Tokyo

Developers: Now’s your chance to get hands-on experience with Apple Vision Pro and see your groundbreaking apps come alive! https://t.co/gxRJK299uf

— Greg Joswiak (@gregjoz) July 24, 2023

The company will prioritize applicants who are creating an app that “takes advantage of visionOS features and capabilities” — so,...

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Mortal Kombat 1 adds Omni-Man, Peacemaker, and Homelander to roster

Image: NetherRealm Studios

Mortal Kombat is already a deeply brutal, gore-splattered game, and it’s about to get so, so much bloodier with the addition of Homelander, Peacemaker, and Omni-Man to its roster of fighters.

In a video released late last week, NetherRealm Studios confirmed the characters would be part of the game’s Kombat Pack DLC. The DLC also includes Mortal Kombat natives Quan Chi, Ermac, and Takeda.

Justice. The good... and the bad. Welcome the Kombat Pack Roster to Mortal Kombat 1. #MK1 pic.twitter.com/QoWFC36y8n

— Mortal Kombat 1 (@MortalKombat) July 21, 2023

During an interview with Mortal Kombat kreator Ed Boon at San Diego Comic-Con, J.K. Simmons was confirmed to be the voice of Omni-Man for Mortal Kombat, but it doesn’t seem like either...

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People are using Google Maps to cut down tailpipe pollution

Google Maps shows users the most fuel-efficient route. | Image: Google

Drivers are taking Google Maps’ advice for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their trips, according to the company.

In late 2021, Google debuted a feature in Google Maps that allows users to see the most fuel-efficient routes. The feature has since helped prevent around 1.2 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, Google estimates in its latest environmental report released today. That’s almost like taking 250,000 gas-guzzling cars off the road for a year, the company says.

That’s almost like taking 250,000 gas-guzzling cars off the road for a year

The tool launched in the US, but now it’s also available in Canada, Egypt, and nearly 40 more countries in Europe. Google uses a machine learning model to...

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Netflix’s new mobile tab could make it easier to find things to watch

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix is introducing a new tab in its mobile apps that could make it easier to actually find something you want to watch, according to a blog post from the company. The new tab, called “My Netflix,” will be available on iOS beginning Monday and starts rolling out on Android in early August.

Basically, it sounds like My Netflix will surface titles you’ve shown some sort of interest in as a way to help you make a decision about what to watch. The My Netflix tab will show you things like titles you’ve downloaded, have recently watched, are halfway through, have saved to My List, and have given a thumbs-up to, as well as trailers you’ve watched.

“Keep in mind that the more you interact with and tell Netflix what you like, such as saving...

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Nanoleaf’s blacked-out Triangle panels that light up with RGB color are $55 off

The Ultra Black version of the Nanoleaf Triangles leaves a bit of negative space on your walls when turned off as opposed to the usual bright white. | Image: Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf is offering a sizable savings on its slick, blacked-out light panels. The Nanoleaf Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit with nine panels is selling for $165 ($54.99 off) when you use code NANO25FB at checkout on Nanoleaf’s site. The limited-edition panels were first released a little over a year ago to commemorate Nanoleaf’s 10th birthday. I don’t know if they’re still really “limited,” as they remain easy to buy even after Nanoleaf has turned 11, but either way, the black triangles are especially cool-looking since they show their all-black base when turned off. Most other Nanoleaf panels are entirely white when switched off, so the black offers a sleek contrast with brighter walls or can blend into darker rooms.

Of...

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Sony WF-1000XM5 noise-canceling earbuds review: better in every way — for now

Sony’s latest flagship earbuds are excellent on multiple fronts, but the lack of an ecosystem will hold them back in the not-too-distant future.

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Tencent set to acquire Dying Light studio Techland

Image: Techland

Tencent, the billion-dollar Chinese holding company that owns either wholly or in part game studios like Riot Games, Epic Games, and many others, is in the process of adding another studio to its long list of subsidiaries — Techland.

CEO Pawel Marchewka announced the news, saying, “Teaming up with Tencent will allow us to move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games.”

Techland is a Polish studio known for its zombie survival games, including the Dying Light and Dead Island series. Last year, after a lengthy delay, the studio released the highly anticipated sequel to Dying Light, Dying Light 2: Stay Human,to decent reviews.

Also last year, The Gamer reported on internal struggles at Techland, reporting that 20...

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Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models could be more expensive

Apple is expecting to produce around 85 million units of the iPhone 15 this year, roughly in line with iPhone 14 (pictured) production last year. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

According to a new report by Bloomberg, Apple is allegedly planning to hike the price of its upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models in a bid to increase revenue during a projected slump in smartphone sales.

The publication claims that Apple has a target to produce around 85 million iPhone 15 units this year, which isn’t far off the 90 million iPhone 14 units the company is said to have requested from its suppliers last year. Essentially, Apple is hoping it can produce a similar number of devices but keep its revenue high (in spite of things like ongoing inflation and lower demand for consumer tech) by increasing the price of its more expensive iPhone models, according to “people familiar with the matter.”

Falling demand in the...

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TikTok is adding text posts

Image: TikTok

TikTok users can now post text-based updates in addition to videos and series of photos — just as platforms like Meta’s Threads are vying to take on Twitter’s microblogging dominance.

Text posts appear similar to Instagram Stories visually: users can add a background color, edit how text appears, and add music and stickers to the post. Posts have a 1,000-character limit (yes, I tested it to find out). Other users can also engage with the post similar to how they interact with video — by stitching, dueting, and commenting.

Seeing the company responsible for the tidal wave of shortform video add text features is interesting on its own, but the timing is worth noting. Platforms like Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and a litany of others are...

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What’s the best student laptop? We asked students

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops for high school and college students. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Shopping for a laptop can be stressful — doubly stressful if you or your children will be learning online for the first time. Kids of different ages have a range of different laptop use cases and different needs. And as the choices for best laptop and best Chromebook evolve, so do students’ needs. So I spoke to some experts on the subject: students themselves.

My recommendations here are meant to accommodate a variety of preferences and price ranges. But they’re a jumping-off point rather than an exhaustive list: every student is different. Before making a decision, you’ll want to make sure you read reviews and try out devices yourself if you can. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date with items that are in stock.

Best laptop...

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Bing Chat is now available in Google Chrome and Safari

Illustration: The Verge

Watch out Bard — Bing’s AI chatbot is now available in Google Chrome and Safari. As first spotted by Windows Latest (via 9to5Google), you can now access the chatbot from Bing.com in both browsers.

There are some limitations to using Bing Chat on Chrome and Safari, though. For one, you can only type 2,000-word prompts, as opposed to the 4,000-word limit that you get when using Bing Chat on Edge. Your conversation with the chatbot will also reset after five turns instead of 30, and you’ll see some annoying pop-ups that prompt you to download Edge.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

You’ll still get prompted to download Edge.

In addition to a wider rollout across different browsers, Windows Latest and 9to5Google...

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Microsoft has created a pizza-scented Xbox controller

Image: Microsoft

I’m fairly sure most Xbox controllers give off a bit of a sweaty pong after hours of gaming, but Microsoft has now created one that’s supposed to smell like pizza from the get-go. The “world’s first ever pizza-scented controller” is part of a marketing effort for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie.

Microsoft has designed custom TMNT Xbox controllers that have a scent diffuser strapped to the back in the shape of a slice of pizza. There are four variations in total, and thankfully, they’re just part of a sweepstakes giveaway, so we won’t be seeing or sniffing these controllers everywhere. If you want to try and win a pizza-scented controller, you’ll need to enter by retweeting a post on the Xbox Game Pass...

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RIP Twitter’s iconic bird logo

Image: Alex Castro and Jess Weatherbed / The Verge

Early Monday morning, Twitter began replacing its blue bird logo with a fan-made “ ” logo. The same X also appears on Twitter’s homepage, as a profile picture for its official @twitter account, and on a splash screen displayed while the website loads. The blue bird logo hasn’t been expunged from the service entirely — it still serves as the website’s favicon and remains prominent throughout the mobile apps — but we’re now knee-deep in a haphazard rebranding that was announced by Elon Musk yesterday.

“Soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk wrote.

The modern Twitter bird was actually the company’s second logo and replaced the company’s earlier “Larry the Bird” logo it used between 2010 and 2012....

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Flip phones are having a moment — and all eyes are on Samsung now

It’s your time to shine, little guys. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

What’s old is hot again, and flip phones are so very hot right now.

These phones are a far cry from the phone that you mastered T9 texting on in college. Today’s flip phones are garden-variety 2023 smartphones that happen to fold in half — plus a screen on the front cover.

They’ve been making a kind of comeback over the past few years, but until now, they’ve existed in the shadows of their bigger, pricier fold-style counterparts. That’s understandable, considering that their small cover screens haven’t been good for much more than checking the weather and pressing pause on a podcast. But that’s all changing this year: in a round of updates from Motorola, Oppo, and very likely Samsung next, cover screens are getting much larger and way...

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The Flipper Zero has an app store now

This press image sums up the Flipper’s appeal pretty well. | Image: Flipper

The Flipper Zero — a dolphin-themed digital multitool — now has a mobile app store, which makes it much easier to browse and install third-party tools and plug-ins right from your phone. The marketplace is built into the latest version of Flipper’s official app, which is out today.

Quick recap: the Flipper Zero is cool as hell. It has sub-GHz wireless, RFID, NFC, and Bluetooth radios. It can receive and transmit infrared signals. It has a USB-C port and a row of GPIO ports on the top that let it interface with other hardware, including an add-on Wi-Fi board. Chris Person, writing for The Verge, called it a Swiss Army knife of antennas. You can use it to emulate Amiibos. You can use it as a universal remote or a USB Rubber Ducky. You can...

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It’s Spotify’s turn to increase prices

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

After 12 years, the price of Spotify Premium is increasing in the US. The subscription will now cost $10.99 a month, the company announced today. Spotify has charged $9.99 for its Premium subscription ever since its launch in the US in 2011. “So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world,” the company wrote in a post announcing the increase. “These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform.”

As well as increasing the price of a single Premium subscription, the cost of Duo will increase from $12.99 to $14.99, Family will increase from $15.99 to $16.99, and Student will increase from $4.99 to $5.99. According to an FAQ, existing...

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Greta Gerwig’s Barbie blasts into the blockbuster record books with $155 million US opening

Yep, $155 million seems Kenough to me. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Legions of Barbie-core and biopic fans descended onto theaters this weekend for the “Barbenheimer” box office phenomenon, but one pink-plastered performance, in particular, came out on top. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has already smashed several records, raking in $155 million domestically over the weekend — the highest US opening ever for a film directed by a woman — beating the previous $153 million achieved by Anna Boden’s Captain Marvel.

“The massive, overwhelming response we’ve seen out there proves what we’ve known from the beginning: that ‘Barbie’ is not only an incredibly special film, but clearly the theatrical event of the summer, if not the year,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. Pictures president of domestic distribution in a...

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Twitter is now X as the little blue bird disappears

Image: Twitter

Twitter is transforming into X, as the site’s former bird logo has now been replaced by an official new X logo. Elon Musk, who owns the transformed social media site, began signaling the change early Sunday morning with a series of tweets, starting with one that said, “and soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

Now X has replaced the Twitter logo on the web version, signaling a change to Musk’s “everything app” that he originally envisioned shortly after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in November. The X logo will presumably replace the bird logo in mobile versions of the apps once they’re updated. References to Twitter still remain on the main web login prompt, though.

S...

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Apple is already using its chatbot for internal work

Illustration: The Verge

Apple is using an internal chatbot to help its employees “prototype future features, summarize text and answer questions based on data it has been trained with,” says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in Power On today.

Apple hasn’t been sure what it wants to do with its Apple GPT chatbot project on the customer-facing side yet, but Gurman’s report shed some light on at least its internal chatbot uses. According to the newsletter, Apple is looking at ways to expand the use of generative AI within its organization, with one possibility being giving the tool to its AppleCare support staff to better help customers dealing with issues.

That won’t necessarily happen soon, as the chatbot tendency to get things wrong is well-known to Apple and its CEO,...

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Netflix isn’t planning to make a native Vision Pro app yet

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Netflix isn’t planning to make a native version of its app for the Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. Instead, he says, the company will allow its existing iPad app to run, unmodified, on Apple’s forthcoming mixed reality headset.

As Gurman’s piece points out, developers who don’t want to build Vision Pro software from the ground up have two choices: let their iPad apps run as is on the device or tweak them for the Vision Pro. Netflix has chosen the former, though whether pointedly or not, we don’t know.

Of course, very few companies have actually pledged dedicated software for the Vision Pro at this point, but Netflix’s reticence carries some baggage. The streaming giant was one of the most...

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Twitter’s rebrand to X may actually be happening soon

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images

Around 12AM ET last night, Twitter owner Elon Musk started tweeting — and did so for hours — about the Twitter rebrand to X, the one-letter name he’s used repeatedly in company and product names forever. It started with a tweet saying “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” followed by a second tweet adding that “if a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make go live worldwide tomorrow.”

Musk then, over the next several hours, gestured at the change in between other posts and replies, tweeting things like “Deus X,” or replying to other users talking about it. At one point, he joined a Twitter Spaces session called “No one talk until we summon Elon Musk,” and sat silently for almost an hour...

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Ghost Trick is a summer beach read in video game form

Capcom

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is 2023’s perfect summer video game.

Now, you might be wondering how I could call a Switch port of a Nintendo DS game from 2010 “perfect” (the game’s also available on PS4, Xbox One, and Steam) over any of the games actually released this year, like Diablo IV or Final Fantasy XVI. But while I enjoyed both of those games, I actually don’t think either are ideal summer games for two reasons.

1. They’re way too involved, requiring a bit too much mental commitment to play.
2. Their hardware requirements force you to play them indoors.

Therefore, a perfect summer game must instead:

1. Be simple
2. Be portable

(Yes, I know you can play Diablo IV on your Steam Deck with a bit of work, but level with me here.)

Ghost...

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How my smart home almost saved my vacation

This Ecobee smart thermostat alerted me to a potentially catastrophic scenario in my home while I was on vacation. But there was little I could do about it from afar.

When my HVAC unit failed while I was out of town, my smart thermostat warned me, and the rest of my connected home helped me figure out what was going on.

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The Nothing Phone 2 is mostly fine on Verizon — if you’ve got good 5G coverage

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Sometimes you’ve just gotta break the rules and go for it. I attended Nothing’s New York City product drop last week and got my hands on the Nothing Ear 2s and the Nothing Phone 2. Now, I’m a longtime Verizon customer, which seemed like a major hurdle for actually testing out this phone and its flashing glyphs. At one point, Nothing had mentioned “limited” support for Verizon on its website, but the company has since removed the carrier from its tech specs altogether — never a good sign.

But as I’ve come to find out, as long as you’ve got an active SIM that was already in another Verizon-certified phone, you can toss that into the Nothing Phone 2 and get going without any immediate headaches. When I tried doing so, the phone’s mobile...

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Paramount Plus just dropped its big Star Trek crossover episode early

This photo is technically a spoiler, but it was released months ago by the studio, so is it actually a spoiler? | Photo by Michael Gibson / Paramount Plus

There might not be any actors or big casting announcements at San Diego Comic-Con this year, but Paramount Plus did find one way to surprise fans. It’s dropping the next episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds five days early. The episode also happens to be the very anticipated crossover episode featuring the live-action version of some of the cast of Star Trek: Lower Decks. Having already seen this episode, I can confirm this is all exactly as delightful as it sounds.

With the actors on strike, SDCC has been much more muted than in previous years. There aren’t as many star-studded panels and zero major casting announcements. This has meant studios need to rely on something besides the labor of actors to promote their shows, and...

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is getting a musical episode

Image: Paramount

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds had a pair of surprise announcements at San Diego Comic-Con today. First, the show is stepping out of its weekly release schedule with a new episode tonight — a crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks will debut on Paramount Plus in a few minutes, at 7PM ET, Deadline reports. And that’s not all — the series is also getting a musical episode in early August called “Subspace Rhapsody.”

Deadline points out that this is the first musical episode in Star Trek history, and the publication isn’t wrong, but the franchise has boldly gone there before... sort of. There was a Deep Space Nine episode, called “Chrysalis,” where a group of eccentric, genetically-engineered people break out into an a capella song after one...

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A Google Workspace update makes alt text easier to add

Image: Google

Adding alt text to an image in a Google Workspace project is getting much easier after an update included the accessibility improvement. Until recently, adding alt text to images was hidden behind a right-click menu. Now, the option will show up in the “Image options” sidebar — not only that, but the option now comes with an explanation for the feature, telling users what the purpose of alt text is.

Alt text is used in media and beyond to describe to people who have difficulty seeing what an image is showing, giving them access to important contextual information sighted people may take for granted. But where alt text is available in software, it’s sometimes not explained, and when people who can clearly see and read their screen are...

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Blizzard devs know their Diablo IV patch was bad

A Campfire Chat about Diablo IV_’s 1.1.0 update._ | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

Three directors working on Diablo IV held a campfire chat livestream yesterday saying they will change how they roll out patches, after an incremental verison 1.1.0 patch for the game abruptly nerfed players’ builds (via IGN). And they promise updates like that won’t happen in the future — at least, not the way it went down this week.

In the livestream, associate director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher acknowledged complaints about the patch, which massively reduced player power for some builds. Fletcher said of the reduction that, “we know it is bad, we know it is not fun,” and added, “we don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again.”

In the short term, there is at least one quick fix...

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The Sony Project Q handheld is running Android in a leaked video

Leaked image of the PlayStation Q. | Leaked image via Imgur

At least one of our questions about the Sony Project Q handheld game-streaming device has seemingly been answered by a new leaked video posted by Zuby_Tech on Twitter (via Reddit / Imgur). In it, a basic version of Android OS running on a plastic-wrapped device shows a simple menu system and a QR code. It’s very doubtful this is what the final version of the handheld’s menu will look like, but it gives us an idea what’s running under the hood, at least.

The person making the video quickly taps through the menu, then starts rolling the handheld over to show the top, back, and bottom of it. The low resolution makes it hard to tell much. You can make out what look like a set of four buttons behind the tablet portion of the device on the...

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