The Verge
The Verge’s 2023 back-to-school gift guide
Illustration: The Verge
From laptops and pens to consoles and streaming devices, here are the best supplies to help you or the student in your life prepare for the year ahead.
The VergeThe VergeBlue Beetle is the kitschy sort of superhero throwback DC should have been making years ago
Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes. | Image: Warner Bros.
Director Ángel Manuel Soto’s new Blue Beetle movie checks all the flashy, formulaic boxes Warner Bros. should have been focusing on when it first started trying to build a modern cinematic universe.
The VergeMicrosoft Teams is now part of the Xbox Game Bar so you can stream gameplay to friends
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft has added a new Microsoft Teams feature to its Xbox Game Bar that lets you stream your gameplay to friends over Microsoft Teams. The new “Microsoft Teams Play Together” widget is available for the Xbox Game Bar and supports streaming your entire desktop over Teams and also the ability to join video calls to see friends overlaid on top of games.
Microsoft describes the new Game Bar integration for Teams as “a place to hang out while watching and playing games,” which sounds a lot like what people use Discord for. You’ll see friends overlaid on top of a game, and up to 20 people can join a call at any one time.
Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
You can choose which monitor to stream all within the Game...
The VergeUrbanista turns its solar-powered smarts to a Bluetooth speaker
Use it exclusively in sunny environments, and the Malibu’s battery life might stretch on indefinitely. | Image: Urbanista
Urbanista’s latest Bluetooth speaker, the Malibu, is equipped with solar cells that the company claims could extend its battery life indefinitely. Like Urbanista’s previous solar-powered audio gear — the Los Angeles over-ear headphones and the Phoenix earbuds — the Malibu uses Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cell technology to keep topped up with power, drawing extra charge from both indoor and outdoor light. It’s set to cost $149 (£149 / €169) when it goes on sale in late September.
Per Wired, the basic amount of battery life you can expect from the speaker’s built-in 3,600mAh battery is around 30 hours. But out in the sun, that could extend to up to a theoretical 45 hours of playback, and even when used indoors (albeit next to a window), you...
The VergeBest gaming laptop in 2023: seven laptops to get your game on
All the best gaming laptops at every size and price
The VergeNintendo has restocked the ever-elusive N64 controller for the Switch
Nintendo’s updated N64 controller is just as awkward as the original, but hey, nostalgia. | Image: Nintendo
If you’ve been unable to get ahold of the official remake of the original Nintendo 64 controller from ’96, Nintendo is giving you yet another chance. Right now, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can buy the controller directly from Nintendo for $49.99, its MSRP.
As you might imagine, Nintendo’s exclusive accessory is essentially a modern take on the classic N64 controller. The wireless peripheral retains the central analog stick and original color scheme — sorry, translucent purple stans — but this time around, it features a number of quality-of-life improvements, including wireless connectivity and USB-C charging. There’s even built-in rumble for games that support it.
If you don’t already subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online, rest...
The VergeMoment is upgrading its entire line of lenses for the latest phone cameras
Moment’s new T-Series lens collection. | Image: Moment
Moment is refreshing its whole lineup of smartphone camera lenses, which promise to improve your photography with custom glass that goes on top of your phone’s existing camera. The eight lenses in its new T-Series lineup rework each of the options in the company’s previous M-Series line with improvements like thicker glass for better optics and updated dimensions that reflect just how gargantuan the cameras on our phones have become since the M-Series debuted in 2017.
These are the lenses and their prices:
- Anamorphic 1.33x or 1.55x (in gold or blue flare variants) – $149.99
- Tele 58mm – $149.99
- Wide 18mm – $129.99
- Fisheye 14mm – $119.99
- Macro 10x – $119.99
Most of Moment’s current smartphone lens lineup was made at a time when...
The VergeWhat Armchair Expert and Anything Goes teach us about Spotify’s exclusive podcasts
Photo: Armchair Expert
This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.
Some former Spotify exclusives are quickly gaining traction on other platforms. Others are landing with a thud.
It’s been roughly four months since Spotify confirmed it would widen distribution of some of its exclusive podcasts to other players. A number of Spotify Originals, including Gimlet and Parcast shows, were selected for wide release:
- Science Vs and a slate of true crime and mystery / thriller podcasts including Unexplained Mysteries, Serial Killers, and Conspiracy Theories are now being widely distributed.
- The Gimlet interview podcast Heavyweight — which is debuting a new season this fall — is rereleasing its old episodes...
The VergeQuick fix: restore Chrome download notifications to the bottom of the page
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
The issue
Suddenly, Chrome downloads are no longer showing at the bottom of the window.
Quick fix
Change a download flag.
The full story
Earlier this month, Google made some changes to its Chrome browser, one of which was switching the download notifications from a bar at the bottom of the browser window to a drop-down icon at the top right of the address bar. Some users may like this new way of finding downloads — certainly, it’s neat, out of the way, and lets you quickly see all of your downloads from the last 24 hours.
However, I found it rather disconcerting. I’ve got a lot of muscle memory invested in clicking on the download links at the bottom of the Chrome screen, and while I may eventually get used to the new download tray,...
The VergeSoon you’ll need Wear OS 3 to run Google Assistant
At least the Fossil Gen 6 has everything now. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge
If you’re still holding onto a Wear OS 2 smartwatch, it may be time to consider making the leap to Wear OS 3. In the latest update to the Wear OS 2 companion app, 9to5Google spotted a string urging users to upgrade to Wear OS 3 because Google Assistant support is “ending soon.”
This technically isn’t official yet, and there’s no concrete timeline for when the feature will start disappearing from older watches. However, the planned depreciation of Google Assistant illustrates how messy the transition to Wear OS 3 has been. Google Assistant was among the highlighted features when Google and Samsung announced the platform in May 2021, but it didn’t actually appear on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series until a year later. It was then...
The VergeWhere to preorder the various editions of Starfield (and what’s included)
Starfield is all about space exploration — potentially like hundreds of hours of it. | Image: Bethesda Game Studios
It’s been a very busy year for big game releases, with Starfield being one of the biggest titles that has yet to launch. The Xbox and PC exclusive from Bethesda is promising a massive sci-fi world to voyage around, with over 1,000 explorable planets and countless weapon and mod customizations. It’s also the first new world that Bethesda has created in over two decades, offering a change of pace from its long-running Elder Scrolls franchise.
If what you saw in Bethesda’s 45-minute gameplay preview of Starfield has you hyped enough to preorder the game ahead of its September 6th release date, we’ve compiled all your options into a one-stop shop. From the $69.99 base game to the $299.99 Constellation edition and all their included add-ons...
The VergeAuthors call on FTC to investigate Amazon’s alleged monopoly in the bookselling industry
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon is already facing a potential lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission, and now, a group of authors, booksellers, and an antitrust think tank is calling on the agency to investigate the e-commerce giant’s stranglehold on the bookselling market, as previously reported by The New York Times.
In the letter, the Authors Guild, American Booksellers Association, and Open Markets Institute urge the FTC to look into Amazon’s “monopoly in its role as a seller of books to the public.” The three organizations accuse Amazon of dominating “almost every aspect of the book market,” citing data that the company sells over 50 percent of all physical books in the retail market, 90 percent of physical books sold online, and over 80 percent of all...
The VergeGM invests in ‘AI-enabled’ battery startup that could help build cheaper EVs
GM’s current Ultium cells are NCMA-based. | Image: GM
GM is leading a $60 million investment round for battery research company Mitra Chem. The California-based startup could help spur the development of more cathode active materials (CAM) for GM’s electric vehicles.
Mitra Chem’s battery research and design facility touts the use of AI to test out thousands of different cathode designs every month. It can potentially finalize chemistries for new battery cells quicker, including for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
GM is looking to update its Ultium battery chemistry with Mitra Chem’s in-progress lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) chemistry and get them to market quicker. Speaking to CNBC, GM VP of technology acceleration and commercialization Gil Golan said that if Mitra Chem...
The VergeYouTube is adding chat, highlights, and Shorts to NFL Sunday Ticket
Are you ready for some football live chat? | Image: YouTube
YouTube’s first priority for the 2023 NFL season is simple: show the games it paid billions to broadcast without buffering or blackouts. But as we wind toward the first season of NFL Sunday Ticket as a YouTube property, the company says it’s making football broadcasts a little more native to the platform.
On Wednesday, YouTube announced a bunch of new features coming to Sunday Ticket this year. You’ll be able to see live chat and polls as you watch games, which seems guaranteed to be total chaos but in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who watches YouTube livestreams of any sort. And if you want to catch up on highlights, you’ll be able to do so through the Shorts tab: YouTube says that “real-time highlights from every single NFL...
The VergeEpic Games is bringing its crossplay tools for developers to consoles
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Epic Games is expanding its crossplay tools available as part of Epic Online Services from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, the company announced on Wednesday. The change could mean that developers will be able to more easily bring crossplay multiplayer to their games.
The company first introduced the crossplay tools in June 2022, but at the time, they only worked to let games support crossplay across the Epic Games Store and Valve’s Steam. The tools offer a special overlay that “offers a ubiquitous way to authenticate players, streamline friend management, and provide game invite and joinability functionality that’s designed to be compliant with native platform requirements,” Epic wrote in its Wednesday blog post.
Epic has...
The VergeSony’s open-style LinkBuds earbuds have returned to their all-time low
Sony’s unique earbuds are currently going for $52 off at multiple retailers, including Amazon. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Noise cancellation is all the rage these days, but jamming a pair of earbuds into your ears that fully tune out the world around you isn’t exactly safe, especially if you live in a big city. Open-ear earbuds like the Sony LinkBuds pose a safer alternative, however, one that allows you to easily keep in touch with your surroundings even while biking in traffic. And right now, they’re on sale for around $128 ($52 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, matching their best-ever price.
Along with a quirky design that lets outside noise in, Sony’s wireless earbuds boast a few Android-specific tricks (including Fast Pair) and terrific mics for taking hands-free calls on the go. They also sport IPX4 water resistance, so they are able to...
The VergeThe gang is back together in the first trailer for Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim anime
Image: Netflix
The first trailer for Netflix’s animated Scott Pilgrim series is light on dialogue but heavy on style. From the brief one-minute clip, it looks like the upcoming show will be a nice blend of the live-action movie from 2010 and the original comics that inspired it, with an appropriately retro anime aesthetic.
What’s most interesting about the new Scott Pilgrim is that the whole team is back together for the project. Creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is working on the show, director Edgar Wright also returned, and the live-action cast including the likes of Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, and Ellen Wong will all be voicing their characters again. Meanwhile, anime studio...
The VergeAdobe Express now has AI-powered features to take on Canva
Adobe Express is rolling out its latest AI-powered features for general use. | Image: Adobe
Following several months in beta, Adobe is now rolling out AI-powered features to Adobe Express, its cloud-based all-in-one design platform, courtesy of the company’s Firefly generative AI model. Designed to make content creation more accessible for those without professional design experience, Adobe Express (formerly known as Adobe Spark) resembles similar design platforms like Canva and Microsoft Designer — providing quick and easy templates for users to create social graphics and posters, edit videos, decorate PDFs, and more.
Users can now access the latest version of Express on desktop web for free, with plans to roll out the latest version to mobile “soon.” The Adobe Express Premium plan — a $9.99 monthly subscription that unlocks...
The VergeTesla’s ‘ultra hardcore’ work culture — as told by its employees
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Ever wonder what it’s like to work at Tesla, the biggest, most exciting car company in the world? Elon Musk is known for setting lofty goals and expecting nothing short of perfection from his workers. He often urges his employees to go “super hardcore” or “ultra hardcore” — an ethos he recently brought to X / Twitter.
But that ethos has real-world implications for the people who work at Tesla. For the second episode of Land of the Giants: The Tesla Shock Wave, we talked to the employees who often bear the brunt of this “hardcore” work culture. And their stories may shock you: extremely long hours, unsafe working conditions, harassment, scandals, fines, lawsuits, and above all else, a fear that one false slip will lead to termination.
...
The VergeEV charging in the US is still a no-good bad time — and somehow getting worse
Photo by Umar Shakir / The Verge
Electric vehicle owners are overall not satisfied with the reliability of the charging infrastructure available in the US, according to a new survey conducted by JD Power. In some cases, things are looking even worse than last year.
The survey finds that 20 percent of survey takers have, at least once, arrived and departed a charging station without gaining any range on their EV. This is attributable not only to broken charging equipment, but also due to long queues of people waiting to charge.
Using a 1,000-point scale, overall satisfaction with DC fast charging experiences has dropped from 674 down to 654. And for Level 2 charging stations, satisfaction has also decreased this year, from 633 down to 617. These are the lowest scores...
The VergeIntel abandons chipmaking acquisition after failing to secure Chinese approval
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Intel has officially terminated its acquisition of Tower Semiconductor, the Israeli chipmaking company it announced its intention to buy for $5.4 billion in February 2022. In a press release Intel blamed its “inability to obtain… the regulatory approvals required under the merger agreement” in a timely manner, adding that both parties agreed to terminate the deal. Intel had originally hoped to close the transaction in 12 months, but will now pay a termination fee of $353 million to Tower.
Although Intel’s press release doesn’t mention the regulator directly, Bloomberg reports that it was the Chinese authorities who hadn’t approve the deal ahead of the transaction’s deadline at midnight California time on August 15th. Sure enough, Intel’s...
The VergeToday I learned you can easily pause the Windows Task Manager to stop apps moving around
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
I can’t believe I’ve been struggling with apps in the Task Manager randomly moving around without realizing there’s a simple keyboard shortcut to pause the Task Manager and stop its contents in their tracks. Yup, all you have to do is hold down the CTRL key and it will pause the Task Manager on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, and perhaps even older versions of Windows, too.
This legitimately useful tip comes from Jen Gentleman, a Microsoft employee on the Windows engineering team that regularly shares helpful shortcuts and tips for Windows. I’ve used Windows for more than 20 years, and I’m still learning the many ways you can do tasks in the operating system on a monthly basis.
Did you know that if you hold CTRL it will pause Task...
The VergeVampire Survivors feels like a different game with a friend
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Vampire Survivors with a friend is surprisingly slow. Typically, the indie hit feels frantic as your character automatically uses various weapons so you can defeat waves of oncoming enemies, scoop up experience gems, and race toward far-strung items across levels. The perfectly tuned colors and sounds that make the game feel like walking through a pixel-packed casino add to the chaos.
But when playing Vampire Survivors with my wife on the Nintendo Switch, I noticed that I was suddenly being a lot more thoughtful with every move I made. The game’s new co-op mode forces you to share a screen with up to three of your friends, and that meant my wife and I were constantly communicating so that we could safely inch around levels and use our...
The VergeDell’s new monitor can transform into a touch display
Dell’s new 24 Touch USB-C Hub Monitor is a new 23.8-inch 1080p monitor that can effectively transform into a touchscreen tablet thanks to its articulating stand. Dell is pitching the monitor for use in retail or warehouse environments, in addition to homes and offices. The company has produced monitors with a similar form-factor in the past, such as the P2418HT which dates back to at least 2017.
Like the P2418HT before it, the new P2424HT’s design can’t help but remind me of Microsoft’s lineup of Surface Studio computers, which also feature touchscreens and articulating stands that allow them to be used like graphics tablets. But at just $519.99, Dell’s new monitor is clearly in a completely different league from last year’s Surface...
The VergeApple moved the end call button again in iOS 17
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Apple has moved end call button once again with the latest iOS 17 developer beta. Now, it lives in the lower middle of the call screen instead of on the lower right. It’s a little change, but it might mean that iOS 17’s new call controls won’t feel quite as different once Apple officially rolls out the new software sometime this fall.
The end call button has been in a new place since the first iOS 17 beta that was released in June, but it got some attention recently after some publications reported on the right-aligned. If the comments in our article on the change from last week are any indication, many didn’t like the button’s new position, and the negative reaction may have contributed to Apple’s decision to put the end call button...
The VergeAmazon Music Unlimited is getting more expensive for Prime subscribers
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon Music Unlimited is getting another price hike, and this one affects people who pay for the music service and Amazon’s Prime subscription.
The cost of Amazon Music Unlimited’s individual plan for Prime members will go up from $8.99 to $9.99 per month, according to Varietyand The Hollywood Reporter. The price of the family plan for Prime members is going up, too, increasing from $15.99 to $16.99 per month.
The costs of the annual plans for individuals and families that are Prime subscribers are increasing as well, each by $10, THR says. That means the annual individual plan will now cost $99 per year, while the family plan will cost $169 per year.
The price increases are supposed to kick in immediately for new customers and on...
The VergeTweetDeck is officially becoming a paid service
The Verge
X, the social network formally known as Twitter, appears to be finally following through on its promise to make TweetDeck a paid service. Many users on X, including social media consultant Matt Navarra, say that they’re seeing a sales page for X Premium (the subscription formerly Twitter Blue) when they try to load up TweetDeck, which is technically now called XPro.
A few of us at The Verge haven’t run into the block yet, but given how many people are saying that they can’t access XPro unless they pay, we’re guessing it’s only a matter of time.
Unfortunately, we knew this was coming, as X announced on July 3rd that it would be making XPro a subscriber-only feature. It said at the time that the transition would happen “in 30 days,” so the...
The VergeIt’s official, people aren’t watching TV as much as they used to
Some kids watching TV, back when that was a thing kids regularly did. | Photo by Michel BARET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
It finally happened, at least according to a new metric Nielsen began using two years ago: linear TV now accounts for less than 50 percent of all TV usage. This probably isn’t a surprise unless you're reading this on the couch while watching the NBC Nightly News. Between YouTube, TikTok, and streaming channels, people have a lot of ways to occupy their video-viewing time.
Approximately two years ago, Nielsen started using a new metric for measuring how people spend their TV-watching time. It built in buckets for broadcast TV, cable TV, streaming, and a catchall called “Other” that accounted for people using gaming consoles and media players. The latest report shows broadcast and cable TV each dropping about one percent from June 2023 to...
The VergeHelium Mobile’s suspiciously cheap phone plan is only for the bravest among us
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Hey, remember Helium Network, the project that was praised by The New York Times for its cryptocurrency-powered approach to public internet before it was revealed that it had been misleading people about its partner companies and that insiders had disproportionately profited from the token? Well, Helium now says it is offering a $5 / month unlimited wireless plan in Miami.
You may be wondering how this is possible. Certainly I am! I have read their explanation several times, and I absolutely have not understood it. I will reproduce it here, in case it makes sense to you:
The beauty of Helium Mobile is that it combines the power of the people-built Helium Mobile Network with the nation’s largest 5G network from our partner. We call this D...
The VergeBing, Bard, and ChatGPT: How AI is rewriting the internet
Álvaro Bernis / The Verge
How we use the internet is changing fast thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.