This 1977 horror novel is about social media

Want a scary story? | Image: Elizabeth Lopatto

The creators are “little more than boys” and clean and neat, like salespeople or bankers. They are looking for manuscripts for their Library. No fiction — none of that inauthentic literature. They want diaries, people’s deepest, innermost thoughts: “true, authentic documents reflecting the real spirit of the people.” The promise is that the Library will connect lonely souls, bringing them together, letting them make friends. For a fee, a reader can be put in touch with the writer of the documents. “How fast, almost explosive, its growth was!”

It is after the Library opens that the grisly murders begin.

A lure for the morbidly isolated

I read The Twenty Days of Turin more than a month ago, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about...

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Google teaser previews Pixel Watch 2 and both Pixel 8 phones

Image: Google

After leaking the Pixel 8 Pro twice, Google has finally revealed an official look at the flagship device, along with the standard Pixel 8, ahead of its hardware launch event scheduled to take place on October 4th in New York City. A pair of video teasers and a new Google Store landing page give a glimpse at what the Pixel 8 lineup will look like, which includes the “porcelain” 8 Pro seen previously and a pink color option on the smaller phone.

In addition to the new phones, Google also offers a glimpse at the Pixel Watch 2. The device looks mostly similar to its predecessor and features a porcelain band to match the Pixel 8 Pro.

While Google doesn’t reveal much about the new features coming with the Pixel Watch 2, it notes that you...

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Threads will now let you search for posts

Illustration: The Verge

Instagram’s Threads is rolling out the ability to search through posts more widely. In a post on the platform, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the feature is rolling out in “most” English- and Spanish-speaking countries with more to come soon.

In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Seine Kim confirmed that the feature is coming to both the US and the UK, and is also rolling out on the platform’s web app. Threads first started testing the feature in Australia and New Zealand in August, which lets you search through the platform’s posts based on a specific keyword. Previously, Threads only let you search through users.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

Hitting the “Search for” option will let you scroll...

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This Cybertruck-inspired McFlurry spoon is real, but it’s only available in China

You just know that thing is going to hurt your teeth. | Image: Tesla / McDonald’s

You can now add cutlery to the list of official Cybertruck-inspired products that have hit the market before Tesla has managed to launch the actual vehicle. On Wednesday, Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt spotted that the automaker’s Chinese business arm has teamed up with McDonald’s to produce 50,000 limited-edition “Cyber Spoons.”

The spoons sport the EV’s angular design and brushed silver finish and reportedly cost 30 yuan (around $4). It comes with its own storage tube that has “powered by Tesla” stamped on the end. Oh, and the spoon itself says “DON’T PANIC,” a nod to the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy written by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “favorite philosopher,” Douglas Adams. McDonald’s in China has also made...

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Google’s cookie-replacing Privacy Sandbox reaches major milestone

One more nail in the tracking cookie coffin. | Illustration: The Verge

Google’s Chrome browser is now one important step closer to its goal of phasing out third-party cookies by the end of 2024. In a press release today, the search giant announced that its relevance and measurement APIs for Privacy Sandbox — its privacy-preserving alternative to cross-site tracking cookies — are now generally available. That means that the APIs are available by default in Chrome, without setting any browser flags and without participating in a trial.

Google says that 3 percent of Chrome users will remain unaffected for now to allow the company to run A/B tests, expanding general availability of the APIs to 100 percent of users “over the coming months.”

Chrome also released new ad privacy controls that allow users to manage...

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Why connected fitness feels adrift: a tale of two rowers

My cats love this Ergatta.

I’ve been testing the Ergatta and Aviron Strong for months. Both are great rowers, but I’m struggling to see a future for pricey connected fitness hardware.

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E3 continues to fall apart

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Plans for E3 2024 have already been in doubt, but now a report from GamesIndustry.biz reveals that the ESA — the trade association behind the event — has dumped its organizer. The ESA has confirmed to The Verge it no longer plans to partner with PAX organizer ReedPop for future E3 events.

While the ESA was supposed to work with ReedPop for E3 this year, things started to fall apart when companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo dropped out of the show. Now GamesIndustry.biz reports that the ESA and ReedPop have made the “mutual decision” to exit their multiyear deal.

Even though the ESA has yet to cancel next year’s event, signs are pointing in that direction. In June, a report from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission revealed...

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Apple’s latest 14-inch MacBook Pro falls to a new low of $1,699 for today only

If you can stretch your budget from a MacBook Air, the 14-inch MacBook Pro will more than reward you. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s big iPhone event announcing a new iPhone may be just five days from now, but the best Apple thing you can buy today is its M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pro for a new all-time low. The base configuration of the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro is on a one-day deal at B&H Photo for $1,699 ($300 off). It’s packing a 10-core M2 Pro processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of built-in SSD storage, and all the other modern accoutrements of the latest MacBook Pros — excellent battery life, MagSafe charging, an SD card slot, a notched 3024 x 1964 resolution Mini LED screen, and a slew of ports.

If you’re in the market for a workhorse laptop for everyday tasks and some extensive creative workflows, you can’t go wrong with the 14-inch MacBook Pro. It’s powerful...

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are currently $50 off, matching their all-time low.

If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for nearly a year, we’re seeing their price fall more often, too.

Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.

The best AirPods (second-gen) deals

In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the...

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Charles Martinet finally explains what the hell a Mario ambassador is

Image: Nintendo

After weeks of wonder (heh) and speculation, Nintendo is finally giving longtime Mario voice actor Charles Martinet a proper send-off. Nintendo released a short video featuring Martinet and Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto in which the pair take a fond look back at Martinet’s time in the role.

Here’s a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles Martinet regarding the change of Mario’s voice actor, announced on 8/21. pic.twitter.com/4mOpD2Cx3a

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 7, 2023

It’s a short, sweet video, Martinet is his typical enthusiastic self, dropping iconic lines from theMario characters he voices. He also finally explains exactly what the hell a Mario ambassador is (something he...

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Patreon is adding a Discord-like chat feature for creators and fans

Image: Patreon

Beginning today, Patreon creators who want a dedicated space to interact with fans will have a built-in option: group chats.

Content creators who share their work via Patreon will be able to set up and host chat rooms for their fans to interact with each other, the company announced today. Creators can have up to four chats going at once and can restrict access to chats based on subscriber tiers — for example, having a thread open only to paying members. Chats will be available on mobile to start, with a desktop version in the works.

Community chats will be familiar to many Patreon creators and subscribers: the feature is essentially a simpler, in-app Discord server. Creators will be able to customize chat names and topics, and users can...

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Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot gets a paid plan for heavy users

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Anthropic, the AI company backed by Google, has launched a paid version of its Claude chatbot in the US and UK. Priced at $20 (or £18) per month, the new Claude Pro option offers priority access when the bot is busy, early access to new features, and the ability to send more messages.

The main draw is that you’ll get five times more usage with Claude Pro when compared to the free tier, which means you can send more messages in a shorter period of time. Anthropic says the typical user will get at least 100 messages every eight hours depending on Claude’s capacity. The company says it will warn you when you have 10 messages remaining, with its limits resetting every eight hours.

Anthropic’s new Claude Pro offering puts it on track to...

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Where is Microsoft’s handheld Xbox?

The Surface Duo streaming Xbox games. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

With Steam Deck competitors on the rise, Microsoft has been focused on phones for Xbox Cloud Gaming so far.

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Sunday Ticket is bringing the NFL to YouTube — and YouTube to the NFL

Did you ever think you’d watch Patrick Mahomes play by opening the YouTube app? | Photo by Michael Owens / Getty Images

For the first time in almost three decades, football fans are about to turn on NFL Sunday Ticket in a new place. Sunday Ticket, which broadcasts out-of-market games to fans willing to pay a couple hundred bucks a season to watch games they wouldn’t otherwise get on TV, was a DirecTV product from its launch in 1994 until this year, when YouTube plunked down a reported $2 billion a year to get the rights. Now, you can subscribe to Sunday Ticket through YouTube or YouTube TV starting at $350 for the season, and it will start showing games tonight.

When I ask Christian Oestlien, the VP of product management at YouTube, what to expect from YouTube’s first season as the official home of Sunday Ticket, I expect him to say what everybody always...

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Lutron finally made its smart remote look just like a regular light switch

With this redesign of its popular Pico wireless remote, Lutron is transitioning its Caséta smart lighting line to a more classic look. | Image: Lutron

Smart lighting manufacturer Lutron is expanding its line of smart switches that don’t look like smart switches, adding a new Pico Paddle Remote ($19.99) to its Caséta smart lighting line. The wireless remote looks just like a wired switch but can control all Caséta switches, Lutron Serena smart shades, wired fans, Sonos speakers, and more.

For those unfamiliar, the Caséta line is one of the best DIY solutions for smart switches to control regular LED lighting. This is thanks to Lutron’s rock-solid Clear Connect RF technology, wide integrations (Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and more), and no need for neutral wires, making the switches compatible with more homes.

However, the line is expensive, starting at around $...

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Honda adopts Tesla’s charging port for future EVs

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Honda announced today that it’s adopting Tesla’s electric vehicle charging connector for its future vehicles. The Japanese automaker was one of the holdouts to accept the competing (and winning) standard, joining the likes of Ford, GM, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, and Fisker.

Honda is planning to implement Tesla’s plug, now known as the North American Charging Standard (or NACS) in a new electric vehicle slated for 2025. The automaker, like every other manufacturer on board with NACS, is promising the availability of a CCS Combo to NACS adapter before 2025 so existing models (and soon-to-be-released ones like the Prologue) will have access to Tesla’s vast and reliable Supercharger network.

Welcome Honda owners to...

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The Toronto International Film Festival 2023 is on

A scene from Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. | Courtesy of TIFF

Stay up to date with the latest from TIFF.

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Chrome is about to look a bit different

Image: The Verge

Chrome on the desktop is about to get a new look. Google’s widely used browser is getting an update based on its Material You design language in the coming weeks, and in this case, that will include refreshed icons with “a focus on legibility” and new color palettes that “better complement your tabs and toolbar,” according to a blog post from Chrome VP Parisa Tabriz.

You can get an early peek at the new look in the image and GIF below. To me, the most noticeable change is that things look a bit more rounded, like the new corners near the top of the window.

Image: Google

More rounded corners, Google’s favorite new thing.

GIF: Chrome

Chrome itself isn’t the only thing that’s getting a new...

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Polaroid’s new I-2 is its most capable — and expensive — instant camera

Image: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Polaroid has announced a new high-end instant camera dubbed the Polaroid I-2 today. According to Polaroid, the $599.99 I-2 is the company’s most capable instant camera yet, with built-in manual controls and the sharpest new lens it’s ever produced.

The I-2 boasts a three-element autofocusing lens, which Polaroid claims should produce sharper photos than any of its other instant cameras. Meanwhile, the lidar (light detection and ranging) sensor should be able to automatically adjust the lens based on how far away the subject is, even in low-light settings, allowing for more accurate focus. It’s a lot of tech for a camera that uses a decades-old instant film system.

The new lens, to an extent, could address one of my personal pet peeves...

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Can a $599 camera bring Polaroid back?

The $599 I-2 is Polaroid’s newest camera. | Image: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Polaroid cameras are notoriously finicky. If you buy one of the 37,000 vintage Polaroid cameras on eBay, the likelihood of it working properly is slim. And if you can get it working, the likelihood of a photo being properly exposed is even slimmer. Enter the $599.99 Polaroid I-2.

The I-2 is a brand-new instant camera from Polaroid. But the big difference between it and most instant cameras is its ability to be manually controlled via a lens ring and a single button under the camera’s tiny digital display.

For this episode of Full Frame, I spent two interesting, and at times frustrating, weeks with the Polaroid I-2. And I quickly learned that where its manual controls allow for a much higher success rate, its automatic mode leaves...

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13 movies we can’t wait to check out at TIFF 2023

The Boy and the Heron. | Image: Studio Ghibli

The festival is led by Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron, but there will be plenty more to see when things kick off in Toronto on September 7th.

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Nintendo Switch 2 evidence grows with rumors of developer demos

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Nintendo has reportedly demonstrated the Nintendo Switch 2 behind closed doors at Gamescom last month. Eurogamer reports that some trusted developers got an early look at the Switch 2 and some tech demos of how games run on the unannounced system.

There was reportedly a demo of an improved version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that’s designed to run on the more advanced hardware inside the Nintendo Switch 2. Eurogamer’s report follows rumors from Windows Central’s Jez Corden that Nintendo had discussed a next-generation Switch with select developers at Gamescom.

VGC also reported in July that a new Nintendo Switch is being planned for a 2024 release. The new console is said to include an LCD screen instead of OLED and continue to support...

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Experts link LastPass security breach to a string of crypto heists

One researcher claims the number of victims who stored their crypto keys on LastPass was “simply too much to ignore.” | Illustration: Beatrice Sala

Security experts are claiming that some of the LastPass password vaults stolen during a security breach near the end of 2022 have now been cracked open following a string of six-figure cryptocurrency heists. Cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs reports that several researchers have identified a “highly reliable set of clues” that seemingly connect over 150 victims of crypto theft with the LastPass service. Collectively, over $35 million in crypto has reportedly been stolen so far, with between two to five high-value heists occurring each month since December 2022.

Taylor Monahan, lead product manager at crypto wallet company MetaMask and one of the key researchers investigating the attacks, concluded that the common thread connecting the...

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The new Mustang Mach-E Rally is Ford’s off-roadiest performance EV yet

2024 Mustang Mach-E Rally in Grabber Yellow. | Image: Ford

This new Mach-E Rally is what you’d get if you could cross Ford’s most performant Mustang Mach-E electric SUV trim, the GT, with the company’s discontinued Focus RS rally sport monster. Ford initially revealed the Mustang Mach-E Rally at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, but is today announcing more details. The vehicle is slated for early 2024 manufacturing (yes, this isn’t some performance one-off), with deliveries coming “shortly” afterward.

The Rally isn’t quite hot-hatch-sized like the Focus RS, but the added suspension upgrades, protective underbody shielding, and extra tuning let it similarly hit the dirt roads. Ford says it’s put Mach-E Rally prototypes through “500-mile simulating rally-cross durability trials” to ensure...

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Google will soon require disclaimers for AI-generated political ads

Illustration: The Verge

Google will soon start requiring political advertisers to “prominently disclose” when they made their ads with AI, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. Starting in November, Google says advertisers must include a disclosure when an election ad features “synthetic content” that depicts “realistic-looking people or events.”

That includes political ads that use AI to make someone look as if they’re saying or doing something they never did, as well as changing the footage of an actual event (or fabricating a realistic-looking one) to create a scene that never happened.

Google says these types of ads must contain a disclaimer in a “clear and conspicuous” place, noting that it will apply to images, videos, and audio content. The labels will need...

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YouTube is going to remove some ad controls for creators

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

YouTube is making some notable changes to the ad controls available to creators. Beginning in November, YouTube is dropping individual ad controls in YouTube Studio for pre-roll, post-roll, skippable, and non-skippable ads on new videos, according to a support document from the company bylined by “Rob,” a member of the YouTube team.

Instead, creators will only be able to choose between having ads before or after a video on or off. If you choose to have those ads on, YouTube will choose whether to show pre-roll, post-roll, skippable, or non-skippable ads “when appropriate,” per a notice on another support document.

YouTube argues that this won’t be too big of a deal. “Most creators shouldn’t notice a change as they already have many of...

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A Rube Goldberg chain of failures led to breach of Microsoft-hosted government emails

Illustration: The Verge

In the first half of July, Microsoft disclosed that the Chinese hacking group Storm-0558 had gained access to emails from around 25 organizations, including agencies in the US government. Today, the company is explaining how that happened thanks to a series of internal errors while sharply underscoring just how serious a responsibility it is to maintain massive, growing software infrastructure in an increasingly digitally insecure world.

According to Microsoft’s investigation summary, Storm-0558 was able to gain access to corporate and government emails by obtaining a “Microsoft account consumer key,” which let them create access tokens to their targets’ accounts.

Storm-0558 obtained the key after a Rube Goldberg machine-style series of...

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WhatsApp now supports HD photos and video

Illustration by Nikolas Kokovlis / NurPhoto via Getty Images

A few weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg announced that WhatsApp was in the process of rolling out HD photo sharing, with HD video soon to follow. As of today, the process is complete: Meta has confirmed to The Verge that both HD photos and HD videos are available to everyone.

“Both HD photos and HD videos have rolled out globally,” WhatsApp spokesperson Ellie Heatrick told The Verge in an emailed statement. The company also posted a promotional video to Threads earlier today encouraging users to “share epic moments” with the new feature, which has been available to beta testers for the past few months.

After you select a photo or video to send from your camera roll, you should see an “HD” button at the top of your screen (to the left of the...

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The AI Drake ‘Ghostwriter’ is back with a new song and is chasing a Grammy

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Ghostwriter, the anonymous creator behind the viral AI Drake song, has released another track — and this time, it features the AI-generated voices of Travis Scott and 21 Savage. In a song titled “Whiplash” posted to TikTok, Ghostwriter leaves a note for the two artists at the very end.

“The future of music is here. Artists now have the ability to let their voice work for them without lifting a finger,” Ghostwriter’s message reads. “It’s clear that people want this song. DM me on Instagram if you’re interested in allowing me to release this record or if you’d like me to remove this post.” Ghostwriter adds that if Travis Scott and 21 Savage allow the release of the song, Ghostwriter will direct royalties to them.

@ghostwriter977 ♬...

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Universal Music Group lands new royalty model that boosts popular artists

Image: Universal Music / Deezer

Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new streaming deal today with French music service Deezer that aims to direct more listener payouts toward professional artists. The changes will essentially count a single listen as two listens on popular tracks, giving them more revenue than smaller ones. Currently, platforms like Apple Music and Spotify (and Deezer) generally divide payments based on total listens, regardless of what the track is or who made it.

In the new deal, “professional artists,” from big stars like BTS and Billie Eilish to up-and-coming bands, will effectively see payout increases of 10 percent, the Financial Times reports. To qualify for the increased payouts, artists need a minimum of 1,000 streams per month by at least...

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