Arlo’s new line of cameras come at a more affordable price

Arlo’s new line of Essential cameras and doorbells includes a wired/wireless video doorbell. | Image: Arlo

Arlo announced the second generation of its Essential camera and doorbell line on Tuesday, and they all have more affordable starting prices than their predecessors. The lineup includes a new XL outdoor camera, a new outdoor camera, a new indoor camera, and a new video doorbell.

The second-generation Essential indoor camera starts at $39.99, which is much cheaper than the $99.99 starting price for the first-generation model and is cheaper than Ring’s $59.99 indoor camera. For the base $39.99 price, the new wired Arlo Essential indoor camera only gives you HD / 1080p resolution, but if you want 2K resolution, you can spring for that at a more expensive $79.99.

Like its predecessor, the updated indoor camera offers features like a...

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Byron Allen is coming to the Code Conference

Allen Media Group CEO and founder Byron Allen. | Photo: Allen Media Group.

Allen Media Group CEO and founder Byron Allen is coming to the Code Conference this month, where he’ll be talking about the state of the media industry with CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin.

Allen’s sprawling media company includes local broadcasters across the US, cable networks including Cars.TV and Comedy.TV, and the film distribution group Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. In 2018, the company acquired The Weather Channel for $300 million, and last year, it launched a Weather Channel streaming service.

The group continues to look for opportunities to grow. Allen looked at buying BET earlier this year, and just last week, he made a $10 billion offer to acquire ABC, FX, National Geographic channels, and...

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What to expect from Microsoft’s ‘special’ Surface and AI event

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is holding a “special event” in New York City later this week where it’s expected to debut three new Surface devices and AI-powered features for Windows, Office, Bing, Surface, and more.

The event is taking place just days after Panos Panay, Microsoft’s former head of Windows and Surface, resigned in a surprise announcement. We’ll now see how the new leaders of Windows and Surface push ahead with Microsoft’s big AI plans

Here, we’ll cover how and when you can follow the event live, along with the new product announcements we’re expecting to see from Microsoft.

When is Microsoft’s “special event” happening?

The press event will kick off at 7AM PT / 10AM ET on Thursday, September 21st, making it the first in-person Surface...

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What to expect from Microsoft’s ‘special’ Surface and AI event

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is holding a “special event” in New York City later this week where it’s expected to debut three new Surface devices and AI-powered features for Windows, Office, Bing, Surface, and more.

The event is taking place just days after Panos Panay, Microsoft’s former head of Windows and Surface, resigned in a surprise announcement. We’ll now see how the new leaders of Windows and Surface push ahead with Microsoft’s big AI plans

Here, we’ll cover how and when you can follow the event live, along with the new product announcements we’re expecting to see from Microsoft.

When is Microsoft’s “special event” happening?

The press event will kick off at 7AM PT / 10AM ET on Thursday, September 21st, making it the first in-person Surface...

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Google’s Bard chatbot can now find answers in your Gmail, Docs, Drive

Image: Google

Google’s Bard AI chatbot is no longer limited to pulling answers from just the web — it can now scan your Gmail, Docs, and Drive to help you find the information you’re looking for. With the new integration, you can ask Bard to do things like find and summarize the contents of an email or even highlight the most important points of a document you have stored in Drive.

There’s a whole range of use cases for these integrations, which Google calls extensions, but they should save you from having to sift through a mountain of emails or documents to find a particular piece of information. You can then have Bard use that information in other ways, such as putting it into a chart or creating a bulleted summary. This feature is only available in...

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Dough doesn’t pass the smell test

Image: Eve

Eve, the monitor and tablet company that some accuse of walking away with their money, hasn’t fixed its reputation.

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Xbox leak: new Xbox Series X design, next-gen in 2028, and more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A huge amount of unredacted Microsoft emails and documents have leaked online.

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Microsoft’s next Xbox, coming 2028, envisions hybrid computing

Microsoft’s new disc-less Xbox Series X is far from the only news that just leaked out of the FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft’s far future plans for 2028 — by which the company believed it could achieve “full convergence” of its cloud gaming platform and physical hardware to deliver “cloud hybrid games.”

“Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.”

Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents

“Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud”

Those are the words...

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Phil Spencer says acquiring Nintendo would be ‘a career moment’

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer would really like to buy Nintendo someday. In an August 2020 email to two top Microsoft marketing executives, Spencer wrote that “Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming” and that “getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies.”

The emails were revealed as part of a tranche of leaked documents from the FTC v. Microsoft lawsuit. One executive, Takeshi Numoto, asked Spencer and Chris Capossela in an email titled “random thought” about why Microsoft isn’t finding acquisition targets like Nintendo a “more attractive” way to “increase our consumer exposure and relevance.” (At the time, Microsoft was in discussions to acquire TikTok, and Numoto didn’t feel...

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Microsoft documents leak new Bethesda games, including an Oblivion remaster

A screenshot from the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion_._ | Image: Bethesda Softworks

Before it was acquired by Microsoft, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of studios like Bethesda Game Studios and id Software, was working on remasters of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a new entry in the Doom franchise, according to new documents revealed as part of FTC v. Microsoft. The games were included in a July 2020 Microsoft presentation about the then-potential ZeniMax acquisition.

Unannounced games in the presentation include:

• The Oblivion remaster (originally set for fiscal year 2022)
• Doom Year Zero and DLC (fiscal year 2023) and a second set of DLC (fiscal year 2024)
• The Fallout 3 remaster (fiscal year 2024)
• A sequel to Ghostwire: Tokyo(fiscal year 2024)
• Dishonored 3 (fiscal year 2024)

There are also a...

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Logitech’s Yeti GX is a new USB mic with RGB lighting

The Yeti GX. | Image: Logitech

Logitech is releasing a new set of products that will start shipping on September 24th and are aimed squarely at the likes of gamers, streamers, podcasters, and other creators. The big one is the $149.99 Logitech G Yeti GX, a “broadcast-style” USB microphone with a heavy stand and RGB lighting.

The Yeti GX is a dynamic supercardioid microphone, which is a kind of unidirectional mic designed to focus on sound in front of the pickup rather than behind the microphone. That’s a good thing if you don’t want the noise of your keyboard overtaking your voice. It also means if you move off-axis, your voice quickly falls away, but the trade-off can be worth it when you’re contending with poor recording spaces. Soren Pedersen, Logitech’s global...

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This is Microsoft’s new disc-less Xbox Series X design with a new controller

The planned ‘Brooklin’ Xbox Series X. | Image: FTC vs. Microsoft

Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features. Codenamed Brooklin, the unannounced console refresh has been accidentally revealed in new FTC v. Microsoft documents this week.

The new Xbox Series X design looks a lot more circular than the existing console and will ship without a disc drive. Internal confidential Microsoft documents the company reveals it has 2TB of storage (up from 1TB), a USB-C front port with power delivery, and an “all-new, more immersive controller.”

Image: FTC v. Microsoft

“Sebile” Xbox controller redesign revealed in court documents with wireless upgrades and modular thumbsticks

The new controller, codenamed Sebille, is set to be...

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Netflix ends a three-year legal dispute over Squid Game traffic

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix and South Korean ISP SK Broadband have been locked in a legal tussle over network usage cost-sharing since 2020 when Netflix filed a lawsuit against the provider, and SK Broadband responded with its own suit. Now the fight is over, Netflix announced, as the companies drop their lawsuits and instead become partners (via Reuters).

The lawsuits started because SK Broadband wanted Netflix to help cover the expense of partially Squid Game-induced increases in streaming traffic in South Korea. A South Korean court said Netflix is obligated to pay for the increased network demands. SK estimated the popular show had cost it an extra 27.2 billion Korean won, which translated then to about $23 million.

The companies will start offering...

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What’s next for Windows and Surface without Panos Panay?

The Surface Pro 9. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Panos Panay has always been the force behind Microsoft’s Surface line. He helped bring Surface to life as a secret project more than 10 years ago. He’s presented the new devices onstage at events, showed up at malls to promote Surface hardware, and has steered Microsoft’s Surface tablets to success in the years since.

Now, he’s leaving in a surprise departure announced just days before Microsoft’s next big Surface event. Panay will no longer be presenting at Microsoft’s showcase on Thursday but will remain at the company for another couple of weeks as part of a transition process. He’s reportedly joining Amazon to replace Dave Limp and lead Amazon’s Echo and Alexa push. Amazon is also holding its own hardware event on Wednesday.

Panay...

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Court blocks California’s online child safety law

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CAADCA last year. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A federal judge has granted a request to block the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), a law that requires special data safeguards for underage users online. In a ruling issued today, Judge Beth Freeman granted a preliminary injunction for tech industry group NetChoice, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment. It’s the latest of several state-level internet regulations to be blocked while a lawsuit against them proceeds, including some that are likely bound for the Supreme Court.

The CAADCA is meant to expand on existing laws — like the federal COPPA framework — that govern how sites can collect data from children. But Judge Freeman objected to several of its provisions, saying they would unlawfully target...

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The best deals on 4K TVs

We’ve got deals on all sorts of TVs, ranging from affordable (yet feature-packed) models to high-end OLED and Mini LEDs that will really wow you. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge

Things are looking bright for those who want to nab a great TV in 2023 at a substantial discount. That’s because, these days, you can usually land a great deal on a mid- or high-end TV from LG, TCL, Hisense, or Amazon’s own Fire TV brand with some regularity — even if the biggest discounts remain reserved for sales events like Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day, or the lead-up to the Super Bowl.

Right now, there are a number of discounted 4K TVs to choose from, spanning a wide variety of prices, size configurations, and feature sets. Whether you want a secondary TV for the bedroom or a high-end OLED that’s built for a cinema-like experience, we’ve picked out the best TV deals across some common categories.

The best 4K TV deals for most...

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The cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 is doing a D&D one-shot as their in-game characters

Later this week, you can watch many cast members from Baldur’s Gate 3, a game that is based heavily on the mechanics and universe of Dungeons & Dragons, play the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons as their characters from the video game. It sounds meta but awesome.

The cast members will be appearing on High Rollers, a live-play D&D show that streams on Twitch, on Friday at 7PM BST / 2PM ET / 11AM PT. “We have very kindly been approached by [Baldur’s Gate 3 developer] Larian Studios and some rather fine guests to run a little D&D one-shot,” dungeon master Mark Hulmes said in a video about the event.

Samantha Béart (Karlach), Tim Downie (Gale Dekarios), Jennifer English (Shadowheart), Theo Solomon (Wyll Ravengard), Neil Newbon...

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TMNT: Mutant Mayhem starts streaming on Paramount Plus on September 19th

Mutant Mayhem comes to Paramount Plus on September 19th. | Image: Paramount

Paramount announced that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will hit Paramount Plus tomorrow in the US and Canada. The CG-animated movie is now the seventh Turtles movie in a line that started with the better-than-it-should’ve-been 1990 live-action film. Mutant Mayhem is already available to preorder on 4K UHD Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray, and DVD.

The movie hits just a day before Paramount Plus ends its 50 percent discount for a year of its ad-supported tier ($29.99) or a year of its Paramount Plus with Showtime plan ($59.99), which would also open up access to Dungeons & Dragons, Top Gun: Maverick, and Star Trek shows like Strange New Worlds.

Mutant Mayhem reintroduced the origin story for the Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While the best iPad deals usually come around during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and even last month’s Amazon Prime Day, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere that you may be interested in.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available,...

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Meta is shutting down three Oculus games without explanation

Dead and Buried is a Wild West arena shootout multiplayer VR game. | Image: Gunfire Games

Hope you didn’t enjoy playing Dead and Buried, Dead and Buried II, or Bogo on your Rift or Quest headsets — because Meta’s shutting them all down with no explanation, just like it already did with Echo VR (aka Echo Arena).

“We are reaching out to let you know that Dead and Buried will no longer be supported as of Friday, March 15, 2024,” reads an email in my inbox. “You can continue to hunt ghosts and other creatures in Dead and Buried on your Rift, Rift S, or Quest (via link) devices until 11:59 PM PT on that date.”

UploadVRand Road to VR report that owners of Wild West shootout sequel Dead and Buried II and virtual pet simulator Bogo are receiving the same shutdown messages about their games, too, with the same March 15th end date.

N...

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Microsoft Paint is finally adding some of Photoshop’s best features

Creating a simple image like this is much easier when you can work in layers. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is on a slow-burn path to making Paint a useful tool for actual creators by finally implementing one of Photoshop’s core features: layers. As part of an update rolling out for testing by Windows Insiders (version 11.2308.18.0, available to some people in the Canary or Dev channels), Microsoft Paint is introducing support for both layers and transparency. These features have long been table stakes for general editing in Adobe Photoshop, but they are key to doing proper image manipulation and digital art. And most importantly, they’re coming to an app that’s free to use on Windows.

In the new version of Paint, users can use the core functions necessary for working with layers (adding new layers, moving them around, reordering...

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The smaller iPhone 16 Pro might get Apple’s new ‘tetraprism’ zoom lens

The iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro. | Image: The Verge

Next year’s Pro iPhones are both “expected” to have the “tetraprism” zoom lens Apple is using for the 5x telephoto camera in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, according to a new post from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. That tetraprism optical system, which is intended to replicate a 120mm lens of a full-frame camera, is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, so if it comes to the smaller iPhone Pro next year (which I’m guessing will be called the iPhone 16 Pro), both the Pro and Pro Max might be on closer footing.

Here’s how the tetraprism system works, as described by Apple’s Misha Scepanovic during Tuesday’s “Wonderlust” event:

120-millimeter lenses are typically long, so instead we created an innovative tetraprism design, built right into iPhone. The...

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Virtual tickets to the Code Conference are now on sale

Image: Code

If you can’t make it out to attend this year’s Code Conference in person, here’s another option: virtual tickets are now available. Virtual ticket holders will be able to tune in for main-stage programming and get live access to the event’s biggest interviews, including sit-downs with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, GM CEO Mary Barra, and Max content leader Casey Bloys.

This year’s Code Conference is hosted by The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, Platformer founder Casey Newton, and CNBC senior media & tech correspondent Julia Boorstin. There’ll also be special guest speakers, including Code Conference co-founder Kara Swisher.

The event will feature interviews with Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott,...

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Unity plans to change its disastrous new pricing program

Image: Unity

Unity plans to change its forthcoming pay-per-install program following widespread criticism from game developers.

“We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused,” Unity posted on X (formerly Twitter). “We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days.”

This new communication from Unity comes after nearly a week of clarifications, retractions, and a growing force of upset developers who threaten not only to remove their games from the engine but also a potential class action lawsuit.

Though Unity said an update on the pricing model will likely be out sometime this week, a...

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How to install watchOS 10

watchOS 10 is all about the widgets — and you can try them out for yourself by downloading the public beta. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

If you were intrigued by the idea of widgets on your Apple Watch at this year’s WWDC, good news! Apple’s watchOS 10 is live and ready to download.

That said, before I tell you how to install it, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First off, watchOS 10 is a substantial update. Not only does it reintroduce widgets to the platform, but it also completely redesigns Apple’s native watch apps and reimagines how you interact with the device. The controls you’re used to have changed. Pressing the side button, for instance, now brings up Control Center while swiping up is how you access widgets. I go into what changes you can expect in my watchOS 10 preview.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Widgets are...

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The cheaper $600 Asus ROG Ally is here, and you probably shouldn’t buy it

Whether you pay $600 or $700, the Asus ROG Ally looks the same. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

If you’ve been eying an Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld but can’t quite justify the $700 price tag... you’ll probably want to keep on waiting. Today, the company has begun selling a less-expensive $600 model with a lower-performance AMD Z1 chip, but early reviews suggest the Windows gaming handheld is too compromised to justify the purchase.

Bottom line: Z1 performance is reportedly worse than the $400-and-up Steam Deck, without any significant battery life benefit to make up for the loss of power.

Brief refresher: three months ago, Asus began shipping the ROG Ally, a Windows gaming handheld designed to compete on price and performance with Valve’s Steam Deck. It had a lot going for it, including mostly better-than-Deck performance, an...

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Apple’s bigger iCloud Plus plans are now available

Illustration: The Verge

Apple’s new iCloud Plus plans offer more storage at a higher price — and they’re available to purchase now. Starting today, you can sign up for the 6TB plan at $29.99 / month or the 12TB plan for $59.99 / month.

Apple first revealed the new storage options during its iPhone 15 event last week, which it will offer alongside the existing 50GB plan for $0.99 / month, the 200GB plan for $2.99 / month, and the 2TB plan for $9.99 / month. While 6TB and 12TB may seem like a lot of storage space, the new plans could come in handy for professional photographers or hobbyists who want to take full advantage of the iPhone 15’s upgraded 48MP main camera or store hefty ProRes files.

Each iCloud Plus plan also includes Private Relay, a VPN-like service...

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Microsoft’s former Surface chief Panos Panay is reportedly heading to Amazon

Photo by David Becker / Getty Images

Panos Panay is reportedly joining Amazon, Bloomberg reports. The former Windows and Surface chief announced his departure from Microsoft earlier today, and Bloomberg reports that he’s moving to Seattle’s other giant tech company to oversee Amazon’s vast hardware products.

Panay has been instrumental in the creation of Surface devices and much of their success and will no longer be presenting at Microsoft’s event on Thursday. He will remain at Microsoft for another couple of weeks as part of a transition process before joining Amazon.

Panay will be taking over from Dave Limp, Amazon’s outgoing hardware boss. Limp announced in August that he plans to leave in the next few months after a 13-year career at Amazon, leaving big shoes to fill....

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The best laptop you can buy in 2023

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

The best laptops for you, from ultraportables to high-powered editing machines

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Music industry revenue hits all-time high

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The RIAA just put out the music industry’s midyear revenue report, and it’s a stark illustration of the haves / have-not divide that’s been accelerating in the streaming era. Actually, scratch that: it’s a terrific illustration of how good it is for the haves: retail revenue is up 9.3 percent to an all-time first half high of $8.4 billion, while wholesale revenue is up 8.3 percent to 5.3 billion. (You can read a good explanation of retail versus wholesale here; the industry focuses on retail since that’s where consumer streaming services get counted.)

Streaming revenue was up 10.3 percent from last year — at $7 billion, it accounts for 84 percent of music revenue in the United States. Importantly, the RIAA explicitly notes...

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