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Satya Nadella appears in DC for US v. Google_._ | Image: Getty Images
On the stand in US v. Google, the Microsoft CEO said he’d do just about anything to make Bing better. Google’s lawyers said he should have been doing that for decades.
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Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), is being sued for defamation over posts he made falsely accusing a man of pretending to be a neo-Nazi to stir up a “false flag” operation earlier this year.
The suit was filed in Texas court Monday by Ben Brody, a 22-year-old California man, as first reported by HuffPost. Brody accused Musk of having triggered a massive harassment campaign against him through a series of misleading posts about an Oregon neo-Nazi brawl this summer.
In June, a fight broke out between two far-right groups at an Oregon City pride festival. Footage of the fight circulated across social media, and soon, users started falsely claiming one of the men was a federal agent and attempted to identify...
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Image: Blizzard
Hours after the Florida Mayhem were crowned the 2023 Overwatch League Grand Champions, the Overwatch League itself has likely come to its end. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) this morning, Blizzard said that it’s working on “building our vision of a revitalized esports program.”
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) October 2, 2023
It is no secret that the league has been in dire straits. Over the last few years, there were numerous reports that the league was struggling financially. Advertisers had pulled out after stories of sexual harassment and abuse at Blizzard broke in 2021. Team organizations were struggling to pay franchising fees, strained by the depressed economic conditions facilitated by the...
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Image: Charlotte Hornets
YouTuber MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, has struck a new partnership with the Charlotte Hornets that will plaster his snack company’s logo on the NBA team’s jerseys. The Charlotte Hornets announced that Feastables has become the team’s official jersey patch partner for the 2023–2024 season.
Not only will the Feastables logo appear on the jerseys belonging to the Charlotte Hornets, but it will also be stitched on jerseys for the Greensboro Swarm, the NBA G League team affiliated with the Hornets, along with the Hornets Venom GT, an NBA 2K League esports team. The Charlotte Hornets will even include Feastables branding in the backdrops it uses for press conferences and interviews.
Image: Charlotte Hornets
Here’s...
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Photo by Rick Kern / Getty Images for The Sandbox
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has made a special revenue sharing deal with Paris Hilton and her media company, 11:11. It even includes a custom hashtag for a word that Hilton has been trying to popularize since at least 2019: “sliving.”
A combination of the words “slaying” and “living,” sliving is supposed to be Hilton’s new “that’s hot,” her catchphrase that was inescapable in the early 2000s. Now the year is 2023, and Linda Yaccarino, fresh from her interview on the Code stage, is posting “#sliving” to a site called X.
The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. @ParisHilton welcome to the @X family, we're excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11....
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Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Samsung is reportedly set to formally launch cloud gaming inside the Samsung Game Launcher on Galaxy phones at its developer conference this week on October 5th, according to the Korea Economic Daily.
The new cloud service, which has been in slowly expanding beta for a few months now, is targeted at mobile games, unlike most other cloud gaming plays, which generally offer PC and console games. It seems like Samsung’s approach is more or less designed to recover the game-install-ad revenue lost as various ad targeting restrictions have gone into place over the past few years.
That’s not just cynicism — take it from Samsung’s Jong Hyuk Woo, who told VentureBeat in August that “90% of the people who have expressed interest in a game...
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Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
TikTok users might be able to pay not to see a deluge of ads in the future.
Android Authority has screenshots of TikTok prompting users to select between staying on the free version of the app with ads or upgrading to an ad-free experience. According to the screenshot, some users have the option to pay $4.99 a month to not see ads.
TikTok didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more details or to questions about the availability of the paid version.
A test of an ad-free tier comes as TikTok is working aggressively to diversify where its money comes from. TikTok Shop, the platform’s in-app marketplace, has been moved to the main navigation bar for some users, and the company has been pushing ads and coupons, hoping to entice...
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Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are often on sale.
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 has been on the market for a year, we’re seeing their price fall more often, too. The same discount also occasionally extends to the updated set of AirPods Pro with a USB-C charging case that Apple released in September.
It’s possible we’ll see even more terrific AirPods deals drop soon with Amazon Prime Big Deal Days taking place on October 10th and 11th. However, if you can’t wait until then, here are the best deals currently...
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An image of the new folding phone. | Image: OnePlus / Oppo
OnePlus and Oppo are releasing the same foldable phone under different names, OnePlus confirmed in an announcement emailed to The Verge today. The company says that Oppo chief product officer Peter Lau, who co-founded OnePlus, directed teams at both companies to develop the phone in tandem to be released under both brands in different markets, though the email did not say which phone will go where.
OnePlus didn’t name the phones in the announcement, but they’re the phones rumored to be called the OnePlus Open and the Oppo Find N3.
Image: OnePlus / Oppo
The alert slider lives on.
GSMArena recently reported a rumor that the Oppo Find N3 will be a Chinese exclusive, while the OnePlus Open will get an international...
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The new Genki Alpine collection. | Image: Human Things
Gaming accessory company Human Things is coming out with new Genki ShadowCast external capture cards that feature higher-quality recording for livestream sessions, plus a slightly souped-up new Covert Dock GaN charger for Nintendo Switch. The company is crowdfunding its new “Alpine collection” on Kickstarter, including ShadowCast 2, ShadowCast 2 Pro, and Covert Dock 2.
The Genki ShadowCast 2 Pro capture device supports up to 4K video at 60 frames per second and can handle HDMI passthrough with HDR and VRR. The company claims it has an instant setup process — just plug your gaming system (for example, a PS5) into the ShadowCast 2 Pro hardware, then plug in a USB-C iPad or a computer. You can capture video through Genki Studio (now on iPad)...
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Image: The Verge
Apple will no longer provide customer support on X (formerly Twitter), as spotted earlier by MacRumors. When you try to send a direct message to the Apple Support account, it now instructs you to visit the general support page on Apple’s website.
The account will similarly respond with an automated reply for any message you send it. After asking the account about an issue with an iPhone 15, Apple support replied saying: “It sounds like you have an issue with your iPhone. We can help, but to provide the best support we’d like to continue this conversation in another support channel.” The message also included a link to Apple’s iPhone support page.
Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge
The Apple Support account now...
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Photo illustration by Cath Virgina / The Verge
The trial could have huge implications for the crypto industry. Stay up to date as The Verge covers the trial from the Manhattan court.
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Artwork for Beyoncé’s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. | Image: Beyoncé
Beyoncé is bringing her Renaissance tour to theaters, making her the second pop superstar this season to turn a blockbuster concert into a moviegoing experience. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé will hit theaters across the US, Canada, and Mexico on December 1st — AMC, Cinemark, and Regal are all selling tickets already. AMC says it’ll be going global at some point, too.
The announcement comes a month after tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concert film broke preorder records, doing $26 million in ticket sales in just one day. Swift’s film was only available at AMC during that preorder window, which likely means a wider availability for Renaissance.
While concert films hitting theaters isn’t a new phenomenon, Swift’s immense success...
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The Pixel 8 Pro unboxing video shows off a matte black backing and a black camera bar. | Image: PBKreviews via YouTube
The Pixel 8 launch event is just days away, but someone has already gotten their hands on Google’s upcoming smartphones. In a pair of unboxing videos posted to YouTube by PBKreviews (via 9to5Google), you can see the packaging for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, along with a brief glimpse at how they look.
The videos don’t really add much to the flood of leaks we’ve already seen leading up to the event, but they show how both phones come neatly packaged with a USB-C cable, a manual, and a Quick Switch adapter, which you can use to transfer the contents of your old device to the Pixel 8.
We also get a good look at a couple of color variations for the new devices. While the Pixel 8 unboxing video shows off a shiny gray color and a silver camera...
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AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite is 693 square feet in size. | Image: AST Mobile via Business Wire
The enormous, next-generation communications satellite BlueWalker 3 has become one of the brightest objects visible in the night sky, according to new research published today in the journal Nature.
While BlueWalker 3 is groundbreaking for its ability to essentially turn ordinary smartphones into satellite phones, it might also usher in a new generation of satellites that create way more light pollution than their older, smaller predecessors. Rapidly growing mega-constellations of internet satellites are already mucking up researchers’ observations of worlds beyond Earth. BlueWalker 3 is the brightest satellite in low Earth orbit yet, and astronomers fear it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“If it does become an issue, then it’s going to...
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A sample of what the message may look like. | Image: FEMA
FEMA and the FCC are conducting a dual test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on Wednesday at about 2:20PM ET. The tests will appear on all consumer cellphones in either English or Spanish, depending on the language you have set, as well as radios and TVs. We regret to inform you that, unlike the national alert that went out in 2021, you can’t opt out of this one — every cellphone that’s switched on, within a cell tower’s range, and using a participating wireless carrier is supposed to receive it. You may recall the Presidential Alert test in 2018 also did not care if you wanted the test or not.
FEMA says that the test will “ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public...
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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The most recent crop of Beats headphones and earbuds just can’t stop going on sale. Once again, since their release in July, the Beats Studio Pro noise-canceling headphones are on sale for $249.95 ($100 off) at Woot.
Beats’ latest wireless cans may look a lot like many of the company’s prior ones, but the Studio Pro are outfitted with modern features like noise cancellation, a transparency mode, lossless audio via USB-C, spatial audio, up to 40 hours of battery life, and flexible support for both iPhones and Android phones. They may look a little ho-hum compared to more dramatic designs in the top class of current headphones or Apple’s own AirPods Max, but if you still dig the typical Beats stylings, they’re more than serviceable...
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Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge
When I contacted a telehealth provider for Ozempic, I got exactly what I asked for.
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Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tesla produced 430,488 vehicles in the third quarter of 2023, a 10 percent drop from the previous quarter but a 25 percent year-over-year increase for the company.
Tesla attributed the sequential drop in production to “planned downtimes for factory upgrades.” During a recent earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained that the “summer shutdowns” were necessary for recent product upgrades, like the refreshed Model 3 and Model Y that were recently revealed for the Chinese market.
“Summer shutdowns”
The company said it delivered 435,059 vehicles in Q3, a 6.6 percent decrease over the previous quarter but a 26.5 percent increase year over year.
Tesla maintains a production target of 1.8 million vehicles in 2023. With today’s report, the...
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This is the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus.
Google has introduced Chromebook Plus, a new certification that’s meant to help shoppers identify high-quality Chromebooks to buy. Much like Intel’s Evo program for Windows PCs, the Chromebook Plus branding will be awarded to laptops that meet a set of minimum requirements. The idea is that even a shopper who’s not familiar with PC specs can see the “Chromebook Plus” label on a product and be assured that Google thinks it’s a good product.
Chromebook Plus devices must have:
There’s an interesting absence here: battery life. In fact, the phrase “battery life” does not appear once in Google’s press...
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk alongside the Cybertruck at its 2019 launch event. | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images
Tesla didn’t end up holding a delivery event for its Cybertruck in the third quarter of 2023 as CEO Elon Musk had hoped. “We’re anticipating having [a] delivery event, a great delivery event probably in Q3,” Musk said in the company’s April earnings call. “The Cybertruck handover… will hopefully be around the end of Q3 this year,” he added later in the call.
Although Musk’s comments read more as a target than an explicit promise, this is just the latest delay in its introduction of the Cybertruck, which was originally due to start rolling off the assembly line in 2021 when it was announced in 2019. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have paid a roughly $100 refundable deposit to reserve the vehicle. The Wall Street Journal notes...
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Image: Netflix
The latest end-of-the-world movie coming to Netflix has some serious star power. Leave the World Behind — based on the book of the same name by Rumaan Alam — is helmed by Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail and stars Mahershala Ali, Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon. It’s a post-apocalyptic thriller with a decidedly intense vibe, which you can check out in the trailer above.
As for what it’s actually about, here’s the official synopsis:
A family’s vacation is upended when two strangers arrive at night, seeking refuge from a cyberattack that grows more terrifying by the minute, forcing everyone to come to terms with their places in a collapsing world.
Leave the World Behind will also continue Netflix’s dual-release strategy with theaters and...
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Katalin Karikó (left) and Drew Weissman’s (right) research into mRNA was used to develop covid-19 vaccinations. | Image: Nobel Prize
American scientists Katalin Karikó (a Hungarian-born biochemist) and Drew Weissman (an immunologist and professor of vaccine research) have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which contributed towards the development of effective covid-19 vaccines (seen via The New York Times). mRNA vaccines have an advantage over traditional vaccines in that they can be quickly designed and safely manufactured at scale with fewer errors.
Seven years after they first met at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, Karikó and Weissman published their findings on mRNA. The scientists found that they could add altered mRNA to cells, prompting them to create any protein they desired....
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Image: Microsoft
Microsoft’s task management app, Microsoft Lists, is now available for everyone to use. Launched in 2020, Microsoft Lists was originally limited to just business and enterprise users, before a limited preview for consumers last year. Microsoft is now letting anyone with a Microsoft Account access this free version of Microsoft Lists through iOS and Android apps and on the web.
Microsoft Lists allows you to create, manage, and share lists across devices, complete with ready-made templates for tasks like expense tracking, recipe making, gift ideas, and much more. You can easily share lists with colleagues, friends, and family so multiple people can contribute to a list.
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft Lists on mobile.
...
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The new Model Y for China looks a lot like the old one. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
Tesla's China arm announced in a WeChat post Sunday morning that it released a new Model Y with design and performance tweaks that keeps the same starting price as before (via Reuters). The new car follows the company’s release of the revamped "Highland" Model 3 in China, which also hit Europe early last month.
According to Tesla’s Chinese website, the Model Y now has a 0–100km/h time of 5.9 seconds, which Bloomberg notes in a report is slightly faster than before. The car gets new wheels and an ambient LED lighting strip in the dash, like the refreshed Model 3.
Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
If you squint, you can see the new LED strip along the front.
The car starts at 263,900 yuan (about $37,000), and...
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Illustration: The Verge
Apple will soon bring its powerful internal search engine to the App Store and other apps, as Mark Gurman reports in this week’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Apple debuted upgrades to its Spotlight search feature in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, letting users search there for web results, details from apps, documents, and much more.
According to the newsletter, former Google executive John Giannandrea’s search team is working to bake the internally-named “Pegasus” search engine more deeply into iOS and macOS and could even use generative AI tools to enhance it further. Last year Apple also launched Business Connect, a tool that helped strengthen its information database with details about businesses’ hours and locations in a way that could...
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A leaked Pixel 8 “Switch to Pixel” ad posted to X by Arséne Lupin highlights Google’s AI features, including Best Take, which lets you swap faces into an image from other pictures (via 9to5Google). Google’s Pixel event is just around the corner on October 4th, but there’s seemingly very little we don’t already know about the phone, considering the steady stream of leaks.
The ad kicks off highlighting the process for transferring data to a Pixel 8, but spends most of its time on the AI features of the phone — some new, like Best Take, and some old, like Magic Eraser:
Switch to Pixel - Pixel 8 (Pro) pic.twitter.com/hGfQbFDpug
— Arsène Lupin (@MysteryLupin) September 30, 2023
9to5Google also points to a leak from Kamila Wojciechowska,...
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Courtesy of Cinema Guild
Recently, we’ve been gifted two new works by Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo each year. He loves a small movie, usually comfortably under the 90-minute mark, and a scope that might encompass a novella or even a short story. I personally find them kind of hit or miss. Not to say Hong is inconsistent. In fact, it is remarkable how he can keep making the same kind of movie over and over. Even within the self-imposed constraints of Hong’s manner, there is wild variance in what he puts out. In that sense, his new movies are fitting — though unessential — additions to his prolific filmography.
One of this year’s, In Our Day, is fairly standard Hong: low stakes, talky, and cast with familiar actors (if you think Wes Anderson likes recurring players,...
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The Pixel Watch 2 is a golden opportunity for Google to prove it’s serious about wearables. | Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
After I reviewed the Pixel Watch last year, skeptics kept asking me the same questions over and over again: Do you think Google’s actually going to keep this thing going? Do you think it’s going to ax the Pixel Watch if it doesn’t sell?
These are fair questions to ask. Despite being among the first to the wearable scene in 2014, it let Android Wear and then Wear OS languish for years. Plus, Google’s graveyard of abandoned projects is notoriously vast. While I was pretty confident we’d see a Pixel Watch 2, I didn’t think the Pixel Watch — a better-than-expected debut with some very first-gen flaws — would succeed to the degree it did. During Q4 2022 (aka the holiday season), Google leapfrogged Samsung to become the No. 2 bestselling...
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The limits of myth-making are apparent in Walter Isaacson’s new biography. | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
The trouble began days before the biography was even published.
CNN had a story summarizing an excerpt of Walter Isaacson’s Elon Muskthat claimed Musk had shut down SpaceX’s satellite network, Starlink, to prevent a “Ukrainian sneak attack” on the Russian navy. The Washington Post followed it up, publishing the excerpt where Isaacson claimed Musk had essentially shut down a military offensive on a personal whim.
This reporting did not pass the smell test to me, and I said so at the time; I wondered about the sourcing. One of the things that anyone covering Elon Musk for long enough has to reckon with is that he loves to tell hilarious lies. For instance: