Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a live-action adaptation

Image: CD Projekt Red

Get ready for a live-action adaptation of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 universe. The game developer is teaming up with Anonymous Content, a media company that has worked on series like True Detective and Shantaram, on a new “live-action project” based on the popular video game.

It might be a while until we see anything from the adaptation; “the new project is at an early development stage and has currently commenced searching for a screenwriter to tell a brand-new story set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077,” according to a Thursday press release. But if you’re looking for new stories in Night City after finishing the recently released and very good Phantom Liberty expansion to the main video game, this seems like an interesting project...

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Pokémon’s new live-action drama series heaps on the nostalgia in new trailer

Nanase Nishino as Madoka Akagi. | Image: TV Tokyo / The Pokémon Company

The Detective Pikachu movie proved that The Pokémon Company is more than capable of producing solid live-action projects for the big screen. And from the looks of TV Tokyo’s new upcoming Pokémon-inspired show PokéTsume, that’s true of episodic series, too.

Set in our own mundane reality, PokéTsume centers the life of Madoka Akagi (Nanase Nishino), a young woman from Japan’s actual Kanto region (which was the inspiration for the Kanto region from the Pokémon games). After graduating from college and doing a short stint working as a kamaboko-maker, Madoka finds herself moving to Tokyo for a new job at a small ad agency, and while the gig definitely feels like a step in the right direction for her, life in the city isn’t anything like what...

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The last-gen Apple Watch Series 8 is nearly half off

The last-gen Apple Watch Series 8 offers many of the same features as the newer model. | Image: Apple

Google may have just released the Pixel Watch 2, but the Apple Watch is still the better buy if you own an iPhone. And right now, you can get the 41mm GPS-enabledApple Watch Series 8 in black with a small / medium-sized band for just $225 at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon. Members of Target’s free-to-join Target Circle program can also buy the wearable for just $224.99 ($175 off) in select colors like red when they clip the on-page Target Circle coupon.

The discount drops the last-gen flagship wearable down to roughly the same price as Apple’s budget-friendly option, the second-gen Apple Watch SE, which is on sale for $219.99 when you clip the on-page coupon. That’s an excellent deal, given that the Apple Watch Series 8 offers...

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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, Cyber Monday, 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. And be on the lookout for more TV...

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This limited-edition Flipper Zero is the latest transparent gadget

It’s the Flipper Zero. Clearly. | Image: Flipper Zero

The Flipper Zero — which the company calls a “portable multi-tool for pentesters and geeks in a toy-like body,” Verge friend Chris Person calls “a Swiss Army Knife of antennas,” and my kids call “the meebo” because I use it to emulate Amiibos for them — is now available in a limited edition with a transparent shell. I could have made several sentences from that info, but it felt appropriate to the spirit of Flipper Zero to cram it all into one.

Image: Flipper Zero

If you’re excited by the prospect of 18 clearly labeled GPIO ports, I’ve got great news.

Aside from the casing, the limited-edition translucent model is just like the other Flipper Zero units, with (among other things) RFID, NFC, sub-GHz, Bluetooth,...

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Microsoft’s faster and redesigned Teams app now available for Windows and Mac

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is rolling out a new and improved version of its Microsoft Teams chat client today. It has been rebuilt from the ground up to make it faster and easier to use and has been in preview since March. After years of development, Windows and Mac users can now freely install the new version of Microsoft Teams.

The new version of Teams is up to two times faster while using 50 percent less memory, according to Microsoft. That’s good news to anyone who uses Teams already, which has been particularly resource-hungry on older laptops and PCs. Installing the new Microsoft Teams app should be three times faster and launching or joining meetings two times faster, with the app now taking up 70 percent less disk space.

Image:...

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In Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s new movie Evil Does Not Exist, it does

Image: Film at Lincoln Center

There’s an old episode of the podcast Reply All I think about all the time called “Negative Mount Pleasant” — a title that reveals nothing about what it’s about. Also, the first eight minutes of the episode aren’t super instructive either. It opens with tape from a village meeting, where the community of Mount Pleasant is accosting their representative about a mysterious new development that is happening in their backyard.

This isn’t exactly how Evil Does Not Exist starts. But like “Negative Mount Pleasant,” it makes the small-town stakes feel big — and specific. The conflict in director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s excellent new film concerns the imposition of a new “glamping” site just outside Tokyo. Some 6,000-plus miles from the Wisconsin...

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Samsung’s SmartTag2 is smaller and lasts longer

Samsung’s SmartTag2 is smaller and has a larger keyring hole than the previous model. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is announcing a new version of its SmartTag item trackers at its Developer Conference today. The aptly named SmartTag2 is the company’s second-generation locator device and now features longer battery life, more durability amongst the elements, and better signal penetration with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), so you can find it even if it ends up underground, according to Samsung.

SmartTag2 is also smaller than the previous model, so it can fit into tinier spots in your bags and live low-key between your keys. It now has a rated battery life of up to 700 days, which beats out the previous model at 165 days and even Apple’s AirTags, which last about one year on a single CR2032 battery. It’s not quite as long as Tile’s three-year...

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Sony’s high-bitrate movie service is now available on PS5 and PS4

Image: Sony

Sony is bringing its own movie streaming service to PlayStation consoles beginning today. Previously known as Bravia Core, the service is being rebranded to Sony Pictures Core as it arrives on the PS5 and PS4. “Once you sign up for Sony Pictures Core, you will be able to buy or rent up to 2,000 movies straight from your console,” Sony’s Evan Stern wrote in a blog post. “At launch, this will include blockbuster hits such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Uncharted, The Equalizer, No Hard Feelings, Bullet Train, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, among others.”

Now, you can rent or buy those movies in any number of places. If you’re wondering why you’d want to use Sony’s service, the answer is video fidelity. As...

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Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has a plan to defend photography from AI

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge

Getty’s entire brand is built on authenticity. CEO Craig Peters sat down with us at Code to talk about how the company is dealing with AI and disinformation.

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Amazon’s Totally Killer is, like, such a fun slasher movie

Image: James Dittiger / Prime Video

Totally Killer never tries to hide what it is: a classic slasher movie fused with Back to the Future. And it turns out that adding time travel to the well-worn horror genre helps bring some new life to it in a way that actually feels pretty fitting. If you’re looking for a nostalgia-laced slasher to stream ahead of Halloween, this is it.

Initially, the movie is set in the present day, in a small town living in the aftermath of a trio of grisly murders that happened 35 years prior. That’s part of the reason why Jamie’s (Kiernan Shipka) mother (Julie Bowen) is so darn protective. She lived through the original ordeal in 1987, and since the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” was never caught, she lives in constant fear that it’ll happen again. And...

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Displace came up with a landing gear safety system for its totally wireless TV

Image: Displace

Back at CES 2023, we got a first glimpse at a “truly wireless” TV from a startup called Displace. This $3,000 4K OLED TV has swappable batteries that power the screen — and also a vacuum suction system that can keep the display adhered to walls without traditional mounting. And it can stick to virtually any surface, including ceramic and glass. At the time, there were valid questions about what would happen to the 55-inch TV whenever those batteries became fully depleted. Would it just... fall off the wall and come tumbling to the ground?

In Las Vegas, Displace mentioned a built-in safety system that would avoid potential disaster but wasn’t ready to show it in action. Fast forward to earlier this week, and the company offered a live...

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Taylor Lorenz on her extremely online history of the internet

The cover art for Taylor Lorenz’s Extremely Online_._

This is Platformer_, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer._ Sign up here.

When Taylor Lorenz turned in the draft of her new book, Extremely Online, she found that she had written 60,000 words on the history Vine.

“My editor was like, what the hell,” she says, laughing. Lorenz’s incisive commentary on the app’s rise and fall captures the fundamental tension between social platforms and the creators they rely on — a dynamic that been a central focus of her reporting over the past decade. “Vine was TikTok before TikTok,” Lorenz writes. “In 2014, Vine owned the market despite challenges from multiple rivals. The company’s only problem was itself.”

It would not be the last social...

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Nanoleaf’s latest smart lights bring the holiday cheer

The new Nanoleaf Essentials string lights work with Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, and SmartThings through Matter. | Image: Nanoelaf

The latest product from smart lighting company Nanoleaf is less about jazzing up your YouTube streaming setup and more about bringing some holiday cheer to your home this winter. The new Nanoleaf Essentials Matter Smart Holiday String Lights cost $120 and are designed to decorate your Christmas tree, Festivus pole, fireplace, or anywhere a set of twinkly string lights would add some festive cheer. They’re also IP44-rated, so they can look pretty strung on your porch. And they have tunable white light as well as color, making them potentially useful year-round.

The Wi-Fi string lights are available to order now at Nanoleaf.me (early enough to put them to work for Halloween, too) and come in a pack with two 33-foot (10-meter) strings...

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After a seven-year wait, Leica’s releasing the Leica Sofort 2 instant film camera

Image: Leica

Seven years after releasing the Leica Sofort, Leica has finally announced a sequel: the Leica Sofort 2. The instant film camera will be available for $389 on November 9th.

The new Leica Sofort 2 costs about $90 more than its predecessor, and it transforms the product from a fully instant camera into a hybrid instant camera — it takes pictures with a 1/5-inch digital sensor, and you get to choose the photos you want to print. You also have the option of printing out photos you take with your smartphone, just in case you prefer those over the ones the Sofort 2 captures.

In addition, the camera now also comes with USB-C support along with a few extra features and design updates. That includes multiple lenses and a lever you can pull to...

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Apple’s World War II series Masters of the Air premieres in January

Image: Apple

Apple’s long-in-the-works WWII drama Masters of the Air is only a few months away. The company announced that the series, which comes from the same minds behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific, will start streaming on Apple TV Plus on January 26th. Subsequent episodes will drop every Friday, culminating in the finale on March 15th.

As part of the announcement, we also got a first look at the series in the form of some images:

Masters of the Air was initially announced in 2019 before Apple TV Plus had launched and was billed as the first project from Apple Studios, the company’s relatively new in-house film and TV production arm. It’s notable in large part because it reunites Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman as executive...

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Comcast and Charter have begun rolling out the first Xumo streaming box

Image: Charter/Comcast

In April 2022, cable operators Comcast and Charter announced a partnership that the companies said would produce “a next-generation streaming platform on a variety of branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs.” A few months later, we learned that this joint effort would be called Xumo, and now the first hardware device is making its way to customers. It’s called the Xumo Stream Box, and at the outset, it’s available within Spectrum’s service footprint — with availability for Comcast’s Xfinity customers to follow.

As the consumer exodus from traditional cable continues, the Stream Box is meant to be an end-all be-all solution that combines inexpensive subscription bundles with an avalanche of FAST (free ad-supported television)...

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Hyundai’s future EVs will also have Tesla’s EV charging port

Did they just tape it on there? | Image: Hyundai

Another major automaker is jumping on the Tesla bandwagon. Hyundai announced today its plans to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS), aka the “Tesla plug,” for its future electric vehicles.

Hyundai models compatible with Tesla’s NACS plug will start arriving in the fourth quarter of 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, the automaker will also provide adapters to its current customers so they can access Tesla Supercharger stations. Hyundai’s current EV lineup, which includes the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, both have charging ports that are compatible with the Combined Charging Standard, or CCS, for DC fast charging.

So let’s just look at the scoreboard really quick

NACS adoptees include Ford, GM, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Nissan, M...

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The Pixel 8’s best new feature is guaranteed updates

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

When Google announced the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro today, it added a feature no other phone can compete with: both devices will get Android OS updates, security updates, and new feature updates for the next seven years. That’s a very big deal! Ongoing support is the difference between a phone that works and a phone with gaping security holes that needs to be thrown out.There’s a very real argument to be made that this is the biggest thing Google announced today.

The promise is particularly notable for an Android phone, where OS support can often drop off after just a few years. By way of comparison, the Pixel 7A and Pixel Fold, both phones Google announced this year, will lose software support in 2026 and security updates in 2028 —...

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Adobe teases new AI photo editing tool that will ‘revolutionize’ its products

Even Adobe is sick of using the lasso tool to manually separate objects from photographs. | Image: Adobe

Adobe is set to announce a new AI-powered photo editing tool at the Adobe Max event next week that makes it much easier to alter images without prior editing experience. According to a promotional video (seen via Techspot), the new “object-aware editing engine” — dubbed Project Stardust — automatically identifies individual objects in regular photographs, allowing them to be easily moved around and changed. It’s similar to Google’s Magic Editor announced yesterday for its new Pixel phones, but presumably more powerful.

A quick demonstration of the new software shows how objects in a photograph — such as the yellow suitcase and its shadow in the example image — are automatically identified and selected as if they had been separated using...

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Details of Apple’s talks to replace Google with Bing and even DuckDuckGo revealed in unsealed court testimony

Image: The Verge

While Google’s search engine has for years been the default on Apple’s devices, newly unsealed court testimonies reveal that Apple held talks with both Microsoft and DuckDuckGo to use their search engines across Apple devices, and in Microsoft’s case even potentially buying Bing, The Washington Postand Bloomberg report. The potential of a Microsoft deal also served as a useful bargaining chip for Apple when negotiating its lucrative search deal with Google.

The details came to light as part of the Department of Justice’s landmark antitrust case against Google which accuses the search giant of abusing its dominance of the search market. A key element of this trial is an agreement that sees Google pay Apple billions of dollars a year in a...

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Microsoft and Amazon face UK regulator investigation over cloud services

Illustration: The Verge

The clouds are gathering over Microsoft’s Azure operations in the EU and now the UK, with the launch of a new investigation into major cloud service providers that also includes Amazon. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is just about to wrap up its concerns over cloud gaming with Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition, but it will soon turn its attention to Microsoft’s Azure cloud offerings and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

It’s part of a fresh investigation into public cloud providers in the UK, after telecoms regulator Ofcom “identified a number of features in the supply of cloud services that make it more difficult for customers to switch and use multiple cloud suppliers.”

Ofcom found issues with charges that...

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Gas station convenience stores might survive the EV future with help from these chargers

Electric Era’s PowerNode and charger gives businesses | Image: Electric Era

A young electric vehicle infrastructure company founded by former SpaceX employees called Electric Era has designed EV charging stations that convenience stores can buy and manage with minimal power upgrades. Now, with a new round of funding led by Chevron Technology Ventures, the startup hopes it can convince prospective buyers to ease in on the electric vehicle future, especially as gas station traffic eventually dwindles down.

People who drive gas cars exist in a more than-century-old ecosystem where they post up at a pump for up to 15 minutes to fuel up, use the bathroom, grab a soda and a pack of cigarettes, and maybe a lottery ticket or a crusty hot dog from the convenience store. However, those pumps and stores might not last as...

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Is Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense even trying to win?

Even the defense’s opening statement was a bad look for Sam Bankman-Fried | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

The prosecution came out swinging. Oddly, Bankman-Fried’s defense didn’t.

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Google releases Gmail app for Wear OS

Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Google is rolling out a Gmail app for Wear OS that will allow smartwatch wearers to view their inbox and open messages. The announcement comes a few months after the app’s initial announcement at Google I/O in May.

The app (first spotted on the Google Play Store by 9to5Google) allows users to check their email from the comfort of their Pixel Watch. Per 9to5, you can refresh your inbox, scroll full emails, and switch between multiple accounts from the watch interface. New email notifications can also be displayed on the watch’s face.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

The Pixel Watch 2 was also launched today.

This is a big step up in functionality for those who use Wear OS. Previously, Wear OS watches could...

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Amazon is quietly shuttering its live audio app Amp

Image: Amazon Amp

Amp, the live radio app launched by Amazon just last year, will soon be no more. Bloomberg reports that Steve Boom, the vice president of Amazon Music, sent a memo announcing the shutdown.

The Amp app still appears to be available for download and is still airing live radio shows as of the time of publication. The Verge has reached out to both Amp and Amazon Music for more details on when the service will officially sunset.

“This decision was not made quickly or easily,” Boom wrote, according to Bloomberg. “It only became clear after months of careful consideration determining the investments Amazon wants to make for the future.”

Amazon’s experiment in live audio only lasted about a year and a half — the app was first launched in March...

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Amazon’s first Project Kuiper test satellites are headed to space on October 6th

Image: Amazon

Amazon will launch two Project Kuiper test satellites into space on Friday, October 6th. The pair of satellites — dubbed KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 — will shoot into space aboard the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket as part of Amazon’s internet satellite initiative.

The launch will take from the Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with the two-hour launch window opening at 2PM ET. According to the Project Kuiper team, the Atlas V rocket will deploy the two satellites at an altitude of 311 miles, where they’ll enter low-earth orbit.

From there, the Project Kuiper team will perform various tests to establish first contact with the satellites, as well as deploy solar arrays to generate...

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X stops showing headlines because Elon Musk thinks it will make posts look better

Illustration: The Verge

X, formerly Twitter, is no longer showing headlines on articles shared on the platform. Instead, X is only showing the article’s lead image and the domain it will link you to. The change is present on the iOS app for myself and another Verge staffer.

You can see the differences between the X iOS app and X on the web in this image slider:

I also made a post on X to demonstrate what’s going on.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

This change, while very annoying, doesn’t come as a total surprise. Fortune reported in August that this change was in the works, and X owner Elon Musk confirmed that the switchover was “coming from me directly” and would “greatly improve the esthetics [sic].” That leads me to believe that...

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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, or the upcoming October Amazon Prime Day (happening soon on the 10th and 11th), 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...

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The best deals on MacBooks right now

The M2 generation of MacBook Air now comes in two sizes, and both are discounted. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro at $2,499 (not counting anything you can spec out to the stratosphere). But finding a deal on a current Mac with an M1 or M2 chip — or a higher-end Pro or Max version — is usually not too difficult.

At this point, we don’t recommend buying any older Intel-based Macs. They’re just completely outclassed by all the newer models unless you have some super-niche Windows Boot Camp needs.

Alternatively, purchasing refurbished is another way to save money on an Apple computer. Apple’s refurbished store provides a one-year...

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