Netflix’s first live sports broadcast pairs up F1 drivers with pro golfers

The Netflix Cup | Image: Netflix

Netflix’s first live sporting event is here — and it involves a golf tournament between athletes from the streamer’s Full Swing and Formula 1: Drive to Survive shows. The competition, called The Netflix Cup, will air live on the service on November 14th at 6PM ET / 3PM PT.

The tournament will take place at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, featuring the Formula 1 drivers Alex Albon (Williams Racing), Pierre Gasly (BWT Alpine F1 Team), Lando Norris (McLaren Racing), and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Scuderia Ferrari) along with PGA Tour golfers Rickie Fowler, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, and Justin Thomas.

The tournament will see four groups, each with one Formula 1 driver and one PGA Tour pro, play an eight-hole match. The top two teams will advance to the...

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Snapchat now lets you embed videos and lenses on the web

Image: Snap

It might’ve taken a few years, but now Snapchat will finally let you embed the videos, lenses, and stories from its platform onto the web. While Snapchat previously didn’t allow users to embed videos due to the fleeting (and often private) nature of its posts, giving users this ability is another sign that it’s trying to bolster its shortform video feed — Spotlight — to compete with TikTok and Instagram.

That means you might come across playable content from Snapchat when scrolling through a website or reading an article online. Snapchat shows how this might look in its announcement of the feature, which contains an embedded lens and a spotlight video. You can click to view any embedded videos directly from the webpage you’re on, as well...

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A new Alan Wake game just launched in Fortnite

Image: Epic Games

There’s another Alan Wake game in the works — but this one was built inside of Fortnite. Today, Epic Games announced the launch of Alan Wake: Flashback, a Fortnite experience that “reimagines Remedy Entertainment’s iconic story.” It’s available for free inside the game right now using the island code 3426-5561-3374.

While promotional tie-ins are nothing new for Fortnite, the Alan Wake experience appears much more involved than most, which makes sense given the publishing relationship between Remedy and Epic Games. It also comes at a time when Epic is making a big push for Fortnite’s creator-made experiences in an attempt to help the game evolve beyond its battle royale roots.

Here’s the official description for the new game, which takes...

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Clearview AI and the end of privacy, with author Kashmir Hill

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge

New York TimesjournalistKashmir Hill comes on Decoder to discuss her new book, Your Face Belongs to Us, and what the spread of facial recognition technology means for the future of privacy.

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Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones review: predictable excellence

With a traveler-friendly design and superb comfort, Bose’s latest flagship headphones right the course after the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 — but they don’t come cheap.

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The world’s power grids, 50 million miles’ worth, need a major overhaul

Workers erect a steel tower at the 220kV line project in Jiangsu Province, China, on October 16th, 2023. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Governments and utilities need to add or replace the equivalent of virtually all the world’s power grids by 2040 to reliably keep the lights on while cleaning up pollution from the power sector. That’s 80 million kilometers (nearly 50 million miles) of infrastructure that needs a major upgrade, according to a first-of-its-kind report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) today.

Without that overhaul, countries risk missing their climate goals and worsening climate-related disasters like storms and fires that are already walloping power grids. Today’s aging grids are often teetering on the edge of power shortages, something that could become an even bigger problem as homes, buildings, and transportation go all-electric.

“We...

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eBay’s early holiday sale brings discounts on Samsung’s The Frame TV and Bose headphones

The latest version of Samsung’s 32-inch The Frame can turn itself off to conserve power like larger models. | Image: Samsung

Halloween hasn’t even arrived yet, but holiday sales are already starting to pop up everywhere. Best Buy and Target held their own last week to rival Amazon’s fall Prime Day, and now, it’s eBay’s turn. Right now, eBay is taking 20 percent off select items as part of its “Holiday Head Start Sale” through 11:59PM PT on October 22nd when you apply offer code HEADSTART at checkout.

All kinds of items are on sale, including the very well-specced 17-inch LG Gram 17 laptop, which is $839.99 ($660 off), while refurbished headphones like Bose’s QuietComfort 45 and QuietComfort II are just $159.20. One of the better deals available, however, is on Samsung’s latest 32-inch The Frame TV, which is down to an all-time low of $478.39 ($119.60 off) via...

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Apple announces entry-level Apple Pencil with USB-C charging

Image: Apple

Apple has announced a cheaper Apple Pencil that comes with USB-C. The iPad accessory will cost $79 and comes with a sliding cap that reveals the USB-C port. It also attaches magnetically to the side edge of an iPad — even the 10th-generation model Apple released last year.

The cheaper price means that the Pencil doesn’t come with some of the more advanced features as the first- and second-generation accessories. The device doesn’t support pressure sensitivity, wireless pairing and charging, or the double-tap feature that lets you switch between tools.

Image: Apple

The first Apple Pencil model used a lightning connector that jutted out of it to plug into your iPad’s port for charging, while the second-gen model...

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There’s no way you’ll miss YouTube’s like and subscribe buttons now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

“Like and subscribe” is a familiar mantra to anyone who regularly watches videos on YouTube. But with some new changes YouTube is rolling out to the video streaming platform, the words will do more than just annoy you. As part of the updates, when a creator says the words “like” or “subscribe,” YouTube will add a visual cue over the corresponding buttons as a way to prompt you to actually click or tap them.

Here’s a GIF from Google showing what that might look like — watch the “subscribe” button in the lower-right corner of the GIF.

GIF: Google

A subscribe animation!

When I read about this feature, I immediately worried how YouTube creators might take advantage of it; I wouldn’t put it past somebody to make a...

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How Ecobee is becoming the smart home company Nest should have been

Smart thermostat manufacturer Ecobee’s newest product is a video doorbell that streams to its thermostat. | Image: Ecobee

Ecobee’s newest video doorbell can show a live view of your front porch on your thermostat. But that’s not the only clever synergy the smart home company has up its sleeve.

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Intel Core i9-14900K review: a refresh in name and nature

Intel’s 14th Gen provides great performance in creative apps, but it’s not enough to beat AMD’s gaming chops.

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Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera review: even better with the thermostat

This is the first doorbell that can stream a live view to your thermostat. Yes, it sounds weird, but trust me — it’s good.

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Elgato’s new $279.99 Prompter is an all-in-one teleprompter and extra monitor

It’s not often that a hardware product comes along and overhauls and improves how I work on a daily basis. Elgato’s new Prompter has done exactly that in the few days I’ve been using it, offering up an all-in-one teleprompter and additional monitor that can be used with a Mac or PC for $279.99. If you’ve ever wanted to have eye contact with people on Zoom calls, talk directly to your Twitch chat, or easily read a script for a presentation or YouTube video, then this is for you.

I’ve been considering a teleprompter for months now, but most on the market at $200 or less typically need to be connected to a phone or tablet. Elgato has created a teleprompter that connects over USB-C to a PC or laptop and doesn’t need additional power.

...

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Drop’s latest keyboard is equipped with a hot-swappable top case

Drop’s idea is that you’ll switch the keyboard’s case to match its keycaps. | Image: Drop

Drop has launched the first in a lineup of new keyboards called the CSTM80. The CSTM name alludes to the keyboard’s customizability. In addition to being able to change its keycaps and switches with a simple pulling tool, the top of its case is also magnetically attached so you can simply lift it off to change its look.

Being able to customize the look of a keyboard is nothing new, but typically, the focus is on swapping out just a keyboard’s keycaps. Making it easier to swap a case alongside a set of keycaps should let you match the colors and designs of both for a more cohesive look.

Image: Drop

A selection of the cases available for the CSTM80.

If you want to go down the custom route, Drop is selling a...

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Google is fixing Drive download problems related to third-party cookies

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

From January 2nd, 2024, Google Drive will no longer require third-party cookies to be enabled to download files, the search giant has announced. The change comes as Google prepares to (finally) disable third-party cookies by default in its Chrome browser, following similar moves by other browser makers like Mozilla and Apple to improve privacy.

The change should fix an annoying issue in Drive that can prevent users from being able to download files if third-party cookies are disabled. If you encounter the issue, the advice of this Google support page is to manually create an exception for Google Drive to allow third-party cookies.

Google’s blog post doesn’t explain why Google Drive currently relies on third-party cookies, but there’s...

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The Meta glassholes have arrived

Quest 3 in an elevator. | Video: @kukurio59 (TikTok)

It’s happening: people are once walking into public places wearing a video-recording face computer on their heads. Only this time, the faceputer is sold by Meta, not Google.

Say hello to Meta’s Glassholes.

OK don't be mad. But someone had to do it.

walked into a cafe in mixed reality pic.twitter.com/WSJEMWuG00

— CIX (@CixLiv) October 16, 2023

Over the weekend, as buyers got their first uninterrupted stretches of time with the new Meta Quest 3 headset, some started posting videos of themselves interacting with the real world instead of playing games.

Sure, it’s cool to blast low-poly baddies breaking through your walls, but isn’t it more technically impressive that Meta’s new headset lets you cook a meal or sweep your floors or enjoy...

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Sam Bankman-Fried was a bad friend, too

What, me worry? | Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Westend61 and Bloomberg, Getty Images

Nishad Singh says he tried to get Bankman-Fried to do the right thing — but he wouldn’t listen.

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Pixel 6 owners who use multiple profiles run into problems with Android 14

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Some Pixel 6 users are reporting strange issues after updating their devices to the new Android 14 OS, which launched on October 4th for Pixel devices. One critical-sounding bug that seems to have spread to multiple users is losing access to internal storage, which ends up in a complete loss of data. Others seem to have other odd issues, like repeat UI launcher crashes. A Verge tipster pointed out the reports, which show a pattern of striking users with multiple user accounts set up on their devices.

The original poster reports “storage is full” errors once they rebooted following an overnight update to Android 14, while another commenter said they lost access to internal storage entirely. The Android 14 update launched officially last...

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Disney’s Gargoyles may live again — for real this time

Image: Disney

Gargoyles, one of Disney’s weirdest and best ’90s cartoon experiments, is coming back. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Gary Dauberman and James Wan, who also made the whole Annabelle series of scary movies, are adapting the series as a live-action show for Disney Plus.

Dauberman will write, executive produce, and showrun the series. The series will presumably follow a similar path to the original cartoon, also available on Disney Plus. The cartoon aired from 1994 to 1997 and followed a clan of gargoyles cursed to live as stone. A thousand years pass, and when a billionaire moves them and their castle to his skyscraper in Manhattan, the gargoyles awaken, team up with a local detective, and begin protecting the city from...

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The best phone to buy right now

Photo Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Bad news: flagship phones cost a small fortune these days. Good news: we can help you pick the right one and get the most for your money.

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The best smartwatches for Android

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Wear OS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch.

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The best Fitbits for your fitness and health

Fitbit makes an array of fitness trackers, from basic fitness bands to full-fledged smartwatches, though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit. | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Whether you want a basic fitness tracker or a smartwatch, there’s a Fitbit for everyone — though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit.

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The best fitness trackers to buy right now

Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

From simple fitness bands and rugged sports watches to rings, these are the best trackers you can get.

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is often on sale when purchased as a part of a bundle. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...

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The New York Times now offers daily hints for its Connections word game

Monday’s puzzle was rough — I should have looked at the new hints first. | Image: The New York Times

The New York Times will now offer daily hints for Connections, its delightful yet sometimes frustrating daily word game.

In Connections, you’re tasked with finding four sets of associations between 16 words. Each “solution” groups four words together, but the groupings can be tough to figure out. (I only got one correct grouping on Monday’s puzzle.) If you’re stuck, the new Connections Companion offers a difficulty rating (Monday’s was 3.5 out of 5, which I strongly disagree with) and hints you can use to get help without spoiling the entire puzzle.

Here’s how the hints work. The game’ssolutions are grouped by color as an indicator of that group’s difficulty, though you’ll only see these colors after you correctly assemble a group....

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Biden campaign joins Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform

Photo by Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign launched its own account on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday, as first reported by Fox News.

“Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!” the campaign wrote in its first post to the platform on Monday under the handle @BidenHQ.

“Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!”

Speaking with Fox, the campaign said that it was joining the site in a bid to reach conservative voters and correct any “mis and disinformation” related to the president on the platform. So far, the campaign has posted several clips of GOP primary candidates like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley attacking Trump on issues like the federal debt or his comments on the war in...

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WhatsApp turns on passwordless logins with passkeys for Android users

Illustration: The Verge

WhatsApp users on Android can say goodbye to insecure and annoying SMS two-factor authentication. The Meta-owned company announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it’s rolling out support for a passwordless passkey feature to all Android users. The new security option allows WhatsApp users to use their device’s face, fingerprint, or pin security to unlock and access their accounts — following Google’s lead when it began prompting users last week to create passkeys.

Passkeys were previously being tested by WhatsApp in its beta channel, but it’s now coming to regular users of the app on Android. We’ve reached out to Meta about iOS compatibility as well as other questions, but the company has not responded at this time.

Android users can...

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About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

One of the worst tech labor years ever continues with the news that roughly half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off. Bandcamp employees are reporting the news via social media.

about half the company was laid off today. some of the most incredible people i’ve ever worked with, including two of my amazing editorial colleagues @diamonde and @atoosamoinzadeh and most of the incredible support staff among many others. this is a loss, no two ways about it

— jj skolnik (@modernistwitch) October 16, 2023

Epic Games bought the indie music platform back in 2022 for an undisclosed amount before selling it barely a year later.

Late last month, Epic Games laid off 16 percent of its workforce, or 830 employees, due to what CEO Tim Sweeney...

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How Beeper is trying to make sense of all your messaging apps

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

My phone is absolutely littered with messages. I have a mess of messaging apps: Messages, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, GroupMe, Google Chat, Discord, Slack, Messenger, and Snapchat. Then there are all the apps that aren’t necessarily for messaging but still offer it as a feature, like LinkedIn and Instagram and X. Reddit and TikTok both can act like messaging platforms; I get messages through Tumblr sometimes; Skype is still sort of around.

Chat is a core part of the modern internet experience, which is why everyone wants a piece: if you can build the app in which people talk to their friends, you’ve built the stickiest thing in tech. But in reality, all that competition means we spend our days endlessly checking inboxes and trying to...

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The Portland Retro Gaming Expo is a delightful celebration of older games

“Sega had their own console?”

That was a devastating comment I heard as I sat playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on a Sega Genesis Mini at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) this weekend. The Sonic games on Genesis were my favorites as a kid; one time, I played so much Sonic that I peed my pants. How could this person not know about Sega consoles?

Thankfully, the person’s friend was more charitable than I would have been. He used it as a teaching opportunity and showed him the game he was playing. (And I realized later that the person may have been asking about mini consoles.)

The whole event was filled with that wonderful spirit about sharing the joy of classic games and generally nerdy stuff. I saw four friends huddled around a classic X...

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