Look closely, and you’ll find America’s ‘climate abandonment areas’

A dog passes a pile of destroyed items that were removed from a once flooded home as residents begin the recovery process from Hurricane Harvey August 31, 2017 in Houston, Texas. | Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

More than 16 million people in the contiguous US — roughly 5 percent of the population — live in a place with heightening flood risk and a shrinking population, according to new research. It makes the case that “climate abandonment areas” are becoming a more prevalent phenomenon in the US as people avoid places particularly vulnerable to climate-related disasters.

What’s a climate abandonment area? It’s a census block where flood risk has grown high enough to start pushing people to leave. Many of these areas lie along the Texas Gulf Coast, coastal Florida, and the mid-Atlantic.

But it’s by no means confined to these regions, which can get hit repeatedly by storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. Climate abandonment areas are...

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How May Mobility went fully driverless while avoiding the pitfalls of robotaxis

Image: May Mobility

You probably haven’t heard of autonomous vehicle operator May Mobility because the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company is exceptionally good at avoiding the types of headlines generated by other AV companies.

In its six years in operation, there haven’t been any injuries, crashes, blocked intersections, or mass layoffs. While there have been some struggles, the company has proven to be an outlier among AV operators by continuing to raise money while others have seen their funding dry up.

And now, May Mobility is ready to go fully driverless, a milestone that has the company taking stock of its successes — and looking ahead to the future.

“The most capital-efficient AV company that the world has ever seen”

“It’s not robotaxis,” May...

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Blue Origin will livestream its first launch in over a year tomorrow

Blue Origin will stream the launch on its site. | Screenshot: The Verge

Space tourism company Blue Origin has set its sights on a New Shepard launch window that starts tomorrow at 9:30AM ET, its first attempt since the rocket booster failed during its September 2022 launch. The company says its New Shepard rocket will launch from its Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin will livestream the launch on its website 20 minutes before the countdown.

This will be the 24th launch of the reusable New Shepard rocket, and will carry 33 science payloads. Most of its launches have been uncrewed, but as Engadget noted, six of them have had human beings on board, including William Shatner. Last year, Blue Origin’s uncrewed NS-23 launch failed, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigation.

The FAA...

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Peloton’s app now pairs with third-party treadmills for some subscribers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Peloton is opening up its app to third-party treadmills for running, walking, or Tread Bootcamp classes. Pelo Buddy spotted a new support page on Peloton’s site announcing that the app can now record and display metrics on any treadmill that uses Bluetooth FTMS. The offer is only open to subscribers of the company’s most expensive subscription workout plan, Peloton App Plus.

To pair, you’ll start a Tread class in the Peloton app, then tap the “Connect a Bluetooth Device” option. Pick your treadmill from the list, and a green check mark lets you know when it’s connected.

Peloton says users can check their incline, speed, pace, and distance via the app during a class session. After the class is over, the app will also show estimated...

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The ultimate app for reading the internet

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 18, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, happy holidays, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been combing this list for new board games to try, reading about the NFL’s obsession with ping pong and the rise of chess influencers and the wacky history of Yahoo Pipes, watching Lupe Fiasco thoroughly explain how rap works, testing Anytype as a Notion alternative, trying to figure out how to justify buying myself a Lego Polaroid, and adding Us to all my words on Threads to welcome my European friends.

I also have for you a new way to play Grand Theft Auto, some new AI-powered note-taking and journaling...

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US Congress pushes warrantless wiretapping decision off until April next year

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for a few more months to April 2024. According to The New York Times, the program was included in the $886 billion National Defence Authorization Act, which passed the House by a vote of 310 to 118, with support from the majority of both parties, on December 14th. FISA was due to expire on December 31st, 2023.

Senator Ron Wyden wrote in a press release on December 8th that the vote to reauthorize FISA was inserted into the NDAA “without a vote or debate” before the Senate authorized and passed it to the House. Now, the vote has headed to the desk of President Biden, who has called for it to be reauthorized.

Section 702 empowers US intelligence agencies...

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Opal’s tiny, laptop-friendly Tadpole webcam is already 20 percent off

Opal’s latest webcam makes for a nice carry-on companion, one that packs a bigger, better sensor than Opal’s first offering. | Image: Opal

Happy Saturday, dear readers! It’s been a relatively quiet week on the deals front — well, aside from the return of Walmart’s $349 Xbox Series X deal and a smattering of well-timed discounts on smart holiday string lights. Today, however, we have something completely new. Right now, Opal’s Tadpole webcam for laptopsis receiving its first discount to date at the Moment store, where you can pick it up for $140 ($35 off) when you use coupon code HOLIDAY20 at checkout.

Unlike Opal’s first webcam, the C1, the Tadpole provides a smooth experience right out of the gates. Opal’s second effort features an adjustable clip that fits most laptop displays, along with a half-inch, 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor, an f/1.8 lens, and the ability to...

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Apple makes it easier for app makers to compete for your dollars

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple announced a pilot program called “contingent pricing for subscriptions” yesterday that will let App Store developers automatically offer discounted subscriptions for users of other apps. Developers, the company says, will be able to base this on subscriptions “from one developer or two different developers,” which lets them not only to entice customers they already have to their other apps, but also compete by offering deals to their competitors’ subscribers.

There’s a slight catch here: According to 9to5Mac, the discount is only good while the customer’s other subscription is active. So if someone tries an app because it offered a deal and decides to cancel the other subscription, they’ll go back to the normal price. Apple also...

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The Epic question: how Google lost when Apple won

Image: Epic Games

Apple rules the iPhone’s App Store with an iron fist — sideloading outside it is not allowed. Google lets anyone install any app on an Android phone. But guess which one of these two companies has an illegal monopoly, according to the courts?

As you probably already know, Google is the one that lost its fight against Epic Games this week. It’s a fight that Apple previously (mostly) won in a similar trial in 2021, beating claims that it had violated antitrust laws by charging mandatory in-app transaction fees and kicking Epic’s game Fortnite off the App Store. Google tried a similar move, but in its case, a jury found it had maintained an unlawful monopoly with the Play store; a judge is scheduled to consider remedies next month.

L...

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The gulf between the real world and streaming has never been further

The two women are the stars of one of the most watches shows on Netflix this year. | Image Amanda Matlovich/Netflix

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. You’re at a holiday gathering and some very offline family member starts chatting about the show Yellowstone. Pretty soon after a very online family member looks up in confusion and asks either what the show is or why they keep hearing about it when no one they know seems to watch it.

But maybe it’s not Yellowstone. Maybe its La Reina Del Sur,or The Glory,or maybe its Ginny & Georgia. What those three shows all have in common is they’re three of the most watched shows on Netflix between January and June 2023, and if you haven’t heard of them it’s probably because you’re part of the increasing gulf between the shows people talk about online and the ones everyone is actually watching.

These new Netflix...

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Inside the strange and stunning alien world of Scavengers Reign

Image: Max

Though there are a handful of human survivors at the core of its story, the real star of Scavengers Reign isn’t a person; it’s a planet. The animated series features a group of astronauts stranded on a bizarre alien world and follows them as they contend with the harsh, confusing, and downright odd environment around them. There are flying creatures that can double as gas masks and giant monkey-frogs that use psychic powers to lure in victims. Things only get weirder from there. But the fun of the show is seeing how the characters are able to use the strange plants and animals to their advantage. “I think it’s a universally satisfying process to watch people try to survive with limitations,” says supervising director Benjy Brooke.

Based...

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California settles Activision Blizzard gender discrimination lawsuit for $54 million

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A California regulator has settled its blockbuster lawsuit that alleged a culture of sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard. Now under the ownership of Microsoft, the gaming company will pay about $54 million as part of the settlement, according to a press release from California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD).

The CRD (formerly known as the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or DFEH) filed this lawsuit in July 2021, alleging that Activision Blizzard had a “frat boy” culture where women were subject to sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination. Following the suit, employees walked out, executives including then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and Blizzard’s former SVP of HR left the company, and, months later, The...

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Philips Hue reorganizes, plans job cuts to save $218 million annually

Signify, the company which owns Philips Hue, is restructuring its business to focus on four key areas. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Signify, the company that owns smart lighting brands Philips Hue and WiZ, is restructuring in the face “of ongoing market volatility and uncertainty.”

In a press release on its website published earlier this month, Signify announced a “new customer-centric organization and structural cost reductions.” This appears to signal that the company is focusing more effort on products that consumers and businesses can buy and less on making products for other manufacturers and specialty lighting applications like projectors and lamp electronics.

“After the major transformation we achieved through the past decade, we are taking the next step by organizing our company around four vertically integrated businesses. Three of these will focus on...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The Apple Watch Series 9 isn’t a massive step up from the prior model, but it does offer a few new features. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A few months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, just launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the next...

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Apple fixed the iPhone’s Flipper Zero problem

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple has blocked a Bluetooth attack carried out with the Flipper Zero that sent a barrage of pop-ups to iPhones, causing them to lock up and crash. While Apple hasn’t formally announced the change, it appears the company has rolled out a fix in iOS 17.2, according to tests from ZDNET and 9to5Mac.

The attack, which allowed users to crash nearby iPhones running iOS 17.0, involved the Flipper Zero, a tiny, jack-of-all-trades hacking device. A third-party firmware called Flipper Xtreme included a feature that allowed the Flipper’s built-in Bluetooth radio to blast an overwhelming number of Bluetooth alerts to devices.

Until now, the only way to prevent the attacks was to completely disable Bluetooth on the iPhone, but it looks like Apple...

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Adam Mosseri spells out Threads’ plans for the fediverse

Illustration: The Verge

On Friday, two days after Threads finally started publicly testing ActivityPub integration, Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared a thread on Threads detailing the company’s plans for its continued integration with the fediverse. Right now, it’s possible to follow a few Threads accounts (including Mosseri’s) from other platforms, but Meta has much bigger plans for Threads interoperability that Mosseri says will take “the better part of a year” to realize.

Here’s what’s in the works, according to Mosseri.

• Mosseri says that the Threads team wants to make it so the option to follow a Threads account on other platforms is available to “all public accounts on Threads, not just a handful of testers.”
• The Threads team wants to let replies from...

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $50

Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge

Gift-giving doesn’t have to eat up all of your time and money — and we’ve rounded up an assortment of inexpensive gifts to prove it.

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The Verge’s 2023 holiday gift guide for dads

Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge

We’ve pulled together a king’s ransom of fun and unique gift ideas for all the dads in your life so you can spoil them no matter your budget.

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Researchers say Bing made up facts about European elections

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

Researchers found Microsoft’s chatbot on Copilot provided false and misleading information about European elections.

Human rights organization AlgorithmWatch said in a report that it asked Bing Chat — recently rebranded as Copilot — questions about recent elections held in Switzerland and the German states of Bavaria and Hesse. It found that one-third of its answers to election-related questions had factual errors and safeguards were not evenly applied.

The group said it collected responses from Bing from August to October this year. It chose the three elections because these are the first held in Germany and Switzerland since the introduction of Bing. It also allowed the researchers to look at local contexts and compare responses in...

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You could be eligible for a piece of Apple’s Family Sharing settlement

Illustration: The Verge

Apple has paid $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit over its Family Sharing feature, and you might be eligible for a payout, as reported by MacRumors. The settlement, which you can read about on a dedicated website, stems from a 2019 lawsuit accusing Apple of misleading users about the apps you can use Family Sharing with.

Family Sharing is a perk that lets you and up to five other family members share subscriptions to Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Card, and Apple Arcade. It also lets you share subscriptions to third-party apps if the developer allows it. That part is what the lawsuit takes issue with, arguing that Apple misrepresented the ability to share subscriptions to non-Apple...

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Climate change is killing coral — can AI help protect the reefs?

The Coral Restoration Foundation digitally stitched images of a reef together to create this 3D photomosaic. | Image: CRF

Time is running out to save the world’s coral reefs, so conservationists are turning to every tool they can to protect vanishing reefs — including AI.

In Florida, the race is on to restore reefs by “planting” corals raised by humans. It’s an upward battle as rising ocean temperatures stress already struggling reefs. Tracking the progress is essential but tedious work.

In the past, coral conservationists would have had to physically swim out to reefs to take notes on individual corals they’d planted using a pencil and waxy, waterproof paper. “It can’t scale with the scale of your restoration effort. And eventually, you’ll spend more time monitoring coral restoration than you will actually doing coral restoration,” says Alexander...

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The Verge’s 2023 holiday gift guide

A selection of great tech and non-tech gifts aimed at the tinkerer, the creative, and the kid in all of us.

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The Verge’s favorite holiday gifts under $100

Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge

The world can be an expensive place. Fortunately, we’ve assembled 30-odd gifts that are designed to keep your holiday spending (mostly) in check.

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Quest owners can use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in VR, but do you really want to?

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available to download for free on Meta’s Quest VR headsets, as reported by Android Central. They appear to be the web versions of the apps, so while there’s a lot that’s very familiar about them, after giving the apps a whirl from inside a Quest 3, I can tell you that the virtual office experience still has a few quirks.

The first hurdle is logging in. While you don’t need a paid Microsoft 365 account, when I opened up Word, I had to log in by typing my long Microsoft account password. (The option to log in with a security key failed when I tried it; the other choices were to log in with a GitHub account or a company account.) Since I don’t have a Bluetooth keyboard lying around, that meant...

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Google gives Stadia controllers more time to switch to Bluetooth

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If you haven’t enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don’t need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website (via @wario64).

After Google announced the discontinuation of its Stadia cloud gaming service last year, the company said it would let its controllers live on as wireless Bluetooth gamepads compatible with PCs, Macs, phones, and other systems. It also rolled out a special web-based tool in January that you can use to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

Google previously gave users until December 31st, 2023 to complete the...

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Twitch immediately rescinds its artistic nudity policy

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Mere days after Twitch updated its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content, the platform has withdrawn the portion of the policy permitting “artistic nudity.”

“Effective today, we are rolling back the artistic nudity changes,” the update read. “Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won’t be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium.” Mature-rated games will not be affected by the rollback and subject to the new policy.

We’re making some additional updates to our Sexual Content Policy. We realize that our earlier update caused confusion and appreciate all the feedback we’ve received. Thanks for always coming together with us to help build the best version of Twitch.

Check out the changes here:… h...

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Google will update Maps to prevent authorities from accessing location history data

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Google will soon store Maps users’ location history locally on their devices instead of in the cloud, a big change that will make it more difficult for law enforcement to access the data.

Controversial “geofence warrants” allow law enforcement to gather tech companies’ data on mobile phones that have passed through a certain area during a specific time period. The FBI has used the warrant to collect information about a Black Lives Matters protest in Seattle as part of an investigation into attempted arson, for instance.

With privacy concerns and the potential for geofence warrants to turn anyone at the scene of an alleged crime a potential suspect, Google has faced pressure for years to change the way it stores users’ location history....

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Nanoleaf’s smart holiday string lights are over half off

Nanoleaf’s smart holiday string lights are compatible with Matter, so they can work with a wide range of smart home platforms. | Image: Nanoleaf

If you’ve got a holiday party or gathering coming up, Nanoleaf’s Essentials Matter Smart Holiday String Lights will help set the mood without putting a dent in your wallet. Typically $119.99, right now, the 65-foot string lights are only $44.99 at Best Buy, which is significantly cheaper than they were on Black Friday and a new all-time low.

If you’re looking for a piece of decor that’ll get everybody in the Christmas spirit, these twinkly string lights are it. With 250 addressable LEDs capable of displaying more than 16 million colors and an IP44 rating, they’ll make any tree, fireplace, or porch pop. The lights also come with festive preset scenes and will even dance along to the beat of holiday tunes. Plus, the Wi-Fi string lights...

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How Lego builds a new Lego set

Marc Corfmat was a teenager when he began to compete for Lego’s ultimate prize: the chance to design an official set. He and his brother Nick had been building custom Lego creations ever since they were kids, sometimes in California, sometimes during vacations at their grandparents’ home in La Rochelle, France. They shared their models on YouTube and posted their creations to Lego’s website, but interest from the Lego world came slowly, if it came at all.

Then, in 2020, the brothers started having some luck. The Lego Ideas program gives fans the chance to turn their designs into reality, offering both fame and a small fortune — 1 percent of net sales — to anyone who can convince 10,000 peers and The Lego Group that their set deserves to...

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Vivo’s X100 Pro offers another massive camera sensor to an international audience

The Vivo X100 Pro in blue. | Image: Vivo

Even in tiny smartphone cameras, lenses matter. Vivo seems to agree since lens improvements are a major emphasis on its new flagship smartphones: the Vivo X100 and Vivo X100 Pro. They launched in China first on November 13th, and now Vivo is releasing them internationally with matching 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screens.

The X100 will be available in Southeast Asian markets, including India and Indonesia, and the higher-tier X100 Pro will also be available in European markets. And no surprise — the US isn’t getting either of the devices.

Like the X90 Pro before it, the X100 Pro offers a 50-megapixel one-inch-type main camera — a huge sensor by smartphone standards. Vivo says it’s been tuned with “Optical Precision Calibration” for “consistent...

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