WWE Monday Night Raw is ditching cable for Netflix

Photo by Michelle Farsi/Zuffa LLC

Netflix has dabbled in live broadcasts over the last year or so, and now the company has announced a long-term deal with the WWE to broadcast its headline weekly show, Monday Night Raw, starting next year. This is the first time Monday Night Raw, which broadcasts live every week, is leaving traditional linear television, as it has been the No. 1 rated program on NBCUniversal’s USA Network, and it has tie-ins to NBCU’s streaming platform, Peacock.

The deal is even more comprehensive outside of the US, where Netflix is also obtaining the rights to WWE shows like SmackDown and NXT, plus monthly premium live events like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and the Royal Rumble. NBCUniversal’s Peacock service still has the rights locked up for those...

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Riot Games cuts more than 500 jobs

Image: The Verge

After last year saw over 9,000 layoffs in the video game industry, 2024 is continuing the trend, and League of Legends maker Riot Games is the latest example. On Monday night, the company announced that “we are refocusing on fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future,” which means eliminating roles for 530 people globally, or about 11 percent of its total workforce.

This news arrives just days after the results of a Game Developers Conference (GDC) survey showed 56 percent of respondents felt layoffs were in store for their studios due in large part to a “post-pandemic course correction.”

Legends of Runeterra and Riot Forge cuts are part of the ‘adjustments’

CEO Dylan Jadeja said in a company-wide message,...

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Apple tells artists how much more money they can make with spatial audio

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Artists on Apple Music will earn a bonus payout of up to 10 percent in royalties for all songs that are also available in spatial audio. That’s according to an update sent to record label partners and seen by 9to5Mac. Quoted by Music Business Worldwide, it says that starting with January’s month-end payout, “pro-rata shares for Spatial Available plays will be calculated using a factor of 1.1 while Non-Spatial Available plays will continue to use a factor of 1.” Pro rata refers to the “one big pot” of pooled subscription money that’s divided based on the number of streams.

Bloomberg reported in December that Apple planned to offer financial incentives for musicians and record labels to release songs in the Dolby Atmos-supported format....

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LG’s new 32-inch 4K smart monitor has Netflix and Google Calendar built in

LG’s MyView smart monitor | LG Electronics

You can now purchase the entire slate of LG’s webOS-powered MyView monitors, which debuted at CES earlier this month, including one with a 31.5-inch 4K IPS panel (model 32SR85U) that starts at $599.99. Sure, gamers can find better value for their money than a monitor that maxes out with 5ms response times and a 60Hz refresh rate, but visual creatives might appreciate a 95 percent DCI-P3 color gamut. And when your office work is done, you can fire up a full suite of entertainment apps or stream directly from another device with AirPlay 2 and Miracast support.

It could be an ideal monitor for movie watching at your desk without loud fans (or Slack notifications) ruining the immersion, and it’s easier to fit into your home office than...

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A SIM-swapping attack was behind the SEC’s fake Bitcoin post

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Securities and Exchange Commission has linked a SIM swapping attack to its account breach on X earlier this month, which led to the creation of a fake post announcing approval of Bitcoin ETFs that caused the cryptocurrency’s price to spike. In an update on Monday, the SEC says an “unauthorized party obtained control of the SEC cell phone number associated with the account in an apparent ‘SIM swap’ attack.”

A SIM-swapping attack occurs when a bad actor obtains a victim’s phone number through techniques like social engineering. That allows the attacker to intercept calls and texts intended for the victim, including two-factor authentication codes, which they can then use to sign in to their victim’s accounts.

In the SEC’s case, a bad...

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Why Elon Musk needs MrBeast

Image: MrBeast

Exactly how much money can you make by uploading a video to X? The going assumption has been that X — like Twitter before it — is a poor platform for video creators that can’t compete with YouTube and TikTok in terms of monetization and reach. So there’s been a lot riding on the results of a recent test by MrBeast, who aimed to see whether he could actually make money on Elon Musk’s platform.

Last week, MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, posted a video to Musk’s platform with the explicit goal of seeing “how much ad revenue a video on X would make.” Musk had previously encouraged MrBeast to post to X, and he sent out an excited message shortly after the test went up. “First MrBeast video posted directly on !” Musk wrote. Now, a week...

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The US Postal Service’s new EV chargers are here

An electric delivery vehicle plugged into a new charging station at a USPS sorting and delivery center. | Image: Christian Lilakos

The US Postal Service debuted its first EV charging stations in Atlanta, Georgia, today, the first of many expected to be deployed at “hundreds” of new sorting and delivery centers this year. It’s a key step in the Postal Service’s plan to put together one of the nation’s biggest EV fleets, made up of more than 66,000 delivery vehicles.

“The work USPS is doing to electrify those vehicles is making EVs commonplace on every road and street in our country,” John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, said in a press release.

“The work USPS is doing to electrify those vehicles is making EVs commonplace on every road and street in our country.”

USPS is working on converting around 400 sites...

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Google Podcasts is going away but we’ve got some alternatives.

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

And another one bites the dust — this time, it’s Google Podcasts, which is being discontinued in favor of YouTube Music.

Back in 2018, Google moved its Play Music service over to YouTube, and while some people felt it was an improvement, others weren’t so thrilled. I have to say that I count myself among the latter; I usually listen to rather than watch my music, and I didn’t find the YouTube Music interface any kind of improvement.

Now, as it tends to do, Google has decided to drop yet another of its apps and instead add those features to another service. It sent out an email to users announcing the move last September and has now sent another, offering tools that allow you to either migrate your subscription to YouTube Music or export...

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Palworld is a hit, and it’s easy to see why

Image: PocketPair

The Pokémon-like has sold over 5 million copies in the three days since its early access launch.

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Sierra Space blew up its inflatable space habitat — and that’s a good thing

LIFE habitat burst test | Sierra Space

Sierra Space blew up its inflatable space habitat to test how much pressure it can handle. Dubbed LIFE, for Large Integrated Flexible Environment, it consists of “softgoods,” or woven fabrics that act like a rigid structure once inflated.

The test focused on LIFE’s pressure shell, which is supposed to keep the habitat intact no matter the pressure it’s experiencing. This layer is made up of Vectran straps (the same material used for the Mars Rovers), which “becomes stronger than steel when inflated on-orbit,” and other high-strength fabrics.

With the support of NASA, it pumped in air beyond the recommended level of 60.8 psi until the whole thing went kaboom. (The explosive ending starts at 5:55 in the video below.)

The aerospace...

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GM is getting rid of ‘Ultra Cruise’ branding as it reevaluates its ADAS program

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

General Motors is getting rid of the “Ultra Cruise” brand and merging the team that was working on it with the team responsible for Super Cruise, as the automaker reconsiders its goals for advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS).

Last week, CNBC reported that GM was “ending the Ultra Cruise program,” focusing instead on the current Super Cruise system that is available across the company’s vehicle lineup. GM spokesperson Aimee Ridella clarified that the ultimate intention is to improve Super Cruise but that no one is being laid off as a result of this decision.

“GM is not scaling back its advanced driver assistance programs,” Ridella said in an email. “We have reallocated our ADAS-focused resources to bring even more capability to Super...

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You’ll be able to watch The Marvels on Disney Plus very soon

Disney

The Marvels starts streaming on Disney Plus on February 7th, nearly three months after it had the lowest-grossing box-office debut in MCU history. This may give the Nia DaCosta-directed action-adventure film starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani a chance at a new life since it can tap into the built-in audience of other titles featuring its stars, including Ms. Marvel, WandaVision, and of course, Captain Marvel.

It grossed about $84.5 million domestically and $121.6 million internationally (for a combined total of $206 million), according to Box Office MoJo.

While that’s a pretty average post-pandemic box-office run for any other film, it’s not enough for the expensive MCU tentpole to break even: Variety reports the...

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Motorola’s flip-style Razr Plus is on sale for nearly half off right now

Motorola’s classic clamshell modernized with a flexible OLED display finally feels worth the money after a $450 discount. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Between foldable smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5, the Pixel Fold, and the OnePlus Open, it’s easy to forget the Motorola Razr Plus exists. The flip phone is a throwback to Motorola’s roots, only the sharp-edged number pad departs to make room for the 6.9-inch OLED display that greets you when opening it. (You can still ride the nostalgic wave with a software-based dialer resembling the classic design.) Thanks to a steep 45 percent discount at Woot that’s only around for the next couple of days (or while supplies last), you can buy the newest Razr Plus in black for just $549.99 ($450 off). That price is even cheaper than the $699.99 base model and about $150 cheaper than we’ve seen at other retailers during last...

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iOS 17.3 is out, adding Stolen Device Protection for your iPhone

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

iOS 17.3 is out, and it comes with a new security feature that’s supposed to prevent thieves from taking your iPhone and quickly taking over access to anything stored in iCloud as well as other important accounts like your bank or email. Instead of relying on your lock screen passcode for security (as thieves have learned to trick people into entering it in front of them before they take off with the phone), Stolen Device Protection requires you to scan your fingerprint or use Face ID when performing certain actions, such as viewing saved passwords or applying for a new Apple Card.

Image: Wes Davis

iOS 17.3 update notes

The feature also introduces a waiting period when performing more sensitive actions, such...

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Nvidia RTX Remix beta is bringing modern graphics to old games

Image: Nvidia

Nvidia’s RTX Remix tool is now available for modders to try. The game remastering tool, currently out in open beta, allows modders to give older games a makeover with AI-powered texture tools, ray tracing, and Nvidia DLSS 3.

This is the same tool that was used to give Portal a visual boost with upgraded textures, models, and improved lighting. It’s also what a community of modders are using to remaster Half-Life 2 with some realistic-looking headcrabs and way better textures. But now that it’s available for all modders to try, it should make for an even wider range of upgraded games.

Not every classic game is compatible with RTX Remix, though. Nvidia says that the tool works best with DirectX 8 and 9 games “with fixed function...

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Netflix’s Ripley seems ready to salt and burn the Earth in new trailer

Whether it’s from reading Patricia Highsmith’s original 1955 novel, or seeing any of the films inspired by it, we’re all familiar with at least some of the beats from The Talented Mr. Ripley. But even if you’ve been a fan of all the past Ripley adaptations, Netflix’s new series from writer / director Steven Zaillian looks like it’s going to be something inspired.

Set in 1960s New York City, and cities across Italy, Ripley tells the tale of Tom (Andrew Scott), a talented and cunning man whose relatively ordinary life starts to take a turn when he meets the father of Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), a wealthy playboy who has run off to Europe with his good friend Marge (Dakota Fanning). Though The Talented Mr. Ripley focuses on how Tom...

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How to choose which Apple Watch to buy

Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Between the Apple Watch Series 9, the Ultra 2, and the second-gen SE, there are more options than ever. We’ll help you sort through them.

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The top five RSS readers for keeping up with your news feeds

The Verge

When you want to check out your favorite news sites or other online information sources, you can take the time to go directly to each site, clog your email with newsletters and announcements, check the updates on your favorite social media app(s) — or you can use an RSS feed reader.

RSS readers allow you to collect the articles of specific sources in one app, making it a lot easier to find the content you’re interested in without crawling through a lot of noise. RSS (which may stand for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or one of several other possibilities — nobody seems sure) has been around a while, having been first developed in 1999, although it wasn’t more widely adopted until a few years later.

Since then, the idea...

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How to cut, copy, and paste on Android phones

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Cutting, copying, and pasting are actions that are regularly performed in apps and between apps: getting an address from a message into a map, moving an image from an email to a document, or just transferring text from one end of a note to another. But while I’ve known how to cut, copy, and paste on a laptop or desktop computer for, well, forever, I wasn’t quite as sure at first how to do it on my Android phone.

In fact, cutting, copying, sharing, or pasting on Android is pretty straightforward — no matter which app you’re in or what you’re trying to move around. Here’s how to do it.

Note: I’ve tested these techniques on a Google Pixel 8 running Android 14 and a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 running Android 14 and One UI 6.0.

Selecting,...

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Apple’s sci-fi thriller Constellation gets haunting first trailer

Image: Apple

Apple is kicking off the week with the first trailer for its sci-fi series Constellation.

The show stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who “returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing.” In the trailer, this appears to manifest itself as a series of mysteries — a strange piano, an unknown voice on a tape recorder — along with plenty of unsettling hallucinations. The rest of the cast includes Jonathan Banks, James D’Arcy, Julian Looman, William Catlett, and Barbara Sukowa, and the series is being helmed by creator and writer Peter Harness (Doctor Who).

Constellation premieres with three episodes on February 21st, and new episodes stream on Wednesdays after that. (Between this...

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Ford’s new 48-inch digital dashboard is a lot of Android for one car

Screen time is on my side, yes it is. | Image: Ford

The 2024 Lincoln Nautilus will get the new super-sized screen, with other models to follow. And yes, it still supports CarPlay and Android Auto.

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Meta will let EU users unlink their Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger info ahead of DMA

Image: Meta

EU users will be able to unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services ahead of the bloc’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March, the company has announced. The changes will apply in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland, and notifications informing users of the change will appear in the coming weeks.

The changes mean that EU users will be able to use many of Meta’s services without their information being shared between them. People will be able to use Facebook Messenger as a stand-alone service without a Facebook account, for example, and if they’ve previously linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts they’ll be able to unlink them. (Meta’s help page notes that...

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Some Apple apps for Vision Pro will be ‘unmodified’ iPad apps to start

Image: Apple

It won’t be a huge shocker if the bulk of the “over 1 million” apps that Apple says the Vision Pro will launch with are mostly just existing iPad or iPhone versions. But what is a little surprising is that some of Apple’s big first-party apps will be, too, including Podcasts, News, Calendar, and Reminders, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today.

It seems like a bizarre choice for Apple’s big, shiny new platform at first glance. But whether it’s actually a problem may depend on how well the Vision Pro’s gaze-and-tap interface ports to the apps’ touch-first approach. After all, it’s not like the Reminders app needs mind-blowing immersive 3D effects. But part of the appeal of the platform for some folks will be...

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Can you fix the Magic Mouse by sticking it into an ergonomic shoe?

The Magic Mouse’s new shoe. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge

This past Christmas, there was a box in my stocking that held something I had half-jokingly added to my wishlist: an “ergonomic” grip that raises, widens, and adds wireless charging to Apple’s Magic Mouse 2. It’s like a little boot with a Lightning adapter tongue that plugs right into your Magic Mouse’s underbelly. Best of all, it’s magnetic, making it perfect for use with a MagSafe puck.

Does this thing totally ruin the sleek Apple aesthetic? Absolutely! And I’m not even remotely convinced by its cheap-feeling plastic that it will last longer than a few months before it just stops working. Yet, somehow, it’s exactly what the Magic Mouse needs.

What it’s called doesn’t really matter, because this isn’t a product any company you’ve ever...

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A new spin on a powerful calendar app

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 22, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about the unbearable sameness of coffee shops and what happened to Twitch, testing out the Funnel iOS app for quick-capturing everything, marveling over Federico Viticci’s truly wild iPad setup, setting up my Flipboard all over again now that Artifact is dead, filling my cabinets thanks to this list of great new snacks, adding all the Emmy winners to my Sofa queue, and watching every behind-the-scenes Jon Bellion video that exists on the internet.

I also have for you a huge new Samsung...

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The latest Apple Watch SE is matching its lowest price to date this weekend

Pssh. Who needs an SpO2 sensor, anyway? | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Lately, it seems like all the talk regarding the Apple Watch seems to revolve around Apple’s ongoing patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo — a legal battle that has resulted in Apple recently removing the blood oxygen features found on the Series 9 and Ultra 2. Sales have continued uninterrupted for the latest Apple Watch SE given it lacks the SpO2 sensor, however, and now the second-gen smartwatch can be had for as little as $179 ($50 off) at Walmart.

To be honest, most healthy individuals are not missing out on the SpO2 sensor, nor are first-time smartwatch buyers likely to complain about the SE’s lack of an always-on display or some of the fancier health tracking features found on the Series 9. Apple’s latest entry-level...

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The Vision Pro’s first killer app is the web, whether Apple likes it or not

Safari can make the Vision Pro sing... if Apple lets it. | Image: Apple

In the days ahead of the Vision Pro’s launch, Apple has heavily promoted some of the apps destined for its spatial computing headset. Download Disney Plus and watch movies from Tatooine! Slack and Fantastical and Microsoft Office on your face! FaceTime with your friends as a floating hologram! But it’s increasingly clear that the early success of the Vision Pro, and much of the answer to the question of what this headset is actually for, will come from a single app: Safari.

That’s right, friends. Web browsers are back. And Apple needs them more than ever if it wants this $3,500 face computer to be a hit. Embracing the web will mean threatening the very things that have made Apple so powerful and so rich in the mobile era, but at least...

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Netflix’s The Kitchen is a stunning parable about the future of housing inequality

Image: Netflix

Co-directors Daniel Kaluuya and Kibwe Tavares’ new action drama is a masterclass in using near-futuristic, sci-fi storytelling to illustrate harsh realities about our present.

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I really hope Asus didn’t ruin the Zephyrus G14

The Asus Zephyrus G14 and G16 are chunky and funky no more. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

[ Editor’s note: Monica Chin is The Verge_’s former senior laptop reviewer, currently taking a break from tech journalism. But some things are hard to quit.]_

Once upon a time, in the olden days of March 2020, a little company called Asus released a spritely whippersnapper of a gaming laptop called the ROG Zephyrus G14. It weighed just over 3.5 pounds, and it was powered by a truly monstrous AMD processor, the likes of which had never been seen in a 14-inch form factor.

I still remember reviewing that laptop, almost four years ago, like it was yesterday. I remember running the Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark — the ultimate test at that time — over and over again, poring over the game settings, trying desperately to figure out what I’d...

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Why a Supreme Court decision on fishing boats could change everything

A view of the US Supreme Court on Thursday, January 4th, 2024, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week on a couple of cases that could completely upend the way federal agencies regulate just about anything in the US. At question is a legal doctrine called Chevron deference that allows federal agencies to interpret laws meant to protect consumers, public health, and the environment. Now, a conservative supermajority in the Supreme Court appears on the precipice of either overturning or limiting the scope of Chevron deference.

The Verge spoke with legal experts about what’s going on and what the Supreme Court’s decisions on Chevron deference could ultimately mean for Americans. “The real question is how far they will go?” says Jody Freeman, director of the Environmental and Energy Law...

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