Nintendo’s music app has great ideas and frustrating limitations

Image: Nintendo

Listening to Nintendo music isn’t easy. It’s not available on streaming platforms, so I usually end up scouring YouTube for songs from Animal Crossing and Metroid. Because of this, I was hoping that Nintendo Music, a new app that surprise-launched last week, would be my one-stop shop for listening to Nintendo soundtracks. But while it features some clever ideas, there are lots of frustrations and weird choices from Nintendo that mean it isn’t quite what I was hoping for.

Navigating the app, which is available on iOS and Android but only accessible to Switch Online subscribers, feels a lot like other music services like Apple Music or Spotify. You can browse tracks from individual games or hand-curated playlists themed around things like...

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The first wooden satellite launched into space

Artistic representation of Lignosat wooden satellite. | Art: KyotoU/Gakuji Tobiyama

In a first for the world, scientists launched a satellite made from wood into space. As it orbits the planet from some 250 miles away, researchers will study whether wood is sturdy enough for space.

Called LignoSat, after the Latin word for wood, the satellite launched Monday night aboard a SpaceX mission bound for the International Space Station. It’ll eventually be released into orbit, where instruments will measure how the wood fares under the harsh conditions of space over six months.

“With timber, a material we can produce by ourselves, we will be able to build houses, live and work in space forever,” Takao Doi, an astronaut and professor at Kyoto University, told Reuters.

Scientists in Japan are set to test the world’s first...

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Alleged Snowflake hacker arrested following massive data breaches

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Authorities in Canada have arrested a man suspected of stealing information from around 165 companies using Snowflake’s cloud storage services, according to reports from Bloomberg and 404 Media.

The Canadian Department of Justice confirmed to 404 Media that it arrested Alexander “Connor” Moucka on October 30th following a request from the US government. “He appeared in court later that afternoon and his case was adjourned to Tuesday November 5, 2024,” a spokesperson told 404 Media. Canada’s Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for more information.

In May, Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation revealed that it had suffered a massive data breach after alleged customer information was posted for sale on...

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Alexa at 10: Amazon’s assistant is a winner and a failure

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Alexa didn’t get a big splashy launch event, or come with a bunch of grand proclamations about being the future of anything. Instead, like a phone charger with a made-up name or a knockoff version of your favorite blush, it just kind of appeared on Amazon one day.

Ten years ago this week, on November 6th, 2014, Amazon launched the Echo and the smart speaker era. The device quickly spawned countless more, from Amazon and others. It became the emblem of a voice-first way of using technology, the “ambient computing” revolution Amazon and others came to believe would change how we do everything. Now there are Alexa devices in millions of homes, just listening and chirping away all day.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we wrestle with what...

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Here’s when the Black Friday sales start at Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Black Friday officially kicks off on November 29th, but if you plan to make that the only day you buy gifts this holiday season, you’re missing out. Several prominent retailers, including Best Buy and Target, have already started rolling out their holiday discounts online and in-store. Both retailers are offering price protection through most of the holiday shopping season as well, so if you buy early and the same item drops to a lower price, you can retroactively get that better deal.

Whether you take advantage of the slew of early holiday deals or hold off until the day after Thanksgiving, it’s important to know how every major retailer is handling the shopping event this year. If you plan to spend some cash, here are the schedules...

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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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Judge declines to block Musk’s $1 million voter giveaways

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk’s America PAC can move forward with its $1 million giveaways to voters after a Philadelphia judge declined an emergency petition from District Attorney Larry Krasner to block them.

During a hearing earlier on Monday, a representative for the political action committee said prize winners are not randomly selected and are actually chosen to be paid spokespeople for the PAC, which supports former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported. Musk previously advertised the selection as random, but the fine print of the petition that applicants need to sign to enter the giveaway doesn’t mention it.

Krasner accused the PAC of running an illegal lottery and deceptively marketing the prize selections as random, even though...

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GM says it has become the No. 2 seller of EVs in the US

Image: GM

GM is claiming the number two spot in EV sales in the US for the third quarter of this year, selling 32,000 electric vehicles. The automaker produces EVs across multiple brands running on the same platform, like Chevy’s Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox EVs, as well as the GMC Hummer EV and the Cadillac Lyriq.

GM says it has sold a total of 370,000 EVs in North America since 2016, including 300,000 in the US specifically. Tesla is still the undisputed leader, with more than 5 million vehicles sold since 2008.

In an email with The Verge, GM’s executive director of finance and sales communications James Cain wrote that sales have accelerated since the company built a dedicated EV platform (formerly known as Ultium) and began producing battery...

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Snoop Dogg’s Times Square concert showed the ambitious future of music in Fortnite

Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is trying to make music collaborations a larger part of its always-changing virtual world.

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Apple will let you share lost AirTag info with an airline

Finding lost luggage might soon be a little easier. | Image: Apple

Apple will be introducing a new feature to its Find My app that allows you to temporarily share the location of a lost AirTag with “an airline or a trusted person,” according to MacRumors, which is testing the second developer beta release of iOS 18.2. The feature could make it easier for airport staff to locate a missing piece of luggage if Find My indicates it’s nearby.

In iOS 18.2 the Find My app now has a “Share Item Location” option that creates a link that can be sent to anyone, not just your trusted contacts. On Apple devices, the link will open the Find My app, allowing someone else to see the location of the AirTagged item. On non-Apple devices, the link will instead open a web page with a map showing the item’s last known...

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Here’s FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr sucking up to Donald Trump by threatening to take NBC off the air

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr loves the idea of government speech regulations, and he especially loves the idea that he will be the one to impose them in a future Trump administration.

That’s the short version.

Here’s the slightly longer, dumber version: Kamala Harris made a cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, triggering an FCC broadcast TV policy known as the “equal time rule”. NBC, no stranger to FCC rules, did the legally required thing and offered Trump his own appearance on the network later in the weekend. Everything should be settled... but here’s Carr, calling for the government to punish NBC.

Seriously! Here’s Carr appearing on Fox Business this morning, threatening to revoke NBC’s broadcast license in...

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You can now try out Microsoft’s new AI-powered Xbox chatbot

Cath Virginia / The Verge

Microsoft has been testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot, and now Xbox Insiders can try it out for the first time. I exclusively revealed the existence of this new “Xbox Support Virtual Agent” earlier this year, and Microsoft now says it’s designed “to help Xbox players more efficiently solve their support-related gaming issues.”

Xbox Insiders in the US can start trying out this new Xbox AI chatbot at support.xbox.com, and it will answer questions around Xbox console and game support issues. “We value the feedback from Xbox Insiders for this preview experience and any feedback received will be used to improve the Support Virtual Agent,” says Megha Dudani, senior product manager lead at Xbox.

Image: Microsoft

This is...

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Apple will let you upgrade to ChatGPT Plus right from Settings in iOS 18.2

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple’s second iOS 18.2 developer beta includes a new feature for update’s integration with ChatGPT: users will be able to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus from the Settings menu, 9to5Mac reports.

ChatGPT Plus is OpenAI’s paid version of ChatGPT, offering features like more messages with its GPT-4o model, for $19.99 per month. If you end up using ChatGPT a lot within iOS — you’ll be able to track in Settings if you approach the daily free limit of ChatGPT’s more powerful capabilities — the upgrade could be worth it.

It’s unclear if Apple is taking a cut of those subscriptions made from Settings. Apple and OpenAI didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Apple is also reportedly in talks with Google on an integration with Google’s Gemini....

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Meta AI is ready for war

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta will now allow US government agencies and contractors to use its open-source Llama AI model for “national security applications.” In an announcement on Monday, the company said it’s working with Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, and others to make Llama available to the government.

Under Meta’s “acceptable use policy,” people can’t use the latest Llama 3 model for “military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage.” However, as explained by Meta, this update opens the door for the US military to use Llama to do things like “streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses.”

Meta says Oracle has already started building on Llama to “synthesize”...

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Prime Video will let you summon AI to recap what you’re watching

Image: Amazon

Amazon’s Prime Video is getting a new generative AI-powered feature to help catch you up on a show. The new tool, called X-Ray Recaps, can create text summaries of “of full seasons of TV shows, single episodes, and even pieces of episodes,” the company says in a blog post.

X-Ray Recaps will be accessible from the detail page of a show or in X-Ray while you’re watching something. The tool “analyzes various video segments, combined with subtitles or dialogue, to generate detailed descriptions of key events, places, times, and conversations,” Amazon says. Amazon has also applied “guardrails” to help the feature avoid sharing spoilers and to keep summaries concise.

Image: Amazon

X-Ray Recaps, which is are beta, are coming...

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Elon Musk’s PAC admits $1 million voter giveaways aren’t ‘random’

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

A representative of Elon Musk’s America PAC said the winners of its $1 million voter sweepstakes aren’t randomly selected. The people who are awarded the checks are chosen to be paid “spokespeople” for the pro-Trump PAC, lawyer Chris Gober testified in a Philadelphia court on Monday, as reported by the Associated Press.

Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his PAC over the contest, alleging it’s an illegal lottery that violates Pennsylvania state laws. “Though Musk says that a winner’s selection is ‘random,’ that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at rallies in Pennsylvania,” the suit read. America PAC’s response confirms Krasner’s allegation that the...

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Amazon’s Echo Spot alarm clock is on sale with a free color smart bulb

The Echo Spot is a smart alarm clock / speaker hybrid that’s $5 shy of its all-time low price. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The clocks have fallen back an hour for many of us, and if it all feels a bit disorienting, you’re not alone. Thankfully, Amazon’s versatile Echo Spot is on sale to help you adjust. Normally $79.99, right now you can buy the smart alarm clock at Amazon in black, blue, or white with a free Globe Electric smart bulb for $49.99, which equates to $41.99 in savings. That’s just $5 shy of the all-time low we saw during Amazon’s recent Prime Day event.

Amazon’s speedy smart speaker can be set up so that it gently wakes you up with music instead of typical alarm clock sounds, which can be jarring. The Spot is also a lot more useful than your run-of-the-mill clock, as it offers a customizable 2.83-inch screen that displays helpful info...

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Can Philadelphia’s ballot counters outrun election lies?

The machines that process mail-in ballots help count thousands of votes in a day — and Philadelphia officials know that every second matters.

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Netflix is removing nearly all of its interactive titles

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix will delist just about all of its interactive shows and films as of December 1st, the company confirms to The Verge. Netflix’s “Interactive Specials” page lists 24 titles, but only four will remain: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, and You vs. Wild.

The removal of the titles marks a disappointing conclusion to Netflix’s earliest efforts into interactive content. The company first launched the interactive titles in 2017 with Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, and I remember being wowed (and horrified) by paths in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

In addition to specials based on franchises like Carmen Sandiego and Boss Baby, Netflix also tried ideas...

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The best Android phones for everyone

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Whether you want everything but the kitchen sink or top-tier performance for a midrange price, you’ve got options.

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PS5 Pro’s actual specs and the launch day list of upgraded games revealed

Image: Sony

Ahead of the PS5 Pro launch later this week, we have confirmation of a few more official specifications for the most powerful version of the PS5 yet. Digital Foundry has shared details from the manual included with its PS5 Pro review unit, confirming the console is powered by an AMD Ryzen Zen 2 8-core/16-thread processor with an RDNA-based graphics engine producing 16.7TF of GPU compute performance compared to the base PS5’s 10.23TF.

As we noted in March, initial leaked documents showed a much higher figure for the PS5 Pro, mostly due to a change in AMD’s RDNA architecture.

The manual also reveals that in addition to 16GB of GDDR6 memory, the PS5 Pro will have 2GB of slower DDR5 memory for handling console tasks not related to gaming,...

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X is allowing people you’ve blocked to see your posts

Illustration: The Verge

This weekend, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, announced it’s “starting to launch” a controversial change to how blocking works on its platform. Company owner Elon Musk first revealed the change in September, which will allow people you’ve blocked to continue to see your posts, and, as noted by TechCrunch, your following and followers lists.

Musk claimed that stopping people from seeing your public posts “makes no sense,” but due to a post-Musk change that stops logged-out users from scrolling even a public profile, this could make it easier for blocked users to continue harassing someone.

In October, X’s engineering account argued that people who block others could say harmful things about the blocked person who wouldn’t know...

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The New York Times Tech Guild is on strike

Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The New York Times Tech Guild went on strike at 12:01AM ET today, reports The Washington Post. The guild represents over 600 software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers for the media company. Its strike leaves the company bereft of crucial technical expertise just one day before Election Day, when the Times’ crucial backend systems will be under very heavy stress.

The guild has been bargaining since 2022 for its first union contract with the company. Negotiations between it and the Times hit logjams over things like a “just cause” provision that prevents the company from firing workers unless it’s for something like misconduct, as well as pay increases, pay equity, and return-to-office policies, reports the Times. T...

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Valorant is winning the war against PC gaming cheaters

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Riot Games’ investment into its Vanguard system is paying off.

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GM software boss: we have ‘high conviction’ ditching CarPlay is the right path

Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: GM

GM’s Baris Cetinok is committed to building a custom experience to rival that of Apple and Google.

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Oops, Apple approved another illegal streaming app

The French-language app shows new movies like Terrifier 3 and Venom: The Last Dance. | Image: Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Another illegal streaming app has made its way to the App Store — but it only surfaces pirated films for people in certain regions outside the US, including France, Canada, and the Netherlands.

As shown in a post on Threads, the App Store listing for “Univer Note” presents itself as a productivity platform that can “easily help you record every day’s events and plan your time.” However, if you’re a user in certain countries, like France or Canada, opening the app shows a collection of pirated movies, such as Venom: The Last Dance, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Terrifier 3. Options within the app are labeled in French, while films stream in their original language with French subtitles or dubbing.

Anyone else who downloads the app in an...

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Astell & Kern SP3000T review: a tube amp in your pocket

The hardware is chunky and the software is clunky, but this is the best portable audio player I’ve ever heard.

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Mario’s excellent run continues with Mario & Luigi: Brothership on the Switch

Image: Nintendo

For a character that’s been around so long, Mario is in something of a golden period. Since last year his mustache has been spotted in theaters, theme parks, and the best (and weirdest) side-scrolling Super Mario game in a long time. But he’s had a particularly strong run in role-playing games on the Switch, with recent remakes of both Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the original Super Mario RPG. Now we have Mario & Luigi: Brothership which keeps the streak alive with a blend of charm, humor, and clever gameplay.

Brothership, once again, starts with the brothers getting whisked away to a fantasy realm in need of help. This time it’s the oceanic world of Concordia, which has been broken apart into a series of islands. The bros end...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The Apple Watch Series 10 isn’t a dramatic update over the prior model, but it does offer a few notable upgrades. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In September, Apple launched its latest smartwatch, introducing the Apple Watch Series 10 alongside a black rendition of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE, but the recent 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 11, launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, ultimately leaving those still using an older Series 4 or Series 5 behind.

P...

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Perplexity debuts an AI-powered election information hub

The Verge

AI search company Perplexity is putting to the test whether it’s a good idea to use AI to serve crucial voting information with a new Election Information Hub it announced on Friday. The hub offers things like AI-generated answers to voting questions and summaries of candidates, and on November 5th, Election Day, the company says it will track vote counts live, using data from The Associated Press.

Perplexity says its voter information, which includes polling requirements, locations, and times, is based on data from Democracy Works. (The same group powers similar features from Google). And that its election-related answers come from “a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources.”

Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick...

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