Vergecast: Asus ROG gaming guide, privacy risks in post-Roe USA, and the internet’s recommendation problem

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Every Wednesday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where editor-at-large David Pierce is joined by The Verge’s expert staffers in a deep exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives. On today’s episode, we have a variety of stories from across The Verge. At the top of the show, David and managing editor Alex Cranz chat with health technology reporter Nicole Wetsman and senior privacy and cybersecurity reporter Corin Faife about the privacy vulnerabilities for people seeking abortions in a post-Roe United States and how people can protect their information. Later in the episode, David reports on why the internet is so bad at recommendations, with insights from executives at Yelp, Pocket, Pinterest,… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/1ijydup via Grabey Blog
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How to find the best deals during Amazon Prime Day

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Prime Day has become one of the biggest shopping events of the year. It’s a two-day stretch wherein Amazon Prime members will likely find some of the best prices yet on popular tech products like video games, gaming peripherals, laptops, 4K TVs, phones, PC accessories, and more. Amazon announced that Prime Day 2022 will happen Tuesday, July 12th, and last through Wednesday, July 13th. Though Prime Day may not be all that Amazon has in store for big 2022 sale events. It’s reportedly planning a second sale in the fall for Prime subscribers. If you plan to shop for Prime Day deals on Amazon, you’ll need to sign up for Amazon Prime. However, not all of the best Prime Day 2022 deals will live on… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/HUvtYR1 via Grabey Blog
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Amazon limits Plan B purchases after demand spike

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Amazon is limiting customers to three units of emergency contraceptive pills a week in response to a spike in demand after the Supreme Court ended federal abortion rights, the company told CNBC. Other retailers are also limiting purchases of drugs like Plan B and Aftera — CVS and Rite Aid are likewise limiting customers to three pills per customer. The companies say there is enough supply of the drugs but that they’re trying to keep them on the shelves consistently. The drugs, often called the morning-after pill, can prevent pregnancy if taken after unprotected sex. On the Amazon website, users can only select up to a quantity of three for Plan B. But as of publication, the website shows an option to select up to 30 units of My Choice,… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/5jo0Zhs via Grabey Blog
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Crypto exchange CoinFlex says ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver owes $47 million

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of the difficulties of cryptocurrency is figuring out who to believe. Case in point: the conflict between Mark Lamb, CEO of CoinFlex, and Roger “Bitcoin Jesus” Ver, an early Bitcoin investor. Lamb says Ver owes his company $47 million and is the reason the company froze customer withdrawals last week. Ver denies this and says that, in fact, CoinFlex owes him money. Well, things have gotten worse CoinFlex, an exchange, froze withdrawals on June 27th, saying that it would restart withdrawals on June 30th with one condition: CoinFlex needs to sell tokens related to a debt owed by a “certain high net worth individual.” (The company did not initially name Ver.) Eleven days ago, we pointed out a few crypto firms with problems that could… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/5G9EJmT via Grabey Blog
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The Supreme Court is about to decide a major climate court case

Activists including Climate Action Campaign (CAC) gather outside of the Supreme Court to show support for protecting the Clean Air Act. | Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for NRDC This week, the Supreme Court is expected to decide a major climate case that could determine what tools the federal government can use to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, started out years ago as a battle over how much authority the EPA has to force power plants to cut down their pollution — but it’s turned into a bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have to enforce all kinds of regulations. A bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have With the Biden administration’s climate plans relying on drastically slashing CO2 emissions from power plants, the case is being closely watched by environmentalists. The Supreme Court’s decision could come down as soon as… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/CgaUsN8 via Grabey Blog
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Arm’s Immortalis GPU is the first with hardware ray tracing for Android gaming

Image: Arm Arm is announcing its new flagship Immortalis GPU today, the first to include hardware-based ray tracing on mobile. As PCs and the latest Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles are all gradually moving toward impressive ray-traced visuals, Immortalis-G715 is designed to be the first Arm GPU to deliver the same on Android phones and tablets. Built on top of Mali, a GPU that’s used by the likes of MediaTek and Samsung, Immortalis is designed with 10–16 cores in mind and promises a boost of 15 percent over the previous generation premium Mali GPUs. Arm sees Immortalis as the start of a transition to ray tracing on mobile following its success with the 8 billion Mali GPUs that have shipped to date. Image: ArmThe new… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/TajMOx8 via Grabey Blog
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Jeeyon Shim carved a new path in crowdfunding for her keepsake games

Illustration by Jarett Sitter / The Verge A more independent approach Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/0CWc96D via Grabey Blog
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Crypto exchange FTX is reportedly looking into buying Robinhood

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is reportedly considering an acquisition of the trading platform Robinhood, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that FTX is still weighing the possibility and hasn’t yet made an offer. When asked about the possible buyout, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that the company currently isn’t in the process of trying to acquire Robinhood. “We are excited about Robinhood’s business prospects and potential ways we could partner with them,” Bankman-Fried said in a statement to Bloomberg. “That being said, there are no active M&A [mergers and acquisitions] conversations with Robinhood.” The Verge reached out to FTX with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/CtTaJg6 via Grabey Blog
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Overwatch 2 will replace the original Overwatch

Blizzard Entertainment The original Overwatch’s days are numbered. Last week, Blizzard revealed in a Reddit AMA that when Overwatch 2 launches on October 4th, it will overwrite Overwatch prime, effectively ending the six-year-old game. “When OW2 launches on October 4th it will be a replacement for the current live service,” wrote game director Aaron Keller. While the changeover will add a wealth of new content — new heroes, new maps, and more — classic Overwatch will cease to be, ending the 6v6 format and banishing the assault game type to the relative obscurity of the custom game corner. The news came as a bit of a surprise since, originally, Overwatch prime and Overwatch 2 were supposed to coexist. During the Overwatch 2 panel at BlizzCon 2019, Aaron Keller,… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/4e6Xufl via Grabey Blog
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Google Hangouts is shutting down in November

Image: Google After sunsetting Google Hangouts for Workspace users in February, Google’s now beginning the process of migrating free, personal Hangouts users to Chat. In an announcement posted to its blog, Google says people who still use the Hangouts mobile app will see a prompt to move to Chat. As for users who use Hangouts in Gmail on the web, Google says it won’t start prompting users to make the switch to Chat until July. Hangouts will remain usable on its desktop site until November, and Google says it will warn users “at least one month” in advance before it starts pointing the Hangouts site to Chat. Image: Google Confusingly, Google Chat isn’t the same thing as GChat (or Google Talk), which Google discontinued for good… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/7xhsNUG via Grabey Blog
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Fall Guys update fixes party invites on PS5 and makes the Switch version less of an eyesore

Fall Guys has had some technical hurdles to overcome in its free-to-play debut. | Image: Mediatonic After going free-to-play less than a week ago, Fall Guys is getting its first major update to fix several technical and visual issues across all platforms. Developer Mediatonic issued the update early this morning, which corrects some glaring issues — including that players using the PlayStation 5 version were not able to send or receive party invites from friends on other platforms like Xbox, PC, or Nintendo Switch. (Previously, they were told to mitigate the issue by redownloading the PS4 version of Fall Guys.) In addition to overcoming that hurdle — a significant one for a game that’s best played with some bean buddies — the Nintendo Switch version’s update fixes buggy character animations. Now, other characters no longer look like… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/dHjSU1w via Grabey Blog
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Pixel 6A fingerprint sensor looks faster than Pixel 6 Pro in early test

Image: Google Despite being a more affordable counterpart to last year’s flagship, it’s starting to look like the upcoming Pixel 6A might offer a key improvement over the Pixel 6 series: a faster fingerprint sensor. That’s according to Fazli Halim, a Malaysian YouTuber who appears to have gotten his hands on Google’s upcoming device a month ahead of its official launch on July 28th. We spotted the video via 9to5Google. It’s potentially good news after the Pixel 6 series’ fingerprint sensors ended up being a surprising weak point for the devices, and were noticeably slower to authenticate than other phones. “The fingerprint scanner is the only biometric authentication available, and it’s just not very good,” Dan Seifert wrote in our review. A Google… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/7HJyfKA via Grabey Blog
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Facebook’s video app may no longer work on Apple TV

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Facebook’s app for smart TVs, which lets users tune into various videos, shows, and livestreams on the platform, may no longer be available on Apple TV, as first reported by 9to5Mac. Some users say they’re no longer able to access the app after its most recent update. In a thread on MacRumors, one user shares an image of the notice they received after attempting to open Facebook Watch on their Apple TV 4K: “The Facebook Watch TV app is no longer available, but you can still find lots of videos on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/watch.” Several other users report having the same experience. Facebook rolled out its Watch app on Apple TV in 2017 after first launching it on Samsung smart TVs. The app is also available on various other smart TVs… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/QmpUWFw via Grabey Blog
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Valorant will start monitoring your voice chats starting July 13th

Image: Riot Games Riot Games, the developer behind the free first-person shooter (FPS) Valorant, will start monitoring players’ voice communications on July 13th (via PCGamer). The game company says it’s to help train the language models that it will eventually use when evaluating player reports across all its games. Riot initially announced this change in April 2021 after making an update to its privacy policy. The new terms give Riot permission to “record and potentially evaluate voice data when using Riot-owned voice comms channels” with the purpose of combatting hate speech and harassment over voice chat. Riot says it will analyze recordings when a player reports someone for abusive or offensive comments. In turn, this should help the company… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/3meZfyM via Grabey Blog
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Report: Apple is gearing up to launch a ‘flood’ of new devices starting this fall

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s poised to release a slew of new devices between this fall and the beginning of 2023, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. What Gurman describes as a “deluge” of products will reportedly include four iPhone 14 devices, a set of new iPads, three Apple Watches, several M2 / M3-upgraded Macs, a pair of refreshed AirPods Pro buds, a new HomePod, and a spec-boosted Apple TV model. Let’s break down these predictions. Although Apple announced two new Macs with its flagship M2 processor at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this month, Gurman expects to find the chip — and its variations — in several other devices. This includes an M2 Mac mini, M2 Pro Mac mini, M2 Pro / M2 Max 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros,… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/SfRXboG via Grabey Blog
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Apple’s mixed reality headset will reportedly come with an M2 chip

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s mixed reality headset has been shrouded in rumors for months now, and a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that it could come with Apple’s flagship M2 processor. According to Gurman, Apple’s most recent version of the device, which is reportedly capable of delivering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, includes a base M2 chip and 16GB of RAM. This deviates from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s previous prediction that Apple’s headset will have one processor with the capabilities of an M1 chip and an additional lower-end processor dedicated to handling data from the device’s sensors. While Gurman doesn’t mention the purported secondary chip in this report, a multiple chip setup has also… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/HD2bPJf via Grabey Blog
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My journey to drain the M2 MacBook Pro’s battery

It took a while. My review of the M2 MacBook Pro went up last Wednesday. But as soon as I got my hands on the device on the prior Thursday, it was clear that running down the battery — one of the most important things a laptop reviewer needs to do — was going to be a Whole Thing. Reader, I tried. I would use the device all evening and leave it running all night, but it would still have plenty of charge left in the morning, and I’d have to plug it in for testing, abandon it to film, or give it to our video and photo teams for shooting before I could fully drain it down. I did not have a long enough interrupted span of time to continuously use the device. That’s how absurdly long this laptop lasts. But, with the written review and the video review both… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/7rBp8Zm via Grabey Blog
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Google says attackers worked with ISPs to deploy Hermit spyware on Android and iOS

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A sophisticated spyware campaign is getting the help of internet service providers (ISPs) to trick users into downloading malicious apps, according to research published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) (via TechCrunch). This corroborates earlier findings from security research group Lookout, which has linked the spyware, dubbed Hermit, to Italian spyware vendor RCS Labs. Lookout says RCS Labs is in the same line of work as NSO Group — the infamous surveillance-for-hire company behind the Pegasus spyware — and peddles commercial spyware to various government agencies. Researchers at Lookout believe Hermit has already been deployed by the government of Kazakhstan and Italian authorities. In line with these findings, Google has… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/8iyOl7c via Grabey Blog
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Apple Music’s student plan is getting more expensive in the US, UK, and Canada

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music has raised the subscription price of its student plan in the US, UK, and Canada, as first reported by 9to5Mac (via TechCrunch). While it’s increasing the price from $4.99 to $5.99 / month in the US and Canada, student users in the UK can expect a similar jump from £4.99 to £5.99 / month. Apple hasn’t acknowledged the changes yet, but the new pricing information is currently available on Apple Music’s webpage. Students subscribed to Apple Music have also started seeing the price increase on their iPhones and iPads’ subscription pages. It’s unclear when exactly Apple implemented these changes, but, as 9to5Mac points out, it was likely rolled out sometime between June 21st and the 23rd — an archived Apple Music webpage shows the… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/un8yvP4 via Grabey Blog
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Intel delays ceremony for Ohio factory over lack of government funding

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is postponing the groundbreaking ceremony for its planned chip-making facilities in Ohio because the US government hasn’t yet provided it with funding, the company confirmed to The Verge (via The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal). The ceremony, which was originally set to take place on July 22nd, has been delayed indefinitely in a likely bid to push the US government towards passing the CHIPS Act. Intel announced its $20 billion plan to build two semiconductor plants in New Albany, Ohio earlier this year, noting that its expansion to potentially include up to eight plants will “depend heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act.” The CHIPS Act reserves $52 billion in funding for semiconductor companies, including Intel, to… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/vnztTfs via Grabey Blog
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The best instant cameras you can buy right now

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge We found the best cameras for your budget and needs Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/8ZWc7l2 via Grabey Blog
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Federal appeals court pauses FDA ban on Juul’s e-cigarettes

The company says it could suffer “irreparable harm” if it can’t sell its products while the court considers its case. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Juul can continue selling its e-cigarettes despite the Food and Drug Administration ordering a ban Thursday, according to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (via TechCrunch). In its order, the court says it’s issuing the temporary stay to give Juul time to file an emergency motion, which it can then consider along with a response from the FDA. The FDA says the reason for the ban is that there’s “insufficient evidence to assess the potential toxicological risks of using the Juul products.” Juul had petitioned for clearance to sell its tobacco and menthol-flavored vape products, but the FDA turned down the application. The regulator notes that it’s only illegal to sell the Juul device and Juul pods, not to own or use… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/7TfMhRu via Grabey Blog
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RIP Chris Evans’ iPhone 6S

Wait, but what did Evans take this picture with? | Image: Chris Evans I think most of us here at The Verge can agree that if we were famous celebrities who acted in some of the highest-grossing films of all time, we would always be rocking the latest and greatest tech. That’s apparently not how Chris Evans, star of Lightyear and The Avengers, rolls — on June 23rd, 2022, he posted a message on Twitter and Instagram that he’s finally upgrading his phone: “RIP iPhone 6S,” he said. “We had a good run.” In his posts, Evan says that he’ll miss the 2015 device’s home button — a photo he posted shows that he’s upgrading what appears to be an iPhone 13 Pro — but not the fact that it was a “nightly battle” trying to get the 6S to charge. (In the comments of Evan’s Instagram post, Hidden Figures and Onward actress… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/qDuMjoe via Grabey Blog
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Save 25 percent on the Thermacell mosquito repellent system

The Liv system from Thermacell is like a force field for mosquitoes. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The mercury is rising, which means most of us are spending more time outside. So, our deals post today is all about tech that lets you bring the luxury of your living room to the great outdoors — or just to the backyard. For instance, if you’re sick of mosquitoes ruining your otherwise leisurely time in your backyard, Thermacell is currently discounting its Liv Smart Mosquito Repellent System by 25 percent; just use the code FREEDOM25 at checkout. The base model of the Liv system comes with three repeller stations priced at $699.00 (around $525 with the coupon) and can accommodate up to 945 square feet. The innocuous repeller stations can be controlled with Alexa or Google Assistant and can also be programmed using your phone to operate… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/Irpf4H0 via Grabey Blog
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Toyota bZ4X electric SUV review: mediocre at best

The bZ4X’s gobbledygook name is the least of its problems. Toyota’s first all-electric crossover could have been so much more Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/AivaEHL via Grabey Blog
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Young writers, send us your pitches

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Hey — remember last year when we published a bunch of essays and called it Next Gen? Well, we’re doing it again. In early August, The Verge will be running another special issue focused on young people and technology — and if you’re a young or unpublished writer, then we want you to be a part of it. In particular, we want to hear about the piece of tech that’s meant the most to you: it could be an online community, a little-known tool, or a particular piece of media that’s been a positive presence in your life. To be clear, we’re looking for stuff you like, but the tech itself is just a starting point. We want to hear what it means to you and why. Be creative; surprise us! To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, here are the four… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/5TUjp38 via Grabey Blog
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Apple’s AR / VR headset could release in January, analyst predicts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset, which will reportedly offer a combination of augmented and virtual reality experiences, will “likely release” in January 2023, according to respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a new analyst note seen by 9to5Mac, Kuo notes that the headset is “the most complicated product Apple has ever designed” but that its release could help fuel “rapid growth” in the market for head-mounted displays. This is far from the first time Kuo has predicted when Apple’s headset could release, but previous predictions have had far wider release windows. Last year he said we might see the headset released at some point in 2022 (which now seems unlikely), and just this month he predicted that a release could come… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/Jf3RDYo via Grabey Blog
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Meta reportedly plans to shut down CrowdTangle, its tool that tracks popular social media posts

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One thing researchers have used to track the spread of viral stories on Facebook — including ones that spread misinformation — is a tool that Meta owns called CrowdTangle. Based on anonymous sources, Bloomberg reports what many have suspected — that Facebook has largely removed development support from CrowdTangle and is making plans to shut the tool down. Removing CrowdTangle would pull access that people like Kevin Roose have used to surface data showing high engagement with right-wing news sources on Facebook, listing results that sometimes appear to be at odds with Facebook’s curated official reports. In an article last July for The New York Times, Roose described internal “data wars” about how much information the company should… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/pfK2VUd via Grabey Blog
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Google’s new Chromebook features make it easier to connect to Android phones

Image: Google Google has been working on new Android and Chromebook features that better bridge the gap between phones and laptops over the past year. Today, ChromeOS version 103 arrives with some features to improve how Chromebooks connect to Android phones. The Phone Hub feature of ChromeOS, announced last year, is getting a new recent photos addition. With the 103 ChromeOS update, you’ll be able to quickly access the latest photos you’ve taken on your phone inside the Phone Hub. It’s an easy way to avoid emailing yourself a photo or having to dig into Google Photos to find your recent photos. It even works if you’re offline. Image: GoogleRecent photos in the Phone Hub on ChromeOS. Google is also improving its Nearby… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/OwVBZp1 via Grabey Blog
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Urban Sky’s Earth-imaging stratospheric ‘microballoons’ are ready for a close-up

Urban Sky, a Colorado-based company focused on collecting images and data of the Earth using small stratospheric balloons, says it is officially entering commercial operations after three years of operating partly in stealth and raising funding. The company says it is ready to start serving customers with its balloons, which can be deployed from the back of a pickup truck and ascend into the sky in just minutes. Specifically, the company offers what it calls “microballoons,” high-altitude balloons that can float to the stratosphere carrying a small payload and maintain a constant position over an area. About the size of a Volkswagen bus at launch, these balloons ultimately inflate to be the size of a small car garage in the air. That’s… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/P3gnfmb via Grabey Blog
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iOS 16’s editable iMessages may not play nice with older iPhones

How edited messages are supposed to look. | Image: Apple The ability to edit and unsend messages was one of the flagship features of iOS 16 announced earlier this month, but the functionality may not work well if you’re messaging anyone who’s not using the latest version of Apple’s software. The latest iOS developer beta 16 includes a messy workaround to allow newly editable iMessages to be received on iPhones without iOS 16, 9to5Mac reports. It could prove annoying for anyone in an iMessage group chat using an older iPhone or Android. Rather than simply seeing the edited version of a message, if someone running iOS 16’s second beta tries to edit an iMessage sent to a device with an older version of the software, then the latter will receive the edit as a second text, preceded by the words… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/ugewk32 via Grabey Blog
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Instagram is testing an AI tool that verifies your age by scanning your face

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing new methods for users to verify their age, including an AI tool built by a third-party company, Yoti, that estimates how old you are just by scanning your face. Officially, you have to be at least 13 years old to sign up for an Instagram account, but for years the company made little effort to enforce this rule. Until 2019, it didn’t even bother to ask new users their birthdate, let alone try to verify this information. After being raked over the coals by privacy and child safety experts, though, Instagram has introduced more and more age-verification features, as well as methods to separate younger users from adults. Users can ask friends to verify their age, or have their face scanned by AI Currently, Instagram… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/Z81JOE3 via Grabey Blog
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Epic Games thinks it has a solution for review bombing

Epic’s ratings system will use a five-point scale. | Image: Epic Games Epic Games has finally introduced a ratings system to its online store, and it’s designed in a way that’s intended to prevent waves of negative user reviews from happening all at once, a practice more commonly known as review bombing. Instead of allowing anyone to review a game they own, random players who have played a game for more than two hours will be asked to review it on a five-star scale, according to a blog post by Epic’s Craig Pearson. Those scores will then be collected to create the “Overall Rating” for each game. Occasionally, review-bomb campaigns can point out legitimately harmful consumer practices, but they’re often used in bad faith to protest a creator taking a political stance or if the media in question features… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/rsuNQoU via Grabey Blog
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Geoff Keighley isn’t worried about E3 making a comeback

Image: Summer Game Fest Geoff Keighley isn’t sure what E3 is anymore. Even before COVID forced the cancellation of the in-person version of the giant video game commercial masquerading as an industry trade show three years running now, the event was already a pale, big-three-publisher-less imitation of its former self. E3 is coming back. The organizers said so in a very “for realsies this time, you guys” kind of way. But when I asked Keighley about the prospect of E3 and Summer Game Fest — affectionately known as Not-E3 or, my personal favorite, Keigh-3 — coexisting next year, he just didn’t seem convinced they would need to. “E3 said they’re coming back. Which I don’t know what that means, right?” he told me at Summer Game Fest’s new in-person component in Los… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/Mm0X8uE via Grabey Blog
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First non-Samsung Wear OS 3 smartwatch to come from Montblanc

The Summit 3 in black, bicolor, and silver. | Image: Montblanc Montblanc could be the first manufacturer outside of Samsung to release a smartwatch running Wear OS 3, the latest version of Google’s wrist-worn operating system. Like its previous smartwatches, the Summit 3 launches with an eye-watering price tag, and its focus is more on being a fashion accessory than pushing the boundaries of what a smartwatch is capable of. It’ll cost €1,250 (around $1,314 USD) when it goes on sale globally on July 15th. Wear OS 3 is the most significant update to Google’s smartwatch operating system in years, but it’s only currently available on a pair of Samsung smartwatches: the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, which released last year. That means we’re yet to experience the software without… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/d3z5Dlk via Grabey Blog
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Google will let LGBTQ-plus merchants tag their businesses in Maps

What better time for this announcement than Pride Month? | Image: Google Google is adding a label to Maps that lets people identify their business as being LGBTQ-plus-owned, joining Yelp, which has a similar label. While Google Maps has had labels like LGBTQ-friendly and Transgender Safe Space for years, the company says that the new business identity attribute will help people who choose to support diverse businesses and could help queer people find nearby communities. Just like with Google’s other labels for Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses, the LGBTQ-plus-owned label has to be added by the verified owner of the business profile. (It’s not like other Maps metadata, which can be added by community members.) The labels can show up throughout the Google Maps interface, and… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/ytPs7pY via Grabey Blog
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Meta settles with US government over ad targeting-enabled housing discrimination

The company was accused of letting advertisers exclude protected groups from their campaigns. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US government and Facebook parent company Meta have agreed on a settlement to clear up a lawsuit that accused the company of facilitating housing discrimination by letting advertisers specify that ads not be shown to people belonging to specific protected groups, according to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ). You can read the full agreement below. The government first brought a case against Meta for algorithmic housing discrimination in 2019, though accusations about the company’s practices go back years before that. The company took some steps to address the issue, but clearly, they weren’t enough for the feds. The department says this was its first case dealing with algorithmic violations of the Fair Housing… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/21/23177356/meta-us-government-fair-housing-act-discrimination-settlement-new-system via Grabey Blog
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Fortnite is testing a clever way to help you find teammates

The new social tags might make it easier to find a good group. | Image: Epic Games Fortnite can be an absolute blast to play with your friends, but being matched up with random players is more hit-and-miss. In some of the randomized groups I’ve been in, coordinating any sort of effective strategy can be a challenging endeavor, particularly if some team members want to rush into battle while others would prefer to play it slow. To help you find better squadmates, Fortnite developer Epic Games is testing new social tags for profiles that let you indicate how you like to play and can be used to match you up with other like-minded players. According to a blog post, tags will include things like your favorite game modes and whether you want to use a mic or not. If you have added at least one social tag, you’ll be able to… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/21/23177405/fortnite-find-teammates-social-tags-looking-for-group via Grabey Blog
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Everyone’s ready to die on that hill in Stranger Things 4 Volume 2’s first trailer

Max under Vecna’s thrall. | Netflix Though music played a surprisingly significant role in the first half of Netflix’s Stranger Things 4, volume 1 never actually got around to giving Eddie Munson the sick guitar that was featured in this season’s earliest trailers. In the first teaser for Stranger Things Volume 2, though, the outgoing king of Hawkins High’s Hellfire Club is finally getting his ax just in time for an epic battle in the Upside Down. Stranger Things 4 Volume 1 finally revealed the origins of Vecna, the malevolent presence that’s been menacing Hawkins for years, and established that Eleven and her friends truly are one of the only groups capable of taking the creature down as it tries to enter their world from the Upside Down. In the new trailer, everyone’s… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/EhKUVco via Grabey Blog
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Today I learned you can identify plants and flowers using just your iPhone camera

Behold, my beautiful … moth orchids. | Image: The Verge Sometimes, even as a tech reporter, you can be caught out by how quickly technology improves. Case in point: it was only today that I learned that my iPhone has been offering a feature I’ve long desired — the ability to identify plants and flowers from just a photo. It’s true that various third-party apps have offered this function for years, but last time I tried them I was disappointed by their speed and accuracy. And, yes, there’s Google Lens and Snapchat Scan, but it’s always less convenient to open up an app I wouldn’t otherwise use. But, since the introduction of iOS 15 last September, Apple has offered its own version of this visual search feature. It’s called Visual Look Up, and it’s pretty damn good. It works very simply. Just… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/N8TWp6n via Grabey Blog
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Sony could have a trio of new gaming headsets on the way

A leaked image of Sony’s Inzone H9. | Image: 91Mobiles / Onleaks Sony might be ready to announce a new lineup of gaming headsets, according to a report from 91Mobiles based on information provided by OnLeaks. Rather than being specifically PlayStation-branded, like Sony’s Pulse headset, the three headsets will apparently be part of a new gaming hardware brand from Sony called “Inzone,” which could also include a pair of gaming displays. Leaked images show the three so-called H-series headsets with a similar white color scheme to the existing Pulse headset. The H3 is wired, and has a USB-C port with a physical volume dial. There’s a button marked “NC/AMB” shown in renders of the H3, which suggests it might support noise cancellation and have an ambient audio mode to allow players to hear what’s going… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/0a5hkwt via Grabey Blog
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You’ll be able to bet against Bitcoin with an ETF, before you can buy a Bitcoin ETF

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s good news for people who find bad news about crypto to be good. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to buy an exchange-traded fund based on shorting Bitcoin. The financial firm ProShares will debut the first ETF to let you bet against Bitcoin, and it’s set to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange when the bell opens tomorrow, June 21, under the ticker BITI. The SEC previously approved a futures Bitcoin ETF, also from ProShares, in October. It debuted alongside some of the biggest growth Bitcoin has seen. Now, cryptocurrencies have been severely struggling, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even stablecoins all suffering major losses. What’s funny about the SEC’s approval of an ETF that can be used to short Bitcoin is that it has not… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/GQg0irE via Grabey Blog
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Morbius finally finds some success…on Vudu

Columbia Pictures If at first you don’t succeed you can try again, and again, and again, and eventually you might find an audience. At least that’s what appears to have happened for Morbius. The abysmal vampire superhero film starring Jared Leto is finally number one somewhere. In a press release issued by Fandango, which acquired Vudu in 2020, the company says that Morbius was the number one title in terms of revenue on Vudu for the week of June 13th, 2022. Notably, that’s revenue, not actual streams. Vudu charges for rentals and purchases and Morbius is currently available to rent for $5.99 or purchase for $19.99. While Morbius was number one at the box office its first weekend, its second week saw a drop off of 74-percent. That’s the worst second… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/SHCs1bP via Grabey Blog
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Why getting hit by space dust is an unavoidable aspect of space travel

Last week, NASA revealed that one of JWST’s primary mirror segments, shown here, was damaged by a larger than expected micrometeoroid. | Image: NASA On June 8th, NASA revealed that its new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is now sporting a small dimple in one of its primary mirrors after getting pelted by a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid out in deep space. The news came as a bit of a shock since the impact happened just five months into the telescope’s space tenure — but such strikes are simply an inevitable aspect of space travel, and more thwacks are certainly on their way. Despite what its name implies, space isn’t exactly empty. Within our Solar System, tiny bits of space dust are zooming through the regions between our planets at whopping speeds that can reach up to tens of thousands of miles per hour. These micrometeoroids, no larger than a grain… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/XaYsgv7 via Grabey Blog
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Mark Zuckerberg has so many VR headset prototypes to show us

Mark Zuckerberg tries on the Holocake 2 prototype. | Meta Reality Labs And none of them are shipping Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/KDS34ET via Grabey Blog
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The archive saving home sewing history from the trash

Sewing patterns are meant to be trashed — or not Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/zUiTdVq via Grabey Blog
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Telegram’s Premium subscription is here and it costs $4.99 / month

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After announcing Telegram Premium earlier this month, the messaging app has finally rolled out the paid tier, which gives users access to extra features for $4.99 / month (via TechCrunch). All the features are outlined in a post on Telegram’s blog, with some of its bigger draws including faster downloads and a larger maximum file upload size of 4GB (rather than the standard 2GB). Premium subscribers will also get double the limits imposed on standard users. Instead of joining up to 500 channels, subscribers are capped at 1,000 channels. The same goes for other features on Telegram — subscribers can create 20 chat folders with 200 chats each, save up to 10 stickers, pin up to 10 chats, and add a total of four accounts to Telegram instead… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/l0UPyTJ via Grabey Blog
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TikTok and Oracle teamed up after all, but concerns about data privacy remain

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday, TikTok announced that it had started routing American users’ data to US-based servers owned by Oracle. But a timely report from BuzzFeed News calls into question what TikTok’s promise really delivers, claiming TikTok employees based in China have “repeatedly” accessed US users’ data over the course of at least several months. In recordings of internal staff meetings and presentations obtained by BuzzFeed News, TikTok employees reportedly mentioned having to ask their colleagues in China to access US user data, as they weren’t able to access this data themselves. One member of TikTok’s trust and safety department team allegedly stated that “Everything is seen in China,” while another employee said a China-based engineer “had… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/RCGMkz8 via Grabey Blog
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Go read this report about a Google contractor who claims he was fired for calling out cult activity

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is known for its close-knit — and sometimes secretive — company culture, but one wouldn’t suspect an actual cult running things behind the scenes. Well, one Google contractor claims that’s exactly the case, as detailed in this unusual report from The New York Times. Kevin Lloyd, a contractor hired to work as a video producer for Google Developer Studio (GDS), alleges at least 12 members of an obscure religious sect work for GDS and hold an inappropriate level of influence over the work environment. Lloyd claims he was wrongly fired for calling out the group’s behavior and has filed a lawsuit against Google and his contracting agency ASG for wrongful termination, retaliation, emotional distress, and failure to protect him against… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/3J8UdHN via Grabey Blog
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PowerA’s pastel controllers are perfect for a summer spent playing games indoors

From left to right: pastel dream, purple camo, cotton candy blue, pink lemonade, and lavender swirl. When it comes to colorful controller designs, Xbox’s game has been on point for years. Ever since the Xbox One generation, Microsoft has released many fun variations of its controllers — including limited editions and the Xbox Design Lab — and this momentum has not slowed with the Xbox Series X / S consoles. Meanwhile, the third-party range of Xbox controllers is more expansive than ever, and brands like PowerA are hitting budget-friendly prices with slick new colorways of its own, like the recently released pastel range of the $37.99 PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox and PC. Marshmallowy vibes for days. The controllers have smooth, satin finishes on the front, lightly textured backs, and glossy accents on the… Continue reading… from The Verge – All Posts https://ift.tt/QJ1G64F via Grabey Blog
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