Belkin’s new 2-in-1 charging dock might blend into your bedroom

Image: Belkin


Belkin has a new 2-in-1 charging dock that’s all about the looks. Yes, it offers the types of features you’d expect from a $129.95 charger, including letting you fast charge iPhones with MagSafe as well as Apple Watches. But if you do pay up for the new charging dock, you’re probably buying it because it looks great.


Offered in two neutral colors, sand or charcoal (basically white and black), “the dock achieves a stunning stone-like appearance, blending seamlessly into its environment whether it’s placed on a nightstand, kitchen counter or desk,” Belkin writes in its press release. Take Belkin’s marketing language there with a grain of salt, but I do think the charger has a really nice aesthetic.



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Here’s where you can preorder Apple’s new M3-powered Macs

The 24-inch iMac is back with a refresh, and it’s bringing a slate of M3 MacBook Pros with it. | Image: Apple


Apple’s first foray into the world of prime-time product launches (for those of us on the East Coast, that is) kicked off with a new generation of Apple Silicon, the M3 processor. And announced alongside the new M3 chips were the handful of computers Apple is putting them in — including a new 24-inch iMac, an upgraded 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and a new 14-inch MacBook Pro with a base M3 that kills off the controversial Touch Bar for good (pour one out for an Apple flop).







This may have been a somewhat low-stakes Apple event for the evening before Halloween, but even if none of these new Macs are radically different, a new generation of M-series chips is nothing to sneeze at. The $1,299 iMac shows that Apple hasn’t totally forgotten…



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Apple ‘Scary Fast’ Mac launch event: the 4 biggest announcements

Apple’s “Scary Fast” showcase has come to a close. During the launch event, Apple took the wraps off of some brand-new Macs that come equipped with the latest version of the company’s in-house chip.


If you’re curious about all the new products, here’s a roundup of the major announcements from the event.


A more powerful line of M3 chips





Image: Apple




As expected, Apple’s M3 chips took the spotlight during this month’s event. The new lineup includes the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, which Apple says mark the “first personal computer chips” made using the more efficient 3-nanometer process.


In addition to offering a “faster and more efficient CPU,” the trio of chips comes with an updated GPU that supports ray tracing,…



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Apple’s new M3 MacBook Pro marks the end of the Touch Bar

Image: Apple


Apple is finally moving on from the Touch Bar. The company has just announced a new entry-level version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro, replacing the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar keyboard. This new model has the standard M3 chip; the 14-inch model previously was only available with the higher-end Pro or Max chips.


The biggest news about this new MacBook Pro is the M3 chip. As rumored, the M3 is a 3nm chip, and Apple is promising some big performance improvements over the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro, including Final Cut Pro rendering that’s up to 60 percent faster. As usual, Apple only shared some selective performance stats, so it’s not entirely clear how much of a jump this new chip might have compared to the old M1 model, let alone…



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Apple announces a speedier M3 iMac

The outside isn’t changing much, but the M3 processor will purportedly make this new 24-inch iMac two times faster. | Image: Apple


The 24-inch iMac is finally getting a refresh. At its “Scary Fast” event, Apple announced a new M3 version of the iMac that is supposedly two times faster than its over two-year-old M1 predecessor.


What’s really new this time around is the M3 chip. The M3 has an eight-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, with support for up to 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Supposedly, that ought to translate to a much faster all-in-one. Productivity apps, such as Safari or Microsoft Excel, will run up to 30 percent faster. For creators, the new chip enables up to 12 streams of 4K video, and Adobe Photoshop should also process photos up to two times faster. It also now supports Wi-Fi 6E.



Image: AppleOstensibly, the faster processor…



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Apple’s new high-end MacBook Pro comes in black with up to 128GB of RAM

Image: Apple


Alongside a refreshed iMac and new entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro featuring the M3 chip (and sans Touch Bar), Apple is introducing upgraded models of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max processors today. Design-wise, they retain the exact same look and port layout as their predecessors but now come in a new “space black” color that replaces space gray.


The machines raise the bar in several ways, ranging from sheer performance to configurability. For example, the M3 Max MacBook Pro can be ordered with up to 128GB of RAM — a new high for Apple’s laptops. Preorders start today, and M3 Pro models will be available on November 7th. M3 Max units will take a bit longer to ship and are due to arrive sometime later in…



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Apple’s new M3 chips have big GPU upgrades focused on gaming and pro apps

Image: Apple


Apple is unveiling its new M3 processors today, and all three include big improvements to the GPU side of the chips. The M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max will all offer faster CPU performance, but crucially, the M3 family of chips will include significant changes to the GPU to improve professional apps and gaming performance. All three M3 chips will debut in new MacBook Pro models, with the M3 also part of a new 24-inch iMac.


The base M3 includes an eight-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, and Apple claims it’s up to 35 percent faster than the M1 for CPU performance. We don’t know exactly how the M3 compares to the M2, but when Apple announced the M2 last year, it said it had 18 percent faster CPU performance over the…



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Sam Bankman-Fried doesn’t recall

Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Bloomberg, Getty Images


Bankman-Fried gets a shot at his side of the FTX story — then promptly shreds his own credibility with the jury.



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All the news from Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ Mac event

Dark Finder. | Image: Apple


Apple plays a pre-Halloween trick with new product announcements coming in from a surprise nighttime livestream event.



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Gambling streams are ‘part of the contract’ for Kick’s newest streamer

Image: Kick.com / Instagram


Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff recently inked a reported eight-figure deal with Twitch rival Kick. In a recent livestream, the Faze Clan co-owner and popular Call of Duty streamer said that, as part of his new deal, he will be running gambling streams. “The first question I’ve been seeing is like, ‘Nick, are you gonna do gambling streams?’” he said during his first Kick stream. “We’re gonna do some gambling for sure. It’s part of the contract.”


Kick’s head of strategic partnerships clarified that a gambling clause is not in Kolcheff’s Kick contract. According to a post by gaming and esports reporter Jake Lucky, Nickmercs “has a Stake contract alongside his Kick contract,” referencing Stake.com, a gambling site owned by Kick co-founder Ed…



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YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams are failing today

Image: The Verge


YouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams have been plagued with buffering and pixelation, making afternoon games today unwatchable, according to many, many posts. The @TeamYouTube account acknowledged the issue at 1:53PM ET. The team wrote that they’re aware YouTube is having issues and they are working to fix them, but acknowledged that “YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be impacted.”


Now that YouTube is the only place to watch NFL Sunday Ticket, that leaves viewers across the country with no options to watch games apart from any available local broadcasts. People have taken to X to complain that streams are freezing up or lagging, or that it’s just like watching illegal streams. And plenty of them point out the money factor. NFL…



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Apple is getting ready for Prime Time

Image: Apple


I’m trying to remember the last time a company’s big event came for prime time TV the way Apple’s 8pm ET keynote is trying to lock down our attention tomorrow. The only company I can think of that’s done it successfully lately is Victoria’s Secret with its Fashion Show. While I suspect there’s some overlap in audience between that and an Apple Keynote, I also suspect Bella Hadid is a bigger draw than a new iMac.


But Apple is still going for it! Promising a keynote that will air on its website, YouTube, and over Apple TV while things like Monday Night Football airs on broadcast TV. The company is ready to take all the cultural cache its phones, Bluetooth headsets, and computers have earned it and convert that fanbase into a bigger…



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Your guide to the internet’s most (and least) important moments

Image: William Joel / The Verge


Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 12, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome. I’m so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)


This week, I’ve been testing the Superlist tasks app, reading about the high-stakes race to crack crypto wallets, rehearsing my case for buying an e-bike, taking voice notes like a boss with Whisper Memos, and avoiding all my problems by watching Between Two Ferns bloopers on YouTube.


I also have for you a new pair of AR glasses, a Netflix thriller, all the great sci-fi you could ever need, a great parenting app, a super-deep interview about Windows, a new puzzling platform, and a bunch more.


As always, of…



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Google researchers use off-the-shelf headphones to measure heart rate

Illustration: The Verge


Typical heart rate monitoring in wearable tech, like smart watches or wireless earbuds, relies at least partially on photoplethysmography (PPG), which uses light pulses to measure blood activity. It works generally well, but it has its limitations. Google scientists wrote in a new research blog spotted by 9to5Google yesterday that they had tried a different approach, called audioplethysmography (APG), that uses ultrasound to measure heart rate. And they did it with off-the-shelf active noise-canceling (ANC) earbuds and a software update.


The trick works by bouncing a low-intensity ultrasound signal off the inside of the ear canal and using the tiny microphone that helps make ANC work to detect skin surface perturbations as blood pumps…



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Google is investigating Android 14’s multiple profile update bug

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


Google is looking into an Android 14 bug that’s been wreaking havoc for people with multiple user profiles. On October 27th, a Google representative acknowledged the bug and said the team is “working hard on a fix” for it.



Thanks for sticking with us. Our team is looking into this storage issue affecting some Pixel devices running Android 14 and we’re working hard on a fix. We’ll update this thread with more details soon.



While the first reports were mostly from Pixel 6 owners who experienced the problem as the update started rolling out, Ars Technica reported this week that a Google issue tracker for the problem had grown beyond over 350 replies, extending to owners of many different devices. The problems range from missing apps to…



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Apple says BMW wireless chargers really are messing with iPhone 15s

Illustration: The Verge


Users have been reporting that their iPhone 15’s NFC chips were failing after using BMW’s in-car wireless charging, but until now, Apple hasn’t addressed the complaints. That seems to have changed as MacRumors reported this week that an Apple internal memo to third-party repair providers says a software update later this year should prevent a “small number” of in-car wireless chargers from “temporarily” disabling iPhone 15 NFC chips.


Apple reportedly says that until the fix comes out, anyone who experiences this should not use the wireless charger in their car. Users have been complaining about BMW wireless chargers breaking Apple Pay and the BMW digital key feature in posts on Reddit, Apple’s Support community, and MacRumors’ own forums….



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Govee’s colorful LED light strips are on sale just in time for Halloween

Govee’s LED light strip can add a splash of pizzazz to your staircase with color-changing, dynamic lights. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge


Halloween isn’t the only holiday on the horizon now that October is drawing to a close. Once the clock strikes midnight on October 31st, Mariah Carey will defrost, peppermint mochas will inevitably return, and the 2023 holiday season will have officially begun.







Thankfully for those looking to get in the festive spirit, Govee’s Matter-ready LED Strip Light M1 is on sale for an all-time low of $44.99 ($15 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon. You can also buy it for $3 more direct from Govee through October 31st, which is still one of its better prices to date.


While handy throughout the year, Govee’s 6.56-foot (2m) light strip is particularly convenient during Halloween and other holidays. Not only can the bright, tunable LEDs…



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Microsoft is improving its Xbox app for Windows handheld gaming PCs

The new compact mode in the Xbox app. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge


Microsoft has started testing new updates to its Xbox app on Windows 11 that improve the experience on handheld devices and smaller screens. In an Xbox test app released earlier this week, Microsoft has introduced a new compact mode that greatly reduces the sidebar on the left-hand side.


Compact mode is designed to improve “the experience on handhelds and small screens,” according to Microsoft — it also works on any size screen. It’s a relatively minor UI change, but very welcome on devices like the ROG Ally where you only have a 7-inch display. Windows 11 is a pretty cramped experience on the ROG Ally, and improvements to the Xbox app are an encouraging first step towards what we hope will be some type of handheld mode for Windows.


E…



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The jury finally hears from Sam Bankman-Fried

The royal “we.” | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Michael M. Santiago, Getty Images


He was an introvert!



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Humane’s Ai Pin could cost $1,000 — and require a subscription

Image: TED


The Ai Pin, the new gadget / wearable device / projector / thing from the secretive startup Humane, might cost as much as $1,000 and may require a monthly subscription for data, according to The Information.


The mysterious device has been in development for years, but we got our first good look at it during co-founder Imran Chaudhri’s presentation at TED this year. In the presentation, he used then unnamed device to accept a phone call, get information about where to buy a gift, translate a sentence that is then spoken in an AI-made version of his voice in French, and even get an opinion on whether he can eat a chocolate bar. It was an impressive demo, though we had a lot of questions about how it all worked.


As the November 9th launch…



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Every smart home device that works with Matter

The Verge


All the Matter-compatible devices you can buy now, plus what’s coming soon to the Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung-backed smart home standard.



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Google’s Bard chatbot now responds in real time — and you can shut it up mid-sentence

Illustration: The Verge


Google’s Bard AI chatbot can now reply to your questions in real time, as spotted earlier by 9to5Google. Bard previously only sent a response when it was complete, but now you can get a glimpse at your answer as it’s getting generated.


If you don’t want Bard to respond to your questions in real time, you can still switch between the “Respond in real time” and “Respond when complete” options from the cog icon in the top-right corner of Bard’s window. Bing Chat, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, also responds in real time.



Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge




In case you don’t like the response that’s getting generated, Google now lets you cut off the bot mid-sentence. When Bard starts generating a reply, you’ll see a “Skip…



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Meta wants Threads to be the ‘de facto platform’ for online public conversations

Illustration: The Verge


Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has high ambitions for Threads: he wants it to become the “de facto platform for public conversations online,” he said on Friday. Big statement to make on the one-year anniversary of Elon Musk taking over Twitter!


Meta’s aspirations came up as part of a question Mosseri answered in an AMA: “What do you think ‘success’ looks like for Threads in one year?”


“We’re actually debating this right now internally,” Mosseri said. “I do think the long-term aspiration is to be the de facto platform for public conversations online, which is about cultural relevance as much as it is about the overall size of Threads.”


Mosseri noted that Threads is “obviously” not the largest public conversation platform right now, saying…



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Meet the dwarfs from Disney’s live-action Snow White, which has been delayed

Snow White (Rachel Zegler) and (alphabetically) Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy, in Disney’s Snow White. | Image: Disney


Disney’s delaying its upcoming live-action Snow White remake starring Rachel Zegler, but the studio’s also just released a new photo of the film’s take on the seven dwarfs that’s rather… let’s say “interesting.”


According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has decided to push back the release dates for director Marc Webb’s Snow White and Pixar’s new feature Elio, from director Adrian Molina. The delay is in response to SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing labor strike, which reportedly has multiple studios considering the possibility of having to rearrange their 2024 release schedules to make up for the lack of new work. Though Snow White was originally meant to debut on March 22nd, 2024, it’s been pushed back to March 21st, 2025, and Elio, which was…



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Instagram tests collaborative carousels your friends can add to

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge


Instagram is testing a new feature that will let your friends add to your posts. When you’re about to post a carousel, Instagram will give you the option to let followers submit their own photos and videos that they want to include.


The submissions won’t get added to your post by default, as you’ll have to approve each photo and video before they’re added. In a screenshot of the feature shared by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, collaborative carousels will have an “add to post” button in the bottom-left corner.



Image: Instagram




This feature seems like a nice way to invite friends to share memories of recent outings or events you attended together. There are probably a lot of other creative prompts people can come up…



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If you can’t motivate yourself to exercise, try this app

This is the Future app for iOS. | Image: Future


If you’re anything like me, making yourself work out is hard. You set an alarm but then can’t convince yourself to get out of bed. You’re done with work and have your clothes and sneakers packed, but tasks that seem more pressing just keep coming up, and oh look, they just released another episode of Billions, and do you really feel like leaving the house?


Many people’s answer to this conundrum is a personal trainer — someone you meet with once a week or so who walks you through various customized exercises and shouts encouragement. If you don’t show up to your workout, you probably still get billed for the session and — more importantly — your trainer will be upset with you, and that’s no fun. But personal trainers can cost well over…



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X launches two new subscriptions to boost your replies

Image: The Verge


X, the platform previously known as Twitter, has introduced a new $16 per month Premium Plus plan that lets subscribers pay more to get the biggest boost for their replies. Not only does the plan offer the “largest reply boost,” but it also removes ads from your For You and Following feeds, according to a page detailing the features of the subscription.


Premium Plus builds on the perks that come with X’s standard Premium plan (formerly Twitter Blue), which includes a blue checkmark, the ability to edit tweets, longer posts, longer video uploads, encrypted direct messages, and more.




introducing Premium+


– no ads in For You or Following
– largest boost for your replies (vs other Premium tiers or unverified users)
– access to our full suite…





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Onewheel follows up its massive recall with a new $3,200 board for ‘pros’

Image: OneWheel


One month after Onewheel recalled every single one of its electric skateboards after four known deaths and a year of delay, the company’s releasing its fastest, most powerful, and most expensive board yet.


It’s called the Onewheel GT S-Series, and the $3,200 board will already come with the new safety mechanism it told the government it’d add to several previous generations of Onewheel — called Haptic Buzz, it vibrates the board when it’s running out of battery, attempting to exert too much torque, or is erroring out.


Speaking of torque, the S-Series adds more of it — the primary upgrade here is a new motor with 50 percent more voltage and 50 percent more torque. The company promises “high-speed carves up even the steepest of hills,”…



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Apple’s iOS 17.2 beta includes the new Journal app

Image: The Verge


Apple has released the developer beta of iOS 17.2, and it includes the Journal app, a digital daily diary for users to log their activities.


The Journal app was first announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company frames it as a way for users to self-reflect and practice gratitude.


A feature of the Journal app that’s raised questions is how it uses machine learning to prompt user entries, using data like photos, workouts, location data, and more — perhaps good for people who need a little bit of inspiration. But as my colleague Victoria Song wrote at the time, not all our memories are happy, and it’s not hard to see how an AI-powered prompt machine could go awry.





9to5Mac has more details about features…



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Telegram has blocked Hamas channels on Android because Google forced it to

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


Social messaging platform Telegram has blocked channels used by Hamas, but only on Android phones due to violations of Google’s app store guidelines. According to CNBC, two channels — hamas_com and al-Qassam brigades — were cut off for Android users, though other channels the group uses, like Gaza Now, are still accessible.


Telegram blamed the blocks on Google’s app store guidelines, according to reporting in The Jerusalem Post. Users reportedly see an error saying the channels can’t be viewed on “Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store,” implying that the ban doesn’t extend to the app when it’s downloaded from elsewhere or used on another operating system.


A Google spokesperson, who asked to be quoted anonymously due to the…



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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 moves AI out of the cloud and onto your phone

The what-is-a-photo-pocalypse gets even more complicated. | Image: Qualcomm


Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chipset is an on-device AI fest from top to bottom. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 brings generative AI capabilities right to the chipset, vastly speeding up the processing-intensive activities that are usually outsourced to the cloud. It’s one more leap forward in a year that has seen a lot of leaping when it comes to AI, and it will come sooner than later: the first phones with the new chipset are expected to debut in the coming weeks.


The 8 Gen 3 supports a chatbot trained on Meta’s Llama 2, and it can accept text, image, and voice input. It can also talk back to you as well as generate an image or text. The chipset also runs the AI image generator Stable Diffusion on-device, something that Qualcomm demoed…



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Magic is gathering Marvel heroes for giant crossover event

Image: Marvel / Wizards of the Coast


The great IP crossover experiment continues with Marvel showing up in yet another place you don’t typically expect Marvel to be. Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that Marvel’s bringing its iconic (and inescapable) heroes to Magic: The Gathering with new “collectible products and tentpole sets” that will hit your Local Game Store in 2025.





Crossovers are not new to Magic: The Gathering. It just launched the card game’s Doctor Who-themed Commander set. Earlier this year, Magic released a Lord of the Rings set (complete with its own One Ring bonanza that caught the attention of prolific Magic collector Post Malone). Throughout the years, Magic has released tons of smaller, collectible sets based on everything from My Little Pony to Bob…



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Tinder now lets mom pick your next date

Now your mom and dad can help you find your next potential partner and stop dunking on your questionable dating choices. | Image: Tinder


If you’re the kind of person who asks friends and family for help with your love life, Tinder is aiming to make things a little easier by letting them suggest potential partners for you directly within the app. Tinder’s new Matchmaker feature lets users invite their loved ones, regardless of whether they have a Tinder profile or not, to view and recommend potential matches, essentially integrating a “friend test” into the dating app.


Tinder Matchmaker is available now in 15 countries including the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany, with a global rollout expected “in the coming months.” Users can start a Matchmaker session either directly from a profile card, or within the app settings — creating a link that can be shared…



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The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection is an exhaustive bundle of stealth classics

Metal Gear Solid 3 protagonist “Naked Snake.” | Image: Konami


It’s hard to fault the breadth of content Konami has included in its tantalizingly-named ‘Vol. 1’ collection. Just don’t go in expecting many modern upgrades to these decades-old titles.



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The best Android phone to buy in 2023

Image: The Verge


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



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Apple may be planning a surprise October M3 iMac announcement

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge


October starting to slip away, and so far, all we’ve gotten was a very confusing Apple Pencil, despite rumors of iMacs and iPads. Well, it sounds like that new 24-inch M3-powered iMac is on its way this month after all. Mark Gurman thinks so, having written in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that it’s coming very soon — as early as October 30th, in fact. That would end, as Gurman notes, an over 900-day drought since the M1 iMac launched in the first half of 2021.


Gurman writes that he was “told that Apple is planning a Mac-centered product launch around the end of this month.” He adds that if you try to order the iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and either of the other higher-end Pro models, several of their configurations aren’t…



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Mario and Spider-Man are both back in a big way

Image: William Joel / The Verge


Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 11, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome to the Installerverse, which is officially a thing now — we did it, everybody — and you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)


I’m traveling this week, so I’ve got a slightly abbreviated issue for you. But there’s just way too much good stuff not to share.


This week, I’m spending all my free time playing Subpar Pool, testing Twine as my new go-to Android RSS reader, watching Zane Lowe talk music with Blink-182, learning about the incredible work of the masters of film set design, reading Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Internet Con, finally for real canceling some too-expensive streaming…



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So long, small phones

The 2013 Moto X, Nexus 4, and iPhone 13 Mini. I pine for the days this size was normal. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge


Ever Googled for “Best Small Phones”? I’ll save you the click: the guides you’ll find feature phones that are old, underpowered, or simply not small to begin with.


I’ve long been a small phone guy. I loved my 2013 Moto X, with its 4.7-inch screen, and I’ve used a 5.4-inch iPhone Mini for years. But when Apple discontinued the Mini last month, I decided it was time to jump ship. I saved my money for the Pixel 8, figuring I’d eventually learn to live with a “new normal” of 6.2-inch handsets.


But for gadget enthusiasts like me, Google had other plans: it’s arbitrarily pushing buyers to the ginormous Pixel 8 Pro instead, bragging about how its larger handset can handle niftier features even though both phones have the same cameras and chips….



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‘Nothing is changing’: Reddit flatly denies report that it might wall off its content

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


The Washington Post reported Friday that Reddit might cut off Google and force users to log in to Reddit itself to read anything if it can’t reach deals with generative AI companies to pay for its data. But the company tells The Verge that’s not true. “Nothing is changing,” says Reddit spokesperson Courtney Geesey-Dorr.


The Washington Post’s report wasn’t just focused on Reddit — it’s about how more than 535 news organizations have opted to block their content from being scraped by companies like OpenAI to help train products such as ChatGPT. According to the original report, Reddit is in negotiations with AI companies to get them to pay to use its data, and if it couldn’t strike those agreements, it might require logins to see content….



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Dbrand’s Steam Deck case is fixed — and there’s a ROG Ally version now

The Asus ROG Ally handheld PC in a Dbrand Killswitch case. | Images: Dbrand


Your Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld is brilliantly white, and that will not stand: you’ve decided your gadgets must be black. Or… maybe you just want a rugged case that’ll survive a drop or three? Either way, Dbrand thinks it’s got what you need — a $60 Killswitch case like the one it makes for the Steam Deck that’ll ship early next year.


“But wait,” I will pretend to hear some of you thinking, “Didn’t Dbrand royally screw that up? Didn’t The Verge trigger a million-dollar recall when you folks discovered it interfered with a Steam Deck fan?”


Yes — but Dbrand did rapidly recall them, admitted its mistake, then shipped a replacement Killswitch 2.0 that I’ve been testing for months with no issue. It’s still an impressively rugged,…



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Faze Clan acquired for $17 million, one year after its $725 million SPAC

Faze Clan team winning Halo World Championship 2023. | Image: Faze Clan via X


Gaming analytics and esports brand company Gamesquare, which counts Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones as one of its investors, is acquiring the struggling gaming influencer group Faze Clan. The all-stock deal is worth about $17 million, Bloomberg reports, a steep drop-off from Faze’s $725-million valuation at the time of its special purpose acquisition company, SPAC, merger in July of 2022.


Since the SPAC made it publicly traded on the Nasdaq exchange, Faze Clan, like much of the esports industry, has struggled, with the company posting a $28.4-million loss “through the first half of 2023,” according to Bloomberg. Last month, Faze Clan’s troubles reached an inflection point that led to the firing of CEO Lee Trink, who once compared the…



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FCC greenlights superfast Wi-Fi tethering for AR and VR headsets

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge


The FCC has unanimously approved plans by several tech companies to use the 6GHz band for wireless devices.


FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel proposed the new rules, which would authorize very low power (VLP) operations — meaning their signals won’t be able to go very far — in about 850MHz of the spectrum, on September 27th. The rules will also allow devices to “use higher power levels” so long as they’re geofenced to keep from interfering with actual licensed 6GHz usage, and the FCC will be taking comments on other ways it can expand 6GHz spectrum usage by technology devices.


A September Bloomberg report pointed to some of the kinds of devices the FCC’s affirmative vote could open up, including in-car connections, mobile virtual or…



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Microsoft tests support for hearing aids in Windows 11

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Windows 11 will soon let some users with hearing aids take calls, listen to music, and stream audio from their PCs, Microsoft announced on Wednesday.


The recently rolled out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25977 now supports hearing aids equipped with Bluetooth LE Audio technology, Microsoft revealed. Consequently, people can directly pair hearing aids with Windows 11 PCs.


The feature is currently only available on select Windows devices with Bluetooth LE Audio support, though Microsoft says more PCs will offer it in the future. The tech giant also says it will add more capabilities for hearing aids over time, such as the ability to control audio presets within Windows.







Microsoft announced it was adding support for Bluetooth LE in…



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The world’s biggest AI models aren’t very transparent, Stanford study says

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No prominent developer of AI foundation models — a list including companies like OpenAI and Meta — is releasing sufficient information about their potential impact on society, determines a new report from Stanford HAI (Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence).


Today, Stanford HAI released its Foundation Model Transparency Index, which tracked whether creators of the 10 most popular AI models disclose information about their work and how people use their systems. Among the models it tested, Meta’s Llama 2 scored the highest, followed by BloomZ and then OpenAI’s GPT-4. But none of them, it turned out, got particularly high marks.


Other models evaluated include Stability’s Stable Diffusion, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s PaLM 2, Command from…



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Amazon plans to deploy delivery drones in the UK and Italy next year

Image: Amazon


Despite running into obstacles in the US, Amazon is planning to expand its Prime Air drone delivery program to two additional countries. Amazon announced today that it will soon make drone delivery available for Prime members in Italy and the United Kingdom — in addition to expanding to one more yet-to-be-named US city. The new Prime Air locations will be announced in the coming months, with an anticipated launch date of late 2024.


The e-commerce giant stated that it is working with regulators and governments around the world to expand drone delivery.


“Not only will this help boost the economy, offering consumers even more choice while helping keep the environment clean with zero emission technology, but it will also build our…



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Xbox chief says Activision Blizzard games aren’t coming to Xbox Game Pass until 2024

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Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed that Activision Blizzard games aren’t coming to Xbox Game Pass anytime soon. In the latest official Xbox podcast, Spencer confirms there’s not going to be a big drop of Activision Blizzard games into Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks and that we won’t see any until 2024.


Here’s what Spencer had to say:



The regulatory process took so long… that we weren’t able to get in and work with the Activision Blizzard on that back catalog work. Now that the deal is closed, we’re starting that work, but there is work. I think the Activision Twitter handle… did put out something that talked about 2024, and I think that’s accurate. I would love it if there was some kind of secret…




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

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


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


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


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



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Everything you need to track your movies, music, books, and more

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge


Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 10, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hooray! I’m so happy you’re here, and also, you can catch up on all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) We made it through 10 weeks! It’s been so fun to make this every week and to talk to you all about the cool stuff you’re into. Thanks for being part of the Installerverse (we’re gonna make that a thing, it’s gonna happen), and as always, tell me everything you think we can do to make it better!


This week, I’ve been reading about Marvel’s plan to fix its TV shows and all the wild testimony from the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, making lots of deranged art in the improved Bing Chat, watching the David Beckham…



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LG’s desk-friendly C3 OLED has dipped below $1,000 for the first time

LG’s 42-inch C3 OLED TV might not be big enough for your living room, but it will look great on your desk. | Image: LG


Welcome to the weekend, dear readers! Although we’ve spent the past week pummeling you with deals from Amazon’s fall Prime Day event — some of which are still available, to be sure — our Saturday roundup is mostly concerned with the discounts that have cropped up in the time since, starting with LG’s C3 OLED. Right now, you can grab the 42-inch model at Amazon for $921.48 (about $276 off).







Like the much-lauded C2 we reviewed last year, it’s hard to go wrong with LG’s brilliant C3 panel, regardless of what type of entertainment you watch. The TV features terrific picture quality and many of the same specs that made last year’s C2 such a great pick for gamers, including a 120Hz refresh rate and comprehensive HDMI 2.1 support, only with a…



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Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard’s deal for cloud gaming rights, explained

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Microsoft’s giant Activision Blizzard deal is complete, and it means Ubisoft has now obtained cloud streaming rights for Call of Duty, all other current Activision Blizzard games, and any coming over the next 15 years. It was a key concession from Microsoft that helped get the deal over the line with UK regulators. But what does it all mean?


Ubisoft will now control where Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games show up on cloud gaming services, with the exception of EU countries and the various cloud gaming deals Microsoft signed previously. If you live in a country that’s part of the European Economic Area (EEA) — which includes EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway — then you’ll get a free license to stream…



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