- Comcast received a patent for this smart speaker design, but will it ever be released?comcastComcast has received a patent for a smart speaker — one with a very unusual design, to say the least (thanks to @SteveDonohue on Twitter for pointing this out). Instead of opting for a spherical ... read more
- The latest iPad Air with M1 processor and expanded 256GB storage is $70 offThe 2022 iPad Air looks a lot like the 2020 model, but with faster performance. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeIt’s officially Memorial Day Weekend. Time to get the grill going, throw ... read more
- Stranger Things 4’s new monster is made with practical effects, some CG, and lots of lubeVecna in his natural habitat. | Image: NetflixVecna is here to terrorize Hawkins Continue reading… ... read more
- How to print from a ChromebookPhoto by James Bareham / The VergeWhile Google’s Chromebooks are all about online services, sometimes you need a good old-fashioned printout to accompany your digital adventures. Printing from a Chromebook has gotten a lot easier ... read more
- Go read this look into how the fall of TerraUSD took everything from some stablecoin investorsIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThe recent collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin caught the crypto market by surprise. For people who saw Terra as a more secure asset compared to other, more openly ... read more
- America’s Summer of Rolling BlackoutsGreen energy policies are making the nation’s electric-power grid increasingly unstable. ... read more
- The Wisconsin GOP’s Latest MeltdownWhy do Republicans seem so determined to lose the November elections? ... read more
- When Police Make a ‘Wrong Decision’Uvalde officers are under scrutiny for delay in stopping the school shooter. ... read more
- Education Embarrassment in VirginiaA new report on academic results shows that Gov. Youngkin has a great opportunity. ... read more
- Atlanta Apple store workers say ‘intimidation’ has made a fair union vote impossibleIt claims the company intimidated workers. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeWorkers at the Cumberland Mall Apple store will no longer hold a union election in June, according to a report from Bloomberg. ... read more
- Red Flag Laws Are As Good as the DataSchool shooters only hide their intentions from those who aren’t looking. ... read more
- Harry Blackmun’s Other Wrong Supreme Court DecisionThe Justice who wrote for the Roe v. Wade majority also validated the Major League Baseball cartel. ... read more
- Why Electricity Blackouts Are Coming to MichiganThe shutdown of a nuclear power plant makes the state vulnerable to cloudy, windless days. ... read more
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the sequel to Fallen OrderDuring day two of the weekend-long Star Wars Celebration event, we got a first look at the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, called Jedi: Survivor. It’s expected to launch in 2023 for the PS5, Xbox ... read more
- One Tough DentistA story of courage all Americans should know. ... read more
- Meta rewrites privacy policy but says it won’t collect data in ‘new ways’Meta’s new Privacy Policy menu | Image: MetaAs it occasionally does, the company formerly known as Facebook has produced a new revision of its Terms of Service and updated its privacy policy. The old Facebook ... read more
- Diablo Immortal will launch with native voice chat transcription and speech-to-textBlizzardDiablo Immortal is hell, literally, but playing it doesn’t have to be. Ahead of the game’s June 2nd release date, the Diablo team at Blizzard talked about some of the accessibility features they’ve built into ... read more
- Nintendo’s N64 emulation woes continue with Kirby bug, but a fix is comingThe game launched on Nintendo Switch Online last week. | Image: NintendoNintendo has promised to fix an annoying bug that’s cropped up in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, a Nintendo 64 game that’s available via ... read more
- FromSoftware says it’s ‘in the process’ of restoring Dark Souls’ online serversPraise the servers. | Image: FromSoftwareThe servers for the Dark Souls series have been offline for PC players for months due to a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that could let hackers take over your ... read more
- Netflix adds content warning to Stranger Things season 4 premiere after Texas school shootingMillie Bobby Brown as Eleven. | NetflixDue to the general but chilling similarities the opening scenes of Stranger Things 4 bear to the recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Netflix has ... read more
- Can America’s Cities Make a Post-Pandemic Comeback?America’s leading economist of urban life says a return to the workplace is crucial, especially for the young. ... read more
- In Joseph Conrad, a Lens on Russia’s BarbarismRaised in Ukraine by Polish parents, the writer grew up under Russian rule—and chronicled the cruelty of a regime opposed to Western values. ... read more
- Samsung’s reportedly cutting its phone production for 2022The scale-back seems significant. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The VergeSamsung is reportedly scaling back the number of phones it’s planning on producing in 2022, from 310 million to 280 million, according to SamMobile, ... read more
- Analogue Pocket’s first big update is finally coming in July as a betaPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeAnalogue Pocket’s long-awaited 1.1 update will finally be arriving in July, Analogue announced in a short blog post on Friday. The Analogue Pocket OS v1.1 release will include ... read more
- The Verge’s favorite summer gear for 2022Kristen Radtke / The VergeThe last few years have been incredibly hard for almost everyone, so now that summer is about here, it’s a good idea to step outside and decompress a bit with whatever ... read more
- How to change Alexa’s wake wordChoose from Computer, Echo, Amazon or... Ziggy | Photo by Dan Seifert / The VergeIf you’re getting tired of saying “Alexa” to get your smart speaker’s attention, or if Amazon’s voice assistant keeps thinking you’ve ... read more
- SEC questions Elon Musk over late Twitter disclosure
- Hacker accesses a Verizon employee database and tries to ransom the data for $250,000Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeVerizon is dealing with an incident where a hacker captured a database containing company employee data, including the full names of workers as well as their ID numbers, email ... read more
- Obi-Wan Kenobi’s early episodes lean on the best of classic Star WarsEwan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Obi-Wan Kenobi. | Image: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd.A beloved hero, ferocious villains, and lots of world-building Continue reading… ... read more
- Federal regulators crack down after pipeline caught spewing CO2A carbon dioxide warning is displayed on the grounds near equipment installed as part of the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project at the NRG Energy Inc. WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, Texas, U.S., on ... read more
- Barnes & Noble introduces a cheap e-reader to compete with the KindleImage: Barnes & NobleBarnes & Noble hasn’t completely forgotten its lineup of Nook e-readers. Starting today, you can preorder the new Nook GlowLight 4e for $119.99. That’s about $30 more than Amazon’s cheapest Kindle and ... read more
- Bose’s noise-canceling QuietComfort 45 headphones are $50 off todayBose’s QuietComfort 45 are the most comfortable noise-canceling headphones and are currently available at an all-time low. | Photo by Chris Welch / The VergeIf you’re planning on flying this summer, a good pair of ... read more
- Chromebooks will now tell you when you’re using the wrong USB-C cableIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeGoogle’s latest Chromebook update adds a feature that tells you if your USB-C cable has limited functionality, the company announced Friday. USB-C cables can have widely varying capabilities, offering ... read more
- The Programmatic Prognosticator Who Sees The Tide Turning From Walled Gardens To The Open WebLaura Martin, a media and tech analyst at investment bank Needham & Company, opened her presentation at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O in Las Vegas this week by singing her own walk-on music. “I came in like ... read more
- Ford delivers its first F-150 Lightning as EV truck war kicks into high gearPhoto by Andrew Hawkins / The VergeA rural Michigan man became the first person in the nation to receive a Ford F-150 Lightning, according to Bloomberg. Nicholas Schmidt, the chief technology officer of a grid ... read more
- Musk-linked investor resigns from Twitter board, then returnsIllustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty ImagesAs concerns mount about the future of Elon Musk’s buyout agreement, Twitter’s board of directors has seen an unexpected shake-up. On Wednesday, Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban ... read more
- Sony’s next State of Play will offer a sneak peek at PSVR2’s gamesPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeSony will broadcast almost half an hour of PlayStation trailers and announcements during its State of Play livestream next Thursday at 3PM PT (6PM ET), the company announced today. ... read more
- How TikTok Capitalizes On The Twin Trends Of Creators And Online CommerceAlthough TikTok gets lumped in with Facebook, Instagram and Snap, et al., it doesn’t consider itself to be a social media platform. And that’s because its users are typically there to binge short-form video content ... read more
- The Dune crypto collective is facing a reckoningConcept art from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune bible.Spice DAO, the cryptocurrency collective that bought a script bible for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-made Dune adaptation, is apparently still figuring out what to make of its success. Earlier this ... read more
- Chromebook 101: how to customize your Chromebook’s desktopChrome OS isn’t the most option-packed operating system around, but there are some things you can do to make your Chromebook’s desktop look and work the way you want. Ready? Customize your Chromebook’s wallpaper First, ... read more
- World Conquest of 'Real Housewives' Continues With Dubai EditionIn one scene of the new Dubai "Real Housewives," the women will be seen dining on a mountainside overlooking a valley of 1,000 camels. ... read more
- Wouldn’t life be more fun if charging bricks looked like tiny Macintosh computers?The Retro 35 charger. | Image: Shargeek / IndiegogoAccessory-maker Shargeek has launched an Indiegogo to fund a 35W USB-C charger shaped like a tiny Apple Macintosh computer. The page for the Retro 35’s crowdfunding campaign ... read more
- Gucci built a persistent town inside of RobloxGucci is making its presence inside of Roblox a little more permanent. The fashion brand previously collaborated with the virtual world for more short-lived experiences, like the surreal Gucci Garden from last year, and is ... read more
- Texas AG And Twitter Continue Feud Over Trump BanTwitter, Facebook and YouTube blocked Donald Trump's account in early January of 2021, shortly after his supporters rioted in an attempt to prevent the Senate from confirming Joe Biden's presidential victory. Ever since, Twitter has ... read more
- Digital Employment Rises To Record, Contrasting With Newspaper SlumpThe newspaper industry shed workers at the beginning of the pandemic, hastening a longer-term trend. ... read more
- Valve responds to TF2 bot issue, says it’s ‘working to improve things’Pyro and Scout face off. | Image: ValveValve has responded to a campaign from Team Fortress 2 players who want it to fix the game’s bot infestation that has made it almost unplayable in recent ... read more
- Programmatic Needs More Transparent Pricing“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Andrew Casale, president and CEO of Index Exchange. The programmatic market continues to boom ... read more
- Comic: Media Planning “Research”A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem… The post Comic: Media Planning “Research” appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more
- Meta Airs Its ATT Grievances; Google Is Under Investigation In The UK (Again)Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Since You Asked … When the Federal Telecommunications and Information Administration (FTIA) asked what tech companies thought of Apple, Meta happily chimed in. ... read more
- Bloomberg Media will debut five new podcasts with iHeartMedia this yearBloomberg Media and iHeartMedia are releasing five podcast shows this year, part of a co-production and distribution podcast deal between the business publisher and audio giant to create over a dozen new original shows in ... read more
- Disney taps executives to bolster audience-based advertising as a base of its businessTargeted advertising may be the dominant digital approach, but it’s still a burgeoning aspect of the broadening TV ad market. But that’s changing, albeit slowly though not as slowly anymore. Case in point: The Walt ... read more
- ‘Still getting started’: Coca-Cola’s candid progress report on its in-house planEven the biggest and most lauded advertisers struggle with moving more marketing in-house. Coca-Cola is a case in point: two years into its own in-house plan, and it’s still very much a work in progress. ... read more
- Netflix Could Hit 19M U.S. Subs For Ad-Supported Option — Potential $3B In Yearly Ad RevenueFor a new ad-supported option, Netflix could hit levels near Hulu's -- with ad revenue per subscriber of about $13.30/month from a possible 19 million U.S. subscribers, according to Ampere Analysis. ... read more
- The Jan. 6 Committee Is Weaponizing Majority RuleIf Republican leaders were to participate in this political stunt, it would change the House forever. ... read more
- A Steam Deck software update is turning fan noise way downA new update introduces a new fan curve. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeValve’s latest SteamOS update is a big one for Steam Deck fans — and I am literally talking about the ... read more
- Let Not Our Hearts Grow NumbDemocrats should stop their manipulations. Republicans should get serious on guns. ... read more
- A Federal Budget Warning for Joe ManchinCBO says revenues are booming, but government spending is rising faster. ... read more
- Chiefly Illiterate in San Francisco SchoolsThe district pulls ‘chief’ from its CFO’s title as a progressive gesture to Native Americans. ... read more
- Boris Johnson Goes Bernie SandersAfter this week he’ll struggle to explain why anyone should vote Tory. ... read more
- Incentives and the Migrant Border SurgeInternal documents note how asylum-seekers track White House signals. ... read more
- Indian Democracy Suffers for a Lack of a Competent OppositionThe Congress Party has foundered under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi but seems incapable of letting him go. ... read more
- It’s hard to believe Google Drive’s just now getting copy / paste shortcutsIt’s the standard Control / Command + C, X, and V. | Image: GoogleGoogle has announced that it’s adding the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste files in Drive, as long ... read more
- 'The Baltimore Banner,' NPR Station WYPR Team Up To Serve CityThe two newsrooms will collaborate on stories, special reports and programming. ... read more
- Why We Won’t Talk to the Jan. 6 CommitteeIf Republican leaders were to participate in this political stunt, it would change the House forever. ... read more
- Return of the National NannyWhen activists took charge of FTC rulemaking in the 1970s, the agency barely survived the debacle. ... read more
- DuckDuckGo Explains Microsoft Tracking On BrowserThe tracking is allowed by an agreement between the firms, but does not include personal identifiers or profiles, Bleeping Computer reports. ... read more
- Mental-Health Reform Is a Bipartisan IssuePolicy can reduce the risk of another mass shooting like Uvalde. Nothing can eliminate it entirely. ... read more
- My Mother-in-Law Believes Putin on the War in UkraineShe thinks the invasion is justified. They said so on Russian state TV. ... read more
- Venezuela Sanctions Relief Is a Trap for BidenMaduro wants sanctions relief but has zero interest in free and fair elections. ... read more
- True Detective’s fourth season is going to the Arctic with Jodie Foster as the leadJodie Foster at the 74th Annual Cannes Film Festival. | Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagicThough Jodie Foster has built a name for herself leading thrillers on the silver screen, her next big project’s going to be something ... read more
- PlayStation keeps pushing into TV and film with a Horizon Zero Dawn Netflix seriesAloy could be on her way to Netflix.Sony is continuing to go all in on turning its flagship video games into TV shows and movies — according to Variety, the company announced that it’s making ... read more
- Key Issues For A Successful Ad-Supported NetflixFor one: Netflix should make delivering the most viewer-friendly ad experience part of its promise and mission. ... read more
- Affordable Breakfast Wins in a LandslideMcDonald’s shareholders overwhelmingly reject billionaire’s animal agenda. ... read more
- OpenSea redesigns parts of its NFT store as sales continue to slumpOpenSea’s new profile page. | Image: OpenSeaOpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, has redesigned its profile and collections pages with the goal of making the site easier to navigate and making the actual NFTs ... read more
- Star Wars Celebration 2022: news from Disney’s big eventMando and Grogu. | Image: Lucasfilm Ltd.There’s a lot on the way Continue reading… ... read more
- Willow, the sequel to Willow, gets a trailer featuring WillowDisneyOnce upon a time, Ron Howard and George Lucas wanted to try and replicate the success of Star Wars by creating a whole new fantasy, Willow. The film came out in 1988, and while I ... read more
- Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is the latest live-action series coming to Disney PlusThe Star Wars universe on Disney Plus continues to expand with the official reveal of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, which stars Jude Law and is coming to the streaming service in 2023. Announced during Star ... read more
- The Mandalorian season 3 debuts February 2023Excited to see more Grogu? | Image: LucasfilmDisney announced at Star Wars Celebration that The Mandalorian’s third season will debut in February 2023 on Disney Plus. The third season of The Mandalorian has been a ... read more
- Microsoft confirms work on ‘Keystone’ Xbox game streaming dongleIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft’s long-in-the-works xCloud streaming device is going through some changes, as reported by Windows Central. The company first announced the dedicated streaming dongle in June 2021, but in a ... read more
- Watch the first trailer for Andor, coming to Disney Plus in AugustArt from Star Wars: Andor shared by Disney in a trailer. | Image: DisneyDisney kicked off its Star Wars Celebration event with the first look at Andor. The upcoming Disney Plus series stars Diego Luna, ... read more
- Apple’s reportedly flat iPhone production target for 2022 isn’t a great signApple’s reportedly predicting flat demand for the iPhone 13 and 14. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeApple, one of the biggest tech companies on the planet, reportedly doesn’t think it’ll sell any ... read more
- Ad Performance Overrides Branding In 'Shoppable Media'Business outcomes such as revenue are the most popular measures of ecommerce success. ... read more
- P&G’s Programmatic Strategy To Become The Top Spender On Black-Owned MediaProgrammatic can be a force for good. Procter & Gamble is using programmatic to reach multicultural audiences and support diverse publishers. Although some of the largest brands in the world have pledged to spend more ... read more
- Twitter shareholder sues Elon Musk for tanking the company’s stockIllustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty ImagesA new lawsuit on behalf of Twitter shareholders was filed against Elon Musk in federal district court in San Francisco on Wednesday night, alleging that the Tesla ... read more
- Monarch butterflies saw a resurgence in MexicoPhoto by Sylvain CORDIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesMonarch butterflies might be tougher than we give them credit for. The orange beauties made a surprising comeback in Mexico this winter, environmental organizations and Mexico’s commission for natural ... read more
- Republicans Can Stop ESG Political BiasThe progressive left is using it to advance goals it could never hope to achieve at the ballot box. ... read more
- Southern Baptists’ Moment of ReckoningA report on sex abuse in the church presents an ugly picture across 300 pages of evidence. ... read more
- Instagram is having some problems todayIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeIf you’re having trouble accessing Instagram right now, you are not the only one. Reports across the internet note issues with Meta’s more-than-just-pictures app, with many people seeing screens ... read more
- Gartner: Artificial Intelligence More Important Than Metaverse To Most CEOsThe metaverse might be the latest buzzword for the ad industry, but most CEOs participating in a Gartner survey ignore the technology. Here's what they do think about. ... read more
- Addressing Signal Loss At Programmatic I/OThere will be no silver-bullet solution when it comes to advertising signal loss, but instead a patchwork quilt. These mixed (but apt) metaphors were invoked by Paul Bannister, chief strategy officer for CafeMedia, at AdExchanger’s ... read more
- Tesla, other EV companies ask for federal investment in heavy-duty truck chargingIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeTesla, along with other electric vehicle companies and environmental groups, asked the Biden administration to invest in charging infrastructure for electric buses, trucks, and other medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. ... read more
- Google opens up Chrome and Chrome OS to enterprise security, control integrationsIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeGoogle is highlighting how Chromebooks can work in “zero trust” corporate environments with its new Chrome Enterprise Connectors Framework. The new integration system is designed to make the Chrome ... read more
- The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 is on sale for its lowest price ever at HPThe HP Envy x360 is one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops. | Photography by Monica Chin / The VergeWith Memorial Day right around the corner, many retailers are putting some awesome deals into effect early. ... read more
- Sesame Workshop Taps Known For Media AOR DutiesThe appointment follows two year of project work for the client including audience research and data strategy, the development of data infrastructure, and an intelligence platform now used by the entire organization. ... read more
- Amazon Astro review: too much Alexa, not enough armsWhile it’s not the robot we were looking for, Astro is rolling in the right direction. Continue reading… ... read more
- The Xbox Series X is readily available to order from Microsoft and Costco right nowThe flagship Xbox console occasionally dabbles in easy availability. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeIf you’re on the hunt for the Xbox Series X, we may currently have a brief respite from some ... read more
- The Big Story: Frontline Reporting From The TV And Podcast UpfrontsThe NewFronts are old news. Now it’s all about the upfronts, which are old. But don’t forget about the podcast upfronts, which are newer than the NewFronts but named after the TV oldfronts … or ... read more
- JCPenney Consolidates All Media At Dentsu XDentsu has been one of the retailer's agencies since 2005, and has already begun "onboarding the full media business." ... read more
- JCPenny Consolidates All Media At Dentsu XDentsu has been one of the retailer's agencies since 2005, and has already begun "onboarding the full media business." ... read more
- Scientists grow cells on a robot skeleton (but don’t know what to do with them yet)The cells were placed in a replica shoulder joint that was moved around to stimulate growth. | Image: Fisher StudiosThe science of tissue engineering — or growing human cells for use in medicine — is ... read more