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Photo by HUSSEIN FALEH/AFP via Getty Images Some tens of thousands of people woke up on Christmas Day to doubled wages and a higher-than-expected bank balance after Santander did an oopsie, depositing £130 million ($176 million) into accounts held by its UK customers. Santander would now like the money back, please. The deposit mishap was the result of a mysterious “scheduling issue,” according to The Times , which first reported the story. The bank confirmed to The Verge that some payments were accidentally doubled. (Santander is characterizing it as a “technical issue.”) Those transactions included those from 2,000 businesses, as well as accidental deposits across 75,000 accounts of individuals and companies like a corporate Ebeneezer Scrooge who’d been scared into generosity. S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3sHJSs2

Amelia Holowaty Krales CES has dropped the last day of its 2022 tech conference in Las Vegas, and the show will now end on January 7th, the Consumer Technology Association announced today. The shorter schedule is “an additional safety measure” in the face of a surge of COVID-19 diagnoses. Over the last two weeks, a number of large companies — including BMW , Intel, AMD, GM, Google, T-Mobile, Amazon, Microsoft and the company formerly known as Facebook — have dropped their physical presences at the conference. It’s the largest tech conference in the world, which typically pulls more than 10,000 people in each year. The CTA’s president and CEO has said the show “will and must go on.” Yesterday the US set a grim new record in COVID: the highest number of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qEmtVJ

The US will continue to work with other countries’ space programs on the International Space Station through 2030, NASA announced today . That will allow for an uninterrupted transition to a planned commercial space station (or stations!) in the late 2020s. Funds for the ISS have already been approved through 2024. NASA administrator Bill Nelson told The Verge in May that he wants to continue work on the ISS through 2030. The ISS’s future was called into question in 2018 The ISS’s future was called into question in 2018, when a draft budget proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration had scheduled ending support for the space station in 2025. More recently, escalating tensions between the US and Russia have threatened the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Ho9gqO

Canon EOS-1D X Mark III | Image: Canon When Canon revealed the EOS-1D X Mark III in January 2020, we proclaimed that the DSLR “still isn’t dead,” but that camera will mark the end of the line for a flagship model that some pro photographers still swear by to capture everything from sporting events to wild animals. An end to the production and development timeline of the EOS-1 is estimated as “within a few years.” CanonRumors points out an interview Canon’s chairman and CEO Fujio Mitarai gave this week to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun (via Y.M. Cinema Magazine ). The piece highlight how high-end mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras have taken market share digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras previously dominated. In it, the CEO is quoted (in Japanese, which... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3HnRxjo

Samsung has started teasing its next flagship smartphone SoC — expected to be called the Exynos 2200 — ahead of a January 11th announcement with a tantalizing tidbit of information: the new chipset will feature a GPU powered by AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture, better known for powering the next-gen graphics on the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and AMD’s RX 6000-series graphics cards. Of course, given that the Exynos 2200 will be powering a smartphone, the new GPU won’t be magically enabling next-gen graphics on par with the most powerful consoles and gaming PCs. But it likely will enable some improvements in graphics, along with whatever other upgrade Samsung has up its sleeve for its latest flagship chip. #PlaytimeIsOver . The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3EEEOqv

Image: evleaks (Twitter) It looks like Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, will borrow more heavily from the Galaxy Note’s DNA than ever before. In fact, a newly leaked official render published by Evan Blass confirms that the phone is pretty much a Note in every way except for its name. Wider screen with more surface to write on? Check. S Pen silo? Check. Flat top and bottom? Yep. Around back is a camera array that sticks closely to the layout from the S21 Ultra. Personally, I think the S21 Ultra was one of the boldest, best-looking phones Samsung has ever produced — especially that sleek matte black version. It owned the large camera bump in a way that actually looked good . Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3zaimEG

Image: Samsung PCIe 5.0 SSDs have already started to get announced ahead of CES 2022, with Samsung and Adata teasing early hardware that supports the new standard. But it’s not just theoretical: Intel has released a new demo video showing off Samsung’s new PM1743 PCIe NVMe SSD in action (together with Intel’s Core i9-12900K CPU, of course) to hit data speeds over 13GB/s in the real world. Perks of the job! Was going to save this demo for #CES2022 but with that off the table, why not just share it with everyone right now?! Here’s a 12th Gen ⁦ @intel ⁩ Core i9-12900K system paired with a new ⁦ @Samsung ⁩ PM1743 PCIe 5.0 SSD getting over 13GB/s!! pic.twitter.com/oyL08KzDtV — Ryan Shrout (@ryanshrout) December 30, 2021 To put that in perspective, the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/31fBWD4

Water vapor rises from the NRG Energy Inc. WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. The plant was home to the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project, until it shut down in 2021 because of high costs.  | Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images The Biden administration wants to shove more money into projects that are supposed to capture CO2 emissions from power plants and industrial facilities before they can escape and heat up the planet. But carbon capture technologies that the Department of Energy has already supported in the name of tackling climate change have mostly fallen flat, according to a recent report by the watchdog Government Accountability Office. About $1.1 billion has flowed from the Department of Energy to carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects since 2009. Had they panned out, nine coal plants and industrial facilities would have been outfitted with devices that scrub most of the CO2 out of their emissions. On

A pair of non-fungible token projects are testing the boundary between plagiarism and parody. Digital marketplace OpenSea has banned the PHAYC and Phunky Ape Yacht Club (or PAYC) collections, both of which are based on the same gimmick: selling NFTs with mirrored but otherwise identical versions of high-priced Bored Ape Yacht Club avatars. Now the dueling projects are selling their apes while dodging bans from other marketplaces, becoming the latest example of how the NFT world handles copied art. Bored Ape Yacht Club (or BAYC) NFTs are some of the most expensive crypto art assets — they recently overtook CryptoPunks as the highest-priced NFT avatars with the cheapest available ape selling for $217,000. Like other avatars, though,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Jy4fOb

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has issued voluntary recalls for nearly half a million vehicles to address potential failures in its trunk latching systems, as first reported by Barron’s . The recalls apply to all Model 3 units released between 2017 and 2020, as well as certain Model S units . For the Model 3, Tesla believes the opening and closing of the trunk could damage the cable harness attaching the rearview camera, causing the camera to unexpectedly fail. The Model S issue is more serious, potentially preventing the front trunk from fully latching. According to documents submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are 475,318 vehicles subject to the recall, comprising 356,309 Model 3 vehicles and 119,109 Model S vehicles.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Jub7Mr

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Sony’s Xperia 1 III has a few things that other flagship phones don’t, including a near-4K, 120Hz OLED display, along with plenty of high-quality manual photo and video controls, dual front-facing speakers, and a headphone jack. And yet, The Verge ’s Allison Johnson couldn’t recommend it — mostly due to its high $1,300 cost. Though, today’s deal on the phone makes the price just a little more digestible. For only the second time since it launched during the summer, Sony’s unlocked Xperia 1 III smartphone has returned to its all-time low price of $1,198 at Amazon and Adorama . For context, that’s around the same price as the iPhone 12 Pro Max and even cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with equivalent storage capacity. Best Buy also... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/32C818H

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Some great ways to tweak your new PC Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Hn7W7t

Image: Canoo A vehicle at EV startup Canoo burned on August 24th after lithium-ion batteries left inside the car started a fire. The local fire department was able to extinguish the blaze and no one was injured, according to an incident report obtained by The Verge . The fire happened in the parking lot outside Canoo’s Torrance, California corporate office, which was once the startup’s headquarters — before it started calling Bentonville, Arkansas home in November . Canoo’s VP of communications Agnes Gomes-Koizumi confirmed the fire occurred after The Verge requested comment. “A small fire occurred several hours after the intentionally destructive testing of a battery module,” Gomes said in an e-mailed statement, noting the module passed the test and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/32H07uq

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is one of many e-readers currently available as part of a discounted bundle at Amazon. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality. Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. Below, we’ve listed each model currently available for purchase. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one, or any, of the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/35V2I1Y

Sony’s WF-1000XM4, the best true wireless earbuds you can buy, are still on sale for $248. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Whether you’ve got a stack of gift cards burning a hole in your pocket or ended up with two air fryers that you don’t have room for, there are still plenty of deals to help you stretch your spending before the new year. Below we’ve outlined some of the best tech deals, sales, and promotions from a variety of retailers across a number of categories to make sure you don’t end up with two stand mixers when you didn’t even need one. Select a category Smart home deals Gaming deals Headphone and earbud deals Smartwatch deals 4K TV deals Laptop, Chromebook, and tablet deals Streaming device deals Other deal highlights Smart home deals While they certainly aren’t for everyone, the usefulness of Amazon’s Echo devices makes them an excellent... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3EBGDof

Even for Xiaomi, the 12 and 12 Pro offer huge main camera modules. | Image: Xiaomi Xiaomi is at it again — putting another fantastically huge camera on a flagship phone. This time, it’s the Xiaomi 12 Pro with a 50-megapixel main sensor and f/1.9 standard wide lens. It’s not the very biggest sensor Xiaomi has used in a phone, but the combination of a wide aperture lens and sizable imaging chip makes it... well, just look at the thing. On the technical side, it’s a Sony IMX707 chip, which Xiaomi says it’s the first to use in a mobile device. Gizmochina points out that the 707 appears to be a very light refresh of the IMX700, which makes that claim a little less exciting. Either way, it’s a large 1/1.28-inch type sensor. Sony combines its 1.22μm pixels, which are already fairly large for a mobile camera sensor, to create... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qxR5Iu

james webb space telescope Following the revolutionary and successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, into space on Christmas day, NASA announced some unexpected news about the telescope’s future: its science mission is likely to last “significantly more” than 10 years — more than double the minimum time for the mission. Initially, JWST was projected to be operational for 5 to 10 years, but NASA’s latest analysis released today found that the telescope will likely have enough propellant to support scientific operations for even longer. According to NASA, the extra propellant is thanks to the precision of the Ariane 5 rocket that the JWST was on when it was launched into space. It is also due to the precision of the first and second mid-course... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3sJ1weX

Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images We have bad news if you’re on winter break and hope to play some Fortnite , as Epic Games has confirmed its battle royale shooter is down — and this time it’s not to help expand the game’s lore . According to a tweet from its own status page , “ Fortnite is currently unavailable and players are unable to log-in while we investigate an issue. We’ll provide more info when we have a solution to bring services back online.” Fortnite is currently unavailable and players are unable to log-in while we investigate an issue. We'll provide more info when we have a solution to bring services back online. pic.twitter.com/B3wXvu5SL6 — Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 29, 2021 pic.twitter.com/233nt73aDw — andrew webster (@A_Webster) December... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3mId3XZ

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian is telling customers that it won’t be building R1T pickup trucks with the “Max pack” battery option until 2023, as it’ll be prioritizing ones with the standard “large” battery pack for production throughout next year ( via Electrek ). In an email attributed to CEO RJ Scaringe, the company says it will work on orders for the higher-trim “Adventure Package” trucks with the regular battery first, and that the lower-end “Explorer Package” and bigger battery will come later. When the company debuted its truck in 2018, the 400-mile estimated range afforded by the 180kWh Max pack was a big selling point. The “large” battery pack that comes standard with the trucks gets an EPA estimated range of 314 miles, but for the adventurous, off-road... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3FxbNym

Samsung’s Family Hub smart fridge will now be part of its colorful, customizable Bespoke line. | Image: Samsung The smart fridge has long been the butt of many IoT-related memes, but Samsung is betting that maybe all smart fridges needed to nab a spot in your kitchen was a more colorful look. The company will show off its newest iteration of the smart fridge at CES 2022 next week, and while it still can’t reliably determine what food you need and automatically order it so you don’t even have to think about shopping, it can be a pretty shade of blue. The Samsung Family Hub fridge is now a part of Samsung’s Bespoke appliance line. First introduced in 2021, the Bespoke range is a selection of modular, configurable appliances with a clean, modern look and customizable colors and finishes. Image: Samsung The Family Hub fridge... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/33S5qrp

A telescope in disguise Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qs8PoF

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Many Alexa-powered Amazon Echo speakers and displays are still enjoying Black Friday discounts. One of the most appealing deals is on the Amazon Echo Show 5 display, which is normally $84.99 but can be found at Amazon and Best Buy for $44.99. This smart display could be the perfect companion for your nightstand or kitchen counter, since it can handle alarm, recipe, and entertainment duties. While it shares a lot of functionality with Echo speakers, the Echo Show display is capable of more, like streaming video from Prime Video and Netflix, showing you the forecast, or displaying your agenda for the day. Additionally, the built-in camera lets you video chat with family and friends. Read our review . You can also find the latest version... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/343qFqu

Image: Lego After months of waiting, Lego’s official Sonic the Hedgehog set is finally here: a $69.99, 1,125-piece recreation of the iconic Green Hill Zone stage, complete with Lego-ized versions of the titular heroic hedgehog, a handful of classic Sonic villains, Dr. Eggman, and — of course — the Chaos Emeralds. Officially called the Lego Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone set, the new kit’s origins are in a crowdsourced Lego Ideas set that was suggested by Lego and Sonic fan Viv Grannell in early 2019. After the set reached 10,000 votes through the Ideas program, Lego conducted an official review of the project in March 2020, and in February 2021, greenlit the proposal for development into a real set. Image: Lego “... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3JrFjI7

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hello, hello. I hope you all had a nice holiday and are ready for another one. Last week we looked back on 2021, and this week, we’re looking forward to 2022. We have a couple quick news hits from last week to get through first, but then Aria and I will offer our predictions for the year to come. Off we go. Project Brazen and Audiation ordered to release audio recorded for Fat Leonard In a troubling precedent for journalism, a judge in San Diego ruled the podcast companies behind Fat Leonard , Project Brazen and Audiation, must share all recorded audio from their lead character, Leonard Glenn Francis — even audio that wasn’t included in the show’s final cut. The San Diego Union-Tribune has all the details , but essentially, the podcast... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/33XdQxH

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Load your phone with these recommendations, many of which are free Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3et6K6n

Xiaomi 12 series has leaked yet again, giving us a brief look at the specifications and pricing ahead of its launch on December 28. Xiaomi 12, Xiaomi 12X and Xiaomi 12 Pro are expected to launch later today and the key specifications of these upcoming phones have surfaced online. Xiaomi has additionally confirmed that the standard Xiaomi 12 supports 67W fast charging while the Xiaomi 12 Pro comes equipped with a Surge P1 chip as it supports 120W fast charging. As per the leak which was posted on Weibo before making its way to Twitter, the Xiaomi 12 is set to get a new design on the back along with a vertical triple camera module. The leak also suggests that the Xiaomi 12 Pro will be offered in four colours to choose from. Moreover, a separate leak revealed some alleged hands-on pictures of the Xiaomi 12 series. Full Xiaomi 12 Pro Specs and Images leaked on Weibo 1/2 Source: https://t.co/CArMq6mkTW pic.twitter.com/1DJyFLMuOX — Snoopy (@_snoopytech_) December 26, 2021 According to a

People walk outside the Apple Store on the Upper West Side on March 12th, 2021 in New York City. | Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images As initially reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman , all of New York City’s Apple Stores have joined the list of locations closing their doors to most customers amid a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections. Image: Apple.com Services at Apple Upper West Side Last week, Apple closed seven stores in North America in a single day as positive tests among employees rose, and MacRumors points out that even before this announcement, the Apple website listed more than 20 locations that were closed today due to the effects of the pandemic. For people in New York City, the stores are still accessible if you have an appointment to pick up an online order. All other services, like its Genius Bar tech support or shopping... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/311XNxx

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An unauthorized NFT drop celebrating infosec pioneers has collapsed into a mess of conflicting takedowns and piracy. Released on Christmas Day by a group called “ItsBlockchain,” the “Cipher Punks” NFT package included portraits of 46 distinct figures, with ten copies of each token. Taken at their opening price, the full value of the drop was roughly $4,000. But almost immediately, the infosec community began to raise objections — including some from the portrait subjects themselves. The portrait images misspelled several names — including EFF speech activist Jillian York and OpenPGP creator Jon Callas — and based at least one drawing on a copyright-protected photograph. More controversially, the list included some figures who have been... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Jk1ShX

Image by Warner Bros. Pictures A new trailer for The Batman gives us a glimpse at Catwoman’s “thing” for stray cats and the Riddler’s affinity for FaceTime. What’s promised as an even grittier take on Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Batman, Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, and Paul Dano as the Riddler. The two-and-a-half-minute teaser, appropriately titled “The Bat and the Cat,” highlights the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, who don’t always appear to get along. In one scene, Batman is commenting on the — apparently concerning — number of cats Catwoman has in her home, and in the next, the duo is sparring in a low-lit office. The pair comes together by the end of the trailer, with both battling the same bad guys. Image by Warner Bros.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3eqSMBO

Not pictured: a beloved phone. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Motorola is working on a new version of its Razr foldable smartphones, according to a Weibo post spotted by Android Authority . The post is from Chen Jin, the general manager of the Lenovo Mobile Business Group in China (Lenovo is currently in charge of Motorola’s smartphone business), and describes how the company has been quietly working on a new addition to its lineup of foldable phones. It doesn’t have big shoes to fill — Motorola’s first two modern foldables were mediocre phones with hefty price tags. We ran Jin’s post through a few translation sites, and while some parts didn’t make the jump to English, there are consistent details that show up in all the translations. The post mentions that the phone will have a better processor,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3EE2xaE

Walmart store Last week, the California attorney general and 12 state officials filed a lawsuit against Walmart, saying it allegedly illegally disposed of electronic and hazardous waste, compromising local landfills. California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges in a statement the company violated state environmental laws with their practices, and the waste included materials like lithium and alkaline batteries, insect killer sprays, aerosol cans, LED lightbulbs, and more. State investigators conducted 58 inspections across 13 counties from 2015 to 2021 and said they found classified hazardous and medical waste in each store’s trash compactors, as well as customer information that should have been rendered indecipherable. The California DOJ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3z0q8kq

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom has acquired the Zoom-based broadcast tools created by the startup Liminal, along with two of the company's co-founders, the videoconferencing platform announced in a post on its blog . Liminal’s add-ons, ZoomOSC and ZoomISO , are built for creating professional virtual events, which Zoom will likely natively integrate into its software as part of the acquisition. The acquisition will help “bridge” the gap between “emerging” and “traditional” forms of event control tools As noted on Liminal’s site, ZoomOSC is designed to enhance professional meetings and events using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol, enabling you to integrate Zoom with third-party software, hardware controllers, and media servers. Meanwhile, ZoomISO allows you to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Jy1Ymr

Final Fantasy XVI is the latest game to be hit by COVID-related development delays, with the game’s producer Naoki Yoshida announcing in a letter posted to Twitter that work on the upcoming PlayStation 5 RPG has been set back by about six months. Furthermore, Yoshida announced that the next major reveal for the upcoming title — originally promised for sometime in 2021 — is now being pushed out to sometime in spring 2022. A message from Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida. #FF16 #FFXVI pic.twitter.com/qtfJUUp6LA — FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) December 27, 2021 It’s not too surprising that Final Fantasy XVI has been hit by delays. As the first flagship Final Fantasy game for a next-generation console, the development... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3exJWC8

“The Vault” is an appropriate name. | Image: XPG XPG has announced the XPG Vault, a “concept” mouse that has a built-in SSD to let you carry around your mouse and storage in one package ( via Engadget ). While lots of gaming mice have some built-in storage to let you easily carry macros and preferences from computer to computer, and the concept of a mouse doubling as a flash drive has been around for over a decade , XPG is aiming a little higher. It’s promising “to make your gaming libraries conveniently portable,” right from your mouse. There aren’t many details for the Vault in XPG’s press release, but XPG says the “current prototype can integrate up to 1TB of Solid State memory running at 985MB/s” and connects with USB-C. Given that it’s a wired mouse, that performance seems possible —... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3ptzKRI

Polish opposition leader Krzysztof Brejza | Photo by Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty Images Several members of political opposition groups in Poland have produced evidence that they were hacked by Pegasus spyware, raising alarming questions about the Polish government’s use of the software. The most alarming case involved the leader of Poland’s Civic Platform party, Senator Krzysztof Brejza, whose phone was compromised a total of 33 times in the six months leading up to the 2019 election, as reported by the Associated Press . During the campaign, Polish state media published damaging text messages obtained from Brejza’s phone, leading to concerns that spyware had been used. a threat to “the rules-based international order” The compromises were discovered by Citizen Lab, a spyware research group based at the University of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3HcxGUb

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge During the Christmas holiday, it was easy to pick up on the theme on Twitter that many of you either bought or received an Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset . Well, in perfect timing, Oculus has discounted many of its official accessories for the Quest 2, which can help to protect your headset, as well as make it more comfortable to wear. We’ve seen promotions that discount these add-ons when you purchase a headset, but never by themselves, so that’s why they’re prominently featured today. Best Buy has the best deal on the Elite Strap that replaces the fabric strap that comes with your Quest 2. It distributes the weight of the headset more evenly on your head, with adjusters on the top and rear of the Elite Strap. Normally $49, it’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3HiuDtM

The Epic Games Store is offering Control for free as part of its 15 days of free games promotion — the game is only available for free until December 27th at 11AM. To get the game, simply log in to the Epic Games Store (or create an account), navigate to Control ’s game page , and then hit “Get” to add the game to your library for free. The Federal Bureau of Control has granted us authorization to disperse free copies of @ControlRemedy for one day only. Claim yours while you can, Director. https://t.co/1bzgT8zKH0 pic.twitter.com/ZkJp5yh9VX — Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) December 26, 2021 Control was a freebie on the Epic Games Store this past June, so if you missed picking it up then, now you have another chance to grab it for free.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3swry53

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has reportedly hired Andrea Schubert, Meta’s communications and public relations lead for its augmented reality (AR) products, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter. Schubert’s LinkedIn page indicates that she’s been working for Meta for nearly six years. “Meta, with Oculus, has been the market leader in headsets, so such a hire makes sense as Apple nears its launch” “Meta, with Oculus, has been the market leader in headsets, so such a hire makes sense as Apple nears its launch,” Gurman explains. On both Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, Meta’s Oculus Quest 2 was one of the top-selling products. Not to mention that Meta’s Oculus app topped the App Store in the US on Christmas Day, and became... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3sBaMBY

Alexander Skarsgård is out for revenge in The Northman | Focus Features Hello and welcome to the final trailers roundup for 2021, I hope you have enjoyed reading (and watching) these roundups as much as I have enjoyed writing them. There were a lot of really good streaming shows and movies this year despite the persistence of the coronavirus that disrupted so much of our lives. Among my personal favorites were Loki, Succession, Ted Lasso, The Beatles: Get Back, King Richard, and Y: The Last Man (pls someone pick up this show it was just getting started!). This week’s list has Vikings, Hercule Poirot, and a look at the upcoming Showtime series about the early days of Uber. The Northman Director Robert Eggers ( The Witch , The Lighthouse ), said in an interview with EW that The Northman was “by far the hardest... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3sA5bvr

A Tesla Model S strapped with dynamite. | Screenshot from Pommijätkät via YouTube When faced with a repair bill that costs half of what you paid for your car, do you go through with the expensive repair, bring it to the junkyard, or sell it for parts? Finnish Tesla owner Tuomas Katainen decided to do something a little more extreme — but arguably a lot more satisfying — when faced with such a situation: he watched his car go up in flames, as noted in a report from Gizmodo . Katainen handed his 2013 Tesla Model S over to Pommijätkät , a group of explosion experts on YouTube who loves to make things go “boom,” after he was quoted $22,600 for a battery replacement. “Well when I bought that Tesla, the first 1,500km [932 miles] were nice,” Katainen recounted. “Then, error codes hit.” After Katainen brought his Tesla to a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3z39VLw

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge New phone, new start Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Jj5NeX

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge A privacy-minded roundup of apps, including a self-care penguin Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3Eyr4NX

Death Star for scale. | Image: Park My Spaceship Park My Spaceship is the simple, extremely amusing app I didn’t know I needed. It allows you to superimpose to-scale images of notable spacecraft from sci-fi shows and movies over Google Maps. That’s it. It’s great. You can check to see if Serenity would fit in your backyard or if the Millennium Falcon could land in your neighborhood park. It’s been around since 2018, but I first encountered it this week when @CincinnatiPhil TILearned about it and shared his discoveries on Twitter. I set about placing ships around the greater Seattle area and found that the Millennium Falcon fits nicely in the fountain plaza in front of the Space Needle, which would look cool as hell. You can almost fit a Star Destroyer in Lake Union or park it on... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/30WgUci

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Many of these games play well on Series S, too Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qnI2tE

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge If you’re lucky enough to have one, that is Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3ptl1X2

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Steam Global seems to have been banned in China, according to a report from TheGamer . Only the Chinese version of Steam remains accessible in the country, which currently offers a limited library of just 103 games — a very small fraction of the over 110,000 games that Steam Global has at this time of writing. Reliable Fortnite leaker and data miner Ricky Owens (aka iFireMonkey) first noticed the ban and tweeted out a screenshot of what appears to be Steam on a list of blocked websites in China. We tried to verify this for ourselves using Comparitech’s tool that checks whether a site is blocked in China. Upon entering “store.steampowered.com,” into the site, the tool indicates that Steam has been blocked in all parts of the country — as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/32hV581

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The best games to play together or alone Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3H8HuhW

Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls Early Christmas morning, NASA’s revolutionary new space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, successfully launched into space after taking off on top of a European Ariane 5 rocket from South America. The launch marks the beginning of one of the most anticipated NASA missions in decades, a program that promises to transform how we study the deepest depths of the Universe. “From a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself, James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the Universe,” Rob Navias, NASA’s announcer on the agency’s livestream, said at liftoff. Though the initial trip to space may have been successful, there’s still a risky journey ahead for the James Webb Space Telescope , also known as JWST. Over the next month,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3mtmhY4

After nearly two and a half decades of planning and work, NASA is finally set to launch its next-generation space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, this morning. The spacecraft will ride to space on top of a European Ariane 5 rocket, taking off out of Europe’s primary launch site in French Guiana, South America. The launch is expected to last just 26 minutes to get JWST to space. Once it’s free of the rocket, JWST will then spend the next month traveling to its final destination roughly 1 million miles from Earth and slowly unfurling to reach its final form for probing the cosmos. Here’s what you need to know to watch today’s launch. How do I watch the launch? NASA plans to livestream today’s launch on its dedicated channel,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3mSRLr1