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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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/31/22861939/santander-uk-mistake-payment-account

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/31/22861669/ces-2022-ends-early-covid-january-7

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/31/22861605/iss-officially-continuing-operations-2030

Fires continue to burn into the evening in neighborhoods on December 30, 2021 in Louisville, Colorado. | Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images Devastating fires in Colorado cap off a year of awful drought across the US. Dry conditions helped set the stage for blazes that scorched hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate just ahead of New Year’s Eve. The fires have been raging through suburbs near Denver since December 30th. Strong winds fanned the flames and knocked out power. About 6,000 acres and at least 500 homes had burned by Friday morning. But there were no casualties, which Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle called “miraculous” given the severity of the fire in a press briefing . Families had “minutes” to evacuate their homes, Governor Jared Polis said. More than two-thirds of Colorado’s land is experiencing “severe” drought, according to the US Drought... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/...

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...

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22860010/bored-ape-yacht-club-payc-phayc-copycat-nft

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales The rollout of the first major update for Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro has been slow and plagued by reports of problems. Now the company says it paused releasing the December 2021 update to investigate reports of calls dropping and disconnecting. The news arrived in a post on the Google Support forums (via Droid-Life ) that says a new version with all the previously announced features and a fix for the disconnection issue should be ready by late January. If you’re not having any problems, then you can keep using the new software for now, but for those afflicted by the connection issues, Google only suggests reverting and factory resetting your device as an option. Hey Pixel Community, The Pixel team paused the December software... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22860191/pixel-6-pro-google-december-feature-update-paused

Wondercise Studio is a mish-mash of a social media network and Apple Fitness Plus. | Image: Wondercise At CES 2022, Wondercise is looking to shake up connected fitness with a series of intriguing launches, including a new stationary bike, TV app, and trackers. However, the Taiwanese company’s most intriguing launch is Wondercise Studio — a social media platform for fitness that lets anyone livestream their own class, complete with real-time metrics and performance feedback from fitness trackers. Wondercise describes Studio as a “social media platform with a fitness focus,” but the reality is it’s more of a mish-mash of every bit of fitness tech currently out there. Users can voice and video chat with each other during livestreamed classes. Anyone can host their own class, and users also “follow” other users or instructors as you would on... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22859827/wondercise-studio-connected-fitness-social-media

Apple’s AirPods Pro wireless earbuds are a go-to pick that’s often on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holidays may have come and gone, but there are still some great discounts available on Apple’s AirPods. In fact, we’ve actually been seeing some deals that are even better than they were during the recent shopping holidays. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods in October and unveiled its new AirPods lineup, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model drop from $159 to $129. Even better, we’ve seen many retailers starting to heavily discount the second-gen AirPods as well as the more expensive AirPods Pro and Max, which offer noise cancellation and better sound quality than the standard model. We’ve even recently seen some significant discounts on the third-gen AirPods,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21302051/best-apple-airpods-deals

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge On Wednesday, New York City announced it has ordered 184 fully electric Ford Mustang Mach-Es for use by law enforcement and emergency response workers. The vehicles are set to be delivered by June 2022, as part of an $11.5 million contract that will remain in place for five years. The city said the Mach-Es would be used by the New York Police Department, New York City’s Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Correction, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Protection, and other emergency management and response departments. New York City plans to buy over 1,250 electric vehicles in 2022, transitioning all law enforcement vehicles to electric ones by 2035. “Law enforcement vehicles are the largest and most... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22860068/nyc-police-car-electric-ford-mustang-mach-e

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony’s latest gaming console, the PlayStation 5, is one of many gaming gadgets that are hard to find in stock right now due to mostly online-only sales. If you are trying to get your hands on one, Amazon has PS5 consoles in stock right now , while supplies last. The consoles are only available for Amazon Prime subscribers, continuing a trend of retailers restricting access to consoles for paying subscribers only . If you can’t add it to your cart, keep trying — occasionally the sites restock over a period of a few minutes. We will update this post once Amazon confirms it’s out of stock. We are continuing to track restocks as they roll out at various retailers. Also, be sure to subscribe to the Verge Deals newsletter to have the latest... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22856985/sony-playstation-5-amazon-disc-edition-console-restock-availability

I will not do this. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge I am the very person who should care about my appearance on Zoom calls. I don’t mean the state of my hair or appearance of hormonal acne on my face. I’m talking image quality. Focal length. Bokeh. I have written about and reviewed cameras and smartphones for over a decade. I use videoconferencing platforms throughout my work day. I own a nice camera that I could connect to my laptop and use for Zoom meetings. But I won’t, and I simply do not care. I know how much more flattering a longer focal length would be than my MacBook Air’s built-in wide-angle lens. I have the tools, the knowledge, and the power to employ a softly blurred background behind me. If I did, maybe I’d command more respect in meetings. My colleagues might scroll through... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/30/22858876/built-in-laptop-webcam-zoom-video-conferencing

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… source https://www.theverge.com/21539047/best-amazon-kindle-deal...

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… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2021/12/29/22857133/best-tech-deals-po...

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/29/22858529/xiaomi-12-pro-camera-specifications-price

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/29/22858406/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-mission

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/29/22858478/fortnite-down-servers-offline-banned-epic-games-store

A drill rig at Controlled Thermal Resources’ (CTR) Hells Kitchen Lithium and Power project in Calipatria, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal wastewater around the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley. | Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images This year, the clean energy sector finally started grappling in earnest with one of its biggest challenges: how to get enough minerals to build solar panels, wind turbines, and big batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. Figuring that out will be critical for escaping fossil-fueled ecological disaster. It’ll also be crucial for policymakers and industry to move forward without throwing certain communities under the bus in the transition to clean energy. Instead of cutting through landscapes with oil and gas wells and pipelines, clean energy industries and their suppliers will open up the Earth to hunt for critical m...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An update to Tumblr’s iOS app censors a long list of tags to comply with Apple’s strict safety guidelines . The platform explains that it’s changing iOS users’ ability to access sensitive content, affecting their experience when it comes to searching for content, scrolling through the “Stuff for You” and “Following” sections of the dashboard, and could even prevent access to blogs that are flagged. Tumblr says it has to “extend the definition of what sensitive content is” to “remain available within Apple’s App Store,” and it seems that Tumblr stretched it pretty far. Tags are what make posts searchable on Tumblr; posts with censored tags won’t appear on a users’ dashboard, nor will they show up on the platform’s search page. A Twitter... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22856734/tumblr-censor-tags-ios-apple-guidelines

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update 12:59PM ET, December 28th: Best Buy has sold out of PS5s for now, but it has started selling the Xbox Series X . If you’re currently shopping for a PlayStation 5 console and have been recently striking out with restocks at Walmart, Costco, and other retailers, you have another chance right now at Best Buy. The electronics retailer just opened up a fresh batch of PlayStation 5 consoles for $499.99 . Best Buy is only selling the disc-based version, however, not the Digital Edition. Be sure to log in and queue up on Best Buy’s site, with your billing and shipping info saved. Click the “Add to Cart” button on the right to jump into the waiting line, and stay calm. You don’t need to refresh the automated system, though, you may be... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22848656/ps5-holiday-restock-best-buy-playstation-5-console

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update 12:58PM ET, December 28th: Costco has sold out of consoles for now, but Best Buy is now offering them . The Xbox Series X console has remained hard to come by, and with the holidays looming the window to get one in time is narrowing. Many retailers have turned to charging for the chance just to buy a console via subscription-based memberships, which is a game that Costco has been playing from the beginning. The warehouse retailer has gotten its fair share of console restocks, and today it has Microsoft’s flagship console available for its members. You can order the Xbox Series X from Costco right now (or the Halo Edition , if it’s available in your area), which is only sold as a bundle with an extra controller (if you’re signed in,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22857003/microsoft-xbox-series-x-console-restock-costco-availability

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Adult smokers who say that they don’t plan to quit smoking but who start using e-cigarettes are more likely quit than those who don’t start vaping, according to a new study. People who say they’re not trying to quit often aren’t included in studies of the potential benefits of e-cigarettes for adult smokers, and the new data shows that the group should be considered during that type of analysis. In the new study , published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open , researchers evaluated data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, which is run by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Participants were interviewed about their tobacco use four times between 2014 and 2019. Of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22855522/vaping-smokers-plans-quit-cigarettes

A telescope in disguise Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/28/22816310/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-deployment-sequence

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… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2021/12/28/22855507/amazon-echo-sony-earbuds-corsair-gaming-keyboard-samsung-tablet-deal-sale

Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images People who test positive for COVID-19 only need to isolate for five days as long as their symptoms have stopped, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday . The change to isolation guidelines from 10 days to five is based on data showing people with COVID-19 are most likely to be contagious to others during the few days before and after they start showing symptoms, the agency said in a statement. After leaving isolation, people should wear a mask around others for five additional days, the CDC said. The CDC also said Monday that people who haven’t received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine but received their second dose of an mRNA vaccine six months ago, or who received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine two months ago,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22856114/cdc-covid-isolation-guidelines-shortened-omicron

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22856059/apple-store-new-york-city-online-order-only

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855644/cipher-punk-nft-drop-jillian-york-opensea-tokens

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855826/the-batman-trailer-riddler-facetime-troll

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855629/motorola-razr-folding-phone-third-generation-processor-interface-appearance

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22852544/walmart-lawsuit-hazardous-ewaste-california

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855426/zoom-liminal-acquisition-professional-broadcast-tools-events

The Movano Ring is a smart ring with medical ambitions | Image: Movano The Oura Ring isn’t the only smart ring on the block anymore. For CES 2022, health tech company Movano is announcing the Movano Ring, a wearable that aims to help people affordably monitor chronic illnesses and better understand their data. The Movano Ring will measure all the basic metrics, including heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, respiration, temperature, blood oxygen levels, steps, and calories burned. However, instead of a raw data dump, Movano says it’ll distill how your metrics relate to each other “take a more proactive approach to mitigating the risks of chronic disease.” For example, the Movano app might tell you how your exercise habits impact your sleeping patterns or HRV over time. This isn’t surprising —... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22850147/movano-ring-smart-ring-chronic-illnesses-ces-2022

The OLED Shelf displaying a piece of art. | Photo by LG Display LG Display has come up with more uses for transparent screens with its innovative new concepts that will be on display at CES 2022: the OLED Shelf, Shopping Managing Showcase, Show Window, and Smart Window. The company is not to be confused with LG Electronics, as LG Display simply creates concepts that other companies can adopt and introduce to the market. Its OLED Shelf consists of two transparent OLED displays mounted on top of one another, and as its name implies, it can be placed atop a shelf. LG Display says it’s ideal for the living room, where it can display art or a TV show. Always on Display Mode ensures that the screen stays on all the time, so if there was a piece of art on display, that image will stay put just like an... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22854293/lg-display-oled-shelf-show-smart-window-transparent

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 11AM ET on December 27th. 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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22854581/control-free-epic-games-store

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22854541/apple-hires-meta-ar-communications-headset

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22849892/new-trailers-northman-super-pumped-silent-sea-doctor-strange-marvel-disney-netflix

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22853573/tesla-model-s-explosion-repair-bill

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge New phone, new start Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22824153/iphone-best-apps-2021

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge A privacy-minded roundup of apps, including a self-care penguin Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22819283/android-best-apps-2021

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge As kids and adults alike flock to the Nintendo eShop, eager to spend the gift cards they found in their stockings, that excitement was quickly spoiled by an eShop error screen. The annual holiday surge has brought down the Nintendo Switch eShop for some yet again, according to a report from Kotaku . We are aware that players are experiencing errors accessing Nintendo eShop, and are working to address the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding, and please see our Network Status page for the latest updates. https://t.co/KnM0g7z7jn — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 25, 2021 Nintendo sent out a tweet, noting that the company is “working to address the issue as soon as possible.” It also includes a link... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/25/22853759/nintendo-eshop-down-christmas-day

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/25/22850344/park-my-spaceship-google-maps

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Many of these games play well on Series S, too Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22825913/xbox-series-x-s-best-games-microsoft-2021

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge If you’re lucky enough to have one, that is Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22825859/ps5-best-games-playstation-5-sony-2021

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/25/22853520/steam-global-china-banned

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The best games to play together or alone Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22785298/nintendo-switch-best-games-2021

James Webb Space Telescope launch 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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/25/22850167/james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-launch-mission-success

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… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/25/22850520/james-webb-space-telescope-launch-watch-live-stream-start-time-nasa

Microsoft is the latest company to drop a physical presence at CES, as the increased prevalence of COVID-19 spooks exhibitors. It joins a growing list of major companies ditching the world’s largest technology show. “After reviewing the latest data on the rapidly evolving COVID environment, Microsoft has decided not to participate in-person at CES 2022,” a company spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. (The spokesperson declined to give their name because that’s how Microsoft prefers to announce event status changes.) Instead, the company will have a digital presence for both the Microsoft Partner Innovation Experience and Automotive Press Kit. Microsoft was a featured exhibitor at the technology conference, and is now the latest to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/24/22853157/ces-microsoft-canceled-omicron-covid

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple must allow dating app developers to offer non-Apple payment systems for in-app purchases or face a hefty fine, according to a detailed ruling released today from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). The regulator has been investigating the company’s App Store practices since 2019, but Reuters reports that it decided to focus on dating apps after receiving a complaint from Match Group, owners of dating services like Tinder, Match.com, and OkCupid. This decision doesn’t apply to other app categories, like games or productivity apps, in the country. “Some app providers are dependent on Apple’s App Store, and Apple takes advantage of that dependency,” writes Martijn Snoep, chairman of the board of ACM. “Apple has... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/24/22852966/apple-netherlands-dating-apps-match-tinder-app-store-competition

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge We’ve been keeping an eye out for end-of-year next-generation console drops in the US, and despite exceptions like a recent PlayStation 5 sale from Walmart that went on for an hour, they’ve remained as hard to get as ever. Things may be different on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, however, where Amazon UK has had a for sale sign posted next to Microsoft’s £449.99 Xbox Series X — complete with same-day delivery — for over 12 hours with no end in sight. The cheaper Xbox Series S has been much easier to find, but sales for either of the two flagship 4K gaming consoles never go on for this long. In a reply to our reporter Tom Warren on Twitter, one person reports similar sightings in France this week, so it’s possible the continent is... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/23/22852161/xbox-series-x-amazon-uk-twelve-hours-microsoft