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Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Big Tech leaders from across the industry are lining up to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential election. Trump has butted heads with many of the executives now cozying up to the soon-to-be president , who recently threatened to throw Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in prison and said Google could be broken up because its search results are “rigged.” Despite these comments (and the conflicts during Trump’s previous presidency), many of the tech CEOs targeted by Trump in the past are now coming forward with statements about his win. Here’s what some of the biggest names in tech are saying: Apple CEO Tim Cook “Congratulations President Trump on your victory! We look forward to engaging with you and your administration to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/6/24289649/big-tech-leaders-donald-trump-presidential-election

Image: Square Enix The game’s final episode also teases a larger Life is Strange universe to come. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24289524/life-is-strange-double-exposure-review-pc-ps5-xbox

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge On the campaign trail, Donald Trump said a lot of things about electric vehicles . He said he would “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” that EVs “don’t work,” and that they benefit China and Mexico while hurting American autoworkers. But he has also closely aligned himself with Elon Musk , who runs the biggest EV company in the US. And he will likely have Musk continuing to whisper in his ear on important policy matters moving forward, even going so far as to promise to appoint the mercurial billionaire to a role in his administration. So now that he’s the president-elect, what will he actually do that will affect the auto industry and its tenuous shift to electric vehicles? First off, he said he would “rescind all unspent... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/6/24289494/trump-election-electric-vehicle-tax-credit-tesla-elon-musk

Image: Hori Hori is bringing its officially licensed Steam controller to the US. The company quietly listed the $60 gamepad for preorder on Amazon , with availability starting December 16th. Hori originally released its Wireless Horipad for Steam in October — but only in Japan. The controller features dedicated buttons you can use to pull up menus in Steam, whether you’re playing in Big Picture Mode, or on the company’s handheld. Just like on the Steam Deck, the gamepad comes with touch sensors on its joysticks for motion controls and mappable back buttons. The controller can connect to your computer or Steam Deck with Bluetooth or the included USB-A Bluetooth receiver. Hori says the wireless gamepad will last up to 12 hours on a full charge, but... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288729/hori-official-steam-controller-us-release-date-pricing

Amazon’s MK30 drone. | Image: Amazon Amazon is starting up drone delivery operations at its Tolleson, AZ, same-day delivery site. Customers who live in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area are eligible to receive packages via Prime Air and will have “access to the over 50,000 everyday essentials” that include household, beauty, and office/tech supplies — which Amazon claims is its largest selection yet for fast drone deliveries. The news came after Amazon announced it was shutting down its testing zone location in Lockeford, California. The new Tolleson location integrates drone deliveries into Amazon’s delivery network for the first time, and the drones will deploy right next to the fulfillment center. Amazon is using its latest MK30 drones that can carry up to 5 pounds... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288735/amazon-arizona-tolleson-phoenix-drone-prime-air-launch

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge For anyone obsessively watching election results in the US, Apple News will bring live updates to iPhone and iPad users’ lockscreens. And if you’ve got a recent iPhone, you can keep tabs on the electoral count right in the Dynamic Island while doing other things on your phone. To get the updates on your lockscreen, you’ll have to register first. Open up Apple News and tap on the “Follow the 2024 election live” banner. If you don’t see the option right away, look for “Election 2024” under the “Special Coverage” section of the menu. You should get a notification that the Live Activity has been enabled. The widget will be available on iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches starting tonight as votes in the US presidential and congressional... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288777/election-results-apple-news-lock-screen

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images A shorter-than-usual US presidential election season comes to a head. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288095/us-presidential-election-day-2024-trump-harris-news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix will delist just about all of its interactive shows and films as of December 1st, the company confirms to The Verge . Netflix’s “Interactive Specials” page lists 24 titles, but only four will remain: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch , Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend , Ranveer vs. Wild with Bear Grylls , and You vs. Wild. The removal of the titles marks a disappointing conclusion to Netflix’s earliest efforts into interactive content. The company first launched the interactive titles in 2017 with Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale , and I remember being wowed (and horrified) by paths in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch . In addition to specials based on franchises like Carmen Sandiego and Boss Baby, Netflix also tried ideas... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287857/netflix-removing-interactive-titles-games

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Whether you want everything but the kitchen sink or top-tier performance for a midrange price, you’ve got options. Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23674658/best-android-phone

Image: Sony Ahead of the PS5 Pro launch later this week, we have confirmation of a few more official specifications for the most powerful version of the PS5 yet. Digital Foundry has shared details from the manual included with its PS5 Pro review unit, confirming the console is powered by an AMD Ryzen Zen 2 8-core/16-thread processor with an RDNA-based graphics engine producing 16.7TF of GPU compute performance compared to the base PS5’s 10.23TF. As we noted in March , initial leaked documents showed a much higher figure for the PS5 Pro, mostly due to a change in AMD’s RDNA architecture. The manual also reveals that in addition to 16GB of GDDR6 memory, the PS5 Pro will have 2GB of slower DDR5 memory for handling console tasks not related to gaming,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287657/sony-ps5-pro-gpu-specs-unboxing-games-list-enhanced

Illustration: The Verge This weekend, X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, announced it’s “starting to launch” a controversial change to how blocking works on its platform. Company owner Elon Musk first revealed the change in September, which will allow people you’ve blocked to continue to see your posts, and, as noted by TechCrunch , your following and followers lists. Musk claimed that stopping people from seeing your public posts “makes no sense,” but due to a post-Musk change that stops logged-out users from scrolling even a public profile, this could make it easier for blocked users to continue harassing someone. In October, X’s engineering account argued that people who block others could say harmful things about the blocked person who wouldn’t know... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/4/24287585/x-twitter-block-change-view-public-posts

Image: Nintendo For a character that’s been around so long, Mario is in something of a golden period. Since last year his mustache has been spotted in theaters , theme parks , and the best ( and weirdest ) side-scrolling Super Mario game in a long time. But he’s had a particularly strong run in role-playing games on the Switch, with recent remakes of both Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the original Super Mario RPG . Now we have Mario & Luigi: Brothership which keeps the streak alive with a blend of charm, humor, and clever gameplay. Brothership , once again, starts with the brothers getting whisked away to a fantasy realm in need of help. This time it’s the oceanic world of Concordia, which has been broken apart into a series of islands. The bros end... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/24287092/mario-and-luigi-brothership-review-nintendo-switch

The Apple Watch Series 10 isn’t a dramatic update over the prior model, but it does offer a few notable upgrades. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In September, Apple launched its latest smartwatch, introducing the Apple Watch Series 10 alongside a black rendition of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 . Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE , but the recent introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had. But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 11 , launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 6 and newer, ultimately leaving those still using an older Series 4 or Series 5 behind. P... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21289209/best-apple-wa

The Verge AI search company Perplexity is putting to the test whether it’s a good idea to use AI to serve crucial voting information with a new Election Information Hub it announced on Friday . The hub offers things like AI-generated answers to voting questions and summaries of candidates, and on November 5th, Election Day, the company says it will track vote counts live, using data from The Associated Press . Perplexity says its voter information, which includes polling requirements, locations, and times, is based on data from Democracy Works. (The same group powers similar features from Google). And that its election-related answers come from “a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources.” Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24287157/perplexity-ai-election-voting-information-tracking-hub-us-presidential-election-2024-trump-harris

This, but blasting demons. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge What do John Deere tractors , Ikea smart bulbs , Lego bricks , and the MacBook Pro Touch Bar have in common? They can all run Doom, and naturally, so can Nintendo’s adorable Alarmo alarm clock . It was only a matter of time before someone pulled that off, but what I didn’t expect was that when it happened, it would be playable. That’s exactly what hacker GaryOberNicht, who recently figured out how to run custom firmware on the Alarmo, did in a video posted to Mastodon and their X account yesterday. In it, they play by turning or pressing the mushroom-shaped blob on top of the Alarmo to move and pressing the other buttons to shoot or open doors. Here, have a look: Gary said it’s “possible to load the shareware version of Doom entirely from... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24286842/nintendo-alarmo-doom-hack-usb-custom-firmware-instructions

Tim Stevens My favorite feature of the new $420,000, all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre isn’t the cosseting ride quality or the illuminated stars embedded in the headliner of the insanely ornate interior. It isn’t the 577 horsepower or the 266 miles of range. It’s neither the “yes, that’s the spot” massaging seats nor the curbside presence of that upright, chromed front grille. It isn’t even the aerodynamically refined yet classically styled Spirit of Ecstasy statuette perched atop. My favorite feature of the Spectre is the sound it makes. As an EV, it doesn’t really make any engine sound on its own. It’s a rolling cocoon made inherently anti-acoustic thanks to the tireless work of some surely big-eared scientists. So, to inject a little more life... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/3/24281754/rolls-royce-spectre-review-ev-price-specs-sound

The new AirPods 4 deliver better sound and voice call quality than prior models. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Although we’ve yet to see major deals on the new AirPods 4 and the updated AirPods Max , both the second- and third-gen AirPods can still often be found at a steep discount. The same goes for the original Max, which are nearly indistinguishable from the previous model aside from the addition of USB-C. Here, we’ve rounded up the best deals currently available on each model, including the second-gen and third-gen AirPods, both iterations of the AirPods 4, the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C , and the last-gen AirPods Max. The best AirPods (second-gen) deals Before they were discontinued alongside the AirPods 4 announcement, the second-gen AirPods were... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21302051/best-apple-airpods-deals

Screenshot: YouTube With all the noise from the lead-up to the 2024 US Presidential election next week, you’d be forgiven for having missed some of the trailers that came out over the last few days. Not to worry; I’ve got you covered for some of the best ones. This week’s trailers included a teaser for Netflix’s second season of Squid Game , a new haunted house horror film from Steven Soderbergh, and a look at Star Wars: Skeleton Crew . Daniel Craig showed up in a trailer for a new A24 movie called Queer. Squid Game season 2 Squid Game is finally returning for its second season soon, and in a new teaser, Lee Jung-jae’s Gi-hun looks like he’s preparing to stage an uprising. Whatever happens, it looks like the season will be a bloody, violent return for the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/2/24286263/trailers-of-the-week-squid-game-presence-queer-star-wars-skeleton-crew-mario-luigi-brothership

Image: David Pierce / The Verge People have started receiving their orders of Amazon’s first color e-reader, the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition , and many say they’re disappointed to find a yellow, discolored strip at the bottom of the display. Complaints about the $279.99 e-reader’s display have spread online and dragged down its Amazon star rating, and some report customer service reps say a fix is on the way. A Reddit user posted a thread with images (see below), saying it’s most obvious when the Kindle “is supposed to be evenly lit and colored like a piece of paper.” Many others with the same issue say they’ve exchanged their Colorsoft for a new one or simply returned it . Another said they only noticed it while using the device’s edge lighting . It’s possible... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/2/24286289/kindle-colorsoft-yellow-bar-display-e-reader

Image: Epic games Epic Games is about to host big in-game event ahead of its next throwback season — and it could be pretty musical. The event’s title suggests the music theme — “Remix: The Prelude” — and a post from Epic suggests to be at the event with “the volume UP” . Fortnite is already famous for bombastic musical events , so this event to wrap up the latest Marvel-themed season could be quite a show. But the “Remix” title is also pointing at Epic bringing back and remixing elements of its Chapter 2 seasons, kind of like it did with the Chapter 1-themed “OG” season last year , The company has already teased what some of those remixes might look like , including a character that combines Meowscles, a swole cat ( yes ), with Midas . If you want to watch the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285464/fortnite-remix-the-prelude-event-how-to-watch

Turns out, taking things apart is still just as much fun as when you were a kid. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge My first DIY smartphone repair project was off to an inauspicious start. I’d successfully removed the back of the HMD Skyline, but the next instruction called for a T3 screwdriver bit. I had a T4 bit, which worked well enough to turn the screw that popped the corner of the phone’s back panel up. But a T4 was just too big for the tiny screws holding the battery connector cover in place. I needed that T3. The Skyline is one of HMD’s latest user-repairable phones . It’s a midrange phone, one of the first Android phones with Qi2 wireless charging, plus a 6.55-inch OLED panel, three rear cameras, and a big 4,600mAh battery for $449. In my limited use, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 seems prone to lagginess, and the 1080p screen resolution really... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24284078/hmd-skyline-repair-ifixit-battery-replacement

Image: Pixelmator Apple has agreed to acquire Pixelmator, a popular image editing app available on Mac and iOS. Pixelmator announced the news in a post on its blog , saying it will now “have the ability to reach an even wider audience and make an even bigger impact on the lives of creative people around the world.” Pixelmator issued the following statement about the acquisition (emphasis ours): Pixelmator has signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time . Stay tuned for exciting updates to come. No details about the deal were revealed except that it is still pending, subject to regulatory approval of Apple buying the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285443/apple-pixelmator-acquisition-image-editing

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Apple is taking a 20 percent stake in its iPhone satellite connectivity partner GlobalStar — a stake worth $400 million — as part of an expansion of its deal with the company. GlobalStar will also receive a prepayment of $1.1 billion from Apple that is intended to improve satellite infrastructure. Apple relies on GlobalStar’s satellites to enable to send emergency text messages, iMessage reactions, and more through the skies in areas with no cell signal. GlobalStar disclosed the details of the deal expansion in an SEC filing , which includes “a new satellite constellation, expanded ground infrastructure, and increased global [mobile satellite services] licensing.” Apple launched its Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone 14 in 2022 and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285347/apple-globalstar-investment-expansion-emergency-sos-satellite