Technology news

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 was released last year, yet Samsung’s promised heart-tracking EKG feature is still not available to help it compete with the Apple Watch in the US. Instead, Samsung has just released a new update to the watch that adds features that debuted in the newly released Galaxy Watch 3 to the less expensive Active 2 — including the long-rumored fall detection feature which could help if you trip and get seriously injured.
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just yesterday, Epic said that as soon as Friday, Apple would no longer let people use its single sign-on solution, “Sign In with Apple,” to access their Epic Games account. That would mean that anyone who relied on their Apple credentials to log in to Epic services like Fortnite and the Epic Games Store would lose access when Apple pulled the plug, unless they changed their account first. But the game studio is now saying Apple has given Epic

Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images The Trump administration is considering an unconventional pick for the next FCC commissioner, a senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who has played a significant role in the agency’s social media regulation agenda. The choice is still tentative, but if confirmed, the nomination would represent a significant blow to Republicans who favor a light-touch approach to telecom poli

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Many AmazonBasics products that have been reported as fire hazards are still for sale on Amazon, according to an extensive investigation by CNN.Some of the stories about the dangerous products are harrowing. In one, a man went to the hospital after his chair caught fire while he was sleeping, apparently due to a melted USB cord. An AmazonBasics microwave caught fire when an eight-year-old heated up a macaroni and cheese cup. One man saw fire coming from a

Ubisoft just debuted another one of its Forward events, where the company previewed more upcoming titles and details on its fall lineup, including a better look at Immortals Fenyx Rising, the return of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and the announcement of new games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake and the massively multiplayer Riders Republic.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Ubisoft CEO addresses the company’s problems with diversity, inclusion, racism, an

Episodic gaming has always felt like an idea that was ahead of its time. For many players, it’s a compelling concept: story-driven games broken up into digestible chunks that you can play over the course of weeks or months. But the realities of game development and release schedules proved problematic. Telltale Games, the studio behind episodic hits like The Walking Dead and Batman, infamously collapsed as it struggled with the demands of releasing new episodes every month. Meanwhile, last

When Ubisoft first announced the game formerly known as Gods & Monsters back at E3 2019, comparisons to Nintendo’s highly acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild were quick to follow. Ubisoft’s formal gameplay reveal of the newly renamed Immortals Fenyx Rising — set for release on December 3rd — does nothing to dispel those comparisons. In fact, after a two-hour gameplay demo of Immortals Fenyx Rising, it was hard to shake the feeling that I had just spent a

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game was an incredible adaptation of the iconic comic series, with an unforgettable chiptune soundtrack by Anamanaguchi. Unfortunately, it was also lost to time — after launching on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, it was delisted about a year later. Now, after years of fan outcry, Ubisoft is bringing the pixelated beat ‘em up back to modern platforms. A “complete edition” — which will include all of the DLC — is coming to the PC,

Ubisoft is bringing back one of its most legendary games with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a modern version of the classic action-adventure game set for release on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on January 21st, 2021.
Ubisoft’s announcements are coming at a contentious time for the company, which is finally reckoning with what reports describe as years of harassment, sexual misconduct, and racism at the company for the past decade. The company has started to address som

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft’s dual-screened Android phone, the Surface Duo has released, following close to a year of waiting since its reveal in 2019. You can watch the video review above from my colleague Dieter Bohn, then check out the written review here for more insights. It costs $1,399 for the base model with 128GB of storage, but you’ll only pay that much upfront if you buy it unlocked. Otherwise, you’ll owe a smaller monthly payment if you bu

Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The NFL season kicks off Thursday night with the Houston Texans visiting the defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a significantly reduced number of fans at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, while many other stadiums aren’t allowing fans to attend at all just yet.
So to recreate hearing a full arena while you’re watching a game on TV, the NFL plans to use prereco

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, Twitter announced a more detailed set of rules to combat misinformation ahead of the US election in November. Starting September 17th, the platform will label or remove tweets involving election rigging or premature election results, treating those categories as particularly likely to cause immediate harm.
“The conversation happening on Twitter is never more important than during elections,” Twitter said in a blog post rolling out

Eric Peckham ContributorShare on Twitter Eric Peckham is the creator of the Monetizing Media newsletter and podcast. He was previously TechCrunch’s media columnist.More posts by this contributorBear and bull cases for Unity’s IPO
In the first part of my outline on Unity ahead of its IPO, I explained the scope of the company’s multidimensional business, its R&D efforts and competitive positioning, and its grand vision for interactive 3D content across every industry.
In the

Eric Peckham ContributorShare on Twitter Eric Peckham is the creator of the Monetizing Media newsletter and podcast. He was previously TechCrunch’s media columnist.More posts by this contributorBear and bull cases for Unity’s IPO
Unity Software Inc. is set to list on the New York Stock Exchange this month, following its S-1 filing two weeks ago. The 16-year-old tech company is universally known within the gaming industry and largely unknown outside of it. But Unity has been expanding

Whether you’re trying to decipher your HBO Go from your HBO Max, figuring out if Hulu is included with your Disney Plus bundle, or scratching your head over whatever Peacock is supposed to be, you’re not alone. Even FX Networks chairman John Landgraf has acknowledged how confusing the current streaming landscape is for general consumers.
Landgraf spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the network and the industry-at-large, and spent some time addressing FX’s earlier partnership

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The latest beta version of Apple Music for Android contains strings of code that directly mention the rumored bundle of the company’s services, according to 9to5Google, and even the name “Apple One” is in there. “Subscription bundle” is also part of the new text, as are prompts about how customers can manage their Apple One subscription from an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV.These mentions of Apple One aren’t viewable i

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ubisoft is expanding its diversity inclusion efforts with two programs aimed at women and “individuals from underrepresented groups,” the company said today. Ubisoft announced the news ahead of its Way Forward event. In a separate video, CEO Yves Guillemot also acknowledged the company’s recent problems around sexual harassment, misconduct, and its use of Black Lives Matter imagery in one of its games.Its first initiative includes a &ldq

Image: Google Android 11 just launched this week for Pixel devices and phones from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme, and now Google has detailed its counterpart designed for low-powered devices: Android 11 (Go edition).
One of the biggest new features is that Android 11 (Go edition) is supposed to work on devices with 2GB of RAM or less — a bump up from Android 10 (Go edition), which was made for devices with less than 1.5GB of RAM. But it’s unclear exactly which devices will get t

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Ninja’s back on Twitch, exclusively, in a multiyear deal with the site. It’s another big move for Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who’s had quite a year even aside from the ongoing pandemic.Last August, he left Twitch for an exclusive deal with Mixer — which shut down at the end of June, scrapped for parts over at Facebook Gaming. He walked away from the wreckage in much better shape than the rest of his peers on the site (save for M

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) look on during a news conference at the US Capitol on September 9th, 2020, in Washington, DC.  | Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images Democrats will commit today to a wide-ranging new progressive agenda that simultaneously tackles pandemic recovery, climate change, and systemic injustice. They’re calling the agenda THRIVE, which stands for “Transform, Heal, and Renew by

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge There’s never been a better time to buy a new game console or PC. While consoles have typically been held back by weaker CPUs, spinning hard drives, and average GPU performance, the next-generation PS5 and Xbox Series S / X are promising some big leaps in performance that will put them beyond even average gaming PCs. Nvidia, meanwhile, is claiming it will deliver the “biggest breakthrough in PC gaming since 1999” with its new RTX 3000 series of

Annapurna Interactive is celebrating five years of stellar game releases with a box set. Donut County, Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition, Outer Wilds, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Wattam, What Remains of Edith Finch, Telling Lies, and Gorogoa will be available as a physical collection for the PlayStation 4 with iam8bit, the company announced today.
Interested buyers have two options: an Ultimate PS4 Collection for $179.99 or a Deluxe PS4 Limited Edition for $199.99 that includes a custom-designed folio p

Nintendo Nintendo is offering a closer look at the new Game & Watch hardware coming on November13th that will come preloaded with the original Super Mario Bros. game. In case you missed out on the announcement last week, it’s a $49.99 device that’s being released in limited quantities for Mario’s 35th anniversary celebration — and it’s likely going to be very difficult to get your hands on one. In addition to the original Mario title, it comes loaded with Super

The new Xbox Series S is surprisingly small, both in terms of its $299 price and its dimensions. I’ve been playing around with a nonfunctional Xbox Series S this week, and I’m genuinely surprised Microsoft has managed to fit the same Xbox Series X CPU and lots of other next-gen technology into something that uses space and wealth so economically.
The Xbox Series S is just 275mm (10.8 inches) tall, 151mm (5.9 inches) deep, and 63.5mm (2.5 inches) wide in a vertical position. Microsoft

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console demands to stand upright, loud and proud. At least that’s my immediate impression after getting an early look at a nonfunctional Xbox Series X unit, supplied by Microsoft. It’s not as big as I expected from the Series X photos, but the dimensions could make positioning it in your living room a challenge.
The console is 151mm (5.9 inches) wide or deep and 301mm (11.8 inches) tall, making it too big, even on its side, to fit in my TV stand that c

This is what everyone’s setup looks like, right? | Image: Sony Sony’s 55-inch A8H Bravia OLED TV is $1,500 at Amazon and Best Buy. This model that usually costs $1,900 hasn’t seen many discounts, and today’s sale represents the biggest price drop yet. In addition to having sterling picture quality and contrast with its OLED panel, it runs on Android TV software. With it, you’ll be able to easily install entertainment apps on the TV itself.
Other notable specs inclu

Startups that deliver products via an API are seeing momentum in 2020, as their method of serving customers becomes increasingly mainstream. And investors are taking note.
It’s not hard to find a startup with an API-based delivery model that is doing well this year. This column noted a grip of recently funded API-focused startups in May, for example, underscoring how attractive they are to venture capitalists today.Yesterday, I caught up with Alpaca, a startup whose API allows other compan

Image: Facebook Facebook is getting back to its roots today with the launch of a new product called Campus, a section of the main app specifically designed for college students. Campus is designed to be a place where students can interact only with peers at their school; they can access a Campus-only News Feed and join Groups, events, and group chat rooms, called Campus Chats, pertaining to campus life. In a nod to the original Facebook, they’ll even have access to a “Campus directo

An artistic rendering of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, contracted to take payloads to the Moon for NASA’s CLPS program. | Image: Astrobotic NASA is officially in the market for Moon rocks — and it’s willing to pay any company that’s capable of scooping them up.Today, the space agency is putting out a call for proposals from companies, challenging them to snag small samples of rocks on the Moon’s surface. The companies will have to prove that they have collec

Image: Bose Bose seems convinced that people really like sunglasses with integrated speakers: today, the company is introducing three new pairs of Frames that follow up on the first two sets it released in 2018. Two are fashion-forward — they’re called Tenor and Soprano — and the third set, Tempo, is much more sporty and specifically designed for outdoor use like biking, hiking, and running. (That’s the one we spotted in a recent Federal Communications Commission filing.

Image: Bose Bose is ready to reenter the competitive true wireless earbuds market with two new products. Today, the company is announcing both the noise-canceling QuietComfort Earbuds, priced at $279, and the $179 Sports Earbuds. With the flagship QuietComfort Earbuds, Bose is promising to deliver “all the ‘quiet’ of Bose around-ear headphones” in a truly wireless form factor. As for the Sports Earbuds, essentially a successor to 2017’s SoundSport Free, Bose says t