Technology news

Image: Apple During today’s “Time Flies” event, Apple explained why it has decided to stop including a power adapter in the box with the latest Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, portraying the move as a big step toward meeting the company’s environmental goals. But it turns out this change doesn’t apply to every new Apple Watch; the most expensive models will still come with a 5-watt charger.
Both the titanium Apple Watch Edition and high-fashion Apple Watch

If you were thinking of adding a new Apple Watch (or any other LTE-ready smartwatch with a dedicated phone number) to your Verizon account, you’ll probably like to hear that the carrier just cut the monthly cost of doing that by half. Normally $20, it now costs $10 per month for all plan types.This is welcome news considering Apple debuted two new Apple Watch models today: the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, both of which have an LTE option. The most affordable Series 6 with LTE c

We already knew Rocket League was going free-to-play this summer, and today, the game’s developer, Psyonix, announced that the vehicular soccer game will go free-to-play on September 23rd.The transition to free-to-play also marks the debut of the game arriving on the Epic Games Store, a digital storefront owned by Psyonix’s parent company, Epic Games, which acquired the studio last year. After September 23rd, the game will be delisted from Steam; however, the studio explains that, re

Image: Apple Apple favors simplicity, and nowhere is that more apparent — other than product design — than in the company’s product lineups. But the newly announced iPad Air, which now features a screen identical to that of the pricier Pro with the added benefit of being the only device so far to carry the new A14 Bionic processor, is further complicating what was once the company’s most elegant product lineup.The iPad lineup used to be simple: you wanted the big one or

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Twitch announced a set of emote modifiers in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month — and then it ended up pulling them before the day’s end because they were incredibly insensitive.What in the fresh hell is this? pic.twitter.com/IjFSN9gHod— Oraymw -♿-(@oraymw) September 15, 20202020 is a year of Ls, and Twitch has taken a disproportionate number of them in the last few months. This isn’t the first time the company has had s

Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock undergoing testing | Image: Nanoracks Later this year, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will take off from central Florida, carrying a large metal cup destined to be attached to the outside of the International Space Station. The hardware is a first-of-its-kind commercial airlock, designed to get payloads and other materials from inside the pressurized space station out into the vacuum of space.
The airlock is the product of aerospace company Nanoracks, which helps

Two hackers, one an Iranian teenager, have been indicted for allegedly vandalizing at least 51 websites with pro-Iran sentiments. The unsophisticated attacks were, essentially, a hacktivist response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani — one of Iran’s most important military operatives — by US forces in January.
The people named in the indictment, made by a federal grand jury, are Behzad Mohammadzadeh, who is “believed to be approximately 19,” according to the indictm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Oracle plans take an ownership stake in a newly formed TikTok corporation as part of the recently announced deal, the Financial Times reports. The new arrangement will not cleave off TikTok regionally, but it will create a separate corporate entity for the app, in which Oracle will take a minority stake. Oracle will also ensure that data from American users is stored and processed in the United States, per the recommendations of the Committee on Foreign I

Kim Kardashian West — one of Instagram’s most popular users — won’t post to her account for 24 hours to protest Facebook. The reality TV star and mogul tweeted her plans to freeze both her Instagram and Facebook accounts tomorrow because she can’t “sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation.” She’s joining a planned week of action organized by Stop Hate For Profit, a coalition

Photo by Sebastian Kahnert / picture alliance via Getty Images Just under 2 percent of people who donated blood to the American Red Cross this summer had coronavirus antibodies, showing that very few people in the United States have been exposed to the virus that’s ravaged the country. The organization started offering antibody tests to donors in early June, and it published the results of the program in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week.The Red Cross tested just u

AppleApple has announced two new smartwatches: the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE. Usually, each new Apple Watch slots in at the top of the company’s lineup, making the older ones a little less expensive as a result, but this year’s cadence is different. The new Apple Watch SE looks very similar to the new $399 Series 6, but it lacks a few of its highlight features to reach a lower $279 price.
So which one should you buy, and how do these smartwatches compare to each other?

In September 2019, Apple added a new feature to the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro without saying a single word onstage — and it did it again today with the Apple Watch Series 6.
The feature is Apple’s U1 ultra-wideband locator chip, which could let these devices find each other, find other gadgets equipped with similar tech, and even securely unlock your car and your door without ever pulling an iPhone out of your pocket.
The feature flashed by for a brief moment during today’s p

Image: Apple Apple just finished its “Time Flies” event, its first fall event this year, and although we’re still waiting on new iPhones, the company took the wraps off new Apple Watches and iPads. And like this year’s WWDC, we got all of the news through a video streamed online; there was no in-person event to accompany the arrival of new products.
Our live blog, with commentary by Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn, has the whole play-by-play of the event. But if you just wan

Sony is denying a report that on Tuesday said the company has cut its expectations for PlayStation 5 production by four million units and now expects to manufacture about 11 million units by the end of March.“While we do not release details related to manufacturing, the information provided by Bloomberg is false,” a Sony statement given to Gameindustry.biz reads. “We have not changed the production number for PlayStation 5 since the start of mass production.”
The original

Apple announced a new iteration of its popular baseline iPad, now in its eighth generation. It’s $329 and ships with the A12 Bionic processor. You can preorder that model today, and it will ship this Friday, September 18th.In terms of spec upgrades, the bump from the A10 with last year’s model to the A12 Bionic is a significant leap in speed. If you held out from buying the seventh-gen version, this new iPad seems fast considering its $329 price tag. It still ships with a minuscule 3

Apple announced two new Apple Watch models at its “Time Flies” online event today: the high-end $399 Series 6 and the more affordable $279 Apple Watch SE, which serves a step up from the $199 Series 3. Both will release this Friday, September 18th, and if you’re interested in buying one of them, you can place a preorder starting today.
The Series 6 comes in a few new colorways and finishes, and it has more power with its S6 processor and an improved always-on display. Apple not

Photo by Brennan King / The Verge Apple revealed that it has sold more than 500 million iPads over the last 10 years. The announcement was made by CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s “Time Flies” live stream event, in which the company revealed a pair of new Apple Watch devices and an updated base model iPad and new iPad Air.This is the first time Apple has disclosed how many iPads it’s sold after the company said in November 2018 it would no longer reveal unit sales of iPhones,

Apple’s next major software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV are almost ready. At today’s “Time Flies” event, the company announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, along with the latest watchOS and tvOS updates will start rolling out on Friday, September 16th.
iOS 14 brings widgets to the iPhone home screen for the first time, gathers all of your apps into a new App Library, and adds picture-in-picture mode (which had already been available on iPads). T

Apple is unveiling a new iPad Air today that looks very similar to the company’s iPad Pro. It’s a significant design change from the current Air, which was brought back to life last year in between the iPad and iPad Pro. Last year’s Air has thick top and bottom bezels and a button for Touch ID, but this new iPad Air has much thinner bezels all around the display. It will be available next month, priced from $599.
Apple is using a bigger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display (2360 x 1

Apple is unveiling a new iPad Air today that looks very similar to the company’s iPad Pro. It’s a significant design change from the current Air, which was brought back to life last year to its in between the iPad and iPad Pro. Last year’s Air has thick top and bottom bezels and a button for Touch ID, but this new iPad Air has much thinner bezels all around the display.
Apple is using a bigger 10.9-inch “Liquid Retina” display (2360 x 1640) on this new iPad Air, tha

Illustration by Ana Kova There’s a lot of information coming and going about the coronavirus, and the next steps for vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 — The Verge even has a newsletter dedicated to it.But how do we assess all this information in a logical way, to prevent confusion, chaos, or something worse? The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Mary Beth Griggs and Nicole Wetsman talked to Dr. Natalie Dean, assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, about what w

Apple has announced the eighth-generation version of its basic iPad: an update of its entry-level 10.2-inch tablet that upgrades the processor to a faster A12 chipset (last seen in the 2019 iPad Air and iPad mini models), while still maintaining the same $329 price point. Education customers will also be able to get the new iPad for a discounted $299.
The A12 chip brings Apple’s “Neural Engine” processing capabilities to its entry-level iPad for the first time, with a promise o

Apple has announced the eighth-generation version of its basic iPad: an update of its entry-level 10.2-inch tablet that upgrades the processor to a faster A12 chipset (last seen in the 2019 iPad Air and iPad mini models.)
The A12 chip brings Apple’s “Neural Engine” processing capabilities to its entry-level iPad for the first time. Apple says that the new model will still fit existing cases, including its keyboard case and those made by Logitech. It’ll also still work wit

The long-rumored bundle bringing together Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, andiCloud storage is here. Apple will give customers different options to combine its streaming services in a new Apple One bundle.The bundle also includes the newly announced Apple Fitness Plus ($9.99 per month), a new subscription service launching before the end of the year that includes training for yoga, cycling, running, core and strength exercises, among other types of workouts.Bloomberg p

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple on Tuesday announced it would no longer be shipping USB power adapters with Apple Watch devices, as part of an effort to reduce its environmental impact. The announcement was made by Lisa Jackson — Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives — during the company’s “Time Flies” live stream event, in which it announced the new Apple Watch Series 6 and cheaper Apple Watch SE.Removing the power adap

During Apple’s “Time Flies” event, it shared a new Family Setup feature coming to iOS that will allow just one iPhone to both setup and manage several Apple Watch smartwatches in a family. Previously, each Apple Watch had to be tied to an iPhone, but now a parent or guardian can do it all from a single iPhone.
The feature lets you adjust who each family member can call and message from their Apple Watch, and you can also set up location alerts so that you stay in the know of yo

Apple is launching a new subscription service for virtual fitness classes called Fitness Plus, the company announced during its presentation today. It’s the first fitness service built for Apple Watch, the company says.The company has long included fitness features like workout tracking in the Apple Watch, which can show you a variety of metrics about activities like running, cycling, swimming, or rowing. The Apple Watch can give you alerts while running if your pace is too fast or too slo

Apple has announced the Apple Watch SE, a successor to the three-year-old Apple Watch Series 3. The device starts at $279. It’s available this Friday, but you can order it today.
The model retains many of the Series 3’s signature features, including fall detection, compass and always-on altimeter, a swimproof chassis, Family Setup, face sharing, sleep tracking, and other signature features that are also packed into the new Apple Watch Series 6. There are Bluetooth-only and cellular o

Apple has announced the Apple Watch SE, a successor to the three-year-old Apple Watch Series 3. The device starts at $279. It’s available this Friday, but you can order it today.
The model retains many of the Series 3’s signature features, including fall detection, an always-on altimeter, a swimproof chassis, Family Setup, face sharing and, other signature features that are packed into the new Apple Watch Series 6.
The watch uses the S5 chip, which Apple says will allow for up to two

Apple has announced the Apple Watch Series 6, the latest in its line of popular smartwatches. The Series 6 model maintains the same overall design introduced with the Apple Watch Series 4 and continued with the Series 5, but it adds a variety of new sensors to allow for things like blood oxygen monitoring and better sleep tracking.
Apple says the Series 6 can measure blood oxygen levels in about 15 seconds, using both red and infrared light.A Product (RED) version of the Apple Watch Series 6
The

Jacopo Raule/WireImage Charli D’Amelio is TikTok’s most popular creator with 87 million followers, and now the Queen of TikTok is adding Triller to her roster of platforms.
“We couldn’t be more proud to welcome the D’Amelio family to the Triller family with open arms,” Bobby Sarnevesht, executive chairman at Triller, said in a statement. “They are an incredibly multi-faceted and talented family who have already been invaluable to us.”
Charli will

Microsoft is officially launching its xCloud gaming service today on Android phones and tablets, allowing you to play more than 150 genuine Xbox games on devices that could never run those games themselves — because they’ll be streaming from remote servers much like a YouTube video.But to do that, you’ll need to pay for an Xbox Game Pass subscription. And not just any Game Pass will do — you’ll need the highest-tier, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, which costs

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As mail-in ballot deadlines approach and with the presidential election less than two months away, Twitter is introducing an election hub. It will provide real-time voting and election information as well as breaking election-related news, the company announced today.The hub will appear at the top of the Explore tab for US users, and it will have Twitter Moments from “reputable news outlets” and its curation team in English and Spanish; live s

Frictional Games Amnesia: Rebirth, the latest game from Swedish studio Frictional Games, will be released on October 20th. Rebirth is a sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which was released 10 years ago this month. Preorders are open now, and the game will sell on GOG, Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Sony PlayStation 4.
There’s still much we don’t know about Rebirth, but it takes place in the Algerian desert, where a woman named Tasi Trianon has to survive otherworldly looking mo

Image: Google Google has rapidly updated its videoconferencing Google Meet software, as the COVID-19 pandemic has meant more people rely on it now than ever before. But today, the company is announcing new Google Meet videoconferencing hardware — though the hardware is designed for conference rooms, not for your home.
The new Series One hardware, designed by Google but made in partnership with Lenovo, has a number of different pieces. There’s a 12MP Smart Camera and, for bigger conf

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Waze is finally adding one of the handiest features from Google Maps and Apple Maps: lane guidance. The feature, now out of beta on the Google-owned navigation app, recommends what lane you should be in when you’re entering or exiting a freeway, for instance. It’s also helpful when navigating complicated intersections or highway mergers.
I don’t own a car, but often rent one for short day trips. That means I usually don’t have