Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has removed dozens of listings for peptides, drugs that can be used for doping, after an investigation from The Markup found 66 examples of such products on the site. Peptides are made naturally in the body, but synthetic versions, which can be sold in vials and then reconstituted and injected, are often used as performance-enhancing drugs since they can speed recovery from injuries.According to The Markup, in recent weeks Amazon had been carrying

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has removed dozens of listings for peptides, drugs that can be used for doping, after an investigation from The Markup found 66 examples of such products on the site. Peptides are made naturally in the body, but synthetic versions, which can be sold in vials and then reconstituted and injected, are often used as performance-enhancing drugs since they can speed recovery from injuries.According to The Markup, in recent weeks Amazon had been carrying

Image: Lego If you ever purchased a Lego set, you’ll know the box comes with an uncomfortable amount of plastic bags to separate each set of pieces included. Personally, I felt it was way too much plastic for just one product, and it’s nice to now see Lego has finally come to its senses: the company plans to ditch the single-use packaging starting next year, Lego announced on its website earlier this week.Going forward, Lego plans to package its tiny bricks in recycled paper bags. T

Image: Sony As part of its PlayStation 5 launch event yesterday, Sony said Final Fantasy XVI and Demon’s Souls weren’t just strictly PS5 exclusives — trailers for both games revealed they would also be coming to PC. At the time, that meant the biggest game announced during Sony’s showcase as well as one of the PS5’s most notable launch titles wouldn’t require a PS5 to play them. If you added the fact that both Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden W

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google is still trying to iron out connectivity issues with its Pixel Buds. The company has confirmed that it has identified the cause of a strange, frustrating bug that caused audio to drop out for some users every one minute and 50 seconds — on the dot. I’ve gotten numerous emails about this issue from Pixel Buds owners, so it’s good to see that Google has managed to resolve it.According to a post on the company’s support forums, a ne

Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images A bombshell report in The Washington Post today details the ongoing feud between the Trump administration and the US Postal Service, and it provides insight into just how lucrative Amazon’s business is for the agency.According to documents obtained by watchdog group American Oversight, Amazon generated $1.6 billion in profit and $3.9 billion in revenue for the USPS in fiscal year 2019, with the postal service delivering 1.54 billion packages for the

Illustration by Alex Castro Twitter will start prompting high-profile political accounts to take heightened security measures ahead of the 2020 US election, the company announced Thursday.
In a blog post, Twitter said that administration officials, members of Congress, political campaigns, major news outlets, political journalists, and other government officials will be prompted to take enhanced security measures ahead of the election. Over the next few days, Twitter will be automatically turni

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple gives you the option of picking new default browser and email apps in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. But it’s been discovered that, at least in the 14.0 software release, this freedom of choice is only temporary: after a reboot of your device, Safari and Mail will be restored as their respective defaults until you change the setting again. 9to5Mac reported on the issue earlier today.
The Verge has confirmed the behavior across several different iPh

A woman in Germany died during a ransomware attack on the Duesseldorf University Hospital, in what may be the first death directly linked to a cyberattack on a hospital. The hospital couldn’t accept emergency patients because of the attack, and the woman was sent to a health care facility around 20 miles away, the Associated Press reported.The cyberattack was not intended for the hospital, according to a report from the German news outlet RTL. The ransom note was addressed to a nearby univ

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge The Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card was released at 9AM ET, and disappointment began only seconds later. All major online stores in the US are sold out, and there have been reports of brick-and-mortar stores each having as few as 10 units for sale. The end result: eBay scalpers are now trying to cash in, and very few people who want to enjoy the graphics card seem to have actually gotten their hands on a confirmed order.
The card is being listed on eBay for many hu

Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images Warner Bros., the studio that’s behind the latest Harry Potter video game title — Hogwarts Legacy, which will debut on next-gen consoles and PCs — has just posted an FAQ that directly addresses J.K. Rowling’s involvement with the title. “J.K. Rowling is not directly involved in the creation of the game, however, her extraordinary body of writing is the foundation of all projects in the Wizarding World,” the company writes.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is revealing today the exact time you’ll be able to preorder an Xbox Series X or Series S console on September 22nd. Preorders will start at 11AM ET / 8AM PT on September 22nd at Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, Sam’s Club, Gamestop, Newegg, and Army and Airforce Exchange Service.The Xbox Series X is priced at $499, and the Xbox Series S will be available at $299. Microsoft says supplies are, naturally, limited, and it’s not

Image: NASA A US production company is planning to produce a reality TV show competition, where the winner will receive a trip to the International Space Station as the ultimate prize, Deadline reports. The plan is yet another way to capitalize on the newly developed private human spacecraft, from SpaceX and Boeing, that are opening up ways for non-government astronauts to reach space.
Dubbed Space Hero Inc., the production company plans to put together a televised contest called Space Hero tha

Amazon van with prime logo in a logistic centre. | Photo by Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images In its first round of funding from its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, Amazon is investing in the battery and e-waste recycling company led by former Tesla executive JB Straubel, along with four other companies. It’s not clear how much money each company will receive.Amazon will need the technology being developed by the startups it’s now funding
Amazon made the $2 billion commit

Image: Sony Sony’s PlayStation 5 will launch on November 12th in the US starting at $399.99. That price will get you the digital edition of the console that doesn’t have a Blu-ray disc drive. If you want a disc drive for playing disc-based PS5 games, 4K Blu-ray movies, and PS4 games that may end up being compatible, there’s a larger version of the console that has that for $499.
Preorders are now available, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to find one. The stoc

Image: Riot Games Riot Games has released a series of animated shorts to hype up the upcoming League of Legends World Championship tournament, including one that could be really helpful if you’ve been interested in watching competitive League.
League of Legends is one of the most popular esports in the world, but the game itself can be difficult to understand if you’re a first-time viewer. I’ve been watching matches for years and still only have a basic understanding of the de

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is adding new rules intended to slow the spread of misinformation and other harmful content on its Groups feature. From now on, if a group is removed for violating Facebook’s policies, its members and administrators will be temporarily unable to create any new groups. If a group has no administrators, it will be archived. And Facebook won’t include any health-related groups in its recommendations.
Facebook groups have been blamed for

TL;DR: Buy an all-purpose Nespresso VertuoPlus coffee and espresso maker for only $109.99 at Amazon with a deal that expires after Sept. 17. It includes a 30-pack of best-selling coffee capsules for even more savings. Since daily trips to our favorite java shops are on hold for the time being, we have to rely on our own homemade concoctions. If you want the best brew every morning, you need a high-quality coffee maker. But if you want something fancier each morning, then Amazon has a deal o

Nintendo has always been a strange company. The Kyoto-based game maker turned an Italian plumber into one of pop culture’s biggest icons, and the company has experimented with everything from DIY cardboard game accessories to three-pronged controllers. This unpredictable nature is what makes Nintendo so exciting (and occasionally infuriating).Often, these concepts seem to come out of left field — but at its best, Nintendo makes the strange feel necessary. Nowhere was that more appare

Demand Sage, a new startup from the founders of recently-acquired mobile analytics company Localytics, announced this morning that it has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Eniac Ventures and Underscore VC.
When I spoke to CEO Raj Aggarwal, CTO Henry Cipolla and CPO Randy Dailey back in February, they outlined a vision to make it easier for marketers to get the data and insights they need, initially by automatically generating Google Sheets reports using data from HubSpot.
More recently, D

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is launching a new app to let small business owners manage pages and profiles across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, COO Sheryl Sandberg announced in a blog post Thursday. The app, called Facebook Business Suite, will merge the back end infrastructure of the three apps so small business owners can receive messages from customers, alerts, and notifications in one unified inbox. It plans to add WhatsApp integration in the future, the company co

Fall lovers rejoice. The weather is finally cooling down, and so our kitchens are about to heat up. 
If you're anything like us, fall makes you think of warm cookies, pies, and everything in between. Besides stopping at some super-cute farmers markets this season, try making your own creations at home. 
To do so, you'll want a stand mixer. Trust us, it makes the process less stressful and quicker. But don't worry, you don't have to spend $300 on a KitchenAid stand mixer. We've rounded

Nintendo recently revealed a huge slate of Mario games coming to the Switch (and one Zelda spinoff), but today, the company put the focus on some of the third-party titles that will help fill out the console’s lineup. The event included some big-name publishers like Capcom and Square Enix, though many of the games won’t hit the Switch until next year.
If you missed the event, here are the biggest and most interesting reveals.Ori is coming back to the Switch today
The gorgeous 2D plat

TL;DR: As of Sept. 17, spruce up your WFH area with up to 33% off eufy robot vacuums on Amazon.A robot vacuum is a luxurious set-it-and-forget it way to keep your floors crumb-free. Plus, it's extremely fun to watch a little robot zoom around the living room. You know it's true!
On Amazon, several robot vacuums from Eufy — a much-beloved and affordable Roomba alternative — are on sale. All three come with a remote control, are designed to vacuum for up to 100 minutes on a single char

The Mandalorian was one of the first shows to premiere on Disney’s streaming service when it launched in November 2019, and now it’s the reason Disney Plus won its first Emmy awards.The streamer won five Creative Emmys last night for various visual and audio effects seen in a number of Mandalorian episodes. The Mandalorian won awards for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series, Ou

The queue outside Micro Center in Brooklyn. | Photo by TC Sottek / The Verge Nvidia’s new RTX 3080 graphics card went on sale earlier today, but it seems the new $699 GPU is already sold out pretty much everywhere. In the US, Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and Nvidia’s own website are either listing the card as being out of stock or only with an option to be notified when a card is in stock. Even stock checking sites like NowInStock.net are coming up empty-handed.
Across Twitter, reports

I have a confession: I've had sex since social distancing began. With someone I met on Tinder, someone I don't live with. And I know friends doing the same. 
With the pandemic still a major concern across the United States, people having sex or even just wanting to have sex may feel shame — even more shame than usual in this Puritanical wasteland. We've been told to abstain from pleasure and release at a time where we need it most. 
We've also been given almost no guidance about

Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Moon Studios’ sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, is launching today for Switch. Nintendo announced the news today during a small Nintendo Direct presentation.
Will of the Wisps launched earlier this year. In the Metroidvania-style platformer, players control Ori in the immediate aftermath of Blind Forest. Both games first released on Xbox One and were only available via Microsoft platforms or PC. Moon Studios released Ori and the Blind Forest for Switch in 2

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Apple Watch Series 6 releases tomorrow, starting at $399 for the 40mm size and $429 for the 44mm size. If you don’t think you need the latest model, you can save $100 on the now-previous version of Apple’s smartwatch, the Series 5. Both Amazon and Walmart have the larger 44mm size with the gold aluminum case and pink sport band for $329.
It’s a little confusing to shop for an Apple Watch since their specs and features change with each new

Ford broke ground on a new manufacturing plant outside of Dearborn, Michigan, where it will build an electric version of its extremely popular pickup truck, the F-150. The new facility, located within the automaker’s historic Rogue Complex, will be completed in time to start production on the new electric truck, slated for mid-2022.That release date means the F-150 EV will likely hit the road after electric pickups from a number of Ford’s rivals. Tesla’s Cybertruck and General

Hello from the midst of Disrupt 2020: after this short piece for you I am wrapping my prep for a panel with investors from Bessemer, a16z and Canaan about the future of SaaS. Luckily, The Exchange this morning is on a very similar topic.The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch, or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.Today we’re parsing some data that Bessemer and Forbes shared regarding their yearly Cloud 100 list. It’s a groupin

With the recent discovery of a possible sign of life on Venus, it’s possible we could see a new surge of missions headed to the cloudy world in the future. Those next-generation robotic explorers may need to take extra precautions than Venusian explorers of the past.
Numerous missions to Venus have been proposed throughout the years, but few have actually manifested over the last three decades. That could change now, with perhaps the most compelling reason to visit the planet again. Astron

Photo: Comcast Comcast is launching a program to provide free Wi-Fi in community centers as part of an effort to improve internet access for students in low-income areas, the company said Thursday. The so-called “lift zones” will provide free internet connectivity as well as “access to hundreds of hours of educational and digital skills content to help families and site coordinators navigate online learning.”
The first 200 lift zones have been selected and will include B

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is changing how Google Drive handles trashed files and documents. Starting on October 13th, files in the trash will automatically delete after 30 days. The change means that Drive’s trash will work the same way as other Google products, like Gmail, for more consistent behavior across all of Google’s products.Previously, Google Drive would keep files in the trash indefinitely — unless you went in and emptied the trash to actually d

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Earlier this month, Intel announced its 11th-Gen “Tiger Lake” laptop CPUs. The company proclaimed them the new best processor for thin-and-light laptops — but thanks to AMD’s 7nm Ryzen 400 chips, competition for that title is fierce. This week, we finally got a chance to try one out.For some background: the Tiger Lake line includes nine new processors. These aren’t what you’d find in a large gaming laptop or desktop replacemen