Technology

Continuing the celebration of its 75th-anniversary season, the NBA has teamed up with Canadian brand and retailer Better™ Gift Shop for a limited-edition Beats Powerbeats Pro release. Helping mark the upcoming 2022 NBA All-Star Game, the wireless earphones are emblazoned with logos from both the NBA and Better™. The special Beats Powerbeats Pro feature a white base and come with interchangeable red and blue ear tips for added contrast. Continuing the design of the earphones is the charging case and packing expressing abstract interpretations of the NBA logo by artist Shay Semple. “At Better™, we strive to push boundaries and authenticate representation—and this collaboration does exactly that. Working with artist Shay Semple, one of the first to incorporate hand-painte...

Spotify reportedly paid Joe Rogan at least $200 million to commit to podcasting on the platform exclusively for three and a half years, according to a New York Times report. That number, while astronomical, is double what had previously been reported in The Wall Street Journal as Rogan’s deal price — $100 million — and has continued to be used widely in the media without correction from Spotify’s team. This news comes after a volatile month for the audio company and one in which musicians, podcasters, employees, and the medical community scrutinized the company’s work with the controversial podcaster. In January, a group of medical community members penned a letter to the company asking it to remove a Rogan episode they said peddled COVID-19 misinformation. Musician Neil Young read that le...

In case you missed out on the news from early February, Amazon Prime will see its first price increase in four years starting tomorrow, February 18th, for new subscribers. The annual cost will rise from $119 to $139, or if you pay monthly, it will go from $12.99 to $14.99. If you pay monthly, you’ll have no choice after tomorrow but to take the hit. Per Variety, the cost of the Prime Students membership plan will increase from $6.49 to $7.49 per month. All of this info is listed on Amazon’s support page. However, if you have the means to front the fee for an annual Prime membership, doing so today will save you $20 compared to if you were to do the same thing tomorrow. That locks you in for a year of service at the $119 rate. Current Prime subscribers can put off worrying about this until ...

This story is part of a group of stories called Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you’re looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. We’re approaching President’s Day in the US, and while it was originally established as a holiday to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, the passage of time has transformed it into a day when we distract ourselves from the foibles of our democratically elected leadership by treating ourselves to some of the best deals of the yea. Whether you’re planning to get a little something for yourself or shopping for someone else, there are plenty of great promotions and sales to take advantage of thi...

Facebook has bet its future on virtual reality and the metaverse, rebranding to Meta and spending billions a year to build hardware and software that extends beyond traditional social media. But the company has, at least so far, shared little with the public about how well its early bets are performing. Meta’s highest-profile bet right now is a social VR platform for the Quest headset called Horizon Worlds. It was recently featured in Meta’s Super Bowl ad, and Zuckerberg called it “core to our metaverse vision” on the company’s most recent earnings call. During a virtual Meta all-hands earlier this week — yes, the Metamates one — the company’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, gave employees a previously unreported update on Horizon’s user growth. Since early December, its monthly user bas...

Technology continues to shape the way we live each and every single day and one component of this realm that continues to drive conversation is the metaverse. In an effort to stay relevant to this part of the culture, sportswear brands have wasted no time to participate, one being Nike which announced its all-new NIKELAND 3D space on Roblox last Fall. To further build upon this initiative, the Swoosh has tapped Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James to visit NIKELAND and contribute to its basketball-focused features. Designed to encourage users to get active in their own physical worlds, this latest strategy will see The King coach players and teach them the fundamentals of hoops through a series of new mini games. In addition to this, the NIKELAND Showroom will also be the first platfo...

A civil lawsuit has been filed accusing Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of negligence stemming from a fiery crash that killed a 20-year-old man, Reuters reports. Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, died in a crash on September 13th, 2021, while driving in his 2021 Model 3 after its underbody struck the road’s surface as it drove through an intersection near his home in Coral Gables, Florida. The car quickly went out of control, left the road, and struck two trees before it was engulfed in flames. In the lawsuit (included below, via PlainSite), a lawyer for Garcia’s family argues the sedan’s suspension failed, causing the bottom to hit the road and igniting the batteries, and leading to sparks shooting out of the car before it veered off the road. It also claims...

Years ago, one of my PC building buddies swore by Crucial Ballistix memory. I’m pretty sure I bought Corsair Dominator instead. Are people like me why Micron just decided to retire the Ballistix brand for good? Your guess is as good as mine because Crucial ain’t talking, but it’s definitely a thing that just happened. Crucial Ballistix is officially end-of-life, rep Chelsea Garecht confirmed to The Verge, and the company will focus on Micron DDR5 memory and Crucial-brand memory and SSDs instead. It’s making me all nostalgic for the days when RAM brands seemed to matter. got any good RAM stories? There was a time you could theoretically buy worse RAM, or at least RAM from a notably less reputable manufacturer, for your desktop or laptop PC. I remember stories about defective batches of RAM ...

Twitter is now rolling out pinned DMs, the company announced Thursday. The feature was previously only available to Twitter Blue subscribers, but it’s now coming to everyone on Android, iOS, and the web. The feature doesn’t seem to be fully rolled out just yet. I have access to it on the iOS app, but not on Twitter’s web app. On the iOS app, you can swipe to the side on a conversation to reveal a pin, and if you tap that, the conversation will be moved to a new “Pinned conversations” section at the top of your DM inbox. Keep your fave DM convos easily accessible by pinning them! You can now pin up to six conversations that will stay at the top of your DM inbox. Available on Android, iOS, and web. pic.twitter.com/kIjlzf9XLJ — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 17, 2022 Pins could be...

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a final ruling this week that permits automakers to finally add Adaptive Driving Beams (ADB) for vehicles on US roads. Adaptive headlights, available on many vehicles in Europe, Canada, and Japan, have been prohibited in the US due to rigid and outdated federal regulations. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (standard no. 108) specified requirements for lamps and reflectors dating back to 1967, which standardized binary hi / low beams, which as a result stifled newer headlight technology. But now, after the passage of President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill late last year, NHTSA was directed to amend FMVSS no. 108. The agency was given two years to take action but was able to make the change a year a...

Today, Bang & Olufsen has launched a new edition of its Beoplay Portal gaming headphones. The wireless headphones’ first edition was designed for the Xbox ecosystem. Now the updated headphones are fully compatible with PC and Playstation consoles, in addition to mobile gaming. Aside from improved connectivity, the headphones have been updated with a new wireless dongle and improved battery life, which warrants up to 42 hours of listening time with Adaptive Noise Cancellation. “The new edition targets more platforms to strengthen our ties with the gaming community, and means we can welcome more people into the B&O family,” says Dorte Vestergaard, Bang & Olufsen’s category director. “We are excited to be building on the initial success and continue our expansion within gaming.” C...

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, one of the wealthiest men in the world (depending on the day) says the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tried to “chill” his free speech in an “unrelenting investigation” of him and the automaker he co-founded. The SEC, Musk’s attorneys allege, “has broken its promises” in a 2018 settlement over a tweet Musk posted saying he had funding secured to take Tesla private. “Worst of all, the SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government,” the letter states, “the SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in evenhanded fashion.” Musk’s attorneys made the allegatio...