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Tesla quietly raises prices on four of its EVs
Tesla quietly raised prices of four of its electric vehicles this weekend, a few days after the automaker announced a record $1.6 billion profit in its third quarter. First reported by Electrek, the base Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles are each priced $2,000 higher, at $43,990 and $56,990 respectively. In addition, the base Model S and Model X vehicles will each cost $5,000 more, at $94,990 and $104,990 Tesla had a banner third quarter despite the global semiconductor shortage that has plagued other carmakers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in June that Tesla’s incremental price hikes on the Model 3 and Model Y during the first half of 2021 were due in large part to supply chain shortages. But the company was able to rewrite its vehicle software so it could support alternate chips. Other a...
Estimated ship times for preorders of new MacBook Pro models now into late November, early December
Shipping estimates on the Apple Store for new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro pre-orders have started sliding into late November and early December. As of Sunday morning, estimates for the standard configurations of the 14-inch MacBook Pro were showing delivery dates between November 16th and 23rd. Customizing a 14-inch Pro could push the estimated delivery into mid-December. For the 16-inch MacBook Pro, standard configurations are showing estimated shipping times between November 23rd and December 1st, with customized options also showing mid-December ship dates depending what you choose. The Apple Online Store showing estimated shipping dates for the new 16-inch MacBook Pro as of October 24th.screen grab Apple introduced its new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops at its “Unleashed” ...
New trailers: King Richard, Uncharted, Ozark, and more
Succession is back, thank goodness, and with it the awkward bravado of Kendall Roy, who would like his Twitter to be off the hook and whose plan to take over his family’s empire is essentially a series of hashtaggable platitudes. Still the squirmiest show on streaming! Here’s this week’s trailers roundup: [embedded content] King Richard Will Smith stars in King Richard, the story of Serena and Venus Williams, told from the point of view of their father, whose determination (which is putting it mildly) helped drive his daughters to be the greatest tennis players of their generation. Smith’s performance in King Richard, which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival in September, is already generating Oscar buzz and honestly it’s not hard to see why from this second trailer. And yes, that is a...
Would you like fries with that? Fast-food chains are serving up NFTs
The past few months have seen an explosive uptake of nonfungible tokens (NFT) as crypto artists, gaming enthusiasts, musicians, celebrities and now fast food chains deploy the technology in various ways. Fast food giants such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell are taking to NFTs because of their capacity to enable gamified promotions and distribution of their products and services. Here is a quick look at emerging NFT adoption in the fast-food sector. Taco Bell Taco Bell is a popular fast food brand in the United States thanks to its Mexican-style products. In a March 2021 marketing campaign, Taco Bell launched a new NFT collection emerging as the first among fast-food chains to offer collectible tokens. Taco Bell NFTs (Taco Art) comprise artistic illustrations of its fas...
We haven’t even begun to tap into the potential of NFTs
Earlier this summer, CNN and The New York Times each warned that the nonfungible token (NFT) bubble, fueled by buzz over eye-popping valuations for digital art and interest from collectors, might already be bursting. As the sixth employee at a social media startup called Wildfire — which was acquired by Google in 2012 — I’m all too familiar with skeptics and precautionary tales when it comes to new and emerging technologies. Based on my experiences across entertainment, licensing and blockchain technology, I contend that if the so-called NFT bubble is bursting, it could be a net positive for the future of the industry. The industry is so nascent, we’re the first batter of the first inning right now. Related: Beyond the hype: NFTs’ actual value is still to be determined NFTs: The in...
Sounds like the Halo Needler is finally getting the Nerf blaster it deserves
The Halo Needler is one of the most memorable video game weapons ever designed: an alien rifle that shoots homing spikes of crystalline plasma that explode. While clearly taking some inspiration from The Fifth Element’s “replay gun” in shape and functionality, it’s gained a following of its own. Now, Hasbro has announced a foam-firing Nerf replica of the Needler that might finally do it justice. The $100 Nerf LMTD Halo Needler follows the company’s Aliens Pulse Rifle and The Mandalorian Amban Phase-pulse blaster in asking the question: what if Hasbro built a cosplay-grade Nerf blaster for its biggest fans instead of something that needs to sell like a toy? The answer is a 10-round fully automatic blaster with light-up spikes whose lights automatically wink out as you fire each one, mimicki...
NFTs for freedom: Nonfungible tokens and the right to self-determination
It seems that everyone — from corporate behemoths like Visa and Anheuser-Busch to socialite Paris Hilton and NBA legends Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant — has recognized the growing importance of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) for the 21st-century economy. World-renowned artists, athletes and musicians have been cashing in on the craze, lending legitimacy to this new use of technology that allows for ownership of a wide array of digital assets. But the true test of this innovation will not be how it helps the wealthy perpetuate their positions of power, but rather how NFTs can promote human rights and other public goods. The right to self-determination Let us start with the most misunderstood international human right — the right of self-determination. It was the underlying principle behind Uni...
Another Facebook Whistleblower Has Come Forward
Another former Facebook employee has come forward alleging that the tech giant prioritizes profit over public safety, The Washington Post reported Friday. The whistleblower, who shared information with The Post on the condition of anonymity, mirrored claims made by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who came forward earlier this month alleging misconduct at the company. The new whistleblower, a former member of Facebook’s Integrity team, wrote a five-page signed affidavit and submitted it to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to The Post, the affidavit alleges that “Facebook officials routinely undermined efforts to fight misinformation, hate speech and other problematic content out of fear of angering then-President Donald Trump and h...
Clubhouse will soon let you pin links to the top of rooms
Clubhouse is making it possible for people to share outside links and monetize their work on the platform. Today at The Verge’s On The Verge event, Clubhouse CEO Paul Davison and global head of marketing Maya Watson announced a new pinned links feature, which allows moderators to place outside links at the top of a room. These links can direct listeners to whatever moderators want, like a Patreon page, a news article, or a podcast. Certain links won’t be allowed for security and moderation reasons. Davison didn’t explicitly name the types of links that wouldn’t be allowed, but he suggested links to OnlyFans wouldn’t be accepted because links to porn are banned. Anyone can add, change, or remove a link, so long as they’re a moderator of a room and regardless of the number of followers they ...
Microsoft reverses controversial .NET change after open source community outcry
Microsoft is reversing a decision to remove a key feature from its upcoming .NET 6 release, after a public outcry from the open source community. Microsoft angered the .NET open source community earlier this week by removing a key part of Hot Reload in the upcoming release of .NET 6, a feature that allows developers to modify source code while an app is running and immediately see the results. It’s a feature many had been looking forward to using in Visual Studio Code and across multiple platforms, until Microsoft made a controversial last-minute decision to lock it to Visual Studio 2022 which is a paid product that’s limited to Windows. Sources at Microsoft, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Verge that the last-minute change was made by Julia Liuson, the head of Microsoft’s dev...
A Letter Handwritten by Steve Jobs When He Was 19 Could Sell for Up to $300,000 USD at Auction
A letter handwritten by Steve Jobs when he was 19 is up for auction at Bonhams and could sell for up to $300,000 USD. The single-page letter, described as “Steve Jobs reveals his spiritual side” by Bonhams, was written on February 23, 1974, and sent to his childhood best friend Tim Brown. According to the auction, Jobs has dropped out of college at the time and was living in a cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains and had just returned from working on an Apple farm. “Jobs was renowned for his relentless pursuit of innovation and perfection, and as a teenager was on a quest in search of the meaning of life,” Bonhams said. In the note, the Apple co-founder discusses Zen Buddhism and his desire to travel to India for the Kumba Mela, a major Hindu festival. “Tim I have read your letter many times ...
With official Matter support, Eero mesh routers could soon run your smart home
We are literally right now celebrating The Verge’s 10-year anniversary in New York City, but we couldn’t throw an epic two-day event without also bringing you a teensy bit of tech news — and Eero co-founder and CEO Nick Weaver just did that at On The Verge. Weaver says that Eero, an early adopter of the Thread protocol, will be upgrading all its Thread-equipped Wi-Fi routers to fully support Matter as well. Matter is the upcoming 2022 standard that should allow for easier setup of smart home devices, with any compatible Matter host able to discover and work with any Matter client. Amazon smart home rivals Apple and Google are also on board with Matter. “It does feel different this time,” Weaver says, asked about his company’s long support for Thread, a protocol that hadn’t shown any signs ...
