Technology

Electronics company TCL is pausing its plans release a lower-cost foldable phone this year, the company confirmed in an email to The Verge. Its clamshell-style foldable phone, codenamed Project Chicago, was in mid-development when the company made the decision to put it on indefinite hold. According to TCL the delay is due in part to rising production costs and supply chain shortages. “Although the foldable market is growing each year, it is still a premium product category,” Stefan Streit, chief marketing officer of TCL said in a statement to The Verge. “In combination with recent component shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs in foldable production, TCL has made the difficult decision to suspend the launch of its first commercially available foldable smartphone until the com...

A new post on Apple’s Support forum says exposing iPhones to high-amplitude vibrations, “specifically those generated by high-power motorcycle engines” could degrade the devices’ camera system. The company recommends against mounting an iPhone on a motorcycle, as the vibrations may be transmitted via the bike’s handlebars and chassis. Here’s the technical explanation from Apple: If you accidentally move a camera when you take a picture, the resulting image can be blurry. To prevent this, some iPhone models have optical image stabilization (OIS).1 OIS lets you take sharp photos even if you accidentally move the camera. With OIS, a gyroscope senses that the camera moved. To reduce image motion, and the resulting blur, the lens moves according to the angle of the gyroscope. Additionally, some...

If you want to save up to $100 on Sonos products, now is the time. Starting Sunday, September 12th, Sonos will be increasing its prices from $10 to $100, depending on the product, meaning today is the last day you will be able to pick up one of the company’s many smart speakers at their current price. The Sonos Arc will jump the highest in price, going from $799 to $899. You can also expect to pay $50 more for the Sonos Five, Sonos Sub, and Sonos Amp. The Five will go for $549 instead of $499, while the $699 Sonos Sub will sell for $749 and the $649 Sonos Amp will retail at $699. Sonos will also increase the prices of the Sonos One and One SL by $20, and the company will tack on an additional $10 to the portable Sonos Roam, offering it for $179 instead of $169. The table below breaks down ...

There are a plethora of new and exciting smartphones that have just come onto the market (or are about to), and it wouldn’t be at all surprising to find out that you are planning to upgrade from your current phone. Samsung has introduced two new folding phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, along with its flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra. Meanwhile, Google has released its latest mid-priced Pixel 5A and has announced its upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Whether you want to buy one of Samsung’s new folding phones or one of the upcoming Google 6 phones without paying full price, trading in your old phone — or selling it — is a smart way to do that. On the other hand, there are those who will decide instead to buy a lightly used phone from an older generation that will suit their nee...

The remaining movies on Disney’s 2021 slate will all be released in theaters exclusively before being released on its Disney Plus streaming platform, the company announced late Friday. “Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films which included five of the top eight domestic releases of the year, we are excited to update our theatrical plans for the remainder of 2021,” Kareem Daniel, chairman, Disney media & entertainment distribution said in a news release, adding that “confidence in moviegoing continues to improve.” The coronavirus pandemic and temporary closures of movie theaters that began last spring led movie studios to delay the release of many of their films, hoping to allow time for pandemic restrictions to ease and let people return to theaters in large nu...

The App Store may never be the same. Today’s ruling from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Epic v. Apple trial mandates that Apple must allow all developers the option to point directly to other payment systems, in addition to Apple’s own in-app purchasing system (IAP). It’s a decision that cuts right to the heart of the roughly $19 billion a year the App Store brings in for Apple, because at the end of the day, the App Store makes most of its money off in-app purchases inside free-to-download games. It’s not a total sledgehammer to the heart of Apple’s walled garden; the ruling still maintains the App Store as the only place that users can go to to buy or download new apps, and doesn’t challenge Apple’s 30 percent cut of those purchases. And the ruling only technically impacts US-based ...

Magic: The Gathering is a painful game. It hurts to see your meticulously crafted deck obliterated by a killer combo by turn four or to have your game-winning creature fizzle into nothing with a well-timed Counterspell. But Sheepwave — a streamer, artist, and Magic: The Gathering content creator — doesn’t think this already ruthless game is painful enough. To add a little spice to her Magic games, Sheepwave made the Shockbox — a box that delivers a tiny electrical jolt whenever a player takes damage. Sheepwave says the Shockbox was born out of a “twisted” sense of humor and an affinity for electrical engineering projects. “The whole thing started as a one-off joke I made,” Sheepwave tells The Verge. “But people really responded to it, and it was well within my skill set. Electrical enginee...

Update September 10th, 5:01PM ET: Sony appears to have sold out of PS5 consoles for the day. We’ll make sure to let you know when the next opportunity comes up. The PlayStation 5 is still difficult to get, but as restocks come and go one of the most reliable sources is Sony itself. Sony’s direct online store has opened a queue for ordering the disc-based PlayStation 5 console and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. Once you’re on the landing page, you do not have to refresh the page, just try to wait patiently. When the countdown finishes, make sure you have your PlayStation Network account info ready to log in and complete the purchase if you are allocated a spot to buy one. PlayStation 5 Sony’s flagship next-gen console, which includes a disc drive, allows you to play both digital and physica...

The Analogue Pocket has experienced a few delays already due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s suffering another, the company shared on its site. Preorders for the retro handheld that can play Game Boy cartridges and other formats like Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and more via adapters will ship “at the latest in December.” The $199 console was previously slated to launch in October, following a delay that pushed it from its original 2020 launch window. Analogue says that “due to new Covid restrictions with our assembly partners, their capacity to deliver within our agreed timeframe has been affected.” Though understandably frustrating for people who like to stay entertained during tough times, you can’t pin blame just on Analogue since chip shortages spurred by the pandemic have impa...

Ransomware has been a hot-button topic in 2021 due to its impact on critical infrastructure, hospitals, and computer manufacturers. However, a recent report from NBC News may be one of the more heartbreaking accounts of the effects hackers can have: it details how data leaks from attacks on schools can put student’s most sensitive information out onto the internet, available to anyone who knows how to find it and is willing to pay. It’s a story that’s well worth a read for all the details it goes into and edge cases it explores. According to NBC’s report, one school district had an Excel sheet called “Basic student information” posted to the dark web after it refused to pay a ransom, according to the FBI’s instructions. The article’s author, Kevin Collier, breaks down the shocking informat...

It was May 11th, the seventh day of the Epic v. Apple trial, that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hit upon a compromise neither company had asked for. She asked Epic’s economist, David Evans, if it would be sufficient to kill Apple’s anti-steering rules — the ones Apple uses to keep developers from even telling you that there’s a perfectly good external website where you can purchase your subscription instead of inside the app itself. On May 24th, the final day of the trial, Judge Rogers hinted she was still leaning toward that exact sort of compromise, one that might not please either side, one that might involve Apple’s anti-steering rules. That’s what happened today. Both sides lost. But Epic arguably lost more. In a win for developers — but not Epic — Rogers ruled for a permanent nationwi...