Technology

Visiting Super Potato in Akihabara is usually a key reason why many die-hard gamers want to venture to Japan. The flagship Super Potato store (of the eight total in Japan, according to its Twitter) is nondescript, yet its shelves are covered wall-to-wall in rare yet reasonably priced games and consoles. It’s a magical place that’s a store-meets-museum. It’s fun enough to just look around, but if you’re a collector, there aren’t many places left where you can walk in and pick up a Virtual Boy headset or find a cache of Sega Dreamcast games that never released outside of Japan. My point is that you absolutely should go at some point if you can. But thankfully, going there in person isn’t the only way you can peep the store’s vast collection of retro Japanese video games. Per IGN, the beloved...

Twitter has said it’s exploring features like tipping to give people a way to pay other Twitter users, and now we have further evidence that a tip feature may be on the way. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong shared images on Thursday and Friday showing that Twitter could offer a tipping button right on user profiles. Here’s one iteration of what it could look like — check out the little blue cash button under the “@wongmjane” watermark in the left image. Clicking or tapping that button apparently shows options to let you tip via Bandcamp, Cash App (made by Square, which counts Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as its CEO, too), Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo. As you can see in this tweet, Wong also found evidence in March that Twitter is working on a “Tip Jar” feature for Twitter Spaces, the company’s Cl...

California Governor Gavin Newsom today set an aspirational 2045 deadline to stop all oil extraction in the state. He also said that he plans to ban hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for oil by 2024. “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil,” he said in a statement. NEW: California is now the first state to declare an end to oil extraction in the country. Today, we’re announcing that we will phase out all oil extraction — as part of a world-leading effort to achieve carbon neutrality — and ban fracking by 2024. — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 23, 2021 Newsom directed the state’s Depa...

Disney’s R&D labs, commonly known as its Imagineering team, does some extremely impressive — and expressive — things with robots. It’s made mechanical stunt doubles, lifelike alien Na’vi, and, uh, this skinless weirdo. But the company’s latest creation looks like it quite literally walked out of a Disney movie. It’s a bipedal Groot that can amble about tether-free. As Disney’s Pinocchio would put it: he’s got no strings to hold him down. TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino has the low-down on this robotic milestone for Disney. It’s part of the company’s long-term efforts to develop autonomous robot actors for its parks, says Panzarino, under the codename of “Project Kiwi.” The company’s engineers spent years creating their own free-standing bipedal robotics platform to power Groot, and Panz...

Apple’s new 12.9-inch iPad Pro has a big catch: it turns out that the new 2021 model is incompatible with the old Magic Keyboard folio case for the 2018 and 2020 models. The news, first reported by French site iGeneration and confirmed via sources familiar with the matter to The Verge, means that if you’re looking to upgrade from a 2018 or 2020 12.9-inch iPad Pro to the refreshed model (with its Mini LED display, faster M1 processor, and upgraded camera), you’ll also have to shell out an extra $349 for a new Magic Keyboard case, even if you already bought the prior version. Bad news for 2020 iPad Pro owners The 2021 12.9-inch iPad Pro is slightly thicker than the 2020 version: the new model measures in at 6.4mm thick, or 0.5mm thicker than the 5.9mm 2020 model, an increase that’s speculate...

Quiplash, the hilarious sentence-completion party game from Jackbox Games, is available for free on Steam this weekend. The deal runs until April 26th at 1PM ET. Quiplash is, without question, my extended family’s favorite game for group gatherings. (Technically, we play Quiplash 2, included in Jackbox Party Pack 3, but they’re extremely similar games.) The premise is simple. At the beginning of a round, players will be given prompts to fill in an answer privately on their smartphones or browser. Then, everyone will get to vote on which response was the best by seeing them pitted head-to-head on the main screen (whether that’s a TV, a Zoom call, a Twitch stream, etc.). More votes equal more points, and the person with the most points at the end wins. My family can spend hours in Quiplash t...

As Uber founder Travis Kalanick prepared to leave Uber’s board of directors in 2019, he was already hyping his next venture: a startup called CloudKitchens that rents out space to restaurants for delivery-only services. He predicted at the time that the startup would be “bigger than Uber.” The Wall Street Journal reported last October that CloudKitchens had purchased more than 40 properties in some two dozen cities, for more than $130 million. But a new report from Insider suggests that many of the tactics that became infamous at Uber — the always be hustlin’ mentality and aggressive internal culture — are in place at CloudKitchens. Inside CloudKitchens, people describe an alpha-male organization helmed by a “temple of bros,” in which Kalanick and two pals reign supreme and where a “Fight ...

Twitter has apologized for accidentally sending out emails asking users to “confirm your Twitter account.” The company says the messages were sent out by mistake. “If you received one of these emails, you don’t need to confirm your account and you can disregard the message,” the company said. The Verge’s own Tom Warren was a recipient of one of the emails, which looks like the one Twitter sends out to validate an email address during its sign-up process. Users who weren’t expecting to receive the emails quickly assumed they were being sent out by someone trying to imitate Twitter as part of a phishing scam, BleepingComputer reports. On this occasion the cause of the emails was the result of what seems to be a simple error, but it’s always best to play it safe when you receive an email you ...

Microsoft is releasing a preview version of Office 2021 for Mac and Office LTSC this week. While Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) is designed for commercial customers, both versions are perpetual versions of Office that don’t rely on subscriptions or the cloud. Microsoft announced its plans for Office 2021 back in February, and a Windows version — which won’t be available in preview — will also be released later this year. Office 2021 for Mac will support both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs, and require at least 4GB of RAM and 10GB of storage space. It’s designed to be a static release of Office, but during the preview there will be monthly updates that could include new features. Once Office 2021 for Mac is final and released, no new features will be added. Current improvemen...

If you’ve read a review, a gift guide, or a how-to on The Verge, then you’ve read something that’s been assigned by, edited by, or written by Dan Seifert. A longtime presence here, Dan’s knowledge of tech is vast and impressive — and is reflected by the number and quality of the devices you can see here in his home office. Tell me a little about yourself. What is your background, and what do you do at The Verge? I’ve been at The Verge for nearly nine years and have held many hats and done many jobs over that time. But I’ve always had an involvement in the product reviews program, because I’m a complete gearhead who loves playing with new gadgets and technology. Currently, I’m a deputy editor who helps run The Verge machine every day. I oversee our entire product reviews and service journal...

Spotify is reportedly planning to debut its in-app podcast subscription offering next week. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the company will not take a cut from podcasters who choose to sell in-app subscriptions and also will allow them to set their own pricing. Listeners on its iOS app will be routed through a website to purchase the subscriptions, thereby allowing Spotify (and podcasters) to skirt around Apple’s fees. The news comes right after Apple Podcasts debuted its own in-app subscriptions. The company will allow podcasters to sell access to ad-free, bonus, or early-access content at whatever price they choose to set. Unlike this reported Spotify plan, however, Apple requires podcasters to pay $19.99 per year to even list their subscriptions, as well as a 30 percent cut ...

Apple’s new Siri Remote doesn’t come equipped with an accelerometer or gyroscope, which means it won’t work as a motion controller in certain Apple TV games. The omission was initially spotted by Digital Trends, and can be seen on the remotes’ product pages. The old Siri Remote lists an “Accelerometer” and “Three-axis gyro” in the tech specs, but they’re missing from the new listing (we’ve linked to a Google Cache because as of this writing Apple’s store is down ahead of AirTags pre-orders going live). The change means that the new Siri Remote won’t work with certain Apple TV games that rely on motion controls. According to code in tvOS 14.5 seen by MacRumors, trying to play an incompatible game will lead to the following error message: “To play this game on your Apple TV, you need to conn...