Technology

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart brings alternate realities to the beloved PlayStation franchise on June 11th, and along with leveraging the PlayStation 5’s SSD, Insomniac Games announced new accessibility features on Thursday that build on the studio’s recent work and address the limited options presented in the earlier PS4 Ratchet & Clank. As an action platformer, Ratchet & Clank often requires multiple types of movement: You’ll shoot through waves of oncoming enemies while running around a level, and quickly shift to jumping across floating platforms, and using various gadgets to fly, swing, and now reality-warp through stages. Rift Apart seems to keep those core mechanics but adds even more potentially sensory-overloading visuals, from cracks in reality to exploding fragments of...

The US Treasury Department said Thursday it will require any cryptocurrency transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the IRS. “Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the agency said in a new report on tax compliance proposals. “This is why the President’s proposal includes additional resources for the IRS to address the growth of cryptoassets.” The Treasury report said that even though cryptocurrency transactions are a small fraction of business transactions in the US, requiring large crypto transactions to be reported would help “to minimize the incentives and opportunity to shift income out of the new information reporting regime.” The Treasury Department plan outlined several policies aimed at...

Blizzard’s two-hour Overwatch 2 stream showed off the best look yet at the much-anticipated sequel to the competitive team shooter. And while there’s still no release date, the studio did show off plenty of new information about the game. Chief among those is one of the biggest changes to Overwatch in the game’s history: the sequel will be shifting the default PvP multiplayer mode from six-on-six matches to five-on-five games. Within the current role queuing system, that translates to cutting out a tank character on each team, which will now consist of two support, two DPS, and just a single tank character. The explanation behind the changes is to both simplify and shake up Overwatch’s combat and meta, which tends to calcify toward tank-centric plays, specifically based on utilizing shield...

Slack has added a small but very welcome new feature: when you’re setting a status, you can check a box in that same menu to pause notifications for as long as that status is up. I discovered the checkbox on Thursday while preparing for an interview. When I do interviews or calls, I like to set a status to tell my colleagues what I’m up to and then turn off Slack notifications so I’m not distracted by pings or mentions. Previously, though, pausing notifications required clicking into a second menu — and I’d sometimes forget to turn them off. This new checkbox has the benefit of saving me a bit of time and helping me remember to pause notifications when I need to. Slack tells The Verge that this feature is rolling out now, so you might not have it just yet. If you want to see if you do, go ...

CNA Financial, one of the largest US insurance companies, paid $40 million to free itself from a ransomware attack that occurred in March, according to a report from Bloomberg. The hackers reportedly demanded $60 million when negotiations started about a week after some of CNA’s systems were encrypted, and the insurance company paid the lower sum a week later. If the $40 million figure is accurate, CNA’s payout would rank as one of the highest ransomware payouts that we know about, though that’s not for lack of trying by hackers: both Apple and Acer had data that was compromised in separate $50 million ransomware demands earlier this year. It also seems like the hackers are looking for bigger payouts: just this week we saw reports that Colonial Pipeline paid a $4.4 million ransom to hacker...

Snap’s new Spectacles glasses are its most ambitious yet. But there’s a big catch: you can’t buy them. On Thursday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled the company’s first true augmented reality glasses, technology that he and rivals like Facebook think will one day be as ubiquitous as mobile phones. A demo showed virtual butterflies fluttering over colorful plants and landing in Spiegel’s extended hand. “The next generation of Spectacles can help unlock a new way to use AR hands-free” The new Spectacles have dual waveguide displays capable of superimposing AR effects made with Snapchat’s software tools. The frame features four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a built-in touchpad. Front-facing cameras help the glasses detect objects and surfaces you’re looking at so that graphics ...

Ford has revealed its first all-electric F-150, the Lightning, and on paper it looks like a really compelling truck. It’s priced aggressively for an electric vehicle, has plenty of power, and looks to be more capable at towing and hauling than the cheapest gas-powered F-150s. But Ford’s not alone in developing an electric pickup truck — far from it, in fact. There is a slew of electric pickups set to hit the market in the next year and a half or so. Tesla’s polarizing Cybertruck should start rolling off the line at the company’s new Texas factory at the end of 2021 or in early 2022. Rivian — a startup that has raised billions of dollars and is backed by Amazon and Ford — has an electric pickup called the R1T due out this June. And General Motors’ first electric pickup will be the gaudy Hum...

Slack experienced frustrating issues for many on Thursday, including for some of us here at The Verge. For me, some messages just wouldn’t send. But a little more than an hour after Slack first reported the outage, the company said that the issues were resolved. “We’ve released a fix for this issue, and Slack is up and running once again,” Slack said in a post on its status site at 2:36PM ET. “If you are still experiencing any trouble, please fully quit your Slack app or browser using Command + Q (Mac) or Ctrl + Q (Windows/Linux), and then reopen it.” Slack first posted about the outage at 1:17PM ET. The next time there’s a Slack outage, I highly recommend you cruise Twitter to see the ridiculous memes and GIFs that people post. You might not be able to work anyway, right? Slack also went ...

Sony’s elusive PlayStation 5 console is in stock at Walmart. If you’re one of the many people who has struggled to get one for yourself, today is looking good for you, and it’ll look better if more retailers jump in with stock later today. As usual, Walmart might not immediately appear to be selling consoles today, but you might be able to get one added to your cart if you refresh frequently. (Note: make sure your payment method and shipping address are entered ahead of time on each site before you try to buy a console. The faster you can checkout, the more likely your chance of success. Also, Walmart tends to release more consoles in 10-minute waves, so try again if 3:00PM ET doesn’t work, try again at 3:10PM ET.) The PS5 with a UHD Blu-ray disc drive and 1TB of built-in SSD storage costs...

Tesla’s ultra-fast Model S Plaid, which the company has been teasing since 2019, is finally ready for its public debut. The company will hold a “delivery event” on June 3rd at its factory in Fremont, California, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday — though it’s unclear when Tesla actually plans on delivering the vehicle to customers. And there’s still no word on when we can expect to see Plaid versions of the Model X. The Model S Plaid, which is a step above Tesla’s Ludicrous trim level, can sprint from 0–60 mph in less than two seconds and reach speeds of up to 200 mph, Musk says. It will have a range of 520 miles, which is well above Tesla’s highest range models, and it will retail for $139,990. Musk says it will be the “fastest production car ever.” Tesla Model S Plaid delivery eventJune 3 a...

HP made an almost overwhelming bunch of gaming announcements today, which include systems equipped with Intel’s 11th Gen H-series processors: a new 16-inch Omen gaming laptop and an updated 17-inch version, along with a new budget-friendly gaming laptop line called Victus. There is also a new Nvidia G-Sync-compatible monitor. Other major tech companies — such as Razer, Lenovo, MSI, and Asus — debuted their H-series-equipped laptops last week, but HP saved its news for now. The Omen 16 (pictured above) has a 16.1-inch display and can be configured with up to QHD resolution using a fast 165Hz refresh rate. It’s got a 16:9 aspect ratio display (disappointing, since Lenovo and Asus have competing models offering the more spacious 16:10 aspect ratio). You’ll be able to choose between AMD and In...

About once a month, Sony’s flagship WH-1000XM4 noise-canceling headphones get a $72 price cut at a few retailers. But today, there’s a $90 discount happening at eBay that brings the price down to just $260 for a new set in black. This excellent deal comes from eBay seller Pro-Distributing, which has a 98.9 percent positive feedback rating. Orders placed today should arrive next week. My colleague Chris Welch reviewed this model, and the review title sums up what you need to know about the XM4 headphones: the best noise-canceling headphones get better. They look similar to the previous generation XM3, but the newer model has the ability to connect to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously and to pause music automatically when you take the headphones off, then resume once they’re placed b...