Technology

In the week leading up to Election Day, The Verge is running a series of editorials about what we’re voting for — not candidates but the ideas that move us to engage with the electoral process in the first place. A week before the election, American democracy is not in great shape. At least 14 states have reported some kind of voter intimidation, ranging from inconveniences to outright felonies. In Florida, armed security guards appeared outside a polling station, claiming to be working for the Trump campaign. (The campaign denied any involvement, although President Trump has encouraged supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.”) In North Carolina, a Republican county commissioner was charged with misdemeanor assault after shoving a poll worker. In Boston, a ballot drop-of...

The PlayStation 5 is big. This was never a secret, but I was still surprised by just how huge the console looks in person. A few weeks ahead of the next-gen console’s launch on November 12th, we’ve finally been able to check out the hardware for ourselves. And while I can’t talk much about the PS5 experience just yet — stay tuned for more on that— I can tell you what the actual console and its new controller look and feel like. Standing 15.4 inches tall and 10.24 inches deep, the PS5 does look and feel absolutely massive. To put it in perspective, it’s not as big as your average PC tower, but it’s edging close to it. Having it positioned vertically next to a 55-inch TV does take away from some of its size, but I’m still shocked every single time I look at it. I will say that the… let...

Microsoft and Sony have both created rather bulky next-gen consoles. We’ve known for weeks that the PS5 is the biggest game console in modern history, but Microsoft’s Xbox Series X isn’t exactly small. Now that we have both consoles to compare side by side, the design decisions and differences are immediately obvious. Microsoft and Sony have both taken different approaches to console design for this next generation. These design choices are apparent when you place both side by side vertically or horizontally. The PS5 is bigger than the Xbox Series X is almost every way possible. While the PS5 towers over the Xbox Series X when stood vertically, it’s thinner when you lay it down. That will mean you can slot the PS5 into TV stands where you can’t squeeze an Xbox Series X. That’s someth...

It’s hard not to be charmed by a smartphone that comes with a screwdriver in the box, especially when it’s as small and dinky as the one that comes with the Fairphone 3 Plus. In fact, that’s the only accessory you get with the phone. There’s no USB cable, no wall charger, and definitely no earbuds in the box. This little screwdriver is an important indication of what you’re getting with the latest device from sustainable smartphone manufacturer Fairphone. For starters, the phone is designed to be as repairable as possible. It’s an upgraded version of last year’s Fairphone 3, one of only two devices to have earned a perfect repairability score from iFixit. Beyond repairs, Fairphone also attempts to use ethically sourced materials where possible and offer good working conditions for the peop...

When Viana Ferguson was a content moderator for Facebook, she came across a post that she immediately recognized as racist: a photo of a white family with a Black child that had a caption reading “a house is not a home without a pet.” But she had a hard time convincing her manager that the picture was not just an innocent photo of a family. “She didn’t seem to have the same perspective, there was no reference I could use,” Ferguson said. She pointed out that there was no pet in the photo, but the manager also told her, “Well, there’s also no home in the picture.” Ferguson said it was one of several examples of the lack of structure and support Facebook moderators face in their day-to-day jobs, a vast majority of which are performed for third-party consultancies. Ferguson spoke on a call or...

Getting a new phone is exciting, but it can also lead to spending an annoying amount of time adjusting settings, permissions and notifications for all your apps. Cloud backups are supposed to make this process easier, but they don’t always catch everything – for instance, you’ll want to double-check that COVID-19 exposure notifications are still enabled on your new iPhone 12 if you restored from a backup. They might not be, according to BBC News. If you’re concerned you might be affected, you can re-enable exposure notifications in iOS by opening the Settings app, selecting Exposure Notifications, and clicking “Turn On Exposure Notifications.” Users first noticed issues with the official National Health Service (NHS) contact tracing app in the UK. When some iPhone 12 and 12 Pro owners trie...

It might not be the coveted rocket-firing Boba Fett action figure, nor offer quite so many play possibilities as the $800 LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon. But if you’re a fan of The Mandalorian, whose second season starts Friday, Hasbro’s $350 Razor Crest might just be the greatest Star Wars toy in a very long while. At 30 inches long, 20 inches wide and 10.5 inches tall, it’s a big enough to re-enact a whole bunch of the Disney+ show’s iconic scenes inside its cockpit and cargo hold — using standard 3.75-inch figures — and the entire ship is chock-full of details. You’ll find a packed weapons locker, a carbonite freezing chamber and Baby Yoda’s hiding place inside, plus seventeen different panels you can remove to see inside the ship, show off damage, or pretend like a band of Jawas ...

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. If you’re looking for a pair of AirPods Pro but do not want to pay the full $249 price, you can buy them right now for $200 at B&H Photo. This is not the lowest price we have seen them, though. Earlier this month, they went down to $190, but aside from that, $200 for Apple’s flagship true wireless earbuds is still a good deal if you missed out during Prime Day. Unlike the standard AirPods, which have a “one size fits most” design, the AirPods Pro include a customizable fit that includes three dif...

Lego has paired with game engine maker Unity for a Lego Microgame, where you can snap together virtual bricks to build the environment of your own custom game world. The Microgame is free and requires no prior knowledge of video game programming. All you have to do to get started is follow a Unity tutorial. Once you’ve designed your game to your liking, you can unleash a Lego minifigure to run, jump around, and maybe even perish to an obstacle in your new virtual world. Creative Mods in Unity will help you do things like build an enemy, customize menus, and change the minifig to an adventurer, pirate, or pizza boy. They’ve worked with BrickLink, so you can further customize by importing sets that have already been built in Studio. There are also asset add-ons like Space Cadet and Danger Zo...

A surveillance startup in Silicon Valley is being accused of sexism and discrimination after a sales director used the company’s facial recognition system to harass female workers. Verkada, which was valued in January at $1.6 billion, equips its office with its own security cameras. Last year, the sales director accessed these cameras to take photos of female workers, then posted them in a Slack channel called #RawVerkadawgz alongside sexually explicit jokes. The incident was first reported by IPVM and independently verified by Vice. “Face match… find me a squirt” Employees told IPVM that a group of men in leadership positions on the sales team, many of whom grew up in Danville and played football together in high school, contributed to a culture of sexism. “Face match… find me a squirt,” ...

One of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2’s coolest new features was the ability to use the phone’s front display as a viewfinder for the back cameras, which could be really useful for things lining up higher-quality selfies. If you’ve wanted that handy way to take better selfies but have been holding on to the original Galaxy Fold, you’re in luck: Samsung is bringing that selfie functionality and a number of other features from the Z Fold 2 to the first Fold through a software update that’s available starting today. Samsung will let you use the front screen as a viewfinder for the Fold’s back cameras.Image: Samsung The Fold isn’t just getting a new way to take selfies. The update also brings Capture View Mode, which lets you frame a photo with one half of the Fold’s main screen and review up to ...

Last year, Google pledged that, by 2022, it would include recycled materials in all of its Made By Google products, a list that includes Pixel phones, Pixelbooks, Google Home speakers, Nest devices, and accessories like phone cases and charging stands. Today, the company announced it hit one of its goals ahead of schedule: all new Pixel and Nest products are now designed with recycled materials, according to Google sustainability systems architect David Bourne. That’s not to say its products are made entirely of recycled materials, but they at least include recycled materials somewhere in the product. According to Google, the back cover of the Pixel 5 is made with 100 percent recycled aluminum, and the new Nest Audio has 70 percent recycled plastic, with the sustainable fabric cover it int...