Technology

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge It’s been a good two years for the Nintendo Switch. According to Nintendo, the gaming tablet has been the bestselling console in the US for 23 straight months. And according to data from the NPD Group, it just had its best October ever, moving 735,926 units of both the Switch and Switch Lite in the US. The company says that represents a 136 percent increase compared to last year. To date, the Switch has sold 22.5 million units in the US, and last week Nintendo revealed that more than 68 million units have been sold globally. “We’re excited about our momentum,” says Nick Chavez, Nintendo of America’s SVP of sales and marketing. Chavez puts the company’s big October down to two main factors. One is a better supply of stock; this year in… Continue read...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Many Mac users reported that their computers have been running slower than usual on Thursday — including a number of Verge staffers — with apps launching slowly or not at all, alongside other Apple service issues. It appears that the problem is due to many people rushing to download macOS Big Sur, which was officially released today, which in turn seems to have crashed Apple’s OCSP (online certificate status protocol) service — which is used for several key aspects of macOS, including validating digital certificates for both Apple and third-party software on the Mac, as Ars Technica reports. Hey Apple users: If you’re now experiencing hangs launching apps on the Mac, I figured out the problem using Little Snitch. It’s trustd connecting...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has been staring down the barrel of numerous antitrust investigations this past year, after app developers like Spotify and Rakuten accused the company of unfairly advantaging Apple’s own apps ahead of theirs. But Apple is apparently working on a new feature that might address at least one of the common concerns, by proactively suggesting third-party apps (apps that Apple doesn’t make) to iPhone and iPad users when they first set up their devices. Will Apple suggest Spotify alongside Apple Music? That could be on the table. 9to5Mac spotted the feature in the new iOS 14.3 beta, and it seems pretty clear from the accompanying text that the feature is designed to satisfy countries who take a dim view of Apple’s current stance. “In… Conti...

Image: 9to5Mac Apple has been rumored to be working on new over-ear headphones for years, and we might have just gotten a vague idea of what they look like, thanks to an icon found in the first developer beta for iOS 14.3 by 9to5Mac. You can see the icon at the top of this post. And here’s another look at the icon, apparently from a video in the Find My app in the beta found by MacRumors contributing writer Steve Moser. New Pairing video in the Find My app in iOS 14.3 beta 1 with the codename Hawkeye hints at Apple Tags support and new Apple over ear headphones. pic.twitter.com/oVdCLQcaWc — Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) November 12, 2020 The video shows a magnifying glass hovering over the icon of the headphones. Interestingly, the magnifying glass… Continue reading… You Deserve t...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The November 3rd election was the “most secure in American history” and “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The statement follows numerous claims of supposed election fraud by President Donald Trump and his allies. “While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the statement continues. The statement also follows a report from Reuters that… Continue rea...

Image: Ndemic Creations Plague Inc. — the strategy game about evolving and spreading diseases — received an update yesterday with a new mode that flips the script on its original gameplay. The new mode, titled Plague Inc: The Cure, is developer Ndemic Creations’ attempt to simulate the real-life, multifaceted approach required to stop a pandemic, based on input it received from real experts. The game originally launched in 2012 but surged in popularity this March after news of the COVID-19 outbreak spread across the world. The Cure is a response to our current reality, featuring several stages of containing a pandemic, like researching the disease, using techniques like contact tracing, and developing a vaccine. Ndemic stresses that the game shouldn’t be taken… Continue reading&helli...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge PayPal will now let all users in the US buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies right from their PayPal account. The news came in an update to a press release from last month announcing that the new functionality was on the way (via TechCrunch). I’m seeing the functionality available in the PayPal app. For me, there’s a banner about the ability to buy cryptocurrency right at the top of the main screen, and if I tap that, I can choose to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The cryptocurrency section in the PayPal app. PayPal’s support of cryptocurrency is a significant vote of confidence in the digital currencies and could encourage everyday users to adopt them. However, PayPal isn’t the first financial… Continue reading… You ...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, Amazon filed suit against an influencer and a range of online businesses over an alleged counterfeiting scheme conducted across Instagram and Amazon’s Marketplace platform. According to the complaint filed in federal court in Washington state earlier today, the influencers advertised counterfeit luxury items on their Instagram page to be sold under dummy listings to Amazon Marketplace. In its complaint, Amazon describes the scheme as “a sophisticated campaign of false advertising for the purpose of evading Amazon’s counterfeit detection tools.” A @styleeandgrace Instagram post advertising a dummy Marketplace post, as seen in the complaint. The complaint centers on a Long Island woman named Kelly Fitzpatrick… Continue reading… You ...

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Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple announced its second smart speaker to date, the HomePod mini, during its hardware event in October. The device is now available for order for $99. Apple also opened up orders for the iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro Max, and we’ve laid out all order deals for both phones in a separate article. The HomePod mini is a smaller version of the original HomePod. It features a spherical design with one speaker, and retains the mesh fabric exterior and a small LED display on the top of the device. You can also pair two HomePod minis to use in a stereo configuration. Photo by Dan Seifert / The VergeApple’s HomePod mini We have a review of the HomePod mini if you are curious to know our thoughts on it, but if you are… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make ...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Some of today’s best deals are on PC gaming accessories, namely gaming mice. The Razer Viper wired gaming mouse, shown above, is a good option that’s steeply discounted today at both Amazon and Best Buy. Normally $80, it’s $40. This is a step up in terms of specs compared to the other two mice listed below, considering the Viper has faster and longer-lasting optical switches and more DPI sensitivity. It’s an ambidextrous mouse, too, with side-mounted thumb buttons on both sides, so it’s built to accommodate either right or left-handed gamers. Image: LogitechToday’s deal is on the black G203 LightSync, shown all the way to the right in this image. At Best Buy and Amazon, Logitech’s simple but stunning G203… Continue reading… You Deser...

Photo by Sam March Smart glasses — depending on who you ask — are the future. But if you’d rather not wait for a company like Apple or Facebook to actually sell you a pair, you can do what product designer Sam March did and simply build your own smart glasses from scratch. (March is no stranger to building his own wearable tech, as his DIY smartwatch from last year shows.) Much like the smartwatch build, March has fully documented every step of the process he took in creating the glasses, which feature a connected app and use integrated LEDs to indicate walking directions to a specified location. Photo by Sam March If you do want to build your own pair, it will take a fair amount of technical skill. March’s process involves machining… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Mone...