Technology

A one-year subscription to PlayStation Plus normally costs $60, but it’s available for almost half that price at CDKeys.com. You’ll need this service to play PS4 games online right now, and it’s an especially good deal if you’re planning to upgrade to the PS5 this year. On the new console, this subscription will grant you access to the PlayStation Plus Collection, a suite of several acclaimed PS4 classics (including Persona 5, Bloodborne, God of War, and more) that will be available for you to download a la Xbox Game Pass. Any price drop is welcome for a service that’s essential for most PlayStation gamers, so hop on this, whether you intend to use it now or stow away the code for when you need it next. You can still get a good deal on the 128GB version of Apple’s latest iPad. Normally $42...

Google’s Pixel 5 event is scheduled for this Wednesday, but some of the company’s other new gadgets are already appearing on store shelves. That includes its all-new Chromecast, which some savvy buyers have been able to purchase directly in-store from retailers like Walmart and The Home Depot over the course of the last week. The Verge has purchased one such device from The Home Depot and can confirm the retailer is not stopping customers from checking out and taking the pre-release product home. The device is selling for $49.99 under the codename Sabrina-Abbey Not all stores appear to be selling the item; we tried two and only found the new Chromecast at a second location. And inputting the universal product code listed on the receipt into the retailer’s website returns no results, so it ...

Google is outlining new changes to its developer policies and promising to make using third-party app stores easier on Android 12. The announcement addresses recent concerns around Android app development, including a fight over alternate in-app payment systems and difficulties for businesses moving online because of COVID-19. Android users can already install apps through third-party stores like Samsung’s Galaxy Store. Google says that in response to developer feedback, it’s adding features to next year’s Android 12 release that will “make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices while being careful not to compromise the safety measures Android has in place.” It will release more details on these changes in the future. Google isn’t, by contrast, relaxing its grip...

Roku today announced that it plans to bring support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit features to many of its streaming players and Roku TVs by the end of the year. The move will allow people to send content — music, videos, photos, etc. — from their iPhone, iPad, or Mac to their Roku device. That’s the AirPlay 2 part, and HomeKit will let Roku’s products be controlled with your iPhone via the Home app or Siri, and they can also be included in smart home routines. AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will be available on most of Roku’s current 4K-ready devices by the end of this year; 1080p-only players won’t be getting the features. They’ve already rolled out to many newer TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizio, and others, but the move to Roku’s platform is a big one. Amazon’s Fire TV doesn’t currently offer eith...

I’ve spent the past week with an Xbox Series X in my living room. I’ve played a variety of games on this preview unit, testing load times, performance, and some of the new Series X features. I switched back to an older Xbox One X briefly during testing, and it was like going from cable internet back to the days of a 56k modem. That’s how much the Xbox Series X improves the games you already play every day. Everything just feels better. As this is a preview console, I was limited to focusing on three areas for this initial hands-on: backward-compatible games, load times, and the new Quick Resume feature. I’m going to focus on my impressions of using an Xbox Series X over the past week and the solid performance improvements I’ve seen across a variety of games. We’ve already covered our initi...

Dell has announced new refreshes to its XPS 13 and XPS 13 2-in-1. Both are powered by Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors and will be available in the US and Canada on September 30th (and more countries in the coming weeks). The XPS 13 starts at $999; the 2-in-1 starts at $1,249. The new XPS was first teased onstage at Intel’s Tiger Lake launch earlier this month. The upgrades mostly look like spec bumps. In addition to the new processors, both models have received a memory update: they’re now running LPDDR4x at 4,267MHz, rather than 3,733MHz. Like many other Tiger Lake flagships, they’ll also support Thunderbolt 4 and Intel’s Xe integrated graphics. The 2-in-1 has also gotten a similar redesign to one that the early-2020 XPS received. What you’re most likely to notice is the new screen...

If you want to harvest those apples, you better get on it soon: Zynga is shutting down its original FarmVille web game on Facebook at the end of the year, the company announced. It’s not entirely unexpected news; Facebook said in July it would no longer support Flash games as of December 31st, the same date Adobe is killing the Flash player altogether. But it does feel like the end of a gaming era. As silly (and sometimes annoying) as FarmVille could be — especially when it seemed like all of your Facebook friends were tending their crops — it was a huge win for Zynga. The game launched in 2009 and had more than 10 million daily active users in less than two months. At its peak popularity, some 30 million people played FarmVille daily, driving Zynga to record revenues. A mobile version and...

Prime Day, Amazon’s annual deals extravaganza, will run from October 13th-14th, the company announced today. Amazon says the two-day shopping event will feature “over one million deals across every category,” including brands like Panasonic, Roborock, Keurig, Under Armour, Coleman, Adidas, Lacoste, Marvel, Ticwatch, and more. Amazon is aiming to support small businesses on its platform by incentivizing customers to buy from them in the run-up to Prime Day. Starting today until October 12th, Prime members will receive a $10 credit usable on Prime Day by spending $10 at certain small businesses on Amazon. The company is also committing to spending more than $100 million to promote small business through Prime Day and the holiday season. Typically, Amazon hosts Prime Day in July, but it got p...

Attorneys for TikTok argued Sunday morning during a dial-in hearing that a ban by the Trump administration would be “devastating,” and urged a judge to block it until the entire case can be decided. TikTok’s attorney said the ban that would prevent new downloads of TikTok from Apple and Google’s app stores at 11:59PM ET today was essentially “shutting down speech.” But the government’s lawyers argued that First Amendment claims by TikTok don’t apply, because the Trump administration considers the app a national security risk. On August 6th, President Trump issued an order saying the security concerns about TikTok and WeChat, both China-based apps, constituted a national emergency. He invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which lets him ban transactions between US...

No spoilers, but I started Enola Holmes and I absolutely love Millie Bobby Brown in it, she’s so charming. The looking-right-at-the-camera bit which I usually dislike (except for Fleabag!) actually works really well to give us her inner thoughts. Will report back once I’ve finished, but so far, it’s a refreshing reboot of the sometimes-stodgy Sherlock Holmes universe. Here are this week’s new trailers, including a surprise teaser of a new Resident Evil series that looks, well, terrifying, of course (h/t to The Verge’s Taylor Lyles for spotting this one!). We’re headed into October so the offerings are a bit spookier this week. [embedded content] Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness Surprise! Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness is an upcoming “CG anime series” at Netflix. The teaser trailer shows ...

A judge in Pennsylvania has rejected a request from three TikTok content creators to temporarily block a ban on the app set to go into effect Sunday night, which would bar new downloads from Google and Apple’s app stores in the US. Douglas Marland, Cosette Rinab, and Alec Chambers said they “earn a livelihood from the content they post on TikTok,” saying the platform’s “For You” page is unique among social media platforms, because its algorithm allows “little-known creators to show their content to a large audience,” according to the court filing. Marland has 2.7 million TikTok subscribers, Rinab has 2.3 million, and Chambers has 1.8 million. The three argued that they would “lose access to tens of thousands of potential viewers and creators every month, an effect amplified by the looming ...

The US Commerce Department has added China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), to its entity list, after it determined there an “unacceptable risk” that equipment SMIC received could be used for military purposes, Reuters reported. The move blocks US computer chip companies from exporting technology to SMIC without an export license. SMIC is the latest major Chinese firm to be put on the entity list; the Trump administration added phone manufacturer Huawei to the list in 2019. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Commerce Department wrote in a letter to the computer chip industry on Friday that exporting products to SMIC would “pose an unacceptable risk of diversion to a military end use in the People’s Republic of China.” In April, the a...