Technology

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 5G and Z Flip 5G are available in a pair of new colors in the US starting today, the company has announced. The Note 20 5G is now available in red, while the Z Flip 5G is available in white. Both colors are being produced in “limited quantities,” Samsung says, and there’s no difference in specs or pricing between these and the original models. For those keeping track, these are the fourth and third colors for the Note 20 5G and the Z Flip 5G, respectively. The Note 20 5G is currently available in copper, green, and gray, while the Z Flip 5G is available in copper and gray. Although they’re not getting the new colors, the Ultra version of the Note 20 is also available in white and black, while the 4G version of the Z Flip comes in black, purple, and gold. The red No...

Universal Studios Japan has announced an opening date for its long-awaited Nintendo-themed area. The Super Nintendo Land zone will open at the Osaka theme park on February 4th, 2021. That’s actually a little earlier than expected — last month Nintendo said that the project would open in spring. A themed cafe and merchandise store have already opened in the larger Universal Studios Japan park. USJ and Nintendo have also provided details on what is sure to be one of the park’s flagship attractions: a Mario Kart-themed rollercoaster. It’s housed inside a reconstructed Bowser’s castle and makes use of AR and projection mapping technology, with riders donning AR headsets shaped like Mario’s cap: Bloomberg got an early look at Super Nintendo World, including the Mario Kart ride, and noted that t...

I would like to discuss my THOUGHTS about the Netflix movie Happiest Season with you all but I don’t want to spoil the ending if you have not seen it. Suffice to say it could have used 100 percent more of both Aubrey Plaza and Dan Levy. The ending was… disappointing. Like VERY. It’s fine, but man I was hoping a Hallmark-esque LGBTQ rom-com might go with a more unexpected ending. K-Stew deserved better. So as not to become too ensconced in holiday rom-com land, I just started The Undoing. Gotta keep those streaming algorithms guessing. Before we get to the latest new trailers, in honor of the original Darth Vader, David Prowse, who died this weekend, let’s watch the original trailer for The Empire Strikes Back. [embedded content] The Empire Strikes Back I know better than to try to ar...

The Utah monolith has now disappeared almost as abruptly as it was discovered. The Utah Bureau of Land Management released a statement that the “illegally installed structure” had been removed from its public lands by an unknown party, likely on November 27th, after receiving national and international attention. “The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property,” according to the statement posted to the agency’s Facebook page. “We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff’s office.” The 10- to 12-foot steel object was first discovered by the Utah Department of Public Safety during a sheep-counting expedition in the Utah desert on November 18th. There was “no obvious indication” where it came from or who put it ther...

A trade union has called on workers at an Amazon warehouse in Germany to hold their second strike in a week in an effort to disrupt Black Friday order processing, Reuters reported. Some 500 workers took part in a three-day strike that started Thursday and ended Saturday, according to trade union Verdi, with the next strike set to begin Monday night and end Tuesday night. Germany is Amazon’s second-biggest market after the US. Amazon workers at six sites across Germany struck in June to protest safety at its logistics centers, where dozens of workers had become infected with the coronavirus. Warehouse workers in Germany have struck against Amazon several times in recent years to protest workers’ pay and conditions. The strikes in Germany are separate from a larger, international protest by ...

Cyber Monday is upon us. The big finale of the busy shopping weekend will officially happen Monday. But if you’ll be busy with work or whatever else, there’s some good news today: You can get a lot of the best Cyber Monday deals early. More and more retailers have lifted the veil on their new deals earlier than ever, and we’re focused on adding them here. As you’re expecting, there are some great deals on TVs, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, video games, and much more. We’ll be doing our best to keep this post updated ahead of Cyber Monday, and we’ll be back all of next week to give you as many chances as possible to get everything on your holiday wish list. Latest deals Sony’s WF-1000XM3 wireless noise-canceling earbuds are down to $152 at Walmart, which is the lowest price we’ve seen yet...

David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films, has died, the Associated Press reported. He was 85. George Lucas asked Prowse to audition for Star Wars after seeing the 6-foot-6 actor in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. Prowse had his choice of playing Chewbacca or Vader, and opted for the latter because, as he told the BBC, “you always remember the bad guy.” Plus, he added, he didn’t fancy wearing Chewbacca’s fur suit. Prowse played Luke Skywalker’s erstwhile father in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, but famously, his voice didn’t make it into the films. He said all Vader’s lines, but the voice of James Earl Jones was later dubbed in. RIP David Prowse, 85.The man behind the Darth Vader mask and suit in STAR WARS....

As any avid gamer knows, bugs and glitches are part of the deal. Sometimes they take gameplay to a whole other level, as seems to be the case with Spider Man: Miles Morales where players unexpectedly turned into inanimate objects, including a patio space heater (there’s a probably joke there about great power and great responsibility but we’re above puns at The Verge dot com) (spoiler: we totally are not). The patio heater incident was weird enough, but it’s not the only strange inanimate object to abruptly replace a player in-game: It’s possible this Spider-Man glitch may eventually rank up there with the funniest in-game weirdness. There was the bug in Half-Life 2 that left NPCs unable to blink, the numerous oddities including misplaced obelisks in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and of cour...

Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos has died, the company confirmed Saturday. Hsieh retired from the Las Vegas-based company in August, after 20 years at the helm. Under his leadership, Zappos became known for its customer service and employee-focused company culture. Hsieh wrote a best-selling autobiography titled “Delivering Happiness” that detailed his philosophy. Amazon acquired Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009, and kept Hsieh on as CEO. He said in 2010 he had decided to sell to the e-commerce giant because Amazon recognized “the uniqueness of Zappos’s culture and Amazon’s duty to protect it. We think of Amazon as a giant consulting company that we can hire if we want—for instance, if we need help redesigning our warehouse systems.” According to CNN, Hsieh, 46, die...

Noise-canceling headphones are an important piece of tech if you enjoy having zero distractions or outside noise while you jam to funky tunes or listen to podcasts. And, as you might have expected, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a good time to invest. While not as convenient as popping earbuds into your ears, noise-canceling headphones do a better job of erasing sound distractions when stacked up against popular wireless earbuds like Apple’s AirPods Pro or Jabra’s 75t. But if you prefer earbuds over headphones, we have rounded up the best wireless earbud deals this Black Friday. We are picking out all of the best deals going on right now on several brands that offer noise-canceling headphones. If you want more deals for other tech categories, check out our best Black Friday deals post. ...