Technology

Photo: Nintendo It’s been a busy week for video game hardware. This week saw the debut of two next-generation platforms, with the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S devices. Each platform is built around new advances like ray-tracing and quick-loading SSDs. Meanwhile, today, Nintendo is releasing… a clock that plays Super Mario Bros. It might seem like strange timing, but it’s also perfectly in keeping with Nintendo’s history: this is a company that almost always goes its own way. The new Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. is an exceptionally cute piece of hardware. It’s modeled after the classic Game & Watch handheld — the precursor to the Game Boy — with a color scheme inspired by the original Japanese Famicom… Continue reading…...

Image: Apple Apple’s big Mac event delivered three new computers — a new MacBook Air, a new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a new Mac mini. But really, it delivered one thing that those three computers have in common: the M1 chip. That’s the official name for the Arm-based Apple Silicon the company is going to migrate all of its Mac computers over to. Ahead of the event, I listed out ten things to watch for and though Apple didn’t really go as deep as I would like, it did at least strafe all but two of them. We had wall-to-wall coverage at The Verge, and a good place to start is our article detailing the 5 biggest announcements from Apple’s ‘One More Thing’ hardware event. Here’s my takeaway: Apple is astonishingly confident in this chip, these… Continue reading… You Dese...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is pushing back against claims its platform is helping promote and spread misinformation surrounding the 2020 US election, saying its most popular videos related to the election are from “authoritative” sources. YouTube also claims it takes measures to stop the spread of videos containing false or misleading claims by not surfacing them in search results or through its recommendation engine. “Like other companies, we’re allowing these videos because discussion of election results & the process of counting votes is allowed on YT. These videos are not being surfaced or recommended in any prominent way,” YouTube wrote from its YouTubeInsider account in response to a tweet from Bloomberg journalist Mark Bergen, who criticized the… Conti...

Elon Musk in Berlin on September 3rd, 2020. | Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images Elon Musk took to Twitter Thursday night to say that he has received mixed results after being tested for COVID-19 and is currently experiencing symptoms of a common cold. Musk says he was tested four times using a rapid antigen test: two tests came back positive and two came back negative. He’s also awaiting the results from two PCR tests but the results won’t be known for 24 hours. Antigen tests work by detecting a small protein on the surface of the coronavirus, whereas PCR tests look for the virus itself. Antigen tests can be conducted quickly as they don’t require a lab, and are often administered in hotspots like college campuses or elderly care facilities. Some states don’t even bo...

Photo by Manfred Schmid / Getty Images Facebook has lost its appeal in a landmark online speech case, as Austria’s Supreme Court determined that it must remove comments that are defamatory in Austria worldwide. The comments, which must be blocked while an injunction is active, insult Austrian Green Party politician Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek. Austrian news outlet Der Standard reported the news earlier today. It echoes a similar ruling from the European Court of Justice, which handed a defeat to Facebook late last year. Glawischnig-Piesczek originally sued Facebook in 2016, arguing that a series of insults — including calling her a “lousy traitor” and a member of a “fascist party” — damaged her reputation. But the comments would likely be protected speech in some countries, and… Continu...

The BioNTech headquarters. | Photo by Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Pfizer and BioNTech announced this week that their vaccine was 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in clinical trials. The data is still preliminary and hasn’t been examined by independent researchers, but it’s good news for both this specific vaccine and for the other coronavirus vaccines in the pipeline — especially the ones that are based on the same genetic technology. “It’s extremely encouraging, in my view, not only for the Pfizer vaccine, but broadly speaking for the platform,” says Ross Kedl, an immunologist at the University of Colorado. Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine is made from genetic material called mRNA. mRNA carries instructions inside of cells and tells them to build ...

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right) | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge When it comes to the Echo smart speakers, Amazon has a slew of devices to choose from. With so many Echo devices currently available, there is a device for every occasion. Maybe you simply want to add Alexa into a room or you are looking for an Echo device that will allow you to easily manage your other smart home products. Regardless of the reason, these are the best Echo deals currently available right now. Photo by Dan Seifert / The VergeAmazon Echo Dot with LED display Echo Dot (Third and Fourth-Gen) This year Amazon released the fourth generation of the Echo dot, but it looks more spherical in design than an actual dot. But don’t worry, Amazon did not discontinue the third-gen Ec...

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...