Technology

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. Welcome to the weekend. Amazon Prime Day 2020 kicks off in less than two weeks, starting on Tuesday, October 13th and lasting through the 14th. That’s two days to get some of the best deals that we’ll see all year. We’re prepping behind the scenes for the event to make sure you’re able to get exactly what you’re looking for. But for now, I’m going to highlight a few of this week’s best deals that are still going on. OnePlus 8 $699 $799 13% off Prices taken at time of publishing. The OnePlus 8 saw a r...

Well, the coronavirus made it all the way to the White House. In a country that still maintains the highest numbers of cases in the world, that’s not a huge surprise. The White House might be an exclusive, highly-guarded venue, but viruses generally can squeeze their way onto any guest list — all they have to do is slide past the velvet rope as someone’s plus one. That’s the thing about this virus. It doesn’t matter if you’re a college football player, a nurse, a grocery store clerk, or the President. If the virus gets the chance to introduce itself to your body, it will probably take it. Unfortunately, a lot of our normal lives are spent in situations where the virus could turn into a social butterfly. Normally, we work in offices or factories or job sites. We go to school. We pack into y...

There’s one really strong argument in favor of buying the ZenBook Flip S: the screen. This $1,449 2-in-1 has a 4K OLED panel, and it’s one of the best displays you can get on a 13-inch notebook. OLED panels — which made a name for themselves in high-end TVs but are growing more popular in laptops as well — can deliver a stunning picture compared to IPS LCD displays. But all those pixels suck up a heck of a lot of battery, and companies sometimes slap them on laptops that can’t fully fill their power needs. That’s particularly true in thin-and-light 13-inch machines, which are working with really limited space for a battery. And it’s how you end up with releases like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, a gorgeous OLED device that can’t make it five hours on one charge. The ZenBook Flip (which yo...

An Apple patent application published yesterday reveals an idea for a foldable smartphone that would include a “self-healing” display cover, allowing the device to repair dents or scratches covering the screen. The application, spotted by Patently Apple, was originally filed by Apple in January. As Apple wrote in the patent application, the proposed concept’s display would allow the device to repair itself without the user having to manually intervene. In theory, the foldable’s self-healing could activate automatically, such as when the device is being charged or on a predetermined schedule, and it would use heat, light, or electric current to repair a protective layer above the screen. The patent application also says the hypothetical device’s screen cover may include a layer of elastomer...

No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, has been pushed back an entire year. It will now arrive on April 2nd, 2021, the film’s producers confirmed today. Originally, the film was supposed to arrive in April 2020, before getting delayed to this November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new delay gives the world five more months to potentially recover and for people to decide when they’re willing to brave theaters again. MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, today announced the release of NO TIME TO DIE, the 25th film in the James Bond series, will be delayed until 2 April 2021 in order to be seen by a worldwide theatrical audience. pic.twitter.com/NqHlU24Ho3 — James Bond (@007) October 2, 2020 Of course, Bond isn’t alone: many big tentpole films have ...

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has published the results of an employee survey undertaken by the company over the summer following allegations of endemic harassment and toxicity, and the results are eye-opening. In the anonymous survey of nearly 14,000 employees, one in four respondents said that they had either witnessed or experienced workplace misconduct themselves in the past two years, and one in five said that they didn’t feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment.” The results also noted that women and non-binary employees witnessed or were more likely to experience or witness harassment than men. Women and non-binary employees were more likely to experience harassment Ubisoft says that the survey — which was conducted by a third-party research firm, and the results of which ...

Update October 2nd, 10:00PM ET: Just 2 seconds before liftoff, SpaceX stopped the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, without giving a clear indication of what went wrong. The next opportunity for SpaceX to fly is Saturday evening, though a launch date hasn’t been confirmed yet. Original Story: Late Friday night, SpaceX is slated to launch a new upgraded GPS satellite for the US Space Force from Cape Canaveral, Florida — the latest spacecraft intended to help modernize the current GPS fleet. This will be the fourth GPS satellite of its kind to launch in the last three years, and the third one to be launched by SpaceX. The satellite going up on this flight is GPS III SV04, which will become one of the 31 primary GPS satellites in orbit. This vehicle is part of a new block of GPS III spacecraft i...

Two members of a console hacking and piracy organization known as Team Xecuter have been arrested and charged with fraud, one of whom is named Gary Bowser. French national Max Louarn and Bowser, originally from Canada but arrested in the Dominican Republic, allegedly led the group, which makes a line of tools for cracking locked-down gaming hardware. Team Xecuter is a sophisticated operation known best for its Nintendo hacks, including a USB device called the SX Pro that allows the Nintendo Switch to run pirated games. The group’s for-profit motive has made it controversial in the modding and emulation communities, reports Ars Technica, because those communities tend to focus on open-source efforts and shy away from selling products that could draw the attention of both console makers and ...

President Trump reportedly has COVID-19, and while some are wishing for his speedy recovery, others have publicly tweeted a hope that he’ll die of the disease. As you might imagine, that’s expressly against Twitter’s rules — and the company tells Motherboard that it will enforce them. In other words: You can’t tweet that you hope Trump dies of COVID. Specifically, Twitter tells the publication that it will suspend people who hope for Trump’s death, though it’s not clear how often Twitter will be able to do so. Here’s an example of a recent reply to Trump’s original tweet that already seems to be attempting to dodge detection: I hope you make “the sacrifice” too; like other people have. — One Voice (@OneVoic09474519) October 2, 2020 And Twitter did tell Motherboard that it won’t act on ever...

The new Microsoft Flight Simulator is an immersive beast of a PC game, and we can only imagine how immersive it might get in VR — but you might not have to imagine much longer, because Microsoft has just opened signups (via Eurogamer) for a closed beta of the virtual reality experience. There are quite a few requirements if you want to be considered, though. Not only do you have to own the game, have a Windows Mixed Reality headset, be a registered Microsoft Flight Simulator “Insider” and sign an NDA, you’ll need a slightly beefier PC than the base game — with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 or better sporting 8GB of VRAM, as well as 16GB of system memory. And, you’ll need to prove your PC qualifies by submitting your DxDiag (press your Windows start button, type “dxdiag”, hit Enter) so Microso...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to testify virtually before the Senate Commerce Committee on October 28th, Politico reported Friday evening. Assuming that the hearing is live-streamed in some way, that means you’ll be able to watch some of the world’s most powerful people get grilled by policymakers who’ve recently discussed changing the laws that let their companies grow to an unfathomable scale. The hearing, which will take place just six days before the US Presidential election, will be the second major Congressional hearing featuring big tech CEOs this year; the House antitrust committee heard from Pichai, Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in late July. We learned a number of interesting things from...

Google officially dropped Daydream virtual reality support from Android 11 — a final step in its retirement of the system. As Android Police notes, Google posted an announcement saying its latest version of Android doesn’t support the VR platform’s app. “Daydream VR app is no longer supported by Google and may not work properly on some devices running Android 11 or later,” it reads. In fact, the Daydream software is no longer supported at all, according to Google. It won’t receive updates, although users can potentially still access third-party VR apps through the Play Store. Google had already sidelined Daydream VR. It discontinued the Daydream View headset and dropped support on new Pixel phones in 2019. But it continued to support the Daydream app for existing users. Now, even that is a...