Technology

Amazon’s fall Alexa hardware event is scheduled for September 24th at 1PM ET. It’s not clear exactly what might be revealed at the event — an invite sent to The Verge only said that Amazon’s Devices and Services team would be sharing “some news.” An Amazon spokesperson specified that the event is invite-only, however, which suggests it won’t be live streamed for the public. It seems likely we’ll see new smart speakers and smart displays of some kind. At last year’s event, for example, Amazon launched the high-end Echo Studio speaker, the Echo Show 8 smart display, and a third-generation Echo speaker. But Amazon could also show off some more surprising hardware; the company revealed the Echo Frames glasses, which had Alexa built in, and the Echo Loop, a smart ring, at its hardware event las...

Cyberpunk 2077 will be released in a few months, but ahead of its mid-November launch, developer CD Projekt Red unveiled the system requirements needed to run the PC version of the game, and shockingly, you don’t need to upgrade your computer to play the game. The game’s recommended specs are not too heavy, requiring only an Intel Core i7-4790 or an AMD Ryzen 3 3200G processor, and either an Nvidia GTX 1060 or an AMD Radeon R9 Fury graphics card. So if you have not upgraded your rig in a bit, you’ll likely still be able to run the game at 1080p. However, if you are looking to run the game at 1440p or 4K resolution or take advantage of the game’s technical features like ray tracing, you will need to upgrade to an RTX 20-series or RTX 30-series GPU. C:\>systeminfo /u 2.0.7.7\cyberpunk /p ...

Procreate’s next big update, Procreate 5X, adds new filters and adjustments that’ll be really helpful for those who are trying to do more in Procreate and less in Photoshop. The update will be available starting September 21st. The new filters include halftone, gradient map, chromatic aberration, glitch effects, and more. The iPad illustration app has also added a reference companion window, allowing you to view your whole canvas or another image on the side while you work. While overall this feels less flashy than the Procreate 5 update (which added Animation Assist, a tool that adds a timeline to the app for looping GIFs and animated videos), it includes some great features that help to close the gap with Adobe’s more powerful desktop software. The updates that might be most exciting to ...

One of iOS 14’s big new features is picture-in-picture mode, which lets you watch a video in a small window while you’re doing other things on your iPhone. That could be handy if you, say, wanted to watch a YouTube video in Safari while chatting with your friends or checking email. But unfortunately, it seems YouTube has done something to stop videos from continuing to play when PIP mode is activated — unless you pay for YouTube Premium, that is. See for yourself. Pull up a video on YouTube’s website in Safari on your iPhone and take it full screen. If you tap to pull up playback controls, you should see a picture-in-picture icon in the top-left corner of your screen. Tap that, and the video briefly goes into its own window before returning to its usual spot on YouTube’s site. And if you t...

Comcast and Roku have come to an agreement months after NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service launched. Peacock will be available to stream on Roku in the coming weeks. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Comcast that will bring Peacock to Roku customers and maintains access to NBCU’s TV Everywhere apps,” a Roku spokesperson said. “We look forward to offering these new options to consumers under an expanded, mutually beneficial relationship between our companies that includes adding NBC content to The Roku Channel and a meaningful partnership around advertising.” The decision comes after Comcast and Roku got into a public argument over the status of dozens of NBCUniversal apps. Comcast threatened to pull the apps as negotiations over Peacock continued; this included 11 net...

Apple will launch its online store in India on September 23rd, giving customers in India a way to buy Apple products directly from the company for the first time. “We’re proud to be expanding in India and want to do all we can to support our customers and their communities,” said Apple’s senior vice president of retail and people Deirdre O’Brien said in a statement. “We know our users are relying on technology to stay connected, engage in learning, and tap into their creativity, and by bringing the Apple Store online to India, we are offering our customers the very best of Apple at this important time.” We know how important it is for our customers to stay in touch with those they love and the world around them. We can’t wait to connect with our customers and expand support in India with t...

If you’re an organization junkie and an iPhone user, then iOS 14 has provided you with a new tool: the App Library, which organizes your apps in labeled groups to make them easier to find. In fact, all your current apps can now be found there, and any apps you download in the future will be placed there as well. (You can decide whether you want the apps to also be visible on your home screen; we’ll tell you how later in this article.) This new feature can be very useful, especially if you tend to download a lot of apps. Automatic groupings The App Library appears as a separate page on your home screen. After you’ve updated to iOS 14, just keep swiping left; the App Library will be the last page you hit. It automatically organizes your apps into folders that are labeled with a variety of ca...

OnePlus released the OnePlus Buds, its $79 true wireless earbuds, back in July. While they have great battery and an affordable price, if you used them with a non-OnePlus phone, you weren’t able to manage some settings or get firmware updates. That should change in the future, though, as a OnePlus Buds app will be coming to other Android devices, according to a Q&A on OnePlus’ Chinese website (via 9to5Google). The Q&A doesn’t give a timeline as to when we can expect to see that app on other phones, and OnePlus didn’t reply to a question about when the app might be released more broadly. If you want, you can already check out the OnePlus Buds app on Google’s Play Store, but the app’s description says it can only be installed on OnePlus devices. In his review of the OnePlus Buds, my ...

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today that individuals who don’t have coronavirus symptoms should get tested, reversing guidance that stirred controversy last month. The reversal follows a report published yesterday by The New York Times which revealed that the initial guidance was pushed by non-scientists in the Trump administration against the objections of public health officials and experts. The new guidance, issued on the CDC’s website on Friday, now clarifies that individuals should seek a COVID-19 test if they feel they’ve been in close contact with those who tested positive for the virus, regardless of whether they’re displaying symptoms. “Due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, this guidance further reinforces the need to te...

It seemed a little too good to be true the other night when Amazon successfully processed a bunch of PlayStation 5 preorders after other retailers dropped the ball spectacularly. And, well, maybe it was. Today, the company has sent out an email to many who preordered a PS5 — both the regular and Digital Edition consoles — advising that shipments might not arrive in time for the November 12th release date. “We’re contacting you about your order of PlayStation 5 to let you know in advance that you may not receive this item on the day it is released due to high demand,” the email reads. “We’ll make every effort to get the item to you as soon as possible once released.” This is probably a situation where not even Amazon yet knows exactly how many PlayStation 5 units it will be receiving, so th...

The fall tech season is in full swing, with Apple announcing new Watches and iPads, Sony announcing pricing for the PlayStation 5, and Facebook revealing a sequel to its standalone Oculus headset. The week on The Vergecast, Verge health reporter Nicole Wetsman joins co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn to discuss the newly announced Apple Watch Series 6 and its blood oxygen monitoring feature. Nicole explains how the feature works, how accurate it might be, and what purpose a blood oxygen meter might serve on a wrist-worn gadget. Verge news editor Chaim Gartenberg also joins the show to talk about the various other announcements from this week, including Apple’s new iPad Air, Apple’s new subscription bundle, the PS5’s $499 price tag, and what happened at Facebook and Oculus’ big AR / VR ev...