Technology

Even though E3, Gamescom, and other summer gaming events have become online-only or outright canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s still going to be a lot of gaming news this summer. Publishers and media have already scheduled many digital events, promising news and announcements, which could help fill the void left by the loss of the big tentpole events. And it seems likely that some of these events will provide early looks at the first Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 games, making them particularly intriguing. To help you keep track of everything that’s planned, we’ve collected every event that we know about in this post. We’ve put together details about each event, when they’re scheduled to happen, and how to watch them. Be sure to check back here often; we’ll be updating this ...

Over the last few days, a furor has been brewing on Twitch: out of the blue, streamers started seeing copyright takedown notices appear in their inboxes. The claimant was listed as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the infringing material was mostly recorded clips of old live broadcasts. And that’s a problem because it’s stated very clearly in the Twitch terms of service that if your account is dinged with three of these strikes, you get permabanned from Twitch. The clips themselves were sometimes years old, too, which is a bigger headache because streamers who have been on the platform long enough have accumulated tons of these and now have a backlog rights holders can mine to file takedowns. Twitch doesn’t have the tools yet to let creators bulk delete clips, let ...

Gigabit home internet has been available in the US for some time, but in the past couple of years, more people have been able to sign up for it. Even though the average home broadband connection is just around 130Mbps, at least 80 percent of US households are able to get gigabit broadband service, according to a report from the NCTA. Of those, between 2.5 percent and 6 percent of homes actually have it, depending on which report you read. While gigabit internet service has been gaining ground, actually making use of all that speed without tearing apart your home and installing wired networking throughout has remained a challenge. The Wi-Fi routers supplied by internet service providers are far too slow to allow a single device to reach anywhere near the provided speeds, and even high-end a...

Brave, the open-source browser designed to prioritize privacy by blocking third-party ads and trackers, is facing criticism from users for redirecting URLs from cryptocurrency companies to affiliate links that Brave profits from, Decrypt reported. A Twitter user spotted the redirect when he typed “binance.us” into the Brave search bar, and the browser autocompleted it to “binance.us/en?ref=35089877.” Both URLs go to the same page, but the affiliate link at the end can be used to track users and generate income. Many websites, including Vox Media and The Verge, use affiliate links, but most are transparent about doing so. Brave co-founder and CEO Brendan Eich tweeted that the company had made a mistake and was correcting it. “Brave default autocompletes verbatim ‘http://binance.us’ in addre...

Sony’s popular noise-canceling true wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM3, are on sale for $178 today on Amazon. That’s $51.99 off the typical $229.99 retail price. This is close to the lowest we’ve seen these earbuds sell for, which was a few weeks ago at Google Shopping for $70 off. Despite their small size, the WF-1000XM3 offer noise cancellation and a lengthy battery life of six hours between charges. My colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his review that Sony’s latest entry in the wireless earbud market is “its best AirPods rival yet.” Samsung Galaxy S20 PlusPhoto by Brennan King / The Verge In addition to the WF-1000XM3 sale, Amazon has the 128GB unlocked Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus for $950 today. The Galaxy S20 Plus offers a 120Hz screen refresh rate and 5G, and today’s discount is $250 of...

Motorola has announced the One Fusion Plus, its second phone with a pop-up selfie camera, just six months after first including one on last year’s Motorola One Hyper. Like its predecessor, it has a 6.5-inch 1080p display with no notch or hole-punch cutout, but the new phone features a number of internal and external improvements over the One Hyper. The most obvious change is on the rear of the device, where you’ll now find a quad-camera array consisting of a main 64-megapixel sensor alongside a wide-angle 8-megapixel camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. In contrast, the One Hyper had a more simple dual-camera setup. There’s also a bigger 5,000mAh battery, 6GB of RAM (compared to 4GB on the One Hyper), and a faster Snapdragon 730 processor. The One Fusion Plus...

Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the de facto leader of the Samsung Group conglomerate, may soon find himself back in jail. Prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant against Lee, known as Jay Y. Lee in the West, arguing that he should be detained while they investigate new allegations against him. The new legal controversy involves the 2015 merger of two Samsung Group companies, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. Lee is accused of accounting fraud that allegedly could have helped him gain more power over the sprawling chaebol. Samsung last week said it was “beyond common sense” to suggest that Lee was directly involved, according to Reuters. Lee attended a hearing this morning in Seoul and is currently waiting to find out if he will be re-arrested. Courts can order de...

More people are booking local holidays in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reports. According to Airbnb’s CEO, the number of nights booked at US listings between May 17th and June 3rd was greater than the same weeks from the previous year, and similar increases in domestic holidays are being seen in other countries including Germany, Portugal, South Korea, and New Zealand. The shift is a small piece of good news for the travel industry, which has been hammered by travel restrictions, social distancing regulations, and a wider economic downturn caused by COVID-19. At the beginning of May, Airbnb laid off 25 percent of its staff as business slowed. Vacation homes are reportedly growing more popular than hotels Things are far from being back to normal, but this latest data suggest...

Apple has updated the satellite imagery in its maps app to include Washington DC’s new Black Lives Matter mural. The mural takes over two blocks of 16th Street near the White House, since renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by DC mayor Muriel Bowser. Notably, Apple appears to have patched its existing satellite imagery to show the new mural, leaving the surrounding area as it was, as noted by app sleuth Jane Manchun Wong. That suggests a fast-track update outside of normal refresh cycles. Google Maps shows the renamed plaza but not the new mural in its satellite imagery. I like how Apple Maps only patched this part of the satelite image for Black Lives Matter Plaza (notice how the cars partially fade out at the edges, and that this part is noticeably grainy than the rest) pic.twitter.com/lXIG...

When you’re stuck at home because of pandemics, bad weather, or just because you don’t feel like going out, there’s nothing more satisfying than cooking something really fantastic. Even if you’re not an experienced or enthusiastic cook, sometimes it’s really satisfying to create a new and tasty dish for you, your friends, and / or family. We asked the staff of The Verge what kinds of equipment, gadgets, and tools they use to make their kitchen adventures better tasting, easier, or just more fun. Here are some of the answers we got. Immersion blender The Mueller Austria Ultra-Stick hand blender.Photo: Mueller Austria This is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. It’s a hand-held blender that can be used to prepare soups, smoothies, whipped coffee, and more. I often use it in my Indian co...

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have all removed a Trump campaign video from their platforms after receiving copyright complaints, Reuters reported. The nearly four-minute video featured images of the late George Floyd of Minneapolis, who died May 25th after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. A video of the incident has prompted nationwide protests of police violence. Twitter disabled the video, while Facebook and Instagram removed posts containing the video. When President Trump objected to the removal in a tweet, calling it “illegal,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded: “Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder.” A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told Reuters it also had received a copy...

HBO Max is here, and while I’ve been dreading the ways AT&T will inevitably ruin HBO, I actually like a lot about the new service. The app is far nicer to browse than Netflix thanks to its curated highlights. But the real standout to me has been that the service has most of Studio Ghibli’s catalog of films, which haven’t previously been available to stream. I watched My Neighbor Totoro for the first time in years over the weekend. The story is simpler than I remembered (perhaps too simple!), but the story is a lot more charming than I remembered, too. It really encapsulates what Ghibli would continue to do so well in later movies — build out worlds that feel real, quaint, and expansively magical all at once. My colleague Sam Byford wrote a starter’s guide to Ghibli films if you’re just...