Epic's current Fortnite season is focused on secret agents, and that now includes direct references to movies -- if not the ones you're likely to think of first. An update to the battle royale shooter has introduced a Kingsman umbrella that,...
Respawn and EA's dreams of establishing Apex Legends as an esports staple aren't going according to plan. The Apex Legends Global Series team is moving its events online "for the time being" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that me...
Snapchat's latest set of lenses come with a timely reminder of the importance of social distancing. The app introduced two new lenses, created in collaboration with the World Health Organization, that use augmented reality to serve users with tip...
Atari is trying themed hotels, retro consoles and other efforts to reel in nostalgic gamers, but its latest may be its oddest yet: turn Pong into a one-of-a-kind role-playing game. It's developing a Pong Quest game that has you guiding a heroic...
After technical issues forced Capcom to delay the Resident Evil: Resistance beta on PC and PlayStation 4, it's now available on those platforms in addition to Xbox One. You'll need to install an update to try it on PS4 and Steam.
Image: Endlesss
Collaborative music-making app Endlesss is now available for iOS. The app’s been in beta for quite a long time, so newcomers will find that there’s already a community using Endlesss and sharing and discussing projects on the software’s dedicated Discord server.
Even though Endlesss is a music-making app, it’s not really meant for making complete songs. It’s a collaborative “virtual musical hangout with a live chat room” that lets multiple users build and change loops of music in real time. Just select a project and start tapping out drum patterns and melodies to change up someone’s loop. You can make stuff just for yourself, but the social aspect is encouraged.
Open loops where anyone can remix layers on the fly sounds like a recipe...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Last week, we talked about the case for the government using location data gleaned from our smartphones to manage the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan, Israel, and England have all been using location data in various ways to understand the spread of the disease and, in some cases, enforce orders requiring citizens to isolate themselves. Any such project comes with the risk that temporary infringements on our privacy will become permanent.
I expected the debate about location data might unfold over the next few weeks as the coronavirus reaches more communities and its death toll surges. Instead, though, the United States government just went ahead and started analyzing our smartphone location data. The data is reportedly being...
Popular video-calling app Houseparty is offering a $1 million bounty to anyone that can prove the app has been a victim of reputational sabotage. The announcement, made by the company over Twitter, comes amid swiftly circulating rumors that the app h...
Google is no longer selling its landmark Pixel 3 and 3 XL phones, the company confirmed with Android Police. If you enter the old Pixel 3 listing you'll get the home page instead and it no longer appears in the product carousel. Meanwhile, the carrie...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Huawei’s revenue grew by 19.1 percent last year to around $121 billion, but the company says those numbers would be far higher if the United States had not cracked down on its ability to do business. Due to a trade ban initially ordered last May, Huawei is unable to acquire US parts and software or sell its products in the US. That has cut the company out of an important market and hurt its ability to compete outside of China.
“The consumer business has been the major business for our growth,” said Vincent Pang, president of Huawei’s western Europe business, in a call with reporters to discuss the company’s 2019 financial results. He called 2019 a “big challenge” for the company.
While Huawei...
Back in January, Lucid Motors announced that it's finally unveiling the production model of its electric sedan in April three years after it was first revealed. The company was supposed to launch the car next week at the New York Auto Show, but the e...
A new UC San Francisco initiative will give you a way to help advance our understanding of the coronavirus pandemic, even if you're not a scientist or a medical professional. The COVID-19 Citizen Science project welcomes contributions from anyone ove...
If you're launching a new product, you normally want to put on a show with a sprinkling of razzle and plenty of dazzle. That means getting journalists and fans into a big room, trotting out your wares and letting everyone play with the new toys. Unfo...
The NBA already has an official esports league with various teams represented, but with the live basketball season on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, it's reportedly about to put real NBA players on the sticks. Yahoo Sports reporter Chris Hay...
Sony is the latest movie studio to announce major changes to its release slate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by Variety. Tentpole movies like Uncharted, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Peter Rabbit 2 are all seeing big delays, leaving Kevin Hart’s Fatherhood as the only major title on Sony’s 2020 schedule — and that was itself brought forward to October from January.
The upcoming third Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man movie appears to be unaffected; the Far from Home sequel’s release date was already set as July 16, 2021. Sony’s planned July 2020 movies, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Jared Leto’s Morbius, have both been moved into next March.
AT&T is still expanding its offerings to keep people online during the COVID-19 outbreak. Between April 2nd and May 13t, it's adding an extra 15GB of mobile hotspot data to every line on unlimited plans that have a monthly tethering allowance....
Building on the AI-generated Get Up! Mix the company unveiled last week, Apple is now adding a new section to Apple Music called Come Together that features a variety of playlists designed to help you get through long days stuck inside. In all, there...
Artificial intelligence (AI) can do astonishing things when given specific jobs, but it's terrible at understanding context -- something we've seen before in this series. Thanks to a new experiment inspired by The Great British Bakeoff (GBBO), we can...
It's been a long seven days of lockdown for some of us, and it looks like the situation won't change for a while. The US Food and Drug Administration is rushing to get a handle on testing people for the coronavirus, and former events venues are being...
When Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook arrived at CES 2020 with a beautiful body and 13.3-inch 4K OLED display, we were smitten. Now, it's finally set to arrive at Best Buy in the US on April 6th starting at $999 (in Fiesta Red or Mercury Gray), according...
Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge
Facebook has pledged to invest $100 million in the news industry at a time when the ongoing coronavirus pandemic means that accurate reporting is more important than ever. $25 million will be provided in grant funding for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, while the remaining $75 million will come in the form of “additional marketing spend” to worldwide news organizations.
Publishers are expected to be hit hard by the economic fallout of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The advertising revenue that many publishers rely on is being squeezed, as companies slash marketing budgets amidst financial uncertainty. Research firm eMarketer has lowered its growth projections for worldwide media ad spend by 3 percent, S...
HQ Trivia -- the once-popular mobile game that turned your random knowledge into a few bucks -- abruptly shut down earlier this year after an investment deal fell through. As such, players that still had the app on their phones were probably surprise...
Final Fantasy VII Remake is one of Square Enix's most-anticipated releases ever, and after already pushing the game's launch date back a month, it's run into another hiccup: disruption caused by the global coronavirus outbreak means that some players...
Planet Computers is continuing to build very unique physical keyboard smartphones with the launch of its latest flagship, the crowdfunded Astro Slide. It's a phone with surprisingly robust specs, but the key trick is that it can be used either as a s...
Dieter Bohn/The Verge
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Chromebook finally has an official release date. You’ll be able to buy it at Samsung and Best Buy next Monday, April 6th, starting at $999.
The device comes in Mercury Gray, or the bolder Fiesta Red that looks bright orange in some settings. It’s the first Chromebook to sport a 13.3-inch 4K OLED display. It also has a more powerful processor than most Chromebooks, an Intel 10th-generation chip. It includes 8GB of RAM (LPDDR3) and a 256GB SSD as well.
When we first saw the device back in January, Samsung indicated that there’d be additional configurations available, featuring up to 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. The company seems to have killed those models, however; the base model is now the only variant available.
V...
