The Biden-Harris campaign has launched a ‘Build Back Better’ map in Fortnite

No Malarkey Station appears in the Biden-Harris campaign’s new Fortnite map | Biden campaign

With just a few days to go before the November 3rd presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has launched a new custom map in Fortnite. First reported by Mashable, the “Build Back Better with Biden” map is located in “Reboot City,” and is aimed at promoting the campaign’s message that the environment and economy are connected. The solo-player, adventure-type map takes about 20 to 30 minutes to play, and made its debut Friday night.

“Our digital program is built around how people spend time, and the most effective ways reach them in those places,” Christian Tom, the Biden campaign’s director of digital partnerships said in a statement to The Verge. “We see interactive, digital-first experiences like gaming as an...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21543360/biden-harris-campaign-fortnite-map-voting-election

Watch the AR concert that opened up the 2020 League of Legends World Championship

Once again Riot has turned the opening ceremonies of the League of Legends World Championship final into a technological showcase. This year at Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, the ceremony was split into a few different parts: it opened with virtual K-pop group K/DA performed via augmented reality, which was followed by a melody of anthems from past Worlds events. At the end, as the players were introduced, a virtual, towering version of League character Galio — known as the stone colossus — appeared on stage.

While the event wasn’t as visually impressive as last year’s holographic showcase, it was still an impressive feat considering the restraints created by the ongoing pandemic. The main cast of performers were virtual, but they...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21541871/league-of-legends-world-championship-worlds-2020-opening-ceremony-ar-kda

The first laptops with Intel’s Iris Xe Max graphics are now available to order

The Acer Swift 3X is one of the first laptops to include Intel’s new GPU. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Earlier this month, the public got its first glimpse of Iris Xe Max, Intel’s new discrete GPU for thin-and-light laptops, at an Acer press event. Today, Intel revealed the full first wave of laptops that will include this GPU, some of which are available for purchase now in certain countries.

The laptops include the Acer Swift 3X, the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1, and the Asus VivoBook Flip TP470. The Inspiron 15 is available in the US at Best Buy; Acer has previously said to expect the 3X in the US in December. Both the Swift 3X and the Inspiron 15 are also available in China through JD.com. Intel says the Asus VivoBook is coming “shortly” to both the US and China.

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Intel...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21542700/intel-iris-ex-max-discrete-graphics-gpu

Apple ordered to pay VirnetX $502.8 million in patent trial

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A jury in Texas has ruled that Apple has to pay VirnetX $502.8 million in royalties for VPN on Demand, a feature that lets iOS users access a VPN connection, Bloomberg reported. The two companies have been involved in a legal battle for ten years, with VirnetX— sometimes referred to as a patent troll — arguing that Apple’s VPN on Demand and FaceTime use its technology.

Apple said in a statement it plans to appeal the decision: “This case has been going on for over a decade, with patents that are unrelated to the core operations of our products and have been found to be invalid by the patent office. Cases like this only serve to stifle innovation and harm consumers.”

Earlier this year, a US appeals court rejected Apple’s request to...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21543315/apple-ordered-pay-virnetx-patent-troll-facetime-vpn

A Swiss cheese approach to pandemic safety

Photo credit should read CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

Lately, I’ve been thinking about pandemic safety and Swiss cheese. It’s an uninspiring cheese, but it’s a good visual metaphor for a layered approach to infection control.

This ‘Swiss Cheese Model’ has been around since at least the 1990’s, when it was proposed as a way of thinking about how accidents happen. During the pandemic, it’s been pressed into a different kind of service, used to visualize disease prevention instead of accidents.

In a pandemic as widespread as this one, no single action can keep a person from getting sick. There will always be flaws (holes) in any approach. Washing your hands won’t keep you from breathing in the virus — and wearing a cloth mask won’t completely protect you if you’re stuck in a stuffy room with...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21542207/swiss-cheese-infection-control-covid-19-antivirus

Lower East Side Ecology Center is accepting e-waste at NYC pop-up sites through November

One of the countless impacts of the coronavirus pandemic is that it halted the NYC Department of Sanitation’s recycling program that picks up your e-waste by appointment. The program is still paused, and it isn’t set to resume its normal cadence of accepting e-waste at drop-off sites until at least June 2021.

Thankfully, you have a few short-term options if you need to get rid of some tech in the coming weeks.

Earlier in the pandemic, the Lower East Side (LES) Ecology Center drop-off site near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn permanently shut its doors. It was one of the few drop-off sites in New York City that accepted and recycled e-waste, diverting 1 million pounds of e-waste from landfills in 2018, according to Christine Datz-Romero,...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21451607/ewaste-recycling-nyc-pop-up-sites-2020-les-ecology-center-best-buy

Google Meet will now let you use custom backgrounds on video calls

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is introducing custom backgrounds for its Meet videoconferencing platform, the company announced in a blog post. If you use Meet in Google’s Chrome browser you should be able to access the feature in Chrome OS as well as on Windows and Mac laptops and desktops. The feature is “coming soon” to mobile, Google says.

There’s no browser extension needed to activate custom backgrounds; you should be able to add a background image from your own photo collection or from a library of images provided by Google that includes landscapes, abstract art and (for some reason) offices.

Google

Google Meet custom backgrounds

It may take up to a week before all Google Meet users can access the new custom background...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21543261/google-meet-custom-backgrounds-video-calls-zoom

Sean Connery, star of the James Bond films, dies at 90

Sean Connery, the Scottish actor who brought James Bond to the silver screen as part of a four-decade career, has died at 90, the BBC reported. Connery played Ian Fleming’s 007 spy in seven films, starting with Dr. No in 1962, a role he got without taking a screen test, according to Variety. He reprised the role in From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, and Never Say Never Again.

Connery died in his sleep in the Bahamas, according to the BBC, and had been in poor health for some time.

Over the course of his prolific career, Connery won an Oscar— Best Supporting Actor for the 1987 film The Untouchables— and three Golden Globe awards. His filmography also includes star turns in The Man...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21543223/sean-connery-james-bond-dies

League of Legends spinoff Ruined King will launch on consoles in ‘early 2021’

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, the upcoming single-player League of Legends spinoff that will see the franchise debut on consoles for the first time, has released its first (albeit, vague) bits of information. It’ll launch sometime in “early 2021” on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, and the Epic Games Store at launch, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S versions set to follow shortly after. (PS4 and Xbox One players will be able to upgrade for free.)

Along with news of a release window, Riot Forge also announced some additional details on what Ruined King will actually be: a single-player, turn-based RPG set in the Bilgewater and Shadow Isles regions of Runeterra (the planet on which League of Legends is...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21541766/league-of-legends-spin-off-ruined-king-release-date-early-2021-xbox-playstation-switch

Best Buy’s three-day sale on OLED TVs, headphones, and more ends Saturday

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Saturday is your last chance to get in on Best Buy’s multi-day sale, but don’t worry if you miss out. Black Friday is a few weeks away, and this year, retailers are offering very good sale prices almost every day. Wherever those deals come from, we’ll be putting them in deal posts for you to check out. What follows are the best deals that have made the rounds on The Verge earlier this week, as well as some new inclusions we think you’ll enjoy.

Sony’s WH-1000XM4 wireless noise-canceling headphones come recommended if you want a comfy over-ear model with excellent sound quality and long-lasting battery life. Normally $350, they’re down to $278. This matches the lowest price yet.

There are some big discounts happening on LG and Vizio OLED...

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source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2020/10/31/21540935/best-buy-black-friday-deals-ps5-xbox-series-x-s-tv-headphones

Woot is selling refurbished Pixelbook Go laptops that don’t have Google branding

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Woot is selling a batch of refurbished Pixelbook Go laptops starting at $530 for the base model with an Intel Core m3 processor, 64GB of storage and an FHD touchscreen display (usually $650 new), going up to $790 for the Core i7 model with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. These have a 90-day warranty through Woot with the option available to extend coverage by a year with a SquareTrade protection plan. And despite not being retail units, the seller says they will receive software updates through Google through June 2026. Woot doesn’t make claims about their physical condition, which it usually does for refurbished products.

As far as discounts go, the prices are good, though that isn’t the most interesting thing about these Chromebooks....

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source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2020/10/31/21542651/refurbished-google-pixelbook-go-chromebook-debranded-productname-deal-sale-woot

It’s Halloween, so here are some mischievous skeletons

Animation: Andre Zimmermann

Everyone focuses on what’s blowing up on TikTok, but here’s something that’s been getting a bit of attention over on Byte: some playful little skeletons.

Over the past month, designer Andre Zimmermann has been posting short looping clips of meddlesome skeletons getting into low-stakes hijinks, like running off with food from a table or knocking a plant off a ledge. “They sort of became these jerks,” Zimmermann said. “Like a cat.”

They’re the furthest thing from spooky, but their mischievous antics feel a bit more comforting during what’s already a high-stress Halloween.

My favorite of Zimmermann’s not-quite-spooky animations shows a humanoid collection of skulls dancing to a looping disco track....

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/31/21540240/skeletons-andre-zimmermann-byte-halloween

Playdate, the tiny handheld with a crank, is delayed to early 2021

You’ll have to wait a bit longer for Panic’s odd little handheld: In an update published today, the company announced that Playdate will slip from its original 2020 window and now ship in early 2021.

The device is the software developer’s first piece of physical hardware, a handheld with a unique crank alongside traditional buttons for controlling the device. Teenage Engineering co-designed the Playdate and it bears many of the company’s minimalistic touches in a bright, playful yellow.

Image: Panic

Playdate with final packaging.

Panic announced in March that its staff was moving to work from home and that the Malaysian factory producing the Playdate had temporarily shut down. The company says adapting to...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21542841/playdate-games-handheld-panic-delay-2021

In its latest confusing decision, Twitter reinstates The New York Post

Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid The New York Post is back on Twitter, after Twitter updated its policy on policy changes. This story is going to be confusing, but not as confusing as Twitter’s attempts at moderation.

To recap: On October 14th, The New York Post published a (contested and possibly part of a disinformation campaign, though this is absolutely not the point I am here to tell you about) story about Hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden. Very little of the contents of the Post story are pertinent to the discussion we are about to have, except this: some of the materials in it, Twitter alleges, seem to be the result of hacking.

Got all that so far? Great, there’s more

Twitter suspended The New York Post’s account...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21542801/twitter-lifts-ny-post-ban-policy-changes

Apple will replace AirPods Pro for free with faulty noise cancellation, static or crackling

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Today, exactly one year after Apple first launched the AirPods Pro — and thus the same day the very first AirPods Pro owners will see their one-year warranties expire — Apple has launched a repair program that offers free repairs or replacements for another whole year if your AirPods Pro experience issues with noise cancellation or static.

Specifically, Apple will fix:

Crackling or static sounds that increase in loud environments, with exercise or while talking on the phone

Active Noise Cancellation not working as expected, such as a loss of bass sound, or an increase in background sounds, such as street or airplane noise

Apple says only a “small percentage of AirPods Pro” are affected by the issues, but it apparently wasn’t just an...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21542846/apple-airpods-pro-repair-recall-program-noise-cancellation-static

Russian hacker group reportedly targeted state Democratic parties in repeat of 2016 attacks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bear targeted the emails of Democratic state parties in Indiana and California earlier this year as well as progressive think tanks, Reuters reported. The attempts were apparently not successful and were flagged by Microsoft, according to Reuters, with targets that included the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Center for American Progress.

The Russian embassy denied the allegations to Reuters, calling it “fake news.”

Fancy Bear has been connected to GRU, a Russian military intelligence agency, and in 2018, the Department of Justice indicted 12 members of GRU for hacking the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Fancy Bear was previously linked to the...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541822/russian-hackers-elections-democrats-clinton-emails-fancy-bear

Vergecast: this week’s Section 230 hearing and the season of weird gadgets

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

This week on The Verge’s flagship podcast, The Vergecast: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) yells at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, gadget makers are going to QVC, and it is weird phone season once again.

Hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn talk to Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson about the latest congressional hearing with the big tech CEOs — this time about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Dorsey attended the hearing over video in front of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Adi explains what everyone had to say.

In the second half of the show, Ashley Carman stops by to talk about the newest episode of her video series In the Making, which is about how live shopping channels like...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541796/section-230-hearing-gadgets-qvc-razr-2020-review-vergecast-podcast-428

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is getting an incredible animated Into the Spider-Verse suit

Spider-Man: Miles Morales certainly owes a lot to the massive success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the 2018 animated film that helped catapult Miles’ iteration of the webslinging hero to new heights of popularity.

So it’s fitting that players will be able to suit up in Spider-Verse’s now-iconic spray-painted version of Miles’ black-and-red suit in Spider-Man: Miles Morales. But developer Insomniac Games didn’t just make a simple skin; the studio actually replicated Spider-Verse’s bold, comics-inspired animation style for the Spider-Verse suit’s gameplay, right down to the Ben-Day dots and altered frame rate. Combat is even punctuated with flashes of on-screen onomatopoeia.

And it looks spectacular, at least in the short video...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541843/spider-man-miles-morales-animated-into-the-spider-verse-suit-costume-reveal

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet with 128GB of storage is cheaper than ever at Best Buy

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

It has been a busy few days when it comes to covering deals. Both Best Buy and Amazon launched a deluge of early Black Friday deals, letting you take care of some holiday shopping (for your family or just you) before the calendar flips over to November. Definitely check out Best Buy’s deals if you haven’t already, which include big price drops on OLED TVs from Vizio and LG as well as the return of Prime Day deals on Sony’s WH-1000XM4. Then, if you want to pick up some Amazon tech, many of the company’s Echo and Fire TV products are discounted, too. Steam is even hosting a big Halloween sale on PC games.

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet with 128GB of storage (shown above) usually costs $300, but right now, it’s $229 at Best Buy. This is the best...

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source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2020/10/30/21541771/lenovo-chromebook-duet-samsung-galaxy-watch-buds-live-razer-gaming-mouse-best-buy-amazon-deals-sale

Halloween isn’t risk-free, but it can be lower risk

Photo by Sebastian Willnow / picture alliance via Getty Images

The hottest decorations this Halloween may turn out to be PVC pipe covered in orange duct tape or painted a garish, spooky purple. From Chicago to Washington state, people are rigging up “candy chutes” to send Twix and Milky Ways into the waiting buckets of trick-or-treaters from a safe distance during the pandemic. They range from simple slides all the way to elaborate feats of puppetry — and they’ll be called into action tomorrow.

Sarah Millar installs a candy chute for trick-or-treaters outside her home in the Edgewater neighborhood Sunday in Chicago. The chute allows children to collect candy from neighbors while social distancing during Halloween. pic.twitter.com/BAnxOZ0g42

— armando l sanchez (@mandophotos) October 25, 2020

“...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21539898/halloween-covid-risk-trick-or-treat-candy-chute

Waymo pulls back the curtain on 6.1 million miles of self-driving car data in Phoenix

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Over 21 months in Arizona, Waymo’s vehicles were involved in 47 collisions and near-misses, none of which resulted in injuries

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21538999/waymo-self-driving-car-data-miles-crashes-phoenix-google

The Verge guide to The Mandalorian

Photo by Justin Lubin / Lucasfilm

For a show about a tiny alien, The Mandalorian sure had a huge impact. The first season of the series helped sell millions on Disney Plus, the company’s Netflix-style streaming service, while simultaneously showing how the Star Wars universe could translate to prestige television. It was, to put it succinctly, a hit — one that became even more popular thanks to the adorable Baby Yoda. Er, I mean, The Child.

The second season, meanwhile, faces a very different challenge. Not only does it have to live up to the hype generated by season 1, but it’s also releasing at a time when many of the biggest movies and TV shows have been indefinitely delayed due to the ongoing pandemic, making it arguably the biggest entertainment release of 2020.

To...

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source https://www.theverge.com/star-wars/2020/10/30/21517931/the-mandalorian-news-reviews-disney-plus-star-wars-baby-yoda

Sony is reportedly close to buying Crunchyroll for nearly $1 billion

Crunchyroll has 70 million free members and some 3 million paying subscribers. | Image: Crunchyroll

Sony is close to finalizing a deal to buy US-based anime streaming service Crunchyroll for nearly $1 billion, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

Nikkei says Sony negotiated exclusive rights to bid for the streaming service and its 3 million paying subscribers earlier this year, and the two companies have now “entered into final negotiations.” Although an asking price is unclear, Nikkei notes that Sony could end up spending “more than 100 billion yen” on the company — around $957 million.

Crunchyroll is owned by US telecoms giant AT&T, which has reportedly been looking to offload the streaming service for a while. AT&T is keen to minimize its significant debt load, which totals more than $150 billion. According to a report from The...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541734/crunchyroll-sony-acquisition-talks-near-end-1-billion-nikkei

It’s time to build a better internet

It’s time to fix a fragile, vital system

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source https://www.theverge.com/21534729/election-day-2020-internet-platform-regulation-antitrust-privacy-security

The host of Scam Goddess is in for the long con

Laci Mosley’s podcast celebrates the art of the grift

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source https://www.theverge.com/21540796/laci-mosley-scam-goddess-podcast-interview

DropLabs’ EP-01 speaker shoes make for an excellent VR accessory

A good set of headphones is key for boosting immersion in a VR game. I didn’t realize that a nice pair of shoes could amplify it even further.

Not just any shoes, mind you. I’ve been testing out DropLabs’ $300 EP-01, a pair of Yeezy-inspired shoes with bass-rattling speakers embedded in their soles. When they’re really bumping, it feels like what I imagine it’d be like to stand on a concert PA while it pushes out sound. You can tune the intensity of the bass via an iOS or Android app, which you’ll need to use anyway to initialize the shoes. Have you ever initialized shoes?

DropLabs intends for the EP-01 to be worn in everyday life, wirelessly providing the beat to whatever music you’re listening to in your headphones. They’re certainly...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21540805/droplabs-ep-01-speaker-shoes-virbrating-bass-review-virtual-reality-gaming

The Mandalorian is back, and with it a reason to open Disney Plus again

Photo by Francois Duhamel / Lucasfilm Ltd.

If you haven’t opened your Disney Plus app since The Mandalorian ended in December 2019, you’re not alone.

It wasn’t long after The Mandalorian’s first season ended that op-eds and tweetstorms started to appear decrying Disney Plus as an empty wasteland. Sure, The Simpsons was available to stream, but when it came to opening the app daily trying to find something new to watch, many people (without kids begging to watch Frozen 2 over and over again) weren’t impressed. Data from third-party firms, including Reelgood and 7Park Data, shows that while The Mandalorian was a guaranteed hit, Disney Plus has dwindled in interest since January. The streamer has also failed to continuously crack Nielsen’s Top 10 weekly streaming rankings in the...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21539018/mandalorian-season-2-premiere-disney-plus-streaming-marvel-netflix-amazon

Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Apple AirPods are among the most popular headphones on the market. They’re compact, easy to pair with your devices, and they offer reliable connectivity, which can sometimes be a problem with truly wireless earphones. So there’s a chance that you might be looking for a deal on them.

Surprisingly, they’re no stranger to the occasional price cut. There are commonly discounts on even the more expensive AirPods Pro, which offer noise cancellation and better sound than the standard second-generation model.

We’ll run through all three of the current models below, including the second-generation AirPods, the more expensive second-generation AirPods that include a wireless charging case, and finally, the AirPods Pro.

AirPods deals

You can...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21302051/best-apple-airpods-deals

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War needs up to 250GB of space on PC

Activision has revealed the full PC specifications for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and the storage requirements are hefty. If you’re planning to play the game in 4K with ultra settings enabled and ray tracing, you’ll need to free up 250GB of space. That’s the top end of the specs, but anything else still requires 175GB of space. That’s a lot of storage, and for some, it could take up an entire 250GB SSD or get very close to it.

Thankfully, if you’re only planning to play the multiplayer mode, then the space requirement drops to just 50GB.

Aside from storage requirements, Activision is also recommending Nvidia’s latest RTX 3080 graphics card for 4K ultra settings and ray tracing or the RTX 3070 for ray tracing in...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541718/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-pc-specifications-requirements-250gb-space-ultra-settings

Apple added a secret button to your iPhone, and you may not have even noticed

Your iPhone got a new button last month, and you may not have even noticed.

No, Apple didn’t sneak into your house and secretly superglue a button onto your smartphone. But it did release iOS 14, the latest version of its iPhone software, which includes a feature called Back Tap. Back Tap adds a fascinating new “button” to your phone that blurs the line between hardware and software.

Back Tap turns the entire back of your iPhone into a giant touch-sensitive button that you can double or triple tap to trigger specific functions on your phone. There’s a good chance that you haven’t noticed it yet. Apple slipped the settings for Back Tap into its Accessibility menu.

Its intended purpose is to give users more options for...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21540028/apple-iphone-ios-14-back-tap-hidden-secret-button-gesture

LG offers 5G for less with $359 mid-range K92 5G handset

LG’s K92 5G is one of the cheapest ways to get 5G access in the US. | Image: LG

Smartphones with 5G access are getting cheaper and cheaper, and the latest mid-range handset from LG is one of the most affordable yet: the new K92 5G is priced from just $359, and offers 5G access for three US carriers: AT&T, Cricket Wireless, and UScellular.

Apart from this, it looks like a pretty average device, with a 6.7-inch 1080p display, 4,000 mAh battery, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage — all powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range (but 5G capable) Snapdragon 690 chipset.

That’s the same 690 used in OnePlus’ recently-announced Nord N10 5G, which costs around $400 in European markets and is also 5G capable. (OnePlus hasn’t said when the Nord N10 5G will be coming to the US though, but notes it’ll be available “at a later...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541597/lg-cheap-5g-handset-k92-5g

Mokumono Delta S electric bike review: totally untubular

A new e-bike company wants to bring bicycle manufacturing back to Europe

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source https://www.theverge.com/21539984/mokumono-e-bike-review-delta-s-price-europe

Tesla raises price of ‘Full Self-Driving’ option to $10,000

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” option, which currently enables Autopilot features like changing lanes on highways and automatic car parking, now costs $10,000, or $2,000 more than before. The price rise only covers the US for now, where the company’s Full Self-Driving functionality has just launched in limited beta, allowing Autopilot’s advanced driver-assist features to be used on local roads as well.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the price increase in a tweet last week in response to the launch of the Full Self-Driving beta to a select group of customers. At the time, he said similar price increases would come to other markets with the beta. Musk has said he expects Full Self-Driving to see a “wide release” before the end of the year.

...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541571/tesla-full-self-driving-price-increase-10000-dollars-autopilot-beta

Samsung rolls out SmartThings Find globally for locating all your Galaxy gear

SmartThings Find uses maps and augmented reality features to help people track down their missing gear. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is rolling out a service to help Galaxy gadget owners find their gear when it goes missing. Called SmartThings Find, the feature extends the capabilities of Samsung’s Find My Mobile app by letting users locate not only their Samsung smartphones, but also any Galaxy brand tablets, smartwatches, and earbuds they also own.

SmartThings Find previously launched as a trial in the US, UK, and South Korea last month, but Samsung says the feature is now “ready for a global launch” (while also noting that access “may vary by market and carrier”).

Those uncertainties aside, we know SmartThings Find uses a combination Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ultra-wideband (UWB) services to locate devices, and is available on hardware running...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541567/samsung-find-my-smartthings-find-service-locate-missing-smartphone-tablet-smartwatch-earbud-galaxy

The Oculus Quest 2 was preordered five times as much as the original

The Oculus Quest 2 (right) next to the original model. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The new Oculus Quest 2 VR headset was preordered more than five times as much as last year’s original model, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed on Facebook’s earnings call. Zuckerberg characterized the launch of the Quest 2 as the company taking “major steps forward in building the next computing platform.”

“I’ve been very impressed and excited by the progress that our teams have made on this,” Zuckerberg said on the call. “I think that the new Quest 2 product is extraordinary. I love using it. And I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done there.”

It’s not really surprising that there’d be pent-up demand for the Quest 2. The improved standalone headset is shipping with a starting price of $299 — that’s $100 less than the previous model, which...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/30/21541535/oculus-quest-2-preorders-sales-developers-zuckerberg

Samsung regains top smartphone vendor spot as Xiaomi overtakes Apple

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Samsung is back on top as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor one quarter after losing its spot to Huawei, according to reports from IDC, Counterpoint, and Canalys. The news comes just as Samsung posted its highest quarterly revenue figures ever, which the company said was helped by a boost in demand for smartphones.

Huawei became the number one vendor for the first time three months ago, benefiting from strong sales in China while much of the rest of the world was operating under constrained retail conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Huawei’s shipments fell 7 percent quarter-on-quarter and 24 percent year-on-year, according to Counterpoint, while Samsung’s shipments increased by 47 percent over the last quarter.

Xiaomi was...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21541408/smartphone-market-share-q3-2020-samsung-apple-huawei-xiaomi

Lil Yachty’s Quibi show is the first to find a life raft

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Remember Quibi, short-lived media company and purveyor of bizarre shows like Murder House Flip and a horror anthology featuring a golden arm? It’s only been a little over a week since the mobile-first, shortform streamer announced it was shuttering, but already the first of its unreleased shows has found a new home: Lil Yachty’s dramedy, Public Figures, is headed to HBO Max. It seems pieces of Quibi might live on — whether you watched it or not.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman’s efforts to sell Quibi outright to big companies like Apple and WarnerMedia was one of the first indications that things were about to go bottoms up at the young company. The attempts that followed to sell off Quibi’s unreleased content all but confirmed the...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21540895/quibi-shutdown-lil-yachty-series-selling-content-hbo-max

Google is bringing its own VPN to desktops and phones with $9.99 Google One subscription

There are any number of VPN services you can use to help protect your privacy and security with an encrypted internet connection, and now Google has its own. Well, technically, it already did, but only for Google Fi cellular subscribers on Android smartphones. Now, the company’s announcing it’ll throw in an Android-based VPN free of charge to any 2TB Google One cloud storage subscriber in the US — and will expand to iOS, Windows and Mac and other countries “in the coming months.”

As you can see in the image above, you’ll need to be on the 2TB Google One plan which costs $9.99 a month or $99 per year, so it’s not exactly a free VPN. But if you’re interested, this Google GIF shows you how to turn it on:

A new...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21541032/google-one-vpn-cloud-storage-subscription

Hackers stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican party

Hackers reportedly stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party just weeks before the election using a scheme involving manipulated invoices, the Associated Press reports. The group noted the theft on October 22nd; Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt says that the FBI is currently investigating the case.

According to Hitt, hackers used faked invoices from several vendors the campaign was working with for things like election mailings and Trump merchandise. Instead of featuring the vendor’s payment information, the documents relayed the money to the hackers.

This kind of hack is actually a fairly common scam: Facebook and Google were hit by a similar phishing scheme in 2017 to the tune of $100 million. Scammers...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21540135/wisconsin-republican-party-hack-2-3-million-stolen

Hackers stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican party

Hackers reportedly stole $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party just weeks before the election using a scheme involving manipulated invoices, the Associated Press reports. The group noted the theft on October 22nd; Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt says that the FBI is currently investigating the case.

According to Hitt, hackers used faked invoices from several vendors the campaign was working with for things like election mailings and Trump merchandise. Instead of featuring the vendor’s payment information, the documents relayed the money to the hackers.

This kind of hack is actually a fairly common scam: Facebook and Google were hit by a similar phishing scheme in 2017 to the tune of $100 million. Scammers...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21540135/wisconsin-republican-party-hack-2-3-million-stolen

Meet the man who could lead the GOP’s war on platform moderation

Illustration by William Joel | Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Brendan Carr is next in line to run Trump’s FCC. His first task? Regulating social media.

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source https://www.theverge.com/21280814/brendan-carr-section-230-republican-party-regulation-social-media

A cybercrime group is targeting US hospitals, federal agencies warn

Illustration by Ana Kova

Federal agencies warned hospitals, health care providers, and public health groups Wednesday that they were at risk of an “increased and imminent cybercrime threat” from ransomware, which could paralyze their computer systems and make it hard for them to deliver care. At least four hospitals have reported cyberattacks this week, and hundreds more could be at risk.

This could be “the biggest attack we’ve ever seen,” Allan Liska, an intelligence analyst for the firm Recorded Future, told CNN.

The attacks come as hospitals across the country are struggling to handle spikes in COVID-19 cases. Ransomware attacks shut down hospital computer systems, often forcing them to turn to pen and paper charts and sometimes locking them out of systems...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21540026/cyberattack-ransomware-hospitals-russia-covid

Walmart will offer the best deal on AirPods later today at 7PM ET

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In case you missed it, Best Buy launched several new Black Friday deals overnight. There’s a little bit of everything in there, including OLED TV deals, price drops on wireless noise-canceling headphones, laptops, and more. And wouldn’t you know, Amazon is price-matching most of those deals, giving you more options on where you can buy new stuff. You can find the link to Best Buy’s deals here, but we’ll be adding notable deals that Amazon price-matched as well as new ones below for you to check out.

First off, here’s a heads-up to people who are hoping to get the best-ever price on AirPods that include a wireless charging case. At 7PM ET, Walmart will offer them for just $108 — but to only select US states. If you’re reside in Indiana,...

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source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2020/10/29/21539941/apple-airpods-sony-wh1000xm4-vizio-lg-oled-tv-4k-logitech-amazon-best-buy-fire-tv-stick-deal-sale

Simon Stålenhag puts a darker twist on his nostalgic sci-fi worlds

Illustration by Simon Stålenhag

The Labyrinth’s ash-covered landscapes were ‘the only thing that felt relevant’

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source https://www.theverge.com/21539093/simon-stalenhag-the-labyrinth-kickstarter-post-apocalyptic-paintings-book

Mark Zuckerberg just told Congress to upend the internet

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook supports rewriting Section 230, and it’s starting to lay out the changes it wants. That’s the big takeaway from a nearly four-hour grilling of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The point was quickly lost in a pre-election political scuffle — but in the coming months, it’ll be one of the most important things to watch.

Yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a foundational internet law. The event was supposed to examine whether Section 230 protections — which protect web services and sites of all sizes — “enable Big Tech Bad behavior.” Witnesses came prepared with arguments against that premise. Dorsey cited...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21537040/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-section-230-hearing-reform-pact-act-big-tech

Ford will unveil its electric Transit delivery van on November 12th

Ford will unveil the all-electric version of its popular Transit delivery van on November 12th, the automaker announced Thursday. The vehicle won’t go into production until 2021, but Ford is hoping to get out ahead of an expected wave of new battery-powered delivery vans.

At the unveiling, Ford is expected to share specifics about the van’s battery pack size, estimated range, and other performance characteristics. Range, in particular, will be an important metric considering delivery vans need to stay on the road for as long as possible in order to make the most money. Ford previously teased the electric Transit van and also announced an electric Transit for the European market in 2019. The automaker did reveal the name of the new...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21539977/ford-e-transit-electric-delivery-van-announcement-date

Peacock hits nearly 22 million users, but it’s not clear how many are paying

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service has hit almost 22 million users just over three months after its launch, Comcast announced today as part of its Q3 2020 earnings release. The company didn’t say how many of those signups were for its free, ad-supported plan versus its more premium paid tiers, however.

Comcast also boasted that Peacock is “exceeding our expectations on all engagement metrics,” although it neglected to give more details on that front. Unsurprisingly, the company also saw big success in its broadband internet business over the last quarter, adding 633,000 new internet customers — a record for the company.

Disclosure: Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, is also an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.

It’s...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21539909/peacock-22-million-users-comcast-q3-2020-earnings

Xbox Game Bar now lets you track what’s eating up your RAM, CPU, and GPU

Microsoft is rolling out a new update to the Xbox Game Bar on Windows 10 this week, and it now lets you track what apps are taking up precious RAM, CPU, GPU, and disk resources. While there are a number of overlays and apps that can do this already on PCs, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar is built into Windows 10, and it’s fairly flexible and lightweight as a result.

The new resources widget keeps track of the top tasks and their associated impacts, rating them low, medium, or high. You can either monitor them by pinning the widget to your desktop or even close off apps without ever tabbing out or leaving a game.

The Xbox Game Bar resources widget.

This resources widget is different to the performance one, which lets you...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21539995/xbox-game-bar-resources-widget-app-update-gpu-ram-cpu-tracking

Uber can continue to push pro-Prop 22 messages at drivers in its app, court says

Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Uber can continue to send messages in its app to drivers about a California ballot measure that would exempt gig economy companies from having to classify workers as employees, a judge ruled late Wednesday. A California state superior court judge rejected the drivers’ request for a temporary restraining order blocking the messages, which drivers claim is “pressuring” them to support the ballot measure, Prop 22.

In his ruling, Judge Richard Ulmer called the drivers’ request for injunctive relief “belated,” noting that Uber’s campaign started in August. He also noted that the vote on Prop 22 on November 3rd would render the company’s barrage of in-app messages about the ballot measure “effectively moot.”

A judge criticized drivers for...

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source https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/29/21539902/uber-drivers-lawsuit-tro-court-reject-prop-22-app

UE Fits review: a fit that’s lit

They fit better than any consumer earbuds I’ve ever tried, but they aren’t without shortcomings

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source https://www.theverge.com/21537150/ue-fits-review-wireless-earbuds-review-custom-fit-ear-tips

There’s never been a better time to play video games

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The rare bright spot in a terrible year

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source https://www.theverge.com/21536084/video-games-ps4-ps5-xbox-series-x-among-us-animal-crossing

Gadget makers can hit the jackpot on QVC — if they’re willing to risk getting burned

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / Composite by Grayson Blackmon

Julian Jagtenberg’s first experience on QVC was incredible. In minutes, he sold nearly 60 units of his $600 Somnox sleep robot, an unprecedented sales experience for him.

“Within the minute there was like [a] beep beep, we’re out of stock,” he says. “And the salesperson [said], ‘Okay, well hold up, you can’t order anymore, there’s no stock.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, is this a dream? Can someone pinch me, like wake me up? Is this real?’”

Naturally, he doubled-down on QVC the next time he went live. Instead of projecting to sell around 60 units, he planned for 240. But this time, the segment didn’t deliver like he expected. He appeared on the segment from afar because of the pandemic, and instead of selling out almost instantly, he got...

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source https://www.theverge.com/21538196/qvc-hsn-live-shopping-network-gadget-somnox-dash-products