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The Verge
Amazon’s first Fallout trailer welcomes you to the wasteland
War never changes — and neither do the vibes in Fallout. After a bit of teasing, Amazon just released the first teaser trailer for its live-action adaption of Fallout, and it starts out a lot like the games: a vault dweller leaves the comfort of their home to explore the dangerous postapocalyptic wasteland outside. And boy, are things dangerous.
This time around, the vault dweller is named Lucy (Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell), and she experiences a lot of the series’ key moments in the short trailer. That means horribly mutated animals, slapped-together cities, the militant Brotherhood of Steel, vault uprisings, some Wild West shootouts, and a very good dog who is also a killer. And of course, there are the classic tunes — in this case,...
Published on 2 December 2023 | 4:27 pm
Here’s how a bridal photo captured a single person in three poses at once
Depending on how “online” you are, you may have seen a picture floating around socials with a strange quirk: a woman — comedian Tessa Coates — is standing in front of two mirrors in a bridal gown and, somehow, holding three poses at once. Coates insisted in her Instagram post that the picture wasn’t altered; it just came out that way.
So what happened? Was it a glitched iOS Live Photo (the iOS feature that takes short videos and picks out the best one)? A faked image manipulated with Photoshop? A brief glimpse into three different, parallel realities?
Nope, it’s simpler than all of that. Faruk from the iPhonedo YouTube channel posted a short video to Threads explaining exactly what happened, and it’s much more straightforward than you...
Published on 2 December 2023 | 3:00 pm
The Ember Tumbler is a cool, high-tech travel mug — but it can’t handle the heat
My coffee routine is needlessly fussy but fairly predictable. I wander bleary-eyed into the kitchen, add some water to the kettle, and start heating it to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, grind some coffee beans, get out the Chemex, add and rinse a new filter, put the whole thing on a scale, add 40 grams of beans, slowly pour in 600 milliliters of hot water, pour it into my trusty silver Yeti Rambler, and pad into the living room to either play with my son or look at TikTok on my phone. It’s a life, you know?
For the last few weeks, the Ember Tumbler has wormed its way into that routine. The $199 Tumbler is Ember’s newest product but carries the same promise as the company’s popular mugs: it can keep your drink at the exact temperature you want...
Published on 2 December 2023 | 2:00 pm
Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now
If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro has been on the market for a year, we’re also seeing their price fall more often, too. We’re even seeing great deals land on the newer updated AirPods Pro with USB-C.
Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.
The best AirPods (second-gen) deals
In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 11:55 pm
Federal judge vows to investigate Google for intentionally destroying chats
Judge James Donato is overseeing Epic v. Google, a case that could determine the future of the Android app store — but testimony in this case may have more repercussions for Google too.
On Friday, Judge Donato vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the company’s conduct “a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice.” We were there in the courtroom for his explanation.
“I am going to get to the bottom of who is responsible,” he said, adding he would pursue these issues “on my own, outside of this trial.”
Testimony in the Epic v. Google trial — and in a parallel DOJ antitrust suit against Google in Washington, DC — revealed that Google automatically deleted chat messages...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 11:53 pm
Samsung Galaxy S24 leaks suggest a titanium build, flattened screen, and more
This is the time of year when Samsung unwillingly has major details of its flagship Galaxy S line of phones leaked out months before they launch. So it will come as no surprise that we’ve now got details on the S24 and S24 Ultra — or at least the phones we assume will carry that name.
Today, Windows Report got a hold of new official Samsung images that include the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a new flattened screen design. It confirms an earlier leak by Twitter / X user David Martin, who posted handheld images of the purported new S24 Ultra. The images clearly showed sharper screen edges akin to the changes made with the regular S23 from earlier this year, instead of the gentle curve, and a new gray color finish.
As reported last month, Samsung...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 11:21 pm
In firing Altman, OpenAI’s board wanted to keep the element of surprise
We still don’t know the whole story around the conflict between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the company’s board, but more and more is leaking out. A new report, from The New Yorker, alleges that OpenAI’s old board deliberately excluded Microsoft after initially voting to expel Sam Altman as CEO, and they actually believed the company would back them.
In the sprawling story, New Yorker reported Microsoft executives were blindsided by the decision to oust Sam Altman, possibly to prevent Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella from warning Altman what was about to happen.
Altman has a reputation for being a shrewd business person, and part of the decision not to inform Microsoft was to ensure that he would be surprised.
When OpenAI announced Altman’s...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 10:48 pm
SpaceX will take some Amazon satellites to space
Amazon is enlisting the help of one of its biggest rivals to shuttle its Project Kuiper internet satellites into space. The company will use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket for three launches beginning in 2025, Amazon announced on Friday.
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite program that could eventually provide users across the globe with internet connectivity. Amazon launched its first two Project Kuiper test satellites into space in October, where it managed to connect to the internet and conduct a two-way video call. However, it still has to do some serious catching up to SpaceX’s Starlink, which has already deployed around 5,000 satellites.
Despite the rivalry between the two companies, it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 10:10 pm
Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now
A couple of months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.
But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, just launched on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 9:30 pm
Gmail had two outages this week that delayed emails
Gmail experienced some issues with delayed emails twice this week: on Thursday and again on Friday.
On Thursday at 12:31PM ET, Google wrote on Gmail’s Workspace Status Dashboard that “customers impacted by this issue may see delay in sending the emails,” but at 5:03PM ET, the company posted an update that indicates things were fixed.
The Thursday issues affected at least two of us here at The Verge. Earlier that day, emails sent from our personal emails to our work accounts took a while to show up. Weirdly, emails from our work emails to our personal Gmails sent just fine. 9to5Google reported the opposite, finding that personal emails worked as expected while Workspace account emails weren’t arriving as expected.
On Friday, Google...
Published on 1 December 2023 | 9:13 pm