Category: The Verge

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The past couple of years of smartphone design have been dominated by debate over how best to increase the screen-to-body ratio, and where to put critical components on devices that are dominated by their screens. The holy grail is, of course, the ability to integrate them directly into the display, as we’ve already seen with fingerprint sensors — and selfie cameras are next.

Oppo, a company that’s done its share of anti-bezel experimentation with display notches and pop-up selfie cameras, is the first to demonstrate an under-screen camera to the public at MWC Shanghai this week, after a tease earlier in the month. Alongside the showing, Oppo has revealed more information about how the technology actually works.

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In case you missed it, Pokémon fusions are back in the news, thanks in part to a recent Tumblr meme and helped along by a small but growing community of talented fan artists dedicated to bringing these sometimes adorable but often horrific hybrids to life.

But between admiring the cute, shellfish-meets-baby dragon qualities of “Shellmander” and just combining literally every other pokémon with Mr. Mime, nobody is doing the truly important work of telling you which ones are the most powerful. At the end of the day, in the rough-and-tumble world of Pokémon, what matters most is knowing which of these algorithmically combined animals can best the other in vicious, supernatural elemental battle.

So we’ve done the work to narrow down the…

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If you’re thinking about buying a game for your Nintendo Switch, PS4, or Xbox One, you’ll save 30 percent on several titles at Target when you opt to pick it up in store. For context, this deal brings Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a $59.99 game, down to $38.10. Games like The Division 2, Team Sonic Racing, Kingdom Hearts III, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and more are also included in the sale.

It’s worth noting that this discount only works on products that your local Target store has in stock. And, if video games aren’t your thing, this order pickup sale extends to board games, too.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Moto Z4 is half of its usual price at Best Buy for Verizon users who are opening a new line, or…

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According to Recode editor-at-large Kara Swisher, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest problems right now is its lack of competition. That big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have become too dominant and have thus stifled competition and creativity.

Here is a lightly edited excerpt of Kara Swisher and Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel discussing the importance of competition and the possibilities of breaking up the tech giants that rule the land.

You can hear this and more in the latest episode of The Vergecast.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Nilay Patel: One of the major themes at the Code Conference this year was antitrust break-ups. My connection between those two things is pretty simple….

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So you watched all 26 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the End of Evangelion movies on Netflix, but now you aren’t sure what to watch next. The good news is that in the more than 20 years since Evangelion originally aired, it’s become a seminal work of anime, and it inspired a lot of different animators, writers, and directors. They’ve built off what the series did, finding different ways to explore similar ideas in their own works.

One of Evangelion’s strongest themes is about people making connections with each other. So much of the series is about the characters talking to each other but not really communicating. They struggle to convey what they’re feeling in meaningful ways and to be open with each other. (The series’s AT…

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Steam’s annual summer sale has begun, and it’s a great time to save on several popular (or not-so-new) PC games — if you can get the store to load. As far as the new-ish releases that are looped into the sale, Soulcalibur VI for $19.79 is the best price yet for that game, according to SteamDB’s pricing data.

Devil May Cry 5 is a good deal, too, costing $39.59 instead of $59.99. Other stellar discounts include Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for $29.99, and Astroneer for $22.49.

The sale incorporates a quirky community-driven component called “Steam Grand Prix” that’s full of quests you can complete by playing games on Steam. As you complete them, you’ll nudge your team’s car toward the finish line. The first, second, and third place winners…

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Twelve South is cutting the cord with the HiRise Wireless, a new version of the company’s HiRise iPhone stands that (as the name implies) adds wireless Qi charging to the mix.

But what makes the HiRise Wireless stand out is a clever trick Twelve South is adding, allowing the main wireless charging pad to pop out of the stand, letting you also use it as a flat wireless charger (for things like AirPods, or simply for those who just prefer that form factor) or even throw it in a bag to take on the go.

I’ve had the chance to try out the HiRise Wireless for a few days, and it mostly holds up to that promise. The puck is easy to detach from the stand, although attaching it took a few tries to get it to stay…

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Amazon Prime Day 2019, the two-day shopping extravaganza held exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers, starts Monday, July 15th at 12AM PT / 3AM ET, and ends on July 16th at 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET. There will be thousands of deals to check out across every product category on Amazon’s massive online storefront, and some of these discounts will be the best you’ll see until Black Friday.

Part of Prime Day’s fun comes from buying things that you didn’t expect to buy and maybe didn’t budget for. Based on last year’s Prime Day, there will be new Lightning Deals every few minutes of the 48-hour stretch, and they’ll often be pretty good products, too.

More careful buyers, who don’t want to break their budget purchasing everything that looks…

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Developer Respawn is giving Star Wars fans a deeper look at its upcoming story-driven video game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, after viewers came away from this year’s E3 conference somewhat confused about the type of game the studio is making. That means you can now watch the full 26-minute E3 gameplay demo that was previously only shown behind closed doors in Los Angeles earlier this month.

The goal, according to game director Stig Asmussen, is to help alleviate concerns that Respawn is making essentially an Uncharted-inspired linear action game. Instead, Asmussen says Fallen Order will include elements from a number of different RPG and action-adventure titles, most prominently, Metroid and Dark Souls.

Earlier this month, Respawn…

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Apple considered putting a camera in the Apple Watch’s band, according to a new patent spotted by AppleInsider. The design places an “optical sensor” at the end of the flexible Watch strap, allowing you to twist and turn it to get the photograph you need without having to contort your wrist.

For example, you can pull the strap upward to photograph what’s in front of you or fold it back on itself to take a selfie. One of the diagrams in the patent shows how the camera could swivel to take photos on either side of the band, while the patent also references having a band with two cameras in “opposing optical directions.” Photos could be taken by “pinching the watch band” or using voice controls. When not in use, the camera could be tucked…

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Apple is bringing Xbox and PlayStation 4 controller support to the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV this fall. It’s a big change from the select MFi Bluetooth controllers that were supported before, and it means you can now easily connect any PS4 or Xbox One controller to your device to play games on the go.

I’ve been trying out an Xbox One S controller (with Bluetooth support) on my iPad Pro running the new public beta, and I’m convinced this is a big step toward using an iPad as a portable game console.

While all PS4 DualShock 4 controllers support Bluetooth and will work fully, over on the Xbox side, you’ll need to make sure your controller supports Bluetooth. If it has a headphone jack at the bottom, then you’re good to go.

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Jabra’s head is in the right place, but a few flaws keep it from greatness

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Detective games are a great concept in theory. Imagine experiencing a Sherlock Holmes story, except you’re the one making all of the clever deductions. The problem, of course, is that you’re not Sherlock Holmes. So, in many games, the story’s momentum can come to a screeching halt because you missed an ever-important clue or misheard a witness statement. Judgment, an investigative spinoff of the long-running Yakuza series, gets around this by offering just enough detective work to feel satisfying, while relegating the big, profound revelations for cutscenes and in-game dialogue. It’s sort of like watching a particularly tense crime drama, but one where you get to help out along the way. The result might just be the best detective game…

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When Apple announced iPadOS earlier this month, no-one from the company made mention of a major new feature: mouse support. Apple no doubt has good reasons for wanting to keep people focused on the touch interface, but the ability to use a mouse has the potential to completely change how people get things done on the iPad Pro. Here’s how it works, and here’s how to get started.

First of all, you’ll need to be running the iPadOS 13 public beta, which is now available for anyone to install. (This also technically works on iOS 13, in case you really want to use a mouse on your iPhone.) The usual caveats about beta software apply: it’s super buggy right now, so don’t try this out on a primary machine unless you have a good reason to, and…

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The Universal Serial Bus standard came into being more than 20 years ago, ushering in the USB era, which has been defined by two things: a common, ubiquitous standard for connecting peripherals to PCs, and the daily annoyance of trying to plug things in the right way. USB co-inventor Ajay Bhatt has talked to NPR recently, as spotted by Boing Boing, and given some background on why the plug took the form that it did and what its creation was intended to achieve.

Leading Intel’s team as part of a multi-company effort, Bhatt was seeking to address the rather gruesome mess of device-specific cables, plugs, and connectors that people had to deal with back in the ‘90s. As he’d previously mentioned in an interview with PCWorld, his interest was…

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Amazon Prime Day is back on July 15th for the biggest sale event in Amazon’s annual tradition of deals and discounts. And this year, Amazon is stretching the definition of Prime “Day” even further: the deals will last a full 48 hours, beginning on Monday July 15th at 12AM PT / 3AM ET, and running through 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET on Tuesday, July 16th.

If you’re new to the deal-hunting game, Prime Day is Amazon’s big summer deal event, where the online retailer cuts the prices on tons of products. It’s Christmas in July! Or more accurately, Black Friday in July — complete with thousands of deals to sift through. The deals are open to Prime members in the US and beyond, including the UK, Spain, Singapore, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg,…

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The easy pitch for the new HBO / BBC co-production Years and Years might be “What if Black Mirror, but a family drama?” But the more accurate pitch might be “What if Black Mirror, but with a full and beating heart?” That isn’t intended as a slam on Charlie Brooker’s anthology series about dystopian futures. It’s more of an appreciation of what creator Russell T. Davies has been able to achieve with his six-episode limited series, premiering Monday, June 24th on HBO. (Its run on BBC One recently concluded.)

Years and Years begins in 2019, with a focus on the complicated intergenerational Lyons clan: Muriel (Anne Reid), her grandchildren Edith (Jessica Hynes), Stephen (Rory Kinnear), Daniel (Russell Tovey), and Rosie (Ruth Madeley), and…

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Google’s Nest Hub is on sale more frequently than not, and today’s discount brings it down to its best price ever. Usually $129, it’s just $61 (before tax) at Rakuten with the offer code SAVE15 used at checkout.

Formerly known as the Google Home Hub, this smart display is worth the cost if you’re invested in Google services. As noted in our review, the Nest Hub makes for an excellent digital photo frame if you have a Google Photos library. Amazon’s brand-new, freshly reviewed Echo Show 5 is currently its closest competitor in terms of features, and so long as you don’t plan to watch YouTube (it’s not supported), its $89.99 price isn’t bad if you want better audio quality and a camera with a hardware shutter for privacy.

Best Buy is…

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A first look at the latest software for Apple’s iPhones

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The director and stars discuss bringing the Aliens world back to life

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