Category: The Verge

See the original posting on The Verge

In celebration of Doom’s 25th anniversary, one of its co-creators has announced a new level pack for the seminal first-person shooter (via Polygon). Sigil, which takes place after the events of Doom’s fourth episode, will be released as a free download in February and features nine single-player and nine multiplayer levels. Two limited edition fan boxes with collectible extras will also be available to purchase.

Sigil is the work of John Romero, who is widely considered to have co-created the original Doom alongside John Carmack in 1993. Romero developed the 25th anniversary mod over the course of two years in his evenings and weekends using Doom Builder 2, a fan-made modding tool used to create and add new levels to the game. In…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

LG has announced a “capsule-based craft beer system,” because nothing says “craft” more than easy one-button operation. It’s called the LG HomeBrew, of course, and LG will be unveiling it in full at CES next month. The capsules contain malt, yeast, hop oil, and flavoring, while the machine “automates the whole procedure from fermentation, carbonation and aging to serving and cleaning,” according to LG.

The HomeBrew will have five beers available: an American IPA, an American pale ale, an English stout, a Belgian-style Witbier, and a dry Czech pilsner. LG says that the machine will take around two weeks to produce up to five liters, though that’ll depend on the beer type. There’s a mobile companion app where you can check on the status of…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Infinity Blade, the medieval fighting / role-playing mobile game series from Epic Games, is no more, as the developer has removed all three entries in the franchise from Apple’s App Store. The series has been dormant since 2013, when Infinity Blade III was released and Epic and co-developer Chair Entertainment announced the third game would mark the end of the planned trilogy. However, Epic has continued to support the games throughout the last half-decade — until today, it seems.

In a statement, Epic says “it has become increasingly difficult for our team to support the Infinity Blade series at a level that meets our standards.” If you own the games, you can re-download them on any device by using an account that originally bought…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who play Super Smash Bros. games as a competitive sport and those who enjoy them as party games meant to be played with friends. If you’re the first type, then you definitely care about things like lag and frame rates, and this post will read as blasphemy to you. But if you’re the second, and you’re looking for a way to make using a 17-year-old controller a little more enjoyable while playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on your Switch in 2018, you probably want 8BitDo’s GBros. adapter.

What is it?

Announced last month ahead of the launch of Ultimate, the GBros. is a pretty simple adapter that features a GameCube controller input on one end and a Wii controller plug on the other (for use…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Sony’s PlayStation Classic has a lot of issues that extend well beyond its debatably lackluster bundled game list. For one, the device, which has been out for about one week, is not really all that secure, which is generally a good thing when it comes to plug-and-play devices not designed to connect to the internet. That’s because those crafty and dedicated enough to hack the little gray box can then open up all sorts of possibilities, and in fact, some have already figured out how to load other games not originally included with the device from a USB drive.

As reported by Ars Technica, Sony didn’t do a whole lot to hide the tools necessary to basically crack the PS Classic wide open. So some notable console hackers, including Yifan Lu…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Xiaomi has three new products coming to the US — and, unfortunately, none of them are phones. The Mi Wireless Charging Pad, Mi Home Security Camera, and Mi Robot Builder Rover were all announced at a Friday pop-up event in New York City, where fans of the brand gathered to enjoy free tea drinks and check out the new devices.

The three new products follow Xiaomi’s trend of offering an eclectic variety of smart home devices including plugs, chargers, and TV boxes, instead of bringing its phones over to the US.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The Mi Wireless Charging Pad supports Qi wireless charging and up to 10W of output for fast charging. It works with most wireless-charging smartphones and has protection against…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is gearing up to be a voracious showdown between some of cinema’s most infamous monsters, and a new trailer for the film demonstrates just how those fights will shape up.

The new trailer’s focus is on the impending battle between good kaiju and bad ones. King Ghidorah, the three-headed beast; giant insect Mothra; and Rodan, another peculiar-looking flying monster, are all prepared to launch attacks on each other. Look, Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but if Godzilla: King of the Monsters is just two hours of big monsters fighting each other, which is what this trailer promises, then I’ll be happy.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a direct follow-up to 2014’s G…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite is its best e-reader yet, with its IPX8 water resistance being reason enough for some to take the plunge. This model also supports Bluetooth, so you can connect headphones and listen to audiobooks via Audible. Despite releasing just a few months ago, we’re now seeing a few deals that make this worth considering over any other Kindle available, whether you planned on upgrading or not.

A few things to note before you check out the deals. These prices will last until December 20th, and the discounts only apply for Kindle options with special offers, meaning that Amazon will place ads on the lockscreen, though you can opt out for an additional $20 at the time of purchase, or after through the Kindle’s device…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Alexa has been able to tell you the opening hours and phone numbers of local businesses since July, but a recent update means it can now actually place a call on your behalf. It doesn’t go quite as far as Google Duplex, which has Google’s voice assistant call businesses and talk to them on your behalf, but it should save you some time if you’re already using Alexa to search for your nearest Domino’s.

Alongside these local business additions, Alexa’s routines are getting a handful of new capabilities. You’ll now be able to have them make announcements or generate mobile notifications, automatically switch an Echo device into its Do Not Disturb mode, or stop audio playback.

That’s a lot of new functionality, and…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

As expected, peripheral maker 8bitdo has fixed one of the biggest issues with Sony’s miniature PlayStation Classic: the lack of wireless controllers. Today, the company announced its latest adapter, a plug-and-play device that instantly gives the PS Classic support for a huge range of controllers. That includes the PS3 and PS4 DualShock controllers, the Switch and Wii U pro controllers, Bluetooth-enabled Xbox controllers, and even the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. Naturally, the adapter also supports all available 8bitdo retro-style controllers (which tend to be pretty good).

The announcement is becoming something of a tradition. 8bitdo previously released wireless controller options for both the NES and SNES Classic, and it has…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the best times to find deals on pretty much anything on your holiday shopping list. But retailers will always come up with another shopping holiday to tempt you. Alas, “Green Monday” is a thing.

Green Monday offers some repeats of Black Friday favorites — plus a few new deals. If you already accomplished the majority of your holiday purchases, there’s little reason to dive in, but it can’t hurt to make sure you’ve run through your checklist.

Here are the best deals that we’ve seen so far today. We’ll be adding more (and striking through items that are sold out) throughout the day.

Video games

• Buy two select games, get a $50 Target gift card

Headphones

• Jabra Elite 65t true wireless headphones are…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Should you buy a Walmart gaming PC?

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

The world of Fortnite keeps on changing. Just a few days after season 7 introduced a slew of new features, including planes, developer Epic has teased the addition of swords to the battle royale game. While we don’t have any real details on how they’ll work or when they’ll be available, swords should dramatically shake up the world of Fortnite, which is primarily built around shooting mechanics. Up-close melee combat would add a whole new dimension. (The weapon in the teaser video also bears a strong resemblance to the sword from the Infinity Blade series, which is also developed by Epic.)

When they do arrive, swords will…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Whether you’re applying to law school, are a lawyer, or just have a great love for the show Suits, it might interest you to know that the LSAT is going digital next year and the chosen tablets are Microsoft’s Surface Go.

The organization behind the LSAT, the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), says it went through hundreds of tablets to choose the winner. Some well known devices just didn’t have enough going for them. Apple’s iPads were too pricey and their proprietary ecosystem made it difficult to modify, while cheaper Chromebooks were not of high enough quality.

“You just can’t have a test that is this important and end up with something that isn’t really…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Stranger Things will return to Netflix for its third season in 2019, and a new teaser for the upcoming season has provided dedicated fans with new information to dig into.

The teaser, seen above, includes all eight episode titles. Netflix has done this in the past with Stranger Things and, like those teasers, the episode titles are pretty innocuous. It’s going to take some real sleuthing to figure out what each episode refers to — with the exception of one overall theme.

Earlier this year, Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer hinted that Starcourt Mall would play a big role in the third season, which takes place during the summer of 1985. “The Mall Rats” and “The Battle of Starcourt” insinuate that we’ll catch our favorite…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Following hot on the heels of today’s Honor View 20 tease, Samsung has announced a phone of its own that’ll make use of its new Infinity-O display. The Samsung A8s features a distinctive “hole-punch” design for the phone’s selfie camera located at the top left of the display.

Samsung has said it intends to debut new features on mid-range phones first after ceding so much ground to its Chinese rivals, and the A8s is a good example of this strategy.

Outside of that unique 6.4-inch (2340 x 1080 pixel) display, the phone — which doesn’t yet have an official price — is a fairly standard mid-range affair. The A8s is powered by a Snapdragon 710 with options for either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard storage with up to 512GB of…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Sony and Samsung both announced 48-megapixel image sensors designed for smartphones earlier this year, and we’re starting to hear details of the first devices to make use of the massive pixel counts. Honor has just pre-announced the View 20, which uses Sony’s IMX586 sensor with Huawei’s Kirin 980 processor and the same “hole-punch” selfie camera design as Huawei’s upcoming Nova 4, set to be revealed in full next week.

The View 20 is the followup to the View 10, a mid-range device that we were reasonably impressed with earlier this year. Honor isn’t providing full details on the View 20 just yet — that’ll have to wait until a January 22nd event in Paris for the global model, while the Chinese V20 variant will come on December 26th. What…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Soulja Boy is stepping back from “cranking it,” and pivoting to an entirely new field this week: selling his own video game consoles and refurbished tech accessories.

Soulja has been a gamer his entire life, so it’s only natural for him to want to launch his own systems, and this week, he’s done just that. He now sells two different consoles on his website SouljaWatch.com, both of which bear his namesake: the SouljaGame Console and the SouljaGame Handheld.

Soulja Boy claims that the console is capable of running PlayStation, NeoGeo, PC, Sega, Game Boy Advance, and NES games, as well as “SouljaGames.” The website states that the console comes with 800 games preinstalled onto the console. According to the site, the handheld runs Switch,…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

I have never been too interested in the art of crochet, nor have I ever wanted a pair of AirPods. But put those things together in the form of crocheted AirPods cases, and suddenly, I’ve found myself in an Instagram hole, scrolling through photo after photo of these unfathomably cute creations.

AirPods accessories are having sort of a moment in South Korea, with online stores selling keychains, skins, and cases for the wireless earbuds with an enthusiasm that can’t be matched anywhere else. Although there are plenty of official accessory companies that offer AirPods cases that come with keychain holes and keychain accessories made specifically for AirPods cases, the real innovation is coming from artists and small business owners who…

Continue reading…

See the original posting on The Verge

Google and Levi’s Jacquard smart jacket has introduced a new function designed to stop you from mistakenly leaving your phone behind, as spotted by Android Police.

The feature, called Always Together, is an automatic alert that will go off if the jacket moves too far away from your phone. When triggered, notifications happen on both ends. So, your phone will get a notification, and the jacket’s signature sleeve tag will also blink and vibrate. Previously, Android Police notes, there was a manual “find your phone” option where an assigned gesture on the jacket could prompt your phone to ring at full volume.

It’s a neat addition for the smart jacket, which can already use touch inputs to control things on your smartphone like music…

Continue reading…