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TheVerge

Explore the fusion of technology, science, art, and culture with TheVerge's comprehensive coverage.

October 5, 2024  18:22:55
Pixel Watch 2 on a nightstand
The Pixel Watch 2 can still serve you well in 2024 if you don’t need a bigger or brighter screen. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Pixel Watch 3 may be the shining refinement Google’s wearable lineup needed, but the last-gen Pixel Watch 2 is still a great buy. That’s especially true when you can get it for as low as $224 ($26 off) — which is the watch’s current starting price at both Amazon and Best Buy.

Although the Pixel Watch 3 introduces a host of solid improvements — including a bigger and brighter display, a new 44mm size, AI-generated workout suggestions, and offline Google Maps — the second-gen Pixel Watch is still a looker. It only comes in one size (41mm), and the usable display area is only about 10 percent smaller than the third-gen model. It also uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear W5 Gen 1 chip, though it lacks the ultra wideband chip that lets...

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October 5, 2024  16:04:10
The Android logo on a black backdrop, surrounded by red shapes that resemble the Android mascot.
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is rolling out a new set of features aimed at making it less easy for thieves to access your data. That’s according to Mishaal Rahman, who posted on Reddit that the features are showing up in a new update after seeing that his Xiaomi 14T Pro phone now has Theft Detection Lock and Offline Device Lock, two of three features Google announced in May. Others say they only see the third one, called Remote Lock.

The flashiest of the new features is Theft Detection Lock, which uses AI to lock your screen when it detects “common motion associated with theft,” like someone snatching your phone out of your hand. Meanwhile, Offline Device Lock locks a device’s screen when it’s offline for a while, and Remote Lock lets users lock their phone...

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October 5, 2024  14:40:09
A picture of the New Shepard rocket launching.
New Shepard in 2022. | Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Blue Origin is preparing to launch its NS-27 mission with the RSS Kármán Line, its new crew capsule, on Monday at 9AM ET. It will be the first launch for the capsule, which the company says in its announcement will have improved performance and reusability, along with “an updated livery, and accommodations for payloads on the booster.”

The flight will carry two LIDAR sensors into space that will be used for Blue Origin’s Lunar Permanence program to develop Moon landers. Those are among 12 payloads that also include ultra-wideband proximity operations sensors, a reproduction of the black monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and student postcards submitted to its Club for the Future nonprofit. Blue Origin will stream the launch on its...

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October 5, 2024  14:17:11
US-NUCLEAR-ACCIDENT-ANNIVERSARY
Steam rises out of the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island on March 26, 2019 before it closed later that year. | Photo: Getty Images

Major tech firms, in search of carbon pollution-free electricity for data centers, are helping to revive nuclear energy in the US.

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October 5, 2024  13:00:00
A screenshot from Starfield: Shattered Space.
Image: Bethesda

It’s been a long time coming for Starfield players. Bethesda’s sci-fi take on Skyrim originally launched last summer, and while there have been some updates and improvements since then, it’s taken more than a year for the game to get its first major expansion. This lead-up means there’s a lot riding on Shattered Space — which is a perfectly fine addition to the game that also feels incredibly underwhelming. After a promising setup, it ends up mostly being more of the same.

Things start, as they so often do in expansions, with a distress call. This one leads you to a derelict space station that is brimming with ghostly apparitions and which eventually whisks you away to the home planet of the House Va’ruun, a religious sect that worships...

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October 5, 2024  12:00:00
Tim Sweeney.
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

Just over a year ago, Epic Games laid off around 16 percent of its employees. The problem, Epic said, was its own big ideas for the future and just how expensive they were to build. “For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in an email to staff.

On Tuesday, onstage at the Unreal Fest conference in Seattle, Sweeney declared that the company is now “financially sound.” The announcement kicked off a packed two-hour keynote with updates on Unreal Engine, the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the Epic Games Store, and more.

In an interview with The Verge, Sweeney says that reining in Epic’s spending was part of what brought the company to this point. “Last year, before Unreal Fest, we were...

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October 4, 2024  23:50:58
Felicia Horowitz and Ben Horowitz arrive at the WACO Theater Center’s 3rd Annual Wearable Art Gala at The Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport on June 1, 2019 in Santa Monica, California.
Hedging one’s bets, I suppose. | Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images

After the podcast where Ben Horowitz repeatedly congratulated himself for being brave enough to support Donald Trump in public, it turns out Horowitz will also be donating to Kamala Harris. Or so he says.

“As I mentioned before, Felicia and I have known Vice President Harris for over 10 years and she has been a great friend to both of us during that time,” Horowitz wrote in an email to his venture capital firm obtained by Axios. “As a result of our friendship, Felicia and I will be making a significant donation to entities who support the Harris Walz campaign.”

I... listen. Two things. First, one of the most striking things about the podcast Horowitz made with his a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen was how...

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October 4, 2024  23:08:43
Intel’s Core i9-14900K sitting on a blue Intel box
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Intel may have one less worry on its very full plate: it believes it has now fully addressed its desktop CPU instability woes with 13th and 14th Gen “Raptor Lake” chips.

While the company says there’s still no fix for processors that are already damaged, it confirms to me that the “Vmin Shift Instability” is the root cause of the unusual instability and crashes that these desktop CPUs have been demonstrating for many months.

And, Intel says, the four sets of mitigations it’s now shipped are the fix for the problem.

“Yes, we’re confirming this is the cause and that it is fixed,” Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford tells The Verge.

That’s good! It also wasn’t clear until now. As of August 30th, Intel was still telling us that “Vmin...

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October 4, 2024  21:33:21
Vector illustration of the WordPress logo.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

WordPress and its cofounder Matt Mullenweg are embroiled in a public battle against the third-party hosting provider WP Engine.

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October 4, 2024  20:33:16
Several Garmin watches on a colorful background
Garmins aren’t just multisport behemoths anymore. | Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge

Garmin may be best known for its hardcore fitness watches, but it’s got an extensive line of lifestyle offerings, too.

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