Amazon is sticking ads on Prime Video shows and movies unless you pay more
Your Prime Video experience is about to be downgraded unless you cough up an extra $3 each month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon has announced plans to start placing “limited advertisements” in TV shows and movies running on the company’s Prime Video streaming platform, to allow the e-commerce giant to “continue investing in compelling content.” According to Amazon’s press release, the ads will first be introduced on Prime Video content in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada on an unmentioned date in “early 2024,” with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later that year.
Amazon says it doesn’t have plans to change the current price of its Prime memberships in 2024, and Prime members will be notified of the change several weeks before the ad injections begin, along with details to sign up for the ad-free option. US-based Prime members will be able to revert back to an ad-free experience for an additional $2.99 per month on top of their existing subscription. Prime memberships in the US cost $14.99 per month, or $139 per year if paid annually. Pricing for the ad-free option for other countries will be shared “at a later date.”
The introduction of ads comes at a time when Amazon is undergoing cost-cutting across the company, and arrive as price increases and ad-supported tiers launch on competing streaming services.
The latest Windows 11 update will help you ditch passwords for good
Microsoft takes its next step towards a passwordless future. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft’s incoming Windows 11 update will introduce public support for passkeys — a passwordless login technology that instead uses your face, fingerprint, or device PIN to sign into accounts. Announced at Microsoft’s AI and Surface launch event on Thursday, the latest Windows 11 update (available from September 26th) will allow users to create, manage, and store passkeys, and use them to access supported websites and services using their device’s own authentication systems.
Microsoft began testing passkey management in the Windows Insider developer channel back in June, so this Windows 11 update is bringing the technology into general availability.
Windows 11 passkeys are created through Windows Hello. Passkeys can be accessed on both a Windows desktop system and/or a mobile device used to authenticate the user’s identity. Following the Windows 11 update, IT teams will also be able to encourage employees to use more secure sign-in methods by removing the option to use passwords for all Windows 11 devices with Windows Hello for Business.
“For the past several years, we’ve been committed to working with our industry partners and the FIDO Alliance to further the passwordless future with passkeys,” said Microsoft in a blog post published on Thursday. “Passkeys are the cross-platform, cross-ecosystem future of accessing websites and applications.”
Microsoft provided Github and Docusign as examples of where they can be used, as passkeys can only replace passwords on websites, apps, and services that already support the WebAuthn public key authentication standard. Password management service 1Password has created a comprehensive directory that tracks everything currently supporting passkey.
Passkeys are expected to eventually replace passwords entirely as a new standard for login technology, but it’s going to take a while for them to be widely supported. Microsoft is one of the technology’s earliest supporters, having announced its plans to adopt passkeys on World Password Day in 2022 alongside other tech giants like Apple and Google.
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal gets preliminary approval from UK regulator
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given preliminary approval for Microsoft to proceed with its $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal. The CMA had originally blocked the acquisition over cloud gaming concerns, but Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft.
“The CMA considers that the restructured deal makes important changes that substantially address the concerns it set out in relation to the original transaction earlier this year,” the CMA said in a press release, and “opens the door to the deal being cleared.”
This is just a preliminary decision, ahead of final approval. The CMA says it has now opened a consultation to gain third-party feedback on Microsoft’s proposed remedies, until October 6th. A final decision is expected before the extended October 18th deadline.
The consultation period is meant to address a few remaining concerns that the CMA has with the deal. “While the CMA has identified limited residual concerns with the new deal, Microsoft has put forward remedies which the CMA has provisionally concluded should address these issues.”
Microsoft is understandably optimistic about the decision. “We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline,” said Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith on X (formerly Twitter.)
We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process. We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18…
Activision Blizzard is also pleased with the CMA’s response. “This is a significant milestone for the merger and a testament to our solutions-oriented work with regulators,” said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick in a statement sent to employees. “I remain optimistic as we continue the journey toward completion and am very grateful to each of you for your dedication and focus throughout this process.”
The UK is the final regulatory hurdle for Microsoft’s giant deal.
Valve: don’t expect a faster Steam Deck ‘in the next couple of years’
The Steam Deck. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Valve has been clear it wants to build a Steam Deck 2 — and equally clear that a faster handheld wouldn’t arrive soon. Now, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais tells The Verge and CNBC that it could be late 2025 or beyond before it raises that bar — because it wants to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.
“I don’t anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years,” he told me via email.
Here’s the whole quote:
It’s important to us that the Deck offers a fixed performance target for developers, and that the message to customers is simple, where every Deck can play the same games. As such, changing the performance level is not something we are taking lightly, and we only want to do so when there is a significant enough increase to be had. We also don’t want more performance to come at a significant cost to power efficiency and battery life. I don’t anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years, but we’re still closely monitoring innovations in architectures and fabrication processes to see where things are going there.
Earlier today, he spoke to CNBC on the same topic, saying “We’re looking at this performance target that we have as a stable target for a couple years.” Since the Steam Deck was released in February 2022, I assumed he was probably talking about 2024.
But “the next couple of years” is a longer timeframe than I thought — and while the Steam Deck can still technically play the latest PC games, it’s getting harder with the latest wave of demanding / poorly optimized games like The Last of Us Part I, Redfall and Starfield.
(I can confirm Starfield is now playable on Deck, in a “I’m willing to tolerate terrible graphics to advance this quest” way, as of the Steam Deck OS 3.5 Preview. Griffais credits “a targeted optimization effort in the Mesa radv Vulkan driver by our graphics driver team” to support unusual features like ExecuteIndirect, explaining that Valve learned how to optimize a similar GPU-driven rendering pipeline when it added support for Halo Infinite.)
All that said, Valve might totally still have a Steam Deck refresh in the works that doesn’t change the performance floor. There’s a rich history of console manufacturers releasing smaller, lighter, and more power efficient versions of the same hardware, and Nintendo has refreshed the Switch twice: once to improve the battery and once to improve the screen.
Screen and battery are the top pain points both Griffais and fellow designer Lawrence Yang want to address in a Steam Deck sequel, too, they told me in late 2022.
And a new screen could unlock more perceived performance even if there’s no new chip to enhance the framerate. The Asus ROG Ally showed us that — playing Starfield on the Ally and an Ayaneo Geek 1S, which both sport very similar AMD chips, the game feels smoother on Asus largely because its variable refresh rate screen smooths out the dips. Valve could also raise the ceiling rather than the floor, if it had a plugged-in turbo mode like both those handhelds.
Perhaps Valve just gets AMD to shrink and optimize the same chip to use less juice? Perhaps it finds a better screen? Perhaps just a larger battery? Or perhaps it just waits, and Valve’s mystery Galileo / Sephiroth turns out to be the long-awaited SteamVR standalone headset.
X is shutting down Circles
Illustration: The Verge
X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers. The company said in a “PSA” on Thursday that Circles will be disabled by October 31st.
“After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle,” X wrote in a post on its help center. “You will, however, be able to remove people from your Circle,” and the company gave instructions on how to do that.
X didn’t give a reason as to why it’s shutting down the feature. But the company has recently been making more of a push around its Facebook Groups-like Communities feature — perhaps it viewed Circles and Communities as too similar to keep both around.
The iPhone 15 has a new optimized charging setting, here’s how it works
You can limit the battery charge to 80 percent on the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro. This is apparently in response to complaints about the iPhone 14 Pro’s battery capacity issues. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Here’s Apple’s explanation of what you can expect if you enable the setting:
When you choose 80% Limit, your iPhone will charge up to about 80 percent and then stop charging. If the battery charge level gets down to 75 percent, charging will resume until your battery charge level reaches about 80 percent again.
As we’ve been testing the setting on our review devices, we noticed that our phones have been charging past 80 percent anyway. That’s apparently something you can expect to see happen occasionally, according to Apple.
With 80% Limit enabled, your iPhone will occasionally charge to 100 percent to maintain accurate battery state-of-charge estimates.
This new option joins the existing Optimized Battery Charging setting that has been on Apple devices for a few years. That setting will hold the battery charge at 80 percent before bringing it up to full before it thinks you’ll need to use the phone, based on your usage patterns. Apple also just released iOS 17.0.2 for the iPhone 15 series, and we’re installing it now to see if charging actually starts to hover around 80 percent with the new setting enabled.
Pixel Fold replacement parts and iFixit repair guides now available
You can purchase Pixel Fold parts separately or bundled with iFixit’s repair tools. | Image: iFixit
Among the parts available is a kit to replace the Pixel Fold’s flexible inner screen. It costs $899.99 (or $909.99 when bundled with iFixit’s Fix Kit toolset) and includes the inner OLED display, a flexible glass panel, batteries, display bezels, side buttons, and fingerprint scanner. You can also buy some of these components separately, with the Pixel Fold’s “Flip” and “Base” batteries both available for $49.99. A replacement front camera can be purchased for $42.99, and the Fold’s OLED outer display is $159.99.
Image: iFixit
There are currently 20 repair guides available for the Pixel Fold, alongside a wide range of the phone’s internal components.
The right-to-repair champions at iFixit also provide guides and spare components for various other Pixel gadgets — including the Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6A, Pixel 7A, and the Pixel Tablet. The Pixel Fold appears to be the first foldable smartphone that iFixit supports so thoroughly.
The Lawyers Sam Bankman-Fried Once Trusted Are Drawing Criticism Mr. Bankman-Fried and his allies have blasted Sullivan & Cromwell, the New York law firm managing FTX’s bankruptcy, for its tangled relationship with the crypto exchange.
Hollywood’s writers’ strike might come to an end soon
Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images
Well-connected CNBC anchor David Faber cites people close to negotiations between the major Hollywood studio producers and striking writers, saying the sides “hope” to finalize a new deal tomorrow. The WGA strike began in early May before the actors (SAG-AFTRA) also went on strike in mid-July, marking the first time that has happened in 63 years.
They cited some similar issues in trying to protect members’ livelihoods as streaming entertainment grows and as studios begin to use generative AI tools in the entertainment business.
After face to face meeting today, writers and producers near agreement to end WGA strike. Met today and hope to finalize deal tomorrow, according to people close to the negotiations, who, while optimistic, warn that without deal tomorrow strike likely continues through year end.
Deadline reported earlier on the Wednesday meeting between the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The two sides put out a joint statement saying only that they “met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.” However, according to Faber, if an agreement isn’t reached, the strike would likely extend until next year.
Wednesday’s meeting reportedly included execs like Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and Universal chief content officer Donna Langley, in addition to the WGA’s chief negotiator and the president of the AMPTP.
There’s no word yet on any progress toward ending the SAG-AFTRA strike against the studios, even as that union is currently voting on whether to authorize a strike against the gaming industry as well. That vote is scheduled to close at 5PM PT on Monday, September 25th.
(Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.)
Fujifilm’s new Instax Pal is a $200 palm-sized digital camera bundled with a smartphone printer
Image: Fujifilm
Polaroid recently tried pushing the envelope with the new Polaroid I-2 instant camera, and now Fujifilm’s taking a stab at it, too. On Wednesday, the company announced it’s releasing a new kind of instant film product geared for kids, the Instax Pal digital camera bundle, for $199.95 in late October.
The Instax Pal is essentially a palm-sized, round digital camera that doesn’t print any photos and lacks a built-in viewfinder. Instead, it outputs images using the companion app, and you can then print these photos via the included Instax Mini Link 2 smartphone printer. The price also includes a 10-pack of Instax Mini film, which is a nice extra that Fujifilm’s instant cameras don’t often come with.
I’m not going to lie: my first thought when I heard about the Instax Pal was: “But... why?” After all, Fujifilm already sells the Instax Mini Evo instant camera, which can also output images to an app and prints photos for around the same price. It also comes with an actual viewfinder along with other controls that make it feel like a real camera. The Instax Mini Evo also doesn’t try to guilt trip me into using it by making strange, sad sounds when it’s sitting idle.
My best guess is that Fujifilm’s trying to replicate some of its Instax Mini Evo instant camera success by creating an easier-to-use, cuter version for kids. That’s why everything about the camera is designed to scream “fun.” You can, for example, create your own custom shutter sounds, add filters, text, and in-app stickers, and apparently even earn rewards (though I’m still figuring out how). And, of course, its small size and detachable ring should make it easier for smaller hands to hold.
At the same time, like the Instax Mini Evo, kids get to choose which photos they want to print. That’s a feature parents will particularly like, given it can help kids avoid wasting expensive film on bad shots.
But is all that worth $199.95? I’m still testing the camera and its app — which is still very much a work in progress — so I can’t give a definite opinion yet. But so far, I’m not convinced it is. An instant film camera that doesn’t print any photos and lacks a built-in viewfinder? It doesn’t feel like the Instax Pal is a camera so much as a cute accessory bundled with a smartphone printer.
Iconic League of Legends team TSM replaced by Shopify in pro league
Image: TSM
Shopify is entering the League of Legends arena. On Wednesday, Shopify announced that its Rebellion esports brand will be acquiring TSM’s spot in the League Championship Series (LCS), the pro circuit for US League of Legends esports.
The move marks a major change of the guard in the LCS. TSM, one of the biggest esports organizations in the world, got its start as a scrappy League of Legends team; the TSM acronym stands for Team SoloMid, which references a solo League of Legends player occupying the middle lane of the game’s multi-pronged map. In the mid 2010s, TSM was one of the most successful teams in the LCS, and the organization has entered other esports, signed Twitch streamers, and even bought an esports app.
But TSM has had some struggles as of late. Its LCS team hasn’t been quite as successful in League (outside of an impressive run in 2020). TSM CEO and founder Andy Dinh was fined and placed on a two-year probation by League of Legends developer Riot Games after an investigation found that “there was a pattern and practice of disparaging and bullying behavior exhibited by Dinh” toward TSM staff and players. The organization was forced to back out of a $210 million deal with FTX after the crypto company collapsed.
Then, in March, Sports Business Journal reported that TSM was considering dumping its LCS team, and in May, TSM announced that it was looking to sell its LCS spot and compete in League of Legends in another region. “I believe moving to another region will re-ignite our hunger to do whatever it takes to win a world championship,” Dinh said in a video about the change.
Shopify Rebellion will compete in the LCS starting in 2024. “Entering League of Legends — one of the largest esports titles, with a rich competitive history — felt like an obvious next step for us as we continue to grow our presence in esports,” Shopify Rebellion’s Dario “TLO” Wünsch said in a statement. The organization also competes in games like Dota 2, Valorant, and Rocket League.
TSM hasn’t said where it may end up fielding a League of Legends team next. But the organization is already positioning itself as a global brand. “TSM is a movement, binding us all together no matter who we are or where we came from,” TSM wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “From North America and Europe to South America and Asia, our hearts beat as one.”
The switch from TSM to Shopify Rebellion isn’t the only recent loss of a storied LCS brand. NRG Esports acquired Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) in April and took over CLG’s LCS slot. But there’s a happy ending to that upheaval: the new NRG defeated Cloud9 in a major upset to win the 2023 LCS summer split championships.
Arlo’s new security tags can disable your security system with a doorbell tap
We currently have no ideas what the Security Tag looks like, but it’ll be compatible with Arlo’s new video doorbell (pictured). | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Arlo is adding a new gadget to its smart home security lineup that should make it easier to disarm its Arlo Home Security system without digging through the company’s companion app or using its keypad once you’re in the house. The press release for Arlo’s new Essential product series — which includes a new video doorbell, outdoor camera, indoor camera, and XL security camera — mentions an “Arlo Security Tag” that can be held against the new doorbell itself to swiftly disarm the company’s security system when the little fob launches in “Q4 2023.”
When asked for comment about the product, Arlo spokesperson Hannah Block said that the Arlo Security Tag will be the “first NFC Touchless Disarm device,” and that further details would be released closer to the tag’s launch date later this year. Pricing was not provided and the information we have is slim, but the tag appears to be akin to a contactless keyfob like the now-discontinued Google Nest Secure tags.
Having quick access to the Arlo Security Tag should help avoid accidentally blasting any of the sirens that feature on the company’s new Essentials lineup — provided it hasn’t fallen into the hands of a thief.
T-Mobile users say other people’s account information is appearing in their app
T-Mobile has yet to offer an explanation for the issue. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
There’s some weirdness happening over at T-Mobile this morning. MultipleT-Mobilecustomers on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit have reported that they’re able to see other users’ account data — including their current credit balance, purchase history, credit card information, and home address — when signing into their own T-Mobile accounts.
Some T-Mobile customers have mentioned seeing information from several other accounts, but the scale of the issue isn’t yet clear. It’s prevalent enough that the T-Mobile subreddit has asked its users to avoid posting any further information for “security reasons.”
T-Mobile has yet to officially acknowledge the concerns or provide an explanation as to what’s causing them. We have reached out for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
If this does turn out to be caused by a security breach then it wouldn’t be the first incident that T-Mobile has needed to contend with this year, having already disclosed two separate cybersecurity attacks in January and May.
@TMobile I think you're getting hacked again. Here's what came up in my T-Mobile app on my phone with my SIM card. I'm not Claudia and I don't have 2 phones and 3 wearables. pic.twitter.com/zmUVpZesyn
Max to Stream Pro Sports Starting in October Media companies are racing to figure out how to merge live sporting events with their popular but still cash-bleeding streaming services.
Meta is expanding its paid verification badge to business accounts
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Businesses on Meta platforms will soon be able to purchase a blue check to get exclusive features and support.
The expansion was announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at an event today. Earlier this year, the company announced Meta Verified for creators, a $12 per month subscription that gives creators a blue check and access to features like priority customer support and impersonation protection. Businesses can buy verification on Facebook or Instagram for $22 a month or $35 for both — an increase over creator pricing that ranges from $12 to $15. Testing on Facebook and Instagram will begin in the coming weeks, with WhatsApp to follow.
Paying businesses will get similar perks as creators, including account security features and troubleshooting. Verified businesses will also get increased visibility in search on Facebook and Instagram. Businesses on WhatsApp will be able to create a landing page that’s discoverable through web search and the ability to have multiple employees chat with and respond to customers.
Meta’s initial move into paid verification followed changes at Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, where paying subscribers were able to buy a blue check for a monthly fee. The paid X subscription immediately spiraled out of control as users impersonated brands, celebrities, and even the pope using identical verified blue check marks. Earlier this month, X rolled out the option to verify paid users through a government ID, saying users could receive “additional benefits” in the future if they choose to do so. Meta Verification for businesses will require businesses to meet certain activity and security requirements, and the person applying must prove their connection to the business.
Nikon’s new ZF is a retro-styled full-frame camera aimed right at our nostalgic hearts
The Nikon ZF is the company’s latest camera. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
After nine years of occasionally chasing the retro-camera-with-modern-features unicorn, Nikon may have finally gotten the formula right.
The Japanese camera maker is announcing the Nikon ZF, a modern mirrorless camera packed with fairly high specs — like a 24.5-megapixel full-frame sensor, 299-point tracking autofocus with subject detection, in-body image stabilization, and dual card slots (of a sort) — in a body that looks just like one of the camera’s analog forebears. Nikon may have done this dance before with its trifling ZFC and long-forgotten Df DSLR, but it’s correcting its main mistakes with those cameras by giving the ZF a full-frame sensor and competitive price of $1,999.95 when it launches mid-October.
While the Df may look a whole lot like an old Nikon FM2 or FE2 film camera, it’s got the same Expeed 7 processor found in Nikon’s higher-end Z8 and Z9 cameras, along with much of their accouterment. The ZF has five-axis in-body image stabilization Nikon claims is good for eight stops of correction, 3D tracking autofocus, 4K 10-bit H.265 video with up to 60 frames per second cropped or 30fps full-width, an articulating 3.2-inch touchscreen, and continuous burst shooting up to 30fps. But what separates the ZF the most from the Z8 and Z9 are its vintage looks with classic dials, a dedicated switch for monochrome mode, and an audible KACHUNK-sounding mechanical shutter (the Z8 and Z9 solely use electronic shutters).
Image: Nikon
Nikon will directly sell the ZF in six amazing-looking color options for an extra $100, while all other US retailers only get black-on-black.
It’s those looks, sounds, and feel that really give the ZF its greatest charm, as my colleague Becca Farsace got to experience in her all-too-brief hands-on time in the video above.
The ZF seems positioned primarily at photographers who idolize the cameras of yore but want the latest tech and features to get higher image quality than film can provide. It’s basically Nikon’s greatest answer yet to Fujifilm (which built its X-system on vintage camera aesthetics) and its biggest attempt to court film enthusiasts and those who covet Leica cameras but can’t justify their super-high prices. The ZF is not nearly as hardcore of a camera as the black-and-white-only Leica M11 Monochrom, as its monochromatic mode is simply a software filter rather than part of the sensor’s hardware design, but it dabbles in Leica’s vibes-based world with its looks and its magnesium-alloy build.
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
There are dials for days on the right-hand side.
The facade starts to break down a little once you put a non-vintage-looking Nikkor Z lens on it. There are only two old-school style “SE” lenses in Nikon’s lineup, a 28mm f/2.8 and a 40mm f/2, so most of Nikon’s current lenses will break your Steve McCurry cosplay a bit. You can mount true vintage glass to the ZF, but that awkwardly puts an adapter in the way. And speaking of awkwardness, while it’s great the ZF supports dual card slots, it’s an SD and microSD tandem — which is just kinda weird, even if I’ll take what I can get.
I’ll wager many of the ZF’s quirks can be forgiven by the photo diehards who love a camera that looks and acts like a camera more than a laptop. I can recall the hype behind the Df in 2014 when Nikon was first teasing a return to the good ol’ days. That camera might have had some success if it wasn’t so expensive and wasn’t a re-housed Nikon D600 body with a great sensor but the video stripped out. And when the ZFC came out in 2021, the collective groan from many of us was essentially, “Nice work, Nikon. Now try again, and don’t make it from cheap plastic or give it a cropped sensor that you’re likely to ignore with lens support.” The ZF looks like it’s exactly that — a metal, full-frame camera that honors Nikon’s roots and uses its best glass.
Roblox is rolling out in-experience subscriptions, but you can’t buy them yet
Image: Roblox
Roblox is now rolling out the ability for developers to create subscriptions that they can sell in their experiences, according to a forum post. The company announced in July that it was working on these tools, saying that they could help developers “establish a recurring economic relationship with their users and potentially increase the predictability of their earning,” and now developers can actually start to plan out their offerings.
Roblox users won’t be able to buy subscriptions just yet, however; that won’t be possible until sometime in November, according to the post. When they can, users will pay for subscriptions in their local currency, but the money will make its way to developers as Robux, Roblox’s on-platform currency.
It’s a little weird, but here’s how Roblox justifies that decision:
Why are subscriptions purchased in local currency but paid in Robux?
Subscriptions renew automatically unless the user actively cancels. To support this automatic renewal feature, subscribers will pay in real world currency. Automatic renewals help to retain subscribers which leads to more opportunities for creators to earn from an ongoing revenue stream.
Paying creators in Robux also allows creators to understand overall experience monetization across different products (dev products, Passes, subs, ads rev share) more seamlessly without having to do currency conversions.
There are some limits on who can make subscriptions and for which experiences. Developers will need to have verified their account, and only experiences made in Roblox Studio before September 1st will be eligible to have subscriptions. Roblox says this is “meant to be a temporary requirement” and that it plans to open subscriptions to all experiences “in early 2024.”
Xbox leak: new Xbox Series X design, next-gen in 2028, and more
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A huge amount of unredacted Microsoft emails and documents have leaked online.
One of the biggest Xbox leaks in history has occurred, thanks to the FTC v. Microsoft case. Unredacted documents have revealed key Microsoft communications between Xbox executives, plans for a new disc-less Xbox Series X, a gyro controller, and even a next-gen hybrid Xbox in 2028.
It’s the biggest leak in Xbox history, simply because unredacted emails like this don’t usually appear in the public domain. Follow along for all the latest developments.
Microsoft’s next Xbox, coming 2028, envisions hybrid computing
Microsoft’s new disc-less Xbox Series X is far from the only news that just leaked out of the FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft’s far future plans for 2028 — by which the company believed it could achieve “full convergence” of its cloud gaming platform and physical hardware to deliver “cloud hybrid games.”
“Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.”
Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents
“Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud”
Those are the words on just one slide from a leaked presentation dubbed “The Next Generation of Gaming at Microsoft,” which appears to be a May 2022 pitch document entirely around this idea.
The company imagined you playing these games using the combined power of a sub-$99 gadget — possibly a handheld — and its xCloud platform simultaneously.
It’s something that Microsoft’s kinda-sorta already tried by offering photorealistic scenery in Microsoft Flight Simulator by streaming in that data from a 2-petabyte cloud instead of your Xbox or PC where most of the game is running. But the best example is still this Amazon demo from 2014 — where the Lord of the Rings-esque armies don’t actually live on your device, it’s only the ballista that runs locally so you can feel that responsive experience.
Now, in these documents, Microsoft’s calling the idea “Cohesive Hybrid Compute” — a “Cloud-to-Edge architecture across Silicon, Graphics, and OS enabling ubiquitous play.”
If it’s happening, it may already be happening. The team suggested it would need to ink partnerships with AMD for the silicon by the first quarter of this year to lock down the company’s Navi 5 graphics — for reference, we’re only on Navi 3 right now — as well as potentially nabbing the company’s Zen 6 CPU cores. (It’s also considering Arm.)
Microsoft suspected it would also need an NPU (machine learning AI coprocessor) to provide a wide variety of benefits, including super resolution, latency compensation, frame rate interpolation and more — see below.
Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents
The documents include an entire potential roadmap for the technology that would have seen hardware design begin in 2024, the first dev kits arrive in 2027, and the first hybrid cloud games being produced from 2024 through 2026.
Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents
But before that, according to another slide, the company needed to make some key decisions on that silicon, alignment on building a thin operating system to run the local parts of those cloud games, which teams would be responsible, and which hardware it would build to go with it. It’s very possible none of that happened, just as Microsoft abandoned its “dedicated xCloud SKU” in favor of partnering with other providers instead.
Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents
Microsoft increasingly sees “cloud-first” gaming as important.
According to the leaked documents, the pitch appears to have come out of a major ongoing conversation among Microsoft’s top leadership, including CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Windows devices and operating system leader Panos Panay, xCloud CVP Kareem Choudhry, and more.
“We are building 4 types of computers: (1) cloud everything, (2) a hybrid Xbox, (3) hybrid Windows, and (4) hybrid HoloLens,” wrote Nadella, according to the leaded documents. “We need to bring the company’s systems talent together to align on a unified vision.”
“We can’t go from big idea to big idea. We need a single big idea to rally the company around,” he wrote.
In another document from May 2022, dubbed “Roadmap to 2030,” the company suggests that its new strategy may revolve around the controller. “Controller becomes the hero,” reads one key tenet, adding “The new Xbox controller is the only thing you need to play on every device.” That document goes on to describe Sebile, a new Xbox controller that includes “Direct-to-Cloud” connectivity as well as Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth.
It also contains a picture of a possible “Mobile Controller,” a “One-hand Controller” and a gaming keyboard & mouse that Microsoft apparently considered building itself.
Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents
The document also mentions a “Cloud Console (Keystone)” as a project that had already been funded, along with the new “Brooklin” Xbox Series X refresh and the aforementioned Sebile gamepad — though it noted that the “full product vision” for Sebile was not currently approved as of May 2022.
In 2021, Microsoft hired Kim Swift, a former Google Stadia design director best known for Valve’s Portal, to build a new team focused on cloud-native games, but it’s not clear if that has anything to do with this initiative. Sony hired Jade Raymond away from the wreckage of Stadia as well, and her studio is working on cloud gaming technology ahead of a likely new Sony cloud gaming push.
Microsoft documents leak new Bethesda games, including an Oblivion remaster
A screenshot from the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. | Image: Bethesda Softworks
Before it was acquired by Microsoft, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of studios like Bethesda Game Studios and id Software, was working on remasters of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a new entry in the Doom franchise, according to new documents revealed as part of FTC v. Microsoft. The games were included in a July 2020 Microsoft presentation about the then-potential ZeniMax acquisition.
Unannounced games in the presentation include:
The Oblivion remaster (originally set for fiscal year 2022)
Doom Year Zero and DLC (fiscal year 2023) and a second set of DLC (fiscal year 2024)
There are also a number of titles for console / PC without specific names, including:
The Indiana Jones game (which we have known about for awhile and was originally scheduled for fiscal year 2022)
Project Kestrel (fiscal year 2023) and an expansion (fiscal year 2024)
Project Platinum
A vaguely-named “licensed IP game”
Here is the relevant slide, if you want to see the plans for yourself:
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Remember that these were estimates from more than three years ago and before Microsoft completed its acquisition of ZeniMax in March 2021, so there’s always the chance that some of these plans have changed dramatically or been scrapped entirely. But they may provide an early look at some of the games we can look forward to from Microsoft down the road.
The same leak also revealed a disc-less Xbox Series X redesign, a refreshed Xbox Series S, and a brand new “Sebile” Xbox controller.
Logitech’s Yeti GX is a new USB mic with RGB lighting
The Yeti GX. | Image: Logitech
Logitech is releasing a new set of products that will start shipping on September 24th and are aimed squarely at the likes of gamers, streamers, podcasters, and other creators. The big one is the $149.99 Logitech G Yeti GX, a “broadcast-style” USB microphone with a heavy stand and RGB lighting.
The Yeti GX is a dynamic supercardioid microphone, which is a kind of unidirectional mic designed to focus on sound in front of the pickup rather than behind the microphone. That’s a good thing if you don’t want the noise of your keyboard overtaking your voice. It also means if you move off-axis, your voice quickly falls away, but the trade-off can be worth it when you’re contending with poor recording spaces. Soren Pedersen, Logitech’s global product manager, described it as having the vibe of a Shure SM7, a popular broadcaster microphone.
Image: Logitech
The Logitech Yeti GX on the included stand.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a gamer mic without configurable RGB lighting. There are two configurable LEDs — one in a circle on the back of the mic and one behind the Logitech G logo on its side — and you can set various animated effects or just choose a specific color for the lights. An LED stripe in the digital volume wheel is either red or blue, depending on whether the mic is muted.
Pressing the volume wheel turns on Smart Audio Lock, a feature Pederson described as a “safety net” to keep the mic from clipping and distorting when, say, a streamer gets excited and starts yelling about something. The mic does this with an analog limiter — like you’d find on the Razer Seiren V2 X — which compresses the signal when you get too loud to stop the mic from distorting. The feature also uses a built-in downward expander to lower the volume of background noise or unwanted echo in a bad recording environment.
The mic ships with a USB-C to USB-A cable desktop mount but can be attached to a standard boom mic stand as well, with adapters for 5/8-inch and 3/8-inch connections.
Image: Logitech
The Logitech Yeti Orb.
Logitech also announced the $59.99 Yeti Orb, a small ball-style USB mic similar to the Yeti Snowball. The mic has a more muted look than the Snowball, with a cloth-covered front and with configurable RGB lights on top. Like the Yeti GX, it has a USB-C port on the back for connecting to your computer. The Orb is a condenser cardioid mic, and Logitech says it will also minimize background noise. It can also be removed from its small desktop stand for use with a boom stand.
Image: Logitech
The Litra Beam LX.
Logitech also announced an updated version of its Litra Beam X LED light bar, the $149.99 Litra Beam LX. The LX is dual-sided, with a tunable (2700K – 6500K) white bar like the original on one side and an RGB light on the other. Senior product marketing manager Andrew Siminoff said the lights are UL-certified for safe, all-day use. The light has 1/4-20-inch-threaded fittings for mounting either on its end or the middle of the light, and it connects either via USB-C or Bluetooth.
All three work with Logitech’s G Hub app for configuring lighting effects, as well as vocal effects and specific audio profiles through the software’s Blue Voice feature presets. If you have multiple Logitech Lightsync devices, you can synchronize lighting effects, too, if you really want to be awash in strobing, pulsing RGB colors while you game. Logitech says they’ll also be compatible with Windows Dynamic Lighting, through which you can sync lighting effects with other non-Logitech lighting.
It’s worth noting — and I do so with some nostalgic sadness — that these are the first Yeti microphones that don’t feature the “Blue” branding since Logitech bought the company in 2018. In a FAQ earlier this year, Logitech said it would no longer use the Blue brand in its product names, and instead will use it “to describe our technologies.”
This is Microsoft’s new disc-less Xbox Series X design with a new controller
The planned ‘Brooklin’ Xbox Series X. | Image: FTC vs. Microsoft
Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features. Codenamed Brooklin, the unannounced console refresh has been accidentally revealed in new FTC v. Microsoft documents this week.
The new Xbox Series X design looks a lot more circular than the existing console and will ship without a disc drive. Internal confidential Microsoft documents the company reveals it has 2TB of storage (up from 1TB), a USB-C front port with power delivery, and an “all-new, more immersive controller.”
Image: FTC v. Microsoft
“Sebile” Xbox controller redesign revealed in court documents with wireless upgrades and modular thumbsticks
The new controller, codenamed Sebille, is set to be announced later this year and will include an accelerometer for gyro support. It has a two-tone color scheme and will support a direct connection to cloud, Bluetooth 5.2, and a presumably updated “Xbox Wireless 2” connection. Microsoft also lists “precision haptic feedback” and “VCA haptics double as speakers” as specs for the controller. It will also have quieter buttons and thumbsticks, a rechargeable and swappable battery, modular thumbsticks, and you’ll be able to lift it up to wake it.
Image: FTC v. Microsoft
Microsoft’s leaked consoles.
Inside the new Xbox Series X design Microsoft is also adding Wi-Fi 6E support, a Bluetooth 5.2 radio, and the company is shrinking the existing die to 6nm “for improve efficiency.” The PSU power will be reduced by 15 percent, according to Microsoft’s document. Microsoft is targeting the same $499 launch price of the Xbox Series X.
Image: US Courts
Microsoft’s roadmap for its refreshed Xbox consoles.
Microsoft lists a roadmap for this new Xbox Series X console and controller, alongside a refreshed Xbox Series S with 1TB of storage. Microsoft just launched a refreshed Xbox Series S in black, but there could be another refresh on the way in 2024 with Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.2. It will also include this new Xbox controller.
Microsoft is tentatively planning to launch this new Xbox Series S refresh next September, with the Xbox Series X refresh in November.
Strike Is a High-Stakes Gamble for Autoworkers and the Labor Movement Experts on unions and the industry said the U.A.W. strike could accelerate a wave of worker actions, or stifle labor’s recent momentum
Apple made it way cheaper to repair an iPhone 15 Pro’s broken back glass
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge
It’s significantly cheaper to repair the back glass on an iPhone 15 Pro than it was on the iPhone 14 Pro. Apple posted price estimates for its new phones over the weekend, listing a repair price of $169 for the 15 Pro and $199 for the Pro Max to replace either phone’s shattered back glass.
That’s up to a $350 decrease from the repair price for last year’s models. For the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, Apple charged $499 and $549 for back glass replacement — frankly, outlandish prices that ran more expensive than the cost of an (admittedly much lower-end) new iPhone SE.
Here’s what the current pricing looks like for these repairs:
These newly reduced prices, first spotted by 9to5Mac, are likely due to a major design change made by Apple: on its newest phone models, the back glass can be removed and replaced independently of the rest of the phone. Earlier models more deeply integrated the back into the body of the device, making them much more complicated to fix. iFixit called earlier iPhone back glass repairs, “One of the most expensive and difficult repairs possible.”
Apple first made this change on the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, and this year, the company announced that it did the same for the 15 Pro models, too. All around, it’s great news for anyone who drops their phone and is sick of looking at a spiderweb of cracks.
The repairs are cheaper, of course, if you pay for Apple’s insurance plan, which costs $199 on the new Pro and Pro Max for two years of coverage, then just $29 for the back glass repair. But you’ll need to buy that ahead of time.
You can watch iFixit’s breakdown of the new repair process in this video on last year’s iPhone 14:
Activision was briefed on Nintendo’s Switch 2 last year
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
Rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 announcement have grown recently after reports of developer demos at Gamescom last month. Now we know that Activision was briefed on a next-generation Nintendo Switch last year, thanks to internal emails from the FTC v. Microsoft case.
Activision executives, including CEO Bobby Kotick, met with Nintendo executives in December 2022 to discuss a next-generation Switch. In an internal email chain, Chris Schnakenberg, head of Activision’s platform strategy and partner relations, prepared a summary of the “Switch NG” (Switch next-generation) inside a document labeled “NG Switch Draft.pdf.”
The document is heavily redacted, but it does reveal that performance of the next-generation Switch will be close to that of the PS4 and Xbox One:
Given the closer alignment to Gen8 platforms in terms of performance and our previous offerings on PS4 / Xbox One, it is reasonable to assume we could make something compelling for the NG Switch as well. It would be helpful to secure early access to development hardware prototypes and prove that out nice and early.
Image: US Courts
Activision internal emails about the next-generation Nintendo Switch.
The executive briefing summary and preparation materials are then sent on to Bobby Kotick ahead of the December 15th meeting with Nintendo CEO and president Shuntaro Furukawa. Kotick went on to testify in the FTC v. Microsoft hearing that he regretted not bringing Call of Duty to the Switch. This led to questioning from both the FTC’s lawyers and Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley about Call of Duty on the Switch. The FTC revealed that the agreement Microsoft signed with Nintendo also purports to bring a future Call of Duty game to a future Nintendo console if Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal is approved by regulators.
FTC: So even without Microsoft buying Activision, it’s likely that Activision would on its own make Call of Duty available for Nintendo’s future console, right?
Kotick: We would consider it once we had the specs, but we don’t have them at present. We missed out on the opportunity for this past generation of Switch, but we’d have to wait until the specifications. We don’t have any present plans to do so.
FTC: It’s likely that Activision on its own would make a Call of Duty game for Nintendo’s future generation console, right?
Kotick: I think once we get the detailed specifications. We missed out on this past generation of Switch, so I’d like to think that we’d be able to do that. We’d have to wait until the specifications, but wee don’t have any present plans to do so.
Nintendo has clearly been preparing key publishers like Activision for the next-generation Switch for months now. VGC reported in July that a new Nintendo Switch is being planned for a 2024 release. The new console is said to include an LCD screen instead of OLED and continue to support cartridge slots for playing physical releases of games.
Earlier this month Eurogamer reported that trusted developers got an early look at the Nintendo Switch 2 during Gamescom in August, including some tech demos of how games run on the unannounced system. There was reportedly a demo of an improved version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that’s designed to run on the more advanced hardware inside the Nintendo Switch 2.
VGC then corroborated the claims and added that Nintendo also showcased Epic Games’ The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo running on the hardware Nintendo is targeting for its next-generation Switch. The demo reportedly used Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology with ray tracing enabled, suggesting the chip inside the next Switch could be capable of delivering the latest AAA games.
Apple’s AirPods Pro just got much better — no matter what port is on the case
The new AirPods Pro software update is available starting today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Last week, as predicted, Apple announced that the second-generation AirPods Pro would start shipping with a USB-C charging case instead of one using the company’s Lightning port. But surprisingly, this refresh isn’t strictly about the case: Apple also added dust resistance (on top of the existing water resistance) to the USB-C AirPods Pro. And the company announced that these AirPods Pro — and not the model from last year — will support lossless audio when paired with the upcoming Vision Pro headset next year.
I’ve been using the refreshed second-gen AirPods Pro for a few days now, and while the dust resistance makes for some added peace of mind, I can’t imagine that anyone except for the staunchest USB-C loyalists will feel any temptation to upgrade. (It’s a shame that Apple isn’t selling the USB-C case by itself.) From a user’s perspective, everything else about these is identical to last year’s model.
That’s a good thing, because all second-generation AirPods Pro owners get to enjoy the new software features that are being introduced alongside iOS 17: Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, and Conversation Awareness. I’ve only just begun testing and getting familiar with all three, and I plan to update our AirPods Pro review in the near future after putting in more time with them. But I can already tell that these are some of the most significant new tricks that Apple has brought to the AirPods in quite some time. They’re not all original ideas; Sony and Samsung have been offering a “speak to chat” feature for several years now. But as usual, Apple’s implementation is second to none.
Adaptive Audio is meant to be a set-it-and-forget-it mode that blends active noise cancellation and transparency, canceling loud distractions where needed while also helping you stay present in your environment. In my experience so far, this feature rarely cancels my surroundings to the same degree as the full noise cancellation mode (I wouldn’t use it on a plane), but it reduces outside sound enough to not take away from my music — even at lower volumes. To my ears so far, it’s basically an even smarter version of the adaptive transparency that Apple debuted with last year’s AirPods Pro.
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The USB-C AirPods Pro offer dust resistance, which is something the Lightning model lacks.
If you’re regularly wearing your AirPods Pro on busy city streets, you should give Adaptive Audio a try. I think this is something Apple will continue to refine and tweak as it collects feedback from customers about which sounds they do and don’t want their earbuds to let through.
Conversation Awareness is designed to make it easier to chat with people for brief interactions without having to remove your earbuds. Start speaking, and your music volume will instantly get dialed way down while transparency mode activates to help you clearly hear whatever’s being said back to you. Apple says the feature reduces overall background noise while enhancing the voices of anyone you’re talking with. So far, I’ve been very impressed with Conversation Awareness. It’s smart enough to avoid being triggered by a cough or other non-speaking noises. But if you’re like me and have a habit of quietly singing along with your music, that’ll quickly become a problem if you keep this setting on.
Personalized Volume is the new trick that I’ve experimented with the least so far; I’m someone who just prefers manual control over how loud my audio is instead of letting software make random adjustments based on my past preferences. I’ll try to give it a chance more over the next few weeks and see how good Apple is at knowing what I want — or if I find myself reaching for the volume for a manual override.
Aside from those three main new features, Apple says the latest AirPods firmware also “adds convenience and control on calls with press to mute and unmute for AirPods (third generation), AirPods Pro (first and second generation), and AirPods Max, as well as significant improvements to the Automatic Switching experience for all available AirPods across Apple devices with the latest software updates.”
Automatic Switching has behaved erratically and proven unpredictable for me in the past — so much so that I normally disable the feature altogether on my devices. But some of my colleagues including deputy editor Dan Seifert have noticed that this update really does seem to improve things when switching from one Apple product to the next. Just keep in mind you’ll need to have installed iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma on their respective devices to experience the more reliable automatic switching. The concept has always been great, but nothing’s more frustrating than earbuds that have a mind of their own and switch to the wrong device at the worst possible time.
On the whole, the new AirPods Pro update is yet another example of Apple making the most of its ecosystem. I suspect we’ll see some of these features come to future version of the regular AirPods and the next AirPods Max headphones — presumably whenever each of them makes the transition to USB-C.
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