Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Philip Pacheco, Getty Images Four years after Epic sued Google for running an illegal app store monopoly — a case it won this past December — Epic is suing again. The Fortnite game developer has filed a second antitrust lawsuit against Google, and now additionally Samsung, accusing them of illegally conspiring to undermine third-party app stores.The lawsuit revolves around Samsung’s “Auto Blocker” feature, which now comes turned-on-by-default on new Samsung phones. While it’s turned on, it automatically keeps users from installing apps unless they come from “authorized sources” — namely, Google and Samsung’s app stores. Epic claims there’s no process for any rival store to become “authorized.”When Epic filed its original lawsuits against Google and Apple in... Continue reading…

Image: Ford For customers still unsure whether they’re ready to make the switch to an all-electric vehicle, Ford is sweetening the pot. Today, the company launched a new initiative called the “Ford Power Promise,” in which it will provide a suite of benefits to customers who buy or lease a new EV. And chief among them is a complimentary home charger for all new customers, as well as the costs of standard installation. The charger that’s being offered is the company’s Ford Charge Station Pro, a $1,310 Level 2 charger that comes with a standard CCS1 connector. Ford declined to put a monetary value on the installation but said it would cover costs up to 60 amps of power and 80 feet of wire run. Customers who need to upgrade their home electrical... Continue reading…

By now, you may or may not know that I adore mechanical keyboards. From the typing experience and looks, to the degree of customization, I've talked about everything that makes mechanical keyboards great. If you're a fellow enthusiast, you'll agree with me wholeheartedly. If, on the other hand, you're a relatively sane human being, you'll probably be annoyed or fuming.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 console users are now able to play online games again following a massive outage on Sony’s gaming network that started on Monday night. The official PSN Service Status page confirms that “all services are up and running” now, after previously warning users that they “might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features.” “This problem has now been resolved,” said a message posted by the Japanese Ask PlayStation customer support account. “We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience caused.”The outage lasted for around eight hours, and impacted effectively every PlayStation system across “Other, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, PS5, Web.” While the problem seems largely resolved, some gamers on X are... Continue reading…

Whether for work or gaming, dedicated GPUs in laptops have become better than ever before. They are now truly a viable alternative to desktop computers, with similar performance, and without as much of a price premium as you might imagine. However, for various reasons, picking a laptop with the right GPU is a virtual minefield. This is why you should always check into the factors below before buying any laptop.

If youve recently joined the self-hosted community, you may have heard about Nextcloud and CasaOS. The former is primarily a file-sharing and backup tool, while the latter is more of a self-hosting hub thats equal parts a personal cloud, a container management front-end, and a dashboard.

If you're looking to upgrade your home lab, old enterprise gear can be a tempting proposition. It's often available for inexpensive rates online and is great for developing a deeper understanding of the technologies and tools powering your home lab. This isn't limited to networking gear either - old server hardware can be a tempting proposition, especially with high-spec boxes available for a reduced price. But there are some things you should consider carefully before taking the plunge with ex-enterprise gear for your home.

With the sudden emergence of x86_64 emulators, running smartphone apps on Windows may seem like old news. However, Android emulators are still chugging along just fine, and we've even seen new faces like the Google Play Games Emulator crop up in recent times. There's also BlueStacks, MeMU Play, and a handful of old veterans that have helped countless PC users emulate their favorite Android applications over the years.

On September 30, 2014, Microsoft announced Windows 10, an operating system that fundamentally shifted the company's approach to one of its flagship products. As it nears the end of support, today it's an OS that users are still clinging to, resisting Windows 11 with everything they've got. So, it's easy to forget just how absolutely crazy Windows 10 was as a concept.

Serve’s robots will bring packages to a Wing drone AutoLoader, which will make the final delivery. | Image: Serve Robotics Serve Robotics has announced a pilot partnership with Wing Aviation to expand the range of its autonomous food delivery without requiring restaurants to install new equipment to accommodate drone pickups.Serve, which was spun out of the app-based delivery company Postmates in 2021, has been making Uber Eats food deliveries in Los Angeles for a few years now, using robots that look like autonomous shopping carts. Serve says its delivery robots can be a safer alternative to cars and help reduce traffic congestion as they operate primarily on sidewalks. Since they have a top speed of around six miles per hour, there should be little to no risk to pedestrians. But that approach also limits the robot’s ability to deliver food in a timely... Continue reading…

eBay was shielded from liability in the civil lawsuit by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. | The Verge A US government lawsuit accusing eBay of selling almost 350,000 polluting and environmentally harmful products — including pesticides and “defeat” devices that let motor vehicles evade emission controls — has been dismissed by a federal judge. On Monday, District Judge Orelia Merchant ruled that eBay isn’t liable for items that users sell on the digital marketplace due to civil protections that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides for online platforms. Under Section 230, online platforms cannot be held responsible for hosted content unless “it assisted in the development of what made the content unlawful.” The lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice last year alleged that eBay had violated the Clean Air Act (CAA)... Continue reading…

I've never kept my frustrations with Windows to myself. Whether it's Windows 10 or Windows 11, some things never change namely those things that Microsoft doesn't care about enough. Over the years, Microsoft has focused a significant amount of resources on making Windows a pain to use, while mining as much user data as possible.