Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram has starting testing a new feature that looks a whole lot like Snap Maps.This allows Instagram users to post text and video updates to a map based on where they were taken. The map is shared with friends, whose updates can all appear alongside each other. It is, pretty much, just Snap Maps, which was originally launched in 2017.The difference for now seems to be that Instagram may have much more limited privacy settings. Users have to choose a “specific group of people” to share their location with, such as “Close Friends or only followers they follow back,” Christine Pai, a Meta spokesperson, told The Verge. Snapchat allows public posts to Snap Maps.Instagram’s feature is currently only available as a “small test” in a few... Continue reading…

Nova Launcher, in a very dated screenshot on top of the project’s website. | Image: Nova Launcher Nearly the entire team working on Nova Launcher, one of the biggest names in Android homescreen replacements, has been laid off. The team is now down to just one full time developer: Kevin Barry, the launcher’s founder.Barry said development will continue and that he will remain in charge of the project. But team members who were laid off said work on Nova will have to slow down, and Barry has already posted that he needs to “cut scope” on the next major version of Nova compared to what was initially planned.“Development will undoubtedly slow with less people working on the app, but the current plan is for updates to continue in some form,” Rob Wainwright, one of the laid off developers, wrote in the project’s Discord.Nova has been a... Continue reading…

Just look at those eyes. | Image: Sony As expected, Sony’s limited edition Astro Bot DualSense controller for the PS5 is now available for preorder for $79.99. The forthcoming gamepad, which is currently only available through the PlayStation Direct storefront and Antonline, will launch alongside the next Astro Bot game on September 6th, giving those who’ve secretly been wishing their peripherals had more, huh, eyes, another option to consider.This isn’t the first time Sony Interactive Entertainment has released a special edition controller to commemorate an upcoming exclusive — it launched a symbiote-themed controller alongside Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 last year — but its latest collaboration with developer Team Asobi is far cuter. The new PS5 controller features shiny blue... Continue reading…

When it comes to building a PC, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. You need to make sure you have all the parts you'll need and make sure that they are all compatible with each other. Even when they are compatible, you still need to make sure they will play nicely together and not cause any issues. This is where the term "bottleneck" comes into things. While you may primarily hear this term when talking about building a gaming PC, it is not gaming-specific and could happen on any PC if you are not careful.

When you're in the market for a new chip, the top Intel CPUs and greatest Ryzen processors are always worth consideration. Ryzen's latest second-generation AM5 chips, the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, bring some serious power to the table, but which is right for you?

When the Apple Watch Ultra came out last year, it was pretty obvious that the company was gunning for Garmins demographic: a loyal bunch of fitness enthusiasts who would want something like the Fenix 7 Pro. And now we have the brand-new Apple Watch Ultra 2, which comes with marginal improvements over its predecessor. Both Garmin and Apple manufacture great smartwatches, but which option is best for you? While they may seem similar on paper, there are a few interesting differences between them that may not be very obvious.

Disney After The Way of Water, James Cameron’s Avatar franchise is turning the fire up next December.At this year’s D23 Expo, James Cameron, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Worthington announced that Avatar: Fire and Ash will hit theaters on December 19th, 2025. Disney also revealed a new title card that makes it seem like the film will focus on Pandora being engulfed in flames.Just announced at #D23, our title for the next Avatar film:Avatar: Fire and Ash. Get ready to journey back to Pandora, in theaters December 19, 2025. pic.twitter.com/gZkCCsTl9x— Avatar (@officialavatar) August 10, 2024Along with the title card, Disney showed off concept art of the film’s “Ash People” — a new, volcano-dwelling Na’vi clan Cameron has described as embodying... Continue reading…

Photo: Dennis Troper (Facebook) Susan Wojcicki, Google’s 16th employee who helped jumpstart the company in her garage, ran its advertising business, and then helmed YouTube for most of the past decade, has died at 56, according to posts by her husband Dennis Troper and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.She joined Google in 1998 and was CEO of YouTube from February 2014 until February 2023, when she stepped down to focus on “family, health, and personal projects.” Troper and Pichai say she had been battling non-small cell lung cancer. Her son, Marco Troper, died earlier this year.In 2014, we called her one of the 50 most important people shaping the world. Beyond helping build Google into one of the most important companies of the past two decades, she helped transform YouTube... Continue reading…

Microsoft Paint isn't one of Windows' best photo editing apps, but in the recent past, the software giant introduced some exciting features, such as layer support, to make the app more viable for Windows users. While Microsoft was pouring the Paint app with new features, the Paint 3D app was dying a slow death. The app will finally be delisted from the Microsoft Store in November this year.

Once a piece of tech becomes busted or outdated, it's really tempting to chuck it out and get a new one. After all, there's always going to be a similar or better model to what just went kaput, so why keep it around? However, some of the best projects out there stem from taking a broken piece of hardware and giving it a new life. It's cool, inventive, and saves another piece of tech from the landfill - what's not to like?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney’s D23 showcase of new projects from Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and more is upon us. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Signal is being blocked in Venezuela and Russia. The app is a popular choice for encrypted messaging and people trying to avoid government censorship, and the blocks appear to be part of a crackdown on internal dissent in both countries.In Venezuela, the blockage follows the disputed results of the country’s presidential election last month, which have led to protests and arrests as president Nicolás Maduro clings to power, according to MSNBC. (The US has recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the election.) Internet monitoring service NetBlocks said Thursday evening that Signal had become “unreachable on multiple internet providers” in the country. Maduro has also ordered a block on X, The Associated Press... Continue reading…