A proper gaming chair is just as important as the hardware if you want a comfortable gaming experience. While you should allocate most of your budget to a gaming laptop or a top-of-the-line PC, it’s worth keeping some spare cash for a gaming chair. That being said, most gamers won't be willing to spend more than $300 on a gaming chair, so I’ve compiled a list of the best budget chairs that are perfect for long gaming sessions.

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify on Tuesday in Epic’s lawsuit against Google. Epic plans to call Pichai as a witness as it makes its case alleging that Google Play is an unlawful monopoly.In court documents, Google requested to use a podium in the courtroom on Tuesday, which suggests that Pichai may indeed appear to testify; last month, when he testified in US v. Google, Pichai stood behind a podium instead of sitting because of apparent back issues. (Judge James Donato granted the request for the podium Thursday evening.)Pichai’s appearance isn’t a total surprise, as the CEO appeared as one of 53 witnesses Epic said it may or may not call before the trial kicked off. But what he says might be a big deal given his... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify isn't the only one that negotiated with Google for special treatment. Netflix did, too. In 2017, Google offered Netflix a special discounted rate of 10 percent of its in-app payments on Android — meaning Netflix could keep 90 percent of the money — according to documents and testimony in the Epic v. Google trial. Today, you can’t subscribe to Netflix from inside the Netflix app on Android, but that wasn’t always the case. Netflix previously paid Google 15 percent to do that, Netflix VP of business development Paul Perryman said in a 2022 video deposition that aired in the courtroom on Thursday. Once upon a time, when Netflix could offer its own method of payment, it paid closer to three percent, he said. Google eventually cut... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Activision is getting set to launch a new, and dare I say fun, system to counter cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone. As part of an update to the game’s Ricochet anti-cheat system, a new feature called Splat will randomly and without warning plummet detected cheaters straight to the ground after deployment at the start of a match. (Hence the name, Splat.)Activision has toyed with Call of Duty cheaters in a few different ways as of late. The publisher gifted an automatic god mode and invisibility to players getting shot by detected cheaters and later shamed cheaters by announcing they’ve been booted in the kill feed.Taking away parachutes isn’t the only mitigation included with Splat. If people are detected as cheating after the start of... Continue reading…

Best Buy's early Black Friday sale is now taking place, with big discounts on laptops, TVs, SSDs, Apple products, and more. While the retailer has offered impressive discounts on popular products, it's now delivering a new set of steep discounts ahead of Black Friday during a limited three-day flash sale that starts today.

Apple's iPhones are pretty famous for being closed off, with jailbreaking being the only way that most people can imagine sideloading apps. However, there are other ways to sideload apps onto an iPhone, and the easiest way is through AltStore.

Illustration: The Verge Apple has agreed to pay up to $25 million to settle claims that it engaged in hiring discrimination. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that $18.25 million will go toward creating a backpay fund for affected victims, while the remaining $6.75 million is in civil penalties.The DOJ found that Apple violated the Immigration and Nationality Act when recruiting through a permanent labor certification program (PERM), which lets companies hire foreign workers permanently in the US. When recruiting workers for this program, the DOJ says Apple didn’t advertise openings on its website “even though its standard practice was to post other job positions on this website.”The DOJ also found that Apple only accepted PERM position... Continue reading…

Valve’s Steam Deck and its carrying case. | Image: Valve Catch up on our coverage of PC gaming handhelds, starting with Valve’s category-defining Steam Deck. Continue reading…

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge In its Q3 earnings report published Thursday, game development software company Unity announced that it will “likely” be implementing layoffs as part of broader cost saving measures.In the report, the company says it is assessing its product portfolio “to focus on those products that are most valuable to our customers” and is “evaluating the right cost structure that aligns with the more focused portfolio.” It plans to make changes during the fourth quarter, and they will “likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint.” The company expects to complete its changes before the end of Q1 2024.Unity has taken a beating the last few months. In September, it announced a... Continue reading…

If we're talking about storage, M.2 SSDs are at the top of the conversation right now, offering excellent speed and fantastic durability. Furthermore, they are quite versatile, and can be used with a variety of different devices, like laptops, desktops, and even the PlayStation 5.

Google’s mid-range Pixel 5a might be nearly three generations old at this point, but it leans heavily into the Pixel range’s best feature, the camera quality. Most of the components were also used on the flagship Pixel 5, with Google only compromising on the quality of the screen and weatherproofing.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge After Google confirmed yesterday that it gave Spotify a sweetheart deal on Android app store fees, we were curious if dating company Bumble or any of the other 80 or so developers that have joined Google’s “User Choice Billing” program were similarly given an alternative arrangement or other sweeteners.Google spokesperson Dan Jackson would not answer our question.Jackson confirmed that “the standard service fee the developer pays is reduced by 4 percent” with User Choice Billing, and he pointed us toward Bumble’s Q4 2022 earnings call, where CFO Anu Subramanian suggests to investors that Bumble, at least, did not have a special rate at the time:Yeah, on User Choice Billing, you know, we don’t expect that to have any impact on margins.... Continue reading…