Image: Mojang Minecraft already has the distinction of being the bestselling video game of all time. Today, it adds more down to that particular feather in its cap with the announcement that it has sold a staggering 300 million copies. “As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks,” Helen Chiang, head of Mojang Studios, said in a statement.The new milestone was announced during Minecraft Live 2023, a Minecraft livestream event that shares news and community updates and features a neat voting event in which players can vote on which new creature should be added to the game. This... Continue reading…

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 10, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hooray! I’m so happy you’re here, and also, you can catch up on all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) We made it through 10 weeks! It’s been so fun to make this every week and to talk to you all about the cool stuff you’re into. Thanks for being part of the Installerverse (we’re gonna make that a thing, it’s gonna happen), and as always, tell me everything you think we can do to make it better!This week, I’ve been reading about Marvel’s plan to fix its TV shows and all the wild testimony from the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, making lots of deranged art in the improved Bing Chat, watching the David Beckham... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg today that the more affordable follow-up to the Apple Vision Pro will “likely” ditch the external display to help it reach an internally-discussed price point between $1,500 and $2.500. Gurman also reiterates what he wrote in June — that the more affordable version will probably run on an iPhone-grade chip, have fewer cameras, and get lower-resolution screens inside.Ditching the external display means Apple would lock one of the Vision Pro’s marquee features — EyeSight — behind the paywall of the more expensive versions. EyeSight is the thing that lets you see an on-the-fly render of the wearer’s eyes so they can “look” at you when you’re talking to them, and so you can tell,... Continue reading…

The iPhone 15 series was released at the end of September after its initial announcement at the most recent Apple Event. The iPhone continues to be one of the best phones on the market because of its versatility, fast processing, and unique features, and the latest iPhone lineup from Apple has USB-C charging, features the Dynamic Island on all the phones, and there are five new colors to choose from.

If you use your laptop for work, multitasking is pretty important. Split screen functionality is one of the nicest features out there to help get things done. Most people are familiar with multitasking gestures on their phone, but you can also use similar gestures or use a mouse trick to enable a split screen on your Chromebook.

Laker legend-turned-actor Rick Fox has a new passion: sustainable concrete. | Image: Partanna A new house in the Bahamas is built with an alternative concrete that sucks CO2 out of the air. It’s a home that’s supposed to help in the fight against climate change, and the plan is to build 999 more like it. That’s the slam dunk NBA Lakers legend-turned-actor Rick Fox is working toward now on the small island nation where he grew up. Fox is the CEO and co-founder of the sustainable building materials startup Partanna that unveiled its first home today. If they’re successful in the Bahamas, the goal is to make its alternative concrete an everyday building material that could cut down pollution from construction. “I shut down my entire career that was in Hollywood to pursue and create [climate] solutions,” Fox tells The Verge. “I had... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple may have a surprise iPad update announcement in store for this week. 9to5Mac says it has corroborated a report from Supercharged that Apple will announce spec bumps for three of its iPads — the base model, the iPad Air, and the iPad Mini. In a story this morning for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman said, “I don’t believe updates of any significance are imminent,” while also mentioning Apple has versions of the iPads with new chips in development.9to5Mac says Apple will issue a press release announcing that the iPad Air and the iPad mini will be bumped to M2 and A16 Bionic chips, respectively. Apple refreshed the iPad Air and 10th-generation iPad last year, but it’s been twice as long since the company updated the iPad Mini with an A15... Continue reading…

The new Google Pixel Watch 2 is a beautiful smartwatch and an excellent option for anyone wanting to upgrade their current watch. Its minimalist design with clean lines features the same 1.2-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass 5 panel that came with the original Pixel Watch, which now transitions seamlessly into its new and lighter 41mm aluminum body. Yes, this also means that any band that fits the original Pixel Watch will also fit the Pixel Watch 2, which is excellent news for those looking to get a more affordable and classier-looking band and even bands with a protective case for their new wearable.

The Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) defines industry-wide standards for interoperable communication between an active stylus and touch-enabled devices, such as phones, tablets, and computing and entertainment platforms. Writing with a USI stylus is in general a much better experience than capacitive styli as well.

Maybe you’re running laps and trying to beat a personal record or you might have a turkey in the oven that you need to tend to in intervals. Whatever the case, timers ensure accuracy. You can use a timer on your iPhone, like the new iPhone 15 Pro Max, a smart speaker if you're at home, or, most conveniently, one of the best Apple Watches. Being able to set a timer anytime, anywhere, and glance at the running countdown right on your wrist can be useful, and the Apple Watch makes this easy. You can initiate a timer using either the app or by Siri voice command. You can even assign a name to a custom timer and set it as a favorite for instant access the next time you need it.

Sometimes when you spend your hard-earned money on a great gaming laptop or a great gaming desktop, you don't have a lot extra to spend on a monitor. So, while the best way to game and the best monitors might be in 4K resolution, more affordable 1440p resolution monitors like the Lenovo G27q-30 are also great for getting extra pixels in your games without busting a budget.

Windows Subsystem for Android is has been here for quite a while now. You can run it on any Windows 11 machine, though it comes preloaded with the Amazon Appstore instead of the Play Store. In case you're not happy with the mandatory Amazon Appstore integration, you should be happy to hear that the app sideloading process isn't difficult either. It is also possible to install a third-party Google Play Store client, but the lack of Google services in the Windows Subsystem for Android makes it a bit hard to use apps that are dependent on them, as we noted in our hands-on.