Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge There are messaging features inside of TikTok, but nobody really thinks of TikTok as a messaging app. The company appears intent on changing that, though: its parent company ByteDance is hiring for a slew of roles on a team called “TikTok Social,” which seems to be tasked with turning TikTok into a much more powerful messaging system.The listings, which were first spotted by Axios, are vague in the way that all job listings tend to be, but they make TikTok’s ambitions clear. “We are the messaging team on TikTok,” a listing for an engineering lead says. “Our team’s mission is to facilitate meaningful user connections through TikTok’s messaging experience, which is still in its infancy.” Another listing, for a backend tech lead, says the... Continue reading…

Over the past month, Ayaneo has been teasing its latest Kun handheld gaming console through social media and its own YouTube channel, and now, the company has finally opened up orders for the device on Indiegogo, with a starting price that comes in at $1000. Of course, this price is only if you order early enough, as the retail price for the base model is set for $1209.

As far as business laptops go, the HP EliteBook 840 Aero is one of the best you can buy today. Starting at just 2.5lbs, it's very lightweight, but the configuration options it offers also make it very powerful. But even the best laptop can be expanded upon or improved. Accessories can go a long way in making the HP EliteBook 840 Aero work better for you, or just keeping it protected.

Image: Maxon Cinebench, the classic benchmark test that PC enthusiasts (not to mention Verge laptop reviewers like myself) use to measure the CPU performance of their devices, has gotten a major update, developer Maxon announced. The main thing to know is that the new release, dubbed Cinebench 2024, will introduce GPU benchmarking. This is a feature that Cinebench hasn’t had since version 15, which came out a decade ago.The way Cinebench has worked in the past, for those unfamiliar, is that it renders an image over and over for a set period of time and measures how quickly your hardware can do it. Interestingly, it looks like Cinebench will use the same image (Maxon calls it “a consistent scene file”) for both CPU and GPU testing. This means you’ll... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge This summer, Google began rolling out its new Topics API, which “allows a browser to share information with third parties about a user’s interests while preserving privacy.” A part of Google’s new Privacy Sandbox, the API is supposed to replace the third-party cookies that have been following us around for many years now, reporting where we go and what we buy, among other info. The Topics API was included in July’s Chrome 115 release. If the idea of sharing information about your interests with third parties doesn’t thrill you, you can easily turn it off. Here’s how:In Chrome, start at the three dots in the upper-right corner and go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Ad privacy. (Or just type chrome://settings/adPrivacy into your... Continue reading…

GIF by DeckButtons Would you spend $40–$60 on artisan buttons for your Steam Deck? What if they were cast by hand from custom resin molds, made by just one guy in the USA? I imagine it would depend on how they look — but thankfully, they look amazing. GIF by DeckButtons Such shimmer. Today, Greg Leddy is following up his TouchProtect touchpad and button skins and custom-painted ColoredControllers with the new DeckButtons.com, a shop where he exclusively sells buttons and D-pads for your Steam Deck. Each one is cast in a custom two-part silicone mold of his own design, itself created from a master button he 3D prints from resin, hand-sands, and finishes to emulate the Steam Deck’s own slightly sandy shell texture.Leddy sent me... Continue reading…

Samsung's Galaxy S21 is a few years old now, but it still holds up quite well against all the modern flagships, including the Galaxy S23 series. It arguably looks better than even the Galaxy S23 with its contour-cut design, and it's easily one of the best-looking phones in 2023. It's still qualified to receive Android OS and security updates directly from Samsung, so there's no reason to upgrade unless you really want to upgrade to a new phone.

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s upcoming App Store for its Vision Pro headset will include all compatible iPhone and iPad apps “by default.” In an update on Tuesday, Apple said it will release the new App Store with the developer beta of visionOS this fall.Both iPad and iPhone apps will appear alongside visionOS apps in the new App Store. As Apple has said previously, it will automatically import iOS and iPadOS apps to its new mixed reality operating system “with no additional work required.” Developers can still optimize their apps if needed.“By default, your iPad and/or iPhone apps will be published automatically on the App Store on Apple Vision Pro,” Apple notes. “Most frameworks available in iPadOS and iOS are also included in visionOS, which means... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge A number of Spotify users began to notice something strange over the last day or so: the in-app lyrics, which typically pop up under the currently playing song, were suddenly locked away under a paywall. Instead, they saw only a notification bubble saying, “Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium,” with a link to sign up. Many Spotify listeners were not enthused.Spotify tells us that the feature is only a test. “At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning,” says CJ Stanley, Spotify’s co-head of global communications. “We don’t have any further news to share at this time.” Blud now they even added lyrics to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon will charge $1.99 per delivery for in-garage deliveries that used to be free if the customer wants to get them made outside of their designated weekly “Amazon Day,” as described in an update to Amazon’s blog post. Screenshots of in-app notifications posted on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit by subscribers note the new policy kicks in starting on October 4th. Amazon spokesperson Amanda Gan confirmed the new policy and said in an email to The Verge, “We will change the free default option for Amazon Key In-Garage Delivery to Amazon Day with Key Delivery. Customers will have more flexibility and control over their Amazon deliveries using Amazon Day with Key Delivery, including the ability to choose their delivery day and combine... Continue reading…

Getty Images Nintendo’s going to let us figure out who the next voice of Mario is on our own. In an interview with IGN, Nintendo of America’s president, Doug Bowser, said that the company doesn’t plan on revealing Charles Martinet’s replacement until folks roll credits on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.“I think people have recognized this when they see Super Mario Bros. Wonder, they’ll hear a different voice,” Bowser told IGN. “And we’ll let that play out and that’ll be within the credits, and people will learn who the new person is at that point in time, but we don’t plan to make any announcement in advance of that.”Last month, Nintendo announced that Martinet, the longtime voice of video games’ most iconic character, would be stepping back from the... Continue reading…

Animated Neelix! | Image: CBS Studios CBS Studios just announced Star Trek: very Short Treks, a set of five animated shorts from Casper Kelly (the “Too Many Cooks” guy). The first of them will debut this Friday — Star Trek Day — in honor of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series. You can catch the (brief) trailer below.The shorts will feature characters from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, The Original Series, Discovery, and The Lower Decks. Animation styles visible in the trailer run the gamut from “indistinguishable from The Animated Series” to “just the regular Lower Decks style.”After the first episode (“Skin a Cat”) launches Friday, the rest will follow on Wednesdays, starting on September 13th; they’ll stream on StarTrek.com and the Star Trek... Continue reading…