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The 13-inch OLED iPad Pro with the screen removed. | Screenshot: iFixit

Apple’s newest iPad Pro is remarkably rigid for how thin it is, and apparently also a step forward when it comes to repairability. iFixit shows during its teardown of the tablet that the iPad Pro’s 38.99Wh battery, which will inevitably wear down and need replacement, is actually easy to get to. It’s a change iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari says during the video “could save hours in repair time” compared to past iPad Pro models.
Getting to it still requires removing the screen, which is glued in and is connected to the iPad in four places, but iFixit was essentially able to pull the almost immediately after removing the screen (after removing the camera assembly and dealing with an aluminum lip beneath that, which made some of the tabs hard to get to). For previous models, he notes, you have to pull out “every major component.”

Screenshot: iFixit
The battery is surprisingly accessible in the 13-inch OLED iPad Pro.

After that, though, the thinness proves to be an issue for iFixit, as many of the parts are glued in, including the tablet’s logic board.

Screenshot: iFixit
This used to be an Apple Pencil Pro.

But you can’t say the same for Apple’s new $129 Apple Pencil Pro, which shouldn’t shock anyone. Mokhtari was forced to cut into the pencil using an ultrasonic cutter, a moment he presented as “the world’s worst ASMR video.” (That happens just after the five-minute mark, in case you want to mute the video right there to avoid the ear-piercing squeal of the tool.) Unlike the iPad Pro itself, the Pencil Pro’s battery was the last thing he could get to.
By the time Mokhtari is done, the pencil is utterly destroyed, of course. He says the site will have a full chip ID soon that will include images of the MEMS sensor that drives the pencil’s barrel roll feature that lets you twist the pencil to adjust the rotation of on-screen art tools.

The 13-inch OLED iPad Pro with the screen removed. | Screenshot: iFixit

Apple’s newest iPad Pro is remarkably rigid for how thin it is, and apparently also a step forward when it comes to repairability. iFixit shows during its teardown of the tablet that the iPad Pro’s 38.99Wh battery, which will inevitably wear down and need replacement, is actually easy to get to. It’s a change iFixit’s Shahram Mokhtari says during the video “could save hours in repair time” compared to past iPad Pro models.

Getting to it still requires removing the screen, which is glued in and is connected to the iPad in four places, but iFixit was essentially able to pull the almost immediately after removing the screen (after removing the camera assembly and dealing with an aluminum lip beneath that, which made some of the tabs hard to get to). For previous models, he notes, you have to pull out “every major component.”

Screenshot: iFixit
The battery is surprisingly accessible in the 13-inch OLED iPad Pro.

After that, though, the thinness proves to be an issue for iFixit, as many of the parts are glued in, including the tablet’s logic board.

Screenshot: iFixit
This used to be an Apple Pencil Pro.

But you can’t say the same for Apple’s new $129 Apple Pencil Pro, which shouldn’t shock anyone. Mokhtari was forced to cut into the pencil using an ultrasonic cutter, a moment he presented as “the world’s worst ASMR video.” (That happens just after the five-minute mark, in case you want to mute the video right there to avoid the ear-piercing squeal of the tool.) Unlike the iPad Pro itself, the Pencil Pro’s battery was the last thing he could get to.

By the time Mokhtari is done, the pencil is utterly destroyed, of course. He says the site will have a full chip ID soon that will include images of the MEMS sensor that drives the pencil’s barrel roll feature that lets you twist the pencil to adjust the rotation of on-screen art tools.

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Surprisingly, Ecobee’s smartest thermostat also makes for a decent air quality monitor / smart speaker. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The temperatures are about to soar now that summer is almost upon us — and so are our cooling bills. If you want to keep comfy while saving money on your energy bills, it’s worth investing in Ecobee’s Smart Thermostat Premium now that it’s down to its best price of the year. Normally $249.99, right now you can buy it at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Ecobee for $219.99, which is $10 shy of its all-time low.

Ecobee’s smart thermostat is our favorite on the market, one that goes beyond your typical heating and cooling needs. It can adjust your HVAC system based on where you are in your home (if you’re home at all), and even keep your pets safe as you travel thanks to its support for various temperature alerts and reminders — a feature that saved my colleague’s rabbit as recently as last year. Ecobee’s premium thermostat also integrates well with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, and IFTTT, so you don’t have to lock yourself into a specific ecosystem.
What’s even more impressive, though, is how versatile it is. Yes, it’s a smart thermostat, but Ecobee’s step-up model can also function as a decent smart speaker, an indoor air quality monitor, and even a hub for Ecobee’s smart security system. It doesn’t do a bad job, either. It can respond to both Alexa and Siri commands, and though it’s pretty basic as far as air quality monitors go, it can still calculate how clean your air is based on carbon dioxide levels, relative humidity, and VOCs. How many smart thermostats can do that?
Read our Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium review.

A few more deals to kick off the weekend

Now through May 19th, Nomad is running a buy one get one free promo on all of its iPhone cases when you use offer code BOGOCASE at checkout. The sale extends to leather cases for all four iPhone 15 models, too, some of which are already discounted — including the attractive Modern Leather Folio case for the 15 Pro, which is down to just $48 ($12 off).
For the second time this month, JLab’s Go Air Sport have fallen to $19.88 ($10 off) at Amazon, matching their all-time low. For the price, JLab’s fitness-focused earbuds have a lot going for them, including decent sound and dedicated hooks for a more secure fit. They also sport an IP55 rating for sweat and dust resistance, providing some extra peace of mind during sweaty workouts.

Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller is available from Verizon in white for $35.99 ($25 off), which is one of its best prices to date. The gamepad doesn’t have customizable buttons like some pricier models, but it still offers good comfort and features for the price. It supports USB-C and Bluetooth, for example, so you can use it with your Xbox, PC, or mobile device. It features a dedicated share button, too, letting you easily save and share clips with whomever you see fit. Read our guide to the best Xbox controllers.

Surprisingly, Ecobee’s smartest thermostat also makes for a decent air quality monitor / smart speaker. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The temperatures are about to soar now that summer is almost upon us — and so are our cooling bills. If you want to keep comfy while saving money on your energy bills, it’s worth investing in Ecobee’s Smart Thermostat Premium now that it’s down to its best price of the year. Normally $249.99, right now you can buy it at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Ecobee for $219.99, which is $10 shy of its all-time low.

Ecobee’s smart thermostat is our favorite on the market, one that goes beyond your typical heating and cooling needs. It can adjust your HVAC system based on where you are in your home (if you’re home at all), and even keep your pets safe as you travel thanks to its support for various temperature alerts and reminders — a feature that saved my colleague’s rabbit as recently as last year. Ecobee’s premium thermostat also integrates well with Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, and IFTTT, so you don’t have to lock yourself into a specific ecosystem.

What’s even more impressive, though, is how versatile it is. Yes, it’s a smart thermostat, but Ecobee’s step-up model can also function as a decent smart speaker, an indoor air quality monitor, and even a hub for Ecobee’s smart security system. It doesn’t do a bad job, either. It can respond to both Alexa and Siri commands, and though it’s pretty basic as far as air quality monitors go, it can still calculate how clean your air is based on carbon dioxide levels, relative humidity, and VOCs. How many smart thermostats can do that?

Read our Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium review.

A few more deals to kick off the weekend

Now through May 19th, Nomad is running a buy one get one free promo on all of its iPhone cases when you use offer code BOGOCASE at checkout. The sale extends to leather cases for all four iPhone 15 models, too, some of which are already discounted — including the attractive Modern Leather Folio case for the 15 Pro, which is down to just $48 ($12 off).
For the second time this month, JLab’s Go Air Sport have fallen to $19.88 ($10 off) at Amazon, matching their all-time low. For the price, JLab’s fitness-focused earbuds have a lot going for them, including decent sound and dedicated hooks for a more secure fit. They also sport an IP55 rating for sweat and dust resistance, providing some extra peace of mind during sweaty workouts.

Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller is available from Verizon in white for $35.99 ($25 off), which is one of its best prices to date. The gamepad doesn’t have customizable buttons like some pricier models, but it still offers good comfort and features for the price. It supports USB-C and Bluetooth, for example, so you can use it with your Xbox, PC, or mobile device. It features a dedicated share button, too, letting you easily save and share clips with whomever you see fit. Read our guide to the best Xbox controllers.

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The GE Profile is a smart indoor smoker — designed to keep smoke inside the oven, not in your kitchen. Wi-Fi connectivity means it works the Smart HQ app for remote control, but there’s no magic sauce here to make you BBQ whizz.

The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker delivers on its promise of bringing smoking indoors, but sadly its smarts didn’t make me a better pitmaster. My love affair with barbecue has been a slow burn. I’m from England, where BBQ means grilling burgers and steak in the garden on a gas grill. So, when I moved to South Carolina over a decade ago, I had no clue what pulled pork was or that brisket was even a thing. I learned quickly. Smoking meat is akin to religion around these parts, and I suspect many pitmasters would view the latest gadget I’ve been testing as something akin to heresy.
Today, barbecue is one of my favorite dishes — brisket from Lewis Barbecue in Charleston is what I would request for a last meal. However, while I fancy myself as something of an accomplished home chef, I have never had much luck smoking my own meats. So, I was intrigued to test the $999.95 GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker.
A smart indoor smoker, GE Profile’s gadget promises an easier, quicker way to get that smokey flavor; plus, it’s literally the only option if you don’t have the space or an accommodating climate for using an outdoor smoker. I do have an outdoor smoker, but it rarely gets used. It’s huge, requires a lot of prep, and I feel compelled to smoke a lot of meat to justify using it — plus, as mentioned, I’ve not been very successful making my own barbecue.

Its main tricks are being small enough to fit on your countertop (although it’s not small) and smoking food without smoking up your kitchen. Something called Active Smoke Filtration technology and an airflow system combined with tight gaskets and seals keeps the smoke in the appliance. This worked very well. No smoke escaped the oven at all during cooking, but I still got the lovely aromas. The one thing that did come out of the gadget was heat. My kitchen got very warm while using it.
The Smart Indoor Smoker promises an easier, quicker way to get that smokey flavor
This is because it’s essentially an oven that adds smoke flavor. Unlike a true outdoor wood-pellet smoker, the Smart Indoor Smoker doesn’t cook your food with smoke. It uses a separate heating element that does most of the hard work while the smoke infuses it with flavor. This significantly cuts down on cooking time and means you use way fewer wood pellets. But I did find meats didn’t always achieve that tenderness you get from smoking alone.

The smart smoker is nicely designed — looking like a fancy toaster oven set on its side. The single door has a glass front and a cavity light, so I could watch the meat smoking.

If you want to smoke meat indoors, though, this is a very good way to do it. Purists might scoff, but it’s more efficient than an outdoor smoker. And while I found it hard to fit into my everyday cooking routine — it still can’t cook anything in under an hour — in the two months I tested it, I used it at least twice a week, far more often than I use my outdoor smoker. It’s super simple to use and easy to clean, and its neat Keep Warm feature meant I could put a piece of meat or some sweet potatoes in the smoker in the morning, and it would be ready for dinner time.
Two downsides are the price — $1,000 is a lot for a single-purpose gadget — and the size. Only consider this if you have a lot of countertop space or somewhere you can store it when it’s not in use. It’s short enough to fit under my cabinets, but not with the four inches of clearance the manual recommends. My husband didn’t want it near anything that might catch fire (he’s a firefighter and was deeply suspicious of this device, but it never caused any issues).

It needs to be big so it can fit the popular barbeque meats. GE Appliances says its three removable racks allow for enough space to cook three racks of baby back ribs, a brisket, a whole chicken, up to 40 wings, or a 14-pound pork butt. I did not test these capacity limits — there’s only so much meat one family can eat. But it didn’t struggle to handle anything I put in it, from a whole chicken to two racks of ribs to a sizeable brisket (halved).

The rest of the device is similarly well-designed. It has a nice big digital display that’s easy to read, with a large dial you turn and press to select temperature and smoke level, plus digital buttons for basic functions. There are six presets for brisket, pork ribs, pork butt, chicken wings, chicken breast, and salmon that can be activated from the device or GE Appliance’s Smart HQ app. Then there’s a customize option for setting your own smoke. The app isn’t required, but it offers some tips and tricks and can alert you when the door is left open, when the smoker is preheated, or when the food is almost done, which is handy.
To start a smoke, I selected one of the presets, chose whether to use the built-in temperature probe or a set cook time (annoyingly, you can’t use both), added the pellets, filled the water bucket — where the pellets go to be extinguished — and pressed start on the machine. Once it reached the set temperature, I had to press start again (which I couldn’t do remotely), and the smoking got underway.

The smoker did a great job infusing everything I cooked with a lovely smokey flavor, ranging from mild for shorter cook times to really rich for meats that were slow-cooked over eight to 10 hours. I liked that I could monitor and control the device from the app and use voice commands with Alexa to adjust the temperature.
The smoker did a great job infusing everything I cooked with a lovely smokey flavor
But its smarts are limited. As is common with smart kitchen devices, I couldn’t remotely start the appliance. I was also disappointed that the smoker couldn’t automatically adjust the cooking temperatures for me. The Traeger smart smoker I have will adjust the temperatures over a long smoke, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of barbecuing. The GE Profile smart smoker required frequent manual intervention for bigger meats like brisket, including rotating the meat since the compartment doesn’t heat evenly.

The smoker keeps all the smoke inside and has a button to clear the smoke before you open the door. But in this slow-motion video, I opened the door while smoking to show the amount of smoke it generates and where it comes from inside the oven.

Sadly, my manual intervention was not successful. While all the meats I cooked had excellent smokey flavor, my two attempts at pork butt and three tries at briskets all came out chewy. Chicken, salmon, and sweet potatoes were all fine, but those more complicated meats I struggled to get right.

To be fair, I struggle with those in the Traeger, too, but the GE Profile smart smoker didn’t make me a better pitmaster. That’s still a skill I guess a machine can’t learn. In retrospect (and based on a similar experience this professional griller had with the smart smoker), it’s likely that using the Keep Warm setting overcooked my meats. It takes a while for the internal temperature to get back down, so I probably needed to adjust the cook time to account for that.
What would be great is if this smart smoker was smart enough to do that for me. Or smart enough to adjust the cooking temperature automatically during a smoke so that the meat comes out tender every time. While this innovative gadget brings something new to the kitchen, right now, its smart features are fairly basic. Smart kitchen gadgets that help you cook are great, but what I want most from the smart kitchen are smart devices that help you be a better cook.
Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The GE Profile is a smart indoor smoker — designed to keep smoke inside the oven, not in your kitchen. Wi-Fi connectivity means it works the Smart HQ app for remote control, but there’s no magic sauce here to make you BBQ whizz.

The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker delivers on its promise of bringing smoking indoors, but sadly its smarts didn’t make me a better pitmaster.

My love affair with barbecue has been a slow burn. I’m from England, where BBQ means grilling burgers and steak in the garden on a gas grill. So, when I moved to South Carolina over a decade ago, I had no clue what pulled pork was or that brisket was even a thing. I learned quickly. Smoking meat is akin to religion around these parts, and I suspect many pitmasters would view the latest gadget I’ve been testing as something akin to heresy.

Today, barbecue is one of my favorite dishes — brisket from Lewis Barbecue in Charleston is what I would request for a last meal. However, while I fancy myself as something of an accomplished home chef, I have never had much luck smoking my own meats. So, I was intrigued to test the $999.95 GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker.

A smart indoor smoker, GE Profile’s gadget promises an easier, quicker way to get that smokey flavor; plus, it’s literally the only option if you don’t have the space or an accommodating climate for using an outdoor smoker. I do have an outdoor smoker, but it rarely gets used. It’s huge, requires a lot of prep, and I feel compelled to smoke a lot of meat to justify using it — plus, as mentioned, I’ve not been very successful making my own barbecue.

Its main tricks are being small enough to fit on your countertop (although it’s not small) and smoking food without smoking up your kitchen. Something called Active Smoke Filtration technology and an airflow system combined with tight gaskets and seals keeps the smoke in the appliance. This worked very well. No smoke escaped the oven at all during cooking, but I still got the lovely aromas. The one thing that did come out of the gadget was heat. My kitchen got very warm while using it.

This is because it’s essentially an oven that adds smoke flavor. Unlike a true outdoor wood-pellet smoker, the Smart Indoor Smoker doesn’t cook your food with smoke. It uses a separate heating element that does most of the hard work while the smoke infuses it with flavor. This significantly cuts down on cooking time and means you use way fewer wood pellets. But I did find meats didn’t always achieve that tenderness you get from smoking alone.

The smart smoker is nicely designed — looking like a fancy toaster oven set on its side. The single door has a glass front and a cavity light, so I could watch the meat smoking.

If you want to smoke meat indoors, though, this is a very good way to do it. Purists might scoff, but it’s more efficient than an outdoor smoker. And while I found it hard to fit into my everyday cooking routine — it still can’t cook anything in under an hour — in the two months I tested it, I used it at least twice a week, far more often than I use my outdoor smoker. It’s super simple to use and easy to clean, and its neat Keep Warm feature meant I could put a piece of meat or some sweet potatoes in the smoker in the morning, and it would be ready for dinner time.

Two downsides are the price — $1,000 is a lot for a single-purpose gadget — and the size. Only consider this if you have a lot of countertop space or somewhere you can store it when it’s not in use. It’s short enough to fit under my cabinets, but not with the four inches of clearance the manual recommends. My husband didn’t want it near anything that might catch fire (he’s a firefighter and was deeply suspicious of this device, but it never caused any issues).

It needs to be big so it can fit the popular barbeque meats. GE Appliances says its three removable racks allow for enough space to cook three racks of baby back ribs, a brisket, a whole chicken, up to 40 wings, or a 14-pound pork butt. I did not test these capacity limits — there’s only so much meat one family can eat. But it didn’t struggle to handle anything I put in it, from a whole chicken to two racks of ribs to a sizeable brisket (halved).

The rest of the device is similarly well-designed. It has a nice big digital display that’s easy to read, with a large dial you turn and press to select temperature and smoke level, plus digital buttons for basic functions. There are six presets for brisket, pork ribs, pork butt, chicken wings, chicken breast, and salmon that can be activated from the device or GE Appliance’s Smart HQ app. Then there’s a customize option for setting your own smoke. The app isn’t required, but it offers some tips and tricks and can alert you when the door is left open, when the smoker is preheated, or when the food is almost done, which is handy.

To start a smoke, I selected one of the presets, chose whether to use the built-in temperature probe or a set cook time (annoyingly, you can’t use both), added the pellets, filled the water bucket — where the pellets go to be extinguished — and pressed start on the machine. Once it reached the set temperature, I had to press start again (which I couldn’t do remotely), and the smoking got underway.

The smoker did a great job infusing everything I cooked with a lovely smokey flavor, ranging from mild for shorter cook times to really rich for meats that were slow-cooked over eight to 10 hours. I liked that I could monitor and control the device from the app and use voice commands with Alexa to adjust the temperature.

But its smarts are limited. As is common with smart kitchen devices, I couldn’t remotely start the appliance. I was also disappointed that the smoker couldn’t automatically adjust the cooking temperatures for me. The Traeger smart smoker I have will adjust the temperatures over a long smoke, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of barbecuing. The GE Profile smart smoker required frequent manual intervention for bigger meats like brisket, including rotating the meat since the compartment doesn’t heat evenly.

Sadly, my manual intervention was not successful. While all the meats I cooked had excellent smokey flavor, my two attempts at pork butt and three tries at briskets all came out chewy. Chicken, salmon, and sweet potatoes were all fine, but those more complicated meats I struggled to get right.

To be fair, I struggle with those in the Traeger, too, but the GE Profile smart smoker didn’t make me a better pitmaster. That’s still a skill I guess a machine can’t learn. In retrospect (and based on a similar experience this professional griller had with the smart smoker), it’s likely that using the Keep Warm setting overcooked my meats. It takes a while for the internal temperature to get back down, so I probably needed to adjust the cook time to account for that.

What would be great is if this smart smoker was smart enough to do that for me. Or smart enough to adjust the cooking temperature automatically during a smoke so that the meat comes out tender every time. While this innovative gadget brings something new to the kitchen, right now, its smart features are fairly basic. Smart kitchen gadgets that help you cook are great, but what I want most from the smart kitchen are smart devices that help you be a better cook.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

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Image: Apple

For most of its first season, Sugar on Apple TV Plus was a fairly typical if slickly produced detective story. It starred Colin Farrell as John Sugar, a private investigator with a number of charming quirks — obsessed with old movies, unable to get drunk, beloved by dogs — who was determined to solve a missing persons case involving the granddaughter of a famous Hollywood director. Then, at the end of episode six, the show introduced a twist that threatened to change it into something very different. But now that Sugar’s finale is out, it’s clear that the twist didn’t alter what the show already was — it just added some new flavor.
Spoiler warning for the first season of Sugar, including the final episode.
Okay, let’s get it out of the way: Sugar is an alien. At the end of episode six, he revealed himself to be a blue humanoid who looks like a cross between Doctor Manhattan and Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a startling moment, although one that makes a lot of sense in retrospect. All of those quirks could be explained by Sugar’s extraterrestrial nature. He loves movies because he used them to learn about humanity. He can’t get drunk because he has different biology. And he’s part of a secretive group of polyglots because that’s how his alien friends meet up to discuss their observations.

Turning Sugar into an alien doesn’t fundamentally change the show — it’s still a modern noir with a compelling mystery at its core. The finale drives this home, as the sci-fi aspect mostly recedes to the background, while Sugar races to rescue Olivia (Sydney Chandler) from a potentially horrific fate and return her to her grandfather (James Cromwell). The episode is concerned with the same questions that have propelled the series since it started: what really happened to Olivia, and can Sugar save her?

Image: Apple

Mostly, the sci-fi elements add to the urgency. In Sugar’s finale, the aliens are discovered and forced to leave Earth. This means that Sugar needs to solve the case before hopping on a spaceship to wherever he’s from. Every moment counts. And the show ends in a way all good detective thrillers do, with a crime that is disturbing but also isn’t quite the end of the story. Even if you guess where it’s going, there are a number of unexpected twists and turns along the way.
Ultimately, the aliens are a fun twist on a well-worn archetype. Sugar is patient, observant, and dedicated, skills that make him great at his job and that can also be linked to his extraterrestrial origins. He’s patient and observant because his real job is watching people and reporting back to his home world. He’s dedicated to finding Olivia because he experienced a tragic loss on his planet and doesn’t want it to happen again.
The finale also makes it clear that Sugar’s story isn’t over. He ends up staying on Earth, partly because he can’t get enough of humanity, but mostly because he discovers that a fellow alien — who has also stayed behind — is essentially the intergalactic Moriarty to his Sherlock. If it gets renewed, Sugar will likely shift from a detective story to a revenge tale. Hopefully, if that happens, it can maintain that careful balance between sci-fi and noir. Sure, Sugar is an alien — but that’s not the most interesting thing about him.
Sugar is streaming now on Apple TV Plus.

Image: Apple

For most of its first season, Sugar on Apple TV Plus was a fairly typical if slickly produced detective story. It starred Colin Farrell as John Sugar, a private investigator with a number of charming quirks — obsessed with old movies, unable to get drunk, beloved by dogs — who was determined to solve a missing persons case involving the granddaughter of a famous Hollywood director. Then, at the end of episode six, the show introduced a twist that threatened to change it into something very different. But now that Sugar’s finale is out, it’s clear that the twist didn’t alter what the show already was — it just added some new flavor.

Spoiler warning for the first season of Sugar, including the final episode.

Okay, let’s get it out of the way: Sugar is an alien. At the end of episode six, he revealed himself to be a blue humanoid who looks like a cross between Doctor Manhattan and Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a startling moment, although one that makes a lot of sense in retrospect. All of those quirks could be explained by Sugar’s extraterrestrial nature. He loves movies because he used them to learn about humanity. He can’t get drunk because he has different biology. And he’s part of a secretive group of polyglots because that’s how his alien friends meet up to discuss their observations.

Turning Sugar into an alien doesn’t fundamentally change the show — it’s still a modern noir with a compelling mystery at its core. The finale drives this home, as the sci-fi aspect mostly recedes to the background, while Sugar races to rescue Olivia (Sydney Chandler) from a potentially horrific fate and return her to her grandfather (James Cromwell). The episode is concerned with the same questions that have propelled the series since it started: what really happened to Olivia, and can Sugar save her?

Mostly, the sci-fi elements add to the urgency. In Sugar’s finale, the aliens are discovered and forced to leave Earth. This means that Sugar needs to solve the case before hopping on a spaceship to wherever he’s from. Every moment counts. And the show ends in a way all good detective thrillers do, with a crime that is disturbing but also isn’t quite the end of the story. Even if you guess where it’s going, there are a number of unexpected twists and turns along the way.

Ultimately, the aliens are a fun twist on a well-worn archetype. Sugar is patient, observant, and dedicated, skills that make him great at his job and that can also be linked to his extraterrestrial origins. He’s patient and observant because his real job is watching people and reporting back to his home world. He’s dedicated to finding Olivia because he experienced a tragic loss on his planet and doesn’t want it to happen again.

The finale also makes it clear that Sugar’s story isn’t over. He ends up staying on Earth, partly because he can’t get enough of humanity, but mostly because he discovers that a fellow alien — who has also stayed behind — is essentially the intergalactic Moriarty to his Sherlock. If it gets renewed, Sugar will likely shift from a detective story to a revenge tale. Hopefully, if that happens, it can maintain that careful balance between sci-fi and noir. Sure, Sugar is an alien — but that’s not the most interesting thing about him.

Sugar is streaming now on Apple TV Plus.

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Workers walk in Glencore’s Mutanda Mine, which Tesla sources cobalt from, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 19th, 2023.  | Photo by Emmet Livingstone / AFP via Getty Images

Mining for minerals used to make EVs and batteries is plagued with allegations of abuse, the latest report from the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) shows. And automakers continue to source materials from some of the worst offenders, The Verge finds.
BHRRC has documented 631 allegations of human rights abuses since 2010 for seven key minerals used in electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries, and renewable energy technologies. Many of the allegations were made against a small group of companies, which The Verge was able to link to three of the world’s biggest EV manufacturers: Volkswagen Group, Tesla, and BYD.
“Things are not improving,” said Caroline Avan, head of natural resources and just transition at BHRRC. The need for more renewable energy and clean transportation is evident, but those technologies shouldn’t come at the expense of people who live and work in places where companies source their raw materials, she said.
“Things are not improving.”
“The fight against climate change is a human rights imperative at this point in time, but it should not be seen as a license to just disregard human rights in mining operations,” Avan said.
An electric vehicle requires about six times as many minerals as a typical gas-guzzling car. Demand for critical minerals used in EVs and battery storage for renewable energy could grow tenfold by 2040, under a conservative estimate by the International Energy Agency. Scrambling to secure all those minerals without taking the time to make sure they’re mined humanely is where problems arise.
BHRRC’s latest report includes potential abuses linked to the mining of seven minerals: bauxite, cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, and zinc. It’s been tracking those allegations since 2019 using publicly available records, including court documents and regulatory resources, as well as reports from other nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.
It found 91 more allegations in the past year alone, including a “marked increase in labour rights violations and worker deaths” that made up roughly 40 percent of the new allegations in 2023. Across its entire data set going back to 2010, labor violations including 53 work-related deaths make up a quarter of all allegations. For 2023, alleged attacks against human rights defenders, water pollution, and threats to water access are also glaring issues.
It found 91 more allegations in the past year alone, including a “marked increase in labour rights violations and worker deaths”
Since 2010, more than half of the allegations were made against just 10 companies. State-owned China Minmetals now leads the pack, topping Swiss multinational mining giant Glencore, which ranked highest over the past two years.
Combing through sustainability reports and media coverage of the world’s top three EV manufacturers, The Verge found a history of deals with Glencore and China Minmetals.
To drive its EV ambitions, Volkswagen entered into an agreement with Glencore and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) back in 2017, Reuters reported. Under the agreement, CATL would buy 20,000 metric tons of cobalt products from Glencore for Volkswagen’s EV batteries.
In 2023, VW’s battery division PowerCo initially agreed to back a SPAC deal alongside Glencore and Stellantis to buy nickel and copper mines in Brazil — although the deal reportedly fell through later that year over price squabbles. Volkswagen has also identified gold sourced by Glencore in its supply chain, according to its 2023 Responsible Raw Materials Report. The company declined to comment on BHRRC’s findings but has said that it is working to comply with Germany’s new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act.
Tesla buys nickel from a Glencore mine in Australia and cobalt from two Glencore mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo according to the company’s 2021 and 2022 impact reports. In 2022, workers at one of those cobalt mines spoke to The Verge about unsafe working conditions without adequate water or breaks and with little food or pay. Cobalt is often called “the blood diamond of batteries” because of the dangers workers face mining it.
Neither Tesla nor Glencore responded immediately to requests for comment from The Verge. Tesla’s 2022 impact report explains that the company conducts audits of its suppliers to improve working conditions at each site and make sure “corrective actions” are taken to address any problems. It touts “working with suppliers where issues are found rather than walking away.”
In the year since then, China’s BYD overtook Tesla to become the world’s biggest seller of EVs — despite its vehicles being unavailable in the US due to high tariffs. China Minmetals also inched past Glencore this year, racking up more allegations of abuse than any other company in BHRRC’s report.
BYD doesn’t name its more than 10,000 suppliers in its 2023 CSR report (Tesla and Volkswagen only give a partial list in their reports). But China Minmetals subsidiary Hunan Changyuan Lico is reportedly one of BYD’s lithium battery material suppliers. BYD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A separate report by environmental and human rights groups published in February ranked car companies based on how much progress they’ve made to eliminate environmental harms and human rights abuses. Tesla ranked third highest, behind Ford and Mercedes-Benz, in that assessment. Volkswagen ranked sixth, and BYD came in 16th out of 18 companies.

Automakers certainly aren’t the only industry with a lot of work to do to prevent abuse along their supply chains. Rechargeable batteries that power many of the gadgets in our lives are made with a lot of the same materials cited in these reports.
Governments, mining companies, and manufacturers who buy their goods all need to take action to stop abuse, BHRRC’s Avan says. That includes adopting policies that make human rights a priority and that empower people to have a say in projects that might affect their communities.
“[When it comes to] a lot of egregious and gross negligence in occupational health and safety at mining sites, this is not rocket science. Those things can be fixed,” Avan says. “What [manufacturers] should be doing is engaging with the mining sector, asking questions, and putting in front of them the requirements and expectations for better protection of human rights.”
The Verge reached out for comment to each of the 10 companies BHRRC lists as having the most human rights allegations against them. Three of them replied to say that they respond to allegations of abuse and implement changes accordingly, including Freeport-McMoRan, Solway Group, and Tenke Fungurume Mining.
Neither China Minmetals nor Glencore immediately replied to The Verge’s request for comment. But a spokesperson for Glencore commented on BHRRC’s report last year in an email to The Verge to say, “Our assets are located in diverse contexts, some .. in more challenging socio-political circumstances with a history of conflict, limited basic services, and weak rule of law … we work in partnership with government, civil society and development agencies to share knowledge, build capacity and contribute to enduring social and economic outcomes.”

Workers walk in Glencore’s Mutanda Mine, which Tesla sources cobalt from, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on June 19th, 2023.  | Photo by Emmet Livingstone / AFP via Getty Images

Mining for minerals used to make EVs and batteries is plagued with allegations of abuse, the latest report from the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) shows. And automakers continue to source materials from some of the worst offenders, The Verge finds.

BHRRC has documented 631 allegations of human rights abuses since 2010 for seven key minerals used in electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries, and renewable energy technologies. Many of the allegations were made against a small group of companies, which The Verge was able to link to three of the world’s biggest EV manufacturers: Volkswagen Group, Tesla, and BYD.

“Things are not improving,” said Caroline Avan, head of natural resources and just transition at BHRRC. The need for more renewable energy and clean transportation is evident, but those technologies shouldn’t come at the expense of people who live and work in places where companies source their raw materials, she said.

“The fight against climate change is a human rights imperative at this point in time, but it should not be seen as a license to just disregard human rights in mining operations,” Avan said.

An electric vehicle requires about six times as many minerals as a typical gas-guzzling car. Demand for critical minerals used in EVs and battery storage for renewable energy could grow tenfold by 2040, under a conservative estimate by the International Energy Agency. Scrambling to secure all those minerals without taking the time to make sure they’re mined humanely is where problems arise.

BHRRC’s latest report includes potential abuses linked to the mining of seven minerals: bauxite, cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, and zinc. It’s been tracking those allegations since 2019 using publicly available records, including court documents and regulatory resources, as well as reports from other nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.

It found 91 more allegations in the past year alone, including a “marked increase in labour rights violations and worker deaths” that made up roughly 40 percent of the new allegations in 2023. Across its entire data set going back to 2010, labor violations including 53 work-related deaths make up a quarter of all allegations. For 2023, alleged attacks against human rights defenders, water pollution, and threats to water access are also glaring issues.

Since 2010, more than half of the allegations were made against just 10 companies. State-owned China Minmetals now leads the pack, topping Swiss multinational mining giant Glencore, which ranked highest over the past two years.

Combing through sustainability reports and media coverage of the world’s top three EV manufacturers, The Verge found a history of deals with Glencore and China Minmetals.

To drive its EV ambitions, Volkswagen entered into an agreement with Glencore and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) back in 2017, Reuters reported. Under the agreement, CATL would buy 20,000 metric tons of cobalt products from Glencore for Volkswagen’s EV batteries.

In 2023, VW’s battery division PowerCo initially agreed to back a SPAC deal alongside Glencore and Stellantis to buy nickel and copper mines in Brazil — although the deal reportedly fell through later that year over price squabbles. Volkswagen has also identified gold sourced by Glencore in its supply chain, according to its 2023 Responsible Raw Materials Report. The company declined to comment on BHRRC’s findings but has said that it is working to comply with Germany’s new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act.

Tesla buys nickel from a Glencore mine in Australia and cobalt from two Glencore mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo according to the company’s 2021 and 2022 impact reports. In 2022, workers at one of those cobalt mines spoke to The Verge about unsafe working conditions without adequate water or breaks and with little food or pay. Cobalt is often called “the blood diamond of batteries” because of the dangers workers face mining it.

Neither Tesla nor Glencore responded immediately to requests for comment from The Verge. Tesla’s 2022 impact report explains that the company conducts audits of its suppliers to improve working conditions at each site and make sure “corrective actions” are taken to address any problems. It touts “working with suppliers where issues are found rather than walking away.”

In the year since then, China’s BYD overtook Tesla to become the world’s biggest seller of EVs — despite its vehicles being unavailable in the US due to high tariffs. China Minmetals also inched past Glencore this year, racking up more allegations of abuse than any other company in BHRRC’s report.

BYD doesn’t name its more than 10,000 suppliers in its 2023 CSR report (Tesla and Volkswagen only give a partial list in their reports). But China Minmetals subsidiary Hunan Changyuan Lico is reportedly one of BYD’s lithium battery material suppliers. BYD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A separate report by environmental and human rights groups published in February ranked car companies based on how much progress they’ve made to eliminate environmental harms and human rights abuses. Tesla ranked third highest, behind Ford and Mercedes-Benz, in that assessment. Volkswagen ranked sixth, and BYD came in 16th out of 18 companies.

Automakers certainly aren’t the only industry with a lot of work to do to prevent abuse along their supply chains. Rechargeable batteries that power many of the gadgets in our lives are made with a lot of the same materials cited in these reports.

Governments, mining companies, and manufacturers who buy their goods all need to take action to stop abuse, BHRRC’s Avan says. That includes adopting policies that make human rights a priority and that empower people to have a say in projects that might affect their communities.

“[When it comes to] a lot of egregious and gross negligence in occupational health and safety at mining sites, this is not rocket science. Those things can be fixed,” Avan says. “What [manufacturers] should be doing is engaging with the mining sector, asking questions, and putting in front of them the requirements and expectations for better protection of human rights.”

The Verge reached out for comment to each of the 10 companies BHRRC lists as having the most human rights allegations against them. Three of them replied to say that they respond to allegations of abuse and implement changes accordingly, including Freeport-McMoRan, Solway Group, and Tenke Fungurume Mining.

Neither China Minmetals nor Glencore immediately replied to The Verge’s request for comment. But a spokesperson for Glencore commented on BHRRC’s report last year in an email to The Verge to say, “Our assets are located in diverse contexts, some .. in more challenging socio-political circumstances with a history of conflict, limited basic services, and weak rule of law … we work in partnership with government, civil society and development agencies to share knowledge, build capacity and contribute to enduring social and economic outcomes.”

Read More 

Image: Ayaneo

The Analogue Pocket is the most advanced Game Boy to ever take actual carts, but Ayaneo has just unveiled a pair of emulator-centric pocket computers that could give it a run for its cash — including a modern take on the original DMG-01 Nintendo Game Boy that now includes a 419ppi OLED screen.

Unfortunately, we’ve only got renders and a few details today — no prices or full spec sheets — but those renders look pretty neat! I find myself most interested in the Pocket Micro, whose sleek design, twin joysticks and horizontal layout look a bit more practical than the stick placement on the Pocket DMG. Not to mention a bit of a Sony Walkman vibe from certain angles? Take a peek:

Below, you’ll also see the Ayaneo AG01 “Graphics Starship” eGPU dock the company already teased, as well as a Super Famicom themed retro power bank with a screen, and a new version of Ayaneo’s Mac-inspired mini-PC — now with a tilting screen and your choice of a AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS or Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, as well as 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a pair of USB4 ports, and six USB-A ports, and 65W worth of cooling.

Ayaneo says the Pocket DMG is powered by a Qualcomm G3x Gen 2 processor and has an active cooling system (read: fan) beneath its 3.92-inch, 1240×1080 OLED screen, while the aluminum-housed Pocket Micro has a 960×640 panel that allows for 4x integer scaling for GBA games, and is powered by a MediaTek Helio G99 chip.

The AG01 is a AMD Radeon RX 7600M eGPU that connects over Oculink or USB4, similar to competitors from OneXPlayer and GPD. It has twin DisplayPorts and twin HDMI ports for video output, as well as Ethernet, USB-A, and an SD card slot, and room inside for an M.2 2280 SSD with toolless entry — just twist a dial on the back.

Last but not least, the Retro Power Bank is a 45.6 watt-hour (12,000mAh) battery pack with a tiny built-in OLED display for real-time monitoring. It has 45W USB-C PD input and output, and two USB-C ports, though it looks like you might be limited to 15W per port if you use both at the same time.
It’s not clear when, where, or how much any of these will cost: Ayaneo says the Retro Power Bank will be released “soon,” and will announce details later for the rest.

Image: Ayaneo

The Analogue Pocket is the most advanced Game Boy to ever take actual carts, but Ayaneo has just unveiled a pair of emulator-centric pocket computers that could give it a run for its cash — including a modern take on the original DMG-01 Nintendo Game Boy that now includes a 419ppi OLED screen.

Unfortunately, we’ve only got renders and a few details today — no prices or full spec sheets — but those renders look pretty neat! I find myself most interested in the Pocket Micro, whose sleek design, twin joysticks and horizontal layout look a bit more practical than the stick placement on the Pocket DMG. Not to mention a bit of a Sony Walkman vibe from certain angles? Take a peek:

Below, you’ll also see the Ayaneo AG01 “Graphics Starship” eGPU dock the company already teased, as well as a Super Famicom themed retro power bank with a screen, and a new version of Ayaneo’s Mac-inspired mini-PC — now with a tilting screen and your choice of a AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS or Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, as well as 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a pair of USB4 ports, and six USB-A ports, and 65W worth of cooling.

Ayaneo says the Pocket DMG is powered by a Qualcomm G3x Gen 2 processor and has an active cooling system (read: fan) beneath its 3.92-inch, 1240×1080 OLED screen, while the aluminum-housed Pocket Micro has a 960×640 panel that allows for 4x integer scaling for GBA games, and is powered by a MediaTek Helio G99 chip.

The AG01 is a AMD Radeon RX 7600M eGPU that connects over Oculink or USB4, similar to competitors from OneXPlayer and GPD. It has twin DisplayPorts and twin HDMI ports for video output, as well as Ethernet, USB-A, and an SD card slot, and room inside for an M.2 2280 SSD with toolless entry — just twist a dial on the back.

Last but not least, the Retro Power Bank is a 45.6 watt-hour (12,000mAh) battery pack with a tiny built-in OLED display for real-time monitoring. It has 45W USB-C PD input and output, and two USB-C ports, though it looks like you might be limited to 15W per port if you use both at the same time.

It’s not clear when, where, or how much any of these will cost: Ayaneo says the Retro Power Bank will be released “soon,” and will announce details later for the rest.

Read More 

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

At Microsoft’s big AI and Surface event on May 20th, the company takes another shot at Arm Windows PCs. Microsoft is expected to bring Windows, AI, and Arm processors together at a new Surface event on May 20th, and we’re tracking all the announcements here.
We’ll find out if thinner laptops that get better battery life can combine with AI tools like Copilot to change what we expect from Windows PCs. As Tom Warren wrote in his Notepad newsletter ahead of the event, “It’s clear Microsoft has grown tired of Intel’s failed attempts at a comeback, so it’s going all in on these latest Qualcomm chips — and bringing its closest PC partners along for the ride.”
Ahead of Microsoft’s big reveal, we can already see other major PC manufacturers are on board: Asus’ AI PC teaser and a leak of Dell’s new lineup show that it’s about more than just the new AI-focused Copilot key.
With Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X Elite processors and dedicated NPU hardware for accelerating AI tasks in Windows 11, they can hopefully challenge Apple Silicon and revive the Mac vs. PC debate while avoiding the buggy performance and compatibility issues of the past. The company claims its new chips can beat Apple, Intel, and AMD on performance, power efficiency, and battery life, and May 20th could be our first chance to find out if that’s true.
In this storystream, we’ll bring you all the latest news and updates.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

At Microsoft’s big AI and Surface event on May 20th, the company takes another shot at Arm Windows PCs.

Microsoft is expected to bring Windows, AI, and Arm processors together at a new Surface event on May 20th, and we’re tracking all the announcements here.

We’ll find out if thinner laptops that get better battery life can combine with AI tools like Copilot to change what we expect from Windows PCs. As Tom Warren wrote in his Notepad newsletter ahead of the event, “It’s clear Microsoft has grown tired of Intel’s failed attempts at a comeback, so it’s going all in on these latest Qualcomm chips — and bringing its closest PC partners along for the ride.”

Ahead of Microsoft’s big reveal, we can already see other major PC manufacturers are on board: Asus’ AI PC teaser and a leak of Dell’s new lineup show that it’s about more than just the new AI-focused Copilot key.

With Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X Elite processors and dedicated NPU hardware for accelerating AI tasks in Windows 11, they can hopefully challenge Apple Silicon and revive the Mac vs. PC debate while avoiding the buggy performance and compatibility issues of the past. The company claims its new chips can beat Apple, Intel, and AMD on performance, power efficiency, and battery life, and May 20th could be our first chance to find out if that’s true.

In this storystream, we’ll bring you all the latest news and updates.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Canada’s security agency is trying to dissuade Canadians from using TikTok, telling users that their data is “available to the government of China.”
In an interview with CBC News set to air on Saturday, David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said that “there is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China … to be able to acquire … personal information from around the world,” the CBC reports.
“They’re using big data analytics, they have amazing computer farms crunching the data, they are developing artificial intelligence … based on using this data,” Vigneault added.
The Chinese government’s ability to access user data is at the forefront of US efforts to regulate — and potentially even ban — the app. Congress passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it divests from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, in April. TikTok sued the US government over the law in May, arguing that the looming ban is unconstitutional.
TikTok has previously claimed that staffers in China are unable to access US and European users’ data. The company has undertaken two massive corporate restructuring efforts — Project Texas and Project Clover, referring to the US and European endeavors, respectively — to silo off user data from China. US user data is hosted in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure and isn’t supposed to be accessible by anyone outside the US, though a recent report by Fortune suggests efforts to secure US user data have been “largely cosmetic.”
“These assertions are unsupported by evidence, and the fact is that TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked,” TikTok spokesperson Danielle Morgan told The Verge.

Illustration: The Verge

Canada’s security agency is trying to dissuade Canadians from using TikTok, telling users that their data is “available to the government of China.”

In an interview with CBC News set to air on Saturday, David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said that “there is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China … to be able to acquire … personal information from around the world,” the CBC reports.

“They’re using big data analytics, they have amazing computer farms crunching the data, they are developing artificial intelligence … based on using this data,” Vigneault added.

The Chinese government’s ability to access user data is at the forefront of US efforts to regulate — and potentially even ban — the app. Congress passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it divests from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, in April. TikTok sued the US government over the law in May, arguing that the looming ban is unconstitutional.

TikTok has previously claimed that staffers in China are unable to access US and European users’ data. The company has undertaken two massive corporate restructuring efforts — Project Texas and Project Clover, referring to the US and European endeavors, respectively — to silo off user data from China. US user data is hosted in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure and isn’t supposed to be accessible by anyone outside the US, though a recent report by Fortune suggests efforts to secure US user data have been “largely cosmetic.”

“These assertions are unsupported by evidence, and the fact is that TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked,” TikTok spokesperson Danielle Morgan told The Verge.

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Image: 91Mobiles

After 2023’s big year for foldable phones, what’s next? According to these leaked pics, we can expect Motorola’s foldable Razr line to stretch that front cover screen even further on both versions. As revealed by 91Mobiles and Sudhanshu Ambhore on X, the Razr 50 Ultra 5G will feature a 4.0-inch screen on the outside, which is a noticeable upgrade from the 2023 Razr 40 Ultra (called the Razr Plus in the US) and its 3.6-inch front cover screen.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
2023 Motorola Razr Plus

On the renders of this 2024 model, the new, larger outside screen stretches nearly to the phone’s hinge assembly, with only a small bezel area, giving users even more area to use without opening it to use the 6.9-inch pOLED display that’s inside.

Image: 91Mobiles
Motorola Razr 50 5G

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Meanwhile, the cheaper standard version appears to have ditched last year’s tiny 1.5-inch cover screen for a 3.63-inch pOLED panel that mimics the Plus / Ultra experience from 2023. Allison Johnson found that size screen useful enough to serve as “…kind of a secret weapon,” so buyers could have a tough choice ahead of them.
A list of specs says the more expensive Razr 50 Ultra 5G will have slightly better cameras and more RAM than the cheaper phone, as well as support for 45W charging and a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. However, as 91Mobiles notes, the cheaper phone seems to have slightly smaller bezels for the inner screen and a larger battery, at 4,200mAh vs. 4,000.
Last year, Motorola announced its new foldable lineup on June 1st, so if that schedule holds up, we should probably find out all of the official details soon.

Image: 91Mobiles

After 2023’s big year for foldable phones, what’s next? According to these leaked pics, we can expect Motorola’s foldable Razr line to stretch that front cover screen even further on both versions. As revealed by 91Mobiles and Sudhanshu Ambhore on X, the Razr 50 Ultra 5G will feature a 4.0-inch screen on the outside, which is a noticeable upgrade from the 2023 Razr 40 Ultra (called the Razr Plus in the US) and its 3.6-inch front cover screen.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
2023 Motorola Razr Plus

On the renders of this 2024 model, the new, larger outside screen stretches nearly to the phone’s hinge assembly, with only a small bezel area, giving users even more area to use without opening it to use the 6.9-inch pOLED display that’s inside.

Image: 91Mobiles
Motorola Razr 50 5G

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Meanwhile, the cheaper standard version appears to have ditched last year’s tiny 1.5-inch cover screen for a 3.63-inch pOLED panel that mimics the Plus / Ultra experience from 2023. Allison Johnson found that size screen useful enough to serve as “…kind of a secret weapon,” so buyers could have a tough choice ahead of them.

A list of specs says the more expensive Razr 50 Ultra 5G will have slightly better cameras and more RAM than the cheaper phone, as well as support for 45W charging and a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. However, as 91Mobiles notes, the cheaper phone seems to have slightly smaller bezels for the inner screen and a larger battery, at 4,200mAh vs. 4,000.

Last year, Motorola announced its new foldable lineup on June 1st, so if that schedule holds up, we should probably find out all of the official details soon.

Read More 

Image: Tyler McVicker

Valve’s next game appears to be a multiplayer hero shooter known as Deadlock. This is according to leaks from playtesters posted on social media earlier today, with some of the details verified by known Valve data miner Tyler McVicker.
“Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here’s ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon,” McVicker posted on X.
The post included four screenshots allegedly from the game, which features characters (one of which looks like the Sniper from Team Fortress 2) battling in a city map that seems reminiscent of Half-Life 2’s City 17. Another image shows a hero named Grey Talon and includes the character’s weapon and ability icons with a short description.

Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here’s ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon. pic.twitter.com/KdZSRxObSz— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) May 17, 2024

Deadlock wasn’t a game Valve gave any indication was in the works, so its reveal is certainly surprising. Earlier this week, McVicker shared more information about Deadlock on his X page, writing that the game is “fast-paced interesting ADHD gameplay. Combination of Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, Orcs Must Die.” The Verge has reached out to Valve for comment.
Though Valve is now mostly known for its PC publishing platform Steam and the Steam Deck, the company is still making games. Last year, Valve released Counter-Strike 2, an update to the perennially popular Counter-Strike GO. Back in 2017, Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell shared that the company was working on three “full games” for VR, with one of them being the 2020 hit Half-Life: Alyx. Deadlock doesn’t seem to be a VR title, so there might be even more secret Valve games looming on the horizon.

Image: Tyler McVicker

Valve’s next game appears to be a multiplayer hero shooter known as Deadlock. This is according to leaks from playtesters posted on social media earlier today, with some of the details verified by known Valve data miner Tyler McVicker.

“Since testers started sharing Deadlock screenshots all over the place, here’s ones I can verify, featuring one of the heroes called Grey Talon,” McVicker posted on X.

The post included four screenshots allegedly from the game, which features characters (one of which looks like the Sniper from Team Fortress 2) battling in a city map that seems reminiscent of Half-Life 2’s City 17. Another image shows a hero named Grey Talon and includes the character’s weapon and ability icons with a short description.

Deadlock wasn’t a game Valve gave any indication was in the works, so its reveal is certainly surprising. Earlier this week, McVicker shared more information about Deadlock on his X page, writing that the game is “fast-paced interesting ADHD gameplay. Combination of Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, Orcs Must Die.” The Verge has reached out to Valve for comment.

Though Valve is now mostly known for its PC publishing platform Steam and the Steam Deck, the company is still making games. Last year, Valve released Counter-Strike 2, an update to the perennially popular Counter-Strike GO. Back in 2017, Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell shared that the company was working on three “full games” for VR, with one of them being the 2020 hit Half-Life: Alyx. Deadlock doesn’t seem to be a VR title, so there might be even more secret Valve games looming on the horizon.

Read More