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Say goodbye to LG’s rollable TV — for now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

LG is no longer making the Signature OLED R TV that rolls down and hides in its stand, according to Chosun, which reports LG has already repurposed the manufacturing line for other TVs.
Customer interest in TVs that can disappear in their living room space has been growing, as evidenced by Samsung’s popular Frame TVs that can transform into wall art. But at $100,000 for a 65-inch 4K TV, LG’s rollable screen was too expensive to explain away as a possibly frivolous purchase and too small to fit the lifestyles of people who might be able to afford it.

GIF: Chris Welch The Verge
Hiding away and not coming back.

LG Display showed off a prototype rollable OLED TV at CES 2018, and another concept left Verge reviewer Chris Welch impressed in 2019 before LG finally put the Signature model on sale in 2021. As What Hi-Fi and FlatpanelsHD note, this cancellation isn’t the end of LG’s odd display concepts, and it’s already promising a transparent OLED TV later this year.

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LG has had an affinity for rolling OLED display tech over the years, developing sizes fit for smartphones and laptops and even releasing devices like the G Flex series of Android phones. Although it looks like the rollable TV era is over for the company, we still have the briefcase TV. But for now, LG has one less party trick TV for your living room.

Say goodbye to LG’s rollable TV — for now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

LG is no longer making the Signature OLED R TV that rolls down and hides in its stand, according to Chosun, which reports LG has already repurposed the manufacturing line for other TVs.

Customer interest in TVs that can disappear in their living room space has been growing, as evidenced by Samsung’s popular Frame TVs that can transform into wall art. But at $100,000 for a 65-inch 4K TV, LG’s rollable screen was too expensive to explain away as a possibly frivolous purchase and too small to fit the lifestyles of people who might be able to afford it.

GIF: Chris Welch The Verge
Hiding away and not coming back.

LG Display showed off a prototype rollable OLED TV at CES 2018, and another concept left Verge reviewer Chris Welch impressed in 2019 before LG finally put the Signature model on sale in 2021. As What Hi-Fi and FlatpanelsHD note, this cancellation isn’t the end of LG’s odd display concepts, and it’s already promising a transparent OLED TV later this year.

LG has had an affinity for rolling OLED display tech over the years, developing sizes fit for smartphones and laptops and even releasing devices like the G Flex series of Android phones. Although it looks like the rollable TV era is over for the company, we still have the briefcase TV. But for now, LG has one less party trick TV for your living room.

Read More 

In its heyday, Inquisition was one of the closest things we had to a Game of Thrones game. | Screenshot: BioWare

If you’re a PC gamer with time to kill this summer, the Epic Games Store has come through with a chance to scoop up a bunch of titles on the low. In fact, you can take advantage of the Fortnite maker’s “Mega Sale” without spending a single dime. In addition to deep discounts on top games, you’ll be able to scoop up one free game each week from the Epic Games Store through the sale’s June 13th closing date, starting with Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Game of the Year Edition. It comes with all of the game’s three main add-ons, plus the Deluxe Edition’s bonus mounts, gear, and weapons.

Inquisition features developer BioWare’s patented branching storylines, deep action roleplaying combat systems, an open-world structure, and an evolving diplomacy system that has you, as the so-called Inquisitor, making world-changing decisions that your companions and opponents may or may not like. It’s still worth playing all these years later, especially with a new series entrant on the way.
You’ll find many other titles on sale for your coinage in the Epic Games Store Mega Sale, including newer hits like Alan Wake 2 down to $39.99 ($10 off), EA Sports FC 24 for $13.99 ($56 off), and Ubisoft’s online pirating adventure Skull and Bones for $29.99 ($30 off). You can also explore the wizarding world in Hogwarts Legacy for $29.99 ($30 off) and play some of Sony’s best PS4 titles on PC with the likes of God of War ($24.99, $25 off), The Last of Us Part I ($40.19, about $20 off), and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered ($35.99, $24 off).

If you want the newest iPad Air with M2, it’s going to cost you at least $599 for the 11-inch model. It’s a less impressive upgrade over its predecessor than the well-reviewed iPad Pro, however, and the original still holds up well if you just need a solid tablet that should continue to receive most new iPadOS features for the foreseeable future. You’d get considerable savings, too, as the base M1 iPad Air with 64GB of storage is down to $399 ($200 off) at Amazon and Walmart, a new all-time-low price that beats the previous record by a full $100. The 256GB M1 iPad Air also has a new price record of $599 ($150 off) at Amazon in select colors.
It’s possible Apple or its retail partners will keep the 2022 Air around as a value buy, so maybe this steep discount reflects a pending permanent price cut. Whatever the case, $399 is a fantastic price for the tablet. Compared to the refresh that launched just yesterday, it’s really only missing out on Apple Pencil Pro support, the M2-exclusive Apple Pencil hover feature, and Wi-Fi 6E (but Wi-Fi 6 is still good). There’s also no option to step up to a bigger 13-inch model. Otherwise, it still has more power than most people will likely ever need in a tablet, with its biggest strengths being a beautiful 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, a lightweight profile, and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil and the original Magic Keyboard.

Read our Apple iPad Air (2022) review.

Don’t miss these other great deals

Whether you’re getting the new Pixel 8A or have one of the family’s loftier devices and need a new pair of wireless earbuds, we typically recommend Google’s Pixel Buds Pro, which are down to $139.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, matching the all-time low. The Pixel Buds Pro earn their merit as a very competent pair of earbuds when it comes to common qualities, such as very good sound with solid noise cancellation, long battery life, and reliable connectivity that evaded some older models. You can have an enjoyable listen paired with any phone, but they’re even better if you have a Pixel thanks to exclusive features like spatial audio. Read our review.
The Hatch Restore 2, one of our favorite sleep gadgets, is down to $169.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and Hatch, which is only $10 more than the all-time low. Besides the generous assortment of built-in sleep sounds, it features an embedded dot-matrix LED clock and a light that glows just bright enough to keep you from stubbing your toe on the nightstand during midnight bathroom runs. It can also play sunrise alarms that wake you up with gradual gentle sounds designed not to disrupt your circadian rhythm. You can sign up for Hatch Plus ($4.99 a month or $49.99 a year) to add custom unwind routines, music, meditation, sleep guidance, and other exclusive content. Read our review.
Now through May 31st, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, and Nintendo Switch is down to $24.99 ($35 off) at Woot, which is the lowest price we’ve seen so far. The collection includes the most classic games from the stealth ops franchise. You’ll get the first three Metal Gear Solid games that launched on the PS1 and PS2, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, and Snake’s Revenge, which is a spiritual, noncanonical successor to the original Metal Gear that was only released in North America for the NES. The disc also packs digital art books, screenplays, cinematic videos, graphic novels, and digital soundtracks to enjoy.

In its heyday, Inquisition was one of the closest things we had to a Game of Thrones game. | Screenshot: BioWare

If you’re a PC gamer with time to kill this summer, the Epic Games Store has come through with a chance to scoop up a bunch of titles on the low. In fact, you can take advantage of the Fortnite maker’s “Mega Sale” without spending a single dime. In addition to deep discounts on top games, you’ll be able to scoop up one free game each week from the Epic Games Store through the sale’s June 13th closing date, starting with Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Game of the Year Edition. It comes with all of the game’s three main add-ons, plus the Deluxe Edition’s bonus mounts, gear, and weapons.

Inquisition features developer BioWare’s patented branching storylines, deep action roleplaying combat systems, an open-world structure, and an evolving diplomacy system that has you, as the so-called Inquisitor, making world-changing decisions that your companions and opponents may or may not like. It’s still worth playing all these years later, especially with a new series entrant on the way.

You’ll find many other titles on sale for your coinage in the Epic Games Store Mega Sale, including newer hits like Alan Wake 2 down to $39.99 ($10 off), EA Sports FC 24 for $13.99 ($56 off), and Ubisoft’s online pirating adventure Skull and Bones for $29.99 ($30 off). You can also explore the wizarding world in Hogwarts Legacy for $29.99 ($30 off) and play some of Sony’s best PS4 titles on PC with the likes of God of War ($24.99, $25 off), The Last of Us Part I ($40.19, about $20 off), and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered ($35.99, $24 off).

If you want the newest iPad Air with M2, it’s going to cost you at least $599 for the 11-inch model. It’s a less impressive upgrade over its predecessor than the well-reviewed iPad Pro, however, and the original still holds up well if you just need a solid tablet that should continue to receive most new iPadOS features for the foreseeable future. You’d get considerable savings, too, as the base M1 iPad Air with 64GB of storage is down to $399 ($200 off) at Amazon and Walmart, a new all-time-low price that beats the previous record by a full $100. The 256GB M1 iPad Air also has a new price record of $599 ($150 off) at Amazon in select colors.

It’s possible Apple or its retail partners will keep the 2022 Air around as a value buy, so maybe this steep discount reflects a pending permanent price cut. Whatever the case, $399 is a fantastic price for the tablet. Compared to the refresh that launched just yesterday, it’s really only missing out on Apple Pencil Pro support, the M2-exclusive Apple Pencil hover feature, and Wi-Fi 6E (but Wi-Fi 6 is still good). There’s also no option to step up to a bigger 13-inch model. Otherwise, it still has more power than most people will likely ever need in a tablet, with its biggest strengths being a beautiful 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, a lightweight profile, and support for the second-gen Apple Pencil and the original Magic Keyboard.

Read our Apple iPad Air (2022) review.

Don’t miss these other great deals

Whether you’re getting the new Pixel 8A or have one of the family’s loftier devices and need a new pair of wireless earbuds, we typically recommend Google’s Pixel Buds Pro, which are down to $139.99 ($60 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, matching the all-time low. The Pixel Buds Pro earn their merit as a very competent pair of earbuds when it comes to common qualities, such as very good sound with solid noise cancellation, long battery life, and reliable connectivity that evaded some older models. You can have an enjoyable listen paired with any phone, but they’re even better if you have a Pixel thanks to exclusive features like spatial audio. Read our review.
The Hatch Restore 2, one of our favorite sleep gadgets, is down to $169.99 ($30 off) at Amazon and Hatch, which is only $10 more than the all-time low. Besides the generous assortment of built-in sleep sounds, it features an embedded dot-matrix LED clock and a light that glows just bright enough to keep you from stubbing your toe on the nightstand during midnight bathroom runs. It can also play sunrise alarms that wake you up with gradual gentle sounds designed not to disrupt your circadian rhythm. You can sign up for Hatch Plus ($4.99 a month or $49.99 a year) to add custom unwind routines, music, meditation, sleep guidance, and other exclusive content. Read our review.
Now through May 31st, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, and Nintendo Switch is down to $24.99 ($35 off) at Woot, which is the lowest price we’ve seen so far. The collection includes the most classic games from the stealth ops franchise. You’ll get the first three Metal Gear Solid games that launched on the PS1 and PS2, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, and Snake’s Revenge, which is a spiritual, noncanonical successor to the original Metal Gear that was only released in North America for the NES. The disc also packs digital art books, screenplays, cinematic videos, graphic novels, and digital soundtracks to enjoy.

Read More 

A family subscription is also coming to Strava. | Image: Strava

There’s new leadership at Strava, and they want everyone to know the platform is about to get a bunch of new features, starting with the highly requested dark mode, a family subscription plan, night heatmaps, and, of course, AI.
Dark mode as a concept has been around for ages, but it’s been a recurring source of consternation for Strava users on Reddit forums. For those folks, the good news is dark mode will arrive later this summer, and users can choose between permanently keeping the app in dark mode or matching a user’s phone settings. More good news: it’ll be available for both subscribers and free users.
“There’s been a lot of investment that had to go in for an app that launched in 2009 to be able to get to a place where we could launch dark mode,” says Matt Salazar, Strava’s chief product officer. “I think one of the things I’d want our community to know is, hey, we heard you on all your feature desires. We’re committed to accelerating the pace of that and getting those features out sooner.”

Image: Strava
Night heatmaps are meant to give athletes a sense of which routes are well-trafficked between sunset and sunrise.

As for AI-enabled features, there are quite a few. The big one is the Athlete Intelligence Beta, which creates digestible summaries of your training data. According to Salazar, it uses large language models to interpret your data and “give it to you in plain English.” As in, it’ll give users insights into how well they did on a particular workout, parsing what individual stats mean in relation to overall goals, and providing some suggestions on how to get better. It’ll also take into consideration whether you’re trying to prepare for a race or recover from an injury.
“It’s not a chatbot situation,” Salazar says, noting that Strava made a deliberate choice not to implement a chatbot. For context, Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered coach to its app last year, while then-Fitbit CEO James Park also teased an AI chatbot for Fitbit at Made by Google in October. “It’s more of a summary aspect, but I think that’s really where athletes are going to find value.”
Strava’s also adding something called AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity. In a nutshell, it’ll weed out the cheaters by using machine learning to flag “irregular, improbable, or impossible” activities recorded on the platform. For instance, it might alert you that an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular bike ride and nudge you to correct it.

Making Strava more appealing to women is also on the agenda. On that front, the app is adding night heatmaps. (Heatmaps show popular routes among a fitness app’s users.) The filter lets athletes see which roads, trails, and paths are well-trafficked between the hours of sunset and sunrise. It’s not a perfect solution, as many female athletes, myself included, often choose to avoid running or cycling at night for safety reasons. This only tells you if a route is popular — it’d be slightly more helpful if you could also see information on how well-lit that route is or if it’s in a highly populated area. However, the move is aimed at helping athletes who do choose to partake in nighttime activities to be more informed.
Lastly, Strava is also adding a family subscription plan so that premium features can be more affordable. You can add up to three other people on a plan, and there are no restrictions as to who you can add. Salazar said the company is still working out pricing, however, and there’s a chance that the final subscription price will vary depending on region. The plan will launch in a few test markets this summer, with a planned global rollout by the end of the year.

A family subscription is also coming to Strava. | Image: Strava

There’s new leadership at Strava, and they want everyone to know the platform is about to get a bunch of new features, starting with the highly requested dark mode, a family subscription plan, night heatmaps, and, of course, AI.

Dark mode as a concept has been around for ages, but it’s been a recurring source of consternation for Strava users on Reddit forums. For those folks, the good news is dark mode will arrive later this summer, and users can choose between permanently keeping the app in dark mode or matching a user’s phone settings. More good news: it’ll be available for both subscribers and free users.

“There’s been a lot of investment that had to go in for an app that launched in 2009 to be able to get to a place where we could launch dark mode,” says Matt Salazar, Strava’s chief product officer. “I think one of the things I’d want our community to know is, hey, we heard you on all your feature desires. We’re committed to accelerating the pace of that and getting those features out sooner.”

Image: Strava
Night heatmaps are meant to give athletes a sense of which routes are well-trafficked between sunset and sunrise.

As for AI-enabled features, there are quite a few. The big one is the Athlete Intelligence Beta, which creates digestible summaries of your training data. According to Salazar, it uses large language models to interpret your data and “give it to you in plain English.” As in, it’ll give users insights into how well they did on a particular workout, parsing what individual stats mean in relation to overall goals, and providing some suggestions on how to get better. It’ll also take into consideration whether you’re trying to prepare for a race or recover from an injury.

“It’s not a chatbot situation,” Salazar says, noting that Strava made a deliberate choice not to implement a chatbot. For context, Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered coach to its app last year, while then-Fitbit CEO James Park also teased an AI chatbot for Fitbit at Made by Google in October. “It’s more of a summary aspect, but I think that’s really where athletes are going to find value.”

Strava’s also adding something called AI-enabled Leaderboard Integrity. In a nutshell, it’ll weed out the cheaters by using machine learning to flag “irregular, improbable, or impossible” activities recorded on the platform. For instance, it might alert you that an impossibly fast e-bike ride has been mislabeled as a regular bike ride and nudge you to correct it.

Making Strava more appealing to women is also on the agenda. On that front, the app is adding night heatmaps. (Heatmaps show popular routes among a fitness app’s users.) The filter lets athletes see which roads, trails, and paths are well-trafficked between the hours of sunset and sunrise. It’s not a perfect solution, as many female athletes, myself included, often choose to avoid running or cycling at night for safety reasons. This only tells you if a route is popular — it’d be slightly more helpful if you could also see information on how well-lit that route is or if it’s in a highly populated area. However, the move is aimed at helping athletes who do choose to partake in nighttime activities to be more informed.

Lastly, Strava is also adding a family subscription plan so that premium features can be more affordable. You can add up to three other people on a plan, and there are no restrictions as to who you can add. Salazar said the company is still working out pricing, however, and there’s a chance that the final subscription price will vary depending on region. The plan will launch in a few test markets this summer, with a planned global rollout by the end of the year.

Read More 

Image: Annapurna Interactive

I’ve probably spent more time in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes jotting down notes and theories than I have actually playing the game. The latest release from Simogo — the Swedish studio behind eclectic titles like Year Walk and Device 6 — is a mystery game that is absolutely dense with puzzles. The sheer scale of it is initially intimidating. Everything in the game is locked behind a door of some kind, and figuring out how to open them involves navigating a deluge of cryptic, strange, and often confusing clues. But once I gave myself over to the game’s logic, it all made a certain kind of sense. Eventually, it was all I could think about, and I have the notebook full of scribbled solutions to prove it.
There’s very little setup. You arrive at a seemingly abandoned hotel in the woods, prompted by a mysterious letter from a cult film director, and from there, well, you’ll have to figure it out yourself. There are some overt goals, like finding some missing script pages for the director, but mostly, the job is to solve puzzles to open up more of this monochrome world and thus learn more about what the hell is going on. The story and puzzles are tightly intertwined, so each solution usually comes with a fresh nugget of narrative. Those nuggets get increasingly weird, full of ghosts, murder, mazes, and obscure movies. And coffee. It’s sort of like if David Lynch designed an escape room.

It’s intimidating at first because Lorelei and the Laser Eyes locks literally everything away. Once you get into the hotel grounds — which, naturally, involves figuring out the code for a padlock — virtually every part of the building is inaccessible, hidden behind some kind of puzzle to solve, which then leads to another puzzle. The first time I unlocked a door, I was so excited, only to discover the only thing inside was a locked safe.
It’s sort of like if David Lynch designed an escape room
Often, those puzzles seem to make no sense at all. It required some patience (and faith in the developers), but eventually, I was able to slowly start finding solutions, and each one brought a new insight. Here’s a small list of some of the things you’ll need to deal with to find answers in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: Roman numerals, the Greek alphabet, modern art, obscure (fictional) Italian movies, the phases of the Moon, PS1-era video games, and, unfortunately, basic math.
It all sounds like too much until you realize that every solution is somewhere inside the game itself. Once I came to the realization that everything was a clue, it all clicked into place. It’s still incredibly hard, but that “ah ha” moment made it clear that it was at least possible, which helped me push forward. If I couldn’t solve something, it was almost always because I didn’t have the right information yet. Thankfully, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes gives you a lot of tools to find that information; the main character has a photographic memory, so you have a running list of every important document, image, and memory for future reference. Even still, I’d say a notebook is required for working out some of the more difficult solutions.

Image: Annapurna Interactive

There’s a remarkable cohesiveness to the game, where the various elements build on top of each other, and nothing is there by chance. Even the most obscure detail makes sense eventually. It’s hard to think of another game where every part seems to connect in such a natural way. The closest equivalent might be The Witness, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes links its story and gameplay on a deeper level and does so with an enviable amount of style and personality.
That shouldn’t be a surprise coming from the team behind the slick Sayonara Wild Hearts. The studio’s new game has the dark undertone of noir but with visual influences ranging from classic video games to Saul Bass to Lynch. It’s also a surprisingly playful experience, full of delightful interactions; at a certain point, you can even mail-order playable cartridges for an in-universe Game Boy. It’s weird and unsettling and lovable, and it looks great doing it.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is also part of a truly incredible run of recent indie games, including the likes of Hades II, Manor Lords, Crow Country, and Animal Well. It’s a tough crowd to stand out in, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes does just that with its seamless blend of puzzles, style, and eerie worldbuilding. Just make sure you have a notebook handy.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes launches May 16th on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Image: Annapurna Interactive

I’ve probably spent more time in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes jotting down notes and theories than I have actually playing the game. The latest release from Simogo — the Swedish studio behind eclectic titles like Year Walk and Device 6 — is a mystery game that is absolutely dense with puzzles. The sheer scale of it is initially intimidating. Everything in the game is locked behind a door of some kind, and figuring out how to open them involves navigating a deluge of cryptic, strange, and often confusing clues. But once I gave myself over to the game’s logic, it all made a certain kind of sense. Eventually, it was all I could think about, and I have the notebook full of scribbled solutions to prove it.

There’s very little setup. You arrive at a seemingly abandoned hotel in the woods, prompted by a mysterious letter from a cult film director, and from there, well, you’ll have to figure it out yourself. There are some overt goals, like finding some missing script pages for the director, but mostly, the job is to solve puzzles to open up more of this monochrome world and thus learn more about what the hell is going on. The story and puzzles are tightly intertwined, so each solution usually comes with a fresh nugget of narrative. Those nuggets get increasingly weird, full of ghosts, murder, mazes, and obscure movies. And coffee. It’s sort of like if David Lynch designed an escape room.

It’s intimidating at first because Lorelei and the Laser Eyes locks literally everything away. Once you get into the hotel grounds — which, naturally, involves figuring out the code for a padlock — virtually every part of the building is inaccessible, hidden behind some kind of puzzle to solve, which then leads to another puzzle. The first time I unlocked a door, I was so excited, only to discover the only thing inside was a locked safe.

Often, those puzzles seem to make no sense at all. It required some patience (and faith in the developers), but eventually, I was able to slowly start finding solutions, and each one brought a new insight. Here’s a small list of some of the things you’ll need to deal with to find answers in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: Roman numerals, the Greek alphabet, modern art, obscure (fictional) Italian movies, the phases of the Moon, PS1-era video games, and, unfortunately, basic math.

It all sounds like too much until you realize that every solution is somewhere inside the game itself. Once I came to the realization that everything was a clue, it all clicked into place. It’s still incredibly hard, but that “ah ha” moment made it clear that it was at least possible, which helped me push forward. If I couldn’t solve something, it was almost always because I didn’t have the right information yet. Thankfully, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes gives you a lot of tools to find that information; the main character has a photographic memory, so you have a running list of every important document, image, and memory for future reference. Even still, I’d say a notebook is required for working out some of the more difficult solutions.

There’s a remarkable cohesiveness to the game, where the various elements build on top of each other, and nothing is there by chance. Even the most obscure detail makes sense eventually. It’s hard to think of another game where every part seems to connect in such a natural way. The closest equivalent might be The Witness, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes links its story and gameplay on a deeper level and does so with an enviable amount of style and personality.

That shouldn’t be a surprise coming from the team behind the slick Sayonara Wild Hearts. The studio’s new game has the dark undertone of noir but with visual influences ranging from classic video games to Saul Bass to Lynch. It’s also a surprisingly playful experience, full of delightful interactions; at a certain point, you can even mail-order playable cartridges for an in-universe Game Boy. It’s weird and unsettling and lovable, and it looks great doing it.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is also part of a truly incredible run of recent indie games, including the likes of Hades II, Manor Lords, Crow Country, and Animal Well. It’s a tough crowd to stand out in, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes does just that with its seamless blend of puzzles, style, and eerie worldbuilding. Just make sure you have a notebook handy.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes launches May 16th on the Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Read More 

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut debuts on PC today, and it’s the first game to feature Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay and shared Trophies system. I’ve had a chance to get a first look at this new overlay, and my initial impression is that it’s really unobtrusive, clean, and simple.
There are five main sections here: search, friends, Trophies, profile, and settings. Search lets you find other PlayStation players and add them as friends, whereas the friends section lists both your online and offline friends. You can see your friends’ Trophies, but you can’t message friends or party chat from this overlay, unfortunately. You’ll have to use in-game chat if you want to speak to a console friend, or just use Discord.

GIF by Tom Warren / The Verge
The PlayStation PC overlay in action.

The Trophies system works just as you’d expect, by syncing Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut trophies from the PS5 version of the game to PC, and vice versa. You just sign in to your PlayStation Network ID, and the overlay and Trophies are both available.
The profile section lets you view all your existing Trophies across all your PlayStation games, and the settings section is largely web links to account management, privacy settings, and PlayStation support. There are settings to enable or disable notifications for Trophies, and the ability to see who you’ve blocked on PSN.
Overall, the PlayStation PC overlay works much like Steam’s, in the sense that it’s only active within a game. Sony hasn’t created something that’s constantly running in the background like Nvidia’s GeForce Experience or Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar.

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
A trio of notifications will greet you if you haven’t disabled GeForce Experience and the Steam overlay pop-ups.

I did notice that if you haven’t disabled notifications for the GeForce Experience and Steam overlays, then you’ll get a trio of pop-up notices when you start Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut because the PlayStation one also has its own notification. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable the PlayStation notification, as the pop-up notifications toggle doesn’t affect this particular message.
Still, the overlay looks and feels lightweight, even if it’s a little basic right now. Nixxes Software, the in-house port developer that Sony acquired in 2021, helped create it, and I’m hoping this simple start will lead to even more features in the future. It sure would be great to have the option of using the voice chat features of the PlayStation Network instead of having to use in-game chat or Discord. Sony is increasingly investing in the PC space, so there’s a good chance this PlayStation overlay improves over time.
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is available now on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut debuts on PC today, and it’s the first game to feature Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay and shared Trophies system. I’ve had a chance to get a first look at this new overlay, and my initial impression is that it’s really unobtrusive, clean, and simple.

There are five main sections here: search, friends, Trophies, profile, and settings. Search lets you find other PlayStation players and add them as friends, whereas the friends section lists both your online and offline friends. You can see your friends’ Trophies, but you can’t message friends or party chat from this overlay, unfortunately. You’ll have to use in-game chat if you want to speak to a console friend, or just use Discord.

GIF by Tom Warren / The Verge
The PlayStation PC overlay in action.

The Trophies system works just as you’d expect, by syncing Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut trophies from the PS5 version of the game to PC, and vice versa. You just sign in to your PlayStation Network ID, and the overlay and Trophies are both available.

The profile section lets you view all your existing Trophies across all your PlayStation games, and the settings section is largely web links to account management, privacy settings, and PlayStation support. There are settings to enable or disable notifications for Trophies, and the ability to see who you’ve blocked on PSN.

Overall, the PlayStation PC overlay works much like Steam’s, in the sense that it’s only active within a game. Sony hasn’t created something that’s constantly running in the background like Nvidia’s GeForce Experience or Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar.

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge
A trio of notifications will greet you if you haven’t disabled GeForce Experience and the Steam overlay pop-ups.

I did notice that if you haven’t disabled notifications for the GeForce Experience and Steam overlays, then you’ll get a trio of pop-up notices when you start Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut because the PlayStation one also has its own notification. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disable the PlayStation notification, as the pop-up notifications toggle doesn’t affect this particular message.

Still, the overlay looks and feels lightweight, even if it’s a little basic right now. Nixxes Software, the in-house port developer that Sony acquired in 2021, helped create it, and I’m hoping this simple start will lead to even more features in the future. It sure would be great to have the option of using the voice chat features of the PlayStation Network instead of having to use in-game chat or Discord. Sony is increasingly investing in the PC space, so there’s a good chance this PlayStation overlay improves over time.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is available now on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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The new Ricoh GR III HDF has a highlight diffusion filter instead of an ND filter. | Alex Parkin, The Verge

When Ricoh launched its very first office copier, the Ricopy 101, in 1955, the product’s popularity sparked a term — supposedly folks would say “make a Ricopy” instead of “make a copy.” And with the company’s current camera lineup, the GR III, they have made a lot of Ricopies, making only slight changes to each of the pocket-sized point-and-shoot cameras year over year.
The latest of which is the $1,066.95 Ricoh GR III HDF. It has the same 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor and external hardware as all of the other GR III cameras, including the first GR III camera that was released in 2019. But what makes it worth talking about today is the new “HDF” part of its name. It stands for “high diffusion filter.” Whereas previous Ricoh cameras had a built-in ND filter, which you can think of as sunglasses for your camera that minimize the amount of light hitting the sensor, the GR III HDF has a diffusion filter instead. When enabled, this causes highlights, such as a backlight on someone’s head, to diffuse or spread out. It also ever so slightly, and I cannot stress every so slightly enough, softens the image as a whole.
I spent over three weeks with the Ricoh GR III HDF. And while I appreciate Ricoh dropping the ND filter, which I rarely enabled in previous GR III cameras, for something I have been playing with a lot more, the HDF filter, the core tech of the camera is starting to feel dated. Tune in to my video above for more on that and loads of photo samples with the new diffusion filter.

The new Ricoh GR III HDF has a highlight diffusion filter instead of an ND filter. | Alex Parkin, The Verge

When Ricoh launched its very first office copier, the Ricopy 101, in 1955, the product’s popularity sparked a term — supposedly folks would say “make a Ricopy” instead of “make a copy.” And with the company’s current camera lineup, the GR III, they have made a lot of Ricopies, making only slight changes to each of the pocket-sized point-and-shoot cameras year over year.

The latest of which is the $1,066.95 Ricoh GR III HDF. It has the same 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor and external hardware as all of the other GR III cameras, including the first GR III camera that was released in 2019. But what makes it worth talking about today is the new “HDF” part of its name. It stands for “high diffusion filter.” Whereas previous Ricoh cameras had a built-in ND filter, which you can think of as sunglasses for your camera that minimize the amount of light hitting the sensor, the GR III HDF has a diffusion filter instead. When enabled, this causes highlights, such as a backlight on someone’s head, to diffuse or spread out. It also ever so slightly, and I cannot stress every so slightly enough, softens the image as a whole.

I spent over three weeks with the Ricoh GR III HDF. And while I appreciate Ricoh dropping the ND filter, which I rarely enabled in previous GR III cameras, for something I have been playing with a lot more, the HDF filter, the core tech of the camera is starting to feel dated. Tune in to my video above for more on that and loads of photo samples with the new diffusion filter.

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Photo by David Gray / AFP via Getty Images

The House passed the TICKET Act 388-24 on Wednesday, which would force ticket sellers to show consumers total prices (including fees) upfront and guarantee refunds when events are canceled or postponed.
The bill would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law, but the overwhelming support in the House is a positive sign. The legislation comes after the Ticketmaster fiasco around Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets, where the ticket-selling platform canceled general sales after high demand it later partially blamed on bots. That prompted lawmakers to haul its top exec from its parent company, Live Nation, into a hearing. In the wake of the disaster, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice was investigating Live Nation over whether it violated antitrust law by abusing its dominance in the live events industry.
Meanwhile, eliminating junk fees has been a key focus of the Biden administration through the president’s competition agenda and executive order and actions by the Federal Trade Commission. Junk fees are the hidden fees that often pop up later in the buying process, like processing fees or service charges that inflate the overall price.
The TICKET Act would add extra protections for consumers seeking to buy tickets online, like banning speculative ticketing or selling a ticket without actually possessing it. It would also prohibit ticketing and resale sites from certain deceptive practices, like using URL names that sound like an official venue, to crack down on fraud.

Photo by David Gray / AFP via Getty Images

The House passed the TICKET Act 388-24 on Wednesday, which would force ticket sellers to show consumers total prices (including fees) upfront and guarantee refunds when events are canceled or postponed.

The bill would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law, but the overwhelming support in the House is a positive sign. The legislation comes after the Ticketmaster fiasco around Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets, where the ticket-selling platform canceled general sales after high demand it later partially blamed on bots. That prompted lawmakers to haul its top exec from its parent company, Live Nation, into a hearing. In the wake of the disaster, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice was investigating Live Nation over whether it violated antitrust law by abusing its dominance in the live events industry.

Meanwhile, eliminating junk fees has been a key focus of the Biden administration through the president’s competition agenda and executive order and actions by the Federal Trade Commission. Junk fees are the hidden fees that often pop up later in the buying process, like processing fees or service charges that inflate the overall price.

The TICKET Act would add extra protections for consumers seeking to buy tickets online, like banning speculative ticketing or selling a ticket without actually possessing it. It would also prohibit ticketing and resale sites from certain deceptive practices, like using URL names that sound like an official venue, to crack down on fraud.

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Illustration: The Verge

Meta is starting to test a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads today. It will allow Threads users to create customizable feeds that are stacked in a column interface on the web — just like TweetDeck did before it became a paid service and was rebranded to X Pro last year.
“If you’re in the test, you can choose to keep things simple with a single feed, or add separate columns for your favorite searches, tags, accounts, saved posts, and notifications,” explains Meta spokesperson Seine Kim in a statement to The Verge. “You can choose to have specific columns auto-update in real time.”

Image: Meta
The new TweetDeck-like web experience for Threads.

Meta will be selecting Threads users to test this new experience in the web version of Threads, and a screenshot shows that it’s very similar to TweetDeck. You can choose whether a column automatically updates with the latest posts and pin columns full of search results or posts from a single user profile.
This new interface is likely a response to common complaints from Threads power users about being forced into the algorithm-powered For You feed every time you visit Threads on the web. Threads does have a real-time Following feed, but you have to bookmark the following URL or switch every time you load Threads on the web. The same thing happens on the mobile apps, as Meta has hidden the Following feed beneath a tap on the main Threads logo.

TweetDeck was a popular third-party app for accessing Twitter before the company acquired it in 2011. Features like multiple account support and customizable feeds made it a popular tool for power users, journalists, and marketers who used Twitter daily. You now have to pay for an X Premium account ($8 a month) if you want to access the rebranded X Pro.
Alongside this new TweetDeck-like UI on Threads, Meta is also launching a chronological recent tab for searches on the service. “Search results here are still evaluated for quality, but you can now see them in chronological order,” says Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.

Illustration: The Verge

Meta is starting to test a TweetDeck-like experience for Threads today. It will allow Threads users to create customizable feeds that are stacked in a column interface on the web — just like TweetDeck did before it became a paid service and was rebranded to X Pro last year.

“If you’re in the test, you can choose to keep things simple with a single feed, or add separate columns for your favorite searches, tags, accounts, saved posts, and notifications,” explains Meta spokesperson Seine Kim in a statement to The Verge. “You can choose to have specific columns auto-update in real time.”

Image: Meta
The new TweetDeck-like web experience for Threads.

Meta will be selecting Threads users to test this new experience in the web version of Threads, and a screenshot shows that it’s very similar to TweetDeck. You can choose whether a column automatically updates with the latest posts and pin columns full of search results or posts from a single user profile.

This new interface is likely a response to common complaints from Threads power users about being forced into the algorithm-powered For You feed every time you visit Threads on the web. Threads does have a real-time Following feed, but you have to bookmark the following URL or switch every time you load Threads on the web. The same thing happens on the mobile apps, as Meta has hidden the Following feed beneath a tap on the main Threads logo.

TweetDeck was a popular third-party app for accessing Twitter before the company acquired it in 2011. Features like multiple account support and customizable feeds made it a popular tool for power users, journalists, and marketers who used Twitter daily. You now have to pay for an X Premium account ($8 a month) if you want to access the rebranded X Pro.

Alongside this new TweetDeck-like UI on Threads, Meta is also launching a chronological recent tab for searches on the service. “Search results here are still evaluated for quality, but you can now see them in chronological order,” says Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

A June 3rd deadline is approaching to either file a claim connected to this class action lawsuit against Apple or opt out. If you purchased an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus that suffered from microphone audio issues, you may be eligible to claim from a settlement pool of $35 million, with amounts ranging from at least $50 to as much as $394.
Customers who have used one of the devices between the dates of September 16th, 2016, and January 3rd, 2023, are potentially eligible to make a claim, but the requirements are pretty strict. Eligible parties fall into one of two groups: people who paid out of pocket for repairs on their iPhone 7 or 7 Plus due to audio issues or customers who are on the books as having reported a problem that didn’t pay for a repair.

Members who paid Apple out of pocket for repairs or replacements for Covered Issues, as reflected in Apple’s records, who do not opt out and timely submit payment information to the Settlement Administrator will receive an equal payment of at least $50 and no more than $349.
Settlement Class Members who reported Covered Issues to Apple, but who did not pay Apple out of pocket for repairs or replacements for Covered Issues, will receive an equal payment of up to $125.

For those unsure if they’re included in the settlement class, check the FAQ for more details or call the toll-free number, 1-833-633-0343.
According to Apple’s statement in the settlement proposal, its records showed that “…on average, following alleged manifestation, customers paid $193 in out-of-pocket expenses to Apple for repairs or replacements allegedly related to the Covered Issues.”
MacRumors reported in 2018 that a document sent to Apple Authorized Service Providers acknowledged microphone audio issues with some iPhone 7 devices running iOS 11.3; however, in the settlement, “Apple denies all of the allegations made in the Lawsuit, denies that the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus experienced any audio issues, and denies that Apple did anything improper or unlawful.”

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

A June 3rd deadline is approaching to either file a claim connected to this class action lawsuit against Apple or opt out. If you purchased an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus that suffered from microphone audio issues, you may be eligible to claim from a settlement pool of $35 million, with amounts ranging from at least $50 to as much as $394.

Customers who have used one of the devices between the dates of September 16th, 2016, and January 3rd, 2023, are potentially eligible to make a claim, but the requirements are pretty strict. Eligible parties fall into one of two groups: people who paid out of pocket for repairs on their iPhone 7 or 7 Plus due to audio issues or customers who are on the books as having reported a problem that didn’t pay for a repair.

Members who paid Apple out of pocket for repairs or replacements for Covered Issues, as reflected in Apple’s records, who do not opt out and timely submit payment information to the Settlement Administrator will receive an equal payment of at least $50 and no more than $349.

Settlement Class Members who reported Covered Issues to Apple, but who did not pay Apple out of pocket for repairs or replacements for Covered Issues, will receive an equal payment of up to $125.

For those unsure if they’re included in the settlement class, check the FAQ for more details or call the toll-free number, 1-833-633-0343.

According to Apple’s statement in the settlement proposal, its records showed that “…on average, following alleged manifestation, customers paid $193 in out-of-pocket expenses to Apple for repairs or replacements allegedly related to the Covered Issues.”

MacRumors reported in 2018 that a document sent to Apple Authorized Service Providers acknowledged microphone audio issues with some iPhone 7 devices running iOS 11.3; however, in the settlement, “Apple denies all of the allegations made in the Lawsuit, denies that the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus experienced any audio issues, and denies that Apple did anything improper or unlawful.”

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Venu Sports is supposedly the next big thing in sports streaming. | Image: Venu Sports

A new sports streaming service is coming later this year. We’ve known for months who is working on the service; it’s a co-venture from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Now, we also know what it’s going to be called: Venu Sports.
The naming announcement comes a few months after the three networks said they were planning to launch a “differentiated sports-centric service,” a much-needed simplification of an increasingly chaotic sports streaming landscape. Sports rights are more expensive than ever and are being split up among more partners than ever, so having a way to share costs, infrastructure, and content makes a lot of sense.
Initially, insiders took to calling the service Hulu For Sports, or Spulu for short. The actual name — which I’m assuming is pronounced like “venue,” only with a much more trademarkable spelling and a .com domain that was surely easier to acquire — definitely rolls off the tongue a bit better than “Spulu.” Venu Sports is meant to give sports fans a single place (a venue, if you will) to watch everything they care about.
It’s definitely better than “Spulu”
The Fox, ESPN, and Warner Bros. combo does account for a lot of sports: Venu will presumably have access to all the ESPN channels and ESPN Plus content, plus ABC, Fox, Fox Sports, TNT, TBS, and everything you’d find on Max through Bleacher Report. Without partners like Paramount and NBC on board, though, it’s missing big-ticket things like the Olympics this summer and much of the NFL.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about Venu itself, too. How much will it cost? What will it look like? Will it compete for streaming rights on its own or just coast on its owners’ existing deals? Will it pass regulatory scrutiny and be allowed to launch at all? How does this change Disney’s plan to bring ESPN into Disney Plus or launch a streaming-only version of the ESPN channel next year?
There have been questions about the three companies’ ability to find a deal that works for everyone, and those questions won’t go away even when and if Venu actually launches. Even Venu’s press release today acknowledges that “the formation and launch of the new service is subject to regulatory approval and the finalization of definitive agreements amongst the parties.” The service is apparently on schedule to launch this fall, but it’s not done yet.
In a moment where the streaming industry is re-bundling back toward something like cable, sports is still getting more complicated. I mean, Netflix has football games this year. This is all going to get worse before it gets better. But it might get a little better this fall.

Venu Sports is supposedly the next big thing in sports streaming. | Image: Venu Sports

A new sports streaming service is coming later this year. We’ve known for months who is working on the service; it’s a co-venture from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Now, we also know what it’s going to be called: Venu Sports.

The naming announcement comes a few months after the three networks said they were planning to launch a “differentiated sports-centric service,” a much-needed simplification of an increasingly chaotic sports streaming landscape. Sports rights are more expensive than ever and are being split up among more partners than ever, so having a way to share costs, infrastructure, and content makes a lot of sense.

Initially, insiders took to calling the service Hulu For Sports, or Spulu for short. The actual name — which I’m assuming is pronounced like “venue,” only with a much more trademarkable spelling and a .com domain that was surely easier to acquire — definitely rolls off the tongue a bit better than “Spulu.” Venu Sports is meant to give sports fans a single place (a venue, if you will) to watch everything they care about.

The Fox, ESPN, and Warner Bros. combo does account for a lot of sports: Venu will presumably have access to all the ESPN channels and ESPN Plus content, plus ABC, Fox, Fox Sports, TNT, TBS, and everything you’d find on Max through Bleacher Report. Without partners like Paramount and NBC on board, though, it’s missing big-ticket things like the Olympics this summer and much of the NFL.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Venu itself, too. How much will it cost? What will it look like? Will it compete for streaming rights on its own or just coast on its owners’ existing deals? Will it pass regulatory scrutiny and be allowed to launch at all? How does this change Disney’s plan to bring ESPN into Disney Plus or launch a streaming-only version of the ESPN channel next year?

There have been questions about the three companies’ ability to find a deal that works for everyone, and those questions won’t go away even when and if Venu actually launches. Even Venu’s press release today acknowledges that “the formation and launch of the new service is subject to regulatory approval and the finalization of definitive agreements amongst the parties.” The service is apparently on schedule to launch this fall, but it’s not done yet.

In a moment where the streaming industry is re-bundling back toward something like cable, sports is still getting more complicated. I mean, Netflix has football games this year. This is all going to get worse before it gets better. But it might get a little better this fall.

Read More