Former Amazon hardware boss Dave Limp will take over as CEO of Blue Origin Amazon’s former hardware boss Dave Limp will take on the role of CEO at Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin after announcing his departure from Amazon, according to a report from CNBC. Internal documents obtained by the outlet reveal that Limp will replace outgoing Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith starting on December 4th. In August, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announce…

YouTube is axing its ad-free Premium Lite subscription plan Raise your hand if you never heard of YouTube Premium Lite but now wish it was available in your area. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The VergeAfter YouTube spent two years piloting Premium Lite, a lower-cost subscription plan for ad-free video viewing in select countries, the platform is pulling the plug on the tier. In an email to customers, Yo…

Know the price-matching policies for Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeNothing is more frustrating than buying a new pair of headphones, an OLED TV, or a backpack just to find out that you could have gotten it for a lot cheaper somewhere else. In order to keep customers happy — and prevent them from going elsewhere — many retailers offer price-matching policies where they pro…

Tinder Select is a $499 per month plan for Tinder’s 1 percent Illustration: The VergeTinder announced a $499 per month invite-only subscription, Tinder Select, on Friday, Bloomberg reports. As part of the premium plan, subscribers can message people they’ve not matched with, while the “most sought-after” users will see their profiles. Tinder says it only offers the plan to less than 1 percent of its users …

Festival movies you can stream from home very soon Pain Hustlers. | Image: Brian Douglas / NetflixFilm festivals like TIFF are a great chance to get a sense of what’s coming to theaters in the coming months, but they’re also a good way to preview the upcoming streaming calendar. Last year in Toronto, for example, Netflix gave an early look at two of its biggest releases with both Wendell & Wild …

Nissan’s racy new EV concept previews an all-electric future in Europe Nissan’s Concept 20-23. | Image: NissanNissan is previewing a new sporty, Micro Machines-looking all-electric concept vehicle for Europe that signals its plans to go all-electric in the continent by 2030. Designed by Nissan’s London design team, the non-production EV hatchback (called Concept 20-23) with circle daytime-running lights is compact…

Facebook can be sued over biased ad algorithm, says court Illustration: Nick Barclay / The VergeFacebook can be sued over allegations that its advertising algorithm is discriminatory, a California state court of appeals ruled last week. The decision stems from a class action lawsuit filed against Facebook in 2020, which accused the company of not showing insurance ads to women and older people in viola…

Unity finally addressed developers’ biggest questions about its new pricing model Illustration by Cath Virginia / The VergeUnity executive Marc Whitten participated in a fireside chat that addressed the company’s new pricing program, the backlash it caused, and what it’s doing to win back developer trust. Continue reading…

Gmail’s basic HTML view will go to the Google graveyard in 2024 Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeGoogle will send Gmail’s basic HTML view sailing into the great beyond starting in January 2024, after which time everyone who uses it will be switched to the service’s far more modern “Standard” view. The change appears to have been announced around September 19th in a Google support article. Though the va…

Reddit is going to let you turn gold into money Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeReddit is going to let users spin Reddit gold into real money as part of its new “Contributor Program,” the company announced on Monday. It also shared details on the replacement for its old Reddit Gold system that let users show extra appreciation for posts or posts that they liked. Let’s start with the Re…

Apple’s discontinued MagSafe Duo charger is on sale for $35 off The port on the MagSafe Duo itself is Lightning, which may not matter too much if you’re not traveling with the charger. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The VergeIt’s officially autumn. The weather is starting to turn for many of us, and there are USB-C iPhones now out there in the world. The winds of change also mean there’s a nice deal to be had on o…

Leaked Pixel 8 Pro deal shows Google will throw in a Pixel Watch 2 for free The Pixel Watch 2. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The VergeGoogle will apparently give you a free Pixel Watch 2 if you preorder a Pixel 8 Pro, according to a promotional image posted by Kamila Wojciechowska. Wojciechowska also posted other leaks, including one published by 91mobiles with a promotional video that confirms previously rumored details ab…

Apple’s Eddy Cue will take the stand Tuesday in the Google antitrust case Eddy Cue, left, with Apple CEO Tim Cook. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty ImagesApple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is set to testify at the US v. Google antitrust trial on Tuesday, as the trial enters its third week. Cue’s presence, which Apple fought to avoid, underscores Apple’s importance to the Justice Department’s case against…

The Action Button is the most significant new iPhone feature in years So small, so powerful. | Image: AppleThe most significant new thing in the iPhone 15 Pro this year isn’t its lighter titanium frame, new A17 Pro processor, or its camera system (although all are appreciated). For me, it’s the Action Button: the little button above the volume keys that replaces the mute switch that had been on every iPhone since …

The Analogue Pocket is getting a delightful limited-edition transparent version Image: AnalogueAnother special edition of the Analogue Pocket handheld is on the way. Later this week, the company will be launching a new transparent version of the device, which will be available in seven different colors: clear, smoke, red, blue, orange, green, and purple. Like the recent glow-in-the-dark version of the Pocket, Analogue says …

iFixit has good news and bad news about the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s repairability Screenshot: iFixit via YouTubeWhile Apple may have made the iPhone 15 Pro Max easier to repair physically, a teardown from iFixit reveals it still comes with the same parts pairing constraints as its predecessors. Like the iPhone 14, iFixit found that the iPhone 15 lineup has a redesigned midframe that you can access by removing the device’s scr…

The AI assistant revolution is more than 50 years in the making Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeToday, we have ChatGPT, Bard, Alexa, Siri, and a thousand others. Nearly a half-century ago, there was GUS. GUS, which stood for the Genial Understander System, came out of a project at Xerox PARC in the 1970s that hoped to find ways to teach computers to understand human language. Enterprising engineers, …

The high tech behind Netflix’s old-school DVD service Illustration by Cath Virginia / The VergeOver the last 25 years, Netflix shipped more than 5 billion DVDs to millions of subscribers. The disc-by-mail service, which is shutting down this Friday, owed its success to lots of behind-the-scenes innovation. Continue reading…

Spotify is going to clone podcasters’ voices — and translate them to other languages Image: Nick Barclay / The VergeWhat if podcasters could flip a switch and instantly speak another language? That’s the premise behind Spotify’s new AI-powered voice translation feature, which reproduces podcasts in other languages using the podcaster’s own voice. The company has partnered with a handful of podcasters to translate their English-l…

You can now prompt ChatGPT with pictures and voice commands Illustration: The VergeMost of OpenAI’s changes to ChatGPT involve what the AI-powered bot can do: questions it can answer, information it can access, and improved underlying models. This time, though, it’s tweaking the way you use ChatGPT itself. The company is rolling out a new version of the service that allows you to prompt the AI bot not ju…