Fujifilm’s new Instax Pal is a $200 palm-sized digital camera bundled with a smartphone printer Image: FujifilmPolaroid recently tried pushing the envelope with the new Polaroid I-2 instant camera, and now Fujifilm’s taking a stab at it, too. On Wednesday, the company announced it’s releasing a new kind of instant film product geared for kids, the Instax Pal digital camera bundle, for $199.95 in late October. The Instax Pal is essentially…

Iconic League of Legends team TSM replaced by Shopify in pro league Image: TSMShopify is entering the League of Legends arena. On Wednesday, Shopify announced that its Rebellion esports brand will be acquiring TSM’s spot in the League Championship Series (LCS), the pro circuit for US League of Legends esports. The move marks a major change of the guard in the LCS. TSM, one of the biggest esports organizations in…

Here are the details on the grisly deaths of Elon Musk’s Neuralink monkeys Illustration by Lille Allen / The VergeElon Musk said earlier this month that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant,” but an alarming new report from Wired seems to contradict Musk’s statement. Public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and seen by Wired indicate that Neuralink’s macaqu…

Facebook changed its logo — see if you can tell the difference The old logo (left) vs. the new one (right). You might be able to guess the meme I’m linking to before you click it. | Logos: Meta; Image by Jay Peters / The VergeMeta is updating Facebook’s “identity system,” and that includes a dramatically refreshed logo. Just kidding! It’s basically exactly the same as the last one, except the blue is a dark…

Amazon confirms it’s backing away from charging an extra seller fee Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAmazon has officially halted its plans to extract a two percent fee from Prime sellers who don’t use its in-house fulfillment. The company reportedly planned to start collecting the fee on October 1st, on top of the 8-to-15-percent commission it already gathers from merchants. Amazon PR manager Jonathan Hil…

The new Echo Show 8 is smarter, speedier, and knows when you get close The third-gen Echo Show 8 has a new look and some excellent changes under the hood. | Photo by Alex Cranz / The VergeAnd Echo Show 8 makes three! Amazon now has three smart home hubs, with the Echo Show 8 (third-gen) joining the newly announced Echo Hub and existing fourth-gen Echo smart speaker in sporting both Thread and Zigbee connectivity. T…

Amazon leaders were ‘okay’ with people being secretly signed up for Prime, lawsuit alleges Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAmazon executives were “okay” with people being secretly signed up for its Amazon Prime membership program, the FTC said in an amended lawsuit on Wednesday (as reported by The Wall Street Journal). The original lawsuit, filed in June, claimed that Amazon had tricked millions into unwittingly subscribing to…

The US is going to restart its free at-home covid test kit program Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThe US government will again offer free at-home covid tests starting September 25th, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Wednesday. The kits are intended for use through the end of 2023; as with previous versions of the free test program, the kits will include four tests along …

Panasonic cuts the wires from its SoundSlayer neck speaker for gamers The Panasonic SoundSlayer (GNW10). | Image: PanasonicCompanies keep trying to make neck speakers a thing. People must be buying them, though, because Panasonic is releasing a new one: the GNW10 SoundSlayer, a wireless neck speaker with AI voice isolation (which it confusingly calls “AI voice control”) for phone calls and in-game voice chat. The …

X ranks the lowest among all social media in combating climate disinformation, study finds Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeClimate change misinformation — including that which is funded by the fossil fuel industry — continues to thrive on social media. While Google, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok are all still lagging in their moderation of climate denial content, X (formerly Twitter) appears to have no clear policies on what to do …

The Orion Video System app turns your iPad into an HDMI monitor with retro vibes Yes, you can play your docked Nintendo Switch on your iPad like it’s a portable monitor. | Image: LuxThe developer behind the popular iPhone pro camera app Halide has a new app that lets you use your iPad as an HDMI display you can use to play console games on, monitor your camera on a production set, and more. The app is called the Orion Video …

How to preorder all of the new Amazon devices, including the Echo Hub Among many iterative updates, some of Amazon’s new devices include the Echo Hub and Fire TV Soundbar. | Image: AmazonDuring Amazon’s fall hardware event, the company announced a batch of new smart home devices across its Echo, Fire, Eero, and Blink lines. While some of these Amazon product announcements have led to a deluge of Alexa-infused smar…

Echo Hub hands-on: It’s all about the widgets The $180 Echo Hub is designed to be wall-mounted but can be used as a tabletop device with a separate mount. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeAmazon was keeping close guard over its new Echo Hub smart controller in the demo room at today’s big hardware event. But I managed to get a few seconds of hands-on with a working tabletop un…

Waymo begins testing the waters for a robotaxi service in Los Angeles Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesWaymo announced a “tour across Los Angeles” that allows curious residents the opportunity to ride in fully autonomous vehicles as the Alphabet-owned company begins to lay the groundwork for the launch of a commercial robotaxi service. Waymo says it will make six multi-week “tour stop…

Amazon’s new Echo Frames hands-on: lighter, louder, still all Alexa They look mostly like glasses, right? That’s the idea. | Photo by David Pierce / The VergeAs soon as I put on Amazon’s new Echo Frames, I did the only thing you should do in that situation: I hit the button on the glasses’ left stem to turn the volume all the way up, and I said, “Alexa, play Taylor Swift.” A couple of seconds later, “Lavender Ha…

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar hands-on: it’s loud and inexpensive Yup, that’s a soundbar. | Photo by Alex Cranz / The VergeSoundbars are tricky. They need to be big enough that they sound better than the dinky speakers on your TV, but they need to be cheap enough that you don’t balk at upgrading your sound after just spending a lot of money on a TV. I didn’t get to spend enough time with Amazon’s $119.99 Fire …

OpenAI releases third version of DALL-E Image: OpenAIOpenAI announced the third version of its generative AI visual art platform DALL-E, which now lets users use ChatGPT to create prompts and includes more safety options. DALL-E converts text prompts to images. But even DALL-E 2 got things wrong, often ignoring specific wording. The latest version, OpenAI researchers said, understand…

EA taps Burnout studio Criterion to work on ‘new era’ of Battlefield Battlefield 2042. | Image: EAThings haven’t been going so well with the Battlefield franchise of late, so EA is bringing in some more help. The publisher says that starting today, “Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise.” Criterion was first acquired by EA in 2004 and is bes…

The new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad This is not good. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The VergeFolks, what you’ve heard so far is true. Apple’s new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad. Like, really bad. I’ve been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles. Picking them up, setting them down, petting them. Seven days later, I still can’t mak…

GitHub’s AI-powered coding chatbot is now available for individuals Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeMicrosoft-owned GitHub is rolling out its AI-powered coding chatbot to more people. The company launched its Copilot Chat tool in public beta for business users in July, and on Wednesday, GitHub announced that it’s available in public beta for GitHub Copilot individual users in Visual Studio and Visual Stud…