The best Labor Day deals you can already get The recently released Beats Studio Pro headphones are one of many good deals happening through Labor Day. | Photo by Chris Welch / The VergeLabor Day may mark the unofficial end to summer and that it’s time to get those kiddos back to school if they haven’t gone already, but it’s also one of the last big sales weekends before the holiday shoppin…

The annual cost of owning a car has skyrocketed in the last year to over $12K A July picture of a car dealership in Chicago, Illinois. | Photo by Scott Olson / Getty ImagesAmericans are now paying an average of $12,182 to own and operate a brand-new vehicle, or $1,015 per month, according to AAA. That’s a big jump over 2022, when the average cost of owning a car was $10,728. The increase, AAA says, comes down to higher p…

We sent the top ANC headphones to a lab to test their noise-canceling abilities The AirPods Max on one of Head Acoustics’ dummy head microphones. | Image: Head AcousticsActive noise cancellation, or ANC, has come a long way since Bose launched the first consumer noise-canceling headphones — the QC1 — back in the year 2000. With ANC now firmly mainstream and available in headphones, from the ultra-budget to the high end, it’…

Netflix’s fall movie lineup has a little something for everyone A mechanical being appearing in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon. | Image: NetflixThis year’s summer of movies is finally drawing to a close, but Netflix is already gearing up for another round of fall features to keep you watching as the seasons change. Today, Netflix dropped a massive preview of all the cinematic offerings coming to the service this f…

Wireless carriers are messing with your autopay discount Autopay with a debit card or be prepared to pay up. | Illustration: The VergeYou gotta hand it to carriers: if there’s a way to squeeze an extra few dollars out of their customers, they will find it. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the latest maneuver is requiring customers — current and new — to switch to a debit card or bank account wi…

Did Huawei already develop its own 5G chip to get around US sanctions? The Huawei Mate 60 Pro supposedly comes with a 5G chip. | Image: HuaweiHuawei released the Mate 60 Pro on Wednesday with little fanfare and some missing details — namely, the kind of chip it uses. Any mention of a chip is notably absent from the $960 phone’s product pages despite mentioning “better communication experience” and a “more stable ne…

Mercedes-Benz eSprinter electric van will start at $71,000 Image: Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz announced pricing for its upcoming eSprinter electric van, which is available to be ordered starting today from US dealers. The US will get the 170-inch-long wheelbase cargo version of the eSprinter, with a high-roof configuration carrying a 113kWh battery. That version will start at $71,886, making it the more…

Our Flag Means Death is back for season 2 in October Image: MaxWe already knew that a second season of Our Flag Means Death was on the way, and now Max has finally put a date on it: the show will set sail again on October 5th. The news comes via the first trailer for season 2, which you can check out above. Three episodes will actually drop on the 5th, with two episodes premiering weekly after tha…

How to send books to your Kindle — even if they’re not from Amazon Illustration by Will Joel / The VergeAmazon’s Kindle is a useful reading tool, especially if you tend to purchase your books through Amazon. If you have ebooks that you’ve purchased elsewhere, however — or have picked up off a free service such as Project Gutenberg — you need to be able to put it on your Kindle (or Kindle app). Getting a non-Ama…

OnePlus’ impressive first tablet just received its first discount With high-end specs and a midrange price, the OnePlus Pad is a welcome return to form. | Image: Dan Seifert / The VergeIt’s been a surprisingly good year for Android tablets, with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 series and the Google Pixel Tablet both having launched within the past couple of months. The OnePlus Pad also arrived earlier this year, and t…

The future of Tesla is in China Image: CFOTO / Future Publishing via Getty ImagesThe road to a world with only electric vehicles doesn’t run through the US. It runs through China. In China, nearly 30 percent of all car sales are EVs. In the US, it’s just 7 percent. How did China so thoroughly smoke the US when it comes to EVs? It had help from a certain American company called…

Meta’s Oversight Board is too slow to matter Illustration by Nick Barclay / The VergeThis is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer. Sign up here. Today let’s talk about one of the most important cases that Meta’s Oversight Board has heard to date — and how the process ultimately revealed a fundamental problem with w…

Lotus will reveal its electric Emeya hypercar September 7th Image: LotusLotus’ next electric hypercar, the 2024 Emeya, will get an official reveal in New York City on September 7th, the British automaker announced. And what hypercar reveal would be complete without a lot of, well, hyperbole? Lotus says the Emeya will be “the most advanced fully electric hyper Grand Tourer (GT) in the world.” Teaser image…

Instagram may be making Reels longer to compete with TikTok Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeInstagram looks like it’s working on a longer version of Instagram Reels, allowing users to record up to 10 minutes of videos. Leaker Alessandro Paluzzi shared screenshots of two side-by-side Reels pages, one to record for three minutes — the current standard for shortform videos — and another for 10 minut…

The Garmin Venu 3 series will finally give you credit for naps The Garmin Venu 3S (left five models) and Venu 3 will both retail for $449.99. | Image: GarminGarmin is launching the Venu 3 and 3S today, and there’s good news for nap lovers. The company is debuting a new Sleep Coach feature that includes both personalized coaching and automatic nap detection. Nap tracking is a timely addition. Sleep is incre…

The Fairphone 5 is a little more repairable and much more modern The Fairphone 5 with its repairable guts on show for all to see. | Image: FairphoneThe Fairphone 5 is the latest sustainably produced and repairable handset from Dutch smartphone company Fairphone. Like its previous devices, the Fairphone 5 is made with ethically sourced materials by workers who are given a living wage bonus and is designed to b…

Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google Illustration: The VergeI thought I had malware on my main Windows 11 machine this weekend. There I was minding my own business in Chrome before tabbing back to a game and wham a pop-up appeared asking me to switch my default search engine to Microsoft Bing in Chrome. Stunningly, Microsoft now thinks it’s ok to shove a pop-up in my face above my …

Google leaked Google’s flagship Pixel 8 Pro, again Illustration: The VergeContinuing the storied tradition of Google’s Pixel devices being some of the most-leaked hardware ever, the as-yet-unannounced Pixel 8 Pro has popped up on a Google Store page. @Android_Setting on Twitter / X pointed out the image on a page promoting Google’s subscriptions and services (Pixel Pass is not among them), showi…

The Ayaneo Kun nearly doubles the Steam Deck’s battery for nearly twice the price The Steam Deck’s biggest weakness is battery life — and yet somehow, every challenger has failed to raise that bar. The Ayaneo 2 showed us that AMD’s Ryzen 6800U wasn’t ready to compete; the Asus ROG Ally revealed that AMD’s Z1 Extreme couldn’t pull ahead if Asus insisted on matching the Steam Deck’s 40 watt-hour battery pack. But Ayaneo may ha…

Tesla scolded for hands-free Autopilot mode that could lead to ‘driver inattention’ Image: Edie Leong for The Washington Post via Getty ImagesTesla is in trouble with the federal government. Again. A newly discovered version of Autopilot that allows drivers to operate the advanced driver-assist feature without applying any torque to the steering wheel — a long sought-after feature by Tesla drivers and one used by several other…