Century

Nielsen takes another crack at gauging our streaming habits

Nielsen, the nearly century-old research firm which produces the eponymous gold standard for television ratings, is taking a more serious look into how much Americans are streaming. The result of its labors: an ominously named rating system it calls The Gauge. While Nielsen has tried to calculate the popularity of various streaming programs before (through… Read more

The Twitch streamers fighting to keep minority languages alive

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Minority languages are often associated with aging rural communities, thought to have fallen out of use or confined to textbooks. Defined simply as a language spoken by less than half of the population in a country, they… Read more

SpaceX ignored last-minute warnings from the FAA before December Starship launch

Elon Musk’s company was told SN8’s launch would violate its FAA license, but SpaceX launched anyway Minutes before liftoff, Elon Musk’s SpaceX ignored at least two warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration that launching its first high-altitude Starship prototype last December would violate the company’s launch license, confidential documents and letters obtained by The Verge… Read more

Disney and Starz are in a slap fight over the launch of Star+

Disney is set to launch its standalone Star+ streaming service in Latin America in August, but Starz has filed complaints in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina alleging Disney is infringing on its brand identity and that the soon-to-launch service will only confuse consumers. In an English language translation of the complaints seen by The Verge and… Read more

NASA’s Juno probe will get close to Jupiter’s moon Ganymede on Monday

On Monday NASA’s Juno space probe, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, will get a close-up look at Jupiter’s biggest moon Ganymede, the agency said in a press release. It will be the closest NASA has gotten to the largest moon in the solar system for more than 20 years— Galileo cruised by Ganymede… Read more

Nintendo is turning a factory into a gallery

Nintendo has announced that its Uji Ogura plant will be turned into a public gallery to “showcase the many products Nintendo has launched over its history.” The factory, located in the Ogura district of Uji, a city just outside Kyoto, was built in 1969 and was mainly used for manufacturing playing cards and hanafuda cards,… Read more

The best phones to buy if you’re a phone enthusiast

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. There are plenty of buying guides for figuring out the best phone to buy at a given time, across a wide variety of prices. We have two of them, in fact. But if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool phone… Read more

More Americans believe in climate change but still can’t quit fossil fuels

Nearly two-thirds of Americans now believe that climate change is an urgent problem to address, but they aren’t nearly as enthusiastic about giving up oil and gas, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Only one-third of people surveyed supported completely phasing out fossil fuels. Less than half of respondents are okay… Read more

Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing

The Epic v. Apple trial was bookended by Tims. Epic Games called its CEO Tim Sweeney as the first witness nearly three weeks ago. Yesterday, Apple called Tim Cook as the last to take the stand, before both sides make their final case to a judge on Monday. Cook was supposed to bring home Apple’s… Read more

That’s No Moon! Callisto II DIY PC Hits the Right Retro Note

Home News (Image credit: Pigeonaut) If Tim Cook was more into retro computers, then the newly redesigned iMac might have looked like this. It doesn’t of course, but that doesn’t matter – we’ve got Pigenoaut’s Callisto II, as spotted by Hackaday. Within that lovely late 1970s / early 1980s 3D printed shell sits a Raspberry… Read more

We may never know the exact toll of the pandemic

This pandemic has taken millions of lives around the world — and researchers are realizing that the true death toll may be much higher than the official numbers we see every day. As of May 3rd, the death toll in the US officially stood at 574,043, but a new analysis published this week by the… Read more

Substack introduces publication sections for newsletters so writers can ‘grow their media empire’

Newsletter publishing platform Substack has introduced publication sections for its newsletters, which will allow writers “to create and manage multiple newsletters or podcasts within a single main publication,” the company announced Thursday. “As your publication grows, you might start to expand what you offer to readers,” Substack explained in a blog post. “For example, you… Read more

BBC iPlayer

Our Verdict With quality programmes, vast platform support and a great interface, iPlayer is the best video-on-demand catch-up TV service out there For Superb content Intuitive and slick interface Extensive platform support Against Still no permanent 4K offering It’s free (although you need a TV licence). It’s the home of superb TV shows. There are… Read more

Klipsch The Fives

Our Verdict The Fives offer sonic performance to match their lengthy feature list, if not exactly their ambitious moniker For Punchy presentation Good features set Versatile nature Against Uneven tonality Not the most organised presentation It’s not often we are presented with a product such as the Klipsch The Fives. They’re clearly a pair of… Read more

Microsoft is changing the default Office font and wants your help to pick a new one

Microsoft is changing its default Office font next year and wants everyone to help pick the new default. While there are more than 700 font options in Word, Microsoft has commissioned five new custom fonts for Office, in a move away from the Calibri font that has been the default in Microsoft Office for nearly… Read more