Tech Talk

In the latest news from “collaborations we didn’t know we wanted”, Realme is releasing a Naruto edition of its GT Neo 3. The phone isn’t an upgrade or anything, just a fun new spin on the 4-month-old mid-ranger.  The standard GT Neo 3 (we gave a preview of the phone a thumbs up) features a MediaTek Dimensity 8100, up to 12GB of ram, up to 256GB of storage, and a 6.7” 1080p 120Hz display. 80W and 150W charging configurations of the standard phone are available, but the Naruto edition phone will only be available in the 150W configuration.  The phone has some newly-themed elements on it. The back, for instance, is designed to mimic Naruto’s clothing as seen throughout the show with orange and black elements and a silver accent in the camera area with a hidden leaf village symbol. The included case features a few stylized graphics on the back as well.  The phone comes in a box that mimics the design of the scrolls in Naruto and comes with a themed charger brick, hidden leaf village

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images After a brutal month for Tesla stock, Elon Musk will no longer fund his Twitter buyout by borrowing against his Tesla ownership stake. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission , Musk announced the expiration of a series of margin loans against Tesla stock, which had been included as part of his original financing plan to acquire Twitter. As part of the announcement, Musk committed to providing an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing, bringing his total commitment to $33.5 billion. Tesla has shed more than 30 percent of its value since the Twitter deal was signed Musk’s initial plan to acquire Twitter involved a combination of $21 billion in personal equity and $25.5 billion in loans. $12.5 billion of those loans were secured against Tesla shares owned by Musk. Musk cut that number in half with an earlier round of equity financing, and has now restructured the deal to remove them entirely. The move

Amazon Style in-store shopping app experience | Image: Amazon Amazon’s brick-and-mortar clothing store, Amazon Style , is now open in the Los Angeles, California-area at The Americana at Brand mall, the company announced today along with a video profiling some of its employees. It’s a new addition to Amazon’s lineup of physical locations, along with Whole Foods and its cashier-less Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon Style will feature clothing from brands like Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Champion, and more, and though it does not feature Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, it will have regular employees present to help you from start to finish. Rumors of Amazon’s “department store” plan surfaced in September , with a Wall Street Journal report suggesting that the store would use tech solutions to focus on customer convenience with stores in California and Ohio. In January , Amazon confirmed the Amazon Style name and announced the location of its “first-ever physica

The Sony SRS-XB43 is one of many tech deals worth taking advantage of for this summer kickoff holiday. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer in the US. In addition to using the long weekend of this national holiday for travel and taking some well-earned rest and relaxation, it usually kick-starts lots of outdoor activities — like backyard cookouts, road trips to the beach, and camping trips. It’s also another shopping holiday, with discounts on offer for all kinds of home goods and some great tech, gadgets, and gear. There are plenty of deals on cool outdoorsy gear to take advantage of leading up to the holiday — like BioLite’s current discount on the FirePit Plus . But there are also great sales happening on indoor toys as well, like a range of HiSense TVs that are now available for up to $590 off. And let’s not forget travel essentials, like Zendure’s heavy-duty power bank , which is on sale for $70 off. Because what good is a luxuri

Operators blame intense quotas and pressure. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Some workers delivering packages for Amazon were more than twice as likely to be injured on the job compared to non-Amazon delivery workers, according to a report from the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) advocacy group ( via CNBC ). The union coalition compiled data submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) by Amazon and its contractors and discovered that an estimated 18.3 percent of Amazon’s subcontracted delivery workers were injured seriously enough to be reported. As the report notes, Amazon deliveries aren’t made entirely by workers that the company directly employs. The SOC says that a large portion of packages are delivered by people working for a Delivery Service Partner (DSP), or a company that contracts with Amazon to make deliveries in a certain area. Amazon also has workers that it directly contracts through its Flex system (where gig workers sign up t

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Although the long-rumored Pixel Watch has finally arrived , there’s still no sign of Google’s mysterious folding phone — and we likely won’t see it for another year. According to reports from Korean industry site The Elec and supply chain analyst Ross Young ( via Android Central ), the release of Google’s rumored folding phone has been delayed until next spring. Google was originally expected to reveal the device in 2021 , but that prediction was pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2022. This most recent delay could explain why we didn’t see the device at Google I/O earlier this month alongside the brief tease of a future Pixel tablet . Hearing from multiple sources in their supply chain that the Google foldable launch was delayed till next spring… pic.twitter.com/QXr7hhV3ZX — Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 25, 2022 Sources with knowledge of the situation reportedly told The Elec that the phone’s release date h