Tech Talk

Building your dream website could soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update from WordPress . The website builder has launched a stripped-back platform that costs just $5 per month, offering WordPress managed hosting and unlimited site traffic for what it calls "a revolutionary price". WordPress Starter looks to offer a middle-tier option for users, sitting between the company's current Pro premium offering and its free basic option. WordPress Starter "From building your audience with a blog, to sharing your business, design, expertise, or experiences with the world. If you’re looking to make your work visible, and make it visual, the Starter plan has you covered," WordPress wrote in its announcement . Subscribers to the new platform will get access to a wide selection of tools helping them to set up and personalize a website, starting from custom .com domains instead of the company's basic wordpress.com offering. When building their site, use

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

Amazon may now have too much warehouse space, as the pandemic fuelled enthusiasm for ecommerce has slowly cooled off. The retail giant could be set to start subletting over 10 million square feet of space and could potentially even vacate more by ending leases with landlords, according to sources reported by Bloomberg . The excess space issues are affecting warehouses in New York, New Jersey, Southern California, and Atlanta, the anonymous sources have said. How big is the problem? Amazon’s excess space issue could exceed 10 million square feet according to two of sources, with one source claiming it could be triple that. Amazon did not comment on the exact quantity of the surfeit of space, but Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll told the Associated Press the move will “relieve the financial obligations associated with an existing building that no longer meets its needs”. “Subleasing is something many established corporations do to help manage their real estate portfolio,” Carro

Waze is adding the long-awaited Apple Music integration for iPhones, which will allow you to control the service’s music via the app’s built-in player. This new integration with the navigation app will let you play a song, pause it, or switch to a new track on Waze without opening anything else, and while keeping your eyes on the road. The update gives access to over 90 million songs on the platform, thousands of expertly curated playlists, and Apple Music Radio. To add Apple Music, you only need to update your app, tap the music note icon, and then select the audio app. Accept the connection when Waze asks and you’re ready to start listening. We did ask a Waze representative if all of Apple Music’s features will be available through Waze. Specifically, we asked if either spatial audio or Dolby Atmos would be available and if lossless audio would be compressed for Waze. Unfortunately, our questions were left unanswered.  To be fair, the focus of this update is really on Waze and

There was a time when the newest Huawei flagship was a shoo-in for the top spot in our list of the best camera phones . But when the Huawei ban reduced the appeal of the company's mobiles, other companies descended like predators smelling blood to devour its market share, and Xiaomi is proving itself the most brutal. After spending several years trying to be the hungriest hippo, Xiaomi, which has been jostling with Apple to hold the #2 spot for global phone sales, has just made a move that feels inspired by the plot of Game of Thrones (or a high-school drama). For years, each Huawei flagship was designed alongside camera company Leica, which gave the phones a photography edge - however not long after reports suggested that Leica and Huawei were parting ways , Xiaomi has officially announced that it has started its own partnership... with Leica, of course. This partnership will truly kick off in July, when the first Xiaomi-Leica phone will be launched - fans think it'll be

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was preceded by a wide-ranging cyberattack that signals the start of a whole new form of warfare, Microsoft’s President has said. Speaking at the company’s Microsoft Envision event in London, Brad Smith revealed that it had been aware of potential attacks against Ukraine being launched shortly before the physical invasion took place. The company was then able to gather its resources to not just crack down on the initial attacks, but help Ukrainian defenders organise a response to what Smith called “the first major hybrid war”. Hybrid war Harking back to the initial “ages” of war, which encompassed land, sea and air assaults respectively, Smith noted that warfare had now entered “a fourth plain”: cyber. The company had three main responsibilities: sustaining a government, defending a nation, and protecting the people. Smith outlined how up until one week before the war started, the Ukraine government was running entirely on-premise. As fears of an

Google IO 2022 was full of surprises, because along with the expected announcements the company also teased the likes of the Pixel 7 and even a new Pixel Tablet. This came as a complete surprise, as other than a job advert there had been no previous sign that Google was working on a new slate. But not only has Google now confirmed that it is working on one, it’s even shown images of the Pixel Tablet, and shared the first details. Below, then, you’ll find everything we’ve heard so far about the Google Pixel Tablet. Currently that’s basically just what Google has told us, but we’d expect leaks and rumors will start rolling in soon, and well add them to this article once they do. Cut to the chase What is it? An upcoming tablet from Google When is it out? 2023 How much will it cost? No idea yet Google Pixel Tablet release date and price Google has confirmed that it’s aiming to launch the Pixel Tablet sometime in 2023, so there’s quite a while to wait before it's availab

The Google Pixel 6a is now official, though you can't buy it until July 28. If you want something to pass the time until then, an unboxing video of the phone has leaked out from one of Google's official channels on YouTube. As spotted on Reddit (via 9to5Google ), the unlisted video gives us a guide to the phone from Google Retail Training France. Whether or not Google is going to allow it to stay up now it's been discovered remains to be seen. We already know what the Pixel 6a looks like of course, but the video gives us some interesting hands-on footage, and shows the packaging of the device. We also get a look at the fingerprint sensor, which looks speedy enough (it's apparently using a different component to the sensor in the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro). Specs appeal The first proper look at the Google Pixel 6a came at Google IO 2022 , although there's still a lot that we don't know about this mid-ranger. The price is going to be $449 / £399 / A

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s rumored mixed reality headset seems like the worst-kept secret in tech, and a new report about the device from The Information (its second this week ) is chock full of details about the unannounced product’s turbulent development. One of the most notable parts of the story is about Apple’s decision to go with a standalone headset. At one point, Apple hadn’t yet decided whether to move forward with a more powerful VR headset that would be paired with a base station or a standalone one. While Apple’s AR / VR leader Mike Rockwell apparently preferred the version with the base station — which included a processor that eventually shipped as the M1 Ultra , according to The Information — Apple executives chose to go with the standalone product. Bloomberg reported similar details in 2020 . That choice has apparently had long-term effects on the development of the headset. “By the time the decision was made, the device’s multiple chips had

Memorial Day TV sales are starting to arrive as we're just over a week away from the holiday weekend event. We've created this guide to bring you the hottest Memorial Day TV sales and stand-out deals on 4K, OLED, and QLED displays from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, and more. The Memorial Day sales event is a fantastic time to score a cheap TV deal with retailers like Amazon and Walmart offering record-low prices on budget sets like Vizio, TLC, and Insignia. If you're looking for a premium OLED or QLED display, Best Buy and Samsung offer massive discounts on last year's best-selling TVs. Due to rising consumer prices, we know that finding a cheap TV is more important than ever, so we'll be focusing on Memorial Day TV deals that offer the absolute best value and include price history information. Below you'll find today's hottest Memorial Day TV sales, followed by the best deals categorized by size. We'll be updating our guide with more Memorial Day TV