Bluesky has been acting up today

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Bluesky is growing quickly in popularity, but if you’re trying to use it today, the site might be acting up. As I was writing this article, my feeds and notifications were very slow to load on the web and mobile while logged in, and that has similarly been the case for a few of my Verge colleagues.Things seem to be working now, but Bluesky developers have already warned that things might not work as expected today. Earlier this morning, developer Samuel New

Image: Tesla Robin Zeng, the founder of the world’s largest EV battery company, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s big bet on 4680 cylindrical cell technology “is going to fail and never be successful.” Zeng, the chairman of China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), tells Reuters that when Musk visited China in April, “We had a very big debate, and I showed him. He was silent. He doesn’t know how to make a battery.”
Tesla’s “tabless&rdquo

Image: NASA NASA is teaming up with Microsoft to create an AI chatbot designed to make it easier to access and understand scientific data about the Earth. The tool, called Earth Copilot, will be able to answer questions about our planet by condensing NASA’s wide swath of geospatial information into easy-to-digest responses.
To create the tool, NASA is integrating AI into its data repository, allowing Earth Copilot to refer to this information when answering questions, such as “What w

The Pokemon Company Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has been a big hit since its worldwide launch last month, and the team behind it has shared a brief roadmap of a couple updates to come — including the ability to trade cards with other people.
“We are aiming to add a feature that allows certain cards to be traded starting in January, 2025,” according to an update from the team on the official Pokémon forums. “We are planning to gradually expand the select

The Teenage Engineering OP-XY feels like an upgraded version of the company’s six-year-old OP-Z. | Image: Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering’s new OP-XY is a portable synthesizer and sequencer that looks similar to the company’s OP–1 Field. But functionally it’s instead a more capable upgrade to the company’s six-year-old OP-Z, with a stronger focus on layering sounds with various effects and a steeper $2,299 price tag.
With an “anodized, all-black

Image: The Verge TikTok will let advertisers pull in content from Getty Images when using the platform’s AI ad creation tool. With the integration, advertisers can use Getty’s licensed images and videos to make ads containing AI-generated content, including AI avatars that look like real people.
The integration will be available through TikTok’s Symphony Creative Studio — an AI-powered video generation tool that rolled out today for all advertisers. This tool can generate

It’s hard to find a fitness watch that tracks as many workouts and metrics as the Fenix 7 Pro series. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Garmin makes some of the best traditional multisport fitness watches, and one of its top models still commands a spot on our list of the best fitness trackers: the Garmin Fenix 7S Pro. Now through Cyber Monday, you can get that watch for just $529.99 ($270 off) at Wellbots when using the Verge-exclusive code VERGEBF270. That code will also work

Twinkly’s colorful string lights are more than half off at Amazon. Believe it or not, but it’s almost time to put up the holiday lights. If you’re looking for string lights that’ll really make your house stand out this year, Twinkly’s Strings deliver some of the most dazzling effects available. They typically run $199.99, but right now, you can buy the 105-foot string with 400 LED lights at Amazon for a new low of $79 thanks to an on-page coupon.Each of Twinkly&rsqu

Image: Epic Games Fortnite’s next big partnership with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is here. Epic Games already lets players dress up as the Turtles, and now, creators can publish experiences built with TMNT assets and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
As a demonstration of what’s possible, Paramount teamed up with Spiral House (which has made other Fortnite experiences), to make a TMNT-themed beat-em-up / roguelike, TMNT Dimensions [Rougelike], that you can play inside Fortnite right

Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking to put Google under federal supervision, a move that could impose the same kinds of monitoring and inspections used on banks, The Washington Post reports.
The CFPB’s concerns are not totally clear and the order may still change, according to the Post, citing two unnamed sources. Both the agency and Google declined to comment on the report. But, plenty could change once President-elect Donald

The 2020 Ford Explorer is one of the vehicles affected by the recall. | Image: Ford Ford has agreed to pay a fine that could go up to $165 million after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found the automaker took too long to recall vehicles with faulty rearview cameras and failed to “provide accurate and complete recall information.”. This penalty is the second largest, only behind the $200 million Takata was ordered to pay.
Originally issued in 2020, the recall impac

The fabric interior of Nike’s Elite EasyOn backpack is printed with instructions on how to use and customize it. | Image: Nike Nike’s new Elite EasyOn backpack was designed with innovative features making it accessible for as many athletes as possible, including those with low dexterity or motor skills. Originally developed for athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the backpack is now available to everyone through the company’s online store for $150.
The bag&rs

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Bluesky is growing quickly in popularity, but earlier today, an outage meant that my feeds and notifications were very slow to load on the web and mobile while logged in. That was similarly the case for a few of my Verge colleagues.The outage, which didn’t affect all users, was apparently because one of Bluesky’s internet providers, Cogent Communications, had some downtime because a fiber cable was cut, spokesperson Emily Liu tells The Verge. A Cogent

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Once known only for its self-destructing pics, Snapchat has steadily evolved its location-oriented social media features. It’s leaned further into that identity with real-time location sharing features in recent years, and now it’s tweaking the experience to give parents new control and insight directly from the Family Center.Parents will soon see an option in the Family Center to request their teen’s locations and vice versa. They’

Illustration: The Verge Google has announced it will stop showing political ads to users in the European Union next year due to uncertainties around the bloc’s new transparency regulations. In a new blog post, Google says the upcoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) rules that aim to prevent election interference and help voters make informed choices will introduce significant “operational challenges and legal uncertainties.”
Google says the definitio

Apple TV Plus Mythic Quest’s upcoming fourth season finally has a release date, but Apple’s future plans for the series aren’t stopping there.
Today, Apple announced that Mythic Quest will return on January 29th with a two-episode premiere picking up Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney,) Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao,) David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby,) Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi,) Rachel Ashly Burch, Dana Bryant (Imani Hakim,) Jo (Jessie Ennis) and Carol (Naomi Ekperigin) adjust to a new stat

Illustration: The Verge Bluesky might be on the rise, but Instagram and Threads boss Adam Mosseri wants you to know that Threads is still much bigger. In a post on Thursday, Mosseri said that Threads has gotten “more than 15 million signups in November alone,” seemingly trying to throw some cold water over Bluesky crossing 15 million users total on Wednesday.
Mosseri also reiterated that the platform has been getting more than a million signups per day — a stat that CEO Mark Zu

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge After an open beta that rolled out last month, Arc Search is now available to all Android users. The Browser Company’s search engine — which describes itself as “the fastest way to search” — has been positioning itself as a better alternative to Chrome.
Arc Search not only blocks ads but also has an AI feature called “browse for me” that summarizes search results. In a September Decoder interview, Browser Company C

Image: The Verge Microsoft has been trying to expand Xbox to multiple devices for more than five years now, and now it’s launching a marketing campaign to make it very clear that it thinks every screen is an Xbox now. A new “This is an Xbox” campaign is launching today to position the Xbox brand as a way to play games across multiple devices, instead of just an Xbox console.
“This Is an Xbox invites people to play with Xbox across multiple devices and screens,” expl

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images In the weeks leading up to the US presidential election, Kacey Smith was feeling hopeful. Smith, who supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, says she knew it would be a close race between the Democratic nominee and Republican Donald Trump. But as she scrolled TikTok, she believed Harris would be victorious.
But Election Day approached, and she started to sense red flags in that positivity. She recalls TikTok serving her enthusiasm fo

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Almost two years after EU regulators first accused Meta of “abusive practices” that gave the tech giant unfair market advantages, the European Commission has fined Meta €797.7 million (around $840 million). The combination of forcing Facebook users to be exposed to Marketplace and imposing restrictions against third-party classified ads providers on the platform are the two main reasons cited for the fine.
In a statement, the EU’s c

Alex Jones in 2022. | Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images The satirical news outlet The Onion has acquired Infowars, the conspiracy theory-riddled site run by Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction. In a press release posted to X Thursday, The Onion announced that it plans to “end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good” when it relaunches in January 2025.
The Onio