Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge 5G internet has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the tech world over the past few years. As the next generation of cellular technology, the faster speeds and lower latencies it offers promise to change everything from your phone to home internet to fields like self-driving cars and remote surgery. But there’s also been a lot of bad information, rumors, and outright bizarre conspiracy theories.
So: what is 5G? Well, as the name implies, it’s the fifth generation of cellular technology. 1G networks were the first cell networks back in the 1980s. 2G networks added basic data for things like SMS messages, which 3G internet expanded even more. And 4G LTE — which our phones currently use — offered truly fast mobile internet, making a whole…
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The Sonos Arc is one of the first products to be released for the S2 platform. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos is releasing its new app and S2 platform today. The new app (now with a tan icon) is now available on the App Store and the Google Play Store, and it will be the only way to control the company’s latest speakers: the Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar, Sonos Five, and new third-gen Sonos Sub. Sonos says the new platform includes support for higher-resolution audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos on the Sonos Arc, better security, and an improved user interface.
The new app supports all of Sonos’ modern devices, including those that you previously controlled with the old app. You have the option of either updating your existing system to S2 or continuing to use the old app to control those products. This existing app is still live on…
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BioShock Remastered (Nintendo Switch) | Image: 2K Games It’s still rare for the Switch to get blockbuster games that weren’t made by Nintendo, but there has been a trend in recent months to port older games from the last generation of consoles onto the Switch. Last week’s launches of The Outer Worlds, BioShock: The Collection, and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection were some of the most high-profile games to hit the Switch yet. And the result is a pile of great games that simultaneously highlight the Switch’s biggest strengths and weaknesses.
The biggest name in the batch is The Outer Worlds, which is actually a “current-gen” title, having been first released for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC late last year.
Image: Obsidian Entertainment The Outer Worlds (Nintendo… Continue reading…

Ian Tuttle/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize More than 140 scientists who receive funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday urging him to better enforce the social media platform’s policies against incendiary language, The Washington Post reported. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is the philanthropic organization founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in 2015, which focuses on using technology to solve social challenges, including criminal justice reform. It is a separate entity from Facebook.
The scientists said in the letter that allowing President Trump to use Facebook “to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements” was not only a violation of Facebook’s policies but “directly antithetical” to…
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Illustration by Alex Castro / Th Facebook has removed almost 200 accounts connected to white supremacist groups that were trying to rally supporters to attend protests over police violence against black people, the Associated Press reported. The accounts in question were linked to two hate groups Facebook had already banned, the Proud Boys and the American Guard.
Demonstrations continued over the weekend across the US, spurred by the May 25th death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Authorities have charged fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with second-degree murder in Floyd’s death, after a video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as other officers looked on. The other officers, who were also fired, have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
F…
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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have all removed a Trump campaign video from their platforms after receiving copyright complaints, Reuters reported. The nearly four-minute video featured images of the late George Floyd of Minneapolis, who died May 25th after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. A video of the incident has prompted nationwide protests of police violence.
Twitter disabled the video, while Facebook and Instagram removed posts containing the video. When President Trump objected to the removal in a tweet, calling it “illegal,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded: “Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder.”
Not true and not illegal.
This was…
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Photo: HBO HBO Max is here, and while I’ve been dreading the ways AT&T will inevitably ruin HBO, I actually like a lot about the new service. The app is far nicer to browse than Netflix thanks to its curated highlights. But the real standout to me has been that the service has most of Studio Ghibli’s catalog of films, which haven’t previously been available to stream.
I watched My Neighbor Totoro for the first time in years over the weekend. The story is simpler than I remembered (perhaps too simple!), but the story is a lot more charming than I remembered, too. It really encapsulates what Ghibli would continue to do so well in later movies — build out worlds that feel real, quaint, and expansively magical all at once.
My colleague Sam Byford wrote…
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Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Infighting, deleted comments, and drama
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google will be making Currents, its Google Plus replacement, generally available to G Suite users beginning July 6th, the company announced in an email to G Suite administrators on Friday. Google describes Currents as a tool that will allow companies to engage employees and have meaningful discussions.
Google shut down Google Plus as a social network in 2019 due to low usage, but an enterprise version for G Suite customers was still available. Any lingering Google Plus enterprise users will be transitioned to Currents next month, and Plus links will redirect to Currents URLs.
The interface for Currents includes a home stream, which can either be ordered chronologically or by relevance, and allows sharing of links, images, text, polls,…
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Laptops, laptops, laptops. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge The new 13-inch MacBook Pro hit shelves on May 4th. Kate Kozuch, a journalist, ordered one to replace her old, broken 2015 model. She was confused by the different add-ons and configuration options — “The numbers hurt my brain,” she told The Verge. But after much research, she finally settled on one.
When it came time to check out, however, Kozuch realized she might have to wait much longer than she’d hoped. Apple estimated that her unit would arrive between May 26th and June 2nd. It didn’t take quite that long, but it still took longer than anticipated. Kozuch got her MacBook on May 18th — two weeks after placing the order.
Robin Gloss, a college student, also ordered the new MacBook on May 26th. She hasn’t received it yet, but it’s…
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