Technology

Twitch Sings, the streaming platform’s live karaoke game, is shutting down, the company announced. The company says it decided to close down the game effective January 1st, 2021 in order to “invest in broader tools and services that will help support and grow the entire music community on Twitch.” Twitch Sings launched in April 2019, and let streamers choose a song from its library to perform. Singers could belt one out solo or get friends to join for a duet. The channel doesn’t seem to have attracted a huge audience, however; while Twitch’s overall Music category has more than 3 million followers, Twitch Sings only accounted for 161,000 of those followers. “Looking ahead, we’re excited to share more about the future of music on Twitch and how we’re working to make Twitch the best place to...

A new Google Magenta project (created by an intern!) lets you mix lo-fi, hip-hop music tracks to build a custom music room in your browser, with no musical ability required. Magenta is designed to use Google’s machine learning systems for the creation of art and music, and the Lo-Fi Player is a fun example of what it can do. When you open Lo-Fi Player, you’re taken to a pixellated virtual “room” where you click different objects — a clock, a cat, or a piano, for instance— in the room to change the different tracks, like the bass line and the melody. “The view outside the window relates to the background sound in the track, and you can change both the visual and the music by clicking on the window,” Lo-Fi Player creator Vibert Thio wrote in a blog post. Thio writes that the team chose the f...

Amazon-owned cloud-based comic book platform Comixology appears to be offering a wide selection of Marvel’s Black Panther comics for free this weekend. The unannounced sale was noticed by tweeters and Redditors; many Marvel comics related to the fictional African country Wakanda, where Black Panther is set, are available for free. It’s not clear how long the “sale” will last, however; there doesn’t appear to have been any official announcement. The timing of the free event follows a week after the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played King T’Challa in the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther film, and other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boseman had battled colon cancer for four years, and died August 28th. Included on the list of free comics at Comixology, at least ...

Ring cameras and doorbells will soon be able to connect with Lutron’s smart lighting systems, so you can set lights to turn on automatically when your Ring device detects movement. It’s a useful feature to either welcome home a family member arriving late at night, or scare off a would-be intruder at the door. Lutron Caseta, Caseta Pro, and RA2 Select systems will support the integration with all generations of Ring doorbells and cameras. Once connected, the linked lights will turn on for 15 minutes at 100 percent brightness. According to Lutron’s about page, however, there isn’t currently a way to adjust the settings so the lights turn off earlier or later, or to set them to turn on at a different brightness. You also can apply advanced motion settings, timed to turn the lights on when yo...

Nine months into 2020, there’s one question on a lot of people’s minds: “Are we there yet?” We want to get back to watching weird movies in theaters, eating inside restaurants instead of on the sidewalks, and hanging out with our friends, without that pandemic dread setting in. Bad news. We are not there yet. But even in the United States, which still has the highest death toll and case count in the world, there are some signs of progress. In the US, which has relegated contact tracing efforts to the sidelines, and whose testing program is a muddled mess, most of the focus is on finding a vaccine. It’s where a lot of people have pinned their “are we there yet” hopes. “When we have a vaccine” is also when people hope they can put down their masks and their worries, and live like it’s 2019 a...

We’re likely just weeks away from Apple taking the wraps off its 2020 iPhones, and the rumor mill is in full swing, hinting at some major changes this year. If you’ve been hanging on to your first-generation iPhone SE because you just love its squared-off edges, the newest iPhones could be the ones for you — there are already a lot of rumors pointing to a brand new design with squared edges instead of rounded ones. (If you’re keeping that SE because of its smaller size, there might be good news for you this year, too.) And all signs are pointing toward this being the year the iPhone gets 5G, which should set you up for faster data speeds — once the networks can reliably deliver them. There is still a lot of mystery surrounding the next iPhones — they haven’t leaked quite as much as, say, r...

Facebook has blocked the live stream of a man in France suffering from an incurable ailment who planned to broadcast his death, Agence France-Press reported. Alain Cocq, 57, has a medical condition that causes his arteries to stick together, and stopped all food and drink as of Friday night. He has used his condition to try to bring about changes to France’s right-to-die law, and announced he would live-stream his death on Facebook. “Our hearts go out to Alain Cocq and those who are affected by this sad situation,” Facebook spokesperson Emily Cain wrote in an email to The Verge on Saturday. “While we respect his decision to draw attention to this complex and difficult issue, based on the guidance of experts, we have taken steps to keep Alain from broadcasting live, as we do not allow the d...

Image: Satechi This story is part of a group of stories called Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you’re looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. Welcome to Labor Day weekend. Whether you’re working during the US holiday on Monday, September 7th, or you have off, retailers have cut prices on several tech products. For the discounts that are more limited in duration, I’ve made sure to note when those deals will end. It’s safe to assume that any deal that doesn’t list an end date will continue to be available well after Labor Day has passed. Gadgets / accessories Satechi is offering a site-wide discount on its useful accessories (...

Shortly before midnight on the Friday before Labor Day weekend — we’re curious about the timing — Epic Games pushed the button on its next legal action against Apple’s ban on the immensely popular Fortnite. There was no question that Epic would file for a preliminary injunction against Apple in an attempt to force the iPhone maker to bring Fortnite back to the App Store — hearings were already scheduled for September 28th. But now, you can read the company’s full argument (here’s a PDF; it’s also embedded below) and decide whether you think Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is likely to be swayed. You may remember that Judge Rogers was already unwilling to issue a temporary restraining order against Apple to protect Epic’s games, partly because Epic hadn’t proven it had actually been harmed, an...

You’ve probably been caught off guard by videos that play automatically on Facebook, Twitter, or just across the internet in general. They begin playing as soon as you load a page or (if they’re more deviously implemented) when you start scrolling through a page. Automatic video play is a feature that, while nice to have when it’s surfacing content that’s related to your interests, can be pretty annoying. Autoplay videos can be harmful, too, exposing you to violent, offensive, or otherwise unwanted content that you shouldn’t have to see by default. Whether you just want to put an end to autoplay videos on social media platforms or are looking for a more comprehensive fix, we’ve got some tips. Keep in mind that you’ll need to adjust these settings for every device that you use, since your p...

Is this an actual prototype Apple Watch in one of those covert “security cases” that companies sometimes use when they’re testing gadgets in broad daylight? We can’t say. Either way, this tiny iPod is perversely adorable — and quite the in-joke if it’s real. Prototype Apple Watch (Original) with matching Security Case and box. The Security Case was used to conceal the design before release durning transportation; and makes the Watch look similar to an iPod Nano. #appleinternal pic.twitter.com/2q0y8l6oso — Apple Demo (@AppleDemoYT) September 1, 2020 You see, the sixth-generation iPod nano inspired quite a few people to try using the tiny square as a watch, including The Verge’s own editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. (Note: this was a decade ago.) When the Apple Watch actually came out, some desig...