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This afternoon, Epic Games unveiled its latest in-game event in Fortnite : a rocket launch that appears to have opened up a dimensional rift. The launch was a one-time event that saw thousands of players logging into the game to watch what would happen. While many people took in the spectacular sight , some people missed out when they were killed mid-event. Now in its fourth season, Fortnite has exploded in popularity, which my colleague Nick Statt chalks up to its continually updated story in its vast shared world. Epic Games has conducted big, Earth-shattering events before , and in recent weeks, teased a mysterious event with a countdown that got fans excited to take part in. This sort of one-time event feels special, because it gives players an unique experience that allows them to witness a new big change for the game’s story. But, given that Fortnite is also a battle royale game, not everyone was able to take part in the epic moment, seeing as they were dead at the time.

After days of teasing something big , Fortnite’s much-hyped rocket event finally arrived today. Unlike previous ceremonies, this occasion only happens once: if you weren’t in-game when it happened, you missed out on your chance to experience it. Fortunately, we strapped in and saw everything unfold first-hand. An hour before the festivities, Fortnite’s island started gearing up for launch by animating the super villain lair near in-game location Snobby Shores that contained the rocket: Less than an hour guys! New beam of light is coming from the rocket base #FORTNITE #fortnitebattleroyale #FortniteBR pic.twitter.com/pzwz53TLTq — Sam (@PeateElite) June 30, 2018 As launch time drew near, the game’s players started logging-in en-masse, and many people had to sit through queues just to log into the game. This, in a way, helped build anticipation for the event: I started the game five minutes before launch time, and barely got onto spawn island when the event started at 1:30 PM

If you were going to bet on which technology might soon do the work of a stuntman, you’d probably guess CGI. It turns out robots have a shot, too — robots built by Disney. A new report from TechCrunch lays out the advances the company has made in the field of animatronics. These are the lifelike, usually static robots, designed to entertain the crowds at Disney theme parks and resorts. Think of the grog-swilling pirates carousing in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, or the recently unveiled Na’vi in the new Pandora: The World of Avatar attraction. But a new breed of animatronics are pushing the limits of robot engineering. Following the company’s Stickman project , Disney’s engineers are now building humanoid robots designed to take part in aerial stunts. With the help of laser guiding and built-in accelerometers and gyroscopes, these robots adjust their position in mid-air, nailing that perfect superhero flight pose. You can watch a video of them in action below: Disney ha

Drake has destroyed his own single-day streaming record on Apple Music, with his fifth album Scorpion pulling in more than 170 million streams in its first 24 hours, the company tells The Verge . More Life , Drake’s last project, held the previous record with 89.9 million streams in its first day. Apple says Scorpion now holds both the US and global streaming records for the service. Apple Music was in full promo mode for the release, inserting Drake easter eggs into Siri, and launching a site that lets you make your own Scorpion album cover art with personal photos. The service has long dominated when it comes to first-week streams of major hip hop albums, despite having around 120 million fewer users than Spotify. Apple Music is working overtime for This is what happens when you ask Siri what Drake’s nickname is pic.twitter.com/3fbRKvKAhA — Micah Singleton (@MicahSingleton) June 28, 2018 Scorpion is expected to beat the single-day streaming record on Spotify as well

The second season of Westworld wrapped up last weekend , and I still find the show as infuriating and fascinating as ever. I think Vox’ s Todd VanDerWerff is spot on here with how he contrasts the series to Lost — Westworld is all puzzle , no characters; so there’s a lot more riding on the puzzle being really good. What’s frustrating is that, this season’s Ghost Nation episode “Kiksuya” showed just how strong of a show Westworld can be when it hones in on its characters and tells deeper, more complex (and coherent) stories about its world. I know it doesn’t want to do that — it’s more interested in twists and turns. And at this point, I’m not even sure that I want it to either. The oddest thing about Westworld is that it’s so much more than a TV show — it’s a game built to be played along with. I have no idea if this series will work for people who binge watch it later. But as someone who’s watching it live and getting to participate in ludicrous theorizing about who is and is

If you’ve spent much time on Twitter, there’s a good chance you’ve been exposed to “local Twitter.” The phenomenon has existed for years, but recently, it’s been clearly branded, and as the term has become more widespread, the general concept is being ushered into larger, more mainstream awareness. Providing a hard-stop definition of “local Twitter” is tricky; much like obscenity, you know it when you see it. Local is tweeting about how much you love pizza and Target, fawning over dogs, or posting Drake lyrics, especially with the caption “mood.” Local is having to ask whether your Twitter feed is local. Justin Belloli, a 17-year-old from California, says via DM that you’ve encountered local if you’ve ever surfed by a basic tweet that is inexplicably popular, like “rt or else.” “They basically take the leftover trends from other parts of twitter and use them until they’re too annoying to get retweets and likes,” he says. im always hesitant when i make fun of local twitter because

When I opened Instagram on my Pixel 2 XL moments ago, I noticed something different: the Stories bar remained visible as I scrolled down my main feed. Usually it stays at the top and doesn’t follow you down, but clearly the company is testing a more persistent, sticky approach to keeping Stories in front of you at all times. That seems awfully annoying to me, but some might find it convenient. To this point, I think Instagram has developed and built onto Stories very well. They’re fun. I post and watch often. But between the obnoxious neon-orange IGTV notifications in the main app that I can’t turn off and now this, I’m not thrilled. Let people use the app how they want. I understand there’s a constant push for greater usage and better discoverability — 400 million people are now using Instagram Stories daily — but you don’t need to pummel us over the head with this stuff. Getting back to the top of the app wasn’t difficult before. When reached for comment by The Verge over email,

Comcast is currently experiencing a nationwide outage in the US, which explains why users on social media have been complaining that they were unable to connect to platforms like Sony’s PlayStation, Netflix, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Essentially, the outage may be causing problems for anyone using Xfinity as an ISP, regardless of what products, apps, or services they’re trying to access. According to Down Detector , there have been over 11,000 reports of Comcast outages since 12:30PM ET. Comcast confirmed the outage on Twitter, with a spokesperson saying that the company is “working to restore service.” Microsoft has updated its status page to indicate that Xbox Live members may be experiencing connection problems. Comcast confirmed on Twitter that the outage was caused by one of its “large backbone network partners” having cut a fiber cable, which could also be affecting other ISPs. One of Comcast’s large backbone network partners had a fiber cut that we believe is also impa

Parents no longer have to limit their kids to Amazon or iHeartRadio’s music catalogs on their Echo Dot Kids Edition . TechCrunch reports today that Amazon will soon let parents pair their kids’ devices with their Spotify account, and Spotify will automatically filter out explicit language. Parents can turn that option off in Amazon’s FreeTime dashboard. Amazon is also adding new Disney content, like character alarms and updated “Disney Dailies,” which come from a skill that lets kids hear jokes and other content from recognizable characters. All of this will likely be appreciated by parents, especially those who add Spotify tracks to a playlist for their kids. They’ll now be able to play their favorite music without needing an adult. The update will roll out next week.

Tinder’s parent company Match Group publicly announced today, in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) , that it is now encrypting photos sent between Tinder’s servers and its app. The changes were implemented in February, following the public disclosure of an attack that could have let hackers view people’s profile pictures and swipe actions. Wyden wrote a letter to Tinder back in February requesting that the company encrypt photos. It had apparently already done so (the letter says they implemented the feature on February 4th), but it waited to write back to Wyden until it also adjusted a separate security feature that makes all swipe data the same size. The size of the swipe data was used by security researchers to differentiate actions from one another. That change wasn’t implemented until June 19th. What does this mean for you, the user? Nothing really other than you can rest easy knowing that hackers shouldn’t be able to view your encrypted profile photos. I can’t imagine these

The summer 2018 anime season is upon us, and with 42 new series and 11 continuing from the spring, there is a lot to sift through. With such a massive slate, we’ve decided to highlight some that might be interesting for anime fans and non-fans alike. (Many of these shows are available for viewing internationally a day after they air in Japan, thanks to streaming services like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Amazon.) If you like action, horror, and political drama Attack on Titan Season 3 On an alternate version of Earth, humanity has retreated behind three tiers of 160-foot-high walls to protect themselves from giant humanoid monsters called Titans. These creatures don’t seem to be sentient, and appear to exist only to kill and eat humans. For over a century, humans lived this way, protected by the walls — until a 200-foot-tall Titan appeared and broke a hole in them. The series follows protagonists Mikasa and Eren, as well as the other new recruits of the Survey Corps, as they work

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued to invalidate internet censorship law FOSTA, arguing that its broad scope violates the First Amendment. It filed suit yesterday in the District of Columbia, acting on behalf of several parties who have been affected by FOSTA: the nonprofit groups Human Rights Watch and Woodhull Freedom Foundation, non-sexual massage therapist Eric Koszyk, sex workers rights’ activist Jesse Maley, and the Internet Archive. As part of the complaint, it’s asking for the court to suspend enforcement of FOSTA — which took effect earlier this year — while the case is ongoing. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (or FOSTA) is intended to prevent sex trafficking, but as the lawsuit notes , it “erroneously conflates online communications relating to sex work with prostitution, and treats prostitution as synonymous with trafficking.” The law makes websites liable for content that “promotes or facilitates prostitution,” and it’s theoretic

Battlefield 1942 came crashing out of nowhere in 2002, and introduced war gaming fans to the thrilling experience of huge multiplayer battles on large maps, filled with chaos. You’ve probably seen at least one “ Battlefield moment”: someone jumping out of a plane and hopping in another one mid-air, or three soldiers riding a horse with flamethrowers. And yet, despite the spectacle, after 14 Battlefield games and all kinds of advances in technology, the experience largely feels the same. But after playing an alpha preview of Battlefield V this week, I’ve seen signs that the series is finally at a turning point. The most visible change leading up to this point has been the inclusion of (totally rad) women, leading to one of the most ridiculous backlashes we’ve seen in the era of Gamergate. Fortunately, EA pushed back loudly, telling players to “accept it,” or get lost. But there’s even more change on the horizon. Battlefield V’s “Grand Operations” mode, which builds on the mode’

AT&T’s new WatchTV streaming service — which costs just $15 per month, $20 less than the company’s DirecTV Now subscription — is now available on iOS, Android, Chromecast, Apple TV, and Fire TV devices, as spotted by Apple Insider . WatchTV includes 31 channels as of now, including Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT, TCM, A&E, AMC, and HGTV. An additional six Viacom channels — BET, Comedy Central, MTV 2, Nicktoons, TeenNick, and VH1 — are promised for sometime in the future, too. Customers will also get access 15,000 movies and TV show episodes on-demand through the service. WatchTV was announced just days after AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner — coincidentally, many of the channels available are Time Warner networks, likely a hint of the kind of corporate synergy that AT&T hopes to be able to put into play with the vast new networks it now owns. WatchTV is included for free with AT&T’s latest unlimited plans : Unlimited &More and Unlimited &Mo

The Vergecas t starts off this week in a traditional fashion with a talk about dongles — Microsoft’s $80 USB-C dongle to be exact. But there’s a whole bunch of little things that also happened this week that Nilay, Dieter, and Paul discuss. We’ve got Apple acknowledging the problem with its MacBook keyboards , Google demoing demoing Duplex , and Apple releasing the Mojave public beta . Also this week, we bring you two new rotating segments on the show. First we have transportation reporter Sean O’Kane with “ This Week in Elon Musk ” — a rundown of the news that happened this week in the Elon Musk canon. Second, culture reporters Megan Farokhmanesh and Bijan Stephen run though their favorite “ Culture Headlines ” on The Verge this week. And of course we’ve got Paul’s weekly segment that he does every week, “ Rhymes With What’s Poppin’ ,” so if you listen to the whole show, you’ve got a stew going. 02:20 - Microsoft’s Surface USB-C dongle launches on June 29th for $79.99 09:15 -

The Expanse ’s third season ended on June 27th on the Syfy Channel. The final episode, “Abaddon’s Gate,” is the last installment of the show shot for Syfy. Over the course of The Expanse ’s latest arc, an expedition involving every faction of Earth’s solar system discovered the true nature of the protomolecule that’s been the series’ major mystery, and confirmed the dangers and potential gains it represents for humanity. Spoilers ahead for the series, as well as some of the James S.A. Corey novels the show adapts. Shortly after Syfy announced that it wasn’t renewing the series for another season, the series underwent a soft reboot with the episode ‘Delta-V” , closing out the threat of all-out war depicted in the novel Caliban’s War, and pivoting to the next arc, adapting the third novel in the series, Abaddon’s Gate. That book followed Captain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante as they accompanied an expedition made up of various spaceships from around the solar system to

Bad news for eBay sellers, good news for everyone else Nintendo’s NES Classic returns to retailers today — Amazon’s listing went up at 8:15AM EST — following its limited stint in 2016. In case you missed out the first time around, you get another shot at securing this tiny, hearty dose of nostalgia for yourself or someone else without spending more than the standard $59 price. Goodbye, exorbitant eBay and Craigslist rates. Available now at several retailers (both online and at brick-and-mortar locations), the NES Classic is a modern, miniaturized recreation of Nintendo’s first home console. It’s updated for HDMI connections and comes loaded with 30 games including many classics like Super Mario Bros. , Metroid , Donkey Kong , The Legend of Zelda , Pac-Man , and more. Sadly, you can’t actually insert dusty, vintage NES cartridges into the NES Classic. But one big benefit of the collector’s console is that it allows for save states in your games, which makes it less frustrating to ov

Last year, Matt Groening announced he would be working on a new animated series called Disenchantment for Netflix. Where his series Futurama was a comedic take on science fiction, Disenchantment will be his take on fantasy tropes. The trailer openly frames the show as a counterpart to Futurama (set in the future) and The Simpsons (set in the present). It introduces a medieval fantasy world called Dreamland, as a king lifts the hood off a “no good pile of scum” prisoner, only to discover that it’s his own daughter, Bean. Bean is described as a “hard-drinking” princess, and the show will follow her and her two companions, an elf named Elfo (voiced by comedy actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter Nat Faxon) and a demon named Luci (voiced by actor and TV host Eric Andre). The trailer features Groening’s familiar character designs, but showcases a look that feels more complicated, modern, and computer-generated than the more organic designs of The Simpsons and Futurama . Netflix ord

Eighteen more Chromebooks are getting support for Linux apps on Chrome OS , with laptops based in Intel’s Apollo Lake architecture now able to run the applications, via XDA Developers . That list includes computers from Lenovo (Thinkpad 11e Chromebook), Acer (Chromebook Spin 11 and Chromebook 15), Asus (Chromebook Flip), and Dell (Dell Chromebook 11) — check the full list at XDA ’s site to see if your machine is included. Previously, Linux apps worked on the Google Pixelbook and Samsung Chromebook Plus , but support for the Apollo Lake machines should open it up to a much wider range of users — and more importantly, to a much wider range of laptop price points. The update is still in the works, so Canary and Developer channel users will see the added support first, with customers on the main, final Chrome OS branch not set to get the update until the next version of Chrome (Chrome 69) rolls out later this year.

Asimo, Honda’s adorable, humanoid robot, is no more. The company announced it would cease production of the robot in order to focus on using Asimo’s technology for more practical use cases in nursing and road transport, as reported by Nikkei Asian Review . Work on Asimo, whose name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, first began in the ‘80s and it was eventually unveiled in 2000. The first robot to walk on two legs, Asimo can, among other things, recognize multiple moving objects, determine the distance and direction of the objects, interpret voice commands and human gestures (like a wave or handshake), and autonomously navigate thanks to sensors within its body. It stands at 4 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 119 pounds, and can operate for an hour off a rechargeable 51.8 V lithium-ion battery. Over the years, Asimo played soccer with President Obama , won over Kelly Ripa , had a dancing group , and had some clumsy moments like this terrible fall while trying to walk up

Earlier this month Google launched desktop browser support for Android Messages, letting you text friends from your PC (if you’ve got an Android device to set things up with). Well, it wouldn’t be a proper Google app without a few hidden Easter eggs, and users have been busy digging up words and phrases that act as shortcuts to kaomoji — those Japanese emoticons that look a little like this: ٩(ఠ益ఠ)۶. Most of these seem to have been carried over from Hangouts, as spotted by this post on Reddit . We’ve assembled a partial list of the ones we’ve tested below, but unfortunately it seems the more elaborate tricks from Hangouts don’t work. These include codes like /ponystream (which produced a herd of galloping My Little Ponies) and /shydino (which sent a tiny dinosaur running to find cover). Still, better than nothing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. To execute these commands on Android Messages, just type a forward slash and then the word you want to use. They only work at the beginning of messages though.

Apple is already rumored to be planning a news and magazine subscription service for next year, and the company is reportedly considering bundling it with the video content it’s been acquiring at a rapid pace. A new report in The Information echoes an earlier story from The Wall Street Journal that said Apple could bundle its original video programming — like those coming from its multiyear deal with Oprah Winfrey — with news content, magazines, Apple Music, and iCloud storage. The timing, however, isn’t yet known. Apple is likely still in the process of deciding the details of how to package, price, and sell all these services, whether together or separately. Previous video experiments like Planet of the Apps were unceremoniously shoved into iTunes and Apple Music. We’d have to expect that there’ll be a more coherent plan in place for the new shows that Apple is sinking billions of dollars into.

Some users are reporting that their Google Homes and Chromecasts aren’t working properly, possibly following a software update. Google has responded to a bunch of users on Twitter to say that it’s working on a fix and will let users know once it has one. Hey there, sorry for the trouble. We don't have a time frame, but rest assured that our team is working hard to have this fixed — we'll let you know once we have an update. Thanks for bearing with us. — Made by Google (@madebygoogle) June 27, 2018 The company also confirmed the issue to TechCrunch , although it didn’t offer an explanation. The issues with Chromecast appear to prevent people from streaming at all. The Chromecast icon has disappeared and doesn’t allow for casting in specific apps. Meanwhile, Google Homes appear to be completely unable to process requests, and in some cases, requests to be set up again. @madebygoogle Since today when i say OK GOOGLE, home replies me with "Google home has not setup

NASA has again delayed the launch of its next-generation space observatory, known as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the space agency announced today . The telescope now has a new launch date of March 30th, 2021. It’s the second delay to the project’s timeline this year, and the third in the last nine months. “We’re all disappointed that the culmination of Webb and its launch is taking longer than expected, but we’re creating something new here. We’re dealing with cutting edge technology to perform an unprecedented mission, and I know that our teams are working hard and will successfully overcome the challenges,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a video statement . “In space we always have to look at the long term, and sometimes the complexities of our missions don’t come together as soon as we wish. But we learn, we move ahead, and ultimately we succeed.” NASA pushed the launch of JWST, which is viewed as a more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, fro

Disney has cleared a key hurdle in its bid to acquire 21st Century Fox: the company has won antitrust approval from the Justice Department, albeit with one condition. The Justice Department required that Disney divest Fox’s regional sports networks, as they would create anti-competitive conflicts due to Disney’s ownership of ESPN, according to Variety . Disney has agreed to the conditions. In December, Disney announced that it would acquire 21st Century Fox’s media holdings: its television and movie studios (but not its sports and news operations). Talks for the acquisition took place last fall , and were complicated when Comcast made overtures of its own. Over the course of those talks, it became apparent that Fox was concerned with the prospects of an acquisition by either company being blocked by the Justice Department. That would mean no sale, or that it might have to shed substantial assets and would thus fetch a lower price. Fox’s board discussed the potential problems with a