2020 In Review | The Verge

How we exercised during quarantine

2021-01-01T14:40:48-05:00

With all the mental burdens that came with living in 2020 - including gyms closing their doors - many have found it tough to get in their normal level of exercise. Here at The Verge, we coped with this as you might expect: with tech that could enable or motivate us to get some activity in. These are the gadgets, apps, games, and services we used to work up a sweat while still staying safe, and which might prove useful if your New Year's resolution involves exercise.

Beat Saber

I named Beat Saber my favorite game of 2018, but I lapsed hard since, until Oculus released the Quest 2 in October. It's the first VR headset I like wearing, and I use …

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The best apps, games, and entertainment for all of your new tech in 2020

2025-01-22T07:59:40-05:00

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While it’s really great to get a new tech device — a phone, a laptop, a game console, a Kindle, or a TV — as a gift, it’s even cooler to start working or playing with it. But where to begin?

Here at The Verge, we want to help, so we’ve put together lists of our favorite apps, games, and shows for the year 2020. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs, M1-equipped Macs, and TVs. We’ve listed our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass, and our top choices for the PS5, Xbox One and Series X / S, and Nintendo Switch. We’ve also compiled our favorite streaming shows on Disney Plus, Hulu, and Netflix; some great sci-fi books; and exciting new podcasts.

So take a look at what The Verge staff recommends, and enjoy!

Photo by Alex Castro / The Verge

17 great games on Google Play Pass for your new 2020 Android phone

2020-12-31T10:00:00-05:00

If you just got a brand-new Android phone for the holidays, you probably want to play some games on your shiny device. Luckily, that's especially easy to do this year with Google's $5-per-month Google Play Pass games and apps subscription service, which offers free access to hundreds of games and apps without pushing ads or demanding in-app purchases.

We've looked through what's available on Play Pass, and the service has a lot of good games to check out. Here are just a few that we recommend. Since all of the games are also available individually - either free with ads and in-app purchases or for specific prices - we've included their Goog …

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8 great Apple Arcade games for your new 2020 iPhone or iPad

2020-12-31T09:00:00-05:00

This time last year, Apple Arcade was still a fledgling service, but one with a lot of potential. For $5 a month, you could get unlimited access to a big library of interesting games, the kind that no one really sells in the App Store anymore. It's still not a place to find the latest blockbusters, but Arcade has steadily evolved into one of the best deals in gaming. Its lineup of games is varied and consistently surprising, with everything from family-friendly multiplayer games to engrossing puzzlers to weird story-driven adventures.

If you just picked up a new Apple device and have signed up for Arcade (a new device gets you three months …

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11 great sci-fi books from 2020 to check out on your new Kindle

2020-12-30T10:00:00-05:00

It's not easy to make it to a library right now, and with a long winter stuck at home looming ahead for many of us, there's never been a better time to hunker down with a good book. If you've been lucky enough to receive a new Kindle (or a non-Amazon-branded e-reader or just a device with an e-book app on it), you might be looking for some new books to read.

To help, here are some of the best new science fiction books released in 2020 (along with some additional recommendations for other books in a series, where applicable), which should be the perfect pairing with your new e-reader.

We've rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, …

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10 great games to play on your new 2020 VR headset

2020-12-30T09:00:00-05:00

If you received a virtual reality gaming headset this holiday season, congratulations! Whether you've got the newly released Oculus Quest 2, one of the last few units of the now discontinued Oculus Rift S, or another headset like the PlayStation VR, there are a ton of video games for you to explore with your new head mount display. Here are ten games I personally enjoy and think are worth your time and money.

We've rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, Windows PCs, and M1-equipped Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and o …

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26 great apps for your new 2020 Windows PC

2020-12-29T10:00:00-05:00

If you bought a new Windows laptop on Black Friday or received one as a gift, you may be struggling to figure out which apps to download. Never fear. I have scoured the internet, the Microsoft Store, and my own downloads folder to find all the best Windows apps for whatever purpose you may need.

You might be surprised how many online services you already use that have their own dedicated Windows app. I find that the main benefit of many Windows apps is to help mentally separate my life. It can get hard to navigate all of my various streaming services, work apps, chats, and social media using Chrome tabs - and it also puts me at greater risk …

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11 great apps ready for your new 2020 M1 Mac

2020-12-29T09:00:00-05:00

This year marked the introduction of the first Macs to be powered by Apple's own silicon instead of Intel chips. As is evidenced by our reviews of the M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, these machines are incredibly powerful and offer wicked fast performance. This is especially true for apps that are designed to run natively on them and take full advantage of Apple's latest technologies.

So in that vein, this year's Mac apps list is going to focus on some of the software that has already been optimized for this new era of Apple hardware. Last year's picks remain just as relevant and useful today if you're on an Intel machine …

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11 great apps for your new 2020 Android device

2020-12-28T10:00:00-05:00

The first thing to do when you get a new phone is to log back into all your accounts - email, Facebook, Signal, and so on - to make sure you're getting all the important notifications you need and messages from friends. But after that, you'll want to install apps that replace the default tools (like the web browser or weather app) with something better, along with apps that'll just make your day-to-day usage of the phone a lot more helpful.

Here are our suggestions for where to start when setting up an Android phone.

We've rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android pho …

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12 great apps for your new iPhone in 2020

2020-12-28T09:00:00-05:00

If you're lucky enough to have unwrapped a new iPhone as a holiday gift this year, you'll probably want to install some new apps on it. Fortunately, we're here to help with some suggestions. We've included great apps that are just generally fun or useful to have on your phone, and apps that you should download to replace the default ones that Apple ships.

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