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The Weekender: detecting diseases, searching the sea, and getting rid of gas

The Weekender: detecting diseases, searching the sea, and getting rid of gas

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The best of the week gone by

By Jacob Kastrenakes, a deputy editor who oversees tech and news coverage. Since joining The Verge in 2012, he’s published 5,000+ stories and is the founding editor of the creators desk.

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Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to reviews and interviews. Think of it as a collection of some of our favorite pieces that you may have missed — or that you may just want to read again. You can follow along below, or keep up to date on Flipboard.

  • Feature

    My house is my gas station (and so is yours)

    More and more electric vehicles are making their way onto the road, and life driving them can be pretty amazing — for the most part. Here's what it's like to live with a Nissan Leaf, and how charging an electric vehicle can be both a wonder and a roadblock.

  • Review

    'Godzilla' review: meet your new favorite superhero

    This isn't the cheesy monster you remember. Director Gareth Edwards' Godzilla is an appropriately horrifying creature that towers above all of humanity. It's a spectacle to watch, but can Edwards back it up with the tension and thematic depth that he's promised?

  • Report

    Game of phones: how Verizon is playing the FCC and its customers

    The FCC chose to move forward with a critical new proposal this week that will have a major impact on the future of the internet. Naturally, Verizon and other service providers want to avoid the potentially heavy regulation that could come with it — but it turns out that Verizon's been taking advantage of regulation for years, even while pushing it away.

  • Report

    This man is asking for $2 million on Kickstarter to find Amelia Earhart’s plane

    Dana Timmer thinks that he knows where Amelia Earhart's plane is — or at least the general area it's in — and he wants to take a boat, some sonar equipment, and a documentary crew out to look. Timmer seems to have the right idea, but will Kickstarter backers agree enough to risk $2 million on it?

  • Report

    New federal rules will force scientists to use more female lab animals

    Failure to account for sex-specific differences during research has been an ongoing problem, and it could lead to some disastrous results. The US National Institutes of Health is out to fix it with new rules for funding, but they likely aren't enough to resolve the problem at large.

  • Report

    I took a ride in Google's self-driving car

    Google wants to see self-driving cars on the road by 2017, and it's moving ever nearer to that goal. Its own autonomous vehicles have come off the highway and into the city where they're able to deal with pedestrians and cyclists. We took a ride around Mountain View in one to see just what it's like to have a computer take the wheel.

  • Review

    The best 'Mario Kart' ever

    It seems like everyone has fond memories of playing one Mario Kart or another night after night with a group of friends, trying not to skid off of Rainbow Road. Mario Kart 8 recreates all of that insanity and kicks it up a notch, giving the Wii U one of its best games yet.

  • Report

    If your doctor could tell you that you'll get breast cancer, would you want to know?

    It's getting easier and easier for anyone to find out what diseases they might be at risk for through DNA testing. That's a boon for preventative medicine, but companies offering the service are still working out how to take those test results and turn them into appropriate medical advice.

  • Feature

    Eight things you should know about the next iPhone

    Apple is likely still months away from releasing a new iPhone, but details have already begun leaking out. Here's everything there is to know about what the new phone might look like, from its supposedly larger display to the new apps that could run on it.

  • Review

    From China with love: can Oppo and OnePlus upend the way we buy smartphones?

    Few consumers would buy a phone that they've never seen in person, but Oppo and OnePlus are trying to change that. Their smartphones have high-end specs paired with surprisingly low prices — and that could just be enough to get people to buy a strange new phone online.

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