Google is using AI to better detect searches from people in crisis

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

In a personal crisis, many people turn to an impersonal source of support: Google. Every day, the company fields searches on topics like suicide, sexual assault, and domestic abuse. But Google wants to do more to direct people to the information they need, and says new AI techniques that better parse the complexities of language are helping.

Specifically, Google is integrating its latest machine learning model, MUM, into its search engine to “more accurately detect a wider range of personal crisis searches.” The company unveiled MUM at its IO conference last year, and has since used it to augment search with features that try to answer questions connected to the original search.

In this case, MUM will be able to spot search queries...

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Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon premieres August 21st

The long-in-the-making series is nearly here. | Image: HBO

HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, will debut on HBO and HBO Max on August 21st. The company announced the date Wednesday with a picture of what appears to be a hatching dragon egg — which hopefully means we’ll see at least one of the terrifying beasts in the upcoming show.

August 21. #HouseoftheDragonpic.twitter.com/2IQHsDqv39

— HBO Max (@hbomax) March 30, 2022

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s 2019 book Fire and Blood and is focused on, as the name suggests, House Targaryen. It’s set 200 years before the events of the hugely popular Game of Thrones, which featured Daenerys Targaryen as one of the main characters.

HBO first announced _House of the Dragon_was in the works in October 2019....

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Intel shows off its first Arc desktop GPU, coming summer 2022

Intel’s Arc GPUs debuted today for laptops, but the company hasn’t forgotten its highly anticipated re-entry into the world of desktop graphics cards, either: the company showed off a first look at the final Arc hardware, along with a reveal that the first GPUs will arrive this summer as a “limited edition” release.

The company isn’t offering too many details on the desktop Arc cards beyond the quick glimpse of the hardware itself, although presumably, more details will arrive before the summer. The video does show that the Arc card has a dual-fan design, along with a single HDMI port and three DisplayPort ports on the side, although it’s not clear what the specifications for those ports are from appearance alone.

Intel...

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Facebook funded anti-TikTok campaign through GOP firm

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has been paying one of the most prominent Republican consulting firms to run a nationwide campaign to sow distrust about one of the company’s top competitors, TikTok, according to a new report from The Washington Post on Wednesday.

The firm, Targeted Victory, reportedly planted op-eds and letters to the editor in major local and regional newspapers across the country. A Targeted Victory director told staff that the firm needed to “get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using,” according to emails obtained by The Post.

“TikTok is the real threat”

News of Facebook’s decision...

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How to run the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark

This could be you.

If you’ve just acquired a new game and you’re not sure what settings or resolution your PC can run it at without stutter and lag, a benchmark is a good way to try out various profiles before you dive in. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one title with a built-in benchmark that’s easy to run.

This benchmark is also a very common test that reviewers run on laptops to put their GPUs to the test. _Shadow of the Tomb Raider_has ray tracing, so it’s a particularly good way to see how well a gaming rig can handle ray tracing. If you want to see how your GPU stacks up to other systems around the internet, the _Tomb Raider_benchmark is one of the best ways to do that.

Here’s how to run it.

Get the game

To get started, you’ll need to make sure you...

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What to expect from Microsoft’s Windows 11 hybrid work event

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft will reveal how the company is building Windows for the future of hybrid work next week. A special event, Windows Powers the Future of Hybrid Work, will take place on April 5th and feature Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It’s expected to cover a variety of new Windows 11 features for security, productivity, and management, both in the client and cloud.

So what exactly are we likely to see next week? We’ll likely get early glimpses at Microsoft’s vision for building Windows for a new world of remote work. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has emphasized how important the move to hybrid work is for Microsoft. “Hybrid work represents the biggest shift to how we work in our generation,” said Nadella...

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Intel’s XeSS AI upscaling won’t be available until sometime in ‘early summer’

Intel’s first Arc GPUs are launching today, but one of the biggest features for the new discrete graphics cards will be absent when the first Arc-powered laptops arrive: the company’s XeSS AI-powered upscaling technology, which Intel says won’t be available until sometime in “early summer.”

XeSS is meant to compete with other AI-based upscaling techniques, like Nvidia’s own Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and promises to offer players better framerates without compromising on quality. (AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution aims to offer similar results, too, but doesn’t use the same super sampling methods as Intel and Nvidia.)

The goal of XeSS is similar to other upscaling techniques, offering players 4K-quality visuals without having...

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Intel’s first Arc GPUs are launching today for laptops

Intel’s discrete GPU revolution is finally beginning after months of previews and teasers, with the company launching its first Arc A-series GPUs for laptops today. They bring support for DirectX 12, dedicated ray-tracing hardware, and — at least for the first batch of GPUs — only around twice the power of Intel’s integrated Xe graphics.

Today’s launch is just a small taste of what Intel’s full picture for Arc will look like, though: to start, the company is only launching its least powerful Arc 3 series GPUs: the A350M, which has six Xe-cores and six ray-tracing units, and the A370M with eight Xe-cores and eight ray-tracing units. Given the 25W to 50W range for power, they’re meant for ultraportable devices that intend to offer more...

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Meet Earendel, the most distant star ever detected

The Sunrise Arc, and Earendel | NASA/ESA, B. Welch, D. Coe

The most distant star — or possibly pair of stars — that astronomers have ever seen was just revealed thanks to the Hubble telescope and a massive cluster of galaxies. Far from Earth, the universe bends around the vast bulk of a galaxy cluster, creating a gravitational lens in spacetime much like the curved lens in a magnifying glass. Like a magnifying glass, it revealed something small and hidden: a star system from the early universe.

The far-away star system takes the official name WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers who found it nicknamed it “Earendel” from the Old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light.”

Earendel system as we’re seeing it today was shining within just 900 million years of the Big Bang, according to the...

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T-Mobile reportedly pushing back shutdown date for Sprint 3G network

T-Mobile may be pushing back the shutdown date for Sprint’s 3G network | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile is reportedly delaying its planned shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network again to May 31st (via The T-Mo Report). If the report is accurate, it would be the second time the company has pushed the date back; originally, it was going to phase out the network in January but said in October that it would extend the deadline to March 31st.

T-Mobile didn’t immediately reply to an email from The Verge on Wednesday seeking confirmation of the new date. But a section of the iPhone global services guide on SoftBank’s website, under the header Sprint’s “CDMA Network Shutdown,” says, “due to the circumstances of Sprint, the date has been postponed from March 31, 2022 to May 31, 2022.” It adds that there’s also a possibility the May 31st date may...

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Peloton Tread review: the best treadmill by the most volatile company

What’s an excellent treadmill like you doing in this corporate disaster saga?

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Waymo says fully driverless rides are coming to San Francisco

A driverless Waymo vehicle operating in San Francisco. | Waymo

Waymo plans to start offering rides in its fully autonomous vehicles — without human safety drivers behind the wheel — in San Francisco. The Google spinoff says its driverless vehicles will only be available to employees at first but will soon grow to include members of the company’s “Trusted Tester” program.

Waymo is also making big moves in Arizona. The company’s service area is finally growing to include downtown Phoenix after operating exclusively in the exurban towns of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Tempe for nearly five years.

Waymo has been running fully driverless rides without a safety driver in those towns outside of Phoenix for more than a year now. The company is one of a handful trying to launch a wide-scale commercial...

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Roli says it’s not done trying to re-invent the keyboard, announces Seaboard Rise 2

The big feature of the Seaboard Rise 2 is the addition of “frets” to each key, that let players feel their way across notes. | Image: Roli

Music hardware startup Roli says it’s not giving up on the line of squishy Seaboard keyboards that launched its brand. Despite reports last year that the company was pivoting to focus on educational and subscription products, Roli today announced the Seaboard Rise 2 — an upgrade to the more compact model in its Seaboard range.

“It’s lots of small improvements that collectively make it into a much, much better product,” Roli CEO Roland Lamb told The Verge. “In a way, this is the product I’ve always wanted to launch. It’s very, very complete.”

“this is the product I’ve always wanted to launch”

Upgrades to the Rise 2 include new internal engineering, a refreshed port structure, and a more durable, platinum blue chassis. The big change,...

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The White House has launched a new COVID-19 information site, COVID.gov

COVID.govtells you the COVID-19 risk level in your community. | Screenshot: COVID.gov

The Biden administration has launched COVID.gov, a website geared toward connecting Americans with more information about COVID-19 spread, prevention, and treatment in their communities.

On the front page of the site, you can enter the name of your county, and it will display the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 risk level in your community. That metric is based on hospital capacity in an area. The site also links you to more information about vaccinations, masking, and travel from the CDC. Some pages offer community-specific guidance, helping you find free N95 masks and vaccination sites near your location.

You’ll also find a link to COVIDTests.gov, a site that lets you order four free COVID-19 tests through the US...

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Samsung’s fast 1TB 980 Pro M.2 SSD that’s PS5-ready is just $136 at Newegg

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

It’s not usually affordable to add a speedy M.2 SSD to your PS5, but at Newegg, you can get the biggest discount yet on Samsung’s 1TB 980 Pro drive that has a heatsink pre-installed. It costs just $135.99 with the offer code SSBQ3Z25 applied at checkout, down from its typical $170 price that Amazon is currently selling it for. In fact, this model is cheaper right now than the version that omits the heatsink.

Samsung bills this model as being PS5-ready, both in terms of supplying the required heatsink to keep the drive cool in your console and with its sequential read speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 5,100MB/s. While it’s true that we’ve had success using slower M.2 SSDs in a PS5, future games may require higher...

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Disney calls for the repeal of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill it helped fund

In response to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing ​​HB 1557 — the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — into law on Monday, Disney issued its most direct critical response to the legislation yet — the latest development in the company’s recent history of apologetically backtracking after its own financial contributions to the bill’s architects first came to light.

Despite its role in the bill’s path to DeSantis’ desk, Disney said in a press release that its “goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.”

Though Disney’s one of the largest employers in the state of Florida, where tens of thousands of...

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Etsy sellers will go on strike in April and want customers to boycott

Illustration by Lyssa Park / The Verge

In February, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman had good news to share with investors: sales and revenue were at an all-time high, sending Etsy stock soaring. At the same time, Silverman had less welcome news for sellers, delivered via email: transaction fees were going up, from 5 percent to 6.5 percent, or a 30 percent increase, beginning April 11th.

For Kristi Cassidy, an active seller on Etsy since 2007, the fee increase was the last straw. Cassidy, who sells gothic Victorian costumes and accessories, had a happy first decade on the platform. She was able to reach a customer base eager to buy handmade products, and she grew her business selling made-to-order and custom pieces. But for the last few years, changes at Etsy that she feels hurt...

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Chrome version 100 arrives with refreshed logo in tow

Google’s Chrome browser has been updated to version 100, almost 14 years after it introduced the world to its clean design and all-encompassing “omnibox” in 2008. For most of its history, the search giant’s browser has gained a new version number roughly every six weeks, but last year the company switched to a four-week cycle to deliver new features more quickly. Google says the version 100 update is rolling out on stable channels now across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.

In my part of the world, turning 100 gets you a telegram from the Queen, but Chrome’s first triple-digit version has arrived with less in the way of fanfare, and more “fixes and improvements.” The biggest change is the arrival of a refreshed logo. The new design...

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NFL reportedly planning ‘NFL Plus’ mobile streaming service

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The National Football League is working on its own subscription streaming service for mobile devices, according to a report in The Athletic. The league is said to have briefed teams on the project at its annual meeting of owners, which has been held over the past few days in Palm Beach, Florida. The Athletic says that presentations included slides with “NFL+” branding and a hypothetical $5-a-month price point.

The NFL Plus service would theoretically replace NFL Mobile, the NFL’s previous solution for distributing in-market games to phones and tablets. The NFL had a deal with Verizon and Yahoo to show some live games, but that partnership ended last year as the carrier spun off its content businesses. Verizon lost its mobile exclusivity...

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Dyson’s bizarre new headphones have a built-in air purifier

Image: Dyson

Dyson is getting into headphones in the most Dyson way possible: the Zone, a pair of noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones with air purification technology built in, thanks to a bizarre-looking magnetic face visor. It’s both the strangest and most ambitious product that the company has ever made.

Today’s announcement is just an initial reveal of the Zone headphones ahead of a fall release date, and Dyson isn’t announcing specific details like price or specifications (including how much the headphones weigh or how long the battery will last) at this time.

The goal of the Zone is to make living in urban spaces more comfortable by attempting to mitigate both air and noise pollution.

No word on price yet

The air purification half of the...

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How switching to EVs would improve health in the US

Long Beach, CA, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2020, - Thousands of new cars are stored at a logistics service yard at the port. | Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A major shift to electric vehicles and a clean power grid in the US could save tens of thousands of lives over the next few decades, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.

The drop in pollution from tailpipes and power plants would prevent up to 110,000 premature deaths by 2050, the report projects. It would also avoid 2.78 million asthma attacks and 13.4 million lost workdays. All in all, that would amount to $1.2 trillion in public health benefits.

That’s assuming all new passenger cars sold in the US are EVs by 2035 and all new heavy-duty vehicles sold are electric by 2040. What’s more, those vehicles would need to be powered by a fossil fuel-free grid. But replacing the vast majority of the nation’s roughly 280...

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Judge approves Activision Blizzard’s $18 million harassment settlement

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A judge has approved Activision Blizzard’s $18 million settlement with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The two organizations had announced the settlement in September, but it is now being signed after California state regulators had tried to intervene.

Activision Blizzard has been under intense scrutiny since California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a harassment lawsuit in July alleging the company fostered a culture of “constant sexual harassment.” As part of the consent decree, Activision Blizzard will establish an $18 million settlement fund which will be used to compensate victims of harassment and discrimination. Employees who have worked at the company between September 1st, 2016...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The ad-free Kindle Paperwhite Kids is identical to the base Paperwhite, but comes with a few extras. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your smartphone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available for purchase. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one, or any, of the...

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Teenage Engineering’s tiny, orange, bendable PC case is back on sale

Its looks are undeniable. | Teenage Engineering

You can finally get your hands on Teenage Engineering’s absolutely tiny and absolutely orange Computer-1 PC case again, months after it initially went on sale and sold out. If you were really hoping to buy the $195 build-it-yourself mini-ITX case, you can head over to the company’s website and add it to your cart — though before you do, it’s probably worth refreshing yourself on the Computer-1’s... particularities.

When Teenage Engineering announced this case, we had some concerns. It has barely any room for a modern graphics card (even this tiny RTX 3060 is bigger than Teenage Engineering recommends), the airflow situation seemed a little suspicious, and the “think twice, bend once” warning in assembly guide made the building process...

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Lionel Messi signs $20 million deal with Socios.com fan token

Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

Lionel Messi has signed a $20 million deal with Socios to become the fan token site’s global brand ambassador, according to a report from Reuters. Messi, who plays for the Paris-Saint Germain soccer club and captains Argentina’s national team, will promote the exchange for the next three years.

A source close to the situation told Reuters that the transaction will not involve cryptocurrency. When Messi transferred from Barcelona to the Paris-Saint German club last August, ESPN says he received a “large number” of fan tokens from Socios as a part of his signing-on fee.

Together we can do more. Together we can be more.

Introducing https://t.co/2FROhSNgw8’s first global ambassador, Lionel Messi.#BeMoreThanAFanpic.twitter.com/DxiHckf2Wq

—...

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The FTC sues TurboTax to stop ‘misleading’ ads for free tax prep software

The FTC says TurboTax ads claiming its tax prep software is free are misleading | Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Tuesday that Intuit’s “ubiquitous” advertising claiming its TurboTax tax prep software is free to use is misleading, and has asked a federal court to order Intuit to stop “disseminating the deceptive claim that consumers can file their taxes for free using TurboTax.”

According to the commission, the ads “some of which have consisted almost entirely of the word ‘free’ spoken repeatedly” mislead people into believing they can file their taxes for free with TurboTax. “In fact, most tax filers can’t use the company’s ‘free’ service because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.,” the agency said in a...

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Apple will no longer repair iPhones marked as missing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple Stores and authorized service providers will no longer repair iPhones that have been reported as missing through the GSMA device registry, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors. The company now requires repair technicians to deny users a repair if they’re notified of its missing status in the MobileGenius or GSX systems they use to service customers.

The GSMA device registry is a database of device serial numbers with information about each device’s status. For example, if someone reports their phone as stolen to law enforcement, the authorities may flag the device through GSMA, which can help repair providers identify a device as missing if it ever comes into their shop.

Apple’s new policy builds on its existing...

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# Google Docs is getting more Markdown support

There are a few gotchas though. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is adding Markdown support to Google Docs on the web, letting you format your document using text shortcuts rather than keyboard ones. In a blog post announcing the feature, Google says it’s doing this through its autocorrect feature, so it will automatically format the text for you after you type it in Markdown format. For example, if you type “# Google Docs is getting more Markdown support” it’ll automatically get converted to a level one heading.

Google says that Docs already supported a few Markdown autocorrections for bulleted and numbered lists, and checkboxes. It’s adding much wider support, though — you can now use Markdown to add headings, bold and italicize text (or do both), strikethrough (though it’s done using a - on...

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Devialet’s $2,400 Atmos soundbar has an orb you can turn

Closeup of the center speaker orb. | Image: Devialet

Devialet today announced the Dione, a $2,400 Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 soundbar with built-in subwoofers and a central “ORB” speaker that can rotate depending on the soundbar’s installed position (via Gizmodo). The French audio company calls it the “ultimate all-in-one soundbar” since it completely forgoes satellite speakers in favor of a virtual surround solution and has built-in subwoofers.

Crammed into the three-inch-thick profile of the Dione are 17 drivers: eight of them serving as the subwoofers, another eight for full-range audio, and a center driver inside the rotatable orb. The Dione also houses a gyroscope that will automatically correct the sound orientation whether you mount the soundbar or lay it flat — no need to make that...

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Apple TV Plus will begin streaming Friday Night Baseball on April 8th

Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Apple TV Plus has announced an April 8th start date for Friday Night Baseballalongside a streaming schedule for the first half of the season. The revised 2022 season schedule was announced by Major League Baseball (MLB) earlier in March after players and team owners negotiated an end to a lockout, setting a date for the regular season to begin on April 7th.

Streaming will be available for anyone with Apple TV Plus in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. In the US and Canada, that also includes access to a 24/7 livestream with replays, highlights, and other programming. Even if you don’t pay for Apple TV Plus, it will also be available without a subscription on all hardware...

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