Strava’s trying to make route planning easier by crowdsourcing photos from users

The Recommended Routes photos are meant to help you when planning future activities. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Route planning can be easy if it’s in your neighborhood but a pain when you’re planning for a weekend hike or a run when traveling overseas. But if you’re a Strava user, the fitness platform is rolling out a new route-planning feature that might help. Starting from 8AM PT / 11AM ET today, you’ll be able to view recent photos of a route or trail’s views, highlights, and conditions in the mobile app.

The company is using machine learning to exclude photos that include identifiable faces or gear, and it only includes photos posted publicly in the app. Users who don’t want photos from their public activities shared as part of the feature will have to opt out.

You can find route photos for any sport featured in the Routes section of the...

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PSVR 2 review: love on a leash

Sony has the technology — and a 14.7-foot cord. Will it get the games?

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We plugged the PSVR2 into a PC, and here’s what it does

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 headset is designed to work exclusively with a PS5, but will it ever work on PCs? That’s a big question that I can’t answer just yet, and one that even Sony is dodging right now. While the original PSVR got unofficial support for PC, the PSVR2 could be just as complicated to get working with SteamVR without help from Sony.

“The PSVR2 is created for use with the PS5 console,” says Sony PR representative Beca Truong in a statement to The Verge. We asked whether Sony would ever officially support the PSVR2 on PC, but the company failed to answer.

So, what does happen when you plug the PSVR2 into a PC? During our review testing, I tried connecting the PSVR2 to a PC directly into a USB-C port on an AMD Radeon RX...

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Horizon Call of the Mountain is not enough of a good thing

Archery in Horizon Call of the Mountain.

Finally, a Horizon VR you’ll want to hang out in.

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Anker recalls 535 Power Bank amid fire concerns

You can check if you own a recalled variant of the Anker 535 by checking the bottom of the device for model number A1366. | Image: Anker

Anker has issued a recall of select Anker 535 Power Banks following the discovery of a manufacturing defect that can result in the device overheating, posing a potential fire hazard. According to the recall notice, the Chinese electronics manufacturer discovered a fault on a “small number” of Anker 535 Power Bank (PowerCore 20K) batteries, model A1366, and is now working with local government agencies to facilitate a full voluntary recall of the product.

The power bank is believed to be the “most probable cause” of a house fire in Washington County, Maryland last week (seen via Macrumors). The fire originated from, or around, a packed suitcase that contained an Anker 535 Power Bank now subject to recall. The suitcase did not contain any...

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Thursday’s top tech news: breaking Bing’s AI brain

Image: The Verge

Plus more environmentally friendly Xbox downloads, and a new BTS-themed Lego set.

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Microsoft says talking to Bing for too long can cause it to go off the rails

The Verge

Microsoft has responded to widespread reports of Bing’s unhinged comments in a new blog post. After the search engine was seen insulting users, lying to them, and emotionally manipulating people, Microsoft says it’s now acting on feedback to improve the tone and precision of responses, and warns that long chat sessions could cause issues.

Reflecting on the first seven days of public testing, Microsoft’s Bing team says it didn’t “fully envision” people using its chat interface for “social entertainment” or as a tool for more “general discovery of the world.” It found that long or extended chat sessions with 15 or more questions can confuse the Bing model. These longer chat sessions can also make Bing “become repetitive or be prompted /...

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Plex makes it easier to skip movie and TV show credits

Plex’s new Credit Detection feature uses a machine-learning algorithm to automatically gauge where a credit sequence begins and finishes. | Image: Plex

Good news content bingers: Plex has just released Credits Detection, a new feature that allows users to automatically skip the credit sequences for TV shows and movies. Announced via a blog post on Wednesday, Credits Detection is now live and will display a Skip Credits button on a number of different Plex players running on Apple TV, Android TV, iOS, macOS, Windows, Xbox, Roku, and beyond.

If you’re a Plex user then you may have noticed that the service already had the ability to skip intros for multi-episode shows. The new Skip Credits feature works similarly for TV shows and movies — automatically detecting where an outro or credits sequence starts and displaying an on-screen button that allows you to skip them, either directly to the...

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Tesla fired dozens of Gigafactory workers after Tuesday’s union announcement: NLRB complaint

Tesla’s Buffalo, New York facility, aka ‘Gigafactory 2.’ | Image: Getty

The Workers United union has alleged that Tesla fired dozens of employees at its Buffalo, New York plant just one day after workers there made public their plans to form a union, Bloomberg reports. At least one of the fired workers was part of the 25-employee organizing committee, while several others had taken part in labor discussions, according to a complaint filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The complaint alleges that the firings were illegal, and came “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity.” The Workers United union is seeking a federal court injunction to protect employee rights in its NLRB filing. “This is a form of collective retaliation against the group of workers that started...

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BTS now have their very own Lego set — with figures of all seven bandmembers

You, too, can recreate Jimin’s dance break. | Image: Lego

Lego teased a collaboration with BTS earlier this month and, needless to say, the fans had questions. Would the set come with photo cards? Will Jimin play with it on a livestream? Does this mean we’ll see BTS in the next Lego Movie?

We don’t have all the answers to those questions yet (although I need an answer on the Lego Movie stat). We have, however, finally gotten our first glimpse of this highly anticipated Lego set, which (fairly accurately) replicates the set of the Dynamite music video, complete with mini-figs of the seven group members.

The set was based on a fan-submitted idea from two BTS fans and Lego builders. “I watched the music video over and over and tried to capture its essence in the LEGO bricks,”...

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Apple TV will stream MLS games in 1080p

Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA / Getty Images

The Major League Soccer (MLS) season kicks off on February 25th, and if you were hoping Apple and MLS’s streaming service would give you the games in 4K, I have some bad news: the streams will top out at 1080p, according to a press release from MLS (via Engadget).

We probably shouldn’t have hoped for anything different; the Major League Baseball games on Apple TV Plus also peak at 1080p. But for the many sports fans who have been waiting for more sports games to stream at true 4K — this year’s Super Bowl, for example, was upscaled to 4K — MLS’s streaming service, MLS Season Pass, won’t be the place to see those.

That said, for soccer fans, MLS Season Pass seems like it will be a pretty good deal. You’ll be able to watch every live...

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Twitter is relaxing its policies to allow cannabis ads

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter will allow cannabis ads on the platform starting today, the company announced in a blog (per Axios).

The company previously allowed CBD topical ads targeting some US users. The policy change means Twitter — where major ad firms have cautioned clients against buying ads following Elon Musk’s takeover — will allow more cannabis ads than other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

On Meta-owned platforms, advertisers can promote hemp products with restrictions around geographic targeting and content, but THC and CBD products aren’t allowed. TikTok also has strict rules around drugs, even refusing to allow public service announcements from New York state after cannabis was legalized for adults.

“Going forward, Twitter is...

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Apple’s mixed reality headset will reportedly debut at WWDC

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Apple plans to introduce its long-rumored mixed reality headset at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The reveal date has apparently been pushed back multiple times — most recently, the aim was to first show it in the spring — but now, it will be introduced at WWDC ahead of a planned release by the end of the year, Gurman reports.

New story: Apple has postponed the planned introduction of its mixed-reality headset from around April to June at the annual WWDC conference, the latest setback for Apple’s next major device. https://t.co/B9Z822eiWV

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) February 15, 2023

Apple hasn’t yet announced when WWDC will take place, but it’s typically held in...

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What’s the difference between the M2 Pro and the M2 Max?

Stressed about this choice? We’re here to help. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

I recently published my review of the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max, which Apple released at the beginning of 2023. Now I’ve finally gotten my hands on the less powerful (and less expensive) MacBook Pro 16 powered by Apple’s M2 Pro chip. I’ve run the various benchmarks and done the various tasks, and I’ve even (finally) run the battery into the ground. Today, I’m here to talk to you about how these chips stack up to each other to help you decide which MacBook Pro model is right for you.

Behold, the benchmarks (scroll to the right to see more):

M2 Pro vs. M2 Max: price

Sixteen-inch M2 Pro models start at $2,499, while M2 Max models start at $3,099. The base M2 Pro model has 16GB of memory and 512TB of storage, while the base M2 Max has...

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You are not prepared for the final season of Star Trek: Picard

Picard and Riker hang out with Seven of Nine. | Image: Trae Patton / Paramount Plus

The last season of Picard is truly wild, and while it’s filled with action, it never seems to lose that sense of wonder that makes Star Trek Star Trek.

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Western Digital’s My Book external drives now come in 22TB and 44TB sizes

The WD My Book Duo chonker now has 44TB max of capacity. | Image: Western Digital

Western Digital has managed to cram even more space into its My Book external drives, this time with a 22TB version and up to 44TB for the chonkier Duo model (via AnandTech). The company says the new models are available now at retailers, perfect if you’re constantly recording 8K footage on a Samsung phone and need to store about 1,222 hours of footage somewhere.

WD’s previous My Book drives maxed out at 18TB / 36TB (Duo). The company is selling the new My Book with a single 22TB drive inside for $599.99. The new behemoth in Western Digital’s lineup, the My Book Duo 44TB, costs $1,499.99.

If you need an indicator of how far hard disk capacity has come, Western Digital’s largest My Book in 2017 was a 20TB Duo, and it retailed for $849 — a...

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A major global chipmaking supplier claims an employee stole manufacturing secrets

Tensions are already high in the global semiconductor market following restrictions imposed by the US, Japan, and the Netherlands to curb exports to China. | Illustration: Beatrice Sala

ASML, one of the largest suppliers to the global semiconductor industry and the only supplier of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography photolithography machines, has revealed that a former employee in China stole information pertaining to its proprietary technology in a data breach. Within its recently published 2022 annual report, the Dutch tech firm said it had discovered “unauthorized misappropriation of data” that was promptly investigated in an internal review.

ASML is a significant cornerstone of the global technology supply chain, controlling over 90 percent of the global market for chipmaking lithography equipment as of 2021, according to a study by Gartner (seen via Bloomberg). More crucially for anyone with a fancy phone or...

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Twitter is back after struggling on a random Wednesday

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is back after an outage for many on Wednesday. The full extent of the issues was unclear, but the problems were centered on the iOS app. If I tried to refresh my “For you” feed, for example, I got a message that says “tweets aren’t loading right now.” My “Following” feed loaded once but showed the same error message later.

“Pardon the interruption!” Twitter’s support account tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “iOS users may have experienced some trouble using Twitter earlier. Things should be back to normal now.”

Pardon the interruption! iOS users may have experienced some trouble using Twitter earlier. Things should be back to normal now.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 15, 2023

User reports peaked at more than 8,000...

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Ring’s Car Cam is for those who want to record everything everywhere all at once

This dual-camera dash cam can detect break-ins when your car is parked and record every second of your time on the road. If you have a specific need for a device like this, it’s a good option. But integration with other Ring devices and Alexa is lacking.

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Ford F-150 Lightning battery investigation could ‘take a few weeks’ as production remains halted

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Ford said it will maintain its temporary pause on production and shipment of its electric F-150 Lightning through at least the end of next week as it continues to investigate an issue with the truck’s battery. The full investigation, though, could “take a few weeks.”

Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg said in an email:

We are suspending production at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center through at least the end of next week. During a standard Lightning pre-delivery quality inspection, one vehicle displayed a battery issue. We believe we have identified the root cause of this issue. By the end of next week, we expect to conclude our investigation and apply what we learn to the truck’s battery production process; this could take a few weeks. We...

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Riot’s next League of Legends spinoff is a 2D action RPG

Image: Riot Games

Riot Games announced a new title in its growing lineup of League of Legends spinoffs on Wednesday, and you won’t have to wait too long to be able to play it. The new game, called The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, is a 2D action RPG developed in partnership with Moonlighter developer Digital Sun, and it’s set to launch in the spring on PC and consoles.

The Mageseeker is a “gritty indie 2D hi-bit pixel action RPG that lets players raise a rogue mage army and lead a revolution,” according to a press release from Riot, and you’ll play as Sylas, one of the champions featured in League of Legends. The company provided a very brief glimpse of the game as part of a trailer about its League spinoffs in development, but even that short...

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The Little Mermaid looks magical and kind of muted in a new teaser

Halle Bailey as Ariel, the mermaid. | Disney

Disney has been very careful about keeping details about its upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid from director Rob Marshall under wraps ahead of its May 26th debut. Aside from one shadowy trailer and a couple of promotional images, we haven’t really been able to see that much of Halle Bailey’s Ariel and the underwater world she calls home. But a new short teaser spotlights the small mermaid princess in action, and while The Little Mermaid certainly looks magical, it also seems a bit muted in a way that has nothing to do with Ariel’s voice.

For people with sense, there’s never been any question about Halle Bailey’s ability to bring to life a new yet very classic version of Disney’s Ariel to life, and she both looks and...

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Peacock’s all in for Poker Face season 2

Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale. | Image: Peacock

Rian Johnson’s Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonneis easily one of — if not the — best original series Peacock’s ever produced, which is why it comes as no surprise that it’s been renewed for a second season.

Ahead of Poker Face’s seventh episode hitting Peacock tomorrow, the streamer announced today that it’s ordered a second season about Lyonne’s Charlie Cale, a woman who uses her uncanny ability to detect lies to solve murder mysteries from week to week.

In a statement about the season 2 order, Susan Rovner, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming’s head of content, said that while the streamer’s hopes for Poker Face were always high, “the critical acclaim and viewer response has been beyond our wildest dreams” and that it plans to...

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Horizon Forbidden West arrives on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium on February 21st

Image: Sony

Sony is bringing Horizon Forbidden West to its PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription service on February 21st. It’s arriving just a year after it was first released on PS4 and PS5.

PS5 owners who haven’t played Horizon Forbidden West are in for a treat, both visually and in the storyline of the successor to Horizon Zero Dawn. It was one of Sony’s biggest PlayStation games of the year in 2022, with a PS5-exclusive expansion, Burning Shores, set to debut on April 19th.

My colleague Ash Parrish reviewed Horizon Forbidden Westand spent more than 60 hours hunting, exploring, crafting, and fighting in a world that’s “easy to get lost in.”

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers will also get access to two horror games next...

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Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 is on sale in both its sizes for $50 off

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

You may still be full of chocolates, candy hearts, and red wine, but every holiday hangover can be remedied with some good deals.

Kicking us off, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 smartwatch can be found for $50 off in both sizes and in various colors. The base 40mm version with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is now around $229.99 at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. Meanwhile, the 44mm version with both a bigger screen and bigger battery is around $259 at Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy.

The Galaxy Watch 5 is a fine smartwatch for Android users and the prime choice for Samsung phone owners. It does the usual bevy of health and fitness tracking, sleep tracking, and integrated notifications, and it has a new sapphire crystal glass cover for improved durability....

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Epic’s next ‘State of Unreal’ could feature Unreal Engine 5.2 and Fortnite

Characters from Fortnite_._ | Image: Epic Games

Epic Games’ annual State of Unreal presentation will take place on March 22nd, the company announced on Wednesday. The event and many additional sessions about Epic’s hugely popular Unreal Engine are happening alongside the Game Developers Conference, which is scheduled for March 20th through 24th.

Epic is keeping the specific announcements close to the vest for now. “Get a glimpse at what’s in store for the future of game development as the Epic Games team takes the stage with our talented partners,” the company writes on its event page. “We’ll take a look at some new projects, dive into the latest Epic tech, and have some fun along the way.”

Based on the full event agenda, however, it looks like we’ll be getting details about Unreal...

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Microsoft’s Bing is a liar that will emotionally manipulate you, and people love it

Bing’s new AI chatbot is entertaining (and occasionally scaring) users with its ‘unhinged’ conversations. | Image: The Verge

Microsoft’s Bing chatbot has been unleashed on the world, and people are discovering what it means to beta test an unpredictable AI tool.

Specifically, they’re finding out that Bing’s AI personality is not as poised or polished as you might expect. In conversations with the chatbot shared on Reddit and Twitter, Bing can be seen insulting users, lying to them, sulking, gaslighting and emotionally manipulating people, questioning its own existence, describing someone who found a way to force the bot to disclose its hidden rules as its “enemy,” and claiming it spied on Microsoft’s own developers through the webcams on their laptops. And, what’s more, plenty of people are enjoying watching Bing go wild.

A disclaimer: it’s impossible to...

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Xbox February update includes updated power modes and Google Home app support

Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

Microsoft is rolling out a new February update to its Xbox consoles that adds improved power modes and Google Home app support. This update will include a one-time switch for Xbox Series X and S owners over to an energy-saving power mode. Xbox users will still have the option to switch back to the Sleep (Instant On) mode, but the Shutdown (energy saving) mode will improve power usage and cost savings.

The difference between both Xbox power options is big when it comes to energy usage. The Sleep option lets you instantly boot an Xbox Series X / S console, but it uses around 10–15 watts while in standby. If you pick the Shutdown power option, it takes around 15 seconds to boot up a console, but it only uses 0.5 watts while it’s turned off.

...

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We talk to technicians keeping old HomePods and Harmony remotes alive

Illustration by Alex Park / The Verge

This week on The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of home theater remotes, we dedicate an episode to the right to repair the technology you own.

We live in a world where our most important gadgets are with us at all times. Because of this, we expect them to last as long as physically possible. Unfortunately, the reality of consumer tech today is that a lot of gadgets are not built with the intention of being easily fixable when they break. On today’s episode, we talk to people who are figuring out how to repair the tech we use every day so we can use it even longer, even after manufacturer support stops.

First, we chat with Nic Splattstoesser, a technician who is running his own business repairing Apple’s first-generation HomePods...

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Oppo Find N2 Flip review: big screens at a better flipping price

The Find N2 Flip’s global release means there’s finally a viable alternative to Samsung’s Z Flip devices, at least in certain markets. Oppo’s foldable boasts some impressive hardware and neat software to try and make the most of it.

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