Notion’s now letting anyone use its AI features

You can use Notion AI to generate text from scratch, and to re-write or summarize existing text. | Screenshot: Mitchell Clark / The Verge

You can now try out the AI features of the Notion note-taking app, which are meant to help you write and refine text, summarize key points in existing notes, and generate task lists, according to an announcement from the company. Notion started testing its AI offering in November, but now it’s available to anyone with an account, and there’s no waitlist required.

While the AI integrated into the app can write articles from whole cloth (I asked it to write a blog post about the Notion AI announcement, and it spat out 385 words, only some of which were accurate), the company is pitching it more as a “thought partner.” In its announcement post, the company says one of the features alpha testers used the most was asking it to improve text...

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Nvidia is still making billions in Q4 2023 despite a giant drop in PC demand

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Nvidia just reported its fourth quarter and full-year earnings, and it’s not exactly rosy — at least compared to pandemic highs. Last year, Nvidia had record quarterly revenue of $7.64 billion, including $3 billion in pure profit. For Q4 of its fiscal 2023, the company forecast that it would see just $6 billion in quarterly revenue in today’s earnings results, and that’s just about where it landed: $6.05 billion in revenue, down 21 percent, of which $1.4 billion was profit, down 53 percent. For the full year, it raked in $26.92 billion, almost identical to last year, though profit was down 55 percent.

Remember: in 2021, $5 billion in revenue a quarter was a new Nvidia record. Now it’s the status quo: the company says it’s expecting to...

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Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite Kids is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy starting at just $104.99. | 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 phone, 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 ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...

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Realme is working on a Dynamic Island copycat just as the original gets more useful

Apple’s Dynamic Island lacked third-party support at launch. That’s starting to change. | Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge

Realme, a subbrand of Chinese phone maker Oppo, might be the first Android OEM to clone Apple’s Dynamic Island, a deleted tweet from a company executive and a leaked animation suggest. It comes at a time when Apple seems like it might prove that Dynamic Island is worth copying, as the mostly ornamental UI fixture is finally getting some real third-party support.

This doesn’t come as a major surprise. As 9to5Google points out, Realme basically told everyone it wanted to clone Dynamic Island back in September. It appears that a feature called the “Mini Capsule” has been in the works since then. A photo in the removed tweet indeed shows a pill-shaped UI element at the top of the screen with Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging logo displayed. The...

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Netflix’s new NFL docuseries starring Patrick Mahomes debuts this summer

Photo by Cooper Neill / Getty Images

Netflix is getting into football. On Wednesday, the streaming giant announced a new sports docuseries, Quarterback, that will focus on three NFL quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs (who just collected his second Super Bowl win and second Super Bowl MVP award); Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings; and Marcus Mariota of the Atlanta Falcons. The series is set to debut this summer.

“For the first time ever, the NFL allowed quarterbacks to be mic’d up for every single game of a season,” Netflix wrote in a post about the series. “The upcoming show will feature behind-the-scenes access to some of the biggest moments of the season, as Mahomes set an NFL record for total offense on his way to winning the league and Super...

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Razer launches new Blade 15, and it’s still 16:9

Unlike the Blade 16, the 2023 Blade 15 keeps the same aspect ratio we’ve seen on Blades past. | Image: Razer

Razer has launched a new Blade 15 model refreshed with Intel’s 13th Gen processors and Nvidia’s RTX 4000 GPUs.

The company announced a 16-inch Razer Blade a few weeks ago, and some assumed that it would replace the 2022 Razer Blade 15. The Blade 16 threw a number of new features into the Blade 15’s formula — most notably, a 16:10 Mini LED dual-mode display.

But the Blade 15 is a much more minor upgrade from last year’s Blade 15. While the chips are new, the 2023 Blade 15 keeps the same 16:9 aspect ratio as its direct predecessor, just in case you’re one of those old-fashioned people (sorry, I said what I said) who prefers a shorter and wider screen. It’s also the same size and weight as last year’s Blade 15, which means it’s noticeably...

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Tesla announces new engineering headquarters in California

Image: Sean O’Kane / The Verge

Tesla announced a new engineering headquarters in California, with the company saying it would take over office space in Palo Alto formerly occupied by Hewlett Packard. Tesla CEO Elon Musk made the announcement Wednesday alongside California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), who called the announcement “another proof point of the renewable energy vibrancy that is California.”

Tesla was founded in San Carlos, California in 2003 and has called the state home for most of its 20 years of existence. In October 2021, the company abruptly moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas, in recognition of its new Gigafactory that was under construction in the state. Tesla also has Gigafactories in Nevada, Berlin, Buffalo, and Shanghai.

Tesla was founded in...

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Was trading NBA Top Shots actually like trading stocks? A lawsuit will decide

Image: NBA Top Shot

NBA Top Shot developer Dapper Labs and its CEO, Roham Gharegozlou, will face a lawsuit accusing the company of selling unregistered securities in the form of its “Moments,” which are non-fungible tokens for sports fans.

Despite Dappers’ lawyer’s claims that “Basketball cards are not securities. Pokémon cards are not securities. Baseball cards are not securities. Common sense says so. The law says so. And, courts say so,” Judge Victor Marrero decided to let the case go forward.

As he wrote in his decision (Friel v. Dapper Labs, Inc. et al., 1:21-cv-05837-VM):

In totality, the economic realities of this case support the Court’s conclusion that the AC’s allegations pass muster at this stage. In sum, Plaintiffs adequately allege that Dapper...

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Meet the mushroom that could one day replace plastic

Tinder bracket fungus / hoof fungus / horse’s hoof (Fomes fomentarius) on a fallen tree trunk in Belgium. | Photo: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Here’s one more reason to love a good mushroom: one day, you might be able to make headphones, memory foam for shoes, or even aircraft exoskeletons with it. Researchers just assessed the engineering possibilities with one particularly impressive mushroom and found that it might be able to replace plastic in a whole bunch of different use cases.

Using mushrooms instead of plastic could cut down on the mountains of waste humans create. Plastics made out of fossil fuels are actually really difficult to recycle and usually wind up cluttering landfills, landscapes, and waterways. Materials made with mushrooms, on the other hand, would be biodegradable and could be reused at the end of a product’s life to make more of the same stuff.

The...

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Here’s what Messenger’s BeReal-ish ‘Roll Call’ looks like

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

We’re now getting a look at Meta’s “Roll Call” feature that would let you “see what everyone is up to in a group chat” via their front and back cameras, thanks to screenshots posted by analyst Matt Navarra on Twitter. References to the feature, which is like a private version of BeReal, were spotted in Instagram last year, but now a more fleshed-out version of it has shown up in Messenger.

The feature is “an internal prototype, and not testing externally,” according to Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney, but the screenshots do still give us an idea of how it could work should it ever make it to Messenger or other Meta apps. According to Navarra’s post, people in a Messenger group chat would get five minutes to respond to a roll call with...

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Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, is now open to all

Image: Artifact

Instagram’s co-founders are throwing open the doors to their new personalized news app, Artifact. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s new app launched last month with a waitlist, but now anyone on iOS or Android can download Artifact to try it for themselves.

Despite the pedigree of Artifact’s creators, it hasn’t revolutionized the way I consume news on my phone. There’s a home tab with a feed of articles Artifact thinks I will like, and while the feed generally has stuff that I’m interested in, the app’s algorithmic sorting means I’ll often be served days-old news that I don’t care about.

A “Headlines” tab offers collections of articles sorted by topics, but I don’t tend to swipe to it much. The profile tab, however, might be more...

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The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is getting a giant touchscreen, TikTok, and a selfie camera

Image: Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz unveiled the 2024 E-Class’ interior, and while its cabin is not a radical departure in design from existing Benzes, the new E-Class is packed full of interesting and advanced features that will influence the rest of the lineup — like a selfie camera and built-in apps for TikTok and Zoom.

One of the major upgrades in the 2024 E-Class is the Superscreen, which combines the large standard central touchscreen with a second display in front of the passenger. (Unlike the EQS’s Hyperscreen, the digital gauge cluster remains a standalone display.) It looks beautiful, with slim air vents that curve around the top of the screen and a row of touch-capacitive buttons sitting below the center display.

The new E-Class is packed full of...

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Mercedes-Benz will add Luminar lidar to ‘a broad range’ of vehicles by mid-decade

Image: Mercedes-Benz AG

Mercedes-Benz will add lidar sensors to “a broad range” of its vehicles by the middle of the decade, the company announced at an investor event in California on Wednesday. The laser sensors will help power the German automaker’s next-generation driver-assist system, which allows for hands-free unsupervised driving on certain highways.

The lidar will be supplied by Luminar, a Florida-based company in which Mercedes owns a small investment stake. The German automaker has no plans to increase its stake in Luminar, though the lidar deal is said to be worth several billion dollars. (Mercedes owns less than 1 percent of the company.)

The German automaker has no plans to increase its stake in Luminar

Mercedes is the latest automaker to commit...

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The best smartwatches for Android users

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

WearOS is much better than it used to be, so there’s never been a better time to consider a smartwatch.

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Nintendo is creating an entertainment empire, and it all starts with Mario

Super Nintendo World opens up at Universal Studios Hollywood. | Image: David Sprague / Universal Studios Hollywood

With theme parks and a movie, the company is pushing outside of its traditional console gaming comfort zone.

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Acer Swift 3 OLED review: a great package with one thing missing

This is a portable, powerful laptop with a battery life problem.

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How to set up and use Alexa multiroom music

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Multiroom music (MRM) is a big selling point of Amazon’s Echo smart speakers. For a fraction of the price of some whole-home wireless audio setups (using Amazon’s inexpensive Echo speakers, including the $50 Echo Dot or the $99 Echo), you can stream music, podcasts, audiobooks, and more throughout your house or on several speakers in one room for some seriously souped-up sound. Also, new features for controlling your music with the Alexa app now make it easier to manage your multiroom-audio setup.

Alexa’s MRM works with audio from various services, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal. And since you can play multiple streams in your house at once, you can listen to a podcast downstairs...

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The CSA is addressing smart home data privacy, and it’s about damn time

The organization behind Matter wants to create a data privacy specification for the smart home. | Image: CSA

Do you wish you could see exactly what data your smart thermostat collects and how it uses that information? Would you like to know what your video doorbell knows about who visits your home and when? Are you interested in who can see that map of your bedroom your robot vacuum generated? Or would you at least like to be reassured that no one else knows these intimate details?

Today, the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the group behind Matter, announced the formation of a new Data Privacy Working Group. The group will develop a global “Alliance Data Privacy Specification” to certify the data privacy of smart devices and the services they use as well as provide information about how that data is used in a clear, digestible manner —...

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Amazon closes $3.9 billion buy of membership-based healthcare provider One Medical

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon has closed its $3.9 billion acquisition of membership-based healthcare provider One Medical, which was originally announced last summer. For the subscription (usually $199 annually but currently discounted to $144 per year), One Medical offers members an app, 24/7 access to on-demand telehealth services over video, and guaranteed same- or next-day appointments available through more than 125 offices.

The FTC, which is reportedly considering leveling an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, has been investigating this deal as well as others (like iRobot) made by the company. FTC spokesman Douglas Farrar said to CNBC that the investigation into this acquisition is ongoing, and “The commission will continue to look at possible harms to...

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The Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan is expanding to six new countries

Microsoft is allowing its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to share account access with up to four other people. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is expanding the availability of its Friends & Family plan for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to six additional countries following its initial pilot in Ireland and Columbia last year. The Friends & Family plan is now also available in New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Hungary, Israel, and Sweden and allows Xbox Game Pass members to share benefits with up to four other friends or family members.

Each individual on a Friends & Family membership receives their own unique access to the entire Game Pass Ultimate library across Xbox and PC, EA Play, and other benefits like exclusive member discounts. Pricing for each new region will vary and has not been publicly disclosed by Microsoft. For context, though, the plan is currently available...

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Bing’s chat mode is now on mobile — and you can speak to it

Bing is now available as a contact in Skype. You can chat to it directly or add it to other conversations. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft evidently hasn’t been daunted by the often wild outbursts of its AI chatbot Bing and is launching the service on iOS and Android mobile apps today as well as integrating the bot into Skype and adding voice access.

On mobile devices, Bing is now available on Microsoft’s Edge mobile browser and dedicated Bing app for those who have been accepted from the waitlist. The bot’s functionality is the same as on the web, which is to say that it’s somewhat muted compared to its startling debut. Voice control is also fine but a little slow, and Bing’s voice is unremarkable — female (of course) and vaguely robotic — not as convincing as recent AI voice clones.

After the “new Bing” was launched two weeks ago, users quickly found the...

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Spotify HiFi was announced two years ago — and it still hasn’t launched

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

At this point, it’s fair to assume that something went wrong with Spotify HiFi. Two years ago today, during the company’s Stream On event, Spotify announced a new streaming tier that would let customers enjoy lossless, CD-quality audio from the leading subscription music service.

Spotify felt the news was worthy of some star power and filmed a promotional video for HiFi with Billie Eilish and Finneas. It remains on the company’s YouTube page, and you can still read the blog post saying upgraded sound would arrive “later this year” — meaning by the end of 2021.

And then it just... didn’t happen. Two years on, Spotify HiFi still hasn’t been released. The prolonged wait and lack of updates have become meme-worthy at this point. It’s a...

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No Man’s Sky is getting an overhauled VR mode with the launch of PSVR 2

It’s like you’re actually in the ship. | Image: Hello Games

No Man’s Sky is one of many titles you can play on the now-released PlayStation VR2, but the game’s virtual reality mode on all VR platforms is getting a big overhaul as part of the new 4.1 “Fractal” update, developer Hello Games announced Wednesday.

One of the biggest changes with the Fractal update is that the game’s HUD and UI have been redesigned for VR. That means you’ll be able to look through your multitool’s options in a menu embedded in the multitool, for example, or look at your inventory on a wrist-mounted display.

Of course, there are a handful of features that take advantage of the PS5 and the PSVR 2. You’ll see increased draw distances and denser foliage while exploring planets, and the game will use the PSVR 2’s headset...

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Jabra’s budget-friendly Elite 3 wireless earbuds are on sale for just $59.99

Jabra’s Elite 3 wireless earbuds are on sale for $59.99 ($20 off) today. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge

Cheap gadgets are often cheap because, well, they’re not the best in terms of quality. That’s not true of Jabra’s Elite 3, however, which are once again on sale for $59.99 ($20 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.

As our favorite pair of wireless earbuds under $100, the Elite 3 sound terrific for the price and offer a few niceties typically reserved for more expensive earbuds. They include an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance, for instance, along with the ability to use either earbud independently. So long as you’re fine without multipoint Bluetooth support and active noise cancellation, they’re a good pair of buds that nail the basics and shouldn’t disappoint. Read our review.

Gaming laptops are fun, but they’re not the most practical...

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I wouldn’t trade my $400 Steam Deck for this $1,300 Ayaneo 2

Ayaneo 2 review: this flashy competitor has the Steam Deck beat on specs, but you can’t play a spec sheet.

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China regulators rein in AI chatbots over fears of uncensored replies: report

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge

Chinese regulators have reportedly told the country’s tech giants not to offer access to AI chatbot ChatGPT over fears the tool will give “uncensored replies” to politically sensitive questions.

That’s according to a report from Nikkei Asiaciting “people with direct knowledge of the matter.” Nikkei says Chinese regulators told tech firms Tencent and Ant Group (a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba) to not only restrict access to the US-developed ChatGPT, but to also report to officials before launching their own rival chatbots.

Such a move would fit the Chinese government’s heavy-handed approach to censorship and quick regulatory responses to new tech. Last month, for example, the country introduced new rules regarding the...

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Uber’s redesigned app uses the latest iPhone features

Uber’s new app update includes support for Dynamic Island and Live Activities for iPhone 14 Pro and iOS 16. | Image: Uber

Uber is launching a redesigned version of its app that introduces a homescreen that the company says makes hailing a ride and ordering takeout food a lot easier. Uber is also adding enhancements to the app that make use of the latest iPhone and iOS features. The update is rolling out now to “tens of millions” customers in 1,200 cities globally, the company said.

The redesign and new features are the first in a series of updates, Uber’s head of product for rides, Jen You, states in a press release. “These improvements represent the biggest design changes to the Uber app in several years.”

Image: Uber

The new Uber app homescreen has tabs for rides and Eats delivery on top and a simplified space for suggestions.

O...

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Samsung says users will be able to clone their voice to respond to calls

The feature is only available in Korean on select handsets, including the Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra (pictured). | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

AI voice clones are already being deployed in podcasts and video games, but how long until they can be harnessed directly by the general public? Probably sooner than you think, with Samsung today announcing a feature for its Bixby mobile assistant that lets users clone their voice to answer phone calls. The idea is that if someone calls you but you can’t answer aloud you can type out a response and it’ll be read in a simulacrum of your voice.

Some caveats here: this feature is only currently available in Korean as the Bixby Custom Voice Creator app for a small number of Samsung handsets (the new Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra), which means we’ve been unable to test it ourselves. The voice quality might be abysmal and response time too...

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Wednesday’s top tech news: Section 230 on trial

Image: Getty

Plus yet more Twitter layoffs, and Nvidia partners with Microsoft as it fights to acquire Activision Blizzard.

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WhatsApp is working on a private newsletter feature

It’s early days, but WhatsApp’s 2 billion active users could be one hell of a market for independant writers. | Illustration: The Verge

Would you be more likely to subscribe to a newsletter from your favorite creator if you could read it through a messaging app like WhatsApp? As noted by Wabetainfo, code in beta version 2.23.5.3 of WhatsApp Messenger for Android contains references to a new “Newsletter” feature that’s currently under development. The name could itself be a codename, but clues hidden within the code suggest that the one-to-many broadcast tool will be optional and self-contained within its own section of the WhatsApp Status tab, separate from encrypted group chats and messages.

According to Wabetainfo’s findings, Newsletter will grant users full control over what they see — there’s no mention of ads (yet), nor is there any sign of algorithm-based...

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