These parts could be the first leak of Apple’s mixed-reality headset

Image: Mr. White via 9to5Mac

There’s a chance we just got a look at some cables and sensors for Apple’s upcoming and much-rumored virtual / augmented reality headset. Photos from MrWhite128, a protected Twitter account, which were reposted by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, appear to show ribbon cables that look like they’d fit perfectly in a set of eye-shaped goggles.

It’s not obvious from the pictures what exactly the cables would do beyond connecting the left and right sides of the headset — without context, there’s not a ton to be gleaned from them. The leaker also shared pictures of a cable that has three bulbous sections, which could be some sort of sensor or camera array. The headset is rumored to have color-passthrough capabilities that let you see the real world...

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The tech bank collapse of 2023

Illustration: The Verge

All of The Verge’s coverage, including the repercussions of SVB, all in one place

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Someone obtained a whole-ass Pixel 7A before Google could even announce it

The Pixel 7A has leaked. | Image: Zing News

I can’t quite say it was inevitable, but — in some of the least surprising yet amusing tech news in the world — a Vietnam gadget enthusiast has managed to obtain a developer unit of the unannounced Pixel 7A smartphone.

Seriously: we called the Pixel 4 the most-leaked phone ever — and that was after multiple Russian-speaking bloggers obtained the Pixel 3 XL. The Nexus 4 was fully reviewed before it was ever announced. The Pixel 4A and Pixel 5 leaked like a sieve, and Google itself tipped the 6A in a coloring book, not unlike how it accidentally revealed the Nexus 5 in a YouTube video. The Pixel 6 got unboxed, and the Pixel 6 Pro even got a teardown before the phone launched. It’s not hard to see why Google tends to tease its gadgets...

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Everything to read after HBO’s The Last of Us season 1 finale

Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us. | Image: HBO

The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us is over — and there’s a lot to dig into. Between the show’s heavy themes, its long-controversial ending, the way it changed and adapted the game, as well as the games themselves, we’ve got plenty of different stories to read after the finale. They span the last 10 years, from the onset of the original PS3 game all the way up to the TV show’s season 1 finale. Here are reviews, interviews, deep dives, and more to explore while we wait to see Ellie and Joel hanging out in the post-apocalypse once again.

The show

Image: HBO

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us.

Our review of the entire first season

Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann on adapting the story...

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Podcasters made this combo XLR / USB-C jack exist

Rode has released an updated version of its NT1 large diaphragm condenser microphone, a standard in the company’s lineup and one of its first products debuting back in 1991. The microphone has mostly the same design that makes it a good choice for small budget vocal recordings, but this year’s model comes with a fun twist: the microphone now supports both XLR and USB-C outputs, all within the same slot.

This dual-connect upgrade has been a common addition to podcasting and home recording microphones for the past few years, allowing the microphone to be used for multiple recording gear setups. But Rode has designed the NT1’s multiple output jacks in a clever way by fitting them snug right on top of each other inside the circular XLR...

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The Last of Us future seasons might be swarming with even more infected monsters

A bloater surrounded by clickers in HBO’s The Last of Us_._

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin says that future seasons may feature way more of the games’ monstrous fungal mutants to bring an interesting kind of balance to the show.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s Ukrainian developer is being blackmailed by pro-Russian hackers

Image: GSC Game World

GSC Game World, the Ukrainian studio developing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, says it has been hacked and that the hackers are threatening to blackmail the company, according to a statement shared on Twitter on Sunday.

“Recently, our employee’s account for a collective work-with-images application was hacked,” GSC Game World wrote in the statement. The hackers are “threatening to use the obtained data for blackmail and intimidation,” the studio said.

It’s apparently not the first cybersecurity threat the team has faced. “We have been enduring constant cyberattacks for more than a year now,” GSC Game World said. “We have faced blackmail, acts of aggression, hacks, attempts to hurt players and fans, and efforts to damage the...

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Volkswagen’s first North American gigafactory will be in Canada

Image: VW

Volkswagen announced that its first gigafactory in North America will be located in the city of St. Thomas in the Canadian province of Ontario. By establishing a battery plant in North America, Volkswagen hopes to meet a major requirement to enable its EVs to be eligible for the US federal tax credit of $7,500.

The St. Thomas factory will be a joint venture between VW and Power Co, a new independent company created by the automaker to oversee its massive $20 billion battery initiatives. After starting construction on two other gigafactories, this will be the third plant worldwide and PowerCo’s first cell factory in North America. Production at the St. Thomas factory is set to kick off in 2027.

According to VW, the St. Thomas plant...

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Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a ChatGPT supercomputer

Illustration: The Verge

Microsoft spent hundreds of millions of dollars building a massive supercomputer to help power OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, according to a report from Bloomberg. In a pair of blog posts published on Monday, Microsoft explains how it created Azure’s powerful artificial intelligence infrastructure used by OpenAI and how its systems are getting even more robust.

To build the supercomputer that powers OpenAI’s projects, Microsoft says it linked together thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) on its Azure cloud computing platform. In turn, this allowed OpenAI to train increasingly powerful models and “unlocked the AI capabilities” of tools like ChatGPT and Bing.

Scott Guthrie, Microsoft’s vice president of AI and cloud, said the...

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How to clean bloatware off your PC

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

It happens to the best of us. You’ve just purchased a new PC, and you’re excited about all the blessed empty storage that’s there for you to load with your favorite programs. But why is so much of the drive already full? What are all these notifications you’re getting from apps you’ve never heard of? And why is some antivirus program trying to scan everything you download?

It sounds like your new device may have a bad case of bloatware. It’s quite common for PCs (even fairly expensive ones) to come preloaded with a bunch of third-party software. Some will be free trials included with the hope that you will upgrade to paid services. There may be apps here and there that you actually want and find useful, but many will likely be garbage...

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Night Sight on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro is about to get a speed boost

Night Sight on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro is getting up to speed with the latest Pixel generation. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Google’s making good on its promise to bring a much-touted photo feature to all of its phones and has a couple of other goodies for Pixel owners in its latest feature drop. The update is being made available now to Pixel phones, and it includes Magic Eraser for all devices, a faster Night Sight for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and a Direct My Call enhancement for older Pixels.

Magic Eraser debuted on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro and was also available on last year’s Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. That means it’s only been available on phones with Google’s custom Tensor chipset, which might lead you to believe it could only run on phones with Tensor. That’s clearly not the case — last month, Google announced the feature would be offered with older Pixel devices...

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After the Macan, Porsche plans a Cayenne EV and another high-performance electric SUV

Porsche’s new veiled high-end electric SUV. | Image: Porsche

Porsche is working on a brand-new high-end electric SUV, the luxury automaker announced during its annual press conference on Monday. The yet-to-be-named EV will be fourth in the company’s updated electric vehicle lineup that includes an electric Macan for 2024, followed by an electric version of the two-seater 718 and a newly announced all-electric version of the Cayenne.

The electric SUV will be positioned as a performance model above the Cayenne and will be based on a new Porsche-developed SSP Sport electric vehicle platform. The automaker’s parent company, Volkswagen, had been developing the new SSP platform to succeed its MEB platform. But the process has been plagued with software issues, causing a delay to Volkswagen’s “Project...

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The best Etsy alternatives for selling your crafts

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Since its launch in 2005, Etsy has become well known as the place to go for handcrafted, one-of-a-kind items from a wide variety of creators. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that rosy reputation has changed a bit. To begin with, buyers have been noticing an influx of mass-market goods that are noticeably not handmade. I’ve talked to more than one person who feels that Etsy is now less about selling handmade crafts and more about drop shipping — enterprises that advertise and sell a product and then pass the order on to a third party, which ships it.

There has been a lot of discontent online from sellers as well, due both to the increased number of manufactured goods and to increased expenses such as mandatory market plans. Then,...

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Building tiny keycaps into a small business

This is one of Tinymakesthings’ artisan keycaps, sculpted in clay. | Image: Tinymakesthings

Mechanical keyboard love lovers have created a small boom in small businesses. People are making a living designing and building PCBs, switches, caps, and whole keyboards. They’re partnering with small factories to bring their creations to life. But some artisans are building the products themselves — no factory involved. The artist who goes by the name Tinymakesthings is one of those creators.

She’s a keycap artist, crafting individual keycaps that are truly tiny works of art. She uses a few mediums to build her keycaps but relies primarily on clay and resin. She broadcasts her work on Twitch and sells her caps in her own shop, and she felt like a perfect person to speak with for the next episode of Solo Acts.

Solo Acts is a five-part V...

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Amazon and Rivian’s exclusive deal for electric vans might not last much longer

Image: Amazon

Rivian’s looking to exit from its agreement to exclusively provide delivery vans to Amazon, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. As part of a deal made in 2019, the online retailer signed on to purchase 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian, but with Amazon reportedly only meeting the bare minimum of ordering 10,000 vehicles this year, the two are renegotiating.

The terms of the original deal said Amazon would have the exclusive rights to the electric delivery vans for four years after Rivian provided the first batch of vehicles, which Rivian started delivering last year. However, the fine print states that Rivian could cut the exclusivity deal short if Amazon doesn’t purchase 10,000 of its vehicles in each of the...

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Sony’s WF-1000XM4 earbuds are a treat for your ears and now easier on your wallet

They sound good, look sleek, aren’t too bulky, and are now on a great sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Still feeling groggy from the daylight saving time change? Well, we’ve got some deals to help jolt you awake.

The Sony WF-1000XM4, our overall favorite noise-canceling earbuds, are on sale for $198 at Amazon or $199.99 at Best Buy. That’s $82 off, bringing them down to their second-best price to date — being only eclipsed by Black Friday and holiday sales. Not bad for a random Monday in March.

The WF-1000XM4 may be an alphabet soup of a name, but these excellent-sounding earbuds have a sleek design in a compact case with conveniences like wireless charging and advanced features like support for Sony’s high-bitrate LDAC codec. They also have some of the best battery life around, with up to eight hours of continuous playback so you can...

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Samsung caught faking zoom photos of the Moon

A Samsung smartphone identified a blurry photo of the Moon and added detail to create the above image. | Image: u/ibreakphotos

For years, Samsung “Space Zoom”-capable phones have been known for their ability to take incredibly detailed photos of the Moon. But a recent Reddit post showed in stark terms just how much computational processing the company is doing, and — given the evidence supplied — it feels like we should go ahead and say it: Samsung’s pictures of the Moon are fake.

But what exactly does “fake” mean in this scenario? It’s a tricky question to answer, and one that’s going to become increasingly important and complex as computational techniques are integrated further into the photographic process. We can say for certain that our understanding of what makes a photo fake will soon change, just as it has in the past to accommodate digital cameras,...

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Custom AI chatbots are quietly becoming the next big thing in fandom

Illustration: Daniel Jurman for The Verge

AI chat systems put a new, sometimes solipsistic twist on the fannish roleplaying tradition.

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Left Behind is the perfect place to start playing after The Last of Us on HBO

Image: SIE

Well, after nine weeks of enduring and surviving, the first season of HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us is finally over. If this was your first exposure to the cordyceps apocalypse, you might be thinking now is the time to get into the games: but where to start? The obvious answer is with the original The Last of Us, which just got a nice, shiny remake for the PS5 (and soon PC). But the ideal starting point is actually something smaller and more intimate: a standalone expansion called Left Behind.

The following includes spoilers for The Last of Us_: the game, the show, the sequel — all of it._

Developer Naughty Dog actually recommends you don’t play Left Behind until after completing the base game, but that changes if you’ve watched the...

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ChatGPT could power voice assistants in General Motors vehicles

GM is reportedly using Microsoft’s Azure cloud service — which includes a ChatGPT API — to develop a virtual personal assistant for its vehicles. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The AI language models behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT could soon be powering virtual assistants in General Motors vehicles. As reported by Reuters on Friday, an executive for GM has revealed that the American automaker is exploring potential uses for ChatGPT as part of a broader collaboration with Microsoft. Semaforsimilarly reported last week that “people with knowledge of the product” had specified GM was using Microsoft’s Azure cloud service — which includes a ChatGPT API — to develop a virtual personal assistant for its vehicles.

GM Vice President Scott Miller provided some details for the project in an interview with Reuters last week, saying that “ChatGPT is going to be in everything.” Miller claimed that the chatbot could push things...

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Go fishing with a record player using Jackery’s flagship solar generator

I don’t know why you’d want to bring your record collection while fishing in tights, but you be you, stud. | Image: Jackery

The absurdity of that promotional image aside, Jackery is actually a respected maker of big-ass portable batteries for anyone needing to recharge their lives when away from the grid. Today, the company is releasing details on its latest flagship product — the Explorer 3000 Pro — first revealed at CES in January alongside the lesser specced Explorer 1500 Pro.

The Jackery Explorer 3000 Pro comes loaded with AC and DC ports to charge almost anything you throw at it — including power tools, air conditioners, space heaters, microwaves, blenders, and all your gadgets — producing up to 3000W of sustained AC output with a 6000W peak. You also have the option of plugging up to 1400W of solar input into the unit to keep everything charged while...

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Oscars 2023: Everything Everywhere All at Once did the thing many times over

Ke Huy Quan (R) accepts the award for Best Picture for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from Harrison Ford. | Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

With 23 awards to be given out, the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony definitely ran a little long, but after last year’s theatrics, the evening felt like a studied return to form for the Oscars and a fitting end to awards season.

As improbable as it might have once seemed, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Oncefrom the Daniels absolutely dominated at this year’s ceremony where it ultimately took home seven of the 11 awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Best Directing for the Daniels, Best Film Editing for Paul Rogers, and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) also for the Daniels. In his speech for Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan thanked his wife and brother for keeping him grounded and sticking by him through his Hollywood...

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The idea for The Last of Us’ big season one finale cameo almost led to another game

Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us. | HBO

The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin say that the show’s most emotional cameo started as an idea for an animated short and an entirely new video game.

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Crypto collapse: FTX’s fall is one piece of a long, cold, contagious crypto winter

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

FTX’s failure revealed the flaws and risky financial strategies that fueled the recent crypto and NFT boom.

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Oscars 2023: all the latest from film’s biggest awards show

Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All At Once_._ | Image: A24

A big year in film means a big night celebrating it.

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Uh-oh! The crypto collapse has reached the real financial system

Liquidity trouble? | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Update, March 8th, 7PM ET: Silvergate has announced it is shutting down, the original story follows below.

Update, March 12th, 8PM ET: Federal regulators announced that Signature Bank has also been shut down.

Silvergate, one of the most important banks in crypto, is in big trouble. Maybe existential trouble.

Silvergate didn’t start in crypto. It started in real estate. But in January 2014, the bank jumped into Bitcoin, a volatile year — Bitcoin started the year at $770 and closed above $300 in December. “Some of the companies that were being formed at the time to provide services to this budding Bitcoin space, many of them were struggling to find and maintain bank accounts,” said Silvergate CEO Alan Lane in a June 2022 episode of the Odd...

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Signature Bank is closed by regulators, the third US bank failure in a week

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Signature Bank, one of the two big US destinations for crypto companies, has been closed by New York regulators. “All depositors of this institution will be made whole,” the Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a joint statement.

This is the third major bank that has fallen in the space of a week, and investors are spooked. The joint announcement that depositors will be protected above the $250,000 guaranteed by the FDIC appears to be meant to reassure banking customers that their money will not be frozen. Signature had $88.59 billion in deposits as of December 31, 2022. The New York Department of Financial Services has taken possession of the bank.

Signature was one of two banks that was widely...

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Etsy is delaying seller payouts following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Etsy says some sellers won’t receive their payments on time due to the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. In an email sent out to impacted shop owners, the company says it used the shuttered institution to send out deposits to “some sellers” and that they may not get their scheduled payments as a result, leaving shop owners worried about the future of their stores.

Etsy started notifying sellers about the potential delays on Friday, the same day the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and California regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank. The bank served as a staple in the venture capital and startup industries, with companies like Etsy, Roku, and Roblox having funds tied up in the institution. The FDIC auction for the Silicon...

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How to watch the 2023 Academy Awards

Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The 95th annual Academy Awards kicks off tonight and celebrates the achievements across the film industry. The star-studded ceremony takes place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and will feature a performance by Rihanna after she headlined this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Whether you’re hoping to see which film takes home the award for Best Picture or want to catch Rihanna’s second big performance of the year, here’s how and when you can watch the Oscars.

When do the Oscars start?

The Oscars take place on Sunday, March 12th, 2023 at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.

Where can I watch the Oscars?

The Academy Awards will be available on several live TV streaming platforms that carry ABC, including Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, FuboTV,...

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The tech industry moved fast and broke its most prestigious bank

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The fall of Silicon Valley Bank, explained

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