Image: EA
EA debuted a new trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on Monday that gives some hints about the game’s story and a preview of some of the action and puzzles you can expect from the final release.
Survivor, the sequel to 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, once again stars Jedi Cal Kestis and takes place five years after the events of the previous game. “The dark times are closing in as Cal Kestis seeks out a safe haven far from the reach of the Empire,” according to the trailer’s description. “Follow Cal and his crew’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness.” The trailer itself is still pretty vague about what the moment-by-moment story will look like, but I’m happy to see that many of Cal’s allies...
The Pixel 7’s design may not be for everyone, but this price may be. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
As the days get longer, Google’s Pixel phones are continuing to get cheaper. The unlocked Google Pixel 7 is on sale for $449 ($150 off) at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy — the last of which is offering an additional $100 off if you activate it on a carrier, dropping it to $350. These are the best prices on the Pixel 7 yet, offering an exceptional value if you want a speedy Android phone with a sizable 6.3-inch screen, excellent dual cameras (with wide and ultrawide lenses), and Google’s own feature-rich version of Android 13. This is the usual price for the midrange Pixel 6A, which also gets frequent discounts, but the Pixel 7 has a larger screen, newer processor, and extra niceties like wireless Qi charging. Read our review.
If the...
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (L) speaks next to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (R) at the start of The International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva on January 9th, 2023. | Image: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
When it comes to tackling climate change, achieving “net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050” has become a ubiquitous rallying cry. It’s in goals set by cities, states, and the Biden administration. It’s a hallmark of companies’ sustainability pledges, from Big Tech to Big Oil. It’s not enough.
The world’s leading climate experts called for more swift action on climate change in a major report released today by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Near-term goals to slash greenhouse gas pollution need to be a much higher priority, advocates say, and there’s precious little time to reach them.
“The climate time-bomb is ticking. But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb....
Companies have been cutting costs. | Photo by Natt Garun / The Verge
Over the past few months, the economy has started to turn, and tech workers are being hit hard. Meta, Twitter, and more have fired thousands, and others are slowing or freezing hiring.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon is laying off another 9,000 workers, according to a memo to employees CEO Andy Jassy sent to workers on Monday. The employees affected by the cut include those in roles in AWS, Twitch, advertising, and human resources.
In his memo, Jassy cites the “uncertain economy” as the reason for the cuts and says the company has “chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount.” Amazon just got done laying off a total of 18,000 people across the company late last year and in January, which included workers in its hardware and services, human resources, and retail teams.
“The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term...
An officially licensed ebook library. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Book publishers and the Internet Archive will face off today in a hearing that could determine the future of library ebooks — deciding whether libraries must rely on the often temporary digital licenses that publishers offer or whether they can scan and lend copies of their own tomes.
At 1PM ET, a New York federal court will hear oral arguments in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a lawsuit over the archive’s Open Library program. The court will consider whether the Open Library violated copyright law by letting users “check out” digitized copies of physical books, an assertion several major publishers made in their 2020 suit. The case will be broadcast over teleconference, with the phone number available here.
The Open Library is built...
An example video generated by Runway’s Gen-2 model. The text input prompt was “A shot following a hiker through jungle brush.” | Image: Runway
Text-to-image AI is mainstream now, but just waiting in the wings is text-to-video. The pitch for this technology is that you’ll be able to type a description and generate a corresponding video in any style you like. Current capabilities lag behind this dream, but for those tracking the tech’s progress, an announcement today by AI startup Runway of a new AI video generation model is noteworthy nonetheless.
Runway offers a web-based video editor that specializes in AI tools like background removal and pose detection. The company helped develop open-source text-to-image model Stable Diffusion and announced its first AI video editing model, Gen-1, in February.
Gen-1 focused on transforming existing video footage, letting users input a...
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Netflix is still working on its cloud gaming service, which could make its burgeoning games lineup easier to play and available across more devices. The company’s VP of games, Mike Verdu, announced in October that Netflix was “seriously exploring” a cloud gaming service, and work on the project is “underway,” Leanne Loombe, Netflix’s VP of external games, said in a briefing with reporters.
“We are very early in that side of our journey,” Loombe said. “We do believe that cloud gaming will enable us to provide that easy access to games on any screen and be frictionless and provide the accessibility into gaming experiences.” She cautioned that Netflix is being “super thoughtful” about how it builds the service, perhaps to avoid a Google...
Monument Valley coming to Netflix in 2024. | Image: Netflix
In 2024, Netflix will be adding two of the most revered mobile titles of all time to its fledgling gaming service. The company announced that both Monument Valley and its sequel will be available to Netflix subscribers starting in 2024.
It’s a big get, as both games were huge mobile hits on release and are currently available as part of Apple’s Arcade subscription service as well. (It’s not clear yet if the games will be available on both subscriptions simultaneously next year.)
The announcement was made as part of a bigger reveal of upcoming titles from Netflix. On April 18th, Ubisoft will be releasing its second game on the service, a roguelite called Mighty Quest: Rogue Palace, while Super Evil Megacorp — the studio behind mobile...
Image: Ingka
Ikea has enlisted more drones to keep tabs on its inventory. In a blog post shared last week, Ikea’s parent company, Ingka, says the retailer now has a total of 100 autonomous drones counting stock in its warehouses during nonoperational hours.
Ikea first partnered with the drone-making company Verity in 2020 to deploy the drones in Switzerland, but now, the company says they’re zipping around 16 locations across Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The Swedish furniture giant says the drones help improve the accuracy of product availability and also support “a more ergonomic workplace,” as it saves employees from counting stock manually.
Verity, which specializes in creating self-flying drones for warehouses...