The Verge: Posts

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It’s a laser bong

It’s a bong. There are lasers. I could not be clearer about what this is.

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Windows 11’s taskbar is finally getting labels and never combine app icons

A user types on the Surface Pro 8 from behind. The screen displays the Windows 11 Start menu on a white and blue background.

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Microsoft is finally adding never combine app icons and labels to the Windows 11 taskbar. These highly requested features have been absent from Windows 11 after Microsoft overhauled and rebuilt the taskbar for the operating system and lost a lot of functionality as a result.

Now, Twitter user Albacore has spotted that Microsoft is getting close to publicly testing a never combine app icons option for the Windows 11 taskbar, alongside text labels to more easily identify apps. Both of these features are present in Windows 10, so it’s good to see them finally coming back.

Taskbar item labels (as well as ungrouped items) are indeed on their way to Windows 11 ✨
Here's a demo of the current state of the feature, definitely further along than...

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Summer gaming events 2023: with E3 canceled, here’s what’s next

A screenshot from Starfield.

Starfield. | Image: Bethesda Softworks

E3 isn’t happening, but the news isn’t stopping.

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The Verge

THQ Nordic joins the lineup of summer gaming events

A screenshot from the video game Alone in the Dark.

Alone in the Dark. | Image: THQ Nordic

Even without E3, the summer lineup of gaming livestreams continues to get packed. The latest company to announce an event is THQ Nordic, which will be airing a “digital showcase” on August 11th at 3PM ET. The company says the event will include news and brand-new announcements as well as details on upcoming games in its lineup such as Alone in the Dark, Outcast 2, and Trine 5. You’ll be able to check it out on YouTube, Twitch, and Steam.

E3 is officially off the table this year, with the annual summer showcase canceled and its future looking murky. But already, a number of events have popped up to fill in the gap. In addition to THQ Nordic’s newly announced event, there’s Summer Game Fest on June 8th, a Microsoft showcase (including a...

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This massive ‘5K’ display with 360Hz could one day be yours

Ultrawide gaming monitor.

AUO’s 49-inch 360Hz 5K gaming monitor. | Image: AUO

AU Optronics’ latest monitor panels include components that seemingly tick all the boxes for premium gaming displays. One is 49 inches corner to corner, has an ultrawide aspect ratio of 32:9, a “5K” resolution, and a refresh rate of 360Hz. It’s being shown off at the Touch Taiwan display trade show this week alongside a 540Hz panel that AUO claims is the highest refresh rate available on a gaming display.

Although AUO isn’t a household name in the world of gaming monitors, TFTCentral notes that it’s one of the industry’s major panel suppliers alongside LG Display. Although you’re unlikely to be buying an AUO-branded display anytime soon, the company’s announcements matter because they represent the kinds of components that’ll be...

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HP’s new Envy x360 laptop will be the first “IMAX” PC

A user types on the HP Envy x360 14 on a bed.

Watching IMAX content, as one does. | Image: HP

HP has revealed the details of this year’s additions to its mid-range (and generally quite good value) Envy line. This year, the company is all in on webcams, fan blades, and... IMAX?

Yeah, I’m not quite sure either. HP claims that its new HP Envy x360 15 (well, 15.6 inches, to be precise), available later this month for a starting price of $949.99, is the first “IMAX Enhanced certified PC”. IMAX Enhanced is a home theater certification program that’s been kicking around for a few years, but it’s generally applied to like, TVs and projectors and stuff. Now it’s on a laptop, I guess!

Image: HP

See? IMAX. In the flesh.

Similarly to something like Intel’s Evo program, devices that want IMAX Enhanced certification...

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Meta Oversight Board urges investigation into platform’s role in amplifying misinformation

Meta logo on a red background with repeating black icons, giving a squiggly effect.

Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta’s Oversight Board — an independent panel the social media giant selected to deliberate its content decisions — has published a report that supports content moderation actions taken by Meta at the height of the covid pandemic. The board is also recommending a number of changes to its misinformation policy, while highlighting the company’s failure to assess the impact its social media platforms had on public health and human rights.

Meta is being urged by the board to commission an impact assessment with a focus on how design features like Facebook’s newsfeed recommendation algorithms can amplify dangerous health-related misinformation. This includes publicly releasing any prior research that the company has conducted into the matter....

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Voicemod now available on Mac with real-time AI voice changing and soundboards

Illustration of Voicemod running on an Apple MacBook

Image: Voicemod

Voicemod, a popular voice changer and soundboard, is now available on macOS. Voicemod is widely used by streamers, gamers, and content creators to trigger sound effects through soundboards or for pitch-shifting and fun real-time voice changes.

Voicemod on macOS is supported on both Intel- and Apple Silicon-powered Macs, and works by creating its own virtual microphone so you can use it in any application. There are more than 100 voice options or enhancements available, and the popular soundboard feature lets you play custom sounds over your microphone in games and during FaceTime or Zoom calls.

“We are excited to be the first company to offer a real-time voice changer and soundboard app to macOS users,” says Jaime Bosch, CEO and...

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Google will offer customers AI tools to ‘remix’ content for ad campaigns: report

An illustration of Google’s multicolor “G” logo

Illustration: The Verge

The next target for Google’s AI rush is the company’s advertising business, according to a report from The Financial Times.

Citing a presentation shown to the company’s advertising customers, the FT says Google will augment its ad programs with generative AI this year. The presentation describes how customers will be able input content like text, image, and video into Google’s AI systems which will “remix” them to generate ads based on goals like audience and sales targets.

The FT says the tools will likely be integrated into Google’s Performance Max program, which gives an overview of customers’ campaigns. Notably, Performance Max already uses machine learning to customize ad spend, but currently only makes strategic recommendations...

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Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter alternative, is now on Android

The AT Protocol’s @-symbol logo. | Image: Bluesky

Bluesky, the Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized Twitter alternative, now has an Android app. The launch follows the release of the service’s iOS app, which came out in late February. However, if you want to access the service at all, you’ll need to join the waitlist or get an invite code from a friend.

Image: Bluesky

I don’t have an Android phone, so I can’t vouch for the quality of the Android app. But I would recommend getting on the waitlist for the service — it’s my favorite Twitter clone yet. Right now, it’s a pretty small community of over 25,000 people, and it feels like everyone is really dedicated to maintaining a positive environment. It’s also a nice break from Twitter, which continues to get worse every...

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Jason Momoa obliterates the Vatican in the second trailer for Fast X

Jason Momoa’s character underwater in the Fast X trailer.

Universal

The Fast and Furious franchise is all about family, but it is also about enormous action set pieces that even make Tom Cruise say “neat,” and in the second trailer for Fast X, the 10th — 10th! — installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, Jason Momoa appears to blow up the Vatican.

I don’t want to spoil things. It’s a trailer lasting two minutes and 36 seconds, and you should watch it yourself! But it’s a very wild method of exploding that I had not thought possible in a live-action film.

And I really hope this isn’t one of those instances where the best bits are in the trailer because this trailer has left me so unreasonably hyped for Fast X that I’m going to need some truly outlandish stunts to top Jason Momoa blowing up the...

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Elon Musk announces Tesla Cybertruck delivery event in third quarter of 2023

Tesla Cybertruck

Image: Getty

Tesla will have a delivery event for its long-delayed Cybertruck in the third quarter of 2023, Elon Musk said during an earnings call with investors Wednesday.

After more than three years since its initial announcement, Cybertruck production is expected to start this summer — though Musk has said that volume production won’t begin until next year.

“It takes time to get the manufacturing line going, and this is really a very radical product,” Musk said Wednesday. “It’s not made in the way that other cars are made.”

Image: Tesla

Asked for updated specs, such as range or unique features, Musk demurred, noting that those details would be revealed during the hand-off event.

“One thing I am confident of saying is that...

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Elon Musk threatens to sue Microsoft

An image of Elon Musk in front of trial scales.

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk is threatening to take legal action against Microsoft over claims that the company “trained illegally using Twitter data.” The billionaire’s statement came in response to a tweet noting that Microsoft’s advertising platform announced it would stop supporting Twitter, reportedly due to Twitter’s changes requiring payment to access its API.

Musk’s threat is vague but appears to be over OpenAI using Twitter data to train the large language model behind products like ChatGPT. OpenAI, obviously, is not Microsoft, but it did recently receive a significant investment from the company, which is building AI into tools like Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365.

It’s unclear whether Musk will actually sue Microsoft at this point, as he has...

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Twitter promises it’s really, actually removing legacy blue checks very soon

An illustration of the Twitter logo.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter reiterated today that it’s going to remove legacy verified checkmarks tomorrow, April 20th. Yes, that does mean Elon Musk’s Twitter intends to remove the last vestiges of what he once deemed the “lords & peasants system” on 4/20, ha ha.

The thing is, I won’t believe Twitter until it actually happens. The company originally said that it would “begin” removing checkmarks on April 1st, but as far as I know, that hasn’t taken place. (Well, outside of Twitter removing The New York Times’ verified checkmark after the publication said it wouldn’t pay the reportedly high fees for organizational accounts, but it seems like Musk made sure that happened.)

Tomorrow, 4/20, we are removing legacy verified checkmarks. To remain verified on...

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Stability AI announces new open-source large language model

An image showing a robot performing various tasks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Stability AI, the company behind the AI-powered Stable Diffusion image generator, has released a suite of open-source large language models (LLMs) collectively called StableLM. In a post shared on Wednesday, the company announced that its models are now available for developers to use and adapt on GitHub.

Like its ChatGPT rival, StableLM is designed to efficiently generate text and code. It’s trained on a larger version of the open-source dataset known as the Pile, which encompasses information from a range of sources, including Wikipedia, Stack Exchange, and PubMed. Stability AI says StableLM models are currently available between 3 billion and 7 billion parameters, with 15 to 65 billion parameter models arriving later.

...

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Tesla’s rampant price cutting is taking a toll on its profits

The Tesla logo on a red, black, and white background.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla published its first quarter earnings report in which the company said it earned $2.9 billion in net income on $23.3 billion in revenue. That represents a 24 percent increase year over year compared to $18.7 billion in revenue in Q1 2022.

Most importantly, the company’s gross margins fell to 19.3 percent, a sign that its rampant price cutting was starting to take a toll on its bottom line.

In a letter to shareholders, the company said:

Although we implemented price reductions on many vehicle models across regions in the first quarter, our operating margins reduced at a manageable rate. We expect ongoing cost reduction of our vehicles, including improved production efficiency at our newest factories and lower logistics costs, and...

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Lionsgate wants to reboot Twilight as a television series

A boy in a gray tank top standing next to a girl in a maroon henley standing next to another boy in a cobalt button down shirt.

Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen. | Image: Summit Entertainment

It’s been years since people have worn T-shirts emblazoned with “#TeamEdward” or “#TeamJacob” with any regularity, but that might not stop Lionsgate from trying to resurrect Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga as a new TV series focused on supernatural love triangles.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate TV is in the earliest stages of development on a new take on Meyer’s Twilight novels that served as the basis for the studio’s previous film adaptations that broke all kinds of box office records and ultimately raked in $3.4 billion globally. The project is so far from coming to fruition (if it does) that currently, no creative team whatsoever has been announced. That said, Meyer is reportedly “expected to be involved,” and the new...

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Facebook owes us $725 million: here’s how to get your cut

Image of Meta’s wordmark on a red background.

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge

If you’re a US Facebook user who had an active account between May 24th, 2007, and December 22nd, 2022, you may be able to receive a portion of a multimillion-dollar class action settlement related to user privacy.

Facebook parent company Meta agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a lawsuit accusing it of granting Cambridge Analytica and other third parties access to private user data, which a judge has tentatively approved. The tech giant also faced accusations it misled users about how much control they had over their private information. Meta, however, denies it did anything wrong.

If you’d like to make a claim, you can do so online by August 25th, 2023. After answering a few questions, you’ll then be able to choose how you’d like to...

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Sonic The Hedgehog can actually spin in Lego’s new sets

A fist smashes down on a launcher target to send Sonic flying through a loop and a ring in this animated GIF.

Lego Sonic can spin. | GIF: Sean Hollister / The Verge, video by Lego

Lego has made another fan toy dream come true: its new Sonic The Hedgehog sets actually let you send Sonic spinning through an entire miniature level.

This isn’t the first time Sonic has been recreated in Lego form — we got a picture-perfect recreation of Green Hill Zone in 2021 that’ll look great on a bookshelf and a tie-in for the Lego Dimensions video game in 2016. But if you want a playset like Lego’s Mario line, that’s just now happening for the very first time.

Each set has excellent references to the games: the flagship $100 Sonic’s Green Hill Zone Loop Challenge has classic fish and tree lizard foes, a two-part Dr. Robotnik boss that can float or stand on legs, forest creatures to rescue after he’s “defeated,” and a table where...

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AI Drake just set an impossible legal trap for Google

YouTube copyright takedown

If young Metro don’t trust you, I’m gonna... tie you up in a decade of fair use litigation.

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Snapchat is releasing its AI chatbot to everyone for free

You can now change the look of Snap’s My AI. | Image: Snap

Snap is releasing its “My AI” chatbot to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users for free, a move that comes less than two months after the OpenAI-powered bot was first made available to the app’s more than 3 million paid subscribers.

My AI is also becoming a more integral part of Snapchat. It can now be added to group chats by mentioning it with an @ symbol, and Snap will let people change the look and name of their bot with a custom Bitmoji avatar. In addition, My AI can now recommend AR filters to use in Snapchat’s camera or places to visit from the app’s map tab. And Snap plans to soon let people visually message My AI and receive generated responses; an example shown during the company’s annual conference today showed a photo...

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Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV will qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit, automaker says

VW ID.4

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Volkswagen’s flagship electric vehicle, the ID.4 crossover SUV, is eligible for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit, the automaker announced Wednesday. The federal government’s list of eligible vehicles has since been updated to include all trim levels of the ID.4.

Volkswagen is currently the only international automaker to have a full battery electric vehicle that is eligible for the full credit. The ID.4 is assembled in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is one of the prerequisites for eligibility. Earlier this week, the federal government released its list of EVs that qualify for the tax credit. The VW ID.4 was initially left off, but as of today, it’s back on.

“This is great news for consumers in the U.S. because it expands the choice...

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Google Fi has a new name and expanded connectivity support for smartwatches

The logo for Google Fi Wireless in a circle surrounded by geometric shapes.

Google Fi has been rebranded as Google Fi Wireless, complete with a new logo for the service. | Image: Google / The Verge

Google Fi is getting a new name and some new features. The service is now going by the name Google Fi Wireless, adding some much-needed clarity as to the nature of Google’s relatively unknown wireless carrier, and it’s adding new perks for subscribers as it rolls out the updated branding.

The first big change is around smartwatches. Google Fi Wireless’ plans will now support Samsung’s Watch 5, in addition to the Pixel Watch. The service is also expanding smartwatch support to its Simply Unlimited plan, where previously it was only available on Google Fi’s Unlimited Plus and Flexible plans. All three plans support smartwatch connections at no additional cost, allowing the devices to stay connected without a phone. The device options here...

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Nintendo’s Indie World showcase features Cult of the Lamb DLC, Oxenfree II, and more

Image from Cult of the Lamb trailer featuring the titular lamb imbued with eldritch power

Massive Monster

In case Tears of the Kingdom isn’t your thing or you need something to tide you over until May 12th, Nintendo put on a 20-minute Indie World presentation chock-full of new games, DLC, trailers, and more. Here are the highlights.

Mineko’s Night Market

In Mineko’s Night Market, you play as Mineko, who’s tasked with crafting all sorts of tchotchkes for the weekly Night Market. There’s also a fun, wide world to explore, allowing you to uncover the ancient secrets of the legendary cat-god. But be careful, as there are dubious-looking government agents who don’t want land’s secrets revealed. Mineko’s Night Market looks like a cuter version of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin but without all the demon killing. Out already on Steam and Mac, it makes...

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Cult of the Lamb is getting a free update

Screenshot from Cult of the Lamb depicting a sheep levitating before a congregation of cute animals delivering a sermon

Image: Massive Monster

Cult of the Lamb was one of my favorite games of 2022. When I spoke to the developers, they said they had all kinds of new content in the works, and that day has finally arrived. Revealed during today’s Nintendo Indie World event, Cult of the Lamb’s Relics of the Old Faith update adds tons more godly activities with which you can enrich the spiritual lives of your followers.

In Relics of the Old Faith, the four bishops have new forms and abilities and stand guard over remixed versions of their dungeons. There are new weapons and spells to mix and match and a new quest to complete once you’ve finished the game. But more exciting than that, your lamb will now have new followers to save from blasphemy and new buildings to construct to keep...

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Reality Winner has no one to turn to in new teaser for HBO’s upcoming film

A tight shot of a frowning woman wearing a white button down shirt and sitting in front of a white wall.

Sidney Sweeney as Reality Winner. | HBO

When former intelligence contractor Reality Winner pleaded guilty back in 2018 for leaking an NSA report detailing Russian attempts to interfere with the US’s 2016 election, the Espionage Act made it impossible for her to argue that she was acting out of concern for the American public. Even though it isn’t spelled out, the thorniness of that catch-22 is palpable in the first teaser trailer for Reality, HBO’s upcoming drama about the whistleblower and her interrogation by the FBI.

Based on playwright Tina Sattler’s Is This A Room, which was based on transcripts of the FBI’s 2017 interrogation of Reality Winner, Reality — from Sattler and co-writer James Paul Dallas — tells the story of how Winner (Sydney Sweeney) ended up receiving the...

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Range Rover will release an all-electric midsize SUV in 2025, JLR says

Jaguar Land Rover EV plug

Image: JLR

Jaguar Land Rover will invest £15 billion ($18.7 billion) over the next five years in electric and autonomous vehicle technology, the automaker announced Wednesday. The company identified its Halewood plant in the UK for conversion to an all-EV manufacturing facility. And by 2030, JLR says it will be an “electric first, modern luxury carmaker.”

The first medium-size all-electric Range Rover will be out in 2025, and JLR will begin to take orders for it later this year. The vehicle will be built using JLR’s electrified modular architecture (EMA), which will power the company’s upcoming slate of EVs. JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, has previously committed to making its Jaguar-branded vehicles all-electric by 2025.

JLR’s plans...

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Peacock’s Mrs. Davis is a wild, outlandish, and gorgeous indictment of AI

An image of multiple women dressed in blue nun robes, standing in the desert, watching a helicopter land. One nun looks back, concerned.

This show has a lot of nuns, but not a lot of guns. | Image: Colleen Hayes / Peacock

A lot of people right now are wringing their hands about the rapid emergence and popularization of AI. There’s the way it threatens jobs — as anyone working at CNET will tell you — but there’s also the existential threat AI can create, as Elon Musk is wont to expound upon. Science fiction has been clanging alarm bells about AI since basically the birth of the genre. But too often, the upset about artificial intelligence seems to ignore the myriad of benefits it provides. The emergence of a new technology isn’t necessarily something to immediately villainize or praise but to carefully examine.

Mrs. Davis, the new show executive produced by Damon Lindelof and created by Tara Hernandez, lets its main character wrestle with the glory and...

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Oxenfree II is launching in July

A screenshot of Oxenfree II.

Image: Night School Studio

It’s going to be a very supernatural summer. As part of its latest Indie World showcase, Nintendo announced that, after some delays, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will be launching on July 12th. The game is coming to the Switch but also Steam, PlayStation consoles, and Netflix.

Lost Signals is a sequel to the 2016 adventure game that was not only very creepy (with similar vibes to Stranger Things) but also had a novel dialogue system that made conversation very natural. The sequel moves things forward five years to continue the story. Here’s the official premise:

Riley returns to her hometown of Camena to research strange electromagnetic waves. Tune the radio to communicate with supernatural beings and manipulate the world around you. And...

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Google employees label AI chatbot Bard ‘worse than useless’ and ‘a pathological liar’: report

An illustration of the Google logo.

Illustration: The Verge

Google employees repeatedly criticized the company’s chatbot Bard in internal messages, labeling the system “a pathological liar” and beseeching the company not to launch it.

That’s according to an eye-opening report from Bloombergciting discussions with 18 current and former Google workers as well as screenshots of internal messages. In these internal discussions, one employee noted how Bard would frequently give users dangerous advice, whether on topics like how to land a plane or scuba diving. Another said, “Bard is worse than useless: please do not launch.” Bloomberg says the company even “overruled a risk evaluation” submitted by an internal safety team saying the system was not ready for general use. Google opened up early access...

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