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Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
It’s okay to cheap out on a gift for mom as long as you go with something thoughtful. Lucky for you, we’ve gathered recipe books, board games, and plenty of other ideas to consider.
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Bumblebee driving alongside Cheetor. | Paramount Pictures
Despite what you might have heard, Beast Wars has always been the crowning jewel of the Transformers franchise, and the latest trailer for Paramount’s Transformers: Rise of the Beastsmakes it seem like the Steven Caple Jr. film is going to do the Maximals and Predacons (now called the Terrorcons) justice.
It’s still 1994 in _Rise of the Beast_s’ latest trailer that reintroduces Anthony Ramos’ Noah Diaz and Dominique Fishback’s Elena Wallace — two humans who find themselves unexpectedly pulled into yet another Cybertronian conflict after making contact with Transformers. As new as the concept of transforming humanoid robots like Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Autobot MVP Arcee (Liza Koshy) are to Noah and Elena, they’re old hat to Rise...
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Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
General Motors announced the creation of its own open-source software protocol as a “starting point” for other automakers and developers to create better software experiences for its customers. The move comes as the auto industry scrambles to hire more software developers and programmers to help produce cars that are essentially computers on wheels.
GM’s “uProtocol” is part of the automaker’s plan to “speed up software development by streamlining the creation of software that is distributed across multiple devices within vehicles as well as across the cloud and mobile,” the company said in a release.
More importantly, GM says it sees this as an opportunity to work across the industry on software projects that could be beneficial to all...
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Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge
What if the real GDC was the friends we made along the way?
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Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is down to just $34.99 ($20 off) at multiple retailers right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The latest season of The Mandalorian may be over, but there are still plenty of other shows to look forward to, including a third season of The Witcher. The first batch of episodes will drop in late June, but you can prep yourself now with today’s deal on Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Right now, the streaming stick is available for its all-time low of $34.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.
As far as streaming devices go, the 4K Max offers quite a bit for the price. It provides access to a terrific selection of streaming services along with support for Wi-Fi 6, Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10 Plus, and Dolby Atmos, allowing for more immersive sound quality. Plus, it offers impressive voice capabilities via the included Alexa remote,...
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Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images
Lawyers for automaker Tesla have argued that statements by Elon Musk about the capabilities of the company’s Autopilot software can’t be trusted as they could be deepfakes, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg.
Tesla presented this argument as part of its justification as to why Musk shouldn’t be interviewed under oath for a lawsuit blaming the company for the death of Apple engineer Walter Huang in a fatal crash in 2018.
Huang died while driving a Tesla Model X, with attorneys for his family arguing Tesla’s driver assist software was at fault. The attorneys seek to interview Musk regarding statements he made about the safety of this software. These include an interview in 2016 in which Musk claimed that “a Model S and Model...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Samsung’s memory chip business just had a terrible quarter, as falling demand and high inventories contributed to a 4.58 trillion won (around $3.4 billion) loss from the division, Bloomberg reports. The loss at the unit, which CNBC reports is typically its largest profit driver, contributed to Samsung’s quarterly operating profit plunging 95 percent in the quarter to 640 billion won (roughly $478 million).
A few different factors contributed to Samsung’s losses at its memory chip division. Smartphone and PC makers stockpiled chips during the pandemic as a hedge against supply issues as demand boomed, but have since been left with large inventory excesses as consumer demand has dropped off amidst high inflation and broader global economic...
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Image: Asus
Sure, Asus can build a faster Steam Deck-like handheld gaming PC, but there’s no way it could compete with Valve on price, right?
Guess again. The higher-end Asus ROG Ally will apparently cost just $699.99. That’s for the model with an AMD Z1 Extreme chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD — meaning that Asus’ 512GB handheld costs just $51 more than a 512GB Steam Deck.
That’s according to data shown to The Verge by reliable gadget leaker Roland Quandt, and an earlier leak by SnoopyTech. The data we’ve seen leaves little room for confusion — even the product number associated with the $699.99 gadget identifies it as the Z1 Extreme model with 512GB of storage, and we’ve got a long list of marketing claims in our possession that also look...
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LG’s 15.6-inch Gram SuperSlim laptop. | Image: LG
LG’s Gram line of laptops have always been designed to be lightweight and thin, and now the company has released a new “SuperSlim” model that’s a strong competitor to the likes of Apple’s MacBook Air in the portability department (via Engadget).
LG officially calls its new laptop the Gram SuperSlim (formerly the Ultraslim), which the company touts in its press release as the “thinnest LG Gram ever.” It measures just 0.43 inches thick — thinner than the M2 MacBook Air — and has a 15.6-inch OLED display compared to Apple’s 13.6-inch IPS one. Oh, and LG’s is also lighter at just 2.2 pounds, compared to the MacBook Air at 2.7 pounds.
Image: LG
It is pretty thin, huh?
LG’s Gram Superslim is available now, and it s...
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Meta sees “an opportunity to introduce AI agents to billions of people in ways that will be useful and meaningful,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors today.
While he was vague about how exactly Meta will add generative AI to its apps, Zuckerberg gave the most detailed preview yet during the company’s earnings call for the first quarter of this year, when it reported $28.6 billion in revenue and a record 2 billion daily users of the Facebook app, beating Wall Street’s estimates. Meta’s profit for the quarter was $5.7 billion, a 24 percent decrease from the same time last year.
“We’re exploring chat experiences in WhatsApp and Messenger, visual creation tools for posts in Facebook and Instagram and ads, and over time video and multi-modal...
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Illustration: The Verge
Google Meet finally supports 1080p video calls — but only for paying subscribers. In an update on Wednesday, Google says it’s bringing the upgrade to select Workspace and Google One users.
Additionally, you can only access 1080p video calls on the web-based version of Google Meet, and it all depends on whether your computer’s webcam actually supports the resolution. Google also notes that you’ll need additional bandwidth to send 1080p video and says that it will automatically adjust your resolution if bandwidth is “constrained.”
Image: Google
The feature isn’t enabled by default, but you can toggle it on by selecting the three dots in the top right corner of your video feed and then hitting Turn on HD video. Since...
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The existing Ayaneo 2. The new 2S looks much the same. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Z1 Extreme who? Ayaneo has just confirmed it will use AMD’s similar but unannounced Ryzen 7000 U-series chips in a new batch of handheld gaming PCs — including the never-before-seen Ayaneo 2S and Ayaneo Geek 1S, the previously announced sliding keyboard Ayaneo Slide, and a new version of the Ayaneo Air Plus.
What’s more, the company is now promising upgrades for its existing PCs instead of just rapidly making them obsolete — it will offer a free speaker upgrade for every Ayaneo Air and a free cooling module for every Ayaneo 2 and Ayaneo Geek that can lower its temperature by up to 12 degrees Celsius.
Image: Ayaneo via Webandme (Discord)
Image: Ayaneo via Webandme (Discord)
The new three-pipe...
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Image: Evan Blass via Twitter
The latest leaked images of the upcoming Motorola Razr give us an even better look at the foldable’s large outer display and interface, as first spotted by 9to5Google. In a set of images posted to Twitter by reliable leaker Evan Blass (who has made his account private), you can see how the display extends from the phone’s hinge and wraps around the device’s dual cameras.
The images also show off some of the different clock displays you can use and suggest that you can customize the interface’s font, layout, color, theme, and wallpaper to your liking. It seems like Motorola may add a new color option into the mix as well, with the above image showing two devices featuring a deep red hinge.
Blass calls the pictured device the “Motorola...
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Illustration: The Verge
Microsoft is planning to move Microsoft 365 apps onto a single domain, cloud.microsoft. Currently, the company’s apps are scattered across a wide variety of domains, which means it can be confusing to know where to find a certain service if you don’t have it memorized or bookmarked somewhere.
Seriously, Microsoft currently uses a lot of domains. Check out this word cloud from Microsoft showing just a few of the domains Microsoft customers have to sort through:
Image: Microsoft
Oof.
But under this new system, you can instead use URLs like “outlook.cloud.microsoft” and “teams.cloud.microsoft” to get to the app you’re looking for, as shown in the below GIF from the company. Much cleaner.
GIF:...
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Image: AST SpaceMobile
A groundbreaking phone call between Texas and Japan has occurred that could eventually help set the stage for a globally accessible space-based cellular network. AST SpaceMobile — a Texas-based satellite manufacturer — announced on Tuesday that it had successfully routed an audio call between two standard smartphones directly through its BlueWalker 3 (BW3) satellite in low Earth orbit, a breakthrough that could improve global cellular connectivity in remote regions without access to cell towers.
AST SpaceMobile claims this is “the first time anyone has ever achieved a direct voice connection from space to everyday cellular devices.” The phone call was made from an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 in Midland, Texas, using mobile spectrum...
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RIP the Halo View. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Amazon has decided to shutter its health-focused Halo division, The Verge has learned. Amazon has stopped selling its three Halo products and plans to lay off portions of the Halo team.
“We have made the difficult decision to wind down the Halo program, which will result in role reductions,” Melissa Cha, Amazon’s VP of smart home and health, told staffers in an email obtained by The Verge. “More recently, Halo has faced significant headwinds, including an increasingly crowded segment and an uncertain economic environment. Although our customers love many aspects of Halo, we must prioritize resources and maximize benefits to customers and the long-term health of the business.”
Cha went on to write that all Halo hardware would be...
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Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
The damage to the launch pad went far beyond what experts were expecting. And nearby residents are left dealing with the environmental fallout.
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
A group of US senators has revealed a bipartisan bill that would require social media platforms to verify users’ ages, stop anyone under 13 years of age from signing up, and set up special rules for minors over 13. It would also require the government to test out a voluntary nationwide verification system that would use official records and IDs to check people’s ages online.
The bill, the “Protecting Kids on Social Media Act,” was introduced by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL) on Wednesday. It’s designed to protect younger users from things like social media addiction, but it would also require a sweeping reevaluation of how adults and children operate online.
There are...
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The Ring Indoor Cam is a small smart security camera that can be manually disabled. | Image: Ring
Smart home security company Ring has revamped its indoor camera to include a manual privacy cover that disables all audio and video recording. This is the first Ring home security camera to come with a physical shut-off system. Previously, you had to use the app to turn off audio and video recording, unplug the camera, or purchase a separate $10 Privacy Kit with a cover that only disables video, not audio.
The new Ring Indoor Cam is available for preorder today for $59.99, shipping on May 24th, 2023. It has all the same hardware specs as its predecessor — a wired camera with motion-activated recording, two-way talk, a built-in siren, 1080p HD video, and color night vision. The only other difference with the new model is a redesigned...
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Unlike prior models, the 2022 model features a matte display that dramatically reduces glare. | Image: Samsung
Let’s face it: good art is rarely cheap. Thankfully, however, Samsung’s 32-inch Frame TV is currently on sale at BuyDig right now for $380 with promo code FNJ23, providing you with a more cost-effective way to outfit your living room with well-known masterpieces.
This 2022 QLED panel isn’t a vast update over the prior model — it still touts a 120Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 support, and compatibility with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa — but the 4K set now comes with a new anti-glare matte finish, which helps it look like a piece of actual artwork when turned off (as opposed to the hulking black box that it is). Sure, some of said art is paywalled behind a $5 monthly subscription, but if good picture quality and aesthetics are what...
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Is Apple really good for your health? | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Here are some cursed words: “Apple Plans AI-Powered Health Coaching Service, Mood Tracker and iPad Health App.”
I can see why you might say, Liz, this sounds benign and obvious. What’s the big deal? And I think about a meeting I had in 2014 with a freelance writer who was wearing three fitness trackers, inadvertently imitating Madonna’s 1980s stacked bracelets look. He asked me how I slept. I was — and am — a pretty good sleeper. I snooze heavily for seven to eight hours and wake up feeling good, sometimes even before my alarm goes off because I am (sorry) a morning person.
The freelancer I’d been speaking to, perhaps obviously, had been having trouble sleeping, and as someone who was fairly devoted to optimizing his life through fitness...
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Though you’re going to miss out on owning this excellent box art in physical form. | Image: Nintendo
Are you hyped for the impending launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom but still a little miffed about it being the first $70 Nintendo Switch game? If you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, there’s something you can do about that. By buying Nintendo’s digital game vouchers, you can effectively preorder your digital copy of the new Zelda for just $49.99.
Spend $100 to save up to $30 on two games
The Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers cost $99.98 for two, each of which is redeemable for a qualifying full-price game on the eShop. The game list includes preorders like the upcoming Zelda, Pikmin 4, and recent hits that haven’t seen many discounts yet — such as Splatoon 3. If you pay $99.98 for the two vouchers and use one to...
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Toad and Princess Peach. | Universal
For anyone who’s been holding out hope for a subbed US release of The Super Mario Bros. Moviewith performances from the film’s Japanese voice-acting cast intact, your time has finally come, but it won’t last very long.
It’s not really clear when, exactly, Illumination and Universal’s Super Mario Bros. Movie will step off the other movies’ necks and let someone else have a turn at being number one at the box office. But beginning this Friday, Japanese-language screenings of the film will begin showing “for a limited time only” in select theaters in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver.
SUPER NEWS! For a limited time you can enjoy #SuperMarioMovie in Japanese at select screenings starting...
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Here are some steps that can make layoffs slightly less stressful. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
There’s no sugarcoating it: getting laid off stinks. And while there’s no such thing as a “good” layoff, a bad one can absolutely be made worse if your now ex-company cuts off your access to contacts, emails, and work without warning.
You probably know someone who had this happen to them. (Or perhaps you’re worried it could happen to you.) It seems heartless, but the bottom line is that companies abruptly cut off access to protect their interests. You might just want a colleague’s email to keep in touch or might want to save examples of your work to prove your worth to possible employers. To the company, however, the most important thing is to make sure disgruntled ex-employees don’t abscond with sensitive information like internal...
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Photo by Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Disney is suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, alleging his administration waged a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company’s “protected speech.” In the lawsuit, Disney claims DeSantis “threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
“Disney regrets that it has come to this,” the lawsuit states. “But having exhausted efforts to seek a resolution, the Company is left with no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect its cast members, guests, and local development partners from a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.”
T...
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Image: Enhance
Some of the most memorable games in PlayStation history have been downright strange, whether about dancing wireframe rabbits, deadly cubes, or mannequins traversing impossible architecture. These “very designer-led games,” as Mark MacDonald from Tetris Effect studio Enhance describes them, were often iconic — but they’ve also largely fallen out of favor. That’s where Humanity comes in. It’s an introspective game about a dog guiding a sea of humanity through puzzle-like mazes, and it’s as odd as it is compelling, a callback to exactly those kinds of classic PlayStation experiences.
Humanity is a collaboration between Enhance — led by the legendary Tetsuya Mizuguchi, of Rez and Luminesfame — and designer Yugo Nakamura. Ahead of its launch...
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Image: Netflix
We knew a sixth season of Netflix’s Black Mirror was on the way, but now, we know a lot more about it: a new teaser trailer shared Wednesday reveals that the season will be out in June and features big actors like Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, and Salma Hayek.
In a blog post, Netflix is promising that the season will be the show’s “most unpredictable” yet. The company isn’t saying why that is just yet, but a quote from Charlie Brooker, the show’s creator, sheds a bit of light on what you can look forward to.
“The stories are all still tonally Black Mirror through-and-through”
“Partly as a challenge, and partly to keep things fresh for both me and the viewer, I began this season by deliberately upending some of my own core assumptions about what...
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The Tile for Cats tracker is basically a Sticker tracker with a collar attachment. | Image: Tile
Tile is now selling a cat-tracking bundle that includes one of the company’s Sticker trackers and a new collar attachment to truly secure it to your pet. The combo is designed to keep tabs on your tabby (or other purring _fur_derer) so you can confirm it’s hiding somewhere in the house and hasn’t escaped yet again to your neighbor’s.
Sure, there’s nothing groundbreaking about a cat collar accessory that holds a preexisting tracker — but it’s slightly more elegant than the company’s previous key chain dangling tracker solution. Tile’s Sticker tracker can be detected from 250 feet away and has a built-in battery that can last for three years.
Old Tile solution 1: the key ring dangler.
Old Tile...
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Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is now rolling out a new update to its Phone Link app that includes iOS support for the first time. The Phone Link app now allows iPhone owners to connect to a Windows 11 PC and send and receive messages via iMessage, make and receive calls, and see their notifications on a PC or laptop.
Microsoft started previewing this update earlier this year, and it’s now rolling out in 39 languages across 85 countries. Microsoft says all Windows 11 will get access to the iPhone support in Phone Link by mid-May.
Phone Link works by sending messages over Bluetooth to contacts. Apple’s iOS then intercepts these messages and forces them to be sent over iMessage, much like how Apple’s operating system detects when you’re sending a message to an...
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Image: EA
The sequel doesn’t do a lot new, and it’s still a mashup of other action-adventure games — but that’s easy to forget when you’re tossing stormtroopers around with your Force powers.