Wear OS 4 is coming and bringing better battery life along with it

WhatsApp is one of the new apps coming to Wear OS. | Screenshot: The Verge

Wear OS 3 technically hasn’t finished rolling out yet, but Google’s not waiting to announce Wear OS 4. The new OS is meant to improve battery life and introduce cloud backups to the platform.

It makes sense that Wear OS is getting some love now that the Pixel Watch is here. The jump to Wear OS 4, however, is a bit surprising. Sure, it’s been two years since Google announced the oft-neglected Wear OS platform was getting a total revamp via a partnership with Samsung. But the transition has been rocky, and Wear OS 3 really didn’t start taking off until the latter half of 2022.

The good news is there’s still time for Wear OS to get its ducks in a row. While the Wear OS 4 developer preview and emulator launch today, it won’t be available...

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The new Google Home app is finally here

The new Google Home app is a complete redesign of the smart home controller. | Image: Google

A much-needed update brings greater control and customizability. Plus, Google updates its iOS app to support Matter devices.

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Android’s new generative AI can reply to your texts and design its own wallpaper

Is this woman real? Google’s blog post doesn’t say. | Image: Google

Generative AI is all the rage — and Google has found two new ways to put the tech in the palm of your hand.

First, it’s announcing Magic Compose, a new feature in Android’s default Messages app that’ll let you respond to texts with auto-suggested responses “based on the content of your messages” so they sound like you, or pull a Grammarly and make them sound more “concise” and “professional” or even imitate a famous style.

Image: Google

Me? I can’t wait to put it to work on those pig butchering scammers who keep pretending they’ve got the “wrong number.” The beta’s coming this summer.

Second, as part of a Pixel-exclusive next month, Google’s adding generative AI wallpaper where “you can answer suggested prompts to...

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Gmail can now scan the dark web for your email address

Stay ahead of potential threats by checking if your Gmail address has been published to the dark web. | Image: Google

A new security feature coming to Google accounts could inform you if your email address has been published on the dark web. At Google I/O today, the search giant announced plans to roll out a handful of new security features designed to better protect those using Google products and services, including spam protections for Google Drive and improved search history deletion in Maps.

The company is expanding its “dark web report” feature to all Gmail accounts in the US over the coming weeks, which scans to check if your Gmail address is appearing on the dark web and advises on steps that users can take to bolster their online security. The password manager built into the Chrome browser already does a fairly good job of nagging you to keep...

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Google teases Project Tailwind — a prototype AI notebook that learns from your documents

Project Tailwind is just a concept for now, but it’s a very intriguing one. | Image: Google

Google has announced a lot of AI projects at its I/O conference this year, but the one that has me most excited is just a prototype: Project Tailwind.

Essentially, it’s an AI notebook trained on your documents that you can query like a sort of personalized tutor or writing companion. Google framed it as a tool for students, but it could have a lot more potential for anyone who deals with a lot of text in their life.

“Like a real notebook, your notes and your sources power Tailwind,” said Josh Woodward, a senior director of product management at Google. “How it works is you can simply pick the files from Google Drive, and it effectively creates a personalized and private AI model that has expertise in the information you give it. We’ve...

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Google now lets you sign up for its Search and Workspace AI tests

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Google just revealed some big AI-focused updates to Search and Workspace at Google I/O, and you can now sign up to test them on a dedicated Labs page. They’re a little ways down the page: scroll until you see “Learn More” buttons, and you can click on those to go to the pages that actually let you sign up for the tests.

Generative AI tools are all the rage right now, but they’ve also made some famously bad blunders. By letting users opt in to test these early products, Google can get feedback on the new tools by positioning them as “experiments” that may change and improve throughout development.

In addition to the Search and Workspace experiments, you can also sign up to test two other products. Project Tailwind is something that...

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Google’s new Perspectives search helps you find actual human information online

Illustration: The Verge

You know the Reddit trick, right? The one where, when you’re searching Google and you want an actual human perspective on which headphones to buy / where to go in Buenos Aires / how many crayons your kid can eat before they get sick, the best thing to do is add “reddit” to the end of your search results? When you do that, you get to skip past the morass of SEO-optimized nonsense websites and find actual human people talking about their actual human experiences.

Well, Google has figured this out, too. So it’s launching a new section of its search results page, called “Perspectives,” that is designed specifically for this behavior. It aims to make it easy to find takes from individual people on subjects all over the web. It’s an expansion...

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The AI takeover of Google Search starts now

Google’s still careful to say SGE is an experiment — but it’s a front-and-center one now. | Image: Google

Google is moving slowly and carefully to make AI happen. Maybe too slowly and too carefully for some people. But if you opt in, a whole new search experience awaits.

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Google rebrands AI tools for Docs and Gmail as Duet AI — its answer to Microsoft’s Copilot

Google is adding generative AI tools to apps like Docs, Gmail, and more. | Image: Google / The Verge

In March, Google announced a bunch of AI features for its Workspace suite of apps in an effort to keep pace with Microsoft’s rapid integration of similar tools. At Google I/O, the company has new branding for this effort — Duet AI — but the features themselves are still not yet widely available to the general public. The company also teased a new feature called “Sidekick” that’s able to read, summarize, and answer questions on documents across different Google apps.

Duet AI covers a range of generative AI tools for Google’s productivity apps. As we detailed earlier this year, that includes writing assistance in Docs and Gmail, image generation for Slides, automatic meeting summaries for Meet, and more. But, at Google I/O, the only real n...

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Google announces PaLM 2 AI language model, already powering 25 Google services

PaLM 2 is Google’s latest and greatest AI language model. | Image: Google

Google has announced PaLM 2: its latest AI language model and competitor to rival systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4.

“PaLM 2 models are stronger in logic and reasoning, thanks to broad training in logic and reasoning,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai onstage at the company’s I/O conference. “It’s also trained on multilingual text spanning over 100 languages.”

PaLM 2 is much better at a range of text-based tasks, Google senior research director Slav Petrov told journalists in a roundtable prior to the model’s announcement at Google’s I/O conference, including reasoning, coding, and translation. “It is significantly improved compared to PaLM 1 [which was announced in April 2022],” said Petrov.

As an example of its multilingual capabilities,...

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Google drops waitlist for AI chatbot Bard and announces oodles of new features

Google is adding a ton of new Bard features at its I/O conference today. | Image: Google

Google is adding a smorgasbord of new features to its AI chatbot Bard, including support for new languages (Japanese and Korean), easier ways to export text to Google Docs and Gmail, visual search, and a dark mode. Most significantly, the company is removing the waitlist for Bard and making the system available in English in 180 countries and territories. It’s also promising future features like AI image generation powered by Adobe and integration with third-party web services like Instacart and OpenTable.

Collectively, the news is a shot in the arm for Bard, which was released two months ago for select users in the US and UK. The chatbot — which Google still stresses is an experiment and not a replacement to its search engine — has c...

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Google’s new Magic Editor uses AI to totally transform your photos

Image: Google

Google’s latest Photos trick is a feature it’s calling Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to let you make major edits to a photo without professional tools. The company revealed the feature at Google I/O 2023.

Google shared a couple examples of Magic Editor in action that are both pretty cool. In one, a photo of a person in front of a waterfall, Google entirely moves the person further to the side of the photo, erases people in the background, and makes the sky a prettier blue. Watch this GIF to see it all happen:

GIF: Google

In another photo, Magic Editor scoots a child on a bench closer to the middle of the photo, which generates “new” parts of the bench and balloons to the left to fill in the space. In this...

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Google Maps will let you see your routes in 3D

Image: Google

Google Maps is bringing its recently launched Immersive View to your travel routes, which could make it much easier to understand where you want to go. The new feature, which Google calls Immersive View for routes, was announced at Google I/O 2023 on Wednesday.

Immersive View currently offers a 3D view of a place and adds information like weather or traffic to give you a better idea of what’s going on at that location. (It’s kind of like Apple’s Flyover view but with more detail.) By bringing the Immersive View to route planning, you’ll be able to get a bird’s-eye view to help you better visualize the landmarks and buildings you might see while navigating somewhere new. Google will even let you see traffic simulations so that you can...

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Nuro plans for more layoffs as the AV sector’s economic woes deepen

Image: Nuro

Robot delivery startup Nuro announced plans to layoff a portion of its workforce and to pause its commercial operations as it pivots to more research and development. The news comes amid a broader set of financial challenges for the burgeoning autonomous vehicle sector.

Nuro grew too rapidly in recent years thanks to an abundance of capital, a zero interest rate environment, and a growing sense of competition. But the company has since run into economic headwinds that are challenging the entire tech industry.

Last November, Nuro laid off 20 percent of its staff, or about 300 employees. Additional layoffs will come later this week, Nuro said in a blog post — though it didn’t disclose how many workers would be affected.

“Last month, we...

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Live blog: Google showcases Search, AI, and Pixel devices at I/O 2023

Image: Getty

This year, Google has a lot to prove — and at least one product to unfold.

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Good Omens season 2 hits Prime Video in July

David Tennant and Michael Sheen. | Image: Amazon

A few years after the show debuted, Good Omens is finally getting its second season. Amazon announced that season 2 of the show will start streaming on Prime Video on July 28th. Series co-creator Neil Gaiman will return as executive producer and co-showrunner, and much of the main cast is back as well. That includes leads Michael Sheen and David Tennant, alongside the likes of Jon Hamm, Doon Mackichan, and Gloria Obianyo.

While season 1 largely followed the events of the novel of the same name from Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Amazon says that the new episodes will expand on it. Here’s the official description:

Season 2 of Good Omens explores storylines that go beyond the original source material to illuminate the uncanny friendship...

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Another Pixel Fold ad leaks hours before Google’s event

Image: SnoopyTech via Twitter

Yet another leaked teaser for the Pixel Fold has surfaced just hours before its expected launch at Google I/O. In a promo video by leaker SnoopyTech, Google highlights just how thin its flagship foldable really is and also shows off how you can prop the device up on a table when watching videos.

The ad offers a look at what multitasking on the device might be like as well. As shown in the clip, a user has a video call open in one panel when the device is unfolded, while Google Drive is open in another. They’re also able to drag and drop files across both screens.

"Dual Screen support coming in Fall 2023".

lolpic.twitter.com/YKxJ9Qxda7

— SnoopyTech (@_snoopytech_) May 10, 2023

It looks like there’s a caveat that comes along with...

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Tears of the Kingdom will have ‘huge’ dungeons

Image: Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is going to have big dungeons with distinct designs, Nintendo confirmed in a developer Q&A published Wednesday. One of the biggest questions for Tears was whether it would offer something different from Breath of the Wild’s Divine Beast dungeons, which all had a largely similar aesthetic. Now, we know that there will be more variety to look forward to.

Here’s the relevant passage from the Q&A, and it’s worth reading in full:

We’ve only discussed the skies, but this title has its dungeons too, right?

Fujibayashi: Yes, we haven’t talked about the dungeons yet. They’ve changed from the previous game. For example, there is a dungeon that connects directly from Hyrule’s surface. If you dive from the...

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The best Mother’s Day sales happening now

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are $50 off and available at their all-time low price. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s another holiday, so of course there’s yet another sale — and quite a few, in fact. In honor of Mother’s Day, everyone from Amazon to Fitbit is offering discounts on an array of tech and assorted accessories. Many of these will arrive in time for Mother’s Day, too, so not only will you be able to gift Mom the new AirPods Pro or Kindle, but you’ll save some money in the process. And don’t worry if a pair of AirPods is outside your budget, either; there are plenty of affordable deals on Bluetooth trackers, Lego sets, smart speakers, and more.

Below, we’ve collected some of the best Mother’s Day tech deals (and then some) for your convenience. And just in case you need some extra help narrowing your options down, be sure to also peruse...

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Couples can now make Etsy wedding registries

Image: Etsy

Couples looking for more bespoke or personalized wedding gifts will have the ability to create a registry on Etsy.

The platform known for handmade and vintage items has added a wedding registry option, available to users starting today. Couples can create and add items to their list, and guests will be able to search for and purchase gifts off of registries on Etsy.

In addition to handmade and vintage items for sale on the platform, couples will also be able to add custom gifts to their registries and specify customizations — names, colors, designs, or other personalization that sellers offer.

On the seller end, the process of fulfilling registry orders will be the same as others, but sellers will see a badge signaling it was...

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Microsoft just made a huge, far-from-certain bet on nuclear fusion

An end view of one of Helion’s prototypes. | Image: Helion

Microsoft just signed a jaw-dropping agreement to purchase electricity from a nuclear fusion generator. Nuclear fusion, often called the Holy Grail of energy, is a potentially limitless source of clean energy that scientists have been chasing for the better part of a century.

A company called Helion Energy thinks it can deliver that Holy Grail to Microsoft by 2028. It announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft this morning that would see it plug in the world’s first commercial fusion generator to a power grid in Washington. The goal is to generate at least 50 megawatts of power — a small but significant amount and more than the 42MW that the US’s first two wind farms have the capacity to generate today.

“It’s the most audacious...

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Google needs to stop throwing good money after Bard

Illustration: The Verge

Google has had a rough six months. Since ChatGPT launched last November — followed by the new Bing in February and GPT-4 in March — the company has failed to establish its AI credentials. Its own offering, the “experimental” chatbot Bard, compares poorly to rivals, and insider reports have portrayed a company in panic and disarray. Today, at its annual I/O conference, the company needs to convince the public (and shareholders) that it has a meaningful response. But to do that, it needs a new playbook.

Google is undoubtedly a leader in AI research. As its executives like to point out, it was Googlers who created the transformer architecture that powers chatbots like ChatGPT. Just as significantly, it was Googlers who drew attention to...

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Your Roku smart TV can now help protect your home

Roku’s new smart security system is the TV company’s latest product in its partnership with Wyze Labs. | Image: Roku

Roku is expanding its smart home lineup and adding a smart security system, a solar panel to power its outdoor camera, and a multicolored LED strip light to its offerings. The move comes after initially jumping into the smart home game last October with the launch of a slew of gadgets, including security cameras, a video doorbell, smart plugs, and smart bulbs.

The new expandable $99 Roku Home Monitoring System SEincludes a keypad, a hub with a siren, a motion sensor, and two door / window sensors. You can install and monitor the security system yourself using the Roku Smart Home app, or you can sign up for 24/7 professional monitoring through Noonlight ($9.99 a month or $99.99 a year). Roku is offering 50 percent off for the first year...

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Netgear releases an unlocked M6 Pro portable hotspot — at more than double the price

Nighthawk M6 Pro router, now unlocked. | Image: Netgear

If you’re in the market for a portable hotspot, whether to have safer internet connectivity in airports and hotels or to get connected in a rural vacation home, you might have considered Netgear’s incredible M6 Pro router available through AT&T. However, if you didn’t want to be locked to a carrier, Netgear’s unlocked options for 5G mobile routers only included the mmWave-lacking M6 and the shorter-ranged non-6E Wi-Fi having M5.

That’s changing, as the company’s newly-released unlocked M6 Pro (MR6550-100PAS) finally brings a more comprehensive solution that combines all of those models’ features. But it also comes in at a high price of $999.99 — a $200 premium over the regular M6, and more than double the price of the $459.99 AT&T-locked...

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The Z8 is Nikon’s best mirrorless camera yet

The Nikon Z8 packs impressive specs into a small body.

When I reviewed the $5,496.95 Nikon Z9, I said that “Nikon finally put itself in the professional mirrorless camera race, and in a lot of ways it’s now winning.” I said this because, while most camera manufacturers went small and light, Nikon made a big, heavy mirrorless camera with very high specs that felt made for working professionals.

The company has now taken those great specs and put them into a smaller $4,000 body. The new Nikon Z8 boasts a 45.7MP stacked CMOS sensor that, thanks to the Expeed 7 image processor, can shoot RAW photos at 20fps for over 1,000 frames. There are also autofocus readings up to 120fps. And impressive video specs: 12-bit N-RAW at 8K 60fps or 4K 120fps.

The Z8 can shoot video in 12-bit...

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Uber launches flight bookings in the UK as a trial for other markets

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber is launching a new flight booking tool for its UK customers as part of the company’s wider efforts to expand into other travel markets. Hopper, a Canadian-based travel agency, and Uber announced the partnership to sell national and international flights through the ride-sharing app on Wednesday.

Uber has already introduced app bookings for flights for some UK users and is planning to make the tool more widely available across the entire region “in the coming weeks,” as reported by The Financial Times. Andrew Brem, General Manager for Uber in the UK, told the publication that this is “the latest and most ambitious step” that the company has taken in its pursuit to create a one-stop shop for all travel booking needs — a so-called...

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Dell’s 32-inch 6K monitor is a more affordable alternative to Apple’s pro display

Dell’s U3224KB, the 6K 32-inch monitor it announced back at CES, is going on sale today for $3,199.99. That’s over $1,000 cheaper than Apple’s 32-inch $4,999 Pro Display XDR, which also targets professionals with a similar high resolution 6K panel. But Dell’s monitor packs in a host of other features like a built-in webcam, speakers, and KVM switch to allow it to work with two computers simultaneously. Dell’s pricing reveal joins the launch of a new 38-inch curved ultrawide display from the company.

Obviously, the specs of Dell’s and Apple’s monitors aren’t identical. Most notably, Dell’s monitor is DisplayHDR 600 certified, suggesting a peak brightness in the region of 600 nits versus 1,600 nits on Apple’s monitor. There’s also no...

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Google demonstrates Pixel Fold early in unlisted ad

Image: Google

Footage of the Pixel Fold has appeared in a YouTube ad ahead of its anticipated announcement at Google I/O later today. As reported by 9to5Google, the unlisted YouTube video features numerous NBA stars and multiple close-up shots of the upcoming Pixel Fold in everyday use.

Titled “Google Pixel x NBA: The Greatest Watch Party,” the link was shared in a tweet posted by the official Google Pixel account last night. It seems Google published the link prematurely as the tweet teasingly instructed readers to “check back in tomorrow.” That said, the tweet also includes a picture of MVP Joel Embiid clearly holding the Pixel Fold, so probably best to not think too hard about it.

Y’all ready for the greatest watch party of all-time?

Check back...

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Hollow Knight: Silksong has been delayed

Image: Team Cherry

We’ll be waiting a little while longer for Hollow Knight: Silksong. The years-in-the-making sequel to the excellent Hollow Knight was supposed to release within 12 months of the 2022 Xbox June showcase, but a representative for the game said Tuesday evening that the title will be missing that release window.

“We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing,” Matthew Griffin, who works on marketing and publishing for the game, posted on Twitter. “We’re excited by how the game is shaping up, and it’s gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can. Expect more details from us once we get closer to release.”

Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong.

We had planned...

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Meta is making life even harder for its metaverse creators

Image: Meta

Meta will no longer let creators using its Horizon Worlds social VR playscape make dedicated events, the company announced as part of the platform’s v109 update notes on Tuesday. It’s a surprising shutdown of a feature that some creators hoped would someday see improvements.

In March, I published a story about Horizon Worlds creators who run an in-VR comedy club, the Unknown Theater, and how they organized a VR protest over Meta’s treatment of events on the platform. The protestors took issue with changes that made community-organized events much more challenging to find, which poses a problem for the club’s regularly-scheduled shows, and the way Meta gave more prominence to high-profile events featuring big name stars like Carrie...

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