Forever chemicals are disproportionately polluting Black and Hispanic neighborhoods

Photo by DAVID PINTENS/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images

Toxic chemicals linked to cancer and heart disease are disproportionately polluting water sources in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the US, a new study shows, providing new evidence of environmental impacts targeting communities of color.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals” for their extreme persistence in the environment, are toxic byproducts of heat-resistant materials. They’re widely used in aerospace, construction, automotive, and electronics industries. Because of their resistance, they can also penetrate the soil and contaminate water sources near factories as well as accumulate in wildlife.

A new Harvard study monitored more than 7,000 sites across 18 states and found statistical...

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Does Bard know how many times ‘e’ appears in ‘ketchup’?

And the act is called... “The Aristocrats!”

One of the things I am most enjoying about machine learning is how it illustrates, quite neatly, that engineers don’t know how people work. Take the large language models, for instance. I have been told that they will take my job, rendering me unnecessary; that they are intelligent; that they will plan the perfect itinerary for my trip to Paris, with highlights about bars and restaurants that are definitely accurate and complete.

Inspired by a tweet about mayonnaise, I have set out now to do a fun experiment with Google’s Bard.

Okay, well:

Artificial intelligence, demonstrated.

I am choosing to do this for two reasons. First, this kind of quiz is something you do with small children as you teach them to read. You...

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Zelda players turned Tears of the Kingdom into a Korok torture chamber

Nintendo

Tears of the Kingdom has been out over a weekend, and y’all, it’s getting grim out there. While I expected players to get wild and weird with their creations and was totally delighted to see that it only took about 24 hours before the first flame-spouting phallus hit my timeline, players’ creations have taken a decidedly unexpected and concerning dark turn.

It’s about the Koroks, you see.

As in Breath of the Wild, the twee forest spirits litter the land in remote places and in odd configurations. Lift a conspicuously placed boulder here or chase a moving leaf there to reveal a cheerful little creature who is delighted that you took the time to play its cute little game of hide and seek. You’re also rewarded for your time and cleverness...

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Tesla’s shareholder meeting is all about succession

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla investors are facing some big questions at this year’s annual shareholder meeting — board seats for the chair, CEO, and former chief technology officer — as well as succession planning for the post-Elon Musk era.

The meeting, which will be livestreamed from the company’s headquarters in Austin at 3PM local time, comes on the heels of Musk announcing that former NBCUniversal advertising head Linda Yaccarino will succeed him as CEO of Twitter. Analysts cheered the move as an important one that will hopefully result in Musk paying more attention to his primary company, Tesla.

Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO “will be a positive for Tesla’s stock starting to finally remove this lingering albatross from the story,” Wedbush’s Dan Ives...

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The Amazon executive in charge of Astro robot is leaving the company

Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon’s expensive and not-so-smart Astro robot still has yet to become available to buy without an invite, and now the executive who oversaw its development is leaving the company, Insider reports.

Ken Washington, Amazon’s VP of consumer robotics, is leaving the company to “pursue an external opportunity,” a spokesperson told GeekWire. He spent less than two years at the company, and his last day is May 18th.

Washington is part of Amazon’s Lab126 development team, and he’s not the only recent major departure from the company. The lab’s longtime president, Gregg Zehr, who oversaw development of the Kindle, and Tom Taylor, Amazon’s former SVP of Alexa, announced their retirements on the same day last August.

With Washington departing, his...

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PSA: time to recycle your old Wemo smart plugs (if you haven’t already)

The Wemo Smart Plug Mini V2’s security flaw will not be fixed. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Security researchers at Sternum report they’ve found an exploitable vulnerability in the Wemo Smart Plug Mini V2 (via 9to5Mac). The plug debuted in 2019, offering cross-platform compatibility with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Alexa.

The bug would let a savvy hacker gain remote command of your Wemo plug by circumventing the Wemo app with a community-made Python app called PyWeMo. Once connected, an attacker can change the device name to something with more than 30 characters, resulting in a buffer overflow that allows the attacker to inject commands remotely.

When Sternum disclosed the vulnerability to Belkin, it was told that since the device was at the end of its life, it would not be receiving a fix. Sternum then reported the...

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Apple adds new concert-finding features to Maps and Music

Image: Apple

Apple is rolling out new concert discovery features in its Maps and Music apps that should make it easier to find local shows. On Apple Music, Apple is adding a Set Lists section that lives within the app’s Browse tab, allowing you to look through an artist’s upcoming shows and view set lists across their tours.

Apple Maps, on the other hand, is getting over 40 curated guides that highlight some of the best live music venues across the globe, which Apple says could range from Viennese symphony halls to techno clubs in Brooklyn. The feature lets you browse through upcoming shows at each venue directly within Maps, but it’s only available in select cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Tokyo, London, Paris, and others.

...

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Ubisoft is investing even more into Assassin’s Creed

Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft is going to significantly increase the number of people it has working on the already-massive Assassin’s Creed franchise, the company said as part of its latest earnings report on Tuesday. The company is upping its investment in the series because it sees a big opportunity for growth.

“As part of our increased strategic focus on our biggest growth opportunities and progressive reallocation of resources, Ubisoft will notably increase the number of talents working on the Assassin’s Creed franchise by 40 percent over the coming years to fuel its ambitious expansion,” the company wrote in a press release. Currently, the company has “around” 2,000 people working on the franchise, CEO Yves Guillemot said on an earnings call.

Assassin’s...

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CNET staff are unionizing, citing editorial independence and use of AI tools

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Months after CNET came under fire for quietly running articles written using artificial intelligence tools, staff at the tech news outlet are forming a union with the Writers Guild of America, East.

“In this time of instability, our diverse content teams need industry-standard job protections, fair compensation, editorial independence and a voice in the decision-making process, especially as automated technology threatens our jobs and reputations,” the union says. “A union will help us adapt to new business strategies while establishing high journalistic standards and practices.”

The bargaining unit will include around 100 staffers ranging from reporters and editors to video production teams. A “solid and dedicated majority” of unit...

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Pocket is getting a redesigned iOS app

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Reader app Pocket is launching a redesigned version of its iOS app, Pocket owner Mozilla announced on Tuesday. The revamped app has a focus on a new Home tab that’s designed to be a “starting off point for visiting everything in Pocket, from your saved content to the articles we think you’ll love,” according to a blog post.

You can get an idea of how the Home tab works in this GIF from Pocket, where you can see sections like “recent saves,” “editors’ picks,” and stories you can read in 10 minutes or less. If you don’t want to read the suggested article right when you see it, there’s a save button you can press to add it to your list of saved content. (If you’re familiar with Pocket’s recent Android redesign, the iOS redesign will look...

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 could be announced in July

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Samsung’s expected to reveal the new Galaxy Z Fold 5, Flip 5, and Tab S9 devices at its Unpacked event later this year, and thanks to reports from Winfuture and the Korean news outlet The Chosun Ilbo, we now have an idea of when exactly this could take place. Rumors suggest that Samsung could hold Unpacked on July 26th, while the devices could become available in stores on August 11th.

If these reports hold true, this means Galaxy Unpacked will occur a couple of weeks earlier than last year’s event, which Samsung held on August 10th. Just like last year’s mid-summer Unpacked, Samsung’s set to reveal the latest iterations of its flagship foldables, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5. This device is rumored to feature a much thinner design when...

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TikTok will pay creators of viral filters and effects

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

For the first time, TikTok is introducing a fund for creators making viral effects and filters — but based on the proposed payout structure, creators won’t be getting rich anytime soon.

TikTok’s Effect Creator Rewards program sets aside $6 million to pay the creators of the platform’s most viral effects and filters based on how many videos are shared using their work. Effects that have been used in 500,000 videos within 90 days of being created will earn the artist $700. Within those 90 days, creators earn an additional $140 for every 100,000 videos above the 500,000 baseline. That means that if your filter was used 1 million times in 90 days, you’d walk away with $1,400. Only one video per person per day is eligible — if a user posted a...

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#Vanlife is getting a luxury upgrade with new Mercedes-Benz EV lineup in 2026

Image: Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz announced a new modular platform called VAN.EA that will underpin the automaker’s new lineup of commercial and personally owned electric vans.

VAN.EA is designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing for both front- and all-wheel drive vehicles. It will also differentiate between commercial fleet-use vehicles and luxury camper vans for personal ownership. A midsize luxury van based on the VAN.EA platform is destined for the US market by 2026, the company said.

The announcement of the new platform is meant to signal Mercedes’ bullish attitude toward the burgeoning electric van market. The company said it was targeting an EV share of up to 20 percent by 2026 and more than 50 percent by 2030.

VAN.EA is designed to be...

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Google might delete your Gmail account if you haven’t logged in for two years

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Do you have any old Google accounts you haven’t used in a while? You might want to log in and take a look around once every 24 months or so, as Google has announced an update to its policies for inactive accounts. The old policy, laid out in 2020 at the same time it ended free unlimited storage for Google Photos, said that Google might wipe data stored in accounts that haven’t been touched for at least two years, but a blog post written by product manager Ruth Kricheli says that, now, those accounts could be deleted entirely.

The new policy won’t kick in until December of this year at the earliest, so you have some time to remember old login information or for us to get more details on how all of this will work. 9to5Google reports that...

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Google’s Pixel 6A is $100 off

The Google Pixel 6A lacks support for wireless charging but is $150 cheaper than the Pixel 7A. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

There’s a new midrange Google Pixel phone in town, true, but the Pixel 6A still offers a lot of bang for your buck if you’re trying to save money. That’s especially true today, given that right now, you can buy the phone unlocked for $329.99 to $349 (about $100 off) with 128GB of storage in select colors from Amazon and Best Buy. If you activate it today, you can also save an additional $50 at Best Buy.

Like the new Pixel 7A, the phone offers a 6.1-inch OLED panel and long battery life but costs $150 less. It shares an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance and a good camera, too, even if not as impressive as the 7A’s. Of course, there are some tradeoffs. The Pixel 6A is a good performer, but the 7A’s equipped with the more powerful...

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Zoom will soon integrate Anthropic’s chatbot across its platform

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Zoom is partnering with Anthropic to integrate the company’s AI assistant across its productivity platform. In a post on Tuesday, Zoom says it will first add the chatbot to its Contact Center product, which businesses can use as a channel for customer support.

Zoom says Claude, a chatbot Anthropic launched in March, should help customer support agents by creating “better self-service features” that can help guide customers toward relevant solutions. It will also soon be able to surface necessary resources for agents while they’re serving customers.

The company is vague about how it will implement Claude in other areas of the app — like Team Chat, Meetings, Phone, Whiteboard, and Zoom IQ — but Zoom will likely leverage the assistant to...

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Framework Laptop 13 review: a DIY dream come true

The 2023 Framework Laptop 13 remains a DIY dream while fixing many of the 2022 Framework Laptop’s biggest issues.

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Microsoft’s Bing Chat gets deeper Edge mobile integration, a widget, and much more

The new Bing mobile widget. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft only just announced a round of new updates to its GPT-4-powered Bing Chat earlier this month, and it’s back today with some big improvements for mobile users. Just days after Google rebranded its AI tools for Docs and Gmail as Duet AI, Microsoft is now focused on mobile with contextual chat for Edge mobile, a Bing widget for iOS and Android, and even continuous Bing Chat conversations between mobile and desktop.

These new mobile-first features arrive just as Microsoft finishes rolling out its new image and video answers, restaurant bookings, and chat history features that were all announced earlier this month. Microsoft only launched Bing Chat nearly 100 days ago, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down with its AI...

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Humanity is a brilliant puzzle game that never runs out of ideas

Image: Enhance

For some people, the basic premise of Humanity will be enough to sell them on the game. You, in the role of an ethereal Shiba Inu, guide humans through a world of puzzles in a game designed in part by the minds behind games like Rez and Tetris Effect. Now, to those for whom that description makes little to no sense, know this: Humanity is one of the most ingenious and generous puzzle games I’ve played in a very long time.

So yes, you control a dog, one that can command crowds of humans with nothing more than a bark. There’s a story of sorts, with a disembodied voice giving you directions, but the actual goal of the game is very simple. In each stage, you need to get the crowds of people to the glowing square at the end. Of course,...

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Plugged in and logged on: a history of the internet on film and TV

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge

From Hackers to the X-Files, being online has long been depicted as a deliberate, physical act on screen.

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SteelSeries’ new Nova 4 wireless headset provides battery life on a budget

Global availability will be announced in the coming weeks. | Image: SteelSeries

SteelSeries is launching the Arctis Nova 4, the latest addition to the company’s Nova range of gaming headsets. Considered to be an “heir” to the budget-friendly Arctis 1 Wireless headset, the new Arctis Nova 4 will be available on May 20th for $119.99.

For that, you’re getting 360-degree spatial audio and a fully retractable microphone with AI-powered noise cancellation, which SteelSeries claims can reduce up to 25dB of ambient background noises while you chat, such as keyboard tapping or dogs barking. The headset weighs in at 262 grams (9.2 ounces) and features rotating ear cups and four points of adjustment so that users can adapt it to comfortably fit a range of head sizes and shapes. The Nova 4 charges quickly via USB-C, delivering...

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How to choose which Apple Watch to buy

Photo illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Between the Apple Watch Series 8, the Ultra, and the second-gen SE, there are more options than ever. We’ll help you sort through them.

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Why you can’t trust Twitter’s encrypted DMs

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

After an unusually eventful few days, let’s check in on the current state of affairs at Twitter. A high-profile capitulation to the Turkish government and new CEO sparked a ton of chatter over the weekend. Meanwhile, a troubled introduction of encrypted messaging on the site has raised questions over when, if ever, the product can be said to be truly secure.

I.

Start with encrypted messaging, where owner Elon Musk’s ready-fire-aim approach to product development has once again led to a chaotic feature rollout.

Last week, Twitter launched encrypted direct messages, a project the company has been exploring since at least 2018 and that Musk has been talking about since November. Encryption, which comes free on apps including WhatsApp,...

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How to clean your laptop

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Your laptop is going to pick up dust, grime, and fingerprints as you use it day to day — and not only does this make it less appealing to look at and work with but it also encourages bacteria to set up home on your portable computer and can reduce its lifespan.

Like your bathroom or your car, it’s a good idea to regularly clean your laptop, and it’s not difficult to do. You may already have everything you need for the job, and if not, the necessary supplies can be sourced inexpensively.

As well as following this guide, we’d also encourage you to look online for instructions provided by your laptop manufacturer — it may be that there are specific do’s and don’ts that apply to the particular laptop you’re using.

Before you begin, make sure...

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PowerA’s new MOGA XP-Ultra is a Frankenstein’s monster of mobile and Xbox hybrid controller

This controller might look cooler with some vibrant mecha-like color schemes. Actually, yeah, just make it a Gundam.

PowerA’s gone and made one of the strangest-looking controllers I’ve ever seen, and yet, this thing that looks like it should have never made it past the concept stage is the first non-Microsoft gamepad to be wirelessly compatible on Xbox consoles. The PowerA MOGA XP-Ultra doesn’t just have a name only a mother or Elon Musk could love; it also wants to try and bridge the gap between mobile game streaming on services like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and console and PC play with just one form factor. And it does this by offering a convertible form factor, transforming from a small-ish mobile gamepad to a full-size controller — all for $129.99.

We’ve seen something like this before with the Turtle Beach Recon Cloud controller, but that attempt...

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Lego is releasing an incredible 3,981-piece Batcave from Batman Returns

It’s filled with detail — and comes with Alfred, Catwoman, Penguin, and Max Shreck mini-figs.

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Eve’s new Flare lamp is the first battery-powered Thread light

The portable Eve Flare lamp works over Thread or Bluetooth and is IP65 rated. | Image: Eve Systems

Eve Systems has announced the second generation of its portable LED lamp, the Eve Flare, and the availability of its new Eve Shutter Switch for in-wall roller shutters. Both products from the smart home device maker are Bluetooth- and Thread-enabled and work with Apple Home and Siri voice control. The Eve Flare costs $99.95 / €99.95, as does the Shutter Switch, which is only available in Europe.

The second-gen Eve Flare has the same specs as the original — an IP65-rated portable indoor / outdoor full-color LED lamp. The difference is that it works over Thread and Bluetooth, while the first-gen Flare worked over Bluetooth. The Flare is the first battery-powered light to support Thread, which is one of the main protocols of Matter, the new...

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Samsung’s ambient sound mode on the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is getting way more powerful

The new ambient sound features will roll out over the next few weeks. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Samsung has announced that it’s adding more features and greater flexibility to the ambient sound mode on its Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day this week, the company says its new “enhanced” ambient sound will add two additional levels of passthrough amplification on top of the three that were already present, which will let owners further customize just how much outside audio they want to hear whenever the mode is activated.

“With this improved feature, Galaxy Buds 2 Pro users can also fine tune their ambient sound settings across a variety of needs using the Galaxy Wearable app,” Samsung wrote in a press release. “Users can adjust the volumes on the left and the right respectively, as well as customize...

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Why 2.4GHz Wi-Fi is both the savior and the scourge of the smart home

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge

This morning, my dog Gus took his big furry head and gave me a solid nudge. He looked at me and then at his food bowl. “Mom,” he said (telepathically, natch). “The Wi-Fi on my pet feeder is borked. Again.”

Gus is a smart-home dog. He’s used to letting me know when his food didn’t dispense on schedule because his smart pet feeder dropped off the Wi-Fi network — and I’m accustomed to doing the reconnection dance that follows.

If you’ve owned any type of smart home gadget — smart plug, bulb, security camera, garage door controller, or pet feeder — you know the steps: figure out how to reset the device, get out your phone, open the app, navigate to its Wi-Fi settings, swap to your phone’s settings, join your Wi-Fi network, go back to the...

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iPhones will be able to speak in your voice with 15 minutes of training

Apple Personal Voice and Live Speech accessibility features. | Image: Apple

Today, Apple previewed a bundle of new features designed for cognitive, vision, hearing, and mobility accessibility. That includes a new Personal Voice feature for people who may lose their ability to speak, allowing them to create “a synthesized voice that sounds like them” to talk with friends or family members.

According to Apple, users can create a Personal Voice by reading a set of text prompts aloud for a total of 15 minutes of audio on the iPhone or iPad. Since the feature integrates with Live Speech, users can then type what they want to say and have their Personal Voice read it to whomever they want to talk to. Apple says the feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep users’ information private and secure.”

...

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