The surgeon general’s wake-up call for social networks

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

For many years now, a group of researchers and activists have warned about the potential dangers of children using social networks. The warnings resonated with me emotionally, since so many people I know — young and old — have struggled with their own relationships to apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It seems logical that what many people experience as a kind of icky feeling after too much scrolling manifests as something much more serious in others — particularly in young people.

Anxiety over this state of affairs has contributed to a significant uptick this year in state-level regulation aimed at getting kids off their phones. (The other reason, of course, is a total failure of Congress to act.)

Utah just passed a law p...

Continue reading…

Problemista’s first trailer is a work-related stress dream you actually want to see

Julio Torres as Alejandro and Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth. | A24

The first trailer for A24’s Problemistafrom director Julio Torres plays like a dizzying work-related stress dream — one you actually want to pay attention to because it’s about someone else’s existential crisis.

Problemista’s story revolves around Alejandro Martinez (Torres), a talented and aspiring toymaker from El Salvador who makes his way to New York City hoping to make it big by realizing some of his more experimental, unconventional playthings. Though Alejandro knows in his heart that he belongs in NYC chasing his dreams, with time running out on his current work visa, there’s a very solid chance he could be forced out of the country, putting him in a very difficult position.

Problemista’s first trailer only lets on a bit just how...

Continue reading…

Can Joe Biden’s latest FCC nominee unjam the agency’s deadlock?

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After more than three years without a fully staffed Federal Communications Commission, President Joe Biden nominated longtime telecom attorney Anna Gomez to become the agency’s next commissioner this week. The news comes months after his first pick, Gigi Sohn, withdrew her name from consideration following a grueling 16-month political battle. And where Sohn became a lightning rod for controversy, Gomez’s nomination has so far seemed to defuse it.

Gomez has a long history of working in both the public and private sectors. Currently a senior advisor at the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, she spent more than 12 years serving at the FCC in several roles. She also worked as a partner at the law firm Wiley Rein...

Continue reading…

PlayStation Showcase 2023: all the news from Sony’s big gaming event

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Expect some surprises.

Continue reading…

How to save battery life on your Android phone

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

Once upon a time, phones such as the original Motorola Droid had interchangeable batteries. You could keep an extra charged battery on hand and swap them out when needed. It was a lot more convenient and lightweight than dragging around a heavy battery pack, and it kept the phone going strong over the course of the busiest workday.

But as phone designs changed over the years, swappable batteries were abandoned by phone manufacturers to keep their phones sleeker and accommodate wraparound screens. Improved battery technology means that most phones will get you through at least a full day’s use — unless you are watching a lot of videos or your device is a year or two old.

If your phone is running out of gas before you go to bed, you’ve...

Continue reading…

Opera is getting its own AI side panel to match Edge

Image: Opera

Opera is testing an AI sidebar in its browser. The feature, called Aria, is powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and can generate text, write code, answer questions, and more, according to a blog post on Opera’s website.

Aria lives within Opera’s sidebar on the left side of the screen, and clicking its icon reveals a panel where you can interact with it. Unlike the standard version of the ChatGPT chatbot, Opera’s browser AI can surface up-to-date information from across the web. It’s also capable of answering questions about Opera itself, as the company says it’s knowledgeable about the browser’s “whole database of support documentation.”

Image: Opera

The introduction of Aria builds upon some of the AI features that Opera...

Continue reading…

Apple’s M1-equipped iPad Air is down to its best price to date

Apple’s latest iPad Air might not be as cheap as the newer entry-level model, but it’s still a better value. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference may be right around the corner, but we’re not expecting to see a ton of news on the tablet front outside of the next iteration of iPadOS. That means now is as good a time as any to pick up Apple’s latest iPad Air, which is currently matching its all-time low of $499.99 ($100 off) at Amazon and Best Buy in the 64GB / Wi-Fi configuration.

Apple’s midrange tablet, in our eyes, is the best iPad for most people. The 2022 fifth-gen Air packs in a 10.9-inch high-resolution display, Apple’s speedy M1 processor, all-day battery life, and the same modern design we welcomed with the 2020 model. The featherweight slate also supports the same keyboard and stylus accessories as the latest iPad Pro, which...

Continue reading…

Matter makes Govee’s new light strip more functional but less fun

The M1 LED light strip is bright, colorful, and compatible with everything, thanks to Matter. But its flashiest features are only in Govee’s app.

Continue reading…

How to watch Sony’s 2023 PlayStation Showcase

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

With E3 out of the picture once again, it’s time to gear up for a very busy few months of gaming news as publishers host their own livestreamed events. Kicking things off a little early is Sony with its PlayStation Showcase. The company describes it as an event “focusing on PS5 and PSVR 2 games in development from top studios from around the world.”

Most likely, that means we’ll get a good look at some big first-party titles from Sony, including Insomniac’s pair of superhero titles: Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine. There are also multiplayer versions of some of Sony’s biggest franchises — Horizon and The Last of Us — in the works, and given the company’s recent run of acquisitions, it’s likely we’ll see some brand-new properties as well. (And...

Continue reading…

AMD’s and Nvidia’s latest sub-$400 GPUs fail to push the bar on 1440p gaming

I wish 1440p GPUs were more mainstream after years of 1080p dominance.

Continue reading…

AMD’s new $269 Radeon RX 7600 GPU targets the 1080p ‘sweet spot’

The Radeon RX 7600 is available on May 25th starting at $269. | Image: AMD

AMD has unveiled the Radeon RX 7600, a $269 entry-level graphics card powered by the company’s RDNA 3 architecture. Announced on Wednesday, the RX 7600 is designed to hit 60fps while running games at 1080p, providing an affordable GPU option for gamers who aren’t chasing 4K performance.

This is the first desktop GPU in the Radeon RX 7000 lineup with a price below $300 — not only is it cheaper than the $329 RX 6600 at launch, but VideoCardz reports, and The Verge’s own Tom Warren confirms, that AMD cut the price at the last minute from a $299 figure originally shared with press and influencers. That updated pricing probably isn’t a coincidence considering AMD revealed the Radeon RX 7600 just days after Nvidia announced the $299 RTX 4060,...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Surface Pro X cameras have stopped working for everyone

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Surface Pro X owners are reporting that the cameras on their devices have stopped working this week. Reddit users and posters in Microsoft’s support forums say cameras on their Surface Pro X models stopped working yesterday and that reinstalling drivers hasn’t fixed the issue.

The Verge has confirmed the camera issue on a Surface Pro X unit, with Windows throwing up a “0xA00F4271 (0x80004005)” error when you attempt to use the camera app.

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

The camera error on Surface Pro X devices.

The Surface Pro X is Microsoft’s flagship Arm-powered tablet, designed to push Windows toward phone-like battery life and app support. It’s not immediately clear what has...

Continue reading…

I tried the AI novel-writing tool everyone hates, and it’s better than I expected

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Thoughts are swarming my mind like a nest of cyber-rats.

Continue reading…

Leaked images show Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 with rotating bezel

Image: OnLeaks / MySmartPrice

We still have a few weeks until Samsung officially reveals its upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 lineup, but leaked images suggest that it might have resurrected a fan-favorite feature per previous rumors. A familiar rotating bezel — which Samsung tragically dropped from the Galaxy Watch 5 series — can be seen on leaked renders of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic shared by MySmartPrice and reputable leaker OnLeaks.

If the renders are legit then the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is almost visually identical to the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. They depict the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in an all-black design, featuring a brushed metal casing and a silicone wristband with a magnetic clasp. According to SamMobile, the circular display is a Super AMOLED screen measuring in...

Continue reading…

Fujifilm’s X-S20 camera has a new processor and a $300 higher asking price

It’s ever so slightly larger and heavier than the X-S10, though the new 8mm lens looks nice and small. | Image: Fujifilm

Fujifilm has a new entry-level-ish camera for its X line of APS-C mirrorless cameras, hoping to find a sweet spot for hybrid photo and video creators. It’s introducing the new $1,299 X-S20 camera, $799 XF 8mm f/3.5R WR super-wide lens, and a new X App at its ongoing X Summit Bangkok. While the new app will try to pick up the pieces and outdo its predecessor’s abysmal App Store review score on May 25th, the camera and lens are both set to launch around June 29th.

That sweet spot, in Fujifilm’s eyes, for the X-S20 means the latest processor of the X-H2 duo and the X-T5 is combined with the same sensor as the last-gen X-S10. While this means the new X-S20, which is $300 pricier than its predecessor, mind you, is limited to the same last-gen...

Continue reading…

Can a camera company make an app that doesn’t suck? Fujifilm tries again

Fujifilm’s new XApp will be available on May 25th. | Image: Fujifilm

At some point a few weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t deal with Fujifilm’s Camera Remote app anymore. So I threw in the towel and bought an SD-to-Lightning adapter, which lets me reliably get photos from my Fujifilm cameras onto my iPhone without any fuss. But it also makes me feel like a damn caveman. It’s supposed to be better than this in 2023.

I’ve been using Fujifilm’s mirrorless cameras since the days of the X-T1. But like many others, I’ve had mixed experiences with the company’s mobile app. Just look at those reviews on the App Store and Google Play.

In theory, this software is intended to make syncing photos between camera and smartphone very convenient. Sometimes that actually happens, and despite its rudimentary interface,...

Continue reading…

Samsung’s 2023 smart monitors aim to do it all

Samsung’s Smart Monitor M8. | Image: Samsung

Samsung has announced US pricing and release information for a trio of new “smart monitors” — its lineup of computer displays that can also function as small smart TVs. So you get HDMI and USB ports for plugging in peripherals, but also built-in video streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube, AirPlay support, and Samsung’s Gaming Hub with access to cloud gaming services from Xbox and Nvidia in select countries.

At the bottom of the range there’s the 1080p Samsung M5 (technically the M50C) which starts as $279.99 for the 27-inch model, rising to $299.99 for the 32-inch version. Then there’s the 4K M7 (M70C — $549.99 for 27-inch, $599.99 for 32-inch), and M8 (M80C — $649.99 for 27-inch, $699.99 for 32-inch). In the US, the monitors will be...

Continue reading…

Logitech’s solution for hot desking is a $699 dock with a screen

How long do you think it’ll be before someone sticks the “DO IT FOR HER” Simpsons meme on one of these? | Image: Logitech

Logitech has announced the Logi Dock Flex, its latest all-in-one USB-C docking station designed to alleviate some of the frustrations of hot desking and hybrid working. The Logi Dock Flex kinda resembles an Amazon Echo Show smart display, featuring an 8-inch touchscreen that allows users to reserve rooms and monitor desk availability via Zoom Workspace, Microsoft Teams, or Logitech’s new desk booking software.

A built-in display is a strange addition to a docking station, but Logitech has still managed to cram the Logi Dock Flex with plenty of ports to support a standard office setup. There are two USB-C ports and a single USB-A port located below the screen on the front of the Logi Dock Flex. On the rear, you’ll find two additional...

Continue reading…

Logitech’s new G Pro X 2 gaming headset has graphene audio drivers

Logitech’s G Pro X 2 headset has an updated design. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Logitech is announcing a new G Pro X 2 Lightspeed gaming headset today that features graphene audio drivers. You’ve probably heard of graphene, the miracle form of carbon that has been promised by many over the past 20 years to change the world of technology. While we haven’t seen graphene used to create space elevators or make the internet run faster just yet, Logitech is using it to create headphone drivers that are lightweight.

“With our use of graphene, we can create a driver that is both incredibly rigid and, at the same time, almost impossibly lightweight,” says Chris Pate, principal product manager for the Logitech G Pro series of products. “This delivers high fidelity sound with extremely low distortion, giving pros the...

Continue reading…

Canon has a new mirrorless camera that feels straight out of 2013

It’s a tiny boy! | Image: Canon

The Canon EOS M mirrorless system may be dead, but one of its cameras is being exhumed and reincarnated into a new model for the ongoing EOS R series. The EOS R100 is the latest of Canon’s APS-C mirrorless offerings. It features a 24.1-megapixel sensor, eye-tracking dual pixel autofocus, and a very compact size for $479.99 body-only, launching in July. It will also be sold for $599.99 in a kit with the RF-S 18–45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens or $829.99 in a two-zoom kit with that same slow lens plus an RF-S 55–210mm f/5-7.1 IS STM telephoto. Launching alongside the R100 is a Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens for $299.99 that’s compatible with crop or full-frame cameras and only a bit larger than a body cap.

U Can’t Touch This [Canon]!

On...

Continue reading…

PlayStation is betting big on new franchises and live service games

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Right now, Sony may be widely renowned for its ambitious single-player PlayStation games from franchises you’ve come to know and love — series like God of War, Horizon, and Spider-Man come to mind for me. But in just a few years, you might instead be playing a lot of new PlayStation franchises — and a lot of live service titles.

As part of a business presentation on Tuesday, Sony shared some updates about how it plans to invest in its its portfolio. In the 2025 fiscal year, for example, it estimates that 50 percent of its PlayStation Studios investments will be in new IP, which a major jump from years past: according to a slide, in its 2019 fiscal year, only 20 percent of its investments were in new franchises. And if you look at the...

Continue reading…

These AMD Chromebook processors promise big battery life

Image: AMD

AMD has announced four new (well, kind of) processors marketed for Chromebooks: the Ryzen and Athlon 7020C series.

The release includes two Ryzen processors (a Ryzen 5 7520C and a Ryzen 3 7320C) with four cores, eight threads, and 15W TDP, with AMD Radeon 610M graphics. The Ryzen 3 has a 2.4 GHz base with up to 4.1 GHz boost frequency, while the Ryzen 5 has a slightly higher 2.8GHz and 4.3 GHz respectively.

The Athlon Silver 7120C and Athlon Gold 7220C both have two cores, and two and four threads respectively. Both have a base frequency of 2.4GHz; the Silver boosts up to 3.5GHz, the Gold up to 3.7.

As is often the case with these Chromebook-specific CPU releases from AMD, “new” is a bit of a misleading term. The 7020C series is built...

Continue reading…

Why YouTube is a tough place for kids podcasts

Getty Images

This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Hope everyone at The Podcast Show is enjoying the conference (and ignoring their jet lag). While I’m still very much across the pond (like, way across) in LA, this issue of Hot Pod leads with some news from BBC Radio. I’m also digging into kids podcasts on YouTube and an interesting announcement by Bill Simmons about Spotify’s voice cloning for ads.

But before I start — remember Twitter Spaces? Twitter’s live audio platform will make history tomorrow at 6PM PT when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hops in a room to announce his bid for presidency. As The Verge reported last year, most of the team behind Twitter Spaces has either been...

Continue reading…

Photoshop’s generative AI tool turned my vacation photos into nightmare fuel

This is the AI version of Iceland’s greatest hits. Here’s the original before I asked Generative Fill to add an erupting volcano and a hot spring.

If you’d like to visit a place where danger from the natural world is omnipresent and where lunch costs $60, I encourage you to visit Iceland. It is a beautiful and brutal landscape whose natural wonders (and terrors) make for incredible photographs. I took a bunch on a recent trip to the country. But it is possible, as I’ve unfortunately discovered, to make them terrifying in entirely new ways.

I turned Adobe’s new AI-powered Generative Fill tool on my Icelandic vacation photos, with both “legitimate” photo editing tasks and a few ridiculous prompts that resulted in nightmare fuel. Generative Fill is in beta now, and it’s based on Adobe’s Firefly image generator. It’s not entirely new, but having it right alongside all your standard...

Continue reading…

Some HP printers are getting a ‘blue screen error’ and being rendered unusable

The error code on an HP OfficeJet as shared by an HP support forum user. | Image: HP Community member Bennyboos

HP is dealing with a bad firmware update that has been bricking some OfficeJet printers. According to reporting from Bleeping Computer, the faulty firmware was released globally earlier this month, and affected customers are seeing a blue screen with the error code “83C0000B” on the printer’s touchscreen.

In HP’s support forums, customers in various countries have been asking about the issue. One printer owner notes that the blue screen error won’t even let them access the device’s service menu. Another couple of customers were told to wait until May 16th for a solution, but as of today, HP still has yet to resolve the issue.

“Our teams are working diligently to address the blue screen error affecting a limited number HP OfficeJet Pro...

Continue reading…

Here’s how ads might look in Google’s new AI-powered search experience

Illustration: The Verge

Think Google is already loaded with ads? Well, if a new video in a blog post is anything to go by, ads might be even more obtrusive in the company’s new AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE).

I’ve already expressed some concern over how much ads push things down in SGE based on what Google showed when it revealed the new experience at I/O. But those ads were only above and below SGE, and what Google showed on Tuesday were examples of ads within SGE.

See for yourself in a GIF of the video below:

This is a video from Google that I converted to a GIF.

The GIF moves kind of quickly, so let’s break down exactly what we can see here:

1. In a mobile search for “outdoor activities to do in Maui,” there are normal...

Continue reading…

Flipboard is ready to work with Bluesky and Pixelfed

Now, you can flip through butts in Flipboard thanks to Bluesky integration. | Image: Flipboard

Self-styled social magazine Flipboard has integrated Bluesky into its apps for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Support arrives as a beta feature just a couple of weeks after the first release of Bluesky’s code, which gives programmers access to develop using the AT protocol on which it’s built. Flipboard announced posts from open-source Instagram alternative Pixelfed — which uses the same ActivityPub protocol that powers Mastodon — will be available in its app in “the coming days.”

If you use Flipboard, then you can add Bluesky by tapping the four-squares icon at the bottom of the app and going to the accounts tab. A list of accounts should show up, giving you the option to set up a connection to your preferred social network,...

Continue reading…

Ron DeSantis to announce presidential bid in Twitter Space with Elon Musk

Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to announce he is running for president in a conversation with Twitter owner Elon Musk, NBC News reported Monday.

The announcement will take place during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday at 6PM ET, and David Sacks, former PayPal product leader and tech investor, will reportedly moderate the discussion. Shortly after, the DeSantis campaign is expected to put out a formal campaign launch video before taking to the campaign trail after Memorial Day.

Lindsey Curnutte, a DeSenatis spokesperson, confirmed the event in an email to The Verge Tuesday. Twitter responded to a request for comment Tuesday with the company’s customary poop emoji auto-reply.

DeSantis’ planned announcement comes as his polling...

Continue reading…

Tears of the Kingdom’s puzzle designers are fantastic trolls

Image: Nintendo

The Zelda developers are trolls, and I love them.

One really well-designed aspect of Tears of the Kingdom is that the game will teach you how to play it. I don’t mean through explicit tutorials; rather, throughout my frankly embarrassing amount of playtime, the game presented to me, either in shrines or in the overworld, obstacles and the tools to surmount them. And every time I solved a puzzle, a more complex version of that same kind of puzzle would pop up later on, forcing me to put together what I learned to take on this new challenge. It makes Tears a kind of Metroidvania in that sometimes my progression is locked until I’ve mastered a certain skill or problem-solving mechanic.

The game will also give you a full lesson contained...

Continue reading…

Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Netflix is about to kick your best friend off your account — unless you pay for them to share your account, that is. On Tuesday, Netflix revealed the details of how its crackdown on password sharing will affect viewers in the US and how much it will cost to keep extra people on your account.

If you have the Netflix Standard plan that costs $15.49 per month, then you have the option of adding one extra member who can use the service outside your household for $7.99 extra each month. Anyone who pays for the Netflix Premium package with 4K streaming has the option of adding up to two extra members, but each one will still cost another $7.99. Netflix subscribers on its two cheapest plans (Basic or Standard with Ads, which cost $9.99 and...

Continue reading…