TikTok Music rolls out to more countries

ByteDance hasn’t yet announced when TikTok Music will be launching to US markets. | Image: TikTok / The Verge / Canva

TikTok is rolling out its new subscription-based music streaming platform — aptly named TikTok Music — to new markets, almost two weeks after the service first debuted in Indonesia and Brazil. According to a press release shared with The Verge, TikTok is inviting select users from Australia, Mexico, and Singapore to join a closed beta test starting today, providing participants with a three-month free trial for the TikTok Music service.

“TikTok Music is a new kind of music service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a music streaming service offering millions of tracks from thousands of artists,” the company said via its press release. Participating users can join the beta by downloading the TikTok Music app, either...

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Intel mini NUC computers get a second life thanks to Asus

Image: Intel

Intel announced earlier this week that its compact and upgradable NUC computers were being discontinued, but now Asus is stepping in to manufacture and develop future NUC systems instead. While Intel won’t be making its cute small form factor PCs anymore, Asus will receive a non-exclusive license to Intel’s NUC (Next Unit of Computing) product designs.

“As we pivot our strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product innovation and growth, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and partners,” says Sam Gao, general manager of Intel Client Platform Solutions. “I am looking forward to ASUS continuing to deliver exceptional products and supporting our NUC systems customers.”

P...

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Why would anyone make a website in 2023? Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena has some ideas

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge

Squarespace has lived through the eras of domain squatting, SEO keywords, and social algorithms and is now launching AI tools. Here’s what’s next for the 20-year-old company.

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This Barbie is a feminist parable fighting to be great in spite of Mattel’s input

Margot Robbie as Barbie in her cowgirl guise. | Image: Warner Bros.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is often good and sometimes great, but it always feels like it’s fighting to be itself rather than the movie Warner Bros. and Mattel Films want.

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Google is testing AI-generated Meet video backgrounds

Illustration: The Verge

I am not big on blurring out or replacing my office background with premade images, but then again, I’m fortunate enough to have a small environment I’m completely in control of at my disposal, and I want people to see the Doctor Zhivago DVD on the shelf behind me. I could, however, see myself using the new AI-generated backgrounds Google is now testing in its Workspace Labs (via XDA-Developers / 9to5Google).

The feature was spotted by Artem Russakovskii, who tweeted about it this afternoon. For those who already have the feature enabled on their account, activating it is as simple as either clicking on the effects icon in the bottom right of your preview video prior to joining a meeting, typing in a prompt describing what you’d like,...

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Roblox is going to let developers offer subscriptions in their experiences

Illustration: The Verge

Roblox is developing tools that will let developers offer subscriptions within their experiences, according to a blog post published Tuesday, which could prove to be a major new way for developers to make money in their experiences.

Roblox already offers developers a lot of ways to monetize their experiences, including the ability to sell virtual items in an experience or on the Roblox marketplace, offering in-experience passes to certain content and gating experiences behind paid access. However, those examples are all one-time fees, and Roblox argues that subscriptions would offer a way for developers to “establish a recurring economic relationship with their users and potentially increase the predictability of their earnings.” (Other...

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Instagram Reels are about to get a lot more repetitive

Image: Instagram

Instagram is introducing updates to its Reels templates — a feature that allows users to make their own video based on someone else’s. The result could be a lot more content that looks exactly like everything else.

Templates break down Reels into a preset format that users can drop their own photos and videos into — a sequence of five 0.7-second clips set over a specific song, for example. It’s an easy way to participate in viral trends while spending minimal time editing, and it also encourages the proliferation of content that is only slightly different from other videos — which I guess is the same thing.

The updates to Reels templates are taking the copy-and-paste approach one step further: the presets will soon also include the text...

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Paul McCartney’s new podcast had to make some tough choices

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

I’ve got a rather assorted issue of Hot Pod for you all today. First off, Paul McCartney is getting a podcast. I spoke to the executive producer of the new show to learn more about the inner workings of the two-season series. There’s a new leader at Amazon Music and a new sales partnership from Soundrise with TED Audio Collective. Also, the popular rewatch podcast The Always Sunny Podcast is going on a break.

How hours of pandemic interviews with Paul McCartney turned into a podcast

It’s been six years since McCartney entered a confidential settlement with Sony over the rights to The Beatles’ song catalog — the culmination of a d...

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Capcom’s dino shooter Exoprimal is campy but clunky

Capcom

Dinos in crisis.

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Reddit’s only free iOS app icons are ugly now

If you’re not a fan of the new pixelated Reddit icon on your iPhone, I have some bad news: unless you want to switch to an icon themed around the Dogecoin dog or WallStreetBets, you’ll have to subscribe to Reddit Premium to be able to use an icon that just features the regular Reddit logo, as spotted by 9to5Mac’s Benjamin Mayo.

Below are the current options. (I put them together side by side so that you won’t have to scroll through a giant vertical image.) The free ones are “OrangeRed” (the pixelated one), “Doge,” and “Wall Street,” while the icons with regular Reddit logos are at the bottom of the list.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Reddit acquired Alien Blue, a third-party app, in 2014.

If I paid...

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The latest Threads update adds a ‘follows’ tab, but it doesn’t do what you’d like

Image: The Verge

Threads is getting a “follows” tab, but it’s not the following-only feed that users have been asking for. As outlined in this post from Threads developer Cameron Roth, the new tab lives on the app’s activity page and only lets you see a list of users who recently followed you.

Threads previously listed your recent followers in its “all” tab on the activity page, so this isn’t that big of a change — it just makes your new followers easier to find. There are also two other filters for “quotes” and “reposts,” letting you filter recent activity by who reposted or quoted your thread.

Additionally, Threads is rolling out translations, which should come in handy if you follow people from different countries. While I’m not seeing the option...

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This $49.99 wired Xbox controller has sticks that won’t drift

It’s a basic-looking Xbox controller with a basic-ass name, but what’s on the inside makes it unique. | Image: GameSir

Stick drift can plague any controller still using wear-and-tear-prone potentiometers, and unfortunately for us, that includes all current first-party gamepads from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. However, after years of notoriously drift-prone Joy-Cons, third-party accessory makers like 8BitDo and GuliKit have been slowly stepping up to offer alternatives that utilize drift-free Hall effect sensors. The latest is the GameSir G7 SE, the first licensed Xbox controller with Hall effect sticks.

GameSir’s G7 SE is a new model based on the G7 it released earlier this year, which is a solid gamepad I gave a small nod in our Xbox controller buying guide. Like the standard G7, the SE is a wired-only controller for Xbox Series X / S and PC with a...

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OnePlus 12 leaks show a bigger battery and faster charging

The OnePlus 11 5G. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Specs for the OnePlus 12 have leaked, showing some key incremental changes including faster charging and a bigger battery but with a design that’s not a lot different from the OnePlus 11 5G, reported Smartprixin collaboration with prominent leaker OnLeaks.

According to Smartprix, the phone is getting a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, a 5,400mAh battery, and a 64-megapixel telephoto camera, all upgrades from the OnePlus 11 5G. The battery capacity is a slight boost over the OnePlus 11’s 5,000mAh battery, as is the faster 100-watt wired charging. Smartprix says OnePlus is reintroducing 50-watt wireless charging, too, which fans of the phones will likely welcome back after the company dropped wireless charging entirely with the 11 5G.

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The NYPD is testing drones that broadcast public safety warnings during emergencies

The NYPD conducted its test on Sunday following weeks of heavy rain and flooding across the city. | Photo by James Carbone / Newsday RM via Getty Images

The New York City Police Department is testing new drones that are designed to transmit audio messages to the public, such as announcements warning of dangerous weather or nearby emergencies. On Sunday, NYC’s emergency notification system announced on Twitter that the NYPD would be “conducting a test of remote-piloted public messaging capabilities” that day, following several weeks of heavy rain and rare flash flood warnings impacting the city.

A police spokesperson later confirmed to AM New Yorkthat these tests took place at Hook Creek Park in Queens, ahead of further downpours expected to hit the city this week, but refused to share the results of its test with the publication. One example of how these audio drones may be utilized is...

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Elon Musk says Twitter is working on a feature that will let you publish articles

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter is working on a feature that will let you publish articles on the platform, according to owner Elon Musk. The feature will “allow users to post very long, complex articles with mixed media,” Musk said in a reply to a user tweeting about the in-development tool, which is apparently now called “Articles” instead of “Notes.” “You could publish a book if you want.”

The feature will further expand the ways you can write on the platform, which, under Musk’s ownership, is starting to move beyond its microblogging roots. Twitter Blue subscribers can already publish tweets with 10,000 characters, which is far above the 280-character limit imposed on non-Blue subscribers. Whenever the articles feature launches, it sounds like it will let...

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Mobileye’s latest car tech reads road signs to better pester you about speed

Mobileye’s system can detect illustrated signs as well as regular speed limit signs. | Image: Mobileye

Driverless car tech developer Mobileye has a new vision-only system designed for one job: figure out the proper speed limit. The company’s new product is a type of Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) solution that not only automatically reads numbers on speed signs but can also decipher illustrated signs like ones that show children at play — communicating proper speed adjustments to vehicles accordingly.

Mobileye’s new ISA system is certified by 27 EU countries, plus Israel, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey. It comes as the EU is launching new General Safety Regulation (GSR) standards that call for all new vehicles to include live speed limit sensors.

Many cars on the road today can tell you the current speed limit on your instrument cluster...

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Bing, Bard, and ChatGPT: How AI is rewriting the internet

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge

How we use the internet is changing fast thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.

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The New York Times is shutting down its math-based puzzle game

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

The New York Times is shutting down Digits, the math-based puzzle game it launched in beta in April. If you visit the page for the game, you’ll see a message that says “This game is going away on August 8th.” If you click into the game, you’ll see a message as well.

In Digits, the goal is to add, subtract, multiply, or divide six numbers to try and total a certain goal number. If you get the exact number, you get three stars, but you can get one or two stars depending on how close to the number you are.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

It was a fun concept, but it seems the game didn’t get the traction it needed to turn into a full-fledged NYT Games offering. “We always approached our experiment with Digits as a...

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Meta is giving away its AI tech to try to beat ChatGPT

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Meta announced it’s open-sourcing its large language model LLaMA 2, making it free for commercial and research use and going head-to-head with OpenAI’s free-to-use GPT-4, which powers tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing.

Meta announced the move as part of Microsoft’s Inspire event, noting its support for Azure and Windows and a “growing” partnership between the two companies. At the same time, Microsoft revealed more details about the AI tools built into its 360 platform and how much those will cost. Qualcomm also announced it is working with Meta to bring LLaMa to laptops, phones, and headsets starting from 2024 onward for AI-powered apps that work without relying on cloud services.

Image: Meta

Meta’s press...

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Five reasons Threads could still go the distance

Illustration: The Verge

This is Platformer_, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer._ Sign up here.

I.

On July 5th, Meta released Threads into the world. Its arrival came after months of anticipation, but ultimately a bit earlier than Meta had planned. Elon Musk’s characteristically self-defeating move to limit free users to viewing a small number of tweets each day had given Meta an unusually opportune moment to strike, and it seized the moment.

The outsized success that followed — Threads was the fastest app to hit 100 million downloads, and later blew past 150 million — came as a surprise to almost everyone involved. That includes the app’s makers at Meta, who hadn’t built a homegrown hit this big...

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Every smart home device that works with Matter

The Verge

All the Matter-compatible devices you can buy now, plus what’s coming soon to the new Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung-backed smart home standard.

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Microsoft’s AI-powered Copilot is coming to Microsoft Teams phone and chat

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft Teams users will be able to get access to a new AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot feature during calls and inside chat messages. Microsoft is announcing an expansion of Copilot into the calls interface of Teams and in regular chats, beyond the meeting experience it outlined earlier this year. It’s all part of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft put a steep price point on today.

Copilot for Teams phone calls will add a generative AI experience for real-time summarization or the ability to generate dates, names, and key points during calls. I can imagine this will be super useful for salespeople who have to deal with multiple clients and track key dates and numbers that are being discussed on these types of calls.

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Microsoft puts a steep price on Copilot, its AI-powered future of Office documents

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is putting a price on the AI-powered future of Office documents, and it’s a steep one for businesses looking to adopt Microsoft’s latest technology. Microsoft 365 Copilot will be available for $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers.

That’s a big premium over the cost of the existing Microsoft 365 plans right now. Microsoft charges businesses $36 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, which includes access to Office apps, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and many other productivity features. A $30 premium for access to Microsoft 365 Copilot will nearly double the cost for businesses subscribed to E3 that want these AI-powered features. For Microsoft 365 Business Standard,...

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Microsoft’s new Bing Chat Enterprise offers better privacy for businesses

“Your personal and company data are protected in this chat” | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered chat tool that’s designed to offer a higher level of data protection for businesses with privacy and security concerns about generative AI tools. Bing Chat Enterprise is launching in preview today and will be included in select Microsoft 365 plans at no additional cost. It’s accessible “wherever Bing Chat is supported,” according to Microsoft’s press release, which includes Bing.com / chat and the Microsoft Edge sidebar.

The launch of Bing Chat Enterprise comes as multiple companies — including Apple, Samsung, and various Wall Street banks — have restricted their employees’ use of generative AI tools. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example, explicitly states that prompts used to generate responses are...

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Amazon’s refurbished Smart Thermostat is $40 and can help lower your energy bills

The Amazon Smart Thermostat offers a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you’re embedded in Amazon’s ecosystem. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Amazon Prime Day brought some incredible deals on Amazon devices that have sadly since disappeared. If you don’t mind buying a refurbished device, you can still save a lot of money on some of Amazon’s best gadgets, ranging from smart displays to smart speakers. However, one of the best and most relevant deals — given how hot it is in much of the US — is on the Amazon Smart Thermostat. Right now, Amazon is selling it refurbished for $39.99 from Amazon. That is $15 cheaper than the Prime Day discount we saw on the new model, as well as $40 less than the cost of the smart thermostat new at its full retail price.

Amazon’s Smart Thermostat offers a lot of value for your money. Not only can it help reduce your energy consumption and (as a...

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Rocket Lab successfully retrieves its reusable rocket after splashdown

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket took off from New Zealand. | Image: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab successfully retrieved the first stage of its Electron rocket during its “Baby Come Back” mission on Monday — but it didn’t catch it with a helicopter this time around. When Electron lifted off from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula on Monday, its first stage separated about two and a half minutes later and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean, where Rocket Lab’s team recovered the reusable booster.

After separation, the booster began its descent toward Earth at over 9,000kmph (5,592mph), reaching a temperature of 2,400 degrees Celsius (4,352 degrees Fahrenheit) along the way. The rocket deployed its main parachute about eight minutes after liftoff, allowing it to safely splash down into the ocean, where Rocket Lab brought it onto...

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Framework Laptop 16: our exclusive hands-on

Four layers of modular components — including a swappable discrete GPU — right at your fingertips.

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Today I learned about these fantastic DIY mods that make modern gamepads one-handed

The mods put the gamepad’s controls within reach of one hand. | Image: Akaki Kuumeri

If you need to use a modern games controller with just one hand rather than two, then why not give Akaki Kuumeri’s 3D-printed mods a try? We’ve written about the YouTuber’s previous projects to add joysticks and throttles to controllers, but more recently, Kuumeri has created a range of one-handed controller mods, which we spotted via this Reddit post and could be helpful if you or someone you know has accessibility needs that prevent them from using both hands with a traditionally two-handed gamepad.

Kuumeri’s videos about the mods date back to early 2022. At the time, Microsoft was the only major console manufacturer to have announced a first-party accessibility controller. “Microsoft has the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and Copilot mode,...

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Leviton updates some smart switches with Matter

Four Leviton Wi-Fi products from the Decora Smart line are getting Matter today. They look... refreshingly nondescript! | Image: Leviton

Leviton has added Matter support to four of its Decora smart lighting products: a switch, a dimmer, a smart plug, and a plug-in dimmer. All are from the Decora Smart Wi-Fi 2nd Gen product line; the company says more devices from that line will get Matter support in the future.

Here are the specific products that now work with Matter:

• D215S Smart Switch (600W, 15A)
• D26HD Smart Dimmer (600W, 15A)
• D215P smart plug
• D23LP Mini Plug-in Dimmer

Both the in-wall switch and dimmer require neutral wires but support single-pole or three-way installation. Leviton’s no-neutral switches and dimmers aren’t included in this wave of upgrades.

The D23LP does seem to be the first dimmable Matter smart plug

These aren’t the first or the cheapest Matter...

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Neckbuds never die

The happy face of a man who’ll never lose a single expensive earbud. | Image: Beyerdynamic

True wireless earbuds may rule the roost when it comes to portable listening, but Beyerdynamic hasn’t forgotten about the other kind of wireless earbuds. Its new Blue Byrd ANC in-ear headphones are neckbuds, aka neckband earbuds, aka in-ear headphones with a wire running between your ears that are still technically “wireless” because there’s nothing physically connecting them to your phone.

The new Blue Byrd in-ear headphones are an upgraded version of the second-generation model from 2021, now with support for active noise cancellation and a transparency mode. Turning on ANC drops the battery life from 14 hours to a bit over eight, and charging is still handled over USB-C, where a 10-minute charge gets you two hours of listening.

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