Reddit is closing r/Place ‘until we meet again’

Here’s Reddit’s final version of the 2023 canvas before it allowed users to white it out. | Image: Reddit

Reddit no longer allows posts or comments on the r/Place subreddit, according to a post from a Reddit admin (employee). The company hosted the third iteration of the collaborative art project, which let users place individual pixels on a giant canvas, over the course of a few days in July.

While you can’t post or comment in the subreddit, you can still view posts and comments. A pinned post at the top of the subreddit, for example, features images of the final canvas before users posted white pixels to essentially erase everything. That post also links to a time lapse where you can see users banding together to write a very large message protesting CEO Steve Huffman in the waning moments of the r/Place project.

Reddit first introduced...

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What to do when you need to send a fax

If I asked you the last time you actually had to fax something to someone, odds are you’d stare at me as if I was asking about the last time you hired a horse and buggy. But anyone who has dealt extensively with insurance or medical facilities or with certain legal organizations will know that faxing has not gone away.

So let’s say you suddenly find that you need to fax a copy of a document to a company — what do you do? You can find the nearest office supply store, many of which offer faxing services. Or you can create a PDF of your document — assuming it isn’t already a digital file — and send it via an online faxing service.

There are a number of sites out there that will help you send and / or receive faxes online — some quick,...

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Roblox on Quest VR headsets has gotten ‘well over’ 1 million downloads

Illustration: The Verge

Roblox just launched in open beta on Meta’s Quest VR headsets last week, and it’s already been downloaded “well over” 1 million times, according to Roblox CEO David Baszucki. That number suggests that the app could potentially be a very popular one for VR devices; according to a February report from The Verge’s Alex Heath, Meta has sold nearly 20 million headsets, so it appears that a good number of those Quest owners are dabbling with Roblox.

That said, Roblox and Meta have been positioning this open beta as a way for developers to test and optimize their experiences for Quest headsets, and for good reason: I’ve tried a few Roblox experiences on a Quest 2 and run into a handful of issues. But I imagine that many of the most popular R...

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Exclusive: the Sonos Move 2 is coming in September with stereo sound and 24-hour battery life

The Sonos Move 2, seen here, will be available in a new green color.

Sonos’ next portable speaker is near — even if it’s going to miss the peak of the outdoor summer season. I’ve learned that the Move 2 will be released around the end of September. Yes, it’s called the Move 2 and not Move (Gen 2). The device will have a similar design to the first-generation model. And it’s still a hefty sucker at over six pounds. But Sonos has made substantial improvements to audio performance, battery life, connectivity, the charging base station, and more. The image above, obtained from sources familiar with Sonos’ plans, is your first look at the Move 2.

The biggest upgrade for listeners is that the Move 2 will switch from mono output to true stereo playback thanks to the inclusion of dual angled tweeters; the...

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Latest Chrome updates make Google Search more comprehensive and downloads tidier

The Chrome downloads tray is moving to the address bar after years of clogging up browsing windows. | Image: The Verge

Google is rolling out some updates to its Chrome web browser that should make it easier to quickly find the information you need, whether you’re downloading a bunch of files or just browsing the web.

The most notable change to Google Search, perhaps, is that Chrome for Android now shows trending Google searches directly within the address bar. iOS users will be able to access this feature sometime “later this year.”

Image: Google

Trending searches (seen center) are great for staying updated about current events. Bringing the feature to mobile makes sense for those frequently on the move.

Relevant search suggestions will also now appear in the address bar for Chrome mobile users on iOS and Android across...

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Google’s AI search is getting more video and better links

Illustration: The Verge

Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience is getting a big new feature: images and video. If you’ve enabled the AI-based SGE feature in Search Labs, you’ll now start to see more multimedia in the colorful summary box at the top of your search results. Google’s also working on making that summary box appear faster and adding more context to the links it puts in the box.

SGE may still be in the “experiment” phase, but it’s very clearly the future of Google Search. “It really gives us a chance to, now, not always be constrained in the way search was working before,” CEO Sundar Pichai said on Alphabet’s most recent earnings call. “It allows us to think outside the box.” He then said that “over time, this will just be how search...

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Kenya suspends Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning crypto project

Image: Worldcoin via Twitter

Kenya is pumping the brakes on Worldcoin — the eyeball-scanning crypto project launched by OpenAI founder Sam Altman. The Kenyan government has ordered Worldcoin to stop collecting data in the country while it reviews the project for potential privacy and security risks, as reported earlier by Reuters.

Worldcoin is a project that uses your iris to create a unique digital identity, which you can then link to digital currencies managed through the company’s World App. The project launched last week and has had people lining up to get their eyeballs scanned by the shiny, silver orbs Worldcoin has set up in major cities around the globe.

What a launch week. Thank you for all of your support & feedback. Looking forward to sharing community...

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Walmart shoppers will have more ads to check while they check out

Fewer clerks, more ads. | Image: Walmart

Walmart is planning to plaster advertisements on its in-store self-checkout screens, TV demo walls, and other surfaces throughout its stores, as reported by CNBC.

“We can deliver Super Bowl-sized audiences every week,” Ryan Mayward, Walmart’s senior VP of retail media sales for Walmart Connect, the company’s ads division, tells CNBC. Walmart operates 4,684 stores in the US, not including its Sam’s Club warehouses and international locations. The company currently serves 240 million weekly customers in its stores worldwide.

Walmart plans to get ads onto approximately 170,000 screens throughout its stores and will also pump 30-second radio advertisements from store ceilings. Businesses interested in capturing audiences at the retailer’s...

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Nintendo is bringing the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon back online

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo is bringing back online multiplayer for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon on the Wii U on August 3rd after fixing an issue, according to a post on Nintendo’s UK support site.

The two games have been offline since March after Nintendo took them offline to fix a “vulnerability related to online play.” While Nintendo hasn’t given details about the vulnerability, a data miner reported that the issue was likely one that could let a bad actor take over a console by connecting to it online.

To play the two games online again, you’ll need to download a new update. However, Nintendo cautions that if more issues pop up, it may have to discontinue online multiplayer for Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon “at short notice.” Fingers crossed that doesn’t...

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Discord on Xbox will soon let you stream your gameplay to friends

Stream from Xbox to Discord. | Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is improving its Xbox and Discord integration with a new streaming gameplay feature. Xbox owners will soon be able to stream their gameplay from a console to Discord users, allowing friends to watch them play games or even offer advice for solving challenges or boss battles.

The new feature is starting to roll out to Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha rings of testing today and should be available to all Xbox owners in the coming months. Much like the existing Discord integration on Xbox, it’s all built into the Parties & Chats section of the dashboard. A new “stream your game” option will appear once you’re connected to a Discord server, with settings to customize the stream.

Unfortunately, this is only a one-way...

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Microsoft starts testing its Xbox Live Gold replacement

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is starting to test Xbox Game Pass Core, its replacement for Xbox Live Gold. Xbox testers in the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings will be able to preview Xbox Game Pass Core this week, provided they’re existing Xbox Live Gold members.

The full Xbox Game Pass Core subscription will include the usual Xbox online console multiplayer support, deals and discounts, and a new small catalog of more than 25 games. Xbox Insiders will only get access to Psychonauts 2, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, State of Decay 2, and Doom Eternal initially this week as part of the Game Pass Core library testing.

“The full library will become accessible at launch on September 14,” explains Lily Wang, a senior product manager at Xbox. “You will also start...

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Roborock’s S7 Plus robot vacuum / mop hybrid is a whopping $350 off

Roborock’s last-gen S7 Plus is on sale for $599.99 with its charging dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Life is short, so why waste your time vacuuming up your cat’s hair balls? If you’re looking for a faster and more efficient way to get your cleaning out of the way, Amazon is currently selling Roborock’s S7 Plus robot vacuum with an auto-empty dock for just $599.99 ($350 off). That’s a new all-time low, one that Walmart is nearly matching.

The S7 Plus is a handy little gadget that’ll vacuum your carpet and scrub your hardwood floors impressively well. In fact, it was one of our favorite robovacs before the Roborock S8 took its place earlier this year. It doesn’t have the new model’s AI obstacle avoidance, sure, but it’s still outfitted with features designed to make cleaning both easier and faster. This includes the ability to clean...

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Amazon makes Fresh deliveries available to non-Prime customers in grocery overhaul

Image: Amazon

Amazon is now letting non-Prime members order grocery deliveries from its Fresh stores, according to Bloomberg’s interview with Amazon grocery head Tony Hoggett. Starting today, customers in major US cities, like Boston, Dallas, and San Francisco, can place online orders from Amazon Fresh stores and warehouses.

While non-Prime grocery delivery is only available in a handful of cities in the US for now, Bloomberg reports that Amazon plans on rolling out the initiative across the country by the end of this year. Before this change, Amazon only let those who pay for its $139 per year Prime membership order groceries online.

Non-Prime users still won’t have some of the same benefits as Prime subscribers, however. According to Bloomberg,...

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Harley Quinn season 4 would like to remind you who the fourth pillar of DC’s universe is

Harley Quinn doing the Batman thing. | Image: Warner Bros. Animation / Max

Spoiler: it’s Harley.

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Meta’s AI music generator could be the new synthesizer — or just muzak

Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta released a new open-source AI model called AudioCraft, which lets users create music and sounds entirely through generative AI.

It consists of three AI models, all tackling different areas of sound generation. MusicGen takes text inputs to generate music. This model was trained on “20,000 hours of music owned by Meta or licensed specifically for this purpose.” AudioGen creates audio from written prompts, simulating barking dogs or footsteps, and was trained on public sound effects. An improved version of Meta’s EnCodec decoder lets users create sounds with fewer artifacts — which is what happens when you manipulate audio too much.

The company let the media listen to some sample audio made with AudioCraft. The generated noise of...

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China proposes severe rules for internet-addicted minors

The proposed rules include a tiered system that imposes different restrictions for each age group. | Photo by Hugo Hu / Getty Images

Chinese minors are facing harsh restrictions on mobile phone and internet usage as part of the country’s latest bid to curb perceived internet addiction. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published draft regulations on Wednesday that would introduce a “minor mode” (according to a machine translation) on devices like smartphones, tablets, and watches that will limit access to content and device usage based on the child’s age.

For example, teens between the ages of 16 and 18 will be restricted to two hours of mobile usage each day under the draft regulations. All devices running “minor mode” — regardless of the child’s age — will be prohibited from accessing the internet between 10PM and 6AM. Some of these restrictions can be...

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Keychron’s Lemokey L3 is a premium keyboard aimed squarely at gamers

The Lemokey L3 is the first keyboard from Keychron’s new gaming subbrand. | Image: Keychron

Keychron is launching a new keyboard on Kickstarter today that’s notable for being the first under its new gaming-focused Lemokey subbrand. The Lemokey L3 will be available via the Kickstarter running this month, and Keychron expects it to ship later this year. Prices start at $209 for a fully assembled model, or $189 for a barebones model without switches or keycaps.

Fundamentally, the Lemokey L3 is a modified version of Keychron’s existing Q3 Pro, a tenkeyless wireless keyboard equipped with a volume dial and four programmable macro buttons. What distinguishes the Lemokey L3, aside from its slightly different look, is the inclusion of a 2.4GHz USB dongle, which allows the keyboard to be used wirelessly with a 1,000Hz polling rate. In...

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The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen software beats Motorola’s in every way but one

This year’s flip phones come with much bigger cover screens, but they’re not exactly created equal.

I’m a cover screen convert.

Our first flip-style phones with big cover screens have arrived in the US (pipe down, everyone in China and Europe who has options). The Motorola Razr Plus was the phone that converted me to a cover screen believer — I found it useful not just for checking quick info but also running a handful of full apps I use for simple tasks.

So I’ve been especially eager to check out Samsung’s take on a big cover screen on the Z Flip 5. I’m still putting the phone through its paces, but even after a few days with the Flip 5, I’m ready to declare it the cover screen winner — except when it comes to running full-on apps.

From a hardware perspective, the Razr Plus’ screen is nicer. It’s a smooth 144Hz panel with 413ppi,...

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How Elon Musk took over Tesla using money, strong-arm tactics, and his own popularity

Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk at the launch of the Tesla Roadster in 2008. | Image: Getty

The story of Tesla and Elon Musk can be traced back to the early 2000s, when Musk was ousted as CEO of his first company, PayPal. That incident taught Musk a crucial lesson about the importance of being in control, even when it wasn’t your own company.

In episode two of Land of the Giants: The Tesla Shock Wave, we talk to Tesla’s original co-founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, as well as several of the company’s earliest employees, to tell what is essentially an origin of the electric automaker — but also of Musk himself. We learn how Musk was brought on as a crucial early investor but soon used his clout, money, and even a few strong-arm tactics to oust Eberhard and Tarpenning and eventually install himself as CEO of Tesla.

...

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Instagram is working on labels for AI generated content

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Instagram appears to be working on new notices that would identify when AI has played a role in creating content on its platform.

App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who frequently discovers new Instagram features before they’re officially announced or released, has posted a screenshot of a page in the Instagram app that reads “the creator or Meta said that this content was created or edited with AI.” The specific notice notes that in this case it’s an image that’s been “generated by Meta AI,” before giving a brief description of what generative AI is, and how to identify posts that use AI.

#Instagram is working to label the contents created or modified by #AI in order to be identified more easily pic.twitter.com/bHvvYuDpQr

—...

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Twitter Blue subscribers can now hide their blue checks

Image: The Verge

Twitter Blue, which Elon Musk is currently rebranding to X Blue, now includes the option to hide the notorious blue checkmark. Twitter Blue subscribers recently started noticing the “hide your blue checkmark” option on the web and in mobile apps, offering the ability to hide that they’re paying for Twitter and avoid memes about how “this mf paid for twitter.”

“The checkmark will be hidden on your profile and posts,” notes a Twitter support article. “The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription. Some features may not be available while your checkmark is hidden.”

Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge

The new hide blue checkmark option.

Twitter...

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TweetDeck’s new ‘XPro’ branding is starting to show up

Like other parts of the X rebrand, there’s still some work to be done. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

TweetDeck’s new name is officially here: XPro. If you visit this URL for TweetDeck while logged out, you should see “XPro” at the top of the page (via 9to5Google). Elon Musk, the owner of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, announced the XPro name last week.

Like much of Twitter’s rebranding to X, there are still a lot of vestiges of the old brand on the page. The image on the landing page still prominently features the Twitter bird logo, and a tagline on the page reads “a powerful, real-time tool for people who live on Twitter.”

However, there are a handful of additional XPro mentions on the page as well, including a line asking if you might be “looking for the legacy version of XPro?,” a link to “go to legacy XPro” (though that t...

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Microsoft Teams adds spatial audio for more immersive conference calls

Spatial audio is meant to make conference calls sound closer to real-life conversations. | Image: Microsoft

After a few months of testing the feature, Microsoft has widely rolled out spatial audio for its Teams desktop app on Windows and macOS. Similar to what Apple has done with FaceTime, Microsoft’s implementation of spatial audio makes it so that voices of everyone on a call sound like they’re more spread out, with each person having a distinct position based on where they are on screen.

“Teams Spatial Audio aligns the perceived audio location of each participant with their video representation to make it easier for users to track who is speaking, to understand better when multiple speakers are speaking at the same time, and to lower meeting fatigue and cognitive load,” Microsoft’s Hong Sodoma wrote.

But Microsoft has hit a wall when it...

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The incandescent light bulb still isn’t dead — but ‘normal’ ones are now truly banned

An incandescent light bulb, next to an LED bulb. | Photo by The Verge

When you think of a incandescent light bulb, you probably imagine this: a simple droplet of water crafted from opaque white glass, with a giant screw on the bottom, which consumes 40, 60, 75, 100, maybe 150 watts of power to light up a chunk of your home.

As of August 2023, those “normal” lightbulbs are really, truly banned from sale in the United States. You can still install and use those bulbs, but you won’t find them on shelves legally. You’ll find far more efficient LED or fluorescent bulbs instead.

This isn’t like back in 2014 when publications jumped the gun on the light bulb’s obituary — manufacturers and retailers have been on notice for a full year (pdf), and August 2023 is the month the Department of Energy will begin fully...

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Everything we know about Apple’s Vision Pro headset

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Apple announced Vision Pro, its long-rumored virtual and augmented reality headset, at WWDC 2023. Here’s a timeline of all the details that have emerged about the device over the years and what we know so far.

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The entire story of Twitter / X under Elon Musk

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

Forget Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company — Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter.

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is coming to PS4 and Xbox One

Image: EA

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, EA CEO Andrew Wilson announced during the company’s Q1 earnings call on Tuesday. The game launched in April on PS5, Xbox Series X / S, and PC but skipped Sony and Microsoft’s older hardware, so with this new release, people who haven’t upgraded to the newer consoles will eventually be able to check out the game.

However, we don’t know exactly when Jedi: Survivor will be coming to older consoles. Here’s Wilson’s quote about the release: “Thanks to the strength of this legendary franchise and community demand, our development team has committed to bringing this Jedi experience to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.”

Jedi: Survivor is a sequel to 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen...

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are currently $50 off, matching their all-time low.

If you know where to look, there are often some great discounts available on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods toward the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to around $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for nearly a year, we’re seeing their price fall more often, too.

Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.

The best AirPods (second-gen) deals

In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the entry-level model — from $159 to $129. It now only sells the...

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Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl is coming to the Code Conference

Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl. | Image: Warner Music Group

The music industry was reshaped by streaming. So earlier this year, Warner Music Group put a streaming executive in charge.

The company’s new CEO, Robert Kyncl, was most recently the chief business officer of YouTube, where he helped transform the platform into one of the biggest names in creator monetization and streaming music. Before that, he was vice president of content at Netflix, working on partnerships as it entered the streaming era.

Next month, Kyncl will sit down with Vox senior correspondent Peter Kafka to talk all things music and streaming at the Code Conference. Kyncl has said he wants to prioritize artists and partners at WMG, sees music as being “undervalued,” and believes the company’s next steps may involve AI —...

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Facebook and Instagram start blocking news in Canada

Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge

Meta has begun blocking all news content on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, a change it expects all users in the country to see within “the next few weeks.” That’s in response to the country’s Online News Act, which would require tech companies like Meta and Google to negotiate with and pay publishers for their news content.

The blocks don’t just apply to news publishers with accounts on the two platforms but also to links shared by users. If a Canadian person is friends with someone who lives in Kansas and that Kansan shares a link on Facebook to, say, this Verge article, their northerly friend won’t be able to view it.

On Twitter, which is currently rebranding as X, journalists for local Canadian publications IndigiNews and The...

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