How to convert a PDF for your Kindle

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Not that long ago, a friend sent me a preview of a book that she was about to have published and asked me to read it. I was delighted — but unfortunately, the copy she sent was formatted as a PDF. And since I usually read books and other documents using my phone, I knew already that this was a recipe for eyestrain.

I spent a frustrating three days squinting at my screen until somebody reminded me that you can email a PDF to your Amazon account in a way that will convert the file so that it is formatted for easy reading on a Kindle or the Kindle app. I tried it, and it worked like a charm, making the document much easier to read.

If you ever find yourself faced with the same problem, here’s how to convert a PDF so it can be easily read...

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Brain implants could one day restore communication for people with paralysis

Both studies show that it’s possible to decode brain signals into speech at a rate of about 60–70 words per minute. | Image: Stanford

Two separate studies published today in Nature indicate that, in the future, brain-to-computer interfaces (BCI) could help restore communication for people who can’t speak due to severe paralysis. In both studies, researchers used brain implants that could pick up brain signals, which were then translated into sentences on a screen using algorithms. While this isn’t a new concept, the exciting thing is that both research teams were able to do this much faster and more accurately than existing technologies.

In the study from Stanford, researchers implanted electrodes into the brain of a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in two areas associated with speech. The BCI was designed to detect brain activity when the patient was...

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The best budget laptop of 2023

Here are the best cheap Chromebooks and laptops you can buy. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales

You can get a good laptop on a budget; you just have to know which one to pick. Here are what we recommend for those looking to spend anywhere from $300 to $800 on a new laptop for school, work, or play.

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Tornado Cash devs charged with laundering more than $1 billion

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Tornado Cash developers Roman Semenov and Roman Storm have been charged with three conspiracy counts in an indictment unsealed today. Storm has been arrested and Semenov remains at large, according to a statement from the Southern District of New York.

Tornado Cash is a so-called “mixer,” a privacy service meant to obscure the trail of ownership for cryptocurrency that passes through it. The mixer “knowingly violated” US sanctions and “laundered more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds,” according to a statement from US Attorney Damian Williams. “While publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes.”

T...

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BioWare is laying off ‘approximately’ 50 people

Image: BioWare

BioWare is laying off “approximately” 50 people, according to an announcement from the studio’s general manager, Gary McKay.

“In order to meet the needs of our upcoming projects, continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard of quality, and ensure BioWare can continue to thrive in an industry that’s rapidly evolving, we must shift towards a more agile and more focused studio,” McKay wrote. “As part of this transition, we are eliminating approximately 50 roles at BioWare.”

News of the layoffs comes as BioWare is in the midst of development on the next Mass Effect title and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. BioWare announced Dreadwolf back in 2018 (known then only as Dragon Age 4) before going silent for two years. Then, during Gamescom 2020, B...

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Hollywood writers say producers want them to ‘cave’ after the public release of proposals

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images

Hollywood producers are trying to turn up the pressure on striking writers — but writers aren’t biting. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) publicly released its counteroffer to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on Tuesday, which details proposals surrounding AI, residuals, streaming data transparency, and more.

This is the same counteroffer that the Hollywood studios first presented to writers on August 11th, with the AMPTP claiming it “addresses all of the issues the Guild has identified as its highest priorities.” As outlined in the document, the AMPTP proposes higher wages and streaming residuals, along with a requirement of at least two employees in the writers’ room and a guaranteed minimum of 10 weeks...

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Epic’s new program lets developers keep their revenue in exchange for exclusivity

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games will let developers keep 100 percent of their net revenues from the Epic Games Store for six months if they choose to make their games or apps exclusives for that time through its new First Run program, the company announced on Wednesday.

Typically, Epic lets developers keep 88 percent of their revenues, with the company taking a 12 percent cut. For developers who launch a product through First Run, the split will return to 88 / 12 once the six months are up.

Developers who choose to participate in the Epic First Run program will see a few other benefits as well. Epic says First Run games and apps will be presented to Store users with “new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections” and will be featured...

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New Meta Horizon Worlds update lets you easily block and report other users

Image: Meta

Meta’s new Horizon Worlds release will make it easier to block and report other users who aren’t playing nice. The new v124 release for the metaverse social platform lets players quickly access mute, block, and report functions in the user pause menu. To access the safety controls, users can hover over another person’s nameplate while pausing. A shortcut will appear to mute, block, or report them.

Meta is also adding new tutorials inside of the safety settings to teach users how to use the platform’s safety controls, including setting personal boundaries, controlling volume, changing voice modes, muting, and even polling with others to remove someone. Entering pause also now lets users more easily access sound and profile settings.

The...

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Samsung’s 2020 smart TVs are getting cloud gaming apps soon

Samsung’s gaming hub. | Image: Samsung

Samsung says it’s planning to bring cloud gaming apps to its 2020 smart TVs later this year. Samsung made the announcement during a Gamescom event earlier today, but it’s not yet clear which 2020 smart TV models will be updated with cloud gaming apps, nor an exact release date outside of “later this year.”

“Today, we are thrilled to announce that we will expand cloud gaming apps to our 2020 model-year TVs later this year, giving tens of millions of players access to their favorite games and services,” said Mike Lucero, head of product for gaming at Samsung.

Samsung originally launched its gaming TV hub for its 2022 smart TVs and monitors last year with built-in cloud gaming apps before bringing separate game streaming apps to its 2021...

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Spotify will let podcasters customize their show page to bring in new listeners

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Spotify said its “next phase” of podcasting would be all about creators — and today, the company is starting to deliver. The audio giant is announcing a wave of new creator-focused updates that will let podcasters customize their show page and get deeper analytics about who’s tuning in.

Creators will have more options to customize their podcast page, including the ability to highlight specific episodes, cross-promote other podcasts, and display promotional banners for their paid content. Spotify for Podcasters will also let creators view trending data on individual episodes and reveal the specific sources of impressions. Spotify’s aim appears to be twofold with these new updates: creators will have more control over how they appear to...

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The best laptops for video editing

We’ve tested and reviewed every laptop on this list ourselves. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Here are the best laptops for video editing of every shape, size, and price point.

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Somebody already unboxed the Quest 3

Image: @ZGFTECH via X

Somebody has already unboxed a VR headset that is almost certainly Meta’s Quest 3, even though the device isn’t supposed to launch until sometime in the fall.

You can see a video of the unboxing in this video on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The device comes in a brown box, and you can see the person who is filming the unboxing pull out the headset and the two Touch Plus controllers. Everything looks exactly like what Meta showed off when it announced the headset in June.

Quest 3 leaked early again #metaquest #Quest3 pic.twitter.com/KfjXx5Qxi7

— VR Panda. Alex From CHN (@ZGFTECH) August 23, 2023

It’s not exactly shocking that Meta may have already prepped final boxes for the device. A new VR headset that appears to be...

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The latest iPad Air is once again matching its all-time low price

Unlike the latest iPad, the 2022 iPad Air works with the second-gen Apple Pencil and is only $50 more. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

It’s anybody’s guess whether or not Apple will release a new iPad during its rumored September iPhone 15 event, but if you need one now, the latest iPad Airhas thankfully returned to its all-time low price. You can currently buy the Wi-Fi-enabled iPad Air with 64GB of storage for $499.99 ($100 off) at Best Buy in all five shades. The tablet’s also on sale over at Amazon, although it’s only in stock in a few colorways.

Considering the latest 10th-gen iPad sells for just $50 less, the iPad Air offers a lot of value for your money. We think it’s the best iPad for most people for many reasons, like the fact that the Air works with the second-gen Apple Pencil, unlike that 10th-gen iPad. At the same time, it comes equipped with a faster...

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NFL Sunday Ticket has arrived on the Google TV homescreen

Image: Google

Google spent big money to score the rights for NFL Sunday Ticket and bring the popular service to YouTube and YouTube TV this season. So it makes complete sense that you’re about to start seeing Sunday Ticket plastered all over the company’s major platforms as Google looks to maximize that investment and make sure everyone is keenly aware of Sunday Ticket’s new home and expanding features.

If you have a recent Chromecast or a TV in your living room that runs Google TV — think Sony, TCL, Hisense, and others — that heavy promotion will be starting as early as today. Sunday Ticket will be getting prominent placement on the Google TV homescreen.

“Starting this football season, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV will be fully...

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Peloton’s business still haunted by recalls

Peloton said in its Q4 2023 earnings call that a recent bike seat recall was costlier than expected. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

In its latest earnings call, Peloton reported a net loss of $242 million for the quarter. It also lost 29,000 subscribers from last quarter and had a higher-than-anticipated monthly churn of 1.4 percent. While some of that was attributed to summer doldrums, Peloton noted that costs for a recent bike seat post-recall “substantially exceeded” initial expectations to the tune of $40 million. An estimated 15 to 20 thousand members also chose to pause their subscriptions ahead of receiving replacement seats.

But speaking of recalled products, Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy said in its quarterly shareholder letter that the company plans to resume US presales of the Tread Plus this holiday season for a retail price of around $6,000. (For context,...

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How to watch the first Republican presidential debate

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The first GOP primary debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election is taking place tonight in Milwaukee. Most of the Republican Party’s top candidates will be onstage vying to overtake Donald Trump’s top polling position while the former president is reportedly skipping the event.

We won’t know what questions will be thrown at the candidates until they’re asked, but The Verge will be watching for any mention of how the nomination contenders set themselves apart on major tech issues, like banning TikTok, data privacy, and breaking up Big Tech.

How do I watch tonight’s Republican debate?

Previous debates have been simulcast across a variety of major networks and cable channels, but Wednesday’s event will be exclusively aired on Fox News,...

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WhatsApp will let you set up group chats without having to come up with a name

Illustration: The Verge

WhatsApp will soon let users create new group chats without having to name them, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced. Unnamed groups will instead be given an auto-generated name based on their participants. In a screenshot shared by Zuckerberg, we can see one such group titled “Rocco & Li-Chen.”

Although it’s a minor feature, not having to name each and every group chat should be helpful for those times when you’re sending group messages for one-off events. I’m personally in a dozen or so WhatsApp groups that are just titled “Drinks?” which were set up for a one-off event and were never intended to be an ongoing group chat. Being able to see a list of participants in the chat list rather than a nondescript group chat title feels like...

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Teen Lapsus$ member was behind the leaked GTA 6 footage, London jury finds

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A London jury has found that a teenage member of the Lapsus$ hacking group carried out the high-profile cyberattacks on Rockstar Games, Uber, and Nvidia, according to a report from the BBC. The Southwark Crown Court jury found 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj guilty on 12 counts, including blackmail, fraud, and several violations of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act.

Kurtaj was arrested several times within the past two years but continued to carry out cyberattacks on several companies, such as Nvidia, by using social engineering and SIM-swapping techniques. London police arrested Kurtaj for the final time in September 2022 after he violated bail conditions that banned him from using the internet.

According to the BBC, prosecutors told the court that...

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This batarang houses Qualcomm’s next big bet on gaming

Two years ago, we told you how Qualcomm was eying the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, building a reference design that eventually morphed into the Razer Edge. And while Razer’s handheld was eventually hamstrung by truly ridiculous pricing, Qualcomm is now building three new chips to replace the previous one.

Today, the company’s announcing the “Snapdragon G Series handheld gaming portfolio” with three distinct tiers: a Snapdragon G1 for game-streaming handhelds with over 10 hours of battery life on Wi-Fi, a Snapdragon G2 for “full-featured mobile and cloud gaming” with 5G, and the Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 to start chasing PC gaming handhelds on performance.

Image: Qualcomm

The G1 tier is Wi-Fi 5, G2 adds Wi-Fi 6 and...

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A visit to the one-man computer factory

The Mythic I is a computer, but it’s nothing like your computer.

Computers used to be made out of wood, endlessly customizable, and totally personal. Now they’re all metal rectangles. Can one guy in his LA house help bring the old way back?

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Dark Brandon haunts the Fox News website on GOP debate day

Image: Rob Flaherty, Biden 2024 deputy campaign manager

There’s no escaping him. “Dark Brandon,” Joe Biden’s undying alter ego, has appeared on everything from baseball caps to crop tops. Now, his menacing red eyes are staring out from the FoxNews.com homepage — where the first GOP presidential debate is set to stream later tonight.

Throughout the entire day, Biden’s reelection team will be running an ad campaign featuring the meme on the Fox News website. The ads call attention to Biden’s campaign promises to protect abortion rights, lower the cost of prescription drugs, and defend social security, as first reported by People magazineWednesday.

“Tax cuts for yacht owners?” one ad reads. “Good luck with that, champ.”

There he is. The “Dark Brandon” meme is being pushed...

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Sony’s PlayStation wireless earbuds will cost a whopping $199.99

Image: Sony

In addition to announcing the price of its upcoming PlayStation Portal remote gaming gadget, Sony also shared new details today on the PlayStation-branded wireless earbuds that it first revealed several months ago. They’re officially called the Pulse Explore and will be priced at $199.99, though the company isn’t yet sharing exactly when they’ll be available (or even up for preorder). That’s as much as the Portal device itself and substantially more than any of Microsoft’s first-party Xbox audio peripherals.

The Pulse Explore buds come at a premium, but Sony is positioning them as a unique offering for their combination of lossless audio quality and low-latency performance. Sony will also be releasing a new Pulse Elite headset for...

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Sony’s portable PlayStation Portal launches later this year for $199.99

PlayStation Portal. | Image: Sony

Sony is officially launching its portable PlayStation later this year, the PlayStation Portal remote player. The handheld device will stream PS5 games over Wi-Fi and features an eight-inch LCD screen running at 1080p resolution at 60fps. Sony says the PlayStation Portal will be available later this year priced at $199.99.

“PlayStation Portal will connect remotely to your PS5 over Wi-Fi, so you’ll be able to swiftly jump from playing on your PS5 to your PlayStation Portal,” says Hideaki Nishino, senior vice president of platform experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment. “PlayStation Portal can play supported games that are installed on your PS5 console and use the Dualsense controller.”

The PlayStation Portal features prominent...

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Hands-on: the HyperX Cloud III Wireless makes a great headset even better

Cloud III Wireless versus Cloud II Wireless. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

My colleague Cameron Faulkner called the HyperX Cloud II Wireless “among the most comfortable headsets I’ve worn.” Today, HP is announcing its successor — the Cloud III Wireless — and I’m happy to say it’s better in most every way.

When I heard the new Cloud III Wireless would offer quadruple the battery life at 120 hours versus 30 hours, I figured there had to be a catch.

It’s rare that a product just... gets better

But after hours comparing the Cloud II and Cloud III side by side and back to back, I haven’t heard, seen, or felt one yet! The new PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch headset does cost $20 more, weighs an extra ounce, and not everyone will appreciate the additional padding — but it’s got the same balanced, punchy sound...

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India’s Chandrayaan-3 probe successfully lands on the lunar south pole

India is now the first nation to successfully achieve a soft landing near the Moon’s southern pole. | Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images

India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has made space travel history today by successfully achieving a soft landing near the south pole of Earth’s Moon, just days after Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft crashed while trying to land in the same region. India is now the fourth nation to achieve a soft Moon landing, and the first to have successfully touched down on the lunar south pole — a little-explored area of the Moon that’s believed to contain water ice.

Three other nations — the US, China, and the former Soviet Union — have all previously achieved a soft landing near the Moon’s equator, a safer region with (comparatively) amiable temperatures and terrain, and reliable sunlight to recharge solar-powered instruments.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
'India ...

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The best entertainment of 2023

The Boy and the Heron. | Image: Studio Ghibli

Right now, we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to entertainment. TV shows, movies, and games all come out at such a fast and furious pace that it’s hard to keep up. Not all of them are worth your time, of course — which is where we come in.

Our team spends a lot of time immersed in the various realms of pop culture so that we can handpick our favorites for you. That could mean a hot new indie game you might’ve otherwise missed or the streaming series that will become your new obsession. Either way, if you’re finding it hard to sort through the flood, this is the place to find a curated selection of the best stuff.

And like last year, this page will be updated regularly throughout the year — so make sure to check back in...

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The false promises of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving

Image: Owen Grove / The Verge

Back in 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stunned the automotive world by announcing that, henceforth, all of his company’s vehicles would be shipped with the hardware necessary for “full self-driving.” You will be able to nap in your car while it drives you to work, he promised. It will even be able to drive cross-country with no one inside the vehicle.

But while Musk would eventually ship an advanced driver-assist system that he called Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta, the idea that any Tesla owner could catch some z’s while their car whisks them along is, at best, laughable — and at worst, a profoundly fatal error.

Since that 2016 announcement, hundreds of fully driverless cars have rolled out in multiple US cities, and none of them bear the...

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Corsair’s first standing desk is designed for gaming, streaming, and more

Just look at all the stuff you can mount on this desk. | Image: Corsair

Corsair’s Platform:6 is a modular standing desk that’s being targeted at everyone from remote workers to content creators and, naturally, PC gamers. It’ll be available to purchase in the fourth quarter of this year, but Corsair’s website isn’t currently listing any prices for the desk or its many, many accessories.

With the Platform:6 due to be offered in multiple configurations that are customizable via an online configurator, it’s a little tricky to work out what’s included as standard, and what’s available as a modular upgrade. But Corsair’s press release suggests that the desk comes with dual monitor arms, a cable management tray, and an in-desk storage cubby with built-in USB Type-A and Type-C charging ports. Most interesting is a...

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Samsung’s 57-inch ‘Dual UHD’ gaming monitor gets a price and release date

It’s a lot of screen, whichever way you cut it. | Image: Samsung

Samsung’s 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9, its massive gaming monitor that’s like having two 32-inch 4K displays sat next to each other, will be available in the US in October for $2,499.99, the company has announced. If you’re in the UK the monitor is available to preorder from today for £2,199.99.

If the Odyssey Neo G9 sounds familiar, then that might be for a couple of reasons. Samsung first teased the monitor last November before officially announcing it at CES in January 2023, albeit without a price or firm release date. But the Odyssey Neo G9 name might also sound familiar because Samsung released a 49-inch model under the same name in 2021 that only offered the combined resolution of two 1440p displays.

Image: Samsung ...

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Mortal Kombat 1 reboots the bloody fighter with a focus on new players

NetherRealm Studios

Mortal Kombat 1 gets RPG chocolate in your fighting game peanut butter with the new Invasions game mode.

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