Apple’s Argylle looks like the ultimate power clash in new trailer

Apple

You might think that it would take a lot of effort to make Henry Cavill look like a huge dork, but the first trailer for Apple TV Plus’ new meta spy comedy Argylle from director Matthew Vaughn proves that all it takes is a velveteen sweater and an unforgiving trip to SuperCuts.

Rather than focusing entirely on its namesake himself, Argylle tells the story of how reclusive spy novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is suddenly pulled into the very legit world of espionage after a criminal organization realizes that the plot of her book series is somehow matching up eerily closely to their latest nefarious plan.

Despite creating Argylle (Cavill) — a lantern-jawed operative with a widow’s peak situation so high and tight you’d think it...

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Beyerdynamic’s first wireless gaming headset opts for simplicity over RGB

German headphones that lean toward a utilitarian design? Color me geschockt. | Image: Beyerdynamic

Beyerdynamic is making its first wireless gaming headset, offering a premium $249 set of cans that are compatible with PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles via a USB receiver. But instead of opting for a gamer-y aesthetic with vivid colors or showy RGB lighting, the Beyerdynamic MMX 200 come in simple black or gray colors (with some small orange accents), both of which are on sale now from the German manufacturer’s site.

The MMX 200 feature 40mm drivers, a removable boom mic with pop filter, Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, USB-C charging / wired mode, and a claimed continuous battery life of up to 35 hours. While these fairly pricey headphones don’t support noise cancellation like Sony’s more expensive InZone H9, the closed-back...

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Reddit will no longer let you opt out of personalized ads

Reddit says most users shouldn’t see a noticeable difference after the update is live. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Reddit is removing the ability for some users to opt out of ad personalization based on their activity on the platform. Announced on Wednesday alongside several incoming updates to its privacy, advertising, and location settings, Reddit’s head of privacy, Jutta Williams, justified the change by saying that Reddit “requires very little personal information” from its users and that it would allow the company to “better predict which ad may be most relevant to you.”

Williams contends that the vast majority of Reddit users “will see no change to their ads,” and users who had previously opted out of ad personalization “will not result in seeing more ads or sharing on-platform activity with advertisers.” The updates to the platform’s...

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New PlayStation 5 owners can currently snag a free game courtesy of Sony

You can get God of War Ragnarök for free if you pick up a PS5 before October 20th. | Image: Santa Monica Studio

We’re now less than a month away from the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Thankfully, if you have yet to pick up a PlayStation 5 and need a refresher as to what all the fuss is about, Sony is offering a terrific deal on its flagship gaming console through October 20th.

Right now, Spider-Man: Miles Moralesand Spider-Man Remastered are among the many games you can download for free when you pick up a disc-based PS5 or the PS5 Digital Edition at Amazon, Best Buy, Target, or GameStop. There are 12 games to choose from in all, including notable console exclusives like God of War Ragnarök,Horizon Forbidden West, Returnal,The Last of Us Part I, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and the excellent Demon’s Souls remake from 2020_._

To take...

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The FTX trial is bigger than Sam Bankman-Fried

What evidence is he sitting on? | Image: The Verge

And potentially very embarrassing for all of crypto.

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Philips Hue will soon require an account to use its app — here’s what that means

The Philips Hue Bridge is required to access many of Hue’s smart lighting system features, and soon, you’ll need an account to use them, too.

Smart lighting stalwart Philips Hue is making some more changes. After launching a new security system last month and finally making good on its promise to support Matter, the company is now requiring users to sign up for a Hue account to use its app.

For most people, this might not seem like a big deal; if you have Hue smart bulbs, you probably already have a Hue account, which has always been optional but lets you do things like connect the bulbs to platforms such as Amazon Alexa for voice control. But for some, the ability to use Hue’s line of smart lighting without creating an account was a big part of its appeal. Yes, its products are pricey, but you don’t have to give the company your data. That could be about to change.

According...

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Details emerge on Jony Ive and OpenAI’s plan to build the ‘iPhone of artificial intelligence’

Ive (pictured) has been brainstorming ideas for the device with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. | Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media

Apple’s former chief design officer, Jony Ive, is reportedly in discussions with OpenAI to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence,” aided by over $1 billion in funding from Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. According to a new report by the Financial Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is looking to use Ive’s design firm LoveFrom to develop OpenAI’s first consumer device, with the duo having discussed what such a product would look like during brainstorming sessions at Ive’s San Francisco studio. News of the venture was first reported by The Information on Tuesday.

According to three people familiar with the plan, Ive and Altman are aiming to create a device that provides a “more natural and intuitive user experience” to interact with artificial...

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The Raspberry Pi 5 is finally here

Photo by Emma Roth / The Verge

Despite doubts that the Raspberry Pi 5 would launch this year, the latest version of the microcomputer has arrived with some notable upgrades at a $60 starting price. Not only is it supposed to perform better than its predecessor, but it’s also the first Raspberry Pi to come with in-house silicon.

Powering the brain of the Raspberry Pi 5 is a 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor that runs at 2.4GHz, allowing for a two to three times performance boost when compared to the four-year-old Raspberry Pi 4. The device also comes with an 800MHz VideoCore VII graphics chip that the Raspberry Pi Foundation says offers a “substantial uplift” in graphics performance.

I got to try out the device for myself. While I didn’t have time to do much...

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Apple will have to face an antitrust lawsuit alleging iOS Apple Pay dominance

Illustration: The Verge

California Northern District Judge Jeffrey White partially denied (PDF) Apple’s request to dismiss a proposed federal class action lawsuit over Apple Pay, reports Reuters. Three credit unions argued Apple violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by charging too much in processing fees and being too exclusionary by not letting other digital wallets access its NFC-scanning hardware.

The judge agreed with the credit unions’ argument that because QR code payment apps (like Venmo) lack Apple Pay’s convenience and functionality, and it's too expensive to switch to Android, iOS tap-to-pay is a market unto itself. And Apple is the only player in a certain market that would have other competition if not for that little NFC reader detail that makes it...

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Kia’s three-row EV9 electric SUV will start at $54,900

Image: Kia

The 2024 Kia EV9 will start at $54,900 for the Light RWD trim before destination fees or adding options like a bigger battery or two extra motors for AWD. When announced earlier this year, the EV9 caught everyone’s attention since there are few (and costly) seven-seater fully-electric vehicles on the market, and the automaker’s entry looked like it was primed to disrupt.

The EV9 will come standard with 19-inch wheels, dual 12.3-inch screens up front, a 5-inch screen for HVAC controls, CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless phone charger, advanced driver assistance features like automatic braking and cross traffic check, and support for ultra-wideband smartphone key access (though that requires a subscription). It can charge its battery...

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Adobe’s full Photoshop on the web launch includes its popular desktop AI tools

Adobe says it no longer has plans for a free-to-use version of the online photo editing software. | Image: Adobe

After almost two years in beta, Adobe’s Photoshop on the web service — a simplified online version of the company’s desktop photo editing app — is now generally available starting Wednesday, September 27th. According to information Adobe shared with The Verge, Photoshop on the web is launching with the popular Generative Fill and Generative Expand tools that were recently released for the desktop version of Photoshop.

Powered by Adobe’s Firefly generative AI model, these features are available for commercial use and allow users to quickly add to, remove from, or expand an image using text-based descriptions in over 100 languages, all while matching the original image’s lighting conditions and perspective.

Image: Adobe...

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Pokémon are coming to the Van Gogh Museum to teach the world about art

A comparison of ‘Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat’ and Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat’ | The Pokémon Company, the Van Gogh Museum

If the Pokémon Company’s video teasing its upcoming collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum was already enough to have you thinking about booking a ticket to Amsterdam, the promise of an impressionistic Pikachu promo card might just do the trick.

In celebration of the Van Gogh Museum’s 50th anniversary, it has teamed up with the Pokémon Company for a special event designed to introduce young artists to Van Gogh’s work, and to teach people about the way he was profoundly influenced by Japanese art.

“This collaboration will allow the next generation to get to know Vincent van Gogh’s art and life story in a refreshing way,” the Van Gogh Museum’s general director Emilie Gordenker said in a press release. “The Van Gogh Museum and The Pokémon...

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Lululemon is throwing in the towel on Mirror

Lululemon will end hardware sales by the end of the year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Lululemon is calling it quits on Mirror. And it’s tagging Peloton for help parachuting out of connected fitness.

As part of efforts to wind down the business, Bloomberg reports that Lululemon plans on ending hardware sales this year. The companion app will be made unavailable to new usersat the end of 2023. Lululemon will continue to offer service and support for existing Mirror owners. According to Bloomberg, those changes will start taking effect on November 1st.

To ease the blow, Lululemon has inked a five-year deal with Peloton to provide ongoing content to existing users, as well as develop co-branded apparel. As part of the agreement, Lululemon will start offering Peloton classes on its Mirror device and Lululemon Studio app....

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PlayStation leader Jim Ryan to retire after 28 years with Sony

Jim Ryan, the head of PlayStation and CEO of Sony, is stepping down. In a press release on Wednesday, Sony announced that Ryan will retire in March 2024, while Sony Group Corporation president and chief operating officer Hiroki Totoki will become the interim CEO of Sony starting April 1st, 2024.

“After 30 years, I have made the decision to retire from SIE in March 2024. I’ve relished the opportunity to have a job I love in a very special company, working with great people and incredible partners,” Ryan says in a statement. “But I’ve found it increasingly difficult to reconcile living in Europe and working in North America. I will leave having been privileged to work on products that have touched millions of lives across the world;...

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Disney’s password-sharing crackdown has begun

Disney CEO Bob Iger foreshadowed the move last month. | Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Starting on November 1st, Disney Plus will begin restricting password sharing. In Canada.

The company announced the change in an email sent to Canadian subscribers. Disney has not provided many details on how it plans to enforce this policy — its email merely states that “we’re implementing restrictions on your ability to share your account or login credentials outside of your household”. The announcement reads more like a strong finger-wag than anything else: “You may not share your subscription outside of your household,” reads the company’s updated Help Center.

A new “account sharing” section in the Canadian subscriber agreement also notes that the company may “analyze the use of your account”, and that failing to comply with the...

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Counter-Strike 2 is out now

Counter-Strike 2 | Image: Valve

Counter-Strike 2, the highly anticipated upgrade for CS:GO, has finally arrived. Valve announced today that it’s launching CS2, which comes with some major updates like improved smoke grenades, redesigned maps, and improved network features.

After years of rumors, Valve announced CS2 in March and opened up a limited test. The updated game is based on Valve’s Source 2 engine, giving the game a much-needed facelift, reworked audio, UI enhancements, and upgraded Community Workshop tools. There’s even a new “tick-rate-independent gameplay” that Valve describes as a way for servers to “know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a ‘nade is thrown.”

You can download the 27GB CS2 for free from Steam, with its listing...

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The best Xbox controller to buy right now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

From basic and affordable to premium and ultra-customizable, these are the best controllers for Xbox. And they work with PCs, too.

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Microsoft is testing a DALL-E-powered text-to-image creator in Paint for Windows 11

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is testing a DALL-E-powered text-to-image creator in Microsoft Paint for Windows 11, the company announced in a blog post. Called Paint Cocreator, the tool creates art based on a description the user types out.

Alternatively, users can select an art style, and Cocreator will then generate three variations. After choosing the one they like, customers can then edit the artwork by, for example, adding layers — a feature that’s also new to Paint.

It remains to be seen how well OpenAI’s latest DALL-E image generation model converts text to image, however — previous generations of DALL-E have struggled to correctly interpret text input. Aside from that, DALL-E has been prone to gender and racial bias. In its blog post, Microsoft says...

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ChatGPT can now search the web in real time

Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI posted today that ChatGPT can once more trawl the web for current information, offering answers taken directly from “current and authoritative” sources, which it cites in its responses. The feature, called Browse with Bing, is only open to those with Plus and Enterprise subscriptions for now, but the company says it will roll it out “to all users soon.”

Microsoft’s Bing Chat on Windows, in the Edge browser, and in third-party browser plugins could already return live information from the web, and so can Google’s Bard in Chrome and other browsers. Both also offer links when searching, as ChatGPT’s Browse with Bing feature now does. Meta just announced at Meta Connect that it will also use Bing to power real-time web results in the...

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EA delists old FIFA titles ahead of its new soccer game’s debut

Image: EA

EA has delisted all prior FIFA games from major storefronts, including Epic Games, Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PS5. The titles, up to and including FIFA 23, are no longer available for purchase. The move, which was first spotted by analyst MauroNL, comes just two days before the upcoming EA Sports FC 24 is set to release.

The content is not totally lost: FIFA 23 is still technically available to EA Play subscribers through its collection of legacy titles known as “The Play List.” Some DLC packs are also still available for purchase, per Kotaku’s reporting.

FC 24 will be the first iteration of EA’s annual soccer video game to lack the FIFAbranding. Soccer fans got their first glimpse of gameplay during a livestreamed event earlier this...

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Fortnite V-bucks are about to get more expensive

Image: Epic Games

Fortnite’s in-game currency is getting a price adjustment — and it’ll make V-bucks more expensive in a number of countries. The pricing change goes into effect on October 27th, and it impacts the following countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States (as well as countries that use the USD in their Fortnite storefronts).

“These adjustments are based on economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations, and follow similar pricing alignments recently completed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico,” developer Epic Games said in a statement, when announcing the changes.

The changes aren’t huge, but they’ll be noticeable to those who spend...

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ChromeOS 117 rolls out with a new look, plus better control over charging and cameras

Illustration: The Verge

Google is pushing a new ChromeOS update that introduces significant upgrades, including a new look, some useful battery charging controls, accent color accessibility settings, and more (via 9to5Google).

ChromeOS, now on stable version 117, adopts Google’s “Material You” design philosophy, the radical new look introduced on Android 12 in 2021. The change is most prominent in the newly redesigned Quick Settings view that now has easier-to-select (and read) rectangular buttons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other settings compared to the previous small circle icons.

Updated ChromeOS devices will also get a new notification panel on the bottom right of the screen, giving you easier access to new messages, emails, and other alerts from apps. The...

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The iPhone 15 Pro case market is a minefield right now

Two of these case makers guessed right, two did not.

Between Apple no longer making leather products and the utter disappointment of the new FineWoven case, there’s more opportunity this year for third-party iPhone case makers than perhaps ever before. But for a lot of manufacturers, the new Action Button in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is throwing a big old wrench into their plans.

Over the past week, I’ve received case samples from a number of companies, and it’s clear which ones bet correctly on the Action Button’s existence and which ones hedged their bets a little too hard on Apple sticking with the traditional ringer switch. Some brands, such as Nomad and MOFT, bet that Apple would replace the ringer switch with a button this year and designed their cases accordingly: there’s a...

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Epic Games asks the Supreme Court to hear its case against Apple’s App Store rules

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

After years of back-and-forth battling between Fortnite publisher Epic Games and Apple, the gaming company filed a writ of certiorari asking the US Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling in their antitrust case. Epic has argued that Apple unfairly monopolizes the mobile app space with iOS and its in-app purchasing system, thereby making billions on commissions.

Epic is asking the Supreme Court to review its case by way of clarifying points of antitrust law that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals relied on in making its ruling in April.

The companies’ beef dates back to the end of the original antitrust trial in 2021, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers decided on a compromise ruling that neither side fully appreciated.

It required...

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Artifact is becoming Twitter, too

Image: Artifact

Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, is adding a major new feature: the ability to post. So far, the app has been an aggregator for news and links from around the internet, but you’re going to be able to add posts directly to the app.

Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Artifact, announced the new features onstage in a conversation with Casey Newton at the Code Conference on Wednesday. The new feature is a logical next step from Artifact’s recently launched update that lets users share links. This new feature means you won’t just be limited to links; your posts can include things like a title, text, and photos. The posts will also have unique URLs, which should make them easier to share on different apps...

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Meta’s Quest 3 wireless charging dock juices up your headset and controllers

Image: Meta

Meta is releasing a charging dock for its new Quest 3 headset. For $129.99, the all-in-one charging station allows you to neatly mount and charge the Quest 3 headset and controllers when you’re not immersed in virtual reality.

This charging station is the first of its kind for Meta. While the company offered a charging dock for the Quest Pro 2, it was wired and didn’t provide a way to charge both the headset and controllers on a single platform (mainly because the controllers use AA batteries). This new dock is more similar to the two-in-one station Anker made for the Quest 2. It lets you charge the headset using the contact pads on the bottom of the Quest 3.

The controllers are a little trickier, as they likely continue to use AA...

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Here’s where you can preorder Meta’s upcoming Quest 3 headset

The new Quest 3 is smaller and more powerful than its predecessor. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Meta announced that the Meta Quest 3 will arrive on October 10th during its Meta Connect event, providing a little clarity around the headset’s initial “fall” launch timing. Unlike its predecessor, the Quest 2, the $499.99 Quest 3 will function as both a virtual reality and mixed reality headset. That means, like Apple’s forthcoming Vision Pro headset, you’ll be able to see and interact with the real world while you wear it.

How well it does outside a highly curated demo space remains to be seen, of course, and we’ll let you know after we’ve fully tested the Quest 3. In the meantime, though, you can check out our initial impressions and place a preorder for the upcoming VR headset.

Where to preorder the Quest 3 headset

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Xbox will let you automatically back up your game captures on OneDrive

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Xbox is adding a new feature that will let you better manage your game captures. Starting today, you’ll have the ability to set your game screenshots and clips to be automatically backed up in OneDrive, where they’re easy to access from a phone or PC for editing and sharing.

This also comes with a significant update to how Xbox stores your gamer moments (y’know, the good ones, not the other kind) in the cloud. Now, clips and screenshots that are stored on the Xbox network will be deleted after 90 days. Don’t worry, though, Xbox will tell you if there’s anything on the network that’s marked for deletion so you can save it or move it elsewhere.

If you have anything on the Xbox network that you want to keep around for longer, you can bulk...

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These are our favorite iPhone 15 Pro Action Button customizations so far

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max offer customization aplenty with a new Action Button. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

It’s only been around for about a week, but the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action Button has quickly become one of our favorite new iPhone features in years. That’s thanks in big part to its customizability — with the ability to run a shortcut, this little button can do almost anything you want it to. From the delightfully silly to seriously useful, we’ve seen a lot of creative applications as newly minted iPhone 15 Pro owners put the new hardware to work.

Setting up the Shortcuts app to interplay with Focus modes seems to be the power user move. You can set the button to toggle on a different Focus mode based on the time of day. Or you can have it run different actions based on the current Focus mode to wring a whole lot of utility out of a...

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Here are the Qualcomm chips that power Meta’s Quest 3 and new Ray-Bans

The Meta Quest 3. (It has two controllers, not just the one you see here.) | Image: Qualcomm

Meta has just fully revealed its Quest 3 virtual reality headset and announced its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and they’ve both got Qualcomm silicon inside. There’s a new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 in the Quest 3 and a new Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 in the Ray-Bans that boasts onboard AI.

We’ve known since the beginning that the Quest would feature a Snapdragon chip with double the GPU performance to drive its higher-res displays, but the Ray-Bans are a slight surprise — and so is the XR2 Gen 2’s baked-in hardware processing for head, hand, and object tracking.

Image: Qualcomm

“Leveraging a custom XR design in the Visual Analysis Engine (EVA), Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 accomplishes over 50% power and latency reduction compared to...

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