Jony Ive invests in blender company

The BlenderCap (right) attaches to a bottle (middle) to produce smoothies and other blended drinks (left). | Image: Cruz

Jony Ive is leading an interesting life post-Apple. The latest news from the famed designer is that he’s invested an undisclosed amount in Cruz, the company behind a USB-C-powered bottle cap with built-in blades that’s designed to turn drink bottles into portable blenders. Cruz launched the $129 BlenderCap back at CES earlier this year. The device comes with a 32-ounce vacuum insulated bottle but is also designed to fit on other wide-mouth bottles from companies like HydroFlask.

Although Cruz seems like a left-field investment for Ive, it makes more sense given the company was founded by former Apple engineers Matthew Moore and Dakota Adams, who were part of the team that built the original Apple Watch as well as some iPhone components....

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The ad-free version of Discovery Plus is getting a price hike

Image: Peter Wynn Thompson

The monthly price of ad-free Discovery Plus is jumping up in cost from $6.99 per month to $8.99 per month (plus taxes), Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Tuesday. The new price is effective Tuesday, meaning that if you’re already a subscriber, you’ll see the higher price on your “next billing cycle on or after November 2,” the company says. The streaming service’s “ad-lite” tier will stay the same price, meaning you can still get it for $4.99 per month.

Discovery Plus gives you access to more than 70,000 episodes of shows from networks like TLC, HGTV, Discovery, and Lifetime, meaning it’s a great choice for people looking to watch reality shows and unscripted series. Just read my colleague Emma Roth’s article about why she pays for...

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Paramount uploads Mean Girls to TikTok across 23 video clips

Stop trying to make segmented consumption of media happen (please). | Image: Paramount Pictures

Today is Mean Girls Day, a date that fans of the 2004 teen comedy may recognize as the same day that heartthrob Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett) asked Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) what day it is (“It’s October 3rd.”), and Paramount Pictures has found an unusual way to celebrate the occasion. The studio has created an official TikTok account where you can watch the entire movie for free — provided you’re happy to do so over multiple video snippets.

The entire 107-minute long movie has been split into 23 clips, emulating a popular method of streaming piracy on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube that’s used to circumvent restrictions on the length of uploaded videos and avoid being flagged by copyright detection software. Rather than...

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AI is coming to the Arc browser — but probably not like you think

You can now talk to ChatGPT from the Arc Command Bar. But that’s nowhere near the most interesting new AI feature. | Image: The Browser Company

At some point, if you’re a company doing pretty much anything in the year 2023, you have to have an AI strategy. It’s just business. You can make a ChatGPT plug-in. You can do a sidebar. You can bet your entire trillion-dollar company on AI being the future of how everyone does everything. But you have to do something, you know? These are just the times we live in.

The last one of these was crypto and the blockchain a couple of years ago, and Josh Miller, the CEO of The Browser Company, which makes the popular new Arc browser, says he’s very glad he missed that particular boat. “These waves have come and gone,” he says, “and sometimes — god, every time — we have to say, ‘Alright, are we doing this one?’ Historically, we’ve been good at...

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HMD is building Nokia phones in Europe as customers demand more security

HMD’s limited-edition Nokia XR21 in “frosted platinum” to celebrate the European-made model. | Image: HMD

Finnish firm HMD Global, which makes Nokia-branded smartphones, will start building 5G models in Europe. To start, the company is announcing production of the rugged dust and water-resistant Nokia XR21 within the continent, which Enterprise customers can now order. Reuters reports that the device will specifically be made in Hungary.

HMD has previously built smartphones that are licensed with the Nokia name in Asian regions, including China and India, using Taiwanese manufacturing partner Foxconn. Earlier this year, HMD said it would respond to customer demand for European-manufactured devices and planned to move some production into the continent. The move followed about four years after the company shifted its data centers to Europe to...

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New report casts doubt on Apple’s first ‘carbon neutral’ products

An image from Apple of a wind farm. | Image: Apple

Apple needs to disclose more information about its suppliers to back up claims about its first carbon-neutral products, says a new report by an environmental organization that had previously given the company high marks.

Apple has backtracked when it comes to transparency about its supply chain emissions, the new report says. That makes it difficult to see how Apple is able to market its products as carbon neutral, meaning the company didn’t produce more carbon dioxide emissions than it could capture or offset while making the device.

“We believe there is a need for full disclosure and explanation of how Apple achieves carbon neutrality of its products, given the increase in carbon emissions from some of its suppliers.”

“We believe there...

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Apple is locking down the iPhone App Store to comply with a new law in China

Illustration: The Verge

Apple’s iPhone App Store in China is getting a whole lot more locked down. China recently updated an existing online software regulation to lay out strict criteria for app stores and apps in the country, and after looking for ways around it, Apple has started to comply. For users in China, it’s about to get way harder to watch YouTube on iPhones.

Apple, as of Friday of last week, requires app developers hoping to publish apps on its App Store in China to provide their Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing number from the Chinese government. Last month, China announced it would require an ICP license in order for apps to be listed in all mobile app stores. Now, as Apple honors the regulation, it closes a loophole that had let iPhone...

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Pluto TV pits human curation against streaming algorithms in new ad campaign

Image: Pluto TV

Pluto TV wants you to know that not only does it offer free ad-supported streaming — but it’s curated by humans, too. The Paramount-owned service pushes back against the recommendation algorithm used by Netflix and other major streamers in a new ad campaign that insists humans do a better job of picking what you want to watch.

Each ad shows a person scrolling aimlessly through the “featured” section of a streaming service that appears to be modeled after Netflix. Suddenly, a human curator from Pluto TV appears in their home, with the goal of guiding them toward the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service as a solution to their indecisiveness.

It’s true: Netflix’s “For You” section doesn’t always get things right. I often...

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Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on how AI and art will coexist in the future

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge

Microsoft’s Kevin Scott sat down with us at Code to talk about Bing’s competition with Google, the race to acquire and develop high-end GPUs, and how art can survive in the age of AI.

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Google is making it harder for bulk senders to fill your Gmail with spam

It’ll soon be easier to stop receiving those annoying marketing emails you subscribed to. | Image: Google

Google is preparing to enforce new Gmail requirements that aim to reduce spam, improve email security, and make it easier to unsubscribe from commercial email senders. The new requirements will be imposed on bulk senders — defined as those who send over 5,000 messages to Gmail accounts each day — by February 2024.

As part of the requirements, Google will begin enforcing a clear spam rate threshold for bulk email senders to prevent them from bombarding Gmail users with unwanted messages. Gmail’s existing bulk sender rules advise senders to keep their spam output below 0.3 percent, but this is currently worded as a recommendation. Google says the change should result in less spam clogging your inbox.

The update will force bulk email...

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It’s been a good year for streaming whodunits

Only Murders in the Building. | Image: Hulu

It all began with Natasha Lyonne calling bullshit. At the start of the year, Peacock premiered its first great original series with Poker Face, a Rian Johnson-helmed whodunit created in the mold of classic mystery-of-the-week shows. Since then, it’s been a surprisingly fruitful period for mystery shows on streaming services, from the return of The Afterparty to the third season of Only Murders in the Building, which wraps up on Tuesday evening.

At a time when streaming networks tend to default to either big-budget blockbusters or low-budget reality hits, the resurgence of the mystery genre has been very welcome. Each of these three shows helps to fill in a nice middle ground once occupied by the likes of Murder, She Wrote and Columbo....

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Netflix is planning to raise prices... again

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Netflix is planning to increase the cost of its streaming service yet again, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The streamer will reportedly issue the price hike a “few months” after the Hollywood actors strike ends, which could happen in the coming weeks.

As reported by the WSJ, Netflix will raise prices in “several markets globally,” starting with the US and Canada. It’s still not clear how much Netflix will raise prices, and Netflix declined to comment. Netflix raised prices across all of its plans last year, bringing the ad-free Standard tier to $15.49 / month and the Premium plan to $19.99 / month. The company also rolled out a $6.99 / month ad-supported plan and later axed its mid-tier $9.99 / month basic ad-free...

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Loki season 2 is a quirky timeline cleanse before the next big Marvel event

Tom Hiddleston as Loki. | Image: Marvel Studios

Loki’s second season feels like the MCU making a valiant attempt at getting its multiverse together.

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OnePlus Open: all the news and rumors about the company’s first foldable

An unofficial render of what the OnePlus foldable could look like. | Image: OnLeaks via SmartPrix

As the Oppo sub-brand’s foldable nears release, here’s the story so far.

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Naughty Dog is reportedly the latest studio to cut developer jobs

Image: Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog is reportedly cutting some of its contracted staff. According to a Kotaku report, the Sony-owned studio is not renewing the contracts of around 25 temporary workers across numerous departments, with quality assurance staff primarily affected. Full-time staff were apparently not impacted.

Naughty Dog is one of the jewels in Sony’s first-party crown, developing platform-exclusive hits like The Last of Us and the Uncharted series. Back in January, a live-action interpretation of The Last of Us debuted on HBO to critical and social acclaim, but apparently, that popularity has not been enough to support continued development on its Last of Us multiplayer project.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that development on the...

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SteelSeries enters the gaming microphone market with Alias

The new SteelSeries Alias Pro microphone. | Image: SteelSeries

I’ve been a big fan of SteelSeries’ gaming headsets over the years, but I’ve always paired them with a dedicated XLR microphone for improved quality when I game with friends on Discord, hop on Zoom calls for work, or occasionally stream on Twitch. Now, SteelSeries is filling the gap in its gaming lineup of accessories today with the new Alias and Alias Pro microphones, designed with gamers and streamers in mind.

Both of SteelSeries’ new microphones are a first for the company, with a pill-shaped design that nests into a sturdy stand or attaches to a boom arm. Both use a custom one-inch condenser capsule that’s bigger than what we typically see on gamer-focused microphones, combined with a cardioid pattern.

The new...

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1,000 photos later, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is still missing something

The iPhone 15 Pro Max takes great portrait photos. | Photo by Sam Price-Waldman for The Verge

What many folks are calling a slow year of advancements in the iPhone 15 lineup is far from true for the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s camera. Willy-nilly use of the word “lenses” aside, there are more framing options this year thanks to extra digital lenses and a dedicated 5x telephoto lens. The video quality is now the best you can get on a smartphone and even offers a ProRes log output. Photos of people at night have improved dramatically. And a software trick allows you to add a portrait mode blur effect after a photo is taken. These are some of the small changes that make for a better experience, but as a professional photographer, there is still a missing piece.

Every year, I set out to take 1,000 photos with the newest smartphone camera...

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Cruise says a hit-and-run ‘launched’ pedestrian in front of one of its robotaxis

Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A hit-and-run in San Francisco last night “launched” a pedestrian in front of a Cruise robotaxi, the company said Tuesday. The robotaxi “braked aggressively to minimize impact,” while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. The condition of the struck pedestrian is unknown at this time.

The crash was the latest in San Francisco to involve a driverless vehicle, as hundreds more have hit the road recently for 24/7 commercial service. With more robotaxis have also come a number of crashes, most of which have been minor, though a handful have involved injuries.

The crash was the latest in San Francisco to involve a driverless vehicle

Last night’s crash took place at 9:30PM on 5th Avenue just south of Market Street, according to...

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The Kindle Scribe and latest Kindle Kids have both fallen to an all-time low

Amazon’s big-screen Kindle Scribe still isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly better than it was when it first launched. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

We’re now less than a week out from Amazon’s October Prime Day and, as expected, Amazon has already started to drop discounts on Echo speakers, Fire tablets, and other items ahead of the two-day shopping event. The current promo also extends to the Kindle Scribe and the latest Kindle Kids, which are on sale at Amazon and Target starting at $264.99 ($75 off) and $79.99 ($40 off), respectively.

If you’re deciding between the two e-readers, the differences are pretty stark. The Kindle Kids is basically a kid-friendly version of Amazon’s entry-level Kindle, which remains our top pick when it comes to ebook readers. It offers identical performance to the standard edition, only it comes with a case, an extended two-year warranty, and a year...

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Microsoft makes the Windows 11 setup process less boring with an entertaining Easter egg

Microsoft’s SkiFree_-like game appears when setting up a Surface Laptop Studio 2._ | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Microsoft is making the Windows 11 setup process a little more entertaining, at least on some laptops. I unboxed the Surface Laptop Studio 2 yesterday (read Monica Chin’s review here) and noticed that Microsoft now prompts you to play the modern version of its SkiFree game while you wait for updates to be applied.

It’s the same secret surfing game that Microsoft added to its Edge browser three years ago, a fun little Easter egg that’s very similar to the SkiFree skiing game that was released as part of Microsoft’s Entertainment Pack 3 for Windows back in 1991.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Playing Microsoft’s surfing game.

The game appears as an option if there are outstanding Windows updates available or if...

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Goal Zero’s modular Yeti Pro 4000 can scale from vanlife power to home backup

The Goal Zero Yeti Pro 4000 at home. | Image: Goal Zero

Goal Zero is updating its lineup of Yeti Power Stations today with the release of the Yeti Pro 4000 and stackable Tank Pro expansion batteries. This modular approach allows you to choose as much capacity as needed, making the batteries suitable for use as solar generators to back up the home or to keep vanlifers living off the grid.

The Yeti Pro 4000 is built around LFP battery chemistry with a capacity of 3,994Wh (51.2V 78Ah) that charges from zero to 100 percent in about three hours from a 1,800W wall charger or from zero to 80 percent in about 90 minutes when supplying up to 3,000W of solar input. It can support a maximum of four Tank Pros for up to 20,000Wh of total stored energy.

The Yeti Pro is big, weighing in at 115.74 pounds...

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Surface Laptop Studio 2 review: this could be so much more

Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop Studio 2 has new chips, a new touchpad, and a very, very high price tag.

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How to use the new Copilot AI in Windows 11

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

You can’t have missed Microsoft’s attempts to stuff generative AI into almost everything it makes, from Bing search to the Windows OS. And it continues: the most recent update for Windows 11 has rolled out Copilot to all users.

If you’re new to Copilot, it’s very much like the AI you can chat with via Bing search, with a few Windows-specific features: the ability to launch apps, for example, or manage screenshots pasted to the clipboard.

It’s worth bearing in mind that it’s early days for the tool

In its announcement of the feature, Microsoft says that Copilot will “uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance.” However, it’s...

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Fortnite is introducing age ratings for all of its Creative experiences

Image: Epic Games

Epic Games will be introducing age ratings to all Fortnite experiences starting later this year. The new system will go into effect on November 14th and will include “all first and third party playable content” in the game, which basically means everything built in the Creative mode. The ratings will be powered by the International Age Rating Coalition, which works with the likes of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and Pan-European Game Information (PEGI).

Here’s how the company describes the process:

When a creator is ready to publish their island to Fortnite, they will fill out the IARC content rating questionnaire before they submit their island to be published and reviewed by Epic moderators. When the questionnaire is...

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Instacart will accept Medicare Advantage for grocery orders

Image: Instacart

Instacart is expanding its payment options next year to include Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and other supplement health benefits for grocery deliveries. The move comes after the company began accepting food stamps as payment earlier this year.

The program, which will be administered through Alignment Health, will allow anyone who receives health insurance through Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and other eligible programs to use their plan-sponsored funds to purchase “eligible groceries, wellness essentials, and over-the-counter medications for delivery via Instacart,” the company said.

The goal is to improve access to nutritious food and over-the-counter medicines for seniors, many whom experience food insecurity as a result of...

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Ford’s new F-150 Lightning Flash trim will have more range, a bigger screen, and a heat pump

Image: Ford

Ford announced a new “Flash” trim of the model year 2024 F-150 Lighting, with a bigger screen, longer range, and a heat pump to help improve battery conditioning on those colder days. The company said it is also expecting to make more F-150 Lightning deliveries to customers later this year after a factory shutdown restricted Ford’s supply of the electric truck.

Ford says it is targeting an EPA-estimated range for Flash of 320 miles, which would fit neatly in between the automaker’s Standard Range and Long Range models. The F-150 Lightning Standard Range typically gets less than 300 miles of EPA-estimated range, while Extended Range variants can travel as far as 350 miles on a single charge.

Ford says it is targeting an EPA-estimated...

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X Social Media is suing X, a social media company

Illustration: The Verge

It was bound to happen eventually: a company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Elon Musk’s X Corp. over its renaming of Twitter (via Reuters). The company in question is X Social Media LLC, an ad agency from Florida that alleges X Corp. is guilty of violating Florida common law because of “unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement,” as well as the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

X Social Media (hereafter referred to as XSM to make this article easier to write) writes in the complaint that it has used its registered trademark, “X SOCIALMEDIA,” continuously since 2016. XSM claims it has “already suffered loss in revenue that correlates with X Corp.’s rebrand and use of the mark ‘X.’”

It’s...

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Apple will no longer fix the $17,000 gold Apple Watch

Queen B with that exclusive all-gold link band and original Apple Watch Edition. | Image: Beyonce.com

It was never clear who the $10,000 to $17,000 18-karat gold Apple Watch was for,beyond celebrities and the ultrarich, but I hope whoever bought one way back in 2015 expected Apple to stop supporting them at some point. That day has come. Apple has now internally listed all first-gen Apple Watch models, including the solid-gold Edition, as “obsolete,” MacRumors reports.

Apple’s obsolete label doesn’t just mean the end of software support.That ship has sailed;the original Apple Watches (widely referred to as Series 0) never updated beyond watchOS 4.3.2 in 2018. It means the end of hardware support: the company will no longer provide parts, repairs, or replacement services.

The solid-gold Apple Watch Edition was something of a passion...

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Google Pixel Buds Pro rumor says conversation detection is coming in an update

The Pixel Buds Pro may not be getting a replacement this year, but new software tricks are always welcome. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The Google Pixel Buds Pro may be getting some nifty new software features that should sound a bit familiar if you were paying attention to the latest tweaks for Apple’s AirPods Pro. According to notable leaker Kamila Wojciechowska (@Za_Raczke), Google plans a software update for its flagship earbuds that includes conversation detection, a hearing wellness monitor, and clearer call quality going both ways.

The first feature sounds similar to Apple’s Conversation Awareness that just came to all second-gen AirPods Pro earbuds, with Google’s implementation automatically pausing your media playback and activating transparency mode once the Pixel Buds Pro detect the wearer is talking. Though, before Apple, Sony had already implemented this...

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How to sign up for Amazon Prime

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Time really does fly, doesn’t it? The summer is over, fall is here, and Amazon’s fall Prime Day sale, the period when Amazon (and probably a significant number of its competitors) will be dropping prices on a lot of its products for Prime members, is happening on October 10th and 11th.

If you’re interested in the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy. (Not surprisingly. After all, it would be the sorry vendor who would make it difficult for people to become new customers.)

If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Prime, Amazon makes it very easy

Besides giving access to Prime Day bargains, Amazon has come up with a bunch of features to...

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