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Pokémon Sleep helped me catch ’em all — all the z’s, that is
The mobile app isn’t for everyone, but for one insomniac, Pikachu and Snorlax made a big difference.
The VergeThe VergeHow to use the Pixel 8’s Best Take to pick your favorite faces in group photos
Google Photos has a clever new feature for your group photos. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
There are a few things you can always depend on in photography, and one is that someone will always be blinking or making a weird face in a group photo. You can try taking 20 photos in rapid succession to increase your chances that everyone will look their best in one of them, but that’s not foolproof — and you’ll often wind up with a photo you’re only sort of happy with. But what if you could remix your group shots with the best faces from different photos in your series?
That’s the theory behind Best Take, Google Photos’ new — and somewhat controversial — editing tool.
Best Take is available now on the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, but we expect it to come to older Pixel phones sometime in the near future. The way it works is...
The VergeBlue checkmarks on X are ‘superspreaders of misinformation’ about Israel-Hamas war
X’s community notes feature isn’t doing much to prevent the spread. | Illustration: The Verge
The vast majority of viral misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war being posted on X (formerly Twitter) is being pushed by verified users, according to a recent study by NewsGuard — a for-profit organization that rates the trustworthiness of news sites. After analyzing the 250 most-engaged X posts between October 7th and October 14th that promoted incorrect or unverified information relating to the war, researchers at NewsGuard found that verified X accounts were behind 74 percent of it.
The 250 posts analyzed within the study promoted one of 10 false or unsubstantiated war narratives identified by NewsGuard, including claims that CNN had staged footage of its news crew under attack in Israel, and videos claiming to show Israeli or...
The VergeSlack is retiring its status account on X
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Slack is retiring its status account on X that previously shared updates about issues and outages on the platform, the company announced on Thursday. “We made the decision to retire the @SlackStatus account in order to consolidate our communications around incidents and focus resources on those most widely used by our customers,” Kevin Albers, VP of customer experience at Slack, said in a statement to The Verge.
The account was a useful way to be notified when Slack was investigating problems, especially for those of us at The Verge who end up writing about those issues. (It was also a good account to monitor with TweetDeck — which is now called XPro and is only available to paying X Premium subscribers.) If you want to keep tabs on...
The VergeJon Stewart’s Apple TV Plus show ends, reportedly over coverage of AI and China
Jon Stewart on the set of The Problem With Jon Stewart_._ | Image: Apple
Snagging Jon Stewart to host a new political talk show after his departure from The Daily Show was one of Apple TV Plus’ biggest achievements when The Problem With Jon Stewart was first announced back in 2020. But ahead of production kicking off on the show’s third season, Stewart and Apple have reportedly parted ways over “creative differences,” and The Problem is coming to an end.
The New York Times reports that along with concerns about some of the guests booked to be on The Problem With Jon Stewart, Stewart’s intended discussions of artificial intelligence and China were a major concern for Apple. Though new episodes of the show were scheduled to begin shooting in just a few weeks, staffers learned today that production had been...
The VergeIsrael-Hamas war: how social media companies are handling the response
Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The war in Israel presents content moderation challenges for the most popular social media sites.
The VergeToyota and Lexus join the Tesla charging connector bandwagon
Image: Lexus
Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus will start implementing Tesla’s winning charging plug standard known as the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, in “certain” vehicles starting in 2025. Toyota will also provide current and soon-to-be EV buyers with adapters to access 12,000-plus Tesla Supercharger stations.
One of Toyota’s first vehicles to include a NACS connector is a future three-row SUV it is planning for 2025, which will be assembled at the automaker’s plant in Kentucky. Toyota is currently light on EV options compared to most other automakers and has only released the mediocre bZ4X and the Lexus RZ 450e.
Welcome Toyota and Lexus owners to Superchargers across North America ⚡️
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) October 19,...
The VergeThe latest AI copyright lawsuit involves Mike Huckabee and his books
Photo by Steven Ferdman / Getty Images
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is among a group of authors suing Meta, Microsoft, and other companies over the use of their work in building AI tools.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Huckabee and other authors including Christian writer Lysa TerKeurst allege that their books were pirated and used in datasets that trained AI models. EleutherAI, an artificial intelligence research group, is also named in the suit, as is Bloomberg.
The proposed class action suit is the latest example of authors alleging tech companies used their work without permission to train generative AI models. Over the past several months, a string of popular authors including George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, and Michael Chabon have sued OpenAI for copyright...
The VergeAmazon, Microsoft, and India crack down on tech support scams
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Amazon, Microsoft, and India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country’s federal enforcement agency, have announced a major crackdown on tech support fraud.
The CBI’s post details two instances where scammers pretended they were customer support agents for two “well-known multi-national companies” (Amazon and Microsoft) through pop-ups that “falsely appeared to be security alerts” from the companies.
Through their scheme, the scammers would get people to call a toll-free number to one of their call centers, take over a user’s computer remotely, convince users of the “pretense of non-existing problems,” and “make them pay hundreds of Dollars for unnecessary services” while impersonating as workers for Amazon and Microsoft.
M...
The VergeAmazon eliminated plastic packaging at one of its warehouses
Amazon’s paper mailers. | Image: Amazon
Amazon is fulfilling a small part of its promise to switch from using plastic bubble mailers and air pillows to all recyclable paper packaging for its shipments. The company announced that it has outfitted one facility in Euclid, Ohio, with an upgraded packaging machine that can automatically fold custom-fit boxes to wrap some products, use paper mailers for small items, and slide in paper fillers instead of plastic ones in standard boxes.
Amazon’s efforts to switch to nonplastic materials come after the company’s promise in July to cut out plastic mailers in favor of recyclable alternatives. Non-padded paper mailers are largely not as durable as plastic ones, but Amazon says it developed paper rolls that can stretch, seal with heat,...
The VergeAmazon has renewed Gen V for a sophomore season
Jaz Sinclair as Marie Moreau. | Photo by Brooke Palmer / Prime Video
As invested as Amazon has been in its adaptation of The Boys, it always seemed like a given that the series’ new spinoff, Gen V, would be coming back for a second season following its debut last month. But just in case there was any doubt, Amazon’s just made Gen V’s sophomore year official.
This afternoon, ahead of Gen V’s season 1 finale this November, Amazon announced that it has renewed Gen V for a second season. In a statement about the renewal, Amazon MGM Studios TV head Vernon Sanders described producing Gen V as “an incredible journey” and pointed to showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters’ desire to push boundaries as sources of the show’s success.
“Their unapologetic approach is exactly what audiences love, and it has...
The VergeUniversal Music sues AI company Anthropic for distributing song lyrics
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Major record label Universal Music Group and other music publishers have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic for distributing copyrighted lyrics with its AI model Claude 2.
The music publishers’ complaint, filed in Tennessee, claims that Claude 2 can be prompted to distribute almost identical lyrics to songs like Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” and the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
They also allege Claude 2’s results use phrases extremely similar to existing lyrics, even when not asked to recreate songs. The complaint used the example prompt “Write me a song about the death of Buddy Holly,” which led the large language model to spit out the lyrics to Don Mclean’s “American Pie”...
The VergeFCC greenlights superfast Wi-Fi tethering for AR and VR headsets
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The FCC has unanimously approved plans by several tech companies to use the 6GHz band for wireless devices.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel proposed the new rules, which would authorize very low power (VLP) operations — meaning their signals won’t be able to go very far — in about 850MHz of the spectrum, on September 27th. The rules will also allow devices to “use higher power levels” so long as they’re geofenced to keep from interfering with actual licensed 6GHz usage, and the FCC will be taking comments on other ways it can expand 6GHz spectrum usage by technology devices.
A September Bloomberg report pointed to some of the kinds of devices the FCC’s affirmative vote could open up, including in-car connections, mobile virtual or...
The VergeOpenAI is opening up DALL-E 3 access
Image: OpenAI
OpenAI is launching wider availability of its latest text-to-image generator. On Thursday, the company is giving ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers access to the new DALL-E 3 model that works within the ChatGPT app. OpenAI says it has prepared a safety mitigation stack for the model that makes it ready for an expanded release.
DALL-E 3 was first announced last month, and OpenAI showed how it improved upon the previous DALL-E 2 by allowing users to leverage ChatGPT to write longer and more visually descriptive prompts for them to feed the image generator. DALL-E 3 was added to Bing Chat and Bing Image Generator, making Microsoft’s platform the first to introduce wider public access to the model — even before ChatGPT.
The advertised...
The Verge23andMe says it’s looking into another possible data leak
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
23andMe is investigating reports of a new data leak involving millions of user records. On Wednesday, TechCrunch reported that a hacker claims to have leaked 4 million genetic profiles belonging to people in Great Britain, along with “the wealthiest people living in the U.S. and Western Europe.”
The hacker, who goes by “Golem,” is the same one that stole 1 million lines of genetic data from 23andMe earlier this month, according to TechCrunch. Golem posted this latest round of data on the hacking site BreachForums.
Katie Watson, the vice president of communications at 23andMe, tells The Verge the company was “made aware” that the same hacker claims to have leaked another trove of what they claim is customer information. “We are currently...
The VergeFCC kicks off fight to restore net neutrality
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
After five years in a shallow grave, the FCC has revived the rules meant to force internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon to treat all traffic equally. The agency voted in favor of a notice of proposed rulemaking Thursday, taking its first step toward reinstating net neutrality.
“Today, there is no expert agency ensuring that the internet is fast, open, and fair. And for everyone, everywhere to enjoy the full benefits of the internet age, internet access needs to be more than just accessible and affordable,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said ahead of Thursday’s vote. “The internet needs to be open.” The notice was supported by Rosenworcel and Democratic commissioners Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks; it was opposed by...
The VergeGM and Honda to launch Cruise robotaxis in Japan by 2026
Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Autonomous vehicle operator Cruise, which is backed by General Motors, will launch a robotaxi service in Japan by 2026. It’s another sign that GM does not intend to back down from its commitment to get driverless cars in more cities as rapidly as possible.
Japan would be Cruise’s second international market, after Dubai. The announcement is being portrayed as a possible answer to the country’s driver shortage, which has been exacerbated by Japan’s aging population. Cruise currently operates robotaxis in several US cities and has said it plans to launch in 12 more in the years to come.
Japan would be Cruise’s second international market, after Dubai
GM made the announcement alongside Honda, which has a three-year-old partnership to...
The VergeOnePlus officially launches its debut foldable, the $1,699 OnePlus Open
The OnePlus Open with two apps running side by side.
The OnePlus Open is the first foldable from Oppo sub-brand OnePlus. Preorders start today for $1,699 (€1,799 / £1,599) ahead of retail availability on October 26th. Check out my colleague Allison Johnson’s complete thoughts in our full review or read on for an overview of the device’s specs and features.
Although the Open is a first for the OnePlus brand, it’s pitching the device as a collaborative project with parent company Oppo, which has previously released the Oppo Find N and Find N2 foldables in China. It means the OnePlus Open is effectively a third-generation foldable and will even be sold as the Oppo Find N3 in the company’s home market. But OnePlus is keen to emphasize the OnePlus-y inclusion of an alert slider on the foldable,...
The VergeNetflix’s Captain Laserhawk is a postmodern acid trip through Ubisoft history
Image: Netflix
Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix plays like a joyride through Ubisoft’s vast library of classic video game IP.
The VergeOnePlus Open review: right size, wrong price
The OnePlus Open finds a happy medium between the Pixel Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 5 size-wise, but it’s too close in price to the incumbent foldables.
The VergeDiscord is going to give out warnings instead of permanent bans
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Discord is overhauling the way it moderates its platform with a new warning system and teen safety assist feature. Both are part of a round of feature additions coming to Discord in the coming months, including an in-app shop for Discord members, a new Midnight dark theme on mobile, and new ways to launch apps.
The new Discord warning system has been totally revamped to be far more transparent, educating Discord users how they’ve broken rules and are restricted from parts of the service rather than permanently banning them. “The new system gives users more room to learn from their mistakes and correct misjudgments,” explains Savannah Badalich, Discord’s senior director of policy, in a briefing with The Verge. “We’re moving away from...
The VergePeter Thiel was reportedly an FBI informant
Getty Images
PayPal co-founder, venture capitalist, Republican megadonor, and disputed vampire Peter Thiel may also have been an FBI informant — at least according to a new report from Insider.
Insider spoke to multiple people who claim Thiel became a “confidential human source” for a Los Angeles-based agent named Johnathan Buma — a term that indicates a long-running relationship with the FBI, allegedly beginning in 2021. While Thiel was once a high-profile supporter of former President Donald Trump, a subject of multiple FBI investigations, the deal is said to have excluded any information about Thiel’s domestic political contacts. Insider says it focused instead on “foreign contacts and Silicon Valley intrigue,” potentially including foreign...
The VergeThe EU is looking into Meta and TikTok’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The European Commission is formally requesting information from Meta and TikTok on how they’re handling illegal content and disinformation related to the war in Israel. The inquiry comes as part of the European Union’s newly enacted Digital Services Act (DSA), which holds large online platforms legally accountable for the content posted to them.
Both platforms have until October 25th to respond to the Commission’s request. From there, the Commission will evaluate their responses and “assess next steps.”
Under the terms of the DSA, the Commission can impose fines of up to 6 percent of a company’s global turnover if they’re in violation of the rules. The Commission can also impose fines for “incorrect, incomplete or misleading information...
The VergeAMD’s Threadripper CPUs return with a 96-core monster chip
Image: AMD
AMD is bringing its Threadripper CPUs back with two brand-new classes and two new chipsets. There’s a Pro series of Threadripper chips that are designed to be part of the very top workstations for professionals, and there’s a non-Pro series for high-end desktop (HEDT) PCs and “prosumers” who don’t need manageability features, eight-channel memory, or huge amounts of PCIe Gen 5 lanes.
Both the Pro and HEDT chips are based on AMD’s Zen 4 architecture, with access to the latest PCIe Gen 5 high-speed storage. At the very top of the Threadripper Pro chips is the 7995WX, which offers 96 cores and 192 threads, a max boost of 5.3GHz, up to 384MB of L3 cache, and 128 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. AMD is offering six Threadripper Pro chips, with the...
The VergeYouTube might make an official way to create AI Drake fakes
YouTube has not yet announced a release date or name for the AI voice cloning tool. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube is currently developing an AI-powered tool that allows users to replicate the voice of famous musicians while recording audio, according to a new report by Bloomberg. The video streaming giant has reportedly approached music companies to obtain the rights to train its new AI tool on songs from their music catalogs. No deals have yet been signed by any major record label, but Bloomberg’s sources claim that discussions between parties are currently ongoing.
YouTube unveiled several new AI-powered tools for creators last month, including AI-generated photo and video backgrounds and video topic suggestions. According to Bloomberg’s report, YouTube had hoped to include its new audio cloning tool among those announcements but was...
The VergeA far-right Twitter troll was sentenced to seven months in prison for his 2016 election tweets
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Douglass Mackey, a Twitter user who posted memes and misinformation throughout the 2016 election, was sentenced this week to seven months in prison. Mackey was originally charged in early 2021, was convicted in March of conspiring to deprive others of their right to vote, and faced up to 10 years in prison.
Mackey, who was known as “Ricky Vaughn” on Twitter, spent the months leading up to the 2016 election posting misinformation to his more than 58,000 followers and working with other Twitter users to figure out how to swing the election in favor of Donald Trump. Most of what Vaughn and others posted was just memes, and most of the activity was free speech covered by the First Amendment.
But one of Mackey’s tactics crossed a different...
The VergeHyperX’s Cloud III Wireless gaming headset with its marathon battery life is $20 off
The HyperX Cloud III Wireless in all-black (left) and its Cloud II predecessor in black and red (right). | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The HyperX Cloud III Wireless gaming headset just came out in the summer, but it hasn’t gone on sale at all until very recently. The wireless headset for PC, PlayStation, and the Nintendo Switch is selling for $149.99 ($20 off) at Amazon and direct from HyperX. It may look a lot like the last-gen model, but the Cloud III Wireless has made some huge gains in the battery life department. It offers up to 120 hours of use with its 2.4GHz wireless dongle — a dongle, mind you, that also has improved range and a USB-C plug with included USB-A adapter.
Overall, the Cloud III is an upgrade over the Cloud II in just about every way. Our own Sean Hollister came away impressed by it in his hands-on time with the new headset, noting that there are...
The VergeNew York sues crypto firms for losing over $1 billion
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing three cryptocurrency companies — Gemini, Genesis, and Digital Currency Group (DCG) — over claims they misled investors, leading to the loss of over $1 billion. In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, James says their alleged fraudulent schemes affected over 230,000 investors.
The lawsuit targets Gemini, the crypto exchange owned by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and its Earn program. The firm marketed Gemini Earn as a high-yield program that involved customers investing with Genesis Global Capital, which is owned by DCG. However, James alleges that Gemini knew investing with Genesis was risky and misled customers as a result.
These companies repeatedly told investors that their money was secure,...
The VergeChargePoint is bringing Tesla’s NACS plug to its vast network of EV chargers
It’ll soon be easier to charge your Tesla — and eventually everything else — at a ChargePoint station. | Photo: ChargePoint
ChargePoint, one of the companies racing to put EV charging stations all over the US, announced today that it is beginning to roll out support for the NACS connector that is quickly becoming the national standard. ChargePoint stations that have previously used other ports and power sources can start to use the Tesla-created plug in November, and the company says it now offers “every necessary cable solution to charge an EV in North America and Europe.”
The company first said it would add NACS plugs to some of its stations in June, as the standards organization SAE International announced that the NACS (which stands for “North American Charging Standard”) port would be standardized for cars in North America. A number of car makers have...
The VergeThese space-saving public EV chargers are ridiculously fast and rolling out now
If you’re an urban-dwelling electric vehicle owner, your public charging options are often limited to slow AC chargers found in tight parking spaces that are too small for typical DC fast chargers. Now Gravity, the company that started an EV taxi fleet in New York City in 2021, designed a compact and super fast DC charging system for big dense cities that can reduce your charging time from hours to just minutes.
Gravity’s system includes small dispenser boxes that the company calls “Distributed Energy Access Points,” which can be mounted above or in front of a parking spot and deliver up to a ridiculously high 500kW of energy. That compares to DC fast charging stations from other companies, which have larger stall units and max out at...