Intel’s new 14th Gen CPUs get a boost to gaming performance with APO feature

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Intel’s latest 14th Gen chips aren’t a huge improvement over the 13th Gen in gaming performance, but a new Intel Application Optimization (APO) feature might just change that. Intel’s new APO app simply runs in the background, improving performance in games. It offers impressive boosts to frame rates in games that support it, like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus.

Intel Application Optimization essentially directs application resources in real time through a scheduling policy that fine-tunes performance for games and potentially even other applications in the future. It operates alongside Intel’s Thread Director, a technology that’s designed to improve how apps and games are assigned to performance or efficiency cores...

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TikTok is hosting a music festival featuring Cardi B and Charlie Puth

Mainstream and TikTok fame collides. | Image: TikTok

TikTok is taking its viral sounds offline and hosting an in-person music festival in December, the company announced today. And of course, the entire thing will be livestreamed via TikTok Live.

The event, called TikTok In the Mix, will feature top artists like Cardi B, Anitta, Charlie Puth, and Niall Horan — as well as the lesser-known artists behind the soundtracks to hundreds of thousands of videos.

The company describes TikTok In the Mix as the For You page come to life, with performances, small business pop-ups, and “creator activations” happening at the event. The festival will take place in Mesa, Arizona on December 10th, and fans will be able to purchase presale tickets via the TikTok app on Friday.

Hopefully the crowd will...

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Dave the Diver is one of the year’s best games, and it’s still great on Switch

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Dave the Diver cast a line and reeled me in when I played through it on Steam Deck earlier this year. It’s lured once again on Nintendo Switch.

Sorry, I had to get the fishing puns out of the way. But if you haven’t yet played Dave the Diver, a delightful experience that somehow mixes roguelike spearfishing exploration and a time management sushi restaurant simulator into one of the most joyful games of the year, the Nintendo Switch version is a place to get your feet wet.

The game is packed with different types of activities, and as Polygon’s review says, Dave the Diver’s vast number of mechanics shouldn’t work but somehow do. The shark meat of the game is capturing or hunting fish and aquatic life during the diving portions of the...

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Microsoft now thirstily injects a poll when you download Google Chrome

Microsoft Edge now pops up a poll after you press the “Download Chrome” button. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Google Chrome download in Microsoft’s Edge web browser? How many times will the company try to steer me away?

Let’s check!

One:

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

“There’s no need to download a new web browser,” reads the top of a search for “Chrome download” in Microsoft Edge.

Two:

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

“Microsoft edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft,” reads a pop-up that appears after you land on Google’s site.

Three:

Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge

“We love having you! Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying...

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The bendy phone is back, baby

Stylish, yet impractical! | Image: Lenovo

Today at Lenovo Tech World ‘23, many things happened. There was a lot of talk about AI. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and his leather jacket were there. There were some celebrities I was probably supposed to recognize. And Lenovo dusted off its bendable phone concept and let it out into the light for nearly two full minutes!

Almost two hours into the keynote, Lexi Valasek with the Motorola Innovation Research team took the stage with the latest iteration of Moto’s bendy concept phone. Like the one Motorola showed off at Tech World 2016, a couple of years after it was acquired by Lenovo, it’s a large smartphone built around a flexible OLED display that can bend backward to wrap around the wrist, cuff-style.

This version does seem more...

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Apple is reportedly planning to turn the TV app into the streaming hub it always wanted

The Apple TV app’s ambitions have always been huge. | Image: Apple

Apple appears to be working on a revamp of its TV app that the company hopes will turn it into users’ go-to place for all their shows, movies, and more. A new Bloomberg report says Apple is planning to remove its apps for buying and renting content and bundle that with its streaming content, channel-subscription options, and more. The new app could launch as early as this December on the Apple TV box, across Apple’s other platforms, and on the other TV operating systems the Apple TV app is available on. (The fact that the Apple TV is distinct from the Apple TV app, which is not the same as Apple TV Plus, and that “Apple TV is available on Roku” is a technically true phrase never fails to blow my mind. These names! But I digress.)

In a...

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Slack gets rid of its X integration

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Slack has retired its integration with X (formerly Twitter) because of X’s API changes introduced earlier this year.

According to Slack, X’s API changes affected the functionality of the integration, which led to the decision to retire it. “Slack’s integration with X relies on access to its API, and changes to that API this spring impacted the integration’s functionality and the services it supports,” Rod Garcia, Slack’s VP of software engineering, said in a statement to The Verge. “The Twitter app for Slack has not been functional since X implemented these changes, so we have removed the app from the small set of customer workspaces that still have it installed. For more information, please see our update on Slack’s feature retirements...

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Xbox and cloud help boost Microsoft’s Q1 2024 earnings

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft just posted the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $56.5 billion in revenue and a net income of $22.3 billion during Q1. Revenue is up 13 percent, and net income has increased by 27 percent. Devices revenue has been hit hard again this quarter, even if Windows has recovered slightly. The star of Microsoft’s earnings are cloud services and Office, though.

Windows OEM revenue, the price that PC manufacturers pay Microsoft to put Windows on laptops and PCs, is up 4 percent this quarter. It’s a surprise increase, given we’ve seen a general weakness in PC sales over the past year, with Windows OEM revenue suffering throughout Microsoft’s entire 2023 fiscal year.

Photo by...

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Google is ready to fill its AI searches with ads

Illustration: The Verge

Everybody’s coming for Google, but Google is doing just fine, according to parent company Alphabet’s third quarter earnings on Tuesday.

While Google has been dealing with fierce competition on all sides and is investing a lot into infusing AI into as many products as it can, its ads business, the company’s bread and butter, is still humming along. The Search business earned $44 billion, an 11 percent jump year over year.

The big question coming up is how Google’s focus on AI will impact that core business. Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience is still only available on an opt-in basis, so we don’t yet know how much it’ll impact the company’s ad business.

Google is already moving to head off that problem. On Google’s earnings...

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Snap’s business is showing signs of life

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snap’s business has been on life support for a while now, with Apple’s ad tracking changes on iOS, competition from TikTok, and a combination of other factors leading to a collapse in its revenue growth.

That said, all is not lost: based on the third quarter earnings results that Snap announced on Tuesday, its ads business appears to finally be on the upswing. Total revenue grew to nearly $1.2 billion, an increase of 5 percent from the same time last year. Snap is still a money-losing company, though. It posted a net loss of over $368 million for the quarter, slightly higher than the year-ago period.

While the return to revenue growth is certainly a welcome sign, Snap’s management team continues to be in a state of flux. Jerry Hunter,...

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The Humane AI Pin apparently runs GPT-4 and flashes a ‘Trust Light’ when it’s recording

The AI Pin has a projector, it seems, instead of a screen. | Image: TED

Humane’s first gadget, the AI Pin, is currently slated to launch on November 9th, but we just got our best look at it yet thanks to a somewhat unexpected source. Before it has even been announced, the AI Pin is one of Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2023,” along with everything from the Framework Laptop 16 to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 to the Bedtime Buddy alarm clock.

The write-up is brief and relatively light on details, but there are a couple of new details, along with the best photo we’ve seen yet of the device. It appears the AI Pin will attach magnetically to your clothing, and uses “a mix of proprietary software and OpenAI’s GPT-4” to power its many features. (If you remember, that includes everything from making calls to...

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Apple Pay Later is rolling out to all users in the US

Image: Apple

It looks like Apple is rolling out Pay Later to all users in the US. As spotted by MacRumors, the buy now, pay later service is now widely available within Apple Wallet and is featured on Apple’s homepage.

First announced in June 2022, Apple Pay Later lets users make a purchase and then pay for it in a series of four installments over the course of six weeks without any interest or late fees. If you thought the service was already out, that’s because Apple initially launched it on select iPhones and iPads in March. Users can use Pay Later on purchases between $75 and $1,000.

Earlier today, MacRumors noticed that Apple had removed the mention of a “prerelease version” from Pay Later’s support documents, a sign that Apple had been getting...

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 moves AI out of the cloud and onto your phone

The what-is-a-photo-pocalypse gets even more complicated. | Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chipset is an on-device AI fest from top to bottom. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 brings generative AI capabilities right to the chipset, vastly speeding up the processing-intensive activities that are usually outsourced to the cloud. It’s one more leap forward in a year that has seen a lot of leaping when it comes to AI, and it will come sooner than later: the first phones with the new chipset are expected to debut in the coming weeks.

The 8 Gen 3 supports a chatbot trained on Meta’s Llama 2, and it can accept text, image, and voice input. It can also talk back to you as well as generate an image or text. The chipset also runs the AI image generator Stable Diffusion on-device, something that Qualcomm demoed...

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Qualcomm turns to Wi-Fi to take wireless earbuds and headphones to the next level

Image: Qualcomm

Any flagship pair of headphones or earbuds you buy nowadays is going to be very, very good. Noise cancellation has grown more impressive than ever, and Bluetooth codecs like LDAC and AptX Adaptive have led to meaningful upticks in audio quality. But there’s always room for our tech to get better, and particularly in the realm of wireless audio, we’re really pushing up against the limits of what Bluetooth can deliver.

That’s been true for some time, and Qualcomm believes it has come up with a solution: beginning with its next Snapdragon Sound platform, the company plans to rely on Wi-Fi, in addition to Bluetooth, to unshackle the next wave of headphones and earbuds from Bluetooth’s typical limitations. If the company’s promises bear out,...

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Qualcomm claims its Snapdragon X Elite processor will beat Apple, Intel, and AMD

What laptop is this? I have a guess. | Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm has announced its new Snapdragon X Elite platform, which looks to be its most powerful computing processor to date. The chips (including the new Qualcomm Oryon, announced today) are built on a 4nm process and include 136GB/s of memory bandwidth. PCs are expected to ship in mid-2024.

Qualcomm has made the ambitious claim that its Snapdragon X Elite will outperform multiple Intel Core i7 processors on the Geekbench 6 benchmark that measures multi-threaded performance. The company has put forth a chart as evidence for this, which it did not label in any especially useful way. I have no idea whether this y-axis is a linear or logarithmic scale or where it starts. There is also no mention of single-thread performance, which is an...

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Apple announces new nationwide right to repair commitment

Illustration: The Verge

Apple announced that it would be making all of the parts, tools, and information necessary for consumers and repair shops to fix the device maker’s products during a White House event on Tuesday.

Apple is already required to make these materials available in California after the state passed its Right to Repair Act earlier this month, but the company says it will bring this new support to consumers and independent repair shops nationwide.

“We intend to honor California’s new repair provisions across the United States,” Brian Naumann, Apple vice president and general manager of the company’s repair business, said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Apple also believes that consumers and businesses would benefit from a national law that balances...

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How to customize your Samsung Galaxy phone with the Good Lock app

The Verge

If you own a Galaxy smartphone and you haven’t already discovered the Samsung Good Lock app, I’d recommend getting it installed at your earliest opportunity. It’s packed with tweaks, tools, and options that build on top of what Samsung already puts into its One UI version of Android.

Good Lock lets you take much more control over how your phone interface looks as well as helping you to do more with your phone. Whether you want to design your own clock face for the lock screen, switch between apps more quickly, or change the behavior of the S Pen stylus, Good Lock can help.

Getting started

To get started, open the Galaxy Store on your Samsung phone, then find and install the Good Lock app.

The app works by using mini apps called...

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California DMV suspends Cruise’s robotaxi permit ‘effective immediately’

Image: Getty

The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s robotaxi permit “effective immediately.” The General Motors-backed company had recently been involved in several safety incidents, most recently a hit-and-run by another driver that resulted in a pedestrian trapped under one of Cruise’s driverless vehicles.

Among the reasons cited for the suspension: Cruise’s vehicles “are not safe for public operation”; the company allegedly “misrepresented” the safety of its vehicles; Cruise’s vehicles could pose “an unreasonable risk to the public”; and permits can be revoked “if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road.”

“The DMV has...

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Wyze’s new video doorbell records 24/7 locally, but you can’t escape the cloud

Wyze’s new video doorbell is its first with local recording. | Image: Wyze

Smart home company Wyze has a new doorbell cam. The Wyze Video Doorbell v2 is a 2K-capable doorbell camera with a head-to-toe view of your porch and local recording via a microSD card. Costing just $39.99 (plus shipping), it’s a wired doorbell (there’s no battery backup) and is an upgrade from the original Wyze Doorbell.

The camera comes in black, and the local storage feature allows for 24/7 recording. You have to buy the microSD card separately (it supports up to 256GB), but if you choose not to, you won’t need to pay a subscription, as Wyze offers free 12-second recordings when the doorbell is pressed. There are very few doorbells that offer 24/7 continuous video, and fewer still for free. The Verge’s top pick video doorbell, the Nest...

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella admits giving up on Windows Phone and mobile was a mistake

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with a Windows Phone. | Image: Getty

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is the third chief executive of the software giant to admit the company has made some serious mobile mistakes. Satya Nadella took over from former CEO Steve Ballmer in 2014 and, just over a year later, wrote off $7.6 billion related to Microsoft’s acquisition of the Nokia phone business.

In an interview with Business Insider, Nadella admitted that Microsoft’s “exit” from the mobile phone business could have been handled better. Asked about a strategic mistake or wrong decision that he might regret, Nadella responds:

The decision I think a lot of people talk about – and one of the most difficult decisions I made when I became CEO — was our exit of what I’ll call the mobile phone as defined then. In retrospect,...

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Lego’s flapping Dune Ornithopter set comes with a big boi Baron minifig

Look at that magnificent fella on the far left — every bit as imposing as the real deal. | Image: Lego

If you’re bummed about Dune: Part Two being delayed until March 15th, 2024, Lego’s latest Icons set might be the ideal fix to tide you over. The Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter — a 1,369-piece replica of the Imperium’s favored flapping flying machine — is now available to preorder for $164.99, with a release date set for February 1st, 2024.

While both the Dune (2021) and upcoming Dune: Part Two movies have PG-13 ratings, this Lego set is a “premium-quality” model designed for adults. When assembled, it features flappable fold-out wings, deployable landing gear, and a cockpit that can be opened to place in one of the eight included mini figurines of the franchise’s cast.

Image: Lego

When the wings are fully...

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Google Photos will soon give you more say in those AI-created video highlights

Illustration: The Verge

You know that thing in Apple Photos and Google Photos where they’ll just randomly generate a generically titled video slideshow that sometimes includes just the worst pictures? Google says that, soon, you’ll be able to ask Google Photos to make them for you! The company will start rolling out an update that lets you choose the parameters for the videos you want the app to make instead of just passively waiting for them to happen to you.

Even if the app still sometimes makes objectively bad choices for the videos it creates, this is a great update. In fact, it’s one of those features that, if you weren’t immediately annoyed it wasn’t there all along, you might see this news and think, “Hey, yeah, why is this just now happening?”

...

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Here are the best iPad deals right now

Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While the best iPad deals usually come around during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and even Amazon’s most recent Prime Day event, you can still find plenty of great discounts throughout the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere that you may be interested in.

Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available,...

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Dozens of states sue Meta over youth mental health crisis

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Dozens of states sued Meta on Tuesday, accusing the company of putting profit ahead of the safety of its young users.

The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, argues that Meta unlawfully misled the public about the harms its products, like Facebook and Instagram, could impose on children and teens. By implementing a business model meant to maximize time on the platform, Meta contributed to a youth mental health crisis, the complaint says.

“Over the past decade,” the lawsuit says, “Meta has profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans.”

“Meta has profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans.”

The complaint alleges that Meta knowingly...

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Apple plans ‘Scary Fast’ product event just before Halloween

Image: Apple

Apple is gearing up for another product launch event on October 30th at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. The company has started sending out invites for everyone to tune in to the event, called “Scary Fast” on Apple.com Monday night, following rumors Apple is preparing to reveal updates for the Mac lineup.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple might be planning a surprise “Mac-centered product launch” event. So far, rumors suggest that Apple could reveal a refreshed 24-inch iMac, along with a new MacBook Pro. As reported by Gurman, Apple’s inventory of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros and the iMac have begun to dry up, which could indicate that new models are on the way.

Previous rumors hinted the new computers could include...

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Chevy Bolt owners could receive $1,400 compensation from GM for nerfed batteries

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Chevy Bolt owners might have the option to receive a $1,400 payout from GM as compensation for dealing with the cars’ defective EV batteries that required a software range limiter to prevent them from catching fire.

As reported by Engadget, the new offer from GM comes as the company deals with a class action lawsuit stemming from two Bolt recalls that, over time, grew to include nearly every model ever released.

To qualify for the offer, owners must install a “final remedy” software update on their Bolt through a Chevy dealership by December 31st, 2023. Owners will get a letter that grants them access to a web form to accept the money in the form of a Visa e-gift card.

However, it’s not without strings attached. According to the terms...

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YouTube Music now lets you make your own playlist art with AI

Image: YouTube

YouTube Music is finally letting you change the cover art of your playlists. While you still won’t get to upload your own image, you can now make a custom image using generative AI.

As shown in the below GIF, you can create AI-generated art by tapping the pen icon in the bottom right corner of your playlist’s cover art. You can then select the category that you want your image to fall into, like animals, food and drink, colors, nature, or travel.

From there, you can either hit “randomize” or choose from several prompts, such as creating a pug “in the style of a Medieval Gothic painting.” The AI will output five different images for you to choose from. Once you hit “save,” that art will become the image representing your playlist.

...

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Nintendo’s premium Switch OLED console is at its lowest price of $289.99 again

The Switch OLED has a bunch of small improvements beyond its screen, like a better kickstand and revised dock. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Expectations may be high for an often-rumored Nintendo Switch 2, but until Nintendo announces something new, the best option around remains the Switch OLED. Since it’s been such a big year for Nintendo games, there’s really no shame in getting a Switch so late into the console’s lengthy lifecycle, and you can do so with some very good deals.

The Nintendo Switch OLED model with either white or neon red and blue Joy-Con controllers is on sale once again for its lowest price of $289.99 ($60 off) at Monoprice. The OLED model is the best Switch for those who spend a lot of their game time in handheld mode since its seven-inch OLED display is a little larger than the standard model and offers much better picture and color quality (yes, even...

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GM delays production of Chevy Equinox, Silverado, and GMC Sierra Denali EVs

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

General Motors announced the delay of production of its upcoming slate of electric vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox EV, Chevy Silverado EV, and GMC Sierra Denali EV. The news comes amid a broader environment in which EV demand is softening and prices are dropping, even as sales continue to grow year over year.

The delay in production of “just a few months” is intended to protect pricing and enhance viability, GM CEO Mary Barra said. The adjustments will “make the trucks more efficient and less expensive to produce, and therefore more profitable” in the future.

GM is also pulling its near-term targets for EV sales in a nod to slower-than-expected demand growth. The company had said it would sell 400,000 EVs in North America from...

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Everyone’s out for themselves in Leave the World Behind’s new trailer

Mahershala Ali as G.H. and Myha’la as Ruth. | Image: Netflix

Most people like to think of themselves as having some sort of game plan ready in the event that apocalyptic things start going down. But in the new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming film Leave the World Behind, from director Sam Esmail, a lack of planning seems to be a big part of what has everyone running scared.

Based on Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel by the same name, Leave the World Behind tells the story of two families who unexpectedly find their fates intertwined just as a massive blackout shuts down most of the Eastern Seaboard’s power grid. When Amanda (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) rent a house in Long Island, they assume they’ll be able to get out of the city for a much-needed quiet weekend vacation with their...

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