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Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge
Whether you need a stocking stuffer or a white elephant present, we’ve got an inexpensive gift idea for nearly every occasion.
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Google is pushing a new Android update to enable a potentially lifesaving feature that can relay critical medical data to first responders when a user dials 911.
The technology works by sending important emergency information about the caller entered in the Personal Safety app, like age, weight, blood type, allergies, and more, to a platform called RapidSOS. Over 15,000 911 and field responder agencies are tapped into RapidSOS, which has supported relaying Medical ID data from iPhones since 2020.
If you’re dialing 911 from your phone, there’s a chance you’re hurt or, for some other reason, unable to communicate your situation and your information. “This information is available to use before the dispatch and before the responders...
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Apple’s pair of M2 MacBook Airs are some of our top choices among all laptops, and both are discounted. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. The offerings start with the 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020 at $999 and go all the way up to the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro starting at $2,499. But finding a deal on a current Mac with an M1, M2, or even the new M3 chip — as well as the higher-end M3 Pro and M3 Max — is actually not that difficult.
While Macs may not experience perpetual discounts, it’s not uncommon to see various current models discounted by as much as $400. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without as much waiting for the changing winds of deals to blow your way. Apple’s refurbished store provides a...
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Image: Microsoft
Linux is getting its own version of a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Phoronix reports that the latest release of systemd for Linux systems comes with a systemd-bsod service that’s able to generate a full-screen error message on Linux distributions.
Much like how the Blue Screen of Death originated in Windows, Linux’s version will be used as an emergency tool to log errors. If a Linux system fails to boot, it will generate a full-screen message that displays a QR code to get more information on what’s causing the boot issue. This was reportedly added as part of an Outreachy project, a group that provides internships for people to work on open-source tools.
The systemd-bsod feature is still experimental, and a GitHub changelog notes that...
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Ford and Resideo are testing an integration that could power your HVAC using a Honeywell Home smart thermostat and a Ford F-150 Lightning EV. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Smart homes can already help us charge our EVs more efficiently, but using an EV to power our smart homes is still largely sci-fi. However, a new partnership between Ford and Resideo (maker of Honeywell Home smart thermostats) may be a glimpse into that future. Today, the companies announced the EV-Home Power Partnership, a project that’s exploring using Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck to power your HVAC via a smart thermostat during peak hours, saving homeowners money while reducing pressure on the grid.
The simulation project will test the concept of vehicle-to-home (V2H) energy management by integrating Ford’s truck with a Resideo smart thermostat, such as the Honeywell Home T9. Using the bidirectional charging...
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It’s like Microsoft Word, but Notepad. | Image: Microsoft
Microsoft has been gradually improving its built-in Notepad app on Windows 11 in recent years, and now, it’s finally getting a character count. In a new Canary channel test version of Windows 11, Microsoft has added the character count at the bottom much like Microsoft Word’s count of the number of words in a document.
“When text is selected, the status bar shows the character count for both the selected text and the entire document,” explains Microsoft’s Windows Insider team in a blog post. “If no text is selected, the character count for the entire document is displayed, ensuring you always have a clear view of your document’s length.”
This is the latest addition in a line of changes to Notepad this year, with the app recently getting...
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Tags — basically hashtags with a twist — are now rolling out globally on Threads, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday.
Tags work a little differently than hashtags do on platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). When composing a Threads post, you start a tag by tapping the # symbol and then typing out your topic. But instead of being limited to just one word, you can type out a whole phrase (with spaces!) and add special characters, according to Mosseri. However, you can only make one tag per post.
The purpose of tags on Threads is the same as a hashtag, though. “If you share on Threads, [tags are] a great way to help connect with people who are interested in the topics you’re talking about,” Mosseri says. “And...
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Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge
From color-changing lights to gadgets that’ll take care of dinner for you and your pets, here are some of our favorite smart home gifts.
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Joan Donovan is a prominent expert on disinformation campaigns. | Image: Whistleblower Aid
A prominent expert in online disinformation campaigns, Joan Donovan, says Meta pushed her former employer Harvard to shutter a major research project on media manipulation.
Donovan, who led Harvard’s Technology and Social Change Project (TaSC) until it ended this year, revealed her allegations earlier this week in a whistleblower complaint obtained by The Washington Post. She claims that Harvard scuttled her research after the charity of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $500 million to the university in 2021. Around that time, Donovan and her colleagues at TaSC were working with the infamous Facebook Files, a cache of leaked documents that revealed the inner workings of how Facebook handled...
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Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge
We found the best cameras for your budget and needs.
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The new Mammoth app is all about getting into Mastodon quicker. | Image: Mammoth
One of the best things about Mastodon is the sheer number of apps available for it. The official Mastodon app is fine, but there’s also Ivory, Mona, Fedilab, Ice Cubes, Elk, Mastoot, and many others. This openness is part of the whole appeal of the ActivityPub-powered social networking ecosystem, and it has already led to some solid new ideas. (I’ve personally been a very happy Ivory user for a while now.)
Mammoth won some fans earlier this year with a really nicely designed Mastodon client, and then added a “For You” feed that makes Mammoth a little more automatically personalized. Now, with the launch of Mammoth 2 for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, the app is going even deeper into curation and personalization: it’s launching a series of...
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Garmins aren’t just multisport behemoths anymore. | Illustration by Will Joel / The Verge
Garmin may be best known for its hardcore fitness watches, but it’s got an extensive line of lifestyle offerings, too.
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Google’s 4K-ready Chromecast makes for a great gift under $50. | Image: The Verge
I don’t know about you, but now that I’m finally starting my holiday shopping, I’m kicking myself for not taking advantage of all those great Cyber Monday deals. Yet, while many of the best have since disappeared, one of our favorites has luckily just resurfaced. Right now, you can buy the Chromecast with Google TV (4K)for around $37.98 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which was a new all-time low first set during Black Friday.
If you’re looking for something budget-friendly, we think this streaming device is one of the best on the market. For less than $40, you’re getting a 4K-ready device with Dolby Atmos support, along with a remote that lets you find content with voice via Google Assistant. Unlike others in this price range, the...
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Image: Meta
WhatsApp has officially announced that you’ll soon be able to set voice messages to disappear after their recipient hears them. The “View Once” feature has been available for photos and videos since 2021, but it’s now expanding to cover audio messages.
While it’s a little confusing that WhatsApp is using the “View Once” branding for messages that you listen to rather than look at, it’s nice to see the protection available for another of the messaging service’s formats. As a public defender of voice messages, I, for one, am thrilled.
In a press release, the company suggests you might want to use the feature “for reading out your credit card details to a friend, or when you’re planning a surprise.” To that list, I would also add “bitching...
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The Teal Mask — Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s first DLC drop — was short and sweet and felt more like an encapsulated side quest experience than a significant update to the overall game. But the latest trailer for The Indigo Disk — the second planned DLC — makes its many new features seem like the sort of thing that might lure quite a few trainers back to the Paldea region.
Set largely in the Unova region originally introduced in Pokémon’s fifth-generation games, The Indigo Disk will follow players to Blueberry Academy, where they will be reunited with exchange students Carmine and Kieran, who first debuted in The Teal Mask. Along with bringing back every previous generation’s starter pokémon and a large selection of legendary monsters...
The VergeI felt like a Kardashian reject roaming the streets of New York City, but hey, Alexa could tell me the weather.
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Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images
Geoff Keighley’s Happy Holiday Game-a-palooza, also known as The Game Awards (but that’s less fun), kicks off Thursday, December 7th, at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT. You can watch the show on just about anything that permits livestreaming events. The list of participating platforms is actually pretty impressive. There are the standards, like Twitch and YouTube. TikTok makes an appearance, along with X / Twitter (enjoy watching in 720p, though). Then there are platforms like Kick, Instagram Live, and... Google Play (no, seriously).
Regardless of where you decide to watch, your experience watching The Game Awards will be reminiscent of Mr. Keighley’s summertime Game-a-palooza, Opening Night Live. There will be a lot of advertisements for games,...
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Image: Ample
Stellantis struck a deal with California-based EV battery swapping company Ample to power a fleet of shared Fiat 500e vehicles in Spain. But the company says the deal could eventually expand to include personally owned EVs in Europe and the US as well.
By becoming one of the first Western automakers to embrace battery swapping technology, Stellantis is betting that EV charging infrastructure in Europe and the US will remain a barrier to adoption in the near future, necessitating other solutions. Battery swapping could theoretically help EV owners power up and get moving without having to wait for long stretches at a charging station.
Stellantis will work with Ample to launch a battery swapping system for a fleet of Fiat 500e vehicles
S...
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Networks spent years telling us that 5G would change everything. But the flashiest use cases are nowhere to be found — and the race to deploy the tech was costly in more ways than one.
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Noomi Rapace in Constellation_._ | Image: Apple
Apple TV Plus has been a solid run of science fiction of late — think Invasion, Monarch, For All Mankind, and Silo — and it looks like that will continue into the new year. This morning, the streamer released the first images and premiere date for Constellation, a psychological thriller starring Noomi Rapace (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) as an astronaut struggling with life back on Earth after experiencing some kind of tragedy in space. It starts streaming on February 21st, with new weekly episodes on Wednesdays.
Here’s the official premise for the series:
Constellation stars Rapace as Jo — an astronaut who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. The action-packed...
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Smarter tech and new recycling techniques might just mean our EVs get even greener. Here’s how Redwood Materials is putting recycling at the heart of the burgeoning battery belt.
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Image: Epic Games
In what’s becoming increasingly common for Fortnite, the game is fusing with one of the biggest pop culture properties around. This time around, it’s Lego. But the launch of Lego Fortnite is also much more involved than the typical tie-in — and the start of what seems like a new era for Fortnite.
Lego Fortnite is a survival crafting game that’s available inside of Fortnite starting today. It’s sort of like a Lego version of Minecraft, only instead of downloading a whole new game, you just select a tile from the Fortnite menu the same way you would when you hop into battle royale.
I was able to play around 30 minutes of the game earlier in the week, and it’s very impressive, if somewhat familiar. Players are given a large, procedurally...
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A startup called Lithos Carbon spreads crushed basalt across farmlands to trap carbon dioxide in rock. | Image courtesy of Frontier
Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, and a slew of other companies plan to spend more than $57 million cumulatively to fight climate change by spreading crushed rock over farmland.
The aim is to use rocks’ natural ability to absorb carbon dioxide, which might sound low-tech, but speeding up the process and finding a way to reliably measure how much CO2 is sequestered has proven pretty hard. It’s a tactic for trapping planet-heating carbon dioxide called “enhanced weathering” that researchers have studied for decades, but it has lagged behind other emerging technologies in moving to commercialization.
The deal was announced today by Frontier, a carbon removal initiative led by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. Autodesk, H&M...
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Image: GM
General Motors struck a deal with commercial vehicle manufacturer Autocar to use its hydrogen fuel-cell technology to power a range of heavy-duty work vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel cells — which use compressed hydrogen as their fuel and release water vapor as its only emission — have been in development for decades. GM has condensed its Hydrotec-branded system into a “power cube” encompassing 300 individual hydrogen fuel cells, the current generation of which can put out 80 kW of net power.
The automaker has said it wants to use the cubes for a variety of appliances, including mobile generators and temporary EV chargers. And now that list has grown to include vocational vehicles.
Autocar, based in Birmingham, Ala., is a 126-year-old...
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Image: Proton
Proton Drive, the end-to-end encrypted cloud storage app, is getting more like Google Drive. The Android version of the app now lets you automatically back up and manage the photos on your phone.
With the addition of a photo syncing and management feature, it’s becoming more viable as an alternative to mainstream cloud storage options like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Unlike both of these services, files stored within Proton Drive are end-to-end encrypted, which means third parties, including Proton itself, can’t view your uploaded content.
Image: Proton
While Proton Drive currently lets you store photos and other files from your phone, it doesn’t automatically sync new photos. The update will make it more...
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Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge
Meta is rolling out end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats and calls on Messenger, finally fulfilling a promise that’s been in the works for quite awhile. When end-to-end encryption is on, only you and the person you send a message to in Messenger can see its contents, the company claims.
Encrypted chats were first introduced as an opt-in feature in Messenger in 2016, but after a long windup, end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for conversations between two people will now be the standard going forward.
“This has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right,” Loredana Crisan, VP of Messenger, said in a statement shared with The Verge. “Our engineers, cryptographers, designers, policy experts and product...
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Alan Rosa, former head of security for Twitter, filed a lawsuit against X, Elon Musk, and company adviser Steve Davis, alleging that he was wrongly fired for protesting Musk-led cost-cutting measures. Lawyers for Rosa wrote in the complaint that the cuts hampered Twitter’s ability to comply with the regulatory demands of the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission.
The lawsuit alleged that Musk hired Steve Davis as an adviser and gave him broad authority, with which he immediately “began cutting Twitter’s products and services that supported and complied with the Twitter FTC Consent Decree.” Twitter had settled with the FTC over its inappropriate use of users’ personal information only a few months before, prompting the...
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Image: HBO
The second season of HBO’s The Last of Uswill debut in 2025. A new teaser dropped by Max confirmed the date and also offered a glimpse into its 2024 lineup.
The news comes after showrunner Craig Mazin revealed production will start on February 12th, 2024, which is later than originally planned because of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Despite the delay, work on the second season is still underway with an outline already prepared and the first episode’s script submitted before the strike.
The forthcoming season will take place a few years after the first. It will likely be an adaptation of The Last of Us Part II video game, which is getting a remastered version for PlayStation 5 on January 19th, 2024. Bella Ramsey...
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Big Mac meets machine learning. | Illustration: The Verge
McDonald’s is partnering with Google to deploy generative AI beginningin 2024, when “thousands” of stores will get hardware and software upgrades. Along with updates to other systems including ordering kiosks and the company’s mobile app, McDonald’s will be able to use generative AI on massive amounts of data to optimize operations. At least one outcomewill be — according to the company — “hotter, fresher food” for customers. Large orders of fries delivered hot, thanks to large language models? It’s not completely clear what that means, but we can read between the lines: expect more AI-driven automation at a drive-through near you in the coming years.
McDonald’s isn’t specific about how AI will be used but says it will include hardware...
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Google has a solution for the sync issue that caused files to disappear for some users on Drive for desktop. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as a one-click update, but Google has posted a list of steps you can take to recover your files.
After downloading and opening the latest version of Google Drive for Windows or macOS, Google says to run the app’s recovery tool. To do this, click the Drive icon in the menu bar or system tray. From there, press and hold Shift, click Settings, and select “Recover from backups.” If all goes well, you’ll receive a notice that says “Recovery has started.” Google will put all the recovered files into a new folder named “Google Drive recovery” once the process is complete.
In case you run into any...