Now Microsoft PowerPoint for the web can add videos with closed captions

Illustration: The Verge

PowerPoint for the web now lets users insert videos with closed captions and subtitles into presentations, reports Windows Central. It should make presentations created in the Microsoft 365 suite more accessible to Deaf people or those hard of hearing, but the feature also offers other benefits.

You can add closed captions in multiple languages, allowing users to connect with audiences worldwide, and captions also make it easier to watch videos in loud environments or quietly without disturbing people around you. It’s also become a feature people expect to see as support for subtitling expands in apps like TikTok, Netflix, Zoom, and more.

To embed a video and insert captions, users must first create closed caption files in the WebVTT...

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Apple will make it harder for governments to get your push notifications

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple will require law enforcement to obtain a court order before the company hands over details of customers’ push notifications from now on. As Reuters reports, Apple quietly updated its guidelines for law enforcement page on Monday with language specifying that search warrants and court orders are now required for it to give up “The Apple ID associated with” an Apple Push Notification Service token. The new policy follows revelations that both Apple and Google have been providing details about the notifications to governments.

Apps can “push” notifications to your phone so that you receive alerts, like a text message or incoming email, even when the app itself isn’t open. But the process involves potentially sensitive information...

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X outage breaks all outgoing links, again

Image: The Verge

As if publishers and users didn’t have enough reasons to reconsider their connections to the platform formerly known as Twitter, all outgoing links from X are currently broken. A problem with the URL redirect that captures activity before sending users on their way is currently leading people to a simple error page saying, “This page is down. I scream. You scream. We all scream... for us to fix this page. We’ll stop making jokes and get things up and running soon.”

If this sounds familiar, it’s because something similar happened in March, taking down links and images across timelines for around an hour. Twitter blamed that on an “internal change that had some unintended consequences” before Platformer reported the bug occurred because of...

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Xbox Cloud Gaming is now available on Meta’s Quest VR headsets

Image: Meta

Xbox Cloud Gaming is arriving on Meta’s range of VR headsets today. A beta version of the cloud gaming app is now available for the Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro headsets, allowing you to stream hundreds of Xbox games with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, a controller, and a Quest headset.

The beta app is available from the Meta Quest Store, and you’ll simply need to pair a supported Bluetooth controller to start playing. You can use an Xbox controller (that supports Bluetooth), a PS4 one, or even Nintendo’s Switch Pro controllers. Support for PS5 controllers is “coming in the future,” according to Meta.

Image: Meta

The Xbox Cloud Gaming app on a Quest headset.

There are a variety of display sizes for an...

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Threads is officially starting to test ActivityPub integration

Illustration: The Verge

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the platform is beginning to test making Threads posts available on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-supporting services. Zuckerberg wrote that making Threads work with the interoperable standard “will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people.”

Joining the fediverse — the decentralized world of social media that includes Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other services that all interoperate through ActivityPub — has been on the Threads team’s to-do list since the very beginning. Instagram head Adam Mosseri told The Verge in July that he believed decentralizing the platform was key to making it relevant to a new generation of creators. “I think we might...

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Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are down to their lowest price to date

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro sound good, are compact, and — most importantly — purple. (Yes, they also come in white and black.) | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are once again selling for their best price of $159.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The noise-canceling earbuds with 24-bit audio support are among the smaller and lighter options from the current top-flight class of wireless earbuds, making them a very comfy choice. They’re also a pretty easy choice if you use Samsung devices, since, in addition to putting out some great quality sound, the Buds 2 Pro feature head tracking and spatial audio with Galaxy phones. Plus, that bora purple color option is just so fun looking.

Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

If you live near a Target retail store, you can take advantage of a major one-day deal on Microsoft’s flagship Xbox console. Target is...

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Tesla’s trash won’t get picked up as union actions in Sweden escalate

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla will have to skip trash day in Sweden as the country’s labor groups continue to protest the company’s anti-union policies. Reuters reports the country’s Transport Workers’ Union will refuse to pick up waste at the automaker’s workshops in solidarity with Tesla autoworkers who’ve been on strike since October 27th.

Tesla has resisted collective bargaining agreements worldwide, but Sweden’s strong labor culture is continuing to test the automaker’s policy.

After 130 workers at Tesla repair shops walked out, the first show of solidarity came from union dockworkers who refused to unload Tesla vehicles from cargo ships in early November. Then, on November 20th, postal workers joined the effort by refusing to deliver mail to Tesla,...

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Apple now sells the AirPods Pro USB-C case by itself — for $99

Image: Apple

Apple has begun selling the USB-C charging case for its second-generation AirPods Pro as a standalone purchase. But it doesn’t come cheap. The MagSafe-compatible case, available immediately, is priced at $99. Still, if you’re dead set on switching all of your gadgets to USB-C and already own a pair of second-gen AirPods Pro with a Lightning case, this upgrade is cheaper than buying a whole new set.

Delivery estimates are already showing an arrival date of after Christmas, so the case might not be a viable holiday stocking stuffer unless your local Apple store gets stock in the coming days.

The USB-C AirPods Pro, which released earlier this year, still have some advantages over the original Lightning model. Namely, they’re...

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Epic is giving away 17 games as part of its holiday sale

Image: Bungie

Epic Games plans to give away 17 free games during its annual holiday sale for the Epic Games Store, the company announced on Wednesday.

The first free game you can snag is Destiny 2: Legacy Collection (2023), which includes three expansions: The Witch Queen, Beyond Light, and Shadowkeep. If you want to catch up on some older Destiny 2 content before the recently delayed release of The Final Shape, the Legacy Collection might be a good thing to add to your Epic Games Store library (though note that it doesn’t include the current Lightfall expansion). Legacy Collection will be available for free until December 20th at 11AM ET; at that time, the next free game will unlock.

The 2023 holiday sale has some pretty good deals, too.

• Epic is...

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Why the AI Act was so hard to pass

Biometric AI tech like facial recognition software was one of the major sticking points contributing to negotiation delays. | Image: The Verge

When European lawmakers reached a provisional deal on landmark artificial intelligence rules last week, they had reason to celebrate.

The EU AI Act reached a long-awaited climax on Friday following not only two years of broad discussion but a three-day “marathon” debate between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and EU member states to iron out disagreements. All-nighters were pulled. Bins overflowed with the remnants of coffee, energy drinks, and sugary snacks. It was the kind of environment you’d expect from students cramming for finals, not lawmakers working on legislation that could set a blueprint for global AI regulation. The chaos was largely thanks to two contentious issues that threatened to derail the entire...

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Tesla’s huge recall will make it harder — but not impossible — to misuse Autopilot

Photo by Sjoerd van der Wal / Getty Images

Tesla issued a recall notice today for 2 million vehicles in the US to address a “defect” with Autopilot, the company’s groundbreaking and controversial advanced driver-assist system. Safety experts say the recall will likely make Autopilot harder to misuse.

Harder, but not impossible.

“It’s progress,” said Mary “Missy” Cummings, a robotics expert who wrote a 2020 paper evaluating the risks of Tesla’s Autopilot system, “but minimal progress.”

Cummings said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration missed an opportunity to force the company to address concerns around Tesla owners using Autopilot on roads where it wasn’t intended to work. Last week, The Washington Post published an investigation linking at least eight fatal or...

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Netflix is bringing the excellent Sonic Mania to mobile

Image: Sega

Netflix has figured out that the only thing better than having a bunch of Sonic cartoons on its platform is having a Sonic game. The streamer has announced that Sonic Mania Plus — y’know, the best Sonic game this decade — is coming to mobile via Netflix in 2024.

Sonic Mania launched on console and PC in 2017 and, in 2018, was updated to Sonic Mania Plus. The upgrade to Plus added two new playable characters — Mighty and Ray — a new tutorial zone, and expanded, color-swapped levels.

But the biggest addition was a new game mode called Encore mode. In this new mode, instead of Sonic and pals accumulating lives that get spent every time they find themselves on the wrong end of the drowning timer music, you accumulate party members a la the...

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Politico, Business Insider parent Axel Springer inks deal with OpenAI

Illustration by William Joel

OpenAI and Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider and Politico, signed a deal to share content on ChatGPT.

The deal allows ChatGPT to pull information to user prompts from articles published on Axel Springer’s publications and provide links to full stories for transparency. It will also enable Axel Springer to build with OpenAI’s technology, the company said in a statement.

Axel Springer owns Business Insider, Politico, and European publications Bild and Welt.

The company said the partnership with OpenAI creates new financial opportunities. Julia Sommerfeld, deputy spokesperson for Axel Springer, tells The Verge ChatGPT will have access to premium paywalled articles on Business Insider but not from paid subscription...

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Amazon is making it easier to browse your entire library of books

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Amazon is rolling out a new feature that puts every book you’ve ever purchased on the site — whether it’s digital, physical, or an audiobook — into a single searchable hub. The new feature, called Your Books, lets you sort through all your titles while also providing recommendations based on your previous purchases.

The main “Library” tab lays out your entire catalog of books, which you can search through based on various filters, such as author, genre, and series as well as some tailored to the titles you currently own, like “Literature & Fiction.” There’s also a tab for saved books that includes every book you’ve ever wishlisted on Amazon.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge

You can sort through your library...

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Range Rover opens a waiting list for its upcoming EV

The Range Rover EV waiting list is open for signups. | Image: Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced that it has opened up waiting list signups for its first fully electric Range Rover EV, along with a teaser video today.

The electric SUV, which it says will debut in 2024 (it had previously pegged a 2025 launch), is in the physical prototype phase. JLR says it’s still filing patents as the EV goes through what it calls “one of the most rigorous engineering sign-off programmes ever.”

JLR plans for the Range Rover EV to have performance similar to its existing V8 Range Rovers. The company says it will be capable of 800-volt rapid charging on public networks — that is, it carries the promise of charging up to 80 percent in about the time it takes to drop by a gas station and hit the restroom and take a...

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Instagram is going to let you set video statuses

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Instagram is going to help you spice up your Notes by letting you post video Notes, Meta announced on Wednesday.

Notes have so far been text-based, meaning they currently function like the AIM status messages of my millennial youth. (You can even share what song you’re listening to!) The addition of video gives you a little more room to be creative with your Notes, and you can add a text caption, too. But since video Notes can only be two-second loops, they probably aren’t going to replace Instagram Stories anytime soon.

The company is also introducing additional ways to reply to Notes from your friends, including photos, videos, audio messages, stickers, and GIFs. If you reply to a Note, your friend will see that reply as a DM.

...

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America is on the brink in the first trailer for Alex Garland’s Civil War

Image: Murray Close / A24

The next film from director Alex Garland looks like quite the action-packed dystopia. A24 just released the first trailer for Civil War, which is set in a near-future version of the US that is, as you can probably guess, in the midst of a violent civil war, with forces from Texas and California making their way to the White House. It’s hard to glean too many story details from the trailer, but it features a small group attempting to infiltrate a heavily fortified Washington, DC. It also features the tagline “all empires fall,” so you know things aren’t going so well.

Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, alongside Nick Offerman as the president and frequent Garland collaborator Sonoya...

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This smart mixer did not make me a better baker

The $800 GE Profile Smart Mixer improves on the category — but not enough to justify its high price tag and hefty size.

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Tesla will update nearly every car sold in the US to address Autopilot ‘defect’

Because Autopilot is a standard feature on new Tesla models, almost every X, S, 3, and Y (pictured) model sold within the US is impacted. | Image: Tesla

Tesla is pushing software updates to over 2 million vehicles in the US — or almost every Model S, Y, X, and 3 ever sold in the country — to address a defect in the company’s Autopilot system. On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall notice for the vehicles following a two-year investigation into a series of collisions that occurred involving Tesla vehicles using Autopilot, which comes as standard on every new Tesla.

“In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse,” the agency said in the recall statement, noting that this could lead to an “increased risk of a collision.”

The notice applies to...

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Apple makes remote diagnostic tool available as it expands self-service repair program

Illustration: The Verge

Apple has announced an expansion of its self-service repair program, allowing iPhone 15 users and owners of newer M2-powered MacBooks to repair their own devices. But perhaps more interesting is the release of “Apple Diagnostics for Self Service Repair,” which Apple says will help self-repairers “test devices for optimal part functionality and performance, as well as identify which parts may need repair.”

The web-based diagnostics tool is available now in the US, and this Apple support page offers some details on how it works. You start by putting the device you’re troubleshooting into diagnostics mode, enter its serial number into a secondary device, and then follow Apple’s instructions to troubleshoot the broken device. Available tests...

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Microsoft exec hints at free ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft currently offers free access to Fortnite on its Xbox Cloud Gaming service (xCloud), but there are signs the company may offer free game streaming in exchange for ads. Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart hinted at this prospect in a Wells Fargo TMT Summit interview late last month, spotted by TweakTown.

“The vision I like to talk about is we have xCloud game streaming, so you can subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate and you can stream hundreds of games to really any endpoint that has a browser experience,” explained Stuart. “For models like Africa, or India, Southeast Asia, maybe places that aren’t console-first, you can say, ‘hey, do you want to watch 30 seconds of an ad and then get two hours of game streaming?’”

Stuart’s spitballing...

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The world came tantalizingly close to a deal to phase out fossil fuels

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 11: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber (C), President of the COP28 UNFCCC Climate Conference, emerges from negotiations over the wording of the Presidential draft on day eleven of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference. | Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

What would have been a historic deal to tackle a planetary crisis slipped out of reach at the eleventh hour.Even so, climate-vulnerable countries and environmental advocates scored some key wins with clean energy after heated climate negotiations wrapped up in the United Arab Emirates, a top oil- and gas-producing country.

This was the closest yet that countries have gotten to striking a global deal to phase out the use of coal, oil, and gas. But the summit was arguably still a home game for fossil fuel interests who threw their weight around the United Nations climate conference, called the 28th Conference of the Parties or COP28, where tens of thousands of delegates and activists from nearly every nation on Earth have gathered over...

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Starlink loses out on $886 million in rural broadband subsidies

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The FCC announced today that it won’t award Elon Musk’s Starlink an $886 million subsidy from the Universal Service Fund for expanding broadband service in rural areas. The money would have come from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (RDOF), but the FCC writes that Starlink wasn’t able to “demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service” and that giving the subsidy to it wouldn’t be “the best use of limited Universal Service Fund dollars.”

That was the same reason the FCC gave when it rejected Starlink’s bid last year, which led to this appeal. SpaceX had previously won the bidding to roll out 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload “low-latency internet to 642,925 locations in 35 states,” funded by the RDOF.

“The FCC is...

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Snapchat now lets subscribers share AI-generated snaps

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Snapchat is getting even more generative AI features. The messaging app now lets Snapchat Plus subscribers create images based on a text prompt and send them to friends.

Those who subscribe to Snapchat’s $3.99 plan can use the feature by tapping the “AI” button from the toolbar on the right side of the camera interface. This opens up a window where users can type a text prompt or choose from one of the premade options, like “a futuristic disco” or “a rocket preparing for liftoff.”

Image: Snap

From there, Snapchat’s AI will spit out an image based on the prompt, allowing users to edit it and add a message before sending it off to friends and family on the app. Snapchat is rolling out some other AI-powered perks for...

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Marvel’s Black Panther Disney Plus series will dig into Wakandan history

Details about Marvel’s forthcoming Black Panther spinoff series have been sparse since the studio first announced it a couple years back. But ahead of What If …?’s season 2 premiere on Disney Plus, the streamer’s just shared a few promising details about what to expect from The Eyes of Wakanda.

Along with reminders about the impending arrivals of X-Men ‘97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man(formerly titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year), and new details about What If … season 2, Disney Plus announced today that its upcoming Black Panther spinoff series is titled The Eyes of Wakanda. Rather than focusing on a singular Black Panther, The Eyes of Wakanda will tell the stories of multiple warriors who “have been tasked to travel the...

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Hot Pod Summit is back

Image: The Verge

This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

We’ve got a bunch of news in podcast world, but first, an announcement: Hot Pod Summit is BACK, baby! We have some really great stuff cooking that I can’t wait to share.

Hot Pod Summit is back!

I’m excited to announce that Hot Pod Summit is returning to Brooklyn on February 28th, 2024, as part of On Air Fest for a day of in-depth talks, intimate conversations, and industry networking. The invite-only summit is our way of kicking off the year in podcasting and talking about what’s on everyone’s minds — I’m eager to see you all, catch up, and hear what everyone’s thinking.

We’ll have more to share about programming in the new year. For...

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E3 was a concentrated dose of gaming — and I’m going miss it

Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images

Back at E3 2017, I had a plan. The annual convention always had a wide range of game developers in attendance, offering reporters like me the opportunity to talk to prominent folks from all over the world. I decided it would be the ideal place to chat with Japanese creatives about the then-resurgent mood surrounding the country’s video game efforts. First on my list was Toshihiro Nagoshi, the infamously prickly creator of the Yakuza series. In an attempt to break the ice, I asked the stylish director where he bought his shoes. He replied, very simply — and in a very serious tone — “very expensive.” The only words of English he spoke during our entire conversation.

Now that E3 is dead — for real this time — I can’t help but think back on...

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Sony is investigating an alleged ransomware attack on Insomniac

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Sony is investigating claims by the Rhysida ransomware group that it stole sensitive data from Insomniac Games, including personal information for the voice actor who portrayed Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2. Australian outlet Cyber Daily reported today that the group had posted some of the data as proof of the hack and is currently auctioning the full set for around $2 million worth of bitcoin.

Some of the data published by Rhysida reportedly includes details about Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine game, including a screenshot and some character art that Cyber Daily wrote “seems to relate to other Marvel characters” from the game. The outlet also says the data included scans of Insomniac employees’ passports, as well as one for Yuri...

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Game studio shuts down just days after launching anticipated MMO

Image: Fntastic

The Day Before, an open-world zombie survival MMO, experienced a dramatic series of events resulting in its developer closing down four days after the game’s launch.

After a much-hyped trailer launch back in 2021, The Day Before became one of Steam’s most wishlisted games and, after a couple of delays, it launched in early access on December 7th.

After five years of blood, sweat, and tears, we can finally say these words: THE DAY BEFORE IS OUT NOW! https://t.co/q6BL7u9pzO#thedaybefore

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 7, 2023

Initial reviews were not great. Though billed as a survival MMO, players remarked that it was more like an extraction shooter but with mediocre loot. Players to team up with were sparse, enemies to shoot were...

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Meta’s AI for Ray-Ban smart glasses can identify objects and translate languages

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta is finally going to let people try its splashiest AI features for the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, though in an early access test to start. Today, Meta announced that it’s going to start rolling out its multimodal AI features that can tell you about things Meta’s AI assistant can see and hear through the camera and microphones of the glasses.

Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated the update in an Instagram reel where he asked the glasses to suggest pants that would match a shirt he was holding.

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A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

It responded by describing the shirt and offering a couple of suggestions for pants that might complement it. He also had the glasses’ AI...

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