2023 was business as usual in the headphone world, but next year should bring some shake-ups

The Verge / Photos by Chris Welch

A lot happened in the headphone world this year. 2023 gave us the usual serving of big new products, but it also continued that story of earbuds and headphones growing smarter and more advanced — while audio quality keeps reaching new heights. And for better or worse, the trend helped to strengthen ecosystem lock-in for brands like Apple, Samsung, and Google.

Bose overhauled its hardware lineup and released the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and Headphones, which are the latest flexes of the company’s best-in-class active noise cancellation. Sony launched the hotly anticipated WF-1000XM5 earbuds. Jabra tried to keep pace with larger competitors with a pair of new premium earbuds, the Elite 10 and Elite 8 Active. Other companies produced buds...

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Leaked Samsung S24 spec sheet offers complete picture of the upcoming lineup

From left to right, the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Galaxy S24 Plus. | Image: Samsung / @MysteryLupin

If rumors are to be believed, we’re less than a month away from the launch of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S24 range. Over on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, leaker Evan Blass has shared what appears to be an early look at a countdown to the next Galaxy Unpacked that says “Galaxy AI is coming” on January 18th at 3AM KST. That translates to 1PM ET on January 17th, in line with a previously reported date for the launch. Blass also shared a leaked spec sheet for the three devices which confirms many of their previously rumored features.

According to the spec sheet, Samsung is once again planning to offer three models as part of the range. There’s the standard Galaxy S24, with a 6.2-inch screen, the S24 Plus...

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X was down

Image: The Verge

Elon Musk’s X platform, previously known as Twitter, mostly stopped working for more than an hour. In mobile apps, the timelines wouldn’t refresh, and on the web, a placeholder message proclaimed, “Welcome to X! This is the best place to see what’s happening in your world. Find some people and topics to follow now.” The global internet trackers at Netblocks noted a “significant international outage” that wasn’t linked to any country-level blocks or filtering.

At about 1:35AM ET, shortly after this article was published, access to timelines was restored, although we haven’t heard what caused the problem.

Oddly, posting to the site still worked, even if the posts disappeared after a refresh, and accounts followed with notifications...

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Here are the shipping and return policies for all the big-name retailers

Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images

With the holidays now just around the corner, everyone is double-checking their lists and figuring out the fastest way to get those gifts in time. Thankfully, many retailers are offering generous shipping policies for their products, with some offering free two-day shipping or even same-day delivery if you pay extra. And just in case the gift you choose isn’t quite right, many retailers are also offering extended return policies so your giftee can get something more to their liking.

For your convenience, we’ve collected the current return policies for several major retailers below, highlighting which will give you a little more time to place that order or start a return. Hopefully, knowing more about how much leeway you have will help...

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The four podcast stories that will shape 2024

Image: The Verge

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

Hello! Apologies for the late send, I have been buried in Hot Pod Summit prep. I promise it will be worth it! We’re putting together a great lineup for 2024. We’re still working on our invitation list — if you’re interested in attending, let us know here.

This is about the time yakky media folks like myself come out with predictions for next year. Nick Quah published takes from people across the industry today for Vulture. Yesterday, The Podglomerate’s Joni Deutsch had a piece for Nieman Lab with her own predictions. I highly recommend checking out both!

Today, I don’t have predictions so much as stories on which I am keeping a close...

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The FTC proposes new rules to curb the monetization of children’s data

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new changes to the regulations it currently enforces under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), seekingtofurther limit the collection and use of children’s data by tech companies, especially when used for targeted advertising.

“Kids must be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetize their personal data,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in the official announcement.According to Khan, the proposed changes would prevent companies “from outsourcing their responsibilities to parents” when it comes to managing children’s data.

According to the FTC, the agencyreceived more than 175,000 public comments in 2019 when it...

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Steam is going to let you hide the games you don’t want your friends to see

Image: The Verge

Valve announced a new privacy feature for the Steam client today that lets players choose whether certain games they buy and own are visible to others on the platform. According to the update announcement, starting today, Steam beta testers will be able to mark games as private to keep them, well, private.

You can mark a game private from three places: your shopping cart; your game list in a web browser; or from the Steam client itself. The new privacy filter is great if you’ve been holding off on buying OnlyCans: Thirst Date for the last two years or so or you really don’t want your friends to know that you’re deeply into oddly specific simulator games.

Image: Valve

Beta users can now make purchases private...

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Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount in discussions for a max merger

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Warner Bros. Discovery might merge with another entertainment giant: Paramount. Sources tell Axios that WBD CEO David Zaslav held talks with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday about a possible merger.

The meeting reportedly took place at Paramount’s headquarters in Times Square, with the two CEOs discussing how the two companies could complement one another. That could include combining Max and Paramount Plus to compete with streaming rivals like Netflix and Disney Plus.

Zaslav also discussed a deal with Shari Redstone — the head of Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements — Axios reports.

We still don’t know whether Warner Bros. Discovery would buy Paramount or National Amusements if a merger actually does happen, but a source...

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Apple loses attempt to halt Apple Watch sales ban

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. In a filing on Wednesday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple’s motion to stay the ban while awaiting an appeal.

On Monday, Apple announced its plans to pull the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from store shelves in response to an October ruling from the ITC, which said the company’s SpO2 sensors infringed on patents from medical device maker Masimo. The last day to purchase the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from Apple stores is December 24th, while the import ban officially goes into effect on December 26th. Apple is already exploring ways it can avoid the ban, including by implementing software changes, according to Bloomberg.

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Apple reportedly plans Vision Pro launch by February

Image: Apple

Apple’s June announcement that it would launch the Vision Pro headset “early next year” could be very early. As Bloomberg’sMark Gurman reports, things are lining up for the device to launch by February. He says we shouldn’t expect another launch event — which is understandable for a $3,499 device that will probably have a limited supply — but bringing this to market is a major undertaking that means preparing Apple Store employees to guide new users, adjust fitting, and deal with prescription lens options.

Launching the first new Apple hardware platform in years includes new software with visionOS, and Gurman is already pointing to its next version, which should arrive later in 2024 along with the usual Mac and iPhone software updates....

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Apple’s immersive next-gen CarPlay will start with Porsche and Aston Martin

Next-generation Apple CarPlay UI in an Aston Martin. | Image: Aston Martin

Apple said we’d get vehicle announcements tied to its “next generation” of wireless CarPlay by the end of 2023, and today, it delivered mock-ups of the dashboard-spanning UI styled for Porsche and Aston Martin. Instead of simply taking over the infotainment center and small segments of the in-dash areas, it seeks to overhaul all displays of the given vehicle.

The theme is distinct to each automaker and also gives CarPlay access to the vehicle’s features, like your radio and temperature settings. In the Porsche setup, there’s a three-dial layout with the speedometer on the left and a wallpaper made to match its houndstooth seat pattern.

In the Aston Martin layout, there’s a media display in the center, surrounded by the speedometer and...

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Belkin’s 3-in-1 charger with MagSafe has fallen to an all-time low

Belkin’s 3-in-1 charging stand makes for a great StandBy companion, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

The Qi2-based chargers are certainly coming, but if you can’t wait for them to land next year, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe is on sale now at Amazon in black for a new low of $110.99 ($39 off) or in white for just $9 more.

To this day, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro remains our favorite MagSafe 3-in-1 stand for home use. The triple charging solution offers true 15W MagSafe charging speeds, the ability to fast-charge newer Apple Watch models starting with the Series 7, and support for iOS 17’s new StandBy mode, which gives you an easy way to turn your phone into a clock, calendar, or a nifty photo frame for your desk. It’s also outfitted with a 5W charging pad on the bottom, so you can juice a pair of wireless...

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UK Supreme Court rules AI is not an inventor

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The UK Supreme Court ruled that AI cannot get patents, declaring it cannot be named as an inventor of new products because the law considers only humans or companies to be creators.

The court unanimously denied a petition from Stephen Thaler, founder of the AI system DABUS, to name his AI as an inventor. The UK’s decision aligns with a similar decision made against Thaler in the US: he previously lost an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which also denied his petition to claim AI as an inventor. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

In the UK, Thaler wanted to register DABUS as the inventor of a food container and a flashing light beacon back in 2019, but the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rejected the...

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Microsoft announces more Xbox leadership changes as Activision’s Bobby Kotick departs

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down officially December 29th. Microsoft has not appointed a direct replacement and instead has rolled the suite of Activision Blizzard executives — including Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, Activision publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl — under Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty.

Kotick’s departure comes just two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond promoted to Xbox president, leading all Xbox platform and hardware work, and Matt Booty promoted to president of game content and studios, including overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax studios. Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with...

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Peloton’s oldest bike tablet will be cut off from classes in a few months

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Just like all gadgets, even tablets solely devoted to fitness will eventually meet their software demise. That time is rapidly approaching for Peloton’s first-gen bike tablets, known as Quartz. Peloton sold these first-gen bikes between 2013 and 2016. The company already cut off software updates for the early touchscreens back in 2019. But now, as reported by Pelo Buddy, the hammer is coming down, and Peloton will completely cease support for the tablets in June 2024. If you don’t make a move by then, you won’t be able to access classes anymore, leaving “Just Workout” as the only feature that will still work.

So what’s a budget-conscious Peloton devotee to do? Well, there are a couple of options to choose from. Affected customers can...

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Waymo has 7.1 million driverless miles — how does its driving compare to humans?

Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

For years, Waymo has been claiming that its driverless vehicles have the potential to be safer than humans. Now the company says it has the data to back it up.

Waymo analyzed 7.13 million fully driverless miles in three cities — Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco — and compared the data to human driving benchmarks to determine whether its cars were involved in fewer injuring-causing and police-reported crashes. And it was the first time the company studied miles from fully driverless operations only, rather than a mix of autonomous and human-monitored driving.

Waymo analyzed 7.1 million fully driverless miles in three cities

The conclusion? Waymo’s driverless cars were 6.7 times less likely than human drivers to be involved a...

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Apple Watch ban: everything you need to know

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple is banning new sales of the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the US due to a patent dispute — here’s all the latest news.

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Pondering the biggest orb

Image: Ohni Lisle / The Verge

It’s a TV. It’s a roller coaster. It’s a 4D Disney World experience. It’s the Sphere, and it’s a lot more fun than my phone.

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AI image training dataset found to include child sexual abuse imagery

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

A popular training dataset for AI image generation contained links to child abuse imagery, Stanford’s Internet Observatory found, potentially allowing AI models to create harmful content.

LAION-5B, a dataset used by Stable Diffusion creator Stability AI and Google’s Imagen image generators, included at least 1,679 illegal images scraped from social media posts and popular adult websites.

The researchers began combing through the LAION dataset in September 2023 to investigate how much, if any, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was present. They looked through hashes or the image’s identifiers. These were sent to CSAM detection platforms like PhotoDNA and verified by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

The dataset does not keep...

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The Verge’s 2023 in review

The Verge

A look back at the big moments — and the best releases.

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PlayStation 5 sales have surpassed 50 million units

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

PlayStation 5 sales have hit a new milestone. Sony announced on Wednesday that it sold 50 million consoles since its launch in late 2020.

The number shows just how much PS5 sales are ramping up, as Sony announced in July that it sold more than 40 million units. This likely has to do with an increased availability of the PS5 after supply chain issues resulted in fewer consoles on store shelves.

“We’re grateful for all of our players who have joined the PS5 journey so far, and we’re thrilled that this is the first holiday season since launch that we have a full supply of PS5 consoles — so anyone who wants to get one can get one,” Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement.

The PS5 reached 50...

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Adobe explains why it abandoned the Figma deal

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Adobe just abandoned its $20 billion deal to buy Figma, and now we know why. In an interview on the Decoder podcast with The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, Adobe general counsel Dana Rao said that the company couldn’t prove to European regulators that the acquisition wouldn’t harm competition in the future — that is, that Adobe or Figma wouldn’t eventually do more to compete with one another.

Last month, both EU and UK regulators threw up major flags about the competition issue. The European Commission (EC) said that the deal could “significantly reduce competition in the global markets,” and a week later, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) effectively blocked the deal, provisionally concluding that it would “likely harm...

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Ferrari stalls out

Image: Eros Hoagland

Michael Mann’s biopic of the Italian sports car maker feels at home in the director’s canon of obsessive men. But have we been here before too many times?

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2023 in smartphones: it was the little things

The Verge / Photos by Allison Johnson and Amelia Holowaty Krales

Smartphones — the gadgets I spend most of my waking hours thinking about, testing, and tinkering with — are generally considered a mature product category. This means that, in any of the previous, oh, five years, you’d struggle to find a big defining moment for the industry. Likewise, there was no “iPhone” moment in 2023, and I’ll bet you 20 bucks we won’t see one in 2024, either.

But that’s not to say that it wasn’t an interesting year for mobile tech; far from it. We didn’t have a singular, spectacular innovation: just a bunch of smaller ones that, altogether, could make a big difference in the long run.

Life got a little easier for partnerships and group chats that include Android and iPhone-owning members, for example. We have new...

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God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla uses an old genre to tell a new story

Image: Sony

As I battled my way through God of War Ragnarök’s new roguelike expansion, Valhalla, I was dying to learn the next part of Kratos’ story — and that story is what’s made me push through even when the game got tough.

God of War’s recent entries — the 2018 reboot and Ragnarök — are renowned for their cinematic storytelling. The tight camera makes you feel like a direct observer to Kratos’ every move, and the excellent motion capture, writing, and voice acting make the characters of myth in the games seem like actual living beings. But Valhalla takes things one step further by using the structure of a roguelike — where you make attempt after attempt to overcome increasingly difficult challenges to beat the game — as a narrative tool to let...

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2023: a year in art on The Verge

Image: The Verge

As 2023 comes to a close, the art team at The Verge has looked back on the past year to highlight some of our most memorable and favorite art. Throughout the year, we created a diverse array of original art including a tweet archive, an interactive comic, art for special series, striking images for our reviews, and more.

The year Twitter died

Design by Elana Schlenker, with illustrations by James Kerr, Erik Carter, Charles Desmarais, and Rui Pu

For The Verge’s end-of-year package about Twitter’s downfall, we turned to designer Elana Schlenker to create a world as deranged and unruly as the year was for the social platform, complete with a toggle button that lets readers select their quotient of chaos.

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Nomad unveils its first fast Qi2 wireless stand charger

Nomad’s upcoming stand Qi2 charger will help make charging rates more consistent across devices. | Image: Nomad

Nomad, a reputable producer of phone cases and accessories, has announced its first stand charger based on the new magnet-enhanced Qi2 standard. The $100 Stand Qi2 Magnetic Wireless Charger is capable of charging MagSafe and Qi2-enabled devices at up to 15W, and features a metal and glass design that’ll be available in black or white. You’ll have to supply your own 20W USB-C power adapter, but Nomad has at least included a two-meter USB-C to USB-C cable alongside the product.

Much like other Qi2-based chargers that have been announced — such as Belkin’s new BoostCharge offerings, Anker’s latest MagGo accessories, and Mophie’s upcoming trio — the Nomad Stand Qi2 charger isn’t available to purchase yet. Nomad’s marketing director Chuck...

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Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat hit with tough new EU safety regulations

A PornHub banner from the 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat face stricter requirements to verify the ages of their users after being officially designated as “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). In a press release today, the European Commission said the three sites “fulfil the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU.” The sites will have to comply with the DSA obligations by February 2024.

Being designated as a VLOP means the sites will also have to conduct risk assessments and mitigate the spread of illegal content like child sexual abuse material and deepfake pornography. There are also transparency requirements like being subject to external audits, publishing transparency reports...

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The Biden administration has a new strategy for getting federal funds to grassroots environmental groups

US Vice President Kamala Harris (right) and Michael Regan (left), administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on Friday, January 27th, 2023. | Image: Jemal Countess / UPI / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency named 11 “grantmakers” today, universities and nonprofit organizations that will be in charge of doling out $600 million of federal funding to locally led environmental projects. It’s a new strategy aimed at making it easier for small grassroots groups — especially those burdened with the most pollution — to access funding.

Those groups will be able to apply for subgrants from the EPA’s grantmakers, who’ve been assigned to oversee funds for certain regions. The 11 grantmakers include some of the most prominent voices fighting a legacy of environmental racism and injustice in the US.

That includes the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), made up of member organizations across the US — from Brooklyn’s oldest...

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VanMoof 2.0: a new hope

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

The electric bike company’s new leadership outlines its post-bankruptcy plan to relaunch and expand into more areas of e-mobility.

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