Samsung and Hyundai are teaming up to add SmartThings to cars

Samsung notes that the features shown here are “examples of Home-to-Car and Car-to Home services to be developed,” so don’t take this image as a final representation of what the experience will be like. | Image: Samsung

Samsung is teaming up with Hyundai to add Samsung’s SmartThings smart home platform to Hyundai and Kia’s connected car services, according to a blog post from Samsung and a press release from Hyundai. (Hyundai is the parent company of Kia.) As part of the collaboration, the two companies are going to work on “home-to-car” and “car-to-home” services and “as an integrated home energy management service,” Samsung says.

In practice, that means at home you’ll be able to do things like use SmartThings to control your car’s air conditioning or windows, and when you’re in your car, you’ll be able to control your TV or your home’s air conditioning. You’ll also be able to plug your car into your SmartThings routines.

Here’s an example from Samsung...

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How to configure and use hot corners on macOS

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

There’s a lot to explore in macOS — from file sharing to keyboard remapping — so you’d be forgiven for not having discovered every single feature that Apple’s desktop operating system has to offer. One of the most useful and yet less well known features is something Apple calls hot corners.

Like keyboard shortcuts, hot corners can help you do more in less time on your Mac. The idea is that certain actions are triggered when you move the pointer into one of the corners of the display. Better yet, you’re able to configure these actions so that they correspond to the jobs you’re doing most often on macOS.

You can, for example, quickly create a new note in Apple Notes, or launch the system screen saver, or open up Mission Control. You don’t...

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SpaceX is suing to bust up federal union protections

Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge

SpaceX is suing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the agency accused the Elon Musk-owned company of illegally firing employees. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday, SpaceX claims the NLRB’s actions are unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging SpaceX illegally fired a group of employees for drafting an open letter that criticized Musk’s behavior. The NLRB also claims SpaceX interrogated employees about their involvement with the letter and encouraged employees to quit if they participated in organized activities.

Now, SpaceX is responding with a lawsuit that says the open letter was a “distraction to SpaceX employees around the country.” It claims the NLRB’s proceedings, which involve...

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Google wrote a ‘Robot Constitution’ to make sure its new AI droids won’t kill us

Image: Google

The DeepMind robotics team has revealed three new advances that it says will help robots make faster, better, and safer decisions in the wild. One includes a system for gathering training data with a “Robot Constitution” to make sure your robot office assistant can fetch you more printer paper — but without mowing down a human co-worker who happens to be in the way.

Google’s data gathering system, AutoRT, can use a visual language model (VLM) and large language model (LLM) working hand in hand to understand its environment, adapt to unfamiliar settings, and decide on appropriate tasks. The Robot Constitution, which is inspired by Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics,” is described as a set of “safety-focused prompts” instructing the...

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OpenAI will open its custom ChatGPT store next week

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

After delaying its launch, OpenAI’s GPT store is almost ready to open for business.

GPT Store, where users can sell and share customized AI agents based on OpenAI’s large language models, will officially launch next week, OpenAI said in an email to people signed on as GPT Builders. The email asked users to double-check that their GPT creations meet brand guidelines and reminded people to make their GPTs public.

Email sent to GPT Builders.

OpenAI first announced at its November developers conference that it would let other people build AI agents, called GPTs, using its GPT-4 large language model. It’s only available to ChatGPT Plus and enterprise subscribers and lets people create customized versions of ChatGPT-style...

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OpenAI’s news publisher deals reportedly top out at $5 million a year

Image: OpenAI

As news publishers ink deals with AI companies to train their models with news stories, the price businesses like OpenAI are willing to pay for copyrighted information is coming to light.

The Information reports that OpenAI offers between $1 million and $5 million a year to license copyrighted news articles to train its AI models. That’s one of the first indications of how much AI companies plan to pay for licensed material. It sits alongside a recent report saying Apple is looking to partner with media companies to use content for AI training and is offering at least $50 million over a multiyear period for data. The Verge reached out to OpenAI for comment on the numbers.

The numbers appear roughly similar to some earlier non-AI...

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The best note-taking apps for collecting your thoughts and data

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

These days, we are all dealing with huge amounts of information, from meeting notes to social media, to photos and videos, to whatever else we’ve collected — and we are all trying to find some way to store it, organize it, and find it when we need it.

If you want to get really basic, you can use a spreadsheet or create a simple set of word-processing documents. Otherwise, you can try what is somewhat inaccurately described as a note-taking app. These apps, at their simplest, store your notes and other thoughts and, at their more complex, are capable of manipulating any and all content you want to drop into them.

One of the most well-known has been Evernote, which has gone through quite a few changes over the years, both financially and...

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Clicks is a BlackBerry-style iPhone keyboard case designed for creators

This is the yellowest thing I have ever seen. | Image: Clicks

A new company called Clicks Technology has announced an iPhone case with a built-in keyboard on the bottom. The case is called Clicks, too; it’s available for $139 and the iPhone 14 Pro version starts shipping on February 1st, with 15 Pro going out in mid-March. The company is also taking reservations for a $159 iPhone 15 Pro Max model, which is coming in “early spring,” according to the website. (Whether any of them is a reasonable purchase is between you and your conscience.) Clicks, which was started by Michael Fisher and Kevin Michaluk (aka MrMobile and CrackBerry Kevin), will show the case off at CES next week.

There have been other physical keyboard cases for the iPhone, of course. But the one this calls to mind is Typo, a bad (a...

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Amazon’s note-taking Kindle Scribe has fallen to one of its best prices to date

Amazon’s big-screen e-reader features a sharp E Ink display and a handy stylus for taking notes or drawing. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

If I were to venture a guess, the desire to read more books is right up there with getting fit, saving money, and eating healthier when it comes to the most common New Year’s resolutions. Fortunately, if you are hoping to up your literary ambitions in 2024, the Kindle Scribe is currently on sale at Amazon with 16GB of storage and a Basic Pen starting at $269.99 ($70 off). You can also pick up the e-reader in the same storage configuration with a Premium Pen, which features a shortcut button and a built-in eraser, starting at $294.99 ($75 off).

When we reviewed Amazon’s 10.2-inch e-reader upon its release, the big-screen slate was somewhat lacking in both the features and software departments. Note-taking rivals like the Kobo Elipsa 2E...

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The first US commercial-scale offshore wind farm is live, but the industry faces strong headwinds

A GE Haliade-X turbine stands in the Vineyard Wind 1 project area south of Martha’s Vineyard. | Image: Worldview Films

The first week of 2024 has already been a rollercoaster of good and bad news for President Joe Biden’s offshore wind ambitions.

The nation’s first large-scale wind farm just started producing power for the New England power grid. The bad news is that another major project on the East Coast threw in the towel, the latest casualty of skyrocketing costs that are pushing Biden’s offshore wind dreams out of reach.

The plan, according to the Biden administration, was for the US to get 30,000MW of energy from offshore wind by 2030. The US lags far behind Europe and China in offshore wind development, which it will need a lot more of to hit clean energy goals tied to the Paris climate accord. Since stepping into office, Biden has rolled out the...

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Google appears to be working on an ‘advanced’ version of Bard that you have to pay for

Illustration: The Verge

Google appears to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called “Bard Advanced” that will be available through a paid subscription to Google One, as shared by developer Dylan Roussel on X (formerly Twitter).

Bard Advanced seems to be powered by Gemini Ultra, the top tier of Google’s newly announced large language model (LLM), according to Roussel. That’s an upgrade over the current version of Bard, which runs the midtier Gemini Pro. One of the screenshots Roussel shared describes Bard Advanced as a “more capable large language model with advanced math and reasoning skills.” Developer Bedros Pamboukian also discovered a string of code that suggests Google is working on an “advanced” tier.

2. Bard Advanced with Google One.

Google will...

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You can get $50 in Samsung credit when you reserve a Galaxy S24 phone

You can use the $50 credit towards eligible items in Samsung’s online store. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Samsung recently announced its next Unpacked event will kick off on January 17, when the company is expected to reveal the new Galaxy S24 lineup. As usual, the company also simultaneously opened up “reservations” for preorders of its next Galaxy device, which grants you $50 in credit after supplying your name and email address on Samsung’s website.

There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind, though: first, you’ll have to place your preorder using the same email address after the devices are announced on January 17th. After that, you’ll have to follow through on the purchase, so make sure you have your credit card handy.

You also can’t use the $50 credit after making your purchase. Instead, the credit can only be used at the same time...

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ChatGPT, Copilot, and Bard: How AI is rewriting the internet

Álvaro Bernis / The Verge

How we use the internet is changing fast thanks to the advancement of AI-powered chatbots that can find information and redeliver it as a simple conversation.

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Razer updates Blade 16 and 18 with new displays

The Razer Blade 16 (pictured) will soon be available with a 240Hz OLED panel (not pictured). | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Razer is teasing a major set of display upgrades for the Blade 16 and Blade 18 gaming laptops ahead of a full unveiling of the updated laptops next week at CES.

The Blade 16 is getting what Razer says is the world’s first 16-inch 240Hz OLED panel, co-developed with Samsung, while the Blade 18 will get a 165Hz 4K LED panel with G-Sync. Both panels will be Calman Verified and individually factory calibrated. Like the current Blade display options, they’ll show 100 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut.

As an OLED panel, the Razer 16’s 2560 x 1600 display should have excellent true blacks and super-fast response time. Razer says it will have a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, and a VESA ClearMR 11000 rating...

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The Peloton story: everything you need to know

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The leader in connected fitness peaked during the covid pandemic, but after a series of questionable business decisions, it’s pivoting to content subscriptions.

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Using a Galaxy Z Flip 5 as a minimalist phone

I used the 3.2” front screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 as a minimal phone for a week. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

I hated how much time I was spending scrolling on my phone. And the idea that I’m wasting my time wasn’t even what was bugging me — I do loads of things that aren’t good uses of my time. What bugged me was that I was unconsciously and habitually scrolling. And most of the time I couldn’t even tell you what I had been scrolling through.

I thought about switching to a minimal phone, like the Light Phone, with its slow screen and limited functions. But I knew that completely giving up things like Gmail or Slack on mobile wasn’t possible for me. And I didn’t want to wipe out social media completely, I just wanted my use of it to be more intentional. What I needed was a fully functional smartphone, just a somewhat less usable one.

So I...

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Killers of the Flower Moon starts streaming on Apple TV Plus next week

The movie got a theatrical debut back in October. | Image: Apple

Martin Scorsese’s crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon will be available to stream on Apple TV Plus on January 12th. The film first premiered in theaters last October and debuted digitally in December as part of Apple’s collaboration with Paramount.

Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (based on the novel by David Grann) is a three-and-a-half-hour epic that follows a series of murders of the Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma after oil was discovered on tribal land. The movie stars Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, and Robert De Niro and has received waves of positive reviews so far from critics and viewers alike.

The theatre-first release timeline for Killers of the Flower Moon comes as part of a growing...

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Qualcomm’s new XR chipset aims to compete with the Vision Pro

Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, presented his vision for a new era of computing late last year at Snapdragon Summit. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

A year after Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google announced, uh, something VR-related, one potential component of the project is coming into focus: the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2. The new chipset is designed as a step up from the XR2 Gen 2 in the Meta Quest 3, capable of rendering high-resolution visuals like the ones promised by Apple’s Vision Pro.

The XR2 Plus Gen 2 supports 4.3K resolution at 90fps per eye, which is a cut above the XR2 Gen 2’s 3K-per-eye rendering. It also supports 12 concurrent cameras to handle passthrough video as well as body and face tracking. Qualcomm says that the new chipset offers a 15 percent increase in GPU frequency compared to the standard XR2 Gen 2 and 20 percent greater CPU frequency — all in service of...

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Dell’s XPS laptop line up is about to look very different

The new Dell XPS line up. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

This might not be the biggest shake-up of the Dell XPS lineup ever, but between some bigger laptops and a total revamping of the XPS portfolio, it feels like a big deal. The 13-inch Dell XPS laptop is sticking around, but the touchbar-equipped XPS Plus that ran hot in our review is gone, replaced by the 14-inch XPS. And there’s a new 16-inch XPS to replace both the 15-inch and 17-inch laptops.

Plenty of laptop makers have 14-inch and 16-inch devices — notably, Apple launched a MacBook Pro in both sizes back in 2021—but Dell’s flagship XPS laptops have stuck with the more traditional 13-inch and 15-inch sizes.

Dell representatives demurred when I asked them if this new size of XPS laptops is meant as a counter to Apple’s own. But it...

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Ford raises — and lowers — prices on its F-150 Lightning pickups

The 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning trucks could be cheaper or more expensive than last year, depending on the trim. | Image: Ford

Ford is making a number of pricing updates across its 2024 F-150 Lightning range as sales of electric vehicles within the US slow. Ford notified its dealers about the price changes on Wednesday according to the Detroit Free Press, increasing the starting prices by up to $10,000 while reducing pricing on some of the most premium models by up to $7,000. The 2024 pricing changes follow Ford announcing plans in December to cut production of its F-150 Lightning pickups.

Here’s what the new pricing looks like for each 2024 F-150 Lightning EV model (pricing for 2023 models remains unchanged):

• Pro: Increase from $49,995 to $54,995
• XLT 311 A: Increase from $54,995 to $64,995
• Flash: New “tech-forward” offering for $73,495
• Lariat: Increase from...

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Dell’s new 120Hz ultrawide monitors max out at 40 inches and 5K

Dell has a pair of new ultrawide monitors it’s showing off ahead of CES, the 40-inch UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) and the 34-inch UltraSharp 34 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3425WE). They’re going on sale next month, with the larger model starting at $2,399.99, and the smaller at $1,019.99.

Although Dell’s announcement blog post notes that the monitors are targeting the likes of content creators, data scientists, and engineers rather than gamers, both monitors come with gaming-friendly 120Hz refresh rates. It’s a part of Dell’s aim for them to minimize eye-strain. To this end, they both also feature reduced blue light output, and have built-in ambient light sensors that adjust brightness and color...

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The Xbox Series S toaster is real

Image: Walmart

Have you ever wanted a kitchen full of memes? Well, the Xbox Series S toaster is here and ready to sit next to your Xbox Series X fridge. Yes this is a real toaster that can handle all the bread, English muffins, and frozen waffles you throw at it. It will even toast an Xbox sphere logo onto your bread. Really.

Images of an Xbox Series S toaster first emerged nearly a year ago on French websites, but Walmart has now started selling the toaster for $39.99, as spotted by Wario64. While the toaster looks like an Xbox Series S, with its signature black air vent, it also includes a bunch of features you’d actually want for toasting your bread. There are six levels of browning, a removable crumb tray, an LED countdown, and a defrost button....

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Microsoft’s new Copilot key is the first big change to Windows keyboards in 30 years

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft wants 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it’s kicking things off with a significant change to the keyboard on new laptops and PCs. A new Copilot key will ship on a variety of new PCs and laptops from Microsoft’s partners, providing quick access to Microsoft’s AI-powered Windows Copilot experience straight from a keyboard button press.

The Copilot key is the first big change to the Windows PC keyboard layout in nearly three decades. “Nearly 30 years ago, we introduced the Windows key to the PC keyboard that enabled people all over the world to interact with Windows,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. “We see this as another transformative moment in our journey with...

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LG just made the fastest OLED gaming display yet

Image: LG

LG Display, a manufacturer that makes and sells displays to other companies, is showing off a new OLED display that could soon appear in high-end gaming monitors. At 27 inches, this 1440p panel pairs a speedy 0.03ms response time with a 480Hz refresh rate — making it the fastest in OLED displays so far.

LG’s new screen is even better than the one in the 32-inch OLED “Dual-Hz” gaming monitor (32GS95UE) it announced in December. While this monitor similarly offers a refresh rate of up to 480Hz, you have to toggle the display down to 1080p to take advantage of that speed.

It also puts LG Display on track to compete with the panel recently announced by Samsung’s display arm, which offers a slightly lower 360Hz refresh rate and a 1440p...

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Here are the best Apple Watch deals right now

The entry-level Apple Watch SE is a gateway smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Editor’s note: Apple was recently banned from selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 due to an ongoing patent dispute with medical device maker Masimo. A federal appeals court has temporarily paused the resulting import ban, however. Read more about the ban here.

A few months ago, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.

But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally...

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Fun new deepfake consequence: more convincing crypto scams

It’s a scam! | Screenshot: Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge

The video is almost convincing: it features Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko announcing a “historic day” for Solana. He thanks the “S-O-L” community and offers a giveaway through a QR code and a website. Sure, he sounds a little robotic — his voice is a monotone, unusual for him — and he hardly makes eye contact with the camera, but it’s a video, and seeing is believing, right?

It’s a fake, of course. And it’s been up on YouTube for a day. Not only that, at least one internet user says they saw it as an ad. It’s not just YouTube, either. The fake video is appearing in ads on the platform formerly known as Twitter and which Elon Musk would prefer you call X.

“There has been a substantial increase in deepfakes and other AI-generated...

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California senator files bill prohibiting agencies from working with unethical AI companies

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

A second California state senator has introduced bills meant to regulate AI systems, particularly those used by state agencies.

Senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat, introduced Senate Bills 892 and 893, establishing a public AI resource and creating a “safe and ethical framework” around AI for the state. Senate Bill 892 will require California’s Department of Technology to develop safety, privacy, and non-discrimination standards around services using AI. It also prohibits the state of California from contracting any AI services “unless the provider of the services meets the established standards.”

The other bill, SB 893, would establish a California AI research hub that would provide access to compute resources and data for academics.

P...

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SpaceX accused of illegally firing employees who criticized Elon Musk

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

SpaceX is facing a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that alleges the company illegally fired employees for writing an open letter that criticized CEO Elon Musk.

Last year, a group of SpaceX employees drafted an open letter to express concerns about how Musk’s behavior “is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment.” At the time, Musk was in the process of trying to acquire Twitter, which he later renamed X after taking control of the company. SpaceX subsequently fired the employees who helped write the letter.

In the complaint filed on Wednesday, the NLRB accuses SpaceX of interrogating workers about their involvement with the letter and told employees not to discuss these interviews. NLRB spokesperson...

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LastPass will finally enforce a 12-character minimum master password

Keep your passwords safe from this guy. | Illustration: Beatrice Sala

Following a high-profile security breakdown in 2022, LastPass is finally imposing a 12-character minimum for customers’ master passwords.

BleepingComputer spotted a release from LastPass confirming the change that acknowledges 12 characters was already the default setting, but preexisting users previously had the option to set a shorter password. LastPass removed this option last April, requiring new customers and anyone resetting their master password to hit the 12-character requirement. But if your account had a shorter, less secure password, you’ll be forced to change it soon.

LastPass’ security woes are well documented — breaches in 2022 allowed hackers to steal customer vault data. If you were affected, this meant the only thing...

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Now you can smoke your ribs indoors

The GE Profile Smart Smoker is an indoor countertop cooker that claims to create the same flavors as an outdoor smoker. | Image: GE Appliances

The newest smart kitchen gadget from GE Appliances solves another cooking pain point you never knew you had... having to go outdoors. The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker is a countertop smoker that lets you cook with wood pellets inside your home without setting off all your smoke alarms.

The world’s first indoor smoker, the $999 appliance will be on show at CES 2024 next week. But if you can’t wait to add that smokey flavor to your ribs, salmon, or sprouts without having to step foot in your backyard (or even having a backyard, for that matter), you can buy it now at Williams Sonoma and Best Buy.

The appliance uses a tech called Active Smoke Filtration, which GE Profile says “uses heat and a highly engineered catalyst system to turn...

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