Shopify’s ‘Magic’ AI image editor can make any product pics look professional

Shopify Magic Media Editor. | Image: Shopify

The Shopify Magic suite of generative AI tools that launched in April last year is adding a media editor that brings generative image fill to its platform and conversational search powered by AI. Merchants can prompt the image editor to change photo backgrounds without Photoshop experience to match whatever theme they have in mind.

Shopify’s AI editor can also suggest backgrounds and styles that match existing product images in the merchant’s library once it rolls out this spring.

Glen Coates, Shopify’s vice president of product, says many sellers on the platform don’t have access to big studios or professional photographers, but they still need to set their items up for success. Since there’s no additional cost to use this tool, it...

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FTX says it will pay back customers

Illustration: The Verge

FTX says it will repay investors after the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse led to the loss of billions of dollars. During a court hearing on Wednesday, FTX lawyer Andrew Dietderich said the company expects to “have sufficient funds to pay all allowed customer and creditor claims in full.”

The company will recompense customers based on the price of the cryptocurrency they purchased as of November 2022 — when the exchange filed for bankruptcy. There are still some challenges associated with getting the lost funds back to customers, though, as Dietderich notes the company will need to comb through all the claims to determine whether they’re legitimate.

“I would like the court and stakeholders to understand this not as a guarantee, but as...

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A tough break for rugged phone fans as key manufacturer shuts down

There’s no word yet on how Bullitt-produced phones like the Cat S75 (pictured) will be affected. | Image: Cat

Bullitt Group, the UK-based smartphone manufacturer behind the rugged handsets of Cat, Land Rover, and Motorola, has seemingly shut down. On Monday, Mobile World Live spotted several Bullitt Group employees on LinkedIn saying that the company folded on January 26th after a “critical planned restructuring” failed. The Telegraph reported earlier this month that the company was on the brink of insolvency.

Bullitt Group has yet to issue an official statement confirming the closure. The manufacturer previously told The Telegraph that it planned to transfer its satellite connectivity business and all 100 of its employees to a new company owned by its creditors, though one former employee now claims the entire workforce has been laid off. We...

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The Pixel 8 is getting Google’s new AI search feature today

‘Circle to Search’ comes to Pixel 8 and 8 Pro phones. | Image: Google

Google is rolling out its “Circle to Search” feature to Pixel 8 phones today, bringing new ideas about how to gather information on the internet using AI. The feature, which is also available on Samsung Galaxy S24 phones, builds on Google’s multisearch tool that lets you combine image searches with words in the Google app. Now you can simply circle, scribble, or highlight things in other apps and learn more about them in place.

The big change here is leveraging generative AI for on-the-fly searches within other apps in Android. Instead of taking an image or screenshot over to the Google app, you can long-press on the home button or the navigation bar from wherever you are to initiate the search, then highlight whatever you want to know...

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The best wireless earbuds to buy right now

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The best from Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony, Beats, Google, and more.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra really is scratch resistant

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

One of the most impressive parts of Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 Ultra is the anti-glare display, which is made of Corning Gorilla Armor glass that Samsung touts as its “most scratch-resistant yet.” Although it’s easy to dismiss that claim as marketing speak, a new durability test from JerryRigEverything proves Samsung really isn’t exaggerating after all.

During his video, JerryRightEverything tests the S24 Ultra’s durability by scratching the screen with different picks according to Mohs hardness scale — ranging from the softest materials at level one and the hardest at level 10. The YouTuber’s pick only started leaving scratches at level seven, but it didn’t create grooves in the glass that typically start appearing at that level.

“...

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Epic preps its challenge to Apple’s ‘bad-faith’ outside payments changes

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Epic is not pleased with how Apple has responded to court orders. It thinks Apple’s new 27 percent tax on developers that link to non-Apple payment methods defies a court order to let developers provide those links and yesterday notified the court that it plans to lay out exactly how.

To refresh, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple in 2021 to let developers link to outside payment methods, and it immediately appealed (despite having called it a “resounding victory”). Apple’s final appeal of the court order was denied earlier this month, and the company was forced to change its tune on in-app payments. But it barely did so — the 27 percent commission isn’t much less than Apple’s 30 percent in-app payments fee, while...

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TikTok is set to lose some major musical artists over AI and pay dispute

The current licensing agreement between TikTok and UMG is set to expire on January 31st. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The music catalogs of Taylor Swift, Drake, Harry Styles, and many other artists represented by Universal Music Group (UMG) are expected to be pulled from TikTok following accusations that the video platform attempted to “bully” and “intimidate” the record label into accepting a subpar licensing deal. The current licensing agreement between TikTok and UMG is set to lapse today, January 31st, with Reuters reporting that UMG will remove its songs from the service once the deal has expired.

In an open letter published on Tuesday, UMG said that TikTok was trying to build a music-based business “without paying fair value for the music” and accused the company of selectively removing developing artists’ music from the service while continuing...

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All the news from Congress’ Big Tech child safety hearing

Image: US Capitol / Flickr

The CEOs of five major tech companies will make a case for why their platforms are safe for kids.

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How to watch today’s PlayStation State of Play showcase

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony is ending the first month of the year with a big ol’ livestream full of gaming news. The next PlayStation State of Play kicks off this afternoon, and the company is promising 40 minutes that will cover quite a few video games — more than 15, in fact.

Only two titles have been confirmed, with Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin and the anime-style adventure game Stellar Blade. But with Sony saying the event will include “other titles coming to PS5 and PS VR2 in 2024 and beyond,” it’s not hard to guess some of the games that could make an appearance. There’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is launching very soon; the remake of Silent Hill 2; a rumored PS5 remake of horror game Until Dawn; the sequel to Death Stranding that we haven’t...

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Nvidia RTX 4080 Super review: $999 is the main feature

Nvidia’s final RTX 40-series Super card offers a small performance bump but an intriguing price drop.

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The Vision Pro is a computer for the age of walled gardens

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The Vision Pro, Apple’s new “spatial computing” headset, comes with a lot of limits. It’s a technically impressive $3,499 device that’s straining against the basic capabilities of screens, cameras, eye tracking, and sheer component weight. Yet as I’ve watched the Vision Pro go from announcement to release, it’s also seemed held back by something that has little to do with hardware. Apple is trying to create the computer of the future, but it’s doing so under the tech company mindset of the present: one obsessed with consolidation, closed ecosystems, and treating platforms as a zero-sum game.

Apple is launching the Vision Pro with parts of the iPad catalog and a variety of specially tailored immersive content. But out of the box, you...

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How to watch Linda Yaccarino, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech CEOs testify in Congress

It’s not Zuckerberg’s first time in front of Congress. | Photo by Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Today, the US Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from five CEOs of major tech companies: Linda Yaccarino of X, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, Evan Spiegel of Snap, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Jason Citron of Discord. The executives will answer questions on the topic of “Big Tech and the online child sexual exploitation crisis,” an ongoing issue for a Congress that’s introduced numerous child safety bills in recent years.

The hearing has been months in the making and apparently involved a little strong-arming from Congress, which reportedly sent US Marshals to subpoena Yaccarino and Citron. It begins at 10AM ET and will likely last several hours as lawmakers seize their opportunity to yell at some of both parties’ favorite bêtes...

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The Indiglo button let there be light

The Indiglo button on a modern Timex Weekender. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Long before the self-lit pixels of OLED phones illuminated our lives, there was a time many portable gadgets didn’t shine at all. Remember when the display of practically every Nintendo Game Boy was designed to be viewed by sunlight? Remember when it was tough to tell time with your average wristwatch after dark?

But in 1992, Timex popularized a push-button technology that could bathe any small display in a soothing, sea-green glow. And even though the actual button was often bad, it literally changed the face of portable electronics.

They called it Indiglo.

As a ‘90s kid, I thought Indiglo was the coolest thing. It still kind of is! Electricity energizes a layer of phosphorescent material as thin as a human hair, invisibly suspended...

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Lawmakers propose anti-nonconsensual AI porn bill after Taylor Swift controversy

Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images

US lawmakers have proposed letting people sue over faked pornographic images of themselves, following the spread of AI-generated explicit photographs of Taylor Swift. The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (DEFIANCE) Act would add a civil right of action for intimate “digital forgeries” depicting an identifiable person without their consent, letting victims collect financial damages from anyone who “knowingly produced or possessed” the image with the intent to spread it.

The bill was introduced by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), joined by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Josh Hawley (R-MO). It builds on a provision in the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, which...

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Google spent billions of dollars to lay people off

Illustration: The Verge

Google spent $2.1 billion on severance and other expenses as it laid off more than 12,000 employees over the course of 2023. And the layoff charges keep coming: in just the one month of 2024 so far, the company has already spent $700 million on employee severance charges as part of layoffs targeting another 1,000-plus roles. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, revealed the figure alongside its fourth-quarter earnings release on Tuesday.

Despite the cuts, Google ended 2023 with growth across most of its core business lines. Google posted $86 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023, a 13 percent increase year over year. The search giant’s core digital ads and cloud computing businesses also showed steady growth, which CEO Sundar...

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Replika’s new AI therapy app tries to bring you to a zen island

Tomo, the AI avatar | Luka, Inc.

AI companion company Replika partnered with the team behind the AI dating simulator Blush to release Tomo, a wellness and meditation app with an AI-generated avatar guiding users. Its the kind of concept that seemed destined as soon as generative AI took off, but in the time I’ve spent with Tomo, I found myself wondering if I can ever open up to an AI like I can with a real therapist.

Tomo, now generally available on the Apple iOS store, brings users to a virtual island retreat, greeted by an AI-generated avatar guide named… Tomo. Tomo offers programs to help people explore personal growth, mental well-being, and fulfillment. It also provides guided meditation, yoga, affirmation classes, and, most of all, talk therapy.

Users can try out...

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YouTube TV listened to sports fans, and it’s fixing multiview’s biggest problem

Fantasy players and sports bettors should be salivating right now. | YouTube

Since its launch last spring, YouTube TV’s multiview functionality has been a huge quality-of-life improvement for sports fans. You can use it to watch multiple games concurrently without making space for extra TVs — but until now, you could only watch the predetermined sets of games that YouTube thinks would appeal to most viewers. An incoming update changes that, finally letting you customize multiview with your preferred combination of broadcasts, as spotted by 9to5Google.

While a big improvement over the curated multiview feeds YouTube TV launched with, it sounds like you’re still bound by certain limitations. For instance, although you can build your own bundle of specific games, you can still only choose them from a predetermined...

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Spec Ops: The Line permanently removed from Steam and other digital stores

Image: 2K

We finally know why Spec Ops: The Line was delisted — it’s the licensing. Video game newshound Wario64 first sounded the alarm on social media that the game had been removed from Steam and other PC storefronts seemingly without explanation.

On X, Cory Davis, the game’s designer and director, was also out of the loop asking the game’s publisher 2K why this happened. “Makes no sense,” Davis wrote. “Especially because the themes portrayed in [Spec Ops: The Line] are more relevant now than ever.”

In an email to The Verge, 2K communications director Joe DiMiero offered the reason for the game’s removal:

Spec Ops: The Line will no longer be available on online storefronts, as several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring....

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Elon Musk won’t get his $55 billion pay package after all

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Elon Musk isn’t going to get that $55 billion pay package after all, a Delaware Chancery Court judge has ruled.

Tesla shareholders approved the package in 2018, which gave Musk incentive to hit specific milestones, including a market valuation of $650 billion, which was more than 10 times the valuation at the time. The trial hinged on a specific question: did Musk mislead the shareholders when he gave them the plan?

Greg Varallo, attorney for the investor who sued, Richard Tornetta, said the investors weren’t told that Musk himself came up with the plan, or that the board’s members were beholden to Musk. Last February, Judge Kathaleen McCormick called this argument a “kill shot.”

“Defendants were unable to prove that the stockholder vote...

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Some suggested events for Peter Thiel’s all-drug Olympics

I have some proposed enhancements. | Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

In a case of life imitating Saturday Night Live, Peter Thiel has invested in a seed round of the Enhanced Games, which describes itself as “the modern reinvention of the Olympic Games that does not have drug testing.”

It does seem to go a little beyond just not testing, though, at least judging by the press release. The investors “see the vision of a new model of sports, that openly celebrates scientific innovation and honestly represents the use of performance enhancements in sports today,” said Aron D’Souza, president of the Enhanced Games, in the statement. Thiel himself certainly has no problem backing medical experiments.

The release says some weird things about not burdening taxpayers because it’s a private company, which made me...

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If you have an Arlo camera or video doorbell, it’s about to get more expensive

Arlo’s cloud subscription plan for a single camera or video doorbell is increasing to $7.99 a month. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

In more “things are just getting expensive” news, the Arlo Secure subscription service is climbing. Again. This time, it’s going from $4.99 to $7.99 for a single camera or video doorbell. This 60 percent price hike comes on the heels of an increase early last year from $2.99 to $4.99.

According to an email sent to single-camera users from Arlo and posted on Reddit, the change is “due to increasing costs and investment in developing innovative solutions.” The updated plans are now live on Arlo’s site, and the lowest-tier Arlo Secure plan, which includes 30 days of cloud storage and smart alerts for people, pets, packages, and vehicles, costs $7.99 monthly for one camera.

If you have multiple Arlo cameras, the subscription costs $12.99...

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Microsoft’s Surface devices down again in Q2 earnings as Xbox picks up Activision revenue

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft just posted the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $62 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q2. Revenue is up 18 percent, and net income has increased by 33 percent.

This is the first quarter Microsoft is reporting earnings as a $3 trillion company and also the first time the company has reported additional revenue from its Activision Blizzard acquisition. While Office and cloud revenue remain strong, devices revenue from Surface sales has continued to decline this quarter, with Windows bouncing back after a slow period for the PC market.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Surface Laptop Studio 2.

Microsoft did warn that...

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Art collective MSCHF is streaming movies like Barbie in ASCII for free

MSCHF

The art collective MSCHF is stirring up some trouble on the internet again. For its latest project, ASCII Theater, the group will broadcast a popular new film daily in ASCII format that anyone can watch for free. Just paste the command on your Mac or PC’s terminal, and you can watch films like Barbie exactly as, well, virtually no one has intended.

ASCII art films are nothing new and date back to the early days of the internet. They are made by converting a film, frame by frame, into lines of text characters. Instead of pixels, you’ll see text. One of the most famous examples is the ASCII art version of the original 1977 Star Wars movie, which was completed by New Zealand-based programmer Simon Jansen in 1997 and is still available...

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How to stop location tracking on your Android phone (mostly)

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Location tracking can be very handy — it’s convenient when an app can tell you, say, where the nearby restaurants or gas stations are — but it’s also a privacy issue (something that at least one of Google’s competitors has used in its sales pitch).

You probably know that Google can track your location and movements through its Google Maps app. But you may not realize that your Android phone is also tracking your movements and activities through several other built-in apps.

If you really don’t want your phone to be tracking any of your movements and activities, there is a way to turn tracking off for all (well, most) of them. You just need to be aware that you’re probably going to render many of your apps (such as rideshare apps, weather...

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The New York Times is building a team to explore AI in the newsroom

The New York Times will begin building a team to explore the use of generative AI in its newsroom. Zach Seward, who was recently hired by the publication to head AI initiatives, posted on Threads that the team will be “focused on prototyping uses of generative AI and other machine-learning techniques to help with reporting and how the Times is presented to readers.”

Seward’s post said the Times plans to hire a machine learning engineer, a software engineer, a designer, and a couple of editors to round out the AI newsroom initiative. So far, the Times has posted job listings for an associate editorial director for AI initiatives and a senior design editor.

“The team, led by the editorial director for A.I. initiatives, will also include...

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Infinite Wealth can drag on but makes up for it with heart, soul, and Pokémon

Image: Sega

Infinite Wealth is several different games wrapped up in a hard-hitting social commentary package.

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The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare is ready to get its hands dirty in new trailer

After a lifetime of World War II movies, we’ve all heard and seen stories about how the Allied powers defeated the Nazis in large-scale battles. But Lionsgate’s upcoming action / comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare from director Guy Ritchie seems like the sort of feature that might throw audiences for a loop — if not for its slick action sequences, then for the way it’s inspired by a true story.

Set against the backdrop of WWII as Hitler’s influence continued to spread across Europe, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare tells the story of how Sergeant Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) — Brittain’s secret espionage outfit specializing in irregular warfare.

But being...

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Today is the last day to score preorder promos on the Galaxy S24 series

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra is the largest and most capable phone in the lineup. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Decent deals on new gadgets aren’t always easy to come by, which is why we love a good preorder promotion. Samsung has offered some pretty solid ones in recent years and, true to form, is discounting the entire Galaxy S24 lineup ahead of its launch tomorrow, January 31st.

Additionally, retailers like Amazon and Best Buy are offering similar storage upgrades and gift cards, regardless of whether you purchase the Samsung Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, or high-end S24 Ultra. But you might want to act fast. Samsung’s deals expire at 3AM ET / 12AM PT tonight, and we expect the promos at Amazon and other retailers to follow in short order.

Where to preorder the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, and S24 Ultra

Samsung’s smartphone lineup consists of three phones:...

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Why Sen. Brian Schatz thinks child safety bills should trump the First Amendment

Photo illustration: The Verge | Photo Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images

The Democratic senator from Hawaii on regulating social media: ‘An algorithm doesn’t have a First Amendment right.’

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