Waymo driverless car strikes bicyclist in San Francisco, causes minor injuries

Photo by JASON HENRY/AFP via Getty Images

A driverless Waymo vehicle struck a cyclist in San Francisco, causing minor injuries. It was the latest incident in the city at a time when tensions around autonomous vehicles are particularly high after a driverless Cruise vehicle injured a pedestrian.

The incident, which was first reported by Reuters, occurred at 3:02PM on February 6th at the intersection of 17th and Mississippi streets in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. A Google Maps Street View of the intersection shows a flat, well-lit area surrounded by warehouses with unprotected bike lanes on both streets.

Police officers arriving at the scene found an autonomous vehicle had struck a cyclist, who only reported “non-life threatening injuries,” according to Eve...

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The best noise-canceling headphones to buy right now

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones have an all-new design. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Get some peace and quiet with any of our top picks for noise-canceling headphones. Sony’s still the best overall, but there are reasons to go elsewhere, too.

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T-Mobile is turning phone plans into VIP rewards programs

T-Mobile wants to be more than just your network. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile wants you to see it as more than a wireless company, so it’s flattering its customers with status. The company is launching a new program called Magenta Status, which includes a set of new perks for subscribers as well as the benefits already offered by T-Mobile Tuesdays. The company is partnering with Hilton, Hertz, and Live Nation to offer discounts, which can all be managed by the rebranded T-Mobile Tuesdays app, now called T Life.

Only T-Mobile’s own subscribers will be eligible for Magenta Status — Metro by T-Mobile customers aren’t. The new program adds discounts on top of the existing T-Mobile Tuesday promotions, including a $5 ticket to a different movie every month, 25 percent off some Live Nation tickets, discounts on...

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The sports documentary boom from Netflix and beyond

Image: Formula 1 / Netflix

Sports documentaries are becoming a popular genre among streamers, from Netflix to Apple TV Plus.

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Super Bowl 2024: the best ads and movie trailers

Super Bowl merchandise is ready at the NFL Super Bowl Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

These are the best ads we’ve seen from the Super Bowl this year.

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Google’s 4K-ready Chromecast is nearly matching its best price to date

Google’s TV software isn’t all that different from what other streaming devices employ, but its content-first UI keeps us coming back. | Image: The Verge

The streaming world may be consolidating faster than anticipated, but it’s pretty clear that cable TV isn’t likely to stage a comeback anytime soon. Fortunately, if you’re looking to pick up a new streaming device to make the most of Netflix and other services, the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $39.98 ($10 off), nearly matching its lowest price to date.

Despite having launched at the tail end of 2020, Google’s 4K-ready Chromecast remains one of our top picks when it comes to streaming devices. It features many of the hallmarks we expect in a modern streamer, including support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, along with a comfortable remote that can control your TV over both IR...

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Halo season 2 feels less like a video game — in a good way

Paramount Plus

Unlike the previous season’s pilot, Halo’s season 2 premiere shows you don’t need a bunch of video game details to tell a video game story.

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The Three-Body Problem is getting a new audiobook release just in time for Netflix’s show

The Verge

In Netflix’s new adaptation of Cixin Liu’s novel The Three-Body Problem, actress Rosalind Chao portrays one of the brilliant minds mobilized into action by the presence of a threat with the potential to wipe out humanity. But in Macmillan’s forthcoming The Three-Body Problem audiobook recording, Chao will bring the entire world of Liu’s novel to life with the sound of her voice.

Ahead of the March 21st debut of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, Macmillan Audio has tapped Chao to narrate its new recording of The Three-Body Problem — the first book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy chronicling the story of how humanity responds after making first contact with aliens. In a press release about the new audiobook, Chao said that, after...

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New trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One is filled with sound and fury

With two solid films under its belt, Paramount’s A Quiet Placefilms have really come into their own as a franchise, and even though the novelty of their core conceit has waned over time, the new trailer for director Michael Sarnoski’s upcoming prequel looks pretty damn promising.

After spending two films telling the story of how the Abbott family survived after the sudden arrival of aliens that hunt using their incredibly sensitive hearing, A Quiet Place: Day One shifts its focus to a woman named Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) on the day the creatures first dropped down to Earth. In the film’s new trailer, Sam seems to be one of the millions of New Yorkers who have no idea what to think when they look up one afternoon and see massive fiery...

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Apple is still working on foldable iPhones and iPads

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple may have just released the Vision Pro, but it hasn’t forgotten about making foldable iPhones and iPads. A new report from The Information reveals the company is developing “at least two” iPhone prototypes that fold horizontally, similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip devices.

We are unlikely to see a folding iPhone anytime soon, if at all, as The Information reports the device isn’t in the company’s mass production plans for 2024 or 2025. Even though the company reportedly wants to create a foldable iPhone with displays on the outside of the device, The Information says engineers “struggled” with the design because it can break easily.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Apple’s vision for a folding iPhone may...

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Microsoft’s next big AI push is here after a year of Bing

Image: Microsoft

A year ago today, Microsoft unveiled its ambitious plans for an AI-powered Bing search engine. It was the biggest launch in the history of Bing, helped push AI usage even further into the mainstream, and spurred a wave of dreams and panic about what AI could impact next. The launch was even successful enough to rattle Google, which was quickly seen as falling behind on artificial intelligence.

“They will definitely want to come out and show that they can dance,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told The Verge at the time. “And I want people to know that we made them dance.”

The strategy worked. But one year later, Bing seems to have fallen out of the conversation. Google is still at over 91 percent of traditional search market share according...

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What’s on your desk, Victoria Song?

Tech, tarot, junk journaling, and cats.

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The fediverse, explained

Image: Cath Virginia | The Verge

The buzziest new thing in social networking is a big deal. It’s also very confusing. And it’s not actually new. Let’s talk about it.

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A new Vision Pro teardown shows Apple’s incredible pixel density

iFixit’s partially disassembled Vision Pro | Image: iFixit

The Apple Vision Pro has a very good display. That’s the big takeaway from iFixit’s second teardown video on the headset (with accompanying blog), as the team found the dual MicroOLED panels inside are the densest they’ve ever seen at 3,386 pixels per inch (ppi). That doesn’t quite put the Vision Pro at 4K resolution, but it’s close. (iFixit notes that the consumer standard for 4K UHD is 3,840.) This is the benefit of using MicroOLED and is also a huge part of why the Vision Pro is so costly.

Compared to other VR headsets, there’s no contest here. iFixit points out that the Meta Quest 3 sits at about 1,218ppi, while the HTC Vive Pro is even less dense at around 950ppi. And your average phone is only going to be in the mid-100s. (iFixit...

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Ring’s latest battery doorbell comes with new features but the same old look

The new Ring Battery Doorbell Pro adds radar-powered motion detection. | Image: Ring

Smart home security company Ring has announced a new battery-powered doorbell. The $229.99 Battery Doorbell Pro builds on the Ring Battery Plus released last year — which brought 1536p HD video and a head-to-toe view to Ring’s wire-free doorbell line — and adds 3D Motion Detection powered by radar instead of passive infrared sensing. This should give more accurate alerts and not try to tell you that a tree branch is a person. There’s also dual-band Wi-Fi, color pre-roll, color night vision, and noise-cancelling audio.

Ring now sells three wireless battery doorbells: the Video Doorbell (second-gen) for $100, the Battery Plus for $150 (down from its launch price of $180), and the Battery Pro for $230. The new top-of-the-line Pro has...

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Ford quietly created its own ‘skunkworks’ team to develop low-cost electric vehicles

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Ford created a “skunkworks” lab two years ago with the mission of developing affordable electric vehicles, the company’s CEO said in an earnings call Tuesday. The team is being led by Alan Clarke, who worked at Tesla for 12 years before joining Ford as executive director of advanced EV development, according to TechCrunch.

Ford, like other global automakers, is scrambling to perfect the formula for profitable electric vehicles. The company’s Model e unit, which oversees EVs and software products, reported a loss of $1.6 billion in the last quarter of 2023. Ford said it would slow the pace of money it was spending on EVs in order to better match customer demand.

But the revelation of a skunkworks lab working on low-cost EVs proves that...

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The US strengthens air quality rule for soot

Emission rise from a smoke stack at the Essex County Resource Recovery Waste-to-Energy Facility on January 21, 2024, in Newark, New Jersey. | Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a significantly stricter standard today for fine particle pollution, commonly referred to as soot. It’s the first time in twelve years that the agency has updated the rule to reflect current science and the culmination of a power struggle that has spanned three presidential administrations.

Tackling this kind of pollution is like battling a dragon with many heads — it comes from power plants, factories, vehicles, wildfires, and anything else you can imagine that produces soot. That’s made this rule a major target for both health advocates pushing for more protective policies and industries lobbying to keep current, more lax regulations in place.

For now, at least, health advocates are...

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Asus and MSI OLED monitor warranties now cover burn-in

Some of the newer Asus OLED monitors like the ROG Swift PG32UCDM (pictured) will benefit from a longer three year burn-in warranty. | Image: Asus

MSI and Asus are providing consumers who purchase their OLED monitors with some additional peace of mind, having now revised their warranty coverage on certain models to cover the dreaded issue of panel burn-in. On Monday, TFTCentral spotted that the warranties offered across Asus OLED displays have been quietly updated to include burn-in coverage of either two or three years. MSI then countered this less than 24 hours later, announcing a new three-year burn-in warranty for some of its own OLED displays.

OLED panels are becoming more common in gaming-focused monitors thanks to the improved image quality and responsiveness they provide over IPS and LCD displays, but burn-in is still a concern for many consumers. Static elements — like...

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Nine states, including California and New York, sign heat pump agreement to clean up air pollution

A heat pump is installed on the first floor among many AC units at the New York City Housing Authority’s Woodside Houses in Queens, New York. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Nine states inked an agreement today to promote heat pump sales. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) sets a 2030 target for heat pumps to make up 65 of residential heating, cooling, and water heating equipment sales. By 2040, the goal is for heat pumps to account for 90 percent of the HVAC and water heating market.

Heat pumps are more energy efficient alternatives to traditional heating and cooling systems. And because they’re electric, they can feasibly run on renewables like wind and solar once there’s more clean energy coursing through power grids. The states on board with the agreement include: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island.

The MOU isn’t legally binding, so...

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Watch 11 minutes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gameplay features — and the final trailer

Cosmo Canyon. Nibelheim. Dolphin racing. Vincent Valentine. A one-winged Sephiroth. Marlene’s dad Dyne. Mini-game after mini-game after mini-game to play. “The world will be saved, but will you?” asks the game’s trailer, with almost zero subtlety that the events of this game will determine Aerith’s infamous fate.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is coming February 29th, and both Sony and Square Enix want to make damn sure that fans know this game is a can’t-miss event — even though it’s not the conclusion to the remake of Final Fantasy VII and will have another game following it.

But as a huge fan of the original PS1 title who initially held out on playing Remake for that reason, I’ve gotta say the 15-plus minutes of video that Sony and...

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The refreshed Porsche Taycan will drive farther and charge faster than ever before

Image: Porsche

Porsche’s inaugural electric car is getting a facelift to dramatically improve its driving range, performance, and fast-charging abilities. As rival EVs get bigger batteries and improved charging architectures, Porsche is intent on remaining top of the heap with the refreshed Taycan sport sedan.

The 2025 Taycan comes in two body styles — the sports sedan and the Cross Turismo wagon — each with four powertrain options as well as rear- and all-wheel drive variants. The sedans, which range in price from $101,395 to $210,995, will be available this fall. The Cross Turismo models, available later this fall, start at $113,095 and climb all the way to $213,695.

The 2023 Taycan came in two battery configurations: 79kWh and 93kWh. For the 2025...

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Fossil fuels are losing ground to renewable energy in Europe

Wind turbines and power lines can be seen against the evening sky near Leuna, Germany on October 4th, 2022. | Photo by Jan Woitas/picture alliance via Getty Images

The European Union saw a record drop in pollution from fossil fuel power plants last year, according to a new report. Ember, an energy think tank that crunched the numbers, calls it “an unprecedented collapse in coal and gas electricity generation.” Renewable energy is finally starting to take over the power grid.

Fossil fuels dropped to their lowest point since reliable record-keeping started in 1990, making up less than a third of EU’s electricity generation in 2023. Carbon-pollution-free power generation — which includes renewables and nuclear energy — made up more than two-thirds of the electricity mix, and twice as much as fossil fuels.

“An unprecedented collapse in coal and gas electricity generation.”

“What’s encouraging is it’s...

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The best instant cameras you can buy right now

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge

We found the best cameras for your budget and needs.

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OpenAI is adding new watermarks to DALL-E 3

Image: OpenAI

OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 3 will add watermarks to image metadata as more companies roll out support for standards from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).

The company says watermarks from C2PA will appear in images generated on the ChatGPT website and the API for the DALL-E 3 model. Mobile users will get the watermarks by February 12th. They’ll include both an invisible metadata component and a visible CR symbol, which will appear in the top left corner of each image.

People can check the provenance — which AI tool was used to make the content — of any image generated by OpenAI’s platforms through websites like Content Credentials Verify. So far, only still images, not videos or text, can carry the...

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ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. are putting together a juggernaut sports streaming app

Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing to launch a streaming service in partnership with ESPN / Disney and Fox Sports, as reported earlier by CNBC and Sports Business Journal. All three companies have agreed in principle to launch an as-yet-unnamed standalone app, of which they all share one-third ownership, this fall that streams a range of leagues and sports.

It is poised to have sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, and truTV. The new service will air games from Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL), along with NASCAR, PGA Tour Golf, Grand Slam Tennis, and more. Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max users will also...

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Elon Musk is backing Mandalorian actor’s suit against Disney

Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / WireImage

Three years after Disney cut ties with The Mandalorian’s Gina Carano, the actor is now filing a lawsuit against the company — with a little help from Elon Musk.

As The Hollywood Reporter reports, Carano is suing Disney for discrimination and wrongful termination after she was fired following inflammatory and antisemitic posts on X (then Twitter) and Instagram. At the time of Carano’s firing, Disney said in a statement that “her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

As for the timing, Carano is filing the lawsuit now because Musk posted in August of last year that “if you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this...

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Two Texas companies were behind the AI Joe Biden robocalls

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

Lingo Telecom and Life Corporation are linked to a robocall campaign that used an AI voice clone of President Joe Biden to persuade New Hampshire voters not to vote, said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella during a press conference on Tuesday. Authorities have issued cease-and-desist orders as well as subpoenas to both companies. The two companies are both based in Texas and have been accused of illegal robocall investigations in the past, the FCC noted in the document.

In its cease-and-desist order to Lingo Telecom, the FCC accused the company of “originating illegal robocall traffic.” According to the document, the robocalls began on January 21st of this year, two days before the New Hampshire presidential primary. Voters in...

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Spotify’s transformed podcast business may actually be profitable this year

Image: The Verge

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

After last week’s big deal announcements, Spotify reported its fourth quarter earnings. The company is still operating at a loss, but the margins on podcasting do seem to actually be improving. I have more on that below, plus what it cost for the company to get there. Oh, and still no HiFi.

Plus, I’ve got some more Hot Pod Summit programming announcements.

After slashing jobs and ending exclusivity, Spotify may finally have a profitable podcast business

On a call today, Daniel Ek told investors what they have wanted to hear about podcasting for a long time. “I’m pleased to say in Q4, we were very close to breakeven on that business,...

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Disney Plus’ restrictions on password sharing are now rolling out to US subscribers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The writing’s been on the wall for months now, but Disney Plus is finally implementing measures to keep US subscribers from sharing their passwords with people who aren’t paying for the service.

Today, Disney Plus began sending out emails informing subscribers about new changes to its terms of service that will, among other things, make it harder for people to access the service using log-in credentials that aren’t actually theirs. The updated terms come a few months after Disney Plus implemented similar measures for its Canadian subscribers and just days after Hulu sent out similar notices to users about changes to its own TOS and its plans to stop password sharing in the coming weeks.

Like Hulu’s terms of service, the changes to...

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Apple’s first Vision Pro beta lets you bring virtual items closer

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The first visionOS developer beta since the launch of the Apple Vision Pro is here, bringing with it a fix that lets users of the headset get closer to objects in a 3D space.

In visionOS, when you get close enough to an object or an app window, it starts to fade to nothing as you pass through it. But one of The Verge’s staffers said the point where this fade happens when playing something like STAK!, a game that lets you stack 3D blocks, was frustratingly far away.

Apple’s release notes for the visionOS beta 1.1 update say that users will “be able to reposition volumetric scenes much closer than before, which will enable easier direct interaction” with the objects in them.

Besides this fix, Apple has also reportedly enabled...

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