How much energy will new semiconductor factories burn through in the US?

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. facility under construction in Phoenix, Arizona, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. | Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A new report warns that a boom in computer chip manufacturing in the US could fuel demand for dirty energy, despite companies’ environmental claims. The solution for manufacturers, surprisingly, might be to act more like other big tech companies chasing climate goals.

New semiconductor factories being built in the US by four of the biggest manufacturers — Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and Micron — could use more than twice as much electricity as the city of Seattle once they’re operational. These companies claim to run on renewable energy, but according to an analysis by nonprofit Stand.earth, that’s not entirely true.

Semiconductors happen to make up a big chunk of a device’s carbon footprint. And unless companies turn to clean energy, they...

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iPhone budgeting apps can now automatically import your Apple Card and Cash transactions

YNAB’s screen showing the interface for importing Apple transactions and balances. | Image: YNAB

With its latest iOS 17.4 update, Apple is adding an easier way for Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings with Apple Card users to track their balances and transactions, TechCrunch reports. With the update, third-party budgeting apps can automatically import information from Apple’s financial services via the iPhone maker’s FinanceKit API.

Budgeting and money-management apps YNAB, Monarch, and Copilot have all rolled out support for the new feature, which will need to be manually set up from within their respective apps. After setup, YNAB notes that transactions should be automatically imported whenever you open its app, or even take place when its app is running in the background.

Thanks to new functionality available on iOS 17.4, you...

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Experts fear the DMA won’t change the status quo

Cath Virginia / The Verge

The European Union is attempting to loosen the grip that companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have over the digital economy. Tech giants targeted by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — a law passed in 2022 aiming to make the tech industry less monopolistic — are required to remove unfair competitive advantages that have let them dominate their respective markets by March 6th.

But some experts believe the status quo is unlikely to shift. Many of these companies have announced compliance plans in response to the DMA, and for the most part, these changes — as one might expect from a plan crafted by the company itself — are unlikely to result in a loss of power. And then there’s Apple, which appears to be engaging in outright malicious...

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Headspace XR made me forget how much I hate meditation tech

I’m the most shocked that I enjoyed the app. | Image: Headspace, Meta

I am not a chill person, but I would like to be. It’s why I keep trying various meditation tech, breathing in and out as abstract graphics or disembodied voices guide me to a higher state of being. Or that’s what would happen if most meditation tech worked for me. So trust me when I say I expected nothing from Headspace XR.

When the pandemic struck, meditation and mindfulness apps like Headspace were everywhere. Totally makes sense. Yet meditating in VR? It sounds ridiculous. Why would I breathe in a headset when I could just... not. But you never know! Things could surprise you! That’s why I, the meditation skeptic, agreed to try a demo of Headspace XR. Walking into Meta’s New York office, I thought I’d stick on the headset and nod...

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Logitech’s new MX Brio is a $200 4K webcam with ‘AI-enhanced image quality’

Image: Logitech

Logitech’s MX Brio is a new $199.99 (£219.99 / €229) 4K webcam aimed at everyone from remote workers to streamers. Key specs include the ability to stream in 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps, an aperture of f/2.0, and an aluminum unibody design that kind of looks a little like a kazoo if you squint at it.

Since it’s 2024, Logitech is naturally advertising some AI-powered technology in the MX Brio. The webcam’s “face-based image enhancement” is designed to automatically detect the position of your face within the frame of the webcam and adjust its picture’s white balance, exposure, and focus accordingly. But there have also been hardware improvements, with the company advertising that the pixels in its new webcam’s 8.5-megapixel sensor are...

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The EU’s new competition rules are going live — here’s how tech giants are responding

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

The Digital Markets Act’s deadline for compliance is imminent. Its six designated “gatekeepers” have fought the rules, but also bent to them.

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Turmoil at OpenAI: what’s next for the creator of ChatGPT?

Illustration: The Verge

CEO Sam Altman has returned to OpenAI, and Elon Musk is suing the company he helped to start.

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OpenAI says Elon Musk wanted ‘absolute control’ of the company

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

OpenAI has responded to Elon Musk’s lawsuit by saying that he at one point wanted “absolute control” of the company by merging it with Tesla.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, OpenAI said it will move to dismiss “all of Elon’s claims” and offered its own counter-narrative to his account of the company abandoning its original mission as a nonprofit.

“As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control,” including “majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO,” according to the post, which is authored by OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Sam Altman, and Wojciech Zaremba. “We couldn’t agree to terms on a for-profit...

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Microsoft invokes VCRs in motion to dismiss The New York Times’s AI lawsuit

Illustration: The Verge

The VCR will always invoke a sense of nostalgia, but Microsoft hopes it can help in court; it’s citing the tech in its attempt to dismiss three claims in The New York Times’ copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.

The Times sued Microsoft for allegedly copying its stories and using that data to mimic its style, but Microsoft’s lawyers are now arguing that OpenAI’s large language models are just the latest in a long line of technologies that are considered legal despite their potential for copyright abuse. “Despite The Times’s contentions, copyright law is no more an obstacle to large language model than it was to the VCR (or the player piano, copy machine, personal computer, internet or search engine),” reads one...

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Twitter’s music label legal trouble might have legs

Image: The Verge

The music labels suing Twitter — now X — for copyright infringement can move forward with parts of their lawsuit. In a filing on Tuesday, US District Judge Aleta A. Trauger partially denied X’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it’s still not clear “to what extent X Corp. may be liable for the infringing acts of users on its platform.”

Last year, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) sued X for $250 million on behalf of Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group, Sony Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and other major publishers.

The lawsuit alleges that X “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators” by failing to take action against posts containing copyrighted music. Copyright issues on X have...

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The Pixel 8a may get a 256GB storage boost — and a price hike

Is this what the Pixel 8a will look like? | Image: OnLeaks / Smartprix

The Pixel 8a phone is getting a new 256GB tier, at least according to rumblings heard from retailers by the usually reliable German tech news site WinFuture. The site’s sources also say it will come in four colors, like the $499 Pixel 7a, but it will cost a quite a bit more than that phone at €569.90, or about $618 USD.

According to WinFuture’s sources, the beefed-up storage version will cost even more — €630 (about $684 USD) — putting it a whiff away from the regular Pixel 8’s $699 price tag. However, as the site notes, that could be subject to change.

The Pixel 8a will reportedly come in obsidian (black), porcelain (beige), bay (light blue), and mint (light green). Last year’s Pixel 7a also came in four colors, but only as a 128GB...

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TikTok’s longer videos are here to stay

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

A year ago, TikTok introduced a new way for creators on the platform to make money: make longer videos. The invite-only Creativity Program, then in beta, required TikTokers to post clips longer than a minute to qualify for monetization, demonstrating a shift in how the company wanted people to use its platform. It was a move away from the so-called short-form video style that made TikTok a household name in the first place.

TikTok announced today that the program will be called Creator Rewards going forward, and content creators will need to make videos longer than a minute to monetize through the program. The previous creator fund, which didn’t have a requirement for video length, shut down in November.

Creator Rewards will calculate...

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Meta’s Quest 2 and Pro headsets now have a lying down mode

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Owners of Meta’s Quest 2 or Pro headsets can turn on a setting that allows their headset to work while lying down, thanks to the v63 software update that’s starting to roll out.

Meta tested lying down mode in a public preview early last year but removed the feature before the v53 update shipped for everyone. In January, Meta exec Mark Rabkin told a user, “It shall make a comeback,” and here it is, at least as an experimental option, which Meta could change or remove in the future.

Meta

Many users were upset when it was removed after the test, especially those with health conditions that make it painful or impossible to wear a headset while upright for long periods of time. For other users, it might have less impact...

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Apple Podcasts now includes transcripts

Image: Apple

Apple Podcasts will auto-generate transcripts for podcasts beginning today, thanks to the 17.4 update for iPhones and iPads. Transcripts will automatically appear for new podcast episodes shortly after their publication, while Apple will transcribe podcast back catalogs over time.

The podcast transcripts are searchable, allowing users to type in a specific word or phrase and skip to that part of an episode. Users can find transcripts for individual podcast episodes on the bottom-left corner of the “Now Playing” screen.

Image: Apple

Transcripts are now on Apple Podcasts.

After Spotify rolled out auto-generated transcripts last fall, it’s no surprise that Apple wants its native podcast player to keep up...

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Mill’s $999 high-tech waste bin dumps the subscription

The Mill is a smart kitchen trash can that grinds up food scraps and uses sensors and AI built into its bin to manage your food waste efficiently. | Image: Mill Industries

Last year when I reviewed Nest co-founder Matt Rogers’ new project, the Mill smart trash can, I was impressed with its food-grinding prowess. But I disliked its monthly subscription and that it wasn’t actually making chicken feed out of my food waste as promised.

A year later, the company is out with the second generation of the Mill, and it’s addressed both those issues. They’ve also made the bin smaller, faster, and quieter. However, it’s still silly expensive.

The second-generation Mill looks similar from the outside, but its internals have had a complete redesign. According to a press release, the Mill can now grind your leftovers up into a substance resembling coffee grounds in two and a half hours, much faster than the 10 hours it...

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The Nintendo DS emulator Drastic is now free as Yuzu lawsuit fallout begins

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

One day after the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu utterly folded in the face of Nintendo’s lawsuit, it’s not yet clear what other parts of the emulation community might have to fear. But the Yuzu settlement already took the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra down with it, and it’s not the only change the community’s making seemingly out of an abundance of caution.

The developer of popular Nintendo DS emulator Drastic just made its app completely free on Android (previously $4.99), and it intends to pull it down for good. Exophase wrote on its official Discord that “I want to make it clear that I don’t have any kind of financial incentive” and that Nintendo’s move simply “made the whole process more urgent”:

Screenshot by Sean...

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How to create and save Chrome tab groups

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

I usually have at least half a dozen or more projects going at once: I can be writing or updating several short pieces, editing one or two others, getting ready for Apple or Google or some other company to announce their latest and greatest tech, or dealing with some other project. Each of these projects usually involves several tabs on my Chrome browser: one for the article itself; several for online sources that I need to read or link to; and perhaps also a document or spreadsheet that I’m sharing with my team. And that’s not even counting the tabs for my email accounts (work and personal), calendars (ditto), and social networking.

Once upon a time, I would have had to create bookmarks for all of those tabs if I wanted to keep them in...

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Spotify is about to put Apple’s new App Store policies to the test

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Spotify isn’t going to launch the in-app purchases it previously planned for the European Union, at least right now. Instead, if Apple approves a newly submitted update, it’s going to try to do the next best thing: provide pricing information within the app and link users to its subscription options.

Spotify tells The Verge that it’s planning to make this change in response to the European Commission’s ruling on Monday, which fined Apple €1.84 billion (about $2 billion) for “abusing its dominant position” in the music streaming app distribution business. The European Commission found that Apple’s anti-steering rules prevent developers from telling users about “alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the...

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Now all Signal users can share usernames instead of phone numbers

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

After making it available as a beta feature for a few weeks, Signal has rolled out support for usernames on its encrypted messaging service so anyone can add an optional username that will connect them to others without sharing their phone number.

You can create a username by heading to your settings and selecting “Profile.” After you create a unique username, you can generate a QR code or link that points people to your username in the app. Other users can also connect with you by typing your username into the new chat bar and sending a message. As noted in Signal’s FAQ page for usernames, you can change your username whenever you want, but other users will be able to claim your previous name. Signal first started testing usernames last...

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Waze will warn you about speed bumps and sharp curves soon

Image: Waze / Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge

Waze announced several new features, including an alert for stopped first responders, for its already busy driving directions map. That feature is out now, but others, like new road hazard warnings and updated routing info, will be available on iOS and Android phones this month, with still others planned for later this year.

The first responder alert feature shows a blinking icon of an emergency vehicle on the map and tells you how far away it is. As if the bright strobing lights ahead of you aren’t enough of an indicator or you’re not looking at the road at all (okay, maybe sometimes you’re just stuck behind a big truck). This feature is out now for users in the US, Canada, Mexico, and France, with other countries to follow.

...

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Max is getting in on the big streaming password crackdown

Image: Warner Bros. Discovery

Wired reports that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is gearing up to implement a new set of restrictions designed to prevent subscribers from sharing their passwords with people who aren’t paying for the service themselves. Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference on Monday, WBD head of global streaming and games JB Perrette said that the company plans to launch its crackdown some time in late 2024.

“We’re launching in a bunch of European markets as we go into the second and third quarter,” Perette said. “And password sharing crack down, which, obviously, Netflix has implemented extremely successfully. We’re going to be doing that starting later this year and into ‘25, which is another growth opportunity for us.”

M...

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Tidal’s subscription is getting simpler and cheaper — yes, you read that right

The Verge

Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren’t enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity. So starting April 10th in the US, the company will combine its existing HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single subscription tier that will simply be called “Tidal.” And it’ll cost the same $10.99 per month that the less expensive HiFi plan did.

At a high level, it sounds like this new, much simpler subscription model will still include all the perks — high-res FLACs, Dolby Atmos mixes, etc. — that were previously only available on the Plus tier. Yes, that means a subscription service is actually getting cheaper for once if you were a HiFi Plus user. Hard to believe in this day and age, right?...

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GE Profile and Café smart ovens are getting a new food recognition feature

Some GE Appliance’s Café wall ovens can now recognize what’s in them and suggest cooking modes for you. | Image: GE Appliances

If you have a smart GE Appliances wall oven, it’s about to get smarter. Cookcam AI is a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to recognize what you put in the oven and figure out the rest for you, so you don’t need to hover over it and worry about burning your pizza. The company says Cookcam AI is coming to select GE Profile and Café wall ovens with in-oven cameras via a free over-the-air software upgrade.

Cookcam AI will work with Precision Cooking Mode, which is a feature already on most connected GE Appliances ovens, including Monogram, Café, GE Profile, and GE models. Precision Cooking Mode allows for guided cooking that takes you step by step through setting the appliance correctly for your dish using the oven’s touchscreen...

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iOS 17.4 is here and ready for a whole new Europe

iPhone 15 users should now see more battery-related information under Battery Health settings. | Image: The Verge

Apple’s iOS 17.4 update is now available, introducing new emoji and a cryptographic security protocol for iMessage, alongside some major changes to the App Store and contactless payments for the iPhone platform in Europe. Apple is making several of these changes to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law that aims to make the digital economy fairer by removing unfair advantages that tech giants hold over businesses and end users.

iOS 17.4 will allow third-party developers to offer alternative app marketplaces and app downloads to EU users from outside the iOS App Store. Developers wanting to take advantage of this will be required to go through Apple’s approval process and pay Apple a “Core Technology Fee” that charges 50...

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Lawmakers introduce bill that would punish app stores for hosting TikTok

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

After a long reprieve from serious congressional scrutiny, lawmakers are taking another crack at getting TikTok to sever ties from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

The leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), announced the introduction of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act on Tuesday. The bill, which has 19 lawmakers signed on so far, would make it illegal to distribute apps controlled by ByteDance, including TikTok, unless they sever ties from the Chinese tech giant.

If enacted, the bill would impose a civil penalty on app stores and web hosting services that distribute TikTok and other...

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Microsoft to end its Android apps on Windows 11 subsystem in 2025

Image: Microsoft

Microsoft is ending support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 next year. The software giant first announced it was bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore nearly three years ago, but this Windows Subsystem for Android will now be deprecated starting March 5th, 2025.

“Microsoft is ending support for the Windows Subsystem for Android™️ (WSA),” reads a new support document from Microsoft. “As a result, the Amazon Appstore on Windows and all applications and games dependent on WSA will no longer be supported beginning March 5, 2025.”

If you currently use Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, then you’ll continue to have access to these past the support cutoff date, but you won’t be able to download any new ones once...

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The best entertainment of 2024

Dune: Part Two. | Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Finding something to watch or play can sometimes feel like work — there’s just so much out there vying for your free time. That’s true whether you’re heading to a theater, browsing the many streaming platforms, or looking for a new video game. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with choice.

So, as we’ve done in years past, we’re collecting all of our favorite releases from 2024 in one place. The goal is to make your decision-making a little easier. That could mean highlighting anything from an anticipated movie that actually lives up to the hype to a surprise indie game that takes the world by storm.

And we’ll be updating this page all year long as we continue to check out the latest in film, television, and gaming — so stay tuned.

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Netflix continues run of excellent indie games with Hades in March

Image: Netflix

Netflix continues to strengthen its lineup of games with Hades launching on iOS mobile on March 19th. The launch comes with a fancy new trailer highlighting how mobile controls will work for the escape-from-hell roguelike and you can pre-register for the game here.

Hades represents the latest in a handful of popular games Netflix is adding to its growing roster. You can already play Oxenfree II, Kentucky Route Zero, Before Your Eyes, and Spiritfarer, while Katana Zero, Sonic Mania Plus, and Braid are due sometime this year. Late last year, Netflix added the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, which became its biggest gaming launch despite Netflix not sharing what “biggest gaming launch” meant in hard numbers. Netflix is also working on direct...

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Google is starting to squash more spam and AI in search results

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google is rolling out a few new changes to its ranking systems in search, which are designed to help surface good content in your results and hide some of the worst and most cynical stuff on the web. The company says that it is doing a better job of downranking content that exists only to summarize other content — which can sometimes be normal SEO stuff but is also increasingly a job for generative AI tools — and in combatting some of the tricks people use to trick its ranking systems.

There are always people trying to manipulate their way to the top of Google results. That’s just a fact of the web and a fact of life for Google’s search teams. Google is always making changes to its ranking algorithms, too, in an effort to improve search...

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Rad Power Bikes debuts fire-resistant batteries — and four new e-bike models

Image: Rad Power Bikes

As electric bikes become more popular in the US, the risk of deadly fires stemming from cheaply made batteries has become an unfortunate side effect that risks derailing the momentum of an important climate change fighting tool. That helps explain why Rad Power Bikes, the leading e-bike manufacturer in the US, is releasing new battery technology that it says can help usher in a new era of safety for the industry.

Today, the company is announcing four new models with new state-of-the-art batteries designed to better prevent malfunctions that can cause the types of fires that are becoming increasingly common among cheaper e-bike brands.

The new models include a refreshed RadWagon, the company’s bestselling electric cargo bike, as well as...

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