Wacom says its first OLED drawing tablet is cool and skinny

Image: Wacom

Wacom has thrown a tablet-shaped curveball at digital creatives waiting on Apple’s highly anticipated OLED iPads. The company introduced the Wacom Movink 13 on Wednesday, its own OLED-based offering that targets creatives in need of a highly portable display drawing tablet.

Available now for $750 via the Wacom web store, the Movink features a full HD 13.3-inch Samsung OLED display that gives it several advantages over comparably midrange LED-based tablets. The most notable is the lack of a backlight — not only does that prevent light leakage and excess heat, according to Wacom (the latter being a familiar nuisance for display tablet users), but it also allows the tablet to be more compact.

Wacom says the Movink is the “thinnest and...

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Ford looks to future EV breakthroughs — and smaller cars — to staunch the bleeding

Image: Ford

Ford is the No. 2 seller of electric vehicles in the US. It’s very proud of that fact, but the amount of cash it had to burn to get there is enough to make you wonder whether it can keep that title.

The company reported its first quarter earnings last night, and woo boy, it’s rough

The company reported its first quarter earnings last night, and woo boy, it’s rough. Ford said it lost $1.3 billion on the sale of 10,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of the year — a staggering figure that amounts to $130,000 lost for every EV sold.

Ford’s Model e division, which oversees some of the company’s EV sales as well as software, reported $100 million in revenue, an 84 percent drop from the same period last year. The number of...

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Google Meet now lets you switch devices without hanging up

Illustration: The Verge

Google is making it a lot easier to move between devices during a meeting. The new “Switch here” feature allows you to move an active Meet call from your computer to your smartphone or vice versa. This means you can swap devices as you sit down at your desk or get up to go somewhere during a full group session without your tile bouncing in and out of the window.

There’s also a new function that allows you to join a call in two places. So, you can have your call active on the kitchen tablet and office computer while you run back and forth, flipping an egg and pulling an espresso shot (note for boss: I do not do this).

GIF: Google

While another call is active, the same meeting window on another device now has a...

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Anyone want to buy TikTok?

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

It was going to happen, and then it wasn’t going to happen, and then it happened. The United States Congress passed a bill that would either ban TikTok or force it to be sold, and President Joe Biden signed it.

So... what now? TikTok could sue, and win, and go back to normal. TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, could just decide to shut it down and move on. Or it could sell TikTok US. Those are really the only three outcomes, and we have a year or less to figure out which it’s going to be.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we discuss all the possible outcomes for TikTok. Then we try to figure out which companies might buy the platform — and which definitely won’t, despite desperately wanting to. There’s no easy, obvious choice, but there are a...

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Microsoft needs to win back trust

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

The world’s largest tech company has a security problem. A series of high-profile security incidents have rocked Microsoft over the past few years, and a scathing report from the Cyber Safety Review Board recently concluded that “Microsoft’s security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul.” Inside Microsoft, there is concern that the attacks could seriously undermine trust in the company.

Sources tell me that Microsoft’s engineering and security teams have been scrambling to respond to new attacks from the same Russian state-sponsored hackers that were behind the SolarWinds incident. Known as Nobelium or Midnight Blizzard, the hacking group was able to spy on the email accounts of some members of Microsoft’s senior leadership...

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The next big game from Clash of Clans developer Supercell launches in May

Image: Supercell

Supercell doesn’t release a lot of games, but the studio’s mobile releases tend to be big hits. Think Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars, and Clash Royale. Now, the developer is gearing up for its next major release: Squad Busters, which will be out globally on both Android and iOS on May 29th.

It’s a competitive multiplayer game, but one on a larger scale than a typical mobile release. In each match, 10 players compete to collect the most gems while building up a squad of computer-controlled characters. It’s sort of like a simplified MOBA: you move your team around fighting minions, earning cash that lets you improve and grow your squad before you eventually start fighting other players and going for the big gem pile in the middle of the map....

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The EPA’s new power plant pollution rule has a big, gassy hole in it

A power plant in Thompsons, Texas, U.S. that’s home to the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. | Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just finalized rules aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. But it still doesn’t crack down on the nation’s fleet of gas-fired power plants. That’s a big omission considering the US gets 43 percent of its electricity from gas, more than from any other source of energy.

EPA administrator Michael Regan says the agency is taking more time to strengthen rules for today’s existing gas power plants. But waiting too long risks leaving the decision up to a possible forthcoming Trump administration, which tried to gut environmental protections the last time. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for the US to meet climate commitments it set under the Paris agreement. The Biden...

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TikTok ban: all the news on attempts to ban the video platform

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images

Here’s a roundup of all the news about a new law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell off its platform.

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Zuckerberg says it will take Meta years to make money from generative AI

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The generative AI gold rush is underway — just don’t expect it to create profits anytime soon.

That was the message from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to investors during Wednesday’s call for the company’s first-quarter earnings report. Having just put its ChatGPT competitor in a bunch of places across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, much of the call focused on exactly how generative AI will become a money-making endeavor for Meta.

The company is already quite profitable, having grown net income to more than $12 billion on $36.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter alone. But its revenue growth is expected to slow going forward. At the same time, it’s spending more than ever on AI and the metaverse.

“Historically, investing to build...

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Threads wants to let you wipe your old posts away

Image: The Verge

Threads is testing the option to automatically hide your old posts. Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the feature is only available to a “small number” of users for now, but it will let you choose to archive individual posts manually or have them automatically archived after a certain amount of time.

You can see an example of how the feature might look in Mosseri’s post on Threads. Users with access to the test should be able to manually archive their content by hitting the three dots in the top-right corner of a post and selecting “Archive now.” This will give users the option to hide certain posts on their profiles, similar to the archive option on Instagram.

Mosseri says that users can make their posts public again at any time. He...

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The BattlerGC Pro might be the GameCube controller’s final form

BattleGC Pro in limited-edition crystal. | Image: Retro Fighters

This new BattlerGC Pro controller looks like it could be the ultimate GameCube gamepad — one with drift-resistant Hall effect joysticks, hybrid analog / digital triggers, programmable back buttons, a rechargeable battery with a USB-C port, and the ability to use it across different consoles and systems thanks to Bluetooth support. And of course, it’s the latest controller to host the best face button layout ever, and I will fight to the Final Destination defending it!

I do, however, acknowledge the GameCube controller layout is not everyone’s favorite, so it’s no surprise there aren’t a lot of great modern GameCube controller options besides the PowerA-made licensed one that runs on AA batteries, which is my current go-to for docked...

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Drake threatened with lawsuit over diss track featuring AI Tupac

Photo by Prince Williams / Wireimage

While Drake’s fans have been having a ball with the Canadian rapper’s recently released track dissing fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, the legal team representing Tupac Shakur is threatening to take legal action if the song isn’t pulled off the internet.

Billboard reports that late rapper Tupac’s legal team is ready to take Drake to court over the release of “Taylor Made,” Drake’s recently released song featuring the AI-generated voices of Shakur and Snoop Dogg. In a statement about Drake’s creation of “Taylor Made,” litigator Howard King called the song a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time” and said the Shakur estate never cleared the use of Tupac’s voice.

“The Estate is deeply dismayed and...

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Airlines will soon have to pay you back if they cancel or delay your flight

Photo by Urbanandsport / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Department of Transportation (DOT) finalized rules that will soon require airlines to quickly refund passengers if they cancel or delay flights or make significant changes.

Airlines must pay passengers back either in cash or in the original form of payment, no matter the reason they cancel their flight. Alternatively, passengers can choose to accept travel credit, other kinds of transportation, or another flight offered by the airline.

Airlines must also refund passengers if their flight itinerary is “significantly changed” and they don’t accept the airline’s alternative travel options. Specifically, this means that you can get your money back if your flight changes its arrival or departure time by three or more hours for domestic...

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WhatsApp for iOS is rolling out passwordless logins with passkeys

Illustration: The Verge

One more app joins the passwordless future we’ve been promised. WhatsApp says it’s now rolling out support for passkeys in the iOS version of the app. With the feature enabled, users of Meta’s encrypted messaging app can use iPhone biometrics for login — that is, Face ID or Touch ID — or their phone’s passcode.

WhatsApp already supports unlocking its iOS app with one of these options, but this takes that a step further. Passkey support comes to the iPhone version several months after Meta started distributing it to Android WhatsApp users in October.

Passkeys are supposed to be the secure (or, at least, more secure; even passkeys have tradeoffs) wave of the future — a version of authentication that does away with passwords and SMS...

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TikTok will stop paying people to watch videos every day

The Digital Services Act strikes again. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

TikTok Lite users in Europe will have to find another way to earn an extra 38 cents a day.

The light version of the TikTok app, which launched in two EU countries a couple of weeks ago, included a reward feature that paid users a small amount each day to engage with videos. European regulators launched an inquiry soon after, citing the feature’s potential for encouraging addiction — particularly in young people. TikTok responded today by suspending the feature in the EU while it addresses the investigation.

TikTok Lite is designed as a lightweight alternative to the main TikTok app for easier use on slow internet connections. It has been available in parts of Asia for years and became available in France and Spain earlier this month....

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Net neutrality is about to make a comeback

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote to restore net neutrality on Thursday in the latest volley of a yearslong game of political ping-pong.

The commission is expected to reclassify internet service providers (ISPs) — e.g., broadband companies like AT&T and Comcast — as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. That classification would open ISPs up to greater oversight by the FCC. The vote is widely expected to go in favor of reinstating net neutrality since FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, controls the agency’s agenda. Rosenworcel moved forward with the measure after a fifth commissioner was sworn in, restoring a Democratic majority on the panel. (Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media,...

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Paramount Plus is trying to carve out a safe streaming space for kids

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

There are two types of parents I’m friends with: those who let their kids watch YouTube and those who work very hard to keep their kids as far from YouTube as possible. Given I know at least one small child who developed an obsession with dictators after getting around the YouTube parental controls, I understand the divide. Streaming services seem to understand that divide, too, and are eager to provide an alternative to YouTube that gives parents all the set-and-forget appeal of YouTube without, hopefully, the questions about Kim Jong Un’s rise to power.

Paramount Plus, with its massive library of Nickelodeon shows, is a little more primed than other streamers that have had to create a library of kids content from scratch. In a...

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Apple’s new AI model hints at how AI could come to the iPhone

Illustration: The Verge

Apple has been quiet about its plans for generative AI, but with the release of new AI models today, it appears the company’s immediate ambitions lie firmly in the “make AI run locally on Apple devices” realm.

Researchers from Apple released OpenELM, a series of four very small language models on the Hugging Face model library, on Wednesday. Apple said on its Hugging Face model page that OpenELM, which stands for “Open-source Efficient Language Models,” performs very efficiently on text-related tasks like email writing. The models are open source and ready for developers to use.

OpenELM is even smaller than most lightweight AI models

It has four sizes: 270 million parameters; 450 million parameters; 1.1 billion parameters; and 3 billion...

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Spotify is struggling to get Apple to approve its iOS updates in the EU

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Spotify submitted a new version of its iOS app that should give users in the European Union in-app pricing information for subscriptions made outside of Apple’s payment system — provided the update doesn’t get stonewalled by Apple again.

According to TechCrunch, the latest version of the app doesn’t contain a direct link to subscription plans on Spotify’s website, something the company hoped would allow it to skirt the 30 percent cut Apple takes on subscriptions made via the App Store. Instead, EU users will be directed to manually visit Spotify’s website via a web browser in order to purchase cheaper subscription plans.

"Apple continues to break European law,” and unfortunately that means we still can’t give EU consumers the...

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Feds charge Iranian nationals for cyberattacks against US government

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The US government has charged and sanctioned four Iranian nationals over claims they carried out a yearslong hacking campaign against US government agencies and companies. It also accuses the group of waging these attacks on behalf of the Iranian government.

An indictment unsealed on Tuesday alleges that from around 2016 through at least April 2021, the four individuals waged cyberattacks against “more than a dozen” US-based companies, along with the US departments of the Treasury and State. The companies targeted by the attacks were “primarily” contractors for the US Department of Defense that had access to sensitive information.

The indictment names Hossein Harooni, Reza Kazemifar, Komeil Baradaran Salmani, and Alireza Shafie Nasab as...

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Reddit is updating its app to focus more on comments

Illustration: The Verge

Reddit is updating its mobile app on iOS and Android to emphasize comments, the company said today. The handful of changes announced are aimed at “removing hurdles and reducing friction points,” the company wrote in a blog post.

The changes are subtle but add up to comments becoming more of a focal point in the user experience. Comments will now load faster and open in an “instant” when users click on the comment icon of a post. Clicking the comments icon takes users straight to the top comment, essentially bypassing the original post.

GIF: Reddit

A “context bar” with the original post will be pinned to the top of the screen with the text, image, or video content compressed. Clicking on the thumbnail will take the...

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Another Crab’s Treasure is a cheery, accessible take on Dark Souls

Image: Aggro Crab

The underwater adventure is a rare glimpse into a more accessible soulslike experience.

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Our pick for the best fitness tracker is down to its best price of the year

Amazfit’s GTR 4 offers an impressive feature set for its price, including an OLED display and dual-band GPS. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are some of the best on the market. Yet, at almost $400, they’re not for everybody, especially since you’ll need to be tapped into a particular operating system to make the most of either wearable.

Thankfully, for everybody else, there’s the platform-agnostic Amazfit GTR 4, which is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Amazfit’s online storefront for $169.99 ($30 off). That’s the best price we’ve seen it go for so far this year and only $10 shy of its all-time low, which we last saw during the holidays.

From period tracking to monitoring your heart rate, sleep, stress, and SpO2 levels, the GTR 4 offers an impressive feature set for $170 — which is...

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Nissan’s Iruyo knows when your baby is sleeping, knows when they’re awake

Just look at the abject horror on that kid’s face. | Image: Nissan

Almost seven years ago, my partner and I took an ill-advised road trip for a wedding with our nearly one-month-old child. In those early days, our kid cried. A lot. Loudly. In the confines of an SUV, this meant a nightmare of constantly pulling over to try, desperately and often in vain, to quell the woes of this tiny fleshy sack full of our combined genetics that has no understanding of our world.

That’s where things like the “intelligent puppet” Iruyo, a two-piece, fluffy animatronic toy with the claimed ability to recognize when a child is sleeping, ostensibly comes in. Iruyo was designed by Nissan in partnership with an ad agency and a retail baby product chain (so we’re already off to a great start) as part of a marketing campaign...

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Elon Musk wants to turn Tesla’s fleet into AWS for AI — would it work?

Image: Getty

During last night’s earnings call with investors, Elon Musk threw out an all-time late-night dorm room bong sesh of an idea: what if AWS, but for Tesla?

Musk, who loves to riff on earnings calls, compared the unused compute power of millions of idle Tesla vehicles to Amazon’s cloud service business. If they’re just sitting there, he mused, why not put them to good use to run AI models? (Also, have you ever really looked at your hands? No, I mean really looked?)

“There’s a potential... when the car is not moving to actually run distributed inference,” Musk said. “If you imagine the future perhaps where there’s a fleet of 100 million Teslas and on average, they’ve got like maybe a kilowatt of inference compute. That’s 100 gigawatts of...

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Biden signs TikTok ‘ban’ bill into law, starting the clock for ByteDance to divest it

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed a foreign aid package that includes a bill that would ban TikTok if China-based parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app within a year.

The divest-or-ban bill is now law, starting the clock for ByteDance to make its move. The company has an initial nine months to sort out a deal, though the president could extend that another three months if he sees progress.

While just recently the legislation seemed like it would stall out in the Senate after being passed as a standalone bill in the House, political maneuvering helped usher it through to Biden’s desk. The House packaged the TikTok bill — which upped the timeline for divestment from the six months allowed in the earlier version — with foreign aid to US...

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‘PBS Retro’ is coming to Roku as a FAST channel

It’s where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood lives. | Image: PBS Distribution via The Wrap.

Parents, it’s time to green-light more screen time.

PBS classics from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, including titles like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Thomas and Friends, are coming to streaming. PBS Distribution is making the edutainment programming available for free in the form of a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming) channel called PBS Retro, which is accessible through The Roku Channel.

“We identified an interest in connecting audiences with the content they grew up watching,” PBS distribution president Andrea Downing told The Wrap. The Roku Channel is home to other PBS FAST channels as well, including PBS Antiques Road Show, Antiques Road Trip, PBS Food, Julia Child, and PBS Nature.

The Roku Channel is becoming increasingly...

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Stellar Blade on PS5 has flash and fun but is mostly dull

Image: Shift Up

While the combat is challenging and rewarding, it takes far too long to get to the good stuff.

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A morning with the Rabbit R1: a fun, funky, unfinished AI gadget

The Rabbit R1 is a fun little thing — and oh boy, is it orange.

There were times I wasn’t sure the Rabbit R1 was even a real thing. The AI-powered, Teenage Engineering-designed device came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest stories at CES, promising a level of fun and whimsy that felt much better than some of the more self-serious AI companies out there. CEO Jesse Lyu practically promised the world in this $199 device.

Well, say this for Rabbit: it’s real. Last night, I went to the swanky TWA Hotel in New York City, along with a few hundred reporters, creators, and particularly enthusiastic R1 buyers. After a couple of hours of photo booths, specialty cocktails, and a rousing keynote and demo from Lyu — in which he made near-constant reference to and fun of the Humane AI Pin — we all got our...

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Qualcomm strong-arms its way into Windows laptops this summer

Image: Joanna Nelius / The Verge

On Wednesday, Qualcomm announced the impending arrival of its Snapdragon X Plus laptop processor alongside more information for its previously announced Snapdragon X Elite chips. While this is not the first time we’ve seen Qualcomm processors in a laptop, it’s the first time the company could have a chip that rivals Apple, Intel, and AMD on speed.

The Snapdragon X Plus is Qualcomm’s entry-level laptop chip. It has 10 cores, 42MB of cache, a maximum multithreaded frequency of 3.4GHz, and an NPU with 45 tera operations per second (TOPS, or how many mathematical calculations it can solve in a second) to assist with fancy-smancy generative AI applications. But keep in mind, TOPS is an arbitrary measurement that can sound more impressive than...

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