The best new browser for Windows

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 36, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, I’m thrilled you found us, the _Installer_verse loves you, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

I missed you all last week! I was at a friend’s bachelor party in South Carolina, playing golf and eating burgers and mostly staying offline. Thanks to everyone who reached out to say you missed the newsletter! But I’m back now, and so is Installer. We are so back. This week, I’ve been writing about AI gadgets and iPads, watching Baby Reindeer and The Fall Guy, reading A Drink Before the War, and listening to the excellent Challengers score.

I also have for you a new browser for...

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The Verge’s 2024 Mother’s Day gift guide

Illustration by Manon Louart for The Verge

We found a collection of unique gift ideas that go beyond the flowers and chocolates that typically rule the day.

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The newest Star Wars Acolyte trailer seems to reveal the show’s big bad

Carrie-Anne Moss in The Acolyte. | Screenshot: Disney

Disney’s newest Star Wars show, The Acolyte, is just a month away on Disney Plus, and the newest trailer for it hints that the show will pull on a thread that Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi tugged on back in 2017: Is the Jedi order actually all that good?

Set well before the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Acolyte sees High Republic-era Jedi master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) investigating a string of murders (which include at least one Jedi). Today’s trailer reveals that the mysterious black-clad Mae (Amandla Stenberg), is a former student of his, and it seems like she’s probably a suspect in the murders. It also reinforces the idea that this will be a particularly grim series.

Screenshot:...

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ChromeOS gets better multitasking and Wi-Fi traffic prioritization

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The latest version of ChromeOS (M124) is out with a couple of nice upgrades, including faster split screen setup and a new web traffic prioritization feature. The update brings other updates with it as well, like a settings UI refresh and updated gesture controls.

Judging from screenshots published by 9to5Google, the new “Faster Split Screen Setup” feature will be familiar to Windows users. After you snap an app to one side of the screen, previews of other apps pop up on the other side — pick one, and it pins there for you. Before this update, you had to navigate to the other app and repeat the side-by-side pinning process, so this should remove a little of that friction.

Image: 9to5Google

Setting up split screen...

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‘The Boys’ season 4 trailer is bloody and a little bubbly

Screenshot: Amazon Prime Video

When we last left The Boys, Homelander’s (Anthony Starr) political dabbling was humming along and Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) had a terminal illness. Two years and a new spin-off later, Homelander’s supercharging of a presidential campaign continues to be a dark mirror of the US political climate and Butcher looks to desperately reckon with his diagnosis.

The official trailer sees Butcher considering something very much like the X-Men legacy virus — a biological solution that can kill the series’ supes. There’s plenty of carnage, some teeing up of weighty, consequential moments, someone’s skull apparently spewing bubbles when cleaved with a hatchet, a Butcher standoff with Black Noir, and even a chicken chest-burster.

The next season of...

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The teens making friends with AI chatbots

Illustration by Ard Su for The Verge

Teens are opening up to AI chatbots as a way to explore friendship. But sometimes, the AI’s advice can go too far.

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Komoot is helping me get back on my bike after a long hiatus

Know just how steep that hill is before you go. | Screenshot: Komoot

Getting into cycling in my late thirties has been humbling.

I’m responsible for my own medical costs, which really makes me consider things differently than when I was a kid tearing through the neighborhood park on a twelve-speed Huffy. I’ve also discovered you can spend infinite money on bike stuff if you have the resources, which I do not.

Most of all, I’ve learned that knowing how to get from point A to point B in a car or on a bus does not mean you know the best way to get there on a bike. For this particular bit of cycling logistics, I’ve found a tremendous — and mercifully free of charge — solution: Komoot.

Komoot helps adventurers plan and follow routes — by bicycle or on foot. There are iOS, Android, and smartwatch apps in...

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How to make the most of Apple Notes

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

Apple Notes is one of those apps you can turn to on a daily basis without ever really making full use of all the different features and functions it’s got to offer. That’s where this particular guide comes in. The idea is to point you to some of the lesser known but very useful tricks that Apple Notes can do.

I’m going to focus on the mobile app, but you’ll find most of these tips apply to the desktop version of Apple Notes on macOS as well.

Link notes together

Maybe you’ve got two notes that are separate but also related — one note for planning a trip, for example, and another listing various sights you want to see. Apple Notes lets you link them both together.

Open one of the notes. At the point you want to insert the link:

• L...

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Here are some of our favorite Star Wars Day deals

May the Fourth be filled with awesome deals on games, toys, and collectibles. | Image: Star Wars

Peruse these awesome deals on Star Wars stuff, you must, because today is May the Fourth. Fans of Lucasfilm’s iconic franchise have long celebrated this day as a kind of borderline-religious holiday of sorts, one that recognizes an ever-growing franchise that has been adapted for almost every type of media — and product — you can think of.

Since its debut in ‘77, Star Wars lore has been doled out in films, TV series, books and graphic novels, video games, and plenty of other mediums we’re surely oblivious to. It’s also inspired board games, toys, apparel, and enough merch to fill a galaxy far, far away. Many retailers commemorate May 4th by discounting the latter, and we’ve gone deep into the heap so you can see all of the best Star...

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The Flextail Tiny Bike Pump is a solid pump half the time

The tiny Flextail pump inflated this city bike tire in 45 seconds. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

Social media’s algorithms know that I ride a bike almost every day. My quiver includes a city bike, mountain bike, and gravel bike, in addition to one or two e-bikes I’m always in the process of reviewing. I’m also the family mechanic, which makes me responsible for no less than 16 to 18 tires that I must keep inflated. So, you’d better believe I took notice when Instagram served me several ads for the Flextail Tiny Bike Bump.

The mini rechargeable pump works with Presta (the thin one) or Schrader (the old fatty) valves and promises ultra-fast inflation that maxes out at 100psi (about 7 bars) — enough for any bike that doesn’t require a stretchy wardrobe coordinated with your shoes and helmet.

The origins of the pump are suspect, as I...

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As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages

Illustration: The Verge

The fate of Google’s search business is now in the hands of Judge Amit Mehta, as closing arguments concluded in the landmark trial on Friday.

The Department of Justice and plaintiff states made their last arguments Thursday on Google’s alleged anticompetitive conduct in the general search market, and on Friday focused on its allegedly illegal conduct in search advertising. Google was also under fire (separately) for failing to retain chat messages that the DOJ believes could have been relevant to the case.

The government is trying to show that Google locked up key distribution channels for the general search engine market, so that would-be rivals could not grow into significant threats. It says it did so through contracts with phone...

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Microsoft needs some time to ‘refine’ updates for Copilot AI in Windows

The Verge

Microsoft’s latest Windows Insider blog posts say that when it comes to testing new Copilot features in Windows 11, “We have decided to pause the rollouts of these experiences to further refine them based on user feedback.” For people who already have the feature, “Copilot in Windows will continue to work as expected while we continue to evolve new ideas with Windows Insiders.”

Microsoft is holding an AI event on May 20th which would be a good time to show more of what’s next, and after setting up 2024 as “the year of the AI PC,” with a new Copilot key on Windows keyboards, there’s a lot to live up to.

We’re expecting to see new Surface laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors that run Windows on Arm and compete with...

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Google bans advertisers from promoting deepfake porn services

Illustration: The Verge

Google has had a longstanding ban on sexually explicit ads — but until now, the company hasn’t banned advertisers from promoting services that people can use to make deepfake pornand other forms of generated nudes. That’s about to change.

Google currently prohibits advertisers from promoting “sexually explicit content,” which Google defines as “text, image, audio, or video of graphic sexual acts intended to arouse.” The new policy now bans the advertisement of services that help users create that type of content as well, whether by altering a person’s image or generating a new one.

The change, which will go into effect on May 30th, prohibits “promoting synthetic content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or...

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LG’s quirky briefcase TV is nearly matching its best price to date

I wouldn’t call portable in the traditional sense, but it sure as hell beats lugging a 65-inch OLED around. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

As my colleague Chris Welch pointed out in his review of the LG StanbyME Go, there’s something refreshing about a TV that takes a chance on a less familiar concept, especially at a time when beastly OLED panels and art-inspired TVs seem to dominate the landscape. And now, thanks to a $200 discount, you can pick up LG’s suitcase TV at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo starting at $996.99.

In terms of design, the StanbyME Go is basically a 27-inch touchscreen TV that’s built directly into a 28-pound, military-grade briefcase you can tote around with you. The panel itself is nothing to write home about — it’s a basic 1080 LCD with an HDMI/eARC port and a peak brightness of 500 nits — but it’s the concept itself that makes it a fun...

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Luminar, maker of lidar for autonomous driving, lays off 20 percent of its workforce

Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Luminar, which makes lidar sensors for autonomous driving systems, announced today plans to lay off 20 percent of its workforce amid a broader restructuring of its production process.

The company, which just announced shipments of its next-generation laser sensors to Volvo, said that it will transition to an “asset light” business model that will see more of its production outsourced to its partners. As part of the restructuring, at least 147 people will lose their jobs. Luminar has at least 730 employees based in the US, according to LinkedIn.

“Many of these team members have been on our journey with us for years, which is why this is so difficult,” Luminar CEO Austin Russell said in a statement. “We have also made the decision to...

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Environmental journalism is under attack

Rufino Choque, from the Urus Indigenous community, stands over a boat in the middle of the extinct Poopó Lake, which disappeared in 2015. | Photo by Manuel Seoane

Attacks against environmental journalists have risen dramatically across the world, according to a report released by UNESCO to commemorate World Press Freedom Day.

UNESCO and the International Federation of Journalists surveyed 905 journalists across 129 countries. Between 2009 and last year, more than 70 percent of reporters experienced attacks while working on environmental stories ranging from mining and deforestation to protests and land grabs.

There were more than 300 attacks reported over the past five years alone, a 42 percent jump from the previous five-year period. The attacks come in many forms, from legal threats and online harassment to physical violence and death threats — although physical attacks were most common.They...

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Here’s the letter from 14 senators slamming TSA facial recognition in airports

Image: Getty Images

The TSA’s been planning to expand facial recognition to a whopping 430 US airports over the next several years — but a bipartisan group of 14 senators is now challenging that.

Facial recognition “poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSA’s development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs,” reads part of the May 2nd letter (via Gizmodo) from Sens. Merkley, Kennedy, Markey, Marshall, Cramer, Wyden, Warren, Daines, Braun, Sanders, Lummis, Van Hollen, Welch, and Butler.

They add later that “this powerful surveillance technology as deployed by TSA does not make air travel safer” and suggest that the TSA’s current error rate of 3 percent...

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More details emerge about Apple’s plans for AI in iOS 18

Illustration: The Verge

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it clear that AI features are coming soon, and a new report from AppleInsider offers more details about what we might see in the next version of iOS. One of the big focuses will be on Siri, which will reportedly gain the ability to analyze and summarize texts within the Messages app.

AppleInsider previously said a similar “Intelligent Search” feature is coming to Safari in iOS 18, allowing users to summarize webpages. Apple’s large language model (LLM), called Ajax, will power these features. Several papers published by Apple suggest that the company is working on bringing on-device AI processing to the iPhone, and AppleInsider’s report further aligns with this.

The report says that Ajax uses on-device...

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DoorDash won’t let you tip NYC drivers without the app

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Last week, I placed a big dinner order for myself and several friends through DoorDash. There was no way to add a tip when I placed my order, but I wasn’t too worried — DoorDash assured me I’d be able to tip after the order was placed or delivered.

It was the first time I had used the service since last November, and since then, DoorDash made some big changes: in protest of a New York City law guaranteeing a minimum wage for delivery drivers, the platform removed the ability to add a tip when you place an order. Now, in New York City, customers like myself who want to continue tipping must do so after their order is placed.

It wasn’t until I went back to add a tip to that dinner order that I realized just how difficult DoorDash has made...

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Tesla’s Supercharger layoffs couldn’t have come at a worse time

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

Bounced emails. Stalled projects. Delayed adapters. These are the immediate effects of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “ultra-hardcore” approach to cost cutting, which has resulted in at least 500 layoffs from the company’s Supercharger business, including the division’s top executive, Rebecca Tinucci.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Tesla was on the verge of making its vehicle charging plug the de facto standard in North America, and its competitors and stakeholders are counting on a smooth ride. But Musk claims the leaner team will focus less on deploying new Supercharger locations and instead focus on “100 percent uptime.” How that will translate into reality is unclear, with laid-off employees telling InsideEVs that reduced manpower will...

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Helldivers 2 will require Steam players to link to a PSN account

Image: Arrowhead Game Studios

Attention, Democracy Defenders: Helldivers 2 will soon require players on Steam to link their account to a PlayStation Network account. According to the announcement, all new players on Steam will be required to link to a PSN account starting May 6th, while current players will have a little bit longer, with mandatory enforcement delayed until June 4th.

According to Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios, linking to a PSN account was always going to be a requirement for Steam players, and the policy is there to ensure players are protected from griefing and other in-game abuses. But the game’s community isn’t buying it, vociferously protesting the decision on social media and on Steam itself.

Helldivers! An important message...

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Hisense is launching a $999 CanvasTV as a cheaper rival to Samsung’s Frame

Image: Hisense

Hisense is launching the CanvasTV, a matte television designed to display artwork and photos, letting it blend in with the rest of your decor when not in use. If it sounds similar to The Frame by Samsung, that’s because it is — but the difference is that the CanvasTV’s starting price is several hundred dollars cheaper.

The CanvasTV is available in 55 and 65 inches, with the smaller version costing $999 and the larger option priced at $1,300, according to CNET. To compare, The Frame costs $1,499 for 55 inches and $1,999 for 65 inches. Like The Frame, Hisense’s CanvasTV offers a 4K QLED anti-glare display. It also comes with a 144Hz refresh rate, an RGB sensor for ambient light adaption, and multi-channel 2.0.2 surround sound.

The...

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The conspiracy theory behind Florida’s lab-grown meat ban

Photo by Paul Hennessy / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state. The legislation is a clear handout to the state’s cattle industry: the state’s commissioner of agriculture said it was about protecting “our incredible farmers and the integrity of American agriculture.” But DeSantis’ statements make it clear that, like many of his other pet causes, the lab-grown meat ban is a culture war issue.

“Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said in a statement the day the bill was signed. A press release declared Florida was “taking action to stop the World Economic Forum’s...

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AT&T Turbo will boost your service for $7 per month

The carriers are at it again. | Illustration: The Verge

AT&T has a new optional feature for some of its plans. It’s called Turbo, and for $7 per month, it provides “better speed and stability” for a line of service by upgrading your data plan to “performance data.” AT&T pitches it as an add-on to help with demanding applications, like gaming. Okay, but what exactly is “performance data?” It’s kind of unclear. But we can sort of piece it together based on what it isn’t.

If you were hoping Turbo could help boost service on a prepaid or entry-level postpaid plan, I have bad news. It’sonly available on a handful of AT&T’s postpaid plans: Unlimited Premium PL, Unlimited Extra EL, and Unlimited Elite. They’re already some of AT&T’s fanciest and priciest plans, with lots of hotspot data and...

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Read Satya Nadella’s Microsoft memo on putting security first

Image: Laura Normand / The Verge

Microsoft is overhauling its security processes after a series of high-profile attacks in recent years. Security is now Microsoft’s “top priority,” the company outlined today in response to ongoing questions about its security practices and the US Cyber Safety Review Board’s labeling of Microsoft’s security culture as “inadequate.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now making it clear to every employee that security should be prioritized above all else. The Verge has obtained a memo from Nadella to Microsoft’s more than 200,000 employees, where he discusses the new security overhaul and how the company is learning from attackers to improve its security processes. Nadella also makes it explicitly clear that employees should not make...

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Instagram introduces new interactive stickers for Stories

Image: Instagram

Instagram announced a handful of new features to Stories, including new interactive ways to share music, photos, and videos.

The most intriguing new feature is called Reveal and, when applied, blurs the contents of a story post. The only way viewers can see the post is by DMing the person who shared it. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said that direct messages are an increasingly important part of the platform and that stories and DMs account for most of Instagram’s growth. Requiring a DM to view content is the next evolution of that — and will no doubt be used as an engagement hack by creators hoping to boost their stories’ engagement.

Image: Instagram

Another feature, Frames, puts a Polaroid overlay on to images...

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Microsoft overhaul treats security as ‘top priority’ after a series of failures

Image: The Verge

Microsoft is making security its number one priority for every employee, following years of security issues and mounting criticisms. After a scathing report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board recently concluded that “Microsoft’s security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul,” it’s doing just that by outlining a set of security principles and goals that are tied to compensation packages for Microsoft’s senior leadership team.

Last November, Microsoft announced a Secure Future Initiative (SFI) in response to mounting pressure on the company to respond to attacks that allowed Chinese hackers to breach US government email accounts. Just days after announcing this initiative, Russian hackers managed to breach Microsoft’s...

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Biden grants automakers some flexibility on battery minerals in final EV tax credit rules

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge

The Biden administration is giving automakers a little leeway around some of the strict rules regarding eligibility for the government’s $7,500 tax credit.

The final guidance, which was released today, gives car companies a two-year exemption from provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) intended to disqualify EVs with battery minerals from countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — so-called “foreign entities of concern” (FEOC).

The exemption only applies to “impracticable-to-trace” battery minerals, like graphite, which frequently comes from China. Those materials are exempt from the rules until 2027, the Treasury Department said today.

The exemption only applies to “impracticable-to-trace” battery minerals

Other...

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Manor Lords is slow and frustrating, and I can’t stop playing

Image: Slavic Magic

The early access medieval town-builder strategy game has taken Steam by storm and rightfully so.

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The Verge’s 2024 graduation gift guide

Illustration by Aaron Fernandez for The Verge

We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.

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