The world’s largest carbon removal plant is here, and bigger ones are on the way

Climeworks’ Mammoth direct air capture plant in Hellisheiði, Iceland. | Image: Climeworks

Mammoth, the largest industrial facility yet built to filter carbon dioxide out of the air, just powered up in Hellisheiði, Iceland. It’s run by Swiss climate tech company Climeworks, whose clients include JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, among others.

It was the latest industrial plant built with the purpose of sucking carbon dioxide out of the air, a process called direct air capture (DAC) — with more facilities planned around the world. DAC is supposed to be a way to fight climate change by getting rid of greenhouse gas emissions that have built up in the atmosphere, but the process still has to prove that it can scale up enough to have a meaningful impact.

It’ll have to see if it can replicate that early success in a...

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Nintendo’s new NES collection is all about speedrunning

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo is embracing the world of speedrunning in its own way. The company announced a new collection of NES games for the Switch called Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, but the twist is the bundle is built entirely around playing really fast.

The collection features 13 different games — including Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and a whole lot of Super Mario Bros. — but instead of playing through the entire thing, players are tasked with completing “bite-sized bits of classic blockbusters,” with the goal of getting the best possible time. Nintendo says there are more than 150 time-based challenges spread across the included games, and the collection will include a single-player mode and local multiplayer with support for up to...

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Amazon Prime Video ads are about to get more intrusive

The new Prime Video ad formats will arrive sometime later this year. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s barely been four months since Amazon placed ads in its Prime Video streaming service, but the retail giant is already introducing more annoying promotional tactics — such as displaying ads whenever someone hits the pause button.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced it will roll out three new ad formats for Prime Video later this year to tempt subscribers to purchase promoted items while watching content. Shoppable carousels will soon appear during ad breaks in shows and movies that present viewers with a “sliding lineup” of products they can buy on Amazon. That essentially makes this an ad within another ad, and it even “automatically pauses” if interacted with to give viewers time to browse.

TV shows, movies, and live sports will also...

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Sonos’ redesigned app is going over like a lead balloon with many users

Everybody, hold on. We’ll get through this. | Image: Sonos

Last month, Sonos announced a complete overhaul of its mobile app for iOS and Android. It was supposed to meaningfully streamline the previous version, “bringing services, content, and system controls to one customizable homescreen.” Sonos wanted the app to feel more personalized and more modern and to make “tab to tab jumping a thing of the past.”

I didn’t get a chance to use the new app firsthand in April; Sonos only gave the press an overview and short demo that covered the basics. But even then, I had some sources warning me that a lot would be missing from the initial release.

A fresh look. Quicker access to your music. Easier control. The Sonos app has been completely redesigned to give you more power to personalize your...

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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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President Joe Biden to announce AI data center at failed Foxconn site in Wisconsin

Photo by Matt Jewell

President Joe Biden is traveling to Racine, Wisconsin, today to announce a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft, which will build an AI data center on the same site as the failed Foxconn project, according to a White House press release.

The Microsoft project, which the White House estimates will create an estimated 2,300 union construction jobs and up to 2,000 permanent jobs, is part of Biden’s Investing in America initiative. Microsoft will roll out the investments in a “four-part strategy designed to create long-term benefits for the state’s economy and job market,” the company said in a press release.

Microsoft will also develop an AI innovation lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a “Data Center Academy” at Gateway...

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Apple TV Plus is turning into the best place for streaming sci-fi

Dark Matter. | Image: Apple

Since it launched in 2019, Apple TV Plus has won awards and generated hits, but it still sits in an odd spot in the streaming landscape. It’s not as big as competitors like Netflix or Disney Plus, nor is it as prolific. Instead, the service seems intent on focusing on quality over quantity, which has led to some likening it to the HBO of old (you know, when it was still called HBO). In reality, Apple TV Plus has a somewhat scattershot library that includes everything from Charlie Brown to Martin Scorsese. Some of it is great; some of it is Argylle.

But there’s one place where the service is really nailing it: science fiction.

For whatever reason, the lineup of sci-fi shows on Apple TV Plus has steadily grown over the years, not just in...

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FTX says most customers will get all their money back

Image: The Verge

FTX says most customers affected by the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse will get all their money back. Bankruptcy lawyers for the fallen firm say they’ve collected assets valued at up to $16.3 billion — more than they will need to repay the company’s estimated $11 billion debt.

John Ray III, the chief restructuring officer of FTX, says the company is “pleased to be in a position to propose a chapter 11 plan that contemplates the return of 100% of bankruptcy claim amounts.”

Once the court approves the plan, FTX will begin distributing the funds within 60 days. Customers will receive the amount their assets were worth at the time of FTX’s collapse. FTX’s lawyers said earlier this year that they expect customers to “eventually be paid...

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Tesla is being investigated for securities and wire fraud for self-driving claims

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images

The Department of Justice is looking into whether Tesla committed securities and wire fraud around its self-driving vehicle claims, Reuters reports today, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation, which was first reported in October 2022 but has been going on since at least late 2021, involves federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco who are examining whether Tesla executives misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its autonomous capabilities. Now, it appears that investigators are zeroing in on specific charges against the company: securities and wire fraud.

According to Reuters, the probe is looking into statements made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in particular. For...

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Goodbye to Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio, the best iPad Pro accessory

Farewell to a real one. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s versatile, doesn’t weigh much, and no one else makes anything quite like it for the iPad Pro. Hopefully it’s not gone for good.

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Matter is now racing ahead, but the platforms are holding it back

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The latest Matter spec brings a number of improvements to the smart home standard founded by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung. Released this week by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Matter 1.3 brings support for more appliances, including ovens and cooktops, adds energy and water management, and introduces new features for Matter’s universal casting protocol that could be a competitor to AirPlay and Google Cast.

This is all great progress, but as none of the major platforms have added support for Matter 1.2 yet, who knows when they’ll get around to supporting 1.3? But I digress. First, let’s dig into what’s new.

The 1.3 update adds microwave ovens, ovens, electric cooktops, extractor hoods, and electric dryers, which join washing...

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Microsoft is ‘turning everyone into a prompt engineer’ with new Copilot AI features

The Verge

Microsoft is attempting to solve the problem of coming up with a good prompt for generative AI, aiming to turn everyone into a prompt engineer. In the coming months Copilot for Microsoft 365, the paid service that adds an AI assistant to Office apps, will be updated with a new auto-complete feature that offers suggestions to improve AI prompts.

If you start creating a prompt then Copilot will soon offer to complete it with extra details to improve the end result of whatever you’re generating or the questions you’re asking. So if you start typing “summarize” then Copilot will display options to summarize the last 10 unread emails in your inbox, or other tasks that are related to your Office data.

Image: Microsoft

T...

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UK details requirements to protect children from ‘toxic algorithms’

Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge

The UK is calling on search and social media companies to “tame toxic algorithms” that recommend harmful content to children, or risk billions in fines. On Wednesday, the UK’s media regulator Ofcom outlined over 40 proposed requirements for tech giants under its Online Safety Act rules, including robust age-checks and content moderation that aims to better protect minors online in compliance with upcoming digital safety laws.

“Our proposed codes firmly place the responsibility for keeping children safer on tech firms,” said Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes. “They will need to tame aggressive algorithms that push harmful content to children in their personalized feeds and introduce age-checks so children get an experience that’s right...

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Daimler’s driverless semi trucks will hit the road in 2027

Image: Daimler Trucks

Daimler Truck, a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz parent company, revealed its first autonomous truck demonstrator that it said will pave the way to fully driverless freight hauling by 2027.

The demonstrator is an all-electric version of Daimler’s popular Freightliner Cascadia models. The so-called eCascadia has been fitted with a suite of high-powered, long-range sensors that enable it to “see” its surrounding environment as well as a high-powered computer that can process the sensor data and make navigation decisions.

Daimler, which is working with Waymo and its own Torc subsidiary on autonomous systems, says the goal is to launch the trucks somewhere in the Southwest US, transporting goods from hub to hub as part of a middle-mile...

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Brilliant’s $400 smart switches are still working... for now

Brilliant Smart Home Systems, makers of the Brilliant smart switch, is looking for a buyer. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Brilliant, maker of smart home controllers and smart light switches, is out of money. CEO Aaron Emigh confirmed in an exclusive interview with The Verge that the company has laid off the majority of its staff, shut down its support center, and is no longer selling its products. However, the company is maintaining its servers, and existing devices are continuing to operate in customers' homes.

But for exactly how long is a question Emigh couldn’t answer. “Indefinitely, I hope, but ultimately, it’s not in my hands,” he said, explaining that the company has entered an asset sale phase and is looking for a buyer following the failure of its Series C round to raise capital or find an acquisition company. “[The company] will be sold. We have...

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Here’s how the latest iPad Pro compares to the new iPad Air (and previous models)

The 2024 iPad Air still offers a nice display, though, not as nice as the OLED display on the new iPad Pro. | Screenshot: Apple

After nearly a two-year wait, Apple finally updated its iPad lineup with a thinner iPad Pro and new iPad Air. The new tablets start at $999 and $599, respectively, and both are already available to preorder ahead of their May 15th release date.

These are no iterative updates, either. For the first time, Apple added an OLED display to the iPad Pro, along with a new M4 chip. Apple also added a 13-inch Air to the lineup, so both models are now available in 11- and 13-inch sizes. Combine that with support for most of the same accessories — including the new Apple Pencil Pro — and you now have even more options to consider if you need a big tablet for work or play.

Yet, while the iPad Air and iPad Pro now look more alike, they differ enough...

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The US is propping up gas while the world moves to renewable energy

Solar panels point to the sky at the Weesow-Wilmersdorf solar park on May 3rd, 2024, near Grischow, Germany. | Photo by Maja Hitij / Getty Images

The amount of electricity and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants likely peaked in 2023, according to the annual global electricity review by energy think tank Ember. That means human civilization has likely passed a key turning point, according to Ember: countries will likely never generate as much electricity from fossil fuels again.

A record 30 percent of electricity globally came from renewable sources of energy last year thanks primarily to growth in solar and wind power. Starting this year, pollution from the power sector is likely to start dropping, with a 2 percent drop in the amount of fossil fuel-powered electricity projected for 2024 — a decline Ember expects to speed up in the long term.

“A major...

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US indicts LockBit ransomware ringleader, offers $10 million reward

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Department of Justice has unsealed charges against a Russian national accused of developing and administrating LockBit ransomware. In a filing on Tuesday, the DOJ claims the 31-year-old Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev helped make LockBit one of “the most prolific and destructive ransomware group[s] in the world.”

Khoroshev has allegedly had involvement in LockBit since it first emerged in September 2019. Over the years, LockBit ransomware attacks have claimed over 2,500 victims in at least 120 countries, with Khoroshev and other co-conspirators allegedly collecting at least $500 million in ransom payments.

Image: UK National Crime Agency

US and UK authorities seized LockBit’s data leak site in February.

LockBit...

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OpenAI working on new AI image detection tools

Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI has added a new tool to detect if an image was made with its DALL-E AI image generator, as well asnew watermarking methods to more clearly flag content it generates.

In a blog post, OpenAI announced that it has begun developing new provenance methods to track content and prove whether it was AI-generated. These include a new image detection classifier that uses AI to determine whether the photo was AI-generated, as well as a tamper-resistant watermark that can tag content like audio with invisible signals.

The classifier predicts the likelihood that a picture was created by DALL-E 3. OpenAI claims the classifier works even if the image is cropped or compressed or the saturation is changed. While the tool can detect if images...

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Tesla bought over $2 million worth of lidar sensors from Luminar this year

EMBARGO: June 15, 2021, 10:30am ET | Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge

Elon Musk doesn’t like lidar, the laser sensor that powers many companies’ self-driving ambitions. He previously called it a “crutch” and said any company that relies on lidar for its autonomous capabilities was “doomed.”

Well, apparently Tesla is stocking up on crutches.

In its quarterly earnings report released today, Orlando-based lidar manufacturer Luminar disclosed that Tesla was its “largest LiDAR customer in Q1,” comprising more than 10 percent of the company’s revenue for the quarter. That translates to around $2.1 million worth of lidar, based on Luminar’s $21 million in revenue for the quarter.

Tesla is stocking up on crutches

In fact, Tesla bought so much lidar from Luminar, it helped offset a quarter-over-quarter drop in...

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Compression-mounted laptop RAM is fast, efficient, and upgradeable

Image: iFixit

The first laptop with LPCAMM2 memory is finally here. The folks at iFixit got their hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 7), which uses LPDDR5X memory in an LPCAMM2 module that you can upgrade or replace by simply unscrewing from the laptop’s motherboard.

That’s a major change from existing LPDDR memory in most modern laptops. This type of memory is typically soldered onto the motherboard, making it much more difficult to upgrade. LPCAMM2 — or Low-Power Compression-Attached Memory Module — offers modularity without losing the power efficiency of LPDDR.

Traditional DDR RAM uses SODIMM sticks that slot into the motherboard, much like on desktop PCs. As pointed out by iFixit, LPDDR is much more power-efficient, but it needs to be soldered...

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This is the Sonos Roam 2 portable speaker

Image: The Verge

The most important upcoming hardware product for Sonos is undoubtedly its long-anticipated Sonos Ace headphones. They will mark the company’s debut in a massive (and highly competitive) new category. But spring and summer are always the seasons of new portable speakers, and Sonos hasn’t forgotten about that part of its business.

The company has been developing a sequel to the Sonos Roam, the tiny portable speaker it released three years ago. I’ve obtained images of a prerelease Sonos Roam 2 and can share a little more about the differences between it and the original model, which has been criticized by some owners for unreliable battery performance and other issues.

In terms of design, the Roam 2 is basically a carbon copy of the...

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Walmart’s Google-powered streaming box and smart speaker combo is live

Image: Walmart

Walmart has listed its new “Pro” Google TV streaming box / smart speaker combo a weekafter the product leaked into the real world and intermittently appeared on the store site.

The new Onn 4K Pro, which retails for $49.88, comes with new features, including a built-in Google Assistant smart speaker, Dolby Vision plus Atmos, HDR, and a remote with a big blue “Free TV” button to subtly point you to Google’s FAST channels as well asa customizable star button that can launch an app or change TV inputs.

Image: Walmart

You get a barrel plug power supply instead of direct AC or USB-C, but at least you get an included HDMI cable.

Image: Walmart

It’s not “Magic” — it’s the Customizable button.

...

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How to set up eSIM on a new iPhone

Say goodbye to your physical SIM card. | Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge

If you’ve purchased an iPhone 14 or 15 series phone in the US — or one of the latest iPads — you’ll notice it’s missing one key feature: a SIM tray. That’s because Apple’s gone all in on eSIM, which is a digital version of the tiny card that allows you to use your wireless provider’s network.

There’s good news and bad news here. If you’re switching from an older iPhone, activating an eSIM on your new iPhone is incredibly easy. If you’re switching from an Android phone to an iPhone 14, well, it’s less straightforward.

Whichever path you need to take, we’ve got some guidance for you.

iPhone with physical SIM to iPhone 14 or 15

To switch from an iPhone with a physical SIM card to an eSIM iPhone, follow these steps:

• Make sure your old...

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Amazon adds 50 electric trucks to its delivery fleet in a bid to reduce pollution

Image: Amazon

Amazon is deploying 50 battery-electric heavy-duty trucks in California, which it claims is the largest such fleet in the country. The company says the new trucks represent an important step in its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations — even as its carbon emissions have spiked in recent years.

Amazon says the trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, in which goods are moved from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, in which packages are transported from fulfillment centers to delivery centers. From there, the packages will be loaded into Amazon’s last-mile fleet, a portion of which are electric delivery vans produced by Rivian.

The...

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The new iPads are ditching physical SIM cards

Not a SIM tray in sight on the new iPad Pro. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge

Apple giveth OLED screens, and Apple taketh away... SIM cards. As spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple has removed the physical SIM slot on the cellular versions of the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. First the iPhone, now the iPad — Apple is all in on an eSIM future, it seems.

The iPhone 14 was the first model to lose the SIM slot, but only in the US — versions sold in other countries still include a physical SIM tray. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the new iPad Air and iPad Pro; Apple’s UK and Canadian retail sites state that the new models use eSIM and are “not compatible with physical SIM cards.”

eSIM has been catching on in popularity over the past few years. Most smartphone flagships support the technology, but only Apple has taken...

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Google’s Pixel Tablet relaunch at $399 makes its magnetic dock optional

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Along with a new value-priced entry for the Pixel 8 lineup, Google has some news about the largest member of the Pixel lineup, as its 128GB Pixel Tablet is now available for preorder at $399 — $100 cheaper than the launch price last summer.

However, to reach that price, you’ll have to go without its smart display-like magnetic Charging Speaker Dock.

Nothing is changing about the Pixel Tablet itself compared to the model that launched last summer, as it still has a Tensor G2 processor, 8GB of RAM, fingerprint sensor, and Wi-Fi 6. Google is just creating a new SKU that decouples the Charging Speaker. If you purchase the standalone tablet and later decide you want the dock, you can buy it separately for $129 in hazel and porcelain colors...

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You can upgrade the iPad Pro’s processor now, too

Apple has two versions of the M4 chip for the iPad Pro. | Screenshot: Apple

The newly announced iPad Pro hides a sneaky upgrade option that Apple didn’t mention during its event today. When you cough up the $600 it costs to jump from the 256GB base model iPad Pro to the 1TB version, Apple doesn’t just double the RAM along with that — it also puts a faster chip inside, going from a nine-core M4 chip to a 10-core version.

This is the first time Apple has offered a processor upgrade on a specific tablet model — in the past, no matter what other options you picked on a given tablet, you knew you were getting the same chip as any other configuration. In the past, Apple only tied RAM upgrades to storage boosts; that’s still true here, with the quantity doubling from 8GB to 16GB. You also get the privilege of buying...

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The iPad Air is now heavier than the iPad Pro

Also, this is barely purple. | Image: Apple

When I see the word Air attached to an Apple product, I assume two things: it’s going to be thin and light. You can’t really assume that with the just-announced iPad Airs. For one, both the 11-inch and 13-inch sizes are heavier and thicker than either iPad Pro model.

Behold the spec comparison charts.

Screenshot: Apple

So what does Air mean anymore really?

Screenshot: Apple

The 13-inch iPad Air is actually heavier than the 10th-gen iPad, too.

The 11-inch Air weighs 1.02 pounds to the 11-inch Pro’s 0.98 pound. The 13-inch Air is 1.36 pounds to the 13-inch Pro’s 1.28 pounds. It’s not just weight, either. Both iPad Pro sizes are also thinner.

During the “Let Loose” event, the iPad Air...

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All the news on Google’s Pixel 8, 8 Pro, and 8A

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Google’s Tensor 3 and AI-touting Pixel 8 phones have been joined by a cheaper versio, the Pixel 8A.

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