Apple might bring AI transcription to Voice Memos and Notes

Illustration: The Verge

Apple’s plans for AI on the iPhone could bring real-time transcription to its Voice Memos and Notes apps, according to a report from AppleInsider. The new feature is expected to arrive with iOS 18 and will reportedly let you see a running transcription of your audio recordings in either app.

While Notes currently doesn’t let you record audio, a separate rumor from AppleInsider suggests Apple plans on adding this capability in iOS 18 as well. Audio transcription in either app sounds especially handy for students or journalists, who can save time transcribing a lengthy lecture or interview. It should also be helpful for anyone who just wants to take a quick look at their Voice Memos without having to listen to their recordings.

As for...

Continue reading…

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a gorgeous echo of the franchise’s past

Photo: 20th Century Studios

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes remixes beats from the franchise’s previous films to tell a story about how myths evolve.

Continue reading…

Fisker’s brakes can’t catch a break

Image: Fisker

Fisker has another braking issue on its hands, prompting US safety regulators to open a fourth probe on the automaker’s electric Ocean SUV.

This time, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into customer claims that the Ocean would unexpectedly activate its automatic emergency braking (AEB) without any forward obstruction. Reuters reports three of the claims involved someone getting injured.

This is the second probe opened for the 2023 Ocean that has to do with the vehicle’s braking system. The first, which was announced last January, was based on complaints that the vehicle would lose braking power. Now the regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening a preliminary evaluation based on...

Continue reading…

How to set the default apps in macOS

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

You may not spend much time thinking about the default apps you’ve got set up on macOS until they suddenly get configured the wrong way — and you find that, say, the app that pops up when you click on an image file is not the one you want to use.

Out of the box, your Mac will use Apple’s own tools for most tasks: click on a web link in Mail and you’ll see Safari, for example, or double-click on an image you’ve downloaded to your system and up pops Photos. However, you might want to use different apps, or maybe a freshly installed app has decided to make itself the default and you want to undo the change (web browsers often do this, asking to become the default when they launch for the first time).

So it’s useful to know how to set the...

Continue reading…

The Oura Ring will soon be able to gauge how ‘old’ your heart is

Cardiovascular age is a proxy for how “stiff” your arteries are. | Image: Oura

Oura’s been busy this past year launching several new features — and folks with the Gen 3 version of the smart ring are about to get two more. At the end of May, the company will roll out cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity metrics for gauging long-term heart health. Emphasis on long-term.

“The thing about cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity is that these are both metrics that you can actually impact,” explains Shyamal Patel, Oura’s head of science. Right now, Patel says, Oura’s current feature set has been much more focused on your near-term metrics. “With these features, we’re sort of introducing this idea of longer-term health. What are the things that you’re doing today? How are they contributing to your health...

Continue reading…

The beginning and end of the iPad

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

People seem to like Apple’s new iPad Pro, with its better screen and impressive design. People also seem to really hate Apple’s new ad in which the company crushes centuries of creative tools because, in the future, there is only iPad. And after all the iPad stuff this week, people are still asking the same question: what is the point of the iPad?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the week in Apple news: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the Pencil Pro, the Magic Keyboard, the new apps, and much more. We also wonder if any of this changes anything about what the iPad is, how it works, and where it’s headed — or if the answers will only come at WWDC next month. Then we talk about that ad everyone’s mad about and why it seems like...

Continue reading…

Hades II is the perfect Steam Deck game

Image: Supergiant Games

Now that theHades II early access period has started, opening up a more complete but still early build of the game, I’ve been fighting against the urge to gorge myself on it — and losing. To be fair, I have a weak spirit since I loved the first Hades, which introduced me to the concept of roguelikes, a genre I avoided out of disdain for repetition. Also, and this is the biggest factor in my spiritual war against the game: I have a Steam Deck, which makes not playing the game all but impossible.

Slight spoilers for Hades II follow.

Hades II is Steam Deck-verified with a comfortable control scheme that reminds me of playing on the Switch. I did fiddle with the button mapping a little bit, swapping the buttons for dash and attack. (It’s...

Continue reading…

Apple’s AirPods Max are receiving a rare $100 discount at Amazon

Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max are $100 off for the first time since December. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Not too long ago, it seemed like every retailer was offering a steep discount on Apple’s AirPods Max. Then, suddenly, they all stopped. For the past few months, we’ve rarely seen the AirPods Max drop below $500 — that is, until this week. Now, for the second time this year, you can grab Apple’s on-ear headphones at Amazon for $449.99 ($100 off), which matches one of their best prices to date.

Even if they are still stuck with Apple’s aging Lightning port, there’s no better pair of headphones on the market for iPhone owners than the AirPods Max. They pair exceptionally well with other Apple devices, and their sound quality easily rivals other pairs of premium headphones. Yes, their noise cancellation isn’t quite as impressive as that of S...

Continue reading…

The answer to AI’s energy needs could be blowing in the wind

The Riffgat offshore wind farm, around 15 kilometers north of the island of Borkum. | Photo: Getty Images

Data centers and offshore wind farms could prove to be a perfect pair as AI grows increasingly energy-hungry.

Many of the companies racing to roll out new generative AI tools have also made big commitments to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. A rush of new AI data centers could throw those climate goals off — unless they find a clean source of energy.

Conveniently, some of the quirks with AI data centers make them a good match for wind farms at sea. And the offshore wind industry, which has already cozied up with Big Tech, could certainly use a boost as it looks ahead to more uncertain economic waters.

“Data centers and AI ... We are excited about that opportunity,” Mads Nipper, CEO of leading offshore wind developer Ørsted, said...

Continue reading…

OpenAI could unveil its Google search competitor on Monday

OpenAI has allegedly been trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search product offering. | Illustration: The Verge

OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to announce a search product powered by artificial intelligence on Monday that could threaten Google’s dominance. That target date, provided to Reuters by “two sources familiar with the matter,” would time the announcement a day before Google kicks off its annual I/O conference, which is expected to focus on the search giant’s own AI model offerings like Gemini and Gemma.

This new rumor tracks with earlier reports from both Bloomberg and The Informationthat also suggest OpenAI is developing an AI-based product capable of searching the internet. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s search feature will be built into its ChatGPT chatbot and include citations, while The Information reports OpenAI’s search service...

Continue reading…

Did Stanford just prototype the future of AR glasses?

Stanford’s holographic AR glasses prototype. | Image: Andrew Brodhead / Stanford

A research team at Stanford is developing a new AI-assisted holographic imaging technology it claims is thinner, lighter, and higher quality than anything its researchers have seen. Could it take augmented reality (AR) headsets to the next level?

For now, the lab version has an anemic field of view — just 11.7 degrees in the lab, far smaller than a Magic Leap 2 or even a Microsoft HoloLens.

But Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab has an entire page with visual aid after visual aid that suggests it could be onto something special: a thinner stack of holographic components that could nearly fit into standard glasses frames, and be trained to project realistic, full-color, moving 3D images that appear at varying depths.

...

Continue reading…

Microsoft’s new Xbox mobile gaming store is launching in July

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft has been talking about plans for an Xbox mobile gaming store for a couple of years now, and the company now plans to launch it in July. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier today, Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed the launch date and how Microsoft is going to avoid Apple’s strict App Store rules.

“We’re going to start by bringing our own first-party portfolio to [the Xbox mobile store], so you’re going to see games like Candy Crush show up in that experience, games like Minecraft,” says Bond_. “_We’re going to start on the web, and we’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed...

Continue reading…

Verizon and T-Mobile are trying to gobble up US Cellular

Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress

Now that they’ve got an extra $100 billion worth of premium airwaves and Sprint no longer nipping at their heels, how can the big three cellular carriers continue to consolidate and grow? Well, T-Mobile and Verizon “are in discussions to carve up U.S. Cellular,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

The report suggests this is about harvesting even more wireless spectrum; my colleague Allison pointed out in 2022 that US Cellular “tends to offer service where some of the major carriers don’t.” (It would certainly be nice for T-Mobile and Verizon customers to have better coverage, but I would prefer competition to lower my wireless bill.)

T-Mobile would reportedly pay over $2 billion for wireless spectrum licenses and take over “some...

Continue reading…

Apple plans to use M2 Ultra chips in the cloud for AI

Illustration: The Verge

Apple plans to start its foray into generative AI by offloading complex queries to M2 Ultra chips running in data centers before moving to its more advanced M4 chips.

Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to put its M2 Ultra on cloud servers to run more complex AI queries, while simple tasks are processed on devices. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple wanted to make custom chips to bring to data centers to ensure security and privacy in a project the publication says is called Project ACDC, or Apple Chips in Data Center. But the company now believes its existing processors already have sufficient security and privacy components.

The chips will be deployed to Apple’s data centers and eventually to servers run by third...

Continue reading…

Poppy Playtime follows Five Nights at Freddy’s with new movie

Image: Mob Entertainment

The horror puzzle game Poppy Playtime is getting a live-action film adaption. Developer Mob Entertainment says it struck a deal with the entertainment company Legendary after fielding “several competitive offers.” Transformers producer Don Murphy and filmmaker Susan Montford will develop and produce the adaptation.

Poppy Playtime is a first-person adventure game, where players take on the role of a former toy factory worker who returns to their now-abandoned workplace. As players explore Playtime Co., they have to solve several puzzles while trying to avoid Huggy Wuggy, the monstrous toy lurking in the factory. The base version of Poppy Playtime is free to play across PC and console, but its developers released chapters players can...

Continue reading…

Apple apologizes for iPad ‘Crush’ ad that ‘missed the mark’

Image: Apple

Apple has apologized after a commercial meant to showcase its brand-new iPad Pro drew widespread criticism among the creative community. In a statement provided to Ad Age, Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of marketing, said the company “missed the mark.”

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Myhren told Ad Age. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

On Tuesday, Apple introduced the M4-powered iPad Pro, which the company described as its thinnest product ever. To advertise all the creative possibilities...

Continue reading…

Microsoft is testing a new Windows 11 Start menu with floating widgets

Image: Albacore (X)

Microsoft has quietly started testing an intriguing change to the Windows 11 Start menu that could introduce a floating panel full of “companion” widgets. Windows watcher Albacore discovered the new Start menu feature in the latest test versions of Windows 11 that Microsoft has released publicly.

While Microsoft has not yet announced this feature, the “Start menu Companions” appear to be a way to allow developers to extend the Windows 11 Start menu with widget-like functionality that lives inside a floating island that can be docked next to the Start menu. It looks like developers will be able to build apps that provide widget-like information through adaptive cards — a platform-agnostic way of displaying UI blocks of information.

It's...

Continue reading…

Asus’ next ROG Ally will be the ROG Ally X

“The next ROG Ally.” | Image: Asus

The Asus ROG Ally was the first true Steam Deck challenger; while I’d argue it fell a little short, it legitimately improved the state of affordable Windows handheld gaming with its plugged-in performance boosts and smooth variable refresh rate screen. Now, Asus is beginning to reveal its successor: the ROG Ally X.

Don’t call it an Ally 2: when it ships in the second half of the year, the Windows-based Ally X will have the same AMD Z1 Extreme chipset and the same 7-inch 48–120Hz VRR screen. It’s not quite like the Steam Deck OLED, where Valve got AMD to revise its chip for better battery life and stability and added a larger, brighter, gorgeous new OLED panel with improved response time and slimmer bezels.

“We’re not looking at 30 to 40...

Continue reading…

Corsair is about to acquire racing sim company Fanatec

Photo: Fanatec

Corsair is pursuing an acquisition of the racing sim brand Fanatec. In an update shared on Thursday, Corsair says it’s negotiating with Fanatec to restructure the troubled company’s around €70 million (about $75.4 million) debt and cover short-term costs.

Over the years, Fanatec has established itself as one of the most popular brands for racing sim hardware. It offers a premium lineup of racing wheels, pedals, shifters, and more, which virtual racing enthusiasts can hook up to their console or PC when playing games like Gran Turismo 7 and Assetto Corsa.

But the company’s reputation has taken a hit in recent months. Fanatec customers have flooded forums with complaints about the company’s inability to fulfill orders on time and lack of...

Continue reading…

Apple doesn’t understand why you use technology

“Buy our iPad or the piano gets it!” | Screenshot: Apple

I wonder if Apple CEO Tim Cook was surprised by the visceral revulsion many people felt after viewing the newest commercial for Apple’s iPad. In it, a plethora of creative tools are flattened by an industrial press. Watching a piano, which if maintained can last for something like 50 years, squished to advertise a gadget, designed to be obsolete in less than 10, is infuriating. The backlash was immediate.

The message many of us received was this: Apple, a trillion-dollar behemoth, will crush everything beautiful and human, everything that’s a pleasure to look at and touch, and all that will be left is a skinny glass and metal slab.

Astoundingly, this is meant to sell a product. “Buy the thing that’s destroying everything you love,”...

Continue reading…

What Rivian, Lucid, and Fisker tell us about the current state of EVs

Image: Lucid

It’s earnings season, and anyone invested in the idea that electric vehicles are the future of transportation is all over Tesla. But Elon Musk’s company isn’t the only one putting all its bets on battery-electric vehicles. Three other so-called “pure EV plays” — Rivian, Lucid Motors, and Fisker — also posted their earnings this week. And sifting through the numbers reveals some worrisome trends.

For years, it was assumed that Tesla as well as the dozen or so other pure EV companies it helped spawn, would outmaneuver the legacy automakers thanks to a laser focus on electric powertrains and battery production. But today, it’s the legacy automakers that are posting healthy profits while the pure EV companies flounder.

Price cuts, politics,...

Continue reading…

Streaming is cable now

Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max are teaming up for a new bundle this summer, Netflix is focused on the WWE and celebrity boxing, Disney Plus is getting ESPN, and Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Max could get a price hike. A familiar refrain emerged around all this news: streaming is becoming cable TV all over again and getting crummier in the process.

And it's true! When streaming first emerged, it was a beautiful alternative to piracy, which was very convenient and very illegal, and cable, which was festooned with ads and weighed down by channels you were paying for and didn’t want. Streaming gave you a world of content on demand for a fraction of the cost of cable.

But that experience was never sustainable. Content costs money to...

Continue reading…

Uber’s safety tools can be really useful, provided you enable them — here’s how

Illustration: The Verge

My Uber driver asked for my PIN recently. In my half-asleep state, I stared at him, alarmed, for a few seconds before it dawned on me: he was asking me to share the PIN Uber sent so I could verifymy ride.

It turned out I’d activated all of Uber’s safety features while writing about Uber’s new safety customization section last month and then forgot about their existence entirely — which, to be honest, is pretty easy to do. Hidden away under Settings in the Uber app, Uber’s safety tools are less visible than all of its many services and even its Emission Savings feature (yeah, that’s a thing).

That’s a real shame because as a single female caregiver who frequently takes Ubers and has experienced harassment, I’m starting to appreciate the...

Continue reading…

Windows 11’s screenshot tool is getting QR code scanning and emoji support

Image: Microsoft.com

Microsoft is finally adding an easy way to use QR codes inside Windows 11’s built-in Snipping Tool. A new update has started rolling out to Windows Insider testers today that will automatically detect QR codes in screenshots so you can open links from your PC. The Snipping Tool update also includes support for emoji.

The automatic QR code detection will appear if you enter the text actions part of the canvas in the Snipping Tool and will highlight the QR code and its clickable link. If you’re an emoji fan, then you’ll be able to add Microsoft’s 3D emoji to your screenshots. This new option is part of the shapes toolbar, and any inserted emoji can easily be resized and moved around on top of your screenshot.

Image:...

Continue reading…

Skylight’s terrific smart calendar is down to its lowest price to date

Skylight’s 15-inch touchscreen planner is probably the last calendar your family will ever need. | Image: Skylight

As cool and useful as the Skylight Calendar is, I can’t blame anyone for feeling apprehensive about paying north of $300 for something their smartphone and a cheap paper calendar can do. But the 15-inch version of the excellent family planner is now receiving a rare $70 discount at Amazon and Best Buy, which drops it to an all-time low of $249.99. If you’re a Costco member and don’t mind waiting until tomorrow, May 10th, you can even pick it up for $219.99 ($80 off).

The Skylight Calendar is a fun smart display that lets you create color-coded sticky notes and appointments, which look similar to the Google Calendar web interface. (By the way, Skylight sells an even more impressive 27-inch version that starts at $569.99 and a more...

Continue reading…

Threads is making it easy for anyone to see a post’s view count

Illustration: The Verge

One important step of evolving Threads into a fully featured social media platform is being more transparent about reach and distribution. And today, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says the company is making it easy for anyone to see a post’s view count. “It’s important that people understand how their Threads posts perform, so we’re rolling out the ability to tap anywhere on a post to display its total view count,” he writes.

As usual, it’ll take some time before everyone gets this option — I’m not seeing it in my app or on the web just yet — but it’ll be a welcome window into performance for influencers, businesses, and regular users. If nothing else, it’s always nice to know you’re not just shouting into the void. “We’ve got more work...

Continue reading…

Despite big tech lobbying, Maryland passes two internet privacy bills

Image: The Verge

The Maryland legislature passed two bills over the weekend limiting tech platforms’ ability to collect and use consumers’ data. Maryland Governor Wes Moore is expected to sign one of those bills, the Maryland Kids Code, on Thursday, MoCo360 reports.

If signed into law, the other bill, the Maryland Online Privacy Act, will go into effect in October 2025. The legislation would limit platforms’ ability to collect user data and let users opt out of having their data used for targeted advertising and other purposes.

Together, the bills would significantly limit social media and other platforms’ ability to track their users — but tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, have opposed similar legislation. NetChoice, a trade...

Continue reading…

Lego’s new Retro Radio is just for looks

Photo: Lego

Lego is releasing a new Retro Radio build that emulates a classic portable sound system. It visually scratches the nostalgic itch with its mechanical tuner knob, a handle, and even an antenna. Jay’s Brick Blog reports the $99.99 set, part of Lego’s Icons collection, can play preloaded sounds or house a smartphone to play whatever — but unfortunately, Lego skipped on implementing an actual radio.

The Retro Radio is made up of 906 pieces and includes a special speaker-containing sound brick that plays its included tunes of fake stations like a sports broadcast that you can interact with by turning the dial. The other knob powers on the unit, and there’s also a pretend AM / FM switch.

Lego includes some key details on the Retro Radio, like...

Continue reading…

You can still buy the last-gen iPad with a headphone jack for $249

The last-gen iPad is still worth buying even after Apple killed it and cut the price of its successor. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple may have stopped selling iPads with headphone jacks, but that doesn’t mean you can‘t buy one. Despite the fact Apple dropped the ninth-gen iPad from its official lineup this week, you can still purchase the tablet from multiple third-party retailers for the time being. Until they run out of stock, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are still selling the last-gen iPad starting at $249 ($80 off) with 64GB of storage and Wi-Fi.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly tablet for entertainment purposes, the 10.2-inch ninth-gen iPad still offers excellent value for your money. It’s $100 cheaper than its larger, 10.9-inch successor with an older A13 Bionic processor, yet it runs the same software and can do a lot of the same things....

Continue reading…

Sonos says its controversial app redesign took ‘courage’

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sonos has responded to the avalanche of feedback — some good, plenty bad — about the company’s redesigned mobile app that was released on May 7th. In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management, and no longer having the ability to edit playlists or the upcoming song queue. More alarmingly, the Sonos app’s accessibility has also taken a hit, something the company says it’s aiming to resolve by next month.

In a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos confirms that it’s keenly aware of the gripes that customers have expressed about the new app. It’s hearing their response and is working to address the functionality that has (for now) gone missing. But the company...

Continue reading…