Naughty Dog reveals sci-fi game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet

The Game Awards’ final world premiere was Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Developed by Naughty Dog, Intergalactic is a futuristic space opera with the kind of retropunk vibes that remind me of Cowboy Bebop. Indeed, the trailer even featured an anime playing in the background reminiscent of Dirty Pair.

Here’s Naughty Dog’s description of the game, from the YouTube trailer:

Set thousands of years in the future, Intergalactic puts players into the role of Jordan A. Mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on Sempiria — a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago. Jordan will have to use all her skills and wits if she hopes to be the first person in over 600 years to leave its orbit.

The game stars Tati Gabrielle who played Prudence Night in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It also will feature comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani in some way.

There’s no release date yet, but the game is in development for the PS5.

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Okami is getting a sequel

Image: Capcom

Capcom had quite the surprise in store at The Game Awards. The developer announced a sequel to Okami, a beautiful and beloved action-adventure game that originally launched back in 2006.

The sequel — which doesn’t currently have a name — was revealed in dramatic fashion with a musical performance. Original director Hideki Kamiya is returning for the game, which will be developed by his new studio Clovers. It’s still very early though; during the reveal TGA host Geoff Keighley said that “production is about to begin.” Capcom, meanwhile, says only that “a new adventure in the same vein as Okami has been set in motion.”

Not only has it been quite some time since Okami debuted, its announcement also comes at a time when Capcom seems intent on doubling down on its biggest franchises. Right now that means a lot of Monster Hunter and Resident Evil. Up next is Monster Hunter Wilds, which is launching next year, as well as the mobile spinoff Monster Hunter Outlanders.

However, Okami isn’t the only Capcom franchise being revived: the company also revealed a new entry in the action franchise Onimusha, which is launching in 2026. Here’s the very bloody debut trailer for that.

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Borderlands 4’s first trailer is all out war

Image: Gearbox Software

We already knew it was in the works, and now we have an idea of how it will look and play. At the Game Awards, Gearbox Software revealed the first proper trailer for Borderlands 4, which is due out in 2025. The trailer starts with a cinematic depicting a large-scale conflict of some sort, before getting into the actual gameplay — which is as colorful and violent as you’d expect from the franchise. The game is playable solo or co-op with up to three other players, and Gearbox says that there are “billions” of weapons to use.

Here’s the basic set-up:

Break free from the oppressive Timekeeper, a ruthless dictator who dominates the masses from on high. Now a world-altering catastrophe threatens his perfect Order, unleashing mayhem across the planet. Ignite a resistance and blast your way through mechanical monstrosities, bloodthirsty bandits, and vicious beasts. Amass an arsenal of death-dealing firepower to wreak havoc as you tear your way across Kairos.

Borderlands 4 was first announced this summer, and will be the first new entry in the looter shooter series since Borderlands 3 in 2019. It also follows the franchise’s debut on the big screen, as the Borderlands movie hit theaters in August to less than critical acclaim. The game is also in development during an interesting time for Gearbox; in March the studio was sold to Take-Two by beleaguered publisher Embracer.

While Borderlands 4 doesn’t have a specific release date yet, it’s coming to PS5, Xbox, and PC next year.

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Split Fiction is the next co-op game from Hazelight Studios

Image: EA

Josef Fares is back and so is his penchant for cursing. The director of Hazelight Studios has returned to The Game Awards to debut his next game: Split Fiction.

Split Fiction is a game that feels very much in Hazelight’s wheelhouse. Like It Takes Two and A Way Out before it, Split Fiction is a two-person split-screen co-op game. In it, two game developers have been trapped in a world they created and must play together to escape.

It’s been a quiet but massively successful handful of years for Hazelight Studios. In 2021, it took home Game of the Year for It Takes Two in which two players must work together to overcome the myriad dangers of their home (and their failing marriage) Honey, I Shrunk The Kids-style.

Earlier this year, the studio announced that It Takes Two sold 20 million copies. Polygon did a deep dive into the game’s sales numbers, determining that it sold at an astonishingly consistent and enviable clip of half a million copies per month since its release in March 2021. A truly remarkable feat given the game had very little marketing outside its initial release window and at a time when most consumers’ multiplayer tastes were wrapped up in “forever games” like Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite. With bona fides like that, it’s safe to say folks will be looking at Split Fiction, launching March 6th on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, with great interest.

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FromSoftware debuts a new Elden Ring game

Image: Bandai Namco

FromSoftware, the studio that just this month said it was “not really considering developments such as an Elden Ring 2,” has revealed a game that looks a lot like it could be Elden Ring 2.

Elden Ring Nightreign is the next entry in the Elden Ring series. The trailer, debuting during this year’s The Game Awards, didn’t share much narrative details meaning that director Hidetaka Miyazaki might not have told a fib. Nightreign could very well be a prequel, chronicling the events that lead up to all the shenanigans in the base game and the Shadows of the Erdtree DLC.

While we don’t yet know where this takes place in Lands Between chronology, the trailer did show off a ton of gameplay which appears to be the same as Elden Ring but with a greater emphasis on co-op. Several moments in the trailer featured combat with more than one Tarnished working together and doing never-before-seen flippy-dippy martial arts moves. But as the trailer played, there was the theory that this would be some kind of mobile version of Elden Ring.

FromSoftware has, so far, only confirmed Xbox, PlayStation, and PC platforms and, surprisingly, a release date. Elden Ring Nightreign will launch sometime next year.

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Here’s your very first look at The Witcher 4

Image: CD Projekt Red

The 2024 edition of The Game Awards started with a bang — the very first look at the next Witcher game. It’s called The Witcher 4 and was revealed via a lengthy cinematic trailer that starred Ciri in place of Geralt, who led the original trilogy.

There aren’t many details yet, but CD Projekt Red says that in the new game, “Ciri takes center stage as the protagonist, embarking on her own journey to become a professional monster slayer.” It will be a single-player, open-world RPG. The studio says that “the cinematic trailer is pre-rendered in a custom build of Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU.”

It doesn’t sound like the trailer will necessarily be representative of the final game, however. Here’s how CD Projekt Red explains it:

In the nearly six-minute trailer, viewers were introduced to Ciri, the adopted daughter of Geralt of Rivia, as she takes on a witcher contract in a remote village that has been terrorized for generations by a fearsome monster demanding human sacrifices. Framed as a short, self-contained Witcher story, the trailer showcases Ciri’s new abilities and tools, including a chain and advanced magic powers.

At the heart of the trailer is Ciri’s perspective as an outsider to the village. As the villagers say goodbye to one of their own — a young girl they are preparing for a traditional ritual sacrifice — Ciri chooses to intervene. Aiming to slay the beast and save the girl at the same time, Ciri finds herself at odds with the prejudices and superstitions of the people she tries to protect, leading her to confront a painful witcher lesson: that monsters come in all forms.

We’ve known for some time that CD Projekt Red was working on a follow up to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is meant to kick off a new saga for the fantasy franchise. In November the studio revealed that the game, previously codenamed “Polaris,” was in the “full-scale production phase” of development.” It’s being built using Unreal Engine 5, which the studio shifted to following the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

No word yet on platforms or release timing.

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Elon Musk is mad at the SEC again

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Photo: Getty Images

The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing “numerous counts” against Elon Musk, according to a letter from his lawyer that Musk posted to X. It has also “reopened an investigation into Neuralink.”

The letter is short on specifics — such as what the charges may be, and how many Musk companies are affected. Instead, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, complains that “the Commission Staff issued a settlement demand that required Mr. Musk agree within 48 hours to either accept a monetary payment or face charges on numerous accounts.” Even this is somewhat unclear; presumably, Spiro means that Musk would pay a penalty rather than accept money from the SEC.

Oh Gary, how could you do this to me? pic.twitter.com/OoooQI77ZS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2024

Musk has a long and storied history with the SEC, which he has said he does not respect. In 2018, Musk briefly pretended he’d take Tesla private before admitting two weeks later Tesla would stay public. The SEC then sued him over a tweet saying he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Musk reached a settlement with the agency, paying $20 million, stepping down as chair of Tesla’s board and agreeing to a “Twitter sitter,” or a lawyer who’d supervise his tweets. Musk then reneged on the Twitter sitter thing. That particular kerfuffle went all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case; Musk was stuck with his Twitter sitter.

The letter characterizes this history as “more than six years of harassment.”

More recently, the SEC sought to sanction Musk for no-showing on them in a separate investigation over his Twitter takeover. A judge declined to sanction him because he reimbursed the SEC for the airfare of the lawyers he stood up.

It is unclear from Spiro’s letter whether the charges the SEC is pursuing have to do with the Twitter matter or something else. Reuters previously reported that the Department of Justice was probing whether Tesla’s self-driving claims were actually securities fraud. In 2023, _Reuter_s reported that lawmakers had asked the SEC to probe Neuralink over Musk’s comments about the safety of the company’s brain device.

Musk also asked his AI, Grok, to draw a picture of Gensler. The image depicted a snail in a business suit, seemingly a reference to Gary the Snail from Spongebob Squarepants, a television show for children.

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Nvidia will host its first full LAN party in over a decade, and you’re invited

Not a photo of an Nvidia LAN, since I can’t find my old photos of them! | Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images

It’s been 13 years since Nvidia hosted its last LAN party, inviting hundreds of people to physically haul their gaming PCs onto a decommissioned aircraft carrier and jack them in for networked gaming bliss. Now, the GeForce LAN is finally coming back — and you’re theoretically invited, should you manage to reserve one of the 400 available spaces right here on December 16th at 6AM PT / 9AM ET.

The GeForce LAN 50 will run January 4th through January 6th, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada, with satellite events in Berlin, Taipei, and Beijing, and it promises to be a “online & in-person 50 hour gaming marathon” with contests, tournaments, raffles, and swag.

It’ll kick off 4:30PM PT on January 4th, and you’ll need to provide a fully refundable $125 deposit to sign up. Nvidia tells me those 400 slots are for everyday gamers, and do not count the influencers who may also show up.

If you can’t or don’t want to make it, Nvidia says it’ll offer one small set of rewards online — if you stream Diablo IV, The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, The Finals, or WoW from its GeForce Now cloud gaming service “continuously for 50 minutes,” there’ll be some kind of in-game reward. Nvidia will also be offering prizes in a marketing celebration it’s calling “GeForce Greats”.

The LAN party is happening right before Nvidia’s CES 2025 keynote in Las Vegas, where we’re expecting the company to announce the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and possibly the RTX 5070 as well, and the fact that this is the “GeForce LAN 50” is probably a tease for those 50-series cards — the last LAN that Nvidia hosted was the “GeForce LAN 6,” not “GeForce LAN 49” or anything like that.

Starting in 2004, the GPU company began to host major LAN parties almost every year until it stopped in 2011. Here’s one of my minor claims to nerd fame: I helped set a Guinness World Record for the largest, longest LAN party at one in 2008.

Image: Sean Hollister

Record scratch, freeze frame, yep that’s me (on the left)...

That Nvidia LAN wasn’t held on an aircraft carrier, but rather the San Jose Convention Center, as part an event that Nvidia called “NVISION 08.” The company never held another NVISION, but it rebooted its event the very next year, at the very same location, as the GPU Technology Conference (GTC). There was a time Nvidia would sponsor third-party LANs as well.

Apparently Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has a soft spot for LANs, making a surprise visit to a small one in Vietnam last year. While gamers have largely moved online for multiplayer games, the LAN party subculture has been getting a bit of nostalgic attention as of late — there’s even a coffee table book now documenting the era.

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The best Fitbits for your fitness and health

Fitbit makes an array of fitness trackers, from basic fitness bands to full-fledged smartwatches, though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit. | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Whether you want a basic fitness tracker or a smartwatch, there’s a Fitbit for everyone — though the best Fitbit smartwatch isn’t technically a Fitbit.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The best robot vacuums

Image: The Verge

Floor-sweeping robots are only getting better, with new mopping skills, better navigation chops, and more automation, meaning less work for you. We picked the best bots you can buy right now.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Game Awards 2024: all of the biggest trailers and announcements

Image: The Game Awards

Geoff Keighley’s enormous and expensive video game commercial show celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.

It’s that time of the year. The Game Awards 2024 starts December 12th at 7:30 PM ET / 4:30 PM PT on Twitch and YouTube. This year marks the awards’ tenth anniversary so expect some big surprises to celebrate the occasion. We already know Borderlands 4 will make an appearance as well as the next game from Hazelight Studios, the developers behind Game of the Year 2021 It Takes Two.

Keighley’s BFF Hideo Kojima will probably show up to show off more of Death Stranding 2 or maybe even his new game / movie hybrid project OD. And with 2025 mere weeks away, the GTA VI hype season will officially start, likely with a new, potentially record busting trailer. Here are all the news, trailers, and surprises for this years Game Awards. As for me, the only thing I’m excited about for TGAs 2024 is the possibility of Flute Guy andMetaphor: ReFantanzio Monk Guy sharing the same stage.

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New Apple TV and HomePod mini reportedly coming in 2025

Image: Chris Welch / The Verge

Apple’s rumored combo Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip might be introduced with some of the company’s home products in 2025, including a new HomePod Mini and Apple TV, reports Mark Gurman for Bloomberg.

Apple’s new chip, codenamed “Proxima,” is meant to be a major transitional change for the company’s devices that reduces reliance on Broadcom, which makes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi components for various devices in Apple’s lineup. Sources speaking to Gurman say the chips have been in development for several years and will be produced by TSMC — the same manufacturer that makes Apple Silicon chips.

Gurman didn’t specify when the new HomePod Mini and Apple TV might debut next year. The Proxima chip could also appear in iPhones later in 2025 and in the iPad and Mac in 2026, Gurman says.

Apple is also working on a standalone security camera, Gurman says. Gurman has previously reported that the company is gearing up to introduce a wall-mounted smart display for controlling your smart home next year as part of a bigger push into the home.

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Reddit bans posting UnitedHealthcare shooter’s manifesto

Image: The Verge

Moderators of multiple Reddit communities say the company has banned posts that include the alleged manifesto of Luigi Mangione, who has been charged for murder in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

In a post on Wednesday, a moderator of r/popculturechat wrote (emphasis theirs):

We wanted to reach out to tell you all that we have officially been notified by Reddit that we must adhere strictly to their site-wide rules regarding violent content. Specifically, Reddit has told us that we are not allowed to post Luigi Mangione’s manifesto, even if it is reported neutrally.

The moderator says that if they do not enforce the guidelines “to the letter,” there could be site-wide permanent bans on user accounts and “the potential shutdown of this subreddit.”

As a result, the moderator team is doing the following to adhere to Reddit’s rules:

• Any posts or comments that repost or encourage the manifesto will be removed.

• Any posts or comments that show support for violence, including expressing positive feelings toward the death of Brian Thompson or similar content, will be removed.

• We will be extremely strict in moderating these discussions to ensure compliance with Reddit’s policies.

• If rule violations persist, we will be forced to implement a “cool down” period, meaning we will temporarily remove any posts about Luigi Mangione for a period of time to allow the situation to settle.

It’s unclear if r/popculturechat is the only subreddit to have received a specific warning from Reddit. A post from moderators of a subreddit about Mangione claims that “Reddit is prohibiting posting the manifesto” and that “the mods must remove if posted,” but doesn’t say where that information is from. A moderator of another subreddit, r/wineandcrimepodcast, posted a slightly modified version of r/popculturechat’s message but says that “they had gotten warnings that some of us did not.”

Reddit appears to be taking some actions of its own: a user on r/esist says that Reddit is deleting posts with excerpts from the manifesto, “including my last post,” and that their account has “a warning on it for encouraging violence.”

But Reddit also seems to be inconsistently removing the manifesto, as we were able to find a link to the manifesto in Reddit search without much work. Reddit’s new AI-powered Answers tool also showed me information about the manifesto and where I could find it.

Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge

Reddit didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. The first rule of Reddit’s content policy states that:

Remember the human. Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying, and threats of violence. Communities and users that incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.

In its content policy, Reddit also says that “we ask that you abide by not just the letter of these rules, but the spirit as well.”

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Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos head to Mar-a-Lago to schmooze with Trump

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Brandon Bell, Getty Images

Two of tech’s biggest leaders have plans to meet with President-elect Donald Trump soon. The Information reports that Google CEO Sundar Pichai is flying to Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, and Trump has said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is meeting with him next week.

Trump has had a tumultuous relationship with Google, claiming the search engine is “rigged” to hide positive coverage about him. However, in recent weeks, Trump claimed multiple times that Pichai called him on the phone. Pichai said during The New York Times DealBook Summit last week that the calls had “nothing to do” with the government’s antitrust cases against Google.

As reported by The Information, sources don’t expect Pichai to “make any direct overtures to Trump about the antitrust lawsuit or other regulatory topics.” Trump said in October he would “do something” about Google when asked whether he’d go as far as breaking the company up. Google declined to comment about Pichai’s reported visit.

Additionally, Trump confirmed that Bezos “is coming up next week” during an interview with CNBC on Thursday. Despite Trump’s feud with Amazon during his presidency, Bezos said he’s “very optimistic this time around.” The Verge reached out to Amazon with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Pichai and Bezos aren’t the only tech leaders trying to smooth over their rocky histories with Trump. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who Trump threatened to put in prison — met for dinner at Mar-a-Lago in November. Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Google says its breakthrough quantum chip can’t break modern cryptography

Image: Google

Experts believe that one day, quantum computers could make today’s systems of encryption utterly obsolete. But Google tells The Verge its new “breakthrough” Willow chip is nowhere near ready for that.

“The Willow chip is not capable of breaking modern cryptography,” Google Quantum AI director and COO Charina Chou tells The Verge.

A so-called “cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer,” or CRQC, could “jeopardize civilian and military communications, undermine supervisory and control systems for critical infrastructure, and defeat security protocols for most Internet-based financial transactions,” the White House warned in 2022, ordering that US agencies must transition to new systems to mitigate that risk by 2035.

But Willow is not a CRQC, according to Google. While the company does claim it can solve a computing challenge in five minutes that would take the world’s fastest supercomputer ten septillion years, Google has only produced 105 physical qubits worth of that computing power and suggests it would need millions to literally crack the codes.

“Estimates are we’re at least 10 years out from breaking RSA, and that around 4 million physical qubits would be required to do this,” Chou writes. She says Willow doesn’t change the timeline at all.

And though Chinese researchers have repeatedly claimed to discover new ways to break RSA encryption with a much smaller quantum computers, ones with just a few hundreds or thousands of qubits, security experts have repeatedly been skeptical.

Google is one of the many companies preparing to defend against the potential threat of broken encryption with post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, ever since the Edward Snowden leaks revealed that spy agencies like the NSA were quietly funding code-breaking quantum computer research.

A few years back, we wrote about how the National Institute of Standards and Technology created a competition to develop quantum-safe cryptography standards back in 2016. This August, NIST released three finalized algorithms and its standards for integrating them into products and systems, and plans to select one or two more by the end of the year.

The RAND Corporation, a think tank famous for advising on US national security in the past, suggested in a 2023 editorial that the moment an RSA-breaking quantum computer exists, it’ll trigger a worldwide rush to defend against it:

“As soon as the existence of the CRQC becomes public knowledge — or is even considered plausible — and the threat becomes concrete, most vulnerable organizations will immediately move to upgrade all their communications systems to post-quantum cryptography.”

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Adobe now has a tool to get rid of ugly window reflections in photos

Adobe’s Reflection Removal tool is now available as a technology preview inside Camera Raw. | Image: Adobe

Adobe’s Project See Through, a tool that is capable of eliminating distracting reflections in photos taken through windows, is now available as a technology preview and is now called the Reflection Removal tool. Originally revealed as a “Sneak” during the Adobe’s annual Max conference last year, you can use the tool through Adobe Camera Raw in preview with a Lightroom release “coming soon,” according to Adobe.

The best way to ensure a photo isn’t marred with reflections is to avoid shooting through a window, but Adobe’s new tool will increase the chances that the beautiful mountain vista you captured during a flight will actually be worth sharing. The tool works by distinguishing the two scenes that make up an image with a reflection, which are often distinguished by different content, white balances (indoor scenes tend to look warmer than outdoor ones), and their sharpness.

Image: Adobe

An example of the artificial reflections Adobe created for training data by merging thousands of photos together.

The AI model the Reflection Removal tool uses was trained on a database of thousands of photographs without reflections that were paired and merged to create millions of images with simulated reflections. Through a reinforcement process, the model learned how to extract the original photos from a single combined image, which are both available in the new tool. The results are often impressive, but Adobe points out that “if a reflection is so strong or complex that a person looking at the photograph struggles to figure out what is what, then our model might struggle as well.”

To access the new tool, which currently only works with RAW images (support for JPEGs and HEICs is planned) you need to open the Camera Raw tool and then the Technology Previews section of its Preferences Panel where you can enable the New AI Settings and Features Panel before restarting Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Bridge.

Image: Adobe

The original photo (left) next to a version with reflections removed (center) and the reflected image itself isolated (right).

With a RAW file imported, you’ll find a Reflections option in the Distraction Removal section of the Remove panel. After a few seconds of processing a reflection-free version of the image will be presented (hopefully!) along with a slider set to 100. Dragging the slider down to zero will restore the reflections, while dragging it to -100 will reveal only the reflected image.

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Verizon is using 5G network slicing to offer better video calling — for a price

Remember your old friend 5G? | Image: The Verge

Verizon is making good on one of the many unfulfilled promises of 5G with a new service called Enhanced Video Calling.

According to the company’s website, it delivers “optimized video and sound quality on calling apps,” even in times of congestion. That may not sound exciting on its own. But under the hood, Verizon is using network slicing to boost video call performance, which is a new technology only possible on a standalone 5G network.

Unlike remote robot banana surgery, network slicing is a real benefit of 5G technology that we can reasonably expect to see in more places in the next few years. Slicing lets network operators provide the right resources for certain kinds of demanding activities where a strong connection is critical. Right now, that means boosting performance for video calls, but in the future it could mean being able to prioritize the data needed to safely guide an autonomous vehicle through an intersection.

The catch is that you need a standalone 5G network to pull this off, and much of the US’ 5G networks still operate on 4G cores. T-Mobile has been able to move quicker on this thanks to its Sprint acquisition, and it rolled out its first feature based on slicing this fall with a service that gives priority to first responders. Verizon has been testing slicing for the past year or so, but this is its first rollout of a consumer feature based on the technology.

In order to try Enhanced Video Calling out for yourself, you have to meet a specific set of requirements. It’s available in “more than 150 metro areas” right now, with more to be added in 2025. But you also need to be on Verizon’s priciest plan, Unlimited Ultimate, which costs $90 per month for one line with autopay. And you’ll need an iPhone 14 or newer running iOS 18.2. Samsung Galaxy S23 and newer and Pixel 9 phones will be compatible too, but support for Android video calling apps on Android is arriving in 2025.

If you meet the above prerequisites, you should see a setting in iOS that reads “Enhance 5G” if you go to Settings > Cellular, according to Apple’s documentation.

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Toyota’s next EV is this small Urban Cruiser SUV for Europe

Toyota’s Urban Cruiser is a compact electric SUV coming to Europe. | Image: Toyota

Toyota revealed its latest all-electric vehicle today as the Urban Cruiser compact SUV. The EV, which will be fully revealed at the Brussels Motor Show next month, is intended for the European market, first coming to the UK in the third quarter of 2025.

Toyota says the wheelbase is only about 5 inches longer than the European-only Yaris Cross, making it another fun-sized electric EV slated for the continent like the recently revealed Ford Puma Gen-E or Hyundai Inster.

The Urban Cruiser has clear design inspiration from last year's Urban SUV concept. It also shares its new EV platform built in conjunction with Suzuki, which announced its made-in-India E Vitara SUV last month. Toyota’s other EV, the bZ4X, also shares its EV platform with another automaker, Subaru, which has the Solterra EV.

Image: Toyota

Toyota Urban Cruiser features a side-by-side 10.25-inch cluster screen and a 10.1-inch infotainment system.

Toyota’s Urban Cruiser has nearly match-for-match specs as the E Vitara, including a relatively small 49 kWh battery with an FWD drivetrain and a 61 kWh battery with an option for AWD.

Toyota says power output can get as high as 135kW in the AWD version (with 40kW on the rear axel for “stable and secure performance on loose and slippery surfaces”) and up to 300 Nm of torque. While the official range is not announced, it’ll likely match the E Vitara’s expected 248 miles on a single charge.

Additionally, the Urban Cruiser has downhill assist and trail modes for added control, and the FWD model includes a snow mode. All models come with a heat pump and include the ability to manually start preconditioning the battery to prepare for a DC fast charging session.

Toyota has been slower in building and adopting EVs than other legacy manufacturers. The automaker has been focused on its outstanding hybrid technology as well as hydrogen vehicles.

But the automaker isn’t done with EVs — it’s planning to have 15 EVs, including six models on a next-gen shared platform by 2026, and it just invested nearly another $1 billion in Kentucky for a paint facility to prepare for a three-row electric SUV for the US.

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Amazon’s Prime Video pushes ‘AI Topics’ instead of the old algorithms

Image: Amazon

Amazon is testing a new Prime Video feature that recommends groups of content using AI rather than traditional algorithms. If you’re part of the test, you’ll see new “AI Topics” tailored to your interests, like “mind-bending sci-fi,” “fantasy quests,” or “thrilling character journeys.”

Each category will have shows, movies, and linear channels that match these AI-generated labels. You can also continue refining recommendations further by selecting topics related to the category you’re looking at, which Amazon says allows you to “discover more content without hitting a dead end.”

Image: Amazon

Streaming services like Netflix have long used machine learning algorithms to spit out recommendations based on viewing history. But with this announcement, it seems like Prime Video is putting an extra AI spin on things — which isn’t very surprising given the hype surrounding the tech and Amazon’s own efforts to portray itself as an AI leader. For now, Amazon says AI Topics are rolling out to “select” living room devices in the US, such as the Fire TV.

Last month, Prime Video also rolled out AI recaps you can use to summarize TV seasons, entire episodes, and even portions of episodes.

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Meta makes $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration

The Verge | Photo by Tom Williams via Getty Images

Meta has donated $1 million to president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration fund, The Wall Street Journal reports. Zuckerberg’s team reportedly told Trump’s inaugural committee about Meta’s planned donation before Zuckerberg and Trump dined together at Mar-a-Lago in November.

Before the dinner, Zuckerberg showed off Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses and gifted a pair to Trump, according to the Journal. Zuckerberg’s advisers also met with incoming White House officials, including incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

The donation marks a significant shift for Zuckerberg, who has until recently shied away from politics. Zuckerberg called Trump to congratulate him on his election victory. But he didn’t publicly endorse a candidate in 2020 — and as Meta spokespeople have repeatedly emphasized, he also didn’t endorse anyone in 2024, despite Trump’s claims that Zuckerberg called him to say there’s “no way” he could vote for a Democrat after the attempt on Trump’s life at a Pennsylvania rally. (Zuckerberg also called Trump’s reaction to the shooting “badass.”) Still, Zuckerberg has made increasingly unsubtle overtures to Trump, who has threatened the Facebook founder over the years.

The dinner — and the donation — are signs that the notoriously rocky relationship between Zuckerberg and Trump is starting to soften. Trump has had it out for Zuckerberg since Facebook banned his account in the wake of the January 6th riots, and at one point said Zuckerberg should be jailed due to Facebook’s alleged interference in the 2020 election.

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions are up to 50 percent off right now

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’ve been contemplating signing up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate so you can play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, you might want to head on over to Woot. Now until 1:59AM ET on December 13th, the retailer is offering a three-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $28.99 (about $31 off) with promo code GAMEPASS. Only customers making their first purchase on Woot are eligible, though; everyone else will have to pay $33.99 to redeem the digital code.

Woot’s current promo is a terrific deal considering a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will normally run you $19.99. After you finish playing the new Indiana Jones game, you can play dozens of other downloadable titles for both Xbox and PC, including new releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and older titles like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Starfield, Diablo IV, Halo Infinite, and Hi-Fi Rush. Subscribers can even stream select non-Game Pass titles they own via their TV, smartphone, tablet, and PC through a web browser. This includes Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Balatro, and more.

In addition to granting access to a wide range of games — including EA Play titles — an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription lets you take advantage of exclusive deals, online multiplayer, and other perks, some of which aren’t available on the cheaper Game Pass tiers.

Other deals and discounts of note

• Elgato’s Stream Deck Neo is on sale for an all-time low of $79.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy. The excellent macro controller comes witheight LCD buttons, which you can program to easily control your smart lights, pause Slack notifications, and perform a variety of other shortcuts with the press of a button. It also comes with some other handy conveniences, including a tiny info display that shows the time and a pair of capacitive buttons that let you quickly cycle through multiple pages of macros.
• The Onn Google TV 4K Prois selling for $39 (about $11 off) at Walmart right now. The streaming device is a higher-end version of the excellent Onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box. It delivers even more value in some ways, though, as it functions as a smart speaker that’s compatible with Google Assistant. The 4K streaming device also adds support for Dolby Vision and Atmos, as well as Wi-Fi 6, while retaining built-in Chromecast support.
• Amazon is selling the Ring Wired Doorbell Pro (formerly known as the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2) with a Chime Pro for $199.99 (about $90 off), which is $10 shy of the bundle’s best price to date. The wired Pro is one of our favorite video doorbells, one that works with Amazon Alexa and integrates well with Ring Alarm and other Ring cameras. It offers top-notch video quality and a square aspect ratio, though many features — including person alerts and the ability to save and share clips — require a premium Ring subscription plan. The Chime Pro, meanwhile, doubles as a speaker for notifications and a Wi-Fi extender, so the doorbell receives a strong signal.

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Threads follows Bluesky’s starter packs with curated collections of people to follow

Illustration: The Verge

Meta’s Threads is getting another feature seemingly inspired by Bluesky: curated groups of accounts that you can follow all at once. They basically sound like Meta’s take on Bluesky’s handy starter packs.

Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced Thursday that Meta is starting to test the feature, and he said that you’ll see the collections “when signing up for Threads and within the For You feed.” A “handful” of “Threads community leaders” curated and shared the current collections.

People will be able to find collections built around topics like “basketball, style and fashion, food, books, pop culture, and more,” Meta spokesperson Alec Booker tells The Verge. “We’ll iterate on this feature based on learnings from the test, and hope to expand the functionality to more people soon.”

Image: Meta

Image: Meta

Meta has upped the pace of Threads feature updates after users really started flocking to Bluesky last month — Threads introduced its own take on custom feeds just five days after announcing the feature in testing, for example.

While I personally think Bluesky is the heir apparent to Twitter, Threads is still significantly larger. Meta saw 35 million Threads signups in November, but Bluesky user growth has seemingly slowed to a crawl: as I write this, Bluesky is on the cusp of surpassing 25 million users, a five million user jump from nearly a month ago.

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Mike Flanagan is writing a Clayface movie for DC Studios

Max

The DC Comics character Clayface has been getting plenty of play on Max’s Harley Quinn series, where he’s voiced by Alan Tudyk. But it’s looking like the shape-shifting villain’s next act will take him to the big screen.

Variety reports that The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan has signed on to write a new Clayface feature for DC Studios that will be produced by Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris’ company 6th & Idaho. Currently, there are no details about who will direct the project, but Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly intends for it to begin filming some time next year.

WBD fast-tracking a movie about one of Batman’s goopier rogues might sound odd at first blush, but it makes quite a bit of sense coming after DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn’s reveal of his plan to build a new cinematic universe. Gunn explained last year that DC Studios is “going to have characters move into animation [and] out of animation; usually having the same actor play their voice as who plays them in live-action.”

We’ve already seen a bit of that borne out in Creature Commandos where Viola Davis has reprised her role as Amanda Waller and Frank Grillo is voicing Rick Flagg Sr. ahead of portraying the same role in Peacemaker’s upcoming second season. Though Clayface hasn’t appeared in Creature Commandos just yet, the character (who will once again by voiced by Tudyk) is set to become part of the show some time some time this season.

Because Tudyk also voices Creature Commandos’ Doctor Phosphorous and Will Magnus, it’s not clear yet whether WBD intends for him to portray Clayface is the new feature. But that might not wind up being an issue given how Creature Commandos kinda feels like a show designed to kill off and cycle through DC’s weirder characters.

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Gemini AI can now summarize what’s in your Google Drive folders

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Gemini’s integration into Google Drive is getting a little more useful. In addition to summarizing documents or answering questions about a project, the AI assistant can now generate summaries of everything inside a folder.

With the feature, you can open a folder and select the new “Summarize this folder” button at the top of the page. Gemini will then give you a breakdown of the folder’s contents. As noted by Google, you can use Gemini to find specific files inside a folder, or ask questions about it, like “What is the theme of this folder?”

You can also drag and drop a folder into the Gemini sidebar, as well as right-click on a folder and choose “Ask Gemini.”

GIF: Google

For now, Google says Gemini can only provide information about text documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentations. However, when 9to5Google tested the tool, it found that Gemini could identify images in a folder, too.

Google first brought Gemini to the sidebar in Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides in June. Gemini’s folder summary feature is rolling out now to Google One AI Premium subscribers, along with Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, and Education Premium users.

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The extremely online life of the American teenager

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images

Nearly half of US teens are “almost constantly” online, though the platforms they spend their time on vary significantly, according to a new Pew survey.

Despite some variety in their overall online habits, virtually all teenagers use YouTube. Of the 1,391 teenagers polled by the Pew Research Center, 90 percent said they use the site, a slight decrease from 95 percent in 2022. And 73 percent of them go on YouTube every day, making it by far the most popular platform for teenage users. The second-most popular app is TikTok, which 63 percent of teens say they use.

Pew Research Center

Almost all teenagers polled by Pew use YouTube, but very few are on Threads.

But there’s a gender divide, especially among teenagers who say they “almost constantly” use either app: 19 percent of girls say they use TikTok that often, while the same share of boys are constantly on YouTube.

And even this extremely online demographic isn’t using all websites equally. Just 6 percent of teenagers polled said they use Threads, Meta’s microblogging app, and only 32 percent use Facebook — down from 71 percent a decade ago. The only Meta product a majority of teenagers use is Instagram, whose popularity has increased since 2014.

There seems to be a preference for image- and video-based platforms among the teenagers polled: X and Reddit were also much less popular, with 17 percent and 14 percent of teens saying they use them, respectively. And teens’ X usage has declined significantly over the past decade: a decade ago, when it was still called Twitter, 33 percent of US teens used it. But teens’ use of some image-based apps — including Snapchat — is on the decline as well. In fact, the only app that has experienced a rise in popularity is WhatsApp, which is now used by 23 percent of teenagers.

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Microsoft’s Recall AI is creepy, clever, and compelling

Image: Microsoft

I honestly thought I’d hate Microsoft’s controversial Recall feature and immediately disable it, but after using it for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been both creeped out and impressed with what it’s capable of.

Recall, a Windows 11 feature that takes snapshots of mostly everything you see on your screen, quickly became a controversy earlier this year after Microsoft announced it. Privacy advocates immediately started warning about potential issues with Recall without even using it, and security researchers found big holes in a prerelease version of the feature. Microsoft delayed Recall multiple times to give the company more time to address the security issues, and it’s now in testing for Windows Insiders ahead of a broader rollout next year.

The first thing I noticed about Recall is that the initial setup experience is very clunky and feels unfinished. You launch the app, and it redirects you to Windows Update, where AI models will start downloading and installing. Once you’ve installed a trio of these, it looks like the install process is complete — but then Windows Update will find another component of Recall to install. After fiddling around for 10 minutes, Recall will...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple gets into AI: all the news on iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

iOS 18 introduces more customization and the first rollout of Apple Intelligence.

Apple has released iOS 18 — plus iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, watchOS 11, and other new updates — bringing several key updates to how the company’s devices operate and setting the stage for generative AI features.

The most discussed feature of iOS 18 is the Apple Intelligence suite. With the release of iOS 18.2 on December 11th, features that are available now include generating images in Image Playground, creating custom “Genmoji” emoji, and ChatGPT integration. Other features of Apple Intelligence, including writing tools such as the ability to rewrite your text in different styles, trickled out to customers starting in October.

There are major non-AI changes to consider too, like the ability to change your default apps or test your hearing with AirPods.

Meanwhille, iPadOS 18 now has a calculator app and can solve math equations in notes, watchOS is keeping an eye out for sleep apnea, and now your iPhone can even message Androids with RCS.

Read on for all the news about Apple’s latest set of operating system updates.

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Supernote’s new E Ink tablet is upgradeable and repairable

The Supernote A5 X2 Manta is more expensive than the Remarkable 2, but will potentially last longer with upgradeable components. | Image: Supernote

Supernote has announced its new A5 X2 Manta E Ink tablet that could be a potential alternative to the reMarkable 2 for those wanting a larger screen and a device that can be easily upgraded and repaired. It’s available now for $459, something of a jump from the $379 reMarkable 2. The latter also includes a stylus, while the Supernote A5 X2 requires you to provide your own — or spend at least another $59 to buy one of the company’s pens (which, according to Supernote, don’t need charging and are fitted with ceramic tips that won’t wear down).

On the other hand, the new tablet is very fixable. A panel on the back of the Supernote A5 X2 can be removed without tools, giving quick access to some of the tablet’s internal components. This includes its 3,600mAh battery, which can be replaced when it loses capacity or stops charging, and the A5 X2’s motherboard, potentially allowing for performance improvements or new features down the road without having to replace the entire device. There’s also a microSD slot that can use a memory card to expand the A5 X2’s storage from 32GB up to 2TB.

Image: Supernote

You don’t even need to reach for a screwdriver to open the A5 X2’s back panel.

The 10.7-inch 300 ppi E Ink screen on the Supernote A5 X2 is larger and has more resolution than the reMarkable 2’s 10.3-inch 266 ppi panel, but like the four-year-old reMarkable, the A5 X2 skips screen lighting for what the company calls an improved writing experience and a “true paper look in natural light.” That could be a tough sell when alternatives like the Amazon Kindle Scribe and the Kobo Elipsa 2E can be easily used in the dark. Even reMarkable now offers an E Ink tablet with an illuminated screen.

Powered by a 1.8GHz RK3566 quad-core processor, the Supernote A5 X2 runs a custom Android 11-based OS called Chauvet that supports features like two-finger gestures and offline handwriting recognition that can convert your notes to editable text. The tablet also has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing documents to be synced through cloud-based services like Dropbox or Google Drive, or to be transferred directly to other devices wirelessly using an accompanying mobile app. For extra security, you can even plug a flash drive into the A5 X2’s USB-C charging port and transfer files manually.

Image: Supernote

A loop for holding a stylus to the side of the tablet can be removed for those wanting a cleaner look.

Other features include touch-sensitive strips on the bezels on either side of the screen that can be used to scroll long document and a fabric loop for storing a stylus that can also be removed entirely.

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Epic’s holiday sale includes 16 free games this year

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Epic Games’ annual holiday sale is now live, and like previous years, the company is also going to be offering a bunch of free games you can claim during the sale. Over the course of this sale, the store will have 16 free games, according to a blog post.

Epic isn’t spilling the beans about which games will be on offer, teasing only that you’ll be able to claim “some absolutely amazing titles.” But in pervious years, Epic has given away big games like Destiny 2: Legacy Collectionand Control, so fingers crossed that Epic has some good holiday surprises up its sleeve.

For paid deals, there are some good games to sift through, like 35 percent off Dragon Age: The Veilguardand Star Wars: Outlaws. During the holiday sale, Epic is also giving users 10 percent back on their purchases as part of the Epic Rewards program, which is a boost from the usual 5 percent.

The sale ends at 11AM ET on January 9th, 2025.

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Biden administration raises tariffs on solar materials from China

A worker handles wafers at the GCL Technology production plant in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. GCL Technology is one of the world’s largest makers of polysilicon, a key material in solar panels. | Photo: Getty Images

Tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon, and certain tungsten products from China are going to rise dramatically come January 1st, 2025, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. That means higher price tags on key materials needed to make solar panels at a time when solar is the fastest growing source of electricity in the US.

Polysilicon is used to make solar wafers, which are the semiconductors in solar panels. Tungsten — the same material in old-school incandescent lightbulbs — has many uses in electronics because of its high melting point. The metal is also part of supply chains for the aerospace, automotive, defense, medical, and oil and gas industries.

That means higher price tags on key materials needed to make solar panels at a time when solar is the fastest growing source of electricity in the US

It’s the latest instance of the Biden administration hiking up tariffs on goods from China — which dominates solar manufacturing — as part of its plan to build up domestic supply chains for clean energy.

Solar products from the Xinjiang region in particular also face accusations of forced labor and human rights abuses. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) also said that the decision to raise tariffs follows an investigation into cyber theft and economic espionage by China.

“The tariff increases announced today will further blunt the harmful policies and practices by the People’s Republic of China,” ambassador Katherine Tai said in a statement. “These actions will complement the domestic investments made under the Biden-Harris Administration to promote a clean energy economy, while increasing the resilience of critical supply chains.”

Starting next year, tariffs on polysilicon and solar wafers will double from 25 to 50 percent. Tariffs on certain tungsten products will go from zero to 25 percent. Chinese companies produce more than 75 percent of the world’s polysilicon. Considering all the manufacturing stages for solar panels, which includes polysilicon and wafers, China holds more than 80 percent of global capacity.

American manufacturers welcomed the changes. “These trade measures will begin to counter the pervasive Chinese government subsidies in solar manufacturing. It is a step in the right direction,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America (SEMA) Coalition, said in an emailed statement.

To be sure, Chinese policies aimed at boosting solar manufacturing have led to economies of scale that have allowed prices for solar panels to plummet around the world. Chinese companies also make much more affordable electric vehicles than US manufacturers. EVs from China have been similarly subject to soaring tariffs during the Biden administration to 100 percent from 25 percent this year. In May, Biden also announced that tariffs on battery parts and lithium-ion batteries would rise to 25 percent from 7.5 percent. In addition, he increased the tarifff rate on solar cells from 25 percent to 50 percent. And by 2025, the rate on semiconductors from China will double to 50 percent.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to hike tariffs on imported goods from China even more than his predecessor, which is expected to increase prices on everything from cars to electronics.

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