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Spotify finally turned a profit for a full year

Those Premium price increases must be working.

Spotify raked in enough cash and new subscribers in 2024 to celebrate its first full year of profitability since the service was launched in 2008. The announcement comes as part of Spotify’s fourth-quarter earnings release, with net profits at €1.14 billion (around $1.17 billion) for the whole of 2024, compared to the €532 million (around $549 million) in losses reported last year.

Spotify said in November that it was on track to hit its profitability milestone. Total yearly revenue grew to €15.6 billion (about $16.1 billion) from the €13.2 billion (about $13.6 billion) reported for 2023. That was driven in part by an 11 percent year-over-year increase in Premium subscribers, jumping from 236 million to 263 million, while the total number of monthly active users rose 12 percent to 675 million.

The growth in subscribers comes despite raising the price of its Premium subscriptions twice within an 11-month period. The jump from $9.99 to $10.99 per month in July 2023 marked the first time that Spotify had increased its US pricing since launching in the country in 2011, and was later followed by an increase to $11.99 a month in June 2024.

New AI playlist and audiobook features have rolled out across the same period, but there’s still no mention in today’s report of when Spotify’s long-promised lossless streaming option could launch.

“I am very excited about 2025 and feel really good about where we are as both a product and as a business,” says Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. “We will continue to place bets that will drive long-term impact, increasing our speed while maintaining the levels of efficiency we achieved last year. It’s this combination that will enable us to build the best and most valuable user experience, grow sustainably, and deliver creativity to the world.”

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Opera’s new browser might save you from doomscrolling

Air includes mindfulness tools and break reminders in its floating sidebar.

Norway-based Opera has announced a new browser, Opera Air, with a focus on mindfulness and mental wellbeing. It includes break reminders, breathing exercises, and a suite of relaxing soundscapes to help users both focus and de-stress.

“The web is beautiful but it can be chaotic and overwhelming,” says Mohamed Salah, Opera’s senior director of product. “We decided to look at science-backed ways to help our users navigate it in a way that makes them feel and function better.”

Air features a semi-transparent design and a floating sidebar for its mindfulness features. When you need to work, the Boosts feature offers music, ambient sounds, and binaural beats — where slightly different frequencies are played in each ear, which creates a perceived third frequency in the brain and is believed to help influence relaxation or focus. Soundscapes can be set to play from 15 minutes up to forever, and can be paused from the sidebar at any time.

The Break reminder is an icon made up of three lines in the sidebar that gray out while you work — you can customize the duration — reminding you to take a break once the icon is fully faded. Air can help at that point too, with breathing exercises, neck stretches, “full body scans,” and guided meditations, which last up to 15 minutes.

Air joins the default Opera browser and its gaming-focused Opera GX in the lineup. Like those, it includes a built-in ad blocker and free VPN, plus access to the ChatGPT-powered Aria AI assistant. Air is available to download for free now on Mac or Windows.

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The Verge

China opens Google antitrust probe in retaliation to tariffs

An illustration of shipping containers and coins.

The antitrust investigation was launched alongside retaliatory tariffs and export controls.

China has launched an antitrust investigation into Google as part of a salvo of responses to US tariff increases, including its own retaliatory tariffs and export controls. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced the Google probe on Tuesday over suspicions the US search giant had violated Chinese antimonopoly laws, according to a machine translation of the statement.

Google’s search and internet services have been blocked in China since 2010, but the antitrust investigation may interfere with its other dealings with Chinese companies. Details about the probe are slim. It was announced within minutes of President Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods going into effect.

The Chinese government says it will also introduce additional levies against select US goods, including a 15 percent tariff on coal and natural gas products, and a 10 percent tariff on crude oil, agricultural equipment, larger cars, and pickup trucks. China also announced export restrictions on certain mineral elements to “safeguard national security interests.” Impacted minerals include tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum, and ruthenium, which are critical to modern infrastructure and technology production.

US-imposed tariffs against Mexico and Canada were also set to take effect on Tuesday, but have now been paused for a month ahead of negotiations on security and trade. No pause has been announced for the tariffs against China. President Trump said on Monday that his administration was planning to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping “probably over the next 24 hours,” and that tariffs will be “very, very substantial” if a deal can’t be reached.

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Nintendo Switch 2 announcement: all the news on the next console

It’s finally time: after months of teases and rumors, Nintendo has finally revealed the successor to the Switch. A new console generation is always a big deal, but this is an especially pivotal one for Nintendo.

Since its debut in 2017, the Switch has become Nintendo’s second-bestselling piece of hardware ever, trailing only the Nintendo DS. And it has been home to some of the company’s most successful games, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the juggernaut that is Mario Kart 8.

Those are some big shoes to fill, which means there are some important questions for Nintendo to answer about what comes next. The lead-up to today was filled with questions: What will the hardware look like? Will the big franchises be there at launch? Will games like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends: Z-A be cross-generation?

Now we have official answers to at least some of them — you can keep up with everything we learned from the reveal right here.

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The Verge

WWE Raw runs into its first streaming problems on Netflix

Netflix and WWE nearly made it a whole month streaming Raw without any major technical hiccups, but that streak was broken on Monday night. Throughout the February 3rd episode, some viewers were annoyed by the feed intermittently cutting out to a black screen. Audio would also drop whenever these glitches occurred. The problems never caused the live feed to drop entirely — this wasn’t anything like the messy Jake Paul / Mike Tyson stream — but they were still a source of frustration for fans eager to see the fallout from Saturday’s Royal Rumble event.

Netflix feed for WWE was a mess tonight. Frequent glitching, especially at the end of the show, ruining a big moment. Hadn't had any issues the first few Netflix weeks. Not sure what happened tonight.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) February 4, 2025

WWE Raw debuted on Netflix in early January after spending decades as a staple of linear cable TV. The streamer has committed $5 billion over 10 years to secure WWE’s flagship weekly show. Outside the US, Netflix is now home to an even bigger WWE content portfolio that includes SmackDown, NXT, and the company’s monthly premium live events. So if these streams don’t go smoothly, fans are certain to notice.

Monday’s technical issues were most obvious during the main event, which pitted CM Punk against Sami Zayn. The Netflix logo remained visible during Raw’s blackouts, which led to speculation that the problems were coming directly from WWE’s live production feed in Cleveland. They remained present in immediate replays of the episode.

@netflix fix your screen glitch wtf is this#RawOnNetflix pic.twitter.com/UOg02Vwxki

— Samir | WWE fan 🇧🇩 (@SamirParvez) February 4, 2025

The Verge has reached out to WWE for comment on what caused the brief interruptions. Netflix raised the price of its monthly subscriptions last month, bringing its ad-supported tier up to $7.99 per month, the standard ad-free plan to $17.99, and the premium tier to $24.99 per month.

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Trump’s first 100 days: all the news affecting the tech industry

President Donald Trump kicked off the first day of his presidency by signing a flurry of executive actions, including halting enforcement of the TikTok ban and rolling back the Biden administration’s artificial intelligence order.

Having already run the country once before, Trump entered the presidency with the goal of hitting the ground running, having already selected nominees and chairs for key agencies that oversee tech. This time, Trump has the backing of many tech billionaires who attended his inauguration and showed up at his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Read on below as we keep track of all the ways Trump is leaving his mark on tech in his first 100 days in office.

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The Verge

Can anyone stop President Musk?

Musk’s chaos comes for Washington.

Elon Musk has an uncanny ability to sort out which of America’s rules are real. It turns out punishment from the National Labor Relations Board isn’t real, punishment from NASA isn’t real, and punishment from the FAA isn’t real. The Delaware Chancery Court is extremely real. Based on the past two weeks, the Delaware Chancery Court may be the only real thing in the entire American government.

Here’s a quick recap. While putative President Donald Trump was busy alienating allies through tariffs and wasting water in California — real mad king hours — Musk pushed out the head of the FAA. Then the reports came fast and thick: Federal employees received a “fork in the road” email highly reminiscent of Musk’s Twitter ultimatum, encouraging them to resign, sent from an insecure server. A bunch of goons, some of them actual teenagers, reportedly got access to the US Treasury systems. (Read-only, reportedly, for now.) Longtime civil servants were locked out of the personnel systems that, by the way, house the personal data for government employees. Musk’s lackeys are in control of the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration. They’ve gotte …

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The Verge

Treasury Department sued over DOGE takeover

President Donald Trump’s administration is being sued over Elon Musk’s alleged “massive and unprecedented” intrusion into the American government’s payment systems. The suit, filed in a Washington, DC federal court Monday evening by the advocacy group Public Citizen, calls for the court to stop the “unlawful, ongoing, systematic, and continuous disclosure of personal and financial information … to Elon Musk and other members of the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or to any other person.”

Public Citizen filed the suit against the Treasury Department on behalf of the Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union days after reports emerged that Musk and DOGE had gained access to federal payment systems — and to millions of Americans’ Social Security numbers. The suit claims that the Treasury Department, led by recently appointed Secretary Scott Bessent, violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code’s regulations surrounding taxpayer information by letting Musk and DOGE access these systems.

“People who must share information with the federal …

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The Verge

SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son says AGI will arrive ‘much earlier’ than he thought

SoftBank isn’t just part of the group investing $500 billion into Project Stargate to build American AI infrastructure capacity for OpenAI. It’s also making a Japanese joint venture with OpenAI, will spend $3 billion deploying OpenAI tech across SoftBank companies, and claims it will revolutionize business with AI agents through a new AI system called “Cristal intelligence.”

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who also invested billions in WeWork, claimed at an announcement event in Tokyo that artificial general intelligence, or AGI will come “much earlier” than his previous two- to three-year prediction, The Wall Street Journal reports. That could be helped, of course, by changes in the definition of AGI, as explained recently by his new partner, Sam Altman.

In the release, SoftBank highlights how AI agents “will automate everyday tasks” for knowledge work. SoftBank shared some vague examples of how it will use Cristal Intelligence at Arm and SoftBank Corp., which it owns: Arm, which designs many of the chips and servers used by AI companies, says it will use the tech to “drive innovation and boost productivity across the company,” while SoftBank Corp. plans to “automate over 100 million workflows” to “boost efficiency and enable the creation of new business opportunities within its ecosystem.”

Son announced Cristal Intelligence at an event in Tokyo where he held a crystal ball.

The SoftBank and OpenAI joint venture, called “SB OpenAI Japan,” will be owned 50-50 between the two companies. The joint venture will “market Cristal intelligence exclusively to major companies in Japan,” per the press release.

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The Verge

Sony and CBS are in a Jeopardy! distribution feud

Sony Pictures Television says it’s taking over the distribution rights for top game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! from Paramount-owned CBS starting the week of February 10th, reports Bloomberg, while CBS is fighting back by seeking a temporary restraining order.

In October, Sony sued CBS for allegedly not putting in enough effort to grow licensing revenues despite CBS making more than $1 billion in profit from the 35-year-old distribution deal. Sony also claims that CBS pocketed more than $3.6 million from other deals made in Australia and New Zealand that did not benefit Sony.

According to Deadline, on Monday, CBS sent a statement to clients telling them to ignore what Sony is saying because “Sony has no rights under the distribution agreements to terminate them, and CBS remains the distributor for the Series, notwithstanding any communications from Sony to the contrary.”

Earlier last year, Sony, which produces both game shows, reportedly attempted to buy out the rights from CBS for a figure “greater than nine figures,” according to a source who spoke with Bloomberg at the time.

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Here are the best AirPods deals you can get right now

Apple’s latest AirPods Pro 4 deliver better sound and voice call performance than their predecessor, and are currently $99.99. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-expanding AirPods lineup. Both the new AirPods Max and AirPods 4 (with and without ANC) now consistently receive discounts, as do the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C. The same goes for the original AirPods Max, which are nearly indistinguishable from the last-gen model aside from the switch to a USB-C connector.

  1. The best AirPods 4 deals
  2. The best AirPods Pro (second-gen) deals
  3. The best AirPods Max deals

Below, we’ve rounded up the best deals currently available on each model, including both iterations of the AirPods 4, the latest AirPods Pro, and the last-gen AirPods Max.

The best AirPods 4 deals

During Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event in September, the company introduced the AirPods 4, a pair of wireless earbuds available in two flavors: a $129 standard model and a noise-canceling version for $179. Both models represent significant upgrades over the second-gen AirPods, with a more comfortable design and improved audio performance. They’re also better for taking calls thanks to Apple’s Voice Isolation feature, which better isolates your voice so that you can more clearly be heard in noisy environments.

For $50 extra, you can also buy the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, which offer ANC, a helpful transparency mode, and several more Pro-like features. Admittedly, the latest AirPods Pro do a better job of tuning out noise, but Apple’s newest pair of wireless earbuds still do a good job of reducing sound. They also offer other perks formerly reserved for Apple’s highest-end earbuds, including wireless charging and a case with a built-in speaker that allows you to easily track it down via Apple’s Find My app.

Although they only just launched a few months ago, we’re already starting to see discounts on both versions of the AirPods 4. Right now, for instance, the standard AirPods 4 are on sale for an all-time low of $99.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy. The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are also on sale for around $148.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, which is also their best price yet.

Read our AirPods 4 review.

The best AirPods Pro (second-gen) deals

In 2022, Apple released the second-gen AirPods Pro, which feature a similar build to the first-gen model but offer better noise cancellation, swipe-based controls, and an extra-small pair of swappable silicone ear tips for smaller ears. Apple followed them up a year later with a minor refresh, one that features a USB-C charging case and an upgraded IP54 rating for water and dust resistance. The newest model also supports lossless audio when used with Apple’s new Vision Pro headset and doubles as a pair of FDA-approved hearing aids.

Apple’s updated AirPods Pro with USB-C are currently available at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $169 ($81 off). That’s their second-best price to date and a mere $16 shy of their all-time low.

Read our AirPods Pro with USB-C impressions.

The best AirPods Max deals

The AirPods Max aren’t the iconic in-ears that have become synonymous with the AirPods name. They’re large and luxurious, comprised of aluminum, steel, and mesh fabric that remains comfortable during extended listening sessions. They also sport excellent noise cancellation, Apple’s spatial audio feature, and expansive, balanced sound, even if they lag behind some of their peers when it comes to bass response and features. They’re not the best noise-canceling headphones for most people — blame the sticker price — but it’s hard to find a better pair of Bluetooth headphones if you’re an iPhone user.

At the beginning of September, Apple replaced the first-gen Max with a new model that features support for USB-C charging and a few new color options. They’re currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo for $529 ($20 off) — which matches their second-best price to date — while the first-gen model is on sale starting for $477 ($73 off) at Amazon and Walmart. That’s the typical sale price for the Lightning configuration at this point, and a far cry from their all-time low of $398.

Read our original AirPods Max review.

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The Verge

Shein and Temu depend on a 100-year-old tariff loophole that Trump wants to close

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff threats have been touch and go. As it stands currently, the 25 percent tax on goods from Mexico and Canada is on ice for a month, but a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods is set to take effect on Tuesday, via an executive order of questionable legality.

Nestled within the order is a brief but important provision that could change how Americans shop online: the closing of a little-known loophole called the de minimis exception.

Under the de minimis rule, packages that are valued under $800 can enter the US duty free, and recipients in the US can get up to $800 worth of stuff per day without paying import taxes.

E-commerce giants like Temu and Shein (but also countless smaller operations) have used this loophole to ship low-value packages to shoppers, who, in turn, benefit from not having to pay import taxes on their purchases. Temu, Shein, and other companies that ship directly to consumers don’t have to store tons of merchandise in warehouses in the US: they can mail orders directly from manufacturers or warehouses in China, where many products are produced.

The de minimis provision has been on the books for nearly 100 years, but it’s arguably a bigger issue now than at any point in the past century. The number of packages avoiding taxes has skyrocketed, from 139 million a year in 2015 to over 1.36 billion in 2024, according to US Customs and Border Protection. The cost limit was increased from $200 to $800 in 2016 after groups like eBay, Etsy, and package delivery companies lobbied Congress. And the growing popularity of platforms like Shein and Temu in the last few years normalized waiting a few weeks for orders to come from China in exchange for bargain bin-priced goods.

The Biden administration previously proposed tightening the de minimis loophole. Trump’s executive order, as written, effectively kills it — making low-value shipments subject to existing tariffs plus the additional 10 percent tax. That’s not just an extra fee; it’s an existential threat to the business models of Shein and Temu. A T-shirt from China, for example, would be subject to Trump’s new 10 percent tax, plus standard tariffs that are based on the specific product and then additional China-specific tariffs that the first Trump administration put in place.

Temu and Shein’s business models keep the retailers’ prices impossibly low and has threatened Amazon’s dominance in online shopping. Last November, Amazon took a page out of Temu’s playbook and introduced Amazon Haul, a marketplace of ultracheap home goods, gadgets, and clothing that looks and feels like Chinese e-commerce platforms. As I wrote in December, Amazon is taking advantage of this same de minimis exemption: the products on Haul are even cheaper than normal Amazon listings, and the marketplace features many products that also appear for sale on Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.

If de minimis is indeed closed for packages from China, it’s likely that the impossibly cheap dresses, coats, handbags, and home decor Americans are hooked on will soon get more expensive. Tariffs are a tax on the person or entity importing the goods, not on the exporter. Research has shown that getting rid of the de minimis loophole would both cost the government billions of dollars more in enforcement and disproportionately raise costs for poorer Americans.

It’s not just big corporations that would be affected. Dropshippers who fulfill orders directly from abroad would be affected, as would small businesses importing components, parts, or supplies in batches under $800. Small orders from platforms like Etsy or eBay coming from China could cost consumers more, too.

Temu, Shein, and Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has justified imposing tariffs and ending the de minimis loophole by pointing to “the synthetic opioid supply chain,” claiming that de minimis packages receive less scrutiny and can be used for shipping drug ingredients. A Reuters investigation last year outlined how de minimis packages could be used to traffic drugs — but it’s not clear that low-value parcels pose a greater threat than larger shipments.

The prices on platforms like Shein and Temu feel unbelievably cheap because, in a way, they are. These goods depend on a technicality that both sides of the political aisle appear motivated to stamp out, and on Tuesday, they might succeed.

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Trump agrees to a one-month pause on Mexico, Canada tariffs

On Monday morning, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and US President Donald Trump announced the US is pausing tariffs against Mexico for one month, as previously reported by Bloomberg. In the afternoon, a similar deal was announced by Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pause proposed tariffs for 30 days. Trudeau cited Canada’s $1.3 billion border plan and said it would also make new commitments, including a joint strike force and an intelligence directive aimed at organized crime.

There’s no word yet on any kind of delay in implementing a pause for tariffs on China.

“Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl,” Sheinbaum wrote in a post on X. She said the US is “committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.”

Announcing the deal with Mexico, Trump said on Truth Social, “We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico.”

Update, February 3rd: Added details about a deal with Canada.

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Apple’s attempt to intervene in the Google Search antitrust trial is denied

US District Court Judge Amit Mehta denied Apple’s emergency request to halt the Google Search monopoly trial that could dismantle their lucrative search that’s reportedly worth as much as $18 billion a year. The order came in late Sunday, with Judge Mehta saying Apple hasn’t demonstrated satisfactory reasons for its emergency motion to stay that was filed on January 30th.

Apple said last week that it needs to be involved in the Google trial because it does not want to lose “the ability to defend its right to reach other arrangements with Google that could benefit millions of users and Apple’s entitlement to compensation for distributing Google search to its users.”

The remedies phase of the trial is set for April, and lawyers for the Department of Justice have argued that Google should be forced to sell Chrome, with a possibility of spinning off Android if necessary. While Google will still appeal the decision, the company’s proposed remedies focus on undoing its licensing deals that bundle apps and services together.

“Because Apple has not satisfied the ‘stringent requirements’ for obtaining the ‘extraordinary relief’ of a stay pending appeal, its motion is denied,” states Judge Mehta’s order. Mehta explains that Apple “has not established a likelihood of success on the merits” for the stay. That includes a lack of clear evidence on how Apple will suffer “certain and great” harm.

Google was found liable for holding an illegal monopoly on general search, and the remedies phase of the trial is set for April, where Google businesses like Android, Chrome, and Search could be broken up.

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Hulu might be rebooting Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It looks like Buffy the Vampire Slayer is coming back from the dead (again) as part of a new Hulu series.

Deadline reports that Hulu is close to finalizing a pilot order for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer follow-up set to be directed by Chloé Zhao and written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman (Poker Face). Dolly Parton is attached as an executive producer for the pilot, while Zhao, the Zuckerman sisters, Gail Berman, Fran Kuzui, and Kaz Kuzui will produce the series as a whole. As Deadline notes, Joss Whedon will not be working on the project.

No details about the show have been announced, but in addition to executive producing, Sarah Michelle Gellar is expected to reprise her role as Buffy Summers. After the original show went off the air in 2003, Buffy’s adventures continued on in the pages of Dark Horse’s comics series that ran until 2018.

Boom! Studios rebooted the franchise in its own 2018 comics series that ended up taking Buffy in a new direction. In terms of monsters and magic, both comics series got bigger than the original show ever did, which might make adapting them more expensive than Hulu is down for. But with so much Buffy lore out in the ether to pull from, the streamer can probably work something out.

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Meta spends big to make its Ray-Ban glasses a true mainstream hit

You won’t be able to buy these limited edition Super Bowl Ray-Ban smart glasses. | Image: Meta

Meta isn’t shy about its ambitions to make its Ray-Ban smart glasses a mainstream gadget. So much so, it’s made not one but two Super Bowl ads featuring not one, but two Marvel actors. (And Kris Jenner.) And as a little cherry on top, Meta announced it’s creating a limited edition Super Bowl version of the glasses that won’t be for sale to the general public.

You can already watch the first of the two Super Bowl ads, which features Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt causing chaos in Kris Jenner’s personal art collection. The actors are shown asking the Meta AI to identify art pieces, as well as translate foreign languages. Jenner, meanwhile, is shown asking the AI glasses to ring up her lawyer after an incident with a $6.2 million banana.

In a blog about the ads, Meta says the limited edition glasses will be a pair of matte black Wayfarers with either gold, mirror-like lenses or lenses featuring the team colors of the Super Bowl finalists. The glasses will also come with a custom-etched case. However, they won’t be available for purchase, hinting that these will likely be seeded to celebrities and influencers to drum up buzz.

There are a couple things at play here. For starters, smart glasses have come a long way with the public from the debacle that was Google Glass. Meta announced last week that the Ray-Bans have sold over 1 million units in 2024. That’s the type of success for an emerging gadget category that could justify an expensive Super Bowl ad. Second, Meta has recently shown it’s keen on pushing that success further using new styles and limited edition versions, not unlike how Nike or other sneaker companies create hype. Meta will purportedly release Oakley-branded smart glasses later this year for athletes, and last year, it also had a limited-edition translucent model of the Ray-Bans for its Meta Connect event.

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US v. Google: all the news from the search antitrust showdown

On August 5th, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case of United States of America v. Google, saying, “…the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

That ended the biggest tech antitrust trial since the US took on Microsoft in the 1990s — possibly aside from the government’s antitrust case targeting Google’s ad business — but it’s also just the start of the process. Now, lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice are arguing over the ruling, as well as what to do about the company and its products.

The DOJ argued that Google struck anticompetitive deals with Apple and other companies for prime placement of its search engine. Google maintains that its dominant market share is the result of a superior product. The DOJ says options to resolve the situation include breaking up Google to separate products like Chrome, Search, and Android, but it may be a while until we hear about their full plan.

Read on below for all of the updates and notes from the case.

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EA wants the community to help shape the next Battlefield

EA has announced a new “Battlefield Labs” community testing program to give people the opportunity to test the next Battlefield game. You can sign up for the program now, and EA says that the “first phase” of testing will go live in “the coming weeks” for invited players in Europe and North America.

As I write this, there’s a long queue to attempt to sign up for Battlefield Labs; there are just under 200,000 people ahead of me and my estimated wait time is “more than an hour.” EA says that “your position in the registration queue does not affect your chances of being invited,” so if you don’t want to deal with the queue, you might want to wait a bit to try to register.

Battlefield Labs follows other early testing initiatives from EA like its work with the new Skate game and with the Project Rene game in The Sims franchise. But Battlefield Labs is also likely an attempt to avert another Battlefield 2042 situation; that game had a rough launch and didn’t meet EA’s expectations.

In a video accompanying the announcement, EA detailed how its “Battlefield Studios” – Dice (which created the franchise), Criterion (known for its racing games), Motive (which worked on Dead Space and is making a new Iron Man game), and Ripple Effect (which made 2042’s Portal mode) – are teaming up on the development of this next game, which will have single player and multiplayer modes. The series is under the oversight of Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella following a shakeup shortly after 2042’s launch.

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Audi will try to make its model names make more sense

Audi is launching a new global nomenclature system for its vehicles to more clearly represent a vehicle’s type, size, shape, and powertrain.

The updated system will still begin with letters like A for “low-floor” vehicles or Q for “high-floor” ones. That will be followed by numbers 1 through 8 that help represent the size or classification of the vehicle. However, Audi says it will no longer use odd or even numbers to represent what powertrain technologies it uses.

Then comes the body style, which includes Avant, Sedan, or Sportback, where applicable. Finally, Audi will add to the end a powertrain code, including the TFSI (Turbo Fuel Stratified Injection) combustion engine, TFSI e (plug-in hybrid), and E-tron (all electric). The system also replaces Audi’s two-digit power output representation which really made things confusing.

This new naming system will debut with the new combustion engine version Audi A6, which will be revealed on March 4th. You can expect Audi A6 models to have names like A6 Avant TFSI or A6 Sedan E-tron. (Current models will not be renamed.)

E-tron vehicles were especially confusing in the past. The original US line was a Q8-style SUV but was just called the “Audi E-tron.” A Sportback version was made afterward, and both were renamed to Q8 E-tron (which are now being phased out). Today, there’s a Q6 E-tron that is similar in size but built on Volkswagen’s modular Premium Platform Electric (PPE) platform shared with the A6 E-tron and Porsche Macan EV.

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Elon Musk is staging a takeover of the federal budget

In the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have reportedly gained access to core parts of the American government’s payment systems, including systems that affect Social Security and Medicare benefits — as federal workers and government officials struggle to respond.

DOGE, an unofficial “department” that Trump declared part of the US Digital Service, is purportedly tasked with cutting government waste. Musk has turned that mission into a broad gutting of federal agencies, including offering federal workers months of paid leave billed as “deferred resignation.” But things ramped up even more over the weekend, as Musk and his associates forced out civil servants who refused access to sensitive data and computer systems.

The news started on Friday with the departure of a Treasury Department top career official. David Lebryk announced his retirement after clashing with Musk surrogates about accessing a payment system that disburses trillions of dollars for federal worker salaries, Social Security, and Medicare, according to The Washington Post. On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Musk now has read-only access to that system, giving him more insight and potential control over government spending — and likely access to your Social Security number.

Musk spent much of the weekend lashing out about purported “illegal payments” to charities and accusing, without evidence, career Treasury officials of “breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress.” (The department’s job is to facilitate vast numbers of payments vetted by other agencies.)

Career civil servants at the Office of Personnel Management soon found themselves locked out of the agency’s computer system that maintains federal employees’ personal data, Reuters reported on Sunday. Unnamed agency officials linked the action to Musk’s aides.

OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover told The Verge that the Reuters report was not accurate but did not elaborate. Representatives for the Treasury Department, US Digital Service, and the US Agency for International Development did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the recent reporting.

It’s not entirely clear who the alleged Musk proxies are, but Wired reports that at least several of the engineers aiding his government takeover are just barely out of college.

The president said Musk was “doing a good job,” though he added that, “sometimes we won’t agree with it and will not go where he wants to go”

Trump has made few comments on Musk’s actions. Speaking with reporters on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews on Sunday, Fox News reports, the president said Musk was “doing a good job,” though he added that, “sometimes we won’t agree with it and will not go where he wants to go, but I think he’s doing a great job. He’s a smart guy, very smart, and he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal government.”

Musk has railed in particular against USAID, calling it a “criminal organization.” On Monday he said he and Trump sought to shut down the agency entirely, without addressing their legal authority to do so, NBC News reports. Several Democratic lawmakers spoke out against Musk’s attempt to wind down the agency and said only Congress is able to make such a declaration, vowing to fight the attempted takeover and calling it a constitutional crisis. “Elon, if you want to run AID, get nominated by Trump and go to the Senate, and good luck in getting confirmed,” says Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Musk’s business interests are at the heart of the Trump administration’s motivations behind the changes. “Let’s not pull any punches about why this is happening,” Murphy says. “Elon Musk makes billions of dollars based off of his business with China, and China is cheering at this action today. There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our government right now is doing it based on self-interest.” Murphy adds that Musk’s actions represent a “smoke screen” to “create the illusion that they’re saving money” to pass a major corporate tax cut.

Musk is pursuing unprecedented access to government systems while running several companies — including Tesla, SpaceX, and X — with vested interests in different government policies and grudges against other private companies. Over the weekend, X expanded its antitrust lawsuit over an advertiser boycott to include Lego, Nestlé, and Pinterest.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) demanded answers from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Musk’s reported access to the Treasury payments system. And protests outside federal buildings have begun popping up, including one on Sunday where DC Media Group reports protesters sought to block access to OPM.

Even so, some anonymous Reddit users who identified themselves as government employees said they planned to keep plugging away more or less as usual. “I’m going to continue to do my job,” one user writes in a thread about how to handle the situation. “Use your headphones and remain unbothered,” says another. Another offers: “head down eyes and ears open.”

Are you a US federal government worker? Reach out securely with tips to Lauren Feiner via Signal at laurenfeiner.64.

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The Verge

Apple’s latest AirPods have dropped below $100 for the first time

The AirPods 4 offer more bass than their predecessor and impressively clear voice call quality.

If you missed out on the steep AirPods discounts we saw during Black Friday, now is your chance. Right now, the second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C are on sale at Walmart, Best Buy, and Target starting at $169 ($81 off), which is just $16 shy of their all-time low. Meanwhile, the AirPods 4 have dropped to a record low of $99.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy, with the noise-canceling variant going for around $148.99 ($31 off) at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.

If you want the best sound and active noise cancellation you can get in a pair of Apple earbuds, you’ll likely want to pick up the second-gen AirPods Pro. The in-ears offer a few features you won’t find in their cheaper siblings, including intuitive swipe-based controls, more robust water resistance, and multiple silicone ear tips for a customizable fit. Thanks to a recent iOS 18 update, they also now double as FDA-approved hearing aids.

That being said, both the entry-level AirPods 4 and the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are excellent earbuds in their own right. They both deliver exceptionally clear voice call quality and produce the same high-quality sound, which benefits from a thicker layer of bass than Apple’s previous models despite their open design. The main difference is that the step-up AirPods 4 offer several Pro-like features, including ANC and a wireless charging case that features a built-in speaker and support for tracking via Apple’s Find My app.

Read our AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 reviews.

A few more ways to save

  • Speaking of Apple, you can also subscribe to Apple Music for relatively cheap right now. Apple is offering new and eligible subscribers six months of Apple Music for just $2.99 through February 27th. An individual subscription typically costs $10.99 per month, so the current promo equates to about $63 in savings. The streaming service grants ad-free access to more than 100 million songs, along with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos tracks for a more immersive experience.
  • You can pick up a second-gen Blink Mini 2 for just $19.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which matches its all-time low (Amazon is also selling it with a Weather Resistant Power Adapter for $29.98). The newest Mini is a compact 1080p security camera with support for motion alerts and two-way audio, much like its predecessor. However, unlike the original, the latest model comes with on-device person detection and IP65 waterproofing, so you can use it outside if you purchase Blink’s optional outdoor adapter. Read our review.
  • Amazon is currently selling three Eero Pro 6E routers for $499.99 ($150 off) with a $100 Amazon gift card, which is one of the best deals we’ve seen on the tri-band mesh routers. You can also buy them in a two-pack for $299.99 ($100 off) or a standalone unit for $184.99 ($65 off). While the newer Eero 7 routers outshine the Pro 6E spec-wise, they’re also much pricier. The last-gen models support the Wi-Fi 6E band, and a two- or three-pack of them can cover most homes (each router covers up to 2,000 square feet). Read our review.

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The Verge

Big Tech has been silent on Trump’s tariffs

President Trump announced tariffs as high as 25 percent on goods imported from Canada, China, and Mexico over the weekend. But some of the biggest names in tech and gaming – who could be significantly impacted by the tariffs – have stayed quiet about them.

Shortly after the tariffs were announced, The Verge reached out to many tech companies requesting comment, and only Google and Microsoft replied to decline to comment. This morning, I sent emails to Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung, and Sony, but have not received comments back. I also emailed Nvidia, and spokesperson Stephanie Matthew declined to comment.

The tariffs against Canada and China are set to go into effect on Tuesday. Trump agreed to a one-month pause on the Mexico tariffs on Monday.

While the tech companies haven’t commented, industry groups have weighed in. Information Technology Industry Council president and CEO Jason Oxman says, “…we urge the Trump Administration to aim for clear, constructive outcomes in its negotiations with foreign governments, avoid trade restrictions and weakened North American economic ties to the extent possible, and roll back the tariffs when outcomes are achieved.”

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), in a statement given to Kotaku and The Verge, says that “tariffs on video game devices and related products would impact Americans of all ages across the country.” The group also urges the Trump administration to “consult with the private sector in a transparent process to avoid causing significant harm to everyday Americans.”

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The Verge

EcoFlow says subscriptions aren’t required for advanced features… yet

A person sitting in front of EcoFlow’s PowerStream Balcony Solar System connected to a wall outlet uses a smartphone app.

EcoFlow has confirmed new advanced features coming to its PowerStream solar system are currently being tested by some users. | Image: EcoFlow

EcoFlow has confirmed that it’s currently testing new advanced features for its PowerStream Balcony Solar System that were made available to a small group of testers “on a paid basis.” After other EcoFlow users raised concerns last week about the possibility of having to pay subscription fees for features on devices they already own, the company shared a statement to its Facebook page on January 30th saying that it “has not initiated any software payment plans at this time” and that it “will not proceed with any such plans until we have fully considered and evaluated our user opinions.”

The company says the new PowerStream features that will be available through its mobile app “include cutting-edge technologies tailored to specific critical needs” and that by only making them available through a subscription model, users won’t have to pay for advanced features they don’t use. EcoFlow also says the paid model will allow the company to continue “maintaining and developing these niche but critical new features.”

EcoFlow also assures users that it has no plans to lock its apps and other software features already available on its power devices behind a paywall. “All existing features available to PowerStream users remain unaffected. The core functions of these devices will never be subject to payment thresholds, and you will never be required to make additional software payments to use your devices normally.”

The PowerStream Balcony Solar System uses solar panels, a large portable battery, smart plugs, and a compact microinverter to deliver cheaper solar-generated power to other devices and appliances around a home using standard wall outlets. Using EcoFlow’s mobile app, users can specify how much power from the solar panels is used to keep devices like washing machines and coffee machines running, or how much is used to charge up batteries for times when solar power generation is reduced.

Details about the new features being tested for the PowerStream system — including added functionality, when they’ll be available to all users, and how much they’ll cost — haven’t been revealed by EcoFlow.

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The Verge

Data brokers can keep selling your social security number, says new CFPB chief

Photo of Scott Bessent during confirmation hearings for Treasury Secretary in January.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent has been named the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the bureau announced today. Bessent quickly instructed the agency to “to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities,” reports Bloomberg Law.

A source inside the CFPB told Bloomberg Law that his order “appeared to shut down the CFPB altogether for the time being.” The email containing the order told the bureau to stop work on new regulation, enforcement of existing rules, investigation of companies, or issue “public communications of any type,” The Washington Post reported.

That could mean the agency won’t move forward with a pending rule, set to go into effect March 3rd, that would’ve forbidden data brokers from selling sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers. The CFPB did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

The news comes as Bessent, who Trump named Treasury Secretary last week, is under scrutiny over his role in reportedly allowing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access the US federal payment system. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren sent him a letter looking for an explanation as to why he let that happen.

Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, says he looks “forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth.”

Update February 3rd: Added reporting from The Washington Post.

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The Verge

ChatGPT’s agent can now do deep research for you

OpenAI has revealed another new agentic feature for ChatGPT called deep research, which it says can operate autonomously to “plan and execute a multi-step trajectory to find the data it needs, backtracking and reacting to real-time information where necessary.”

Instead of simply generating text, it shows a summary of its process in a sidebar, with citations and a summary showing the process used for reference.

Users can ask questions using text, images, and additional files like PDFs or spreadsheets to add context, and then it will take “anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes” to develop a response provided in the chat window, with promises that in the future it will also be able to include embedded images and charts. OpenAI also notes limitations for deep research, saying it can “sometimes hallucinate” and make up facts, struggle with telling the difference between authoritative info and rumors, and register how certain it should rate a response.

Developing ways for generative AI tools to be more useful and worth paying for is the future companies like OpenAI have promised for agents, and it claims that deep research is capable of operating at the level of a research analyst. The demo video included here begins with a request for info on changes in the retail industry over the last three years, with a response that includes bullet points and tables.

ChatGPT deep research example

This feature closely follows OpenAI’s launch of Operator, a tool that can use a web browser to complete tasks for you, and is similar to the Project Mariner research prototype Google showed off in December. Google’s tool is not available to the public yet, but deep research is launching “with a version optimized for Pro users today.”

OpenAI is offering up to 100 queries per month for those paying the $200 monthly fee and “limited access” promised for Plus, Team, and eventually, Enterprise users, calling the ability “very compute intensive,” requiring more inference compute the longer it takes to research something. It also says that all paid users will get higher rate limits in the future when a faster, more cost-effective version is available.

A press release says that the model powering deep research scored a new high for accuracy on an AI benchmark dubbed “Humanity’s Last Exam,” which asks for responses to expert-level questions. The OpenAI deep research model reached an accuracy of 26.6 percent with browsing and python tools enabled, well above GPT-4o’s 3.3 percent, and the next highest scorer, its o3-mini (high) model evaluated only on text, at 13 percent.

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The Verge

Automakers brace for ‘massive’ impact of Trump’s tariffs

Your next car purchase is probably going to be more expensive, thanks to President Donald Trump.

Around 5.3 million vehicles are built in Canada and Mexico, 70 percent of which are destined for the United States. Those vehicles will soon be subject to 25 percent tariffs, which were just announced by the Trump administration. And the companies paying the higher price to import those vehicles are very likely to pass that cost along to the consumer — to you.

You may not see higher MSRPs right away, says Mike Wall, executive director for automotive analysis at S&P Global Mobility. But you will likely see fewer incentives and special deals at dealerships as dealers get stingier about their vehicle inventories. Perhaps fewer vehicles even get made as manufacturers weigh the costs of paying 25 percent duties on key parts and components. Eventually, the higher cost of building and selling a car in the US will filter down to the consumer.

Around 5.3 million vehicles are built in Canada and Mexico, 70 percent of which are destined for the United States.

“I can’t emphasize that enough,” Wall said. “A 25 percent tariff is just massive in this industry.”

A tariff is a tax on goods imported from another country. The Trump administration claims it’s levying the new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the US. Often, presidents use tariffs as a threat during trade negotiations or to protect domestic industries from cheaper foreign products (as the Biden administration did with electric vehicles from China). But as the New York Times has noted, Trump sees tariffs as a significant source of revenue for the US, perhaps even as a replacement for income taxes.

But most economists expect the outcome to be higher prices for a wide range of consumer goods, from clothes, to shoes, to food, to cars. Trump claims foreign companies will eat the higher costs, but don’t be fooled.

Just listen to the companies who will be bearing those costs. “If we get tariffs, we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer,” said Philip Daniele, CEO of AutoZone, on an earnings call in September, according to CNN.

Virtually every car company will be impacted: Ford’s F-series trucks and Mustangs with engines made in Canada; Mazda CX-50s from Mexico; full-size pickup trucks from General Motors and Stellantis; even the Toyota Rav-4.

“A 25 percent tariff is just massive in this industry.”

S&P Global Mobility estimates that a 25 percent tariff on a $25,000 vehicle from Canada or Mexico would be $6,450 — most of which would be borne by the consumer.

“As that price goes up, consumers exit,” Wall said. “They’re gonna hold off, they’re gonna wait. They may go to the used market. I’ll tell you what, if pricing on the new market goes up, guess what? That pricing on the used market is gonna be impacted because it’s a supply and demand thing.”

Electric vehicle prices may be impacted as well, especially if the price of certain components go up as a result of the tariffs. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently warned that the tariffs represent a bigger threat to the EV industry than the potential elimination of tax incentives under Trump. And while many EV makers are making huge investments in domestic manufacturing thanks to the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, they are still just as exposed as companies that build combustion engines.

Most automakers say they have contingency plans for tariffs but wouldn’t say exactly what those plans are. Spokespersons for Ford and BMW declined comment.

Volkswagen’s Puebla factory is Mexico’s largest and one of the biggest in the Volkswagen Group, making nearly 350,000 cars in 2023, including the Jetta, Tiguan, and Taos models, all for export to the United States. In a statement, the company said it “remains a strong advocate for free and fair trade.”

“We are monitoring the situation and planning for various scenarios,” the German auto giant added. “We hope for a swift resolution on tariffs across North America.”

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The Verge

PDP’s Riffmaster guitar controller is receiving a rare $20 discount

Now all we need is some proper Ozzy to unlock.

Last month, Fortnite Festival, the game’s Rock Band-like music mode, rolled out local multiplayer on PlayStation and Xbox. It’s a great addition if you and up to three buddies want to relive the halcyon days of ‘07 on a single TV, particularly if you’re using a nostalgia-inducing peripheral like the PDP Riffmaster — which is now available from Amazon, Best Buy, and PDP for an all-time low of $109.99 ($20 off).

Much like the old guitars developed for Rock Band, PDP’s wireless gamepad allows you to strum along with real songs in both Rock Band 4 (RIP) and the free-to-play Fortnite Festival. It offers a lot of the same functionality as previous controllers, though, seeing as it’s been nearly a decade since Mad Catz’s last Stratocaster-style gamepad, the Riffmaster introduces a few modern tricks. That includes USB-C charging and a 3.5mm audio jack, along with a dedicated analog stick on the back of the neck for more straightforward navigation.

In true RB4 fashion, the Riffmaster is also outfitted with five color-coded buttons higher up the neck and a second set lower down, each of which you can use to hammer out the various notes as they appear in their respective lanes. A strummer and a whammy bar make good on the classic Rock Band experience, letting you unleash vibrato on the Xbox, PlayStation, or PC with the included USB dongle.

More ways to save this weekend

  • If you’re looking for a cheap way to stream Super Bowl LIX next weekend, Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $29.99 ($20 off), nearly matching its second-best price to date. It’s not quite as capable as the step-up Max model — blame its lack of Wi-Fi 6E support and 8GB of storage — but the 4K streamer still offers Wi-Fi 6 and broad HDR support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10 Plus.
  • The PlayStation version of Final Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary Edition is down to an all-time low of $39.99 ($35 off) at Woot through 12:59AM ET on February 29th. The excellent remaster pulls together the first six Final Fantasy titles with revamped pixel graphics and rearranged orchestral scores, as well as an array of gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements. I, for one, welcome the ability to turn off random encounters, which remain the bane of ‘90s-era JRPGs (sorry, not sorry).
  • Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, a thin-and-light Windows laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor and 16GB of RAM, is going for $899.99 ($500 off) at Best Buy through the end of today, February 2nd. That’s a new low on the 15-inch machine, which, despite its bummer trackpad and other shortcomings, remains a solid rec thanks to good all-around performance, fantastic port selection, and bright 120Hz LCD display. Read our review.

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The Verge

Amazfit Helio Smart Ring review: bargain bin bust

Amazfit Helio ring next to colorful children’s toy

The $199 Amazfit Helio ring is good on paper, but has a few kinks to iron out.

Smart rings are in the middle of a renaissance. That’s great because we finally have way more options than just an Oura Ring. The downside is most of Oura’s would-be rivals are launching their first, maybe second-gen smart rings. Meaning, if you want an Oura Ring alternative, there’s a good chance you’ll have to put up with quirks and a distinct lack of polish. The $199.99 Amazfit Helio smart ring is no exception.

Amazfit isn’t a household name but is well-known among wearable bargain hunters. It’s a compelling brand because its gadgets get you a lot of bang for your buck. That’s the case with the Helio ring, the brand’s first foray into smart rings. It’s primarily a sleep tracker, but it comes with an AI chatbot called Zepp Flow, an AI coaching feature, and it has an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor for monitoring stress, a blood oxygen sensor, a temperature sensor, and period tracking. It also syncs with popular third-party fitness apps like Adidas Running, Strava, and Komoot, as well as Apple Health and Google Fit. Like the Samsung Galaxy Ring, it works with Amazfit’s other smartwatches so you can double up on data sources — or switch between the two …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Verge

I tried the tech that makes hands-free smart locks actually work

The Ultraloq Bolt Mission is one of the first smart locks to support UWB unlocking, which unlocks your door as you approach, using your phone as your key.

Imagine walking up to your front door and it unlocks — even opens — automatically as you approach. It may sound like the stuff of smart home dreams, but it could soon be a reality, thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB) technology arriving on smart locks.

With its precise, real-time location capabilities, UWB enables a smart lock to react to the presence of your phone or smartwatch as you approach your door, unlocking it with no intervention on your part. Both the lock and your device need a UWB chip, but this touchless experience means there’s no need to pull out your phone, fiddle with keycodes, fingerprints, or, god forbid, an actual key.

I got to demo the first locks to support the wireless communication protocol at CES last month, and I am ready for my hands-free smart lock future.

Fast, easy, and frictionless, hands-free unlocking is the kind of convenience the smart home needs

I test a lot of smart door locks and haven’t used a house key in a decade. But unlocking my front door still isn’t a frictionless experience: fingerprint readers are fast but can be finicky, Home Key is smooth but limited to Apple devices, keycodes slow me down, and palm readers and facial scan …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Verge

A better way to buy and read books

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 69, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, get ready for some web-slingin’, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about Elon Musk’s gamer habits and spy satellites and how Bluesky works, trying Llamao for some offline AI-ing, organizing my photos with the Proof beta, buying more BonBon candy than I’m proud of, testing the Marginalia search engine, plotting to break into the new Dude Perfect office, and seeing if a $56 Casio can be enough smartwatch for me.

I also have for you a new place to buy and read books, the return of one of my favorite shows, a great book for anyone looking for a better online life, a couple of great Spider-Man things, and lots more. Let’s do it.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now that everyone else should be playing / building / reading / watching / learning / writing / hanging from ceilings? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe her …

Read the full story at The Verge.