Image: Boston Dynamics
The robotics company has retired the dancing bot after more than a decade.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Just two days after Apple removed the iGBA emulator from the iOS App Store, an NES emulator called Bimmy briefly appeared before being taken down. MacRumors reported that the app was described as being for homebrew games but also supported ROMs provided by players. Unfortunately, when we attempted to download Bimmy, we received an error message saying it’s no longer available.
Now, clicking on a link to Bimmy shows “This app is currently not available in your country or region.” This time, it wasn’t Apple that removed it but the developer. Over on MacRumors’ forums, the developer said it pulled the app “out of fear.”
“No one pressured me to, but I got more nervous about it as the day went on,” it wrote.
Screenshot:...
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Since 2022, TikTok has undertaken a massive, expensive effort to silo off its US operations — and American users’ data — from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. TikTok has described the corporate restructuring, which it dubbed Project Texas, as “an unprecedented initiative dedicated to making every American on TikTok feel safe, with confidence that their data is secure and the platform is free from outside influence.” Several former employees, however, told Fortunethat Project Texas is instead “largely cosmetic” and that they and their colleagues continued to work closely with Beijing-based ByteDance executives after the plan’s implementation.
One major aspect of Project Texas — so named because Oracle, TikTok’s “technology...
Image: Motorola
A new wooden Edge phone isn’t all that Motorola announced today. The company also introduced two pairs of earbuds: the higher-end set is called the Moto Buds Plus and costs $129.99, while the more basic Moto Buds will only be available in select markets. But the Plus standout as the more interesting product, and that’s because Motorola teamed up with Bose for the EQ tuning and active noise cancellation on these buds. There’s a “Sound by Bose” emblem right on the carrying case.
There isn’t a ton of detail on exactly how deep this collaboration was, but Motorola’s store page says the Moto Buds Plus “were certified by Bose to deliver an unprecedented audio experience.” Bose spokesperson Joanne Berthiaume told me “we worked closely with the...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Self-driving cars have an image problem. They stumble into construction zones, block ambulances, run red lights, and even injure the occasional bicyclist or pedestrian.
Forget the fact that most autonomous vehicles operate each day safely, anonymously, and without fanfare. There are hundreds in operation today in California, Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere, and the numbers are only going to increase. But when they do make mistakes, people tend to notice. Numerous public opinion polls have shown declining support for autonomous vehicles (AV) over the years and a rise in outright hostility toward the technology.
The autonomous vehicle industry’s main lobbying group — yes, of course it has one — is intent on reversing this trend before it...
Image: Slow Bros.
Harold Halibut moves at its own pace. A point-and-click adventure built with real-world materials and then animated with stop-motion, Harold Halibut tells a story that’s at times slow and ponderous and, at others, cozy and heartwarming. It’s sort of like what would happen if Wes Anderson teamed up with Aardman Animations to make a sci-fi game. Which is to say that it’s charming and built with an incredible amount of care and detail. As a game, it’s standard stuff — but as a place to experience, there’s nothing quite like it.
The developers at German studio Slow Bros. say that every element in Harold Halibut was “meticulously hand-crafted using traditional sculpting and model-making techniques.” And much of the joy of the game comes from...
Photo by Amelia Holoway Krales / The Verge
At the least the only way to go from here is up... right?
Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Creators fundraising for projects on Kickstarter will soon be able to collect money even after their campaign ends.
Currently, Kickstarter projects can last anywhere from one to 60 days, and creators hoping to continue fundraising after meeting their goal have had to go off-platform to keep raising money.
The new late pledge feature will allow crowdfunding campaigns to collect money indefinitely if the creator chooses. Late pledges could also be helpful for fans who learn about projects after the fundraising window has closed but want to support the creator. Creators who are offering something in exchange for a certain level of monetary support — a digital download of an album or physical items, for example — will need to end late...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Amazon Music may soon let you create playlists with a text prompt using Maestro, its new AI playlist maker.
Maestro, which is currently available in beta to a small number of Amazon Music subscribers in the US, will let users put together playlists using any prompt, including emojis, Amazon said in a blog post. According to the company, listeners will be able to save the AI-created playlists and share them with other Amazon Music users. In the post, Amazon Music’s suggested prompts included “ and eating ,” “Music my grandparents made out to,” and “I tracked my friends and they’re all hanging out without me.”
The feature is similar to Spotify’s AI Playlist, which was rolled out to Premium users in the United Kingdom and Australia this...
Sleep trackers, earbuds, and smart beds. | Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge
Sleep tech is more than tracking. Here are the best gadgets I’ve tested that help you fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up earlier.
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Brandon Bell, Getty Images
Truth Social, the media firm owned by Donald Trump, has announced plans to create a live TV streaming service focused on “news networks” and “religious channels,” along with “content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed.”
The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) says it will launch the streaming service in three phases, with the first involving the rollout of the company’s content delivery network (CDN). A CDN, such as those operated by Cloudflare and Akamai, is a service websites use to help webpages load faster. TMTG says its CDN will operate “independent of Big Tech,” allowing the platform to avoid abiding by another company’s rules.
Once that’s up and running, TMTG plans to bring Truth...
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a $7 million fine against Cerebral, a mental telehealth firm that it says not only was careless with patients’ data but actively shared it with third parties for advertising purposes. The company and its CEO, Kyle Robertson, are also accused of lying to customers about how their data is shared and of having a misleading cancellation policy.
The FTC notes that Cerebral shared the sensitive data “of nearly 3.2 million consumers” with third parties like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Snapchat through trackers on its website or apps — something the company admitted to last year. That apparently included details like home and email addresses, phone numbers, pharmacy and health insurance details, and...
Image: Getty Images
Parcast founder Max Cutler left Spotify last February as part of a wave of high-profile departures from its podcast vertical, and he’s now launching Pave Studios to create content across multiple formats. “Storytellers who successfully engage audiences and create fandoms through written, audio, and video content have led the charge in cultivating their robust communities into diverse businesses,” said Cutler.
The company has two new brands to start, with OpenMind, which focuses on wellness, and the true crime-geared Crime House.
Image: Pave Studios
Spotify acquired the true crime and horror-focused studio Parcast in 2019 as part of a $1 billion investment in original podcasts. After the sale, Cutler went on to serve...
A sign warns of elevated fire danger in the Oakland Hill area of Oakland, California, on Thursday, October 29th, 2020. | Photo by Philip Pacheco / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Hate to break it to you, baby — but if you were born in the US this year, climate change could wind up costing you around $500,000 over the course of your lifetime. That’s according to a new study commissioned by Consumer Reports and conducted by consulting firm ICF.
The study counts up higher bills for climate-related calamities that drive up housing, food, and healthcare costs, for example. On top of that, there’s the prospect of higher taxes and lost income over the years in a warming world.
While there’s a lot of uncertainty built into the study, it’s an attempt at breaking down all the big and little ways that climate change can affect daily life. Each stifling heatwave, flooded road, and downed power line costs consumers...
The Kindle Scribe comes with a stylus to take notes and is nearly $100 off. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.
Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving...
The Beatles in the United Kingdom, circa 1960. | Photo by Keystone-France / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
It has been hard to find physical copies of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 Beatles documentary Let It Be in the years since its theatrical release, but Disney Plus is getting ready to debut a remastered version of the film.
Disney Plus announced today that Let It Be — a chronicle of the Beatles recording their Let It Be album in 1969 before breaking up the following year — will stream on May 8th. Like the docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, Let It Be will feature original film footage remastered by Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production and remastered audio created using the same de-mixing tools that recently led to the release of the Beatles’ final song. In a statement about Let It Be’s streaming premiere, Lindsay-Hogg recalled...
Image: GMC
The 2024 GMC Sierra EV is almost here, and to celebrate, the automaker is giving it the gift of more range.
When it was first announced two years ago, GMC said the Sierra EV Denali would get an EPA estimated range of 400 miles, thanks to a massive battery that was expected to top 200kWh. Now, GMC says the electric truck’s maximum range at launch will be actually closer to 440 miles — a staggering amount in the nascent world of electric pickups.
Most electric trucks on the road today struggle to exceed 300 miles of range. Weather, terrain, and road type can also affect range and sap battery life. And once they start doing truck stuff, like hauling or towing, that range can drop even lower. GMC’s claims about the Sierra EV’s range will...
Please note the pause button. Yes, that will really appear on your TV, no DVR or app required. | Image: Roxi
Broadcast TV is in trouble, and for a long time now, a lot of people have pointed to a new broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0, as the way it can be saved and finally compete against streaming, YouTube, and TikTok. And finally, after years of hype that failed to deliver, there’s an actual glimmer of hope for your local TV stations. Local news is about to get a lot more interactive.
Part of that’s because of Roxi, a company we covered back at CES. Then, the company was showing off an app that streamed music over the airwaves to your ATSC 3.0-outfitted TV and let you skip tracks, choose genres, and interact with it like you would a traditional smart TV app. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones utterly delighted by the technology Roxi showed off....
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Hundreds of cables. Hundreds of thousands of miles. The internet runs, in vastly more ways than we realize or think about, through a series of garden-hose size tubes on the ocean floor. Without those tubes, the modern world sort of collapses. And the folks responsible for keeping them functioning have bigger, harder, stranger jobs than you might think.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk to The Verge’s Josh Dzieza, who has been reporting on the undersea cable world and just published a feature about some of the folks who keep it running. It’s a story worthy of a high-seas action movie, and it’s all about cables.
Then, we chat with The Verge’s Tom Warren and Joanna Nelius about the new generation of PCs that Microsoft and others...
You can buy Amazon’s entry-level smart speaker in a wide array of fun colors for just $5 shy of its all-time low. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
From helping me as a caregiver to cracking me up with fart jokes, Amazon’s budget-friendly smart speakers have added a lot of value to my life. That’s why I own one for almost every area of my home — and why I got excited when I saw Amazon is selling the Echo Pop for $22.99 with a free Kasa Smart Color Bulb. That equates to a savings of about $40, though you can also buy the standalone speaker for $22.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is just $5 shy of its all-time low.
For a mere $20 or so, the colorful Echo Pop packs a lot of tech into a small, semi-spherical package. Like the fifth-gen Echo Dot, it offers a host of Alexa-based smarts designed to make your life easier, including the ability to quickly check the news and...
Photo by Go Takayama for The Verge
On the afternoon of March 11th, 2011, Mitsuyoshi Hirai, the chief engineer of the cable maintenance ship Ocean Link,was sitting in his cabin 20 miles off Japan’s eastern coast, completing the paperwork that comes at the end of every repair. Two weeks earlier, something — you rarely knew what — damaged the 13,000-mile fiber optic cable connecting Kitaibaraki, Japan, and Point Arena, California. Alarms went off; calls were made; and the next day, Hirai was sailing out of the port in Yokohama to fix it.
The repair was now nearly done. All that remained was to rebury the cable on the seafloor, which they were doing using a bulldozer-sized remotely operated submersible named Marcas — and, of course, the paperwork.
Suddenly,...
Photo by Ashok Kumar / TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
The Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit could reportedly come as early as next month and will target the company’s alleged monopoly in the live ticketing industry.
Live Nation drew antitrust scrutiny when it merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. But those concerns boiled over in November 2022 when a Ticketmaster crash blocked thousands of Taylor Swift fans from purchasing tickets for the Eras Tour due to “unprecedented demand.” The DOJ opened an investigation into Live Nation shortly after, The New York Times reported.
Lawmakers also levied heavy criticism against the ticketing company, with Sen. Amy...
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
When you load your music streaming app of choice onto your mobile device, your audio quality settings are worth taking a minute or two to configure. If you don’t have these set to as high a quality as possible, you’re missing out on the best audio experience your streaming apps can offer.
Because they are managed separately for streaming music over cell and Wi-Fi networks and for downloading tracks to your device for offline listening, there is a tradeoff. Increased sound quality and fidelity means more data gets used (which might be a concern if you’re not on an unlimited cellular plan), bigger file sizes (which take up more room on your device), and a longer wait for downloads. But even if you have to compromise some settings, it’s a...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sony is working on a new “high-end version” of the PS5, codenamed Trinity and likely to debut as the PS5 Pro later this year. The Verge confirmed leaked specs about the PS5 Pro earlier this week, and we’ve also obtained details on how existing and new PS5 games can be “enhanced” to take advantage of the PS5 Pro hardware. Sony is also working on an ultra-boost mode for older games to make them run better on the PS5 Pro.
Sources familiar with Sony’s plans tell The Verge that Sony is asking developers to create a new PS5 Pro-exclusive graphics mode in games that combines Sony’s new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling to 4K resolution with a 60fps frame rate and ray-tracing effects. Insider Gaming first reported on some of...
The Insta360 X4 is the latest action camera from Insta360.
Insta360 has launched its latest 360-degree action camera, the X4. The most obvious upgrade that the $500 camera offers over its predecessor, the X3, is the ability to shoot video in 8K at 30 frames per second. That extra boost in resolution and detail may come in handy for watching action videos on anything larger than your phone, panning around 360-degree footage on platforms like YouTube or cropping out a perspective you like from a 360-degree recording. It also includes a new 2,290mAh battery rated for 75 minutes of 8K footage and 135 minutes of 5.7K footage.
The X4 supports recording 5.7K at 60 frames per second as well as 4K at 100 frames per second. (The X3 was limited to 5.7K at 30fps and 4K at 60fps.) Similar to older models,...
The Soundcore Sleep A20 are decent passive earbuds that are great for side sleepers, even if Anker overpromises.
Weird phones are back, baby. | Image: Motorola
Motorola is introducing three new Edge series phones, reviving a classic design feature it first introduced a decade ago: a wooden back panel. The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra is the highest spec’d device of the trio, and it’s the only one with the “real wood” back panel option (though the peach fuzz vegan leather looks awfully nice, too). Motorola will launch the phones first outside of the US “in the coming weeks,” but says it’s committed to “expanding the Edge family in North America this year.”
The Motorola Edge 50 Ultra uses the new Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 chipset, which is a slight step down from the 8 Gen 3. There’s a 6.7-inch OLED with up to 144Hz refresh rate, which has been “Pantone-validated.” Say what? Motorola says this designation...
The four-inch tall metal object tore through a roof in Naples, Florida last month. | Image: Alejandro Otero
NASA has confirmed suspicions that the strange object that crashed into a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS). The agency analyzed the cylindrical object after it tore through the roof and two floors of a house in Naples on March 8th, and established that it came from a cargo pallet of aging batteries that was released from the ISS back in 2021.
More specifically, NASA revealed in a blog post on Monday that the offending object was a support component used to mount the batteries on the 5,800-pound (2,630-kilogram) pallet released from the space station. Made from Inconel (a metal alloy that can withstand extreme environments like high temperature, pressure, or mechanical loads), the...
iPads go on sale quite frequently, but some discounts on more powerful models are getting harder to find. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
While the best iPad deals usually land during major sale events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon’s various Prime Days, many of the best iPad deals from the holiday season have persisted into 2024. The discounts come and go like changing winds, but you can still take advantage of sales on many models today, particularly on the more affordable iPads. What’s more, prices are likely to drop even further when Apple ushers in a new slate of iPad Pro and iPad Air models, which will reportedly happen in May.
Forthcoming models aside, it’s difficult to know where exactly you can find the most notable iPad deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing...
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
Officials at the UK’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology have started drafting legislation to regulate AI models, Bloomberg reports. It’s unclear how any future regulation will intersect with the UK’s already-extant AI Safety Institute, which already conducts safety tests of the most powerful AI models.
After hosting the first global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November 2023, which was attended by many world leaders, the UK established an AI Safety Institute the following November. The institute began evaluating AI models for safety this year, though some technology companies requested more clarity on the timelines and what would happen if AI models are found risky. The UK also agreed to do joint safety testing...
The entry-level Apple Watch SE is a gateway smartwatch if there ever was one. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
In September, Apple launched its latest batch of smartwatches, introducing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($799) alongside the new Apple Watch Series 9 ($399). Each wearable has its own pros and cons, as does the second-gen Apple Watch SE ($249), but the introduction of the new wearables also means there are now more Apple Watch models on the market than ever before — and a lot more deals to be had.
But with all of those options, which one should you pick? Generally speaking, you want to buy the newest watch you can afford so that it continues to receive software updates from Apple. The latest update, watchOS 10, launched in September on the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, though no one can say with certainty whether the Series 4 will get the...
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to propose new regulations that would require data brokers to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In a speech at the White House earlier this month, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the agency is looking into policies to “ensure greater accountability” for companies that buy and sell consumer data, in keeping with an executive order President Joe Biden issued in late February.
Chopra said the agency is considering proposals that would define data brokers that sell certain types of data as “consumer reporting agencies,” thereby requiring those companies to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The statute bans sharing certain kinds of data (e.g., your credit report) with...
Image: Parker Ortolani / The Verge
Over the last few days, Tesla has delayed some Cybertruck deliveries. The company hasn’t specified why or even publicly commented on the delays, but commenters in the Cybertruck Owners Club forum have reported receiving texts or calls telling them their deliveries were being rescheduled.
One user said they’d been told by their dealer that the truck was recalled over its accelerator pedal. Another claimed Tesla sent them a text saying it’s not scheduling deliveries at the moment for the same reason. Several others reported receiving texts about issues with “the preparation of your vehicle.”
An Elon Musk fan account called @WholeMarsBlog posted on X that deliveries have been halted for seven days, but that hasn’t been confirmed, and Tesla...
Image from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover captured in April 2024. | NASA
Budget constraints have NASA looking for a faster and cheaper method to bring samples from Mars’ surface back to Earth. In a teleconference on Monday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that an independent review concluded that the agency’s current plan to bring the first samples collected by the Mars rover Perseverance could cost up to $11 billion and would likely not be achievable until 2040. The fiscal 2025 budget for the space agency, as well as additional anticipated budget cuts, are behind how slowly the current plan is being executed.
“That is unacceptable to wait that long,” Nelson said about the mission to return samples of dust and rocks from Mars to Earth. “It’s the decade of the 2040s that we’re going to be landing...
Keanu Reeves as John Wick. | Image: Lionsgate
The third Sonic movie already seemed like it was going to kick all kinds of ass by bringing Shadow the Hedgehog into the picture, but Paramount’s just upped the ante by adding one Keanu Reeves to its cast.
According to both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Keanu Reeves has been tapped to voice Shadow, the anthropomorphic hedgehog best known for his jet-powered sneakers and fondness for guns. While the studio’s yet to make an official announcement, news of Reeves’ casting comes after director Jeff Fowler teased that the next Sonic movie will be inspired by Sonic Adventure 2, the Dreamcast game that first introduced Shadow in 2001.
Shadow’s cinematic arrival was also teased at the end of the last Sonic movie, where he appeared to be...
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
YouTube is bringing its ad blocker fight to mobile. In an update on Monday, YouTube writes that users accessing videos through a third-party ad blocking app may encounter buffering issues or see an error message that reads, “The following content is not available on this app.”
Last year, YouTube “launched a global effort” to encourage users to allow ads while watching videos or upgrade to YouTube Premium. It also began disabling videos for users with an ad blocking extension enabled.
But now, YouTube says its policies don’t allow “third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership.” This appears to target mobile ad blockers like AdGuard, which lets you open YouTube within the ad...
Pigeon River Country State Forest in Vanderbilt, Michigan, U.S., on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022. State and local governments in the US are enrolling public-owned forests in carbon projects that could earn them tens of millions of dollars but provide little new help in the fight against climate change.
The charity that serves as a major watchdog on corporate climate commitments faces allegations that it’s caving to industry pressure to relax standards.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) assesses companies’ sustainability pledges and develops standards for how companies can set goals to fight climate change that are backed by science. SBTi’s policies are supposed to prevent greenwashing, which is when companies make misleading statements about their environmental impact.
One way SBTi has tried to crack down on greenwashing is by limiting the use of carbon offsets. Offsets are supposed to cancel out some of a company’s carbon footprint, even though that’s often only reflected on paper and not in the real world. SBTi’s tough...
Courtesy of Prime
The mysterious hole at the center of Amazon’s Outer Range was something to fear when the sci-fi / western drama first debuted. But the show’s new season two trailer makes it seem like the gaping chasm might wind up answering all of the Abbott family’s prayers.
Outer Range’s first season came to a close with Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) gaining an even deeper understanding of what the bottomless pit on his farm is and realizing how — terrifying as the thing may be — it could actually help him reunite his fractured family. It was because of the hole that Royal was able to piece together who Autumn (Imogen Poots) truly is, and Outer Range’s new trailer suggests that season two will see the duo’s relationship change as the Abbotts begin...
The new Blink Mini offers both better image quality and audio quality than before. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Whether you’re away at work or on vacation, a security camera can offer some extra peace of mind by allowing you to keep an eye on your pet, packages, and other valuables at home. And right now, one of the least expensive security cameras you can buy is even more affordable. Normally $39.99, the new Blink Mini 2 is down to just $29.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is the first deal we’ve seen on the wired camera since it launched last month. You can also buy it at Amazon with a weather-resistant adapter for just $39.98 ($10 off).
While the Blink Mini 2 remains a basic 1080ps camera like its predecessor, it’s now a lot more useful if you’re already locked into the Amazon ecosystem. You can use it outside thanks to its...
The second-gen AirPods, Apple’s most affordable earbuds, are on sale for just $89. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
If you know where to look, you can often score discounts on Apple’s ever-popular AirPods. Since Apple launched the third-gen AirPods at the end of 2021, we’ve seen the starting price of the second-gen, entry-level model slowly dip to under $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for over a year, we’re also seeing their price fall more often, too. We’re even seeing great deals land on the newer updated AirPods Pro with USB-C.
Here, we’ve curated the best deals currently available on each model, including the entry-level AirPods, the AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods, and the AirPods Max.
In 2021, Apple lowered the list price of the second-gen AirPods — now the...
Sony’s flagship earbuds are smaller, lighter, and better-sounding than the last-gen model. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Whether you need some peace while working from home or plan on taking some summer travels, a good pair of wireless earbuds is crucial for preserving and protecting your sanity. My favorites have been from Sony’s flagship line. I started with Sony’s WF-1000XM4 before the dastard battery drain bug rendered them unusable. They were great otherwise, and I liked them so much that I took a chance on the WF-1000XM5, which so far haven’t thrust the same thorns in my side. They retail for $299.95, but Amazon is selling them starting at $229.95 right now, which is only a few dollars shy of their all-time low.
The XM5 are Sony’s latest flagship pair of noise-canceling earbuds. They’re comfortable and offer excellent sound quality, not to mention...
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge
The revamped Disney Plus app could soon feature always-on channels dedicated to Star Wars and Marvel shows, according to a report from The Information. The channels, which are reportedly similar to those on free ad-supported streaming services like Pluto or Tubi, could take away the choice when it comes to picking out what to watch next.
In addition to Star Wars and Marvel series, Disney’s lineup of channels could feature stations that continuously stream Disney’s classic animated films or movies from Pixar, The Information reports. Even though viewers would need a Disney Plus subscription to tune in to the channels, they will likely still contain ads — just like traditional television.
There still aren’t any details about when the new...
Image: EVgo
Rivian is pushing a new software update that will give its customers better insight into which EV chargers to visit — and which to avoid.
EV charging reliability remains a serious sore spot for a lot of owners of plug-in vehicles, leaving the companies selling the cars scrambling to boost their confidence. Rivian’s solution is to use their vehicle fleet to gather data about broken chargers, which then get downranked in the company’s software algorithm.
“Our North Star is charging and trip planning in EVs should just work,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s head of software, told The Verge. “You should not think about it.”
“Our North Star is charging and trip planning in EVs should just work.”
I had the chance to test out Rivian’s new software...
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Meta is launching a new hub for Quest headsets later this year that should make it easier for educators to use them in schools. In a blog post on Monday, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, writes that the hub will let teachers access “education-specific apps and features,” along with tools to manage all Quest headsets in the classroom.
Meta still hasn’t released the name of the educational product, nor a list of specific features. However, Clegg notes that Meta wants the hub to make it “easier for students to learn, apply and practice new skills” while also seeing places or having experiences that might not be possible outside of virtual reality.
In an interview with Axios, Clegg says Meta’s Quest headsets could let students...
The Limitless Pendant comes in a bunch of colors and doesn’t really look like an AI gadget. | Image: Limitless
The Limitless Pendant doesn’t exactly scream “AI.” As Dan Siroker, the CEO of the company behind the new device, lifts it up to show me over Zoom, the round, rubbery-looking gizmo reminds me more of an old-school clippable Fitbit. But what Siroker is actually showing me is a device that can be clipped onto your shirt or worn on a string around your neck that is meant to record everything you hear — and then use AI to help you remember and make sense of it.
The Limitless Pendant is part of the whole Limitless system, which the company is launching today. (Oh, and in case you’re wondering: yes, it’s very much a reference to the movie.) Siroker’s last AI product, Rewind, was an app that ran on your computer and would record your screen and...
Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Dropbox
Leaders can’t ‘keep mashing the go back to 2019 button.’
Generative AI-powered tools for quickly removing objects in video clips will be arriving in Premiere Pro later this year. | Image: Adobe
Adobe is working on a generative AI video model for its Firefly family that will bring new tools to its Premiere Pro video editing platform. These new Firefly tools — alongside some proposed third-party integrations with Runway, Pika Labs, and OpenAI’s Sora models — will allow Premiere Pro users to generate video and add or remove objects using text prompts (just like Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature) and extend the length of video clips.
Unlike many of Adobe’s previous Firefly-related announcements, no release date — beta or otherwise — has been established for the company’s new video generation tools, only that they’ll roll out “this year.” And while the creative software giant showcased what its own video model is currently capable...
Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has written a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, saying that TurboTax “continues to relentlessly upsell” customers while also directing them away from services that would otherwise be free.
As noted in the letter, Warren’s staff analyzed TurboTax’s services using a sample taxpayer and found that the company attempted to upsell the customer eight times during the tax filing process. Warren writes that in “several cases,” these solicitations “appear to be efforts to mislead customers into thinking that they must pay the extra fees in order to file their taxes when that is not the case.” Some show up as full-screen prompts, forcing users to scroll to the bottom to deny the upgrade.
In one instance,...
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Sony is getting ready to release a more powerful PS5 console, possibly by the end of this year. After reports of leaked PS5 Pro specifications surfaced recently, The Verge has obtained a full list of specs for the upcoming console. Sources familiar with Sony’s plans tell me that developers are already being asked to ensure their games are compatible with this upcoming console, with a focus on improving ray tracing.
Codenamed Trinity, the PlayStation 5 Pro model will include a more powerful GPU and a slightly faster CPU mode. All of Sony’s changes point to a PS5 Pro that will be far more capable of rendering games with ray tracing enabled or hitting higher resolutions and frame rates in certain titles. Sony appears to be encouraging...
The layoffs follow the company’s first drop in year-over-year vehicle deliveries since 2020. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
A few weeks after reporting its first year-over-year decline in vehicle deliveries since 2020, Tesla is now planning to lay off over ten percent of its global workforce, according to an internal company-wide email seen by Electrek. That works out to at least 14,000 of the 140,473 employees that Tesla reported in its latest annual earnings. It’s not clear which teams at Tesla will be impacted.
“There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,” said Elon Musk, in the email published by Electrek. “This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
Today’s development is the latest in a string of bad news for the EV maker. The company reported a miss in delivery estimates ahead of its quarterly earnings...
Ikea’s Brännboll range is just the right mix of neutrals and bright colors to match most modern homes. | Image: Ikea
Ikea is introducing a new range of gaming furniture that subverts the usual dark, edgy “gamer” aesthetic for designs that are more likely to blend in with your existing home decor.
The company’s Brännboll collection is a lineup of 20 items, including a desk, chairs, accessories, and various storage solutions. Following the mostly-black ROG collaboration Ikea released back in 2021, which was similarly free from overly aggressive “gamer” flourishes, the new Brännboll collection instead focuses on the kind of designs that Ikea does best — simple and recognizably Scandinavian.
Seating is the main focus. There’s an armchair that folds out into a lounging position, a rocking-style chair designed to swing with your body’s movement, and an...
Image: OnLeaks / 91Mobiles
Google could be adding a feature very similar to Apple’s Emergency SOS feature to the Pixel 9 and the next Pixel Fold. That’s according to leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, who writes for Android Authority that the company would partner with T-Mobile to offer the feature but may add other providers later.
Just like Apple’s system, Google’s SOS feature would reportedly present future Pixel owners with a series of questions to ascertain what’s happening, rather than let users thumb one out. A video in the Android Authority article features the animation Google will display to users to help them get the phone aligned with a satellite.
According to Wojciechowska, these are some of the questions the feature will ask:
Blackmagic’s new Micro Color Panel lets you edit video on the go. | Image: Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design announced its video editing software, DaVinci Resolve, was coming to the iPad back in 2022, and although it supports multitouch input and the Apple Pencil, sometimes, nothing beats purpose-built hardware. On Friday, Blackmagic announced the $495 DaVinci Resolve Micro Color Panel, which it says will be available worldwide in May and is specifically designed for the iPad.
At 14.33 inches by 7.18 inches, the Micro Color Panel is about the size of a computer keyboard. It has an iPad Pro mounting slot and connects either via Bluetooth or USB-C. Besides being smaller than Blackmagic’s other color panels, the Micro is also significantly cheaper (The next one up — the Mini Panel — is listed at over $2,000 on Blackmagic’s...
A screenshot from iGBA. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge
I played Game Boy Advance games on my iPhone last night thanks to a new emulator called iGBA, which appears to be the first Game Boy Advance emulator on the App Store since Apple started allowing emulators worldwide. The only trouble is, it doesn’t look like iGBA is developer Mattia La Spina’s own work.
Emulation developer and AltStore creator Riley Testut says it’s a rip-off of GBA4iOS, the predecessor to his Delta emulator that was originally made for iOS over a decade ago and that he recently resurrected for the Vision Pro, the source code for which he has published online.
Here are some screenshots for comparison, starting with iGBA:
Screenshots: Wes Davis / The Verge
Screenshots from iGBA.
...
The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 34, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been writing about the Humane AI Pin and the Aboard app, reading about the Com World War and why studios cancel already-made movies, watching Ripleyand a deep dive into the Game Boy’s incredible sturdiness and power, listening to The Rest is Historytake on Martin Luther, and seeing if Amazon’s Echo Frames can replace my headphones.
I also have for you an excellent new video game show, a new ebook reader worth a look, yet another doc about how bad tech is, a sweet new drone, and much more.
I also...
Image: California Highway Patrol
Los Angeles citizens can rest easy knowing that a criminal theft ring is no longer stalking the city’s retail stores to feed a Lego black market. That’s because the California Highway Patrol (CHP) announced this week that it had arrested four people it accused of swiping what police estimated was “approximately $300,000” worth of Lego sets.
The four had allegedly burgled stores like Target, Home Depot, and Lowe’s of their Lego stock and sold them to black-market dealers who would then vend the stolen bricks at “seemingly legitimate businesses, swap meets, or online.” Police say they were booked on “charges related to Organized Retail Theft, Grand Theft, and Conspiracy to commit a crime.”
Image: California Highway Patrol...
Image: Bluesky
Bluesky is apparently ready for a bigger challenge. It says it’s allowing heads of state to sign up now, a little over two months after it opened for general signups. In May last year, the site asked its users not to give invitation codes to “recent/prominent heads of state,” stating that it was its policy not to accommodate them.
When Bluesky instituted its heads-of-state policy, the site was still in its showing-everyone’s-ass phase, and its moderation approach wasn’t in place, yet. So instead of the varying degrees of controlled chaos that social networks are, Bluesky was filled with, well, lots of unsettlingly sexy pictures of the cat-eating alien puppet star of the 1980s sitcom Alf, which The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto pointed out...
This week saw some fun trailers tapping into heady science fiction, comic book movies, and taboo horror, each with a fun mixed genre twist. Joker: Folie à Deux is a comic book movie about the love affair of The Joker and Harley Quinn that’s also a musical, and Apple TV Plus’ new Dark Matter series is a kidnapping thriller with an interesting alternate reality twist. Then there’s Maxxxine, a horror slasher that looks to also be a whodunit crime mystery.
Joker: Folie à Deuxtakes a crack at the origin of The Joker and Harley Quinn’s romance, which has been explored in some of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and lightly featured in 2016’s Suicide Squad. This movie is supposed to be a “jukebox musical”...
Which is the best bet to bedazzle your backyard?
The Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro is an excellent Android TV projector with Chromecast built-in. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Let’s face it, a big TV isn’t always an option, especially if you live in a tiny apartment or prefer a more nomadic lifestyle. In those instances, it might be wiser to buy the Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro, a portable Android TV projector that’s small enough to toss in your backpack before heading out the door. Thankfully, Xgimi’s 1080p smart projector is currently on sale at Amazon for $399.99 ($200 off) when you clip the on-page coupon, which drops it to one of its lowest prices to date.
Despite its small stature and modest 400 ANSI lumens, the MoGo 2 Pro can project large, 200-inch images while delivering surprisingly good picture quality at smaller sizes (think 30 inches). It looks best when viewed in the dark, like most projectors, which...
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Samsung is planning to bring select Galaxy AI features to several older flagship phones and tablets next month via the One UI 6.1 update, according to 9to5Google and Android Central, both of which referred to a post from a Samsung representative who posted on the company’s community forum in Korea. The Verge has reached out to Samsung for further comment.
A slightly trimmed-down version of Galaxy AI (sans Instant Slow-Mo) will be coming to Samsung’s flagship lineup from 2022, specifically the S22, S22 Plus, S22 Ultra, Z Fold 4, Z Flip 4, Tab S8, and Tab S8 Ultra. Each device will receive the same version of Galaxy AI as Samsung’s lower-priced Galaxy S23 FE. Instant Slow-Mo, which automatically plays a video in slow motion once you tap...
Photo by Edie Leong for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Tesla is reducing the subscription fee for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assist software in a reflection of the company’s continuing financial hardships. The company slashed the price to $99 / month, down from $199 where it has been since at least 2021.
Tesla announced the price adjustment in a post on X, in which it described the Level 2 driver-assist system as “FSD (Supervised)” — a name tweak that’s meant to convey the fact that drivers are required to pay attention to the road and stand ready to take control of the vehicle. (The company has been criticized for failing to include proper driver monitoring and other protections against overreliance on the system.)
You can now subscribe to FSD (Supervised) for $99/month in the...
The Pokémon Company
Japanese police arrested a man after finding evidence that he illegally tampered with save data for the Nintendo Switch games Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which he used to create custom characters that he sold on an online gaming marketplace.
According to machine translations of stories at NHKand the Asahi Shimbun, the Kochi Prefectural police arrested 36-year-old Yoshihiro Yamakawa on April 9th after cyber patrol officers caught him selling the characters online. Yamakawa, who used an online tool to modify the game’s save data, was arrested under suspicion of violating a Japanese law known as the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
The police report, according to both outlets,states that the Japanese police cyber patrol caught Yamakawa...
You can get a great device for less than $500 these days if you know how to pick your priorities. | Image: The Verge
You can’t have everything at this price, but you can get a great smartphone. Whether you want an iPhone, a 120Hz screen, or water resistance, you’ve got options.
Paramount Plus
Season 3 of Paramount Plus’ Star Trek: Strange New Worldsis still in production, but the streamer has already decided to renew the series. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is coming to an end.
Paramount Plus announced today that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will be back for a fourth season following the premiere of its third sometime in 2025, and Star Wars: Lower Deck’s upcoming fifth season will be the series’ finale. In a statement about Strange New Worlds’ renewal, executive producer Alex Kurtzman and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers said they were thrilled about being able to continue telling new stories about the crew of the Enterprise.
And while Lower Decks is wrapping up,...
Prytania Media
The grim cadence of video game layoffs continues apace, but this latest news comes with a strange twist. Prytania Media has shut down studio Possibility Space effective immediately. In an email to employees reproduced on social media by Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter, Jeff Strain, Prytania’s co-founder, seemingly attributed the closure to an as-yet unpublished article from Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach.
Strain wrote that he received questions from Gach regarding an upcoming article and that some of those questions pertained to a not-yet-public project codenamed “Vonnegut.” According to Strain, after receiving questions on Vonnegut, he had an emergency meeting with its publishers wherein it was decided that the publisher would cease...
I failed converting Wes to K-pop, but we agreed that Cowboy Carter slaps. | Screenshot: Victoria Song / The Verge
The inside of an Apple Vision Pro is a lonely place to be. My spouse and I can’t watch movies together. It’s hard to describe what the world looks like in there to curious friends. Even if I’m standing next to you, even if there’s a ghostly projection of my eyes on the front display — there’s a barrier between me and you.
Unless you also have a Vision Pro headset and have enabled Spatial Personas.
Apple debuted Spatial Personas last week. It unleashes your uncanny digital avatar from the FaceTime window and into any SharePlay-enabled app as well as your virtual space. Call me intrigued. Loneliness was a con of the Vision Pro that reviewer after reviewer pointed out. Would this help that? I called up our weekend editor Wes Davis, who...
It wasn’t our favorite fitness tracker at $150, but the Fitbit Charge 5 is a looker at $75. | Image: Fitbit
With nearly a third of 2024 behind us now, you might think it’s out of season to talk about resolutions and fitness goals. But for me, the renewal of the Earth’s vegetation and the prospect of pool parties encourages me to get out and move after a cold, muggy winter. If the same is true for you, a fitness tracker can be a great motivator that can help you chart your progress. Thankfully, Walmart is currently selling the Fitbit Charge 5 starting at just $75, which is 50 percent off and easily one of the best prices we’ve ever seen.
We weren’t big fans of some of Fitbit’s design choices for the last-gen Charge 5. The biggest offender was its lack of a physical navigation button, which made using the finicky touch-based user interface more...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft says it’s starting to test ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11. The software maker will use the Recommended section of the Start menu, which usually shows file recommendations, to suggest apps from the Microsoft Store.
“This will appear only for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the US and will not apply to commercial devices (devices managed by organizations),” says Microsoft in a blog post.
The app promotions can be disabled in the Settings section of Windows 11, but it appears that Microsoft will enable these by default. Microsoft is seeking feedback on the changes, so it’s possible the company could decide to ditch these ads in development builds of Windows 11 if there’s enough feedback that suggests they’re...
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
After three failed attempts and a heated floor debate, the House voted on Friday to reauthorize a controversial program that lets US intelligence agencies spy on foreign communications without a warrant. The bill ultimately passed 273–147.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is scheduled by statute to expire on April 19th, though the FISA court recently granted a government request that would have authorized the program for another year without congressional approval.
The battle over the amendments to the bill revealed some unexpected alliances in the House over privacy issues. A bipartisan coalition of progressives and members of the far-right Freedom Caucus rallied together behind an amendment to impose a warrant...
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge
Could lossless streaming on Spotify actually be happening this time? We’ve been through so many twists and turns with this saga already, but there’s new cause for hope. Code snippets in recent builds of Spotify for Android yet again tease the possibility of the company’s long-delayed lossless audio coming in the near future.
After originally being known three years ago as “Spotify HiFi” and then rumored to be part of a more expensive “Supremium” subscription tier, it seems like Spotify has again pivoted on strategy. The code samples indicate that lossless audio will be included in an optional “Music Pro” add-on that will also include the DJ remix features that my colleague Jess Weatherbed covered earlier today. Those will let Spotify...
Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Philip Pacheco, Getty Images
Do you think a judge will make Google allow an Android version of the Epic Games Store to live inside its own Google Play Store, let the Epic Games Store have access to every app inside Google Play, and let Android users begin sideloading apps with a single tap? Because Epic’s asking for those and a whole lot more in the aftermath of Epic v. Google.
On December 11th, Epic won a surprise victory against Google in federal court. A jury unanimously decided that Google had turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly. But what did Epic win? That’s yet to be decided by Judge James Donato, and today, we’re finally learning precisely what Epic believes it should get.
As you’ll see in the 16-page...
Well, hello there, Ghoul. | Image: Bethesda Softworks
The new Amazon adaptation of Fallout is excellent, nailing the goofy yet grim vibe of the series, all while telling a new story. It’s so good, in fact, that after the eight episodes were over, I was left with a strong urge to head back into the wasteland. But where to start? An open-world RPG like Fallout 4 felt like too much of a commitment (even with a next-gen update on the way), so I turned to something simpler: the mobile strategy game Fallout Shelter. And now I can’t seem to stop.
Now, to be clear, Fallout Shelter isn’t a new game. It launched in 2015, and while it started as a mobile release, it’s been subsequently ported to PC and consoles. It’s a bit like a city-builder, just one that takes place mostly underground. You’re the...
Image: The Verge
Roku says it found another cyberattack on Friday that affected 576,000 users. This is the second breach to affect the company since March.
Roku says the attackers used the login information of account holders, a technique called credential stuffing, to gain access to the streaming service and the payment methods of some users. The hackers were then able to use partial credit card numbers from “about 400 cases” to make unauthorized purchases for subscriptions to streaming services and Roku devices. But the company said the hackers did not get sensitive information like full credit card numbers and addresses.
The hackers used a method called credential stuffing, in which malicious actors take stolen usernames and passwords and try these...
Image: Android Headlines
We’re a month out from Google I/O, where the company will likely announce its new Pixel 8A phone. At this point, there have already been plenty of renders and even some real-world shots. And now, courtesy of Android Headlines, it appears official marketing images of the device have leaked.
If accurate, they show that Google plans to offer the Pixel 8A in four colors: black, porcelain, blue, and a very vibrant green. It’s certainly more saturated than the subdued “mint” that Google added to the Pixel 8 color choices earlier this year.
Like its predecessor, the phone is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display, though it’s not yet clear whether it’ll top out at 90Hz or 120Hz. The 8A still has thicker bezels than the flagship Pixel 8 and 8 Pro —...
A 20-foot chunk of Newport, Rhode Island’s beloved Cliff Walk broke off and dove into the depths of the ocean in a significant landslide and partial collapse, pictured on March 4th, 2022. | Photo by Jonathan Wiggs / The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is doling out nearly $830 million in grants to 80 different projects aimed at strengthening US infrastructure against climate change.
The funding will fan out over 39 states and territories to projects ranging from refurbishing aging bridges to expanding emergency evacuation routes. The grants are “the first of their kind,” according to USDOT, which is partnering with state, local, and tribal governments thanks to funding made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Climate change is intensifying risks to the nation’s transportation infrastructure. The number of billion-dollar weather disasters reached a record high last year. And even slow-moving calamities like rising seas are...
Google is piloting removing links to California news websites for a small percentage of users. | Illustration: The Verge
Google says it will start removing links to California news websites in a “short term test for a small percentage of California users.” The move is in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay a fee for linking Californians to news articles.
“If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers,” Jaffer Zaidi, Google VP of global news partnerships, wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. “The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.”
Zaidi adds that...
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge
We found the best cameras for your budget and needs.
Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident involving Ford’s hands-free driver-assist system after a Mustang Mach-E driver crashed into another vehicle in Texas, killing the occupant. A second fatal crash involving a Mach-E took place in Philadelphia, although it’s not known whether the driver-assist system played a role. Both crashes involved Mach-Es crashing into stationary vehicles.
The first incident took place at 9:50PM on February 24th outside of San Antonio, Texas. According to a preliminary report from NTSB, the 44-year-old driver of the Mustang Mach-E was traveling eastbound on Interstate 10 when he rear-ended a stationary Honda CRV. The 56-year-old Honda driver was killed in the crash.
“Based on data...
Image: Western Digital
It wasn’t that long ago when we were impressed by a 400GB microSD card, but now, Western Digital is showing off a full-size SD card with 10 times the storage capacity. The new SanDisk Extreme Pro4TB SD card is designed for cameras and laptops, and it’s the first time we’ve seen this storage size on an SD card.
While Western Digital is previewing its four-terabyte SD card at the NAB Show this week, it won’t actually be available until 2025. AnandTech notes that the card uses the Ultra High Speed-I (UHS-I) interface, which supports up to 104MB/s data transfers in the UHS104 (SDR104) mode. It also has minimal sequential write speeds of 30MB/s, enough for 8K video recording.
The SD Association first announced its Secure Digital Ultra...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
China has plans to force foreign-made chips out of its telecom systems, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The country’s officials reportedly told its telecom providers to replace foreign chips, such as those made by Intel and AMD, by 2027.
Under the order from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, telecom providers will have to check their networks for any foreign-made chips and then create a timeline for their removal. This change will mainly affect Intel and AMD, sources tell the WSJ, as the two California-based companies provide the “bulk” of the processors included in China’s networking equipment.
The move echoes the US government’s efforts to “rip and replace” cellular equipment made by the...
Image: Nintendo
In 2015, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker for the Wii U, a game that allowed players to make and share their own 2D Mario levels. In 2021, the company ended the ability to upload courses, the game having been eclipsed by its sequel on the Switch. But in January 2024, Nintendo announced an end to all online services for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games on April 8th. For Super Mario Maker, that meant the millions of player-made levels would be unceremoniously shuttered.
Or at least, it would have been unceremonious, if it weren’t for a group called Team 0%. The group had been trying to beat every uncleared level in the game for years, which was made easier once they had a fixed target in 2021. When the announcement came that the Wii U’s...
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Unpkg, a content delivery network (CDN) that powers more than 4 billion requests per day, went down for several hours on Friday morning. The outage broke the thousands of websites that use the open-source CDN, leaving developers scrambling for a fix.
The outage appeared to have started around 4AM ET, with sites returning a 520 error from Cloudflare, which powers Unpkg. Many developers affected by the outage switched to jsDelivr, another open-source CDN for GitHub and the package manager npm, in order to keep their sites online. Unpkg started coming back online at around 9AM ET. That’s when Fly.io — the service that Unpkg’s origin server uses to provide auto-scaling infrastructure — announced that it “deployed a fix” to recover affected...
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
Seven. Hundred. Dollars. After a year of asking questions about this much-hyped AI wearable, the Humane AI Pin is here, and, well, we still have lots of questions. We’re also still trying to figure out how it all works — and where it goes from here.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we dive deep into our review of the AI Pin and try to figure out what went wrong with this device and whether there’s a real future for it or any other AI-powered gadget. The trouble, we discover, is that these devices are stacking new technology on top of new technology, and until it all works perfectly, none of it will work very well. Also, did we mention the AI Pin is seven hundred dollars?
After that, we talk about the growing rift between OpenAI and...
The tools could open new revenue streams for artists who otherwise wouldn’t see money from unauthorized remixes. | Cath Virginia / The Verge
Spotify is working on some seemingly TikTok-inspired remixing features in its latest attempt to capitalize on the social media platform’s explosive popularity. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spotify is developing tools that would allow paid subscribers to “speed up, mash-up, and otherwise edit” tracks from their favorite artists, which could then be saved for repeat listening.
One use case for the tools is to allow Spotify users to adjust the speed of the songs they listen to. These music modifications are already popular with teens and young adults on TikTok, with content analysis firm Pex finding that 38 percent of songs on the platform had their speeds or pitches modified in 2023, compared to 25 percent the year prior.
A...
The service will be shut down on an unspecified date later this year. | Image: Google
Google is shutting down its VPN by Google One service, according to a vague customer email seen by Android Authority, less than four years after it was rolled out in October 2020. The email doesn’t specify when this will happen, only that the VPN service will be discontinued “later this year.”
Subscription prices for Google One’s VPN start at $1.99, with availability on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. The company told 9to5Google that it is killing the service because “people simply weren’t using it.” Perhaps its customers were simply spoilt for choice, given this is actually one of three VPN services provided by Google alongside the VPN offerings still available via Google Fi, and Pixel devices from the Pixel 7 on up.
VPN by Google One...
Illustration: The Verge
X giveth, and now X taketh away. The platform is eliminating the ability for Premium users to hide their blue checkmarks, according to a notification received by multiple users on Thursday. X made displaying the blue check optional last summer, and it’s unclear exactly why the platform plans to remove the feature — or when.
Twitter says it is removing the "hide your checkmark" feature lolololol pic.twitter.com/PQFPbAGhef
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) April 11, 2024
Once a status symbol, the blue check lost some of its luster after X shifted to a paid verification system under Elon Musk’s ownership. A blue check then just became an indicator that the account holder paid for a Premium subscription. The feature was also abused by s...
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, The Verge
Discord has shut down the Discord servers for the Nintendo Switch emulators Suyu and Sudachi and has completely disabled their lead developers’ accounts — and the company isn’t answering our questions about why it went that far. Both Suyu and Sudachi began as forks of Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo sued out of existence on March 4th.
“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. In this instance, there was also a court ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order,” reads part of a statement from Discord director of product communications Kellyn Slone to The Verge.
The developers ofSuyu and Sudachi only...
Image: Dbrand
Dbrand, the phone case company known for its sassy attitude toward users and tech companies, gave $10,000 to a customer as an apology after it made a racist comment about their last name.
On Tuesday, Dbrand reposted a complaint from a customer, Bhuwan Chitransh, who said that the skin they purchased for their MacBook changed color after just two months. Dbrand replied with a crude message that rhymed the customer’s name with “rash.” Chitransh later responded, saying Dbrand’s post reflects its racist perspective toward Indian customers.
The following day, the company said that it had made a “huge fumble.” Dbrand said it apologized to Chitransh and offered him $10,000 “as a gesture of goodwill.” However, Dbrand didn’t delete the original...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Following Paramount’s move to add Showtime programming to certain Paramount Plus streaming plans, the Showtime standalone streaming platform is coming to an end.
Variety reports that Showtime streaming subscribers have begun receiving notices that they will no longer be able to access the platform after April 30th. Going forward, subscribers will have to sign up for the $11.99 per month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan. Paramount Global announced its intentions to shutter the Showtime platform last year after also rebranding the traditional Showtime network as ”Paramount Plus with Showtime.”
Though this whole renaming process has been awkward, Paramount’s following through on its plan to fully subsume the Showtime brand. And while...
Image: Apple
Apple announced some Godzilla-sized updates for its streaming service. First up, the spinoff series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which premiered on Apple TV Plus last year, has been renewed for a second season. There aren’t any details on what the new season will entail or when it’ll start streaming, but showrunners and co-creators Chris Black and Matt Fraction will be returning.
On top of that, Apple says that it has signed a deal with Legendary for even more projects based in its “monsterverse,” which will include “multiple spinoff series.” It’s not clear yet what those series might be, but here’s hoping we get a deep dive into the Shobijin. The news comes just a few weeks after the latest feature in the franchise, Godzilla x Kong: The...
Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
This is Hot Pod_,_ The Verge_’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry._
Hi, everyone — I’m starting off today with some big news to share: next week will be my last at Hot Pod and The Verge. Before coming here, all I wanted was to cover the podcasting industry, and I still can’t believe I managed to get a job doing just that. Even when the news was bad (which, let’s be real, was often), I was buoyed by the passion and innovation of this community. It’s been a real privilege getting to know so many of you.
I’ll have a few more stories coming out before I leave as well as some final thoughts on the state of the industry. My colleague Jake Kastrenakeshas a note below with more information about the newsletter moving forward.
As...
Image: A24
Director Alex Garland’s new dystopian thriller seems like it has something to say about American society, but it doesn’t have the guts to articulate a cohesive, thoughtful point.
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Transcription apps — apps that record and make text transcriptions of the conversation — have been an extremely useful way of keeping records for many of us. This doesn’t only pertain to journalists, who, of course, often keep records of their interviews. When you are caring for a family member who is ill, for example, having a recorded and transcribed record of a conversation with the doctor can be very useful. And when you’re dealing with the insurance company rep afterward — well, ’nuff said.
There are two types of transcription services available online today: one that uses an AI engine and the other that uses human transcribers. The latter is usually much more accurate but is also considerably more expensive. As a result, most...
Dyson wants to make cleaning fun again, but I was already having fun letting the robots do it. | Image: Dyson
Dyson has developed a new feature that uses your smartphone’s augmented reality sensors to virtually paint over areas you’ve vacuumed, so you can see if you’ve missed a spot.
The feature, called CleanTrace, uses the lidar scanner found on Pro or Pro Max iPhones 12 and newer and requires you to attach your phone to the vacuum. For now, the $1,000 Gen5detect is the only dust sucker in Dyson’s ranks that will accept the smartphone clamp, which will be sold separately. We’re not yet sure how much it’ll cost. Dyson is planning to add the feature to its mobile app as a free update when it launches this June.
CleanTrace exists because “consumers are haphazard and inefficient – regularly overing the same areas multiple times and missing other...
The countdown to Google I/O starts now. | Image: The Verge / Android
Android 15’s first public beta is available to download now, provided you have a Pixel phone and a bit of a sense of adventure. It’s the first consumer-facing release after two developer previews, and while we have a good idea of what to expect from Google’s next mobile OS version, we’ll certainly hear more at the company’s annual developer conference soon enough.
The blog post highlighting updates in today’s release covers some pretty pedestrian stuff. Apps will scale edge to edge by default and will draw behind translucent system bars on the top and bottom of the screen, rather than around them. There’s OS-level support for app archiving and unarchiving so third-party app stores can take advantage of this feature. Android 15 will also...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Uber has launched a new safety preferences section that gathers all of Uber’s safety tools in one place and lets users schedule them to switch on automatically.
Some of the safety tools you can customize include audio recording — which saves encrypted audio of the trip that Uber can use to investigate reported incidents — and PIN verification, so you can ensure you’re entering the right vehicle. You can also share your live location and ride details with people you trust via ShareMyTrip, while RideCheck notifies Uber when a ride suddenly stops or goes off-course.
You can choose to activate all of Uber’s safety features by default for every ride or customize your settings based on time and location. For example, you can set it to turn on...
Executives hold shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Occidental Petroleum and 1PointFive carbon removal plant in Ector County, Texas, on April 28th, 2023. | Image: Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Attempting to filter enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to make a significant impact on climate change would require hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending, according to a new report.
The suite of technologies emerging to attempt that task all fall under an umbrella called carbon dioxide removal, or CDR. It’s still risky and astronomically expensive. But there’s been growing chatter about it, particularly as the US continues producing record amounts of oil and gas.
According to the new report by research firm Rhodium Group, the US needs to spend roughly $100 billion a year on CDR in order to scale up to a level that would help the country meet its climate goals. A majority of that needs to come in the form of...
Image: DW / Esau Escorza ,Isaac Escorza, Samuel Plata, Luis Antonio Delgado
Taking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a bold new visual direction has worked out phenomenally for Paramount in the past, but the studio’s next experiment with the characters feels like something that’s going to be tricky as hell to pull off well.
According to The Hollywood Reporter — Paramount is in the early stages of developing a live-action, R-rated film based on The Last Ronin, IDW’s 2020 comic that tells the story of how one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles grows up to become an even deadlier warrior following the death of his three siblings. The movie is set to be produced by former head of DC films Walter Hamada, and Boy Kills World co-writer Tyler Burton Smith is attached to write the script.
The comic series — written by...
Andy Jassy is being persecuted by those meanies at the FTC, says Andy Jassy. | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge
Andy Jassy, CEO of the biggest e-commerce store in the world, is very upset with the regulators who won’t let him buy more companies.
In January, Amazon decided it wasn’t going to buy Roomba maker iRobot for $1.4 billion, after discovering that the EU probably wouldn’t approve the deal and that the FTC had some concerns. Regulators blocked the acquisition because, Jassy told CNBC, “They worry that we’re going to feature our vacuum cleaner, the Roomba, vs. others, which of course is not our model.”
Weird that the FTC, which has filed a massive lawsuit against Amazon for alleged anticompetitive behavior, would ever even think that! Amazon would never promote its own vacuum cleaner on its site in a way that harmed competition — like, that a...