Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sony is appointing co-CEOs Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino to lead its PlayStation business from June 1st. Hermen Hulst, who currently serves as PlayStation studios chief, will be appointed as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) studio business group. Hideaki Nishino will be appointed CEO of SIE’s platform business group, and both will report up to Sony CFO and SIE chairman Hiroki Totoki.
The unusual appointment of co-CEOs comes just months after former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan retired. Totoki had been serving as interim CEO of SIE and was working to find the successor for the SIE CEO role, but Sony has now decided it wants to split up responsibilities for leading its PlayStation business across platform and games. Both...
The Dyson WashG1 can wipe up wet messes. | Image: Dyson
Dyson’s newest device for dealing with dirt in your home is a mechanical mop. Unlike the British engineering company’s flagship fans, hair dryers, and vacuums, the new Dyson WashG1 floor washing machine doesn’t use precision-engineered fans or a fine-tuned Hyperdymium motor. Instead, the mop relies on mechanical agitation to clean up wet spills, picks up dirt and debris, and gives your hard floors a really good wash.
The WashG1 wet floor cleaner — aka mop — costs $699.99 and is the company’s first dedicated mopping device. The cordless, battery-powered mop is slated for release this fall, and you can sign up to be notified when the world’s fanciest mop arrives on Dyson’s site.
While it’s definitely fancy, this isn’t a smart mop —...
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
TikTok is testing a more robust search results page, including using generative AI. The feature appears to be a new and is called “search highlights.”
A snippet of AI results appear at the top of some search results pages, and clicking into the section opens a new page with the full response. In quick tests, I was able to find AI results for queries about recipes or topics like “best laptops 2024.”
Screenshot: TikTok
Clicking the result takes you to a full screen page.
A page explaining the results says that the material is generated using ChatGPT, and that TikTok displays the content “when [the algorithm] finds them relevant to your search.” The feature appears to be limited so far: not all queries have AI...
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
When New York City Mayor Eric Adams was first introduced to a representative from Evolv, the AI gun detection company, he was given a list of places the scanners could be used, including hospitals, schools, Times Square, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. What seems to have persuaded Adams, according to emails obtained by Wired, was Evolv’s disclosure of another major client: Disney.
“As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs,” Evolv co-founder Anil Chitkara wrote in an email to Adams’ office on February 7th, 2022. “They’ve had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express … There may be some interesting parallels...
Image: Rozetked
It’s a day that ends in Y, so naturally, we’re dealing with yet another Google Pixel hardware leak. This time, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL can be seen side by side in new images from Rozetked — a full five months before Google’s typical October release timeframe.
I have many questions about how and why these units are out in the world so early, but here we are. And I know a lot of you are no doubt eyeing that regular 9 Pro, which will finally put Google’s very best camera chops into a normal-sized phone. Meanwhile, the 9 Pro XL looks a fair bit taller than Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Image: Rozetked
Yep, that’s an XL-sized phone.
l’m a bit curious as to whether Google will still call this a “camera bar”...
Photo by Stacy Revere / Getty Images
Roku will exclusively stream Major League Baseball Sunday Leadoff games starting with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox on May 19th. The games will air live on The Roku Channel — no subscription or sign-up required.
To watch the games, you’ll have to download The Roku Channel on your Roku device or TV. The app is also available on Amazon Fire devices, Samsung TVs, and Google TVs, as well as via The Roku Channel website. You’ll be able to watch replays of the games up to six hours after they end.
“With free games available to anyone, MLB games on Roku will be widely accessible to fans,” Noah Garden, the MLB’s deputy commissioner of business and media, said in a statement. Roku will stream Sunday Leadoff games every week until...
The iPad Air is an excellent iPad — and that’s all. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge
The iPad Pro is a beast. The two-year-old iPad is more compelling than ever. So what is the Air even for anymore?
Apple’s latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing. But wow is it fun to use.
Photo by Lev Radin / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images
Independent presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing Meta for allegedly violating the First Amendment and engaging in “election interference” because it removed a video about him.
The lawsuit is not likely to advance far, considering that the First Amendment bars the government — not companies — from censoring speech. Plus, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act effectively insulates online platforms from being sued for how they choose to remove or limit content on their sites.
Keep in mind this is the same candidate who has claimed that part of his brain had been eaten years ago by a parasitic worm (he told The New York Times he’s recovered from symptoms including memory loss related to the...
Photo by Noam Galai / Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative
Melinda French Gates has stepped down from her position as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
French Gates, who will officially leave on June 7th, will continue her philanthropy elsewhere, to the tune of $12.5 billion. The money stems from an agreement with her ex-husband, Bill Gates, and does not come from the foundation’s endowment. In her X post, she says she will focus on programs “on behalf of women and families.”
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates says. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together, and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequalities around the world.”
French Gates and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates divorced in 2021. At the time, the two...
Apple and Google collaborated on the new Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers industry standard. | Image: Apple
A new industry specification devised by Apple and Google to address the safety risks of Bluetooth tracking devices is now live. Apple announced this week it has implemented alerts for unknown third-party Bluetooth trackers in iOS 17.5, following Google starting to roll it out across Android devices running 6.0 and higher last December.
The Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers (DULT) standard is a cross-platform initiative designed to prevent Bluetooth trackers like Apple AirTags from being misused to track people without their knowledge. The specification allows iOS and Android devices to detect and alert you when a tracker that conforms to the standard is traveling with you and its owner is not.
Apple said in a press release that...
Image: Square Enix
Everybody’s getting bitten by the multiplatform bug; now, it’s Square Enix. In its earnings report released earlier today, the publisher shared plans to increase profits, stating that it will “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs.”
Right now, Square Enix’s biggest games, like Final Fantasy XVIand Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, have been restricted to the PlayStation, with PC releases for select titles including Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade following some time after console launch. However, smaller new releases, like the forthcoming Visions of Mana, are seeing simultaneous release on Xbox.
The company wrote that it hopes bringing its major franchises, including its...
Photo: Warner Bros.
OpenAI is releasing a Her-inspired voice assistant feature that can read your facial expressions and translate spoken language in real time — and hopefully do it all without abandoning you like in the movie.
During a livestream demonstration on Monday, OpenAI engineers and CTO Mira Murati gathered around a phone to show the new capabilities. They encouraged the assistant to be more expressive while making up a bedtime story, then abruptly requested it to switch to a robotic voice, before finally asking it to conclude the story with a singing voice. Later, they asked the assistant to look at what the phone’s camera is seeing and have it respond to what’s visible on-screen. The assistant was also able to be interrupted while speaking and...
I thought opening the impossible door in Mario 64 was the coolest thing that’d happened to the Nintendo 64 in years, but Mr. Wiseguy’s just-released N64 Recompiled blows me away. It’s a tool that theoretically lets you turn any N64 game into a native PC port, the better to play and preserve N64 games — and to showcase its abilities, you can already download Windows and Linux-native apps for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Maskthat seem to run incredibly well.
It almost seems too good to be true: I just double-clicked an EXE file on my Windows laptop, told the app where to find a Majora’s Mask ROM file, and was immediately playing a copy of the game that felt incredibly responsive to my every press on a 165Hz variable refresh rate screen,...
Image: Apple
Even if subscribers are outside cellular or Wi-Fi range (or if there’s a massive outage), Apple News Plus on iOS 17.5 can still supply them content now that it’s added Offline Mode — this must’ve been farther down the list from Apple Maps, which added offline navigation last year in the iOS 17 update. Top Stories, Apple News Today audio briefings, magazines, narrated articles, and puzzles can automatically download to your iPhone or iPad, all optimized to maximize space on the devices.
As promised, the latest updates across macOS, iPadOS, and other platforms also add another word game for News Plus subscribers called Quartiles, competing with The New York Times’ growing library of games and even LinkedIn. The New Plus Puzzles section...
Photo: Getty Images
Cruise’s autonomous vehicles are officially back on the road and driving autonomously for the first time since one of its driverless vehicles dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet in San Francisco.
Cruise said last month that it would resume testing with manually driven vehicles focused on mapping and gathering road information — minor tasks for a company with as many autonomous miles as Cruise. But Cruise needs to show local officials that it is suitably apologetic for the pedestrian-dragging incident by going slow and talking a lot about safety and trust. The company is deploying its vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona, which has long been a hotbed for autonomous vehicle testing.
Cruise needs to show local officials that it is suitably...
Denon Home smart speakers now support Apple’s Siri voice assistant. | Image: Denon
Way back in 2021, Ecobee’s thermostats became the first non-Apple device to integrate Siri voice control into its hardware, following Apple’s making the voice assistant available to third-party devices at WWDC that year. Fast-forward a few years, and there’s finally another device with Siri on board: Denon smart speakers.
While primarily known for its receivers, Denon’s line of wireless whole-home audio and music-streaming smart speakers position it as a competitor to Sonos and Bose. Denon also happens to be owned by Masimo Consumer Audio, a division of Masimo, the company whose patent infringement case around its pulse oximetry tech is currently blocking some of the Apple Watch’s health features.
The hardware support for Siri on Denon...
Life360 owns Tile, which makes popular location trackers like the Tile Pro. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
Tile is promising satellite connectivity for its Bluetooth trackers in a move that could boost the company as an independent alternative to its Big Tech rivals: Apple’s Find My network and Google’s newly revamped Find My Device network.
Life360, the family locator and safety service company that bought Tile in 2021 announced a partnership with the satellite company Hubble Network as it introduces “Find with Life360,” a global location tracking network rival with an API that’s open for use by other developers. They say that using Hubble’s satellites, Tile trackers will eventually be able to find items on both Android and iPhone devices even outside the range of cellular connectivity.
Hubble says it has two satellites operating already,...
The Vision Pro could be available in some international regions shortly after Apple’s WWDC event next month. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple is reportedly preparing to launch its $3,499 Vision Pro outside of the US for the first time, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, with the mixed reality headset’s international rollout expected to start shortly after the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference early next month.
On Monday, Gurman reported that Apple has flown “hundreds of employees from its international stores” over to its offices in Cupertino, California, to show them how to demonstrate the device. Training sessions reportedly started last week, with courses taking up to four days to complete according to Gurman’s sources.
Apple staffers from Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China are included in the training, but apparently, the...
The screen on the 2024 iPad Pro is a hair bigger, yet the tablet is somehow thinner and lighter than the prior model. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge
The newest iPad Pro and iPad Air models don’t hit store shelves until Wednesday, May 15th, but we’re already seeing preorder discounts on select colors ahead of the launch. The 11-inch iPad Air is down to $569.99 ($30 off) with Wi-Fi and 128GB of storage at Amazon, while the base 13-inch iPad Air is going for 769.99 ($30 off) at Amazon. Meanwhile, the 256GB 11-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip / Wi-Fi is down to $949.99 ($50 off) at Amazon; you can also save $50 on all 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models at Best Buy if you’re a My Best Buy Total or Plus member (which itself starts at $49.99 a year).
We can’t speak to their worth just yet, but the 2024 iPad Air and iPad Pro are likely to be safe bets. On paper, neither rock the boat so much...
Screenshot: YouTube
OpenAI is making a number of its previously subscription-only features available to free users of ChatGPT, with the biggest being the ability to create custom chatbots and browse its GPT Store.
The company opened its GPT Store to paid subscribers just four months ago on January 10th. The store lets users create their own chatbots, called GPTs, and share them. Some of the trending bots right now include an image-generating bot, a chatbot called Consensus that’s geared toward helping with scientific research, and a logo-making bot.
The company said it would offer an engagement-based revenue sharing program for GPT builders — that started testing in March. But the audience for the bots has been limited due to the feature’s restriction to...
Image: OpenAI
ChatGPT now has a desktop app — but it’s only available on macOS for now. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced the news during an event on Tuesday, where she also said that ChatGPT is getting a refreshed UI.
In the demo shown by OpenAI, users could open the ChatGPT desktop app in a small window, alongside another program. They asked ChatGPT questions about what’s on their screen — whether by typing or saying it. ChatGPT could then respond based on what it “sees.”
Image: OpenAI
OpenAI says users can ask ChatGPT a question by using the Option + Space keyboard shortcut, as well as take and discuss screenshots within the app. Both free and paid users will be able to access the new app, but it will only be available to...
Screenshot: OpenAI
OpenAI announced the launch of GPT-4o, an iteration of its GPT-4 model that powers its hallmark product, ChatGPT. The latest update “is much faster” and improves “capabilities across text, vision, and audio,” OpenAI CTO Mira Murati said in a livestream announcement on Monday. It’ll be free for all users, and paid users will continue to “have up to five times the capacity limits” of free users, Murati added.
In a blog post from the company, OpenAI says GPT-4o’s capabilities “will be rolled out iteratively (with extended red team access starting today),” but its text and image capabilities will start to roll out today in ChatGPT.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted that the model is “natively multimodal,” which means the model could generate...
Ikea’s new Energy Insights feature will offer real-time data on energy consumption and electricity spot prices. | Photo: Ikea
Energy management is a big benefit of the smart home, and more companies are starting to offer easier ways to monitor and control your home’s energy use through their app on your phone. The next level is offering intelligent ways to automate the process to save you money without you having to think about it.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea just took a small step toward providing that to users of its smart home platform, Home Smart. This week, it launched an Energy Insights feature to monitor your home’s energy use and announced its first energy-monitoring smart plug, the Inspelning, is coming in October.
Image: Ikea
The Inspelning is Ikea’s first energy monitoring smart plug.
Ikea says the Inspelning can monitor...
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
Here’s the situation: you’re typing a report for work, and you suddenly have to write the phrase “Jones née Berkowitz.” Or you are adding a phrase in Spanish and need to use the word “años.” How do you add the special characters to the letters?
Special characters (also known as diacritical marks) may be more common in certain languages, but there are plenty of circumstances in which English speakers may need to use them. But because they are so rare in English, native English speakers may not have learned how to add those marks to documents, emails, or other writings. It’s not difficult to add them to your Windows document, although it’s not quite as smooth an operation as on a Mac, where all you have to do is hold the appropriate key...
Photo: Meta
Meta Quest headsets are ready to go on flights with you as Meta has announced a new Travel Mode. The company is rolling out the experimental feature to Quest 2 and 3 headsets running Quest software version 65 or later, allowing owners to use the headset in passthrough on a flight without windows drifting away from them.
To try it, opt in under Settings > Experimental features. Then the new mode will live in the Quick settings panel, where you can toggle it from the Quest’s universal menu. Travel Mode isn’t without limitations — it’s not designed to account for the motion of a car or train, for instance; Meta says support for other transportation methods is coming. Also, if a game or app requires an internet connection, your plane will...
The North American ID Buzz. | Photo: Volkswagen
Volkswagen is one step closer to delivering the ID Buzz in the US, today revealing initial battery, powertrain, and trim options available when the all-electric microbus goes on sale later this year.
To start, the automaker will offer a First Edition model that comes with exclusive wheels, badging, and extra unknown “gifts.” Alongside that, VW has a Pro S model that is rear-wheel drive only (282 horsepower) and a Pro S Plus that can option in all-wheel drive (335 horsepower) and comes with standard premium features like a heads-up display.
While European customers have had fun going on road trips and camping for a year, Volkswagen has been slow to bring the retro-inspired microbus stateside. Last summer, the automaker confirmed the...
Image: Google
Google’s futuristic videoconferencing technology will soon become a reality. In an update on Monday, Google shared that it’s working on integrating Project Starline with common videoconferencing setups like Google Meet and Zoom.
Google first took the wraps off Project Starline during Google I/O in 2021. Its first iteration involved a 3D video chat booth where you see a projection of the person you’re chatting with and they see a projection of you — almost like you’re talking to each other in the same room.
But Google later fit the technology into what looks like a large TV with a camera system mounted on the top, rather than an entire booth, making it more practical for offices and conference rooms.
Image: Google
N...
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is attempting to solve the hassle of coordinating with colleagues on when everyone will be in the office. It’s a problem that emerged with the increase in hybrid and flexible work after the recent covid-19 pandemic, with workers spending less time in the office. Microsoft Places is an AI-powered app that goes into preview today and should help businesses that rely on Outlook and Microsoft Teams to better coordinate in-office time together.
“When employees get to the office, they don’t want to be greeted by a sea of empty desks — they want face-time with their manager and the coworkers they collaborate with most frequently,” says Microsoft’s corporate vice president of AI at work, Jared Spataro, in a blog post. “With Places, you...
Illustration: The Verge
Have you ever pasted text into your beautifully formatted Microsoft Word document, only for it to ruin everything? Well, the days of the should finally be over, as Microsoft Word will now merge the text’s formatting with your document by default.
Unlike the previous “keep source formatting” default, the “merge formatting” option preserves the original bold and underlined text, along with list and table structure. But it also changes the visual aspects of the text, such as font family, size, and color, to match the document you’re working on. That should save you from messing up the formatting of your entire document when pasting in text from another source.
You could previously choose the “merge formatting” option from Word’s pasting...
Image: TCL
5,000 nits. That’s the incredible peak brightness of TCL’s latest flagship QM8 Mini LED TV, and there’s no better example of how the company is hoping to stand out from competitors like Samsung, LG, Hisense, Sony, and others. That’s just on a different level than what OLED can offer. Are we getting to a point where TVs are getting too bright? No such thing, right?
Starting at $1,999.99 for a 65-inch size (and ranging up to an enormous 115-inch model), the QM8 contains thousands of dimming zones — “up to over 5,000,” to be specific. Combined with TCL’s image processing, the company is confident that people will get an enthralling home theater experience from this Mini LED set for significantly less than, say, a top-tier OLED would cost.
...
Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Adobe
The tech and the consumers both might not be quite ready yet, but he’s betting big on an AI future.
You know, normal backyard nighttime stuff.
Sometimes you travel thousands of miles from home to see something amazing. And every once in a while, that something appears right in your backyard.
That’s what happened on Friday. “What’s the aurora forecast for tonight?” I asked a friend who keeps up with those things. “Amazing,” he said. He wasn’t lying. At 9:30PM, my husband and I went to the backyard to check the sky — nothing but hazy light pollution on the northern horizon. But just an hour later, the sky erupted.
I didn’t think twice about what camera to use to photograph the event since I already had my SIM card in the Pixel 8A — it had arrived a couple of days ago fresh off its announcement. I handed my husband the Pixel 8 Pro; he left his night mode-less iPhone XR in the...
Image: Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
US safety regulators are looking into two crashes involving Amazon’s robotaxi company, Zoox. The Office of Defects Investigation, under the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, opened a preliminary evaluation into Zoox after two separate reports of the vehicles suddenly braking and causing motorcyclists to crash into their rear end.
NHTSA confirms that the Zoox vehicles were operating in driverless mode without safety drivers when the incidents occurred. The vehicles involved in both crashes were Toyota Highlander SUVs, which Zoox uses for testing and data gathering. According to the Office of Defects Investigation, the investigation covers an estimated 500 vehicles.
The crashes did not involve Zoox’s unique toaster-looking...
Image: John Deere
The solar storms that have been wowing people with the Northern Lights across the United States the last two nights have also been disrupting GPS satellites, crippling some Midwest farmers’ operations, reports 404 Media. The issues have forced many to stop planting just as a crucial planting deadline for corn farmers approaches.
The storms reportedly knocked “some GPS systems” offline temporarily, which messed with the accuracy of “Real-Time Kinematic” (RTK) systems. Tractors from John Deere and other brands use RTK for “centimeter-level positional accuracy” when carrying out farming work like crop-planting or fertilizing, 404 Media writes.
The “extremely compromised” systems caused “drastic shifts in the field and even some heading...
Time for some Abe’s Oddysee! | Screenshot: Gamma
iPhone users without a penchant for jailbreaking can finally enjoy the blocky polygons and shifty textures of the original PlayStation with Gamma, a free PS1 emulator that hit the iOS App Store last night. Gamma comes courtesy of developer ZodTTD, which has been creating emulators for the iPhone since the earliest days of third-party iOS apps.
The app has both iPhone and iPad versions with support for Bluetooth controllers and keyboards, as well as customizable on-screen controller skins. It uses Google Drive and Dropbox syncing for backing up your game files and save states (those are the snapshots you can save at any time and reload, a little like pausing your game — great for old-school games that don’t let you save any time you...
Despite its name, the Pocket 3 isn’t exactly comfortable to stuff in tighter pockets. | Photo by Quentyn Kennemer / The Verge
I can’t think of anything permeating mainstream camera culture as aggressively as the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. The Fujifilm X100VI has stolen some of its thunder among film simulation enthusiasts, but DJI’s still having somewhat of a cultural moment on YouTube, Instagram, and the troubled TikTok by spurring all sorts of creator glee.
Of course, the camera buffs are all over it, but serious and casual creators from other genres have paused their usual programming to rave about how it transcends amateur vlogging pursuits, whether you’re filming a wedding or self-shooting a scene for a Sundance-hopeful short film.
Some of us at The Verge are excited, too: Vjeran liked it enough to call it his favorite gadget of 2023, and Sean just bought one...
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge
Not all video games need video. Over the years, games that exist only in audio have taken players into entirely new worlds in which there’s nothing to see and still everything to do. These games have huge accessibility implications, allowing people who can’t see to play an equally fun, equally immersive game with their other senses. And when all you have is sound, there’s actually even more you can do to make your game great.
On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore the history of audio-only games with Paul Bennun, who has been in this space longer than most. Years ago, Bennun and his team at Somethin’ Else made a series of games called Papa Sangre that were among the most innovative and most popular games of their kind. He explains...
Image: David Pierce / The Verge
Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 37, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, send me links, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been writing about iPads and LinkedIn games, reading about auto shows and typewriters and treasure hunters, watching Everybody’s in LAand Sugar, looking for reasons to buy Yeti’s new French press even though I definitely don’t need more coffee gear, following almost all of Jerry Saltz’s favorite Instagram accounts, testing Capacities and Heptabase for all my note-taking needs and Plinky for all my link-saving, and playing a lot of Blind Drive.
I also have for you a thoroughly impressive new iPad, a clever...
Screenshot: Ghost of Tsushima
Steam is refunding preorders of the director’s cut of Ghost of Tsushima for buyers who live in countries without PlayStation Network access. That’s despite the fact that arguably the most important part of the game is still playable without PlayStation Network account linking. The news comes after Valve abruptly delisted the game yesterday.
Ghost of Tsushima only requires PSN account linking for its Legends multiplayer mode, a requirement the single player campaign is exempt from, the game’s developer went out of its way to say in a recent post. Steam, Green Man Gaming, and Epic Games Store each have disclaimers noting the same thing. In theory, that would mean if you don’t care about multiplayer modes, you could still play, but in...
Illustration: The Verge
OpenAI has been showing some of its customers a new multimodal AI model that can both talk to you and recognize objects, according to a new report from The Information. Citing unnamed sources who’ve seen it, the outlet says this could be part of what the company plans to show on Monday.
The new model reportedly offers faster, more accurate interpretation of images and audio than what its existing separate transcription and text-to-speech models can do_._ It would apparently be able to help customer service agents “better understand the intonation of callers’ voices or whether they’re being sarcastic,” and “theoretically,” the model can help students with math or translate real-world signs, writes The Information.
The outlet’s sources say...
iFixit’s step-up toolkit has all sorts of bits and bobs, all of which slot nicely in the case and included fabric roll. | Image: iFixit
The right-to-repair movement has logged some serious wins over the past several years, with states like California, New York, and Minnesota having recently passed laws that make it easier for consumers to repair their own devices. But being able to obtain parts and manuals is only part of the process — you also need the tools. Luckily, iFixit’s Pro Tech Toolkit is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and iFixit for $59.96 ($15 off), matching the lowest price we’ve seen on the versatile tool set.
Chances are you know iFixit for its in-depth teardowns of various gadgets and gizmos, including iPhone 15 Pro Max, headsets like the Apple Vision Pro, and the confounding mess that is the Humane AI Pin (sorry not sorry). That said, the company also...
Image: Google
Google is preparing to hold its annual Google I/O developer conference next week, and naturally, it will be all about AI. The company has made no secret of that. Since last year’s I/O, it has debuted Gemini, its new, more powerful model meant to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and has been deep in testing new features for Search, Google Maps, and Android. Expect to hear a lot about that stuff this year.
Google I/O kicks off on Tuesday, May 14th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET with a keynote talk. You can catch that on Google’s site or its YouTube channel, via the livestream link that’s also embedded at the top of this page. (There’s also a version with an American Sign Language interpreter.) Set a...
Image: SFB Games
Even as modern horror games become unnervingly immersive, there’s still a place for the particular mood of old-school survival horror. Through a combo of grimy visuals, cryptic puzzles, slow pacing, and clunky controls, PlayStation-era games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill were able to create a distinct kind of tension and terror. Crow Country is what would happen if that kind of game never went out of style. It has the look and feel of the classics but with just the right amount of modern flourish. It’s a perfect bite of classic horror.
Crow Country comes from indie studio SFB Games — led by brothers Tom and Adam Vian — which has so far managed to create quite the eclectic library of releases. There was the playful Switch launch...
Google’s annual developer conference kicks off on Tuesday. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The past few months have made one thing crystal clear: phones remain undefeated.
The AI gadgets that were supposed to save us from our phones have arrived woefully underbaked — whatever illusions we might have held that the Humane AI pin or the Rabbit R1 were going to offer any kind of salve for the constant rug burn of dealing with our personal tech is gone. Hot Gadget Spring is over and developer season is upon us, starting with Google I/O this coming Tuesday.
It also happens to be a pivotal time for Android. I/O comes on the heels of a major re-org that put the Android team together with Google’s hardware team for the first time. The directive is clear: to run full speed ahead and put more AI in more things. Not preferring Google’s...
The Lily 2 is a small, unassuming tracker that suits casual users. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Its limitations made it fall short in daily life but ended up being a plus while trying to disconnect from the world.
That’s a skinny XPS. | Image: Windows Report
Want a look at Dell’s new notebook lineup that’s apparently powered by Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors? Courtesy of Windows Report, these leaked images come ahead of Microsoft’s May 20th event where new Surfaces (and other laptops) are expected to sport the same chips.
They unsurprisingly look like laptops — albeit with overall slimmer profiles.
The most interesting model is Dell’s new XPS 13 9345, which seems to be a sleeker rebirth of the XPS 13 Plus from 2022. It’s got the same touchy touch-bar on the top row and comes with only two USB-C ports for I/O.
Image: Windows Report
Dell XPS 9345
Image: Windows Report
Dell Inspiron 14 7441 Plus
There’s also a leaked...
From midsized and midrange stars to big, beefy monsters, these are the best technically portable gaming rigs you can get.
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
The best laptops for you, from ultraportables to gaming machines, MacBooks to Chromebooks.
Photo by IDA MARIE ODGAARD/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
GameStop, the used video game retailer that’s become increasingly associated with other kinds of speculative investments, wants to cash in on the resurgent card collecting craze — staffers have told Pokébeach, Polygon, and The Verge that stores will begin buying and selling rare Pokémon cards, and possibly other cards, as soon as next week.
GameStop apparently doesn’t want just any cards, though: employees across multiple states say they’ll only be buying cards that have already been graded by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) at an 8, 9, or 10, meaning they’re in near-mint condition or better with only slight imperfections. And yet, GameStop won’t accept the rarest cards valued at over $500, either, Pokébeach and Polygon report....
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will pay a combined $10.22 million to a group of states to settle claims that the carriers lied to customers about their “unlimited” plans and “free” phone offers. The settlement, which follows an investigation from a coalition of 50 attorneys general, requires the three companies to make their advertisements more transparent.
Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T can only advertise their plans as “unlimited” if there are no limits on how much data someone can use during a billing cycle. The ads must “clearly and conspicuously” say that restrictions on speed may apply, as well as specify the amount of data customers can use before triggering the slowdown.
Additionally, the attorneys...
Matter Casting is now rolling out to all Fire TVs on FireOS 6 or higher. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
If the Fire TV is your streaming stick of choice, I have good news. There’s now an easy way to cast content from your phone or tablet to your TV — as long as you’re watching Prime Video. Matter Casting, a new protocol for casting content from an app on your phone to an app on a TV or display, is rolling out now to compatible Fire TVs and could one day be available on more screens in our homes.
Unlike Apple’s AirPlay or Google Cast, Matter Casting is an open standard with no requirement for proprietary hardware. I got some hands-on time with the feature on a Fire TV at Amazon’s Day 1 HQ in Seattle last week and, according to Amazon spokesperson Connor Rice, Matter Casting will be arriving on all Fire TVs running FireOS 6 or higher “over...
Some of the latest M3 MacBooks are on sale, and you can find great discounts on older models, too. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Apple currently sells MacBooks equipped with its own M-series chips in a wide range of sizes and price points. It recently discontinued the M1 MacBook Air to make room for the M3 Air, but some retailers are still selling the last-gen laptop starting at $699 — a far cry from the $2,499 starting price of the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro. Purchasing a new MacBook can certainly be a pricey endeavor, but thankfully, finding a deal on a current M3-based model is actually not that difficult.
Although Macs may not experience perpetual discounts, it’s not uncommon to see various models discounted by as much as $400. Alternatively, purchasing refurbished options directly from Apple is another way to save money without waiting for the changing deal...
Illustration by Aaron Fernandez for The Verge
We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.
Image: Bungie
Before there was Halo and Destiny, there was Marathon — and now Steam users can check out the classic sci-fi shooter for themselves. Bungie just announced that the first game in the original trilogy has surprise-dropped on Steam, and it’s available on both Mac and PC. Even better, you can play it for free.
The game is actually credited to Aleph One Developers, which is described as an “open source continuation of Bungie’s Marathon 2 game engine.” In fact, the group has already made the entire trilogy available to download right here with support for Mac, PC, and Linux. But the Steam launch opens up the games to a big new audience of gamers, and Bungie says the plan is to bring both sequels — Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity —...
Photo by Zhang Dagang / VCG via Getty Images
Who’s afraid of China’s electric vehicles? President Joe Biden.
The president is preparing to announce higher tariffs on imported Chinese EVs, effectively closing out the possibility that the country will be able to afford to import its much cheaper and, in many cases, more desirable plug-in vehicles to the United States.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration will announce plans to roughly quadruple tariffs, to 100 percent from the current 25 percent, as well as tack on an additional 2.5 percent duty.
Who’s afraid of China’s electric vehicles? Joe Biden
So far, the current tariffs have been effective at preventing Chinese companies from importing their EVs to the US. But officials are reportedly nervous about...
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
Electronic Arts has a long, storied history of trying to wring more money out of gamers after they’ve purchased a game — now, it appears, the company’s hard at work on its next generation of in-game ads.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson admitted as much on the company’s Q4 earnings call: when an analyst asked about “the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion across more traditional AAA games,” he said the company’s already working on it.
“We have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences,” said Wilson.
I don’t want to take Wilson out of context. If you read the full question and answer (page 12), you’ll see that in-game ads aren’t the thing he’s most...
The Kobo Elipsa 2E is a better value than Amazon’s less capable Kindle Scribe. | Image: Kobo
I’ll be honest: every model in Amazon’s discounted Kindle lineup is fantastic for those embedded in the Amazon ecosystem, but it’s Kobo that makes my absolute favorite e-readers. If you don’t mind buying ebooks outside of Amazon, Kobo’s e-readers offer fantastic value for the money, which is why I’m excited by today’s sale. The Kobo Sage and Kobo Clara 2E are up to $30 off at Target, but it’s the Kobo Elipsa 2E, which is matching its all-time low of $349.99 ($50 off) at Target and Rakuten Kobo, that stands out the most. Even better, Rakuten Kobo is throwing in a $10 credit when you buy a $50 gift card, which can be used toward an ebook or audiobook from the Kobo store.
Kobo’s ad-free Elipsa 2E is my favorite e-reader for taking notes,...
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot down a Reuters report that claims OpenAI is launching a search product next Monday, the day before Google’s flagship conference, Google I/O.
Altman posted on X that while there is an OpenAI announcement set for Monday morning, it’s “not gpt-5, not a search engine,” but whatever it is, he says it “feels like magic.” The only details provided by the official OpenAI post are that the launch will have updates on ChatGPT and its latest model, GPT-4.
not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me.
monday 10am PT. https://t.co/nqftf6lRL1
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 10, 2024
The Verge reported on Monday that sources say OpenAI has been...
A smartphone camera will provide better views than your own eyes if you’re lucky enough to witness the aurora this weekend. | Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images
Those of you looking to the skies this weekend may bear witness to a cosmic visual experience typically reserved for regions near the Arctic Circle. Various global weather agencies are reporting that the aurora borealis could be visible as far south as Alabama and Northern California over the coming days thanks to unusually strong solar flares.
On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a G4 geomagnetic storm watch — the first to be declared in almost 20 years. G4 geomagnetic storms (which are the second-strongest variety and considered “severe”) can potentially interfere with power infrastructure and navigation systems, but they can also trigger the aurora borealis. That means parts of the world could...
An aurora borealis glows a faint purple in the night sky in the district of Märkisch-Oderland in East Brandenburg. | Photo: Getty Images
The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a rare “severe” geomagnetic storm watch for the US for Friday night. The Met Office weather service also issued a similar watch for the UK for Friday and Saturday. They’re worried about coronal mass ejections (CMEs), explosions of plasma and magnetized particles coming from the Sun, that could potentially impact critical infrastructure, including the power grid, internet cables, and satellites.
This is the first time since 2005 that the SWPC has issued a watch for a storm rated as G4, which is the scale’s second-highest rating. Critical infrastructure operators have been notified so they can take precautions, the center says.
Worst-case scenario, all those...
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The best from Apple, Bose, Samsung, Sony, Beats, Google, and more.
Image: Ubisoft
Sometimes you gotta know when to hold ‘em, and that’s exactly what Evil Empire, developer on The Rogue Prince of Persia, has done. Today, the studio announced that it would postpone the release of its Prince of Persia-themed roguelike to give players more time with another roguelike that released earlier this week... *checks notes* Hades II.
“Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing that game (including our entire team... and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia,” the studio explained in a statement.
So we've got a little bit of news about The Rogue Prince of Persia, it's all in the big yellow box https://t.co/S3FiyGFfrY pic.twitter.com/9PXlw4J2MZ
— Evil Empire...
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.
Illustration: The Verge
Apple’s plans for AI on the iPhone could bring real-time transcription to its Voice Memos and Notes apps, according to a report from AppleInsider. The new feature is expected to arrive with iOS 18 and will reportedly let you see a running transcription of your audio recordings in either app.
While Notes currently doesn’t let you record audio, a separate rumor from AppleInsider suggests Apple plans on adding this capability in iOS 18 as well. Audio transcription in either app sounds especially handy for students or journalists, who can save time transcribing a lengthy lecture or interview. It should also be helpful for anyone who just wants to take a quick look at their Voice Memos without having to listen to their recordings.
As for...
Photo: 20th Century Studios
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes remixes beats from the franchise’s previous films to tell a story about how myths evolve.
Image: Fisker
Fisker has another braking issue on its hands, prompting US safety regulators to open a fourth probe on the automaker’s electric Ocean SUV.
This time, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into customer claims that the Ocean would unexpectedly activate its automatic emergency braking (AEB) without any forward obstruction. Reuters reports three of the claims involved someone getting injured.
This is the second probe opened for the 2023 Ocean that has to do with the vehicle’s braking system. The first, which was announced last January, was based on complaints that the vehicle would lose braking power. Now the regulator’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening a preliminary evaluation based on...
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge
You may not spend much time thinking about the default apps you’ve got set up on macOS until they suddenly get configured the wrong way — and you find that, say, the app that pops up when you click on an image file is not the one you want to use.
Out of the box, your Mac will use Apple’s own tools for most tasks: click on a web link in Mail and you’ll see Safari, for example, or double-click on an image you’ve downloaded to your system and up pops Photos. However, you might want to use different apps, or maybe a freshly installed app has decided to make itself the default and you want to undo the change (web browsers often do this, asking to become the default when they launch for the first time).
So it’s useful to know how to set the...
Cardiovascular age is a proxy for how “stiff” your arteries are. | Image: Oura
Oura’s been busy this past year launching several new features — and folks with the Gen 3 version of the smart ring are about to get two more. At the end of May, the company will roll out cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity metrics for gauging long-term heart health. Emphasis on long-term.
“The thing about cardiovascular age and cardiovascular capacity is that these are both metrics that you can actually impact,” explains Shyamal Patel, Oura’s head of science. Right now, Patel says, Oura’s current feature set has been much more focused on your near-term metrics. “With these features, we’re sort of introducing this idea of longer-term health. What are the things that you’re doing today? How are they contributing to your health...
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge
People seem to like Apple’s new iPad Pro, with its better screen and impressive design. People also seem to really hate Apple’s new ad in which the company crushes centuries of creative tools because, in the future, there is only iPad. And after all the iPad stuff this week, people are still asking the same question: what is the point of the iPad?
On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the week in Apple news: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the Pencil Pro, the Magic Keyboard, the new apps, and much more. We also wonder if any of this changes anything about what the iPad is, how it works, and where it’s headed — or if the answers will only come at WWDC next month. Then we talk about that ad everyone’s mad about and why it seems like...
Image: Supergiant Games
Now that theHades II early access period has started, opening up a more complete but still early build of the game, I’ve been fighting against the urge to gorge myself on it — and losing. To be fair, I have a weak spirit since I loved the first Hades, which introduced me to the concept of roguelikes, a genre I avoided out of disdain for repetition. Also, and this is the biggest factor in my spiritual war against the game: I have a Steam Deck, which makes not playing the game all but impossible.
Slight spoilers for Hades II follow.
Hades II is Steam Deck-verified with a comfortable control scheme that reminds me of playing on the Switch. I did fiddle with the button mapping a little bit, swapping the buttons for dash and attack. (It’s...
Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max are $100 off for the first time since December. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge
Not too long ago, it seemed like every retailer was offering a steep discount on Apple’s AirPods Max. Then, suddenly, they all stopped. For the past few months, we’ve rarely seen the AirPods Max drop below $500 — that is, until this week. Now, for the second time this year, you can grab Apple’s on-ear headphones at Amazon for $449.99 ($100 off), which matches one of their best prices to date.
Even if they are still stuck with Apple’s aging Lightning port, there’s no better pair of headphones on the market for iPhone owners than the AirPods Max. They pair exceptionally well with other Apple devices, and their sound quality easily rivals other pairs of premium headphones. Yes, their noise cancellation isn’t quite as impressive as that of S...
The Riffgat offshore wind farm, around 15 kilometers north of the island of Borkum. | Photo: Getty Images
Data centers and offshore wind farms could prove to be a perfect pair as AI grows increasingly energy-hungry.
Many of the companies racing to roll out new generative AI tools have also made big commitments to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. A rush of new AI data centers could throw those climate goals off — unless they find a clean source of energy.
Conveniently, some of the quirks with AI data centers make them a good match for wind farms at sea. And the offshore wind industry, which has already cozied up with Big Tech, could certainly use a boost as it looks ahead to more uncertain economic waters.
“Data centers and AI ... We are excited about that opportunity,” Mads Nipper, CEO of leading offshore wind developer Ørsted, said...
OpenAI has allegedly been trying to poach Google employees to work on its own search product offering. | Illustration: The Verge
OpenAI is reportedly gearing up to announce a search product powered by artificial intelligence on Monday that could threaten Google’s dominance. That target date, provided to Reuters by “two sources familiar with the matter,” would time the announcement a day before Google kicks off its annual I/O conference, which is expected to focus on the search giant’s own AI model offerings like Gemini and Gemma.
This new rumor tracks with earlier reports from both Bloomberg and The Informationthat also suggest OpenAI is developing an AI-based product capable of searching the internet. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s search feature will be built into its ChatGPT chatbot and include citations, while The Information reports OpenAI’s search service...
Stanford’s holographic AR glasses prototype. | Image: Andrew Brodhead / Stanford
A research team at Stanford is developing a new AI-assisted holographic imaging technology it claims is thinner, lighter, and higher quality than anything its researchers have seen. Could it take augmented reality (AR) headsets to the next level?
For now, the lab version has an anemic field of view — just 11.7 degrees in the lab, far smaller than a Magic Leap 2 or even a Microsoft HoloLens.
But Stanford’s Computational Imaging Lab has an entire page with visual aid after visual aid that suggests it could be onto something special: a thinner stack of holographic components that could nearly fit into standard glasses frames, and be trained to project realistic, full-color, moving 3D images that appear at varying depths.
...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft has been talking about plans for an Xbox mobile gaming store for a couple of years now, and the company now plans to launch it in July. Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit earlier today, Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed the launch date and how Microsoft is going to avoid Apple’s strict App Store rules.
“We’re going to start by bringing our own first-party portfolio to [the Xbox mobile store], so you’re going to see games like Candy Crush show up in that experience, games like Minecraft,” says Bond_. “_We’re going to start on the web, and we’re doing that because that really allows us to have it be an experience that’s accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what and independent of the policies of closed...
Photo by Kena Betancur/VIEWpress
Now that they’ve got an extra $100 billion worth of premium airwaves and Sprint no longer nipping at their heels, how can the big three cellular carriers continue to consolidate and grow? Well, T-Mobile and Verizon “are in discussions to carve up U.S. Cellular,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report suggests this is about harvesting even more wireless spectrum; my colleague Allison pointed out in 2022 that US Cellular “tends to offer service where some of the major carriers don’t.” (It would certainly be nice for T-Mobile and Verizon customers to have better coverage, but I would prefer competition to lower my wireless bill.)
T-Mobile would reportedly pay over $2 billion for wireless spectrum licenses and take over “some...
Illustration: The Verge
Apple plans to start its foray into generative AI by offloading complex queries to M2 Ultra chips running in data centers before moving to its more advanced M4 chips.
Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to put its M2 Ultra on cloud servers to run more complex AI queries, while simple tasks are processed on devices. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple wanted to make custom chips to bring to data centers to ensure security and privacy in a project the publication says is called Project ACDC, or Apple Chips in Data Center. But the company now believes its existing processors already have sufficient security and privacy components.
The chips will be deployed to Apple’s data centers and eventually to servers run by third...
Image: Mob Entertainment
The horror puzzle game Poppy Playtime is getting a live-action film adaption. Developer Mob Entertainment says it struck a deal with the entertainment company Legendary after fielding “several competitive offers.” Transformers producer Don Murphy and filmmaker Susan Montford will develop and produce the adaptation.
Poppy Playtime is a first-person adventure game, where players take on the role of a former toy factory worker who returns to their now-abandoned workplace. As players explore Playtime Co., they have to solve several puzzles while trying to avoid Huggy Wuggy, the monstrous toy lurking in the factory. The base version of Poppy Playtime is free to play across PC and console, but its developers released chapters players can...
Image: Apple
Apple has apologized after a commercial meant to showcase its brand-new iPad Pro drew widespread criticism among the creative community. In a statement provided to Ad Age, Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of marketing, said the company “missed the mark.”
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Myhren told Ad Age. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
On Tuesday, Apple introduced the M4-powered iPad Pro, which the company described as its thinnest product ever. To advertise all the creative possibilities...
Image: Albacore (X)
Microsoft has quietly started testing an intriguing change to the Windows 11 Start menu that could introduce a floating panel full of “companion” widgets. Windows watcher Albacore discovered the new Start menu feature in the latest test versions of Windows 11 that Microsoft has released publicly.
While Microsoft has not yet announced this feature, the “Start menu Companions” appear to be a way to allow developers to extend the Windows 11 Start menu with widget-like functionality that lives inside a floating island that can be docked next to the Start menu. It looks like developers will be able to build apps that provide widget-like information through adaptive cards — a platform-agnostic way of displaying UI blocks of information.
It's...
“The next ROG Ally.” | Image: Asus
The Asus ROG Ally was the first true Steam Deck challenger; while I’d argue it fell a little short, it legitimately improved the state of affordable Windows handheld gaming with its plugged-in performance boosts and smooth variable refresh rate screen. Now, Asus is beginning to reveal its successor: the ROG Ally X.
Don’t call it an Ally 2: when it ships in the second half of the year, the Windows-based Ally X will have the same AMD Z1 Extreme chipset and the same 7-inch 48–120Hz VRR screen. It’s not quite like the Steam Deck OLED, where Valve got AMD to revise its chip for better battery life and stability and added a larger, brighter, gorgeous new OLED panel with improved response time and slimmer bezels.
“We’re not looking at 30 to 40...
Photo: Fanatec
Corsair is pursuing an acquisition of the racing sim brand Fanatec. In an update shared on Thursday, Corsair says it’s negotiating with Fanatec to restructure the troubled company’s around €70 million (about $75.4 million) debt and cover short-term costs.
Over the years, Fanatec has established itself as one of the most popular brands for racing sim hardware. It offers a premium lineup of racing wheels, pedals, shifters, and more, which virtual racing enthusiasts can hook up to their console or PC when playing games like Gran Turismo 7 and Assetto Corsa.
But the company’s reputation has taken a hit in recent months. Fanatec customers have flooded forums with complaints about the company’s inability to fulfill orders on time and lack of...
“Buy our iPad or the piano gets it!” | Screenshot: Apple
I wonder if Apple CEO Tim Cook was surprised by the visceral revulsion many people felt after viewing the newest commercial for Apple’s iPad. In it, a plethora of creative tools are flattened by an industrial press. Watching a piano, which if maintained can last for something like 50 years, squished to advertise a gadget, designed to be obsolete in less than 10, is infuriating. The backlash was immediate.
The message many of us received was this: Apple, a trillion-dollar behemoth, will crush everything beautiful and human, everything that’s a pleasure to look at and touch, and all that will be left is a skinny glass and metal slab.
Astoundingly, this is meant to sell a product. “Buy the thing that’s destroying everything you love,”...
Image: Lucid
It’s earnings season, and anyone invested in the idea that electric vehicles are the future of transportation is all over Tesla. But Elon Musk’s company isn’t the only one putting all its bets on battery-electric vehicles. Three other so-called “pure EV plays” — Rivian, Lucid Motors, and Fisker — also posted their earnings this week. And sifting through the numbers reveals some worrisome trends.
For years, it was assumed that Tesla as well as the dozen or so other pure EV companies it helped spawn, would outmaneuver the legacy automakers thanks to a laser focus on electric powertrains and battery production. But today, it’s the legacy automakers that are posting healthy profits while the pure EV companies flounder.
Price cuts, politics,...
Disney Plus, Hulu, and Max are teaming up for a new bundle this summer, Netflix is focused on the WWE and celebrity boxing, Disney Plus is getting ESPN, and Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Max could get a price hike. A familiar refrain emerged around all this news: streaming is becoming cable TV all over again and getting crummier in the process.
And it's true! When streaming first emerged, it was a beautiful alternative to piracy, which was very convenient and very illegal, and cable, which was festooned with ads and weighed down by channels you were paying for and didn’t want. Streaming gave you a world of content on demand for a fraction of the cost of cable.
But that experience was never sustainable. Content costs money to...
Illustration: The Verge
My Uber driver asked for my PIN recently. In my half-asleep state, I stared at him, alarmed, for a few seconds before it dawned on me: he was asking me to share the PIN Uber sent so I could verifymy ride.
It turned out I’d activated all of Uber’s safety features while writing about Uber’s new safety customization section last month and then forgot about their existence entirely — which, to be honest, is pretty easy to do. Hidden away under Settings in the Uber app, Uber’s safety tools are less visible than all of its many services and even its Emission Savings feature (yeah, that’s a thing).
That’s a real shame because as a single female caregiver who frequently takes Ubers and has experienced harassment, I’m starting to appreciate the...
Image: Microsoft.com
Microsoft is finally adding an easy way to use QR codes inside Windows 11’s built-in Snipping Tool. A new update has started rolling out to Windows Insider testers today that will automatically detect QR codes in screenshots so you can open links from your PC. The Snipping Tool update also includes support for emoji.
The automatic QR code detection will appear if you enter the text actions part of the canvas in the Snipping Tool and will highlight the QR code and its clickable link. If you’re an emoji fan, then you’ll be able to add Microsoft’s 3D emoji to your screenshots. This new option is part of the shapes toolbar, and any inserted emoji can easily be resized and moved around on top of your screenshot.
Image:...
Skylight’s 15-inch touchscreen planner is probably the last calendar your family will ever need. | Image: Skylight
As cool and useful as the Skylight Calendar is, I can’t blame anyone for feeling apprehensive about paying north of $300 for something their smartphone and a cheap paper calendar can do. But the 15-inch version of the excellent family planner is now receiving a rare $70 discount at Amazon and Best Buy, which drops it to an all-time low of $249.99. If you’re a Costco member and don’t mind waiting until tomorrow, May 10th, you can even pick it up for $219.99 ($80 off).
The Skylight Calendar is a fun smart display that lets you create color-coded sticky notes and appointments, which look similar to the Google Calendar web interface. (By the way, Skylight sells an even more impressive 27-inch version that starts at $569.99 and a more...
Illustration: The Verge
One important step of evolving Threads into a fully featured social media platform is being more transparent about reach and distribution. And today, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says the company is making it easy for anyone to see a post’s view count. “It’s important that people understand how their Threads posts perform, so we’re rolling out the ability to tap anywhere on a post to display its total view count,” he writes.
As usual, it’ll take some time before everyone gets this option — I’m not seeing it in my app or on the web just yet — but it’ll be a welcome window into performance for influencers, businesses, and regular users. If nothing else, it’s always nice to know you’re not just shouting into the void. “We’ve got more work...
Image: The Verge
The Maryland legislature passed two bills over the weekend limiting tech platforms’ ability to collect and use consumers’ data. Maryland Governor Wes Moore is expected to sign one of those bills, the Maryland Kids Code, on Thursday, MoCo360 reports.
If signed into law, the other bill, the Maryland Online Privacy Act, will go into effect in October 2025. The legislation would limit platforms’ ability to collect user data and let users opt out of having their data used for targeted advertising and other purposes.
Together, the bills would significantly limit social media and other platforms’ ability to track their users — but tech companies, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, have opposed similar legislation. NetChoice, a trade...
Photo: Lego
Lego is releasing a new Retro Radio build that emulates a classic portable sound system. It visually scratches the nostalgic itch with its mechanical tuner knob, a handle, and even an antenna. Jay’s Brick Blog reports the $99.99 set, part of Lego’s Icons collection, can play preloaded sounds or house a smartphone to play whatever — but unfortunately, Lego skipped on implementing an actual radio.
The Retro Radio is made up of 906 pieces and includes a special speaker-containing sound brick that plays its included tunes of fake stations like a sports broadcast that you can interact with by turning the dial. The other knob powers on the unit, and there’s also a pretend AM / FM switch.
Lego includes some key details on the Retro Radio, like...
The last-gen iPad is still worth buying even after Apple killed it and cut the price of its successor. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Apple may have stopped selling iPads with headphone jacks, but that doesn’t mean you can‘t buy one. Despite the fact Apple dropped the ninth-gen iPad from its official lineup this week, you can still purchase the tablet from multiple third-party retailers for the time being. Until they run out of stock, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are still selling the last-gen iPad starting at $249 ($80 off) with 64GB of storage and Wi-Fi.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly tablet for entertainment purposes, the 10.2-inch ninth-gen iPad still offers excellent value for your money. It’s $100 cheaper than its larger, 10.9-inch successor with an older A13 Bionic processor, yet it runs the same software and can do a lot of the same things....
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Sonos has responded to the avalanche of feedback — some good, plenty bad — about the company’s redesigned mobile app that was released on May 7th. In the days since, customers have complained about missing features like sleep timers, broken local music library management, and no longer having the ability to edit playlists or the upcoming song queue. More alarmingly, the Sonos app’s accessibility has also taken a hit, something the company says it’s aiming to resolve by next month.
In a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos confirms that it’s keenly aware of the gripes that customers have expressed about the new app. It’s hearing their response and is working to address the functionality that has (for now) gone missing. But the company...
Image: The Verge
TikTok already automatically applies an “AI-generated” tag to content on its platform made using TikTok’s AI tools, and that same label will now apply to content created on other platforms. Now, TikTok will detect when images or videos are uploaded to its platform containing metadata tags indicating the presence of AI-generated content and says it’s the first social media platform to support the new Content Credentials.
Support for the Adobe-developed tagging system (which has been added to tools like Photoshop and Firefly) comes as TikTok partners with Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) as well as the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).
Image: TikTok
TikTok writes that Content...
Photo: New Line Cinema
Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was working on “multiple Lord of the Rings movies’’ with New Line Cinema, the production company that put out Peter Jackson’s original trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. Now, we know when the first of those new movies is probably hitting theaters.
During an earnings call today, WBD CEO David Zaslav announced that the company expects Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum to debut sometime in 2026 and “explore storylines yet to be told.” Andy Serkis is set to direct the film and reprise his role as the titular Hobbit-like man whose encounters with the One Ring transform him into a crazed ghoul, and Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens have joined the project as producers.
In a...
Image: Bigmode Games
Talk to someone who is fully immersed in the indie game Animal Well, and you’re bound to hear some strange things. They might get excited about a new way to use a Frisbee or be frustrated about playing music for a caged cat. They’ll probably chat your ear off about the dozens of different-colored eggs they’ve collected, and all of the ones that seem just out of reach. Mostly, though, what they’re saying will sound like gibberish. That’s because the world of Animal Well is so odd and cryptic it almost requires its own language to discuss — but once you speak it, it’s hard to think about anything else.
Animal Well is the first release from solo developer Billy Basso, and it’s probably best described as a Metroidvania. You play as a little...
I hope other phone makers are taking notes on how to do a fun color. | Photo: Motorola
Motorola’s Moto G Stylus 5G is back this year with some notable spec bumps and an eye-catching new design. This year’s version gains wireless charging and an upgraded screen, while still holding onto vintage features like a headphone jack and microSD card slot — all for $399.
The G Stylus 5G is still a Big Phone with a capital B: it comes with a 6.7-inch screen. That’s a 1080p panel with up to 120Hz refresh rate, updating last year’s 6.6-inch LCD. There’s a generous 5,000mAh battery, compatible with 30W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging. The 2024 Stylus 5G uses the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset — interestingly, that’s the same as in last year’s model. We don’t often see phone makers going back to the same chipset two years in a...
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge
Over the past couple of months, Spotify has been submitting update after update to Apple, changing the interface of its music streaming service to display pricing information in-app for users in the European Union. For users, this is barely worth noticing. But for Spotify, each submission has been yet another skirmish in its yearslong legal struggle with Apple in the EU. And right now, Spotify is the closest it’s ever been to getting Apple to finally cave.
In March, the European Commission ruled against Apple in an antitrust action over App Store restrictions on music streaming services. In 2019, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple, claiming that the App Store’s cut of subscription fees — which can be up to 30 percent —...
An updated version of the iOS app is available that should resolve the issue for impacted Tandem Diabetes Care customers. | Photo Illustration by Matt Harbicht/Getty Images for Tandem Diabetes Care
At least 224 people with diabetes have reported injuries linked to a defective iOS app that caused their insulin pumps to shut down prematurely, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
On Wednesday, the agency announced that California-based medical device manufacturer Tandem Diabetes Care has issued a recall for version 2.7 of the iOS t:connect mobile app, which is used in conjunction with the company’s t:slim X2 insulin pump. Specifically, the recall relates to a software issue that can cause the app to repeatedly crash and relaunch, resulting in the pump’s battery being drained by excessive Bluetooth communication.
This battery drain can cause the pump to shut down “earlier than typically expected” according to Tandem,...