/news/hall-h-of-horrors-what-is-comic-con-doing-about-the-worst-line-in-fandom.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hall-h-of-horrors-what-is-comic-con-doing-about-the-worst-line-in-fandom.htmlI had been waiting for close to 10 hours at that point. For the most part, it hadn't been so bad. I was concerned about being stuck out in the California sun — one person I spoke with had gotten a "massive sunburn" on her arm from shielding her face while waiting in line the prior day — but I was fortunate enough to end up so far back in line that I was shaded in the trees of a small park about half a mile away from Hall H./news/orange-is-the-new-black-s-third-season-has-a-piper-problem.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/orange-is-the-new-black-s-third-season-has-a-piper-problem.htmlOrange Is the New Black’s third season opens on the eve of Mother’s Day. Motherhood and what it means has weighed heavily on the inmates of Litchfield over the past two seasons, and now it’s used both to reintroduce the characters we’ve come to love and remind us of the inherent tragedy in their incarceration. Dayanara (Dascha Polanco) is struggling with the crushing reality of having a baby with a prison guard./news/the-3d-robotics-solo-may-be-the-smartest-drone-ever.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-3d-robotics-solo-may-be-the-smartest-drone-ever.htmlWhat goes up must come down — and if it's a drone you're talking about, it often comes down in the most unfortunate ways possible. It bounces off a tree trunk, smashes into a highway tunnel, or careens into the side of a building. It runs out of battery and falls into a body of water. Your four-figure investment is typically only as good as your ability to handle it once it's aloft — which is why I'm a bit anxious when I first take the controller for the Solo, which 3D Robotics is billing as the smartest drone ever./news/beowulf-and-other-historic-manuscripts-available-for-free-online.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/beowulf-and-other-historic-manuscripts-available-for-free-online.htmlThe British Library, famed for holding every book published in the UK over the past hundred years, has added digital copies of some of its older manuscripts. The works were digitized as part of an ongoing project to make fragile historical documents available to the public, and include a Leonardo Da Vinci notebook, the Harley Golden Gospels, and the oldest-known copy of Beowulf. All of the manuscripts are available through the British Library's Digitised Manuscript page, along with hundreds of other documents./news/call-of-duty-ghosts-set-for-november-release-will-be-available-on-next-generation-consoles.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/call-of-duty-ghosts-set-for-november-release-will-be-available-on-next-generation-consoles.htmlActivision is continuing its tradition of releasing a new title in its marquee first-person shooter franchise every year: the company has just officially announced Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available on November 5th. The game is being trumpeted as a new Call of Duty for the next generation of game consoles — the new Xbox and the PlayStation 4 — and it will be fully unveiled at Microsoft's May 21st next Xbox event./news/flatland-redux-watch-carl-sagan-explain-the-science-of-fez.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/flatland-redux-watch-carl-sagan-explain-the-science-of-fez.htmlThe plot of Fez begins when a two-dimensional character living in a two-dimensional world suddenly realizes that just beyond his perception lies a third dimension, filled with unexplored wonders and mystery. While it may have lacked the elegant mechanics, devious puzzles and brilliant audiovisual style of the video game, a 19th-century text by Edwin Abbott presented a story and world that is in many ways similar — a kind of spiritual prequel to the transdimensional tale dreamed up by Polytron./news/resident-evil-4-is-on-android-in-korea.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/resident-evil-4-is-on-android-in-korea.htmlLG announced the release of Resident Evil 4 for Android today. Don't get too excited, though, because it might just be a port of the iOS version — the opening image is certainly the same. Why LG and not Capcom? The game is only available from LG's LTE U+ Market for now. There's no apparent reason why only LTE phones should be able to run the game, so it looks like the company is just using temporary exclusivity to promote its 4G network in Korea./news/tiny-wings-creator-says-his-next-game-will-be-completed-in-less-than-three-weeks.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiny-wings-creator-says-his-next-game-will-be-completed-in-less-than-three-weeks.htmlThere was a time when Andreas Illiger's Tiny Wings stood atop the iTunes App Store charts, besting other iOS heavyweights like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope. The game's unique artwork and momentum-based gameplay proved addicting to millions of iPhone owners. That success has cooled some in recent months (Tiny Wings currently ranks 37th among top paid iPhone apps in the US), so news that Illiger's next project is just around the corner seems appropriately timed./news/10-important-things-to-know-before-signing-up-for-youtube-tv.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/10-important-things-to-know-before-signing-up-for-youtube-tv.htmlYouTube TV, Google’s internet TV subscription service, launches today. Ben Popper’s got a big look at the app for you, covering how it works and what channels you get. It sounds promising, and unlimited DVR powers (plus having those recordings saved for up to nine months) is awesome. But I’m a nerd who occasionally spends time reading through FAQs and YouTube’s help pages to find the stuff that’s not include in flashy advertising./news/10-years-of-taylor-swift-can-you-remember-an-era-that-isn-t-this-one.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/10-years-of-taylor-swift-can-you-remember-an-era-that-isn-t-this-one.htmlTaylor Swift’s debut album Taylor Swift was released 10 years ago today. It’s hard to remember a time before her outsize cultural influence, which spans not only country and pop music but Twitter, “good girls,” confessional writing, capitalism, the music streaming wars, “squad goals,” red lipstick, white feminism, tabloid culture, Tumblr memes, music videos, Coca Cola, and the unbearable creepiness of John Mayer. In fact, it’s so hard to remember a moment in time that didn’t exist in the shadow of Swift’s unstoppable, bazillion-watt light that we might as well not even try./news/a-giant-album-for-video-game-music-fans.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-giant-album-for-video-game-music-fans.htmlA giant album for video game music fans. A decade ago, Brave Wave burst on to the scene with the release of World 1-2, a collaborative album featuring some of the most renowned composers in gaming. Since then, the label has released many excellent records, and now it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary with another wide-ranging collab called Giants. It’s out on April 19th on digital, CD, and vinyl (you can pre-order right here) and features 22 tracks from the composers behind games like Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Panzer Dragoon, and many more — and man does it look gorgeous./news/a-hurricane-hunter-explains-what-it-s-like-to-fly-through-the-eye-of-the-storm.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-hurricane-hunter-explains-what-it-s-like-to-fly-through-the-eye-of-the-storm.htmlHurricane hunter Ian Sears often jokes that the most dangerous part of his day is not flying through the eye of a hurricane, it’s driving to the runway and climbing a steep ladder to get on board the plane. Sears is a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He flies on sturdy planes through some of the planet’s strongest storms to gather precious data that will help forecasters determine where a hurricane is heading and how powerful it’ll be when it gets there./news/accessibility-week-the-verge.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/accessibility-week-the-verge.htmlA little more than 1 in 4 Americans live with a disability — that’s more than 60 million adults who are deaf, blind, neurodivergent, or physically disabled. Technology offers the utopian promise of a universally accessible society, but it only delivers part of the time. Assistive tech has been a life-changing advancement for many people with disabilities. But as technology changes, each innovation is accompanied by a host of access needs that are all too frequently ignored./news/amazon-prime-members-can-now-send-gifts-with-just-a-phone-number-or-email-address.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-prime-members-can-now-send-gifts-with-just-a-phone-number-or-email-address.htmlAmazon is launching a new gifting feature today that will allow subscribers to its Prime service to send gifts to others using only an email address or phone number — no address required. Gift-givers have to be Amazon Prime members, the program is limited to the continental US, and it can only be used on mobile devices for the time being. And even though Amazon has built in some safeguards— the gift-giver never gets access to the recipient’s mailing address— this sounds like a bad idea that is ripe for abuse by scammers, stalkers, and those who take pleasure in the online harassment of others./news/amazon-s-alexa-voice-remote-pro-is-the-best-streaming-clicker-of-them-all.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-alexa-voice-remote-pro-is-the-best-streaming-clicker-of-them-all.htmlReviewing a remote control isn’t exactly an in-depth or comprehensive task. Is it comfortable to hold? Do those ergonomics hold up over time? Are there enough buttons — or perhaps too many? Is it possible to remap any of them as shortcuts for your favorite streaming services? How easy is the remote to find when it inevitably goes missing?  Amazon’s new $34.99 Alexa Voice Remote Pro goes on sale beginning today, and while its design largely takes after the remotes that come bundled with Fire TV devices, the “flagship” clicker (if that term is even applicable here) adds nice-to-have features like customizable buttons, backlighting, and a remote finder trick./news/amd-s-fast-ryzen-6000-h-series-processors-are-launching-in-laptops.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amd-s-fast-ryzen-6000-h-series-processors-are-launching-in-laptops.htmlAMD’s latest generation of mobile processors is here. We already know a lot about them, thanks to AMD’s CES 2022 keynote, like that they’re the first processors to ship with Microsoft’s Pluton security processor, which was built to block new attack vectors that have been used to compromise PCs. More importantly to gamers, some of these new processors (including AMD’s new discrete graphics offerings) seem very powerful. You’ll be able to find Ryzen 6000 H-series processors in laptops from Alienware, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Razer, and more releasing in the coming weeks and months./news/an-ode-to-god-of-war-s-leviathan-axe.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/an-ode-to-god-of-war-s-leviathan-axe.htmlThere are many reasons why the new God of War is good: the revamped combat, the closer camera, the astonishing single-shot perspective, or the more mature story all jump to mind. But what escalates God of War is not just nailing the big stuff, but the smaller things, too, like Kratos’s new axe. It might just be my favorite video game weapon in recent memory. The Leviathan Axe might be my favorite video game weapon in recent memory/news/an-old-school-blog-rant-by-a-data-scientist-who-is-very-very-tired-of-the-ai-hype.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/an-old-school-blog-rant-by-a-data-scientist-who-is-very-very-tired-of-the-ai-hype.htmlAn old-school blog rant by a data scientist who is very, very tired of the AI hype. How about you remain competitive by fixing your shit? I’ve met a lead data scientist with access to hundreds of thousands of sensitive customer records who is allowed to keep their password in a text file on their desktop, and you’re worried that customers are best served by using AI to improve security through some mechanism that you haven’t even come up with yet?/news/android-sos-feature-blamed-for-rise-in-false-emergency-calls-in-the-uk.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/android-sos-feature-blamed-for-rise-in-false-emergency-calls-in-the-uk.htmlAn Android feature designed to help users contact emergency services is making life difficult for first responders in the UK. The BBC reports that police forces across the nation have reported an influx of false emergencies to the 999 switchboard (The UK’s equivalent of 911) in recent weeks which have largely been attributed to the Emergency SOS feature for Android phones. Law enforcement in Scotland, and the English counties of Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, and Gloucestershire have reported receiving a higher number of silent or abandoned calls since an Android update released between October 2022 and February 2023 introduced an Emergency SOS calling feature to more Android phones./news/apogee-hypemic-review-small-simple-and-superb.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apogee-hypemic-review-small-simple-and-superb.htmlHi, I’m Vlad Savov. You may remember me from such venerable podcasts as the Verge Mobile Show and the Engadget Mobile Podcast. It’s been a few years since I’ve done the regular podcasting thing, but for a few months now, I’ve had the itch to start doing it again — though not in the same way I used to. The highly recommended Blue Yeti was my microphone of choice for a long time, but it’s a gargantuan and heavy monolith that you can’t take anywhere./news/apple-might-announce-a-refreshed-ipod-touch-tomorrow.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-might-announce-a-refreshed-ipod-touch-tomorrow.htmlApple has already announced a few product refreshes this week, but it might not be done just yet. The iPod touch may be the next device to get a hardware update, and according to MacRumors, the seventh-generation model may be announced tomorrow via a press release, as Apple did with the low-profile announcements of the new iPad Air, iPad mini, and today’s iMac. A new iPod touch hitting soon seems plausible, as it has been name-dropped by Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with a good record for predicting Apple launches./news/apple-patents-point-to-using-your-macbook-to-wirelessly-charge-your-iphone-and-apple-watch.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-patents-point-to-using-your-macbook-to-wirelessly-charge-your-iphone-and-apple-watch.htmlApple has been granted two patents that describe adding two-way wireless charging to its devices (via 9to5Mac). The patents, first spotted by Patently Apple, include drawings that show a MacBook charging various devices, including an iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, as well as drawings of iPads and iPhones doing the same. If this sounds familiar, it’s because many other phone makers have released devices with similar reverse wireless charging technology. Although Apple’s take is a little different./news/apple-suppliers-linked-to-uyghur-forced-labor-in-new-report.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-suppliers-linked-to-uyghur-forced-labor-in-new-report.htmlSeveral Apple suppliers may have used forced labor in China, according to The Information. Working with two human rights groups, the publication identified seven companies that supplied products or services to Apple and supported forced labor programs, according to statements made by the Chinese government. The programs target the country’s Muslim minority population, particularly Uyghurs living in Xinjiang. Six of the seven suppliers were said to participate in work programs operated by the Chinese government, The Information reports, which human rights groups describe as frequently offering cover for forced labor./news/apple-watch-hands-on-a-rounded-square-wonder.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-watch-hands-on-a-rounded-square-wonder.htmlThe Apple Watch will come in two distinct sizes — 1.5 inches and 1.65 inches — with multiple color and style options for each. Pricing begins at $349, but it won't go on sale until early next year. Apple put huge emphasis on the multidimensionality of the Watch, both in terms of its hardware and software. This watch is meant to work for everyone, no matter what you like or what you want to do./news/apple-will-replace-airpods-pro-for-free-with-faulty-noise-cancellation-static-or-crackling.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-will-replace-airpods-pro-for-free-with-faulty-noise-cancellation-static-or-crackling.htmlCrackling or static sounds that increase in loud environments, with exercise or while talking on the phone Active Noise Cancellation not working as expected, such as a loss of bass sound, or an increase in background sounds, such as street or airplane noise ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2hfZn1wf49oaWptZGeFdYKOmqeppJVirqq%2Bz6ibrGWgp7xuvsSpmKKqXaeypK3LpWSpqp%2Bcv6K5jKemoquVYrCiusKeo6WZpJ68r3nSrZitoZM%3D/news/apple-s-50-million-butterfly-keyboard-settlement-is-finally-approved.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-50-million-butterfly-keyboard-settlement-is-finally-approved.htmlThe $50 million settlement over Apple’s bad butterfly keyboard design got final approval by a federal court judge in California, Reuters reported yesterday. US District Court Judge Edward Davila denied an attempt to amend the agreement, writing in his ruling that 86,000 people filed claims. That finally puts a figure on the number of people affected who will get compensation for repairs they’d paid for. Or at least the number who heard about the lawsuit and followed it to the settlement agreement that was reached last July./news/apple-s-eddy-cue-set-to-testify-tuesday-in-google-antitrust-case.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-eddy-cue-set-to-testify-tuesday-in-google-antitrust-case.htmlApple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is set to testify at the US v. Google antitrust trial on Tuesday, as the trial enters its third week. Cue is expected to argue that Google is Apple’s default search engine because it’s the best option, according to Bloomberg. Cue’s presence, which Apple fought to avoid, underscores Apple’s importance to the Justice Department’s case against Google — which alleges that the company’s juggernaut search engine violates antitrust law./news/apple-s-electric-car-project-is-dead.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-electric-car-project-is-dead.htmlApple has halted its long-rumored “Project Titan” work on developing an electric car, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly announced the news internally on Tuesday and said many people in the 2,000-person team behind the car will shift to generative AI efforts instead. Apple’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the project, informed employees of the project’s discontinuation, Bloomberg reports. The outlet adds that there will also be layoffs, but it’s not clear how many workers it will affect./news/apple-s-second-gen-iphone-se-is-here-all-the-news-and-details.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-second-gen-iphone-se-is-here-all-the-news-and-details.htmlApple’s newly announced second-generation iPhone SE (or iPhone SE 2 as we’ll be calling it) is the company’s first phone with a single rear camera since 2018’s iPhone XR. While its camera hardware is basic, the new $399 device is powered by last year’s A13 Bionic chip, so it will benefit from Apple’s more recent work on image processing. It’s a combination that could reveal how much of Apple’s photography strengths lie in hardware and how many lie in software./news/babies-poop-has-way-higher-levels-of-microplastic-than-adults.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/babies-poop-has-way-higher-levels-of-microplastic-than-adults.htmlWhen it comes to babies, a considerable amount of plastic appears to be both going in one end and out the other, according to new research that involved spatulas, diapers, and poop. In particular, the average concentration of one pervasive type of microplastic in baby stool was a whopping ten times higher than that in adult stool in a small pilot study published this week. The plastic, called PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is widely used in bottles and polyester textiles./news/bang-olufsen-is-getting-rid-of-its-b-o-play-branding.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bang-olufsen-is-getting-rid-of-its-b-o-play-branding.htmlBang & Olufsen is eliminating its B&O Play sub-brand in favor of just selling all of its products under its primary Bang & Olufsen brand instead. It’s a move that will presumably cause less confusion to consumers and is extremely welcome in particular to me, a reporter who often had to figure out which brand name I should be using in posts like this (via FlatPanelsHD.) The change was announced in Bang & Olufsen’s latest earnings report, which notes that the consolidation actually took place over a month ago on June 1st, with the company planning to gradually combine the two brands in areas like marketing, product packaging, and online presence over the next few months./news/barnes-noble-nook-simple-touch-with-glowlight-review.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/barnes-noble-nook-simple-touch-with-glowlight-review.htmlThe GlowLight Nook's six-inch, 800 x 600 E Ink Pearl display is old hat for ebook readers — the new Kindles use it, last year's Nook uses it, and a host of other devices use it. The GlowLight Nook has a screen protector on top of the display, though, which makes text appear slightly softer and lower-contrast than on last year's model. I didn't notice until I held the GlowLight Nook next to last year's Nook and a Kindle, and even though all three use the same display technology the GlowLight Nook's text didn't look quite as sharp./news/battlestar-galactica-reboot-from-mr-robot-creator-headed-to-peacock-streaming-service.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/battlestar-galactica-reboot-from-mr-robot-creator-headed-to-peacock-streaming-service.htmlNBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, will launch next April with a substantial number of fan favorites and original series, including a reboot of Battlestar Galactica from Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail. This isn’t a remake of Ronald D. Moore’s Syfy version of Battlestar Galactica that drew in a dedicated fan base in the early 2000s. Still, Esmail’s version of the show will be inspired by Moore’s, according to The Hollywood Reporter, not Glen A./news/belkin-wemo-video-doorbell-review-the-best-apple-homekit-doorbell-camera-to-get.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/belkin-wemo-video-doorbell-review-the-best-apple-homekit-doorbell-camera-to-get.htmlApple HomeKit users are a patient bunch. The development of HomeKit compatible products has been a slow process, especially when compared to competing platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Case in point, video doorbells. Arguably one of the most popular devices in the smart home, the doorbell camera category is woefully slim on options for Apple users. The new Belkin Wemo Video Doorbell is one of just a handful of currently available options for HomeKit users in the US, joining theLogitech Circle View and theNetatmo Smart Video Doorbell./news/best-memorial-day-2022-sales-and-tech-deals-amazon-best-buy-and-more.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/best-memorial-day-2022-sales-and-tech-deals-amazon-best-buy-and-more.htmlMemorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer in the US. In addition to using the long weekend of the national holiday for travel and taking some well-earned rest and relaxation, it usually kick-starts lots of outdoor activities — like backyard cookouts, road trips to the beach, and camping trips. It’s also another shopping holiday, with discounts on offer for all kinds of home goods and some great tech, gadgets, and gear./news/big-banks-bank-on-new-digital-wallet-built-by-joint-venture-behind-zelle.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/big-banks-bank-on-new-digital-wallet-built-by-joint-venture-behind-zelle.htmlSeveral of America’s biggest banks, including the likes of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, are joining forces to launch their own digital payment wallet that can be used for online shopping, according to The Wall Street Journal. The planned new wallet is a response to increased consumer usage of digital payments — particularly Apple Pay, PayPal, and ones from other tech companies, including Google Pay and Amazon Pay. The currently nameless wallet will be handled by Early Warning Services (EWS), the company behind the direct money transfer service Zelle — though the two products will reportedly not intersect./news/blackberry-playbook-2-0-released-with-native-email-and-android-app-support.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blackberry-playbook-2-0-released-with-native-email-and-android-app-support.htmlWhen we took a look at the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 OS back at CES, we called it "the most polished version of the PlayBook OS yet." Whether that's enough to turn sales around for the tablet is quite another matter, but it does show that RIM is able to push out new versions of the OS that is going to eventually form the basis of BlackBerry 10. The biggest new feature is that RIM is finally including a native email client on the PlayBook, which features a unified inbox, tabs, and a rich text editor./news/bob-dylan-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bob-dylan-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.htmlBob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday. In a press release, the academy said that the legendary American singer-songwriter "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Dylan will receive 8 million Swedish krona ($906,000) for winning the award. With today's announcement, Dylan becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature since Toni Morrison, who received the award in 1993./news/body-message-gi-joe-and-the-invention-of-the-viral-video.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/body-message-gi-joe-and-the-invention-of-the-viral-video.htmlHitting the big time Riding on the success of the videos, Fensler, Hooker, and Lussenhop decided to seek their fortunes in LA. Fensler found himself pigeonholed. “People saw me as this person who remixed cartoons, and I’d get a lot of requests to do that,” says Fensler. “But that’s not the only thing I wanted to do.” In that vein, he made some animated promo spots for Sealab 2021 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and a full episode that never aired./news/borderlands-3-is-getting-a-free-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-upgrade-and-four-player-splitscreen.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/borderlands-3-is-getting-a-free-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-upgrade-and-four-player-splitscreen.htmlBorderlands 3 is the latest game to adopt an encouraging trend — giving gamers a next-gen upgrade without making them pay for it — and in this case, it’s one that’ll be extremely welcome to console gamers who have 4K TV sets. The image above (and embedded in the tweet below) has all the details, but just in case you can’t make out the fine print the primary news is this: on PS5 and Xbox Series X, the game will now run at 4K resolution at 60 frames per second, both higher and smoother than any console can run Borderlands 3 today./news/bowers-wilkins-p9-signature-review-beats-deluxe.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bowers-wilkins-p9-signature-review-beats-deluxe.htmlThe Beats by Dre promise, the thing that’s driven millions of people to spend hundreds of dollars on headphones for the first time, is an intoxicating mix of premium design and bombastic sound. Style plus bass-soaked substance. But listen to any song with "promises" in the title and you’ll know that they’re most often just fragments of wishful thinking: Beats headphones look and sound flashy, but aren’t truly premium in either category./news/can-a-camera-company-make-an-app-that-doesn-t-suck-fujifilm-tries-again.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/can-a-camera-company-make-an-app-that-doesn-t-suck-fujifilm-tries-again.htmlAt some point a few weeks ago, I decided I couldn’t deal with Fujifilm’s Camera Remote app anymore. So I threw in the towel and bought an SD-to-Lightning adapter, which lets me reliably get photos from my Fujifilm cameras onto my iPhone without any fuss. But it also makes me feel like a damn caveman. It’s supposed to be better than this in 2023. I’ve been using Fujifilm’s mirrorless cameras since the days of the X-T1./news/can-you-die-from-excitement-taser-international-says-yes.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/can-you-die-from-excitement-taser-international-says-yes.htmlOne early morning in June, Kevin L. Ellis, 45, climbed inside a stranger’s car and refused to get out. Police officers arrived and pulled him through the door to the ground, then shocked him with a Taser at close range. At some point, he stopped struggling. An ambulance took him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. There was no heart attack, no respiratory failure, no organ meltdown; no obvious reason why Ellis had stopped living./news/cinemagram-app-for-ios-makes-art-out-of-animated-gifs.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cinemagram-app-for-ios-makes-art-out-of-animated-gifs.htmlThe app works best when your device is completely still, and although our tests didn't work fantastically, some users have already uploaded some beautifully constructed GIFs. Things are far from perfect here however, and the app is missing a host of options that we'd like to see in future updates. The editing tools aren't precise enough, there are some tearing issues in some images, and there's no way to make your images private, so everything you produce is out there for the entire world to see./news/clearview-ai-s-source-code-and-app-data-exposed-in-cybersecurity-lapse.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clearview-ai-s-source-code-and-app-data-exposed-in-cybersecurity-lapse.htmlA security lapse at controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI meant that its source code, some of its secret keys and cloud storage credentials, and even copies of its apps were publicly accessible. TechCrunch reports that an exposed server was discovered by Mossab Hussein, Chief Security Officer at cybersecurity firm SpiderSilk, who found that it was configured to allow anyone to register as a new user and log in. Clearview AI first made headlines back in January, when a New York Times exposé detailed its massive facial recognition database, which consists of billions of images scraped from websites and social media platforms./news/coinbase-will-let-you-pay-with-mastercard-in-its-upcoming-nft-marketplace.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/coinbase-will-let-you-pay-with-mastercard-in-its-upcoming-nft-marketplace.htmlNFTs allow you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” and it can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. An NFT can either be one of a kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file./news/cruise-is-recalling-950-driverless-cars-after-one-of-its-vehicles-ran-over-a-pedestrian.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cruise-is-recalling-950-driverless-cars-after-one-of-its-vehicles-ran-over-a-pedestrian.htmlThe recall, which was initiated by the company, will take the form of an over-the-air software update to the collision detection subsystem so the vehicle remains stationary during certain crash incidents, rather than pulling over to the side of the road. On October 2nd, a pedestrian was struck by a hit-and-run driver in San Francisco, throwing her in the path of a nearby Cruise vehicle. The driverless car then attempted to pull over to the side of the road, dragging the pedestrian 20 feet and seriously injuring her./news/custom-gpts-open-for-free-chatgpt-users.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/custom-gpts-open-for-free-chatgpt-users.htmlFeatures like model and web responses, data analytics, chart creation, vision, file upload, memory, and custom GPTs were available to paid users — ChatGPT Plus, Teams, and Enterprise — but are now open to anyone using ChatGPT. While free ChatGPT users can discover and use custom GPTs — previously only available to paid subscribers — they won’t be able to create their own. Custom versions of ChatGPT we’ve used already have ranged from an on-demand thesaurus to an Ikea shopping guide./news/don-t-update-to-ios-13-0-if-you-play-fortnite-or-pubg-mobile.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/don-t-update-to-ios-13-0-if-you-play-fortnite-or-pubg-mobile.htmlWe are aware of an issue for players who upgraded to iOS 13.0, where touching the screen with 3 fingers will trigger an iOS function and interrupt the game. We have already raised the issue with Apple, and we will continue working with them to resolve the issue. We suggest players who play the game with 3 or more fingers do not upgrade to iOS 13.0 until this issue is resolved./news/droplabs-ep-01-review-fantastic-for-vr-not-so-much-for-casual-wear.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/droplabs-ep-01-review-fantastic-for-vr-not-so-much-for-casual-wear.htmlA good set of headphones is key for boosting immersion in a VR game. I didn’t realize that a nice pair of shoes could amplify it even further.  Not just any shoes, mind you. I’ve been testing out DropLabs’ $300 EP-01, a pair of Yeezy-inspired shoes with bass-rattling speakers embedded in their soles. When they’re really bumping, it feels like what I imagine it’d be like to stand on a concert PA while it pushes out sound./news/ea-s-latest-madden-nfl-23-fumble-locked-players-out-of-the-game.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ea-s-latest-madden-nfl-23-fumble-locked-players-out-of-the-game.htmlMadden NFL 23’s newest title update briefly locked players out of the game on Thursday, EA confirmed on Twitter. It’s the latest in a string of issues to plague the popular football title over the past few weeks. At 11:43AM ET Thursday, EA’s Madden NFL Direct Twitter account shared that “we are aware of players being unable to access the game after downloading the latest Title Update.” Many players reported problems on Downdetector, while fans on the Madden Reddit posted threads expressing their frustrations with the issues./news/elgato-s-jumbo-sized-stream-deck-xl-is-50-off.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elgato-s-jumbo-sized-stream-deck-xl-is-50-off.htmlWant a button for quickly muting yourself on a Zoom call or to promptly summon Spotify? No problem. How about a series of buttons for controlling audio functions or emotes in your favorite game? With 32 keys, you have enough for a whole bunch of helpful tools at your disposal, or you can fill some with silly and superfluous things like popping fake bubble wrap. (We’re certainly not going to judge!/news/elon-musk-s-flamethrower-was-not-a-flamethrower-but-that-isn-t-stopping-police.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-s-flamethrower-was-not-a-flamethrower-but-that-isn-t-stopping-police.htmlMark Harris has put together an amazing report for TechCrunch on the legal troubles that have befallen buyers of the Boring Company’s flame-throwing device. Part of what makes it worth a read is that it digs up stories you may have not heard about yet: a police raid in London, an American doing time in an Italian prison, and how they’ve turned up in narcotics hauls alongside real guns and bags of cocaine./news/espn-nba-reporter-adrian-wojnarowski-s-x-account-hacked-to-post-an-nft-scam.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/espn-nba-reporter-adrian-wojnarowski-s-x-account-hacked-to-post-an-nft-scam.htmlPeople who still use NBA Top Shot were the primary targets of a scam tweet posted to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski’s account on X Saturday evening at about 6:30PM ET. The tweet referred to NBA Top Shot as a “popular” NFT platform, despite the fact that current activity levels are a tiny fraction of what we saw during its peak, and falsely claimed a “free NFT pack is available to all customers./news/etsy-sellers-will-go-on-strike-in-april-and-want-customers-to-boycott.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/etsy-sellers-will-go-on-strike-in-april-and-want-customers-to-boycott.htmlIn February, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman had good news to share with investors: sales and revenue were at an all-time high, sending Etsy stock soaring. At the same time, Silverman had less welcome news for sellers, delivered via email: transaction fees were going up, from 5 percent to 6.5 percent, or a 30 percent increase, beginning April 11th. For Kristi Cassidy, an active seller on Etsy since 2007, the fee increase was the last straw./news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-tech-at-the-2024-paris-olympics.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-tech-at-the-2024-paris-olympics.htmlComcast will have high bitrate, low latency 4K feeds of the Olympics. NBCUniversal owner Comcast announced tweaks it’s adding for the Paris Olympics on X1, like a customizable home screen and an “enhanced” 4K feed for the USA Network’s 24/7 broadcast sent over cable to X1 boxes. ...enhanced 4K brings together 4K video delivered over Comcast’s network at its highest bitrate, Dolby Vision® for life-like picture quality, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and ultra-low latency/news/faceapp-is-back-and-so-are-privacy-concerns.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/faceapp-is-back-and-so-are-privacy-concerns.htmlFaceApp, a Russia-based app that applies filters to photos, is having another moment in the spotlight this week. The app first went viral in 2017, but this time it’s catching on because of a filter that makes users look older or younger. As with the last viral moment, however, users have been surprised to learn that the app’s creators are harvesting metadata from their photos. Close research suggests FaceApp isn’t doing anything particularly unusual in either its code or its network traffic, so if you’re worried about FaceApp, there are probably a bunch of other apps on your phone doing the same thing./news/facebook-now-suggests-turning-friends-you-don-t-talk-to-into-acquaintances.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-now-suggests-turning-friends-you-don-t-talk-to-into-acquaintances.htmlToo busy to make Facebook lists filled with the people you care about the most? Facebook hears you, and is today launching a tool to de-clutter your News Feed and scrub posts from people you don't care much about. The "Acquaintance List" suggestion box points out people you might want to hear less from. Facebook bases these suggestions on how frequently you interact with and (we assume) click on these people./news/facebook-s-new-chief-security-officer-wants-to-set-a-date-to-kill-flash.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-s-new-chief-security-officer-wants-to-set-a-date-to-kill-flash.htmlStamos is not calling for Adobe to immediately pull the plug on Flash, of course, but instead, for Adobe to announce an eventual retirement date for the software, giving websites the time to move to more secure technology like HTML5. Flash has been suffering from shrinking relevance in recent years, with former strongholds like Facebook games collapsing (see the burnout of Zynga), and YouTube moving away from the technology (in January this year this company deprecated Flash in favor of HTML5)./news/facebook-s-quarterly-earnings-are-a-bright-spot-amid-a-sea-of-bad-headlines.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-s-quarterly-earnings-are-a-bright-spot-amid-a-sea-of-bad-headlines.htmlThe Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal came to light late in the first quarter, and therefore we won’t see if it had any substantial impact on Facebook’s business until next quarter. That said, the tech giant was able to recover from the daily active user slump it suffered last year, when its US and Canada DAU number shrank to 184 million and marked the first time Facebook usage has ever decreased in the company’s primary market./news/fortnite-s-island-now-has-a-giant-robot.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fortnite-s-island-now-has-a-giant-robot.htmlWe’re nearing the end of season 9 of Fortnite, which can only mean one thing: another massive live event is on the horizon. And the teases have already started. Over the past week or so, in the lead-up to season 10, a massive robot has slowly been assembled inside of a now-dormant volcano (the same one that erupted in season 8, drastically changing Fortnite’s island). It started with a mysterious metal foot appearing, and for the last few days a giant, headless mech dominated the island’s landscape./news/french-isp-free-launches-a-free-cellular-service.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/french-isp-free-launches-a-free-cellular-service.htmlFrench ISP Free has launched its mobile phone service, offering a basic cellular package for free to customers who already subscribe to its Freebox service, or for €2 a month to those who don't — with no commitment. This price is even more remarkable considering the investment Free has made into building its own network, rather than simply creating an MVNO and piggybacking on another operator. The entry level package is basic: you'll get 60 minutes to landlines and mobiles, and 60 SMS messages./news/gm-shuts-down-car-sharing-service-maven.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gm-shuts-down-car-sharing-service-maven.htmlGeneral Motors is shutting down Maven, the car-sharing service it launched in 2016, the company tells The Verge. It joins a small but growing list of car-sharing services from automakers and other companies that have struggled or otherwise fully shut down in North America. “After critically looking at our business, the industry, and what’s going on with COVID-19, we have made the tough but necessary decision to wind down our business,” the company explained in an email to Maven customers sent on Tuesday./news/google-i-o-2017-what-to-expect-from-the-big-developer-conference.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-i-o-2017-what-to-expect-from-the-big-developer-conference.htmlGoogle I/O begins on May 17th, 2017 at 10AM PT / 1PM ET with CEO Sundar Pichai taking the stage for the keynote. Held at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, there will be one main keynote, a developer keynote that same day, then events running throughout the rest of the week. Under Pichai, Google has developed a new cadence for its product announcements. It's not quite as rigidly predictable as Apple’s, but it's getting there./news/google-s-project-sunroof-will-peer-pressure-you-to-get-solar-panels.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-project-sunroof-will-peer-pressure-you-to-get-solar-panels.htmlYou can now check if your neighbors have installed solar panels on their rooftops, thanks to a new feature in Google’s Project Sunroof. The free online tool has been around for a couple years, allowing users to check whether installing solar panels could cut their energy bill. Now, if you zoom in on the satellite map, a red dot will indicate homes and buildings that have solar panels. Project Sunroof launched in 2015, even expanding outside the US earlier this year./news/grammarly-now-integrates-directly-with-microsoft-word-s-mac-app.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/grammarly-now-integrates-directly-with-microsoft-word-s-mac-app.htmlGrammarly, a service designed to give you advice on improving your writing, is getting an add-in for Microsoft Word’s Mac app, as well as for Microsoft Word online. Previously Mac users had to use a native Grammarly app or online Grammarly Editor, or else rely on the service’s browser extension. The service already has an add-on for Microsoft Word on Windows. The announcement means Grammarly will be able to offer writing suggestions without you having to leave the Word document you’re writing on a Mac or in a browser./news/grand-theft-auto-5-is-back-on-game-pass.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/grand-theft-auto-5-is-back-on-game-pass.htmlOne of the bestselling games in history is back on Xbox Game Pass. As part of the service’s most recent wave of additions, Grand Theft Auto V is available now for subscribers on both console (including Xbox One and Series X / S) and the cloud. The game has had an off and on relationship with Game Pass, though, so it’s unclear how long it’ll stick around this time. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfbHx2e5FsbnFsY2WAcLPRmqWdZaSdsqfAjJqsraddnMGieZRmr5unqGK0ornEZqeaq6Niv6bA1Kul/news/gta-online-will-no-longer-support-rockstar-editor-on-old-gen-consoles.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gta-online-will-no-longer-support-rockstar-editor-on-old-gen-consoles.htmlGTA Online will no longer support Rockstar Editor on old-gen consoles. With GTA VI expected to launch in 2025, it’s time to back up all your old car chase vids. Rockstar Editor on GTA Online will no longer support PlayStation 4 and Xbox One beginning on February 24, Rockstar Games announced. The clip editor will still exist for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. Any existing clips will vanish by then, so players should make sure to export their work in the meantime./news/hbo-quietly-removed-the-coffee-cup-from-game-of-thrones.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-quietly-removed-the-coffee-cup-from-game-of-thrones.htmlHBO has quietly updated the most recent episode of Game of Thrones to digitally remove a coffee cup that accidentally made its way into a scene, setting the internet on fire with a seemingly endless stream of memes in the process. The cup — which HBO confirmed was, in fact, a mistake and not a more sinister attempt at some kind of product placement — was removed from the shot on HBO Go (and, presumably, other streaming platforms as well) sometime overnight, with little fanfare from the TV company./news/here-s-why-apple-intelligence-is-limited-to-the-iphone-15-pro-and-macs-and-ipads-with-m-series-chi.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-why-apple-intelligence-is-limited-to-the-iphone-15-pro-and-macs-and-ipads-with-m-series-chi.htmlHere’s why Apple Intelligence is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and Macs and iPads with M-series chips. John Giannandrea, Apple’s AI chief, speaking at John Gruber’s The Talk Show Live from WWDC 2024: The inference of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive. So it’s a combination of bandwidth in the device, it’s the size of the ANE [Apple Neural Engine], it’s the oomph in the device to actually do these models fast enough to be useful./news/honda-s-power-pack-station-now-on-sale-to-take-on-gogoro.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/honda-s-power-pack-station-now-on-sale-to-take-on-gogoro.htmlHonda delivered a new battery swapping station in Tokyo that’s looking mighty similar to the one Gogoro makes. The automaker’s new power pack exchanger lets electric motorcycle riders easily flip their depleting batteries for fresh ones instead of needing to wait around for a charge. The Honda power station itself looks very similar to Gogoro’s: like a vending machine with a grid of battery packs that slide in and out of slots./news/how-the-team-behind-zelda-made-physics-feel-like-magic.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-the-team-behind-zelda-made-physics-feel-like-magic.htmlThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a phenomenal game, praised for being able to improve and iterate upon Breath of the Wild. In the weeks after the game’s release, it was written up with all sorts of breathless praise as people wondered how Nintendo managed to make a game that seemed to outstrip the technical capabilities of now seven-year-old Switch hardware.  To developers, the game looked like magic./news/how-to-build-a-bike-lane-in-america.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-build-a-bike-lane-in-america.htmlWhen most people in the US need to go somewhere, they reach for their car keys. There are plenty of reasons for this: driving is easy, it’s comfortable, and it requires very little preparation. But also, it’s hard to do anything else, and maybe the hardest of those hard things is cycling.  But plenty of people do it anyway. Whether by choice or because it’s their only option, millions of Americans bike to get where they’re going — around 50 million people biked at least once in 2022./news/how-to-change-your-default-browser-in-windows-11.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-change-your-default-browser-in-windows-11.htmlIf you’ve updated your PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you may have noticed that when you click on a link for a website, a PDF document, or a variety of other file types, you will now be sent to Microsoft’s Edge browser. In its new version of Windows, Microsoft seems to have become especially aggressive in pushing its own apps over the apps that had been installed as defaults before the upgrade./news/how-to-switch-to-a-new-phone-from-someone-who-changes-phones-weekly.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-switch-to-a-new-phone-from-someone-who-changes-phones-weekly.htmlI don’t have hard data on this, but most people probably rank switching to a new phone somewhere around “dental cleaning” and “trip to the DMV.” A few years ago, I felt that way, too. Dozens of phone reviews later, switching devices has become just as routine as taking out the recycling every week. Sure, sometimes things get mucked up and I have to tag in my wireless carrier (thanks a bunch, eSIM), but I’m living proof that it’s possible to switch to an entirely new phone every week without suffering any serious emotional or social consequences./news/how-to-take-screenshots-on-your-chromebook.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-take-screenshots-on-your-chromebook.htmlScreenshots can be useful for a variety of reasons. For example, you can send copies of error messages to support services, show a friend what your game screen looks like, or save a tweet that you suspect is going to be deleted in a few minutes. Today’s laptops all include ways to take screenshots, and that includes Chromebooks. Chromebooks can be a little confusing for someone coming from another platform, especially because their keyboards are somewhat different than those of Macs or Windows PCs./news/how-to-watch-the-possible-aurora-borealis-this-weekend.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-watch-the-possible-aurora-borealis-this-weekend.htmlThose 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./news/htc-first-with-facebook-home-hands-on-video.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-first-with-facebook-home-hands-on-video.htmlThe HTC First is, of course, the "first" phone to launch with Facebook Home built in as its core skin. It is, without a doubt, a mid-range Android device — but it seems sturdy and probably able to bounce around in your bag without taking much damage. It's running on AT&T's 4G LTE network and launching on April 12th for $99.99, but is available for pre-order today. The device has a 4./news/htc-may-be-teasing-the-release-of-its-vr-lip-tracker-for-vive-headsets.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-may-be-teasing-the-release-of-its-vr-lip-tracker-for-vive-headsets.htmlHTC may be teasing new modules and attachments for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including a lip tracker, UploadVR reports. HTC’s been building up to some kind of announcement on its Vive Twitter account over the last week. Yesterday, it posted an image of a hinge, which savvy Twitter users matched to an experimental lip tracking module HTC announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2019. You can see a picture of the hinged product HTC is teasing and a matching photo of its lip tracking device below./news/ikea-s-dirigera-hub-gets-matter-support-in-beta.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ikea-s-dirigera-hub-gets-matter-support-in-beta.htmlDeveloped by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung (and others), Matter is an open-sourced, IP-based connectivity software layer for smart home devices. It works over Wi-Fi, ethernet, and the low-power mesh networking protocol Thread and currently supports over 20 device types. These include lighting, plugs and switches, thermostats, locks, security and environment sensors, refrigerators, dishwashers, smoke alarms, air quality monitors, and more. A smart home gadget with the Matter logo can be set up and used with any Matter-compatible ecosystem via a Matter controller and controlled by them simultaneously, a feature called multi-admin./news/instagram-is-finally-adding-a-scheduling-feature-for-business-profiles.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-is-finally-adding-a-scheduling-feature-for-business-profiles.htmlIn a move that will bring unbridled joy to social media managers and influencers everywhere, Instagram is now allowing business profiles to schedule posts, the company announced on its Business blog today. Currently, the feature only works for photos, not videos, and it’s only available through third-party social management tools for now. This means that if you want to get your hands on scheduling features, you have to pay for subscription services like HootSuite, Sprout Social, or any one of the companies working as a Facebook Marketing Partner or Instagram Partner./news/iowa-sues-tiktok-for-setting-its-app-store-age-rating-too-low.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iowa-sues-tiktok-for-setting-its-app-store-age-rating-too-low.htmlTikTok is getting sued by the state of Iowa over claims that it’s lying to parents about the presence of sexual content, drugs, alcohol, profanity, and other inappropriate material in the app. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird claimed TikTok is making this kind of content “easily accessible” to young users while maintaining an inaccurate “12+” age rating on the Apple App Store. As noted in the lawsuit, a 12-plus rating on the App Store means an app has “infrequent/mild” sexual content, profanity, crude humor, suggestive themes, and references to alcohol, tobacco, or drug use./news/iphone-is-dumb-and-smitten-with-pixel-in-google-s-latest-ad-campaign.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iphone-is-dumb-and-smitten-with-pixel-in-google-s-latest-ad-campaign.htmlGoogle has found a fun new way to dunk on Apple with an ad campaign for Pixel phones that straddles the line between cute and cringe. The search giant has released five videos — under the campaign name “Best Phones Forever” — which depict sitcom-like interactions between anthropomorphized versions of the Pixel 7 Pro and some sort of iPhone Pro. And it kinda seems like the phones want to bone each other?/news/iron-sky-the-coming-race-review-alien-hitler-rides-a-t-rex-to-war.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iron-sky-the-coming-race-review-alien-hitler-rides-a-t-rex-to-war.html2012’s Iron Sky was an intentionally funny B-movie, lambasting science fiction tropes with the same gusto as Spaceballs or Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The film failed to find the cult status it deserves, but it built a following just big and enthusiastic enough to crowdfund a sequel. The result is Iron Sky: The Coming Race, which arrives in theaters and on-demand services on Friday, July 19th. The original Iron Sky was set in an imagined version of 2018 where astronauts, sent to the dark side of the moon by an unnamed US president bearing a striking resemblance to Sarah Palin (Stephanie Paul), discover Nazis have been hiding there since the end of World War II./news/jeff-bezos-wants-elon-musk-to-know-blue-origin-is-serious-now.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jeff-bezos-wants-elon-musk-to-know-blue-origin-is-serious-now.htmlI was about halfway through Lex Fridman’s interview with Jeff Bezos, which is longer than Citizen Kane, when I realized what Bezos was up to: this is a warning shot across SpaceX’s bow. “Blue Origin needs to be much faster,”Bezos said. “It’s one of the reasons I left my role as the CEO of Amazon a couple of years ago. I wanted to come in — Blue Origin needs me right now./news/jeremy-clarkson-s-final-top-gear-episode-airs-on-june-28th.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jeremy-clarkson-s-final-top-gear-episode-airs-on-june-28th.htmlAfter Jeremy Clarkson's firing from Top Gear for assaulting a producer, it was initially unclear whether the show's final Clarkson-Hammond-May episodes would ever be broadcast. But it turned out that they would — and now, we've got a date for the very last one. On the evening of June 28th, the final episode that the three filmed together will come to BBC 2 in a 75-minute special, The Guardian reports. The goal of the final adventure, it seems, is to live a life of leisure on a £250 budget./news/john-wick-could-become-a-aaa-video-game.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/john-wick-could-become-a-aaa-video-game.htmlBecause everyone seems to have forgotten that John Wick Hex exists, Lionsgate, the studio behind the John Wick franchise, hasn’t ruled out AAA games for the future of everyone’s favorite dog-loving hitman. Over the course of three movies (going on four), the John Wick franchise has grown exceedingly rich and weird. However, spinoffs like The Continental are still a ways off, and with a reported second spinoff helmed by Ana de Armas in the works, Lionsgate is searching for other ways to keep attention on the franchise./news/jordan-peele-and-keke-palmer-open-up-about-the-trap-of-elevated-films.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jordan-peele-and-keke-palmer-open-up-about-the-trap-of-elevated-films.htmlIn the months leading up to the debut of Jordan Peele’s Nope, trying to figure out what the hell the movie was about became a kind of event unto itself as the director’s fans pored over trailers, posters, and interviews, feverishly trying to suss out just how the movie might shock them. For many, going into Nope completely unaware of its premise was a big part of what made the film such a thrilling experience./news/kim-kardashian-used-snapchat-to-prove-taylor-swift-was-lying-about-kanye-west-s-famous.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kim-kardashian-used-snapchat-to-prove-taylor-swift-was-lying-about-kanye-west-s-famous.htmlKim Kardashian West hopped onto Snapchat to defend her husband Kanye West's honor tonight, posting a series of videos that prove Taylor Swift gave West permission to rap about her on infamous The Life of Pablo single "Famous." (The line in question: "For all my Southside niggas that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.") Kardashian teased the reveal on Twitter earlier in the evening, and West's feud with Swift was the basis for one of the major plotlines on tonight's episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians./news/lego-s-new-alexa-skill-has-voice-guided-instructions-and-tells-stories.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lego-s-new-alexa-skill-has-voice-guided-instructions-and-tells-stories.htmlLego has launched a new interactive skill on Amazon Alexa called Lego Duplo Stories, an interactive experience that combines storytelling with the brick toys. The skill is available on devices that support Alexa, like the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, and gives parents and kids a selection of stories with audio prompts that guide physical play. Duplo Stories involve getting participants to build things with the brick pieces as they go through the story./news/lg-promises-three-years-of-android-updates-despite-exiting-phone-business.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-promises-three-years-of-android-updates-despite-exiting-phone-business.htmlLG has announced a pledge to issue future Android OS updates to many of its smartphones despite confirming earlier this week that it’ll be leaving the phone business altogether. The Velvet, Wing, and G- and V- series phones from 2019 or later should be getting three Android updates from their year of release, and “certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series” will get two updates. For example, the Velvet came out last year with Android 10, and its Android 11 rollout is currently in progress./news/listen-to-16-minutes-of-final-fantasy-vii-remake-s-soundtrack-performed-by-a-live-orchestra.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/listen-to-16-minutes-of-final-fantasy-vii-remake-s-soundtrack-performed-by-a-live-orchestra.htmlSquare Enix has released a 16-minute trailer for the Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestral World Tour, and if you’re a fan of the game’s fantastic soundtrack, I highly recommend watching this video from beginning to end. Watching the songs performed by a live orchestra brought a huge smile to my face. The trailer features three songs: a medley of the game’s opening, including the bombastic title fanfare that still gives me goosebumps; “Stand Up,” the song used during the Honeybee Inn dance scene; and a medley of the classic battle theme, “Let the Battles Begin!/news/macbook-pro-teardown-confirms-the-new-keyboard-is-basically-just-the-old-good-keyboard.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/macbook-pro-teardown-confirms-the-new-keyboard-is-basically-just-the-old-good-keyboard.htmlOne of the main promises Apple is making with its new 16-inch MacBook Pro is that the keyboard — after years of easily broken butterfly-switch mechanisms — is finally switching back to the more reliable scissor-style switches it’s used in the past. And iFixit’s teardown of the new laptop confirms that promise, with Apple using scissor switches that appear to be virtually identical the ones it uses in its Magic Keyboards, first introduced in 2015./news/maryland-passes-two-bills-limiting-tech-platforms-ability-to-track-users.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/maryland-passes-two-bills-limiting-tech-platforms-ability-to-track-users.htmlThe 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./news/massive-battery-life-killer-graphics-can-intel-s-haswell-deliver-on-the-hype.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/massive-battery-life-killer-graphics-can-intel-s-haswell-deliver-on-the-hype.htmlFor years now, it seems everyone has been waiting for Haswell, the latest processor from Intel that promises major improvements to graphics performance and battery life. The new silicon just officially launched last week at Computex Taipei, and we’re starting to see the first machines that take advantage of it, including Apple’s updated MacBook Airs. Apple promises the new Airs will deliver 70 to 80 percent better battery life and graphics that are up to 40 percent stronger than the previous Ivy Bridge-powered models./news/mattel-is-making-games-like-uno-more-accessible-for-colorblind-players.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mattel-is-making-games-like-uno-more-accessible-for-colorblind-players.htmlIn an effort to make its games accessible to a wider audience and “create more inclusive play experiences,” Mattel has announced that 80 percent of its gaming portfolio — including iconic titles like Uno — will be made accessible for those with a color vision deficiency by the end of the year, with a push to 90 percent by the end of 2025, as spotted by Polygon. For Uno and its many variants, the four colors used in the game will be distinguished by simple symbols added to each card: a circle for red, a square for blue, a triangle for green, and a star for yellow./news/meta-adds-an-18-and-up-tag-in-horizon-worlds-opening-the-door-to-mature-vr-content.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-adds-an-18-and-up-tag-in-horizon-worlds-opening-the-door-to-mature-vr-content.htmlMeta is expanding what type of content is allowed in the virtual worlds that people make for Horizon Worlds, its platform that lets people create VR spaces for shared experiences. The company has added an 18 and up tag for user-created worlds and updated its policy to allow creators to include “mature” content that was previously banned altogether. According to UploadVR, creators who have published worlds received an email saying they have to manually mark whether their world is mature or safe for all audiences — if they don’t, it will be restricted to 18 and up by default./news/meta-is-shutting-down-three-oculus-games-without-explanation.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-is-shutting-down-three-oculus-games-without-explanation.htmlHope you didn’t enjoy playing Dead and Buried, Dead and Buried II, or Bogo on your Rift or Quest headsets — because Meta’s shutting them all down with no explanation, just like it already did with Echo VR (aka Echo Arena). “We are reaching out to let you know that Dead and Buried will no longer be supported as of Friday, March 15, 2024,” reads an email in my inbox. “You can continue to hunt ghosts and other creatures in Dead and Buried on your Rift, Rift S, or Quest (via link) devices until 11:59 PM PT on that date./news/microsoft-and-facebook-s-record-setting-undersea-cable-sets-another-record.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-and-facebook-s-record-setting-undersea-cable-sets-another-record.htmlThe world’s highest capacity undersea cable could be capable of speeds that are 20 percent faster than thought theoretically possible. A recent experiment using 16QAM modulation achieved record transfer speeds of 26.2 Terabits per second on a 4,000 mile transatlantic cable jointly owned by Facebook and Microsoft. This represents a 20 percent improvement on the 20 Tbps each pair of the cable’s eight optic fibers was originally thought capable of, according to the team of researchers from Infinera that conducted the test./news/microsoft-announces-paypal-dropbox-and-espn-windows-8-apps.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-announces-paypal-dropbox-and-espn-windows-8-apps.htmlMicrosoft's build developer conference has kicked off in Seattle today, and the company is using it to showcase some new Windows 8 apps. PayPal will supply an API for Windows 8 developers that allows them to use the PayPal payment system within any Windows Store app. Microsoft also announced a new Dropbox app for Windows 8 that is simply "coming soon." A new ESPN app will aggregate scores and video alongside photo galleries and podcasts with pin support for Windows 8's new Start screen./news/microsoft-s-copilot-assistant-is-getting-a-gpt-4o-upgrade.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-copilot-assistant-is-getting-a-gpt-4o-upgrade.htmlMicrosoft’s Copilot assistant is getting a GPT-4o upgrade. Like many other assistants and AI devices plugged into OpenAI’s latest LLM, Microsoft just announced at today’s Surface event that Copilot will soon be plugged into GPT-4o (and powered by new Surface Plus PCs). They demonstrated the integration by showing Copilot guide a player through Minecraft, using GPT-4o to see and react to what was happening onscreen. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfanxzfI5ra2puYG6CdnvMopqrp6Oks7W%2FjJymqaGcpMFurdKsoKyskaPBbrXSZp6erKSeu6h5wGaeqaxdabxuwc%2BgqZqclQ%3D%3D/news/mimi-s-tales-of-terror-review-more-scares-from-horror-master-junji-ito.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mimi-s-tales-of-terror-review-more-scares-from-horror-master-junji-ito.htmlIt’s been an interesting year for fans of Junji Ito. 2023 will be bookended by animated adaptations of the famed horror master’s work; it started with Netflix’s anthology in January, while Adult Swim’s take on Uzumaki is expected by the end of the year. And right in the middle is a new collection of his work in English with Mimi’s Tales of Terror. It’s a series of short stories inspired by urban legends — just the thing for dark, cold October nights./news/mythic-computer-is-trying-to-change-the-pc-world-one-wood-computer-at-a-time.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mythic-computer-is-trying-to-change-the-pc-world-one-wood-computer-at-a-time.htmlThe computer on Keegan McNamara’s desk is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The machine sits on a light wood table, bathed in the sunlight coming into the second floor of McNamara’s Los Angeles house. McNamara, tall and blonde in jeans and a light khaki Carhartt jacket, walks over to the desk, sits down, and reaches over to hit the power button. Then he pauses. He forgot something. He digs into his pants pocket, pulls out his keys, picks a silver one, sticks it into a cylinder just to the right of the computer’s 8-inch screen, and turns./news/neck-lamps-are-a-bookworm-s-best-friend.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/neck-lamps-are-a-bookworm-s-best-friend.htmlAs convenient as e-readers are, I can’t quit actual books. Maybe it’s their reassuring weight, the satisfying crinkle of their pages, their beguiling musk; but there’s something addictive about that combination of paper, ink, and glue. Despite this — and as much as it pains me to say it — physical books aren’t perfect. One issue that’s been a particularly large albatross around my neck is reading in low-light environments. When I do so, I’m either keeping my partner awake with a blazing bedside lamp, twisting my body into awkward positions to illuminate the pages, or — worst of all — having to turn on the dreaded Big Light./news/netflix-s-cam-is-an-unsettling-thriller-about-losing-your-online-identity.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-cam-is-an-unsettling-thriller-about-losing-your-online-identity.htmlThere’s a moment about two-thirds of the way through Netflix’s creepy new tech thriller Cam where audiences will think they have a pretty good handle on where the movie is headed. Alice (Madeline Brewer), a cam girl who goes by the online name “Lola,” is trying to figure out what’s going on with her account. It’s been hijacked by a woman who appears to be her doppelgänger, someone regularly performing live broadcasts in her name./news/newegg-users-credit-card-info-was-exposed-to-hackers-for-a-month.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/newegg-users-credit-card-info-was-exposed-to-hackers-for-a-month.htmlHardware retailer Newegg suffered a month-long data breach that exposed users’ credit card information to the same hackers who targeted British Airways and Ticketmaster UK earlier this year. The exact scope of the attack is still unknown as the company just discovered the breach yesterday and began taking action. Newegg sees about 50 million monthly visitors and has a business valued at $2.65 billion. Threat management firm RiskIQ, which uncovered the breach alongside cybersecurity firm Volexity, says, “We can assume this attack claimed a massive number of victims,” although the numbers are still being investigated./news/nier-replicant-is-coming-out-at-the-perfect-time.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nier-replicant-is-coming-out-at-the-perfect-time.htmlNier: Automata wasn’t expected to be a hit. It was a sequel to an RPG that could charitably be described as a cult classic, and its time-spanning story demanded a lot from players. Yet director Yoko Taro’s dark, poignant, and hilarious writing shone through, while the developers at PlatinumGames ensured the action felt great. It ended up selling more than 5 million copies, was ported to new platforms, and most recently was introduced to a brand-new audience through Xbox Game Pass./news/nikola-shows-its-truck-going-uphill-for-a-change.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nikola-shows-its-truck-going-uphill-for-a-change.htmlJust five days after Nikola founder Trevor Milton was indicted, in part, for allegedly misleading investors with footage of a moving truck that was secretly rolling downhill, the hydrogen-trucking startup released footage of a newer prototype driving uphill. The startup showed the video during a presentation of its second quarter financial results on Tuesday. (It also published the footage on YouTube.) While it may be a moral victory for the company to show its truck climbing a 12 percent grade hill in light of the more infamous clip Milton once orchestrated, the release of the footage nonetheless came alongside some bad news: Nikola now expects to deliver half the number of trucks this year than it had originally estimated./news/nintendo-s-breath-of-the-wild-basically-uses-fancy-miis-as-npcs.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-s-breath-of-the-wild-basically-uses-fancy-miis-as-npcs.htmlIf you’re Nintendo and you need a bunch of non-playable characters (NPCs) for your soon-to-be smash-hit Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, what do you do? Apparently, you may use your Mii creation tool to generate them. Twitter user and self-proclaimed Mii expert Alice (@HEYimHeroic) has discovered that some of the minor characters in the game’s world (shopkeepers, townsfolk, etc.), are based on Mii characters, and Miis are able to be brought directly into the game — albeit with a fair amount of effort./news/nintendo-s-mobile-animal-crossing-keeps-getting-better.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-s-mobile-animal-crossing-keeps-getting-better.htmlWhen Nintendo first released Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on mobile last November, I was into it. The game felt somewhat slight by Animal Crossing standards, however. It lacked the open-ended nature of past games, and it didn’t really offer a whole lot to do. But there’s something about the laid-back, leisurely nature of the series that makes it a great fit for smartphones. It’s a mini escape that you can pull out whenever you need it./news/no-man-s-sky-is-finally-getting-a-ship-editor-in-latest-update.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/no-man-s-sky-is-finally-getting-a-ship-editor-in-latest-update.htmlNo Man’s Sky just keeps on expanding. Hello Games is releasing the game’s 27th update today, dubbed “Orbital,” and it adds some major features including improved space stations and a tool for customizing ships. The studio says that the stations are now much larger and more impressive from the outside and that the insides are now “vast, procedurally generated, and incredibly diverse.” Most notably, they now feature ship editors where players can customize their personal spacecraft./news/nokia-introduces-the-lumia-1520-its-largest-windows-phone-yet.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nokia-introduces-the-lumia-1520-its-largest-windows-phone-yet.htmlSmartphones, especially Android and Windows Phone devices, have been growing rapidly in size over the past few years, from devices with mere 4-inch displays to those with screens almost six inches in size. Today Nokia is announcing its largest devices yet. The new Lumia 1520 (along with its low-end counterpart, the Lumia 1320) features a massive 6-inch display, making it the largest Windows Phone ever released. The 1520 is also the first Windows Phone with a 1080p screen and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor./news/north-focals-glasses-review-a-600-smartwatch-for-your-face.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/north-focals-glasses-review-a-600-smartwatch-for-your-face.htmlIt took my friend 10 minutes to realize that the glasses on my face weren’t my usual ones and were actually a pair of the buzziest smart glasses available right now. She didn’t figure it out when I somehow knew exactly what the group text we had just received said, even though I didn’t have my phone out. But as we were standing on the J train heading uptown, she asked, “What is that on your face?/news/now-you-can-sign-up-for-facebook-messenger-without-a-facebook-account.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/now-you-can-sign-up-for-facebook-messenger-without-a-facebook-account.htmlStarting today, you can sign up for Facebook Messenger even if you don't have an account with the social network. You don't even need an email address, in fact. Facebook only requires your first and last name, phone number, and a photo to get started. "With this update, more people can enjoy all the features that are available on Messenger — including photos, videos, group chats, voice and video calling, stickers and more,"/news/nuro-plans-for-more-layoffs-as-the-av-sector-s-economic-woes-deepen.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nuro-plans-for-more-layoffs-as-the-av-sector-s-economic-woes-deepen.htmlRobot delivery startup Nuro announced plans to layoff a portion of its workforce and to pause its commercial operations as it pivots to more research and development. The news comes amid a broader set of financial challenges for the burgeoning autonomous vehicle sector. Nuro grew too rapidly in recent years thanks to an abundance of capital, a zero interest rate environment, and a growing sense of competition. But the company has since run into economic headwinds that are challenging the entire tech industry./news/nvidia-announces-rtx-2000-gpu-series-with-6-times-more-performance-and-ray-tracing.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-announces-rtx-2000-gpu-series-with-6-times-more-performance-and-ray-tracing.htmlNvidia is unveiling its new GeForce RTX 2000 series of graphics cards at Gamescom in Germany today. While we’ve seen a number of teasers and plenty of card leaks recently, the GeForce RTX 2080 is finally official. Based on Nvidia’s new Turing architecture, the RTX 2080 is designed to succeed the popular GTX 1080 and push new real-time ray-tracing effects in upcoming games. At Nvidia’s event, the company is unveiling the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 Ti./news/nvidia-rtx-4060-review-roundup-you-deserve-better.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-rtx-4060-review-roundup-you-deserve-better.htmlThe RTX 4060 isn’t a terrible card by any means. Some people will probably say it is, but across our benchmark suite, it was universally faster than the previous generation RTX 3060 at every setting that mattered (meaning, not counting 4K ultra performance, where neither card delivered acceptable performance). There will be edge cases where it falls behind, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales running 1440p ultra, where minimum fps was clearly worse than on the 3060./news/nvidia-rtx-4070-super-review-a-super-performance-bump-for-599.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-rtx-4070-super-review-a-super-performance-bump-for-599.htmlWhen I reviewed the RTX 4070 last year, there were a few things that held it back. The original card shipped with 12GB of VRAM, its 4K performance didn’t quite match the RTX 3080, and overall, it didn’t feel like a big generational leap. The RTX 4070 Super corrects most of those issues at the same $599 price point. While Nvidia has stuck to the same 192-bit memory bus and 12GB of G6X memory with the RTX 4070 Super, the big bump to CUDA cores puts its performance a lot closer to the RTX 4070 Ti./news/oculus-prototype-santa-cruz-headset-feels-like-a-wireless-oculus-rift.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oculus-prototype-santa-cruz-headset-feels-like-a-wireless-oculus-rift.htmlNext year, developers will start playing with Oculus’ next-generation VR headset: a wireless system codenamed Santa Cruz. Facebook VR chief Hugo Barra stresses that Santa Cruz is a prototype, not a commercial product. But he tells The Verge it’s “very representative” of where the company is going, and “realizable” as a consumer headset. So in a few years, Oculus hopes to offer something that delivers a lot of high-end Rift features, but without any of the complicated setup, or the need for a separate PC./news/oneplus-open-review-right-size-wrong-price.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oneplus-open-review-right-size-wrong-price.htmlOnePlus loves to tout its “no compromises” tagline, but in the case of its first foldable phone, a few more compromises would have been good. The main problem is the price: $1,700. Is the OnePlus Open a phone that feels worthy of such a high price tag? In some ways, yes. The flat edges exude iPhone in all the right ways. It’s thin for a foldable, without the chunkiness of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5./news/openai-chief-scientist-ilya-sutskever-is-officially-leaving.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/openai-chief-scientist-ilya-sutskever-is-officially-leaving.htmlIlya and OpenAI are going to part ways. This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend. His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important. OpenAI would not be what it is without him. Although he has something personally meaningful he is going to go work on, I am forever grateful for what he did here and committed to finishing the mission we started together./news/openai-researcher-resigns-claiming-safety-has-taken-a-backseat-to-shiny-products.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/openai-researcher-resigns-claiming-safety-has-taken-a-backseat-to-shiny-products.htmlJan Leike, a key OpenAI researcher who resigned earlier this week following the departure of co-founder Ilya Sutskever, posted on X Friday morning that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products” at the company. Leike’s statements came after Wired reported that OpenAI had disbanded the team dedicated to addressing long-term AI risks (called the “Superalignment team”) altogether. Leike had been running the Superalignment team, which formed last July to “solve the core technical challenges” in implementing safety protocols as OpenAI developed AI that can reason like a human./news/our-favorite-reviews-of-melanie-s-marvelous-measles.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/our-favorite-reviews-of-melanie-s-marvelous-measles.htmlMelanie's Marvelous Measles was written to educate children on the benefits of having measles and how you can heal from them naturally and successfully. Often today, we are being bombarded with messages from vested interests to fear all diseases in order for someone to sell some potion or vaccine, when, in fact, history shows that in industrialized countries, these diseases are quite benign and, according to natural health sources, beneficial to the body./news/pink-is-the-new-blue-in-the-trailer-for-godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pink-is-the-new-blue-in-the-trailer-for-godzilla-x-kong-the-new-empire.htmlPink is the new blue in the trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Here’s the official trailer for Legendary’s next Monsterverse movie. I don’t know what’s going on in it other than that Godzilla’s atomic fire is pink and King Kong has a Thanos glove for some reason. Also, there’s a baby Kong, which I assume means King Kong dies at the end like in the Linda Hamilton film King Kong Lives./news/pogoplug-series-4-review-the-verge.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pogoplug-series-4-review-the-verge.htmlPogoplug recently joined the cloud storage craze, and now offers 5GB of free storage to everyone in a service similar to Dropbox, Box, iCloud, and SkyDrive. Before the cloud became a buzzword, however, Pogoplug was a hardware company, and the new $99.95 Pogoplug Series 4 is proof the company still believes mini servers that host personal hard drives are the solution for accessing data from anywhere, anytime. Pogoplug's first piece of hardware (self-titled, like any true freshman effort), came out in 2009 and let you do one thing: plug in a USB hard drive and access its contents anywhere, from the web or from iPhone and desktop apps./news/review-victor-frankenstein-is-a-madcap-ultimately-pointless-bromance.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/review-victor-frankenstein-is-a-madcap-ultimately-pointless-bromance.htmlThe problem with Mary Shelley's 1818 horror classic Frankenstein has always been protagonist Victor Frankenstein. The novel's plot requires him to be embarrassingly mercurial, completely lacking in empathy, and prone to lengthy periods of fevered hysteria, so he can check out of the story for weeks whenever Shelley needs time to pass. Above all, he's brilliant enough to create intelligent life from dead tissue, but still too dim to parse the simple threat "/news/ring-alarm-pro-review-whole-home-security-for-your-digital-and-physical-life.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ring-alarm-pro-review-whole-home-security-for-your-digital-and-physical-life.htmlI am a big fan of Ring Alarm. Mainly because the inexpensive, easy-to-use security system is an excellent smart home hub in disguise. Since the first generation of the product launched in 2018, it’s been packed with useful smart home radios, including Bluetooth, RF, cellular, Zigbee, and Z-Wave, some of which are capable of connecting to a nice selection of smart home and security devices. I also admire Ring Alarm for leading the charge in disrupting the tired, expensive home security industry, thanks to its rock bottom prices, good hardware, and lack of long-term contracts./news/ryder-says-ev-startup-chanje-owes-millions-for-undelivered-vans.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ryder-says-ev-startup-chanje-owes-millions-for-undelivered-vans.htmlTruck rental company Ryder says it’s owed nearly $4 million from EV startup Chanje after it failed to deliver 100 of the 125 vans promised back in 2017, according to a previously unreported lawsuit in Florida. The lawsuit comes as a massive shift toward electric propulsion is underway in the commercial vehicle space, with new startups raising billions of dollars and established automakers announcing electric delivery vans and trucks at a regular clip./news/ryuichi-sakamoto-opus-an-interview-with-director-neo-sora.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ryuichi-sakamoto-opus-an-interview-with-director-neo-sora.htmlBefore he died, knowing that the end was coming, Ryuichi Sakamoto planned one last performance. The film — which features a career-spanning selection from his oeuvre of pop music, movie scores, and experimental and ambient compositions — rearranges many songs for solo piano; a showcase of the strength and mutability of Sakamoto’s work. In a press statement, Sakamoto said the set list was locked much further ahead than he usually planned./news/samsung-galaxy-buds-3-leak-shows-off-airpods-like-design.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-buds-3-leak-shows-off-airpods-like-design.htmlSamsung’s next Galaxy Buds have been rumored to resemble AirPods, and new leaked renders make the comparison clearer than ever. The renders, purportedly found on Korean retailer Coupang, show that Samsung might be moving on from its bulb-shaped buds in favor of wireless headphones with AirPods-like stems, AirPods-like vents, and even an AirPods-like case. I’ve made an image slider so you can compare one of the renders with a photo of Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro./news/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-galaxy-within-for-sprint-spotted.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-galaxy-within-for-sprint-spotted.htmlIt's a commonly-held belief that Sprint (and other US carriers) are preparing releases of branded handsets based on the Galaxy S II, Samsung's well-equipped successor to the Galaxy S that's been circulating Europe for a few months. Well, we've got a fresh pair of shots this afternoon that certainly seem to support the rumor, one of which shows a textured back of a device bearing both Sprint and Samsung logos alongside an 8 megapixel camera./news/samsung-has-reportedly-fixed-the-galaxy-s10-fingerprint-recognition-issue.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-has-reportedly-fixed-the-galaxy-s10-fingerprint-recognition-issue.htmlAccording to Android Central, the update is only available for S10 and Note 10 devices in South Korea for now, although it should be rolling out to additional countries in the near future. The update should be available soon The company previously warned users that unsanctioned screen protectors could cause issues. Samsung’s official support site already notes that “unofficial, scratched or dirty screen protectors may cause the fingerprint sensor to malfunction.” But there’s a big difference between “malfunction” and “allow anyone to get into your phone,” which likely explains the speed at which Samsung is getting this update out./news/samsung-made-a-giphy-page-of-comeback-gifs-to-send-people-who-diss-green-bubbles.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-made-a-giphy-page-of-comeback-gifs-to-send-people-who-diss-green-bubbles.htmlSamsung knows some people don’t buy its phones because doing so means committing themselves to becoming a green bubble person in their iPhone friends’ texts. Samsung feels for these people, so it launched an entire Giphy page filled with comeback GIFs they can send to self-righteous iPhone users. For the green bubble unacquainted, many iOS users don’t enjoy texting Android users because Apple treats SMS, MMS, and RCS messages differently than iMessages./news/samsung-scores-exclusive-angry-birds-space-content-for-galaxy-note.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-scores-exclusive-angry-birds-space-content-for-galaxy-note.htmlTo celebrate the launch of the Galaxy Note and Angry Birds Space, Samsung and Rovio have partnered to offer exclusive content for the game to all Galaxy device owners. The two companies made the announcement at SXSW, where they're showing off the game exclusively on the Galaxy Note. The Samsung-exclusive content includes a Galaxy Note-branded level, the game's first 30-level DLC pack for free, and an exclusive weapon: the Lazer Bird,/news/samsung-s-smartthings-tracker-uses-lte-to-find-your-misplaced-items.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-smartthings-tracker-uses-lte-to-find-your-misplaced-items.htmlSamsung is releasing a SmartThings tracker that’s powered by LTE-M (instead of Bluetooth) to help you find stuff. The cellular network allows it to be used for real-time location tracking for your pets and kids as well as misplaced items. The power button on the tracker, when pressed twice, will send its location through the SmartThings app, and there’s also an option to send an SOS. The tracker is compatible with other Samsung SmartThings devices so it can be used in conjunction with other smart home products like lights, thermostats, and security cameras./news/sonos-beam-second-gen-review-atmos-t-a-minor-upgrade.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sonos-beam-second-gen-review-atmos-t-a-minor-upgrade.htmlFrom the moment Sonos announced the second-generation Beam soundbar, it was evident that this sequel is more refresh than reinvention. The new Beam, available October 5th and now slightly more expensive at $449, is the same compact size as the 2018 original. The speaker drivers inside the unit are completely unchanged. Sonos has touched up the appearance by switching from a fabric covering on the first Beam to the company’s signature perforated plastic with finely drilled holes running along the entire front of the soundbar./news/sony-leak-allows-destiny-2-players-to-access-the-final-shape-expansion-early.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-leak-allows-destiny-2-players-to-access-the-final-shape-expansion-early.htmlBungie’s highly anticipated Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion isn’t due to launch until June 4th, but a number of players have been able to get access to the game this morning. Posters on Reddit and in Discord servers have been sharing images and video of gameplay of The Final Shape, which was accessible through Sony’s PS5 cloud streaming service. As the entire DLC was playable for at least five hours, Destiny 2 players have been able to share spoilers about upcoming raid gear, seasonal content, The Final Shape campaign and missions, and even cutscenes./news/sony-rx0-mark-ii-review-do-it-for-the-vlog.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-rx0-mark-ii-review-do-it-for-the-vlog.htmlPop quiz, hot shot. What looks like an action cam, is tough like an action cam, but isn’t actually an action cam? I don’t know either, but that’s kind of the best way to describe the Sony RX0 Mark II. It’s a $700, video-centric, GoPro-shaped camera that could perhaps be called a travel camera or a vlogging camera. When the stars align, it shoots stunning footage. When they don’t, it’ll leave you scratching your head./news/spotify-upgrades-its-family-plan-to-match-apple-music-s.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-upgrades-its-family-plan-to-match-apple-music-s.htmlSpotify has upgraded its family plan, now allowing up to six Premium accounts per family for $14.99 a month. The new plan is a direct match to Apple Music's family plan — which Google Play also matched back in December — and is a dramatic improvement over Spotify's old family offering, which would've cost users $30 a month for family of five (there was no six-person plan available before today)./news/steam-will-stop-issuing-refunds-if-you-play-two-hours-of-a-game-before-launch-day.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/steam-will-stop-issuing-refunds-if-you-play-two-hours-of-a-game-before-launch-day.htmlREFUNDS ON TITLES PURCHASED PRIOR TO RELEASE DATE When you purchase a title on Steam prior to the release date, the two-hour playtime limit for refunds will apply (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds will not start until the release date. For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, any playtime will count against the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title which is not playable prior to the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title, and the standard 14-day/two-hour refund period will apply starting on the game’s release date./news/substack-says-it-will-not-remove-or-demonetize-nazi-content.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/substack-says-it-will-not-remove-or-demonetize-nazi-content.htmlI just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse. While McKenzie offers no evidence to back these ideas, this tracks with the company’s previous stance on taking a hands-off approach to moderation./news/surface-review-apple-tv-plus-new-thriller-is-packed-with-mysteries.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/surface-review-apple-tv-plus-new-thriller-is-packed-with-mysteries.htmlWhile Apple TV Plus is probably best known for its comfort food comedies and big-budget genre swings, the streaming service has also steadily built up a lineup of very intense thrillers. The latest is Surface — not to be confused with Suspicion, Severance, or Servant, also available on the service — which takes the idea of a mystery to its most extreme conclusion. The early episodes are almost entirely made up of questions and misdirection./news/surprisingly-scientists-decline-to-move-the-doomsday-clock-closer-to-midnight.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/surprisingly-scientists-decline-to-move-the-doomsday-clock-closer-to-midnight.htmlLast year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the time each year, moved the clock forward to 90 seconds from midnight — AKA doom. That was the closest the clock has ever been set to annihilation, and it will stay there this year. “Ninety seconds to midnight is profoundly unstable and must not engender complacency.” “There are two key messages in our statement and they are one: that 90 seconds to midnight is profoundly unstable and must not engender complacency and two: the advancement of technology is quickening and outpacing our ability to govern them,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said during a press event today./news/sweet-tooth-season-2-review-much-too-confined.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sweet-tooth-season-2-review-much-too-confined.htmlNetflix’s Sweet Tooth is Bambi meets The Last of Us. It inserts adorable animal characters into an increasingly harrowing world, where the skin of civilization is being pulled back by the nails of abnormality. This is a world unmade by a respiratory disease, while simultaneously reeling from the sudden births of hybrid children: half-human, half-animal. Amid this chaos, we meet the titular sweet tooth, Gus (Christian Convery), a half-deer boy. Raised in isolation in Yellowstone National Park, Gus found himself alone and hunted./news/t-mobile-announces-digits-one-phone-number-for-all-your-devices.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/t-mobile-announces-digits-one-phone-number-for-all-your-devices.htmlT-Mobile just revealed its answer to AT&T’s NumberSync technology, which lets customers use one phone number across all their connected devices. T-Mobile’s version is called Digits and it will launch in a limited, opt-in customer beta beginning today before rolling out to everyone early next year. “You can make and take calls and texts on whatever device is most convenient,” the company said in its press release. “Just log in and, bam, your call history, messages and even voicemail are all there./news/tesla-introduces-new-fee-to-limit-congestion-at-superchargers.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-introduces-new-fee-to-limit-congestion-at-superchargers.htmlTesla is using a new fee to encourage people not to charge their cars to 100 percent at busy Supercharger locations. In the US, the Supercharger Congestion Fee kicks in after a car hits 90 percent charge, at which point drivers will be hit with a $1 fee for each minute they continue to charge their vehicles. The company’s support page says the fee will apply at “certain Supercharging locations” when they’re busy./news/tesla-recalls-all-3-878-cybertrucks-over-faulty-accelerator-pedal.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-recalls-all-3-878-cybertrucks-over-faulty-accelerator-pedal.htmlTesla has issued a recall for effectively every Cybertruck it’s delivered to customers due to a fault that’s causing the vehicle’s accelerator pedal to get stuck. The fault was caused by an “unapproved change” that introduced “lubricant (soap)” during the assembly of the accelerator pedals, which reduced the retention of the pad, the recall notice states. The truck’s brakes will still function if the accelerator pedal becomes trapped, though this obviously isn’t an ideal workaround./news/tesla-reintroduces-more-affordable-standard-range-versions-of-model-s-and-x.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-reintroduces-more-affordable-standard-range-versions-of-model-s-and-x.htmlTesla now sells “Standard Range” versions of its Model S and Model X, lowering the starting price of both vehicles by $10,000 for anyone prepared to compromise on the distance either car can drive before needing to be recharged. The Standard Range Model X starts at $88,490, versus $98,490 for the next model up, while the Standard Range Model S starts at $78,490 versus $88,490. The changes to Tesla’s website were initially spotted by Electrek./news/tesla-wins-another-court-case-by-arguing-fatal-autopilot-crash-was-caused-by-human-error.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-wins-another-court-case-by-arguing-fatal-autopilot-crash-was-caused-by-human-error.htmlTesla was found not to be liable for the death of a Model 3 owner whose vehicle crashed while driving in Autopilot, a jury decided Tuesday. The case centered on a crash in California in 2019 in which a Tesla Model 3 veered off the road, crashing into a palm tree before catching fire. The crash killed the driver, 37-year-old Micah Lee, who was reportedly using Autopilot at the time of the incident./news/tesla-s-iphone-app-gets-better-digital-car-key-support-with-ultra-wideband.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-s-iphone-app-gets-better-digital-car-key-support-with-ultra-wideband.htmlThe Tesla app now supports ultra wideband (UWB) in the 2024.2.3 version of the app for iPhones. Spotted by Not a Tesla App, it promises more reliable and secure use of phones as digital keys than Bluetooth does because UWB’s precision tracking lets the car know exactly where the key is, which also helps protect against replay spoofing attacks. The article says this even comes down to knowing which user is on the driver’s side of the car in the event that two people who have phone keys for the car are getting into it./news/that-uranium-ore-found-at-a-grand-canyon-museum-isn-t-as-scary-as-it-sounds.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/that-uranium-ore-found-at-a-grand-canyon-museum-isn-t-as-scary-as-it-sounds.htmlSince the news broke that three buckets of uranium ore sat in a Grand Canyon museum for years, alarm has been spreading about the radiation “cover-up.” But it’s tough to figure out exactly how dangerous the uranium truly was to visitors and staff. The buckets had been sitting next to a taxidermy exhibit at the National Park Service’s Grand Canyon Museum Collection, a location where groups of schoolchildren stopped on tours, according to The Arizona Republic./news/the-best-gadgets-we-saw-at-ces-2022-the-verge-awards.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-gadgets-we-saw-at-ces-2022-the-verge-awards.htmlCES was supposed to be in person this year. The Verge and countless other outlets had hotel rooms confirmed and airlines booked. Companies teased cool gadgets that would have made CES feel exciting again after the muted all-digital affair of 2021. But COVID surged and CES saw massive cancellations. Some companies pivoted to digital booths, others canceled keynotes, and a few just withdrew altogether. CES even announced it would end a day early./news/the-best-part-of-fast-tv-is-the-choice-it-takes-away.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-part-of-fast-tv-is-the-choice-it-takes-away.htmlI’ve been watching TV on demand for over 20 years. Well before streaming, I was picking up the whole run of The Sopranos from the college library and making my way through the seasons. When I graduated, I kept the habit, preferring to watch things from DVD box sets rather than just zoning out in front of the television. Even when I visit family now, I’m the obnoxious one who always has a show they want to watch on Netflix or HBO Max instead of 12 episodes in a row of House Hunters on HGTV./news/the-best-stylus-for-ipad-we-review-the-hits-and-misses.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-stylus-for-ipad-we-review-the-hits-and-misses.htmlUntil Paper for iPad launched, we didn't know many people who were clamoring for a stylus to use in conjunction with their iPad. And now, the Best Buy around the block from us is sold out of styli, and Amazon's in-house stylus has reached #1 on the sales chart for tablet accessories — ahead of smart covers, screen protectors, cases, and stands. Well OK, maybe it was Draw Something that spurred the rush, but if it's not completely evident, the stylus is making a bit of a comeback./news/the-best-ways-to-play-tetris-in-2023.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-ways-to-play-tetris-in-2023.htmlThe new Tetris movie on Apple TV Plus plays fast and loose with facts, but there’s one thing it gets right: the game absolutely rules. Watching the movie is very likely to give you the urge to get back to moving falling blocks around until your eyes bleed. And there are a lot of ways to do that. The best way remains grabbing the original cartridge and slotting it into a Game Boy (or an Analogue Pocket, if you’re fancy)./news/the-boys-have-met-their-end.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-boys-have-met-their-end.htmlThe Boys have met their end. While Amazon definitely wants fans of The Boys getting hyped up for the show’s season four premiere later this week on June 13th, showrunner Eric Kripke announced today that the show’s upcoming fifth season will be its last. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfa3xyfY5ra2pvZmaCenvToZxmmp%2BuwG60wK%2BcZqWVqXq1tMSiqWadnpk%3D/news/the-faa-is-no-longer-concerned-with-spacex-s-starship-sn9-and-sn8.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-faa-is-no-longer-concerned-with-spacex-s-starship-sn9-and-sn8.htmlThe FAA seems satisfied with its investigations into Elon Musk’s last two SpaceX Starship tests, each of which ended in an explosive crash, and the conclusion of those investigations should clear the way for a new SN10 flight in the very near future. In fact, Musk just tweeted there’s a “good chance of flying this week!” As for the SN9, which similarly exploded during a landing attempt on February 2nd, the FAA says it “failed within the bounds of the FAA safety analysis” and “its unsuccessful landing and explosion did not endanger the public or property./news/the-fasetto-link-puts-2tb-of-storage-in-the-palm-of-your-hand.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-fasetto-link-puts-2tb-of-storage-in-the-palm-of-your-hand.htmlThe Fasetto Link is a miniature wireless storage device that offers extra portable storage for your computer or smartphone on the go. It's a tiny, two by two-inch device that houses up to a 2TB SSD. It generates its own Wi-Fi network to stream content that's stored on it, and can easily pull new images and videos from phones over the air through a connected app. It's also shock resistant, waterproof with an IP68 rating, and like many new devices, charges over USB-C./news/the-final-fantasy-xv-movie-is-a-confusing-beautiful-mess.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-final-fantasy-xv-movie-is-a-confusing-beautiful-mess.htmlThe opening scene of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV — a feature-length computer-animated film set in the same universe as the upcoming game — features Princess Luna, played by Lena Hedley, describing a world home to powerful crystals where an evil empire wages war against a kingdom protected by their leader’s magical power. It sounds a bit like a dramatic reading of the Final Fantasy XV wiki, as performed by Cersei Lannister./news/the-first-poster-for-game-of-thrones-season-5-is-truly-epic.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-poster-for-game-of-thrones-season-5-is-truly-epic.htmlAll you need to know to understand this poster is that Tyrion will figure prominently in season 5 — we've already seen plenty to suggest that he'll treat with Daenerys well ahead of where the books left off — and that Drogon is probably the most badass dragon since Balerion the Black Dread. We'll see that first hand starting April 12th. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnam1fZ3xzg45xaGtrZ2eCcLPAppxmp5Ziwam%2BzqecrGWgpMC1sdFmq7KqmaS7brDRqJ6opg%3D%3D/news/the-flatliners-team-could-have-saved-their-remake-and-chose-not-to.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-flatliners-team-could-have-saved-their-remake-and-chose-not-to.htmlBack in 2016, in an interview with Metro, actor Kiefer Sutherland said something that promptly made the rounds in the usual film-news outlets: he claimed Niels Arden Oplev’s 2017 Flatliners remake is actually a sequel to the original 1990 film. “I play a professor at the medical university,” he told writer Ann Lee. “It is never stated but it will probably be very clearly understood that I’m the same character I was in the original Flatliners but that I have changed my name and I’ve done some things to move on from the experiments that we were doing in the original film./news/the-iphone-is-not-a-luxury-good.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-is-not-a-luxury-good.htmlThis morning, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) suggested that the Republicans’ proposed Affordable Care Act replacement would require Americans to “make a choice” in order to pay for health care. “Maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own health care,” he told CNN. There are a lot of things wrong with this statement, including the fact that average health care spending per capita is thousands, not hundreds, of dollars annually./news/the-ipod-turns-15-a-visual-history-of-apple-s-mobile-music-icon.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ipod-turns-15-a-visual-history-of-apple-s-mobile-music-icon.htmlFifteen years ago today, on October 23rd, 2001, Steve Jobs stood up on stage and announced the original iPod. Since that day, the iPod has changed the way people buy and listen to music, sold millions of devices, and laid the foundation for the powerhouses that Apple has had with the iPhone and iPad. And while the classic iPod design was finally retired two years ago, and the remaining members of the iPod line are less important to Apple’s strategy today than they were years ago, it’s still an integral part of history, both for the company and the larger tech industry./news/the-lg-q8-is-a-smaller-version-of-last-year-s-v20-with-water-resistance.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-lg-q8-is-a-smaller-version-of-last-year-s-v20-with-water-resistance.htmlLG is launching a smaller version of the LG V20 called the Q8, and it seems to be fixing some of the biggest problems of its larger cousin, via Android Police. The LG V20 was an “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” sort of phone, one that packed in tons of features like dual cameras, 32-bit quad DAC, and, of course, a second display right above the screen, although it was held back by a few issues, including the massive size of the device and lack of waterproofing (as noted by my colleague Chris Welch in his review)./news/the-mandalorian-s3-teaser-trailer-previews-its-2023-return-to-disney-plus.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-mandalorian-s3-teaser-trailer-previews-its-2023-return-to-disney-plus.htmlDisney showed off a teaser trailer for the third season of The Mandalorian at its D23 event on Saturday. While we don’t have an exact date for when the series will arrive on Disney Plus, the streamer previously said it will premiere in February 2023. This is our first glimpse at the show’s upcoming third season and showed off not only Pedro Pascal’s title character, The Mandalorian, and his Force-using charge, but other familiar characters like Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan, Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, Omid Abtahi as Dr./news/the-meizu-zero-takes-phone-trends-to-the-natural-conclusion-of-no-ports-or-buttons.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-meizu-zero-takes-phone-trends-to-the-natural-conclusion-of-no-ports-or-buttons.htmlPhones have been shedding ports and buttons for a while now. Headphone jacks are going extinct on most devices, and home and back buttons have been replaced on nearly every iOS and Android phone with software UIs. The new Meizu Zero is the first to take that trend to its natural endpoint: it has no ports, buttons, or holes that mar the exterior of the device. According to Meizu, the Zero has “no buttons, no speakers holes, no SIM card slot, [and] no charging port./news/the-metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-1-is-an-exhaustive-bundle-of-stealth-classics.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-1-is-an-exhaustive-bundle-of-stealth-classics.htmlWhen discussing his inspiration for the original 1987 Metal Gear game, series creator Hideo Kojima has often referred to the limitations of the MSX2 system it was designed for. With hard limits on the amount of sprites the machine could show on screen and limited support for scrolling graphics, the designer decided to make a game that eschewed all-out combat in favor of the stealth gameplay that would go on to define the Metal Gear franchise./news/the-nokia-9-pureview-has-five-cameras-and-a-lot-to-prove.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-nokia-9-pureview-has-five-cameras-and-a-lot-to-prove.htmlHMD Global has a new Nokia flagship, and it might be the company’s most ambitious phone yet: the Nokia 9 PureView, with a show-stopping five — count ‘em, five — cameras on the back that officially takes the crown for the most rear cameras ever put on a phone. It’s perhaps the biggest play yet by HMD to invoke the old Nokia, from back before it bought and resurrected brand. And while the Nokia 9 PureView may not have the staggering megapixel count Nokia’s phones were known for, it’s certainly a product meant to evoke those glory days./news/the-original-xbox-background-is-here-to-haunt-the-xbox-series-x-s.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-original-xbox-background-is-here-to-haunt-the-xbox-series-x-s.htmlThe Xbox has gone through several visual periods during its life span, from an edgy and yet somehow dorky green alien thing, to a modern look that could be described as “I know how to use Excel but I can still have fun.” But like stumbling on a Facebook album from high school, you can still hold on to a bit of the past. As spotted by senior editor Tom Warren, the original Xbox background is now an option for the Xbox Series X / S./news/the-pluto-anime-really-is-that-good.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-pluto-anime-really-is-that-good.htmlThe Pluto anime really is that good. I just finished watching it, and as a longtime fan of Naoki Urasawa’s manga — a somber murder-mystery adaptation of a 1960s Astro Boy arc, set in a world where robots are grappling with their own humanity and the aftermath of a war — I wholeheartedly endorse Joshua Rivera’s praise of the recent adaptation. It’s lovely! Maybe the best new thing I’ve seen appear on Netflix all year./news/the-remastered-version-of-spider-man-on-ps5-won-t-let-you-carry-over-your-ps4-saves.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-remastered-version-of-spider-man-on-ps5-won-t-let-you-carry-over-your-ps4-saves.htmlInsomniac Games’ hugely-successful 2018 hit Spider-Man is being remastered for PlayStation 5 with ray-tracing, faster loading, and support for the DualSense controller’s new haptic feedback. And better yet, it’ll be available on the PS5’s launch day as a pack-in with Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition. But if you’ve been waiting for the PS5’s new hardware as an excuse to dive back into Spider-Man’s virtual Manhattan, you unfortunately won’t be able to transfer your saves from the original game to the remastered version, Insomniac Games confirmed on Twitter./news/the-unbelievable-2-4-million-bugatti-chiron-in-pictures.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-unbelievable-2-4-million-bugatti-chiron-in-pictures.htmlThere are many absurd facts about the Bugatti Chiron that was just introduced today ahead of the Geneva Motor Show. Its top speed is electronically limited — limited! — to 261 miles per hour. It can reach 125 miles per hour in 6.5 seconds, which may very well be faster than the time it takes your personal vehicle to reach half that. And the base price is an astounding €2.4 million ($2./news/the-witcher-is-officially-one-of-the-most-successful-game-series-of-all-time.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-witcher-is-officially-one-of-the-most-successful-game-series-of-all-time.htmlThe Witcher is a juggernaut, and thanks to new data from The Witcher game developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR), we have a better idea of just how huge it really is. The studio revealed Monday that The Witcher video games have sold more than 75 million copies, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt alone responsible for more than 50 million of those sales. Netflix is also betting big on The Witcher franchise: it just renewed its Witcher TV series for a fifth season even though the third season hasn’t started streaming yet./news/this-6-000-lamborghini-smartphone-is-ridiculous.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-6-000-lamborghini-smartphone-is-ridiculous.htmlThere might be only 1,947 units of the 88 Tauri smartphone ever made, but each and every one of them is ridiculous. That’s the only way to describe Tonino Lamborghini’s $6,000 Android phone. With a stitched leather finish that’s the real deal (unlike a plastic Samsung) and gold-plated stainless steel surrounding this phone, you’re bound to stand out in the crowd if you’re crazy enough to even want to pay $6,000 for pure stupidity./news/this-ev-has-a-novel-response-to-all-those-evs-suck-in-the-cold-stories.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-ev-has-a-novel-response-to-all-those-evs-suck-in-the-cold-stories.htmlThis EV has a novel response to all those ‘EVs suck in the cold’ stories. The Nio ET9 can literally shake snow off itself thanks to wire-controlled chassis that vibrates and shakes from side to side. Not a bad feature to have for snowier climates, especially when EVs in general are dealing with poor performance in extreme cold. The ultra-luxe ET9 is eventually expected to compete with Porsche and Mercedes-Benz when it starts deliveries later this year./news/this-final-fantasy-xiv-music-video-is-going-to-make-you-cry.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-final-fantasy-xiv-music-video-is-going-to-make-you-cry.htmlToday, Square Enix released the music video for “Flow,” one of the main theme songs of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, and friends, it’s a doozy. If you have work to do or need to be productive in any way today, do not, and I cannot stress this enough, watch this music video. I have already shed half of my body’s moisture in tears. It was cathartic and necessary and so very much on time./news/this-tiny-electric-car-just-set-a-world-record-0-60-in-1-5-seconds.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-tiny-electric-car-just-set-a-world-record-0-60-in-1-5-seconds.htmlA team of 30 students have built the fastest-accelerating electric car in the world. Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) published a video today that shows "grimsel," its electric race car, accelerating from 0–60 miles per hour in just 1.513 seconds on a runway at Dübendorf Air Base in Switzerland. That's fast. It's more than half a second faster than the world's fastest production cars (including Tesla and its "Ludicrous Speed" mode), and two-tenths of a second faster the previous record./news/thispersondoesnotexist-com-uses-ai-to-generate-endless-fake-faces.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/thispersondoesnotexist-com-uses-ai-to-generate-endless-fake-faces.htmlThe ability of AI to generate fake visuals is not yet mainstream knowledge, but a new website — ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com — offers a quick and persuasive education. The site is the creation of Philip Wang, a software engineer at Uber, and uses research released last year by chip designer Nvidia to create an endless stream of fake portraits. The algorithm behind it is trained on a huge dataset of real images, then uses a type of neural network known as a generative adversarial network (or GAN) to fabricate new examples./news/tiktok-will-stop-paying-people-to-watch-videos-every-day.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-will-stop-paying-people-to-watch-videos-every-day.htmlThe light version of the TikTok app, which launched in two EU countries a couple of weeks ago, included a reward feature that paid users a small amount each day to engage with videos. European regulators launched an inquiry soon after, citing the feature’s potential for encouraging addiction — particularly in young people. TikTok responded today by suspending the feature in the EU while it addresses the investigation. TikTok Lite is designed as a lightweight alternative to the main TikTok app for easier use on slow internet connections./news/turtle-beach-put-drift-free-sticks-and-a-screen-on-its-new-200-controller-for-xbox-and-pc.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/turtle-beach-put-drift-free-sticks-and-a-screen-on-its-new-200-controller-for-xbox-and-pc.htmlTurtle Beach is throwing its hat in the premium controller ring with a new $200 gamepad for Xbox and PC called the Stealth Ultra Wireless Controller, launching on December 15th. But instead of simply adding some rear buttons and hair triggers — the hallmarks of most competitive-focused gamepads — it’s also packing drift-proof Hall effect sticks and a 1.5-inch screen capable of both fine-tuning settings and getting notifications from your phone./news/twitter-head-of-trust-and-safety-ella-irwin-has-resigned.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-head-of-trust-and-safety-ella-irwin-has-resigned.html/ She took over from Yoel Roth in November following his resignation. By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium. Jun 2, 2023, 12:42 AM UTC Share this storyncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfa3xye5Fsbm1uYmeAcMDWoqutnaJisq24wGagq6%2BZo3qzsdKinqedlGLBs8HSrWSsmZaawbp5xKWmp2WdqsCs/news/valve-says-the-transparent-limited-edition-oled-steam-deck-is-an-experiment.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/valve-says-the-transparent-limited-edition-oled-steam-deck-is-an-experiment.htmlValve says the transparent, limited edition OLED Steam Deck is an “experiment.” “We’re hopeful that people are excited about this release, and if we see high demand it will give us confidence to do more colorways in the future,” Valve said on X (formerly Twitter). I imagine the device will sell out faster than you can say “Half-Life 3” when it goes on sale on Thursday, so hopefully Valve does take that as a sign that the people want Steam Decks in more colors./news/waabi-the-rare-autonomous-vehicle-startup-with-a-woman-ceo-raises-83-5-million.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/waabi-the-rare-autonomous-vehicle-startup-with-a-woman-ceo-raises-83-5-million.htmlWaabi is a new autonomous vehicle startup with a few things going for it to help it rise above the fray. For one, it’s founded by Raquel Urtasun, a renowned expert in computer vision who ran Uber Advanced Technology Group’s Toronto outpost, making it one of the few women-led AV startups in the world. Second, the Toronto-based company just came out of stealth having raised $83.5 million, which is among the largest Series A rounds ever raised in Canada./news/what-the-iphone-x-borrowed-from-the-palm-pre.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-the-iphone-x-borrowed-from-the-palm-pre.htmlI have become the unofficial standard bearer for webOS, the operating system created by Palm for the Pre and its successive devices. It was a wildly innovative and smart foundation for a smartphone done in by performance problems, mediocre hardware, and most of all by US carriers who acted as kingmakers for other companies. So as the bearer of a thoroughly-tattered banner, I’ve been hearing a lot of people ask what I thought about the iPhone X and how it borrows many of the ideas first introduced by Palm./news/what-s-in-your-bag-jess-glynne.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-s-in-your-bag-jess-glynne.htmlWhat’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring British singer and songwriter Jess Glynne. Jess Glynne oozes cool. The chart-topping artist rolls into The Verge with a casual vibe, despite being accompanied by a deep entourage and styled not with a look, but a lewk. Sporting head to toe pastel athleisure with a bright green Gucci crossbody bag that pops against her signature orange curls, one can’t help but notice Glynne as she walks into the room./news/why-i-double-wrist-a-traditional-watch-and-smartwatch-and-why-you-should-too.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-i-double-wrist-a-traditional-watch-and-smartwatch-and-why-you-should-too.htmlA little over a year ago, I made the conscious decision to wear both a traditional watch on my left wrist and a smartwatch on my right wrist day in and day out. And I’m here to tell you with a straight face that this best-of-both-worlds solution has no downsides. If you’re into watches and tech or even remotely watch-curious, you should consider doing the same. It’s easy to be a little bit anachronistic, admiring the simplicities of the past while wanting the bleeding-edge intricacies of the future./news/with-facebook-s-change-to-meta-what-s-the-new-big-tech-acronym.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/with-facebook-s-change-to-meta-what-s-the-new-big-tech-acronym.htmlThe company formerly known as Facebook just revealed its new name, Meta. And while that change brings a whole lot of questions, there’s one that many of us at The Verge have been pondering for about 30 minutes: how does the Meta name change the acronym used to refer to the biggest tech companies in one fell swoop? Before Thursday, FAANG — Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google — was perhaps the most commonly used one./news/wordle-s-upgraded-wordlebot-has-a-new-recommended-starting-word.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wordle-s-upgraded-wordlebot-has-a-new-recommended-starting-word.htmlThe New York Times has made a few upgrades to its Wordle assistant WordleBot, and that includes a new recommended starting word: SLATE. Previously, it recommended CRANE, but now you might want to slate this new one into your repertoire. The NYT introduced WordleBot in April as a “daily companion” to help analyze your Wordle play, and with WordleBot 2.0, the team has made some changes. One of the bigger changes is that the bot no longer limits its analysis to the subset of five letter words that are known Wordle solutions — that is, it’s thinking more like a typical human player would./news/xbox-cloud-gaming-now-has-mouse-and-keyboard-support-in-26-games.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xbox-cloud-gaming-now-has-mouse-and-keyboard-support-in-26-games.htmlMicrosoft started to preview mouse and keyboard support for Xbox Cloud Gaming in March, and it’s now rolling out to everyone as a beta today. You’ll be able to start streaming and playing Xbox games with a mouse or keyboard in Edge or Chrome over at xbox.com/play. In total, 26 games will be supported at the launch of this beta, including Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Infinite. Microsoft is also planning to let PC owners use the Xbox app later this month to select a game that has a mouse and keyboard badge in the cloud gaming section./news/you-can-now-view-your-google-nest-cameras-on-your-echo-show-smart-display.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-now-view-your-google-nest-cameras-on-your-echo-show-smart-display.htmlGood news for smart homes divided: as of this week, the newest Google Nest cameras can now stream to your Amazon Alexa smart displays, including Echo Show devices, Fire TVs, and Fire tablets. Following Amazon’s announcement last week that third-party cameras can take advantage of its new person and package announcement features on Echo smart speakers, Google Nest has updated its languishing Alexa skill to include its latest cameras. That’s in addition to existing support for live views from the older Nest Cams, Nest Cam IQs (indoor/outdoor), and the Nest Doorbell (wired), formerly called Nest Hello./news/you-can-spin-the-gear-in-windows-11-s-notepad-app-and-it-s-delightful.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-spin-the-gear-in-windows-11-s-notepad-app-and-it-s-delightful.htmlI’ve just spent an hour spinning the gear in Windows 11’s new Notepad app. Reddit users discovered this delightful addition to Windows 11 recently, and as a daily Notepad user I’m addicted. Not on the level of my 1990s Solitaire addiction, but I can’t seem to stop spinning this damn gear every time I open Notepad now. Spin, spin, spin. I don’t know why Microsoft added this tiny animation that most people will never discover, but I love this little Windows Easter egg./news/youtube-tv-streams-dolby-5-1-surround-sound-on-apple-tv-and-fire-tv.htmlSat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-tv-streams-dolby-5-1-surround-sound-on-apple-tv-and-fire-tv.htmlGoogle initially announced plans to add 5.1 surround sound capability for YouTube TV last year, coinciding with the launch of a 4K Plus package that includes higher-quality video and the ability to play recordings offline. At the time, Google promised the Dolby 5.1 surround features would be out for all subscribers (Plus package or not) in the “coming weeks,” but it certainly took longer than expected. In February, YouTube’s chief product officer Neal Mohan confirmed on The Vergecast that the feature was coming soon./news/sunset-overdrive-review-energy-drink-fueled-insanity-for-xbox-one.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sunset-overdrive-review-energy-drink-fueled-insanity-for-xbox-one.htmlWhat action games really need is more skateboarding. Sunset Overdrive, the latest release from Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games, has a lot in common with other third-person action games. There's explosive combat like in Infamous, and a huge city to explore like in Assassin's Creed. But what really separates the game is how you move — and how you never really stop. Sunset Overdrive turns the simple act of traversing a city into an extreme sport./news/google-onhub-review.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-onhub-review.htmlThe lowly router is a necessary evil. It’s a device we can’t live without, but often feels like an arcane relic from an era when boxy tube monitors and dial-up modems ruled. The router is the gateway to high-speed internet in our homes, and it enables us to wirelessly connect countless gadgets — smartphones, laptops, TVs, thermostats, speakers, coffee makers, game consoles, the list goes on — to the internet./news/samsung-s-new-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-put-design-first.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-new-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-put-design-first.htmlFollowing countless leaks and endless teasers, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones. The pair of S6 phones succeed the Galaxy S5, Samsung's prior flagship announced one year ago, and will be available across the world starting on April 10th. All four major US carriers plus US Cellular have committed to carrying both the S6 and the S6 Edge, while smaller carriers such as Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, and MetroPCS will only offer the S6./news/why-modern-music-owes-a-big-debt-to-japanese-video-games.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-modern-music-owes-a-big-debt-to-japanese-video-games.htmlThe fact that Just Blaze is an obsessive fan of the guy behind the Streets of Rage soundtrack is just one of the incredible details hidden within Diggin’ in the Carts, an astonishing Red Bull Music Academy documentary series that delves into the history of Japanese video game music. Director Nick Dwyer talks to many of the major Japanese figures behind the music in the 80s and 90s, but also interviews an impressive list of international electronic and hip-hop artists — including Flying Lotus, Dizzee Rascal, Kode 9, Fatima al-Qadiri, Joker, Ikonika, and more — to find out the impact that video games had on their music and lives./news/2-500-year-old-marijuana-discovered-in-an-ancient-tomb.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/2-500-year-old-marijuana-discovered-in-an-ancient-tomb.htmlA 2,500-year-old stash of whole marijuana plants have been unearthed from an ancient tomb in northwest China. This discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that ancient people used marijuana for its psychoactive properties, and incorporated it into their rituals. The plants were found lying like a burial shroud A team of archaeologists, led by Hongen Jiang with the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered 13 marijuana plants that were still largely intact, if yellowed and desiccated after millennia underground./news/a-second-prequel-short-introduces-a-new-character-from-blade-runner-2049.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-second-prequel-short-introduces-a-new-character-from-blade-runner-2049.htmlBlade Runner 2049 is still a few weeks away, but fans will be able to get another look at the sequel with the release of the second of three short film prequels over at the iTunes Trailers site, via Polygon, and on YouTube. Titled 2048: Nowhere to Run, this second prequel is set 12 years after the first short film, 2036: Nexus Dawn that was released a few weeks ago, and — as the name suggests — just a year before the upcoming Blade Runner 2049./news/algorithms-can-aid-price-collusion-even-if-no-humans-actually-talk-to-each-other-us-enforcers-say.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/algorithms-can-aid-price-collusion-even-if-no-humans-actually-talk-to-each-other-us-enforcers-say.htmlAlgorithms might help hotels illegally collude on prices, even if no humans from those businesses actually talk to each other about them, according to US antitrust enforcers. The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission jointly submitted a statement of interest in Cornish-Adebiyi v. Caesars Entertainment, a case brought before the US District Court of New Jersey. The class action case was brought by New Jersey residents who rented rooms in Atlantic City hotels and alleged that several of those hotels engaged in an illegal price-fixing conspiracy through the use of a common pricing algorithm./news/all-the-streaming-boxes-suck-now.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/all-the-streaming-boxes-suck-now.htmlStreaming boxes had so much potential. They were going to reinvent the cable box for the internet age and make it easier for users to find and organize and watch everything available in this era of infinite content. They were going to turn our TVs, the hub of our homes, into smart gadgets through which we could do almost anything. They were going to be game consoles. Streaming boxes were the next big thing./news/amsterdam-s-underwater-parking-garage-fits-7-000-bicycles-and-zero-cars.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amsterdam-s-underwater-parking-garage-fits-7-000-bicycles-and-zero-cars.htmlMaybe one day, flying cars and jetpacks will be the hallmarks of futuristic cities, but today — in 2023 — it’s massive underwater bicycle parking garages like the one that just opened at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station. The structure has space for 6,300 personal bicycles and 700 more for bikeshares to facilitate the first or last mile of rail journeys. Capacity will expand to 11,000 bicycles when a second garage opens in February./news/apple-faces-yet-another-lawsuit-over-throttling-iphones.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-faces-yet-another-lawsuit-over-throttling-iphones.htmlA consumer advocacy group in Europe has filed the latest lawsuit against Apple saying the company intentionally throttled older iPhones in Italy. First reported by TechCrunch, the potential class-action lawsuit seeks €60 million (roughly $73 million) in compensation — or about €60 per device — for owners of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, and 6S Plus models sold in Italy between 2014 and 2020. Euroconsumers, an umbrella advocacy organization in the EU that includes Italy’s Altroconsumo, says the €60 compensation is the average amount consumers paid to replace their devices’ batteries./news/apple-october-2021-mac-event-rumors-news-and-announcements.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-october-2021-mac-event-rumors-news-and-announcements.htmlAs expected, the third-generation AirPods mirror their sleeker sibling, the AirPods Pro, mostly in its new design and in some functionality, barring the active noise cancellation. For the first time since 2016, the AirPods include a wider, Pro-like charging case and shorter steams. They also boast Pro features like Adaptive EQ, which customizes your audio experience, and an intuitive force sensor for media control. Apple has also added support for the same head-tracking capabilities found on the AirPods Pro and Airpods Max, as well as Apple’s spatial audio, which allows for a more immersive experience when listening to select content Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, and other services./news/apple-removes-the-apple-watch-series-6-from-its-official-lineup.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-removes-the-apple-watch-series-6-from-its-official-lineup.htmlIf you want to buy a brand new Apple Watch from Apple, you now only have three options: the Series 7, which starts at $399; the still-very-good SE, which was introduced last year and starts at $279; and the years-old Series 3, which starts at $199. There are still a few ways to get a Series 6, though, and given how many features are shared between the Series 7 and the Series 6, the previous generation model could be a good option to consider if you want to save some money./news/apple-tv-plus-nabs-tom-hanks-new-movie-from-sony-during-global-pandemic.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-tv-plus-nabs-tom-hanks-new-movie-from-sony-during-global-pandemic.htmlApple is joining other streamers in becoming a foster home for movies that studios are looking to unload in the middle of this global pandemic. Tom Hanks’ Greyhound will land on Apple TV Plus (there’s no release date yet), but the film was originally reserved for a theatrical release by Sony Pictures. The movie is described by Variety as being “set in the early days of World War II as an international convoy of 37 Allied ships, led by Hanks’ Capt./news/apple-watch-series-9-and-watch-ultra-2-price-release-date-and-how-to-preorder.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-watch-series-9-and-watch-ultra-2-price-release-date-and-how-to-preorder.htmlIt’s that time of year again. During its Wonderlust event on Tuesday, Apple introduced a number of new gadgets, including the much-rumored iPhone 15 with USB-C and the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Series 9 starts at $399, and the Watch Ultra 2 starts at $799, with both set to arrive on Friday, September 22nd. Both watches will ship with watchOS 10 and come equipped with Apple’s S9 SiP, which is based on the A15 chip first seen in the iPhone 13./news/apple-s-fairplay-drm-for-ibooks-cracked-by-requiem-app.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-fairplay-drm-for-ibooks-cracked-by-requiem-app.htmlApple dropped its FairPlay DRM system for music back in 2009, but the remaining segments of the iTunes ecosystem — apps, videos, and iBooks — still utilize versions of the copy-protection scheme. Ways to circumvent the first two have existed for some time, and now the DRM for iBooks has been cracked as well. A post on the MobileRead forums first called attention to an updated version of an OS X and Windows app called Requiem, which had previously been known as a common way to strip FairPlay from iTunes movies and music./news/apple-s-fancy-new-carplay-will-only-work-wirelessly.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-fancy-new-carplay-will-only-work-wirelessly.htmlApple’s been talking about its next generation of CarPlay for two years now with very little to show for it — the system is designed to unify the interfaces on every screen in your car, including the instrument cluster, but so far, only Aston Martin and Porsche have said they’ll ship cars with the system, without any specific dates in the mix. And the public response from the rest of the industry toward next-gen CarPlay has been pretty cool overall./news/asus-eee-pad-transformer-tf101-review.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-eee-pad-transformer-tf101-review.htmlHowever, adding a keyboard and touchpad to the Honeycomb experience adds something that really sets the OS and Transformer apart. Sure, Google built the software for touch input, but navigating the screen with a mouse actually works quite well, and while I found myself reaching out to touch the screen quite a bit with a finger, the touchpad is a nice fallback and really does create for a nice clamshell computing experience./news/at-least-in-canada-companies-are-responsible-when-their-customer-service-chatbots-lie-to-their-cust.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-least-in-canada-companies-are-responsible-when-their-customer-service-chatbots-lie-to-their-cust.htmlAt least in Canada, companies are responsible when their customer service chatbots lie to their customer. A man was booking an Air Canada flight and asked for a reduced rate because of bereavement. The chatbot assured him this was possible — the reduced fare would be a rebate. When he went to submit the rebate, the airline refused to refund him. In February of 2023, Moffatt sent the airline a screenshot of his conversation with the chatbot and received a response in which Air Canada “admitted the chatbot had provided ‘misleading words./news/automatic-savings-app-digit-can-now-pay-off-credit-card-debt-for-you.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/automatic-savings-app-digit-can-now-pay-off-credit-card-debt-for-you.htmlAutomatic savings mobile app Digit is expanding its services, adding the option to let users pay off credit card debt with money in their Digit account, as reported by TechCrunch. To try out the new feature, called Digit Pay, users create a “credit card debt” goal in the Digit app settings, then activate the service. Once Digit Pay is enabled, the app will begin to use funds saved within the account to pay off your credit card balances./news/ayaneo-s-next-lite-is-a-299-steam-deck-competitor-with-unofficial-steamos.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ayaneo-s-next-lite-is-a-299-steam-deck-competitor-with-unofficial-steamos.htmlAyaneo’s attempt to launch a bargain-price competitor to the Steam Deck has been confusing, to say the least, but the company has now published a product page that clears most things up. The Ayaneo Next Lite will cost $299, will not ship with an official build of SteamOS but rather an unofficial fork you have to download separately, and come with a four-year-old AMD processor that’s arguably less potent than the one in the original Steam Deck LCD./news/beats-flex-review-wireless-earbud-basics-done-right.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/beats-flex-review-wireless-earbud-basics-done-right.htmlThe new $50 Beats Flex are a very smart play from Apple’s Beats division. One reason why is obvious: with the iPhone 12 lineup no longer shipping with included earbuds, this neckband-style option could prove to be a popular substitute. The Beats Flex earbuds are significantly less expensive than the Beats X they’re replacing — not to mention AirPods. They offer a lengthy 12 hours of battery life, have a comfortable fit, and eliminate the anxiety of losing a truly wireless earbud./news/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-brings-the-dead-man-home-in-its-first-trailer.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-brings-the-dead-man-home-in-its-first-trailer.htmlTim Burton spent the better part of the past decade talking about how ready he was to make a Beetlejuice sequel with Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton. And after all this time the perfectly named Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is finally seeing the light of day. Set some years after the original movie, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice catches up with Lydia Deetz (Ryder) and her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) as the pair travel home to Winter River to be with Lydia’s mother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) in the wake of a sudden family loss./news/best-new-apps-enlight-the-verge.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/best-new-apps-enlight-the-verge.htmlPhoto apps have been around as long as the App Store itself, and they're still getting better and better. VSCO Cam's original interface and distinctive take on filters have won countless dedicated fans, Instagram itself has upped its game in response, and new entry Darkroom — which we awarded Best New App last month — brings pro-style curve editing to the phone. Is this a solved problem by now? Well, another new app called Enlight (from Lightricks, the Israeli company behind Facetune) has been getting a bit of attention since it launched for iPhone last week; it claims to be "/news/bipedal-robot-sets-100-meter-record.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bipedal-robot-sets-100-meter-record.htmlA bipedal robot named Cassie has set a new Guinness World Record for the 100 meter dash, clocking in a time of 24.73 seconds and an average speed of 4m/s (9mph). That’s much slower than a human, for whom record times stand at 9.58 seconds for men (set by Usain Bolt) and 10.49 seconds for women (set by Florence Griffith-Joyner). However, it’s still extremely impressive for a robot of Cassie’s design./news/black-mirror-demon-79-review-stressful-slice-of-supernatural-horror.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/black-mirror-demon-79-review-stressful-slice-of-supernatural-horror.htmlWhile Black Mirror started out as a series exploring the myriad terrifying ways technology could impact our lives, it has since grown into a more general genre anthology. It’s nice when episodes have that techno focus, but it’s no longer a necessity. Case in point: “Demon 79,” a season 6 story that’s pure classic horror homage. Its premise wouldn’t be out of place in a collection like Tales From the Crypt or Cabinet of Curiosities./news/bond-in-motion-exhibition-at-london-film-museum.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bond-in-motion-exhibition-at-london-film-museum.html1/16 Aston Martin DB5 The original and most iconic of all Bond cars, Aston Martin's DB5 made its debut in the third 007 film, 1964's Goldfinger. It has since reprised the role of Bond's favorite ride several times, including in the latest release, Skyfall. 2006's Casino Royale shows Bond winning the DB5 in a game of high-stakes poker, establishing his credentials as a savvy card player. The DB in the car's name represents the initials of longtime Aston Martin owner David Brown, under whose stewardship the brand rose to prominence./news/brooklyn-public-library-is-offering-free-digital-library-cards-to-young-adults-in-the-us.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/brooklyn-public-library-is-offering-free-digital-library-cards-to-young-adults-in-the-us.htmlThe Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is counteracting a ban on certain books by letting anyone in the US aged 13 to 21 apply for a digital library card. This gives teens and young adults, regardless of their location in the United States, access to the library’s entire ebook collection. The initiative, called Books Unbanned, is fighting what the BPL describes as an “increasingly coordinated and effective effort to remove books tackling a wide range of topics from library shelves./news/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-is-coming-to-ps3-and-xbox-360-too.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-is-coming-to-ps3-and-xbox-360-too.htmlCall of Duty fans don't have to upgrade their consoles just yet. Publisher Activision has announced that the latest game in the series, Black Ops III, will be coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; the game was originally announced only for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. While series mainstay Treyarch is still developing the game for newer consoles, two studios — Beenox and Mercenary Technology — will be handling the 360 / PS3 port./news/clicks-hands-on-this-blackberry-like-iphone-case-could-be-a-winner.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clicks-hands-on-this-blackberry-like-iphone-case-could-be-a-winner.htmlIt feels great in the hand, with a nice subtly squishy silicone bumper feel, and seems well thought out in general. The phone fits so securely, and I particularly love the square of leatherette around back that goes beneath your fingertips. Not only does it provide extra grip when you’re typing, it makes the iPhone look and feel a bit more like a classic camera when you hold it horizontally. You can tap a button to activate a backlight, and there’s a dedicated Command key for shortcuts — for instance, hit Command + Spacebar and then you can just start typing in the iPhone’s Spotlight universal search without touching the screen at all./news/comcast-is-launching-a-netflix-peacock-and-apple-tv-plus-bundle.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/comcast-is-launching-a-netflix-peacock-and-apple-tv-plus-bundle.htmlYet another streaming service bundle is on the horizon, this time courtesy of Comcast. Variety reports that the telecommunications giant is planning to launch a three-way bundle for Peacock, Netflix, and Apple TV Plus later this month, which will be available to Comcast broadband and TV customers at a discounted rate compared to subscribing to each service separately. Speaking at an industry conference on Tuesday, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said the new “StreamSaver” package will “come at a vastly reduced price to anything in the market today./news/congress-called-huawei-a-national-security-risk-it-s-still-in-us-networks.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/congress-called-huawei-a-national-security-risk-it-s-still-in-us-networks.htmlThree years ago, Congress declared Chinese hardware a threat to America’s internet. Spurred by fears of spying and cyberattacks, lawmakers demanded networks purge equipment from telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE, a program dubbed “rip and replace.” The move was part of an ongoing war for technological dominance — one that President Joe Biden’s administration is keen to win. But rip and replace has proven far more costly and less effective than Congress intended./news/controversial-map-with-names-and-addresses-of-handgun-permit-owners-found-to-be-inaccurate.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/controversial-map-with-names-and-addresses-of-handgun-permit-owners-found-to-be-inaccurate.htmlLast month, New York newspaper The Journal News set off a national debate after it posted a Google map that showed the names and addresses of pistol or revolver permits in Westchester and Rockland counties. The map was controversial for privacy and safety reasons, and those concerns may now be compounded by an additional problem: inaccurate data. The Journal News reported over the weekend that "scores of residents" contacted the newspaper regarding false information, like one resident named Mike Smith whose brother-in-law surreptitiously applied for a handgun license with Smith's address./news/data-breach-leaks-personal-information-of-4-000-roblox-developers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/data-breach-leaks-personal-information-of-4-000-roblox-developers.htmlSensitive information identifying thousands of Roblox creators has been exposed following a data breach impacting attendees at a conference for Roblox developers, which allegedly remained undisclosed by the company for at least two years. As reported by PC Gamer, the leak contains personal information from people who attended the Roblox Developer Conference between 2017-2020, including names, usernames, date of birth, physical addresses, email addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, and even T-shirt sizes./news/david-letterman-will-retire-from-late-show-in-2015.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/david-letterman-will-retire-from-late-show-in-2015.htmlDavid Letterman plans to retire in 2015. The legendary late-night host announced the news during today's Late Show taping. Letterman's longtime rival Jay Leno left The Tonight Show (again) earlier this year, leaving many to wonder when Letterman would decide to walk away. "We don't have the timing for this precisely down," Letterman told his audience. "I think it will be at least a year or so, but sometime in the not too distant future, 2015 for the love of God, in fact, Paul and I will be wrapping things up./news/diablo-iv-s-ray-tracing-update-arrives-march-26th.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/diablo-iv-s-ray-tracing-update-arrives-march-26th.htmlDiablo IV’s ray tracing update arrives March 26th. Diablo IV is getting a ray tracing upgrade later this month. Armor, water, windows, and other reflective surfaces will all have ray-traced reflections for more detail and lighting accuracy. Shadows throughout the game will also feature ray tracing. Nvidia is also bringing DLSS 3.5 to Portal with RTX. This should improve the fidelity of full ray tracing in the game, and you can enable Frame Generation on 40-series RTX cards to boost frame rates./news/disney-s-latest-and-biggest-round-of-layoffs-has-begun.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/disney-s-latest-and-biggest-round-of-layoffs-has-begun.htmlFollowing CEO Bob Iger’s announcement back in March that Disney was seeking to lay off some 7,000 of its employees, Reuters reports that the second round of firings began today and is projected to continue through Thursday before picking up again later this year. While the frontline hourly workers at Disney’s parks and resorts aren’t expected to be affected by the layoffs, cuts are being made across a number of the company’s corporate arms, like ESPN, Disney Entertainment, the products division, and Disney Parks’ corporate leadership./news/dolby-and-philips-introduce-new-format-for-bringing-hd-3d-to-glasses-free-devices.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dolby-and-philips-introduce-new-format-for-bringing-hd-3d-to-glasses-free-devices.htmlDolby 3D technology is nothing new, but today Dolby and Philips jointly announced a new 3D HD format and set of technologies that the companies hope will offer a glasses-free 3D viewing experience on devices of all sizes. Philips and Dolby are hoping that its format will allow "broadcasters, operators, content aggregators, and device manufacturers to deliver HD-quality 3D on any device. Initially, the project will focus on working with display panel and "/news/dough-formerly-eve-doesn-t-pass-the-smell-test.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dough-formerly-eve-doesn-t-pass-the-smell-test.htmlHere’s a truth I learned over the past four weeks: I would absolutely not trust Dough with my money. We’ve been writing about Dough, formerly Eve, since 2017. The company makes monitors and made tablets that got excellent reviews! But it’s also developed a reputation for disappearing with people’s money — a charge it disputes — and leaving some people without their products or a refund for months or years at a time./news/ecoflow-solar-tracking-robot-review-beep-blop-stop.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ecoflow-solar-tracking-robot-review-beep-blop-stop.htmlSolar panels are more efficient than ever, with consumer options now capable of converting up to 25 percent of the sunlight hitting cells into electricity. But those efficiency rates assume that the panels are pointed directly at the sun, which is rarely the case during its arcing trek across the sky. The EcoFlow Solar Tracker solves this with a self-powered, motorized robotic arm that keeps your solar panels at a perfect 90-degree angle to the sun./news/eero-is-ending-support-for-its-original-router.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/eero-is-ending-support-for-its-original-router.htmlEero’s original mesh Wi-Fi router is going to the tech junkyard in the sky. This week, the company delivered an End of Life notice to users in its app, warning that the OG router’s days are numbered. The first-gen Eero, which debuted in 2016 and was discontinued in 2017, will stop receiving guaranteed software security updates after September 30th, 2022, Amazon spokesperson Connor Rice confirmed to The Verge. This is just over six years after the product launched./news/elon-musk-explains-why-tesla-s-cybertruck-windows-smashed-during-presentation.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-explains-why-tesla-s-cybertruck-windows-smashed-during-presentation.htmlThe unveiling of Tesla’s Cybertruck last week was full of surprises, but none more shocking than the moment when lead designer Franz von Holzhausen smashed two of the vehicle’s “armor glass” windows onstage with a metal ball. It certainly wasn’t the result CEO Elon Musk was expecting, who could be heard muttering “oh my fucking god” under his breath before being forced to complete his presentation in front of the fractured panes./news/elon-musk-rants-about-work-from-home-folks-again-on-tesla-earnings-call.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-rants-about-work-from-home-folks-again-on-tesla-earnings-call.htmlOn Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said people who work from home take advantage of the people who cannot work from home and are “detached from reality.” In the middle of talking about rising interest rates and their effect on the affordability of vehicles, Musk launched into a discussion about “Marie Antoinette” vibes of the person he describes asking why doesn’t everyone work from home. “Like... what about all the people that have to come to the factory and and build the cars?/news/elon-musk-removes-twitter-s-government-funded-media-labels-after-outlets-flee-the-platform.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-removes-twitter-s-government-funded-media-labels-after-outlets-flee-the-platform.htmlTwitter has removed the “government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels that led several news outlets to stop tweeting on the platform. When asked why Twitter has dropped the labels, Elon Musk says it was a “suggestion” from Walter Isaacson, the author of his upcoming biography, according to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn. The labels have already disappeared from the profiles of NPR, PBS, CBC, and BBC, all of which publicly criticized the move. NPR became the first major media organization to leave the platform after getting slapped with the “state-affiliated” label and was later followed by PBS and CBC./news/elon-musk-s-teslas-in-tunnels-las-vegas-project-is-still-happening-and-here-s-the-first-s.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-s-teslas-in-tunnels-las-vegas-project-is-still-happening-and-here-s-the-first-s.htmlThe first passenger station in the “Vegas Loop” network of vehicle tunnels that’s being built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company was revealed Thursday. The station is situated underneath Resorts World Las Vegas, the first in what is expected to be 55 stops along 29 miles of tunnels. The Boring Company already operates a small version of this “Teslas in Tunnels” system underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, which opened in early 2021 and involves two 0./news/etsi-names-new-nano-sim-format-40-percent-smaller-than-micro-sim.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/etsi-names-new-nano-sim-format-40-percent-smaller-than-micro-sim.htmlThe European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has announced a new nano-SIM format today. Agreed at a meeting held this week in Japan, the new form factor will be 40 percent smaller than the current micro-SIM format — measuring 12.3mm wide by 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick. Nano-SIMs will also be packaged in a way that allows them to be backwards compatible with existing SIM card designs. A number of proposals had been discussed, resulting in conflict between the major mobile manufacturers./news/facebook-has-been-receiving-users-financial-info-from-tax-preparers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-has-been-receiving-users-financial-info-from-tax-preparers.htmlMajor tax filing services such as H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer have been quietly transmitting sensitive financial information to Facebook when Americans file their taxes online, The Markup has learned. The data, sent through widely used code called the Meta Pixel, includes not only information like names and email addresses but often even more detailed information, including data on users’ income, filing status, refund amounts, and dependents’ college scholarship amounts. /news/facebook-testing-a-snooze-feature-that-temporarily-mutes-your-friends.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-testing-a-snooze-feature-that-temporarily-mutes-your-friends.htmlFacebook appears to be adding a new option that lets you temporarily “snooze” a friend’s posts from appearing in your news feed. So instead of permanently unfollowing that person and never seeing whatever they’re sharing on Facebook, you can choose to just mute them for 24 hours, an entire week, or 30 days. TechCrunch reported on the new feature earlier today, which also applies to groups and pages. To access snooze, click on the three horizontal dots to the right of the name of whatever friend / page / group you’ve had enough of./news/fanhouse-adds-a-50-percent-surcharge-to-in-app-purchases-to-cover-apple-tax.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fanhouse-adds-a-50-percent-surcharge-to-in-app-purchases-to-cover-apple-tax.htmlAfter pushing back against Apple’s App Store fees last year, creator platform Fanhouse is introducing in-app purchases to its iOS app — now with a 50 percent surcharge — to let users subscribe to their favorite creators. The app’s co-founder, Rosie Nguyen, announced the changes today on Twitter. The company wrote that the changes are being made “as a result of apple’s b.s.” On Fanhouse, creators charge a subscription fee that allows fans to access exclusive (SFW) content like updates, photos, and videos./news/fisker-you-brought-this-on-yourselves.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fisker-you-brought-this-on-yourselves.htmlFisker, you brought this on yourselves. After Marques’ first negative review of the Fisker Ocean kick-started a shitstorm of finger-pointing and back-pedaling, the beleaguered EV company thought it had the perfect comeback strategy: What if we gave him another car, but this time with a software update? Well, as you can see, it did not go well. MKBHD still has a lot of gripes about the newly updated Ocean. And as for Fisker?/news/fossil-adds-another-watch-to-its-growing-line-of-wearables.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fossil-adds-another-watch-to-its-growing-line-of-wearables.htmlFossil just launched its Q line of connected wearables this past fall, but it's already expanding the range with another model. The new Q54 Pilot is an analog watch with Intel technology for basic smartphone notifications and activity tracking. It's similar to the previously released Q Grant, but with a different design aesthetic. Like the Q Grant, the Q54 Pilot uses the same case and design as one of Fossil's traditional analog watches./news/fossil-s-new-android-wear-smartwatch-has-a-touch-sensitive-bezel-and-costs-275.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fossil-s-new-android-wear-smartwatch-has-a-touch-sensitive-bezel-and-costs-275.htmlFossil today announced a new smartwatch in its Q line called the Q Control that comes with a touchscreen bezel that allows for quick scrolling through the device’s interface. Running Android Wear, the Q Control comes with a 45mm, water resistant circular case and 20mm watchband, as well as a heart rate sensor. The design is relatively minimalistic, with just a single button on the side of the watch face. It’s worth noting that the Q Control is effectively a rebranded version of the Misfit Vapor./news/garmin-announces-revamped-fenix-7-and-epix-smartwatches.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/garmin-announces-revamped-fenix-7-and-epix-smartwatches.htmlDespite being leaked to hell and back, the Garmin Fenix 7 series was a no-show at CES 2022. That’s because Garmin decided to wait until today to separately announce its revamped multisport GPS smartwatches. On top of an updated flagship Fenix 7 lineup, Garmin is also launching the Epix — a rugged outdoors smartwatch with an always-on color display. Some things with the new Fenix 7 smartwatches will be familiar to Garmin fans./news/google-is-making-better-apps-for-the-iphone-than-for-android.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-making-better-apps-for-the-iphone-than-for-android.htmlHere’s a thing I didn’t really expect to write: I’m finding that I enjoy Google’s apps more on iOS than I do on Android. Or more specifically: I think that there’s more interesting innovation coming out of Google’s iOS app teams than on Android — at least for the moment. Back in May, my colleague Ben Popper talked about how Google’s apps on iOS were so good that he saw little reason to switch over to Android, despite the fact that he spends so much time in Google’s waters./news/google-is-scaling-back-its-weekly-all-hands-meetings-after-leaks-ceo-tells-staff.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-scaling-back-its-weekly-all-hands-meetings-after-leaks-ceo-tells-staff.htmlFrom: Sundar Subject: TGIF and internal forums [TL;DR - We’re going to make changes to TGIF and offer a new mix of internal forums in 2020. We’ll solicit your feedback along the way.] Hi Googlers,  The last month has made me proud to be a Googler in so many ways: we’ve substantially improved our core Search product thanks to our advances in ML. And we’ve made an incredible breakthrough in quantum computing that will give us an entirely new way of solving computational problems in the years ahead./news/google-layoffs-continue-with-hundreds-from-sales-team.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-layoffs-continue-with-hundreds-from-sales-team.htmlAfter laying off about 1,000 employees last week, Google is now cutting jobs on its advertising sales team. In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson Chris Pappas confirmed that “a few hundred roles globally are being eliminated” as part of the change. The news of Google’s latest layoffs was first reported by Business Insider, which obtained a memo from Google senior vice president Philipp Schindler. Schindler reportedly hinted the layoffs will primarily affect its Large Customer Sales (LCS) unit, a team that sells ads to large businesses, while the Google Customer Solutions team (GCS), which sells ads to smaller clients, will become the “core” ad sales team instead./news/google-maps-now-helps-you-find-fresh-air.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-maps-now-helps-you-find-fresh-air.htmlGoogle Maps on both iOS and Android has a new Air Quality layer that can be useful when planning your next hike or bike ride in good times, or to plan your escape from smog and smoke in bad. The new layer displays an Air Quality Index (AQI) overlay directly onto the map grid using government data gathered from agencies like the EPA in the US to show how healthy the air is in general./news/google-shuts-down-bufferbox-delivery-service-to-work-on-google-shopping-express.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-shuts-down-bufferbox-delivery-service-to-work-on-google-shopping-express.htmlGoogle is focusing its shopping efforts. After purchasing Canadian startup Bufferbox back in 2012, the company has decided to shut down the Amazon Locker-like service this April. Bufferbox let users ship items directly to publicly-accessible lockers — a convenient option for accepting deliveries if you can't be home to sign for a package. When Google first purchased the company, it planned to keep the service running unchanged and leave its employees in Waterloo./news/google-s-pixel-9-may-get-an-apple-like-satellite-sos-feature.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-pixel-9-may-get-an-apple-like-satellite-sos-feature.htmlGoogle 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./news/google-s-pixel-buds-now-available-in-more-countries-including-australia-canada-and-the-uk.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-pixel-buds-now-available-in-more-countries-including-australia-canada-and-the-uk.htmlGoogle announced on Monday that its second-generation Pixel Buds are now available in more countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain, and the UK. The true wireless headphones have only been available in the US since their April 27th release date. Google also said it will offer Pixel Buds in more colors starting next month. Currently, you can only buy them in “clearly white,” but Google said the Pixel Buds would come in “oh so orange,” “quite mint,” and “almost black” when it first announced the headphones in October./news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-review-gorgeous-spectacle-and-schmaltzy-sentimentality.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-review-gorgeous-spectacle-and-schmaltzy-sentimentality.htmlThe appeal of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films has always been their ability to feel truly set apart and distinct from the rest of Marvel’s multigenre cinematic universe, all while sticking to the studio’s house style just enough for crossovers to make sense. The first Guardians humorously opened up the MCU on a cosmic scale, and the second solidified its ragtag team of space outcasts as both a family and an important part of Marvel’s plans for the end of Phase 3./news/hackers-exploited-an-instagram-bug-to-get-celebrity-phone-numbers-and-email-addresses.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hackers-exploited-an-instagram-bug-to-get-celebrity-phone-numbers-and-email-addresses.htmlAn Instagram bug allowed hackers to access contact phone numbers and email addresses for high-profile users, the company said today. The bug was discovered recently in Instagram’s application programming interface, or API, which the service uses to communicate with other apps. Instagram declined to specify which users had been targeted, but the news comes two days after hackers accessed the account of its most-followed user, Selena Gomez, and posted nude pictures of her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber./news/help-me-figure-out-this-dance-cover-of-justin-bieber-s-what-do-you-mean.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/help-me-figure-out-this-dance-cover-of-justin-bieber-s-what-do-you-mean.htmlI'm told the video above, a choreographed dance routine set to Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean?" is "the world's first premium conceptual Segway dance YouTube video." (These aren't actually Segways, for the record.) I have no idea if it's actually the world's first, but I can promise you that it's both premium and conceptual. And that's where my knowledge ends; there is more, so much more, I don't understand./news/here-s-our-first-look-at-bethesda-s-indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-our-first-look-at-bethesda-s-indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle.htmlA few years after it was first announced, we finally have a glimpse at the Indiana Jones game from Bethesda studio and Wolfenstein developer MachineGames. It’s called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the gameplay reveal was shown during Microsoft’s Developer Direct event. It’s an action-adventure game that takes place in both first and third person, depending on the scenario, and it’s set between the films Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with Bethesda boss Todd Howard serving as executive producer./news/hey-siri-who-s-better-you-or-alexa.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hey-siri-who-s-better-you-or-alexa.htmlIt's too easy, almost lazy, to lump Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa into the same category. They're both virtual personal assistants made by two of the biggest, most influential companies in tech. They both answer questions, add things to shopping lists, control your smart lights, and tell awesome dad jokes. But in reality, Siri and Alexa are pretty different; in fact, sometimes it seems as though the only thing they have in common is that they both respond to voice./news/how-japan-has-avoided-the-gaming-industry-s-persistent-layoffs.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-japan-has-avoided-the-gaming-industry-s-persistent-layoffs.htmlTypically, layoff season arrives around Christmas: a flurry of pink slips, empty desks, the anxieties of the newly unemployed, all so companies can cut costs and fatten up bottom lines just before the calendar year ends. But for those plying their trade in video games, it has been layoff season for the entirety of the last three years. The approximate number of workers let go globally in 2022 was 8,500; last year, in 2023, that number was 10,500./news/how-to-connect-philips-hue-lights-with-apple-homekit-and-siri.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-connect-philips-hue-lights-with-apple-homekit-and-siri.htmlControlling smart lighting with your voice is one of the most useful features of a smart home. Saying, “Hey Siri, turn off the lights” from the comfort of your bed or the couch without having to get up or pull out your phone is really a great experience. And, if you have some Philips Hue smart light bulbs and an iPhone, it's really easy to connect them to Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform to put Apple’s Siri voice assistant to work for you./news/how-to-pause-wi-fi-on-at-t-xfinity-eero-and-google-nest-wifi-routers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-pause-wi-fi-on-at-t-xfinity-eero-and-google-nest-wifi-routers.htmlWi-Fi is essential in most homes these days. From streaming your entertainment and music to making it possible to work from home, we rely on Wi-Fi for many of today’s modern conveniences. But sometimes, you just need it to stop. This is particularly true for parents. I recently wrote about how I use my smart home — which runs on Wi-Fi — to help keep my family on track. A key component of that is turning off internet access to my kids’ devices./news/how-to-recover-when-your-facebook-account-is-hacked.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-recover-when-your-facebook-account-is-hacked.htmlHopefully, the day will never come when you find your Facebook account has been hacked or taken over. It is an awful feeling, and I feel for you, for the world of hurt that you will experience in time and perhaps money to return your account to your rightful control.  Let me take you through the recovery process. Afterward, I’ll provide some proactive security pointers you can follow to prevent this awful moment from happening, or at least reduce the chances that it will./news/how-to-report-a-missing-package.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-report-a-missing-package.htmlHolidays are around the corner. And with a pandemic raging around the US, it’s likely you’ll be doing at least some of your shopping online. If you’re worried about cards and packages being lost in the mail, don’t be — tracking your mail and reporting items missing is easy and can be done entirely online. Before you report a package missing, you’ll want to make sure you’ve used the carrier’s online tracking service to check its location — it’s possible your item is still on its way./news/how-to-take-better-night-photos-with-the-pixel-6-pro-iphone-13-pro-or-digital-camera.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-take-better-night-photos-with-the-pixel-6-pro-iphone-13-pro-or-digital-camera.htmlI always thought that taking a photo of the night sky meant mounting expensive cameras onto heavy telescopes and having extensive knowledge of the stars. But for the latest episode of my YouTube video series Full Frame, I flew 2,000 miles away from the big city lights of NYC to meet Bettymaya Foott, astrophotographer and director of engagement for the International Dark-Sky Association, who taught me how to capture incredible photos of the stars using cameras I already owned./news/huawei-s-watch-gt-is-a-fitness-tracker-disguised-as-a-watch.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/huawei-s-watch-gt-is-a-fitness-tracker-disguised-as-a-watch.htmlAt a time when the Apple Watch is miles ahead of any other smartwatch and Google’s Wear OS is struggling for relevance, launching a new smartwatch seems like a foolhardy idea. That’s why I like Huawei’s alternative approach of building a semi-smart watch, essentially a fitness-tracking wristband with the shape and look of a wristwatch, with its Watch GT. You don’t lose much relative to Wear OS, the Watch GT will still receive notifications from your phone, but what you gain with it is a hugely impressive battery life of two weeks under typical use./news/instagram-launches-its-own-tiktok-duet-feature-called-reels-remix.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-launches-its-own-tiktok-duet-feature-called-reels-remix.htmlInstagram Reels already mimics TikTok in multiple ways, and now, it’s getting one more feature from the popular video app: duets. On Instagram, users can now “remix” a reel, meaning they can upload a video next to another user’s, building on top of the original clip. The feature is already popular on TikTok, often for dance challenges, under the “duet” function. To remix a reel, tap the three dot menu on a reel and select “Remix this Reel./news/internet-celebrity-cat-lil-bub-has-died.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/internet-celebrity-cat-lil-bub-has-died.htmlLil Bub, the internet celebrity cat who brought joy to millions of fans, has died. Her owner, Mike Bridavsky, announced her death on social media today in a post celebrating her life and influence on animal welfare and research for special needs pets. She passed peacefully in her sleep, at eight years old. Born as the runt of her litter with a form of feline dwarfism, Lil Bub’s genetic mutations gave her the unique features of looking like a permanent kitten, and a toothless jaw that left her tongue adorably hanging out./news/it-s-getting-way-easier-to-join-ps5-multiplayer-games-with-a-friend.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-getting-way-easier-to-join-ps5-multiplayer-games-with-a-friend.htmlSony is working on an easier way for anyone to join your gaming sessions — whether you’re friends on the PlayStation Network or not. The company says that “in the coming months,” you’ll be able to generate a link either on your PS5 or in the PlayStation App that you can share with others so they can join your multiplayer session. On the PS5, that means popping up a QR code from the game lobby that players will need to scan using a smartphone, while the PlayStation App just creates a link users can copy or share through their phone’s share sheet./news/it-s-time-to-give-adam-west-s-batman-his-due.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-time-to-give-adam-west-s-batman-his-due.htmlAdam West died on June 9th, and for Batman fans, his passing stings. West made a tremendous impact on comics and pop culture, embodying a character who’s so ubiquitous, he’s arguably the most important superhero of the modern era. In 2017, it’d be a struggle to find younger fans who’d claim him as their Batman. Comics culture has spent the last few decades running away from the camp that defined the Caped Crusader in West’s 1968 TV show./news/jake-paul-s-school-for-social-media-stars-will-teach-you-all-the-wrong-lessons.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jake-paul-s-school-for-social-media-stars-will-teach-you-all-the-wrong-lessons.htmlJake Paul, like his brother Logan, is the personification of social media-driven success. He got his big break on the shortform video platform Vine, where he amassed over 5 million followers with his slapstick comedy and pranks. He briefly starred in the Disney social media comedy Bizaardvark, started a self-branded clothing line, and now vlogs on multiple YouTube channels, including one with 13 million subscribers. It’s no wonder so many young people look up to him — not just as a celebrity, but as a model for achieving online stardom./news/jawbone-up3-review-the-verge.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jawbone-up3-review-the-verge.htmlThe Up3 features a design that’s not far off from the less-expensive Up2. It’s a bit larger and chunkier overall to accommodate for the added technology inside, but not noticeably so if you’re looking at the thing on someone’s wrist. Most of the Up3’s guts are located inside an aluminum casing that sits on the top of your wrist. The Up3 is splash-proof and safe for the shower, but you won’t want to submerge it./news/jesse-thorn-walking-into-the-media-world-is-like-walking-into-a-thrift-store.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jesse-thorn-walking-into-the-media-world-is-like-walking-into-a-thrift-store.htmlAt Maximum Fun, Jesse Thorn has built the world’s most unassuming media empire. He’s best known for his style blog Put This On and his radio show Bullseye, which was picked up by NPR earlier this month. But behind the scenes he’s founded a bicoastal festival of whimsy called MaxFunCon and taken over distribution for nine other podcasts (including, full disclosure, one with Polygon’s Justin & Griffin McElroy). We caught up with Thorn to talk about bossa nova and trying to promote a better world./news/kraken-crypto-exchange-lays-off-30-percent-of-workforce.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kraken-crypto-exchange-lays-off-30-percent-of-workforce.htmlThe cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced job cuts today, affecting 30 percent of its workforce, or around 1,100 employees. In a blog post, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell says the firm made the decision to help it weather the “crypto winter.” Kraken, a platform that lets users buy, sell, and trade crypto, announced its plans to hire 500 new employees in June, but only as long as their beliefs aligned with the company’s “crypto-first culture,” which apparently means not calling out things said by others as “toxic, hateful, racist, x-phobic./news/logitech-circle-view-doorbell-review-if-apple-made-a-doorbell.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-circle-view-doorbell-review-if-apple-made-a-doorbell.htmlThere are a lot of video doorbells on the market. You can get one from Amazon’s Ring, Google’s Nest, Arlo, Eufy, August, or countless other companies. But none of those video doorbells will natively work with Apple’s HomeKit platform. For a long time, if you wanted a video doorbell and you were committed to building your smart home around HomeKit, the only option you had was to use hacky workarounds such as Homebridge to integrate unsupported devices into the Home app./news/logitech-s-original-g-pro-x-superlight-is-on-sale-for-nearly-40-percent-off.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-s-original-g-pro-x-superlight-is-on-sale-for-nearly-40-percent-off.htmlThese days, there are ample options to consider when choosing a gaming mouse — we should know, having put together a detailed guide to some of the best available. That said, not everyone needs the latest and greatest gaming peripherals, which makes the current discount on the slightly older Logitech G Pro X Superlight all the more appealing. Right now, the first-gen mouse is on sale at Best Buy in white for an all-time low of $99./news/look-at-this-bonkers-beautiful-mac-ipad-hybrid.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/look-at-this-bonkers-beautiful-mac-ipad-hybrid.htmlLook at this bonkers, beautiful Mac-iPad hybrid. Leave it to Federico Viticci and MacStories to go super, super deep on what it takes to smash together an iPad and a Mac into “The MacPad,” a beautiful mess of a touchscreen laptop. Building — and using — this setup is not for the faint of heart, and it looks totally ridiculous. But I can’t help myself. I want one. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaHx1e5FtZ3JoYW5%2FcLjOqKJmmaRiwam10maZqKabmr%2B0ecGemK6smZvCrXnMmppmoaCWsW602Jupopw%3D/news/lyft-will-spend-100-million-on-new-driver-support-centers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lyft-will-spend-100-million-on-new-driver-support-centers.htmlLyft announced today plans to spend $100 million on a network of new driver “hubs,” where ride-sharing drivers can get low-cost oil changes, basic maintenance on their vehicles, and car washes, as well as access to “clean bathrooms.” The new investment is part of Lyft’s effort to lower costs for its drivers, who as independent contractors shoulder all the expenses associated with their work for the company. Lyft’s effort to lower costs for its drivers/news/mark-zuckerberg-reportedly-ordered-all-facebook-executives-to-use-android-phones.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mark-zuckerberg-reportedly-ordered-all-facebook-executives-to-use-android-phones.htmlIn those comments made back in March, Cook dismissed a question asking him what he would do if he were in Zuckerberg’s shoes dealing with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal by saying, “I wouldn’t be in this situation.” Cook’s comments “infuriated” Zuckerberg, according to the NYT. In an interview with Recode, Zuck said he found Cook’s comments to be “extremely glib,” and that “I think it’s important that we don’t all get Stockholm syndrome and let the companies that work hard to charge you more convince you that they actually care more about you./news/mark-zuckerberg-says-there-s-no-evidence-that-facebook-staff-suppressed-conservative-stories.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mark-zuckerberg-says-there-s-no-evidence-that-facebook-staff-suppressed-conservative-stories.htmlI want to share some thoughts on the discussion about Trending Topics. Facebook stands for giving everyone a voice. We believe the world is better when people from different backgrounds and with different ideas all have the power to share their thoughts and experiences. That's what makes social media unique. We are one global community where anyone can share anything -- from a loving photo of a mother and her baby to intellectual analysis of political events./news/matter-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-smart-home-protocol.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/matter-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-smart-home-protocol.htmlMatter is a common language for smart home devices. It’s designed to simplify everything about the smart home, from purchase to setup and everyday use. Its biggest promise is making smart devices work with each other across platforms and ecosystems, no matter who made them. This means no more checking for the “Works With” HomeKit, Google Home, or Alexa badges; Matter devices work with all of them and can be part of multiple platforms at the same time./news/meep-meep-the-verge.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meep-meep-the-verge.htmlMeep meep. While Star Wars continues to feature new aliens engineered in a lab for maximum cuteness, Doctor Who is moving in the opposite direction. Just look at this thing. I very much relate to Donna at the end of the clip below. The Meep, as it’s known, will make an appearance in “The Star Beast,” one of a trio of Doctor Who specials coming over the winter. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn5wfpJoaWxxZ2iGd4KOppyeqF2isqa8/news/meta-is-adding-real-time-ai-image-generation-to-whatsapp.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-is-adding-real-time-ai-image-generation-to-whatsapp.htmlMeta is rolling out real-time AI image generation in beta for WhatsApp users in the US. As soon as you start typing a text-to-image prompt in a chat with Meta AI, you’ll see how the image changes as you add more detail about what you want to create. In the example shared by Meta, a user types in the prompt, “Imagine a soccer game on mars.” The generated image quickly changes from a typical soccer player to showing an entire soccer field on a Martian landscape./news/microsoft-surface-go-review-a-little-goes-a-long-way.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-surface-go-review-a-little-goes-a-long-way.htmlThe Surface Go isn’t what you’d expect. I’ve been using it for a week now and what I was expecting was a low-end Windows computer to go along with its processor and price. I was expecting to be unimpressed with its small keyboard. We’ve seen this story before, after all: first with netbooks and then with the original low-end Surfaces. You usually get something that promises to offer something like what you’re used to on a full-power device, but end up frustrated and annoyed./news/microsoft-teams-now-lets-you-transform-into-a-3d-avatar-during-meetings.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-teams-now-lets-you-transform-into-a-3d-avatar-during-meetings.htmlMicrosoft is now allowing Teams users to create a 3D avatar to use in meetings instead of being on camera or even needing a webcam. Originally announced in 2021, Microsoft has been testing these 3D avatars over the past year and is now ready to allow Microsoft Teams users to try them out in public preview today. “Avatars for Microsoft Teams offers an alternative to the current binary option of video or no video,” says Avery Salumbides, a product marketing manager at Microsoft, in a blog post today./news/microsoft-word-s-dark-mode-is-getting-even-darker.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-word-s-dark-mode-is-getting-even-darker.htmlMicrosoft is improving the dark mode in Word to make it even darker. The software maker has started testing an update to Word that will color entire documents in a dark canvas. Currently, Word has a dark mode that modifies the ribbon and toolbars, but the canvas stays bright white. A future update to Word will include the ability to switch the canvas into dark mode, too. “This has been a long-requested feature from many of Office Insiders and we’re excited to make it happen,” explains Ali Forelli, a program manager on Microsoft’s Word team./news/microsoft-s-hololens-2-a-3500-mixed-reality-headset-for-the-factory.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-hololens-2-a-3500-mixed-reality-headset-for-the-factory.htmlI am in a tiny room in a basement somewhere in Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, wearing an early version of the HoloLens 2 headset. In front of me is a very real ATV, which is missing a bolt. Not quite at the corner of my vision — but certainly off to the side — I see a glowing indicator pointing to a bucket of the right bolts. I walk over, bend down to look more closely at the shelf, and grab one./news/microsoft-s-msdn-magazine-is-shutting-down-after-more-than-30-years.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-msdn-magazine-is-shutting-down-after-more-than-30-years.htmlAlthough MSDN Magazine has a legacy that stretches back over three decades, it’s only actually been produced under its current name since 2000, when Microsoft merged its Microsoft Systems Journal and Microsoft Internet Developer magazines into a single publication. According to this, now deleted, page from Microsoft’s website, Microsoft Systems Journal started way back in 1986 as Microsoft’s first programming publication. If you’re still hanging on to your MSDN Magazine subscription then Microsoft says it will refund you the remainder of your subscription after its last issue in November./news/microsoft-s-new-copilot-ai-agents-act-like-virtual-employees-to-automate-tasks.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-new-copilot-ai-agents-act-like-virtual-employees-to-automate-tasks.htmlMicrosoft will soon allow businesses and developers to build AI-powered Copilots that can work like virtual employees and perform tasks automatically. Instead of Copilot sitting idle waiting for queries, it will be able to do things like monitor email inboxes and automate a series of tasks or data entry that employees normally have to do manually. It’s a big change in the behavior of Copilot in what the industry commonly calls AI agents, or the ability for chatbots to intelligently perform complex tasks autonomously./news/mobvoi-ticwatch-e2-s2-review-making-the-best-of-a-bad-platform.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mobvoi-ticwatch-e2-s2-review-making-the-best-of-a-bad-platform.htmlI’ve been testing a couple nearly identical Wear OS smartwatches: the TicWatch E2 and S2 made by Mobvoi. You probably haven’t heard of it, but Mobvoi is nearly the last company (that isn’t a Fossil subsidiary) still trying to make Wear OS watches. I think Mobvoi has done as good a job as can be done with its devices. If that sounds like faint praise for the TicWatch E2 and S2, that’s because it is./news/motorola-droid-razr-for-verizon-announced-coming-early-november-for-299-99.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-droid-razr-for-verizon-announced-coming-early-november-for-299-99.htmlThe phone known alternately as the Spyder, the Droid RAZR, and the Droid HD prior to its release is now official - and Motorola has decided to go with the Droid RAZR name (outside the US, it'll be known simply as the RAZR). As expected, it's got LTE for Verizon, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, Bluetooth 4.0 support, 16GB of storage (with an extra 16GB included on a microSD card), and a 4./news/nasa-has-selected-a-mission-to-study-the-cosmic-matter-between-stars.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nasa-has-selected-a-mission-to-study-the-cosmic-matter-between-stars.htmlWhile space is largely devoid of matter, it does contain some gas and dust that floats between stars, material known as the interstellar medium. NASA has selected the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) mission to conduct the first complete study of this matter, to better understand how it behaves. Interstellar objects such as stars, black holes, and galaxies get a lot of attention from scientists, but the interstellar medium isn’t a trivial thing to study: it makes up about 15 percent of the total mass in the Milky Way; 99 percent of that is free-floating gas, mostly hydrogen and helium./news/netflix-finally-lets-you-remove-the-shows-and-movies-haunting-your-continue-watching-row.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-finally-lets-you-remove-the-shows-and-movies-haunting-your-continue-watching-row.htmlThe new feature is already out on Netflix’s web, mobile, and TV apps. To remove a show or movie, all you have to do is select the offending card in the row and scroll down to the new “Remove from Continue Watching” option to clear it. Clicking a second time will quickly undo the removal, in the event you accidentally remove that octopus documentary that you’ve been really, truly meaning to get around to watching one of these days./news/netflix-s-weird-dog-cartoon-buddy-thunderstruck-predicts-the-future-of-interactive-storytelling.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-weird-dog-cartoon-buddy-thunderstruck-predicts-the-future-of-interactive-storytelling.htmlIn Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, Netflix’s first foray into interactive programming, the first choice viewers are asked to make is whether the swashbuckling tabby should fight a muscle-bound brute, or take on a tree instead. In the stop-motion children’s series Buddy Thunderstruck, on the other hand, the first choice you make is whether Buddy downs three triple espresso shots, or eats a pizza. “Yes,” deadpans Buddy Thunderstruck writer Tom Krajewski, “ours is funnier./news/nicolas-cage-is-back-as-spider-man-in-live-action-amazon-series.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nicolas-cage-is-back-as-spider-man-in-live-action-amazon-series.htmlNicolas Cage is ready to don the Spider-Man Noir suit again — only this time, in live-action. Amazon has confirmed that Cage will be reprising the role that he previously voiced in the animated film Into the Spider-Verse. The new series, which was first reported last year, is simply called Noir and, according to Amazon, “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero./news/nintendo-acquires-animation-studio-that-ll-become-nintendo-pictures.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-acquires-animation-studio-that-ll-become-nintendo-pictures.htmlNintendo has acquired CG production company Dynamo Pictures, and will rename it to “Nintendo Pictures,” the company has announced. The new subsidiary will “focus on development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP” and the “planning and production of visual content including CG animation.” The company’s IMDB page lists credits on dozens of titles, including motion capture work on Death Stranding and Persona 5, and post-production work on Metroid: Other M. The acquisition comes as Nintendo is gearing up for the most significant cinematic release in years; an animated movie based on the Super Mario Bros./news/nvidia-rtx-4070-ti-review-a-possible-amd-challenger-if-the-price-is-right.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-rtx-4070-ti-review-a-possible-amd-challenger-if-the-price-is-right.htmlThe RTX 4070 Ti started off as something very different. Nvidia had planned to launch a 12GB RTX 4080 at $899, but after a backlash, the company decided to “unlaunch” that card. And now it’s back in the form of the RTX 4070 Ti, with identical specs and the same 12GB of memory. The only thing that’s really changed — apart from the branding — is the price. At an expected base price of $799, Nvidia is out to challenge AMD’s latest pricing on its Radeon RX 7900 XT ($899) and RX 7900 XTX ($999) RDNA 3 cards./news/nvidia-s-mobile-rtx-2080-let-me-play-overwatch-at-4k-on-a-gaming-laptop.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-s-mobile-rtx-2080-let-me-play-overwatch-at-4k-on-a-gaming-laptop.htmlNvidia’s big announcement during its CES press conference yesterday — mobile RTX GPUs for gaming laptops — was an expected one. The company has always worked to find the balance of power consumption, heat production, and the delicate GPU-CPU dance required to fit a desktop graphics chip into the slim, portable package of a notebook. Yet with the RTX 2060 / 2070 / 2080 series, we’re starting to see the delta between what’s been considered “desktop” and laptop gaming performance shrink to unprecedented levels./news/oh-no-netflix-s-final-fantasy-14-drama-is-still-called-daddy-of-light.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oh-no-netflix-s-final-fantasy-14-drama-is-still-called-daddy-of-light.htmlNetflix is bringing Final Fantasy 14: Daddy of Light to a worldwide audience this fall. The show is about the father-son bond formed over a mutual love of Final Fantasy 14, Square Enix’s massively multiplayer role-playing take on the Final Fantasy series. News was spotted today by The Verge’s sister site and daddy enthusiast Polygon. We’ve seen various Final Fantasy stories in animated film and TV forms several times over the years, but Daddy of Light is something different — a hybrid of live-action and Final Fantasy 14 gameplay, rooted in a world based on our own./news/olie-is-a-smart-lamp-with-alexa-and-wireless-charging-built-in.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/olie-is-a-smart-lamp-with-alexa-and-wireless-charging-built-in.htmlOne of the most popular uses of digital assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant is to turn on and off lights. So why not just save a step in that process and build a digital assistant directly into a table or floor lamp? That’s the idea behind Olie, the latest project from InstruMMents looking for funding on Indiegogo. (The company was founded by the creators of the Misfit Shine and had previously crowdfunded the InstruMMent 01 measuring device./news/online-teen-magazine-rookie-mag-shuts-down-after-seven-years.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/online-teen-magazine-rookie-mag-shuts-down-after-seven-years.htmlAfter seven years of sharing essays, art, advice, and writing for (and often by) teenagers, the online magazine Rookie Mag is shutting down. Launched by fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson in 2011 — when she was only 15 years old — Rookie attracted a million views in six days and went on to become an intimate, authentic, and feminist lens for its primarily young female audience to look at and speak to the world./news/opal-c1-webcam-review-dslr-rivaling-video-quality-in-a-tiny-package.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/opal-c1-webcam-review-dslr-rivaling-video-quality-in-a-tiny-package.htmlWould you consider buying a $299.99 webcam? That’s the cost of Opal’s C1, which is now available to purchase on an invite-only basis. My guess is that many of you will say no. Others, who are on the never-ending quest to look good for all of those Zoom meetings, might have a list of questions in need of some really convincing answers, and rightfully so. Like, why pay this much when there are so many other more economical options, including using your phone as a webcam?/news/oppo-shuts-down-zeku-division-responsible-for-chip-development-efforts.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oppo-shuts-down-zeku-division-responsible-for-chip-development-efforts.htmlBloomberg reports Oppo’s Zeku division was set up in 2019 and carried about 200 patents in its Shanghai division. Like Apple, Oppo started making its own co-processors for imaging and other smartphone components but had not successfully launched its own SoC to get away from relying on other companies for the most significant chip in the device. Last year, the US issued sweeping restrictions on chip sales to China and other countries in the wake of the war in Ukraine./news/paint-review-bob-ross-spoof-is-an-snl-sketch-stretched-out-far-too-long.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/paint-review-bob-ross-spoof-is-an-snl-sketch-stretched-out-far-too-long.htmlBob Ross has become one of those inescapable facets of the internet. The longtime The Joy of Painting host is firmly entrenched in the realm of online kitsch, featured everywhere from Twitch streams and Marvel ads to Magic: The Gathering sets. His distinct and goofy persona makes him a logical subject for a similarly silly biopic — which is exactly what director Brit McAdams tries to do in Paint. Unfortunately, the film never finds enough of a hook to justify being a feature-length movie; you can get the entire joke mostly from watching the trailer./news/panasonic-s-lumix-gh6-has-the-highest-resolution-micro-four-thirds-sensor-ever.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/panasonic-s-lumix-gh6-has-the-highest-resolution-micro-four-thirds-sensor-ever.htmlPanasonic has announced its latest video-focused Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix GH6, after a delay. The new numbered entry in the popular GH line was teased almost a year ago alongside the launch of the GH5 Mark II; Panasonic confirmed at the time that it would shoot up to 10-bit 4:2:0 4K at 120fps, 10-bit 4:2:2 4K at 60fps, and 10-bit 5.7K at 60fps. Now the camera has been revealed in full, and while it looks similar to its predecessor and features the same 3-inch articulating screen, the internals are all new./news/people-are-accidentally-setting-off-apple-s-emergency-sos-alert.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/people-are-accidentally-setting-off-apple-s-emergency-sos-alert.htmlIf you sleep on your Apple Watch the wrong way, you might get a wake-up call from the police. That’s what happened to Jason Rowley, who tweeted about the incident earlier this week. Using his watch as a sleep tracker, he ended up holding down the crown button to trigger an emergency call to the police, who showed up in his bedroom at 1AM. Rowley told us the police were friendly and helpful, and accustomed to WatchOS misdials like this one./news/persona-5-tactica-makes-the-wait-for-persona-6-a-little-easier.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/persona-5-tactica-makes-the-wait-for-persona-6-a-little-easier.htmlPersona 5 Tactica pleasantly surprised me. I have been anxious for a good tactical RPG all year. Fire Emblem Engage failed to live up to its title, winding up as a shallower Three Houses. (Yes, friend, Engage did indeed come out this year.) And the Advance Wars reboots bored me to tears. While I wasn’t exactly looking to Persona 5 Tactica to fill the hole Marvel’s Midnight Suns left behind — please go play that game, just./news/play-a-3d-version-of-the-original-zelda-in-your-browser.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/play-a-3d-version-of-the-original-zelda-in-your-browser.htmlNintendo's NES classic The Legend of Zelda is 30 years old this year, and what better way to celebrate it than to drag it kicking and screaming from its console origins, right to your browser. The Legend of Zelda 30-Year Tribute is an open-source version of the original game built in WebGL — playable on web and mobile browsers — and rendered in voxels, giving the NES game's pixel graphics a chunky "/news/pok%C3%A9mon-go-adding-seasons-kalos-region-pok%C3%A9mon-to-catch.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pok%C3%A9mon-go-adding-seasons-kalos-region-pok%C3%A9mon-to-catch.htmlPokémon Go will add seasons, a new level cap, and pokémon from the series’s Kalos region as part of its biggest update to date, Niantic announced today. The “Go Beyond” update, releasing November 30th, will allow trainers to advance to level 50, in addition to new content. Upcoming changes to the game include seasons — three-month periods during which players will run into different pokémon and events. These will be tied to the season they take place in and span everything from eggs to Mega-Evolved pokémon./news/preacher-is-unwatched-unloved-and-doomed-but-tulip-o-hare-goes-on.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/preacher-is-unwatched-unloved-and-doomed-but-tulip-o-hare-goes-on.htmlIn the fourth and final season of AMC’s comic book adaptation Preacher, tough female lead Tulip O’Hare (Ruth Negga) is subjected to a Rorschach test psych evaluation. She tries her best to pass it, looking at each image and eagerly describing the grisly murders she sees in every inkblot. After she’s done, her kind doctor nervously explains, “The test results indicate that you’re an uninhibited deviant with a personality disorder prone to psychopathic outbursts./news/prey-review-a-movie-that-understands-what-makes-predator-so-interesting.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/prey-review-a-movie-that-understands-what-makes-predator-so-interesting.htmlSince its debut in 1987, the Predator franchise has had a, let’s say, uneven history. The premise is brilliant in its simplicity: A race of aliens who live for nothing more than a good hunt travel to Earth in search of prey. It worked particularly well for the first two films, but over the course of more sequels, spinoffs, and forays into games and comics, that high-level idea has been diluted quite a bit — which is what makes Prey so refreshing./news/pro-has-lost-all-meaning-and-apple-knows-it.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pro-has-lost-all-meaning-and-apple-knows-it.htmlApple has a “Pro” problem — while some products bearing the label are clearly intended for professional use (like Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and the Mac Pro), years of Apple and competitors slapping the name onto wireless earbuds and slightly fancier phones have made it hard to tell what “Pro” even means. Which is why my ears perked up when Apple used a different word to describe its new computer and monitor that clearly targeted its audience of creative professionals: “Studio./news/redbox-and-verizon-team-up-to-challenge-netflix-in-the-streaming-movie-market.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/redbox-and-verizon-team-up-to-challenge-netflix-in-the-streaming-movie-market.htmlMovie rental kiosk service Redbox has been planning to partner with Verizon and break into the video streaming market for months, but now the new Netflix competitor is finally rolling out. Redbox Instant by Verizon is planned to launch later this month as an invite-only service, according to a report by the Associated Press. Eight dollars per month will get you unlimited streaming as well as four nights of physical DVD rentals, while nine dollars will get your four nights of Blu-ray rentals instead./news/reddit-is-telling-protesting-mods-their-communities-will-not-stay-private.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/reddit-is-telling-protesting-mods-their-communities-will-not-stay-private.htmlReddit is pressuring moderators who have set their subreddits to private to reopen their communities this week, according to messages seen by The Verge. The company has given moderators deadlines to lay out their plans for reopening but said that they can’t stay closed. The timeframes given generally indicate a deadline of sometime Thursday afternoon. Reddit was vague about the exact repercussions but seemed to suggest this was the final warning stage./news/riot-continues-to-expand-beyond-league-of-legends-with-new-pc-launcher.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/riot-continues-to-expand-beyond-league-of-legends-with-new-pc-launcher.htmlRiot Games is perhaps best known for developing League of Legends, but in recent years, it’s added games like auto battler Teamfight Tactics and the hit shooter Valorant to its roster of titles. To make it easier to open all of Riot’s games on your PC, the company is releasing the Riot Client, a unified launcher that starts rolling out later this month. “All desktop Riot games will be accessible from one client, with each game having its own dedicated product page with game-specific content including the latest news and events,” Riot’s Liz La Londe wrote in a blog post./news/rivian-s-ipo-filing-reveals-amazon-s-prime-influence.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rivian-s-ipo-filing-reveals-amazon-s-prime-influence.htmlEV startup Rivian has spent most of its life shrouded in secrecy, but now that it’s going public, that protective veil is lifting. And nothing has been more revealing to date than the regulatory filing made public late Friday night, which provides new information on the startup’s relationships with its major backers, Amazon and Ford, details about how much money it has spent so far (a lot), and projections for how much it expects to spend now that its first EV is in production (a lot)./news/robot-butlers-operated-by-remote-workers-are-coming-to-do-your-chores.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/robot-butlers-operated-by-remote-workers-are-coming-to-do-your-chores.htmlFor pretty much as long as robots have existed, humans have wanted robot butlers: autonomous machines that do our bidding around the home. But our imagination exceeds our technological capabilities, and the closest we’ve come to building Rosie the Robot is either specialized machines like robot vacuum cleaners or voice-activated gadgets like Amazon’s Alexa. One Japanese startup thinks it can change this by dislodging a core tenet of home robotics: instead of having software control the machines, it wants humans to do it./news/ron-gilbert-s-return-to-monkey-island-will-be-out-this-year.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ron-gilbert-s-return-to-monkey-island-will-be-out-this-year.htmlTurns out Ron Gilbert’s April Fools’ joke wasn’t a joke at all. He is indeed working on a new entry in the classic Monkey Island adventure game series, titled Return to Monkey Island, and it’s set to release this year. You can watch the first trailer for the game here or at the top of this post. According to the YouTube trailer’s description, Return to Monkey Island is a “long-awaited follow-up” to The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge./news/russia-just-tested-satellite-destroying-tech-in-space-us-space-command-claims.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/russia-just-tested-satellite-destroying-tech-in-space-us-space-command-claims.htmlThe Department of Defense believes that Russia may have tested out a new technology in space that could be used to destroy other satellites already in orbit. This particular test didn’t destroy anything, but military officials are worried it could be used to target US satellites in the future. On July 15th, a Russian satellite called Kosmos 2543 released an unknown object into orbit, according to US Space Command, which is responsible for tracking all the objects currently in orbit./news/samsung-boss-acquitted-after-latest-round-of-legal-drama.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-boss-acquitted-after-latest-round-of-legal-drama.htmlSamsung boss acquitted after latest round of legal drama. Lee Jae-yong, aka Jay Y. Lee, Samsung’s executive chairman and grandson of the company’s founder, has been acquitted of stock manipulation charges relating to a 2015 merger of two subsidiaries that helped him take control of the company, The New York Times reports. Lee was previously found guilty of bribery and corruption in 2017 and served jail time, but was later released on appeal and eventually pardoned, allowing him to take control of the Samsung empire./news/samsung-galaxy-buds-fe-review-sometimes-the-fit-is-everything.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-buds-fe-review-sometimes-the-fit-is-everything.htmlPeople can get very attached to the way certain earbuds fit into and feel in their ears. When design changes do inevitably happen, manufacturers often tell us journalists how much consideration went into the smallest of tweaks — and they love to discuss how much data (and how many ear scans) informed those decisions. But you know what? There will always be a subset of customers who preferred the old way instead./news/samsung-s-the-wall-luxury-is-a-292-inch-8k-modular-tv.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-the-wall-luxury-is-a-292-inch-8k-modular-tv.htmlSamsung has announced a new version of The Wall, its massive modular MicroLED TV. The new version, dubbed The Wall Luxury, has a maximum resolution of 8K, creating a TV that measures 292 inches from corner to corner. Alternatively, a 2K configuration of the TV is available that’s just 73 inches big. The Wall Luxury will be available starting next month. The Wall Luxury has a higher maximum resolution compared to Samsung’s previous MicroLED prototypes, but it also takes up a lot more space./news/screenshots-show-facebook-may-use-messenger-to-compete-with-paypal-and-venmo.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/screenshots-show-facebook-may-use-messenger-to-compete-with-paypal-and-venmo.htmlIt now seems all but certain that Facebook will introduce its own payment service and bring the fight to companies like Paypal and Venmo. A TechCrunch tipster has released screenshots and video of a new payment platform that's secretly built into the current version of Facebook Messenger for iOS. With the service enabled, users can send money to other friends just like attaching a photograph to a message. Currently, the service only appears to accept debit card payments, which come with lower processing fees than credit cards and are easier to configure than bank accounts./news/sdcc-2023-all-the-biggest-trailers-and-updates.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sdcc-2023-all-the-biggest-trailers-and-updates.htmlSDCC 2023: Say hello to season two of Invincible before it debuts on November 3rd. The story revolves around 18-year-old Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age—except his father (J.K. Simmons) is (or was) the most powerful superhero on the planet. Still reeling from Nolan’s betrayal in Season 1, Mark struggles to rebuild his life as he faces a host of new threats, all while battling his greatest fear - that he might become his father without even knowing it./news/settlement-forces-smiledirectclub-to-release-17-000-customers-from-ndas.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/settlement-forces-smiledirectclub-to-release-17-000-customers-from-ndas.htmlSmileDirectClub, a mail-order orthodontic provider that sells cheap teeth aligners online, has agreed to release 17,000 US customers dissatisfied with its service from nondisclosure agreements that prohibited them from leaving negative reviews as part of a settlement with the District of Columbia’s attorney general. Announced on Thursday, the settlement requires SmileDirectClub to make changes to the company’s refund guarantee policy and inform customers who had signed such NDAs that they were now free to discuss their experiences./news/sketchar-puts-virtual-images-on-paper-to-let-you-trace-drawings-from-your-phone.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sketchar-puts-virtual-images-on-paper-to-let-you-trace-drawings-from-your-phone.htmlThere’s a lot of tracing naysayers out there who say it’s “cheating,” or that it doesn’t actually help you learn to draw, but I beg to differ. The best way to learn to draw is by doing, and if it takes using a lightbox or a projector toy to get started, so be it! SketchAR is the latest iteration of the augmented reality drawing concept that hit the App Store yesterday, and will soon be coming to Android Tango and Microsoft HoloLens./news/snap-is-recalling-and-refunding-every-drone-it-ever-sold.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snap-is-recalling-and-refunding-every-drone-it-ever-sold.htmlSnap gave up on its Pixy flying selfie camera drone after just four months, but it turns out the company sold under 71,000 drones — and now the company is recalling every one of those drones because their batteries pose a fire hazard. Yes, the entire drone is being recalled, not just the removable battery, likely because Snap doesn’t make those batteries anymore. Then, you can get a full refund for the entire drone and / or any batteries you own — sounds like we’re talking at least $185 back to you, unless you bought it on sale./news/snapchat-is-using-object-recognition-to-serve-users-relevant-filters.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snapchat-is-using-object-recognition-to-serve-users-relevant-filters.htmlSnapchat is now using object recognition to identify what’s in users’ photos and serve them relevant filters. So, if you take a picture of some food, Snapchat will suggest filters with slogans like “get in my belly” and “what diet?” Snap, the company behind Snapchat, confirmed to Mashable that the filters had started rolling out to users last week, but it didn’t provide an exhaustive list of what objects trigger the mechanism./news/sony-wants-60fps-ps5-pro-enhanced-games-but-it-s-happy-to-settle-for-less.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-wants-60fps-ps5-pro-enhanced-games-but-it-s-happy-to-settle-for-less.htmlSony 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./news/sony-s-new-ps5-model-is-lighter-and-doesn-t-need-a-screwdriver.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-new-ps5-model-is-lighter-and-doesn-t-need-a-screwdriver.htmlSony has quietly launched a revised PS5 model. Press Start, an Australian-based gaming site, reports that the revised PS5 models include a new screw for the base stand that no longer requires a screwdriver. Sony reportedly swapped in a new screw with a grip around the top so it can be easily adjusted by hand. Press Start also reports that these updated PS5 models are around 300 grams (0.6 pounds) lighter than the original, but it’s not clear what Sony has removed or changed to bring the weight down./news/space-x-s-falcon-9-failed-its-barge-landing-at-sea.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/space-x-s-falcon-9-failed-its-barge-landing-at-sea.htmlThe barge landing of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket failed this morning, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeting that the "rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time." The rocket blasted off this morning at 04:47AM ET and safely jettisoned its Dragon module, laden with supplies for the International Space Station. "Like balancing a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm./news/spam-calls-how-to-stop-the-robots-from-calling-your-iphone-or-android.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spam-calls-how-to-stop-the-robots-from-calling-your-iphone-or-android.htmlMobile spam calls have been a nuisance for years. I get between four and six robocalls daily, and a quick survey of friends shows that I’m not alone. Every waking day brings with it a new barrage. Robocallers have upped their game by masking their spam with local, genuine-looking phone numbers. Sometimes their nonsense is amusing — like when you get a threatening voicemail about your impending arrest over owed back taxes — but the vast majority of the time, it’s an unwelcome distraction./news/spec-sheet-comparing-the-xbox-one-playstation-4-and-wii-u.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spec-sheet-comparing-the-xbox-one-playstation-4-and-wii-u.htmlA lot of products come out each week — we don't highlight all of them, but all of them make it into The Verge Database. In Spec Sheet, a weekly series, we survey the latest product entries to keep track of the state of the art. The new generation of game consoles is finally here in its entirety. Just about every one of the consoles could still use work in one way or another, be it better games, a better interface, or a better build./news/sprint-and-htc-are-partnering-to-make-a-5g-device-for-next-year.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sprint-and-htc-are-partnering-to-make-a-5g-device-for-next-year.htmlSprint is partnering with HTC to make a mobile “smart hub” that will run on 5G next year. It’s the second product Sprint has announced for its own nascent next-gen network, but we’re getting very little in the way of concrete details right now. The device is developed by Sprint, HTC, and Qualcomm in a joint effort. It will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon x50 5G modem with gigabit LTE and 5G capabilities./news/starfield-is-a-bizarrely-worse-experience-on-nvidia-and-intel-says-digital-foundry.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/starfield-is-a-bizarrely-worse-experience-on-nvidia-and-intel-says-digital-foundry.htmlStarfield is one of the most demanding games on PC that we’ve seen recently, with even the RTX 4090 paired with AMD’s latest Ryzen 7800X3D just about hitting 60fps on average at 4K with all the settings maxed out. As reviewers and testers scramble to figure out why Starfield is so heavy, the experts over at Digital Foundry have discovered some obvious differences between AMD and Intel / Nvidia systems./news/steam-s-summer-sale-discounts-hundreds-of-games.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/steam-s-summer-sale-discounts-hundreds-of-games.htmlFor many of us, summer can get just too hot to go outside and have fun. Thankfully, though, this season brings more than just heatwaves — there are also sales like Steam’s, so you can enjoy gaming while keeping cool inside. Along with discounting the Steam Deck as we highlighted earlier this week, Valve is also now discounting a ton of games through July 11th as a part of the Steam Summer Sale./news/steven-soderbergh-s-free-interactive-tv-series-mosaic-turns-viewers-into-filmmakers.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/steven-soderbergh-s-free-interactive-tv-series-mosaic-turns-viewers-into-filmmakers.htmlFilm director Steven Soderbergh says he faced a lot of challenges in making Mosaic, including what to call it. In January, HBO will air Mosaic as a six-episode series over five nights. But starting today, you can download a standalone app for iOS and tvOS, and take in its roughly 7.5 hours in interactive form, shifting your perspective among the story’s main characters in a branching narrative. Mosaic most resembles the sort of show you might binge-watch on Netflix — all of its episodes will be available at once — and yet it allows for a level of interaction only possible inside a custom app./news/streaming-services-are-spoiling-the-super-bowl.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/streaming-services-are-spoiling-the-super-bowl.htmlTens of millions of people gathered together to watch the Super Bowl last night — but they weren’t all watching it at exactly the same time. Cable streams of the game delivered footage that was around 50 seconds behind what was happening on the field, and the figure for online streaming services was even worse. Some viewers were watching a stream that was a minute-and-a-half behind the real world, leaving plenty of time for social media posts and push notifications to spoil what was about to happen in the game./news/telly-dual-screen-tv-first-look-it-s-free-and-may-be-the-future.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/telly-dual-screen-tv-first-look-it-s-free-and-may-be-the-future.htmlYou know what you’re signing up for from the word go. That’s the main gist behind Telly, a free-to-own 4K television that’s “free” because of a secondary bottom display that will constantly rotate through advertising while also, in theory, providing unique second-screen functionality. Think widgets, news tickers, sports scores, and more. You answer some surveys and let Telly share your viewing habits with advertisers, and in exchange, you pay nothing for a 55-inch 4K TV./news/tesla-forced-to-recall-1-1-million-vehicles-in-china-to-address-braking-problems.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-forced-to-recall-1-1-million-vehicles-in-china-to-address-braking-problems.htmlTesla said that it would push an over-the-air software update to 1.1 million vehicles in China in response to a braking and acceleration problem, multiple outlets are reporting. China’s market regulator identified the issue as a “product recall,” though, as is typical with Tesla, the issue appears to be addressable with a software update. It isn’t clear whether Tesla wants customers to bring in their vehicles for any maintenance, nor whether there is a refund available to those who want to return their cars./news/tesla-s-holiday-update-only-adds-steam-gaming-if-your-hardware-can-handle-it.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-s-holiday-update-only-adds-steam-gaming-if-your-hardware-can-handle-it.htmlSteam, the PC gaming platform, is making its way around town as part of Tesla’s latest holiday update. It fulfills a promise Tesla CEO Elon Musk made almost two years ago: that you’ll be able to play The Witcher 3 using the car’s built-in hardware. But unfortunately for me, I won’t get to play it, and it doesn’t look like there will be any easy path toward upgrading. I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3, and I think I should mention it’s received plenty of upgrades over the years, including overhauled user interface, Autopilot visualizations, streaming apps, and arcade games./news/tesla-s-next-generation-vehicle-all-the-news-about-elon-musk-s-next-big-ev-bet.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-s-next-generation-vehicle-all-the-news-about-elon-musk-s-next-big-ev-bet.htmlTesla says it will build more affordable electric vehicles — perhaps as soon as 2025 — refuting recent reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had canceled plans for a cheaper “Model 2” vehicle in favor of getting a robotaxi out the door. But Musk didn’t clarify whether the lower-cost EV would be a brand new model for Tesla or simplified versions of its current vehicles. “In terms of a new product roadmap, there’s been a lot of talk,” Musk said during the company’s first quarter earnings call, addressing the concerns investors have expressed over the past month about the delayed plans for a low-cost EV./news/tetris-movie-trailer-the-pieces-are-falling-into-place.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tetris-movie-trailer-the-pieces-are-falling-into-place.htmlThe Tetris movie that’s been in the works for almost a decade is actually happening, and Apple has finally unveiled an official trailer ahead of its SXSW premiere. This upcoming Apple Original Films “blockbuster” (sorry) is based on a true story, starring Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who becomes so enamored with the titular game that he travels to the Soviet Union during the end of the Cold War in order secure its distribution rights./news/the-27-best-tech-gifts-under-25-in-2024.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-27-best-tech-gifts-under-25-in-2024.htmlWanting to treat a friend or a loved one to some tech or a cool gadget while on a very lean budget can feel like an impossible task. Most of the everyday devices we use cost multiple hundreds of dollars, so what do you get when you just want a nice birthday or “just because” kind of gift but can’t break the bank? Sure, you could default to something basic like a pair of socks or a scarf, but that gets boring fast./news/the-dark-sci-fi-art-behind-the-new-doom.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-dark-sci-fi-art-behind-the-new-doom.htmlIn less than two weeks there will be a new Doom game in the world.On May 13th the iconic shooter series is getting a much-needed reboot, one that’s been a long time coming. While Doom helped set the stage for what first-person shooters could be, it has largely given way to other franchises. The last game in the series was 2004’s Doom 3, which didn’t exactly have the same impact as its predecessors./news/the-definitive-ranking-of-matthew-mcconaughey-lincoln-commercials.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-definitive-ranking-of-matthew-mcconaughey-lincoln-commercials.htmlOne of the greatest gifts of 2014 is Matthew McConaughey's collaboration with Lincoln to sell cars using existentialism. This week, Lincoln debuted two new commercials, two new performances. It still ranks high for McConaughey in a year marked by True Detective, Interstellar, and a recursive series of "alright." So how do you rank greatness? Like this. 1. "Sometimes you gotta go back to actually move forward" Rumor has it the directors simply told him to sit in the car and "/news/the-essential-phone-a-first-look-at-the-hardware.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-essential-phone-a-first-look-at-the-hardware.htmlImmediately after Essential CEO Andy Rubin finished up his interview with Walt Mossberg at the Code Conference, I headed to the hotel to track the phone down and see it for myself. The units on hand here are prototypes, early enough that they have their individual identification numbers etched directly on to the ceramic back in giant font. So while I can’t really say a ton about performance or the software (beyond that it’s plain Android with Google apps), I do have some thoughts on the hardware./news/the-last-of-us-part-ii-will-now-launch-on-june-19th.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-last-of-us-part-ii-will-now-launch-on-june-19th.htmlSony announced today that Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II will now be released on June 19th. Earlier this month, Sony had said that the PlayStation 4 exclusive would be delayed “until further notice” because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, the game had been scheduled to release on May 29th (which was also a delayed release date). “As we begin to see an ease in the global distribution environment, I am pleased to confirm that The Last of Us Part II will arrive on June 19,” said Hermen Hulst, Sony’s head of worldwide studios, in a statement./news/the-midnight-club-review-a-haunting-collection-of-teenage-ghost-stories.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-midnight-club-review-a-haunting-collection-of-teenage-ghost-stories.htmlEver since The Haunting of Hill House in 2018, showrunner Mike Flanagan has been on a steady run of dramatic horror series on Netflix. What’s made these shows so interesting is how they’ve all managed to take Flanagan’s horror sensibilities, where slow-burning drama trumps jump scares, with different kinds of stories. Hill House was about a family growing apart, while The Haunting of Bly Manor was a puzzle box crossed with a love story./news/the-most-detailed-nerve-images-ever-recorded-are-also-the-most-psychedelic.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-most-detailed-nerve-images-ever-recorded-are-also-the-most-psychedelic.htmlScientists have published the most detailed pictures ever of nerve endings in mice, applying a decade-old technique known as SNAP-tagging to living neurons for the first time. The resulting images show individual nerves, touch receptors, and hair follicles stained in brilliant fluorescent colors that look more like abstract art than cutting-edge microscopy. "It's seeing things we've never seen before," Paul Heppenstall, whose lab at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy developed the new technique, tells The Verge./news/the-moto-g-stylus-and-g-power-make-motorola-s-best-budget-phones-even-better.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-moto-g-stylus-and-g-power-make-motorola-s-best-budget-phones-even-better.htmlMotorola’s Moto G line of smartphones has had some of the best budget phones on the market, and this year’s models — the Moto G Stylus and the Moto G Power — look to continue that reputation with bigger screens, faster processors, better cameras, and new features while staying under a $299 price point. The G Stylus, in particular, stands out as one of the few Android phones available in 2020 with a built-in stylus./news/the-new-blink-outdoor-4-brings-person-detection-to-the-budget-battery-camera-line.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-blink-outdoor-4-brings-person-detection-to-the-budget-battery-camera-line.htmlAmazon’s budget smart camera company Blink is bringing person detection to its flagship battery-powered camera. The Blink Outdoor 4 smart security camera also comes with a new design, upgraded image quality, and improved motion detection, while keeping the brand’s signature two-year battery life on just two AA batteries. The camera launches today, August 24th, priced at $119.99 for a one-camera system with a Sync Module 2, and $109.99 for an add-on camera./news/the-pixel-watch-doesn-t-support-wireless-charging-for-a-reason.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-pixel-watch-doesn-t-support-wireless-charging-for-a-reason.htmlGoogle’s official line is that the Pixel Watch does not support Qi charging or reverse charging from a phone. However, in the last few days, many users have anecdotally reported that these wireless charging methods do, in fact, work. Curious, I tried it out for myself, and I’m sorry to say that, while it does sort of work, it’s simply not reliable. First off, I decided to try charging the Pixel Watch using my Pixel 7 Pro review unit./news/the-predator-could-have-been-the-franchise-s-chance-to-finally-have-an-identity.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-predator-could-have-been-the-franchise-s-chance-to-finally-have-an-identity.htmlWelcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Warning: mild spoilers ahead. Movie series often take strange twists and turns over their lifetimes, but the Predator franchise has always been its own uniquely bizarre case. John McTiernan’s 1987 original was an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle that pitted a group of military commandos against an interstellar hunter that picked them off one by one./news/the-sequel-to-sony-s-playstation-phone-apparently-leaks-eight-years-too-late.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-sequel-to-sony-s-playstation-phone-apparently-leaks-eight-years-too-late.htmlCast your mind back, if you can, to the tender world of gadgets circa 2011. Apple had just launched Siri on the iPhone, Google was making its biggest push into social networking with Google Plus, and Sony had decided it was time to release a true gaming smartphone: the much-anticipated “PlayStation Phone,” officially dubbed the Xperia Play. It was not, by any means, a great success. A 2011 Engadget review praised the phone’s sliding mechanism and gamepad but bemoaned its dim screen and lack of playable titles./news/the-steve-jobs-archive-is-launching-a-new-fellowship-program.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-steve-jobs-archive-is-launching-a-new-fellowship-program.htmlToday, the Steve Jobs Archive (SJA) — an organization that collects and curates information about the late Apple founder’s life — has introduced a part-time fellowship program that aims to help a new generation of creative and technologically gifted people follow in Jobs’ footsteps.  The first nine SJA fellows are a group of “young creators” that includes musicians, engineers, storytellers, and more who will receive guidance, resources, and financial support over the coming year to help them make their creative ambitions a reality./news/the-verge-guide-to-the-ps5-and-xbox-series-x.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-guide-to-the-ps5-and-xbox-series-x.htmlOver the span of just a few days, console gaming will change in a big way. That’s because both Sony and Microsoft are launching their next-generation consoles in the form of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (along with the cheaper Series S). As with previous new consoles, a big focus is on power: these machines can play games in 4K, support features like ray tracing, and load gameplay experiences incredibly fast, thanks to SSDs./news/this-could-be-what-apple-music-looks-like-on-android.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-could-be-what-apple-music-looks-like-on-android.htmlEver since the unveiling of Apple Music, Apple has promised to deliver an Android version of its subscription music service sometime this fall. With it now being late October, it seems Apple is indeed nearing the launch of Apple Music for Android. Several screenshots published by Mobile Geeks offer an early glimpse at what the app will look like, and it's pretty much what you'd expect. Apple hasn't committed any egregious offenses in designing an Android app./news/this-cozy-apple-arcade-game-consumed-my-entire-weekend.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-cozy-apple-arcade-game-consumed-my-entire-weekend.htmlThis past weekend, I spent a lot of time thinking about Mount Fuji. Not the real one, but a pixelated version of the mountain range that’s available as a sightseeing opportunity in the new Apple Arcade release Japanese Rural Life Adventure. It’s a cozy game that’s all about making your way in a small mountainside town, giving you a long list of tasks to accomplish, with that beautiful Mount Fuji view pretty far down the line./news/this-smart-wallet-has-a-built-in-camera-for-catching-thieves.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-smart-wallet-has-a-built-in-camera-for-catching-thieves.htmlWallets already seem anachronistic. They're stuffed with paper currency, analog identification cards, and credit cards that are easily emulated by your phone. But what if your wallet had 512MB of RAM, a built-in camera, and doubled as a Wi-Fi hot spot? Volterman is a new smart wallet project on Indiegogo. It includes all the guts of a years-old smartphone, other than a screen. You can use it to charge your phone, you can pair it over Bluetooth to act as an alarm if you forget your phone, or have your phone act as an alarm if you forget your wallet./news/this-universal-remote-wants-to-control-your-smart-home-sans-hub.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-universal-remote-wants-to-control-your-smart-home-sans-hub.htmlUniversal remotes might be on a comeback tour if devices like Cantata’s Haptique RS90 and RS90X actually materialize and are as good as advertised. The connected remote purports to double as a comprehensive smart home controller, but it’s merely a Kickstarter hopeful for now. Serial remoters (remotees?) have pledged more than $300,000, with less than $10,000 needed to fully fund the project as of writing, and there’s currently an estimated ship date of August 2024./news/tiktok-is-adding-an-ai-generated-label-to-watermarked-third-party-content.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-is-adding-an-ai-generated-label-to-watermarked-third-party-content.htmlTikTok 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)./news/tiny-robots-pull-objects-up-to-2-000-times-their-own-weight.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiny-robots-pull-objects-up-to-2-000-times-their-own-weight.htmlEngineers from Stanford University have created miniature robots named "MicroTugs" capable of pulling and lifting objects more than 100 times their own weight. The strongest of the bots weighs just 12 grams but can pull objects 2,000 times heavier than itself, reports the New Scientist. This is the equivalent of a human dragging a blue whale, says David Christensen, an engineer from the lab that created the robots. Another of the robots weighs just 9 grams but can climb up vertical walls carrying objects heavier than a kilogram — the equivalent of a human hoisting an elephant up the side of a building./news/titanic-submarine-tour-vessel-steered-by-a-video-game-controller.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/titanic-submarine-tour-vessel-steered-by-a-video-game-controller.htmlOn Sunday morning, an OceanGate submarine vessel with five people aboard went missing in the Atlantic about an hour and forty-five minutes into a planned trip to explore the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. Made of carbon fiber and titanium, the vessel has enough air for 96 hours; however, as word of the emergency has spread, there’s also shock at the wireless Logitech F710 gamepad used for steering. The Titan advertises “state-of-the-art lighting and sonar navigation systems plus internally and externally mounted 4K video and photographic equipment,” and this CBS News Sunday Morning segment from David Pogue, taken last summer, showed the reporter laughing as he was shown its controls./news/toshiba-says-we-re-re-energized-by-windows-8-1-launches-two-new-tablets-to-prove-it.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/toshiba-says-we-re-re-energized-by-windows-8-1-launches-two-new-tablets-to-prove-it.htmlThis is the IFA of Windows tablets. And for Toshiba, it's also the first time the company has decided to foray into the market at all. "We just didn't believe there was a robust experience to be had there," reps told us. But with Windows 8.1 right around the corner, the company's diving in with two different models: the 8-inch Encore tablet and the 13.3-inch Satellite Click, a detachable laptop./news/toss-a-coin-to-your-witcher-how-netflix-blew-the-release-for-the-hit-song.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/toss-a-coin-to-your-witcher-how-netflix-blew-the-release-for-the-hit-song.htmlNetflix’s The Witcher adaptation seems to be the streaming service’s latest hit, helped at least in part by the massive viral success of the hit song of the season, “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher,” sung by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) at the end of the show’s second episode to immortalize the epic deeds of Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill). But there’s one huge issue with “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” (other than the fact that it will get stuck in your head seemingly forever): Netflix hasn’t released it (or any of The Witcher’s soundtrack) for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, or any other major streaming or music purchasing service./news/toyota-s-new-hybrid-tacoma-is-the-most-powerful-one-it-s-ever-made.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/toyota-s-new-hybrid-tacoma-is-the-most-powerful-one-it-s-ever-made.htmlThe Toyota Tacoma is finally getting a hybrid option. Last week, Toyota announced that the 2024 Tacoma will feature a new i-Force Max hybrid powertrain it says is the “most powerful” ever offered on the pickup. Along with the new powertrain, the hybrid Tacoma will also come with a 2.4-liter engine and a 48-horsepower electric motor. It also features an eight-speed transmission that’s powered by a 1.87kWh NiMH (nickel metal hydride) battery pack, creating a system that’s capable of delivering 326 horsepower with 465 lb-ft of torque./news/tsm-ftx-is-dropping-ftx-following-the-cryptocurrency-exchange-s-collapse.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tsm-ftx-is-dropping-ftx-following-the-cryptocurrency-exchange-s-collapse.htmlThe esports giant TSM FTX is suspending its blockbuster sponsorship deal with the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange and is dropping FTX from its name. “After monitoring the evolving situation and discussing internally, we’re suspending our partnership with FTX effective immediately,” TSM wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “This means that FTX branding will no longer appear on any of our org, team and player social media profiles, and will also be removed from our player jerseys./news/tumblr-s-ai-opt-out-feature-is-live.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tumblr-s-ai-opt-out-feature-is-live.htmlTumblr’s AI opt-out feature is live. As mentioned yesterday, Tumblr now has info about opting out of AI data scraping on its help page — it’s available via the “prevent third-party sharing” toggle. For visual artists who are still worried about the prospect of AI tools training on their work, there are less official ways to stop that, too. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfZ3xzhI5ra2lwZWqBd3vTrqSbpKKoeqK1jKinrWWfqsFussSaq66qlWK2tHnLoq2e/news/twitch-defaced-with-pictures-of-jeff-bezos.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitch-defaced-with-pictures-of-jeff-bezos.htmlHackers have managed to deface Twitch for a few hours this morning, replacing a number of background game images with photos of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Users reported seeing images of Bezos in the listings for GTA V, Dota 2, Smite, Minecraft, Apex Legends, and many more on the Amazon-owned service. It’s not clear how the background images were changed or whether this latest incident was aided by a huge security breach at Twitch earlier this week./news/twitch-is-shutting-down-in-korea.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitch-is-shutting-down-in-korea.htmlTwitch is shutting down in Korea. “Ultimately, the cost to operate Twitch in Korea is prohibitively expensive,” Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a blog post. While the company tried to find ways to lower costs, “our network fees in Korea are still 10 times more expensive than in most other countries,” he said. The service will shut down in Korea on February 27th, 2024. Twitch has a few more details in a support document./news/ubisoft-bails-on-e3-in-favor-of-its-own-ubisoft-forward-live-event.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ubisoft-bails-on-e3-in-favor-of-its-own-ubisoft-forward-live-event.htmlUbisoft is backing out of its planned attendance at the E3 2023 in-person expo in favor of its own show in LA on June 12th, the company confirmed to VGC. “E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years,” Ubisoft spokesperson Heather Haefner says in a statement to The Verge. “While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles./news/ursula-k-le-guin-s-left-hand-of-darkness-is-being-developed-as-a-limited-series.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ursula-k-le-guin-s-left-hand-of-darkness-is-being-developed-as-a-limited-series.htmlOne of science fiction’s most famous novels, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, is being developed as a limited series, according to Variety. Entertainment studio Critical Content and Limitless executive producer Tom Forman will adapt the book. An adaptation isn’t a done deal: no screenwriter has joined the project, and the series doesn’t have a home. However, if it is ordered to a series, it’ll follow the recent success of another adaptation of a feminist novel: Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale./news/verizon-charges-5-per-month-to-make-calls-from-alexa-using-your-mobile-number.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/verizon-charges-5-per-month-to-make-calls-from-alexa-using-your-mobile-number.htmlVerizon’s new Number Share Home plan gives you the ability to make and receive calls from your Echo Show, Echo Dot, and Echo using your existing phone number, as noted in a post on Verizon’s website. The feature costs an extra $5 / month, but Verizon will waive the fee for three months if you purchase an Alexa-enabled device through them. And if you already have an Alexa device that you’d like to use, Verizon will only give you one month for free./news/video-streaming-app-crackle-gets-windows-phone-version.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/video-streaming-app-crackle-gets-windows-phone-version.htmlCrackle, a popular video app that allows users to stream movies and TV shows, is now available for Windows Phone. The new app joins clients for iOS and Android, as well as applications for big screen platforms such as the PlayStation 3 and Roku. Working on an ad-supported model, Crackle offers its content to users for free, and the app itself is also free to download. The selection isn't particularly sophisticated or up-to-date — movies currently featured on the site's front page include Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams (1981), Kung Fu Hustle (2005), and Shampoo (1975), and the app's description boasts of a significant selection of Seinfeld and Married./news/vine-for-ios-update-shows-the-best-new-vines-in-the-search-tab.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vine-for-ios-update-shows-the-best-new-vines-in-the-search-tab.htmlIf you spend any time on Vine, you've likely followed a healthy number of popular accounts that you check regularly. Today, Vine's iOS app now lets users search to see a feed of new and trending videos. The new functionality, coming a day after Vine landed on the Apple Watch, looks to mirror how Twitter streamlined its own search feature after doing away with the Discover tab. Now, iOS users can search for popular hashtags and users like KingBach and Lele Pons, and see their best vines first and foremost./news/watch-45-minutes-of-new-starfield-gameplay.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-45-minutes-of-new-starfield-gameplay.htmlWe got a solid 15 minutes of Starfield gameplay at Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda showcase last year, and today we’re getting a really in-depth look at Bethesda’s first new IP in 25 years. Described as “Skyrim in space,” by game director Todd Howard, the RPG is really shaping up ahead of its debut on September 6th. Today Bethesda decided to show us a lot more detail about Starfield, including the cities and settlements in the game, the skill trees, upgrades, and space combat./news/what-a-guy-slicing-open-snake-eggs-can-teach-us-about-youtube.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-a-guy-slicing-open-snake-eggs-can-teach-us-about-youtube.html"Killer Clowns Multiplying" opens with a trio of guys clustered around a plastic tray full of magnolia-colored eggs with thick, rubbery shells. The tray is lined with something that looks like kitty litter, and there’s one small snake curled up into a neat tangle in the corner. One by one, the eggs are carefully sliced open as Jay — the man wielding the razor blade — exclaims in delight. "Oh man!/news/what-keeping-a-bullet-journal-can-teach-you-about-using-to-do-list-apps.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-keeping-a-bullet-journal-can-teach-you-about-using-to-do-list-apps.htmlOn July 6th of this year, I officially ended my three-year-long experiment with trying to organize my life using a physical bullet journal. I know the exact date because I’m looking at my discontinued notebook as I write this. Apparently, five months ago, I needed to take photos of the Corsair K70 keyboard for a then-forthcoming review and follow up with a quote I’d received to insulate my roof. I took the photos./news/what-the-case-against-apple-has-to-do-with-microsoft-in-the-90s.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-the-case-against-apple-has-to-do-with-microsoft-in-the-90s.htmlInside the US Department of Justice’s 88-page antitrust complaint against Apple, there’s a cool reminder to the company: you’re here because we paved the way. According to the DOJ, its antitrust case against Microsoft cleared the way for Apple — then teetering on bankruptcy — to launch its breakout success: the iPod. Decades and trillions of dollars later, Apple is in the hot seat. And because time is a flat circle, it’s facing an antitrust case built directly on that 1999 case against Microsoft./news/why-garfield-phones-keep-washing-up-on-this-french-beach.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-garfield-phones-keep-washing-up-on-this-french-beach.htmlSince the 1980s, bright orange parts of a novelty Garfield phone have been steadily washing up on the Iroise coast of Brittany in France. Nobody knew where the Garfield phones were coming from, and locals had no choice but to continue collecting pieces of the famous fat cat for 35 years. According to the BBC, the mystery was finally solved this week, when a lost shipping container filled with Garfield phones “in a more complete condition than any found before them,” was discovered in a secluded sea cave accessible only during low tide./news/wwi-submarine-graveyard-discovered-by-underwater-archaeologists.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wwi-submarine-graveyard-discovered-by-underwater-archaeologists.htmlA short way off England’s south and east coasts, under less than 50 feet of water, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 41 German and 3 UK submarines sunk during World War I. Der Spiegel reports that the watery graveyard is home to several U-boats that the German Imperial Navy still lists as missing. Now that the vessels have been discovered, the race is on to explore them before they disintegrate entirely./news/x-is-testing-new-paid-membership-tiers-amid-disappointing-ad-revenue.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/x-is-testing-new-paid-membership-tiers-amid-disappointing-ad-revenue.htmlX (formerly Twitter) is looking to split its premium subscription service into three membership tiers, allowing the company to vary subscription pricing based on how many ads are shown to the user. According to Bloomberg’s source who attended a Thursday call with X and debt holders that helped Musk finance the acquisition, the company is currently testing Basic, Standard, and Plus variations of the existing premium plan, which currently starts at $8 per month./news/yes-the-default-microsoft-office-font-has-changed-from-calibri-to-aptos.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yes-the-default-microsoft-office-font-has-changed-from-calibri-to-aptos.htmlYes, the default Microsoft Office font has changed from Calibri to Aptos. Microsoft 365 office suite users on TikTok are picking up on the switch to Aptos that was announced and started rolling out last fall: This new look specifies an updated standard color palette and type font that are applied throughout Microsoft Office. The new theme will affect only your document, not the look and feel of Microsoft 365.  If it’s bugging you, this support page can explain how to change the default font or theme across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook./news/you-can-return-amazon-orders-at-select-kohl-s-stores-next-month.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-return-amazon-orders-at-select-kohl-s-stores-next-month.htmlKohl’s announced on Tuesday that it will accept Amazon returns at 82 of its locations in and around Los Angeles and Chicago starting next month. According to Business Insider, there will be parking spots near store entrances designated for people coming to return Amazon goods. Once you hand over a return, Kohl’s will then package and transport the item to Amazon’s return centers, free of charge. This is slightly easier than returning through USPS or UPS, as you won’t need to tape up your own cardboard box./news/youtube-ends-the-test-that-made-4k-a-premium-feature.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-ends-the-test-that-made-4k-a-premium-feature.htmlYouTube has ended the experiment that locked the ability to watch videos in 4K behind its $11.99 a month premium membership, according to one of its official Twitter accounts (via 9to5Google). Earlier this month, the company made waves when it confirmed with a series of now-deleted tweets that some of its users were part of a test meant to explore “the feature preferences Premium & non-Premium viewers,” and asking users to provide feedback on the idea./news/youtube-is-axing-its-ad-free-premium-lite-subscription-plan.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-is-axing-its-ad-free-premium-lite-subscription-plan.htmlAfter YouTube spent two years piloting Premium Lite, a lower-cost subscription plan for ad-free video viewing in select countries, the platform is pulling the plug on the tier. In an email to customers, YouTube announced it will no longer offer Premium Lite after October 25th, 2023. At €6.99 per month, YouTube’s Premium Lite plan first launched in select European countries in 2021, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden./news/youtuber-logan-paul-apologizes-for-filming-suicide-victim-says-i-didn-t-do-it-for-views.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtuber-logan-paul-apologizes-for-filming-suicide-victim-says-i-didn-t-do-it-for-views.htmlYouTuber Logan Paul has apologized after uploading a video showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan’s Aokigahara forest. Paul was visiting the location, commonly known as the “suicide forest,” as part of a trip to Japan and filming it for his daily vlog. He’s since taken down the video and apologized for uploading it, claiming he was trying to raise awareness of suicide. The video was uploaded under the title “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…” and starts with a viewer discretion warning to Paul’s 15 million-plus subscribers./news/zac-efron-s-abs-can-t-save-the-miserable-dirty-grandpa.htmlFri, 31 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zac-efron-s-abs-can-t-save-the-miserable-dirty-grandpa.htmlI have to be honest with you: there are very few circumstances under which you should see Dirty Grandpa. If a psychotic villain is making you fight for your life with a series of desperate, Saw-like challenges and one of them involves making it all the way through this movie, you should watch it. If you can’t make it another day without investigating the intimate parts of Zac Efron on which this movie is so reliant, I respect your thirst; you should watch it, I guess, but you’ve been warned./news/when-marnie-was-there-review-is-this-studio-ghibli-s-last-ever-movie.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/when-marnie-was-there-review-is-this-studio-ghibli-s-last-ever-movie.htmlAll indications are that When Marnie Was There will be the last Studio Ghibli feature film for a long time, if not forever. And if that does turn out to be the case, the legendary animation house isn’t going out with a bang. Written and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, When Marnie Was There has no castles in the sky, warrior princesses, or adorable magical animals; it’s one of the quietest, most understated movies Studio Ghibli has ever made./news/hp-compaq-branding-to-end-next-year-compaq-name-will-live-on-for-basic-computing-at-entry-level.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hp-compaq-branding-to-end-next-year-compaq-name-will-live-on-for-basic-computing-at-entry-level.htmlThis non-cash charge relates to a change in how HP plans to use the "Compaq" trade name in its branding strategy going forward. As part of our focus on simplifying our marketing and customer experience, beginning in 2013, HP will change how it uses the "Compaq" brand for certain computing products. We will continue using the Compaq brand, but it will be used for basic computing at entry-level pricing. In the past, we have used the jointly branded name "/news/1-26-billion-facebook-profiles-become-a-clickable-monument-to-humanity.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/1-26-billion-facebook-profiles-become-a-clickable-monument-to-humanity.html"Creative Technologist" Natalia Rojas has mapped the profile photos of Facebook's 1,267,191,915 (and counting) users on just one web page. "The Faces of Facebook" is organized from top left to bottom right by the date each user joined Facebook, and in total creates a glitchy, vibrant, and awe-inspiring image. By clicking the location symbol and plugging in your Facebook credentials, you can pinpoint your place in the colorful mess, as well as the place of all your Facebook friends./news/acer-swift-7-review-thin-at-all-costs.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/acer-swift-7-review-thin-at-all-costs.htmlThe Acer Swift 7 is the thinnest and lightest laptop I’ve ever reviewed. At 1.96 lbs (890 grams) and 0.39 inches (9.95mm), it beats out Apple’s recently departed 12-inch MacBook for portability. It’s even a full third of a pound lighter than an iPad Pro with Apple’s Smart Keyboard attached. The Swift 7 also one-ups the MacBook with a 14-inch touchscreen display. This isn’t a tiny laptop for occasional use — it’s designed to be a primary computer for someone looking for the ultimate thin-and-light laptop./news/adobe-acrobat-s-new-ai-chatbot-helps-users-navigate-massive-documents.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/adobe-acrobat-s-new-ai-chatbot-helps-users-navigate-massive-documents.htmlAdobe is adding a new generative AI experience to its Acrobat PDF management software, which aims to “completely transform the digital document experience” by making information in long documents easier to find and understand. Announced in Adobe’s press release as “AI Assistant in Acrobat,” the new tool is described as a “conversational engine” that can summarize files, answer questions, and recommend more based on the content, allowing users to “easily chat with documents” to get the information they need./news/alexa-s-latest-skill-enables-hands-free-t-mobile-calls.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alexa-s-latest-skill-enables-hands-free-t-mobile-calls.html”This is completely free for T-Mobile customers and it’s fully available to all Alexa customers today,” wrote T-Mobile spokesperson Trang Nguyen in an email to The Verge. In comparison, Verizon still charges you $5 per month to use its Alexa skill. You can enable the new feature by opening your Alexa app and then going to More > Settings > Communication. Then, under accounts, select T-Mobile and follow along to link your accounts./news/alienware-s-500hz-gaming-monitor-will-cost-you-830.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alienware-s-500hz-gaming-monitor-will-cost-you-830.htmlTime to ready your bank account — Dell has just revealed the price of its 500Hz Alienware gaming monitor. The Alienware AW2524H will launch in North America on March 21st for $829.99 (or $1,099.99 CA), making this the fastest gaming monitor in the world that you can actually buy… at least for now. The 24.5-inch Alienware AW2524H technically has a native refresh rate of 480Hz (which is still blisteringly fast), but this has been overclocked to hit 500Hz./news/amazon-expands-its-in-garage-delivery-to-4-000-cities-including-chicago-los-angeles-and-new-york.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-expands-its-in-garage-delivery-to-4-000-cities-including-chicago-los-angeles-and-new-york.htmlAmazon is making its in-garage delivery an option for more people. The company announced today that it’s expanding its Key by Amazon In-Garage Delivery service to more than 4,000 cities in the US to reach millions of Prime members. The service is coming to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix and Washington, DC, as well as thousands of surrounding areas. You can check to see if your zip code is eligible here./news/amazon-is-buying-whole-foods-for-13-7-billion.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-is-buying-whole-foods-for-13-7-billion.htmlAmazon is buying American supermarket chain Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, the online retail giant announced today. The acquisition is technically happening as part of a merger agreement that will see Amazon pick up the supermarket’s net debt and purchase its stock at $42 per share. The brick-and-mortar stores will continue to operate under the Whole Foods brand once the deal is complete, which is expected to happen later this year, but is subject to approval by regulators and the supermarket’s shareholders./news/amazon-kindle-fire-price-release-date-video-hands-on-and-more.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-kindle-fire-price-release-date-video-hands-on-and-more.htmlAmazon's new 7-inch, $199 Kindle Fire tablet technically runs on Android, but it's not the user experience you might expect -- rather than the typical array of user-configurable homescreens, the main interface is a handsome rotating bookshelf where you store your virtual books, magazines, CDs and apps all together. By default, your most recently accessed items will appear on top, though you can also pin items to a "favorites shelf." There are also an array of distinct tabs labeled Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps and Web, each of which play to Amazon's content strengths./news/amazon-kindle-oasis-review-the-verge.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-kindle-oasis-review-the-verge.htmlThe Kindle Oasis, which Amazon shipped last week, was designed for luxury and comfort, and it wasn’t until I started using it that I realized I hadn’t ever really enjoyed holding other e-readers. It all comes down to design: one edge of the Oasis is thicker than the other, so its center of gravity rests in whatever hand is holding it. The result? Reading from this Kindle feels less like holding a screen and more like holding a mini magazine with its pages folded back./news/android-instant-apps-lets-you-use-apps-without-downloading-them.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/android-instant-apps-lets-you-use-apps-without-downloading-them.htmlAt its I/O developer conference today, Google showed off a new feature for Android called Instant Apps. With deep links, Android users will be able to use apps from a link without having to download anything from the Play Store. The company showed off a video experience from BuzzFeed and a shopping experience from B&H. And Google suggested it would be a good way for single purpose apps, like paying for parking at a museum, where you don't want to deal with the mobile web, but also don't want to download a full app that sticks around after you leave./news/animoog-ipad-app-offers-endless-synth-sounds-for-99-cents.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/animoog-ipad-app-offers-endless-synth-sounds-for-99-cents.htmlDesign-wise, this app takes cues from Apple's own GarageBand, the iOS app nLog Synth Pro (which provides synth fans with a Moog-esque experience), and its own real-life synthesizers — keys are at the bottom, settings are at the top. Animoog also took inspiration from GarageBand's smart keyboard with custom keyboard scales. In addition to a standard keyboard layout, Animoog offers offers a wide variety of preset scales and modes, making it much easier to stay on key./news/announcing-the-new-verge-deals-newsletter.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/announcing-the-new-verge-deals-newsletter.htmlEvery day we scour the internet looking for the best deals and sales on the products that we’ve tested and confirmed. We share those deals with you through our Verge Deals coverage in both daily and weekly roundups. Now you can get those same deals and sales in your inbox every week through our new Verge Deals newsletter. Subscribers will receive a Friday dispatch containing a handful of the best deals from that week./news/apple-iphone-se-2022-vs-iphone-13-spec-comparison.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-iphone-se-2022-vs-iphone-13-spec-comparison.htmlNow that the dust has settled from Apple’s “Peek Performance” event, we know that the latest entry in the iPhone lineup is the iPhone SE (2022). It’s a new iteration of the budget model from 2020, and it’s set to launch March 18th with preorders opening on March 11th. This new iPhone SE rounds out the entry-level offering from Apple, coming in at a slightly higher price of $429 (an increase of $30) and equipped with the latest A15 Bionic CPU, 5G compatibility, a slightly larger battery, and more durable glass on the front and rear./news/apple-rebrands-its-best-sounding-music-as-apple-digital-masters.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-rebrands-its-best-sounding-music-as-apple-digital-masters.htmlSince 2012, Apple has been running a program it calls Mastered for iTunes. The initiative allows engineers to preserve the highest-possible quality when encoding master recordings for digital distribution through iTunes (and now Apple Music). Apple’s tools and guidelines prevent clipping and other unwanted remnants of the loudness wars — when producers and mastering engineers keep turning up the volume knob on recorded music at the expense of dynamic range. Mastered for iTunes was never about bit rate or high-resolution audio; Apple has continued to stick with the lossy AAC format as streaming competitors like Tidal have put an emphasis on lossless audio./news/apple-watch-series-9-ultra-2-review-quietly-the-best.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-watch-series-9-ultra-2-review-quietly-the-best.htmlSome years, there are updates that completely upend an entire category. Others, you get something like the $399-plus Apple Watch Series 9 and the $799 Ultra 2 — steady improvements that technically add up to the best Apple Watches we’ve ever seen. Just not by a whole lot. And not if you’ve already got a recent Apple Watch model. It makes sense that 2023’s updates are quiet compared to last year when Apple effectively kicked down the door with not one, not two, but three new smartwatches./news/apple-wwdc-2024-the-13-biggest-announcements.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-wwdc-2024-the-13-biggest-announcements.htmlApple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote has come to a close — and the company had a whole lot to share. We got our first look at the AI features coming to Apple’s devices and some major updates across the company’s operating systems. If you missed out on watching the keynote live, we’ve gathered all the biggest announcements that you can check out below. Apple’s first AI system is coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac Screenshot: Apple/news/apple-s-touch-bar-further-normalizes-emoji-as-everyday-language.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-touch-bar-further-normalizes-emoji-as-everyday-language.htmlThe Touch Bar is the most unorthodox addition to Apple’s new MacBook Pro — or any laptop in recent memory. A thin OLED strip that runs the length of the keyboard, resting just above the number keys, displays different “buttons” depending on the situation. Watching a movie? Symbols appear to let you adjust the volume. Hosting a party? Those symbols morph into an impromptu DJ kit. Texting? Enjoy the emoji keyboard./news/applecare-plus-now-covers-unlimited-repairs.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/applecare-plus-now-covers-unlimited-repairs.htmlIf you’re the kind of person who’s always dropping your phone, AppleCare Plus may have just become a much better deal. As MacRumors points out, the service now covers “unlimited repairs for accidental damage protection.” According to an archived version of the AppleCare Plus page from last month, you used to be limited to “two incidents of accidental damage protection every 12 months.” Before you toss your phone in the air in celebration, though, do note that the service fees and deductibles are still around — a screen or back glass repair will cost $29, while “other accidental damage” will run you $99./news/apple-s-powerbeats-4-specs-and-images-leak.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-powerbeats-4-specs-and-images-leak.htmlImages of Apple’s unannounced Powerbeats 4 earbuds have appeared online for the first time, along with new details about their specs. WinFuture reports that the earbuds will have up to 15 hours of battery life this time around, up from the 12 hours you’d get from the Powerbeats 3, released in 2016. Five minutes of charging will get you 60 minutes of playback, according to WinFuture. Internally, the earbuds will reportedly use Apple’s new H1 wireless chip, similar to the Powerbeats Pro, which should mean support for features like “Hey Siri” and “Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌./news/ar-headset-company-meta-shutting-down-after-assets-sold-to-unknown-company.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ar-headset-company-meta-shutting-down-after-assets-sold-to-unknown-company.htmlMeta, maker of the Meta augmented reality headset, has been sold to an unknown company after a months-long struggle to keep its doors open. Next Reality unearthed a legal filing last week saying that Meta’s assets had been sold. Now, Meta is confirming the news — but expressing guarded optimism about the new owners. According to both the legal filing and Meta CEO Meron Gribetz, the bank holding Meta’s debt foreclosed the company’s loan and sold all its assets./news/audio-technica-announces-its-first-ever-true-wireless-earbuds.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/audio-technica-announces-its-first-ever-true-wireless-earbuds.htmlAudio Technica is joining the truly wireless fray. The company long respected for its excellent balancing of price and performance is introducing two models of true wireless earbuds at IFA 2018. The ATH-CKR7TW — a name like that really just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it friends? — is designed for optimal sound performance. It features “specially tuned 11mm drivers” and a “diamond-like carbon coated diaphragm, pure iron yoke, and brass stabilizer that contribute to the accurate reproduction, ensuring more precise audio./news/automakers-can-collect-and-record-your-text-messages-federal-judge-rules.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/automakers-can-collect-and-record-your-text-messages-federal-judge-rules.htmlA federal judge upheld the dismissal of a class action lawsuit that alleged automakers unlawfully collected and recorded car owners’ text messages, as first reported by The Record. In a ruling on Tuesday, the Seattle-based judge said the claims aren’t severe enough to be considered a violation of the state’s Washington Privacy Act (WPA). A group of five related class action lawsuits allege that Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, and Ford “recorded and intercepted [car owners’] private text messages and call logs” when their phones were connected to the vehicles’ infotainment systems./news/ayaneo-retro-mini-pc-am01-a-good-looking-macintosh-inspired-mini-pc.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ayaneo-retro-mini-pc-am01-a-good-looking-macintosh-inspired-mini-pc.htmlAyaneo, which is mostly known for making handheld gaming consoles, just fully revealed the new Retro Mini PC AM01 after teasing it a few weeks ago. It says it plans to ship the AM01 before the end of the year — and I’d be lying if I said I’m not tempted to get one. The AM01 won’t win any benchmarking contests, but it’ll almost certainly be the best-looking computer you own. Let’s just state the obvious here: Ayaneo says it’s “paying homage” to the Macintosh, which is a kind way of saying, “We copied the thing pretty much exactly./news/backpage-shutters-controversial-adult-section-in-response-to-government-pressure.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/backpage-shutters-controversial-adult-section-in-response-to-government-pressure.htmlClassified ad site Backpage.com has closed its adult section in the United States, citing “unconstitutional government censorship” as the cause. Since Craigslist closed its adult section in 2010, Backpage has become a popular advertising platform for escorts and illegal adult services. The LA Times reports that Backpage shuttered the section following the release of a blistering report from the US Senate. The document accused the site of revising ads that suggested criminal activity in order to keep them online./news/blizzard-s-diablo-iv-developers-say-they-will-patch-the-game-soon-after-nerfing-players.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blizzard-s-diablo-iv-developers-say-they-will-patch-the-game-soon-after-nerfing-players.htmlThree directors working on Diablo IV held a campfire chat livestream yesterday saying they will change how they roll out patches, after an incremental verison 1.1.0 patch for the game abruptly nerfed players’ builds (via IGN). And they promise updates like that won’t happen in the future — at least, not the way it went down this week. In the livestream, associate director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher acknowledged complaints about the patch, which massively reduced player power for some builds./news/block-party-anti-harassment-service-leaves-twitter-amid-api-changes.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/block-party-anti-harassment-service-leaves-twitter-amid-api-changes.htmlBlock Party, an anti-harassment service designed to combat abusive content on Twitter, is the latest third-party app to leave the platform in light of Twitter locking most of its API access behind a paywall. Announced in a blog post last night, Block Party’s anti-harassment tools for Twitter are being placed on an immediate, indefinite hiatus, with the developers claiming that changes to Twitter’s API pricing (which starts from $100 per month) have “made it impossible for Block Party’s Twitter product to continue in its current form./news/bungie-to-show-more-destiny-2-the-final-shape-gameplay-next-week.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bungie-to-show-more-destiny-2-the-final-shape-gameplay-next-week.htmlBungie to show more Destiny 2: The Final Shape gameplay next week. Bungie is holding a developer stream for The Final Shape, the delayed Destiny 2 expansion on April 9th. A “behind-the-scenes look at new gameplay reveals” is being promised, alongside the launch of the free Into the Light update for Destiny 2. The preview event will kick off on April 9th at 9:30AM PT / 12:30PM ET / 5:30PM UK on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok./news/cbs-s-candy-crush-show-misunderstands-why-people-love-video-games.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cbs-s-candy-crush-show-misunderstands-why-people-love-video-games.htmlArriving approximately three years too late, with reality stars you’re likely unfamiliar with, CBS’s live-action Candy Crush game show is a fascinating failure. The premiere, which aired last Sunday with host Mario Lopez and former cast members of Survivor and Big Brother as contestants, is pretty much what it sounds like. Teams of two play increasingly elaborate versions of the hit mobile game from developer King — trading smartphones for touchscreens the size of sports club bouldering walls — in the hopes that slapstick antics and goofy personalities can somehow make a match-3 game feel competitive and interesting to watch./news/chevy-blazer-ev-production-starts-with-the-awd-rs-model-up-first.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chevy-blazer-ev-production-starts-with-the-awd-rs-model-up-first.htmlChevy’s gearing up to deliver its first models of the Blazer EV SUV. The 2024 AWD RS trim is first up and will arrive at dealerships in August, with a price of $60,215. Chevy is also planning to build the 2LT AWD trim this fall, which will cost $56,715. The automaker had previously announced the prices for other trims, including the RS FWD model for $51,995 and the 2LT FWD model for $47,595 last year./news/code-org-turning-the-ashes-of-flappy-bird-into-a-phoenix-of-coding-education.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/code-org-turning-the-ashes-of-flappy-bird-into-a-phoenix-of-coding-education.htmlFend off death with ridiculous jet sounds The lesson takes the form of a puzzle that goes through the actual game mechanics of Flappy Bird step-by-step, from flapping the bird's wings each time you click your mouse, to deciding what happens when your character either hits or misses the large green pipes. At each step along the way, you need to figure out how to reconfigure the game to make it work the way it's supposed to./news/congratulations-to-team-0-the-verge.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/congratulations-to-team-0-the-verge.htmlCongratulations to Team 0%! The group that’s been trying to beat every single uploaded Wii U Super Mario Maker level before the servers go dark on April 8th has succeeded. In fact, a Team 0% member beat it last week. GamesRadar writes that the creator of “Trimming the Herbs,” which Team 0% thought was the final level, revealed he’d faked proving a human could beat it. Team 0% says despite that, some will “keep grinding it for eternal glory until the service ends./news/congress-hates-big-tech-but-it-still-seems-optimistic-about-ai.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/congress-hates-big-tech-but-it-still-seems-optimistic-about-ai.htmlKicking off a series of AI hearings Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) used a text-to-voice generator trained on hours of his speeches to deliver an opening statement before OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.  Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced urgency (or had a computer do it for them) about regulating artificial intelligence during the hearing. But they struck a largely friendly tone with Altman, who supported many of the same reforms they proposed./news/cruise-s-new-ceo-comes-from-the-world-of-gaming-and-tvs.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cruise-s-new-ceo-comes-from-the-world-of-gaming-and-tvs.htmlCruise’s new CEO comes from the world of gaming and TVs. Marc Whitten, who ran Amazon’s Fire TV and Kindle divisions and more recently served as president at Unity Create, is stepping into the role left empty by Kyle Vogt, who stepped down after a disastrous response to a driverless car crash incident. The GM-backed robotaxi company has been slowly deploying more vehicles after vacating San Francisco in the wake of the incident in which one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian 20 feet./news/cvs-kroger-and-rite-aid-will-hand-over-your-medical-data-to-the-police-without-a-warrant.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cvs-kroger-and-rite-aid-will-hand-over-your-medical-data-to-the-police-without-a-warrant.htmlCVS, Kroger, and Rite Aid will hand over your medical data to the police without a warrant. And even if your state has protections, you’re still not safe: Because the chains often share records across all locations, a pharmacy in one state can access a person’s medical history from states with more-restrictive laws. Carly Zubrzycki, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut law school, wrote last year that this could link a person’s out-of-state medical care via a “digital trail” back to their home state./news/delta-gets-some-prideful-skins.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/delta-gets-some-prideful-skins.htmlDelta gets some prideful skins. Sean Fletcher, a UI designer who makes skins for the Delta emulator for iOS, announced a series of Pride-themed skins (pictured in the gallery below). You can pay what you want, but Fletcher says June 2024 proceeds from this particular set will go to Rainbow Railroad, a non-profit devoted to aiding LGBTQI+ people around the world who face persecution. Here’s a guide for installing Delta skins./news/discord-voice-chat-is-coming-to-xbox.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/discord-voice-chat-is-coming-to-xbox.htmlDiscord and Microsoft are bringing Discord voice calls to the Xbox. The feature, available now to Xbox Insiders and coming soon to the rest of us, will allow users to connect to Discord voice chats from their Xbox, facilitating all kinds of cross-platform play shenanigans. The process of connecting your Xbox and Discord accounts and starting up a voice chat is pretty involved. First, you have to download the Xbox mobile app, as you’ll use your phone to transfer Discord calls to an Xbox./news/drake-misses-out-on-his-first-no-1-hit-with-hotline-bling-thanks-to-apple-music.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/drake-misses-out-on-his-first-no-1-hit-with-hotline-bling-thanks-to-apple-music.htmlDespite beingone of three humans with over 100 songs that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (Elvis Presley and Lil Wayne are the others), Drake has never reached to the top of the historic chart. After the smash hit that is the music video for "Hotline Bling" attacked the internet last week, it looked like Drake was well on his way to claiming the top spot from his one-time protégé The Weeknd./news/duolingo-has-math-now-and-it-s-kind-of-hard.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/duolingo-has-math-now-and-it-s-kind-of-hard.htmlYes, you read that headline correctly. Duolingo, the language learning app famous for the owl that haunts my dreams every night, now has a companion app to teach you (and children — but mostly you, reader) mathematics. To get the most pressing question out of the way: yes, the owl is present in the new app, which is called Duolingo Math. However, said bird appears to have been compressed into a cube of sorts./news/dyson-patent-application-imagines-building-an-air-purifier-into-headphones.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dyson-patent-application-imagines-building-an-air-purifier-into-headphones.htmlVacuum manufacturer Dyson has applied for a patent for a new pair of headphones with a built-in air purifier, which it claims could help combat the harmful effects of air pollution in cities, Bloomberg reports. The recently published application, which was filed with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office in July 2019, describes a pair of headphones with air filters built into its ear cups. Diagrams included in the application show a band that sits across the wearer’s mouth to provide them with clean air, which can be folded away when not in use./news/elden-ring-mobile-game-reportedly-under-development-at-tencent.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elden-ring-mobile-game-reportedly-under-development-at-tencent.htmlTencent is reportedly working on a free-to-play mobile version of FromSoftware’s 2022 smash hit title Elden Ring. That’s according to Reuters, which cites three people familiar with the company’s plans. The Chinese tech giant apparently has a team of “a few dozen people” who’ve been working on the title after Tencent Holdings acquired a stake of a little over 16 percent of FromSoftware in August 2022. Tencent did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment./news/elgato-won-over-creators-its-new-neo-line-is-for-everyone-else.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elgato-won-over-creators-its-new-neo-line-is-for-everyone-else.htmlIf you watch a Twitch streamer, it’s almost guaranteed that they will be using at least one Elgato product. After dominating this part of the market for years, Elgato is now shifting its primary focus away from gaming with its new Neo line while also preparing a bevy of AI features to improve new and existing gear. Neo is a collection of Elgato’s most popular products made simpler, more affordable, and more compact so they can be used easily with a laptop or iPad./news/epic-s-new-clips-app-postparty-helps-you-easily-share-your-fortnite-moments.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/epic-s-new-clips-app-postparty-helps-you-easily-share-your-fortnite-moments.htmlEpic Games has just released Postparty, a new iOS and Android app to help you share clips from your Fortnite games on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. You can already capture gameplay on your own on those platforms, but Postparty is designed to make it easier to save, edit, and share your clips. Postparty also works with Rocket League, though only on PlayStation and Xbox for now. To make clips using Postparty, download it from the mobile store of your choice and log in with your Epic Games account./news/extrapolations-the-real-science-behind-apple-s-climate-change-drama.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/extrapolations-the-real-science-behind-apple-s-climate-change-drama.htmlThere are kernels of real science in Apple’s new star-studded climate change drama Extrapolations. In the first episode alone, we see raging fires, water shortages, and vanishing Arctic ice. These threats are real.  The show also makes some stuff up for the sake of telling a story. (Spoiler alert!) Walruses, for one, face much more danger from humans than we do from them. But considering their status as a “vulnerable” species due in part to oil and gas drilling and shrinking sea ice, a little walrus rage in the first episode is probably warranted./news/f1-champion-lewis-hamilton-designed-this-motorcycle-in-tribute-to-his-awesomeness.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/f1-champion-lewis-hamilton-designed-this-motorcycle-in-tribute-to-his-awesomeness.htmlA few weeks ago, Lewis Hamilton snagged his third Formula One World Championship, and he might be the best racing driver of all time. But, like many speed demons, he doesn’t just love cars — he’s a fan of motorcycles too. Fast ones. Sexy ones. Red ones. That’s why he’s partnered with MV Agusta, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer with a long history in MotoGP, the premier motorcycle circuit racing series. Hamilton co-designed the Dragster RR LH44, a limited run of 244 bikes that are covered with references to 44, his F1 race number./news/facebook-introduces-hello-an-app-to-replace-the-android-dialer.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-introduces-hello-an-app-to-replace-the-android-dialer.htmlPhone calls may have fallen out of fashion, but Americans still make 1 billion of them every day. And yet the experience of making a call isn’t all that great: phones don’t always recognize numbers, contacts can be difficult to manage, and they rarely take advantage of newer technologies like Wi-Fi calling. Now Facebook is introducing an app designed to fix that: Hello, an Android-only dialer app that seeks to modernize phone calls while also working to put Facebook at the center of all your communications./news/facebook-loses-bid-to-block-a-potentially-major-change-to-eu-data-sharing.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-loses-bid-to-block-a-potentially-major-change-to-eu-data-sharing.htmlIreland’s High Court has dismissed Facebook’s bid to block a European Union privacy regulation — created by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) — that could interrupt the flow of data from the EU to the US, The Wall Street Journal reports. Facebook first appealed the order in part because it claimed the Commission and the EU’s other privacy regulators were moving too quickly and hadn’t given the company appropriate time to respond./news/fcc-says-verizon-can-lock-phones-to-its-network-for-60-days-after-purchase.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fcc-says-verizon-can-lock-phones-to-its-network-for-60-days-after-purchase.htmlThe Federal Communications Commission has granted Verizon permission to keep newly purchased phones locked to its network for a period of 60 days. As a result, the leading US carrier says it will soon do exactly that, claiming it’s meant to prevent fraud and identity theft. “After the 60 day period the phones will unlock automatically,” said Ronan Dunne, executive vice president at Verizon. “That means, fraudsters who order and steal phones — clearly with no intention of ever paying for them will have a much harder time./news/federal-government-denies-permits-for-the-dakota-access-pipeline.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/federal-government-denies-permits-for-the-dakota-access-pipeline.htmlThe Army Corps of Engineers has announced that it would not approve permits for the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline under a reservoir on the Missouri River called Lake Oahe, according to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The announcement comes after months of intense protests and just days after protesters were ordered to leave. The Corps said that it is looking at possible alternative routes. "The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing,"/news/find-the-best-ai-powered-app-to-transcribe-your-audio.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/find-the-best-ai-powered-app-to-transcribe-your-audio.htmlTranscription 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./news/firefox-now-blocks-ads-and-trackers-in-private-browsing-mode.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/firefox-now-blocks-ads-and-trackers-in-private-browsing-mode.htmlThe latest version of Firefox will come with a powerful ad-blocking feature, Mozilla announced today. Under the browser's new setup, Private Browsing mode will block any script that could be used to identify a user, including ads, analytic trackers, and features like the Facebook Like button that can be tied back to social networks. The result is a more anonymous kind of browsing that will load pages faster and cut off many of the web's most surveillance-friendly features, along with the advertising networks many websites use to make money./news/five-nights-at-freddy-s-is-an-animatronic-nightmare-in-new-trailer.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/five-nights-at-freddy-s-is-an-animatronic-nightmare-in-new-trailer.htmlThe video game adaptations just won’t stop, and now they’re getting pretty spooky. Case in point: we just got a new trailer for Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s movie. Just like the games, the movie is an animatronic nightmare about possessed mascots at a pizza place. The movie version stars The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson as a security guard struggling to deal with this reality. (If the premise sounds familiar, it might be because of the conceptually similar Nicolas Cage film Willy’s Wonderland from 2021./news/ford-made-a-ludicrous-1-400-horsepower-electric-mustang-mach-e.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-made-a-ludicrous-1-400-horsepower-electric-mustang-mach-e.htmlAbout a year ago, before the Mustang Mach-E broke cover, Ford’s motorsports division quietly started work on something outrageous: a one-off version of the electric vehicle that makes 1,400 horsepower. Now, the company is showing it off for the first time. Dubbed the Mustang Mach-E 1400, it’s a wicked-looking three-seater demonstration car that screams like a banshee and smokes tires like they’re kindling. Equipped with a massive rear wing, aerodynamic bodywork, and seven — yes, seven — electric motors, the Mustang Mach-E 1400 has a top speed of around 160 miles per hour./news/fortnite-adds-some-melange-with-new-dune-crossover.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fortnite-adds-some-melange-with-new-dune-crossover.html/ He who controls the cubes controls the universe By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium. Oct 19, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC Share this storyIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2lfZn1wfZhoaWtvY2p%2Fen%2BOn6arrJ6ewaZ5w66lnmWTp7y0v86vnKtlo6C2r7%2BMqZiupF2WwbOxyJ2crGWknrqwwMeenGabmJa5ornErWSznZ6Zrrqt/news/gemini-will-integrate-with-calendar-tasks-and-keep.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gemini-will-integrate-with-calendar-tasks-and-keep.htmlThe new integrations, which Google says are coming “soon” come by way of the extensions the company added to Bard last year and have continued with its Gemini chatbot. To use those, you just ask Gemini to do something involving one of the new services it can tap into, like summarize your emails in Gmail for the day, or type an @ symbol into Gemini’s text box to bring up a list of extensions like Google Docs or Drive./news/get-system-shock-2-for-free-right-now-on-gog.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/get-system-shock-2-for-free-right-now-on-gog.htmlGOG, the game store formerly known as Good Old Games, is kicking off its summer sale with a two-day giveaway of classic shooter / RPG System Shock 2. If you launch GOG through its Galaxy desktop client, you can claim a copy from inside it. GOG says this is its way of getting more people onto Galaxy for a stress test, but you should be able to play the game just fine without it, since GOG doesn't lock down its software with copy protection./news/gmc-sierra-ev-denali-gets-range-boost-while-showing-off-its-crab-walk.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gmc-sierra-ev-denali-gets-range-boost-while-showing-off-its-crab-walk.htmlThe 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./news/goldeneye-007-is-now-available-on-nintendo-switch-and-xbox.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/goldeneye-007-is-now-available-on-nintendo-switch-and-xbox.htmlGoldenEye 007 has finally landed on Xbox and Nintendo Switch in a simultaneous dual-release of two titles with some important differences. On Xbox, GoldenEye 007 is a remastered version of the legendary Nintendo 64 title that first launched in 1997. The remaster includes 4K resolution, smoother frame rates, and split-screen local multiplayer, similar to a 2008-era bound-for-Xbox 360 version that was canceled amid licensing and rights issues but leaked out in 2021./news/google-chrome-gets-easier-customization-options-with-new-update.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-chrome-gets-easier-customization-options-with-new-update.htmlWhen you open a new tab in a current version of Chrome, there’s a bubble in the bottom right of your window simply labeled “Customize Chrome.” It’s been there for years, but now Google is revamping the process — instead of a card taking up your whole browser window, Chrome’s customization options pop up in a sidebar, giving you a much better view of your browser’s new digs before you commit./news/google-fi-s-built-in-vpn-starts-iphone-rollout.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-fi-s-built-in-vpn-starts-iphone-rollout.htmlGoogle Fi’s VPN service has started rolling out to subscribers on iPhone, the company has announced. The feature, which routes your phone’s internet traffic through an encrypted connection to protect your privacy, has been available on Android since launching in beta in November 2018. The launch comes a little later than Google’s previously announced “spring” release date, but it’s close. In a followup tweet Google says not all iPhone users will have access to the feature straight away, but that it will be widely available “over the coming weeks./news/google-messages-is-blocking-rooted-android-users-from-using-rcs.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-messages-is-blocking-rooted-android-users-from-using-rcs.htmlGoogle is cracking down on rooted Android devices, blocking multiple people from using the RCS message feature in Google Messages. Users with rooted phones — a process that unlocks privileged access to the Android operating system, like jailbreaking iPhones — have made several reports on the Google Messages support page, Reddit, and XDA’s web forum over the last few months, finding they’re suddenly unable to send or receive RCS messages./news/google-was-ordered-to-identify-people-who-watched-certain-youtube-videos.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-was-ordered-to-identify-people-who-watched-certain-youtube-videos.htmlGoogle was ordered to identify people who watched certain YouTube videos. Police investigating suspected Bitcoin money laundering wanted info on viewers of certain tutorial videos viewed over 30,000 times, Forbes reported. The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos./news/google-s-ai-sounds-like-a-human-on-the-phone-should-we-be-worried.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-ai-sounds-like-a-human-on-the-phone-should-we-be-worried.htmlIt came as a total surprise: the most impressive demonstration at Google’s I/O conference yesterday was a phone call to book a haircut. Of course, this was a phone call with a difference. It wasn’t made by a human, but by the Google Assistant, which did an uncannily good job of asking the right questions, pausing in the right places, and even throwing in the odd “mmhmm” for realism. The crowd was shocked, but the most impressive thing was that the person on the receiving end of the call didn’t seem to suspect they were talking to an AI./news/google-s-stack-is-a-clever-if-incomplete-way-to-digitize-and-organize-documents.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-stack-is-a-clever-if-incomplete-way-to-digitize-and-organize-documents.htmlHaving to deal with paperwork is a real pain, whether it’s hardcopy or digital. Tax documents, explanations of benefits from insurance companies, purchase receipts, prescriptions, bills, vaccination cards — the list of daily paperwork goes on and on. And of course, when you suddenly need to find that receipt for your two-year-old laptop, it’s nowhere to be found. Google’s latest experimental app, Stack, is meant to help make that part of your life easier./news/google-s-waze-is-shutting-down-its-carpooling-service.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-waze-is-shutting-down-its-carpooling-service.htmlGoogle-owned navigation service Waze is shutting down its six-year-old carpooling service, citing shifting commuting patterns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in September, the company will begin the process of winding down its carpooling service, which had been available in the US, Brazil, and Israel. Waze said it will explore other ways it can help serve the 150 million customers worldwide that use its navigation app. “While Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes,” the company said in a statement provided to The Verge./news/halo-s-black-history-month-armor-shaders-are-unintentionally-hilarious.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/halo-s-black-history-month-armor-shaders-are-unintentionally-hilarious.htmlBlack History Month is that special time when video game companies try to show consumers how inclusive they are with special Black / African themed in-game cosmetics and messages of appreciation for the three or four Black employees they keep on staff at any one time. In Halo’s case, it’s offering players a special set of armor shaders in colors and patterns typically associated with African art and culture. As a concept, these shaders are totally fine./news/hbo-max-has-been-busted-for-days.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-max-has-been-busted-for-days.htmlIf you’ve attempted to stream something on HBO Max from an Apple TV sometime during the last several days, you may have noticed that its player controls are unusable. It’s not just you. Ongoing issues seem to be related to an app update that supposedly addressed “a few bugs lurking around” on June 5th. Since that update released, users have reported that basic playback functionality — such as fast-forwarding, rewinding, and pausing — is borked completely when you try to use the service on an Apple TV box./news/hbo-max-is-getting-live-hockey-thanks-to-a-new-nhl-deal.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-max-is-getting-live-hockey-thanks-to-a-new-nhl-deal.htmlLive hockey is coming to HBO Max, thanks to a new seven-year deal between the National Hockey League and WarnerMedia’s Turner Sports. The news may come as a bit of a surprise, as, only a few weeks ago, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said sports would not appear on HBO Max in 2021. Alongside HBO Max stepping into the sports streaming spotlight, Turner Sports also announced that TNT and TBS will air the Stanley Cup three out of the seven years outlined in the deal./news/hbo-s-high-tech-western-series-westworld-will-premiere-on-october-2nd.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-s-high-tech-western-series-westworld-will-premiere-on-october-2nd.htmlDuring this weekend’s Television Critics Association press tour, HBO has finally announced a date for its long-awaited science fiction show Westworld. According to the network, the J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan collaboration will premiere on October 2nd at 9PM. The show was originally supposed to premiere in 2015 We’ve been waiting for the latest J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan collaboration since it was first announced in 2013. The premiere date comes after rumors that the show could be bumped to 2017 due to production delays./news/here-s-chris-hayes-on-the-foxconn-plant-in-wisconsin-that-will-now-be-a-microsoft-data-center.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-chris-hayes-on-the-foxconn-plant-in-wisconsin-that-will-now-be-a-microsoft-data-center.htmlHere’s Chris Hayes on the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin that will now be a Microsoft data center. Hayes reads liberally from Josh Dzieza’s award-winning 2020 feature on Foxconn in Wisconsin in telling the story of how President Biden came to announce a Microsoft AI facility in Racine, of course. But look, it’s not all bad: the good people of southeastern Wisconsin can still gaze upon Foxconn’s tiny dome, where it makes 3+3=∞./news/here-s-how-to-clean-your-19-apple-cleaning-cloth.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-how-to-clean-your-19-apple-cleaning-cloth.html1. Hand wash the polishing cloth with dish soap and water. 2. Rinse thoroughly. 3. Allow the polishing cloth to air dry for at least 24 hours. The instructions have been on Apple’s website for at least a few months, according to the WayBack Machine, but despite a handful of reviews or articles mentioning them, I hadn’t come across them. That’s really a shame — other people who also hadn’t known about the instructions might’ve been throwing away their priceless polishers all because of a little grime, wasting $20 simply because the cleaning instructions are buried on a support page instead of being included on a tag, or embossed on the cloth itself./news/house-of-the-dragon-is-coming-back-for-season-3.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/house-of-the-dragon-is-coming-back-for-season-3.htmlAhead of the premiere of House of the Dragon’s second season, HBO has confirmed that the Game of Thrones spinoff will be getting a third season. Naturally, there are no real details on what the new season will entail or when it will start airing on HBO or Max. We’ll need to get through season 2 for that kind of info. House of the Dragon premiered in 2022 and is set 200 years before the original Game of Thrones series./news/how-duolingo-designed-the-new-characters-for-its-project-world.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-duolingo-designed-the-new-characters-for-its-project-world.htmlLanguage app Duolingo is unveiling a new cast of characters that it hopes will help users better learn new languages, even during the toughest lessons. The characters will act as guides within the app, cheering you on if you get an answer correct, or reacting in a disappointed (or sassy) way if you get one wrong. The nine characters of Duolingo Project World all have unique personalities, and serve as guides to make a new language feel more familiar./news/how-i-made-the-yawning-face-and-waffle-emoji.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-i-made-the-yawning-face-and-waffle-emoji.htmlThis week, I learned that Lil Nas X tweeted about something I helped make. No, it wasn’t an article on The Verge.  It was an emoji. It was an amazing way to start an otherwise normal Tuesday morning. I wanted to leave my stamp on internet culture someday, and my beloved, two-years-in-the-making yawning face had already done so, less than a day after Apple brought it to iPhones.  My quest started in August 2017, when I listened to the first few minutes of Mark Bramhill’s Welcome to Macintosh podcast series about making an emoji./news/how-to-get-files-off-your-old-pc-before-you-move.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-get-files-off-your-old-pc-before-you-move.htmlHowever sentimental you feel about that old computer (or seven) you’re hanging on to, maybe you’ve decided you can’t take it with you the next time you move. Maybe it doesn’t boot. Maybe it’s so old, it doesn’t connect to the internet. If you want to save whatever is on the hard drive, you don’t need your old PC to work or connect to the internet. All you need is a screwdriver and a compatible plug-and-play storage drive dock or adapter./news/how-to-get-your-steam-deck-to-access-the-epic-games-store-and-more.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-get-your-steam-deck-to-access-the-epic-games-store-and-more.htmlSteam may certainly have the lion’s share when it comes to building a library of PC games, but why would you leave yourself stranded in Valve’s ecosystem when there are mountains of free games and sales on the Epic Games Store and other platforms? For instance, in 2021, the Epic Games Store gave away 89 free games, and GOG is adding new games to its free library all the time. If you had EGS and GOG on your Steam Deck, you could also cash in on all the extra sales that you’d otherwise be missing./news/how-to-import-your-passwords-to-chrome-and-the-google-password-manager.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-import-your-passwords-to-chrome-and-the-google-password-manager.htmlOne way, however, that these built-in password managers haven’t stood up to their independent competitors is how tricky it was to get preexisting passwords into their systems. That, however, may be changing. If you tend to hang out in the Google ecosystem and / or you have an Android mobile device, that means you can be using the Google Password Manager to store and sync your passwords via the Chrome browser./news/how-to-responsibly-get-rid-of-the-stuff-you-ve-decluttered.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-responsibly-get-rid-of-the-stuff-you-ve-decluttered.htmlNow that Apple’s latest iPhones are using USB-C cables instead of the traditional Lightning cables, anyone who upgrades to a new iPhone may find themselves with a lot of excess cables. If you’re one of those unfortunates, what do you plan to do with them? While we’re always being told how to simplify our crammed living spaces and get rid of all the stuff we’re no longer using or wearing, it’s often hard to figure out just how to do it responsibly without adding to the world’s excess trash./news/how-to-turn-off-chat-features-on-an-android-phone.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-turn-off-chat-features-on-an-android-phone.htmlIf you recently switched from an Android phone to an iPhone and suddenly stopped receiving texts from your Android phone-owning friends, don’t panic. It’s a nerve-racking but easily solvable problem, and it’s one that we’re all too familiar with at The Verge since some of us tend to switch phones a lot.  The likely culprit is the protocol called RCS, which is short for Rich Communication Services. There are a lot of reasons to like RCS in Google’s Messaging app./news/how-to-upgrade-to-the-new-apple-home-architecture.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-upgrade-to-the-new-apple-home-architecture.htmlApple’s new HomeKit architecture is a ground-up, under-the-hood rebuild of the company’s Apple Home smart home platform. Apple says it “will improve the performance and reliability of the accessories in your home.” First announced at WWDC, this new foundation for Apple’s smart home is part of the company’s support of the smart home standard Matter. Following a false start late last year, when the option to upgrade to the new architecture was released with iOS 16./news/how-to-use-philips-hue-secure.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-philips-hue-secure.htmlPhilips Hue Secure is a new smart home security system from the smart lighting company. The system was announced along with some new smart security cameras in August and is now live in the Hue app. However, if you’re a Philips Hue user, you don’t need to buy the new cameras to use the new security features; you just need to update your app to version 5.0.1.  The system works with Hue’s existing smart lights, motion sensors, and new contact sensors ($39./news/how-to-use-widgets-and-wallpapers-to-redesign-your-phone.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-widgets-and-wallpapers-to-redesign-your-phone.htmlHi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 6, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)  This week, I’ve been watching the wacky sci-fi series Command Z from Steven Soderbergh, updating all my browsers to fix a scary security issue, reading and listening to Cory Doctorow rage against Big Tech, cackling at this video about the state of the Hyperloop, trying the Endel app as work music instead of my all-day movie soundtracks playlist, and slowly cleaning up my camera roll with some help from Swipewipe./news/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-review-different-but-still-zelda.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-review-different-but-still-zelda.htmlAt the outset of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the fantasy realm of Hyrule is in a bad place. Monsters rule the land and once-great cities lie in ruins, all because of a devastating event known as the Great Calamity. It was something players heard about constantly as they ventured across Hyrule but didn’t actually get to witness firsthand. That’s where Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity comes in./news/i-just-watched-the-first-interactive-broadcast-tv-channel-in-the-us.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-just-watched-the-first-interactive-broadcast-tv-channel-in-the-us.htmlIf you happen to live in Las Vegas and have a TV with an ATSC 3.0 tuner, then, for the next few days, there will be a new channel on your TV. At first, the Roxi channel just appears to play music videos, but when you hit the pause button on your remote, the TV pauses — despite being a broadcast channel. There’s no DVR involved or app you need to download./news/ikea-will-pay-10-roblox-players-to-roleplay-as-employees-in-its-virtual-store.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ikea-will-pay-10-roblox-players-to-roleplay-as-employees-in-its-virtual-store.htmlCorporate publicity stunts involving virtual reality are almost always bad, but Ikea’s new Roblox store feels especially silly. The company announced last week that it plans to pay 10 people £13.15 or €14.80 per hour to work in The Co-Worker Game, a virtual Ikea store in Roblox. The company is taking applications until June 16th, only from candidates in the UK or Ireland who are 18 or older. Being paid to be an NPC./news/in-sisters-tina-fey-and-amy-poehler-create-an-awkward-inclusive-intimacy.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/in-sisters-tina-fey-and-amy-poehler-create-an-awkward-inclusive-intimacy.htmlMost of the laugh lines in the new Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy Sisters don't seem particularly funny on the page. It isn't inherently hilarious when Poehler, playing a nurse, tells a man with a music-box ballerina wedged up his ass that it's unfortunately going to take a while for the device to wind down, because it's "Swiss-made." Or when Fey leers at a gardening neighbor that she's looking for someone who's capable of working on other people's bushes./news/incredibles-2-review-pixar-moves-away-from-complicated-emotions.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/incredibles-2-review-pixar-moves-away-from-complicated-emotions.htmlPixar Animation Studios has built its reputation on a lot of elements: computer animation that was miles ahead of the competition for more than 15 years, memorable humor and memorable characters, and stories that are accessible to children but sophisticated enough to keep adults engaged. But past a certain point in its history, Pixar became known above everything else for its willingness to explore emotional depths its contemporaries wouldn’t touch. Pixar films like Finding Nemo, Up, Toy Story 3, and Inside Out deal directly with death and other very personal, deeply felt losses, from letting go of childhood to letting go of the possibility of motherhood./news/inside-netflix-s-bet-on-advanced-video-encoding.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/inside-netflix-s-bet-on-advanced-video-encoding.html{props.credit} ) }const containers = document.querySelectorAll(".w-full figure.w-full"); containers.forEach(container => {const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(container); root.render()}) Anne Aaron just can’t help herself. Aaron, Netflix’s senior encoding technology director, was watching the company’s livestream of the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this year. And while the rest of the world marveled at all those celebrities and their glitzy outfits sparkling in a sea of flashing cameras, Aaron’s mind immediately started to analyze all the associated visual challenges Netflix’s encoding tech would have to tackle./news/intel-10a-is-coming-2027-intel-14a-in-2026.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-10a-is-coming-2027-intel-14a-in-2026.htmlIntel 10A is coming 2027, Intel 14A in 2026. I showed you Intel’s new public roadmap last Wednesday — when it confirmed Intel 14A was coming by 2027. But it turns out the company quietly announced Intel 10A as well. It’ll start production in 2027, after 14A begins production in 2026. That’s different than consumer availability, of course. Intel told Tom’s Hardware that each new node it makes should normally offer a 14 to 15 percent power/performance improvement./news/ios-14-might-let-you-scan-qr-codes-to-use-apple-pay.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-14-might-let-you-scan-qr-codes-to-use-apple-pay.htmlApple’s upcoming iOS 14 update might let you pay for items by scanning QR codes that activate Apple Pay, giving you another way to use the company’s digital payment platform. 9to5Mac found references to the as-yet unannounced feature in the newest iOS 14 developer beta released earlier today. 9to5Mac said it wasn’t able to get the feature to work, though, but it did find an image that appears to be instructing the user about how to use the new feature./news/jordan-peele-s-twilight-zone-reboot-leans-too-heavily-on-the-original.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jordan-peele-s-twilight-zone-reboot-leans-too-heavily-on-the-original.htmlRod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone has been remade, parodied, and imitated so many times since it premiered in 1959 that almost everyone can name its episode components: something weird happens, the narrator lets viewers know a bit more about what’s going on, then there’s a twist and a moral message, which is elaborated in the narrator’s parting lines. What makes a good episode of The Twilight Zone is much harder to articulate./news/julian-assange-to-headline-wikileaks-party-ticket-run-for-australian-senate-from-exile.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/julian-assange-to-headline-wikileaks-party-ticket-run-for-australian-senate-from-exile.htmlThe Age reports that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed to run for a seat in the Australian senate as a member of the new WikiLeaks Party, which consists of a 10-member national council of Assange's associates. Assange, a controversial international figure that has facilitated several embarrassments for the US government through whistleblower leaks, is currently in political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Assange has been an outspoken critic of the US in recent years, seeking to draw attention to the country's use of drones and its justification for "/news/justin-bieber-is-increasingly-desperate-for-yummy-to-go-viral-on-tiktok.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/justin-bieber-is-increasingly-desperate-for-yummy-to-go-viral-on-tiktok.htmlMusicians know that a TikTok hit can make them a star. But as mainstream artists like Justin Bieber try to manipulate their singles into viral TikTok sensations, the process of trying to force something to go viral is becoming increasingly cringe-inducing. Bieber’s done quite a bit to promote his single “Yummy” on TikTok, but everything came to a head Sunday night. Bieber alerted fans on Instagram yesterday to a Super Bowl campaign with Chipotle that would take place on TikTok during commercial breaks./news/lambo-s-got-a-brand-new-badge.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lambo-s-got-a-brand-new-badge.htmlLambo’s got a brand new badge. Lamborghini (the car one, not the tractor one) announced that for the first time in over two decades, it has a new logo, which it says reflects its “new trajectory focused on sustainability and decarbonization” (read: electrification). The new logo comes almost exactly a year after the announcement of its first plug-in hybrid hypercar, the Revuelto. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaHx0fY5ra2ppZ2eEenvLmqSbp6NitLDAjJpkm6qRo7FuusSwZJuZlJyy/news/league-of-legends-esports-players-who-walked-out-reach-agreement-with-riot-games.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/league-of-legends-esports-players-who-walked-out-reach-agreement-with-riot-games.htmlNorth American League of Legends esports players who walked out have reached an agreement with Riot Games. The League Championship Series (LCS) players, represented by the LCSPA, voted last week to walk out after Riot allowed franchises to stop fielding amateur teams in the North American Challengers League (NACL) for the summer. Shortly after the walkout, Riot delayed the original June 1st start of the summer season by two weeks, but said it was also prepared to cancel the entire summer season — which would disqualify LCS players from the annual end-of-season Worlds competition — if the two sides didn’t come to an agreement./news/lenovo-is-rebooting-its-chromebook-duet-with-a-13-3-inch-oled-screen.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lenovo-is-rebooting-its-chromebook-duet-with-a-13-3-inch-oled-screen.htmlOver a year after it was unveiled, Lenovo’s category-defining Chromebook Duet is getting a sequel. The Chromebook Duet 5 (branded as the IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook outside of North America) is a head-to-toe reimagining of the detachable budget-oriented Duet, with a higher price, a new processor, and — most interestingly — a 13.3-inch OLED screen. Lenovo says the Duet 5 is likely the first of multiple additions to the Duet line, in an ambitious effort to bring the detachable form factor to multiple price points./news/lessons-from-a-failed-tesla-model-s-racing-series.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lessons-from-a-failed-tesla-model-s-racing-series.htmlIn November 2017, I was in the South of France, strapped into a bucket seat and sitting behind the wheel of a race-modified Tesla Model S. I was trying to make a video about an audacious startup racing series called Electric GT, which had ambitions of becoming the first motorsport focused on race-ready versions of all the automakers’ flagship EVs. Much like the series itself, the video didn’t work out. /news/lg-v20-review-lots-of-features-less-refinement.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-v20-review-lots-of-features-less-refinement.htmlBack when LG announced the V20, the company made a big deal out of the fact that it’d be the first phone to ship with Android 7 Nougat out of the box. That’s true in most countries, but here in the US, Google’s own Pixel phones technically beat it onto store shelves with a newer version of Android. So much for that selling point. Sure, the V20 offers Nougat’s headlining features like split-screen multitasking, improved Doze battery management, new emoji, and bolstered security./news/lime-expands-its-scooter-subscription-service-to-include-daily-and-monthly-passes.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lime-expands-its-scooter-subscription-service-to-include-daily-and-monthly-passes.htmlLime is expanding its subscription service LimePass to include daily and monthly passes. It’s an attempt by the scooter company to lock in consumers over time in a market with nearly identical products and pricing schemes. LimePass subscribers will be able to rent one of Lime’s electric scooters for a whole day or a whole month for a nominal, flat fee. Daily passes will give customers access to unlimited 30-minute rides for 24 hours, while a monthly pass will have a set number of daily rides, each for up to 30 minutes./news/lime-launches-its-new-electric-bikes-in-washington-dc-as-part-of-50-million-blitz.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lime-launches-its-new-electric-bikes-in-washington-dc-as-part-of-50-million-blitz.htmlLime’s next-generation electric bikes are finally making their North American debut. Nearly a year after announcing its plans to spend $50 million on a major e-bike expansion, the San Francisco-based micromobility company says it will deploy the first wave of new bikes in Washington, DC, starting this week. Lime says the new bikes are significantly improved over the ones currently in service, which the company inherited from Jump after acquiring the bike-share company from Uber in 2020./news/logitech-g-cloud-gaming-handheld-review-terminally-online.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-g-cloud-gaming-handheld-review-terminally-online.htmlLogitech’s G Cloud Gaming Handheld is a heartbreaker. It’s a joy to game on: it’s much more comfortable to use than the Nintendo Switch, and when the conditions are right, it works like a dream. With a good connection to a cloud gaming service, it often felt like I was using a portable Xbox, or had somehow crammed a $1,500 gaming PC into a tiny footprint. The rest of the time, it’s a mediocre Android tablet with a controller grafted on./news/los-angeles-settles-weather-channel-lawsuit-lets-it-keep-selling-location-data-to-advertisers.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/los-angeles-settles-weather-channel-lawsuit-lets-it-keep-selling-location-data-to-advertisers.htmlHow We Use and Share Location Information  We collect your device’s location information and pressure sensor data through our applications so that we can offer you certain location-based features like forecasts, weather alerts, and ads, and to provide and improve our Services. The way we collect that information is different depending on whether you are accessing the Services through a website or mobile application.  You can still use our application without giving us permission to access your device’s location services by manually entering a location in the search field./news/lululemon-mirror-review-a-reflection-of-at-home-fitness.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lululemon-mirror-review-a-reflection-of-at-home-fitness.htmlIn my living room stands a mirror. I’ve used this mirror every day for the past three months, though not always to its full potential. When I’m not staring at my reflection in it, I’ve spent an inordinate number of hours pondering where it fits in my life. It might seem odd to dedicate as many hours as I have thinking about a mirror, but this isn’t just any mirror. It’s the Mirror./news/lyft-is-adding-a-panic-button-so-riders-can-dial-911-from-the-app.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lyft-is-adding-a-panic-button-so-riders-can-dial-911-from-the-app.htmlLyft announced several new initiatives on Tuesday that are designed to enhance the safety of its passengers. The company is adding an in-app panic button for riders who need to call 911. (It did the same for the driver’s app late last year.) Other changes include an enlarged version of the driver’s license plate number in the app, which is an effort to prevent passengers from getting in the wrong vehicle./news/mazda-s-gorgeous-rx-vision-concept-revives-the-rotary-engine.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mazda-s-gorgeous-rx-vision-concept-revives-the-rotary-engine.htmlFor decades, Mazda had been known as the sole remaining automaker producing cars powered by rotary engines — that is, until the RX-8 left the market in 2012. But at this year's Tokyo Motor Show, the company announced plans to bring the rotary engine back to life, and these are the lines along which it's thinking: meet the beautiful RX-Vision. Mazda isn't saying much about what'll go under the hood of this swooping, graceful addition to the classic RX series, but the revival of the rotary engine alone will be enough to excite many./news/meet-deepsqueak-an-algorithm-built-to-decode-ultrasonic-rat-squeaks.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meet-deepsqueak-an-algorithm-built-to-decode-ultrasonic-rat-squeaks.htmlResearchers at the University of Washington recently unveiled a remarkable software tool known as DeepSqueak. The program can automatically identify, process, and sort rat and mouse squeaks. It might seem whimsical, but knowing what rodents are squeaking about could be extremely valuable to animal researchers. Mice and rats are foundational to modern medical science. By one tally, mouse and rat studies have earned around 75 Nobel Prizes in health and physiology./news/microsoft-all-lumia-windows-phone-8-devices-will-be-upgraded-to-windows-10.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-all-lumia-windows-phone-8-devices-will-be-upgraded-to-windows-10.htmlMicrosoft doesn't plan on making the same mistake twice: the company has made a public pledge that all of Nokia's Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices will be upgraded to the mobile version of Windows 10 when it's released. Responding to a customer's question on the topic, Microsoft tweeted, "We plan to upgrade all Windows Phone 8 devices to Windows 10 in the future." Microsoft's next big operating system remains in early development, so the company obviously isn't revealing details as to when that update will arrive./news/microsoft-s-new-era-of-ai-pcs-will-need-a-copilot-key-says-intel.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-new-era-of-ai-pcs-will-need-a-copilot-key-says-intel.htmlIntel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and AMD have all been pushing the idea of an “AI PC” for months now as we head toward more AI-powered features in Windows. While we’re still waiting to hear the finer details from Microsoft on its big plans for AI in Windows, Intel has started sharing Microsoft’s requirements for OEMs to build an AI PC — and one of the main ones is that an AI PC must have Microsoft’s Copilot key./news/ms-marvel-review-kamala-khan-s-new-series-feels-like-the-mcu-s-future.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ms-marvel-review-kamala-khan-s-new-series-feels-like-the-mcu-s-future.htmlThough Kamala Khan’s only been running around Marvel’s comics as Ms. Marvel since 2013,  she’s quickly gone on to become one of the brand’s most celebrated heroes who perfectly illustrates how new spins on legacy characters can lead to poignant, refreshing storytelling. Like the comics, Disney Plus’ new Ms. Marvel series — from creator Bisha K. Ali and directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah — understands what kind of symbol its titular Pakistani American Avenger-in-the-making is and the significance of her finally making her MCU debut./news/netflix-is-letting-people-watch-things-faster-or-slower-with-new-speed-controls.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-is-letting-people-watch-things-faster-or-slower-with-new-speed-controls.htmlNetflix is letting people choose the speed at which they want to watch something on their phone or tablet with new playback controls. Netflix will allow anyone on an Android mobile device to stream at either 0.5x or 0.75x speeds for slowed-down viewing and 1.25x or 1.5x speeds for faster watching. Those are slightly fewer options than YouTube, which allows people to slow all the way down to 0.25x speeds, and speed up by twice the normal playback speed./news/netflix-s-3-body-problem-review-an-solid-debut-that-could-go-deeper.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-3-body-problem-review-an-solid-debut-that-could-go-deeper.htmlIn his 2008 sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu created a fascinating world where cutting-edge particle physics, VR gaming, and Chinese history played crucial roles in shaping humanity’s response to an imminent planet-wide threat. It also seemed unfilmable. The depth of the book’s ideas about cultural memory and the complexity of its central mystery made The Three-Body Problem feel like a story that could only work on the page./news/netflix-s-dvd-service-shuts-down-here-s-the-complex-tech-behind-it.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-dvd-service-shuts-down-here-s-the-complex-tech-behind-it.htmlThere was a point in the late 2000s when it seemed like every mailbox was stuffed with red envelopes. Netflix shipped a billion DVDs by mail between 2007 and 2009 alone, with its loyal fans overwhelming the US Postal Service by returning 1.6 million discs every single day. Almost every film ever made, available via next-day delivery, with no late fees: that formula didn’t just drive Blockbuster into bankruptcy but, for a moment in time, completely redefined how movies were watched./news/new-echo-show-2018-review-bigger-screen-and-better-sound-aren-t-enough.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/new-echo-show-2018-review-bigger-screen-and-better-sound-aren-t-enough.htmlAfter being confined to an audio-only experience for over two years, Amazon’s Alexa assistant was finally given a screen with last year’s Echo Show, a blocky combination of a tablet-sized display and smart speaker. The original Echo Show was the first of its kind: a smart display, powered by an intelligent assistant, that could do more than just play music and set timers, it could show you the name of the song and the timer counting down, too./news/new-ipad-announced-lte-retina-display-a5x-processor-with-quad-core-graphics-available-march-16th.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/new-ipad-announced-lte-retina-display-a5x-processor-with-quad-core-graphics-available-march-16th.htmlApple just announced the new iPad, the latest in its popular line of tablets. As expected, it has a Retina display, with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. That's good for a pixel density of 264ppi, which means you can't distinguish individual pixels when held at 10 inches -- the standard Apple uses for the Retina moniker. Existing apps will automatically take advantage of the higher resolution, but Apple's optimized all of its stock apps and is obviously encouraging developers to do the same./news/no-man-s-sky-just-launched-on-mac-with-cross-play-support.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/no-man-s-sky-just-launched-on-mac-with-cross-play-support.htmlNo Man’s Sky is touching down on Macs starting today. Hello Games announced that the space adventure is available for Mac users on Steam now (it’ll be free if you already own the PC version), while the game will be coming to the Mac App Store “shortly.” The studio says the game will be “available on any Mac with Apple silicon” and will also be playable on “Intel-based Macs with a Core i5 processor./news/oscars-2023-winners-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-did-the-thing-many-times-over.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oscars-2023-winners-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-did-the-thing-many-times-over.htmlWith 23 awards to be given out, the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony definitely ran a little long, but after last year’s theatrics, the evening felt like a studied return to form for the Oscars and a fitting end to awards season. As improbable as it might have once seemed, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once from the Daniels absolutely dominated at this year’s ceremony where it ultimately took home seven of the 11 awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Best Directing for the Daniels, Best Film Editing for Paul Rogers, and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) also for the Daniels./news/packers-vs-eagles-inside-the-first-ever-nfl-broadcast-in-4k-hdr.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/packers-vs-eagles-inside-the-first-ever-nfl-broadcast-in-4k-hdr.htmlFox Sports is distributing Thursday Night Football in 4K HDR for the rest of the season, which means September 26th’s matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles marks the first time an NFL game will be delivered in ultra high definition. It’s a big day for Fox Sports, which has been testing and preparing its 4K HDR distribution system for several weeks dating back to the preseason. Tonight marks the first time that system will be put to the test, and it’s during a national prime-time game between two very popular teams./news/patreon-launches-pro-and-premium-tiers-to-compete-with-facebook-and-youtube.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/patreon-launches-pro-and-premium-tiers-to-compete-with-facebook-and-youtube.htmlPatreon is how thousands of artists, vloggers, musicians, podcasters, and other creators make their living. The six-year-old startup currently supports more than 100,000 creators, who receive recurring donations from over 3 million supporters, and it has become the center of a growing ecosystem for supporting creators online. But, facing new competition from YouTube and Facebook, the company is still working toward turning a profit while trying not to alienate its users./news/pharrell-williams-debuts-24-hour-interactive-music-video-for-happy.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pharrell-williams-debuts-24-hour-interactive-music-video-for-happy.htmlOn Thursday, at the stroke of midnight, pop impresario Pharrell Williams debuted the video for his new single, "Happy." It's 24 hours long. The video, available for streaming on 24hoursofhappy.com, features various dancers lip-synching to Williams' single throughout the course of a day in Los Angeles. The four-minute, upbeat song is played on loop, with each cycle introducing a new dancer (or dancers) at a different location. Viewers can fast-forward or move backward using a clock interface that hovers over the display, and share specific moments on Twitter or Facebook./news/plex-makes-piracy-just-another-streaming-service.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/plex-makes-piracy-just-another-streaming-service.htmlHave you heard about the best new streaming platform on the internet? It’s totally customizable, works on any device, and, best of all, is basically free. The only problem — and, I mean, come on, it’s barely a problem — is that it might be illegal, depending on how you use it. (In other words, depending on how much piracy you plan to do.) I’m talking, of course, about Plex. There’s more streamable content now than ever and even more ways to consume it; these days, we’re drowning in choices./news/pour-one-out-for-hdds-because-pc-games-are-starting-to-require-ssds.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pour-one-out-for-hdds-because-pc-games-are-starting-to-require-ssds.htmlAre you still hanging on to that giant 8TB spinning HDD for your PC game installs? Well, it’s starting to look like SSDs will become the new minimum spec for modern PC games. While SSDs have shipped as standard in the latest and greatest PC gaming rigs and laptops, we haven’t seen game developers really push for SSDs as a minimum... until this week. Microsoft held its Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday and revealed that Bethesda’s first new IP in 25 years, Starfield, will require 125GB of SSD storage when it debuts on September 6th./news/pretend-to-be-a-phantom-thief-with-this-persona-5-messaging-app.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pretend-to-be-a-phantom-thief-with-this-persona-5-messaging-app.htmlIt replaces the stock Android messaging app with something that’s functionally nearly the same, but looks almost exactly like the sleek, overly animated IM app used by the characters in the game. (It’s not an official release from game creator Atlus, but a project from app developer — and Persona fan — Nick Greenan.) It even offers a range of different color schemes, though at present it doesn’t support MMS. Of course, your typical messages probably aren’t quite as interesting or intense as those of the Phantom Thieves, who have to deal with everything from international hacking groups to the fate of Japan itself./news/remembering-dick-tufeld-voice-of-the-lost-in-space-robot.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/remembering-dick-tufeld-voice-of-the-lost-in-space-robot.htmlThe man responsible for voicing such iconic phrases as "Danger, Will Robinson!" and "That does not compute" has passed away at age 85. Dick Tufeld gave voice to the Class M-3 Model B9 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, better known as The Robot, on 1960s TV show Lost in Space, warning the Robinson clan, particularly the youngest Robinson child Will, of threats from aliens or the villainous Dr. Smith. The movements of the robot were coordinated by a second man, Bob May, with Tufeld's lines dubbed in during post-production./news/report-apple-is-gearing-up-to-launch-a-flood-of-new-devices-starting-this-fall.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/report-apple-is-gearing-up-to-launch-a-flood-of-new-devices-starting-this-fall.htmlApple’s poised to release a slew of new devices between this fall and the beginning of 2023, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. What Gurman describes as a “deluge” of products will reportedly include four iPhone 14 devices, a set of new iPads, three Apple Watches, several M2 / M3-upgraded Macs, a pair of refreshed AirPods Pro buds, a new HomePod, and a spec-boosted Apple TV model. Let’s break down these predictions./news/retroarch-brings-its-free-multisystem-emulation-to-the-ios-app-store.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/retroarch-brings-its-free-multisystem-emulation-to-the-ios-app-store.htmlIn fact, there are too many to list here. But some notable emulation cores — the actual separately developed emulation software — included in this version of RetroArch are the NEC PC Engine, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, and even the PSP (using the same core that drives the PPSSPP app that went up today). You can see the list in full by clicking “more” on RetroArch’s description in its App Store listing./news/riot-s-league-of-legends-fighter-is-now-called-2xko.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/riot-s-league-of-legends-fighter-is-now-called-2xko.htmlRiot Games has given Project L, its in-development 2v2 fighting game, an official name: 2XKO. Since that first announcement, Riot has offered sporadic development updates culminating in the game’s first hands-on demo at EVO 2023. 2XKO is a 2v2 fighter, but unlike other tag-team fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom, 2XKO lets you play competitively or cooperatively. Players can team up, controlling one of the two characters on a team that can swap in and out of the fight at will./news/samsung-is-about-to-make-4tb-ssds-and-mobile-storage-cheaper.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-is-about-to-make-4tb-ssds-and-mobile-storage-cheaper.htmlA couple of years ago, Samsung launched its first 4TB solid state drives, which might as well not have existed given their $1,499 asking price. Today, the company announces the commencement of mass production of a more — though it’s too early to know exactly how much more — affordable variant with its 4TB QLC SSDs. The knock on QLC NAND storage has traditionally been that it sacrifices speed for an increased density, however Samsung promises the same 540MBps read and 520MBps write speeds for its new SSDs as it offers on its existing SATA SSD drives./news/samsung-mixes-retro-style-selfie-monitor-and-fast-specs-for-latest-camera.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-mixes-retro-style-selfie-monitor-and-fast-specs-for-latest-camera.htmlWorking off a checklist of the most popular trends in consumer cameras, Samsung is today introducing its new NX500, a camera with something for everyone. It's built around the guts of the larger and more professional-friendly NX1 introduced at Photokina last year, which empowers it with a 28-megapixel APS-C sensor, 4K video recording at 24fps, and ISO sensitivity that maxes out at a 51,200 ISO equivalent. The NX500 has a slightly slower burst shooting mode at 9fps, but it retains the core strengths of the original while shrinking down its dimensions considerably./news/samsung-s-galaxy-note-9-is-only-500-at-amazon.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-galaxy-note-9-is-only-500-at-amazon.htmlThe Note 9 has a big 6.4-inch OLED screen with support for the included S Pen stylus that’s useful for jotting down notes or managing a grocery list. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 845, has a headphone jack and wireless charging, and is IP68-rated for waterproofing. In short, if you’ve been considering Samsung’s newer Galaxy A51 or A71 phones, you might want to consider this instead. It has a better screen, more power, far more features, and it works with every US carrier./news/scientists-create-glow-in-the-dark-pigs-using-jellyfish-dna.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/scientists-create-glow-in-the-dark-pigs-using-jellyfish-dna.htmlScientists at the South China Agricultural University announced last week that they had successfully engineered 10 piglets that could glow green under black light. By using a technique pioneered by the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Medicine, the researchers were able to isolate a fluorescent protein in jellyfish DNA and inject it into pig embryos. Glowing animals lay the groundwork for future medicine According to researchers, the technique is being developed to help create medicines and therapies for patients in a more cost-effective manner./news/security-researcher-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-into-microsoft-and-nintendo.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/security-researcher-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-into-microsoft-and-nintendo.htmlA 24-year-old security researcher narrowly avoided prison today, after admitting to hacking into Microsoft and Nintendo servers and stealing confidential information. Zammis Clark, known online as Slipstream or Raylee, was charged on multiple counts of computer misuse offenses in a London Crown Court on Thursday, and pleaded guilty to hacking into Microsoft and Nintendo networks. Prosecutors revealed that Clark had gained access to a Microsoft server on January 24th, 2017 using an internal username and password, and then uploaded a web shell to remotely access Microsoft’s network freely for at least three weeks./news/smartphone-unlimited-plans-explained-the-verge.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/smartphone-unlimited-plans-explained-the-verge.htmlPhone plans are notorious for including the worst kinds of jargon — things that seem to tell you what you’re signing up for but actually conceal a long list of conditions and exceptions. This is the industry that brought us the term “anytime minutes.” Seriously, have you ever really thought about that phrase? Anytime minutes. Even the 10-year-old Portlandia sketch where Kumail Nanjiani sells Fred and Carrie a phone plan is still painfully accurate./news/sonos-exciting-new-product-category-is-commercial-audio.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sonos-exciting-new-product-category-is-commercial-audio.htmlMaybe the long-rumored Sonos headphones aren’t coming this year after all. A few months ago, CEO Patrick Spence announced that Sonos would enter four new product categories over the next few years — with the first coming in 2023. But the company is throwing a curveball of sorts: while the easy assumption was that these would all be new hardware categories, it turns out that the first one is all about software./news/sony-teased-a-spatial-vr-headset-with-a-smart-control-ring.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-teased-a-spatial-vr-headset-with-a-smart-control-ring.htmlSony is previewing a new “spatial content creation” system designed to let users edit and shape 3D models while wearing a virtual reality headset. The company showed off the headset along with a unique pair of controllers today during a presentation at CES 2024. The headset, which is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 platform and outfitted with 4K OLED displays, isn’t primarily for gamers like PlayStation VR. Instead, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that this new headset is made for professionals who work with 3D, allowing wearers to expand the “creation space by overlaying virtual objects into physical spaces,” The demo showed users manipulating virtual objects while using two controllers: a ring and a pointer that fits into your hand./news/sony-xperia-z5-and-z5-compact-review.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-xperia-z5-and-z5-compact-review.htmlEasily Sony’s best mobile camera and one of the best on any smartphoneThe big reason for why you’d want to be an Xperia Z5 owner is the camera. I’m not going to waste time with any preamble: this is easily Sony’s best mobile camera and absolutely one of the best on any smartphone. The new camera has surprised me in different ways: from its ability to focus in low light, to its image stabilization ensuring steady shots, to the quality and detail of its final output./news/spiders-could-theoretically-eat-every-human-on-earth-in-a-year-and-that-s-okay-by-me.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spiders-could-theoretically-eat-every-human-on-earth-in-a-year-and-that-s-okay-by-me.htmlThe Washington Post declared today that “spiders could theoretically eat every human on Earth in one year.” Depending on your view of current events, this could actually be good news! The supporters of this change.org petition to Senator Al Franken titled, “Give Spiders All the Help They Need to Eat Every Human on Earth Within One Year” are certainly in favor of it. Biologists Martin Nyffeler and Klaus Birkhofer bravely did the math that no one would, and published their findings in The Science of Nature that an estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are eaten annually by the global spider community./news/stability-ai-proponent-of-hands-off-ai-image-generation-gets-a-1-billion-valuation.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/stability-ai-proponent-of-hands-off-ai-image-generation-gets-a-1-billion-valuation.htmlStability AI, the company behind popular text-to-image AI program Stable Diffusion, has raised new funding that values the company at around $1 billion (according to a report from Bloomberg citing a “person familiar with the matter”). It’s a significant validation of the company’s approach to AI development, which, in contrast to incumbents like OpenAI and Google, focuses on open-source models that anyone can use without oversight. In a press statement, Stability AI said it raised $101 million in a round led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and O’Shaughnessy Ventures, and that it will use the money to “accelerate the development of open AI models for image, language, audio, video, 3D, and more, for consumer and enterprise use cases globally./news/staples-to-launch-3d-printing-service-in-early-2013-beginning-in-the-netherlands-and-belgium.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/staples-to-launch-3d-printing-service-in-early-2013-beginning-in-the-netherlands-and-belgium.htmlStaples is launching a new service called Staples Easy 3D, which will allow customers to upload files to the Staples Office Center, have objects printed in 3D, and pick them up at a nearby store or have them shipped. While similar services like Shapeways have existed for quite some time, they're relatively obscure to the everyday consumer — this new deal between 3D printer manufacturer Mcor Technologies new and Staples may prove a huge step in making 3D printing affordable and accessible to the masses./news/student-used-usb-killer-device-to-destroy-58-000-worth-of-college-computers.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/student-used-usb-killer-device-to-destroy-58-000-worth-of-college-computers.htmlA former student of The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, has pled guilty to charges that he destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of campus computers using a USB device designed to instantly overwhelm and fry their circuitry. The plea was announced Tuesday by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Albany Police Department. Vishwanath Akuthota, the former student, now faces up to 10 years in prison (with up to three years of supervision after release) and a fine totaling up to $250,000./news/tacoma-is-a-theatrical-take-on-sci-fi-games-from-the-creators-of-gone-home.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tacoma-is-a-theatrical-take-on-sci-fi-games-from-the-creators-of-gone-home.htmlThe Fullbright Company staked out a very distinct space with its 2013 debut Gone Home, a domestic slice of life set in 1990s Oregon. Its next project, Tacoma, couldn’t look more different. Tacoma takes place in the year 2088, on a space station of the same name. At first glance, it’s a return to the genre roots of Fullbright’s co-founders, who previously worked on the Bioshock 2 expansion Minerva’s Den. But it’s also shaping up to be a clever, sophisticated new take on game narrative./news/target-confirms-up-to-40-million-credit-and-debit-cards-are-at-risk-following-black-friday-hack-upd.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/target-confirms-up-to-40-million-credit-and-debit-cards-are-at-risk-following-black-friday-hack-upd.htmlRetailers are an appealing target for hackers during the holidays, and Target may be learning that lesson the hard way. According to Krebs on Security, the US retail giant is investigating a major breach that could potentially involve "millions" of customer credit and debit card records. The sophisticated hack reportedly took place over several weeks — starting on Black Friday and possibly extending all the way through December 15th — and is said to involve "/news/taylor-swift-is-an-emo-queen-in-her-new-apple-music-ad.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/taylor-swift-is-an-emo-queen-in-her-new-apple-music-ad.htmlTaylor Swift unveiled a new Apple Music commercial through Twitter this morning, one that seems a lot less painful than her first bit of promotional material for the music service. She pulls up a playlist for "getting ready to go out" and rocks out to Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" in a bathroom that looks bigger than my apartment. It's a physically intensive performance: she's flinging her lipstick, bouncing around, and working with a library of dance moves that'll probably be familiar from your own middle school dances and house parties./news/taylor-swift-sold-one-of-her-private-jets.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/taylor-swift-sold-one-of-her-private-jets.htmlTaylor Swift sold one of her private jets. Yup, she still has another one. But apparently, Swift sold her Dassault Falcon 900 in January — not long after her attorney sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action against a college student who shares flight data and greenhouse gas emissions from Swift’s and other billionaires’ jets on social media. Swift topped a 2022 list of celebrities with the biggest carbon footprints from flying./news/tesla-cybertruck-recalled-again-this-time-over-faulty-wiper-and-trim.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-cybertruck-recalled-again-this-time-over-faulty-wiper-and-trim.htmlTesla is again issuing a physical recall of its Cybertruck. This time it’s recalling 11,688 of its electric pickups due to a faulty windshield wiper that could reduce visibility for the driver, and 11,383 Cybertrucks due to trim in the truck bed that could come loose and create a road hazard for others. Issues with the gigantic wiper had surfaced in owner forums in recent weeks and reportedly delayed Cybertruck deliveries on short notice./news/tesla-slashes-price-for-monthly-full-self-driving-subscription.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-slashes-price-for-monthly-full-self-driving-subscription.htmlTesla 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./news/the-2023-motorola-razr-plus-and-motorola-razr-are-official.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-2023-motorola-razr-plus-and-motorola-razr-are-official.htmlMotorola’s new Razr foldables are official, confirming what we learned from a set of substantial leaks over the past few weeks. Just as it was foretold, the Razr Plus comes with a massive cover screen, while the standard Razr offers a much more modest screen on the front panel. They’re both coming to the US, though only the Razr Plus is launching this month — June 23rd, to be exact, for $999./news/the-43-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts-you-can-still-get.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-43-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts-you-can-still-get.htmlHas December slipped by and left you with little time to finish your holiday shopping? I’m not here to judge you for waiting until the last minute (we’ve all been there, after all). Instead, I’ll do you one better by helping you find a variety of gift ideas that should still arrive in time to be wrapped and tucked under the tree before Christmas. There’s a wide swath of excellent gifts you can still nab — some of which may even be on sale — including smart home accessories, tablets, wearables, and headphones./news/the-best-meta-quest-2-deal-from-black-friday-is-back-with-a-50-credit.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-meta-quest-2-deal-from-black-friday-is-back-with-a-50-credit.htmlIn case you haven’t heard, the Meta Quest 2’s $249 holiday pricing is sticking around for good. That’s a natural progression for the second-gen VR headset, which launched in 2020 and was recently outclassed by the newer Meta Quest 3. What’s more, if you pick up a 128GB Quest 2 at Walmart right now, you’ll receive a $50 Meta Store credit to help you build up your game library, essentially making it a $200 purchase./news/the-best-shows-on-apple-tv-plus-in-2023.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-shows-on-apple-tv-plus-in-2023.htmlWe’re four years into the existence of Apple TV Plus, and the network still feels like it’s punching above its weight class. It doesn’t have nearly the expansive library of its competitors, but the shows (and occasional film) it does have are really, really good —usually. I’ve heard friends compare it to HBO in the 2000s, and that feels like an apt comparison. There are plenty of great movies, but there’s also an astonishingly well-programmed group of TV shows that seem to speak to a very wide audience, from its core group of science fiction shows like For All Mankind and Foundation to its more outlandish fair like Schmigadoon!/news/the-best-uk-lte-which-carrier-is-right-for-you.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-uk-lte-which-carrier-is-right-for-you.htmlWith LTE connectivity now a standard feature on almost every middling smartphone, it might come as a surprise that the vast majority of Brits haven't had access to a next-generation network. A little under a year ago, EE turned on the first LTE network in the country, and thanks to a complex spectrum auction peppered with in-fighting and controversy, it's taken EE's main competitors 10 months to catch up. From this morning, customers of O2 and Vodafone in select cities will finally have access to LTE, with the fourth-largest carrier, Three, remaining the only one without some sort of 4G support./news/the-chromecast-s-reset-button-is-proof-of-the-reliability-of-hardware-in-a-digital-world.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-chromecast-s-reset-button-is-proof-of-the-reliability-of-hardware-in-a-digital-world.htmlGoogle’s Chromecast is the epitome of a software-first device. Nearly all of its capabilities are defined by software, and usually not even software that’s on the Chromecast itself.  But the Chromecast, for all its hands-off simplicity, does have a single hardware button: an emergency reset button on the back. It’s a testament to the importance and reliability of physical inputs over software solutions.  Odds are, most people will never use the Chromecast’s reset button./news/the-classic-lightsaber-buyer-s-guide.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-classic-lightsaber-buyer-s-guide.htmlThe world is never going to want for Star Wars-related merchandise, but as I discovered earlier this year there’s only one place to go if you want the most accurate, high-end lightsaber replicas possible: the fans. The engineers, artists, and talented craftspeople that make up the online lightsaber community create replicas that are as close to the items from the films you can get — short of creating an actual laser sword, that is./news/the-eu-wants-to-enforce-better-phone-battery-life-and-spare-parts.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-eu-wants-to-enforce-better-phone-battery-life-and-spare-parts.htmlThe European Commission is seeking to improve phone and tablet battery life and spare parts availability. In draft proposals published this week, European regulators are planning to force phone manufacturers to supply at least 15 different parts to professional repairers for five years after a device first goes on sale. Consumers will also get guaranteed access to replacement batteries, displays, chargers, back covers, and even SIM / memory card trays for five years./news/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-review-mike-flanagan-s-most-ambitious-horror-story-yet.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-review-mike-flanagan-s-most-ambitious-horror-story-yet.htmlSince The Haunting of Hill House debuted in 2018, Mike Flanagan has steadily built up an impressively diverse anthology of limited series on Netflix, with releases coming on a near-annual basis. The intervening years have included a romantic puzzle box, a small-town vampire story, and a collection of teen ghost stories. But with The Fall of the House of Usher — which is likely the final collaboration between Flanagan and Netflix — the showrunner has created his most ambitious story yet./news/the-first-thunderbolt-5-cables-are-here-but-there-s-barely-anything-to-plug-in.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-thunderbolt-5-cables-are-here-but-there-s-barely-anything-to-plug-in.htmlAvailable today from Amazon in 1-foot (0.3m), 1.6-foot (0.5m), and 3.3-foot (1m) lengths for $23, $27, and $33, respectively, the new cables obviously don’t do anything on their own — you’d need a computer with a Thunderbolt 5 port and a dock or accessory of some sort to get some real use out of it. But as of today, the only laptop we’ve heard of with a Thunderbolt 5 port is the Razer Blade 18, and even there, it’s not guaranteed./news/the-frame-has-become-such-a-hit-that-samsung-is-making-a-speaker-version.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-frame-has-become-such-a-hit-that-samsung-is-making-a-speaker-version.htmlSamsung’s The Frame TV has enjoyed huge success in recent years because it blends into the home in a way that’s much more aesthetically pleasing than the drab black rectangles you get from conventional TVs. With customizable bezels (including stylish wood options), a matte screen, and a huge collection of renowned artwork that appears on The Frame’s display when it’s idle, it pulls off convincing double duty as a design piece./news/the-google-pixel-s-squeeze-for-assistant-was-a-button-without-a-button.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-google-pixel-s-squeeze-for-assistant-was-a-button-without-a-button.htmlThe Pixel 2 is an almost five-year-old phone, but it introduced a feature that I miss more and more with each passing year. It was called Active Edge, and it let you summon Google Assistant just by giving your phone a squeeze. In some ways, it’s an unusual idea. But it effectively gave you something sorely lacking on modern phones: a way to physically interact with the phone to just get something done./news/the-last-of-us-part-ii-hands-on-with-the-ps4-s-most-anticipated-sequel.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-last-of-us-part-ii-hands-on-with-the-ps4-s-most-anticipated-sequel.htmlIf there is one thing I can say about my all-too-brief time with The Last of Us Part II earlier this week, it’s that it very much feels like a Naughty Dog game — and I mean that in the best way. The esteemed Sony-owned studio hasn’t released a full title since 2016’s bittersweet Uncharted 4, and its next game, while a sequel, is billed as the biggest, boldest, and most boundary-pushing game Naughty Dog has created to date./news/the-nba-s-smart-jersey-lets-you-change-your-player-name-and-number.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-nba-s-smart-jersey-lets-you-change-your-player-name-and-number.htmlNBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave the world a peek at the future of jerseys during this week’s NBA All-Start Technology Summit, an event dedicated to illustrating how technology might advance the sport by 2038. In addition to mentioning fans gaining entry into games via facial recognition, hologram mascots, and more personalized game experiences, Silver demonstrated the future of jerseys: a piece of smart clothing that can change the name and number displayed on them through a mobile app./news/the-new-whatsapp-for-mac-adds-video-and-audio-group-calling.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-whatsapp-for-mac-adds-video-and-audio-group-calling.htmlWhatsApp has released a redesigned, native WhatsApp app for macOS that brings group calls to Apple’s desktop operating system. The app supports up to eight people in a group video session and as many as 32 in an audio call, both of which will have the same end-to-end encryption featured in its app on other platforms. The app was previously in open beta. In addition to video calling, users can drag and drop files into chats, and the company says the app also shows more chat history./news/the-original-system-shock-is-now-on-gog.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-original-system-shock-is-now-on-gog.htmlThe major sticking point for modern System Shock players is the control scheme, which uses keys instead of the mouse to look around. An unofficial patch hacked in mouselook several years ago, but the Enhanced Edition includes it by default, plus more optional control schemes, bug fixes, and support for higher resolutions. (The original game is also included.) If you happen to have a VFX-1 headset lying around, I also recently learned that you can play it in glorious '90s virtual reality./news/the-rolls-royce-vision-100-concept-is-completely-irredeemably-ridiculous.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-rolls-royce-vision-100-concept-is-completely-irredeemably-ridiculous.htmlRolls-Royce is a marque known for being exceptional, and today it truly lived up to its name with the unveiling of a new Vision 100 concept car. It's part of parent company BMW's centenary celebrations, envisioning what the future of mobility will look like in another 20 or 30 years. The RR answer is simply staggering in the extremism of its opulence and swagger. I witnessed it rolling in to the stage here in London this morning, and it felt like I was attending the inauguration of a giant cruise ship./news/the-samsung-galaxy-z-flip-4-s-camera-is-a-lot-of-fun-to-shoot-with.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-samsung-galaxy-z-flip-4-s-camera-is-a-lot-of-fun-to-shoot-with.htmlI’ve had the privilege of taking photos with some incredible smartphones this year. I’ve been wowed by the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 10x zoom, marveled at the massive sensor and gorgeous portraits from the Xiaomi 12S Ultra, and I’ve seen the Google Pixel 6A accomplish the impossible: take sharp photos of a rambunctious toddler in dim light. I could reach into my cabinet drawer, take out any of these phones right now, and use them as my primary camera./news/the-schlage-encode-smart-wifi-lever-lock-is-a-new-smart-lock-for-your-other-doors.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-schlage-encode-smart-wifi-lever-lock-is-a-new-smart-lock-for-your-other-doors.htmlSchlage has a new smart lock, but it’s not for your front door. The $309.99 Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Lever lock is coming this spring and is designed for doors with a single hole and no deadbolt. These include interior doors for a home office or a closet you want to keep locked, a shed door, or the door from a garage into your home — basically, any door that uses a simple lever / latch or knob system./news/the-sequel-to-animal-crossing-like-cozy-grove-hits-netflix-in-june.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-sequel-to-animal-crossing-like-cozy-grove-hits-netflix-in-june.htmlIn Camp Spirit, you’ll fulfill the wishes of dearly departed bears. (For a studio called Spry Fox, it’s kinda hilarious that nearly all of its games focus on bears.) You’ll also work on improving your haunted island, turning it into a lively community for the deceased. Camp Spirit’s forthcoming release makes it the newest of several Netflix-developed games, which include Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales, Money Heist: Ultimate Choice, Oxenfree II, and more./news/the-story-of-cortana-microsoft-s-siri-killer.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-story-of-cortana-microsoft-s-siri-killer.htmlTechnically, Cortana isn’t supposed to exist for at least another 500 years, but that’s not stopping Microsoft from bringing her to life this week. While Apple has Siri and Google has Google Now — both digital assistants that run on smartphones — Microsoft is taking an approach that mixes the best of the competition with its own unique take. Based on a 26th-century artificially intelligent character in the Halo video game series, Cortana will debut as part of Windows Phone 8./news/the-uniwheel-is-another-rideable-that-s-more-ostentatious-than-practical.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-uniwheel-is-another-rideable-that-s-more-ostentatious-than-practical.htmlMy time with the Uniwheel was mainly spent clinging for dear life to the obliging forearm of one of the company’s engineers, who helped me keep balance while uneasily circling the test track. And while the learning curve does seem a little precipitous, I have to admit that toward the end of my brief session there were moments where I felt oddly free. Like I was gliding serenely through the air, steering by impulse rather than conscious effort./news/the-unsung-heroes-of-the-apple-watch-are-its-hidden-band-release-buttons.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-unsung-heroes-of-the-apple-watch-are-its-hidden-band-release-buttons.htmlIn the wide world of wristwatches, there is no easier way to dress to your aesthetic or customize your timepiece than by swapping straps and bands. There are all kinds of straps out there, from nylon NATOs and leather bund straps to hotly debated metal link bracelets. Most watch straps are universal across similarly sized traditional watches, an open ecosystem for anyone to explore. But none are as simple and convenient as the proprietary little band release buttons on the underside of every Apple Watch./news/the-verge-archives-film.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-archives-film.htmlWhat if The Batman had a plague subplot? Former DC Comics freelancer Christopher Wozniak sued Warner Bros and DC over allegedly lifting the plot for Matt Reeves’ movie, The Batman, from a Batman story he wrote. Unfortunately, Reuters reports that last week a judge decided that, actually, his story infringed on DC’s characters. Both stories are summarized in the decision, and sure, Wozniak’s tale has some similar beats, but also old Batman, a viral outbreak, and a Joker reveal at the end./news/the-witcher-everything-you-need-to-know-about-netflix-s-fantasy-epic.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-witcher-everything-you-need-to-know-about-netflix-s-fantasy-epic.htmlThere’s one very important thing missing from The Witcher: Blood Origin: Geralt of Rivia. Of course, it makes sense that the iconic character isn’t in the new four-episode prequel series, given that it takes place more than 1,000 years before he was born, at a time when witchers (and the monsters they love to hunt) don’t even exist. But that doesn’t make his absence felt any less. Because without the lovably gruff Geralt, or at least an equivalent character to keep the story grounded, there isn’t all that much to differentiate The Witcher from all of the other epic fantasy series out there, of which there is no shortage this year in particular./news/there-s-hope-for-the-film-industry-this-backstreet-boys-documentary-looks-pretty-great.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-hope-for-the-film-industry-this-backstreet-boys-documentary-looks-pretty-great.htmlAssuming we are still allowed to distribute motion pictures in 2015 without first getting the OK from Pyongyang, this upcoming documentary about everyone's second favorite '90s boy band could merit a download. In Show Em What You're Made Of, Filmmaker Stephen Kijak (who directed the generally-accepted 2008 Scott Walker documentary 30th Century Man) lets the Boys tell their story of their heydey and fall from grace in their own words, and then follows them during their 2012 reunion as they record their big comeback album./news/this-300-meowth-turns-a-meme-into-a-five-foot-tall-plushie.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-300-meowth-turns-a-meme-into-a-five-foot-tall-plushie.htmlThe Pokémon Center is selling a Gigantamax Meowth that, while not true to size, is still pretty damn big. This Long Meowth measures 65 inches, which is just over five feet, and has a “dangerous smile.” A bad boy. Gigantamax Meowth is a 1:20 scale version of its Pokémon Sword and Shield counterpart, and it costs $299.99 for the pleasure of its company. Now the bad news: it’s currently sold out. Will it restock?/news/this-curvy-cat-font-inspired-by-cat-tails-was-created-for-a-zine-about-cats.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-curvy-cat-font-inspired-by-cat-tails-was-created-for-a-zine-about-cats.htmlCompanies often like to create custom fonts to establish branding, and cat food subscription service Smalls is no different. Following in the footsteps of companies like Netflix, Samsung — heck, even Arby’s — Smalls has partnered with Oslo-based type foundry Good Type to create a font called Adieu Smalls. The curvy font builds on Good Type’s Adieu as a base, but it takes inspiration from the way cats curl their tails to express emotions./news/this-is-the-face-of-water.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-is-the-face-of-water.htmlIsraeli artist and photographer Moses Hacmon has come out with a spellbinding collection of photos called "Faces of Water" — a project described as "part art, part science, part spiritual awakening." Hacmon spent ten years developing a way to photograph the "motion" of water, and his swirling, hypnotic results are rather spectacular. As Wired reports, Hacmon's technique involves a customized type of film that uses a "layer of liquid iron" to record and capture the movements of water./news/tile-s-new-anti-theft-feature-subjects-you-to-a-1-million-fine-for-misuse.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tile-s-new-anti-theft-feature-subjects-you-to-a-1-million-fine-for-misuse.htmlWe received feedback from advocacy groups that an app-specific scanning solution does not solve the problem of stalking, as it puts the onus on victims to check and be aware of every solution in the market. To meaningfully address stalking with technology, Tile views the solution as being greater, including implementing safeguards like: Require all location-enabled devices that are small enough to be planted on a person— LTE GPS devices in particular—be registered using a real name./news/tim-cook-tells-apple-employees-there-s-no-room-for-intolerance-after-black-teens-blocked-from-stor.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tim-cook-tells-apple-employees-there-s-no-room-for-intolerance-after-black-teens-blocked-from-stor.htmlSubject: Apple is open Team, I’m sure you are all aware of the unacceptable incident which took place at our store at the Highpoint shopping center in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday. Several young men, who are students at a nearby school, had been asked by a security guard to leave the store. In an attempt to address the situation, one of our store employees gave an answer which shocked many of us./news/tony-hawk-s-pro-skater-1-2-is-surprisingly-solid-on-the-switch.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tony-hawk-s-pro-skater-1-2-is-surprisingly-solid-on-the-switch.htmlWe’re more than four years into the life of the Nintendo Switch, and yet in some ways the handheld device remains an enigma. Namely: when there’s a port of a big game, you never quite know what to expect. Sometimes you get a welcome surprise like Doom Eternal, other times a mess like Apex Legends. Which why I was only cautiously excited about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 — an excellent-yet-awkwardly named remaster of the first two games in the series — making its way to the Switch./news/twitter-music-is-officially-dead.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-music-is-officially-dead.htmlMonths after the company stopped active development on the app, Twitter #Music is being pulled from the App Store today, the company said in a tweet. The app, which attempted to harness conversations around music and artists on Twitter to create a new way to discover music, failed to peel listeners away from the many competing music apps on the market. The app will cease working for existing users on April 18th, the company said./news/twitter-for-windows-10-catches-up-with-group-messages-and-other-new-features.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-for-windows-10-catches-up-with-group-messages-and-other-new-features.htmlTwitter for Windows has been a perfect example of Microsoft's app problems; sure, the app exists, but it has fallen far behind Twitter's smartphone apps in terms of features and functionality. Today, Twitter for Windows is taking a much-needed step forward and adding group messaging, multi-account support, lists, and other improvements. There's a new Happening Now section (pictured at top) which should keep you up on whatever's trending at all times./news/urban-compass-can-a-startup-finally-fix-the-nightmare-of-renting-an-apartment-in-nyc.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/urban-compass-can-a-startup-finally-fix-the-nightmare-of-renting-an-apartment-in-nyc.htmlThe process of trying to rent an apartment in New York City is its own special circle of hell. Verge science editor Katie Drummond was thrilled when she found an apartment on Craigslist that fit her price range and was just across from a beautiful park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. When she showed up to meet the broker, however, “He told me that the apartment we wanted had been rented but they had an ‘amazing’ studio available nearby./news/venmo-adds-check-cashing-feature-for-some-us-customers.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/venmo-adds-check-cashing-feature-for-some-us-customers.htmlPayPal-owned banking app Venmo is launching a check cashing feature for both its Android and iOS apps for “eligible” users in the US, the company announced Monday. Cash a Check will allow users to snap a photo of a check and deposit it into a Venmo account. The review process that makes the funds available should only take a few seconds, but in some cases may take up to an hour, the company says./news/walmart-is-now-delivering-diapers-and-food-by-drone-if-you-live-close-to-this-arkansas-store.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/walmart-is-now-delivering-diapers-and-food-by-drone-if-you-live-close-to-this-arkansas-store.htmlJust last week, Walmart made headlines by launching its first commercial US drone delivery service within a 50-mile radius of Pea Ridge, Arkansas — dropping parachute-laden packages from an autonomous Zipline plane to a “hand-selected group of recipients.” Now, it’s already expanding those drone deliveries in another, small way: customers who live in Farmington, Arkansas, can now order small items like cans of tuna, baby supplies, and paper plates starting today./news/watch-11-minutes-of-final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-gameplay-features-and-the-final-trailer.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-11-minutes-of-final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-gameplay-features-and-the-final-trailer.htmlCosmo Canyon. Nibelheim. Dolphin racing. Vincent Valentine. A one-winged Sephiroth. Marlene’s dad Dyne. Mini-game after mini-game after mini-game to play. “The world will be saved, but will you?” asks the game’s trailer, with almost zero subtlety that the events of this game will determine Aerith’s infamous fate. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is coming February 29th, and both Sony and Square Enix want to make damn sure that fans know this game is a can’t-miss event — even though it’s not the conclusion to the remake of Final Fantasy VII and will have another game following it./news/watch-the-new-trailer-for-steven-spielberg-s-ready-player-one.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-the-new-trailer-for-steven-spielberg-s-ready-player-one.htmlBased Ernie Cline’s debut novel, Ready Player One is set in a dystopian world where almost everyone spends a majority of their time in a virtual reality system known as OASIS, where players can visit any conceivable world (allowing the book to mash up an incredible number of ‘80s pop culture references). The trailer opens with Wade Watts (played by The Tree of Life / X-Men: Apocalypse star Tye Sheridan) saying that he got his name because his father thought that it sounded like a superhero name./news/what-s-in-your-bag-joanna-stern.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-s-in-your-bag-joanna-stern.htmlWhat's in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. Show us your bag in this forum post. You're looking at what I call my "event bag." Before a press event or business trip, I dump everything out of my usual everyday bag (a Hayden-Harnett Ibiza Flight Tote, if you must know), pull out the Ogio backpack, and stock it up (each and every pocket) with the tech I need./news/whatsapp-is-getting-group-voice-chats-like-discord-and-telegram.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/whatsapp-is-getting-group-voice-chats-like-discord-and-telegram.htmlWhatsApp’s latest beta has a new voice chat feature that lets groups of up to 32 people connect for a spoken session, according to beta notes published by WABetaInfo. WhatsApp beta version 2.23.16.19 is rolling out to testers on Android, adding features similar to Telegram and Discord chats, Slack’s Huddles, and even Meta’s own Messenger platform. If it’s live in your version of the app, you’ll notice a waveform icon within group chats — but only if the WhatsApp account has the feature enabled and includes compatibility with the group./news/where-to-start-with-studio-ghibli.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/where-to-start-with-studio-ghibli.htmlIf you’ve never seen a Studio Ghibli film before, I’m honestly kind of jealous. With the addition of the majority of the studio’s back catalog to the new HBO Max streaming service in the US, along with its earlier arrival on Netflix elsewhere, you now have one of the greatest collections of movies of all time on tap. That’s a lot of potentially life-changing material to discover. Studio Ghibli never even sold digital versions of its films until recently, so the shift to streaming will surely mean more people checking them out than ever before./news/why-apple-needed-the-fda-to-sign-off-on-its-ekg-but-not-its-blood-oxygen-monitor.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-apple-needed-the-fda-to-sign-off-on-its-ekg-but-not-its-blood-oxygen-monitor.htmlDuring the announcement of the Apple Watch Series 6, the company heralded the newest element — a blood oxygen monitor — as an addition to its existing slate of health features. “Apple Watch is already a powerful health tool with apps that measure heart rate and heart rhythm,” said Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple’s VP of health. “And now adding blood oxygen brings in another valuable health measurement to users.” The features on the Apple Watch that track heart rate and heart rhythm, though, have a key difference from the blood oxygen monitor: the heart-tracking features are cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the oxygen monitor is not./news/xbox-360-will-be-the-exclusive-launch-console-for-redbox-instant.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xbox-360-will-be-the-exclusive-launch-console-for-redbox-instant.htmlVerizon and Redbox have been slowly dropping details about the upcoming Redbox Instant service, which is currently in beta, but today Microsoft joined in the fray. The Xbox 360 will be the "exclusive console launch partner" for Redbox Instant — so if you're a gamer and wanted to get Redbox Instant on your TV, you'll want to be using Microsoft's console. Of course, you'll need to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, and you'll also need to sign up for a Redbox Instant plan, which starts at $8 and includes four DVD rentals per month from a Redbox kiosk as well as unlimited streaming./news/xbox-one-will-support-104-xbox-360-games-this-week.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xbox-one-will-support-104-xbox-360-games-this-week.htmlMicrosoft is just days away from launching its new Xbox One dashboard, and with it comes backwards compatibility. On Thursday, 104 Xbox 360 games will be playable on the Xbox One, allowing owners of Microsoft's new console to play old multiplayer Xbox games with friends that own an Xbox 360. Microsoft previously promised more than 100 titles for the holiday, and now the company hasreleased a list of all the games officially supported./news/youtube-is-giving-premium-subscribers-higher-quality-video-than-everyone-else.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-is-giving-premium-subscribers-higher-quality-video-than-everyone-else.htmlYouTube’s introducing an “enhanced” 1080p HD video quality for Premium subscribers — but it’s only available on iOS for now, with the option coming to web soon. According to YouTube, the new 1080p Premium option is “an enhanced bitrate version of 1080p” that’s supposed to make things look crisper, particularly with videos heavy on detail and motion. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because YouTube started testing this feature earlier this year and had some worried that the company would nerf the existing 1080p option for nonsubscribers./news/youtube-won-t-reopen-remaining-creator-spaces-as-company-shifts-to-new-model.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-won-t-reopen-remaining-creator-spaces-as-company-shifts-to-new-model.htmlYouTube’s permanent Spaces locations, which were designed to offer resources and networking opportunities to its creators, won’t reopen after the pandemic, the company has confirmed. Instead, YouTube says it’s shifting to a hybrid model that will combine pop-up locations with virtual events. The Spaces that won’t be re-opening are in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rio, and Tokyo. Although it was the pandemic that pushed YouTube towards a virtual model, the shift away from permanent Spaces has been underway for at least a couple of years./news/youtubers-fear-looming-adpocalypse-after-child-exploitation-controversy.htmlThu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtubers-fear-looming-adpocalypse-after-child-exploitation-controversy.htmlYouTube creators are worried that a catastrophic drop in ad revenue may be upon them following a new controversy over YouTube’s inability to curve predatory behavior on content featuring young children. “I’m not reporting the story because it negatively affects the whole YouTube community,” Daniel “Keemstar” Keem, the host of popular show, DramaAlert, tweeted. “We don’t need another ad apocalypse. What I have done behind the scenes though is reached out to my YouTube contacts showing them the video and my team is showing them content to take down./news/the-pink-iphone-is-here.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-pink-iphone-is-here.htmlThe new iPhone has today been unveiled and it looks very much like the old iPhone, except for one variation: the iPhone 6S now also comes in pink. Or rose gold, in Apple parlance. It's still the perfectly chiseled metallic leader of the smartphone world, but now it's wearing a gentler shade of aluminum skin. How are we going to deal with that? In a world where the best technology is usually dressed up either aggressively or austerely, is there room for a globe-conquering phone dressed like Dwayne Johnson's Tooth Fairy?/news/flip-flopping-genitals-cited-in-fcc-complaints-from-olympics-viewers.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/flip-flopping-genitals-cited-in-fcc-complaints-from-olympics-viewers.htmlNBC’s production of the 2016 Summer Olympics was broadly panned by media critics, but what problems did the average viewer have with the network's biennial sports showcase? To find out, The Verge made a Freedom of Information Act request to the FCC for complaints related to the two-week event. The grievances, 18 of which were shared in the FCC’s response, fall into three buckets: inadequate closed captioning, discrimination of non-cable subscribers, and what else, sexual indecency./news/grand-theft-auto-v-in-first-person-is-absolutely-nuts.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/grand-theft-auto-v-in-first-person-is-absolutely-nuts.htmlThe bright orange San Andreas sun is blinding, but the tinted mask on my motocross helmet helps dull the effect. I'm sitting on a dusty hill, miles outside of the busy core of Los Santos, and I'm waiting. All is quiet as I scan the horizon. Then I hear it: the telltale whistle of a train. I hit the gas and charge ahead, trying my best to land on the moving vehicle./news/2017-my-year-in-cars.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/2017-my-year-in-cars.htmlAt times this year at The Verge, it feels like we already live in the autonomous future in our transportation section. It’s not entirely clear whether the momentum that drives us will be dystopian or delightful. But like our readers, we must get by in the present, where human-driven cars that we own, lease, buy, or ride in via our ridesharing drivers are still by far the dominant form of mobility./news/a-youtube-power-couple-s-breakup-video-has-been-viewed-17-million-times.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-youtube-power-couple-s-breakup-video-has-been-viewed-17-million-times.htmlYouTube’s top trending content at the moment isn’t an advertisement, music video, or movie trailer. It is not a viral challenge video, nor is it something about Fortnite. Instead, it’s a shockingly raw breakup video featuring two of YouTube’s biggest comedy vloggers, Liza Koshy and David Dobrik. Liza Koshy, 22, is best known for going to stores and causing improvisational mischief, often featuring random items that anyone can buy. David Dobrik, 21, has also made a name for himself through funny vlogs, many of which feature his relationship with Koshy./news/adobe-is-using-ai-to-break-apart-messy-audio.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/adobe-is-using-ai-to-break-apart-messy-audio.htmlAdobe is working on a new audio tool designed to break apart different layers of sound within a single recording. The tool is called Project Sound Lift, and it can use AI to separate elements like applause from the sound of someone’s voice. As shown in a demo sent to The Verge, all you have to do is import an audio file into the application, then choose which sound you want the tool to filter out./news/all-of-the-stan-lee-cameos-from-marvel-movies-and-why-we-love-them.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/all-of-the-stan-lee-cameos-from-marvel-movies-and-why-we-love-them.htmlStan Lee is the godfather of modern comics, and his death at age 95, although extremely sad, is a chance to celebrate exactly how much he gave to the world of pop culture. Today, the internet has been flooded with eulogies of his work, life, and his immense impact on comics and film. Many fans fondly recalled the cameos that Lee regularly made in Marvel films over the years, including the pre-Disney Marvel movies, the new Sony Spider-Man Universe, and, of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe./news/amazon-gives-up-on-no-checkout-shopping-in-its-large-grocery-stores.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-gives-up-on-no-checkout-shopping-in-its-large-grocery-stores.htmlAmazon has decided to give up on its Just Walk Out program that lets customers leave its brick-and-mortar grocery stores without a formal checkout process. Instead, it’s switching fully to “Dash Carts,” where customers scan products as they toss them in their cart. That’s according to The Information, which reports that the company is pulling Just Walk Out from all larger stores where the system is in place and “sprucing up the stores across the board” as it prepares to expand Amazon Fresh locations later this year./news/amazon-shows-off-alexa-feature-that-mimics-the-voices-of-your-dead-relatives.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-shows-off-alexa-feature-that-mimics-the-voices-of-your-dead-relatives.htmlAmazon has revealed an experimental Alexa feature that allows the AI assistant to mimic the voices of users’ dead relatives. The company demoed the feature at its annual MARS conference, showing a video in which a child asks Alexa to read a bedtime story in the voice of his dead grandmother. “As you saw in this experience, instead of Alexa’s voice reading the book, it’s the kid’s grandma’s voice,” said Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s head scientist for Alexa AI./news/amazon-s-first-clothing-store-opens-its-doors-in-los-angeles.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-first-clothing-store-opens-its-doors-in-los-angeles.htmlAmazon’s brick-and-mortar clothing store, Amazon Style, is now open in the Los Angeles, California-area at The Americana at Brand mall, the company announced today along with a video profiling some of its employees. It’s a new addition to Amazon’s lineup of physical locations, along with Whole Foods and its cashier-less Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon Style will feature clothing from brands like Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, Champion, and more, and though it does not feature Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, it will have regular employees present to help you from start to finish./news/an-iowa-school-district-is-using-chatgpt-to-decide-which-books-to-ban.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/an-iowa-school-district-is-using-chatgpt-to-decide-which-books-to-ban.htmlIowa’s Mason City Community School District is pulling 19 books from school libraries that administrators found to contain “a description or depiction of a sex act” in order to comply with Republican-backed state laws. A key arbiter of whether the books should be banned: ChatGPT. The news that the district had used AI software in its decisions was first reported by the Mason City Globe Gazette last week, but it wasn’t clear what tool was used — or how exactly officials went about doing it — until Popular Science reported that ChatGPT was used./news/analogue-is-making-a-highly-limited-pocket-that-glows-in-the-dark.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/analogue-is-making-a-highly-limited-pocket-that-glows-in-the-dark.htmlThe next version of the Analogue Pocket positively glows. Analogue revealed a new edition of its retro handheld today, and while it’s the same as the original functionally, this one glows in the dark. When the lights are on, the device is a pale green color, and the company says that the plastic housing can glow for up to eight hours when charged by various light sources (including incandescent light bulb, direct sunlight, or blacklight)./news/analyst-predicts-a-cheaper-apple-tv-by-end-of-2022.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/analyst-predicts-a-cheaper-apple-tv-by-end-of-2022.htmlAn Apple TV that actually competes with Roku and Amazon could be on the market by the end of the year. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a tweet, Apple would launch a new Apple TV “that improves cost structure” in the second half of 2022. Currently, Apple sells three Apple TV models. Its 4K Apple TV comes in 32GB and 64GB capacities and retails for $179 and $199, respectively. That’s a good deal for what you get from the 4K Apple TV./news/apple-carplay-will-soon-let-you-use-google-maps-waze-and-other-third-party-maps.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-carplay-will-soon-let-you-use-google-maps-waze-and-other-third-party-maps.htmlStarting in iOS 12 later this year, Apple’s CarPlay will no longer force you to use Apple Maps to get directions. Instead, you’ll be able to use navigation from any third-party app, like Google Maps, Waze, or whatever your mapping app of choice is. CarPlay already supported third-party apps in other scenarios. However, mapping has been one of those classic cases of Apple locking everyone into using its own service. But Apple Maps isn’t exactly a beloved app./news/apple-intelligence-is-the-name-of-apple-s-ios-18-ai-upgrade.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-intelligence-is-the-name-of-apple-s-ios-18-ai-upgrade.htmlApple is gearing up to reveal a new AI system on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac next week at WWDC 2024 — and it will be called Apple Intelligence, according to a report from Bloomberg. In addition to providing new “beta” AI features across Apple’s platforms and apps, it will reportedly offer access to a new ChatGPT-like chatbot powered by OpenAI. Apple reportedly won’t focus on buzzy AI features like image or video generation and will instead focus on adding AI-powered summarizations, reply suggestions, and an AI overhaul for Siri that could give it more control over apps while chasing applications with “broad appeal./news/apple-ipod-touch-review-2012.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-ipod-touch-review-2012.html"Thin" almost isn’t a strong enough word to describe the iPod touch. When you finally get it out of its impossible-to-open plastic packaging, it almost feels like you left part of it behind. It really is only a quarter-inch thick, though, and it really does weigh only 3.1 ounces. Remarkably, it doesn’t feel cheap or flimsy — it’s certainly a far cry from the incredible craftsmanship of the iPhone 5, but its aluminum back panel still feels quite solid and the slightly rounded edges are comfortable in your hand./news/apple-trusts-phobio-for-its-trade-ins-but-maybe-you-should-think-twice.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-trusts-phobio-for-its-trade-ins-but-maybe-you-should-think-twice.htmlWhen Daniel McGloin decided to trade in his mid-2017 Apple MacBook in February of this year, he thought he was getting a pretty good deal. The software engineer and San Diego native initiated the trade-in with Apple through the Apple Store mobile app, where he was quoted $350 for his used laptop. He felt it was in pretty good condition, with no apparent damage to the case and a fully functioning display and keyboard./news/apple-won-t-wait-until-next-year-for-some-ios-18-siri-improvements.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-won-t-wait-until-next-year-for-some-ios-18-siri-improvements.htmlSiri may do more than make the edges of your iPhone a glowy rainbow when iOS 18 drops this fall. Apple Intelligence features won’t be out until 2025 for anyone not testing them in beta this year, but reports suggest that Siri itself will still get natural language updates and other key features before the year is out. Apple could offer instructions for how to do things in iOS this year./news/apple-s-canceled-car-and-watch-display-projects-resulted-in-at-least-600-layoffs.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-canceled-car-and-watch-display-projects-resulted-in-at-least-600-layoffs.htmlApple’s canceled car and watch display projects resulted in at least 600 layoffs. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who says an additional 121 jobs are at risk due to Apple consolidating AI teams. Those 121 employees in San Diego have the option of moving to Austin (Apple is offering a $7,000 stipend) or leave the company at the end of April. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaXx2e5FtaGtpZ26AcK3PqaOeq12Yrq%2BvxKWcnWWTlr9uvNGooZ6bpGK%2Fpr%2FUpauenF2eu26t02ajnpmjqXp3fI9mo5qxn5uztA%3D%3D/news/apple-s-fitness-app-will-be-included-with-ios-16-no-apple-watch-required.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-fitness-app-will-be-included-with-ios-16-no-apple-watch-required.htmlApple will no longer require you to have an Apple Watch to use the Fitness app on iPhone starting with iOS 16. At WWDC 2022, the company announced that the app will be included with Apple’s upcoming major software update. On an iPhone, the Fitness app will use your iPhone’s motion sensors to track things like steps. What your iPhone tracks can be put toward closing your rings. It’s a big change for the Fitness app, and as my colleague David Pierce said in our liveblog, “now you can have the pleasure / torture of having to close your rings every day, even if you don’t have a watch./news/apple-s-new-airpods-pro-can-cancel-twice-as-much-noise.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-airpods-pro-can-cancel-twice-as-much-noise.htmlThe long-awaited refresh of Apple’s AirPods Pro is here. On Wednesday, at its “Far Out” event, the company announced a second-generation pair of the popular noise-canceling earbuds with a new H2 chip that the company promises will offer improved sound quality and noise cancellation. The H2 chip allows the new earbuds to cancel “up to twice as much noise” over the first generation AirPods Pro, Apple says in a press release./news/apple-s-new-find-my-feature-could-let-you-know-if-you-re-the-one-being-tracked.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-find-my-feature-could-let-you-know-if-you-re-the-one-being-tracked.htmlUltra-wideband just means high-frequency radio communications above 500MHz, but it now refers to two specific ideas: UWB is a standard where devices broadcast short, low-power pulses to reveal and securely verify their location. It’s useful for item trackers, digital car keys, and to keep robots from bumping into each other. 5G UWB is a marketing term for short-range, high-speed cellular internet connections that operate at millimeter-wave frequencies. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2lfaHx1e5FramprZmqGcK3PqaOeZZaeu6V5zLJkmqigYra1scxmqpqelanGbq3Lnqmtq12lv6bCxKerZquklrmstc2g/news/apple-s-new-iphones-use-esim-technology-but-only-ten-countries-in-the-world-support-it.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-iphones-use-esim-technology-but-only-ten-countries-in-the-world-support-it.htmlThe new iPhone XS and XS Max will have dual SIM capabilities, with a special edition for the Chinese market that contains a SIM tray which holds two physical cards. For users outside China, however, the new iPhone devices will support eSIM. While there are many benefits to eSIM, the nascent technology hasn’t seen wide adoption yet. Only ten countries offer eSIM support right now: Austria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Spain, the UK, and the US./news/apple-s-scary-fast-mac-event-all-the-news-from-apple-s-online-keynote-page-2.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-scary-fast-mac-event-all-the-news-from-apple-s-online-keynote-page-2.htmlHow Halloween-y is this whole thing going to be? I really can’t decide! On the one hand, Apple (specifically Craig Federighi, the Action Hero himself) loves being right on the edge of incredible cringe. But also, doing a whole Halloween bit during tonight’s event means a lot of meme risk and bad looks and congressional hearings where they show Tim Cook as a vampire and they’re like, “Yes, this, Apple is bad./news/at-t-is-now-telling-customers-the-galaxy-fold-will-ship-on-june-13th.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-is-now-telling-customers-the-galaxy-fold-will-ship-on-june-13th.htmlAfter Samsung delayed the launch of the Galaxy Fold, there are a few hanging questions. What caused the screens the break, and what will Samsung do to change the Fold’s design? But for those who preordered the device and are not put off by all the drama about the screens breaking, the biggest question of all might actually be this: when it will finally ship? AT&T has been emailing customers one potential answer — June 13th./news/ava-duvernay-will-write-and-direct-a-netflix-miniseries-about-the-central-park-five.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ava-duvernay-will-write-and-direct-a-netflix-miniseries-about-the-central-park-five.htmlAva DuVernay will write and direct an upcoming limited series about the Central Park Five for Netflix, The Hollywood Reporter reports. The series will mark DuVernay’s second project for Netflix, after the 2016 documentary 13th, which earned an Oscar nomination. The Central Park Five refers to five men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — who were wrongly convicted in 1990 of assaulting and raping a female jogger, Trisha Meili, in Manhattan’s Central Park the year prior./news/bambu-lab-has-officially-recalled-12-800-3d-printers.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bambu-lab-has-officially-recalled-12-800-3d-printers.htmlBambu Lab has officially recalled 12,800 3D printers. Remember how the Bambu A1 had a worrying heatbed cable issue, and recalled and offered refunds for every printer to be safe? The US CPSC has just blessed that February recall, revealing “all of them” was around 13K printers in total. Bambu moved quick — in fact, the printer already went back on sale in late April with a revised cable. Personally, I prefer the P1 series./news/bose-is-adding-multipoint-pairing-to-its-latest-earbuds.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bose-is-adding-multipoint-pairing-to-its-latest-earbuds.htmlBose is updating its two most recent pairs of earbuds, the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and the Ultra Open Earbuds, to add support for multipoint Bluetooth. A new software update rolling out to both products will enable them to pair with two devices at the same time for easier multitasking. The update, which will take a couple weeks to reach all customers, also includes a few bug fixes that are specific to Bose’s rather unique Ultra Open Earbuds./news/brave-s-de-amp-feature-bypasses-harmful-google-amp-pages.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/brave-s-de-amp-feature-bypasses-harmful-google-amp-pages.htmlBrave announced a new feature for its browser on Tuesday: De-AMP, which automatically jumps past any page rendered with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages framework and instead takes users straight to the original website. “Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether,” Brave said in a blog post. “And in cases where that is not possible, Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP / Google code from being loaded and executed./news/cadillac-is-resurrecting-its-subscription-service.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cadillac-is-resurrecting-its-subscription-service.htmlIt’s not yet clear how much the new version of the subscription service (dubbed “Book 2.0”) will resemble the original (“Book by Cadillac”). In the original version, customers payed an upfront fee of $500, and then a $1,800 monthly fee that included insurance, maintenance, and more. One big difference, though, is that Cadillac dealers will be handling far more of the day-to-day interactions with customers. Previously, Cadillac owned the vehicles in the subscription fleet, and dealt with the customers, leaving the nearly 1,000 dealers around the United States somewhat out of the loop./news/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-review-a-game-as-bloated-and-overwhelming-as-its-name.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-review-a-game-as-bloated-and-overwhelming-as-its-name.htmlIt’s impossible to discuss the new Call of Duty game without mentioning its size. The sheer magnitude of the software, in total gigabytes, has become perhaps the most defining and talked-about aspect of the long-running shooter series since the reboot of Modern Warfare last fall and the launch of Activision’s Warzone battle royale a few months later.  And it’s only growing larger. On PS5, the latest installment, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War coupled with Warzone, exceeds 250GB./news/chatgpt-returns-to-italy-after-ban.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chatgpt-returns-to-italy-after-ban.htmlChatGPT maker OpenAI has restored access to its service in Italy, saying it has implemented changes to satisfy Italian regulators. “ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy,” it said in a statement published by The Associated Press and also sent to The Verge. “We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy.” OpenAI said it had “addressed or clarified” the issues raised by the Italian Data Protection Authority (or GPDP) in late March./news/cheap-ai-is-better-at-removing-henry-cavill-s-superman-mustache-than-hollywood-special-effects.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cheap-ai-is-better-at-removing-henry-cavill-s-superman-mustache-than-hollywood-special-effects.htmlWhen 2017 superhero flick Justice League went through $25 million worth of “extensive reshoots,” there was one particularly unexpected hurdle: Henry Cavill’s mustache. The actor, who plays Superman in the DC universe, had grown the soup strainer for his role in Mission: Impossible 6. But when reshoots for Justice League came around, he couldn’t just shave the thing off, so it had to be digitally edited out. It looked... not great./news/chevy-lifts-stop-sale-order-on-glitchy-blazer-ev-and-slashes-prices.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chevy-lifts-stop-sale-order-on-glitchy-blazer-ev-and-slashes-prices.htmlChevy lifted the stop-sale order on the Blazer EV that was put in place last December after numerous owners and reviewers reported significant issues with the vehicle’s software, including blank infotainment screens and error messages while charging. Chevy rolled out a software update that it says should fix the problems as well as provide a few enhancements for Blazer EV owners. In addition, Chevy announced it was cutting the Blazer EV’s price by an average of $5,900 and that the vehicle will qualify for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit when sales resume./news/chicago-s-predictive-policing-tool-just-failed-a-major-test.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chicago-s-predictive-policing-tool-just-failed-a-major-test.htmlStruggling to reduce its high murder rate, the city of Chicago has become an incubator for experimental policing techniques. Community policing, stop and frisk, "interruption" tactics — the city has tried many strategies. Perhaps most controversial and promising has been the city’s futuristic "heat list" — an algorithm-generated list identifying people most likely to be involved in a shooting. The hope was that the list would allow police to provide social services to people in danger, while also preventing likely shooters from picking up a gun./news/cities-skylines-2-s-fix-for-high-rent-removing-landlords.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cities-skylines-2-s-fix-for-high-rent-removing-landlords.htmlCities: Skylines 2’s fix for high rent? Removing landlords. For months, players have struggled to resolve the “high rent” notification popping up inside their cities. But now, developers say they fixed the issue by eliminating “virtual landlords,” who’ve apparently been driving up prices behind the scenes. Instead, rent is now equally paid by all renters, and they’ll automatically move out if it gets too high. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfa3xyg45ra2pwYGWAdHvCoquinaNiwKzFy6KlnqtdZ8BussixZJ%2BnomK1qrPHZqmepqRiv6a5zq%2Bgp59doa6vsMuoqZ2r/news/comedy-central-mtv-nickelodeon-and-more-viacom-channels-coming-to-youtube-tv.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/comedy-central-mtv-nickelodeon-and-more-viacom-channels-coming-to-youtube-tv.htmlWhen Viacom and CBS closed their merger in December 2019, the latter company gained access to a plethora of networks — networks the newly merged company, ViacomCBS, is now bringing to distribution partner Google in a new deal with YouTube TV. Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, CMT, Paramount Network, TV Land, and VH1 will all launch on YouTube TV this summer, the company announced today. The multi-year deal also includes prior CBS channels that were available to YouTube TV subscribers, including CBS broadcast stations, CBS Sports Network, Pop TV, Smithsonian Channel, and The CW./news/computex-2023-news-hands-on-and-more.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/computex-2023-news-hands-on-and-more.htmlArm Cortex Immortalis 2023. Say it with me: Arm doesn’t sell chips. But it does design CPU and GPU cores its licensees can optionally use. What’s new? Cortex-X4 (big CPU): 15% more perf, 40% less power Cortex-A720 and A520: 20% and 22% more efficient, respectively Immortalis-G720 (the GPU): 15% more perf, 40% lighter on memory bandwidth Last time, they only came together in the MediaTek Dimensity 9200, which arrived in the Vivo X90, X90 Pro and Oppo Find X6./news/darren-aronofsky-s-mother-will-likely-be-2017-s-most-hated-movie.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/darren-aronofsky-s-mother-will-likely-be-2017-s-most-hated-movie.htmlWelcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the Toronto International Film Festival. The history of cinema is littered with movies that became infamous for pushing audiences beyond what they’re willing to accept. There’s an implied contract when someone buys tickets to a film — particularly one released by a major studio — that it’s going to fit within certain constraints in terms of intensity, imagery, or just general good taste./news/dealbook-summit-2023-elon-musk-bob-iger-and-more.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dealbook-summit-2023-elon-musk-bob-iger-and-more.html“Is this coming across clearly?” At the DealBook event, Musk tried to clarify his comments on Jewish activist groups, but I’m not sure it came across quite as he hoped — still casting blame on Jewish activists and other persecuted groups with broad and generalized accusations. He said there are activist groups across the US who are supporting Hamas, and “a number of those organizations received funding from people in the Jewish community./news/ditto-s-true-form-is-this-comfy-chair.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ditto-s-true-form-is-this-comfy-chair.htmlA Ditto chair is on its way to Japanese retailers. It exists somewhere on the spectrum of big gut Pikachu and a bean bag chair, and, according to PokéJungle, it costs roughly $250. The whole situation is a nice lavender and appears very, very squishy. Just behind your seated body looms Ditto’s eternal smile. As a pokémon, Ditto’s whole schtick is imitating other pokémon. It turns into anything it wants, albeit with the same unnerving, wide-mouthed smile of its blubbery purple form./news/dolby-dimension-review-headphones-for-your-home.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dolby-dimension-review-headphones-for-your-home.htmlFor the past couple of weeks, I’ve been wearing headphones a lot. That’s not too different from normal – I wear wireless headphones all the time when I’m commuting or working at the office. But the new Dolby Dimension headphones aren’t meant to be worn while commuting or on the go, they are designed to be worn in your home. So, instead of using my Sonos speakers, my TV’s soundbar, or the speaker on my phone, I’ve been wearing the Dimensions at home whenever I’ve been listening to music, streaming YouTube, or watching TV and movies./news/donald-glover-will-voice-simba-in-live-action-remake-of-the-lion-king.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/donald-glover-will-voice-simba-in-live-action-remake-of-the-lion-king.htmlDonald Glover, the modern cultural polymath that he is, will add The Lion King remake to his resume. Director Jon Favreau just tapped the prodigious Atlanta creator and soon-to-be young Lando Calrissian as the voice of Simba in the upcoming live-action version of the 1994 Disney classic. Favreau did so in a tweet, attaching a photo of Glover along with the famous musical line, “I just can’t wait to be king./news/droid-fighter-and-lg-lucid-4g-release-date-leaked-on-verizon.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/droid-fighter-and-lg-lucid-4g-release-date-leaked-on-verizon.htmlFor the past couple of weeks we've been teased with the rumored existence of a "Droid Fighter" and "LG Lucid 4G," and now it looks like the mystery devices might have a release date on Verizon: Droid Life reports that the Lucid (which it says is likely the rumored "LG Cayman") will appear on March 29th, with the Fighter following on April 12th, according to what appears to be a leaked Verizon document./news/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-review-just-roll-with-it.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-review-just-roll-with-it.htmlParamount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves makes two things clear within its first five minutes: it understands its audience and D&D experience isn’t necessary. You’d be forgiven for assuming this was going to be another lore-bloated fantasy epic, something that either fails to appease fans of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game or leans too far into it and confuses the “normies” — or is just plain awful like previous cinematic attempts./news/e3-is-not-returning-anytime-soon.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/e3-is-not-returning-anytime-soon.htmlThe news was contained in a footnote on a chart highlighting the city’s projected and actual number of hotel rooms booked for fiscal year 2022 and 2023. Apparently, the city does not expect E3 to return in 2024 or 2025. This news seems at odds with the messaging from E3’s organizers, ReedPop and the ESA. Earlier this year, the ESA — the trade organization that runs E3 — announced it was partnering with ReedPop, the entertainment company that runs large fan conventions like New York Comic-Con and Penny Arcade Expo, to run E3 2023./news/elizabeth-holmes-says-theranos-former-president-abused-her.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elizabeth-holmes-says-theranos-former-president-abused-her.htmlToday, Elizabeth Holmes cried on the stand as she recounted being raped at Stanford. It was part of the reason she dropped out of college, she testified. “I decided I was going to build a life by building this company,” she said on the witness stand today. When she started dating Sunny Balwani, her co-defendant who is being tried separately, “he said I was safe now that I had met him./news/elon-musk-says-yet-again-that-x-will-stop-letting-you-block-users.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-says-yet-again-that-x-will-stop-letting-you-block-users.htmlElon Musk says X’s — formerly Twitter’s — block feature is on the chopping block, repeating his long-standing gripe against the basic social networking feature. “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk said in an X reply on Friday. He followed up with another post: “It makes no sense.” Musk has made his feelings about blocking known in the past months. In June, he said that Twitter should remove blocking in favor of “a stronger form of mute,” and he’s complained about large block lists and mass blocking campaigns against users who subscribe to Twitter Blue./news/elon-musk-s-mini-submarine-not-practical-for-thailand-cave-rescue-say-authorities.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-s-mini-submarine-not-practical-for-thailand-cave-rescue-say-authorities.htmlThe rescue of a trapped soccer team in Thailand’s Tham Luang cave is over, after a team of international divers retrieved the remaining boys and their coach this morning. They did so without the assistance of Elon Musk and his purpose-built “kid-sized submarine.” The SpaceX and Tesla CEO announced he would try to help with the rescue operation last week, and refashioned part of a Falcon 9 rocket into an underwater escape capsule for the children./news/engineers-attempt-to-right-submerged-cruise-ship-costa-concordia-after-2012-crash.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/engineers-attempt-to-right-submerged-cruise-ship-costa-concordia-after-2012-crash.htmlThirty-two people were killed when the cruise ship Costa Concordia crashed and eventually capsized on January 13th, 2012. More than a year later, an ambitious mission to pull the ship upright is now underway. The Concordia must be righted by about 65 degrees before the ill-fated vessel can finally be towed away and turned into scrap metal. That process — known as parbuckling — is regularly used in these situations, but never for a boat quite the size of Concordia./news/enjoy-a-relaxing-drive-around-iceland-courtesy-of-sigur-r%C3%B3s.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/enjoy-a-relaxing-drive-around-iceland-courtesy-of-sigur-r%C3%B3s.htmlIcelandic post-rock veterans Sigur Rós are diving into the world of "slow tv" with Route One, a 24-hour live-streaming event that pairs footage from one of Iceland's longest highways with some of the band's new music. Scenes from the Icelandic countryside are being soundtracked by a version of the band's new song "Óveður," one that's transforming in real time thanks to the use of "generative music software" called Bronze. (The stream started at 5PM ET, so it'll continue well into tomorrow./news/even-twitter-has-forgotten-about-fleets.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/even-twitter-has-forgotten-about-fleets.htmlRemember Fleets, Twitter’s disappearing tweets feature that was shut down just eight and a half months after it launched for everyone? No? Well, Twitter is pretending it doesn’t either — at least according to a tweet from the official @Twitter account on Tuesday: While @Twitter account is, in general, somewhat silly and works hard to feel like your Extremely Online friend (which makes sense to me because, well, it’s Twitter’s own account on the most Extremely Online platform out there), there’s actually a whole team behind it, according to an August Bloomberg report about who runs the account./news/everquest-next-the-free-to-play-mmo-has-been-canceled-because-it-isn-t-fun.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/everquest-next-the-free-to-play-mmo-has-been-canceled-because-it-isn-t-fun.htmlTo Our Daybreak Community, I’m writing today to let you know that, after much review and consideration, Daybreak is discontinuing development of EverQuest Next. For the past 20 years EverQuest has been a labor of love. What started as a deep passion of ours, as game creators, grew into a much larger passion shared by you, millions of players and Daybreakers alike. Watching EverQuest’s ability to entertain and bring people together has inspired and humbled us./news/every-phone-tv-and-radio-in-the-us-will-get-an-emergency-alert-today-here-s-how.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/every-phone-tv-and-radio-in-the-us-will-get-an-emergency-alert-today-here-s-how.htmlAs a reminder, at about 2:20PM ET on Wednesday, October 4th, your phone will probably make a loud noise and show a message that reads, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” A similar message will be broadcast over the air to TVs and radios that are turned on during the test. That’s because the government is testing its nationwide alert systems, which it’s required to do at least every three years./news/facebook-quitting-advice-from-a-professional-internet-quitter.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-quitting-advice-from-a-professional-internet-quitter.htmlBack in 2012, I quit the internet for a year. Between May 2012 and May 2013, I didn’t use the internet or ask people to use the internet for me. To make it extra hard, I didn’t use text messaging either. In a nutshell, I wanted to discover how many of my problems in life (lack of productivity, constant distraction, a sense running as fast as I could just to keep up) were the internet’s fault, and how many of those problems were just my own inherent faults./news/fallout-doom-and-skyrim-show-the-limits-of-blockbuster-games-in-vr.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fallout-doom-and-skyrim-show-the-limits-of-blockbuster-games-in-vr.htmlBethesda has really gone all-in with virtual reality. Whereas many developers and publishers have toyed with the medium, releasing smaller experiments to test the waters, over the last few weeks Bethesda has released three of its biggest games in VR. On the surface, it sounds great. With a VR headset, you can become fully immersed in the thrilling horror of Doom, the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Fallout, or Skyrim’s picturesque fantasy realm./news/fisker-shows-off-ambitious-ev-lineup-starting-at-29-900.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fisker-shows-off-ambitious-ev-lineup-starting-at-29-900.htmlFisker showed off a series of prototype vehicles at its first “Product Vision Day” event, outlining the EV startup’s wide-ranging roadmap for the coming years. These included the sub-$30,000 Pear SUV, the Ronin sports car, Alaska pickup truck, and a new off-road package for the Ocean SUV that Fisker just started delivering a few short months ago. Although the company had teased a few of these vehicles beforehand (and even opened reservations for the Pear last year), TechCrunch notes the event marked the first time they were all shown off in prototype form./news/for-netflix-s-live-action-avatar-to-work-zuko-had-to-find-his-heart-a-little-faster.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/for-netflix-s-live-action-avatar-to-work-zuko-had-to-find-his-heart-a-little-faster.htmlThe original Avatar: The Last Airbender series was three seasons long, developing its arcs patiently over 61 episodes. That allowed it a slowburn approach to exploring characters like Prince Zuko, whose emotional interiority played a huge role in making his trajectory so satisfying to watch. But one of the first things people are going to notice about Netflix’s new live-action Avatar adaptation — which is much shorter at eight episodes — is how much more quickly it starts to unpack the origins of Zuko’s rage and pull back the steely emotional mask he wears to hide his feelings from the world./news/for-self-driving-cars-the-free-ride-is-over.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/for-self-driving-cars-the-free-ride-is-over.htmlFor years, autonomous vehicles have operated in relative obscurity. With few vehicles on the road and a laissez-faire attitude among government regulators, automakers and big tech firms have been free to test — and even commercially deploy — with little oversight. Well, those days are done. In rapid succession, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened investigations into almost all the major companies testing autonomous vehicles as well as those that offer advanced driver-assist systems in their production cars./news/from-a-certain-point-of-view-is-a-star-wars-anthology-with-an-all-star-lineup.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/from-a-certain-point-of-view-is-a-star-wars-anthology-with-an-all-star-lineup.htmlDel Rey Books announced a new anthology, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, featuring an all-star lineup of authors. The best part? Proceeds from the book will go to First Book, a charity that provides books to children in low income families. What stands out about From a Certain Point of View is the number of big names included in the table of contents: newcomers to the Star Wars universe, such as Meg Cabot (Princess Diaries), Adam Christopher (Empire State), Polygon’s Griffin McElroy, Ken Liu (Grace of Kings), Nnedi Okorafor (Binti), Daniel José Older (Half-Resurrection Blues), and veteran franchise authors, such as Alexander Freed (Rogue One novelization / Battlefront: Twilight Company), Paul Kemp (Crosscurrent / Riptide), John Jackson Miller (New Dawn / Kenobi), and Christie Golden (Inferno Squad / Dark Disciple)./news/fujifilm-instax-mini-evo-review-more-camera-than-toy.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fujifilm-instax-mini-evo-review-more-camera-than-toy.htmlFujifilm’s latest instant camera, the Instax Mini Evo, manages to perfectly balance good design and retro gimmicks to encourage play. Housed in a plastic body that evokes cameras from decades ago is a hybrid camera with intuitive dials and buttons and software that allows for 100 combinations of lens filters and color profiles. But this fine balance comes at a high cost. At $200, it is one of the most expensive Instax cameras that Fujifilm makes, only second to the Square SQ20./news/galaxy-nexus-review-the-verge.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/galaxy-nexus-review-the-verge.htmlLook, feel, USABILITY For starters, Ice Cream Sandwich just looks really different than previous versions of the OS. While Gingerbread attempted a stark, neon green on black, striving-for-futurism dance (with lots of mixed messages on styling and tone), ICS is much more unified. The general motif of the user interface centers on use and reuse of blue and gray dotted with bursts of color, mixed in with flattened navigation, and multi-leveled, multidimensional panels and icons./news/game-of-thrones-has-spent-three-years-foreshadowing-arya-killing-the-night-king.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/game-of-thrones-has-spent-three-years-foreshadowing-arya-killing-the-night-king.htmlSpoilers ahead for Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night.” When Arya stabs the Night King at the 11th hour in the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night,” it was a shocking relief for the high tension of seeing most of the show’s fan-favorite cast overwhelmed by the sheer mass of undead. But showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explain that they’ve known about the twist for three years now, and they’ve been foreshadowing it in the series since 2016./news/game-of-thrones-the-spoils-of-war-a-breakdown-of-the-5-most-memorable-scenes.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/game-of-thrones-the-spoils-of-war-a-breakdown-of-the-5-most-memorable-scenes.htmlThe fourth episode of Game of Thrones’ seventh season finally delivered on one long-awaited promise. Nearly a third of “The Spoils of War” was devoted to a massive face-off between Jaime Lannister and his army, and Daenerys Targaryen, her Dothraki hordes, and one very large dragon. But as memorable as the closing battle was, it was also an episode about people grappling for purpose. Littlefinger is trying to make himself relevant again; Dany is trying to prove she can live up to the name Mother of Dragons; and Sansa and Arya are trying to understand what being a Stark means in their current predicament./news/ghostwire-tokyo-looks-incredibly-creepy-in-lengthy-new-gameplay-trailer.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ghostwire-tokyo-looks-incredibly-creepy-in-lengthy-new-gameplay-trailer.htmlSony’s latest showcase event was dedicated exclusively to Ghostwire: Tokyo with an in-depth gameplay trailer — and the game sure does look creepy. The paranormal action game from Tango Gameworks, the studio behind the Evil Within series, takes place in a modern version of Tokyo full of folklore creatures. It’s described as a “reimagining” of the Japanese metropolis, just, you know, with supernatural creatures lurking around. The gameplay trailer is nearly 10 minutes long (it’s followed by an inside look at development), making it the best look we’ve had at the game so far, and it’s full of terrifying creatures and slick first-person action./news/go-read-this-nyt-investigation-on-the-inaccuracy-of-prenatal-blood-tests.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/go-read-this-nyt-investigation-on-the-inaccuracy-of-prenatal-blood-tests.htmlThe blood testing technology, called noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), works very well for more common disorders like Down syndrome. But The New York Times reported that a review of data from multiple studies showed that when NIPT is used to test for uncommon things like Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (which is found in one in 20,000 births) or Cri-du-chat syndrome (which is found in one in 15,000 births), positive results are wrong 80 percent of the time or more./news/google-extends-repair-program-for-pixel-8-phones-plagued-by-a-pink-vertical-line.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-extends-repair-program-for-pixel-8-phones-plagued-by-a-pink-vertical-line.htmlGoogle has announced on its Pixel Help Community portal that it’s extending the Pixel 8’s repair program for phones displaying vertical lines and exhibiting flickering. This policy update allows Pixel 8 owners to get this problem fixed under warranty, for up to three years after purchase, if their phone “Exhibits a vertical line running from the bottom of the display to the the top or a display flicker.” Google isn’t promising that every phone with the issue will qualify, though — Google or an authorized repair partner will need to determine that it qualifies for the extension based on the serial number of your phone./news/google-made-a-star-wars-game-that-turns-your-phone-into-a-lightsaber.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-made-a-star-wars-game-that-turns-your-phone-into-a-lightsaber.htmlIf you're really excited about the imminent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but you don't feel like you've been sufficiently immersed in it yet, Google has a new interactive web game you might enjoy. It's called Lightsaber Escape, but it should maybe more accurately be called Escape with Lightsaber, because that's what you'll be doing. The experience is a collaborative project between Google, Disney, Lucasfilm, and Industrial Light & Magic./news/hades-ii-is-the-perfect-steam-deck-game.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hades-ii-is-the-perfect-steam-deck-game.htmlNow that the Hades 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./news/half-life-alyx-gives-us-a-big-hint-about-gordon-freeman-s-future.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/half-life-alyx-gives-us-a-big-hint-about-gordon-freeman-s-future.htmlHalf-Life fans have gotten used to uncertainty over the fate of hero Gordon Freeman. Gordon last appeared in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, an extension of the 2004 game Half-Life 2. But the follow-up Episode Three was canceled. The newly released Half-Life: Alyx is set five years before Half-Life 2 and stars Gordon’s ally Alyx Vance, so it doesn’t majorly advance the story. Even so, the new game includes a big hint about Gordon’s future journey./news/here-s-a-tesla-model-y-with-roof-mounted-lidar-sensors.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-a-tesla-model-y-with-roof-mounted-lidar-sensors.htmlHere’s a Tesla Model Y with roof-mounted lidar sensors. Last month, we reported that Tesla had purchased $2 million worth of lidar sensors from Luminar, a surprising deal given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s very public disparagements of autonomous vehicle companies that partly rely on the laser sensor. This week, a reader sent us this photo of a Tesla Model Y with Luminar’s Hydra sensors mounted on the roof. The back of the vehicle says “Engineering Vehicle,” which could mean the company is using lidar to validate its self-driving software (although Musk has claimed that wasn’t necessary “anymore”)./news/here-s-apple-s-916-page-appeal-over-the-apple-watch-ban.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-apple-s-916-page-appeal-over-the-apple-watch-ban.htmlThere was no question that Apple would appeal when the International Trade Commission banned Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales last year. Well, if you’ve got some time, you can now read all 916 pages of Apple’s appeal to the Federal Circuit. A quick recap: the Apple Watch ban centers around whether Apple infringed upon medical device-maker Masimo’s pulse oximetry patents. The ITC sided with Masimo, concluding that Apple had infringed their patents, and that the infringement was harming domestic industry./news/here-s-how-one-iphone-thief-locked-hundreds-of-users-out-of-their-devices.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-how-one-iphone-thief-locked-hundreds-of-users-out-of-their-devices.htmlHere’s how one iPhone thief locked hundreds of users out of their devices. The WSJ’s Joanna Stern interviewed a convicted iPhone thief at a correctional facility in Minnesota, who offered up all the details on how he would steal and break into devices — from watching people type in their passcodes to quickly changing their Apple ID login information. Apple has since introduced a Stolen Device Protection feature in its iOS 17./news/how-match-group-conquered-dating-apps.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-match-group-conquered-dating-apps.htmlIf you’re tired of seeing the same profiles in your dating app, you might be tempted to try a different one. After all, there are a lot of them out there: Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, The League — apps that are all marketed differently and are supposed to provide distinct experiences. But have you ever wondered why using them feels the same?  In episode two of Land of the Giants: Dating Games, we’re diving into the backstory of Match Group, the company that helped start online dating in the ‘90s and now owns most of the dating app market./news/how-to-fix-wordle-if-it-s-suddenly-disappeared.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-fix-wordle-if-it-s-suddenly-disappeared.htmlAs a fairly enthusiastic — if not very expert — Wordle player, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea that The New York Times was adding the word game to its quiver. But I understood why the Times would want it, and why the game’s creator would want to not have to deal with its unexpected popularity. So I heaved a sigh, and prepared to continue to play on the new site./news/how-to-install-the-ios-18-and-ipados-developer-betas.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-install-the-ios-18-and-ipados-developer-betas.htmlBefore we get started, a word of warning: beta software — especially early developer beta — is inherently unfinished and may contain bugs. Think carefully before installing either on any device you depend on. They also may not include all of the features that will be in the final release. Your experience may differ from others depending on the apps you use. And finally, if you do decide to install it, we suggest backing up your device’s data in case things go badly./news/how-to-keep-your-apple-watch-quiet.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-keep-your-apple-watch-quiet.htmlIf you want to keep your Apple Watch from disturbing you with alarms, notifications, or any other sounds, you have no fewer than three different ways to keep it quiet: silent mode, theater mode, and Do Not Disturb. They differ subtly, but all have their place, and are all managed from the same screen. You control the three quiet modes from your watch’s Control Center, which you access by swiping up from the bottom of any screen./news/how-to-manage-your-iphone-lock-screen.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-manage-your-iphone-lock-screen.htmlCompared to Android, iOS has historically been the less customizable, more you-get-what-you-get operating system. While that remains true to an extent, it has come a long way, with customization options that didn’t exist three or four years ago. For example, these days, you can do a lot more with your lock screen than you might realize.  Here’s how to customize what you see — and how it looks — on your iPhone lock screen./news/how-to-master-the-new-iphone-7-and-iphone-7-plus.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-master-the-new-iphone-7-and-iphone-7-plus.htmlThe iPhone 7 is a lot like its predecessor. It looks identical, save a slightly different camera on the standard model and an additional lens on the iPhone 7 Plus. And when put in a case, you wouldn’t be able to tell this year’s Apple product from last year’s, even if you ordered one with the new "jet black" finish. Sure, inside there are faster processors, slightly bigger batteries, and lenses with higher megapixel counts./news/how-to-stream-your-gaming-sessions.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-stream-your-gaming-sessions.htmlUpdate 3:45PM ET, April 6th: Added a link to Streamlabs’ new OBS software for macOS, which recently launched. Also, this post has been updated to reflect that Windows Game Bar no longer allows broadcasting. Video game streaming is something many enthusiast and casual players want to partake in, but getting a stream up and running on your preferred gaming platform can be a chore. Streaming gameplay involves sharing the games you play and your reactions in real time with a remote audience./news/how-to-tie-a-playstation-linked-fortnite-account-to-your-nintendo-switch.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-tie-a-playstation-linked-fortnite-account-to-your-nintendo-switch.htmlSony finally backed away from its staunch and hard-headed approach to cross-platform play yesterday, announcing that it would start letting players of Epic Games’ Fortnite use PlayStation-linked accounts on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, as well as play against one another on shared servers. The move is a huge win for consumers after the PR disaster Sony suffered back at E3. It may also be the first step in a broader, transformational shift in the console game industry away from the locked down and restricted approach to platforms that’s existed pretty much since the onset of widespread online multiplayers./news/huawei-s-wannabe-airpods-look-and-feel-good.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/huawei-s-wannabe-airpods-look-and-feel-good.htmlI know I’m supposed to be outraged about tech companies blatantly copying each other’s designs, but I don’t have the naivety for it anymore. Huawei, the company that’s been shipping copycat Apple EarPods with its Android smartphones for years, has decided to also clone Apple’s wireless AirPods, and the product of that is called the Huawei FreeBuds. I got my hands on the FreeBuds at Huawei’s P20 launch event, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by their styling and comfort./news/hulu-cancels-space-drama-the-first-after-one-season.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hulu-cancels-space-drama-the-first-after-one-season.htmlHulu has canceled its space drama The First, after a single season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, which launched last year, followed the astronauts and theif families as they prepared to travel to Mars. Hulu ordered the series from House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon back in 2017 for an eight-episode season. The show follows the efforts of a private space company in 2033 as it prepared a mission to the red planet, and starred Sean Penn as the leader of that expedition./news/i-know-i-won-t-get-sick-but-i-m-scared-of-public-toilet-seats-anyway.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-know-i-won-t-get-sick-but-i-m-scared-of-public-toilet-seats-anyway.htmlThe first time I saw someone sit on a public toilet, I screamed. My friend and I were in a McDonald’s restroom, casually chatting, when she lowered her pants and sat on the toilet. “What are you doing?” I shouted, suddenly panicky. I told her she should squat on the seat or at least cover it in toilet paper: public toilets are dirty! She shrugged my concerns away and kept doing her business./news/in-the-middle-east-women-influencers-risk-death.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/in-the-middle-east-women-influencers-risk-death.htmlAmong one of Tara Fares’ final Instagram posts, which garnered tens of thousands of likes when it was uploaded back in June, is a photo of the Iraqi influencer leaning against her white Porsche convertible. “They don’t wanna see u win,” it says, with Fares posing into the wind, the shadow of her photographer visible in the “golden hour” light. Save for the Iraqi license plate, the photo could easily have been taken in LA, where any number of young women pose in front of convertibles at sunset for Instagram on a given day./news/internal-documents-reveal-apple-knew-the-iphone-6-was-more-likely-to-bend-than-previous-models.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/internal-documents-reveal-apple-knew-the-iphone-6-was-more-likely-to-bend-than-previous-models.htmlRecently released internal Apple documents (revealed by Judge Lucy Koh as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Apple regarding touchscreen failure due to bending) have revealed that Apple knew that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones were more likely to bend than previous models, via Motherboard. According to the court documents, Apple’s internal tests found that the iPhone 6 was 3.3 times more likely to bend than the iPhone 5S, while the larger iPhone 6 Plus was 7./news/ionna-the-ev-charging-company-backed-by-seven-automakers-is-beginning-to-take-shape.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ionna-the-ev-charging-company-backed-by-seven-automakers-is-beginning-to-take-shape.htmlLate last year, seven automakers — BMW, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis — announced plans for a joint venture to build easy-to-access public DC fast charging infrastructure in the US and Canada.  The resulting company, Ionna, announced today that its headquarters will be in Durham, North Carolina and feature what the company is calling a “Quarterback Lab,” designed to help each participating car company address charging issues following software updates, tackle customer issues closer to the source, and offer interoperability testing./news/iphone-x-review-face-the-future.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iphone-x-review-face-the-future.htmlAfter months of hype, endless speculation, and a wave of last-minute rumors about production delays, the iPhone X is finally here. Apple says it’s a complete reimagining of what the iPhone should be, 10 years after the original revolutionized the world. That means some fundamental aspects of the iPhone are totally different here — most notably, the home button and fingerprint sensor are gone, replaced by a new system of navigation gestures and Apple’s new Face ID unlocking system./news/irobot-s-combo-j7-plus-is-irobot-s-smartest-most-powerful-robot-to-date.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/irobot-s-combo-j7-plus-is-irobot-s-smartest-most-powerful-robot-to-date.htmliRobot’s newest robot vacuums are smarter and more powerful, and the mopping bot can scrub your floors more deeply. At least, that’s what the company is claiming as it launches its newest flagships: the $1,399 Roomba Combo j9 Plus vacuum / mop and the $899 j9 Plus vacuum. Both models are available to pre-order now at irobot.com in the US and Canada. iRobot also launched two midrange robot vacuums that can mop last week./news/james-o-keefe-s-replacement-at-project-veritas-quits-due-to-strong-evidence-of-past-illegalit.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/james-o-keefe-s-replacement-at-project-veritas-quits-due-to-strong-evidence-of-past-illegalit.htmlJames O’Keefe’s replacement at Project Veritas quits due to “strong evidence of past illegality.” O’Keefe, the organization’s founder and Forbes 30 under 30 Hall of Shamer, announced his exit in February while the Justice Department investigated how Project Veritas came into possession of a diary belonging to President Biden’s daughter ahead of the 2020 election. Now his replacement, Hannah Giles, says she’s out too*, as reported by The Messenger. *But only after she delivered evidence of past crimes to the authorities, according to her statement, included below./news/jurassic-farce-scientists-confirm-that-dinosaur-dna-can-t-be-pulled-from-amber-fossils.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jurassic-farce-scientists-confirm-that-dinosaur-dna-can-t-be-pulled-from-amber-fossils.htmlIn a crushing blow to Jurassic Park enthusiasts worldwide, the odds of successfully extracting genetic information from fossils preserved in amber appears to be downright nil. That's the verdict from a team of UK scientists who used highly sensitive sequencing techniques in an effort to detect ancient DNA molecules in fossilized insects. "Because these fossils were captured in amber, there was a possibility that their DNA might resist degradation and be available to extract,"/news/ken-liu-s-the-grace-of-kings-could-become-a-film-franchise.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ken-liu-s-the-grace-of-kings-could-become-a-film-franchise.htmlChinese-based DMG Entertainment has snapped up the rights for Ken Liu’s 2015 epic fantasy novel The Grace of Kings, according to Variety. The company is looking to turn the novel series into a larger film franchise. 'The Grace of Kings' is an ambitious and exciting epic fantasy The Grace of Kings is Liu’s debut novel, and is an incredibly ambitious and exciting work of epic fantasy. The first of a projected trilogy, Liu’s novel follows a bandit, Kuni Garu and the son of deposed royalty Mata Zyndu as they lead an uprising against the brutal emperor of the Dara Islands./news/kickstarter-funding-record-smashed-by-3-3-million-of-pebble-smartwatch-pledges.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kickstarter-funding-record-smashed-by-3-3-million-of-pebble-smartwatch-pledges.htmlAllerta's Pebble smartwatch started its Kickstarter funding round less than a week ago, but it's already raised more money than any project in the site's history, having smashed the record set by Double Fine's adventure game last month. The current figure of $3,378,384 is over 33 times the originally set goal, and there's still a full month left for the Pebble project to receive pledges. Allerta has been adding features like waterproofing to the Pebble smartwatch as it's become increasingly clear that money isn't going to be a problem, and just yesterday said that there were additional "/news/koss-releases-wireless-porta-pros-with-aptx-and-12-hour-battery.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/koss-releases-wireless-porta-pros-with-aptx-and-12-hour-battery.htmlThere are few, if any, pieces of technology that have endured in their original form quite as long as Koss’ Porta Pro on-ear headphones, which are turning 34 years old this year. Their lasting popularity is testament to the Porta Pros’ quality, but a change has finally been enforced upon Koss with the shift away from headphone jacks on smartphones. And that brings us the new Porta Pro Wireless model being released today./news/lego-s-new-400-lion-knights-castle-is-a-love-letter-to-my-childhood.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lego-s-new-400-lion-knights-castle-is-a-love-letter-to-my-childhood.htmlLast January, Lego promised its 90th anniversary would be one to remember: the company agreed to revive one of its classic Lego themes (like Space, Castle, and Pirates) with a new, adult-grade Lego set. But it turns out we’re not just getting one nostalgia bomb today — the company has decided to bring back classic Space and classic Castle at the same time.  First, Lego is revealing the Galaxy Explorer, a $100 upscaled version of the original iconic Lego spaceship that’s up for pre-order today./news/lenovo-ideapad-gaming-3-review-almost-a-good-1-000-gaming-laptop.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lenovo-ideapad-gaming-3-review-almost-a-good-1-000-gaming-laptop.htmlIf you’re shopping for a gaming laptop, you’ll find good specs like Intel’s powerful 10th Gen six-core i7 H-series processor, a fast PCIe-based SSD, and a 120Hz refresh rate display in many of the costly, high-end models currently available. But you’ll also find all of that in Lenovo’s new IdeaPad Gaming 3, a machine that costs a bit less than $1,000 even at its most expensive configuration.  This budget-friendly laptop is able to run most modern games at a playable frame rate, and if you’re looking for something that’s useful for getting work done on, it has a decent selection of ports, a responsive Windows Precision trackpad, and a full-size backlit keyboard with satisfying key travel./news/listen-to-this-amazing-remaster-of-super-mario-world-s-soundtrack.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/listen-to-this-amazing-remaster-of-super-mario-world-s-soundtrack.htmlFans are remastering the soundtrack to Super Mario World, creating uncompressed versions of the original tracks that were never possible on the Super Nintendo hardware. The Super Mario World Restored project is ongoing, but you can already listen to nine tracks from the original game over on The Brickster’s YouTube channel. As The Brickster explains on Twitter, this isn’t simply a case of taking the tracks from the original game and cleaning them up./news/louisiana-passes-bill-banning-kids-from-the-internet-without-parental-consent.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/louisiana-passes-bill-banning-kids-from-the-internet-without-parental-consent.htmlState lawmakers in Louisiana passed a new bill Tuesday banning minors from creating their own social media accounts. The bill, HB61, would ban “interactive computer services” from allowing people under 18 to sign up for their own accounts without parental consent. The bill’s definition of online services is extremely broad, seemingly barring minors from creating social media accounts on sites like Instagram, accessing popular online games like Roblox and Fortnite, or even registering for an email address./news/lucid-motors-says-it-expects-to-make-fewer-evs-in-2022-than-it-originally-planned.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lucid-motors-says-it-expects-to-make-fewer-evs-in-2022-than-it-originally-planned.htmlLuxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors is slashing its production forecast for 2022, citing supply chain constraints. The Newark, California-based company announced it was revising down its production expectations to 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles from the original prediction of 20,000 vehicles. “This reflects the extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges we’ve encountered and our unrelenting focus on delivering the highest-quality products,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement. “We remain confident in our ability to capture the tremendous opportunities ahead given our technology leadership and strong demand for our cars./news/magic-leap-one-creator-edition-preview-a-flawed-glimpse-of-mixed-reality-s-amazing-potential.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/magic-leap-one-creator-edition-preview-a-flawed-glimpse-of-mixed-reality-s-amazing-potential.htmlWhen you write about augmented reality headsets, you’re supposed to start by describing something impossible — like a pastel dinosaur stomping its feet in a quiet office space in Florida. This dinosaur is made of fist-sized blocks that look like candy, and the office belongs to Magic Leap, a mysterious startup that’s been working in near-total secrecy for seven years. I should clarify that the dinosaur also isn’t real. It exists only in the lenses of the Magic Leap One, a pair of goggles that Magic Leap hopes will replace phones, computers, and every other high-tech screen in our lives./news/mario-land-lands-on-the-switch.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mario-land-lands-on-the-switch.htmlMario Land lands on the Switch. It’s a great time for fans of classic games, and for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers that means a trio of Game Boy games, led by the oddball Super Mario Land. If you want to feel ancient, the company says the release is timed to the handheld’s 35th anniversary. I still remember when it was only 30. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfanxygY5ra2ptZ2aGdXvNoqWtnZ6ZvG64wKebZqSRo7G0ec6nZK2glWLAuLXTnJ8%3D/news/message-unread-silicon-valley-s-secret-failed-bid-to-save-blackberry.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/message-unread-silicon-valley-s-secret-failed-bid-to-save-blackberry.htmlIn the summer of 2012, just a few months into the job, RIM (now BlackBerry) CEO Thorsten Heins was trying to guide the company through an ongoing crisis. The stock price had slipped to an eight-year low; BlackBerry 10 had been pushed back to the next year. And a Silicon Valley investor was secretly trying to buy the company out from under its management team. Yesterday, entrepreneur and angel investor Robin Chan posted a slide deck for "/news/microsoft-surface-pro-x-new-sq2-processor-and-platinum-color-option.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-surface-pro-x-new-sq2-processor-and-platinum-color-option.htmlMicrosoft is updating its $1,499 ARM-based Surface Pro X device today. The big new additions are an updated SQ2 processor, and a classic platinum color option found on Microsoft’s other Surface devices. The updated processor should improve performance across a variety of apps, and Microsoft is also promising up to 15 hours of battery life. The SQ2 processor is the main internal change, and Microsoft has once again worked with Qualcomm to customize it for the Pro X./news/microsoft-teams-went-down-around-the-world-for-over-eight-hours-it-s-better-now.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-teams-went-down-around-the-world-for-over-eight-hours-it-s-better-now.htmlTitle: Some users may experience multiple issues with their Microsoft Teams User impact: Users may have experienced multiple issues with their Microsoft Teams. More info: Affected scenarios included, but weren’t limited to the following: - Users logging in or unlocking their devices after some time may have had missing messages. - Users may have been unable to load messages in channels and chats. - Users were unable to view or download their media (images, videos, audio, call recordings, code snippets)./news/microsoft-s-repairability-push-now-extends-to-xbox-controllers-too.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-repairability-push-now-extends-to-xbox-controllers-too.htmlMicrosoft has started selling controller parts on its online store. Owners of both the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller and the standard Xbox Wireless Controller can head to the Microsoft store right now to buy replacement boards, sticks, buttons, covers, and more. Now, if your shoulder buttons are broken or your sticks are drifting, it means you don’t have to rely on third-party sources for parts and directions to attempt a repair that could be much cheaper than replacing controllers that can cost $59./news/modern-family-s-new-episode-never-leaves-the-screen-of-a-macbook-pro.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/modern-family-s-new-episode-never-leaves-the-screen-of-a-macbook-pro.htmlMacBooks and iPhones pop up in movies and TV so often that it’s nearly a trope unto itself, but on February 25th ABC’s Modern Family is going a step further. A new episode called "Connection Lost" takes place entirely on the screen of a character’s laptop — and while it’s a fun new riff on the sitcom's successful formula, it’s also one of the most glowing love letters to the Mac you'll see this this side of an Apple keynote./news/monster-hunter-world-pc-review.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/monster-hunter-world-pc-review.htmlCapcom’s dinosaur-destroying smash hit Monster Hunter World belatedly arrives on Steam today nearly six months after its launch for consoles. Monster Hunter World has defied expectations to become one of the most successful games in the developer’s history. It’s already sold well over 8 million copies, and the PC version could push that number up much higher. But was it worth the wait? The PC version of Monster Hunter World is solid and, in many ways, better than the console experience, provided you have the rig to support it./news/moonfall-is-a-disaster-movie-about-the-moon-falling.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moonfall-is-a-disaster-movie-about-the-moon-falling.htmlYou pretty much always know what to expect from a Roland Emmerich movie: namely, that a good chunk of the planet is going to be destroyed. The director of films like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow is now taking that to its logical extreme with Moonfall, a movie about the Moon... falling. According to the synopsis, the movie is set when “a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it./news/moto-z-play-review-the-best-battery-life.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moto-z-play-review-the-best-battery-life.htmlInside the Moto Z Play is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor. It’s not the Snapdragon 820 used in top-tier smartphones — and it benchmarks accordingly. But in day to day use, it’s extremely difficult to pinpoint any performance issues. The Moto Z Play does just about everything briskly without noticeable hiccups. This is a dramatic difference from the Snapdragon 617 processor used in other midrange devices like the Moto G4 and BlackBerry’s DTEK50, where lag can become a frequent source of frustration./news/moviepass-was-down-last-night-because-it-ran-out-of-money.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moviepass-was-down-last-night-because-it-ran-out-of-money.htmlThe writing has been on MoviePass’ wall for a long while now, but precipitous stock drops and constant financial bad news hasn’t stopped the company from ticking along — until last night, when service was disrupted because the company ran out of money, and its parent company borrowed an emergency $5 million from the hedge fund Hudson Bay. The last widespread MoviePass outage happened earlier this month In corporate speak: “The $5./news/netflix-is-sticking-to-sports-adjacent-streaming-instead-of-live-sports-for-now.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-is-sticking-to-sports-adjacent-streaming-instead-of-live-sports-for-now.htmlThere seems to be a lot of focus on streaming live sports, but based on comments from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, it appears the company plans to largely stay out of that game for the moment. “We really think that we can have a really strong offering for sports fans on Netflix without having to be part of the difficulty of the economic model of live sports licensing,” he said during the company’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday./news/new-york-city-s-250-000-street-lights-will-all-be-leds-by-2017.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/new-york-city-s-250-000-street-lights-will-all-be-leds-by-2017.htmlNew York City is transitioning its 250,000 street lights to energy-efficient LEDs in an upgrade that should be completed by 2017. CBS reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the time frame today, noting that the upgraded lights will save city taxpayers around $14 million a year once the transition is complete. The savings are two-fold: LEDs consume less power than their high-pressure sodium counterparts, resulting in around $6 million in savings, and they also have a much longer lifespan, lasting up to 20 years./news/niantic-lays-off-staff-and-shuts-down-games-as-it-focuses-on-pok%C3%A9mon-go.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/niantic-lays-off-staff-and-shuts-down-games-as-it-focuses-on-pok%C3%A9mon-go.htmlNiantic is making some major organizational changes, including layoffs, game shutdowns, and the closure of its Los Angeles studio, according to an email from Niantic CEO John Hanke shared on the company’s website. The changes are designed to narrow the company’s focus, especially on developing and maintaining its cash cow, Pokémon Go. Alongside this round of layoffs, which will affect about 230 employees, Niantic will be “sunsetting” its NBA game, NBA All World, Hanke said, and will stop production on its Marvel game, Marvel World of Heroes./news/nier-automata-anime-hit-by-delays-after-first-three-episodes-already-released.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nier-automata-anime-hit-by-delays-after-first-three-episodes-already-released.htmlNieR: Automata Ver1.1a, the anime based on PlatinumGames’ action RPG, has seen its release interrupted by the ongoing impact of the covid pandemic. The show’s official Twitter account has announced that the release of the rest of the series has been indefinitely delayed. Unusually, this announcement has come after the first three episodes of the show were already released on Crunchyroll following a January 7th premiere. “Due to the impact of COVID-19 on production, we have decided to postpone the broadcast and distribution of episode 4 and all subsequent episodes,” the statement reads, adding that an updated release schedule will be announced on Twitter soon./news/nintendo-gives-shovel-knight-the-first-indie-amiibo.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-gives-shovel-knight-the-first-indie-amiibo.htmlShovel Knight is one of the best indie games available for Nintendo systems, with beautifully observed reverence for NES-era design. And it looks like Nintendo has noticed, because Yacht Club Games is now the first indie developer to have been bestowed with its own Amiibo. The NFC-powered figurine will let players customize and level up Shovel Knight in Shovel Knight on the Wii U and 3DS, as well as any future Shovel Knight games — none have been announced just yet, but it sounds like they're on the way./news/nintendo-s-next-two-mobile-games-will-be-free-to-play.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-s-next-two-mobile-games-will-be-free-to-play.htmlNintendo's next two games for smartphones will be released for free on Android and iOS, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The gaming company announced last month that its next two mobile titles would be based on popular franchises Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, but pricing was not mentioned. Nintendo's first mobile game,social media app Miimoto, was launched for free in March year, and has been downloaded by more than 10 million users since./news/nissan-ariya-first-drive-an-ev-pioneer-regains-its-credibility.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nissan-ariya-first-drive-an-ev-pioneer-regains-its-credibility.htmlBefore the Tesla Model 3 dominated the EV landscape, there was the Nissan Leaf: a small hatchback with a tiny battery and tiny range that was the best-selling EV in the world for years. Those years stretched on and on as the vehicle — introduced way back in 2010 — was Nissan’s only real EV in the United States for over a decade. Nissan was going through a rough patch at the time, but now it’s back with a brand new EV: the Ariya./news/nokia-reveals-new-logo-to-remind-you-it-doesn-t-make-phones-anymore.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nokia-reveals-new-logo-to-remind-you-it-doesn-t-make-phones-anymore.htmlFinnish telecoms firm Nokia has redesigned its logo to remind the world that it doesn’t make mobile phones anymore. “In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told Bloomberg. “We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalization, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones./news/nordvpn-reveals-server-breach-that-could-have-let-attacker-monitor-traffic.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nordvpn-reveals-server-breach-that-could-have-let-attacker-monitor-traffic.htmlNordVPN says one of its servers was breached in March 2018, exposing some of the browsing habits of customers who were using the VPN service to keep their data private. NordVPN says the server, located in Finland, did not contain activity logs, usernames, or passwords. But the attacker would have been able to see what websites users were visiting during that time, a company advisor said, although the content of the websites likely would have been hidden due to encryption./news/noted-apple-analyst-drops-yet-more-iphone-7-details.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/noted-apple-analyst-drops-yet-more-iphone-7-details.htmlSpoiler alert: KGI Securities' Ming-chi Kuo, who has been predicting Apple hardware details with a high degree of accuracy for years, issued a new research note over the weekend with some information about the new iPhone days before Apple is set to reveal it. None of the supposed iPhone 7 announcements, specs, or features would be particularly shocking in and of themselves, but together they give a solid overview of what Apple is likely to have in store./news/now-the-ipad-pro-has-to-live-up-to-the-macbook-air.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/now-the-ipad-pro-has-to-live-up-to-the-macbook-air.htmlToday, we’re expecting a grab bag of new products from Apple, headlined by new iPad Pros. Given the relatively minor spec bumps that we got on last year’s iPad Pros, this time around, we’re hoping for a more substantial update. In some ways, it seems likely that Apple will deliver, at least with the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro.  I’m sure the specs will be impressive. But after the release of the first MacBooks with Apple’s own M1 Arm-based silicon, there’s a strange inversion happening./news/nvidia-s-new-workstation-rtx-6000-ada-gpu-might-cost-more-than-7-000.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-s-new-workstation-rtx-6000-ada-gpu-might-cost-more-than-7-000.htmlNvidia’s about to launch its new for-serious-work-only RTX 6000 graphics card, and it’s going to be expensive. The new workstation card apparently showed up in retail listings on sites like ShopBLT and CompSource, according to VideoCardz, with prices coming in at a business expense-busting $7,378 to over $8,000. Announced in September, the RTX 6000 is powered by the same Ada Lovelace architecture as Nvidia’s new RTX 40XX-series gaming offerings. We didn’t get information about the 6000’s pricing at that time, but competing top-end workstation cards like AMD’s Radeon Pro W6800 with 32GB of VRAM can cost less than $4,000 in comparison./news/ouya-review-can-an-indie-console-take-on-sony-and-microsoft.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ouya-review-can-an-indie-console-take-on-sony-and-microsoft.htmlController I don't really care what a console looks like — I'd like it to be small and beautiful, but as I type this there's a large and hideous Xbox 360 prominently displayed on my TV stand next to its equally large, equally hideous power brick. My hardware requirements are "work properly," and everything else is gravy. I do care about the controller, though, which is every bit as important to a console as the trackpad is to your laptop, or the steering wheel to your car — whether literally or figuratively, they drive the whole experience./news/pandora-is-streaming-adele-s-25-and-her-label-can-t-stop-it.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pandora-is-streaming-adele-s-25-and-her-label-can-t-stop-it.htmlAdele's 25 is the biggest album in the world right now, and it's made it there all without a single stream on Spotify. In fact, it might have made it there because there hasn't been a single stream on Spotify: Adele and her label made the decision not to stream 25 anywhere online, encouraging people to actually buy the album or its songs outright. But despite the ban, some services have songs from 25 up streaming./news/project-ursa-is-a-fresh-keycap-profile-for-topre-boards.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/project-ursa-is-a-fresh-keycap-profile-for-topre-boards.htmlListen, I don’t want to be the guy who always posts about weird keyboard stuff. I have other interests. But I need to tell the dozens of Verge readers with Topre keyboards about these keycaps. Ursa is a new spherical doubleshot keycap profile for Topre that is available for group buy until May 15th. Reactions to the previous sentence will likely fall into three camps: I recognize some of those wordsAlready smashed that checkout buttonA keycap group buy?/news/rad-power-bikes-says-it-will-only-produce-ul-certified-e-bikes-and-batteries-going-forward.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rad-power-bikes-says-it-will-only-produce-ul-certified-e-bikes-and-batteries-going-forward.htmlRad Power Bikes, the largest e-bike manufacturer in North America, says that going forward, it will only produce bikes that comply with UL safety standards. The announcement comes after a series of deadly fires, mostly in New York City, were linked to malfunctioning e-bike batteries. UL Standards and Engagement (formerly Underwriter’s Laboratory) is a nonprofit organization that develops safety standards for a whole host of consumer products, including e-bikes and e-scooters./news/razer-blade-2014-review-laptop-gaming-never-looked-so-good.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/razer-blade-2014-review-laptop-gaming-never-looked-so-good.htmlBut before you run out and buy a new Blade, let's talk about the elephant in the room: not everything plays nicely with that 3200 x 1800 resolution. Older games like Portal 2 weren't designed for screens this crisp, and their artwork doesn't hold up under close scrutiny. It's a little bit like when HDTVs were first introduced and newscasters realized they needed to do a more careful job with their makeup./news/read-elon-musk-s-first-email-to-twitter-employees.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/read-elon-musk-s-first-email-to-twitter-employees.htmlSorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message. Frankly, the economic picture ahead is dire, especially for a company like ours that is so dependent on advertising in a challenging economic climate. Moreover, 70% of our advertising is brand, rather than specific performance, which makes us doubly vulnerable! That is why the priority over the past ten days has been to develop and launch Twitter Blue Verified subscriptions (huge props to the team!/news/relive-nasa-s-ill-fated-solar-powered-helios-prototype-through-images.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/relive-nasa-s-ill-fated-solar-powered-helios-prototype-through-images.htmlIn 1999 NASA's solar-powered, unmanned Helios Prototype aircraft took to the air with the goal of achieving sustained flight at 100,000 feet — and now you can relive the experience through images. As part of its daily "history of spaceflight" series, Space.com has posted a 13-year-old photo of the massive craft — which had a wingspan of 247 feet — but if you want more, NASA has a pretty large archive of images spanning the Helios' lifetime, from 1999 to 2003./news/return-to-bird-world-is-the-real-soundtrack-to-a-fake-sequel-to-a-video-game-that-doesn-t-exist.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/return-to-bird-world-is-the-real-soundtrack-to-a-fake-sequel-to-a-video-game-that-doesn-t-exist.htmlIn Return to Bird World, players are brought back to the floating kingdom of Bird World thousands of years after the events of the original game to find the once-brilliant island has fallen into ruin. While the darker setting is a departure from the original Bird World, the new game still has one key trait in common: it doesn’t actually exist. But its soundtrack does. Return to Bird World comes from musician and Twitter personality Leon Chang, who’s been releasing video game-inspired albums for the past few years./news/ridley-scott-to-produce-sequel-series-to-2001-a-space-odyssey.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ridley-scott-to-produce-sequel-series-to-2001-a-space-odyssey.htmlA sequel miniseries to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is in the works, and Ridley Scott is on board as executive producer. The new series, 3001: The Final Odyssey, will be based on classic sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name, and will reportedly see release sometime in 2015. According to SlashFilm, 3001 will be adapted for the screen by Pirates of the Caribbean scribe Stuart Beattie./news/ring-founder-is-officially-leaving-amazon.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ring-founder-is-officially-leaving-amazon.htmlRing’s new CEO Liz Hamren announced in an email to employees today that founder Jamie Siminoff is leaving the video doorbell company and Amazon altogether. Siminoff says he founded Ring after looking for a way to answer his door from his smartphone while tinkering in his garage, and then Amazon reportedly paid more than $1 billion to acquire the company in 2018, adding it to a growing suite of smart home security products./news/rivian-goes-public-in-one-of-the-biggest-ipos-ever.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rivian-goes-public-in-one-of-the-biggest-ipos-ever.htmlElectric vehicle startup Rivian is now a publicly traded company after executing one of the biggest initial public offerings in history. Rivian shares started trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Wednesday at around $78 per share. That gave Rivian an overall valuation of nearly $80 billion and helped it net $12 billion in fresh cash, despite the fact that it only just recently started to make and ship its first electric pickup trucks./news/samsung-buys-sony-s-stake-in-lcd-joint-venture-for-939-million.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-buys-sony-s-stake-in-lcd-joint-venture-for-939-million.htmlSony and Samsung have ended their LCD joint venture established in 2004. The split comes after rumors of the dissolution were first reported in October and follows Sony's November announcement of a $1.2 billion annual loss due to weak demand from its loss-leading television division coupled with a strong yen. Samsung will acquire all of Sony's 50 percent share for 1.08 trillion won (about $938.97 million) and convert the joint venture into a wholly-owned subsidiary./news/samsung-galaxy-buds-live-review-good-sound-unique-design.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-buds-live-review-good-sound-unique-design.htmlSamsung should’ve called these things the Galaxy Beans. What a missed opportunity. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the new Galaxy Buds Live. The company’s latest true wireless earbuds and their unconventional design have leaked extensively over the last few months, and I’ve had many questions along the way. How do you achieve noise cancellation with earbuds that don’t seal in your ears? Can this bean shape possibly feel comfortable?/news/samsung-s-art-inspired-frame-tvs-are-up-to-1-000-off-right-now.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-art-inspired-frame-tvs-are-up-to-1-000-off-right-now.htmlEveryone may like watching movies on a big screen, but a hulking panel is nothing but an eyesore when turned off. That’s why Samsung’s Frame TV has become so popular over the last several years and why several TV manufacturers, including Amazon, have begun to crib ideas from the company’s artsy panels. And while the Frame certainly isn’t cheap, you can currently pick up the 2022 model at Amazon in the 55- and 65-inch sizing for $997./news/samsung-s-new-jet-bot-combo-robot-vacuum-is-also-a-steam-cleaning-mop.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-new-jet-bot-combo-robot-vacuum-is-also-a-steam-cleaning-mop.htmlSamsung is finally bringing out a new version of its Jet Bot robot vacuum, which was last updated in 2021. The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo will be on show at CES 2024 and is the first combination of robot vacuum and mop from the Korean electronics giant. (The company has a standalone robot mop, the Jetbot Mop.) Samsung hasn’t announced a price (the previous model, the Jet Bot AI Plus, costs $1,300) or a release date./news/screendrive-mini-cooper-s-countryman-is-the-ultimate-90s-gadget.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/screendrive-mini-cooper-s-countryman-is-the-ultimate-90s-gadget.htmlCars have become expensive rolling gadgets, full of screens, speakers, and sensors — but are they actually good gadgets? In our new series, ScreenDrive, we'll review cars just like any other device, starting with the basics of what they’re like to use. Oh wow, I thought, feeling the keyless entry engage just as soon as I gripped the handle of the Mini Countryman. Then, with a tug of the door, a winged Mini logo appeared on the asphalt at my feet, projected from a recessed light tucked just inside the door handle./news/self-driving-cars-google-and-others-map-the-road-to-automated-vehicles.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/self-driving-cars-google-and-others-map-the-road-to-automated-vehicles.htmlWe knew Tesla didn’t fix a flaw in Autopilot, and now we have their engineers on record admitting it. When two people die in very similar crashes years apart, the reason seems obvious. Autopilot, Tesla’s driver assist system, can’t recognize trucks crossing the road. They knew it couldn’t, and they didn’t fix it. And now we have testimony from their engineers admitting this. Despite the company’s knowledge “that there’s cross traffic or potential for cross traffic, the Autopilot at the time was not designed to detect that,” according to testimony given in 2021 by company engineer Chris Payne that was excerpted in a recent court filing./news/simcity-developer-s-forgotten-oil-refinery-simulator-is-now-playable-online.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/simcity-developer-s-forgotten-oil-refinery-simulator-is-now-playable-online.htmlSimRefinery, an all-but-forgotten oil refinery simulator from the studio behind SimCity, has been rediscovered and uploaded to the web as a playable game, ArsTechnica reports. The existence of the game came to light last month after it appeared in a wide-ranging report about Maxis’ little-known business simulations division. Now, however, an anonymous user has uploaded the game to the Internet Archive, where it’s actually playable in a browser thanks to a built-in DOSBox emulator./news/slugcats-and-survival-staying-alive-in-the-darkness-of-rain-world.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/slugcats-and-survival-staying-alive-in-the-darkness-of-rain-world.htmlIt all started with a half slug, half cat alien creature. Slugcat, as it's known, is the star of the upcoming Rain World, an intriguing survival game that just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund development. The game’s unique world and retro feel are part of its charm, but it’s the main character that is at the center of the experience. "I don't want to tell you if it's more slug or more cat,"/news/sony-could-be-thinking-about-turning-more-of-its-ip-into-theme-parks.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-could-be-thinking-about-turning-more-of-its-ip-into-theme-parks.htmlWhile Nintendo’s Super Nintendo World might be the video game theme park most people are making plans to visit in the near future, it sounds like Sony very much wants to get in on some of the IP-to-destination attraction action while the getting’s good. During a recent interview with Variety tied to the opening of the new Jumanji rides at Chessington World of Adventures in England, Merlin Entertainments (which runs multiple parks, including Chessington and Legoland) CEO Scott O’Neil and Sony Pictures partnerships executive VP Jeffrey Godsick were emphatic about how this new era of theme parks is being defined by technology “merging with IP which is merging with imagination./news/sony-hmz-t1-personal-3d-viewer-review.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-hmz-t1-personal-3d-viewer-review.htmlSo here's how that works: First, you adjust the straps in back, like a baseball cap, for the size of your skull. Then, slip the back on the rear of your head, and pull down the front. Cinch the straps tighter on either side (you'll hear clicking sounds as they ratchet down), and with any luck the weight will be situated on the forehead cushion rather than your nose. If so, turn on the HMD with the power button, pull the headphones down over your ears, and adjust the diopter (moving both lenses) until the center of the picture is clear./news/sony-wh-1000xm5-review-new-design-new-sound-new-price.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-wh-1000xm5-review-new-design-new-sound-new-price.htmlSony has a brand new flagship set of noise-canceling headphones: the WH-1000XM5. And as much as we’ve ragged on Sony’s terrible product names before, I think that at least with the 1000X series, people get it: these have always been among the very best noise-canceling headphones you can buy. Sony’s been battling it out for years with Bose, and more recently Apple, to win over frequent flyers, commuters, work-from-homers, and everyone else who can’t go without noise cancellation./news/sony-s-a5100-combines-super-fast-autofocus-and-touchscreen-controls-for-699.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-a5100-combines-super-fast-autofocus-and-touchscreen-controls-for-699.htmlSix months after introducing the A6000, a mirrorless camera with a lightning quick autofocus system, Sony is back again today with the new A5100. Priced at $549 (or $699 with Sony's 16-50mm kit lens), the company's latest addition to its Alpha line effectively replaces the NEX-5T. And it's a nice middle ground between the entry-level A5000 and A6000. The A5100 borrows the 24.3-megapixel APS-C sensor and revamped, speedy hybrid autofocus system from the A6000./news/sony-s-xperia-ear-sound-like-you-re-always-in-a-mall.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-xperia-ear-sound-like-you-re-always-in-a-mall.htmlFor a couple years now, Sony has been trying to build headphones that let you listen to music without blocking sound from the world around you. There are already lots of headphones that try to do this in a high-tech way, by using microphones to record sound from the outside world and pumping that in over your music. But Sony is taking a decidedly low-tech approach: it’s making earbuds with a giant hole in them to let sound through./news/spacex-fans-uprooted-their-lives-to-be-closer-to-starbase.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spacex-fans-uprooted-their-lives-to-be-closer-to-starbase.htmlThe first time Anthony Gomez saw one of SpaceX’s Starship prototypes take flight, he watched it on a projector. He was far away from the humid Texas coast, where the actual launch was taking place. Instead, he was sitting in his house in Florida with his girlfriend. On the wall of his home, Anthony admired the Starship rocket as it careened through the sky. All three of the Raptor engines cut off when the spaceship reached an altitude of roughly 41,000 feet, and the massive steel vessel began to plummet back to Earth, pitched over on its side, looking like a grain silo in free fall./news/sphero-spinoff-announces-a-3-200-programmable-robot.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sphero-spinoff-announces-a-3-200-programmable-robot.htmlWhile Misty I was a beta model meant for select developers to tinker with, Misty II is more polished and created for a wider audience. Misty II still retains the adorable form of its predecessor with a screen featuring expressive cartoon eyes, but now, it looks more complete, thanks to new white-and-gray housing. Much of what Misty I was supposed to do in theory can now actually be done with Misty II./news/spotify-says-it-s-retiring-car-view-without-an-immediate-replacement.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-says-it-s-retiring-car-view-without-an-immediate-replacement.htmlWe can confirm that we’re retiring the car view feature. This however doesn’t mean we don’t want to improve on how our users listen to Spotify while driving. On the contrary, we’re actively exploring a variety of new ways to deliver the best in-car listening experience. Think of retiring car-view as something that needs to happen in an effort to make way for new innovations coming down the track. Please bear with us for the time being./news/starlink-might-slow-you-down-if-you-use-too-much-data-during-the-day.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/starlink-might-slow-you-down-if-you-use-too-much-data-during-the-day.htmlStarlink is about to feel a little more like other ISPs, with a new data policy that mimics Anytime Minutes from the bad old days of highly restricted cellphone service. The satellite internet division of SpaceX will start throttling home internet for customers who use more than 1TB of Priority Access data per month during peak hours beginning in December. The change is being rolled out as part of a new “Fair Use policy” in the US and Canada./news/super-mario-maker-2-review-a-great-sequel-that-makes-me-miss-the-wii-u.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/super-mario-maker-2-review-a-great-sequel-that-makes-me-miss-the-wii-u.htmlWhen the original Super Mario Maker came out on the Wii U in 2015, I called it the console’s “defining game.” The entire experience of crafting your own 2D, side-scrolling Super Mario levels felt perfectly suited to the Wii U’s bizarre setup: you could tweak levels using the touchscreen tablet in your hands, and then play through them on your TV. It was a near-perfect marriage of software and hardware./news/telegram-update-adds-auto-delete-option-to-all-messages-and-more.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/telegram-update-adds-auto-delete-option-to-all-messages-and-more.htmlTelegram is updating its messaging app with options for auto-deleting messages, expiring invite links, and new unlimited groups, the company shared in a blog post. Much like Signal, Telegram received a burst of new users in the confusion over WhatsApp’s privacy policy and now the company is adopting features that were already part of its competitors’ apps, features which offer more security and privacy. Auto-deleting messages were already possible in Telegram’s encrypted Secret Chats, but this new update for iOS and Android adds the option to make messages disappear in any kind of chat./news/tesla-battery-day-news-and-updates-from-elon-musk-s-announcement.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-battery-day-news-and-updates-from-elon-musk-s-announcement.htmlAt Tesla’s Battery Day event, CEO Elon Musk made some big announcements: the company’s moves toward eliminating cobalt in its batteries, a new Plaid powertrain for the Model S that could get to speeds of 200 mph, and a new cathode plant to streamline its battery production. And, with the new battery technology, Musk has said Tesla will make a $25,000 car. The socially-distanced outdoor event had Musk and other presenters addressing Tesla shareholders in parked cars, who honked their horns to indicate their approval of the speakers’ remarks— almost like a drive-in movie/shareholders meeting./news/the-cold-terrifying-artwork-of-dead-space-3.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-cold-terrifying-artwork-of-dead-space-3.htmlOver the course of two main games and a handful of spin-offs, the Dead Space series has managed to carve out its own unique look amongst sci-fi horror games. From the clunky, distinctive armor and architecture to the terrifying necromorph monsters — think zombies spliced with a Guillermo del Toro horror — you know when you're looking at a Dead Space game. And while Dead Space 3 brings the series to a brand new setting, with the frozen planet Tau Volantis, art director Alex Muscat says that it's still Dead Space at its core./news/the-deadly-virus-in-planet-of-the-apes-is-a-fictional-flu-inspired-by-real-world-pandemics.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-deadly-virus-in-planet-of-the-apes-is-a-fictional-flu-inspired-by-real-world-pandemics.htmlSpoilers ahead for War for the Planet of the Apes. By the third film in the blockbuster Planet of the Apes series, it seems like the franchise should have wrung every last narrative drop from the virus that drove humans to near extinction and boosted apes’ brainpower. But in War of the Planet of the Apes, the simian flu flares up again, mutating to quietly spread through the last surviving people./news/the-existential-chatroom-app-you-can-only-use-when-your-phone-is-dying.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-existential-chatroom-app-you-can-only-use-when-your-phone-is-dying.htmlOn a good day, my phone battery never drops below 35 percent. A dead phone is a useless one, and the spike of anxiety that accompanies that fear is enough to send me scurrying for the nearest outlet. But when my charger is home in bed, and I’m out at a bar, there’s nothing I can do but embrace the inevitable: my battery is on its way to its own funeral./news/the-galaxy-note-9-s-s-pen-is-reportedly-getting-bluetooth-for-additional-functionality.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-galaxy-note-9-s-s-pen-is-reportedly-getting-bluetooth-for-additional-functionality.htmlThe S-Pen is getting a Bluetooth power-up The filing just confirms that the new S-Pen will have Bluetooth functionality in some way, but people have speculated on Twitter that Samsung will be using it as a multi-purpose Bluetooth button. If that’s the case, the button could let users do things like start and stop timers, control music, take photos, or even possibly answer or hang up on calls. It’s also easy to imagine Samsung giving the Bluetooth-equipped stylus other features, like a Tile-esque location option for tracking the pen in case you lose it (or using the pen to find your phone by triggering an alert or a noise./news/the-hummer-ev-e-bike-is-just-as-over-the-top-and-ridiculous-as-the-electric-truck-it-s-based-on.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-hummer-ev-e-bike-is-just-as-over-the-top-and-ridiculous-as-the-electric-truck-it-s-based-on.htmlGMC joined forces with the world’s largest supplier of e-bikes for law enforcement to produce an over-the-top, dual-motor, fat tire electric bike to complement its equally over-the-top, dual-motor, fat tire Hummer EV truck. It’s the latest sign that automakers are trying to seize on the popularity of e-bikes to help promote the shift to electric vehicles. The Hummer EV all-wheel drive e-bike (as it’s referred to in its press release) features twin 750W hub motors with a peak output of 2,400W, a 48-volt / 17 amp-hour LG-made battery (with an option to upgrade to a 21Ah version) and will be available to purchase either online at gmcebike./news/the-internet-archive-is-now-preserving-flash-games-and-animations.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-internet-archive-is-now-preserving-flash-games-and-animations.htmlThe Internet Archive — the non-profit digital library known for the Wayback Machine — announced that it will now preserve Flash animations and games, ahead of Adobe’s planned demise for the defunct web software at the end of 2020. The Archive will emulate the content so it plays as it used to, preserving critical elements of early internet culture for browsers that can no longer run them. The Internet Archive says you can already browse over 1,000 games and animations that it’s saved, including classics like “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” and “All your base are belong to us”./news/the-iphone-15-lineup-has-arrived-and-here-s-everything-you-need-to-know.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-15-lineup-has-arrived-and-here-s-everything-you-need-to-know.htmlHalide now offers special Action Button features when you’re inside the app. When you’re using Halide, the Action Button on the iPhone 15 Pro phones can now, according to the app’s patch notes for version 2.13: Toggle manual or autofocus Cycle through your lenses Switch between auto and manual exposure modes Switch between 12 and 48MP capture modes Toggle RAW capture and even capture a photo! (though, with a delay - we suggest using the volume button instead)/news/the-lovebirds-review-in-netflix-s-new-movie-jokes-come-first-romance-comes-second.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-lovebirds-review-in-netflix-s-new-movie-jokes-come-first-romance-comes-second.htmlA universal experience when it comes to dating: after a while, it’s hard to go out without getting roped into a murder mystery. The Lovebirds, a new Netflix movie starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, follows a couple with this terribly relatable problem in one of the funniest romantic comedies of the year so far — even if it’s light on the “romantic” part of the equation. Another strong selling point: a light runtime of 87 minutes, which is a wonderful length for a movie./news/the-next-big-thing-in-podcasts-is-talking-back.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-next-big-thing-in-podcasts-is-talking-back.htmlVince Major and Michael Tucker, hosts of the podcast Beyond the Screenplay, thought they knew what their audience wanted for their next episode: a deep-dive into Back to the Future — a “no brainer,” says Major. To be sure, though, they decided to poll their listeners. They didn’t go to Patreon, Instagram, Twitter, or the other places creators often chat with their audience. Instead, they went where their listeners already tune into their show, Spotify, and used its new polling tool to ask./news/the-problems-with-capitalism-as-explained-by-a-minecraft-hedge-fund-manager.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-problems-with-capitalism-as-explained-by-a-minecraft-hedge-fund-manager.htmlMicrosoft was also, as demonstrated by game developer and Minecraft player Alice Maz, buying a fully working model of late-stage capitalism. Maz recently reminisced about her time on a Minecraft server that had an economy plugin — a modification that altered the blocky world she chose to inhabit, giving it a functional system by which players could buy and sell the goods that Minecraft miners mine. After a spell, Maz says, a social hierarchy formed./news/the-wu-tang-clan-is-selling-its-new-album-inside-a-79-99-speaker.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-wu-tang-clan-is-selling-its-new-album-inside-a-79-99-speaker.htmlIn a world where Neil Young is trying to sell an MP3 player for $399, and Taylor Swift sees selfies as a form of currency, the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA wants to sell the group's latest album inside a portable speaker. The legendary rap group has partnered with speaker company Boombotix to come up witha wearable speaker that has eight of the songs from Wu-Tang's upcoming album, A Better Tomorrow included, along with an exclusive bonus track./news/these-are-the-sounds-left-behind-when-you-compress-a-song-to-mp3.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/these-are-the-sounds-left-behind-when-you-compress-a-song-to-mp3.htmlIf you're listening to music right now, you can probably hear the vocalist's slight pitch-shifts, or hiss of a drummer's hi-hats, or the padded thump of a synth bed. But do you ever think about what you're not hearing? If you listen to MP3s, your music library lost some of its sonic weight during the audio compression process, but it's likely you'd never realize anything was missing. Now you will. In his project "/news/this-dual-screen-concept-splices-a-windows-pc-with-an-e-ink-notepad.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-dual-screen-concept-splices-a-windows-pc-with-an-e-ink-notepad.htmlWhen I think about the future evolution of my job — in that sliver of time between now and the inevitable AI automation of all writing and reporting — I’m most curious about what will end up replacing my laptop. The Google Pixel 2 XL has, for most intents and purposes, taken over as my professional camera, but a smartphone isn’t quite versatile or comfortable enough to pen notes or longer articles on./news/tiktok-took-over-vidcon-and-youtube-is-next.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-took-over-vidcon-and-youtube-is-next.htmlPandemonium at VidCon is generally a good signifier of what people actually care about. Last year, it was YouTuber Tana Mongeau, who threw a disastrous, off-venue mini convention after being snubbed by VidCon. Before that, controversial personality Logan Paul caused a stampede just months after becoming one of the most detested YouTubers for his suicide forest video. Ever since it began in 2009, VidCon — the premiere convention for online creators — has revolved around the who’s-who of YouTube./news/tiktok-will-pay-creators-of-viral-filters-and-effects.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-will-pay-creators-of-viral-filters-and-effects.htmlFor the first time, TikTok is introducing a fund for creators making viral effects and filters — but based on the proposed payout structure, creators won’t be getting rich anytime soon. TikTok’s Effect Creator Rewards program sets aside $6 million to pay the creators of the platform’s most viral effects and filters based on how many videos are shared using their work. Effects that have been used in 500,000 videos within 90 days of being created will earn the artist $700./news/travis-scott-is-touring-inside-fortnite-this-week.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/travis-scott-is-touring-inside-fortnite-this-week.htmlAstroworld is heading to a virtual world. Today, Epic Games revealed that the next in-game Fortnite concert will be headlined by rapper Travis Scott, and it’s set to take place across several days this week. The concert even has a name: Astronomical. Epic describes it as “an other-worldly experience inspired by Cactus Jack’s creations, built from the ground up in Fortnite.” It will include the debut of a brand-new song./news/twitter-releases-data-on-periscope-s-copyright-infringement-problem.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-releases-data-on-periscope-s-copyright-infringement-problem.htmlCopyright infringement has increasingly been a problem for websites like Facebook, which depends on third parties to report copyright infringement, just like Periscope does. But the app has an additional problem to deal with — content can be pirated live, making it more difficult to police infringement. Twitter seems to be making an effort to combat the problem; Periscope's average rate of copyright compliance, at 71 percent, is higher than both Vine’s (68 percent) and Twitter’s (67 percent)./news/ubisoft-s-open-world-star-wars-game-is-apparently-coming-out-late-this-year.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ubisoft-s-open-world-star-wars-game-is-apparently-coming-out-late-this-year.htmlUbisoft’s open-world Star Wars game is apparently coming out “late this year.” A new Disney Parks blog post shared that release window for Star Wars Outlaws, as reported by IGN. Ubisoft had already announced that the game would be released in 2024. Update January 2nd, 3:51PM ET: Actually, scratch that release window. The Disney blog post now just says that the game is set to come out in “2024,” and Ubisoft told Kotaku that the timing in that post was incorrect./news/uhoo-announces-a-smart-air-quality-sensor.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uhoo-announces-a-smart-air-quality-sensor.htmlUhoo's smart air quality sensor is the newest addition to the ever-growing world of the Internet of Things. The air monitor, the subject of a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, can track and detect temperature, dust, humidity, air pressure, ozone, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOC), and relay all that information to a companion app on your phone. You can receive real-time alerts and track changes to the air quality in your home over time./news/us-cities-are-joining-forces-to-figure-out-what-the-hell-to-do-with-all-these-scooters.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/us-cities-are-joining-forces-to-figure-out-what-the-hell-to-do-with-all-these-scooters.htmlScooter sharing caught cities flat-footed. This is not in dispute. But now cities are pushing back and trying to get organized, banding together to form a new coalition to figure out what the hell to do with all these electric doohickeys littered across their streets. The Open Mobility Foundation, which is what the coalition is called, already has a long list of goals: improving safety; making sure dockless vehicles are equitably distributed across cities; ensuring scooters aren’t blocking the sidewalks or generally effecting the quality of life in cities; analyzing terabytes of data produced by scooters; and guaranteeing the privacy of scooter riders is protected./news/us-lawmakers-push-doj-to-investigate-apple-following-beeper-shutdowns.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/us-lawmakers-push-doj-to-investigate-apple-following-beeper-shutdowns.htmlFollowing a tumultuous few weeks for Beeper, which has been trying to provide an iMessage-compatible Android app, a group of US lawmakers are pushing for the DOJ to investigate Apple for “potentially anticompetitive conduct” over its attempts to disable Beeper’s services. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), as well as Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Ken Buck (R-CO), said in a letter to the DOJ that Beeper’s Android messaging app, Beeper Mini, was a threat to Apple’s leverage by “creating [a] more competitive mobile applications market, which in turn [creates] a more competitive mobile device market./news/video-games-change-the-way-you-dream.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/video-games-change-the-way-you-dream.htmlMaybe you're meandering, alone and lost, through an abandoned castle surrounded by a crocodile-filled moat. Suddenly, a flame-breathing dragon hurls towards you, snarling and gnashing its teeth, coming in for the kill. Do you wake up from this bizarro nightmare, covered in sweat and close to tears? Or do you stay in the dream, grab your imaginary sword, and walk boldly into battle? If your answer is the latter, then Jayne Gackenbach would suspect you're also a hardcore gamer./news/volkswagen-porsche-and-audi-finally-say-they-will-use-tesla-s-ev-charging-plug.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/volkswagen-porsche-and-audi-finally-say-they-will-use-tesla-s-ev-charging-plug.htmlVolkswagen Group, which also owns Audi, Porsche, and Scout Motors, is finally doing what nearly every other automaker has already done: announce its intention to adopt Tesla’s electric vehicle charging standard. VW said it is “exploring adapter solutions” so that its current EV owners can access Tesla’s Supercharger network and expects to have something to roll out by 2025. That same year, you’ll start to see new VW electric vehicles rolling off the assembly line with Tesla’s charging port natively installed./news/vudu-in-home-disc-to-digital-enters-public-beta-makes-building-an-ultraviolet-library-easier.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vudu-in-home-disc-to-digital-enters-public-beta-makes-building-an-ultraviolet-library-easier.htmlStarting today, Vudu users can convert their DVDs and Blu-rays to UltraViolet digital copies without leaving home. Walmart first announced that it would be giving customers this option at CES and has been conducting a private beta of the service in the months since. Today, that beta extends to all willing public participants. The process remains identical; Windows (and now Mac) users first need to download the Vudu To Go application, which scans and identifies DVDs and Blu-rays using data from GraceNote./news/watch-an-interview-with-the-man-who-created-the-sound-effects-in-nickelodeon-s-doug.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-an-interview-with-the-man-who-created-the-sound-effects-in-nickelodeon-s-doug.htmlFred Newman is the voice actor responsible for most of the sound effects in Nickelodeon’s Doug, including the theme song, and he’s also the subject of Great Big Story’s most recent great big story. In the video interview above, Newman discusses how he soundtracked the world of Doug Funnie using only his mouth. Throughout the series, Newman also voiced characters like Doug’s friend Skeeter, the frontman of The Beets, whose vocals were apparently inspired by Sting, and even Doug’s dog Porkchop./news/watch-lookalikes-will-ferrell-and-the-chili-peppers-chad-smith-have-a-drum-off.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-lookalikes-will-ferrell-and-the-chili-peppers-chad-smith-have-a-drum-off.htmlFor nearly two decades now, my dad has held firm in his belief that Will Ferrell and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith are the same human being and have never been seen together in the same room. It's something he brings up multiple times a year, every year, since Ferrell first joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in the mid-’90s. My dad's obviously not the only person to note the strong resemblance; Ferrell and Smith agreed to a "/news/what-binge-watching-horror-movies-at-tiff-taught-us-about-the-genre.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-binge-watching-horror-movies-at-tiff-taught-us-about-the-genre.htmlTasha Robinson and Bryan Bishop just spent more than a week at the Toronto International Film Festival, mainlining as many movies as they could manage. Here’s one set of reactions, based on a miniature horror festival they programmed for themselves at TIFF. Tasha: TIFF traditionally has a wide slate of programming. Some of the year’s biggest upcoming prestige pictures premiere there, but they play alongside indies looking for distribution, international releases looking for attention, and the Midnight Madness slate of would-be cult hits./news/what-to-expect-when-magic-leap-s-headset-launches.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-to-expect-when-magic-leap-s-headset-launches.htmlMagic Leap is finally releasing a developer version of its augmented reality system next year. The company has promised an SDK in early 2018 (three years later), to be followed by the actual hardware, called the Magic Leap One. Digital comic book publisher Madefire announced its partnership earlier this year; it uses its digital advantages to add effects like animation and sound to stories. The company publishes its own titles, but also works with companies like Dark Horse, DC, and more./news/what-s-the-right-price-for-a-vr-game-nobody-seems-to-know.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-s-the-right-price-for-a-vr-game-nobody-seems-to-know.htmlThe last time I clearly remember saying a non-VR game was “worth the price,” it was 2013. The game was The Swapper, and I remember because game developer Jon Blow went on a Twitter rant about the turn of phrase soon after, which may or may not have been directed at me. Regardless, I figured he was right: people were more than capable of reading my work and calibrating it to their own spending habits./news/whitney-wolfe-herd-is-coming-to-the-code-conference.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/whitney-wolfe-herd-is-coming-to-the-code-conference.htmlBumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is coming to the Code Conference, where she’ll be interviewed on stage by CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin. Wolfe Herd’s company has moved quickly to adopt AI in targeted ways to help daters. Last year, the company open-sourced an AI tool that Bumble had been using since 2019 to detect — and then blur — nude photos. Bumble’s president, Tariq Shaukat, has also said the company is using AI to “remove some of the friction” of dating./news/why-did-images-of-early-pregnancy-cause-such-a-firestorm-on-tiktok.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-did-images-of-early-pregnancy-cause-such-a-firestorm-on-tiktok.htmlWhen Jessica Valenti first decided to share photos of what an early pregnancy looks like on TikTok, she knew that the images would cause a stir. Since the official fall of Roe v. Wade, Valenti has become a devoted abortion rights commentator, offering daily updates about the current state of abortion rights through her newsletter, Abortion Every Day. Over the course of the project, Valenti has attracted her fair share of trolls and angry commentary — but none of it prepared her for the response to her TikTok on early pregnancy on October 19th./news/why-saying-idek-sets-off-venmo-s-terrorism-alerts.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-saying-idek-sets-off-venmo-s-terrorism-alerts.html"Idek" is a fairly simple acronym. Among English speakers, it's overwhelmingly used to mean "I don't even know," as a Google search will indicate. But it turns out that putting that same phrase in the text field of a Venmo transaction is a surefire way to get yourself in trouble. A number of tipsters have reported transactions being flagged by Venmo after leaving "idek" as a description, a phenomenon verified by The Verge in independent testing./news/wisconsin-s-4-1-billion-foxconn-factory-boondoggle.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wisconsin-s-4-1-billion-foxconn-factory-boondoggle.htmlIt was a veritable lovefest in Milwaukee in July 2017 when Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou announced their plan to create a heavily subsidized manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin. Walker gushed that Gou, who founded his Taiwan-based company in 1974, was “one of the most remarkable business leaders in the world.” Gou returned the favor by saying, “I’ve never seen this type of governor or leader yet in this world./news/with-dream-scenario-nicolas-cage-wants-to-let-you-in-on-a-secret.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/with-dream-scenario-nicolas-cage-wants-to-let-you-in-on-a-secret.htmlNicolas Cage has seen almost all of the memes inspired by his over four-decade-long career as one of Hollywood’s most distinct on-screen presences. He hasn’t always loved having to coexist with larger-than-life Nic Cage™ dwelling in people’s minds. But at 60, the actor has made a certain kind of peace with his status as a cinematic living legend. That peace, and Cage’s willingness to lean into his memeification, is what’s ultimately led to his recent metatextual turn in films like Lionsgate’s action satire The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and A24’s new black comedy Dream Scenario from director Kristoffer Borgli./news/xiaomi-s-mi-10t-pro-has-a-144hz-screen-and-a-5-000mah-battery.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xiaomi-s-mi-10t-pro-has-a-144hz-screen-and-a-5-000mah-battery.htmlXiaomi has announced the Mi 10T Pro, its latest flagship phone. The device follows the strategy seen last year, where the sleek Mi 9 was followed by a largely unrelated Mi 9T Pro with a heavier emphasis on specs. The Mi 9T Pro was one of the best phone bargains of 2019 in markets where it was available, so expectations should be high for the 10T Pro. The two standout specs on the Mi 10T Pro are its screen and its battery./news/yahoo-japan-is-going-dark-in-europe.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yahoo-japan-is-going-dark-in-europe.htmlYahoo Japan has announced that most of its online services will cease to be accessible in the European Economic Area and the UK as of April 6th. The company’s email, credit card, and ebook services will continue to be available, but everything else is going dark. The given reason is the cost of complying with European regulations, which would include GDPR. In a statement, Yahoo Japan says it would be difficult to provide continuous service for customers in the EEA and UK, and went further in telling Japanese publication IT Media that it would be “impossible” to meet the cost of compliance and respond to the related laws./news/you-can-play-every-half-life-game-for-free-for-the-next-two-months.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-play-every-half-life-game-for-free-for-the-next-two-months.htmlHalf-Life: Alyx will launch in March 2020 for PC-based VR headsets, but right now, Valve is giving gamers the opportunity to catch up on (almost) everything Half-Life-related at no expense. For the next two months, each of the Half-Life games will be free to play on Steam. This is basically a two-month-long trial; you won’t get to keep these games. Every game is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS (though all of these games are 32-bit apps, which means they don’t work on macOS 10./news/you-can-stream-the-super-bowl-for-free-with-this-one-month-paramount-plus-deal.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-stream-the-super-bowl-for-free-with-this-one-month-paramount-plus-deal.htmlYou don’t need to sign up for a pricey cable package just to watch the Super Bowl today, February 11th. Plenty of streaming services from Fubo to Philo TV are offering free trials, with Paramount Plus arguably offering the best deal. Today only, new subscribers can sign up for a free month of ad-free Paramount Plus with Showtime when they use offer code GOAT. The promotion means you’ll have access to a whole library of content to keep you entertained once the Big Game is over./news/youtube-is-bringing-nfl-style-multiview-to-coachella-2024-s-livestream.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-is-bringing-nfl-style-multiview-to-coachella-2024-s-livestream.htmlYouTube’s official livestream of this year’s Coachella music festival will feature a technology many football fans are familiar with. Multiview, which allows viewers to watch multiple livestreams on the same screen while tuning into one audio feed, will be available to viewers of the festival’s stream on any YouTube TV app — no need to subscribe to YouTube TV, the platform announced on Thursday. Just as multiview on NFL Sunday Ticket enables audiences to watch four different games at once, the feature for Coachella will allow for up to four different stages at once./news/youtube-s-supervised-experiences-help-parents-choose-what-content-their-kids-can-see.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-s-supervised-experiences-help-parents-choose-what-content-their-kids-can-see.htmlYouTube is announcing “supervised experiences,” a new set of restrictions that allows parents to better control what content their children can access on the streaming video platform. According to a blog post, YouTube hopes the filters will help parents slowly introduce their older children to age-appropriate content and features outside of the YouTube Kids app. The program will launch first with an early beta, with a wider beta rolling out “in the coming months./news/zoom-is-adding-new-options-for-sharing-your-pronouns.htmlWed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zoom-is-adding-new-options-for-sharing-your-pronouns.htmlZoom is adding a new field for pronouns today, along with options to manage when they’re displayed. Pronouns will appear in parentheses next to people’s names in calls, essentially the same as how they’ve looked up until now when people have manually entered them. They’ll also be visible under people’s names on their profile cards. Pronouns will be visible by default on the profile pages for accounts on the free Basic Zoom plan, as well as for accounts with a single licensed user./news/dead-slow-ahead-is-a-transcendent-sci-fi-documentary-that-must-be-experienced.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dead-slow-ahead-is-a-transcendent-sci-fi-documentary-that-must-be-experienced.htmlI was beginning to have the itch, a low-level anxiety that occurs on the third or fourth day of a film festival when you haven't seen anything you feel terribly strongly about one way or another. SXSW, in addition to being a premiere showcase for brands, bands and media outlets, happens to have a huge and often formless-feeling film lineup, but last year I had a pretty good track record./news/don-t-breathe-review-a-ruthlessly-efficient-claustrophobic-terror-machine.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/don-t-breathe-review-a-ruthlessly-efficient-claustrophobic-terror-machine.htmlWithin the first few minutes of the mesmerizing home-invasion thriller Don’t Breathe, writer-director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues pull something clever enough to impress jaded psychological-horror fans, without boring the adrenaline junkies sitting next to them in the theater. After one gruesome opening shot that teases where the film is eventually going, Alvarez and Sayagues introduce their protagonists in the middle of robbing a well-appointed house. With minimal dialogue and no exposition, they make it clear who these characters are and what drives them./news/this-tool-lets-real-drums-play-any-kind-of-electronic-beat.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-tool-lets-real-drums-play-any-kind-of-electronic-beat.htmlThen the show began, and Kiran Gandhi, a drummer who's toured with M.I.A. (and just graduated from Harvard Business School), started to play. Too many sounds — way too many sounds — began coming out of those drums. The snare crashed with a digital fizz, the tom sounded like an 808, the bass drum like a mallet bonging on the side of a grand piano. It sounded like a free jazz solo version of the beat behind a studio-produced dance banger, and it looked like magic./news/gravity-composer-explains-how-he-created-music-for-a-soundless-vacuum.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gravity-composer-explains-how-he-created-music-for-a-soundless-vacuum.htmlWhether you prefer Stanley Kubrick's judicious use of classical music in 2001: A Space Odyssey or Vangelis' disembodied electronica in Blade Runner, there's no denying the importance of a good soundtrack in elevating a sci-fi movie to cult status. The latest candidate for such a prized spot in film lore is Gravity, which is just hitting cinemas now amid widespread critical acclaim. The composer of its soundtrack is Steven Price, who most recently authored the nostalgic soundscapes of The World's End./news/a-brief-chat-with-storymodebae.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-brief-chat-with-storymodebae.htmlBriana became Storymodebae when she started her Twitch channel in January 2018. Back then she was still a year away from graduating from college, and in her own words, got the idea to start making things online after she started watching Let’s Plays on YouTube when she found herself stuck in games. “I was like, ‘I mean, I like playing video games and I think I can crack a joke on occasion./news/a-car-from-disneyland-s-iconic-peoplemover-just-sold-for-nearly-half-a-million-dollars.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-car-from-disneyland-s-iconic-peoplemover-just-sold-for-nearly-half-a-million-dollars.htmlThe PeopleMover was a fixture of California's Disneyland for nearly 30 years, a chain of slow-moving, open-air pods on a raised platform that took park goers on a guided tour of Tomorrowland. The attraction closed down in 1995 — but the individual cars are still floating around some 20 years later, it seems. The Mercury News reports that a PeopleMover car (technically a two-car unit) just sold for $471,500 at an auction in Los Angeles./news/a-pizzeria-owner-made-money-buying-his-own-24-pizzas-from-doordash-for-16.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-pizzeria-owner-made-money-buying-his-own-24-pizzas-from-doordash-for-16.htmlThere are many things that don’t make sense about global capitalism that I enjoy anyway — the clearly inadvisable, venture-backed monstrosities like dockless scooters and ride-sharing that, in the before times, changed how I interacted with the places I went. The thing that doesn’t compute for me is how these companies continue to burn through a reality-warping amount of other people’s cash in a way that upends the basic economics of things like taxi service and food delivery and fail, intentionally, to turn a profit./news/acer-chromebook-14-review-a-good-value-but-unprepared-for-the-future.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/acer-chromebook-14-review-a-good-value-but-unprepared-for-the-future.htmlThe keyboard is definitely a highlight. Keys are spaced nicely, and although I’ve seen other reviews complaining about shallow travel, it’s not really something that stood out to me. There’s no backlighting, unfortunately. Maybe that’s a lot to ask for from a $300 laptop, but it’s such a useful feature that I cringe every time it’s not there. The trackpad achieves a similar "fine" grade. I didn’t notice any obvious issues or hiccups with two-finger scrolling or Chrome OS’ three-finger gestures./news/alien-megastructures-around-this-star-were-just-dust-in-the-interstellar-wind.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alien-megastructures-around-this-star-were-just-dust-in-the-interstellar-wind.htmlFor the last two years, astronomers all over the world have been eagerly observing what is hailed as “the most mysterious star in the Universe,” a stellar object that wildly fluctuates in brightness with no discernible pattern — and now they may finally have an answer for its weird behavior. Scientists are fairly certain that a bunch of dust surrounding the star is to blame. And that means that the more tantalizing explanation — alien involvement — is definitely not the cause./news/alphabet-s-wing-is-bringing-its-drone-delivery-service-to-dallas-fort-worth.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alphabet-s-wing-is-bringing-its-drone-delivery-service-to-dallas-fort-worth.htmlDrones will soon be buzzing overhead in Dallas-Fort Worth, bearing small containers filled with Tylenol and Band-Aids. Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, is bringing its drone delivery service to the Texas city, its first densely populated market. Wing is starting small, making deliveries from just one Walgreens to the city of Frisco and town of Little Elm. The company says it will be utilizing its new operational model, in which small shipping containers parked next to the store act as tiny hangers from which Wing’s drones will be deployed./news/amazon-s-palm-reading-starts-at-the-grocery-store-but-it-could-be-so-much-bigger.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-palm-reading-starts-at-the-grocery-store-but-it-could-be-so-much-bigger.htmlEarlier this week, Amazon unveiled Amazon One: new technology for its Amazon Go stores that lets shoppers pay for their groceries by scanning the palm of their hand. By analyzing the shape of your hand and the unique configuration of veins under your skin, Amazon says its technology can verify your identity the same way facial recognition does. Although Amazon One will initially be used for payments only, it’s clear the tech giant has much bigger ambitions for this hardware./news/amd-radeon-rx-6700-xt-where-to-buy.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amd-radeon-rx-6700-xt-where-to-buy.htmlAMD’s new Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU will be available to purchase today starting at 6AM PT / 9AM ET, with a retail price of $479.99. Like other GPUs released within the last few months, AMD’s latest Radeon RX graphics card will likely sell out quickly, though AMD tells The Verge that you should be able to buy this graphics card. The Verge’s Sean Hollister reviewed the RX 6700 XT and noted in his review that the GPU is a solid performer that delivers a 1440p experience for most games, but the performance is not quite as good when compared to Nvidia's 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 cards./news/america-proves-too-tough-for-hitchhiking-robot-after-vandals-end-cross-country-trip.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/america-proves-too-tough-for-hitchhiking-robot-after-vandals-end-cross-country-trip.htmlIt seems the tough streets of Philadelphia were too much for a friendly little robot from Ontario. All the Hitchbot wanted to do was see the United States. But just two weeks after starting its cross-country journey in Boston, Hitchbot's trip has come to an unfortunate end. Last night, the cute little robot was vandalized and apparently decapitated in the City of Brotherly Love. It's a particularly unfortunate end for Hitchbot because the friendly little guy relies on human kindness./news/anthony-casalena-the-founder-and-ceo-of-squarespace-talks-about-acquiring-google-domains-why-its-n.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/anthony-casalena-the-founder-and-ceo-of-squarespace-talks-about-acquiring-google-domains-why-its-n.htmlToday, I’m talking to Anthony Casalena, the founder and CEO of Squarespace, the ubiquitous web hosting and design company. If you’re a podcast listener, you’ve heard a Squarespace ad.  I was excited to talk to Anthony because it really feels like we’re going through a reset moment on the internet, and I wanted to hear how he’s thinking about the web and what websites are even for in 2023. If you’re a Vergecast listener, you know I’ve been saying it feels a lot like 2011 out there./news/ao3-s-15-year-journey-from-blog-post-to-fanfiction-powerhouse.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ao3-s-15-year-journey-from-blog-post-to-fanfiction-powerhouse.htmlIn May 2007, fanfiction and traditionally published author Naomi Novik wrote a post on LiveJournal. “We are sitting quietly by the fireside, creating piles and piles of content around us, and other people are going to look at that and see an opportunity,” she wrote, referring to LiveJournal’s booming fanfiction community.  She feared that the community was open to exploitation. Where fanfic was a primarily female hobbyist space, a group of men had stepped onto the scene promoting FanLib, a commercialized site that would be populated with fan content./news/apple-added-refurbished-iphone-13-models-to-its-online-store.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-added-refurbished-iphone-13-models-to-its-online-store.htmlOne of the best things about new Apple phones is how quickly prices on older models start to fall shortly after. If you’ve been waiting for a good deal to drop on the iPhone 13 lineup, you might want to head on over to Apple’s online store because Apple’s just added a bunch of discounted refurbished iPhone 13 devices. In case you’re unfamiliar with what buying refurbished entails — basically, Apple thoroughly cleans, tests, and repackages each preowned product./news/apple-announces-upgraded-macbook-air-laptops-with-m3-chips.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-announces-upgraded-macbook-air-laptops-with-m3-chips.htmlThe 13-inch MacBook Air will cost $1,099, while the 15-inch model will cost $1,299. Both devices come with a Liquid Retina display and up to 500 nits of brightness, along with support for up to two external displays when the laptops are closed. They also include an upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E, which adds support for the 6GHz band and faster download speeds. The M3 MacBook Air models come with MagSafe charging and two Thunderbolt ports as well./news/apple-finally-stops-selling-the-series-3-watch.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-finally-stops-selling-the-series-3-watch.htmlAt WWDC 2022, Apple confirmed that the Apple Watch Series 3 wouldn’t support watchOS 9. Ever since then, the writing’s been on the wall. And now, it’s official: Apple has finally, finally removed the Series 3 from its online store. It’s an understatement to say this was a long time coming. Smartwatch hardware generally starts to struggle after about three years, and the Series 3 first launched five years ago in 2017./news/apple-maps-went-down-for-everyone-for-a-few-hours-today.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-maps-went-down-for-everyone-for-a-few-hours-today.htmlApple has confirmed on its support site that Apple Maps is having significant issues today, causing problems for people across platforms who are trying to search for locations or obtain directions to a destination, as first reported by 9to5Mac. If you try to use Apple Maps, it will attempt to load results for about 30 seconds before timing out, showing “No Results Found.” People first started noticing problems earlier this morning, reporting issues on social media, but Apple’s system status page didn’t reflect that services were down until a bit later./news/apple-now-requires-a-court-order-to-share-push-notification-details.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-now-requires-a-court-order-to-share-push-notification-details.htmlApple will require law enforcement to obtain a court order before the company hands over details of customers’ push notifications from now on. As Reuters reports, Apple quietly updated its guidelines for law enforcement page on Monday with language specifying that search warrants and court orders are now required for it to give up “The Apple ID associated with” an Apple Push Notification Service token. The new policy follows revelations that both Apple and Google have been providing details about the notifications to governments./news/apple-wwdc-2019-the-9-biggest-moments.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-wwdc-2019-the-9-biggest-moments.htmlAt WWDC 2019, Apple announced a slew of software updates headed toward the Apple family of devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac desktops and laptops, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. There’s also the announcement of the new Mac Pro, a powerful computing device that hasn’t been refreshed since 2013. Here’s a quick summary of the biggest highlights from the two-hour keynote. iOS 13 brings dark mode and updated apps Dark mode for iOS is official./news/apple-s-controversial-new-child-protection-features-explained.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-controversial-new-child-protection-features-explained.htmlApple stakes its reputation on privacy. The company has promoted encrypted messaging across its ecosystem, encouraged limits on how mobile apps can gather data, and fought law enforcement agencies looking for user records. For the past week, though, Apple has been fighting accusations that its upcoming iOS and iPadOS release will weaken user privacy. The debate stems from an announcement Apple made on Thursday. In theory, the idea is pretty simple: Apple wants to fight child sexual abuse, and it’s taking more steps to find and stop it./news/apple-s-macbook-event-what-to-expect-from-unleashed.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-macbook-event-what-to-expect-from-unleashed.htmlApple has announced an event for October 18th, with a video containing the title “Unleashed.” If you’ve been watching the rumor mill, it won’t come as a surprise — the company still has a lot of products that are expected to come out this year but haven’t shown up in an Apple keynote. Chief among those are new, more powerful MacBook Pros, which will follow the incredible Apple Silicon-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro that launched last November./news/apple-s-new-finewoven-iphone-cases-are-very-bad.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-finewoven-iphone-cases-are-very-bad.htmlFolks, what you’ve heard so far is true. Apple’s new FineWoven iPhone cases and accessories are bad. Like, really bad. I’ve been puzzling over them for the past week, looking at them from different angles. Picking them up, setting them down, petting them. Seven days later, I still can’t make sense of them and have no other choice but to say it out loud: FineWoven is very bad. FineWoven is a new fabric option you’ll find on iPhone 15 cases, AirTag holders, and MagSafe wallets./news/apple-s-sci-fi-epic-foundation-is-coming-back-for-season-3.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-sci-fi-epic-foundation-is-coming-back-for-season-3.htmlI’m thrilled Apple has given us the opportunity to continue chronicling Asimov’s pioneering galactic saga. This time, the stakes for Foundation and Empire are even higher as the Mule takes center stage, along with fan-favorites Bayta, Toran, Ebling, and Magnifico Giganticus. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn9wgY5ranJwaWWCcXvFqKynnJGptrC6jKycmqufo3p0ecCpp6WdXanDbrzLrqo%3D/news/apple-s-selling-ultra-2-and-series-9-watches-without-the-banned-blood-oxygen-features.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-selling-ultra-2-and-series-9-watches-without-the-banned-blood-oxygen-features.htmlApple’s appeal is ongoing, and we believe the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should reverse the USITC’s decision. We strongly disagree with the USITC decision and resulting orders. Pending the appeal, Apple is taking steps to comply with the ruling while ensuring customers have access to Apple Watch with limited disruption. These steps include introducing a version of Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States without the Blood Oxygen feature./news/apple-s-vision-pro-has-native-apps-for-adobe-lightroom-and-firefly-ai.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-vision-pro-has-native-apps-for-adobe-lightroom-and-firefly-ai.htmlAdobe’s Firefly AI, the text-to-image tool behind features like Photoshop’s generative fill, will be available on the Apple Vision Pro as a native app, alongside the company’s popular Lightroom photo editing software already demonstrated during the headset’s announcement. The creative software giant announced in a press release that the new Firefly experience had been “purpose-built” for the headset’s visionOS system, allowing users to move and place images generated by the app onto real-world spaces like walls and desks./news/asus-chromebook-plus-cx34-review-a-simple-smart-purchase.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-chromebook-plus-cx34-review-a-simple-smart-purchase.htmlIn 2017, Samsung released a product called the Chromebook Plus. The Chromebook Plus was more than just a single Chromebook model; it was marketed as a new vision for what ChromeOS could be. It was $450 — quite pricey at the time. A Chromebook running a desktop-class operating system. A Chromebook that might compete with the Windows laptop.  That vision wouldn’t quite come to pass. Android apps on the Chromebook Plus were full of glitches and bugs./news/asus-next-rog-ally-will-be-the-rog-ally-x.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-next-rog-ally-will-be-the-rog-ally-x.htmlThe 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./news/at-t-promised-a-tv-revolution-instead-we-got-a-giant-mess.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-promised-a-tv-revolution-instead-we-got-a-giant-mess.htmlLast week, AT&T announced it would be spinning off its TV business — including DirecTV, AT&T TV, and U-verse — in a deal it claimed would greatly benefit the company’s customers, employees, and shareholders. The deal provides AT&T with a $7.8 billion cash infusion to pay down debt and recent wireless spectrum purchases, and a 70 percent stake in the “new” DirecTV. But it also values the entire operation at around $16./news/at-t-s-low-band-5g-now-live-in-13-more-cities-including-boston-st-louis-and-atlantic-city.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-s-low-band-5g-now-live-in-13-more-cities-including-boston-st-louis-and-atlantic-city.htmlAT&T has added 13 more cities to its low-band 5G network, including large metro areas like Boston, St. Louis, and Atlantic City, and smaller cities like Wichita, Kansas and Dayton, Ohio, bringing the total number of cities on the list to 32. The carrier continues to expand its sub-6GHz network, which has broad range but slower speeds than the mmWave version of its 5G, which thus far AT&T has limited to business customers./news/autodesk-and-epic-games-are-bringing-immersion-to-architecture-tools.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/autodesk-and-epic-games-are-bringing-immersion-to-architecture-tools.htmlWhile Autodesk architecture software such as Revit is capable of creating 3D design plans, the partnership will introduce easy-to-use tools to designers, with features typically seen more often in game development, such as Unreal Engine, ray tracing, and a huge library of 3D assets to populate environments.  A design plan created using Revit compared to a more realistic scene created in Twinmotion. Image: Autodesk and Image: Epic Games Anyone subscribed to Autodesk Revit (a building information modeling solution for architects) will now get free access to Epic Game’s Twinmotion, an Unreal Engine-powered real-time visualization tool that’s already being used within the urban planning and construction industry./news/battlefield-v-fans-who-failed-history-are-mad-that-the-game-has-women-in-it.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/battlefield-v-fans-who-failed-history-are-mad-that-the-game-has-women-in-it.htmlDICE is returning to World War II with Battlefield V, and it’s doing so with the help of feeemales. Following the game’s reveal trailer and confirmation that it will include women, some fragile fans have confirmed they’ve never read a book by protesting what they see as “historical inaccuracy.” Please, keep your women out of my war games! Online, this infantile cry has rallied around its own hashtag — #NotMyBattlefield — and it is full of users shrieking about political correctness./news/before-it-took-over-smartphones-android-was-originally-destined-for-cameras.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/before-it-took-over-smartphones-android-was-originally-destined-for-cameras.htmlNearly ten years ago, well before Android became the dominant smartphone operating system it is today, Andy Rubin and his colleagues were designing it as a software platform for cameras. That revelation came from Rubin himself during a presentation at Japan's New Economy Summit. According to PCWorld, Android in its earliest days was intended to improve the connection between digital cameras and PCs. Bringing new app experiences to cameras — a relatively stubborn market at the time — also seemed to be on the radar./news/big-tech-companies-including-intel-nvidia-and-cisco-were-all-infected-during-the-solarwinds-hack.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/big-tech-companies-including-intel-nvidia-and-cisco-were-all-infected-during-the-solarwinds-hack.htmlCisco, Intel, Nvidia, Belkin, and VMware have all had computers on their networks infected with the malware. There could be far more: SolarWinds had stated that “fewer than 18,000” companies were impacted, as if that number is supposed to be reassuring, and it even attempted to hide the list of clients who used the infected software. Today’s news takes some of SolarWinds’ big-name clients from “possibly affected’’ to “confirmed affected.” /news/canon-m5-review-the-best-mirrorless-camera-of-four-years-ago.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/canon-m5-review-the-best-mirrorless-camera-of-four-years-ago.htmlIt's something of a running joke in the photography world that Canon and Nikon, the two biggest camera companies in the world, have missed the boat on the interchangeable lens mirrorless camera trend. Over the past few years competitors like Sony and Fujifilm have pumped out increasingly fantastic cameras that ditch mirrors in favor of (mostly) digital viewfinders, allowing them to make SLR-style cameras that are smaller and lighter.Canon and Nikon have made a few mirrorless cameras, but they’re meager./news/clubhouse-ceo-says-user-data-was-not-leaked-contrary-to-reports.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clubhouse-ceo-says-user-data-was-not-leaked-contrary-to-reports.htmlClubhouse CEO Paul Davison said Sunday that a report claiming personal user data had been leaked was “false.” Cyber News reported a SQL database with users’ IDs, names, usernames, Twitter and Instagram handles and follower counts were posted to an online hacker forum. According to Cyber News, it did not appear that sensitive user information such as credit card numbers were among the leaked info. Clubhouse did not immediately reply to a request for more information from The Verge on Sunday./news/clue-gets-fda-clearance-for-digital-birth-control.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clue-gets-fda-clearance-for-digital-birth-control.htmlClue, best known for its period tracking app, announced that it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for a digital birth control function, which it says can help users prevent pregnancy based only on the start date of a user’s period. It calculates the window where someone could get pregnant based on statistical modeling. “It personalizes over time. So as the individual puts in their cycle day one then we’re able to personalize the window of their high risk days vs their low risk days,” Clue’s chief medical officer Lynae Brayboy told TechCrunch./news/columbia-suspends-palestinian-student-who-is-on-a-student-visa.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/columbia-suspends-palestinian-student-who-is-on-a-student-visa.htmlColumbia suspends Palestinian student who is on a student visa. Mahmoud Khalil, one of the students negotiating with the university over the encampment, told The City administrators had previously assured him he wouldn’t be disciplined. I quoted Khalil in my article about the doxxings at Columbia: I am here on a foreign visa. That’s why for the past six months, I’ve barely appeared on the media. ... I did not participate, fearing that I will be arrested and ultimately deported from this country./news/dbrand-pulls-its-ps5-darkplates-from-sale-after-sony-threatens-legal-action.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dbrand-pulls-its-ps5-darkplates-from-sale-after-sony-threatens-legal-action.htmlEarlier this year, Dbrand started selling matte black PS5 side plates that it called Darkplates, and when it did, it baited Sony right on the product’s info page to “Go ahead, sue us.” We got our hands on some, and they look exactly like you expect, making the sides of your PS5 black instead of white. They even have their own tongue-in-cheek take on the PlayStation icon microtexture. As of Saturday, though, you can’t buy Darkplates anymore, as Dbrand has removed them from sale after (perhaps unsurprisingly) receiving a cease and desist letter from Sony./news/deepdotweb-operator-sentenced-to-eight-years-for-money-laundering.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/deepdotweb-operator-sentenced-to-eight-years-for-money-laundering.htmlIn the culmination of a two-year legal process, the former operator of dark web index site DeepDotWeb was handed a sentence of 97 months in prison for money laundering on Tuesday. The sentence was issued to Tal Prihar, an Israeli national, by a judge of the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The judgment from the court ordered Prihar to forfeit $8.4 million in cash, along with an ASUS laptop, a black iPhone, and his accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Kraken and OKCoin./news/disney-s-new-ceo-is-bob-iger-again.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/disney-s-new-ceo-is-bob-iger-again.html ...Bob Chapek is in a difficult position of trying to take Disney, a legacy company of yesterday, and make it into a legacy company of tomorrow. That means becoming more like a tech company rather than a traditional media and entertainment company. He arguably runs it the way that some tech companies might, where he breaks up the content production and the distribution. He goes in and says, “This is how it is going to work; we are focusing on streaming, on the Metaverse, and on how to get into these different positions./news/dji-s-new-mavic-3-pro-and-pro-cine-add-a-new-medium-tele-camera.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dji-s-new-mavic-3-pro-and-pro-cine-add-a-new-medium-tele-camera.htmlThe new DJI Mavic 3 Pro — and its slightly more movie-magic-focused Mavic 3 Pro Cine counterpart — arrive next month and come with a new triple-camera system that includes the four-thirds Hasselblad camera included in the previous model. That main shooter uses a 24mm lens (like the standard Mavic 3), but it’s now joined by a new 70mm medium-tele camera and a 166mm zoom camera for more precise framing./news/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-wants-you-to-embrace-ai-and-remote-work.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-wants-you-to-embrace-ai-and-remote-work.htmlToday, I’m talking with Dropbox CEO Drew Houston. Drew co-founded Dropbox way back in 2007, and he’s among the last of the founder-CEOs of that era still standing. Seventeen years is a long time to be with one company, and you’ll hear us talk a lot about all the change he’s seen in the industry. Dropbox seems like a simple idea: By now, cloud storage is something pretty much all of us rely on in some way./news/ea-play-live-the-5-biggest-announcements-from-ea-s-summer-press-conference.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ea-play-live-the-5-biggest-announcements-from-ea-s-summer-press-conference.htmlThis year, Electronic Arts, like many of the giant video game publishers, switched from what would normally have been a massive E3 press conference in Los Angeles to a virtual-only event called EA Play Live. The event kicked off at 7PM ET on Thursday and included a slew of big announcements from the company’s various gaming properties, including the Respawn-made battle royale Apex Legends and Star Wars. The series of news announcements also illustrated EA’s commitment to supporting Steam versions of its popular PC titles and cross-play for allowing various console platforms and Windows ones to play together./news/every-pc-can-now-run-crysis.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/every-pc-can-now-run-crysis.htmlBut can it run Crysis? The answer is now yes, no matter what PC you own. Nvidia is bringing Crysis Remastered to its GeForce Now streaming service this week, alongside Crysis Remastered Trilogy, Crysis 2 Remastered, and Crysis 3 Remastered. The remastered version of Crysis includes ray tracing and DLSS support, which can both be enabled by Founders or Priority members of Nvidia’s GeForce Now service. Crysis Remastered will be available from Steam and Epic Games Store on GeForce Now today, with the full Crysis Remastered Trilogy available at launch tomorrow./news/facebook-begins-privacy-push-ahead-of-tough-new-european-law.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-begins-privacy-push-ahead-of-tough-new-european-law.htmlFacebook will introduce a new privacy center this year that features all core privacy settings in one place, ahead of the introduction of a strict new EU data protection law that takes effect on May 25th. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will restrict how tech companies collect, store, and use personal data. Facebook also says that it’s publishing its privacy principles for the first time, detailing how the company handles user details./news/facebook-is-nearing-a-settlement-with-its-content-moderators-in-a-class-action-lawsuit.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-is-nearing-a-settlement-with-its-content-moderators-in-a-class-action-lawsuit.htmlFacebook is close to reaching a settlement with a group of content moderators who developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suffered other harms while working to remove disturbing content from the social network. In a court filing this week, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the parties had reached a tentative agreement with Facebook on February 7th. In September 2018, a former Facebook moderator named Selena Scola sued Facebook in San Mateo County Superior Court, alleging that she developed PTSD after being placed in a role that required her to regularly view photos and images of rape, murder, and suicide./news/fortnite-s-concert-series-returns-with-a-rocket-league-rave.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fortnite-s-concert-series-returns-with-a-rocket-league-rave.htmlEpic Games is reviving its in-game Fortnite concert series with a virtual performance by electronic artist Kaskade over the course of the March 26th weekend. The concert will take place inside Fortnite’s Party Royale game mode, and it will also feature tie-ins with Rocket League’s upcoming season, as the popular competitive car soccer game is developed by Epic-owned studio Psyonix. There’s a lot of, shall we say, corporate synergy going on here./news/forza-motorsport-looks-and-feels-like-forza-but-with-an-rpg-hiding-under-the-hood.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/forza-motorsport-looks-and-feels-like-forza-but-with-an-rpg-hiding-under-the-hood.htmlNot long into playing my preview copy of Forza Motorsport, I was intrigued but not that impressed — until I went back and played Forza Motorsport 7 for a while. Arriving six years after the last entry and as the first game in the series built for the new generation of hardware, this latest Forza doesn’t make the biggest graphical leap in the series’ history. But after about 10 hours of driving in the game’s single and multiplayer events with the game, I felt like everything else you encounter while driving, like the audio, physics, and AI drivers, is noticeably different and better this time around./news/gemini-in-workspace-google-s-ai-is-coming-to-drive-docs-sheets-gmail-and-more.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gemini-in-workspace-google-s-ai-is-coming-to-drive-docs-sheets-gmail-and-more.htmlThe right sidebar in Google’s Workspace apps is now the center for a lot of Google’s AI plans. The company announced today at its I/O developer conference that it is bringing Gemini 1.5 Pro, its latest mainstream language model, to the sidebar in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Gmail. It’ll be the same virtual assistant across all of those apps, and the key bit is that it’ll know about everything you have saved everywhere./news/get-final-fantasy-xcom-transistor-and-more-mobile-games-for-cheap.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/get-final-fantasy-xcom-transistor-and-more-mobile-games-for-cheap.htmlIt's that time of the year again, when mobile game developers drop prices ahead of the holidays. This year you can get a few great deals on otherwise pricey games you might have missed out on. Square Enix, for example, is currently discounting just about every Final Fantasy there is, as well as a pair of classic non-FF RPGs, with sales including: Similarly, 2K is offering steep discounts on much of its lineup of excellent mobile strategy games, so you can get in some XCOM action on the go for half price./news/ghost-of-tsushima-review-a-ps4-samurai-game-that-s-a-little-too-familiar.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ghost-of-tsushima-review-a-ps4-samurai-game-that-s-a-little-too-familiar.htmlGhost of Tsushima is at its best when it’s quiet. The latest PS4 game from developer Sucker Punch is an attempt to merge the structure of a conventional open-world game with the setting of a classic samurai film. Think of it as Assassin’s Creed by way of Akira Kurosawa. When things click, it’s amazing; Ghost is a beautiful game, one full of focused, contemplative moments, from tense, one-on-one sword duels to peaceful retreats to compose haiku under a tree./news/good-deal-adobe-lightroom-3-for-79-95-today-only.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/good-deal-adobe-lightroom-3-for-79-95-today-only.htmlAdorama has a great deal on Adobe Lightroom 3 for both Mac and Windows today, charging only $79.95 for the full version of the software, a substantial discount on the MSRP of $299. Lightroom's incredibly popular — even amongst professionals — as a way of cataloging and making rapid adjustments to your images, with compatibility for RAW file adjustments within the app. It's also a huge saving as compared to Adobe's current cut-price offer of $150./news/good-samaritan-helpfully-corrects-a-netflix-hq-sign.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/good-samaritan-helpfully-corrects-a-netflix-hq-sign.htmlA real-life logo isn't complete unless it references a widely used code phrase born on the internet. Of course, some civic-mined individual went ahead and amended a Netflix sign in Los Gatos, California with the appropriate graffiti to turn the company's logo into what it was always meant to be: a directive for onlookers to "Netflix and chill." While not the official Netflix headquarters sign, the sign appears to be located near the company's main building just south of San Jose./news/google-and-espn-partner-to-put-world-cup-highlights-in-search.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-and-espn-partner-to-put-world-cup-highlights-in-search.htmlBest of all, these clips don't require cable credentials or any sort of authentication, so anyone can watch them. Hopefully you don't mind visiting ESPNFC.com though, since they won't actually play on the search results page. ESPN describes the deal as "the first fresh in-game video highlights integration for sports on Google Search." Google is already offering detailed overviews of games as they happen, including goals, penalties, red cards, and other stats./news/google-reader-is-still-defunct-but-now-you-can-follow-rss-feeds-in-chrome-on-android.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-reader-is-still-defunct-but-now-you-can-follow-rss-feeds-in-chrome-on-android.htmlGoogle Reader is still defunct, but its spirit lives on in a “follow button” for Chrome that Google first started experimenting with in May. The RSS tracking feature was limited to the experimental Canary versions of Chrome on Android, but today the company has started enabling it on stable versions of the browser, according to Adrienne Porter Felt, a director of engineering on Chrome. You can follow a site through the browser’s three-dot menu to subscribe to its RSS feed and have it update in your Chrome app./news/google-will-now-tell-you-how-crowded-your-bus-or-train-is-likely-to-be.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-will-now-tell-you-how-crowded-your-bus-or-train-is-likely-to-be.htmlGoogle announced on Thursday that it is introducing new transit crowdedness predictions in its Maps app. Now, you can see how crowded your bus, train, or tube is likely to be before heading out on your commute. Google is basing these details on past rides. For months, Google has been asking some people who use Google Maps to provide additional details about the level of crowdedness of their transit trips. After completing their trips, riders were given four options: many empty seats, few empty seats, standing room only, or cramped standing room only./news/google-s-changing-its-performance-reviews-to-waste-less-time.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-changing-its-performance-reviews-to-waste-less-time.htmlGoogle is hoping to make its performance reviews less of a burden to employees by making it so they only happen once a year instead of twice a year, requiring less paperwork, and changing the way employees are rated. According to a report from The Information, 47 percent of Google employees didn’t think that their time was well spent with the previous performance review system. It’s often hard to point to how internal changes can affect end users, but Google, as a company, has a reputation for either pulling the plug on products or letting them wither without getting proper attention./news/hands-on-with-the-dyson-360-vis-nav-robot-vacuum.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hands-on-with-the-dyson-360-vis-nav-robot-vacuum.htmlThe Dyson 360 Vis Nav, the British manufacturer’s new robot vacuum, has finally landed in the States. I just got my hands on the $1,199 machine ahead of its official launch on March 19th and have some early thoughts to share. As only Dyson’s second attempt to enter the US robot vacuum market — the first being way back in 2016 — the Vis Nav has a lot riding on its giant wheels./news/hate-daylight-savings-time-blame-this-guy-who-liked-to-collect-bugs.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hate-daylight-savings-time-blame-this-guy-who-liked-to-collect-bugs.htmlHate daylight savings time? Blame this guy who liked to collect bugs. People have blamed farmers and Benjamin Franklin for the switch, but modern daylight savings time was first proposed in 1895 by George Hudson, an entomologist in New Zealand who wanted to use the extra daylight to collect insects. The idea was later promoted in England by William Willett, a builder and golfer, who wrote in 1907 that the extra daylight would offer more time for outdoor activity./news/here-one-review-a-bitter-taste-of-the-future.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-one-review-a-bitter-taste-of-the-future.htmlI haven’t lusted for a product in recent memory as much as I have for the Here One. As someone who is overly optimistic about the idea of truly wireless earbuds, and as someone who was genuinely impressed by the technology behind (and social implications of) Here Active Listening — Doppler Labs’ first pair of earbuds, which let you augment the audio around you but didn’t feature audio streaming — this seemed like the perfect product for me./news/here-s-how-to-use-the-cia-s-weeping-angel-smart-tv-hack.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-how-to-use-the-cia-s-weeping-angel-smart-tv-hack.htmlIn March, WikiLeaks published documents revealing a CIA tool for breaking into Samsung Smart TVs, dubbed “Weeping Angel” — and this weekend, we got the full user manual. This page, published by WikiLeaks, shows exactly what an agent needs to do to turn a Samsung Smart TV into a live microphone, right down to tinkering with the TV’s System Time setting. There are even different bitrate settings, in case the agents need high-quality recordings./news/here-s-why-70mm-imax-movies-like-oppenheimer-need-a-palm-pilot-to-work.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-why-70mm-imax-movies-like-oppenheimer-need-a-palm-pilot-to-work.htmlThe Palm Pilot surely wasn’t the point of the TikTok, but it seemed to be the only thing anybody noticed. Ahead of the release of Oppenheimer, the official IMAX TikTok account posted a video showing the mind-bending size of the 70mm film print and the orange extensions IMAX had to build just to hold the platter in place. To give you some context: Oppenheimer’s film reportedly weighs 600 pounds, and the reel is an outrageous 11 miles long./news/hinge-s-redesign-is-all-about-wanting-you-to-eventually-delete-the-dating-app.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hinge-s-redesign-is-all-about-wanting-you-to-eventually-delete-the-dating-app.htmlWhile its sister dating apps have honed their marketing messages over the years, Hinge only recently landed on its own: a dating app “designed to be deleted.” Though the company made the branding message public in December last year, today, it’s rolling out a redesign that freshens up the app, and, according to Tim MacGougan, the app’s chief product officer, brings “design to be deleted” to the forefront of the app experience./news/hipstamatic-turns-cinamatic-with-a-twisted-take-on-mobile-video.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hipstamatic-turns-cinamatic-with-a-twisted-take-on-mobile-video.htmlBefore Instagram, Hipstamatic was one of the first apps to strike it big on the idea of applying film-style filters to iPhone photos. Instagram has since taken over the world and expanded into video, but now Hipstamatic is back with a new app that aims to do the same thing for moving pictures. It's called Cinamatic, and it's a departure from both its ostensible competitors and Hipstamatic itself. No hint of Hipstamatic's retro design/news/hisense-is-launching-a-999-canvastv-as-a-cheaper-rival-to-samsung-s-frame.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hisense-is-launching-a-999-canvastv-as-a-cheaper-rival-to-samsung-s-frame.htmlHisense is launching the CanvasTV, a matte television designed to display artwork and photos, letting it blend in with the rest of your decor when not in use. If it sounds similar to The Frame by Samsung, that’s because it is — but the difference is that the CanvasTV’s starting price is several hundred dollars cheaper. The CanvasTV is available in 55 and 65 inches, each costing $999 and $1,299, respectively./news/how-are-these-fake-roblox-and-ohio-governor-twitter-accounts-still-up.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-are-these-fake-roblox-and-ohio-governor-twitter-accounts-still-up.htmlAnd yet some high-profile impersonators have stuck around on the platform for hours or even days, flouting Musk’s rules by not having “parody” in their username. The tweets are getting more and more popular, increasing the danger for Twitter’s brand in the eyes of advertisers. Let’s look at some of the accounts that are still up, at time of writing: A screenshot taken at 8:08PM ET on November 11th. An account parodying Ohio Governor Mike Dewine has also managed to escape a ban, despite its ten-hour old tweet with over 2,000 retweets announcing the governor’s plan for “eradicating the people of Columbus./news/how-to-copy-and-paste-on-an-iphone.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-copy-and-paste-on-an-iphone.htmlI’m always moving bits of information around on my iPhone — between documents and screens and apps — but I’m not always sure I’m doing it in the best way, especially since Apple has regularly changed the way that copy and paste works through successive versions of iOS. That’s why I wanted to look at all the different options iOS currently gives you for copying and pasting text and images, without the familiar shortcuts you get on a computer keyboard./news/how-to-talk-about-the-new-ghostbusters-movie-with-friends-family-and-commenters.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-talk-about-the-new-ghostbusters-movie-with-friends-family-and-commenters.htmlThere is a new Ghostbusters movie coming out this summer! As I'm sure I don't have to tell you, a lot of people are unhappy about this fact and have expressed their concerns with a tenor that's, let's just say... violently sexist? For some, the speed with which one can type a sentence and post it onto the internet has greatly outpaced the speed with which one can form a coherent thought./news/how-to-use-your-phone-to-find-hidden-cameras.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-your-phone-to-find-hidden-cameras.htmlTo quote a worn — but occasionally true — saying from Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” The popularity of Airbnb and other informal rentals has coincided with the increased production of cheaper hidden cameras, making it increasingly likely that your stay could be viewed by the person who rented the place out to you. Want to make sure your privacy is being respected?/news/htc-adds-more-devices-to-its-bootloader-unlock-tool.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-adds-more-devices-to-its-bootloader-unlock-tool.htmlHTC did what it said it would in releasing a bootloader unlocking tool for the HTC Amaze, Evo 3D, and Sensation, but it appears that the company is going just a bit further for would-be Android hackers. Two more devices have been recently added to the supported list, the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide and the Evo View 4G tablet on Sprint, joining the Evo Design 4G and HTC Flyer tablet variants./news/hugging-face-commits-10-million-in-free-shared-gpus.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hugging-face-commits-10-million-in-free-shared-gpus.htmlHugging Face, one of the biggest names in machine learning, is committing $10 million in free shared GPUs to help developers create new AI technologies. The goal is to help small developers, academics, and startups counter the centralization of AI advancements. “We are lucky to be in a position where we can invest in the community,” Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue told The Verge. Delangue said the investment is possible because Hugging Face is “profitable, or close to profitable” and recently raised $235 million in funding, valuing the company at $4./news/hulu-plus-comes-to-nintendo-3ds-two-years-late.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hulu-plus-comes-to-nintendo-3ds-two-years-late.htmlHulu Plus is now available on the Nintendo 3DS, after a long delay of nearly two years. Back in 2011, Nintendo said that the app would be ready to go by the end of that calendar year, but while Hulu made its way to the Wii around that time, support for the 3DS remained absent. The new app is now available in the Nintendo eShop and supports all members of the 3DS lineup of handhelds, including the new 2DS — though as with other Hulu apps, it'll require a subscription to Hulu Plus in order to stream anything./news/i-ve-discovered-the-magic-of-ordering-ahead-at-starbucks-and-all-the-guilt-that-comes-with-it.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-ve-discovered-the-magic-of-ordering-ahead-at-starbucks-and-all-the-guilt-that-comes-with-it.htmlMy day starts at 7AM. I get up, brush my teeth, throw on tinted SPF moisturizer, and leave my Queens, New York apartment by, ideally, 7:30. My usual first stop is the Starbucks next to my subway station, which inevitably adds at least 15 minutes to my commute because regardless of what I order, living in New York means dealing with millions of people at all times. It’s the best. Over the past couple weeks, however, I’ve changed my morning game./news/ibm-promised-to-back-off-facial-recognition-then-it-signed-a-69-8-million-contract-to-provide-i.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ibm-promised-to-back-off-facial-recognition-then-it-signed-a-69-8-million-contract-to-provide-i.htmlIBM has returned to the facial recognition market — just three years after announcing it was abandoning work on the technology due to concerns about racial profiling, mass surveillance, and other human rights violations. In June 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests swept the US after George Floyd’s murder, IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna wrote a letter to Congress announcing that the company would no longer offer “general purpose” facial recognition technology./news/iinet-finally-cleared-of-afact-online-piracy-claims-in-australian-high-court.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iinet-finally-cleared-of-afact-online-piracy-claims-in-australian-high-court.htmlAustralian ISP iiNet has won a long-running online piracy case brought against it by several movie studios. The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), representing the studios, failed in its final appeal against a ruling from last year, with the High Court unanimously deciding in iiNet's favor five to zero. AFACT argued that iiNet was ultimately responsible for its subscribers' actions when they downloaded movies illegally, and consequently sued the ISP for copyright infringement./news/instacart-and-aldi-partnering-to-accept-food-stamps-for-grocery-deliveries.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instacart-and-aldi-partnering-to-accept-food-stamps-for-grocery-deliveries.htmlGrocery delivery platform Instacart is launching a pilot program to begin taking food stamps as payment in its app. The program will only be available at Aldi stores and only in a few states, starting with Georgia, then expanding to California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Instacart said in a statement it is “committed to being a long-term solution for EBT SNAP households nationwide.” Brent Laubaugh, co-president of Aldi US said in a statement that the company was “eager to roll out this update broadly as quickly as possible,” hinting at possible future expansion./news/instagram-s-improved-search-could-help-close-the-gap-with-tiktok.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-s-improved-search-could-help-close-the-gap-with-tiktok.htmlYour text in Search. The text you enter in the search bar is by far the most important signal for Search. We try to match what you type with relevant usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places. Your activity. This includes accounts you follow, posts you’ve viewed, and how you’ve interacted with accounts in the past. We usually show accounts and hashtags you follow or visit higher than those you don’t./news/ios-16-quietly-added-native-dvorak-keyboard-support-delighting-weirdos-like-me.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-16-quietly-added-native-dvorak-keyboard-support-delighting-weirdos-like-me.htmlHere’s a fun iOS 16 feature that’s almost completely slipped under our radar: native support for the Dvorak keyboard layout. Ars Technica reported this week that the touch-typing optimized keyboard can now be selected in Apple’s software alongside the more traditional QWERTY, AZERTY, and QWERTZ layouts. Previously, Dvorak on iOS has only been available via an external physical keyboard, or third-party software. Although I’ve gone on the record as being a proud Dvorak user for over a decade, when it comes to touchscreen keyboards I’ve always been happy with QWERTY./news/ios-17-4-could-fix-apple-s-awkward-video-reactions-feature.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-17-4-could-fix-apple-s-awkward-video-reactions-feature.htmlApple looks ready to give developers more control over its video emoji reactions feature in upcoming iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 updates, MacRumors reports. The feature, which was introduced with the release of iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 last year (as well as in macOS 14), automatically shows 3D animations like fireworks and lasers when an Apple device’s camera sees participants making certain hand gestures on a call. iOS 17.4 reportedly offers a new API to let third-party developers turn off the feature./news/j-j-abrams-says-the-valve-portal-movie-is-finally-on-the-rails.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/j-j-abrams-says-the-valve-portal-movie-is-finally-on-the-rails.htmlJ.J. Abrams has said that a movie based on Valve’s Portal is still in the works, and that a script is finally being written, according to IGN. Abrams is light on details, but says that Warner Brothers is excited about the direction the movie is going in, and that it “feels like that thing’s finally on the rails.” We originally heard about the movie all the way back in 2013, when Abrams and Gabe Newell were on stage together at the DICE Summit./news/james-cameron-says-avatar-4-is-a-motherfucker-but-he-might-not-direct-it.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/james-cameron-says-avatar-4-is-a-motherfucker-but-he-might-not-direct-it.htmlIt’s okay if you’ve lost track, but here’s a quick reminder that this year’s Avatar: The Way of Water is just the first of a potential four sequels to the 2009 sci-fi epic. And now, in a new interview with Empire, director James Cameron has given an update on where the rest of the series is headed. The most interesting detail? Cameron might not actually direct the fourth and fifth Avatar films, which were originally announced in 2013 and 2016./news/joto-is-a-robotic-whiteboard-that-can-draw-your-tweets-and-slack-messages-in-real-life.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/joto-is-a-robotic-whiteboard-that-can-draw-your-tweets-and-slack-messages-in-real-life.htmlA design studio called Those is making a smart whiteboard that it calls “the first connected display that draws with a pen.” It’s named Joto, and it’s one part internet-enabled whiteboard, one part art display, and one part nostalgic throwback to a physical medium. It’s an eclectic mix of ideas, and it ends up resulting in a lot of wildly different imagined use cases for the device. The wildest of Joto’s ambitions is as a notification board that integrates with a number of top services./news/katsuko-saruhashi-turned-radioactive-fallout-into-a-scientific-legacy.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/katsuko-saruhashi-turned-radioactive-fallout-into-a-scientific-legacy.htmlToday’s Google Doodle celebrates Japanese geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi, whose research helped reveal the insidious spread of radioactive fallout from the US nuclear testing ground in the Pacific. If she were still alive, today would have been her 98th birthday. In 1957, Saruhashi became the first woman to receive a PhD in chemistry in Japan. Her work focused on measuring the molecules in seawater, like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and also radioactive molecules like cesium-137./news/kevin-systrom-on-quitting-instagram-no-one-ever-leaves-a-job-because-everything-s-awesome.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kevin-systrom-on-quitting-instagram-no-one-ever-leaves-a-job-because-everything-s-awesome.htmlIn his first public remarks since leaving the company he co-founded, Kevin Systrom hinted at tensions with Facebook that could have hastened his exit from Instagram. But he also said “there are no hard feelings at all” and that he would continue rooting for the company as he moves on to work on other projects. “When you leave anything, there are obviously reasons for leaving,” Systrom told interviewer Lauren Goode onstage at Monday’s Wired 25 conference./news/lebron-james-is-coming-to-fortnite-this-week.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lebron-james-is-coming-to-fortnite-this-week.htmlLeBron James is the latest celebrity to enter the Fortnite metaverse. Starting on July 14th, players will be able to purchase two different versions of the NBA star: a regular LeBron with a handful of outfits, and another modeled after his role in the upcoming movie Space Jam: A New Legacy. The two skins, and their associated accessories, will also be available as part of a bundle. And both will sport the player’s upcoming shoe, the Nike LeBron 19./news/lewis-hamilton-s-fortnite-skin-is-for-the-dog-fans.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lewis-hamilton-s-fortnite-skin-is-for-the-dog-fans.htmlLewis Hamilton’s Fortnite skin is for the dog fans. Another celebrity is entering the virtual realm of Fortnite. This time it’s Formula One star Lewis Hamilton, who will be available in the item shop on November 17th. Hamilton looks stylish as always (though I would’ve loved if his skin had the Daft Punk racing helmet), but more importantly, the set comes with a glider and back bling featuring his adorable dog./news/lg-stylo-6-review-an-affordable-stylus-phone.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-stylo-6-review-an-affordable-stylus-phone.htmlThe LG Stylo 6 is a sub-$300 phone with a built-in stylus, which puts it in exclusive company: the $299 Motorola Moto G Stylus is more or less its only direct competition. For its $270 price, the Stylo 6 offers good battery performance; a big, bright screen; and the handy pen-derived features that stylus life offers. But as much fun as I had doodling on its generously sized screen, it’s just too slow to recommend./news/library-of-congress-aims-to-preserve-old-audio-recordings-for-future-generations.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/library-of-congress-aims-to-preserve-old-audio-recordings-for-future-generations.htmlThe Library of Congress this week announced a new program designed to help preserve some of America's oldest, and most treasured audio recordings. The Library's "National Recording Preservation Plan" is the result of a 2000 Congressional mandate to "implement a comprehensive national sound recording preservation program" in order to preserve works for educational purposes. The initiative outlines 32 strategies to help both public and private sectors maintain recordings, including recommendations for infrastructural improvements and educational policies./news/linkedin-was-down-the-verge.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/linkedin-was-down-the-verge.htmlBoth the apps and website went offline temporarily, while LinkedIn’s status page confirmed the issues with a message posted at 4:04PM ET saying, “Some members may be experiencing issues on LinkedIn. We’re actively working on this and will provide updates as we have them. Thanks for your patience!” As of 5:05PM ET, the most recent message says, “This has now been resolved and we’re back up and running. Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thanks for your patience!/news/liveleak-the-internet-s-font-of-gore-and-violence-has-shut-down.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/liveleak-the-internet-s-font-of-gore-and-violence-has-shut-down.htmlVideo site LiveLeak, best known for hosting gruesome footage that mainstream rivals wouldn’t touch, has shut down after fifteen years in operation. In its place is “ItemFix,” a site that bans users from uploading media containing “excessive violence or gory content.” In a blog post, LiveLeak founder Hayden Hewitt did not give an explicit reason for the site’s closure, saying only that: “The world has changed a lot over these last few years, the Internet alongside it, and we as people./news/lyft-launches-health-care-transportation-program.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lyft-launches-health-care-transportation-program.htmlLyft launched a program that will let health care organizations send patients prepaid passes that they can use for rides to doctor’s appointments. “We’ve automated an important piece of health access that allows patients to be self-sufficient and in control, while allowing our partners to focus on the services they provide, rather than on administrative processes,” said Megan Callahan, vice president of Lyft Healthcare, in a statement. The program, called Lyft Pass for Healthcare, lets health care organizations or social services agencies create a budget and set approved pickup and drop-off locations./news/madame-web-review-a-love-letter-to-the-golden-age-of-bad-cape-movies.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/madame-web-review-a-love-letter-to-the-golden-age-of-bad-cape-movies.htmlThe funny thing about watching audiences cool off from big-budget comic book adaptations in recent years is how, if you lived through the very early aughts, it almost feels like things are going back to the way they used to be. After years of Marvel tentpoles dominating the box office, it’s been easy to forget how unabashedly unserious these kinds of projects usually were outside of the handful that put the genre on the map./news/meet-the-new-face-of-halo.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meet-the-new-face-of-halo.htmlHalo is, as ever, a force to be reckoned with. Tomorrow, Xbox One owners will be invited to play Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a compilation game that pulls together and, in places, remasters a series that saw its first release in 2001. It's easily gaming's biggest sci-fi saga, dragging us across the galaxy and back in an ongoing war that blends political theater with Aliens-style military action. Mike Colter represents the next phase in the 'Halo' franchise/news/men-in-black-s-best-scene-doesn-t-have-any-special-effects.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/men-in-black-s-best-scene-doesn-t-have-any-special-effects.htmlTwenty years ago, Barry Sonnenfeld gave the world Men in Black, a science fiction comedy perhaps best remembered for its music video, featuring Will Smith dancing alongside a computer-animated space alien. But what I remember most fondly is a low-stakes scene with no special effects or pop songs. Tucked into the first act, the moment is brief, subtle, and to this day, I find it unrivaled in terms of charm and efficiency./news/messenger-s-finally-coming-back-to-the-facebook-app.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/messenger-s-finally-coming-back-to-the-facebook-app.htmlMessenger will soon reunite with the Facebook app. Buried in a blog post that attempts to reassure users that Facebook’s most definitely not dying, Meta officially announced that it’s conducting a test that adds Messenger back into the Facebook app. “You’ll see us expand this testing soon,” Facebook leader Tom Alison writes in the post. As my colleague Alex pointed out last year, Facebook’s making the change to better compete with TikTok, which has the built-in messaging options that Facebook got rid of nearly a decade ago now./news/meta-adds-3d-avatars-to-instagram-stories-with-updates-for-messenger-and-facebook.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-adds-3d-avatars-to-instagram-stories-with-updates-for-messenger-and-facebook.htmlFacebook parent company Meta is introducing 3D avatars to Instagram Stories and direct messages and updating the avatars in Facebook and Messenger, the company announced Monday. People in the US, Canada, and Mexico can appear as their virtual selves in stickers, feed posts, Facebook profile pictures, and more across Meta’s platforms, including its Quest VR platform. The new avatars will include new facial shapes and assistive devices like cochlear implants, hearing aids, and wheelchairs to be more inclusive of users with disabilities, Aigerim Shorman, Meta’s general manager for avatars and identity, wrote in a blog post./news/microsoft-gives-xbox-series-s-devs-more-memory-to-improve-graphics-performance.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-gives-xbox-series-s-devs-more-memory-to-improve-graphics-performance.htmlMicrosoft is giving Xbox Series S game developers more control over memory on the console. A new Xbox software development kit has been released to developers recently, and it frees up more memory for developers to access for Xbox Series S games and boosts performance in certain titles. “Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers,” says Microsoft’s Game Dev team in a video detailing the updates./news/microsoft-offers-100-000-to-hack-its-custom-linux-os.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-offers-100-000-to-hack-its-custom-linux-os.htmlMicrosoft is offering hackers up to $100,000 if they can break the security of the company’s custom Linux OS. The software giant built a compact and custom version of Linux last year for its Azure Sphere OS, which is designed to run on specialized chips for its Internet of Things (IoT) platform. The OS is purpose-built for this platform, ensuring basic services and apps run isolated in a sandbox for security purposes./news/microsoft-one-ups-google-docs-with-real-time-editing-in-office-2016.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-one-ups-google-docs-with-real-time-editing-in-office-2016.htmlIt’s a big change to Microsoft’s Office suite, and it gives the company a distinct advantage over competitors like Google. Thousands of businesses still rely on Microsoft Office and the desktop versions of the apps, as the web alternatives just aren't as powerful. Co-authoring on the desktop removes one of the key benefits of using the web versions of Google Docs or Office. Google Docs rose in popularity thanks to its co-authoring feature and the fact it’s a free, albeit simple, alternative to Office./news/microsoft-surface-laptop-2-review-if-it-ain-t-broke.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-surface-laptop-2-review-if-it-ain-t-broke.htmlLast year, Microsoft finally did the thing that everyone was waiting for it to do: it produced a laptop. Not a tablet that can be a laptop if you attach a keyboard, not a 2-in-1 device that you can tear the screen away from the keyboard to use as a tablet, but a straightforward, honest-to-god clamshell laptop. The Surface Laptop was also a very good laptop — Microsoft did almost everything right with it and as a result, it was one of the best laptops of the year./news/microsoft-xcloud-launch-how-to-to-play-xbox-games-from-your-phone.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-xcloud-launch-how-to-to-play-xbox-games-from-your-phone.htmlIf you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you likely now have access to Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming abilities, and can immediately jump into one of more than 150 games — today is the official launch of Microsoft’s xCloud service. Many more games will come later this quarter, when the EA Play catalog of games gets added. Let’s run through what you need to try it yourself today. It’s possible that you might already have all the necessary components to make it happen — on Android, anyhow./news/nerf-is-joining-the-modern-era-with-the-best-official-blaster-ever-made.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nerf-is-joining-the-modern-era-with-the-best-official-blaster-ever-made.htmlWhen Nerf declared “it’s Nerf or nothin’!” in 1993, it wasn’t exactly a debate. For decades, Nerf had been the choice for flinging foam projectiles. But as the Nerfing community has exploded, Nerf has increasingly needed to earn a place in its own backyard. I’ve been to battles where no player uses an official Nerf blaster or dart. Some have moved on to more powerful gear that fires more accurate half-length darts, thanks to both 3D printing enthusiasts and rival retail brands catering to the foam arms race./news/netflix-for-android-updated-to-support-android-4-0-devices.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-for-android-updated-to-support-android-4-0-devices.htmlAs we noted in our Galaxy Nexus review, some third party apps currently have issues with handling Ice Cream Sandwich's new software menu layout, but now you can take Netflix off the list. The latest update allows the menu buttons disappear during video playback, just like the YouTube app. You can download it at the Android Market right now, just in time to take advantage of the Double Data Promotion on your brand new Verizon Galaxy Nexus./news/netflix-s-latest-game-is-a-mobile-take-on-minesweeper.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-latest-game-is-a-mobile-take-on-minesweeper.htmlNetflix is launching Minesweeper as part of its selection of subscriber-only games, and it’s available now on Android and iOS. The classic puzzle game that most people know from Microsoft Minesweeper, available in Windows 11 and versions dating back to 1990, has a fresh coat of paint with colorful graphics and new modes. Netflix’s take on Minesweeper looks a whole lot like, well, Minesweeper, but it adds a Journey Mode that takes players to different levels across world stages as well as unique daily challenges./news/netflix-s-squid-game-the-challenge-has-an-official-release-date.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-squid-game-the-challenge-has-an-official-release-date.htmlSquid Game: The Challenge, Netflix’s reality show based on Squid Game that will pit 456 people against each other for $4.56 million, will debut on November 22nd, the company announced on Friday. For people based in the US, I’m guessing that means a lot of families will be watching this show over Thanksgiving vacations. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn1wfZJoaWxxYWt9eIWOp5ytnpyexW6%2F0K6gnWWXlrqmedOhnGabmJa5rbHNoJxmqpWWuarA2GaqoaenYr%2BmuMSaqp5llJbBpg%3D%3D/news/new-at-t-subscribers-will-no-longer-get-hbo-max-as-premium-replaces-elite.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/new-at-t-subscribers-will-no-longer-get-hbo-max-as-premium-replaces-elite.htmlOne perk most wireless carriers offer to pull you to their side is a free streaming video-on-demand subscription. But, now, AT&T won’t be giving HBO Max to new customers and hasn’t replaced it with a different service, either. The carrier stealthily discontinued its top-tier Unlimited Elite plan for new subscribers this week and added a new one that doesn’t include HBO Max anymore, as reported by Next TV (via FierceWireless)./news/next-gen-usb-promises-to-be-twice-as-fast-using-cables-you-may-already-own.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/next-gen-usb-promises-to-be-twice-as-fast-using-cables-you-may-already-own.htmlThe actual technical specification from the USB Implementers Forum, which is in charge of the standard itself, hasn’t been released yet, but the details coming out today are a little stunning. The Promoter Group writes in a press release that USB 4 version 2.0 cables will use the USB-C connector, which is to be expected, but the real bombshell is this line: “Key characteristics of the updated USB4 solution include: Up to 80 Gbps operation, based on a new physical layer architecture, using existing 40 Gbps USB Type-C passive cables and newly-defined 80 Gbps USB Type-C active cables” (emphasis theirs)./news/nintendo-is-making-a-bright-red-switch-oled-for-mario-wonder.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-is-making-a-bright-red-switch-oled-for-mario-wonder.htmlThe tablet is getting a Mario makeover to coincide with the game, with a slick red color scheme, complete with a Mario silhouette and some coins hidden beneath the back panel. It’ll be available on October 6th, just ahead of Wonder’s launch on October 20th, though it’s already available for preorder from Amazon, Nintendo, and Best Buy. Update September 9th, 12:04PM ET: Added additional preorder details for Nintendo’s Mario-inspired console./news/nokia-2720-flip-review-proof-you-can-t-opt-out-of-the-smartphone-generation.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nokia-2720-flip-review-proof-you-can-t-opt-out-of-the-smartphone-generation.htmlIf you’re seriously considering buying a feature phone like the Nokia 2720 Flip in 2019 then I think you’re likely to be one of three kinds of people. Either you live or work in the developing world, where smartphones sometimes aren’t a practical option, you’re the kind of person who thrives on nostalgia for a simpler time, or else you’re trying to do a “digital detox,” and decrease the amount of time you seem to waste staring at screens every day./news/nook-color-1-3-update-adds-magazine-subscriptions.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nook-color-1-3-update-adds-magazine-subscriptions.htmlBarnes & Noble is beginning to roll out an update for its Nook Color ereader. Although most of the recent buzz surrounding the Nook Color has focused on its Android capabilities, the 1.3.0 update released today adds new reading features. Specifically, the tablet now has access to Time Warner magazines, including People, Time, and Sports Illustrated. Time Warner has been making a big push to get its print magazines on as many tablets as possible -- from the Android-based Nook all the way to the (now discontinued) HP TouchPad./news/notepad-on-windows-11-is-finally-getting-a-character-count.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/notepad-on-windows-11-is-finally-getting-a-character-count.htmlMicrosoft has been gradually improving its built-in Notepad app on Windows 11 in recent years, and now, it’s finally getting a character count. In a new Canary channel test version of Windows 11, Microsoft has added the character count at the bottom much like Microsoft Word’s count of the number of words in a document. “When text is selected, the status bar shows the character count for both the selected text and the entire document,” explains Microsoft’s Windows Insider team in a blog post./news/nothing-ear-1-earbuds-review-almost-something.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nothing-ear-1-earbuds-review-almost-something.htmlThere’s a lot riding on the Ear 1 wireless earbuds, which are the first product to come from Nothing — a new company created by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei. Backed with investment from GV, Tony Fadell, and influential creators like Casey Neistat, Nothing is aiming to build out an entire family of products that follow the design ethos debuting with the Ear 1. Transparency is at the heart of that: the Ear 1s have a clear “stem” that lets you peer at their internal components, and the unconventional charging case has a transparent lid to keep the buds in view at all times./news/nvidia-adds-buggy-android-11-update-to-its-shield-tv-lineup.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-adds-buggy-android-11-update-to-its-shield-tv-lineup.htmlThere are a lot of questions about how SHIELD Experience could be launched with Plex Media server not working correctly. The root of the issue with Plex Media Server on launch day of 9.0 is related to the changes in Android 11 for Storage. We worked closely with Plex during SHIELD Experience 9.0 development to make sure PMS was working and during all of our internal and external beta testing it was working./news/oculus-users-are-getting-a-new-metaverse-home.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oculus-users-are-getting-a-new-metaverse-home.htmlFacebook is announcing a new, “more social” home space for Oculus users. Called Horizon Home, it looks a lot like the virtual home that people already have in their virtual reality headsets. But users will be able to invite friends to hang out and watch videos or start multiplayer games together, and they’ll eventually be able to customize their space, although that’s “a little further out.” Horizon Home will launch in an Oculus update soon./news/oura-study-shows-covid-19-can-impact-your-biometrics-for-weeks-after-infection.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oura-study-shows-covid-19-can-impact-your-biometrics-for-weeks-after-infection.htmlAt the start of the pandemic, researchers and wearables makers rushed to see whether smartwatches and fitness trackers could detect covid-19. It’s now 2023, and while wearables show promise in detecting illnesses, there hasn’t been too much progress on the covid front. But even as most people start moving on with their lives, some wearable makers are still sifting through the data to see what can be learned from the past three years./news/panasonic-lumix-s1-review-the-mirrorless-heavyweight.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/panasonic-lumix-s1-review-the-mirrorless-heavyweight.htmlI was at Photokina in Cologne last fall when Panasonic, Leica, and Sigma held a joint press conference to announce their L-Mount Alliance. Uniting around Leica’s existing lens mount, the trio made a commitment to rapidly flesh out a new ecosystem of lenses for full-frame mirrorless cameras. On that same day, Panasonic also announced its first cameras for the category, the Lumix S1 and the higher-resolution Lumix S1R, both of which stood to benefit from the lens-making muscle of the new alliance./news/pentagon-cancels-microsoft-s-10-billion-jedi-cloud-computing-program.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pentagon-cancels-microsoft-s-10-billion-jedi-cloud-computing-program.htmlThe US Defense Department has canceled the $10 billion JEDI cloud computing project it awarded to Microsoft in 2019, saying the controversial program’s design “no longer meets its needs.” The department will replace JEDI with another cloud infrastructure contract and plans to solicit bids from Microsoft as well as Amazon — which sued over losing the original contract. CNBC reported the news earlier today. “Due to evolving requirements, increased cloud conversancy, and industry advances, the JEDI Cloud contract no longer meets its needs,” reads a Defense Department press release sent to The Verge./news/polestar-2-single-motor-the-ev-company-s-most-affordable-model-is-coming-to-the-us.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/polestar-2-single-motor-the-ev-company-s-most-affordable-model-is-coming-to-the-us.htmlSwedish electric automaker Polestar is bringing its most affordable model to the US. The long-range, single-motor Polestar 2 may not have as much performance as the dual-motor variant, but it will certainly be more accessible. The single-motor was previously only available to pre-order in the US. Starting this week, deliveries of this variant are beginning. Interested car buyers can also test drive the EV if they want, at Polestar’s two dozen retail locations around the country./news/porsche-the-verge.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/porsche-the-verge.htmlPorsche’s new Panamera has a ridiculous active suspension setup. The automaker’s “Active Ride” hydraulic system can wildly tilt the 2024 Panamera E-Hybrid with the steering wheel and pedals while in a test mode, but also, as demonstrated by Porsche for this Out of Spec video, using a smartphone gyro (that feature probably won’t be available for use at home). Besides the party trick, Road and Track has more details on how the four-motor pump suspension helps combat roll on the track — even leaning into corners like a motorcycle at times — and how it compares to a similar approach in the Ferrari Purosangue./news/porsche-s-new-mission-x-concept-is-a-bubbly-all-electric-hypercar.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/porsche-s-new-mission-x-concept-is-a-bubbly-all-electric-hypercar.htmlPorsche debuted its new Mission X on Thursday — it’s an all-electric concept car it calls a “conceptual reinterpretation” of the hypercar. Like the Porsche 918 Spyder, it’s a squat, compact affair with bubbly fenders, but where the Spyder is somewhat toned down, the Mission X leans into its chunky corner details, making it a big part of the design that extends to the roof. Porsche says the battery, if the car were to go into production, would have a 900-volt system architecture and would charge around twice as fast as the Taycan Turbo S./news/princess-peach-showtime-debuts-on-nintendo-switch-next-year.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/princess-peach-showtime-debuts-on-nintendo-switch-next-year.htmlPeach will be able to put on different outfits to transform into new versions of Peach with different powers, like Detective Peach and Kung-Fu Peach. During the Direct, Nintendo hinted that there were more transformations than what was shown, so I bet there are some fun surprises in store. The game is scheduled to release on March 22nd, 2024. Princess Peach has been a playable character in numerous Super Mario games going all the way back to the ’80s./news/razer-hammerhead-true-wireless-2021-review-anc-with-a-colorful-light-show.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/razer-hammerhead-true-wireless-2021-review-anc-with-a-colorful-light-show.htmlRazer is suddenly becoming a seasoned earbuds brand: the new $130 Hammerhead earbuds are the company’s third pair of true wireless buds. They follow the original Hammerheads released in 2019 and the Hammerhead True Wireless Pros that I reviewed earlier this year. The latest set is more “Pro” than not in both looks and features: they offer active noise cancellation, a low-latency gaming mode, and have switched to a in-ear design with silicone tips./news/right-to-repair-all-the-latest-news-and-updates.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/right-to-repair-all-the-latest-news-and-updates.htmlThe European Union has officially adopted a new set of right-to-repair rules designed to encourage people to repair broken devices, rather than replace them. One of the rules extends a product’s warranty by one year if it’s repaired while still covered. The European Union already requires companies to offer a two-year minimum warranty on products, but these new rules take things a step further. Even after the warranty period ends, companies are “still required to repair common household products,” including smartphones, TVs, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and other items./news/riot-games-investigation-says-there-s-no-evidence-ceo-harassed-female-employee.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/riot-games-investigation-says-there-s-no-evidence-ceo-harassed-female-employee.htmlRiot Games is closing an investigation into whether CEO Nicolo Laurent harassed or discriminated against former employee Sharon O’Donnell, saying it found “no evidence” of the claim. “After review of the results of the investigation,” Riot said in a statement, “there is no evidence that Nicolo harassed, discriminated, or retaliated against Ms. O’Donnell. The Special Committee has also expressed its full confidence in Nicolo’s leadership, that no action against him is warranted, and that he will continue to operate as CEO./news/rival-air-taxi-startups-wisk-and-archer-settle-their-trade-secret-theft-lawsuit.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rival-air-taxi-startups-wisk-and-archer-settle-their-trade-secret-theft-lawsuit.htmlWisk said it will become the exclusive provider of autonomous flying technology to Archer, should Archer decide to pursue a self-flying aircraft. Boeing will invest in the private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing that Archer released today as part of its second quarter earnings report. And Wisk will receive shares in Archer as part of Boeing’s investment in the company’s $215 million PIPE. Wisk said it will become the exclusive provider of autonomous flying technology to Archer/news/roblox-is-getting-voice-chat-starting-first-with-spatial-voice.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/roblox-is-getting-voice-chat-starting-first-with-spatial-voice.htmlRoblox is taking its first steps to introduce voice chat by opening up a feature it’s calling “Spatial Voice” to select developers in an invitation-only beta, the company announced Thursday. “With Spatial Voice, Roblox creators will begin to test developing experiences where conversations can happen in a realistic way, mirroring how we listen and respond to the world around us each day,” Roblox’s chief product officer Manuel Bronstein said in a blog post./news/robot-toy-company-anki-is-going-out-of-business.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/robot-toy-company-anki-is-going-out-of-business.htmlAnki, the San Francisco-based robotics company that specialized in making smartphone-controlled toys, is shutting down this week, reports Recode. The sudden news, delivered to staff today by CEO Boris Sofman, means the company’s staff of nearly 200 people will lose their jobs by Wednesday, with only one week of severance. Anki raised more than $200 million in venture capital funding to date. According to Recode, Anki ran out of money and could no longer “support a hardware and software business” that would enable it to achieve its “long-term product roadmap./news/sable-review-sable-is-an-adventure-made-from-the-most-chill-parts-of-breath-of-the-wild.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sable-review-sable-is-an-adventure-made-from-the-most-chill-parts-of-breath-of-the-wild.htmlWhen I think of Sable, trying to conjure for it an elevator pitch that I might use to convince my friends to play, my mind settles on describing it as: what if the pod-racing sequence from The Phantom Menace made a baby with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a world where no one suffers, and everyone’s needs are met? It’s an unwieldy description, but it gets at the heart of what I love about the game./news/samsung-begins-rollout-of-android-11-and-one-ui-3-0-to-latest-phones.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-begins-rollout-of-android-11-and-one-ui-3-0-to-latest-phones.htmlSamsung is starting to roll out updates to Android 11 and One UI 3.0, its customized interface, to some of its latest phones. The first up are Galaxy S20 series devices in the US, Korea, and most of Europe, which will start receiving updates today. Updates for the Note 20, last year’s Note 10 and S10, and the Z Fold, Z Fold 2, and Z Flip are planned to arrive in the “coming weeks./news/samsung-galaxy-tab-3-8-0-and-10-1-review.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-tab-3-8-0-and-10-1-review.htmlSamsung has no idea what size Android device you want but, by golly, it’s going to find out. Throughout its massive Galaxy lineup, Samsung has hedged its bets on almost every possible device size in an attempt to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Each great Samsung device has at least one feature that justifies its existence beyond a decimal difference in screen size. The Note 10.1 has a great stylus, the Galaxy S4 has a laundry list of software tweaks./news/samsung-s-z-fold-4-passes-durability-tests-but-how-will-it-hold-up-long-term.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-z-fold-4-passes-durability-tests-but-how-will-it-hold-up-long-term.htmlThe Galaxy Z Fold 4 is the latest in the line of Samsung’s foldables to endure JerryRigEverything’s torture test that subjects devices to razor blades, lighters, and handfuls of dirt. Like the Fold 3 and Fold 2 before it, the Fold 4 managed to survive the test, albeit with quite a few scratches and some burnt-up pixels. But the real question is whether the Fold 4 can pass the test of time./news/skype-users-in-the-us-can-now-make-911-calls-from-their-computers.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/skype-users-in-the-us-can-now-make-911-calls-from-their-computers.htmlSkype announced this week that its US users can use it to dial 911 from their home computer, and that its software can share their location with emergency services if needed. The US is the latest addition to the list of regions with Skype emergency service calling; until now it was only available in Australia, Denmark, Finland, and the UK. Skype’s move to enable 911 calls comes with a few limitations, but could be crucial for users who still have an adequate Internet connection when they lose access to a cellphone or landline in an emergency./news/sodastream-accused-of-using-conflict-bubbles.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sodastream-accused-of-using-conflict-bubbles.htmlYou wouldn't think that owning a water-carbonating machine would be any more controversial than having a toaster, but when the product in question is manufactured in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, things start to get a little complicated. New York Magazine has this week taken a look at the ethical objections to owning and using a SodaStream machine — by far the most popular way to brew up some sparkling water at home — and detailed the social struggles that result when you're "/news/sony-is-making-it-easier-to-use-its-digital-cameras-as-webcams-on-windows.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-is-making-it-easier-to-use-its-digital-cameras-as-webcams-on-windows.htmlSony has unveiled a new program for Windows 10 that makes it easier to use the company’s digital cameras as webcams. The software is called Imaging Edge Webcam and allows you to connect your Sony camera to your PC via USB without the need for additional hardware like a USB capture card. That means you can get a huge boost in image quality compared to most traditional webcams. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of a version for macOS./news/sony-playstation-at-e3-2018-the-9-biggest-trailers-and-announcements.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-playstation-at-e3-2018-the-9-biggest-trailers-and-announcements.htmlFor 2018, Sony decided to keep its E3 keynote very focused. The show was almost entirely dedicated to four upcoming games that we already know about: The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man. But while it wasn’t as packed as years past, it did offer deep looks at some excellent games. It was also pretty damn gruesome, and Sony managed to sneak in a couple of surprises as well./news/sony-reverses-unpopular-helldivers-2-decision-after-blistering-player-reaction.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-reverses-unpopular-helldivers-2-decision-after-blistering-player-reaction.htmlStand down, Helldivers. Your battle is won. Late last week, Sony announced that Helldivers 2, one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year, would require Steam players to link their account to a PlayStation Network account. After a weekend of strong player backlash, including review bombing the game on Steam, Sony reversed course earlier this morning and will no longer require PC players to link to a PSN account./news/sony-says-the-playstation-5-shortage-is-over.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-says-the-playstation-5-shortage-is-over.htmlThe PlayStation 5 shortage is finally over — at least according to Sony. “Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally, starting from this point forward,” said Jim Ryan, the company’s gaming boss, during its CES presentation. The company also announced that it’s sold around 30 million consoles at this point. That’s around 5 million more than the last time it released sales numbers in November./news/sony-s-new-ps5-has-been-totally-redesigned-inside-and-uses-less-power.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-new-ps5-has-been-totally-redesigned-inside-and-uses-less-power.htmlSony has totally revamped the internal design of its latest PS5 models. A revised PS5 model started appearing in Australia last month, and now YouTuber Austin Evans has taken a look at the internals and discovered a lot of changes. Sony is using a new, smaller motherboard for the PS5, different cooling, and has even changed the SSD enclosure. All of these changes add up to another weight reduction, but no obvious changes to the exterior of the PS5./news/sony-s-new-ps5-with-a-removable-disc-drive-launches-in-november.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-new-ps5-with-a-removable-disc-drive-launches-in-november.htmlSony officially announced a new PS5 model with a detachable disc drive and 1TB of internal storage. Often referred to as the PS5 “Slim,” this new model is slightly slimmer and shorter than the existing one but will crucially replace both the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. In the US, the new model will cost $499.99 with the drive included, while the PS5 Digital Edition is $449.99. The new PS5 has a significant overall reduction in volume by more than 30 percent and an up to 24 percent reduction in weight (depending on which model you pick)./news/split-is-the-latest-horror-film-to-misunderstand-why-mental-illness-is-terrifying.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/split-is-the-latest-horror-film-to-misunderstand-why-mental-illness-is-terrifying.htmlSpoilers ahead for M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. “The only idea more overused than serial killers is multiple personality.” That scripting advice from one screenwriter to another (both played by Nicolas Cage in 2002’s Adaptation), could practically be a diss aimed directly at Split. The latest effort from suspense maestro M. Night Shyamalan casts James McAvoy as mentally ill serial killer Kevin, and more specifically, as Jade, Hedwig, Patricia, Barry, and upward of a dozen more personalities splintering from Kevin’s unstable psyche./news/square-s-new-bitcoin-business-unit-is-tbd.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/square-s-new-bitcoin-business-unit-is-tbd.htmlJack Dorsey, CEO of both Twitter and Square, is enough of a fan of cryptocurrency that Square’s push into the area won’t stop at releasing a hardware wallet. Instead, the company is creating a new business, to go with existing units like Tidal and Cash App, which is “focused on building an open developer platform with the sole goal of making it easy to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services./news/steam-s-revamped-mobile-app-is-available-for-everyone-on-android-and-iphone.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/steam-s-revamped-mobile-app-is-available-for-everyone-on-android-and-iphone.htmlValve just updated the Steam mobile app on Android and iOS, and it’s vastly different (in a good way) than the previous version. In addition to a new redesign, it comes with a couple of new features that are supposed to make it easier to sign in on Steam without having to enter a Steam Guard code. For one, the app lets you view your entire game library, which appears in a grid-like format, showing game covers and titles that you can sort through with the included filters./news/stop-calling-them-flying-cars.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/stop-calling-them-flying-cars.html“Uber unveils plan to demo flying cars by 2020,” the CNN headline blares. “No longer a dream: Silicon Valley takes on the flying car,” The New York Times says. Even an esteemed publication like The Atlantic couldn’t resist: “When cars fly,” a recent headline ponders. Even we did it — albeit in quotes. Stop. Stop it right now. We need to stop calling these things “flying cars.” There is no such thing as flying cars./news/switchbot-s-smart-home-gadgets-now-work-with-matter-including-its-robot-vacuums.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/switchbot-s-smart-home-gadgets-now-work-with-matter-including-its-robot-vacuums.htmlThis week, SwitchBot announced that almost its entire line of smart home devices can now work with Matter through its SwitchBot Hub 2. This includes its mini K10 Plus robot vacuum — one of The Verge’s picks for best robot vacuum — as well as the soon-to-be-launched SwitchBot S10. Along with Ecovacs’ recently launched Deebot X2 Combo and Roborock’s S8 Max Ultra V (coming April 22nd), there are now a handful of robot vacuums that support Matter./news/tesla-autopilot-distracted-driving-to-blame-in-deadly-2018-crash.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-autopilot-distracted-driving-to-blame-in-deadly-2018-crash.htmlThe National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system was one of the probable causes of a fatal 2018 crash into a concrete barrier. In addition, the safety board said the driver was playing a mobile game while using Autopilot before the crash, and investigators also determined he was overly confident in Autopilot’s capabilities. The safety board arrived at those probable causes after a nearly two-year investigation into the crash./news/the-22-best-last-minute-valentine-s-day-gifts-for-2024.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-22-best-last-minute-valentine-s-day-gifts-for-2024.htmlIt seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas, and now we’re shifting through scores of Super Bowl TV deals ahead of the big game. Valentine’s Day is also nearly here, though there’s no need to panic (yet) if you haven’t found the perfect gift for your significant other. After all, the deals team at The Verge has your back. We published our Valentine’s Day gift guide a few weeks ago, but as the holiday draws closer, we’re aware that not all of our recommendations will arrive in time./news/the-arthur-fist-meme-is-the-best-new-meme-in-a-long-line-of-arthur-memes.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-arthur-fist-meme-is-the-best-new-meme-in-a-long-line-of-arthur-memes.htmlI was one of those kids who didn’t have cable. For this reason, my moral compass and world view were shaped by maybe seven channels of public TV. This included the morning news; the sitcom Frasier; and most-influentially PBS's Arthur, a children's program that, no matter the time of day, would be discovered airing halfway through an episode. The show's pervasiveness no doubt left an impression on kids of the '90s who, like me, got their diet of wholesome life lessons and appreciation of family from a precocious aardvark with on-trend eyewear./news/the-ask-jeeves-ification-of-online-search.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ask-jeeves-ification-of-online-search.htmlThere are some who will tell you that Ask Jeeves was right all along. I’m less sure that’s true. In fact, I am starting to think that if you are a technical person who is considering a startup, Google’s fascination with adding a slow and unreliable AI chat to its results is an opening for you to put a brick on the gas pedal and absolutely run Google over. Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, and the idea was that you’d type a natural-language query into the box, and the valet would come back with an answer./news/the-bose-qc-35-headphones-are-fatally-flawed-and-no-one-believes-me.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-bose-qc-35-headphones-are-fatally-flawed-and-no-one-believes-me.htmlI rush out to try every new major brand pair of Bluetooth headphones that hits the market, because I’m still in search of the perfect ones. The latest contender is the Bose QC 35 released earlier this month, which is basically a wireless version of the QC 25 that’s on the head of everyone in Business Class on every flight you’ve ever taken. As our own Chris Welch observes, the noise reduction on this model is astounding — it instantly boils off the ambient din of midtown Manhattan./news/the-department-of-homeland-security-is-the-pinnacle-of-bureaucratic-dysfunction.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-department-of-homeland-security-is-the-pinnacle-of-bureaucratic-dysfunction.htmlJustaweekafter 9/11,whilethecountrywasstillreeling,aseriesoflettersbeganarrivingatnewsorganizationsandSenateoffices.Theenvelopeswereinnocuous,indistinguishablefromothermail,butinsidewasawhitepowder,ararebacteriathatcanbefatalifinhaled—anthrax.Fivepeopledied,and17weresickenedinoneofthemostdeadlybiologicalattacksinUShistory.Yetanthraxhadthepotentialtoinflictfarmoreharm:ifthesporeshadbeenreleasedfromarooftopindowntownWashington,DC,itmighthaveinfectedhundredsofthousandsofpeople.Oneletterincludedthemessage,“DEATHTOAMERICA,”perhapsindicatingmoretocome.Buthowcouldweplanforasilent,odorlesskiller?  Responding to the universe of new threats facing the country soon became an all-out scramble, consuming the public and the federal government’s attention for several years. The man that President George W. Bush chose to manage America’s preparation for a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear incident was a renowned physicist and weapons expert named Penrose “Parney” Albright.  Albright is exactly the kind of guy you’d want in charge of protecting the country from a devastating attack./news/the-fcc-just-banned-these-chinese-cameras-and-telecom-hardware-from-reaching-the-us.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-fcc-just-banned-these-chinese-cameras-and-telecom-hardware-from-reaching-the-us.htmlHuawei, ZTE, Hikvision, Hytera, and Dahua all sell telecommunications equipment and video surveillance technology into the United States, but many of their future security cams and radio hardware will no longer be welcome. The Federal Communications Commission has just announced it’ll no longer authorize some of their equipment — which is a big deal, because companies can’t legally import or sell anything with a radio in the US without that authorization./news/the-feds-are-killing-off-clearview-the-new-highway-sign-font.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-feds-are-killing-off-clearview-the-new-highway-sign-font.htmlUnless you're a typography buff, you might not have noticed the new font that's been popping up on highway signs over the past decade. It's called Clearview and it's been around since 2004. For much of its life, researchers (including its designer, Meeker & Associates) believed the font could provide for better legibility at night and at longer distances. But, it turns out, later research has not backed up this initial belief./news/the-floor-is-lava-and-it-s-also-a-meme.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-floor-is-lava-and-it-s-also-a-meme.htmlHere’s a good meme to start your day with: it’s the “the floor is [fill in the blank]” meme, which is a spinoff of the very imaginative childhood game every person on Earth individually came up with, the “the floor is lava game.” The photos in this tweet are the most commonly used, with some Photoshop variations. But the meme didn’t really take off until the addition of other images last week./news/the-full-cast-list-for-the-new-twin-peaks-is-here-and-it-s-really-really-strange.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-full-cast-list-for-the-new-twin-peaks-is-here-and-it-s-really-really-strange.htmlQuestions have surrounded Showtime's new Twin Peaks series ever since it was first announced: Is it a reboot? Is David Lynch on board? Did David Lynch drop out? Is David Lynch back on board after dropping out? And most importantly, will the frontman of Nine Inch Nails be making an appearance? Okay, maybe the rest of you weren't asking all of those exact questions, but either way the answers appear to be yes./news/the-guy-in-charge-of-dish-wants-to-buy-boost-from-dish.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-guy-in-charge-of-dish-wants-to-buy-boost-from-dish.htmlDish Network is considering selling its Boost Mobile arm to a company called CONX Corporation, according to a filing with the SEC, spotted by Light Reading. The rub is that CONX is a “company” founded by Charlie Ergen — co-founder and current chairman of Dish Network itself. The filing from CONX (no, I won’t get tired of typing that) says that its far from a done deal, informing investors that “no assurances can be made that the parties [it and Dish] will successfully negotiate and enter into a definitive agreement./news/the-hole-punch-display-is-going-to-be-okay.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-hole-punch-display-is-going-to-be-okay.htmlIn 2018, bad notches happened to good Android phones. But the design trend for 2019 is going to be much better, judging from my first experience with the notch’s successor: the hole-punch display. The Honor View 20 is one of the first flagship phones with a selfie camera cutout that’s literally just the camera. It’s almost exactly the size of the opening that a hole punch makes in sheets of paper, so I think the name is apt./news/the-intel-p-series-was-a-mistake.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-intel-p-series-was-a-mistake.htmlIt has been difficult to find great laptops this year. That’s partially because 2022 has been a bit of a building year for some companies, especially on the consumer side. It’s also because of the Intel P-series. I reviewed a number of laptops in 2022 across consumer, workstation, gaming, business, Chromebook, and everywhere else. I touched all of the major brands. But I had a particular focus on ultraportables this year — that is, thin and light devices that people buy to use, say, on their couch at home — because, with Apple’s MacBooks in such a dominant position, many eyes have been on their competitors on the Windows side./news/the-iphone-14-lineup-won-t-have-physical-sim-support.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-14-lineup-won-t-have-physical-sim-support.htmlThe new iPhone 14 lineup will ship without physical SIM trays — but only in the US. They’ll be able to use two eSIMs at once (and store more than that), but is the lack of a physical tray a big deal? And is it user-hostile and stupid? First, a refresher on eSIMs: they’re SIM cards, but electronic, not physical. That means your phone can be provisioned remotely — no more going to a store to get a physical SIM./news/the-lenovo-smart-clock-2-gives-google-assistant-a-new-look.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-lenovo-smart-clock-2-gives-google-assistant-a-new-look.htmlThe Lenovo Smart Clock and Smart Clock Essential are both functional, attractive alarm clocks with some extra smart home capabilities. Today, Lenovo has announced the next in line: the Lenovo Smart Clock 2. The big news is that the Google Assistant-powered Smart Clock 2 can come with an optional wireless charging dock, which can juice up Qi-compatible devices. This dock can also act as what Lenovo describes as “a soft, ambient nightlight./news/the-orion-looks-like-if-kirby-swallowed-your-switch.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-orion-looks-like-if-kirby-swallowed-your-switch.htmlOne of my biggest complaints about using a Nintendo Switch in handheld mode is that its screen is just too small. And unlike previous Nintendo handhelds like the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, the straight-up book light and magnifying glass window combo hasn’t really caught on for the Switch. If you asked me how interested I’d be, then, in a Switch that had a massive 11.6-inch display, I’d count the days down until I could own what sounds like a glorious thing./news/the-vince-staples-show-just-wants-you-to-be-more-cultured.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-vince-staples-show-just-wants-you-to-be-more-cultured.htmlThe Vince Staples Show just wants you to be more cultured. Vince Staples is something of a renaissance man. He’s a rapper, an actor, and a lowkey, funny-ass comedian, but in the first trailer for Netflix’s The Vince Staples Show from executive producer Kenya Barris, Vince is really …just a dude trying to live, and get a little more culture in people’s diets. The new project seems a bit like Staples’ old YouTube series, which you should probably check out before the new shop drops on February 15th./news/theranos-is-gone-but-ads-for-shady-tests-aren-t.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/theranos-is-gone-but-ads-for-shady-tests-aren-t.htmlThe advertisement was slick and emotionally compelling: real patients, lined up to share how blood testing was a stressful and draining experience, are told about a new test that only needs one single drop of blood. They’re grateful, almost overwhelmed. Then, there’s a tiny vial, accompanied by the phrase “the tiny blood test,” before the Theranos logo appears on-screen. The question of whether Theranos ads were misleading, and whether ads like that one were put on television even though Elizabeth Holmes knew they were misleading, is part of the case against Holmes, who’s on trial in San Jose, California for 11 counts of wire fraud./news/there-s-no-quick-fix-for-climate-change.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-no-quick-fix-for-climate-change.htmlIt could take decades before cuts to greenhouse gases actually affect global temperatures, according to a new study. 2035 is probably the earliest that scientists could see a statistically significant change in temperature — and that’s only if humans take dramatic action to combat climate change.  Be ready for the long haul Specifically, 2035 is the year we might expect to see results if we switch from business-as-usual pollution to an ambitious path that limits global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius — the target laid out in the Paris climate agreement./news/this-400-bumblebee-transformers-robot-can-dance-kick-and-pick-itself-up-from-a-fall.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-400-bumblebee-transformers-robot-can-dance-kick-and-pick-itself-up-from-a-fall.htmlAfter creating the ultimate Optimus Prime toy, Hasbro and Robosen are back with yet another Transformers figure, and this time, it’s a 14-inch programmable robot modeled after Bumblebee. With a price tag of $399, this miniature Autobot can walk, squat, kick, lean, dance, and even pick itself up from the ground. But there is one thing it can’t do: transform. That’s probably one of the reasons why this Bumblebee figure is several hundred dollars less than its self-transforming Optimus Prime counterpart, which costs a cool $700 plus an extra $750 for the auto-converting trailer if you really want to go all out./news/this-ai-program-sees-genitals-everywhere-it-looks.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-ai-program-sees-genitals-everywhere-it-looks.htmlGoogle's Deep Dream software proved that computer imagination can be strange and hallucinogenic. But, given the right parameters, it can also be profoundly dirty. Just look at the AI-generated pictures above — the top row of images all look fairly innocent (they're supposed to be towers); but the bottom row, well, has an unmistakeable penis-y feel to it. That's right: artificial intelligence has learned how to hallucinate genitals. This imagery is the work of computer scientist Gabriel Goh, who created a neural network that mashes together two existing programs./news/this-smart-salt-shaker-has-voice-controls-but-can-t-grind-salt.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-smart-salt-shaker-has-voice-controls-but-can-t-grind-salt.htmlYou can now pay money to buy a smart salt shaker that you can control with your smartphone or an Amazon Echo. That’s probably because we’re going to turn everything we can get our hands on into a smart device, even if it seems super gratuitous. Called the Smalt, the smart salt shaker can also play music through a bluetooth speaker, offers multi-colored mood lighting, and lastly, but perhaps most importantly, can dispense salt in any amount you choose via a connected app./news/this-usb-button-helps-jeopardy-contestants-get-their-buzz-on.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-usb-button-helps-jeopardy-contestants-get-their-buzz-on.htmlThe press of a single button can mean the difference between winning thousands of dollars on national television — or winning nothing at all. Jeopardy!’s buzzer is arguably the most infamous game show button; over the past 59 years, the “signaling device” has become a behind-the-scenes character of its own. The button on a stick inspires future contestants to train their hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and handling, all in an attempt to gain mere milliseconds over the competition./news/this-xbox-series-x-bundle-is-available-at-gamestop-for-powerup-pro-members.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-xbox-series-x-bundle-is-available-at-gamestop-for-powerup-pro-members.htmlThe bundle being offered includes the console, a pair of wireless controllers, three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and a $50 GameStop gift card. And while GameStop didn’t reveal the price of the bundle, it should cost around $655, the total of all the accessories when paired with the console. There are a number of best practices we recommend with every restock, but considering this is exclusively an in-store event, the best advice we can give is to line up as early as possible./news/threads-api-is-coming-in-june.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/threads-api-is-coming-in-june.htmlThreads plans to release its API by the end of June after testing it with a limited set of partners, including Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, and Techmeme. The API will let developers build third-party apps for Threads and allow sites to publish directly to the platform. The API will let users “authenticate, publish threads, and fetch the content they posted through these tools,” according to Threads developer Jesse Chan in a post on the social platform, with more features coming later./news/threads-now-works-from-a-mobile-web-browser.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/threads-now-works-from-a-mobile-web-browser.htmlThreads now works from a mobile web browser. A member of the Threads team just posted about it. I was able to log in from Chrome on iOS; on Safari, for some reason, I wasn’t. I’m assuming that whatever is going on there will be fixed sometime soon. And even though I’m running into that issue, I’m happy that using Threads through a mobile browser is an option at all. I’m weird: I like to log in to social media services through the mobile web instead of downloading an app./news/ticketmaster-to-kill-long-lines-by-checking-event-attendees-in-with-smartphone-audio-data.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ticketmaster-to-kill-long-lines-by-checking-event-attendees-in-with-smartphone-audio-data.htmlTicketmaster is launching a new ticketing system that can passively check attendees into events using audio data from smartphones to reduce entry wait time. Rather than manually scanning a QR code or a barcode from a paper ticket, a “smart tone” technology can receive attendee’s data over their smartphone’s ultrasonic sound transmission to verify their mobile ticket and ID, allowing people to cruise in simply by showing a green approved screen on their phones./news/tiktok-ban-passes-in-the-house-again.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-ban-passes-in-the-house-again.htmlThe House once again passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests it — but this time, it’s in a way that will be harder for the Senate to stall. The bill passed 360-58 as part of a larger bill related to sanctions on foreign adversaries like Russia. It’s part of a package of foreign aid bills that seek to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza./news/tiktok-has-quietly-added-over-half-a-dozen-mini-games-into-its-app.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-has-quietly-added-over-half-a-dozen-mini-games-into-its-app.htmlIn recent weeks, TikTok has started testing offering a small collection of mini-games within its app, TechCrunch reports. There are nine games available as part of this initiative, which can be added to a video before it’s uploaded by using the “Add link” option and selecting “MiniGame.” Viewers can play a linked game by tapping the link that appears underneath the account’s username while a video is playing. When playing a game, there’s the option to record gameplay and subsequently post it as a TikTok./news/tracing-the-long-strange-history-of-tom-s-diner.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tracing-the-long-strange-history-of-tom-s-diner.html“Tom’s Diner” is over 30 years old, but it’s built out of parts that are timeless. There are the lyrics, which read like the sort of observational, creative nonfiction you see threaded through your Twitter timeline every day. (A man walks into a diner for coffee and gets caught up in watching the people around him. He reads a newspaper and gets lost in a thicket of fond memory before leaving to catch a train./news/transformers-the-last-knight-review-a-gorgeous-summer-blockbuster-with-no-soul.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/transformers-the-last-knight-review-a-gorgeous-summer-blockbuster-with-no-soul.htmlOne thing you can say for Michael Bay’s work: it’s consistent. Bay’s name on a film project guarantees a fast-paced story filled with explosions and visually arresting action happening almost too fast to track. So it’s no particular surprise that Transformers: The Last Knight — Bay’s fifth Transformers movie in 10 years — unapologetically offers more of the same. It’s a quintessential summer film: a big-budget romp requiring low brain activity./news/truth-social-says-it-s-building-a-live-tv-service.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/truth-social-says-it-s-building-a-live-tv-service.htmlTruth 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)./news/twitter-is-making-it-easier-for-businesses-to-reach-people-with-direct-messages.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-is-making-it-easier-for-businesses-to-reach-people-with-direct-messages.htmlTwitter, in its never-ending quest to deliver features users never asked for, is announcing a new style of advertisement that businesses can use to easily reach you in your Direct Message inbox. The company is calling the feature a Direct Message Card, which is a specially designed ad that prompts a user to click on an automated reply. From there, a one-on-one conversation is spun up in the Direct Messages tab./news/typing-to-ai-assistants-might-be-the-way-to-go.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/typing-to-ai-assistants-might-be-the-way-to-go.htmlThere’s a time and place for everything. In the privacy of my own home, I’ve got no problem saying “hey” to Google, Alexa, Siri, Meta, and on occasion, Bixby. But out in public? Where other people can perceive me? I’d rather crawl under a rock. This has been one of my biggest problems with AI gadgets these past few months. All of them seem convinced that the best way to interact with AI assistants is to actually talk to them, not unlike the movie Her./news/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-personally-helped-design-the-new-logo-and-it-shows.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-personally-helped-design-the-new-logo-and-it-shows.htmlUber just rolled out a brand new icon for its app, logo for its company, and overall design refresh for its brand. You can argue about its quality down in the comments. Some will undoubtedly love it, some will hate it. It may grow on you over time or stick in your craw. But as you reflect on this new piece of corporate iconography, remember that it's very much a reflection of one man, Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick./news/unity-ceo-apologizes-for-calling-some-game-developers-fucking-idiots.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/unity-ceo-apologizes-for-calling-some-game-developers-fucking-idiots.html[Pocket Gamer:] Implementing monetisation earlier in the process and conversation is certainly an angle that has seen pushback from some developers. Riccitiello: Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives. It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with – they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people./news/vampyr-review-a-gothic-rpg-that-makes-you-feel-guilty-for-killing.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vampyr-review-a-gothic-rpg-that-makes-you-feel-guilty-for-killing.htmlVampyr is the rare game that encouraged me not to kill its virtual denizens. It’s not that it isn’t tempting at times, but their deaths mean I’ll miss out on some amazing stories. The game puts you in the role of a World War I-era surgeon named Jonathan Reid, back home in London after serving in France, only to discover that he has become a vampire. He happens upon this discovery in the most unfortunate fashion: his thirst for blood causes him to attack the first person he sees — his sister, come to welcome him home from the war./news/verge-favorites-dan-seifert-the-verge.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/verge-favorites-dan-seifert-the-verge.htmlThe Verge staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share your favorites with us. Thus a long, healthy debate will ensue where we all end up with new things to read, listen to, or try on./news/voicemod-uses-ai-to-transform-your-voice-into-morgan-freeman-astronauts-and-more.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/voicemod-uses-ai-to-transform-your-voice-into-morgan-freeman-astronauts-and-more.htmlVoicemod, a popular real-time voice changer, is starting to use artificial intelligence to transform your voice into Morgan Freeman and other characters. A new Voicemod AI Voices beta is launching today, offering up eight options to transform your voice into fantasy characters, pilots, astronauts, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Voicemod has been transforming voices for years thanks to classic sound design techniques, but these new voice effects combine AI, too. The “Morgan” voice, as Voicemod calls it, is particularly impressive, allowing you to pretend to be the famous movie star or simply a polished voice actor./news/welcome-to-the-stonk-market.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/welcome-to-the-stonk-market.htmlIn February, a quant fund called Cindicator Capital posted a job listing for someone with three years of trading experience — and at least 1,000 karma on r/WallStreetBets. “Important: NO higher education in economics or finance,” the listing said. Most of the time on the job would be spent on Reddit, Twitter, and Discord, finding out what retail traders are up to. Among the job duties listed: “opening six-figures OTM [out-of-the-money] options trades with the firm’s own capital” and “trying your best to prevent our risk management from having a heart attack./news/why-are-we-still-debating-whether-dating-apps-work.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-are-we-still-debating-whether-dating-apps-work.htmlLast week, on perhaps the coldest night that I have experienced since leaving a college town situated more or less at the bottom of a lake, The Verge’s Ashley Carman and I took the train up to Hunter College to watch a debate. The contested proposition was whether “dating apps have killed romance,” and the host was an adult man who had never used a dating app. Smoothing the static electricity out of my sweater and rubbing a chunk of dead skin off my lip, I settled into the ‘70s-upholstery auditorium chair in a 100 percent foul mood, with an attitude of “Why the fuck are we still talking about this?/news/why-i-m-still-addicted-to-destiny-one-year-later.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-i-m-still-addicted-to-destiny-one-year-later.htmlBecause I'm a simple man and a creature of habit, I do the same few things almost every night after finishing work. I eat dinner and watch some kind of mind-numbing TV with my boyfriend; I have a glass of wine or a beer; I grab a controller and fire up my PS4 to play Destiny, Bungie's divisive RPG-shooter-MMO-psychological experiment. Most of the time I'm not playing with other people, and it's rare for me to work on finishing anything specific./news/windowswap-lets-you-cycle-through-picturesque-views-from-all-over-the-world.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/windowswap-lets-you-cycle-through-picturesque-views-from-all-over-the-world.htmlSome of us are fortunate enough to have a window with a view to help us cope with being inside so much. For those who aren’t so lucky, a new site called WindowSwap can help by letting you cycle through other people’s picturesque views from all over the world. WindowSwap is a quarantine project by Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam that lets you use your browser to watch a video of a window and its unique view from different locations across the globe./news/xbox-live-members-can-now-use-custom-gamerpics.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xbox-live-members-can-now-use-custom-gamerpics.htmlMicrosoft has been beta testing custom gamerpics for Xbox Live since March, and it’s now rolling out the feature to everyone on the gaming service. You can now set custom images on Clubs, Gamerpics, and even Club backgrounds, all through Windows 10, an Xbox console, or the Xbox apps for iOS and Android. Mixer co-streaming is also being enabled in an update rolling out to Xbox One today, allowing Xbox owners and up to three friends to broadcast together on the game streaming service./news/yahoo-unveils-new-personal-homepage-with-news-feeds-and-social-integration.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yahoo-unveils-new-personal-homepage-with-news-feeds-and-social-integration.htmlYahoo today began rolling out a redesigned homepage, as part of CEO Marissa Mayer's ongoing effort to revive the once-proud web company. Mayer announced the revamped site in a blog post published Wednesday, writing that the landing page is "designed to be more intuitive and personal." Yahoo began testing its redesign among some users in early January, and will begin rolling it out to all users in the US "over the next few days./news/zack-snyder-has-revealed-a-new-version-of-jared-leto-s-joker.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zack-snyder-has-revealed-a-new-version-of-jared-leto-s-joker.htmlThe Joker is such an elemental comic book villain that any new version is bound to be compared to previous iterations. It’s rare, then, that an actor would get to play two versions of the character in the span of a few years, but such is the blessed life of one Jared Leto. As part of the run-up to the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the director has revealed the first images of the new version of Leto’s take on the Clown Prince of Crime to Vanity Fair./news/zoomed-out-photos-give-new-perspective-to-famous-landmarks.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zoomed-out-photos-give-new-perspective-to-famous-landmarks.htmlFamous landmarks like the Taj Mahal and Mount Rushmore look startlingly different outside of travelogues. PolicyMic's photo compilation shows zoomed-out portraits of 15 iconic tourist attractions and their postcard shots. The collection shows how small the Forbidden City, once the political center of ancient China, appears when juxtaposed against modern Beijing. Similarly, the white-walled homes of Santorini look even more majestic from a bird's eye view. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnamxfaXxzgY5ubW5qYG6DcMDOrqmiq6RiuaK6w6aYq6OjYsewu8yem2anpak%3D/news/zuck-says-threads-will-add-search-and-web-in-the-next-few-weeks.htmlTue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zuck-says-threads-will-add-search-and-web-in-the-next-few-weeks.html“Search and web coming in the next few weeks,” he tweets, saying he’s “excited about the team’s pace of shipping.” Meta took a gamble on launching a barebones Twitter alternative at breakneck speed while Twitter continued to crumble, and it may have paid off — my colleague Alex Heath recently wrote that Threads hit 100 million signups faster than any consumer software product in history. But more than half of those users didn’t stick around, according to Reuters, and while that may be expected for any software product, much less a buzzy unfinished social media app (and Zuck has been outwardly happy about the retention!/news/first-click-tourist-drones-are-far-more-annoying-than-selfie-sticks.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/first-click-tourist-drones-are-far-more-annoying-than-selfie-sticks.htmlJohn Oliver says happy Mother's Day, now get back to work But while these companies publicly venerate mothers to sell cards, gifts, and decorative baseball-themed flowerpots, they won't give those same people paid maternity leave when they actually give birth. That's because the US, as John Oliver states incredulously in the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, is one of only two countries in the world that doesn't offer paid leave as standard for new mothers./news/jurassic-park-4-flies-in-the-face-of-science-by-cutting-feathered-dinosaurs.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jurassic-park-4-flies-in-the-face-of-science-by-cutting-feathered-dinosaurs.htmlThe Jurassic Park franchise is set to return next summer, but much has changed in our understanding of dinosaurs since Steven Spielberg's raptors first made audiences hold onto their butts back in 1993. It's now accepted that many of them were covered in feathers, for example, with dinosaurs' role in the evolution of birds more clearly defined. It appears, however, that Jurassic Park 4 director Colin Trevorrow is unconcerned by such discoveries./news/10-essential-gifs-from-bitch-better-have-my-money-and-how-to-use-them-in-your-daily-life.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/10-essential-gifs-from-bitch-better-have-my-money-and-how-to-use-them-in-your-daily-life.htmlThe video follows Rihanna and a group of accomplices during a day of kidnapping, blackmail, and yachting, and is perhaps the best usage of denim that has been seen this side of 2001. More importantly, the entire video is a GIF-able inspiration board for women who travail to take back what's owed and look fabulously scary while doing so. Here are the 10 most essential moments, and some suggestions for future use./news/a-robot-sheepdog-no-one-wants-this-says-one-shepherd.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-robot-sheepdog-no-one-wants-this-says-one-shepherd.htmlIt’s certainly an arresting image: a four-legged robot trots across a grassy hillside, steering a herd of sheep without a human in sight. The apparently seamless fusion of the futuristic and the agrarian feels refreshing — even hopeful — at a time when so much progress relies upon the destruction of the natural world. But is it realistic? Could a robot actually take on the job of a sheepdog? The footage comes from New Zealand firm Rocos, which announced a partnership this week with Boston Dynamics, maker of the four-legged Spot robot that stars in the video (and many others)./news/adobe-scolded-for-selling-ansel-adams-style-images-generated-by-ai.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/adobe-scolded-for-selling-ansel-adams-style-images-generated-by-ai.htmlAdobe found itself in hot water this weekend after the Ansel Adams estate publicly scolded the company for selling generative AI imitations of the late photographer’s work. On Friday, Adams’ estate posted a screenshot to Threads showing AI-generated images available on Adobe Stock that were labeled as “Ansel Adams-style,” telling Adobe it was “officially on our last nerve with this behavior.” While Adobe permits AI-generated images to be hosted and sold on its stock image platform, users are required to hold the appropriate rights or ownership over the content they upload./news/adobe-shows-off-photoshop-cs6-s-content-aware-move-feature.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/adobe-shows-off-photoshop-cs6-s-content-aware-move-feature.htmlAdobe has been previewing more and more CS6 features in the run up to its release, and today we have something significantly more interesting than its darkened UI. In a video posted to its YouTube channel, Adobe demonstrated a nice update to its content-aware fill tool introduced in CS5, but the real surprise is content-aware move, which adds the ability to easily move around any piece of a photo with minimal disturbance to the pixels around it and automatically replace the background in a natural way./news/air-dropped-art-how-project-blue-sky-aims-to-deliver-3d-printed-statues-with-flying-drones-at-bu.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/air-dropped-art-how-project-blue-sky-aims-to-deliver-3d-printed-statues-with-flying-drones-at-bu.htmlWhen festival-goers stop by ReAllocate's "dome" — a structure comprised of several shipping containers — they'll be able to pose for a 3D photo captured by Microsoft's Kinect. Once the picture is taken, they'll be handed a GPS transponder and can get back to enjoying Burning Man festivities. In the meantime, ReAllocate will create a miniaturized 3D model of each person with the help of a Cubify 3D printer. When the figurine is completed, it will placed inside a container, hung from a multicopter, and flown out to its intended recipient./news/alienware-goes-bigger-and-taller-with-the-x16-and-m18-gaming-laptops.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alienware-goes-bigger-and-taller-with-the-x16-and-m18-gaming-laptops.htmlAlienware is unveiling a refreshed lineup of its M- and X-series gaming laptops at CES 2023. Like some other laptop companies, including Razer and Acer, Alienware is shifting focus away from 15- and 17-inch laptops toward thin, powerful 16- and 18-inch models. The brand is going big with the new M18, an 18-inch model that’s being pitched as a desktop replacement. This is actually a resurrection following the M18’s previous spec update way back in 2015./news/amazon-reportedly-delays-prime-day-until-september-as-it-works-to-restore-normal-shipping.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-reportedly-delays-prime-day-until-september-as-it-works-to-restore-normal-shipping.htmlAmazon may delay its Prime Day promotional event until September as it tries to regain its footing amid a surge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported. Usually held over the summer, Prime Day has become a cash cow for Amazon; the 2019 event brought in an estimated $7 billion. But like many online retailers, Amazon has had challenges keeping up with customer demand for home delivery during the pandemic./news/amazon-s-head-of-media-and-entertainment-jeff-blackburn-is-retiring-again.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-head-of-media-and-entertainment-jeff-blackburn-is-retiring-again.htmlAmazon’s Jeff Blackburn, who leads the company’s media and entertainment businesses, is retiring from Amazon for a second time, according to emails from Blackburn and CEO Andy Jassy on Friday. With Blackburn’s departure, there will be some shifts in Amazon’s org chart. Mike Hopkins, who heads up Prime Video, Amazon Studios, and MGM, will report directly to Jassy. Steve Boom will add Audible, Twitch, and Amazon’s games division to his current responsibilities overseeing the company’s music and podcasting groups./news/amie-a-new-calendar-app-and-to-do-list-with-plans-to-rethink-time-management.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amie-a-new-calendar-app-and-to-do-list-with-plans-to-rethink-time-management.htmlThere’s another company vying to be the place you go to manage your time. It’s called Amie, and it’s one of the best-looking calendar apps I’ve used. It’s available today for iOS, Mac, and the web after four years in development and many months in beta testing. I’ve been using it off and on for a long time, and I like it a lot.  The first thing that drew me to Amie was that it’s set up to be a combination of a task list and a calendar./news/ancient-reddit-prank-cat-facts-is-now-a-real-app-to-troll-your-friends.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ancient-reddit-prank-cat-facts-is-now-a-real-app-to-troll-your-friends.htmlTwo and a half years ago, a Reddit user named frackyou decided to pull a prank on her teenage cousin, who had posted on Facebook that "he was bored" while offering up his phone number as a plea for entertainment. What proceeded is the stuff of internet trolling legend, with a series of texts purporting to be from an SMS service called "Cat Facts" that would deliver "fun daily facts about CATS!/news/anita-sarkeesian-the-verge-50.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/anita-sarkeesian-the-verge-50.htmlscientists John Kovac Astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics In March, scientists working from the South Pole made a huge announcement. They had seen evidence supporting a key element of the Big Bang theory known as "inflation" — what's colloquially called the "bang" in the Big Bang. Physicist and Harvard associate professor John Kovac is the leader of that team. He's been going down to the South Pole for over two decades./news/apple-announces-ipados-18-with-a-built-in-calculator-and-customizable-homescreen.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-announces-ipados-18-with-a-built-in-calculator-and-customizable-homescreen.htmlApple offered a preview of iPadOS 18 during its WWDC 2024 keynote, providing a brief glimpse of the latest version of its tablet software. Along with a new built-in calculator, the software update will bring AI features like ChatGPT to Siri as well as new customizability options. Like in previous years, the new update will arrive in the fall, with a developer beta available today and a public beta slated for release next month./news/apple-claims-a-new-imessage-can-alert-you-if-state-sponsored-spies-are-eavesdropping.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-claims-a-new-imessage-can-alert-you-if-state-sponsored-spies-are-eavesdropping.htmlApple’s new iOS and iCloud security initiative includes a new way for iMessage users to verify that they’re talking to the person they think they’re talking to. The company claims the new iMessage Contact Key Verification will let people who “face extraordinary digital threats,” such as journalists, activists, or politicians, make sure that their conversations aren’t being hijacked or snooped on. According to a press release on Wednesday, if both people in an iMessage conversation have the feature enabled, they’d get an alert if “an exceptionally advanced adversary, such as a state-sponsored attacker, were ever to succeed breaching cloud servers and inserting their own device to eavesdrop on these encrypted communications./news/apple-has-proven-me-wrong-about-homekit.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-has-proven-me-wrong-about-homekit.htmlThe Internet of Shit is a column about all the shitty things we try to connect to the internet, and what can be done about it. It’s from the anonymous creator of the Internet of Shit Twitter account. Earlier this year, I wrote that Apple’s HomeKit was a failure as a standard for the Internet of Things, but since then, Apple has turned around and proven me wrong. The company has made major changes to HomeKit that accelerate the standard’s trajectory, making it easier for manufacturers to use while offering a compelling platform for the future of connected devices in the home./news/apple-ios-9-review-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-ios-9-review-the-verge.htmlApple is a mobile device company. It makes the vast majority of its money from the iPhone, and everything else it does is starting to look a little like a side hustle. The real game for Apple is in these mobile devices, and the software that runs on them is the most important software that Apple makes. That software, of course, is iOS. But iOS is much more than just the software that runs on the iPhone./news/apple-iphone-5c-review-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-iphone-5c-review-the-verge.htmlSilence isn’t very effective. That, more than anything, is the message of the iPhone 5C. In previous years, the arrival of a new iPhone was accompanied by the low-key repositioning of the previous model at a lower price tier — a strategy that allowed Apple to sell $99 iPhones, but didn’t allow the company to advertise them as new, interesting products. The old models sat with quiet pride in the corner of the Apple Store as people flocked in to see the latest magic from Cupertino, heralded by no banner except that of glories past./news/apple-made-an-ai-image-tool-that-lets-you-make-edits-by-describing-them.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-made-an-ai-image-tool-that-lets-you-make-edits-by-describing-them.htmlApple researchers released a new model that lets users describe in plain language what they want to change in a photo without ever touching photo editing software. The MGIE model, which Apple worked on with the University of California, Santa Barbara, can crop, resize, flip, and add filters to images all through text prompts.  MGIE, which stands for MLLM-Guided Image Editing, can be applied to simple and more complex image editing tasks like modifying specific objects in a photo to make them a different shape or come off brighter./news/apple-pulls-watchos-5-1-update-after-reports-of-bricked-devices.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-pulls-watchos-5-1-update-after-reports-of-bricked-devices.htmlApple released watchOS 5.1 earlier today, but has temporarily removed it from availability after users reported that their watches were rendered unusable by attempting to install the update. 9to5Mac’s Guilherme Rambo experienced the issue, as well as several MacRumors readers. Serious issues with the Apple Watch can be more complicated to resolve than with iPhones or other devices, because there’s no way to plug the device into a computer and reinstall the software yourself./news/apple-shares-a-look-inside-its-first-ever-floating-store.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-shares-a-look-inside-its-first-ever-floating-store.htmlApple’s latest retail store has drawn comparisons to a floating lantern, with a unique design incorporating a glass dome that sits directly on the water of Singapore’s Marina Bay. We first saw a glimpse of the store, the company’s third in Singapore and 512th worldwide, a few weeks ago, and the iPhone-maker has now shared new pictures of the building’s interior, which opens to visitors on Thursday, September 10th. The store is called the Apple Marina Bay Sands, and is located in a luxury district of Singapore full of shops, restaurants, and the Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino./news/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-again-for-the-first-time.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-again-for-the-first-time.htmlIt’s a slushy, snowy day in New York City — the kind where I’d normally look out the window and declare a work-from-home day. But today, I hauled myself out into the wet cold because Apple had offered Nilay Patel and me demo time with the Apple Vision Pro. Nilay and a few others have already spent time with the Vision Pro, but for everyone else, the $3,499 Vision Pro has been shrouded in mystery./news/apple-won-the-ces-headset-game-without-showing-up.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-won-the-ces-headset-game-without-showing-up.htmlApple isn’t at CES, but it had a huge presence anyway. On Monday, just before a string of CES keynotes were set to kick off, the company announced that its Vision Pro headset would be launching on February 2nd. Apple had already promised that the headset would launch early this year. So the stage was set for its rivals to compete by making CES 2024 a showcase of new ideas about virtual and augmented reality./news/apple-s-let-loose-event-live-blog-ipads-all-the-way-down.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-let-loose-event-live-blog-ipads-all-the-way-down.htmlRumor has it we might be seeing some OLED iPad Pros, a bigger iPad Air, a more laptop-esque Magic Keyboard and a “pro”-style Apple Pencil. Possibly an M4 chip? We expect this to be fast and breezy like last October’s “Scary Fast” event. Things kick off at 7AM PT / 10AM ET. You can follow along with the live blog here as well as an embed of the YouTube livestream./news/apple-s-new-holiday-ad-is-a-heartwarming-pixar-inspired-animated-short.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-holiday-ad-is-a-heartwarming-pixar-inspired-animated-short.htmlThis year’s commercial manages to accomplish that feat, but it looks a little different: it’s fully animated. The commercial feels more like a Disney Pixar short, or a Coca-Cola ad than it does a traditional Apple commercial. There isn’t too much product placement from the company save for a MacBook covered in personalized stickers that appears from time to time over the course of two-and-a-half minutes. “Share Your Gifts” finds its heart not in Apple’s MacBook line, but in the spirit of giving a little piece of ourselves to our friends and families this holiday season./news/apple-s-watchos-10-is-coming-september-18th.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-watchos-10-is-coming-september-18th.htmlApple has announced that watchOS 10 will be ready to download starting on September 18th. The update may be the biggest change to watchOS since Apple released its massively popular smartwatch, overhauling the former honeycomb grid and adding widgets — er, glances, as Apple calls them — that you can swipe through and customize. The company also announced that, for the Apple Watch Series 9, Siri commands will be processed on-device./news/arlo-safe-is-a-new-app-and-family-safety-service-for-when-you-leave-home.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/arlo-safe-is-a-new-app-and-family-safety-service-for-when-you-leave-home.htmlKnown for its wireless cameras, smart video doorbells, and, more recently, its DIY home security system, Arlo is expanding into the growing market of family tracking and personal safety apps. “Features like 24/7 live agent emergency support, location sharing, family check-ins, and safety alerts provide on-the-go protection to keep you safe in a time of need,” said Arlo’s SVP of products, Tim Johnston, in a press release. Arlo’s Safe app includes a “Walk with Me” feature that operates like a dead man’s switch/news/at-t-s-prepaid-plans-are-getting-better-as-long-as-you-auto-pay.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-s-prepaid-plans-are-getting-better-as-long-as-you-auto-pay.htmlAT&T has steadily improved its prepaid phone plans over the past few years, and today, it’s making a few more additions and improvements. The highlight is a new 8GB plan that costs $50 per month, but comes down to $40 per month if you enroll in automatic monthly payments to renew service. While that might not be possible for all customers, it’s not a huge ask since many people will be using the service as a regular, monthly plan anyway./news/awesome-games-done-quick-s-adorable-dog-speedrun-was-just-the-start.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/awesome-games-done-quick-s-adorable-dog-speedrun-was-just-the-start.htmlThough Awesome Games Done Quick will go on for the rest of the week, the charity speedrunning event may have already peaked with a run performed by Peanut Butter... a Shiba Inu. Using a custom-made controller and spurred by commands and treats, Peanut Butter button-pressed his way into our hearts and the speedrunning history books with his run of Gyromite in the first-ever speedrun done by a dog. Gyromite is a game where the player guides a sleepwalking scientist through his lab by pressing buttons to raise or lower colored pillars in the scientist’s way./news/backbone-one-gaming-controller-for-the-iphone-is-70-today.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/backbone-one-gaming-controller-for-the-iphone-is-70-today.htmlThe Backbone One is the best mobile gaming controller for the iPhone and you can get it from Amazon today for $70, $30 off of its regular price. In addition, it includes a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which lets you play over a hundred Xbox games right on your iPhone. If you’re looking for other Cyber Monday deals, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Cyber Monday offers from around the internet./news/batman-spinoff-the-penguin-is-pure-crime-drama-in-first-trailer.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/batman-spinoff-the-penguin-is-pure-crime-drama-in-first-trailer.htmlWe may be waiting a while to see Robert Pattinson return as Batman, but the franchise isn’t going totally quiet. Max just released the first teaser trailer for The Penguin, which sees Colin Farrell reprise the titular role from the 2022 film The Batman. As a teaser, the short clip doesn’t give much away, but the vibes are clear: this is going to be a crime drama, only set in Gotham./news/best-buy-won-t-let-you-buy-a-ps5-or-xbox-series-x-in-stores-until-2021.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/best-buy-won-t-let-you-buy-a-ps5-or-xbox-series-x-in-stores-until-2021.htmlIf you haven't already done so in the lead-up to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S, it’s time to toss aside what you’ve come to expect from a new console launch. This one’s going to feel different. Sony today confirmed that its retail partners will only be taking online orders when the console goes on sale next week on November 12th, and now Best Buy is saying that it won’t be making any of the next-gen consoles available to walk-in customers for the entirety of the holiday season./news/blackberry-confirms-it-s-laying-off-200-workers.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blackberry-confirms-it-s-laying-off-200-workers.htmlUpdate: BlackBerry has apparently thought better of its original strategy to try to pass off the layoffs as a "small number" and amended its original statement. The company now tells us that "approximately 200 employees have been impacted in Canada and Florida." Our original story follows. BlackBerry's woes continue. The company has confirmed to The Verge that it is laying off "a small number" of employees in its Waterloo headquarters and in Sunrise, Florida./news/blackberry-founder-hopes-to-achieve-star-trek-future-with-100-million-quantum-tech-fund.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blackberry-founder-hopes-to-achieve-star-trek-future-with-100-million-quantum-tech-fund.htmlBlackBerry creator and ex-CEO Mike Lazaridis has been pursuing his interests in quantum technology since stepping down from the company formerly known as RIM last year, and he's just unveiled his next move. Lazaridis, together with fellow RIM co-founder Doug Fregin, is starting a $100 million fund aimed at boosting quantum science breakthroughs with commercial potential. The fund is called Quantum Valley Investments, and follows Lazaridis' launch of the Quantum-Nano Centre in Waterloo, Ontario./news/blizzard-revives-battle-net-and-admits-it-made-a-mistake-with-rebranding.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blizzard-revives-battle-net-and-admits-it-made-a-mistake-with-rebranding.htmlBlizzard Entertainment’s meandering approach to rebranding its well-known Battle.net service has taken another turn, as the company now plans to revive the name and attach the word “Blizzard” to it. Yes, that’s right — the game company’s storied online platform and storefront shall henceforth be known as “Blizzard Battle.net.” The company says this move should help respect the “shared history” of the service while also allowing Blizzard to align its corporate marketing and branding under a unified name./news/blizzcon-2024-has-been-canceled.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blizzcon-2024-has-been-canceled.htmlBlizzard has announced it will not hold BlizzCon, the publisher’s annual fan convention, this year. “After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024,” Blizzard wrote on its website. Instead of BlizzCon, Blizzard wrote that it would be holding other, smaller events throughout the year and mentioned participating in other trade shows, such as Gamescom. Additionally, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft, with Blizzard stating that it’s planning “multiple, global, in-person events” as well as sharing updates for WoW’s 10th expansion, The War Within, and Diablo IV’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred./news/bluesmart-shuts-down-after-airlines-ban-smart-luggage.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bluesmart-shuts-down-after-airlines-ban-smart-luggage.htmlSmart luggage company Bluesmart is shutting down and selling off its technology, and it has placed blame on the major airlines that adopted a de facto ban of its battery-toting bags. The recent ban on smart luggage with non-removable batteries, which was meant to reduce the risk of battery fires, put Bluesmart “in an irreversibly difficult financial and business situation,” the company wrote in a blog post today. “After exploring all the possible options for pivoting and moving forward, the company was finally forced to wind down its operations and explore disposition options, unable to continue operating as an independent entity,” the company says./news/boa-constrictors-don-t-kill-the-way-you-think-they-do.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/boa-constrictors-don-t-kill-the-way-you-think-they-do.htmlResearchers have demonstrated for the first time that constrictor snakes kill by stopping the flow of blood inside their prey. That approach is so efficient that animals don't survive long enough to die from asphyxiation — the method that most scientists thought was the correct "cause of death" in constricted prey. The finding, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, likely means that many a biology textbook will need to be revised./news/bose-quietcomfort-45-review-comfortably-familiar.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bose-quietcomfort-45-review-comfortably-familiar.htmlBose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, released in 2019, are a perfectly fine pair of premium noise-canceling headphones. They’re Bose’s attempt to leapfrog Sony and other competitors with a revamped, sleek design and more powerful active noise cancellation. But for some of the company’s most loyal fans, they veer off a little too far from what they expect Bose headphones to be. The NCH 700s don’t have the same feather-light comfort as the QuietComfort lineup, they annoyingly can’t be folded for easy carrying, and generally, it seems like Bose needlessly tried to fix something that wasn’t broken./news/cbs-app-for-android-and-windows-8-lets-you-stream-full-episodes.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cbs-app-for-android-and-windows-8-lets-you-stream-full-episodes.htmlSeven months after CBS released its full-episode streaming app for iOS, the national broadcaster is adding Android and Windows 8 equivalents into the mix. And it isn’t stopping there; CBS is announcing that it plans to port the app, simply called CBS, to BlackBerry 10 by the end of the year. We don't know why it took so long to bring the app to other platforms, but we do know that people with Android and Windows 8 devices will get the same streaming features as their iOS counterparts: namely, full next-day episodes of daytime and nighttime programming, with primetime programs becoming available eight days after airing./news/clicks-is-a-blackberry-style-iphone-keyboard-case-designed-for-creators.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clicks-is-a-blackberry-style-iphone-keyboard-case-designed-for-creators.htmlA new company called Clicks Technology has announced an iPhone case with a built-in keyboard on the bottom. The case is called Clicks, too; it’s available for $139 and the iPhone 14 Pro version starts shipping on February 1st, with 15 Pro going out in mid-March. The company is also taking reservations for a $159 iPhone 15 Pro Max model, which is coming in “early spring,” according to the website. (Whether any of them is a reasonable purchase is between you and your conscience./news/coinbase-makes-it-easier-to-report-cryptocurrency-taxes.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/coinbase-makes-it-easier-to-report-cryptocurrency-taxes.htmlCoinbase, one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, is adding a new tax center to its app and website to help US customers work out how much they might owe to the IRS as a result of their crypto transactions, the company has announced. The section is designed to gather every taxable transaction into one place to simplify matters come tax day.  Although cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin often appear similar to the fiat money we’re accustomed to, in the eyes of the IRS, the digital assets are actually property, according to this FAQ from the federal agency./news/comcast-s-free-streaming-box-actually-requires-an-additional-13-month-fee.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/comcast-s-free-streaming-box-actually-requires-an-additional-13-month-fee.htmlComcast made headlines last month when it announced plans to give a free streaming box to all of its internet-only subscribers — except, there’s an extra fee that Comcast didn’t clearly disclose at the time. It’ll only give the box to internet-only subscribers who also rent a modem and router from the company for an additional $13 per month. After the free offer was announced last month, a Comcast spokesperson told me the rental requirement would be dropped “in the coming weeks” so that all internet-only customers could get the device for free./news/could-you-beat-this-bipedal-robot-s-5k-run-time.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/could-you-beat-this-bipedal-robot-s-5k-run-time.htmlResearchers from Oregon State University have coaxed a bipedal robot off the couch to successfully complete the first ever robotic 5 kilometer outdoors run. The bot, Cassie, completed the route in 53 minutes, untethered and on a single battery charge. So next time you’re out for a jog, remember: that’s the time to beat if you want to out-pace the killer robots. Cassie is the creation of OSU spin-off Agility Robotics, which has been pushing the commercial case for bipedal robots for a while./news/cruise-says-a-hit-and-run-launched-pedestrian-in-front-of-one-of-its-robotaxis.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cruise-says-a-hit-and-run-launched-pedestrian-in-front-of-one-of-its-robotaxis.htmlOn 10/02/23 at approximately 9:31 pm officers responded to 5th and Market Streets regarding a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian. Officers arrived on scene and discovered an autonomous vehicle struck an adult pedestrian. Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene and transported the pedestrian to the hospital. The medical condition of the pedestrian is unknown at this time. The autonomous vehicle remained on scene and did not have an occupant at the time of the collision./news/death-stranding-is-getting-a-director-s-cut-on-ps5.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/death-stranding-is-getting-a-director-s-cut-on-ps5.htmlHideo Kojima stopped by this year’s Summer Game Fest to announce a surprise: Death Stranding is not only coming to the PS5, but it’ll be an enhanced director’s cut of the game. Unfortunately, there’s no real detail about the new version, but an early glimpse hinted at some additional stealth elements, similar to Kojima’s work on the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Players can likely expect visual and performance upgrades as well./news/deezer-s-new-flow-tab-creates-daily-personalized-tracklists.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/deezer-s-new-flow-tab-creates-daily-personalized-tracklists.htmlToday, Deezer has announced a change to its existing Flow feature, which creates an endless stream of a user’s favorite songs plus new tracks picked by the service. There is now a separate Flow Tab, which displays several personalized tracklists for a user to pick from based on their individual musical preferences. Once you click on the new Flow Tab, you’ll see a swipeable carousel with cards for different tracklists that mark the artists they’re inspired by./news/designing-for-colorblindness-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/designing-for-colorblindness-the-verge.htmlLiving with colorblindness feels like you’re constantly being pranked by the world in subtle, irritating ways. The other day, I was booking a flight on Kayak, trying to figure out which dates are the cheapest by looking at their low fare calendar. See any issues? Oh, sorry — that’s what it looks like to me. You probably see it more like this. I opened up Chrome Dev Tools, changed the cheap fare colors to something I could actually see, and eventually booked my flight./news/dreamscape-immersive-is-bringing-location-based-vr-to-the-masses.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dreamscape-immersive-is-bringing-location-based-vr-to-the-masses.htmlWalk into the new Southern California flagship location for location-based VR company Dreamscape Immersive, and the sights and sounds of the bustling shopping center it’s located in quickly fade away. A large clock hangs over a wooden concierge desk, while a pair of monitors advertises “departure times” for the location’s trio of immersive experiences, using three-letter abbreviations that echo an airport more than a movie theater or arcade. The transition away from reality continues in the location’s waiting lounge, where physical artifacts from the worlds explored in titles like Alien Zoo and Lavan’s Magic Projector: The Lost Pearl await examination./news/elon-musk-founds-new-ai-company-called-x-ai.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-founds-new-ai-company-called-x-ai.htmlElon Musk has created a new company dedicated to artificial intelligence — and it’s called X.AI, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company, which a Nevada filing indicates was incorporated last month, currently has Musk as its director and Jared Birchall, the director of Musk’s family office, listed as its secretary. The filing, which The Verge has also obtained, indicates that Musk incorporated the business on March 9th, 2023./news/elon-musk-s-sustainability-dreams-for-tesla-need-to-start-in-his-own-backyard.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-s-sustainability-dreams-for-tesla-need-to-start-in-his-own-backyard.htmlLast night, as he presented Tesla’s latest “Master Plan” to investors, Elon Musk attempted to cast his company as one that would usher in “a sustainable energy Earth.” But that’s going to be really hard to do if Musk doesn’t get his own house in order first. Tesla makes electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries to store renewable electricity. A transition to clean energy will need those things. But making those things also needs to be done sustainably and humanely./news/emulation-preservation-and-the-fight-to-save-old-video-games.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/emulation-preservation-and-the-fight-to-save-old-video-games.htmlWhen I ask Frank Cifaldi, the founder and director of the Video Game History Foundation, to explain the importance of preserving and maintaining old video games, he answers with a movie analogy. Imagine, he said, “if movies were only released on, like, VHS, ever. You want to watch Back to the Future? All right, you have to go on eBay, and you have to find an antique VHS copy that’s degraded a bit from use./news/every-fast-and-furious-movie-recapped-in-10-minutes.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/every-fast-and-furious-movie-recapped-in-10-minutes.htmlAction television shows have long been the master of the "Last time on" recap. We thought the format appropriate for the best action serial of our generation: The Fast and The Furious franchise. This one video recaps the entirety of the first six films with the bombast of an explosion at a Slim Jim factory. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnam1faXxye5dsaWxqZ2p8psLEq7BmnpGowW6tzZ1kn62inry2v4ympq%2BhlWK%2Fpq%2FAqaeenF2eu259j2akoqalqbK0/news/evo-online-canceled-after-co-founder-accused-of-sexual-misconduct.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/evo-online-canceled-after-co-founder-accused-of-sexual-misconduct.htmlFighting game tournament organizer Evo has canceled Evo Online and removed its co-founder and president from the company after serious allegations surfaced about his past behavior. The long-running esports event had previously been scheduled to take place in a new online-only format starting July 4th due to the coronavirus pandemic. Joey Cuellar “will no longer be involved with Evo in any capacity,” the company said. Tony Cannon, another of the organization’s co-founders, will act as CEO going forward./news/expedia-wants-to-use-ai-to-cut-google-out-of-its-trip-planning-business.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/expedia-wants-to-use-ai-to-cut-google-out-of-its-trip-planning-business.htmlTravel website Expedia wants to get people to start their travel search on its site with AI instead of using an external search engine. Expedia already uses AI for some customer service features and to help property owners describe their homes and hotels. The company hopes in the future that AI will help it recommend travel destinations to customers based on previous trips and bring more direct traffic to its site./news/fanboys-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fanboys-the-verge.htmlWhy are you so angry? Aaron Baker, the director of content and partnerships for tech news organization PhoneDog Media recently received a disturbing tweet: Did you mention on your Lg G2 vs S4 comparison on youtube that the LG has NO MHL LINK????? I’m searching for you with a shotgun! Anonymous Fanboy (Twitter) The threat was in reference to a cable that hooks into your TV — apparently the person was apoplectic that Baker hadn’t mentioned it./news/fired-spacex-workers-sue-elon-musk-for-sexual-harassment-and-retaliation.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fired-spacex-workers-sue-elon-musk-for-sexual-harassment-and-retaliation.htmlEight former SpaceX engineers filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday alleging sexual harassment and retaliation. Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, “knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” says the employees’ complaint, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg. The complaint — which cites many of Musk’s Twitter posts making sexually explicit jokes — claims that Musk fostered “a perversely sexist culture at SpaceX./news/ford-says-millions-of-its-vehicles-will-run-on-google-s-android-starting-in-2023.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-says-millions-of-its-vehicles-will-run-on-google-s-android-starting-in-2023.htmlFord is the latest automaker to turn its vehicle operating systems over to Google. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it will use Google’s Android to power the infotainment systems in “millions” of its cars starting in 2023. That means Google’s voice-activated Assistant, Google Maps, and other automotive-approved Android apps will be available in Ford’s cars without requiring the use of an Android smartphone. The deep integration of Android will allow drivers and passengers to use Google Assistant to change things like climate settings, and it will also enable over-the-air updates that can add new features or address some maintenance issues, according to Ford./news/ford-says-the-f-150-lightning-is-more-powerful-than-it-originally-announced.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-says-the-f-150-lightning-is-more-powerful-than-it-originally-announced.htmlFord just started shipping its electric F-150 Lightning on April 26th, but it already has a surprise for soon-to-be owners: all versions of the truck will have higher horsepower than it originally announced, and the standard range model will have an even higher payload capacity, according to a press release from the company. While that’s good news for anyone who’s already got a pre-order, it could end up increasing the FOMO for those who don’t, and can’t get one — Ford stopped taking pre-orders for the truck in December, and is currently figuring out how to reach its goal of producing 150,000 Lightnings per year./news/ford-s-capri-slaps-another-old-name-on-a-new-ev.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-s-capri-slaps-another-old-name-on-a-new-ev.htmlFord Europe design director Amko Leenarts says the look follows an imagined evolution of the Capri since production ended in 1986, as inspired by the rising popularity of SUVs. This beefier Capri follows Ford’s other modern takes on classic nameplates, including the Mustang, which became an electric SUV, and the Maverick, which ended up as a pickup truck. It will come in rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive extended-range configurations and a “premium” trim option for each./news/fossil-gen-6-hybrid-analog-smartwatch-review-bling-not-zing.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fossil-gen-6-hybrid-analog-smartwatch-review-bling-not-zing.htmlThe first time I saw Fossil’s hybrid analog smartwatches was in a backroom at IFA 2019. I’d just seen a small army of smartwatches from Fossil — and every other designer brand under its umbrella. I remember feeling weary. Most of those watches were basically different flavors of the same smartwatch. But when a spokesperson showed me the Fossil Hybrid HR, I perked up. A hybrid smartwatch with an E Ink display?/news/friend-request-is-the-goofiest-internet-horror-story-i-ve-ever-seen.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/friend-request-is-the-goofiest-internet-horror-story-i-ve-ever-seen.htmlThis fall, The Verge is making a choice. The choice is fear! We’ve decided to embrace the season by taking in as many new horror movies as possible and reporting back on which ones are worth your time. We’re calling this series Hold My Hand, as we look at films you might want to watch with a supportive viewing partner. Get comfortable, put the kettle on, check the closet for ghosts, then find a hand to squeeze until the bones pop. The most interesting thing about any teen movie is what it assumes about the world teenagers live in./news/google-adds-ai-language-skills-to-alphabet-s-helper-robots-to-better-understand-humans.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-adds-ai-language-skills-to-alphabet-s-helper-robots-to-better-understand-humans.htmlGoogle’s parent company Alphabet is bringing together two of its most ambitious research projects — robotics and AI language understanding — in an attempt to make a “helper robot” that can understand natural language commands. Since 2019, Alphabet been developing robots that can carry out simple tasks like fetching drinks and cleaning surfaces. This Everyday Robots project is still in its infancy — the robots are slow and hesitant — but the bots have now been given an upgrade: improved language understanding courtesy of Google’s large language model (LLM) PaLM./news/google-chrome-experiments-comes-to-mobile-devices.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-chrome-experiments-comes-to-mobile-devices.htmlGoogle has opened up Chrome Experiments — the company's website that shows off new uses of emergent web technologies — to mobile devices, for access from your smartphone or tablet. With a heavy emphasis on HTML5 demos, the site also features creatives uses of SVG and WebGL, among others. The site works with any HTML5-compliant browser, with today's release no doubt tied to the announcement of the long-awaited Nexus 7 tablet./news/google-is-working-on-bringing-ar-to-chrome-with-downloadable-3d-objects.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-working-on-bringing-ar-to-chrome-with-downloadable-3d-objects.htmlGoogle today unveiled its experimental effort to integrate augmented reality features into the mobile and desktop web using its Chrome browser. That way, web designers, media organizations, and other creative professionals could create virtual 3D objects, embed them into websites for viewing on desktop, and make them downloadable on mobile so users could place those objects into their real world surroundings. “In the next few months, there will be hundreds of millions of Android and iOS devices that are able to provide augmented reality experiences — meaning you’ll be able to look at the world through your phone, and place digital objects wherever you look,” writes Reza Ali and Josh Carpenter, who work on user experience on Google’s Daydream WebXR team./news/google-messages-users-in-india-are-reportedly-drowning-in-ads.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-messages-users-in-india-are-reportedly-drowning-in-ads.htmlIndian users of Google Messages are facing a deluge of ads within Android’s default messaging app, 9to5Google reports. Users are reporting being sent multiple ads a day, even if they enable the app’s Spam Protection feature, and blocking and reporting the offending accounts doesn’t appear to prevent ads from different companies appearing. Many of the worst offenders appear to be ads for personal loans, gambling companies, and life insurance.  As 9to5Google notes, companies appear to be abusing an RCS feature designed to let businesses contact their customers with rich, interactive media./news/google-pay-in-the-us-is-shutting-down-in-june.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-pay-in-the-us-is-shutting-down-in-june.htmlGoogle Wallet was the company’s first attempt at enabling money transfers on Android with the Nexus S 4G, and no matter how many apps Google launches, it will seemingly always be around. Google Pay tried to replace both Google Wallet and Android Pay a few years ago, but in a few months, Google Pay will be gone, with Google Wallet back on top. Android Pay popped up in 2015 as a temporary tap-to-pay king, while Google Wallet was recast as a Cash App / Venmo rival, but even when Google changed its mind and combined them, it couldn’t keep itself from messing with the formula again and again./news/google-pixel-vs-pixel-2-the-five-biggest-changes.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-pixel-vs-pixel-2-the-five-biggest-changes.htmlIt’s no secret around these parts that I’ve been deeply enamored with Google’s Pixel. That Android smartphone came almost out of nowhere last year to claim the crown of best mobile camera, and in the process it swept me up as a loyal fan as well. Sure, Google had previously dabbled in the mobile hardware business with its Nexus line, but the first Pixel phones were immediately recognizable as much more serious business./news/google-purchases-nest-for-3-2-billion.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-purchases-nest-for-3-2-billion.htmlGoogle has just purchased Nest Labs, the maker of the Nest Learning Thermostat and Protect smoke detector, for $3.2 billion in cash. According to a Google press release, Nest will continue to operate independently, co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell tells us; co-founder Matt Rogers will also make the move to Google. While the transaction is subject to the usual regulatory review, Google says it expects the sale to close within the next few months./news/google-takes-the-last-step-to-shut-down-its-failed-social-network-buzz.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-takes-the-last-step-to-shut-down-its-failed-social-network-buzz.htmlGoogle's Buzz social network stands as one of the company's most high-profile missteps to date, but the search giant is taking the "last step" to put the failed service behind it. Past Buzz users received an email (discovered by Engadget) from Google yesterday saying that it's moving all Buzz data to Google Drive. A pair of archives will appear in all users' Drives: one private, which contains all Buzz data, and one public, which will show data that was previously made public, and is accessible to anyone with the link./news/google-translate-now-works-inside-any-app-on-android.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-translate-now-works-inside-any-app-on-android.htmlGoogle is making it way easier to translate text on Android: just highlight it. The new feature is called Tap to Translate, and it arrives in an update to Google Translate for Android this morning. The feature allows Translate to automatically pop up inside of other apps after you've highlighted text in a foreign language. When you do, a little Translate icon will appear — it kind of looks like one of Facebook's chat heads — which you can then tap to read a translation./news/google-voice-will-now-warn-you-about-potential-spam-calls.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-voice-will-now-warn-you-about-potential-spam-calls.htmlGoogle has announced that it’s adding a red “suspected spam caller” warning to Google Voice calls if it doesn’t think they’re legitimate. In a post on Thursday, the company says it’s identifying spam “using the same advanced artificial intelligence” system as it does with its traditional phone app for Android. If the spam label appears, you’ll also have the option of confirming that a call was spam — in which case any future calls will be sent straight to your voicemail — or clarifying that it wasn’t, which will get rid of the label for future calls./news/google-s-ambient-computing-vision-is-changing-how-the-company-works.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-ambient-computing-vision-is-changing-how-the-company-works.htmlThe story of this year’s Google I/O actually started three years ago.  At its Made By Google event in 2019, onstage in New York City, Rick Osterloh, Google’s SVP of devices and services, laid out a new vision for the future of computing. “In the mobile era, smartphones changed the world,” he said. “It’s super useful to have a powerful computer wherever you are.” But he described an even more ambitious world beyond that, where your computer wasn’t a thing in your pocket at all./news/hapifork-review-eat-slower-to-eat-better.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hapifork-review-eat-slower-to-eat-better.htmlI’m a fast eater. I’ve tried to become one of those people that takes more than ten seconds to eat a slice of pizza, but I’m still usually done before my friends have even made a dent. I need to slow down, though, and not just for my own peace of mind. A 2010 study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that people who were given identical meals released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the meal in 30 minutes rather than five./news/here-s-where-you-can-buy-a-huawei-phone-in-the-us.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-where-you-can-buy-a-huawei-phone-in-the-us.htmlIn many regions around the world, Huawei phones are easy to come by. They’re sold through carriers, and available in stores. That’s not the case in the US, where Huawei does not officially sell its devices and no carriers offer them. If those things aren’t a deterrent, you’ll likely have to go online to buy one, and even then, the list of retailers that stock Huawei-made devices, including its Honor phones, is shrinking as a result of the US federal government’s recent action against Huawei./news/here-s-your-first-look-at-netflix-s-tomb-raider-animated-series.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-your-first-look-at-netflix-s-tomb-raider-animated-series.htmlNetflix’s latest video game adaptation has its first trailer. At its Drop 01 animation event, the company revealed the first look at Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, an upcoming animated series starring the iconic archaeologist. It doesn’t show much, but it definitely feels like the series will be adopting the grittier tone of the most recent games. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfbnxzg45ranFxYmh9eXvTqKSbZaKWtqWx0WajmqqRYrCzu8WtZJqmmaKybsDRmqClnaJiu6bAxaWgsQ%3D%3D/news/hollywood-s-strikes-are-over-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hollywood-s-strikes-are-over-the-verge.htmlGeorge Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, and other stars offer to pay higher dues to help end the actors strike. The group of stars, which also includes Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, and Tyler Perry, met with the leaders of SAG-AFTRA this week, proposing the removal of the $1 million cap on membership dues, Deadline reports. Clooney tells Deadline that would result in over $50 million paid to the union every year, which could go toward improving health care benefits:/news/horizon-forbidden-west-patch-1-17-adds-vrr-support-and-new-balanced-graphics-mode.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/horizon-forbidden-west-patch-1-17-adds-vrr-support-and-new-balanced-graphics-mode.htmlHorizon Forbidden West now offers variable refresh rate (VRR) and high refresh rate support as well as a new 40Hz “Balanced” graphics mode on PS5, developer Guerrilla Games announced Wednesday. They’re available as part of patch 1.17, which you can download right now. Variable refresh rates can dynamically adjust the refresh rate of your display while you’re playing a game. In practice, it means that games will generally feel smoother to play, though you’ll need a display that supports the feature./news/how-many-shades-darker-is-fifty-shades-darker-really.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-many-shades-darker-is-fifty-shades-darker-really.htmlThe sequel to Fifty Shades of Grey, a 2015 book-to-film adaptation about the romantic and sexual tribulations of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, is called Fifty Shades Darker. We aren’t linguistic theorists, but it seems that this title, relying on the comparative form of “dark,” would indicate that this movie is precisely 50 shades darker than the first movie. If you ignore that the obvious darkest moments of this trilogy come from a generally clunky understanding of BDSM and gender and power dynamics, you can trace most of the darkness in the first movie to dim lighting and Christian’s reliance on handcuffs./news/how-michelin-is-using-innovation-to-pursue-its-sustainability-goals.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-michelin-is-using-innovation-to-pursue-its-sustainability-goals.htmlThis advertising content was produced in collaboration between Vox Creative and our sponsor, without involvement from Vox Media editorial staff. In 1891, Édouard Michelin did something remarkable: he created the first removable pneumatic tire. Unlike previous tires that were glued onto wheels, this detachable design allowed for easier and speedier repairs — and set the precedent for decades of innovation that would come to define Michelin as a company.  From creating the first steel-cased tire in 1937 to a puncture-proof tire in 2019, Michelin has continued to push the boundaries of what is possible — and the more than 130-year-old company is hardly done innovating./news/how-much-are-spacex-tourists-actually-paying-to-fly-around-the-moon.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-much-are-spacex-tourists-actually-paying-to-fly-around-the-moon.htmlTwo mystery space tourists put down a “significant deposit” with SpaceX to take a round-trip around the Moon, CEO Elon Musk announced yesterday. Musk didn’t say much about the two unidentified passengers, let alone how much money they’re shelling out for their Moon voyage. Turns out, it’s remarkably difficult to guess the costs of human spaceflight. “There’s not just a line item that says, ‘Send this person to space.’” That’s because, unsurprisingly, there’s a lot that goes into launching someone into space./news/how-nasa-is-upgrading-the-international-space-station-s-ancient-power-system.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-nasa-is-upgrading-the-international-space-station-s-ancient-power-system.htmlIn the next few weeks, astronauts will be heading out of the airlock on the International Space Station (ISS) on a series of three spacewalks, part of a long-term plan to upgrade the space station’s aging power system.  The ISS uses large solar arrays to collect energy from the Sun and convert it into usable electricity for everything from life support and temperature controls to communications with Earth and propulsion systems to allow the station to dodge debris./news/how-nasa-kept-the-iss-flying-while-harvey-hit-mission-control.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-nasa-kept-the-iss-flying-while-harvey-hit-mission-control.htmlIn the days before Harvey hit Texas, flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center outside of Houston had a decision to make: should they evacuate or ride out the storm at the agency’s Mission Control Center? The dilemma wasn’t just about the safety of the flight controllers. These personnel are tasked with flying the International Space Station — a round-the-clock job that can’t be done just anywhere. If there’s a gap in ground communication, it could put the astronauts in danger./news/how-opensea-took-over-the-nft-trade.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-opensea-took-over-the-nft-trade.htmlOn a cold day in January, NFTs started disappearing. Major services like MetaMask and Twitter were suddenly unable to display images associated with newly uploaded tokens, even though the users had clear records of ownership. Something in the distributed, decentralized technology stack had gone terribly wrong. The problem was the NFT marketplace OpenSea, which was suffering a database outage. The outage brought down OpenSea’s image-loading API, jamming up any service that relied on it to upload tokens./news/how-the-f-factor-diet-became-the-center-of-an-instagram-influencer-feud.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-the-f-factor-diet-became-the-center-of-an-instagram-influencer-feud.htmlBefore April 2020, Tanya Zuckerbrot seemed to have it all. A wealthy Instagram influencer, she had a $22 million duplex on Park Avenue, a handsome-ish husband who worked in real estate, and three healthy kids. She is also a registered dietitian and the owner of a weight-loss empire called “The F-Factor Diet” (the “F” stands for fiber).   That empire came under fire when another Instagram influencer, Emily Gellis Lande, started posting screenshots from anonymous users who said they’d had bad experiences on the diet./news/how-the-north-s-history-shaped-the-season-8-premiere-of-game-of-thrones.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-the-north-s-history-shaped-the-season-8-premiere-of-game-of-thrones.htmlHBO’s Game of Thrones is a dense series with a huge weight of history behind its story. So in practically every episode, something happens that could use a little explanation. Every week, The Verge will dive into a scene or event from the latest episode of the series and explain how we got here. Whether you’re basically a Game of Thrones maester or you need a little reminder about previous events, we’ll try to help you keep your history straight./news/how-to-add-your-iphone-s-battery-percentage-to-the-status-bar-in-ios-16.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-add-your-iphone-s-battery-percentage-to-the-status-bar-in-ios-16.htmlI followed these steps on two phones: an iPhone 11 running iOS 16.0.2 and an iPhone 14 Pro Max on iOS 16.1. The first thing to determine is whether you can add the battery percentage to your iPhone’s status bar because not all models support it. iPhone 8 models and older include this legacy feature as well as second- and third-generation iPhone SE devices. iPhone X models and newer support it with the exception of these devices:/news/how-to-get-facebook-home-or-get-rid-of-it.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-get-facebook-home-or-get-rid-of-it.htmlStarting today, you can have a Facebook phone — and all you need is your current Android phone and about five minutes. Facebook Home, a suite of apps that replaces the homescreen of your Android phone with your Facebook News Feed and overhauls your messaging setup, is now available in the Google Play store. Home lets you keep track of what your friends are up to without ever having to launch an app, and the newly-added unification of Messenger and SMS makes keeping in touch even simpler./news/how-to-make-runny-egg-yolk-into-delicious-sauce-using-science.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-make-runny-egg-yolk-into-delicious-sauce-using-science.htmlLet's agree on some things: breakfast is the absolute best. Eggs are an integral part of breakfast. Ergo, topping any plate with a poached or fried egg makes it Instant Breakfast. Don't believe me? Take that leftover pasta out of your fridge, heat it up, throw on an egg so runny it could win a marathon, and tell me that doesn't taste like some Instagram-worthy feast. I'm not alone in this passion for the Runny Egg./news/how-to-make-text-easier-to-read-on-android-ios-and-the-web.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-make-text-easier-to-read-on-android-ios-and-the-web.htmlLately, I’ve started to notice more and more moments when I’m squinting at a screen and thinking, “The text here sure is tricky to read. Wonder when they made it so small?” It’s not just the need for reading glasses that can make you wish the words on your display were a teensy bit bigger. Maybe you’re looking at a monitor from across the room during a presentation. Maybe you’ve misplaced your glasses or just realized you need a new prescription./news/how-to-replace-the-sky.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-replace-the-sky.htmlHow to Replace the Sky, a comic by Matt Huynh. At the end of 2020, the painting software I’d used my entire professional life updated itself with a new button. Illustration of a Photoshop window, with the Sky Replacement tool selected in a menu. I made my living as a commercial illustrator, making pictures for advertising agencies, book publishers, and magazines. Illustration of a small propped-up tablet and keyboard. I usually painted with ink and brushes, but I also used drawing tablets and apps for jobs that needed flexibility for changes and a quick turnaround./news/how-to-turn-captions-on-and-off-in-instagram.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-turn-captions-on-and-off-in-instagram.htmlInstagram now has auto-generated captions, which means it can automatically transcribe any videos you watch on the app. But before you start seeing captions appear in the app, you’ll probably have to enable the feature first, and the same goes if you want to post videos with captions. Before we get started, it’s worth noting that auto-generated captions are available in 17 languages at the time of writing: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Vietnamese, Italian, German, Turkish, Russian, Thai, Tagalog, Urdu, Malay, Hindi, Indonesian, and Japanese./news/hp-pavilion-plus-14-review-a-powerful-confusing-oled-machine.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hp-pavilion-plus-14-review-a-powerful-confusing-oled-machine.htmlHP’s Pavilion Plus 14 is an interesting animal. The Pavilion line has traditionally included the company’s budget computers, which have been a solid step down from its higher-end Envy and Spectre models. Lately, however, HP has been releasing Pavilions here and there that are solidly in the midrange zone, with their major draw being light weight rather than competitive pricing. The new Pavilion Plus is in that camp. It’s both the thinnest Pavilion ever released and the first one to include an OLED screen./news/htc-vive-review-the-verge.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-vive-review-the-verge.htmlOne month ago, I tested a virtual reality headset called the HTC Vive Pre. The Pre was a development kit created by gaming behemoth Valve and smartphone maker HTC, and it was one of the most exciting new pieces of hardware I’ve had the pleasure of writing about — a device that offered full-body, room-scale VR. The headset above is not the Vive Pre. It’s the final consumer edition Vive that’s coming out today, although it looks almost identical — the branding is new, and the small focus rod on the bottom is ridged instead of smooth, but I still sometimes worry I’m picking up the wrong set by accident./news/hulu-finally-launches-offline-downloads-but-only-for-customers-on-its-no-ads-plan.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hulu-finally-launches-offline-downloads-but-only-for-customers-on-its-no-ads-plan.htmlOffline downloads are now available from Hulu, letting subscribers save content for later viewing when they’re away from a Wi-Fi connection. The new feature means that Hulu is finally adding a convenience that both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have offered for quite some time now. Downloads are launching on iOS and iPadOS today, with Android to follow “soon.” The most important one is that, right now, offline downloads are available exclusively to customers on Hulu’s No Ads plan./news/i-m-circle-concept-is-your-personal-processing-unit.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-m-circle-concept-is-your-personal-processing-unit.htmlThe I'm Circle concept is a totally new way of thinking about personal electronics, centralizing the processing power of the phones, tablets, and media players around you into a tiny pendant-sized box named the I'm Core. In turn, these devices will become no more than variously sized interfaces to access the Core. The idea comes from the same team as the Android-powered I'm Watch that we saw a few days ago, and is designed to be the ultimate continuous client, giving you the ability to answer calls, respond to texts and emails, or watch media on whichever device you choose — be it your phone, tablet, or TV./news/i-m-convinced-renoir-really-did-suck-at-painting.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-m-convinced-renoir-really-did-suck-at-painting.htmlUntil recently, if you'd asked my opinion on Pierre-August Renoir, I'd have looked up casually from my phone and replied, "Oh, you mean the French artist (1841-1919) who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style? Yeah, he's great. Love a bit of old Renners." Now, though, I'd be furious. Arms flailing, eyes bulging, I'd shout: "Renoir? That charlatan?! The man couldn't paint for toffee!" This change of heart isn't just because I'm as impressionable as wet clay (although it's partly that), but it's also thanks to the edifying influence of Renoir Sucks At Painting — a "/news/if-your-cyberpunk-2077-save-file-becomes-too-big-it-might-get-corrupted.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/if-your-cyberpunk-2077-save-file-becomes-too-big-it-might-get-corrupted.htmlI can barely go anywhere on the internet without seeing yet another wild, hilarious, or downright odd bug from Cyberpunk 2077. It’s a buggy game, and developer CD Projekt Red has already released two hotfixes to try and shore up some of the problems. One issue that’s starting to pop up, though, isn’t funny at all: some players are reporting that their Cyberpunk 2077 save files are becoming corrupted if they exceed a certain file size (via Eurogamer)./news/in-dr-fauci-we-stan-the-coronavirus-leader-has-become-a-beloved-meme.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/in-dr-fauci-we-stan-the-coronavirus-leader-has-become-a-beloved-meme.htmlThe Anthony Fauci Fan Club Twitter account wants you to know one thing: “If you don’t have a crush on this man, do you even care about public health?”  The account, which quickly skyrocketed to over 13,000 followers in just the past few days, was launched by three Maryland-based microbiologists who, at first, created a group chat to “gush over” Fauci in private. “We can’t be the only ones who are feeling this way,” one said of the esteemed immunologist./news/intel-announces-ivy-bridge-processors-specs-system-refreshes-and-new-models.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-announces-ivy-bridge-processors-specs-system-refreshes-and-new-models.htmlOther features include up to 32GB of memory and four USB 3.0 ports. The brushed magnesium aluminum chassis laptops are all rated for military grade spec for dust resistance, vibration, shock, altitude, drop, high temperature, low temperature, and temperature shock. All three models will be available this month with starting prices of $1,329, $1,449, and $1,699 ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnampfaXxzf45rcG9waW6FcLXNrZylZZmrxm6u0aKboJ1dpb%2Bwr8Ssqqiqo2KwsLnPrqueqqNiwLGxwqKdopuRqbawutI%3D/news/intel-makes-thunderbolt-5-official-promising-speeds-of-up-to-120gbps.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-makes-thunderbolt-5-official-promising-speeds-of-up-to-120gbps.htmlIntel is making Thunderbolt 5 official today with promises of up to 120Gbps speeds, theoretical support for 540Hz gaming monitors, 240 watts of charging power, and much more. While the Thunderbolt 5 specification is now official, accessories and PCs won’t debut with support for Thunderbolt 5 until 2024. Built on USB4 v2, Thunderbolt 5 will be compatible with previous versions of Thunderbolt and USB. While Thunderbolt 4 supported up to 40Gbps speeds, Thunderbolt 5 can transmit data at 80Gbps or up to 120Gbps in a Bandwidth Boost mode./news/intel-shows-off-its-answer-to-nvidia-s-dlss-coming-to-arc-gpus-in-2022.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-shows-off-its-answer-to-nvidia-s-dlss-coming-to-arc-gpus-in-2022.htmlIntel Arc is the company’s first big foray into dedicated gaming GPUs, coming in Q1 2022, but we got another preview at some of additional details for the upcoming graphics cards at the company’s Architecture Day 2021 event — including a first look at Intel’s AI-accelerated super sampling, now known as XeSS. XeSS looks set to take on Nvidia’s own Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) tech, will make its debut alongside the first Arc GPU architecture, known as Alchemist, in early 2022./news/ios-13-1-2-now-available-as-apple-continues-polishing-ios-13-at-rapid-pace.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-13-1-2-now-available-as-apple-continues-polishing-ios-13-at-rapid-pace.htmlApple is continuing to update iOS 13 at a breakneck pace. On Friday, the company pushed out iOS 13.1.1 with a few bug fixes — and iOS 13.1 had only just launched on September 24th. Fast-forward to today, and Apple is already rolling out iOS 13.1.2 and iPadOS 13.1.2. It’s getting a little hard to keep these things straight. The newest update addresses a handful of issues impacting iCloud backups, the camera (“fixes an issue where camera may not work”), flashlight, Bluetooth, and the HomePod./news/is-sony-about-to-revamp-the-ps5-s-dualsense-controller.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/is-sony-about-to-revamp-the-ps5-s-dualsense-controller.htmlIs Sony about to revamp the PS5’s DualSense controller? A product listings for a mysterious “V2” DualSense has cropped up on Best Buy’s Canadian store. Although it’s priced the same, the listing mentions an included charging station, and that the controller offers “exceptional 12-hour battery life,” which, if true, would represent a moderate step up from the 7-8 hours we’ve been getting from the existing model. Update January 11th, 10:24AM ET: We found a similar listing on EE’s online store, but it’s now been edited to remove the “V2” mention./news/keanu-reeves-is-voicing-shadow-the-hedgehog-in-the-third-sonic-movie.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/keanu-reeves-is-voicing-shadow-the-hedgehog-in-the-third-sonic-movie.htmlAccording 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 cryogenically frozen at a mysterious black site./news/kendrick-lamar-s-latest-black-panther-music-video-is-full-of-old-gadgets-and-magic.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kendrick-lamar-s-latest-black-panther-music-video-is-full-of-old-gadgets-and-magic.htmlEvery week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video — maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video./news/kobo-clara-2e-review-slow-reader.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kobo-clara-2e-review-slow-reader.htmlI don’t know what to do during thunderstorms. I’m from Southern California, after all, where we’re accustomed to warm, sunny days, even during the winter. So when the first raindrop fell on the Kobo Clara 2E I was reading while in the park, my bewildered self naturally thought a bird peed on my review unit. Only when the rain really started to pour down did it hit me that I was caught in the middle of a storm outside with no jacket or umbrella to protect me or this $129./news/map-of-preventable-disease-outbreaks-shows-the-influence-of-anti-vaccination-movements.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/map-of-preventable-disease-outbreaks-shows-the-influence-of-anti-vaccination-movements.htmlIn contrast, the state of Wisconsin alone saw more than 7,000 cases of the disease between 2011 and 2013. In California, the number was over 10,000. At least 10 babies died in the state from the disease in 2010. In 2009, there were no news reports of vaccine-preventable diseases in the state of Washington. In 2012, the state suffered five distinct outbreaks of whooping cough, totaling 7,000 cases of a disease that was once close to eradication./news/mario-kart-tour-has-crossed-the-finish-line.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mario-kart-tour-has-crossed-the-finish-line.htmlNintendo and game publisher DeNA will discontinue creating new content for the mobile game Mario Kart Tour starting October 4th, Video Games Chronicle reports. The move indicates Nintendo may be pivoting its focus away from mobile games. The companies will release new Mario Kart Tour content as a part of its Anniversary Tour starting September 20th. Following the Battle Tour’s launch on October 4th, however, the company will only release old content./news/mastodon-is-making-it-easier-to-create-an-account.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mastodon-is-making-it-easier-to-create-an-account.htmlMastodon is making it easier for newcomers to create an account on the platform. On Monday, the decentralized network announced that it will start directing new users to create an account on mastodon.social instead of prompting them to choose from one of the thousands of other servers on the platform. This update doesn’t mean that Mastodon’s taking away the ability for new users to sign up for an account in a specific community, though./news/microsoft-announces-black-xbox-series-s-with-1tb-of-storage-for-349.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-announces-black-xbox-series-s-with-1tb-of-storage-for-349.htmlMicrosoft has just announced a new black version of the Xbox Series S with 1TB of built-in storage at the Xbox Games Showcase. Little has changed here since the original Xbox Series S, apart from a black paint job and more storage inside. Microsoft is launching the 1TB black Xbox Series S on September 1st priced at $349, and pre-orders start today. The carbon black Xbox Series S was announced on stage by Xbox chief Phil Spencer, who also mentioned that the company has also increased its shipments of Xbox Series X to meet demand./news/microsoft-paint-could-soon-get-ai-enhanced-features-on-windows-11.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-paint-could-soon-get-ai-enhanced-features-on-windows-11.htmlMicrosoft Paint could be the next Windows app to get the AI treatment. According to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft is exploring ways to bring AI-powered features to the app in Windows 11, which could include the ability to generate a canvas based on a text prompt. Sources tell Windows Central that the AI feature will be powered by the same technology behind Bing’s Image Creator, a tool that spits out an image based on your description./news/microsoft-unveils-new-cortana-app-for-windows-10.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-unveils-new-cortana-app-for-windows-10.htmlMicrosoft is tweaking how Cortana works in Windows 10. While the digital assistant might be disappearing from the Xbox One, Microsoft is testing a new chat-based UI for Cortana on Windows 10 PCs. The new beta app, which was originally spotted last month, is now available to testers, and it supports text and voice queries. It’s designed to be more conversational, and it’s a big part of Microsoft’s new focus for Cortana./news/microsoft-unveils-plans-for-a-new-modern-headquarters.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-unveils-plans-for-a-new-modern-headquarters.htmlMicrosoft is planning to overhaul its 500-acre campus in Redmond, Washington. The software giant will start a multi-year project next fall to create 18 new buildings, alongside new public spaces, transportation investments, and sports fields. Microsoft currently has 125 buildings at its campus, and once the project is complete this will rise to 131 buildings. The updated campus will house 47,000 Microsoft employees that currently work at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, and allow for 8,000 more people./news/microsoft-please-do-not-blow-vape-smoke-into-your-xbox-series-x.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-please-do-not-blow-vape-smoke-into-your-xbox-series-x.htmlMicrosoft’s latest next-gen console, the Xbox Series X (along with its smaller cousin, the Xbox Series S), has arrived. And with it comes a whole bunch of internet con artists trying to meme people into believing the new console is plagued by terrible issues. You might, for example, have seen clips passed around the internet that showcased the Xbox Series X literally smoking. The posts would have you believe the blazing graphics of the Series X are so demanding they can cause an Xbox to catch fire, but the reality is much simpler than Xbox consoles spontaneously bursting into flame./news/microsoft-s-new-copilot-key-is-the-first-big-change-to-windows-keyboards-in-30-years.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-new-copilot-key-is-the-first-big-change-to-windows-keyboards-in-30-years.htmlMicrosoft wants 2024 to be “the year of the AI PC,” and it’s kicking things off with a significant change to the keyboard on new laptops and PCs. A new Copilot key will ship on a variety of new PCs and laptops from Microsoft’s partners, providing quick access to Microsoft’s AI-powered Windows Copilot experience straight from a keyboard button press. The Copilot key is the first big change to the Windows PC keyboard layout in nearly three decades./news/midnight-suns-is-a-new-marvel-tactics-rpg-from-xcom-studio-firaxis.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/midnight-suns-is-a-new-marvel-tactics-rpg-from-xcom-studio-firaxis.htmlMarvel’s Midnight Suns is a newly revealed tactical RPG from Firaxis Games that was just announced at Gamescom’s opening night event. The game is said to take place in the “darker side of the Marvel Universe,” and it will have players take on the role of a new hero, The Hunter (which Firaxis created with Marvel). In Midnight Suns, you’ll team up with classic heroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Blade, Captain America, and Captain Marvel as part of the Midnight Suns superhero team to battle a supernatural foe: Lilith./news/motorola-motoactv-hands-on-pictures-update-video.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-motoactv-hands-on-pictures-update-video.htmlTucked in the corner away from all the Droid RAZR excitement, we got a chance to check out Motorola's much calmer and nicer fitness parter, the MotoACTV. It's super light, with a very sturdy (if not a tad wide) band in tow. Also on hand were many of the accessories, including the wireless stereo handset. The representative was kind enough to put pull out his own Droid RAZR and demonstrate how text messages to the phone will pop up on MotoACTV in sync, which works quite well./news/murder-by-numbers-review-solve-crime-with-math.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/murder-by-numbers-review-solve-crime-with-math.htmlMurder by Numbers has just about everything you’d expect from an interactive crime drama: surprise twists, complex motives, brutal murders, and lots of clues to uncover. In some ways, it’s straightforward, a story that’s both tense and serious, but also sweet and lighthearted in the mold of the Phoenix Wright series. But there’s one element of Murder by Numbers that makes it entirely unique: you solve the crimes by figuring out complicated number puzzles./news/nanoleaf-s-new-lighting-kits-sync-up-with-the-action-on-your-tv.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nanoleaf-s-new-lighting-kits-sync-up-with-the-action-on-your-tv.htmlNanoleaf is expanding its lineup of addressable smart lighting along with some new tech aimed at providing a more immersive viewing experience for your TV. The Nanoleaf 4D TV Smarter Kit is a series of RGB light strips designed to reflect the colors on your TV with the aid of a small camera that remains pointed at the screen. The TV lighting kit is just one of the new products Nanoleaf is showing off at CES 2023, expanding its lineup of intelligent lighting and Matter-compatible products./news/nasa-s-osiris-rex-mission-brings-asteroid-samples-back-to-earth.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nasa-s-osiris-rex-mission-brings-asteroid-samples-back-to-earth.htmlNext year, NASA plans to scoop up a small batch of dirt from an asteroid named Bennu, located millions of miles from Earth — and now the agency knows which part of the space rock it’s going to steal from. Today, the space agency announced that one of its spacecraft will attempt to grab some particles from a 20-meter-wide crater, called Nightingale, on the asteroid. Engineers picked the Nightingale site from four final candidate spots on Bennu, arguing it could be the best place to find organic material and water on the asteroid that may hail from the earliest days of the Solar System./news/no-man-s-sky-travel-diary-trapped-on-a-boring-planet.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/no-man-s-sky-travel-diary-trapped-on-a-boring-planet.htmlNo Man’s Sky is an almost impossibly huge game, an entire virtual universe filled with 18 quintillion planets, each one different from the next thanks to the powers of procedural generation. Instead of a typical review, I’m going to be writing regular dispatches from No Man’s Sky, giving a firsthand account of what the experience is like, and what you can expect if you choose to dive in. You can follow along right here./news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-review-impressive-performance-for-399.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-review-impressive-performance-for-399.htmlNvidia’s new RTX 3060 Ti is a surprise addition to the company’s lineup of RTX 3000-series graphics cards. Priced at $399, it goes on sale tomorrow and Nvidia promises it will deliver more performance than the previous-generation top-of-the-line RTX 2080 and 2080 Super. But the 3060 Ti is far from the top of the line — in fact, it’s the least expensive RTX card you can buy. If the RTX 3070 was the sweet spot for 1440p gaming, the RTX 3060 Ti looks like an even sweeter spot thanks to the extra $100 savings./news/obama-finally-upgraded-from-his-blackberry.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/obama-finally-upgraded-from-his-blackberry.htmlPresident Obama has finally been allowed to replace his BlackBerry with something more modern — but he apparently isn't thrilled with this new phone either. "I get the thing, and they're all like, 'Well, Mr. President, for security reasons ... it doesn't take pictures, you can't text, the phone doesn't work, ... you can't play your music on it,'" Obama said during an appearance on The Tonight Show this week. "/news/oculus-teases-star-wars-vader-immortal-a-vr-experience-coming-in-2019.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oculus-teases-star-wars-vader-immortal-a-vr-experience-coming-in-2019.htmlBack in 2016, Industrial Light & Magic’s xLab team announced that it was working with writer David S. Goyer to create a VR experience starring Darth Vader. And at this year’s Oculus Connect conference, the company showed off the first trailer for the finished product, now a three-part series called Star Wars: Vader Immortal, the first episode of which is set to launch in 2019. While neither Oculus nor ILM is offering too many details on what Vader Immortal will entail — we know it will take place some time prior to Episode IV — but it sounds like it’ll offer players the chance to take up a lightsaber and go head to head with Star War’s most iconic villain in VR./news/office-depot-pays-35-million-over-claims-it-lied-to-customers-about-malware-infections.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/office-depot-pays-35-million-over-claims-it-lied-to-customers-about-malware-infections.htmlOffice Depot and its software supplier, Support.com, have paid $35 million to the FTC over allegations of faked malware reports that tricked customers into paying millions of dollars in computer repairs. According to the FTC, Office Depot (and Office Max, which merged with Office Depot in 2013) used a program called “PC Health Check,” which claimed to be a free tool offering a check-up to help diagnose if there were any problems or malware plaguing a device./news/openai-is-adding-new-watermarks-to-dall-e-3.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/openai-is-adding-new-watermarks-to-dall-e-3.htmlOpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 3 will add watermarks to image metadata as more companies roll out support for standards from the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). The company says watermarks from C2PA will appear in images generated on the ChatGPT website and the API for the DALL-E 3 model. Mobile users will get the watermarks by February 12th. They’ll include both an invisible metadata component and a visible CR symbol, which will appear in the top left corner of each image./news/overwatch-2-celebrates-its-first-in-game-pride-event.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/overwatch-2-celebrates-its-first-in-game-pride-event.htmlOverwatch 2 will celebrate its first-ever Pride event. Starting June 1st, the Midtown map will be festooned with Pride flags, the lesbian hero Tracer will have a picture of her and her partner added to the barracks in the Watchpoint: Gibraltar map, and players will get a host of icons and name cards reflect the breadth of queer identities and the Overwatch heroes who share them. The Verge had the opportunity to speak with the developers about this new event, gaining insight into what went into creating this event and what this means for Overwatch’s LGBTQ+ fans and characters./news/playstation-keeps-reminding-us-why-digital-ownership-sucks.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/playstation-keeps-reminding-us-why-digital-ownership-sucks.htmlIn less than a week, Sony has given us two timely reminders of the tenuousness of digital “ownership” — and both reminders involve things on PlayStation. Last week, Sony said that, because of content licensing “arrangements,” users wouldn’t be able to watch Discovery content they’ve purchased and that the content would be removed from their libraries as of December 31st, 2023. The resulting list of shows that will suddenly disappear because of corporate agreements is very long./news/playstation-vue-is-now-integrated-with-apple-s-tv-app.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/playstation-vue-is-now-integrated-with-apple-s-tv-app.htmlPlayStation Vue has integrated with Apple’s TV app, allowing users to view on-demand content and live sports right in the TV app on iOS and tvOS, Sony announced this week. Vue is the first pay-TV provider to be featured in the TV app, which already features content from nearly every major streaming service and cable channel except for Netflix. The TV app makes it easy to view all of the content you have access to in one place, and it will tell you where you can find a show or movie that you’ve searched for, and recommend content based on the services you have access to and your tastes./news/pok%C3%A9mon-go-gives-festival-attendees-a-free-lugia-after-connectivity-issues-plagued-the-event.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pok%C3%A9mon-go-gives-festival-attendees-a-free-lugia-after-connectivity-issues-plagued-the-event.htmlAfter rough start to Pokémon Go Fest, Niantic’s first in-person event for its breakout game, the company has announced that all registered attendees will automatically have the legendary pokémon Lugia added to their accounts. Prior to the event, the company teased that legendary pokémon are headed to the game, and the reveal for what specific pokémon is coming was supposed to happen in a form of a co-operative raid. That, of course, didn’t actually happen, as connectivity issues rendered the game mostly unplayable by the majority of festival goers./news/pornhub-blocks-mississippi-and-virginia-over-age-verification-laws.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pornhub-blocks-mississippi-and-virginia-over-age-verification-laws.htmlPornhub is now blocking people in Mississippi and Virginia from visiting its website over laws that would require the service to verify their age. The company says it’s blocking users to protest unfair enforcement of these new laws, claiming that sites enforcing the new rules will lose traffic to “irresponsible platforms” that “don’t follow the law, that don’t take user safety seriously, and that often don’t even moderate content.” Traffic dropped by 80 percent for Pornhub after it began enforcing age verification in Louisiana earlier this year, the company writes./news/print-your-furniture-at-home-for-just-39-000.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/print-your-furniture-at-home-for-just-39-000.htmlBigRep One can print standard nylons and plastics, but it also prints Laywood — a mixture of polymers and wood fibres that create a wood-like finish. It’s a good effect for indoor furniture, and there’s also Laybrick support for a sandstone effect that’s a little more rough-textured. BigRep One might be capable of printing furniture, but the price will limit its popularity with consumers. At $39,000 its build size is the main selling point, and more traditional consumer printers can be found for a lot less cash./news/raden-is-the-second-startup-to-bite-the-dust-after-airlines-ban-some-smart-luggage.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/raden-is-the-second-startup-to-bite-the-dust-after-airlines-ban-some-smart-luggage.htmlSmart luggage startup Raden announced today that it has shut down and can no longer handle “returns, exchanges or repairs.” It’s the second dedicated smart luggage company to go under this month (following Bluesmart, which ceased operations May 1st) after major US airlines imposed strict rules on suitcases with batteries earlier this year. The policies that airlines like Delta and American put in place earlier this year most aggressively targeted luggage with non-removable batteries, like the kinds Bluesmart sold./news/rage-2-review-a-big-dumb-shooter-that-s-a-lot-of-fun.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rage-2-review-a-big-dumb-shooter-that-s-a-lot-of-fun.htmlOf all the blockbuster games in need of a sequel, 2011’s Rage has to be near the bottom of the list. The id-developed post-apocalyptic shooter was a stunning technical showcase, but an entirely forgettable game, set in a drab brown world that did little to distinguish itself. It’s hard to imagine many came away from the game dying to know what happened next. But alas, here we are, and Rage 2 is a video game you can play right now./news/rainbow-six-extraction-is-full-of-creepy-aliens-in-new-trailers.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rainbow-six-extraction-is-full-of-creepy-aliens-in-new-trailers.htmlPreviously known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, Ubisoft finally revealed Rainbow Six Extraction during its Ubisoft Forward conference on Saturday. The presentation started with a cinematic reveal; Extraction is set in the same Rainbow Six universe, featuring Siege operators such as Hibana, who’s gone Missing in Action. United under the Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team (REACT), you form a team with other operators on a rescue mission and face a creepy alien threat known as the Archean./news/razer-book-13-review-stop-gaming-and-get-to-work.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/razer-book-13-review-stop-gaming-and-get-to-work.htmlFor years, Razer has made some of the best gaming laptops on the market. They’re not uniquely famous for their high performance (Blades are powerful machines but not the fastest out there) or their prices (which are high). They’re famous for their high-quality build and their premium design. In short, Razer makes the best-looking gaming laptops on the market.  Razer has decided this year that this aesthetic shouldn’t be limited to gaming laptops./news/read-xbox-chief-phil-spencer-s-memo-welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/read-xbox-chief-phil-spencer-s-memo-welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft.htmlToday is a good day to play. We have completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and are welcoming Activision Blizzard and its businesses to Microsoft Gaming. Activision, Blizzard, and King publish some of the most played and most beloved franchises in gaming history, from Pitfall to Call of Duty, Warcraft to Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga to Farm Heroes Super Saga. By combining Xbox with Activision Blizzard’s skill, knowledge, and amazing legacy of games, we will bring the joy and community of gaming to even more players around the world./news/revisiting-battle-royale-the-japanese-inspiration-of-the-hunger-games-and-fortnite.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/revisiting-battle-royale-the-japanese-inspiration-of-the-hunger-games-and-fortnite.htmlBefore The Hunger Games, Fortnite, or Squid Game, the concept of the “battle royale” came from a pulpy 1999 Japanese novel by Koushun Takami. The movie, directed by Kinji Fukasaku and released just a year later, slims down some of the book’s context (scrubbed is the alternate history of Japan winning World War II), but the setup is more or less the same: a class of 15-year-old students are randomly selected to be made an example of./news/roblox-to-allow-17-and-over-experiences.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/roblox-to-allow-17-and-over-experiences.htmlRoblox has been signaling that it wants to be more than a gaming platform for kids. Today, the company is making another push in that direction by letting its creators make experiences specifically for people who are 17 and older. The new age category will allow for more graphic content and adult themes than Roblox has permitted to date, including depictions of heavy bloodshed and alcohol use, chief product officer Manuel Bronstein tells me./news/rolando-one-of-the-first-flagship-ios-games-is-getting-a-new-remastered-edition.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rolando-one-of-the-first-flagship-ios-games-is-getting-a-new-remastered-edition.htmlThe early days of the iOS App Store was a Wild West of content, but one of the biggest and best games around back then was Rolando, a puzzle platformer that was specifically built around the iPhone’s (still novel at the time) touchscreen and accelerometer technology. Rolando: Royal Edition isn’t just an updated version of the original code: HandCircus has moved to a completely new engine for the remaster, which now runs at 60 fps on all devices./news/russia-partially-blocks-facebook-for-fact-checking-state-owned-media.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/russia-partially-blocks-facebook-for-fact-checking-state-owned-media.htmlThe Russian government has partially blocked access to Facebook in the country after it claims the social network “restricted” the accounts of four Russian media outlets. In a statement on Friday, Russia’s tech and communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said Facebook was violating “the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” and that it had recorded 23 cases of “censorship” by the social network since October 2020. “On February 24, Roskomnadzor sent requests to the administration of Meta Platforms, Inc./news/samsung-galaxy-s4-hits-at-t-stores-april-27th-pre-orders-could-arrive-two-days-earlier.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-s4-hits-at-t-stores-april-27th-pre-orders-could-arrive-two-days-earlier.htmlCellular carriers are racing to put theSamsung Galaxy S4 smartphone on sale as fast as they possibly can. AT&T may have just gained a slight lead, telling early pre-order customers they may be receiving their devices as soon as April 25th. In case you're looking to purchase a Samsung Galaxy S4 on AT&T and don't have a pre-order, however, the carrier also tweeted that the 16GB model will be available to purchase on April 27th from its physical retail stores./news/samsung-unveils-its-latest-smartwatch-the-galaxy-watch.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-unveils-its-latest-smartwatch-the-galaxy-watch.htmlSamsung is back with a new smartwatch and fresh branding. The company announced its Galaxy Watch at its annual Galaxy Note phone event today. It features 3G / LTE connectivity and charges wirelessly. There will be two models: a 46mm silver version and smaller 42mm black and rose gold versions. The company’s forgoing its previous Gear branding and is instead tying the watch more directly to its Galaxy smartphone and tablet line./news/samsung-will-use-google-play-music-as-the-default-music-app-on-its-devices.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-will-use-google-play-music-as-the-default-music-app-on-its-devices.htmlSamsung is giving Google Play Music a big push. Today, coinciding with the retail launch of the Galaxy S8, both companies announced that Google’s music app will become the preferred music player on Samsung mobile devices. The partnership kicks off immediately with the S8. But it technically began a year ago; Play Music was also the default music playback app on the Galaxy S7, a result of Samsung trying to cut down on duplicate apps that clashed with Google’s services on Android./news/samsung-s-galaxy-watch-will-reportedly-run-tizen-os.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-galaxy-watch-will-reportedly-run-tizen-os.htmlFor the past four years, Samsung’s smartwatches have been branded under the “Gear” name, but this year, it looks like the company will be opting to rebrand under the “Galaxy” line. Since 2015, the operating system for Gear watches has been Tizen, and it doesn’t look like this change in name will mean a switch to Android’s Wear OS. SamMobile reported today that the company’s upcoming wearable, the Galaxy Watch, will run the latest version of Tizen OS./news/sea-spray-sends-forever-chemicals-into-the-air.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sea-spray-sends-forever-chemicals-into-the-air.htmlSea spray sends forever chemicals into the air. That means breaking waves could be a major source of PFAS pollution in the air, according to a new study. For decades, manufacturers used forever chemicals (AKA PFAS) in everything from food packaging to carpet cleaners to make things water, stain, and heat resistant. We’re just starting to understand how prevalent these chemicals have become in the environment and the health risks that could pose./news/seagate-unveils-thunderbolt-adapters-for-goflex-external-hard-drives.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/seagate-unveils-thunderbolt-adapters-for-goflex-external-hard-drives.htmlMany of the current Thunderbolt-enabled hard drives on the market right now are what we'd call overkill for your average person. To make things a bit simpler, Seagate has just announced Thunderbolt adapters for its line of GoFlex external storage options. The adapters work with any of the company's desktop or portable drives, granting users the freedom of choosing the capacity right for them. The portable drive adapter will see release sometime in the first quarter for $99, while the larger desktop variety is due before the end of the first half of this year, priced at $189./news/seagate-s-1tb-card-for-xbox-series-x-and-s-is-lower-than-ever-with-43-percent-off.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/seagate-s-1tb-card-for-xbox-series-x-and-s-is-lower-than-ever-with-43-percent-off.htmlUpdate February 26th, 1:30PM ET: The 1TB model of Seagate’s Storage Expansion Card has sold out, but you can still save $110 on the 2TB version. We’ve griped long enough about the ballooning install sizes of the latest AAA games, but complaining won’t slow the trend. Without some miraculous development in data compression technology, the only remedy today is to buy extra storage. Xbox Series X and S gamers have had it the roughest with the exorbitant markups on its proprietary storage cards, but regular discounts are starting to make them a little more affordable./news/sec-takes-first-action-against-an-nft-project-as-an-unregistered-security.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sec-takes-first-action-against-an-nft-project-as-an-unregistered-security.htmlThe SEC said the NFTs issued by Impact Theory were unlicensed securities. The company agreed to a cease-and-desist order, paid $6.1 million in penalties, and agreed to destroy all of the NFTs in question still in its control. Impact Theory will also eliminate any royalties that it might have received from sales of those NFTs on secondary markets. It’s not clear whether the enforcement action means the SEC broadly views NFTs as securities offerings/news/seven-scary-stories-to-tell-by-the-light-of-your-screen.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/seven-scary-stories-to-tell-by-the-light-of-your-screen.htmlOne of my favorite parts of Halloween is having an excuse to scare the pants off people. It’s the time of year for ghosts, for creeping dread, and peering into the void. And what could possibly be better for horror than the future? Seven of our reporters imagined the spookiest possible outcomes on their beats — the horrors of the future. Turn the lights off, and dial up the brightness of your screen./news/sony-rx100-mark-vii-review-almost-vlogger.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-rx100-mark-vii-review-almost-vlogger.htmlPoint-and-shoot cameras are trending toward the endangered species list. For typical, day-to-day photos and videos, there’s the smartphone. If you want to capture action, there’s the GoPro, and if you want to make art, there are higher-end cameras with larger sensors. Point-and-shoots aren’t totally dead, though. They’re still popular with tourists who are trying to keep weight and bulk to a minimum. And then there are vloggers. Social media celebs, YouTube personalities, and influencers in the worlds of travel, fashion, and food often need to be able to shoot photos and videos at a higher quality than their phones can deliver while keeping their camera small and unobtrusive./news/south-korean-drone-display-reminds-watchers-to-wash-hands-and-wear-masks.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/south-korean-drone-display-reminds-watchers-to-wash-hands-and-wear-masks.htmlSouth Korea has done a remarkably good job of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. But as experts warn of a second wave of infections, the government has organized an unusual way to both thank its frontline medical staff for their hard work and remind citizens to abide by preventative measures: a drone light show over the Han River in the capital of Seoul. The 10-minute light show features 300 drones As reported by France 24 and Al Jazeera, the show took place last Friday, July 6th, and featured 300 drones in a 10-minute show./news/spec-ops-the-line-permanently-removed-from-steam-and-other-digital-stores.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spec-ops-the-line-permanently-removed-from-steam-and-other-digital-stores.htmlOn X, Cory Davis, the game’s designer and director, was also out of the loop asking the game’s publisher 2K why this happened. “Makes no sense,” Davis wrote. “Especially because the themes portrayed in [Spec Ops: The Line] are more relevant now than ever.” In an email to The Verge, 2K communications director Joe DiMiero offered the reason for the game’s removal: Spec Ops: The Line will no longer be available on online storefronts, as several partnership licenses related to the game are expiring./news/super-mario-maker-will-let-amiibo-owners-play-as-special-nintendo-characters.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/super-mario-maker-will-let-amiibo-owners-play-as-special-nintendo-characters.htmlSuper Mario Maker will have special Amiibo functionality according to today's Nintendo Direct. When finding a special mushroom in-game Mario will turn into "Costume Mario," a look that reflects the compatible Amiibo connected to the system. In the demonstration, Mario grabs the mushroom and transforms into an 8-bit Wii Fit Trainer. A large 8-bit Mario Amiibo will be released alongside the game that allows the player to be an extra-large Mario in-game./news/switter-one-of-the-last-online-spaces-friendly-to-sex-workers-was-just-banned-by-its-network.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/switter-one-of-the-last-online-spaces-friendly-to-sex-workers-was-just-banned-by-its-network.htmlAround 3PM ET on April 17th, Switter — a social media space for sex workers — went offline. Its disappearance, however temporary, indicated the FOSTA-driven loss of yet another haven for sex workers, this time in the form of content distribution network Cloudflare. According to Switter founder Assembly Four, the company received an email from Cloudflare’s legal department indicating that it would be terminating its service due to terms of service violations./news/tesla-lays-off-more-than-10-percent-of-its-workforce-loses-top-executives.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-lays-off-more-than-10-percent-of-its-workforce-loses-top-executives.html“There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,” said CEO Elon Musk in the email published by Electrek. In a later post on X, Musk said that “about every 5 years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth.” As part of the layoffs, Tesla senior vice president Drew Bagliano is also leaving, Bloomberg reports. (Baglino later confirmed the departure on X./news/the-3-000-totally-wireless-displace-tv-is-the-definition-of-ces-absurdity.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-3-000-totally-wireless-displace-tv-is-the-definition-of-ces-absurdity.htmlOur time at CES 2023 might be over, but it’s still worth highlighting some standouts at the show. One of those that’s gotten quite a bit of attention is from an upstart company called Displace. LG’s brand-new Signature OLED M eliminates every wire except for the power cord, but Displace is trying to nix that one, too. In Las Vegas, the company demonstrated a completely wireless 55-inch 4K OLED TV that runs off four hot-swappable batteries./news/the-25-best-cheap-mother-s-day-gifts-for-under-50-for-2023.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-25-best-cheap-mother-s-day-gifts-for-under-50-for-2023.htmlMom deserves a break... or at the least a show of appreciation when Mother’s Day rolls around on Sunday. We’ve already pooled together a variety of gift ideas that we’re confident will make a pleasant present for moms of all molds, but with this mini gift guide, we’re focusing on budget-friendly ideas that are just as clever. Some affordable gifts highlighted below include a one-of-a-kind phone case decked out in Japanese decoden-style adornments, a cheap fitness tracker, and even an adorable recipe book featuring cat-inspired cookies and cakes./news/the-best-wireless-earbuds-of-2024.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-wireless-earbuds-of-2024.htmlIt’s hard to buy a bad pair of wireless earbuds these days, and with constant discounts and deals wherever you look, now is as good of a time as any to splurge on the pair you’ve been eyeing. The market has come a long way since the early era of true wireless earbuds when we had to deal with mediocre sound quality and unreliable performance, all for the sake of ditching cables./news/the-classic-version-of-angry-birds-is-being-delisted-from-google-play.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-classic-version-of-angry-birds-is-being-delisted-from-google-play.htmlWe have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game’s impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23. Additionally, the game will be renamed to Red’s First Flight in the App Store pending further review. Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted./news/the-creators-of-parappa-and-gitaroo-man-are-making-a-new-music-game-together.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-creators-of-parappa-and-gitaroo-man-are-making-a-new-music-game-together.htmlThe minds behind some of the most influential music games of all time are joining forces. Designers Masaya Matsuura, best known for the iconic PlayStation game PaRappa the Rapper, and Keiichi Yano, who created cult hit Gitaroo Man, announced today that they’re working on a new title called Project Rap Rabbit. Unfortunately, there’s little in the way of details on the game itself. It’s described as a “rhythm-action adventure,” and a brief teaser shows off a rabbit and giant frog in what looks to be feudal Japan — albeit with drones and UFOs flying through the background./news/the-dji-mini-3-is-only-329-right-now-its-best-price-yet.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-dji-mini-3-is-only-329-right-now-its-best-price-yet.htmlDrones aren’t just fun to fly — they’ve also become nearly mandatory in creative arsenals to satisfy clients and social media followers hungering for aerial photography and video. Thankfully, the entry-level price barrier has come crashing down over the years. The previous-generation DJI Mini 3, for example, is now just $329 ($90 off) at Amazon, down from its recently reduced starting price of $419. You can find discounts on various bundles, too, including one that throws in the video RC remote for $429 ($120 off) or the Fly More combo for $459 ($130 off) that packs three extra batteries and a carrying case./news/the-dropout-abc-s-podcast-series-explores-the-downfall-of-theranos-and-elizabeth-holmes.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-dropout-abc-s-podcast-series-explores-the-downfall-of-theranos-and-elizabeth-holmes.htmlThere are a ton of podcasts out there, but finding the right one can be difficult. In our column Pod Hunters, we cover what we’ve been listening to that we can’t stop thinking about. Last year, blood-testing startup Theranos dramatically shut down after the company and its founder Elizabeth Holmes were charged by the SEC for defrauding investors. That happened following scrutiny from Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, who published a string of articles — and after that, a bestselling book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup — which uncovered the company’s business practices, and how it marketed a blood testing product that didn’t work./news/the-essex-serpent-review-a-slow-tense-drama-with-lots-of-great-sweaters.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-essex-serpent-review-a-slow-tense-drama-with-lots-of-great-sweaters.htmlHow much you enjoy The Essex Serpent, an Apple TV Plus adaptation of Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel, might depend on how much you enjoy seeing Tom Hiddleston brooding in a misty field while wearing cozy wool sweaters. For a lot of people, that will probably be enough of a hook. (It was for me.) But thankfully, the six-episode series offers a lot more than great hair blowing in the wind — it’s a tense and heartfelt exploration of grief and belief and how much those two things can mess with you./news/the-false-promises-of-tesla-s-full-self-driving.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-false-promises-of-tesla-s-full-self-driving.htmlBack in 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stunned the automotive world by announcing that, henceforth, all of his company’s vehicles would be shipped with the hardware necessary for “full self-driving.” You will be able to nap in your car while it drives you to work, he promised. It will even be able to drive cross-country with no one inside the vehicle. But while Musk would eventually ship an advanced driver-assist system that he called Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta, the idea that any Tesla owner could catch some z’s while their car whisks them along is, at best, laughable — and at worst, a profoundly fatal error./news/the-god-of-war-comes-to-xbox-sort-of.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-god-of-war-comes-to-xbox-sort-of.htmlThe big God of War sequel is one of the year’s most anticipated video games, and you can now play it on Xbox. Yes, that’s right, War Gods Zeus of Child, which stars Sony’s video game character Kratos and a horde of identical and generic monster baddies, is currently available for just $4.09 on the Xbox store. Oh, you thought I was talking about a different game? Nope, War Gods Zeus of Child is definitely an approved and legitimate entry in one of Sony’s most valuable franchises being sold on a competing console platform./news/the-huge-new-among-us-map-gives-you-more-ways-to-be-sneaky.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-huge-new-among-us-map-gives-you-more-ways-to-be-sneaky.htmlAmong Us’ huge Airship map finally arrived on Wednesday, offering new tasks for crewmates, new ways to get around, and new ways to plot against your friends as the imposter. I tried out the new level for an hour or so last night, and players who might have grown bored of the well-worn pathways of Among Us’ other levels will have a lot to play with on the airship. The airship is Among Us’ biggest map yet, but to my surprise, I actually didn’t feel all that overwhelmed in my first matches./news/the-insanely-elaborate-quest-to-recover-the-oldest-satellite-photos-of-arctic-ice.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-insanely-elaborate-quest-to-recover-the-oldest-satellite-photos-of-arctic-ice.htmlIf you are a climate scientist trying to study the amount of sea ice on Earth poles over time, it make senses to look at as many satellite images of Antarctica and the Arctic as you can get your hands on. But the satellite record of sea ice only extended as far back as 1979 — at least until recently. As Barents Observer reports, a climate scientist named David Gallaher at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado recently managed to painstakingly recover old satellite data from the early 1960s captured by vintage NASA Nimbus satellites./news/the-light-phone-3-is-coming-to-replace-your-iphone.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-light-phone-3-is-coming-to-replace-your-iphone.htmlHi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 42, 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.)  I also have for you a new minimalist phone, a book to read, a documentary to watch, a fun hack for your Rabbit R1, and much more. Let’s get into it./news/the-m1-macbook-air-is-back-down-to-its-all-time-low-of-649.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-m1-macbook-air-is-back-down-to-its-all-time-low-of-649.htmlThe best deal in laptops is back again for a limited time, as Walmart is selling the M1 MacBook Air for just $649 ($250 off). Walmart currently requires a Walmart Plus subscription to get the discounted price, but everyone else can get in and buy it from the retailer’s site at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today. We haven’t seen the price drop this low since March, shortly after the newer M3 Air debuted./news/the-white-house-might-be-running-out-of-time-to-bring-back-net-neutrality.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-white-house-might-be-running-out-of-time-to-bring-back-net-neutrality.htmlShortly after coming into office, President Joe Biden moved to restore net neutrality. He signed a sweeping executive order to promote competition, calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring back the Obama-era internet rules rolled back by the Trump administration. But close to two years later, the FCC remains deadlocked with only four of its five commissioner slots filled — and Biden may be running out of time./news/the-world-came-tantalizingly-close-to-a-deal-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-world-came-tantalizingly-close-to-a-deal-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels.htmlWhat would have been a historic deal to tackle a planetary crisis slipped out of reach at the eleventh hour. Even so, climate-vulnerable countries and environmental advocates scored some key wins with clean energy after heated climate negotiations wrapped up in the United Arab Emirates, a top oil- and gas-producing country. This was the closest yet that countries have gotten to striking a global deal to phase out the use of coal, oil, and gas./news/the-zone-of-interest-review-chilling-effect.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-zone-of-interest-review-chilling-effect.htmlDuring World War II, the Germans designated the area surrounding Auschwitz the “zone of interest.” The dullness of the phrase was intentional, another euphemism as operative as “concentration camp.” In Jonathan Glazer’s sorta adaptation of Martin Amis’ eponymous novel, this self-delusion is on display. Hedwig Höss (Sandra Hüller) runs a stately home. She raises her children, bosses maids around, and tends to the garden. Their house is on a plot beside Auschwitz./news/there-s-an-electric-salt-spoon-that-adds-umami-flavor.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-an-electric-salt-spoon-that-adds-umami-flavor.htmlIf you’re cutting salt out of your diet, either for medical reasons or just trying to be healthy, low-sodium foods can be a letdown. But don’t despair — Japanese company Kirin claims to have a solution in its Electric Salt Spoon, which uses electrodes to electrify your tongue to give you a little salty shock. The idea, as Reuters puts it, is that it passes a small electric current to “concentrate sodium ion molecules on the tongue,” enhancing salty flavor./news/there-s-no-tracing-xbox-360-chat-claimed-wall-street-banker-charged-with-insider-trading.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-no-tracing-xbox-360-chat-claimed-wall-street-banker-charged-with-insider-trading.htmlIf you’re going to do financial crimes, maybe an Xbox isn’t your best bet? That is one but hopefully not the only lesson learned by 26-year-old Anthony Viggiano, a former Goldman Sachs investment analyst who’s been indicted for insider trading, along with two of his friends. He allegedly tipped off those friends to big financial deals using both encrypted messaging and — incredibly — a game console’s audio chat. According to the indictment (via Kotaku), the FBI secretly recorded Viggiano admitting that he passed on illegal info, possibly via an Xbox 360, of all things:/news/these-amazing-star-wars-drones-let-you-battle-with-the-millennium-falcon.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/these-amazing-star-wars-drones-let-you-battle-with-the-millennium-falcon.htmlThe quads don’t just fly either, but do battle with lasers. When a ship is hit by a laser from an opposing ship, its paired controller (Empire or Rebellion-themed, naturally) shakes in the pilot’s hands. After three direct hits, the drone will slowly spiral to the ground the game is over. Although the prototypes weren’t ready for one of these battles when we saw them, the lasers alone were pretty striking./news/these-smart-glasses-automatically-focus-on-what-you-re-looking-at.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/these-smart-glasses-automatically-focus-on-what-you-re-looking-at.htmlWhen Carlos Mastrangelo hit his early 50s, he started suffering from a vision problem many people have as they age: he couldn’t focus up close anymore and so, his eye doctor told him, he needed to wear glasses whenever he wanted to read a book. “I kept asking myself why I am being treated with technology developed by Benjamin Franklin,” Mastrangelo wrote in an email to The Verge. “I don't live in the 18th century./news/this-chrome-extension-lets-you-learn-a-new-language-by-watching-netflix.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-chrome-extension-lets-you-learn-a-new-language-by-watching-netflix.htmlLearning a new language through immersion doesn’t mean you have to pack your bags and move to Europe for three months. Now, you just need to turn on Netflix. Language Learning with Netflix is a Chrome extension that lets you watch shows with two subtitles on at the same time so you can visually pair translations with dialogue and learn some new vocabulary in the process. It’s a clever service that makes use of Netflix’s massive catalog and all of the major languages in which it already offers subtitles, including Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish./news/this-firm-made-republicans-go-viral-now-it-s-falling-apart.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-firm-made-republicans-go-viral-now-it-s-falling-apart.htmlIn the breathless world of conservative online politics, Arsenal Media is here to help you go viral. Co-founded by gadfly meme enthusiast Benny Johnson, the firm lists clients like Rep. Madison Cawthorn and Dana Loesch and takes credit for more than doubling Donald Trump Jr.’s Facebook following. Most enticing, it seems to offer a tried-and-true playbook for making content hit it big. One slide from a pitch deck viewed by The Verge describes a “viral influencer network” as the secret to making client content take off, showing a single video being passed around by a network of friendly faces./news/this-smart-tupperware-warns-you-when-food-s-about-to-go-bad.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-smart-tupperware-warns-you-when-food-s-about-to-go-bad.htmlIf you need more evidence that we’re living in an increasingly (and maybe unnecessarily) connected world, there’s a new Kickstarter for smart Tupperware containers that are compatible with Amazon’s Alexa. The Ovie Smarterware food storage system is designed to help you keep track of the food in your fridge so it doesn’t go to waste. The system contains several parts: a SmartTag that goes into an Ovie container, a clip for bags of food, or a universal connector for other forms of storage (like takeout boxes)./news/this-wearable-robotic-arm-can-hold-tools-pick-fruit-and-punch-through-walls.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-wearable-robotic-arm-can-hold-tools-pick-fruit-and-punch-through-walls.htmlWe’ve always had a soft spot for supernumerary robotic limbs here at The Verge, but this latest example of the genre is one of the most impressive we’ve seen to date. Designed by researchers at the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada, it’s a hydraulic arm that sits on the wearer’s hip and uses a three-fingered manipulator to carry out a range of tasks. The arm can lift five kilograms in weight/news/tiktok-ban-all-the-news-on-attempts-to-ban-the-video-platform.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-ban-all-the-news-on-attempts-to-ban-the-video-platform.htmlTikTok is suing the US government — can it beat the ban? On today’s episode of Decoder, Verge editors Alex Heath and Sarah Jeong join me to discuss the lawsuit TikTok filed last week against the US government in response to the divest-or-ban bill. One reason I wanted to have both Alex and Sarah on here is that there’s a lot of back and forth between the facts and the law; some of TikTok’s arguments are contradicted by the simple facts of what the company has already promised to do around the world, and some of the legal claims are complex and sit in tension with a long history of attempts to regulate speech and the internet./news/tiktok-settles-lawsuit-over-its-original-text-to-speech-voice.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-settles-lawsuit-over-its-original-text-to-speech-voice.htmlTikTok has agreed to settle a lawsuit with Bev Standing, the voice actress who said she was behind the app’s original text-to-speech voice. Standing sued TikTok in May, saying that the app was using her voice without permission. A robotic version of what sounded like Standing’s voice had been in the app for months, speaking over what felt like every other video at the time. A lawyer for Standing said the settlement was still being finalized and details around payment could not be disclosed./news/tony-hawk-s-pro-skater-1-and-2-are-being-remastered-for-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tony-hawk-s-pro-skater-1-and-2-are-being-remastered-for-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc.htmlYou’ll be able to shred as Tony Hawk and friends again very soon. Today, Activision announced a new remastered collection that brings together the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games in one modern package, with new features like online play and a more robust course builder. It’ll be coming to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC (via the Epic Games Store) on September 4th. First, here are the basics. The remastered collection will feature updated visuals; all of the original levels, characters, and tricks; extra challenges; a more elaborate create-a-park mode where you can share custom skate parks online; and brand-new online multiplayer modes along with local multiplayer./news/transport-app-citymapper-gives-up-on-reinventing-the-bus.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/transport-app-citymapper-gives-up-on-reinventing-the-bus.htmlTransport app Citymapper is reliably, even admirably inventive, but not all its experiments work out. Today, the company announced it’s shutting down its hybrid bus and taxi service, previously known as Smartbus, then SmartRide, and then, simply, Ride. Ride was always a confusing experiment, available only in Citymapper’s home city of London. It started with a pair of buses in 2017, which serviced routes that the company’s data said were underserved by public transit./news/truecaller-and-microsoft-will-let-users-make-an-ai-voice-to-answer-calls.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/truecaller-and-microsoft-will-let-users-make-an-ai-voice-to-answer-calls.htmlTruecaller is an app that identifies and blocks spam calls that some people prefer over their phone’s default system. Now the service will let users with access to its AI Assistant to record their voice. The company partnered with Microsoft’s Azure AI Speech, which will learn from the recorded clip to generate an AI version of the user’s voice.   “This groundbreaking capability not only adds a touch of familiarity and comfort for the users but also showcases the power of AI in transforming the way we interact with our digital assistants,” says Truecaller product director and general manager Raphael Mimoun in the blog post./news/twitter-blue-s-new-10-000-character-limit-turns-tweets-into-essays.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-blue-s-new-10-000-character-limit-turns-tweets-into-essays.htmlTwitter Blue subscribers now have a maximum tweet length of 10,000 characters and support for bold and italic text formatting. The announcement comes just weeks after the character limit for Twitter Blue was first bumped up from 280 characters to 4,000 back in February, with the latest increase and additional formatting features seemingly designed to help Twitter compete with newsletter platforms like Substack — which has recently found itself in Elon Musk’s crosshairs./news/twitter-offers-beta-version-of-android-app-to-willing-testers.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-offers-beta-version-of-android-app-to-willing-testers.htmlGoogle's new system for beta testing Android apps has been put to use by Facebook, Snapchat, and many others since its introduction at Google I/O earlier this year. Now Twitter is getting in on the crowd-sourced testing fun, allowing interested Android users to sign up and beta test new versions of its official app before they are made available to the general public. Signing up to test the Twitter for Android beta is the same process you use for Facebook and others: you have to join a specific Google Group, then elect to become a tester./news/ubisoft-let-me-actually-speak-with-its-new-ai-powered-video-game-npcs.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ubisoft-let-me-actually-speak-with-its-new-ai-powered-video-game-npcs.htmlFor the past three months, ever since I spoke to the AI NPCs in Nvidia’s cyberpunk ramen shop, I’ve been wondering: Which game developer will take a flying leap on this controversial and intriguing tech? If you said “Ubisoft,” the company that’s always raising its hand to play with VR, NFTs, interactive TV shows, secondary screens and more, you’d be half right. Last night, I played three prototype segments of an experimental Ubisoft demo featuring the company’s just-announced “Neo NPCs” — one of whom tried to convince me to join the resistance against powerful megacorps by playing on my emotions./news/university-will-stop-using-proctorio-remote-testing-after-student-outcry.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/university-will-stop-using-proctorio-remote-testing-after-student-outcry.htmlThe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced that it will discontinue its use of remote-proctoring software Proctorio after its summer 2021 term. The decision follows almost a year of outcry over the service, both on UIUC’s campus and around the US, citing concerns with privacy, discrimination, and accessibility. Proctorio is one of the most prominent software platforms that colleges and universities use to watch for cheating on remote tests. It uses what its website describes as “machine learning and advanced facial detection technologies” to record students through their webcams while they work on their exams and monitor the position of their heads./news/valve-may-have-fixed-the-steam-deck-s-noisy-fan-with-a-new-software-update.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/valve-may-have-fixed-the-steam-deck-s-noisy-fan-with-a-new-software-update.htmlValve’s latest SteamOS update is a big one for Steam Deck fans — and I am literally talking about the fan in the handheld gaming PC. One frequent complaint about the Steam Deck is its at-times loud and high-pitched fan whine even while playing lightweight games. Some, including my colleague Sean Hollister, have tried a DIY solution to fix the whine, and iFixit’s replacement Steam Deck fans are already sold out despite being on sale for less than a week./news/whales-are-dying-but-it-s-not-because-of-wind-farms.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/whales-are-dying-but-it-s-not-because-of-wind-farms.htmlBeaches have become makeshift necropsy labs along the shores of New York and New Jersey. An alarming number of whales are washing up along the east coast of the US. And when they do, a team of researchers arrives at the scene to hunt for clues pointing to a cause of death.  They start by examining the outside of the body. Are there teeth marks from an attack? Or are there telltale signs of an accident with a ship: gashes from propellers, rust that has rubbed off from the vessel, broken bones or flesh that’s been pushed in from the impact?/news/wolfenstein-ii-on-the-nintendo-switch-review.htmlMon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wolfenstein-ii-on-the-nintendo-switch-review.htmlWhen the Nintendo Switch first debuted, I marveled at the ability to play a vast open world like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild both in my living room and on the go. Sixteen months into the console’s life and the novelty still hasn’t worn off. The latest such game to inspire those feelings of awe in me is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Machine Games’ gleefully vicious take on the joys of murdering Nazis./news/how-fake-steve-jobs-lucked-into-writing-for-hbo-s-silicon-valley.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-fake-steve-jobs-lucked-into-writing-for-hbo-s-silicon-valley.htmlLyons is currently in the middle of writing a book titled Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Startup Bubble, which sounds like the next natural leap from working on TV. I spoke with Lyons this week ahead of Sunday’s finale to ask how he wound up at HBO, his new book, and what it’s like being the real Fake Steve Jobs. How did you end up in the job? "I get this call from my agent, saying, 'HBO just called./news/mossberg-the-apple-tv-gets-smart.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mossberg-the-apple-tv-gets-smart.htmlIt seems like we’ve been waiting for years for Apple to reinvent the TV. While the secretive company never detailed its plans, CEO Tim Cook told me “there is a very grand vision of this,” during an onstage interview back in May 2013. But nothing grand emerged. We know that, in recent years, the company has pursued an effort to create its own TV service to compete with cable, one presumably to be delivered via a spiffy new device./news/the-smart-bots-are-coming-and-this-one-is-brilliant.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-smart-bots-are-coming-and-this-one-is-brilliant.htmlLast week I hired a personal assistant named Amy Ingram. She set up four meetings for me, adding them to my calendar with the relevant contact details included. She rescheduled twice when the person I was supposed to meet had to cancel at the last minute. Instead of sending half a dozen emails per meeting, I only needed to compose one to kick things off. This all sounds like pretty simple stuff, but Amy isn’t a human being: it’s a virtual assistant made by the New York City startup X./news/7-eleven-just-made-the-first-commercial-delivery-by-drone.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/7-eleven-just-made-the-first-commercial-delivery-by-drone.htmlYou may soon be able to order a Slurpee without having to leave your home. Drone startup Flirtey recently partnered with convenience store chain 7-Eleven to make the first commercial delivery to a private residence in Reno, Nevada earlier this month. The delivery took place on July 11th when Flirtey flew an autonomous drone a mile from a 7-Eleven location to a private home in Reno. According to 7-Eleven, the initial delivery included a chicken sandwich, donuts, coffee, candy, and Slurpees./news/a-new-netflix-show-wants-to-manipulate-people-into-committing-murder.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-new-netflix-show-wants-to-manipulate-people-into-committing-murder.htmlReality shows, on the whole, have never been particularly ethical endeavors. From beauty pageants where women got plastic surgery makeovers to substance abuse intervention shows that allowed participants to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol, their interest has always been less in exploring the human condition and more in producing the most outlandish, desperate, and provocative behavior possible for the entertainment of the audience. But Netflix is poised to take this shameless impulse to the next level with The Push, a reality show designed to manipulate people into committing murder./news/after-years-of-following-pro-sports-league-of-legends-esports-leagues-are-finally-free-to-be-our.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/after-years-of-following-pro-sports-league-of-legends-esports-leagues-are-finally-free-to-be-our.htmlFor years, competitive gaming has done its best to mimic professional sports, whether it’s players wearing Nike jerseys, big-name celebrity investors, or ambitious plans for home-and-away games. But Chris Greeley, commissioner of the League of Legends Championship Series — the game’s top professional league in North America — believes that esports has moved beyond mimicking existing sports. “We had this idea in the beginning that, because esports is a sport, and we wanted to be taken seriously, we should look like a sport,” he tells The Verge./news/ai-generated-songs-are-getting-longer-not-necessarily-better.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ai-generated-songs-are-getting-longer-not-necessarily-better.htmlStable Audio 2.0, an audio generation model for Stability AI, now lets users upload their own audio samples that they can then transform using prompts and create AI-generated songs. But the songs will not win any Grammys just yet. The first version of Stable Audio was released in September 2023 and only offered up to 90 seconds for some paying users, which meant they could only make short sound clips to experiment with./news/airtags-vs-tile-vs-chipolo-the-best-bluetooth-trackers-for-2023.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/airtags-vs-tile-vs-chipolo-the-best-bluetooth-trackers-for-2023.htmlSome people rarely lose things. Wallets are always exactly where they’re supposed to be, keys never go missing, and remotes never slip between the couch cushions. And then there’s the rest of us — the folks who can’t ever seem to find the thing that was right there a few seconds ago. For us, there are Bluetooth trackers. Bluetooth trackers have been around for a long time, and they all generally work the same way./news/alan-wake-2-review-you-will-never-feel-safe.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alan-wake-2-review-you-will-never-feel-safe.htmlHorror drowns in symmetry: evil twins, two souls occupying one body, light and dark creating shadow, the Other Side, the Dark Place, the Upside Down. It is part of the cascading telemetry of fear utilized by our best horror artists, weaving nightmares out of pleasant dreams, whittling hell from the bones of our heavens. Remedy Entertainment has created not only one of their best games to date but one of the best games of this already incredible year./news/amazon-bars-marketplace-sellers-from-using-fedex-shipping-over-delivery-performance.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-bars-marketplace-sellers-from-using-fedex-shipping-over-delivery-performance.htmlAmazon has informed third-party Marketplace sellers who use its platform that they may no longer use FedEx Ground or Home shipping services if they’re listing products for Prime, just as holiday package volume begins surging in most of the US. Amazon is reportedly taking issue with FedEx “delivery performance,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Amazon has confirmed to The Verge it is indeed blocking sellers from using FedEx for Prime products./news/amazon-makes-fresh-deliveries-available-to-non-prime-customers-in-grocery-overhaul.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-makes-fresh-deliveries-available-to-non-prime-customers-in-grocery-overhaul.htmlAmazon is now letting non-Prime members order grocery deliveries from its Fresh stores, as first reported by Bloomberg. Starting today, customers in a dozen major US cities, including Boston, Dallas, and San Francisco, can place online orders from Amazon Fresh stores and warehouses. While non-Prime grocery delivery is only available in a handful of cities in the US for now, Bloomberg reports that Amazon plans on rolling out the initiative across the country by the end of this year./news/amazon-one-s-palm-scanning-payments-are-coming-to-whole-foods.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-one-s-palm-scanning-payments-are-coming-to-whole-foods.htmlAmazon One is expanding to its biggest area yet: the company is now testing its palm-scanning payment technology in Whole Foods, starting with a single store in Amazon’s home city of Seattle. The company has been using Amazon One payment technology in its Amazon-branded stores in the Seattle area (including Amazon Go and Amazon Books), but the Whole Foods rollout will make the most substantial expansion of the technology yet. The company says that thousands of customers have already signed up with Amazon One./news/amazon-s-luna-cloud-gaming-service-sounds-like-the-cable-of-video-games.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-luna-cloud-gaming-service-sounds-like-the-cable-of-video-games.htmlAmazon revealed its new cloud gaming service, officially called Luna, at its annual Alexa hardware event today. That makes it an immediate competitor to Google’s Stadia, Microsoft’s xCloud, Sony’s PlayStation Now, and a number of other services from major game publishers all eager to try the code on how to stream video games over the internet. But in a revealing interview with Protocol published after the event, Amazon’s Marc Whitten, the company’s vice president of entertainment devices and services, clarified one of the most vital questions around Luna that wasn’t answered during the reveal: what’s the business model?/news/amd-releases-new-chips-to-power-faster-ai-training.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amd-releases-new-chips-to-power-faster-ai-training.htmlAMD wants people to remember that Nvidia’s not the only company selling AI chips. It’s announced the availability of new accelerators and processors geared toward running large language models, or LLMs.  The chipmaker unveiled the Instinct MI300X accelerator and the Instinct M1300A accelerated processing unit (APU), which the company said works to train and run LLMs. The company said the MI300X has 1.5 times more memory capacity than the previous M1250X version./news/amtrak-improves-its-notoriously-sluggish-onboard-wi-fi-with-4g-connectivity.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amtrak-improves-its-notoriously-sluggish-onboard-wi-fi-with-4g-connectivity.htmlAfter years of sluggish service, train operator Amtrak has begun a network-wide overhaul of its onboard Wi-Fi service. Piggybacking on a number of different mobile networks, the new service uses 4G connectivity to improve speeds. The upgrade is already complete on the 400-mile Washington to Boston route, and has also rolled out on some state routes in California. Amtrak promises the rest of its Wi-Fi enabled trains, which serve 75 percent of its passengers, will be upgraded by "/news/apple-and-hyatt-begin-rolling-out-hotel-keys-in-apple-wallet.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-and-hyatt-begin-rolling-out-hotel-keys-in-apple-wallet.htmlApple is partnering with Hyatt to give some hotel guests the ability to store their room keys in their Apple Wallets, as announced in a post on Hyatt’s newsroom. Instead of checking your pockets for your room key, you’ll now be able to use your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock your room, as well as any other areas around the hotel that require a key for entry. Your Apple Watch can unlock your hotel room at participating Hyatt hotels./news/apple-confirms-homepod-audio-sources-and-bluetooth-isn-t-one.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-confirms-homepod-audio-sources-and-bluetooth-isn-t-one.htmlAfter a degree of confusion over the possible ways to play music on its new HomePod speaker, Apple has cleared things up by posting more information on compatible audio sources. The HomePod does indeed work with iTunes Match and purchased iTunes tracks as well as Apple Music, according to Apple’s website, which also mentions Beats 1, podcasts, and the ability to AirPlay “other content” from various Apple products. You should be able to beam songs from apps like Spotify, then, though you won't be able to play them with spoken commands./news/apple-is-trying-to-trademark-slofie.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-is-trying-to-trademark-slofie.htmlIt seemed like “slofies” could have been a one-off joke when Apple mentioned them during its iPhone event last week, but the company is clearly pleased with the made-up term. On Friday, Apple applied for a US trademark on “Slofie,” potentially giving the company control over the word’s usage. Slofies are Apple’s name for slow-motion selfies, a feature that’s new to the iPhone 11 models. The phones’ front camera can now record video at 120 frames per second, which when slowed down, results in a crisp slow-motion effect./news/apple-paid-to-make-drake-s-hotline-bling-music-video.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-paid-to-make-drake-s-hotline-bling-music-video.htmlApple executives Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue appeared on John Gruber's podcast, The Talk Show, last week, revealing that Apple Music now has 11 million subscribers. The growth is notable considering the service doesn't have a free tier like competitor Spotify, which has about 20 million paid subscribers and 55 million free users. Paid exclusives could become one of the more significant ways people either sign up for or switch to competing streaming music services down the line./news/apple-removes-malware-infected-app-store-apps-after-major-security-breach.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-removes-malware-infected-app-store-apps-after-major-security-breach.htmlApple has removed malware-infected apps from the App Store after acknowledging its first sustained security breach. The malware, known as XcodeGhost, worked its way into several apps by convincing developers to use a modified version of Xcode, the software used to create iOS and Mac software. "We've removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software," Apple spokesperson Christine Monaghan told Reuters. "/news/apple-s-airtags-have-a-hidden-developer-menu.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-airtags-have-a-hidden-developer-menu.htmlApple’s new item-tracking AirTags have arrived, and they come with a surprise addition: a hidden menu in the Find My app that reveals some of the back-end data used by the service. To uncover this menu, open up Apple’s Find My app, select one of your AirTags, then tap your name in the top left corner five times. And just like Dorothy clicking her heels together, you’ll be whisked away to a comforting world of, well, sliders and data./news/apple-s-new-foundation-trailer-has-some-serious-game-of-thrones-but-in-space-energy.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-new-foundation-trailer-has-some-serious-game-of-thrones-but-in-space-energy.htmlApple has released a new trailer for Foundation, its upcoming epic sci-fi show for Apple TV Plus based on Isaac Asimov’s series of novels, and I’m getting some serious “Game of Thrones but in space” energy from it. There are vast (space) vistas, a sweeping soundtrack, numerous shots of people making very serious faces, and dramatic proclamations that wouldn’t be out of place in an early episode of Game of Thrones:/news/argo-ai-driverless-startup-backed-by-ford-and-vw-is-shutting-down.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/argo-ai-driverless-startup-backed-by-ford-and-vw-is-shutting-down.htmlArgo AI, the self-driving startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, is shutting down, The Verge has learned. Employees were notified during an all-hands meeting on Wednesday. (The news was first reported by TechCrunch.) The company, which was founded by veterans of Google and Uber’s self-driving car projects, has lost the financial support of Ford and VW, a source said. And according to TechCrunch, the company’s resources will be absorbed by both automakers./news/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-2021-review-cut-by-the-blade.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-2021-review-cut-by-the-blade.htmlAsus has refreshed its blockbuster, category-defining Zephyrus G14, a gaming laptop that was so successful last year that it was basically impossible to buy in the months following its release.  As was probably wise, the company has made very few changes to last year’s product. The 2021 Zephyrus G14 has last year’s chassis with new chips (AMD’s Ryzen 5000 mobile processors and Nvidia’s RTX 3000 mobile GPUs). There are also new display options: last year’s model had a 1080p 120Hz panel or a 1440p 60Hz panel, while this year’s offers the choice of a QHD 120Hz screen or a 1080p 144Hz screen, in addition to a 1080p 60Hz option./news/b-n-nearly-75-percent-of-nook-color-owners-are-women-samsung-zeros-in-on-female-market.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/b-n-nearly-75-percent-of-nook-color-owners-are-women-samsung-zeros-in-on-female-market.htmlBarnes & Noble says that nearly 75 percent of Nook Color owners are women, and the company is eager to share that number in dealings with developers, according to an article from VentureBeat. B&N is not the only company trying to grab a piece of the female market, and Samsung is hopping on the bandwagon with its female-targeted Galaxy Note. As T3 gathered from Samsung spokesperson Andrew Glass, Sammy thinks the Note is "/news/barbie-heads-to-the-real-world-in-new-trailer.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/barbie-heads-to-the-real-world-in-new-trailer.htmlIt seems like the theme of this year in film might be “existential crisis.” Fresh off the release of Beau Is Afraid and a new trailer for Problemista, we have the latest clip of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. It shows the main Barbie (Margot Robbie) planning for a trip to the real world, brought on by an existential crisis that started because she put her heels on the ground — literally./news/basis-now-links-its-fitness-data-with-apple-health-and-google-fit.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/basis-now-links-its-fitness-data-with-apple-health-and-google-fit.htmlOf all the fitness tracking wearables out there, Basis' Peak might be one of the most comprehensive. It measures your activity, heart rate, perspiration, and sleep without looking like a giant brick on your wrist. It then takes the data it collects and analyzes it to help you live a healthier life. Today, Basis is adding one of its most requested features to the Peak app, integration with Apple Health and Google Fit./news/behold-ayaneo-s-sophisticated-takes-on-the-game-boy-and-game-boy-micro.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/behold-ayaneo-s-sophisticated-takes-on-the-game-boy-and-game-boy-micro.htmlThe Analogue Pocket is the most advanced Game Boy to ever take actual carts, but Ayaneo has just unveiled a pair of emulator-centric pocket computers that could give it a run for its cash — including a modern take on the original DMG-01 Nintendo Game Boy that now includes a 419ppi OLED screen. Unfortunately, we’ve only got renders and a few details today — no prices or full spec sheets — but those renders look pretty neat!/news/bluesky-posts-are-finally-open-to-the-public.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bluesky-posts-are-finally-open-to-the-public.htmlBluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to have an account and log in to be able to see posts on the platform, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. Now, anyone can easily see posts from both the web and from the Bluesky app — like this one. If you want to prevent people who aren’t logged in from seeing your posts, you can “discourage” that by clicking a toggle in settings./news/cartoon-network-s-animated-lego-movie-spinoff-doesn-t-have-any-actual-lego.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cartoon-network-s-animated-lego-movie-spinoff-doesn-t-have-any-actual-lego.htmlUnikitty was one of the biggest breakout stars from 2014’s The Lego Movie — Lego has made the temperamental, perky unicorn-cat character a marketing focus, with a series of individual playsets, and eight different mini-figure variants to date. But she was also an audience favorite, prompting a wave of cosplay and fan art. So like Lego Batman, she’s getting her own spinoff property — in this case, an animated Cartoon Network TV show called Unikitty!/news/cbs-all-access-will-stop-working-on-older-apple-tvs-when-paramount-plus-launches.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cbs-all-access-will-stop-working-on-older-apple-tvs-when-paramount-plus-launches.htmlCBS All Access is set to transform into Paramount Plus on March 4th, but you won’t be able to watch it if you own a second- or third-generation Apple TV. The company announced that it won’t update its app for those devices when the streaming service relaunches next month, as spotted by MacRumors. The announcement makes CBS All Access / Paramount Plus the latest service to end support for the set-top box./news/ceo-lauren-williams-explains-why-we-need-news-for-and-by-black-people.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ceo-lauren-williams-explains-why-we-need-news-for-and-by-black-people.htmlLauren Williams is the co-founder and CEO of Capital B, a new nonprofit media company dedicated to news for Black audiences. Capital B launched on January 31st, with both a national news site and a local newsroom dedicated to Atlanta — and the company plans to expand to more cities over time. This interview is a little looser and chattier than usual since Lauren used to be the editor-in-chief and senior vice president of The Verge’s sister site, Vox./news/citizen-will-now-tell-you-why-helicopters-are-flying-overhead.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/citizen-will-now-tell-you-why-helicopters-are-flying-overhead.htmlCitizen, the app that turns everyone into a crime reporter, now wants to track helicopters. The company announced today that it’s introducing helicopter tracking to the app, which will explain to users why there are flying vehicles overhead. The team tells The Verge it employs a 24/7 group to review 911 communications, and now they’ll review data about police helicopters, too. Like any other info on Citizen, users can add their own videos and comments about the incident while Citizen verifies it on its end./news/como-audio-s-speaker-matches-classic-looks-with-modern-tech.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/como-audio-s-speaker-matches-classic-looks-with-modern-tech.htmlWireless speakers are great for a vast number of reasons, but the most obvious one is that they make it super easy to play music or other audio in your home without having to plug into to anything. But while most wireless speakers, whether they use Wi-Fi, such as Sonos and Google Cast models, or Bluetooth, aren’t as well designed as hi-fi speakers used to be. The modern speaker is meant to blend into the decor of your home, not be a piece of it./news/descript-s-revamped-video-editing-storyboard-feature-launches-for-all-users.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/descript-s-revamped-video-editing-storyboard-feature-launches-for-all-users.htmlDescript started life as an audio editing app but has slowly added more video editing tools over the years. Now, the app has launched one of its biggest updates yet and is putting video editing front and center with a new mode named Storyboard. The company has been testing Storyboard in beta for months, but it’s now available to all users. As ever, Descript’s key differentiator compared to traditional apps is its take on the standard editing timeline./news/detours-makers-mind-fire-and-grassroots-engineering-in-detroit.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/detours-makers-mind-fire-and-grassroots-engineering-in-detroit.htmlMatt Oehrlein is a maker — he designs machines not only for a large company, but for himself. After finding himself at a new job in unfamiliar Michigan, he decides to join a "makerspace" called i3 Detroit where he and other local residents come together to build whatever machines they can imagine. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnamtfbnxzgY5tbm9xZW2FcLDEraauqqNiuqK3xKtkoZmToLKzv8%2Bamp5lmWh6pbHTq6airF2rtqWxzg%3D%3D/news/discord-has-turned-into-a-virtual-trade-floor-with-memes-stonks-and-chaos.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/discord-has-turned-into-a-virtual-trade-floor-with-memes-stonks-and-chaos.htmlA real-life trading floor is noisy. You can find traders shouting at each other, especially when the markets are volatile and stock is moving fast. That same environment has been replicated online this week, thanks to Discord. Getting inside offers a surreal look at an emerging virtual trade floor where people are yelling at each other to invest into GameStop or AMC stocks. Dozens of people join the server every second, and one channel has a stream of memes that looks like pure chaos./news/does-the-ending-of-jordan-peele-s-us-play-fair-with-the-audience.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/does-the-ending-of-jordan-peele-s-us-play-fair-with-the-audience.htmlWarning: ending spoilers for Jordan Peele’s Us. Read at your own risk. Jordan Peele’s second directorial project, Us, was a stunning success in its opening weekend. The tremendous box-office response was likely buoyed by memories of Peele’s terrific writing and directing debut Get Out, by an eerie advance marketing campaign, and by strong word of mouth from early screenings. While that early conversation could focus on the film’s unsettling imagery, central metaphor, and ratcheting tension, though, early viewers couldn’t say much about the film’s final startling twist./news/dropbox-shares-soared-today-in-biggest-tech-ipo-since-snapchat.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dropbox-shares-soared-today-in-biggest-tech-ipo-since-snapchat.htmlCloud storage and collaboration company Dropbox — which started 10 years ago as a small startup in the San Francisco-based Y Combinator incubator program — went public today, and its shares were up nearly 36 percent as of market close this afternoon. The successful performance makes Dropbox the biggest tech IPO since Snapchat’s in March 2017. Dropbox ended the day of trading, under the ticker symbol “DBX,” with a market valuation of around $10 billion./news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-just-released-a-motivational-alarm-clock-app.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-just-released-a-motivational-alarm-clock-app.htmlDwayne "The Rock" Johnson gets up at 4AM pretty much daily, while the rest of us mere mortals are still fast asleep and probably drooling. The hugely successful pro wrestler and Hollywood star has said that such an early wake-up call has a lot to do with his soaring career trajectory, and now The Rock wants to help you wake up in the morning. He'll even sing to you. Today Johnson announced The Rock Clock, an alarm clock app for smartphones that's available on both Android and iOS./news/epic-s-stunning-new-unreal-demos-show-off-ray-tracing-and-photorealism.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/epic-s-stunning-new-unreal-demos-show-off-ray-tracing-and-photorealism.htmlAt its annual GDC showcase for the widely used Unreal Engine, Epic Games revealed a pair of gorgeous demos featuring a haunting future and an eerie fantasy realm. For developers, the two shorts demonstrate various new possibilities for the engine, but they also stand alone as beautiful — albeit brief — pieces of work. The first, called Rebirth (embedded above), was designed by studio Quixel as an example of photorealism. It depicts a harsh terrain at an indeterminate point in the future, with eye-catching landscapes full of jagged rocks and dusty fields./news/eu-approves-microsoft-s-7-5-billion-bethesda-acquisition.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/eu-approves-microsoft-s-7-5-billion-bethesda-acquisition.htmlThe European Commission has approved Microsoft’s $7.5 billion deal to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Doom and Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks. Microsoft’s deal has been approved by the EU without conditions, as it “does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market.” The acquisition required EU approval before Microsoft could finalize the Bethesda deal and bring future games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription. “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games,” says a European Commission statement./news/evga-stops-making-video-cards-and-blames-nvidia-s-bad-behavior.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/evga-stops-making-video-cards-and-blames-nvidia-s-bad-behavior.htmlEVGA, a titan in the PC component space, is getting out of the graphics card game. The company posted in its community forum, saying that it won’t be making next-generation Nvidia graphics cards but will continue to sell and support “the existing current generation products.” According to Gamers Nexus, the company doesn’t currently have plans to make AMD or Intel graphics cards. EVGA is reportedly making the decision to no longer work with Nvidia because it feels the company was a bad partner, according to both Gamers Nexus and JayzTwoCents./news/facebook-and-instagram-s-pay-or-consent-ad-model-violates-the-dma-says-the-eu.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-and-instagram-s-pay-or-consent-ad-model-violates-the-dma-says-the-eu.htmlThe EU has formally charged Meta with violations of its Digital Markets Act (DMA), marking its second such charge in as many weeks. The European Commission writes in a preliminary ruling that the “pay or consent” advertising model that launched last year for Facebook and Instagram users runs afoul of Article 5(2) of the DMA by not giving users a third option that uses less data for ad targeting but is still free to use./news/fda-approves-remdesivir-to-treat-covid-19.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fda-approves-remdesivir-to-treat-covid-19.htmlThe Food and Drug Administration approved remdesivir to treat COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. The drug, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Gilead, is the first approved COVID-19 treatment in the United States. Remdesivir, now marketed under the brand name Veklury, was authorized for emergency use by the FDA in May. That emergency authorization indicated that the FDA thought the benefits of using the drug outweighed the risks, even though there was no clear evidence showing that it helped patients with COVID-19 at the time./news/fitbit-for-android-now-works-with-recent-motorola-and-nexus-devices.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fitbit-for-android-now-works-with-recent-motorola-and-nexus-devices.htmlFitbit is a top name in fitness tracking devices, but the company's products often haven't been the most inclusive choice for Android users. That situation has now significantly improved, as Fitbit has updated its Android app with support for a number of new phones — including the Moto X, the latest Nexus devices, and six recent Droid models. The trick is support for Bluetooth Low Energy. Fitbit trackers use BLE to sync with mobile devices, but unlike Apple — whose mobile products have supported BLE since the iPhone 4S — the Android ecosystem has been slow to adopt the technology by comparison./news/framework-now-sells-2tb-steam-deck-upgrade-drives.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/framework-now-sells-2tb-steam-deck-upgrade-drives.htmlSee, while it’s fairly easy to replace the Steam Deck’s SSD, it’s not quite as easy to buy the right parts. The Steam Deck uses the smallest kind of modular SSD — the M.2 2230, which measures just 30mm long — and it’s only designed to fit a single-sided one, which has flash memory chips on one side. Two M.2 2230 drives, one with an EMI shield. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge/news/ftc-shuts-down-butterfly-labs-the-second-most-hated-company-in-bitcoinland.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ftc-shuts-down-butterfly-labs-the-second-most-hated-company-in-bitcoinland.htmlButterfly Labs is disappointed in the heavy-handed actions of the Federal Trade Commission. In a rush to judgment, the FTC has acted as judge, jury and executioner, contrary to our intended system of governmental checks and balances. The FTC's current actions are negatively impacting our thousands of customers and our dozens of employees. Their current media campaign should only further alarm a knowing citizenry and raise questions as to why the FTC wouldn't simply let this case play out through the judicial system./news/garry-s-mod-is-taking-down-decades-of-nintendo-related-add-ons.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/garry-s-mod-is-taking-down-decades-of-nintendo-related-add-ons.htmlThe popular physics sandbox game Garry’s Mod is pulling all of its Nintendo-related add-ons following copyright takedown requests from the gaming giant. On Wednesday, the developers of Garry’s Mod made a post on Steam saying users “may have noticed that certain Nintendo related workshop items have recently been taken down,” adding that “this is not a mistake,” as the takedowns came from Nintendo. “Honestly, this is fair enough. This is Nintendo’s content and what they allow and don’t allow is up to them,” the post reads./news/get-a-year-of-playstation-plus-essential-for-just-40-at-eneba.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/get-a-year-of-playstation-plus-essential-for-just-40-at-eneba.htmlIf you’re one of the lucky ones who have managed to nab a PlayStation 5, you’ll be pleased to hear that luck is once again working in your favor. Now through August 1st at 9AM ET, Verge readers can buy a year of PlayStation Plus Essential service from Eneba for around $40 instead of $59.99 when they use promo code VERGEssentials at checkout. Note that the price might fluctuate by a few dollars and cents on Eneba’s website, but the final sale price at checkout should be under $40./news/gillette-made-a-razer-razor-but-didn-t-put-rgb-on-it-so-what-s-the-point.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gillette-made-a-razer-razor-but-didn-t-put-rgb-on-it-so-what-s-the-point.htmlAfter all this time, Razer made a razor. Well. Technically, Gillette made a razor and put Razer’s branding on it. Finally, a razor for gamers! Don’t confuse this with the Razer Razer, this year’s April Fool’s Day joke. That was an RGB gaming mouse with an electric shaver built into it. As fun as it would be to have a quick way to get a bunch of beard hair into your keyboard, the reality here is both smarter and more disappointing./news/go-read-this-story-about-how-a-lost-nes-game-was-recovered-after-30-years.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/go-read-this-story-about-how-a-lost-nes-game-was-recovered-after-30-years.htmlIn early 2020, The Video Game History Foundation was approached by a friend of Oberth’s surviving family to help them make sense of the materials he had left behind. Untouched for years in the home basement he often worked from were piles of old computers, CD-R backups, floppy disks, notes, cassettes, EPROMs, and data tape going back to his earliest Apple II work in the late 70s, which his family agreed to loan to us for evaluation./news/google-and-samsung-join-forces-to-make-it-easier-to-sync-fitness-data-between-apps.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-and-samsung-join-forces-to-make-it-easier-to-sync-fitness-data-between-apps.htmlGoogle and Samsung have partnered to create Health Connect, a platform and API (application programming interface) that gives developers a toolset to sync users’ health data between Android apps and devices. This should make it easier for users to keep track of their health and fitness data across several different platforms. Once a user opts in, developers can compile their health data in an encrypted hub that’s located on a user’s device./news/google-assistant-will-sing-you-a-song-about-getting-vaccinated.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-assistant-will-sing-you-a-song-about-getting-vaccinated.htmlMany of us are excited that COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available in the US, and it seems like Google Assistant is joining in. In fact, it’s got a song to share about it (via Android Police). You can listen to the song yourself by asking Google Assistant to “sing the vaccine song,” but I’ve also recorded it. Take a listen. Okay, hmm... where to start? I’ll give the music some props./news/google-gemini-all-the-details-on-the-ai-model-google-hopes-can-take-on-gpt-4.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-gemini-all-the-details-on-the-ai-model-google-hopes-can-take-on-gpt-4.htmlIt’s the beginning of a new era of AI at Google, says CEO Sundar Pichai: the Gemini era. Gemini is Google’s latest large language model, which Pichai first teased at the I/O developer conference in June and is now launching to the public. To hear Pichai and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis describe it, it’s a huge leap forward in an AI model that will ultimately affect practically all of Google’s products./news/google-has-already-discontinued-the-pixel-5.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-has-already-discontinued-the-pixel-5.htmlAmidst the news of a new Pixel phone this week, Google quietly indicated that it’s the end of the road for two other Pixel devices: the Pixel 4A 5G and the Pixel 5. Both are currently listed on Google’s online store as sold out, and remaining stock at other retailers likely won’t last long. A company spokesperson offered the following statement: With our current forecasts, we expect Google Store in the U./news/google-home-is-still-re-adding-audio-features-it-lost-due-to-the-sonos-lawsuit.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-home-is-still-re-adding-audio-features-it-lost-due-to-the-sonos-lawsuit.htmlAfter a few years of legal battles, you can once again control grouped speakers using the Google Home app and Google Assistant. The feature was slipped into Android 15 beta 2 last week, and now it’s going out to everyone, so users shouldn’t have to adjust the volume one speaker at a time anymore from their Android phones. From the Google Home app, you should be able to adjust the volume from the Now Playing screen in the app when you’re playing to multiple speakers just by adjusting the volume as normal — the same goes for Google Assistant-compatible smart speakers./news/google-i-o-2024-all-the-news-from-the-developer-conference.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-i-o-2024-all-the-news-from-the-developer-conference.htmlGoogle I/O introduced an AI assistant that can see and hear the world, while OpenAI put its version of a Her-like chatbot into an iPhone. Next week, Microsoft will be hosting Build, where it’s sure to have some version of Copilot or Cortana that understands pivot tables. Then, a few weeks after that, Apple will host its own developer conference, and if the buzz is anything to go by, it’ll be talking about artificial intelligence, too./news/google-is-making-some-big-upgrades-to-directions-in-google-maps.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-making-some-big-upgrades-to-directions-in-google-maps.htmlGoogle is announcing a bunch of new features planned for Google Maps, including a new tool to help with indoor navigation and suggestions for eco-friendly driving routes. The features announced today aren’t rolling out all at once, though; many aren’t available just yet, and it’s unclear when some will be available in some parts of the world. One of the biggest announcements is that Google is bringing its Live View augmented reality directions to airports, transit stations, and malls./news/google-leaked-google-s-flagship-pixel-8-pro-again.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-leaked-google-s-flagship-pixel-8-pro-again.htmlContinuing the storied tradition of Google’s Pixel devices being some of the most-leaked hardware ever, the as-yet-unannounced Pixel 8 Pro has popped up on a Google Store page. @Android_Setting on Twitter / X pointed out the image on a page promoting Google’s subscriptions and services (Pixel Pass is not among them), showing a man taking a call on a Pixel 8 Pro in Porcelain. Sure, the device looks like the renders and images that have already leaked, including from a supposed internal Google video, but how can we be sure it’s that phone in that color?/news/google-pixel-4a-5g-review-more-than-just-a-bigger-budget-phone.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-pixel-4a-5g-review-more-than-just-a-bigger-budget-phone.htmlThe Google Pixel 4A 5G is a good phone for reasons that have almost nothing to do with the “5G” in the name. The ostensible reason for the phone to exist is to offer 5G connectivity to customers who want a more affordable phone. It starts at $499 for most carriers but costs $599.99 on Verizon. But the actual reason to buy one is much simpler: it offers a big enough screen, great cameras, and a decently fast processor./news/google-pixel-8-vs-pixel-7-specs-and-features-comparison.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-pixel-8-vs-pixel-7-specs-and-features-comparison.htmlStarting price$499$599$899$699$999ColorsWhite, dark gray, light blue, pinkYellow, white, dark grayLight gray / green, white, dark grayDark gray, pink, and light gray/greenDark gray, light blue, and white/beigeDimensions (inches)6.0 height x 2.9 width x 0.35 depth6.1 height x 2.9 width x 0.3 depth 6.4 height x 3.0 width x 0.3 depth 5.9 height x 2.8 width x 0.4 depth6.4 height x 3.0 width x 0.3 depthWeight192.8 grams195.6 grams212.6 grams187 grams213 gramsOSAndroid 14Android 14Android 14Android 14Android 14Display6./news/google-pulls-youtube-off-the-amazon-echo-show.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-pulls-youtube-off-the-amazon-echo-show.htmlAmazon and Google are in a not-so-fun fight. Google has apparently decided to stop allowing the Amazon Echo Show to access YouTube. If you ask the smart speaker to show you a YouTube video, it fails and Alexa just say this: “Currently, Google is not supporting Youtube on Echo Show.” That seems like a pretty strong thing for a computer to say, so I asked Amazon about it, and the company issued this (excuse the pun) fire statement:/news/google-starts-rolling-out-duplex-feature-that-can-call-salons-to-book-a-haircut-for-you.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-starts-rolling-out-duplex-feature-that-can-call-salons-to-book-a-haircut-for-you.htmlGoogle Assistant will soon be able to book a haircut for you by calling a salon and requesting a time on your behalf. The feature was announced two years ago when Google first unveiled Duplex, its tech for having a human-sounding system call stores and make requests of whoever picks up. Its first (and only) consumer feature, making reservations at restaurants, launched in late 2018 in the US. Google confirmed that the haircut booking feature is now rolling out in the US, though it isn’t yet available to everyone./news/google-strikes-deal-to-store-data-in-cuba.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-strikes-deal-to-store-data-in-cuba.htmlData for Google services will be stored in Cuba, under a deal announced this week between the company and the Cuban government. As the Associated Press reports, the deal will not expand public internet access in Cuba, one of the world’s least-connected countries, but it is expected to decrease load times for Google services like Gmail and YouTube. Speeds for non-Google services will not be affected. “Cubans who already have access to the internet and want to use our services can expect to see an improvement,"/news/google-s-jelly-bean-statue-overheats-and-melts.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-jelly-bean-statue-overheats-and-melts.htmlAndroid 4.1 may have been born and bred in Mountain View, but it looks like Jelly Bean's having some problems with the California weather. According to a Google+ post by Android engineer Dan Morrill, the Jelly Bean statue that mysteriously appeared on Google's lawn in the run up to I/O has melted in the sun. "Jelly Bean is so ridiculously hot that the JB statue overheated, and his head partially melted and popped off,"/news/hello-from-the-rabbit-r1-launch-party.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hello-from-the-rabbit-r1-launch-party.htmlHello from the Rabbit R1 launch party! I haven’t been to a gadget launch like this in… a long time. We’re at the swanky TWA Hotel in NYC, where a bunch of early Rabbit adopters will get their AI gadgets. There’s a 360 Photo Booth! And a speakeasy! And a whole installation of scroll wheels! AI! ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaXxzf45ra2praGyAdHvHnqOlp12bv7C5jK2fnmWilq%2BjtdNmqWplnJbCr6%2FHZqeaqqSu/news/high-life-baffles-audience-expectations-for-a-space-thriller.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/high-life-baffles-audience-expectations-for-a-space-thriller.htmlClaire Denis’ grotesque, mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind new science fiction movie High Life opens with a series of peculiar images. A lush garden covers the floor and walls of a spaceship greenhouse. A toddler cries from an improvised playpen. An astronaut tries to console her from outside the ship, and accidentally loses one of his tools, which drops down into the void below him — emphasis on down, as it appears gravity is still asserting its will far outside the Solar System./news/hinge-will-let-people-tap-a-button-to-say-they-re-ready-for-a-video-call-date.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hinge-will-let-people-tap-a-button-to-say-they-re-ready-for-a-video-call-date.htmlA pandemic has taken over the world, but people are still dating. Today, Hinge is launching a new feature, called Date from Home, that the team thinks will make it easier to transition the texting chat into a video call. From a chat, daters can tap whether they’re ready to have a video call outside of the app, and once both people agree to do so, the app will let them know they’re “ready” for a date./news/hollywood-s-writers-strike-might-come-to-an-end-soon.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hollywood-s-writers-strike-might-come-to-an-end-soon.htmlWell-connected CNBC anchor David Faber cites people close to negotiations between the major Hollywood studio producers and striking writers, saying the sides “hope” to finalize a new deal tomorrow. The WGA strike began in early May before the actors (SAG-AFTRA) also went on strike in mid-July, marking the first time that has happened in 63 years. They cited some similar issues in trying to protect members’ livelihoods as streaming entertainment grows and as studios begin to use generative AI tools in the entertainment business./news/how-to-change-the-ringtone-on-your-android-phone.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-change-the-ringtone-on-your-android-phone.htmlA recent discussion among friends wondered if anyone really used ringtones anymore. The idea was that most people (those who still use their phones to hold verbal conversations) either go with whatever ringtone their phone comes with or just use vibrations. Once upon a time, ringtones were a thing. You could use them for amusement. (My favorite was a bored voice that said, “Ring. Ring. Ring.”) You could use them to know who was calling without having to look at the phone (so you knew when to pick up and when to let it go to voicemail)./news/how-to-print-a-document-when-you-don-t-own-a-printer.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-print-a-document-when-you-don-t-own-a-printer.htmlIt can be difficult to figure out what to do when you’re asked to provide a hard copy of a document but don’t have access to a printer at home. While it used to be a safe bet that everyone had a printer at home, that’s no longer the case — but if you don’t have one, odds are that at some point, you’ll come across someone who hasn’t gotten the memo and insists on a hard copy./news/how-to-run-geekbench-on-your-phone-or-pc.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-run-geekbench-on-your-phone-or-pc.htmlFor the next few weeks, we’re showing you how to run various commonly used benchmarks on your PC. Reviewers like myself find these very helpful in comparing laptops we test to each other. But you don’t have to rely on us — you can easily run these benchmarks yourself on your own PC. Geekbench is one of the easiest and fastest ones to run and will show you how your device stacks up against the competition in a few key areas./news/how-to-use-a-tiktok-video-template.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-a-tiktok-video-template.htmlYou can create a great TikTok video by doing nothing more than simply talking to the camera. However, if you want to do something a little fancier or you’re still unsure of your own ability to spruce up your video, you can start with some of the predesigned templates that come with the app. Templates make it easy to create a lively, complex video. You just have to drop your own photos and / or videos into the template, and you’re done./news/how-to-use-best-take-on-the-google-pixel-8-and-pixel-8-pro.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-best-take-on-the-google-pixel-8-and-pixel-8-pro.htmlThere are a few things you can always depend on in photography, and one is that someone will always be blinking or making a weird face in a group photo. You can try taking 20 photos in rapid succession to increase your chances that everyone will look their best in one of them, but that’s not foolproof — and you’ll often wind up with a photo you’re only sort of happy with./news/how-to-use-iphone-s-location-tracking.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-iphone-s-location-tracking.htmlYour iPhone uses information from your cell service, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS to pinpoint its location, and since you almost always have your phone on you, your location as well. That information can be useful for a lot of things, such as letting others know where you are or finding your phone when it’s lost. Other times, it’s just more data that services and companies collect about you, creating privacy concerns./news/how-to-use-iphone-s-safety-check-and-emergency-sos-features.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-use-iphone-s-safety-check-and-emergency-sos-features.htmlWhile there has — rightly — been a great deal written and broadcast about how to deal with attacks and privacy violations online and via social media, there is now increasing attention being paid to helping people stay safe in their homes and out in the world. Two features offered via Apple’s iPhones — one just introduced in iOS 16 — can help people who may need to separate themselves from dangerous people or situations: Safety Check and Emergency SOS./news/humane-s-wearable-screenless-ai-assistant-leaks-in-first-demo-clips.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/humane-s-wearable-screenless-ai-assistant-leaks-in-first-demo-clips.htmlHumane, the startup founded by ex-Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, has given a first live demo of its new device: a wearable gadget with a projected display and AI-powered features intended to act as a personal assistant. Chaudhri, who serves as Humane’s chairman and president, demoed the device onstage during a TED Talk, a recording of which has been acquired by Inverse and others ahead of its expected public release on April 22nd./news/instagram-seemingly-removes-grimes-pregnancy-announcement-post-for-nudity-violation.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-seemingly-removes-grimes-pregnancy-announcement-post-for-nudity-violation.htmlMusician Claire Boucher, better known by her stage name, Grimes, appears to have run afoul of Instagram’s nudity ban in a recent post announcing her pregnancy. Grimes has since reuploaded an edited version of the photo with the caption, “Censored for insta haha — almost got away [with it].” Instagram is clear in its guidelines that you cannot post images containing nudity. “We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Instagram,” reads the policy./news/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich-resigns-over-relationship-with-employee.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich-resigns-over-relationship-with-employee.htmlIntel has announced that CEO Brian Krzanich has resigned from the company effective immediately. CFO Robert Swan is now Intel’s interim chief executive officer. “Intel was recently informed that Mr. Krzanich had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee,” the company said in a press release. “An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel’s non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers.” Krzanich’s immediate resignation was accepted to show “that all employees will respect Intel’s values and adhere to the company’s code of conduct,” according to Intel./news/ios-15-and-ipados-15-review-foundational-fixes.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-15-and-ipados-15-review-foundational-fixes.htmliOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are strange updates.  Some iOS updates bring huge new features; iOS 13 had dark mode (and a lot of bugs) and iOS 14 had widgets. Some, like iOS 12, brought much needed behind-the-scenes fixes to performance and battery life But iOS 15 (and its companion, iPadOS 15) does neither. It’s the most incremental and iterative iOS release in years, a grab bag of new features that, while nice to have, don’t really move the needle or change your iPhone experience much./news/iphone-14-14-pro-owners-report-battery-health-drops-of-10-percent-in-less-than-a-year.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iphone-14-14-pro-owners-report-battery-health-drops-of-10-percent-in-less-than-a-year.htmlSome iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro owners have complaints reminiscent of the bad old days of “batterygate,” reporting that with less than a year of service on the clock, their phones are already reporting more battery degradation than expected. Sam Kohl of AppleTrack tweeted in July that his iPhone 14 Pro had already dropped to a maximum capacity of 90 percent, a much faster dropoff than previous iPhones he’d owned, and the thread shows many other people with the same experience./news/it-s-settled-the-best-smartphone-screen-size-is-6-1-inches.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-settled-the-best-smartphone-screen-size-is-6-1-inches.htmlI come to you today with good and bad news. The bad news is that small phones are dead. Apple is all but certainly killing off the iPhone Mini this year, and the smallest Android phone I’ve used all year is the 5.9-inch Asus Zenfone 9 — quite a bit larger than the 5.4-inch Mini. But that’s what passes for “small” now. Here’s the good news. We can at long last lay to rest the debate over what’s the right size for a phone because I just made up an answer: 6./news/it-s-time-to-rethink-our-relationships-with-streaming-services.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-time-to-rethink-our-relationships-with-streaming-services.htmlEveryone’s long-standing concerns about the streaming space being a bubble on the verge of popping have proven to be more than warranted over the past few months as two of Hollywood’s ongoing labor strikes have raged on. But with the most recent round of services like Disney Plus, Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount Plus raising their prices — during Hollywood’s ongoing double labor strike, no less — to meet the demand of shareholders for never-ending profits, the time has come for all of us to seriously rethink our relationships with the platforms that have become “the new cable./news/jake-gyllenhaal-meets-his-doppelganger-in-this-creepy-trailer-for-enemy.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jake-gyllenhaal-meets-his-doppelganger-in-this-creepy-trailer-for-enemy.htmlLast year director Denis Villeneuve teamed up with Jake Gyllenhaal for the kidnapping thriller Prisoners, and the pair have a new movie called Enemy that looks like it's going to be even more disturbing. Based on José Saramago's novel The Double, the film follows a teacher — played by Gyllenhaal — dealing with a relationship that's beginning to fall apart. Things take a turn for the bizarre when he stumbles upon an actor — also played by Gyllenhaal — that looks exactly like him./news/james-bond-s-submarine-car-is-on-sale-on-ebay-for-1-million.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/james-bond-s-submarine-car-is-on-sale-on-ebay-for-1-million.htmlAmong James Bond's many glorious gadgets over the years, one that stands out even to this day is his submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): a modified 1977 Lotus Espirit S1 sportscar that was shown driving directly from land into water. In real life, there was no such transforming amphibious vehicle: seven different cars were used to create the submarine scenes in the film — one of them being little more than an Espirit-shaped shell wrapped around a working submarine./news/james-gunn-says-baby-groot-is-groot-s-son-but-does-that-matter.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/james-gunn-says-baby-groot-is-groot-s-son-but-does-that-matter.htmlIn Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the anthropomorphic tree-man Groot is no longer the towering, full-sized version voiced by Vin Diesel in the first film, but rather a pint-sized pipsqueak known as Baby Groot. This is because [clears throat for spoilers] according to writer and director James Gunn, the Groot we knew is dead. At the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot wraps his tree-limbs into a sturdy wooden bubble to protect his pals as their ship falls from the sky./news/jupiter-is-glowing-in-new-pictures-from-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jupiter-is-glowing-in-new-pictures-from-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope.htmlAn early look at the view of Jupiter captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, hinted at how precise and detailed our new view of the planet would be. But this week, NASA released another set of photos showing the cloud cover, rings, and moons of Jupiter in remarkable detail — and it was even better than scientists were hoping for. “We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley, in a press release./news/kickstarter-visualized-movies-are-big-but-design-projects-get-more-money.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kickstarter-visualized-movies-are-big-but-design-projects-get-more-money.htmlKickstarter, now heading into its fourth year of operations, has become the site of choice to raise money for independent films, iPhone accessories, and many other projects. The New York Times has visualized three years of Kickstarter proposals by category and money raised, giving us a good look at what people are supporting. Unsurprisingly, the highest average funding went to design projects like the Pebble wristwatch, which has beaten all previous records with over $7 million in backing, but the film and video project category actually takes in fully twice as much in pledges: people have pledged $60 million to movies, compared to $29 million for design projects./news/lg-lucid-midrange-android-2-3-handset-announced-by-verizon-coming-march-29th-for-79-99.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-lucid-midrange-android-2-3-handset-announced-by-verizon-coming-march-29th-for-79-99.htmlRumors of a new 4G LG handset called Lucid (codename Cayman) on Verizon have cropped up in the past few weeks, and now we've got confirmation: Verizon has just announced the Lucid, a midrange 4G Android 2.3 Gingerbread smartphone set for launch on March 29th for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and two-year contract. The Lucid houses a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4-inch Gorilla Glass covered touchscreen, 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera, and a front facing camera that can capture 1080p video./news/logan-paul-and-the-internet-need-to-stop-treating-japan-as-clickbait.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logan-paul-and-the-internet-need-to-stop-treating-japan-as-clickbait.htmlThe Internet has long been fascinated with Japan for all the wrong reasons. A country with a rich and complicated history, Japan and its people are frequently reduced to caricatures and clickbait about ninjas, outrageous game shows, animated pornography, and weird commercials. Search Google or YouTube for “weird Japan,” and you’ll find a goldmine of terrible content stereotyping Japan as the sum of its most bizarre media and traditions — a metric that would reflect poorly on any country — and treating the idiosyncrasies of its oddest subcultures as quirky national characteristics./news/lyft-shuttle-mimics-mass-transit-with-fixed-routes-and-fares.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lyft-shuttle-mimics-mass-transit-with-fixed-routes-and-fares.htmlLyft Shuttle is the ride-hailing industry’s latest product to mimic the fixed routes and flat fares of a city bus service. The new feature, which is being tested out in San Francisco and Chicago, is an extension of Lyft’s carpool service, Lyft Line. But rather than arriving directly at your door and then dropping you off at your exact location, the driver operates along a fixed route, with predetermined pick-up and drop-off locations./news/making-sense-of-the-eu-s-fight-for-user-replaceable-smartphone-batteries.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/making-sense-of-the-eu-s-fight-for-user-replaceable-smartphone-batteries.htmlIf you’ve been online in the past week, you’ve probably seen one or two headlines about the European Union voting in favor of easy-to-replace batteries in smartphones by around 2027. That’s based on a June 14th vote in which the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of an agreement that would overhaul the rules around batteries in the bloc.  The good news is that those headlines are fundamentally accurate; the EU is moving forward with regulation designed to require smartphones to have batteries that are easier to replace, to the benefit of the environment and end users./news/mario-kart-irl-the-verge.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mario-kart-irl-the-verge.htmlAt SXSW 2014, a go-kart track was retrofitted to become "Mario Kart Reimagined," a racing experience that tries to translate the classic video game into reality. But turning the joyful abandon of plunging down the Rainbow Road into a real-world experience is harder than it seems. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnamxfaHx5e5Rtb21wYG18rq3RoqZmo5GnwW610aVkrLCjrHq3tcOepg%3D%3D/news/matt-groening-is-making-an-animated-medieval-adult-fantasy-with-netflix.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/matt-groening-is-making-an-animated-medieval-adult-fantasy-with-netflix.htmlNetflix announced today that Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, will be developing a medieval animated adult fantasy called Disenchantment. It’s scheduled to begin streaming on Netflix in 2018. The series’s protagonist is a young, “hard-drinking” princess named Bean (Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson), and her two male companions are a “feisty elf” named Elfo (Nat Faxon) and a demon named Luci (Eric Andre). While both The Simpsons and Futurama have dynamic, fleshed-out female characters, this is Groening’s first series with a clear female lead./news/meta-quest-3-takes-on-the-apple-vision-pro-in-mixed-reality-multitasking.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-quest-3-takes-on-the-apple-vision-pro-in-mixed-reality-multitasking.htmlMark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that version 67 of Horizon OS is rolling out with an experimental feature allowing Quest owners to multitask with up to six virtual windows. Once enabled (by going to Settings, then Experimental, and toggling it on), you’ll be able to dock three windows in what Meta is calling a “hinged” layout while freely placing and resizing up to three more wherever you want. The feature is available on the Quest Pro, Quest 2, and Quest 3, but it’s especially nice on the Quest 3 when you’re using it in mixed reality mode./news/metal-wolf-chaos-xd-review-the-president-is-a-mech-pilot.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/metal-wolf-chaos-xd-review-the-president-is-a-mech-pilot.htmlIt’s perhaps easier than it ever has been to imagine the US presidency as a one-man ego trip leaving wanton destruction in its wake, so it’s to Metal Wolf Chaos’ credit that it still manages to make that concept seem faintly ridiculous. A cult classic revived for modern platforms 15 years after its debut, Metal Wolf Chaos remains one of the most gloriously over-the-top games ever made. Released exclusively in Japan for the original Xbox, Metal Wolf Chaos was developed by From Software many years before the studio found global acclaim with its brutal action games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and this year’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice./news/metropcs-announces-joyn-a-standards-based-imessage-and-facetime-competitor.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/metropcs-announces-joyn-a-standards-based-imessage-and-facetime-competitor.htmlWhile MetroPCS may not exist for much longer as a standalone company thanks to the proposed merger with T-Mobile, that isn't stopping the country's fifth-largest carrier from pushing out new services. Today, the company announced Joyn, a message, video chat, and syncing service based on the Rich Communications Services standard. MetroPCS says it's using RCS to power four categories of services, many of which will sound familiar to most smartphone users: contacts presence, enriched chat, content sharing, and Wi-Fi / video calling./news/microbiologists-discover-35-new-groups-of-bacteria-in-colorado.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microbiologists-discover-35-new-groups-of-bacteria-in-colorado.htmlThe mysterious and diverse world of bacteria just got its very own expansion pack. A total of 35 new groups, or phyla, of bacteria have been discovered in groundwater in Rifle, Colorado. The finding will likely add a bunch of new species to the tree of life — species that are quite different from other bacteria, scientists note. But here's what's really remarkable: the number of new bacterial groups is almost the same as the number of known animal phyla on Earth./news/microsoft-launching-bing-fund-in-mid-july-managed-by-voodoopc-founder-rahul-sood.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-launching-bing-fund-in-mid-july-managed-by-voodoopc-founder-rahul-sood.htmlMicrosoft is readying a Bing Fund investment program for launch later this month. Headed by VoodooPC founder Rahul Sood, the fund is designed for entrepreneurs and startups. One particular description, from a recent job posting, reveals that Bing's Fund portfolio includes "startups working on the web, desktop, mobile and console." Sood, who was previously involved in Microsoft's Xbox business, has been working on the Bing Fund since January and revealed in a tweet that the project will be unveiled in mid-July./news/microsoft-s-mistral-deal-beefs-up-azure-without-spurning-openai.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-mistral-deal-beefs-up-azure-without-spurning-openai.htmlMicrosoft’s multiyear deal with French AI company Mistral signaled that the company wants longevity in the space.  The company invested €15 million ($16 million) into Mistral and announced it would bring Mistral’s newest AI model, Mistral Large, to Azure. But the investment into Mistral, mainly a developer of open-source AI models, doesn’t mean Microsoft lost faith in its first AI child, OpenAI. Instead, Microsoft is laying the groundwork to build Azure as a model garden and give itself a foothold in Europe./news/more-patches-are-rolling-out-for-the-last-of-us-infected-pc-port.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/more-patches-are-rolling-out-for-the-last-of-us-infected-pc-port.htmlNaughty Dog and Nvidia have released more hotfixes for The Last of Us Part I’s PC port in an attempt to fix various crashes and other bugs that have plagued the game since it launched a week ago. Nvidia says its hotfix driver Version 531.58 is meant to make the game more stable when running on RTX 30-series graphics cards, and in the patch notes for v1.0.1.7 of the game, Naughty Dog says it and co-developer Iron Galaxy are “closely watching player reports to support future improvements and patches./news/moscow-says-its-new-facial-recognition-cctv-has-already-led-to-six-arrests.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moscow-says-its-new-facial-recognition-cctv-has-already-led-to-six-arrests.htmlMoscow’s local government has formally announced the deployment of facial recognition technology on a “city-wide” network of CCTV cameras. The system has been undergoing tests for close to a year, but the city’s Department of Information Technology today revealed new details of the project, including its licensing agreement with Russian startup NTechLab for the facial recognition software itself. Speaking to The Verge, the chief information officer of the Department of Information Technology, Artem Ermolaev, said the project is still “somewhere between” testing and finished, but has already led to six arrests./news/motion-activated-star-trek-inspired-door-chime-sounds-red-alert-when-you-have-visitors.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motion-activated-star-trek-inspired-door-chime-sounds-red-alert-when-you-have-visitors.htmlIf you've already outfitted your home with the Star Trek-styledpneumatic sliding door, ThinkGeek has just the item to install on the wall beside it — the Star Trek electronic door chime. An essential item for any Trekkie's home, the chime mounts next to your door and is activated any time someone crosses the threshold; you can set it to either play the signature "swooshing" door sound or set off a more noticeable "/news/moto-g4-plus-review-no.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moto-g4-plus-review-no.htmlThe foremost attraction of the new Moto G is its display. This 5.5-inch IPS LCD has 1080p resolution, excellent viewing angles, and accurate color balance. I would be happy with a screen of this quality on any flagship smartphone, and the absence of higher resolution is no problem with a phone that has no aspirations for performing VR duties (which will be the big reason to want high-res phones in the near future)./news/motorola-s-midrange-stylus-phone-gets-wireless-charging-and-a-glow-up.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-s-midrange-stylus-phone-gets-wireless-charging-and-a-glow-up.htmlMotorola’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./news/neil-degrasse-tyson-will-return-to-national-geographic-after-misconduct-claims.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/neil-degrasse-tyson-will-return-to-national-geographic-after-misconduct-claims.htmlNational Geographic has completed its investigation reports of sexual misconduct by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and will resume plans to air two shows that he is involved with, Star Talk and Cosmos: Possible Worlds, reports Entertainment Weekly. According to EW, National Geographic did not disclose the findings of its investigation, only that it had concluded. We’ve reached out to National Geographic for comment, and will update this post if we hear back./news/netflix-will-nearly-double-the-number-of-french-language-originals.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-will-nearly-double-the-number-of-french-language-originals.htmlNetflix today signaled a significant new investment in France with the opening of its new Paris office and a content roadmap that will see the streaming service nearly double the number of French language originals it has produced so far. Since 2014, Netflix has produced 24 productions in French, including six films and nine television series. But the new plan is to add 20 new productions, and to grow its new corporate presence in Paris consisting of 40 employees to one nearly three times the size./news/netflix-s-bigbug-review-a-nightmare-about-the-internet-of-things.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-bigbug-review-a-nightmare-about-the-internet-of-things.htmlNetflix’s Bigbug, from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is a new addition to the growing canon of pandemic-era films using their stories to dig into human anxieties that were already bubbling up long before COVID-19 began to spread.  In Bigbug’s gently retrofuturistic vision of France in 2045, most everyone lives in relative comfort with the help of the countless different kinds of robotic and virtual assistants that have become integral parts of people’s day-to-day lives./news/netflix-s-chef-my-fridge-should-be-your-newest-cooking-competition-obsession.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-chef-my-fridge-should-be-your-newest-cooking-competition-obsession.htmlKorean variety show Chef & My Fridge, which hit Netflix this week, has everything and the kitchen sink. It has celebrity chefs, idol guest judges, and the aspirational optimism of every good cooking TV program: the idea that anyone can make restaurant-grade food at home with the humble, rapidly expiring ingredients waiting inside their refrigerator. The show has aired in Korea since 2014, masterfully blending celebrity voyeurism with Iron Chef-esque intensity./news/nintendo-is-officially-closing-its-redwood-city-and-toronto-offices.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-is-officially-closing-its-redwood-city-and-toronto-offices.htmlNintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time.  Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the U./news/nintendo-switch-will-reportedly-have-a-multitouch-screen.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-switch-will-reportedly-have-a-multitouch-screen.htmlLast week Nintendo finally unveiled its long-rumored next console, Switch. But while the console’s debut trailer provided a clearer picture of the device, it also raised a number of questions. Most notably: does Switch have a touchscreen? The answer, according to a new report from Eurogamer, is yes. The site claims that Switch will feature a 6.2-inch 720p display and that, unlike past Nintendo hardware like the 3DS and Wii U which had resistive touch screens, it will also include a capacitive multitouch display./news/nvidia-s-rtx-gpus-can-now-upgrade-sdr-content-to-hdr-using-ai.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-s-rtx-gpus-can-now-upgrade-sdr-content-to-hdr-using-ai.htmlNvidia is launching a new feature for all RTX GPU owners today: RTX Video HDR. Much like how Nvidia’s RTX Video Super Resolution can upscale old, blurry web videos, RTX Video HDR uses AI to convert SDR color space video to HDR. You just need an HDR10-compatible monitor with HDR enabled in Windows. RTX Video HDR is part of today’s 551.23 Game Ready driver release for the new RTX 4070 Ti Super launch./news/nyc-mayor-adams-will-convert-his-city-paycheck-to-cryptocurrency-via-coinbase.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nyc-mayor-adams-will-convert-his-city-paycheck-to-cryptocurrency-via-coinbase.htmlFollowing through on a plan he announced before he took office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that his first paycheck, which arrives on Friday, will be converted from US dollars into cryptocurrency. The transaction will take place on Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, and will convert Adams’ pay into Bitcoin and Ethereum. “New York is the center of the world, and we want it to be the center of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations,” Adams said in a statement./news/nyt-crossword-puzzle-no-longer-works-in-third-party-apps-crosses-puzzle-solvers.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nyt-crossword-puzzle-no-longer-works-in-third-party-apps-crosses-puzzle-solvers.htmlPeople will no longer be able to play the digital version of The New York Times daily crossword puzzle in third-party apps, according to an announcement made by the Times on Monday. Starting August 10th, the crossword will be available digitally only via the NYT site or on its own crossword app. Downloadable PDFs, in addition to the physical newspaper, will still be available for people who want to print and play./news/obama-appoints-execs-from-mastercard-uber-and-microsoft-to-cybersecurity-panel.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/obama-appoints-execs-from-mastercard-uber-and-microsoft-to-cybersecurity-panel.htmlThe White House today released a list of names President Barack Obama will appoint to his new Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. The panel, established this year as part of Obama's $19 billion proposal to tighten defenses against hacking threats, seeks to tap industry experts outside the government for cybersecurity recommendations for both the public and private sectors. Among the names included are: General Keith Alexander, the director of the National Security Agency from 2005 to 2014; Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan; MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga; and Peter Lee, corporate vice president for Microsoft Research./news/one-man-is-chronicling-the-history-of-a-digital-universe.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/one-man-is-chronicling-the-history-of-a-digital-universe.htmlAfter spending months climbing the ranks of the Ubiqua Seraph corporation, on April 18th, 2005, Istvaan Shogaatsu's moment had finally arrived. He had gained the trust of the corporation's CEO, Mirial, and while the two were alone on her ship he issued a command that led to the ransacking of nearly every Ubiqua Seraph office and hangar in the galaxy. He then proceeded to destroy her ship and escape pod. At the time, it was one of the biggest hijacks to ever occur in the virtual world of Eve Online, with the total damages incurred by Ubiqua Seraph reportedly totaling close to $16,500./news/one-video-gone-by-mattybraps.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/one-video-gone-by-mattybraps.htmlEvery week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video — maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video./news/oppo-find-x3-pro-review-the-chinese-phone-to-beat.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oppo-find-x3-pro-review-the-chinese-phone-to-beat.htmlYou might know of Oppo as a company opaquely related to OnePlus, but it recently became the leading smartphone maker in China — the beneficiary of Huawei’s sanctions-induced slide in sales even in its home market. As such, the new Find X3 Pro flagship is an important handset for the company, presenting an opportunity to solidify its place as a major player in premium smartphones. And this time around, Oppo isn’t keeping the Find X3 Pro in China./news/peacock-will-stream-the-chinese-adaptation-of-the-three-body-problem.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/peacock-will-stream-the-chinese-adaptation-of-the-three-body-problem.htmlAnother adaptation of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem will be streaming for English audiences. While Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is set to premiere on March 21st, today, Peacock announced that it has acquired rights to the original Chinese adaptation, dubbed simply Three-Body. And it’s coming very soon — the series premieres on February 10th. Three-Body was produced by Tencent and originally premiered in China last year, and the Peacock version will be available in the original Chinese with English subtitles./news/pikachu-is-the-ambassador-of-osaka-and-our-hearts.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pikachu-is-the-ambassador-of-osaka-and-our-hearts.htmlHot off Pikachu’s recent achievement of horrifying Pokémon fans everywhere by actually talking, Japanese Foreign Minister Tarō Kōno awarded the electric mouse mascot the title of cultural ambassador. A gawky, tall version of Hello Kitty got the title as well. Pikachu’s new honor as ambassador is a clever promotional tactic to win Japan the chance to host Expo 2025, even though Expo 2020 hasn’t rolled around yet. The World Expo, a gathering to discuss “universal challenges of our time,” takes place every five years./news/ps4-launches-in-japan-on-february-22nd-three-months-after-the-us.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ps4-launches-in-japan-on-february-22nd-three-months-after-the-us.htmlOne notable omission from the PlayStation 4 launch information provided at Gamescom was any hint of a date for Sony's home country of Japan. At a press conference today, however, Sony revealed that the next-generation console will be released on February 22nd, 2014, priced at ¥39,980 (about $400) excluding sales tax. The console will also be offered in additional bundles. A package with the PlayStation Camera peripheral — which is not included with the console elsewhere — will sell for ¥43,980 (about $440), and another pre-order bundle will include a free downloadable copy of the game Knack and a one-year warranty extension./news/qualcomm-s-next-gen-cpu-for-pcs-will-take-on-apple-s-m-series-chips-in-2023.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/qualcomm-s-next-gen-cpu-for-pcs-will-take-on-apple-s-m-series-chips-in-2023.htmlQualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans for a next-generation Arm-based SoC “designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs” that would be able to go head to head with Apple’s M-series processors. Dr. James Thompson, Qualcomm’s chief technology officer, announced the plans for the new chips at the company’s 2021 investor day event, with the goal of getting samples to hardware customers in about nine months ahead of product launches with the new chip in 2023./news/rad-power-bikes-new-ceo-acknowledges-mistakes-vows-renewed-focus-on-safety.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rad-power-bikes-new-ceo-acknowledges-mistakes-vows-renewed-focus-on-safety.htmlRad Power Bikes’ new CEO, Phil Molyneux, said the company has “made mistakes” surrounding safety and reliability but vows to do better in the future. In a letter to customers, Molyneux said the e-bike company will have “a laser focus on safety and reliability” going forward in order to ensure its bikes are the best on the market. The letter appears to be a response to a recent recall of over 30,000 electric cargo bikes for misaligned tires, as well as several lawsuits related to the safety of its products./news/reinvented-ios-app-switcher-goes-from-the-verge-forums-to-the-iphone-screen.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/reinvented-ios-app-switcher-goes-from-the-verge-forums-to-the-iphone-screen.htmlThe iOS app switcher is in serious need of an overhaul, and back in October, forum member Sentry took it upon himself to give it just that. He mocked up an app switcher that would make use of the extra vertical space on the iPhone 5’s screen with card-like icons that give users more information about their running apps. Fast forward to today, and the designer and his developer partners have a working prototype called Auxo running on jailbroken devices./news/research-on-covid-detecting-smartwatches-still-hasn-t-panned-out.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/research-on-covid-detecting-smartwatches-still-hasn-t-panned-out.htmlIn the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, smartwatch advocates and wearable tech companies thought the devices could help with illness detection. They wanted to flag people who might be sick with the disease using things like their heart rate and oxygen levels. The strategy could still be a reasonable way to track illness, but two years later, the promise hasn’t panned out — the research is still underdeveloped, according to a new review published last week in The Lancet./news/riot-games-appoints-dylan-jadeja-as-new-ceo.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/riot-games-appoints-dylan-jadeja-as-new-ceo.htmlNicolo Laurent is stepping down from his role as CEO of Riot Games and will be succeeded by the company’s current global president, Dylan Jadeja, according to an official statement issued by Riot. Laurent is moving to an advisory role to focus more on his family after six years in the CEO position. The CEO transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Laurent has been a major part of Riot Games since the company was just a “40-person startup” in 2009, before stepping into the role of CEO in 2017./news/samsung-galaxy-s20-everything-we-think-we-know-about-the-unpacked-event.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-s20-everything-we-think-we-know-about-the-unpacked-event.htmlSamsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S20 — the successor to last year’s Galaxy S10, and the company’s next flagship — at its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 11th. Per the rumors, Samsung will have three new flagship phones this year in the US (internationally, it’s a bit of a different story): the Galaxy S20, the Galaxy S20 Plus, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. There are also rumors of a new foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip, for a total of four new flagships./news/samsung-s-smartthings-can-finally-control-your-google-nest-devices.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-smartthings-can-finally-control-your-google-nest-devices.htmlGoogle and Samsung are bringing their smart home platforms together for the first time. Samsung’s SmartThings will support Google Nest devices starting in January 2021, building a bridge between one of the industry’s leading ecosystems for managing smart devices like cameras and thermostats with one of the leading companies developing those products. Prior to this, owners of devices that qualified for the “Works With SmartThings” (WWST) certification had to use separate software to manage any Google Nest products they owned./news/shein-sales-last-year-surpassed-zara-and-h-m.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/shein-sales-last-year-surpassed-zara-and-h-m.htmlShein sales last year surpassed Zara and H&M. Shein, the Chinese fast fashion company popular in the US, recorded $32.2 billion in sales. To give you a sense of scale, Zara’s sales came in at $28 billion, and H&M’s at $22 billion. Under EU regulations, Shein will face more scrutiny alongside companies like Amazon. Shein is expected to go public in the US this year. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfa3xyfI5ra2pvZWeCdHvSoZyipl2orq2x0majmqukYsamrdFmqq6qoJbAtLHDZrGaqpFirq%2BwjKFkpg%3D%3D/news/sign-up-for-installer-the-verge.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sign-up-for-installer-the-verge.htmlInstaller is your guide to all the best, newest, coolest, and Verge-iest stuff in the world. The apps you need to try. The movies, shows, and TikToks you can’t miss. The tips, tricks, and hacks you could only ever get from the creators and inventors themselves. Installer runs on The Verge’s website every Sunday morning, but by signing up for the email newsletter, you’ll get every issue a full day early. That means first dibs on exclusive beta invites, plus the chance to always be the person in your group chat who already saw the cool thing everyone’s suddenly talking about./news/sling-tv-now-offers-showtime-for-additional-10-per-month.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sling-tv-now-offers-showtime-for-additional-10-per-month.htmlDish’s Sling TV now lets customers add Showtime to their channel package for an extra $10 per month. That includes the regular, linear Showtime network and seven other channels as well; they’re all listed in this blog post announcing the addition of Showtime to Sling TV. Tacking Showtime onto your monthly subscription also adds around 2,000 on-demand titles. The timely announcement comes days before Homeland’s season six finale. Sling TV now claims itself to be the first over-the-top internet TV streaming service to (optionally) offer all four “premium” networks: HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and Starz./news/smart-glasses-need-to-be-stylish-to-really-go-mainstream.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/smart-glasses-need-to-be-stylish-to-really-go-mainstream.htmlWhen I first saw the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses a few weeks ago, I noticed something. In the event space Meta had so carefully prepared, there was a wall showcasing the different frames, colors, and lenses. It was meant to visualize all the different style options — more than 150, in fact. But standing about 10 feet away, they all blended together. That bothered me. For the most part, my hands-on with the Meta smart glasses went better than I’d expected./news/snapchat-now-lets-you-delete-unopened-sent-messages.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snapchat-now-lets-you-delete-unopened-sent-messages.htmlSnapchat will now let users delete sent messages before they’re opened, as reported by 9to5Mac. The company plans to roll the feature out to some people starting today, and everyone should have it within the next few weeks. To delete a sent message, simply press and hold on the media (text, audio, photo, etc.) you’d like to get rid of and a pop-up will appear asking if you’d like to delete./news/sony-to-offer-free-horizon-forbidden-west-ps4-to-ps5-upgrade-after-criticism.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-to-offer-free-horizon-forbidden-west-ps4-to-ps5-upgrade-after-criticism.htmlSony is now planning to offer a free Horizon Forbidden West upgrade from PS4 to PS5. The U-turn follows widespread criticism after the company announced there would be no upgrade path for Horizon Forbidden West PS4 players, despite an original promise of a free upgrade to the PS5 version. “It’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our pre-order kickoff missed the mark,” admits Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment./news/sorry-to-bother-you-gets-everything-right-about-the-horrors-of-viral-fame.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sorry-to-bother-you-gets-everything-right-about-the-horrors-of-viral-fame.htmlBoots Riley’s directorial and screenwriting debut Sorry to Bother You is the low-budget breakaway of the summer. An absurdist comedy with touches of magical realism and science fiction, it’s about a young black telemarketer named Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) who is struggling with his personal ethics as he learns that betraying his friends and adopting a “white voice” (provided by the ever-lurking comedy weirdo David Cross) will help him win out in a near-future bizarro capitalist dystopia./news/spirited-away-returns-to-theaters-in-april-for-studio-ghibli-fest-2024.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spirited-away-returns-to-theaters-in-april-for-studio-ghibli-fest-2024.htmlSpirited Away Saturday, April 27 at 3:00 PM (SUB) Sunday, April 28 at 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM (DUB) Monday, April 29 at 7:00 PM (SUB) Tuesday, April 30 at 7:00 PM (DUB) Wednesday, May 1 at 7:00 PM (SUB) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 40th Anniversary Sunday, May 19 at 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM (DUB) Tuesday, May 21 at 7:00 PM (SUB) Castle in the Sky Monday, May 20 at 7:00 PM (DUB)/news/spotify-s-new-audiobook-tier-will-only-save-you-a-dollar-over-premium.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-s-new-audiobook-tier-will-only-save-you-a-dollar-over-premium.htmlSpotify announced a new subscription tier that “gives booklovers more listening options.” But subscribers would only save $1 a month compared to the classic Premium tier. The monthly subscription costs $9.99 and includes 15 free listening hours of audiobooks, the same as the classic Premium plan. But $10.99 Premium subscribers get 15 hours of audiobooks, plus ad-free music — whereas the audiobook plan still has ads for music services. Essentially, audiobook listeners are paying nearly the same amount while getting half the benefits./news/stalker-2-s-ukrainian-developer-is-being-blackmailed-by-pro-russian-hackers.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/stalker-2-s-ukrainian-developer-is-being-blackmailed-by-pro-russian-hackers.htmlGSC Game World, the Ukrainian studio developing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, says it has been hacked and that the hackers are threatening to blackmail the company, according to a statement shared on Twitter on Sunday. “Recently, our employee’s account for a collective work-with-images application was hacked,” GSC Game World wrote in the statement. The hackers are “threatening to use the obtained data for blackmail and intimidation,” the studio said./news/star-trek-discovery-s-shazad-latif-explains-why-ash-tyler-is-more-than-an-outdated-classic-mal.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/star-trek-discovery-s-shazad-latif-explains-why-ash-tyler-is-more-than-an-outdated-classic-mal.htmlWarning: major spoilers ahead for Ash Tyler’s plotlines in Star Trek: Discovery. Shazad Latif can freakin’ cry. Fans of Star Trek: Discovery know that already. In the first season alone, his character, tormented Lieutenant Ash Tyler, has suffered torture (and effectively, rape), been paralyzed by PTSD flashbacks, and had his body and mind overridden by a Klingon sleeper agent via an agonizing, obliterating “reassignment” surgery. At the same time, he’s been the sensitive love interest of hero Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), tenderly discussing his intimacy issues while sexually and emotionally yielding to her dominant role in their relationship./news/starz-tried-to-make-streaming-simpler-but-comcast-customers-are-paying-for-it.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/starz-tried-to-make-streaming-simpler-but-comcast-customers-are-paying-for-it.htmlStreaming TV shows can be a bit confusing for some people, and that's partly because many networks — HBO, Showtime, etc. — offer two apps for basically the same purpose. The debut of standalone, over-the-top streaming services has led these companies to present consumers with a pair of apps: one for cord cutters (think HBO Now, Showtime), and the other for customers who log in with their existing cable account (HBO Go, Showtime Anytime)./news/surprise-there-are-four-giraffe-species-not-just-one.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/surprise-there-are-four-giraffe-species-not-just-one.htmlThe most basic thing you thought you knew about giraffes is wrong — in fact, there are four species of giraffe, not one, scientists announced today: the southern giraffe, the Masai giraffe, the reticulated giraffe, and the northern giraffe. Genetically, they’re as distinct as brown bears are from polar bears. Today’s division has important implications for conservation because some of these newly discovered species are in grave danger, with just a few thousand individuals remaining in the wild./news/switching-to-electric-vehicles-would-be-fantastic-for-kids-health.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/switching-to-electric-vehicles-would-be-fantastic-for-kids-health.htmlA wholesale switch to electric vehicles would be a tremendous boon to the health of many people around the world. But a new report from the American Lung Association highlights the particular advantages for children, especially those vulnerable to respiratory illness. Based on a model in which all new vehicles sold by 2035 are zero-tailpipe emission, the group concludes that there would be 2.7 million fewer asthma attacks among children, as well as 147,000 fewer acute case of bronchitis./news/tcl-s-new-mini-led-tvs-offer-blazing-brightness-on-a-budget.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tcl-s-new-mini-led-tvs-offer-blazing-brightness-on-a-budget.html5,000 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./news/the-35-000-tesla-model-3-in-pictures.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-35-000-tesla-model-3-in-pictures.htmlTesla says the car will go more than 215 miles on a charge and will start at $35,000, though it will be possible to run the price much higher with added options. Now what we care about is what the Model 3 actually looks like. Here are a selection of images from Tesla, the livestream from this evening, and Verge Deputy Editor Chris Ziegler, who is braving the crowds on the ground at the Tesla event./news/the-big-surprise-of-the-new-transformers-trailer-is-it-looks-kind-of-fun.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-big-surprise-of-the-new-transformers-trailer-is-it-looks-kind-of-fun.htmlI know I shouldn’t be excited about a Transformers film because of a good trailer. The franchise has had great marketing in the past, carefully concealing the bloated melodrama, offensive caricatures, and puerile humor. And yet I’m kind of, sort of, maybe a little bit intrigued by Transformers: The Last Knight. It’s not just this new trailer that has me seriously considering paying to see a Transformers film. My colleague Bryan Bishop spoke somewhat kindly of early footage shown at CinemaCon last month./news/the-blackberry-storm-showed-why-you-should-never-turn-a-touchscreen-into-a-button.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-blackberry-storm-showed-why-you-should-never-turn-a-touchscreen-into-a-button.htmlIn 2007, the iPhone ushered in an era of touchscreen gadgets that caused most buttons to vanish from our phones forever. But there was one brief moment in the gray, transitory haze between buttons and touchscreens that an unlikely company tried to fuse the two together. BlackBerry split the difference by boldly asking, “What if a touchscreen was also a hardware button?” Thus was born the BlackBerry Storm, a device whose entire touchscreen doubled as a pressable button./news/the-cuphead-show-review-half-full-of-lukewarm-nostalgia-plays.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-cuphead-show-review-half-full-of-lukewarm-nostalgia-plays.htmlWatching The Cuphead Show, Netflix’s new adaptation of the Studio MDHR run-and-gunner featuring two anthropomorphic cup brothers, it’s hard to say who exactly the series is for. Like the game before it, The Cuphead Show revolves around Cuphead (Tru Valentino) and his brother Mugman (Frank Todaro), two rambunctious talking cups who love each other almost as much as they enjoy beating one another up whenever their kindly guardian, Elder Kettle (Joe Hanna), isn’t watching./news/the-dark-side-of-the-skymall-catalog.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-dark-side-of-the-skymall-catalog.htmlIf you've taken a US flight in the last couple decades, there's a pretty good chance you've encountered the ubiquitous SkyMall catalog. It's like the in-flight version of a train wreck — you know there's almost nothing in the pages that should interest you, but you can't look away. But despite the fact that the company has been reasonably successful over the last decade, with an estimated yearly revenue of $130 million and high rates for placement in its catalog, SkyMall recently merged with a company that Rohin Dhar of The Atlantic called "/news/the-expanse-season-6-makes-me-worry-about-the-future-of-touchscreens.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-expanse-season-6-makes-me-worry-about-the-future-of-touchscreens.htmlAs we hurtle towards The Expanse’s sixth and final episode of its sixth and final season — airing this Friday, January 14th — I can’t stop thinking about one thing: how many of this season’s pivotal moments revolved around pressing the wrong button on a touchscreen. “If it comes across that the touchscreen is the hero of the show, then we will have truly failed,” says showrunner Naren Shankar, telling me he objects to my entire line of questioning./news/the-finney-is-a-dual-screen-blockchain-phone-endorsed-by-lionel-messi.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-finney-is-a-dual-screen-blockchain-phone-endorsed-by-lionel-messi.htmlSirin Labs, the same company that brought Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio to the London premiere of its spurious “world’s most secure phone” two years ago, is unveiling another Android device today with mighty claims and a prestigious endorsement. The new Finney smartphone is a bargain compared to its predecessor, costing $1,000 instead of $16,000, though it still comes with claims of the world’s best security and is competing with HTC’s Exodus for the title of being the first “blockchain phone./news/the-first-borderlands-movie-trailer-has-a-real-guardians-vibe-to-it.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-borderlands-movie-trailer-has-a-real-guardians-vibe-to-it.htmlBased on the game series by the same name, Borderlands tells the story of alien outlaw Lilith (Cate Blanchett), a wanted woman from the planet Pandora who returns to her homeworld in search of a fabled vault rumored to be filled with invaluable treasures. Though Lilith knows her way around Pandora, she also knows that her best bet at finding the vault is to go hunting with a team. Lilith’s got little in common with mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), mad scientist Dr./news/the-first-production-car-with-android-auto-is-a-hyundai.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-production-car-with-android-auto-is-a-hyundai.htmlAnnounced almost exactly one year ago, Android Auto is Google's attempt to bring the smartphone's capabilities to a car while minimizing driver distraction. The system has been available on third-party navigation systems since earlier this year, but starting today, it is available for the first time in a production vehicle, the 2015 Hyundai Sonata. Dealers will be able to update Sonatas equipped with the optional navigation and tech package with Android Auto starting today, while owners will be able to perform the update themselves later this summer./news/the-fitbit-ace-3-is-its-latest-fitness-tracker-for-kids.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-fitbit-ace-3-is-its-latest-fitness-tracker-for-kids.htmlFitbit has introduced the third iteration of its Ace activity and sleep tracker for kids. The Fitbit Ace 3, designed for kids ages six and up, adds new animated clock faces, customizable accessories, and claims eight days of battery life in a “swim-proof” design with new color options, too. In addition to improved battery life, the Ace 3 has a 20 percent brighter screen and includes do not disturb and sleep modes./news/the-hunter-cat-is-a-bodyguard-for-your-credit-card.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-hunter-cat-is-a-bodyguard-for-your-credit-card.htmlSee if this sounds familiar: You are in a weird part of town and get cash from a sketchy ATM. The next day, you pay for gas at a pump-side terminal that doesn’t look quite right. A few days after that, you get a call from your bank saying someone’s using your card in a nightclub across town. It’s not a disaster, but you have to spend some time going through your recent charges, and you also have to wait a few days for the replacement card to come, all while you’re wondering which ATM was the one that skimmed your card number./news/the-internet-fixes-barbie-s-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-picture-book.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-internet-fixes-barbie-s-i-can-be-a-computer-engineer-picture-book.htmlI Can Be a Computer Engineer, you could have been so right. You could have stoked the flames of technologically minded ambition in starry-eyed little girls, helped nurse entire generations of bad-ass hacker dames. Instead, you became a nest of twee images and sexist drivel. If you had shins, I'd kick them. Inspired, perhaps, by Ribon's outraged critique or simply the unvarnished horror of the source material, one Kathleen Tuite put together a website called Feminist Hacker Barbie, which allows the public to rewrite the book./news/the-iphone-14-pro-s-2x-zoom-is-surprisingly-good.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-14-pro-s-2x-zoom-is-surprisingly-good.htmlOne of the iPhone 14 Pro’s big new features is a big new camera sensor. For the first time, an iPhone has a high-resolution main camera sensor — 48 megapixels to be exact — and the best thing about it isn’t that you can take 48-megapixel photos. You can, sure, but RIP your phone’s storage space. Nope, one of this sensor’s best features is the 12 megapixels in the middle. Apple has added a 2x zoom mode to its camera app, and all it does is use the central portion of the main camera sensor to crop in and mimic the effect of a 48mm-equivalent telephoto lens./news/the-m1-chip-saved-the-macbook-but-now-apple-has-to-win-back-the-pros.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-m1-chip-saved-the-macbook-but-now-apple-has-to-win-back-the-pros.htmlIt’s been hard to be an Apple power user for the last half-decade. The glory days of the original Retina MacBook Pro have long since vanished into the sunset, and recent years have seen computers with too many compromises and too few ports.  And while Apple’s first wave of M1-powered computers have been excellent, they’ve all been — relatively — low-powered. The MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac are the cheapest computers Apple makes, meant more for checking email, writing essays, and the occasional light photo editing than they are for cranking out 4K video or Photoshop projects hundreds of layers deep./news/the-oled-ipad-pro-was-only-the-beginning-for-apple-s-return-to-thin-devices.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-oled-ipad-pro-was-only-the-beginning-for-apple-s-return-to-thin-devices.htmlThe thinness of the OLED iPad Pro is only the beginning of a renewed effort by Apple to make increasingly thin computers, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. The company plans a “significantly skinnier” iPhone 17 and is also working on shaving off some of the thickness of the MacBook Pro and the Apple Watch, he writes. It’s not the first time we’ve heard about a new, extremely thin “iPhone 17 Slim,” as The Information and multiple supply chain analysts have reported that this phone is on its way, possibly at a higher price than the existing iPhone 15 Pro Max./news/the-ring-always-home-cam-how-to-get-an-invite.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ring-always-home-cam-how-to-get-an-invite.htmlFirst announced last year, Amazon will begin selling its Ring Always Home Cam starting today, September 28th, alongside the new Ring Alarm Pro, Blink Video Doorbell, and several other products. There are just two caveats: access to the Ring Always Home Cam is invite-only at the moment, and it won’t ship until later this year. The new Ring Always Home Cam is an autonomous, indoor security camera that essentially amounts to a flying drone strapped with a Ring camera on the bottom./news/the-selfie-hat-is-everything-wrong-with-tech-and-right-with-fashion-in-one-wearable.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-selfie-hat-is-everything-wrong-with-tech-and-right-with-fashion-in-one-wearable.htmlIf you thought you had seen if all when it comes to wearable tech, prepare for a very rude awakening. For London Fashion Week, Acer has collaborated with a designer on what it's calling a Selfie Hat: a bright and sparkling pink hat with a tablet hanging off of it (specifically, Acer's Iconia A1-840). There's also a matching, non-wearable tablet case with a hat on top of it too. The case is being sold in limited numbers, but the hat is apparently only going on show at a Fashion Week event from its designer, Christian Cowan-Sanluis./news/the-super-pocket-is-a-cute-retro-handheld-that-comes-in-capcom-and-taito-flavors.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-super-pocket-is-a-cute-retro-handheld-that-comes-in-capcom-and-taito-flavors.htmlThe team behind the Evercade line of retro hardware is back with a cute new handheld. It’s called the Super Pocket, and it is downright tiny — it measures in at 78mm x 125mm x 25mm — and relatively cheap. It’ll cost you £49, $59, or €59 depending on region. At launch, the Super Pocket comes in two varieties. There’s a Capcom version with 12 built-in games (including Street Fighter II’ Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Final Fight, 1942, and Mega Man) and a Taito version with 17 games included (like Space Invaders, Elevator Action, and Bubble Bobble)./news/the-terrifying-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-has-reportedly-surfaced-in-the-us.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-terrifying-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-has-reportedly-surfaced-in-the-us.htmlA krokodil user with necrosis of the hand. When the nasty, highly addictive street drug krokodil appears in a new area, it tends to spread fast. So when doctors at the Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center got two separate reports of suspected krokodil use in the last month — possibly only the second and third cases ever reported in the US — they alerted media, government, and the medical industry./news/the-united-launch-alliance-s-rocket-makers-strike-over-their-latest-contract-offer.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-united-launch-alliance-s-rocket-makers-strike-over-their-latest-contract-offer.htmlThe employees are part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), and they’re responsible for assembling, testing, and helping to launch ULA’s rockets. They voted to go on strike after rejecting ULA’s final offer on a three-year contract that would have gone into effect on May 6th. Negotiations have been ongoing since April 16th. The protesting workers are located at three of ULA’s main manufacturing and integration sites./news/the-verge-archives-climate-change.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-archives-climate-change.htmlHome solar is very cool... and very hard to figure out. Marques Brownlee got a top-of-the-line Tesla system installed in his home to figure out the costs, benefits, and quirks of it all. He found huge fluctuations season to season, which mostly washed out over the course of the year. The end result was a very high-tech and nearly cost-free home electricity system... it’s just going to take a while to pay itself off./news/the-vergecast-discusses-the-google-memo-iphone-leaks-and-froyo-pods.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-vergecast-discusses-the-google-memo-iphone-leaks-and-froyo-pods.htmlThis week on The Vergecast, Nilay, Lauren, Dieter, and Paul begin by discussing the controversy over the Google engineer who was fired over writing a 10-page viral memo about diversity. The story illustrates a deeper problem in Silicon Valley, which Lauren has discussed in her podcast recently, so the cast talks about the science of the claims, the responsibly of Google, and what it means in the larger tech industry. In the second half of the show, the crew runs through the latest leaks, releases, and controversies in the gadget world, including Paul’s segment he does every week, “FROYO PODS./news/the-weekender-on-siri-civilization-and-saving-sarah-connor.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-weekender-on-siri-civilization-and-saving-sarah-connor.htmlGood morning, and welcome back to the Weekender. Our weekend journey is just now starting, so thank you for choosing us for your travels. As you may recall, this was the 43rd week of the year 2014 on the planet known colloquially as Earth, otherwise known as Terra in other inhabited star systems. It was not a quiet week, as you might imagine. Below you'll find your itinerary, carefully crafted for your pleasure; stories from the week passed and recommendations for the days ahead./news/the-mercedes-benz-e-class-is-getting-a-giant-touchscreen-tiktok-and-a-selfie-camera.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-mercedes-benz-e-class-is-getting-a-giant-touchscreen-tiktok-and-a-selfie-camera.htmlMercedes-Benz unveiled the 2024 E-Class’ interior, and while its cabin is not a radical departure in design from existing Benzes, the new E-Class is packed full of interesting and advanced features that will influence the rest of the lineup — like a selfie camera and built-in apps for TikTok and Zoom. One of the major upgrades in the 2024 E-Class is the Superscreen, which combines the large standard central touchscreen with a second display in front of the passenger./news/there-s-a-simple-trick-to-watch-youtube-videos-without-any-ads.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-a-simple-trick-to-watch-youtube-videos-without-any-ads.htmlOver on Reddit (and as highlighted by Android Police and 9to5Google), someone has posted a simple way of watching YouTube videos in a web browser without any ads. In the URL for whatever video you want to view, you just need to add an extra period after the dot com in the YouTube link. This works as described for me when pasting a video URL into an incognito browser window with the added period./news/this-cybertruck-can-haul-two-kids-for-12-miles-on-a-single-charge.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-cybertruck-can-haul-two-kids-for-12-miles-on-a-single-charge.htmlThis Cybertruck can haul two kids for 12 miles on a single charge. Specifically, we’re talking about the $1,500 kids version now on sale following the Cybertruck delivery event yesterday. It has a max speed of 10mph from a 500W motor, with a 5mph limit option. It features adjustable seats to accommodate 6 to 12-year-olds, air-filled rubber tires, and a 22-volt battery. It’s a decent companion to the (previously recalled) Tesla Cyberquad for kids ATV, although don’t expect to store one on top of the Cybertruck version./news/this-website-deletes-itself-if-people-stop-posting.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-website-deletes-itself-if-people-stop-posting.htmlThe internet is littered with zombie websites: forums that most users have long abandoned, novelty pages whose cultural moments have passed. This Website Will Self-Destruct will not have that fate. If nobody posts on the site for 24 hours, it will permanently delete itself, leaving only an error message behind. This Website Will Self-Destruct features a simple web form that lets you submit a letter to the site. The messages are stored anonymously in a database, and visitors can view them at random, getting a tiny window into people’s lives./news/this-website-takes-you-on-a-journey-to-the-unwatched-corners-of-youtube.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-website-takes-you-on-a-journey-to-the-unwatched-corners-of-youtube.htmlThe most-watched YouTube video of all time is Psy’s “Gangam Style.” With more than 2.5 billion views, it’s been seen by more people than you will ever meet; more people than you can even really comprehend. “IMG 0629” on the other hand, only has around 12 views. It features a blonde boy in the woods holding a toy chainsaw. “IMG 0594” (a view of a spiral staircase inside what is presumably a church tower) has only four views./news/thor-explains-why-he-was-absent-during-marvel-s-civil-war.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/thor-explains-why-he-was-absent-during-marvel-s-civil-war.htmlCaptain America: Civil War answered a lot of questions about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, explaining why Steve Rogers and Tony Stark were at each other's throats, shedding more light on the history of Hydra, and drawing philosophical lines between the world's superheroes. But one burning question remained — with his best buddies battling each other back at home, where was Thor? Apparently, he was in Australia, enjoying the comforts of a bathrobe./news/tiktok-kitchens-will-bring-viral-culinary-creations-to-fans.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-kitchens-will-bring-viral-culinary-creations-to-fans.htmlTikTok is partnering with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) to launch TikTok Kitchens, a delivery-only service that will cook up some of the trendiest recipes on the app, first reported by Bloomberg. TikTok and VDC will reportedly open around 300 locations across the US to start, but plan on expanding to around 1,000 by the end of 2022. TikTok Kitchens will operate out of existing restaurants, including chains owned by VDC co-founder Robert Earl, such as Buca di Beppo and Bertucci’s./news/tinder-will-soon-roll-out-global-mode.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tinder-will-soon-roll-out-global-mode.htmlTinder no longer sees physical closeness as a necessity for dating. The company announced today that it’ll soon be testing Global Mode, a new option for daters to opt in to that’ll allow their profiles to show up around the world, regardless of where they live. They’ll also be able to view and match with people who live in other countries. The feature sounds similar to, but is different from, Tinder’s paid option called Passport, which lets people select a location and swipe in that place./news/today-i-learned-your-apple-watch-can-double-as-a-vlogging-viewfinder.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/today-i-learned-your-apple-watch-can-double-as-a-vlogging-viewfinder.htmlDoing this is simple: On your watch, go to the Camera Remote app. This will open the camera app on your iPhone, and you can switch it to video mode, set it up, and record. You don’t even have to strap your watch to your phone like he does in the tweet; the remote camera will totally work while your watch is on your wrist. I’ve shot videos on my phone before, and it was often an exercise in frustration trying to get the framing right./news/tumblr-is-adding-a-feature-to-disable-reblogs-of-posts.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tumblr-is-adding-a-feature-to-disable-reblogs-of-posts.htmlTumblr users who don’t want a specific post to be reblogged by others will now have the option to turn off the reblog setting. In a blog post, Tumblr says it will start rolling out reblog controls today on web and iOS, with Android to come soon. When composing a post, users can choose between two reblog options. One option allows anyone on the platform to reblog the post to their own blog./news/unity-announces-its-revamped-pricing-model.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/unity-announces-its-revamped-pricing-model.htmlThe new plan is a drastic departure from what was initially announced. Now, users on the Unity Personal subscription plan will not be charged the new fee, and Unity will increase the revenue cap on games made with that plan to $200,000. Furthermore, any game made with Unity that makes less than $1 million in 12 months will not be subject to the fee. The company is also changing what games can be assessed with the new fee./news/valve-is-turning-steam-link-streaming-into-a-personal-cloud-service.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/valve-is-turning-steam-link-streaming-into-a-personal-cloud-service.htmlValve has announced that it’s expanding its Steam Link game-streaming feature in a big way with Steam Link Anywhere, a new service that will allow you to stream your Steam games from your computer to anywhere in the world through Steam Link hardware or the Steam Link app. It’s a big change from the current Steam Link app, which used to only let users stream games within their own homes. This new expansion makes Steam Link a far more powerful feature — combined with the Android app (sadly, the iOS app is still being blocked by Apple), Steam Link Anywhere in theory will let users stream games from their PC to play anywhere they have internet service./news/valve-says-it-has-sold-multiple-millions-of-steam-decks.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/valve-says-it-has-sold-multiple-millions-of-steam-decks.htmlValve has sold “multiple millions” of its Steam Deck handheld gaming PCs, Valve designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais tell The Verge. Given that it just announced a new revision with an OLED screen, the company is probably set to sell a lot more. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn5whY5ranJtZGd9dnvVmqOvnV2owaatzGabnpubYrq2uNOip6WdXaK2rbjIqKWs/news/verizon-launching-the-htc-droid-incredible-4g-lte-on-july-5th-for-149-99-after-rebate.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/verizon-launching-the-htc-droid-incredible-4g-lte-on-july-5th-for-149-99-after-rebate.htmlIt's been months since Verizon and HTC first showed off the Droid Incredible 4G LTE, the slightly less exciting take on HTC's One series — but we now finally know when it'll be available. Verizon just announced that the Droid Incredible 4G LTE will be available as of July 5th for $149.99, after a $50 mail-in rebate and a new two-year contract. Those with long memories will recall that this phone wasfirst announced way back at CTIA in May, but with no pricing or release date./news/vivo-sub-brand-launches-iqoo-9-pro-flagship-for-870.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vivo-sub-brand-launches-iqoo-9-pro-flagship-for-870.htmliQOO, Vivo’s gaming-focused sub-brand, has announced its latest flagship phones for launch in India, the iQOO 9 and 9 Pro. Like previous iQOO devices, they don’t really look like conspicuously gamer-style phones but are focused on performance nonetheless. iQOO is pushing that in its marketing through a tie-in partnership with BMW M Motorsport and a white model with three rally stripes. The iQOO 9 Pro has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, up to 12GB of RAM, and a 4,700mAh battery./news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-gifted-fox-s-new-x-men-series.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-gifted-fox-s-new-x-men-series.htmlFox has released the first full-length trailer for The Gifted, its upcoming TV show set in the X-Men universe. The show follows the Strucker family, as daughter Lauren and son Andy explore their new mutant powers, run from sinister government agents (and baby Sentinel spiders?), and yell their way through some family conflict. (The trailer shows, Dad, aka Reed Strucker, hanging around humans trapped in human-sized Juicero bags, which maybe suggests he’s not one of the good guys./news/watch-this-satoru-iwata-unboxes-the-nintendo-wii-u.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-this-satoru-iwata-unboxes-the-nintendo-wii-u.htmlUnboxing videos are a dime a dozen these days, but here's one with a special twist: the upcoming Wii U home console has been unpackaged by none other than Nintendo president Satoru Iwata himself. Donning a pair of white gloves, Iwata delves inside the 4.25kg Premium Pack, revealing the slick black console, its matching GamePad, and a rather chunky grey power brick connecting to the AC adapter. There are also stands for both console and GamePad, plus assorted other accessories, all of which get Iwata's loving patriarchal attention as he details them individually./news/welcome-to-hell-elon-the-verge.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/welcome-to-hell-elon-the-verge.htmlYou fucked up real good, kiddo. Twitter is a disaster clown car company that is successful despite itself, and there is no possible way to grow users and revenue without making a series of enormous compromises that will ultimately destroy your reputation and possibly cause grievous damage to your other companies. I say this with utter confidence because the problems with Twitter are not engineering problems. They are political problems. Twitter, the company, makes very little interesting technology; the tech stack is not the valuable asset./news/what-to-read-and-play-after-watching-the-witcher-on-netflix.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-to-read-and-play-after-watching-the-witcher-on-netflix.htmlSo you’ve just finished watching Geralt grimace his way through eight episodes of Netflix’s new fantasy epic The Witcher. There’s a good chance you want more. Maybe it was the deep world-building that enticed you or all of the monster-hunting. Maybe it was Henry Cavill’s piercing yellow eyes. Either way, you’re in luck: you don’t have to wait for the second season to get more of Geralt. The Witcher is based on a series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which also spawned a series of video games from CD Projekt Red so there is already a lot of The Witcher in the world to dive into./news/where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-review-a-surreal-exploration-of-storytelling.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-review-a-surreal-exploration-of-storytelling.htmlTrekking across the flat, largely empty plains of Midwestern America is exhausting. There isn’t much to see, and while the occasional car passes me by, no one seems willing to pick me up — which may have something to with the fact that I’m a giant skeleton with a rucksack over my shoulder. But I press on, the twang of some uplifting folk tunes in my ears, and eventually stumble across a seemingly abandoned farmhouse./news/windows-10-october-2020-update-is-now-available-with-an-updated-start-menu-and-more.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/windows-10-october-2020-update-is-now-available-with-an-updated-start-menu-and-more.htmlMicrosoft is releasing its Windows 10 October 2020 Update to over a billion users today. Much like last year, this second Windows 10 update of 2020 is more of a Service Pack than a major release. Microsoft has, however, made some interesting tweaks, including a refreshed Start menu, some Alt Tab changes, and the bundling of the new Chromium-powered Microsoft Edge. The biggest visual change is, of course, the updated Start menu./news/xiaomi-announces-the-mi-mix-fold-its-first-folding-phone.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xiaomi-announces-the-mi-mix-fold-its-first-folding-phone.htmlXiaomi has resurrected its Mi Mix series with the Mi Mix Fold, the company’s first commercial folding phone. Unlike previous outlandish Mix devices and concepts from the company, the Mi Mix Fold is a pretty conventional folding phone that uses a big-screen-on-the-inside / small-screen-on-the-outside design similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series and Huawei’s new Mate X2. The inner screen is an 8.01-inch 4:3 OLED panel with 2480 x 1860 resolution, a standard display brightness of 600 nits (900 peak), and support for Dolby Vision HDR./news/yahoo-resurrects-artifact-inside-a-new-ai-powered-news-app.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yahoo-resurrects-artifact-inside-a-new-ai-powered-news-app.htmlArtifact is dead, long live Yahoo’s version of Artifact. The architecture behind Artifact, the news aggregation app built by Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, will live on inside the body of a brand-new Yahoo News app. Available to download today on iOS and Android, the new Yahoo News app brings an AI-powered personalized news feed for users based on their interests, while a feature called Key Takeaways can give a bullet summary of a news article when a reader is feeling TL;DR./news/you-can-upgrade-the-ipad-pro-s-processor-now-too.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-upgrade-the-ipad-pro-s-processor-now-too.htmlThe newly announced iPad Pro hides a sneaky upgrade option that Apple didn’t mention during its event today. When you cough up the $600 it costs to jump from the 256GB base model iPad Pro to the 1TB version, Apple doesn’t just double the RAM along with that — it also puts a faster chip inside, going from a nine-core M4 chip to a 10-core version. This is the first time Apple has offered a processor upgrade on a specific tablet model — in the past, no matter what other options you picked on a given tablet, you knew you were getting the same chip as any other configuration./news/youtube-s-nfl-sunday-ticket-streams-are-failing-today.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-s-nfl-sunday-ticket-streams-are-failing-today.htmlYouTube’s NFL Sunday Ticket streams have been plagued with buffering and pixelation, making afternoon games today unwatchable, according to many, many posts. The @TeamYouTube account acknowledged the issue at 1:53PM ET. The team wrote that they're aware YouTube is having issues and they are working to fix them, but acknowledged that “YouTube TV or NFL Sunday Ticket may also be impacted.” Even Football players themselves weren’t spared. DaQuan Jones, a Buffalo Bills player who’s been out with an injury, isn’t having a good time either:/news/zero-wing-the-all-your-base-are-belong-to-us-game-is-now-available-on-nintendo-switch.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zero-wing-the-all-your-base-are-belong-to-us-game-is-now-available-on-nintendo-switch.htmlYou can now play one of the internet’s most famous memes right on your Nintendo Switch. Zero Wing, which features the classic line “all your base are belong to us” during its introductory cutscene, is now available to play on the Sega Genesis app that’s accessible with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription. Nintendo seems to be well aware of the meme. In a video announcing the arrival of Zero Wing and three other games to the service, Nintendo leads with the space shooter and features many memorable quotes from its bad translation, including, of course, the “all your base” line./news/zoom-announces-a-599-touchscreen-device-for-remote-workers.htmlSun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/zoom-announces-a-599-touchscreen-device-for-remote-workers.htmlZoom, whose user base exploded with the onset of COVID-19, is expanding into hardware. The company has announced a new touchscreen device designed to help with remote work. The appliance, called Zoom For Home — DTEN ME, will cost $599 and will ship in August. The DTEN ME is a 27-inch touchscreen device with three smart webcams and eight noise-reducing microphones built in, and it comes preloaded with the Zoom software./news/akira-creator-katsuhiro-otomo-exhibits-his-life-s-work.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/akira-creator-katsuhiro-otomo-exhibits-his-life-s-work.htmlThe man behind the seminal work in Japanimation is back with a 3,000-piece exhibition of original artwork, a new short film, and plans for a new manga series. In Japan, manga and anime are seemingly everywhere and all-encompassing — something grown men and women indulge in without a second thought. At 3331 Arts Chiyoda, a former junior high school turned art gallery near Akihabara Station, the man who defined these artforms for a generation of readers and viewers is front and center./news/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-8-boldly-goes-from-twitter-parody-to-book.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/star-trek-the-next-generation-season-8-boldly-goes-from-twitter-parody-to-book.htmlStar Trek: The Next Generation ended its run on TV in 1994 after seven acclaimed seasons, but what if it hadn't? Parody Twitter account "TNG Season 8 (@TNG_S8)" has been imagining new, ever-sillier storylines for the never-made eighth season since October 2011. Now, it's being turned into an illustrated guidebook all unto its own, with the official licensing from the franchise. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Warped, An Engaging Guide to the Never-Aired 8th Season, is written by Mike McMahan, who runs the Twitter account, with illustrations from Joel Watson (creator of webcomic HiJINKS ENSUE) and Jason Ho (illustrator of comics for The Simpsons and Futurama)./news/the-oatmeal-launches-campaign-to-build-a-nikola-tesla-museum.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-oatmeal-launches-campaign-to-build-a-nikola-tesla-museum.htmlNikola Tesla is widely regarded as one of the most important inventors the world has ever seen, but as of right now, there's no US museum dedicated to his life's work. Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, is hoping to change that. This week, Inman launched a campaign to purchase Tesla's old laboratory and convert it into a museum in his honor. The lab, known as Wardenclyffe Tower, was built in 1901 on a piece of land in Shoreham, New York./news/transcendence-review-welcome-back-to-the-90s.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/transcendence-review-welcome-back-to-the-90s.htmlCinematographer Wally Pfister first teamed up with Christopher Nolan on Memento, and he’s been a vital part of the director’s team ever since. On films like The Dark Knight and Inception, Pfister’s Oscar-winning visual sensibilities allowed Nolan to crystallize his brand of thinking-person’s blockbuster. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that when it came time for Pfister to step away and direct a film himself, he opted for a big-budget thriller straight from the Nolan playbook./news/11-useful-android-9-pie-features-you-shouldn-t-overlook.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/11-useful-android-9-pie-features-you-shouldn-t-overlook.htmlGoogle has officially released Android 9 Pie, the latest big update of the company’s mobile operating system. It’s got a new look, gesture navigation, more AI smarts, and, if you sign up for the beta, Digital Wellbeing tools to help you gain a better understanding of your smartphone usage. There’s other legitimately helpful stuff in there, too, like adaptive battery, which learns your usage patterns and restricts the amount of juice that rarely opened apps can use up./news/26-mother-s-day-gifts-you-can-still-get-at-the-last-minute.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/26-mother-s-day-gifts-you-can-still-get-at-the-last-minute.htmlThe clock is ticking if you’ve yet to buy your mom a gift. While it might be too late to pick up some items before Mother’s Day arrives on Sunday, not all hope is lost. As it turns out, there are still a number of great gifts — including the latest Kindle and Beats Fit Pro — that will arrive on time, many of which are also discounted in the run-up to the holiday./news/a-new-alan-wake-game-just-launched-in-fortnite.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-new-alan-wake-game-just-launched-in-fortnite.htmlThere’s another Alan Wake game in the works — but this one was built inside of Fortnite. Today, Epic Games announced the launch of Alan Wake: Flashback, a Fortnite experience that “reimagines Remedy Entertainment’s iconic story.” It’s available for free inside the game right now using the island code 3426-5561-3374. Here’s the official description for the new game, which takes roughly 25 minutes to play through and is designed to catch players up on the story:/news/amazon-made-an-ai-bot-to-talk-you-through-buying-more-stuff-on-amazon.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-made-an-ai-bot-to-talk-you-through-buying-more-stuff-on-amazon.htmlAmazon has taken the wraps off of an AI shopping assistant, and it’s called Rufus — the same name as the company’s corgi mascot. The new chatbot is trained on Amazon’s product library and customer reviews, as well as information from the web, allowing it to answer questions about products, make comparisons, provide suggestions, and more. Rufus is still in beta and will only appear for “select customers” before rolling out to more users in the coming weeks./news/amazon-will-put-1-600-echo-dots-in-arizona-state-university-s-engineering-student-dorms.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-will-put-1-600-echo-dots-in-arizona-state-university-s-engineering-student-dorms.htmlThis year, students at Arizona State University will have the opportunity to live in college housing with Echo Dots in a program that encourages engineering students to practice voice user interface development skills on consumer hardware. ASU has built a new work / live space for first-year engineering students called the Tooker House, and those moving into its residence hall will be able to opt in to the program and receive an Echo Dot for their dorm room./news/amazon-s-alexa-companion-app-is-getting-a-much-needed-redesign.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-alexa-companion-app-is-getting-a-much-needed-redesign.htmlThe Alexa app, which acts as a piece of setup and companion software for Amazon’s Echo devices, just got a major visual redesign. The new app has a much improved user interface with easier control over Alexa-enabled smart home devices. The biggest improvements can be seen in the devices tab, which now allows you to control individual smart lights and power outlets from a single screen at the same time as seeing them grouped by room./news/amazon-s-latest-echo-buds-have-an-all-new-design-and-much-cheaper-price.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-latest-echo-buds-have-an-all-new-design-and-much-cheaper-price.htmlOkay, Amazon. You got me. This is not at all what I expected the next pair of Echo Buds to look like. Two years after releasing its second-gen set of noise-canceling earbuds, Amazon has returned with a different approach. The new Echo Buds ditch noise cancellation and ear tips altogether in favor of a semi-open design not unlike the regular AirPods or 1More ComfoBuds. The overhauled design has led to a far more affordable $49./news/an-external-1080-ti-can-quadruple-a-macbook-pro-s-graphics-power.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/an-external-1080-ti-can-quadruple-a-macbook-pro-s-graphics-power.htmlRight now the external GPU market is a bit of a mess, full of hacks, incompatibilities, half-adhered-to standards, and artificial limitations from the likes of Apple. The folks over at eGPU.io are putting in some solid work to make sense of it all (as spotted by AppleInsider), and they've just had a surprisingly great result with the latest Nvidia drivers, a GTX 1080 Ti, and a 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro./news/another-twitch-co-founder-is-leaving-the-company-leaving-only-one.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/another-twitch-co-founder-is-leaving-the-company-leaving-only-one.htmlKevin Lin, a Twitch co-founder, is leaving the company, he announced in a Medium post on Thursday. With Lin’s departure, the only remaining co-founder at Twitch is its CEO, Emmett Shear — co-founders Justin Kan, Kyle Vogt, and Michael Seibel are no longer with the company. Lin also served as Twitch’s chief operating officer from from April 2008 to January 2018, according to his LinkedIn. Lin wasn’t specific about what he plans to do next./news/apple-brought-back-magsafe-on-the-new-macbook-pro.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-brought-back-magsafe-on-the-new-macbook-pro.htmlApple MacBook Pro ports with MagSafe 3 Image: Apple Other than their M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, the new 14-inch and 16-inch computers ditch the much-hated Touch Bar in favor of physical keys and bring back the additional ports (HDMI, SDXC) power users love. A less familiar addition is the new notch atop those Mini LED-packed 120Hz displays. But for the clumsy people with cable-strewn desks, the return of MagSafe — what we’ve seen on iPhones just isn’t the same — might be the most important feature./news/apple-is-still-working-on-foldable-iphones-and-ipads.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-is-still-working-on-foldable-iphones-and-ipads.htmlWe are unlikely to see a folding iPhone anytime soon, if at all, as The Information reports the device isn’t in the company’s mass production plans for 2024 or 2025. Even though the company reportedly wants to create a foldable iPhone with displays on the outside of the device, The Information says engineers “struggled” with the design because it can break easily. Apple’s vision for a folding iPhone may look similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 5./news/apple-macos-11-big-sur-review-a-long-time-coming.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-macos-11-big-sur-review-a-long-time-coming.htmlLast week might’ve been the most important week of this year for consumer laptops. Apple announced its new M1 chip, which, if the company’s claims about performance gains are to be believed, could redefine our expectations for laptop processors. But there’s another release this week that will usher in a big change for Mac users: macOS Big Sur.  Like the M1 chip, Big Sur is a step in Apple’s efforts to cohere its user experience across devices./news/apple-reportedly-building-huge-three-story-structure-at-site-of-september-9th-event.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-reportedly-building-huge-three-story-structure-at-site-of-september-9th-event.htmlApple has a lot to showcase on September 9th, and apparently it's not sparing any expense for the big occasion. MacRumors reports that Apple has quietly been building a massive, three-story structure at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts, the venue that's hosting Apple's event. The area, which is on De Anza College's Cupertino campus, has been barricaded off and is said to be surrounded by security. Unsurprisingly, college officials aren't offering any hint as to what's behind those white walls, saying only, "/news/apple-secures-design-patent-for-the-apple-watch.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-secures-design-patent-for-the-apple-watch.htmlThe patent was originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in August last year (the month before the Apple Watch was announced), but was only granted yesterday. As well as the line drawings, the patent also includes a large body of references regarding rivals' smartwatches. Samsung's Galaxy Gear, the Metawatch, and the Pebble are among those cited, as well as more luxury items like the $15,000 Hermes Carre H Watch — which sports a rounded-square look similar to that of the Apple Watch./news/apple-will-release-ipados-16-on-october-24th.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-will-release-ipados-16-on-october-24th.htmlBased on our experiences with preview versions, one big reason for the delay is the addition of Stage Manager, a new addition for iPadOS 16 that’s supposed to bring laptop-level multitasking. It should be able to take better advantage of the M1 (and now, in new iPad Pro tablets M2) chips where available, however, after initially announcing it only for the newer tablets, Apple now says the feature will work on older iPads too, albeit without the support for external displays that will be added to the feature with another update due later this year./news/apple-s-homepod-smart-speaker-is-199-for-the-first-time-ever.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-homepod-smart-speaker-is-199-for-the-first-time-ever.htmlApple’s HomePod is $199.99 at Target. This Siri-equipped smart speaker is usually $299, and this sale marks the lowest price that we’ve seen yet. You can get the white-colored speaker right now, though the charcoal color option is temporarily out of stock. If you want the darker shade of HomePod, you can sign up to be notified when it’s available. The HomePod will gain a few new abilities once iOS 13 launches later this year./news/apple-s-tiny-charger-for-the-new-macbook-air-has-an-extra-usb-c-port.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-tiny-charger-for-the-new-macbook-air-has-an-extra-usb-c-port.htmlAlongside a redesigned MacBook Air powered by the company’s new M2 processor, Apple also introduced a charger for the laptop with an unexpected perk: a spare USB-C port. The charger has two USB-C ports, giving you the freedom to charge another device alongside the laptop. An unannounced dual-port 35-watt charger from the company was leaked back in April, so it’s likely that’s exactly the product we’re seeing today. The M2 MacBook Air starts at $1,199./news/apple-s-vision-pro-team-is-reportedly-focused-on-building-a-cheaper-headset.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-vision-pro-team-is-reportedly-focused-on-building-a-cheaper-headset.htmlApple may no longer be working on a new high-end Vision headset amid slowing sales of the Vision Pro, according to a new report from The Information. Instead, Apple has apparently been finding ways to reduce the cost of components for the first model and is working on a cheaper Vision headset that it aims to ship by the end of 2025. The first Vision Pro came out earlier this year, and while it’s a very good VR headset, it has a lot of flaws inherent to many other VR headsets./news/asus-rog-strix-scar-x3d-review-amd-s-new-chip-is-a-game-changer.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-rog-strix-scar-x3d-review-amd-s-new-chip-is-a-game-changer.htmlAMD, just a few weeks ago, announced the new Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, a chip with 16 cores, 32 threads, boost clock up to 5.4GHz, 55W-plus TDP, and a whopping 144MB of total cache. The company claimed it would be the “world’s fastest mobile gaming processor.” This processor, AMD insisted, would deliver an unparalleled gaming experience. Well, I’ve now got the processor in hand. It’s located in Asus’ ROG Strix Scar X3D, a gigantic 17-inch laptop bedecked with RGB./news/asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-review-amd-and-nvidia-at-their-best.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-review-amd-and-nvidia-at-their-best.htmlWhen I tested Asus ROG’s Zephyrus G14 a year ago, I was blown away. Not only was it just over 3.5 pounds — a weight unheard of for a system with both a powerful processor and a discrete GPU — but it ran even the most demanding games at much better frame rates than any gaming laptop we’d ever seen at that size. And then everything else about it — the keyboard, the touchpad, the audio, the battery life — was also great./news/at-t-s-new-5-gig-and-2-gig-fiber-internet-is-here-starting-at-110-a-month.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-s-new-5-gig-and-2-gig-fiber-internet-is-here-starting-at-110-a-month.htmlIf you don’t know what multi-gig is, it means a single connection that offers speeds higher than 1Gbps. And because it’s a fiber-optic connection, this speed goes both ways. “It’s symmetrical; your upload and download speeds are the same.” Chris Sambar, AT&T’s executive vice president of technology operations said in an interview with The Verge. AT&T’s new multi-gig speeds need Wi-Fi 6 technology for “optimal” performance, which means you’ll probably want to upgrade your router./news/autocad-maker-autodesk-is-investigating-its-own-accounting-practices.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/autocad-maker-autodesk-is-investigating-its-own-accounting-practices.htmlAutoCAD maker Autodesk is investigating its own accounting practices. The San Francisco-based software maker received information that has prompted “an internal investigation with the assistance of outside counsel and advisors,” Autodesk said in a filing late Monday. The probe involves accounting practices around free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin practices, the company said, while noting it doesn’t believe the review will affect previously issued financial statements. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaXxze5FtaGpxYGiBcK3UraacmZRiuqK3xKtkmq2kpLGmv8pmoKxlmaPDpr%2FTop6arJmjtG6106xkqK%2BeYq6kr86upa2hnpx6sb7AnKuim5Wo/news/billion-dollar-heist-doc-breaks-down-the-bangladesh-bank-heist-in-its-first-trailer.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/billion-dollar-heist-doc-breaks-down-the-bangladesh-bank-heist-in-its-first-trailer.htmlBillion Dollar Heist recounts how hackers were able to use the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication banking system — the messaging network banks across the world use to execute transfers between one another — to illegally move $101 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to an account at the Bangladesh Bank. Through a variety of interviews with different cybersecurity specialists and author Misha Glenny, Billion Dollar Heist frames the Bangladesh Bank robbery as just one data point in a bigger picture illustrating how sophisticated and prevalent cybercrime has become in recent years./news/bird-may-be-bankrupt-but-shared-micromobility-is-doing-just-fine.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bird-may-be-bankrupt-but-shared-micromobility-is-doing-just-fine.htmlOn the surface, electric scooter pioneer Bird filing for bankruptcy would seem to be a nail in the coffin for shared micromobility — that nebulous term often used to describe rentable electric bikes and scooters in cities. After a number of mergers and some bad financial management, the OG scooter company is going belly up. That can’t bode well for the future of scooters in general, right? But actually, shared electric mobility is doing just fine./news/building-the-star-trek-computer-how-google-s-knowledge-graph-is-changing-search.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/building-the-star-trek-computer-how-google-s-knowledge-graph-is-changing-search.html"When Kirk asks the computer some complex question and it answers him intelligently, drawing from a bunch of different sources, that's the vision," Google spokesperson Jason Freidenfelds told me last week. He then introduced me to John Giannandrea, Director of Engineering at Google, and the man tasked with making the Star Trek computer come to life. Giannandrea and his team recently launched Knowledge Graph, a informational meta-sidebar you may've noticed in Google Search./news/call-of-duty-will-use-ai-to-moderate-voice-chats.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/call-of-duty-will-use-ai-to-moderate-voice-chats.htmlFirst-person shooters like Call of Duty are somewhat infamous for the toxicity of their lobbies and voice chats. Surveys have dubbed the franchise’s fan base the most negative in all of gaming; a feud between two players once resulted in the summoning of a SWAT team. Activision has been trying to crack down on this behavior for years, and part of the solution might involve artificial intelligence. Activision has partnered with a company called Modulate to bring “in-game voice chat moderation” to their titles./news/cameo-now-lets-people-pay-up-to-15k-to-have-a-zoom-call-with-a-celebrity.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cameo-now-lets-people-pay-up-to-15k-to-have-a-zoom-call-with-a-celebrity.htmlCameo has a new way for fans to interact with celebrities: Zoom calls. The company launched a video call option over the weekend, called Cameo Live, where people can, instead of a prerecorded shout-out, book a 10-minute Zoom call with their favorite talent. The prices are wildly more expensive than the usual Cameo videos, with stars like Jeremy Piven charging $15,000 for 10 minutes. (He charges $400 for a video shoutout./news/china-s-central-bank-bans-cryptocurrency-transactions-to-avoid-risks.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/china-s-central-bank-bans-cryptocurrency-transactions-to-avoid-risks.htmlThe People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said Friday that cryptocurrency transactions are illegal, saying such currencies “do not have legal tender status” and therefore “cannot be circulated as currency in the market.” In a statement, the bank said that bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions have disrupted economic and financial order, contributing to a rise in “money laundering, illegal fund-raising, fraud, pyramid schemes, and other illegal and criminal activities./news/cnn-considers-whether-a-black-hole-swallowed-the-missing-malaysian-plane.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/cnn-considers-whether-a-black-hole-swallowed-the-missing-malaysian-plane.htmlBut with the search largely at a standstill over the past few days, there isn't necessarily much more reasonable ground to cover. That may be why CNN chose to turn to more unreasonable ground yesterday, when it began posing theories that it received from Twitter to former US Transportation Department inspector general Mary Schiavo. "What if it was something fully that we don't really understand?" anchor Don Lemon asked, throwing out black holes, the Bermuda Triangle, The Twilight Zone, and "/news/corning-s-new-gorilla-glass-6-will-let-your-phone-survive-15-drops.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/corning-s-new-gorilla-glass-6-will-let-your-phone-survive-15-drops.htmlCorning just announced the release of Gorilla Glass 6, emphasizing that it’s more durable than previous models. The company says that the glass will survive up to 15 drops from a one meter height and can be “up to two times better” than Gorilla Glass 5. “Corning Gorilla Glass 6 improves upon Gorilla Glass 5 by surviving drops from higher heights, but, more importantly, has been engineered to survive multiple drops,” said Corning Gorilla Glass vice president and general manager John Bayne in a statement./news/crimes-of-the-future-review-extreme-surgery-and-classic-film-noir.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/crimes-of-the-future-review-extreme-surgery-and-classic-film-noir.htmlArt is painful and unpredictable in Crimes of the Future, David Cronenberg’s latest film. As a work of art itself, though, Crimes of the Future has a remarkable amount of polish. The movie brings Cronenberg back to science fiction for the first time in two decades, and it melds his signature squishy body horror with a luxuriant retro-futuristic aesthetic and a murky but carefully traced story about artists at the end of the world — or the birth of a new one./news/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-sword-of-destiny-shrinks-the-original-in-more-ways-than-one.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon-sword-of-destiny-shrinks-the-original-in-more-ways-than-one.htmlThere's no doubt that the newly released Netflix original movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword Of Destiny would be received entirely differently if it had been released under a different title. It's a reasonably brisk and enjoyable martial-arts movie full of familiar, famous names. It was directed by a legendary martial-arts choreographer. Its New Zealand location shooting provides some pretty scenery, and the deeply saturated colors are pleasantly intense. It's a solid enough experience for a casual Netflix viewing, for a "/news/crypto-firm-gemini-to-pay-over-1-billion-back-to-customers-in-settlement.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/crypto-firm-gemini-to-pay-over-1-billion-back-to-customers-in-settlement.htmlThe cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has promised to return $1.1 billion to customers as part of a settlement it reached with New York’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Gemini will also have to pay $37 million to the NYDFS “for significant failures that threatened the safety and soundness of the company.” The NYDFS claims Gemini, which is owned by twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, had “compliance, management, and internal audit issues” when it came to managing its Earn program./news/e-sports-leagues-are-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-the-nfl-and-nba.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/e-sports-leagues-are-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-the-nfl-and-nba.htmlOn the afternoon of January 20th, the Houston Rockets played host to the Golden State Warriors at the Toyota Center in a marquee match for the NBA. It was a preview of the epic seven-game playoff clash between the two teams later in May: the all-star duo of Steph Curry and Kevin Durant led the Warriors as per usual, while James Harden, who would go on to win the league’s MVP award, had just returned from a hamstring injury in time to help his club battle the NBA’s defending champions./news/enter-the-gungeon-heads-to-actual-arcades-with-house-of-the-gundead-cabinet.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/enter-the-gungeon-heads-to-actual-arcades-with-house-of-the-gundead-cabinet.htmlYou might finally be able to play Devolver Digital’s Enter the Gungeon arcade cabinet at your local arcade sometime soon. House of the Gundead, a light gun arcade game set in the Enter the Gungeon that was first announced in 2019, is set to hit a handful of arcades in “the coming weeks,” Devolver announced on Wednesday. Based on Devolver’s description, it seems like House of the Gundead will mix Enter the Gungeon’s roguelike action with arcade light gun shooting./news/epic-juror-confirms-google-s-deleted-chats-were-a-factor-in-the-verdict.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/epic-juror-confirms-google-s-deleted-chats-were-a-factor-in-the-verdict.htmlEpic juror confirms Google’s deleted chats were a factor in the verdict. Xu Yuan, a friendly courtroom reporter for MLex that I sat with regularly during the trial, managed to obtain an interview with one of the Epic v. Google jurors — who confirmed that Google’s deleted chats affected their decision. That same juror found Tim Sweeney “very honest” and more credible than Google’s CEO. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn9wfZFoaWxxaW6AdH%2BOnqeim12fwrO70WaaqKaWnr%2Buv4ygpqifnJrAbrDEpZytnZRisKmt06xksJ2imnqiecWamq2nomK2r3nToZxmrpWnsaqv0w%3D%3D/news/equifax-agrees-to-settlement-of-up-to-700-million-over-2017-data-breach.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/equifax-agrees-to-settlement-of-up-to-700-million-over-2017-data-breach.htmlEquifax has agreed to a settlement over its 2017 data breach that saw as many as 147 million people’s personal information, including names, birth dates, addresses, and social security numbers, exposed by the company. As part of the settlement, the company will pay at least $575 million, but this could rise to as much as $700 million depending on the amount of compensation people claim. The company has agreed to provide free credit monitoring services to anyone affected for up to 10 years, as well as cash payments of up to $20,000 per person to refund any costs incurred as a result of the breach./news/exclusive-cbs-forced-cnet-staff-to-recast-vote-after-hopper-won-best-in-show-at-ces.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/exclusive-cbs-forced-cnet-staff-to-recast-vote-after-hopper-won-best-in-show-at-ces.htmlOn Friday, news broke that CNET had been forced by its parent company CBS to remove the Dish Network's Hopper set-top box from its "Best of CES" awards due to ongoing litigation between the two companies. CBS has been battling the Dish Network in court over the Hopper's ability to skip past commercials automatically (NBC, ABC, and Fox are also taking action). CBS Interactive representatives told The Verge that the Hopper with Sling had been "/news/facebook-is-locking-out-people-who-didn-t-activate-facebook-protect.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-is-locking-out-people-who-didn-t-activate-facebook-protect.htmlEarly in March, a bunch of Facebook users got a mysterious, spam-like email titled “Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect” and telling them that they were required to turn on the Facebook Protect feature (which they could do by hitting a link in the email) by a certain date, or they would be locked out of their account. The program, according to Facebook, is a “security program for groups of people that are more likely to be targeted by malicious hackers, such as human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials./news/facebook-is-temporarily-disabling-some-messenger-and-instagram-features-in-europe.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-is-temporarily-disabling-some-messenger-and-instagram-features-in-europe.htmlFacebook is notifying Messenger and Instagram users in Europe that some features are temporarily unavailable. A small message has appeared in both the Facebook Messenger and Instagram apps for European users this week, noting that some features aren’t available to “respect new rules for messaging services in Europe.” Facebook doesn’t outline exactly what features will be missing, but the company does reveal on its support pages that polls on both Messenger and Instagram are currently unavailable in Europe, alongside a lack of stickers in Instagram and no personalized replies on Messenger./news/facebook-messenger-can-now-translate-between-spanish-and-english.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-messenger-can-now-translate-between-spanish-and-english.htmlM Translations join the existing M Suggestions features that are already built into Messenger for things like quick replies, polls, and sharing your location. The translation feature, which should be available now for users in the US and Mexico, will recognize when a user gets a message in a language that isn’t set as their default. Then, Messenger’s M bot will pop up and offer to immediately translate it. The feature had previously been available for users in Marketplace transactions, but it’s rolling out now to all standard Messenger conversations, too./news/fails-of-2022-peloton-s-year-of-layoffs-gaffes-and-ship-metaphors.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fails-of-2022-peloton-s-year-of-layoffs-gaffes-and-ship-metaphors.htmlThe year 2021 wasn’t great for Peloton. Its stock tanked. Its premium treadmill killed a small child, injured several others, and wound up being recalled. Its new, affordable treadmill also ended up being recalled before it ever officially launched. By December, Peloton was the butt of everyone’s jokes after Mr. Big, a major Sex and the City character, died on his Peloton Bike in the first episode of HBO’s sequel And Just Like That./news/fitbit-sense-review-enough-bugs-to-raise-your-heart-rate.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fitbit-sense-review-enough-bugs-to-raise-your-heart-rate.htmlWhen Fitbit announced the $329.95 Sense last month, it was being hyped as the company’s most-thorough health tracking device yet. With new features in the form of stress management (with electrodermal activity monitoring), skin temperature, oxygen saturation while you sleep, and an upcoming Food and Drug Administration-approved ECG-app, it seemed poised to give us the most holistic look at our health of any consumer-facing wearable yet.  Unfortunately, after testing the Sense for the past week, the impression I’ve gathered is that Fitbit tried to do too much in too little time, which results in a smartwatch that feels slightly unfinished./news/ford-dealership-steals-art-from-indie-game-firewatch.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-dealership-steals-art-from-indie-game-firewatch.htmlA Ford dealership in Quincy, MA spent all day being bombarded with inquiries from video game journalists after blatantly ripping off art from indie game Firewatch. The title, developed by San Francisco-based studio Campo Santo, is set in the Wyoming wilderness and uses a heavily stylized visual aesthetic courtesy of graphic designer and illustrator Olly Moss, who led art direction for the project as a member of the Campo Santo team./news/fortnite-is-splitting-into-two-different-games-because-of-epic-and-apple-s-fight.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fortnite-is-splitting-into-two-different-games-because-of-epic-and-apple-s-fight.htmlFortnite’s next season arrives tomorrow, but if you’re on iOS or macOS, you won’t be able to play it, Epic announced today. And we’re learning that’s not all: players on iPhone, iPad, and Mac will also lose cross-play Fortnite multiplayer with non-Apple platforms, Epic confirms to The Verge. That means players on Apple platforms will be stuck on the current version of Fortnite, and they’ll only be able to play with one another./news/fox-sues-dish-network-over-auto-hop-commercial-skipping-service-update-nbc-cbs-suing-as-well.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fox-sues-dish-network-over-auto-hop-commercial-skipping-service-update-nbc-cbs-suing-as-well.htmlDish Network's Auto Hop feature has a neat trick: it lets you watch shows completely without commercials, starting at 1AM the day after the shows air. The feature only works on network shows — Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC — and it's already stirring up some legal controversy, as Fox has sued Dish saying the service violates its copyrights. Here's the full statement from Fox, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter:/news/gabrielle-union-calls-nude-photo-leaks-a-new-form-of-sexual-abuse.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gabrielle-union-calls-nude-photo-leaks-a-new-form-of-sexual-abuse.htmlThe leaks, which distributed private photos of hundreds of actresses, have been broadly denounced by celebrities and tech figures alike, but it's still unclear what measures should have been taken to prevent them or stop the flow of the images once they were made public. In this month's Cosmopolitan, Union describes her reaction to the leaks in more detail, comparing it to her own experiences with rape. "The first draft of my statement was pretty furious — somewhere between Louis Farrakhan and Gloria Allred,"/news/gboard-s-split-keyboard-makes-typing-easier-on-foldable-phones.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gboard-s-split-keyboard-makes-typing-easier-on-foldable-phones.htmlGoogle’s Gboard keyboard app for Android is throwing a bone to people who use foldable phones (or at least, for now, to beta users of the app) with a split keyboard mode. Its aim is to make it less awkward and a little more ergonomic to type on the large, expanded screens of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 or a Microsoft Surface Duo 2. The split keyboard mode cuts the keyboard in half, putting all of the keys near the two sides of the foldable phone, much closer to where your thumbs may be naturally resting while you hold the device./news/geoengineering-startup-s-claim-it-got-oks-to-launch-from-the-faa-doesn-t-stand-up-to-scrut.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/geoengineering-startup-s-claim-it-got-oks-to-launch-from-the-faa-doesn-t-stand-up-to-scrut.htmlControversial solar geoengineering startup Make Sunsets says it released three balloons carrying atmosphere-altering particles in Reno, Nevada, this month. It’s an escalation of the company’s questionable climate change-fighting tactics, which got it banned from launching balloons in Mexico in January. And while the company says it got the green light from the FAA and local authorities, officials say no such authorization was granted. The way Make Sunsets explains it, this kind of geoengineering is a solution to humanity’s epic failure to stop planet-heating pollution./news/gigabyte-aero-15-oled-xd-review-powerful-pricey-and-flawed.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gigabyte-aero-15-oled-xd-review-powerful-pricey-and-flawed.htmlGigabyte has released a minor refresh to the Aero 15 OLED, its flagship laptop targeting gamers and creative professionals. Like last year’s model, this Aero 15 has a 4K OLED display and a decent port selection with Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. Also like last year’s model, it has a somewhat clunky aluminum design, a flashy RGB keyboard, a fingerprint sensor in the trackpad, and a webcam inconveniently located underneath the screen./news/good-burger-2-will-hit-paramount-plus-later-this-year.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/good-burger-2-will-hit-paramount-plus-later-this-year.htmlIt’s official: Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell will reunite for a Good Burger sequel that’s set to hit Paramount Plus later this year. The duo revealed the news during a segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Friday night, noting that they will start filming in the summer. Good Burger 2 takes place in a present-day version of the fictional fast food restaurant of the same name, with Thompson reprising his role as Dexter Reed and Mitchell as Ed, the store’s hilariously oblivious cashier./news/good-deal-canon-s-entry-level-eos-rebel-t3-dslr-for-399-99.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/good-deal-canon-s-entry-level-eos-rebel-t3-dslr-for-399-99.htmlIf you're looking to make the jump from a point-and-shoot camera into DSLR territory, Canon's EOS Rebel T3 isn't a bad place to start. Better still, today you can have the entry-level shooter and its accompanying 18-55mm kit lens for $399 when buying from 1saleaday.com. That's $100 cheaper than the going rate at Amazon, where the T3 currently enjoys a five-star user rating. Sure enough, reviews paint the camera as a sound purchase for hobbyists and those with a budding interest in photography./news/google-is-shutting-down-its-jamboard-whiteboarding-app.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-shutting-down-its-jamboard-whiteboarding-app.htmlIt’s never a dull day at the Google graveyard — the company has blogged a Workspace update today announcing the end of its collaborative Jamboard whiteboarding software. Google plans to wind down the app in late 2024 and is introducing the “next phase” of whiteboarding solutions: pointing users toward third-party apps that work with Workspace services like Google Meet, Drive, and Calendar. Google says it will offer support to help transition customers to use other whiteboard tools, including FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro./news/google-lens-now-supports-video-search-and-multimodal-ai.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-lens-now-supports-video-search-and-multimodal-ai.htmlGoogle imagines you might use it to ask about a problem you’re having with your car or to get more information about a product you see. It’s also yet another way AI is making its way into Google products — the company announced the new feature at its I/O developer conference, where the story of the year is very much “AI in everything.” Video is an inherently multimodal input, and multimodal search is a big deal for Google right now./news/google-now-free-to-use-gmail-com-in-germany.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-now-free-to-use-gmail-com-in-germany.htmlAfter a trademark dispute which dates back many years, Google has prevailed in its attempts to use its Gmail branding in Germany. Up until now, German users were given @googlemail.com addresses, due to Daniel Giersch — who registered a German trademark for "G-Mail" in 2000, four years before Google created an email service. Now, the dispute appears to have been resolved, as Google has announced it's changing the name of its German "/news/google-now-ported-to-any-android-4-0-device-with-an-aosp-rom.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-now-ported-to-any-android-4-0-device-with-an-aosp-rom.htmlIf you're itching to give Google Now a try, then, once again, xda-developers has you covered. You can now run Google's new assistant app on your Android 4.0 handset provided you're running a ROM based on the Android open-source project (AOSP). If you attempt to install Google Now on a non-AOSP ROM, you'll run into crashes and possible boot loops, so, please don't do it. The method for installing Google Now is a little more complicated than that of a regular APK./news/google-play-pass-bundles-350-android-games-and-apps-for-4-99-per-month.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-play-pass-bundles-350-android-games-and-apps-for-4-99-per-month.htmlToday, Google is launching a new service called “Google Play Pass,” which for $4.99 per month gives Android users access to over 350 games and apps which will be served ad free and without any in-app purchases. Google will give users 10 days free and is also planning on offering the first year at $1.99 per month. It will be available in the US this week and other countries “soon.”/news/google-promotes-web-services-with-new-i-m-feeling-lucky-button.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-promotes-web-services-with-new-i-m-feeling-lucky-button.htmlGoogle has tweaked its "I'm Feeling Lucky" search randomizer to offer results from a wider array of the company's web services, AllThingsD reports. Now, when users hover over the button, the text will cycle through a number of "I'm Feeling" combinations, like "I'm Feeling Hungry," "I'm Feeling Wonderful," and others. Depending on which variation a user lands on, Google will load the results or services corresponding to that particular theme. For example, when a user clicks "/news/google-proposes-new-set-of-emoji-to-better-represent-professional-women.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-proposes-new-set-of-emoji-to-better-represent-professional-women.htmlA team of four Google employees has developed a set of 13 emoji designed to better represent women in the professional world. In a presentation to the Unicode Consortium, the body that approves and standardizes emoji, the team says the new emoji depict "a wide range of professions for women and men, with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women's careers and empowering girls everywhere." These aren't just female versions of existing male emoji./news/google-s-software-design-is-having-a-reformation.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-software-design-is-having-a-reformation.htmlMaterial Design launched in 2014, and it was mostly thought of as a new design language for Android — though it later came to the web and iOS. It had a bold idea: there should be a physicality to software design not unlike the physicality of paper. It should follow some rules that are almost physical, with layers of magic paper and strictures for how different software elements like buttons and drawers should behave./news/gopro-max-review-the-most-accessible-360-camera.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gopro-max-review-the-most-accessible-360-camera.htmlLast year, Insta360 revolutionized the idea of what a 360 camera could be capable of with the Insta360 One X. The One X was marketed not as a 360-degree camera, but instead a camera that could shoot 360 degrees of possible angles that could be accessed after the fact. Footage shot with the One X was also stitched in the camera and you were able to edit it right on your phone for quick uploads to social platforms./news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-cast-petitions-disney-to-rehire-james-gunn.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-cast-petitions-disney-to-rehire-james-gunn.htmlOn July 20th, Walt Disney Studios issued a surprise announcement that it was firing James Gunn, director of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy and its 2017 sequel. The studio was responding to an unearthed series of off-color jokes he made on Twitter between 2008 and 2012. Those tweets made light of pedophilia and child abuse, leading to online outrage. Gunn issued an apology on Twitter, stating in part, “Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo./news/hands-on-with-the-beam-pro-xreal-s-phone-sized-tablet-for-ar-glasses.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hands-on-with-the-beam-pro-xreal-s-phone-sized-tablet-for-ar-glasses.htmlXreal is one of the few companies trying to sell mass-market augmented reality headsets without an existing big tech empire. But its latest product isn’t a pair of glasses; it’s a phone-sized Android tablet designed to keep you using them. At last week’s Augmented World Expo (AWE) the company announced the Beam Pro, a combination battery, app repository, and 3D video recorder. It’s a pragmatic solution to a very obvious problem — even if, at first glance, I wish it were weirder./news/hbo-s-westworld-has-been-cancelled.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-s-westworld-has-been-cancelled.htmlWestworld has been canceled. The Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan show about robots and apocalypses captivated and then confused audiences and finally seemed to have forgotten what it was about entirely by the time its fourth and final season aired earlier this year. So while it’s a bummer the show is gone, it’s also not much of a surprise. HBO emailed a statement on the cancellation, saying: Over the past four seasons, Lisa and Jonah have taken viewers on a mind-bending odyssey, raising the bar at every step./news/how-an-award-winning-documentarian-unearthed-a-damning-new-case-against-john-mcafee.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-an-award-winning-documentarian-unearthed-a-damning-new-case-against-john-mcafee.htmlUltimately, do you feel like McAfee is a dangerous character? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I don’t think he’s committed any crimes in the States — I think he recognizes that there’s a difference between [these] places. Belize has a different economic bracket, a different culture, a different way of investigating crimes. It’s very different than the US and I think he made a judgement call when he was there that he would not make here — I hope./news/how-the-tsa-created-two-classes-of-travelers.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-the-tsa-created-two-classes-of-travelers.htmlDan McCoy is the chief innovation officer at the United States Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. Welcome to Decoder. Thank you for having me, Nilay. I am a listener, so this is exciting. The experience is way different than listening, so you are in for a ride. It’s a great time to talk to you. The founding of the TSA is connected to a very pivotal moment in my life. It was founded right after September 11th in 2001./news/how-to-be-human-what-it-means-to-feel-normal.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-be-human-what-it-means-to-feel-normal.htmlLeah Reich was one of the first internet advice columnists. Her column "Ask Leah" ran on IGN, where she gave advice to gamers for two and a half years. During the day, Leah is Slack’s user researcher, but her views here do not represent her employer. How to be Human runs every other Sunday. You can write to her at askleah@theverge.com and read more How to be Human here. I guess you get a lot of questions around New Year but I'll try my luck anyway./news/how-to-change-or-cancel-your-music-streaming-services.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-change-or-cancel-your-music-streaming-services.htmlThere are more digital subscriptions around than ever, and among them, you may well have a music streaming service (or two or three). What with “free” trials and trying to find a service you really like, it’s easy to suddenly realize you’re oversubscribed. Luckily, canceling a music subscription — or switching to a free tier — isn’t too difficult. And remember that you can always sign up again. It doesn’t have to be goodbye forever./news/how-to-connect-your-fitbit-app-to-your-apple-watch.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-connect-your-fitbit-app-to-your-apple-watch.htmlTech companies will usually do their best to keep customers from using their gear with a competing company’s software. Let’s face it, you’re probably not going to be using iMessage on an Android phone anytime soon. But sometimes, you can get around these limitations. If you recently acquired an Apple Watch but would like to use it with the Fitbit app, there is a way you can do that, even though the two companies’ ecosystems don’t acknowledge either other’s existence./news/how-to-make-group-calls-on-whatsapp.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-make-group-calls-on-whatsapp.htmlBeing able to stay in touch while social distancing is really important, which is why we’ve come to rely on apps that help you make group calls. WhatsApp, which sends messages over the internet rather than SMS, has become a popular alternative to texting, but it also lets you make calls. On WhatsApp, you can do an audio-only or video group call with up to eight people. WhatsApp is a good alternative to Zoom for smaller groups as it uses end-to-end encryption (unlike Zoom)./news/how-to-record-your-windows-pc-screen-using-xbox-game-bar.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-record-your-windows-pc-screen-using-xbox-game-bar.htmlScreen recording is helpful for a number of things, from creating a tutorial to grabbing a clip to post on Twitter to share with friends. On Windows 10, you can capture a video of your screen by using the built-in Xbox Game Bar. The Xbox Game Bar was designed to record clips of video games, but it’s useful for any type of video capture. In order to use it, your laptop’s video card must support one of three encoders (an encoder translates video input into a compatible digital format): Intel Quick Sync H./news/how-to-turn-off-facetime-on-your-iphone-ipad-and-mac.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-turn-off-facetime-on-your-iphone-ipad-and-mac.htmlWant to listen in on your friend’s conversations? Thanks to a bug in Apple’s FaceTime service, all you need to do is call them via FaceTime on their iPhone or Mac. You can then use their phone’s microphone to hear what’s going on, even if they don’t pick up the call. This serious bug is now known by anyone who reads tech news. (It has been tested and verified by The Verge staff./news/how-wordpress-and-tumblr-are-keeping-the-internet-weird.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-wordpress-and-tumblr-are-keeping-the-internet-weird.htmlMatt Mullenweg is the CEO of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, which he co-founded, and Tumblr, the irrepressible social network it acquired from the wreckage of AOL, Yahoo, and Verizon. Matt’s point of view is that the world is better off when the web is open and fun, and Automattic builds and acquires products that help that goal along. That bet is perhaps most pronounced with WordPress itself. Around 43 percent of all the websites on the internet run on WordPress, which is a piece of open-source software anyone can download and use for free./news/huawei-mate-20-pro-review-the-best-phone-america-can-t-get.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/huawei-mate-20-pro-review-the-best-phone-america-can-t-get.htmlThis time last year, Huawei was laboring behind the scenes to secure its first carrier deal in the United States for its freshly unveiled Mate 10 Pro flagship phone. The plan was that Huawei would re-announce the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, with AT&T as its star partner. Except, at the very last moment, pressure from the US government convinced AT&T to pull out of the deal, leaving Huawei embarrassed and frustrated./news/humane-s-ai-pin-seems-to-be-forgetting-what-makes-a-good-wearable.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/humane-s-ai-pin-seems-to-be-forgetting-what-makes-a-good-wearable.htmlFor the past week, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Humane’s AI Pin. As someone who’s worn and reviewed wearables of every shape and size, this pin baffles and befuddles. The premise is that it’s supposed to help you look at your phone less — something for which many people say they use their smartwatches. For $699 with a $24 monthly subscription, you’ll purportedly be able to call friends (like smartwatches), talk to voice assistants (also like smartwatches), interact with a camera (like smart glasses), and project a screen (also like smart glasses)./news/i-watched-nba-players-paint-in-vr-to-promote-mountain-dew.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-watched-nba-players-paint-in-vr-to-promote-mountain-dew.htmlI have an amateurish rule of thumb for evaluating VR experiences, one I call the Laugh Test: does this demo feature something so cool I start chuckling in awe? It took a few minutes and a slight prod for Google’s Tilt Brush painting demo to pass it, but I eventually made it there. I strapped on an HTC Vive headset, picked an environment — you can paint in space, in the snow, and in a blank room, among other zones — and started drawing 2D houses using the Vive’s handheld controllers: windows, roofs, lawns, little stick people, and their stick dogs just outside./news/in-praise-of-an-old-iriver-mp3-player.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/in-praise-of-an-old-iriver-mp3-player.htmlThe spring of my freshman year of college, my mom sold my drum set. I used the money to buy an MP3 player. Sorry. A multi-codec jukebox. There is a certain type of person who, when faced with a sleek, friendly, easy-to-use Apple product, will rail on about all the features it doesn’t have, all the things you can’t do with it, all the ways the walled garden is a trap./news/instagram-brings-back-classic-icons-to-celebrate-its-tenth-birthday.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-brings-back-classic-icons-to-celebrate-its-tenth-birthday.htmlInstagram launched ten years ago today: the photo-sharing app first hit the App Store on October 6th, 2010, a few months after the release of the iPhone 4. To celebrate, Instagram has added an Easter egg to the app that lets you change its home screen icon. The icons available include the classic Polaroid-style camera designs that were used for more than five years. There are themed variations on the current logo, too, including Pride rainbow colors and monochrome options./news/instagram-is-testing-songs-in-photo-carousels.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-is-testing-songs-in-photo-carousels.htmlInstagram is testing a new feature that will let you add songs to the photo carousels you post to the platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the news on his Instagram broadcast channel, noting that it’s already available in a “few countries with more to come.” While Instagram already has a similar feature that lets you add songs to individual photos, I feel like it makes more sense to add to a carousel of pictures./news/ipados-16-review-stage-manager-is-not-the-future-of-multitasking.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ipados-16-review-stage-manager-is-not-the-future-of-multitasking.htmlThere is really only one big idea inside of iPadOS 16. The new operating system comes with plenty of improvements and upgrades, of course — editable messages, a Weather app (finally), improvements to most of Apple’s built-in apps, and some extremely clever new Live Text features — but most of that is already available on the iPhone through iOS 16. There’s nothing wrong with an iterative update, of course, and by the time you hit version 16 of anything, you’re not likely to be breaking much new ground./news/it-s-been-a-bad-day-for-the-media-industry.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-been-a-bad-day-for-the-media-industry.htmlIt’s been a bad day for the media industry. So far, G/O Media shut down Jezebel, slashed even more jobs at The Onion, and made cuts at Gizmodo. Vice staff are also reporting layoffs, and some Popsugar staff lost their jobs as well. (Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, owns Popsugar.) G/O Media angered staff and readers this summer when the company began experimenting with generative AI tools. G/O said AI wouldn’t replace the work done by human employees./news/jony-ive-s-lovefrom-worked-on-this-limited-edition-60-000-turntable.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jony-ive-s-lovefrom-worked-on-this-limited-edition-60-000-turntable.htmlLoveFrom, the design firm formed by Apple’s former design head Jony Ive, has collaborated with British audio brand Linn on a 50th anniversary edition of its Sondek LP12 turntable. Just 250 models of the Linn Sondek LP12-50 will be produced and delivered between August 2023 and March 2024, with the limited edition turntable available to reserve now for an eye-watering $60,000 (£50,000).  According to a blog post from Linn CEO Gilad Tiefenbrun, the collaboration dates back to early 2022 when Tiefenbrun was offered a meeting with Ive out of the blue over LinkedIn./news/jukusui-kun-the-snore-stopping-robot-bear.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jukusui-kun-the-snore-stopping-robot-bear.htmlJukusui-Kun, a robot pillow disguised as a stuffed polar bear (what else?), was designed to fight sleep apnea and snoring. Using a microphone, a conductive panel, and a pulse-oxygen meter dressed as a baby polar bear — it's consistent, if nothing else — the teddy monitors snoring and blood oxygen levels. Once activated, the bear initiates a gentle tickling maneuver that causes the sleeper to roll over, restarting normal breathing. Developed at Waseda University's Kabe Lab, JukuSui-Kun was demoed last week in Tokyo by the very serious man in the video below./news/kik-messenger-returns-to-blackberry-but-not-through-app-world.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/kik-messenger-returns-to-blackberry-but-not-through-app-world.htmlNearly a year after RIM yanked it out of the BlackBerry App World, Kik Messenger is once again available to BlackBerry users. Instead of going through RIM, it's opted for a direct-to-phone Java app that you download through your browser — the new app is evidently back to basics, with phones like the Pearl and Storm not supported, and there's no video or picture messaging support. When the app was originally pulled, it was believed to be because of privacy issues — like Kik grabbing your phone's contacts to promote downloads — and since the app still functions as it did before, RIM's likely not happy to see Kik back./news/lenovo-flex-5-chromebook-review-midrange-done-right.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lenovo-flex-5-chromebook-review-midrange-done-right.htmlCurrently available for less than $400, the Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook is a pretty dang good deal. You get Intel’s capable 10th Gen processors, a sturdy and nice-looking chassis, a touchscreen with stylus support, a comfortable backlit keyboard, and a satisfactory port selection. While there’s no standout feature to enthusiastically praise, there’s not too much to complain about. That’s enough, of course, to make the Flex 5 one of the best midrange Chromebooks you can buy — as long as you’re aware of the tradeoffs you’re making for the price./news/lg-s-new-45-inch-ultrawide-monitors-are-a-little-smaller-and-a-little-cheaper.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-s-new-45-inch-ultrawide-monitors-are-a-little-smaller-and-a-little-cheaper.htmlLG has a pair of new 45-inch ultrawide gaming monitors. That sounds very wide to me, though LG says it’s the equivalent of two 24-inch monitors, which sounds almost compact compared to the 49-inchers from Samsung and LG, or the gargantuan Samsung Odyssey Ark we tested last year. The UltraGear 45GR65DC ($799) and 45GR75DC ($899) are slightly smaller and a few hundred bucks cheaper than the 49-inch 49GR85DC, which we wisely just called the 49-inch UltraGear when we wrote about it earlier in the year./news/logitech-is-killing-off-the-blue-mic-brand-will-sell-yeti-and-astro-under-logitech-g.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-is-killing-off-the-blue-mic-brand-will-sell-yeti-and-astro-under-logitech-g.htmlLogitech bought gaming headset maker Astro for $85 million in 2017 and purchased mic manufacturer Blue Microphones for $177 million one year later. Now, it’s merging both into its Logitech G brand for gamers and streamers — but while Astro will largely continue, the Blue brand is getting axed. “Will the Blue Microphones brand go away?” reads a question in Logitech’s brand merger FAQ. “We will be keeping the Yeti brand and moving it under Logitech G./news/logitech-s-project-ghost-booth-makes-video-calls-suck-much-less.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-s-project-ghost-booth-makes-video-calls-suck-much-less.htmlIn our new hybrid work reality, there’s a race among tech companies to reinvent and improve video calling. Google’s futuristic Project Starline produces a 3D hologram of the person at the other end of your call. Logitech’s Project Ghost videoconferencing booth is technologically conservative by comparison — but it’s also going to be available to regular people much sooner. Project Ghost is all rooted in current tech. There’s nothing remarkable about its webcam, video quality, or audio experience./news/lost-in-translation-when-east-meets-west-press-conferences-get-weird.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lost-in-translation-when-east-meets-west-press-conferences-get-weird.htmlAs the thunderous but indistinct techno music blares over Acer's Computex press conference, you can't help but feel transported back in time. This is the sort of atmosphere a Westerner would expect from a product launch in the 1980s. Everything’s hitched up an extra notch, from the neon sign outside Acer's venue to the models' skirts at Asus' Transformer launch. The only thing missing are the crazy, voluminous perms. But volume, in both its aural and metric sense, is the exact thing that defines the Taiwanese press event./news/meta-is-connecting-threads-more-deeply-with-the-fediverse.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-is-connecting-threads-more-deeply-with-the-fediverse.htmlThreads will now let people like and see replies to their Threads posts that appear on other federated social media platforms, the company announced on Tuesday. Previously, if you made a post on Threads that was syndicated to another platform like Mastodon, you wouldn’t be able to see responses to that post while still inside Threads. That meant you’d have to bounce back and forth between the platforms to stay up-to-date on replies./news/meta-s-set-it-and-forget-it-ai-ad-tools-are-misfiring-and-blowing-through-cash.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-s-set-it-and-forget-it-ai-ad-tools-are-misfiring-and-blowing-through-cash.htmlIt was Valentine’s Day when Meta’s ad platform started going off the rails. RC Williams, the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based marketing agency 1-800-D2C, had set one of Meta’s automated ad tools to run campaigns for two separate clients. But when he checked the platform that day, he found that Meta had blown through roughly 75 percent of the daily ad budgets for both clients in under a couple of hours./news/microsoft-announces-399-xbox-one-without-kinect-drops-xbox-live-requirement-for-apps.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-announces-399-xbox-one-without-kinect-drops-xbox-live-requirement-for-apps.htmlIn a surprise move, Microsoft is planning to release an Xbox One without Kinect on June 9th. The new variant will be priced at $399, a figure that closes the $100 gap between the Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4. Despite early promises to developers and Xbox One owners that Kinect would ship with every console, it's clear Microsoft is having to change course and listen to consumers. "We’ve also heard from people they just like to play games with a controller in their hands,"/news/microsoft-creates-white-xbox-one-for-employees.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-creates-white-xbox-one-for-employees.htmlMicrosoft is building a white Xbox One, but it's for employees only. A Reddit poster has revealed that Microsoft plans to gift the special edition white Xbox One to employees who have worked on the next-generation console. Employees working in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, the division responsible for Xbox, will receive a free Xbox One, one year of Xbox Live, games, and a special achievement all on launch day. The front of the console even includes an "/news/microsoft-edge-tests-a-sidebar-that-you-can-pin-to-your-desktop.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-edge-tests-a-sidebar-that-you-can-pin-to-your-desktop.htmlMicrosoft Edge is testing a new feature that could make its sidebar even more useful. In Edge Canary version 114.0.1789.0, you detach and mount the browser’s sidebar to your desktop, as spotted earlier by GeekerMag (via Windows Central). While I didn’t get the chance to try the feature out for myself, GeekerMag’s Viney Dhiman shows how it works in the video embedded below. Simply hit the “Detach from Edge” button at the bottom of the sidebar, and Edge will automatically pin the sidebar to the right side of your desktop./news/microsoft-picks-on-the-ipad-mini-with-a-lacklustre-competitor-in-new-ad.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-picks-on-the-ipad-mini-with-a-lacklustre-competitor-in-new-ad.htmlThe ad points out that the iPad mini lacks a version of Halo, a somewhat fair jab, but it also chooses to highlight a desktop version of Office on the 8-inch Acer W3. It's an odd comparison point for a small form factor device with a low-resolution display, and Microsoft's Office software lacks true optimizations for touch in its current form. "You have Outlook and full Office?" Asks the Siri-like narrator, "/news/microsoft-removes-xbox-live-gold-requirement-for-free-to-play-games-today.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-removes-xbox-live-gold-requirement-for-free-to-play-games-today.htmlMicrosoft is removing its requirement for an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play free-to-play multiplayer games today. The software maker has been testing this removal over the past few weeks, and now every Xbox One and Xbox Series S / X owner will be able to play free multiplayer games without Xbox Live Gold. Microsoft is also unlocking Xbox party chat and the Looking For Groups (LFG) feature as part of this rollout./news/microsoft-teams-headphones-now-have-a-button-to-launch-and-control-the-chat-app.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-teams-headphones-now-have-a-button-to-launch-and-control-the-chat-app.htmlMicrosoft has a range of Microsoft Teams-certified headphones from its partners, and now, some are getting the ability to integrate more deeply into the chat app. A new button feature will allow headset owners to bring Teams to the front on a Windows PC, join a meeting, or check missed calls and voicemail. Some existing headsets are getting firmware upgrades for the button support, and there are also new devices that are launching with dedicated buttons./news/microsoft-teams-is-getting-end-to-end-encryption-support.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-teams-is-getting-end-to-end-encryption-support.htmlMicrosoft is finally adding end-to-end encryption support to Microsoft Teams later this year. A preview of end-to-end encryption in Teams will be available in the first half of this year for commercial customers. It will be available for 1:1 unscheduled Teams calls and is designed for more sensitive conversations. This will mostly be useful for confidential conversations between employees or for scenarios like an IT admin providing an employee their password over a call./news/microsoft-explains-how-russian-hackers-spied-on-its-executives.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-explains-how-russian-hackers-spied-on-its-executives.htmlMicrosoft revealed last week that it had discovered a nation-state attack on its corporate systems from the Russian state-sponsored hackers that were behind the SolarWinds attack. Hackers were able to access the email accounts of some members of Microsoft’s senior leadership team — potentially spying on them for weeks or months. While Microsoft didn’t provide many details on how the attackers gained access in its initial SEC disclosure late on Friday, the software maker has now published an initial analysis of how the hackers got past its security./news/microsoft-s-new-xbox-mobile-gaming-store-is-launching-in-july.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-new-xbox-mobile-gaming-store-is-launching-in-july.htmlMicrosoft 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./news/moog-is-bringing-back-a-modular-synth-from-1969-for-35-000.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/moog-is-bringing-back-a-modular-synth-from-1969-for-35-000.htmlMoog announced last week that it is bringing back one of its iconic synthesizers — the IIIp — for a limited reissue for $35,000. The company says only 40 units will be handcrafted, and each one will feature the original’s documentation, art, and circuit board files. In total, each IIIp will have 37 modules including ten 901-Series audio oscillators, the 984 4-channel Matrix Mixer, and the 905 Spring Reverb. Originally released in the late 1960s, the Moog Synthesizer IIIp was the company’s first portable system, coming in roadworthy flight cases, and was used by artists like Isao Tomita and George Harrison./news/motorola-photon-q-4g-lte-review.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-photon-q-4g-lte-review.htmlMost phone manufacturers have firmly decided the on-screen keyboard is the future. A few companies, like Pantech and Samsung, still make handsets with physical keyboards, but they typically feel like throwaway devices that were built just to use spare parts from 2006. Only Motorola remains committed to the form factor, and the company continues to churn out Droid after Droid with a full, sliding QWERTY keyboard. The Motorola Photon Q isn't a Droid, but it might as well be./news/mysterious-smart-ring-project-gives-smartwatches-the-finger.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mysterious-smart-ring-project-gives-smartwatches-the-finger.htmlA high-tech ring that promises to replicate many of the features found in the latest crop of smartwatches, but without strapping a brick to your wrist, is now one step closer to reality. Smarty Ring, a project that launched on Indiegogo last month, has blown past its funding goal to produce a ring with a built-in LED screen that ferries information back and forth between a connected smartphone. Like the Pebble, which garnered more than 100 times as much funding on Kickstarter last year, it can display incoming caller ID, and text messages, along with updates from social networks that have been synced up using a companion app for iOS and Android./news/nearby-earth-sized-world-may-be-the-best-candidate-yet-in-the-search-for-alien-life.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nearby-earth-sized-world-may-be-the-best-candidate-yet-in-the-search-for-alien-life.htmlAnother tantalizing planet has been found outside our Solar System: an Earth-sized world that’s our cosmic next-door neighbor — and it could be in just the right spot to host life. Meet Ross 128 b, a newly discovered planet found orbiting around a small, faint star known as a red dwarf. The world, which is about one-and-a-half times the mass of Earth, may be in the star’s habitable zone, too. (That’s the spot where temperatures are just right, possibly allowing liquid water to pool on a planet’s surface./news/netflix-s-terrace-house-opening-new-doors-is-a-major-return-to-form.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-terrace-house-opening-new-doors-is-a-major-return-to-form.htmlTerrace House, the glacially slow reality show about young Japanese people agonizing over where to get taco rice and whether to hold hands, is back on Netflix today worldwide. It’s been airing week by week in Japan since December, so I’ve seen the first 11 episodes already, and here’s the main thing you need to know: after last season’s weird and sometimes awkward detour to Hawaii, this is a major return to form./news/netflix-s-next-live-event-is-a-joe-rogan-comedy-special.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-next-live-event-is-a-joe-rogan-comedy-special.htmlNetflix is continuing its push into live events, this time with a comedy special from Joe Rogan. Called “Burn the Boats,” the event will stream live from San Antonio, Texas, on August 3rd at 10PM ET. Netflix says this will be Rogan’s first comedy special in six years, and it will be the podcaster and former Fear Factor host’s third with the streamer; he previously released two taped events in 2016 and 2018./news/nintendo-s-original-mobile-gacha-game-dragalia-lost-is-shutting-down.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-s-original-mobile-gacha-game-dragalia-lost-is-shutting-down.htmlDragalia Lost, one of Nintendo’s increasingly dwindling stable of mobile games for iOS and Android, is shutting down. The company announced today that the game’s main campaign will be ending in July and that it’ll cease adding new characters or content updates (outside of the main campaign) at the end of March when its final set of characters is introduced. Nintendo hasn’t said when exactly Dragalia Lost will be fully shutting down./news/north-face-tried-to-scam-wikipedia-to-get-its-products-to-the-top-of-google-search.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/north-face-tried-to-scam-wikipedia-to-get-its-products-to-the-top-of-google-search.htmlThe North Face, in a campaign with advertising agency Leo Burnett Tailor Made, hatched a scheme to get its products to the top of Google Images by replacing Wikipedia photos with its own product placement shots. In the promotional video, the company notes how all trips begin with an initial Google search, and often the first image that shows up is from a Wikipedia article about the destination. The company took advantage of this fact by trekking to popular tourist destinations like Guarita State Park in Brazil and Huayna Picchu in Peru to take photos prominently featuring its products./news/nvidia-announces-2999-titan-v-the-most-powerful-pc-gpu-ever-created.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-announces-2999-titan-v-the-most-powerful-pc-gpu-ever-created.htmlIt seems like Nvidia announces the fastest GPU in history multiple times a year, and that’s exactly what’s happened again today; the Titan V is “the most powerful PC GPU ever created,” in Nvidia's words. It represents a more significant leap than most products that have made that claim, however, as it's the first consumer-grade GPU based around Nvidia’s new Volta architecture. That said, a liberal definition of the word “consumer” is in order here — the Titan V sells for $2,999 and is focused around AI and scientific simulation processing./news/openai-appears-to-have-closed-its-deal-with-apple.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/openai-appears-to-have-closed-its-deal-with-apple.htmlOpenAI appears to have closed its deal with Apple. Apple held talks with both Google and OpenAI about integrating their chatbots into iOS 18, according to Bloomberg, but it looks like OpenAI won out. The pair plan to announce the news at Apple’s developer conference, WWDC. The Information confirmed, per a source, that the deal has been secured, adding that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is concerned about how it could conflict with their partnership./news/original-jurassic-park-cast-is-returning-for-jurassic-world-3.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/original-jurassic-park-cast-is-returning-for-jurassic-world-3.htmlLaura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum, are set to reprise their iconic roles for the third Jurassic World movie, the film’s director has confirmed. Speaking at a screening on Tuesday night, Colin Trevorrow said that the three would have sizable roles in the sequel, according to Collider. The three stars have remained largely absent from the franchise after it was rebooted in 2015 with Jurassic World. Although Goldblum had a small role in 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Neill has been absent from the franchise since leading 2001’s Jurassic Park III, in which Dern had a cameo./news/our-favorite-benchmarks-for-testing-pcs-and-how-to-use-them.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/our-favorite-benchmarks-for-testing-pcs-and-how-to-use-them.htmlFor the next few weeks, we’re showing you how to run various commonly used benchmarks on your PC. Reviewers like myself find these very helpful in comparing laptops we test to each other. But you don’t have to rely on us — you can easily run these benchmarks yourself on your own PC. Geekbench is one of the easiest and fastest ones to run and will show you how your device stacks up against the competition in a few key areas./news/persona-is-the-playstation-s-best-jrpg-series-it-took-two-decades-to-get-there.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/persona-is-the-playstation-s-best-jrpg-series-it-took-two-decades-to-get-there.htmlPlayStation is the console family for Japanese role-playing games. As the de facto home for RPGs following the Super Nintendo era, it’s enjoyed everything from Final Fantasy VII, Xenogears, and Suikoden to Ni No Kuni and Kingdom Hearts. Twenty-five years after the launch of the original PlayStation, however, its greatest offering is also its most improved: the Persona series, created by Atlus. The developer’s most recent entry in the franchise, Persona 5, is a commercial success that’s sold more than 3./news/ps5-vs-xbox-series-x-the-next-gen-consoles-in-photos.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ps5-vs-xbox-series-x-the-next-gen-consoles-in-photos.htmlMicrosoft and Sony have both created rather bulky next-gen consoles. We’ve known for weeks that the PS5 is the biggest game console in modern history, but Microsoft’s Xbox Series X isn’t exactly small. Now that we have both consoles to compare side by side, the design decisions and differences are immediately obvious. Microsoft and Sony have both taken different approaches to console design for this next generation. These design choices are apparent when you place both side by side vertically or horizontally./news/rabbit-r1-hands-on-early-tests-with-the-199-ai-gadget.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rabbit-r1-hands-on-early-tests-with-the-199-ai-gadget.htmlThere were times I wasn’t sure the Rabbit R1 was even a real thing. The AI-powered, Teenage Engineering-designed device came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest stories at CES, promising a level of fun and whimsy that felt much better than some of the more self-serious AI companies out there. CEO Jesse Lyu practically promised the world in this $199 device. Well, say this for Rabbit: it’s real./news/redfall-is-playable-on-steam-deck-with-the-right-settings.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/redfall-is-playable-on-steam-deck-with-the-right-settings.htmlNearly four hours in, I am not at all convinced that Redfall is a good game — unless there’s a lot of hidden depth, it feels like a rare miss from Arkane. But unlike that other recent big release, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, you can make it playable on Steam Deck with a few easy tweaks. I’m not saying it’ll look good, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the default setting!/news/rice-is-not-included-in-apple-s-official-guidance-for-a-wet-phone.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rice-is-not-included-in-apple-s-official-guidance-for-a-wet-phone.htmlGetting water on phones happens to the best of us. Lucky for us, there’s one household staple the internet consistently suggests will draw that liquid out and save phones: uncooked rice. But contrary to popular advice, Apple, like most people in tech support, explicitly advises against putting your wet phone in a bag of rice.  “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone,” Apple support documents said./news/ring-s-cheapest-subscription-plan-is-going-up-by-1-a-month.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ring-s-cheapest-subscription-plan-is-going-up-by-1-a-month.htmlThe Basic is Ring’s cheapest plan and gives you access to cloud storage of recorded videos from one camera or video doorbell. If you subscribe, you’ll see the bump on your next renewal date after March 11th unless you cancel before then. Without a subscription, all you can do with a Ring camera is view a livestream and get alerts for motion from your camera. Wyze and Blink are now the cheapest options for viewing cloud-recorded video from a single camera/news/roku-announces-new-pro-lineup-of-tvs-coming-this-spring.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/roku-announces-new-pro-lineup-of-tvs-coming-this-spring.htmlRoku announced its first self-branded TVs at CES last year, and as expected, the main emphasis was on budget pricing and providing a solid, dependable product. Above all else, the Roku Select and Plus Series TVs were a vehicle for getting Roku’s software into even more homes. But the first-party Roku TVs fell a bit flat in terms of picture quality compared to sets from TCL, Hisense, and other TV makers that play in the same pricing territory./news/samsung-display-demos-long-rollable-and-a-health-sensing-oled.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-display-demos-long-rollable-and-a-health-sensing-oled.htmlThe Rollable Flex is an interesting new flexible screen from Samsung Display that can be unrolled from just 49mm to 254.4mm, over five times its length. The display is being shown off at the annual Display Week trade show in Los Angeles alongside another Samsung panel that the company says offers fingerprint and blood pressure sensing in the OLED panel without the need for a separate module. Aside from its maximum and minimum lengths, details on the Rollable Flex in Samsung Display’s press release are relatively slim, and it’s unclear what its overall size or resolution might be./news/samsung-galaxy-watch-cleared-for-sleep-apnea-detection.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-watch-cleared-for-sleep-apnea-detection.htmlThe FDA has authorized a sleep apnea detection feature for the Samsung Galaxy Watch, clearing the way for a software update to the Samsung Health Monitor app in the third quarter of this year that will enable the feature for US users. South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety gave its nod of approval last fall for using wearable devices to detect breathing interruptions that are commonly associated with the sleep disorder, and the update will roll out there first./news/samsung-gear-fit-2-review-samsung-gets-fitness-tracking-right.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-gear-fit-2-review-samsung-gets-fitness-tracking-right.htmlBut the Gear Fit 2 is comfortable, which matters a lot when it comes to things like sleep tracking. The tracking part of the band has two physical buttons: a power / home button, and a back button. On the underside are optical heart rate sensors. The wristband itself is made of a flexible polymer, and has a railroad-style strap you see on a lot of wearables. So what exactly does the Gear Fit 2 track?/news/samsung-s-unlocked-galaxy-s10-phones-are-still-200-off-this-weekend.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-unlocked-galaxy-s10-phones-are-still-200-off-this-weekend.htmlThe Samsung Galaxy S10 was $300 off during Amazon Prime Day earlier this week. If you missed out on that deal, you can get $200 off, which is still a good price, on the S10E, S10, and S10 Plus phones at Best Buy, Amazon, and B&H Photo. If you’re looking for an unlocked phone, you can save that $200 on any storage configuration. We’ve listed the most affordable options below:/news/security-flaw-puts-all-internet-explorer-users-at-risk-exposes-windows-xp.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/security-flaw-puts-all-internet-explorer-users-at-risk-exposes-windows-xp.htmlIf you're still using a 12-year-old operating system, a new security flaw discovered in Internet Explorer should cause you quite a bit of consternation. Microsoft published a security advisory today warning its customers that a vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer (6 through 11) could let hackers gain full user permissions over your computer, allowing them to install programs, view and delete data, and much more simply by visiting a website./news/shigeru-miyamoto-tours-super-nintendo-world-theme-park-in-new-video.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/shigeru-miyamoto-tours-super-nintendo-world-theme-park-in-new-video.htmlNintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto led a video tour of the company’s Mario-themed Super Nintendo World attraction at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka during the company’s latest Direct livestream. The theme park looks to be packed with Mario iconography that will be familiar to Nintendo fans. Even the entrance Mario-themed: you enter the park by walking through a giant pipe that spits you out in the atrium of Princess Peach’s castle that first debuted in Super Mario 64./news/sir-tim-berners-lee-s-web-source-code-nft-sells-for-5-4-million.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sir-tim-berners-lee-s-web-source-code-nft-sells-for-5-4-million.htmlNFTs allow you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” and it can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. An NFT can either be one of a kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file./news/sony-claims-to-fix-the-rolling-shutter-problem-with-its-latest-a9-iii-mirrorless-camera.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-claims-to-fix-the-rolling-shutter-problem-with-its-latest-a9-iii-mirrorless-camera.htmlSony has announced the latest in its line of popular professional mirrorless cameras: the A9 III. It’s a $5,999 full-frame camera with a stacked 24.6-megapixel sensor that succeeds the A9 II released four years ago. But the most important thing about the A9 III is its new shutter. The A9 III is the first full-frame camera to use a global shutter. This allows it to expose every pixel at the same time so there is no distortion in both stills and video./news/sony-nex-7-review-the-verge.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-nex-7-review-the-verge.htmlThe NEX-7 isn't quite as sleek as the 5N and C3, but it's still a seriously svelte camera. 1.7 inches thick at its largest point, it could fit inside most DSLRs with room to spare. This still isn't a pocket camera by any stretch, but it's thin and light enough (about a pound with the kit lens on) that you won't really notice it in your bag, and you can comfortably use it with one hand./news/sony-s-new-playstation-pc-overlay-is-a-simple-start.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-new-playstation-pc-overlay-is-a-simple-start.htmlGhost of Tsushima Director’s Cut debuts on PC today, and it’s the first game to feature Sony’s new PlayStation PC overlay and shared Trophies system. I’ve had a chance to get a first look at this new overlay, and my initial impression is that it’s really unobtrusive, clean, and simple. There are five main sections here: search, friends, Trophies, profile, and settings. Search lets you find other PlayStation players and add them as friends, whereas the friends section lists both your online and offline friends./news/sony-s-xperia-xz-premium-is-unworthy-of-its-name.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-s-xperia-xz-premium-is-unworthy-of-its-name.htmlWhat defines a premium product? To my mind, it’s the added benefit or advantage of something that you wouldn’t be able to obtain at a lower price. An example might be the $4,000 Focal Utopia headphones with beryllium drivers, whose sound is hard to rival and unobtainable without that extremely rigid material. Or perhaps it’s Coach’s leather briefcases, which justify their price by aging gracefully and gorgeously. Or it could be the expert craftsmanship of Canon’s universally acclaimed L lenses./news/spacex-successfully-landed-a-starship-prototype-for-the-first-time.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spacex-successfully-landed-a-starship-prototype-for-the-first-time.htmlSpaceX launched a high-altitude Starship prototype rocket and successfully landed it for the first time on Wednesday, overcoming a key challenge in Elon Musk’s whirlwind quest to build a fully reusable Mars rocket. Musk has said the SN15 rocket contained “hundreds of design improvements” over past high-altitude prototypes, which were all destroyed during explosive landing attempts. Starship SN15 lifted off at 6:24PM ET from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas facilities, soaring more than 6 miles in the sky to test in-flight maneuvers./news/spark-s-new-app-wants-to-fix-how-you-email-even-if-it-has-to-force-you.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spark-s-new-app-wants-to-fix-how-you-email-even-if-it-has-to-force-you.htmlSpark has long been one of the best and most popular third-party email apps. Its developer, Readdle, managed to build a tool that is clean, fast, and simple in a market where very few apps check all three of those boxes. It works across multiple platforms, handles multiple accounts with ease, and is free for practically everyone. But Spark’s new app, which is available now for Mac (though the App Store version is still behind), Windows (for the first time), iOS, and Android, takes a completely different approach./news/sports-bras-make-sense-as-fitness-tracking-devices.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sports-bras-make-sense-as-fitness-tracking-devices.htmlMost women wear sports bras when working out, so it makes sense to think about building a fitness tracker directly into one. A company called Vitali is doing something similar: it’s working on a connected sports bra, but it isn’t for tracking fitness. Instead, it’s designed for stress management. The Vitali measures posture, heart rate variability, and breathing, and it’ll gently vibrate to prompt wearers to take a breath when it senses sign of stress, like an increased heart rate or when you’re slouching./news/spotify-now-has-220-million-paying-subscribers.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-now-has-220-million-paying-subscribers.htmlSpotify had 220 million Premium subscribers and 551 million monthly active users as of June 30th, the company announced today in its latest earnings report. That represents a 27 and 17 percent increase, respectively, compared to the same period last year and is above its outlook released last quarter. But while listener numbers were up, Spotify reports that it’s making less revenue on average from each of them. In today’s release, Spotify says its average revenue per user currently sits at €4./news/super-mario-odyssey-review-an-absolute-delight.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/super-mario-odyssey-review-an-absolute-delight.htmlWhat is it that defines a Super Mario game? It’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot as I’ve played through Super Mario Odyssey, which launches on the Nintendo Switch tomorrow. There are the core details, of course: Mario jumps, he collects coins, he stomps bad guys. At some point he’ll probably face off against an angry turtle named Bowser. But there’s something else at the heart of the series, something that has helped it live on for more than three decades across multiple platforms: an unyielding desire to surprise./news/super-mario-world-receives-the-widescreen-emulation-mod-it-deserves.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/super-mario-world-receives-the-widescreen-emulation-mod-it-deserves.htmlSome purists might sneer at the idea of playing retro games in anything other than their original 4:3 aspect ratio. But for anyone else, a new widescreen hack for Super Mario World means you can now enjoy the 1990 game on modern displays, without having to put up with black bars or a weirdly stretched image.  Super Mario World Widescreen is the work of ROM hacker Vitor Vilela, and works by modifying the original game’s ROM when played through the bsnes_hd emulator./news/supply-chain-by-amazon-sounds-like-amazon-prime-for-manufacturers.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/supply-chain-by-amazon-sounds-like-amazon-prime-for-manufacturers.htmlAmazon is bringing its advanced logistics capabilities to businesses that don’t even sell on the marketplace. In an announcement on Tuesday, the e-commerce giant says its new Supply Chain by Amazon service lets sellers ship products directly from factories — whether it’s going to Amazon or not. As part of the program, Amazon will pick up, ship, and deliver products to customers from manufacturing facilities across the globe. It will also manage customs clearance, ground transportation, bulk storage, and inventory replenishment./news/talking-to-porter-robinson-about-the-fantastical-artwork-for-worlds-remixed.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/talking-to-porter-robinson-about-the-fantastical-artwork-for-worlds-remixed.htmlFirst off, having also been a former DDR-head, I really enjoyed Worlds, and I thought it was so interesting how much nostalgia there is for that particular sound. I think there's a whole generation of kids, maybe, who first heard dance music, or europop, or that kind of techno construction on Dance Dance Revolution. That's so great — I guess there's a lot of people who know of DDR just because it was really present in popular culture./news/teslas-can-now-see-and-slow-for-traffic-lights-and-stop-signs.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/teslas-can-now-see-and-slow-for-traffic-lights-and-stop-signs.htmlTesla is rolling out a software update to some of its newest cars that will allow them to see and respond to traffic lights and stop signs, a feature that CEO Elon Musk has teased for years. The update is available only to owners of Tesla vehicles equipped with the third version of the onboard computer that powers Autopilot, which it refers to as “Hardware 3.” The company started installing this computer on all new vehicles last year (and offers upgrades to those with older vehicles), though owners also have to have paid for the “full self-driving” version of Autopilot to use the new “Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control” feature./news/tesla-s-in-its-flop-era.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-s-in-its-flop-era.htmlWhen Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs — and why everything seems to be going to shit. Earlier this month, the company reported its first year-over-year sales drop in four years, a sign of rougher waters ahead./news/the-49-genki-covert-dock-mini-chops-an-already-tiny-nintendo-switch-dock-in-half.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-49-genki-covert-dock-mini-chops-an-already-tiny-nintendo-switch-dock-in-half.htmlIf you wanted a quality Nintendo Switch docking station you could actually slip into a pocket, the $70 Genki Covert Dock was your best bet — 30W of USB-C power, 1080p60 HDMI output, and a USB 3.1 port for peripherals all stuffed into a tiny folding prong charger thanks to the power of GaN. But now, its makers are making the choice a bit more difficult — with a new $49 Genki Covert Dock Mini (via Gizmodo) that’s way smaller, adds 4K30 output, and unfortunately makes a couple of sacrifices along the way./news/the-art-and-craft-of-scientific-glassblowing.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-art-and-craft-of-scientific-glassblowing.htmlWhen other kids were blowing soap bubbles, Christine Roeger and her sisters were blowing glass bubbles. The bubbles would expand, big and shimmering, until they popped, sending tissues of glass as light as cling wrap floating to the ground. Typical childhood stuff — at least for the kids of a scientific glassblower.  Roeger still takes a certain destructive joy in blowing glass bubbles, but now, she’s a scientific glassblower in her own right, heating and shaping glass into custom scientific instruments./news/the-bachelorette-contestants-favorite-films-by-the-numbers.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-bachelorette-contestants-favorite-films-by-the-numbers.htmlBiographies have been published for all 26 of the contestants on the upcoming season of The Bachelorette, starring JoJo Fletcher as the Bachelorette. In these detailed accounts of 26 lives, portraits are painted of 26 different people who would love to marry JoJo. Early frontrunners are Brandon, age 28, whose occupation is listed as "hipster," and Will, 26, who says he would enjoy trading places with John Mayer for a day./news/the-best-airpods-deals-for-july-2024.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-airpods-deals-for-july-2024.htmlIf 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 consistently dip below $100. And now that the second-gen AirPods Pro have been on the market for nearly two years, we’re also seeing their price fall more often, too. We’re even seeing great deals land on the updated AirPods Pro with USB-C — which is surprising, given Prime Day is technically over./news/the-best-prime-day-deals-on-amazon-devices.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-prime-day-deals-on-amazon-devices.htmlOf course, the main caveat here is that you’ll have to be an active Amazon Prime member to take advantage of any and all Prime Day deals. Luckily, Amazon makes it pretty easy to sign up, especially since new members can take advantage of the exclusive discounts with a free 30-day trial. Update, July 17th: Adjusted pricing and added a few new deals, like those for the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition bundle and the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro./news/the-best-use-for-ai-eye-contact-tech-is-making-movie-stars-look-straight-at-the-camera.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-use-for-ai-eye-contact-tech-is-making-movie-stars-look-straight-at-the-camera.htmlOver the past few years, a bunch of tools have been released that use AI to edit video calls in real time so that the caller is making eye contact with the camera. FaceTime can do it. Microsoft Teams can do it. And Nvidia Broadcast can do it, too. (Provided, in each case, you have the necessary hardware or software.) This tech comes with a bunch of interesting questions, of course./news/the-cast-of-baldur-s-gate-3-is-doing-a-d-d-one-shot-as-their-in-game-characters.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-cast-of-baldur-s-gate-3-is-doing-a-d-d-one-shot-as-their-in-game-characters.htmlLater this week, you can watch many cast members from Baldur’s Gate 3, a game that is based heavily on the mechanics and universe of Dungeons & Dragons, play the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons as their characters from the video game. It sounds meta but awesome. The cast members will be appearing on High Rollers, a live-play D&D show that streams on Twitch, on Friday at 7PM BST / 2PM ET / 11AM PT./news/the-ev-transition-trips-over-its-own-cord.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ev-transition-trips-over-its-own-cord.htmlOn paper, EVs are kicking ass. Electric vehicle sales are on track to hit 9 percent of all cars sold in the US by the end of the year. That’s a whopping 50 percent year-over-year increase, the second year in a row that EV sales have surged in that amount. The US is on track to buy 1 million EVs through the end of the year. Globally, those numbers get even more impressive: 14 million projected sold for the year, a 33 percent year-over-year increase./news/the-first-mandalorian-trailer-brings-a-little-mad-max-to-star-wars.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-mandalorian-trailer-brings-a-little-mad-max-to-star-wars.htmlThe first public trailer for Jon Favreau’s highly anticipated Star Wars series The Mandalorian has arrived, and it looks fantastic. Although a similar trailer was shown at Star Wars Celebration, it was never made available to the public. The trailer opens with helmets on stakes, and ominous shots of people hanging out in the desert. Then it moves into Star Wars action — fighting spaceships, battling droids, and face-to-face confrontations. It certainly feels freakier than a traditional Star Wars movie, but it also feels extremely Star Wars./news/the-first-trailer-for-guillermo-del-toro-s-cabinet-of-curiosities-looks-like-just-the-thing-for-h.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-first-trailer-for-guillermo-del-toro-s-cabinet-of-curiosities-looks-like-just-the-thing-for-h.htmlGuillermo del Toro is finally ready to show off the first proper trailer for his intriguing Netflix anthology called Cabinet of Curiosities. The series is made up of eight stories with names like “Graveyard Rats” and “Dreams in the Witch House,” and the first trailer definitely makes it seem like — while they’re all spooky — we’ll get a nice mix of genres and styles: haunted houses, gothic horror, and straight-up slasher stories./news/the-iphone-the-pixel-and-the-tragic-anxiety-of-having-to-choose.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-the-pixel-and-the-tragic-anxiety-of-having-to-choose.htmlI’ve had a restless weekend that’s spilling over into my work week. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that my work week has spilled over into my weekend. Whatever it is, I’ve been gripped by a fever of indecision caused by comparing Apple’s iPhone X and Google’s Pixel 2 XL side by side. I’m that rare human that has access to both phones and the ecosystem flexibility to not be immediately tied to iOS or Android./news/the-legend-of-zelda-link-s-awakening-on-switch-launches-in-september.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-legend-of-zelda-link-s-awakening-on-switch-launches-in-september.htmlOne of Nintendo’s most anticipated games finally has a release date. At its E3 2019 presentation today, Nintendo revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening will debut on the Switch on September 20th. First announced back in February, Link’s Awakening is a remake of the 1993 Game Boy classic of the same name. A new trailer released today not only gives a better look at the adorable visuals, but it also provides a few new details about the game itself./news/the-new-apple-music-voice-plan-costs-5-a-month-and-is-a-good-option-for-the-casual-listener.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-apple-music-voice-plan-costs-5-a-month-and-is-a-good-option-for-the-casual-listener.htmlThe new Apple Music Voice plan that Apple announced at its “Unleashed” event on Monday is causing some confusion. I’m here to help you understand this new, cheaper option, which capitalizes on the power of Apple’s smart voice assistant, Siri (don’t laugh). Put simply, the Apple Music Voice plan is a voice control-only access to the service’s catalog of 90 million songs. It arrives later this year, and with it, you can play everything — full albums, individual songs, Apple’s playlists; it’s all-you-can-eat Apple Music./news/the-ram-1500-ramcharger-is-an-ev-that-goes-further-on-gas.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ram-1500-ramcharger-is-an-ev-that-goes-further-on-gas.htmlStellantis is making a new electric-propelled Ram truck with a large EV battery pack linked to a gasoline engine that can extend range for long trips without frequent charging stops. The automaker’s new pickup, the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger, claims to go up to 690 miles on a full tank and charge. Since the Ramcharger runs on dual electric motors, a 250kW in the front and 238kW one in the rear, it’s effectively an EV./news/the-real-beauty-of-wordle-is-how-its-emoji-results-tell-a-story.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-real-beauty-of-wordle-is-how-its-emoji-results-tell-a-story.htmlDid you struggle with Wordle today? I sure as hell did, racking up my second ever failure since I started playing the game at the beginning of the year. I was annoyed at myself more than the puzzle and eased that frustration by sharing my results on Twitter. As I did, I realized why the game’s auto-generated grids of emoji are so brilliant. It’s not just that they’re social (though that certainly helps), nor is it that they’re intriguing (there’s no link to the game and no explanation for the uninitiated as to what the emoji mean)./news/the-ring-doorbell-could-have-been-hacked-to-show-fake-images-security-experts-find.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ring-doorbell-could-have-been-hacked-to-show-fake-images-security-experts-find.htmlA recently patched vulnerability in the Ring Doorbell could have let hackers feed fake images into the video feed, or eavesdrop on video and audio as it is broadcast. The Amazon-owned company has patched the vulnerability in the latest version of its app, but users running older versions of the Ring app could still be at risk. Researchers at Dojo by BullGuard published the details of the vulnerability in a report today./news/the-sims-mobile-offers-a-more-focused-accessible-version-than-any-before-it.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-sims-mobile-offers-a-more-focused-accessible-version-than-any-before-it.htmlThe Sims series has always been a game meant for long stretches of sitting, whether you’re clicking away on your computer or swapping decor ideas with a friend on your couch. It’s not a difficult game, but it does expect players to invest time into its expansive systems built around character design, home building and decorating, and social simulation. With the new mobile version, released this week, developer Maxis has expertly streamlined the experience into something that feels perfectly at home on your smartphone./news/the-tile-ultra-takes-on-airtags-with-uwb-powered-ar-tracking-coming-early-2022.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-tile-ultra-takes-on-airtags-with-uwb-powered-ar-tracking-coming-early-2022.htmlTile has officially announced its first ultra-wideband (UWB) tracking tag, the Tile Ultra, coming in 2022 and which Tile claims is the first tracking tag from any company to offer UWB support on both Android and iOS. Tile isn’t giving any information on price or a release date beyond “early 2022,” but it did provide an early preview of what the Ultra will look like and how it’ll work. From the outside, the Ultra looks similar to the newly updated Tile Pro, with a rounded, rectangular shape and a built-in key ring./news/the-ultimate-hotel-room-coffee-making-guide.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-ultimate-hotel-room-coffee-making-guide.htmlHere is my philosophy on great coffee: drink it if you can get it, and don’t be a snob if you can only get something basic. But I have my limits on what I’ll accept, and those limits are well above what’s usually available in the little basket in your typical American hotel room. I am currently sitting in my first hotel room in over a year and figure a few of you might be doing the same soon, so here’s my guide for how to make the best coffee./news/the-us-arrests-alleged-leader-of-onecoin-a-multibillion-dollar-cryptocurrency-scheme.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-us-arrests-alleged-leader-of-onecoin-a-multibillion-dollar-cryptocurrency-scheme.htmlAuthorities have arrested one leader on Wednesday of a cryptocurrency project called OneCoin, which prosecutors allege was in fact a pyramid scheme rather than a functional currency. Konstantin Ignatov was arrested on a wire fraud conspiracy charge, while his older sister, Ruja Ignatova, has been indicted for money laundering, and wire and securities fraud, in a document unsealed yesterday. Ignatova is currently at large. OneCoin, a Bulgaria-based company, was founded in 2014 and still has operations running today, according to the indictment./news/the-verge-archives-comics.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-archives-comics.htmlBlue Beetle will start streaming on Max next week. I missed this in theaters, but I’m excited to catch up on it when it debuts on November 17th, as Warner Bros. Discovery announced yesterday. Maybe the movie is a decade late, as Charles said in his review. But as a person who’s always fallen more on the DC side of the fence, this bit from his review’s opening paragraph has me looking forward to finally seeing it, anyway:/news/the-world-s-smallest-snowman-and-me.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-world-s-smallest-snowman-and-me.htmlThree microns. Just three (but actually a little bit less). How big is that? I don’t know, because human eyes and brains can’t perceive things that small. I mean, technically a micron is one-millionth of a meter and this snowman is three of those. A centimeter (which already is very small) is one-hundredth of a meter and a micron can fit into a centimeter 10,000 times. Jeepers! This is all meaningless to me, and you if you’re being honest./news/there-s-an-anti-dog-label-inside-the-galaxy-s8-here-s-what-it-means.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/there-s-an-anti-dog-label-inside-the-galaxy-s8-here-s-what-it-means.htmlNow that the Samsung Galaxy S8 is starting to arrive in customers’ hands, we’re also starting to see tons of durability tests and teardown videos on YouTube. Some viewers might notice from a few videos that there is a peculiar icon on the Galaxy S8 battery that depicts a dog with a bar across it. So what’s up with this anti-dog label? Let us explain. Does Samsung hate dogs? What’s this sticker supposed to mean?/news/thinkpad-x1-yoga-gen-6-review-flexible-flagship.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/thinkpad-x1-yoga-gen-6-review-flexible-flagship.htmlOnce upon a time, the Thinkpad X1 Yoga was Lenovo’s flagship business convertible, joining the clamshell X1 Carbon at the top of the company’s business hierarchy. These days, it has more company. We now have the paper-thin, titanium-coated X1 Titanium Yoga, the featherweight X1 Nano, and the powerhouse X1 Extreme kicking around, all of which are excellent, pricey, and could reasonably be considered flagships in their own right.  There’s a lot of innovation happening across the ThinkPad line, but the X1 Yoga retains a lot of the hallmark features that have graced old-school ThinkPads over the years./news/this-is-a-quietly-big-year-for-the-apple-tv-and-tvos.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-is-a-quietly-big-year-for-the-apple-tv-and-tvos.htmlApple today pushed out a slew of public betas across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. But I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t sleep on the other new beta released today: it’s for tvOS 17. After installing it, your first impression might be, “Hmmm... that’s all?” There aren’t any glaring interface changes or game-changing redesigns. But the more you explore the Apple TV’s latest software release, the clearer it becomes that this is one of the more significant updates Apple’s streaming box has received in many years./news/this-is-what-a-frozen-lake-sounds-like.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-is-what-a-frozen-lake-sounds-like.htmlIt was an hour into the new year on January 1st, and I was on the shores of a frozen lake in Rikkenstorp, a few hours from Stockholm. My friends and I had rented a house to spend a lovely New Year’s Eve playing board games and eating insane amounts of food. After toasting to the beginning of the new year and before heading to bed, we decided to go out to watch the stars./news/this-minecraft-library-is-making-censored-journalism-accessible-all-over-the-world.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-minecraft-library-is-making-censored-journalism-accessible-all-over-the-world.htmlMinecraft has established itself as a cultural phenomenon for many reasons: it’s creative, collaborative, and sufficiently facile as to be considered accessible to almost anybody. In isolation, these benefits seem relatively intriguing. In tandem, however, they form the perfect vehicle for Reporters Without Borders’ Uncensored Library, a virtual hub housing a collection of otherwise inaccessible journalism from all over the world, with specific sections devoted to Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam./news/this-router-hack-is-injecting-ads-and-porn-into-random-websites.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-router-hack-is-injecting-ads-and-porn-into-random-websites.htmlA new strain of malware is using routers to inject ads and pornography into websites, according to a report from Ara Labs. Once a router is compromised, the malware will load third-party content onto almost any website visited by the user. The attack alternates between loading ads and directly loading content from pornographic websites like adultyum.info and adultcameras.info. In both cases, it's functioning as a basic adware attack, redirecting targets as a pay of generating paid traffic for a client./news/those-coke-cans-with-names-on-them-increased-sales-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/those-coke-cans-with-names-on-them-increased-sales-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade.htmlIt turns out all it takes to reverse a decade-long sales decline is to slap names onto soda bottles. Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign, which saw names like Chris, Alex, and Jess, as well as monikers like "BFF" and "Wingman" emblazoned on bottles and cans, is credited for increasing the company's US soft drink sales by 0.4 percent year-over-year, according to data reported in The Wall Street Journal. The increase came after 11 straight years of dropping sales./news/tiktok-is-paying-creators-to-up-its-search-game.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-is-paying-creators-to-up-its-search-game.htmlTikTok is leaning in even more to its app being used like a search engine. Creators making money on the platform will now be paid based in part on how well their content meets what other users are searching for. TikTok calls this metric “search value,” and it’s one of four core elements in determining creator payouts. TikTok announced the change as part of its new monetization program, called Creator Rewards./news/tinyletter-looking-back-on-the-humblest-newsletter-platform.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tinyletter-looking-back-on-the-humblest-newsletter-platform.html{props.credit} ) }const containers = document.querySelectorAll(".w-full figure.w-full"); containers.forEach(container => {const root = ReactDOM.createRoot(container); root.render()}) Before there was Substack, and long before the word “creator” was used with any kind of seriousness, there was a small newsletter tool that captured a moment: TinyLetter.  Appropriately humble in name, TinyLetter was light on features and heavy on focus. The canvas was a blank text box; the platform itself the most bare-bones way to send a bunch of emails./news/twitter-ceo-linda-yaccarino-says-company-should-be-global-town-square.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-ceo-linda-yaccarino-says-company-should-be-global-town-square.htmlBuilding Twitter 2.0 Together Hello Twitter! People keep asking me: Why Twitter? So, I’ll tell you. From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation, so he did it. More recently it has become increasingly clear that the global town square needs transformation—to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us. Have you ever been talking with someone particularly insightful and thought, You’re brilliant—everybody should get the chance to hear this./news/uber-drivers-in-california-join-with-teamsters-union-to-fight-for-better-benefits.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uber-drivers-in-california-join-with-teamsters-union-to-fight-for-better-benefits.htmlNot long after Uber settled its two worker misclassification lawsuits in California and Massachusetts, contractors are still putting pressure on the ride-hailing behemoth. Drivers in California are partnering with the Teamsters Union to create the App-Based Drivers Association (ABDA), a group that will push Uber to provide better wages and working conditions and give the contractors a stronger voice. Giving drivers a stronger voice "We welcome any Uber drivers seeking to improve their working conditions,"/news/uber-wants-to-patent-a-system-that-detects-when-you-re-drunk.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uber-wants-to-patent-a-system-that-detects-when-you-re-drunk.htmlAnybody who’s ever shared an Uber with a drunken stranger knows that it can be a loud, tiresome, and downright gross experience. Right now, there isn’t much that drivers (and carpoolers) can do to steer clear of these sorts of people, but artificial intelligence could be a solution. According to a patent application spotted by CNN, Uber has drawn up a plan for AI that detects a user’s drunken behavior to accommodate them before they get into the backseat./news/uber-will-pay-4-4-million-to-settle-a-federal-probe-into-sexual-harassment-and-retaliation.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uber-will-pay-4-4-million-to-settle-a-federal-probe-into-sexual-harassment-and-retaliation.htmlUber has agreed to pay $4.4 million to settle charges of sexual harassment and retaliation brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on Wednesday. The EEOC’s investigation found “reasonable cause” to believe those allegations The EEOC’s investigation found “reasonable cause” to believe those allegations, which violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under the terms of the settlement, Uber agrees to establish a fund of $4./news/uber-s-posh-electric-rideshare-service-is-coming-to-nyc.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/uber-s-posh-electric-rideshare-service-is-coming-to-nyc.htmlUber is bringing its all-electric luxury rideshare service to its biggest market yet: New York City. The launch will coincide with the rollout of new product features aimed at steering its customers toward greener choices when using Uber. Uber first launched its Comfort Electric service, in which customers can hail trips in premium priced EVs like Tesla, Polestar, and Ford Mustang Mach-E, in May 2022. And since then, the service has rolled out in 41 cities, the latest now being New York./news/us-voice-assistant-scene-plays-off-a-real-911-problem-for-smart-speakers.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/us-voice-assistant-scene-plays-off-a-real-911-problem-for-smart-speakers.htmlIf you haven’t seen Jordan Peele’s new horror movie Us, I apologize for spoiling one minor plot point: the film features a smart speaker. We’re going to be discussing much bigger spoilers below, so you might want to avoid reading further. If you have seen Us, you probably remember “Ophelia,” the Amazon Alexa-like voice assistant that plays a key role in one of the film’s most darkly funny scenes. Ophelia is good at playing music, but not great at interpreting commands — which becomes a problem when a character frantically tells Ophelia to call the police, only to discover that Ophelia has misheard an order to play N./news/viewsonic-s-new-elite-gaming-monitors-are-compatible-with-multiple-rgb-lighting-ecosystems.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/viewsonic-s-new-elite-gaming-monitors-are-compatible-with-multiple-rgb-lighting-ecosystems.htmlElite, ViewSonic’s new gaming monitor sub-brand, has announced a pair of new gaming monitors, dubbed the ​XG240R​ and ​XG350R-C​, equipped with 16:9 standard and 21:9 ultrawide displays, respectively. They are typical, flashy gaming monitors that have high refresh rates and use AMD FreeSync to avoid screen tearing, but their true standout feature is that they both support multiple PC lighting ecosystems. That’s right. You can mix and match peripherals, but still maintain synced lighting./news/virtua-racing-on-switch-review-stunning-update-of-a-technical-landmark.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/virtua-racing-on-switch-review-stunning-update-of-a-technical-landmark.htmlVirtua Racing is one of the most important games in Sega’s history, but there’s never been a perfect way to play it outside of an arcade. Despite multiple attempts, from the technically flawed Mega Drive and Saturn conversions to the ground-up PlayStation 2 remake, Sega hasn’t quite been able to capture the 1992 classic within the comfort of your home. Until now, anyway. Sega’s new version of Virtua Racing is incredible, and since it’s on the Nintendo Switch, you’re getting a portable version into the bargain as well./news/vizio-is-launching-a-free-streaming-service-and-giving-it-its-own-tv-input.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vizio-is-launching-a-free-streaming-service-and-giving-it-its-own-tv-input.htmlVizio is partnering with Pluto TV to add a free video streaming service, called WatchFree, to “nearly all” of the company’s SmartCast televisions. WatchFree will get its own dedicated input, so it’ll have nearly the same prominence as your HDMI inputs and the main SmartCast screen. WatchFree is rolling out starting today. When you switch over to it, you can browse between “more than 100 live and linear channels” covering TV shows, movies, news, sports, concerts, and “viral videos,” according to Vizio./news/watch-odysseus-attempt-the-first-us-moon-landing-since-1972-at-6-24pm-et.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-odysseus-attempt-the-first-us-moon-landing-since-1972-at-6-24pm-et.htmlIntuitive Machines has just made history by becoming the first private aerospace company to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface. Following its launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last Thursday, the robotic Nova-C “Odysseus” lander built by Intuitive Machines has now touched down — also making it the first US spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. Described by NASA as a “hexagonal cylinder” on six legs, the Nova-C Odysseus lander is carrying several science and research payloads for the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which aims to collect important data about the Moon’s surface./news/which-m2-mac-is-right-for-you.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/which-m2-mac-is-right-for-you.htmlApple makes a lot of Macs with M2 chips. There’s the regular M2, which you can get in a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro — but be careful of calling that the M2 Pro for short because there’s also a processor called the M2 Pro, which you can also get in a MacBook, but you can also get that MacBook Pro with this other chip called the M2 Max. If you’re confused, you’re not alone./news/why-influencers-love-a-free-trip-even-a-controversial-one-from-shein.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-influencers-love-a-free-trip-even-a-controversial-one-from-shein.htmlThousands of influencers post content online with one goal: getting a brand deal. It’s affirmation that they’ve “made it” as an influencer, that they’re interesting enough to be paid to post, and that content creation could be a job. It’s usually a good thing — until, of course, it blows up in your face. It’s not clear to me why anyone involved in Shein’s recent PR campaign thought it was a good idea to send influencers on a free trip to try to beat the labor exploitation accusations that plague the company./news/xbox-one-exclusive-quantum-break-aims-to-blend-tv-with-gaming-for-a-revolutionary-entertainment-e.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xbox-one-exclusive-quantum-break-aims-to-blend-tv-with-gaming-for-a-revolutionary-entertainment-e.htmlMicrosoft has just launched its new Xbox One, and one of the first confirmed games for the next-generation console is Quantum Break. Created by Remedy Entertainment, the team behind Max Payne and Alan Wake, and produced by Microsoft Studios, the game was announced alongside Microsoft's Forza and a number of EA Sports titles. Quantum Break merges a TV show and gaming together to create what Remedy calls a "revolutionary entertainment experience./news/yakuza-director-announces-new-studio-after-leaving-sega.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yakuza-director-announces-new-studio-after-leaving-sega.htmlToshihiro Nagoshi, former chief creative officer at Sega, where he led development of the Yakuza series as general director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, has announced his next move. He’s started up his own studio, simply titled Nagoshi Studio, which is being wholly funded by Chinese internet and gaming company NetEase. Nagoshi announced his departure from Sega last October, but today’s news also follows a report from Bloomberg back in August that named NetEase as his prospective future partner./news/you-can-but-shouldn-t-play-tetris-on-the-dash-of-this-russian-truck.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-but-shouldn-t-play-tetris-on-the-dash-of-this-russian-truck.htmlTetris, the quintessential Russian video game, is apparently — and inexplicably — included as an Easter Egg in some models of the GAZelle Next vans. To play, you need to perform the automotive version of the Konami Code, which is to say click the odometer and clutch a specific number of times while revving the engine. That makes the game appear on the screen behind the steering wheel. Here’s a closer look:/news/you-can-buy-this-100-mph-drone-try-not-to-hurt-anyone.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-buy-this-100-mph-drone-try-not-to-hurt-anyone.htmlI traveled to the Aerodrome yesterday for the third annual CES Drone Rodeo. The venue is empty desert next to picturesque mountains, just beyond the restricted air space around Las Vegas. There was a lineup of DJI drones anyone could fly and an augmented reality game that let you dogfight with virtual lasers. But the main attraction was the race course and the new Draco drone from UVify. In the past if you wanted a racing drone, you had to build it yourself./news/you-might-want-to-be-extra-careful-with-your-pre-ban-apple-watch.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-might-want-to-be-extra-careful-with-your-pre-ban-apple-watch.htmlYou might want to be extra careful with your pre-ban Apple Watch. If you got a Series 9 or Ultra 2 before Apple had to remove the blood oxygen feature from new ones on January 17th, congrats! But if you break your watch doing parkour and replace it with AppleCare, will you lose the feature? That’s a “definite maybe,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. He wrote today in the subscriber version of Power On that Apple has told AppleCare reps that replacements might not have it./news/youtube-music-s-new-samples-tab-is-made-to-help-you-discover-new-music.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-music-s-new-samples-tab-is-made-to-help-you-discover-new-music.htmlYouTube Music is trying out a new way to help you find something to listen to. It’s called Samples, and it occupies a new tab in the YouTube Music app. The company describes it as “a seamless feed of short form video segments to get you to your new favorite music,” which is just TikTok. Samples is TikTok, except it’s exclusively made up of small snippets of music videos. Given the way music discovery operates in 2023, it could work./news/youtuber-hacks-together-diy-version-of-intel-s-dual-screen-honeycomb-laptop.htmlSat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtuber-hacks-together-diy-version-of-intel-s-dual-screen-honeycomb-laptop.htmlAs well as doubling your screen real estate, Perks notes that the project has ergonomic benefits because the top screen is much closer to eye level. “I’m so surprised that this kind of thing isn’t more common,” he muses at the beginning of the video, before hoping that a mass-market manufacturer steps in to steal his idea and turn it into a fully fledged product. “I’m so surprised that this kind of thing isn’t more common./news/first-click-twitter-s-battle-between-hearts-and-stars-is-a-battle-for-hearts-and-minds.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/first-click-twitter-s-battle-between-hearts-and-stars-is-a-battle-for-hearts-and-minds.htmlThing is, stars and hearts are not synonymous. To star something is to measure its quality. To heart something is to emote it. These are lessons learned long ago in grade school: gold stars were reserved for a 100 percent on a math test or when Mario defeated Macho Grubba, hearts were doled out like Valentines by a horny Periscope user. To change the icon would change the very meaning of a favorited tweet./news/on-the-road-with-george-hotz-s-1-000-self-driving-car-kit.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/on-the-road-with-george-hotz-s-1-000-self-driving-car-kit.htmlIn a splashy Bloomberg Business feature published late last year, Hotz was less conciliatory. Otherwise known as geohot, the programmer first earned worldwide fame by cracking the iPhone and the PlayStation 3 as a teen. Now, he is the CEO and founder of Comma.ai, a company that aims to get self-driving cars on the road by the end of the year. In the Bloomberg profile, he called Mobileye — the outfit behind the driver-assist tech at Tesla and a number of other major car manufacturers — "/news/the-jesse-owens-biopic-race-is-a-polite-movie-about-an-ugly-time.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-jesse-owens-biopic-race-is-a-polite-movie-about-an-ugly-time.htmlGiven all the the talk right now about representation in the Oscars, it seems painfully perverse that the Jesse Owens biopic Race is coming out a couple of months too late to qualify for this year's awards. Race is exactly the kind of film the Academy loves to honor: bland, uplifting, respectable, engaged with historical social issues, but not too controversial or directly tied to the present. Its star, Stephan James, is precisely the kind of actor the Academy loves to respect./news/community-creator-dan-harmon-confirms-return-to-show.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/community-creator-dan-harmon-confirms-return-to-show.htmlWhen Community returned to NBC for its fourth season, it did so without show creator Dan Harmon. Now he has confirmed that he's making a return to Greendale Community College. "Yes yes yes! I'm back I'm back I'm back," he wrote on Twitter, in response to a fan. "You can thank (Community actor) Joel McHale." The show recently completed its fourth season on May 9th, though it's struggled to maintain much of its original charm since Harmon's departure./news/11-great-apps-ready-for-your-new-2020-m1-mac.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/11-great-apps-ready-for-your-new-2020-m1-mac.htmlThis year marked the introduction of the first Macs to be powered by Apple’s own silicon instead of Intel chips. As is evidenced by our reviews of the M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, these machines are incredibly powerful and offer wicked fast performance. This is especially true for apps that are designed to run natively on them and take full advantage of Apple’s latest technologies. So in that vein, this year’s Mac apps list is going to focus on some of the software that has already been optimized for this new era of Apple hardware./news/18-space-suits-from-science-fiction-from-worst-to-best.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/18-space-suits-from-science-fiction-from-worst-to-best.htmlSpace suits are cool — and complicated. Earlier this week, my colleague Loren Grush launched her new series Space Craft by seeing what wearing one is like. The answer? Exhausting. Unsurprisingly, science fiction writers, movie directors, and prop-makers also love space suits — you’ll find them everywhere from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Have Space Suit — Will Travel, to the latest Alien movie. But not everybody does their homework: for every fictional space suit that’s more than just a fancy costume, there’s one that’s impractical and nonsensical even in a fictional world./news/2016-as-a-horror-movie-parody-is-a-dumb-idea-but-there-is-one-good-joke-in-there.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/2016-as-a-horror-movie-parody-is-a-dumb-idea-but-there-is-one-good-joke-in-there.htmlA horror movie parody of 2016 is not funny to me, broadly speaking, because lots of people really did die, and as many have already pointed out, calling 2016 “the worst year ever” is a feeble accusation when almost everything that went wrong was our own fault. Also, ooooh baby, the next four years will be much, much worse. 2016 as the worst year ever is an overplayed meme, and was never a fun one./news/a-chinese-reporter-s-frustrated-eye-roll-goes-viral-in-china-and-is-censored.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-chinese-reporter-s-frustrated-eye-roll-goes-viral-in-china-and-is-censored.htmlChinese reporter Liang Xiangyi eye-rolled during another reporter’s long-winded question at the National People’s Congress yesterday and the moment has gone viral. Many Chinese residents have created dozens of videos, GIFs, memes, and illustrations inspired by the scene, having identified with Liang’s frustration. (Since Liang dressed in blue and the other reporter dressed in red, the moment has also birthed blue and red memes.) Chinese state-run media has responded by censoring the videos of the incident./news/acer-s-predator-triton-900-review-weird-flex.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/acer-s-predator-triton-900-review-weird-flex.htmlThe inarguable highlight of Acer’s new Predator Triton 900 gaming laptop is its gorgeous 17.3-inch 4K IPS LCD display that floats above the chassis. Okay, it’s not exactly floating. The sturdy arms attached to the screen’s sides play a central role in the effect, giving it a huge range of movement, more so than almost any other laptop made for gaming or not. It’s like if the articulating screen from the Microsoft Surface Studio all-in-one desktop came to a laptop, along with a similarly high price./news/aftershokz-s-aeropex-are-refined-bone-conduction-headphones-with-most-of-the-same-snags.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/aftershokz-s-aeropex-are-refined-bone-conduction-headphones-with-most-of-the-same-snags.htmlAs someone who swears by over-ear noise-canceling headphones, I like Aftershokz’s new Aeropex more than I thought I would. These are bone conduction headphones, meaning you don’t put them in your ears. Instead, the Aeropex rely on fingertip-sized transducers to push sound through the left and right sides of your cheekbones. The transducers vibrate as music plays, much like a driver inside of an earbud does, except this vibration makes its way to your inner ear by taking an alternate route through your skin and bones./news/alien-covenant-review-a-terrifying-return-to-horror-that-doesn-t-quite-click.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alien-covenant-review-a-terrifying-return-to-horror-that-doesn-t-quite-click.htmlWhen Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise with 2012’s Prometheus, one of the primary criticisms was that the film wasn’t really, well, Alien-esque. Rather than build upon the sci-fi / horror formula he had created in 1979, Scott went in a different direction with a film that was much more concerned with questions about the origins of humanity and our place in the universe. It was an intentional shift, with Scott even saying at the time that the film shouldn’t be taken as a direct prequel to his previous work, but that didn’t do much to curb audience expectations./news/all-of-lost-will-stream-for-free-on-amazon-s-imdb-tv-streaming-service.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/all-of-lost-will-stream-for-free-on-amazon-s-imdb-tv-streaming-service.htmlSome good news for Lost fans: all 121 episodes of the series will soon be available to stream for free. The only downside is that it requires using yet another streaming service — and dealing with ads. IMDb TV, a free streaming service owned by Amazon, will be the exclusive free streaming service for Lost, according to Variety. Fans of Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse’s ABC drama will be available to stream the episodes beginning May 1st, marking the 10th anniversary month of the series finale./news/all-of-these-faces-are-fake-celebrities-spawned-by-ai.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/all-of-these-faces-are-fake-celebrities-spawned-by-ai.htmlOne of the more unexpected outcomes of the contemporary AI boom is just how good these systems are at generating fake imagery. The latest example comes from chipmaker Nvidia, which published a paper showing how AI can create photorealistic pictures of fake celebrities. Generating fake celebs isn’t in itself new, but researchers say these are the most convincing and detailed pictures of their type ever made. The video below shows the process in full, starting with the database of celebrity images the system was trained on./news/alphabet-executive-named-in-nyt-sexual-misconduct-expos%C3%A9-resigns.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alphabet-executive-named-in-nyt-sexual-misconduct-expos%C3%A9-resigns.htmlAn executive at Google parent company Alphabet’s X division has resigned after being named in a high-profile New York Times investigation into the company’s mishandling of sexual harassment claims, according to Axios. The executive, Rich DeVaul, held the title of “Director of Rapid Evaluation and Mad Science” at X, formerly known as Google X and the division responsible for Alphabet’s experimental “moonshots” projects like self-driving car unit Waymo and the Google Glass wearable headset./news/alphabet-s-drone-delivery-marketplace-is-waiting-for-one-thing-drones-that-won-t-crash.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alphabet-s-drone-delivery-marketplace-is-waiting-for-one-thing-drones-that-won-t-crash.htmlGoogle’s parent company Alphabet has ambitions to open an online marketplace where customers could place orders on food, coffee, and other goods to be delivered by drone, according to The Wall Street Journal. Alphabet’s X division, the “moonshot factory” where the company’s most outrageous ideas are sent to sink or swim, has apparently met with businesses like Whole Foods, Domino’s, and Starbucks about the service. “Wing Marketplace,” as it’s reportedly being called, would give these companies a way to make deliveries to people’s homes in just a few minutes, with customers paying a $6 “drone delivery fee” on top of the cost of each order./news/amazon-now-lets-you-buy-games-on-luna-but-only-ubisoft-ones.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-now-lets-you-buy-games-on-luna-but-only-ubisoft-ones.htmlAmazon now offers the ability to buy games on its Luna cloud gaming service, but the new feature comes with a big catch: at least for now, you’ll only be able to buy select Ubisoft titles. For me, Amazon was advertising games you can buy right on the main Luna homepage, including the just-released Assassin’s Creed Mirage. However, if you end up buying an Ubisoft game on Luna, you’ll need an Amazon Prime or a Luna Plus subscription to be able to stream that purchased game, according to an Amazon blog post about the feature./news/amazon-s-alexa-and-cisco-s-webex-are-heading-to-deep-space-on-nasa-s-upcoming-moon-mission.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-alexa-and-cisco-s-webex-are-heading-to-deep-space-on-nasa-s-upcoming-moon-mission.htmlWhen NASA debuts its new massive deep-space rocket for the first time in the coming months, a familiar voice assistant and video teleconferencing tool will be going along for the ride. A version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and Cisco’s Webex videoconferencing platform will be included on the flight to space, part of a technology demonstration to see if these tools might benefit future astronauts flying to distant destinations like the Moon and Mars./news/an-unprecedented-nintendo-leak-turns-into-a-moral-dilemma-for-archivists.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/an-unprecedented-nintendo-leak-turns-into-a-moral-dilemma-for-archivists.htmlFor the past week, Nintendo fans have resembled digital archaeologists. Following a massive leak of source code and other internal documents — appropriately dubbed the gigaleak — previously unknown details from the company’s biggest games have steadily trickled out. Those poring over the code have uncovered a new Animal Crossing villager, early prototypes for games like Pokémon Diamond, cut characters from Star Fox, a very weird Yoshi, and strange titles like a hockey RPG./news/analyst-suggests-the-iphone-14-will-have-an-autofocus-front-camera.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/analyst-suggests-the-iphone-14-will-have-an-autofocus-front-camera.htmlApple’s next iPhones could have an improved selfie camera, with autofocus capabilities and a wider aperture, according to a prediction by well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Unlike Apple’s current fixed-focus design, an autofocus-enabled front-facing camera could let the iPhone 14 take clearer pictures even if you’re closer or further away from the camera. A wider aperture — Kuo predicts f/1.9 vs. the iPhone 13’s f/2.2 — would add a touch of background blur and let in more light, making it slightly better for nighttime selfies or FaceTime portrait mode./news/android-101-how-to-download-or-share-a-google-photos-album.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/android-101-how-to-download-or-share-a-google-photos-album.htmlOne thing Google really wants you to do is, well, stay in Google — because the more you do things the Google way, the more data the company can monetize. The result is that while it is possible to pull your emails, photos, and other material outside of the Googleverse, it’s just a little bit more difficult. For example, let’s say you want to show an album of family photos that are stored on Google Photos to your favorite grandparent./news/anker-s-solix-home-solar-battery-system-is-its-answer-to-tesla-s-powerwall.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/anker-s-solix-home-solar-battery-system-is-its-answer-to-tesla-s-powerwall.htmlAnker is generally known for making smartphone power adapters and USB cables for home and on the go, but now the company is trying something new. At the company’s ReCharge event in New York City on Tuesday, it’s unveiled a new “Solix” line of products that’s focused on keeping your home powered, even if the grid goes down. It’s also adding a battery for use with its DIY balcony-mounted solar panel solution to bring a bit of stored energy independence to apartment dwellers and renters./news/apple-has-reportedly-canceled-the-next-iphone-se.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-has-reportedly-canceled-the-next-iphone-se.htmlWe may not be getting a new iPhone SE in 2024, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who bases his predictions on sources in the supply chain. On Friday, Kuo wrote in a blog post that Apple had canceled production and shipment plans for the phone after his prediction last month that a fourth-gen iPhone SE could be canceled or delayed. Kuo thinks the reason the phone is getting axed could be that Apple’s lower-end phones were selling worse than the company hoped (in September, Bloomberg reported that there was more demand for iPhone 14 Pros than regular iPhone 14s) and due to concerns that another price increase for the lineup could make it less attractive to price-conscious buyers./news/apple-s-airpods-are-being-upgraded-with-powerful-accessibility-features.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-airpods-are-being-upgraded-with-powerful-accessibility-features.htmlAs it has done in years past, Apple outlined upcoming new software features coming to the company’s current lineup of AirPods earbuds and headphones today. Apple is introducing Siri Interactions, which includes new gesture controls for AirPods to control Siri in new ways. You can shake your head yes or no to respond without needing to use your voice, which is particularly useful in loud environments. AirPods Pro are getting new Voice Isolation technology that utilizes the H2 chip and machine learning to isolate and enhance voice quality while removing background noise like wind so the listener can hear you clearly./news/apple-s-first-vision-pro-beta-lets-you-bring-virtual-items-closer.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-first-vision-pro-beta-lets-you-bring-virtual-items-closer.htmlThe first visionOS developer beta since the launch of the Apple Vision Pro is here, bringing with it a fix that lets users of the headset get closer to objects in a 3D space. In visionOS, when you get close enough to an object or an app window, it starts to fade to nothing as you pass through it. But one of The Verge’s staffers said the point where this fade happens when playing something like STAK!/news/arcade-fire-claims-to-have-put-their-album-on-a-109-fidget-spinner.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/arcade-fire-claims-to-have-put-their-album-on-a-109-fidget-spinner.htmlEarlier today, Arcade Fire fans went through a roller coaster of emotions as the Canadian band announced their new album, Everything Now, was available on a limited-edition fidget spinner, and then announced it was promptly sold out. The listing, showing a black-and-white fidget spinner with a USB connection, was supposedly on sale for $109 and included an additional booklet. A few weeks back, Pitchfork reported that the band had denounced unofficial Arcade Fire fidget spinners that were being sold on Amazon, with the band saying that “official, ‘infinite content’ spinners are coming./news/arlo-ceo-says-company-won-t-take-away-free-seven-day-cloud-storage-from-existing-customers.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/arlo-ceo-says-company-won-t-take-away-free-seven-day-cloud-storage-from-existing-customers.htmlThe end-of-life policy was due to go into effect January 1st, 2023, and removed a big selling point — seven-day free cloud storage — for many Arlo cams. McRae now says all users with the seven-day storage service will “continue to receive that service uninterrupted.” But he did note that “any future migrations will be handled in a seamless manner,” indicating there are changes coming still. The thread did not provide details on specific models other than using the Arlo Pro 2 as an example of a camera that will now EOL in 2025 instead of 2024, as previously announced, with security updates continuing until 2026./news/astrophotographer-s-animated-gif-displays-fantastic-artistic-3d-vision-of-a-nebula.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/astrophotographer-s-animated-gif-displays-fantastic-artistic-3d-vision-of-a-nebula.htmlThe truly massive clouds of gas and dust that we call Nebulae are often the subjects of some spectacular photography, but these pictures leave the task of visualizing the 3D-space a nebula takes up to our imagination. That challenge inspired Finnish astrophotographer J-P Mestävainio to create artistically-interpreted 3D animations of nebula he's photographed. His method involves adding interpretations and educated guesses based on the formation of the nebula and a rule-of-thumb that brighter stars are closer than darker ones to known data about the nebula, like distance and the location of certain stars around it to create a 3D model of the nebula./news/australian-brushfires-worsen-threaten-to-morph-into-dangerous-fire-tornado.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/australian-brushfires-worsen-threaten-to-morph-into-dangerous-fire-tornado.htmlA handful of separate wildfires raging west of Sydney, Australia, have already ravaged 300,000 acres of land and destroyed 200 houses. As they continue to burn, officials are warning that some of the blazes could merge into one "mega-fire" and then spark a freaky phenomenon known as a "fire cloud." And in some instances, they're warning that such clouds can actually catalyze tornados. Already, the Blue Mountains region — where the worst of the fires are roaring — has seen something of a perfect storm of weather conditions for brushfires./news/baldur-s-gate-3-is-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/baldur-s-gate-3-is-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.htmlBaldur’s Gate 3 is the gift that keeps on giving. In celebration of this year’s game of the year finally arriving on Xbox, Larian Studios is giving fans a little treat. Because we deserve. Larian, in collaboration with Mashed animation, writer Emily Gera, and the principal Baldur’s Gate 3 voice cast, created this fantastic animated featurette about the Tadfools getting together to celebrate the holidays. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn9wfpBoaW1oYWZ%2Bd4COm5ilnKWnwG6zwK2cZmtdnsBuwMeeZKChlql6tbTArWSknZWlwG67zWaeoq6Zo7Q%3D/news/banks-fined-549-million-for-hiding-messages-in-imessage-and-signal.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/banks-fined-549-million-for-hiding-messages-in-imessage-and-signal.htmlSeveral US financial firms, including multiple Wells Fargo companies, will pay a combined $549 million in fines after admitting they couldn’t produce discussions about company business from smartphone messaging apps used by their employees, “including those at senior levels.” Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined banks for being unable to produce discussions going back to at least 2019. The regulators say employees used their personal devices to discuss official company business via apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, or Signal and that those “off-channel communications” weren’t “maintained or preserved./news/belkin-s-matter-pause-shows-the-tension-in-the-smart-home-standard.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/belkin-s-matter-pause-shows-the-tension-in-the-smart-home-standard.htmlThe news that Belkin is pausing its promised Wemo Matter products illustrates an underlying tension in the new smart home standard: the conflict between developing for the greater good and keeping all your eggs in your own basket. Matter is a connectivity standard that lets smart home devices talk to each other directly, locally, and securely across any platform. It re-engineers the foundations of the smart home and levels the playing field for manufacturers./news/ben-shapiro-and-the-conservative-podcasters-after-his-throne.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ben-shapiro-and-the-conservative-podcasters-after-his-throne.htmlThere’s a big brouhaha going on in the conservative podcasting space that is drawing in the genre’s top names. It is, ostensibly, about the Israel-Hamas war. But at its core we are seeing a play for audience in one of the medium’s most competitive spaces. The first thing to know is that Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire’s co-founder and the face of the network, is emphatically pro-Israel, reflecting the sentiment of the right-wing establishment./news/bentley-reveals-details-about-its-flying-spur-hybrid-the-most-efficient-bentley-ever.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bentley-reveals-details-about-its-flying-spur-hybrid-the-most-efficient-bentley-ever.htmlLuxury carmaker Bentley has announced details about its Flying Spur Hybrid sedan, its second Bentley hybrid, which the company claims is the “most efficient Bentley ever.” Using just the electric motor, Bentley says you’ll be able to drive for more than 40 kilometers (or just under 25 miles), and the company says the car offers a “total driving range” of more than 700 kilometers (just under 435 miles). The Flying Spur Hybrid will be able to accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 4./news/blackberry-keyone-review-part-productivity-part-nostalgia.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blackberry-keyone-review-part-productivity-part-nostalgia.htmlIt was in about the third hour of using the new BlackBerry KeyOne, available this month for $549 unlocked, that I started to question my longtime preference for touchscreen keyboards. Because as I was pushing on the KeyOne’s tiny little buttons with the tips of my thumbs, I remembered why some people still have such an affinity for these things. It wasn’t that I was able to type faster with the BlackBerry’s keyboard (I wasn’t), or that I was more accurate with it (I still used autocorrect)./news/boston-police-indefinitely-suspend-license-plate-reader-program-citing-privacy-concerns.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/boston-police-indefinitely-suspend-license-plate-reader-program-citing-privacy-concerns.htmlPrivacy advocates scored a major victory in Boston this week when the city’s police department announced it would indefinitely suspend its use of automated license plate readers. The Boston Globe reports that the 14 devices currently in use let the BPD scan as many as four million vehicles a year, compiling the resulting date, time, and GPS coordinates into a massive database of private citizens’ movements around the city. Commissioner William Evans aims to review the policy surrounding license plate readers "/news/bowser-has-been-freed-from-prison.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bowser-has-been-freed-from-prison.htmlConsole hacker Gary Bowser is getting released from federal prison after spending over two years behind bars, as first reported by TorrentFreak (via Gizmodo). In an interview with YouTuber Nick Moses, Bowser says he was released to a Washington detention center last month, where he now awaits his return to his home country of Canada. Bowser was arrested and charged with fraud in 2020 for his role in Team Xecuter, a hacking group that made and sold mod chips for the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, NES Classic Edition, Sony’s PlayStation Classic, and other consoles./news/brandon-sanderson-s-stormlight-archive-vr-experience-is-out-now.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/brandon-sanderson-s-stormlight-archive-vr-experience-is-out-now.htmlThe first VR experience based on author Brandon Sanderson’s popular Stormlight Archive series has arrived. The Way of Kings: Escape the Shattered Plains marks the first time that the books have been translated to a visual medium, giving fans the chance to put themselves in the shoes of one of the series’ main heroes, Kaladin Stormblessed, as well as get the chance to see what a possible film or TV show adaptation could look like further down the line./news/chipotle-opening-prototype-online-only-ordering-digital-kitchen.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chipotle-opening-prototype-online-only-ordering-digital-kitchen.htmlChipotle announced it’s opening a new “Digital Kitchen” restaurant this month in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (about 40 miles south of Cleveland) — which will exclusively accept online orders. Hungry customers should avoid knocking on that pickup window expecting to have their order taken The prototype location will offer its pickup-only drive-thru “Chipotlane,” some outdoor seats and tables for eating (no dining room), and a walk-up window. Hungry customers should avoid knocking on that pickup window expecting to have their order taken./news/chips-act-clears-congress-ensuring-52-billion-boost-to-us-foundries.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/chips-act-clears-congress-ensuring-52-billion-boost-to-us-foundries.htmlIt might get cheaper and easier to buy popular tech products, like gaming consoles and graphics cards, after Congress approved $52 billion in funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. In a 243-187 vote on Thursday, the House passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen US science and technology innovation. The bill, a Biden administration priority, includes $52 billion in subsidies to encourage chip manufacturers to build out semiconductor fabrications plants, or “fabs,” in the US./news/comradery-is-developing-a-cooperative-way-to-get-paid-online.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/comradery-is-developing-a-cooperative-way-to-get-paid-online.htmlIt’s easy to compare Comradery to Patreon. Both allow creators to collect money from subscribers, and both allow them to offer content, bonuses, and updates in return. But where Patreon is beholden to venture capital, Comradery is controlled democratically by the people who use it. “The one thing a venture capital tech company can never deliver is long-term stability,” says Ty Underwood, a developer at Comradery. When funded by investors, platforms often squeeze creators by taking increased cuts./news/connected-safe-maker-vaultek-issues-security-update-after-researchers-discover-bluetooth-vulnerabili.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/connected-safe-maker-vaultek-issues-security-update-after-researchers-discover-bluetooth-vulnerabili.htmlThe security company tested out a Vaultek VT20i safe, which owners can lock with a PIN and pair with an Android App. The app uses a pairing code that is the same as the PIN, and allows an unlimited number of attempts to get in. The lab was able to write a program to use brute force to guess the password. Furthermore, the researchers found that the connection between the phone and the safe aren’t encrypted (contrary to the Vaultek’s claims), meaning that the information could be intercepted./news/costco-members-can-buy-a-playstation-5-bundle-right-now-update-sold-out.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/costco-members-can-buy-a-playstation-5-bundle-right-now-update-sold-out.htmlUpdate June 6th, 8:03PM ET: Costco has removed the landing page for its PlayStation 5 bundle, indicating it has sold out or is simply no longer available. If you’re a Costco member, you now have another chance at nabbing Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. Right now, the retailer is selling the disc-based PS5 console in a bundle with an extra DualSense controller, a Pulse 3D wireless headset, a DualSense charging station, and four $25 PlayStation Store gift cards all for $789./news/deepfake-dubs-could-help-translate-film-and-tv-without-losing-an-actor-s-original-performance.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/deepfake-dubs-could-help-translate-film-and-tv-without-losing-an-actor-s-original-performance.htmlWhat exactly is lost in translation when TV shows and films are subbed or dubbed into a new language? It’s a hard question to answer, but for the team at AI startup Flawless, it may be one we don’t have to think about in the future. The company claims it has the solution to this particular language barrier; a technical innovation that could help TV shows and films effortlessly reach new markets around the world: deepfake dubs./news/dell-s-g15-ryzen-edition-with-an-rtx-3060-is-1-078-for-a-limited-time.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dell-s-g15-ryzen-edition-with-an-rtx-3060-is-1-078-for-a-limited-time.htmlRight now, Dell’s G15 Ryzen Edition is perhaps the most affordable gaming laptop that has a powerful Ryzen 7 5800H processor and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics chip inside (via Slickdeals). Those two components alone make today’s price of $1,078 an amazing deal (originally $1,459). Additionally, this laptop features a 15.6-inch 1080p screen with a 165Hz refresh rate, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD (both the RAM and storage are user-upgradeable)./news/directv-can-now-quickly-switch-from-satellite-to-broadband-to-avoid-tv-disruptions.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/directv-can-now-quickly-switch-from-satellite-to-broadband-to-avoid-tv-disruptions.htmlDirecTV is introducing a new feature today it calls SignalSaver, which is designed to preserve TV reception even during times of satellite interference. Available at no extra cost to residential DirecTV subscribers with an internet-connected set-top box, SignalSaver automatically prompts you to switch from a satellite signal to internet-based TV when an interruption is detected. “After a few seconds of signal calibration, and with the proper high-speed Internet connection, customers can enable SignalSaver to still enjoy up to an HD (720p) quality viewing experience,” the company explains in its press release./news/discovery-might-bundle-hgtv-the-food-network-and-more-into-a-new-streaming-service.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/discovery-might-bundle-hgtv-the-food-network-and-more-into-a-new-streaming-service.htmlDiscovery is considering launching its own direct-to-consumer streaming service, according to statements made by the company’s CEO, David Zaslav, at an industry event yesterday. The bundle, which would charge customers between $5 to $8 dollars per month, would encompass all of Discovery’s networks — including the Food Network, HGTV, TLC, and more. It’s an idea that’s still in the earliest of stages, according to a report in Adweek. Whether the service will be based solely in the US, or would expand elsewhere still hasn’t been announced — and Zaslav didn’t hint at when the launch would happen./news/dish-network-s-internal-systems-are-so-broken-some-employees-haven-t-worked-in-over-a-day.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dish-network-s-internal-systems-are-so-broken-some-employees-haven-t-worked-in-over-a-day.htmlSince Thursday morning, Dish Network has been experiencing a major outage that’s taken down the company’s main websites, apps, and customer support systems, and employees tell The Verge it’s not clear what’s going on inside the company. The company’s Dish.com website is completely blank save for a notice apologizing for “any disruptions you may be having” while promising that “teams are working hard to restore systems as soon as possible.” The Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite sites display a similar message./news/elon-musk-claims-to-be-working-on-truthgpt-a-maximum-truth-seeking-ai.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/elon-musk-claims-to-be-working-on-truthgpt-a-maximum-truth-seeking-ai.htmlElon Musk says he’s working on “TruthGPT,” a ChatGPT alternative that acts as a “maximum truth-seeking AI.” The billionaire laid out his vision for an AI rival during an interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, saying an alternative approach to AI creation was needed to avoid the destruction of humanity. “I’m going to start something which I call TruthGPT or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe,” Musk said./news/enola-holmes-review-sherlock-s-kid-sister-solves-a-pretty-good-case-of-her-own.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/enola-holmes-review-sherlock-s-kid-sister-solves-a-pretty-good-case-of-her-own.htmlSherlock Holmes is one of the most malleable characters in fiction. Like a pasty heap of Yorkshire pudding in the shape of a man, he can be molded into just about anything the changing times demand. A misanthropic action hero (Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes), an acerbic doctor (House), or perhaps most sacrilegious of all, an American immigrant (Elementary). All of these make for fun stories. It’s simply a pleasure watching someone who is very smart and unconcerned with social niceties solve mysteries no one else can seem to crack./news/epic-spent-at-least-11-6-million-on-free-games-and-gained-5-million-new-users-in-return.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/epic-spent-at-least-11-6-million-on-free-games-and-gained-5-million-new-users-in-return.htmlEpic CEO Tim Sweeney previously revealed that the company pays a flat fee to each developer to give away their games, rather than paying per download. Over the period covered by the document, Epic paid over $11.6 million in total for the games. In response to the deals, almost five million new users signed up to the store, which translates to Epic paying $2.37 for each new user it signed up in this period./news/europe-s-biggest-kickstarter-has-gone-bust-after-raising-3-6-million.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/europe-s-biggest-kickstarter-has-gone-bust-after-raising-3-6-million.htmlAfter launching its crowdfunding campaign last November and raising more than £2.3 million ($3.6 million), Europe's biggest Kickstarter campaign has told backers it's shutting down. The Torquing Group originally billed its Zano drone as an "ultra-portable, personal aerial photography and HD video platform," that fit in a user's hand and beamed straight images back to their smartphone. But following multiple delays and the resignation of the company's CEO last week for "/news/evernote-has-laid-off-most-of-its-us-staff-and-will-move-most-operations-to-europe.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/evernote-has-laid-off-most-of-its-us-staff-and-will-move-most-operations-to-europe.htmlNote-taking company Evernote has laid off most of its US- and- Chile-based employees, the company announced yesterday. Now Italian parent company Bending Spoons is taking most of Evernote’s operations to Europe. The company says the step is intended to “boost operational efficiency and to make the most of the Bending Spoons employer brand, which is extremely strong in Europe.” Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in November last year, and at the time, Evernote CEO was quoted as saying the deal would help the company work on building new features, using Bending Spoons’ “proven app expertise and wide range of proprietary technologies./news/everything-we-know-about-apple-s-vision-pro.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/everything-we-know-about-apple-s-vision-pro.htmlApple made the Vision Pro blurry... on purpose?! I’m not the one making this very big claim. That’d be Hugo Barra, former VP of Android and head of Oculus. Go check out his in-depth blog about his Vision Pro experience. It’s a great read overall, but this bit stood out: Intentionally making the Vision Pro optics blurry is a clever move by Apple because it results in way smoother graphics across the board by hiding the screen door effect (which in practice means that you won’t see pixelation artifacts)./news/facebook-is-making-ai-that-can-identify-offensive-memes.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-is-making-ai-that-can-identify-offensive-memes.htmlFacebook’s moderators can’t possibly look through every single image that gets posted on the enormous platform, so Facebook is building AI to help them out. In a blog post today, Facebook describes a system it’s built called Rosetta that uses machine learning to identify text in images and videos and then transcribe it into something that’s machine readable. In particular, Facebook is finding this tool helpful for transcribing the text on memes./news/facebook-s-social-reader-apps-nosedive-in-popularity.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-s-social-reader-apps-nosedive-in-popularity.htmlThe social news reading apps that debuted with Facebook's Open Graph are losing a ton of users, reports Buzzfeed. The Washington Post's Social Reader has lost nearly 10 million users in the last month and The Guardian's app is approximately one-sixth the size it was a month ago. It's the same phenomenon we reported on last week when discussing startup steroids. Apps are getting huge by spamming tons of Facebook users through "/news/facebook-s-signal-is-a-news-finding-tool-for-journalists.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/facebook-s-signal-is-a-news-finding-tool-for-journalists.htmlFor many journalists, Twitter remains the go-to source for following along with breaking news and major events in the world in real time. If there's a major story, you can usually count on tweets being embedded inside the text. But Facebook desperately wants some of that spotlight, and today the company is rolling out a new product that aims to give Instagram and Facebook itself more of a presence in news articles you read every day./news/faze-clan-goes-public-in-725-million-spac-deal.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/faze-clan-goes-public-in-725-million-spac-deal.htmlBut the company has hit some challenges since it was founded in 2010. Faze settled a lawsuit with Twitch streamer Tfue, who was at one point signed with Faze and had alleged that the company had been financially exploiting him. The company also cut ties with former Miami Heat player Meyers Leonard after he used an anti-Semitic slur during a Twitch stream. Going forward, Faze has its sights set even further outside of gaming./news/feel-like-you-re-in-hell-let-this-forgotten-anna-kendrick-comedy-guide-you.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/feel-like-you-re-in-hell-let-this-forgotten-anna-kendrick-comedy-guide-you.htmlIn 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly one week ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End, another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day. (They even shared a primary cast member: Craig Robinson, in both cases playing his usual “teddy bear with a hair-trigger temper.”) Rogen’s better-publicized vanity project buried Rapture-Palooza during its limited release, banishing it to the outer realms of online streaming. It spent the past few years floating around largely forgotten, except by the occasional delighted character-actor enthusiast./news/fiat-is-turning-its-panda-city-cars-into-a-whole-family-of-multi-energy-vehicles.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fiat-is-turning-its-panda-city-cars-into-a-whole-family-of-multi-energy-vehicles.htmlStellantis-owned Fiat revealed five new concepts that it says will serve as inspiration for a future family of vehicles that will come in a variety of powertrains while sharing the same platform. The new lineup, inspired by the Italian automaker’s Panda city cars, will kick off in July 2024 with a new city car, followed by a new vehicle each year for the following three years. In addition, the concepts preview a pickup truck, a fastback sedan, an SUV, and a camper./news/final-fantasy-7-remake-s-reimagined-battle-system-is-an-absolute-blast.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/final-fantasy-7-remake-s-reimagined-battle-system-is-an-absolute-blast.htmlFinal Fantasy VII Remake is shaping up to be much more than just a nostalgia trip, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the game’s completely reimagined battle system.  When the game was first announced in 2015, many diehard fans appropriately expected a remake would mean a visual overhaul of more or the less the same turn-based RPG they fell in love with more than two decades ago. But Square Enix and the trio of legendary directors, including original character designer Tetsuya Nomura, that signed on to helm the project decided on something much more ambitious and risky: a total reimagining of FFVII from the ground up./news/fitbit-by-google-is-now-just-google-fitbit.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fitbit-by-google-is-now-just-google-fitbit.htmlFitbit by Google is now just Google Fitbit. Three years after completing its $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit, Google has taken another step towards integrating the fitness-tracking company into its hardware lineup with some updated branding. Recent changes on the Fitbit website, first spotted by 9to5Google, include an updated wordmark that uses capitalized Google Sans font and ditches the dotted arrow logo, which is still featured on the brand's favicon./news/fitbit-is-adding-step-streaks-back-into-the-app.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fitbit-is-adding-step-streaks-back-into-the-app.html“In these first few weeks of trying out the new Fitbit app, you voiced key areas where you think we can improve the experience,” Google wrote in a Fitbit support blog. After “seeing the outpour of love,” step streaks will be returning to the iOS version of the app. Google also says it will be bringing step streaks to Android as well. For those wondering if they’ll have to start over from scratch — nope!/news/flipper-zero-adds-a-new-mobile-app-store.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/flipper-zero-adds-a-new-mobile-app-store.htmlThe Flipper Zero — a dolphin-themed digital multitool — now has a mobile app store, which makes it much easier to browse and install third-party tools and plug-ins right from your phone. The marketplace is built into the latest version of Flipper’s official app, which is out today. Quick recap: the Flipper Zero is cool as hell. It has sub-GHz wireless, RFID, NFC, and Bluetooth radios. It can receive and transmit infrared signals./news/ford-to-ship-and-sell-explorer-suvs-with-missing-chips.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-to-ship-and-sell-explorer-suvs-with-missing-chips.htmlFord will soon start selling and shipping some Ford Explorers without the chips that power rear air conditioning and heating controls, according to a report from Automotive News. The automaker will instead ship the missing semiconductors to dealers within one year, which they will then install in customers’ vehicles after purchase. Customers who purchase a vehicle without the rear controls will receive a price reduction Ford spokesperson Said Deep told The Verge that heating and air condition will still be controllable from the front seats, and that customers who choose to purchase a vehicle without the rear controls will receive a price reduction./news/ford-s-radical-move-to-split-the-company-won-t-come-easy.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ford-s-radical-move-to-split-the-company-won-t-come-easy.htmlFord’s decision to divide its business into two separate entities — one focused on electric vehicles and the other on gas-powered ones — may complicate the automaker’s efforts to recruit top-tier talent and could risk upsetting dealers already chafing under the shift to electrification, auto analysts and experts said Wednesday.  Ford also isn’t going so far as to spin off its EV divisions entirely as a separate business, as some major Wall Street banks advised./news/forget-new-research-on-nazis-twitter-should-just-enforce-its-existing-ban.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/forget-new-research-on-nazis-twitter-should-just-enforce-its-existing-ban.htmlFrom time to time, Twitter thinks about things. And then it goes on thinking about them for a very long time. It thought about killing off third-party applications for six years, and when it finally decided to act, only went halfway through with it. It thought about banning Alex Jones, and then decided not to, and then held a meeting where it debated the nature of “dehumanizing speech,” and then banned Alex Jones, and then asked users for their input./news/fossil-gen-6-wellness-edition-review-history-repeats-itself.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fossil-gen-6-wellness-edition-review-history-repeats-itself.htmlThe original Fossil Gen 6 kind of got shafted. While Fossil was still developing the watch, Google and Samsung sprung the news that Wear OS 3 was on the horizon. Fossil apparently found out at the same time as the rest of us. Then, Qualcomm announced a newer, faster wearable chip. By the time the Gen 6 debuted, it was running a soon-to-be last-gen chip — and Samsung’s first Wear OS 3 watch, the Galaxy Watch 4, was already out./news/gallium-nitride-is-the-silicon-of-the-future.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gallium-nitride-is-the-silicon-of-the-future.htmlAnker has debuted its tiny new power brick, and the company is crediting its small size with the component it uses instead of silicon: gallium nitride (GaN). It’s the latest example of the growing popularity of this transparent, glass-like material that could one day unseat silicon and cut energy use worldwide. For decades, silicon has been the backbone of the technology industry, but we are “reaching a theoretical limit on how much it can be improved,” says Danqing Wang, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University who conducts GaN research./news/genesis-electrified-g80-review-an-unconventional-cruise-missile.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/genesis-electrified-g80-review-an-unconventional-cruise-missile.htmlGenesis is on a roll of late. With an increasing percentage of its upcoming portfolio driven by electric powertrains, the quirky Korean luxury brand looks set to just keep expanding its presence in a luxury segment that’s too long been dominated by too few choices.  Now, Genesis has electrified one of its earliest hallmark models —the Electrified G80, an aptly named, battery-powered flavor of the G80 sedan that helped establish the Genesis brand as a true contender and not a mere curiosity./news/genius-com-accuses-google-of-copying-its-song-lyrics.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/genius-com-accuses-google-of-copying-its-song-lyrics.htmlIn the last couple of years, if you type a song title into Google, you’ll get a box that includes its lyrics, alongside the usual search results. It’s a useful tool, but one company that specializes in song lyrics, Genius Media, says Google has been copying their lyrics for years for its search results without credit. Genius has been around since 2009, and it describes itself as a platform “platform for annotating clever rap lyrics,” and has since expanded into other types of music, and a place for music fans to annotate and discuss their favorite songs./news/god-of-war-ragnar%C3%B6k-is-getting-free-dlc-this-month.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/god-of-war-ragnar%C3%B6k-is-getting-free-dlc-this-month.htmlGod of War Ragnarök is getting a free DLC this month. During The Game Awards, mere moments after Kratos’ voice actor Christopher Judge made his triumphant (but far less winded) return to the stage, Sony Santa Monica debuted new DLC for 2018’s Game of the Year — God of War Ragnarök Valhalla. God of War Ragnarök Valhalla is free DLC launching on the PS5 on December 12th. The DLC is set after the final battle of God of War Ragnarök and will feature Big Daddy Kratos and his BBF (that’s bodyless best friend) Mimir as they take on dungeons filled with monsters./news/google-adjusts-image-search-won-t-show-porn-unless-you-ask-for-it-update.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-adjusts-image-search-won-t-show-porn-unless-you-ask-for-it-update.htmlGoogle tweaked its SafeSearch filter today — a feature that allows users to prevent explicit content from appearing in search results — making it less likely for some queries to return pornographic content. The change left many users confused and upset earlier today after the company appeared to be blocking explicit images even for users who have SafeSearch turned off. The change to image search requires users to be more specific when requesting explicit content, and now presents them with a pop-up warning if Google detects that a user is searching for explicit content for the first time./news/google-is-killing-gchat-for-good-and-replacing-it-with-hangouts.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-is-killing-gchat-for-good-and-replacing-it-with-hangouts.htmlGoogle Talk — affectionally known as “Gchat” — is finally getting replaced for good. Google actually released Hangouts back in 2013 as a more feature-filled chat service to take the place of Talk in the Gmail sidebar, but users have been able to stick with the older, more basic service if they chose. That’s changing on June 26th, when anyone still using Gchat will be forcibly transitioned over to Hangouts. It’s not a major change for most — there will still be chat built into Gmail, contacts will transition over, and Google has been trying to get people to switch over to Hangouts for the last four years, so maybe it’s time for Talk to go./news/google-play-books-audiobook-previews-are-now-available-on-youtube-too.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-play-books-audiobook-previews-are-now-available-on-youtube-too.htmlGoogle Play Books audiobook previews are now available on YouTube too. You can now preview thousands of audiobooks from the Google Play Books channel on YouTube — in addition to the previews already available in the Play Store. Google has also expanded its selection of free nonfiction ebooks for kids. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfanxye5FtaG1uZm1%2BcLPOqJ6lnV2luaLFjJumqKOjYq62sMiomainm2K9s7HVopywq12Wv6Z5zaiuZpmmlratrcGlnGannmLGsMHTrpmeZaSkvA%3D%3D/news/google-search-gets-its-very-own-six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon-calculator.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-search-gets-its-very-own-six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon-calculator.htmlGoogle search has come a long way from the plain old list of ten results — there's a full calculator with graphing functions, flight search, movie showtimes, and currency conversion just to name a few — but now the search engine is getting a bit more pop culture functionality. As of today, you can type "bacon number" followed by any actor's or actress' name to find out just how many degrees of separation there are between that person and well-traveled actor Kevin Bacon./news/google-translate-can-now-interpret-signs-and-conversations-in-real-time.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-translate-can-now-interpret-signs-and-conversations-in-real-time.htmlGoogle is releasing a major update to Translate this week, making it much faster and easier to use the app for translating in-person conversations and printed text. The first big update is the inclusion of a feature called Word Lens, which comes from an app of the same name that Google bought last spring. The new feature lets you point your phone's camera at a sign or any other text and have it translated into another language, which will appear live on the screen in a sort of augmented reality./news/google-s-dark-mode-goes-darker.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-dark-mode-goes-darker.htmlUsers are beginning to see Google’s new pitch-black dark mode, 9to5Google reported. The previous dark mode was a gray that was soothing on the eyes, but Google switched to a true black (#000000) that should really pop on OLED and AMOLED displays. Google announced the wider availability of dark mode earlier this month, but thus far, the release has been slow. Few people seem to have it, and 9to5Google reports that some users have received the new theme only to lose it./news/google-s-project-jacquard-is-available-on-new-levi-s-jackets.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-project-jacquard-is-available-on-new-levi-s-jackets.htmlLevi’s is announcing new jackets with Google’s Project Jacquard technology, which turns a portion of the fabric on the sleeve into a touch-sensitive remote control for phones. Both versions are less expensive and much more like the original versions of the Levi’s jackets they’re based on than the first Jacquard Commuter Trucker Jacket, which Levi’s released two years ago. The standard Trucker Jacket will be $198, and a Sherpa Jacket, which adds insulation for colder weather, will be $248./news/hacker-activated-all-dallas-emergency-sirens-with-a-radio-signal.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hacker-activated-all-dallas-emergency-sirens-with-a-radio-signal.htmlA city official says that Dallas’ sirens are controlled by radios, not computers and software, and that it was a vulnerability in the radio system that allowed the attack to happen, according to the Dallas Observer. Dallas has since improved the sirens’ security Warning sirens often rely on radio transmissions for activation, sometimes listening for signals similar to a phone’s dial tone. Dallas’ system wasn’t using encrypted signals, according to the Associated Press, which seems to have allowed a malicious party to discover the activation code and send it out to every siren in the city./news/here-s-the-cost-of-running-death-stranding-on-the-iphone-15-pro.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-the-cost-of-running-death-stranding-on-the-iphone-15-pro.htmlHere’s the cost of running Death Stranding on the iPhone 15 Pro. Digital Foundry takes a look at Death Stranding’s performance on Apple’s iOS and macOS platforms. The iPhone 15 Pro version takes a hit, DF says, with performance issues and smeary, low-resolution rendering. That’s been my experience with other recent iPhone console ports, like Resident Evil 4 or Village, but if you own an M-series Mac, the iOS version ends up being a happy bonus, since Death Stranding supports Universal Purchases./news/how-boosted-went-bust-the-verge.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-boosted-went-bust-the-verge.htmlKanye wanted a meeting. That was basically all a small group of employees at Boosted knew in early 2019 after they heard the rapper-mogul had taken an interest in the company’s electric skateboards. A partnership, an investment, an endorsement — whatever he was considering, a meeting with Kanye West seemed absurd. But then again, Boosted was also working on a secret project with skateboard legend Tony Hawk at the time. Was it really a stretch to think the startup could work with Yeezy?/news/how-designer-niko-nice-s-serbian-roots-helped-build-his-collaborative-workspace.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-designer-niko-nice-s-serbian-roots-helped-build-his-collaborative-workspace.htmlArt director Nikola “Niko Nice” Crnobrnja has worked on some amazing projects over the years, from directing a music video for Jazz Cartier to designing album packaging for Juicy J to art directing the crash test dummy-inspired branding for A$AP Rocky’s Testing. His latest project, a co-working / agency hybrid, has him swapping out his pens and sketchbooks for hammers and hard hats. After emigrating from Dalmatia (a region in Croatia) to Canada when he was just five years old, Niko Nice has kept his families roots close to him./news/how-i-fell-in-love-with-a-15-year-old-game-about-a-dancing-rabbit.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-i-fell-in-love-with-a-15-year-old-game-about-a-dancing-rabbit.htmlI stayed up until 1:00AM last night guiding a wireframe rabbit through a black-and-white world while listening to quirky Japanese pop music. I played levels multiple times, just to hear a song again, and when I did really good the rabbit danced for me. It's something I'd been waiting more than a decade to experience. Vib-Ribbon is the brainchild of Masaya Matsuura, a designer best known for his wildly influential rhythm game Parappa the Rapper./news/how-pebble-smartwatches-are-getting-a-second-life.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-pebble-smartwatches-are-getting-a-second-life.htmlThe crowdfunded Pebble smartwatch officially died last June, but a group of dedicated Pebble fans are giving Pebbles second lives, as detailed in this great article on iFixit that you should go read. The Pebble launched to a record-breaking Kickstarter in 2012 because it looked like it had the potential to be the first good smartwatch. Part of the appeal was that it seemed ahead of its time — it could do things like show you notifications and help you control your phone’s music, which would become table stakes for smartwatches made by other companies in the years to come./news/how-to-install-the-ios-17-developer-and-public-betas.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-install-the-ios-17-developer-and-public-betas.htmlLast month, the developer beta of iOS 17 hit — and it was accessible to everyone, non-developers included, for free. This month, the public beta has become available, and here we’re going to offer directions on how to install either on your iPhone or iPad once it’s available for your device. Before we get started, a word of warning: beta software is inherently unfinished and may contain bugs. Apple’s public betas are generally more stable, but its developer betas are less so, and you should think carefully before installing either on any device you depend on./news/how-to-watch-tesla-s-2023-cybertruck-delivery-event.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-watch-tesla-s-2023-cybertruck-delivery-event.htmlThe electric pickup truck, with a jarringly polygonal design, was first revealed in November 2019 by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The Cybertruck’s unique design helped it make its mark, and many people immediately plunked down $100 to hold a place in line to get one. Even the botched “armor glass” demonstration, in which Tesla’s lead designer smashed the driver’s side window with a metal ball, did little to deter interest./news/htc-10-review-great-isn-t-good-enough.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-10-review-great-isn-t-good-enough.htmlBack in 2013, most Android phones were garishly ugly and made of cheap-feeling plastics. Sized up against an iPhone at the time, it was easy to see which companies cared about design and which didn’t. HTC flipped that paradigm on its head with the One M7, which had an aluminum unibody and an attractive, minimalist design. It was easily the best-looking Android phone made up to that point, and it inspired many fast followers and copycats./news/htc-bliss-a-verizon-android-phone-for-women.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-bliss-a-verizon-android-phone-for-women.htmlAn Android phone made especially for women. It's an odd sentence to write, but believe it or not, that's exactly what we're hearing HTC has up its sleeve. According to a source, the company is holding focus groups with women in their 20s and 30s around the country to get their take on a brand new device that will hit Verizon before the end of the year. And no, it's not just a pink Incredible 2 -- it's going to have a slew of rather interesting female-targeted features./news/huawei-p40-pro-review-there-s-a-catch.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/huawei-p40-pro-review-there-s-a-catch.htmlIn a different 2020, I could be telling you that the Huawei P40 Pro is one of the best phones you could buy. After all, it sees the Chinese telecoms giant at the height of its hardware powers, delivering a device that performs extremely well and leaves little off its spec sheet. But the trade war President Trump is waging against China has expanded to single out Huawei specifically, placing the telecoms giant on the Entity List and banning most American companies from doing business with it./news/i-am-dead-review-a-playful-exploration-of-death-and-memories.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-am-dead-review-a-playful-exploration-of-death-and-memories.htmlI Am Dead is a game about objects. It’s obsessed with them, really. The way they look, the way they feel, how they can change depending on your perspective — and, most importantly, what they mean to people. It’s a game where you play as a ghost, but it uses that conceit as an excuse to let you freely explore a quaint island full of charming residents, searching through memories that are anchored by specific objects./news/illustrator-micha-huigen-on-creating-a-multifaceted-collage-for-the-verge-s-10th-anniversary.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/illustrator-micha-huigen-on-creating-a-multifaceted-collage-for-the-verge-s-10th-anniversary.htmlThe Verge is turning 10, and a look back at the last decade’s worth of stories provides not just an encapsulation of what The Verge has covered but also a snapshot of how quickly the tech that informs our lives transforms. And since we’re The Verge, we can’t just look behind us. Celebrating the last 10 years is also about examining what might come next. Micha Huigen is the perfect artist to distill this intersection into a single image because Micha’s images never actually confine themselves to one space./news/internet-enabled-male-chastity-cage-can-be-remotely-locked-by-hackers.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/internet-enabled-male-chastity-cage-can-be-remotely-locked-by-hackers.htmlA security flaw in an internet-enabled male chastity device allows hackers to remotely control the gadget and permanently lock in wearers, researchers disclosed today. The Cellmate Chastity Cage, built by Chinese firm Qiui, lets users hand over access to their genitals to a partner who can lock and unlock the cage remotely using an app. But multiple flaws in the app’s design mean “anyone could remotely lock all devices and prevent users from releasing themselves,” according to UK security firm Pen Test Partners./news/iphone-13-review-bigger-batteries-are-better.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iphone-13-review-bigger-batteries-are-better.htmlWhat, really, do you want out of a new phone? Assuming you’re starting with a good foundation, I think the list of what really makes a big difference in phone upgrades is actually short. The first thing on the list is improved battery life. The second is an improved camera. Those are the two things that make a fundamental difference in your day-to-day experience of a smartphone (assuming, again, that the basics don’t stink)./news/jabra-s-new-true-wireless-earbuds-are-designed-to-help-cope-with-hearing-loss.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jabra-s-new-true-wireless-earbuds-are-designed-to-help-cope-with-hearing-loss.htmlJabra’s Enhance Plus are a new pair of true wireless earbuds aimed at helping people who experience “mild-to-moderate” hearing loss. They’re meant as a half-step towards a more traditional hearing aid solution, for people who might not be ready to wear a device all day. The Enhance Plus will be released first in the US at the end of the year, and will be sold through licensed hearing care professionals at a price that’s yet to be announced./news/league-of-legends-wild-rift-open-beta-kicks-off-this-month.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/league-of-legends-wild-rift-open-beta-kicks-off-this-month.htmlLeague of Legends: Wild Rift, a spinoff of the PC game, is heading into open beta in North America on March 29th, developer Riot announced today. The beta will be available for mobile devices on iOS and Android. Riot announced Wild Rift in 2019; it promised a March open beta earlier this year. The game isn’t a true port but instead a “built from scratch” version with changed elements like the game’s controls and its maps./news/lore-of-thrones-what-exactly-was-littlefinger-s-long-term-plan.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lore-of-thrones-what-exactly-was-littlefinger-s-long-term-plan.htmlHBO’s Game of Thrones is a dense series with a huge weight of history behind its story, so in practically every episode, something happens that could use a little explanation. So every week, The Verge will be diving into a scene or event from the latest installment of the series and explain how we got here. Whether you’re basically a Game of Thrones maester or you need a little reminder about previous events, we’ll try to help you keep your history straight./news/mario-s-new-voice-actor-is-kevin-afghani.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mario-s-new-voice-actor-is-kevin-afghani.htmlAfter months of speculation, conspiracy theories, and false alarms, we finally know the name of Mario’s new voice actor: Kevin Afghani. On Friday, Afghani announced the news on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!” Nintendo has been secretive about who the new voice actor would be, saying that it would reveal the actor in the credits of Super Mario Bros./news/meta-and-bmw-use-a-car-s-existing-motion-sensors-to-make-in-car-vr-possible.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-and-bmw-use-a-car-s-existing-motion-sensors-to-make-in-car-vr-possible.htmlNow Meta and BMW say they’ve made progress on using augmented reality and virtual reality in cars that might alleviate any issues of interacting with virtual objects while moving through the real world at high speed. Meta / BMW research demo Image: Meta Their deal was originally announced in 2021, but the two companies say they made a breakthrough by blending inertial motion sensor (IMU) data from a BMW in real time with the tracking system in Meta’s Project Aria research glasses./news/meta-will-stop-paying-us-publishers-like-the-wsj-and-nyt-for-news-tab-content.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-will-stop-paying-us-publishers-like-the-wsj-and-nyt-for-news-tab-content.htmlAccording to the report, Meta spent about $105 million in three-year content deals for news (plus another $90 million for news videos), including $10 million for the Wall Street Journal, $20 million for the New York Times, and $3 million for CNN in arrangements that sometimes included unlocked access to paywalled content. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the rise of regulation forcing Facebook and other internet giants to pay for news caused the company’s waning enthusiasm and cited a source today saying the paid news push was an “experiment that ultimately didn’t pay off./news/microsoft-and-intel-strike-a-custom-chip-manufacturing-deal.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-and-intel-strike-a-custom-chip-manufacturing-deal.htmlIntel will be producing custom chips, designed by Microsoft for Microsoft, as part of a deal that Intel says is worth more than $15 billion. Intel announced the partnership during its Intel Foundry event today. Although neither company specified what the chips would be used for, Bloomberg noted today that Microsoft has been planning in-house designs for both processors and AI accelerators. “We are in the midst of a very exciting platform shift that will fundamentally transform productivity for every individual organization and the entire industry,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in the official press release./news/microsoft-authenticator-drops-support-for-apple-watch.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-authenticator-drops-support-for-apple-watch.htmlMicrosoft Authenticator is ending support for the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, this means you’ll no longer be able to conveniently log in to your connected accounts using just the wearable, as reported earlier by MacRumors. While the app’s 6.7.3 iOS update states that it “removes Microsoft Authenticator from Apple Watch,” it also notes that you can still mirror any Microsoft Authenticator notifications you receive on your iPhone to your Apple Watch./news/microsoft-kills-off-windows-home-server-unveils-four-windows-server-2012-editions.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-kills-off-windows-home-server-unveils-four-windows-server-2012-editions.htmlMicrosoft has unveiled its four simplified versions of Windows Server 2012 today and killed off Windows Home Server at the same time. The four editions include Standard, Datacenter, Essentials, and foundation — all are targeted at different business and enterprise environments. Similar to the Windows 8 client side, Microsoft is simplifying its offerings to businesses for Windows Server 2012, bringing the number down from 12 to just four. The software giant also revealed it will no longer offer a separate Windows Home Server edition./news/microsoft-s-midnight-blizzard-breach-also-impacted-federal-agencies.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-midnight-blizzard-breach-also-impacted-federal-agencies.htmlIn March, Microsoft notified the US Department of Veterans Affairs that it was impacted by the security breach that enabled the Russian hacking group known as “Midnight Blizzard” to steal some of the company’s source code, reports Bloomberg. Already assigned blame for the earlier SolarWinds attack, the group has been accused of spying on email accounts of Microsoft’s senior leadership team and attempting to use the secrets obtained there to create additional security breaches./news/motorola-droid-turbo-review-the-verge.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-droid-turbo-review-the-verge.htmlMotorola and Verizon swapped out the Moto X’s perfectly acceptable 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor for a slightly faster 2.7GHz chip in the Turbo. It’s paired with 3GB of RAM, and you can get 32 or 64GB of storage (for a $50 premium). In theory, those upgrades should make the Turbo perform noticeably better than the X, but that hasn’t always been the case. Apps open quickly enough, and the Droid Turbo is certainly fast, but it’s not significantly better than the already-quick X, which makes me wonder why anyone should bother./news/mr-boop-the-psychosexual-webcomic-that-is-a-scathing-critique-of-copyright.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/mr-boop-the-psychosexual-webcomic-that-is-a-scathing-critique-of-copyright.htmlYou can’t summarize the webcomic Mr. Boop better than its first panel, which emerged out of what felt like the raging id of the internet on February 28, 2020. “My wife Betty Boop is really hot,” says Alec, the strip’s spectacled, grinning protagonist, a cartoon avatar for actual writer and artist Alec Robbins.  His wife, you see, is Betty Boop. She’s really hot. At first blush, Mr. Boop might not seem all that different from the webcomics that largely defined the genre’s boom a decade or so ago: imperfectly drawn pan/news/netflix-s-ad-tier-hits-40-million-users.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/netflix-s-ad-tier-hits-40-million-users.htmlNetflix’s expansion into an ad-supported model seems to be a hit. Today, at its 2024 upfront presentation, the streamer said that it now has 40 million monthly users on its ad-supported tier globally. That’s up from 23 million earlier in the year; it took six months for the option to hit 5 million users after it launched in 2022. As of April, the service had a total of 270 million subscribers across all tiers./news/new-lawsuit-says-google-refused-to-hire-white-and-asian-men.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/new-lawsuit-says-google-refused-to-hire-white-and-asian-men.htmlA former YouTube employee has sued Google for allegedly pressuring recruiters to only look for female, black, and Hispanic or Latinx applicants. Arne Wilberg — who spent nine years working at Google — filed a discrimination suit in January, and The Wall Street Journal reported its existence today. Wilberg claims that Google implemented “clear and irrefutable policies” meant to exclude white and Asian men in an attempt to increase the company’s overall diversity./news/nike-s-new-app-uses-ar-to-measure-your-feet-to-sell-you-sneakers-that-fit.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nike-s-new-app-uses-ar-to-measure-your-feet-to-sell-you-sneakers-that-fit.htmlNike is updating its app with a new augmented reality tool that will measure your feet so that it can sell you sneakers that actually fit (via Engadget). While this may seem like a frivolous use of AR technology, the idea is sound. Buying shoes online is difficult, mainly because you can’t try them on to see if they actually fit. Plus, brands lie about sizes, so you can never really be sure./news/nine-year-old-insta-star-lil-tay-s-flexing-got-her-mom-fired-but-that-won-t-stop-her.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nine-year-old-insta-star-lil-tay-s-flexing-got-her-mom-fired-but-that-won-t-stop-her.htmlIt is a truth universally acknowledged that a single, foul-mouthed young girl in possession of riches must be in want of viral fame. At (allegedly) nine years old, viral star Lil Tay made headlines last week for getting her mother, Angela Tian, fired over her profanity-laden videos. If you haven’t heard of Lil Tay by now, consider yourself lucky. As the (repeatedly) self-anointed “youngest flexer of the century,” the kid does everything from revving “her” Ferraris to tossing stacks of hundred-dollar bills in the air with YouTube star Jake Paul./news/nintendo-direct-june-2024-nintendo-details-its-holiday-switch-lineup.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nintendo-direct-june-2024-nintendo-details-its-holiday-switch-lineup.htmlA busy June for gaming news just got a little busier. Nintendo announced its next Direct presentation, which will take place on June 18th at 10AM ET. The event will be focused on “games coming in the second half of 2024” and will be around 40 minutes long. The company previously said that it would be holding a June Direct covering Switch games for the end of the year and also made it clear the event wouldn’t include the much-anticipated Switch successor, which now isn’t expected until 2025./news/nokia-6-review-budget-phone-budget-experience.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nokia-6-review-budget-phone-budget-experience.htmlThe last time you could buy a phone with the word Nokia imprinted on it in the US, Barack Obama was a mere two years into his second term as president, the Chicago Cubs still hadn’t managed to break their century-long dry spell in the World Series, and Apple had yet to sell a single smartwatch. But despite the non-existence of Nokia phones in America for almost three years, the brand is back, albeit not quite the same as before./news/nvidia-announces-geforce-event-for-september-1st-with-rtx-3080-rumors-abound.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nvidia-announces-geforce-event-for-september-1st-with-rtx-3080-rumors-abound.htmlNvidia started teasing a big GeForce GPU announcement yesterday, and now the company says it has an event planned for September 1st. The graphics card maker will broadcast the event, featuring Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on September 1st. Nvidia says “Huang will highlight the company’s latest innovations in gaming and graphics.” It’s likely that Nvidia will unveil its GeForce RTX 3000 series of cards, including what’s expected to be the RTX 3080 successor to the RTX 2080./news/oh-no-i-started-playing-fallout-shelter-again.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/oh-no-i-started-playing-fallout-shelter-again.htmlNow, 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 Overseer — a kind of postapocalyptic mayor figure — tasked with not only managing a vault but also expanding it. You’ll have to keep track of the happiness of residents, while ensuring a steady supply of food, water, and electricity./news/on-honeymoon-lana-del-rey-is-in-the-director-s-chair.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/on-honeymoon-lana-del-rey-is-in-the-director-s-chair.htmlIn a recent interview on Pitchfork, Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, spoke about his friendship with Lana Del Rey, and his collaboration with her on his most recent album. "She is the girl in my music, and I am the guy in her music," he said. "Even the whole monologue intro on “Lonely Star” from Thursday — I just realized now that that’s Lana. That’s Lana’s voice. I mean, it’s my voice pitched up, but it’s her, it’s who she is./news/panasonic-s-new-home-cubicle-is-a-disheartening-glimpse-at-our-work-from-home-future.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/panasonic-s-new-home-cubicle-is-a-disheartening-glimpse-at-our-work-from-home-future.htmlThe modern office cubicle is almost synonymous with the drudgery of a soul-crushing office job. But if for some reason you’ve found yourself missing the not-quite-solid not-quite-walls of your regular office, Panasonic is working to bring the magic of cubicles to your work-from-home life with its new 88,000 yen (around $835) Komoru home cubicle. The Komoru is actually a bit more handsome-looking than a traditional office cubicle, and it’s made of wooden pegboards (to easily hang things) with a matching, integrated desk./news/peacock-how-to-watch-shows-on-nbc-s-new-streaming-app.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/peacock-how-to-watch-shows-on-nbc-s-new-streaming-app.htmlPeacock is here. The last of the major 2020 streaming services to launch, Peacock looks to unite NBC’s shows, Universal’s films, and original content into a single service that will put a much bigger emphasis on live, curated content than nearly any other competing service. But Peacock is arriving late to a very crowded party, one that’s already filled with Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, CBS All Access, HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, and Amazon Prime Video — which means it’s going to have a big challenge to break through to customers./news/phasmophobia-is-coming-to-xbox-series-s-x-ps5-and-psvr2-with-crossplay.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/phasmophobia-is-coming-to-xbox-series-s-x-ps5-and-psvr2-with-crossplay.htmlDo you love hunting creepy ghosts in the dark with friends? Good, because Phasmophobia is coming to Xbox Series X / S, PS5, and PSVR 2 in August. The paranormal horror game will even include optional crossplay support so console and PC friends can team up in a four player co-op team and scream in unison together when a ghost whispers in their ears. Xbox and PlayStation owners have been waiting to hear if Phasmophobia would make the jump to consoles, and British indie game studio Kinect Games revealed the port during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase Extended stream today./news/pok%C3%A9mon-presents-2024-all-the-biggest-news-and-trailers.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/pok%C3%A9mon-presents-2024-all-the-biggest-news-and-trailers.htmlIt’s Pokémon Day, which means, as is becoming an annual tradition, it’s time for some pocket monster news. This year’s edition of Pokémon Presents was relatively brief, but it did pack in some notable updates. That includes new monsters coming to the mobile hits Pokémon Go and Pokémon Sleep, a revamped version of the trading card game for smartphones, and the next major Pokémon title with Legends: Z-A for the Switch, which is expected to launch in 2025./news/rare-s-unreleased-n64-game-dinosaur-planet-has-leaked.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rare-s-unreleased-n64-game-dinosaur-planet-has-leaked.htmlDinosaur Planet is an unreleased Nintendo 64 game by Rare that ultimately evolved into Star Fox Adventures for GameCube. But thanks to the preservationists at Forest of Illusion, it’s now possible to play that unfinished, original title. A build of the game from December 1st, 2000 — well into its development cycle — was retrieved from a disc purchased from a private collector. Screenshots of the game feature Fox McCloud; as noted by Eurogamer, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto was reportedly influential in pushing the developers to shift the game into a Star Fox title./news/ratchet-clank-rift-apart-review-family-friendly-blockbuster.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ratchet-clank-rift-apart-review-family-friendly-blockbuster.htmlThere were times during Rift Apart, the latest entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, when I felt like treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Buildings collapsed around me as I made my way through perfectly tuned action set pieces, and I’d manage to jump out of the way of each explosion at just the right second. The only difference, of course, is Rift Apart is much cuter — think of it like a sci-fi, family-friendly take on Uncharted./news/rep-devin-nunes-repeated-a-4chan-meme-on-national-television.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rep-devin-nunes-repeated-a-4chan-meme-on-national-television.htmlLast night on Laura Ingraham’s show, The Ingraham Angle, a strange thing happened (stranger than usual, I mean). Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) stopped by for an interview, ostensibly to talk about Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) latest actions regarding the ongoing Russia probe. “This is clearly an investigation again, without a crime. We’ve looked for two years — didn’t find anything, at all,” Nunes said, which is misleading at best. He went on to speak about the “cottage industry” of press people who are following the case and reporting it, so the public has an idea of what goes on behind closed doors./news/roboticist-mark-setrakian-on-men-in-black-s-20th-anniversary-it-s-almost-a-perfect-movie.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/roboticist-mark-setrakian-on-men-in-black-s-20th-anniversary-it-s-almost-a-perfect-movie.htmlWhen Men in Black hit theaters on July 2nd, 1997, it was already fast becoming a phenomenon. It had a star-studded cast, including a freshly minted superstar in Will Smith. It had a hit song that briefly managed to overtake pop music. Now, 20 years later, it’s easy to take for granted how massive the movie was at the time — and how well it holds up. That’s not bad for a movie based on an obscure 1990 comic miniseries from a nigh-forgotten publisher./news/samsung-care-plus-adds-unlimited-battery-repair-for-a-price.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-care-plus-adds-unlimited-battery-repair-for-a-price.htmlDear X We are writing to let you know about upcoming changes to your Samsung device protection program. Samsung’s records indicate that you are currently enrolled in Samsung Care+ with Theft and Loss or Samsung Care+. In May 2024, Samsung will include Unlimited Battery Repair for eligible devices*, that exhibit a charging capacity below 79% as indicated by a diagnostic test, as a new feature to the Samsung Care+ with Theft and Loss and Samsung Care+ device protection products./news/samsung-galaxy-note-20-review-stylus-tax.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-galaxy-note-20-review-stylus-tax.htmlThe Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is a good phone, but don’t buy it at its advertised retail price of $999.99. It’s a fine phone if you can find it for less, and hopefully you can because the only other phone with a stylus that matters is the very expensive Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Luckily, Samsung phones usually end up getting discounted early and often in their lifecycle, and the Note 20 is no different./news/samsung-launches-first-tizen-powered-4g-smartphone-for-68.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-launches-first-tizen-powered-4g-smartphone-for-68.htmlSamsung's latest mobile — the Z2 — launches in India today, and it's a straightforward play to appeal to the country's growing number of smartphone users. The Z2 costs INR 4,590, or around $68 (just two dollars less than the average price of a mobile phone in India) and is powered by Tizen, Samsung's home-grown mobile OS. It's also the first Tizen device to support 4G. The Z2 certainly isn't a powerhouse (there's a 1./news/samsung-s-unprecedented-recall-of-the-galaxy-note-7-page-3.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-unprecedented-recall-of-the-galaxy-note-7-page-3.htmlAfter weeks of investigation, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a formal recall of the Galaxy Note 7 in conjunction with Samsung today. The move outlines the problems with the phone's exploding battery and puts in place a path for consumers to return or replace the device. The news should come as source of relief for Samsung customers, many of whom have been grappling with the company's mixed messaging and sometimes confusing responses to the Note 7's ongoing issues./news/samsung-s-new-tab-s9-tablet-comes-with-a-free-storage-upgrade-and-100-amazon-gift-card.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-s-new-tab-s9-tablet-comes-with-a-free-storage-upgrade-and-100-amazon-gift-card.htmlThe tablet space may be dominated by iPads and cheap slabs from Amazon’s Fire line, but Samsung’s recently revamped Tab S9s make the case for Android tablets, with the most widely appealing one on sale today. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 with 256GB of storage is selling for $799.99 ($120 off) at Amazon, and it comes with a free $100 Amazon digital gift card. Once you spend that credit, it’s like you’ve saved $220 on a very good 11-inch tablet with an excellent 120Hz refreshing OLED display./news/san-francisco-reverses-plans-to-allow-police-robots-to-kill-suspects.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/san-francisco-reverses-plans-to-allow-police-robots-to-kill-suspects.htmlSan Francisco officials have voted against allowing the police to kill suspects with remote-controlled robots. The city’s board of supervisors reversed the policy it approved last week, following outcry and protests from citizens and civil rights groups. However, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new ban is not necessarily permanent, and the issue has been sent “back to a committee for further discussion.” The board originally approved the policy to let the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) use remote-controlled robots “as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available./news/sandra-oh-is-the-first-asian-woman-nominated-for-a-lead-actress-emmy.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sandra-oh-is-the-first-asian-woman-nominated-for-a-lead-actress-emmy.htmlIt’s Emmy Nomination Day in America, which means it’s time to obsess over potential winners, losers, and first-timers — and, of course, to tally the snubs, line up the grudges, and consider what the nominees say about what the television industry values right now. The Emmy Awards ceremony will be held on September 17th. The biggest news: Netflix continues to cement its domination of the television landscape, racking up an eye-popping 117 nominations this year, and breaking HBO’s 17-year streak of having the most Emmy nods./news/scallops-use-200-eyes-made-of-mirrors-in-order-to-see.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/scallops-use-200-eyes-made-of-mirrors-in-order-to-see.htmlScallops, hardly the most complex of creatures, have intricate eyes that work like telescopes, say researchers. They hope this discovery can one day help us make our own telescopes more powerful. For a paper published today in the journal Science, researchers used a few different microscope techniques to get a detailed view of how the king scallop, or Pecten maximus, is able to see. The scallop has 200 tiny eyes lining its mantle, or outside edge./news/seven-banks-who-have-elon-musk-related-debt-are-trying-to-negotiate-with-musk.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/seven-banks-who-have-elon-musk-related-debt-are-trying-to-negotiate-with-musk.htmlSeven banks who have Elon Musk-related debt are trying to negotiate with Musk. They are discussing options that may make the debt less risky to hold. After the events of 2022, when Musk bought Twitter, it was difficult for these banks to offload the debt; they’ve agreed — for now anyway — to coordinate a sale together when X is “on firmer financial footing.” ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaHx1e5FtZ3JoaGV%2FcL%2FEr5ynZZKWu6y%2FjLCfqGWYlsOmecSlpqdlnarArHnRnqOarJWZeqWxwa1kmqqVYsGzxcinnmasn2K7prPOraCarJVixKrAx2akrqub/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-review-the-end-is-nigh.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-review-the-end-is-nigh.htmlAs Mission Impossible: Fallout has decisively proven, there’s nothing wrong with sticking to a formula if it’s good and you know how to build on it. Tomb Raider had a great formula: its electrifying 2013 reboot was a bold, tight reinvention of Lara Croft’s adventures for modern times, while 2015’s sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider expanded on the idea and upped the action movie excess. The problem with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the third game in the reboot trilogy, isn’t just that it’s formulaic./news/slack-ceo-stewart-butterfield-is-leaving-in-january.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/slack-ceo-stewart-butterfield-is-leaving-in-january.htmlIn early January, I’ll be stepping down as CEO of Slack. Also, both Tamar and Jonathan Prince are leaving. Slack will have a new CEO: Lidiane Jones. This is good: Lidiane is amazing. More on this below. (FWIW, this has nothing to do with Bret’s departure. Planning has been in the works for several months. Just: weird timing!) Tamar and Jonathan arrived within a month of each other at a critical point in Slack’s development as a company./news/snap-blames-revenue-hit-on-ios-ad-tracking-changes.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snap-blames-revenue-hit-on-ios-ad-tracking-changes.htmlSnap has some things to be happy about this quarter. It crossed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, added 13 million daily users, and doubled submissions to Spotlight, its relatively new TikTok rival. But it has also ran into a serious and ballooning problem: Apple’s ad tracking changes, which have already led to millions in lost ad dollars. The company missed its revenue target by $3 million in the third quarter, largely because of Apple’s changes, Snap announced this afternoon./news/spotify-adds-live-audio-programs-and-rebrands-greenroom-app-as-spotify-live.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-adds-live-audio-programs-and-rebrands-greenroom-app-as-spotify-live.htmlSpotify is rebranding its Greenroom live audio app as Spotify Live and will bring its features into the main Spotify app, the company announced Tuesday. Spotify Live will be available as both a standalone app and a livestream feature in the main app. At present, the main app will include select live content from original programming, and the standalone Spotify Live app will be open to all independent creators. “Listeners will be able to tune in to live programming on Spotify via the creator’s podcast or artist page, and if they want to participate in the chat or join the host onstage, they can head to the Spotify Live app to do so,” according to a blog post on the company’s website./news/spotify-reports-record-growth-in-a-year-of-layoffs-and-price-hikes.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/spotify-reports-record-growth-in-a-year-of-layoffs-and-price-hikes.htmlSpotify now boasts 236 million Premium subscribers, a 4 percent increase over last quarter, while its total number of monthly active users rose 5 percent to 602 million. The announcement came as part of its fourth quarter earnings release, which covers the three months ending on December 31st. Over the course of 2023, Spotify’s userbase and premium subscribers grew by 113 and 31 million, respectively, setting records for the company./news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-is-being-delayed-to-april-28th.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/star-wars-jedi-survivor-is-being-delayed-to-april-28th.htmlStar Wars Jedi: Survivor’s release date is being delayed by six weeks to April 28th, EA announced on Tuesday. The game had been set to release on March 17th, but it’s being pushed back just a little bit. “In order for the team to hit the Respawn quality bar, provide the team the time they need, and achieve the level of polish our fans deserve, we have added six crucial weeks to our release schedule – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will now launch globally on April 28th,” EA wrote in a statement./news/starlink-s-dishy-mcflatface-internet-now-available-for-boaty-mcboatface.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/starlink-s-dishy-mcflatface-internet-now-available-for-boaty-mcboatface.htmlStarlink’s internet-from-space service continues expanding to new use cases with the launch of Starlink Maritime. What started in the home before expanding to stationary RVs is now available for boats on the move, at a cost of $5,000 a month. SpaceX is targeting merchant vessels, oil rigs, and wealthy owners of superyachts with the service. Starlink Maritime also requires a one-time $10,000 purchase of two ruggedized high performance Starlink dishes which ship in about two weeks, according to the US order page./news/t-mobile-and-sprint-merger-approved-by-justice-department.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/t-mobile-and-sprint-merger-approved-by-justice-department.htmlThe United States Justice Department has approved the $26 billion merger deal between T-Mobile and Sprint. After over a year in regulatory limbo, the merger received the green light from the last federal agency to hold out, with the Federal Communications Commission already signaling that it will approve the deal. The Justice Department finally approved the deal after Dish reached an agreement with the carriers to acquire Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Sprint’s prepaid business, and “certain” spectrum assets./news/t-mobile-syncup-tracker-uses-lte-to-track-your-stuff.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/t-mobile-syncup-tracker-uses-lte-to-track-your-stuff.htmlIt seems that 2021 is the year of the tracker, with new options from Samsung, Apple, and now T-Mobile in the form of its SyncUp Tracker. But unlike those other Tile-type tracking devices, SyncUp uses LTE rather than Bluetooth or Ultra Wideband for real-time location information, a la Samsung’s SmartThings tracker. That means it doesn’t rely on being within a certain range of your phone (or other phones) to tell you where it is — but it does come with a $5 per month data charge on your T-Mobile phone plan./news/taiwanese-horror-game-devotion-vanishes-from-steam-after-angry-chinese-gamers-find-winnie-the-pooh-m.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/taiwanese-horror-game-devotion-vanishes-from-steam-after-angry-chinese-gamers-find-winnie-the-pooh-m.htmlTaiwanese horror game Devotion has been removed from Steam by its developers after it drew the ire of Chinese gamers by including a meme that mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meme angered gamers enough that they left thousands of thumbs-down reviews on Steam for Devotion, forcing the developer to apologize, as spotted earlier by Polygon. Developers now say the game will return after a quality check. Twitch’s hottest psychological horror game Devotion takes players through an abandoned 1980s apartment complex in Taiwan where they have to figure out what happened to the religious family that once lived there./news/terry-crews-s-playable-old-spice-ad-lets-you-control-an-insane-drum-set-with-his-muscles.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/terry-crews-s-playable-old-spice-ad-lets-you-control-an-insane-drum-set-with-his-muscles.htmlWhat does former pro football player and Expendables actor Terry Crews do when he isn’t flying through the air, blowing stuff up, and extolling the virtues of Old Spice deodorant? The answer comes to us from a new playable ad on Vimeo (below): he gets busy on a fantastical 20-piece drum kit controlled by his muscles; a kit that contains (among other things) a giant wailing head and a trio of flame saxes./news/tesla-is-selling-fewer-cars-but-says-it-has-sufficient-cash.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-is-selling-fewer-cars-but-says-it-has-sufficient-cash.htmlTesla’s sales have fallen for the first time in nearly two years. The Silicon Valley automaker announced that it delivered 63,000 cars globally in the first quarter of 2019, about 50,900 of which were Model 3s. That represents a 31 percent decline in deliveries compared to the final quarter of 2018. The last time Tesla saw a quarter-to-quarter sales decline was in the first half of 2017 — just before the Model 3 went into production./news/tesla-s-planned-five-way-stock-split-will-make-its-shares-much-more-affordable.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-s-planned-five-way-stock-split-will-make-its-shares-much-more-affordable.htmlTesla has announced a new five-way stock split to take effect on August 28th, which will make the company’s shares cheaper for buyers. The electric car maker’s stock closed on Tuesday at $1,374.39 a share, close to its July all-time high and at a total market valuation of more than $256 billion. But at prices that high, it’s difficult for individuals — especially retail traders using platforms like Robinhood — to own more than fractional shares of the company./news/the-9-scenes-you-should-watch-in-the-empire-strikes-back-fan-remake.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-9-scenes-you-should-watch-in-the-empire-strikes-back-fan-remake.htmlYou're at work. You're busy. You don't have two hours and eight minutes to watch the entirety of the fan remake of The Empire Strikes Back, released today on the official Star Wars YouTube page. It's okay. I've selected the ten scenes worth skipping to for people in a hurry. But let's be serious, once you begin watching this video you — like me — probably won't stop. A recreation of the Battle of Hoth made of computer-animated party balloons, this scene is cuter and squeakier than the original./news/the-at-t-fusion-5g-includes-wireless-charging-for-220.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-at-t-fusion-5g-includes-wireless-charging-for-220.htmlAT&T has announced the Fusion 5G, a budget phone with a couple of features previously reserved for much more expensive devices: sub-6GHz 5G and wireless charging. It will cost $219 (or $6.12 per month if you’d rather go that route) when it goes on sale this Friday, January 7th. It’s been a few years since 5G started appearing in smartphones — back in those early, heady days the devices were costly and the networks were practically non-existent./news/the-best-deals-for-star-wars-day-2024-lego-sets-games-and-more.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-best-deals-for-star-wars-day-2024-lego-sets-games-and-more.htmlPeruse these awesome deals on Star Wars stuff, you must, because today is May the Fourth. Fans of Lucasfilm’s iconic franchise have long celebrated this day as a kind of borderline-religious holiday of sorts, one that recognizes an ever-growing franchise that has been adapted for almost every type of media — and product — you can think of. Since its debut in ‘77, Star Wars lore has been doled out in films, TV series, books and graphic novels, video games, and plenty of other mediums we’re surely oblivious to./news/the-biggest-pixel-6-frustrations-that-google-should-fix-with-the-pixel-7.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-biggest-pixel-6-frustrations-that-google-should-fix-with-the-pixel-7.htmlThe Pixel 6 and 6 Pro might be Google’s “fastest-selling Pixels to date,” but they haven’t been what I’d consider a slam dunk in the hardware department. I’m not talking about aesthetics here: I’m a fan of the camera bar look, personally, though I detest curved displays. To each their own. Looking at the big picture, I think the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are among the best phones that Google has made — the camera is superb (for stills), and the Tensor chip’s voice typing and dictation capabilities are genuinely next level — but they’re not without some faults./news/the-boox-palma-is-an-excellent-e-reader-in-an-android-smartphone-s-body.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-boox-palma-is-an-excellent-e-reader-in-an-android-smartphone-s-body.htmlThere are really only three things you need to know about the Boox Palma. One: it’s about the size of a smartphone. Two: it runs Android, with the Play Store. Three: it has an E Ink screen. There are other specs and features I’ll get to, but that combination — smartphone, Android, E Ink — is the Palma’s whole reason for existence. In a couple of months of using the Palma, a $280 device that has been on sale since last fall, that combination has turned out to be exactly what I needed./news/the-drinking-fountain-button-is-tragically-misunderstood.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-drinking-fountain-button-is-tragically-misunderstood.htmlButtons feel magical. You press here, and invisible connections make something happen elsewhere. But “magical” is probably not how I’d describe most public drinking fountains. Button of the MonthIn today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a column that explores the physical pieces of our phones, tablets, controllers, and beyond. Who among us hasn’t walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?/news/the-dyson-washg1-is-the-company-s-first-dedicated-mop.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-dyson-washg1-is-the-company-s-first-dedicated-mop.htmlDyson’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./news/the-environmental-impact-of-a-playstation-4.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-environmental-impact-of-a-playstation-4.htmlSony’s PlayStation 4 is designed to feel impenetrable. The machine — jet black, almost brutalist in shape — conceals its function to the untrained eye. Power on and disk eject buttons, as well as the actual disk drive, are almost invisible. It’s as if Sony hopes to imbue the object with a sense of mystery and awe. The PlayStation 2 played with similar emotions at the turn of the millennium, sitting bolt upright like the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey./news/the-iphone-8-has-a-smaller-battery-than-the-iphone-7.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-iphone-8-has-a-smaller-battery-than-the-iphone-7.htmlThe iPhone 8 is incrementally better than the iPhone 7 in every way except one: battery capacity. A listing on China's version of the FCC, TENAA, shows the batteries are being downgraded in the new devices. The iPhone 8 will have a 1,821mAh battery, compared to the 1,960mAh battery in the iPhone 7. The iPhone 8 Plus will have a 2,675mAh battery, compared to the iPhone 7 Plus' 2,900mAh battery. Apple says both phones should last "/news/the-law-order-gamergate-episode-manages-to-be-even-more-depressing-than-gamergate.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-law-order-gamergate-episode-manages-to-be-even-more-depressing-than-gamergate.htmlThe Gamergate controversy is, to some extent, a fight over whether all art is political. Supporters hate longtime target Anita Sarkeesian, for example, for finding sexist messages in things that are "just for fun." So it’s fitting that a lowbrow, sensationalist show like Law and Order: SVU inspired weeks of ideological debate by announcing an episode about gendered harassment in the gaming world. Nobody ever thought it would be good — SVU exists in a genre that’s famously awful at depicting technology./news/the-mobvoi-ticwatch-pro-5-is-getting-wear-os-4.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-mobvoi-ticwatch-pro-5-is-getting-wear-os-4.htmlThe Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 is getting Wear OS 4!!! *** ***If you fill out a questionnaire beforehand that includes a non-disclosure agreement and get accepted into the beta test program. Enrollment will last through April 30th, and lucky users will get notified about a week later. So, not exactly the Wear OS 4 rollout Mobvoi fans have probably been hoping for, but a sign of progress! ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaXxyhY5ra2prZWaBdHvToZxmpZ%2BXw7C1jK2gnK%2BRqbCpec%2BrpmZtXZ7AbrPErauippdixKat0WamrGVk/news/the-new-echo-show-5-and-apple-s-leather-airtag-loops-are-over-half-off.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-echo-show-5-and-apple-s-leather-airtag-loops-are-over-half-off.htmlRight now, for example, the company is throwing in Sengled’s 800-lumen color smart bulb for free when you buy the latest Echo Show 5 at its all-time low of $39.99 ($69.99 off). You can also buy the smart display by itself for $39.99 ($50 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The 5.5-inch display is just as small as its predecessor, but this time, it arrives with a new speaker system that produces clearer sound and twice the bass./news/the-new-gilmore-girls-treatment-of-people-of-color-is-even-more-stunning-in-screenshots.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-gilmore-girls-treatment-of-people-of-color-is-even-more-stunning-in-screenshots.htmlWriter Rahawa Haile’s new Tumblr Gilmore Blacks spotlights every black person who appears in Netflix’s massively hyped Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. One of them is a secretary who gets fired moments after she first appears on-screen, others are deep in the background of a given shot, and very few of them speak (and if they do it’s for one sentence). For each entry, Haile includes the character’s name (if any) and spoken lines (if any), as well as their purpose, which is always “endure./news/the-philips-hue-lightguide-line-features-three-new-full-color-smart-bulbs.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-philips-hue-lightguide-line-features-three-new-full-color-smart-bulbs.htmlSignify looks set to release a stunning new line of light bulbs for its Philips Hue brand, as the company continues to innovate its LED-based smart lighting line. The new Lightguide line features oversized dimmable smart bulbs that come in three shapes and are designed for open lighting fixtures. These look like they could add some seriously stylish mood lighting to any setup. The new full-color and white ambiance bulbs appeared on Amazon./news/the-red-u11-is-htc-s-phoenix-phone.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-red-u11-is-htc-s-phoenix-phone.htmlThere was once a time, before Samsung’s meteoric rise to the top of the smartphone sales charts, when HTC was the leading innovator among Android phone makers. The Taiwanese company was first to have a 4.3-inch screen, first to have an aluminum unibody phone, and was simply the best when it came to design and refinement. The HTC Hero, Legend, Droid Incredible, and Sensation were standard-setting devices even before we got the timeless HTC One X./news/the-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-remake-has-a-new-developer.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-remake-has-a-new-developer.htmlEmbracer Group is moving development on the upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) remake for PS5 and PC from Aspyr Media to a Saber Interactive studio in Eastern Europe, according to Bloomberg. Saber had been helping with development on the remake, but a cryptic statement in Embracer’s earnings report last week seemed to suggest that Saber could be officially taking over. “One of the Group’s AAA projects has transitioned to another studio within the Group,” Embracer wrote./news/the-verge-archives-laptops.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-archives-laptops.htmlActually, yes, a brand-new $1,600 computer should come with more than 8GB of RAM. I’ve been critical of Apple’s new base-model 14-inch MacBook Pro, which comes with just 8GB of RAM for a starting price of $1,599. Despite Apple Silicon’s excellent performance and the fact that Apple’s unified memory is faster than traditional RAM, working memory is still working memory and more is better, especially if you use a lot of apps or browser tabs./news/the-verge-is-live-from-computex-taipei.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-is-live-from-computex-taipei.htmlAs if E3 weren't enough trade show to be watching this week, The Verge is also coming at you live from Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. It's humid and rainy out here, but we'll be doing our best to bring you the latest on Windows 8 as well as showings from the likes of Asus, Acer, and more. Early rumors have suggested both companies will be making a push into Windows 8 tablets along with Toshiba, and there are indications that this will be a big show for Asus in particular./news/these-six-wheeled-robots-are-about-to-start-delivering-food-in-the-us.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/these-six-wheeled-robots-are-about-to-start-delivering-food-in-the-us.htmlA small number of Americans will soon be able to have food and other goods delivered to them by an adorable semi-autonomous robot. Starship Technologies announced the first two commercial partnerships for its ground-based delivery robots in the US today — one with DoorDash in Redwood City, California, and one with Postmates in Washington, DC. The commercial trials will see these services start making deliveries in the coming weeks using Starship’s six-wheeled robots within a four-mile-wide test area in each city./news/this-smart-barbie-is-raising-concerns-over-children-s-privacy.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-smart-barbie-is-raising-concerns-over-children-s-privacy.htmlPrivacy campaigners are demanding that toymaker Mattel halts the production of Hello Barbie, a Wi-Fi enabled doll that records children's conversations to learn about their likes, dislikes, and ambitions. Mattel says the doll's voice-recognition technology allows it have a "unique relationship" with its owner, but advocates from the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood (CCFC) say the new technology could be exploited. Intimate conversations are "recorded and analyzed." "If I had a young child, I would be very concerned that my child's intimate conversations with her doll were being recorded and analyzed,"/news/this-angelfire-page-could-be-the-first-website-of-15-year-old-mark-zuckerberg-aka-slim-shady.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-angelfire-page-could-be-the-first-website-of-15-year-old-mark-zuckerberg-aka-slim-shady.htmlThe sleuths at Hacker News appear to have uncovered a relic from the dusty ruins of the '90s web: Mark Zuckerberg's Angelfire webpage. While we can't confirm that the site actually belongs to Facebook's Zuckerberg, the evidence is compelling: the social network magnate spells his full name out in the page's source code, and invites guests to check out his "Zuck Fader," a newer version of his "Vader Fader" color gradient tool./news/this-is-what-david-lynch-s-return-of-the-jedi-would-look-like.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-is-what-david-lynch-s-return-of-the-jedi-would-look-like.htmlDavid Lynch infamously turned down the opportunity to direct Return of The Jedi when George Lucas offered it to him back in the early 1980s, but what if he hadn't? YouTube user C-SPIT has gone ahead and created a trailer for that never-made movie, recutting scenes from Jedi in pure Lynchian style, complete with lots of creepy dissolves, out-of-context screams, and other singularly horrific elements from the third Star Wars film./news/this-literal-gravy-train-is-here-to-ruin-thanksgiving.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-literal-gravy-train-is-here-to-ruin-thanksgiving.htmlGravy is a magical thing. It can rescue even the most bland holiday meals. But too much of anything can be a bad thing, even gravy — especially when it’s being blasted from the tiny cannon of a toy boat strapped to a plastic train. That mad lib sentence will make more sense when you watch the above video. In it, intrepid YouTuber and sauce delivery pioneer William Osman gives in to the apparent demands of his viewers and tries to make a literal gravy train./news/tidal-now-offers-a-discount-to-firefighters-emts-and-other-first-responders.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tidal-now-offers-a-discount-to-firefighters-emts-and-other-first-responders.htmlToday Tidal launched a new “Community Heroes” program that offers a 40 percent discount to first responders in the US, including people who are firefighters, police officers, and EMT / EMS. The discount applies to both Tidal’s Premium and HiFi plans, knocking a Premium membership down to $5.99 and a HiFi membership to $11.99 (originally $9.99 and $19.99). To redeem the discount, qualifying members can make a new account on Tidal and then select a “First Responder” plan./news/tiktok-s-pushing-its-expanded-dm-options.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-s-pushing-its-expanded-dm-options.htmlTikTok has been letting users know about its expanded DM options, which include the ability to let anyone message you. According to The Information, the platform has been sending emails to some users to let them know about the relatively new options, which were added in November and include the ability to let anyone DM you, potentially signaling that the company’s trying to push its private messaging features. One of TikTok’s main competitors, YouTube, is closer to the pure entertainment side./news/to-win-the-smartwatch-war-apple-must-beat-this-goldeneye-007-watchface-on-the-moto-360.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/to-win-the-smartwatch-war-apple-must-beat-this-goldeneye-007-watchface-on-the-moto-360.htmlIf you don't have a Moto 360, you can do what I did about six months back and make your own $7 version. Touchscreen doesn't work but battery life is phenomenal. Update: "Rmukapps," the app's creator, reached out to let us know about a beta version of Secret Agent Watchface (if anyone's curious to try) that will turn the left bar into the tethered phone's battery indicator, among other features./news/tp-link-expands-smart-home-line-with-new-video-door-lock-and-robovacs.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tp-link-expands-smart-home-line-with-new-video-door-lock-and-robovacs.htmlTP-Link is expanding its smart home lineup with an array of new products, including a new video door lock, a dual video doorbell, two robot vacuums, and a whole range of Matter-compatible products. For starters, the Tapo Smart Video Door Lock features a clever design that combines all the features of a lock, doorbell, and camera. You can unlock the door with a few different methods, including facial recognition or using the built-in fingerprint sensor./news/tsa-bans-liquids-from-carry-on-bags-for-all-direct-flights-between-us-and-russia.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tsa-bans-liquids-from-carry-on-bags-for-all-direct-flights-between-us-and-russia.htmlThe US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has banned all liquids, gels, aerosols, and powders from direct flights between the United States and Russia. Delta Airlines posted a notice on its site notifying its customers of the rule change, which is effective immediately. The news comes on the heels of a report from the Department of Homeland Security that warned airlines to be on the lookout for explosives in toothpaste containers. Despite the warning, officials said that "/news/twitter-unveils-a-new-homepage-for-people-who-aren-t-signed-in.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-unveils-a-new-homepage-for-people-who-aren-t-signed-in.htmlTwitter spent the past year trying to convince skeptics that its relatively slow progress in attracting new users doesn't matter, because its reach is actually much larger. Millions of people who don't have Twitter accounts still see tweets every month, and Twitter said it was planning new efforts to convert them into active users. That effort starts today with the rollout of a new homepage for people who aren't signed into the service./news/twitter-s-new-tweetdeck-lives-behind-a-verified-paywall.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-s-new-tweetdeck-lives-behind-a-verified-paywall.htmlTwitter is officially launching its “new” version of TweetDeck to everyone, according to a tweet from Twitter’s support account, which is a step that it had to take to help mitigate some of the issues TweetDeck has been experiencing lately. The switch comes with a potentially-heartbreaking catch: TweetDeck is going to become a Verified-only feature in 30 days, the account says, meaning you’ll need to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription to be able to use it./news/two-arrested-in-south-korea-over-secretly-filming-1-600-hotel-guests.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/two-arrested-in-south-korea-over-secretly-filming-1-600-hotel-guests.htmlSouth Korean authorities have arrested two men and are investigating two more over a spycam website that live streamed 1,600 hotel guests without their knowledge, reports CNN. The men installed small, 1mm lens cameras into items ranging from hair dryer holders and wall sockets, and then streamed the footage online, where people could pay a monthly fee to watch. The arrests are part of a South Korean epidemic of what’s known as “molka,” which is the secret filming of women in public places such as toilets and changing rooms, but sometimes even in their own homes./news/ubisoft-won-t-say-whether-the-prince-of-persia-s-incredible-actor-has-been-replaced.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ubisoft-won-t-say-whether-the-prince-of-persia-s-incredible-actor-has-been-replaced.htmlIt’s looking like the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has lost one of its most important assets: Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor who played the prince, famously narrated the entirety of the original 2003 game, and is currently renowned for playing Peter Parker’s Spider-Man in the excellent Insomniac games. Yesterday, Tom Henderson, currently one of the most trusted voices in gaming leaks, reported that you should “forget everything you know” about the Prince of Persia remake — and revealed that Lowenthal would no longer be in the role./news/ultrahuman-s-299-smart-ring-aims-to-hack-your-metabolism.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ultrahuman-s-299-smart-ring-aims-to-hack-your-metabolism.htmlFitness startup Ultrahuman is launching a smart ring that it claims will give users “ultrahuman power.” And by ultrahuman power, the company means a fitness tracker that gives insights into your metabolism by monitoring sleep and movement. The smart ring can also be used with the company’s M1 glucose monitoring patch for more in-depth metabolic tracking. In terms of design and features, the Ultrahuman Ring seems to be taking a page from the popular Oura Ring./news/want-better-online-recommendations-it-takes-better-ai-and-a-human-touch.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/want-better-online-recommendations-it-takes-better-ai-and-a-human-touch.htmlSpending hours on endless side-scrolling rows of Netflix movies or hunting through the forever-long lists of identically rated restaurants on Yelp — this can’t be the way it’s supposed to work. Part of the whole promise of the internet is that platforms and services would take the web’s infinite supply of everything — the stuff to watch, read, look at, play with, buy, eat, invest in, comment on, listen to, or have feelings about — combine it with a deep understanding of who you are and what you like, and feed back to you an endless supply of all your favorite stuff./news/want-to-go-to-costa-rica.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/want-to-go-to-costa-rica.htmlWant to go to Costa Rica? Earth Month is coming to a close, but there’s still time to catch up on The Verge’s package of stories from Costa Rica on turning cattle ranches into forests, Indigenous leaders fighting for their land back, and how the country runs on nearly 100 percent renewable electricity. On the ground in Costa Rica, we found reasons to be hopeful about solutions to climate change. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfaXxzhY5ra2psZGeCdnvWmqWtZaSkeqi7jK2mZpufqMGiedGimpo%3D/news/warner-bros-90-million-batgirl-movie-won-t-be-released-on-hbo-max-or-anywhere.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/warner-bros-90-million-batgirl-movie-won-t-be-released-on-hbo-max-or-anywhere.htmlAbout a week ago, industry observers noticed that Comic-Con 2022 came and went without any mention of Batgirl, the Warner Bros. film shot over the winter and apparently due for release in 2023. Today, the New York Post, The Wrap, and other entertainment outlets report that despite being in the final stages of post-production, Warner Bros. and DC Films have decided not to release the movie on any platform or in theaters./news/watch-elon-musk-s-full-interview-at-code-2016.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-elon-musk-s-full-interview-at-code-2016.htmlElon Musk took the stage Wednesday night at Code Conference 2016 for a chat with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. In a wide-ranging interview, the SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO talked about the future of artificial intelligence, his plans to finish the Tesla Model 3, and what a government on Mars should look like. He also thinks that we're all already cyborgs. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnam5fa3xze5Bqb2xvaWV9cLHLqKVmpaWouG61za2cq66ZmsRur86dnGabn6Ozpr7Ep5qeZaaesaa7jKynmpuVrXq1sdKlmA%3D%3D/news/watch-internet-from-space-provider-oneweb-launch-its-biggest-batch-of-satellites-yet.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-internet-from-space-provider-oneweb-launch-its-biggest-batch-of-satellites-yet.htmlThis afternoon, a rocket will send another batch of satellites into orbit above Earth in the ongoing journey to provide internet coverage from space — but these satellites aren’t part of SpaceX’s well-known Starlink project. Instead, they belong to OneWeb, which also has big dreams of bringing the world’s population online by beaming internet from the sky. Today’s launch will be the second one for the London-based company, which launched its first six satellites nearly a year go out of South America./news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-silicon-valley-s-sixth-and-final-season.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-silicon-valley-s-sixth-and-final-season.htmlSilicon Valley, HBO’s beloved satire of the tech industry, is coming to an end. HBO has released the first trailer for the show’s sixth and final season, which looks to keep up the sharp humor and ridicule that the series is known for — and which reveals the new season is coming Sunday, October 27th. How could a congressional hearing starring Zuck be even more awkward? Judge has found a way/news/watch-the-lead-up-scenes-that-explain-arya-s-note-in-this-week-s-game-of-thrones-episode-eastwa.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-the-lead-up-scenes-that-explain-arya-s-note-in-this-week-s-game-of-thrones-episode-eastwa.htmlSpoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 5, “Eastwatch” As if we needed further proof that season 7 of Game of Thrones is all about callbacks to the show’s earliest season, the latest episode, “Eastwatch,” ended with Arya getting her hands on yet another blast from the past. While spying on Littlefinger, she saw him talking to various people at Winterfell before receiving a note pulled out of from Maester Luwin’s obsessively kept archives./news/we-solved-the-mystery-of-what-will-happen-when-an-ant-falls-from-the-empire-state-building.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/we-solved-the-mystery-of-what-will-happen-when-an-ant-falls-from-the-empire-state-building.htmlLast week, I asked a question that I had already accepted in my defeated heart as having no real answer: if you drop an ant from the top of the Empire State Building, will it die? And the other, more pressing question: was this Korean TV show from the '90s lying to me when it said that ants would explode because of changing air pressure as they were moved to the top of a skyscraper?/news/what-a-machine-learning-tool-that-turns-obama-white-can-and-can-t-tell-us-about-ai-bias.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/what-a-machine-learning-tool-that-turns-obama-white-can-and-can-t-tell-us-about-ai-bias.htmlIt’s a startling image that illustrates the deep-rooted biases of AI research. Input a low-resolution picture of Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, into an algorithm designed to generate depixelated faces, and the output is a white man. It’s not just Obama, either. Get the same algorithm to generate high-resolution images of actress Lucy Liu or congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from low-resolution inputs, and the resulting faces look distinctly white./news/where-to-preorder-microsoft-s-new-surface-laptop-and-surface-pro.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/where-to-preorder-microsoft-s-new-surface-laptop-and-surface-pro.htmlIt feels like forever ago that we got new Surface laptops, but Microsoft has taken the wraps off a handful of 2024 refreshes at its hardware event on Monday. We’re getting consumer-centric versions of the newest Surface Laptop and Surface Pro, both starting at $999.99 and launching June 18th. Microsoft calls the Copilot Plus PCs “the most powerful Windows PCs ever built.” They’ll be first in line to benefit from Windows 11’s next-gen AI features, which we expect to hear about during Microsoft’s annual Build conference this week./news/whole-foods-to-stop-selling-chobani-greek-yogurt-over-failure-to-label-gmos.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/whole-foods-to-stop-selling-chobani-greek-yogurt-over-failure-to-label-gmos.htmlWhole Foods wants all GMOs labeled in-store by 2018 Though Chobani advertises the inclusion of only natural ingredients in its yogurt, it also says that some of its yogurt could be made with milk from cows that were given GMOs in their feed — a disclaimer that isn't currently listed on its packaging. According to the Journal, Whole Foods plans to replace Chobani with GMO-free Greek yogurt options that aren't as widely sold, giving it access to more exclusive products./news/why-charge-an-ev-when-you-can-just-swap-its-battery.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-charge-an-ev-when-you-can-just-swap-its-battery.htmlWe like to talk about range anxiety, but the reality is we’re dealing with charging anxiety when it comes to EVs. It’s great that an electric vehicle can cover 300 miles on a charge, but if the infrastructure is sparse and, in many cases, not working correctly, the ability to cover hundreds of miles on a single charge just means you’re hundreds of miles from home if things go sideways. /news/wild-skies-how-long-will-drones-for-hire-fly-in-a-legal-limbo.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wild-skies-how-long-will-drones-for-hire-fly-in-a-legal-limbo.htmlUpdate: Today, the FAA published an expected road map for its UAV deployment. By the end of 2014, the agency hopes to have a certification process for existing aircraft largely in place; it should also have published certification guidelines for pilots. After the rules for small unmanned aircraft are codified in 2015, the FAA will continue to work on rules for other craft until 2020. It was late September, and a 3-pound drone was soaring over Midtown Manhattan./news/withings-releases-first-smartwatch-after-buying-itself-back-from-nokia.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/withings-releases-first-smartwatch-after-buying-itself-back-from-nokia.htmlLess than two years after Nokia bought the French digital health startup Withings, it was decided that the business was struggling to “meet its growth expectations,” leading to Withings reacquiring itself from Nokia this past May. Now the company is back with a new logo and a new fitness tracker. The Steel HR Sport smartwatch features GPS-connectivity, oxygen intake sensors, and most importantly, it’s released under Withings’ own brand. The Steel HR Sport shares a lot of the same features as the Steel HR smartwatch released under Nokia in 2016: the 25-day battery life, heart rate monitor, and smartphone notifications./news/yes-i-actually-pay-for-discovery-plus.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/yes-i-actually-pay-for-discovery-plus.htmlOut of all the streaming services I use — Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and Funimation — Discovery Plus is the one that I use the most. And I don’t even get it for free through some kind of promotion — I actually pay for it. At just $4.99 per month (or $6.99 without ads), it’s one of the cheapest streaming options out there, and for me, those five bucks go a long way./news/you-can-finally-control-your-sonos-speakers-directly-from-spotify.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-finally-control-your-sonos-speakers-directly-from-spotify.htmlAfter about a month in public beta, Sonos and Spotify are releasing an update today allowing Spotify to directly play to Sonos speakers to all users. The update essentially makes any Sonos device into a Spotify Connect speaker, with the added bonus of Sonos' signature multi-room functionality built in.  Control music throughout your home on Sonos speakers directly from the Spotify app The new feature, which was originally announced in August, allows anyone to control music playing on Sonos speakers directly from the Spotify app, so long as they’re on the same Wi-Fi network./news/you-can-now-drive-fallout-4-s-slickest-car-in-forza-6.htmlFri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-now-drive-fallout-4-s-slickest-car-in-forza-6.htmlThose beautiful, burned out husks from the streets of Fallout 4 are now something you can drive. Starting today, the Chryslus Rocket ‘69 — easily the most beautiful of Fallout's retro-futuristic vehicles — is playable in Forza 6. You can't buy it, though; instead, Microsoft will be sending out codes to those who have played either Forza 6 or Fallout 4 while signed into Xbox Live. "Due to the millions of codes being sent, it can take up to seven days for codes to arrive,"/news/warcraft-review-not-a-disaster-just-a-struggle-with-ambition.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/warcraft-review-not-a-disaster-just-a-struggle-with-ambition.htmlThat alone is a tall order, but Jones' ambitions reach much higher. He's trying to tell a story about people driven equally by duty and personal need. He's trying for something denser and more realistic than the usual fantasy binaries of pure, simple good and evil. He's also finding resonance with his favorite themes, as seen in his previous films, Moon and Source Code: all three of his movies are about people caught up in work they think is critical, until they realize how they're being victimized and lied to by people taking advantage of that work./news/interstellar-doesn-t-have-sound-problems-christopher-nolan-wanted-it-that-way.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/interstellar-doesn-t-have-sound-problems-christopher-nolan-wanted-it-that-way.htmlInterstellar has been in theaters for two weekends now, and the most vocal reactions to it have been complaints around its sound. Many viewers have said that the film's loud score and effects make it impossible to hear the dialogue at certain points, and there's been plenty of speculation as to whether that's the fault of theaters that are playing it wrong or someone in Nolan's mixing room who messed up./news/11-reasons-why-quibi-crashed-and-burned-in-less-than-a-year.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/11-reasons-why-quibi-crashed-and-burned-in-less-than-a-year.htmlQuibi, the shortform video streaming service designed for people to enjoy on their phones, has shuttered after less than a year of existence.  Led by veteran Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman, the streaming service was designed to be a revolutionary way to watch videos on the go, with shows and films specifically formatted to work in both landscape and portrait modes. With nearly $2 billion raised before Quibi even launched in April and a long line of Hollywood talent on board to provide movies and shows, Katzenberg and Whitman felt pretty good about their prospects — even if analysts and media critics questioned the duo’s strategy./news/a-closer-look-at-tesla-model-3-s-spartan-interior.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-closer-look-at-tesla-model-3-s-spartan-interior.htmlMy Verge colleague Sean O’Kane put it well when he wrote that the Tesla Model 3 interior doesn’t look like any car you’ve ever seen. It’s stunningly austere, with a smooth strip of wood across the dashboard that looks like it was carved straight out of a bamboo stalk; zero instrumentation behind the steering wheel; no vents; and none of the usual interior handles. The glovebox is opened via virtual button on the display, and you exit the car by pushing on a small button on the door./news/a-look-inside-both-the-legion-go-and-steam-deck-oled.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-look-inside-both-the-legion-go-and-steam-deck-oled.htmliFixit published a dual teardown of Valve’s Steam Deck OLED and the Lenovo Legion Go today, giving a nice, detailed look inside both handhelds with all of the site’s usual meticulous detail. This being iFixit, the focus is on the consoles’ repairability, and it gave both high marks — a 9 / 10 for the Steam Deck OLED and 8 / 10 for the Lenovo Legion. The article has a nice summary of the process, but we recommend watching the video for the full effect and some nice close-up shots of the components./news/a-new-iphone-shortcut-replicates-android-s-best-new-feature.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-new-iphone-shortcut-replicates-android-s-best-new-feature.htmlOne of Android’s best new features, Circle to Search, is unfortunately not available to iPhone users. But Google is throwing Apple fans a bone with a solution that essentially replicates the function. Google’s design manager for Google Lens, Minsang Choi, shared a new iOS shortcut in a post on X that’s designed to leverage the Action button on iPhone 15 Pro devices. When activated, the shortcut takes a screenshot of whatever you’re looking at and immediately funnels it into the Google app and runs a Lens scan./news/a-quirk-of-covid-19-tests-can-track-the-new-coronavirus-variant.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-quirk-of-covid-19-tests-can-track-the-new-coronavirus-variant.htmlHealth officials in the United States may be able to use a fluke of COVID-19 testing to monitor the spread of a more contagious form of the virus, which was identified in the country for the first time this week. The variant is spreading widely across the United Kingdom, and has been found in over a dozen countries so far — including the US.  Experts don’t think the coronavirus variant is more deadly than other forms of the virus, and the vaccines already developed should still protect against the new strain./news/a-razzlekhan-movie-is-in-the-works-about-the-rapper-bitcoin-money-launderer.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/a-razzlekhan-movie-is-in-the-works-about-the-rapper-bitcoin-money-launderer.htmlA Razzlekhan movie is in the works about the rapper/Bitcoin money launderer. Last summer, Heather Morgan (a Forbes blogger who also rapped under the name Razzlekhan) and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to charges they conspired to launder Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. At the time of their arrest in early 2022, the stolen crypto was worth $4.5 billion. Netflix previously ordered a documentary series about the couple, and now Deadline reports that Amazon MGM Studios has started development on a Razzlekhan film inspired by this New York Times story./news/alan-turing-s-60-year-old-chess-program-takes-on-garry-kasparov.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alan-turing-s-60-year-old-chess-program-takes-on-garry-kasparov.htmlThe 100th anniversary of mathematician Alan Turing's birth has been celebrated in a number of different ways, including a public chess match between legend Garry Kasparov and a program that Turing wrote over 60 years ago. The match took place as part of the University of Manchester's Alan Turing Centenary Conference, with Kasparov battling Turochamp, a program that Turing wrote by hand and was never able to see in action on a computer (he attempted to implement it on the University's Ferranti Mark 1 back in 1950 but the work was never finished)./news/alphabet-s-wing-unveils-larger-drones-for-heavier-packages.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/alphabet-s-wing-unveils-larger-drones-for-heavier-packages.htmlIf drone delivery is going to go mainstream, it’s going to need bigger aircraft that can handle more stuff. Today, Alphabet’s Wing unveiled the first in a new lineup of larger drones with more payload capacity. Wing’s flagship drone is designed to handle payloads of up to 2.5 pounds. The new drone can handle up to five pounds without sacrificing range. The company says that it has enough battery power to complete 12 miles round trip while cruising at up to 65mph./news/amazon-echo-dot-3rd-gen-review-better-looks-better-sound-same-price.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-echo-dot-3rd-gen-review-better-looks-better-sound-same-price.htmlI’m going to cut right to the chase: the new Echo Dot smart speaker is so much better than its predecessor that it would not be totally out of line to replace a whole houseful of old Echo Dots with new ones. The new Echo Dot looks better, works better, and, most importantly, sounds much better than the prior model. And it still costs the same $49.99. Amazon has upgraded the sound quality on all of its new Echo devices coming out this year, but the improvements are most noticeable on the Dot simply because of how deficient the prior model was./news/amazon-holiday-sales-include-an-exclusive-discount-on-our-favorite-wireless-charger-and-more-deals.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-holiday-sales-include-an-exclusive-discount-on-our-favorite-wireless-charger-and-more-deals.htmlIt’s almost Christmas and if you’re behind on your shopping, you can still find some great holiday sales on headphones, smart speakers, and more. As we mentioned last week, Sennheiser’s holiday deals are running through December 31st, through which you can save $100 on various best-selling headphones. There’s also still time to save on a few Amazon devices, including the new Echo. Note that the Echo Show and Fire HD deals end tomorrow (Sunday, December 24th), so act fast if you have your eye on these./news/amazon-s-fallout-tv-series-will-start-streaming-in-2024.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/amazon-s-fallout-tv-series-will-start-streaming-in-2024.htmlAmazon has yet to release a public trailer for its highly anticipated Fallout series, but at least we now know when it’ll arrive on our TV screens. The streaming giant has revealed that Fallout — a live-action adaptation of Bethesda’s popular RPG video game franchise — will premiere on April 12th, 2024, exclusively via Prime Video. The announcement was made on October 23rd, otherwise known to Fallout fans as “Fallout Day” — the in-game date that marks the beginning of the Great War that turns the world into an irradiated nuclear wasteland./news/android-p-won-t-let-apps-secretly-use-your-mic-or-camera-in-the-background.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/android-p-won-t-let-apps-secretly-use-your-mic-or-camera-in-the-background.htmlWith its next major release of Android, Google will prevent apps from using your smartphone’s microphone or camera whenever they’re in the background and not actively being used on screen. The move is another attempt to lock down consumer privacy and eliminate any remaining paranoia over Facebook or other apps secretly listening to your conversations and serving up relevant advertisements. Sorry, conspiracy theorists. Android O already took steps to make it more apparent whenever apps asked for mic and camera permissions, and Google is continuing to bolster those efforts with P./news/angry-investors-can-continue-ipo-lawsuit-against-facebook-judge-rules.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/angry-investors-can-continue-ipo-lawsuit-against-facebook-judge-rules.htmlA lawsuit against Facebook and a group of banks is moving forward, following a new decision from a federal judge today. Manhattan federal judge Robert Sweet says unhappy investors can pursue claims that the social network botched certain disclosures in its initial public offering last May. That suit, filed in June last year, claims Facebook "selectively" disclosed parts of its revenue outlook to only some investors and not all. Those estimates were trimmed based on expectations of increased mobile use, something the company had trouble making money on versus desktop users./news/anker-s-new-double-thick-magsafe-battery-is-all-about-the-mah.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/anker-s-new-double-thick-magsafe-battery-is-all-about-the-mah.htmlIt is not small. Image: Anker As you can see, attempts at fashion have gone out the window — no chic colors or fancy origami stand from Anker this time. Instead, this utilitarian battery pack boasts a traditional flip-out kickstand and what appears to be an extra USB-A port, in addition to Qi wireless charging. If you want faster charging than its 7.5W Qi pad offers, you can plug a USB-C cable between the USB-C port and your phone for 20W PD charging./news/apex-legends-devs-confirm-esports-hacking-incident-respond-with-layered-updates.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apex-legends-devs-confirm-esports-hacking-incident-respond-with-layered-updates.htmlApex Legends has postponed the North America finals for its Global Series championship over concerns that hackers have compromised the “competitive integrity” of the game. Two professional players from major teams were targeted while livestreaming on Sunday by an attack that forcibly applied advantage-granting cheats during competitive gameplay. The cause of these attacks hasn’t been officially verified, leading to speculation that the hack may have been delivered via Apex Legends’ anti-cheat protections./news/apple-agrees-to-pay-9-75m-settlement-over-alleged-powerbeats-2-design-defect.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-agrees-to-pay-9-75m-settlement-over-alleged-powerbeats-2-design-defect.htmlIf you’re a US resident who bought a pair of wireless Powerbeats 2 earbuds before August 7th, then you could soon get a payout over the allegedly “defective” device, MacRumors reports. Apple has agreed to pay out $9.75 million, after it was accused of falsely advertising the so-called “shoddy” earbuds as “sweat & water resistant” and “built to endure.” However, the plaintiffs say that these claims weren’t true, and that the earbuds would stop holding their charge after “minimal use./news/apple-macos-13-ventura-review-good-updates-you-can-mostly-ignore.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-macos-13-ventura-review-good-updates-you-can-mostly-ignore.htmlWhen I was reading over my macOS Monterey review in preparation for this one, I was struck by many features I thought I might end up using that I have not actually used. I thought I might start using Shortcuts. I could see myself adopting Focus. I was sure I’d start tagging my notes. I thought I’d use Portrait Mode all the time. Tab Groups made me consider moving over to Safari./news/apple-might-put-oleds-in-laptops-and-tablets-to-make-up-for-slowing-iphone-sales.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-might-put-oleds-in-laptops-and-tablets-to-make-up-for-slowing-iphone-sales.htmlApple may use high-end OLED screens in more of its devices, not necessarily just because it wants to, but also because it may satisfy a penalty it supposedly owes to its OLED supplier, Samsung Display — after reportedly failing to buy enough iPhone screens to make good on its contract. According to a report from ETnews, this repayment might even see Samsung’s OLED screens appearing in Apple products that have never featured them before, including notebooks and tablets (via AppleInsider)./news/apple-says-its-dangerous-chicago-roof-was-a-result-of-a-software-malfunction.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-says-its-dangerous-chicago-roof-was-a-result-of-a-software-malfunction.htmlLast week, parts of Apple’s new flagship retail store in Chicago had to be roped off, as dangerous icicles started to form on the roof. Although many believed the design of the MacBook Air-like roof was flawed, Apple later explained that the problem was instead a software issue that caused its heating system to break. Apple spokesman Nick Leahy told The Chicago Tribune last week that the building’s architects, from the London-based Foster+Partners, had designed the store to be snow-friendly./news/apple-s-iphone-repair-program-for-independent-stores-expands-to-europe-and-canada.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-iphone-repair-program-for-independent-stores-expands-to-europe-and-canada.htmlApple’s Independent Repair Provider Program, which allows businesses to purchase genuine Apple parts to perform iPhone repairs without having to become a full-fledged Apple Authorized Service Provide (AASP), is expanding to Canada and 32 countries across Europe, the company has announced. The program launched in the US last year, and Apple says that 140 businesses with a total of 700 locations have signed up since.  The program is important because it gives independent shops access to certified Apple parts at the same cost as AASPs, without having to agree to that program’s stricter requirements, according to iFixit./news/apple-s-m1-ipad-air-is-back-down-to-its-lowest-price.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/apple-s-m1-ipad-air-is-back-down-to-its-lowest-price.htmlThis might actually be the iPad for you if you’re considering Apple’s 10th-gen base iPad, which starts at $449.99. While they might look similar (that’s intentional), the iPad Air is the better choice in several ways: it’s faster, it supports the second-gen Apple Pencil with wireless charging support, its USB-C charging port supports faster data transfer, and it has a better laminated display. It also has access to a better (but not necessarily cheaper) accessory ecosystem, like the Magic Keyboard./news/aqara-s-latest-budget-smart-lock-is-the-cheapest-apple-home-key-lock-you-can-buy.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/aqara-s-latest-budget-smart-lock-is-the-cheapest-apple-home-key-lock-you-can-buy.htmlAqara’s latest budget smart lock is the cheapest Apple Home Key lock you can buy. The new $150 Aqara U50 works over Zigbee and Bluetooth and is Matter-compatible (with an Aqara bridge). Handily, it can be re-keyed so you can keep using your existing keys. Unlike its more expensive big brother the U100, there’s no fingerprint reader. In its place you get a smart button that can trigger an automation when you leave./news/at-t-is-switching-all-android-phones-to-google-s-messages-app-for-rcs.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-is-switching-all-android-phones-to-google-s-messages-app-for-rcs.htmlAT&T and Google have announced that all Android phones on the network will use Google’s Android Messages app for SMS and RCS services. T-Mobile made the exact same partnership deal with Google in March, which leaves Verizon as the only US carrier who hasn’t committed to switching its customers to Android Messages by default. Along with the switch to Messages comes another important shift: real interoperability with RCS on other networks./news/at-t-s-discovery-deal-is-about-taking-on-disney-plus.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/at-t-s-discovery-deal-is-about-taking-on-disney-plus.htmlEarly Monday morning, AT&T announced a sudden change in direction: it reached an agreement to spin off WarnerMedia — the conglomerate of Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, DC Comics, and more — into a new company to be merged with Discovery. While Discovery’s roster of the Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, and Food Network is a whole lot less exciting than WarnerMedia’s lineup of Batman, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, the combined company brings together the components needed to build a new streaming giant./news/barnes-noble-announces-new-nook-glowlight-4-says-it-cares-for-real-this-time.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/barnes-noble-announces-new-nook-glowlight-4-says-it-cares-for-real-this-time.htmlBarnes & Noble has once again remembered that it ostensibly wants to sell e-readers and has announced the Nook GlowLight 4, a $149 e-reader that offers a refreshed design, more onboard storage, and USB-C charging to the company’s lineup. The last dedicated Nook e-reader, the GlowLight 3, was announced 49 months ago (to the day) on November 1st, 2017, although Barnes & Noble did give the Nook brand a shot in the arm earlier this year with a new, Lenovo-made budget tablet./news/before-your-eyes-is-a-tragic-beautiful-fit-for-the-psvr-2.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/before-your-eyes-is-a-tragic-beautiful-fit-for-the-psvr-2.htmlBefore Your Eyes made me cry inside a VR headset. Originally released on PC in 2021 and on mobile last year, Before Your Eyes asks you to relive the memories of a child named Benny as he grows up, learns more about his family, and explores his gift for art. But now available for the first time in VR on PlayStation VR2, the experience feels like it’s found a perfect home./news/best-nintendo-switch-cases-for-2022.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/best-nintendo-switch-cases-for-2022.htmlLet’s face it: protective carrying cases for the Nintendo Switch are a dime a dozen. A quick Google search will yield no shortage of options that largely work as intended; however, most cases on the market may not do well against drops and other blunt force trauma, even if they can protect your console from more superficial damage. Then there’s the question of space. Most only offer enough room for your console and a couple of Joy-Con controllers, forcing you to relegate the case to another bag entirely./news/big-clapper-is-a-4-500-robot-that-will-applaud-you-until-the-day-you-die.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/big-clapper-is-a-4-500-robot-that-will-applaud-you-until-the-day-you-die.htmlThe pitch for Big Clapper, a $4,500 robot that’s currently raising funds on Kickstarter, is simple. Do you feel underappreciated in life? Would you like a little more support? How about some applause for all that amazing work you do? Fantastic. You should definitely buy this tomato-faced robot to clap and cheer you on for the rest of your life. Okay, so that’s not the only use for Big Clapper, but it is one option./news/black-mirror-the-verge.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/black-mirror-the-verge.htmlNetflix might have missed the point when it created a Streamberry experience online. In the latest season of Black Mirror the show pointedly goes after streaming services for their growth at all costs approach to entertainment with the creation of the Netflix parody, Streamberry. Now Netflix, which produces Black Mirror, has created a Streamberry website full of weird riffs on Black Mirror episodes. If its anything like the Black Mirror version of Streamberry I wouldn’t suggest uploading an picture of your face until you check those Terms of Service./news/blackberry-s-next-major-smartphone-will-have-a-siri-like-virtual-assistant.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/blackberry-s-next-major-smartphone-will-have-a-siri-like-virtual-assistant.htmlApple's iOS has Siri, Google's Android has Google Now, Microsoft's Windows Phone has Cortana, and soon, BlackBerry will have BlackBerry Assistant. The Canadian smartphone maker today revealed details about the new voice-controlled virtual assistant that will be available on the forthcoming Passport smartphone, expected to arrive this fall. BlackBerry Assistant, which is apparently a part of the BlackBerry 10.3 operating system also coming with the Passport, offers many of the same functions found in the other platforms' virtual assistants./news/bmw-will-be-the-first-automaker-to-use-amazon-web-services-cloud-platform.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/bmw-will-be-the-first-automaker-to-use-amazon-web-services-cloud-platform.htmlOnly the BMW Group’s internal domain experts — vehicle application developers, fleet managers, data scientists, and artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and development engineers — gain access to the data via a self-service mechanism that gathers streaming vehicle data, easily adds new data sources, configures access in accordance with governance policies, and monitors the quality and health of streaming sources. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2pfZn1wfZJoaWxsYGaAdnyOm6SwZZGirru7zWaunppdqLKzwsicnGabnKTCpXnSqJ2tr5Gnsm6vzqelnpukmrFur8Crqg%3D%3D/news/clearview-ai-and-the-end-of-privacy-with-author-kashmir-hill.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/clearview-ai-and-the-end-of-privacy-with-author-kashmir-hill.htmlToday, I’m talking to Kashmir Hill, a New York Times reporter whose new book, Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as We Know It, chronicles the story of Clearview AI, a company that’s built some of the most sophisticated facial recognition and search technology that’s ever existed. As Kashmir reports, you simply plug a photo of someone into Clearview’s app, and it will find every photo of that person that’s ever been posted on the internet./news/corsair-releases-wireless-mechanical-keyboard-and-mouse-pad-that-doubles-as-a-wireless-charger.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/corsair-releases-wireless-mechanical-keyboard-and-mouse-pad-that-doubles-as-a-wireless-charger.htmlOn the first day of CES, Corsair announced a whole new range of wireless gaming peripherals, including a new mechanical keyboard and a mouse pad charger hybrid. So, in case you haven’t quite arrived at the perfect gaming setup yet, some of these accessories might be for you. The K63 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard, which was a CES 2018 Innovation Award honoree, has the classic Cherry MX Red mechanical keyswitches. The keyboard can connect either via a 1ms 2./news/david-lynch-s-presence-has-been-haunting-video-games-for-decades.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/david-lynch-s-presence-has-been-haunting-video-games-for-decades.htmlReceiving Station H is an electrical substation overseen by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Its purpose: changing the voltage of incoming currents and sending them out toward LA’s Miracle Mile and other destinations. Its admirer: the American filmmaker David Lynch, who visited its location in the ’90s, raised his camera, and clicked. Now this, to repurpose a Lynch line, is really something interesting to think about. In Lynch’s work, electricity is a portal into other worlds, feelings, and memories./news/dc-says-that-if-ta-nehisi-coates-superman-movie-is-made-it-s-going-to-be-an-elseworlds.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/dc-says-that-if-ta-nehisi-coates-superman-movie-is-made-it-s-going-to-be-an-elseworlds.htmlBack in 2021, it was reported that We Were Eight Years in Power author Ta-Nehisi Coates was penning a new Superman script described as “a 20th century period piece” that would revolve around a Black version of the Man of Steel. While details about the project were thin at the time, J.J. Abrams being attached as a producer lent credence to the idea that it might actually come to fruition and be part of Warner Bros./news/diaspora-the-privacy-first-facebook-competitor-shifts-focus-to-meme-generation.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/diaspora-the-privacy-first-facebook-competitor-shifts-focus-to-meme-generation.htmlDiaspora, the social network inspired by privacy concerns about Facebook, has some odd news. Its high-minded, idealistic founders have taken a break from preaching against the dangers of giving personal data away to corporations like Facebook and Google. They're now touting Makr.io, the meme generator they've been developing during their time at the elite accelerator program Y Combinator. Diaspora's founders insist that Makr.io is a related product and will not replace Diaspora./news/disaster-report-4-review-2020-s-best-ps2-game.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/disaster-report-4-review-2020-s-best-ps2-game.htmlMaking video games is a difficult endeavor at the best of times, but spare a thought for the people behind Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, which finally came out last month for the PC, PS4, and Switch in the West. I first played it at a game show in Osaka in 2009; it was running on a PlayStation 3, and I was wearing 3D glasses. They were different times, of course — and the final release still manages to feel like a throwback./news/disney-rehires-james-gunn-for-guardians-of-the-galaxy-3-after-firing-him-over-old-tweets.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/disney-rehires-james-gunn-for-guardians-of-the-galaxy-3-after-firing-him-over-old-tweets.htmlMany people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor. It’s not to say I’m better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger./news/e3-2021-all-the-news-and-announcements.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/e3-2021-all-the-news-and-announcements.htmlAfter taking a year off, E3 2021 is here, bringing days of major gaming news and announcements through a series of remote events. The big reveals kicked off with Summer Game Fest’s Kickoff Live event on June 10th, and E3 proper takes place from June 12th to June 15th, featuring events from Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more. We’ll be covering all of the news from the show, and you can keep up with everything right here./news/eight-twitter-finance-gurus-charged-with-criminal-pump-and-dump-scheme.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/eight-twitter-finance-gurus-charged-with-criminal-pump-and-dump-scheme.htmlThe US Department of Justice has charged eight online finance influencers with criminal securities fraud for running a $114 million pump-and-dump scheme on their collective 1.5 million Twitter followers. According to an indictment, members of a Discord-based forum called Atlas Trading used that platform and Twitter to promote stocks they’d purchased in large quantities, making misleading statements about the stocks’ value and their intent to hold it. Once followers had driven up the price, the group allegedly secretly sold off the stock to maximize their profits./news/escape-from-tarkov-creator-gives-terrible-excuse-for-not-including-playable-female-characters.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/escape-from-tarkov-creator-gives-terrible-excuse-for-not-including-playable-female-characters.htmlWe’re in a brand-new decade, but that hasn’t stopped some video game developers from falling back on inexcusable explanations for why you can’t play as female characters in certain games. This time, it’s courtesy of Escape from Tarkov creator Battlestate Games, which offered two convenient excuses for why — despite the requests of many players — it will not let you play as a female character in its ultra-realistic military survival sim./news/famous-deaths-cricket-and-chatgpt-dominated-wikipedia-in-2023.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/famous-deaths-cricket-and-chatgpt-dominated-wikipedia-in-2023.htmlFamous deaths, cricket… and ChatGPT dominated Wikipedia in 2023. Wikipedia has released its top articles of the year, and numero uno is one on ChatGPT. In a morbid twist, “Deaths in 2023” came in second. Finally, India’s vast English-language speaking population just can’t log-off — articles on the 2023 Cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League come next in the ranking. You can see the full list of popular Wikipedia articles below./news/fan-fiction-site-ao3-is-dealing-with-a-free-speech-debate-of-its-own.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fan-fiction-site-ao3-is-dealing-with-a-free-speech-debate-of-its-own.htmlIn 2007, a group of fans — many of whom were lawyers, academics, or professional writers in their day jobs — founded the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a nonprofit that would preserve fanworks and protect the interests of fans in a rapidly shifting digital landscape. Its central project was a web archive for fan-fic where the servers would be owned by the fans themselves, funded through donations rather than ads or VC backing, and protected by lawyers who could push back against corporations, protecting fanworks under fair use./news/fantastical-the-intelligent-iphone-calendar-app-we-ve-been-waiting-for-is-here.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fantastical-the-intelligent-iphone-calendar-app-we-ve-been-waiting-for-is-here.htmlI’d consistently heard great things about Fantastical for Mac, but I wouldn’t buy it. I wasn’t ready to pay upwards of fifteen dollars for a nice-looking menu bar calendar, though it did include the "List View" I’d come to love on my iPhone. But then a colleague showed me Fantastical’s event creation bar, a white box that turns your words into calendar events. I was sold, and for months I like many others longed for it on iPhone./news/far-cry-5-wasn-t-a-game-for-the-trump-era-but-it-tried-to-be-one-anyway.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/far-cry-5-wasn-t-a-game-for-the-trump-era-but-it-tried-to-be-one-anyway.htmlFar Cry 5 is a game crippled by its potential for social relevance. Ubisoft’s open-world shooter series usually involves fictional conflicts in nonexistent countries, far away from America’s shores. But the latest installment, released last week, is set in rural Montana. Players are fighting an enemy that’s much closer to home: a gun-hoarding cult whose imagery evokes separatist militias and fundamentalist Christianity. The general consensus since the game’s release is that Far Cry 5 completely screws this up./news/fortnite-season-5-introduces-temporal-rifts-golf-carts-and-new-locations.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/fortnite-season-5-introduces-temporal-rifts-golf-carts-and-new-locations.htmlThe rocket has brought some big changes to the ever-evolving world of Fortnite. Today marks the fifth season for the battle royale game, which follows a one-time rocket launch event that added a huge crack in the sky and plenty of unfolding mysteries to solve. The big changes in season 5 include the addition of four-person golf carts, the first proper vehicles in the game, following the shopping carts from last season./news/github-went-down-for-two-hours-affecting-thousands-of-software-developers.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/github-went-down-for-two-hours-affecting-thousands-of-software-developers.htmlGitHub went down for thousands of software developers this morning. The Microsoft-owned service, which provides version control via Git and hosting for software development, experienced issues for more than two hours. GitHub users experienced errors logging into the service, and some were even unable to use their integrated development environment (IDE) due to how closely linked software development is to the service. GitHub is a large code repository that has become very popular with developers and companies hosting entire projects and code on the service./news/gm-offers-buyouts-to-most-of-its-salaried-us-employees.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gm-offers-buyouts-to-most-of-its-salaried-us-employees.htmlA letter from CEO Mary Barra sent to GM workers on Thursday offered buyouts to many of its 58,000 employees, saying the company plans to trim $2 billion in fixed costs over the next two years. GM announced its plan to cut costs in January, on the same earnings call where it announced a record income of $14.5 billion for 2022. GM plans to spend billions over the next few years transitioning to building electric cars and making other changes./news/god-of-war-s-kratos-is-now-available-in-fortnite.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/god-of-war-s-kratos-is-now-available-in-fortnite.htmlAfter a not-so-subtle tease from Sony on Wednesday, God of War protagonist Kratos is now available as a purchasable skin in Fortnite. Although Kratos is a Sony character, he’s not exclusive to PS4 or PS5 platforms — you’ll be able to buy the Kratos skin on any platform where Fortnite can be played, and players on all platforms will be able to see Kratos in-game, Fortnite-maker Epic Games tells The Verge./news/google-daydream-view-virtual-reality-headset-is-70-off-at-verizon.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-daydream-view-virtual-reality-headset-is-70-off-at-verizon.htmlThe Google Daydream View headset is deeply discounted at Verizon, marked down from $99 to $29.98. This price isn’t locked to Verizon users; any visitor can access it. Strangely, this sale price only applies to the charcoal color, not the fog or coral options. Still, it’s a great deal on this second iteration headset and controller set that rivals the best mobile VR experiences out there from the likes of the Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR./news/google-maps-will-now-help-you-find-ev-charging-stations.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-maps-will-now-help-you-find-ev-charging-stations.htmlFinding a place to quickly top off your electric car’s battery might get a little bit easier: Google announced today that it’s adding support to Google Maps for EV chargers. Both Tesla and Chargepoint’s global network of EV chargers will be added to the iOS and Android versions of the app starting today, with support for the desktop version of Maps coming in a few weeks. Google Maps will also support different charging networks specific to certain countries./news/google-says-it-will-use-recycled-materials-in-all-of-its-hardware-products-by-2022.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-says-it-will-use-recycled-materials-in-all-of-its-hardware-products-by-2022.htmlGoogle today pledged to include recycled materials in all of its Made By Google products by 2022. The portfolio currently includes hardware like Pixel phones, Pixelbooks, Google Home speakers, Nest, and accessories like phone cases and charging stands. In addition to using recycled materials, Google also said that it would pledge to make all its shipments carbon neutral by 2020 to promote sustainability in its hardware division. In an interview with Fast Company, Google’s head of sustainability for hardware, Anna Meegan, said the team was able to reduce emissions by 40 percent by switching from air shipments to cargo./news/google-wave-is-officially-dead-starting-today.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-wave-is-officially-dead-starting-today.htmlLast November Google announced that it would slowly be shutting down a number of services, and today is the day for Google Wave. The real-time editing service has been read-only since the end of January — so users couldn't create or even edit new waves — but at some point today it will be gone for good, as Google will be shutting down its servers. So if you still have any waves you want to keep you'll need to export them before the shut down happens./news/google-won-t-repair-cracked-pixel-watch-screens.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-won-t-repair-cracked-pixel-watch-screens.htmlIf you crack the screen on the Pixel Watch, getting it officially repaired by Google isn’t in the cards. Several Pixel Watch owners have vented their frustrations about the inability to replace cracked screens, both on Reddit and in Google support forums. The Verge has also reviewed an official Google support chat from a reader who broke their Pixel Watch display after dropping the wearable. In it, a support representative states that Google “doesn’t have any repair centers or service centers” for the device./news/google-s-roboto-font-for-android-and-chrome-is-now-open-source.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-roboto-font-for-android-and-chrome-is-now-open-source.htmlGoogle introduced the Roboto font nearly four years ago as part of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Since then, it's grown to be the default for Android and Chrome OS, and it's a big part of Google's overall Material Design language that we're seeing spread across many of its web services (like Inbox and Google Play Music) as well. Google released the font to the public not long afterwards, but today the company's taking things a step further and making the font open source — everything related to Roboto is now up on GitHub, including a "/news/google-s-duo-and-meet-combo-apps-roll-out-for-android-and-ios.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-duo-and-meet-combo-apps-roll-out-for-android-and-ios.htmlYes, it sounds pretty confusing, but by the end of this process, there will be just two apps: “Meet Original” (the standard Meet app that will eventually get phased out) and the new Meet that combines both Meet and Duo. The combined app will let you conduct both group and one-on-one calls as well as hold meetings. If you already have Duo installed, you won’t have to do anything. Last month, Google pushed a Duo update that adds the features from Meet, and today, Google’s rolling out an update on iOS and Android that will change the Duo logo to the Meet icon./news/google-s-making-it-easier-to-add-emoji-in-docs.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-making-it-easier-to-add-emoji-in-docs.htmlA few months after Google added emoji reactions to Google Docs, the company’s making it easier to include them in your actual document as well. Today, it announced a new shortcut that lets you easily insert an emoji while writing, so you no longer have to pull up your computer’s picker or copy and paste the icons from other places. The new system gives you several ways to get at emoji, which Google lists in this help document./news/google-s-next-generation-ai-training-system-is-monstrously-fast.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/google-s-next-generation-ai-training-system-is-monstrously-fast.htmlGoogle today is unveiling its second-generation Tensor Processor Unit, a cloud computing hardware and software system that underpins some of the company’s most ambitious and far-reaching technologies. CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news onstage at the keynote address of the company’s I/O developer conference this morning. Google’s TPU is the foundation of its artificial intelligence work The first TPU, shown off last year as a special-purpose chip designed specifically for machine learning, is used by the AlphaGo artificial intelligence system as the foundation of its predictive and decision-making skills./news/gran-turismo-7-release-date-pushed-back-to-2022.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/gran-turismo-7-release-date-pushed-back-to-2022.htmlThe next entry in Polyphony Digital’s long-running Gran Turismo franchise has been delayed to 2022, GQ reports. In a statement, Sony said Gran Turismo 7 has been impacted by “COVID-related production challenges,” which means its planned 2021 release date has been shifted to 2022. “With the ongoing pandemic, it’s a dynamic and changing situation and some critical aspects of game production have been slowed over the past several months,” the statement reads./news/grindr-will-remove-ethnicity-filters-in-solidarity-with-the-black-lives-matter-movement.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/grindr-will-remove-ethnicity-filters-in-solidarity-with-the-black-lives-matter-movement.htmlGrindr, a popular gay dating app, will remove ethnicity filters from its app, the company tweeted today. The decision is meant to show solidarity with protests in the US over police brutality against black women and men. The filters, which allow people to pay to avoid seeing people of certain ethnicities, will be removed in the next app update. The ethnicity filters have been controversial for years, but they went unchanged even as Grindr launched an anti-racism campaign on the platform in 2018./news/hands-on-with-apple-s-new-ipad-pro-it-s-thin-light-and-oled.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hands-on-with-apple-s-new-ipad-pro-it-s-thin-light-and-oled.htmlApple just announced a new iPad Pro, and at a watch party in New York City, a few reporters got to take a look at Apple’s new tablet firsthand. After holding and playing with the device for a few minutes, I can say pretty confidently that Apple’s not kidding about how much more svelte the new model is. At 5.3mm thick for the 11-inch model and 5.1mm for the 13-inch tablet, this new iPad is noticeably thinner and lighter than anything the company has made before./news/hbo-max-is-getting-replaced-by-a-new-service-in-the-summer-of-2023.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hbo-max-is-getting-replaced-by-a-new-service-in-the-summer-of-2023.htmlHBO Max isn’t dead...yet. But come the summer of 2023 it will be, and there will be a new service replacing both HBO Max and Discovery Plus, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on an earnings call today. “HBO Max has a competitive feature set, but it has had performance and customer issues,” Zaslav said, being much more polite than I would be about the app, which regularly struggles to stream when people tune in for big appointment shows like Euphoria and Succession./news/here-s-amazon-s-new-transforming-prime-air-delivery-drone.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-amazon-s-new-transforming-prime-air-delivery-drone.htmlAmazon has unveiled the latest version of its Prime Air delivery drone, a hybrid aircraft that’s capable of vertical takeoff and landing as well as sustained forward flight. The company says it wants to launch a delivery service using the drone in “the coming months,” but has not said where this might take place or how many customers it might cover. Introducing the drone onstage at Amazon’s Re:MARS conference in Las Vegas, Amazon’s consumer worldwide CEO Jeff Wilke emphasized the aircraft’s safety features./news/here-s-how-elon-musk-might-use-rocket-thrusters-on-the-new-tesla-roadster.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-how-elon-musk-might-use-rocket-thrusters-on-the-new-tesla-roadster.htmlLast week, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced bold plans to combine the technologies of his two biggest companies by placing rocket thrusters on future specialized models of Tesla’s Roadster. The thrusters won’t actually combust, according to Musk; instead, they will expel highly pressurized cold air, giving the Tesla an extra boost in acceleration. It’s a move the might technically work, but it also baffles industry experts and engineers: the thrusters won’t be very efficient and probably won’t be street legal./news/here-s-how-whatsapp-plans-to-interoperate-with-other-messaging-apps.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-how-whatsapp-plans-to-interoperate-with-other-messaging-apps.htmlWhatsApp, like many other major tech platforms, will have to make some significant changes to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). One of those changes is interoperability with other messaging platforms, a move WhatsApp engineering director Dick Brouwer explains in an interview with Wired. The shift toward interoperability will first include text messages, images, voice messages, videos, and files sent from one person to another. In theory, this would allow users to chat with people on WhatsApp through third-party apps, like iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages, and Signal, and vice versa./news/here-s-the-trailer-for-indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-due-in-theaters-on-june-30th.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-the-trailer-for-indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-due-in-theaters-on-june-30th.htmlIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is coming to theaters on June 30th, 2023, according to the film’s first trailer released on Thursday. The movie will feature Harrison Ford returning for his fifth main film as the titular explorer, as well as Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter. It’ll be scored by John Williams, which is pretty obvious from the trailer. It also seems like we’ll get to see Jones rocking his iconic hat and whip, though the latter feels decidedly outclassed./news/here-s-what-s-new-in-mario-kart-8-deluxe.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/here-s-what-s-new-in-mario-kart-8-deluxe.htmlRenegade Roundup: Making its debut in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, this new mode has one team trying to capture the other and put them into jail before time runs out. The opposing team must try to escape and can break their own teammates out of prison by pressing a button under the jail cell. Balloon Battle: In this oldie but goodie, players earn points by popping balloons on the back of their opponents’ karts./news/how-blackstone-became-the-darling-of-grill-tiktok.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-blackstone-became-the-darling-of-grill-tiktok.htmlIf your TikTok algorithm is anything like mine, you know that Weber and Traeger are not necessarily the hottest thing in cooking outside. In fact, grilling is out, and griddling is in. That’s griddling, as in on a griddle — a large flat sheet of metal like you would see in a diner or a hibachi restaurant. And the company behind the griddle revolution is called Blackstone Products and they make the Blackstone griddle./news/how-to-be-human-how-to-be-comfortably-aromantic.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-be-human-how-to-be-comfortably-aromantic.htmlLeah Reich was one of the first internet advice columnists. Her column "Ask Leah" ran on IGN, where she gave advice to gamers for two and a half years. During the day, Leah is Slack’s user researcher, but her views here do not represent her employer. How to be Human runs every other Sunday. You can write to her at askleah@theverge.com and read more How to be Human here. Dear Leah, I was never the best at writing a good beginning for an email, and this sentence only serves to demonstrate the need for asking this particular first question: What's the line between self-confidence and having pride in one's self and achievements, and hubris and arrogance?/news/how-to-find-and-play-google-com-s-secret-adventure-game.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-find-and-play-google-com-s-secret-adventure-game.htmlBefore it was a smartphone manufacturer, an email provider, and smart home company, Google was just a single website and a search box. However, even this seemingly simple service still has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Users have discovered that there’s a full text adventure hidden within Google.com (via RockPaperShotgun), and it’s available to anyone who knows the secret method required to find it.  In order to gain access, you’ll first need the correct browser./news/how-to-reset-your-windows-10-pc-when-you-re-having-problems.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-reset-your-windows-10-pc-when-you-re-having-problems.htmlWhen you’re running a Windows system, sometimes things just go wrong. A couple of years ago, I made the mistake of not checking to make sure my laptop was securely plugged in while Windows was undergoing a major update. The battery ran out in the middle of the update and voila! I was stuck with what I was sure was now a very expensive brick. Another time, a Windows 10 system decided that it didn’t like the latest update and began misbehaving./news/how-to-set-volume-limits-for-audio-on-your-smartphone.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-to-set-volume-limits-for-audio-on-your-smartphone.htmlAs per the CDC, listening to sounds over 70 decibels in volume — think a dishwasher or city traffic heard from inside a car — for a prolonged period of time may start to damage your ears. Loud noises above 120dB, meanwhile, like a siren or firecracker, can cause immediate harm to your hearing. In other words, your ears are delicate, and you need to look after them. This applies to listening to music and podcasts through your smartphone, too./news/how-well-does-starfield-run-on-pc.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/how-well-does-starfield-run-on-pc.htmlBethesda’s Starfield universe launches this week, with access to more than 1,000 planets and promises of unlimited exploration. It’s a giant game that even after more than 100 hours of gameplay you’ll still be finding things to do and places to explore. But for all this adventure, you might be wondering: how well does it all run on modern PCs? I’ve spent the past week or so testing Starfield on a few different GPUs, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Starfield is actually very CPU heavy and will demand the most out of both your CPU and GPU./news/htc-rezound-pictures-video-hands-on-impressions.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/htc-rezound-pictures-video-hands-on-impressions.htmlWe've just spent a few minutes with HTC's Rezound for Verizon, the high-spec handset rumored for the past few months as the Vigor. Let's just cut to the chase: this is a beefy phone. As they did on the Sensation, HTC employs a trick in which it rounds the edges of the device to give the appearance (and feel) that it's a little less thick than it actually is, but the trick works with less dramatic effect here — there's just no lying about a shell this deep (13./news/hyundai-says-its-four-passenger-evtol-will-be-ready-for-2028.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/hyundai-says-its-four-passenger-evtol-will-be-ready-for-2028.htmlThe last time Hyundai brought an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype to CES, it was 2020, and the South Korean automaker was talking bullishly about adding it to Uber’s forthcoming air taxi network. Today, Uber’s air taxi network has been sold to another startup, the air taxi industry as a whole is still struggling to get a commercial service up and running, and Hyundai is unveiling a new “product concept” that it says will be ready for production by 2028./news/i-just-bought-a-329-nvidia-rtx-3060-for-329-and-all-i-had-to-do-was-wait-nine-months-in-line.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-just-bought-a-329-nvidia-rtx-3060-for-329-and-all-i-had-to-do-was-wait-nine-months-in-line.htmlNearly nine months ago, Nvidia said it would launch its most affordable RTX 3000 graphics card yet — the $329 RTX 3060. Good luck actually finding one at that price, right? That’s why I subtitled my review “$329 with an asterisk sign.” And sure enough, they were nigh-impossible to find on launch day for Nvidia’s sticker price. But that same day, February 25th, I signed up for EVGA’s graphics card waiting queue on a whim./news/i-renewed-my-us-passport-in-a-single-week-with-the-government-s-speedy-online-beta.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/i-renewed-my-us-passport-in-a-single-week-with-the-government-s-speedy-online-beta.htmlPerhaps you’ve heard you can now renew your US passport online. As long as you meet certain requirements, there’s a beta website for that. The State Department tells me it’s not necessarily faster — but anecdotally, my family just had two of the speediest, most painless experiences we’ve ever had with the US government. I applied from my phone, I shot my own digital photo at home — and one week later, I picked up my new passport at the post office./news/ibm-pulls-x-ads-as-elon-musk-endorses-white-pride.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ibm-pulls-x-ads-as-elon-musk-endorses-white-pride.htmlIBM has pulled its advertising presence from X, formerly Twitter, as Elon Musk continues to endorse far-right talking points — agreeing with posts this week that promoted antisemitism and pushed support for white pride. The nonprofit Media Matters drew attention to those statements and noted that IBM, Apple, Comcast, and other companies all had ads placed next to pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content (not posted by Musk) on X. IBM told the Financial Times and confirmed to The Verge that “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation./news/infowars-is-being-sued-by-the-creator-of-pepe-the-frog.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/infowars-is-being-sued-by-the-creator-of-pepe-the-frog.htmlMatt Furie, the cartoonist who created the epochal Pepe the Frog meme, is suing conspiracy theorist website Infowars over “MAGA” posters the site is selling depicting the green frog. Furie’s lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles, claims the website used an image of Pepe on the poster without permission. “Furie did not authorize the use of the Pepe image or character in this poster, and does not approve of the association of Pepe with Alex Jones or any of the other figures shown in this poster, or with the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) slogan,” the lawsuit states./news/instagram-debuts-new-privacy-policy-set-to-share-user-data-with-facebook-beginning-january-16th.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-debuts-new-privacy-policy-set-to-share-user-data-with-facebook-beginning-january-16th.htmlAs Instagram prepares to scale under its new ownership by Facebook, the company has provided a preview of changes to its privacy policy and terms of service that will take effect on January 16th, 2013. In-line with Facebook's already-announced data sharing policies -- the company's most recent policy changes enabled it to share data between Instagram and other Facebook-owned entities -- and both Instagram and Facebook say that the new data-sharing policy will help improve their respective services (including, of course, advertising)./news/instagram-tests-a-verified-only-feed.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-tests-a-verified-only-feed.htmlInstagram is testing a toggle that lets you only see posts from Meta Verified users, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri on Monday. “We’re exploring this as a new control for people and a way for businesses and creators to get discovered,” Mosseri wrote on his broadcast channel. For those in the test, the new Meta Verified toggle will appear as an option under “Following” and “Favorites” when you tap the Instagram logo at the top of the app./news/instagram-s-trying-to-make-it-easier-to-find-nearby-businesses.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/instagram-s-trying-to-make-it-easier-to-find-nearby-businesses.htmlInstagram’s latest update aims to make it easier for users to find local businesses or attractions by adding a searchable map that lets you “discover popular local businesses near you,” according to an Instagram Story from Mark Zuckerberg. The map will show you a list of places nearby and will let you see posts about a certain place or see only certain types of business. There are a few ways to get to the map — if someone tags a place in a post or story, you can tap on the tag and hit “see location” to get to the location’s page./news/intel-previews-its-alder-lake-chip-promises-hybrid-cpus-for-desktops-and-laptops.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/intel-previews-its-alder-lake-chip-promises-hybrid-cpus-for-desktops-and-laptops.htmlIntel has spent much of 2021 announcing plans for its future: a new IDM 2.0 strategy, new naming schemes for its process nodes, and new desktop GPUs. At Intel’s Architecture Day 2021, we finally got a preview of how some of those changes are coming together in new chips, starting with the upcoming Alder Lake lineup later this year. As the company has been teasing since last year’s Architecture Day, Alder Lake will feature Intel’s latest hybrid architecture: instead of simply offering the next generation of powerful Intel CPU cores, it’ll offer a mix of both performance and efficiency x86 cores, both of which Intel previewed as part of its announcements./news/ios-17-2-arrives-with-new-journal-app-and-spatial-video-capture-support.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ios-17-2-arrives-with-new-journal-app-and-spatial-video-capture-support.htmlApple’s iOS 17.2 update is now available for recent iPhones. The update includes Apple’s new Journal app, which is designed to get you writing about events in your life with prompts that draw from data on your phone as well as the option to record spatial videos. Announced back at WWDC in June, the Journal app is a health- and wellness-focused feature that aims to get you reflecting on the small and big moments in your life./news/ipad-prototype-from-early-2000s-revealed-in-jony-ive-deposition-updated.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ipad-prototype-from-early-2000s-revealed-in-jony-ive-deposition-updated.htmlAfter the iPad launched, Steve Jobs eventually revealed that Apple actually started development on what would become the iPad prior to its work on the iPhone — but we're now getting some details on just how long it was in development. Network World recently got its hands on portions of a deposition Apple designer Jony Ive gave at Samsung's request this past December, and he revealed that Apple was working on tablet prototypes "/news/iphone-5s-review-the-verge.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/iphone-5s-review-the-verge.htmlApple has entered the spec wars. The iPhone 5S isn’t just supposed to be “the most amazing iPhone yet.” It’s not “the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever.” No, Apple says the 5S is “the most forward-thinking iPhone yet” and “the best smartphone in the world.” But the screen didn't get bigger, and the design hasn’t changed. Apple’s mid-cycle S updates are always about the little things: faster internals, a better camera, more memory./news/is-the-iphone-5c-a-success.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/is-the-iphone-5c-a-success.htmlApple just briefly touched on the retail performance of the new iPhone 5S and 5C during its iPad event yesterday, and what little data it offered was old: the company once again touted the 9 million units sold during the first weekend before moving on to App Store stats and, shortly thereafter, OS X Mavericks. That was it. The iPhone wasn't mentioned again on stage. If the 5C isn't selling, it's not for lack of trying/news/it-s-tesla-versus-everyone-else-in-the-race-for-ev-dominance.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/it-s-tesla-versus-everyone-else-in-the-race-for-ev-dominance.htmlFor years, Tesla was synonymous with everything cool, high tech, and futuristic. But is it still today? “Teslas used to look cool and now they don’t,” said Jessica Resler, a Brooklyn resident recently shopping for an EV who eventually settled on a BMW i4. “And they’ve become the Uber car of the city.” In case it wasn’t clear, no one wants to be known as “the Uber car of the city./news/jackery-solar-generator-2000-pro-review-letting-flex-workers-flex.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/jackery-solar-generator-2000-pro-review-letting-flex-workers-flex.htmlThere are times in life when you have a hole so big only a big-ass battery can fill it. And sometimes, but not often, you need a portable battery that can capture all the power created by six 200W solar panels at once, in a bid to transform the sun into 1200W of useable energy here on Earth. Jackery’s Solar Generator 2000 Pro kit starts with a 2,160Wh (50Ah/43.2V) capacity Explorer 2000 Pro Power Station and then adds up to six of the company’s SolarSaga 200W/19V solar panels./news/james-gunn-s-new-superman-looks-just-like-the-old-one.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/james-gunn-s-new-superman-looks-just-like-the-old-one.htmlIt remains to be seen what all James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy will bring to the big screen that Warner Bros. Discovery’s previous Superman films didn’t, but we now know who’ll be playing the titular Man of Steel and his journalistically minded better half. Deadline reports that David Corenswet (The Politician, Pearl) and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Blacklist) have been cast as Clark Kent / Superman and Lois Lane after a lengthy auditioning process that culminated in multiple actors signing test deals set to expire within business weeks so as to avoid SAG-AFTRA’s potential upcoming strike./news/juul-and-the-business-of-addiction.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/juul-and-the-business-of-addiction.htmlSeveral years ago, I went to a splashy launch party for a new tech product, which is a pretty normal thing for tech companies to have. It was at a hip warehouse space in Manhattan, there was cool lighting and a great DJ, free food — the company had pulled out all the stops. And the company had invited a ton of Instagram influencers and model types, so there were lots of beautiful young people there doing exactly what the company had hoped they’d do: taking photos and videos with the new product, talking about how cool it was, and posting it to social media./news/learn-to-work-with-your-ai-teammate.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/learn-to-work-with-your-ai-teammate.htmlLearn to work with your AI Teammate. Google added a new feature to Workspace that lets users ask an AI agent questions about meetings, emails, and everything else that someone may need to know at work. The AI Teammate, renamed Chip during Google I/O, takes information from company data to answer questions. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfanxygI5ra2ptZmuAeXvLnpirpl2pvG7DzquiZq%2BZqbVuxc6uqWaZmWLBpq3MppitnQ%3D%3D/news/lg-partners-with-smart-oven-startup-for-automated-cooking.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lg-partners-with-smart-oven-startup-for-automated-cooking.htmlLG keeps making its ovens smarter — not by building its own software, but by outsourcing the effort to startups. The company announced today that its 2019 smart ovens will now recognize pre-packaged meals from Tovala, a smart oven company based out of Chicago. Owners of LG’s 2019 smart ovens will be able to scan meals through Tovala’s app, then have their oven automatically move through the correct settings to cook them./news/logitech-g-s-new-playmaster-software-is-here-to-help-you-get-good-at-counter-strike.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-g-s-new-playmaster-software-is-here-to-help-you-get-good-at-counter-strike.htmlLogitech G has announced a new esports training program for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive called Playmaster, which is designed to help assess your skills and help you practice specific techniques, like tracking players, moving, and (of course) shooting. The company is taking this seriously, too. It’s built custom maps and levels within CS:GO to help both assess players’ current skill levels and for practice. It’s also worked with the Lero Esports Science Research Lab at the University of Limerick to develop the software — as the company proudly boasts in the announcement, Playmaster is “backed by science./news/logitech-s-new-laptop-stand-and-keyboard-folds-down-into-a-cute-little-box.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/logitech-s-new-laptop-stand-and-keyboard-folds-down-into-a-cute-little-box.htmlLogitech’s Casa Pop-Up Desk is the company’s new attempt to offer a neat and ergonomic desk setup that can be easily folded away at the end of the day. For £179 (around $227, though Logitech is yet to confirm a US release), you get the laptop stand itself, as well as a wireless keyboard and trackpad that tuck inside of it. Although it’s almost certainly cheaper to put together the same setup more cheaply with accessories from different manufacturers, the appeal of the Casa Pop-Up Desk is how neatly everything fits together when not in use./news/love-death-and-robots-most-beautiful-episode-was-a-love-letter-to-moebius.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/love-death-and-robots-most-beautiful-episode-was-a-love-letter-to-moebius.htmlVolume 3 of Love, Death and Robots covers a lot of ground: haunting alien landscapes, frighteningly realistic sea monsters, cute zombie apocalypses. But, even still, one episode in particular manages to stand out: “The Very Pulse of the Machine.” It’s a beautiful, lonely animated short about an astronaut named Martha (Mackenzie Davis) trapped on Io, a desolate moon of Jupiter, while possibly communing with the Moon as well — or maybe she’s just hallucinating./news/lucid-air-can-now-be-used-as-a-portable-battery-bank-for-tesla.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/lucid-air-can-now-be-used-as-a-portable-battery-bank-for-tesla.htmlLucid Air can now be used as a portable battery bank for Tesla. The automaker’s electric luxury sedan works with a new vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) adapter called RangeXchange that can charge other EVs at a rate of up to 9.6 kW — delivering 24 to 40 miles of range per hour of charge. Owners can enable the bi-directional charging feature through a new OTA software update. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2tfZn5whY5ranJtY22BcXvLrpqinF2WtrN5wpqlZqafrHqjsYyuqp6cXZbAbq2MqaarrJGXuaZ5wZqrrZ2irnqjrc2kZJ%2BnomLBpr%2FLmg%3D%3D/news/meet-some-actuallivingscientists-on-twitter.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meet-some-actuallivingscientists-on-twitter.htmlIf I were to ask you to name a living scientist, who would be your choice? A hashtag that went viral on Twitter today is aimed at expanding your range of options: #actuallivingscientist. The thing is, most people can’t name a living scientist — at least, according to a 2013 survey of 1,000 American adults: 70 percent of them failed to do so. That suggests the public — people who pay taxes to support scientific research — likely don’t know much about who they’re funding, what they’re funding, or what the results of their funded experiments are./news/meta-s-horizon-worlds-is-surprisingly-decent-outside-of-vr.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/meta-s-horizon-worlds-is-surprisingly-decent-outside-of-vr.htmlMeta’s Horizon Worlds 3D social platform is starting to roll out on the web and mobile, and it generally works a lot better outside of VR than I expected — though I wish there were more to do. Until recently, Horizon Worlds has only been available on Meta’s Quest VR headsets. In VR, the app lets you explore a wide range of virtual experiences, including games, social spots, and giant 2D screens of concerts from huge music stars./news/microsoft-has-created-a-surface-usb-c-dongle-for-people-who-love-dongles.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-has-created-a-surface-usb-c-dongle-for-people-who-love-dongles.htmlMicrosoft’s latest Surface Laptop and Surface Pro devices don’t ship with USB-C connections, and it’s been a source of controversy for the company. “I love the technology in Type-C, I believe in Type-C,” explains Microsoft’s Surface chief, Panos Panay, in an exclusive interview with The Verge. "When Type-C is ready for our customers, to make it easy for them, we’ll be there.” While Panay isn’t ready to add USB-C to Surface devices just yet, he thinks he has the answer: a dongle./news/microsoft-is-making-edge-faster-starting-with-this-one-menu.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-is-making-edge-faster-starting-with-this-one-menu.htmlBrowser bloat has long been a problem, but now Microsoft is doing something about it, and not by reducing features but by speeding the browser up. The company is working to make Edge’s user interface more responsive, starting with its Browser Essentials menu. This menu — which displays information about Edge’s performance — is now 42 percent faster, thanks to a WebUI 2.0 architecture migration. You can see how much faster the Browser Essentials menu loads on WebUI 2./news/microsoft-launches-new-web-app-store-for-windows.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-launches-new-web-app-store-for-windows.htmlMicrosoft has launched a new web version of its app store for Windows. It’s designed as a replacement for the existing way to find Windows apps on the web, with links from the site opening in the Microsoft Store client on Windows 10 or Windows 11. The software giant has ditched its old React codebase from its previous web version of the Microsoft Store and replaced it with a modern web version that uses Shoelace, Lit, Vite, and a C# ASPNET backend./news/microsoft-paid-nokia-250-million-to-use-windows-phone-in-q4-2011.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-paid-nokia-250-million-to-use-windows-phone-in-q4-2011.htmlAs part of Nokia's quarterly financial report for the last three months of 2011, it has been revealed that the company received a "platform support payment" of $250 million from Microsoft. While acknowledging that it pays royalty fees to Microsoft itself, Nokia notes that this is the first of multiple such payments from Microsoft. Over the course of the strategic agreement arranged between the two companies, the total value of royalties going in one direction and platform support payments going in the other is "/news/microsoft-starts-rolling-out-onedrive-s-offline-mode-on-the-web.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-starts-rolling-out-onedrive-s-offline-mode-on-the-web.htmlThe new OneDrive offline mode will let users of the web side of the service open files that have been marked available as offline and navigate to favorite files and the home section of OneDrive without an internet connection. You can also rename, sort, move, and copy files, and these will all be synced up once you have an internet connection again. You can select what files you want to be available offline through the web version of OneDrive./news/microsoft-surface-studio-pc-first-look.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-surface-studio-pc-first-look.htmlFiled under: Here's our first look at Microsoft's new Surface Studio PC and Surface Dial accessory. Share this story Share All sharing options for: Microsoft Surface Studio PC first look ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jq%2BgnZ2fZH9xfZVoaGlnYmt8cn%2BTa2xscWZkuqqv0aiqqJ6kYsC2vsWamp5lo6nCpbXOZqecZZaev7TAjKWmqKM%3D/news/microsoft-s-windows-ninja-cat-now-rides-a-tyrannosaurus-rex-in-skype.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-windows-ninja-cat-now-rides-a-tyrannosaurus-rex-in-skype.htmlWhen we first revealed the existence of Microsoft's Windows ninja cat riding a fire-breathing unicorn it was just a mere sticker on some employee's laptops. Over the past few months it has become a symbol for Windows fans after its rise in popularity, helped in part by Microsoft selling the ninja cat stickers. Today, Microsoft is embracing it fully with the release of three desktop wallpapers designed for Windows fans./news/microsoft-s-hololens-2-headset-may-go-on-sale-in-september.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-hololens-2-headset-may-go-on-sale-in-september.htmlMicrosoft’s first unveiled its HoloLens 2 headset at Mobile World Congress back in February, promising a release later this year. Reuters now reports that the HoloLens 2 headset will go on sale in September. Microsoft’s head of AI and research, Harry Shum, reportedly revealed next month’s release date during an onstage appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Thursday. While Shum said September for HoloLens 2, a Microsoft statement suggests he may have misspoke or referred to prototype devices being shared with more customers./news/microsoft-s-post-layoffs-halo-studio-is-smaller-and-switching-to-unreal-engine.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-s-post-layoffs-halo-studio-is-smaller-and-switching-to-unreal-engine.htmlHalo developer 343 Industries lost at least 95 people due to Microsoft’s recent layoffs, and the studio is apparently switching from its proprietary Slipspace engine to Epic Games’ widely used Unreal Engine for future games, Bloomberg reports. The future of Halo has been somewhat up in the air since the layoffs announced on January 18th. Halo Infinite had a strong launch in late 2021, but over time, fans started to get annoyed by frustrations with multiplayer progression, repeated delays to planned features like network campaign co-op and Forge (which finally launched in November), and no indication that new campaign content was imminent./news/microsoft-seems-to-think-we-re-getting-a-ps5-slim-this-year.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/microsoft-seems-to-think-we-re-getting-a-ps5-slim-this-year.htmlMicrosoft thinks we’re getting a PS5 Slim model later this year that might be priced at $399.99. The software giant is currently waiting a ruling in the FTC v. Microsoft hearing and as part of the case Microsoft has filed documents which reveal it thinks a PS5 Slim is on the way “later this year.” Here’s exactly what Microsoft says: PlayStation likewise sells a less expensive Digital Edition for $399.99, and is expected to release a PlayStation 5 Slim later this year at the same reduced price point./news/motorola-moto-g7-and-g7-power-review-still-the-budget-phones-to-beat.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/motorola-moto-g7-and-g7-power-review-still-the-budget-phones-to-beat.htmlOver the last several years, Motorola has resoundingly established itself as the best option for consumers seeking an Android smartphone that’s far easier on their wallet than any flagship. And with midrange options like the OnePlus 6T continuing to creep up in price, Motorola isn’t really facing much direct competition — at least in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, there are similarly strong options at low prices. But with the 2019 Moto G7 lineup, Motorola has put forward yet another example of how it has mastered this price category: by being good enough at the essentials, even if it can’t match up with today’s best phone cameras or top-end displays./news/nfl-nba-and-ufc-want-accelerated-dmca-takedowns-of-illegal-livestreams.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nfl-nba-and-ufc-want-accelerated-dmca-takedowns-of-illegal-livestreams.htmlThe NFL, NBA, and UFC are looking to inject some urgency into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to have the law shut down illegal livestreams sooner. The sports organizations believe that the law needs to define more specifically how quickly a DMCA takedown notice should take effect, according to a letter they sent to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seen by TorrentFreak. DMCA was signed during the Clinton administration in 1998 and specified that takedown notices be processed “expeditiously,” as written in Section 512 of the act./news/nier-replicant-review-a-second-chance-for-a-fascinating-and-flawed-game.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nier-replicant-review-a-second-chance-for-a-fascinating-and-flawed-game.htmlNier: Replicant is a shape-shifter. It makes you think it’s a simple action roleplaying game set in a bleak fantasy universe, but steadily reveals itself to be a lot more. It’s a game that shifts wildly in both tone and play style. It’s weird and heartbreaking, frustrating and playful, often all at the same time. This release is also a second chance for a game that failed to reach a big audience when it first launched in 2010, now updated for modern tastes./news/nine-great-oculus-touch-games-you-should-try-or-watch-right-now.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/nine-great-oculus-touch-games-you-should-try-or-watch-right-now.htmlIf you ordered the Touch controllers for Oculus’ Rift virtual reality headset, you’re probably either eagerly anticipating their arrival, or already pulling them out of the box for some motion-control gaming. But what should you play? Oculus has 53 titles supporting Touch, ranging from $49.99 to totally free. We haven’t tried all of them out yet, but we’ve had our Touch controllers and access to part of the catalog for a couple of weeks, which has given us time to find some clear winners./news/note-8-preorders-will-come-with-a-free-gear-360-or-charging-pad-bundle.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/note-8-preorders-will-come-with-a-free-gear-360-or-charging-pad-bundle.htmlThe Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is official, and it will be available for preorder starting August 24th. To sweeten the deal, Samsung is tacking on freebies for preorders within the first month. If you preorder / buy a Galaxy Note 8 any time between August 24th and September 24th, it’ll come with your choice of either a free Samsung Gear 360 camera or a charging bundle — specifically, the “Galaxy Foundation Kit” bundle, valued at $190, which contains a free 128GB EVO+ memory card and wireless charging pad./news/people-are-asking-futurists-if-humans-will-one-day-swim-as-fast-as-sharks.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/people-are-asking-futurists-if-humans-will-one-day-swim-as-fast-as-sharks.htmlThe SXSW festival here in Austin has always contained strands of futurism. Beyond the brands and the parties and the barbecue, it’s a place where people come and prognosticate about technology and what it’ll look like years from now. But in recent years, attendees of SXSW have taken on the bolder, weirder, and longer-term mission of trying to imagine what the world will look like when we have human-level artificial intelligence and science fiction-grade human augmentation./news/peta-compared-speciesism-to-racism-in-allegedly-banned-super-bowl-ad.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/peta-compared-speciesism-to-racism-in-allegedly-banned-super-bowl-ad.htmlAn ad that PETA claims was banned from airing during the Super Bowl faced backlash on Twitter for seemingly depicting NFL players who took a knee to protest police brutality as animals. the ad was “inspired” by former 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick A bee, bear, and even fish take a knee in the cartoon ad as “The Star Spangled Banner” is hummed in the background. The ad was “inspired” by former 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt when the national anthem was played at NFL games to protest police violence against black people, PETA said in a statement./news/qualcomm-s-quick-charge-5-standard-promises-50-percent-charge-in-less-than-five-minutes.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/qualcomm-s-quick-charge-5-standard-promises-50-percent-charge-in-less-than-five-minutes.htmlQualcomm has introduced Quick Charge 5, the company’s latest fast-charging standard, and it’s bringing some big promises: more than 100W charging speeds on a smartphone, with the ability to charge a device from 0 to 50 percent in five minutes or fully charge a phone in 15 minutes. It’s been a few years since Qualcomm introduced its last major quick-charging standard, Quick Charge 4 (which also had an enhanced version, Quick Charge 4+), but the new version represents the biggest leap yet for the company — at least where sheer charging speed is concerned./news/razer-core-x-chroma-review-colorful-capable-and-expensive.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/razer-core-x-chroma-review-colorful-capable-and-expensive.htmlThe $399 Razer Core X Chroma is the ultimate laptop accessory: it’s an external graphics card (eGPU) enclosure that, with a single Thunderbolt 3 cable, can significantly boost graphical performance of a slim laptop and provide an assortment of extra USB ports and connections. Like other eGPU enclosures, the Core X Chroma arrives empty yet full of promise. In addition to the enclosure, you’ll need a computer with a Thunderbolt 3 port and an AMD (the only option for macOS users) or Nvidia desktop graphics card./news/razer-unveils-artemis-concept-controller-and-ambidextrous-gaming-mouse-taipan.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/razer-unveils-artemis-concept-controller-and-ambidextrous-gaming-mouse-taipan.htmlRazer announced two new gaming peripherals at this year's E3 conference, the Artemis concept controller and a new ambidextrous mouse called the Taipan. The Artemis was designed with PiranhaGames and Infinite Game Publishing with the intent of creating more immersive gameplay for MechWarrior Online, a game set to release later this year. The product page informs us (with a lot of capital letters) that the Artemis will have a fully customizable keypad, a screen to provide additional in-game information, and a programmable joystick with tactile feedback./news/read-apple-s-response-to-the-fbi-s-san-bernardino-iphone-hack.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/read-apple-s-response-to-the-fbi-s-san-bernardino-iphone-hack.htmlFrom the beginning, we objected to the FBI's demand that Apple build a backdoor into the iPhone because we believed it was wrong and would set a dangerous precedent. As a result of the government's dismissal, neither of these occurred. This case should never have been brought. We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along, and we will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated./news/reddit-and-giphy-are-bringing-gif-comments-to-every-sub-that-wants-them.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/reddit-and-giphy-are-bringing-gif-comments-to-every-sub-that-wants-them.htmlReddit is joining the GIF party with its new partnership with Giphy, a massive online hub where internet users upload and share GIFs. The new partnership, which will begin rolling out today, July 13th, requires that moderators of existing subreddits opt in to enable the feature. New subreddits will automatically opt in for GIFs in the comments, leaving mods the choice to opt out. Reddit users would typically post a link to a GIF on a third-party host rather than simply viewing it, but the new partnership will take away the extra step of clicking on a linked GIF to see the image or animation./news/resident-evil-7-is-making-its-way-to-the-iphone-ipad-and-mac.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/resident-evil-7-is-making-its-way-to-the-iphone-ipad-and-mac.htmlThe main game and Not A Hero story DLC, where Chris Redfield is on a mission to put the case to rest, will be released together as a bundle. Players can also dive deeper into Ethan Winters’ tale with the Gold Edition upgrade, which expands the game with a variety of optional DLC, including End of Zoe, Banned Footage Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, the 5-Coin Set, Survival Pack, and Madhouse difficulty mode. ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2xfa3xyfI5ra2pvZWiDcXvRnqqinJWjwW6x1aKjZm9dl7awtMCzmKucXaeyeHnAqaelnV2irqR5yKmfqKaVYraxrcNmoKir/news/rha-s-trueconnect-buds-look-like-a-promising-airpods-rival.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/rha-s-trueconnect-buds-look-like-a-promising-airpods-rival.htmlScottish earphones specialist RHA has just announced its first true wireless model, called the TrueConnect, and there’s a whole heap of good things to like about it. Firstly, it charges via USB-C, as it should, and lasts up to five hours on one charge, with four more charges stored in its carrying case. Then there’s the design, which employs a stem much like Apple’s AirPods — that should help keep an uninterrupted connection by pushing the wireless radios further away from the listener’s ear./news/samsung-admits-defeat-and-reportedly-inks-deal-for-lg-s-oled-tv-panels.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-admits-defeat-and-reportedly-inks-deal-for-lg-s-oled-tv-panels.htmlSamsung has reportedly signed a deal for LG’s OLED TV panels. Reuters reports that LG Display will supply high-end 77- and 83-inch white OLED panels to Samsung in a deal that could help it turn a profit amid fierce competition in LCD panels from Chinese rivals. This is the first time Samsung has purchased OLED panels from its South Korean rival after years of rumors around similar deals. It’s also a huge admission of defeat after Samsung stopped making OLED TVs in 2015, citing the high costs of the panels in a miscalculation that the market wouldn’t be ready for such high-end TVs./news/samsung-has-made-an-invisible-ai-powered-keyboard-for-your-phone.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/samsung-has-made-an-invisible-ai-powered-keyboard-for-your-phone.htmlWe all work from our phones more than ever, but typing out emails and long messages is still slow compared to using a keyboard. Samsung has a solution: use AI and your phone’s camera to track your hands as they type on an invisible keyboard right in front of you. It’s called SelfieType, and although it’s only a demo at the moment, it’s a very intriguing one. It’s been developed under the aegis of Samsung’s C-Lab program, a sort of in-house incubator for weird tech ideas, some of which eventually become commercial products./news/screensharing-mistake-gets-nvidia-sued-over-alleged-stolen-trade-secrets.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/screensharing-mistake-gets-nvidia-sued-over-alleged-stolen-trade-secrets.html“On March 8, 2022, one of these videoconference meetings was scheduled. Mr. Moniruzzaman, now employed by Nvidia, attended the videoconference call… and shared his computer screen during the call. When he minimized the PowerPoint presentation he had been sharing, however, he revealed one of Valeo’s verbatim source code files open on his computer. So brazen was Mr. Moniruzzaman’s theft, the file path on his screen still read “ValeoDocs.” Valeo participants on the videoconference call immediately recognized the source code and took a screenshot before Mr./news/sennheiser-momentum-sport-fitness-tracking-from-the-ear.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sennheiser-momentum-sport-fitness-tracking-from-the-ear.htmlI was a little skeptical of the $329.95 Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds. Other earbuds I’ve tested with heart rate tracking were fiddly. The workout tracking could be well-intentioned but a bit hit-or-miss in practice. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the Momentum Sport buds delivered what was promised — a simple way to view real-time fitness metrics without sacrificing sound quality. Most fitness buds have extra bass, a more secure fit, and an emphasis on durability./news/sir-tim-berners-lee-created-the-web-in-france-not-switzerland.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sir-tim-berners-lee-created-the-web-in-france-not-switzerland.htmlSir Tim Berners-Lee inventing the World Wide Web during his time as a researcher at the CERN laboratory is part of the Internet's fabled history, but there's another twist in the tale — it turns out that the Web as we know it actually came to fruition in France, not Switzerland as many had assumed. CERN has a huge international campus that crosses the Franco-Swiss border, and while the entrance to the facility is in Geneva, Berners-Lee has revealed in an email conversation with Yelp co-founder David Galbraith that he was actually working out of Building 31 on the French side./news/slack-gpt-can-incorporate-salesforce-data-into-custom-workflows.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/slack-gpt-can-incorporate-salesforce-data-into-custom-workflows.htmlWith Slack GPT, natively integrated AI features are being developed for Slack that could help boost productivity without disrupting how users already interact with the platform. Some examples include directing the tone and length of messages composed directly in Slack and even attending Huddles on your behalf, summarizing them along with any unread messages you may have missed. Introduced at the Salesforce World Tour event on Thursday, Slack GPT is a new generative AI experience that has three main focus points: the aforementioned natively integrated AI features, customizable automated workflows, and a dedicated Einstein GPT app for Slack./news/snap-ar-spectacles-hands-on-an-ambitious-impractical-start.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snap-ar-spectacles-hands-on-an-ambitious-impractical-start.htmlIt doesn’t take long to realize why Snap’s first true AR glasses aren’t for sale. The overall design is the highest quality of any standalone AR eyewear I’ve tried, and they make it easy to quickly jump into a variety of augmented-reality experiences, from a multiplayer game to a virtual art installation. But the first pair I was handed during a recent demo overheated after about 10 minutes, and the displays are so small that I wouldn’t want to look through them for a long period of time, even if the battery allowed for it./news/snapchat-plus-subscription-in-testing-with-access-to-experimental-features.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/snapchat-plus-subscription-in-testing-with-access-to-experimental-features.htmlSnap is doing internal tests of a paid subscription called Snapchat Plus, which will apparently give users early access to features, as well as other abilities. In a statement to The Verge, Snap spokesperson Liz Markman said: We’re doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We’re excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community./news/sony-announces-the-xperia-5-ii-with-120hz-screen-and-actually-useful-game-enhancements.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/sony-announces-the-xperia-5-ii-with-120hz-screen-and-actually-useful-game-enhancements.htmlSony is continuing its refresh of its smartphone line to focus on photography and video with the new Xperia 5 II. It’s the smaller sibling of the very tall and weirdly expensive Xperia 1 II, and this newer phone betters it in several regards. It’s cheaper, for one thing, going on sale on September 29th for $949. The other major improvement is that Sony has put in a high-refresh-rate 120Hz panel./news/starfield-shattered-space-expansion-revealed.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/starfield-shattered-space-expansion-revealed.htmlBethesda’s sci-fi universe is about to get bigger. Bethesda has finally unveiled Shattered Space, the first major expansion for Starfield, which comes nearly a year after the open-world RPG debuted. Based on the first trailer, it has a much darker tone than the main Starfield campaign. No release date was revealed, but it’s coming sometime in 2024. Here’s the official premise: A mysterious power stirs in the city of Dazra on House Va’ruun’s hidden homeworld./news/switchbot-lock-review-a-smart-lock-with-seven-ways-to-unlock-your-door.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/switchbot-lock-review-a-smart-lock-with-seven-ways-to-unlock-your-door.htmlThe $99 SwitchBot Lock is the first smart door lock I’ve tested that doesn’t replace any part of your existing lock. Instead, it attaches to the back of your door over the top of the thumb turn. This removes a major pain point of smart locks: an involved installation. But the SwitchBot Lock is really odd looking — my husband literally stopped in his tracks and said, “What is that thing?/news/t-mobile-says-its-ultrafast-5g-capable-of-up-to-3-3gbps-is-rolling-out-now.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/t-mobile-says-its-ultrafast-5g-capable-of-up-to-3-3gbps-is-rolling-out-now.htmlT-Mobile has started the rollout of its new 5G tech that can deliver speeds of up to 3.3Gbps using carrier aggregation, which combines four different 5G channels into one for devices that can handle it (only Samsung’s newer Galaxy S23 phones at the moment), similar to a trick used by Wi-Fi routers to create a faster connection. That’s even faster than what you’d get out of mmWave 5G, which is more heavily touted by Verizon and AT&T as also being capable of extremely high speeds — Ookla recently reported download speeds of up to 1./news/tcl-stylus-5g-review-not-quite-write.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tcl-stylus-5g-review-not-quite-write.htmlTCL’s entry-level Stylus 5G makes sense for someone on a strict budget who absolutely must have 5G and a built-in stylus. That’s quite a specific demographic, and I’m not sure many people meet all of that criteria. The TCL Stylus 5G is available for $258 from T-Mobile or $269 from Metro by T-Mobile — they’re the exact same model — and for now, those are the only ways to purchase it in the US./news/ted-ed-youtube-channel-launched-educating-the-world-one-video-at-a-time.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/ted-ed-youtube-channel-launched-educating-the-world-one-video-at-a-time.htmlThe non-profit foundation behind the enlightening TED conferences has launched a YouTube education channel called TED-Ed. Consisting of animated videos less than 10 minutes long, the channel is an "invitation to teachers around the world to submit their best lessons." After an entry has been accepted, staff will work with the teacher involved to compress and refine the information. Once the educator records the lesson in its final form and uploads it to TED's servers, it's assigned an animator who gets to work on making an engaging yet informative clip./news/telegram-s-latest-update-helps-you-cut-down-on-notification-overload.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/telegram-s-latest-update-helps-you-cut-down-on-notification-overload.htmlThe messaging app Telegram has been updated with a number of features that should cut down on the amount of notifications and noise generated by the app. Up first is a new silent messaging feature, which allows you to send a message without the recipient’s phone making a notification sound. Messages will still create a notification bubble, but this won’t be accompanied by a sound, regardless of the message recipient’s do not disturb settings./news/temu-sues-shein-alleging-mafia-style-intimidation-of-manufacturers.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/temu-sues-shein-alleging-mafia-style-intimidation-of-manufacturers.htmlOnline shopping giant Temu is suing its competitor Shein, saying the fast fashion giant is using “Mafia-style” intimidation tactics on merchants. In the suit filed on Wednesday, Temu says Shein has deployed increasingly aggressive strategies to “illegally interfere with Temu’s business,” including intimidating merchants who list their products on both platforms and issuing tens of thousands of illegitimate copyright takedowns. Temu and Shein have previously sued each other “Shein recently has gone so far as to falsely imprison merchants doing business with Temu, including detaining merchant representatives in Shein’s offices for many hours while Shein confiscates the merchants’ electronic devices, obtains access to proprietary Temu information through the merchants’ seller accounts, and threatens the merchants with penalties for doing business with Temu,” the suit claims./news/terra-founder-do-kwon-said-to-be-arrested-in-montenegro.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/terra-founder-do-kwon-said-to-be-arrested-in-montenegro.htmlDo Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs and creator of the collapsed stablecoin Terra, has been charged with eight counts of fraud by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, including “wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation,” according to The New York Times. Prosecutors have told the media that they will seek Kwon’s extradition. The charges follow his apparent arrest in Montenegro on Thursday, which was first reported through social media posts by Montenegro Minister of the Interior Filip Adzic on Twitter (where he’s unverified, whether by Twitter Blue or legacy means), and on Facebook (where he is verified, but Facebook’s blue checks have been wrong before)./news/tesla-reportedly-won-t-sell-the-35-000-model-3-anymore.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-reportedly-won-t-sell-the-35-000-model-3-anymore.htmlThe saga of the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 has, once again, taken a dark turn. According to Electrek, the automaker will no longer be offering the cheapest version of its popular electric sedan with the forthcoming model year 2021 refresh. This represents the second time in so many years that Tesla has stopped selling the most affordable version of its mass-market car. Previously, the $35,000 Model 3 was available but extremely hard to find./news/tesla-workers-report-explosions-concussions-and-grisly-robot-injuries-at-texas-factory.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tesla-workers-report-explosions-concussions-and-grisly-robot-injuries-at-texas-factory.htmlAs Tesla prepares to deliver its first Cybertrucks to customers, a new report paints a grisly picture of the Texas factory where the truck is being built, including a casting machine explosion and a robot allegedly goring a worker. The Information reported some of the gruesome incidents that have occurred at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, where one out of every 21 workers were reportedly hurt in 2022. The data is derived from the required injury reports Tesla submits to OSHA./news/the-18-000mah-energizer-phone-battery-monster-is-an-indiegogo-flop.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-18-000mah-energizer-phone-battery-monster-is-an-indiegogo-flop.htmlThe Energizer name figured prominently at Mobile World Congress this year, courtesy of a prototype Android smartphone that was about an inch thick, consisting mostly of a giant battery. The 18,000mAh Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was a preview of something Avenir Telecom, the company licensing the battery brand’s name for use on phones, wanted to mass-produce and bring to the market by this summer. After that successful MWC debut, the P18K Pop turned up on Indiegogo with an early-bird price of $549, a promised delivery window of October 2019, and an optimistic goal of $1./news/the-53-best-cyber-monday-gaming-deals-playstation-nintendo-xbox-and-more.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-53-best-cyber-monday-gaming-deals-playstation-nintendo-xbox-and-more.htmlThere’s no better time to stock up on games and gaming accessories than Cyber Monday, and this year, we’re seeing sizable discounts on some of the biggest titles released this year — a year, need I remind you, that’s been inundated with many excellent games. While not all of this year’s biggest games are getting significant discounts, titles like Final Fantasy XVI and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are. And when it comes to slightly older games, many, like Doom Eternal, can be had for a pittance, making this a great time to stock up on the releases you might have missed months or even years ago./news/the-blissful-days-of-windows-xp-return.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-blissful-days-of-windows-xp-return.htmlThe blissful days of Windows XP return. It’s the holiday season, so it’s time for the latest Windows-themed ugly sweater. This time Microsoft has selected the Bliss default wallpaper from Windows XP for some holiday treatment. It’s available today from the company’s Xbox Gear Shop, priced at $69.99. Microsoft is supporting The Nature Conservancy this year with its sixth Windows-themed ugly sweater. Previous sweaters have included Clippy, Minesweeper, and Windows 95./news/the-developers-of-acclaimed-skyrim-mod-enderal-just-made-it-to-the-big-leagues.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-developers-of-acclaimed-skyrim-mod-enderal-just-made-it-to-the-big-leagues.htmlIn 2016, a team of modders released a game they developed in their spare time to nigh-universal acclaim — a mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that they called Enderal, with its own 30+ hour quest with gobs of original dialogue and professional voice acting. “[It’s the most fun I’ve had in an Elder Scrolls game in years,” wrote our sister site Polygon. It’s the top-rated Skyrim mod of all time at ModDB, has nearly 500,000 downloads at NexusMods and its own Steam page filled with glowing reviews./news/the-edge-of-the-abyss-exposing-the-nsa-s-all-seeing-machine.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-edge-of-the-abyss-exposing-the-nsa-s-all-seeing-machine.htmlECHOES There is currently no clear path to reform. All three branches of US government have, in some measure, enabled, allowed, or justified the existence and continued use of unprecedented NSA programs that collect data on American citizens. President Obama, who is the NSA’s top brass as commander-in-chief of the US military, has shown no genuine interest in reforming the agency. In addition to broadly defending the bulk surveillance programs before the public, his NSA review panel — created in response to leaks from Edward Snowden — is filled with insiders who are unlikely to provoke change./news/the-environmental-footprint-of-your-pet-is-bigger-than-you-think.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-environmental-footprint-of-your-pet-is-bigger-than-you-think.htmlBad news for environmentally conscious pet owners: cats’ and dogs’ eating habits are responsible for dumping as many as 64 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year — roughly the equivalent of driving over 13 million cars. That’s due to all the meat our furry friends gobble down, according to new research. Raising livestock for meat takes up land, water, and energy, which pumps lots of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the environment./news/the-fcc-has-finally-decreed-that-25mbps-and-3mbps-are-not-broadband-speed.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-fcc-has-finally-decreed-that-25mbps-and-3mbps-are-not-broadband-speed.htmlFixed terrestrial broadband service (excluding satellite) has not been physically deployed to approximately 24 million Americans, including almost 28% of Americans in rural areas, and more than 23% of people living on Tribal lands Mobile 5G-NR coverage has not been physically deployed at minimum speeds of 35/3 Mbps to roughly 9% of all Americans, to almost 36% of Americans in rural areas, and to more than 20% of people living on Tribal lands/news/the-home-depot-reportedly-ignored-warnings-from-its-own-cybersecurity-team.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-home-depot-reportedly-ignored-warnings-from-its-own-cybersecurity-team.html56 million credit cards were compromised in a recent hack on The Home Depot. Now, The New York Times is reporting that the company dismissed and largely ignored concerns put forth by security researchers as far back as 2008. Former members of the company's cybersecurity teams spoke to the Times, and said that The Home Depot was slow to respond to vulnerabilities, and shrugged off warnings that it would be easy prey for hackers./news/the-homepod-mini-could-be-apple-s-secret-weapon-for-expanding-homekit.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-homepod-mini-could-be-apple-s-secret-weapon-for-expanding-homekit.htmlApple is taking another try at building a smart home speaker with the new HomePod mini, a smaller, less expensive version of its original HomePod.  The original HomePod was a product that focused more on being a great speaker, rather than being a great smart speaker. The HomePod mini takes the opposite approach: it’s not just another avenue for Apple to put Apple Music or Siri into your home. It’s a way for Apple to vastly expand its HomeKit ecosystem to a much wider audience than ever before./news/the-joy-of-statistically-analyzing-bob-ross-happy-little-trees.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-joy-of-statistically-analyzing-bob-ross-happy-little-trees.htmlJust a handful of recurring elements define Bob Ross' calming and instructive landscape paintings, and FiveThirtyEight has gone through every single one that he made on The Joy of Painting to find out exactly what subjects interested him the most. While lakes and mountains are up there, FiveThirtyEight found that Ross' happy trees are the element that turn up in most often in his paintings — 85 percent of them featured at least two./news/the-kingdom-heart-series-arrives-on-steam-in-june.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-kingdom-heart-series-arrives-on-steam-in-june.htmlI’ve been having these weird thoughts lately... like, should I go back and replay the Kingdom Hearts series or not? Fortunately, Square Enix has made this decision trivial with the announcement that it’s releasing the series on Steam on June 13th. To celebrate, and perhaps destabilize an entire generation of adults for whom the first Kingdom Hearts trailer was a transformative experience (aka, me), a trailer was released with a brand-new recording of Hikaru Utada’s “Simple and Clean./news/the-new-iphone-se-has-a-larger-battery-than-the-old-one.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-new-iphone-se-has-a-larger-battery-than-the-old-one.htmlApple just introduced the third-generation iPhone SE, and it has some nice improvements, including support for sub-6GHz 5G and an A15 processor. But Apple is also claiming it has longer battery life, and it seems that’s in part because the phone has a physically larger battery — a fact about the new iPhone SE that the company confirmed on background in a group briefing with reporters. Apple hasn’t shared the battery capacity, so we’ll have to wait for teardowns to see exactly how much juice it has./news/the-pixel-2-xl-would-be-the-best-phone-if-its-screen-wasn-t-so-awful.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-pixel-2-xl-would-be-the-best-phone-if-its-screen-wasn-t-so-awful.htmlFirst thing’s first: if you want to read The Verge’s canonical opinion on Google’s new Pixel 2 phones, read Dieter Bohn’s authoritative and comprehensive review. Dieter’s judgment is something I rarely question, but on this one occasion, he and I diverge on how we feel about a very important aspect of Google’s new flagship pair. Dieter thinks the Pixel 2 XL’s screen is imperfect but can be lived with; I think it’s an inexcusable disaster./news/the-road-not-taken-the-verge.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-road-not-taken-the-verge.htmlHalf a century after its heyday, the Alden StaRRcar clearly wasn’t made for its world. It looks like a white flatiron with wheels or a sleek, plastic bullet, dwarfed by the regal sedans of 1960s Detroit. It belongs in one of Buckminster Fuller’s domed cities, a vehicle for traveling under the geodesics of a bubble-topped Manhattan. Its future wasn’t one of highways, but of narrow cement tracks looping gracefully between city and suburb, connecting increasingly alienated parts of the American landscape./news/the-sims-4-is-expanding-its-sexual-orientation-options-with-new-update.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-sims-4-is-expanding-its-sexual-orientation-options-with-new-update.htmlThe Sims 4 is making it easier for players to create Sims that better reflect their lived experiences. As a free update coming at the end of the month along with the High School Years expansion, players can now choose their Sims’ sexual orientation and romantic / sexual attraction. It works like this: within the “Create a Sim” function, you’ll be able to fiddle with how your Sim experiences sex and romance./news/the-verge-s-favorite-gardening-gadgets.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-verge-s-favorite-gardening-gadgets.htmlWe know how much you’ll miss the icy streets, freezing temperatures, and misbehaving radiators that the winter season brings, but spring is right around the corner, which means that while you no longer have to worry about shoveling snow off your driveway, it is time to start thinking about plants — whether it’s in your garden or on your windowsill. We asked the staff members of The Verge what they are planning to grow over the coming spring and summer months and how they are planning to care for those flowers, vegetables, and other flora./news/the-youtube-candidate-how-joey-salads-could-meme-his-way-into-congress.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-youtube-candidate-how-joey-salads-could-meme-his-way-into-congress.htmlTheYouTubeCandidate How Joey Salads, a Staten Island prankster,could meme his way into Congress By Makena Kelly Photography by Hilary Swift for The Verge Joseph Saladino — better known as Joey Salads, internet prankster — is half-naked when he opens the door. I’m a little shocked, but I’m more relieved to learn that this is not a prank. If it was, he’d be greeting me with a camera pointed directly in my face, filming a surprise vlog for his YouTube channel./news/this-is-the-new-movie-poster-for-star-wars-the-force-awakens.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-is-the-new-movie-poster-for-star-wars-the-force-awakens.htmlThe iconic painted posters for every Star Wars movie have long served as a key visual link between the films. This new poster for The Force Awakens, released to attendees at Disney's massive D23 convention, is no different. The poster was created by artist Drew Struzan, whose famous style has graced posters for the other films in the Star Wars saga as well as the Indiana Jones films. While Struzan created this poster, it is not the primary poster he'll make for the film — this is a promotional poster for attendees at the D23 Expo today./news/this-projector-toy-for-kids-lets-them-trace-any-smartphone-photo.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-projector-toy-for-kids-lets-them-trace-any-smartphone-photo.htmlWe’ve heard a lot about STEM toys, which are so hot right now. Their focus is on teaching kids science, technology, engineering, and math so they can eventually become very rich and take care of us when we are old and frail. Just kidding! (Mostly!) FollowGrams is a smart projector currently available to back Kickstarter for $75, self-described as “an app-connected STEM toy that teaches kids how to draw pictures, letters and numbers in a fun hands-on experience./news/this-sun-chasing-robot-looks-after-the-plant-on-its-head.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-sun-chasing-robot-looks-after-the-plant-on-its-head.htmlBack in school, I remember learning that plants are “heliotropic,” meaning they grow toward light. I always found this oddly touching, as if those green tendrils stretching out to the sun proved the plant was yearning to live. And why not? That is why they do it. But what if plants could do more than stretch? What if they could move like animals, independent of their roots? Evolution hasn’t got there yet, but it turns out, humans can help./news/this-weekend-stream-two-radically-different-tv-versions-of-sabrina-the-teenage-witch.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/this-weekend-stream-two-radically-different-tv-versions-of-sabrina-the-teenage-witch.htmlThere are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services, and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend. What to watch “A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It,” a special Halloween episode of the ABC series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which originally aired on October 31st, 1997, early in the show’s second season./news/thousands-of-samsung-workers-launch-indefinite-strike-over-pay.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/thousands-of-samsung-workers-launch-indefinite-strike-over-pay.htmlUnionized workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea have indefinitely extended the first-ever strike at the company in a push for better pay and benefits. The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) rallied its over 30,000 members on Wednesday after the company’s leadership showed no indication of holding talks with the union following a three-day walkout. As reported by Reuters, the NSEU is demanding a 3.5 percent increase in base salary, an extra day off to mark the union’s foundation day, and a fairer bonus system between executives and lower-ranking workers./news/tiktok-reveals-some-of-the-secrets-and-blind-spots-of-its-recommendation-algorithm.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/tiktok-reveals-some-of-the-secrets-and-blind-spots-of-its-recommendation-algorithm.htmlLike many social media platforms and apps, TikTok feeds are built using a recommendation algorithm that uses a number of tools and factors to personalize it for each person. Now, TikTok has published a new blog post explaining how its recommendation feed works, and it includes tips for personalizing the feed to avoid being served random videos you might not be interested in. TikTok’s recommendation algorithm is built around input factors in a way somewhat similar to the way YouTube measures and monitors engagement./news/touchpad-review-the-verge.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/touchpad-review-the-verge.htmlPalm faithful and newcomers alike, behold: the TouchPad review. For some, this has been years in the making, for others (honestly, for most) this is a new and potentially interesting blip on the tablet radar. The team that brought you webOS — for better or worse — has now graduated the platform to pad status, with the help (and cash) of HP. According to the company, the TouchPad marks the kickoff of its hard push into the hearts and minds of the slate-buying public, as well as a rebirth of sorts for Palm’s unrealized ambitions./news/twisted-metal-fires-off-lots-of-bullets-and-even-more-jokes-in-new-trailer.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twisted-metal-fires-off-lots-of-bullets-and-even-more-jokes-in-new-trailer.htmlThe bullets fly in the latest trailer for Twisted Metal — and so do the jokes. Our previous look at Peacock’s adaptation of the PlayStation vehicular mayhem series didn’t show much other than how Will Arnett and Samoa Joe were joining forces to play the murderous clown Sweet Tooth. But the latest clip gives a much better idea of what viewers can expect when the series starts streaming later this month./news/twitch-will-let-streamers-ban-users-from-watching-their-streams.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitch-will-let-streamers-ban-users-from-watching-their-streams.htmlTwitch is rolling out an update next month that will finally allow streamers to block banned users from viewing their streams. Currently, Twitch allows you to ban users from the chat section of a stream, but they can still view streams. Twitch revealed earlier this week, during its Patch Notes stream, that a new setting will be available for streamers in September that will boot people out of chat and live streams in real time./news/twitter-just-lost-nibel-one-of-its-best-video-game-news-sources.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/twitter-just-lost-nibel-one-of-its-best-video-game-news-sources.htmlNibel (@Nibellion) has left the building. The popular Twitter user best known for their steady, reliable stream of gaming industry news and recognizable Mob Psycho avatar announced today that they would be leaving the platform, citing a lack of financial support and concerns over Elon Musk’s leadership. A final message was posted to the now-locked account announcing the departure, definitively saying, “After some introspection, I’ve made the decision to focus my time and energy elsewhere and move on from Twitter./news/updating-the-verge-s-background-policy.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/updating-the-verge-s-background-policy.html• More than one big company insists on holding product briefings “on background with no attribution” which means no one can properly report what company executives say about their own new products during marketing events. • A big tech company PR person emailed us a link to the company’s own website “on background.” • A food delivery company insisted on discussing the popularity of chicken wings on background. • Multiple big tech companies insist on having PR staffers quoted as “sources familiar with the situation” even though they are paid spokespeople for the most powerful companies in the world./news/virtual-mobile-network-helio-is-back-from-the-dead.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/virtual-mobile-network-helio-is-back-from-the-dead.htmlRemember Helio, the MVNO that operated on Sprint's network back in 2006? We barely do ourselves — but it's back anyway. For reasons unclear, Ubi Telecom, a mobile company that focuses on Korean-speaking Americans, is betting that Helio can make a successful comeback. The zombie carrier will operate on Sprint's network, just like before, and will also have a roaming agreement with Verizon Wireless. Helio's $29 per month rate plan will get you unlimited talk, text and data — sounds great right?/news/volvo-put-a-seattle-coffee-shop-in-the-back-of-an-xc90.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/volvo-put-a-seattle-coffee-shop-in-the-back-of-an-xc90.htmlIn Sweden, Fika is one of the first words that foreigners learn when visiting the country. It’s sort of like a coffee break or afternoon tea in England, but with much greater social connotations. This Swedish obsession with coffee is part of the reason why Volvo outfits its auto show booths with a coffee shop for attendees — that and the fact that Dean Shaw, head of corporate communications for Volvo Cars USA, is a coffee fanatic./news/vr-headset-reviews-the-verge.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/vr-headset-reviews-the-verge.htmlNo other technology allows for the level of escapism that virtual reality can provide. Want to experience being surrounded by sharks in a cage submerged deep in water? Okay, maybe not. Whether you want a quick thrill or more slower-paced, yet equally immersive experience, the best virtual reality headsets should have you covered. If you’re on PC, the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are your best options, but the PSVR headset for PS4 is a formidable challenger with some good exclusives./news/waiting-for-next-gen-why-assassin-s-creed-iv-won-t-make-you-buy-an-xbox-one-or-ps4.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/waiting-for-next-gen-why-assassin-s-creed-iv-won-t-make-you-buy-an-xbox-one-or-ps4.htmlNext week, Ubisoft is launching the latest edition of its long-running Assassin's Creed franchise on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Black Flag takes the series to the Caribbean, letting players explore a massive world, venture out into the high seas, and just generally do their best Jack Sparrow impression. Soon after an even prettier version of the game will be available when Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag makes its way to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next month./news/walmart-overpowered-17-laptop-review-underwhelming.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/walmart-overpowered-17-laptop-review-underwhelming.htmlWalmart began selling its own Overpowered-branded gaming PCs this fall, including both desktop and laptop variations. The devices were designed and produced via a partnership with Esports Arena, which runs the first dedicated e-sports arena in North America. It might seem unexpected that one of the largest retailers in the world has decided to join the world of PC gaming, but the industry’s rapid growth — thanks to games like Fortnite — gives Walmart all the reasons it needs to cater to a new market./news/warner-bros-discovery-s-first-new-lord-of-the-rings-movie-is-due-out-in-2026.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/warner-bros-discovery-s-first-new-lord-of-the-rings-movie-is-due-out-in-2026.htmlLast 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./news/watch-legendary-graffiti-artist-futura-tag-a-bunch-of-motorola-phones.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-legendary-graffiti-artist-futura-tag-a-bunch-of-motorola-phones.htmlMotorola has collaborated with legendary graffiti artist Futura to produce 30 custom-tagged phones. The mobile phone developer, which Google sold to Lenovo in 2014, posted a video to YouTube yesterday in which Futura rides an elevated subway line and tags a bunch of Moto X Pure handsets in the middle of an empty warehouse. Futura (whose real name is Leonard McGurr) was a fixture of the New York City graffiti scene in the 1970s and '80s, and is now a successful gallery artist who has previously collaborated with brands including Nike, Levi's, and The North Face./news/watch-netflix-s-horror-film-from-the-creator-of-amazon-s-hanna.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/watch-netflix-s-horror-film-from-the-creator-of-amazon-s-hanna.htmlThere are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services, and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend. What to watch The Ones Below, a 2015 psychological thriller written and directed by prolific playwright, theater director, and TV producer David Farr./news/we-finally-know-who-andy-serkis-is-playing-in-star-wars-the-force-awakens.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/we-finally-know-who-andy-serkis-is-playing-in-star-wars-the-force-awakens.htmlWe've got less than seven months before J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters, and details about the film continue to slowly reveal themselves. In an interview with photographer Annie Leibovitz — who shot the recent Vanity Fair spread on the new film — StarWars.com has announced the name of Andy Serkis' character: Supreme Leader Snoke. Unfortunately that's the only thing that's revealed at the moment, but the interview is paired with a Leibovitz picture of the actor in his full motion-capture gear, and judging from the snarl on his face Snoke is most certainly going to be a bad guy./news/wham-s-last-christmas-has-been-remastered-in-4k-and-it-looks-incredible.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wham-s-last-christmas-has-been-remastered-in-4k-and-it-looks-incredible.htmlChristmas has arrived early this year, in the form of a 4K remaster of Wham!’s iconic “Last Christmas” music video. It’s living proof that the 1980s did really happen, complete with the crazy hair styles, shell suits, and shoulder pads of the ‘80s. The track was originally released 35 years ago in December 1984, and Sony Music Entertainment has now remastered the original footage in 4K. The best way to describe it is./news/whatsapp-has-a-new-hd-photo-sending-option.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/whatsapp-has-a-new-hd-photo-sending-option.htmlWhatsApp is flipping a switch that will let users send higher-quality “HD” images on the messaging platform. “Sharing photos on WhatsApp just got an upgrade,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced via his Meta broadcast channel on Instagram. “Now you can send in HD.” The feature is rolling out worldwide over the next few weeks, so users with the feature can send higher-quality and higher-resolution images (likely still compressed from the original) from Android, iOS, or the web, and recipients on any platform will see a small icon that indicates it as such./news/why-apple-put-a-thread-radio-in-the-iphone-15-pro.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-apple-put-a-thread-radio-in-the-iphone-15-pro.htmlFollowing Apple’s iPhone 15 announcement and the news that the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will come with a Thread radio, I did some more digging into how Apple might deploy this wireless connectivity protocol in its ecosystem. The smart home is the obvious answer and the one Apple halfheartedly offered (Thread is a main protocol for Matter). But adding the low-power, low-bandwidth, mesh-based Thread protocol could also signal the company is moving away from relying solely on Bluetooth for connecting to peripherals like the Apple Watch./news/why-openai-employees-were-posting-all-those-heart-emojis.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-openai-employees-were-posting-all-those-heart-emojis.htmlWhy OpenAI employees were posting all those heart emojis. Saturday evening, hours after we broke the news that Altman was being asked to return to OpenAI by the board that fired him, he posted the following on X: “i love the openai team so much.” Then, a lot of OpenAI employees started reposting him with the heart emoji. I’ve been told by multiple sources that the action was meant to signal to the board who would leave OpenAI to follow Altman to a new company./news/why-three-simpsons-writers-created-a-clash-of-clans-animated-series.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/why-three-simpsons-writers-created-a-clash-of-clans-animated-series.htmlNot long after Clash of Clans launched, Rob LaZebnik’s then 12-year-old son introduced him to the mobile strategy game. LaZebnik, a writer and producer on The Simpsons since 1999, was hooked almost instantly. Like the flu, the game spread amongst the show’s writers, and like the flu, it crated work responsibilities. The staff formed a Simpsons clan in the game, and regularly sent each other messages during the workday to initiate battles. It almost became an obsession — one that may have impacted their day job./news/wi-fi-6-is-finally-here.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/wi-fi-6-is-finally-here.htmlOver the past decade, our homes have filled up with more and more devices, small and large, simple and complex, all connected to Wi-Fi. Each device demands some of your router’s time and bandwidth, and that’s increasingly become a problem — the more devices you have, the more your router’s capacity is spread thin. If this continues, speeds could slow to a drag. That’s the problem Wi-Fi 6 is meant to solve by making data delivery more efficient to ultimately offer faster speeds, and at CES this year, the new Wi-Fi standard finally felt like a reality./news/will-sony-s-rumored-honami-smartphone-resurrect-the-megapixel-war.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/will-sony-s-rumored-honami-smartphone-resurrect-the-megapixel-war.htmlSony is reportedly planning to unveil a smartphone with a 20-megapixel camera at its IFA press conference in September. The phone, codenamed "i1 Honami," is rumored to have a 5-inch 1080p screen with the same Triluminos display tech as Sony's Xperia Z Ultra tablet / phone hybrid and recent TVs, which uses quantum dots to improve color reproduction. It's also said to be running Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, a large 3,000 mAh battery, and 16GB of storage (expandable by microSD)./news/x-valued-at-19-billion-in-share-plan-for-employees.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/x-valued-at-19-billion-in-share-plan-for-employees.htmlEveryone knew that Twitter wasn’t worth $44 billion when Elon Musk bought it a year ago. Now, we know what Musk himself thinks it’s worth today: $19 billion. On Monday, employees at X were awarded equity in the company at a valuation of $19 billion, or $45 per share, according to internal documents seen by The Verge. That price is a 55 percent discount to Musk’s original purchase price, per the documents, which note that “the fair market value per share is determined by the Board of Directors based on a number of factors in a manner that complies with applicable tax rules./news/xencelabs-first-display-drawing-tablet-already-rivals-the-wacom-cintiq.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/xencelabs-first-display-drawing-tablet-already-rivals-the-wacom-cintiq.htmlGraphics hardware manufacturer Xencelabs has announced the Pen Display 24 Studio Series, a new display drawing tablet designed for creative professionals. The 24-inch display is the company’s first drawing tablet with a built-in display to join its range of standard pen tablets and comes equipped with features that rival Wacom’s Cintiq series. The biggest advantage that Xencelabs has against Wacom is affordability — at $1,899, the Pen Display 24 is considerably less expensive than the $3,500 Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 and includes accessories like a stand and a shortcut remote that Wacom doesn’t include as standard./news/you-can-now-turn-your-apple-watch-into-a-fallout-pip-boy.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/you-can-now-turn-your-apple-watch-into-a-fallout-pip-boy.htmlThe static graphic works thanks to watchOS 2, which allows users to set any photo from their iPhone as the Apple Watch background. Mrgan designed his Pip-Boy image to resemble the interface of the device from Fallout 4, with a swath of screen space open so Apple's placement of the date and time make the whole package look like an official design. Follow these steps to get the watch face on your device./news/youtube-renews-vevo-deal-buys-stake-in-company-to-keep-music-videos-off-facebook.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-renews-vevo-deal-buys-stake-in-company-to-keep-music-videos-off-facebook.htmlGoogle said today that it has renewed its agreement with Vevo, the music video distributor, keeping its popular programming on YouTube and preventing it from falling into the hands of its rivals. Vevo draws 50.2 million users a month to YouTube, according to comScore, making it one of the company's most important partners. The news was first reported by Billboard. As part of the deal, YouTube is investing in the company./news/youtube-went-down-around-the-world-but-it-s-now-fixed.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-went-down-around-the-world-but-it-s-now-fixed.htmlYouTube has recovered from a seemingly worldwide outage that prevented videos from loading for roughly an hour. During the outage, many Verge staffers were unable to watch videos, and YouTube confirmed at 7:23PM ET that something was going on: The issue appeared to affect other services that use the YouTube infrastructure too, including YouTube TV and the movies and TV shows you’d purchase through Google TV (formerly known as Google Play Movies & TV)./news/youtube-s-mobile-app-gets-new-gestures-and-playback-controls.htmlThu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000/news/youtube-s-mobile-app-gets-new-gestures-and-playback-controls.htmlYouTube is updating its mobile apps with a few new features that should make viewing and controlling videos a bit easier, with new gestures, updated player controls, and additional features. The biggest update is a new gesture to enable or disable full-screen video: instead of tapping the button (or rotating your phone), you’ll now be able to swipe up on the video window to enter full-screen and swipe down to return back to the standard player page./news/the-long-road-to-kentucky-route-zero.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/news/the-long-road-to-kentucky-route-zero.htmlIt took a few years, but the end of Kentucky Route Zero is finally here. Today sees the launch of Act V of the haunting, surreal adventure game, closing out a protracted saga for both players of the game and the characters in its world. KRZ originally debuted in 2011 as a Kickstarter project, and its first act launched in 2013. The plan was to release subsequent acts — for a total of five — every few months.