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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge I've always hated the fact Gmail only gives us five predefined categories - Inbox," Social," Promotions," Updates," and Forum" - that we can't customize. When the feature first launched in 2013, it felt like such an obvious omission I assumed Google would address it with a future update. But it's been over 10 years, and the tabs are still as limiting as they were back then.That's why I felt like I hit the jackpot last week when I stumbled upon CloudHQ's Gmail Tabs, a free extension that adds flexibility Gmail should have had from the beginning.Basically, the desktop app extension lets you turn labels you've created or search queries into tabs you can pin at the top of your inbox right above Gmail's useless Social,"... Continue reading...

MrBeast's 252 million YouTube subscribers are nipping at the heels of T-Series. | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images Despite his immense popularity and online presence, Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) has never been the most subscribed channel on YouTube - though that may not be the case for long. T-Series, India's largest music label and movie studio, currently holds the top spot with 263 million YouTube subscribers, but MrBeast is rapidly closing in on that figure with 252 million subs.With its leading position now threatened, T-Series published a new video on Monday encouraging viewers to subscribe to the channel. It opens with the quote I want to put India and my people at the top of the international platform," attributed to T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar (who passed away in 1997), before calling for prospective subscribers to make history... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nothing has announced that it plans to more deeply integrate ChatGPT with its smartphones and earbuds. The move will give the company's customers quicker access to the service. Through the new integration, users with the latest Nothing OS and ChatGPT installed on their Nothing phones will be able to pinch-to-speak to the most popular consumer AI tool in the world directly from Nothing earbuds," the company wrote in a blog post. And yes, the new Nothing Ear and Ear (a) are both supported.Spokesperson Jane Nho told me by email that gradual rollout of the integration will commence on April 18th with Phone 2 followed by Phone 1 and Phone 2A in the coming weeks." Once the update lands, you'll be able to query ChatGPT using the company's... Continue reading...

Nothing is churning out new earbuds at a faster clip than smartphones. The company just introduced the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a), priced at $149 and $99, respectively. Together, they mark Nothing's fourth and fifth products in the headphone category. First came the original Ear 1, which stood out for its partly transparent design but suffered from bugs and inconsistent audio performance. Then, Nothing went after a different audience with the open-style (and oddly named) Ear Stick. And a year ago, the company shored up reliability and sound quality concerns with the Ear 2. Now it's back for another go-round.And guess what? Yep, they still look pretty much exactly the same.The Nothing Ear and Ear (a) both preserve the design that... Continue reading...

Image: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Two prominent Senate Democrats are calling for increased scrutiny of autonomous vehicles and advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) like Tesla's Autopilot, arguing that the unimpeded flow of highly automated vehicles on public roads in recent years risks exacerbating the traffic safety crisis in the US.Automakers and tech companies say the technology can lead to safer streets. But there have been a number of high-profile incidents in recent years involving fully autonomous vehicles, as well as hundreds of crashes and dozens of fatalities in vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assist systems. The two senators, Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA), argue that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's regulatory... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google fired 28 employees in connection with sit-in protests at two of its offices this week, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. The firings come after 9 employees were suspended and then arrested in New York and California on Tuesday.The fired employees were involved in protesting Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract that also includes Amazon. Some of them occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian until they were forcibly removed by law enforcement. Last month, Google fired another employee for protesting the contract during a company presentation in Israel.In a memo sent to all employees on Wednesday, Chris Rackow, Google's head of global security,... Continue reading...

Image: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images We might really do it this time.That was the takeaway that House lawmakers were eager to impart at a hearing in the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on innovation, data, and commerce (IDC). Comprehensive data privacy legislation is on the table yet again - but this time, it's different.Lawmakers also touched on children's online safety proposals like the Kids Online Safety Act, which recently got a House companion to the popular Senate bill, and COPPA 2.0, which would update and raise the age for protections for a long-standing online privacy bill for children.But privacy reform was the focus of much of the hearing, as a discussion draft for the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) revived the issue after years of inaction. This... Continue reading...

Image: Bay 12 Games Though you could always go on adventures in Dwarf Fortress, with the game's Adventure Mode expansion entering public beta today, you can now sally forth with a full complement of updated graphics.In Adventure Mode, there are all sorts of shenanigans to get up to in the ridiculously large and detailed procedurally generated world. It's an RPG campaign complete with character creation, quests to complete, and bandits to fight.With the public beta, your adventures on the surface world will look a lot more detailed than smiley faces and ASCII art. There's still the same level of granular detail in combat, allowing you to stab, punch, kick, throw, and bite just about anything on your enemies right down to their eyeballs. Check out a demo... Continue reading...

Image: Boston Dynamics Now, there's a new all-electric version of the Atlas humanoid robot. Continue reading...

Photo by Brian Sevald / NBAE via Getty Images The NBA has permanently banned Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter from the league for violating its gambling rules, the league said in a statement on Wednesday. According to an internal investigation conducted by the NBA, Porter bet on NBA games, disclosed confidential information to other gamblers, and adjusted his participation in certain games to influence the outcome of certain bets.The league started looking into Porter after a March 20th game against the Sacramento Kings in which Porter played for just three minutes. Porter left the game after saying he felt ill. Ahead of that game, Porter told an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor" about his health status, according to the NBA's statement. Another person then put an... Continue reading...

The Pixel 7A is a standout midrange smartphone that nearly performs like a flagship, now for an entry-level price. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google is expected to introduce the new Pixel 8A at its I/O developer conference next month. That's probably a contributing factor for the new all-time low price we're seeing on the midrange Pixel 7A we were introduced to during last year's event. Amazon, Best Buy, and Google all have it down to $349, which is $150 off the original price.Buying it directly from Google is the better deal, as you'll also get three months of YouTube Premium and Google One, the latter supplementing the device's 128GB of storage with 100GB of extra cloud storage.The Pixel 8A's impending arrival could cause a deeper price drop, or perhaps Google will cement today's discount as a permanent change. But if you need a new phone right now, you shouldn't... Continue reading...

Image: Boston Dynamics. It's alive! A day after announcing it was retiring Atlas, its hydraulic robot, Boston Dynamics has introduced a new, all-electric version of its humanoid machine. The next-generation Atlas robot is designed to offer a far greater range of movement than its predecessor.Boston Dynamics wanted the new version to show that Atlas can keep a humanoid form without limiting how a bipedal robot can move." The new version has been redesigned with swiveling joints that the company claims make it uniquely capable of tackling dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks."We designed the electric version of Atlas to be stronger, more dexterous, and more agile," the company said in its press release. Atlas may resemble a human form factor, but we are... Continue reading...

Tyner Rushing as Samantha Massey in For All Mankind. | Image: Apple Folks hoping to see more of Apple TV Plus' For All Mankind series are in for a treat, but the streamer is working on more than just a new season.Today, Apple announced that For All Mankind has been renewed for a fifth season that will continue to chronicle the alternate history of a world in which the Soviet Union is the first nation to put a man on the Moon and the United States set out to catch up with its rival. Following the show's season 4 finale, news of the renewal doesn't exactly come as a surprise, but Apple also revealed that executive producers Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi are working on a new series titled Star City, which will dig deeper into the live of the Soviets who changed the arc of human history.In a statement about... Continue reading...

Like most people, I'd prefer to stare at a bunch of cacti in my living room rather than an uninspired black rectangle. | Image: Samsung Everyone 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 $997.99 ($500 off) and 1,597.99 ($400), respectively. It's also on sale in the behemoth 75-inch configuration for $1,895 ($1,103 off), an all-time low, with Best Buy and Walmart matching Amazon's pricing in most instances.Despite its lofty price tag, the Frame isn't for people who want pristine image quality or... Continue reading...

Image: Riley Testut The Delta emulator is officially available on the Apple App Store - for free. You should be able to find in Apple's official store in many countries outside of the European Union. If you live in the EU, it should be available in the new third-party AltStore PAL app marketplace that just went live.The app marks the first significant and officially sanctioned game emulator for the iPhone since Apple began allowing them, with wide-ranging console emulation from the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo 64 (and even the Sega Genesis, for when you want to play those games that Nintendon't).Delta developer Riley Testut told The Verge via email that the app is identical to the version debuting with AltStore PAL. The app... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Amazon is pushing back on claims that its cashierless Just Walk Out technology is run by humans in India - not AI. In a blog post on Wednesday, the e-commerce giant calls these reports untrue" and says that a machine learning model powers its system.Last week, reports started going around that claimed Amazon employs around 1,000 workers in India to watch people shop and review purchases at stores using its Just Walk Out tech. The report claimed that Amazon's workers had to review around 700 of every 1,000 transactions in 2022, something that isn't uncommon in the world of AI.While Amazon insists these reports are erroneous," it doesn't deny that humans aren't involved with the process at all. Instead, Amazon says its workers are... Continue reading...

That 1.50 per year subscription does not include tax but does offset Apple's Core Technology Fee. | Image: AltStore PAL After we recently tested it in beta, the third-party iOS app store AltStore PAL is now live in the European Union thanks to Apple's compliance with the region's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The store requires a 1.50 (plus tax) annual subscription to cover Apple's Core Technology Fee (CTF) for installing the app marketplace itself.Installing AltStore PAL requires clicking through a lot of Apple's clumsily implemented scare sheets that double and triple check your desire to install apps from outside Apple's App Store. But with persistence and enough clicks it eventually installs.The new app marketplace is arriving with two apps developed by Riley Testut: Delta, an emulator capable of playing NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy... Continue reading...

Protest outside Google offices in Chelsea, Manhattan, NY, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. | Photo by Cristina Matuozzi/Sipa via AP Images Nine Google employees who occupied the company's offices in New York and California were arrested Tuesday night after an eight-hour sit-in.The workers were protesting Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government contract for Google and Amazon's cloud computing services. Employees at the Sunnyvale, California, campus occupied Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office on Tuesday afternoon, while workers in New York held a sit-in in the common area of the Chelsea office's 10th floor.Workers in the New York office captured the arrests on video. Around 9:45PM on Tuesday, nearly eight hours into the protest, a group of police officers and a man who appears to work at Google approached the four workers remaining in... Continue reading...

Image: Visible Visible has just launched its first annual plans, letting customers lock in a year of mobile service all at once for either of the company's two tiers. The Verizon-owned prepaid carrier is charging $395 per year for its Visible Plus plan, which it says leads to annual savings of $145. The standard Visible plan runs $275 per year, and in that case, you're only saving $25 compared to the monthly rate.For now, annual plans are only available to new Visible customers and not existing users. Even once they do roll out more widely, it's worth thinking twice if you've got a discount code applied to your Visible Plus plan. Many people are only paying $35 / month for the normally $45 service. And if you do the math, you're only saving $25 for... Continue reading...

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos: Getty Images The next generation of the text-to-image AI model Stable Diffusion is still in preview, but Stability AI is making it available to some developers via API and a new content creation platform. Stability AI says developers can now access Stable Diffusion 3 from its Developer Platform.Stability AI says it's working with API platform Fireworks AI for companies that want to use both models. It also plans on hosting its model weights on its own servers through a Stability AI membership in the near future."The company released Stable Diffusion 3 in February to a small number of developers on preview. Stability AI says Stable Diffusion 3 is equal to or outperforms" other text-to-image generators, like OpenAI's DALL-E 3 and Midjourney v6, in... Continue reading...

This artist mockup of Dragonfly soaring over Titan's dunes has... well, Dune vibes. | Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben NASA has been given the go-ahead to send a flying drone-like lander to explore Titan, the largest of Saturn's 146 moons.Targeting a July 2028 launch, the agency announced on Tuesday that it can now complete the final design for Dragonfly - a Mars rover-sized rotorcraft that will be used to detect prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and the early Earth before life developed."If all goes according to plan, the eight-rotor drone is scheduled to arrive at Titan in 2034, where it will fly to dozens of promising locations" to characterize the habitability of Titan's environment and hunt for any signs that life once existed on the organic-rich moon. Titan's denser atmosphere (around four times that of Earth's) will aid the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New year, new Nintendo indie showcase. Continue reading...

Illustration: Lille Allen / The Verge Tesla is asking shareholders to vote for a second time on Elon Musk's massive compensation package, after a Delaware judge voided the first one earlier this year on the grounds that the approval process was deeply flawed."Tesla shareholders approved the package in 2018, which gave Musk incentive to hit specific milestones, including a market valuation of $650 billion, which was more than 10 times Tesla's value at the time.In a proxy statement filed today, Tesla's board recommends that shareholders simply re-ratify the 2018 pay package in order to address concerns raised by the court ruling - rather than negotiate a new proposal with Musk that could end up costing Tesla even more money.The Delaware Court second-guessed your... Continue reading...

The Form 4. | Image: Frrmlabs Formlabs was one of the early Kickstarter success stories, and its laser-blasting 3D printers are now used by model makers, prototypers, dentists, and maybe even action figure companies around the globe. But its newest printers are ditching those resin-blasting lasers because they're comparatively slow.With the new Form 4, Formlabs says you can print two to five times faster than its predecessor, the Form 3 Plus - by switching to an LCD screen and a bright backlight that can cure an entire layer of resin at a time.That's a common technique in prosumer resin printers already, one called masked stereolithography (mSLA), but Formlabs claims it's managed to build a printer to do it at a higher quality than ever before. Even so, it may... Continue reading...

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Google Maps is rolling out some new updates designed to make locating an electric vehicle charging station less stressful. And to accomplish this, it will (of course) lean heavily on artificial intelligence.Google says it will use AI to summarize customer reviews of EV chargers to display more specific directions to certain chargers, such as those located in parking garages or more hard-to-find places. And there will be more prompts in the app to encourage users to submit their feedback after using an EV charger - which will then be fed into the algorithm for future AI-powered summaries. Google Google Maps users will be asked to submit details like whether the charging session was successful or the type of plug... Continue reading...

The company expects to complete its downsizing efforts by the end of this year. | Image: Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive, the gaming company behind franchises like Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and Bioshock, has announced cost-cutting measures that will lay off approximately five percent" of its global workforce and scrap several projects already in development.The company said in an SEC filing published on Tuesday that it is streamlining its organizational structure, which will eliminate headcount and reduce future hiring needs." Take-Two says it will incur charges of up to $200 million to enact its cost reduction program," which aims to save the company over $165 million per year. The downsizing efforts are expected to be largely complete" by December 31st, 2024.A 5 percent workforce reduction works out to around 579 of the 11,580... Continue reading...

The phone is boring so you can focus on good times with your friends, get it? | Image: HMD HMD really wants us to have more fun. Earlier this year, it announced a collaboration with Mattel on an upcoming Barbie flip phone. Now, it's teaming up with Heineken and creative firm Bodega on another effort designed to tap into nostalgia: the Boring Phone. There are more details on Heineken's site - which you'll need to be at least 21 to view - but basically It's a translucent flip phone with no apps, just good retro vibes to help you connect with your friends over a cold one.The Boring Phone is apparently real - I know, I was skeptical, too - but it will only be available through giveaways and isn't going on sale. It's a limited edition run and Heineken's website indicates 5,000 will be made. There's a 2.8-inch QVGA display on the... Continue reading...

Drake performing in Atlanta, Georgia in 2022. | Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage Last year, a few AI voice clone tracks went viral using Drake's voice. His label, Universal Media Group, responded to one track with a strongly worded statement against AI and takedown requests that saw it removed from streaming services. And Drake, seemingly not happy about another one of the songs, posted, This is the final straw AI," on Instagram.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just two days after Apple removed the iGBA emulator from the iOS App Store, an NES emulator called Bimmy briefly appeared before being taken down. MacRumors reported that the app was described as being for homebrew games but also supported ROMs provided by players. Unfortunately, when we attempted to download Bimmy, we received an error message saying it's no longer available.Now, clicking on a link to Bimmy shows This app is currently not available in your country or region." This time, it wasn't Apple that removed it but the developer. Over on MacRumors' forums, the developer said it pulled the app out of fear."No one pressured me to, but I got more nervous about it as the day went on," it wrote. Screenshot:... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Self-driving cars have an image problem. They stumble into construction zones, block ambulances, run red lights, and even injure the occasional bicyclist or pedestrian.Forget the fact that most autonomous vehicles operate each day safely, anonymously, and without fanfare. There are hundreds in operation today in California, Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere, and the numbers are only going to increase. But when they do make mistakes, people tend to notice. Numerous public opinion polls have shown declining support for autonomous vehicles (AV) over the years and a rise in outright hostility toward the technology.The autonomous vehicle industry's main lobbying group - yes, of course it has one - is intent on reversing this trend before it... Continue reading...

Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Creators fundraising for projects on Kickstarter will soon be able to collect money even after their campaign ends.Currently, Kickstarter projects can last anywhere from one to 60 days, and creators hoping to continue fundraising after meeting their goal have had to go off-platform to keep raising money.The new late pledge feature will allow crowdfunding campaigns to collect money indefinitely if the creator chooses. Late pledges could also be helpful for fans who learn about projects after the fundraising window has closed but want to support the creator. Creators who are offering something in exchange for a certain level of monetary support - a digital download of an album or physical items, for example - will need to end late... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon Music may soon let you create playlists with a text prompt using Maestro, its new AI playlist maker.Maestro, which is currently available in beta to a small number of Amazon Music subscribers in the US, will let users put together playlists using any prompt, including emojis, Amazon said in a blog post. According to the company, listeners will be able to save the AI-created playlists and share them with other Amazon Music users. In the post, Amazon Music's suggested prompts included and eating ," Music my grandparents made out to," and I tracked my friends and they're all hanging out without me."The feature is similar to Spotify's AI Playlist, which was rolled out to Premium users in the United Kingdom and Australia this... Continue reading...

Sleep trackers, earbuds, and smart beds. | Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Sleep tech is more than tracking. Here are the best gadgets I've tested that help you fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up earlier. Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a $7 million fine against Cerebral, a mental telehealth firm that it says not only was careless with patients' data but actively shared it with third parties for advertising purposes. The company and its CEO, Kyle Robertson, are also accused of lying to customers about how their data is shared and of having a misleading cancellation policy.The FTC notes that Cerebral shared the sensitive data of nearly 3.2 million consumers" with third parties like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Snapchat through trackers on its website or apps - something the company admitted to last year. That apparently included details like home and email addresses, phone numbers, pharmacy and health insurance details, and... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Images Parcast founder Max Cutler left Spotify last February as part of a wave of high-profile departures from its podcast vertical, and he's now launching Pave Studios to create content across multiple formats. Storytellers who successfully engage audiences and create fandoms through written, audio, and video content have led the charge in cultivating their robust communities into diverse businesses," said Cutler.The company has two new brands to start, with OpenMind, which focuses on wellness, and the true crime-geared Crime House. Image: Pave Studios Spotify acquired the true crime and horror-focused studio Parcast in 2019 as part of a $1 billion investment in original podcasts. After the sale, Cutler went on to serve... Continue reading...

A sign warns of elevated fire danger in the Oakland Hill area of Oakland, California, on Thursday, October 29th, 2020. | Photo by Philip Pacheco / Bloomberg via Getty Images Hate to break it to you, baby - but if you were born in the US this year, climate change could wind up costing you around $500,000 over the course of your lifetime. That's according to a new study commissioned by Consumer Reports and conducted by consulting firm ICF.The study counts up higher bills for climate-related calamities that drive up housing, food, and healthcare costs, for example. On top of that, there's the prospect of higher taxes and lost income over the years in a warming world.While there's a lot of uncertainty built into the study, it's an attempt at breaking down all the big and little ways that climate change can affect daily life. Each stifling heatwave, flooded road, and downed power line costs consumers... Continue reading...

The Beatles in the United Kingdom, circa 1960. | Photo by Keystone-France / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images It has been hard to find physical copies of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 1970 Beatles documentary Let It Be in the years since its theatrical release, but Disney Plus is getting ready to debut a remastered version of the film.Disney Plus announced today that Let It Be - a chronicle of the Beatles recording their Let It Be album in 1969 before breaking up the following year - will stream on May 8th. Like the docuseries The Beatles: Get Back, Let It Be will feature original film footage remastered by Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production and remastered audio created using the same de-mixing tools that recently led to the release of the Beatles' final song. In a statement about Let It Be's streaming premiere, Lindsay-Hogg recalled... Continue reading...