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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6TVTY)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge After surging to the top of Apple's App Store charts in the US, DeepSeek's AI Assistant is now restricting new user sign-ups. According to an incident report page, registrations are being temporarily limited due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services," though it's unclear how these limitations are being applied.Existing users can log in as usual," DeepSeek said in its update. Thanks for your understanding and support." An alert banner on the DeepSeek web sign-up page says that registration may be busy," rather than entirely restricted, however, and encourages users to wait and try again" if their application is unsuccessful.Outages and performance issues were reported by DeepSeek earlier today, which prevented users from signing in or creating new accounts. That incident has now been marked as resolved, but no information has been provided about the reported attacks against DeepSeek's chatbot app. It was previously thought that DeepSeek's systems may be under strain due to a huge influx of new users downloading the app, which is said to rival Western AI services like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropics Claude.An earlier update said that only registration with a mainland China mobile phone number" is currently supported in an attempt to ensure continued service." The specific requirement for Chinese numbers has since been deleted; however, I and other Verge staff have been able to successfully create new accounts via sign-in options for Google and Apple ID. Email registration is also still currently listed as available on the web-based DeepSeek signup page.
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-09-17 16:18 |
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by Wes Davis on (#6TVTZ)
Cath Virginia / The Verge Spotify and Universal Music Group have signed a new multi-year agreement that could result in a tiered subscription approach aimed at providing extra perks for superfans." The two didn't announce any specifics, including the number of years the deal lasts, but UMG says it's consistent with a Streaming 2.0" vision it presented to investors last year.UMG chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge called the agreement precisely the kind of partnership development" the company hoped for when describing Streaming 2.0. That presentation envisioned a Super-Premium" subscription for superfans that could mean things like early access to music, exclusive deluxe editions, hi-res audio, and artist Q&As. The companies have been rumored to be discussing such a deal for months. Screenshot: Universal Music Group UMG's concept for a new subscription tier for superfans. UMG also referenced Streaming 2.0 when it signed an agreement with Amazon Music last month, as World Music Business pointed out when it broke news of the Spotify agreement prior to Sunday's announcement.The deal also appears" to increase royalty rates, the National Music Publishers Association told Variety. The outlet pointed out yesterday that the NMPA and others had criticized Spotify over changes last year that led to lower mechanical royalty rates for songwriters, spurring an NMPA complaint to the FTC.Sony Music Publishing also criticized Spotify's royalty changes, and even considered options to challenge them. It's not clear if Sony or any other publishers are in talks for similar deals with Spotify, but that could change in light of the UMG deal, which Billboard notes is Spotify's first direct deal with a music publisher since the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6TVV0)
Image: Genesis Hyundai's luxury nameplate Genesis is taking its brand to new (and very cold) heights with a concept that turns its all electric GV60 SUV into a snowmobile. The new GV60 MIV, which stands for Mountain Intervention Vehicle" is designed to assist in rescue operations on mountainous snowscapes and can also handle rugged terrains and challenging weather conditions," according to the automaker.The GV60 MIV swaps its on-road wheels for four snow tracks, and it's got well bolstered sport seats, medical supplies, and communication systems so you don't get lost and need rescuing yourself. There's also carbon fiber wheel arc extensions added to protect bystanders and minimize debris damage, a roof rack for emergency supplies, and a drone kit included in the trunk.Genesis replaces the rearview mirror with a dedicated Garmin GPS Map 276Cx device, which can help you keep track of your location without the need of a data connection. Genesis also highlights the GV60's vehicle-to-load abilities that lets it power rescue equipment using the EV battery, making it an environmentally-friendly setup that won't muck up pure white snow. The EV is capable of up to 429 horsepower and has a maximum EPA estimated range of up to 294 miles on a single charge (for the on-road versions).Genesis put the MIV on display at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this past week, a location where the automaker has presented other models since 2023 including the Genesis X and the GV70 Snow adventure car, which is kind of the opposite of the new MIV in that its for having risky offroad fun.
by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6TVQZ)
The Apple Watch Series 10 is the biggest and brightest you can buy without paying hundreds more for the Ultra. | photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge With a redesigned casing, a bigger display, and faster charging, the Apple Watch Series 10 is a fantastic upgrade opportunity for anyone who, like me, is more than a few iterations behind. If you're in the same boat, you might consider jumping on a deal from Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart that takes the 42mm version of the smartwatch down to $329 ($70 off), which matches the record low from Black Friday.The 46mm Series 10 is also on sale for $359 ($70 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, which is also its best price to date.The Apple Watch Series 10's wide-angle displays are only one millimeter bigger than their Series 9 counterparts, but it's a noticeable difference. The displays are also 40 percent brighter, while the overall package is a hair thinner. The Series 10 still doesn't last more than a day as it doesn't have the Ultra's battery gains, but it won't spend as much time on a MagSafe charger as it can get up to 80 percent capacity in 30 minutes.For tracking your fitness and wellness, the Apple Watch Series 10 can do far more than count your daily steps and close your activity rings. It has optical and ECG heart rate monitors that can check your ticker and track your sleeping, including the ability to detect sleep apnea. It also has a temperature sensor for tracking cycles and other vital metrics, plus water temperature and depth sensors to help with aquatic workouts in shallower waters. It's not fully waterproof, however, so you'll want an Ultra if you're plunging deeper.Read our Apple Watch Series 10 review.A few more Monday deals
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6TVR0)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Some Slack users are finding that their notifications aren't showing up on the platform this morning, or that their corresponding messages are harder to find than usual. A few of my colleagues are reporting similar issues on The Verge's Slack channels, and I've been receiving repeated notifications for thread messages that I've already marked as read. The issues also seem to be affecting tags for other users - if a colleague hasn't responded to your pings, DM them directly for now.Slack is aware that notifications may be missing for some users" and logged an incident report at 7:52AM ET today, later confirming that the issue is impacting threads. We're currently investigating the issue and we'll be back when we have more information," Slack announced on its status page. We're sorry for any interruption to your day."It's unclear what's causing the disruption to notifications or how many Slack users have been impacted. There's a visible spike on Downdetector, but very few reports have been logged.For myself, at least, some notifications are coming through, but several minutes after a message has been sent. As of 10:10AM ET, Slack said that other notifications should be working as expected, but threads may not be loading correctly." It also logged a separate note that reports some users are having trouble adding new members to multi-person DM's (group chats for up to nine people.)Developing...Update, January 27th: Added more updates from Slack.
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by Nilay Patel on (#6TVR1)
Photo Illustration: The Verge | Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images One of the biggest tech companies you've never heard of is helping you listen to this podcast. Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6TVNF)
The market value of US AI companies is taking a tumble. | Image: DeepSeek A chatbot made by Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store charts in the US this week, dethroning OpenAI's ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app. The eponymous AI assistant is powered by DeepSeek's open-source models, which the company says can be trained at a fraction of the cost using far fewer chips than the world's leading models. The claim has riled financial markets, with Nvidia's share price dropping over 12 percent in pre-market trading.Downloads for the app exploded shortly after DeepSeek released its new R1 reasoning model on January 20th, which is designed for solving complex problems and reportedly performs as well as OpenAI's o1 on certain benchmarks. R1 was built on the V3 LLM DeepSeek released in December, which the company claims is on par with GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and cost less than $6 million to develop. By contrast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said GPT-4 cost over $100 million to train.DeepSeek also claims to have needed only about 2,000 specialized chips from Nvidia to train V3, compared to the 16,000 or more required to train leading models, according to the New York Times. These unverified claims are leading developers and investors to question the compute-intensive approach favored by the world's leading AI companies. And if true, it means that DeepSeek engineers had to get creative in the face of trade restrictions meant to ensure US domination of AI.Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta are investing billions into AI data centers - $500 billion alone for the Stargate Project, of which $100 billion is thought to be earmarked for Nvidia. Investors and analysts are now wondering if that's money well spent, with Nvidia, Microsoft, and other companies with substantial stakes in maintaining the AI status quo all trending downward in pre-market trading.
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by Dominic Preston on (#6TVHP)
The new iPhone SE will likely be limited to a single rear camera. | Image: Majin Bu We might have just gotten our best look yet at Apple's next affordable iPhone SE, shown in both video and photographs of what's either a real phone or a convincing dummy unit. Despite some reports that the next SE would adopt recent iPhones' Dynamic Island design, this model appears to stick with the older notch.Leaker Majin Bu shared a short video over the weekend that shows the new phone in bright daylight, following it up a day later with photos of both white and black versions. Like previous iPhone SE models there's only a single rear camera, though this appears to be the first in the line to feature a USB-C port - now a requirement for the phone to be sold in the EU.
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by Wes Davis on (#6TV5W)
The SuperStation One comes in three colors, including translucent blue. | Image: Retro Remake Retro Remake's Taki Udon announced last night that preorders had opened for the SuperStation One, a clone of the PS One variant of the original PlayStation. The $149.99 Founders Edition preorders are sold out already, but you can still preorder the standard $225 SuperStation One for $179.99 right now, with shipping expected in Q4 or Earlier."While the SuperStation One looks like a PS One - complete with ports compatible with the original PlayStation controller and memory cards - it plays more than just PlayStation 1 games. It's a custom MiSTER field-programmable gate array (FPGA) machine, as Polygon points out. That means rather than emulating game consoles, its hardware can actually function just like those consoles, with cores ranging from the Atari 5200 and NES to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
by David Pierce on (#6TV2X)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Whenever Netflix raises its prices - which seems to happen roughly as often as Ben Affleck falls in love with an A-list celebrity - the company always gives the same reason. It needs the extra money, you see, in order to keep investing in the kind of programming and product its 302 million subscribers demand. That's how the standard monthly price of ad-free Netflix jumped from $7.99 to $17.99 over the course of the last 13 years, including a $2.50 jump just announced during the company's recent earnings report. There's still a $7.99 monthly plan, of course, but that one includes ads - and it's a dollar more expensive than it was a week ago.But let's be real with each other. You want to know why Netflix keeps raising its prices? Because it can. Because Netflix won. The rest of the streaming industry is competing ferociously over a finite pool of money, dealing with carriage disputes because of dwindling subscriber numbers, and panicking over the future of TV. Netflix is the future of TV.Over the last couple of years in particular, Netflix has gone from a solid streaming service to a practically unavoidable, virtually uncancellable part of mainstream culture. It has developed a... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by David Pierce on (#6TV2Z)
Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 68, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, hope you're staying warm and sane, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about Kieran Culkin and insomnia and the eBay for fancy startup stuff, finally watching The Wild Robot, thinking a lot about my shopping habits while watching The Mega-Brands That Built America, adding a bunch of Baseus retractable cables to my travel kit, playing an amazing browser-based rendition of the Atari game Pitfall!, testing out the new Spark calendar for Android, and trying to copy Babish's delicious-looking breakfast sandwich.I also have for you the biggest new phone in the Android world, the GPU every gamer's going to want, an impossible test for AI tools, a clever Google alternative, and much more. It's been a somewhat quiet week for new stuff, honestly, since it's both post-CES doldrums and utter political chaos. But we've still got great stuff to talk about! Let's do it.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / cooking / downloading / building... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Victoria Song on (#6TV2Y)
It can feel magical when it works, but often Live AI feels more like Captain Obvious. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Live AI is neat, but the problem is knowing when (and why) you'd want to use it. Read the full story at The Verge.
by Sean Hollister on (#6TV1J)
The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge It might be time for a more unified platform. Read the full story at The Verge.
by Wes Davis on (#6TTW2)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Oracle and a group of investors that includes Microsoft are in talks to take over TikTok's global operations, reports NPR. The deal would reportedly see ByteDance keeping a minority stake in TikTok while the app's algorithm, data collection and software updates will be overseen by Oracle." The outlet reports the White House is negotiating the deal, though President Trump has since denied he is working with Oracle.I have spoken to many people about TikTok and there is great interest in TikTok," Trump said on a flight to Florida Saturday, Reuters reported. But according to the outlet, he said Oracle was not among those he's spoken with:
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by Wes Davis on (#6TTTW)
Image: Fubo Fubo has raised its English-language streaming plan prices by $5 each, with a Fubo spokesperson citing rising costs from our programming partners," reported The Streamable yesterday. Fubo's Essential and Pro plans now start at $85 a month, while its Elite plan has gone up to $95 monthly.We only make adjustments when necessary," a Fubo spokesperson said to The Streamable, and we're committed to keeping Fubo competitive while ensuring our subscribers have access to the channels, features and live events they enjoy."
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6TTSS)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge The next generation of Nvidia GPUs is almost here. Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are just around the corner, with the first releases - the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 - dropping on January 30th. The RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 will follow that with their own releases in February, but some are already getting a sneak peek at the GPUs' software benefits through DLSS 4.Tom Warren's Verge review of the $1,999 RTX 5090 indicates it's expectedly a powerhouse, but not quite the generational leap that the RTX 4090 was over its own predecessor. That didn't stop The Verge's Sean Hollister from being impressed with the two-slot RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPU when he stuffed it into his aging small-form-factor PC.Along with the 50-series GPUs comes DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, a software trick that may be just as big a story as the hardware itself. This latest version of DLSS uses AI to predictively generate frames, making it possible to run games at higher resolutions without taking the same framerate hit they would without DLSS 4 turned on. Gamers who are already trying DLSS 4 out in Cyberpunk 2077 using RTX 40-series GPUs report seeing huge improvements already.We'll be keeping up with all the news about Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs right here at The Verge.
by Andrew Webster on (#6TTNK)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Watch this space to find some great indie games. Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Wes Davis on (#6TTNM)
Image: Second Dinner Mobile card game Marvel Snap is coming back to app stores, starting with Google Play. That's according to Developer Second Dinner, which announced yesterday it was starting the process of restoring the game to Google's Android app store at 6PM PT / 3PM ET that day. The developer said in another post it expects the game to return to both Google's and Apple's app stores as early as next week."Marvel Snap was caught up in the TikTok outage last weekend because its original publisher, Nuverse, is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance. The game came back online for players on Monday and Second Dinner said it planned to bring more services in-house and partner with a new publisher." As of now, Marvel Snap is still provided, operated, and managed by Nuverse," according to the privacy policy on the game's website.An admin of the Marvel Snap Discord server also announced a set of compensation packages for players affected by the outage. As seen in screenshots posted to Reddit, that includes in-game credits, tokens, and special variants for accounts that were created in the US or that showed US activity in the 30 days prior to the outage. Non-US players will also get a Global Gratitude Package" with similar, though fewer, benefits.Other apps that went down last weekend, such as CapCut and Lemon8, have since come back online but still aren't listed in the iOS and Android app stores. Although President Donald Trump has directed the US Attorney General not to enforce the US TikTok ban, it's unclear whether he can shield Apple or Google from legal liability if they host the apps in defiance of the law.
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by Brandon Widder on (#6TTNN)
It's all about the vibes. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There are a lot - and I mean a LOT - of fitness trackers out there, many of which can provide a surprising amount of insight into your health and fitness. That being said, the bare-bones Casio WS-B1000, which is currently on sale at Amazon and Walmart for an all-time low of $39.10 (about $17 off), is not exactly one of them.At its core, the WS-B1000 is a lightweight wristwatch with some basic smarts, retro styling, and a few different color options. There's no optical heart rate monitor or fancy-schmancy OLED display, though it does boast an onboard accelerometer for tracking your steps, up to two years of battery life on a single CR2016 coin cell battery, and Bluetooth for pairing it with your phone. Doing so lets you view a basic activity log in the Casio app while ensuring you always have the correct time on hand (a wild concept, I know).You get some basic wristwatch functionality as well - including a stopwatch, a timer, and an alarm - but the appeal of the WS-B1000 isn't what it offers but what it lacks. For someone like me who's burnt out on push notifications and rarely tracks anything beyond steps, a cheap tracker with some Y2K vibes is a welcome reprieve.Read our Casio WS-B1000 review.Other ways to save this weekend
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by Andrew Webster on (#6TTMB)
Image: Letibus Design and Icedrop Games At a glance, Lok Digital seems like another cute and clever word game, a perfect distraction to keep on your phone for idle moments. But look closer, and it's clear something just isn't right. Yes, it's a game about creating words to fill out a puzzle board. Except those words aren't actually real - and they all have special powers. Think of it like an alien take on Scrabble. It takes a while to wrap your head around, but Lok's surreal setup makes for an excellent brain-scratching puzzler.There is actually a story of sorts here. Lok takes place in a black-and-white fantasy realm, and your goal is to help little worm-like creatures progress through each level. The stages are grids of squares, and your goal is to turn each one black. (I have no idea how this helps the creatures move, but just stay with me here.) You turn them black by placing letters to spell out words. Completed words will black out squares, and certain words also have the ability to black out even more.It sounds kind of weird at first, and that feeling is only exacerbated by the dictionary of words you're working with. They are gibberish. The game eases you into this fictional language, though, slowly... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Jonathan Hilburg on (#6TTMC)
The $150 RGB laptop stand can keep any laptop cool, and on a few Razer Blade 16 gaming laptops, it can even improve 1080p performance. Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Alex Heath on (#6TTDJ)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images All I know is I'm good for my $80 billion."Rarely does a one-liner so perfectly capture the state of the moment. Here, you have Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella saying he's not in the details" about Stargate, the supposedly multi-hundred-billion AI infrastructure project driven by his marquee investment, OpenAI.Nadella not being read in on the nebulous details of Stargate says a lot about how much Microsoft and OpenAI have drifted apart. Microsoft is mentioned in the Stargate press release since OpenAI's models are still exclusive to Azure. But the most striking aspect of Stargate is not that the money isn't there for it yet; it's that OpenAI's biggest backer has decided to not participate in what Sam Altman is calling the most important project of this era." As Nadella made clear on CNBC this week, he's running his own, $80 billion AI infrastructure buildout and, going forward, OpenAI can get additional compute - with his blessing - elsewhere.While it received fewer headlines this week, I found Nadella's response to Elon Musk on X even more illuminating. In his response to Musk saying, on the other hand, Satya definitely does have the money," Nadella responded: And all... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Jay Peters on (#6TTC3)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is making an executive change to try and improve its AI efforts and Siri. Kim Vorrath, who recently helped get the Vision Pro software out the door and has been at Apple for 36 years, has been brought over to Apple's artificial intelligence and machine learning division and will serve as a top deputy" to AI boss John Giannandrea, Bloomberg reports.The company made a big splash about its AI / Apple Intelligence efforts at WWDC last year, but they haven't had the same impact as things like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. Apple has also been slowly rolling out what it announced, and a big Siri upgrade that lets it understand what's happening on your screen and take action may not arrive until iOS 18.4. And the company's AI-powered news notification summaries will be put on pause with iOS 18.3 after criticism that the summaries were incorrect.By bringing on Vorrath, whose resume at Apple includes work on the original iPhone software group, over to the AI team, it appears Apple wants to bring more rigor to Apple's AI development. It also indicates that Apple may see AI as a bigger deal for its future than the Vision Pro.Bloomberg also reports that the artificial intelligence group is focused on revamping the underlying infrastructure of Siri and improving the company's in-house AI models" this year, per a memo from Giannandrea.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6TTC4)
Looking like a true brute of an off-roader. | Image: Audi Audi has revealed a new dual-motor electric off-road vehicle concept based on the Q6 E-tron that looks ready for a snowpocalypse. The automaker built a working prototype that lifts the vehicle by 6.3 inches and widens it by 9.8 inches, giving it a stance that wouldn't be out of place if it appeared in Truck Country, USA.Audi's CEO Gernot Dollner calls the Q6 E-Tron Off-road concept" a reinterpretation of Quattro," which is the company's marketing term for its all-wheel-drive models.The extra ride height is courtesy of four bespoke portal axles integrated into the wheel hub assemblies at the front and rear that Audi says increase torque at the wheel by 50 percent. Each axle is powered by an electric motor with a combined power output of 380kW and up to 9,883 lb ft of torque at its peak. That's up 3,245 lb ft of torque from the normal Q6 E-tron, which is Audi's first vehicle built on Volkswagen's modular Premium Platform Electric (PPE) platform (also used in the new A6 E-tron and Porsche Macan EV).The vehicle is designed to climb hills as steep as 45 degrees but the company did nerf the Q6's top speed a bit down to 108 mph. Still, no one should drive that fast anyway in a vehicle lifted this high. This also makes the Off-road concept a much more realistic one compared to more sci-fi Audi concepts like the Activesphere coupe / pickup truck combo with a mixed reality cockpit or the truly apocalyptic all-terrain AI:Trail" that has drones for headlights.Audi's Q6 E-tron Offroad concept will be featured at the FAT International Ice Race in Austria on February 1st. The company will also show it in action via its social media channels.
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by Richard Lawler on (#6TTA9)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Ever since Elon Musk closed his deal to buy Twitter he's claimed the company, now called X, is in a very dire situation from a revenue standpoint."Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that banks are preparing a coordinated move to sell off some of the $13 billion in debt they loaned Musk to finance the deal. It mentions an email sent to employees this month, also confirmed by The Verge, where the Chief Twit said, ...we've witnessed the power of X in shaping national conversations and outcomes," but also claimed, Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we're barely breaking even."Part of the reason Bank of America, Barclays, and Morgan Stanley are holding so much of the debt is from trying to avoid selling at a loss after economic conditions changed, and Musk had an extended court battle attempting to get out of the deal. While equity investors have reportedly slashed the value of their stakes by as much as 78 percent, the Journal reports, banks hope to sell senior debt at 90-95 cents on the dollar, while retaining more-junior holdings."As Musk referenced in his email, the report says the banks hope to use the narrative of Musk's link to Donald Trump, as some unnamed investors may be interested in buying based on a belief that its financials are on the way up.However, Musk also said that the company could become cash-flow positive within months" nearly two years ago, and it still faces over $1 billion in annual interest payments on the loans. The platform is increasingly turning into a testing ground for his AI ambitions, as we reported earlier this month, and while X has added some features, like job listings and a new video tab, there's little sign of the service he'd said would be able to someone's entire financial life" by the end of 2024.
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by Jay Peters on (#6TTAA)
Image: The Verge Nearly a week after it was removed, the TikTok app is still missing from Apple and Google's app stores.The app was pulled from both stores after the US' ban-or-divest law went into effect last weekend, which resulted in the service going dark within the United States. While TikTok came back online shortly after the ban, the app didn't return to either mobile store. Apple and Google are at risk of paying billions in fines if they make TikTok available, and it's unclear if President Donald Trump's executive order refusing to enforce the ban actually removes that risk.Apple and Google haven't replied to multiple requests for comment from The Verge - including requests I made today - about if or when the app might be available again. Apple and Google do have statements about the removal of TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps like Lemon8 and Marvel Snap, but otherwise, no comment since.TikTok didn't immediately reply to a request for comment, either, however, Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner posted Friday evening on X, saying, Our current estimation is that Marvel Snap will be back in the app stores as early as next week barring any setbacks." Without explaining further, Second Dinner co-founder Ben Brode answered a question on Bluesky about what would happen for next month's updates, saying, we're hoping to have it back before then."Because these app stores are the primary way many people get the software, TikTok's absence basically means you can't newly install the app - at least, for the time being - without jumping through a lot of hoops. It also means they can't deliver updates to add new features or address any bugs, including potential security flaws.If you had TikTok on your phone before the ban kicked in, however, the app should work for you as normal. (As a result, people are trying to sell used phones with the TikTok app still on them.) You can also use TikTok in a browser - including on your phone.Update, January 24th: Added new details about Marvel Snap.
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6TTAB)
The battery icon in Windows 11 is getting a colorful update. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system's battery icon - possibly sparing you the realization that you've chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before it's far too late.Windows' battery icon, which has traditionally been black, is being updated with three colors designed to communicate battery status of your PC with just a quick glance," the company writes today on its Windows Blog. A green icon will indicate your computer is charging and in a good state," but will turn yellow when your battery has dropped below 20 percent charge and has entered energy saving mode. A red icon indicates you have a critically low battery" and will need to plug in your computer as soon as possible before it dies.The new colored battery icons will appear on the taskbar's system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in the general Windows Settings. Microsoft says they'll also eventually be used on the Lock screen, but that functionality is coming in a future build.Today's preview release includes two additional improvements to the battery icon. Microsoft has simplified overlays, such as the lightning bolt charging icon, so that they won't block the icon's progress bar, and added the ability to show the battery's charge percentage next to the icon in the system tray. It can be enabled by going to Settings > Power & battery and turning on the new Battery Percentage" setting.Microsoft says this is a highly requested feature by Insiders and customers" and it should be a welcome upgrade over the battery icon Windows currently uses that provides minimal information and a vague representation of a battery's remaining charge.The colors should make it immediately obvious that a laptop has started charging when plugged in, and it's a lot harder to ignore (or forget about) a near-dead battery when it's bright red with a single digit charge percentage right next to it.The battery icon updates should already be available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who have opted to get the latest updates as soon as they're available. It'll take longer to reach general release and might even get tweaks before it reaches other early adopters:Microsoft says the experience isn't available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone."
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by Sean Hollister on (#6TT80)
Ayaneo builds the best-looking handheld PCs in the business, but they've always been boutique. The 2023 Ayaneo 2, for example, cost $1,300 for an arguably worse experience than the $400 Steam Deck. But that experience isn't dampening my excitement for the new 7-inch Ayaneo 3.Not only does this one start at $900, within striking distance of the highest-end handhelds you'll find at retail, it's the most feature-packed portable I've seen - with two USB4 ports and OcuLink and RGB-ringed Hall effect joysticks and your choice of two seemingly killer screens. Perhaps most exciting: a way to finally fix a handheld's joystick and button layout to match your ergonomic preferences!Just watch: Animation by Ayaneo Finally. Ayaneo is calling the Ayaneo 3 the world's first modular handheld," because there'll be other modular options too. An extra $139 buys a set of six modules that let you swap out your joysticks for analog sticks, a six-button microswitch pad for fighting games, or even D-pads and face buttons with conductive silicone underneath for a different feel. Image: Ayaneo Six modules and extra joystick toppers come with the Magic Module" kit. But importantly, that basic module that lets you change joystick and button orientation and swap joystick caps comes with the handheld by default, and it's not the only feature Ayaneo is impressively cramming into the $900 kit.While you'll only" get a Ryzen 8840U, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 512GB of storage that that price - no Z2 option, and the HX 370 model starts at $1500 - you do get your choice of OLED or IPS right away.That OLED screen is a 1080p 144Hz HDR OLED panel promising 800 nits of global brightness and 110 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, specs which suggest it could even beat the Steam Deck OLED's excellent screen. Image: Ayaneo An actual photo of the Ayaneo 3. Like the Deck OLED, it unfortunately doesn't have variable refresh rate for added smoothness - but if that's important, the IPS panel option does! That one's a 120Hz, 500-nit, native landscape 1080p display, according to the company, with 7ms response time and only 100 percent sRGB coverage (read: nowhere near as colorful as the OLED panel).On top of all that, the Ayaneo 3 comes standard with both top and bottom USB4 ports, both of which are capable of 65W PD charging, plus the still-rare-on-handhelds Oculink port for eGPUs, and it takes full-length M.2 2280 SSDs for easy storage upgrades. Plus, there's a dedicated hardware mode switch on the bottom edge to switch the controller and virtual-mouse-and-keyboard modes. I doubt that will make up for the current state of Windows, but it could help! Also, new trigger locks for its Hall effect triggers, if you want to switch them into a hair trigger mode.I do have a few hesitations, even without having touched the Ayaneo 3. First, the company says its modules electronically latch into the frame - you have to eject them by pressing a software button, which activates a motor to release the latch. Sounds potentially fiddly? Second, I'm sorry to report that this 1.5-pound handheld only fits a 49 watt-hour battery, even though the Asus ROG Ally X manages to fit an 80 watt-hour pack into roughly the same weight. Fingers crossed, but I wouldn't expect great battery life here with neither a giant battery pack nor a particularly handheld-optimized chip.Lastly, it's always important to point out that these products are crowdfunded, and while Ayaneo has a history of delivering its promised handhelds, they haven't always been great - and this is the most ambitious one yet. If that sounds worthwhile, you can find the Ayaneo 3 on Indiegogo here.The company says the handheld should ship at the end of April; here's the whole price breakdown. Image: Ayaneo
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by Umar Shakir on (#6TT82)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Rivian is planning to launch a hands-free driving assistant system for its electric R1T and R1S vehicles later this year, followed by an eyes-off" version in 2026, reveals Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe in a press roundtable interview according to a post on Rivian Forums and reported by Electrek. The first part of the system sounds like it will work similarly to Ford's Blue Cruise or GM's Super Cruise software, which are Level 2 assistants that only work on highways fully mapped by each manufacturer.It's unclear if current Gen 1 and Gen 2 Rivian vehicles will support the upcoming hand-free assistant software or if it will come to upgraded models or the upcoming R2 SUV.Gen 2 vehicles already come with exclusive features like matrix headlights and an upgraded light bar that can change colors, which Scaringe says could be used as an indicator to let others know a Rivian is operating autonomously, according to a Rivian Forum user. Gen 2 vehicles also come with a newer Rivian Autonomy Platform, which might mean Gen 1 vehicles aren't going to get some of the upcoming advanced ADAS features.Currently, Rivian trucks have available Driver Plus" advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) that work similarly to Tesla's standard Autopilot software in that they enable lane keeping and auto speed up / slow down on highways. However, like other Level 2 systems, you still need to pay attention to the road.In an email to The Verge, Rivian's product communications manager, Courtney Richardson, confirms Scaringe's comments about the upcoming ADAS upgrades in the interview yesterday. Richardson says there are no further details to add at this time. Currently, only Mercedes-Benz ships a Level 3 autonomous system that works in some states in the US, which allows drivers to look away from the road.
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by Emma Roth on (#6TT59)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects to spend as much as $65 billion on AI in 2025 as part of a massive effort" to further the company's AI ambitions. Part of the plan includes a Louisiana data center that Zuckerberg says is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan," he wrote on Threads today.The announcement reads like a response to the big AI data center news touted by competitors earlier this week. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump joined OpenAI's Sam Altman, Softbank's Masayoshi Son, and Oracle's Larry Ellison as they announced Project Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture that will build sprawling AI data centers in Texas and other parts of the country. City documents seen by Bloomberg suggest the Texas data center will be as big as New York's Central Park.Meta started building its $10 billion AI data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana last December, and its construction is expected to continue through 2030. The data center is one of many Meta started working on last year to power its open-source large language model Llama. Aside from Meta, tech giants including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia are spending billions to scale up their data-hungry AI efforts.Zuckerberg said he expects to end the year with over 1.3 million GPUs, while significantly" growing the company's AI team. This will be a defining year for AI," Zuckerberg wrote. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people, Llama 4 will become the leading state of the art model, and we'll build an AI engineer that will start contributing increasing amounts of code to our R&D [research and development] efforts."
by Mia Sato on (#6TT5A)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Earlier this week, several posts on the Instagram page of Aid Access, an abortion pill provider, were inaccessible to the public. Some images were blurred out, with no option to click through and view the post. Others appeared simply as a gray square with nondescript alt text, as if the image didn't load.Aid Access connects patients with doctors who provide abortion pills via telehealth appointments, and the posts that were blocked from being viewed included instructions for performing at-home abortions using pills. The issues on Instagram - first reported by Jessica Valenti - also reportedly made it difficult to find the Aid Access account using the app's search function.By Thursday evening, Meta had restored a handful of Aid Access posts, though some appear to still be missing. This latest incident is just another example of how Meta has restricted abortion information online for years. It also comes in the middle of Meta's right-wing pivot, as the company has begun allowing more transphobic, racist, and otherwise hateful content on its platforms as it courts Donald Trump. Image: Meta The Aid Access Instagram account as of Wednesday evening. Image: Meta An example of how Aid Access posts appeared on Instagram. Medication abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy can safely be done at home, according to the World Health Organization. Licensed providers like those working with Aid Access have prescribed abortion pills to hundreds of thousands of patients. Thanks to shield laws, which protect healthcare workers who provide the procedure, patients in states where abortion is banned or restricted can also order abortion medication.Social media is an important place for patients to seek information about abortions, says Rebecca Davis of Hey Jane, which offers virtual reproductive care like abortions and birth control.[Patients] will often turn to social media to just make sure we're legit," says Davis, who leads marketing at the company. We've spent a lot of time and energy to really build up our social presence, so we're verified on Instagram, we're verified on TikTok."Hey Jane encountered restrictions on Instagram in recent days as well. Davis says the group has gotten messages that its Instagram profile was not easily accessible through the app's search features. The Verge was able to replicate the issue: typing in heyjane" or hey jane" did not display the account as suggested. Users would need to know the account's full handle, @heyjanehealth, in order for it to appear as a suggestion.We know that by not showing up in these searches we're directly impacting people who are actively seeking this very timely, essential healthcare from getting the information that they need to make decisions," Davis told The Verge.Meta spokesperson Erin Logan told The Verge in an email that abortion rights groups are experiencing a variety of issues - some due to correct enforcement, as well as over enforcement." Logan said the company prohibits the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on Meta platforms without a LegitScript certification. (Hey Jane is among the providers certified with LegitScript.) Logan said these incidents were not the result of recent Meta policy updates.We've been quite clear in recent weeks that we want to allow more speech and reduce enforcement mistakes - and we're committed to doing that," Logan added, though no specifics were mentioned. Regarding issues encountered by Hey Jane, Logan directed The Verge to Meta's policies, which state that content promoting the use of pharmaceutical drugs is allowed on the platform but may not be eligible for recommendation.In recent weeks, Meta has rolled back its policies for what users can and can't say on its platforms, opening the floodgates for more hate speech and offensive content under the guise of free expression." But providers have long had information about abortion restricted or removed, according to groups like Amnesty International and Repro Uncensored. Davis from Hey Jane says this isn't the first time the group's Instagram profile has been invisible in search: something similar happened in 2023, when fake Hey Jane accounts were appearing in search instead.Even though abortion access groups have encountered issues on Meta platforms, Davis says it's not as simple as moving to another social media site. Many patients use Instagram and other platforms like TikTok to find urgent information.While this moment certainly points to the value in diversifying the platforms that we're on, that doesn't necessarily mean that people who are seeking abortion care are going to be off of these platforms," Davis says.
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by Emma Roth on (#6TT5B)
Illustration: The Verge Your Threads feed will soon have ads. On Friday, Meta announced that it's rolling out a limited, early test of ads in Threads," and the test will happen with a handful of brands in the US and Japan," according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri. Image: Meta Ads on Threads will appear as images between posts in your home feed. As we learn from this test, we will monitor to see how it's going before filling out more broadly," Meta says.To serve you relevant ads, Meta will use your activity on Threads and Instagram, the posts you interact with, your email address, and your activity from off Meta technologies," according to a support page. Threads will also offer ways to customize the ads you see from your account center, along with options to skip, hide, and report them from within your feed.Last April, Mosseri confirmed that Threads would eventually get ads, and rumors emerged that they would appear in early 2025.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6TT21)
Image: Ram Stellantis is reportedly canceling the 500-mile range version of the upcoming Ram 1500 Rev, leaving the electric truck with only one option that maxes out at an estimated 350 miles on a single charge. The news comes from Mopar Insiders, which got hold of internal emails telling suppliers to stop working on truck components for the larger 229kWh battery version of the vehicle, as reported by Motor Trend.The all-electric Ram 1500 Rev was already delayed from the first half of this year to 2026 so that the automaker could focus on the launch of the also-delayed hybrid Ramcharger. Now, the Rev's largest battery is 168kWh, which is still larger than the 131 kWh pack in Ford's mid-tier F-150 Lightning Flash, which has an estimated 320-mile range.We asked Stellantis to comment on the status of the long-range Ram 1500 Rev but have not heard back. Mopar Insiders received a statement from the company: This decision was related to the recent move that created an opportunity to lead with Ramcharger technology."Stellantis uses the STLA Frame body-on-frame platform for both the Ramcharger and the Rev since the platform can handle electric, gas, hybrid, and hydrogen powertrains. The gas range-extended Ramcharger can go up to 690 miles on a full charge and tank.Stellantis' changes also come as the new Trump administration begins dismantling the Biden administration's electric vehicle and tailpipe emissions policies. Mopar Insiders reports that another recent internal Stellantis message indicated that work on the STLA Large platform-based Chrysler C6X EV (based on the 2022 Airflow concept) is also stalled.
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by Tom Warren on (#6TT22)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge There's a long-running joke in the Xbox community that Microsoft will finally hit its stride with Game Pass and Xbox releases next year." The joke has been going around since 2018, when Microsoft made a series of big studio acquisitions to create more Xbox games and make Game Pass more appealing. Year after year, Xbox fans have been waiting for a solid 12 months of new games to play, and it now looks like 2025 is going to be that next year" everyone has been waiting for.The annual Xbox Developer Direct this week was nothing short of excellent, after a turbulent year for the platform in 2024. Microsoft kicked the event off with a promise that all games shown would be on Game Pass, and impressively, they'd all be Xbox Play Anywhere titles so you can buy once and play on Xbox consoles and PC. It then dropped two big surprises: Ninja Gaiden 4 and a shadow drop of the remastered Ninja Gaiden 2 Black.Published by Xbox Game Studios, Ninja Gaiden 4 is the latest entry in a long-running franchise that's seen a lot of success on Xbox in the past. So it's no surprise that Team Ninja also picked Microsoft to debut the remaster of Ninja Gaiden II.South of Midnight finally got a release... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Victoria Song on (#6TT23)
Live translations work decently well, but trip up on things like slang and faster speech. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge I was in middle school the last time I took a Spanish class. I remember enough for toddler talk - phrases like Donde esta el bano?" and mi gato es muy gordo" - but having a meaningful conversation in Spanish without a translator is out of the question. So I was genuinely surprised the other day when, thanks to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, I could have a mostly intelligible conversation with a Spanish speaker about K-pop.Live translations were added as part of a feature drop last month, alongside live AI and Shazam. It's exactly what it sounds like. When you turn the feature on, you can have a conversation with a Spanish, French, or Italian speaker, and the glasses will translate what's being said directly into your ears in real-time. You can also view a transcript of the conversation on your phone. Whatever you say in English will also be translated into the other language. Screenshot: Meta Missing is the bit where we both start singing APT APT APT!" Full disclosure, my conversation was part of a Meta-facilitated demo. That's not truly the same thing as plopping these glasses on, hopping down to Barcelona, and trying it in the wild. That said, I'm a translation tech skeptic and intended to find all the cracks where this tech could fail.The glasses were adept at translating a basic conversation about K-pop bands. After my conversation partner was done speaking, the translation would kick in soon after. This worked well if we talked in measured, medium-speed speech, with only a few sentences at a time. But that's not how people actually speak. In real life, we launch into long-winded tirades, lose our train of thought, and talk much faster when angry or excited.To Meta's credit, it considered the approach to some of these situations. I had my conversation partner speak at a faster speed and a longer duration. It handled the speed decently well, though there was understandably some lag in the real-time transcript. For longer speech, the glasses started translating mid-way through before my partner was done talking. That was a bit jarring and awkward, as you, the listener, have to recognize you're a bit behind. The experience is similar to how live interpreters do it on international news or broadcasts.I was most impressed that the glasses could handle a bit of Spanglish. Often, multilingual speakers rarely stick to just one language, especially when in mixed-language company. In my family, we call it Konglish (Korean-English), and people slip in and out of each language, mixing and matching grammar that's chaotic and functional. For example, my aunt will often speak several sentences in Korean, throw in two sentences in English, do another that's a mix of Korean and English, and then revert to Korean. I had my conversation partner try something similar in Spanish and... the results were mixed. Screenshot: Meta You can see the transcript start to struggle with slang while trying to rapidly switch between Spanish and English. On the one hand, the glasses could handle short switches between languages. However, longer forays into English led to the AI repeating the English in my ear. Sometimes, it'd also repeat what I'd said, because it started getting confused. That got so distracting I couldn't focus on what was being said.The glasses struggled with slang. Every language has its dialects, and each dialect can have its unique spin on colloquialisms. You need look no further than how American teens have subjected us all to phrases like skibidi and rizz. In this case, the glasses couldn't accurately translate no manches." That translates to no stain," but in Mexican Spanish, it also means no way" or you're kidding me!" The glasses chose the literal translation. In that vein, translation is an art. In some instances, the glasses got the correct gist across but failed to capture some nuances of what was being said to me. This is the burden of all translators - AI and human alike.You can't use these to watch foreign-language movies or TV shows without subtitles. I watched a few clips of Emilia Perez, and while it could accurately translate scenes where everyone was speaking loudly and clearly, it quit during a scene where characters were rapidly whispering to each other in hushed tones. Forget about the movie's musical numbers entirely.You wouldn't necessarily have these issues if you stuck to what Meta intended with this feature. It's clear these glasses were mostly designed to help people have basic interactions while visiting other countries - things like asking for directions, ordering food at a restaurant, going to a museum, or completing a transaction. In those instances, you're more likely to encounter people who speak slower with the understanding that you are not a native speaker.It's a good start, but I still dream of the babel fish from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - a little creature that when plopped in your ear, can instantly and accurately translate any language into your own. For now, that's still the realm of science fiction.
by Lauren Feiner on (#6TT24)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images When the Supreme Court upheld a law that banned TikTok from the US, it seemed well aware that its ruling could resonate far beyond one app. The justices delivered an unsigned opinion with a quote from Justice Felix Frankfurter from 1944: in considering the application of established legal rules to the totally new problems' raised by the airplane and radio, we should take care not to embarrass the future.'"Last Friday, the court tried to accomplish this with a narrow ruling: a decision that upheld the government's ability to ban one service on a tight timeline, while stressing a limited scope concerning new technologies with transformative capabilities." Yet, amid a confounding political circus over TikTok, some legal experts believe the Supreme Court's ruling could have a broad ripple effect on speech and tech law - they're just not agreed on what it would be.Even though it's narrowly written, it also seems clear that they want to make a mark on these kinds of questions," says Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University's public policy school. University of Chicago law professor Genevieve Lakier put it more bluntly on Bluesky: The Court... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Andrew Webster on (#6TT26)
Photo by Jun Sato / WireImage The release of Fantasian on Apple Arcade in 2021 was meant to be an end to the illustrious career of Hironobu Sakaguchi - but it seems like he can't stay away.Fantasian was a return to Sakaguchi's roots, a throwback roleplaying game from the creator of the Final Fantasy series, which added some innovative gameplay ideas and an incredibly charming world made of handcrafted dioramas. And in December, his Mistwalker studio released a new version dubbed Neo Dimension, which brought the game to more platforms and added new features like voice acting. It was even published by Final Fantasy company Square Enix. While Sakaguchi says he intended Fantasian to be my final project before I retired," he now wants to make another game in the same mold, one he hopes can be seen as a successor to Final Fantasy VI." The sixth Final Fantasy game is particularly notable as the last to feature pixel art before the series shifted to 3D.Following the launch of Neo Dimension, I had the chance to ask Sakaguchi a few questions about making Fantasian, the enduring popularity of turn-based RPGs, and what comes next.This interview has been edited for clarity and length.There have obviously been a... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Kristen Radtke on (#6TT25)
Image: Pordenone Cartoon Museum The celebrated cartoonist talks anxiety, process, and the final installment of his Acme Novelty Datebook series. Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Emma Roth on (#6TT27)
Photo by Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/picture alliance via Getty Images Sony is officially ending production of recordable Blu-rays. In an announcement from Japan spotted by Tom's Hardware, Sony Storage Media Solutions said it will stop manufacturing the discs in February, alongside recordable MiniDiscs, MD-Data, and MiniDV cassettes, adding, there will be no successor models."This discontinuation doesn't impact the Blu-rays you can buy with films or TV shows on them; it just affects the blank ones consumers use to record stuff on themselves with PCs or DVRs. Sony hinted at the discontinuation last year, telling the Japanese outlet AVWatch that it would gradually end development and production of recordable optical disc media.''
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by David Pierce on (#6TSYX)
Image: The Verge Samsung's new phones will almost certainly be the most popular Android phones of 2025. They'll probably also be among the best Android phones of 2025. And yet the Unpacked event this week felt like one of the most boring phone launches... ever. Are we entering a new phase of the smartphone industry, in which companies basically just launch the same thing over and over? Wait a second: have we been in that phase for a while now?On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk a lot about what this year's Samsung phones mean. The Verge's Allison Johnson joins David and Nilay to talk about the vibes at Unpacked, where the thinner S25 Edge inspired raucous enthusiasm, and where Samsung tried to make the case that AI will make your phone better even if there's not much new hardware to speak of. We also talk about the glimpse we got at the Project Moohan headset, Gemini's increasing dominance over the future of virtual assistants, and more.After that, we take a deep breath and wade into the first week of the new Trump administration. The Verge's Lauren Feiner explains what's going on with Stargate, and why a $500 billion AI data-center plan is being announced in the White House. We talk... Read the full story at The Verge.
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by Tom Warren on (#6TSWW)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft says it's shutting down its UK experience center" in London next month, nearly six years after it first opened as a 21,000-square-foot Microsoft store. To better align with its focus on digital growth, Microsoft has decided to exit the lease at the Microsoft Experience Centre in London early," says an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to Windows Central.The store originally opened in July 2019, just months before the pandemic lockdowns began. Microsoft then quickly transitioned it to an experience center" alongside closing its stores in the US in 2020.I visited the London flagship store for its opening day, at a time when the company had more than 80 retail stores worldwide. The big, bold, and British store included Surface devices on every floor, HoloLens headsets, a big Xbox gaming lounge, and even a real-life McLaren Senna sports car that you could sit in and play Forza.It was quite the venue, set in the heart of Oxford Circus and inside a historic building with windows and ceilings from the 1920s. Microsoft spent two years renovating the space, with giant 4K video walls and an opening party that included British celebrities like Peter Crouch.After transitioning the UK Microsoft store to an experience center, the software giant regularly used the space for business meetings and partner events - turning it into a showcase for Microsoft products and services in recent years. A similar experience center still exists in New York City, but I suspect it's only a matter of time until that meets a similar fate to the one across the pond.
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6TSWX)
Annoyed by fake reviews on business pages? So is the CMA. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Google will take firmer action against British businesses that use fake reviews to boost their star ratings on the search giant's reviews platform. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Friday that Google has agreed to improve its processes for detecting and removing fake reviews, and will take action against the businesses and reviewers that post them.This includes deactivating the ability to add new reviews for businesses found to be using fake reviews, and deleting all existing reviews for at least six months if they repeatedly engage in suspicious review activity. Google will also place prominent warning alerts" on the Google profiles of businesses using fake reviews to help consumers be more aware of potentially misleading feedback. Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews on UK business pages will be banned and have their review history deleted, even if they're located in another country.Google is required to report to the CMA over the next three years to ensure it's complying with the agreement.The changes we've secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices," CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in a statement. This is a matter of fairness - for both business and consumers - and we encourage the entire sector to take note."Google made similar changes to reviews in Maps last year, saying that contributions should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business." However, those changes apply globally while Google's commitment to improving reviews across all its properties appears to just apply to the UK for now.The changes to reviews follow a CMA investigation launched against Google and Amazon in 2021 over concerns the companies had violated consumer protection laws by not doing enough to tackle fake reviews on their platforms. The CMA says its probe into Amazon is still ongoing and that an update will be announced in due course."
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6TSTT)
Better late than never. | Image: Apple Now that we've almost hit the second month of 2025, Apple has finally updated its CarPlay webpage to say it won't be arriving in 2024. As noted by MacRumors, the 2024 timeframe for the first vehicles to support CarPlay 2 has been removed from the website without adding a new launch date.Apple first announced the next generation of CarPlay" back in 2022, but updates about its arrival have been sporadic. Porsche and Aston Martin haven't provided any launch dates despite saying their cars would be the first to get the new CarPlay. Some automakers like Ford and Mercedes were slow to confirm support, while others like General Motors and Rivian have snubbed CarPlay entirely in favor of having more control over their vehicles.Despite not posting a revised date, there are indications that Apple will launch it eventually. There are references to next-generation CarPlay in the iOS 18.3 beta released last month, for example, and Apple has recently filed new images of it in an EU database. Apple also told 9to5Mac that it's working closely with several automakers that will implement the new CarPlay experience.Each car brand will share more details as they near the announcements of their models that will support the next generation of CarPlay," Apple told the outlet.
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by Dominic Preston on (#6TSS2)
The WH-1000XM5s launched almost three years ago. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It's been three long years since Sony launched its flagship WH-1000XM5 headphones, our pick for the best wireless headphones for most people, so we're due a follow-up - and a regulatory filing indicates that the XM6 cans might nearly be ready to launch. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing hints at a slight redesign, including a new hinge and what appear to be detachable earpads.The Walkman Blog first spotted the filing, which includes a product diagram showing off some of the details of the right earcup. Most interestingly, the diagram shows the earpad lifting off to reveal the location of the user-visible name plate" containing the model and serial numbers. Since the FCC requires this name plate be accessible to users, it seems likely that the pad is attached without screws, though we don't know if that's with clips, magnets, or something else. The XM5s hid their FCC details under the inner edge of the pads instead, which were not removable. Image: Sony Sony's FCC filing suggests that its upcoming headphones might have a removable earpad. Otherwise there's not too much to glean from the filing. The headphones' hinge looks slightly different from the previous generation's, though there's no reason yet to believe that means a return to the folding design of the XM4s. The Bluetooth version is reported to be 5.3, and there are some details on the antenna and power specs, but nothing to suggest how the headphones will look or sound.The FCC filing doesn't name these as the XM6 headphones, but the model numbers seem to give it away. These headphones have the model number YY2984, remarkably similar to the XM5s' YY2954 designation. The only note of caution is that the tested model is marked as a prototype, rather than a pre-production or mass production unit, so some details may change before release.The FCC filing includes a short-term confidentiality" request dated to end on July 22nd 2025, which certainly suggests that we'll get an official reveal before that date. The XM5s launched in May 2022, so we may be due another spring release.
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by Richard Lawler on (#6TSN2)
The New Tesla Model Y | Image: Tesla Just a couple weeks after launching the refreshed Juniper" Model Y in China and other Asia-Pacific markets, Tesla has started taking orders in the Americas (US, Canada, Mexico, and Chile) and Europe. The Launch Series is the only trim level currently available to order in the US, offering a fully loaded" setup with special badging, the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver assist, and Acceleration Boost for $59,990 before discounts and estimated savings.The refreshed version of Tesla's top-selling vehicle brings a new design for the front and rear lights, an updated interior with an 8-inch touchscreen for the backseat, acoustic glass treatment, a new sound system with more speakers, and a retuned suspension. There's no mention of it, but in a few of the pictures (included in our gallery below), it looks like there's also a turn signal stalk poking out to the left of the steering wheel instead of dropping it for on-wheel buttons like other recent Teslas.Meanwhile, there are other issues affecting Tesla's brand reputation among buyers, and it recently reported its first year-over-year drop in sales that a new lighting setup might not be enough to address.It also has the same new front-facing camera that Tesla says adds Enhanced visibility for Autopilot and Actually Smart Summon capabilities."Just like the previously announced markets, it is scheduled to start deliveries in March. It's all similar to last year's Model 3 update, promising better efficiency and performance, with added power-folding rear seats and a hands-free trunk that auto unlocks on approach. Screenshot: Tesla.com An estimated price listing for a New Model Y (left) and current Model Y (right) from Tesla's website with similar specs. One difference between this and most Tesla launches we've seen is that the older version is still available to order, with the website inviting buyers to take advantage of reduced pricing while it's still available. From the configurations available online, the price difference between similarly-specced Long Range dual-motor AWD Model Ys new and old was only about $4,000.The current edition is, of course, available right away, and with choices for additional options, like the performance package., additional colors, or a seven-seat configuration. The New Model Y advertises a 320-mile range with no EPA stamp compared to the old version's 311 EPA estimate (until last year, the advertised range was 330 miles before Tesla suddenly lowered it) for a similar model. The advertised 0-60 mph time is also improved, at 4.1 seconds instead of 4.8, but the top speed allowed has dropped from 135 mph to 125, which probably won't be much of an issue in a family hauler.
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by Jay Peters on (#6TSK3)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix plans to offer couch co-op and party games that it will stream over the cloud to TVs, co-CEO Greg Peters said as part of the company's Q4 2024 earnings announcements this week. The company has offered cloud gaming as a beta to a subset" of subscribers since 2023, so this news from Peters indicates that the company is going to continue to invest in it.Peters didn't say exactly when the co-op and party games might be available. But he did say that we think of this as a successor to family board game night or an evolution of what the game show on TV used to be."Netflix will also continue to focus on more narrative games based on Netflix IP" - Peters says those games are consistent fan favorites and we've got a lot in the library to work with there."The company's gaming division has seen some major changes as of late: former executive Leanne Loombe announced she was moving to Annapurna Interactive, and last year, the group got a new boss after the old boss moved to a new role focused on generative AI in games. Netflix also announced that it would be removing nearly all of its interactive titles and that it would be closing its AAA studio before it ever released a game.
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by Emma Roth on (#6TSHN)
Image: The Verge Following last month's test, Threads will now let everyone schedule posts, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday. You can use the feature by creating a new post, selecting the three-dot menu in the top-left corner, and selecting Schedule."Once you get your post timed up, you can view, delete, or edit it from your drafts folder. Threads will let you schedule your posts up to 75 days in advance, but it won't allow you to schedule replies. Screenshot: The Verge Mosseri also said that Threads is adding a way to markup" a post you're resharing. Based on early versions of the feature shared by users, it looks like it will let you draw over, highlight, or add arrows to an existing post. This feature is rolling out to a few countries with more to come soon."There are some big changes in store for Threads, which will also trade fact-checking for Community Notes as part of Meta's broader moderation shift. The X competitor will start adding political content to recommendations as well.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6TSHP)
This icy 2025 Audi Q8 E-Tron has a heat pump. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Many EV manufacturers have leaned heavily on energy-gulping resistive heaters to keep the cabin and battery warm in the winter time. But heat pumps, which can cut down on battery range losses in the cold, are becoming more prevalent in EVs, and they could help EV owners in the US who are dealing with the low temperatures across much of the country this week.EV research site Recurrent reported that heat pumps can improve drivable range in below freezing temperatures by about 8 to 10 percent. The site tested this by comparing the ranges of 2020 Model 3 and Model S vehicles that lack heat pumps against 2021 versions that have them.Recurrent's data shows that the Tesla Model X and the Audi E-Tron only lose about 11 to 13 percent of their range at 32 degrees Fahrenheit compared to driving them in ideal temperatures hovering around 70 degrees, as The Washington Post notes, making them among the best heat pump-equipped EVs.. However, The Washington Post says that heat pumps aren't as effective below 15 degrees.A heat pump works by efficiently transferring heat generated by the car to the cabin and other components. Similarly, gas cars have long used a heater core to transfer wasted heat energy from its internal combustion engine into the cabin.Heat pumps have made their way into popular EVs like Teslas as early as 2021 and are coming to other top models like Ford's Mustang Mach-E for the 2025 model year. They also are already in many EVs on the road today, including the Polestar 2, Honda Prologue, Chevy Equinox EV, Kia EV6, Rivians, and even some Nissan Leaf models as early as 2013. Recurrent has a complete list of EVs that have heat pumps.Older EVs with smaller batteries that lack heat pumps demonstrate cold range loss more vividly. For instance, my sister, who is driving a 2017 Ford Focus Electric, is only getting about 80 miles of range in the freezing cold with its resistive heaters off and only about 50 with it on. That could be the difference between being able to do a full work commute roundtrip without stopping or needing to find a (hopefully working) DC fast charging station on the way back.We've previously shared some tips on how to handle EVs in the winter that can help you through icy situations on the road. Some tips include preconditioning your vehicle while plugged in before leaving and brushing snow off more often since it won't melt off the hood like a gas car.
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by Emma Roth on (#6TSHQ)
Google's Nest Learning thermostat. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Google is bringing smart home controls in Gemini to everyone. The Google Home extension in the Gemini app is adding a few new features, in addition to letting you adjust your smart lighting, thermostat, speakers, and other compatible devices as long as they're connected to your Google account.Google first previewed the extension last November. With it, you can use natural language to control your smart home when interacting with Gemini, such as saying The sun is too bright in the living room" to close your smart blinds. But now, Gemini can also carry out multiple requests, like Turn the armchair light on too, but dim the kitchen lamp." You'll be able to use the Google Home extension to ask Gemini about the status of your devices too, such as whether you've left your porch light on.Additionally, Google will let you control non-sensitive" smart home devices, like your lights, from your phone's lock screen. Other updates include the ability to adjust the volume, pause, and resume media on smart speakers, displays, and TVs within the Gemini app, as well as an updated thermostat control design that matches the one inside Google Home. Gemini will also automatically open the Google Home app for security-related actions for cameras and locks (it previously only linked you).The launch of the Google Home extension follows a big update to Gemini, which lets it perform more complex tasks across multiple apps. You can try out the integration for yourself by signing into Gemini with the same account you use for Home and turning on the Google Home extension. It launches today but is rolling out over the coming weeks."
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6TSHR)
Image: CD Projekt Red You may have to wait until January 30th to buy Nvidia's new RTX 5090 graphics card, but owners of last-gen Nvidia 40-series GPUs can already download and install DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation software via the Nvidia app. And if you want a compatible, graphically-intense game to test DLSS 4 out, Cyberpunk 2077's newly-launched patch 2.21 adds support for it.Here's the important info from CD Projekt Red's changelog for patch 2.21 about DLSS 4:
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