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by David Pierce on (#6KX7Q)
Image: The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 33, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been writing about the end of Google Podcasts and the rise of AI gadgets, watching Girls5eva and rewatching Middleditch and Schwartz, reading about the ubiquity of AllTrails and Danny McBride's comedy compound, listening to Ezra Klein's podcasts about AI, seeing if 5K Runner can finally make me like running, and playing altogether too much Retro Goal.I also have for you a lot of people's smart thoughts on AI, a bunch of new AI tools in web browsers, a fun new newsletter about good stuff on the... Continue reading...
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2024-11-24 09:30 |
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by Wes Davis on (#6KX7R)
Image: Wes Davis / The Verge Earlier this year, there were enough rumors about imminent new Apple products to make for a big spring event, but the company instead announced its new M3 MacBook Airs via press release - and new iPads haven't shown up since. Today, Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that the big spring iPad update, which includes new OLED iPad Pros, is due on May 6th - about 19 months since the last one.But why upgrade? My 2021 model still feels like new, and I know at least one person who says the same of the 2018 iPad Pro. Unless it does more than what's been rumored, which is precious little at this point in the grand scheme of things, it narrows who it's for to just the very specific subset of people who like iPadOS a lot... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KX52)
This massive, chonky Louis animatronic has almost as much range of movement as I do. | Image: Disney No matter your opinion on the current state of its animated movies, Disney is proving that it can still knock animatronics out of the park. This week, the entertainment giant gave us another early look at the new audio-animatronics being prepared for Tiana's Bayou Adventure - a retheming of the iconic (and controversial) Splash Mountain ride - and the demonstrations so far have been breathtakingly impressive.Recognizable characters from The Princess and the Frog (2009) have been brought to robotic life across various social media posts and Disney's new We Call It Imagineering" YouTube series, including Princess Tiana herself, Mama Odie, Charlotte La Bouff, Louis the Alligator, and a host of other swamp critters.
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWWV)
Illustration: The Verge Google is working on a feature that is so simple and so useful that I'm shocked it hasn't been part of our lives for a decade: a way to look up a phone number that just called you, right from your recent calls screen. X user AssembleDebug tipped off PiunikaWeb to a new Lookup" button in the beta version of the Google Phone app that, when tapped, brings up a Google Search with the number already entered for you.Although the Google Phone app is the default for Pixel phones, other Android owners can download it. The new Lookup button lives with other options, like Block" and History," that you see when you tap on a recent call in the Phone app. In an age where so much spam comes from spoofed phone numbers made to look like local calls,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWWW)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that AI companies were running into a wall when it comes to gathering high-quality training data. Today, The New York Times detailed some of the ways companies have dealt with this. Unsurprisingly, it involves doing things that fall into the hazy gray area of AI copyright law.The story opens on OpenAI which, desperate for training data, reportedly developed its Whisper audio transcription model to get over the hump, transcribing over a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4, its most advanced large language model. That's according to The New York Times, which reports that the company knew this was legally questionable but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWTH)
It's time, friends. | Photo by Alix Diaconis / The Verge Yesterday afternoon, I was playing Mario vs. Donkey Kong on my Vision Pro (using the visionOS testflight version of app developer Riley Testut's GBA4iOS) with an official Nintendo NES controller for the Switch. All the while, I was thinking about what a shame it was that Apple doesn't allow emulators on its App Store. I hadn't yet seen the news of Apple's surprise decision to allow emulators on its digital storefront worldwide.While we still don't know exactly how emulators will work on the iPhone, Apple's play here would put its App Store in a better place to compete with alternative app stores in the EU. Assuming that means you can actually play games from the consoles they emulate, it could be a huge deal for retro gaming fans. As... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6KWS8)
Google's first pair of noise-canceling earbuds are currently down to $139.99 in blue, white, and four other attractive shades. | Image: Google Happy Saturday, folks! Ever since they arrived on the scene in mid-2022, we've considered Google's noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro to be the wireless earbuds for Pixel phone owners - partly because of their great feature set and partly because they addressed the connectivity issues that plagued earlier models. The best part, however, is they're often on sale for far less than the MSRP. Right now, for instance, you can pick them up at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $139 ($60 off), which matches their second-best price to date.In terms of features, Google's latest Pixel Buds are designed to compete with the best from Apple, Sony, and others. Their noise cancellation can't quite match the latest AirPods Pro or what Bose has... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6KWQV)
C'mon, how cute is this? | Image: Things Inc. The similarities between Rooms - a simple, charming game for iOS and the web where you design rooms - and Minecraft are easy to spot. Both share a blocky visual style and a design-your-own-retreat objective. But describing Rooms as a scaled-down Minecraft for people over the age of 12 doesn't give it enough credit. It's good, old-fashioned building in the vein of Lego, The Sims, and Animal Crossing. Rooms builds on the time-honored tradition with a dose of coziness and creativity that's limited only by your patience for arranging three-dimensional pixels.Rooms is free, at least for now; creator Jason Toff says there are no concrete monetization plans." The premise is as simple as it sounds: you start with an empty room and fill it up... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6KWPK)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The entire time I was playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - the second part of a planned trilogy of FF7 remakes - I couldn't stop thinking about replaying the first game from 1997. When the credits rolled on Rebirth, I had a difficult decision to make: how to play the original? There is no shortage of options. The game has been ported to most modern platforms, and I still have the original PlayStation discs (all three of them). But ultimately I decided on a beloved but oft-forgotten piece of video game hardware, the PlayStation Vita. And you know what? This little thing still absolutely rules.My rekindled love affair with the Vita started because of FF7, and I've been been making my through the game in fits and starts. But it has also... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6KWGZ)
Former employees of Best Buy's in-house tech support and repair team Geek Squad say there were mass layoffs this week, 404 Media reports. A former Geek Squad agent tells the outlet that they received an email on Tuesday about a work from home event the following day regarding a company change."Our leadership gave individual calls stating we were being let go for the simple fact that the company couldn't afford to pay us, more or less. It was extremely short notice and devastating," an ex-Geek Squad worker told 404 Media.Over at r/GeekSquad, recently laid-off Geek Squad agents have posted photos of their badges in solidarity and referred to themselves as belonging to a Geek Squad sleeper cell", writing that they're going sleeper"... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6KWH0)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge In a motion Meta filed on Friday to try and get the FTC's monopoly claims dismissed, it includes details of how much advertising revenue Instagram brought in over the last few years.At $32.4 billion for 2021 alone, that's even more than YouTube, which pulled in $28.8 billion in the same year. Business Insider previously pointed out the lead it has over Google's video unit, and mentions that YouTube gives up 55 percent of each advertising dollar it makes to content owners who upload videos while Instagram coughs up a lot less. Image: Composite of filing from District Court, District of Columbia, and Alphabet 2021 Annual Report (PDF) The gap is also there even if you look further back. In 2020 and 2019, Meta lists... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6KWEQ)
Apple's not too happy that Masimo's W1 watch didn't exist when Masimo filed its complaint. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There was no question that Apple would appeal when the International Trade Commission banned Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales last year. Well, if you've got some time, you can now read all 916 pages of Apple's appeal to the Federal Circuit.A quick recap: the Apple Watch ban centers around whether Apple infringed upon medical device-maker Masimo's pulse oximetry patents. The ITC sided with Masimo, concluding that Apple had infringed their patents, and that the infringement was harming domestic industry.The ITC is an agency similar to a court that often deals with imported articles" that may or may not violate intellectual property law. The word article" matters more than you'd think, since the statute that created the ITC... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6KWER)
Anker's latest offering even doubles as a StandBy-ready stand. | Image: Anker The list of Qi2 smartphones expanded ever so slightly this week, with the iPhone 12 joining the ranks of Qi2-certified phones thanks to a recent update. That means we can safely say that all MagSafe-compatible iPhones - including the iPhone 13, 14, and 15 - are officially Qi2-ready. The timing couldn't be better, either, as Anker is currently offering 20 percent off its 6,600mAh MagGo Power Bank, bringing your total down to $55.99 (about $14 off) at Amazon and Anker's online storefront (the latter with code WSCPEW1AZM).We've long been fans of Anker's MagSafe-compatible power banks, but previous models could only charge newer iPhones at the slower 7.5W speed. Anker says the 15W charging coils in the Qi2 version can take an iPhone 15 Pro... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KWES)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is loosening its App Store restrictions and opening the marketplace up to retro game emulators. In an update on Friday, Apple announced that game emulators can come to the App Store globally and offer downloadable games. Apple says those games must comply with all applicable laws," though - an indication it will ban apps that provide pirated titles.The move should allow the retro console emulators already on Android - at least those that are left - to bring their apps to the iPhone. Game emulators have long been banned from iOS, leaving iPhone owners in search of workarounds via jailbreaking or other workarounds. They're also one of the key reasons, so far, that iPhone owners in the European Union might check out third-party app... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KWD9)
Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Infrastructure in the US has always been a sore subject, but when a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck the New York City region on Friday, many people were rightfully nervous about the structural integrity of the surrounding bridges, tunnels, and buildings.The earthquake's epicenter was near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, but people in neighboring states, including New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania still felt the short-lasting shake. A 4.8 magnitude earthquake is on the lower end of the Richter scale, and its effects are described as potentially causing windows to break or small objects to fall.But experts say the relatively minor quake is nothing to worry about. When you look at that, in terms of this scale, it's a pretty minor... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KWDA)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will reveal its long-promised robotaxi on August 8th, Elon Musk just posted on X. The forthcoming autonomous vehicle is said to be built on Tesla's next-generation vehicle platform.The announcement came on the same day that Reuters reported that the company had canceled its plans to build a more affordably priced electric vehicle, said to be in the range of $25,000. Musk reportedly told employees that instead of building a mass-market EV, he wanted to focus completely on an autonomous vehicle that would make other vehicles obsolete.
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KWDB)
Image: Universal Dev Patel's directorial debut surges with enough energy to make its action work, but it stumbles as it veers into social commentary. Continue reading...
by Andrew Webster on (#6KWAD)
Image: Lucasfilm Disney has outlined premiere dates for some of its biggest upcoming films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. For sci-fi fans, that includes Tron: Ares, which will hit theaters on October 10th, 2025, and The Mandalorian & Grogu, a theatrical film that will expand on the streaming series, on May 22nd, 2026. Ares will mark the first Tron film in 15 years, while Mando will be the first Star Wars movie since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 (and comes at a time when the franchise is struggling to return to theaters).A pair of upcoming sequels / remakes were dated as well: Toy Story 5 releases on June 19th, 2026, while the live-action Moana remake has been pushed back a year to July 10th, 2026. (The animated sequel Moana 2 is still on track... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6KWAE)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox executive Kareem Choudhry is leaving Microsoft after more than 26 years at the company. Windows Central reports that Choudhry's last day is today, and his departure has triggered a shake-up of some teams inside Xbox. Choudhry's departure comes just six months after a big shake-up of Xbox leadership and amid continued changes to Microsoft's gaming strategy.Choudhry had been focusing on Microsoft's AI plans for Xbox in recent months, which include a new Xbox AI chatbot that The Verge exclusively revealed earlier this week. Choudhry was also key to Xbox's backward compatibility support and helped bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to life as xCloud in 2019.Microsoft is now moving Choudhry's former team, Xbox Emerging Tech, to the Xbox hardware... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6KWAF)
Illustration: The Verge In this week's edition of his Lowpass newsletter, Janko Roettgers covered a Roku patent that seems to telegraph that the company is planning some heavy advertising tactics for those who purchase Roku TV televisions. The patent centers around the idea of displaying ads on these TVs whenever they're tuned to an HDMI input that's paused or idle. Theoretically, this would allow Roku to present ads throughout your whole TV experience - and in places where it's not viable to do so today. Your PS5, Xbox, Apple TV, or Blu-ray player could become yet another canvas for the company to continue growing its already-lucrative advertising business.According to the patent, the company would use a number of different clues to determine when an HDMI... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6KWAG)
Image: The Verge | Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images Meta is asking a federal court to dispense with the Federal Trade Commission's anti-monopoly lawsuit against it, arguing it's failed to unearth evidence to support its claims.In a motion for summary judgment filed Friday, Meta argues that the lawsuit should be thrown out because the company believes the FTC won't be able to prove what it claims is the relevant market in the case or that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp harmed consumers. The FTC will get a chance to respond, and there will be back-and-forth in court filings before the judge decides how to proceed. A ruling in Meta's favor could mark the end of the lawsuit, but if the court determines there are still issues of fact that need to be resolved, the judge could set a... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6KW80)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo: Getty Images Congress has been trying to crack down on data brokers - and the data brokers are fighting back. In late March, the House unanimously passed a bill that would prevent Americans' data from being sold to foreign adversaries. And an amendment on data collection is mixed up in the bill reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the controversial statute that authorizes the National Security Agency, which expires later this month.Lawmakers' negotiations over FISA's reauthorization became so contentious that House Speaker Mike Johnson withdrew the bill from consideration in February. The biggest source of conflict was an amendment introduced by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) that would prohibit data brokers... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6KW81)
Illustration: The Verge Google Books, which indexes published material and has become essential for academics, has begun indexing low-quality books, which could impact how it informs its language tracking tool, Ngram.404Media reports Google Books included several books that AI could have written. The publication searched Google Books with the term as of my last knowledge update," a common phrase chatbots like ChatGPT use. You can search Google Books for specific sentences or terms, and it will normally send back written works with those phrases.It found that most of the books in the first few pages of the search were works about AI, but scattered among those results were ones that did not talk about the technology and seemed written by a bot.404Media... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KW52)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Tesla Model 2 may be no more.According to Reuters, Elon Musk has canceled the company's plans to build a low-cost electric vehicle in favor of going all in on a robotaxi. The news outlet, citing three sources in the know, said the decision was communicated to employees during an all-hands meeting in late February.For years, Musk has been promising an affordable electric vehicle, likely priced at $25,000, as a way to broaden the appeal of plug-in vehicles. He first mentioned it in a 2018 interview with YouTuber Marques Brownlee, saying, A $25,000 car, that's something we can do." Then, in 2020, at the company's first Battery Day event, he speculated that Tesla could eventually produce upward of 20 million of these vehicles in a... Continue reading...
by Mia Sato on (#6KW53)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is updating its AI-generated content policy and will add a Made with AI" label beginning in May, the company announced. The policy will apply to content on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.Acknowledging that its current policy is too narrow," Meta says it will start labeling more video, audio, and image content as being AI-generated. Labels will be applied either when users disclose the use of AI tools or when Meta detects industry standard AI image indicators," though the company didn't provide more detail about its detection system.The changes are informed by recommendations and feedback from Meta's Oversight Board and update the manipulated media policy created in 2020. The old policy prohibits videos created or edited... Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6KW54)
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 is a beautiful, well-built laptop that's great for Windows users. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge With Apple's latest MacBook Air hogging all the attention as of late, it's easy to forget that there are other laptops that might be better suited for your needs. Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Pro 9, for example, are perfect for Windows fans, and right now, both are down to an all-time low with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The Surface Laptop 5 starts at $699.99 ($300 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, while the Surface Pro 9 is available at Amazon and Best Buy for $749.99 ($350 off).If you're looking for a good Windows laptop for general use, the Surface Laptop 5 is still a worthwhile investment despite its age. The stunning laptop is both powerful and portable, with a thin chassis and a... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KW55)
An image showing the intensity of the quake. | Image by United States Geological Survey If you just felt the room shake a little, it's not just you. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) just confirmed that an earthquake hit north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, around 10:23AM ET, with people located in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania feeling its effects.The USGS says it was a notable quake" at 4.8 magnitude, with the agency's map showing people feeling weak or light shaking along the coast of the Northeast, with some reports reaching as far north as Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, upstate New York, and even Maine. It looks like some people felt the quake in Maryland and Delaware as well.It lasted just long enough to be unsettling," said one Verge staffer who experienced it in Jersey City. Others... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6KW56)
Vlambeer's upcoming shooter Ultrabugs. | Image: Vlambeer Back in 2020, indie studio Vlambeer celebrated its 10th anniversary by... shutting down. But it turns out, that was a little premature. Co-founder Jan Willem Nijman has announced that he now owns the Vlambeer name outright and will continue developing games under the label - starting with the unreleased shooter Ultrabugs.Vlambeer was founded by Nijman and Rami Ismail in 2010 and went on to release hits like Nuclear Throne and Ridiculous Fishing. In a statement in 2020, the duo said, It feels like we've achieved what we set out to do - as a studio, as a voice, and as individuals, and we are extremely grateful for these past years."According to Ismail, though, the studio never actually fully shut down. It continued to do customer... Continue reading...
by Mia Sato on (#6KW2B)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For streamers like Paramount, Disney, Netflix, and Peacock, it's not enough that you watch TV on the platform - they want to own what you do on your phone, too.Paramount announced today that it would launch a new mobile shopping experience" during this weekend's CMT Music Awards red carpet. Partnering with a company called Shopsense AI, Paramount says viewers will be able to browse and purchase items inspired by what's happening on their TV.So far, the custom online shop includes women's fashion, home decor, and a section called Western Gothic Country," sponsored by Walmart. The CMT Music Awards are just the beginning - soon, CBS audiences watching sports and daytime talk shows will also likely start to see ads for similar online... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KW2C)
Image: Roland Quandt DJI's next drone launch event is just around the corner on April 11th, but that hasn't stopped the leaks from flowing. A new set of images from reliable leaker Roland Quandt gives us an even more detailed look at what appears to be the new Avata 2 drone, the RC Motion 3 controller, and the Goggles 3 headset.Just like previous leaks (and DJI's own teaser), the images shared by Quandt show the Avata 2 drone with a refreshed design featuring a less prominent camera housing, along with three-bladed props. Leaked specs from @Quadro_News suggest the Avata 2 will come with a 1/1.3-inch camera sensor, a 155-degree viewing angle, and the ability to shoot video in 4K at 60fps. It's also rumored to have a 23-minute battery life with a 40-minute... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6KW2D)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Okay, so you want a 13-inch MacBook Air. But you probably want some more RAM, right? Maybe a storage bump since you're hopefully going to have this computer for a decade? Okay, well, at that price, you might as well get the 15-inch Air. It's basically the same price. But you probably want some more RAM, right? And maybe a storage bump?The sneaky upgrade path is one of Apple's most ingenious sales tools - and it applies almost across the board, whether the company is steadily upselling you from a base iPhone to a Pro Max model, a $329 iPad to an iPad Pro, a basic MacBook Air to a super-powered MacBook Pro, or a super expensive keyboard you didn't even know you wanted.On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the new M3 MacBook... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6KW2E)
Every once in a while, you'll need to redo your hand and eye setup. | Samar Haddad for The Verge Unlike other headsets, you don't control Apple's Vision Pro headset with any sort of input device. Instead, the headset tracks your hand and eye movements. When you want to select something, you simply look at it and tap your fingers together. Like Nilay Patel said in his review, it's pretty magical - until it isn't. And when hand or eye tracking feels off, the easiest thing to do is recalibrate it.There are lots of reasons why you might want to recalibrate. Perhaps you bought a Vision Pro without the ZEISS optical inserts and decided later to add them. Maybe the prescription for your glasses got updated. Perhaps a friend really wants to try out the headset but doesn't feel like schlepping to the Apple Store. Whatever the reason, here... Continue reading...
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by Gigi Sohn on (#6KW06)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images In August 2020, during the heart of the covid-19 pandemic when many schools were closed, social media and news outlets were awash with a picture of two grade school students sitting outside of a Taco Bell, attempting to do their schoolwork. That one picture changed millions of minds about the necessity for everyone in the US, regardless of economic status or geographic location, to have an affordable broadband Internet connection.It would not be hyperbole to say that this one photo was one of the motivating factors behind Congress including $14.2 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The ACP currently provides over 23 million low-income households $30 each month to better... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KVKT)
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures Variety reports that following the massive box office success of Dune: Part Two, Legendary has tapped Denis Villeneuve for a third installment that would presumably continue the story of how Paul Atreides goes on to conquer the galaxy. Earlier this year, Villeneuve told Empire that he had already put words on paper" thinking about where he would like to take the Dune franchise going forward.Legendary has yet to announce any sort of timeline for when production on Dune 3 might begin. But the studio intends for the movie to debut before its next project with Villeneuve - an adaptation of Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen's 2024 Pulitzer Prize-nominated nonfiction book about how nuclear war scenarios would likely play out. From the... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KVKV)
Image: Netflix Though Netflix just renewed its live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation, showrunner Albert Kim is parting ways with the show.Variety reports that Jabbar Raisani (Lost in Space) and Christine Boylan (Poker Face) have been tapped to executive produce the next two seasons of Netflix's Avatar following former showrunner Albert Kim's decision to step down. Though Netflix has yet to officially announce the change of guard, Kim is reportedly heading over to Disney Plus, where he will executive produce the streamer's new Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and develop other fresh projects.Kim first became Avatar's showrunner back in 2020 following the unexpected exits of Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino - the... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6KVHT)
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI's enterprise customers who want to use generative AI but prize accuracy might be able to get that with new customization options for the GPT-4 API.They include the ability to connect to third-party platforms to share information on fine-tuning, save fine-tuned models during additional training without retraining the entire model, and a new user interface to compare model performance and quality. The OpenAI API was launched in 2020 to allow companies to connect and build on top of its large language models, which was followed last August by opening fine-tuning for GPT-3.5 and eventually GPT-4, too.Highly customized models could provide better results internally. They could also keep responses to the public on track and avoid... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6KVHV)
YouTube's Multiview will allow Coachella fans to stream four extra stages on one screen. | Image: YouTube YouTube's official livestream of this year's Coachella music festival will feature a technology many football fans are familiar with. Multiview, which allows viewers to watch multiple livestreams on the same screen while tuning into one audio feed, will be available to viewers of the festival's stream on any YouTube TV app - no need to subscribe to YouTube TV, the platform announced on Thursday.Just as multiview on NFL Sunday Ticket enables audiences to watch four different games at once, the feature for Coachella will allow for up to four different stages at once. Viewers can switch between audio feeds and jump in and out of fullscreen view. There will be a total of six feeds - or six stages - to choose from. The festival this year... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6KVHW)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Yesterday, I reported that Meta's AI image generator was making everyone Asian, even when the text prompt specified another race. Today, I briefly had the opposite problem: I was unable to generate any Asian people using the same prompts as the day before.The tests I did yesterday were on Instagram, via the AI image generator available in direct messages. After dozens of tries, I was unable to generate a single accurate image using prompts like Asian man and Caucasian friend" and Asian man and white wife." Only once was the system able to successfully create a picture of an Asian woman and a white man - it kept making everyone Asian. After I initially reached out for comment yesterday, a Meta spokesperson asked for... Continue reading...
by Gaby Del Valle on (#6KVHX)
Image: Roblox Roblox, one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world, has taken a lot of heat from critics who accuse it of exploiting its users, the vast majority of whom are children and teenagers. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, however, Roblox's studio head, Stefano Corazza, said the platform has actually been a gift to the young developers who make money by creating games on the platform.You can say, Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labor,' right? Or you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income," Corazza said. So I can be like, 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now with just a laptop, I can create something, make money, and then... Continue reading...
by Gaby Del Valle on (#6KVHY)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Israel's military has been using artificial intelligence to help choose its bombing targets in Gaza, sacrificing accuracy in favor of speed and killing thousands of civilians in the process, according to an investigation by Israel-based publications +972 Magazine and Local Call.The system, called Lavender, was developed in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7th attacks, the report claims. At its peak, Lavender marked 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza as suspected Hamas militants" and authorized their assassinations.Israel's military denied the existence of such a kill list in a statement to +972 and Local Call. A spokesperson told CNN that AI was not being used to identify suspected terrorists but did not dispute the existence of the Lavender... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6KVHZ)
OnePlus' budget-friendly phone is on sale for only $20 more than it was during Black Friday. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge It can be easy to forget affordable champs like the OnePlus Nord N30 5G when you've got iPhone 15s and Galaxy S24s dominating store shelves and circulars. It's our favorite budget smartphone under $300, and today, you can save even more on it. The budget smartphone is down to $249.99 for an unlocked model at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from OnePlus, which is $50 off and only $20 more than its record low during Black Friday.The OnePlus Nord N30 5G plays in the same arena as something like the Pixel 7A or Samsung Galaxy A54 5G. It's considerably cheaper than both, but after reviewing it, we found it delivers well enough in most areas that it'd be hard not to recommend it for someone with a seriously cramped budget.It covers the basics... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6KVEW)
Image: Lucasfilm Disney Plus is on a run of turning Marvel and Star Wars stories into animated anthologies, and that's not stopping anytime soon. The latest is Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, a follow-up to 2022's Tales of the Jedi, which, naturally, explores the dark side of the Force. It starts streaming on Disney Plus on May 4th.The series will consist of six episodes, which will be split between two character perspectives: the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth (who will be familiar to those who watched Ahsoka) and former Jedi Barriss Offee (previously featured in Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars). According to Disney, the series focuses on previously untold events in the lives of the featured characters."Tales of the Empire joins a growing list of... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KVEX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney Plus already has rules in place to prevent subscribers from sharing their passwords - but now we have an idea when it will start making users pay to share them. In an interview on CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company plans on launching our first real foray into password sharing" in June.Iger says the rollout will start in just a few countries in a few markets" before expanding to all subscribers in September. Disney's anti-password sharing rules initially went into effect for new subscribers on January 25th and were rolled out to existing members on March 14th. Netflix became the first streaming service to crack down on password sharing in 2023, as it began charging users an extra $7.99 per month to add an extra viewer... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KVBT)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla is going to court next week over the role its Autopilot system played in a fatal crash in 2018 - and it wants Apple to testify in its defense.Tesla wants to prove that Apple engineer Wei Walter" Huang was playing a video game on his phone at the time his Autopilot-enabled Model X smashed into a safety barrier along US Highway 101 in Mountain View, California, in 2018. And now, Huang's family, which is suing Tesla for wrongful death, is claiming that Tesla is secretly working with Apple to aid in its defense.In a pretrial motion filed this week, lawyers representing Huang's family accused Apple of engaging in a secret discovery work around' to help support Tesla in its defense of the pending case."Huang's family accused... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KVBV)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Getty Images As Paul Sun-Hyung Lee sees it, truly loving a genre franchise means wanting to share it and pass it along to the next generation of fans. Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6KV85)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The launch of Google's long-awaited Find My Device network is seemingly almost here. In an email spotted by 9to5Google, Google tells users it will turn on the feature in three days, which uses data from millions of other Android devices to find the location of missing phones and accessories - similar to the tracking tech used by Apple and Tile.The email says users can use the network to find any compatible Fast Pair accessories when they're disconnected from your device" or offline, including earbuds, headphones, and trackers, 9to5Google reports. It adds that users will receive a notification on their device when the feature is enabled and that users can opt out of the network through Find My Device on the web.Google first announced... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6KV86)
Finally, a chest strap that doesn't make me feel like a python is crushing my ribs. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Finally, a chest strap that works with my sports bra - not against it. Continue reading...
by Andrew Webster on (#6KV87)
Image: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Just like Area X itself, the mindbending Southern Reach story is set to grow even larger. Jeff VanderMeer has confirmed that he's working on a fourth entry in the series, which to date has included the books Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. (The first was turned into a film by director Alex Garland.) In keeping with the alliterative titles, the new book will be called Absolution. It's due out on October 22nd.Absolution is coming around a decade after the series first started, and it's billed as a prequel to the original trilogy, which followed a mysterious, dangerous, and expanding phenomenon known as Area X. There aren't a lot of details about what ground the new book will cover, but VanderMeer had this to say in a statement:
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KV88)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ford is delaying the release of its electric three-row SUV until 2027, the company announced in an update. It will also begin work on its next electric truck in 2026 and will offer hybrid options for every model it has in production.The unnamed SUV was supposed to go into production starting in 2025 at Ford's plant in Oakville, Ontario, which is currently in the midst of pivoting from gas-car production to EVs. Ford gave several reasons for the delay, including a desire to wait until the three-row SUV market matures before introducing its own entrant.The additional time will allow for the consumer market for three-row EVs to further develop and enable Ford to take advantage of emerging battery technology, with the goal to provide... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6KV5F)
Image: Ed Miller / Netflix One thing that confounds me after reading Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem and watching its Netflix adaptation is a simple button.Spoilers for 3 Body Problem to follow.I still haven't been able to wrap my head around why Ye Wenjie, when faced with the choice to respond to or ignore transmissions from the San-Ti, an alien race, chose to respond. Throughout human history, first contact events rarely go well and go even worse when the two sides are technologically imbalanced. So, why would an ostensibly hyperintelligent woman pin her hopes on a race of beings that have already made their hostile designs on Earth clear?In an interview with Ye's actresses Rosalind Chao and Zine Tseng, who play the character throughout the different... Continue reading...
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