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It's bigger for sure, but is that really better? Continue reading...

New big Android phone just dropped. The days of the small Zenfone are over - maybe? Asus has officially unveiled the Zenfone 11 Ultra, and it is anything but the small-ish device that its last few predecessors were. It comes with a 6.78-inch screen, a huge 5,500mAh battery, and a sizable $899 starting price.You don't have to look too hard to identify that the Zenfone 11 Ultra is basically a rebadged ROG Phone 8, minus the gamer lights. Like its gaming-focused sibling, the 11 Ultra uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and comes with 12GB of RAM / 256GB of ROM in its base configuration. A 16GB / 512GB model will be sold outside the US. Like previous Zenfones, the 11 Ultra won't work on Verizon in the US - only AT&T and T-Mobile.The 11 Ultra uses an LTPO display, so it can... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, The Verge The leading Nintendo Switch emulator is a smoking crater. Others are wary - but hopeful - for the future. Continue reading...

The Microlino Dolce is a throwback to mid-century bubble cars. Fun, fun, fun till a trailer towed my baby away. Continue reading...

Image: Turtle Beach Gaming accessory company Turtle Beach has announced it's getting into the controller collecting game and buying PDP for a cool $118 million. PDP getting bought could be a good thing, depending on how you feel about its slate of generally affordable and fun-colored controllers.Turtle Beach has added a lot of accessory irons to the gaming fire in the last couple years, including forays into flight yokes and the recently-announced Velocity One racing wheel. It sells controllers too, but it only began doing so in 2021, and doesn't sell any for PlayStation or Nintendo consoles. Image: PDP Correct layout, best fighter. Gamepads are PDP's bread and butter - and it's got licenses to sell them for every major... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sellers on Amazon will soon be able to make product pages with just the copy-and-paste of a link.Amazon is releasing a new generative AI feature that takes information from a seller's external website and then generates an Amazon product page for the item, complete with a written description and images. The goal is to help sellers reduce the time it takes to bring the product from a different website onto Amazon, says Mary Beth Westmoreland, Amazon's VP of worldwide selling partner experience, in a blog post. Image: Amazon Amazon's AI will parse through a separate link to generate product pages. Amazon warns sellers that if they choose to paste a URL to create the product page, they must be the owner, rights... Continue reading...

Yikes! | Photo by Paul Ellis / AFP via Getty Images How a bad Photoshop job turned into an existential crisis for the British monarchy. Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games isn't done with Apple. A 2021 ruling forced Apple to allow developers of App Store apps to link to outside payments, and Epic has now filed a motion asking Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to enforce her original order.Epic says Apple's updated developer policy that still reserves 27 percent of outside payments (or 12 percent for small developers) for Apple itself is still unjustified. Epic argues these fees are essentially the same" as those the company charges for using its payments system.Christian Owens, who founded payments processor Paddle, and Benjamin Simon, the founder behind the Down Dog fitness apps for iOS, agreed in declarations also filed by Epic. Owens called the choice offered by Apple illusory," while Simon... Continue reading...

With a new update you can now view recorded footage from cameras like the Google Nest Cam (indoor, wired) on Google Home's web interface. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Google has announced that in the next few days, Nest Cam users will finally be able to view and download recorded clips and scroll through their event timeline on its new home.google.com web portal. While you've been able to view livestreams from here, if you want to see what happened earlier, you need to go to the Google Home app.The company also says it's bringing the ability to create custom clips from recorded footage both on the web and in the app, finally bringing the full functionality of its Nest cameras to its own platform. These features will require a Nest Aware subscription, starting at $8 a month.Google first promised to bring a web view to its cameras in 2021, but it didn't materialize until 2022. Then, it was limited... Continue reading...

Leaks of the DJI Avata 2 drone show it with a sleeker battery housing and updated triple-bladed propellers. | Image: @Quadro_News DJI's unannounced Avata 2 drone and Goggles 3 have leaked, showing some exciting updates over their predecessors - such as a bigger battery and sensor and cameras that might let you see through the first-person view (FPV) headset.The image atop this story, via @Quadro_News, shows the new drone is ditching much of the original skeletal design and uses brand-new triple-bladed propellers and batteries, which now appear to be fully encased within the frame. More intriguing are the new alleged Goggles 3, though: they appear to feature two cameras on the front that could possibly be used for passthrough vision and what appears to be a hinged forehead rest for flipping the goggles up when not in use. The leak doesn't explicitly say what... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The fate of TikTok in the US now lies with the Senate after House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that would ban the app unless Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it.President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, if both chambers advance it.But even though the bill sailed through the House only about a week after it was first introduced, the Senate will present a whole different set of challenges.To start, there's no companion bill yet, so the legislation is barely at the start line in that chamber. And even if one is introduced, Senate rules could make it tricky to maintain enough support (60 out of 100 members) to clear it.... Continue reading...

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Elon Musk canceled Don Lemon's show on X over some interview questions Musk didn't like. Lemon says that Musk terminated their partnership just hours after a tense" interview between him and the platform's owner.Lemon doesn't say what exactly transpired during his interview, but he does say that Musk is mad" at him. Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange, and that they would learn from our conversation," Lemon says in a video posted to X.

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is finally creating a single version of Microsoft Teams that will allow you to switch between personal and work accounts easily. The new unified app is currently in testing and will let Microsoft Teams users switch between multiple tenants and personal or work account types.This new version of Teams will be rolled out to commercial users in April and will include an account switcher that's accessible from the profile section. We received consistent feedback from personal and work users: you prefer a single Teams app that allows you to easily access and switch between personal and work accounts," says Microsoft in a blog post. This update lets you use one app for all kinds of Teams accounts." Image:... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its Copilot for Security next month, bringing its generative AI chatbot to the cybersecurity space. Copilot for Security is designed for cybersecurity professionals to help them protect against threats, but it won't be a one-off monthly charge like Copilot for Microsoft 365. Instead, Microsoft will charge businesses $4 per hour of usage as part of a consumption model when Copilot for Security launches on April 1st.Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 and Microsoft's own security-specific model, Copilot for Security is essentially a chatbot where cybersecurity workers can get the latest information on security incidents, summaries of threats, and more. Microsoft first started testing this chatbot nearly a year ago, and it... Continue reading...

You can use our exclusive discount code on anything at Speck's site. | Speck / Amazon Whether you're looking to protect a new phone or freshen up the look of an older one, Speck's sitewide sale is a great place to start. Exclusively for readers of The Verge until March 18th, you can save 20 percent on anything you purchase from the case maker's site. Just use code 20VERGE at checkout to receive the discount.Speck makes cases for both Apple and Samsung devices, from iPhones and flagship Galaxy Android phones to tablets and even AirPods and MacBooks. You can choose from several fun colors with one of the opaque Presidio2 Grip iPhone 15 cases or show off your phone's natural beauty with a Presidio Perfect-Clear case, for example. They have MagSafe magnets and antimicrobial protection and are down to $39.99 each ($10 off)... Continue reading...

Image: Block Block, the Jack Dorsey-led payment company, has released its long-in-the-works Bitcoin hardware wallet - but you can't use cryptocurrency to buy it. You can only purchase the $150 Bitkey wallet with your credit or debit card, a sign that crypto might not be as prevalent as its designers had anticipated.Block first introduced a prototype of the wallet in 2022 before opening preorders last December. The self-custody Bitcoin wallet, which Dorsey nicknamed rockey," lets users store cryptocurrency outside of an exchange to protect the funds from a potential collapse.Bitkey is paired with a mobile app and recovery tools in case users lose the wallet or their phone. There's a fingerprint sensor on top of the device, a USB-C charging port,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is constantly tinkering with its app design across different platforms and screen sizes, and today, the company shared the latest changes coming to its TV-optimized app. There's a clear focus on making the viewing experience more interactive and giving greater prominence to chapters, comments, and video descriptions - without getting in the way of the video you're trying to watch.The new view shrinks the video down slightly to make space for the description, comments, and other elements around it. It's not YouTube's new default look, since many people will still prefer a full-screen layout. But you can easily click into the more interactive interface from the standard video player screen.What users will be able to see on... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Banning TikTok in the US is back on the table after the House voted Wednesday to pass a measure that would do just that unless the app separates from Chinese parent company ByteDance. The bill passed with 352 votes, needing a two-thirds majority to advance. Sixty-five members voted against it, with one voting present.The bill still needs to clear the Senate, which is no small task. But President Joe Biden said on Friday he would sign it into law if it passes.The House vote revives some US policymakers' hopes for a forced divestment of TikTok, due to fears that Chinese law could compel its parent company to hand over information on US users, presenting a national security risk. The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week voted... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google DeepMind unveiled SIMA, an AI agent training to learn gaming skills so it plays more like a human instead of an overpowered AI that does its own thing. SIMA, which stands for Scalable, Instructable, Multiworld Agent, is currently only in research.SIMA will eventually learn how to play any video game, even games with no linear path to end the game and open-world games. Though it's not intended to replace existing game AI, think of it more as another player that meshes well with your party. It mixes natural language instruction with understanding 3D worlds and image recognition.SIMA isn't trained to win a game; it's trained to run it and do what it's told," said Google DeepMind researcher and SIMA co-lead Tim Harley during a... Continue reading...

Ana Carballosa/Netflix It's been a while since we had a really satisfying live-action feature focused on people piloting futuristic robots, but the first trailer for Netflix's Atlas from director Brad Peyton makes it seem like it could be the mech genre's next big splash.Set in a wild future where humanity's begun using massive AI-powered robots to wage war, Atlas tells the story of how data analyst Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez) is forced to work with a renegade machine to save the Earth. Despite the mechs' widespread use throughout the world, Shepherd cannot shake her deep distrust for the thinking machines, which appear to be designed to operate autonomously or under the control of a human pilot.But when Shepherd's tapped to become part of a covert... Continue reading...

This is an example of the kind of content Sora can produce. | Image: OpenAI You'll soon get to try out OpenAI's buzzy text-to-video generator for yourself. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati says Sora will be available this year" and that it could be a few months."OpenAI first showed off Sora, which is capable of generating hyperrealistic scenes based on a text prompt, in February. The company only made the tool available for visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to start, but that didn't stop some Sora-generated videos from making their way onto platforms like X.In addition to making the tool available to the public, Murati says OpenAI has plans to eventually" incorporate audio, which has the potential to make the scenes even more realistic. The... Continue reading...

Now EU MEPs just need to figure out how to implement and enforce it. | Cath Virginia / The Verge European Union lawmakers have officially approved the bloc's landmark AI regulation, paving the way for the EU to prohibit certain uses of the technology and demand transparency from providers. In a majority vote on Wednesday, 523 European Parliament members elected to formally adopt the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), and will now work towards its enforcement and implementation.The AI Act has been hotly debated since it was first proposed in 2021, with some of its strictest regulations - such as a proposed total ban on biometric systems for mass public surveillance - being softened by last-minute compromises. While Wednesday's announcement means the law has almost passed its final hurdle, it will still take years for some rules... Continue reading...

The Dyson 360 Vis Naz, the British manufacturer's new robot vacuum, has finally landed in the States. I just got my hands on the $1,199 machine ahead of its official launch on March 19th and have some early thoughts to share.As only Dyson's second attempt to enter the US robot vacuum market - the first being way back in 2016 - the Vis Nav has a lot riding on its giant wheels. With a whopping 65 air watts of suction, Dyson says it's the most powerful robot vacuum you can buy. Combined with a largely unique design, and a really big, fluffy brush, there's a lot to like here.A complete redesign of Dyson's 360 Eye, which was only briefly sold in the US, the Vis Nav is slimmer, shorter, and wider than its predecessor. The new design... Continue reading...

Videos can be accessed via a Switch to Video" button on supported tracks. | Image: Spotify Spotify is officially adding support for music videos, the company announced today. The audio streaming service describes the feature as a beta" with only a limited catalog" available as of today in 11 markets. Supported artists include Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, Aluna, and Asake, with Spotify's global head of consumer experience Sten Garmark telling TechCrunch that Spotify's full music video catalog will eventually include thousands" of songs.The music video feature is accessible via the Now Playing screen on supported tracks, where a Switch to Video" icon will appear above the song title. Tapping it will restart the song, and start playing its music video in the center of the display. You can rotate an iOS or Android device... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is rolling out a new PS5 update that improves the speakers and microphone on DualSense controllers, adds pointers and emoji reactions to the Screen Share feature, and includes the ability to adjust the brightness of your PS5 power indicator. The update was first made available to testers last month and is rolling out globally to all PS5 owners today.Sony is updating the firmware on the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers as part of this update to improve the output volume of in-game sounds and voice chat. The microphones on both controllers have also been improved thanks to a new machine learning model that cancels out background noise like button presses. Image: Sony The new emoji reactions... Continue reading...

Image: Bluesky Bluesky will soon let users customize how content is moderated in their feeds. The social platform announced that it's open-sourcing its moderation tool, called Ozone, to let developers create additional moderation services that can be selected by users.Bluesky already has a team dedicated to content moderation, along with its own set of rules users have to follow. However, the new system will let users expand what's moderated to their liking, allowing them to subscribe to additional moderation services that label, annotate, or hide certain types of posts. Image: Bluesky Here's what it will look like to subscribe to a moderation service. As an example, Bluesky says someone could use Ozone to create a... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images, Nathan Howard Media manipulation meets technological innovation. Continue reading...

If the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gets its way, Congress will grant it more than $107 billion to run its enforcement regime during the 2025 fiscal year. Buried in the lengthy budget request is $101 million to upgrade and maintain the network of surveillance towers scattered throughout the borderlands, first noted by The Intercept. According to its own official publications, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hopes to fully integrate these systems through AI.Politicians from both parties have long hailed CBP's vast system, called the Integrated Surveillance Towers, as a sort of virtual wall that allows agents to better patrol the border. Although the surveillance towers comprise a small fraction of DHS's gargantuan budget,... Continue reading...

Photo by Paul Ellis / AFP via Getty Images Kate Middleton's botched photo editing job seen around the world is more than just catnip for tabloids and TikTok conspiracy theorists. It's also the most instructive illustration of the AI-flecked new reality we live in, a maelstrom formed when distrust and established processes converge and create chaos.It's hard to know what Middleton, aka the Princess of Wales and future Queen of England, was thinking when she allegedly edited her own photo so sloppily that it's become front-page news in a bunch of countries. Shortly after the image was shared publicly, the world's biggest wire agencies, like The Associated Press, Getty, and Reuters, issued retraction alerts - called kill notices" - instructing media outlets to not use the image... Continue reading...

The framed edition of the atomic purple Game Boy Color is nearly $30 off for a limited time. | Image: Grid Of all the tech-centric artwork I've seen over the years, few pieces have grabbed me as much as Grid Studio's framed gadgets and gizmos. The company has been slinging the collage-like pieces for several years now, taking oft-forgotten devices once destined for the landfill and putting them on full display in classy shadowbox-style frames with exploded views. And now, thanks to its annual spring sales event, Grid is offering up to 40 percent off select items through the end of March.There are plenty of retro and contemporary items to choose from, from controllers to smartphones to gaming consoles that once dominated the handheld market in the US. The iPhone 4S and original NES controller - both of which are on sale for $99 ($70 off),... Continue reading...

Low Power Mode was introduced in watchOS 9 with the Apple Watch Ultra in mind. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The Apple Watch has never been known for having long battery life. Case in point: Apple never budged from the 18-hour battery life estimate until it launched the Apple Watch Ultra. In 2022, the company introduced a new Low Power Mode when it launched the Ultra, and now, it has extended the time between charges for Apple Watches using watchOS 9 and later.Previously, the Apple Watch had a Power Reserve mode, which shut off any functions aside from your ability to tell time and turned your smartwatch into a normal watch until you could get it to a charger. This mode is different - it's more like the iPhone's Low Power Mode. When enabled, you'll still be able to use your Apple Watch, but certain power-hungry features will be turned off or... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Discord will soon allow developers to build new games and apps that can be used directly in its chat app. A selection of minigames and apps have been available to Discord users for months now, but starting March 18th, all Discord developers will get access to a new Embedded App SDK that lets them build these special embedded apps.Discord has used its Activities feature to enable apps like YouTube, promote minigames like poker, and even encourage users to play with a shared whiteboard experience. These apps all appear as an embedded iframe inside Discord, but they've been limited to select developers so far. Image: Discord We're going to see a lot more minigames and apps inside Discord. Plenty of Discord... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Fortnite developer Epic Games will charge non-game developers an annual subscription of $1,850 per seat" to use its Unreal Engine as opposed to the royalty-based model it uses for game developers. The company announced the changes to its payment scheme last year, and now, it's providing details on the plan, which will come into effect with the release of Unreal Engine version 5.4 in late April.The changes don't apply to game developers, who will continue to pay for access to Epic's tools via a 5 percent royalty on products that earn over $1 million in lifetime gross revenue. Instead, the new per-seat (effectively per-user) subscription fee will apply to non-game developers such as those who use the Unreal Engine to make linear content... Continue reading...

Moto G Power: Now with NFC and wireless charging. | Image: Motorola Motorola's recent budget phones have been held back by lackluster designs, pointless extra cameras, and underwhelming feature sets. But there appears to be hope on the horizon: the 2024 Moto G Power 5G and Moto G 5G look pretty good - at least on paper.Both phones finally offer NFC (why that was ever missing in the first place is a mystery), and they come with fetching vegan leather back panels. They even include a microSD card slot and a built-in headphone jack, handy features most phone manufacturers abandoned years ago. The G Power 5G also includes wireless charging for the first time - a rare feature in any budget phone. They'll start at $199 for the Moto G 5G and $299 for the Moto G Power 5G.The pricier Moto G Power comes with a... Continue reading...

Keeping up with the streaming wars is hard work. The movies and shows keep moving around, everyone is always bundling and then unbundling, and services like Paramount Plus and Hulu seem to be both growing fast and only barely holding onto existence.That's why, once a year on The Vergecast, we take a moment and take stock of the streaming landscape. By drafting our favorite services! The goal is to figure out what's working, what isn't, and which services are likely to be on top 12 months from now.We recorded this episode live onstage at SXSW - thanks to everyone who came out and saw us! - and started by recapping last year's results. Here they are:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is planning to make further changes in EU countries to allow some developers to distribute their iOS apps directly from a website. The new web distribution feature will be available with a software update later this spring," according to Apple, providing developers with a key new way to distribute iOS apps in EU markets without the need for a separate app store - as long as they're willing to adhere to Apple's strict rules.While Apple is opening up iOS to more third-party apps here, these are still some key security protections around how apps are distributed via websites - namely, you'll still have to work within the strict Apple app development ecosystem. Apps offered through Web Distribution must meet Notarization... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will soon return to court over a crash that led to the death of Wei Walter" Huang nearly six years ago. The trial will take place in California the week of March 18th and will determine whether Tesla and its driver-assist software are at fault for the fatal accident, according to a report from Reuters.In March 2018, Huang died after his Autopilot-enabled Model X crashed into a safety barrier along US Highway 101 in Mountain View, California. An investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board later found that both Autopilot and distracted driving contributed to the crash, as phone data indicated Huang was playing a mobile game.However, Huang's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla in 2019, alleging the... Continue reading...

The retro-style smart speaker delivers powerful sound and offers simultaneous support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge There aren't a lot of smart speakers on the market that support Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant simultaneously, which is one of the reasons the JBL Authentics 300 stands out. Unfortunately, it's expensive at its full retail price of $449.99, but Amazon is selling the portable smart speaker right now at a new all-time low of $278 ($172 off).The midrange 300 can listen for wake words for both virtual assistants and deliver powerful sound free of distortion at louder volumes, allowing it to outperform even the new Sonos Move 2. It also lets you play music over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or via an aux jack or USB-C, and it sports handy dials for easily adjusting the EQ. The speaker also looks cool thanks to a 70s-style vibe, which uses faux... Continue reading...