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by Emma Roth on (#6RV5T)
Image: The Verge Reddit just turned a profit for the first time. As part of its third-quarter earnings results released on Tuesday, the company reported a profit of $29.9 million, along with $348.4 million in revenue - a 68 percent increase year over year.The company hasn't been profitable at any point in its nearly 20-year history. Since going public, Reddit lost $575 million during its first quarter on the market, but it decreased that loss to $10 million last quarter, and is now finally in the green.Reddit also grew to 97.2 million daily users over the past few months, marking a 47 percent increase from the same time last year. That number exceeded 100 million users on some days during the quarter, Reddit says.Reddit's advertising revenue grew to... Continue reading...
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2024-11-21 19:01 |
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by Jay Peters on (#6RV5V)
Illustration: The Verge Google is building a bunch of AI products, and it's using AI quite a bit as part of building those products, too. More than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by engineers," CEO Sundar Pichai said on the company's third quarter 2024 earnings call. It's a big milestone that marks just how important AI is to the company.AI is helping Google make money as well. Alphabet reported $88.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, with Google Services (which includes Search) revenue of $76.5 billion, up 13 percent year-over-year, and Google Cloud (which includes its AI infrastructure products for other companies) revenue of $11.4 billion, up 35 percent year-over-year.Operating incomes were also... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6RV3H)
Illustration: The Verge The Alphabet Workers Union filed a charge against Google with the National Labor Relations Board after Google management asked workers to refrain" from talking about its ongoing Search antitrust case.The union charges that Google issued an overly broad directive" on discussing the case to employees, according to a copy of the charge filed in August and viewed by The Verge. On August 5th, just after US District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued his decision finding Google to have an illegal monopoly, president of global affairs Kent Walker sent an email (also reviewed by The Verge) directing employees to please refrain from commenting on this case, both internally and externally." Walker sent a similar message at the start of the trial... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6RV3J)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images If you're a swing state voter, you may have seen ads claiming that vice president Kamala Harris wants to institute a mandatory gun buyback program and make it easier for undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. These ostensibly pro-Harris ads are the product of Progress 2025, a campaign designed to look like the Democratic answer to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 - but they're actually funded by a group called Building America's Future, a pro-Trump super PAC that is in turn funded by Elon Musk.Building America's Future is expanding an ad campaign targeted at undecided voters in swing states, 404 Media reports. Over the past week, the PAC spent over $300,000 on a dozen Facebook ads, which are sub-targeted to 819... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6RV3K)
Getty Miramax is ready to put a new Scary Movie into theaters, and this time around, the studio is doing the sensible thing by keeping the Wayans brothers directly involved.Deadline reports that Marlon, Shawn, and Keenen Ivory Wayans have signed on to co-write / co-produce a new Scary Movie reboot for Miramax that will, like earlier installments, spoof a variety of other horror films. Rick Alvarez (White Chicks, Little Man) is also set to co-write and produce.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6RV3M)
Image: OpenAI OpenAI is reportedly working with Broadcom to develop new custom silicon designed to handle its large AI workloads for inference and secured manufacturing capacity with TSMC, according to sources speaking to Reuters. OpenAI has reportedly built a chip development team of about 20 people, including lead engineers who previously worked on Google's Tensor processors for AI.Still, on its current timeline, the custom-designed hardware may not start production until 2026.In the meantime, the sources also said OpenAI is incorporating AMD chips into its Microsoft Azure setup. AMD introduced its MI300 chips last year, which was a big part of the news this summer that its data center business has doubled in a single year as it chases market... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RV0E)
Illustration: The Verge Google is rolling out some new Chrome memory management features aimed at helping you wrangle out-of-control tabs more easily. The updates include new Performance issue alerts" and some tweaks to the existing Memory Saver mode, which already tries to free up the resources of inactive tabs in the background.The new alerts appear when a new Performance Detection tool finds that one of your tabs is using more resources than it should. The notification appears next to your account thumbnail in Chrome's toolbar as a tiny graphic that looks like a speedometer. (If I didn't know about it already, I might think I'd accidentally added an Ookla Speedtest extension to my browser.) If you click the graphic, it will list the offending tabs and give... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RV0F)
Image: Universal Netflix will bring even more Universal films to its lineup thanks to a new deal that will send the studio's live-action movies to the streamer starting in 2027. Under the agreement, Universal and Focus Features' live-action titles will appear on Netflix no later than eight months after their release in theaters. The new arrangement also includes renewing their exclusive licensing agreement for animated films from the Universal-owned Illumination and DreamWorks Animation (DWA).Netflix will get to stream Universal's live-action films exclusively for 10 months following its debut on Peacock - but the movies will return to the NBC-owned service at the end of this window. This will eventually replace Amazon's existing deal with the studio... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6RV0G)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft's Recall feature, which creates screenshots of mostly everything you see or do on a Copilot Plus PC, has been mired in controversy ever since it was announced earlier this year. After security researchers found that a pre-release version of the Recall database wasn't encrypted, Microsoft moved to delay the feature and overhaul it with a big focus on security.Recall still isn't even available to test yet on Copilot Plus PCs, but some good old fashioned fear, uncertainty, and doubt is spreading about Microsoft supposedly secretly installing it on the latest version of Windows 11.IT manager and YouTuber Chris Titus first discovered that Microsoft's latest update to Windows 11, version 24H2, has references to Recall that... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6RV0H)
Image: Sony Sony is closing Firewalk Studios, the studio behind its PlayStation Concord game that it took offline last month after a disastrous launch. In a message to PlayStation staff, Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group, says Firewalk Studios will close alongside Neon Koi, a mobile game studio. The shutdowns will affect about 210 jobs, Bloomberg reports.We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options," says Hulst. After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication."Hulst says Concord didn't hit Sony's targets and that the PlayStation... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6RTXC)
Sony's WH-1000XM5s, our favorite noise canceling headphones, are $100 off. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It can be hard to get some peace and quiet even on an average day, but with the holidays slowly yet steadily approaching, it's about to become impossible. Luckily, though, today, Sony's WH-1000XM5 have dropped to one of their best prices yet, selling for $299.99 ($100 off) at Amazon, Target, and directly from Sony in almost every colorway. That's about $5 shy of their 2024 all-time low and $50 shy of their best price ever.When it comes to noise-canceling headphones, few can rival Sony's WH-1000XM5, which is why they're our favorite pair on the market. Along with canceling out noise impressively, they deliver clear, detail-rich sound with support for LDAC, Sony's codec for higher-quality wireless audio. The over-ears also have a number... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6RTXD)
Image: Nintendo Though we're mere months away from the reveal of the Switch's successor, Nintendo still has some unfinished business with its current hardware. Nintendo has announced that Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, a remaster of Monolith Soft's 2015 action RPG, will launch on the Switch on March 20, 2025. According to the press release, the remaster features enhanced visuals and added story elements.Nintendo released a new trailer to mark the occasion and its opening seconds feel hilariously on the nose. There's something deeply ironic about the trailer for a Switch port of a ten-year old Wii U game starting with the dialogue, Well, here we are. Not too shabby, huh?" It's like a tongue-in-cheek joke acknowledging there's a wealth of... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6RTXE)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge GitHub is going multi-model for its Copilot code completion and programming tool. Developers will soon be able to choose models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI for GitHub Copilot. GitHub is also announcing Spark, an AI tool for building web apps, and updates to GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Copilot for Xcode, and more at its GitHub Universe conference today.GitHub Copilot users on the web or VS Code can select Claude 3.5, with Gemini 1.5 Pro in the coming weeks. OpenAI's GPT-4o, o1-preview, and o1-mini models will also be available in GitHub Copilot soon. Developers will be able to toggle between models during a conversation with Copilot Chat to find the model that's best for a particular task.There is no one model to rule every... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6RTXF)
Image: Disney Disney is releasing an experience tied to Fortnite - but it's not the big persistent universe" featuring all things Disney that was teased earlier this year. This new experience launching today is instead all about ESPN, and it's called ESPN Football Island.In the experience, you'll be able to participate in activities, challenges, mini-games, and a big Payload-style game called Touchdown Rush" where you guard a football from your opponents as it moves toward an end zone. ESPN Football Island will also have persistent progression and its own unlockable cosmetics that will be exclusive to the experience.ESPN Football Island was built using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), a powerful set of development tools Epic launched last... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RTXG)
Image: Apple Just like the bite-sized iMac keynote posted on Monday, Apple has released a 10-minute video showing off the M4-equipped Mac Mini. You can find the video on the Watch the announcement" link on Apple's Mac Mini page and on YouTube.The video kicks off with John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, taking the wraps off the new desktop device (literally). He says the device is even more mini," as it measures just five inches long and wide.The video then transitions to Mac Mini product manager Shloka Kini, who similarly says the M4 device comes with a big boost in performance in an incredibly small design." Kini claims the Mac Mini is up to six times faster than the top-selling PC in its price range - but at 1/20th the... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6RTSV)
Image: Apple As part of the company's week of Mac-focused announcements, Apple has just introduced a smaller, yet even more powerful Mac Mini. It's now equipped with Apple's latest M4 silicon, supports ray tracing for the first time, and ships with 16GB of RAM by default - seemingly the new normal in the Apple Intelligence era. The machine still starts at $599 with the regular M4 chip, while the more powerful M4 Pro model has a starting price of $1,399. Like the refreshed iMac announced yesterday, the Mac Mini is available to preorder immediately and will be in stores on November 8th.The first thing you'll notice is the new design. As rumored, the Mini has been shrunken down considerably - and it was already a relatively small desktop machine to... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6RTSW)
Volvo and Polestar - two Swedish car brands owned by China's Geely - are now offering their electric vehicle customers access to Tesla's Supercharger network. The companies are taking orders for adapters that will allow its EV customers to charge at over 17,800 Supercharger stalls across the country.Tesla's superior charging experience and the ubiquity of its Superchargers has spurred the entire auto industry to announce support for the company's North American Charging Standard (NACS). All non-Tesla EVs will require adapters at first, but automakers have said they intend to start producing vehicles with native NACS ports installed at the factory starting as soon as 2025.All non-Tesla EVs will require adapters at firstFord, GM,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RTSX)
So long for now, Playdate Stereo Dock. | Screenshot: Playdate Well, we finally know what's up with Panic's Playdate Stereo Dock. It's not coming - at least, not for a while. In an update to the Stereo Dock's page, the company describes the challenges it faced in getting a good prototype, but says that, in the end, the device didn't meet its standards.The Stereo Dock was going to be a small desktop Bluetooth speaker and pen holder that you could attach a Playdate to. Panic first announced the Stereo Dock in 2021, when it was still working toward releasing the Playdate.On the web page, the company describes the unexpected challenges it faced getting the Stereo Dock to market:
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by David Pierce on (#6RTSY)
Fantastical for Windows is already at full feature parity with the Mac app. | Image: Flexibits Fantastical is one of the best and most powerful calendar apps on the market. Since it first launched in 2011, it has been both nicer to look at and easier to use than your average calendaring tool. I've been a user for years, and every time I switch away, I come back for the design, the natural-language processing that lets you create events just by typing Lunch with Arthur 12:30 Friday at Panera," and the integrations with to-do list apps. It's an expensive app, at $57 a year or $7 a month for all its features, but it's worth it for anyone who lives out of their calendar. And as long as you only have Apple devices.Now, at long last, Fantastical is coming to the most important productivity platform: Windows. Flexibits, the developer... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6RTSZ)
The 2026 Cadillac Lyriq-V | Image: Cadillac Cadillac is launching a new performance version of its all-electric Lyriq SUV. The new 2026 Lyriq-V, the luxury automaker's first EV to get a V-Series badge, will come to North America, Australia, and New Zealand to start, plus other markets later. The specific launch date and pricing have not yet been revealed, but we can expect 2026 model-year vehicles to be available this time next year.In an email to The Verge, Cadillac production communications representative Katie Minter wrote that the company will share more information on the features and specifications of Lyriq-V in early 2025.Although we barely know anything about the Lyriq-V, GM says that V-Series vehicles are AWD standard and have instantaneous acceleration," which is also... Continue reading...
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by The Verge Staff on (#6RTT0)
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images A presidential campaign is an expression of ideology, often vocalized as a number of promises. Sometimes, those promises are made even when they're outside the scope of what a president can enact. With Vice President Kamala Harris taking on former President Donald Trump, The Verge's election guide attempts to cut through the noise of electioneering to identify the actual policies at stake. For the tech industry, many issues hang in the balance, including the regulatory power to govern AI, monopolies, and cryptocurrency. More broadly, this election will determine the future of electric vehicles and how the US approaches climate change.But The Verge's stake in this election is larger than just the tech issues. Every day, we walk our... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6RTPR)
Image: The Verge Photo by: CHONA KASINGER/Bloomberg and ULIEN DE ROSA/AFP via Getty Images It matters which story you tell about the future of artificial intelligence. Is AI just a tool for humans to use, like any other software? Is it a malignant force acting to destroy creativity? Will it create robots bent on destruction? Or will it make the world incredible, beautiful, equal, perfect in ways we can't even begin to imagine?This will shock you, but some of the men running the biggest companies in AI think it's the latter. Both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have recently written blog posts - Altman's short and pithy, Amodei's long and thorough - about the AI-powered world they hope to help create. These are powerful men with huge teams and vast resources at their disposal; it matters a lot what they... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6RTPQ)
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Trump has promised to roll back Biden's EV policies on day one.' Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RTPS)
This soundbar has a secret. | Image: Vizio Is it just me, or is the karaoke machine trend trying to come back? There's the Apple Music Sing feature, Ford's in-car karaoke app, and Sansui's cheap new OLED TV, just to name some examples. And now, Vizio's getting in on the action with a new 2.1 stereo soundbar and subwoofer called the MicMe" that comes with two wireless microphones and a dedicated karaoke app. It also has six voice enhancements" (which, for our tone-challenged friends, include multiple pitch correction settings, according to details Vizio emailed to The Verge.)The microphones have eight hours of battery life and a charging cradle you can set down next to your TV. They have built-in LEDs with nine ambient color options that, when in use, get brighter the louder... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6RTPT)
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Here's why the embattled SEC chair is a hot-button presidential issue. Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6RTPV)
Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images Lucid Motors revealed pricing and reservation details for its upcoming Gravity SUV, which is expected to go into production later this year.To start out, Lucid will sell two trims of the Gravity: the Touring and Grand Touring. The Grand Touring will start at $94,900 and will be the first to go into production in late 2024. The Gravity Touring model, which starts at $79,900, won't go into production in late 2025.Lucid is opening orders for the Gravity on November 7th. Existing Lucid customers will be given priority for taking delivery. And all customers will be able to design, configure, and order their vehicle on Lucid's website.Lucid didn't provide any details about delivery charges or incentives. The company has applied a $7,500... Continue reading...
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by Sarah Jeong on (#6RTPW)
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images Conservative courts are strangling the functions of government. Another round of Trump judges will finish us. Continue reading...
by Nilay Patel on (#6RTPX)
Image: Mr.Nelson design for The Verge / Getty Images An endorsement of democracy, solving problems, and Kamala Harris. Continue reading...
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by Thomas Ricker on (#6RTJ8)
Illustration: The Verge Amazon has spoiled Apple's week of Mac announcements by sharing details of the new Mac Mini a bit early. The listing has been pulled but MacRumors managed to grab a few screenshots first.The one tiny image of the new silver Mac Mini shows what appear to be a headphone jack and two front-facing USB-C ports, presumably with at least Thunderbolt 4 support. It's available with a base or Pro version of the new M4 chipset, with up to 14 CPU cores, 20 GPU cores, 64GB of memory, and 8TB of storage. The backside ports will remain a mystery for now.The M4 will be a significant jump from the M2 found in current Mac Minis, last refreshed in January 2023. That boost in power should help with current and future Apple Intelligence processing, jumping... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RTA8)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is expanding Help me write" to Gmail on the web, allowing users to whip up or tweak emails using Gemini AI. Just like on mobile, users will see a prompt to use the feature when opening a blank draft in Gmail.Google's Help me write" feature is only available to users who subscribe to Google One AI Premium or have the Gemini add-on for Workspace. In addition to generating an email draft, Help me write" can also provide suggestions on how to formalize, elaborate, or shorten a message. GIF: Google Google is also adding a shortcut for the polish" option available within its Help me write" toolset, which will appear on drafts with over 12 words. For Gmail on the web, users can click the shortcut or type Ctrl + H... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6RT8K)
We're not competitor obsessed, we're customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards," Jeff Bezos, previously. | Laura Normand / The Verge The fallout from the non-endorsement of Kamala Harris at The Washington Post is here: more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions, NPR reports. This is about 8 percent of the paid subscriber base, and the number of cancellations is still growing.To put that in perspective, in an Oct. 15th story about Post CEO Will Lewis's strategy to get more paying subscribers, The New York Times reported that the Post had added 4,000 subscribers since the beginning of 2024 through September. Like, I am actually flabbergasted: that's fifty times as many cancellations in one weekend as The Post earned in the better part of a year.This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in the anticipation of his possible victory."Now,... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6RT8M)
Image: Epic Games Fortnite is bigger than a battle royale now, and to help make progressing through the various available battle passes a little bit more streamlined, Epic Games is going to allow XP from any experience apply to any of those passes.Currently, XP you earn across various modes in Fortnite doesn't help you progress through the special passes for Lego Fortnite and the music-themed Fortnite Festival. Instead, you progress by earning studs" and festival points," respectively, by playing those modes.Starting November 2nd, however, Epic will begin the migration to let you progress using XP. As Epic details in a blog post, the change will first apply the upcoming Music Pass (renamed from Festival Pass), meaning festival points will go away. On... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RT8N)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is working on an AI-powered search engine to decrease its dependence on Google and Microsoft, according to a report from The Information. The search engine would reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot.The Meta AI bot built into Instagram and Facebook currently uses Google - whose parent company, Alphabet, will report quarterly earnings tomorrow - and Microsoft Bing to answer questions about recent news and events.That could eventually change, as Meta's web crawler was spotted roving the web months ago. The Information's source indicates a team has been working for about eight months to build a database of information for its chatbot. Meta has worked on building up location... Continue reading...
by Kylie Robison on (#6RT8P)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has released its official definition of open" artificial intelligence, setting the stage for a clash with tech giants like Meta - whose models don't fit the rules.OSI has long set the industry standard for what constitutes open-source software, but AI systems include elements that aren't covered by conventional licenses, like model training data. Now, for an AI system to be considered truly open source, it must provide:
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by Wes Davis on (#6RT8Q)
UMG and AI company Klay are forming their own foundational Music-generating AI model. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Image Universal Music Group (UMG) announced a new deal centered on creating an ethical" foundational model for AI music generation. It's partnered with a company called Klay Vision that's creating a Large Music Model" named KLayMM and plans to launch out of stealth mode with a product within months. Ary Attie, its founder and CEO, said the company believes the next Beatles will play with KLAY."The two say the model will work in collaboration with the music industry and its creators," without many details about how, while Klay plans to make music AI more than a short-lived gimmick."This is how the companies explain their shared goals:
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by Jay Peters on (#6RT60)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple Intelligence has finally launched in US English, and if you're in the EU, you'll be able to use the new AI features on your iPhone and iPad starting in April, according to an Irish Apple newsroom post.When the features roll out to iPhones and iPads in the EU, they'll include include many of the core features of Apple Intelligence, including Writing Tools, Genmoji, a redesigned Siri with richer language understanding, ChatGPT integration, and more," Apple says in the post.However, if EU users want to get a taste of Apple Intelligence sooner, they can try the initial features on their Mac that are now available with macOS Sequoia 15.1. That first batch of features includes AI-powered writing tools, improvements to Siri, and... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6RT61)
We take pride in the fact that we are expanding the market by welcoming new investors into the financial system." - Robinhood's S-1 | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge US citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold."Let's pause - I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. See, I thought we all had access to the events of the election because we all exist in reality and can find out about them. But apparently, if we can't gamble on an event, it isn't happening. This is a fascinating vision of metaphysics, and I would like to hear more about it. No one bet on my birth, for instance, and thus there is no asset class relating to my existence. So am I real?Democratizes... Continue reading...
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by Abigail Bassett on (#6RT62)
Image: Scout Motors The VW-backed company is following in the footsteps of Tesla and Rivian by selling directly to customers without a dealership. Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6RT63)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Microsoft is taking its gloves off today. The software giant is accusing Google of being behind what it calls shadow campaigns" to discredit Microsoft's cloud business. In a scathing blog post, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily reveals that Google is about to launch a new astroturf" group this week.It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public," says Alaily. Google has gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization. When the group launches, Google, we understand, will likely present itself as a backseat member... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RT39)
Illustration: The Verge Google's AI Overviews are expanding across more than 100 countries this week. The AI-generated search summaries will appear for users in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Colombia, Chile, the Phillippines, Nigeria, and many more locations. You can view the full list of countries on Google's website.In each country, AI Overviews will now appear in any supported language, including English, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. That means if you're located in the US, you can make a search in Spanish and see an AI Overview in the same language.Earlier this month, Google rolled out ads in AI Overviews on mobile - but only in the US. For all other locations, Google says ads will continue to appear in dedicated... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RT3A)
Google is selling refurbished Pixels, including the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google now sells refurbished Pixel 6, Pixel 6A, and Pixel 7 phones in a special section of the Google Store. The company says that these phones will be of like-new quality with phones, screens, and batteries that technicians carefully inspect" and are offered at up to a 40 percent discount versus their original price. The phones also come with the same 1-year limited warranty and customer support options as a new phone.Here's the price breakdown:
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#5WMPV)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge We picked the best video doorbell cameras for keeping an eye on people, packages, and anything else that comes across your front porch. Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6RT3B)
It's finally glow time. Apple Intelligence has finally arrived, and like most AI on smartphones so far, it's mostly underwhelming.The debut features of Apple Intelligence are all very familiar: there are glowing gradients and sparkle icons that indicate the presence of AI; writing tools that make your emails sound more professional; and an AI eraser in Photos that blots away distractions. It's all here, and it all works okay. But none of it is even close to the time-saving computing platform shift we've been promised.Essentially, there are two Apple Intelligences: the one that's here now and the one we might see in the future. Even in today's launch announcement, Apple is busy teasing the features that haven't launched yet. What's here today is a handful of... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RSZG)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is suing Elon Musk and his Donald Trump-supporting America PAC. Filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, it's the first legal action against Musk's $1 million daily award offered to registered voters.As reported previously by CNN and the Philadelphia Inquirer, the lawsuit argues that all lotteries in Pennsylvania must be run by the state and calls the arrangement deceptive, saying that Though Musk says that a winner's selection is random,' that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania."According to the suit, Since launching on October 19, 2024, America PAC claims it awarded $1,000,000 checks... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6RSZH)
Solo 3 owners have plenty of reasons to consider upgrading. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge One of the best deals on wireless headphones during Prime Day earlier this month is back. The Beats Solo 4 headphones, which only launched in April, are 50 percent off at $99.99 ($100 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, matching their all-time low. If you prefer over-ear headphones or need active noise cancellation, the Beats Studio Pro fit the bill and are also matching their record low price of $169.99 ($180 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.The Solo 4 are a solid refresh that should serve you well into 2025 and beyond. Like typical Beats, they have a sound signature favoring emphasized bass, but with a healthier balance between the mids and highs than older headphones in the line. Apple meets today's expectations for... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RSZJ)
Image: Apple Apple did more than put out a series of press releases when it announced the new iMac with M4 and the release of its Apple Intelligence software updates. The company also made a video to go with them - although it took a keen eye to spot it at first, as it was tucked away in a Watch the announcement" link on the company's splashy iMac page.Apple has since released the 10-minute video on YouTube as well. In it, Apple Intelligence product manager Allegra Tepper discussed Apple's AI system, which is now available as a software update for compatible iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Tepper ran through coming features, while specifying that today's update only includes things like writing tools and slight Siri improvements (including the glowy... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RSZK)
Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Google's upcoming Pixel phones could come with an upgraded Tensor chip that powers several new AI features, according to leaked documents seen by Android Authority. One feature reportedly coming to the Pixel 11 includes a more advanced, on-device version of the Pixel's Video Boost with Night Sight feature that brightens up videos shot in the dark.The Pixel's existing low-light feature uses AI to automatically adjust the exposure of your video, stabilize it, and reduce graininess. My colleague Allison Johnson got to try it out on the Pixel 8 Pro and found that it works pretty well. To brighten up videos on the Pixel 9, Google uses a combination of on-device and cloud-based processing.The Pixel 11's rumored Ultra Low Light video"... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6RSZM)
Yup, it's still there. | Image: Apple Apple's new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity to move the charging port from the underside of the device - where the port has remained for nearly a decade, despite other updates to the mouse and being mocked for the decision - the port is still there.This new $99 Magic Mouse means that, for the foreseeable future, Apple still thinks that the best way to charge your Magic Mouse is by flipping it over to plug it in, making it so you can't use it. Why?There have been other solutions to the ridiculous Magic Mouse charging situation. For example, my colleague Wes Davis wrote about an ergonomic grip for the Magic Mouse 2 that can charge the... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6RSZN)
Leaked details hint Google might go with a custom wearable Tensor chip in 2026. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Starting in 2026, Google might go in-house with a custom Tensor processor for the Pixel Watch 5.The rumor comes courtesy of Android Authority, which cites leaked documents from Google's gChips division. According to the leaked plans, the wearable Tensor chip, codenamed NPT, sports a core configuration of an ARM Cortex A78 and two Arm Cortex A55s. These are older CPU cores, but that's a fairly typical move with wearable processors. Other than that, details are scant and it's currently unknown which process node technology the planned wearable Tensor chip might have.Chips aren't usually as heavy a focus for smartwatches as they are for smartphones. So long as performance is snappy, smartwatch makers tend to focus on ways to prolong... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6RSZP)
Image: BioWare After 40 hours with BioWare's latest fantasy RPG, it feels like I'm just getting started. Continue reading...