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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The next time you comment on a YouTube video, you could hear its creator's voice respond to you. YouTube says it's testing out a feature with a small number" of creators that lets them record an audio reply to comments on their videos.YouTube says it hopes this experiment enables more meaningful relationships between creators and their audiences." YouTubers in the test group can use it by tapping the sound wave icon when replying to a comment, tapping record a voice reply," and then posting it as normal. However, anyone else can interact with these replies just like ordinary text comments.Here's one of the creators in YouTube's test group.For now, creators in the test group can only create voice replies in the iOS app, and only on their own videos. Where you can hear the replies seems to be limited, too; I didn't have the option to listen to the above voice reply from YouTuber ThioJoe in a web browser on my Mac, but I could play it in the YouTube app on my iPhone 15 Pro and Pixel 6 phones.

Sony's XM5 deliver impressive noise cancellation, sound, and comfort. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The holiday season is a time of celebration, but it can also be chaotic. With all the parties, travel, and family obligations, it's difficult to carve out time to recharge. That's why noise-canceling earbuds like Sony's WF-1000XM5 are so helpful, as they can help you enjoy some peace and quiet even in the busiest of environments. Thankfully, they're currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for around $198 ($102 off), their best price to date.Sony's WF-1000XM5 are our favorite pair of wireless earbuds on the market. Along with drowning out background noise well, they offer exceptional, detailed sound and clear voice quality. They're also relatively small and lightweight, and come with four foam-style ear tips so you can comfortably wear them on long flights. Battery life is good, too, so you won't need to worry about them dying midway through a flight. They should last eight hours with noise cancellation turned on, and when you do need to charge, they do so extremely quickly.Additionally, Sony's flagship pair of earbuds offer a handful of other conveniences that make them a great investment. They include support for multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, for one thing, so you can pair them with multiple devices simultaneously. They also boast IPX4 water resistance, so they'll even be able to withstand some light rain.Read our Sony WF-1000XM5 review.Some more ways to save today

Sen. Chuck Schumer during a December 15th press conference. | Screenshot: NBC News Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has asked the Department of Homeland Security to provide New York and New Jersey authorities with an advanced drone detection system to help determine what the heck is going on" with continued sightings in the Northeast.We've seen lots of recent sightings in New York, New Jersey, Long Island, Staten Island." Schumer said during a December 15th press conference. With all these sightings over the last while, why do we have more questions than answers?"Over the weekend, parts of Stewart International Airport were temporarily shut down due to the drone sightings, prompting New York Governor Kathy Hochul to say, this has gone too far." Drone activity also shut down airspace over the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for over four hours.President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that he's canceling a trip to Bedminster, New Jersey due to drone sightings in the area. He said, the government knows what is happening" and they'd be better off saying what it is."During a press conference on Sunday, Schumer requested a 360-degree" detection system like the one built by Robin Radar Systems. The European company sells micro-doppler radars that it claims can distinguish between birds and drones moving up to 60 miles per hour in 3D space. Its website features case studies of its radars being used for security at airports, during the G7 Summit, and to study bird migration in the Netherlands.Schumer also urged Congress to pass the Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act," which could give local law enforcement and federal authorities the power to detect drones.

The Anbernic RG34XX is now available in four colors, including transparent red and green options. | Image: Anbernic Anbernic's latest handheld, which upgrades the design of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance with a larger screen, extra buttons, and the ability to play games through emulation, is now available. The RG34XX can be ordered through Anbernic's website for $69.99, but is discounted to $63.99 until December 18th. It comes in four colors, including the GBA's original purple and black, as well as transparent green and red options.Although it looks nearly identical to the original GBA's hardware, the RG34XX adds a pair of additional action buttons, two more shoulder buttons, microSD card slots, an HDMI port, and a larger 3.4-inch display with a 720x480 resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The handheld also appears to carry over the GBA's volume dial, but it's actually a two-way toggle switch allowing the volume to be adjusted up and down in small increments.The RG34XX only became available for sale starting today, but Anbernic sent units to reviewers last week so we already have our first impressions of the new handheld. Russ Crandall, who runs the YouTube channel Retro Game Corps, found the emulator to be a nearly perfect" recreation of Nintendo's hardware. That can be either a good or bad thing, depending on how you remember the GBA's ergonomics.The RG34XX is powered by the Allwinner H700 chipset that Anbernic has already used in eight other devices. It won't be able to play all the games released for 3D consoles like the Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, and Sony PSP, but the handheld will handle 16-bit games with ease, and excels at emulating the Game Boy Advance given the matching screen ratio. Image: Keep Retro The secondary set of shoulder buttons on the RG34XX are smaller and positioned in a way that larger hands may struggle to comfortably reach. Retro Handhelds, a site that focuses on portable devices for playing classic games, also found the RG34XX to be an accurate recreation of the GBA, but found it a little cramped for larger hands to play. The RG34XX's primary shoulder buttons, located in the same position as the GBA's felt good. However, the secondary set, which are smaller and positioned closer to where the GBA's cartridge slot was located, were not very comfortable to use.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at a Staten Island, New York Amazon warehouse voted on Friday to authorize a strike if the company doesn't agree to set dates for contract negotiations. The workers are asking Amazon to recognize the union and bargain for safer working conditions and better wages, threatening the possibility of a strike during one of Amazon's busiest times of the year.Teamsters general president Sean O'Brien says in a press release that Amazon must agree to bargaining dates by December 15th, which passed yesterday. If Amazon hasn't agreed, it risks facing a strike by the more than 5,500 workers at its Staten Island (JFK8) fulfillment center. Delivery drivers at a Queens (DBK4) last-mile delivery station also voted to authorize a strike.This is my third holiday I'm giving to Amazon," a worker named James said in a video published Friday by labor nonprofit More Perfect Union. I haven't been around for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It's constant speed-up for the holidays. It's like twice as dangerous, I would say."A newly published US Senate Committee report says that, based on an investigation of Amazon's records, the company's warehouse injury rates were more than 1.8 times that of other companies in each of the past seven years," according to The New York Times. Senator Bernie Sanders, who chairs the committee, said Amazon's executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries."In a statement emailed to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards accused the Teamsters union of intentionally" misleading claims that it represents thousands of Amazon employees and drivers.

Photo by Jia Tianyong / China News Service / VCG via Getty Images The same day that General Motors announced that it would stop funding its beleaguered robotaxi company Cruise, one of China's leading autonomous vehicle operators made a different sort of announcement.Pony.ai said it would expand its robotaxi fleet from about 250 to at least 1,000 vehicles in 2025, thanks to a partnership with GAC Aion, a division of one of China's biggest automakers. With a larger fleet, the company says it plans on growing its service areas in the so-called first-tier cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Pony's current fleet averages 15 rides per vehicle per day, which translates to over 26,000 trips every week.China is winning the raceIt was another example of how access to cheap, plentiful electric vehicles as well as a lax regulatory environment and other state-fueled incentives are fueling China's aggressive approach to autonomous vehicles. Baidu, another major Chinese AV operator, recently detailed its own efforts to bring the cost per vehicle down to around $30,000. Baidu also has a joint venture with automaker Geely to make driverless cars.In the US, the tie-ups between automakers and driverless vehicle operators have faltered. In addition to GM's decision to back away from Cruise, Ford shut down its Argo AI robotaxi project that it had been funding with Volkswagen. Both Ford and GM say they plan to redirect their efforts toward advanced driver-assist technology for personally owned vehicles.The US is on high alert about China's growing dominance in the field of autonomous vehicles. Earlier this year, the Biden administration proposed new rules to block the sale or import" of connected vehicle software originating from China, arguing that vehicles with hardware and software from the country pose an acute" threat to US national security. This followed an earlier move by the administration to lock in new tariffs on Chinese imports, including a 100 percent duty on EVs and new hikes on batteries and key minerals. And President-elect Donald Trump, who has been stacking his cabinet with China hawks, has promised even harsher tariffs.These protectionist trade policies could also slow the development of driverless cars in the US. Waymo, the leading robotaxi company, has said it would use a Chinese EV as its next-generation vehicle. The Zeekr-made vehicle was supposed to be a lower-cost option for the company, which has racked up billions of dollars in expenses over the years.Robotaxis could flounder without access to cheaply made EVs. Indeed, the public markets haven't necessarily openly embraced Pony.ai and other Chinese firms, despite their aggressive expansion plans. The company's initial public offering on Nasdaq valued it at $5.25 billion, or about 40 percent less than the $8.5 billion it was worth two years ago, according to the Financial Times.No AV operator in the world is currently profitable. The fleets are still too small, the companies are mostly cautious about growing too quickly, and the technology is still more expensive than the meager revenues being brought in.Pony.ai and others are hoping that China's government will soon allow their vehicles to expand into suburban areas. Meanwhile, Trump's transition team is weighing whether to create a federal framework for self-driving cars, which could enable a wider deployment of vehicles without traditional controls, like steering wheels and pedals.No AV operator in the world is currently profitableBut the threat of China outpacing the US in robotaxi development hasn't spurred Congress to break the logjam that has stalled AV legislation in Congress for over six years. Disagreements range from increasing the number of AVs on the road to prohibiting states from setting their own performance standards for AVs to liability concerns.Cities may also object to companies trying to push out more driverless vehicles. Officials in San Francisco, for example, have raised a host of complaints, including blocked buses and emergency vehicles, and local residents have logged protests over new rules allowing robotaxis to roam more freely.Those concerns are likely to remain a sticking point. Meanwhile, China has already surpassed the US in robotaxi deployment. The question is how much further ahead they can get.

Image: The Verge; Photo: Hollie Adams / Bloomberg via Getty Images The head of the ubiquitous chip design firm on the breathtaking' pace of AI. Read the full story at The Verge.

Eufy's new Indoor Cam E30 can sit on a table or be mounted to walls and ceilings, but you'll need to run a power cable. | Image: Eufy Eufy has announced a new security camera, the Indoor Cam E30. The camera updates an older model released in 2020 with 4K video recording capabilities and an added spotlight that adds color capture to its typical night vision options. It's available now for $69.99.The Indoor Cam E30 can rotate 360 degrees horizontally and pan 75 degrees vertically, allowing it to monitor an entire room. It uses on-device AI to detect the presence of humans and pets and can also recognize and alert you to audio cues such as an infant crying. The camera can automatically track subjects in motion to keep them in frame. Its position can also be manually controlled, but only available through the Eufy mobile app, not Apple Home.The device is compatible with HomeKit - including Apple's HomeKit Secure Video - allowing you to save recordings to iCloud. But that requires an iCloud Plus subscription and it limits the streaming resolution to 1080P. If you'd prefer to go subscription free, the Indoor Cam E30 includes a microSD card slot for storing local footage, which can be streamed to the Eufy mobile app at 4K. If you need additional storage, the camera can also be connected to Eufy's $149.99 HomeBase S380, which can be expanded to up to 16TB. (Eufy has promised it's fixed the privacy issues we caught in 2022.)Two-way audio allows you to communicate through the camera remotely, which is ideal for telling the dog or cat to get off the couch while you're at work. (Editor's note: has a cat ever listened?) And while the added spotlight allows the Indoor Cam E30 to capture nighttime footage in color, it reduces how far the camera see in the dark to 16.4-feet. Using its infrared lights limits the camera to only seeing in black and white, but it boosts its visual range to a little over 32-feet.

Image: Apple The end of the end of the world is now in sight. Apple just announced that its post-apocalyptic series Silo, which is in the midst of its second season, has been renewed for two more seasons. That means that season 4 will be the show's last.Silo first debuted in 2023, and it tells the story of the remnants of humanity, who live in an underground silo where they're largely safe from the ruined landscape outside. However, things get much more complex very quickly, and the show is laden with mysteries. The series is based on a trilogy of sci-fi novels from Hugh Howey, and Apple says that the final two seasons will tell the complete story" of the books. (So far, the first book has been split across the first two seasons of the show.)With the final two chapters of Silo, we can't wait to give fans of the show an incredibly satisfying conclusion to the many mysteries and unanswered questions contained within the walls of these silos," showrunner Graham Yost said in a statement. Rebecca Ferguson, who stars in the show and serves as an executive producer, added that I have always felt passionately about telling the entire story contained within Hugh Howey's books, so I couldn't be happier that audiences around the world have enthusiastically embraced the show."The second season of Silo wraps up on January 17th. That's the same day that another sci-fi series returns to Apple TV Plus, with season 2 of the workplace thriller Severance.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat is tweaking how people earn money on the platform by introducing a new, unified monetization program. The new program will cover content posted to Stories as well as Spotlight, the platform's TikTok-like discovery feed filled with recommended video content. Under the program, influencers earn revenue for ads placed within eligible Stories and Spotlight posts.Previously, monetization of these formats was splintered off from one another: Stories earnings were in one bucket, and Spotlight earnings were handled through a different program.The new program is currently in testing with a small group of users, and will roll out widely on February 1st, 2025. To participate, users need to hit a set of benchmarks to be invited: 50,000 followers and either 10 million Snap views, 1 million Spotlight views, or 12,000 hours of watch time in the last 28 days.They also need to post consistently, with at least 25 times per month to saved Stories or Spotlight and posting to Spotlight or public Stories on at least 10 of the last 28 days. Some of those eligibility requirements are significantly higher than they were under the old structure. To be eligible to earn money through Spotlight, for example, creators previously needed things like a public profile, 1,000 followers, and 10,000 video views.Other video platforms have also streamlined or changed the original creator funds. TikTok, for example, now has one creator program that requires videos longer than 1-minute. On YouTube, Shorts creators earn money via ad revenue - a move by the company to meaningfully compete with TikTok.

The PS Placeable makes the PSP into a tiny PS2. | Image: Retro Mod Works What if you could turn a PSP with a broken screen into a miniature PS2, connect a Bluetooth controller to it, and play PSP games on your TV? That's the idea behind Retro Mod Works' PS Placeable, a mod that consolizes" the PSP and was featured yesterday in a video from the YouTube channel Macho Nacho Productions.Retro Mod Works charges $274.99 for a prebuilt PS Placeable. Those are waitlisted at the moment, though - a message on the site says the project is a one man show" and that the demand for the Placeable was higher than anticipated.Retro also offers to mod customer-provided PSPs for $100 less, and there's an option preorder DIY parts and do the conversion work yourself. The mod requires either a PSP-2000 or PSP-3000 revision, as the first PSP didn't have a video output. It's not clear when the DIY parts will ship - we've asked Retro Mod Works and will update if we get a reply. Image: Retro Mod Works A stack of PS Placeables. The primary person behind the project, named Dan, told Macho Nacho host Tito Perez that he hated the idea of buying digital games" for which he has physical copies, and wanted a way to add Bluetooth controller support while preserving the UMD drive. He's also mentioned in replies on Reddit that his goal is to help people revive broken PSPs with the mod, which doesn't need the console's screen.But buying one of these mod kits can be pricey or require skills most people don't have. If you just want to play PSP games on your TV and don't care about having a UMD drive, the PSP Go - which lacked Sony's oddball optical drive but supported Bluetooth controllers and also had a way to output video - is still pretty easy to come by.

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Hello! I'm here from the future. And I have some news. 12 months from now, all the Big Tech CEOs are still in their jobs, everybody's using folding phones, Apple made a TV, and Nvidia is the most valuable company in the history of the universe. Wild year, huh? Or maybe not? It's hard to remember. Time travel messes with your memory a little.On this episode of The Vergecast, the second installment of our two-part 2025 preview, we debate some seriously iffy storylines from the end of 2025. David, our resident time traveler, brings us some big stories that either did or didn't happen in the year to come, and Nilay Patel and Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern have to help figure out what's real and what isn't.Will someone really buy Snap? Is GTA VI going to be the biggest game ever? Will Bluesky continue to ascend and leave Threads in its wake? Nobody knows yet, not even the time traveler, but we have some thoughts and ideas.As was the case with last week's episode, we're keeping score. Here's how it works: each host has to decide, for each 2025 news story, whether it'll be real or not by the end of the year. Every correct guess earns you a point; every incorrect guess... Read the full story at The Verge.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 64, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, get ready for some weird documentaries, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about raw milk and $HAWK and WhatsApp, watching A Man on the Inside and the new Ken Burns da Vinci doc, finally getting caught up on The Great British Bake Off (about which I have SO MANY FEELINGS), storing all my loyalty numbers and Airbnb codes in Cheatsheet, and doing a genuinely upsetting amount of research on pizza stones.I also have for you a delightful new mobile game, an E Ink tablet worth a look, a gorgeous new to-dos app, and much more. It's a strangely Netflix-centric week, which is odd for mid-December? But so it goes. Let's dive in.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you watching / reading / playing / baking / listening to / soldering this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)The Drop

Illustration: The Verge This week, Google announced it's rolling out ChromeOS M131 to non-beta users, bringing with it a handy Safety reset" feature that lets Chromebook users reset their laptops without totally wiping them. The update also introduced a new Flash notifications" accessibility option to help those who might not otherwise easily hear or see them.Like Powerwash in ChromeOS, Safety reset will wipe the slate clean if you're experiencing computer virus-like behavior such as unusual pop-ups. But where Powerwash is a full factory reset, Safety reset preserves local data and apps, as well as things like bookmarks and saved passwords, according to a help document about the feature.Google also writes that users can call up the Safety reset dialog box directly by pressing CTRL + Shift + Search + R. Otherwise, you can find it in the Safety and privacy" settings menu or by searching Settings or Launcher for keywords like Pop-up," Spam," or Virus." Image: Google The new flash notifications settings in ChromeOS accessibility settings. As for the new Flash notifications setting, it's available in accessibility settings under Audio and captions," giving an additional visual notification indicator to those who might otherwise miss them because they're hard of hearing or use screen magnification to read content. Users can pick the flash's color from several options, and a preview button lets them see what it looks like.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft's Phone Link app is warning that Android smartphones using the latest version of Android 15 won't display certain sensitive" notifications, according to a post from Mishaal Rahman spotted by Windows Central.The warning is the result of an Android 15 privacy feature that automatically categorizes notifications like those containing 2FA codes as sensitive" and prevents third-party apps from seeing them. That extra bit of privacy could come in handy if you've unwittingly given a malicious app permission to access your notifications. But it could be inconvenient if you frequently rely on seeing 2FA codes appear on your computer via Phone Link. Screenshot: Windows Phone Link warning Mishaal Rahman posted a screenshot of the warning. According to Rahman, Windows should still show sensitive notifications for Android devices where Phone Link came preinstalled and has requested a Companion Device Role." That includes Samsung phones running One UI 6.1.1, but not other Android phones like Google Pixel or Nothing Phones, writes Windows Central.Rahman wrote in October that users could get around the notification-hiding feature by turning off Enhanced Notifications" in Android 15's notifications settings. However, doing so also turns off things like reply suggestions and could make it easier again for malicious apps to gather details from all of your notifications.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube announced a hefty subscription price increase this week that will shoot the monthly cost up by $10 to $82.99 on January 13th for existing members (or now, if you sign up today). Some subscribers are staving off the hike using the time-honored tradition of threatening to cancel, as one Verge reader indicated in a comment on our original story about the price hike.That's backed up by users in a Reddit thread that 9to5Google spotted, several of whom reported getting the offer to keep paying $72.99 for six more months when they tried to cancel their subscriptions, although some report that didn't work for them. Some who did get to keep the old price say it happened only when they logged in using a web browser on their computer and pushed through offers to pause their subscription instead.One Verge staffer, Jennifer Tuohy, did get the offer to extend her current price. She canceled by logging into YouTube TV in a browser on her computer and navigating to Settings > Membership > Manage. As of this morning, Reddit users continue to report receiving the extension offer.

Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge The group behind the HDMI standard, HDMI Forum, says that it will detail a new spec release in a press conference on January 6th that will enable a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates." The new capabilities will be supported with a new cable," according to the HDMI Forum's email to The Verge announcing the presser.The spec is likely to be HDMI 2.2, as VideoCardz notes. The Forum's email hints at it too, noting that the HDMI Licensing Administrator, which two of the planned speakers at the event represent, is appointed to license Version 2.2 of the HDMI specification."HDMI 2.1, which has only ever received lettered revisions since its 2017 introduction, supports 48Gbps bandwidth, up to 120Hz variable refresh rates, and resolutions up to 10240 x 4320. VideoCardz speculates that the updated spec could allow for higher resolutions and framerates without the need for Display Stream Compression.Whatever the spec brings, that mention of a new cable is a tidy reminder that like USB-C, not all HDMI cables are the same. It seems unlikely that HDMI Forum would change the port itself, so you'll probably be able to use your old ones with the updated spec, and some might even support its higher bandwidth. Still, there's always the chance you need fresh cables to get all of the new capabilities when the time comes.

Image: Infold Games Breath of the Styled. Read the full story at The Verge.

Ilya Sutskever. | Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images OpenAI's cofounder and former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, made headlines earlier this year after he left to start his own AI lab called Safe Superintelligence Inc. He has avoided the limelight since his departure but made a rare public appearance in Vancouver on Friday at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).Pre-training as we know it will unquestionably end," Sutskever said onstage. This refers to the first phase of AI model development, when a large language model learns patterns from vast amounts of unlabeled data - typically text from the internet, books, and other sources.We've achieved peak data and there'll be no more."During his NeurIPS talk, Sutskever said that, while he believes existing data can still take AI development farther, the industry is tapping out on new data to train on. This dynamic will, he said, eventually force a shift away from the way models are trained today. He compared the situation to fossil fuels: just as oil is a finite resource, the internet contains a finite amount of human-generated content.We've achieved peak data and there'll be no more," according to Sutskever. We have to deal with the data that... Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet with President-elect Donald Trump for dinner on Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to The New York Times. It's reportedly Cook's first time meeting with Trump since the election.During Trump's first term, Cook established a direct relationship with the president that other tech CEOs have wanted to replicate. As Trump prepares for his second term, Cook may want to discuss potential tariffs, which could significantly affect Apple's business.Cook may also want to discuss the European Union's actions against Apple; during his presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Cook called him to complain about the fines Apple faces in the European Union, with accusations of anticompetitive behavior in App Store policies and how it manages platforms like the iPhone and Mac.Cook's visit follows reports of Trump's conversation with Google CEO Sundar Pichai yesterday and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos next week. Trump met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in November.Tech companies and leaders, including Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have also been appealing to the President-elect with $1 million donations to his inauguration fund.

Frank McCourt. | Getty Images / The Verge So far, ByteDance has shown zero willingness to spin off TikTok in the US. The Chinese parent company seems to be banking on the Supreme Court or President-elect Donald Trump rescuing the app before it's banned next month.The obvious names that would would buy TikTok if they could - Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. - are sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see what happens in the coming weeks. The clock is ticking. Congress just sent letters to Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook reminding them that they will be legally liable for continuing to host TikTok in their app stores after January 19th.Then there's Frank McCourt, the real estate billionaire and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. For months, McCourt has been very public about his desire to buy TikTok. He has ramped up his drumbeat since ByteDance recently lost its legal fight on appeal. This week, he pitched more investors on his Project Liberty plan to buy the app's US operations.When I spoke with McCourt over Zoom in between those investor meetings, he told me he currently has roughly $20 billion behind him for a bid. He has asked Kevin Mayer, who was briefly TikTok's CEO the last time it was almost... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: The Verge OpenAI is rolling out a feature called Projects" to ChatGPT. It's basically a folder system that makes it easier to organize things you're working on while using the AI chatbot.As shown in a demo video, your list of Projects will show up in the sidebar. If you make a new project, you can do things like edit the title, set a color for the project's icon, and add files as well as instructions to tailor how ChatGPT responds to things in that individual project. You can also add previous chats to your project to keep track of them.The new feature seems like a pretty useful way to keep track of, for lack of a better word, your projects. During the demo video, an OpenAI employee showed examples of how they use Projects to plan for a Secret Santa gift exchange and for home maintenance. Depending on your needs, it could be a better way to work on a project than my usual method, which is dumping everything I can think of into an Apple Note.Projects is rolling out today to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Teams users. It will come to free users as soon as possible" and to Enterprise and Edu users early in the new year," according to OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil.Projects was announced as Day 7 of OpenAI's 12 days of ship-mas." Previous announcements included the release of the Sora video generator, ChatGPT's Canvas view, and the $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription.

Everyday Backpack V1 | Image: Peak Design When the first grainy images of the UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect emerged, some viewers noticed a seemingly small detail: he looked like he was wearing a Peak Design Everyday V1 backpack. Now, on platforms like Threads and TikTok, a recurring accusation has circulated: Peak Design traced" the bag owner using the backpack's serial number.However, the company says that's just not true, in a statement shared with The Verge Friday afternoon. Peak Design has not provided customer information to the police and would only do so under the order of a subpoena," the statement signed by CEO Peter Dering reads.We cannot associate a product serial number with a customer unless that customer has voluntarily registered their product on our site." The statement goes on to say that the serial numbers on the V1 of the Everyday backpack were not unique or identifying ... We did not implement unique serial numbers until V2 iterations of our Everyday Backpack."

Illustration by William Joel Texas is suing a New York doctor for prescribing mifepristone and misoprostol - the pills used for medication abortion - to a Texas resident via telemedicine, an alleged violation of the state's strict abortion law.Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit against Dr. Margaret Daley Carpenter, founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedecine, in Collin County civil court on Thursday. Carpenter doesn't face criminal charges, but the state is seeking up to a $250,000 fine.This is the first time Texas has sued an out-of-state doctor for providing abortion services to a Texas patient via telemedicine. Notably, New York, where Carpenter is based, has a shield law" that's designed to protect doctors who prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in other states, including those that, like Texas, have outlawed abortion.Regardless of what the courts in Texas do, the real question is whether the courts in New York recognize it," Greer Donley, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, told the Texas Tribune.According to the complaint, a 20-year-old woman who became pregnant sometime in mid-May was prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol by Carpenter at an undisclosed time. The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, experienced adverse side effects from the pills and asked her partner to take her to the hospital because of hemorrhage or severe bleeding on July 16th.At the hospital, the woman's partner was told that she had been' nine weeks pregnant before losing the child," the complaint says, which made him conclude that she had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected" that the woman had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion" of the pregnancy. According to the complaint, she had not previously told her partner she was pregnant. Upon returning to their home, the woman's partner found the two medications Carpenter allegedly prescribed to the woman.The complaint does not say when the woman obtained the medication.Texas has one of the strictest abortion laws in the country. The state has a near-total ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with narrow exceptions if the life of the mother is at risk but no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. According to the complaint, the unnamed 20-year-old woman did not have any life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from the pregnancy that placed her at risk of death or any serious risk of substantial impairment."

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge We've already seen our fair share of bad Apple Intelligence-summarized notifications, but now that the feature is live in the UK, the BBC isn't finding it so funny. The summarized notification mucked up a BBC headline about the UnitedHealthcare shooting suspect, falsely suggesting the network reported that Luigi Mangione shot himself.In a report about the notification, a spokesperson for the network says it contacted Apple to raise this concern and fix the problem." Screenshot: BBC Only the first part of the summarized BBC news notification is incorrect, as it accurately references two other stories about Bashar Al-Assad and a raid on the president of South Korea's office. As noted by 9to5Mac, the BBC report didn't specify the original text of the notification or which article it was in reference to.Other examples of the AI summaries missing the mark that we've seen have turned that hike almost killed me" into attempted suicide" or a Ring camera appearing to report that people are surrounding someone's home.If you're getting too many summaries on your iPhone that don't make sense, you can change the list of apps your iPhone summarizes with Apple Intelligence by going to Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications or even choose to turn off the feature entirely.

Image: Dbrand Nintendo is inching ever closer to its promised deadline to reveal the Switch's successor before April 2025. But new leaks from case manufacturers appear to reveal exactly what the Nintendo's next console could look like, and a few notable upgrades it might have over the original Switch.We were inspired to write this article in the first place because of Dbrand's just-announced Killswitch 2" case. The website for the product features an in-motion render of the case and, inside, a mockup of hardware that has some key differences from the Switch and Switch OLED: the new console appears to be larger, and it has a mysterious new second button on the right Joy-Con under the Home button. Accessory leaks over the past several days have shown a similar potential design for the hardware.It seems Dbrand is reasonably confident in its case, but we asked CEO Adam Ijaz to be sure. He says Dbrand has actual dimensions" - not an educated guess - based on a 3D scan of the real hardware." (When we asked how he knows that, Ijaz only said Nice try, Nintendo.") Video: Dbrand Here's a GIF we cut of the new case from Dbrand's video. Based on Dbrand's measurements, the next Switch (which we'll call the Switch 2) will both be larger and taller than Nintendo's Switch OLED, but roughly the same thickness. Nintendo's spec sheet shows its previous handheld is 242mm wide, 102mm tall and 13.9mm thick, where Ijaz says the Switch 2 should measure 270mm wide, 116mm tall, and 14mm thick, with the console portion taking up 200mm worth of that width.Ijaz also says the kickstand will still measure around half the console's height at around 55mm; a diagonal measurement of the cover glass supports previous rumors that it'll have an 8-inch screen.Ijaz says it's his understanding" that Joy-Cons are magnetically attached" with an an ejection button" that's on the back of the Joy-Cons near the top, and his new case takes advantage of the detachable controllers - he says the controller portions of Dbrand's case can detach with them inside.He doesn't know what the second square button is under the Home button, which he says has a C" printed on it. The left Joy-Con in Dbrand's mockup still has a button on the left Joy-Con, which is where you'll find the capture button on the original Switch, so it's unclear if this C" button now means capture or if both buttons work differently. (Nintendo originally introduced C-buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller in 1996 as a way to control a game's camera, before gamepads introduced a second stick to let you shift perspective.)Ijaz says the joysticks stand 6.27mm tall, and the D-pad and ABXY buttons protrude by 1.57mm, with a 180mm wide kickstand, and back triggers that extend 9.1mm.While Dbrand does seem to know a lot about the console, Ijaz is genuinely unsure" about its potential release date. He says that Dbrand is working toward a late March or early April release for its case, though. Ijaz also doesn't know about Nintendo's possible TV dock for the Switch 2, but says that Dbrand's assumption is that the form factor will be similar to the previous gen." He doesn't know if the screen will be LCD or OLED.While it's highly unusual for an accessory maker to publicly reveal this much about a product from a powerful, litigious company like Nintendo, it's not surprising that Dbrand's the one stepping up to the plate. Having beef with console makers is an intentional (and often fun!) part of its marketing strategy, and Nintendo is a frequent target - like that Zelda skin that was a middle finger to Nintendo's lawyers, or the (not) Animal Crossing" one.Much of what Dbrand is showing and what Ijaz is saying lines up with a video from SwitchUp showing what it calls a Switch 2 mockup sent to them by a case manufacturer. That mockup is clearly larger than today's existing Switch OLED, and the new Joy-Cons are clearly bigger than the old Joy-Cons. You can also see the second square button under the home button there, the larger button under the triggers that presumably ejects them from the console, and a wide kickstand similar to the one on the Switch OLED.One other nice addition? A second USB-C port on the top of the mockup, which theoretically means you'll be able to plug in a charging cable while you're using it in tabletop mode; with the current Switch, the charging port on the bottom is blocked when you're standing it up on a table.While we're still waiting for Nintendo to actually announce concrete details about the Switch 2, the company has shared that the console will be able to play current Switch games and it will have Nintendo Switch Online as well.Correction, December 13th: Ijaz says he measured the Switch 2 triggers wrong; they extend 9.1mm, not 14.1mm.

The Colorsoft is Amazon's first Kindle with a color screen, but some users noticed colors they didn't want. | Photo: Andrew Liszewski / The Verge Amazon is once again shipping its Kindle Colorsoft. This follows reports of the company's first color e-reader exhibiting a yellow discolored strip at the bottom of the e-reader's display - including The Verge's review unit. The Colorsoft's listing on Amazon's website says the company is making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward," but some customers are still seeing the issue on replacement units that recently arrived.Several Reddit users who experienced the yellow discoloration issue on their original Colorsoft units and have received replacements in the last two weeks say the issue is still present, but much less noticeable. One user says the screens on their original and replacement Colorsofts have different hues which may contribute to the yellow bar looking less prominent on the replacement," while another says the replacement's screen is darker than the original" but that the color really pops more in the replacement."Amazon is also sending The Verge a replacement Kindle Colorsoft unit. When asked what adjustments were being made to the Colorsoft to address the display issue, Amazon spokesperson Devon Corvasce said in a statement emailed to The Verge that it was a combination of software and display adjustments."

A leaked image of the new Lenovo Legion Go. | Image via Evan Blass Earlier today, Evan Blass revealed an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S handheld gaming PC with an extremely intriguing twist: a Steam button that suggests it could be the first third-party SteamOS handheld, and thus the first true competitor to the Steam Deck.But that handheld gaming PC apparently won't be alone: Blass just provided The Verge with these images of a new, larger Lenovo Legion Go as well.As you can see, this Legion Go plans to keep the detachable Joy-Con like gamepads and kickstand that were the single most distinctive features of the original - and they'll keep the FPS mode" where you can plop one of those controllers on a disc-shaped skate and use it like a vertical mouse. Image via Evan Blass But one model may also swap out the Legion Go's 8.8-inch IPS LCD screen for one with an OLED panel at the same size, according to the original filenames of these images. That should mean improved colors and deeper blacks, and potentially improved response times.We don't have any specs or marketing claims yet, though, like the all-important battery life size. Nor have we gotten a glimpse of the ports on this system. There is an AMD Z2 Extreme chip coming that could likely be the core of this handheld, but we don't yet know. Image via Evan Blass In my review of the original Legion Go, I was mixed on the detachable controllers with their sharp-ish edges and loads of extra mouse buttons that made them awkward to hold. These one seem to be far more smoothly sculpted, though, with revised mouse buttons on the right detachable pad, and a cover you can place over the mounting rail so the copper charging pins don't poke your palm.The images we've seen do not feature a Steam button, so it's quite likely Lenovo is still hedging its bets with Windows in addition to SteamOS.But we are much more confident in our prediction that the smaller Lenovo Legion Go S will be a SteamOS handheld. Blass showed me filenames that suggest the S will be powered by" Steam, mirroring Valve's new branding guidelines for Powered by SteamOS" devices.Valve defines Powered by SteamOS" as hardware running the SteamOS operating system, implemented in close collaboration with Valve."We've reached out to Valve and Lenovo to hopefully learn more.

Photo by Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images Donald Trump's transition team is taking aim at a Biden-era rule requiring automakers and tech companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles, according to Reuters. Scrapping the crash reporting rule would greatly benefit Tesla, which to date, has reported the most number of crashes.In 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a standing general order (SGO) requiring automakers and tech companies to report crashes involving autonomous vehicles as well as Level 2 driver-assist systems found in millions of vehicles on the road today. Companies are now required to document collisions when an automated driving system was in use within 30 seconds of impact and report those incidents to the government.The idea was to create more transparency around the deployment of a new technology that purports to improve safety but has also been tied to a number of deadly incidents. Regulators argued that more data was needed to determine whether these new systems were making roads safer or simply making driving more convenient.Tesla, in particular, came under scrutiny. The company's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, which are considered Level 2 systems that require drivers to pay attention, are both covered under the rule. Since it was implemented, Tesla has reported over 1,500 crashes to the federal government, Reuters says. An analysis of the crash data shows Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to NHTSA through October of this year.Tesla's numbers were much higher than other companies, most likely due to the fact that it sells more vehicles equipped with Level 2 systems than its rivals and collects more data. But it also resulted in a huge headache for the company. NHTSA has launched several investigations into Tesla's driver-assist technology, most of which centered on crashes reported under the SGO.Several sources close to Tesla told Reuters that the company despises" the standing general order and concluded that it would need a change in administration in order to get rid of it. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was one of Trump's most vocal defenders, spending at least $277 million of his own money to back his campaign. Musk has since been appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of cutting government spending.Trump is also considering getting rid of other policies opposed by Tesla, including generous subsidies for EV companies. Musk believes Tesla is better positioned to weather a subsidy-free environment than other automakers due to its scale and maturity. Musk is also lobbying Trump to ease restrictions on fully autonomous vehicles in advance of Tesla's plans to produce its own robotaxi in 2026.

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images The US Department of Energy announced a $1.25 billion loan to electric vehicle charging company EVgo as the Biden administration races to finalize its spending on EVs before Donald Trump takes office. The money will fund EVgo's plans to install approximately 7,500 chargers at roughly 1,100 charging stations across the US over the next five years, with a particular focus on fast-charging 350kW stalls that can charge two vehicles simultaneously.But more importantly, it shows how President Joe Biden is intent on doling out as much money for EV projects as he can before leaving office. Trump has promised to reverse or cancel much of the spending by Biden on EVs once he assumes office. He has said he will kill the $7,500 tax credit for new EV purchases and wipe out the rest of the spending from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on EV charging infrastructure.President Joe Biden is intent on doling out as much money for EV projects as he can before leaving officeWith a little more than a month left in office, Biden's Energy Department has been furiously approving EV-related loans. Stellantis and Samsung were given preliminary approval for $7.54 billion for a battery factory in Indiana, while Rivian will receive $6.6 billion for an EV plant in Georgia.The loans are also intended to be job creators, the administration says. For example, EVgo said its expansion project will support the creation of 180 external construction jobs and over 550 maintenance and support jobs.EVgo, which is based in Los Angeles, is working with General Motors on the installation of thousands of EV chargers across the country. The companies recently celebrated the activation of their 2,000th charging stall.The fragmented and frustrating nature of our current EV charging landscape has been widely - and correctly - cited as one of the most significant barriers to EV adoption. Owners frequently complain about unreliable charging or broken equipment as one of the most frustrating things about driving an EV.After his election, Biden vowed to build 500,000 chargers by 2030 as a way to spur more EV sales, including $7.5 billion for charging expansion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. While the first few years of funding were rather sluggish, recent updates have shown that things are finally picking up.In its release, the DOE said, there are currently more than 204,000 publicly available charging ports, with nearly 38,000 new public chargers already having been added this year and nearly 1,000 new public chargers being added every week thanks to a combination of direct federal funding, federal tax incentives, state and local funding, and private investment."That includes both Level 2 chargers and DC fast chargers. That's roughly double the number of ports in operation at the outset of 2021 when Biden first took office.

Anker's slim MagSafe power bank now supports Qi2 wireless charging speeds. | Image: Anker Anker has released its thinnest MagSafe-compatible power bank, measuring about a third of an inch thick. It's only got a 5,000mAh battery inside, so you probably won't get two full iPhone charges with it, but Anker has updated it with 15W Qi2 wireless charging speeds so your phone can charge faster.It's currently available exclusively through Apple's online and retail stores for $49.95 in either blue or white, making it $10 more expensive than the older MagGo 621 Magnetic Battery that Anker still sells through its website. For comparison, the older version of the 5K battery is 0.45-inches thick and only supports wireless charging speeds up to 7.5W.The bidirectional USB-C port on the bottom of the power bank can charge it or other devices at 20W. However, when both power outputs are in use, wireless charging speeds drop to 5W, while the USB-C port slows to 12W. The battery is compatible with iPhone models going back to the iPhone 12, but it will also work with Android devices that fully support the Qi2 specifications.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning Americans about game-like online job scams" that get people to perform tasks with the promise of a continuous income stream - only to be duped into giving money to the scammer. The FTC says in the first six months of this year, these task scams" have raked in over $220 million from victims, often in the form of cryptocurrency. It's accounted for about 40 percent of all scam reports in 2024.There were 20,000 reports of task scams in the first half of 2024, a sharp increase from only 5,000 from 2020-2023.These scams often start with a WhatsApp or text message to a victim asking them to do tasks about app optimization" or product boosting." Sometimes, the scammers initially pay small amounts of money to seem trustworthy. Afterward, they convince victims to pay into some tasks with the promise of a larger payout, and then the scammers run away with the money. Image: FTC These are the three tips the FTC listed to avoid getting scammed:

Image: Evan Blass (X) Valve revealed earlier this year that it will support the ROG Ally handheld with its Steam Deck operating system, and now it looks like Lenovo will soon have its own SteamOS handheld, too. Evan Blass has posted images of an unannounced Lenovo Legion Go S on X today, revealing black and white variants of a handheld gaming PC. The interesting part? The black one has a Steam button.While the low resolution images don't immediately scream SteamOS, if you look closely you'll notice a Steam logo is visible on a button to the left of the display. Interestingly, the white model doesn't have the same Steam button - which could indicate Lenovo is preparing Windows- and SteamOS-powered models of its Legion Go S. Image: Evan Blass (X) You can clearly see a Steam logo on the button to the left of the display. PC makers like Lenovo, Asus, and MSI have all opted for Windows-based handhelds so far, but as consumer patience with Windows on tiny screens wears thin and Microsoft's progress in improving the experience is slow, it seems like OEMs are looking for a better alternative.Lenovo's potential entry into a SteamOS handheld comes just days after Valve quietly updated a document with new branding guidelines that include Powered by SteamOS" hardware. It's the surest sign yet that Valve is working with more third-party hardware manufacturers, beyond Asus, to certify devices with SteamOS. With CES 2025 just a few weeks away, we could be about to witness a lot more SteamOS-powered hardware.Valve has been here before, though. At CES in 2013, it tried to tempt PC manufacturers to sign up to its Steam Machines initiative, but it didn't get far enough with developers to convince them to port games to Linux to make these machines successful. There's reason to believe this time things will be very different, thanks to Proton. The Steam Deck uses the Proton software compatibility layer and has already proved that many Windows games can even run better on Linux as a result.As my colleague Sean Hollister wrote earlier this month: it's just as intriguing an idea as it was 12 years ago when Gabe Newell explained the initial vision to us, and this time, there's a far better chance it'll work."

Illustration: The Verge Google's NotebookLM and its podcast-like Audio Overviews have been a surprise hit this year, and today Google company is starting to roll out a big new feature: the ability to actually talk with the AI hosts" of the overviews.When the feature is available to you, you can try it out with new Audio Overviews. (It won't work with old ones.) Here's how, according to a blog post: