The Verge - All Posts

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Nearly two years after it first debuted, Panic has caught up on preorders for its adorable Playdate handheld. The company says that it has shipped more than 70,000 of the tiny yellow gadgets - up from 50,000 last April - and that there is now a limited number" in stock to purchase right now on Panic's site. (The news comes just a day after Analogue announced a similar milestone for its Pocket handheld.)Going forward, Panic will notify the public when Playdates are in-stock and ready to ship," the company explains. Customers will still be able to place an order for a Playdate when it is out of stock, but will be notified that their order won't ship until Panic has a new batch of Playdates ready to ship." Speaking to The Verge, Greg... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Apple TV Plus has some more aliens on the way. The streaming service has confirmed that its sci-fi drama Invasion will be getting a third season, after wrapping up season 2 in October. There aren't many details about the new season - including when it might start streaming - but production is set to begin sometime in February.In a statement, series creator Simon Kinberg said, This new season will continue to build on the scale, stakes and propulsion of the Invasion, while keeping our characters front and center, bringing them together in ways that will hopefully surprise and most importantly move our audience, who have been so incredibly supportive and inspiring since day one."Invasion originally premiered in 2021; after a slow start,... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Passkeys: how do they work? No, like, seriously. It's clear that the industry is increasingly betting on passkeys as a replacement for passwords, a way to use the internet that is both more secure and more user-friendly. But for all that upside, it's not always clear how we, the normal human users, are supposed to use passkeys. You're telling me it's just a thing... that lives on my phone? What if I lose my phone? What if you steal my phone?On this episode of The Vergecast, we bring in an expert: Anna Pobletts, the head of passwordless (best title ever?) at 1Password. She has been working on all things post-password for a long time and has seen every use case you can think of. She's convinced that passkeys are the future but also has... Continue reading...

Roborock's entry-level robot vacuum comes with dual rubber brushes, which are far better at removing pet hair from rugs than single brushes. Our furry friends are adorable, perfect little angels in every way except for one: they can leave one hell of a mess. Thankfully, the Roborock Q5 Pro is available from Amazon and Roborock starting at $319.97 ($110 off), which is an all-time on the excellent midrange robot vacuum.Thanks to a pair of dual rubber roller brushes and 5,200 Pa of suction power, the Q5 Pro sucks up pet hair and dirt from carpets impressively well - so well, in fact, we named it our top robovac pick for families with pets. Although it can't empty itself or scrub your floors, its removable mopping pad does come in handy when the dog walks in with wet, muddy paws. The robot vacuum also features a massive 770ml bin with big wheels that enable it to easily climb... Continue reading...

Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images Even though New York City schools shut down ahead of the heavy snowfall expected to blanket the area for most of Tuesday, the city is still requiring kids to attend remotely. The only problem is: schools couldn't actually get the remote learning system working.At 8:22AM ET, the NYC Public Schools account on X said that it's currently experiencing issues with services that require IBM authentication to login." The issue is preventing students from logging into Google Classroom so they can attend class remotely, according to local news station PIX11.

Otter's AI Chat in Channels. | Image: Otter AI Otter, the automated transcription service, is rolling out a new AI feature that lets groups ask a chatbot questions about what happened in their past meetings. It takes information from all the meetings that group members were in and answers prompts like, What did we decide on yesterday?"The feature is called AI Chat in Channels," and it basically opens up Otter's AI chats to a group instead of the single-user experience they are now. Channels, which can be found within the Otter platform, function a lot like Slack chats. They let people talk with frequent collaborators and share transcripts with each other.Most generative AI chat features - the kinds that trawl through a user's agenda or emails - are normally only available in... Continue reading...

I've got a long way to get to Mordor, but an imaginary destination can be more fun than metrics. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge In mid-November, my nagging calf strain became a full-blown injury. Techtember and Techtober kicked my butt. My grandma died. Also, my lease was running out and I had about two weeks to find somewhere to live. These are the perfect conditions for a fitness slump.Slumps happen to everyone. But I still beat myself up pretty hard. I review wearables and fitness tech for a living, but that doesn't make me immune to the toxic aspects of fitness culture. Didn't my failure to perform, even during difficult times, make me a fraud? With each run, I found myself chasing a past version of myself who was thinner, faster, and stronger. Logically, I knew better, but it was depressing. On Christmas, I was cleaning out my old apartment by myself,... Continue reading...

Image: Nvidia Nvidia is releasing an early version of Chat with RTX today, a demo app that lets you run a personal AI chatbot on your PC. You can feed it YouTube videos and your own documents to create summaries and get relevant answers based on your own data. It all runs locally on a PC, and all you need is an RTX 30- or 40-series GPU with at least 8GB of VRAM.I've been briefly testing out Chat with RTX over the past day, and although the app is a little rough around the edges, I can already see this being a valuable part of data research for journalists or anyone who needs to analyze a collection of documents.Chat with RTX can handle YouTube videos, so you simply input a URL, and it lets you search transcripts for specific mentions or summarize an... Continue reading...

The Halcyon is a sleek roadster with a lot of interesting things to say about Chrysler's future | (C) 2024 Stellantis Chrysler, on the cusp of turning 100 next year, used to make a variety of models but is now a brand mostly known for its Pacifica minivans. But today, the company is attempting to make a bold statement about its future by introducing a concept car that is about as far from a minivan as you can get.The Chrysler Halcyon concept is a stunning, high-tech roadster with an electric powertrain and fully autonomous capabilities. And while the automaker doesn't have any immediate plans to put it into production, the Halcyon is intended to demonstrate that the minivan company is doing more than just sitting around and thinking about, well, minivans. Image: (C) 2024 Stellantis We want Chrysler to be advanced, for sure,"... Continue reading...

Superlist is for tasks - and all the other stuff that comes with them. | Image: Superlist If you're a lover of to-do list apps, there's a good chance you miss Wunderlist. A decade ago - when apps that were both useful and delightful were even harder to come by - Wunderlist was both full of useful features and whimsical in a way few apps manage. The app had nice animations, beautiful backgrounds, worked across platforms, and offered all kinds of organizational features. It was The Verge's favorite to-do list app.Then, long story short, Microsoft bought it in 2015, morphed it into Microsoft To Do (a very good and much less delightful tasks app), and killed Wunderlist forever. But a group of the folks who made Wunderlist in the first place, led by co-founder Christian Reber, set out to bring its spirit back to life.Three years... Continue reading...

Nothing's last phone, the Phone 2. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Nothing has announced a March 5th launch date for its upcoming Phone 2A in a new video posted today, and has confirmed that it'll be available in the US as part of a Developer Program" rather than a widespread, official release. No specs, images, or pricing of the device were revealed - for that we'll have to wait for the full announcement next month when we'll also get full details of Nothing's developer program. The event will take place at 11:30AM GMT (6:30AM ET), the company confirmed on X.The Developer Program sounds like a similar release approach to the one Nothing took with its original Phone 1, which came to the US as part of a Beta Membership" that saw interested customers pay $299 to test" the phone. In contrast, last... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In an email sent to users Monday evening, Peloton revealed that starting February 27th, it will start transitioning Apple Watch users from GymKit to Peloton One-Tap tracking.GymKit integration was once marketed by Peloton as an exclusive perk of its more expensive Bike Plus, but it's become less of a draw in recent years. The company launched an Apple Watch integration in 2022 that brought Apple Watch calorie and heart-rate tracking to any Peloton machine, similar to many other fitness apps.As a result, if you linked your Peloton to an Apple Watch more recently, you may not even notice the change. The company has been directing users to only use GymKit if they haven't installed the latest software updates on their machines. ... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has confirmed it's not a mistake - your Amazon Prime Video subscription no longer includes Dolby Vision HDR or Dolby Atmos surround sound. That's on top of the ads that Amazon injected into the service on January 29th. Now, when you pay $2.99 a month to remove those ads, you can get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos back as well.That's the word from 4KFilme, which discovered that their smart TVs from Sony, LG, and Samsung were now displaying content in HDR10 with Dolby Digital 5.1 as opposed to the higher fidelity options they'd enjoyed previously.Amazon spokesperson Katie Barker confirms to The Verge that it's a deliberate move: Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities are only available on the ad free option, on relevant... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Apple's response to Beeper Mini - the app that briefly brought iMessage to Android. During the State of the Net Conference on Monday, Carr said the FCC should look into whether Apple's move complies with the FCC's Part 14 rules" about accommodating users with disabilities.Beeper Mini launched last year, allowing Android users to gain access to iMessage features, including blue message bubbles and the ability to send high-quality photos and videos. However, Apple quickly blocked Beeper Mini users and continued to shut down attempts to make the app work, leading its developers to eventually just give up.

Collins spacesuit during the test | Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace, a private company hired to create spacesuits for use outside the International Space Station (ISS), has tested its suit aboard a commercial microgravity flight, passing a milestone that lets engineers move forward toward critical design review.NASA outsourced the design of new spacesuits in 2022 after spending 15 years trying to develop new suits on its own. Collins Aerospace said the suit is lighter and has less volume than the enhanced" Extravehicular Mobility Units that current NASA astronauts use. It can be modified when missions change and fit a much wider range of body types far more easily than the older suits that are based on designs that are decades old.During the test, the plane executed... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Were you aware that the .af" domain extension is administered by Afghanistan's government? That's a truth that the queer.af" Mastodon instance is now reckoning with as the Taliban, which has controlled the country since 2021, has shut down the domain, according to 404 Media. And it may not be alone, given reports that other .af domains have abruptly gone dark, too.Erin Shepherd, the administrator of the instance and key ActivityPub developer, told the outlet they were already planning to shut things down" instead of renewing in April, but that the early termination was a surprise. An email from the Afghanistan Ministry of Communications and IT that Shepherd posted said that the queer.af domain had been suspended and that websites or... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft With rumors of some Xbox games coming to PS5 and Switch, Microsoft gets ready to lay out its vision for the future of Xbox. Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Threads is rolling out a new test in the US that shows a list of popular topics that other users are discussing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Threads. The list will appear on the search page and in the For You feed, allowing you to browse through posts about a particular topic.In addition to testing a way to save posts, Meta recently said it will add controls to limit political content recommendations on Threads.Instagram head Adam Mosseri says Threads uses machine learning AI systems to determine what goes on the list. It takes into account how many people are talking about a certain topic, as well as how many people have interacted with posts about it. Image: Meta Top topics should hopefully... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The US government has committed $42 million to further the development of the 5G Open RAN (O-RAN) standard that would allow wireless providers to mix and match cellular hardware and software, opening up a bigger market for third-party equipment that's cheaper and interoperable. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) grant would establish a Dallas O-RAN testing center to prove the standard's viability as a way to head off Huawei's steady cruise toward a global cellular network hardware monopoly.Verizon global network and technology president Joe Russo promoted the funding as a way to achieve faster innovation in an open environment." To achieve the standard's goals, AT&T vice president of RAN technology R... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After weeks of rumors of Xbox exclusives coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, Microsoft is now planning to discuss its vision for the future of Xbox at an event later this week. Microsoft's Xbox business update event will take place on Thursday, February 15th at 12PM PT / 3PM ET.Weeks of rumors suggest that Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and even Bethesda titles like Starfield and Indiana Jones could appear on non-Xbox platforms. Microsoft hasn't addressed these rumors directly, but Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer didn't dismiss them last week. We're listening and we hear you," said Spencer, before announcing the Xbox business update event.

Image: The Verge An all-in-one security camera with motion-activated light and continuous power, an outdoor floodlight camera is a simple way to add safety and security to your home's perimeter. Continue reading...

Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images The biggest change in sports broadcasting since cable TV bursts onto the small screen this fall. ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery are poised to launch a new streaming experience that encompasses live content from just about every major sports league. The joint venture came as such a surprise that not even the sports leagues themselves were aware of the plan. Because big team-ups like this often end in fights down the line.But the joint venture makes sense. Viewers have wanted an easier way to stream their favorite sports for years, and bringing the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), college football, PGA Tour, Grand Slam Tennis, US Soccer, and even NASCAR under a... Continue reading...

The Verge Fandom, which hosts wikis for many fandoms, will roll out generative AI features that it previously tested but now promises users will be able to opt out.The most prominent AI-generated feature is Quick Answers, which generates a Q&A-style dropdown that distills information into a bite-sized sentence. When visiting the wiki for The Witcher, for instance, anyone curious to find out who trained Geralt of Rivia can click on the question and learn that the answer is Vesemir.Fandom will also add AI to its image review process to ensure quick and accurate removal of inappropriate content." The company worked with Coactive AI to develop Image Review. Wiki admins can automatically approve or reject photos. The company said it will add... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Stellantis, parent company to storied brands like Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge, said it will adopt Tesla's electric vehicle charging plug for its future EVs - becoming the last major car company to do so.Stellantis said its first EVs to feature the SAE J3400 plug, also known as Tesla's North American Charging Standard, will be out in 2025. During the transition period, the company said it will provide adapters to customers who own EVs with Combined Charging Standard, or CCS, plugs.The company sells a range of plug-in hybrid vehicles, as well as battery-electric models, most of which are available in Europe. A slate of upcoming EVs, including fully electric Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler models, are planned for the next several years.The... Continue reading...

San Francisco 49ers' Brock Purdy throws during Super Bowl LVIII. | Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Tens of millions of people gathered together to watch the Super Bowl last night - but they weren't all watching it at exactly the same time. Cable streams of the game delivered footage that was around 50 seconds behind what was happening on the field, and the figure for online streaming services was even worse. Some viewers were watching a stream that was a minute-and-a-half behind the real world, leaving plenty of time for social media posts and push notifications to spoil what was about to happen in the game.The figures, from streaming tech company Phenix, show that streaming still has a ways to go to catch up with other - and, often, older - methods of watching TV. Hulu, NFL Plus, and DirecTV Stream were on average more than a minute... Continue reading...

AI, once an ambiguous science fiction trope, has become an ambiguous business buzzword, as every technology product races to implement what Silicon Valley thinks is the greatest innovation since the internet. But lost in the conversation are stories about the people building it and using it. If large language models and automated systems will, indeed, upend labor and capital, what does it actually look like in practice? In this package, we'll explore the ways AI functions today: how people are using it, where it fails and where it succeeds, and what it actually means when we say artificial intelligence." Continue reading...

Photo by Ashish Vaishnav/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Microsoft appears to be readying its own DLSS-like AI upscaling feature for PC games. X user PhantomOcean3 discovered the feature inside the latest test versions of Windows 11 over the weekend, with Microsoft describing its automatic super resolution as a way to use AI to make supported games play more smoothly with enhanced details."That sounds a lot like Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, which uses AI to upscale games and improve frame rates and image quality. AMD and Intel also offer their own variants, with FSR and XeSS both growing in popularity in recent PC game releases. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge A new AI super resolution feature has been discovered in Windows 11 test... Continue reading...

Super Bowl merchandise is ready at the NFL Super Bowl Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. | Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images Art, AI, and everything in between. Continue reading...

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images You don't need to sign up for a pricey cable package just to watch the Super Bowl today, February 11th. Plenty of streaming services from Fubo to Philo TV are offering free trials, with Paramount Plus arguably offering the best deal.Today only, new subscribers can sign up for a free month of ad-free Paramount Plus with Showtime when they use offer code GOAT. The promotion means you'll have access to a whole library of content to keep you entertained once the Big Game is over. In addition to live sports, Paramount Plus and Showtime's catalog includes thousands of TV shows and movies such as Star Trek, 1923, Yellowjackets, Scream VI, Dexter, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and more. Just make sure to cancel your trial period... Continue reading...

Now you can turn your Apple Cash card into a Visa card. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge The iOS 17.4 beta lets iPhone users generate a virtual card number for Apple Cash, reports 9to5Mac, citing user reports on Reddit in the last couple of weeks. With a virtual card number, iPhone users can pay with Apple Cash even when Apple Pay isn't available, removing one of the big limitations of Apple's built-in Venmo-like service.I'm seeing the option in the 17.4 beta as well, but as 9to5Mac notes, its possible it hasn't been rolled out to every beta user. It's easy to check if you have it, though. Simply open the Wallet app, tap on your Apple Cash card, and look for a message below your balance invites you to set up a virtual card number - doing so is a simple, two-step procedure. Screenshots: Wes Davis / The... Continue reading...

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 25, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith (which is awesome) and Argylle (which is not), reading about the tech vs. media wars, AI-created fake IDs, and multibillion-dollar arenas, debating canceling Amazon Prime, and trying out Crouton for managing recipes and grocery lists.I also have for you Google's new AI tools, a new-ish social network, a better take on Google Docs, a new weather app worth checking out, and a bunch more. Let's dig in.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What... Continue reading...

Image: LucasFilm / Disney Pod races, trade negotiations, and Darth Maul will be on the big screen once more when Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comes back to theaters on May 3rd, 2024. The return is meant to celebrate the 1999 movie's 25th anniversary, reports Empire.The return to theaters comes during a renaissance for this part of the long-running franchise. In the last few years, Disney has given the prequel era the nod with series like Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Bad Batch. Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker in the second and third movies, told Empire in an interview that his experience with Star Wars has been a very heartwarming one," and that the response to them today feels like vindication for the work we did."Disney and... Continue reading...