The Verge - All Posts

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 23, 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 reading about the sudden rise in freight train heists and the strange state of Air Jordans, watching Jon Stewart's Mark Twain Prize speeches all over again, wondering if I should buy an original Macintosh on eBay instead of continuing to pay my mortgage, scheming to get my hands on the real" Star Wars lightsaber, tracking at-home workouts with Weller, and trying to replace doomscrolling on my phone with the Chess.com app.I also have for you a new show from the Silicon Valley creator,... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge X says it will hire 100 full-time employees for a new trust and safety office in Austin, Texas, according to a Saturday report by Bloomberg. The plan comes, as the article notes, just a few days before CEO Linda Yaccarino's scheduled January 31st hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding X's handling of child sexual exploitation moderation.The team would reportedly focus mainly on CSE and would be the first proper trust and safety team since Elon Musk gutted it shortly after purchasing the platform formerly known as Twitter. X updated a blog post about its CSE moderation approach to mention the new office yesterday, as well, though it doesn't reveal what the new team will be doing, nor when the office will open.The... Continue reading...

Nomad's minimalist Base One Max 3-in-1 is on sale for $95. | Image: Nomad Fancy phone chargers are nice, but they're often too expensive to justify the cost. Nomad's Base One Max 3-in-1 is one of those rare unicorns that delivers a lot of value for your money, however, thus making it worth the splurge. After all, the device can simultaneously charge a MagSafe-compatible phone, your Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods (or another Qi-compatible device) - that's something not even Nomad's forthcoming Qi2 charger can do. What's even better is that Nomad is currently selling the hefty, MagSafe-certified charger in both black and silver for its Black Friday price of $95 ($55 off).Designed with metal and glass, Nomad's minimalist slab will look slick on any desk or bedside table. It's also powerful, delivering up to... Continue reading...

Still frame from a teaser reel of Lumiere clips | Image: Google Google's new video generation AI model Lumiere uses a new diffusion model called Space-Time-U-Net, or STUNet, that figures out where things are in a video (space) and how they simultaneously move and change (time). Ars Technica reports this method lets Lumiere create the video in one process instead of putting smaller still frames together.Lumiere starts with creating a base frame from the prompt. Then, it uses the STUNet framework to begin approximating where objects within that frame will move to create more frames that flow into each other, creating the appearance of seamless motion. Lumiere also generates 80 frames compared to 25 frames from Stable Video Diffusion.Admittedly, I am more of a text reporter than a video person, but... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Many of us are hyperaware of the multitude of ways we can be tracked with modern technology, so you may feel like you don't need to add another to the mix. But knowing the whereabouts of trusted friends and family can be useful a lot of the time, and it's something you can do from your Android phone.It's worth saying at the start that you stay in control of who can see you and when - and you can stop location sharing at any time if someone in your life goes from being trusted to distrusted.I've used this many times to figure out where to meet someone or to check when guests are going to arrive so I know exactly how much time I've got left to tidy up. It can be helpful for parents, too, to know their kids are safe and where they're... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Was it a joyous outage where you got to relax, or did something mission-critical go wrong? Either way, a portion" of Microsoft Teams went down Friday for over eight hours - with outages in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to status updates from Microsoft's official account.At 8:17PM ET Friday, Microsoft tweeted that the worst is over, but that the company was still mopping up, with a handful of issues still ongoing. Shortly after midnight Saturday, the company called the all-clear: we've confirmed that our Microsoft Teams service and features have been restored or have returned to optimal health," it writes.So yeah, if you couldn't communicate with your colleagues via Microsoft's biz comm... Continue reading...

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Legislation needs to be passed to protect people from fake sexual images generated by AI, the White House said this afternoon. The statement, from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, came in response to a question about the spread of fake sexualized photos of Taylor Swift on social media this week.Jean-Pierre called the incident alarming" and said it's among the AI issues the Biden administration has been prioritizing.Of course Congress should take legislative action," Jean-Pierre said. That's how you deal with some of these issues." She did not refer to any specific legislation that the White House was backing.There should be legislation, obviously, to deal with this issue."The images spread across X in particular on... Continue reading...

Image: Beeper In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Beeper announced it's removing the Beeper Mini app from the Google Play Store and moving the iMessage bridge to the Labs" section of its cloud version. No new users will be able to use Beeper Cloud to gain entry into Apple's messaging service, but the chat app acknowledged that iMessage may still work on Beeper Cloud for some existing users. Beeper also made the iMessage bridge (which it noted cost $750,000 to build) open source.The company doesn't plan to provide help or troubleshooting to current users who run into problems with the iMessage fix, as it's now fully focused on our mission beyond iMessage" and building a universal, multi-network chat app."After Apple blocked Beeper's iMessage for... Continue reading...

Image: Mozilla Apple's new rules in the European Union mean browsers like Firefox can finally use their own engines on iOS. Although this may seem like a welcome change, Mozilla spokesperson Damiano DeMonte tells The Verge it's extremely disappointed" with the way things turned out.We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple's proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps," DeMonte says. The effect of this would be to force an independent browser like Firefox to build and maintain two separate browser implementations - a burden Apple themselves will not have to bear."In iOS 17.4, Apple will no longer force browsers in the EU to use WebKit, the underlying engine that... Continue reading...

Is this what Gen Z really looks like? | Image: Getty Okay, Gen Z. Sit down, babes. It's time to talk.I have seen multiple reports that you are worried about whether you are aging like milk." (I guess this is a thing on TikTok, an app I am too old to care about.) Like, yes, I think it is extremely funny to tease you, but also, generally, I like you guys and am kind of worried about how neurotic you are making yourselves. It is - to borrow a phrase - time to stop, drop, and roll yourself back to sanity.Do you know how many times since my 40th birthday I have uttered the magic words: I am 40. I don't have to care about this"?I am not interested in the question of whether you are aging faster than millennials. I don't think you're scared of looking old. I think you're scared of being old.... Continue reading...

OnePlus' no-frills flagship stands tall against the competition. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge With the impending launch of Samsung's Galaxy S24 series, OnePlus surely hopes to hitch a ride on the buzz train as upgrade season begins. The newly announced OnePlus 12 arrives on February 6th, however, you can currently get a free storage upgrade if you place a preorder before then. Both Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 512GB model with 16GB of RAM in black or green for $799.99 ($100 off). You'll note that the price tag is identical to the price of the lower-end, 256GB model, so there's no good reason to pass up double the storage if you plan on buying OnePlus' latest Android phone at launch.We've already had some personal time with the OnePlus 12, and while it's not exactly blowing the competition away in any specific area, we... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple is finally opening up the iPhone to sideloading and alternative app stores - at least in the European Union. It's also allowing developers to use third-party payment processors in their apps. This is all part of Apple's efforts to comply with the EU's new Digital Markets Act (DMA), and at the surface, these changes make it seem like Apple is giving in to regulatory pressure.But some developers are already responding with criticism about Apple's new guidelines. Epic Games CEO (and part-time Apple critic) Tim Sweeney notably called out the changes as hot garbage," even as Epic announced it would be launching its own app store through them. That's because Apple's new business terms come with some pretty big disadvantages -... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple is finally opening the iPhone to third-party app stores in the European Union, kicking off a potentially vibrant, unwieldy, and eclectic new era for its app ecosystem. At least, it might, depending on how developers respond to a hurdle that is at once tiny and immense: a 0.50 fee.Apple is introducing a new fee structure for apps that want to operate on these third-party stores. On the surface, it looks great: apps pay no cut of sales to Apple if they're distributed via a third-party store. And if a developer still wants to be distributed via Apple's App Store, too, the cut drops from the traditional 30 percent fee down to 17 percent. It's an even lower 10 percent fee for qualifying small business" apps, down from the original 15... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft revealed last week that it had discovered a nation-state attack on its corporate systems from the Russian state-sponsored hackers that were behind the SolarWinds attack. Hackers were able to access the email accounts of some members of Microsoft's senior leadership team - potentially spying on them for weeks or months.While Microsoft didn't provide many details on how the attackers gained access in its initial SEC disclosure late on Friday, the software maker has now published an initial analysis of how the hackers got past its security. It's also warning that the same hacking group, known as Nobelium or as the Midnight Blizzard" weather-themed moniker Microsoft refers to them, has been targeting other organizations.N... Continue reading...

Putting the temperature sensor on the rear... was certainly a choice for body temperature scans. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Earlier this week, Google updated the Pixel 8 Pro to let its strange new temperature sensor finally take readings of human bodies. I regret to inform you that, having used it, it doesn't make this feature any less baffling.To measure body temperature, you have to sweep the phone's infrared temperature sensor over the side of your forehead, right above the temporal artery. So far, nothing super odd here. Just this month, I got to check out the Withings BeamO, a 4-in-1 multiscope that also has you scan the same kind of sensor over the same artery to measure your temperature. The difference is the BeamO was quite easy to use, while the Pixel 8 Pro was incredibly finicky. Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge You've... Continue reading...

Twinkly's smart string lights can make any room look dreamy for less than $50. | Image: Twinkly If budget-friendly" and high-quality" sound like oxymorons to you, you're in for a surprise. As it turns out, you can buy many great gifts without completely draining your savings account, which makes it easy to pick up a present for your anniversary, a birthday party, or one of the many other gift-giving occasions strewn throughout the year.Finding the right gift can still be tough, though, even when there is a sea of inexpensive items for under $50 to choose from. That's why we've put together a selection of techy gift ideas, ranging from disposable cameras and wireless earbuds to home security gadgets. We've also highlighted an array of last-minute gifts that are more unique than your run-of-the-mill gift card - including game... Continue reading...

In this marshy coastal region between Texas and Louisiana, the proliferation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects, massive facilities that receive and liquefy gas from pipelines, then transfer the LNG to ships for export, unsettles residents, who consider the plants to be a threat to their coast. | Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images The Biden administration announced a pause on new gas export projects today, saying it needs to better assess each project's economic and environmental impact. The decision won't affect ongoing exports, just pending decisions on liquified natural gas (LNG) exports to countries with which the US has no free trade agreement.During this period, we will take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America's energy security, and our environment," Biden said in a statement today. This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time."During this period, we will take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America's energy security, and our... Continue reading...

Samsung's S24 Ultra as announced in the US earlier this month. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung's Galaxy S24 lineup has launched in China, and the company is tapping Chinese tech giant Baidu to power its Galaxy AI features, CNBC reports. There's no mention of Google, whose Gemini foundational models are powering Samsung's Galaxy AI features in Western markets. Instead, the Chinese launch focused on Baidu's Ernie, the chatbot that launched last August.The list of AI translation, summarization, and text formatting features on the Chinese version of the Galaxy S24 will be familiar to anyone who kept up with its US-based launch. There's also real-time call translation like we saw earlier this month, and the phones are even getting a version of Google's Circle to Search feature.Now featuring Ernie's understanding and... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google appears to be readying a version of its popular Chrome browser for Windows on Arm. X (formerly Twitter) user Pedro Justo spotted a native version of the browser for Windows 11 Arm-powered devices in the latest nightly builds of Chrome in the Canary channel.Google's release of a Chrome Canary version for Windows on Arm is a surprise, and we've reached out to the company to clarify when it plans to bring this to the stable channel. I have installed and tested the Canary version to verify it's an ARM64 version. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge An ARM64 native version of Chrome on Windows 11. While Microsoft has long supported an Arm version of its Edge browser, also based on Chromium, Google has... Continue reading...

Beloved US comedian George Carlin (pictured) passed away in 2008 at the age of 72. His estate is now fighting to protect his legacy from AI mimics. | Photo by Mark Junge/Getty Images George Carlin's estate has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Dudesy, the media company that used generative artificial intelligence to produce a fake hour-long comedy special that imitates the deceased star's voice and comedic style. The complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday alleges that Carlin's copyrighted materials and likeness were used without permission or appropriate licenses, calling the special a piece of computer-generated click-bait which detracts from the value of Carlin's comedic works and harms his reputation."The AI-generated special, titled George Carlin: I'm Glad I'm Dead, was released on the Dudesy podcast's YouTube channel on January 9th, where it remains live and has since racked up... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is adding touch controls to its Xbox apps for iOS and Android devices. The software maker started testing the touch controls in beta versions of the Xbox mobile apps this week, allowing Xbox owners to remotely control their consoles and play games on phones and tablets without a Bluetooth controller.The touch controls are identical to the ones found on Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service, providing an on-screen overlay to let you remotely navigate around the Xbox UI and open up games and stream them all from your own console without needing to use a controller. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge The Xbox touch controls work on any game. The touch controls are surprisingly good in a pinch,... Continue reading...

Words in a transcript will light up as the episode progresses. | Image: Apple Apple's first-party Podcasts app is getting support for transcripts in the forthcoming iOS 17.4 update. The company says transcripts will be automatically generated by Apple's software, will appear for English, French, German, and Spanish-language podcasts shortly after they're uploaded, and will be viewable across over 170 countries and regions."The feature should make it far easier to find and skip to the point in a podcast you're most interested in. Transcripts can be searched for specific words and phrases which can be tapped to go directly to the corresponding point in the episode. You can also read along with a transcript as an episode plays, and watch each word be highlighted as it's said out loud. Per 9to5Mac, the feature is... Continue reading...

Even if you already own an Xbox, it wouldn't be the worst idea to buy one as a backup. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge We've seen the original Xbox Series S in white dip below the $249.99 mark over the past several months. But if you missed out on those opportunities, Dell presents another with a sale that brings Microsoft's entry-level gaming console down to $229.99. That's a $70 discount compared to its retail price. We've seen it as low as $199.99, but it's possible we won't see it that low again until the refresh becomes available, so you might consider just spending the extra $30 now.The Xbox Series S gets you most of the way as far as current-gen gaming consoles are concerned. It plays the same games as the Series X, but you're losing a disc drive, 4K resolution (it tops out at QHD but retains up to 120Hz variable refresh rates), and you're only... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge In a blog post, OpenAI said the updated GPT-4 Turbo completes tasks like code generation more thoroughly than the previous preview model and is intended to reduce cases of laziness' where the model doesn't complete a task."The company, however, did not explain what it updated.Some ChatGPT users recently complained about the chatbot frequently refusing to complete prompted tasks and blamed the lack of updates to GPT-4. However, OpenAI's update is for GPT-4 Turbo, a version of the more widely available GPT-4 that was trained on information as recent as April 2023 and is only available in a preview. Those using GPT-4, which learned from data available prior to September 2021, may still experience the same laziness issues.OpenAI said... Continue reading...

Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, tried to send a 45-second video to regulators of an incident in which one of its driverless cars dragged a pedestrian 20 feet but was hampered by internet connectivity issues," according to a report compiled by a law firm investigating the incident.The law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, was hired by Cruise to determine whether its executives misled regulators in the aftermath of the October 2nd incident in which a hit-and-run driver struck a pedestrian, knocking her into the path of a driverless Cruise vehicle. Its conclusions were detailed in a nearly 200-page report that was released today.Cruise also disclosed for the first time that the incident was under... Continue reading...

Fortnite in 2020, when it was banned on the App Store. | Screenshot: Fortnite Epic plans to launch the Epic Games Store on the iPhone this year in the European Union - and it's bringing Fortnite back to the platform along with it.The announcement comes after Apple shared how it will open up iOS in response to the EU's crackdown on Big Tech. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney described Apple's rules as hot garbage," but they are clearly not so hot as to keep Epic away altogether.Epic doesn't have a lot to share about its plans just yet. It says the store will launch later this year," and Fortnite will be available through it. Both will only be available in parts of Europe covered by the Digital Markets Act. Stay tuned for details as we figure out the regulatory timeline," it said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), adding... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has a lot to say about the changes Apple made to its App Store in the European Union. In a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter), Sweeney calls the update a new instance of Malicious Compliance" - or, in layman's terms, hot garbage."This afternoon, Apple announced it would allow sideloading, alternative app stores, and third-party browser engines on the iPhone with the rollout of iOS 17.4 this March. The company will also open up the App Store to game streaming services, and will finally allow developers to use alternative in-app payment options. Apple made the changes to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires large tech companies to follow a strict set of rules aimed at... Continue reading...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an inquiry into the investments of Big Tech companies that provide cloud services to smaller AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.The FTC sent letters to Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, and OpenAI, requiring the companies to explain the impact these investments have on the competitive landscape of generative AI. The commission wants to scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape."Google and Amazon invested in Anthropic, while Microsoft has a close financial relationship with OpenAI.The FTC wants information on the specific investment agreements... Continue reading...

This is the fastest AM4 processor you can upgrade to if you're not ready to buy into AM5. AMD made bank on its Ryzen chipsets on the strength of bored pandemic-era gamers who spent their stimulus checks on new PC builds. Ryzen CPUs offered arguably the best price-to-performance value back then, causing many to go all in on AM4-based systems. AMD has since switched to the next-generation AM5 platform, but there's still plenty of room on the upgrade path for those not interested in shelling out hundreds or thousands on newer hardware. Take the top-line Ryzen 9 5950X, for instance, which has never been cheaper than the $364.99 price currently showing at Amazon (18 percent off).The Ryzen 9 5950X is admittedly overkill for most people. It has 16 physical cores with 32 threads, 3.4GHz base and 4.9GHz boost clock speeds, a very... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Starting today Apple is opening up its App Store to allow game streaming apps and services. This means that services like Xbox Cloud Streaming and GeForce Now, which previously were only accessible on iOS via a web browser, will be able to offer full-featured apps. Developers can now submit a single app with the capability to stream all of the games offered in their catalog," Apple wrote in a blog post. These changes apply worldwide," according to the company.In 2020, Apple appeared to have carved out a space for these cloud gaming services in the App Store. But that turned out not to be the case, as all games available through each service had to be submitted and reviewed as a standalone app. So the shift to allow one app with a... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The iPhone's app ecosystem is about to go through its biggest shake-up since the App Store launched in 2008. Today, Apple announced how it plans to change the rules for developers releasing iOS software in the European Union in response to the bloc's Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March. The big news is that third-party app stores will be allowed on iOS for the first time, breaking the Apple App Store's position as the sole distributor of iPhone apps. The changes will arrive with iOS 17.4 in March.Here's how the new alternative app marketplaces," as Apple called them, will work. Users in the EU and on iOS 17.4 will be able to download a marketplace from that marketplace's website. In order to be used on an iPhone, those... Continue reading...

Many of the posts circulating the offending images are still live. | Illustration: The Verge Sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift have been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) over the last day in the latest example of the proliferation of AI-generated fake pornography and the challenge of stopping it from spreading.One of the most prominent examples on X attracted more than 45 million views, 24,000 reposts, and hundreds of thousands of likes and bookmarks before the verified user who shared the images had their account suspended for violating platform policy. The post was live on the platform for around 17 hours prior to its removal.But as users began to discuss the viral post, the images began to spread and were reposted across other accounts. Many still remain up, and a deluge of new graphic fakes have... Continue reading...

Image: OpenAI When OpenAI announced other people could build their own custom versions of ChatGPT-style chatbots, I was initially only interested in a journalistic way. I knew this was an interesting commercial step for OpenAI, but the value of the store is still an open question. Why should I use most GPTs (as the bots are called), when I can usually call up an app that does the same thing? But I can't deny there's one incredibly useful bot that's changed a (small) part of my work life for the better. It's called What's Another Word For," and I made it myself.What's Another Word For" is a tool to help me find exactly that: another word for terms I overuse. Writing is about 60 percent looking for a synonym to avoid repeating phrases, and it's not... Continue reading...

Hasselblad's latest digital camera is the 100-megapixel 907X & CFV 100C. The resurgence of film photography has shown me that casual photographers are looking for a different experience and a different photographic look from what our phones or traditional mirrorless cameras are offering. And no company can provide as different a camera experience as Hasselblad.Yesterday, the company announced its latest digital camera, the 907X & CFV 100C. It's a mirrorless, medium format camera with a 100-megapixel sensor, phase detection autofocus, and 1TB of internal storage. And although there isn't much new within it - it has the sensor of the Hasselblad X2D 100C put into the 907X body - it signals Hasselblad's continued commitment to a historically elegant way of capturing the world, one that is slow and thoughtful.S... Continue reading...

Image: Blizzard Entertainment In 2022, Blizzard announced that it was making a survival game, which would've marked its first new property since Overwatch debuted in 2016. Now, as part of a recent round of layoffs at Microsoft, the game has been canceled.This morning, Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees in its gaming divisions. The cuts primarily hit staff at Activision Blizzard - which Microsoft acquired in October for $68.7 billion - though some workers at its ZeniMax and Xbox divisions were impacted as well. (The announcement followed similar cuts at League of Legends developer Riot Games, which cut more than 500 jobs earlier this week, part of an ongoing trend of layoffs in the gaming industry.)Today's actions affect multiple teams within Blizzard, including... Continue reading...

Photo by Hakan Nural / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.The cuts work out to roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that stands at around 22,000 employees in total. The Verge has obtained an internal memo from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer that confirms the layoffs:

An employee assembles a fuel cell system in the module final assembly at GM and Honda's fuel cell joint venture in Brownstown, Michigan. | Image: Santa Fabio for General Motors General Motors and Honda announced that their joint venture company, FCSM, has begun production of hydrogen fuel cells that will eventually make their way into various product applications."Hydrogen fuel cells use compressed hydrogen as their fuel, releasing water vapor as its only emission. A number of automakers have recently seized on the technology for its advantages in the development of heavy-duty vehicles and mobile power generators - and as a way to further transition away from polluting gas-powered vehicles.Hydrogen fuel cells use compressed hydrogen as their fuel, releasing water vapor as its only emissionFCSM, which stands for Fuel Cell System Manufacturing," was established in 2017 as a joint venture between GM and... Continue reading...

A deep image from theDark Energy Survey. | Image: DES Collaboration / NOIRLab / NSF / AU Dark energy, a force responsible for the expansion of the universe, is mostly unknown. But this month, researchers released a new survey meant to unpack its mysteries. Continue reading...