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Image: Kia Kia and Uber have signed a memorandum of understanding to use the automaker's newly announced PBV modular electric vehicles for ridehailing.PBV, which stands for Platform Beyond Vehicle, was introduced during CES in Las Vegas as a family of EVs built on a flexible vehicle architecture, with different swappable body types. The vehicle can be transformed from a minivan to a full-size van to a small truck, depending on the specific need. The driver cab remains fixed while the rest of the vehicle is interchangeable, like a real-life Duplo set.One of the possible variations is the PV5, a midsized electric van that Kia says is designed for ridehailing, delivery, and utilities. Uber wants to add the PV5 as an option for its drivers, in the... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Another year, another CES, another batch of big and strange ideas about displays. CES may not be quite the TV-centric show it once was, but you practically can't turn around in the Las Vegas Convention Center without encountering a new way to use LEDs.For the first of our two Vergecast episodes live from the Kia Connected Home at CES this week, we dug into the most important new screens of the year. That means TVs, monitors, laptops, smartphones, and all the other display-centric things we've seen so far. (On Friday, we'll get to all the cars, smart home sensors, massage chairs, and everything else that's not quite so screen-y.) Then, we get to the biggest CES-adjacent news of the week: Apple's ship date announcement for the Vision Pro... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI's GPT Store, where users can share their custom chatbots, finally launched Wednesday after a monthslong delay. The store brings more potential use cases to ChatGPT and expands OpenAI's ecosystem beyond what the company builds for customers.Since announcing the GPT Builder program in November, OpenAI said more than 3 million bots - called GPTs - have been created by users. (Yours truly included; I made a GPT that suggests synonyms for common words). The company said it plans to highlight useful GPTs weekly inside the store.The company originally planned to open the GPT Store in November before delaying it to December and finally to January. The platform lets people who've created their own chatbots publicly share their versions... Continue reading...

Catch Up is supposed to make it faster to get up to speed on all the Slack stuff you care - and don't care -about. | Image: Slack Slack is adding a new feature to its mobile app, meant to help you triage all your unread stuff a little faster. It's called Catch Up, and the only way I can describe it is Tinder for Enterprise Messaging. When you tap on Catch Up at the top of the app's homescreen, it'll show you one channel or DM at a time; swipe left to mark it read, right to leave it unread.Catch Up is a response to two things Akshay Bakshi, a product management director at Slack, says the company sees a lot. First, there's just a lot going on in Slack, and opening every channel one by one just to check in on it and mark it read in the sidebar is a pin. Second, a lot of people use their phone as a Slack-triage device. Before they get to their desk in the morning,... Continue reading...

Skiers descend a slope of artificial snow below Grubigstein mountain during unseasonably warm weather on January 16, 2023 near Ehrwald, Austria. | Photo by Philipp Guelland/Getty Images Snowpack is shrinking across the Northern Hemisphere thanks to climate change, and many communities could soon face a snow-loss cliff," according to the most comprehensive assessment yet.The effects of climate change can vary dramatically from place to place, which is why it's been difficult to suss out the bigger picture with snowpack until recently. Now we can see that many of the hardest hit places also happen to be those that depend on snowpack for their water. Other communities that have seen relatively little impact so far are on track to pass a temperature threshold that would suddenly speed up snow loss, new research published in the journal Nature shows.Where the majority of people live and where the majority of people... Continue reading...

Victrola's Stream Onyx, a turntable that can stream vinyl straight to your Sonos system, is down to just $360. | Image by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge At CES this week, Victrola announced the forthcoming Stream Sapphire, a new Works with Sonos turntable that can also stream records to thousands of devices, including your smartphone, soundbar, or laptop. Yet, at $1,499, it's not exactly affordable. Luckily, Victrola sells two cheaper alternatives: the Stream Carbon and the Stream Onyx, both of which are on sale from Victrola thanks to promo code SPIN10. Right now, you can pick up the former for $630 ($170 off) and the latter for $360 ($240 off), which is an all-time low on the entry-level model.Unlike the Stream Sapphire, you can't use either of the two turntables to stream records to just about any device. However, you can use them to wirelessly transmit audio from your turntable to... Continue reading...

Image: VinFast Vietnam's VinFast must really want a slice of the EV market in the US based on the vehicles it brought to CES in Las Vegas this year: a midsize pickup truck that looks to be about the same size as the Toyota Tacoma, and a small utility EV called the VF3 that was first introduced last year.Theoretically, both of these vehicles could sell really well in the US. Trucks are some of the most popular vehicles in the country, and a midsize electric truck could do quite well given most of the segment is dominated by full-size ones. A small, affordable crossover like the VF3, which aims for mass-market appeal, could help folks who are on a budget go fully electric.Theoretically, both of these vehicles could sell really well in the USBut all... Continue reading...

The retractable panels help generate up to 4.96kWh per day in the Western US, according to Jackery. | Image: Jackery Jackery has converted the humble rooftop tent into a powerful solar generator that lets any car escape the grid for a weekend or longer. Although it's just a concept on show at CES right now, Jackery says it will put the tent into production sometime near the end of 2024.The retractable solar panels are said to produce up to 1000W when the car is parked and the tent is open and facing south. That's enough to generate 4.96kWh per day in the Western US, or 4kWh as you move east, according to Jackery's estimates. There's no mention of its resilience to wind, but that's hardly a concern for a concept parked on ugly carpet inside the Las Vegas Convention Center.Rooftop tents can already be fitted with solar panels made by any number of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you search YouTube for what to do if someone is suffering a heart attack, the platform will now display credible first-aid explainer videos at the very top of the search results.The brief, step-by-step videos, made in partnership with Mass General Brigham and the Mexican Red Cross, cover a series of basic health emergencies and first-aid procedures, prioritized to provide timely advice right away. Tutorials will cover how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, do CPR, identify the first signs of a heart attack, and other emergency healthcare topics.Before performing any first-aid, the American Red Cross instructs calling 911 and alerting emergency services immediately - many health conditions are time-sensitive. After that, one can... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Valve has issued new rules about how game developers can publish games that use AI technology on Steam. Writing in a blog post, the company says that it is making changes to how we handle games that use AI technology" which mean that developers will need to disclose when their games use it. The changes will enable us to release the vast majority of games that use" AI, Valve's post says.The changes appear designed to increase transparency around the use of AI in Steam games, while offering protections against the risks of using AI generated content and allowing customers to make an informed choice about whether to buy a game that uses AI technology.Under the new rules, developers will need to disclose when games contain pre-generated... Continue reading...

Tesla Model 3 (2024) | Image: Tesla An updated version of Tesla's Model 3 sedan that was released in markets across Europe, the Middle East, and China last fall is now available in North America. Reportedly codenamed Highland" while it was in development, it introduces several noticeable tweaks to Tesla's mainstream electric sedan.From the outside, the front end's distinctive bump has been removed, with a sleeker hood and low-profile headlights compared to the old model that Tesla says is optimized for max aerodynamics," which should mean more range. It's also available in two new colors, Stealth Grey and Ultra Red. Image: Tesla Tesla's new and old Model 3 designs (not shown to scale), 2023 on the left in red, and the Highland" 2024 Model 3 in... Continue reading...

Marvel Studios Disney Plus' Echo limited miniseries feels like the studio's first successful attempt at matching the energy that made Netflix's Marvel shows great. Continue reading...

Where we drivin'? | Image: Sony Sony and Honda's in-development Afeela EV will let you display messages and images on its front bumper, according to a new video about the car, including the ability to... advertise video games.You can see the screen-ified bumper - sorry, the Media Bar" - starting at 3:17 in the video. The video does show some more sensible uses of the Media Bar, like displaying the name of the car, a red warning sign, or even a birthday greeting. But the video also shows how you can display logos for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Fortnite, and Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, which is just ridiculous.That's not the only weird - and potentially distracting and dangerous - tech thing packed into the screen-filled car. One feature,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that it will be forced to sunset its internet subsidy for low-income families, known as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), in May if it doesn't receive additional funding. The program is currently only funded through April this year, despite a White House push for a $6 billion extension.CNN reports that today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and Senate plan to submit a bill requesting its extension. The extension bill, reportedly called the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, will be introduced in Congress tomorrow to provide a $7 billion extension for the program.But the bill will have to overcome objections from Republicans in the House and Senate... Continue reading...

The Humane AI pin retails for $699 and requires a $24 per month subscription. | Image: Humane Humane laid off 4 percent of employees this week in a move that was described as a cost cutting measure to those who were impacted, according to sources familiar with the matter. Employees were recently told by leadership that budgets would be lowered this year, said one of the people, who requested anonymity to speak without the company's permission.The cuts, which numbered 10 people, come ahead of the five-year-old startup shipping its first device: a $699, screenless, AI-powered pin that is pitched as a smartphone replacement. After a lot of hype and secrecy, Humane unveiled the AI Pin to the world in November and began accepting preorders, with shipments planned to begin in March.Humane has raised over $200 million from a who's-who... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Welcome back, and happy new year! I am plugging away at Hot Pod Summit preparations and very excited to reveal our lineup next week. In the meantime, the lottery is still open, so please let us know if you are interested in attending.Today, YouTube at very long last debuts RSS integration. Plus, Audacy files for bankruptcy and PRX announces a new distribution deal with Conde Nast. Let's get into it.YouTube finally supports RSSYouTube is making good on its promise to support RSS feeds. In a blog post and video published today, the company provided instructions for podcasters on how to connect their RSS feeds to YouTube Studio. It's... Continue reading...

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft said 2024 was going to be the year of the AI PC," and it looks like that's ringing true already. Microsoft appears to be readying a new generative AI feature for its Notepad application that's built into Windows. While the software giant hasn't officially announced it, eagle-eyed Windows watchers have discovered code in Microsoft's latest test builds of Windows 11 that indicate a new Cowriter" feature could be on the way soon.It looks like it has the same credits system that Microsoft uses in its Cocreator feature in Paint to let Windows users know how many more times they can use these AI-powered features. Microsoft hasn't announced pricing for these credits yet, but one can assume the company will eventually start charging... Continue reading...

If AI can fix grocery shopping, count me in. | Photo: Walmart Imagine never running out of milk again. You pour the last bit into your cereal - which is, incidentally, also empty now - and then head to work. By the time you get home the empties have been replaced as if by magic.Walmart thinks it can make this happen, with the help of AI. The company announced a new feature of its InHome replenishment service that aims to automatically order the right stuff at the right time, and hand it off to a delivery person who can drop things off in a fridge in your house. Shoppers with the $20 monthly InHome membership already get the seamless drop-off, but they still have to select items themselves. By training its models on both your habits and Walmart's overall knowledge of how people buy and consume... Continue reading...

That's a whole navigable UI... on broadcast TV. | Photo by Alex Cranz / The Verge If you happen to live in Las Vegas and have a TV with an ATSC 3.0 tuner, then, for the next few days, there will be a new channel on your TV. At first, the Roxi channel just appears to play music videos, but when you hit the pause button on your remote, the TV pauses - despite being a broadcast channel. There's no DVR involved or app you need to download. And with the press of your remote, you can skip ahead to the next music video or even choose from other playlists, all within the broadcast channel. It's something that's been central to the promise of ATSC 3.0, and Roxi thinks it's finally delivering.Roxi CEO Rob Lewis knows a bit about music streaming. In the 2000s, he was the CEO of Omnifone, one of the first music streaming... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The state of Pennsylvania will deploy OpenAI's enterprise ChatGPT service in a pilot program to help state employees do administrative work.The pilot begins this month and will be limited to an unspecified number of Pennsylvania's Office of Administration employees, but it could be expanded to other state workers in the future, a press release from Governor Josh Shapiro said. The state says it will consider feedback from the initial batch of employees before it releases another 100 licenses to access ChatGPT Enterprise.Our goal with the pilot is to work closely with a small number of employees to figure out where we can have the greatest impact using generative AI tools," said Neil Weaver, secretary of Pennsylvania's Office of... Continue reading...

Image: Luminar All vehicles are required to have automatic emergency braking, but the technology is not the best at preventing crashes, especially at highway speeds. But what about automatic emergency steering?Florida-based lidar company Luminar unveiled a new automatic emergency steering (AES) feature powered by its Iris Plus sensor. The idea is to use the laser sensor, in combination with the vehicle's other safety systems, to proactively avoid crashes without driver intervention.The company demonstrated the new feature at CES in Las Vegas this week. The hope is that Luminar's long-range lidar, with up to 300 meters (984 feet) of range in the right conditions, can detect obstacles and initiate driving maneuvers before the driver does.The... Continue reading...

Image: Mercedes-Benz AG Mercedes-Benz is supercharging its in-car voice assistant with generative AI, paving the way for more natural interactions and personalized driver experiences.The automaker's upgraded MBUX Virtual Assistant will run on the next-generation MB.OS operating system to create the most human-like interface with a Mercedes-Benz yet," the company says. Examples include predictive behavior, like playing the morning's news headlines upon entering the vehicle or offering to dial into a meeting if the vehicle owner's calendar indicates they are running late for a meeting.Mercedes vehicles already have voice-command capabilities, allowing drivers to use the phrase, Hey, Mercedes," followed by a short command to do things like adjust the... Continue reading...

Image: Mercedes-Benz AG People love to play their music while driving, but unless you're some sort of wizard with control over time and space, rarely does the beat actually match up with the rhythm of acceleration and steering. Mercedes-AMG aims to change that with a new interactive musical experience" that it's created along with musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am.At CES this year, the automaker announced MBUX Sound Drive, a new feature that uses sensors and software to link music to driving. It's hard to describe, but Mercedes says it's composed musical tracks to pair with regular functions like recuperation, acceleration, steering, and braking, turning the whole car - as Will.i.am puts it - into its own orchestra."A new feature that uses sensors and... Continue reading...

The PlayStation 5 slim" is barely a couple months old, but Sony is already preparing to release new sideplates for the console. And the company is showing off a trio of those new color options - blue, silver, and red - here at CES 2024. The side covers will start at $54.99 when they go on sale in the near future.Unlike the standard white PS5 slim, these don't have the glossy / matte split between the top and bottom plates. I prefer matte all the way, so I'm happy to see that. (There's no avoiding dust on that black center section of the PS5, unfortunately.) Will Sony sell the detachable disc drive in new colors, too? Sony's playing it fairly safe with the colors here, but they all looked pretty eye-catching on... Continue reading...

The Saloon concept will be the basis for the first Honda Zero production model coming in 2026. | Image: Honda Honda announced a new global electric vehicle series, dubbed Honda Zero, presenting it as an antidote to the recent trend of thick, heavy" EVs seen on the road today. Honda says it will introduce its first model, based on a sleek, sedan-like concept called the Saloon, starting in North America in 2026.In addition to the Saloon, Honda also introduced a boxier van-esque concept called the Space-Hub. The concepts are meant to demonstrate Honda's lighter approach to EV development, riding atop a thin" vehicle architecture with a low floor that's meant to accentuate aerodynamics. Yep, still an H. Thin" and light" are two of the three principles, the third being wise," that Honda says is guiding the development of... Continue reading...

The last time Hyundai brought an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype to CES, it was 2020, and the South Korean automaker was talking bullishly about adding it to Uber's forthcoming air taxi network.Today, Uber's air taxi network has been sold to another startup, the air taxi industry as a whole is still struggling to get a commercial service up and running, and Hyundai is unveiling a new product concept" that it says will be ready for production by 2028.Supernal, the automaker's eVTOL division, says its S-A2 concept can cruise at 120mph and reach an altitude of 1,500 feet. It packs enough battery capacity for the type of 25- to 40-mile trips that helicopters commonly conduct between downtowns and airports for... Continue reading...

The idea is to reduce heat damage and energy consumption. | Image: L'Oreal L'Oreal has been a staple of CES for years, showing up with surprising twists on beauty products like a wearable UV sensor, a lipstick printer, and an AR-powered brow applicator. This year, the company is taking on the classic hairdryer with the AirLight Pro, and it's doing so in an unconventional way.Most conventional hairdryers rely on thermal coils to produce heat and air that then dries the hair. Unless you use heat protectant, it can be pretty brutal on your hair with frequent use. Meanwhile, Dyson's Supersonic hairdryer mostly uses a powerful motor and clever ergonomic design to maximize airflow while also reducing heat. L'Oreal's AirLight Pro also does that, but it adds infrared light into the mix. Image:... Continue reading...

The Rabbit R1 is not a phone... but it's not not a phone. | Image: Rabbit Jesse Lyu, the CEO and founder of an AI startup called Rabbit, says he doesn't want to replace your smartphone. At least not right away. His company's new gadget, a $199 standalone AI device called the R1, is so staggeringly ambitious that Lyu seems to think he can't help but replace your phone at some point. Just not quite yet.The R1 looks a little like a Playdate console or maybe a modernized version of one of those '90s-era handheld TVs. It's a standalone gadget about half the size of an iPhone with a 2.88-inch touchscreen, a rotating camera for taking photos and videos, and a scroll wheel / button you press to navigate around or talk to the device's built-in assistant. It has a 2.3GHz MediaTek processor, 4GB of memory, and 128GB of... Continue reading...

Alan Wake 2, Remedy's latest supernatural thriller, is down to just $26.79 thanks to the latest Epic Games promo. | Image: Remedy Entertainment Unsurprisingly, the holidays have always been a terrific opportunity to save on the latest title or revisit the classics you may have missed, often for far less than their usual asking price. But while Steam's winter sale has come and gone - taking its terrific Diablo IV discount along with it - there's still time to take advantage of Epic Games' annual holiday sale, which runs until January 10th at 11AM ET.The full list of eligible titles is exhaustive, to be honest, but there are a couple of newer PC games worth highlighting. If you're looking for a very heady third-person shooter with some Twin Peaks vibes that pulls out all the stops when it comes to ray tracing, for instance, Alan Wake 2 is on sale for $39.99 ($10 off) with a... Continue reading...

Artists have noted various inconsistencies with several of the dragon images in Wacom's recent promotional campaign. | Image: Wacom Popular drawing tablet manufacturer Wacom is the latest target being slammed by the digital art community after appearing to use AI-generated images in ads. Over the weekend, creatives across X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok noticed that Wacom was promoting its Intuos pen tablet with a dragon illustration that showed telltale marks of AI-generated images - such as questionable scale designs and fur blending unnaturally into other sections of the image.Wacom deleted the images without explanation, fueling speculation that an industry-standard brand for artists was using tools widely criticized for replacing them. And it wasn't the only AI controversy this weekend. Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the publisher behind Magic: The Gathering and D... Continue reading...

Telly's AI assistant in action. | Image: Telly Telly, the company giving people free 55-inch 4K TVs as long as they're willing to live with persistent ads on a second screen, is previewing a Hey Telly" voice assistant that will be based on OpenAI's ChatGPT, at least at first. Users will interact with it on the TV's second (lower) screen, and the company says it will come to know and recognize the Telly owner" over time and offer personalized recommendations to users. The company didn't say when the feature will be available.The existing SoundHound-powered voice assistant is limited to more mundane tasks like setting timers, changing picture modes, or answering simple questions. Image: Telly Telly's assistant can offer Taylor Swift tickets to you. Telly... Continue reading...

Satechi's 3-in-1 Qi2 charging stand will net you 15 watts of charging power. | Image: Satechi Our universal, wireless, magnetic, and fast-charging future is here as the first Qi2 chargers start to arrive, and Satechi is showing off its first two compatible products today at CES.Both devices are folding stands designed to charge a pair of earbuds and a phone - using MagSafe or Qi2 - at the same time, while the higher-end of the devices adds an Apple Watch charger to the back. The company said in its announcement that they'll be available in the second quarter of the year, costing $79.99 for the 2-in-1 stand and $129.99 for the 3-in-1 version.Satechi's new stands fold flat and come with a 45W power supply and two travel adapters for foreign plugs. Satechi even says the 3-in-1 model supports fast charging for the Apple Watches... Continue reading...

Image: Samsung Microsoft and Samsung's Android partnership will continue in 2024, with new Copilot integration and the ability to use a Galaxy smartphone camera as a webcam on a PC. Samsung revealed both new features during its CES keynote this week, with Copilot set to arrive in March and the webcam feature for Microsoft Teams later this year.Starting with our latest flagship smartphones later this year, people will be able to use the fantastic clarity and resolution of their Galaxy smartphone cameras to enhance a meeting on services like Microsoft Teams," explains Jonathan Gabrio, head of the connected experience center at Samsung. The webcam support will include both the front- and rear-facing cameras, and the ability to apply background blur and... Continue reading...

Crowds of people swimming at Jinshan City Beach in Shanghai, China, on August 13th, 2023, during a heatwave after the government issued an orange alarm to warn people to take precautions against the heat. | Photo by Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Image 2023 was a record-breaking scorcher, final numbers now show. While many of us felt the heat last year, it's still mind-blowing to see the data. And it's about to get hotter.Officially, last year was the hottest in the books since record-keeping began in 1850. Looking farther back, last year's temperatures likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years," according to deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service Samantha Burgess.The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service released data today that confirmed earlier predictions that the heat would be off the charts in 2023. It also made a worrying forecast for the new year, predicting that the world could soon surpass a critical threshold for... Continue reading...

You can use the NFC chip on your iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock the DL130. | Image: TP-Link TP-Link announced a new video door lock, the Tapo DL130, at CES today. The DL130 is HomeKit-compatible, supports seven unlocking methods, and can be controlled through Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri. TP-Link hasn't announced pricing or a specific release date yet but says more info is coming soon.The seven unlock methods include a fingerprint scanner, a built-in keypad, and Apple Home Key on the iPhone or Apple Watch. TP-Link says the fingerprint scanner can unlock the device in less than a second and that it also includes a built-in door sensor so you can check if it's open or not.The Tapo DL130's camera films at 2K resolution with a 180-degree field of view. It has a built-in spotlight for color night vision and a speaker that... Continue reading...