The Verge

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Where will we all hang out next? Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge For months now, there have been rumors about a smart home display Apple is supposedly working on. Now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says the display will be wall-mounted and control smart home devices, attend video calls, and more, similar to the Amazon Echo Hub, and works on its own but requires an iPhone to complete the initial setup.The iPad-like device, which will reportedly be available as soon as next March, has a six-inch display with thick edges, a built-in camera, a rechargeable battery, and speakers, according to Gurman. The plan is to have Siri and Apple Intelligence voice control support as well.If the rumors are true, the smart display will offer a centralized way to control HomeKit-compatible lights, security cameras, sensors,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is testing a new feature that will let creators use AI to restyle" licensed songs for their shorts. The small group of creators with access can enter a prompt to change up different elements in a song, such as its mood or genre, and the expansion of YouTube's Dream Track AI feature will generate a reworked 30-second soundtrack.YouTube:

Eufy's new hardwired floodlight camera can record all day long. | Image: Eufy Eufy's new Floodlight Camera E30 attaches a 2K camera that can tilt and pan 360 degrees to a pair of 2,000-lumen LED floodlights and throws in local video capture without subscription fees. Although Eufy, the smart home brand of Anker, sells similar products with batteries and solar panels offering more flexibility on where they can be mounted, most homes already have a floodlight. That makes the hardwired E30 an easy replacement that is available now through the company's website and Amazon for $149.99,There are alternatives we currently recommend in our floodlight camera buyer's guide, but for $150, the Eufy E30 offers several premium features without requiring ongoing fees to actually use them.Being hardwired also means the E30,... Continue reading...

Image: Rivian Volkswagen and Rivian have crossed all their T's and dotted all their I's in their new $5.8 billion joint venture, which officially kicks off its work on November 13th, the companies announced today.Last June, VW said it would invest $5 billion in Rivian as part of a new joint venture that's focused on developing a new electrical architecture and vehicle software for future models, including subcompact cars, with the first planned for 2027. Now that investment has grown to $5.8 billion.Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC"The new joint venture, dryly named Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC," will be led by Rivian software chief Wassym Bensaid and VW Group chief technology engineer Carsten Helbing. Teams will be based in Palo... Continue reading...

Image: BioWare EA has shared a lengthy blog detailing all the technical work that went into rendering hair in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.While it used to be, and in some cases still is, a struggle to find a game with a character creator that included a diverse range of hairstyles, newer games are getting better at providing styles to represent folks on the kinky / curly hair spectrum where a lot of people of color reside. However, the new struggle is getting those hairstyles to look and act natural. I remember looking at all the hairstyles in Horizon Forbidden West and being bemused that the dreadlocks on Varl looked like they were made out of foam, while his beard was simply straight hair without an ounce of kink a Black man like him typically has.... Continue reading...

Get your red cup delivered straight to your door. | Photo: Starbucks A new way to spend $10 on a 12-ounce coffee just dropped. Starting today, Starbucks is accepting delivery orders right inside its app. Delivery is handled by DoorDash, and right now, it's limited to participating stores" in the US and Canada. But if you're in the delivery area and willing to pay a small fortune in fees, getting your Starbucks order into your hands has never been easier.Starbucks has been offering delivery through DoorDash in the US since early last year, but only within Doordash's app. Previously, order ahead options in the Starbucks app were limited to in-store and drive-through pickup. Now, you can toggle between pickup and delivery. Placing a delivery order brings up an interface identical to the one on DoorDash's... Continue reading...

Image: Nintendo Nintendo games rarely see big discounts, but the holiday shopping season always proves a good opportunity to save on some contemporary classics. After initially offering special holiday bundles of its Switch consoles, Nintendo has also announced a Black Friday sale on various games and controllers set to begin November 24th and run through the 30th.Major Nintendo titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and more will be $20 off at retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart once the sale commences. Additionally, Switch accessories like Joy-Con controllers and Nintendo's Pro Controller will also be $20 off, along with a slick Tears of the Kingdom carrying case getting a $10 discount.... Continue reading...

The Zefiro is a tiny USB-C MIDI controller that can be played like a wind instrument. | Image: Kickstarter An Italian startup called Artinoise has created an unusual USB-C accessory for mobile devices that turns them into playable musical instruments. The Zefiro looks like a flash drive or a tiny vape, but by gently blowing into one end, it can be used to play simulated instruments with even less skill than what was needed to play those plastic recorders in grade school.The Zefiro is being made available through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign looking to raise just over $5,300 to fund production. According to the company, We have been developing and manufacturing musical instruments for years; now we just need to collect pre-orders for our latest creation and kick off manufacturing!"Those backing the campaign early can preorder a... Continue reading...

Image: Sony Sony is cutting the price of the slim" PS5 digital edition by $70, making it more affordable for the holiday season. Typically, that PS5 model costs $449.99, but it will start at $379.99 through December 24th, according to a new ad.This holiday deal brings the slim PS5 digital edition just under the original $399.99 price of the launch version of the PS5 digital console. The footnote at the end of the ad specifies that this price is only for the disc-free console, so it seems like the model with a disc drive already attached will still start at $499.99. But the holiday pricing also means that by buying a digital PS5 slim and one of Sony's separate $79.99 PS5 disc drives, you can make your own PS5 with a disc drive and save about $40.A... Continue reading...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge If you've been looking to replace your Android phone's camera app with one that doesn't overprocess photos to alter lighting and detail in sometimes extreme ways, now there's an option. Zerocam is a barebones app that promises to shoot in RAW and process your photos to remove all artificial effects, delivering soft, pleasant-to-eye images."We've been talking about the definition of a photo for years, and we're not the only ones complaining about HDR processing that sometimes makes images seem flat because they lack contrast between light and dark.This app's approach is similar to the Process Zero feature Halide offers within its iPhone camera app, but Zerocam goes a few steps further. This app doesn't even have much of an interface:... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The iOS version of Google's Chrome browser is getting upgraded with several features from the Android iteration, including simultaneous Google Lens image and text search. Chrome for iOS could already use Google Lens to search for a picture on your iPhone or one taken from the camera, but now you can add words along with it to narrow your search in one go.For instance, you can upload a picture of a t-shirt design you like into Lens and type the name of a color that you prefer into search, and it will try to find the shirt you want. This update comes as Apple launched its own Visual Intelligence search, which only works on iPhone 16 and 16 Pro. GIF: Google Search a picture of a snowboard design you like, but see if... Continue reading...

Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion with former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) on October 29th, 2024, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. | Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Artificial intelligence is top of mind for President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Zeldin plans to help unleash US energy dominance" and make America the AI capital of the world," he said in a post on X today.The EPA regulates emissions that pollute the air and cause climate change, giving it a huge role to play in how much the rise of energy-hungry AI leads to a jump in power plant pollution. From the looks of it, though, the EPA's incoming leader is prioritizing making sure environmental protections don't get in the way of doing business - particularly when it comes to expanding AI data centers.Environmental advocates are already concerned about Trump's plans... Continue reading...

The Verge Microsoft is planning to no longer support the Windows Mail, Calendar, and People apps later this year. The software giant has been moving existing users of these apps over to the new Outlook for Windows app in recent months, and now it has set an end of support date for the Mail, Calendar, and People apps of December 31st.Once the apps reach end of support later this year, Microsoft warns that users who haven't moved to the new Outlook app will no longer be able to send and receive email using Windows Mail and Calendar."Microsoft has been rolling out the new Outlook for Windows app for years, with it officially reaching the general availability stage in August. The new web-based Outlook is designed to eventually replace the full... Continue reading...

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images Waymo is ditching its waitlist in Los Angeles, much like it did before in Phoenix and San Francisco, making its fully autonomous vehicles available to anyone who downloads the company's Waymo One app.There are still some geographic limitations with which to contend: Waymo only operates within 80 square miles of Los Angeles County, which includes neighborhoods such as Hollywood, Chinatown, Westwood, Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, and Playa Vista.Still, it was a sign of the company's growing confidence in its technology, especially after securing a record $5.6 billion investment round, led by its parent company, Alphabet, to help fund its next phase of growth. Waymo recently said it was conducting 150,000 paid trips and driving over 1... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Fortnite is going old school once again. Epic has announced that the throwback mode Fortnite OG, which brings back the battle royale's original island, will become a permanent fixture of the game starting on December 6th.OG first launched last November as a limited-time event, which turned out to be a big hit and was designed explicitly to bring back lapsed players to the game ahead of the release of Lego Fortnite. Its return means iconic Fortnite elements like Tilted Towers and the Baller will now be a standard part of the experience.Epic is currently attempting to replicate the success of OG. Fortnite is in the midst of Chapter 2 Remix, which - as the name implies - takes the game's second chapter and tweaks it. The big shift this... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Earlier this year Microsoft's Edge browser automatically started up on my PC and imported my Chrome tabs without consent. Microsoft refused to explain why this behavior had occurred, and then quietly addressed the problem in a Microsoft Edge update. Microsoft hasn't given up on trying to get your Chrome data though, as a new update is rolling out that automatically starts Edge and offers to import your Chrome tabs.My colleague Richard Lawler noticed that Edge started automatically on his PC last week at boot and offered up a new prompt to enhance your browsing experience." The pop-up has a bring over your data from other browsers regularly" option ticked by default, and encourages people to confirm and continue with a big blue button.... Continue reading...

There's no better pair of AirPods you can buy for under $100. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge If you're looking for a good opportunity to upgrade from an older pair of AirPods, then some of the early Black Friday sales going on right now are where you want to be. Walmart, for example, has chopped down the price of a pair of Apple AirPods (third-gen) with a Lightning charging case to $94, which is a massive $75 off and easily the lowest price we've seen to date.The fourth-gen AirPods are out now - with slight audio quality and comfort improvements, plus the option to get them with active noise cancellation and a wireless charging case bearing its own speaker - but the third-gen AirPods are still rock solid for routine music, podcasts, calls, and other listening needs. The charging case adds 24 hours of playtime to the earbuds'... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge The European Union has accused Apple of unlawfully discriminating against EU customers after finding the Cupertino company's geo-blocking measures may be violating the bloc's consumer protection rules.Announced via a press release on Tuesday, the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) said a joint investigation had identified several potentially prohibited geo-blocking practices" that Apple applies to its App Store, iTunes Store, Arcade, Books. Podcasts, and Apple Music services. Issues include restricting consumers to payment methods issued in the same country where their Apple account was registered, preventing app downloads offered in other EU/EEA countries, and having restrictive, region-specific... Continue reading...

LG Display's stretchable screens can now stretch up to 50 percent. | Image: LG Display LG Display has recently announced a new version of its unique stretchable display with improved elasticity and durability. The 12-inch prototype can now be stretched up to 18 inches without being destroyed in the process, opening up new possibilities for where screens can potentially be installed.The company first demonstrated a prototype of the display in 2022, but at the time it could only be stretched from 12 to 14 inches, or about 20 percent of its length. The latest prototype features a new wiring design structure" and an improved silicon substrate - similar to the material used to make contact lenses - to expand the panel's stretchability to up to 50 percent.Built using micro LEDs, the new prototype is capable of displaying full... Continue reading...

You can customize Particle, but AI does most of the work. | Image: David Pierce / The Verge It is, you might say, a complicated moment for news online. There are the efforts to erode the First Amendment, the dominant platforms that aren't sending traffic like they used to, the complexities of an ever-changing ad business, and on and on the list goes. Maybe most of all, there's the rise of AI, and platforms that ingest an internet's worth of news, abstract it away into a mush of semi-true information, and then serve it up to anyone who asks their chatbot what's new. Into that fray comes Particle, a long-in-the-works new platform from a couple of former Twitter product leaders that is designed to help people find and make sense of the news a little more easily. With a lot of AI.Particle's plan is to use AI to do two particularly... Continue reading...

Apple Intelligence is just doing the best it can. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge iPhones, iPads, and Macs with Apple Intelligence now have a unique AI feature that summarizes notifications for you. Starting with iOS / iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1, when multiple notifications pile up for a given app, the tiny LLM that Apple has crammed into our stuff tries its hardest to algorithm up a brief overview for you. (Part of a group text with lots of people? It'll try to tell you what they're discussing.) This is sometimes good. It is very often funny.I like the way the summaries handle some of my Apple Home notifications - like when I read Garage changed status multiple times; recently closed" in lieu of a stack of messages about my garage door. The wording changes, but without fail (so far), it's been right about whether... Continue reading...

UN climate chief Simon Stiell delivers a speech during the opening of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 11th, 2024. | Photo by Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images Governments around the world agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade during pivotal United Nations climate talks at a summit in Dubai last year. As the annual climate negotiations kick off again this week, there's been some progress on that goal - but not nearly enough.An assessment of national energy plans says that countries are on track to double global renewable energy capacity by 2030. There's a lot of opportunity for growth with the falling cost of wind and solar, but whether policymakers are ready to ditch fossil fuels is a trickier question.Renewables markets have moved, but governments' ambitions have not."Renewables markets have moved, but governments' ambitions have not," Katye Altieri,... Continue reading...

Image: Nvidia Nvidia is officially launching its Nvidia app on PC today, designed to overhaul and replace the GeForce Experience app. The Nvidia app originally went into beta earlier this year, and it's now feature complete enough for the beta label to be removed and for the app to soon be bundled with GeForce drivers.The Nvidia app includes a redesigned and improved overlay, with support for 4K 120fps AV1 video capture, Nvidia's AI-powered RTX game filters, and an improved customizable statistic overlay. Image: Nvidia The new Nvidia app also gives you access to a bunch of other Nvidia apps. Just like GeForce Experience before it, the Nvidia app includes optimal playable settings for games and it even includes a number of... Continue reading...

A pretty book that costs a pretty penny. | Image: Apple Music / Assouline You can now buy a physical version of the 100 Best Albums list that Apple Music released this year - if you have some serious cash to burn, that is. Apple Music: 100 Best Albums, a 208-page coffee table book produced by luxury print company Assouline, is available to preorder today for $450, with an estimated shipping date of November 25th. Shipping itself is thankfully free.One explanation for the high price tag is that availability is extremely limited - only 1,500 copies are up for grabs, each numbered on the rear and inside the book. The design of the book itself is also very luxurious, featuring a custom-designed translucent acrylic slipcase etched with the Apple Music logo" that protects the white linen hardcover, and gold... Continue reading...

Image: Valve Nearly three years to the day after teasing the world with a white version of the Steam Deck, Valve has finally decided to release the normally black handheld gaming PC in that color too. The limited-edition white model is going on sale for $679 on November 18th at 3PM PT / 6PM ET, everywhere the handheld is sold, including Australia and the various regions of Asia served by Komodo.It's no different on the inside than a normal model, says Valve:

Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images The New York Times' tech employees, who are behind Wordle and Connections among other games and features, will go back to work on Tuesday following a weeklong strike. In a statement published on Monday, the New York Times Tech Guild said union members will march into the office together in the morning as a symbol of what's to come for The Times."The Tech Guild represents the over 600 workers who manage technology across the digital paper. Union members went on strike the day before the US election, raising concerns about whether the NYT's vote-tracking tech, like the Needle, would hold up on Election Day. The union and the NYT will continue negotiating on a contract.The systems and digital products that worked over the election did... Continue reading...

Image: Bluesky Bluesky gained more than 700,000 new users in the last week and now has more than 14.5 million users total, Bluesky COO Rose Wang confirmed to The Verge. The majority" of the new users on the decentralized social network are from the US, Wang says. The app is currently the number two free social networking app in the US App Store, only trailing Meta's Threads.People posting on Threads, on the other hand, have raised complaints about engagement bait, moderation issues, and, as of late, misinformation, reports Taylor Lorenz. And like our very own Tom Warren, I've come to dislike the algorithmic For You" feed that you can't permanently escape, and it certainly seems like we're not alone in that opinion.But the Instagram-bootstrapped... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Signal is making a bunch of improvements to calls so they are more competitive with Zoom and Google Meet, including the ability to share a link to a call.Previously, you could only initiate a call from a Signal group chat, so this new feature should make it much easier to hop on the phone with a friend or co-worker by sending them a link inside or outside of Signal. You can also re-use call links, which could be handy for recurring work meetings or a weekly chat you have with your family. Image: Signal Within calls, Signal is getting some upgrades, too, including a raise hand" button to let people know that you have something to say and emoji reactions so you can spam your emoji feelings. And the app now has a tab... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon says a data breach exposed the email addresses, phone numbers, and building locations linked to its employees, as reported earlier by 404 Media. In a statement to The Verge, Amazon spokesperson Adam Montgomery said the company was notified about a security event at one of our property management vendors that impacted several of its customers, including Amazon."The confirmation follows a report from the cybercrime firm Hudson Rock saying that information posted on the hacking forum includes data from Amazon and 25 other entities, including MetLife, HP, HSBC, and Canada Post.Hudson Rock says the leaked info dates back to May 2023, and it's related to the major security vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer system that came... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Once upon a time, Twitter - now X - was the place to get your memes, world news, and pop culture. However, even at the time, being an active Twitter user also required sifting through a daily deluge of toxic characters, bots, and deepfakes. Then the Elon Musk circus came to town and began steadily altering the formerly popular social network, to the point that many of its adherents began bailing by moving to one or more of the new social networks, such as Threads, Bluesky, or Mastodon.Now that the 2024 US presidential election is over, Musk looks like he's going to be at least one of the powers behind the throne. Add to that recent changes that have made X less safe to use, and it's no surprise that there is now a new wave of X users l... Continue reading...

The smartphone-sized Boox Palma is highly portable and lets you read in a variety of apps. | Image: Boox Amazon announced a slew of new Kindles recently, but if you're not already locked into Amazon's ecosystem they may not be the best options. If you're looking for an e-reader that offers more flexibility, our readers can currently buy the Boox Palma at a new all-time low of $234.99 ($45 off) from Wellbots with a free flip-cover case (valued at $16) when you apply the code VERGEBFBOOX45.Unlike many other e-readers, the Boox Palma runs on Android 11 and comes with the Google Play Store built-in, so you can read in a wide range of apps. That's really convenient, as all you need to do is, say, download Amazon's Kindle app, and you'll be able to access your entirely digital library without needing to go through the long, complicated... Continue reading...

Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge Current or former Cash App users who have used the service since 2018 have until next week to claim part of a $15 million settlement that Cash App Investing (and owner Block Inc.) reached as part of a class action lawsuit, The Hill reports. The lawsuit alleged that the companies were negligent in responding to their customers after a former employee had accessed user accounts without permission.You're eligible to claim in the settlement if your account was accessed without your permission or if you have had unauthorized or fraudulent withdrawals or transfers of funds in your account. The eligibility window is August 23rd, 2018, through the notice date of August 20th, 2024.You can file a claim via the settlement notice website for up to... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple will now let you share the location of a lost AirTag with other people. The Find My feature, called Share Item Location and available as part of the just-launched iOS 18.2 public beta, will allow you to share the location of lost luggage with an airline, for example.When using the feature, you can generate a Share Item Location link within the Find My app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Once you share the link with someone, they can click on it to view an interactive map with the location of your lost item. Apple will update the website automatically when the lost item moves, and it will also display a timestamp when it moved last. Image: Apple Apple will turn off the feature once you find your lost item. You can... Continue reading...

Amazon's rumored smart glasses for delivery drivers would have an embedded display, unlike the audio-only consumer version. | Image: David Pierce / The Verge Amazon is developing smart glasses for delivery drivers, Reuters reports. The aim is to give drivers turn-by-turn directions, thereby shaving seconds off of each delivery.Citing anonymous Amazon sources, Reuters says the project is part of Amazon's efforts to increase efficiency in the last 100 yards of a delivery. Codenamed Amelia", the smart glasses are based off the existing Echo Frames platform. Unlike the current audio-only Frames they would have an embedded display that could give a driver more precise directions - for example, turning left or right after getting off an elevator. Amazon is also exploring camera capabilities using that embedded display, enabling drivers to take photos of packages as proof of delivery.... Continue reading...