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Image: OpenAI As news publishers ink deals with AI companies to train their models with news stories, the price businesses like OpenAI are willing to pay for copyrighted information is coming to light.The Information reports that OpenAI offers between $1 million and $5 million a year to license copyrighted news articles to train its AI models. That's one of the first indications of how much AI companies plan to pay for licensed material. It sits alongside a recent report saying Apple is looking to partner with media companies to use content for AI training and is offering at least $50 million over a multiyear period for data. The Verge reached out to OpenAI for comment on the numbers.The numbers appear roughly similar to some earlier non-AI... Continue reading...

A GE Haliade-X turbine stands in the Vineyard Wind 1 project area south of Martha's Vineyard. | Image: Worldview Films The first week of 2024 has already been a rollercoaster of good and bad news for President Joe Biden's offshore wind ambitions.The nation's first large-scale wind farm just started producing power for the New England power grid. The bad news is that another major project on the East Coast threw in the towel, the latest casualty of skyrocketing costs that are pushing Biden's offshore wind dreams out of reach.The plan, according to the Biden administration, was for the US to get 30,000MW of energy from offshore wind by 2030. The US lags far behind Europe and China in offshore wind development, which it will need a lot more of to hit clean energy goals tied to the Paris climate accord. Since stepping into office, Biden has rolled out the... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google appears to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called Bard Advanced" that will be available through a paid subscription to Google One, as shared by developer Dylan Roussel on X (formerly Twitter).Bard Advanced seems to be powered by Gemini Ultra, the top tier of Google's newly announced large language model (LLM), according to Roussel. That's an upgrade over the current version of Bard, which runs the midtier Gemini Pro. One of the screenshots Roussel shared describes Bard Advanced as a more capable large language model with advanced math and reasoning skills." Developer Bedros Pamboukian also discovered a string of code that suggests Google is working on an advanced" tier.

You can use the $50 credit towards eligible items in Samsung's online store. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung recently announced its next Unpacked event will kick off on January 17, when the company is expected to reveal the new Galaxy S24 lineup. As usual, the company also simultaneously opened up reservations" for preorders of its next Galaxy device, which grants you $50 in credit after supplying your name and email address on Samsung's website.There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind, though: first, you'll have to place your preorder using the same email address after the devices are announced on January 17th. After that, you'll have to follow through on the purchase, so make sure you have your credit card handy.You also can't use the $50 credit after making your purchase. Instead, the credit can only be used at the same time... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The leader in connected fitness peaked during the covid pandemic, but after a series of questionable business decisions, it's pivoting to content subscriptions. Continue reading...

I used the 3.2" front screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 as a minimal phone for a week. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge I hated how much time I was spending scrolling on my phone. And the idea that I'm wasting my time wasn't even what was bugging me - I do loads of things that aren't good uses of my time. What bugged me was that I was unconsciously and habitually scrolling. And most of the time I couldn't even tell you what I had been scrolling through.I thought about switching to a minimal phone, like the Light Phone, with its slow screen and limited functions. But I knew that completely giving up things like Gmail or Slack on mobile wasn't possible for me. And I didn't want to wipe out social media completely, I just wanted my use of it to be more intentional. What I needed was a fully functional smartphone, just a somewhat less usable one.So I... Continue reading...

Qualcomm's CEO, Cristiano Amon, presented his vision for a new era of computing late last year at Snapdragon Summit. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge A year after Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google announced, uh, something VR-related, one potential component of the project is coming into focus: the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2. The new chipset is designed as a step up from the XR2 Gen 2 in the Meta Quest 3, capable of rendering high-resolution visuals like the ones promised by Apple's Vision Pro.The XR2 Plus Gen 2 supports 4.3K resolution at 90fps per eye, which is a cut above the XR2 Gen 2's 3K-per-eye rendering. It also supports 12 concurrent cameras to handle passthrough video as well as body and face tracking. Qualcomm says that the new chipset offers a 15 percent increase in GPU frequency compared to the standard XR2 Gen 2 and 20 percent greater CPU frequency - all in service of... Continue reading...

The 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning trucks could be cheaper or more expensive than last year, depending on the trim. | Image: Ford Ford is making a number of pricing updates across its 2024 F-150 Lightning range as sales of electric vehicles within the US slow. Ford notified its dealers about the price changes on Wednesday according to the Detroit Free Press, increasing the starting prices by up to $10,000 while reducing pricing on some of the most premium models by up to $7,000. The 2024 pricing changes follow Ford announcing plans in December to cut production of its F-150 Lightning pickups.Here's what the new pricing looks like for each 2024 F-150 Lightning EV model (pricing for 2023 models remains unchanged):

Dell has a pair of new ultrawide monitors it's showing off ahead of CES, the 40-inch UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) and the 34-inch UltraSharp 34 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3425WE). They're going on sale next month, with the larger model starting at $2,399.99, and the smaller at $1,019.99.Although Dell's announcement blog post notes that the monitors are targeting the likes of content creators, data scientists, and engineers rather than gamers, both monitors come with gaming-friendly 120Hz refresh rates. It's a part of Dell's aim for them to minimize eye-strain. To this end, they both also feature reduced blue light output, and have built-in ambient light sensors that adjust brightness and color... Continue reading...

Image: Walmart Have you ever wanted a kitchen full of memes? Well, the Xbox Series S toaster is here and ready to sit next to your Xbox Series X fridge. Yes this is a real toaster that can handle all the bread, English muffins, and frozen waffles you throw at it. It will even toast an Xbox sphere logo onto your bread. Really.Images of an Xbox Series S toaster first emerged nearly a year ago on French websites, but Walmart has now started selling the toaster for $39.99, as spotted by Wario64. While the toaster looks like an Xbox Series S, with its signature black air vent, it also includes a bunch of features you'd actually want for toasting your bread. There are six levels of browning, a removable crumb tray, an LED countdown, and a defrost button.... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft wants 2024 to be the year of the AI PC," and it's kicking things off with a significant change to the keyboard on new laptops and PCs. A new Copilot key will ship on a variety of new PCs and laptops from Microsoft's partners, providing quick access to Microsoft's AI-powered Windows Copilot experience straight from a keyboard button press.The Copilot key is the first big change to the Windows PC keyboard layout in nearly three decades. Nearly 30 years ago, we introduced the Windows key to the PC keyboard that enabled people all over the world to interact with Windows," says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. We see this as another transformative moment in our journey with... Continue reading...

Roku announced its first self-branded TVs at CES last year, and as expected, the main emphasis was on budget pricing and providing a solid, dependable product. Above all else, the Roku Select and Plus Series TVs were a vehicle for getting Roku's software into even more homes. But the first-party Roku TVs fell a bit flat in terms of picture quality compared to sets from TCL, Hisense, and other TV makers that play in the same pricing territory. They were fine but unexceptional.For 2024, Roku hopes to step up its video chops with a new Pro lineup of TVs due to ship later this year. The Roku Pro TVs will come in 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch sizes for retail prices under $1,500." They'll feature Mini LED local dimming for improved contrast... Continue reading...

A new study usesdeep learning and satellite imagery to create the first global map of vessel traffic and offshore infrastructure. | Image: Global Fishing Watch Using satellite imagery and AI, researchers have mapped human activity at sea with more precision than ever before. The effort exposed a huge amount of industrial activity that previously flew under the radar, from suspicious fishing operations to an explosion of offshore energy development.The maps were published today in the journal Nature. The research led by Google-backed nonprofit Global Fishing Watch revealed that a whopping three-quarters of the world's industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked. Up to 30 percent of transport and energy vessels also escape public tracking.Those blind spots could hamper global conservation efforts, the researchers say. To better protect the world's oceans and fisheries, policymakers... Continue reading...

Mickey Mouse (pictured) as seen in 1928's Steamboat Willie. | Photo by LMPC via Getty Images Specific versions of Mickey Mouse have been released from Disney's copyright - here's what the public is doing with them. Continue reading...

Image: LG A year ago, LG released its brightest OLED TVs yet, and in doing so, the company overcame one of the long-held downsides of the panel technology: they were finally suitable for bright, sunny rooms. Rtings called 2023's G3 OLED an outstanding TV with no real weaknesses," and many other reviews praised it as one of the best TVs ever released. LG also used CES 2023 to introduce its first wireless" TV, the Signature OLED M, which receives content from a Zero Connect box that can be positioned discreetly in the same room.So while last year brought pretty major technical upgrades, for 2024, LG is shifting its focus to AI and smaller, iterative changes. But the improvements are still meaningful. Across the OLED TV lineup, LG now supports... Continue reading...

Sony's WH-1000XM5 may not fold like the last-gen model, but they're still our favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The holiday shopping season is officially behind us, but that hasn't stopped retailers from finding something else to celebrate with a sale. Right now, it's all about New Year's, and in honor of that fact, eBay is taking an extra 20 percent off select items through January 7th when you use offer code NEWYEARDEAL at checkout.All kinds of gadgets are eligible for the discount, from the Xbox Series X (now $399) to iRobot's Roomba j7 Plus, the latter of which is on sale in refurbished condition with a two-year warranty for $269.98 ($630 off). Our favorite deals, however, are on Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones and WF-1000XM5 earbuds, both of which are down to their second-best price to date. The XM5 headphones are going for just $278.40 ($122... Continue reading...

The new Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter smart lock brings Matter-over-Thread support to the company's line-up. | Image: U-Tec Smart lock manufacturer U-tec has announced the first deadbolt smart lock with a fingerprint reader to support Matter-over-Thread. A fingerprint reader is the fastest and easiest way to unlock a smart lock, and Matter-over-Thread connectivity should solve two of the biggest issues of smart locks: poor battery life and poor connectivity.With most connected locks on the market today, you get either a year of battery life but are stuck with the limited range and smart home compatibility of Bluetooth or just a few months of battery life but all the smart home connections you can eat over Wi-Fi. Thread, with its low-power mesh network, is specifically designed to help battery-operated devices last longer, and the new smart home standard... Continue reading...

Horrible. 0/10. The thing about CAPTCHAs is that they're old enough to drink. The bots are better at them than I am. So why am I still being asked to fill them out?I am not talking about the inoffensive ones with the puzzle pieces. I am not talking, even, about matching or rotating shapes. I am talking, specifically, about the grid of insane photos - the kind of thing you may be familiar with from Google's reCAPTCHA system. If you are looking for a measured take on why they exist or the efforts to build replacements, go read this. I am not feeling measured, although I will resentfully note that CAPTCHA exists in order to stop bots and does an okay job at it.You know how I am feeling? Furious.I was trying to buy tickets to a double-feature of Blade... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A new patent granted to Apple details how the company is thinking of using the Vision Pro's external display to show what the wearer is looking at inside the device.The patent, which includes Jony Ive as an inventor, details ways an outside screen on a generic head-mounted display could be used to indicate what the wearer is seeing to people around them. While the patent isn't specifically about the Vision Pro and its EyeSight" display feature, it's clear that some of the ideas here informed the features in the final headset.For example, Apple has talked publicly about how the outer screen on the Vision Pro can let outsiders see the eyes of the person wearing the headset or display a colorful pattern that indicates the wearer is fully... Continue reading...

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Pornhub has restricted access in two more states in protest of continued nationwide state-level efforts to regulate online access to porn. 404Media reported that residents in both North Carolina and Montana visiting Pornhub and other Aylo-owned sites like Redtube or Brazzers are now greeted by a video of performer Cherie DeVille, and a handful of paragraphs, telling them their states are now blocked. Aylo began blocking access in the states last week, according to reporting from multiple outlets including The Fayetteville Observer and KRTV in Great Falls, Montana.The move is meant to protest laws that went into effect in both states on January 1st. Montana passed a standalone ID verification law in May, and North Carolina's new law was... Continue reading...

The Verge I'm afraid that I'm one of those people who have accumulated a number of Google accounts. I have one for subscriptions, newsletters, and other general purposes; one for work; one for my fiction writing; one to use when I want to test an online app; and one - well, quite honestly, I don't remember what that one's for.Normally, it's not a problem - except for those occasions where I found I've put a file or folder in the wrong Drive account. I've tried to fix things by simply sharing the folder / file with the account I want to use it with, but that isn't a satisfactory fix - for one thing, it means the file is taking up space in two accounts. And if, say, I am planning a party and decide to hand the responsibility off to a friend, it... Continue reading...

Photo by Presley Ann / Getty Images for The Skatepark Project Jack Black might be set to play another iconic video game character in a movie: Steve from Minecraft. Black is apparently joining the cast of the upcoming adaptation of the mega-popular game, and Deadline reports that he's going to play Steve, the original default character skin for Minecraft. Variety also reported that Black is part of the cast but didn't say who he might be playing.Black was amazing as Bowser in 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie (are you also humming Peaches" right now?) and will portray the snarky robot Claptrap in the Borderlands movie, but Steve doesn't really have a defined personality. He mostly exists as a silent vessel for the player. I'm curious if Black will bring a muted performance to Steve - but if I had... Continue reading...

The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo is the first combined robot vacuum and mop from Samsung. It features steam cleaning and automatic mop removal to keep your carpets dry. | Image: Samsung Samsung is finally bringing out a new version of its Jet Bot robot vacuum, which was last updated in 2021. The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo will be on show at CES 2024 and is the first combination of robot vacuum and mop from the Korean electronics giant. (The company has a standalone robot mop, the Jetbot Mop.)Samsung hasn't announced a price (the previous model, the Jet Bot AI Plus, costs $1,300) or a release date. And it sounds like the robot's features aren't finalized yet (Samsung's press release says the robot is currently in development," and its features are subject to change). But here's a look at what the new robot vacuum might be capable of, according to Samsung.The Bespoke Jet Bot Combo is a robot vacuum and mop with a round form... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge After removing headlines from URL cards on X (formerly Twitter), the platform is adding them back - but they don't work quite the same as before. Some of us at The Verge are seeing on the web that headlines and website title pages are now appearing over the images that link to those pages, which makes it a lot easier to know what you're clicking on.This is a nice change, but there are still some quirks. For example, if a headline or title is too long, it gets cut off with an ellipses, and the text is pretty small. But it's an improvement from how things used to work, where the images would just include the domain of the website it linked out to. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge A headline on an X post. X... Continue reading...

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge The list of electric vehicles that qualify for the full $7,500 federal tax credit in the US has shrunk - considerably.Thanks to new requirements about battery minerals and sourcing that kicked in on January 1st, only five battery electric vehicles are eligible for the full credit as well as one plug-in hybrid vehicle. A few more qualify for the $3,750 half credit. And that's about it.As you can see in the table below, the pure EVs that still qualify are as follows: the Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV (soon to be discontinued and replaced with updated versions); two versions of the Ford F-150 Lightning; one version each of the Tesla Model 3 and Model X; and three versions of the Tesla Model Y. And don't forget the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge EchoStar Corporation announced today that it finalized its purchase of Dish Network on the last day of December. Following the merger, which the companies announced in August, Dish is now a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar," and why? 5G, dear reader.Dish Network was known as EchoStar until 2008 when it renamed itself to Dish and spun its satellite internet business off under the EchoStar name. In recent years, Dish has been pivoting to 5G after buying Boost Mobile and starting Project Genesis, which, in concept, would offer a fourth large network to compete in the US with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. As of late 2022, when we last tested it out, it wasn't quite impressive yet.EchoStar's COO, John Swieringa, said in the release... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Images Microsoft president Brad Smith wasn't happy with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year after the regulator blocked Microsoft's giant Activision Blizzard deal. Now that Microsoft has restructured its deal and won approval in the UK, Smith has kinder words for the CMA, describing the regulator as tough and fair" in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program.Smith originally criticized the CMA and said confidence in the UK had been severely shaken" after the regulator moved to block Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal in April last year. He called it the darkest day" for Microsoft in its four decades of working in Britain and went a step further, saying the European Union is a more attractive place to start a... Continue reading...