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Updated 2024-11-25 03:00
Apple reportedly plans Vision Pro launch by February
Image: Apple Apple's June announcement that it would launch the Vision Pro headset early next year" could be very early. As Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports, things are lining up for the device to launch by February. He says we shouldn't expect another launch event - which is understandable for a $3,499 device that will probably have a limited supply - but bringing this to market is a major undertaking that means preparing Apple Store employees to guide new users, adjust fitting, and deal with prescription lens options.Launching the first new Apple hardware platform in years includes new software with visionOS, and Gurman is already pointing to its next version, which should arrive later in 2024 along with the usual Mac and iPhone software updates.... Continue reading...
Apple’s immersive next-gen CarPlay will start with Porsche and Aston Martin
Next-generation Apple CarPlay UI in an Aston Martin. | Image: Aston Martin Apple said we'd get vehicle announcements tied to its next generation" of wireless CarPlay by the end of 2023, and today, it delivered mock-ups of the dashboard-spanning UI styled for Porsche and Aston Martin. Instead of simply taking over the infotainment center and small segments of the in-dash areas, it seeks to overhaul all displays of the given vehicle.The theme is distinct to each automaker and also gives CarPlay access to the vehicle's features, like your radio and temperature settings. In the Porsche setup, there's a three-dial layout with the speedometer on the left and a wallpaper made to match its houndstooth seat pattern.In the Aston Martin layout, there's a media display in the center, surrounded by the speedometer and... Continue reading...
Belkin’s 3-in-1 charger with MagSafe has fallen to an all-time low
Belkin's 3-in-1 charging stand makes for a great StandBy companion, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The Qi2-based chargers are certainly coming, but if you can't wait for them to land next year, Belkin's BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe is on sale now at Amazon in black for a new low of $110.99 ($39 off) or in white for just $9 more.To this day, Belkin's BoostCharge Pro remains our favorite MagSafe 3-in-1 stand for home use. The triple charging solution offers true 15W MagSafe charging speeds, the ability to fast-charge newer Apple Watch models starting with the Series 7, and support for iOS 17's new StandBy mode, which gives you an easy way to turn your phone into a clock, calendar, or a nifty photo frame for your desk. It's also outfitted with a 5W charging pad on the bottom, so you can juice a pair of wireless... Continue reading...
UK Supreme Court rules AI is not an inventor
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The UK Supreme Court ruled that AI cannot get patents, declaring it cannot be named as an inventor of new products because the law considers only humans or companies to be creators.The court unanimously denied a petition from Stephen Thaler, founder of the AI system DABUS, to name his AI as an inventor. The UK's decision aligns with a similar decision made against Thaler in the US: he previously lost an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which also denied his petition to claim AI as an inventor. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.In the UK, Thaler wanted to register DABUS as the inventor of a food container and a flashing light beacon back in 2019, but the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rejected the... Continue reading...
Microsoft announces more Xbox leadership changes as Activision’s Bobby Kotick departs
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down officially December 29th. Microsoft has not appointed a direct replacement and instead has rolled the suite of Activision Blizzard executives - including Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, Activision publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl - under Microsoft's game content and studios president Matt Booty.Kotick's departure comes just two months after some big Xbox leadership changes that saw Sarah Bond promoted to Xbox president, leading all Xbox platform and hardware work, and Matt Booty promoted to president of game content and studios, including overseeing Bethesda and ZeniMax studios. Now Booty is getting even more responsibilities with... Continue reading...
Peloton’s oldest bike tablet will be cut off from classes in a few months
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just like all gadgets, even tablets solely devoted to fitness will eventually meet their software demise. That time is rapidly approaching for Peloton's first-gen bike tablets, known as Quartz. Peloton sold these first-gen bikes between 2013 and 2016. The company already cut off software updates for the early touchscreens back in 2019. But now, as reported by Pelo Buddy, the hammer is coming down, and Peloton will completely cease support for the tablets in June 2024. If you don't make a move by then, you won't be able to access classes anymore, leaving Just Workout" as the only feature that will still work.So what's a budget-conscious Peloton devotee to do? Well, there are a couple of options to choose from. Affected customers can... Continue reading...
Waymo has 7.1 million driverless miles — how does its driving compare to humans?
Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images For years, Waymo has been claiming that its driverless vehicles have the potential to be safer than humans. Now the company says it has the data to back it up.Waymo analyzed 7.13 million fully driverless miles in three cities - Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco - and compared the data to human driving benchmarks to determine whether its cars were involved in fewer injuring-causing and police-reported crashes. And it was the first time the company studied miles from fully driverless operations only, rather than a mix of autonomous and human-monitored driving.Waymo analyzed 7.1 million fully driverless miles in three citiesThe conclusion? Waymo's driverless cars were 6.7 times less likely than human drivers to be involved a... Continue reading...
Pondering the biggest orb
Image: Ohni Lisle / The Verge It's a TV. It's a roller coaster. It's a 4D Disney World experience. It's the Sphere, and it's a lot more fun than my phone. Continue reading...
AI image training dataset found to include child sexual abuse imagery
Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images A popular training dataset for AI image generation contained links to child abuse imagery, Stanford's Internet Observatory found, potentially allowing AI models to create harmful content.LAION-5B, a dataset used by Stable Diffusion creator Stability AI and Google's Imagen image generators, included at least 1,679 illegal images scraped from social media posts and popular adult websites.The researchers began combing through the LAION dataset in September 2023 to investigate how much, if any, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was present. They looked through hashes or the image's identifiers. These were sent to CSAM detection platforms like PhotoDNA and verified by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.The dataset does not keep... Continue reading...
The Verge’s 2023 in review
The Verge A look back at the big moments - and the best releases. Continue reading...
PlayStation 5 sales have surpassed 50 million units
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge PlayStation 5 sales have hit a new milestone. Sony announced on Wednesday that it sold 50 million consoles since its launch in late 2020.The number shows just how much PS5 sales are ramping up, as Sony announced in July that it sold more than 40 million units. This likely has to do with an increased availability of the PS5 after supply chain issues resulted in fewer consoles on store shelves.We're grateful for all of our players who have joined the PS5 journey so far, and we're thrilled that this is the first holiday season since launch that we have a full supply of PS5 consoles - so anyone who wants to get one can get one," Jim Ryan, the president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement.The PS5 reached 50... Continue reading...
Adobe explains why it abandoned the Figma deal
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Adobe just abandoned its $20 billion deal to buy Figma, and now we know why. In an interview on the Decoder podcast with The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, Adobe general counsel Dana Rao said that the company couldn't prove to European regulators that the acquisition wouldn't harm competition in the future - that is, that Adobe or Figma wouldn't eventually do more to compete with one another.Last month, both EU and UK regulators threw up major flags about the competition issue. The European Commission (EC) said that the deal could significantly reduce competition in the global markets," and a week later, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) effectively blocked the deal, provisionally concluding that it would likely harm... Continue reading...
Ferrari stalls out
Image: Eros Hoagland Michael Mann's biopic of the Italian sports car maker feels at home in the director's canon of obsessive men. But have we been here before too many times? Continue reading...
2023 in smartphones: it was the little things
The Verge / Photos by Allison Johnson and Amelia Holowaty Krales Smartphones - the gadgets I spend most of my waking hours thinking about, testing, and tinkering with - are generally considered a mature product category. This means that, in any of the previous, oh, five years, you'd struggle to find a big defining moment for the industry. Likewise, there was no iPhone" moment in 2023, and I'll bet you 20 bucks we won't see one in 2024, either.But that's not to say that it wasn't an interesting year for mobile tech; far from it. We didn't have a singular, spectacular innovation: just a bunch of smaller ones that, altogether, could make a big difference in the long run.Life got a little easier for partnerships and group chats that include Android and iPhone-owning members, for example. We have new... Continue reading...
God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla uses an old genre to tell a new story
Image: Sony As I battled my way through God of War Ragnarok's new roguelike expansion, Valhalla, I was dying to learn the next part of Kratos' story - and that story is what's made me push through even when the game got tough.God of War's recent entries - the 2018 reboot and Ragnarok - are renowned for their cinematic storytelling. The tight camera makes you feel like a direct observer to Kratos' every move, and the excellent motion capture, writing, and voice acting make the characters of myth in the games seem like actual living beings. But Valhalla takes things one step further by using the structure of a roguelike - where you make attempt after attempt to overcome increasingly difficult challenges to beat the game - as a narrative tool to let... Continue reading...
Nomad unveils its first fast Qi2 wireless stand charger
Nomad's upcoming stand Qi2 charger will help make charging rates more consistent across devices. | Image: Nomad Nomad, a reputable producer of phone cases and accessories, has announced its first stand charger based on the new magnet-enhanced Qi2 standard. The $100 Stand Qi2 Magnetic Wireless Charger is capable of charging MagSafe and Qi2-enabled devices at up to 15W, and features a metal and glass design that'll be available in black or white. You'll have to supply your own 20W USB-C power adapter, but Nomad has at least included a two-meter USB-C to USB-C cable alongside the product.Much like other Qi2-based chargers that have been announced - such as Belkin's new BoostCharge offerings, Anker's latest MagGo accessories, and Mophie's upcoming trio - the Nomad Stand Qi2 charger isn't available to purchase yet. Nomad's marketing director Chuck... Continue reading...
Three porn sites hit with tough new EU safety regulations
A PornHub banner from the 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images Porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat face stricter requirements to verify the ages of their users after being officially designated as Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs) under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA). In a press release today, the European Commission said the three sites fulfil the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU." The sites will have to comply with the DSA obligations by February 2024.Being designated as a VLOP means the sites will also have to conduct risk assessments and mitigate the spread of illegal content like child sexual abuse material and deepfake pornography. There are also transparency requirements like being subject to external audits, publishing transparency reports... Continue reading...
The Biden administration has a new strategy for getting federal funds to grassroots environmental groups
US Vice President Kamala Harris (right) and Michael Regan (left), administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on Friday, January 27th, 2023. | Image: Jemal Countess / UPI / Bloomberg via Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency named 11 grantmakers" today, universities and nonprofit organizations that will be in charge of doling out $600 million of federal funding to locally led environmental projects. It's a new strategy aimed at making it easier for small grassroots groups - especially those burdened with the most pollution - to access funding.Those groups will be able to apply for subgrants from the EPA's grantmakers, who've been assigned to oversee funds for certain regions. The 11 grantmakers include some of the most prominent voices fighting a legacy of environmental racism and injustice in the US.That includes the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), made up of member organizations across the US - from Brooklyn's oldest... Continue reading...
VanMoof 2.0: a new hope
Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge The electric bike company's new leadership outlines its post-bankruptcy plan to relaunch and expand into more areas of e-mobility. Continue reading...
The Verge’s favorite splurge-worthy gifts for 2023
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge The sky's the limit when money is no object, so why waste your hard-earned cash and coin on the everyday essentials? It's time to dream big. Continue reading...
The Verge’s 2023 gaming and entertainment holiday gift guide
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge Even if someone is the type to buy all the latest big games, we're certain we can help you find them a unique and adequately geeky gift this holiday. Continue reading...
Rite Aid hit with five-year facial recognition ban over ‘reckless’ use
Image: Getty Rite Aid isn't allowed to use AI-powered facial recognition technology for another five years as part of a settlement it reached with the Federal Trade Commission. In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the FTC accuses Rite Aid of using facial surveillance systems in a reckless" manner from 2012 to 2020.During this period, the FTC says Rite Aid used facial recognition technology to capture images of all consumers as they entered or moved through the stores." It then allegedly created a database of customers identified as shoplifters or exhibiting some other kind of suspicious behavior. For some customers, the database would have accompanying information," such as names, birth dates, and the activity deemed suspicious by the store,... Continue reading...
Epic won’t ban blockchain games over adults-only ratings
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Blockchain games are returning to Epic Games' marketplace. The Epic Games Store has a strict ban on games classified as Adults Only" by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) - normally games with excessive nudity or violence. But the marketplace announced today that blockchain games classified as AO only because they use blockchain are an exception to this rule.
The Verge’s 2023 home tech holiday gift guide
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge From color-changing lights to gadgets that'll take care of dinner for you and your pets, here are some of our favorite smart home gifts. Continue reading...
Ransomware gang ‘unseizes’ its site and issues new threats after FBI takedown
Illustration: Beatrice Sala The US Justice Department (DOJ) says the FBI has created a decryption tool that helped it return the data of over 500 ransomware victims as part of a multinational law enforcement push. It also wrote that the bureau had seized several websites" operated by the ALPHV / Blackcat ransomware gang.However, Bleeping Computer reports that by this afternoon, ALPHV / Blackcat claimed to have regained control of its site and that the FBI only had decryption keys for 400 or so companies, leaving more than 3,000 victims whose data remains encrypted. The gang also reportedly said that it was no longer restricting affiliates using its ransomware software from attacking critical infrastructure, including hospitals and nuclear power plants.According... Continue reading...
The Verge’s 2023 PC gift guide
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge The best tech gifts for those who spend way too much time sitting at a laptop or desktop PC - whether for work or leisure. Continue reading...
Apple’s iPhone satellite system has a new option for roadside assistance
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge If you have an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15, you can now use satellite connectivity to access Verizon's roadside assistance service. In a support page spotted by MacRumors, Apple now says you can take advantage of the capability with devices running iOS 17.2 (or higher) and a Verizon SIM card.Verizon's roadside assistance program is run by the Allstate-owned Signature Motor Club and offers help when you're having car trouble, even if you're in a friend's car or a rental. It includes vehicle towing up to 10 miles in any direction, winching, fuel delivery, jump starts, tire service, and more. While Verizon offers a $4.99 per line monthly subscription, it also offers flat fees for Verizon customers who use the service without a subscription.A... Continue reading...
Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi finally say they will use Tesla’s EV charging plug
Image: VW Volkswagen Group, which also owns Audi, Porsche, and Scout Motors, is finally doing what nearly every other automaker has already done: announce its intention to adopt Tesla's electric vehicle charging standard.VW said it is exploring adapter solutions" so that its current EV owners can access Tesla's Supercharger network and expects to have something to roll out by 2025. That same year, you'll start to see new VW electric vehicles rolling off the assembly line with Tesla's charging port natively installed. All told, VW says the deal will give its customers access to 15,000 Supercharger locations in North America.VW said it is exploring adapter solutions"Of course, VW is incredibly late to this parade. Things started rolling in... Continue reading...
Here are a few last-minute gifts you can still grab in time for the holidays
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Has December slipped by and left you with little time to finish your holiday shopping? I'm not here to judge you for waiting until the last minute (we've all been there, after all). Instead, I'll do you one better by helping you find a variety of gift ideas that should still arrive in time to be wrapped and tucked under the tree before Christmas.There's a wide swath of excellent gifts you can still nab - some of which may even be on sale - including smart home accessories, tablets, wearables, and headphones. Everything here is tech or tech-adjacent stuff that The Verge has tested or vouched for, so you can rest assured you're not compromising on quality for the sake of timeliness. And if you need additional ideas, be sure to check out... Continue reading...
You can create your own AI songs with this new Copilot extension
The Verge Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot will now be able to churn out AI songs on demand - thanks to a new plug-in with Suno. The Cambridge-based AI music startup offers a tool on Discord that can compose an original song - complete with lyrics - based on a text prompt. Now, Copilot users will be able to access Suno using the Microsoft chatbot.In order to start making music, Copilot users only need to sign on to their accounts and enable the Suno plug-in - or click on the logo that says, Make music with Suno." Users then need to think of a simple one- or two-line text prompt that describes their desired song, such as create a folk song about Alaska summers" or write a song about cats in the style of Cat Power" (both prompts I tried... Continue reading...
Stability AI announces paid membership for commercial use of its models
Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Stability AI, the maker of the text-to-image model Stable Diffusion, is now offering a subscription service that standardizes and changes how customers can use its models for commercial purposes.The company said the membership redefines" how it grants commercial rights to users, aiming to strike a balance between profitability and openness. Stability AI's membership offers three tiers: a free one for personal and research use; a $20 per month subscription for creators, developers and startups with less than $1 million in annual revenue, $1 million in institutional funding, and one million active users"; and an enterprise plan. All three offer early access to new AI models, but only members of the two paid tiers are allowed to use... Continue reading...
Samsung adds foldable phones to its self-repair program
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be part of Samsung's self-repair program. | Image: Samsung The Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5 will join the entire S23 series, the Galaxy Tab S9 series, and the Galaxy Book 2 Pro series in Samsung's self-repair program this month. A partnership with iFixit, the repair program initially only supported S20, S21, and Tab S7 devices. At the start of 2023, the S22 line and some Galaxy Pro books were added, and now, the entire flagship S23 and foldable lines are joining the fix-it-yourself family.The Galaxy foldables are not listed on iFixit's page yet, so we don't know what the prices will be. But as the Google Pixel Fold costs around $900 for a parts kit to repair the large inner screen through its partnership with iFixit, I'm guessing it's not cheap.The full list of Samsung devices you can... Continue reading...
Why theApple Watchis being banned — and how Apple can avoid it
The Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 will be unavailable for order in the US after December 21st at 3PM ET. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge At this point, experts say the ITC's import ban is highly likely, but what does that actually mean for Apple long term? Continue reading...
Blue Origin successfully launched and recovered its New Shepard booster
Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Blue Origin's 24th mission was a success. After its New Shepard rocket took off from West Texas on Tuesday morning, the booster and crew capsule safely separated mid-flight, with both landing back on Earth.Liftoff occurs around 25:44 in the livestream and from there, you can see New Shepard propel to a maximum altitude of about 66 miles, allowing the uncrewed capsule to spend a short time in space. The reusable booster lands upright at 33:00 following the brief trip, and the capsule comes parachuting down after.While Blue Origin originally planned on a December 18th flight, the Jeff Bezos-owned space tourism company scrubbed the launch due to cold temperatures and ground issues" its teams had to troubleshoot. The NS-24 mission carried... Continue reading...
Two become one: TP-Link’s twosmart homebrands finally use one app
Users of Tapo and Kasa smart home devices can now control them both in one app. | Image: TP-Link Wi-Fi router manufacturer TP-Link is finally uniting its two smart home brands under one app, Tapo. The company has made smart gadgets since 2015, but confoundingly under two separate brands: Tapo and Kasa.Both brands offer very good smart plugs, switches, lights, connected cameras, and other gadgets for relatively low prices. But confusingly, many of them look and work almost identically while requiring two separate apps to control them. This state of affairs has long frustrated users of these inexpensive devices.After a recent update (Tapo 3.0), TP-Link is now letting users port their Kasa devices into the Tapo app. This allows you to control all your devices from one app and integrate them into any routines or automations you have... Continue reading...
Beeper’s effort to keep iMessage on Android keeps getting more complex
Image: Beeper Beeper claims it has a new fix to let you send iMessages from your Android phone - but the change requires that you own or have easy access to a trusted Mac.First, I'll quote part of an explanation from Beeper about how its iMessage service works - and how Apple has been able to shut things down. From a message posted to Reddit:
Ninja’s New Year’s Eve stream will be a multi-platform affair
Photo by Diego Donamaria / Getty Images for SXSW Your dad's favorite streamer, Ninja, will attempt his best Dick Clark impression (or do the kids only know Ryan Seacrest now?) and will host his own New Year's Eve event that will stream on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok. According to a report in Variety, the event, known as Ninja's NYE," will feature appearances from other top streamers, giveaways, a Fortnite tournament, and a countdown to midnight.The event is meant to appeal to Gen Z with promises that it's not your parents' New Year's Eve ball drop. Ditch your TV and come hang out with us," reads the event's website. It'll be more fun... we promise."Though Ninja was once the undisputed king of Twitch, he's no longer pulling the viewership numbers he used to. According to Twitch... Continue reading...
Apple News Plus gets The New York Times’ sports coverage, but not the NYT itself
Illustration: The Verge Articles published by New York Times-owned sports journal The Athletic and its staff of over 450 full-time writers, editors, and producers are now part of Apple News Plus, Apple's $12.99 per month subscription news plan, in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia. Meanwhile, Wirecutter stories are also coming to Apple News and will start appearing in the free feed early next year."Both publications have been off of Apple News since The New York Times left Apple's news aggregator in 2020, blaming the lack of a direct path" for readers to take back to its websites and saying it wanted more control of its relationship with its readers. While the Times' reporting isn't back, Athletic publisher David Perpich told Axios this new deal made... Continue reading...
The Xbox Series X is available for a new low of $339.99, if you’re quick
Microsoft's obelisk keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft's top-tier Xbox console keeps getting cheaper. It seemed like a big deal when the Xbox Series X fell to $350 just a couple of weeks ago, but now Best Buy is selling it through one of its limited in-app drop" sales for a new low of $339.99 ($160 off). You can also still grab the console at Walmart for $349 ($150 off), if you prefer to go with a different retailer and don't mind paying slightly more.To take advantage of Best's Buy deal, you'll need a free Best Buy account and the retailer's app. If the direct links here don't take you right to the listing within Best Buy's app to buy the Series X at the discounted price, then look toward the bottom strip of icons in the app and click the Drops icon in the middle. (It depicts a... Continue reading...
The reintroduction of wolves in Colorado is giving me life right now
Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five gray wolves onto public land in Grand County, Colorado, on Monday, December 18th, 2023. Pictured is a young female brought to the state from Oregon. | Image: Colorado Parks and Wildlife Five gray wolves have a new home in Colorado; state wildlife officials released them yesterday in a spectacular show of efforts to conserve the endangered species.Colorado Parks and Wildlife experts swung crate doors open one by one to let the wolves run free onto public land. Some wolves hesitated for a moment, seemingly taking stock of their new surroundings, while others quickly bolted into the tall dry grass against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.It was a moment conservations have worked toward for years, overcoming much of the stigma that brought wolves to the brink of extinction in the first place. Residents voted to reintroduce the species in Colorado back in 2020, setting the state on a path to release its first new... Continue reading...
Netflix’s Carol and the End of World is a heartwarming view of the end times
Image: Netflix The idea of the world ending usually channels excess: humanity running wild because, well, what does it matter anymore? And there's some of that in Carol & the End of the World, a new animated series on Netflix. But mostly it's a story about a quiet forty-something woman who uses the impending destruction of the Earth as a chance for self-reflection and discovery. While everyone else is base jumping and traveling the world, Carol slowly finds joy in the mundanity of everyday life. The show is strange yet comforting - and might just be an ideally meditative way to end the year.Created by Dan Guterman (Community, Rick & Morty), Carol & the End of the World is centered on Carol (Martha Kelly) who is about the most unassuming person... Continue reading...
Meta’s Oversight Board says it unfairly removed videos of Israel-Hamas war
The Meta Oversight Board said removing the content could impact freedom of expression and access to information" in the war. | Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta's Oversight Board has criticized the company's automated moderation tools for being too aggressive after two videos that depicted hostages, injured civilians, and possible casualties in the Israel-Hamas war were - it says - unfairly removed from Facebook and Instagram. In a report published on Tuesday, the external review panel determined that the posts should have remained live and that removing the content has a high cost to freedom of expression and access to information" in the war. (A warning for our readers: the following descriptions of the content may be disturbing.)One of the removed videos, posted to Facebook, depicts an Israeli woman during the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, pleading with kidnappers who were... Continue reading...
Why Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen took his company back
Illustration by The Verge | Photo by Flexport His replacement got the boot barely a year into the job. What brought Petersen back? Continue reading...
Adam Sandler is a haunted astronaut in the first teaser for Netflix’s Spaceman
Image: Netflix Netflix's next sci-fi movie has a surprising lead. The streamer just released the first (very brief) teaser for Spaceman, which stars Adam Sandler as an astronaut who encounters a mysterious alien creature (voiced by Paul Dano) while on a research mission in space. The film, directed by Johan Renck, sounds weird and grim and is based on the Czech novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfa.Here's how Netflix describes the premise:
Comcast Xfinity data breach affects over 35 million people
Image: Xfinity Comcast is notifying Xfinity customers of a data security incident" it says resulted in the theft of customer information, including usernames, passwords, contact information, partial social security numbers, and more. In a notice on Monday, Xfinity said there was unauthorized access" to its systems from October 16th to October 19th, 2023.BleepingComputer linked this breach notice published in the state of Maine, which shows the total number of people affected by the breach is 35,879,455, including over 50,000 people in Maine.Xfinity traces the breach to a security vulnerability disclosed by cloud computing company Citrix, which began alerting customers about a flaw in software Xfinity and other companies use on October 10th. While... Continue reading...
You can still grab an Apple Watch Series 9 for $329 before Apple halts sales
The Apple Watch Series 9 is pretty similar to the last-gen Series 8, though it does come in a new pink shade. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In case you haven't heard, Apple is halting Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales in the US due to a patent dispute. Starting on December 21st at 3PM ET, you won't be able to buy the wearables from Apple, nor will third-party retailers like Amazon restock inventory after it sells out. Thankfully, both wearables are still in stock and on sale as of right now, with the Apple Watch Series 9 starting at around $329 ($70 off) in the 41mm GPS configuration at Amazon, Target, and Walmart. The Ultra 2, meanwhile, is currently on sale at Amazon with select bands for as low as $699 ($100 off) when you clip the on-page coupon.Overall, the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Ultra 2 are great fitness trackers for iPhone users. They both feature a... Continue reading...
2023 in thesmart home:Matter’s broken promises
The Verge / Photos by Getty Images and Courtesy of CSA The new smart home standard finally arrived this year. But poor implementation, significant backpedaling, and glacial progress have left it broken. Continue reading...
2023 in social media: the case for the fediverse
The Verge There's this picture from more than a decade ago that still goes viral on the web every once in a while. You've probably seen it: it was created by the venture capitalist Andrew Parker, and it compares a few dozen startups with subsections of Craigslist. Back then, Craigslist was all things to all people online, and a generation of startups figured they could do part of the job a lot better.Some of those companies failed - sometimes because of Craigslist! - but some also became gigantically successful. Airbnb worked because it was more searchable, reliable, and trustworthy than a random Craigslist listing; StubHub sold you secondhand tickets without the 50 percent chance those tickets were fake; Etsy offered a much more fun shopping and... Continue reading...
Wolverine part of massive Insomniac Games leak after ransomware deadline passes
Officially released artwork of Insomniac's Wolverine. | Image: Insomniac Games Footage of Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game has started widely circulating on X after hackers published troves of internal data from its developer. Cyber Daily reports that a total of 1.67 terabytes of data comprising over 1.3 million files has been released by the Ryhsida ransomware gang, which announced that it had stolen the data in a hack on December 12th. At the time, the group announced an auction price for the data starting at 50 bitcoins, roughly $2 million, and a seven-day deadline to pay.Alongside level design and character materials from Wolverine, the leak seemingly includes several internal company presentations containing details on unannounced Insomniac and Sony games, screenshots of internal spreadsheets, and details... Continue reading...
Google to pay $700 million and make tiny app store changes to settle with 50 states
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On December 11th, a jury decided that Google has an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store, handing Epic Games a win. But Epic wasn't the only one fighting an antitrust case. All 50 state attorneys general settled a similar lawsuit in September, and we've just now learned what Google agreed to give up as a result: $700 million and a handful of minor concessions in the way that Google runs its store in the United States.The biggest change: Google will need to let developers steer consumers away from the Google Play Store for several years, if this settlement is approved.You can read the full 68-page settlement for yourself at the bottom of this story, but here's the TL;DR about what it includes:
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