The Verge

Image: Ubisoft We're getting very close to the launch of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft's Grand Theft Auto-style take on a galaxy far, far away. Which means it's a good time for another trailer detailing the sorts of criminal escapades players can get into. The new overview focused primarily on the different Star Wars locations you'll be exploring and the various not exactly legal missions you'll take on. Among various aspects featured are dealing with the Hutts, riding a speeder bike, and finding new recruits for your scoundrel gang.You can get a quicker taste of the gameplay in the video above, or check out this 10-minute-long deep dive:These aren't the only Outlaws trailers from the last few days: Ubisoft released a very brief teaser during the... Continue reading...

Support for robot vacuums is coming to Apple Home with iOS18. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Apple has announced that Apple Home will finally support robot vacuums with iOS 18. This was one of just a few updates to its smart home platform that Apple announced at WWDC 2024. The company also revealed that hands-free unlocking is coming to compatible smart door locks as well as the ability to share guest codes for access to your home (another thing we've been impatiently waiting for). Plus, there's a new electricity usage feature coming to the Home app, although it's limited to Pacific Gas & Electric users in California at launch.Apple said that the Home app now supports the core functionality of robot vacuum cleaners, such as power control, cleaning mode, vacuum, mop, and charge status." The floor cleaning devices can also... Continue reading...

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple's new Apple Intelligence" AI features will let you make your own custom emoji and images, the company announced at WWDC 2024.The custom emoji are called Genmoji," and they look like a lot of fun. In one example, during Monday's keynote, Apple showed how the prompt smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers" generates a yellow smiley face emoji with cucumbers over its eyes. If you don't like the initial emoji that Apple makes, you can swipe to pick from a few different options.The creation of official emoji is a pretty big process, so it's nice that Apple is offering a way for users to create their own on the fly. (Google also offers a tool for users to create emoji with its Emoji Kitchen.)There's also a new Image Playground" that... Continue reading...

Apple announcing ChatGPT in Siri at WWDC 2024. | Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple is partnering with OpenAI to put ChatGPT into Siri, the company announced at its WWDC 2024 keynote on Monday.ChatGPT will be available for free in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia later this year without an account, and Apple says that user queries won't be logged. The popular chatbot will also be integrated into Apple's systemwide writing tools. In addition, paid ChatGPT subscribers will be able to link their accounts to access premium features from OpenAI within Apple's operating systems.The long-awaited partnership emerges as Apple strives to integrate AI features that rival those of other big tech companies. Apple had been in discussions with both Google and OpenAI to incorporate their AI technology into its operating systems.... Continue reading...

Apple's new Passwords app. | Image: Apple At WWDC 2024, Apple revealed a new Passwords app that expands on its existing iCloud Keychain features and syncs your passwords across more devices. Now, with Passwords, Apple is releasing a standalone app to manage passwords and passkeys on more devices, including Apple's Vision Pro headset, as well as Macs, iPhones, and iPads. It also syncs with PCs via the iCloud for Windows app.Platforms that have so far gone unmentioned? Just as the earlier rumor indicated, Google Chrome and Android.You can also view your Wi-Fi passwords in one place and share passwords in groups with people you want to have them.One big advantage could be that it will integrate even more deeply with your Apple logins and family sharing setups than other options... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has announced several AI-powered features coming to its Siri virtual assistant, such as an updated design and improvements to how it speaks and understands spoken language commands. These features, announced during Apple's WWDC event on June 10th, come courtesy of Apple Intelligence - the company's new personal intelligence system which the company says will be able to control actions on users' behalf in apps.For Siri, Apple says these actions include things like retrieving information from user emails if asked to check when their mom's flight is landing, or the ability to locate an image of a driver's license on the device, and extract that information to fill out a form for you.Today's announcement follows several months of... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Apple announced Apple Intelligence" at WWDC 2024, its name for a new suite of AI features for the iPhone, Mac, and more.The company that once refused to use the term artificial intelligence" when talking about its machine learning features now has AI enhancements across its platforms. The company has been behind companies like Google and Microsoft, which started racing ahead with their own generative AI features as soon as OpenAI broke the dam open in 2022. Now, it's making its bid to catch up.Apple Intelligence will take action for you in appsApple said its AI features will be able to do things for you in apps. It will be able to manage your notifications, automatically write things for you, or summarize text in mail and other... Continue reading...

Apple's tvOS doesn't get the primary focus at WWDC, but it's still adding a few new features this fall, including one that will be familiar to people who've used Amazon's streaming service.The new InSight feature is limited to Apple TV Plus original shows and movies, where it will show details about the actors and characters onscreen as well as pull up details about the show's soundtrack so you can add tracks to Apple Music. Amazon's similar X-Ray feature began its life on the Kindle platform before rolling out for TV shows and movies across the Fire tablets and smart TV devices over the last decade. Image: Apple InSight is also viewable on your iPhone when you're using it as an Apple TV remote.Another new... Continue reading...

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple officially announced macOS 15 Sequoia at WWDC 2024 on Monday, with Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring, Continuity updates, automatic window tiling - finally - and a cross-platform Passwords app. The developer beta is available today, with public betas in July. The full version releases in fall 2024.Most significantly, MacOS Sequoia will include Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI features that work across iPhone, iPad, and iOS. Among the features mentioned at WWDC: it'll be able to manage your notifications, summarize text in emails and other apps, and automatically draft replies to emails. Siri will now be able to act for you in apps, and pull contextual information based on your personal information - all with voice commands.... Continue reading...

Unlike the FreeStyle Libre systems (pictured above), Abbott's new continuous glucose monitors won't require a prescription. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Abbott announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration has cleared two new over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors (CGM). The Lingo is designed for health-conscious consumers who want to get greater insight into their metabolism. Meanwhile, the Libre Rio is designed for Type 2 diabetics who don't rely on insulin.CGMs are small wearable sensors that you typically wear for about 14 days at a time. They don't actually measure your blood sugar but instead measure glucose in interstitial fluid - the stuff between your cells - just under the skin. Thus far, they've generally been used for people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who rely on insulin for treatment. However, there's been a growing push among medical device makers and... Continue reading...

I'd probably be boring and buy it in black, but more speakers should come in fun colors. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The Echo Pop is the cheapest and simplest way into Amazon's smart home ecosystem, and the tiny Alexa-enabled smart speaker is on sale for just $19.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The rounded wedge offers Alexa voice commands and can control connected smart bulbs and thermostats in your home, as well as streaming music from services like Spotify and Apple Music. Plus, in addition to the standard black and white models, it comes in some fun teal and lavender colors (which are on sale for the same price).Amazon's colorful speaker doesn't get much cheaper than this, as it's currently just $2 shy of the all-time low we saw during last year's holiday shopping season. While the Pop is the entry model to Amazon's stable of... Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify's personalization features are about to pop up in more areas of the app. The service will soon start showcasing banners and in-app messages tailored to your listening habits, such as telling you how many times you listened to artists like Doja Cat last month.In addition to giving you insight into your activity on the app, Spotify's messages will prompt you to listen to Doja Cat or encourage you to use Spotify's AI DJ to play similar music. Another example, as shown in the image embedded below, links you to your Daylist, a feature that comes up with a playlist based on what you typically listen to throughout your day. Image: Spotify Spotify doesn't say when - or how often - these personalized messages will... Continue reading...

The RansomHub extortion group have claimed responsibility for the cyberattack against Frontier on April 14th. | Illustration: Beatrice Sala Frontier Communications has revealed that information for over 750,000 customers - including full names and Social Security numbers - was exposed in a data breach following a cyberattack on April 14th. Hackers claim to have even more and will release it unless Frontier pays a ransom.The attack enabled hackers to access 751,895 customers' personal data on Frontier's systems according to a sample of the notice Frontier submitted to the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Frontier has notified impacted customers and provided them with one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft services, but says it does not believe" customer financial information was exposed in the breach.Bleeping Computer reports that the RansomHub... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Game Studios It's a mad world once again. At its Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest, Microsoft revealed the latest entry in the sci-fi shooter series: Gears of War E-Day. It's being developed by The Coalition, Xbox's internal studio dedicated to all things Gears. The game doesn't currently have a release date, but it being built on Unreal Engine 5.The announcement trailer harkens back to the classic Mad World" commercial for the original Gears. Fittingly, E-Day is set 14 years before the first Gears, and tells the story of the first Locust emergence on Sera." It once again stars Marcus Fenix and is being billed as an origin story.This will be the first title in the series since Gears 5 in 2019, which was part of a plan from Microsoft to turn... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is arriving on Xbox and PC on November 12th. The next installment in the legendary franchise will include hot air balloon trips, aerial firefighting, and much more.During the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 developer Asobo showed off commercial flight, air ambulances, and even aerial advertising. Asobo has been working on adding a variety of new planes to the game, and you'll even be able to fly as part of a search and rescue team, or help with agricultural aviation and aerial firefighting. Asobo has also been working on additions like air racing, skydive aviation, and even VIP chartered services.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 debuts on Xbox Series S / X and PC on November 19th. Continue reading...

Image: Xbox Game Studios Microsoft is officially putting a release window on Fable, which is now set to arrive at some point in 2025. After an initial trailer at last year's Xbox summer showcase, today, we got to see some early gameplay.The new footage was mostly focused on the characters and story of the fantasy game. Fable will be centered on a hero named Humphry, who will be forced out of retirement when a mysterious figure from his past threatens Albion's very existence." It appears that choice will once again play a big part in the experience, though not a lot of hard details have been revealed about the game just yet.Playground Games - best-known for the Forza Horizon series - is the developer behind this latest installment of Fable, which will be the... Continue reading...

Image: Bethesda Softworks Bethesda's sci-fi universe is about to get bigger. Bethesda has finally unveiled Shattered Space, the first major expansion for Starfield, which comes nearly a year after the open-world RPG debuted. Based on the first trailer, it has a much darker tone than the main Starfield campaign. No release date was revealed, but it's coming sometime in 2024.Here's the official premise:

Image: Bethesda Softworks The rumors were true: the next Doom is heading to a dark fantasy realm. At Xbox's big June showcase event, id Software officially unveiled the next entry in the demonic shooter series, which is called Doom: The Dark Ages. As the name implies, it takes the franchise back to a medieval-like era, with the slayer killing enemies in a more fantasy realm. In that way, it seems to serve as a prequel of sorts. It still looks as gruesome and gory as ever, though. Also, you can fly on some kind of cyberpunk dragon.The game is launching in 2025, and will be coming to Xbox (including Game Pass), PC, and PS5.The franchise has taken a few years off, at least when it comes to mainline entries. id Software rebooted Doom in 2016 with a fast-paced... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is back with another Xbox Games Showcase this year, and this time around, there's a Call of Duty direct straight after the main show. This is Microsoft's first Xbox Games Showcase to feature games from across Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios, as well as third-party titles.I think this is going to be a big Xbox showcase, with a runtime that could approach the two-hour mark. Get ready for new game reveals, lots of release dates, and some potential surprises.What time does the Xbox Games Showcase start?The Xbox Games Showcase starts on Sunday, June 9th, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT / 6PM UK.Where can I watch the Xbox Games Showcase?Microsoft is streaming its big Xbox showcase live on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook.... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge At last month's iPad Pro M4 launch, Tim Cook said it was the biggest day for iPad since its introduction." That was pretty clearly not the case: it was a day of really nice incremental hardware updates to a tablet that already had more power than most people know what to do with.But Cook's proclamation could still be true, at least in retrospect. Apple just needs to stick the landing and use WWDC to show us a powerful operating system that's worthy of the new iPad Pro's powerful hardware.The pain of glassLet me get it out of the way up front: the base iPad, running today's iPadOS, is fantastic for the things most people use an iPad for. Nobody should spend more than $500 on a tablet that they're mostly going to use for reading,... Continue reading...

Screenshot: YouTube Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles got its first official trailer yesterday, revealing that the Mutant Mayhem spinoff will debut August 9th, with a 12-episode run on Paramount Plus. And from the looks of things, it's just as gorgeous as the 3D-animated movie it sprang from.The new trailer sees the four brothers split up by a mysterious villain named Bishop and forced to fight murderous robots without the help of their siblings. Bishop herself appears in the belly of an especially large robot that very vaguely resembles a mouser with arms and feels a lot like a hint at Krang, the evil brain from Dimension X that terrorized the Turtles in the 1987 cartoon series. Screenshot: YouTube That aside, the Nickelodeon... Continue reading...

During last night's Major League Baseball telecast on Apple TV Plus, a grounder bounced off the right hand of Los Angeles Dodger player Enrique Kike" Hernandez and right into his crotch. That gave New York Yankees batter Gleyber Torres enough time to get to first. Does that happen all the time? Sure. It's just that Hernandez was in the middle of an interview when it happened.Game announcer Dontrelle Willis had just asked Hernandez, who was wearing a two-way mic, about his team's close-knit relationship when Torres hit the ball toward third base. Hernandez ran to catch it and simply misjudged how the ball would bounce. ESPN reports that when asked after the game whether the interview had anything to do with the error, Hernandez said,... Continue reading...

Nanoleaf's smart ceiling lights offer hundreds of colors and an array of impressive lighting effects. | Image: Nanoleaf The days are getting brighter, but with the current heatwave plaguing much of the US, how many of us can really go out and enjoy it? Luckily, Nanoleaf's Skylight Smarter Kit is on sale for the first time, offering the rest of us a way to add some brightness to our day without melting to death. Normally $249.99, right now, you can buy the three-pack kit for $229.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Nanoleaf.Designed to mimic a skylight, Nanoleaf's full-color LED ceiling lights can bring a bit of the sun into the comfort of your air-conditioned home. They feature exceptionally bright, tunable lights that radiate a whopping 4,200 lumens of brightness combined, while their modular design means you can build out different patterns or... Continue reading...