 |
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6H26C)
The Era 100 is a sharp-looking little speaker in either white or black. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge One of our top picks of all Black Friday deals was the Sonos Era 100 smart speaker, and we're happy to report that deal has returned. Right now, you can get the Era 100 in black or white for its lowest price of $199 ($50 off) at Amazon Best Buy, B&H Photo, or direct from Sonos.The Era 100 is one of Sonos' latest Wi-Fi-connected speakers, offering some impressive sound in a compact package. It may not have the spatial audio tricks of its much bigger Era 300 cousin, but the Era 100 can fit just about anywhere in your home, and if you own a turntable, you can even pump that audio through a multiroom Sonos system by way of a simple USB-C adapter.Read our review of the Sonos Era 100.If you want to score a sizable deal on some of the many... Continue reading...
|
The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2024-11-25 04:45 |
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6H26D)
Image: BMW As digital keys become more widely used among car owners, a consortium of auto and phone makers are working to ensure that people can trust that this new technology is secure and will always work across multiple devices.The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) is an industry group that includes most major car companies, like Ford, GM, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as phone makers like Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi. The consortium announced a new certification program for digital keys that use near-field communication (NFC). NFC-equipped phones must be tapped against the car's door handle to unlock it, rather than using a key or key fob.A global compatibility of products and services for a seamless experience... regardless... Continue reading...
by Jon Porter on (#6H23X)
Screenshot: Google Google could be developing a new feature for its Messages app that would let you edit a message after having sent it, according to code spotted by TheSpAndroid. References to the feature first appeared in a beta version of the app on November 19th, and there are four flags that appear to reference it, though attempting to enable them reportedly doesn't do anything.The evidence of the in-development feature has cropped up as support for editing messages is becoming increasingly common in other messaging apps. Apple added the option for iMessage users to edit sent messages with iOS 16 last year, and WhatsApp released a similar feature earlier in 2023. In both cases, you have a limited amount of time to edit sent messages - two minutes for... Continue reading...
 |
by Wes Davis on (#6H1QB)
Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warned the public against scanning any old QR code in a consumer alerts blog last week. Naturally, the warning comes down to security and privacy - bad actors can put QR codes in inconspicuous places or send them via text or email, then just sit back and wait for a payday in the form of money, logins, or other sensitive information.The New York Times reported that John Fokker, who heads threat intelligence at cybersecurity company Trellix, says Trellix found over 60,000 samples of QR code attacks" in the third quarter this year alone. The Times wrote that the most popular scams involved payroll and HR personnel impersonators and postal scams, among others. Early last year, police in several Texas... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Wes Davis on (#6H1GM)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple is reportedly making some changes next year that it hopes will make it easier for people to fit a specific iPad to their needs. For instance, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter today that the next iPad Air will get an M2 chip in addition to the larger second model that's been rumored.One of the other ways Apple is reportedly tackling the issue is to drop the 9th-generation model that's been dangling off of the front of the lineup since last year's pricier 10th-generation iPad redesign launched. Gurman says sending the 9th-gen iPad out to pasture will let the company slowly phase out some of its older Pencils." Presumably, the 2015 Apple Pencil will be the first to go, once there's no Lightning port... Continue reading...
|
 |
by David Pierce on (#6H1DS)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 17, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.This week, I've been watching A Murder at the End of the World and (finally!) Barbie, reading about Gary Gensler's war on crypto, robot trucks, and Taylor Swift's world takeover, playing Puzzmo's Really Bad Chess, and catching up on all the super-popular TikToks I missed this year.I also have for you a new Mastodon app, a bunch of new AI tools, a whole new Fortnite universe, an espresso maker, and much more. And I have some thoughts about messaging. Let's dig in.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas... Continue reading...
|
 |
by David Pierce on (#6H17C)
Beeper Mini brought iMessage to Android. It didn't last long. | Image: Beeper A few days after the team at Beeper proudly announced a way for users to send blue-bubble iMessages directly from their Android devices without any weird relay servers, and about 24 hours after it became clear Apple had taken steps to shut that down, Apple has shared its take on the issue.The company's stance here is fairly predictable: it says it's simply trying to do right by users, and protect the privacy and security of their iMessages. We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage," Apple senior PR manager Nadine Haija said in a statement.Here's the statement in full:
|
 |
by Wes Davis on (#6H164)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will release its 2023 Holiday Update next week with a few big changes, including one that lets Teslas call 911 automatically if the car's airbags deploy in a crash. On Thursday, the company announced the update is coming next week, and it highlighted other coming features like Apple Podcasts support, rear-screen Bluetooth headset support, an updated version of the park assistance with 3D visuals, and new blind spot indicators.Apple Podcast support joins Apple Music, which Tesla added last year. Not a Tesla App reported yesterday that Tesla owners can sync podcasts with Apple devices. The site added other details about update 2023.44.25; for instance, Tesla owners won't need a separate USB stick for every light show they want to... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Andrew Webster on (#6H11V)
Image: Epic Games You could say that Fortnite is entering a new phase. With the launch of Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival, the game is now more than a popular battle royale - it's a platform designed to house lots of different kinds of experiences. That shift was preceded by an event that brought the game back to its roots with Fortnite OG, which returned to the original battle royale map alongside classic weapons and vehicles. And that was a very intentional strategy from Epic Games.According to Epic's executive VP Saxs Persson, the launch of Fortnite OG was meant to create a stir ahead of this rollout of new games. We had a goal of re-activating a lot of our 500 million accounts that maybe weren't playing Fortnite anymore, and... Continue reading...
|
by Mitchell Clark on (#6H0ZW)
Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge A few months ago, I downgraded my internet, going from a 900Mbps plan to a 200Mbps one. Now, I find that websites can sometimes take a painfully long time to load, that HD YouTube videos have to stop and buffer when I jump around in them, and that video calls can be annoyingly choppy.In other words, pretty much nothing has changed. I had those exact same problems even when I had near-gigabit download service, and I'm probably not alone. I'm sure many of you have also had the experience of cursing a slow-loading website and growing even more confused when a speed test" says that your internet should be able to play dozens of 4K Netflix streams at once. So what gives?Like any issue, there are many factors at play. But a major one is... Continue reading...
 |
by Andrew Webster on (#6H0ZX)
Image: Epic Games Epic released a trilogy of new games inside of Fortnite this week. It started with Lego Fortnite, continued with Rocket Racing, and is wrapping up today with Fortnite Festival, developed by Guitar Hero studio Harmonix (which Epic acquired in 2021). It's all part of an ambitious plan to turn Fortnite from a hit battle royale into a platform filled with all kinds of different experiences. And in the case of Fortnite Festival, it's a full-blown music game inside of Fortnite. Think of it like Rock Band - but without the plastic instruments.What that means is you'll be hitting notes along to popular songs, but instead of doing that on a toy guitar or drum set, you're using a game controller or mouse and keyboard. The basic flow is identical,... Continue reading...
|
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6H0ZY)
Plus, it comes in this awesome yellow color. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge We've found Apple's latest generation of its base-model iPad to be a bit awkwardly priced from the start. At $449 it's a little close to the much nicer iPad Air and simultaneously a lot pricier than its ninth-gen predecessor. But that all looks different when you knock a Benjamin off of it - because right now you can get the 10th-gen iPad with base 64GB of storage for $349 ($100 off) or expanded 256GB for $499 (also $100 off) at Best Buy until December 11th. This matches its Black Friday best pricing, making it a much better purchase.The 10.9-inch tablet has a speedy A14 Bionic chip and USB-C charging port with a colorful design and gesture-based controls like its pricier brethren. As for handwritten note-taking, you can either use the... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6H0ZZ)
Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge Advocates are working across the country to make their communities safer and more accessible for cyclists, but not every effort is successful. Continue reading...
 |
by Allison Johnson on (#6H0XS)
Mario Wonder is just so gosh darn charming I didn't want to stop playing. | Image: Nintendo My mission to 100 percent Super Mario Bros. Wonder officially started a couple of weeks ago, but really it began in the late 80s.As a kid, I was certifiably bad at Mario. We didn't have our own Nintendo console, so any time I spent playing Mario prior to that was at a friend's or cousin's house. I'd hold the second controller and wait my turn, marveling at how they just knew where the hidden boxes were, where to jump to the top of the screen and skip ahead three levels, and how to get to the very top of the flagpole every single time. As I struggled to clear the first few stages before running out of lives, it seemed obvious to me that I lacked some instinct that made my friends good at Mario and made me objectively terrible.A few... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Robyn Kanner on (#6H0XR)
Well Go USA The director of Monster talks about the complexities (and simplicities) of portraying multiple points of view Continue reading...
|
 |
by Thomas Ricker on (#6H0TP)
Fire and ice make everything nice. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Amrita Khalid on (#6H0RB)
Image: The Verge One feature added to Microsoft's AI Copilot in the Edge browser this week is the ability to generate text summaries of videos. But Edge Copilot's time-saving feature is still fairly limited and only works on pre-processed videos or those with subtitles, as Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft's CEO of advertising and web services, explained.As spotted by MSPowerUser, Parakhin writes, In order for it to work, we need to pre-process the video. If the video has subtitles - we can always fallback on that, if it does not and we didn't preprocess it yet - then it won't work," in response to a question.
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6H0NV)
The earliest that we will likely see these rules come into force is 2025. | The Verge Following a round of intense negotiations this week, lawmakers in Brussels have now reached a provisional agreement" on the European Union's proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). The EU's AI Act is anticipated to be the world's first comprehensive set of rules to govern AI and could serve as a benchmark for other regions looking to pass similar laws.According to the press release, negotiators established obligations for high-impact" general-purpose AI (GPAI) systems that meet certain benchmarks, like risk assessments, adversarial testing, incident reports, and more. It also mandates transparency by those systems that include creating technical documents and detailed summaries about the content used for training" - something... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Chris Welch on (#6H0MD)
Illustration: The Verge It appears that Beeper Mini, an easy iMessage solution for Android, was simply too good to be true - or a short-lived dream, at least. On Friday, less than a week after its launch, the app started experiencing technical issues when users were suddenly unable to send and receive blue bubble messages. The problems grew worse over the course of the day, with reports piling up on the Beeper subreddit. Several people at The Verge were unable to activate their Android phone numbers with Beeper Mini as of Friday afternoon, a clear indication that Apple has plugged up whatever holes allowed the app to operate to begin with.Beeper Mini was the result of a comprehensive attempt to reverse engineer Apple's messaging protocol. A 16-year-old high... Continue reading...
|
by Ariel Shapiro on (#6H0ME)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Well, it's been a messy, messy week. Today, I have a look at the departure of Spotify CFO Paul Vogel, who (as first reported by Podnews) sold millions worth of stock on Tuesday. Plus, other key Spotify layoffs and the podcast download fallout of Apple's iOS 17.After an insensitive stock sale, Paul Vogel is out as CFO of SpotifyIn an absolutely chaotic week for Spotify, the biggest layoff of all dropped on Thursday evening: Paul Vogel, who has been the company's CFO for nearly four years, will leave in March. The news, which came after it was disclosed that he had sold $9.38 million worth of shares the day after the layoffs, was delivered by an atypically terse press release that made it clear Spotify's leadership wasn't satisfied with... Continue reading...
 |
by Umar Shakir on (#6H0J1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is suing a naughty but enterprising group called REKK for offering a paid service to willing shoppers looking to get big-ticket items like laptops and game consoles for cheap by exploiting its return and refund system.This isn't like the times you try to return a small item purchased from Amazon, like a pair of socks, and the system refunds you without telling you to send it back. As reported by Bloomberg, Amazon's lawsuit accuses REKK of using social engineering and phishing attacks on Amazon fulfillment employees or bribes to get millions of dollars in refunds without actually sending the items back. Image: US District Court A text exchange shows REKK recruiting an Amazon employee. REKK advertised... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6H0J2)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Say goodbye to the Chevy Bolt EV... again.General Motors won't be bringing over the original hatchback Bolt to the automaker's Ultium platform, just the larger Bolt EUV, GM confirmed after InsideEVs first reported the news. That comes after GM said it was discontinuing Bolt production but later confirmed that it would resurrect the EV as an Ultium vehicle for 2025.The original Bolt EV was built on GM's older and soon-to-be-obsolete BEV2 platform. The automaker has since shifted to the Ultium battery architecture for its next-generation EVs, including the Cadillac Lyriq, Hummer EV, and GMC Sierra EV. Chevy is building a trio of Ultium-built EVs, including the Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV.We are glad to see the enthusiasm... Continue reading...
|
by Jay Peters on (#6H0F5)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge With iOS 17.2, you'll be able to share passes from the Wallet app by bringing two iPhones next to each other, according to MacRumors. I haven't tested the feature myself, but it sounds a lot like Apple's NameDrop contact-sharing tool it introduced with the first release of iOS 17.If you're looking at a pass or ticket in the Wallet app and you bring your iPhone next to another running iOS 17.2, you'll see a share" button appear at the bottom of your screen, MacRumors says. Tap that to pass the pass over AirDrop.Note that you can already share passes from within Wallet. When looking at a pass, you can tap the share icon at the top of the screen to see ways to send it to other people, like through Messages or the traditional AirDrop... Continue reading...
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6H0BY)
The lengthy delay in Threads European rollout has been attributed to the EU's DMA rules. | Illustration: The Verge Following its rollout in countries like the US and UK this past July, Threads will finally be expanded to users in the European Union on December 14th. Meta hasn't made an official announcement yet, instead opting to sneakily update the Threads website with an untitled countdown timer (which won't be viewable in countries where Threads is already available) with just under six days remaining on the clock.European Instagram users can also search for the term ticket" within the app to discover a digital invitation to Threads, alongside a scannable QR code and a launch time - which may vary depending on the country in which the user is based. We have contacted Meta to confirm the details, like which EU countries Threads might launch in,... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Mia Sato on (#6H08H)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Artificial intelligence-powered drive-thru company Presto Automation described itself as one of the largest labor automation technology providers in the industry," and boasted its ability to increase sales and save" human labor time.But according to recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, off-site human workers are stepping in and completing over 70 percent of orders.Despite the company's branding and marketing suggesting magical drive-in tech, Presto Automation uses workers in places like the Philippines, according to Bloomberg. The AI drive-thru technology is used by fast food restaurants including Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Del Taco, and Checkers across the country, promising to lower labor costs and increase... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6H08J)
Illustration: The Verge NotebookLM, Google's experimental AI-powered note-taking app, is now widely available in the US. It's also getting several new features and is starting" to use Google's Gemini Pro AI model to help with document understanding and reasoning," according to the company.NotebookLM can already do things like summarize the documents you import into the app, come up with key points, and even answer questions about your note-taking sources. But now, Google is adding a way to transform your notes into other types of documents, too. Once you select all the notes you want to include, NotebookLM will automatically suggest formats, such as an outline or study guide. However, Google notes that you can also tell NotebookLM to transform your notes... Continue reading...
|
by Justine Calma on (#6H08K)
Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge President Joe Biden has promised to revitalize American manufacturing. Longtime Silicon Valley residents hope hazardous chemicals won't be coming back with it. Continue reading...
by Joanna Nelius on (#6H063)
Illustration by Sisi Kim for The Verge A lot of homes are being built, but a lack of understanding of internet infrastructure and a need to cut costs means they kind of suck for internet. Continue reading...
 |
by Alicia Haddick on (#6D1M5)
Image: Studio Ghibli The latest Studio Ghibli film is out in North American theaters after premiering in Japan earlier in the year. Continue reading...
|
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6H064)
Do you trust this man to know a good joke? | Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Fine. Let's talk about xAI, which is getting funded to the tune of $1 billion or whatever.xAI is, according to some commentators, Elon Musk's bid to save X," the platform better known as Twitter. Musk may have spectacularly struck out with advertisers and failed to make up the shortfall with subscriptions, the thinking goes, but he can fundraise off the hype of a new AI product currently available only to a subset of blue checks. That product is Grok: a ChatGPT-style answer bot allegedly possessing a sense of humor. This raises several questions, particularly since AI chatbots remain a money pit with an unsure path to profit. But one sticks out to me: why is Grok so unfunny?xAI's website makes it clear Grok is launching from a weird... Continue reading...
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6H01E)
YouTube's new comment moderation feature lets you take a break from commenters without removing your existing video comments. | Image: YouTube YouTube has introduced a new moderation tool for creators that allows them to pause comments, preventing any new comments from being added to videos while preserving those that have already been posted. In a blog post published on Thursday, YouTube said the feature enables creators to take a break from managing comments if they become overwhelming" and provides some flexibility over how comments are managed.Before this update, YouTube creators only had two options for moderating what would otherwise be a complete commenting free-for-all: either hold comments for manual review before publishing them, or completely disable all comments on a video. YouTube says the Pause feature is rolling out now - we've asked the company for... Continue reading...
 |
by Ash Parrish on (#6GZWV)
Photo by JC Olivera / Getty Images At this point, you cannot talk about how amazing 2023 has been for the quality of games released this year without also mentioning how it's been utterly disastrous for the people who made them. But that's exactly what Geoff Keighley did during this year's Game Awards.The numbers vary, but estimates say anywhere between six and seven thousand workers have lost their jobs just this year. No level of studio size or success has been spared. And those who have been let go are now being forced to contend for an ever-dwindling number of open job postings.This has been one of the most volatile periods in the games industry in the last 15 years," said Jakin Vela, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, in an... Continue reading...
|
by Jay Peters on (#6GZWW)
Image: Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3, which just won Game of the Year at the 2023 Game Awards, is now available to purchase on Xbox Series X and S. You can buy it now for $69.99.The Xbox version of the game has been in the works for a little while. A few weeks after the hugely-successful PC launch of the game in August - and just before the release of the PS5 version - Larian Studios announced that it would be bringing Baldur's Gate 3 to Microsoft's consoles, though without split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S.At the time, Larian also said the Xbox version only allows cross-save between the Steam and Xbox Series consoles, so if you're hoping to move your PS5 save over to Xbox, you may be out of luck. (Although I'm sure somebody will test the PS5 to... Continue reading...
 |
by Ash Parrish on (#6GZWX)
Image: Square Enix Square Enix already let us know that it was working on DLC for Final Fantasy XVI. But during the Game Awards, we learned it was working on not one but two DLC chapters with one of them available... right now. Watch the trailer here.The first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, is a new story chapter that takes place before the final battle. It features the whole gang working together (honesty, I choked up to see it) to investigate - what else - more messed up crystals. In the DLC, Clive will also be able to wield the iconic buster sword weapon from Final Fantasy VII as well as earn a chiptune version of the FFXVI song Away". It's available right now, but I haven't been able to find a link in the PlayStation store yet.The other DLC, The Rising... Continue reading...
|
by Andrew Webster on (#6GZWY)
Image: Capcom Things are about to get a little bit wild in the world of Monster Hunter. At The Game Awards this evening, Capcom revealed the latest entry in the franchise: Monster Hunter Wilds.There aren't a lot of details yet about what makes this one different from past MonHun titles, and the game isn't expected to launch until 2025. It's slated for the PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X / S. There's at least a very beautiful trailer to watch full of lots of mounts to ride and monsters to hunt (obviously). More news on Wilds is expected in the summer of 2024.MonHun has been on a roll in recent years. The launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018 saw the franchise break out and become a global hit, and it was followed by a live-action film, the Switch spinoff... Continue reading...
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6GZWZ)
Image: Embark Studios The Finals is a unique new shooter where everything is destructible. It's available now on PS5, Xbox Series S / X, and PC. Continue reading...
|
by Andrew Webster on (#6GZX0)
Image: Hello Games A decade ago, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Hello Games made a splash by announcing the wildly ambitious sci-fi exploration game No Man's Sky. This evening, at the 2023 edition of The Game Awards, the studio did it again, revealing Light No Fire. This time, instead of offering a massive universe of different planets to explore, the game is focused on a single, incredibly detailed world.According to Hello's Sean Murray, the game has been in development for the last five years by a small team. He describes it as the first real open world" with no boundaries, which also has an online multiplayer component. From the trailer it appeared to have elements like crafting and mining, and also the ability to ride flying mounts.Here's the... Continue reading...
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6GZV0)
Image: Marvel Entertainment Arkane Lyon is making a game based on Marvel's Blade franchise, the studio announced at The Game Awards 2023 on Thursday.The game was revealed in a brief cinematic trailer, so we didn't get any gameplay of the title or any details about when it might be released. But Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba said that it would be an immersive third-person action adventure," so we can look forward to that. The trailer's description also notes that it's single-player and that it's set in Paris. A press release notes that Arkane Lyon has just begun" development, so we might be waiting a long time to see it.Arkane Studios, which is one of many big developers under Microsoft's increasingly-large empire, had a big stumble with the release... Continue reading...
|
by Andrew Webster on (#6GZV1)
Image: Kojima Productions It wouldn't be a Game Awards without Hideo Kojima. This time, however, the director wasn't on hand to show off Death Stranding 2 - instead he revealed a new Xbox game called OD. We didn't get to see much of the game, which was teased last year, and the first teaser mostly just showed the cast doing motion capture tests. It ended with the tagline For all the players and screamers."That said, the game does have a strong cast, including Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. Also Jordan Peele is involved somehow. Kojima teased other big names who are working on the project, but wouldn't say who just yet. OD is billed as something of a cross between a game and a movie, with a press release describing it as an experience that... Continue reading...
by Andrew Webster on (#6GZV2)
No Rest for the Wicked. | Image: Moon Studios Moon Studios, the team behind the beautiful and incredibly hard Ori games, has announced its next project. It's called No Rest for the Wicked and is described as a mature, precision action role-playing game." The game is launching in early access on PC in early 2024, with a full release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S planned for sometime afterward. And, of course, it looks absolutely stunning. Here's the age-gated trailer.It'll be Moon's first title outside of the Ori series, and it sounds like there is a very large focus on combat. In a press release, the studio says that fights in the game are animation-driven, direct, and tactile, allowing skilled players to combine visceral strikes and deadly moves." It also features co-op for... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6GZV3)
Image: Sony Santa Monica Studios God of War Ragnarok is getting a free DLC this month. During The Game Awards, mere moments after Kratos' voice actor Christopher Judge made his triumphant (but far less winded) return to the stage, Sony Santa Monica debuted new DLC for 2018's Game of the Year - God of War Ragnarok Valhalla.God of War Ragnarok Valhalla is free DLC launching on the PS5 on December 12th. The DLC is set after the final battle of God of War Ragnarok and will feature Big Daddy Kratos and his BBF (that's bodyless best friend) Mimir as they take on dungeons filled with monsters. The game will feature roguelike elements, where, upon death Kratos will reawaken outside the gates of Vahalla to try to defeat its challenges yet again.During each attempt, you will... Continue reading...
by Amrita Khalid on (#6GZSM)
Amazon Amazon has announced it's testing a subscription model for unlimited grocery delivery for Prime members. For an additional monthly charge of $9.99, Prime members in three cities can get unlimited delivery on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods orders over $35. Those who opt-in will also receive unlimited 30-minute pick-up on orders of any size.It's the latest in a series of changes that Amazon has made to a division that competes with the likes of Walmart, Postmates, Instacart, and the major grocery chains themselves. We're always experimenting with features to make shopping easier, faster, and more affordable, and we look forward to hearing how members who take advantage of this offer respond," said Tony Hoggett, Amazon's senior vice... Continue reading...
 |
by Emilia David on (#6GZR1)
Image: Google Google just announced Gemini, its most powerful suite of AI models yet, and the company has already been accused of lying about its performance.An op-ed from Bloomberg claims Google misrepresented the power of Gemini in a recent video. Google aired an impressive what the quack" hands-on video during its announcement earlier this week, and columnist Parmy Olson says it seemed remarkably capable in the video - perhaps too capable.The six-minute video shows off Gemini's multimodal capabilities (spoken conversational prompts combined with image recognition, for example). Gemini seemingly recognizes images quickly - even for connect-the-dots pictures - responds within seconds, and tracks a wad of paper in a cup and ball game in real-time.... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6GZR2)
Image: The Game Awards Geoff Keighley's annual celebration of video games is back. Continue reading...
|
by Ariel Shapiro on (#6GZR3)
Image: The Verge Of all the layoffs happening at Spotify this week, this has to be the biggest. Chief financial officer Paul Vogel, who since 2020 has managed the company's balance sheet as it expanded into podcasting and audiobooks, is leaving the company at the end of March 2024.Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the decision was made because Vogel didn't have the experience needed to help the company both expand and meet market expectations. The company is starting the search for a successor.Spotify has embarked on an evolution over the last two years to bring our spending more in line with market expectations while also funding the significant growth opportunities we continue to identify. I've talked a lot with Paul about the need to balance these two... Continue reading...
 |
by Umar Shakir on (#6GZNY)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google's personal safety features in Android have expanded in the past year to include a potentially lifesaving feature that can relay critical medical data to first responders when a user dials 911.The technology works by sending important emergency information about the caller entered in the Personal Safety app (available on select devices, including recent Google Pixel devices, Nothing Phone 1, and several others), like age, weight, blood type, allergies, and more, to a platform called RapidSOS. Over 15,000 911 and field responder agencies are tapped into RapidSOS, which has supported relaying Medical ID data from iPhones since 2020.If you're dialing 911 from your phone, there's a chance you're hurt or, for some other reason,... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6GZKN)
Image: Microsoft Linux is getting its own version of a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Phoronix reports that the latest release of systemd for Linux systems comes with a systemd-bsod service that's able to generate a full-screen error message on Linux distributions.Much like how the Blue Screen of Death originated in Windows, Linux's version will be used as an emergency tool to log errors. If a Linux system fails to boot, it will generate a full-screen message that displays a QR code to get more information on what's causing the boot issue. This was reportedly added as part of an Outreachy project, a group that provides internships for people to work on open-source tools.The systemd-bsod feature is still experimental, and a GitHub changelog notes that... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6GZKP)
Ford and Resideo are testing an integration that could power your HVAC using a Honeywell Home smart thermostat and a Ford F-150 Lightning EV. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Smart homes can already help us charge our EVs more efficiently, but using an EV to power our smart homes is still largely sci-fi. However, a new partnership between Ford and Resideo (maker of Honeywell Home smart thermostats) may be a glimpse into that future. Today, the companies announced the EV-Home Power Partnership, a project that's exploring using Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck to power your HVAC via a smart thermostat during peak hours, saving homeowners money while reducing pressure on the grid.The simulation project will test the concept of vehicle-to-home (V2H) energy management by integrating Ford's truck with a Resideo smart thermostat, such as the Honeywell Home T9. Using the bidirectional charging... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6GZKQ)
It's like Microsoft Word, but Notepad. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has been gradually improving its built-in Notepad app on Windows 11 in recent years, and now, it's finally getting a character count. In a new Canary channel test version of Windows 11, Microsoft has added the character count at the bottom much like Microsoft Word's count of the number of words in a document.When text is selected, the status bar shows the character count for both the selected text and the entire document," explains Microsoft's Windows Insider team in a blog post. If no text is selected, the character count for the entire document is displayed, ensuring you always have a clear view of your document's length."This is the latest addition in a line of changes to Notepad this year, with the app recently getting... Continue reading...
|
|
by Jay Peters on (#6GZKR)
Illustration: The Verge Tags - basically hashtags with a twist - are now rolling out globally on Threads, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced on Thursday.Tags work a little differently than hashtags do on platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). When composing a Threads post, you start a tag by tapping the # symbol and then typing out your topic. But instead of being limited to just one word, you can type out a whole phrase (with spaces!) and add special characters, according to Mosseri. However, you can only make one tag per post.The purpose of tags on Threads is the same as a hashtag, though. If you share on Threads, [tags are] a great way to help connect with people who are interested in the topics you're talking about," Mosseri says. And... Continue reading...
|