The Verge - All Posts

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify on Tuesday in Epic's lawsuit against Google. Epic plans to call Pichai as a witness as it makes its case alleging that Google Play is an unlawful monopoly.In court documents, Google requested to use a podium in the courtroom on Tuesday, which suggests that Pichai may indeed appear to testify; last month, when he testified in US v. Google, Pichai stood behind a podium instead of sitting because of apparent back issues. (Judge James Donato granted the request for the podium Thursday evening.)Pichai's appearance isn't a total surprise, as the CEO appeared as one of 53 witnesses Epic said it may or may not call before the trial kicked off. But what he says might be a big deal given his... Continue reading...

Valve's Steam Deck and its carrying case. | Image: Valve Catch up on our coverage of PC gaming handhelds, starting with Valve's category-defining Steam Deck. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple has agreed to pay up to $25 million to settle claims that it engaged in hiring discrimination. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced that $18.25 million will go toward creating a backpay fund for affected victims, while the remaining $6.75 million is in civil penalties.The DOJ found that Apple violated the Immigration and Nationality Act when recruiting through a permanent labor certification program (PERM), which lets companies hire foreign workers permanently in the US. When recruiting workers for this program, the DOJ says Apple didn't advertise openings on its website even though its standard practice was to post other job positions on this website."The DOJ also found that Apple only accepted PERM position... Continue reading...

A promotional image of Humane's AI Pin. | Image: Humane Humane has finally shared the details about its new device. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Tumblr is downscaling its ambitions after failing to reach goals for a new audience, aiming to move some staff members to other divisions of parent company Automattic. A leaked memo, which circulated on Tumblr and was confirmed in a Verge comment by Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, says that the majority" of Tumblr's non-support, safety, and moderation staff will switch to other divisions." In follow-up posts on Tumblr, Mullenweg stated that Automattic is planning a more focused approach in 2024," including an emphasis on the core functionality" of the site.After 600+ person-years of effort put into Tumblr since the acquisition in 2019, we have not gotten the expected results from our effort, which was to have its revenue and usage... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix Netflix has offered a blink-and-you'll-miss-it first look at Arcane season 2.During its Geeked Week celebration of all things animated and nerdy, Netflix finally showed off the tiniest bit of the second season of its award-winning League of Legends adaptation.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat will soon have AR lenses that use ChatGPT. The company announced the update today at Lens Fest, its annual developer event.The new beta of Lens Studio for developers includes the ability to create filters with ChatGPT. In an example lens, Snap shows a solar system-themed filter where a user has asked, How far away is Neptune?" Within a few seconds, the lens returns an answer to the question. The new feature could also be applied to create quizzes or randomizers, according to TechCrunch. Image: Snap Snap's AI lenses are powered by ChatGPT. OpenAI's ChatGPT already powers another Snap feature called My AI, a chatbot that users can talk to like they're messaging a friend. Originally an exclusive... Continue reading...

Apple is enabling spatial video capture in beta for use on the upcoming Vision Pro headset. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is rolling out its latest beta version of iOS 17, and it includes the ability to record spatial videos on the iPhone 15 Pro for viewing in the upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Those who have access to and install iOS 17.2 beta 2 on their devices can start filming videos with a 3D effect using the iPhone 15 Pro's top two cameras when held sideways.To enable the new feature, users can toggle the Spatial Video for Apple Vision Pro" option in the Settings app. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple's description says spatial video is captured in 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second, and a minute of footage takes about 130MB of storage. Image: Apple Spatial video is captured using the main and ultrawide cameras... Continue reading...

Photo by The Verge Valve has sold multiple millions" of its Steam Deck handheld gaming PCs, Valve designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais tell The Verge. Given that it just announced a new revision with an OLED screen, the company is probably set to sell a lot more.The Steam Deck has been a hit for Valve right from its launch; when the device first went up for preorders in July 2021 (has it really been that long?), the demand created some major issues for Valve's Steam store. And the handheld gaming PC is often at or near the top of Steam's top-selling chart - even just two months after the device's official February 2022 launch, it was clear that the Steam Deck was not a flop. The company apparently even made a cake to celebrate selling 1... Continue reading...

The Steam Deck OLED. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge On October 5th, we saw the first proof a refreshed Steam Deck was nigh. Now, Valve is officially revealing the $549 and up Steam Deck OLED, which starts shipping on November 16th.It's an overhauled version of Valve's handheld gaming PC but not one that's focused on performance - the company is sticking with its plan not to produce a faster handheld for the next couple of years.Instead, the new Steam Deck OLED is designed to be the ultimate version of the original Steam Deck, the device that Valve would have liked to originally ship. Valve is promising the first handheld with HDR OLED" with a larger 7.4-inch, 90Hz, 1,000-nit screen and up to 50 percent longer battery life.As you might read in my just-published Steam Deck OLED r... Continue reading...

A new screen, a pile of improvements, and better pricing make this everything the original should have been. Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Amazon is making Fresh grocery deliveries available to more non-Prime members. In an update on Thursday, Amazon said that non-Prime subscribers in all US states and towns where its Fresh grocery stores are located can now order deliveries.While Amazon previously only offered Fresh delivery to Prime customers, it opened up the service to non-Prime members in August. At the time, the company only offered deliveries in about a dozen major cities to start, including Dallas, Boston, and San Francisco.This latest expansion still doesn't mean Amazon's grocery delivery service is available nationwide, however. Right now, Amazon only has Fresh stores located in California, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Washington, DC,... Continue reading...

The AI Pin does a lot of smartphone things - but it looks nothing like a smartphone. | Image: Humane On Thursday, after months of demos and hints about what the AI-powered future of gadgets might look like, Humane finally took the wraps off of its first device: the AI Pin.The device, as we revealed yesterday, is a $699 wearable in two parts: a square device and a battery pack that magnetically attaches to your clothes or other surfaces. In addition to that price, there's also the $24 monthly fee for a Humane subscription, which gets you a phone number and data coverage through T-Mobile's network. The company told Wired the device will start shipping in early 2024 and that preorders begin November 16th.The AI Pin is powered by a Snapdragon processor - though it's not clear which one - and you control it with a combination of voice... Continue reading...

You'll no longer be able to buy Fitbit products in several European, Asian, and Latin American countries. | Illustration: The Verge Fitbit is no longer selling its products in several countries spanning Europe, Asia, and Latin America.The news, first spotted by Android Authority, was confirmed on two separate Fitbit support pages. The official list of confirmed countries affected includes Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Thailand. More vaguely, the support pages say Fitbit will also stop selling products in the broader Latin American countries."South Africa is also on the list, per an interview with South African publication TechCentral. Google, which finished its acquisition of Fitbit in early 2021, told the publication that... Continue reading...

A screenshot from Braid, Anniversary Edition. | Image: Thekla Remember Braid, Anniversary Edition - the updated version of the time-bending puzzle platformer that was first announced in 2020 with a 2021 release date? The game obviously missed that release window, but on Thursday, developer Thekla finally announced an exact release date: April 30th, 2024.The anniversary edition will offer a bunch of updates that seem like they'll improve the core essence of the game without changing too much. There are new hand-repainted" graphics, according to a press release, and you can swap between the old graphics and the new ones at will. It has improved sound" and new mixes and variants of the soundtrack."It also has more than 15 hours of developer commentary featuring a lot of people, including... Continue reading...

Image: Spotify Spotify is rolling out a redesigned TV app that should make it a little easier to find what you want to listen to. The app comes with a new homepage that's similar to Spotify on mobile and desktop, featuring your most-listened-to content at the top, followed by your Made For You playlists and your recently played albums or podcasts.There's also a new playback queue that you can open up from the right side of the screen, allowing you to see the audio that's currently playing as well as what's coming up next. Spotify added a new dark mode option as well, along with a way to switch between accounts by selecting your profile in the top-right corner of the screen. Image: Spotify The new playback queue gives you a list... Continue reading...

Aliro is a new open standard for smart locks. | Image: CSA Apple, Google, and Samsung have teamed up with lock makers and chip makers, including Allegion (Schlage), Assa Abloy (Yale), Qualcomm, and NXP, to build an open standard for smart locks and digital keys, using devices like your smartphone or smartwatch. Launching Thursday, the effort is called Aliro, and if you've ever enjoyed using Apple's Home Key technology on your watch or phone to unlock your door, you'll be excited about this new standard.But don't get too excited. It's going to be a while until Aliro even confirms how it's going to achieve this digital key nirvana. The working group behind Aliro is part of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), and spokesperson Nelson Henry told The Verge they're targeting early 2025 for the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia has started emailing out press invites for a special address" at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The event invitations come just days after rumors suggested Nvidia's RTX 40-series Super cards will debut at CES 2024, including an RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4080 Super.Nvidia's invite doesn't mention GeForce, nor who will be presenting at the keynote on January 8th at 11 AM ET / 8AM PT. Nvidia's event will take place on a busy day of press conferences at CES, so we're definitely expecting some news here. Image: Nvidia Nvidia's CES 2024 event invite. Hardware leakers have been revealing details about RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Super cards for weeks now, with the more powerful RTX 4080 Super rumored to... Continue reading...

Even if you never used Omegle, you'd probably heard about its sketchy reputation. | Image: Omegle Omegle, a popular video chat service that randomly connects users with strangers, has shut down after 14 years amid misuse of the platform and increased scrutiny by online safety regulators. In a lengthy statement announcing the closure, website founder Leif K Brooks said that operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically," and that fighting to prevent it from being misused is simply too much." While the website remains live to host Brook's statement, its anonymous video chat function is no longer accessible.Omegle gained a reputation as a breeding ground for sexual abuse of minors, leading to a prominent lawsuit in which the website was accused of pairing an 11-year-old girl with a sexual predator. The... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Signal is publicly testing letting users add usernames to their accounts so they don't have to share their phone number to connect via the encrypted messaging service. The test was announced via a post on the Signal forums by VP of engineering Jim O'Leary, who referred to the feature as pre-beta" and warned that there'll be rough edges including crashes and broken push notifications. An official release is planned for early 2024, Signal president Meredith Whittaker recently announced.Support for usernames is significant for the messaging service, which markets itself as a private and secure way to communicate. Although accounts will still be associated with a traditional mobile number at setup, the username feature means you'll be able... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Hollywood actors may soon be back to work. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) have approved a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) - the trade association representing Hollywood studios - to end their strike.In a unanimous vote this afternoon, The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP bringing an end to the 118 day strike," SAG-AFTRA said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. The strike officially ends at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 9."In a contract valued at over one billion dollars, we have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes above-pattern" minimum compensation... Continue reading...

Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung wants to make sure you know it cares about AI, too. In a new blog post, the company previewed what it calls a new era of Galaxy AI" coming to its smartphones and detailed a forthcoming feature that will use artificial intelligence to translate phone calls in real time.Galaxy AI is a comprehensive mobile AI experience, powered by both on-device AI developed at Samsung and cloud-based AI enabled by our open collaborations with like-minded industry leaders," Samsung wrote in the post. It will transform your everyday mobile experience with the peace of mind you count on from Galaxy security and privacy."Samsung's live translate feature, which the company is calling AI Live Translate Call," will be built into the company's... Continue reading...

A January 13, 2020 picture from a right to repair hearing in Boston, Massachusetts. | Photo: David L. Ryan / The Boston Globe / Getty Images The right-to-repair movement gained a significant victory yesterday as a Maine law regarding auto repair rights won over 84 percent public support, according to Ballotpedia's unofficial tally. As 404 Media reported, the Question 4" measure asked if voters want auto manufacturers to enable owners and their preferred mechanics to access their car's diagnostics systems. Voters said yes.Maine follows four states that enacted new right-to-repair laws this year. In California, a law signed into effect last month now guarantees seven years of parts for electronics and appliances.Both Minnesota and Colorado passed repair laws pertaining largely to electronics and farm equipment, respectively, as well as exemptions for certain modifications... Continue reading...

Closeup of a Lego Batcave set. | Image: Lego BrickLink, an online Lego parts marketplace owned by Lego, is back online after several days of downtime due to a cybersecurity incident that apparently targeted some merchant accounts. The company said it received a threat and ransom demand" last Friday, presumably in regard to company or user data, leading it to shut down the site out of an abundance of caution."The site has been detecting limited suspicious activity" since mid-October, where unauthorized sellers fraudulently attempted to collect money through unrealistically discounted listings.BrickLink says a relatively small" amount of accounts may have been compromised but does not see any evidence that its systems were breached. It says credential stuffing" occurred, where... Continue reading...

Humane's AI Pin is set to officially be revealed this Thursday. | Image: Humane Humane has been teasing its first device, the AI Pin, for most of this year. It's scheduled to launch the Pin on Thursday, but The Verge has obtained documents detailing practically everything about the device ahead of its official launch. What they show is that Humane, the company noisily promoting a world after smartphones, is about to launch what amounts to a $699 wearable smartphone without a screen that has a $24-a-month subscription fee and runs on a Humane-branded version of T-Mobile's network with access to AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI.The Pin itself is a square device that magnetically clips to your clothes or other surfaces. The clip is more than just a magnet, though; it's also a battery pack, which means you can swap... Continue reading...

You now have to let Microsoft know why you want to close the OneDrive app. Microsoft now wants you to explain exactly why you're attempting to close its OneDrive for Windows app before it allows you to do so. Neowin has spotted that the latest update to OneDrive now includes an annoying dialog box that asks you to select the reason why you're closing the app every single time you attempt to close OneDrive from the taskbar.Closing OneDrive is already buried away and not a simple task, with Microsoft hiding it under a pause syncing" option when you right-click on OneDrive in the taskbar. But now, the quit option is grayed out until you select a reason for quitting OneDrive from a drop-down box. Here are the options:

The new For You section gives each channel its own algorithmic feed. | Screenshot: The Verge YouTube is debuting a new For You section for creators' channels, personalized to whoever opens the page. It will start showing up on November 20th, according to a post from YouTube's support account, which says the section will recommend a mix of content from your channel to viewers based on their watch history."Creators can turn the feature on or off in the customization menu under channel settings. Alternatively, clicking more settings" under the recommendations for your viewers" section pops up more controls for the new section. Creators can then decide if they want only shorts, livestreams, or full videos there - or all of those or a mix of two. There are also options to include all content or just recent material.

Sony's $200 gaming device is just around the corner. | Image: Sony For months, rumors had been circulating about the release date for Sony's upcoming handheld, the PlayStation Portal. In August, Sony finally gave us an answer: the PlayStation Portal will launch on November 15th. The portable device, which will be able to stream PlayStation 5 games over Wi-Fi, will retail for $199.99.There is a chance the PlayStation Portal will sell out as quickly as the PlayStation 5 did when it was first released, which is perhaps why Sony is currently limiting orders to one device per customer. We have yet to test the Portal - stay tuned to The Verge dot com on that front - but if you're someone who wants to secure a unit at launch, rest assured it's still available for preorder at multiple retailers in the US and... Continue reading...

You can buy the second-generation AirPods for just $69. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Black Friday may not be for another two weeks, but it doesn't seem like most retailers care about that. Amazon and Walmart are both currently selling the second-generation AirPods for $69 ($60 off), the lowest price we've ever seen on what is already Apple's cheapest pair of earbuds. Note, however, that the Walmart deal at the moment is only available to its paying Walmart Plus members.Though they're an old pair of earbuds, the second-generation AirPods have stood the test of time. They continue to offer terrific sound quality along with excellent wireless performance and long battery life, while integrating well with other iOS devices. They don't offer IPX4 water resistance and MagSafe charging compatibilities like the third-gen... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is bringing its Search Generative Experience (SGE) to more than 120 new countries, including Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, according to a blog post from Google's Hema Budaraju. SGE will also support four new languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Indonesian, which add to its current support for English, Hindi, and Japanese.The expansion means that a lot more people can choose to mess around with SGE. You'll still need to jump through some hoops to try it: you have to opt in via Google's Search Labs program, and once you have, you can only use SGE on Chrome on desktop or the Google app on Android and iOS. (In the newly added countries, SGE is accessible on Chrome on desktop... Continue reading...

Kevin Feige at the Hawkeye premiere in Los Angeles, November 17, 2021. | Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images Longtime Marvel boss Kevin Feige says the Star Wars movie he was supposed to make is no more. Entertainment Tonight asked Feige about it during the Las Vegas premiere of The Marvels, and he gave a definitively terse no."It's been four years since a Feige Star Wars film was confirmed, but apart from the fact that he was writing a script for the movie, no details have ever really emerged. Then, in March, Variety reported both his and Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins' Star Wars movies had been shelved.

Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP via Getty Images The third Republican debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election is set to take place tonight in Miami, Florida. The field has narrowed down to five candidates who will likely spar on issues like the Israel-Hamas war, especially as Congress prepares a new funding package for Israel. Front-runner Donald Trump is, yet again, not among them.If you're interested in tuning in, here's what you need to know.What time does the Republican debate start?The third GOP debate takes place on Wednesday, November 8th, at 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT and is expected to last two hours.How do I watch the third Republican debate?NBC News is hosting this debate, and it will air live on the network's television channel, streaming platforms, and website... Continue reading...