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by Allison Johnson on (#6S8C5)
This could be so much better. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge We could argue all day about the merits of iOS versus Android, but there's one thing the Android ecosystem offers that you definitely won't find from Apple right now: a decent midrange phone.By decent," I mean something I can enthusiastically recommend. Not Eh, if it's literally your only option, then it's fine," which is how I've caveated my recommendations of the iPhone SE over the past couple of years. Remember the SE? Apple released the first version in 2016, putting a then-current A9 chip into an older body design for $399 compared to $649 for the iPhone 6S. I still have mine, and it rules.Two generations later, and the SE is still Apple's most affordable iPhone, now starting at $429. For that price, you get a well-built phone... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-12-22 05:02 |
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S8C6)
Casio's smart ring is a tiny digital watch. | Image: Casio Not to be outdone by its longtime rival, Casio has announced its own digital ring watch that brings more functionality than Timex's wearable that debuted last month. Created to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of Casio getting into the digital watch business, the CRW-001-1JR will be available in Japan starting in December for 19,800, or around $128.Although the tiny watch's case is just shy of being an inch in size, Casio has managed to squeeze in a retro six-segment LCD screen that can display hours, minutes, and seconds. The ring also includes three functional buttons that can control additional features like displaying the date or the time in a different time zone, and a stopwatch. Image: Casio Casio's new... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S8C7)
Image: Cruise GM's Cruise will pay a criminal fine of $500,000 to resolve a federal investigation and accept a deferred prosecution agreement after the company admitted to falsifying a report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation" of a crash where one of its driverless vehicles struck and dragged a pedestrian in 2023.NHTSA had already fined Cruise $1.5 million in September for submitting incomplete reports that failed to disclose that the robotaxi dragged the pedestrian 20 feet after they were hit by another vehicle and knocked into its path. The dragging wasn't in a verbal summary Cruise employees gave to NHTSA the next day, video of the accident shown to... Continue reading...
by Mia Sato on (#6S8C8)
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Facebook is making views" its primary metric to measure the performance of content, bringing it in line with Instagram metrics.Views will be measured not just on video content but also on photos, text posts, and more. When Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced the switch to views this summer, he said that having one consistent metric across the platform would make it easier for creators to understand how their content was performing. For reels, a view is how many times the video was played. For everything else, a view is how many times a piece of content shows up on a user's screen, and if the same user looks at it multiple times, each instance counts as a view.Meta has also added a view count to posts on Threads, saying it's an... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S8C9)
Image: The Verge Threads is testing a way to create custom feeds for certain profiles or topics, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday. The upcoming feature should make it easier to keep tabs on different interests, such as your favorite sports team or even technology-related news.It sounds similar to the custom feeds feature Bluesky rolled out last year - but Threads' version seems a lot simpler. To create a custom feed, just search and tap into a topic. From there, select the three-dot icon beside the search term and choose create new feed." GIF: Meta You can create feeds that track soccer or men's fashion. You can also add profiles to your custom feed by selecting the three-dot icon above someone's profile photo and... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S8CA)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has updated his fraud, breach of contract, and racketeering lawsuit against OpenAI to make antitrust claims against Microsoft, accusing the two companies of attempting to monopolize the generative AI market." The amended complaint filed on Thursday names Microsoft as a new defendant, as well as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton, a former OpenAI board member.Microsoft has invested $14 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and holds exclusive rights to commercially license the AI startup's technology and a 49 percent stake in its for-profit subsidiary. Musk's lawyers say that former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman engaged in rampant self-dealing" to create a de facto merger" between the two companies to promote... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S89A)
Photo: David Pierce / The Verge The Rabbit R1 can now use AI to redesign the device's entire interface based on a prompt. Some examples shared by Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu show a Legend of Zelda-inspired interface, another made in the style of Windows XP, and one using a dark green scanline background."Though this seems like a fun way to customize the R1, Rabbit says responses on the AI-generated interfaces are slower than the default UI on R1 and can take over 30 seconds to appear." It suggests disabling this feature if you want the fastest responses possible.
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6S89B)
Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Some of us freshly anointed moms and dads pooled together our top tech picks that make early days with baby just a touch easier (or more fun and nerdy). Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6S89C)
Amazon's latest Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a snappy streaming stick with impressive Alexa integration. | Image: Amazon If you missed out on Amazon's fall Prime Day event, the retailer's early Black Friday sale is offering everybody another chance to score steep discounts on Amazon devices. One of the best deals currently available is on the latest Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which has dropped to an all-time low of $32.99 ($25 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.Amazon's latest streaming device is nearly identical to the last-gen model - which was once one of our top recommendations - only it features a number of iterative upgrades, including Wi-Fi 6E support and twice the storage (16GB). It can also display widgets and artwork when idle, much like recent TV offers from Hisense and TCL, and you can use it to create your own backgrounds using voice prompts... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6S89D)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Bluesky hit 15 million users this week. And then 16 million. The vibes on Bluesky are immaculate, and it seems to have a real and renewed chance to be the place that replaces Twitter for a lot of people. But then there's Threads, which grew by approximately one Bluesky just this month. There's also Mastodon, which is still hanging around, and of course there's X. There are more options than ever, and it's more confusing than ever.On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and make sense of all this change. Will all this new growth and momentum help Bluesky grow not just as an app but as a decentralized protocol? Is it a real threat to ActivityPub and the notion of the fediverse? Do we know yet what kind of social network wants to be? And... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6S89E)
Image: HBO HBO's new Dune prequel series sharpens the Bene Gesserit's history into pointed drama that calls for some patience. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S870)
Nick Barclay / The Verge The hacker behind one of the biggest-ever cryptocurrency heists will serve five years in prison for conspiring with his wife to launder billions in stolen Bitcoin. Ilya Dutch" Lichtenstein was sentenced in Washington federal court Thursday after he admitted to hacking the Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016 and stealing almost 120,000 Bitcoin tokens.Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were arrested in 2022, and in August last year both pled guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering. The stolen cryptocurrency, worth around $71 million at the time of the theft, had soared in value to approximately $4.5 billion by the time Lichtenstein and Morgan were arrested. Valued at today's prices, the stolen funds would be worth an even more... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S871)
Illustration: The Verge Google has placed some new limitations on a Google Photos feature that allows users to automatically share images and videos in their library with a partner. The update to Partner Sharing now means that users can only share photos or videos that were taken using their device's default camera app, meaning partners are unable to see screenshots or images shared on services like WhatsApp.Some Reddit users who utilize Partner Sharing initially reported the issue as a bug, but several comments made by a presumed Google employee say the change was intentionally made to better align with most users' expectations." This is backed up by an updated Partner Sharing help article that says photos from other apps on Android aren't shared with your... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S7X1)
Image: Tesla Robin Zeng, the founder of the world's largest EV battery company, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk's big bet on 4680 cylindrical cell technology is going to fail and never be successful." Zeng, the chairman of China's Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), tells Reuters that when Musk visited China in April, We had a very big debate, and I showed him. He was silent. He doesn't know how to make a battery."Tesla's tabless" 4680 cells, which are used in some of its cars, including the Cybertruck, are supposed to have five times" more energy capacity, and the company announced in September it had produced 100 million of them. A recent report by The Information said Musk had given the team working on the batteries an end of the year deadline... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S7VD)
Image: NASA NASA is teaming up with Microsoft to create an AI chatbot designed to make it easier to access and understand scientific data about the Earth. The tool, called Earth Copilot, will be able to answer questions about our planet by condensing NASA's wide swath of geospatial information into easy-to-digest responses.To create the tool, NASA is integrating AI into its data repository, allowing Earth Copilot to refer to this information when answering questions, such as What was the impact of Hurricane Ian in Sanibel Island?" or How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect air quality in the US?"NASA aims to democratize" access to scientific data with the launch of Earth Copilot, as obtaining and understanding the information within NASA's... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6S7SE)
The Pokemon Company Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket has been a big hit since its worldwide launch last month, and the team behind it has shared a brief roadmap of a couple updates to come - including the ability to trade cards with other people.We are aiming to add a feature that allows certain cards to be traded starting in January, 2025," according to an update from the team on the official Pokemon forums. We are planning to gradually expand the selection of cards that are able to be traded." It's unclear what cards will initially be available to trade, and hopefully the expansion of the list doesn't take too long.The game will also get new booster packs by the end of this year. And there are other new features in the works in addition to trading,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S7SF)
The Teenage Engineering OP-XY feels like an upgraded version of the company's six-year-old OP-Z. | Image: Teenage Engineering Teenage Engineering's new OP-XY is a portable synthesizer and sequencer that looks similar to the company's OP-1 Field. But functionally it's instead a more capable upgrade to the company's six-year-old OP-Z, with a stronger focus on layering sounds with various effects and a steeper $2,299 price tag.With an anodized, all-black finish," the OP-XY is yet another delightful example of Teenage Engineering's design chops. Its black and white motif accented with a grayscale gradient running across its 16 sequencer inputs is the antithesis of the bright yellow Playdate handheld that Teenage Engineering helped Panic design. Unlike the $429 OP-Z that relied on a mobile device like a smartphone for its screen, the OP-XY now has a black and... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S7SG)
Image: The Verge TikTok will let advertisers pull in content from Getty Images when using the platform's AI ad creation tool. With the integration, advertisers can use Getty's licensed images and videos to make ads containing AI-generated content, including AI avatars that look like real people.The integration will be available through TikTok's Symphony Creative Studio - an AI-powered video generation tool that rolled out today for all advertisers. This tool can generate a video based on a product description, add an AI avatar to speak" about it, and even incorporate AI-powered dubbing in different languages. Advertisers can also use the tool to generate multiple versions of an ad, as well as remix" an existing one. GIF: TikTok T... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6S7SH)
It's hard to find a fitness watch that tracks as many workouts and metrics as the Fenix 7 Pro series. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Garmin makes some of the best traditional multisport fitness watches, and one of its top models still commands a spot on our list of the best fitness trackers: the Garmin Fenix 7S Pro. Now through Cyber Monday, you can get that watch for just $529.99 ($270 off) at Wellbots when using the Verge-exclusive code VERGEBF270. That code will also work on the base Fenix 7 Pro ($529.99 after the discount), the Fenix 7X Pro (down to $629.99), and the Garmin Tactix 7 ($829.99). These are some of the lowest prices recorded yet.Wellbots is also offering all-time low prices on other Garmin wearables and devices as part of its early Black Friday promotion. You can save $120 on the Garmin Forerunner 265 (now just $329.99) and Forerunner 965 ($479.99)... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6S7PR)
Twinkly's colorful string lights are more than half off at Amazon. Believe it or not, but it's almost time to put up the holiday lights. If you're looking for string lights that'll really make your house stand out this year, Twinkly's Strings deliver some of the most dazzling effects available. They typically run $199.99, but right now, you can buy the 105-foot string with 400 LED lights at Amazon for a new low of $79 thanks to an on-page coupon.Each of Twinkly's LED lights can display more than 16 million colors and are individually addressable, allowing them to produce a festive twinkly" effect. You can also choose from dozens of universal effects, along with some more advanced animations that are unique to Twinkly's platform. You can, for instance, create your own effects, and Twinkly will even... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6S7PS)
Image: Epic Games Fortnite's next big partnership with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is here. Epic Games already lets players dress up as the Turtles, and now, creators can publish experiences built with TMNT assets and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.As a demonstration of what's possible, Paramount teamed up with Spiral House (which has made other Fortnite experiences), to make a TMNT-themed beat-em-up / roguelike, TMNT Dimensions [Rougelike], that you can play inside Fortnite right now. (You can find it by searching for code 8651-4809-2485.) A lot of user-made Fortnite experiences look somewhat amateur, but this seems like a game you might actually want to play outside of Fortnite, especially if you're already a fan of TMNT's other arcade-y brawlers.E... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6S7KZ)
Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking to put Google under federal supervision, a move that could impose the same kinds of monitoring and inspections used on banks, The Washington Post reports.The CFPB's concerns are not totally clear and the order may still change, according to the Post, citing two unnamed sources. Both the agency and Google declined to comment on the report. But, plenty could change once President-elect Donald Trump reassumes office in January and puts forward his own pick to lead the agency.The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair practices by financial institutions. While it already inspects more traditional finance businesses like banks,... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S7M0)
The 2020 Ford Explorer is one of the vehicles affected by the recall. | Image: Ford Ford has agreed to pay a fine that could go up to $165 million after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found the automaker took too long to recall vehicles with faulty rearview cameras and failed to provide accurate and complete recall information.". This penalty is the second largest, only behind the $200 million Takata was ordered to pay.Originally issued in 2020, the recall impacts more than 600,000 vehicles from 2019 onward, including the Ford F-150, Mustang, Escape, Ranger, and Expedition, along with the Lincoln Nautilus and Lincoln Corsair. Affected vehicles have a rearview camera that sometimes shows a blank or distorted image." Ford says no accidents or injuries were reported due to the defect.Under the... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S7M1)
The fabric interior of Nike's Elite EasyOn backpack is printed with instructions on how to use and customize it. | Image: Nike Nike's new Elite EasyOn backpack was designed with innovative features making it accessible for as many athletes as possible, including those with low dexterity or motor skills. Originally developed for athletes competing in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the backpack is now available to everyone through the company's online store for $150.The bag's most unique feature is a full clamshell opening that fully exposes its exterior. That eliminates the need to empty the backpack or dig through its contents to reach items at the bottom or those stashed in several of its internal pockets.But securing the large flap with a zipper would require a long continuous path that could challenge some Paralympic athletes. A comment we were... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6S7M2)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Bluesky is growing quickly in popularity, but if you're trying to use it today, the site might be acting up. As I was writing this article, my feeds and notifications were very slow to load on the web and mobile while logged in, and that has similarly been the case for a few of my Verge colleagues.Things seem to be working now, but Bluesky developers have already warned that things might not work as expected today. Earlier this morning, developer Samuel Newman shared that the site would be briefly going into read-only mode because something fell over." After the site recovered, another developer, Paul Frazee, posted that today will get interesting" and suggested that if the site goes down to maybe grab a soda, pet the kitty."When... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6S7AA)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Once known only for its self-destructing pics, Snapchat has steadily evolved its location-oriented social media features. It's leaned further into that identity with real-time location sharing features in recent years, and now it's tweaking the experience to give parents new control and insight directly from the Family Center.Parents will soon see an option in the Family Center to request their teen's locations and vice versa. They'll also be able to more easily view who else their child is sharing their location with, just like they can for other privacy settings.The feature will roll out alongside other new location and privacy tools in the coming weeks, including the ability to set up automatic travel alerts that notify family... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S7M3)
Illustration: The Verge Google has announced it will stop showing political ads to users in the European Union next year due to uncertainties around the bloc's new transparency regulations. In a new blog post, Google says the upcoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) rules that aim to prevent election interference and help voters make informed choices will introduce significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties."Google says the definition of political advertising in the TTPA, which is set to come into force in October 2025, is too broad and makes it difficult to reliably identify what content should be restricted across different EU regions at scale. The search giant is planning to stop serving political ads before the... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6S7G6)
Apple TV Plus Mythic Quest's upcoming fourth season finally has a release date, but Apple's future plans for the series aren't stopping there.Today, Apple announced that Mythic Quest will return on January 29th with a two-episode premiere picking up Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney,) Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao,) David Brittlesbee (David Hornsby,) Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi,) Rachel Ashly Burch, Dana Bryant (Imani Hakim,) Jo (Jessie Ennis) and Carol (Naomi Ekperigin) adjust to a new status quo. In the new season, the Mythic Quest team will find their attempts at maintaining healthier work / life balances disrupted by stars rising, egos clashing, and new relationships blooming.Though season 4 is set to conclude on March 26th, Mythic Quest's world will get a... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6S7G7)
Illustration: The Verge Bluesky might be on the rise, but Instagram and Threads boss Adam Mosseri wants you to know that Threads is still much bigger. In a post on Thursday, Mosseri said that Threads has gotten more than 15 million signups in November alone," seemingly trying to throw some cold water over Bluesky crossing 15 million users total on Wednesday.Mosseri also reiterated that the platform has been getting more than a million signups per day - a stat that CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during last month's earnings call - and noted that the platform has been seeing that volume of signups for going on three months."Many people have been jumping to Bluesky looking for a new place to post that's not X, which is owned by Donald Trump supporter Elon... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6S7G8)
Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge After an open beta that rolled out last month, Arc Search is now available to all Android users. The Browser Company's search engine - which describes itself as the fastest way to search" - has been positioning itself as a better alternative to Chrome.Arc Search not only blocks ads but also has an AI feature called browse for me" that summarizes search results. In a September Decoder interview, Browser Company CEO Josh Miller described Arc as a laptop-first search engine, but the company is clearly leaning in to mobile.Over 100,000 Android users participated in the Arc beta, according to a press release. Arc says it's fixed some of the issues that bothered users most during the beta test - as a result, the browser now has full... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6S7G9)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images In the weeks leading up to the US presidential election, Kacey Smith was feeling hopeful. Smith, who supported Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, says she knew it would be a close race between the Democratic nominee and Republican Donald Trump. But as she scrolled TikTok, she believed Harris would be victorious.But Election Day approached, and she started to sense red flags in that positivity. She recalls TikTok serving her enthusiasm for reproductive choice with videos encouraging women's rights over gas prices" - implying, falsely, she thought, the choice was either/or." The rhetoric fit well inside her feed filled with strangers, but as a campaign strategy, it felt limiting and risky. When I started seeing that messaging play... Continue reading...
by Tom Warren on (#6S7GA)
Image: The Verge Microsoft has been trying to expand Xbox to multiple devices for more than five years now, and now it's launching a marketing campaign to make it very clear that it thinks every screen is an Xbox now. A new This is an Xbox" campaign is launching today to position the Xbox brand as a way to play games across multiple devices, instead of just an Xbox console.This Is an Xbox invites people to play with Xbox across multiple devices and screens," explains Craig McNary, senior director of Xbox marketing. It showcases the evolution of Xbox as a platform that extends across devices, with bold, iconic, fun visuals and a light-hearted tone." Image: Microsoft Microsoft's new Xbox marketing campaign. Microsoft has... Continue reading...
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6S7GB)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images How fake music targets real artists. Continue reading...
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S7GC)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Almost two years after EU regulators first accused Meta of abusive practices" that gave the tech giant unfair market advantages, the European Commission has fined Meta 797.7 million (around $840 million). The combination of forcing Facebook users to be exposed to Marketplace and imposing restrictions against third-party classified ads providers on the platform are the two main reasons cited for the fine.In a statement, the EU's competition head Margrethe Vestager accused Meta of abusing its dominant position in the social media market to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that other online classified ads service providers could not match. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules."The European... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S7GD)
Alex Jones in 2022. | Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images The satirical news outlet The Onion has acquired Infowars, the conspiracy theory-riddled site run by Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction. In a press release posted to X Thursday, The Onion announced that it plans to end Infowars' relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion's relentless barrage of humor for good" when it relaunches in January 2025.The Onion purchased Infowars' assets with the support of the families in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, who sued Jones for spreading lies about the victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jones was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in 2022 and filed for bankruptcy later that year. In September, a judge approved... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Marino on (#6S7D1)
Alex Parkin / The Verge Cassette tape sales are at a 20-year high, the vinyl market is on a 17-year growth streak, and CDs have caught the attention of Gen Z. After a resurgence of retro physical media, tech companies have now jumped in to provide new hardware to play these formats.Companies like We Are Rewind, Fiio, and others offer updated designs for new cassette and CD players, with some additional functionality like USB-C charging and Bluetooth.But after a quick glance at these updated music gadgets in person, we found that they are seemingly not as advanced as some of their vintage counterparts. The dimensions of We Are Rewind's Bluetooth cassette player are roughly the same as Sony's first-ever Walkman from 1979 - but by the time the cassette Walkman... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6S7D3)
Image: The Verge / Getty Images What Elon Musk really wants from a Trump presidency. Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S7D4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is taking a page out of the TikTok playbook by adding jewels" you buy to exchange for gifts for your favorite creators during livestreams. The feature, announced in September's Made on YouTube event, is rolling out in the US over the next few weeks for eligible creators in the YouTube Partner Program.The feature is reminiscent of TikTok's livestream gifting, which essentially works the same way, except you buy coins." On YouTube, gifts you send to live streamers appear onscreen and add to their earnings called rubies," valued at one cent each. YouTube says there's no fixed revenue share since the cost of jewels can change based on promotions, so the amount of rubies earned can vary. For the next three months, YouTube will... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S7D5)
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Disney made money off its streaming business for the second time in a row. During Q4 2024, profit from Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus soared to $321 million, up from $47 million last quarter.During an earnings call on Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger said around 60 percent of all new subscribers are choosing Disney Plus's ad-supported plan. Meanwhile, 37 percent of total subscribers in the US are currently subscribed to the option, which has become a major revenue driver for streaming services.It's not just about raising pricing," Iger said. It's about moving consumers to the advertiser-supported side of the streaming platform... the pricing that we recently put into place, which is increased pricing, was actually designed to move... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6S7D6)
Image: Amazon Amazon is today introducing its latest Fire TV Omni TV series, and it's the first to feature Mini LED backlighting for improved contrast, less blooming, and greater brightness than past models. The Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series" features up to 1,344 dimming zones (depending on screen size) and delivers up to 1,400 nits of peak brightness. That's respectable, but falls short of top Mini LED contenders like TCL's QM8 and Hisense's U8N, which can push all the way to 3,000 nits.Still, Amazon's TV is priced quite a bit lower than those models and includes Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10 Plus Adaptive, and Dolby Atmos audio. This also sounds like the first Fire TV Omni that's truly cut out for gaming. It's got AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6S7D7)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Wordle's success has caused an explosion in newspaper-style puzzle games, and now Words With Friends is getting in on the action. The long-running word game is adding four solo modes that can be played daily, and they'll sound familiar to those who use The New York Times' gaming app.The new games include a mini crossword puzzle; a word search; Word Wheel, which is about connecting letters to create words; and a word guessing game called Guess Word. You can see what they all look like in the gallery below:Zynga, which owns Words With Friends, says that each of the games will have new puzzles daily and can be played either solo or in multiplayer. Our players asked if they could do even more, so we've added a whole new layer of... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S7D8)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is facing a 3 billion (about $3.75 billion) lawsuit from a consumer group that alleges the iPhone maker violated UK competition law by forcing" customers to use its iCloud service.In its press release, UK consumer watchdog Which? says that Apple gave its iCloud storage service preferential treatment and encouraged users to use the service to store photos, videos, and other data while making it difficult to use alternative providers.We believe Apple customers are owed nearly 3 billion as a result of the tech giant forcing its iCloud services on customers and cutting off competition from rival services," Which? said in its announcement. The group alleges that Apple's monopoly allowed the company to overcharge users for iCloud... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6S7AB)
In the AI chatbot world, ubiquity is everything. Companies have raced to build desktop and mobile apps for their bots, in order to both give them new capabilities but also to make sure they're right in front of your face as often as possible.There's no better example of that than Google's new Gemini app for iPhone, which quietly hit the App Store around the world this week. The free app is simple and straightforward: it's just a chat window and a list of your previous chats. You can query the bot with text, voice, or your camera, and it'll give you answers. It's effectively identical to the Gemini section of the Google app, or what you'd get by opening a browser and going to the Gemini website.The Gemini app does have one newish... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S7AC)
The Verge Google has added some new travel and shopping features to Maps that aim to make it easier to find local products and stay on time during busy periods. Starting today, Maps now allows users to search for items like home goods, clothing, and electronics, and find stores nearby that sell them - a useful feature to have for any last-minute holiday shopping.The search results in Maps will display individual product listings alongside locations where generic examples of desired items can be found (showing nearby stores that sell holiday sweaters," for example). The product listings are presented similarly to products in Google Shopping, only with useful information like store distance and if the item is currently in stock. G... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6S75Q)
PayPal is making it easier to collectively pool together funds on the platform. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images PayPal is introducing a new money-pooling feature that aims to make it easier to collect and pay for things as a group. The feature is free and allows PayPal users to create a pool online or via the platform's app, invite friends and family to contribute, track contributed funds, and transfer that cash to their own PayPal balance.Provided you trust the pool organizer who will hold the power to spend or withdraw those funds, the pooling feature should provide a simple way to gather cash for things like gifts and group traveling collectively. Pool organizers can share pool joining links via text, email, WhatsApp, and more" to people regardless of whether they have a PayPal account or not. Contributions can be made using a PayPal balance... Continue reading...
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by Vjeran Pavic on (#6S6WN)
It's been 25 years since the first Final Cut Pro was announced. More than a decade after the launch of Final Cut Pro X, Apple's video editing software is taking a step forward. The app is now being updated to Final Cut Pro 11, after dropping the number in its name for the past few years. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly in your timeline, spatial video editing features, and a set of workflow improvements. The new version is free for existing users and a $299 one-time purchase for new users. Final Cut Pro for iPad and Final Cut Camera are also getting some updates today, too.I've spent the last week testing out these new features, and many of them are great improvements. I've been particularly impressed by the speed and accuracy of one new feature... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Marino on (#6S6WP)
Apple Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 with Quantec Room Simulator | Image: Apple Apple today announced some minor updates to Logic Pro for both the Mac and the iPad, including the ability to search for plug-ins and sources and the addition of more analog-simulating sounds.In Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 and Logic Pro for iPad 2.1, you can now reorder channel strips and plug-ins in the mixer and plug-in windows to make it easier to organize the layout of an audio mix.As for the new sounds, Apple added a library of analog synthesizer samples called Modular Melodies, akin to the Modular Rhythms pack already found in Logic.A more exciting sonic addition is the new Quantec Room Simulator (QRS) plug-in, which emulates the vintage digital reverb hardware of the same name, found in professional recording studios all over... Continue reading...
by Kylie Robison on (#6S6WQ)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Getty Images OpenAI is preparing to release an autonomous AI agent that can control computers and perform tasks independently, code-named Operator." The company plans to debut it as a research preview and developer tool in January, according to Bloomberg.This move intensifies the competition among tech giants developing AI agents: Anthropic recently introduced its computer use" capability, while Google is reportedly preparing its own version for a December release. The timing of Operator's eventual consumer release remains under wraps, but its development signals a pivotal shift toward AI systems that can actively engage with computer interfaces rather than just process text and images.All the leading AI companies have promised autonomous AI... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6S6T5)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Sonos is still trying to climb out from the hole it dug itself earlier this year by recklessly shipping an overhauled mobile app well before the software was actually ready. Today, just a couple weeks after the release of its latest hardware products - the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 - Sonos reported its fiscal Q4 2024 earnings. And the damage done by the app debacle is clear.Revenue was down 8 percent year over year, which Sonos attributed to softer demand due to challenging market conditions and challenges resulting from our recent app rollout." During the quarter, the company sank $4 million into unspecified app recovery investments." (Sonos previously estimated it could spend up to $30 million to resolve all of the trouble that has... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6S6T6)
Google versus the bad guys. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google is beefing up its malware detection with new protections designed to suss out ever-sneakier bad actors.Android's Google Play Protect service is getting an update called live threat detection which seeks out potentially harmful apps on your phone by analyzing app behavior and alerts you in realtime if something looks fishy. The update was first announced at Google I/O earlier this year and is available now to Pixel 6 and newer phones. It should come to additional non-Pixel Android phones from Lenovo, OnePlus, Nothing, and Oppo, among others in the coming months."Live threat detection targets particularly hard-to-spot malware apps that hide their intentions well. Rather than just scanning apps for malicious code when you... Continue reading...
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