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Eddy Cue, left, with Apple CEO Tim Cook. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is set to testify at the US v. Google antitrust trial on Tuesday, as the trial enters its third week. Cue's presence, which Apple fought to avoid, underscores Apple's importance to the Justice Department's case against Google - which alleges that the company's juggernaut search engine violates antitrust law. News of Cue's scheduling was posted by Bloomberg's Leah Nylen and Big Tech on Trial on X, formerly Twitter.Cue will be the second Apple executive to testify, following Apple AI head (and former Google executive) John Giannandrea on Thursday and Friday. Much of Giannandrea's testimony, however, took place under wraps in a closed courtroom. It's unknown how much of Cue's testimony will... Continue reading...

The Pixel Watch 2. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge Google will apparently give you a free Pixel Watch 2 if you preorder a Pixel 8 Pro, according to a promotional image posted by Kamila Wojciechowska. Wojciechowska also posted other leaks, including one published by 91mobiles with a promotional video that confirms previously rumored details about the Watch 2.The deal might soften the blow of a rumored price hike for the Pixel 8 Pro that puts the new phone at a $999 starting price. The original Pixel Watch starts at $349.99 for the non-cellular version, making the Pixel 8 Pro effectively a $650 phone with this deal, assuming the 8 Pro price rumor is accurate. Wojciechowska posted a screenshot over the weekend suggesting that, at least for business customers, the Pixel 8 Pro might keep the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Today, we have ChatGPT, Bard, Alexa, Siri, and a thousand others. Nearly a half-century ago, there was GUS. GUS, which stood for the Genial Understander System, came out of a project at Xerox PARC in the 1970s that hoped to find ways to teach computers to understand human language.Enterprising engineers, researchers, linguists, and even users have been longing for a way to talk to their computers pretty much since computers first became a thing. You shouldn't have to communicate with your device by writing code, they figured, or by clicking in the right boxes in the right order. You should simply be able to talk to your computer like you'd talk to a person. Virtual assistants are a staple of science fiction, a decades-long startup... Continue reading...

Screenshot: iFixit via YouTube While Apple may have made the iPhone 15 Pro Max easier to repair physically, a teardown from iFixit reveals it still comes with the same parts pairing constraints as its predecessors.Like the iPhone 14, iFixit found that the iPhone 15 lineup has a redesigned midframe that you can access by removing the device's screen or back glass. However, iFixit notes that the internals on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max live behind the screen, rather than the back glass, as is the case with the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus as well as the iPhone 14 lineup.This inverted setup could make critical repairs like battery swaps slightly riskier than on the 14," iFixit says, as you're removing the expensive, fragile display rather than an inert sheet of... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Images Getty Images is partnering with Nvidia to launch Generative AI by Getty Images, a new tool that lets people create images using Getty's library of licensed photos.Generative AI by Getty Images (yes, it's an unwieldy name) is trained only on the vast Getty Images library, including premium content, giving users full copyright indemnification. This means anyone using the tool and publishing the image it created commercially will be legally protected, promises Getty. Getty worked with Nvidia to use its Edify model, available on Nvidia's generative AI model library Picasso.I got a hands-on look at Generative AI by Getty Images and got to play around with the tool for a bit. I mainly wanted to see how it generates photos, rather than... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Meta's Horizon Worlds 3D social platform is starting to roll out on the web and mobile, and it generally works a lot better outside of VR than I expected - though I wish there were more to do.Until recently, Horizon Worlds has only been available on Meta's Quest VR headsets. In VR, the app lets you explore a wide range of virtual experiences, including games, social spots, and giant 2D screens of concerts from huge music stars. It doesn't have anywhere close to the breadth of worlds on metaverse platforms like Roblox or Fortnite, and many Horizon Worlds experiences only have double- or single-digit numbers of players at any given time. But you can see the nascent beginnings of some kind of social network for 3D spaces.The thing is,... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Most of OpenAI's changes to ChatGPT involve what the AI-powered bot can do: questions it can answer, information it can access, and improved underlying models. This time, though, it's tweaking the way you use ChatGPT itself. The company is rolling out a new version of the service that allows you to prompt the AI bot not just by typing sentences into a text box, but by either speaking aloud or just uploading a picture. The new features are rolling out to those who pay for ChatGPT in the next two weeks, and everyone else will get it soon after" according to OpenAI.The voice chat part is pretty familiar: you tap a button and speak your question, ChatGPT converts it to text and feeds it to the large language model, gets an answer back,... Continue reading...

Kamiya onstage at Microsoft's 2016 E3 press conference. | Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Hideki Kamiya, the Japanese video game director known for his work on Bayonetta, Viewtiful Joe, and The Wonderful 101, is leaving PlatinumGames. The news was first announced by the development studio on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, with Kamiya himself confirming the news via his own account shortly afterwards. He is due to officially leave Platinum on October 12th.Although neither party gave an exact reason for Kamiya's departure from the studio, where he currently serves as its vice president, it sounds like an amicable separation. We are truly grateful for his creative ideas, leadership, and contribution to the growth of PlatinumGames from our start-up to this very day," the company's statement reads. We believe that... Continue reading...

A teaser image of the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro released by Google. | Image: Google Google's upcoming Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro could come with seven years of software support, according to a leaked list of specs published by 91Mobiles. Kamila Wojciechowska, the original source of the leak, has also published US pricing for the two unannounced phones ahead of their October 4th launch. The Pixel 8 Pro is reportedly due to start at $899, the same as the 7 Pro, while the Pixel 8 could start at $699, a $100 increase over the $599 starting price for the Pixel 7.Wojciechowska notes that it's unclear whether Google will offer seven years of major Android OS updates for the phones, or whether the figure just refers to seven years of security patches (my money's on the latter, for what it's worth). But either way it's a decent... Continue reading...

The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May 2nd. | Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images The Hollywood writers strike may be close to an end. After a more than 140-day work stoppage, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced on Sunday night that it reached a tentative agreement" with major Hollywood studios on pay, working conditions, and more.We can say, with great pride, that this is an exceptional deal - with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership," the WGA negotiating committee wrote in an email to members.WGA leadership said details of the agreement couldn't be shared until its language is finalized; after that, writers will have to vote to approve the deal. The guild said its leaders may end the strike as soon as Tuesday, once the contract is finalized and sent to members... Continue reading...

Victoria Thiem, system safety engineer from Lockheed Martin, checks the temperature of the actual size OSIRIS-REx's return capsule sample during the recovery rehearsal at Lockheed Martin, Waterton Canyon campus in Littleton, Colorado on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. | Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched in 2016, has collected as much as several hundred grams of asteroid material, which could help scientists understand the earliest stages of the solar system. Continue reading...

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 7, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about the AI writing lives of real writers, rewatching the John Wick movies to prepare for The Continental, shopping for StandBy-capable iPhone docks, getting back into VR exercise with Supernatural boxing, and really, really, really hoping Microsoft's controller-first vision for the future of gaming comes true soon.I also have for you a new super-slick Windows laptop, two crypto-related podcasts you should hear, a reason to try Bard again, OpenAI's new image-making tool, a... Continue reading...

Driverless trucks from Waymo. | Credit: Waymo Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed Assembly Bill 316, which would have required human attendants in driverless vehicles over 10,000 pounds, reports Reuters. The bill saw broad support among state legislators and was backed by the Teamsters and other labor organizations. At the moment,The governor wrote in his veto message that the bill is unnecessary for the regulation and oversight of heavy-duty autonomous vehicle technology," adding that the existing regulatory framework is sufficient."The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) was given regulatory authority over autonomous vehicles in the state. Newsom writes that the DMV consults the state highway patrol, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and others with... Continue reading...

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2 looks to be a minor update of the prior model, with faster performance and new connectivity options. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 during its recent hardware event in New York City, introducing the two laptops alongside a flurry of AI-powered features for Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and Bing. The high-end Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at $1,099, while the Surface Laptop Go 3 starts at $799; both are slated to launch on October 3rd at 12AM ET.Although the forthcoming laptops look similar in design to their predecessors, the new Surface devices arrive with upgraded processors, better battery life, and other minor spec bumps. We've yet to fully test either laptop, but if you want to preorder them ahead of their official release, you can already do so via various retailers. Here's what you should... Continue reading...

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge The new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad," according to my colleague Allison Johnson, so you probably shouldn't buy one. Still, I've been curious to learn more about them, and iFixit's new teardown just gave me even more information than I could have thought to ask for: it put one of the new cases under a microscope, tested how it stood up to things like hot sauce and coffee, and tore the thing apart - and, best of all, photographed every step of the way.There are some incredible zoomed-in photos of the fabric, for example; that black thing in a post from iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens is a human hair included for scale! Another photo shows how the fibers are affected when cut by a knife - it's not pretty.

Lightning and USB-C, oh my. | Image: Asicen Did you hear the iPhone 15 has USB-C now? That's a great thing and long overdue, but it does mean that there will be a period of transition where some of us end up having to deal with both Lightning and USB-C iPhones in our lives, particularly if we live with someone who isn't buying the new iPhone right away.This is particularly cumbersome if you share a vehicle and want to use CarPlay in it - you'll need a way to hook up your new USB-C iPhone and maintain a Lightning connection for the other person using the car. You could do this with multiple cables, of course, and switch it every time you get in the car, but who needs that hassle? For the past couple of years, I've used this three-headed cable to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto... Continue reading...

Quantic Dream is famous for choose-your-own-adventure games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, where protagonists can die along the way - and apparently, Disney and Lucasfilm have signed off on that idea for its upcoming Star Wars game, Star Wars Eclipse.There's no game over. Anyone can die, anything can happen, and the story sort of continues," Quantic Dream marketing VP Lisa Pendse told IGN at the 2023 Tokyo Game Show.One of the big focuses we've had when we announced Star Wars Eclipse was to make sure it was clear that this is actually an action adventure game that has all of the elements that you would come to expect and want from a Quantic Dream title, which is intricately branching narratives, multiple playable... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Imagine, for a moment, if you didn't have to select emails one by one to archive, delete, or mark as read. 9to5Google is reporting that Gmail for Android now has a Select all" button that selects 50 emails at a time. Images: 9to5Google Select 50 at a time. Now, a certain kind of reader will surely ask: why doesn't the select all" button select all the emails? I salute you, friend. But Gmail for Android has infinite scroll, so selecting all the emails would really be all the emails, not just, like, a page worth of them.Maybe they should rename the button instead.Desktop Gmail also lets you select 50 emails to begin with, but it doesn't call the button select all," and there's an extra select all... Continue reading...

Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 3 is live, beefy, and oh boy, does it implement some fixes I am happy about - and some that terrify the daylights outta me.First and foremost, welcome Mac users! You're now able to play on Mac. Make sure you check out the minimum specification requirements, and don't forget to uninstall and reinstall the game (if you played Early Access) to ensure a smooth transition to the full release.Also, the Magic Mirror is live, so players can give their characters a much-needed haircut (or complete facial rearrangement).With those two big updates out of the way, we can dive into the details of this patch. Like I mentioned, it's big.Light spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 3 follow.One thing I mentioned in my PS5 review is... Continue reading...

Screenshot by Chris Welch / The Verge As excited as I am to pick up a new iPhone 15 Pro Max later today, every release day for Apple's latest phones brings back a nagging feeling: I still miss 3D Touch. Introduced on the iPhone 6S and lasting through the XS and XS Max, this feature could determine how much pressure you were applying to the screen with each finger press, and software could respond differently based on the level of force.I remember having my mind blown by the live wallpaper animations, which would play (and then rewind back in reverse) based on how hard or softly I was pressing down. 3D Touch also brought other useful tricks like peek" and pop," which let you preview a link or other content with a light press and then fully open it with a firm one.To... Continue reading...

A trainer taking a selfie with a Houndour and an Okidoggi. | Nintendo The Pokemon games may be in their open-world era, but Scarlet and Violet's new DLC proves that a little bit more focus on smarter, more linear gameplay can work wonders. Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given preliminary approval for Microsoft to proceed with its $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal. The CMA had originally blocked the acquisition over cloud gaming concerns, but Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. In a memo to employees (included below), Xbox boss Phil Spencer called it a positive development and a welcome indicator that our hard work is bringing us closer to our goal."The CMA considers that the restructured deal makes important changes that substantially address the concerns it set out in relation to the original transaction earlier this year," the CMA said in a press... Continue reading...

The $180 Echo Hub is designed to be wall-mounted but can be used as a tabletop device with a separate mount. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon was keeping close guard over its new Echo Hub smart controller in the demo room at today's big hardware event. But I managed to get a few seconds of hands-on with a working tabletop unit before it was whisked away. I also put it through its paces on the wall-mounted version, and while it responded to touches promptly in some cases, it's no iPad - or even Fire tablet.Maybe it's asking too much to have a powerful tablet that controls your whole smart home, mounted on your wall, for under $180. The Echo Hub did promptly turn on a nearby lamp when I tapped on." It swiftly activated a Baby Crying Routine that started lullabies playing on an Echo Show 5. It accepted swipes and presses with good response times - faster than the... Continue reading...

Your Prime Video experience is about to be downgraded unless you cough up an extra $3 each month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has announced plans to start placing limited advertisements" in TV shows and movies running on the company's Prime Video streaming platform, to allow the e-commerce giant to continue investing in compelling content." According to Amazon's press release, the ads will first be introduced on Prime Video content in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada on an unmentioned date in early 2024," with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later that year.Amazon says it doesn't have plans to change the current price of its Prime memberships in 2024, and Prime members will be notified of the change several weeks before the ad injections begin, along with details to sign up for the ad-free option. US-based Prime members will be... Continue reading...

Microsoft takes its next step towards a passwordless future. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft's incoming Windows 11 update will introduce public support for passkeys - a passwordless login technology that instead uses your face, fingerprint, or device PIN to sign into accounts. Announced at Microsoft's AI and Surface launch event on Thursday, the latest Windows 11 update (available from September 26th) will allow users to create, manage, and store passkeys, and use them to access supported websites and services using their device's own authentication systems.Microsoft began testing passkey management in the Windows Insider developer channel back in June, so this Windows 11 update is bringing the technology into general availability.Windows 11 passkeys are created through Windows Hello. Passkeys can be accessed on both... Continue reading...

Image: 20th Century Studios No One Will Save You wastes no time getting started. After a brief setup, it gets right to the action: a home invasion that's actually an alien invasion. What follows is an incredibly tense, surprisingly quiet mix of sci-fi and horror, just the thing for a fall evening at home.The movie - which is streaming now on Hulu - comes via writer and director Brian Duffield, who previously wrote similar genre twists The Babysitter and Love and Monsters. It centers on Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman who lives alone in a big, isolated house and who - for reasons that aren't clear until much later in the story - is either ignored or hated by basically everyone in town. But she keeps herself busy making dresses, constructing a model village,... Continue reading...

The Steam Deck. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve has been clear it wants to build a Steam Deck 2 - and equally clear that a faster handheld wouldn't arrive soon. Now, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais tells The Verge and CNBC that it could be late 2025 or beyond before it raises that bar - because it wants to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.I don't anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years," he told me via email.Here's the whole quote:

Illustration: The Verge X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers. The company said in a PSA" on Thursday that Circles will be disabled by October 31st.After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle," X wrote in a post on its help center. You will, however, be able to remove people from your Circle," and the company gave instructions on how to do that.Twitter (not X) officially launched Circles (which it called Circle") in August 2022; Elon Musk wasn't yet the official owner of the company. (At that time, he was trying to get out of his deal to buy it.) But in April,... Continue reading...

Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images Intel has wrapped up its annual Innovation event in San Jose, where the chipmaker gave us a glimpse of what's coming down the pipeline over the next few years. In case you don't have a spare hour and a half to sit down and watch CEO Pat Gelsinger's keynote, here are some important things we learned.Meteor Lake will launch on December 14th If you haven't guessed, AI was kind of a theme here. The company officially introduced its Meteor Lake" generation (known officially as the Intel Core Ultra) to the world at the Innovation keynote. These will succeed the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake" line; they will be the first chips built on the new Intel 4 process and its first with a dedicated AI coprocessor inside.They're also... Continue reading...