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by David Pierce on (#6EX0T)
Neuralink's N1 implant is ready for its first human users. | Image: Neuralink A few months after getting FDA approval for human trials, Neuralink is looking for its first test subjects. The six-year initial trial, which the Elon Musk-owned company is calling the PRIME Study," is intended to test Neuralink tech designed to help those with paralysis control devices. The company is looking for people with quadriplegia due to vertical spinal cord injury or ALS who are over the age of 22 and have a consistent and reliable caregiver" to be part of the study.The PRIME Study (which apparently stands for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, even though that acronym makes no sense) is set to research three things at once. The first is the N1 implant, Neuralink's brain-computer device. The second is... Continue reading...
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2024-11-25 18:45 |
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6EX0V)
An object lesson in filial piety! | Illustration: The Verge; Image: Getty Images The lawyers who represent what's left of FTX filed suit against Sam Bankman-Fried's parents, saying they exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly, by millions of dollars." The point of the suit is to get that money back so it can be paid out to the people FTX owes.Before all this, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman were already well-known and respected Stanford Law School professors. Last week, Bloomberg dropped a fascinating profile of the two of them.Fried has written extensively on questions of distributive justice, in the areas of tax policy, property theory and political theory," according to her Stanford profile. She also ran a donor network for Democratic... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EX0W)
Illustration: The Verge Max, the streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is adding a live sports tier in the US on October 5th. The Bleacher Report Sports add-on will cost $9.99 per month, with current Max subscribers getting the tier for free until February 29th, 2024.The upcoming sports tier will feature live games from Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and US soccer. These games will continue to air on Warner Bros. Discovery's cable networks, including TNT, TBS, and TruTV.
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by Jay Peters on (#6EX0Y)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is responsible for the huge trove of leaked documents that revealed things like a new disc-less Xbox Series X design, unannounced games from Bethesda, and executive musings about buying Nintendo, according to a new filing from the FTC v. Microsoft judge on Tuesday.In the filing, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley says that the court ordered the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft to provide the court with a secure cloud link" to trial exhibits with redactions that met the court's recent orders. Microsoft provided a link on September 14th, and the court uploaded the exhibits from there, Judge Corley says.The parties in the case have since told the court that the version of the exhibits provided contained non-public... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EWX6)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge iFixit is dropping the repairability score on the iPhone 14. While the organization originally gave the phone a seven out of 10 to indicate high repairability, iFixit has lowered that rating to a four after taking into account parts pairing requirements that make fixing the device a hassle.When iFixit announced its score for the iPhone 14 last year, it said it was looking mainly at the repair-friendly design of the device. Unlike its other devices, Apple included a rear glass panel that you can pop off with basic repair tools, including a heating mat, suction handle, and an opening pick. While this design change was notable at the time, iFixit acknowledges that it missed the significant hurdles to repairability programmed within iPhones... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EWC6)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A huge amount of unredacted Microsoft emails and documents have leaked online. Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EWX7)
Image: Epic Games You can now apply to receive a refund from Fortnite maker Epic Games' $245 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC alleged that Fortnite players bought in-game goods on accident because of design tricks, and the two parties agreed to the settlement, which was announced as part of a broader $520 million settlement in December.You can visit www.ftc.gov/Fortnite to apply for the refund and learn more information. The FTC says that you can apply if any of the following is true:
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by Brandon Widder on (#6EWX8)
Epomaker's TH80 Pro is a great entry-level mechanical keyboard, regardless of which switches you opt for. | Image: Epomaker It's hard to beat the tactile feel and durability of a good ol' fashioned mechanical keyboard. Fortunately, if you're someone who's looking to kick their membrane keyboard to the curb, Epomaker's TH80 Pro represents a great entry-level model, one that's on sale at Amazon for $71.99 ($18 off) and comes with your choice of linear, clicky, or tactile switches.The Epomaker TH80 Pro, like the standard model featured in our guide to the best mechanical keyboards, is a 75 percent mechanical keyboard with a volume knob and hot-swappable switches that let you easily adjust the keyboard's look and feel. It also offers the same plastic case and steel switch plate, the same PBT keycaps and per-key RGB lighting, and the same great typing... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6EWX9)
Image: Apple It's rare that I ever encounter any bugs or software problems with the Apple TV 4K that stop me in my tracks. But in the event you do have trouble, restoring Apple's streaming box has always been something of a hassle. With the older Apple TV HD, you've got to plug it into a Mac via the rear USB port. But this isn't even an option for the 4K model, leaving customers little choice but to contact Apple for servicing. That hassle is finally changing with the release of iOS 17 and tvOS 17, which can now use your iPhone to restore an Apple TV and reset its software.As noted by MacRumors, Apple has outlined this new troubleshooting step in a support document. If your Apple TV HD or later with tvOS 17 or later is experiencing problems, an... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6EWXA)
Symbiosis between its Fire TVs and its Alexa smart home ambitions could help Amazon create a smart home that works for everyone. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Amazon's fall hardware event is taking place this week, and the company will undoubtedly be searching for its next big hardware hit. But how about making its existing hardware (and software) better? Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EWXB)
Do you want some frittata? | Image: Toyota Research Institute Yeah, so Toyota Research Institute (TRI) used generative AI in a kindergarten for robots" to teach robots how to make breakfast - or at least, the individual tasks needed to do so - and it didn't take hundreds of hours of coding and errors and bug fixing. Instead, researchers accomplished this by giving robots a sense of touch, plugging them into an AI model, and then, as you would a human being, showing them how.The sense of touch is one key enabler," researchers say. By giving the robots the big, pillowy thumb (my term, not theirs) that you see in the video below, the model can feel" what it's doing, giving it more information. That makes difficult tasks easier to carry out than with sight alone.Ben Burchfiel, the lab's manager... Continue reading...
by Mia Sato on (#6EWXD)
Image: TikTok TikTok is introducing a new way for creators to label content that was made using artificial intelligence tools. The feature was first spotted by users last month and was announced by TikTok today in a blog post.TikTok's user guidelines already require creators to disclose when content is made using AI tools. The new feature will prompt a creator to turn on the labeling feature so viewers know when videos and photos were created using AI software. The AI label appears below the username in the corner of videos. The prompt also includes a reminder that content could be removed if it's not disclosed that AI tools were involved. The company also says that, this week, it will begin testing a way to automatically label content as... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6EWS5)
Photo by Christopher Dilts / Bloomberg via Getty Images The latest fashion trend in the UK seems to be brands charging customers to return items. While that sucks for consumer pocketbooks, it probably has a positive environmental impact. Free returns come with an environmental cost, namely more pollution and waste.H&M is the latest brand to start charging for returns in the UK, BBC reported today. It joins Zara, Uniqlo, and several other clothing brands cutting their own costs by nixing free returns. The parent company that owns Zara, Inditex, and H&M make up the two biggest clothing retailers worldwide. If these policies start gaining traction outside of the UK, they could make a significant dent in the fashion industry's environmental footprint.Before you buy a thing, it has probably been... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6EWS6)
Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge It's been a rocky and chaotic decade - and now digital media is on the brink of yet another existential crisis thanks to generative AI. Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EWS7)
An artistic rendition of Intel's next chip. | Image: Intel For many months, Intel has spared no opportunity to remind us that its Meteor Lake chips would be the ones to watch - its first CPU with different chiplets for each component; its first on its Intel 4 process node; its first with a dedicated AI coprocessor inside. Today, Intel is revealing a whole lot more.Meteor Lake will launch" on December 14th, the company now says, as the most power-efficient client processor the company's ever made - and with up to twice the graphics performance, a low power island" that can run tasks independently, and hooks into Microsoft Windows to intelligently control the new chips. In no particular order, here are the highlights of Intel's Core Ultra - because yeah, this one's not called a... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EWS8)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung has debuted the IoT card, a credit card that works with SmartThings Find, the company's version of Find My (via SamMobile). That's great if you live in South Korea, where the company offers it in partnership with KB Kookmin Card and American Express - so far, Samsung hasn't announced a similar offering in the US. We've asked if it plans to and will update this post if the company responds.The IoT card works like you'd expect it to. You add it to SmartThings Find, and then, like with Apple Find My, other Samsung devices that detect it will report its location back to you. This works whether the card is nearby or its owner has left it in another country. Samsung says the card uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for this, rather than... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EWS9)
Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge YouTube has blocked Russell Brand from making money off the videos posted to his channel, as reported earlier by The New York Times. The decision to demonetize Brand's account comes just days after several reports detailing sexual assault allegations against the actor emerged.Last week, a joint investigation from The Times of London, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4's Dispatches found that four women accused Brand of sexual assault and abuse. Brand has since posted a video on YouTube refuting the allegations, calling them a coordinated attack."While Brand has become known for his career as an actor and comedian, he has also amassed a large following on YouTube, with over 62 million subscribers. Many of his more recent videos focus on... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6EWN9)
Photo by Lane Turner / The Boston Globe via Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's foundation is funding the construction of a massive computing system for medical research. It'll be made up of more than 1,000 GPUs. And these aren't just any graphics card - they're top-of-the-line H100 GPUs that are highly sought after for AI-focused servers.The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is making really bold claims about what it hopes this computing system will be able to do. A press release claims the computing system will lead to groundbreaking new discoveries that could help cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of this century."The aim is to give researchers access to generative AI to study healthy and diseased cells. Using predictive models of human cells can help... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EWNA)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge As the second week of the US v. Google antitrust trial gets underway, the Department of Justice is focusing on the real moneymaker behind Google Search: ads. It alleges that Google's dominance lets it raise prices for advertisers with few repercussions - a claim backed up by Google ads executive Jerry Dischler on the stand.Bloomberg's Leah Nylen has the details of Dischler's testimony, where he describes statements he made under oath in 2020. Dischler says Google tweaks its auction process in ways that may have raised prices in the past by 5 percent for the typical advertiser and could potentially have raised them by 10 percent for some queries. The parties buying the ads would have been unaware of these tunings" of prices; we tend... Continue reading...
by Emilia David on (#6EWNB)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Software company Digimarc will now let copyright owners add more information to their work, which the company said will improve how AI models treat copyright in training data.In a statement, Digimarc said its new Digimarc Validate service lets users include ownership identification in the metadata. The company said this means that when copyrighted material becomes part of a generative AI training dataset, users can point to the digital watermark with intellectual property information.For example, an image with Digimarc Validate adds a (C) symbol that is machine-readable and includes information on who owns the copyright. The company said Digimarc Validate is powered by its digital watermark detection software, called SAFE, or secure,... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6EWNC)
Nicolas Cage as Paul Matthews in Dream Scenario. | Image: A24 For many people, the concept of achieving viral fame has become the definition of success worth aspiring to - if not for simple popularity, then for the brand deals and endorsements that can come along with it. But in the first trailer for A24's mind-bending new comedy Dream Scenario from writer / director Kristoffer Borgli, becoming a worldwide phenomenon overnight is just the beginning of one man's descent into madness.Dream Scenario tells the strange tale of evolutionary biologist Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), an ordinary man whose quiet life of teaching apathetic college students about the behaviors of ants and other animals is upended one day when he starts inexplicably appearing in people's dreams. Like his wife Janet (Julianne... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EWND)
Image: CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 will become the first game to support Nvidia DLSS 3.5, the latest version of the chipmaker's upscaling technology. The update will arrive on September 21st with Update 2.0 - just days before the launch of the game's Phantom Liberty expansion.DLSS 3.5 uses a new technology called Ray Reconstruction, which Nvidia describes as an AI-powered technique that enhances the quality of ray tracing. Ray Reconstruction swaps hand-tuned denoisers" with an AI network trained by a supercomputer that should result in higher-quality pixels between sampled rays.Additionally, DLSS 3.5 is trained using five times more data than DLSS 3. It should also be able to identify different ray-traced effects to make smarter decisions about using... Continue reading...
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by Dan Seifert on (#6EWNF)
Apple's standard iPhone gets a lot of nice upgrades this year, but it's not anything we haven't seen before. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EWJ3)
AST SpaceMobile used an ordinary Samsung Galaxy S22 to make the call. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge AST SpaceMobile - a cellular satellite company backed by AT&T - has placed a satellite call over 5G, marking the first ever" 5G connection between an unmodified smartphone and a satellite in space.To conduct the test, AST SpaceMobile used a Galaxy S22. It made the call on September 8th, 2023, from a wireless dead zone in Maui, Hawaii, with its recipient located in Madrid, Spain. AST SpaceMobile got the cell signal to its destination by leveraging its low Earth orbit test satellite, called BlueWalker 3 (BW3), and AT&T's 5G spectrum. Vodafone, Nokia, and AT&T all validated the call.There have been a few tests leading up to this latest milestone. In April, SpaceMobile routed its first space-based phone call on AT&T's 2G network. It later... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6EWJ2)
Temperature data from the Apple Watch can now be used to power Natural Cycles' digital birth control feature. | Image: Natural Cycles The FDA has cleared the Apple Watch for use with Natural Cycles, a digital birth control app. This means Natural Cycles users who own an Apple Watch Series 8, 9, Ultra, or Ultra 2 can now import their temperature data from the watch instead of manually taking their basal body temperature each morning. This marks Natural Cycles' second FDA-cleared wearable integration, with the first being the Oura Ring.Apple Watch integration is a big deal, given that it held roughly 30 percent of the global smartwatch market in 2022, which is also the year Apple introduced temperature sensors on the Series 8. While it's far from the first smartwatch to do so, Apple's take was unique in that it incorporated two temperature sensors. One was located just... Continue reading...
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6EWJ4)
It might be a little premature to purchase this given Wi-Fi 7 devices aren't expected until 2024. | Image: Netgear While many people are still considering whether they should upgrade their wireless network to the Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E standards, Netgear is already trying to tempt consumers with the technology's future successor.Announced in a press release, the new Orbi 970 mesh router series promises to combine the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 (aka 802.11be) - a new Wi-Fi standard that promises speeds up to 46Gbps using the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz wireless bands - with a new antenna design and what Netgear calls its patented Quad-Band technology" to deliver fast low latency internet across every device in the home. Image: Netgear Here's a closer look at the design and ports that can be found on the rear of the Orbi 970 mesh system. ... Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6EWJ5)
Allen Media Group CEO and founder Byron Allen. | Photo: Allen Media Group. Allen Media Group CEO and founder Byron Allen is coming to the Code Conference this month, where he'll be talking about the state of the media industry with CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin.Allen's sprawling media company includes local broadcasters across the US, cable networks including Cars.TV and Comedy.TV, and the film distribution group Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. In 2018, the company acquired The Weather Channel for $300 million, and last year, it launched a Weather Channel streaming service.The group continues to look for opportunities to grow. Allen looked at buying BET earlier this year, and just last week, he made a $10 billion offer to acquire ABC, FX, National Geographic channels, and... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EWJ6)
Arlo's new line of Essential cameras and doorbells includes a wired/wireless video doorbell. | Image: Arlo Arlo announced the second generation of its Essential camera and doorbell line on Tuesday, and they all have more affordable starting prices than their predecessors. The lineup includes a new XL outdoor camera, a new outdoor camera, a new indoor camera, and a new video doorbell.The second-generation Essential indoor camera starts at $39.99, which is much cheaper than the $99.99 starting price for the first-generation model and is cheaper than Ring's $59.99 indoor camera. For the base $39.99 price, the new wired Arlo Essential indoor camera only gives you HD / 1080p resolution, but if you want 2K resolution, you can spring for that at a more expensive $79.99.Like its predecessor, the updated indoor camera offers features like a... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EWEV)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is holding a special event" in New York City later this week where it's expected to debut three new Surface devices and AI-powered features for Windows, Office, Bing, Surface, and more.The event is taking place just days after Panos Panay, Microsoft's former head of Windows and Surface, resigned in a surprise announcement. We'll now see how the new leaders of Windows and Surface push ahead with Microsoft's big AI plansHere, we'll cover how and when you can follow the event live, along with the new product announcements we're expecting to see from Microsoft.When is Microsoft's special event" happening?The press event will kick off at 7AM PT / 10AM ET on Thursday, September 21st, making it the first in-person Surface... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EWJ7)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is holding a special event" in New York City later this week where it's expected to debut three new Surface devices and AI-powered features for Windows, Office, Bing, Surface, and more.The event is taking place just days after Panos Panay, Microsoft's former head of Windows and Surface, resigned in a surprise announcement. We'll now see how the new leaders of Windows and Surface push ahead with Microsoft's big AI plansHere, we'll cover how and when you can follow the event live, along with the new product announcements we're expecting to see from Microsoft.When is Microsoft's special event" happening?The press event will kick off at 7AM PT / 10AM ET on Thursday, September 21st, making it the first in-person Surface... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EWEW)
Image: Google Google's Bard AI chatbot is no longer limited to pulling answers from just the web - it can now scan your Gmail, Docs, and Drive to help you find the information you're looking for. With the new integration, you can ask Bard to do things like find and summarize the contents of an email or even highlight the most important points of a document you have stored in Drive.There's a whole range of use cases for these integrations, which Google calls extensions, but they should save you from having to sift through a mountain of emails or documents to find a particular piece of information. You can then have Bard use that information in other ways, such as putting it into a chart or creating a bulleted summary. This feature is only available in... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EWEX)
Image: Eve Eve, the monitor and tablet company that some accuse of walking away with their money, hasn't fixed its reputation. Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EWC7)
Microsoft's new disc-less Xbox Series X is far from the only news that just leaked out of the FTC v. Microsoft case. The documents may also reveal Microsoft's far future plans for 2028 - by which the company believed it could achieve full convergence" of its cloud gaming platform and physical hardware to deliver cloud hybrid games."Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences." Image: FTC v. Microsoft documents Our vision: develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud" Those are the words... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EWA6)
Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer would really like to buy Nintendo someday. In an August 2020 email to two top Microsoft marketing executives, Spencer wrote that Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming" and that getting Nintendo would be a career moment and I honestly believe a good move for both companies."The emails were revealed as part of a tranche of leaked documents from the FTC v. Microsoft lawsuit. One executive, Takeshi Numoto, asked Spencer and Chris Capossela in an email titled random thought" about why Microsoft isn't finding acquisition targets like Nintendo a more attractive" way to increase our consumer exposure and relevance." (At the time, Microsoft was in discussions to acquire TikTok, and Numoto didn't feel... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EWA7)
A screenshot from the original Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. | Image: Bethesda Softworks Before it was acquired by Microsoft, ZeniMax Media, the parent company of studios like Bethesda Game Studios and id Software, was working on remasters of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a new entry in the Doom franchise, according to new documents revealed as part of FTC v. Microsoft. The games were included in a July 2020 Microsoft presentation about the then-potential ZeniMax acquisition.Unannounced games in the presentation include:
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by Wes Davis on (#6EWA8)
The Yeti GX. | Image: Logitech Logitech is releasing a new set of products that will start shipping on September 24th and are aimed squarely at the likes of gamers, streamers, podcasters, and other creators. The big one is the $149.99 Logitech G Yeti GX, a broadcast-style" USB microphone with a heavy stand and RGB lighting.The Yeti GX is a dynamic supercardioid microphone, which is a kind of unidirectional mic designed to focus on sound in front of the pickup rather than behind the microphone. That's a good thing if you don't want the noise of your keyboard overtaking your voice. It also means if you move off-axis, your voice quickly falls away, but the trade-off can be worth it when you're contending with poor recording spaces. Soren Pedersen, Logitech's global... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EW7R)
The planned Brooklin' Xbox Series X. | Image: FTC vs. Microsoft Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X console in 2024 with an all-new design and features. Codenamed Brooklin, the unannounced console refresh has been accidentally revealed in new FTC v. Microsoft documents this week.The new Xbox Series X design looks a lot more circular than the existing console and will ship without a disc drive. Internal confidential Microsoft documents reveal it has 2TB of storage (up from 1TB), a USB-C front port with power delivery, and an all-new, more immersive controller." Image: FTC v. Microsoft Sebile" Xbox controller redesign revealed in court documents with wireless upgrades and modular thumbsticks The new controller, codenamed Sebille, is set to be announced... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EW0V)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix and South Korean ISP SK Broadband have been locked in a legal tussle over network usage cost-sharing since 2020 when Netflix filed a lawsuit against the provider, and SK Broadband responded with its own suit. Now the fight is over, Netflix announced, as the companies drop their lawsuits and instead become partners (via Reuters).The lawsuits started because SK Broadband wanted Netflix to help cover the expense of partially Squid Game-induced increases in streaming traffic in South Korea. A South Korean court said Netflix is obligated to pay for the increased network demands. SK estimated the popular show had cost it an extra 27.2 billion Korean won, which translated then to about $23 million.The companies will start offering... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EW0W)
The Surface Pro 9. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Panos Panay has always been the force behind Microsoft's Surface line. He helped bring Surface to life as a secret project more than 10 years ago. He's presented the new devices onstage at events, showed up at malls to promote Surface hardware, and has steered Microsoft's Surface tablets to success in the years since.Now, he's leaving in a surprise departure announced just days before Microsoft's next big Surface event. Panay will no longer be presenting at Microsoft's showcase on Thursday but will remain at the company for another couple of weeks as part of a transition process. He's reportedly joining Amazon to replace Dave Limp and lead Amazon's Echo and Alexa push. Amazon is also holding its own hardware event on Wednesday.Panay... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EW0X)
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CAADCA last year. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A federal judge has granted a request to block the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), a law that requires special data safeguards for underage users online. In a ruling issued today, Judge Beth Freeman granted a preliminary injunction for tech industry group NetChoice, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment. It's the latest of several state-level internet regulations to be blocked while a lawsuit against them proceeds, including some that are likely bound for the Supreme Court.The CAADCA is meant to expand on existing laws - like the federal COPPA framework - that govern how sites can collect data from children. But Judge Freeman objected to several of its provisions, saying they would unlawfully target... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EVYN)
Later this week, you can watch many cast members from Baldur's Gate 3, a game that is based heavily on the mechanics and universe of Dungeons & Dragons, play the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons as their characters from the video game. It sounds meta but awesome.The cast members will be appearing on High Rollers, a live-play D&D show that streams on Twitch, on Friday at 7PM BST / 2PM ET / 11AM PT. We have very kindly been approached by [Baldur's Gate 3 developer] Larian Studios and some rather fine guests to run a little D&D one-shot," dungeon master Mark Hulmes said in a video about the event.Samantha Beart (Karlach), Tim Downie (Gale Dekarios), Jennifer English (Shadowheart), Theo Solomon (Wyll Ravengard), Neil Newbon... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EVYP)
Mutant Mayhem comes to Paramount Plus on September 19th. | Image: Paramount Paramount announced that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will hit Paramount Plus tomorrow in the US and Canada. The CG-animated movie is now the seventh Turtles movie in a line that started with the better-than-it-should've-been 1990 live-action film. Mutant Mayhem is already available to preorder on 4K UHD Blu-ray, standard Blu-ray, and DVD.The movie hits just a day before Paramount Plus ends its 50 percent discount for a year of its ad-supported tier ($29.99) or a year of its Paramount Plus with Showtime plan ($59.99), which would also open up access to Dungeons & Dragons, Top Gun: Maverick, and Star Trek shows like Strange New Worlds.Mutant Mayhem reintroduced the origin story for the Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EVV5)
Dead and Buried is a Wild West arena shootout multiplayer VR game. | Image: Gunfire Games Hope you didn't enjoy playing Dead and Buried, Dead and Buried II, or Bogo on your Rift or Quest headsets - because Meta's shutting them all down with no explanation, just like it already did with Echo VR (aka Echo Arena).We are reaching out to let you know that Dead and Buried will no longer be supported as of Friday, March 15, 2024," reads an email in my inbox. You can continue to hunt ghosts and other creatures in Dead and Buried on your Rift, Rift S, or Quest (via link) devices until 11:59 PM PT on that date."UploadVR and Road to VR report that owners of Wild West shootout sequel Dead and Buried II and virtual pet simulator Bogo are receiving the same shutdown messages about their games, too, with the same March 15th end date.N... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EVV6)
Creating a simple image like this is much easier when you can work in layers. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is on a slow-burn path to making Paint a useful tool for actual creators by finally implementing one of Photoshop's core features: layers. As part of an update rolling out for testing by Windows Insiders (version 11.2308.18.0, available to some people in the Canary or Dev channels), Microsoft Paint is introducing support for both layers and transparency. These features have long been table stakes for general editing in Adobe Photoshop, but they are key to doing proper image manipulation and digital art. And most importantly, they're coming to an app that's free to use on Windows.In the new version of Paint, users can use the core functions necessary for working with layers (adding new layers, moving them around, reordering... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6EVV7)
The iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Pro. | Image: The Verge Next year's Pro iPhones are both expected" to have the tetraprism" zoom lens Apple is using for the 5x telephoto camera in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, according to a new post from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. That tetraprism optical system, which is intended to replicate a 120mm lens of a full-frame camera, is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, so if it comes to the smaller iPhone Pro next year (which I'm guessing will be called the iPhone 16 Pro), both the Pro and Pro Max might be on closer footing.Here's how the tetraprism system works, as described by Apple's Misha Scepanovic during Tuesday's Wonderlust" event:
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6EVV8)
Image: Code If you can't make it out to attend this year's Code Conference in person, here's another option: virtual tickets are now available. Virtual ticket holders will be able to tune in for main-stage programming and get live access to the event's biggest interviews, including sit-downs with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, GM CEO Mary Barra, and Max content leader Casey Bloys.This year's Code Conference is hosted by The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, Platformer founder Casey Newton, and CNBC senior media & tech correspondent Julia Boorstin. There'll also be special guest speakers, including Code Conference co-founder Kara Swisher.The event will feature interviews with Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott,... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EVV9)
Image: Unity Unity plans to change its forthcoming pay-per-install program following widespread criticism from game developers.We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused," Unity posted on X (formerly Twitter). We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of days."This new communication from Unity comes after nearly a week of clarifications, retractions, and a growing force of upset developers who threaten not only to remove their games from the engine but also a potential class action lawsuit.Though Unity said an update on the pricing model will likely be out sometime this week, a... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6EVVA)
watchOS 10 is all about the widgets - and you can try them out for yourself by downloading the public beta. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you were intrigued by the idea of widgets on your Apple Watch at this year's WWDC, good news! Apple's watchOS 10 is live and ready to download.That said, before I tell you how to install it, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First off, watchOS 10 is a substantial update. Not only does it reintroduce widgets to the platform, but it also completely redesigns Apple's native watch apps and reimagines how you interact with the device. The controls you're used to have changed. Pressing the side button, for instance, now brings up Control Center while swiping up is how you access widgets. I go into what changes you can expect in my watchOS 10 preview. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Widgets are... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EVVB)
Whether you pay $600 or $700, the Asus ROG Ally looks the same. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you've been eying an Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld but can't quite justify the $700 price tag... you'll probably want to keep on waiting. Today, the company has begun selling a less-expensive $600 model with a lower-performance AMD Z1 chip, but early reviews suggest the Windows gaming handheld is too compromised to justify the purchase.Bottom line: Z1 performance is reportedly worse than the $400-and-up Steam Deck, without any significant battery life benefit to make up for the loss of power.Brief refresher: three months ago, Asus began shipping the ROG Ally, a Windows gaming handheld designed to compete on price and performance with Valve's Steam Deck. It had a lot going for it, including mostly better-than-Deck performance, an... Continue reading...
by Justine Calma on (#6EVGP)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Demonstrators flood city streets ahead of a key United Nations climate summit with a clear message for Joe Biden: end fossil fuels.' Continue reading...