The Verge

Illustration: The Verge An unusual document appeared last week in the docket for the Department of Justice's second antimonopoly lawsuit against Google. It included a photocopy of a check that Google claimed was good for the maximum amount of damages" claimed in the case for its alleged anticompetitive actions in its ad tech business. Google said it had written the check to the Department of Justice.Legal experts say the photocopy of a cashier's check was definitely strange. But the DOJ took things to a weird place first. According to experts, although it might not strike a layperson as such, the DOJ's decision to demand a jury trial is just as bizarre as, say, waving around a cashier's check for maximum damages in an attempt to escape a jury trial.It is... Continue reading...

Photo: Cameron Allan McKean / The Verge The face of one of the defining memes of the 2010s, the doge meme, died on Friday. Kabosu, the shiba inu with the knowing face that launched a million internet jokes, was 18 when she died, her owner posted on Instagram.Kabosu's life story feels like an unlikely fairy tale for the internet age. In 2008, she was a rescue dog adopted by Atsuko Sato, a kindergarten teacher. Sato kept up a blog where she shared pictures of her pets, and in February 2010, she posted what at the time was an ordinary update. Little did Sato know, one of the pictures of her dog would eventually be seen by the entire internet.

Photo by JASON REDMOND / AFP via Getty Images, Image by Alex Parkin / The Verge Did you think Sky, the new and newly personable voice of ChatGPT, sounded like Samantha from Her? Not everyone did, but enough people noticed a distinct Scarlett Johansson...ness in the chatbot that it became a story. And then Johansson herself decided that Sky sounded a little too close to home, especially given that she'd turned down offers from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to play Sky herself. We still don't know all the details of the timeline here, who knew what, what Altman did when Johansson said no, and lots more. But it's all just weird.On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk a lot about what happened here, what it means that everyone immediately assumed the worst from OpenAI, and whether a case like this might actually go anywhere.... Continue reading...

Turns out the deleted" files may have been on devices this entire time. | Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge We finally have a better understanding of why devices running iOS 17.5 started resurfacing long-deleted photos, courtesy of Apple and some third-party researchers. While Apple released the iOS 17.5.1 iPhone update to fix the issue earlier this week, attributing it to a database corruption," the company remained tight-lipped about what was specifically causing old files - including deleted nudes, in some reports - to start appearing on devices that never hosted them.Elaborating on the issue to 9to5Mac, Apple says it was caused by a corrupt database entry on the device's file system, impacting files on the devices themselves and not those that had been synced to iCloud. Those files may have been carried over from older devices when... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Out with the gods, in with... a post-apocalypse. After some teasing, Fortnite just launched its latest battle royale season - we're up to Chapter 5: Season 3 - and it's heavily inspired by Mad Max and Fallout (in fact, Fallout is part of it). It's called Wrecked," and it introduces a new wasteland region, a larger focus on vehicular combat, and, for some reason, Magneto.First up, let's talk about the island itself. In the game's fiction, a massive sandstorm rolled in, completely changing the southern section of the map. There are three new locations: a refinery called Redline Rig, a vehicle arena called Nitrodrome, and a beach area called Brutal Beachhead. To go along with them are Wasteland Warriors," which are basically this... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix You would think that a sci-fi movie where Jennifer Lopez partners with a smart-ass, sentient mech suit to fight against her evil AI brother would be a little more fun. Alas, Atlas - Netflix's latest attempt at a hit streaming action movie - takes itself far too seriously. It also fails to really dig into the complexities of the AI debate, despite essentially being a conflict between a friendly AI assistant and machine intent on a doomsday scenario. There are some funny moments, particularly the banter between Lopez and her mechanical companion, but every other part of the movie seems to be fighting against Atlas' true form. This is a buddy comedy trying too hard to be a serious action flick.Atlas takes place almost three decades after... Continue reading...

Anker's latest wireless chargers work great whether you're on the move or getting ready for bed. | Image: Anker I'm in the process of overhauling my entire arsenal of chargers now that the world is finding common ground when it comes to charging tech - whether voluntarily or not. The iPhone 15 finally features a USB-C port, and I anticipate upgrading from my iPhone 12 Pro Max this year to exile Lightning cables from my life for good. Thankfully, though, my last-gen phone is keeping up with the evolving wireless charging landscape just fine thanks to its newly gained support for Qi2.I'm glad I've been forced to wait on adopting the new magnetic charging standard, as that means I can now take advantage of discounts like the one we're currently seeing on Anker's Qi2-ready MagGo power banks. The Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K), the 10,000mAh version... Continue reading...

Illustration: Hugo Herrera / The Verge The IRS Free File program will be around for another five years. The agency has announced that it's extending the program through October 2029, allowing people to file their taxes with one of the IRS's partners for free.The Free File program got more attention recently after the IRS changed its rules in 2020 to prevent tax preppers from hiding their free services. Both TurboTax and H&R Block left the Free File program after that, and TurboTax owner Intuit paid out $141 million in restitution because it had cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services," according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.IRS Free File has been around for more than 20 years now. For 2023, taxpayers with an adjusted gross... Continue reading...

VideoCardz obtained this first - very modified -image of the Ally X. | Image: VideoCardz I exclusively revealed what the Asus ROG Ally X handheld gaming PC will be all about and even touched an early prototype, but Asus wouldn't talk specs ahead of its June 2nd release. But now, VideoCardz has obtained the key missing details - battery, weight, ports, thickness, storage, and RAM.While we already knew the Ally X was shooting for double the battery life by including a larger pack, VideoCardz has leaked marketing materials that confirm it's literally doubling the capacity to 80 watt-hours, up from the original 40Wh pack. If true, that would be the largest battery we've seen in a handheld, surpassing the boutique Ayaneo Kun's 75 watt-hour pack.And yet, the Ally X only weighs an additional 70g (2.5oz) and is just 5mm thicker,... Continue reading...

Kia's Soul-ful EV designs continue. | Image: Kia Kia introduced the finalized version of its EV3 small electric SUV today, and with it comes a big new feature: AI.The vehicle was first introduced as a futuristic concept vehicle last year, and now it will launch in South Korea this July, followed by Europe in the second half of the year. Kia representative Karla Gonzalez tells The Verge that EV3 is also confirmed for the US - but there's no timing announced.The EV3 will be the first production EV to get Kia's voice-activated AI assistant that first popped up in the Kia K4. TechCrunch reports the assistant is built off ChatGPT" but is heavily modified to let users plan trips, find entertainment, and more, according to Kia's head of customer experience design, Pablo Martinez Masip.... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Buy now, pay later services - or BNPL for short - are now beholden to some of the same rules as credit card providers. On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule that classifies BNPL services as credit card providers and requires them to investigate disputed purchases, among other things.BNPL services let customers purchase a product and then pay for it in a series of interest-free installments. Under the new guidance, BNPL services like Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm must provide refunds for returned products or canceled services and send periodic billing statements to customers. The CFPB's decision comes after launching an inquiry into BNPL services, which found that BNPL is often used as... Continue reading...

Image: ESA Stunning new images from the Euclid space telescope show a dazzling array of starry sights, released to celebrate the first science published from the telescope's early release observations.The mission from the European Space Agency, launched last year, aims to elucidate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy - forces that comprise most of the known universe but that are largely unknown since they are so difficult to study. Scientists know that dark matter must exist because they can observe its gravitational effects, for example, but they can't observe it directly because it doesn't interact with light.The solution is an extremely sensitive instrument like Euclid, which can observe distant galaxies to see dark matter's effects... Continue reading...

Canva is introducing a plethora of updates that aim to make its design ecosystem more attractive to professional teams and workspaces. The company has redesigned the platform to make new and existing editing tools easier to find and announced a specialized tier for Enterprises that provides more control over collaboration, brand management, and security for larger organizations.We are excited to introduce a revamped Canva experience and a suite of new products to empower every organization to design," said Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins in the press release. We democratized the design ecosystem in our first decade and now look forward to unifying the fragmented ecosystems of design, AI, and workflow tools for every... Continue reading...

There's something charmingly retro-futuristic about Daylight's whole vision. | Image: Daylight Computer There's a new company in the race to make a less distracting, more minimalist, and generally sanity-saving kind of computer. It's called Daylight Computer, and it's launching its first device today: the DC1, a 10.5-inch tablet with some interesting ideas about gadget design.The DC1's main hook is its display. Daylight calls it a LivePaper" screen and says it looks like E Ink but is smooth and responsive like a traditional LCD. This is... not otherwise a thing that exists, at least not yet, and in general, anyone that promises an E Ink-like" LCD screen is seriously overselling their product. But Daylight believes it has invented something genuinely new and better. If so, it would be a pretty exciting combination of iPad and Kindle.... Continue reading...

Photo by Oliver Morin / AFP via Getty Images On today's episode of Decoder, I sat down with Joseph Cox, one of the best cybersecurity reporters around. Joseph spent a long time working at Vice's tech vertical Motherboard, but last year, after Vice imploded, he and three other journalists co-founded a new site, called 404 Media, where they're doing some really great work.Somehow, on top of all that, Joseph also found time to write a new book coming out in June called Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever, and I can't recommend it enough. It's basically a caper, but with the FBI running a phone network. For real.Criminals like drug traffickers represent a market for encrypted, secure communications away from the eyes of law enforcement. In the... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge TikTok says it disrupted more than a dozen covert influence campaigns on the platform since January, including one originating from China.In a blog post, the company announced it would begin publicly reporting on influence campaigns, where networks of accounts engage in coordinated efforts to sway political discourse. TikTok will share details of campaigns it detects and removes, saying it hopes it will increase transparency about our work to aggressively counter influence attempts."The first report of its kind outlines 15 influence operations that spanned 3,000 accounts that had a combined millions of followers. In February, for example, TikTok claims it took down a network of 16 accounts operated from China that were targeting US... Continue reading...

It's a sad panda day. | Image: Microsoft Search capabilities for ChatGPT, Copilot, DuckDuckGo, and other platforms stopped working on Thursday morning due to a Microsoft outage.The issues - which began around 3AM ET - appeared to be linked to Bing's API and any service that relies upon it. While Microsoft's own web search engine, Bing, was also seemingly affected, according to TechCrunch, it came back online eventually.By 11AM ET, OpenAI posted a note indicating the issue had been resolved, saying, Between around 10:10 PM PT yesterday and 6:50 AM PT today, we experienced a partial outage affecting ChatGPT's web-browsing capabilities due to Bing being unavailable."DuckDuckGo posted that we're coming back up" at around 10:30AM ET, and so did Ecosia, which is the search... Continue reading...

In this NOAA image taken by the GOES satellite, Hurricane Lee crosses the Atlantic Ocean as it moves west on September 8th, 2023. | Image: Getty Images The Atlantic Hurricane season starts on June 1st, and it's forecast to be rough. A record number of strong storms could form with a shift from El Nino to La Nina this summer and unusually warm waters churning in the Atlantic Ocean.There's an 85 percent chance of an above normal" season, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It forecasts between 17 to 25 storms strong enough to earn a name (reaching wind speeds of at least 39 miles per hour). It also predicts eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven major hurricanes.Those are big numbers - the most named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes NOAA has ever predicted in its May outlook. For comparison, there was an average of 14.4 named storms, 7.2... Continue reading...

LG's C3OLED TV may not be as bright as its successor, but it's still a top-notch gaming TV. | Image: LG TVs have nothing to do with Memorial Day, but clearly, retailers never got the memo. Every year, almost like clockwork, they drop some excellent TV deals around the holiday, and 2024 is no exception. Right now, you can buy various LG C4 OLED TVs at all-time low prices starting at $1,299.99 ($100 off) for the 42-inch model (Best Buy, LG). If you want to save even more, its predecessor - LG's C3 OLED TV - is even cheaper, starting at $735.99 at eBay when you use the promo code MEMORIALTWENTY through May 27th.In truth, we think LG's C3 is the better deal since LG's C4 OLED TV offers minor updates. It's brighter with better picture quality and more powerful AI processing, but otherwise, it offers many of the same impressive specs. No... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge More details have emerged about the MacBook-like foldable Apple has supposedly been working on. A new report from Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that Apple could ship more than 1 million devices with a 20-inch folding display in 2026, a shift from his previous projection that it would start shipping in 2027.Even though past rumors suggest that Apple will go with a 20-inch display, Kuo says that Apple is also considering an 18.8-inch panel. When closed, the 20-inch version will reportedly look similar to a 14- to 15-inch MacBook, while the 18.8-inch device will look like a 13- to 14-inch MacBook.Apple is working with LG Display to make the folding screen as crease-free as possible," Kuo says. The device will... Continue reading...

Image: Atari Imagine if Nintendo woke up one day and decided to buy Sega - that's essentially what's happened today as Atari has announced it has acquired Intellivision, ending one of the longest company rivalries in the video game industry. According to the announcement, Atari will take over the Intellivision brand and over 200 games from its library.Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities," Atari wrote in the press release.Interestingly, though, this deal doesn't include the Intellivision Amico. Atari stated that Intellivision would rebrand itself and continue to work on developing the console project that was originally... Continue reading...

A Samsung phone, opened up to suggest repair. | Image: Samsung iFixit and Samsung are parting ways. Two years after they teamed up on one of the first direct-to-consumer phone repair programs, iFixit CEO and co-founder Kyle Wiens tells The Verge the two companies have failed to renegotiate a contract - and says Samsung is to blame.Samsung does not seem interested in enabling repair at scale," Wiens tells me, even though similar deals are going well with Google, Motorola, and HMD.He believes dropping Samsung shouldn't actually affect iFixit customers all that much. Instead of being Samsung's partner on genuine parts and approved repair manuals, iFixit will simply go it alone, the same way it's always done with Apple's iPhones.While Wiens wouldn't say who technically broke up with whom, he says... Continue reading...

At $499 with all the essential features, Google's Pixel phone starts making sense. Continue reading...

Leica's new D-Lux 8 point-and-shoot camera. | Image: Leica Leica has a new $1,595 compact digital camera called D-Lux 8 - a follow-up to the discontinued D-Lux 7 launched way back in 2018 for $1,195. There are a lot of similarities between the two despite that price increase: they both house a non-detachable Leica 24-75mm zoom lens, contain a 21-megapixel four-thirds CMOS sensor, and have a similar design. But now, there's new software under the hood and changes in controls - more on that later.Many of Leica's flagship products come at premium prices (exhibit A: the SL3 for $7,000). But with the D-Lux 8, the company is continuing its line of budget-friendly" point and shoots. The new model comes at a time when classy, easy-to-use cameras with film-style image quality, like the Fujifilm X100VI... Continue reading...

Steve Fecht for Genreal Motors General Motors is working with EV battery and recycling firm Redwood Materials to recycle the scrap from two of its manufacturing facilities, the companies announced.Redwood, which was founded by Tesla co-founder and ex-chief technology officer JB Straubel, will handle 100 percent" of the scrap from GM's Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, facilities.Specifically, the deal is between Redwood and Ultium Cells LLC, which is a joint battery-making venture between GM and South Korea's LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem and a major supplier of lithium-ion batteries to Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and of course, GM.With this deal, Redwood says it now has secured recycling partnerships with most" of the major EV battery-making... Continue reading...

Image: NASA NASA has turned on the electric Hall thrusters of Psyche, a spacecraft that's now gently motoring toward a metal-rich asteroid embedded in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. The agency says Psyche is in full cruise" mode now, six months after launching on October 13th, 2023, on a conventional, SpaceX rocket.On the way, NASA used Psyche to test laser-based deep space communications. The craft shot a communications laser back at the Earth from close to 10 million miles out, which is a first for NASA. It's expected to reach its target and namesake, the Psyche asteroid, by 2029 and will orbit it for two years, observing and sending data back to NASA. Scientists suspect Psyche is actually the beginning core of a planet, also called a... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Caller ID company Truecaller will let users create an AI version of their voice to answer calls.Truecaller is an app that identifies and blocks spam calls that some people prefer over their phone's default system. Now the service will let users with access to its AI Assistant to record their voice. The company partnered with Microsoft's Azure AI Speech, which will learn from the recorded clip to generate an AI version of the user's voice.This groundbreaking capability not only adds a touch of familiarity and comfort for the users but also showcases the power of AI in transforming the way we interact with our digital assistants," says Truecaller product director and general manager Raphael Mimoun in the blog post.Truecaller's AI... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has struck a deal with News Corp, the media company that owns The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Daily Telegraph, and others. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI's deal with News Corp could be worth over $250 million in the next five years in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology."The multi-year agreement gives OpenAI access to current and archived articles from News Corp publications for AI training and to answer user questions.This is the latest in a string of licensing deals OpenAI has inked with major media companies and outlets, including The Associated Press, the Financial Times, People publisher Dotdash Meredith, and Politico owner Axel Springer. Some outlets have filed... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge After threatening to remove links to California news outlets due to a new bill in the state, Google could cut back its investments in the industry even more. The tech giant has told nonprofit newsrooms that it could halt funding to the Google News Initiative, which provides more than $300 million in funding across thousands of news outlets, according to a report from Axios.Google issued the warning in response to another California bill aimed at helping local news outlets. If passed, the bill would charge a 7.25 percent tax whenever large companies like Google sell user information to advertisers. The money collected from that tax would fund tax credits for news outlets in the state.Although this law would only go into effect in... Continue reading...

After automatically switching on the adaptive audio mode, Google will group participants in the same room together in the people panel under merged audio." | Image: Google Google has introduced adaptive audio," a new Google Meet feature that offers Google Workspace users an alternative to dedicated videoconferencing equipment - if their package includes access to new AI features.Once it's rolled out, Google Meet will be able to automatically detect multiple laptops in the same room and merge together their speakers and microphones. The idea is that it will allow multiple participants to be heard clearly without needing to huddle around a single laptop while also reducing echoes and audio feedback. Image: Google According to Google, this feature should benefit small organizations and other teams who might not have the dedicated equipment available or if the equipment is experiencing... Continue reading...

Photo by Taylor Hill / WireImage OpenAI could face legal consequences for making a ChatGPT voice that sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson - whether the company did so intentionally or not. And the fact that OpenAI's CEO referenced those similarities? That only makes matters worse, intellectual property lawyers tell The Verge.There are a few courses of actions she can take, but case law supports her position," says Purvi Patel Albers, partner at the law firm Haynes Boone with a focus on trademarks and copyright.After demoing updates to ChatGPT last week, OpenAI spurred commentary and headlines noting that the voice of its AI assistant - named Sky - sounded a lot like Johansson, especially her performance as an AI assistant in the movie Her.Past celebrity likeness... Continue reading...

Image: Bluesky Bluesky will now let you send a direct message to other users. For now, you can only send messages containing text, but Bluesky is working on adding support for images and videos.To send a DM, select the chat icon at the bottom of your screen on mobile or hit the chat bubble in your sidebar on desktop. Once you create a new chat, search for the user you want to talk to, write your message, and hit send. Just keep in mind that DMs on Bluesky aren't end-to-end encrypted just yet, but the platform plans on supporting it in the future.

The iRobot Select subscription plan that launched with the Roomba j7 Plus has been suspended. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge iRobot has ended its robot vacuum subscription service iRobot Select, which got you a high-end Roomba for less money upfront. But along with free replacement parts and accessories and the option to upgrade every three years, the program also enabled iRobot to shut down the vacuum remotely if you stopped paying.iRobot Select launched in 2021 along with the j7 Plus Roomba, offering that robot with its sleek auto-empty station to subscribers. According to a statement from iRobot provided to TechHive, the company suspended new subscriptions as part of its organizational restructuring. While you can no longer sign up for the service, existing subscribers will keep their benefits for now.With Roombas frequently on sale, the value of the... Continue reading...

Judge Mellor ruled that Craig Wright (pictured) lied extensively and repeatedly" about being Satoshi Nakamoto. | Photo by Dan Kitwood / Getty Images Australian computer scientist Craig Wright lied extensively and repeatedly" to courts and committed forgery on a grand scale" in efforts to falsely claim that he invented Bitcoin, a judge at London's High Court ruled on Monday.Wright has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto" - the pseudonym used by the author of Bitcoin's 2008 foundational white paper. Very little is known about the mysterious cryptocurrency creator, though they're widely presumed to be the largest holder of Bitcoin, controlling an estimated 1.1 million BTC (worth roughly $77 billion at the time of writing).Satoshi's identity was connected to Wright in reports published by Gizmodo and Wired in 2015, though the latter publication noted that some of the clues that... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is releasing its next Windows 11 update to its Release Preview ring today. It's the final ring of testing before the 24H2 update will be available to all Windows 11 users. The update includes HDR background support, energy saver, Sudo for Windows, Rust in the Windows kernel, and more.Microsoft will officially roll the update out through Windows Update later this year, but you can grab the final version through the Windows Insider option inside the Windows Update section of Windows 11. Just follow the prompts to sign up for the Windows Insider Program, and make sure you select Release Preview.Windows 11 24H2 includes HDR background support, which allows you to use JXR images as your wallpaper background. If you use multiple... Continue reading...