The Verge

Communities are for creators to talk to their fans - and for fans to talk to each other. | Image: YouTube Many creators post videos on YouTube but take to other platforms to actually interact with their fans and viewers. With a new feature called Communities, YouTube is hoping to offer those types of interactive options right on the platform, so creators might not need to take to Discord, WhatsApp, or maybe Instagram or Reddit anymore.The Communities feature, which YouTube launched today at the Made on YouTube event in New York City, is sort of a mix of old-school forum, subreddit, and Facebook group. Once a creator turns on their community, anyone who joins can post, and people can reply to each other. The idea is presumably that you'll all talk about things related to the creator whose community you're in, but if you've ever been in a... Continue reading...

The Hype leaderboard is supposed to be all great videos all the time. | Image: YouTube It's a new way for viewers to share the stuff they really like - and for creators to grow on an increasingly busy platform. Continue reading...

YouTube's Inspiration tab will happily tell you exactly what to make next. | Image: YouTube Artificial intelligence is running rampant across Google's entire product portfolio, and YouTube is adopting some of the company's newest tech in service of helping creators create. On Wednesday, at its Made on YouTube event in New York City, the company announced a series of AI-related features on the platform, including a couple that might change how creators make videos - and the videos they make.The first feature is the new Inspiration tab in the YouTube Studio app, which YouTube has been testing in a limited way over the last few months. The tab's job is, essentially, to tell you what to make: the AI-powered tool will suggest a concept for a video, provide a title and a thumbnail, and even write an outline and the first few lines... Continue reading...

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge The Tesla Cybertruck gets a lot of hate for its polarizing design and even more polarizing creator. However, the Cybertruck also appears to be extremely popular, more popular than all the other electric trucks on the market, and Elon Musk may end up laughing all the way to the bank.Tesla's Cybertruck registrations in July almost match overall EV truck registrations in July, suggesting strong demand for the stainless steel low-poly truck, according to data from S&P Global Mobility (via Automotive News). Tesla's overall vehicle sales also rose in July thanks to a boost from the Cybertruck.Tesla delivered 5,175 Cybertrucks in July, compared to a combined 5,546 registrations of every non-Tesla electric truck, which includes the Ford F-150... Continue reading...

Garmin's upgraded inReachMessenger Plus lets adventurers stay connected and share memories. | Image: Garmin Garmin's new inReach Messenger Plus is an upgraded version of the company's satellite communicator that expands the original's text messaging capabilities with the ability to now send photos and audio clips through the Iridium satellite network.The original Garmin inReach Messenger debuted in 2022 and is still available for $299.99 for those content with relying on just text messages. The new multimedia capabilities of the inReach Messenger Plus come with a significant price bump to $499.99, which doesn't include service. inReach subscriptions range in price from $11.95 to $49.95 per month for consumers (with a 12-month commitment), with even pricier plans available for pros (search and rescue teams, for example) and larger groups.S... Continue reading...

The 80HE takes the 60HE formula and makes it bigger and better, with a new light bar and 8kHz polling. Continue reading...

Classic for a reason. | Photo: Nathan Edwards / The Verge A charming $89 DIY mechanical keyboard kit with thoroughly modern features. Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge You've spent the last couple of days tweaking the icons on your iOS 18 homescreen and luxuriating in your rest days with WatchOS 11. Now Apple's hoping you'll upgrade even further. The company is getting ready to start selling the new iPhone 16 lineup, the new Apple Watch Series 10, and the new AirPods 4 headphones.We've been using all the devices since they were announced last week, and we're here to answer the question that matters most: is any of this new stuff worth the money?On this episode of The Vergecast, it's wall-to-wall Apple reviews. First, we start with the iPhones, which The Verge's Allison Johnson and Nilay Patel have been reviewing. We talk mostly about the camera, because, well, the camera's most of what there is to... Continue reading...

Image: GM General Motors says it has updated the software in its electric vehicles so its customers can finally use Tesla's Supercharging network.To gain immediate access, owners of electric Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC vehicles will need to purchase GM approved" Tesla adapters through each brand's smartphone app for $225. Future GM vehicles will come with Tesla's charging port natively installed.The announcement comes more than 15 months after GM first announced it would adopt Tesla's EV charging plug for its vehicles. The automaker had originally said it expected to complete the software coordination with Tesla by early spring" 2024, but production bottlenecks and layoffs at Tesla have delayed the process. Image: GM GM... Continue reading...

It's a good year for Apple's basic iPhone, even if its AI is MIA. Continue reading...

The iPhone 16, which Apple claims is built from the ground up" for AI. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge Apple Intelligence's list of forthcoming supported languages just got a little longer. After an October launch in US English, Apple says its AI feature set will be available in German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and others" in the coming year. The company drops this news just days before the iPhone 16's arrival - the phone built for AI that won't have any AI features at launch.Apple's AI feature set will expand to include localized English in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand in December, with India and Singapore joining the mix next year. The company already announced plans to support Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish next year as well.Apple announced the iPhone 16 series last week with a... Continue reading...

Backup by BioLite doesn't require an electrician to install it. | Image: BioLite Instead of wiring into a home's breaker box, the Backup by BioLite home backup power solution relies on thin battery panels that can fit behind appliances to keep them running for days at a time. It's built around two 1.5kWh lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP) batteries, the Backup Core and Backup Extend. Like any uninterruptible power supply, the Backup Core keeps itself perpetually charged from a wall outlet while power is available, then switches to keep whatever's plugged into it running during a power outage.If you need more backup power, up to five Backup Extend units can be connected to a Backup Core unit to expand the total capacity to 9kWh, and you don't need a contractor or electrician to install any of it.BioLite's... Continue reading...

Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Saida on September 17th. | Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images Thousands of people have reportedly been injured by exploding pagers across Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, said nine people, including a child, have been killed, and around 2,800 others have been injured, as reported by Lebanese state media agency NNA.Later Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported:

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures It may have been delayed until next year, but at least we now have our first look at Mickey 17. The debut trailer for the sci-fi film - which is helmed by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho and stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes - premiered Tuesday evening. According to the trailer's description, Barnes has found himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job... to die, for a living."The movie is based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton, about a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim." The book follows the seventh incarnation of the titular Mickey, but it appears in the movie he dies quite a few more times. In addition... Continue reading...

Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge iOS 18 has a new feature that lets you wirelessly restore an iPhone 16 using another iPhone or an iPad, 9to5Mac reports.9to5Mac says it was able to simulate the new recovery method. Essentially, when the iPhone 16 enters Recovery Mode for some reason, users can simply place it next to another iPhone or iPad to start the firmware recovery," according to 9to5Mac. The other device will download a new iOS firmware and transfer it to the bricked device."Apparently, any device on iOS 18 can do the restoration, but only the iPhone 16 lineup of phones can actually be restored using this method. You can already use an iPhone to wirelessly restore an Apple Watch or an Apple TV, so it's nice to see a similar feature come to the iPhone, too.i... Continue reading...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images California governor Gavin Newsom has signed two bills that will protect performers from having their likeness simulated by AI digital replicas.The two SAG-AFTRA supported bills, AB 2602 and AB 1836, were passed by the California legislature in August and are part of a slate of state-level AI regulations. AB 2602 bars contract provisions that would let companies use a digital version of a performer in a project instead of the real human actor, unless the performer knows exactly how their digital stand-in will be used and has a lawyer or union representative involved.AB 1836 says that if a performer has died, entertainment companies must get permission from their family or estate before producing or distributing a digital replica" of... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google is taking away a Pixel Buds Pro feature that lets users touch and hold an earbud to hear unread notifications. In an update on Tuesday, Google confirmed that Assistant will no longer read unread notifications when using the press Assistant feature."Additionally, Google says Assistant will stop automatically alerting you to unread notifications on the Pixel Buds, nor will it let you reply. Instead, Google says you can hear notifications by activating Assistant and saying Read my notifications."The touch and hold" gesture on the Pixel Buds Pro currently lets wearers switch between active noise cancelation and Transparency mode by default. Before this change, users could configure this gesture to have Assistant read... Continue reading...

Image: MysteryLupin (Twitter) The next flagship soundbar from Sonos will be called the Arc Ultra, and marketing images of the product have been posted on X today. They line up with the photos I published back in July and offer yet more confirmation that the Arc Ultra will support Bluetooth audio playback.Sonos itself has managed to leak details about the Arc Ultra in recent days; the company's online store briefly featured a few tidbits about the Arc Ultra and mentioned the inclusion of Sound Motion technology." This is presumably the branding that Sonos has chosen for the technology that it obtained through an acquisition of Mayht in 2022.

The Eufy Smart Lock E30 is a Matter-compatible smart lock with a fingerprint reader. It's Eufy's first lock to work with Apple Home. | Image: Eufy The latest smart lock from Eufy is its first product to support Matter. The Eufy Smart Lock E30 ($169.99) works over Thread, which should allow for faster responsiveness, longer battery life, and better connectivity than locks that work over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.The E30 is also the first smart lock from Anker's smart home arm that works with Apple Home, although Home Key is not supported. While Eufy offers a handful of older security cameras with HomeKit compatibility, it hasn't released a new Apple Home product for years.The E30 can use a traditional key but also has a fingerprint reader for biometric access and a keypad for keycode access. It can be controlled through the Eufy app over built-in Wi-Fi, including out-of-home control,... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge The word of the day in US v. Google was parking." As in: did Google buy some of its most ascendant and dangerous competitors in the online advertising business, all the while planning on parking them off in some far-flung corner of the company so that no one could possibly upset Google's dominance? That is a central question of the government's entire case against Google, and it came up over and over on Monday morning.To kick off the second week of the landmark antitrust trial over Google's control of online advertising, the Department of Justice called Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube and a longtime Google advertising executive. Mohan came to Google in 2008 through Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, which formed the basis of Google's... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games The Epic Games Store has arrived on the iPad for users in the European Union, making games like Fortnite and Fall Guys available to play from the device.The launch comes as part of Monday's iPadOS 18 update, which lets EU users download apps from third-party app stores on the iPad. The Epic Games Store - and several other alternative app marketplaces - launched on the iPhone in the EU last month.

Illustration: The Verge Google is planning to roll out a technology that will identify whether a photo was taken with a camera, edited by software like Photoshop, or produced by generative AI models. In the coming months, Google's search results will include an updated about this image feature" to let people know if an image was created or edited with AI tools.The system Google is using is part of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), one of the largest groups trying to address AI-generated imagery. C2PA's authentication is a technical standard that includes information about where images originate and works across both hardware and software to create a digital trail. Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Arm, OpenAI, Intel, Truepic, and Google... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Starting today, Instagram will begin putting new and existing users under the age of 18 into Teen Accounts" - a move that will affect how tens of millions of teens interact with the platform. The new account type automatically applies a set of protections to young users, and only users 16 years of age and older can loosen some of these settings.For starters, the accounts of all minors on Instagram will be private by default (not just teens under 16) and will come with some of Instagram's existing restrictions for young users, such as those that prevent strangers from direct messaging them. But other new features are coming, too, including a Sleep Mode that silences notifications from 10PM to 7AM.This really standardizes a lot of the... Continue reading...

Apple announced a new set of AirPods Max during its event last week, updating them with USB-C and in a new set of colors. The switch to USB-C is a welcome one, to be sure, but Apple changed nothing else about them. And that feels weird, right? What gives?Apple's high-end luxury headphones were impressive when they launched in 2020. They had all the features of the AirPods Pro and made clever use of the Apple Watch's digital crown for volume control. They also sounded fantastic - still do, in fact! But the rest of the market didn't sit still; alternatives from Sony, Bose, and more recently, Sonos, all offer comparable features and sound - most notably, they each compete with the AirPods Max when it comes to noise cancellation (Bose does... Continue reading...

Setapp Mobile is now available in open beta in the EU following invite-only testing. | Image: Setapp The Setapp Mobile alternative app store is now available in open beta for iPhone users in the European Union, featuring 50 different productivity- and lifestyle-focused apps at launch. While most of these apps, like the Tripsy itinerary planner and MindNode mind mapping tool, are already available on the official iOS App Store, Setapp creator MacPaw says its own platform provides a simplified user experience and a fair, performance-based compensation model for app developers.Setapp was originally released as an app marketplace for macOS before the company launched a mobile version for iOS users. Setapp Mobile launched as a closed beta in May, shortly after the European Union's Digital Markets Act forced Apple to start allowing iPhones... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It's official: Amazon's second Prime Day event of the year will take place at the beginning of October. The two-day shopping event - which Amazon is calling Prime Big Deal Days for the second year in a row - will begin at 12:01AM PT / 3:01AM ET on Tuesday, October 8th, and run through Wednesday, October 9th, the company announced on Tuesday.Like last year, Amazon is running the 48-hour promo in an attempt to jumpstart the holiday shopping season, giving Amazon Prime members another chance outside of Prime Day proper to save on everything from home goods to everyday essentials. Although we typically see the lowest sale prices during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon's fall sale often provides solid deals on a range of tech, including... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images TikTok - an app used to by 170 million Americans - now has its future resting in the hands of three judges. The company fought for its life during oral arguments on Monday only for the judges to express a great deal of skepticism towards TikTok's case.Attorneys for TikTok and a group of creators suing to block the law popularly known as the TikTok ban" made their case before a panel of three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Though the bill seeks a divestment of the app from its Chinese owner ByteDance by a January 19th deadline, the company says the ultimatum is in truth a ban that would stifle the speech of TikTok and its creators, and improperly limit the information Americans are able to receive.The Department of Justice... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge OpenAI is turning its Safety and Security Committee into an independent Board oversight committee" that has the authority to delay model launches over safety concerns, according to an OpenAI blog post. The committee made the recommendation to make the independent board after a recent 90-day review of OpenAI's safety and security-related processes and safeguards."The committee, which is chaired by Zico Kolter and includes Adam D'Angelo, Paul Nakasone, and Nicole Seligman, will be briefed by company leadership on safety evaluations for major model releases, and will, along with the full board, exercise oversight over model launches, including having the authority to delay a release until safety concerns are addressed," OpenAI says.... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images JD Vance almost gave the game away. In an interview with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday, the Republican vice presidential candidate came close to acknowledging that rumors about Haitian migrants eating cats in Springfield, Ohio, are completely fabricated - and then backtracked, saying the rumors are true after all.If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do," Vance said. When Bash asked him to clarify whether he created the story, Vance made an about-face, claiming he had heard firsthand accounts" from his constituents. I say that we're creating a story meaning that we're creating the American media focusing on it," Vance... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is spinning off its chipmaking business as part of its plans to reverse billions in losses and a tumbling stock price. In an announcement on Monday, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said the Intel Foundry will become an independent subsidiary with clearer separation and independence" from Intel.With the change, the Intel Foundry will have its own operating board and report its financial earnings separately from Intel. Intel will also stop work on the factories it's building in Poland and Germany for two years based on anticipated market demand." The company is still moving forward with its plants in Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, and Ohio, however.Additionally, Intel plans on selling part of its stake in Altera, the programmable chip... Continue reading...

With iOS 18 and Halide's recent update, the third-party camera app can now be opened without unlocking an iPhone. | Image: Sebastiaan de With Halide users who've upgraded their iPhones to iOS 18 are now able to quickly access the advanced camera app directly from their phone's lockscreen without having to unlock it first. Previously, only the native iOS camera app could be conveniently accessed that way.Although Halide offers advanced features like manual shutter speed adjustments and a Process Zero" option that delivers images without any AI processing, accessing Apple's camera app was always faster thanks to its lockscreen shortcut. Halide could be made accessible through a lockscreen widget, but actually getting into the third-party camera app required an iPhone to be unlocked using Face ID, Touch ID, or by entering a passcode. Screenshot: Halide H... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon employees will be required to return to the office five days per week starting on January 2nd, 2025.We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," CEO Andy Jassy says in a memo sent to staff on Monday. Employees have been required to work from the office three days per week since May 2023, and Jassy says that if anything, the last 15 months we've been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits."Jassy says that staffers won't have to be in the office to deal with things like a sick kid or emergencies. But, before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also... Continue reading...

The marquee feature isn't here yet, but there's still a lot to appreciate in iOS 18. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge It's a weird year for iOS.Usually, the new software version arrives all at once. Not so with iOS 18. The foundational stuff has arrived, and in a normal year, things like RCS support and a redesigned control center would be more than enough. But iOS 18's headline feature, Apple Intelligence, isn't even part of this initial release, and we may not see some of its most interesting features until well into 2025. The iOS 18 rollout starts now, and it's just going to keep on rolling for the foreseeable future.iOS 18 is an ambitious update, even without Apple Intelligence in the picture. Customization options are at an all-time high, and with some tinkering, you'll be able to personalize your iPhone like never before. It's almost... Continue reading...

The Apple Watch Ultra's Modular face can display watchOS 11's Training Load feature and information from the Vitals app. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Apple has just released watchOS 11, the latest version of its smartwatch operating system, alongside iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The update, available for the Apple Watch Series 6 and later models, will finally allow users to take rest days without breaking their activity streak and introduces FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection.Sleep apnea is a condition that can cause a person to stop breathing during sleep and can lead to an increased risk of hypertension and Type 2 diabetes if left untreated. Apple's sleep apnea detection feature, which uses the accelerometer to monitor for small wrist movements associated with sleep interruptions, was announced alongside the new Apple Watch Series 10 and is now available for both the Apple Watch Series 9... Continue reading...

Photo: Nilay Patel / The Verge Apple is rolling out iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, which will introduce a bunch of new features to the iPhone and iPad. One of the biggest changes with today's launch is the addition of RCS messaging, which should help improve communication with Android users.First announced in June, RCS messaging will finally allow iPhone and Android users to share high-res photos and videos, see typing indicators, and use read receipts. (Messages from Android users will still appear in green bubbles, though.)Some other messaging upgrades in iOS 18 include new text effects and formatting options in iMessage and the ability to schedule messages to send later. iPhone users will also be able to send messages via satellite.Additionally, iOS 18 includes new... Continue reading...