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Updated 2025-07-12 00:30
Sonos customers unleash frustrations over redesigned app in community AMA
Photo: Sonos A week after introducing a redesigned, sleeker app that omitted many core features, Sonos held an Ask Me Anything event on its forums today. The purpose was partly to make it clear that customer frustrations are being heard. But as has been the case since last week, the feedback skewed overwhelmingly negative. This company's community remains pretty damn angry over losing software capabilities like local music search, sleep timers, and more with no warning.Many participants asked Sonos why it released an app that was nowhere near on par with the previous version in terms of functionality - even after, as The Verge has learned, private beta testers raised concerns with the state that the software was in before launch. And they were often... Continue reading...
Google’s new LearnLM AI model focuses on education
Illustration: The Verge Google says its new AI model, LearnLM, will help students with their homework.LearnLM, a family of AI models based on Google's other large language mode, Gemini, was built to be an expert in subjects, find and present examples in different ways like a photo or video, coach students while studying, and, in Google's words, inspire engagement."Google has already integrated LearnLM into its products, bundling it with other services like Google Search, Android, YouTube, and the Gemini chatbot. For example, customers can use Circle to Search on Android to highlight a math or physics word problem, and LearnLM will help solve the question. On YouTube, while watching a lecture video, viewers can ask questions about the video, and the model... Continue reading...
Bumble apologizes for its anti-celibacy ad fumble
The billboard ads contained messages that seemingly mocked celibate women. | Image: The Verge Dating app company Bumble has issued an apology for running an ad campaign that seemingly shamed women for not being sexually active and mocked people for choosing celibacy instead of dating.After updating its app and brand design in April to try to attract new users who are exhausted from the dating scene," Bumble ran a series of billboard ads containing messages like You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer," and Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun." The company faced swift backlash across social media from users who condemned the ads for delegitimizing celibacy as a valid personal choice.We made a mistake," the company said via an Instagram post on Monday. Our ads referencing celibacy were an attempt... Continue reading...
Google’s Gemini video search makes factual error in demo
Google made a lot of noise about its Gemini AI taking over search at its I/O conference today, but one of its flashiest demos was once again marked by the ever-present fatal flaw of every large language model to date: confidently making up the wrong answer.During a sizzle reel for Search in the Gemini era," Google demoed video search, which allows you to search by speaking over a video clip. The example is a video of a stuck film advance lever on a film camera with the query why is the lever not moving all the way," which Gemini recognizes and provides some suggestions to fix. Very impressive! You know, just get in there and nudge the shutter a little bit. The only problem is that the answers it comes up with... Continue reading...
Blink and you missed it: Google has a new pair of prototype AR glasses
I thought Google killed its augmented reality glasses after they couldn't live up to the promise of real-time translation. I thought Project Iris was vaporware after the company shed its AR leaders and downsized the division that was reportedly facing internal turmoil.But we may have written off Google's Glasses too soon - because Google just revealed a new prototype pair in a blink-and-you-missed-it moment at Google I/O.In the heat of the moment, I thought the Googler simply donned a pair of normal glasses before pulling out their smartphone at 1:30 in the Project Astra demo video below. But no, those frames are thick.There's even a little picture-in-picture moment where you can see them wearing the glasses. Here it is zoomed... Continue reading...
Watch this screaming, rainbow-clad musician demo Google’s AI DJ
Well, that's one way to kick off a developer-focused tech event. | Image: Google Developer conferences aren't exactly known for having an energetic, party-like atmosphere, but thankfully, that didn't stop Google's latest hype man. The company's I/O event this year was kicked off by Marc Rebillet - an artist known in online spaces for pairing improvised electronic tracks with amusing (and typically loud) vocals. He also wears a lot of robes.If you have no idea who I am, I would expect that," said Rebillet. He introduced himself as an improvisational musician who makes stuff up."That made him a good fit to demo the DJ mode that Google recently added to its generative AI text-to-music tool, MusicFX. Back in February, Google DeepMind's Adam Roberts described the feature as an infinite AI jam that you control."R... Continue reading...
The US moves to stop buying uranium from Russia and start producing it at home
Barrels stored at the Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill uranium production facility in Blanding, Utah, on June 12th, 2023. | Photo: Getty Images President Joe Biden signed a new law that bars the US from importing uranium from Russia in the hopes of jumpstarting domestic mining to fuel nuclear reactors. The law also unlocks $2.7 billion in federal funding to shore up that domestic supply chain, which Congress previously approved pending limits on imports from Russia.Russia has historically been one of the biggest suppliers of uranium to the US and other countries. When the US banned coal, oil, and gas imports in response to the war in Ukraine in 2022, it excluded uranium from its sanctions, which showed how much the US depends on foreign imports of uranium, particularly from Russia and its allies.Since then, there's been a bipartisan push to kickstart domestic uranium mining... Continue reading...
Google I/O 2024: everything announced
Image: Google Google I/O just ended - and it was packed with AI announcements. As expected, the event focused heavily on Google's Gemini AI models, along with the ways they're being integrated into apps like Workspace and Chrome.If you didn't get to tune in to the event live, you can catch up with all the latest from Google in the roundup below.Google Lens now lets you search by recording a video
The Blink Mini 2 security cam is an even better value now that it’s on sale for $30
The new Blink Mini 2 adds weather resistance so you can use it indoors and outdoors. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If you've got vacation plans for Memorial Day weekend, a security camera can help you keep an eye on valuables back home so you can really relax during your time off. And right now, one of the least expensive options on the market is even more affordable, with the new Blink Mini 2 selling for just $29.99 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and The Home Depot. If you want to keep an eye on packages outdoors, you can also buy the wired camera from Amazon with a weather-resistant adapter for just $39.98 ($10 off).The Blink Mini 2 is an excellent upgrade over its predecessor. It's still a very basic 1080p camera, but it now offers better low-light performance, a wider field of view, and USB-C support. Most notably, the camera now features IP65... Continue reading...
Google’s invisible AI watermark will help identify generative text and video
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge Among Google's swath of new AI models and tools announced today, the company is also expanding its AI content watermarking and detection technology to work across two new mediums.Google's DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis, took the stage for the first time at the Google I/O developer conference on Tuesday to talk not only about the team's new AI tools, like the Veo video generator, but also about the new upgraded SynthID watermark imprinting system. It can now mark video that was digitally generated as well as AI-generated text.Watermarking AI-generated content will matter increasingly as the technology gains prevalence, especially when AI gets used for malicious purposes. It's already been used to spread political misinformation, claim s... Continue reading...
Google will let you create personalized AI chatbots
Image: The Verge Google is adding a bunch of new features to its Gemini AI, and one of the most powerful is a personalization option called Gems" that allows users to create custom versions of the Gemini assistant with varying personalities.Gems lets you create iterations of chatbots that can help you with certain tasks and retain specific characteristics, kind of like making your own bot in Character.AI, the service that lets you talk to virtualized versions of popular characters and celebrities or even a fake psychiatrist. Google says you can make Gemini your gym buddy, sous-chef, coding partner, creative writing guide, or anything you can dream up. Gems feels similar to OpenAI's GPT Store that lets you make customized ChatGPT chatbots.You can set... Continue reading...
Gemini is about to get better at understanding what’s on your phone screen
The dream of contextual search is alive. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google is updating Gemini on Android to let its AI better tap into what's on your screen. The update should allow Gemini to lean into one of its best use cases, helping you make sense of a limited set of data as you go about your day.If you set Gemini as the default assist on your Android phone, it can already summarize or answer questions about a webpage or a screenshot. Soon, it'll also be able to tell if there's a video on your screen and prompt you to ask questions about it. Gemini uses the video's automatic captions to find answers - something you could already get it to do in a more roundabout way.Gemini will also take a similar cue if you're looking at a PDF, but there's a catch: you'll need access to Google's paid version,... Continue reading...
Google’s Circle to Search will help you with your math homework
Google might tell you f = ma, or something. I haven't been to school for a long time. | Image: Google Google is enhancing Android's Circle to Search - the feature that lets you literally circle something on your Android phone's screen to search it on Google - with a new ability to generate instructions on how to solve school math and physics problems.Using an Android phone or tablet, students can now use Circle to Search to get AI assistance on mathematical word problems from their homework. The feature will help unpack the problem and list what the student needs to do to get the correct answer. According to Google, it won't actually do the homework for you - only help you approach the problem.Over the past year, the use of AI tools like ChatGPT has become a hot topic in the field of education, with plenty of concern over how students... Continue reading...
Google is building Gemini Nano AI right into Chrome
Image: The Verge Google is building its Gemini AI into Chrome on desktop. During its I/O event on Tuesday, Google announced that Chrome 126 will use Gemini Nano to power on-device AI features, such as text generation.Gemini Nano is the lightweight large language model Google introduced to the Pixel 8 Pro last year - and, later, the Pixel 8. To get Gemini Nano on Chrome, Google says it tweaked the model and optimized the browser to load the model quickly."The integration will let you do things like generate product reviews, social media posts, and other blurbs directly within Chrome. Microsoft similarly added its AI assistant Copilot to Edge last year, letting you ask questions and summarize the information on your screen. Unlike Gemini Nano in Chrome,... Continue reading...
Google’s Gemini can build an entire vacation itinerary ‘in a matter of seconds’
Illustration: The Verge Gemini, Google's ChatGPT competitor, is getting new trip planning capabilities, the company announced today at its I/O developer conference.Based on the user's prompt, the AI model will now research publicly available information as well as tap into specific details like flight times and hotel bookings to work up a custom, multiday vacation itinerary in a matter of seconds."In a briefing with reporters, Google VP and general manager of Gemini, Sissie Hsiao, said that manually planning a trip could take me hours, days, maybe even weeks." But with the help of Gemini, the process could be nearly instantaneous. And it will be dynamic," meaning it can be tweaked and adjusted through prompts and other requests thanks to Gemini's new trip... Continue reading...
Android is getting an AI-powered scam call detection feature
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is working on new protections to help prevent Android users from falling victim to phone scams. During its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it's testing a new call monitoring feature that will warn users if the person they're talking to is likely attempting to scam them and encourage them to end such calls.Google says the feature utilizes Gemini Nano - a reduced version of the company's Gemini large language model for Android devices that can run locally and offline - to look for fraudulent language and other conversation patterns typically associated with scams. Users will then receive real-time alerts during calls where these red flags are present.Some examples of what could trigger these alerts... Continue reading...
Google I/O 2024 live blog: it’s AI time
Image: Google The future of Gemini, Search, Android, and more. Continue reading...
Amazon follows Fallout with live-action Tomb Raider show
Image: Crystal Dynamics In addition to announcing a second season of Mr. And Mrs. Smith and a fifth season of The Boys, Amazon is adding another new series to its television lineup: a live-action Tomb Raider series. The series will be produced in collaboration between Crystal Dynamics and Amazon MGM Studios, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge serving as the show's writer and executive producer, confirming rumors reported earlier last year.The Tomb Raider series is no stranger to live-action adaptations. In the 2000s, Angelina Jolie starred as the badass grave robber in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and its sequel, The Cradle of Life. At the time, both movies were financial if not critical successes but are viewed more favorably today, especially when compared to... Continue reading...
Jeopardy! is making its first-ever streaming spinoff for Prime Video
Image: Sony Pictures The classic competitive game show Jeopardy! is getting a spinoff series on Prime Video. Sony Pictures Television is producing Pop Culture Jeopardy!, which turns the classic academic quiz show with three challengers into a team-based trivia game that touches on music, movies, culture, sports, celebrities, entertainment, and more.The new series marks the first time the company's game show division is expanding the Jeopardy! brand to a streaming platform with a new show. Years ago, the company let watchers binge the main show on Hulu.While the series sounds like a casual side mission for the franchise, Sony Pictures Television's president of game shows, Suzanne Prete, states it will be a nail biter" for fans and that teams will compete... Continue reading...
Ancient trees show how hot summers have gotten
The annual rings on the trunk of a conifer tree. | Photo: Getty Images A summer marked by deadly heatwaves across Asia, Europe, and North America last year turns out to have been the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in at least 2,000 years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature.Officially, 2023 went down in history books as the hottest on record for the planet - but those records only started in 1850. To see how drastically the climate has changed over millennia, the authors of the new paper studied ancient tree rings to gauge fluctuations in temperatures over the years.The results show us how extreme the weather is becoming. And while temperatures have reached unprecedented peaks, they're also a warning of what's to come unless policymakers do more to turn down the heat.The cross... Continue reading...
US to raise tariffs on EVs, batteries, solar cells, and computer chips from China
Workers are producing structural components of EV batteries at a production workshop in Qingkou Automobile Industrial Park in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, on February 23rd, 2024. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images The Biden administration announced much higher tariffs today on key goods from China that the US will need to meet its climate goals. The move targets transportation, clean energy technologies, raw materials, and more.To encourage China to eliminate its unfair trade practices regarding technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, the President is directing increases in tariffs across strategic sectors such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical products," a White House fact sheet says.It's the latest move the US has taken amid efforts to ramp up domestic manufacturing while escalating trade tensions with China. All in all,... Continue reading...
SteelSeries’ new headset provides over 100 game-specific audio presets
The Arctis Nova 5 headset's mic can retract into the earcup when not in use. | Image: SteelSeries If you hate (or simply can't be bothered) to adjust your audio profiles when setting up a new gaming headset, then you might be the target demographic for SteelSeries' latest offering. Introduced on Tuesday, the new Arctis Nova 5 headset is supported by a dedicated companion app that features over 100 game-specific audio presets for Xbox and PlayStation 5 titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Minecraft, which SteelSeries says have been custom-tailored to each game by audio engineers."Available starting today for $129.99, SteelSeries describes the Arctis Nova 5 as an affordable luxury." It's a smidge pricier than the $119.99 Arctis Nova 4 wireless headset launched last year, but for that, you get the ability to change audio presets... Continue reading...
Dune: Part Two starts streaming on Max next week
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures The second chapter of Denis Villeneuve's Dune saga is streaming very soon: Max announced that Dune: Part Two will be hitting the service on May 21st.The film originally premiered in March and - as the title implies - follows the first movie in telling the complete story of Frank Herbert's original Dune novel. Villeneuve directed both films, and the sequel introduced a number of notable new characters including Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken), and Lady Margot Fenring (Lea Seydoux), along with the somewhat surprise appearance of Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy).If you didn't manage to catch Dune: Part Two in theaters, now is a great time to catch up. A third film is... Continue reading...
Amazon Web Services CEO to step down
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AWS CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down, effective June 3rd, according to a leaked email from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy viewed by The Verge. Matt Garman, the SVP of AWS sales, marketing, and global services at Amazon, will replace Selipsky as CEO. Amazon confirmed The Verge's reporting in a blog post published this morning.Garman is a nearly 18-year veteran of Amazon, spending the entire time working on AWS.Amazon reported that revenue from its cloud unit grew 17 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2024, beating Wall Street expectations, with revenue at $25.04 billion. AWS is also very profitable, accounting for 17 percent of Amazon's revenue in the most recent quarter and 62 percent of its operating income. That invisible server... Continue reading...
Nicolas Cage is back as Spider-Man in live-action Amazon series
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images Nicolas Cage is ready to don the Spider-Man Noir suit again - only this time, in live-action. Amazon has confirmed that Cage will be reprising the role that he previously voiced in the animated film Into the Spider-Verse.The new series, which was first reported last year, is simply called Noir and, according to Amazon, tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city's one and only superhero." Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher on Netflix) will serve as co-showrunners, while Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, who worked on the Spider-Verse films, will be executive producers.Noir doesn't... Continue reading...
On The Vergecast: iPad wins, Sonos misses, and right-to-repair tales
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The new iPads are out, and they're terrific. They're also expensive, and they're a lot of iPad. Do you really need an OLED screen, an M4 processor, all that engineering to make it so thin and light, and the increasingly great but also increasingly expensive new controllers?On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore that very question with The Verge's Chris Welch, who uses the iPad in as varied and powerful a way as you'll find. We talk about the upsides of OLED, the pros and cons of huge screens, and what really makes an iPad an iPad.After that, we chat with Chris about what's going on at Sonos. It appears we're only a few weeks away from the launch of the company's first headphones, which will be called Ace and look very nice.... Continue reading...
Megalopolis’ first teaser makes it look like everything Coppola dreamt it would be
After gestating in the mind of writer / director Francis Ford Coppola for the better part of the last century, Megalopolis is finally making its way to the big screen at this year's Cannes Film Festival. And from the looks of the sci-fi epic's first teaser trailer, it might be just about everything Coppola always dreamt it would be.Set in a sprawling metropolis that's been devastated by a cataclysmic natural disaster, Megalopolis tells the story of how architect Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) tries to rebuild the city using his unusual ability to control time. There seems to be no stopping or reversing the shower of flaming meteors that descend upon the city in the new trailer as Cesar and other citizens watch in horror. But as imperiled... Continue reading...
XCOM developers start new studio to take on The Sims
The Sims 4. | Image: Electronic Arts Midsummer Studios is a new game studio founded by two former Firaxis developers, Jake Solomon and Will Miller. Before founding Midsummer, the two worked on XCOM, Civilization: Beyond Earth, and Marvel's Midnight Suns. Today, the new studio has announced its first game: a next-gen life sim game with former The Sims director Grant Rodiek leading the project as executive producer.According to the studio's press release, this debut project emphasizes player-driven narratives, allowing communities to share memorable moments that grow out of the creativity of players themselves." The project doesn't currently have a title or release date.This new game will face stiff competition in the life-sim genre, which has been dominated by big-budget... Continue reading...
Setapp Mobile brings a promising new iPhone app experience to the EU
Setapp Mobile makes every app available for one subscription. A subscription-based alternative to the Apple App Store with nag-free software. Continue reading...
Lego Barad-dûr revealed: Sauron’s dark tower from The Lord of the Rings is $460
Image: Lego 5,471 pieces and nearly three feet tall. Continue reading...
The mission to retrieve a Mars sample is running into turbulence
Image: The Verge NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is already running over budget and behind schedule. But it may also be our best chance of finding extraterrestrial life. Continue reading...
Sony names newPlayStationleaders following Jim Ryan’s retirement
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony is appointing co-CEOs Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino to lead its PlayStation business from June 1st. Hermen Hulst, who currently serves as PlayStation studios chief, will be appointed as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment's (SIE) studio business group. Hideaki Nishino will be appointed CEO of SIE's platform business group, and both will report up to Sony CFO and SIE chairman Hiroki Totoki.The unusual appointment of co-CEOs comes just months after former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan retired. Totoki had been serving as interim CEO of SIE and was working to find the successor for the SIE CEO role, but Sony has now decided it wants to split up responsibilities for leading its PlayStation business across platform and games. Both... Continue reading...
The WashG1 is Dyson’s first mop
The Dyson WashG1 can wipe up wet messes. | Image: Dyson Dyson's newest device for dealing with dirt in your home is a mechanical mop. Unlike the British engineering company's flagship fans, hair dryers, and vacuums, the new Dyson WashG1 floor washing machine doesn't use precision-engineered fans or a fine-tuned Hyperdymium motor. Instead, the mop relies on mechanical agitation to clean up wet spills, picks up dirt and debris, and gives your hard floors a really good wash.The WashG1 wet floor cleaner - aka mop - costs $699.99 and is the company's first dedicated mopping device. The cordless, battery-powered mop is slated for release this fall, and you can sign up to be notified when the world's fanciest mop arrives on Dyson's site.While it's definitely fancy, this isn't a smart mop -... Continue reading...
TikTok is testing AI-generated search results
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is testing a more robust search results page, including using generative AI. The feature appears to be a new and is called search highlights."A snippet of AI results appear at the top of some search results pages, and clicking into the section opens a new page with the full response. In quick tests, I was able to find AI results for queries about recipes or topics like best laptops 2024." Screenshot: TikTok Clicking the result takes you to a full screen page. A page explaining the results says that the material is generated using ChatGPT, and that TikTok displays the content when [the algorithm] finds them relevant to your search." The feature appears to be limited so far: not all queries have AI... Continue reading...
AI gun detection company name-dropped Disney in its successful pitch to NYC
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images When New York City Mayor Eric Adams was first introduced to a representative from Evolv, the AI gun detection company, he was given a list of places the scanners could be used, including hospitals, schools, Times Square, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. What seems to have persuaded Adams, according to emails obtained by Wired, was Evolv's disclosure of another major client: Disney.As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs," Evolv co-founder Anil Chitkara wrote in an email to Adams' office on February 7th, 2022. They've had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express ... There may be some interesting parallels... Continue reading...
Google’s Pixel 9 lineup appears in hands-on photos five months early
Image: Rozetked It's a day that ends in Y, so naturally, we're dealing with yet another Google Pixel hardware leak. This time, the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, and 9 Pro XL can be seen side by side in new images from Rozetked - a full five months before Google's typical October release timeframe.I have many questions about how and why these units are out in the world so early, but here we are. And I know a lot of you are no doubt eyeing that regular 9 Pro, which will finally put Google's very best camera chops into a normal-sized phone. Meanwhile, the 9 Pro XL looks a fair bit taller than Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Max. Image: Rozetked Yep, that's an XL-sized phone. l'm a bit curious as to whether Google will still call this a camera bar"... Continue reading...
Roku will start streaming live MLB games for free
Photo by Stacy Revere / Getty Images Roku will exclusively stream Major League Baseball Sunday Leadoff games starting with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox on May 19th. The games will air live on The Roku Channel - no subscription or sign-up required.To watch the games, you'll have to download The Roku Channel on your Roku device or TV. The app is also available on Amazon Fire devices, Samsung TVs, and Google TVs, as well as via The Roku Channel website. You'll be able to watch replays of the games up to six hours after they end.With free games available to anyone, MLB games on Roku will be widely accessible to fans," Noah Garden, the MLB's deputy commissioner of business and media, said in a statement. Roku will stream Sunday Leadoff games every week until... Continue reading...
Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best kind of overkill
Apple's latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing. But wow is it fun to use. Continue reading...
The new Apple iPad Air is great —but it’s not the one to get
The iPad Air is an excellent iPad - and that's all. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge The iPad Pro is a beast. The two-year-old iPad is more compelling than ever. So what is the Air even for anymore? Continue reading...
RFK Jr. sues Meta for ‘election interference’ after it temporarily removed a campaign video
Photo by Lev Radin / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images Independent presidential candidate and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing Meta for allegedly violating the First Amendment and engaging in election interference" because it removed a video about him.The lawsuit is not likely to advance far, considering that the First Amendment bars the government - not companies - from censoring speech. Plus, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act effectively insulates online platforms from being sued for how they choose to remove or limit content on their sites.Keep in mind this is the same candidate who has claimed that part of his brain had been eaten years ago by a parasitic worm (he told The New York Times he's recovered from symptoms including memory loss related to the... Continue reading...
Melinda French Gates to leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Photo by Noam Galai / Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative Melinda French Gates has stepped down from her position as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.French Gates, who will officially leave on June 7th, will continue her philanthropy elsewhere, to the tune of $12.5 billion. The money stems from an agreement with her ex-husband, Bill Gates, and does not come from the foundation's endowment. In her X post, she says she will focus on programs on behalf of women and families."This is not a decision I came to lightly," French Gates says. I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together, and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequalities around the world."French Gates and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates divorced in 2021. At the time, the two... Continue reading...
Apple finally adds iPhone alerts for third-party Bluetooth trackers
Apple and Google collaborated on the new Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers industry standard. | Image: Apple A new industry specification devised by Apple and Google to address the safety risks of Bluetooth tracking devices is now live. Apple announced this week it has implemented alerts for unknown third-party Bluetooth trackers in iOS 17.5, following Google starting to roll it out across Android devices running 6.0 and higher last December.The Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers (DULT) standard is a cross-platform initiative designed to prevent Bluetooth trackers like Apple AirTags from being misused to track people without their knowledge. The specification allows iOS and Android devices to detect and alert you when a tracker that conforms to the standard is traveling with you and its owner is not.Apple said in a press release that... Continue reading...
Square Enix plans to ‘aggressively pursue’ multiplatform game releases
Image: Square Enix Everybody's getting bitten by the multiplatform bug; now, it's Square Enix. In its earnings report released earlier today, the publisher shared plans to increase profits, stating that it will aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs."Right now, Square Enix's biggest games, like Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, have been restricted to the PlayStation, with PC releases for select titles including Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade following some time after console launch. However, smaller new releases, like the forthcoming Visions of Mana, are seeing simultaneous release on Xbox.The company wrote that it hopes bringing its major franchises, including its... Continue reading...
ChatGPT will be able to talk to you like Scarlett Johansson in Her
Photo: Warner Bros. OpenAI is releasing a Her-inspired voice assistant feature that can read your facial expressions and translate spoken language in real time - and hopefully do it all without abandoning you like in the movie.During a livestream demonstration on Monday, OpenAI engineers and CTO Mira Murati gathered around a phone to show the new capabilities. They encouraged the assistant to be more expressive while making up a bedtime story, then abruptly requested it to switch to a robotic voice, before finally asking it to conclude the story with a singing voice. Later, they asked the assistant to look at what the phone's camera is seeing and have it respond to what's visible on-screen. The assistant was also able to be interrupted while speaking and... Continue reading...
Zelda: Majora’s Mask is now a native PC game, and every N64 title could follow its lead
I thought opening the impossible door in Mario 64 was the coolest thing that'd happened to the Nintendo 64 in years, but Mr. Wiseguy's just-released N64 Recompiled blows me away. It's a tool that theoretically lets you turn any N64 game into a native PC port, the better to play and preserve N64 games - and to showcase its abilities, you can already download Windows and Linux-native apps for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask that seem to run incredibly well.It almost seems too good to be true: I just double-clicked an EXE file on my Windows laptop, told the app where to find a Majora's Mask ROM file, and was immediately playing a copy of the game that felt incredibly responsive to my every press on a 165Hz variable refresh rate screen,... Continue reading...
Apple News Plus is ready to work offline
Image: Apple Even if subscribers are outside cellular or Wi-Fi range (or if there's a massive outage), Apple News Plus on iOS 17.5 can still supply them content now that it's added Offline Mode - this must've been farther down the list from Apple Maps, which added offline navigation last year in the iOS 17 update. Top Stories, Apple News Today audio briefings, magazines, narrated articles, and puzzles can automatically download to your iPhone or iPad, all optimized to maximize space on the devices.As promised, the latest updates across macOS, iPadOS, and other platforms also add another word game for News Plus subscribers called Quartiles, competing with The New York Times' growing library of games and even LinkedIn. The New Plus Puzzles section... Continue reading...
Cruise is back driving autonomously for the first time since pedestrian-dragging incident
Photo: Getty Images Cruise's autonomous vehicles are officially back on the road and driving autonomously for the first time since one of its driverless vehicles dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet in San Francisco.Cruise said last month that it would resume testing with manually driven vehicles focused on mapping and gathering road information - minor tasks for a company with as many autonomous miles as Cruise. But Cruise needs to show local officials that it is suitably apologetic for the pedestrian-dragging incident by going slow and talking a lot about safety and trust. The company is deploying its vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona, which has long been a hotbed for autonomous vehicle testing.Cruise needs to show local officials that it is suitably... Continue reading...
Denon adds Siri to its smart speakers
Denon Home smart speakers now support Apple's Siri voice assistant. | Image: Denon Way back in 2021, Ecobee's thermostats became the first non-Apple device to integrate Siri voice control into its hardware, following Apple's making the voice assistant available to third-party devices at WWDC that year. Fast-forward a few years, and there's finally another device with Siri on board: Denon smart speakers.While primarily known for its receivers, Denon's line of wireless whole-home audio and music-streaming smart speakers position it as a competitor to Sonos and Bose. Denon also happens to be owned by Masimo Consumer Audio, a division of Masimo, the company whose patent infringement case around its pulse oximetry tech is currently blocking some of the Apple Watch's health features.The hardware support for Siri on Denon... Continue reading...
Tile owner Life360 picks satellites over partnering with Apple or Google
Life360 owns Tile, which makes popular location trackers like the Tile Pro. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Tile is promising satellite connectivity for its Bluetooth trackers in a move that could boost the company as an independent alternative to its Big Tech rivals: Apple's Find My network and Google's newly revamped Find My Device network.Life360, the family locator and safety service company that bought Tile in 2021 announced a partnership with the satellite company Hubble Network as it introduces Find with Life360," a global location tracking network rival with an API that's open for use by other developers. They say that using Hubble's satellites, Tile trackers will eventually be able to find items on both Android and iPhone devices even outside the range of cellular connectivity.Hubble says it has two satellites operating already,... Continue reading...
Apple is almost ready to sell the Vision Pro outside the US
The Vision Pro could be available in some international regions shortly after Apple's WWDC event next month. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is reportedly preparing to launch its $3,499 Vision Pro outside of the US for the first time, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, with the mixed reality headset's international rollout expected to start shortly after the company's Worldwide Developers Conference early next month.On Monday, Gurman reported that Apple has flown hundreds of employees from its international stores" over to its offices in Cupertino, California, to show them how to demonstrate the device. Training sessions reportedly started last week, with courses taking up to four days to complete according to Gurman's sources.Apple staffers from Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China are included in the training, but apparently, the... Continue reading...
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