The Verge

Dark Matter. | Image: Apple Since it launched in 2019, Apple TV Plus has won awards and generated hits, but it still sits in an odd spot in the streaming landscape. It's not as big as competitors like Netflix or Disney Plus, nor is it as prolific. Instead, the service seems intent on focusing on quality over quantity, which has led to some likening it to the HBO of old (you know, when it was still called HBO). In reality, Apple TV Plus has a somewhat scattershot library that includes everything from Charlie Brown to Martin Scorsese. Some of it is great; some of it is Argylle.But there's one place where the service is really nailing it: science fiction.For whatever reason, the lineup of sci-fi shows on Apple TV Plus has steadily grown over the years, not just in... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge FTX says most customers affected by the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse will get all their money back. Bankruptcy lawyers for the fallen firm say they've collected assets valued at up to $16.3 billion - more than they will need to repay the company's estimated $11 billion debt.John Ray III, the chief restructuring officer of FTX, says the company is pleased to be in a position to propose a chapter 11 plan that contemplates the return of 100% of bankruptcy claim amounts."Once the court approves the plan, FTX will begin distributing the funds within 60 days. Customers will receive the amount their assets were worth at the time of FTX's collapse. FTX's lawyers said earlier this year that they expect customers to eventually be paid... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images The Department of Justice is looking into whether Tesla committed securities and wire fraud around its self-driving vehicle claims, Reuters reports today, citing three sources familiar with the matter.The investigation, which was first reported in October 2022 but has been going on since at least late 2021, involves federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco who are examining whether Tesla executives misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its autonomous capabilities. Now, it appears that investigators are zeroing in on specific charges against the company: securities and wire fraud.According to Reuters, the probe is looking into statements made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in particular. For... Continue reading...

Farewell to a real one. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It's versatile, doesn't weigh much, and no one else makes anything quite like it for the iPad Pro. Hopefully it's not gone for good. Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The latest Matter spec brings a number of improvements to the smart home standard founded by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung. Released this week by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, Matter 1.3 brings support for more appliances, including ovens and cooktops, adds energy and water management, and introduces new features for Matter's universal casting protocol that could be a competitor to AirPlay and Google Cast.This is all great progress, but as none of the major platforms have added support for Matter 1.2 yet, who knows when they'll get around to supporting 1.3? But I digress. First, let's dig into what's new.The 1.3 update adds microwave ovens, ovens, electric cooktops, extractor hoods, and electric dryers, which join washing... Continue reading...

The 2024 iPad Air still offers a nice display, though, not as nice as the OLED display on the new iPad Pro. | Screenshot: Apple After nearly a two-year wait, Apple finally updated its iPad lineup with a thinner iPad Pro and new iPad Air. The new tablets start at $999 and $599, respectively, and both are already available for preorder ahead of their May 15th release date.These are no iterative spec updates, either. For the first time, Apple added an OLED display to the iPad Pro, along with a new M4 chip. Apple also added a 13-inch Air to the lineup, so both models are now available in 11- and 13-inch sizes. Combine that with their support for the same styli - specifically the Apple Pencil with USBC and forthcoming Apple Pencil Pro - and you now have more options to consider if you need a big tablet for work or play.Yet, while the iPad Air and iPad Pro now... Continue reading...

Solar panels point to the sky at the Weesow-Wilmersdorf solar park on May 3rd, 2024, near Grischow, Germany. | Photo by Maja Hitij / Getty Images The amount of electricity and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants likely peaked in 2023, according to the annual global electricity review by energy think tank Ember. That means human civilization has likely passed a key turning point, according to Ember: countries will likely never generate as much electricity from fossil fuels again.A record 30 percent of electricity globally came from renewable sources of energy last year thanks primarily to growth in solar and wind power. Starting this year, pollution from the power sector is likely to start dropping, with a 2 percent drop in the amount of fossil fuel-powered electricity projected for 2024 - a decline Ember expects to speed up in the long term.A major... Continue reading...

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Department of Justice has unsealed charges against a Russian national accused of developing and administrating LockBit ransomware. In a filing on Tuesday, the DOJ claims the 31-year-old Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev helped make LockBit one of the most prolific and destructive ransomware group[s] in the world."Khoroshev has allegedly had involvement in LockBit since it first emerged in September 2019. Over the years, LockBit ransomware attacks have claimed over 2,500 victims in at least 120 countries, with Khoroshev and other co-conspirators allegedly collecting at least $500 million in ransom payments. Image: UK National Crime Agency US and UK authorities seized LockBit's data leak site in February. LockBit... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has added a new tool to detect if an image was made with its DALL-E AI image generator, as well as new watermarking methods to more clearly flag content it generates.In a blog post, OpenAI announced that it has begun developing new provenance methods to track content and prove whether it was AI-generated. These include a new image detection classifier that uses AI to determine whether the photo was AI-generated, as well as a tamper-resistant watermark that can tag content like audio with invisible signals.The classifier predicts the likelihood that a picture was created by DALL-E 3. OpenAI claims the classifier works even if the image is cropped or compressed or the saturation is changed. While the tool can detect if images... Continue reading...

EMBARGO: June 15, 2021, 10:30am ET | Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Elon Musk doesn't like lidar, the laser sensor that powers many companies' self-driving ambitions. He previously called it a crutch" and said any company that relies on lidar for its autonomous capabilities was doomed."Well, apparently Tesla is stocking up on crutches.In its quarterly earnings report released today, Orlando-based lidar manufacturer Luminar disclosed that Tesla was its largest LiDAR customer in Q1," comprising more than 10 percent of the company's revenue for the quarter. That translates to around $2.1 million worth of lidar, based on Luminar's $21 million in revenue for the quarter.Tesla is stocking up on crutchesIn fact, Tesla bought so much lidar from Luminar, it helped offset a quarter-over-quarter drop in... Continue reading...

Image: iFixit The first laptop with LPCAMM2 memory is finally here. The folks at iFixit got their hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 7), which uses LPDDR5X memory in an LPCAMM2 module that you can upgrade or replace by simply unscrewing from the laptop's motherboard.That's a major change from existing LPDDR memory in most modern laptops. This type of memory is typically soldered onto the motherboard, making it much more difficult to upgrade. LPCAMM2 - or Low-Power Compression-Attached Memory Module - offers modularity without losing the power efficiency of LPDDR.Traditional DDR RAM uses SODIMM sticks that slot into the motherboard, much like on desktop PCs. As pointed out by iFixit, LPDDR is much more power-efficient, but it needs to be soldered... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge The most important upcoming hardware product for Sonos is undoubtedly its long-anticipated Sonos Ace headphones. They will mark the company's debut in a massive (and highly competitive) new category. But spring and summer are always the seasons of new portable speakers, and Sonos hasn't forgotten about that part of its business.The company has been developing a sequel to the Sonos Roam, the tiny portable speaker it released three years ago. I've obtained images of a prerelease Sonos Roam 2 and can share a little more about the differences between it and the original model, which has been criticized by some owners for unreliable battery performance and other issues.In terms of design, the Roam 2 is basically a carbon copy of the... Continue reading...

Say goodbye to your physical SIM card. | Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge If you've purchased an iPhone 14 or 15 series phone in the US - or one of the latest iPads - you'll notice it's missing one key feature: a SIM tray. That's because Apple's gone all in on eSIM, which is a digital version of the tiny card that allows you to use your wireless provider's network.There's good news and bad news here. If you're switching from an older iPhone, activating an eSIM on your new iPhone is incredibly easy. If you're switching from an Android phone to an iPhone 14, well, it's less straightforward.Whichever path you need to take, we've got some guidance for you.iPhone with physical SIM to iPhone 14 or 15To switch from an iPhone with a physical SIM card to an eSIM iPhone, follow these steps:

Image: Amazon Amazon is deploying 50 battery-electric heavy-duty trucks in California, which it claims is the largest such fleet in the country. The company says the new trucks represent an important step in its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations - even as its carbon emissions have spiked in recent years.Amazon says the trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, in which goods are moved from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, in which packages are transported from fulfillment centers to delivery centers. From there, the packages will be loaded into Amazon's last-mile fleet, a portion of which are electric delivery vans produced by Rivian. The... Continue reading...

Not a SIM tray in sight on the new iPad Pro. | Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Apple giveth OLED screens, and Apple taketh away... SIM cards. As spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple has removed the physical SIM slot on the cellular versions of the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. First the iPhone, now the iPad - Apple is all in on an eSIM future, it seems.The iPhone 14 was the first model to lose the SIM slot, but only in the US - versions sold in other countries still include a physical SIM tray. That doesn't seem to be the case with the new iPad Air and iPad Pro; Apple's UK and Canadian retail sites state that the new models use eSIM and are not compatible with physical SIM cards."eSIM has been catching on in popularity over the past few years. Most smartphone flagships support the technology, but only Apple has taken... Continue reading...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google's Tensor 3 and AI-touting Pixel 8 phones have been joined by a cheaper versio, the Pixel 8A. Continue reading...

The Verge TikTok is suing the US government over the new law that would force the short-form video app to be divested from its China-based parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the US.In a court filing submitted Tuesday, TikTok says Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok" and calls the move unconstitutional." TikTok argues that a sale from ByteDance isn't possible and that the law would force a shutdown" by January 19, 2025.For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide," the lawsuit... Continue reading...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Wordle players no longer have to worry about missing a daily puzzle. Today, The New York Times is launching a new feature for subscribers that will let them access an archive of past Wordle puzzles. The archive is rolling out now for those with a Games" or All Access" subscription and will include more than 1,000 past puzzles, though it sounds like not everyone will have it right away; the Times says that the rollout is expected to take place over the next couple of months." At launch, the feature will be available on both mobile and desktop, and the Times says it will be coming to its Games app in the coming weeks." Image: The New York Times This expansion is not just about playing past puzzles; it's about... Continue reading...

Aloe is the new coral. | Photo: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Pixel 8A is officially here, with very little in the way of surprises since it leaked to all heck over the past few weeks - as Google hardware always does. The 8A gets Google's latest processor, adds a bunch of new AI features, and still starts at $499 in the US. But the very best news is that the 8A adopts the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro's seven years of software support, which is just unheard of in a midrange phone.The 8A retains the same general shape and size as its predecessor. But its 6.1-inch screen gets a couple of significant updates: the top refresh rate is now 120Hz, up from 90Hz, and the panel gets up to 40 percent brighter, up to 2,000 nits in peak brightness mode. They're important upgrades, especially since the 8A's main... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Dotdash Meredith, publisher of People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, Food & Wine, and InStyle, signed a deal on Tuesday with OpenAI to use AI models for its ad-targeting product, D/Cipher. In turn, Dotdash Meredith will license its content to ChatGPT.With the partnership, OpenAI will bring content from Dotdash Meredith publications to ChatGPT, link to the articles in the chatbot, and train AI models with its articles. (Presumably, this also includes an archive of all the previous sexiest men alive.)Dotdash Meredith and the AI company will also collaborate on new AI features for the magazine's readers.Dotdash Meredith will use OpenAI's models to upgrade D/Cipher, which helps advertisers find consumers through the content... Continue reading...

An aerial view shows homes destroyed by a tornado on March 15th, 2024, in Winchester, Indiana. | Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images Verizon's first responder network inked a deal to share its drones with the National Weather Service in the hopes of rapidly" deploying the drones to survey the aftermath of storms and tornadoes.The US copes with more tornadoes than any other country, and millions of Americans have been under tornado watches this week as storms sweep across the Central US.Not only will the new partnership allow the National Weather Service (NWS) to quickly assess storm damage, but drone footage could also inform research into tornado behavior. There's still a lot scientists don't know about tornadoes. A better understanding of how they form could help the NWS issue earlier and more accurate warnings to people, which could ultimately help save lives.... Continue reading...

Image: Apple New OLED iPad Pros, bigger iPad Airs, and new accessories are expected. Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In an email to staff sent this morning, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty announced the closure of several game studios, including Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and more. According to the email, as first reported by IGN, Booty wrote the reason for the closures was due to a reprioritization of titles and resources." Some staff at the affected studios will be relocated while other studios will completely shut down.Redfall developer Arkane will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda," says Booty. Redfall's previous update will be its last as Microsoft is ending all development on the game. Servers will remain online for... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Whatever it's called, it sounds like it's coming soon. Continue reading...

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Grocery delivery service Instacart is expanding into restaurant takeout thanks to a new partnership with Uber Eats.In the coming weeks, Instacart will add a new feature for restaurant delivery, with the back-end mechanics powered by Uber. The listing of restaurants will be provided by Uber, the transaction will be overseen by Uber's software, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats couriers. The only difference is that everything will take place within Instacart's app or website. Image: Uber Neither company would share the financial details of the deal, so we don't have any insight into how much Instacart is paying to use Uber's food delivery software. Uber spokesperson Noah Edwardsen said that... Continue reading...

Users will need to buy new versions of products like the YubiKey 5 NFC (pictured) to benefit from the firmware update. | Image: Yubico Yubico is getting ready to launch refreshed versions of its YubiKey 5, Security Key, and Security Key Enterprise Edition series authentication hardware that aim to help organizations move away from password-based protections. On Monday, the company announced the new security keys with updated 5.7 firmware will be available in late May, providing enhanced security features like expanded passkey storage and the ability to enforce setting more complex PINs.Existing YubiKey hardware cannot be updated with the new 5.7 firmware for security reasons, so users will need to purchase new keys (which currently start from $25 for the Security Key NFC) to benefit from the upgraded protections. These include enterprise attestation, current FIDO2... Continue reading...

Nintendo throws a bone to Switch fans. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has thrown Switch players a long-awaited bone alongside announcing its end-of-year financials results, confirming the console's successor will be unveiled before April, 2025. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said that a next-generation Nintendo Switch console will be announced within this fiscal year" - giving the Japanese gaming giant a deadline of March 31st, 2025. That aligns nicely with its current Q1 2025 rumored launch.Regarding the Switch 2 console announcement, Furukawa said:

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images NASA will attempt to send a pair of astronauts to space aboard Boeing's Starliner aircraft for the first time soon, but not today. As the the astronauts settled into place, officials scrubbed Monday night's planned launch attempt at around 8:30PM ET, due to a faulty oxygen relief valve observation" on the ULA Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage. Another launch window is available on Tuesday night, but it's unclear whether they will be able to reset that quickly.Starliner has faced several delays over the years, with its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 ending in failure before it successfully docked at the International Space Station in 2022. While Starliner's first crewed flight was supposed to take place last May, NASA delayed... Continue reading...

Image: Yahoo! Auctions (Japan) Over on the Japanese Yahoo Auctions site, someone has listed an apparent pre-production version of the Super Famicom - the Japanese counterpart of the Super Nintendo (SNES). It's similar to the console Nintendo eventually released in 1990 but with some stand-out differences, like a headphone jack and volume wheel on the side. Video game collector and historian Chris Kohler called it god-tier Nintendo collector bait."Some other variations include a big red power switch and the fact that the controller ports are on the left side of the console, rather than centered as they were in the eventual production model. There's also what looks like the console's expansion port on the front, rather than the bottom where it lived on the final... Continue reading...

Not a Chromecast remote with a new button. | Image: AFTVnews Google's rumored Magic Button" shortcut for Google TV has been spotted in the wild on a real-world remote for an upcoming streaming box... made by Walmart.AFTVnews got hold of Walmart's still-unreleased Onn 4K Pro - a Google TV-powered streaming box - and the remote features the new star button in the top right corner. The device simply calls it the customizable button," and it can be programmed as a shortcut to an app or to allow you to change inputs. It replaces the dedicated TV input button on previous Onn streaming box remotes. Image: AFTVnews Google's new button is introduced on non-Google hardware. The button has been leaking as part of Google TV-adjacent hardware for years, but it hasn't actually... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge As people try to find more uses for generative AI that are less about making a fake photo and are instead actually useful, Google plans to point AI to cybersecurity and make threat reports easier to read.In a blog post, Google writes its new cybersecurity product, Google Threat Intelligence, will bring together the work of its Mandiant cybersecurity unit and VirusTotal threat intelligence with the Gemini AI model.The new product uses the Gemini 1.5 Pro large language model, which Google says reduces the time needed to reverse engineer malware attacks. The company claims Gemini 1.5 Pro, released in February, took only 34 seconds to analyze the code of the WannaCry virus - the 2017 ransomware attack that hobbled hospitals, companies,... Continue reading...

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, speaks during a climate initiative event at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, on Thursday, January 16th, 2020. | Photo: Getty Images Microsoft is doubling down on a controversial plan to capture carbon dioxide emissions from wood-burning power plants. It announced a contract with energy company Stockholm Exergi to capture 3.33 million metric tons of carbon emissions from a biomass power plant in the Swedish capital in what is potentially the biggest deal of its kind to date - equivalent to taking more than 790,000 gas-powered cars off the road for a year.It's supposed to help Microsoft meet its goal of capturing more planet-heating carbon dioxide than it produces as a company by 2030 and then removing as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it has ever emitted since its founding by 2050.But the jury is still out on whether wood-burning power plants actually help fight... Continue reading...