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by Allison Johnson on (#6S3XT)
Was anyone asking for this? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge At the risk of stating the obvious, AI is absolutely everywhere lately. There's AI in your car, AI in your messaging app, AI in your glasses. I've gotten pretty desensitized to it all as a hazard of the job, but it was Spotify's AI DJ that actually got my attention.I've listened to a top 40 radio station in the past two decades, so I'm familiar with the concept of a robot picking music for me. In that context, an AI DJ doesn't seem like much of a stretch. But after using it on and off for a week, I'm convinced it's the perfect analogy for our AI-everything moment. It's eerily human, and it plays a lot of music I like. But take it from someone with access to a high-quality local indie radio station - one that employs human DJs! - there... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2026-02-05 22:34 |
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by David Pierce on (#6S3XV)
Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 60, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, it's a lot of gaming stuff this week, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been... doomscrolling about the election, if I'm honest. But let's not talk about that. I've also been reading about shipwrecks and in-flight magazines and baseball bat influencers, making a bunch of lists in Listy, dusting off my Bluesky account as Threads becomes increasingly worse, logging a surprising number of hours in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, playing with tasks and notes in the Craft beta, seeing if I can replace Gmail with Thunderbird for Android, and trying really, really... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6S3QF)
Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World. | Screenshot: YouTube General - er, President - Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) gets a lot bigger and redder in the new Captain America: Brave New World trailer that Marvel debuted at Disney's D23 Brazil event. The company also released a second trailer for Thunderbolts, the new superhero team movie that will end the MCU's phase 5.The Brave New World preview opens on Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) visiting one of the first supersoldiers, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), in prison after his attack on the president. Isaiah, who doesn't seem to remember the attack, warns Sam to be careful."The trailer then sets up some heavy tension and intrigue, using a fun splitscreen theme to build to a much more thorough reveal of Ross' Red Hulk than Marvel did in July. Although... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6S3PC)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reviews of Intel's new Arrow Lake-based Core Ultra 9 200S-series processor have been lackluster, specifically when it comes to gaming performance, but Intel says that's not the end of the story. Its new chips should be performing better, and the company will have an ETA on getting them there soon, according to Robert Hallock, Intel's VP and GM of client AI and technical marketing, in a new interview with HotHardware's Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta.Intel was up-front in saying these new chips wouldn't beat AMD's chips for gaming. But reviewers' findings have been unexpectedly poor. Despite some efficiency gains like those noted in Tom Warren's Verge review of the Core Ultra 9 285K, the new chip seems to lag behind even Intel's... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6S3KN)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images There is an apparently new iOS 18 security feature that reboots iPhones that haven't been unlocked in a few days, frustrating police by making it harder to break into suspects' iPhones, according to 404 Media.404 Media, which first reported police warnings about the reboots on Thursday, writes that restarted iPhones enter a more secure Before First Unlock," or BFU state. Now, it seems Apple added inactivity reboot" code in iOS 18.1 that triggers iPhones to restart after they've been locked for four days, Chris Wade, who founded mobile analysis company Corellium, told the outlet.The code appears below in screenshots posted by Dr. -Ing. Jiska Classen, a Hasso Plattner Institute research group leader.
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by Brandon Widder on (#6S3HT)
Seagate's proprietary storage solution ain't cheap, but it remains the easiest way to outfit your Series / X with additional space. | Image: Seagate Black Friday won't be here for several more weeks, but the holiday promos are beginning to take shape at Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. We expect to see steep discounts on a number of gaming goods when many of the early sales kick off next week, but if you want to shop ahead of time, Seagate's 2TB Storage Expansion Card for the Xbox Series X / S is already matching its all-time low of $199.99 ($160 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Seagate's online storefront.While pricey, Seagate's proprietary expansion cards are a great way to expand the storage capacity of your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. The NVMe-based, Microsoft-licensed cards - of which there are currently two - are incredibly easy to install, fast, and allow you to run... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6S3FW)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Google Photos continues to get new and improved features on a regular basis, and one of the most recent Android updates has focused on video editing. Even if you don't have the latest Pixel 9 phone (which is required if you want to try out the weird new Reimagine tool), you can now speed up, slow down, and enhance your clips with a few taps as well as trim them down more easily.You can also expect what Google calls AI-powered video presets" on both the Android and iOS versions of Google Photos. After the app algorithm analyzes your clips, you get a choice of effects - trims, zooms, slow-mos - you can apply with a tap. The app takes the role of director and chooses where and how these tweaks should be applied.When the changes arrive on... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6S3FX)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge You know that thing where, just after you've opened Instagram and become invested in whatever video was already loaded, a new video pops in and seemingly yeets the old video into the void, never to be seen again? That's a thing of the past, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who says in an AMA from his Instagram Story yesterday that the app now waits for you to scroll to show you the new stuff.That behavior - which Instagram apparently called rug pull" internally - wasn't just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement."But that's really... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6S3FY)
This walking pad was supposed to help me relieve stress. Then I overcomplicated it. I became so mired in the smart features, I forgot to walk. Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6S3A1)
Netflix Arcane's final season puts an even finer point on its story about revolutionary war. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S35X)
Paul McCartney in 2022. | Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images The Beatles have been nominated for two Grammys - nearly 50 years after the band officially split up. Their final song, called Now and Then," was restored last year with the help of AI, and is now up for record of the year alongside the likes of Beyonce, Charlie XCX, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift. It's also been nominated for best rock performance, where it goes up against Green Day, Pearl Jam, and The Black Keys.Released in November 2023, Now and Then" started as a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s. This recording, as well as Free As A Bird" and Real Love," was given to Lennon's three surviving bandmates in the 90s, with the hopes of including it in The Beatles Anthology project.However, Now and Then" was never... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S35Y)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube's premium subscriptions are about to get more expensive for long-time subscribers with legacy plans in more places. In December, YouTube told US subscribers with legacy YouTube Premium plans (stemming from discontinued services Google Play Music or YouTube Red) they'd need to start paying the current $13.99 per month price in the new year.YouTube Music users in Europe have posted emails they received announcing a price increase for them, too, and just like the US, some report getting three more months at the current price before the hike.In an email to The Verge, YouTube communications manager Paul Pennington confirmed prices are increasing for both YouTube Premium, which removes ads on the streaming videos and includes access... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6S339)
DJI's $199 Neo selfie drone is going to be everywhere," we wrote in September - while noting that the budget self-flying drone did have two major weaknesses over the competing $350 Hover X1. First, DJI's drone didn't shoot vertical video (a dealbreaker for TikTok and Instagram Reels influencers) and second, it couldn't track our movements nearly as quickly as the competition.But DJI is now fixing both, adding vertical video and dramatically increasing the Neo's flight speed while tracking. According to DC Rainmaker, it's now so fast it can keep up with cyclists, and surprisingly flies faster in tracking mode than it does with a controller.Before the firmware update, the drone wasn't able to keep up with him cycling at even 13 miles... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6S318)
A still photo from the film Heretic. When codirectors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods started thinking about who could play the antagonist in their new horror flick Heretic, they knew he had to have a few specific characteristics. The film is about a man who lures missionaries into his home, eventually turning a pleasant chat about religion into a nightmare scenario. So he had to be able to disarm with charm and humor, before switching gears to become intense and terrifying. He had to have these moments of feeling dangerous, of feeling safe, contradictory traits that had to coalesce into something," says Beck.Early on in the casting process, the pair landed on a surprising name - and they couldn't let it go. As soon as we thought about him we were like: This has to be Hugh... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6S319)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge People across the country received racist text messages in the days after Donald Trump was elected to a second term for president, and now federal authorities are investigating.In multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Black women, men, and students have reported receiving racist text messages from an unknown source, urging them to report to a plantation to pick cotton," the NAACP said in a press release. Messages said variations of, You have been selected to be a house slave," or You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation," according to screenshots and news reports. They also often instruct recipients on where to go or when to be ready With all of your belongings."CBS... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6S31A)
Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge It's virtually certain" that 2024 will go down in the books as the hottest year yet. The planet is on track to pass a worrying threshold when it comes to global average temperatures, warns the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.After a scorching summer, and with countries making slow progress on climate change, it's not too surprising that 2024 is going to be off the charts. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are pushing temperatures higher, forcing communities around the world to adapt to harsh new realities.Humanity's torching the planet and paying the price."Humanity's torching the planet and paying the price," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks yesterday.Both Copernicus and the World... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6S31B)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We're flush with great options for noise-canceling headphones that sound good, but if you care most about sound quality (without spending pricey audiophile money) a great choice is the Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S2e - which are on sale for $279 ($120 off) in all five color options at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from Bowers and Wilkins.The PX7 S2e may not have the most charming sounding name, but they do have a clean design and warm, detailed sound that even competes with the much pricier AirPods Max. In addition to sounding excellent and offering niceties like a transparency mode, they favor proper physical buttons and a proper on / off switch over the touch controls found on some other headphones like Sony's WH-1000XM5. Their 30 hours of... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S2YR)
That Mac Mini SSD is removable! | Image: X user @L0vetodream Apple's redesigned Mac Mini M4 has ditched the previous M2 machine's SSD that was soldered to the logic board, as confirmed by teardowns like this one posted on X showing it has a single removable SSD module. It's not Apple's first desktop computer to go in this direction, as we saw similar modules in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6S2YS)
Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Donald Trump's second term means significant changes for AI, crypto, and EV policy. Continue reading...
by Umar Shakir on (#6S2YT)
Google Vids' Help me create" screen powered by Gemini AI. | Image: Google Google is generally rolling out its Gemini AI-powered Vids app that lets you create video presentations using a prompt. Some of Vids' key features include letting Gemini auto-insert stock footage for you, generating a script, and making AI voiceovers so you don't have to speak. Google advertises that the tool can help turn customer support articles into videos, make training videos, share company announcements, create meeting recaps, and more.Vids will be available by default for Workspace organizations with access, but Google notes possible usage limits may apply to features like Help me create" and AI voiceovers starting in 2026.First announced in April, Vids lets you drop in relevant docs, slides, voiceovers, and video recordings... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S2YV)
Samsung's Galaxy S24 is just one of the many phones that use Gorilla Glass. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Corning, the maker of Gorilla Glass, is set to receive up to $32 million in funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. In an announcement on Friday, the US Commerce Department said the proposed funding will help Corning increase production of its glass products used in the chip-making process.The announcement comes just days after the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Corning over whether it uses exclusive supply agreements to stifle competition. Both Samsung and Apple use Corning's ultra-tough alkali-aluminosilicate glass - or Gorilla Glass - on their phones, tablets, and smartwatches.However, the proposed CHIPS Act funding doesn't have anything to do with Gorilla Glass. Corning will put the funding toward the... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S2YW)
Google Slides is getting more professionally designed templates for businesses, teachers, and students. | Image: Google Google is introducing a new collection of modern templates to Google Slides the company says have been professionally designed" to cater to a wide range of use cases." There are new templates for sales pitches, product roadmaps, lesson plans, book reports, workshop facilitation, and even team game templates" for companies looking to bolster collaboration amongst their staff.The new templates might make it easier for users moving over from Microsoft's office suite and Powerpoint, similar to recent updates that brought easier table formatting to Google Sheets and tabs that make it easier to organize information in a single Google Doc.The refreshed library of templates started rolling out to everyone this week, covering both personal... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6S2VR)
Image: Palworld Palworld developer Pocketpair has revealed the patents at the center of the infringement lawsuit Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed in Japan back in September. Pocketpair has also shared that, in addition to 5 million yen each plus late fees, they're seeking an injunction against the game and compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit.The Pokemon Company cites three Japanese patents, No. 7545191, No. 7493117, and No. 7528390. From the translation of the claims, they appear to describe Pokemon-style activities, with 191 focused on the act of throwing a ball at characters in a field, 117 tied to aiming, and 390 on riding characters.... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6S2VS)
Photo: Vjeran Pavic, The Verge Think about how you like to play video games. Are you the type to sink into your couch, controller in hand, TV across the living room, for a few hours of Madden? If so, Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro is not for you. But if you find yourself leaning forward, creeping ever closer to the screen, looking for every clue hidden in the grass or every tiny twitchy graphical advantage, a $700 console might not be such a silly idea.On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Sean Hollister joins the show to talk about his experience with the PS5 Pro. We go through what you can expect from this super-powered new gaming machine, which games and which gamers might get the most from it, and why the PS5 Pro might have more in common with a gaming PC... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6S2PM)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge AMD launched its latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D to glowing reviews this week, but if you're looking to buy one then you might have to wait for more stock. The 9800X3D is currently sold out at Newegg and Best Buy, with the majority of Micro Center locations also sold out of AMD's best gaming processor.The situation is similar across Europe, too. In Germany most retailers have run out of stock, with new shipments not expected to arrive until later this month. In the UK Scan is accepting preorders for the 9800X3D, but stock won't arrive until November 29th. Overclockers in the UK says its stock is currently held at UK customs and that its first and second shipments are allocated and sold out. It's not expecting another shipment until December.
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by Jay Peters on (#6S2BC)
Illustration: The Verge Google Photos is making it easier to follow activity in your shared albums with a new Updates section. In the new section, you'll be able to see notifications like updates to a shared album and updates to a conversation within Google Photos, according to a support post from Google.The Updates section can be found by tapping a bell icon that replaces the Sharing button (the one that looks like two people). Updates are shown chronologically, and you'll be able to look at activity from today, yesterday, this week, this month, last month, and beyond." We want to streamline how you can view recent activity with an interface that makes albums, groups, and conversations more accessible."Google notes that if you want to access shared... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6S2BD)
Rivian's R2 vehicles will be powered by batteries made domestically in the US by South Korea's LG Energy Solution, the company announced in its third quarter earnings report.Rivian first revealed the new batteries back in March when it announced the R2 as its more affordable electric SUV that would start at $45,000. (It also announced the sportier R3 vehicle.) The cell is called 4695" due to its diameter of 46 millimeters and height of 95 millimeters - larger than Tesla's 4680 cells.The battery packs that Rivian currently uses in its R1T and R1S vehicles are assembled at its Normal, Illinois, factory using cells manufactured in South Korea by Samsung SDI. Now, the cells will be produced in the US to better comply with tax credit... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S2BE)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple is showing some love to Android users by finally displaying their message reactions correctly. Now when an Android user reacts to an RCS message from an iOS user, the selected emoji will appear in line with the message bubble on iOS - instead of archaically appearing as a separate line like this: to that wasn't supposed to happen.'"The Verge sent test messages and emoji reactions between iPhones running iOS 18.1 and different Android phones, confirming both devices now display reactions as intended. It's unclear when this change happened or whose side - Google or Apple - had to make adjustments to get it working.When RCS first launched widely on iOS in September, message reactions from Android users still weren't being... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S2BF)
The Sol 5 includes color temperature adjustments to help set a mood in a photo. | Image: Harlowe Harlowe's Sol 5 is a three-inch extending light that attaches to the MagSafe mount on your iPhone to improve the quality of your photos and selfies. It's available now for $79 or for $159 as part of a travel kit that includes a softbox diffuser to help reduce harsh shadows.The Sol 5 isn't a new idea. When the iPhone 12 debuted with MagSafe it opened the flood gates for new accessories including similar lights that could stay attached to the back of the phone - ready to improve a photo at a moment's notice. What the Sol 5 appears to do better is offer more flexibility and control.The Sol 5's glowing puck is connected to its magnetic mount with a short arm that extends its reach and lets it swivel 180 degrees and angle as needed. That... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S2BG)
Image: AOL via YouTube Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL's You've Got Mail" greeting, has died at age 74 after a long illness, according to local Ohio news station WKYC, where he was employed for many years.During a 2016 interview, Edwards recounted how he became the voice of AOL. His wife, who worked at Quantum Computer Services (which later became AOL), heard that the company was looking to add a voice to its software. I'd been an announcer throughout my entire broadcasting career, and she volunteered me," Edwards said.In 1989, Edwards recorded the once-ubiquitous phrase, along with Welcome," Files done," and Goodbye" on a cassette tape for just $200. It started off as a test just to see if it would catch on, and lo and behold, in the mid-90s, it had... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6S28T)
Image: Sega Sega is planning to delist a lot of its classic games from digital storefronts as of December 6th at 11:59PM PT.Steam will be affected the most, losing 62 titles including Crazy Taxi, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS into Dreams, and Sonic 3D Blast. Sega is pulling 12 titles from the Xbox store. The Nintendo eShop and the PlayStation Store will just" lose SEGA Genesis Classics - but that title includes more than 50 old Genesis games, so it still means a lot will be unavailable. You can see the full lists of what's getting pulled on a Sega support page.Any games that you have purchased will still be available to download and play after they're delisted from the storefronts, so if you've had your eye on any of... Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6S28V)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav thinks putting Donald Trump back in the White House could offer a friendlier environment for major media mergers. We have an upcoming new administration," Zaslav said during an earnings call on Thursday. It's too early to tell, but it may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different."Zaslav made the statement in response to a question about streaming partnerships, saying changes under the Trump administration could have a real positive and accelerated impact" on the entertainment industry. With more competition than ever in streaming, it's getting harder for services to get a viewer's undivided attention.This is an industry that really needs to... Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6S28W)
Apple's AirPods are an excellent option for iPhone owners looking for noise-canceling earbuds. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Black Friday might technically be a 24-hour event, but in reality, it's more like a month-long affair. That's because many retailers have already begun their sales, including Best Buy, which is dropping impressive deals ahead of its early sales event tomorrow. Today only, for example, Best Buy is offering the second-gen AirPods Pro with a USB-C for $169.99 ($80 off), which is just $1 shy of their lowest price to date. Walmart is also matching Best Buy's pricing, though the latter retailer won't begin offering Black Friday deals until November 11th.The current promo drops Apple's highest-end earbuds to roughly the same price as the open-style AirPods 4 with ANC, which are currently on sale for $168.99 ($11 off). That being said, Apple's... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6S251)
Image: BioWare After its success with Fallout and the recently released Like A Dragon: Yakuza show, Mass Effect is the next game Amazon wants to adapt. According to Variety, a show based on BioWare's military space opera RPG is officially in production at Amazon MGM Studios. Variety has reported that F9: The Fast Saga writer Daniel Casey has signed on to write the show with BioWare producer Mike Gamble serving as executive produce along with Ari Arad.Though BioWare released the Mass Effect Legendary Edition - a collection of the first three games updated for modern consoles - back in 2021, the Mass Effect series hasn't had an original entry since the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda back in 2017. After Andromeda, BioWare released Anthem, a... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6S252)
Image: TikTok A new Share to TikTok" feature in Spotify and Apple Music is making it easier for users to share songs, playlists, audiobooks, and more directly in content on the video platform.Using the integrations, TikTok users can create a direct link to content on the streaming platforms, similar to how they can share songs directly on Instagram Stories. When a user shares a Spotify track, for example, they can choose whether the song will appear as a video, photo, or Story post on TikTok. Viewers of the content can then click the song and navigate directly back to their preferred music app.It creates an easy link between TikTok and content on other platforms - previously if you wanted to share a playlist you made, you'd have to send a link via... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6S253)
Image: Laura Normand / The Verge Jeff Bezos might just be the biggest climate philanthropist out there, which is what makes his swift embrace of Donald Trump as the next US president particularly cringeworthy.Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love," Bezos posted on X, hours after Trump declared victory.The Amazon founder and chair launched his Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, committing $10 billion to funding action on climate change. The fund's website describes it as the largest philanthropic commitment ever to fight climate change and protect nature."
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S254)
The 8BitDo Retro 108 Mechanical Keyboard will be available starting on December 12th, 2024. | Image: 8BitDo 8BitDo has introduced a new version of the Retro Mechanical Keyboard it debuted last July with its original tenkeyless layout now expanded to include an integrated number pad. The new 8BitDo Retro 108 Mechanical Keyboard is available for preorder now through Amazon for $119.99 - $20 more expensive than the original - with the same NES or Famicom theming. Availability is expected to start on December 12th, 2024.The new 108-key version of the keyboard uses the same hot-swappable Kailh Box White V2 switches as the tenkeyless version, paired with dye-sub PBT keycaps. The integrated numpad includes additional Windows shortcut keys, a calculator lock button, and a screen lock button. The 8BitDo Retro 108 Mechanical Keyboard's compatibility is... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6S255)
The store will be around from November 8th to December 31st. | Image: Meta Meta announced it is opening up Meta Lab, a pop-up experiential retail space for its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses starting November 8th in Los Angeles. The temporary store will be around through the end of the year and allow customers to try out the glasses and customize their glasses cases as they shop. Meta Lab will also have local events with various creators, including stand-up comedians, live podcasts, and cooking classes.This particular retail store is an extension of the Meta Lab experience earlier this year at Connect 2024. At that time, Meta had unveiled the transparent versions of its Ray-Bans. The company says that over 90 percent of Connect attendees had attended, with more than 25 percent then purchasing a pair. It appears... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S21P)
The new AUDI" logo and E concept for China. | Image: Audi Audi is making a big change to its branding for the Chinese market with a new logo that lacks the automaker's famous four-ring emblem. Today in Shanghai, the company showed off the new AUDI" logo - yes, it's just Audi in all caps - on the front of a new E concept electric Sportback that notably lacks its broadly used E-Tron" branding.In a press release, Audi's CEO Gernot Dollner said it's hoping to tap into China's more tech-savvy" customers who expect leading connectivity as well as automated driving." Reuters reported in August that Audi was planning a rebrand for China, where the automaker sold less than 10,000 vehicles in the country in the first half of 2024. Image: Audi Image: Audi Audi... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S21Q)
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge iRobot, the parent company of robovac maker Roomba, is laying off around 105 employees. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission spotted by TechCrunch, iRobot says the job cuts will impact 16 percent of its current workforce.The company announced the news as part of its earnings report released on Wednesday. These moves, while challenging, have fundamentally changed the way we work with our partners to efficiently develop and build our robots," iRobot CEO Gary Cohen said during an earnings call.In January, iRobot laid off 350 workers after Amazon's deal to acquire the company fell through. The company also appointed Cohen as CEO, who shut down Roomba's subscription service iRobot Select.Additionally, Cohen said the... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6S21R)
Image: Disney / Lucasfilm The future of Star Wars movies just got a little more confusing. Deadline and Variety both report that Lucasfilm has tapped Simon Kinberg, best-known for his work on the X-Men films, to write and develop a new Star Wars trilogy. Kinberg will be working alongside Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy to produce them, according to the reports.Just what that trilogy will look like is unclear. Deadline says it could a continuation of the Skywalker story, which would make these episodes 10-12. But it could also be a brand-new saga that is tied in part to the other three Star Wars movies that Lucasfilm announced last year, which will be directed by James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Lucasfilm previously said that Obaid-Chinoy's... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6S21S)
The Fitbit Inspire 3 offers a bright, easy-to-read OLED display, which is a nice perk at this price. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Google's Pixel Watch 3 is still down to a record low price, but honestly not everybody wants to - or even needs to - fork out $275 on a smartwatch. That's especially true if all you really need is something to help you keeps tabs on basic health and fitness metrics basics. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a better, more affordable alternative, one that's currently down to its best price of $69.95 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Google.The comfortable tracker does a good job of delivering the essentials, helping you accurately keep tabs of basic health and fitness metrics while lasting up to 10 days on a single charge. It also comes with some extra conveniences found in pricier trackers, from a bright OLED screen to features like irregular... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S21T)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google could soon add AI Replies" to the Phone app's call-screening feature. A line of code spotted by 9to5Google suggests the app will generate new AI-powered smart replies" based on how someone responds to the call screen.Google widely rolled out its call-screening feature in Android 12. It allows you to filter calls and have Google Assistant respond with an audio message to ask who's calling, rather than having to pick up the call yourself. Late last year, Google added contextual replies," which use the context of someone's call to serve up customized audio responses. It also updated its call-screening feature in March with a way to respond even when the caller is silent. Image: Google These are some of the... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6S21V)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding AI-powered themes to Outlook today. Dubbed Themes by Copilot," this AI-powered feature will require a Copilot Pro or business license to add a more personalized look to Microsoft's email client.The themes will appear across Outlook for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and on the web, and they're designed to make Outlook more beautiful and approachable," according to Microsoft.You'll be able to create a theme based on the weather or locations, and they can dynamically update every few hours, each day, weekly, or monthly. If you've enabled location permissions in Outlook, the My Location theme will bring you imagery uniquely inspired by your locale, dynamically updating for you as you head out the door on a trip or... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6S1YD)
Netflix Toei's Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain from director Kenji Nakamura is one of this year's most visually stunning anime films, and it's making its way to Netflix in just a few weeks.Like the Mononoke series, Phantom in the Rain tells the tale of an unnamed merchant (Hiroshi Kamiya) who, in addition to selling medicines, specializes in exorcizing mononoke" - malevolent spirits who terrorize the living. When the Medicine Seller arrives at the imperial palace, his senses tell him that a mononoke is lurking somewhere deep within the building's innermost chambers.As a man, the Medicine Seller is forbidden from stepping foot inside of the imperial harem of women like Asa (Tomoyo Kurosawa) and Kame (Aoi Yki), who have gathered in... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6S1YE)
Image: The Verge; Getty Images On this week's episode of Decoder, we're talking about work. Specifically, where we work, how our expectations of working remotely were radically changed by the covid-19 pandemic, and how those expectations feel like they're on the verge of changing yet again. For many people, the pendulum has swung wildly between working fully remote and now a push to return to the office from their bosses, and there are a lot of theories about what might be motivating big companies to try and bring everyone back.Here on Decoder, I've talked to lots of CEOs about the benefits of working fully remote versus hybrid or having everybody back in the office over the past several years, and I've heard the full spectrum of responses. Some executives are... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6S1YF)
Image: Hello Games The developers at Hello Games are back with yet another update for No Man's Sky. Starting today, a select number of users will have the ability to play around in their NMS universe across a collection of platforms with the new cross-save functionality. According to the announcement, adding cross-saving was a bit of an undertaking for the development team.It's very common for players to rack up thousands of hours of saves," the announcement reads. Adding cross-save for us is a little bit like moving house, the longer people have lived there the more complicated it is to move them."No Man's Sky now supports cross-saves across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Series S/X, Xbox Game Pass, PC, Steam Deck, PSVR 1 / 2, PCVR, GOG, and Nintendo... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6S1YG)
The Nikon Z50II uses the same APS-C sensor as the original, but upgraded with a faster image processing engine. | Image: Nikon Nikon has announced a new version of its entry-level Z50 mirrorless camera. The Z50II offers improved shooting capabilities thanks to a new image processing engine, and a selection of 31 film-inspired looks" quickly accessible through a dedicated button. It will be available starting in late November for $909.95 for the camera body alone, but can also be bundled with lenses. Adding a 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens will boost the price to $1049.95, while a bundle with both a 16-50mm and a 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lens will be $1,299.95.That dedicated Picture Control button - the first on any Nikon camera - is the Z50II's most exciting upgrade. Pressing it enables a real-time preview of up to 31 built-in color presets" so you can see how each... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6S1YH)
Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The latest macOS beta changes the options you'll see when you use AirPlay to mirror your screen. As reported by MacRumors, the new beta version of macOS Sequoia 15.2 lets you select a single window or app on your Mac to display on another screen, like your TV - or maybe something else, like a Vision Pro headset or Apple's rumored smart display.macOS 15.2 is expected to be released publicly in early December. It also brings new Apple Intelligence features, including Image Playground and ChatGPT integration for Siri. It's also getting a new weather menu item that can give you the outside temperature at a glance.The new AirPlay experience includes a new menu pop-up asking what do you want to show" on Apple TV, with three large buttons... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6S1YJ)
Cath Virginia / The Verge Max will kick off its password-sharing crackdown over the next few months with very soft messaging" surrounding the change. During Warner Bros. Discovery's Q3 earnings call on Thursday, chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said this initial rollout will be followed by more progress in 2025 and 2026.Wiedenfels called password sharing a form of price rises," as the company is asking members who have not signed up, or multi-household members to pay a little bit more." This isn't the first time we've heard about Max's interest in password sharing, but now we have more details about when - and how - it will all begin.In March, JB Perrette, Warner Bros. Discovery's head of global streaming and games, said Max will start its crackdown... Continue reading...
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