The Verge - All Posts

It may not feature person detection like the new model, but the third-gen Blink Outdoor is still a good security camera.for the price. | Image: Amazon As we enter the last week of August, it's time to prepare for a jam-packed fall gadget season. Many companies, including Apple, will likely release new gadgets. Shopping events like Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday are set to take place, and of course, we can't forget the holidays. Altogether, it amounts to a very busy season, particularly for the mail carriers who'll be delivering all your purchases - and for the porch pirates, who'll try to steal all of them.If you want to keep your packages secure, the third-gen Blink Outdoor security camera with the Sync Module 2 included is on sale starting at $49.99 ($50 off) from Amazon and Best Buy. The last-gen budget-friendly camera will help you keep tabs on your goods even... Continue reading...

But has it? | Photo by Fabian Sommer / Picture Alliance via Getty Images A year ago at Berlin's IFA tech trade show (think European CES), Verge reporter Jon Porter witnessed a Google Nest Hub control an Apple HomeKit smart plug. This lightbulb moment for the smart home" was the first public demonstration of Matter. The new smart home standard is designed to fix the biggest issue facing tech in our homes: interoperability, and witnessing two fierce competitors in the space working together was exciting. Twelve months later, on the eve of IFA 2023, we're still waiting for that lightbulb to turn on across the industry.The smart home remains fragmented. Despite being developed by the biggest names in the industry - Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and more - Matter has yet to deliver on its main promise. You... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is experimenting with a text-to-speech feature for Chrome's reading mode on desktop, as reported by Android Police. I sometimes use a similar feature in Instapaper, and in Chrome, I could see it being a useful tool to listen to articles in the browser I'm already using while I work.The feature can apparently be found in Chrome Canary, Google's bleeding edge version of Chrome, according to X user Leopeva64. If you have the feature, you can click a play button at the top of an article you're looking at in reading mode to have Google read the text. Leopeva64 also shared a link to a video showing off the feature on Reddit.

Google Keep is a simple, solid note-taking app -hopefully Google doesn't kill it. | Image: Google Good news for Android-toting Google Keep users: you're finally getting the text formatting options the app has so desperately needed for years. Google announced this week that the ability to bold, italicize, and otherwise transform text in your notes is rolling out now, and you should start to see it in the app soon. (I don't have it yet, but Mishaal Rahman and a few others actually spotted the feature ahead of its official launch, so it seems to be coming fast.)The new Keep features are more in the should have been here all along" category than they are shiny new things, but they're still a welcome addition to the app. And actually, Google has been paying an unusual amount of attention to Keep recently: users got a new homescreen... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) has officially gone into effect. Starting on August 25th, 2023, tech giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and more must comply with sweeping legislation that holds online platforms legally accountable for the content posted to them.Even though this new law was passed in the EU, we'll likely see far-reaching global effects as companies adjust their policies to comply. Here's what exactly the DSA does and how the EU plans on enforcing it.What is the Digital Services Act?The overarching goal of the DSA is to foster safer online environments. Under the new rules, online platforms must implement ways to prevent and remove posts containing illegal goods, services, or content while... Continue reading...

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT reference design. The lesser 7700 XT won't be available with this AMD cooler. | Image: AMD Is AMD beginning to give Nvidia a run for its money? Continue reading...

Image: Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3's first official patch is apparently so large its patch notes exceed Steam's character limit. The patch, out now, addresses over 1,000 bugs, balancing, flow issues and much, much more." You can read the full but spoiler-heavy patch notes here, while BG3's Steam page has a truncated but redacted version of the notes here.The most prominent fix in the patch deals with height issues that arise when short-statured characters like halflings and gnomes try to romance a taller race.We're bringing back Short King Summer with better kissing contact for short races!" Listen, that's developer Larian's words, not mine. They could have been mine, but they're not. Larian Studios BG3 will now let the short... Continue reading...

Screenshots of the note-taking app Obsidian. | Image: Obsidian This is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer. Sign up here.Today let's step outside the news cycle and turn our attention toward a topic I'm deeply invested in but only rarely write about: productivity platforms. For decades now, software tools have promised to make working life easier. But on one critical dimension - their ability to improve our thinking - they don't seem to be making much progress at all.Meanwhile, the arrival of generative artificial intelligence could make the tools we use more powerful than ever - or they could turn out to be just another mirage.To understand where things went wrong, I want to focus on the humble note-taking app: the... Continue reading...

The black model was on sale last week, but we all know the transparent ones are what you want. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It was a big deal when the Beats Studio Buds Plus fell to a new all-time low last week, but I think it's an even bigger deal now that all three colors are available at that price - since the coolest earbuds by far are the see-through version.You can get the Beats Studio Buds Plus in black, ivory, or transparent for $129.95 ($40 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The latter retailer lists the deal as ending tomorrow, so it's a solid bet that today is your one chance until this deal swings around again.The Studio Buds Plus may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to wireless earbuds, but they offer good sound, noise cancellation, and longer battery life than their predecessors. They may not be quite as good as Apple's latest AirPods... Continue reading...

If you're tired of all this purple, there's an easy fix. | Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Look, no disrespect to Apple's default desktop wallpapers, but staring at the same combination of orange and yellow all day, every day, can get a bit boring. If you've long felt that your office life could use a bit of spicing up, a new wallpaper could be just the thing you need.I'm here to show you how. It only takes a few seconds, and I'll be with you every step of the way.How to change your Mac wallpaperFirst, you'll want to open System Settings. This is in the Apple menu on the top left of your screen.From there:

Image: Dropbox Dropbox said in a blog post that it's implementing a metered model on its Advanced plan in response to customers who have been using Dropbox for cryptocurrency mining, pooling storage for personal use cases," and others reselling it.Because of that, Dropbox is getting rid of its as much space as you need" offer. Customers who sign up for a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will instead receive 15TB of storage across their whole team. As for businesses currently on the plan, the company says those using less than 35TB of storage will get to keep that amount, plus an additional 5TB credit of pooled storage, for five years at no additional charge to their existing plan."Dropbox will throw in an additional 5TB of storage... Continue reading...

Downed power lines block a road as people feed chickens outside a burnt home in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii, on August 11th, 2023. | Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images Maui County has filed suit against Hawaiian Electric, alleging that the utility is responsible for catastrophic damages from wildfires that tore through Maui this month.The utility acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning" on August 7th, Maui County alleges. The suit says Hawaiian Electric's downed power lines, while still energized, caused the fire by igniting dry grass and brush. It also alleges that the utility failed to maintain the power grid, causing systemic failures" that sparked three blazes on August 8th. The county is suing for civil damages affecting public property.The utility acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical... Continue reading...

Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge News publishers have jumped headfirst into artificial intelligence, using generative AI tools to produce bland travel guides, inaccurate film blogs, and SEO-bait explainers. By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers?Now, a group of tech outlets is attempting to incorporate generative AI into its websites, though readers won't find a machine's byline anytime soon. On August 1st, an AI chatbot tool was added to Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive, promising that readers can get [their] tech questions answered by AI, based only on stories and reviews by our experts."The AI chatbot, dubbed Smart Answers, appears across nearly all articles and on the homepages of the sites, which... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Out with the Wilds, in with the Last Resort. Fortnite's latest season kicks off today - bringing the battle royale game up to Chapter 4: Season 4 - and, as teased yesterday, this new drop comes with a heist theme. But not just any heist: this time around, the island has been given a handful of luxurious locations thanks to a new character.Here's the basic rundown of the changes and new lore (yes, Fortnite has lore):

Donald Trump posted his first tweet after getting banned from the platform last year. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Donald Trump has made his return to X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.On Thursday, the former president turned himself in at the Fulton County jail on over a dozen charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Over the last five months, Trump has faced criminal charges in four separate cases, but the most recent booking was the first and only time his mugshot was taken. He took the opportunity to make his first post on X since January 8th, 2021. Image: Screenshot of Twitter / X The most recent two posts from @realDonaldTrump That was the day he was permanently banned from the platform by its former management, with the company citing a risk of further... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is finally starting to add support for older Nest Cams to the Google Home app, starting with the first-generation Nest Cam Indoor from 2015, according to a post from Google on Thursday.The support is available in the public preview of the Google Home app, and you can find instructions on how to participate in that program on Google's website. But it might be awhile until you can actually use your Nest Cam Indoor with the app. Once you're in the preview, you'll see a prompt in the Public Preview version of the Home app when you're able to transfer your camera (it may take a couple of weeks as we slowly add more Nest Cam Indoor users each week) and it will guide you through the process," Google says in its post about the update.... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is making some changes to ads transparency and its data that's available for researchers to comply with Europe's Digital Services Act, according to a blog post published Thursday.Regarding ads transparency, the company says that it will be expanding" its Ads Transparency Center to meet specific DSA provisions and providing additional information on targeting for ads served in the European Union," Google's Laurie Richardson and Jennifer Flannery O'Connor write in the post. The center, which Google launched earlier this year, is a searchable repository that lets you find out more about the ads you see on Google's platforms.For researchers, the two execs say that Google is expanding data access for researchers" who might be... Continue reading...

Image: Walmart Wing, the drone delivery service owned by Alphabet, is teaming up with Walmart to offer deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In an announcement on Thursday, Walmart says the partnership will allow the retailer to deliver to an additional 60,000 homes.In the coming weeks, Wing will start delivering out of a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas, before expanding to a second nearby store by the end of this year. The company will make deliveries to homes within six miles of the stores, with deliveries arriving in under 30 minutes." Even though Wing says the drones are highly automated," operators will still keep an eye on them from a remote location.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is getting closer to releasing a new settings homepage in Windows 11. In an update rolled out to Windows Insiders on the Beta Channel, Microsoft added a homepage with interactive cards" that let you quickly jump into various settings, such as device personalization, Bluetooth controls, account recovery, and more.The page will also surface recommended settings that change based on your specific usage patterns," giving you shortcuts to whatever settings you use the most, such as display, sound, and search permissions. You can see how all of this might look in the image embedded below. Image: Microsoft The new homepage also features recommended settings tailored to your activity. It looks like... Continue reading...

Imagine this but not outside. | Image: Google Google and Taito have added a new indoor mode" to their Space Invaders AR game, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. In this new mode for Space Invaders: World Defense, the game autopilots your ship through a pregenerated world so you can focus on using your thumb to shoot the aliens.The new indoor mode was kind of fun for the few minutes I messed around with it. The game has a charming wireframe-y vibe, and mashing the screen to blast the Space Invaders was satisfying. I'm not a huge fan of waving my phone around outside to play a game, so I appreciate that this indoor mode is an option.

Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa. | Image: Monarch Tractor Praveen Penmetsa is bringing the AI craze to farms. His company, Monarch Tractor, makes an electric tractor powered by an Nvidia AI platform that allows the vehicle to drive itself through farm fields and work autonomously. The first machines rolled out of the company's Livermore, California headquarters last year.Now, Monarch Tractor is scaling up production in partnership with a Foxconn plant in Ohio, and Penmetsa is coming to the Code Conference to talk about it. He'll chat with The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel about making AI accessible, building in the US, and broader concerns around tractor repairability as their technology becomes all the more advanced.Penmetsa joins a host of other tech and business leaders who'll be... Continue reading...

In an aerial view, burned cars and homes are seen in a surrounding that was destroyed by a wildfire on August 18th, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Tech giants have accumulated vast properties across Hawaii while Native Hawaiian residents fight to keep their land. It's a fight that's heating up in the aftermath of the deadly fires on Maui. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is testing a new YouTube feature that lets you hum or record a song to search for it.If you're part of the YouTube experiment for the feature, you can hum or record three or more seconds of a song so that Google can try to identify it, according to a support page. Once YouTube identifies the song, it will show you relevant content about that song. Basically, it's a Google-y take on Shazam, which is owned by Apple.Not everyone will have access to the experiment at first, though. Google says it's rolling out to a small percentage of people across the globe who watch YouTube on Android devices."This feature isn't entirely new for Google, as it introduced a hum-to-search feature in the Google app and Google Assistant in 2020.... Continue reading...

If your smartwatch is stinky, it's time to give it a quick clean. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When was the last time you cleaned your smartwatch? These are devices you wear 24/7, and if you took off your watch right now, there's a good chance you'd find dead skin, sweat, oil, and grime all over it. A gunky sensor array isn't the best for health tracking, and crusty charging contacts are also less than ideal. If you've experienced any skin irritation or smelled something funky - this may be why.Plus, I hate to break it to you, but your straps are also filthier than you think. A recent study found that nearly 95 percent of smartwatch wristbands contained high levels of bacteria, including Staphylococcus, E.coli, and Pseudomonas - particularly on porous materials like rubber, plastic, and fabric.The good news is that cleaning... Continue reading...

These are Meta's old Ray-Ban Stories - not the new ones. | Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge How will Meta convince you to buy its next Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses after a reported 90 percent of buyers abandoned them after purchase? Meta has a plan! The second-gen glasses will let you livestream video to viewers who can talk back to you.Tech journalist Janko Roettgers says he's seen internal documents that show the second-gen Ray-Ban Stories will not only let you stream video directly to Facebook and Instagram but also let viewers whisper in your ear.Live streamers will be able to directly communicate with their audience, with the glasses relaying comments via audio over the built-in headphones," Roettgers writes at Lowpass. The device should also have improved battery life and better cameras" - that's a quote from... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel Open-source AI model repository Hugging Face just got massive investments from Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Salesforce as demand for AI model access grows.Hugging Face, which acts like GitHub for machine learning and other AI models, codes, and datasets, raised $235 million in a Series D fundraising round, reported CNBC. This latest financing brings Hugging Face's valuation to $4.5 billion, just one of the many businesses benefitting from investors' interest in generative AI.Investors in this round included Google, Amazon, AMD, Intel, IBM, Nvidia, and Salesforce, all of whom have invested significantly into generative AI foundation models or processors running these models.Clement Delangue, Hugging Face CEO, tells The Verge the new... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is laying off a little under" 7 percent of its workforce, affecting about 5,000 roles at the company. The move will mostly impact workers in corporate, back-office, and technology roles, with those in retail or customer care positions remaining unaffected.Other carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, are contending with layoffs, but T-Mobile specifically promised to keep adding jobs following its merger with Sprint in 2020. Despite this commitment, the company laid off hundreds of workers shortly after, while a 2021 report from The Wall Street Journal found that T-Mobile employed 5,000 fewer people at the end of 2020 when compared to before it merged with Sprint.What it takes to attract and retain customers is materially more... Continue reading...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2020. | Image: Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel / Tribune News Service via Getty Images The US Department of Justice is suing Elon Musk's SpaceX over allegations that it discriminated against asylees and refugees in hiring. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the DOJ claims that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX discouraged refugees and asylees from applying to the company by wrongly stating that SpaceX can only hire U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents."The lawsuit states SpaceX failed to fairly consider" and refused to hire" the asylees and refugees who ended up applying anyway. It also alleges that SpaceX wrongly claimed" that the US's export control laws allowed it to only hire US citizens and lawful residents. Additionally, the DOJ claims SpaceX hired only" US citizens and green card holders... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Sony Interactive Entertainment, the division of Sony that's responsible for PlayStation, is acquiring the high-end headphones maker Audeze, according to a press release. Sony says that the acquisition will strengthen SIE's efforts to continue innovating when it comes to the audio experience of PlayStation games."Audeze will operate independently and still make products for multiple platforms, though Sony notes that it will be benefiting from being a part of the PlayStation ecosystem." Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.Sony's press release highlights how Audeze's headphones use patented technologies and unique planar magnetic drivers to deliver an outstanding sound experience" for consumers and recording professionals. Sony... Continue reading...

The Beats Studio Pro look similar to their predecessor but sound and drown noise out better. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It's not often you see significant discounts land on gadgets that were just released a month ago, which is why even we're taken aback by today's Beats Studio Pro deal. After a long six-year wait, a new pair of Apple-owned Beats headphones were finally released in July, and they're already a whopping $100 off at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.The new over-ears look similar to their predecessor, the Studio 3, but are more comfortable with better noise cancellation and a natural-sounding transparency mode. They're also the first Apple headphones to support lossless audio over USB-C, which allows for improved sound quality, while new features like spatial audio with dynamic head tracking also help. Admittedly, their noise cancellation and... Continue reading...

The fourth generation of Blink's wireless outdoor camera adds person detection. | Image: Blink Amazon's budget smart camera company Blink is bringing person detection to its flagship battery-powered camera. The Blink Outdoor 4 smart security camera also comes with a new design, upgraded image quality, and improved motion detection, while keeping the brand's signature two-year battery life on just two AA batteries.The camera launches today, August 24th, priced at $119.99 for a one-camera system with a Sync Module 2, and $109.99 for an add-on camera. (The cameras require the module.)Person detection on a security camera is helpful to reduce unwanted alerts by providing the option to be notified only if someone is outside your property, not just something like a cat walking past or a tree blowing in the wind.Blink's is powered... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery's Max service is making a bigger push into news with a new 24/7 CNN stream that's scheduled to debut on September 27th. It's called CNN Max, and in a press release this morning, the company said the new service will be part of an open beta for news that will enable experimentation with product features, content offerings, and original storytelling, all with the input and feedback from the Max community."CNN Max will be available across all of Max's subscription tiers. But you shouldn't confuse it with CNN's linear cable network; this isn't quite that. You'll see many familiar faces; Max says CNN Max will feature some of CNN's tentpole shows like Anderson Cooper 360, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Amanpour, and The... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is getting ready to launch its 14th Gen desktop processors later this year and now MSI has accidentally spilled all the details. VideoCardz spotted a training video on MSI's YouTube channel that includes important details on Intel's unannounced 14th Gen processors, codenamed Raptor Lake-S Refresh. MSI says on average Intel's 14th Gen processors will be three percent faster than the 13th Gen, but the Core i7 will see a big 17 percent bump to multithread workloads.The video, which The Verge was able to briefly watch before it was made private, reveals that the core counts of the Core i5-14600K and Core i9-14900K will remain the same as their 13th Gen equivalents, but the Core i7-14700K is getting a boost to its performance cores.... Continue reading...

Several users have been contacted by scammers using the identify of real Waymo employees. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Several users of Adobe's art-themed social media platform Behance have encountered an elaborate scam in recent weeks involving fraudulent job offerings from people claiming to be recruiters at autonomous driving tech company Waymo.Detailed information about how the job scam is being operated was published by u/Impressive-Fox-6719 on the Behance subreddit, warning other Behance users to be wary of fake Waymo recruiters offering high-paying design roles. According to the post, the scam is a common fraud scheme that involves sending users a fake job confirmation following an interview" on Skype, and a cheque to begin purchasing office equipment. After confirming the deposit to the scammers, the money is then instead sent to another person... Continue reading...

Renders from the Android app show a camera with a similar design to that seen in the FCC listing. | Image: Philips Hue via Dave Zatz First came a report from a reputable blog, then came a series of blurry images via the FCC, and now The Verge can exclusively reveal renders of Philips Hue's forthcoming entry into the smart home security market. The images come to us via Dave Zatz of ZatzNotFunny, who spotted them in an update to Philips Hue's Android app released this week, and suggest that the smart lighting company is set to imminently announce its entry into the smart home security market.The images show one Nest-style smart home security camera of a total of four that the company is rumored to be preparing for release, and its design matches up with photos that leaked via the FCC earlier this week. Alongside the images of the camera, there's a render of what... Continue reading...

Microsoft says it's investigating reports of a Blue Screen of Death with an UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR" error message that's been cropping up on some Windows 11 PCs after installing an update released earlier this week. The latest KB5029351 update includes the usual monthly fixes, but it appears to be causing issues when used with some MSI motherboards.We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft. We will provide an update when more information is available," reads a support note on Microsoft's Windows health center.I've personally experienced this issue on a Windows 11 gaming PC, which is running an Intel Core i9-13900KS on an MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi motherboard. A number of Reddit users have... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail may add an extra verification step when you try to do things like adding a forwarding address and editing your filters, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The extra step could help prevent a bad actor who has access to your account from filtering emails in ways you don't expect or forwarding emails to a new address without you knowing.Here are the specific scenarios where Google may add the additional step, from Google's post: