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by Wes Davis on (#6E0NB)
The SwitchBot Curtain 3 on a telescoping rod. | Image: SwitchBot SwitchBot has announced the Curtain 3, a smart curtain controller it says will be quieter than the Curtain 2, and twice as strong. The company also claims a new, improved (and separately available) solar panel will offer true unlimited battery power," something the previous panel didn't quite achieve. The Curtain 3 and the SwitchBot Solar Panel 3 will retail for $89.99 (89.99 / 89.99) and $25.99 (25.99 / 25.99), respectively, when they release on August 25th.The Curtain 3 is, as the name suggests, the third iteration of the company's smart curtain controller. It can now pull up to 36 pounds (16kg), according to the company, which is more than double the Curtain 2's 17lb weight limit. Like the Curtain 2, the new curtain controller... Continue reading...
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2024-11-26 01:45 |
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6E0KH)
Good Omens second season highlights how good queer and disabled representation could be in the fantasy genre. | Image: Amazon Warning: Spoilers ahead for season 2 of Amazon Prime's Good OmensWith the release of the second season of Good Omens on July 28th, writer Neil Gaiman has officially (and rather devastatingly) put any accusations of queerbaiting to bed. Leaving very little room for interpretation, Crowley and Aziraphale - the respectively demonic and angelic main characters of the Amazon fantasy-comedy series - engaged in some distressingly emotional snogging during the last moments of this season's final episode, thereby ending over 30 years of speculation about the nature of their relationship. The fight is over. The shippers have won.Well, not just the shippers.I'll provide some context for those of you who aren't chronically online: shipping"... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6E0GQ)
The Verge X, which was formerly known as Twitter until its recent rebranding, is having a problem displaying old posts that came with images attached or any hyperlinks converted through Twitter's built-in URL shortener. It's unclear when the problem started, but it was highlighted on Saturday afternoon in a post by Tom Coates, and a Brazilian vtuber, @DaniloTakagi, had pointed it out a couple of days earlier.As it is, it appears to affect tweets published prior to December 2014, judging by posts visible on my own account. No videos are affected (Twitter only added native image support in 2011 and built-in videos in 2016), but links to YouTube, for example, are now just text with a t.co URL that doesn't work. Image: Screenshot... Continue reading...
by Monica Chin on (#6E0GS)
I've never seen a laptop that looks quite like this. I've also never seen a laptop with its particular set of problems. Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6E0GR)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome back to issue No. 2 of Installer, your guide to all the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. Thanks so much to everyone who's been emailing, commenting, sending feedback, and telling me what you want to see in this series going forward. I love chatting with you all about what you're building, what you're binge-watching, and everything else.Two housekeeping things: first, a bunch of you told me you didn't like the whole (link)" thing, both for aesthetic and accessibility reasons. Fair and fair! So we're just scrapping it. From now on, it'll be simpler: I'll bold the most important link - the direct link to the thing we're talking about - and regular link everything else. Thanks to everyone who emailed and... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E06J)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Friday that AI-generated artwork can't be copyrighted, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. She was presiding over a lawsuit against the US Copyright Office after it refused a copyright to Stephen Thaler for an AI-generated image made with the Creativity Machine algorithm he'd created.Thaler had tried multiple times to copyright the image as a work-for-hire to the owner of the Creativity Machine," which would have listed the author as the creator of the work and Thaler as the artwork's owner, but he was repeatedly rejected.After the Office's final rejection last year, Thaler sued the Office, claiming its denial was arbitrary, capricious ... and not in accordance with the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E03H)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla owners with iPhones can now use Siri to trigger Apple Shortcuts automations without turning to paid third-party apps like Tessie to do so. The Tesla app's newest update, version 4.24.0, dropped with a release note saying Access your vehicle controls and climate from the Apple Shortcuts app."To use Siri with Shortcuts, all you have to do is invoke Apple's digital assistant and say the name of your automation. It's a little clunkier than actual Siri integration, because to trigger Shortcuts automations, you have to memorize the names you've given them and repeat them verbatim, but it's probably the best Tesla owners will get, at least for now.Still, Shortcuts support is a little undersold in the release notes. You can... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E01J)
Image: The Writers Guild of America The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) wrote in an update yesterday that bargaining talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are ongoing after the two resumed negotiations just over a week ago (via Deadline). The WGA also says the talks will continue next week.The guild and movie studios re-started negotiations after meeting earlier this month for the first time since the strike began over three months ago (and less than a month after the Screen Actors Guild also began striking). The strike hasn't been without its toll. Earlier this week, Amazon reportedly blamed a questionable choice to re-cancel its A League of Their Own TV series on the strike, and a remake of Fritz Lang's silent film classic Metropolis was... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6DZZG)
Multiple retailers are discounting the PS5 right now, too, meaning you don't necessarily need to buy it from Sony. | Image: Sony Deals on the PlayStation 5 come once in a blue moon. That's why we're here to remind you that Sony's excellent PS5 promo - which has been running since August 6th as part of Sony's larger summer sale - is set to end tonight at 11:59PM PT. Until then, you can buy the disc-based PS5 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Sony for $449, its lowest price yet.Sony's ongoing promo is specifically for the standard model (not the Digital Edition), which allows you to play both digital and physical games thanks to a built-in Blu-ray drive. It's an excellent console overall, with a trove of exclusives to take advantage of, a terrific controller, and a solid subscription service in the form of PlayStation Plus. Obviously, it would be better if it was... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6DZXA)
Madden 24 has some audio issues right now. | Image: Electronic Arts PlayStation 5 and PC Madden 24 players are dealing with annoying popping and crackling audio and disappearing sound channels. A post on the Madden subreddit says that, during games, half the audio cuts out then returns with some static whenever a play ends and a cutscene shows. The issues appear to mostly affect gamers with surround sound audio setups, whether via speakers, soundbars, or headphones.The Verge's Nilay Patel confirmed the issue was happening on his PS5 while using Dolby Atmos rig, and continues even after switching the PS5's output to just stereo. Throughout the Reddit post, users say they hear loud popping sounds every few seconds or whenever they pause the game, suggesting that the problem comes from a change in output.... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6DZXB)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you've treated the kids in your household to an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you'll of course want them to have fun - but you'll also want to put limits on what they can do on the console, especially if they're younger children.These consoles are built with all the necessary options for adding child profiles and managing what those profiles can do. The features all tie into a larger Microsoft Family Safety feature that works across multiple devices, and it's free to use as part of your existing Microsoft (and Xbox) account.The level of detail you can go into is impressive, right down to which specific websites your child can look at. If you don't want to configure every option individually, there are preset profiles you can... Continue reading...
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by Jessica Lucas on (#6DZXC)
TikTok's dissociative identity disorder community thinks doctors don't know what's going on. Some doctors feel the same about them. Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DZ0A)
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Baldur's Gate 3 is a delight on Steam Deck - even though I sometimes can't tell what's going on.I suspected that might be the case going in. Everything I had seen about Baldur's Gate 3 before I downloaded it promised a vast, sprawling adventure, and all the streams of the game I watched on Twitch featured incredibly detailed characters and worlds. I'm sure most of those streamers were running the game on top-of-the-line rigs. I suspected that the Steam Deck, which recently had some troubles with The Last of Us Part I, might not be the best place for me to play Larian Studios' new RPG.That said, the game just looked like so much fun, and since it won't be coming to PS5 until September, I really wanted to find a way to play it sooner. I... Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6DZGP)
Yuga Labs owns Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other NFT series. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Two of the biggest names in the NFT space are clashing over the future of how the tokens' creators get paid. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, said today that it would block the ability to trade its newer NFTs on OpenSea by February 2024. The move is meant to protest OpenSea's decision to stop collecting royalties on behalf of NFT creators - a huge blow to Yuga's business.One of the big promises of NFTs was that their original creator would get a cut every time they were resold. For companies like Yuga, which saw explosive prices on its Bored Ape collection for a time, those royalty fees added up to tens of millions of dollars (a blog post suggests the number was $35 million for Bored Apes alone just... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZF2)
MindGeek was acquired by a private equity company earlier this year. | Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic MindGeek, the owner of Pornhub and other adult entertainment websites, has a new name: Aylo. The company says the rebrand represents the need for a fresh start," as reported earlier by the New York Post.After MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo stepped down from the company last year, the private equity company Ethical Capital Partners took over MindGeek this past March.The decision to rebrand the company as Aylo, comes in response to the need for a fresh start and a renewed commitment to innovation, diverse and inclusive adult content, and trust and safety," the post reads. The new brand identity will be implemented across all company communications, marketing materials and digital platforms."Even with a total... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DZF3)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge California has significantly expanded a pilot program allowing citizens to get a digital driver's license / identification card that's accessible on their mobile phones (via 9to5Mac). The digital ID, which the California DMV is calling an mDL" (mobile driver's license), can be used for things like getting through airport security or proving your age when buying alcohol.The free pilot is now open to 1.5 million participants, according to the DMV's website for the program. You can sign up for it by downloading the CA DMV Wallet" app on iOS and Android.If you choose to sign up for the state's digital IDs, there's a few caveats to be aware of. The DMV stresses that you'll still need to carry your physical ID or driver's license given... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZF4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A report from ad quality transparency platform Adalytics suggests that YouTube served adult-focused ads on almost 100 videos considered made for kids." Some of these ads reportedly involved content inappropriate for children, such as car wrecks, medical injuries, and clips from TV-MA shows. Adalytics found that the websites linked in the ads transmitted cookies to their devices that could serve targeted ads to kids, too.As pointed out by Adalytics, Google's own policies say ads on content made for kids must not use third-party trackers or collect personal information without getting permission from a parent. Dan Taylor, Google's vice president of global ads, reiterates this policy in a response on Google's website, where he calls... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6DZCW)
Don't buy the SanDisk Extreme. | Image: Western Digital Eleven days ago, we sent these questions to Western Digital's head of PR and published them publicly on The Verge:
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by Adi Robertson on (#6DZCX)
Image: The Verge Elon Musk says X's - formerly Twitter's - block feature is on the chopping block, repeating his long-standing gripe against the basic social networking feature. Block is going to be deleted as a feature', except for DMs," Musk said in an X reply on Friday. He followed up with another post: It makes no sense."Musk has made his feelings about blocking known in the past months. In June, he said that Twitter should remove blocking in favor of a stronger form of mute," and he's complained about large block lists and mass blocking campaigns against users who subscribe to Twitter Blue. But he also has a long history of promises that are delayed or never implemented - and removing the block" feature might be a particularly unpopular... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DYC4)
Illustration: The Verge A Microsoft travel guide for Ottawa, Canada, prominently recommended tourists visit the Ottawa Food Bank, as spotted by Paris Marx until it was removed after this article was originally published. (You can see the article in full here.) The food bank was the No. 3 recommendation on the list, sitting behind the National War Memorial and above going to an Ottawa Senators hockey game.We reported in 2020 about Microsoft laying off journalists at Microsoft News and MSN to replace them with artificial intelligence. However, the company says its content is not generated by the AI we're now used to in the form of large language models powering tools like the Bing chatbot or ChatGPT. Instead, the content in Microsoft's story was generated... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6DZAF)
The lauded successors to the original Beats Studio Buds launched just over three months ago. | Image: Beats Things move quickly in the deals space - and I'm not simply referring to how fast AirPods and certain retro-fueled controllers can sell out when they become available or dip below a certain price threshold. The Beats Studio Buds Plus launched a mere three months ago, yet they're already on sale in black for just $129.95 ($40 off) at Woot, which is an additional $20 off the sale price we saw during Prime Day.The Beats Studio Buds Plus are a much-needed revamp of the original Beats Studio Buds from 2021. They offer better sound, improved noise cancellation, and superior battery life, affording you up to six hours of listening per charge (or nine with ANC turned off). They're a great option if you own both Apple and Android devices, too,... Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6DZAG)
Image: Lamborghini The concept, which was revealed during Monterey Car Week, is a preview of the Italian supercar company's fourth pure EV model, coming in 2028. Continue reading...
by Justine Calma on (#6DZAH)
Hurricane Hilary swirls off the coast of Mexico as smoke covers the central United States. | Image: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(CSU / CIRA & NOAA) The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for southern California today as Hurricane Hilary barrels toward the US and Mexico. This is the first time this kind of alert has been issued for sunny SoCal, which is more prone to drought and fire this time of year than hurricanes.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours," according to the National Hurricane Center. The watch is in place from the Mexico-California border to the Los Angeles-Orange county line as well as for Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours"There are... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6DZ71)
Image: Disney Ahsoka, Disney's next big Disney Plus Star Wars show, will now premiere on Tuesday nights at 9PM ET / 6PM PT, Disney announced on Friday. That means the first two episodes of the show will now be available the evening of Tuesday, August 22nd.It's only a slight shift from Ahsoka's original premiere date of Wednesdays. But since Disney Plus shows typically come out in the middle of the night, this new air time might make episodes easier to watch the moment they debut.Personally, I'm a huge fan of the change. I'm old and go to bed early, so it's hard for me to stay up late to watch new episodes of shows right when they air. Since I live on the West Coast, I can now watch Ahsoka at the extremely reasonable time of 6PM PT and still be in... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6DXG0)
Image: Windows Report Valve's Steam Deck might be getting more competition. Last month, Windows Central reported that Lenovo is working on a handheld gaming PC that runs Windows called the Legion Go. On Wednesday, Windows Report published what appear to be the first images of the upcoming device. And on Friday, Windows Report shared more leaked photos - including one showing AR glasses that might work with the device.Based on the images from Wednesday, Lenovo's take on a PC gaming handheld looks similar to devices such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, but it also has a lot in common with the Nintendo Switch. According to Windows Report, the Legion Go has an eight-inch screen, images show two Joy-Con-like controllers that can be removed, and it even... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6DZ72)
Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco collided with a San Francisco Fire Department truck late Thursday, CNBC reports. A passenger riding inside the Cruise self-driving vehicle suffered non-severe injuries" and was transported in an ambulance, according to an official company post on X (formally Twitter) this morning.The company says its car, which was driverless at the time, entered the intersection on a green light" before getting struck by an emergency vehicle." The post noted that the fire department vehicle was on its way to an emergency scene, suggesting the possibility that the Cruise vehicle did not yield to an emergency vehicle. The crash occurred around 10PM local time in the Tenderloin district of the city.We are... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6DZ73)
Mondelez logo with Oreos. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Creating an ad can be tricky and costly, and more brands see generative AI as a means to make that process less painful.Reuters reported large advertising agencies like WPP and multinational corporations like Unilever look to generative AI to cut marketing costs while making more ads.WPP clients Nestle and Mondelez, makers of Oreo and Cadbury, used OpenAI's DALL-E 2 to make ads. One ad for Cadbury ran in India with an AI-generated video of the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan inviting pedestrians to shop at stores. WPP's CEO told Reuters savings from generative AI can be 10 to 20 times."Unilever created its own generative AI advertising tools and used them to write spiels for one of its shampoo products.But as more brands look to... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZ74)
Users woke to find that their Bambu printers created designs all by themselves. | Image: Bambu Bambu will issue multiple fixes for the unusual bug that caused some of its 3D printers to start pumping out designs by themselves - and in some cases, damaging the printer in the process. In an official blog post, Bambu details multiple new features that could prevent the 3D printers from going rogue in the future.On Wednesday, some Bambu users woke to find that their 3D printers had created new unwanted prints overnight - without any prompts or supervision by users. Not only did those prints damage some devices when they attempted to print a second design atop ones they already printed out but it also raised concerns about potential fire risks. Bambu traced the issue back to a cloud server outage - specifically, they sent extra MQTT... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6DZ3X)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Xbox Series S may sometimes go a little unloved, but Microsoft's tiny white box isn't just a QHD-capable console with 512GB of storage - it's also a veritable deals machine. That's because, unlike its bigger sibling, the Xbox Series X, the Series S often sees some worthwhile sales. Right now, for instance, Target is offering a special online-only bundle that includes a free digital game when you buy the Xbox Series S for $297.99.In all, there are about 50 eligible Xbox titles to choose from, including more recent hits like Diablo IV, MLB The Show 23, Hogwarts Legacy, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, along with a handful of other digital titles that normally retail for $69.99. And the Xbox Series S on offer is the Gilded Hunter... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6DZ3Y)
The scale's Eyes-Closed Mode gives you an alternative way to interact with your weight and body composition data. Continue reading...
by Kate Lindsay on (#6DZ07)
Lil Tay in 2018. | Image: Lil Tay / YouTube Younger generations expect news to come straight from creators. But when creators are wrong, the news ecosystem quickly breaks down. Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6DZ08)
Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk in Landscape With Invisible Hand. | Image: MGM Landscape With Invisible Hand is an alien invasion story with a twist: a species known as the Vuuv take over the planet not by force but through economics. Their advanced technology allows them to live in floating cities with the human elite, while the rest of the population scrapes by on the surface. Because of this, some new ways of making money arise - including a very intimate form of livestreaming. Because the Vuuv do not have romance like humans, they're obsessed with watching young couples broadcast their lives, tipping generously along the way.For Tiffany Haddish, who stars in the film, part of the appeal was that the premise didn't seem that far-fetched. I really love [director and writer Cory Finley] a lot, I love his work,"... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6DZ09)
Glauber Contessoto, also known as Pro," records a video about Dogecoin. | Image: This Is Not Financial Advice This Is Not Financial Advice and Easy Money attempt to explain the extremely online financial mania. Their very divergent takes show how difficult it is to fully understand. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6DYTV)
You really should be checking them regularly anyway, but hopefully, this helps to avoid any gross build-up. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge When was the last time you cleaned your earphones? Ideally, you're not leaving it long enough to see a sizable amount of crud building up (which is fairly unavoidable when you're regularly shoving them into your ears), but if you happen to own a pair of Google Pixel Buds or Pixel Buds Pro then don't worry - Google will soon remind you. As reported by 9to5Google, the latest version of the Pixel Buds app (version 1.0.555017123) includes a new notification that will prompt users to regularly clean and maintain their earbuds.The updated app is currently rolling out via the Google Play Store, and according to a few 9to5Google readers, some users are already starting to see the cleaning notification. Within the prompt, Google notes that... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6DYTW)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Twitch is rolling out an update next month that will finally allow streamers to block banned users from viewing their streams. Currently, Twitch allows you to ban users from the chat section of a stream, but they can still view streams.Twitch revealed earlier this week, during its Patch Notes stream, that a new setting will be available for streamers in September that will boot people out of chat and live streams in real time. Banned users will automatically be blocked from viewing streams, a long-requested feature that streamers have been waiting years for. Image: Twitch The new Twitch ban feature. At the time being it won't stop them from viewing VODs or clips, but that is something we also want to include... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6DYTX)
Apple may need to ship the iPhone 15 with a power adapter to support the increased wattage from USB-C charging. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Apple is set to introduce the iPhone 15 in the next few weeks, and the device's long-rumored transition from Lightning to USB-C may provide a boost to its charging speed. According to 9to5Mac, some of the new iPhone 15 models will support charging up to 35W, compared to the 27W speeds that the current iPhone 14 Pro is limited to.Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo made similar predictions last year, claiming that Apple's supply chain indicated the company would ditch Lightning in favor of USB-C in 2023. According to Kuo, the switch would enable faster charging speeds for iPhone 15 Pro models, but the feature may only be supported via Apple-certified cables. Apple stopped bundling its iPhones with power adapters back in 2020 to try and combat... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DYG9)
Illustration: The Verge Threads is adding reposts (aka retweets) to its reverse-chronological Following" feed, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced in a Threads post on Thursday. It's a small but nice addition to the app that makes the Following feed a bit more useful, and while Mosseri said Meta added it based on your feedback," the Following feed does still have its flaws.That's not the only repost-related update from Meta. It's also rolling out a reposts tab on your profile so that you and others can more easily find the threads that you've reposted. I don't appear to have either update yet on iOS, but I do have the reposts tab when I view my profile on the web. (I think I need to repost more.) Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge ... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DYGA)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The developer Relay for Reddit, of one of the remaining third-party Reddit apps for Android, detailed the potential prices for planned subscriptions for the app in a new post on Thursday. The costs of a subscription will go up based on a user's daily average number of API calls, essentially meaning that the more things a person does in the app, the more they might have to pay.In July, Reddit officially transitioned from a free to a paid API, meaning that developers would have to pay the company for accessing Reddit's data for their apps. The change forced many popular apps to shut down, but a handful of developers, including the one who makes Relay for Reddit, said they might be able to continue making their apps if they charged a... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6DYGB)
The Razer BlackWidow V4 75 mechanical keyboard. | Image: Razer Razer's launching a new mechanical keyboard that might get the attention of more than just those who fall into the RGB-forward gamer demographic. The company's BlackWidow V4 75 includes hot-swappable switches, a gasket-mounted plate with two foam layers, screw holes on the PCB board for screw-in stabilizers, and even factory GPL 205g0 lubricated stabilizers, amongst other features. That's the sort of stuff you see on enthusiast keyboards like Drop's Sense75 and Keychron's Q1 Pro, but from a brand you can easily find at your local Best Buy.BlackWidow V4 comes in a slightly-condensed 75 percent tenkeyless configuration. Out of the box, you're getting Razer's hushed tactile orange" switches with doubleshot ABS keycaps on top. You could... Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6DYEK)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of the big promises of NFTs was that the artist who originally made them could get a cut every time their piece was resold. Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore.OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace still fully enforcing royalty fees, said today that it plans to stop the mandatory collection of resale fees for artists. Starting March 2024, those fees will essentially be tips - an optional percentage of a sale price that sellers can choose to give the original artist. If the seller doesn't want to hand over any money, that'll be their choice.The NFT ecosystem has been on a race to the bottom when it comes to fees. As the market for NFTs collapsed, marketplaces have lowered their own trading fees and stopped enforcing royalty... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DYEM)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Spotify is spending a lot of money on podcasts that don't actually involve any talking. That's according to a report from Bloomberg, which states the company could increase its annual gross profit by a whopping $38 million if it steers users away from so-called white noise podcasts.These kinds of podcasts play various types of relaxing sounds on a loop - like static, crashing waves, or rain - and they're more popular than you may think. One of the reasons for their popularity is that Spotify has been unwittingly pushing them in front of users thanks to its algorithmic push for talk' content (versus music)," according to Bloomberg.The creators behind these podcasts" make money off the ads that play during its episodes. Last year, a... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DYC3)
Illustration: The Verge Garbo, a nonprofit organization that provided background checks to users of some of Match Group's apps, is ending its partnership with the company, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. As a result, Garbo will be shutting down its consumer-facing business and Match will be pausing its background checks in the affected apps.Match Group first started offering background checks on Tinder in 2021 before rolling it out to its other dating apps, including Match and Stir, last year. The integration let users run a limited number of free background checks on a potential date using just their last name and phone number, allowing users to see public reports about violence, past arrests, convictions, and restraining orders.While it's... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DY94)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police.Under the new system, when you're browsing search results, Amazon will show you an average star rating as a number, then a singular gold star, and then, in parentheses next to the star, what percentage of reviews are five stars.The change is a bit easier to understand in an image, so take a look at this one from Android Police: Image: Android Police Android Police says it saw this different layout in the Amazon India mobile app, on the Amazon Germany website, and on Amazon's global website when accessed from Germany.I don't like this change because it gets rid... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6DY95)
It's hard to see a future for enthusiast gaming on the Chromebook with no Nvidia options. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Last year, all signs indicated that 2023 would be an exciting year for ChromeOS gaming. Early on, 9to5Google reported that Chromebooks supporting Nvidia GPUs were in the works. In October, several OEMs announced gaming-focused models (with integrated graphics) in a snazzy joint announcement. It seemed like there was a lot on the horizon for the Chromebook gaming enthusiast.Those hopes, however, appear to have been dashed. The eagle-eyed folks over at About Chromebooks have spotted language in Google's code indicating that multiple Nvidia Chromebook projects (including the specific models that were rumored last year) have been canceled. Google has not yet responded to a request for comment on this language. Photo by... Continue reading...
by Umar Shakir on (#6DY96)
Google Maps on a Polestar 2. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Earlier this week, Google Maps reportedly demoted gas stations in the points of interest categories list for electric vehicle owners while using Android Auto. Google confirmed the changes, which it noted have been available to EV drivers since 2022.To help people get the most relevant information when navigating, last year we added the ability for EV drivers to see a shortcut for charging stations instead of gas stations on Google Maps for Android Auto," Google spokesperson Pearl Xu told The Verge. Xu added that the feature has also been live for vehicles equipped with Google built-in vehicle software since 2020.Xu sent over a list of all the EV-centric capabilities of Google Maps:
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by Adi Robertson on (#6DY97)
Baldur's Gate 3 has garnered accolades for its flexibility - it feels like you can ally with or betray virtually anyone, including your own party members. I've seen it compared to old-school RPGs like Planescape: Torment, play it your way" immersive sims, and of course, its source material, tabletop Dungeons & Dragons.After clocking roughly 40 hours in Faerun, there's a simultaneously delightful and maddening tension to the open-endedness of Baldur's Gate 3. On one hand, it pushes me to invest in the high stakes of its narrative, where a single misstep's personal and universal consequences can feel disastrous. On the other, my most viscerally satisfying encounters have come from abandoning perfectionism and rolling with the punches. I... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6DY98)
Image: Activision Blizzard As promised, Activision showed off the next Call of Duty today after officially announcing it earlier this month. So now, we have the first trailer for Modern Warfare III - which is a different game than Modern Warfare 3 (2011) - along with some details.The new game features a single-player campaign that, naturally, follows Modern Warfare II and introduces a new kind of mission called open combat" that Activision describes as a new innovation that empowers player decisions like never before." Players can supposedly choose different play styles - like stealth versus going in guns blazing - and the missions are designed to complement the more crafted, linear story missions Call of Duty is known for.While Call of Duty releases have been... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6DY99)
Climate activists of Extinction Rebellion wearing masks of company CEOs including X's Elon Musk take part in a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, on April 13th, 2023 | Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP via Getty Images Almost half of Environmental Twitter" has vanished from the platform now called X, new research shows. A wave of environmentally oriented" users abandoned the site after Elon Musk took over, according to a study published this week in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.The study confirms fears about how Musk's leadership might quell climate discourse and scientific research on the platform. Before he took the wheel, Twitter was an important tool for environmental researchers and activists alike.We saw that there was a vibrant community engaging in discourse around environmental topics. This then raised the question of how this community may be impacted by changes to Twitter's governance," Charlotte Chang, lead author of the... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6DY9A)
Image: Acura Here's the Acura ZDX, a $60,000 premium electric vehicle with a Google-powered brain and 325 miles of range. It signals the return of the ZDX, which was discontinued over a decade ago after poor sales.The ZDX will be the second EV from Honda / Acura, after the 2024 Honda Prologue. Both vehicles are expected to start deliveries next year - though it's unclear which will come first. And like the Prologue, the ZDX will be the product of the three-year-old partnership with General Motors, with the US automaker's Ultium battery serving as a foundation.The ZDX appears to have many of the same styling and themes presented as part of the Precision concept car last year. It will also be the first model from the Honda-owned Acura to be sold... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DY5R)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack briefly experienced some major issues on Thursday. On The Verge's Slack, I found that some posts just wouldn't send in both channels and threads, and a few of my colleagues were reporting similar issues.We weren't the only ones. At one point, Downdetector showed that more than 10,000 users reported issues, but the site now says that number peaked at a bit under that. I also saw a bunch of posts about Slack problems on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.The company confirmed the issues were fixed in a 12:58PM ET message on its status page. We've restored full functionality of Slack for all impacted users. Sorry for the trouble, we appreciate your patience today." At 12:37PM ET, the company's status page had confirmed... Continue reading...
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