The Verge - All Posts

I've hosted this image on Imgur as well, but you can also get to the latest canvas from r/Place. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Reddit officially launched the 2023 edition of its r/Place collaborative art project on Thursday morning, and it's littered with messages protesting Reddit and Reddit's CEO. You can see the current iteration of the canvas on the r/Place subreddit or by following the prompt at the top of the app. (Note that you can't access r/Place on Old Reddit; you'll need to be on New Reddit or one of the company's mobile apps.)In r/Place, individual users can drop a single pixel of color every five minutes on a huge canvas, including overriding other pixel placements if you want to try and claim some turf. In the utopian version of this idea, r/Place becomes an ever-changing piece of art where users work together to draw all sorts of pixelated images... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge No, getting seats in AMC Theaters will not be like booking tickets for flights, sporting events, or the theater. As previously reported by Bloomberg, the company is done testing ways to offer tiered pricing that would have customers paying extra for more desirable seats at the cinema and less for the ones no one wants.The now-canceled Sightline plan was being tested in three US markets, and AMC notes customer response clarified" things enough to end the pilot. The company stated that it saw little or no incremental lift in front-row attendance, even with a price reduction applied to those seats" in the testing markets.AMC notes, probably most importantly, that its competitors didn't try to match the scheme, and so it will go in... Continue reading...

A screenshot from Ocasio-Cortez's October 2020 Twitch stream. | The Verge Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is going to stream on Twitch again this weekend. On Thursday, she announced that she'll be streaming with Hasan HasanAbi" Piker and special guests" on Saturday, July 22nd at 7:30PM (presumably ET).Ocasio-Cortez's debut Twitch stream, which took place in October 2020, peaked at more than 426,000 viewers, according to TwitchTracker, instantly making it one of the highest-viewed streams on record at that time. Although some Twitch streams have since gone on to hit millions of peak simultaneous viewers, Ocasio-Cortez's stream still ranks highly in TwitchTracker's records.Ocasio-Cortez's first stream was packed with special guests, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), HasanAbi, and Pokimane, who all... Continue reading...

Image: Federal Reserve via Flickr Your paycheck could arrive even sooner, thanks to the Federal Reserve's newly launched payment system. The system, called FedNow, is an instant-payment service that operates on a 24/7 basis - even on holidays.First announced in 2019, FedNow acts as a common network" between banks and credit unions, making it easier for them to route funds across different institutions. So far, there are only 35 participating banks and credit unions, along with the US Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service.Once it's widely adopted, though, it will let you transfer funds between different bank accounts instantly or even pay your credit card bill on a bank holiday without worrying about it being late. And, if you have direct deposit,... Continue reading...

TSMC is also predicting a 10 percent decline in revenue for 2023 amid falling demand for consumer electronics. | Photo by VCG via Getty Images The world's biggest chipmaker is pushing back the start of 4nm chip production at its new facility in Phoenix, Arizona, to 2025, blaming labor shortages. Apple has said that it intends to eventually source chips for its iPhones and MacBook models from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plant in the US, while Nvidia and AMD have also committed to using its production capacity.The chipmaker's first Phoenix-based fab, which began construction in 2021, was originally projected to start producing 4nm chips next year. A second fab that will produce smaller, more complex 3nm chips is scheduled to open in 2026.During the company's Q2 earnings call on Thursday, TSMC chairman Mark Liu said that the company was encountering... Continue reading...

Samsung Wallet can now be used to access things around campus without needing a physical card. | Image: Samsung Samsung's now offering new digital student ID support in its own Wallet app. Galaxy users, specifically those who have recent A, S, or Z series devices, will be able to pull up their campus card to access facilities and food at a tap around supported institutions just as easily as using Samsung Pay.The news comes as Samsung gets ready to announce new devices, including its latest foldable phones, at its yearly Unpacked event next Wednesday.Back in my day, we had to carry around ugly plastic student ID cards to tag ourselves into smelly weight rooms and grab dry burgers on a meal plan. Today, some students have gone through school and earned a four-year degree without ever needing to carry a physical card.Early on, Android phones... Continue reading...

Image: The Animation Guild A group of Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation production workers - the staff of different managers, assistants, IT specialists, and coordinators who play vital roles in bringing the studios' projects to fruition - have announced their intention to form a union with The Animation Guild.Per The Hollywood Reporter, 66 of the production workers behind Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation shows including Harley Quinn, Teen Titans Go!, Craig of the Creek, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Batman: Caped Crusader, and We Baby Bears have filed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board asking for it to hold and oversee a union election. The staffers are also requesting that Warner Bros. Discovery voluntarily recognizes their... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta's newest update for its Quest VR headsets, v56, will add a lot of welcome upgrades, including improved hand tracking, system-level live captions, and the return of livestreaming to Facebook.The improved hand tracking, which Meta is calling Hand Tracking 2.2, focuses on hands responsiveness" to bring the experience closer to controllers," and to help show it off, the company released the Move Fast demo app as part of its App Lab. Meta is also adding swipe typing on its virtual keyboard, which could be an easier way to spell things out than hunting and pecking on virtual keys midair.I tried out hand tracking and Meta's Direct Touch technology on the Quest 2 earlier this year, and while it was quite finicky, I thought it was still... Continue reading...

The Sennheiser Momentum 4 (right) offer improved noise cancellation and better comfort than the prior model (left). | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge With more people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, for instance, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions.That's why we've curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you'll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a... Continue reading...

This is what the Watch 6 Classic could look like. | Image: OnLeaks / MySmartPrice The upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 could come with a larger display thanks to its slimmed-down bezels. A specs list posted by leaker SnoopyTech (via 9to5Google) suggests that the 40mm Watch 6 will come with a 1.31-inch OLED display, while the 44mm version will feature a 1.47-inch OLED display.The specs sheet indicates that the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic will get a similar upgrade, featuring the same display sizes across its rumored 43mm and 47mm options. According to the specs sheet, the 1.2-inch display might come with a 432 x 432 resolution, while the 1.47-inch screen may have a 480 x 480 resolution. That's a slight upgrade from the 1.2-inch and 1.4-inch displays on its Galaxy Watch 5 predecessor.

Image: Dolphin Don't wait around for Dolphin to help bring Nintendo GameCube and Wii games to Steam - it's officially no longer happening. Nearly two months after postponing the release indefinitely," the Dolphin Emulator team now says it's completely given up on the idea. We are abandoning our efforts to release Dolphin on Steam," they write.Remember when we showed you the receipts where Valve torpedoed the launch, telling Dolphin it would have to get permission from Nintendo if it wanted a place in the store? Today's Nintendo was never going to give that permission, and Dolphin is now coming to terms with that:

Image: The Verge The newest feature of ChatGPT is designed to help you type a little less. It's called custom instructions," and it gives you a place to tell your chatbot the things it should always know about you and how you'd like it to respond to your questions. The feature is in beta, works everywhere ChatGPT does - it should be particularly helpful on mobile devices - and is available today on an opt-in basis to ChatGPT Plus subscribers everywhere but the UK and EU. (Those are hopefully coming soon.)Right now, if you open up ChatGPT," says Joanne Jang, who works on model behaviors and product at OpenAI, it doesn't know much about you. If you start a new thread, it forgets everything you've talked about in the past. But there are things that... Continue reading...

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images Don't get it twisted: trees are a crucial lifeline during a severe heatwave like the one gripping the US right now. So the tree trimming controversy that unfolded this week during the screenwriters and actors strike is anything but trivial.In case you missed it, union members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined picket lines outside Universal Studios despite temperatures soaring above 90 degrees Fahrenheit this week. In a tweet that went viral, writer Chris Stephens pointed out on Monday that trees that would have shaded the protesters were suddenly quite bald.Trees are essential to providing Angelenos with significant environmental... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Amazon is bringing its palm-scanning technology to even more Whole Foods stores. By the end of this year, Amazon says you'll be able to pay for your purchase using just the palm of your hand at the over 500 Whole Foods locations it has throughout the US.The palm-scanning tech is part of Amazon One, a service that lets you link your Amazon account and payment information to your palm print. Once your palm print is in Amazon's system, you can hover your palm over an Amazon One scanner, and it will charge the payment method that's tied to your Amazon account.After first rolling out the palm scanners to some of its Go stores, it later introduced the tech to over 200 Whole Foods locations in California, New York, Texas, and several other... Continue reading...

Lazarus' production logo. | Adult Swim Anime classics like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy wouldn't be the beloved masterpieces they are were it not for the vision director Shinichir Watanabe brought to them, and the same is going to be very true of Lazarus, his new upcoming series set to premiere on Adult Swim.Variety reports that Adult Swim has ordered a full season of Lazarus, which will be produced by studio MAPPA - the Japanese production house behind anime like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man - and feature a jazz and electronic score" from saxophonist Kamasi DJ Floating Points and producer Bonobo. The show will also reportedly feature a number of action sequences crafted by John Wick's Chad Stahelski.Set in the year 2052, Lazarus tells the story of... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge A few months back, everyone wondered who would win the AI arms race. Microsoft aligned itself with OpenAI. Google launched Bard. Meta began working on its own large language model, LLaMA. Other companies began thinking of launching AI platforms, and curious users pitted the models against each other.But a recent deal suggests we may also see a growing number of partnerships, not just head-to-head competition. Earlier this week, Meta offered its LLaMA large language model for free under an open license and brought it to Microsoft's Azure platform. The decision highlighted the benefits of interoperability in AI - and as more companies join the field, it probably won't be the last of its kind.Well-known LLMs to date have been relatively... Continue reading...

Image: The Pokemon Company Pokemon Sleep, the app that aims to designate Pikachu as your certified sleep neurologist, is now available in the United States. The app was announced way back in 2019, suffered a four-year delay, and is now quietly rolling out all over the world. Earlier this week, Pokemon Sleep arrived in Canada, allowing my boss, Andrew Webster, to try it out before me (to my great envy, I might add). He'll have more words for you on the app soon.Sleep works by having you place your phone on your pillow after doing any of the fifty leven million Pokemon-themed activities you can do nowadays. (Back in my day, all we could do was catch em all - all 151 of them - and we liked it!) The app purports to track your sleeping habits via your phone, and... Continue reading...

Logitech's MX Mechanical Mini is all substance, some style. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge If you're a mechanical keyboard enthusiast who prefers the design of traditional laptop keyboards, then Amazon's deal on the Logitech MX Mechanical Mini might be right up your alley. Right now, you can pick up the excellent mechanical keyboard with a 75 percent layout for $133.81 (about $16 off) when you clip the on-page coupon for $10 off, which is a small discount but one we rarely see. Amazon is also throwing in a two-month trial to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography (valued at $20) or a monthlong trial to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps (valued at $55), the latter of which offers access to Adobe's entire software suite.Logitech's discounted low-profile keyboard comes with clicky blue switches that are backlit with plain white LEDs -... Continue reading...

Oh, the apps you'll uninstall. Continue reading...

The enablement of Google's Privacy Toolbox will be gradual, with the company planning to start phasing out third-party cookies in 2024. | Image: The Verge The first phase of Google's long-standing plan to kill third-party cookies in Chrome is nearly complete. Following Chrome 115's public release on July 18th, Google says that it will gradually begin enabling the Privacy Sandbox toolkit for Chrome developers set to replace third-party tracking cookies with privacy-preserving API alternatives.There are still several stages to go until Google completes its Privacy Sandbox rollout, but shipping these APIs is a significant milestone toward the company's goal of phasing out third-party cookies entirely. Google is still aiming to enable an opt-in testing mode that will allow advertisers to experiment with the Sandbox tools without cookies by late 2023 and to turn off third-party cookies for 1... Continue reading...

The photo shared by Isaacson showing concept images of the Cybertruck, and the pop culture that inspired them. Click to see full-sized image. | Image: Walter Isaacson Elon Musk biographer Walter Isaacson has shared a photograph of the Tesla CEO during an early meeting about the Cybertruck that sheds interesting light on the alternative designs considered, as well as the pop culture that ultimately inspired it. On the left of the image we can see several concept images of Tesla's electric pickup truck, while on the right is a mood board showing images from various movies and video games, including many sci-fi and cyberpunk titles. In the foreground Musk can be seen in conversation with Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen.This isn't the first time we've seen an alternative design for Tesla's eye-catching pickup truck. During the company's launch event for the Tesla Semi in 2017, Musk teased the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube Premium's price has increased to $13.99 a month in the US, a $2 increase compared to what it used to cost. That's according to Google's signup page for the service, which has been quietly updated to reflect the new pricing, which was first spotted by 9to5Google. Alongside the monthly price increase, the cost of an annual subscription to YouTube Premium is increasing by $20 to $139.99.YouTube Music - the music streaming service that's available standalone or as part of a Premium subscription - is also seeing a price increase in the US. It will now cost $10.99 a month, mirroring similar price increases we've seen for Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. Spotify is a notable holdout for still charging $9.99 a month, but CEO Daniel... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The New York Times cites anonymous sources in a report saying Google demonstrated Genesis for media execs from the Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal owner News Corp, presenting responsible" technology that takes in facts and spits out news copy. Two execs mentioned in the article said it seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories," while another saw it as more of a personal assistant / helper.Asked about the report, Google spokesperson Jenn Crider provided the following statement to The Verge:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Changes to the Reddit API have forced beloved apps like Apollo to shut down, and following the protests, mods are feeling threatened by Reddit. Continue reading...

A Cybertruck being tested around the world" for final certification and validation. | Image: Tesla Tesla revealed new measurements for its long-delayed Cybertruck in its Q2 earnings report. The polarizing truck will be less than 19 feet long and will have a bed that's longer than six feet, which is shorter than Ford's best-selling F-150 Lighting, which is 19.25 feet long with a 5.5-foot bed.We continue to build release candidates of the Cybertruck on our final production line in Austin," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on an earnings call today. Musk claims it's the first four-door pickup that comes in that bed and length size combination and that there's a lot of new technology" in the vehicle.Tesla claims Cybertruck will break a lot of boundaries" technologically and architecturally in its earnings press release today. ... Continue reading...

Mom took away your favorite toy because she said you weren't playing fair. | Image: Blizzard Nothing brings together a community of gamers quite like a balancing patch to their favorite numbers-go-up game, does it? That's what Blizzard's new version 1.1.0 patch is doing for Diablo IV players, and the chorus being sung in unison by hardcore players is quite the tantrum.But here's the thing: Blizzard really has mucked things up at a very inopportune time.Diablo IV's patch 1.1.0 dropped yesterday, just two days before the start of the game's first seasonal content drop, the Season of the Malignant, which will have players start fresh characters to run through a new quest line and premium battle pass. But within the lengthy patch notes were a large swath of changes significantly shaking up the potency of many popular character... Continue reading...

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge Tesla is in discussion" to license its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assist technology to another major automaker, Elon Musk said in an earnings call Wednesday. He did not reveal the name of the company, though he did say that licensing FSD was always part of the plan.We're not we're not trying to keep this to ourselves," Musk said on the call. We're more than happy to license it to others."Musk has spoken about licensing FSD to competitors in the past. Last month, he tweeted that Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies" - adding, Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology."We're not we're not trying to keep this to ourselves"Most automakers' driver-assist systems are for limited... Continue reading...

Image: Tesla Tesla says it has started production of its Dojo supercomputer to train its fleet of autonomous vehicles.In its second quarter earnings report for 2023, the company outlined four main technology pillars" needed to solve vehicle autonomy at scale: extremely large real-world dataset, neural net training, vehicle hardware and vehicle software."We are developing each of these pillars in-house," the company said in its report. This month, we are taking a step towards faster and cheaper neural net training with the start of production of our Dojo training computer." Image: Tesla The automaker already has a large Nvidia GPU-based supercomputer that is one of the most powerful in the world, but the new Dojo... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla published its second quarter earnings report in which the company said it earned $3.1 billion in net income on $24.9 billion in revenue. That represents a 47 percent increase year over year compared to $16.9 billion in revenue in Q2 2022.The company's gross margins fell to 18.2 percent for the second quarter in a row, signaling that Tesla's rampant price cutting is continuing to take a toll on its bottom line. Gross margins were down 5.6 percent quarter over quarter and 27 percent year over year.Investors are glum about Tesla's profit margins, even while cheering its recent delivery report that revealed the company delivered 466,140 vehicles to customers during the past three months. That's an 83 percent increase over the number... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix says its password-sharing crackdown is working. In its second quarter earnings report posted on Wednesday, the streamer says it saw the addition of 5.9 million subscribers globally, with the US and Canada making up 1.17 million new members from April to June.Now, Netflix will start to address password sharing in all its remaining countries. The company's password-sharing policy only went into effect in the US in late May after the streamer started alerting users of the extra $7.99 per month charge. Data from the analytics company Antenna suggests that the company saw a dramatic spike in subscribers in the days following the crackdown. In addition to the US, Netflix also rolled out paid sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit has had something of a contentious relationship with many of its moderators as of late, but now, the company is trying to make amends. A Reddit admin (employee) identifying themselves as the company's VP of community reached out to moderators through a new post on Wednesday, inviting them to participate in things like weekly feedback sessions, an accessibility feedback group, and in-person moderator road shows.Reddit and many moderators have been at odds since the June protests over API pricing changes that ultimately forced some third-party apps to shut down. At one point, more than 8,000 communities went dark in protest, but as the protests wore on, Reddit began sending messages to moderators pushing them to reopen, and in an... Continue reading...

An Amazon Prime packet at a plastic scrapyard in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India. | Image: Prashanth Vishwanathan / Bloomberg via Getty Images Amazon says it'll eventually quit sending packages in plastic padded bags in an effort to cut down on packaging waste, according to a sustainability report the company released Tuesday.We are phasing out padded bags containing plastics in favor of recyclable alternatives," the report says. But it's missing an important detail: a deadline for when the company plans to make the change.The company didn't answer questions about its plan from The Verge. Our first goal is to eliminate packaging altogether wherever possible, and when additional Amazon packaging is required to ship a product, we strive to optimize that packaging for increased recyclability and reduced carbon emissions," Amazon spokesperson Elizabeth Fine said in an email.... Continue reading...

Oh, goody! Wait, I've ordered nothing. | Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge It's been a long time since I personally ordered from Starbucks, but today, I thought the streak was broken when my iPhone buzzed with a gleeful Your order is ready!" notification.But wait a minute - I didn't order anything!I turned to social media and quickly found that a bunch of other people were getting the same message stemming from their Starbucks app.Starbucks is now sharing that the notification was a glitch. Earlier today, a push notification from the Starbucks app was sent as an error, customers were not charged for an order if one was not placed," reads a company statement sent to Insider. The company says it was due to the app suffering a partial outage.

The Alienware Area-51m. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge In 2021, Dell got sued - because one year after hyping up an Alienware laptop that supposedly let you upgrade its discrete GPU, the company didn't follow through.The story of the Alienware Area-51m is pretty dang relevant today because Framework just opened preorders for another laptop that offers the same.But it turns out Dell never had to meaningfully face that lawsuit. Area-51m buyers never successfully banded together in a class action case. Dell was able to force them into binding arbitration, I found, when I went looking to see what happened to the suit.In July 2022, Judge Vince Chhabria told plaintiffs they had already agreed to binding arbitration when they clicked Accept' on the start-up screen of their computers," and... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Bloomberg reports a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint alleging that DoorDash illegally fired an office employee who tried to organize a union in Arizona. The complaint also says DoorDash threatened to reprimand workers who attempted to assemble and lied to them, saying it's unlawful to discuss worker conditions on days off.The NLRB specifically accuses DoorDash of violating employees' federal rights by interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees," the May 30th filing reads. DoorDash denies making any attempts to block unionization efforts. These allegations are part of a personally motivated attack and entirely without merit," DoorDash representative Liz Jarvis-Shean wrote in a... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram isn't liable for copyright infringement when images are embedded on third-party websites, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Monday (via Torrent Freak). The decision came in response to a class action lawsuit filed by two photographers, Alexis Hunley and Matthew Brauer, who accused Instagram of violating copyright laws by enabling Time and BuzzFeed News to embed their copyrighted photos in online articles.In 2016, Time published an article titled These Photographers Are Covering the Presidential Campaign on Instagram," which included Brauer's embedded Instagram photo of Hillary Clinton. BuzzFeed News similarly posted an embedded photo taken by Hunley in its 2020 article about the Black Lives Matter... Continue reading...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Federal antitrust enforcers released new draft guidelines for evaluating anti-competitive mergers Wednesday, redoubling their aggressive scrutiny over digital markets.The rules, proposed by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, direct enforcers to examine mergers by online platforms more broadly than ever before. The proposal doesn't explicitly name tech companies like Amazon, Meta, or Google, but many of the rules implicate parts of their merger and business strategies.We are updating our enforcement manual to reflect the realities of how firms do business in the modern economy," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement Wednesday.Specifically, the rules set a new focus on multi-sided" platforms, or online companies... Continue reading...