The Verge

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI's new Read Aloud feature for ChatGPT could come in handy when users are on the go by reading its responses in one of five voice options out loud to users. It is now available on both the web version of ChatGPT and the iOS and Android ChatGPT apps.Read Aloud can speak 37 languages but will auto-detect the language of the text it's reading, and the feature is available for both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. It's an interesting example of what OpenAI can do with multimodal capabilities (the ability to read and respond through more than one medium) revealed soon after a competitor, Anthropic, added similar features to its AI models.ChatGPT launched a voice chat feature in September 2023 where users can directly ask the chatbot prompts without... Continue reading...

Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge The holidays are over, a new year is here, and along with all the various upheavals that we are facing, most of us have to deal with our annual income taxes. (The usual quote about death and taxes goes here.)While we were able to wait until April 18th in 2023, this year, tax day is back to the traditional April 15th, which is a Monday. That is, unless you live in Maine or Massachusetts - then you have until Wednesday, April 17th, because of the Patriots' Day and Emancipation Day holidays.Despite the stress that many of us feel at the thought of tackling our yearly taxes, try not to worry - we're going to list some resources that are available so that you can prepare your taxes. As always, it might not be a bad idea to start working on... Continue reading...

The BackBone One might help you realize hidden savings by staving off carpal tunnel treatments. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge If you want to reliably hit headshots and combos on your smartphone, there's no substitute for a mobile gaming controller that adds proper physical controls. Our favorite for the task is still the Backbone One, and now through March 10th, you can save 30 percent on the original Lightning version in black, which is down to $69.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Target, and direct from Backbone. You can also pick up the PlayStation Edition, which comes in white and has button labels corresponding to Sony's controllers, for $69.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Target, and Backbone.The original Backbone One supports the iPhone 14 and older, Lightning-based models. (If you own an iPhone 15 variant, you'll need the Backbone One with USB-C, which isn't on... Continue reading...

Ikea is finally bringing Matter to its new smart home hub. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Ikea's Dirigera hub, its new hub for controlling its line of connected devices, may soon get support for the Matter smart home standard. While promised when the hub was announced in May 2022, Matter for the Dirigera didn't materialize within a couple of months" of the product launching, as initially announced. It was then delayed again last November. But the company has now announced the rollout of Matter for the hub in beta.We are excited to unveil the first version of Matter support for the Dirigera hub, available now for beta users through the Ikea Home Smart app," David Granath, range manager at Ikea Home Smart told The Verge.The initial release transforms the Dirigera hub into a Matter bridge, allowing Zigbee devices to be... Continue reading...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Soon, Google Pixel devices will be able to upload and view Ultra HDR pictures on Instagram. It's part of Google's March feature drop that rolls out to supported Pixel 7, Pixel 8, and Pixel Fold phones starting today, while a post in Google's support forum for Pixels says the update will roll out for US carriers starting next week.Samsung's Galaxy S24 was the first to support Ultra HDR photos on Instagram, allowing you to show off photos taken with the device's upgraded camera in full color and contrast. But now, Pixel owners will soon be able to do the same as well as capture and share 10-bit HDR videos to Instagram Reels.Next week's feature drop will also bring Circle to Search to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. This feature lets you l... Continue reading...

Alex Cranz, Jake Kastrenakes, and Kara Verlaney The Verge's editor-in-chief Nilay Patel announced several changes to the industry-leading tech publication's masthead today, starting with the promotion of Jake Kastrenakes to executive editor.Kastrenakes first joined The Verge as an intern in 2014 and has spent 10 years as a reporter and editor at the site, overseeing the news team, creators coverage, and the Hot Pod and Command Line newsletters. As executive editor Kastrenakes will be responsible for making sure The Verge's newsroom meets the highest standards of rigor and quality every single day.The Verge audience has incredibly high expectations of us and our work, and Jake has spent his career overdelivering on those expectations," says Patel. Jake has already been instrumental... Continue reading...

Image: Funcom If Dune: Part Two has left you, uh, thirsting for more of Frank Herbert's world, Dune: Awakening might just be the thing. First revealed in 2022, Awakening is a survival MMO from Funcom set on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis - and a brief new gameplay trailer gives a sense of just how harsh it can be.That includes the giant worms, which apparently can't be killed, but which you'll definitely want to avoid. There's also some ornithopter combat and what looks like fairly extensive base-building options. Of course, if you're trying to eke out a living on a planet like Arrakis, you'll want to make a nice getaway. The trailer doesn't get much into the pure survival element, but given this is Dune, you can bet you'll spend a lot of time... Continue reading...

The Verge Microsoft's multiyear deal with French AI company Mistral signaled that the company wants longevity in the space.The company invested 2 billion ($2.1 billion) into Mistral and announced it would bring Mistral's newest AI model, Mistral Large, to Azure. But the investment into Mistral, mainly a developer of open-source AI models, doesn't mean Microsoft lost faith in its first AI child, OpenAI. Instead, Microsoft is laying the groundwork to build Azure as a model garden and give itself a foothold in Europe.Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner, tells The Verge the deal emphasizes the managed services business of AI, one in which Azure can play a role.Even before the Mistral announcement, Microsoft has been talking about... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Anthropic, the AI company started by several former OpenAI employees, says the new Claude 3 family of AI models performs as well as or better than leading models from Google and OpenAI. Unlike earlier versions, Claude 3 is also multimodal, able to understand text and photo inputs.Anthropic says Claude 3 will answer more questions, understand longer instructions, and be more accurate. Claude 3 can understand more context, meaning it can process more information. There's Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Opus, with Opus being the largest and most intelligent model." Anthropic says Opus and Sonnet are now available on claude.ai and its API. Haiku will be released soon. All three models can be deployed on chatbots,... Continue reading...

Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images JetBlue and Spirit Airlines are throwing out their $3.8 billion merger agreement. Both airlines agreed to terminate the deal, citing legal and regulatory approvals" that were unlikely to be met" by the merger's July 2024 deadline.A federal court blocked the deal in January over concerns that the merger would stifle competition in the airline industry. JetBlue and Spirit filed an appeal shortly after, and a court was set to hear the appeal in June. Now that the deal is off, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland calls the decision a victory for the Justice Department's work on behalf of American consumers," adding that the merger would've caused higher fares and fewer choices."

Photo illustration: The Verge / Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales On this special episode of Decoder, Complexly co-founder and YouTuber Hank Green turns the tables on Nilay Patel. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has been hit with a fine of 1.84 billion (about $2 billion) by European Union antitrust regulators over its App Store rules, and has been told it cannot stop music services from advertising cheaper subscription deals outside of Apple's store. News of today's fine was earlier reported by the Financial Times, and comes ahead of Apple's huge shakeup of the iPhone's app distribution rules due to the EU's Digital Markets Act.In a press release on Monday, the EU Commission said its investigation found that Apple bans music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app," in addition to preventing app providers from sharing instructions on... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google Drive for iOS now lets you filter searches using dropdown menus for File Type, Owners, and Last Modified, the company wrote on Friday in its Workspace Updates blog. The dropdown menus show up before and after a search, and relevant filter recommendations will show up as well as users type.Google says the update is available to Google Workspace customers and individual subscribers, as well as anyone with a personal Google account on iOS. The feature hasn't been rolled out for Android users yet, but Google says that's coming, too.Here's a screen recording I made to show how it works: Screen recording: Wes Davis / The Verge Dropdown menus are GOAT, as the youths say. The new filter update makes it much... Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Nothing is real until it ships. Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple has plenty of releases planned for the spring, by the rumor mill's reckoning, but one thing it may not do is make a big production out of it, according to Mark Gurman in today's Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. It's not all that unusual for Apple to skip a spring event - it didn't have one last year, and it's skipped it in years past, too. Even so, it's a little surprising, given the plethora of devices the company is expected to launch.The biggest thing is a revamped iPad Pro with an OLED screen and an M3 chip. For the most part, Apple's highest-end tablet's design has been unchanged since its 2018 refresh, when it took on the flat-sided design language that also defines the company's phones, laptops, and even the iMac. The... Continue reading...

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 28, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome to the Installerverse, so glad you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about that wacky AI Willy Wonka event and what happened to the Apple Car, dying laughing at Indiana Jones and the $3,500 Headset," testing Twodos as a new tasks app for iOS, giving both Notion and Notion Calendar another shot, and trying to figure out how to import the adorable Microlino Lite into my driveway.I also have for you the new Dune movie, a new smartwatch, a buzzy new tech book, and oh so many food-related YouTube channels. It's food week here at I... Continue reading...

Rent-a-print. | Image: HP HP has a new proposition in a time when (companies like it have made sure) you don't really control much about your computer anyway: why don't you just let HP rent you one? The company debuted a subscription service today - just like CEO Enrique Lores said it would last month - called the HP All-In Plan. It's essentially an extension of HP's Instant Ink, and like that plan, you'll have ink sent to you as you approach empty, but unlike it, your monthly fee also covers the printer itself.Which printer you get depends on the plan you choose. They start at $6.99 per month for 20 pages' worth of prints and whatever the current HP Envy model is, and go all the way up to a $35.99-a-month affair that gets you an OfficeJet Pro and 700 pages. If... Continue reading...

Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Waymo is now allowed to operate its self-driving robotaxis on highways in parts of Los Angeles and in the Bay Area following a California regulator's approval of its expansion (PDF) plans on Friday. This means the company's cars will now be allowed to drive at up to 65mph on local roads and highways in approved areas. In a statement to The Washington Post, Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina said the company's expansion will be careful and incremental," and that it has no immediate plans" to extend service to highways.Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) put the company's expansion on hold until June for further staff review," following protests from several San Francisco city agencies and other groups. Concerns... Continue reading...

The Apple-owned Beats Studio Pro support both iOS and Android devices. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple rarely discounts its own products, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find Apple welcoming the weekend with some terrific deals on Beats headphones and earbuds. Both the Beats Studio Pro and Beats Studio Buds Plus are down to some of their best prices to date, with numerous third-party retailers matching Apple's pricing. That means you can pick up the Beats Studio Pro for $199.95 ($150 off) directly from Apple, or at Amazon and Best Buy for around the same price. The Beats Studio Buds Plus, meanwhile, can be had starting at $129.95 ($40 off) from Apple, Amazon, and Best Buy.Compared to Apple's AirPods lineup, the Studio Pro and Studio Buds Plus offer more flexibility, with native support for both iOS and Android software... Continue reading...

Image: Adrienn Szabo / Paramount Plus When Halo season 2 finally covered the fall of the planet Reach - a foundational, emotional moment in Halo lore - I figured that I'd write a few words of praise about it. But then I saw the episode after, Aleria," and that episode, not Reach," is the one that truly delivers a Halo experience worthy of the games yet so wonderfully unlike them.Spoilers for Halo season 2 to followOne of the elements missing from Halo season 1 was the camaraderie between Spartans. The first half of Halo's second season better developed and defined the relationships of Silver Team (Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Riz-028, Kai-125, and Vannak-134); specifically, Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu), who were all but neglected in... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Bad news for Roblox fans on Linux - the workarounds are dead. GamingOnLinux reports that the latest version of Roblox forcefully blocks it from working with Wine," throwing a Wine is not supported" error message even when Roblox-specific tools like Vinegar and Grapejuice are added. Wine is the compatibility layer that lets many Windows games run on Linux systems.But Roblox claims it's not personal. Confirming there has been no change on our end to specifically block Linux or Steam Deck since Roblox never supported Linux or Steam Deck officially," spokesperson Samantha Spielman tells The Verge.We're constantly improving our Hyperion anti-cheat functionality, so it's possible whatever the author was doing was no longer compatible... Continue reading...

The Verge In a blog post, Microsoft gave users a sneak peek into Copilot for OneDrive, which it plans to release in late April. Copilot for OneDrive will take on the role of a research assistant of sorts, being able to both find, summarize, and extract information from a wide range of files. These include text documents (Word and rich text), presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDF files, and more. Users can ask Copilot to tailor summaries to their liking, such as only including key points or highlights from a specific section.We knew an AI overhaul of OneDrive was coming since last fall, when Microsoft announced the third generation of the cloud storage service. The company promised that AI would make searching for files easier and faster,... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Threads plans to release its API by the end of June after testing it with a limited set of partners, including Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Social News Desk, and Techmeme. The API will let developers build third-party apps for Threads and allow sites to publish directly to the platform.The API will let users authenticate, publish threads, and fetch the content they posted through these tools," according to Threads developer Jesse Chan in a post on the social platform, with more features coming later.In a post last October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the team was developing an API while worrying that an API would result in more publisher content on Threads instead of user-created posts.For years, users have... Continue reading...

Five to nine days is slightly better than average for the category. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge When we got some hands-on time with Samsung's Galaxy Ring earlier this week at Mobile World Congress, battery life was still a mystery. However, Samsung has since confirmed that the smart ring will get between five and nine days on a single charge.The estimate comes from a few sources. As spotted by 9to5Google, Korean outlet Financial News reports that Dr. Hon Pak, Samsung's VP of digital health, gave reporters that figure during a briefing. Android Authority also spotted a TechM report quoting Samsung Electronics chief Roh Tae-moon as saying the ring can be used for up to nine days.But don't put too much stock in Samsung's battery estimates yet. The Oura Ring claims up to seven days of battery, but in practice, I only ever get three... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix Truly alien creatures are hard to relate to because they're so, well, alien. The best-realized ones have different cultures and biologies and belief systems that make them distinct from humanity and, thus, hard to understand. The alien in the Netflix film Spaceman is one recent example: a giant spider with squirming tentacles, a disturbingly human mouth, the calming voice of Paul Dano, and the ability to experience time nonlinearly. And yet, the weird critter is also very relatable. He's nosy and perceptive and prone to creature comforts to ease stress; he's creepy, sure, but I kind of love him. And paired with a remarkably restrained Adam Sandler as a burned-out astronaut, his presence makes for some sad and soothing science fiction.D... Continue reading...

It's still an absurd price for a tablet keyboard, but it's well worth it for iPad power users. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Years ago, I was firmly in the camp that swore an iPad can't be your primary computer," mainly because iPadOS wasn't nearly as conducive to a professional workflow as it is now. I can't say the same with the latest iPads, though, especially when paired with a Magic Keyboard. Many rightfully balked at their $299.99 and $349.99 starting prices, but now through March 9th, Woot is offering new open-box Magic Keyboards for the 11-inch iPad Pro and newer iPad Airs with a 90-day warranty in white for $189.99 ($110 off). You can also grab one that's compatible with third-gen or later 12.9-inch iPad Pro models in white or black for $199.99 ($150 off).Apple's Magic Keyboard uses strong magnets to keep your iPad propped up. It almost appears as... Continue reading...

Lake Mead, formed by the dam on the Colorado River in the southwestern United States, at 47 percent capacity as viewed on August 14th, 2023. | Photo by George Rose / Getty Images 2023 can now boast a terrifying record: planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions from global energy use hit a record.It's been almost a decade since the adoption of the 2015 Paris climate agreement to stop global warming. To fulfill the most ambitious goals in the agreement, countries are supposed to slash global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, reaching net zero by the middle of the century.But we're moving in the opposite direction. Energy-related emissions rose by 410 million metric tons in 2023, according to a new analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA). That's roughly equivalent to the annual pollution from adding more than 1,000 new gas-fired power plants.Last year also happened to be the hottest year on recordD... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge A union representing contractors for YouTube Music claims that Google cut the workers' contract after they went on a prolonged strike.The Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, which represents the contractors, said the team consisted of moderators employed by Google contractor Cognizant in Austin, Texas, that was responsible for approving music content for YouTube Music.In a statement emailed to The Verge, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini maintained the decision to cut the team did not lie with them but, rather, with Cognizant and said, Contracts with our suppliers across the country routinely end on their natural expiry date."The team of more than 40 went on strike in February last year, demanding changes to Google's return-to-work... Continue reading...

A skyline at sunset in Mexico City, Mexico, Lomas de Chapultepec. | Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images A de facto moratorium on solar geoengineering will stay in place after heated talks at the United Nations Environment Assembly ended in a stalemate. The debate is over whether to let people launch particles into the sky that would reflect sunlight back into space, ostensibly cooling down the planet.It's a hotly contested tactic for tackling climate change. Geoengineering does nothing to stop what's actually causing the problem: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. And tinkering with the makeup of our planet and its atmosphere in order to reflect solar radiation could lead to unforeseen consequences that scientists are still trying to understand. After all, the climate change we're already experiencing - in the form of rising... Continue reading...