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Both the WH-1000XM5 (left) and last-gen WH-1000XM4 (right) headphones are on sale right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you felt left out of Amazon Prime Day this year because you're not a Prime member, it's understandable. Watching everyone else quickly grab deals you don't have access to can inspire a major case of FOMO. The good news is, however, that other retailers are still offering their own competing sales even despite the fact Prime Day is nearly over. Many don't require you to pony up for a premium subscription, either.Right now, for example, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are holding their own sales events and offering some good deals on noise-canceling headphones, robot vacuums, and other gadgets. In fact, in some cases, they're actually matching Amazon's day two prices. There are a lot of deals available, but we've gone... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Between the ongoing Steam Summer Sale and now Amazon Prime Day, it's a great time to save on a wide swath of video games for both consoles and PC alike. Whether you play games on Sony's PlayStation 5, the Nintendo Switch, Microsoft's Xbox Series X / S, or a Windows PC, gaming can be an expensive hobby - especially with more and more games launching at the higher $69.99 pricing tier. But, thankfully, there are still a number of worthwhile gaming deals available to snag before Prime Day officially comes to a close in just a few hours.Here, we'll highlight and list out all the exceptional gaming deals we can find this Prime Day - on both the games themselves and the accessories that accompany them. From headsets and controllers to... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is appealing a recent US federal court order that cleared the way for Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard. The FTC has filed a notice that it's appealing Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley's decision, but we won't know the regulator's arguments until the full appeal is submitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.Microsoft won a grueling fight with the FTC earlier this week, with a federal judge denying a preliminary injunction request from the US regulator. The Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition," Judge Corley wrote in the ruling. To the contrary, the... Continue reading...

The deals are still running during day two. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We've firmly settled into summer, and the warmer months always make for a good time to upgrade whatever earbuds or headphones you're wearing everywhere during the nice weather. If you're due for something new, you might as well seize some of the best discounts that are on offer for Amazon's Prime Day 2023 event.For day two, you'll find many of the tempting deals that were available yesterday, and Amazon will undoubtedly add a few more impulse purchases throughout the day. Many of our favorite earbud and headphone picks are on sale at some of their lowest prices ever during the Prime Day event; however, many of the deals will expire in just a few hours, making this evening one of the best opportunities to snag a discounted pair before... Continue reading...

Photo by Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic Disney CEO Bob Iger has extended his contract through 2026, the company said in a press release. That means he'll be staying at the company longer than he originally said back when he returned to the company. After his initial run as CEO from 2005 until 2020, Iger returned to Disney late last year in a surprise announcement, and at the time, he promised to only stay for two years and find a potential successor before his tenure was over.Iger's extended contract keeps him at the company until December 31st, 2026, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.In a statement, Iger said he's staying longer because I want to ensure Disney is strongly positioned when my successor takes the helm." He continued: The... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft After showing off an AI hub in the Microsoft Store earlier this year, now it's finally arriving for Windows 11 Insiders in Preview Build (25905). The built-in AI hub will highlight a set of curated AI apps from both third-party developers and Microsoft.Microsoft first announced the new hub during its Build conference in May, where it also showed off new AI-generated app review summaries for the Microsoft Store. These summaries haven't been rolled out just yet, but they're supposed to live alongside an app's rating in the Microsoft store, summing up users' reviews in just a few lines.For now, though, the AI hub will get its own tab on the left side of the Microsoft Store, sitting directly beneath the Movies & TV option. It's hard to... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is introducing a new blockchain-based content policy for Android apps on the Google Play Store. The new policy, which will be effective on December 7th, covers things like cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets, transparency requirements, and rules for NFT gamification that would cover things like loot boxes.According to the new policy for tokenized digital assets secured on a blockchain:

Sony is launching its new A6700 APS-C mirrorless camera today, bringing key AI-powered autofocus enhancements from the company's full-frame lineup to its mainstream (and more affordable) A6000-series. The 26-megapixel mirrorless camera, which succeeds 2019's A6600, offers 4K video at up to 120fps, a big boost from the 30fps of its predecessor. It's priced at $1,399.99 for the body alone.The biggest upgrade here is AI processing. The new camera gets the same autofocus enhancements that made Sony's $3,900 A7R V camera so great, giving it the ability to detect more granular subjects than before - it won't only know you're looking at an animal but what kind of animal - or bug - thanks to that pricey camera's AI processor trickling down to... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Apple is launching the public beta for macOS Sonoma today. This is the next big update coming to Mac computers (the final version is expected later in 2023), and it brings several big changes. In this article, we're going to walk you through how to get the beta onto your computer, should you want it. Once you install the beta, it will likely receive several updates between now and the final release.(Looking for steps to install the iOS 17 public beta? We've got you covered here.)What's new about macOS Sonoma?We've covered the latest features of macOS Sonoma elsewhere, but some of the highlights include:

Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. | HBO Ahead of the very real possibility of the Screen Actors Guild going on strike tonight, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced this morning the nominees for the 2023 Emmy Awards, a celebration that's going to be very interesting this year, to say the least.Before he and actress Yvette Nicole Brown began announcing this year's Emmy nominees at a small presentation streamed from the Hollywood Athletic Club, Academy chair Frank Scherma took a moment to briefly acknowledge the looming potential strike and express his hope that the ongoing guild negotiations can come to an equitable and swift resolution."We are committed to supporting a television industry that stands strong in equity and where we can continue to honor all... Continue reading...

Widgets are back. watchOS 10 rethinks how you'll interact with the Apple Watch - and would ya look at that, Apple finally did something about the app grid. Continue reading...

StandBy can be a desk clock, or it can do all sorts of other things. It only took a few minutes of using the iPhone's new StandBy mode before I started using it all the time. After a few weeks of testing the early betas of Apple's iOS 17, I've already changed my daily phone routine around it - and acquired a new desk accessory in the process. I can't remember the last time a new iOS feature clicked so well for me, and I almost can't believe the iPhone hasn't always had it.StandBy, in case you missed it during this year's blisteringly fast WWDC announcements, is a new docking mode for the iPhone. If your phone's screen is off and it's charging and rotated to landscape orientation, it becomes a widget machine. You can see a full-screen clock, a clock next to your calendar, a full-screen slideshow of your... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Project Tailwind, the AI-backed note-taking tool that Google launched at this year's I/O developer conference, is rebranding. It's now known as NotebookLM, and it's launching today to a small group of users in the US," according to a Google blog post. (The LM stands for Language Model because Google really wants to make sure you don't forget about all the AI in here.) The product hasn't changed, though: Google's still trying to give users their own personal AI, trained on their data and notes and able to help them make sense of it all.The core of NotebookLM seems to actually start in Google Docs. (We'll be adding additional formats soon," the blog post says.) Once you get access to the app, you'll be able to select a bunch of docs and... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox is adding reactive voice chat moderation. Rolling out today to Xbox Insiders, the new reporting feature will allow players to capture and submit 60-second audio clips of inappropriate voice chat messages, which will then be reviewed by the Xbox safety team.In an interview with The Verge, Xbox GM of Trust and Safety Kim Kunes said that voice chat moderation represented the next step in Xbox's holistic approach to ensuring player safety.If a player experiences something in our community that they don't like and they want to report that to us, they have a variety of different options for doing that," Kunes said. We do moderation proactively on text, on images, and videos, and launching reactive voice moderation is about that audio... Continue reading...

Photo: Zojirushi Whenever the staff of The Verge is asked to describe their favorite pet toys, summer tech, desktop accessories or whatever, they are free to describe something that is recently bought, 10 years old, or that has been sitting around the house for decades. Inevitably, though, some of the items have popped up in Amazon's Prime Day sale. We thought we'd offer a curated list of a few of them.Insect vacuumChristopher Grant, group publisher, The Verge and PolygonIf you don't have Spotted Lanternflies in your area, just wait; they're coming. The insect, native to China and first detected in my home state of Pennsylvania in 2014, is an invasive species that loves to snack on trees, along with other plants and crops. As a result, local... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Anna Gomez to become the third Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday.In May, President Joe Biden nominated Gomez, a career telecommunications attorney, to unlock a more than two-year FCC stalemate that's prevented the agency from voting on major telecom regulations like net neutrality. Now, her nomination advances to the floor for a final full-Senate vote.Ms. Gomez is a dedicated public servant with 25 years of experience in the telecom industry," Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said in her opening remarks on Wednesday. Ms. Gomez has demonstrated she has the experience and judgment to be highly effective in this role as Commissioner."Ms. Gomez has... Continue reading...

Image: Disney Disney Plus is getting a restored version of the classic Cinderella movie. Starting on August 25th, you can stream the 1950 animated film in 4K.Disney says it worked with the experts at the Walt Disney Animation Studios to enhance both the look and sound of the film, all while preserving the rich colors, contrast, and accuracy of the original cels and artwork." You can get a glimpse at how this might look in the before and after image embedded above.

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Microsoft won its courtroom 1v1 against the FTC, but the fight isn't over yet. Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is throwing caution over the idea of a quick resolution to its concerns around Microsoft's proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft and UK regulators were extremely quick to issue statements over their intention to pause their Activision battle to negotiate after Microsoft won a key FTC legal fight yesterday. But now, the UK regulator says Microsoft's proposals may lead to a new merger investigation."In a statement to The Verge, supplied by CMA media officer Billy Proudlock, the regulator warns that the discussions with Microsoft are at an early stage:

Photo by Michael A. McCoy / Getty Images A group of Democratic senators is urging federal law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute some of the most popular online tax filing companies for allegedly sharing millions of taxpayers' financial data with Meta and Google.On Tuesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and others asked the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Treasury Department, and the IRS to investigate whether TaxSlayer, H&R Block, and TaxAct violated taxpayer privacy laws by sharing sensitive user information with the two tech firms.Senators also released their own report Wednesday detailing the accusations, first raised by The Markup last November. The report alleges that for years, tax preparation companies infused... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hope everyone is staying cool this summer. Today, I take a look at Audible's new chief content officer and what her role will entail in Amazon's bigger audio strategy. I also have an exclusive interview for you from the creators of iHeartMedia's NextUp Initiative, a six-month fellowship for underrepresented podcast creators.The Chief Audio Officer Summit begins tomorrow in Los Angeles. Spotify and Wondery will both be hosting summits on Thursday, too. I'll be in attendance, so you can look forward to my recap in another edition of Hot Pod.Finally, this just in before publication time: Trisha Paytas is cutting ties with Colleen... Continue reading...

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Silk Road was once synonymous with online dark web" criminal activity, and today, its number two organizer, Roger Thomas Clark, aka Variety Jones, was sentenced to 20 years. Clark's sentence was, according to Wired, the maximum he could have faced as part of his plea deal.Clark was extradited to the US from Thailand almost five years ago and, before that, had served almost three years in detention in Thailand. According to the US Attorney's Office of New York's Southern District, he was accused of conspiring to distribute massive quantities of narcotics." At the time of extradition, Clark gloated that there was no hard evidence against him and that being sent to the US would be an impossible circumstance."Authorities said Clark... Continue reading...

Image: Shutterstock Shutterstock is extending its partnership with OpenAI for six more years, allowing the AI company to train its models using Shutterstock's sprawling library of images, videos, music, and metadata during that time.The stock image site's partnership with OpenAI first began in 2021. That's when Shutterstock started letting the company use its images to train its text-to-image model, DALL-E - a deal OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described as critical" to the model's training. Last year, Shutterstock launched a Contributor Fund" to compensate artists when their work is used to train OpenAI's models.At that time, Shutterstock also integrated OpenAI's image generator directly into its website and banned the sale of AI-generated images that weren't... Continue reading...

Image: Digital Eclipse Last year, Digital Eclipse released Atari 50, a sprawling, interactive tour through Atari's long history. I described it as a cross between an interactive documentary and a virtual museum exhibition," and it really set a new bar for retro game collections. Now, the studio is tackling another project: Karateka, the game Jordan Mechner made before the iconic Prince of Persia.Called The Making of Karateka, the new project sounds much like Atari 50, only focused on a specific game. It includes pixel-perfect versions" of the original Karateka releases and early prototypes you can actually play, along with a host of design documents and documentary-style video features. There's even a brand-new remastered version of the action game. What... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has introduced a new set of rules it says will protect consumers against scams that aim to commandeer their cell phone accounts," it announced on Tuesday. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel says the new rules will maintain citizens' well-established freedom to pick their preferred device and provider."Under the proposed regulations, wireless providers would be required to adopt secure methods of authenticating a customer" when they swap SIM cards to a new device or port their phone number over to another carrier. They would also have to notify customers when a SIM change or port-out request is initiated and do other things to protect customers from phone hijacking fraud.The FCC said it was l... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A Norfolk, Nebraska, woman pleaded guilty to helping her daughter have a medication abortion last year. The charges came after Facebook, by court order, provided police with evidence that bolstered a Madison County prosecutor's case against her.Last year, it emerged that the two were charged after police acquired Facebook messages that proved the two had acquired abortion medication intended for first-trimester abortions. In a June 2022 affidavit, the officer investigating Celeste Burgess, the daughter who was charged along with her mother, Jessica Burgess, said he'd served Meta a warrant seeking their messages, and the company quickly complied.The charges include having an abortion after 20 weeks, false reporting, and tampering with... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If Netflix's password-sharing crackdown is forcing you out of your ex's account, now it's easier to transfer your profile to the old account you just reactivated (or maybe even your new partner's). In an update on Tuesday, Netflix says you can now use its profile transfer tool to send your viewing history and recommendations to an existing account.Before this change, Netflix only let you transfer your profile to newly created accounts. This was pretty inconvenient if you already had an inactive account with Netflix that you wanted to start using again or if you planned on sharing an existing account with someone you've just moved in with. Image: Netflix Netflix rolled out its profile transfer tool last year as a... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Meta is rolling out the ability to show up on video calls in Messenger and Instagram as your virtual Meta avatar, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature marks a notable expansion of what you can do with its avatar system, which it has been slowly building out as part of its metaverse vision.Based on a short video in Meta's blog post about the news, it appears using your Meta avatar in a call will look somewhat like using one of Apple's Memoji avatars on a FaceTime call. Meta's avatars also follow your facial expressions and mouth movements, which could make it easier to tell what someone is actually saying while they're chatting with you as an avatar. The video shows users switching over to some sillier animal-themed avatars,... Continue reading...

Earbuds, but also eye candy. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you were waiting for a decent deal - or any deal, for that matter - to land on the new Beats Studio Buds Plus before picking them up, now is your chance. Right now, you can buy the stylish pair of wireless earbuds at Amazon for $149.99 ($20 off) as part of Amazon Prime Day, which is the first discount we've seen on them since they made their debut in May. Both Best Buy and Target are also matching Amazon's price, if you're not a Prime member.The Studio Buds Plus are a big improvement over their predecessor, the Beats Studio Buds, with the most noticeable difference being their appearance. The new earbuds now come in a fun translucent option, one that's reminiscent of the throng of transparent gadgets we saw during the late-'90s. If... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon doesn't believe it fits the definition of a very large online platform" - at least not how the European Union defines it.The retail giant is taking legal action to challenge the EU's new content moderation rules for big tech companies, claiming that the company is being unfairly targeted by the legislation. On Tuesday, Amazon filed a petition with the EU's General Court to request that the European Commission annul its decision to designate Amazon as a very large online platform" (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA), arguing that the company doesn't meet the requirements to fall under such a category.The DSA was designed to address systemic risks posed by very large companies with advertising as their primary revenue... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Stay up to date with trailers, news, reviews, and interviews. Continue reading...

Nothing's Phone 2 in gray. | Photo by Allison Johnson /The Verge Nothing's Phone 2 has officially arrived. The company has already preannounced plenty of details about the handset, so the big news today is the Phone 2's price and release date. It'll be available starting at $599 (579 / 679), and unlike last year's device, the Phone 2 will be available to buy in the US. Preorders start today, and the phone will be publicly available July 17th.There are a couple of different variants of the Phone 2 available. The starting price gets you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but there are also step-up models with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $699 (629 / 729) and 12GB and 512GB of storage for $799 (699 / 849). For comparison, the Phone 1's starting price for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage was... Continue reading...