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Updated 2025-07-09 02:03
Aqara kick-starts its first Matter-over-Thread smart lock with a promise of Home Key support
Aqara's U200 smart lock is a retrofit, Matter-over-Thread door lock, with support for Apple Home Key promised. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Aqara has launched its Smart Lock U200 on Kickstarter, where you can currently nab the device for $209, down from the $249.99 it'll cost you when it goes on sale later this year. According to the Kickstarter page, it will ship to backers in April.The company debuted its new retrofit lock at the IFA 2023 tech show last summer; showcasing its Matter-over-Thread connectivity and separate Bluetooth keypad with a fingerprint reader and NFC built in. This gives you the option to unlock with digital codes, Aqara NFC cards, the Aqara app on your phone, and voice control with compatible voice assistants. That's in addition to still being able to use your existing key.Uniquely for a retrofit lock (where you don't need to replace your... Continue reading...
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 renders appear ahead of rumored July Unpacked
Say goodbye to the rounded-corners that featured on previous Galaxy Z Fold devices. | Image: Onleaks / Smartprix Samsung's incoming Galaxy Z Fold 6 smartphone appears to have leaked in unofficial renders published on Wednesday by SmartPrix and OnLeaks, giving us our first look at the company's latest flagship foldable. The images show a much boxier design that's more in keeping with the recently launched Galaxy S24 Ultra, with squared edges in place of the softer, rounded ones adorning the Galaxy Z Fold 5.According to Smartprix, the dimensions for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 are 153.5 x 132.5 x 6.1mm (around 6 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches) when unfolded, making it a smidge shorter and wider than its predecessor. The inner screen reportedly measures 7.6 inches diagonally, with the Galaxy Z Fold 6's front cover display coming in at approximately 6.2 inches.O... Continue reading...
The Vision Pro isn’t destroying your eyes, but maybe get some eye drops
The 20-20-20 rule and some eye drops can help if you're feeling eye strain. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We've all heard that screens aren't good for your eyes. So it might not be too surprising to hear that many Vision Pro users have complained about eye strain. (After all, the headset does use two 4K screens, one in front of each eyeball.) However, these are common complaints from overall VR usage and experts say it isn't something to freak out over.Despite what many people believe, sitting too close to the TV does not damage your eyes. Screens ruining your eyes is another myth," says Dr. Arvind Saini, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.If you peruse VR subreddits, not just the Apple Vision Pro one, that can be hard to believe. You'll often find people complaining that their eyes hurt like hell," are i... Continue reading...
Google CEO says Gemini AI diversity errors are ‘completely unacceptable’
Google CEO Sundar Pichai. | Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge The historically inaccurate images and text generated by Google's Gemini AI have offended our users and shown bias," CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.Last week, Google paused Gemini's ability to generate images after it was widely discovered that the model generated racially diverse, Nazi-era German soldiers, US Founding Fathers who were non-white, and even inaccurately portrayed the races of Google's own co-founders. While Google has since apologized for missing the mark" and said it's working to re-enable image generation in the coming weeks, Tuesday's memo is the first time the CEO has widely addressed the controversy.In the memo, which was first reported by Semafor, Pichai says the... Continue reading...
Amazon’s Road House reboot is accused of copyright infringement — and AI voice cloning
Amazon MGM Studios The screenwriter of the 1989 action film Road House is suing MGM Studios and its owner Amazon Studios, accusing them of copyright infringement over the upcoming Road House remake, report the Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles, also alleges that Amazon Studios resorted to generative AI to clone actor's voices in order to finish the Road House remake during last year's Hollywood strikes, which largely shut down film production.In the complaint, screenwriter R. Lance Hill reportedly states that he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights for the screenplay (which both the original Road House and Amazon... Continue reading...
Eufy’s new 360-degree 4K camera doesn’t need Wi-Fi or power outlets
Eufy Anker's Eufy brand has started shipping a new 4K security camera that should offer 360-degree views, panning 344 degrees and tilting up to 70 degrees. It could also run indefinitely without wired internet or power.That's because in addition to Wi-Fi, the $249.99 Eufy 4G LTE Cam S330 can connect to nearby LTE towers instead, and comes with a detachable solar panel that supposedly needs just two hours under the sun to keep the 36.2Wh battery charged. Since the battery also lasts up to a month on a full charge, according to Anker, it could keep going even through the rainy season.On paper, the S330 seems to address many of the pain points we encountered with earlier LTE-capable cameras from both Eufy and Arlo for around the same... Continue reading...
Nintendo sues Switch emulator Yuzu for ‘facilitating piracy at a colossal scale’
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you've ever seen a Steam Deck playing a Legend of Zelda game, chances are you were seeing the Yuzu emulator at work. Now, Nintendo has sued the developers of Yuzu in US federal court, with the intent of squashing Yuzu for good.In the lawsuit, spotted by Stephen Totilo, Nintendo alleges that Yuzu violates the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as well as accusing the creators of copyright infringement. It alleges Yuzu is primarily designed" to circumvent several layers of Nintendo Switch encryption so its users can play copyrighted Nintendo games....immediately transfer the domain name yuzu-emu.org ... to Nintendo's control"The company's not only asking for the courts... Continue reading...
OpenAI claims the Times cheated to get ChatGPT to regurgitate articles
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has claimed in a motion filed Monday that The New York Times used deceptive prompts" to get ChatGPT to regurgitate its content. For that and other reasons, the company is asking the US District Court in southern New York to dismiss several of the claims in the outlet's copyright infringement lawsuit.OpenAI asserts that the Times exploited a bug that it's currently working to fix and that the outlet fed articles directly to the chatbot to get it to spit out verbatim passages. Normal people do not use OpenAI's products this way," the company says, citing an April 2023 Times article titled 35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now." This is all very similar to the arguments OpenAI made in its public response in January.Times... Continue reading...
You can save $20 on several Nintendo Switch games for Pokémon Day
Twist on your trainer's cap and try to catch these deals before they sell out. | Image: The Pokemon Company Oh, would you look at that. It's Pokemon Day, an annual celebration commemorating the game's launch on this very day in 1996. Fun fact: Pokemon was first a video game, but it was quickly adapted as a trading card game and anime, both of which are arguably equally as responsible as the Game Boy titles for its success in becoming a global craze.Today, we're celebrating all facets of our fandom by tuning in to the latest announcements from Pokemon Presents and highlighting a few of the best Pokemon Day deals. Right now, for example, Walmart is discounting Pokemon Legends: Arceus for the Nintendo Switch to $39.99 ($20 off), which nearly matches the title's lowest price to date.Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a prequel to Shining Pearl and B... Continue reading...
MWC 2024: all the phones, wearables, and gadgets announced in Barcelona
MWC's venue, the Fira de Barcelona Grand Via. | Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images Europe's big smartphone show is here, and big players like Xiaomi, OnePlus, HMD, Honor, and Lenovo have a new generation of devices to show off. Continue reading...
Meta might demo a pair of ‘true’ AR smart glasses later in 2024
The Orion smart glasses would be a totally different product from the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses pictured above. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It's been long rumored that Meta is working on a pair of augmented reality smart glasses - and it's possible we could finally get a glimpse of them later this year.Citing unnamed Meta sources, a Business Insider report claims that the company plans to demo a pair of true AR smart glasses later this fall at Meta Connect. The glasses, dubbed internally as Orion," are a separate product from the recently launched Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and its Meta Quest headsets. The former product, while featuring some beta multimodal audio AI features and a camera, doesn't have any visual AR elements. Meanwhile, Meta Quest headsets are primarily used for VR gaming and a handful of mixed reality experiences. Ostensibly, what makes these Orion... Continue reading...
Tumblr’s owner is striking deals with OpenAI and Midjourney for training data, says report
Illustration: The Verge The owner of Tumblr and WordPress.com is in talks with AI companies Midjourney and OpenAI to provide training data scraped from users' posts, a report from 404 Media alleges. The report, based on an anonymous source inside the company, says that deals between Automattic and the two AI companies are imminent." It follows nebulous rumors that have spread on Tumblr over the past week, suggesting a deal with Midjourney could provide a new revenue stream for the site.According to 404's report, Automattic plans to launch a new setting Wednesday that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies." But it cites internal posts that suggest the company scraped an initial data dump" containing all... Continue reading...
Apple’s electric car project is dead
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple has halted its long-rumored Project Titan" work on developing an electric car, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly announced the news internally on Tuesday and said many people in the 2,000-person team behind the car will shift to generative AI efforts instead.Apple's chief operating officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the project, informed employees of the project's discontinuation, Bloomberg reports. The outlet adds that there will also be layoffs, but it's not clear how many workers it will affect.Apple's efforts to build its own electric car have been rumored for years, and recent reports suggested Apple was still working on the project. Earlier this month, Wired reported that A... Continue reading...
Podcasting’s data rules get a refresh
Image: The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hello! I am very excited to see so many of you at Hot Pod Summit and On Air Fest this week. I'll be back on Tuesday with a recap of the events. But first, I've got a look at the layoffs at WAMU, the IAB's new podcast guidelines, and the ticking clock on union contract negotiations at Spotify.WAMU shuts down DCist and lays off 15 staffersAnother NPR member station has conducted layoffs, this time at WAMU in Washington, DC. While some public radio organizations have addressed budget shortfalls by cutting podcasts (NPR, WNYC), WAMU is leaving its audio operation intact as it lays off 15 staffers and shuts down DCist, the local news... Continue reading...
Sonos’ first headphones now rumored to launch in June for $449
The company's most recent new product was the Move 2 portable speaker. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos plans to release its first pair of wireless headphones in June after dealing with some late-stage software setbacks, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The headphones will tie into the company's ecosystem of speakers and home theater soundbars and are expected to be priced at $449, putting them firmly in the premium market of mainstream consumer headphones.There's a lot riding on these upcoming headphones for Sonos. CEO Patrick Spence has made it clear that the company has high hopes for its latest hardware category. This is the beginning of a multi-year product cycle where we expect to reap the rewards of our R&D investments," Spence said on an earnings call in November. This cycle begins with our entry into a new... Continue reading...
The Humane AI Pin worked better than I expected — until it didn’t
Life beyond a phone screen? Or just a neat gadget? Look, I'm a Humane AI Pin doubter as much as the next person. And I still think the wearable, AI-powered assistant suffers from a case of this-thing-could-have-been-an-app. But I finally got to spend a little face-to-face time with the pin this morning, and you know what? It's a darn cool gadget. It's just buried under a layer of marketing so thick that it's hard to appreciate what it actually could be if Humane wasn't so self-serious.If you spend time on Tech Threads or the like, you probably already know what the pin does: you clip it to your shirt, talk to it, and it uses generative AI to answer. It's a standalone device with its own SIM card, and there's no screen - just vibes. That, and a little laser that projects menus and text... Continue reading...
GameStop is taking 50 percent off Persona 5 Tactica and other hit titles
The PlayStation 5 version of Persona 5 Tactica is down to just $29.99. | Image: Atlus Spring may be just around the corner, but it's still cold and rainy in many parts of the US. If you're looking for ways to keep yourself entertained while indoors, GameStop is currently taking up to 50 percent off select titles as a part of its "OMG" sale. The ongoing promotion includes steep 50 percent discounts on newer hits like Persona 5 Tactica for the PlayStation 5 ($29.99) and Sonic Superstars ($29.99) for the PS4. The deluxe edition of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which comes with a handful of in-game items, is also on sale for the PS5 for $44.99 (half off).While the best deals are on new PlayStation games, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch players can also get in on the savings. Modern classics like Octopath Traveler II ($29.99... Continue reading...
Texas sues Pornhub owner for not adding age verification requirements
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the company behind Pornhub for not complying with state-level age verification rules. The suit, filed in Travis County District Court against Pornhub parent Aylo, accuses Aylo of failing to implement reasonable age verification methods" on Pornhub and other adult sites that it owns. It seeks millions of dollars in damages under a law that was initially blocked as unconstitutional, then allowed to take effect last year.Texas is one of numerous states that have pushed for stricter age verification on either pornographic sites specifically or large parts of the internet as a whole. Its version of the law, HB 1181, requires that pornographic sites use either their own methods or a third-party... Continue reading...
Fortnite continues to expand with two new Lego games
Image: Lego The transformation of Fortnite into a gaming platform continues with the addition of some new games from Lego. Following the release of the Minecraft-like survival game Lego Fortnite in December, Lego has launched two more titles inside of Fortnite. One is a multiplayer title called Lego Raft Survival; the other is an obstacle course called Lego Obby Fun. Both games were built with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite tool.The launches come as Epic is attempting to expand Fortnite beyond its battle royale roots, with a series of different experiences inside of the game. Lego Fortnite's launch was quickly followed by the arcade racer Rocket Racing and the music game Fortnite Festival.Epic and Lego first announced their partnership in 2022,... Continue reading...
Wendy’s betrays spicy nugget lovers everywhere and will introduce surge pricing
Image: Wendy's Imagine waiting in line at your local Wendy's drive-thru during the lunch rush, only to pull up to the menu board and realize that the spicy chicken nuggets you've been craving all day will cost you a dollar extra. That nightmare may soon become a reality, because Wendy's plans on testing surge pricing that will increase the price of its spicy nuggets, burgers, Frostys, and other favorites during its busiest times.During an earnings call earlier this month, Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner said the fast food chain plans on investing $20 million to roll out digital menu boards to US-based restaurants by the end of 2025. As part of the change, Wendy's will also introduce something called dynamic prices" that will change the prices on the digital... Continue reading...
Bitcoin miners win legal battle to keep mum about energy use
Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Crypto miners have successfully blocked the Department of Energy's (DOE) survey of Bitcoin's energy consumption in the US. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the DOE from moving forward with data collection.More Bitcoin is mined in the US than anywhere else in the world, a trend that has sparked legal battles over the impact energy-hungry crypto mines have on the power grid, nearby communities, and the environment. The DOE announced last month that it would start to collect data on the electricity consumption of crypto mines, mandating that companies comply with the emergency collection of data request."Industry groups were quick to challenge the move in court. The Texas Blockchain Council and... Continue reading...
Ford, Mercedes, and Tesla have the least problematic EV supply chains
Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla occupy the top three spots in a new ranking of 18 global automakers based on their efforts to eliminate carbon emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains. US automakers in particular made the most progress in cleaning up their supply chains, with Tesla showing the biggest increase of all the automakers.The rankings were compiled by Lead the Charge, a global coalition of leading climate, environment, and human rights organizations that includes the Sierra Club, The Sunrise Project, and Public Citizen, among others. The group started evaluating automaker supply chains last year, with the goal to release an updated ranking each year.Overall, automakers made a lot... Continue reading...
The VGHF built an archive of gaming history — and is making it available online
Collage by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Super Sushi Pinball, a game that does not prominently feature sushi, never actually launched. It was meant to be Sony's second game in the US, intended for the NES during a time when such news would not have melted the brains of console diehards, and was marketed in video game magazines for over a year. This is a game that was last seen by anyone in 1990 at a trade show," said Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation. It just disappeared from the world."That is until Cifaldi found it in the basement of Ed Semrad, retired editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly. One day, when I was planning a trip to Chicago, I just kind of shot my shot and ... he invited me to his basement," Cifaldi said. In that basement,... Continue reading...
Why Uber and Etsy came up so much in the Supreme Court’s social media arguments
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images During Monday's Supreme Court arguments in a pair of consequential social media cases, the justices prodded for ways they could rule without giving either side everything they asked for.The justices seemed largely skeptical of the most sweeping provisions in Florida's and Texas' social media laws, which would force certain tech platforms to carry speech even when they don't want to. But they also looked for the boundaries of tech companies' First Amendment rights - seeking to understand when they become conduits for the transfer of information, rather than expressive platforms themselves.The laws at the center of the fight, Florida's SB 7072 and Texas' HB 20, were created in the name of countering what conservative legislators have... Continue reading...
Limited Run gives digital games a physical legacy
Photo by Kate Medley for The Verge The future for physical video games looks bleak. Major console hardware makers seem to be inching toward removing ways to play discs at all: leaked Microsoft documents revealed a potential disc-less Xbox Series X (though the company says it isn't completely giving up on the format), while the slim" PS5 has a detachable disc drive that requires an internet connection to pair with a new console. You can get most games digitally nowadays, but there are plentiful stories about people losing access to games they've purchased when digital storefronts shut down or because of licensing issues or unexplained bans.Because of the many issues with digital ownership, Josh Fairhurst, the CEO of physical game maker Limited Run Games, thinks that... Continue reading...
Pokémon Legends: Z-A teased for 2025 release
Image: The Pokemon Company The big news out of today's Pokemon Presents is that the next major Pokemon game is in the works - and it's launching next year. There aren't many details yet, but the game is called Pokemon Legends: Z-A (yes, that's the real title), and it takes place in Lumiose City, where 2013's Pokemon X and Y were set. The game is expected to launch in 2025 with a simultaneous global release, and it's coming to the Nintendo Switch. It's being developed by Game Freak.The initial teaser video doesn't show any actual gameplay but does hint at some changes coming to the city. According to the YouTube description, the game takes place while an urban redevelopment plan is under way to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and pokemon."... Continue reading...
I’ve seen the future of wireless charging, and I want it in my kitchen counters
FreePower for Countertop is a Qi wireless charger built into your countertops. This is a demo unit I tried out to get a feel for the experience. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge I recently remodeled my kitchen, and my first thought during the design process was, Can I embed wireless charging in my new quartzite countertop?" But I couldn't find a solution that didn't involve sticking bulky black boxes under the counter and requiring precise placement of my phone on a vast counter landscape. I wish I'd waited a year or two.This week at KBIS, the annual Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas, FreePower launched its latest technology: wireless Qi charging built into countertops.FreePower for Countertop puts all the technology into a slimline device that fits inside stone or wood countertops. Once installed and powered (hardwired or plugged in), it can charge up to three devices simultaneously at Qi2 speeds... Continue reading...
Honda doubles down on hydrogen with new fuel cell-powered SUV
Image: Honda Honda announced a new hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle for the US market in a sign that the automaker has not given up on the most abundant element in the universe for its vehicle lineup.The 2025 Honda CR-V e:FCEV may not roll off the tongue easily, but Honda insists it can find a fan base, especially as hybrid powertrains are proving to be more popular with US car buyers than pure battery-electric vehicles. The fuel cell electric vehicle will have an EPA-rated range of 270 miles, which includes 29 miles of all-electric driving range.The CR-V e:FCEV is a compact crossover SUV that is co-developed with General Motors using fuel cell modules produced by the companies' Fuel Cell System Manufacturing (FCSM) joint venture in Michigan.... Continue reading...
Tales of a shopping influencer
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Everywhere you go on the internet, it feels like someone's trying to sell you something. TikTok is being overrun by sales pitches for stuff on the TikTok Shop; Instagram is making it easier to buy everything you see in a post; platforms from Pinterest to Prime Video are adding ever more ads, ever more hungrily trying to get you to buy something.The new app Flip, in a sense, is just saying the quiet part out loud: it's a social media platform that is absolutely, unequivocally, unabashedly about shopping all the way down. The Verge's Mia Sato recently threw herself into the Flip ecosystem to figure out what life is like as a shopping influencer and what it says about the future of the internet that Flip even exists in the first place.O... Continue reading...
Pokémon Presents 2024: all the biggest news and trailers
Image: Nintendo You won't want to Pokemon Sleep through it. Continue reading...
Sony is laying off 900 PlayStation employees
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony says it's laying off around 900 employees of its PlayStation division, a reduction of its global headcount of around 8 percent. Sony's layoffs will impact a variety of its PlayStation studios, including Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Firesprite. Sony's layoffs are the latest in a wave that has been impacting the gaming and tech industries throughout 2024.We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8 percent or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes," says PlayStation chief Jim Ryan. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted."Several PlayStation studios are affected, with Sony... Continue reading...
Stardew Valley is getting a massive March game content update
The 1.6 update will be available for macOS, Windows, and Linux on March 19th. | Image: ConcernedApe Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone - better known as ConcernedApe - has revealed when players can expect the next major update to drop, adding fresh content and expanded multiplayer options to the game. Announced on Monday in line with Stardew Valley's eighth anniversary, update 1.6 will be available for PC (Windows/macOS/Linux) players on March 19th, with console and mobile to follow as soon as possible."We have some idea of what content is coming thanks to a sneak peak" that ConcernedApe shared back in September. This includes three unnamed festivals - one major" and two mini" - alongside new items, crafting recipes, rewards for billboard quests, and late-game content that expands each of the five skills: farming, fishing,... Continue reading...
Nvidia’s free-tier GeForce Now will soon show ads while you’re waiting to play
Nvidia's GeForce Now is a cloud gaming platform that spans many devices. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia's completely free, no-strings attached trial of its cloud gaming service GeForce Now is about to be very slightly less of a deal - on Wednesday February 28th, Nvidia tells The Verge, users will start seeing ads.They're only for the free tier - not Priority or Ultimate - and even then, it sounds like they won't interrupt your gameplay. Free users will start to see up to two minutes of ads while waiting in queue to start a gaming session," writes Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Ngo.Currently, the free tier does often involve waiting in line for a remote computer to free up before every hour of free gameplay - now, I guess there'll be a few ads too. Nvidia says the ads should help pay for the free tier of service, and that it... Continue reading...
Netflix confirms it’s cutting off Apple billing for grandfathered subscribers
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix confirms to The Verge that it has begun booting longtime subscribers off their Apple iTunes billing plans, and will require them to pay Netflix directly using a credit card or debit card instead. Earlier today, The Streamable reported that Netflix had begun telling customers in some territories," but Netflix representative Momo Zhao confirms to us that all members on the basic plan who were using an iTunes method of payment" will need to sign up directly.It's been a good run for anyone who signed up before Netflix stopped accepting subscriptions through Apple's payments system. One person indicated today on X that they'd kept the streaming service's old $9.99 price for years.
The Odysseus lunar lander is on its side and will likely run out of energy soon
Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after pitching over during its approach to the landing site." | Image: Intuitive Machines (X) The Odysseus lander is likely to remain operating for another 24 hours on the Moon's surface, despite being tipped over onto its side. Intuitive Machines, the private space company behind Odysseus, tweeted a few images taken by the spacecraft and gave more updates on how long the team expects it will remain operational.Because of Odysseus' landing position, the panels and antennas aren't oriented exactly as planned, making it harder for it to generate power and communicate. Controllers on Earth will continue to collect data until its solar panels are no longer exposed to sunlight, which they anticipate will happen on Tuesday morning.
Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones have plunged to a new all-time low
Bose's foldable QuietComfort Ultra Headphonesare an excellent pair of noise-canceling headphones, if you don't mind the color white. | Image: The Verge Traveling can be stressful, which is why, if you're planning on enjoying a relaxing spring break next month, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones can make for a great travel companion, especially if you're flying. The noise-canceling headphones can help ensure you get some peace and quiet even before you land at your destination, and right now, they're down to a new low of $349.99 ($80 off) at Staples.Unlike the last-gen Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, the QC Ultra fold down for easy storage, which is one of the reasons they remain our favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones for traveling. The long-lasting headphones are also more comfortable to wear than our top pick, the Sony WH-1000XM5, so you won't need to worry about ear... Continue reading...
The Queen’s Blood card game is just as good as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth itself
Image: Square Enix I have a pet conspiracy theory.The greatest minds in card game design don't work at Wizards of the Coast on Magic: The Gathering or at Ravensburger on the Disney-themed breakout hit Lorcana. But somehow, through some eldritch pact made with the gods of the collectible card game, Square Enix managed to snag the greatest minds in card game design and has kept them in a vault for the last 30 years working on Final Fantasy card minigames. That's the best explanation I can come up with for how good Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's Queen's Blood card game is.This minigame has nearly eclipsed my enjoyment of Rebirth itself, a game a number of critics are saying is possibly the best game of this generation. I didn't gasp in awe when I first saw... Continue reading...
Two words: poker roguelike
Image: Playstack In Casino Royale, James Bond gets a bit of poker advice: You never play your hand. You play the man sitting across from you.Okay, but what if you just played your hand? What if no one was sitting at the other end of the table? Balatro, a new turn-based card game available on most platforms, takes the mechanics of poker and turns them into the basis of a compelling roguelike, the subgenre of games where each playthrough is a single perilous attempt.Balatro is a poker game inasmuch as Scrabble is a word game. Knowing the language and probabilities of poker will help you, but ultimately, this is a logic game. There are no bluffs, no pots, just the pure composition of poker hands satisfyingly paired with a thrilling game loop.This makes B... Continue reading...
Seagate’s Xbox Storage Expansion Card is cheaper than ever at nearly $100 off
Seagate's speedy storage expansion cards are reminiscent of retro memory cards but also expensive without these periodic sales. | Image: Seagate Update February 26th, 1:30PM ET: The 1TB model of Seagate's Storage Expansion Card has sold out, but you can still save $110 on the 2TB version.We've griped long enough about the ballooning install sizes of the latest AAA games, but complaining won't slow the trend. Without some miraculous development in data compression technology, the only remedy today is to buy extra storage. Xbox Series X and S gamers have had it the roughest with the exorbitant markups on its proprietary storage cards, but regular discounts are starting to make them a little more affordable. For example, Seagate's 1TB Storage Expansion Card is down to $125.99 at Amazon ($94 off), which is the lowest price we've seen so far. The 2TB card is also on sale for $249.99... Continue reading...
Fiat is turning its Panda city cars into a whole family of ‘multi-energy’ vehicles
Image: Fiat Stellantis-owned Fiat revealed five new concepts that it says will serve as inspiration for a future family of vehicles that will come in a variety of powertrains while sharing the same platform.The new lineup, inspired by the Italian automaker's Panda city cars, will kick off in July 2024 with a new city car, followed by a new vehicle each year for the following three years. In addition, the concepts preview a pickup truck, a fastback sedan, an SUV, and a camper.Fiat is hedging its bets, committing to producing not only electric versions of each vehicle but also hybrid and internal combustion engine versions. The automaker says this is to ensure maximum relevance to customers wherever they live in the world."The new lineup,... Continue reading...
Apple’s decision to drop iPhone web apps comes under scrutiny in the EU
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple could soon face an investigation over its decision to discontinue iPhone web apps in the European Union, according to a report from the Financial Times. The European Commission has reportedly sent Apple and app developers requests for more information to assist in its evaluation.We are indeed looking at the compliance packages of all gatekeepers, including Apple," the European Commission says in a statement to The Verge provided by spokesperson Lea Zuber. In that context, we're in particular looking into the issue of progressive web apps, and can confirm sending the requests for information to Apple and to app developers, who can provide useful information for our assessment."When reached for comment, Apple pointed The Verge... Continue reading...
Flop rock: inside the underground floppy disk music scene
The first computery thing I do in the year 2024 is nudge a 3.5-inch floppy disk into a USB floppy drive that I bought from an online merchant working out of Singapore's onetime hotbed of '90s computer piracy. I'm briefly startled by the drive's low mechanical whirring - a warm, ambient background score that instantly transports me back to my childhood. Some of my first painfully preteen journals were hidden poorly on nondescript floppies just like this one. I click on the disk's sole file, an MP3 titled Inability to Perform Social Activities Is Considered Inferior," and Yasuyuki Uesugi's growling wall of experimental noise rolls through my apartment like a rogue wave at the beach. The track is one minute, 27 seconds long,... Continue reading...
Microsoft partners with Mistral in second AI deal beyond OpenAI
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft has announced a new multiyear partnership with Mistral, a French AI startup that's valued at 2 billion (about $2.1 billion). The Financial Times reports that the partnership will include Microsoft taking a minor stake in the 10-month-old AI company, just a little over a year after Microsoft invested more than $10 billion into its OpenAI partnership.The deal will see Mistral's open and commercial language models available on Microsoft's Azure AI platform, the second company to offer a commercial language model on Azure after OpenAI. Much like the OpenAI partnership, Microsoft's partnership with Mistral will also be focused on the development and deployment of next-generation large language models.Mistral is announcing a new... Continue reading...
Funimation’s solution for wiping out digital libraries could be good, if it works
The Verge The president of Crunchyroll, Rahul Purini, announced that the company is working to compensate customers who will lose their digital libraries in the upcoming Funimation / Crunchyroll merger on April 2nd.[We] are working really hard directly with each [customer] to ensure that they have an appropriate value for what they got in the digital copy initially," Purini tells Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel during this week's Decoder podcast. As people reach out to us through customer service, we are responding and handling each of those requests as they prefer."When asked what appropriate value" meant, Purini said, So it could be that they get access to a digital copy on any of the existing other services where they might be able to... Continue reading...
Supreme Court hears arguments on the future of online speech: all the news
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images The court hears arguments in Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton on Monday. Continue reading...
The OnePlus Watch 2 is a bid to redeem its smartwatch reputation
The OnePlus Watch 2 looks good on paper, but I've been burned before. | Image: OnePlus OnePlus is keenly aware that its first smartwatch was a disaster. Nearly three years later, I'm still haunted by that launch and the abysmal experience I had reviewing it. News that OnePlus is back with a second-gen smartwatch fills me with trepidation, but on paper, the updates seem promising. Not only will the $299.99 OnePlus Watch 2 run on Google's Wear OS 4 but it'll also use a novel dual-engine architecture that will purportedly enable up to 100 hours of battery life. Oh, and it'll have Google Assistant.The most interesting thing about the OnePlus Watch 2's hardware is it features two separate chipsets: the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 and the BES 2700 MCU. The result is a dual-OS structure that sounds a smidge like Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro... Continue reading...
Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini on how anime took over the world
Photo illustration: The Verge / Photo by Crunchyroll The head of the fast-growing streaming service discusses the Funimation merger and shutdown and where he sees growth in anime. Continue reading...
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE review: $549 competition for Nvidia
AMD's latest GPU targets Nvidia's RTX 4070. Continue reading...
How to manage app permissions on your Android phone or tablet
Image: The Verge Your phone, your rules: Android gives you a pretty comprehensive toolkit when it comes to managing app permissions on your device, enabling you to control access to parts of the system like the camera, the microphone, and your current location.Apps will ask for these permissions one by one as they need them, so you'll typically see a flurry of requests while an app is setting itself up as well as more sporadic requests later on (when an app needs access to your photos and videos, for example).You can change these permissions at any time, and it's worth doing regular audits just to make sure apps aren't overreaching. Do your apps really need all the permissions they're asking for? In a lot of cases, probably not.Assessing appsYou can... Continue reading...
The Microlino Lite is here to make urban SUVs look even dumber
Microlino Lite in Geneva. | Image: Micro Swiss company Micro - maker of the happy little Microlino electric bubble car - just unveiled a production version of its Microlino Lite at the Geneva Motor Show. With a 45km/h (28mph) top speed, it goes half as fast as the standard Microlino but can be driven by anyone with a moped license from the age of 14 in some European countries. An entry-model will cost CHF149 per month (about 156 or $169) to lease starting this summer.Although the Microlino Lite is targeting Europe on day one, Micro spokesperson Merlin Ouboter says the Microlino Lite is eligible for registration in the US as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) and hopes to have the first Microlinos there by the end of 2024.Microcars like the Microlino Lite target urbanites... Continue reading...
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