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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6RPCS)
The Boox Palma looks slick in either black or white. | Image: Boox Kindles and Kobos are relatively comfortable to use, but if those are too big and restrictive, the smartphone-like Boox Palma is a fantastic alternative that's grown on us considerably. A new model is on its way, but if you don't need the smoother performance it promises, you can save a bit on the original today. It's down to $245.99 ($34 off) at Amazon, which is a new all-time low price.The Palma's hardware sheet and appearance resemble a smartphone, but it has neither calling capabilities nor a traditional display. It uses a 6.13-inch backlit E Ink Carta 1200 display instead, offering a crisp 300 ppi resolution. There's a microphone and speaker, a microSD card slot for expanding its 128GB of internal storage, volume buttons that can... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-03-22 23:34 |
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by Justine Calma on (#6RPCT)
The Climeworks AG Mammoth carbon removal plant in Hellisheidi, Iceland, on May 8th, 2024. | Photo: Getty Images Tech companies think they can reverse climate change with fancy new tools to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But new research throws cold water on the idea that cooling the planet after it has already heated beyond a key turning point can avoid serious damage. Much of the toll climate change takes - from rising seas to lost homes - can't be undone, recent research published in the journal Nature warns.That makes it all the more urgent for governments and companies with climate goals to slash pollution from fossil fuels now, rather than offsetting or capturing their greenhouse gas emissions after the fact.Climate change comes with irreversible consequences."Climate change comes with irreversible consequences. Every degree... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6RP91)
Image: Hello Games The latest No Man's Sky event will have players straddling the boundary between this world and the next. The Cursed expedition event runs for the next two weeks and features new bosses, new gear, a flying saucer, and a UFO players can make their own.As with every new NMS event, the developers at Hello Games are changing up how the game works. The Cursed takes place in a new universe where the line between life and... unlife?? is perilously thin. The exosuit, which normally protects players from the harsh environs of space and alien planets, now comes with an anomaly suppressor" that'll keep them stable as reality shifts around them. Additionally, players won't be able to warp between star systems, having to instead travel via a portal... Continue reading...
by Richard Lawler on (#6RP92)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A new report from The Information cites multiple people" involved in making parts for Apple's Vision Pro headset to say that production plans have been scaled back in recent months. This follows a Tim Cook interview published this weekend by WSJ. Magazine, where he said, Obviously I'd like to sell more," but acknowledged that At $3,500, it's not a mass-market product."That aligns with The Information's previous report from this summer, saying Apple has shifted its strategy to focus on making a cheaper headset, which could ship as soon as next year.According to the report, the company that does the final assembly of Vision Pro headsets has been warned production could wind down in November.There are caveats, including that... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6RP93)
Eero Outdoor 7 is the company's first outdoor-rated Wi-Fi access point. | Image: Eero Mesh Wi-Fi pioneer Eero is tackling a new frontier: the outdoors. Today, the Amazon-owned company announced the Eero Outdoor 7. Starting at $349.99, the dual-band 2.4 and 5Ghz Wi-Fi 7 access point boasts an IP66 rating and can provide up to 15,000 square feet of outdoor coverage with speeds of up to 2.1Gbps. That should be enough to stream movies to your outdoor TV or projector, get good connectivity for your security cameras, and even funnel some decent Wi-Fi to that shed at the end of the garden.With connectivity now a necessity for so many things we do, from work to play, extending your Wi-Fi network beyond your home into your yard feels increasingly more important. Nick Weaver, CEO of Eero, told The Verge in an interview that a... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6RP94)
For an extra $700 you buy a matching wooden tripod for Marantz's new wireless speakers. | Image: Marantz Marantz, a 70-year-old brand best known for high-end audio gear like amplifiers and receivers, announced its first speakers this week. The Marantz Horizon and Grand Horizon both pair an array of drivers with a central subwoofer and feature robust wireless connectivity with direct access to streaming services.Both speakers will be available starting on January 14th, 2025, in three different colorways: midnight sky, moon ray, and champagne. The Marantz Horizon will sell for $3,500, while the larger Grand Horizon will be $5,500. Marantz will also sell a matching tripod made from American walnut wood for $700. Image: Marantz The larger Marantz Grand Horizon offers a little extra power and includes two more drivers than... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6RP65)
Image: Apple Like a lot of tech companies, Lumon Industries is instituting a return-to-office policy for employees, but of course, this version looks a little scarier than real life. At least, that's how it seems based on the first proper trailer for season 2 of Severance.Following last season's incredibly tense finale, the show picks up with Mark S (Adam Scott) heading back to Lumon to find things a little different than he remembers them, including a number of his coworkers. But some things haven't changed - namely, the disorienting office hallways and the unyielding intensity of Milchick (Tramell Tillman), who looks intimidating even while holding party balloons.For the uninitiated, Severance is a sci-fi story about a medical procedure - the... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6RP66)
Image: Adobe Adobe is attempting to lure illustrators to join its creative software platform by making its dedicated drawing and painting app entirely free for everyone. Fresco is essentially Adobe's answer to apps like Procreate and Clip Studio Paint, which all provide a variety of tools for both digital art and simulating real-world materials like sketching pencils and watercolor paints.Adobe Fresco is designed for touch and stylus-supported devices, and is available on iPad, iPhone, and Windows PCs. The app already had a free-to-use tier, but premium features like access to the full Adobe Fonts library, a much wider brush selection, and the ability to import custom brushes previously required a $9.99 annual subscription. That's pretty affordable... Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6RP67)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Anyone who has followed a social network knows that sometimes the most innocuous post can attract unpleasant responses, especially on apps like Instagram, where your content - whether video, image, or text - can be out there for anyone to see. There are any number of reasons you might want to set your account to private, even if only temporarily. It would make it so that only people you approve can follow you and see the stuff you post on your grid or in your Stories.This isn't a perfect solution. For example, although only your followers can see your posts while your account is private, some aspects of your account, such as your profile, will remain public.Anyway, let's begin. Screenshot: Meta It's not hard to... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6RP3X)
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge The upcoming release of Apple Intelligence has spurred the iPhone maker's own what is a photo?" moment. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the company is aiming to provide AI-powered image editing tools that preserve photo authenticity.Our products, our phones, are used a lot," said Federighi. It's important to us that we help purvey accurate information, not fantasy."iOS 18.1 brings a new Clean Up" feature to the Photos app that can quickly remove objects and people from images - a capability that Federighi and WSJ reporter Joanna Stern noted is far tamer than editing tools offered by rivals like Google and Samsung, which can add entire AI-generated assets to images. Despite... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6RNWY)
The Boox Palma 2 features a faster processor and a fingerprint reader. | Image: Boox Boox has announced the Palma 2, the next version of its popular smartphone-sized e-reader. The Palma 2 addresses some of the original's shortcomings, with a faster processor to address the original's laggy interface and by running a newer version of Android.The new Boox Palma 2 is available for preorder today in ivory white or deep cyan black for $279.99, which is exactly the same price as the original. That's still more expensive than premium e-readers, including the recently announced $199.99 Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which features a much larger screen and a more polished interface than the original Palma. Image: Boox The original Palma ran on Android 11, but the new Palma 2 will debut with Android... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RNSB)
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge Thousands of creatives, including famous actors like Kevin Bacon and Kate McKinnon, along with other actors, authors, and musicians, have signed a statement warning that the unpermitted use of copyrighted materials to train AI models threatens the people who made those creative works. 11,500 names are on the list of signatories so far.Here is the one-sentence statement:
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by Emma Roth on (#6RNSC)
This Ariane 5 rocket carried Intelsat 33e and Intelsat 36 into space in 2016. | Photo by JODY AMIET/AFP via Getty Images A communications satellite built by Boeing has fallen apart while in orbit, as reported earlier by Jalopnik. On Saturday, Intelsat said its 33e satellite stopped working due to an anomaly" before confirming its total loss" on Monday.We are coordinating with the satellite manufacturer, Boeing, and government agencies to analyze data and observations," Intelsat said. The company has since established a board to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the cause of the anomaly."The satellite's breakup doesn't have great timing for Boeing, following the company's troubled Starliner mission and a criminal fraud charge over 737 Max plane crashes,The US Space Force also confirmed the incident:
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6RNQ1)
Amazon Not long after injecting more artificial intelligence into its shopping experience, Amazon is now testing a new homepage for its shopping app on Android and iOS. Millions of users in the US will see changes starting today, with more slated to see them over the coming months.Fundamentally, the redesign seems to serve the same purpose as the current layout by surfacing personalized recommendations based on your purchase habits, browsing history, deals, and other signals based on your shopping activity. Today's change just builds on that formula with bigger, brighter graphics, more dynamic product curations and groupings, and an increased emphasis on horizontal scrolling for the various collections and sub-hubs you'll find. (It also... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6RNQ2)
Warner Bros. Joker: Folie a Deux has been in theaters for less than a month, but Warner Bros. has already set a home release date for the box office bomb.Gizmodo reports that Joker: Folie a Deux will be available for purchase on digital platforms starting on October 29th, with a DVD / Blu-ray / 4K physical release to follow on December 17th.Though Warner Bros. envisioned Todd Phillips' Joker sequel replicating the first film's success, the DC Comics-inspired musical failed to meet expectations both critically and commercially. Between its $200 million production budget and the $100 million Warner Bros. spent marketing the film, its projected box office totals - $65 million domestically and somewhere between $210 million to $215 million globally -... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6RNQ3)
AT&T will let you try before you buy. | Image: The Verge T-Mobile and Verizon have been offering free network trials for a couple of years at this point; now, AT&T has finally introduced a trial program of its own. It's a no-commitment way to give the AT&T network a try while still holding on to your current carrier, number, and device. Pretty cool! But you'll need an unlocked phone, which might disqualify a lot of people who are still paying off their current device - though the FCC is trying to do something about that.AT&T calls its program Try AT&T, and at the moment, it's iOS only; the carrier's blog post states that Android support will be introduced in 2025. The trial makes use of eSIM, which allows you to use a secondary line on your phone without ditching your primary number.... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RNM2)
Tim Cook apparently uses a lot more than an iPhone in his daily life. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images While discussing his daily routine, Tim Cook told Ben Cohen in this WSJ Magazine interview that every day" he uses every product." In the story, he mentions using an iPhone, an Apple Watch, AirPods, and then, for work, two different MacBooks, an iMac, a Vision Pro, and an iPad Pro.But what would it look like to truly use everything Apple makes every single day? Imagine using every variant of hardware Apple makes in one day, with or without Beats. Then, there are the accessories. Cook surely uses the polishing cloth, Apple's most compatible product, every day, and probably this VESA mount for the Pro Display XDR.You'd need to use all of its services also, and I don't just mean Apple Music, Arcade, and Apple TV Plus. iTunes Match,... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RNM3)
Illustration: The Verge Google Messages is trying to banish spammy job-seeking and package-delivery texts from your inbox, and it's also adding a content warning to blur images that might contain nudity.The Sensitive Content Warning feature is optional, and if enabled, it will show users a speed bump" with help-finding resources and options" before they can view an image with nudity detected via on-device scanning. If users try to share an image with nudity, the app will warn them about the risks.With all of the scanning done on-device, Google says it doesn't see the contents of your images or send them anywhere, and it doesn't break the end-to-end encryption available with RCS. Apple's Messages app added similar protection with Communication Safety... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6RNM4)
Ecobee's smart security system and smart doorbell camera will now work with smart locks from Yale and August. | Image: Ecobee In its ongoing quest to become a complete smart home system, Ecobee has added a new smart lock integration. The smart thermostat company is partnering with Yale and August to let you control your smart lock using the Ecobee app.If you have an Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera, you should now be able to let someone in more easily by tapping "unlock" right from the live view in the Ecobee app rather than jumping into your smart lock app. If you use Ecobee's Smart Security system, you can also have the door lock when you arm the system. But it won't unlock when you disarm the system and putting your PIN code into the door lock won't turn off the system.The new integration will work with any Wi-Fi-enabled smart lock from Yale or August that... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6RNM5)
Image: Joby The Federal Aviation Administration published highly anticipated final regulations for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that it says will chart the path for the air travel of the future."The FAA says these powered-lift" vehicles will be the first completely new category of aircraft since helicopters were introduced in 1940. These aircraft will be used for a variety of services, including air taxis, cargo delivery, and rescue and retrieval operations. The final rules published today contain guidelines for pilot training as well as operational requirements regarding minimum safe altitudes and visibility.Powered lift aircraft are the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years," FAA administrator Mike Whitaker... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6RNGZ)
Image: The Verge Anthropic's latest Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI model has a new feature in public beta that can control a computer by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. The new feature, called computer use," is available today on the API, allowing developers to direct Claude to work on a computer like a human does, as shown on a Mac in the video below.Microsoft's Copilot Vision feature and OpenAI's desktop app for ChatGPT have shown what their AI tools can do based on seeing your computer's screen, and Google has similar capabilities in its Gemini app on Android phones. But they haven't gone to the next step of widely releasing tools ready to click around and perform tasks for you like this. Rabbit promised similar... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RNH0)
Image: The Verge Microsoft and OpenAI announced they're offering a select group of media outlets up to $10 million ($2.5 million in cash plus $2.5 million worth of software and enterprise credits" from each) to try out AI tools in the newsroom.This news comes while the two companies are still facing a slew of copyright lawsuits, including from The New York Times, The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund behind the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune. Those have continued despite licensing deals reached with many media outlets, including The Verge's parent company, Vox Media.The first round of funding will go to Newsday, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Philadelphia... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6RNH1)
Plugable's PS-10CC can deliver 100W to all 10 of its USB-C ports, but not simultaneously. | Image: Plugable Plugable has announced a new multi-port USB-C hub that can power or charge up to 10 connected devices using intelligent power distribution and an easy-to-understand priority-based charging system.The company is bringing its new PS-10CC hub to consumers through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The earliest backers can get one for $59, while the hub's full MSRP will be closer to $99, with delivery expected as early as January 2025. There's always a level of risk when backing a crowdfunded product, but Plugable has successfully delivered three devices through previous Kickstarters and says it already has functional prototypes of its new PS-10CC. Image: Plugable You'll need to supply your own power adapter for the... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6RNH2)
Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Arkansas is sitting atop lithium reserves that could be vast enough to satisfy the entire world's demand for EV batteries, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).It estimates that there could be 5 to 19 million tons of lithium under southwestern Arkansas. That would be enough to supply nine times the amount of the key material needed globally for car batteries in 2030, the USGS says.Lithium is a key ingredient for rechargeable batteries used in EVs and all kinds of devices. As the US tries to limit the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change by encouraging electric vehicle adoption, the Biden administration has made it a priority to build up domestic supply chains for critical minerals including lithium. The US might... Continue reading...
by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6RNDX)
At just $40, Hoto's electric screwdriver is a cool tool we'd recommend for anyone doing handiwork. | Image: Hoto Tis the season for assemblies. With the holidays coming up, many will soon have their hands full with a bunch of new decorations and gifts to build. To take some pressure off, you can give Hoto's electric screwdriver a try. It's a perennial favorite in our various gift guides, and now you can get a whole kit with its magnetic carrying case and a 25-piece set of commonly used steel bits for $39.99 (50 percent off) at Amazon and Best Buy. That's the lowest price we've seen on the package so far.The screwdriver is lightweight (8.8 ounces) and small enough to maneuver tight workspaces, such as the innards of a desktop PC chassis. You can use it in either manual mode or an electric mode with three distinct torque settings, allowing you to... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6RNDY)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The first cracks are starting to show in Netflix's push into gaming. First reported in Game File and confirmed by Netflix, the streaming company has quietly closed of one of its studios, the first in the three years since the company began its foray into gaming.According to Game File, the shuttered studio was known as Blue. In 2022, Netflix announced it hired former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny to run the studio. Since then, Blue had brought on a number of game industry veterans with experience working on high profile franchises including Halo and God of War. Reportedly, Blue was developing a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP but was closed before the game could be announced or released.Netflix has released a... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6RNDZ)
Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is getting a built-in contact manager that lets you save contacts within the app so you don't lose them if you switch phones.WhatsApp typically relies on the smartphone address book it runs on to hold and manage contacts. But that can be a problem for users who lose their device and fail to back up their phone's contacts, people who share phones, or those who manage multiple accounts with separate contacts on one device.To start, you'll be able to save contacts on WhatsApp Web and Windows and Meta says that you'll eventually" be able to do so on other linked devices. Contacts saved in WhatsApp use a new privacy-preserving" storage technology called Identity Proof Linked Storage (IPLS) that Meta explains keeps names and... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RNE0)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Payouts from Juul's $300 million class action settlement are finally getting distributed - and some people are getting a lot more money than they expected.If you scroll through the r/juul subreddit, you can see posts showing the thousands - or hundreds - of dollars hitting people's Venmo accounts. One screenshot shows someone who said they received more than $9,000, while others report receiving $6,200 and $4,600.Judging by the comments on some of these posts, it appears people who submitted receipts for their Juul pods or pens may have gotten bigger payouts, and with some users spending hundreds of dollars per week on vaping, the amounts added up.
by Andrew Webster on (#6RNE1)
The Nintendo Museum in Kyoto. | Image: Nintendo In 2018, Nintendo invited me to a meeting in New York City to see a mysterious new initiative. It was teased as an interactive experience for Nintendo Switch," which sent my mind to all sorts of places. This is the company that made a weird dual-screen Game Boy and bongo controllers, after all. It could be anything. Even still, I did not guess that I would spend that meeting folding bits of cardboard - or that those cardboard accessories would turn out to be so awesome. That was the moment I completely gave up on trying to guess what Nintendo would do next.That meeting has been on my mind quite a bit over the last few weeks. While much of the game industry has been on edge in anticipation of whatever the follow-up to the Switch will be,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6RNE2)
Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images Even with most of its autonomous vehicle fleet on ice, Cruise is still bleeding cash. The robotaxi company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors lost $435 million in the third quarter of 2024, GM reported this morning. That's an improvement from the $791 million lost in the third quarter of 2023.It's an instructive moment to check in with Cruise, because the company has been on hiatus since October 27, 2023, weeks after one of its driverless vehicles in San Francisco struck and then dragged a pedestrian over 20 feet, severely injuring her.Cruise has made small steps toward restarting its robotaxi service since then, with test vehicles on the roads in Arizona and Texas. It recently announced plans to deploy manually... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6RNE3)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is refreshing its Xbox Wireless Headset today, adding an upgraded microphone and improving the battery life. The refreshed headset will also support Dolby Atmos at no extra cost and Bluetooth 5.3.This updated model has similar rotating ear cup dials to the original, letting you adjust volume and game / audio chat balance. Microsoft has tweaked the design slightly on the outside, removing the green accent in favor of an all-black look. Image: Microsoft The new all-black design. The upgraded microphone includes auto-mute and voice isolation to minimize background noise. You can also directly pair this headset with Xbox consoles or mobile devices and PCs through the Bluetooth 5.3 support.While the... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6RNAM)
Here are some of the AI tools that Canva is increasing prices for. | Image: Canva Canva has added a bunch of new AI features to its web-based design platform, including updates for generating text and video effects and a more powerful text-to-image app. The latter is called Dream Lab" - a new image generator tool born from Canva's acquisition of generative AI startup Leonardo.ai earlier this year.Dream Lab is powered by Leonardo's Phoenix model (not be be confused with Adobe's Firefly AI) and allows users to generate images from descriptions in a variety of styles like 3D render" and Illustration."Canva already has its own Stable Diffusion-based AI image generator and hosts several other third-party apps, but the new Dream Lab offering introduces some improvements to the platform. It's seemingly better at... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6RNAN)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge For years, we've heard that over-the-counter hearing aids were about to be amazing. They'd look like headphones and seem totally socially inconspicuous; they'd be able to help you tune the sound around you to exactly your needs in every situation. It's a nice idea, but we haven't seen much product to back it up. With a new software update coming to Apple's AirPods Pro 2 earbuds next week, it all might be starting to come true.On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Chris Welch takes us through his experience with Apple's new hearing health features, including the surprisingly intense and emotional hearing test you can take right on your phone. We talk about the changing social norms of headphones, what it means that Apple is now... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6RNAP)
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images A group of Democratic lawmakers are urging the Justice Department to prosecute tax prep companies accused of improperly sharing user information with Meta and Google through their advertising pixels.Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), are calling on the DOJ to take action against tax prep companies that they say failed to protect taxpayer privacy. In a new letter shared exclusively with The Verge, the lawmakers advance their previous calls for law enforcers to investigate these companies.All this is the latest in a series of events that kicked off after The Markup published a report in 2022 revealing how tax prep companies shared financial information with Meta and... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6RNAQ)
Three advocacy groups are trying to amp up the pressure on Google for allegedly destroying company records. The American Economic Liberties Project, Check My Ads, and the Tech Oversight Project are urging the State Bar of California to investigate Kent Walker, Google's President of Global Affairs and a member of the Bar. They claim Walker coached" the company to engage in widespread and illegal destruction of records relevant to multiple ongoing federal trials."In a letter shared exclusively with The Verge, the groups point to a 2008 memo Walker sent to employees while he served as general counsel. The so-called Walker Memo was highlighted in the Department of Justice's recent antitrust trial, one of multiple cases where Google has... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6RNAR)
Spotify's new cover art maker is fun, and surprisingly not AI. | Image: Spotify Spotify now has a new Create cover art" option for playlists that lets you make custom collages to represent your playlists. The beta feature, which is available for both free and Spotify Premium members, is launching for English users in 65 markets. The company says it partnered with artists like Ugly Primo, who designed Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti album cover, and Cey Adams, who has worked on albums and logos for The Notorious B.I.G and Beastie Boys.I gave it a shot and produced the masterpiece below, using a picture I took of a possum that was lurking outside my kid's bedroom one night. It's a pleasantly robust image maker, with layering, various effects, and the ability to rotate or change the size of images. It's still in beta,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6RNAS)
The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 can now capture 8K footage at 30fps. | Image: Insta360 Insta360 has announced its new Ace Pro 2 action camera, an upgraded version of its GoPro Hero-series competitor. The compact camera now has a larger screen on the back that flips up 180 degrees for framing selfie videos, and it debuts at $399.99 - $50 cheaper than Insta360's original Ace Pro.The design of the Ace Pro 2 still closely resembles the GoPro Hero series and DJI's Osmo Action line, with an offset lens making room for an additional screen on the front. But while the front screen on the cameras of Insta360's competitors can display full-color video, the Ace Pro 2's monochromatic front screen only displays information. Image: Insta360 The front screen on the Ace Pro 2 is still limited to showing information,... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6RNAT)
If they look like the Bose Sleepbuds, well, that's by design. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge The Bose Sleepbuds are back. Kind of. After Bose decided to discontinue the product in 2023, three ex-Bose engineers decided to acquire the technology and relaunch the device under the name Ozlo. The buds have been around for a while via a crowdfunding campaign, but starting today, they're officially available for $299.Fans of the Bose Sleepbuds will be happy to know the Ozlo buds keep what was great about the originals while making one key improvement: you can now play your own audio, not just a small library of white noise sounds. And if you want the best of both worlds, the buds can switch over from your content to white noise once they've detected you've fallen asleep. It's been hit or miss in the few nights I've tried it. Some... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6RNAV)
Apple's smallest tablet got an upgrade -but it won't feel like much of one unless Apple Intelligence is better than it seems. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6RN7W)
Facebook is getting ready to scan your face again. | Image: Meta Facebook and Instagram are testing new facial recognition tools that could help users quickly restore compromised accounts and combat fake celebrity-endorsed scams. Meta announced its plan to roll out experimental features that can scan a user's face to verify their identity by comparing it against profile pictures on Facebook and Instagram.The first usage of these tools aim to protect both celebrities and everyday people from so-called celeb-bait" ads that impersonate notable figures to trick users into visiting scam websites. Meta currently uses automated technology like machine learning to detect content that violates its policies but says celeb-bait can be difficult to distinguish from legitimate ads.If our systems suspect that... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6RN7X)
Epic Games' Fab marketplace, which is designed to serve as a unified place to get digital assets like environments and animations, is now live, the company announced today. The launch of the marketplace is an important step in Epic's plans to make it easier for developers to acquire assets for developing games - and, maybe someday, to let them make content for an interoperable metaverse.The company first revealed its plans for Fab - which will combine offerings from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab Store, Quixel, and ArtStation Marketplace into one place - in March 2023. While Epic initially planned to launch Fab in 2023, the company later delayed the launch to 2024.Epic is offering an 88 percent revenue share for goods sold on... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6RN60)
Jack Sweeney says that 38 of his jet tracking accounts have been suspended. | Illustration: The Verge Meta has suspended several Threads and Instagram accounts that track the private jets of celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, and former US president Donald Trump.Jack Sweeney, who gained notoriety for his @ElonJet account on X and maintained many of the suspended accounts, said on Threads that the development is reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter." The shuttered accounts, which used publicly available data to show the flight paths of private jets, initially displayed a message on Monday that read, The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed."Meta provided no direct warning or explanation for the suspensions, according to Sweeney, who says the... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6RMVK)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge If you want to subscribe to Disney Plus or Hulu on your iPhone, you can't do that anymore. Support documents for Disney Plus and Hulu now say that new and returning subscribers to those streaming services can't sign up through Apple, as reported by MacRumors.I'm not currently paying for Disney Plus, so out of curiosity, I tried logging into my account through the iOS app to see what would happen. After entering my email and password, I was greeted by a message that says: Unfortunately, this app doesn't support in-app sign up. Finish setting up your account on the website. Create and manage your account at disneyplus.com/next." Hulu's iOS app also pushes you to the Hulu website if you try to log in without an active subscription. ... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6RMVM)
Image: Google For years, Google has included an extra search box within some search results, encouraging you to dig further and look only within a specific website. But now that sitelinks search box is going away because usage has dropped."Google:
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6RMVN)
A still from Blade Runner 2049. | Warner Bros. Though it remains very unclear whether any of the self-driving vehicles demoed at Tesla's We, Robot presentation will ever actually make it to market, one of the production companies behind Blade Runner 2049 thinks Elon Musk ripped off their copyright for the event, and are taking him to court.Today, Alcon Entertainment - an LA-based production company behind Blade Runner 2049 - filed a lawsuit against Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery alleging that an AI image generator was used to create promotional art for the We, Robot event that was meant to resemble stills from the 2017 sci-fi film. According to Alcon, which also owns the copyright to Blade Runner 2049, WBD and Tesla sent a request to use imagery from the film on the... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Liszewski on (#6RMS9)
The Roomba Combo 2 Essential can clean and mop floors for up to two hours on a single charge. | Image: iRobot The new Roomba Combo 2 Essential and Roomba Vac 2 Essential include a dock for self-emptying their dirt bins - a feature missing from the budget-friendly Essential robovacs that iRobot introduced six months ago. The 2-in-1 Combo 2 features both vacuuming and mopping capabilities for $424.99 and is slightly more expensive than the Vac 2, which only sucks up dust and dirt for $399.99.The Combo 2 is now the most expensive option in iRobot's Essential line and slightly pricier than the $400 DreameBot D10 Plus, our current choice for the best budget robot vacuum and mop. The Vac 2 is available via select retailers" in North America (including Target and Best Buy, so far) and has the same features as the Combo except for the mopping... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6RMSA)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon says that it has gotten rid of plastic air pillows at its warehouses.As of October 2024, we've removed all plastic air pillows from our delivery packaging used at our global fulfillment centers," the e-commerce giant said in an October 9th blog post.It's a welcome change following years of pressure from environmental groups to stop plastic pollution flooding into oceans. The company is still working to reduce the use of single-use plastics more broadly in its packaging.Fantastic news for the world's oceans"The fact that the world's largest e-commerce company has made plastic air pillows history globally is fantastic news for the world's oceans," Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6RMSB)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The House Committee on Homeland Security is looking into Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) surveillance network in the wake of a report that nearly one-third of the agency's cameras along the US-Mexico border don't work. Privacy advocates say this is just the latest instance of expensive border surveillance infrastructure not working as advertised.An internal Border Patrol memo obtained by NBC News said that several technical problems" had contributed to a large-scale outage of the Remote Video Surveillance Systems, a series of surveillance towers and cameras that have been used to remotely surveil the border since 2011. According to the memo, approximately 150 of the 500 cameras are non-operational. The memo says that the Federal... Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6RMSC)
Image: YouTube / Asmongold TV Asmongold apologized for his racist comments regarding Palestinians, revealing that streaming culture has made him a psychopathic version' of himself. Continue reading...
by Allison Johnson on (#6RMP3)
The 8 Elite comes with a new Oryon CPU. | Image: Qualcomm Just a few years after changing its mobile chipset naming conventions, Qualcomm has gone and done it again. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the company's newest high-end smartphone SoC, and like the laptop chips it borrows its Elite" name from, it comes with a new Oryon CPU. The company says that this shift enables faster performance and - lest we forget about AI - offers on-device support for multimodal intelligence.The Oryon CPU inside the 8 Elite hasn't been borrowed directly from the laptop chips; Qualcomm is calling it a second-gen chipset. It replaces the Kryo CPUs Qualcomm has used in previous mobile chipsets and comprises two prime cores with six performance cores. There's an X80 5G modem-RF chip and an Adreno GPU with a new sliced... Continue reading...