The Verge

Image: Hisense Hisense is launching the CanvasTV, a matte television designed to display artwork and photos, letting it blend in with the rest of your decor when not in use. If it sounds similar to The Frame by Samsung, that's because it is - but the difference is that the CanvasTV's starting price is several hundred dollars cheaper.The CanvasTV is available in 55 and 65 inches, each costing $999 and $1,299, respectively. To compare, The Frame costs $1,499 for 55 inches and $1,999 for 65 inches. Like The Frame, Hisense's CanvasTV offers a 4K QLED anti-glare display. It also comes with a 144Hz refresh rate, an RGB sensor for ambient light adaption, and multi-channel 2.0.2 surround sound. Image: Hisense The CanvasTV comes with... Continue reading...

Photo by Paul Hennessy / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state. The legislation is a clear handout to the state's cattle industry: the state's commissioner of agriculture said it was about protecting our incredible farmers and the integrity of American agriculture." But DeSantis' statements make it clear that, like many of his other pet causes, the lab-grown meat ban is a culture war issue.Today, Florida is fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals," DeSantis said in a statement the day the bill was signed. A press release declared Florida was taking action to stop the World Economic Forum's... Continue reading...

The carriers are at it again. | Illustration: The Verge AT&T has a new optional feature for some of its plans. It's called Turbo, and for $7 per month, it provides better speed and stability" for a line of service by upgrading your data plan to performance data." AT&T pitches it as an add-on to help with demanding applications, like gaming. Okay, but what exactly is performance data?" It's kind of unclear. But we can sort of piece it together based on what it isn't.If you were hoping Turbo could help boost service on a prepaid or entry-level postpaid plan, I have bad news. It's only available on a handful of AT&T's postpaid plans: Unlimited Premium PL, Unlimited Extra EL, and Unlimited Elite. They're already some of AT&T's fanciest and priciest plans, with lots of hotspot data and... Continue reading...

Image: Instagram Instagram announced a handful of new features to Stories, including new interactive ways to share music, photos, and videos.The most intriguing new feature is called Reveal and, when applied, blurs the contents of a story post. The only way viewers can see the post is by DMing the person who shared it. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said that direct messages are an increasingly important part of the platform and that stories and DMs account for most of Instagram's growth. Requiring a DM to view content is the next evolution of that - and will no doubt be used as an engagement hack by creators hoping to boost their stories' engagement. Image: Instagram Another feature, Frames, puts a Polaroid overlay on to images... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Microsoft is making security its number one priority for every employee, following years of security issues and mounting criticisms. After a scathing report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board recently concluded that Microsoft's security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul," it's doing just that by outlining a set of security principles and goals that are tied to compensation packages for Microsoft's senior leadership team.Last November, Microsoft announced a Secure Future Initiative (SFI) in response to mounting pressure on the company to respond to attacks that allowed Chinese hackers to breach US government email accounts. Just days after announcing this initiative, Russian hackers managed to breach Microsoft's... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The Rabbit R1 is not good. Neither is the Humane AI Pin. Does that signal the end of the AI gadget revolution before it ever really got started? Or is it just that two companies shipped too little, too soon? The whole AI industry is moving fast, and it sometimes makes you wonder where it's actually headed - or if there's anywhere at the end of the road.On this episode of The Vergecast, we discuss our reviews of these new devices, their potential going forward, and whether there's ever going to be an AI gadget that isn't just your phone. Because the phone AI is coming.We also discuss the latest news in Google's antitrust trial as it finally starts to come to a close. After months of arguments and mountains of evidence, what happens... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After slamming the Switch emulator Yuzu with a $2.4 million lawsuit that caused it to shut down, Nintendo is now taking aim at its copies. The gaming giant submitted a total of 8,535 takedown notices for Yuzu emulator forks on GitHub, as spotted earlier by TorrentFreak and PCGamer.When news of Nintendo's lawsuit against Yuzu first broke, users began preserving the emulator's code by making copies and uploading it to places like GitHub. But now, a copy of Nintendo's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request says GitHub took action against the entire network of 8,535 repositories, inclusive of the parent repository."The request says the repositories in question offer and provide access to the yuzu emulator or code,"... Continue reading...

We've been teased for long enough, Spotify. Just drop the HiFi update already. | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge After years of waiting for Spotify to release the lossless audio tier it promised, some leaked UI elements suggest the project is alive and kicking, if not (dare I say) possibly close to release.Spotify's current bitrate tops out at 320kbps, but that could soon change if screenshots taken from version 1.2.36 of Spotify by Redditor OhItsTom are accurate. They show what users could expect from the lossless feature, including a device compatibility checker and lossless streaming quality of up to 1,411kbps, and it could go even higher.Another section mentions lossless quality of up to 2,117kbps can be achieved, which could consume 15.9MB of data per minute. Listening support of up to 24-bit/44.1kHz may also be available for limited... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google has not one but two Department of Justice antitrust trials this year - and the first one, over Google Search, is finally coming to a close. On Thursday, lawyers showed up at the district court in Washington, DC, for the first of two days of closing arguments in the bench trial before Judge Amit Mehta.This was the first tech anti-monopoly lawsuit the government had filed in two decades since US v. Microsoft. Its outcome directly affects one of the most valuable companies in the world. At this stage, the judge will only determine whether Google is liable for the antitrust charges brought against it. If so, there will be a separate proceeding to determine appropriate remedies. These could be court-ordered constraints on Google's... Continue reading...

CMPR In an interview with The Verge, the director explains why you need to see his new film, Evil Does Not Exist, multiple times to understand the ending. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A new report from Microsoft outlines the steps the company took to release responsible AI platforms last year.In its Responsible AI Transparency Report, which mainly covers 2023, Microsoft touts its achievements around safely deploying AI products. The annual AI transparency report is one of the commitments the company made after signing a voluntary agreement with the White House in July last year. Microsoft and other companies promised to establish responsible AI systems and commit to safety.Microsoft says in the report that it created 30 responsible AI tools in the past year, grew its responsible AI team, and required teams making generative AI applications to measure and map risks throughout the development cycle. The company... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Less than a week ahead of its much-anticipated iPad hardware event, Apple shared its Q2 2024 earnings today, and the numbers paint a predictable picture for the increasingly dated tablet line. iPad revenue fell substantially yet again (by 17 percent year over year) amid the longest-ever wait for new models - something Apple is days away from finally rectifying. At the same time, iPhone sales tapered off a bit (down 10 percent), while the company's services business remains the star of the show. It was up 14 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.Apple also released its Vision Pro headset during this quarter, but CEO Tim Cook didn't offer any indication of how things are going. During the quarter, we were thrilled to launch Apple... Continue reading...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images My breaking point with promotional emails and desktop alerts finally happened a few weeks ago. I woke up at 7AM to an automated Legacy.com email with my friend's death-a-versary in the subject line. The email itself was annoying enough, but what it said made it a cold, thoughtless annoyance: Being remembered matters. The flowers you sent last year were a comforting gesture of sympathy and support."I didn't send flowers. I planted a tree. That's what my friend wanted. It was right there on the obituary guestbook Legacy.com was asking me to sign again.Actually, the Legacy.com email was just the last straw. Things were kicked off a few months earlier by a Microsoft OneDrive notification. I had just switched from Google Drive, and... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Apple Watch's atrial fibrillation (AFib) history feature, which records and alerts the wearer's relevant heart events, has been qualified to join the FDA's Medical Device Development Tools (MDDT) program - a first for a digital health technology." That means the Apple Watch is now usable in clinical studies that need estimated data on how much time the wearer spent in atrial fibrillation while wearing the device, 9to5Mac reports.The FDA announcement describes using it as a noninvasive way to collect the data both before and after treatment:

Satya Nadella, the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation speaks during the Microsoft Build: AI Day" event. | Photo by Peerapon Boonyakiat / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Microsoft just agreed to support the development of 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity around the world, a massive amount of electricity to fuel its AI ambitions and climate goals.For comparison, 10.5 GW of renewable energy amounts to nearly half the amount of solar and wind capacity California had in 2022. This is quite literally a very big deal - effectively the largest corporate agreement to purchase renewable energy to date, according to BloombergNEF. Microsoft inked the agreement yesterday with Brookfield Asset Management, which said the deal is almost eight times bigger than what was previously the single largest corporate power purchase agreement ever signed.Microsoft is pumping a lot of its resources into AI o... Continue reading...

Image: University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) officially opened on Tuesday after 26 years of planning and construction. Sitting 18,500 feet high on Mount Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert in Chile, the 6.5-meter optical-infrared TAO telescope is now the highest in the world.TAO replaces a smaller version of itself called MiniTAO, which held the highest telescope distinction before it. It beats the Chacaltaya Observatory, owned by the University of Madrid and sitting 17,191 feet on Mount Chacaltaya in Bolivia.The next three record holders in the top five are also in Chile's Atacama desert: the James Ax Observatory (17,100 feet); the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (17,030 feet); and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory (sources vary;... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Apple is exempting more developers from the Core Technology Fee (CTF) it introduced in the European Union. In an update on Thursday, Apple announced that developers of free apps without monetization won't have to pay the new fee.To qualify, Apple says free apps must not have revenue of any kind," including money made from physical or digital goods, as well as advertising. This condition is intended to give students, hobbyists, and other non-commercial developers an opportunity to create a popular app without paying the CTF," Apple writes in the update.The company also says small developers with less than 10 million in global annual business revenue will receive a three-year free on-ramp" to the CTF to help them create innovative... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge An article in HouseFresh, a site dedicated to air quality, hit a nerve in February: it outlined how independent publishers have been gradually bumped out of Google search results, with big media companies taking their place. Months later, the situation has only gotten more dire, according to a follow-up published by HouseFresh.In February, HouseFresh managing editor Gisele Navarro called out publishers like BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone as some of the culprits that publish content about air purifiers despite a lack of expertise - but Google rewards these sites with high rankings all the same. The result is a search results page filled with SEO-first content, designed to do not much more than rank highly on Google.In a piece published... Continue reading...

Artificial intelligence might someday make technology easier to use and even do things on your behalf. All the Rabbit R1 does right now is make me tear my hair out. Continue reading...

Image: Universal Studios / Nintendo The Super Nintendo World area opening at Universal Studios in Orlando next year will include every attraction from the existing theme parks in Hollywood and Japan - including the first Donkey Kong Country realm in the US. That's according to Universal's latest teaser for its fourth Orlando-based park, Epic Universe, which provides some clarity over what guests can expect on opening day in 2025.Some of the experiences coming to Orlando's Super Nintendo World include Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, an interactive track ride already featured at the Hollywood park that's inspired by the Mario Kart racing game series, and a version of the Mine-Cart Madness roller coaster that's under construction in Japan's Donkey Kong Country.Universal... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is fully rolling out passkey support for all consumer accounts today. After enabling them in Windows 11 last year, Microsoft account owners can also now generate passkeys across Windows, Android, and iOS. This makes it effortless to sign in to a Microsoft account without having to type a password in every time.You can create passkeys for your Microsoft account by following this link, and you can choose your face, fingerprint, PIN, or a security key to use a device to sign in with a passkey. Image: Microsoft How passkeys work when you sign in to a Microsoft account. Today, you can use a passkey to sign in to Microsoft apps and websites, including Microsoft 365 and Copilot on desktop and mobile... Continue reading...

Image: Surgent Studios There's challenging combat and platforming puzzles, but the hardest part of the game is grappling with its emotional story. Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Nvidia is releasing a script that simplifies getting its GeForce Now cloud gaming service up and running on Valve's Steam Deck device. The script automatically installs Google Chrome, adjusts the browser to enable gamepad use, and then adds a GeForce Now shortcut to your Steam library.While the script automates the process of using the SteamOS terminal app to install Chrome and enable gamepad support, you'll still need to make some manual tweaks to get GeForce Now working as you'd expect. Once you launch GeForce Now, you'll need to press the Steam menu button and head into controller settings to change the value of Current Button Layout to Gamepad with Mouse Trackpad." This will allow you to use the trackpad to control the mouse inside... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft says it's investigating reports of VPN connection failures after installing the April 2024 Windows 11 update. The KB5036893 security update was issued on April 9th for all supported Windows 11 versions, and some users have reported that VPN connections with TPM-backed certificates aren't working after the patch was installed.Reddit user Flo-TPG says the Windows 11 update caused a certificate could not be found" error while attempting to use a VPN connection. Microsoft warns that VPN connections could fail after installing this April 2024 security update and that the company is investigating user reports, and we will provide more information in the coming days."The only workaround right now is to uninstall the KB5036893... Continue reading...

Google may start asking users that still utilize passwords instead of their passkeys to wait 24 hours before they can access their account. | Illustration: The Verge Google is kicking off World Password Day by updating us on its efforts to replace the often hacked, guessed, and stolen form of authentication with passkeys. Their passwordless approach relies on device-based authentication instead, making logging in faster and more secure.In a blog post on Thursday, the company announced that over 400 million Google accounts (of the at least 1.5 billion reported since 2018) have used passkeys since rolling them out, logging over a billion authentications between them. The majority of users find them easier to use than passwords, according to Google, adding that since launching, passkeys have proven to be faster than passwords, since they only require users to simply unlock their device using a... Continue reading...

Another dark day for Peloton. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peloton's CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down after announcing yet another round of layoffs, this time affecting about 15 percent of its remaining workforce, or roughly 400 global team members. It's the fifth round of layoffs to hit the pandemic darling and comes after McCarthy said on its Q1 2023 earnings call that the company was done with layoffs and that the ship was turning."Hard as the decision has been to make additional headcount cuts, Peloton simply had no other way to bring its spending in line with its revenue," said McCarthy in his outgoing message, noting that it's a crucial step as the company seeks to refinance its debt. The layoffs are part of a 12-month restructuring program meant to reduce annual expenses by more... Continue reading...

Taylor Swift's label is returning to TikTok's one billion-plus users. | Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images Universal Music Group has inked a multi-dimensional" deal with TikTok that will see its roster of artists - which includes Taylor Swift, Drake, and Olivia Rodrigo - return to the social media platform's one billion-plus users. UMG began pulling its music from TikTok on February 1st after the old contract expired.Notably, the deal will address concerns that UMG and its artists have with generative AI. TikTok and UMG will work together to ensure AI development across the music industry will protect human artistry and the economics that flow to those artists and songwriters," reads a press release announcing the deal. TikTok is also committed to working with UMG to remove unauthorized AI-generated music from the platform, as well as... Continue reading...

Edit messages, AI Bitmoji fashion, and reminders round out the new Snapchat update. | Image: Snap Snap is launching a slew of new features in Snapchat, including the ability to edit already sent messages allowing you to rectify a your" vs. you're" typo or other embarrassing errors. Snapchat is also getting emoji reactions, map reactions, and a new AI-powered reminders function.The edit message feature does have a short window: you need to act within five minutes of sending - and only if the recipient has not yet opened it. Snap says the feature will come first" to Snapchat Plus subscribers - a decision that echoes the same feature paywall on Elon Musk's Twitter Blue (now called X Premium) established more than a year ago. GIF: Snap Post-sent message editing is a booming feature to have on messaging apps, with... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Health insurance provider UnitedHealth paid a multimillion-dollar ransom to hackers who broke into one of its subsidiaries, disrupting healthcare providers across the country for months, CEO Andrew Witty confirmed on Wednesday.In a hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, Witty said the decision to pay the $22 million ransom was entirely his. This was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make," he said. UnitedHealth admitted last month that it had paid a ransom to the hackers who breached the Change Healthcare system - which is owned by UnitedHealth - but didn't disclose the sum. In March, the company attributed the breach to BlackCat, the same entity responsible for the MGM casino hack in Las Vegas. That same month, W... Continue reading...

Image: Crunchyroll While Crunchyroll's monthly prices haven't jumped in five years, Sony is getting ready to change that for subscribers in a handful of countries.Crunchyroll announced today that the prices for its Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan streaming subscription tiers are going up as a result of the company's investment in more anime, additional services like music and games, and additional subscriber benefits." While the basic Crunchyroll Premium will continue to cost $7.99 / month, subscriptions for the Mega Fan tier are increasing from $9.99 to $11.99 / month, and the Ultimate Fan tier will rise from $14.99 to $15.99 / month. Crunchyroll is also shortening its free-trial period from two weeks down to just one. Notably, the price... Continue reading...

Why wait? | Image: Netflix Want to try the nine games that Netflix now streams from cloud servers directly to your laptop, desktop, or TV? Officially, you're supposed to wait until the beta rolls out more broadly, but for now, there may be an easier way.If you fire up a desktop web browser, log in to Netflix, and click these links, you should be able to start playing, even if you don't see any of these games listed normally.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has completed its acquisition of Mint Mobile, the carrier partially owned by Ryan Reynolds. In an update on Wednesday, T-Mobile says Mint Mobile will continue to offer its $15 per month / 5GB of data plan (that requires paying for three months upfront), while also offering access to some of T-Mobile's perks rolling out now and over the next few months."The acquisition also includes Ka'ena Corporation, the parent company of Mint Mobile, along with the two other companies under its umbrella: the prepaid brand Ultra Mobile and the wholesale wireless provider Plum. Both Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile customers will get T-Mobile's scam call screening service as part of the merger.Additionally, Mint and Ultra customers will get free... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp is adding a new way to plan and organize events in group messages, making it easier for friends and organizations like schools and neighborhoods to set up virtual and in-person meetings.The new events feature lets members of a group set up birthday parties, work meetings, and more, similar to various e-vite services that send out invitations via email. New WhatsApp events get pinned to a group's information page and also get their own group chat thread so everyone can see who is down, hear out inevitable excuses for those who can't make it, and confirm who is bringing cookies. WhatsApp is additionally adding the ability to reply to Announcement Groups" so members can add comments and feedback for the admin. It... Continue reading...