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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6MG9T)
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images It's gone from one piece to three.Tesla's ambitious plans to manufacture the underbody of its vehicles into a single piece, a process known as gigacasting, has been put on hold, according to Reuters, citing two sources with knowledge of the move. It was another sign that the company was pulling back from some of its previously reported plans as it struggles to adapt to falling sales and shrinking profits.Typically, automakers piece together the underbody from hundreds of individual parts. But Tesla has been a leader in using huge presses to die-cast large sections, with the goal of eventually producing the entire underbody in a single piece. The goal was to simplify the process while also dramatically reducing the costs of its... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-09-17 05:48 |
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by Wes Davis on (#6MG9V)
Inviting friends to your PS5 multiplayer sessions is getting much easier. | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony is working on an easier way for anyone to join your gaming sessions - whether you're friends on the PlayStation Network or not. The company says that in the coming months," you'll be able to generate a link either on your PS5 or in the PlayStation App that you can share with others so they can join your multiplayer session.On the PS5, that means popping up a QR code from the game lobby that players will need to scan using a smartphone, while the PlayStation App just creates a link users can copy or share through their phone's share sheet. In its blog post today, Sony doesn't say exactly how you get from tapping a link on your phone to playing a multiplayer game on your PS5, but presumably, you would need to have the PlayStation... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6MG9W)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Conservatives are pushing a story about Biden, covid-19, and content moderation on social media platforms in both the court of public opinion and the Supreme Court. A new report shared exclusively with The Verge and set to be released by a Republican-led House subcommittee brings the congressional effort to establish this narrative in line with a pending Supreme Court case, focusing on allegations that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in its backchannel communications with platforms like Facebook.That the communications happened in the first place is not illegal, though if they rise to the level of coercion - the issue that is in front of the Supreme Court now in Murthy v. Missouri - it would be.Internal... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6MG9X)
It was already the cheapest Qi2 multi-charger, and now the price is even better. | Image: ESR If all-in-one chargers are your jam and you've been waiting for a great opportunity to upgrade to Qi2, check out this deal on ESR's latest model. You can save $56.99 ($16 off) on ESR's Qi2 3-in-1 wireless charging station after clipping the coupon at Amazon. That's the lowest price we've seen on this particular model and easily the best deal you'll find on a Qi2 3-in-1 charger from any brand right now.The multipurpose charger has everything you'd expect: It uses magnets to hold your iPhone and Apple Watch in place and still has a free spot to charge your AirPods. The charger offers 15W charging speeds on any Qi2 phone, which, for now, is limited to the iPhone 12 and newer. The base of the charger accepts AirPods and other wireless... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6MG9Y)
Image: Bethesda Softworks Starfield players on Xbox will no longer have to deal with the game's 30-frames-per-second (fps) cap. As part of an update arriving on May 15th, Bethesda will let Xbox Series X players run the game at 60fps.The 60fps option comes as part of several new display customization settings. The game will let you choose to prioritize visuals to [keep] the highest resolution while maintaining full detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds" or choose to prioritize frame rate performance, which will [lower] internal resolution and detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds." Bethesda recommends choosing the performance mode when running the game at 60fps or above.It also recommends a variable refresh rate (VRR) display running at... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6MG6Z)
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 because it was very worried" that Google was years ahead in scaling up its AI efforts. An internal email, titled Thoughts on OpenAI," between Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, CEO Satya Nadella, and co-founder Bill Gates reveals some of the high-level discussions around an investment opportunity in the months before Microsoft revealed the partnership.The email was released on Tuesday as part of the ongoing US Justice Department antitrust case against Google, Business Insider reports.We are multiple years behind the competition in terms of machine learning scale," Scott writes in his June 12th, 2019, email to Nadella and Gates. He details how it took six months for Microsoft engineers to... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6MG70)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Audible is testing a new section that provides audiobook recommendations based on your Prime Video viewing history. The test is rolling out to half of all users with both Audible and Amazon Prime, and there's no way to opt out for now.If you have both services, you might see a new carousel on the mobile and web app titled Based on what you watched recently on Prime Video." It will contain audiobooks relevant to what you've watched on Prime Video, such as Dune, Project Hail Mary, and Fourth Wing. Image: Audible Audible is trying out the change after seeing connections between new releases on Prime Video and what audiobooks people are listening to. For example, the average daily listening minutes for Jack Reacher... Continue reading...
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Costa Rica restored its forests and switched to renewable energy — what can the world learn from it?
by Justine Calma on (#6MG3E)
Land in Indigenous territory in Costa Rica that Cabecar leaders have reclaimed and are working to reforest. | Justine Calma / The Verge The Verge takes you to Costa Rica to explore how it restored its forests and manages to get nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy. Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6MG3F)
Image: LastPass It's been over a year and a half since LastPass suffered back-to-back high-profile hacks, and the company now says it has separated from its parent company, GoTo.GoTo announced that it would spin LastPass off as its own company back in December 2021, six years after buying the company. Now, the password vault company will operate under a shareholder holding company called LMI Parent.LastPass' most recent troubles began in late 2022, when it admitted that hackers stole source code in August of that year and then disclosed in November that hackers gained access to certain elements" of customer information" but insisted their passwords were safe. That's open to interpretation, as hackers made off with a copy of a backup of customer... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6MG3G)
Image: The Verge Anthropic, which makes the Claude 3 family of AI models, is launching an iOS app and adding a second paid tier for groups to share access to the models.The Claude mobile app can act as a chatbot, and users can also upload photos straight to the app for image analysis." Previously, Claude was only available through Anthropic's Claude.ai website and third-party model libraries like Amazon Bedrock, Hugging Face, or Microsoft Azure.Scott White, product manager at Anthropic, says many Claude users have been accessing the AI models through the mobile web, which led Anthropic to offer an app version of Claude.ai. He says the company will come out with an Android version soon.Anthropic, though, is a little late with its mobile app.... Continue reading...
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by JR Raphael on (#5E9VP)
The Verge For many of us, Google storage is the modern-day hard drive. It's the place where our most important thoughts, documents, and memories reside. But just like with a traditional hard drive, the space isn't infinite, and running out of room can be a real problem.By default, Google gives you 15GB of space to use for everything associated with your account. That includes content connected to Gmail, Google Drive, and all Google photos (except those saved before June 1st, 2021). Needless to say, data adds up fast.You can check your current storage status by visiting this page, and if push comes to shove, you can purchase more space there, too, for as little as $2 a month for an extra 100GB. But shelling out more money might not be necessary.... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6MG3H)
Image: Meta Today, Meta has announced that the next entry in the iconic Batman: Arkham series will be Batman: Arkham Shadow, a VR game that's exclusive to the Meta Quest 3.Iron Man VR developer Camouflaj and Oculus Studios are developing the game, which is set to release later this year. Meta didn't share much about the game itself, giving us a short trailer featuring Batman's POV as he swoops over the grimy, rain-slicked streets of Gotham.Though light on the actual gameplay features, the trailer suggests a big part of the game will likely include a lot of those glide through Gotham" traversal sections that made Batman: Arkham City so damned cool. Meta also hasn't yet shared who will be voicing Batman. Kevin Conroy, the voice actor best known for... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6MENX)
The shark still looks fake. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge Remember Google's AR search, which can make augmented reality bugs, dinos, neat NASA objects like the Apollo 11 command module, and buildings appear atop the real world through the lens of your phone? On Monday, 9to5Google noticed they seemed to be disappearing, as it was only able to find a handful of the extensive collection that Google has built up over the years.My editor, Richard Lawler, saw the same thing on his Pixel 8 Pro - as did I when I checked my Pixel 6. But when I searched in Safari on my iPhone 15 Pro, there they were: a T. Rex, Spinosaurus, rhinoceros beetle, jewel beetle, and giant panda!Google insists that nothing has changed. None of the AR features referenced have been removed from Search," spokesperson Colette... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6MG0T)
Photo: LinkedIn LinkedIn is now in the gaming business. Starting today, users on the LinkedIn mobile app or on desktop can play one of three different games - Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb. You'll be able to play each game once per day, and after your daily session, you'll get access to all kinds of metrics including your high score and daily streak, different leaderboards, and who in your networks has also played. The games are available here under the LinkedIn News and My Network section on desktop or the My Network tab on mobile.Here's a brief rundown of the three games.Pinpoint is a word association game. The game will unveil five different words, and your job is to guess the category the words fit into. The words will reveal themselves on a... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6MG0X)
Image: Nvidia Nvidia is updating its experimental ChatRTX chatbot with more AI models for RTX GPU owners. The chatbot, which runs locally on a Windows PC, can already use Mistral or Llama 2 to query personal documents that you feed into it, but now the list of supported AI models is growing to include Google's Gemma, ChatGLM3, and even OpenAI's CLIP model to make it easier to search your photos.Nvidia first introduced ChatRTX as Chat with RTX" in February as a demo app, and you'll need an RTX 30- or 40-series GPU with 8GB of VRAM or more to be able to run it. The app essentially creates a local chatbot server that you can access from a browser and feed your local documents and even YouTube videos to get a powerful search tool complete with summaries... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6MG0W)
Image: The Verge The US could lose out on valuable AI and tech talent if some of its immigration policies are not modernized, Google says in a letter sent to the Department of Labor.Google says policies like Schedule A, a list of occupations the government pre-certified" as not having enough American workers, have to be more flexible and move faster to meet demand in technologies like AI and cybersecurity. The company says the government must update Schedule A to include AI and cybersecurity and do so more regularly.There's wide recognition that there is a global shortage of talent in AI, but the fact remains that the US is one of the harder places to bring talent from abroad, and we risk losing out on some of the most highly sought-after people in... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6MG0V)
Ring's Indoor Cam now comes in a pan and tilt version and three new colors. | Image: Ring Amazon-owned Ring has announced a new version of its wired indoor security camera. The $79.99 Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam adds a motorized pan-tilt base to the Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen), which otherwise retains the same features as before: 1080p HD video, two-way talk, motion alerts, a built-in siren, and a manual privacy cover that blocks all audio and video. It's just now you can point the camera up and down and all around using the Ring app.The camera also has a new look, with Ring offering three new colors for the first time on any of its devices. Well, only one has any actual color; the blush version is a nice dark pink. Then there's a charcoal gray and a cream white in addition to the existing white and black.These new shades are... Continue reading...
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6MG0Z)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images There are a lot of differences between Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried, and now we can add one more to the list: the amount of time they'll serve for their crimes. Bankman-Fried got 25 years; Zhao got four months.There's more. Zhao appeared in court in a tailored navy suit with a light blue tie when he spoke in his own defense. Bankman-Fried was shackled and in prison garb.Bankman-Fried defrauded people, pleaded not guilty, repeatedly perjured himself in court, got convicted on seven counts, and then gave an absolutely bizarre speech during his own sentencing hearing that made the judge think he'd be likely to re-offend. (This is to say nothing of his pretrial antics.) By contrast, Zhao pleaded guilty in a deal with the government... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6MG0Y)
Wastewater pipes at a reclamation plant in California on Wednesday, August 4, 2021. | Getty Images aBig brands are paying startup Vaulted Deep $58.3 million to shoot poop and other organic waste products into underground wells as a way to fight climate change.The deal was brokered by a group called Frontier Climate, which Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability launched in 2022 to support emerging climate tech. Specifically, Frontier is interested in trying to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They connect buyers with startups like Vaulted Deep that are developing ways to capture CO2 and sequester it underground so that it doesn't heat up the planet.Vaulted Deep's strategy is to gather sewage, manure, and agricultural and paper mill waste and inject it deep underground to keep carbon in the waste from... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6MFYT)
It's unclear how many TikTok users are being prompted in-app to visit its website for cheaper TikTok Coins. | The Verge TikTok appears to be probing App Store rules that require it to pay the Apple tax" on in-app purchases. According to Sendit app co-founder David Tesler, some TikTok users are being directed to purchase TikTok coins - digital tokens used to tip creators during live streams - on the company's website via an in-app link, effectively dodging the 30 percent commission Apple takes on digital purchases.Screenshots acquired by Tesler show at least two instances where iOS users are encouraged to recharge" their TikTok coins on TikTok.com to explicitly avoid in-app service fees." Tapping the try now" link on these notifications opens an embedded web view where users can access payment options like Apple Pay, PayPal, or credit/debit cards to... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6MFMA)
I mean, at least it's just $200? | Image: David Pierce / The Verge Since it launched last week, Rabbit's R1 AI gadget has inspired a lot of questions, starting with Why isn't this just an app?" Well, friends, that's because it is just an app.Over at Android Authority, Mishaal Rahman managed to download Rabbit's launcher APK on a Google Pixel 6A. With a little tweaking, he was able to run the app as if it were on Rabbit's own device. Using the volume-up key in place of the R1's single hardware button, he was able to set up an account and start asking it questions, just as if he was using the $199 R1.Oh boy.Rahman points out that the app probably doesn't offer all of the same functionality as the R1. In his words: the Rabbit R1's launcher app is intended to be preinstalled in the firmware and be... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6MFJB)
Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Pretty soon, Apple might let you send your iPhone in for repair without disabling Find My and Activation Lock. In the fourth iOS 17.5 beta, 9to5Mac and MacRumors found that Apple is planning to introduce a new Repair State" mode that keeps the anti-theft measures on while your iPhone is getting fixed.Apple and many authorized repair providers currently ask you to turn off Find My when you're getting your iPhone repaired. It has this requirement to prevent anyone else from getting service for your device without your knowledge," according to Apple's support page.But turning off Find My got a little more tricky with the introduction of Stolen Device Protection. When enabled, this feature forces you to wait one hour before performing... Continue reading...
by Brandon Widder on (#6MFJC)
The second-gen AirPods Pro offer a wealth of ecosystem tricks, along with some of the best ANC you can get in a pair of earbuds. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Earlier today, Beats announced the Solo 4 alongside the forthcoming Solo Buds. The latter joins a burgeoning lineup of wireless earbuds under the Beats brand, though, despite being an Apple product, they don't offer noise cancellation and the kind of deep ecosystem tricks afforded by the latest AirPods Pro with USB-C. Fortunately, Apple's second-gen earbuds are currently matching their all-time low of $179 ($70 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.Whereas the entry-level Solo Buds are geared toward both Android and iOS, the premium AirPods Pro are aimed squarely at Apple users. The refreshed earbuds continue to offer top-tier ANC, refined sound, and the same feature set as the second-gen model from 2022, save for some added dust... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6MFJD)
Image: Fubo The face-off between streaming TV service Fubo and Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to escalate. Fubo announced via a late afternoon press release that it has dropped Discovery networks effective immediately - including Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC, among others" - and has been unable to reach a separate deal to bring Turner sports networks TNT, TBS, and truTV to its customers.The company claims that it had little choice but to drop the batch of Discovery channels after talks with WBD went nowhere, and it's accusing WBD of bad-faith negotiations and an abuse of massive market power that ultimately limits consumer choice."Fubu says that it offered WBD market rates" to secure all of this content but that it never received... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6MFJE)
This could be the perfect gas to get Google I/O started this year. | Illustration: The Verge / Shutterstock I simply don't know how to feel about an incoming update to the Google Phone app that adds sound effects to the Android dialer. First spotted as part of a beta update by 9to5Google, the app may soon let you tap one of six Audio Emoji" buttons to play a short sound clip that both sides of the call can hear.There's clapping, laughing, crying (a sad, sliding trombone), partying, a drum sting (ba-dum ts) and... poop, which emits a fart sound. You can access the buttons during a call by tapping the option in the dialer's overflow menu or with a small flag positioned toward the bottom.The dormant adolescent in me wants to try the poop button at least once with a trusted friend who won't disown me for having a questionable sense of humor.... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6MFJF)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images More news organizations, including the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, San Jose Mercury News, and four others, are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement.The publications, all owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, claim that both OpenAI and Microsoft trained on their articles without compensation or permission. The plaintiffs included as evidence several excerpts from conversations with both ChatGPT and Copilot showing that both chatbots reproduced lengthy excerpts of specific articles on command, indicating that their training datasets included the texts of those articles.They also showed screenshots of Copilot, which can search the web in real time, reproducing entire news... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6MFFJ)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Buttons feel magical. You press here, and invisible connections make something happen elsewhere. But magical" is probably not how I'd describe most public drinking fountains.Who among us hasn't walked up to a drinking fountain, expecting a bubbling stream of life-giving water, only to experience the crushing disappointment of a measly trickle after smashing in that button?But I'm beginning to think it's not the drinking button's fault; they're actually some of the most elegant buttons out there. They're one of the few remaining buttons where your push directly and mechanically controls the result. They're over a hundred years old. And all the action happens within an inch of the button itself. Photo by Amelia... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6MFFK)
Illustration: The Verge A software engineer who was fired from Google in connection to internal protests at the company's offices says the company retaliated against him for merely watching the demonstration against an Israeli defense contract.The former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said he went to the lounge on the 10th floor of Google's New York City office around lunchtime to check out the protest.When I got there, there were probably 20-ish people sitting on the floor. I didn't talk to any of them, I talked to folks who were standing up, passing out flyers, doing other roles," he said, adding that the protesters were wearing matching T-shirts.The worker then went back to his desk before returning to the protest around 5PM. I chatted with... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6MFFM)
Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Tesla was on the cusp of taking over electric vehicle charging in the US - then, the layoffs came.Today, multiple outlets reported that the company has laid off hundreds of employees, just weeks after cutting 10 percent (approximately 14,000 people) of its global workforce. Tesla's Supercharger division was said to be particularly hard hit, with several soon-to-be-former employees saying that close to the entire team had been cut.According to The Information, Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's senior director of EV charging, is leaving the company, alongside most of the 500-person team she oversaw. Tinucci oversaw the effort to win near universal support from other automakers for Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS), an enormous... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6MF9T)
Zhao violated US law on an unprecedented scale," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. | Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6MFFN)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is doubling down on enterprise AI with the release of its AI chatbot Q, even as its competitors angle to offer more consumer-facing products.Amazon announced Q in November and made it available only to a small number of users. In a post, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy writes that bringing Q to more people will help solve misalignment issues for developers.The chatbot acts as an assistant for Amazon Web Services (AWS) users, learning from a company's data and workflows so employees can ask questions about their business. Users can also ask Q questions about coding, HR information, or logistics, Amazon says.Amazon's AI focus has been largely turned toward other businesses, with most of its releases falling under the AWS banner. It o... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6MFFP)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison for failing to establish adequate anti-money laundering protections. Zhao, once the head of the largest crypto exchange in the world, pleaded guilty in November 2023.Judge Richard Jones says that Zhao prioritized Binance's growth and profits over compliance with US laws and regulations." While Jones doesn't think Zhao is likely to reoffend, the scale of the crime is notable.Binance violated US law on an unprecedented scale"Though Zhao is not as well-known as FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, he is a more important figure in the crypto world. The Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur founded Binance in 2017. Though he was required to step down as CEO of the exchange as... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6MFCM)
With a dead battery, this is just a nice-looking paperweight. | Image: David Pierce / The Verge Just a week after its initial launch, the Rabbit R1's first software update is here - and not a moment too soon. Right on top of the list of improvements in the OTA update is up to 5x" improved idle battery performance, addressing a major pain point for early R1 adopters. It's also great news for me, specifically, because my R1 is constantly out of power.Today's update consists of two parts: an OTA update pushed directly to R1 devices and a cloud update to Rabbit OS. Battery life is far from the only issue addressed - other highlights include an improved music playback UI, improved Bluetooth reliability, and a fix for a compatibility issue when the device is plugged into a car that seems to have bricked at least one R1.There's also... Continue reading...
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by Gaby Del Valle on (#6MFCN)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Immigration officers have interrogated more than 30 TikTok employees who traveled to the US, Forbes reports. Some workers at TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, have been pulled aside by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and held for additional questioning, according to the report. Many of the workers who have been singled out are Chinese nationals.Some of the people who have been interrogated work in machine learning or data engineering. CBP agents have asked them about their access to US users' TikTok data. The workers have also been asked about the location of TikTok's US-based data centers and their own individual involvement with Project Texas, a massive corporate restructuring project designed to wall off US... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6MFCP)
Here's what the inside of your Kobo looks like. | Image: iFixit E-readers might be relatively cheap when compared to your typical smartphone, but it's still a bummer when they break, given how hard it is to find parts for them. Now, iFixit has announced that it's offering OEM replacement parts for certain Kobo e-readers, along with detailed guides on how to install them, starting today. The first e-readers being supported are Kobo's latest: Kobo Clara Colour, the Clara BW, and the Libra Colour.Kobo owners can buy OEM batteries, motherboards, front and back covers, and screen assemblies for those devices on iFixit's new Kobo Repair Hub page. iFixit has a detailed guide for installing each part.
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by Ash Parrish on (#6MFCQ)
Image: Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Mirage will be coming soon to an Apple device near you. Ubisoft has announced that the latest entry in the Assassin's Creed series will arrive on select Apple products on June 6th. Said devices include the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad Air and iPad Pro with M1 chip or later," and you can preorder the game on the App Store here.Apple has been slowly rolling out higher-end gaming experiences on its mobile devices and macOS. Last year, the Resident Evil 4 remake and Resident Evil Village released on iOS, while Death Stranding debuted earlier this year. According to The Verge's Jay Peters, who reviewed RE Village's performance on iPhone, AAA games on the iPhone play better than expected but struggle in terms... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6MFCR)
Image: Apple Apple says it's working on a fix for an issue that's causing some iPhone owners' alarms to trigger silently. That's according to the Today show's segment this morning about the issue, which has been spreading on social media as users complain that their alarms aren't waking them up. Vergecast producer Liam James told me he's been having the same problem since Friday, with an alarm that he set 6 or 7 years ago" and hasn't touched since.It's not clear how widespread the problem is. If you're going through it, though, it wouldn't be the worst idea to check a couple of your settings. One is to make sure that the ringtone and alerts volume slider under Settings > Sound & Haptics is turned up. It can be easy to accidentally turn down your... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6MF9S)
Image: OnLeaks via Smartprix The Google Pixel 8A might not be getting that rumored price hike after all. Details shared with Smartprix by reliable leaker OnLeaks suggest that the base 128GB model will have the same $499 price as its predecessor.However, Google could bump the price of the Pixel 8A to $559 for a new 256GB storage option, according to Smartprix. The leak also suggests that the Pixel 8A will come with a larger 4,500mAh battery instead of the 4,385mAh option that came with the Pixel 7A.So far, Pixel 8A leaked details point to a G3 Tensor chip just like its more expensive siblings, along with a brighter 120Hz display than its predecessors, IP67 water resistance, and seven years of security upgrades. It's also rumored to come with Google's AI features... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6MF6H)
Image: Getty Images Walmart isn't making enough money off its new health centers, so it decided to close up shop. The retail giant announced today that it'll shutter all 51 health centers it opened up across five states since 2019. Walmart is also getting rid of its virtual care program after acquiring telehealth provider MeMD in 2021.We determined there is not a sustainable business model for us to continue," Walmart said in an announcement today.We determined there is not a sustainable business model for us to continue."Retail giants like Walmart, BestBuy, and Amazon have each tried to take their own share of Americans' $3.6 trillion in health spending each year. But while retailer heavyweights thought they could turn a profit by making healthcare... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6MF6J)
Image: Bumble Bumble's redesigned dating app has a new Opening Move" feature that's supposed to take the legwork out of starting conversations. Women on the app can now choose from a list of prewritten prompts - or come up with their own - that the app will send to all their matches.Unlike dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, Bumble lets women take the first move when they get a match. The new Opening Move option should at least make it less intimidating (and less time-consuming) to send out those first messages.Some of the prewritten prompts include questions like Who's your dream dinner party guest (real or fictional)?" or What do you like about my profile?" Once the match responds, women can choose whether or not to carry on the conversation,... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6MF6K)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is officially holding its big Xbox summer showcase on June 9th, as The Verge reported earlier this month. The showcase will air on Sunday, June 9th, at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM UK and will include a deep dive into the next installment of Call of Duty after the main show ends.Microsoft is only teasing the Call of Duty Direct as the next installment of a beloved franchise," but sources familiar with the company's plans tell me that this is indeed Call of Duty.This will be the first Xbox showcase featuring games across Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. I understand Microsoft is currently planning to announce a new Gears of War game during the show. The showcase will also include a number of release... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6MF6M)
Illustration: The Verge Roku has a plan to boost ad revenue. The company will start showing video ads on your homescreen at some point. Roku CEO Anthony Wood told investors during the company's earnings call last week that the company will put the video ads in the premier video app we called the Marquee" where static image ads live now.It sounds like Wood is referring to the box on the homescreen that sits to the right of your Roku apps, which hopefully means the video ads won't be full-screened. He said the company is also testing out other types of video ad units" and looking into other ways to innovate more video advertising" on the homescreen. The company's push comes after it performed its third layoff in less than a year last September amid a slower... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6MF6R)
Image: Beats Beats just announced its new Solo 4, its latest in a long line of on-ear wireless headphones. The latest model, priced at $199.99, offers battery life of up to 50 hours. That endurance is no doubt helped by the fact that these lack active noise cancellation, a feature present in many competing products at the same price point. But Beats says plenty of other improvements await buyers of the Solo 4.For one, they support wired audio over both USB-C and the 3.5mm jack. And these headphones have passive tuning, meaning they can keep playing when plugged in even when the battery is dead - without any degradation in sound. Beats is also hyping all the custom acoustic architecture that's gone into the Solo 4. And just like the Beats Studio... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6MF6Q)
Beats' on-ear headphones get an overdue refresh with a more comfortable design, longer battery life, and wired audio over both USB-C and the 3.5mm jack - but no ANC. Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6MF6P)
The white Nova Pro in an optional carrying case. SteelSeries is launching a white version of its excellent Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset today. While it's mostly just a white color option for a headset from 2022 that's packed full of tech, there's an important change to the ANC mics that could make these even more appealing.SteelSeries has made the ANC mics within the ear cups slightly smaller overall, with less of a bump so they're more comfortable to wear. At launch, some Nova Pro owners complained about the ANC bump and SteelSeries quietly redesigned it at some point last year so both the black and new white models benefit from this improvement. The ANC bump is smaller on the white version than the original launch model. The $349.99 white version of the Nova... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6MF6N)
Arc for Windows includes a powerful sidebar. | Image: The Browser Company The excellent Arc browser that's been impressing macOS and iOS users over the past couple of years is finally making its way to Windows today. Arc is designed to change the way you use a browser in many fundamental ways, with a collapsible sidebar that combines vertical tabs and bookmarks into an app switcher-like experience, a command bar for navigation, and useful tools to help you browse the web.The company behind Arc, aptly named The Browser Company, is betting on its browser being different enough to entice Windows users away from Chrome and Edge. Arc really is just calming and keeps you organized," says Hursh Agrawal, co-founder of The Browser Company, in an interview with The Verge. It helps you handle your tasks during the day... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6MF3E)
Photo by Joseph Weiser / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Automatic emergency braking is now the law of the land.The US Department of Transportation finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requiring all vehicle manufacturers to include automatic emergency braking in their light-duty vehicles (basically all passenger vehicles, including SUVs and pickup trucks) by 2029. The new rule aims to prevent hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries every year. The Department of Transportation is also in the process of finalizing a similar rule for heavy-duty vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds.Around 90 percent of light-duty vehicles on the road today come standard with automatic emergency braking, or AEB. But the new rule requires automakers to adopt a more robust version of... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6MF3F)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Humane. Rabbit. Meta. All these companies and more are working hard to invent a new category of tech, one that doesn't live as an app on your phone but actually creates room for other AI-powered gadgets. The AI gadget revolution could be huge.So far? It's not going great. And in fact, as Google and Apple in particular find new ways to add powerful new models to their existing products, it seems as though the big winner in the AI race might be the phone already in your pocket.On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge's Allison Johnson tells us about her experiments with AI gadgets and her attempt to make a flip phone into a chatbot-toting wearable. (It worked! Kind of!) We also discuss which other gadgets might make good AI gadgets,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6MF3H)
Image: Nintendo The best way to experience Endless Ocean Luminous is to just swim. A follow-up to a series of scuba diving games on the Wii, Luminous has a story to play through and goals to accomplish. But they're fairly mundane. Instead, the game is at its most interesting - and relaxing - when you let go of specific goals and just explore for the sake of exploring.What makes Luminous so chill, at least when you're going for a solo dive, is that it's completely open-ended and devoid of roadblocks. You're given a huge swath of the so-called Veiled Sea to explore (the game generates a new map with each dive), and you don't have to worry about monitoring your oxygen, getting too cold, or running into a dangerous shark. There's no way to die or even get... Continue reading...
by Mia Sato on (#6MF3G)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram is making significant changes to how its system recommends content, with a focus on original content and increased distribution for smaller accounts. The slew of changes were announced by the company in a blog post today.The biggest change deals with aggregators - accounts that download or screenshot other users' videos and photos and repost them. Sometimes aggregators will credit the original poster by tagging them in the post or caption, but often, content is wholesale ripped off with no acknowledgment, and engagement is siphoned off from the person who created the content in the first place.Instagram clearly has a problem with this and will begin removing reposted content from recommendations across the platform. The... Continue reading...