The Verge - All Posts

Apple's latest Mac Pro targets professionals with highly demanding computing workloads. But we talked to those professionals, and they don't want it - because Apple's other computers are just too good. Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Ford advertised a $40,000 electric truck, but recent price jumps have forced some customers to cancel their orders. Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud on the commercial side with Windows 365, but the software giant also wants to do the same for consumers. In an internal state of the business" Microsoft presentation from June 2022, Microsoft discuses building on Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device."The presentation has been revealed as part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearing, as it includes Microsoft's overall gaming strategy and how that relates to other parts of the company's businesses. Moving Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud" is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft's Modern Life" consumer space, including using the power of the cloud and... Continue reading...

The layoffs are connected to Ford's growth plan announced back in 2021. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new wave of layoffs primarily targeting Ford Motor employees in engineering roles in the US and Canada are expected to take place this week as part of the company's latest cost-cutting efforts. Leaders of the teams impacted by the job cuts received confirmation on Monday, according to CNBC News, while employees are expected to be notified over the next few days.Ford declined The Verge's request to clarify how many employees would be affected by the layoffs. Roles are expected to be cut across all three of Ford's business units - Ford Blue (the company's arm for vehicles with traditional combustion engines), Ford Pro (its commercial vehicle services and distribution business), and Model e (focusing on electric vehicles).People... Continue reading...

Leaked renders of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5. | Image: SnoopyTech With about a month to go until the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, we may have a pretty comprehensive idea about what to expect from the next version of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Several leaks over the last few days have revealed a lot about what the phones may look like - and what's under their respective hoods - ahead of their official unveiling.A Twitter leak early this week from Revegnus showed a photo of a folded phone that looks to be to be the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in a blocky, black case (via 9to5Google). The case hides a lot of the design, but what you can see backs up previous alleged renders. For instance, the screen on the back may be the same 3.4-inch 720 x 748 cover screen that's been predicted. You can... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft has been sacrificing growing its Xbox Series X / S sales numbers since launch as a tradeoff for investment in cloud and gaming content. In an internal email exchange between Xbox chief Phil Spencer and Xbox CFO Tim Stuart in December 2020, the pair discussed the reasons behind lower Xbox console volumes. The email has been revealed as part of the FTC v. Microsoft hearing.Spencer admits that Microsoft had a yield miss for Scarlett," the codename for Xbox Series X / S consoles, but that it and the delay to Halo Infinite weren't the main factors in our console scarcity" during the initial launch period. Microsoft had cut the compute units on its Xbox Series X silicon down to 52 from 56 to improve production yield, but the... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios chief, Matt Booty, was encouraging Xbox CFO Tim Stuart to spend big money on acquiring game content in 2019 to set the company up to battle Sony in subscriptions. The revelation comes in an email thread that's part of the FTC v. Microsoft hearing.We (Microsoft) are in a very unique position to be able to go spend Sony out of business," said Booty in a December 2019 email, referencing spending $2 billion or $3 billion in 2020 to avoid competitors getting ahead in content at a later date.It is practically impossible for anyone to start a new video streaming service at scale at this point," said Booty, referencing competitors like Google, Amazon, and Sony. Booty described content as a moat and that only... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft was looking at acquiring both Bungie and Sega, according to internal documents from the FTC v. Microsoft hearing. In an email seen by The Verge, Xbox chief Phil Spencer wrote to both Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, requesting a strategy approval to approach Sega Sammy over a potential acquisition of its Sega gaming studios.We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console," said Spencer in the November 2020 email. Image: Microsoft Phil Spencer's email to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood. Microsoft believed a Sega acquisition would drive... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Moderators of some of Reddit's most popular communities have posted open letters to the company with a series of requests regarding many key issues at the heart of the recent protests on the platform. The requests include a way for third-party apps to make an affordable return," improvements to moderation tools and accessibility options that match or exceed" what's available with third-party apps, and filling a senior-level role of Moderator Advocate" at the company.More than 8,000 subreddits went dark earlier this month in protest of the company's planned API pricing changes that will force apps like Apollo and rif is fun for Reddit to shut down on June 30th. Some subreddits continued to stay dark after the original 48-hour plan,... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge On AlaskaCommons.com, the writer Chelsea Waller" says she is a dedicated journalist with a passion for uncovering the truth." One of her stories reads, As an AI language model, I cannot predict whether or not John Wick 4 is going to be a finale of a saga that will be remembered for years to come."The website is just one of the news sites flagged by NewsGuard filled with low-quality, spammy content generated using artificial intelligence tools, where ads for major brands are now appearing, according to a report by NewsGuard. The study was first reported by MIT Technology Review and includes brands like Citigroup and Subaru. Google says it has removed ads from many" of the sites listed in the report, though ads remain on others.More... Continue reading...

Image: Square Enix With Final Fantasy XVI's new, action-focused combat scheme comes a new suite of tools that assist with making that combat easier. These tools were billed as the game's accessibility features but weren't tied to a menu setting; rather, they were special rings you could equip that were already in your inventory at the game's start. When equipped, each of the five rings assisted with one facet of the game's combat.I loved this approach to Final Fantasy's combat. Though the series hasn't featured turn-based combat since Final Fantasy X, a lot of players - myself included - have been slow to adjust to the series' action-RPG pivot. These rings, then, feel like not only an assistive tool to help players with different levels of abilities but... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gamers didn't want to download Ubisoft's terrible PC game launcher, so the company overhauled it to see if it can change their minds.Ubisoft is releasing an update to its PC game launcher that has a fresh interface and is loaded with more features. Currently in beta, the updated Ubisoft Connect client for PC adds enhancements to game library navigation that includes larger and wider icons, along with extra information that can tell you at a glance if the game is downloaded or installed.The Ubisoft Connect update comes after the company streamed its summer showcase earlier this month, which included the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage. Connect, like a few first-party publisher-owned launchers, is disliked for its terrible performance,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Monday, the House set up new rules around how congressional offices can use ChatGPT and declared that any non-ChatGPT chatbots are not yet authorized, according to a new report from Axios.In a Monday memo, House Chief Administrative Chief Catherine L. Szpindor said that lawmakers and staff were now limited to using ChatGPT Plus, the paid version of the chatbot, due to its enhanced privacy features. Offices can only use the product for research and evaluation" with privacy settings enabled and are forbidden from pasting any blocks of text that have not already been made public" into the service.A number of private companies, including Samsung and Apple, have restricted or banned employees from using generative AI tools like... Continue reading...

The Pixel Fold can split-screen between two apps, but that's where its multitasking abilities end. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google's Pixel Fold is the first real competition for Samsung in the US folding phone market. But it doesn't make up for Samsung's multiyear head start. Continue reading...

Air condition units at an apartment complex during a heatwave in Austin, Texas, US, on Tuesday, July 19th, 2022. | Photo by Sergio Flores / Bloomberg via Getty Images Two-thirds of North America could face electricity shortages when temperatures spike this summer. The warning came from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) today, which cited an analysis by the nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corporation.Most of the Central and Western US, New England, and Ontario, Canada, are at elevated risk, according to the analysis. Energy shortages are a problem when hotter-than-normal summer temperatures cause electricity demand to skyrocket. People crank up their air conditioning, putting greater pressure on the grid. At the same time, extreme heat can make power plants, as well as solar and wind farms, less efficient when it comes to generating electricity. That mismatch in supply and... Continue reading...

The Pixel Fold is a powerful device with an entertainment-friendly inner screen, but it feels like it's at least one generation away from greatness. Continue reading...

Come on Barbie, let's go party. | Image: Microsoft I guess Xbox is everything and PlayStation is Ken - leaks about the Barbie movie car coming to Microsoft's wildly fun Forza Horizon 5 have come true. Starting today, Forza players can go download Barbie's 1956 Chevrolet Corvette EV convertible and Ken's ridiculous 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup.Microsoft is giving some actual physical Barbie crossover stuff away, too, so look for five colorful Xbox Wireless Controller faceplates modeled after Barbie and Ken's on-screen outfits, and the company made a very pink Xbox Series S that lives in the basement (just like mine!) of its own Barbie Dreamhouse. They'll be given away starting July 10th on the Xbox Twitter account and on Microsoft Rewards.Also, there will be 10 Xbox-themed Barbie dolls -... Continue reading...

Image: Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America has voted to ratify a new labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.On Friday evening, as the seventh week of the Writers Guild of America's ongoing strike was drawing to a close, members of the Directors Guild of America overwhelmingly" ratified a new labor agreement with the AMPTP that guarantees pay increases and larger residual payouts and includes some language about protections against artificial intelligence tools.According to the DGA, out of the organization's 16,321 members who were eligible to vote on the new deal, only 6,728 individuals (41 percent) participated, but the vast majority - 87 percent - of those people voted in favor of the contract. Along with a... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In recent months, the signs and portents have been accumulating with increasing speed. Google is trying to kill the 10 blue links. Twitter is being abandoned to bots and blue ticks. There's the junkification of Amazon and the enshittification of TikTok. Layoffs are gutting online media. A job posting looking for an AI editor" expects output of 200 to 250 articles per week." ChatGPT is being used to generate whole spam sites. Etsy is flooded with AI-generated junk." Chatbots cite one another in a misinformation ouroboros. LinkedIn is using AI to stimulate tired users. Snapchat and Instagram hope bots will talk to you when your friends don't. Redditors are staging blackouts. Stack Overflow mods are on strike. The Internet Archive is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has started recruiting small businesses across the US to deliver packages and build out its network. Axios reports Amazon is interested in connecting with a range of small businesses, including small grocery stores, coffee shops, florists, clothing stores, and more. This means your local barista could finish a pour-over and then jump in a car to take an Amazon package to your neighbor.Last year, Vox reported that Amazon was secretly recruiting mom-and-pop shops in Alabama, Mississippi, and Nebraska to join a pilot delivery program. At the time, businesses like florists and restaurants were asked to handle Amazon's delivery loads within a 10-mile radius for a per-package rate. Participating businesses will need to be available for... Continue reading...

32 keys is a lot of customized functions. | Image: Elgato Elgato's Stream Deck holds a tiny place in the hearts of many here at The Verge. We just love buttons, and we love tinkering, so its programmable LCD buttons are kind of a perfect fit. And today, you can get the Elgato Stream Deck XL, which has 32 of those excellent macro buttons, for $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon or for $3 more at Best Buy.A Stream Deck is a perfect companion for anyone doing extensive Twitch streaming on a Windows PC or Mac, but it's also versatile enough to control just about anything on your computer - even smart home stuff. While most people may feel fine opting for the six or 15-key Stream Decks, the XL can help you go full Sicko Mode. Think of all the things you can control and program with 32 buttons - that gives... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Playables" is a new feature in development for YouTube that could add interactive games to the video platform, The Wall Street Journal reports. The feature was apparently detailed in an email Google sent to its employees asking them to test it. Games could either be playable via the YouTube app on iOS and Android or through the browser on desktop.The WSJ's report only contains details on one game the service could include, Stack Bounce, which it describes as an arcade game in which players attempt to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball." It sounds a little bit like Atari classic Breakout to me, but it's hard to tell without seeing screenshots.In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson declined to confirm the existence of the... Continue reading...

Who's using AI?AI is suddenly everywhere. Image generators and large language models are at the core of new startups, powering features inside our favorite apps, and - perhaps more importantly - driving conversation not just in the tech world but also society at large. Concerns abound about cheating in schools with ChatGPT, being fooled by AI-generated pictures, and artists being ripped off or even outright replaced.But despite widespread news coverage, use of these new tools is still fairly limited, at least when it comes to dedicated AI products. And experience with these tools skews decidedly toward younger users.Most people have heard of ChatGPT. Bing and Bard? Not quite.Only 1 in 3 people have tried one of these AI-powered... Continue reading...

ChatGPT running on Windows 3.1. | Image: dialup.net Someone has created a ChatGPT app for Windows 3.1 PCs. WinGPT brings a very basic version of OpenAI's ChatGPT responses into an app that can run on an ancient 386 chip. It's built by the same mysterious developer behind Windle, a Wordle clone for Microsoft's Windows 3.1 operating system.I didn't want my Gateway 4DX2-66 from 1993 to be left out of the AI revolution, so I built an AI Assistant for Windows 3.1, based on the OpenAI API," says the developer in a Hacker News thread.WinGPT is written in C using Microsoft's standard Windows API and connects to OpenAI's API server using TLS 1.3, so there's no need for a separate modern PC. That was a particularly interesting part of getting this app running on Windows 3.1, alongside managing... Continue reading...

Android's Emergency SOS feature is so easy to activate that users in the UK are accidently calling emergency services. | Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge An Android feature designed to help users contact emergency services is making life difficult for first responders in the UK. The BBC reports that police forces across the nation have reported an influx of false emergencies to the 999 switchboard (The UK's equivalent of 911) in recent weeks which have largely been attributed to the Emergency SOS feature for Android phones.Law enforcement in Scotland, and the English counties of Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, and Gloucestershire have reported receiving a higher number of silent or abandoned calls since an Android update released between October 2022 and February 2023 introduced an Emergency SOS calling feature to more Android phones. The BBC reports that each errant call can take around 20... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge President Joe Biden is getting closer to distributing more than $40 billion in funding to support broadband expansion nationwide as part of his administration's goal to connect all Americans to high-speed internet by 2030.The funding, authorized in Biden's 2021 bipartisan infrastructure package, will be distributed proportionally to states based on need with each state receiving at least $100 million. Monday's allocations were made using broadband coverage maps that were recently updated to include more than one million new locations.Just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered electricity to every home in America through his Rural Electrification Act, the announcement is part of President Biden's broader effort to deliver... Continue reading...

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Make way for the electric buses.The US Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration is sending out $1.7 billion from President Joe Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 46 states and territories to fund the acquisition of 1,700 buses - over half of which will be zero-emission models.The new awards will bring the total number of zero-emission buses funded by the infrastructure law up to 1,800, which is more than double the number of clean buses on the roads today. That still only represents a fraction of the roughly 60,000 buses that are currently in operation in the US, but officials hailed it as an important step toward updating the nation's aging transit fleet with an eye toward fighting climate change.T... Continue reading...

With the 5G C-band rollout complete, there may be some flight delays. | Image: The Verge US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Friday there may be some airline delays or cancellations starting July 1st if the last remaining passenger jets haven't upgraded their altimeters to deal with 5G interference, per a report from The Wall Street Journal report. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintains that 5G C-band signals could interfere with radio wave emitters passenger jets use to measure how far they are from the ground, which pilots rely on when landing with low visibility.Though airlines aren't actually required to get the new equipment in place until February 2024, those passenger jets that haven't been certified for operation around C-band 5G signals by the first of July will not be allowed to land in... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit will make accessibility improvements" to many moderator tools in its official mobile apps by July 1st, the company announced on Friday.Some moderators rely on third-party apps because Reddit's apps have what they characterize as significant accessibility challenges," and the accessibility community has expressed concerns over how they will moderate on mobile after popular apps like Apollo shut down on June 30th due to potentially expensive API pricing changes. It seems this roadmap, which promises improvements to features like the moderation queue and the ModMail messaging system on Android and iOS, is intended to assuage those fears.Based on the replies to the announcement post, however, many are still unhappy with the... Continue reading...

Stoffel Vandoorne drives in the Portland ePrix today. | Image: John Lamparski/Getty Images During the Formula E qualifying round in Portland, Oregon, today, the DS Penske team was fined 25,000 after it surreptitiously installed an RFID scanner at the entrance to the pit, which the FIA stewards said could collect data from other race cars and give them an advantage. The team's racers, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne, were also hit with a pit lane start penalty for today's race - meaning they will have to wait at the end of the pit lane until all of the other cars have driven past before entering the race.The FIA Stewards explanation for the penalty was provided to The Verge via email:

Tesla's North American Charging Standard is gaining steam. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has had a very good month, at least when it comes to its EV charging standard. Washington state wants to require electric car charging companies to use Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) in order to be part of the state's program to support electric vehicles, according to Reuters. The state's proposed mandate would put Tesla's technology in state- and- federally-funded charging sites in the future, though Washington hasn't decided quite how that will look.At the moment, the federal government requires at least four Combined Charging System (CCS) chargers at taxpayer-funded charging sites, and Tonia Buell, the alternative fuels program manager at Washington state's Department of Transportation (DOT), told Reuters the... Continue reading...

With the help of a little visual trickery and a fox clad in green threads, Tunic is every bit as clever as it is adorable. | Image: Finji Happy Saturday, y'all. The weekend is here, bringing with it deals, discounts, and savings on everything from e-bikes and smart plugs to portable speakers that are designed to soundtrack your next shindig. First up, however, is something a little more time-sensitive.As part of its ongoing Hyper Max Sale, Nintendo is offering discounts on both digital titles and DLC for the Nintendo Switch. The sale ends on Monday, June 26th, and Amazon and Best Buy are continuing to match Nintendo's prices in most instances, making now a good time to prep your backlog for when that Tears of the Kingdom high finally subsides.If you haven't had a chance to peruse Nintendo's virtual shelves, you should know that the best deals available during the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Recently, a friend who has been on Gmail for a long time suddenly noticed the chat availability settings in the upper right of the web app. This notice was actually added to the Gmail page about two years ago when Google Chat was integrated into Gmail. It notifies anyone whom you've ever used Chat with that you're at your computer (or phone) and available - or not.Even though most people may not receive notification of your availability (especially if you don't tend to use Google Chat), you may find the idea that somebody may know when you're using your account... irritating. (At least, my friend did, and I can sympathize.) However, you can turn the notification off - or, at least, mark yourself away" so that your presence will not be... Continue reading...

Finally, a real Pixel Weather app. This particular forecast is for the birds, though. Google finally has a default weather app to compete with Apple and Samsung. Though Pixel phones have long been able to display the current weather in widgets, tapping on those widgets just launched a basic screen with a cute weather frog and a handful of stats. It felt like a web page because that's basically what it was.With the launch of the Pixel Tablet earlier this week, Google has rectified that situation. Its new weather app - which is accessed via the same widgets as before, as there's no icon to launch it - has a much nicer design without losing the playfulness of the older experience. It has 10-day and 24-hour forecasts; wind, humidity, barometric pressure, and UV index reports, plus current sun position and sunrise / sunset... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge This even has implications for the ISS Continue reading...

Image: Apple The European Parliament recently voted on regulation that would, among other things, require smartphone manufacturers to make their device's batteries more easily user-replaceable. Here's the fine print. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google's new search feature that shows you different perspectives (ideally, human ones) in search results will be available on Friday, the company said on Twitter. The perspectives will show up in a tab called, well, Perspectives."Tap the filter, and you'll exclusively see long- and short-form videos, images and written posts that people have shared on discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms," Google wrote in a blog post about the feature from May. Based on a video in Google's blog post, that includes things like TikTok videos, YouTube videos, websites, tweets, Quora results, and Reddit posts. My colleague David Pierce described the Perspectives results as something that looks more like Pinterest than a typical set of... Continue reading...

The letter E" and number 3" hung over the escalators at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. | Photo: The Verge The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is dead. Following cancellations in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and Thursday's revelation that it won't return to Los Angeles in 2024 or 2025 either, you can safely stick a fork in the world's former most influential gaming show. It's done, replaced by events that stream online like the Summer Game Fest, Nintendo Direct, PlayStation Showcase, Xbox Games Showcase, and Ubisoft Forward.But given how seemingly easily it's been replaced, you might be wondering: how big a deal was it, really?In 2016, I wrote for CNET how it was actually becoming less of a gamer's mecca every year, and you aren't really missing that much. But when I ran the numbers today, they told a slightly different story - E3 had... Continue reading...

Echo Show devices can now show your local news weather forecast. | Image: Amazon If you're of a certain age and / or geographical location, then you likely rely on your local TV news station's weather forecast. A new feature on Echo Show smart displays looks set to make it easier to watch these on demand. Amazon has partnered with local news channels to automatically surface their most recent weather news videos when you say Alexa, what's the weather?"I live in a coastal city with frequent hurricane, flood, and severe weather warnings, and our local meteorologists are by far the best source of info for staying safe and dry (significantly better than any weather app - I've tried them all). But tuning in on the 8s isn't always feasible (especially for cord-cutters!), and finding videos on local news station websites... Continue reading...

Image: Bethesda Microsoft's Xbox chief has revealed one of the key reasons behind the acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax: potential Starfield PlayStation exclusivity. Speaking at the FTC v. Microsoft hearing today, Phil Spencer revealed that Sony regularly pays competitors to skip our platform" and Microsoft felt it needed to own Bethesda to compete.When we acquired ZeniMax one of the impetus for that is that Sony had done a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire... to pay Bethesda to not ship those games on Xbox," said Spencer. So the discussion about Starfield when we heard that Starfield was potentially also going to end up skipping Xbox, we can't be in a position as a third-place console where we fall further behind on our content... Continue reading...