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by Chris Welch on (#6HNQP)
Samsung's The Frame TV has enjoyed huge success in recent years because it blends into the home in a way that's much more aesthetically pleasing than the drab black rectangles you get from conventional TVs. With customizable bezels (including stylish wood options), a matte screen, and a huge collection of renowned artwork that appears on The Frame's display when it's idle, it pulls off convincing double duty as a design piece. It has become the TV for people who don't want their TV to look like a piece of technology.For 2024, Samsung is extending The Frame branding with the new Music Frame. This version isn't actually a TV at all; it's a music speaker. It's fair to think of it as Samsung's version of the Sonos / Ikea Symfonisk frame... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-07-08 00:17 |
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by Chris Welch on (#6HNQN)
Samsung's third-generation QD-OLED TV, the new S95D, comes with a unique trick compared to its predecessors: it's got a glare-free display that the company claims all but eliminates any noticeable reflections. This should prevent annoying distractions when you're watching the TV on a sun-drenched day and trying to enjoy your content.Anti-reflective coatings are nothing new on high-end TVs - Samsung, LG, and Sony are all pretty good at them as it stands - but Samsung seems to have gone a step beyond that with the special panel treatment being used here, and it insists there are no negative impacts on viewing angle or color distortion as a result.The OLED-optimized, low-reflection technology uses a new, specialized hard-coating layer... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6HNP7)
Image: Belkin Belkin is releasing a motorized iPhone dock that swivels and tilts to track your movements while on camera. The device, called the Belkin Stand Pro, costs $179.99 and appears to be the first to adopt Apple's DockKit framework, allowing you to connect the device to your iPhone without having to install a third-party app.The Stand Pro's cylindrical base is capable of rotating 360 degrees, while the MagSafe-equipped motorized arm can tilt up and down with 90 degrees of movement. Once you pop an iPhone 12 or newer onto the stand, you can pair it to your device with NFC. From there, you can open any app with a camera - like FaceTime, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, or Microsoft Teams - and the dock will automatically shift the iPhone to keep... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6HNP6)
Of course, it has to get FDA clearance first. | Image: Withings Withings always shows up to CES with a futuristic health tech device in tow, and this year is no different. The company's latest gadget is the $249.95 BeamO, a so-called multiscope that measures your temperature, takes electrocardiograms, reads blood oxygen levels, and works as a stethoscope to monitor heart and lung health.The device itself resembles some of Withings' other contactless thermometers, but it contains photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, electrodes, a digital stethoscope, and a second-gen version of the infrared temperature sensor in the Withings Thermo. You're probably more familiar with PPG sensors as the green LED you find in most smartwatches that measures heart rate by shining light into the skin. The sides of the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6HNMJ)
22-degree rotation in macOS: a concept image. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge On Windows and Mac, you can rotate your monitor 90 degrees, or even 180 degrees if you're a vampire, but that's it. Well, macOS lets you pick 270 degrees, too, but that's just 90 degrees in the other direction, so don't get too excited. Linux, on the other hand, has no problem with chaos, so you can rotate your display to any degree you'd like.Tom's Hardware published a story about this in late December, pointing to a blog from a developer called xssfox, who said there was one perfect monitor rotation for developers, and it's not the regular landscape view, nor is it portrait, AKA 90-degree rotation. 22 degrees, they insisted, is perfect - at least on an ultrawide display.This, they said, is because it provides the longest line... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6HNHB)
The Predator Z57 is very wide. | Image: Acer Acer announced a few gaming displays ahead of CES 2024 today, but the star of its new lineup is clearly its Predator Z57 - a 57-inch, 120Hz curved display that spans 7680x2160 pixels. It uses MiniLED backlighting for better contrast than a typical LCD monitor, and Acer says it will be out in the second quarter for $2,499.99 in the US and 2,399 in Europe.The Z57 will come equipped with AMD FreeSync Premium to reduce screen-tearing and gets a 90W USB-C PD port, dual HDMI 2.1 ports, and a single DisplayPort 1.3 port, as well as a built-in KVM switch for using multiple devices with it. Acer says it has 2,304 dimming zones and HDR, with 1,000-nit peak brightness. It'll also show video from multiple sources at once, using picture-in-picture... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6HNDC)
This kind of 3D effect is hard to capture in photos, but trust me, the astronaut was popping out of that screen. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Despite the pictures, I solemnly swear that, in person, that astronaut on the new Acer Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition was reaching their arms out to me. I've rolled my eyes at 3D displays before, but this time, it looked so realistic that I poked the astronaut's tummy like it was the Pillsbury Doughboy. I wasn't wearing glasses, and the whole thing was equal parts weird and cool. That's exactly the sort of thing you expect to see at CES 2024 on some far-out, high-end concept tech, but this 3D laptop is coming out next month for around the same price as a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air.To be fair, $1,399 for a laptop isn't nothing - especially when you consider that's the starting price. However, it's pretty dang affordable as far as Acer's... Continue reading...
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by Thomas Ricker on (#6HNDB)
It's a ceiling light, it's a speaker, it's a projector - it's the Xgimi Aladdin. | Image: Xgimi Xgimi has two new projectors for the US: its brightest ever 4K smart projector and a 3-in-1 unit that's also a ceiling light and Bluetooth speaker. Both long-throw projectors run Google TV.Xgimi says its 4K Horizon Max can produce 3,100 ISO lumens from its Dual Light 2.0" laser and LED hybrid light source. It's worth noting, however, that Xgimi has admitted to overstating brightness scores by as much as 27 percent in the past - something it corrected only after facing a lawsuit from Epson.Its brightness, coupled with the projector's reported contrast (2000:1), DTS audio support, and color accuracy, earned the Horizon Max an IMAX Enhanced certification. That means it can play IMAX Enhanced content from Disney Plus and other streaming... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6HNBZ)
The Air 2 Ultra bring back full-fledged tracking capabilities. | Image: Xreal Augmented reality company Xreal has revealed a new entry in its Air glasses lineup: the $699 Air 2 Ultra. The Air 2 Ultra glasses, which developers can preorder today for shipment starting in March, are ultimately meant to compete with Meta's Quest 3 and Apple's Vision Pro headsets. They're more full-featured than the $399 Air 2 model that Xreal - formerly Nreal - launched late last year, offering full positional (six degrees of freedom, or 6DOF) tracking in Xreal's typical sunglasses-style form factor. That makes them ripe for not just watching TV or playing flat-screen games on a projected screen but also running immersive AR apps, which is exactly what Xreal hopes developers will do with them.Xreal pitches the Air 2 Ultra as a... Continue reading...
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by Tim Stevens on (#6HNAD)
Verge Motorcycles' 360-degree sensors could make the wild TS Ultra safer than anything else on two wheels. Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6HNAC)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 20, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, hello, welcome, hi, what's up, how are you, welcome to the gang, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)It's our first issue of 2024, a number that still feels deeply strange to type - hope you had a good holiday and a nice break! I spent most of mine sick and then caring for a sick kid, which meant a lot of Elmo and The Office and trying as ever to beat my high score in Holedown.This week, I've also been reading about crypto farms and AI influencers and Tara Reid, breaking in my new Instant Pot air fryer (send me recipes!), poring over Matt Mullenweg's annual What's in My Bag" post,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6HN38)
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Checks are apparently hitting the bank accounts of people affected by Apple's decision to slow down iPhones with older batteries back in 2017. MacRumors reported that readers of its site said they'd seen checks deposited to their accounts amounting to $92.17, later updating the story with an embedded post from one of the readers. Indeed, the website set up for the settlement was updated in December to say the payments were expected to go out this month.So ends the batterygate saga. It began in 2017 when a developer showed that certain iOS 10 updates throttled performance for older phones like the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7. The company wasn't upfront about the purpose of the slowdown before this, but later said the goal was to keep phones... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6HMXE)
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The DreameBot L20 Ultra robot vacuum / mop is one of our top picks when it comes to robovacs, as long as you don't mind spending a fair bit of coin. But there's good news today, as the L20 Ultra is now cheaper than ever before. As a reader of The Verge, you can get the premium DreameBot for $1,049 ($450 off) at Wellbots when you use promo code DREAMEVERGE150 for an additional $150 off the list price.The L20 Ultra is about as easy as it gets for managing a hybrid robot vacuum and mop in a single unit. It's got a high suction power for thick rugs, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and mapping software. Plus, it's compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts.Tabletop games are great, but a digital version is sometimes much... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6HMHH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The new year was supposed to begin with a brand spanking new calendar app. But roughly 72 hours after the premium email service Hey announced its latest feature - an integrated calendar - co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson received some unwelcome news from Apple: it was rejecting a standalone iOS app for Hey Calendar, because non-paying users couldn't do anything when they opened the app up.New users can't sign up for Hey Calendar directly on the app - Basecamp, which makes Hey, makes users first sign up through a browser. Apple's App Store rules require most paid services to offer users the ability to pay and sign up through the app, ensuring the company gets up to a 30 percent cut. The controversial rule has a ton of gray areas and... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6HMHJ)
Image: The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery's add-on sports tier for Max is going to remain free for a little longer than originally planned, as reported by Deadline. The Bleacher Report Sports add-on was added last October, and while it's been available at no cost to subscribers so far, it was set to become a paid add-on on February 29th, 2024. However, the switch to a $9.99 monthly fee has been pushed out a few months as Warner Bros. Discovery works out some tech issues.The B/R Sports Add-On will continue to be made available to Max subscribers on us for a few more months as we finalize some tech integrations that will ensure a more seamless customer experience with our platform partners," Max spokesperson Jeff Cusson said in a statement to The Verge.T... Continue reading...
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#6HMHK)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apologies for sounding like a broken record, but the numbers are down again. This time by a lot, although that is not unusual for the end of the year. Podtrac reports that, among the top 20 publishers, downloads fell 19 percent month over month and down 24 percent year over year. The report states that the drop is due largely to modified download behavior by iOS 17 as it continues to be adopted by podcast listeners."In September, Apple introduced iOS 17, which included a small change that has had a big impact on downloads. It used to be that if you subscribed to a show, forgot about it for a while, and then returned, all of the intervening episodes would download automatically. But iOS 17 has made it so downloads pick up where you left... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6HMFM)
Illustration: The Verge Apple could soon be the subject of a federal antitrust lawsuit, according to a report from The New York Times. The publication says that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the late stages" of an investigation into Apple and its moves to keep customers locked into its ecosystem.The DOJ's investigation is looking at how Apple blocks rivals from using iMessage as well as how the Apple Watch works better when used with the iPhone when compared to watches from other brands, the Times reports. Additionally, investigators are reportedly examining how Apple prevents other financial providers from using iPhone-specific payment services.The investigation isn't set in stone just yet, as senior DOJ officials are still reviewing the... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6HMD9)
Disney Earlier this week, Disney's film Steamboat Willie entered the US public domain after nearly a century - and so did its star Mickey Mouse. It was a turning point for one of the 20th century's most iconic and rigorously protected pieces of intellectual property, and it was celebrated by an explosion of irreverent Mickey reinterpretations, including at least two film trailers, a horror game, a custom AI model, and a slew of predictably tasteless memes. The original cartoon was also uploaded in full on platforms like YouTube, letting anyone watch it for free.The change has also been marked by a confusing string of moderation decisions. In the first days of January, Techdirt noted that Disney was apparently still filing claims to block the... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6HMAA)
Image: Apple Catch up on all of The Verge's Monarch: Legacy of Monsters news updates, reviews, and interviews. Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6HM7B)
Google's Nest Wifi Pro are Wi-Fi 6E-capable mesh routers that come in a range of colors. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge When you're in the middle of a task, there's nothing more frustrating than suddenly losing your internet connection - take it from somebody who lost their Wi-Fi signal while writing this very sentence. Thankfully, Google's Nest Wifi Pro is currently on sale in select colors at Amazon and Best Buy, where a single unit is going for an all-time low of $139.99 ($60 off). Other shades are on sale for $20 more, or you can pick up a set of two or three for around $239.99 ($60 off) and $319.99 ($80 off), respectively.With its resemblance to a Nest Audio speaker, Google's mesh router is an attractive gadget that'll blend in with the rest of your home. At the same time, it's highly capable, with support for Wi-Fi 6E as well as Thread and... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6HM7C)
Image: Apple TV Plus Monarch: Legacy of Monsters VFX supervisor Sean Konrad opens up about the challenges of creating new nightmares for Godzilla's kaiju canon. Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6HM4H)
Image: @wxnod (X) / VideoCardz MSI is reportedly readying a new handheld gaming PC to rival Valve's Steam Deck and competitors like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. After a brief teaser yesterday, pictures of MSI's Claw handheld have appeared on X (formerly Twitter), spotted by VideoCardz. (Yes, Claw is the actual name, so get your GIFs ready in the comments section.)The Claw looks similar to Asus' ROG Ally, complete with offset thumbsticks with what appears to be RGB lighting. Leaked benchmarks suggest MSI's handheld will be powered by one of Intel's latest Meteor Lake processors, a surprise choice given both Lenovo and Asus opted for AMD's Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor instead.
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by Chris Welch on (#6HM4J)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge No single event of the year delivers more tech news than CES. The annual trade show is the starting point for each year in tech, giving companies a chance to announce their next wave of products or tease the ambitious, far-out, and often strange new projects they've been working on behind the scenes.This year's show kicks off from Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 9th and runs through Friday, January 12th, but you should expect news to start coming out as soon as, really, right now. Companies have been trickling out announcements over the past week, and many will try to preempt the conference with announcements in the days before the show floor opens up.There's also an entire day of keynote presentations ahead of the show's official start.... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6HM29)
Image: Aurora Autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation announced the finalization of the design, architecture, and hardware for its Aurora Driver. The technology will power its future lineup of driverless semi trucks that it's producing with German auto supplier Continental starting in 2027.Aurora says it still plans on deploying a handful of fully driverless trucks by the end of 2024. But having reached the milestone of finalizing the design of its self-driving hardware and software stack, the company says it's poised to deploy thousands" of trucks in just three years.Aurora - which was founded in 2017 by alumni of Uber, Tesla, and Waymo - has said it plans to deploy 20 fully autonomous trucks this year, with an eye on expanding to about 100... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6HM28)
The PureWash E930 gets you the majority of smart toilet features for a fraction of the price. (It's still pricey, though.) | Image: Kohler For most people, flushing $10,000 down the drain for an entire smart toilet is a bit much. But if you've always wanted a fancy toilet, Kohler is kicking off CES 2024 with a more accessible option. The $2,149 PureWash E930 is a voice-controlled bidet seat that lets you transform your existing toilet into a much smarter one. As in, you can now boss your toilet around.The appeal of bidet seats is that they let you turn your boring toilet into a much fancier one for a fraction of the price. Kohler's had bidet seats for years, but the difference with the PureWash E930 is that it has Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatibility, which means you can use your digital assistant of choice to activate the bidet spray, warm air dryer, and UV cleaning... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6HM2A)
Two trims of the Tesla Model Y (pictured) have had their estimated mileage lowered in the US. | Image: Tesla Tesla has lowered the range estimates across several Model Y, S, and X vehicles in the US, reducing the figure on certain trims by up to six percent. As reported by Electrek, Tesla's online configurator now displays an estimated range of 285 miles for the Model Y's Performance trim, down 18 miles from its previous 303-mile estimate.The Model Y Long Range is down to 310 miles from 330 while the Model X's Plaid has dropped from 333 miles to 326. Estimates for the Model S Plaid have also been updated - more specifically, the configuration with 19-inch wheels which has fallen from 396 miles to 359. These changes have not been made to Tesla's UK and EU listings, and ranges across other vehicles like the Cybertruck, Model 3, and the Model Y... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6HM0A)
Image: Incase Microsoft surprised everyone last year by deciding to discontinue its range of popular mice, keyboards, and PC accessories. After decades of Microsoft-branded PC hardware, the software giant has decided to focus on the Surface brand instead. Now a unique partnership will see Microsoft's PC accessories live on, thanks to accessory maker Incase.The products will be the same products, but instead of saying Microsoft they'll say Incase, designed by Microsoft," explains Onward Brands CEO Charlie Tebele in an interview with The Verge. Onward Brands is the parent company responsible for the Incase, Incipio, Griffin, and Survivor brands that make accessories for laptops and phones.This is the first time Incase will be offering PC accessories... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6HKS9)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Google's refusal to bargain with a group of unionized YouTube Music contractors is illegal. The three-member panel decided that despite denials by Google, which owns YouTube Music, and its subcontractor Cognizant, the two are, in fact, joint employers of the Austin-based workers who perform data-related tasks, like finding errors in its charts algorithm.At all material times, Respondents Cognizant and Google have codetermined the essential terms and conditions of employment of employees employed at the E. Parmer Lane facility and have been joint employers," writes the board in its decision (PDF).Google's troubles with its YouTube Music contractors first began last year, after a group of... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6HKSA)
A simulated" image from Samsung showing what the Tesla connections in the SmartThings app may look like. | Image: Samsung Ahead of CES 2024, Tesla and Samsung announced today that they're teaming up on energy management for smart homes. Users of Samsung's SmartThings platform will be able to connect to Tesla products like the Powerwall home battery so that you can keep track of things like energy production and your usage.When connected to the Powerwall, SmartThings Energy can sync with the Storm Watch" feature so that you're notified of heavy weather on a Samsung phone or TV, for example. In addition to the Powerwall, SmartThings Energy will be able to connect to other Tesla products, including its electric vehicles, Solar Inverter, and Wall Connector charging solutions.The collaboration is possible thanks to Tesla's API, which Samsung claims... Continue reading...
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#6HKQV)
The Verge Just before the holidays, Law360 canceled its long-running and well-regarded podcast Pro Say, much to the surprise of people in law and legal media. Pro Say, which debuted in 2017, was considered one of the top legal news podcasts on the market and was particularly popular among lawyers and law students. It even had its Hollywood moment in 2022 when the titular character of Disney Plus' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was shown listening to the podcast.The decision to cut the show came, seemingly, out of nowhere. Pro Say co-host and Law360 senior reporter Alex Lawson told Hot Pod that the team was notified only two days before they recorded the show's last episode, which published on December 21st. According to senior producer Steven Trader,... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6HKNP)
Samsung notes that the features shown here are examples of Home-to-Car and Car-to Home services to be developed," so don't take this image as a final representation of what the experience will be like. | Image: Samsung Samsung is teaming up with Hyundai to add Samsung's SmartThings smart home platform to Hyundai and Kia's connected car services, according to a blog post from Samsung and a press release from Hyundai. (Hyundai is the parent company of Kia.) As part of the collaboration, the two companies are going to work on home-to-car" and car-to-home" services and as an integrated home energy management service," Samsung says.In practice, that means at home you'll be able to do things like use SmartThings to control your car's air conditioning or windows, and when you're in your car, you'll be able to control your TV or your home's air conditioning. You'll also be able to plug your car into your SmartThings routines.Here's an example from Samsung... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6HKNQ)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge There's a lot to explore in macOS - from file sharing to keyboard remapping - so you'd be forgiven for not having discovered every single feature that Apple's desktop operating system has to offer. One of the most useful and yet less well known features is something Apple calls hot corners.Like keyboard shortcuts, hot corners can help you do more in less time on your Mac. The idea is that certain actions are triggered when you move the pointer into one of the corners of the display. Better yet, you're able to configure these actions so that they correspond to the jobs you're doing most often on macOS.You can, for example, quickly create a new note in Apple Notes, or launch the system screen saver, or open up Mission Control. You don't... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6HKNR)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge SpaceX is suing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the agency accused the Elon Musk-owned company of illegally firing employees. In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday, SpaceX claims the NLRB's actions are unconstitutional.On Wednesday, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging SpaceX illegally fired a group of employees for drafting an open letter that criticized Musk's behavior. The NLRB also claims SpaceX interrogated employees about their involvement with the letter and encouraged employees to quit if they participated in organized activities.Now, SpaceX is responding with a lawsuit that says the open letter was a distraction to SpaceX employees around the country." It claims the NLRB's proceedings, which involve... Continue reading...
by Amrita Khalid on (#6HKNS)
Image: Google The DeepMind robotics team has revealed three new advances that it says will help robots make faster, better, and safer decisions in the wild. One includes a system for gathering training data with a Robot Constitution" to make sure your robot office assistant can fetch you more printer paper - but without mowing down a human co-worker who happens to be in the way.Google's data gathering system, AutoRT, can use a visual language model (VLM) and large language model (LLM) working hand in hand to understand its environment, adapt to unfamiliar settings, and decide on appropriate tasks. The Robot Constitution, which is inspired by Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics," is described as a set of safety-focused prompts" instructing the... Continue reading...
by Emilia David on (#6HKKA)
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge After delaying its launch, OpenAI's GPT store is almost ready to open for business.GPT Store, where users can sell and share customized AI agents based on OpenAI's large language models, will officially launch next week, OpenAI said in an email to people signed on as GPT Builders. The email asked users to double-check that their GPT creations meet brand guidelines and reminded people to make their GPTs public. Email sent to GPT Builders. OpenAI first announced at its November developers conference that it would let other people build AI agents, called GPTs, using its GPT-4 large language model. It's only available to ChatGPT Plus and enterprise subscribers and lets people create customized versions of ChatGPT-style... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6HKKB)
Image: OpenAI As news publishers ink deals with AI companies to train their models with news stories, the price businesses like OpenAI are willing to pay for copyrighted information is coming to light.The Information reports that OpenAI offers between $1 million and $5 million a year to license copyrighted news articles to train its AI models. That's one of the first indications of how much AI companies plan to pay for licensed material. It sits alongside a recent report saying Apple is looking to partner with media companies to use content for AI training and is offering at least $50 million over a multiyear period for data. The Verge reached out to OpenAI for comment on the numbers.The numbers appear roughly similar to some earlier non-AI... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6HKG7)
This is the yellowest thing I have ever seen. | Image: Clicks A new company called Clicks Technology has announced an iPhone case with a built-in keyboard on the bottom. The case is called Clicks, too; it's available for $139 and the iPhone 14 Pro version starts shipping on February 1st, with 15 Pro going out in mid-March. The company is also taking reservations for a $159 iPhone 15 Pro Max model, which is coming in early spring," according to the website. (Whether any of them is a reasonable purchase is between you and your conscience.) Clicks, which was started by Michael Fisher and Kevin Michaluk (aka MrMobile and CrackBerry Kevin), will show the case off at CES next week.There have been other physical keyboard cases for the iPhone, of course. But the one this calls to mind is Typo, a bad (a... Continue reading...
by Brandon Widder on (#6HKG8)
Amazon's big-screen e-reader features a sharp E Ink display and a handy stylus for taking notes or drawing. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If I were to venture a guess, the desire to read more books is right up there with getting fit, saving money, and eating healthier when it comes to the most common New Year's resolutions. Fortunately, if you are hoping to up your literary ambitions in 2024, the Kindle Scribe is on sale at Amazon for Prime members with 16GB of storage and a Basic Pen starting at $269.99 ($70 off). You can also pick up the e-reader in the same storage configuration with a Premium Pen, which features a shortcut button and a built-in eraser, starting at $294.99 ($75 off).When we reviewed Amazon's 10.2-inch e-reader upon its release, the big-screen slate was somewhat lacking in both the features and software departments. Note-taking rivals like the Kobo... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6HKG9)
A GE Haliade-X turbine stands in the Vineyard Wind 1 project area south of Martha's Vineyard. | Image: Worldview Films The first week of 2024 has already been a rollercoaster of good and bad news for President Joe Biden's offshore wind ambitions.The nation's first large-scale wind farm just started producing power for the New England power grid. The bad news is that another major project on the East Coast threw in the towel, the latest casualty of skyrocketing costs that are pushing Biden's offshore wind dreams out of reach.The plan, according to the Biden administration, was for the US to get 30,000MW of energy from offshore wind by 2030. The US lags far behind Europe and China in offshore wind development, which it will need a lot more of to hit clean energy goals tied to the Paris climate accord. Since stepping into office, Biden has rolled out the... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6HKGA)
Illustration: The Verge Google appears to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called Bard Advanced" that will be available through a paid subscription to Google One, as shared by developer Dylan Roussel on X (formerly Twitter).Bard Advanced seems to be powered by Gemini Ultra, the top tier of Google's newly announced large language model (LLM), according to Roussel. That's an upgrade over the current version of Bard, which runs the midtier Gemini Pro. One of the screenshots Roussel shared describes Bard Advanced as a more capable large language model with advanced math and reasoning skills." Developer Bedros Pamboukian also discovered a string of code that suggests Google is working on an advanced" tier.
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6HKDB)
You can use the $50 credit towards eligible items in Samsung's online store. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung recently announced its next Unpacked event will kick off on January 17, when the company is expected to reveal the new Galaxy S24 lineup. As usual, the company also simultaneously opened up reservations" for preorders of its next Galaxy device, which grants you $50 in credit after supplying your name and email address on Samsung's website.There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind, though: first, you'll have to place your preorder using the same email address after the devices are announced on January 17th. After that, you'll have to follow through on the purchase, so make sure you have your credit card handy.You also can't use the $50 credit after making your purchase. Instead, the credit can only be used at the same time... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6HKAE)
The Razer Blade 16 (pictured) will soon be available with a 240Hz OLED panel (not pictured). | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Razer is teasing a major set of display upgrades for the Blade 16 and Blade 18 gaming laptops ahead of a full unveiling of the updated laptops next week at CES.The Blade 16 is getting what Razer says is the world's first 16-inch 240Hz OLED panel, co-developed with Samsung, while the Blade 18 will get a 165Hz 4K LED panel with G-Sync. Both panels will be Calman Verified and individually factory calibrated. Like the current Blade display options, they'll show 100 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut.As an OLED panel, the Razer 16's 2560 x 1600 display should have excellent true blacks and super-fast response time. Razer says it will have a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, and a VESA ClearMR 11000 rating... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6HKAF)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The leader in connected fitness peaked during the covid pandemic, but after a series of questionable business decisions, it's pivoting to content subscriptions. Continue reading...
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by Becca Farsace on (#6HKAG)
I used the 3.2" front screen of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 as a minimal phone for a week. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge I hated how much time I was spending scrolling on my phone. And the idea that I'm wasting my time wasn't even what was bugging me - I do loads of things that aren't good uses of my time. What bugged me was that I was unconsciously and habitually scrolling. And most of the time I couldn't even tell you what I had been scrolling through.I thought about switching to a minimal phone, like the Light Phone, with its slow screen and limited functions. But I knew that completely giving up things like Gmail or Slack on mobile wasn't possible for me. And I didn't want to wipe out social media completely, I just wanted my use of it to be more intentional. What I needed was a fully functional smartphone, just a somewhat less usable one.So I... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6HKAH)
The movie got a theatrical debut back in October. | Image: Apple Martin Scorsese's crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon will be available to stream on Apple TV Plus on January 12th. The film first premiered in theaters last October and debuted digitally in December as part of Apple's collaboration with Paramount.Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (based on the novel by David Grann) is a three-and-a-half-hour epic that follows a series of murders of the Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma after oil was discovered on tribal land. The movie stars Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, and Robert De Niro and has received waves of positive reviews so far from critics and viewers alike.The theatre-first release timeline for Killers of the Flower Moon comes as part of a growing... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6HK7E)
Qualcomm's CEO, Cristiano Amon, presented his vision for a new era of computing late last year at Snapdragon Summit. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge A year after Qualcomm, Samsung, and Google announced, uh, something VR-related, one potential component of the project is coming into focus: the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2. The new chipset is designed as a step up from the XR2 Gen 2 in the Meta Quest 3, capable of rendering high-resolution visuals like the ones promised by Apple's Vision Pro.The XR2 Plus Gen 2 supports 4.3K resolution at 90fps per eye, which is a cut above the XR2 Gen 2's 3K-per-eye rendering. It also supports 12 concurrent cameras to handle passthrough video as well as body and face tracking. Qualcomm says that the new chipset offers a 15 percent increase in GPU frequency compared to the standard XR2 Gen 2 and 20 percent greater CPU frequency - all in service of... Continue reading...
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by Alex Cranz on (#6HK52)
The new Dell XPS lineup. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This might not be the biggest shake-up of the Dell XPS lineup ever, but between some bigger laptops and a total revamping of the XPS portfolio, it feels like a big deal. The 13-inch Dell XPS laptop is sticking around, but the touch bar-equipped XPS Plus that ran hot in our review is gone, replaced by the 14-inch XPS. And there's a new 16-inch XPS to replace both the 15-inch and 17-inch laptops.Plenty of laptop makers have 14-inch and 16-inch devices - notably, Apple launched a MacBook Pro in both sizes back in 2021 - but Dell's flagship XPS laptops have stuck with the more traditional 13-inch and 15-inch sizes.Dell representatives demurred when I asked them if this new size of XPS laptops is meant as a counter to Apple's own. But it... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6HK53)
The 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning trucks could be cheaper or more expensive than last year, depending on the trim. | Image: Ford Ford is making a number of pricing updates across its 2024 F-150 Lightning range as sales of electric vehicles within the US slow. Ford notified its dealers about the price changes on Wednesday according to the Detroit Free Press, increasing the starting prices by up to $10,000 while reducing pricing on some of the most premium models by up to $7,000. The 2024 pricing changes follow Ford announcing plans in December to cut production of its F-150 Lightning pickups.Here's what the new pricing looks like for each 2024 F-150 Lightning EV model (pricing for 2023 models remains unchanged):
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by Jon Porter on (#6HK2W)
Dell has a pair of new ultrawide monitors it's showing off ahead of CES, the 40-inch UltraSharp 40 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U4025QW) and the 34-inch UltraSharp 34 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor (U3425WE). They're going on sale next month, with the larger model starting at $2,399.99, and the smaller at $1,019.99.Although Dell's announcement blog post notes that the monitors are targeting the likes of content creators, data scientists, and engineers rather than gamers, both monitors come with gaming-friendly 120Hz refresh rates. It's a part of Dell's aim for them to minimize eye-strain. To this end, they both also feature reduced blue light output, and have built-in ambient light sensors that adjust brightness and color... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6HK2X)
Image: Walmart Have you ever wanted a kitchen full of memes? Well, the Xbox Series S toaster is here and ready to sit next to your Xbox Series X fridge. Yes this is a real toaster that can handle all the bread, English muffins, and frozen waffles you throw at it. It will even toast an Xbox sphere logo onto your bread. Really.Images of an Xbox Series S toaster first emerged nearly a year ago on French websites, but Walmart has now started selling the toaster for $39.99, as spotted by Wario64. While the toaster looks like an Xbox Series S, with its signature black air vent, it also includes a bunch of features you'd actually want for toasting your bread. There are six levels of browning, a removable crumb tray, an LED countdown, and a defrost button.... Continue reading...
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