The Verge

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sony has released new firmware updates for its premium wireless WF-1000XM5 earbuds and WH-1000XM5 headphones that adds support for new features introduced with the company's LinkBuds Speaker as well as compatibility with Google's Find My Device network, potentially making them easier to locate if they go missing away from home.Sony announced its refreshed LinkBuds earbuds lineup a few days ago and introduced a wireless speaker. The LinkBuds Speaker is notable for its new Auto Switch feature, allowing it to take over playback from wireless headphones when users stop using them. Currently, only five pairs of Sony wireless headphones are compatible with the Auto Switch feature, including the WH-1000XM5 and the WF-1000XM5, once the new... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A little over a year after the collapse of the crypto banks Silvergate and Signature, financial institutions are very interested in crypto. PayPal has used its proprietary stablecoin to pay auditors Ernst & Young LLP, using a hub provided by SAP. Visa is helping to bridge existing fiat currencies with blockchains" through its Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP).A lot has happened since those bank collapses, huh? We have a Bitcoin ETF, we have crypto bros meddling in politics, and a mini boom-and-bust cycle on Bitcoin prices. I have to assume PayPal and Visa got started on this stuff a while ago in order to get it popping now, but I do think it's curious they are focused on stablecoins.Kinda seems like the big industry players are... Continue reading...

A screen on the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro's shows battery status and allows for certain settings adjustments to be made. Anker has released its new Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro wireless earbuds that include improved noise canceling and faster charging than their predecessors. The most obvious change, though, is the upgraded case with a screen to show battery life or adjust ANC settings without grabbing your phone.The Liberty 4 Pro is available now for $129.99, which is $20 cheaper than the $149.99 Soundcore Liberty 4 that debuted in 2022 and $70 cheaper than the previous version, the $169.99 Liberty 3 Pro from 2021. Image: Anker The Liberty 4 Pro are available in three color options: glossy black, white, and glossy light blue. The screen added to the Liberty 4 Pro's charging case could be a welcome addition for those with battery... Continue reading...

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Representing California in Congress comes with a unique challenge: navigating national politics while reflecting the interests of the most populous state in the US, including a large constituency from the tech industry. It's a challenge both current California Sen. Laphonza Butler and Vice President Kamala Harris - who previously held that title - have taken on. And right now, governing the tech world means addressing AI.Congress hasn't made much headway on a national framework for regulating generative AI. But California is the epicenter of the AI industry, home to companies like OpenAI and Google. On the national stage, Harris has acted as an AI czar within the Biden administration, leading discussions with industry players and civil... Continue reading...

Image: Aqara Aqara has launched its first-ever smart lever lock, the U300 we saw earlier this year at CES. Available in black or silver for $229.99 on Amazon, the U300 is one of the first smart lever locks to support Matter-over-Thread and Apple Home Key.You can unlock these doors through Aqara's app or Matter apps like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, but Aqara also offers a wide range of other entry options, including the built-in fingerprint reader, keypad, or physical keys. Apple Home Key support also means you can just tap your iPhone or Apple Watch to enter, even when they've run out of power.Lever locks are typically found on doors for garages, side entries, and home offices. The Verge's smart home reviewer, Jennifer Tuohy, is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is appealing a federal judge's ruling in its yearlong legal battle against Ripple over sales of its XRP token.This extends the battle over whether Ripple violated securities laws, as an SEC spokesperson told CoinDesk, We believe that the district court decision in the Ripple matter conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws and look forward to making our case to the Second Circuit."In August, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York fined Ripple $125 million despite the SEC asking for a much higher penalty of $2 billion. The much lighter punishment partly stems from an earlier ruling. In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres decided that while Ripple defrauded... Continue reading...

The Samsung partnership will give Kohler smart shower users another way to control their setups. | Image: Kohler Samsung is integrating Kohler's Anthem luxury smart showers into its SmartThings ecosystem, allowing users to control the shower, adjust its temperature, set timers, and manage presets, as well as monitor water usage through SmartThings-compatible devices.Kohler's Anthem smart showers can be operated using physical controllers mounted inside the showers or in a bathroom using the Kohler Konnect app on a smartphone or through existing integrations with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Home. This new partnership will expand the remote control options for Anthem installations to the SmartThings app running on Samsung smart TVs, hubs, and mobile devices. It will also allow the smart showers to be integrated into automated... Continue reading...

Samsung Galaxy smartphones and watches will soon be able to act as a digital key for your home. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge At some point next year, Samsung users should be getting access to the same convenience iPhone users have had for years: the ability to tap their phone or watch on a smart door lock to unlock it. No more messing with keys or unlocking your phone and opening an app; your phone becomes your key.This week, Samsung announced it's adopting the new Aliro smart lock standard for Samsung Wallet's Digital Home Key. This will enable tap-to-unlock and hands-free unlocking for any compatible door locks.Currently, you can add a digital key for a smart lock to your Samsung wallet and open that to access the lock's control from your phone. With this new function, you won't need to unlock your phone or access the wallet to control the door; just tap... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you can't capture what you want to search for with just a picture, Google Lens will now let you take a video - and even use your voice to ask about what you're seeing. The feature will surface an AI Overview and search results based on the video's contents and your question. It's rolling out in Search Labs on Android and iOS today.Google first previewed using video to search at I/O in May. As an example, Google says someone curious about the fish they're seeing at an aquarium can hold up their phone to the exhibit, open the Google Lens app, and then hold down the shutter button. Once Lens starts recording, they can say their question: Why are they swimming together?" Google Lens then uses the Gemini AI model to provide a response,... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube Shorts, the company's answer to TikTok, is getting updates including longer video lengths, the company announced today.Beginning on October 15th, creators will be able to upload YouTube Shorts that are up to three minutes in length - a feature YouTube says was highly requested by users. TikTok currently allows videos as long as 10 minutes and has steadily increased the limit over the years.YouTube also announced a template feature that lets creators reuse the format of other Shorts. YouTube says creators will be able to match their clips to trending sounds pulled from other videos, which is similar to a TikTok feature where users can pick from preset video styles and then tweak their own clips based on their preferences. Both... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google is rolling out ads in AI Overviews, which means you'll now start seeing products in some of the search engine's AI-generated summaries.Let's say you're searching for ways to get a grass stain out of your pants. If you ask Google, its AI-generated response will offer some tips, along with suggestions for products to purchase that could help you remove the stain. The products will appear beneath a sponsored" header, and Google spokesperson Craig Ewer told The Verge they'll only show up if a question has a commercial angle." GIF: Google Google's AI Overviews could contain relevant products. Google has been testing ads in AI Overviews since May but says it's moving forward with a full rollout because it... Continue reading...

Forget to create an offline playlist before a flight, Spotify can now autogenerate one for you based on tracks it has cached. | Image: Spotify Spotify has introduced a new feature that will keep your music playing even when your device unexpectedly goes offline. The app will automatically generate an Offline Backup playlist filled with recently streamed and queued songs that have already been downloaded and cached, and it will evolve" over time and customize the playlist based on your listening habits.The streaming app already allows you to download tracks and playlists that can be played offline, but that needs to be done manually while a data connection is available. Spotify's Offline Backup is an alternative for those times when an internet connection disappears unexpectedly or when you intentionally turn it off, like when activating airplane mode during a flight. ... Continue reading...

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Tesla issued a recall notice for the Cybertruck due to faulty software causing a slow-to-display rear camera feed. It's the fifth recall for the polarizing electric truck since Tesla started customer deliveries last November. Other recalls have involved faulty wipers, loose trim, and jammed accelerator pedals.According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's report, the recall applies to over 27,000 Cybertrucks manufactured between November 13th, 2023 and September 14th, 2024," which applies to essentially every Cybertruck ever made.Tesla Cybertrucks running version 2024.32.5.2 or later could have a condition where the reverse camera feed may appear blank for up to 6 to 8 seconds" if the customer tries to back up... Continue reading...

Image: Paramount There's a new game coming in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Paramount and Saber Interactive are teaming up to make the action RPG, which will put you in control of an all-new, never-before-seen Avatar," as reported earlier by IGN.Details about the upcoming game are still slim, but the companies say in a press release that it will let players master all four elements with dynamic combat alongside companions" as well as experience the challenges and decisions that come with being the keeper of balance in the world."Since the release of the animated ATLA series in 2005, we've seen several video game and live-action adaptations, including one on Netflix. Last year, Bamtang Games released Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for... Continue reading...

Illustration:The Verge / Image: Blizzard Entertainment Journalist Jason Schreier discusses his new book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment. Continue reading...

Ken Pillonel has created a protective case that also upgrades old AirPods charging cases to USB-C. | Screenshot: YouTube Those of us still rocking AirPods with Lightning ports finally have a way to upgrade them to USB-C that doesn't require complicated modifications or the cost of completely replacing the case. Engineer Ken Pillonel has created a smart case for older AirPods models that includes a USB-C charging port on the outside.The protective cases are made from a durable but flexible 3D-printed plastic and can be installed on an AirPods charging case in about 10 seconds. The USB-C port on the outside passes power along to the AirPods' Lightning port using some added electronics hidden in the base, but the case is also easily removable should direct access to the Lightning port still be needed. Image: Ken Pillonel Pillonel's... Continue reading...

A John Deere tractor and air seeder planting garbanzo beans near Pullman, Washington. | Photo by: Rick Dalton / Design Pics Editorial / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pressuring John Deere to update its manuals to better enable customers to repair their tractors. By omitting information about repair rights and pollution control systems, Warren alleges that John Deere could be in violation of the Clean Air Act.John Deere has been at the center of an ongoing battle over the right to repairJohn Deere has been at the center of an ongoing battle over the right to repair, especially as it incorporates more software into farm equipment. Warren's office contends that the company is making it almost impossible for farmers to fix their own equipment or turn to independent repair shops.Withholding repair information from its customers in its manuals could also be illegal,... Continue reading...

I'd like Gemini to address me in the formal usted.' | Illustration: The Verge Google initially rolled out Gemini Live, its conversational AI voice chat, in just one language: English. Today, the company is expanding the service to a handful of other languages, starting with French, German, Portuguese, Hindi, and Spanish. And while support for these languages does appear to be imminent for a lot of people, the company is still couching promises of other Gemini features with fuzzy coming weeks" timelines.Google expects that the languages starting to roll out today will be available to all users in a couple of weeks." As for other languages, Google says it will have more than 40 languages over the coming weeks," which is harder to pin down. Still, Google's timeline from announcement to full rollout for Gemini... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you're anything like me, you spend a lot of each day jumping between multiple email accounts - and multiple email apps - trying to get to inbox zero. Anything that can be done to reduce the number of places where messages are piling up can save time and reduce confusion. Gmail can import emails from other accounts like iCloud or Outlook so you don't have to necessarily check multiple inboxes multiple times a day.Setting up an email import isn't particularly difficult. I'm going to start with a little bit of explanation first and then go on to detail several ways to gather all your emails in your Gmail account. There is also a way to use your mobile Gmail app to read and answer emails from other accounts; I'll cover that as well.Y... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Epic's game store is finally on mobile. Next up, the company plans to add features that make people want to use it - on both mobile and PC.A key thing Epic Games wants to introduce is what store boss Steve Allison calls a social framework" - think the types of social and chat features you see on consoles or Steam.Our social features on PC suck," Allison says in an interview with The Verge. Let's call it what it is." Social features are the battery that powers Fortnite," Allison says, and Epic wants to take that battle-tested social framework and move it up from Fortnite up to the store level." The idea is that you'll be able to party up and chat with your Epic Games friends across devices, theoretically meaning that friends on... Continue reading...

WP Engine said the lawsuit aims to address abuse of power, extortion, and greed." | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge The WP Engine web hosting service is suing WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Automattic for alleged libel and attempted extortion, following a public spat over the WordPress trademark and open-source project. In the federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday, WP Engine accuses both Automattic and its CEO Mullenweg of abuse of power, extortion, and greed," and said it seeks to prevent them from inflicting further harm against WP Engine and the WordPress community.WP Engine is a major rival to WordPress.com, with more than 200,000 websites using the service. Mullenweg runs Automattic, which owns WordPress.com, a company that sells a hosted version of the open-source WordPress software - just like WP Engine.The lawsuit was initiated after... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images First, it was Spotify, then Verizon, then PlayStation, and now it's apparently Bank of America's turn to have an outage this week. Some customers reported problems accessing their bank accounts on Wednesday, with the balances showing $0 or --" instead of what should be there.Some mobile and online banking clients experienced an issue accessing their accounts and balance information earlier today," writes Bank of America media relations executive Matt Card in an email to The Verge. These technology issues have been fully resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience."Reports spiked just before 1PM ET on Downdetector, with posts across X and Reddit from people reporting that their account balances don't show anything (some mentioned... Continue reading...

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Did you, like me, buy a Ring Alarm system for your home because it offered the most affordable professional 24/7 monitoring around, at just $10 a month or $100 a year? Then I expect you - like me - just got an email stating you'll now pay twice as much starting the next time you renew.Here's the top of the email I received a few hours ago, telling me I'll pay $20 a month or $200 a year starting in March, which matches the price of the Ring Protect Pro plan that Amazon started selling three years ago. I was previously on Ring Protect Plus: Image: Sean Hollister / The Verge Price hike. Price hikes are always annoying, but Ring is still a relatively affordable alarm service, I suppose. The truly infuriating part:... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Charter's Spectrum TV Select cable plan will include a free ad-supported Peacock Premium subscription next year, reports Reuters. The addition comes as Charter announced today that it has reached a new multi-year deal" with NBCUniversal, which owns Peacock, to keep its TV channels in Charter's cable lineup.Charter recently lined up a similar agreement with Disney that lets it bundle Disney's ad-supported Disney Plus Basic with Spectrum TV Select. (Upgrading to Spectrum TV Select Plus adds ESPN Plus, too.)It's all part of Charter's new hybrid approach to bundles that allows it to bundle other companies' streaming subscriptions with its cable plans and even sell them to its internet customers, too. That lets the company boost the... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Welcome to the streaming era of the wrestling wars. WWE's flagship weekly show, Raw, is ditching cable and headed for Netflix in January. And today, Warner Bros. Discovery and All Elite Wrestling announced a multiyear rights extension that will bring AEW content to Max starting in... you guessed it... January 2025. The news was first reported by Variety.Tony Khan's wrestling promotion will gain a significant presence on the popular streaming service. Episodes of AEW's weekly shows, Dynamite and Collision, will simulcast on Max on Wednesday and Saturday nights in addition to airing on TBS and TNT, respectively. Past episodes will also be available to watch on demand. AEW's TV programming has aired on WBD networks from the very start, so... Continue reading...

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted last week on charges including fraud, bribery, and soliciting donations from foreign nationals, told federal investigators he forgot his phone password before handing it over, according to charging documents. That was almost a year ago, and investigators still can't get into the phone, prosecutors said Wednesday.During a federal court hearing, prosecutor Hagan Scotten said the FBI's inability to get into Adams' phone is a significant wild card," according to a report from the New York Post. The FBI issued a search warrant for Adams' devices in November 2023. Adams initially handed over two phones but didn't have his personal device on him. The indictment does not mention what type of... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Another beloved Apple TV Plus show is getting a second season. The streamer announced today that the detective series Sugar, which stars Colin Farrell in the titular role, has been renewed for season 2. It's not clear yet when the show will return.Sugar debuted earlier this year. And while it started out as a clever story about a private investigator, a big twist midway through the first season - you can read about it here, but (obviously) spoilers abound - pushed it into sci-fi territory, a space Apple has been very successful in. There aren't many details about the upcoming season, but in a press release, Apple says that season two will see Sugar back in Los Angeles, taking on another missing persons case as he continues to look for... Continue reading...

Getty Images Xbox cofounder J Allard joined Amazon last month as a vice president on the company's devices and services team. In an email to The Verge, Allard confirmed his new role but says it's too early to have anything to say" about what he'll be working on at Amazon beyond new ideas."Allard will report to former Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay at Amazon, according to GeekWire. Panay left Microsoft last year after being at the software giant for almost 20 years. Allard spent more than 20 years at Microsoft, cofounding the Xbox division, launching Microsoft's Xbox Live network, and developing the Xbox 360 console. Allard also oversaw the development of the Zune, Microsoft's iPod competitor.Allard departed Microsoft in 2010, following his... Continue reading...

Image: PFU America After weeks of incredibly obvious teasers, PFU America has revealed the HHKB Studio Snow, a white version of one of the best and strangest keyboards I've used. A new color might seem like a minor thing, and it is. But it does answer one of the common complaints about the HHKB Studio, which until now was only available in black with black legends. The Snow edition is available today for $329 at PFU's website and mechanicalkeyboards.com.The HHKB Studio, which I reviewed last year, takes the layout from the cult classic Happy Hacking Keyboard, adds a ThinkPad-style trackpoint and mouse buttons, swaps the Topre electrocapacitive dome switches that are in the Professional series for standard Cherry MX-compatible mechanical ones, and adds... Continue reading...

The Paperwhite Kids could be a great holiday gift to keep your kids reading over school breaks. | Image: Amazon If you're looking for an alternative to traditional tablets for your kid, perhaps you should consider an ebook reader. The Kindle Paperwhite Kids - which is essentially identical to the standard Paperwhite but with a couple of added freebies - would be a great place to start. It's now on sale at Amazon for $114.99 ($55 off) with a playfully designed magnetic protective case in either dark and light green or yellow and purple. That's only $5 more than the all-time low that was established this time last year. You can also get it with a forest green and orange warrior cats" case for $124.99 ($55 off).The Kindle Paperwhite is one of the most economical ways to acquire and store books from both a monetary and space-saving standpoint. Its... Continue reading...

I guess I don't need to worry about the Wi-Fi reaching outside anymore. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Enel X Way North America, which owns EV charger brand JuiceBox, is closing down its electric vehicle business in the US and Canada and will shut off connectivity services for commercial and home hardware. In a statement posted on the JuiceBox website, the company said it will close down on October 11th, but it's turning off all customer support lines effective immediately."If you own a JuiceBox charger at home, you'll soon lose all connectivity with the app, but it will still charge your EV without the features. Enel is removing the Enel X Way app (which currently has a 2.7-star rating) from the App Store. The app lets you check charging status and history, set charging schedules, see energy use, and lock the charger down for only... Continue reading...

Workers, community members, and business owners clean up debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Marshall, North Carolina, on September 30th, 2024. | Photo: Getty Images Tropical storms take many more lives than officially recorded, according to a sobering study published today in the journal Nature. It comes as people across the Southeastern US scramble to find loved ones in the wreckage of Hurricane Helene.The average tropical storm or hurricane leads to the early deaths of between 7,170 and 11,430 people, the researchers estimate. That's astronomically higher than the average of 24 direct deaths per storm documented in government records spanning more than half a century.We were quite stunned. So, if folks are surprised by these results, you know, we were right there, too," says Rachel Young, a coauthor of the study who is an environmental economist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft wants to hear from game developers who might be skipping Xbox or those already building games using the company's developer tools. The software maker is expanding its Xbox Research team to include the community of game developers, seeking feedback directly from developers about tools, support, and the overall pain points of the Xbox platform.A new program, much like Microsoft's Xbox Insider one, is now open to all members of game studios, not just technical employees. Typically, it takes a lot of people to make and ship a game, including marketing, user research, artists, audio, PMs, community managers, and more," says Deborah Hendersen, PhD, principal user researcher for Xbox. We want to hear from everyone who works on... Continue reading...

AFMF 2 is now widely available after rolling out to beta testers earlier this year. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AMD has officially launched the latest version of its Fluid Motion Frames tech that can boost gaming frame rates on RDNA 2- and RDNA 3-based graphics hardware. Following its technical preview in July, Fluid Motion Frames 2 (AFMF 2) is now widely available after being released on Tuesday alongside its supporting Adrenalin 24.9.1 GPU driver.AFMF is a frame generation technology similar to Nvidia's DLSS Frame Generation but operates on the driver level instead of game-specific integration. The second-gen AFMF update can be enabled in OpenGL, Vulkan, DirectX 11, or DirectX 12 games - meaning FPS can now be improved in titles that don't support FSR and DLSS - and currently works on AMD Radeon RX 6000, RX 7000, 700M, and 800M GPUs. ... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, asked rival hosting service WP Engine to hand over 8 percent of its revenue each month before igniting a very public battle over what you can and can't do with an open-source project.On Wednesday, Automattic published the proposed deal that it sent to WP Engine on September 20th. The proposal lays out a seven-year agreement that gives WP Engine the right to use the WordPress trademark in exchange for a hefty payment. The 8 percent cut could either be paid as a royalty fee to Automattic or as salaries for WP Engine employees who would contribute to the WordPress.org open-source project.If WP Engine chose to pay a royalty fee, Automattic said it would publicly attribute part of its... Continue reading...