by Sean Hollister on (#69YDW)
I want to scan everything I own with the Lumafield Neptune. Continue reading…
The Verge - All Posts
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| Updated | 2024-11-27 00:30 |
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69YDX)
Photo by Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty Images It’s a great time to be shopping for an electric cargo bike.Not only are there a bunch of great, modestly priced models that have just been released from an assortment of really interesting companies, but there are also a growing number of states offering incentives to curious shoppers that could help bring the cost down even further.It feels as if the industry and the government have simultaneously woken up to the enormous potential of cargo e-bikes to replace car trips and improve the environment, and honestly, it’s about time.The planet-and-community-saving superpower of cargo e-bikes is widely known. They’ve been shown to decrease car dependency, save people money, reduce carbon emissions, and speed up delivery times for... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#69XXC)
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Growing up, I learned The Way Things Work from author David Macaulay’s incredible illustrated books. This week, I was surprised to see Macaulay’s endorsement in my inbox for a new illustrated explainer by a different author — but the surprise didn’t last long.Fifteen minutes after I began skimming through an advance copy of Hidden Systems, which just came out this week, I immediately ordered the book for my kids. It looks like a fantastic way to help them conceptualize the internet, the world’s water supply, and our power grid — and get them thinking about the infrastructure of the world they’ll someday inherit. Images by Dan Nott / Random House How Dan Nott defines a hidden system, from his website excerpt. ... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69XXD)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is trying to make it easier to share your experiences with its GPT-4-powered Bing Chat by adding a button that lets you post the AI’s response to Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. People have already been sharing the interesting (and sometimes upsetting) things that the chatbot has been saying via screenshots, but it seems like Microsoft is leaning into it now. Perhaps that’s a sign that it’s more confident in all the guardrails it’s put up around the system after users pushed it to the breaking point.In a blog post on Friday, the company shows off the share button, saying that you can use it to generate a persistent link to the answer in addition to sharing it to social media. Clicking the link takes you to a Bing Chat window,... Continue reading…
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by Monica Chin on (#69XXE)
I want this to be me. Hoodie and all. | Image: Razer Mouse pads are one thing. Mouse pads made of glass? Quite another. This, at least, is what I’m assuming based on the promotional materials for the Razer Atlas, Razer’s first glass mouse pad. “Absolute functionality and durability,” Razer’s website proclaims. “Experience pure polished precision,” the press release demands of me.The $99.99 tempered glass Atlas has an anti-slip rubber base, is available in black or white, and is 0.19 inches (five millimeters) thick. But the main idea behind a glass mouse pad, or so I gather, is that you can glide a mouse across it very, very fast.It’s not like I have a problem with the speeds afforded by whatever piece of foam is currently on my desk. But I just keep looking at this thing, and I feel... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#69XT2)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is promising significant changes to the way Windows manages which apps open certain files by default and how users can select programs to pin to their Start menu on the Windows desktop or on the taskbar.A new Settings deep link URI scheme will let developers send users directly to the right spot in Settings to change which program is the default for particular file or link types. Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s nonfinal concept design for the button that would let you confirm pinning an app tile to your Windows taskbar. Separately, Microsoft will start testing a new API to let apps pin a primary or secondary tile to the taskbar.Described on a company blog as “a principled approach to app pinning and... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69XT3)
Image: Team Meat The next title in the ultra-hard Super Meat Boy series is going to be, of all things, a puzzle game. The new game, Dr. Fetus’ Mean Meat Machine, is a match-four puzzler that’s clearly inspired by Sega’s Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, but it will have some Super Meat Boy-esque flair.“As you’re trying to get your color-coded clones to the bottom of the screen and build combos, you’ll have to deal with buzzsaws, missiles and a host of other hazards primed to destroy your clones if you don’t play with the precision that the Super Meat Boy series has always demanded,” Team Meat’s Tommy Refenes said in a blog post. Sounds, uh, brutal. The game will have more than 100 hand-built levels “filled with hazards and traps that will test your... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#69XT4)
Illustration: The Verge Federal authorities seized nearly $3 million from Gettr last September as part of a sweeping billion-dollar fraud investigation into a Chinese billionaire.On Wednesday, the Justice Department arrested Chinese billionaire and dissident Guo Wengui, also known as Ho Wan Kwok and Miles Guo, for allegedly defrauding thousands of people out of more than $1 billion. Authorities said that Guo carried out the massive fraud through a complex web of investment schemes that has now entangled Trump-aligned social network Gettr.Guo, an exiled Chinese dissident living in Manhattan, is a prominent Trump supporter and friend to Steve Bannon. A 2021 Daily Beast report revealed that Guo was an original investor in Gettr, where he touts nearly 900,000... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69XT5)
Dominique Fishback as Andrea “Dre” Greene. | Image: Amazon Amazon’s new psychological thriller series from Donald Glover and Janine Nabers is a dark sendup of stan culture, but it’s too caught up in its own obsession with Beyoncé. Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#69XT6)
Some of the themes available from Discord. | Image: Discord Discord is testing out themes that let you change the app’s UI, giving you the choice of 16 (or maybe 17?) premade color schemes. It’s a long-awaited feature for the app, but the catch is that you have to pay for Discord’s $9.99 monthly Nitro subscription to access it — themes aren’t included in the $2.99 monthly Nitro Basic plan, according to the company’s feature comparison chart.Nitro has a lot of useful perks for people who spend a lot of time in Discord, such as the ability to upload larger files, send longer messages, and customize your profile, but I’d argue that you don’t have to be a power user to appreciate aesthetic changes. It’s easy to imagine people wanting themes but not being able to justify such a high price tag for an... Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#69XT7)
Image: Illumination When we first heard Chris Pratt’s Mario voice in the initial trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it didn’t sound like Charles Martinet’s iconic Mario voice at all. But in a new interview to promote the film, Pratt busted out a Mario voice that actually sounds almost exactly like what you hear in the Nintendo games.Just listen to Pratt’s “wahoo” and “it’s-a me” yourself in this video from BBC’s The One Show:
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by Andrew Webster on (#69XT8)
Nell Tiger Free in Servant. | Image: Apple Endings are hard. That’s particularly true for serialized mystery box TV shows, ones where plentiful juicy secrets hook viewers but the answers often fail to satisfy them. Putting a final bow on a story like that is a unique challenge. That’s part of what makes Servant, the Apple TV Plus psychological thriller helmed by M. Night Shyamalan, so interesting. Whereas many of these shows seem like they’re making it up as they go, Servant had a specific ending in mind. As Shyamalan told me ahead of the most recent season premiere, “The story wanted to be four seasons.” The show has been weird, confusing, and frequently nonsensical. But at least there has been the promise that it’ll all make some sense eventually.So now, here we are at that... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#69XT9)
Our exclusive discount drops the price of Google’s flagship earbuds in all four colorways to a mere $145. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you’ve spent any time scouring the endless sea of headphones on the web recently, you won’t be surprised to hear that the wireless earbuds space is constantly evolving. Sony appears to be prepping a successor to our favorite pair of earbuds, the WF-1000XM4, while Nothing is set to launch its upcoming Ear 2 in less than a week. But if you’re looking to pick up a pair of earbuds today, you can grab Google’s Pixel Buds Pro at Wellbots for just $145 ($55 off) when you use promo code 55THEVERGE at checkout.Google’s flagships earbuds offer quite a bit over their flawed predecessor. They feature impressive noise cancellation and good sound quality, and if you’re a Pixel user, they offer easier controls and support for head-tracking spatial... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#64ZWM)
Our top fitness earbuds pick from Beats now comes in more colors, but there are also great options from Sony, Jabra, Sennheiser, and more. Continue reading…
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by David Nield on (#69XN3)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you own an Xbox Series X or an Xbox Series S, and especially if you just got one, you might not spend a whole lot of time on the menu screens before diving into your games — but there are plenty of useful features and options that are worth exploring.Here, we’ll highlight 11 of the most useful settings that cover everything from screenshots to eye strain to audio output. You can find all of them in the Settings section of the Xbox interface.Mute notification audioIf you’re listening carefully for important sounds during gameplay, you don’t necessarily want to be distracted by pings from the console’s notification system. To turn these sounds off:
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by Jay Peters on (#69XN4)
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta’s paid verification system for Facebook and Instagram is now rolling out in the US, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday. First introduced in Australia and New Zealand in February, “Meta Verified” gets you benefits like a blue verification badge, proactive impersonation protections, and direct access to customer support. The subscription costs $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 per month on mobile devices.However, the US version of Meta Verified won’t get you increased visibility and reach like it does in Australia and New Zealand. “We heard feedback that how this piece of the offering worked was causing confusion, so we’re taking the time to further explore its value and learn before we consider expanding this component... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69XN5)
The FCC is cracking down on the relentless deluge of spammy, automated text messages. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Regulators in the US have introduced new rules to combat the growing number of text messaging scams. Announced on Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) now requires that mobile service providers block automated text messages that are “highly likely to be illegal,” such as texts from unused, unallocated, or invalid phone numbers. This also includes blocking messages from phone numbers identified by government agencies or other organizations as not being used for texting.Automated messages, or “robotexts,” have become frustratingly common, relentlessly clogging up our phones with unwanted and often scammy promotions. It’s almost impossible to block junk texts completely, and some spammers have gotten creative to stand out... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#69XG9)
Photo: Getty Images YouTube has lifted restrictions on former President Donald Trump’s YouTube account. YouTube announced on Twitter that the channel is no longer restricted and can upload new material. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” it said via the YouTubeInsider account. “This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube.”Trump was suspended from YouTube after the January 6th, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. The site removed a video that it said violated its policies against inciting violence, and it banned Trump from uploading new content — first for a... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69XGA)
Microsoft’s new Copilot feature overhauls Microsoft 365 apps and services. | Image: Microsoft Copilot is more than just a chatbot. Microsoft is gradually building an AI assistant that it has dreamed about for years. Continue reading…
by Justine Calma on (#69XDV)
Sienna Miller in Extrapolations. | Image: Apple There are kernels of real science in Apple’s new star-studded climate change drama Extrapolations. In the first episode alone, we see raging fires, water shortages, and vanishing Arctic ice. These threats are real.The show also makes some stuff up for the sake of telling a story. (Spoiler alert!) Walruses, for one, face much more danger from humans than we do from them. But considering their status as a “vulnerable” species due in part to oil and gas drilling and shrinking sea ice, a little walrus rage in the first episode is probably warranted. There’s also no such thing as “summer heart,” a medical condition we see in the second episode. But heat does put extra strain on the heart, and it’s already the top weather-related killer in... Continue reading…
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#69XDW)
Passing the buck is an all-American sport | Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge The culture war has come for the banks, and friends, it is stupid.There are a wide variety of proposed explanations for the fall of Silicon Valley Bank. For instance, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has suggested SVB’s board “may have been distracted by diversity demands” as I guess it had too many women, too many Black people (one), too many queer people (again, one), and too many veterans (???).Meanwhile, in The Financial Times, the problem is that Silicon Valley Bank let people work from home. “It is harder to have a challenging call over Zoom. It makes it harder to challenge management,” according to Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford University who the FT chose to quote for some reason. “Ideas like hedging interest... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69XDX)
Mobile spinoffs based on beloved console games can sometimes be hit-or-miss. But based on an initial pair of trailers, I’m cautiously optimistic about the newly announced Persona 5: Phantom of the Night (aka The Phantom X). Following a tease in April 2021, “P5X” is now official, and is in development for Android, iOS, and Windows. Unfortunately, none of the press materials mention an international launch, so it sounds like it might be exclusive to China.That’s a shame, because (from the trailers at least) this looks like a pretty faithful Persona experience. The game appears to be set in the same locations as 2016’s Persona 5, but revolves around a new cast of characters including protagonist Wonder, their owl sidekick Luffy, and friend... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69XDY)
Both of the Samsung S23 series camera mount accessories are designed to be compact and adjustable for those that need tripod options on the go. | Image: Samsung Samsung has introduced a pair of camera accessories designed to work with the Galaxy S23 series’ modular Gadget Case. Spotted by WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, the two phone mounts — the Slim Tripod stand and the Camera Grip stand listed on a number of Samsung’s online stores — provide flexible options for photography, video calling, and positioning the phone hands-free. Both accessories connect to the S23 Series Gadget Case, replacing its default PopSocket-like kickstand grip attachment.The Slim Tripod is an adjustable phone stand that provides flexible options for positioning the device in both landscape and portrait orientations, featuring collapsible tripod legs that can be folded flat against the accessory when not in use. When the... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69X9G)
Each figurine has a screen in its helmet to show off your face. | Image: Disney What’s better than a cool Tron action figure? A cool Tron action figure with your face and voice, obviously.That’s the idea behind the Tron Identity Program, a new piece of merch that Disney will be selling visitors to the Lightcycle attraction that’s opening in Tomorrowland in Walt Disney World Florida on April 4th. The idea is that you get your face scanned, record six lines of dialogue, and then manually customize your character’s look with different helmets, bodies, and team colors, and you’re left with a figurine that feels truly “you.”It’s a not dissimilar idea to Hasbro’s Selfie Series, which 3D prints your head onto an action figure of your choosing after you scan your face with an app. But while Hasbro is going down a 3D... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#69X3K)
Image: Capcom The updated version looks incredible, plays well, and has a level of focus that’s rare in modern games. Also, there are lots of explosive barrels. Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#69WW7)
Here’s to hoping Hyperkin fixes one of the worst D-pads of all time. | Image: Hyperkin Good news for nostalgic millennial gamers: Hyperkin’s remake of the Xbox 360 controller is inching closer to release. The Xenon controller was first announced by Hyperkin back in November, but not much solid info was given outside of some renders and the basic knowledge that this reissue will be a USB-C wired-only reprisal for Xbox Series X / S and PC.Now, Hyperkin says the Xenon controller is set for release on June 6th, with preorders on its store beginning May 5th. If you have enough love for the old Xbox 360 controller that you want to own a reissue, which eschews wireless connectivity and the classic green LED-surrounded guide buton, the new version will cost $49.99 in white, black, red, or pink. Photo by Antonio... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69WW8)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is starting to set up the legal framework that would let companies provide satellite service directly to cell phones, like SpaceX, T-Mobile, AST Spacemobile, and Lynk are trying to do. Today it adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that lays out how companies would get the appropriate licenses, what spectrum they’d be able to use, and a “clear and transparent processes” for the regulator to support their efforts.The main focus of the proposal is the satellite companies that are planning on working with existing cell carriers, and using parts of the spectrum traditionally reserved for standards like 5G. The benefit to this approach is that it allows phones to talk to satellites without the... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#69WW9)
A Pornhub billboard in Times Square A Canadian private equity firm has acquired MindGeek, the company behind Pornhub, YouPorn, and other major adult media sites. Financial Times reported that newly formed Ethical Capital Partners acquired MindGeek for an undisclosed amount and that it will continue to operate under an unidentified group of current executives alongside an ECP management team that includes “lawyers and former cannabis investors.” ECP also confirmed the news on its site.MindGeek is a massive but troubled brand. The company owns some of the highest-trafficked sites on the internet, but it’s also faced persistent criticism that it’s failed to prevent users from uploading or viewing illegal videos, including child sexual abuse material. Its long-standing... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69WWA)
I guess Amazon would prefer that you buy books instead. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon is no longer selling magazine and newspaper subscriptions through Kindle Newsstand and will stop delivering current Kindle Newsstand subscriptions in September, according to an announcement from last week. Kindle Newsstand let people read Kindle-specific versions of publications right on their device, and the change will likely come as a disappointment for people who were used to getting their subscriptions that way.But Amazon isn’t just stopping subscriptions on Kindle Newsstand; the company has also halted sales of print magazines and newspaper subscriptions. Here’s the timeline for how things will be phased out:
by Umar Shakir on (#69WSM)
The Ugreen Nexode 140W charger is one of few all-in-one charger options for on-the-go video editors rocking powerful PD 3.1-capable laptops. And it’s a good one. Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#69WSN)
Illustration: Samar Haddad / The Verge IssueGoogle’s Discover page, which is the leftmost page on many Android phones, can be a useful source of news, or it can be an irritating list of clickbait headlines and repetitive articles. And because it is an intrinsic part of the OS on many phones, unless you actually installed it yourself, you probably can’t uninstall it.You can try to adjust the content by selecting the two dots at the bottom right of each article and letting the algorithm know you’re not interested, but that doesn’t always work. Or you can simply get rid of it. Sometimes, you’ve seen enough rats. You can try to tweak the Discover page algorithm; it doesn’t always work. Quick fixLong-press on any homepage screen... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69WSP)
Another addition to a tweet’s report card — this bar is getting full. Twitter is adding yet another public metric to measure posts by. There’s now a counter for how many bookmarks a tweet has gotten that lives beside the retweet, quote retweet, and like numbers. The counter is currently only showing up for iOS users who visit the tweet details page, but a help document says there are “plans to expand.”Unlike other metrics, you can’t tap the bookmarks counter to see who’s added it to their list. According to the Twitter Support account, “bookmarks are still private” and the company will “never display which accounts have added a Tweet to their Bookmarks.”
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by Justine Calma on (#69WNM)
Flooded strawberry fields in Pajaro, California, on Wednesday, March 15th, 2023. | Image: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images An extremely wet winter has lifted much of California out of drought, and more rain is on the way. The deluge of rain and snowfall this season has “wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California” for the first time since 2020, according to a spring outlook published today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).The agency forecasts more improvement throughout spring, with even more regions potentially seeing their drought conditions end. Even so, California’s recovery will be patchy, and it’ll take years to replenish some crucial water sources. And as recent storms have already shown, the state will continue to face new dangers from flooding.“Climate change is driving both wet and dry extremes”“Climate... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69WNN)
V2 of Celsys’ art and animation software provides new features for automatic illustration adjustments and referencing. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Celsys has released Clip Studio Paint 2.0, the first major update for its popular digital illustration app that introduces new 3D referencing tools, brush effects, and additional language support.Some of the most notable additions for the update build on the app’s existing support for 3D models, which can be imported into the app and used as drawing references. Version 2.0 of Clip Studio Paint introduces a customizable head model within the 3D section of the Material palette that can be freely positioned to find the desired angle. There are nine preset faces to choose from that cover realism, anime, ultra-masculine superhero, and more. Head size, shape, lighting, and facial features are all adjustable.
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by Umar Shakir on (#69WNP)
The 2024 Kia EV9 electric SUV has been revealed. | Image: Kia Remember those real hip hamsters that starred in Kia’s Soul commercials? If they finally grew up and started a family, the EV9 is exactly the electric vehicle they’d be looking to buy.Kia this week revealed the production version of the EV9 SUV in South Korea, and it’s looking like a three-row Telluride in size but a Soul in appearance. The center row is particularly interesting in the EV9, as the automaker highlights swiveling seats for a six-seater version of the SUV.The two center seats in the six-seater Kia EV9 can be rotated to face the two rear seats for maximum face-to-face children-screaming action. The seats can also be rotated toward the doors, too, which looks like it could make it easier to situate your kid without... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69WNR)
Image: VW Volkswagen unveiled its affordable, mass-market electric vehicle in the form of a concept called the ID. 2all. With a starting price of 25,000 euros ($26,600) and an estimated range of 450 kilometers (279 miles), the Golf-looking electric hatchback is intended to be that most elusive thing: a plug-in vehicle for the people.VW revealed the ID. 2all during an investor event in Germany — calling to mind Tesla’s own investor day event, in which Elon Musk was expected to show off his own affordable EV but didn’t. Tesla’s share price dropped after the event as investors griped about the absence of the promised EV. And less than two weeks later, VW has responded with its own spin on what an EV for the mass might look like.The Golf-looking... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#69WNS)
Valve’s Steam Deck portable gaming PC. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s been just over a year since Valve launched its Steam Deck portable gaming PC — and it’s just now going on sale.Until March 23rd at 10AM PT, you can get a Steam Deck for 10 percent off — in the US, that translates to $359.10 for 64GB, $476.10 for 256GB, or $584.10 for the 512GB model, before tax. Shipping is free. Prices for the Steam Deck with the 10 percent discount. Why now, instead of exactly at the one-year mark? It might be that it coincides with Valve’s Spring Sale or that it took some time to put together this Happy Birthday video...It also might be that sales of the always-improving portable have finally begun to drop.While the Steam Deck has spent staggering nonconsecutive weeks atop Steam’s... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69WNT)
Image: Epic Games Epic Games is finally sharing more details about the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, which will let creators use tools from Unreal Engine to build games and experiences specifically for Fortnite.“Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite,” Epic said in a description of the tools on the Epic Games Store. “With many of Unreal Engine 5’s powerful tools and workflows at your fingertips, including custom asset import, modeling, materials and VFX, Sequencer and Control Rig, you’ll have a whole new world of options for producing and publishing games and experiences for Fortnite that can be enjoyed by millions of players.” Epic will also introduce... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69WGM)
Microsoft Business Chat | Image: Microsoft One of the new Copilot AI features coming to Microsoft 365 apps and services is dubbed Business Chat. It’s a chatbot experience that’s able to summarize information pulled from meeting transcripts, recent contacts with customers, entries in your calendar, and more that you can plug into emails for the team or as slides in a presentation.According to Microsoft, by using grounding to focus the AI on your business’ trove of data, it can create relevant, accurate responses to natural language prompts, like “Did anything happen yesterday with [customer X]?” The bot is accessible from Microsoft365.com, Bing when signed in with a work account, or via Microsoft Teams. Image: Microsoft Microsoft Business Chat The... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69WBR)
Image: Lawrence Sumulong/Getty Images Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is resigning, effective immediately, he announced in a blog post on Thursday.Shear has been at Twitch since before it was Twitch. He was a co-founder of Justin.tv, the platform where Justin Kan streamed his life 24/7. That became Twitch in 2011 to focus on popular gaming livestreams, and just three years later, the platform was acquired by Amazon for nearly a billion dollars.
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#69WGN)
The artwork itself may not be for everyone, but Ikea sells easy drop-in, drop-out alternates. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Maybe Ikea is feeling buoyed by the hype around the new Sonos Era 100 and 300 speakers, especially now that the speakers are up for preorder; the flat-pack furniture maker has dropped the price even further on its art-like smart speaker you can hang on your wall.The Ikea Symfonisk picture frame Sonos speaker is now on sale for $169.99 ($90 off) direct from Ikea until May 29th or “while supplies last.” We don’t know if that means the unusual speaker is on its way out or that a new one is coming, but we do know this is a great deal. Now, I know I said the Symfonisk was a screaming deal last month at $194.99, but surprisingly, it is now another $25 cheaper. Don’t worry if you bought one last month — Ikea offers a 90-day price protection if... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69WAZ)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is announcing a new AI-powered Copilot for its Microsoft 365 apps and services today, designed to assist people with generating documents, emails, presentations, and much more. The Copilot, powered by GPT-4 from OpenAI, will sit alongside Microsoft 365 apps much like an assistant (remember Clippy?), appearing in the sidebar as a chatbot that allows Office users to summon it to generate text in documents, create PowerPoint presentations based on Word documents, or even help use features like PivotTables in Excel. Microsoft’s Copilot leaked earlier today.“It works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use everyday: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more,” said Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro.... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#69WB0)
Venus beside a crescent Moon on July 15th, 2018. | Image: NASA / Bill Dunford We’ve been getting fooled by photos of the night sky for years; now, tech is making it even easier. Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69WB1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition is at the messy stage. After recruiting Nvidia, Nintendo, and two other cloud gaming companies to help convince regulators to approve its $68.7 billion deal, Microsoft is now criticizing the UK’s Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) math calculations.The CMA published a financial model that calculated Microsoft could turn a profit by withholding Call of Duty from PlayStation to draw former Sony fans to Xbox, basing its calculations on profits and losses from Xbox hardware, subscriptions, and games over a period of five years.Microsoft argues that the CMA’s financial modeling is flawed. The CMA’s model compares gains on a five-year basis to losses on just a one-year basis, and... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#69WB2)
Image: Bethesda Redfall, Arkane Austin’s co-op vampire shooter, has a new story trailer that gets to the heart of just what happened to Redfall, Massachusetts. Apparently, some bloodsucking scientists at the mysterious Aevum Therapeutics did a bit of medical malpractice and accidentally (or purposely) summoned ancient vampire gods in their quest to attain immortality. As a result, Redfall got flipped turned upside down by the ravenous gods, and it’s up to our four heroes to slay the gods and save the city.The trailer starts with a voiceover of a woman explaining how her blood was supposed to be the cure for everything. If that sounds familiar, maybe Redfall’s trying to capture the waning energies of The Last of Us season finale.It won’t be too long... Continue reading…
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by Nilay Patel on (#69WB3)
Illustration: Alex Parkin / The Verge CEO James Daunt explains how Barnes & Noble is different than Amazon. Continue reading…
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by David Pierce on (#69WB4)
Image: David Pierce / Camo I have tried every webcam solution you can imagine. Built-in webcam: mushy, blurry mess practically no matter what device you’re using. Cheap webcam from Logitech: slightly better, but basically the same. Fancy webcam from Opal: looks great, infuriatingly finicky. DSLR on a tripod: looks even better, often even more finicky. More recently, I’ve settled on using Apple’s Continuity Camera, which lets you use your iPhone as a webcam. It works great! So long as you have a way to prop up the camera just so and can deal with the not-so-occasional moments where the camera just doesn’t appear in Google Meet’s settings.But I’m here to tell you there’s a solution, or at least a salve, for all our webcam problems. It’s called Camo, and it’s an app... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69WB5)
Leaked images of what could be the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds. | Image: The Walkman Blog Sony could be on the cusp of announcing a successor to the excellent WF-1000XM4 true wireless earbuds, if a series of leaked images published by The Walkman Blog are any indication. The new earbuds will reportedly be called the WF-1000XM5, which shouldn’t be confused with the over-ear WH-1000XM5 headphones Sony released last year. The Walkman Blog has a pretty good track record with these kinds of leaks given it published similar photos of the XM4 earbuds prior to their announcement in 2021.Although it’s great to see evidence of a potential successor to the best true wireless earbuds available today, the images themselves suggest any changes could be minimal. The Walkman Blog notes that the earbuds seem to be more compact overall, with... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#69W61)
Image: TikTok TikTok is adding a way for users to “refresh” For You page content when they want to switch up their feed. In February, the company previously said it was testing the feature. Now, the Refresh button is set to roll out to users globally over the coming weeks.When users turn on the reset feature, the recommendations algorithm will revert back as if they just signed up for TikTok. As the user watches and interacts with content, the algorithm will begin to serve up recommendations based on the user’s actions after hitting Refresh.The app’s closely guarded recommendations system takes in user signals like watch time, comments, and likes to suggest related content. TikTok says users may want to reset their feed if they lose interest in the... Continue reading…
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by Monica Chin on (#69W5Z)
I love the laptop, but I don’t love what it’s packaged with. Continue reading…