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by Wes Davis on (#6KYMW)
Photo: David Pierce / The Verge Thanks to the latest software update for the Meta Quest 3, Meta's newest headset now has the lying down mode that came to the Quest 2 and Pro headsets last month. A Meta community post says the update began rolling out to the Quest headsets on Monday.To try it out, go to Settings > Experimental and toggle Use Apps While Lying Down. This should be a nice feature for when you just want to get prone and watch a movie - something the much more expensive Apple Vision Pro could do at launch. But it's also a boon for those who have health problems and aren't able to stay upright for long periods of time while using their Quest device. The feature was in the v53 software beta last year but was removed before the update rolled out.In addition... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-11-04 19:19 |
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by Tom Warren on (#6KYMX)
Illustration: The Verge Google is making its own custom Arm-based CPU to support its AI work in data centers and introducing a more powerful version of its Tensor Processing Units (TPU) AI chips. Google's new Arm-based CPU, dubbed Axion, will be used to support Google's AI workloads before it rolls out to business customers of Google Cloud later this year."The Axion chips are already powering YouTube ads, the Google Earth Engine, and other Google services. We're making it easy for customers to bring their existing workloads to Arm," says Mark Lohmeyer, Google Cloud's vice president and general manager of compute and machine learning infrastructure, in a statement to Reuters. Axion is built on open foundations but customers using Arm anywhere can easily... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6KYMY)
Image: The Verge A few weeks ago, it looked like the US government was on a fast track to banning TikTok. A committee in the House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would see the app either banned or sold, before the broader House passed the same bill in sweeping fashion, and even President Joe Biden said he'd sign the bill if it hit his desk. Then, the momentum just... stopped. The bill is in limbo and TikTok is still here, for now, while the debate rages over what should happen to the massively popular platform.In the meantime, the government filed a landmark antitrust case against Apple, accusing it of illegal monopolistic behavior in everything from digital wallets to messaging to... super apps. It's a broad, complex... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KYMZ)
The DJI RS 4 (pictured) starts at $549. | Image: DJI It's been 10 years since DJI introduced its Ronin series of cameras and stabilization accessories, and the company is marking the occasion with two new camera gimbals, targeting both independent video creators and professional studios.The DJI RS 4 is the smaller of the two gimbals. It weighs 3.1 pounds (1.4kg) and is capable of supporting camera systems up to 6.6 pounds (3kg), just like its predecessor, the RS 3. Some improvements over the previous model include upgraded axis locks that provide improved stability when shooting vertically, a new joystick mode switch for jumping between joystick controls for zoom or gimbal, and an additional 8.5mm on the tilt axis that gives it more space to accommodate camera accessories.The OLED... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6KYHY)
Illustration: The Verge Google's update to Gemini 1.5 Pro gives the model ears. The model can now listen to uploaded audio files and churn out information from things like earnings calls or audio from videos without the need to refer to a written transcript.During its Google Next event, Google also announced it'll make Gemini 1.5 Pro available to the public for the first time through its platform to build AI applications, Vertex AI. Gemini 1.5 Pro was first announced in February.This new version of Gemini Pro, which is supposed to be the middle-weight model of the Gemini family, already surpasses the biggest and most powerful model, Gemini Ultra, in performance. Gemini 1.5 Pro can understand complicated instructions and eliminates the need to fine-tune... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6KYHX)
In Vids, you can either make a video or ask the AI to make one for you. | Image: Google For decades, work has revolved around documents, spreadsheets, and slide decks. Word, Excel, PowerPoint; Pages, Numbers, Keynote; Docs, Sheets, Slides. Now Google is proposing to add another to that triumvirate: an app called Vids that aims to help companies and consumers make collaborative, shareable video more easily than ever.Google Vids is very much not an app for making beautiful movies... or even not-that-beautiful movies. It's meant more for the sorts of things people do at work: make a pitch, update the team, explain a complicated concept. The main goal is to make everything as easy as possible, says Kristina Behr, Google's VP of product management for the Workspace collaboration apps. The ethos that we have is, if you can make a... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6KYHZ)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Owners of Intel's latest 13th and 14th Gen Core i9 desktop processors have been noticing an increase in game crashes in recent months. It's happening in games like The Finals, Fortnite, and Tekken 8, and has even led Epic Games to issue a support notice to encourage Intel Core i9 13900K and 14900K owners to adjust BIOS settings.Now, Intel says it's investigating the reports. Intel is aware of problems that occur when executing certain tasks on 13th and 14th generation core processors for desktop PCs, and is analyzing them with major affiliates," says an Intel spokesperson in a statement to ZDNet Korea.The crashes vary in severity depending on the game, with some titles producing an out of memory" error, others simply exiting out to... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KYE8)
The Logitech G Pro X 60 Lightspeed offers plentiful features in a compact form factor. | Image: Logitech Logitech has announced the Pro X 60 Lightspeed, the first wireless gaming keyboard from the company to come in a compact 60 percent format. Available through the gaming-focused Logitech G sub-brand, the keyboard is available now for $179 in a choice of two GX optical switch types (tactile or linear) and three colors (black, white, or pink).Positioned as a compact follow-up to Logitech's G Pro X TKL Lightspeed, the Pro X 60 includes many of the same features. Users get three connectivity options: wired, using the included six-foot USB-C to USB-C charging cable, or wireless via Bluetooth or Logitch's Lightspeed dongle, with the latter providing a polling rate of 1000Hz.One key difference is that, unlike the Pro X TKL, the Pro X 60 isn't... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6KY9V)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk admitted that his posts on the platform formerly known as Twitter may have financially harmed the company in the long run, in a March 27th deposition made public on Monday by The Huffington Post. The billionaire also admitted to have a limited understanding" of the lawsuit for which he was being deposed.The 22-year old Ben Brody sued Musk for defamation last fall, alleging that Musk pushed a conspiracy theory that falsely identified Brody as being involved in a fight between two far-right groups in Oregon. Musk's attorney filed multiple requests to keep the transcript of his nearly two-hour testimony confidential, but they were denied by the judge.At one point, Musk is asked by Brody's attorney, Mark Bankston, about his... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KY8M)
Image: Apple This morning, remembering I'd forgotten to order eclipse glasses, I wondered out loud: Would it be an absolutely awful idea to watch today's solar eclipse on the Apple Vision Pro? I'm extremely not a camera expert, but I seem to recall that pointing a camera at the sun is bad. However, online answers vary widely, so I put the question to The Verge's Emmy-winning senior video producer Becca Farsace.Her answer was that the Vision Pro is expensive; it has a lot of cameras; and it isn't worth the risk. She added: Wes, you are a free soul! you can do whatever you please, but if I saw this on the internet I would be so mad that someone who spent that much money was out there doing this."She's right; I am a free soul! Challenge accepted,... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6KY7B)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This week, Tesla was scheduled to appear in court to defend its Autopilot system against a claim of wrongful death - but it looks like the company will pay the family of Apple engineer Wei Walter" Huang instead.Court documents show that Tesla is trying to seal the amount of a potential settlement payment to the Huang family. While it's not clear how much the company might be offering or what other terms the settlement includes, lawyers for Tesla state that both parties have already agreed to the settlement and want it to be confidential.You can read that document below; The Washington Post and Bloomberg reported the news earlier. Lawyers for the Huang family didn't immediately respond to our email.The settlement has not yet been... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6KY58)
These buds are a more comfy replacement for a chest strap. For once, I didn't have to worry about a fiddly fit getting in the way of heart rate tracking. Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6KY59)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is planning to release a new photo-sharing app that could take on Instagram. In a notification sent to users, TikTok says it's launching a new app for photo posts" called TikTok Notes, as reported earlier by TechCrunch.The notification says it will share existing and future public TikTok photo posts" to TikTok Notes while also giving users the ability to opt out. A new photo.tiktok.com URL (archived version) spotted by TechCrunch also briefly appeared online with a prompt to open a post in the TikTok Notes app. Judging by the image included on the site, it looks like you'll be able to write a caption alongside your photo, too.In a statement to TechCrunch, TikTok says it's exploring ways to empower our community to create... Continue reading...
by Emilia David on (#6KY5A)
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The Humane AI pin promises to give users a way to use generative AI in the physical world. You can clip the pin to your shirt, talk to it, and project answers from chatbots onto any surface, most often your palm. We know a little bit about what powers the tiny square pin, and thanks to a new report, we have a much better view of what goes on under the hood.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) included a photographic teardown of the AI pin in a new report. The photos show the clearest look so far into what comprises the Humane AI pin, as well as a close-up of the Snapdragon processor it uses.The FCC must certify devices that use wireless communications to ensure they follow regulations before they are released to the public.... Continue reading...
by Joanna Nelius on (#6KY35)
Image: Clock Work Tea Party Before today, I had never heard of Japanese thermal paste maker Clock Work Tea Party. But I'll never forget them thanks to this Tom's Hardware article; the company makes limited-edition scented thermal paste. It previously released apple- and strawberry-scented pastes, and on April 12th, it's releasing a new scent that supposedly smells like an Osmanthus plant in full bloom. All its scented pastes are part of the company's Ekusuri Mugurisu series, which also includes standard thermal paste.Osmanthus, also known as sweet osmanthus or tea olive, is a sweet-smelling, fragrant plant native to eastern Asia that blooms a seemingly endless amount of tiny flowers every spring (and sometimes the fall). It's part of the olive family, and the... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6KY36)
Google's smart home security system Nest Secure will stop working today, April 8th. | Image: Google Nest As we've warned you, on April 8th, Google is turning off support for its once-excellent Google Nest Secure home security system. This means that, as of today, your Nest Secure will no longer connect to the internet, and you won't be able to control it from the Nest app or receive notifications from the alarm system. It's basically a paperweight (albeit one that can be recycled).Google announced it was discontinuing Nest Secure in 2020, so you've had plenty of time to shop for an alternative. But if you've been putting off the giant pain of switching out a home security system until the last minute, that last minute is here.So, what are your options? When it announced it was killing Nest Secure, Google, a substantial investor in ADT,... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6KY0K)
Image: Android Headlines Consumer tech startup Nothing, which is expected to launch its newest earbuds later this month, will also debut a new color variant that evokes a certain yellow handheld, according to leaked renders shared by Android Headlines. Nothing previously announced that it would be dropping numbers in its naming strategy, so instead of the Ear 3, the successors to the Ear 2 will be simply called the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a).According to the images, both earbuds will include the same clear, square case as earlier models. The Ear and the more compact Ear (a) will be available in black and white, with the latter also available in a Playdate yellow variant that applies to the case and the earbuds themselves. Like previous Nothing buds, both... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6KY0M)
Photo by WWE / Getty Images AR effects have become a key part of entrances and other aspects of WWE TV over the last several years - far outlasting the company's experiments with VR. Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6KY0N)
View of the solar eclipse from the Dudley Observatory on Monday, August 21st, 2017, in Schenectady, New York. | Photo by Lori Van Buren / Albany Times Union via Getty Images You don't know what you've got until it's gone, and the total eclipse is a stark reminder of that adage when it comes to the key role solar energy currently plays in the US.More than 31 million people - nearly 10 percent of the population in the US - live in an area that will experience the total solar eclipse today. Millions more live near dirty power plants that could be tapped to make up for a loss of solar power.Grid managers have had to find backup sources of energy to cope with the eclipse. It shows us how far the nation has come in cleaning up its power grid - and what we're still in dire need of to complete that task.All 50 states will experience some degree of disruptionAll 50 states will experience some degree of... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6KY0P)
Roborock's entry-level robot vacuum is down to just $260, which is a new all-time low. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge If you're looking for a way to quickly wrap up your spring cleaning, robot vacuums make for great cleaning assistants that can help you do so with just the press of a button. And right now, one of our favorite models has plunged to a new all-time low, with both Amazon and Roborock selling the Roborock Q5 Pro for $259.99 ($170 off).The midrange Q5 Pro is a powerful cleaning machine with dual rubber roller brushes and 5,500Pa of suction power, which allows it to suck up pet hair, dirt, and debris from carpets exceptionally well without getting tangled up. It also comes with a removable mopping pad so you can clean up the finer dust the vacuum didn't catch, along with a large 770ml bin that prevents you from having to empty it every... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KY0Q)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images The rise of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) seems to have little to do with what's playing - and more like how it's playing. Metrics compiled by Bloomberg suggest that people really do just like to leave their TVs running in the background while working around the house or scrolling through social media.As shown in the below chart from Bloomberg, viewers are spending more time watching Tubi, the FAST service owned by Fox, than Max, Peacock, and Paramount Plus. Tubi's viewership has spiked within the past year, accounting for 1 percent of time spent watching TV in February 2023 to 1.7 percent in February 2024. It may even shoot past Disney Plus if the trend continues, Bloomberg reports. Image: Bloomberg ... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6KXXV)
Image: Getty Images A pair of bipartisan lawmakers released a new comprehensive privacy proposal on Sunday, the first sign in years that Congress could have a shot at breaking the long-standing impasse in passing such protections.Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) unveiled the American Privacy Rights Act, the most significant comprehensive data privacy proposal introduced in years. The draft bill would grant consumers new rights regarding how their information is used and moved around by large companies and data brokers while giving them the ability to sue when those rights are violated.The bill will still need to be introduced into both chambers and advanced... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6KXXW)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft says it's figured out how to improve error rates in quantum computing, bringing quantum computing closer to a commercial state.The company worked in collaboration with quantum computing hardware maker Quantinuum to improve the performance of the qubit - the very basic unit of quantum computing. Qubits work by holding two different phases at once (instead of just a one and a zero, it's both), but they aren't very stable, making it easy for them to lose data. Researchers can now create several logical qubits," or qubits that are more stable while holding these different states.Krysta Svore, vice president of advanced quantum development at Microsoft, told The Verge in an interview that because qubits are prone to errors,... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6KXXZ)
A wide range of Android devices will get offline finding, but the Pixel 8 gets a special feature. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge We had plenty of signs it was coming; now, Android's enhanced Find My Device network is officially here. It's rolling out starting today, and it uses a crowdsourced network to help Android device owners find their stuff - much like iOS's Find My network.With the update, you'll be able to find your phone even if it's offline by using help from other Android devices silently relaying your phone's approximate location. If your lost device is nearby, you can get visual cues in the Find My Device app as you move closer to it. And Google's Pixel 8 phones get a bonus feature, too: they can be located even if they're powered off.Starting in May, the network will also support new Bluetooth tracker tags from Chipolo and Pebblebee so you can... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6KXXY)
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google's Pixel 8 series phones can now be located even when they're powered down or after their batteries have run down. The convenient new capability was announced as part of today's rollout of the upgraded, more advanced Find My Device network. Google says this offline tracking is made possible by specialized Pixel hardware" in its latest two phones, and I've asked for more details on that.Hopefully, the company will extend this same functionality to the future Pixel Fold 2 and Pixel 9 / 9 Pro, though it's less certain if the budget-tier Pixel 8A (rumored to arrive at next month's I/O) would offer offline location finding or if it'll be a premium-only perk.Apple's recent iPhones can similarly be located when they're without a data... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6KXXX)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for AI PCs" next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks.After years of failed promises from Qualcomm, Microsoft believes the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors will finally offer the performance it has been looking for to push Windows on Arm much more aggressively. Microsoft is now betting big on Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors, which will ship in a variety of Windows laptops this year and Microsoft's latest consumer-focused Surface hardware.Microsoft... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6KXY0)
Image: Nintendo The release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons couldn't have been better timed, very specifically for me. The Christmas before, my partner bought me a Switch, and for about a decade before that, the only console I'd owned was a modded Wii because I'd sold the roughly two dozen systems I'd collected in an effort to reset my relationship with gaming.But there was also the fact that just days before, I was furloughed from my job at a brewery because of a pandemic and businesses throughout my city had shut down. I spent hundreds of hours paying Tom Nook his blood money, gaming the turnip market and carefully laying out my island, complete with a theme park and a Halloween land. My partner played, too, and after a short while, I bought her a... Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6KXY1)
Image: The Verge Nintendo is officially closing the chapter on the Wii U and 3DS. Today is the final day to play online on either console, and it's kind of making me want to dust off the Wii U just to play the original Splatoon online one last time.The Wii U was far from Nintendo's most popular console, but I still have a lot of great memories with the machine. It was the first console I used to play competitively. As someone who never really liked the pressure of playing with complete strangers in games like Halo or Call of Duty, the Wii U allowed me to break through that.It let me jump right into Mario Kart 8 with players from all over the world while raging behind my TV screen as the blue shell ruined my first-place finish. I didn't have to worry... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6KXTR)
Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Cloudflare What free speech, war zones, and Aristotle have to do with internet infrastructure. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KXTS)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Brazil has opened an investigation into Elon Musk over a potential obstruction of justice after the X owner said he reactivated accounts on the social media platform Brazil had ordered the platform to block.The inquiry opened by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sunday follows a string of heated interactions between Musk and the Brazilian government. On Saturday, X's global government affairs team announced that court decisions" had forced the platform to block certain popular accounts" in Brazil and would face daily fines (of up to $20,000, according to The Associated Press) if it failed to comply.We are prohibited from saying which court or judge issued the order, or on what grounds," said the affairs team.... Continue reading...
by Lauren Feiner on (#6KXTV)
Cath Virginia / The Verge A new proposal from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) would require videoconferencing and messaging tools used by the federal government to be able to communicate with each other, even if made by different companies. It would also enforce high security standards for government collaboration tools, including end-to-end encryption.The Secure and Interoperable Government Collaboration Technology Act, a discussion draft shared exclusively with The Verge, would make it so that a government user on Teams, for example, would be able to talk to a colleague at a different agency using Zoom. While the bill would only implement the requirement for tools used by the government, if passed, it could push the industry toward greater interoperability across their... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KXTT)
Kia's big electric SUV goes where very few EVs have gone before: into the third row. Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6KXQR)
Image: A24 It's shaping up to be a promising summer of horror. Last week, we got a first glimpse at Tilman Singer's Cuckoo, which comes out in August, and this week is starting off with the first trailer for Ti West's Maxxxine. The movie will round out a trilogy that kicked off in 2022 with the release of both X and its prequel Pearl; it hits theaters on July 5th.As the title implies, the new movie follows aspiring actress Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) as she attempts to make it big in Hollywood in 1985 following the gruesome events of X. Much like Pearl before her (also played by Goth), she seems willing to do anything to make it happen. But bad news: a mysterious killer known as the night stalker" is on the loose, complicating those plans.Despite... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6KRV7)
This composite image shows the progression of a total solar eclipse over Madras, Oregon, on Monday, August 21st, 2017. | Image: NASA / Aubrey Gemignani Things are going to get a little wacky on April 8th, when a total solar eclipse will darken skies over North America. The Moon will line up perfectly to block the face of the Sun. Temperatures will drop around 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Birdsong will change from daytime to nighttime tunes. And millions of people are expected to hit the road to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.The Verge has your guide for how to partake in the fun.What is happening during the eclipse? And what will I see?The disk of the Moon is in just the right location, just the right distance to completely cover the disk of the Sun. And when that happens, magic happens," NASA heliophysics research and analysis lead Patrick Koehn told The Verge in... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KXK7)
Spotify says it will continue working on its generative playlist feature over the coming months." | Image: Spotify / Verge After experimenting with AI playlist generation in its DJ feature last year, Spotify is now launching a beta tool that allows users to create a curated tracklist based on text descriptions. Its new AI Playlist beta is initially rolling out to Spotify Premium subscribers on mobile devices in the United Kingdom and Australia.Android and iOS users in those locations can find the AI Playlist generator by heading into Your Library" and tapping the +" button at the top-right of the page. After selecting the AI Playlist option from the drop-down menu, users can type in a prompt - such as music to read to on a cold, rainy day" - to get a playlist of 30 songs that match that vibe. The results can be tweaked using additional prompts like more... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KX8Z)
Donghua Jinlong's factory. | Image: Donghua Jinlong Chemical Co. TikTok isn't just useful for videos on robotic tape storage, Radiohead songs on step motors, and regretful congressmen. It's also a place where businesses can go viral by marketing their industrial products.Because of that, I now know that a company called Donghua Jinlong Chemical makes food-grade glycine which, as the company reminds us in its TikTok marketing video, is suitable as a flavor enhancer, sweetener, and nutritional supplement." Not only that, but it's also used in pickles, sweet sauces, soy sauce, vinegar, and juices to improve taste." And, bonus, it's a well-established brand in a large factory." If that doesn't get you ready to get some Donghua Jinlong food-grade glycine, I'm not sure there's anything I can do for... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6KX7Q)
Image: The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 33, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been writing about the end of Google Podcasts and the rise of AI gadgets, watching Girls5eva and rewatching Middleditch and Schwartz, reading about the ubiquity of AllTrails and Danny McBride's comedy compound, listening to Ezra Klein's podcasts about AI, seeing if 5K Runner can finally make me like running, and playing altogether too much Retro Goal.I also have for you a lot of people's smart thoughts on AI, a bunch of new AI tools in web browsers, a fun new newsletter about good stuff on the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KX7R)
Image: Wes Davis / The Verge Earlier this year, there were enough rumors about imminent new Apple products to make for a big spring event, but the company instead announced its new M3 MacBook Airs via press release - and new iPads haven't shown up since. Today, Mark Gurman writes in his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that the big spring iPad update, which includes new OLED iPad Pros, is due on May 6th - about 19 months since the last one.But why upgrade? My 2021 model still feels like new, and I know at least one person who says the same of the 2018 iPad Pro. Unless it does more than what's been rumored, which is precious little at this point in the grand scheme of things, it narrows who it's for to just the very specific subset of people who like iPadOS a lot... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KX52)
This massive, chonky Louis animatronic has almost as much range of movement as I do. | Image: Disney No matter your opinion on the current state of its animated movies, Disney is proving that it can still knock animatronics out of the park. This week, the entertainment giant gave us another early look at the new audio-animatronics being prepared for Tiana's Bayou Adventure - a retheming of the iconic (and controversial) Splash Mountain ride - and the demonstrations so far have been breathtakingly impressive.Recognizable characters from The Princess and the Frog (2009) have been brought to robotic life across various social media posts and Disney's new We Call It Imagineering" YouTube series, including Princess Tiana herself, Mama Odie, Charlotte La Bouff, Louis the Alligator, and a host of other swamp critters.
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWWV)
Illustration: The Verge Google is working on a feature that is so simple and so useful that I'm shocked it hasn't been part of our lives for a decade: a way to look up a phone number that just called you, right from your recent calls screen. X user AssembleDebug tipped off PiunikaWeb to a new Lookup" button in the beta version of the Google Phone app that, when tapped, brings up a Google Search with the number already entered for you.Although the Google Phone app is the default for Pixel phones, other Android owners can download it. The new Lookup button lives with other options, like Block" and History," that you see when you tap on a recent call in the Phone app. In an age where so much spam comes from spoofed phone numbers made to look like local calls,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWWW)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that AI companies were running into a wall when it comes to gathering high-quality training data. Today, The New York Times detailed some of the ways companies have dealt with this. Unsurprisingly, it involves doing things that fall into the hazy gray area of AI copyright law.The story opens on OpenAI which, desperate for training data, reportedly developed its Whisper audio transcription model to get over the hump, transcribing over a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4, its most advanced large language model. That's according to The New York Times, which reports that the company knew this was legally questionable but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6KWTH)
It's time, friends. | Photo by Alix Diaconis / The Verge Yesterday afternoon, I was playing Mario vs. Donkey Kong on my Vision Pro (using the visionOS testflight version of app developer Riley Testut's GBA4iOS) with an official Nintendo NES controller for the Switch. All the while, I was thinking about what a shame it was that Apple doesn't allow emulators on its App Store. I hadn't yet seen the news of Apple's surprise decision to allow emulators on its digital storefront worldwide.While we still don't know exactly how emulators will work on the iPhone, Apple's play here would put its App Store in a better place to compete with alternative app stores in the EU. Assuming that means you can actually play games from the consoles they emulate, it could be a huge deal for retro gaming fans. As... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6KWS8)
Google's first pair of noise-canceling earbuds are currently down to $139.99 in blue, white, and four other attractive shades. | Image: Google Happy Saturday, folks! Ever since they arrived on the scene in mid-2022, we've considered Google's noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro to be the wireless earbuds for Pixel phone owners - partly because of their great feature set and partly because they addressed the connectivity issues that plagued earlier models. The best part, however, is they're often on sale for far less than the MSRP. Right now, for instance, you can pick them up at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy for around $139 ($60 off), which matches their second-best price to date.In terms of features, Google's latest Pixel Buds are designed to compete with the best from Apple, Sony, and others. Their noise cancellation can't quite match the latest AirPods Pro or what Bose has... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6KWQV)
C'mon, how cute is this? | Image: Things Inc. The similarities between Rooms - a simple, charming game for iOS and the web where you design rooms - and Minecraft are easy to spot. Both share a blocky visual style and a design-your-own-retreat objective. But describing Rooms as a scaled-down Minecraft for people over the age of 12 doesn't give it enough credit. It's good, old-fashioned building in the vein of Lego, The Sims, and Animal Crossing. Rooms builds on the time-honored tradition with a dose of coziness and creativity that's limited only by your patience for arranging three-dimensional pixels.Rooms is free, at least for now; creator Jason Toff says there are no concrete monetization plans." The premise is as simple as it sounds: you start with an empty room and fill it up... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6KWPK)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The entire time I was playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - the second part of a planned trilogy of FF7 remakes - I couldn't stop thinking about replaying the first game from 1997. When the credits rolled on Rebirth, I had a difficult decision to make: how to play the original? There is no shortage of options. The game has been ported to most modern platforms, and I still have the original PlayStation discs (all three of them). But ultimately I decided on a beloved but oft-forgotten piece of video game hardware, the PlayStation Vita. And you know what? This little thing still absolutely rules.My rekindled love affair with the Vita started because of FF7, and I've been been making my through the game in fits and starts. But it has also... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6KWGZ)
Former employees of Best Buy's in-house tech support and repair team Geek Squad say there were mass layoffs this week, 404 Media reports. A former Geek Squad agent tells the outlet that they received an email on Tuesday about a work from home event the following day regarding a company change."Our leadership gave individual calls stating we were being let go for the simple fact that the company couldn't afford to pay us, more or less. It was extremely short notice and devastating," an ex-Geek Squad worker told 404 Media.Over at r/GeekSquad, recently laid-off Geek Squad agents have posted photos of their badges in solidarity and referred to themselves as belonging to a Geek Squad sleeper cell", writing that they're going sleeper"... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6KWH0)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge In a motion Meta filed on Friday to try and get the FTC's monopoly claims dismissed, it includes details of how much advertising revenue Instagram brought in over the last few years.At $32.4 billion for 2021 alone, that's even more than YouTube, which pulled in $28.8 billion in the same year. Business Insider previously pointed out the lead it has over Google's video unit, and mentions that YouTube gives up 55 percent of each advertising dollar it makes to content owners who upload videos while Instagram coughs up a lot less. Image: Composite of filing from District Court, District of Columbia, and Alphabet 2021 Annual Report (PDF) The gap is also there even if you look further back. In 2020 and 2019, Meta lists... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6KWEQ)
Apple's not too happy that Masimo's W1 watch didn't exist when Masimo filed its complaint. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There was no question that Apple would appeal when the International Trade Commission banned Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales last year. Well, if you've got some time, you can now read all 916 pages of Apple's appeal to the Federal Circuit.A quick recap: the Apple Watch ban centers around whether Apple infringed upon medical device-maker Masimo's pulse oximetry patents. The ITC sided with Masimo, concluding that Apple had infringed their patents, and that the infringement was harming domestic industry.The ITC is an agency similar to a court that often deals with imported articles" that may or may not violate intellectual property law. The word article" matters more than you'd think, since the statute that created the ITC... Continue reading...
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by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6KWER)
Anker's latest offering even doubles as a StandBy-ready stand. | Image: Anker The list of Qi2 smartphones expanded ever so slightly this week, with the iPhone 12 joining the ranks of Qi2-certified phones thanks to a recent update. That means we can safely say that all MagSafe-compatible iPhones - including the iPhone 13, 14, and 15 - are officially Qi2-ready. The timing couldn't be better, either, as Anker is currently offering 20 percent off its 6,600mAh MagGo Power Bank, bringing your total down to $55.99 (about $14 off) at Amazon and Anker's online storefront (the latter with code WSCPEW1AZM).We've long been fans of Anker's MagSafe-compatible power banks, but previous models could only charge newer iPhones at the slower 7.5W speed. Anker says the 15W charging coils in the Qi2 version can take an iPhone 15 Pro... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6KWES)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is loosening its App Store restrictions and opening the marketplace up to retro game emulators. In an update on Friday, Apple announced that game emulators can come to the App Store globally and offer downloadable games. Apple says those games must comply with all applicable laws," though - an indication it will ban apps that provide pirated titles.The move should allow the retro console emulators already on Android - at least those that are left - to bring their apps to the iPhone. Game emulators have long been banned from iOS, leaving iPhone owners in search of workarounds via jailbreaking or other workarounds. They're also one of the key reasons, so far, that iPhone owners in the European Union might check out third-party app... Continue reading...
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