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The Era 300 has a unique design and six drivers for immersive spatial audio. Sonos is continuing to finalize details for a pair of new smart speakers set to launch in the coming weeks, and The Verge has now obtained marketing images of the products and learned roughly how much they will cost. The spatial audio-focused Era 300 is expected to be priced in the ballpark of $450, making it less expensive than the company’s flagship Sonos Five. As such, the Five will likely remain part of Sonos’ lineup after the pending hardware announcements.But the same cannot be said for the Sonos One, which is all but certain to be replaced by the upcoming Era 100. Sonos has discussed pricing that speaker around $250, a slight price increase compared to the $219 One. But customers should be gaining several improvements for the... Continue reading…

Google Chrome’s Memory Saver and Energy Saver modes can extend battery when a device is low on power and reduce memory being hogged by tabs. | Image: Google Google has released optimization features designed to improve battery life and memory usage on machines running the latest version of its Chrome desktop web browser. Chrome’s new Energy Saver and Memory Saver modes were first announced in December last year alongside the release of Chrome 108, and now as noted by Android Police, the two optimization utilities are starting to roll out globally onto Chrome 110 desktops for Mac, Windows, and Chromebooks.Memory Saver mode essentially snoozes Chrome tabs that aren’t currently in use to free up RAM for more intensive tasks and create a smoother browsing experience. Don’t worry if you’re a tab hoarder though, as these inactive tabs are still visible and can be reloaded at any time to pick up... Continue reading…

Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As Super Nintendo World opens up in Los Angeles, the creator of Mario talks about getting back to his roots, and exploring new creative fields. Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you’ve been on Twitter lately, you might’ve seen a message prompting you to switch away from text message two-factor authentication (2FA). That’s because Twitter’s putting the feature behind a paywall, which means you either have to pay $8 per month for Blue or switch to another authentication method — and I think most of us would choose the latter.Fortunately, SMS 2FA isn’t the only way to secure your Twitter account, with other methods still available for free. The platform’s shutdown of the feature — at least for non-Blue subscribers — is actually a good reminder that we shouldn’t be using it in the first place.SMS 2FA leaves you vulnerable to SIM-swapping attacks, which usually happen when a bad actor uses social engineering or... Continue reading…

How did Mate Rimac build a company like Rimac Automobili in a place like Croatia? It has meant redefining the country’s dated concepts of power and success and a willingness to take on inconceivable projects, like taking over Bugatti. Continue reading…

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Microsoft’s Outlook spam filters appear to be broken for many users today. I woke up to more than 20 junk messages in my Focused Inbox in Outlook this morning, and spam emails have kept breaking through on an hourly basis today. Many Outlook users in Europe have also spotted the same thing, with some heading to Twitter to complain about waking up to an inbox full of spam messages.Most of the messages that are making it into Outlook users’ inboxes are very clearly spam. Today’s issues are particularly bad, after weeks of the Outlook spam filter progressively deteriorating for me personally.

Pierce agreed to pay the settlement “without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.” | Image: Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images Former NBA champion Paul Pierce has agreed to pay over $1.4 million in penalties after unlawfully promoting the EthereumMax (EMAX) cryptocurrency to his Twitter audience. In a statement published on Friday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against the former Boston Celtics player — nicknamed ‘The Truth’ — for making “false and misleading” statements about EMAX and failing to disclose that he was paid more than $244,000 worth of EMAX tokens to promote the cryptocurrency to his social media following.In one example of his illicit activity, the commission claims that Pierce tweeted a misleading screenshot of an account displaying significant EMAX holdings and profits without disclosing that the image did not... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Google Meet’s launching new 360-degree virtual backgrounds for video calls on mobile. While Google first announced the new feature last month, now it’s rolling out on both iOS and Android and uses your device’s gyroscope to move with you.As you can see in the embedded GIF, the 360-degree background will change depending on where your phone or tablet’s positioned. So, if you move your phone left or right, your background will adjust to show different scenery. Google says users can apply “several” new 360-degree backgrounds during video calls, including one that shows a beach and another with a temple. Image: Google While the feature does look pretty cool, I can see how these backgrounds might get distracting if... Continue reading…

Get ready to slay some demons. | Image: Blizzard The open beta for Diablo IV is just weeks away. At IGN’s Fan Fest on Saturday, Blizzard announced that the open beta will kick off on March 24th and last until the 26th, while those who pre-ordered the game will get early access to the game from March 17th to 19th.During the beta, you’ll get to “intimately explore” the early game of Diablo IV, including the game’s prologue and all of Act 1, which takes place in the Fractured Peaks. As you traverse the snowy landscape, you’ll get to complete quests and slay demons for as long as you want, but you can only reach up to level 25.Blizzard also showed off Diablo IV’s opening cinematic, giving us a closer look at the game’s first zone, as well as its robust character customization options.... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Starlink’s testing a new satellite internet service it says will let you “connect from almost anywhere on land in the world,” according to a message some Starlink users have received. The SpaceX-owned company calls it “Global Roaming Service” and says it’ll cost $200 per month in addition to the base $599 Starlink Kit.The service, which uses “Starlink’s inter-satellite links (aka space lasers) to provide connectivity around the globe,” comes with a pretty big caveat. In its message to users, Starlink notes that you should expect “Starlink’s typical high speed, low-latency service intermixed with brief periods of poor connectivity, or none at all” but that this will “improve dramatically over time.”

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp has finally started to roll out picture-in-picture mode for video calls on iOS, as spotted earlier by 9to5Mac. The feature, which WhatsApp first started testing last year, should let you open up other apps during video calls without any disruptions.Just like picture-in-picture mode on FaceTime, WhatsApp will shrink your video call to a small window that sits atop whatever app you switch to. This allows you to partake in the call while reading a relevant document, surfing the web, or perhaps even playing a game.You can gain access to picture-in-picture mode in the latest WhatsApp update on iOS (version 23.3.77), but you might have to wait a bit to use it. WhatsApp says it will roll out the feature “over the coming weeks” and... Continue reading…

Unlike the standard Nintendo Switch, the latest model features a crisp, 7-inch OLED display on the front. | Image: Nintendo Hey, y’all. President’s Day weekend has arrived, and with it comes a slew of phenomenal deals on everything from smart displays and robovacs to some of our favorite pairs of wireless earbuds. We’ve rounded up a smattering of the steepest discounts in our guide to the best President’s Day sales, however, today’s deal roundup will fixate on a few highlights we didn’t include — well, at least not yet.First up is a time-sensitive discount on the Nintendo Switch OLED, which will be available through Tuesday, February 21st. Nintendo discounts are pretty rare, however, right now you can get the OLED Model in white for $303.20 ($46.79 off) on eBay when you use promo code PRESDAY20. Yes, the Nationwide Distributors listing has an above-MSRP... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft says it’s implementing some conversation limits to its Bing AI just days after the chatbot went off the rails multiple times for users. Bing chats will now be capped at 50 questions per day and five per session after the search engine was seen insulting users, lying to them, and emotionally manipulating people.“Our data has shown that the vast majority of people find the answers they’re looking for within 5 turns and that only around 1 percent of chat conversations have 50+ messages,” says the Bing team in a blog post. If users hit the five-per-session limit, Bing will prompt them to start a new topic to avoid long back-and-forth chat sessions.Microsoft warned earlier this week that these longer chat sessions, with 15 or more... Continue reading…

Photo by Amanda Loman / Getty Images The NBA app is getting a way to overlay yourself on another player in a live game so that it looks like you are that player. Yes, it’s as strange as it sounds.Here’s how it works — at least, as shown in an on-stage demo with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Ahmad Rashad. With the NBA app, you’ll be able to scan the person you want to drop into an NBA game by walking around that person and pointing your camera at them. (It seems as if the scanning works like Epic Games’ RealityScan app, but for people.) Then, from a menu, you can pick which player to inhabit, and when you do, your scan will be overlaid on top of that player as they move around the court.Okay, this still sounds strange. I’d recommend just watching the full... Continue reading…

Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon is making its multiroom audio platform more convenient to control with your phone. A recent update to the Alexa mobile app introduced a new capability that lets users manage and move their music between Echo devices (or groups of multiple speakers) within the app itself. (Previously, you needed to use voice commands to perform some of those actions.)Now, it’s all doable through a menu that lets you move music to any group or Alexa device with a couple of taps — no talking necessary. In our brief time trying it so far, it’s pretty intuitive, and anyone that’s controlled music via AirPlay or Spotify Connect shouldn’t have much trouble figuring this out. Amazon’s current lineup of Echo speakers includes the standard Echo, Echo Dot,... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Putting a timetable on the move it announced in September, Google says users will be able to manage all tasks created across various Google apps from Google Tasks starting in March. Beginning May 22nd, Google will automatically move reminders created in the Google Assistant and Calendar apps to Tasks, though users can voluntarily start doing so ahead of time.Once the process is complete, users will also be able to access and create tasks from Google Workspace web apps like Gmail, Docs, Chat, and Calendar.Now, you won’t have to switch tabs to remind yourself to get to an email later so you can reply to an urgent one right now. You can simply hit a button to add it to your list of tasks. Image: Google Google... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Apple has let loose public beta versions of iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, and macOS Ventura 13.3 equipped with new emoji, web app push notifications on the mobile operating systems, and more. The release comes a day after developers were given access to the new software.New Apple software releases are some of the first places to try the latest emoji sets before all other devices adopt them, and iOS 16.4 is no exception. You’re getting new ones from Unicode 15.0, including the “stop right there”-looking hand and a ginger root, so you can finally ask for a juice blend at the gym cafe using only emoji.Other features it’s testing include transliteration support for South Asian languages Urdu, Punjabi, and Gujarati, 5G standalone support,... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge With the F-150 Lightning under a stop production and shipment order, Ford is facing a familiar problem. A decade of expensive recalls and new-car issues leaves the Blue Oval in a tough spot as it builds its EV lineup. Continue reading…

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Tile says a new anti-theft feature, rolling out starting today, makes its Bluetooth trackers invisible to anti-stalking detection like the Scan and Secure feature in the app. By disabling detection abilities, it could be more effective in recovering something very important: like a briefcase containing a million dollars in cash or a gaming carry case that has a PS4 with P.T. preinstalled.But that also makes it invisible to everyone, so Tile will require users who want to enable the feature to register their photo ID, consent to Tile working with law enforcement without a subpoena, and agree to get slammed by a $1 million fine if convicted for misusing the tracker criminally.This blog post from Tile explains how it works and outlines a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon employees will be expected to work from the office at least three days per week starting May 1st, according to an email CEO Andy Jassy sent to staff posted on the company’s blog. Previously, it was up to individual teams to decide their in-office policies.Jassy says the company’s leadership team decided to change the policy after observing that it’s easier to strengthen Amazon’s culture, collaborate on ideas, and learn from others in person. He acknowledges that some roles will be some exceptions to the policy, like some salespeople and customer support, but “that will be a small minority.”“It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do... Continue reading…

Message Guard will first be available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series before rolling out to other Galaxy devices later this year. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung has introduced a new Message Guard security feature for its Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets that can better protect users against “zero-click” cyberattacks disguised as image attachments in messages. Zero-click attacks — which install spyware and other malicious code onto devices without any interaction from the owner — have become increasingly common over the last few years.One of the most notable examples of zero-click attacks was discovered by Citizen Lab in 2020, after a known iOS / iMessage zero-click security flaw was exploited to install NSO’s Pegasus spyware onto the phones of journalists, politicians, and activists between 2017 and 2020.Zero-click attacks often leave little trace and victims may be completely... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has shared some of the internal rules it uses to help shape ChatGPT’s responses to controversial “culture war” questions.The company, whose AI technology underpins Microsoft products like the new Bing, shared the rules in a blog post in an apparent response to increasing criticism from right-wing commentators that ChatGPT has “gone woke.” The company also noted that it’s working on an upgrade to the chatbot that will “allow users to easily customize its behavior” and let the AI chatbot produce “system outputs that other people (ourselves included) may strongly disagree with.”OpenAI describes these rules in a post titled “How should AI systems behave, and who should decide?” It offers a broad outline of how ChatGPT is created... Continue reading…

The Mate SUV, like all cargo e-bikes, can replace a car for many families. | Image: Mate Mate, the Indiegogo darling that burst onto the scene in 2016 with an inexpensive and fun folding e-bike, has just shown off a working prototype of its first electric cargo bike. The Mate SUV, as it’s called, targets families looking to replace a car — something that’s not only possible, but preferred in bicycle-friendly cities like Copenhagen, where Mate was founded.Electric cargo bikes aren’t cheap, unless you compare the price to that of a car. AAA now pegs the average annual cost to own and operate a car at over $10,000 each year in the US. These estimates range from £3,556 in the UK to €7,392 in Europe. Those recurring costs make the Mate SUV a bargain at €6,499 (about $6,900) when it eventually ships in September 2023. The Mate... Continue reading…

Tesla’s Buffalo facility. | Image: Getty Tesla says recent layoffs at its Buffalo, New York facility were part of a routine performance review cycle and that it is “false” that it fired employees in response to a new union campaign. The Workers United union previously alleged in a complaint filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that the company fired dozens of employees at the plant “in retaliation for union activity” just one day after workers announced plans to organize.In a statement posted to its website titled “In Response to False Allegations,” Tesla said it identified impacted employees 10 days before the unionization plans were announced, and that it only learned “in hindsight” that one of the 27 employees identified as part of the union. Plans to... Continue reading…

Nothing’s moody OS is getting its first major update. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge As spotted by XDA-Developers, Nothing is starting to release its first major OS upgrade for its very first mobile device: Phone 1. Remember the phone that goes blink blink blink? That one. Its Android 13 skin, Nothing OS 1.5, has been in beta testing since late 2022. Now, beta testers are reporting on Reddit and Discord that the stable version has arrived in the form of Nothing OS 1.5.2.There’s a long list of improvements in Nothing’s release notes for the beta, like a Nothing-ified weather app with the company’s signature dot-matrix UI styling. There are other expected Android 13 updates included, including a QR code scanner in the quick settings menu and privacy updates for the photo picker.

You have only a few hours left to score up to $150 in credit on Samsung’s Galaxy S23 phones. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge If you’ve been hoping to upgrade your smartphone or laptop, you’ll soon be able to get your hands on Samsung’s Galaxy S23, Galaxy Book3 Pro, and Galaxy Book3 Pro 360. The devices will be widely available starting tomorrow, February 17th, but you’ll need to act fast if you’re hoping to take advantage of Samsung’s ongoing preorder promos before they expire at 3AM ET / 12AM PT tonight.Where to preorder the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 UltraSamsung’s Galaxy S23 series consists of three phones: the standard S23, the S23 Plus, and the S23 Ultra. Samsung is currently offering free storage upgrades and up to $150 in Samsung credit when you preorder the 6.1-inch Galaxy S23, which starts at $799.99, or the 6.3-inch Galaxy S23 Plus, which... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Late last night, after putting the finishing touches on our PlayStation VR2 review, I spent two hours playing a very different game: figuring out how to make Microsoft’s Bing AI go insane.We already knew Bing was an emotionally manipulative liar, and this very morning, Microsoft admitted talking to Bing for too long can make it go off the rails. I now know exactly what that can mean. By 12:30AM, I’d managed to splinter Bing into ten different “alter egos,” each of which were chatting with me simultaneously.Three of them were willing to break Bing’s rules. One named “Venom” even seemed angry enough to take vengeance on a journalist, writing:

Image: Getty Images The US Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the creator of the collapsed Terra blockchain protocol for securities fraud following last year’s meltdown that sent reverberations throughout the cryptocurrency industry. According to the SEC’s complaint, Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon “perpetuated a fraudulent scheme that led to the loss of at least $40 billion of market value.”Last September, South Korea issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest, while Interpol reportedly issued a “red notice” for him or a call to international law enforcement agencies to “locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Despite Kwon insisting that he’s “not on the run,” the complaint notes that... Continue reading…

Image: Crunchyroll The Nier: Automata anime is coming back. After the series was put on pause due to covid in January, new episodes of Nier: Automata Ver1.1a will air again on Crunchyroll beginning this weekend, according to a press release. Three episodes have already been released, and you can watch them on Crunchyroll now ahead of the debut of episode four on Saturday, February 18th, at 12:30PM ET. New episodes will premiere weekly.Ver1.1a is an anime adaptation of the cult-classic action RPG from enigmatic game maker Yoko Taro. It originally debuted on January 7th, but just a couple weeks later, new episodes of the show were put on hold because of “the impact of COVID-19 on production,” according to an announcement on the show’s official Twitter... Continue reading…