by Nilay Patel on (#6PS6T)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Finally, a legal ruling on whether TikTok is a real search engine. (It's not.) Continue reading...
The Verge
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| Updated | 2026-04-16 13:03 |
by Wes Davis on (#6PS6V)
Cal Kestis returns to his last-gen roots soon. | Image: EA Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is officially available for preorder for the Xbox One and PS4 ahead of a September 17th launch, EA announced today. The game, which arrived on PC and current-gen consoles in April 2023, costs $49.99 on Xbox One and PS4, standard edition only - the deluxe version is still reserved for newer consoles and PCs.Owners of last-gen consoles may want to hold off on the Jedi: Fallen Order sequel for now, though. Although it's been generally liked by critics, the game has also been panned for performance issues, particularly the PC port. Things have improved on the Xbox and PS5 side, but players continue to complain about the PC version's performance.Still, early issues with the current console versions (and ongoing... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6PS6W)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge A federal judge has ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in the US. The market reality is that Google is the only real choice" as the default search engine, Judge Amit Mehta said in his decision, and he determined it had gotten that way unfairly. It's a ruling that could portend big changes for the company, but we yet don't know how big, and we might not for years.Mehta declared on Monday that Google was liable for violating antitrust laws, vindicating the Department of Justice and a coalition of states that sued the tech giant in 2020. The next step - deciding on remedies for its illegal conduct - begins next month. Both parties must submit a proposed schedule for remedy proceedings by September 4th and then appear at a status... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6PS6X)
Image: Disney The next phase of Disney's plan to make its streaming services profitable is another round of price hikes served up with more news and new playlist features.Disney is rolling out a new wave of price hikes that its subscribers will probably be none too pleased to be hit with. Beginning October 17th, individual monthly and annual plans for Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN are all going up. Monthly subscriptions to Disney Plus with ads will jump from $8 a month to $10. The monthly Disney Plus ad-free tier will increase from $14 to $16, and annual ad-free plans will rise from their previous $140 price point to $160. Hulu's ad-supported tier will rise from $8 / month and $80 / year to $10 / month and $100 / year, and monthly... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6PS6Y)
Photo by Andrej Sokolow / picture alliance via Getty Images Waymo is spreading out a little more in the two major cities in which it operates.The robotaxi company announced today that it was growing its service areas in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, as the company seeks to attract more customers to its burgeoning business.In San Francisco, Waymo's service area is extending south of the city into the San Francisco Peninsula to cover Daly City, Broadmoor, and Colma - a total of 10 additional square miles for a total of 55 square miles. The company recently got rid of its waiting list in San Francisco, opening up its 24/7 robotaxi service to anyone within the service area who has downloaded the Waymo One app. In Los Angeles, where the company's waitlist is still in effect,... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6PS3A)
Image: The Verge X is suing a group of major advertisers over accusations that they held an illegal boycott" against the platform formerly known as Twitter. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, X claims Unilever, Mars, CVS, Orsted, and dozens of other brands conspired to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" through a World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) industry initiative.To join the WFA's initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), companies must agree to withhold advertising from social platforms that aren't compliant with the organization's safety standards. X alleges GARM organized an advertiser boycott of Twitter" to coerce the company into following the initiative's safety standards. The lawsuit... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6PS3B)
Image: The Verge Microsoft has responded to Delta Air Lines' criticism of Windows and CrowdStrike after the giant IT outage last month. Delta CEO Ed Bastian wants compensation from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft for the estimated $500 million Delta lost due to the outage. Now, Microsoft says Delta refused its free help on multiple occasions and even ignored an email from CEO Satya Nadella to Bastian.Microsoft empathizes with Delta and its customers regarding the impact of the CrowdStrike incident. But your letter and Delta's public comments are incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation," says Mark Cheffo, co-chair of Dechert's global litigation practice, in a letter on behalf of Microsoft to Delta's lawyers.The... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6PS3C)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Sonos Ace headphones launched with a very convenient trick called TV Audio Swap, which lets you send audio that would normally come out of the Sonos Arc soundbar to the headphones instead. Two months later, the company is enabling TV Audio Swap on its more affordable soundbars - and it's no longer limited to customers with Apple devices.The feature now works on both generations of the Sonos Beam as well as the entry-level Sonos Ray. Until now, an iPhone or iPad was required to activate TV Audio Swap, but now Android devices can do so as well. The feature itself uses a direct Wi-Fi connection to send audio from the soundbar to the headphones, but you'll need the app for setup and to toggle certain settings. Photo by... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6PS3D)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google is done making Chromecasts. In a post on Tuesday, Google says it's ending production of Chromecast" after over a decade of selling the streaming dongles.Even though Chromecast devices will now be available while supplies last," Google says it will continue to push software and security updates to its newer devices without specifying which ones. The most recent update to the lineup was the Chromecast with Google TV released in 2022.But now, Google says technology has evolved dramatically" since the launch of the original Chromecast in 2013. We invested heavily in embedding Google Cast technology into millions of TV devices, including Android TV," Google writes. We are taking the next step in evolving how streaming TV devices... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6PS09)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election, as reported earlier by multiple news outlets including The New York Times. The news follows weeks of speculation during an accelerated campaign since President Joe Biden ended his candidacy and endorsed his VP for the role.The choice comes weeks before the Democratic National Convention and just ahead of a virtual roll call vote where Harris is expected to become the party's official nominee. Harris will appear in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her VP pick, Walz, later today.
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by David Pierce on (#6PS0A)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The Quibi story is both short and epic. In January 2020, company founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman were onstage at CES delivering an hour-long presentation on how they were about to upend the entertainment business. They'd developed new tech, signed up seemingly half the stars in Hollywood, and had raised more than a billion dollars to pull it off. By October, it was all over. Quibi was shutting down.On this episode of The Vergecast, we're once again trying out a couple of our favorite new show formats. First up is the rewatch show, which we're calling Version History. We talk through the whole story of Quibi, from its early days as NewTV to its extremely ill-timed launch and ultimate demise. Is there a world in... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6PS0B)
Hand required to add cream. | Image: Keurig I just used Keurig's new hybrid K-Brew and Chill machine that can quickly cool down freshly brewed pod coffee (and fruity refreshers") to a temperature as cold as, if not colder," than an iced coffee and sweet drinks you could order at a local coffee shop. For me, there was something unexpectedly satisfying about making an instantly cold drink from a standalone and solidly built machine - even if the cup of La Colombe medium roast it made tasted disappointingly burnt.I'm not sure why I was expecting a better taste - it's not like the machine uses some premium new coffee. It starts with just your run-of-the-mill K-Cup and does not support any of the company's fancy K-Carafe, K-Mug, Vue, or Rivo pods. Like many models, you pop one into... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6PRXE)
Image: Google Google isn't waiting for its upcoming hardware event to announce the Chromecast's successor. Alongside the new, sleeker Nest Thermostat, today, the company is introducing the Google TV Streamer, a $99.99 set-top box that improves upon the Chromecast with Google TV with substantially better performance, Thread and Matter integration, and useful new features like a remote finder.Yes, there are some Gemini AI tricks thrown in, and with other hardware upgrades like a built-in ethernet jack, the Google TV Streamer seems poised to be a much better entertainment hub than its predecessor. The only downside? Since it's not a dongle anymore, you'll have to provide your own HDMI cable when it ships on September 24th.The sloped, low-profile... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6PRXD)
Google Home is getting a Gemini intelligence upgrade. | Image: Google Nest While splashy chatbots may get all the attention, generative AI has real potential to make the smart home simpler and more accessible. Amazon has already announced its plans for a smarter Alexa to power your home. Now, it's Google's turn to promise that it can produce a better, smarter, more helpful Google Assistant.Ahead of its fall hardware event next week, Google announced three new Gemini intelligence-powered experiences it plans to bring to its Google Home smart home platform later this year. There's a new camera intelligence feature that generates descriptive captions for video footage from Nest cameras, a natural language input for creating Google Home routines, and a smarter Google Assistant for Nest smart speakers and displays... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6PRXC)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Nvidia is on a mission to eliminate its legacy Control Panel and GeForce Experience apps and combine them into a single new Nvidia app. That effort started earlier this year, and a new beta update today adds display settings, RTX Video Super Resolution, RTX Video HDR sliders, and more features.The new displays section lets you adjust resolution, refresh rate, and orientation controls for connected monitors or TVs. The controls are similar to what exists inside the Settings section of Windows 10 or 11, but this now lets you adjust all your GPU settings in a single location. Image: Nvidia The new display section of the Nvidia app. Image: Nvidia Nvidia's statistics overlay is also getting... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6PRXB)
The Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) is a complete redesign of the iconic smart thermostat that first launched in 2011. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge This week, almost a decade after Google last updated its flagship thermostat, the company has announced the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen). The thermostat has an all-new design, several new features, and support for the smart home standard Matter. So, yes, it now works natively with Apple Home.At $279.99, the fourth generation of the Nest Learning Thermostat is more expensive than the third-gen Nest, which launched in 2015. However, it now comes with a new Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd gen) to monitor temperature in other rooms. Both are available for preorder now and will ship on August 20th - in the US and Canada only. Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge The Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) is the biggest... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6PRXF)
Image: CNET Red Ventures is selling CNET to Ziff Davis, the digital media and internet company that owns other notable tech publications like Mashable, IGN, and Lifehacker. Ziff Davis' chief executive, Vivek Shah, confirmed the acquisition to The New York Times on Tuesday.Ironically, back in 2000, it was CNET Networks Inc. that paid $1.6 billion to acquire the then-tech-publishing-behemoth Ziff-Davis Inc. and its online services company, ZDNet. So much has happened in the last two decades in the form of divestments and realignments that today's inverted purchase isn't as ouroboric as it might seem. In 2020, Red Ventures acquired CNET along with a few other smaller properties for $500 million.While an official figure hasn't been announced, Ziff... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6PRVB)
Image: HBO / Warner Bros. Discovery House of the Dragon has just concluded its second season, but we now know there are two more to look forward to. As reported by Variety, House of the Dragon showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal confirmed during a press event that the series would have four seasons in total, with the third expected to go into production in earlyish 2025."This is the first time that HBO has confirmed how many seasons the Game of Thrones prequel will have, but the network hasn't revealed how many episodes remain. I haven't had discussions with HBO about it," Condal said when asked whether Season 3 will have eight episodes, matching that of its second season. I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, will... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6PRSQ)
Image: MacRumors (YouTube) Not a day goes by without me getting frustrated at the state of the mobile web. I rarely use my iPhone to read news articles now because every time I do there's a cookie prompt obstructing what I want to read, or so many ads on a page that I can't even see the text anymore.Apple is clearly just as frustrated as I am, so it's added a Thanos snap animation to iOS 18 that wipes out annoying parts of websites.The new Distraction Control" feature showed up in Safari earlier this week in the fifth beta of iOS 18 and iPadOS18. It's designed to let you temporarily remove annoying and distracting elements from a mobile website, including cookie prompts, ads, those infuriating autoplay videos that follow you around while you scroll a site, and... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6PD49)
Image: Pamela Guest for The Verge Equipping a student for school, especially campus life, takes more than some composition books and a few No. 2 pencils. Continue reading...
by Ash Parrish on (#6PRKA)
Trump and Ross stream from the interior of a Tesla Cybertruck, a gift from Ross to Trump. | Image: Kick / Adin Ross Donald Trump's presidential campaign took an interesting detour today as the former president appeared in a livestream hosted by streamer Adin Ross. The livestream was hosted on Kick and, at its peak, had over 580,000 viewers.Ross is a streamer known for courting controversy. At the height of his popularity on Twitch, he accumulated over 7 million followers. He's hosted influencer Andrew Tate, who is currently facing charges in Romania for rape and human trafficking. He was repeatedly banned from Twitch for using racial slurs, before being permanently banned last year after featuring a chat stream where users spammed racial and antisemitic slurs. Ross migrated to the alternative streaming site Kick, where continued his antics which... Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6PRHD)
The Ultra 2 is like a souped-up Apple Watch Series 9 with better battery life and durability. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It's possible Apple may release a slew of new wearables in the fall, but until then, the 49mm Apple Watch Ultra 2 remains the most capable smartwatch in Apple's arsenal. It's also the most expensive at $799, but right now, you can pick it up at Amazon with an Ocean Band, an Alpine Loop, or a Trail Loop for $699.99 ($99 off). That's not its lowest price to date - we've seen it fall to $642 in select configurations before - but the Ocean Band model rarely dips below $719, unlike the others.Powered by Apple's S9 SiP processor and second-gen ultra wideband chip, the Apple Ultra 2 allows for onboard Siri processing and Apple's new double tap feature, which lets you control the watch by tapping your index fingers and thumb together twice.... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6PRHE)
Polymetallic nodules rich in nickel, manganese, and cobalt that could be used for batteries. | Photo by Pallava Bagla / Corbis via Getty Images Scientists discovered dark oxygen' in the ocean's abyss, where companies want to mine battery metals. Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PRHF)
Illustration: The Verge Apple's latest developer betas launched last week with a handful of the generative AI features that were announced at WWDC and are headed to your iPhones, iPads, and Macs over the next several months. On Apple's computers, however, you can actually read the instructions programmed into the model supporting some of those Apple Intelligence features.They show up as prompts that precede anything you say to a chatbot by default, and we've seen them uncovered for AI tools like Microsoft Bing and DALL-E before. Now a member of the macOS 15.1 beta subreddit posted that they'd discovered the files containing those backend prompts. You can't alter any of the files, but they do give an early hint at how the sausage is made. In the... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6PRD6)
Illustration: The Verge Apple is adding a new feature to Safari called Distraction Control" that lets you remove distracting things like cookie preference pop-ups while you're browsing, MacRumors reports. The new feature is available with the fifth iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia developer betas that launched on Monday.You can get an idea of how Distraction Control works thanks to a video from MacRumors. From a menu, you can choose an option to Hide Distracting Items" and then select items you want to hide from the page you're looking at. When items are hidden, they dissipate away with a very slick animation.In a pop-up shown in the video, Apple notes that hiding distracting items will not permanently remove ads and other content that updates... Continue reading...
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by Lauren Feiner on (#6PRD7)
Image: Laura Normand / The Verge A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," according to the court's ruling, which you can read in full at the bottom of this story. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act."Judge Amit Mehta's decision represents a major victory for the Department of Justice, which accused Google of illegally monopolizing the online search market. Still, Mehta did not agree with all of the government's arguments. For example, he rejected the claim that Google has... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6PRAJ)
Photo by Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images Actors have once again picked up their picket signs. But this time, members of the Screen Actors Guild are striking against the video game industry after negotiations for a new contract governing interactive media and video games fell through. The guild began striking on Friday, July 26th, preventing over 160,000 SAG-AFTRA members from taking new video game projects and impeding games already in development from the biggest publishers to the smallest indie studios.Negotiations broke down due to disagreements over worker protections around AI. The actors union, SAG-AFTRA, negotiates the terms of the interactive media agreement, or IMA, with a bargaining committee of video game publishers, including Activision, Take-Two, Insomniac Games,... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6PRAK)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft made it clear earlier this year that it was planning to make security its top priority, following years of security issues and mounting criticisms. Starting today, the software giant is now tying its security efforts to employee performance reviews.Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's chief people officer, has outlined what the company expects of employees in an internal memo obtained by The Verge. Everyone at Microsoft will have security as a Core Priority," says Hogan. When faced with a tradeoff, the answer is clear and simple: security above all else."A lack of security focus for Microsoft employees could impact promotions, merit-based salary increases, and bonuses. Delivering impact for the Security Core Priority will be a key... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PR6S)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Folks are beginning to receive checks from Apple to compensate them for having to spend money when their MacBook butterfly keyboards malfunctioned. As the payments go out, Apple is closing the book on an issue with stuck or otherwise unusable keys that plagued owners of Mac laptops made between 2015 and 2019.The checks are the result of Apple's $50 million settlement of a class action lawsuit over the keyboards in 2022. People who filed during the claims window starting late last year were eligible for payments of $50, $125, or $395, depending on how extensive or frequent the repairs were. A court in June ordered Apple to begin paying out. Verge reporter and smart home expert Jennifer Pattison Tuohy received one for the maximum amount,... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PR6T)
Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge Lenovo seems to have unintentionally bolstered rumors of a new Legion Go PC gaming handheld with details published on its own product page in a since-removed FAQ spotted by VideoCardz. The page hinted at a console with a 7-inch or 8-inch display," an HDMI port, and dual fans - things the original Legion Go lacks - before it was apparently removed.You can still find the FAQ on The Internet Archive, where I found snapshots as far back as May 4th, 2024, and as recently as yesterday. In addition to those details, Windows Central suggests that the console will be named the Lenovo Legion Go S," not Lite," as has been rumored until now.The current version of the Legion Go features an 8.8-inch screen and a single fan and outputs video... Continue reading...
by Nilay Patel on (#6PR6V)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Here at The Verge, we've been doing our best not to uncritically publish every random statement and half-cocked idea that comes out of former President Donald Trump's mouth for several years now. He just says stuff, especially about tech, and most of it doesn't come to anything.But last week, Trump casually mentioned to Fox's Maria Bartiromo that Google has to be careful" because they've been very irresponsible" and that he had a feeling Google is going to be close to shut down, because I don't think Congress is going to take it."In classic Trump fashion, he said this after noting that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had called him after the assassination attempt, and nobody called from Google." So it's tempting to put this down as... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6PR4E)
Image: Nintendo When The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is released on September 26th, it will be the first Zelda game in decades with the titular princess as the hero. Nintendo has released a new trailer highlighting some of the new powers she'll have and all the places she'll get to use them.Princess Zelda will have the whole of Hyrule to explore in Echoes of Wisdom. She'll traverse the harsh landscape of the Gerudo Desert, the calming waters of Jabul, the jungles of the Faron Wetlands, and the scorching lava floes of Eldin Volcano. And to get around the wide world of Hyrule, Zelda will be able to summon a trusty steed to her side, just like Link.Zelda's got a couple of new powers that will aid her in her quest to save Hyrule from dangerous... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6PR4F)
Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo by Booking Holdings The head of online hotel and flight giant Booking on how competition, regulation, and AI are changing travel. Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6PR4G)
All colors of the M3 Air are on sale, including starlight. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Wow, it wasn't long ago that the M2 MacBook Air dropped to its lowest price (and that deal is still kicking, by the way), but now there's a chance to get the newer M3 model for its best-ever rate, too. The 13-inch M3 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is $849.98 (around $250 off) in all available colors at Amazon. And for those who want more storage or RAM, Amazon is also selling the 8GB RAM / 512GB configuration for $1,049.98 and the 16GB RAM / 512GB version for $1,249.98 - each around $250 off.If you can spend the extra dough, that highest-specced model is ideal since it has the performance headroom to last quite a long time. However, even the base MacBook Air is a great all-around machine, especially since its 256GB... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6PR4J)
It's not an ambitious smartwatch, but honestly, it doesn't have to be. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6PR4H)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge If you've been on Max lately, you might've noticed more personalized rows of content across your entire homepage. That's because the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max rolled out a new whole page optimization" system in the US last month to get viewers to keep coming back - and Warner Bros. Discovery says it's working.Liesel Kipp, Warner Bros. Discovery's senior vice president of global streaming product, tells The Verge that the company has seen a meaningful lift" in how long viewers watch content on Max, how many times they come back, and the types of shows people end up watching. The system can really help consumers find those hidden gems on Max," Kipp says.Similar to other content algorithms, like the one used by... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6PR27)
Image: The Verge Elon Musk has revived his complaint against OpenAI after dropping a previous lawsuit, again alleging that the ChatGPT maker and two of its founders - Sam Altman and Greg Brockman - breached the company's founding mission to develop artificial intelligence technology to benefit humanity.The new lawsuit filed in federal court in Northern California on Monday says that Altman and Brockman assiduously manipulated Musk into co-founding their spurious non-profit venture" by promising that OpenAI would be safer and more transparent than profit-driven alternatives. The suit claims that assurances about OpenAI's nonprofit structure were the hook for Altman's long con."Musk made similar accusations in a hilariously bad" lawsuit that he... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6PR28)
Image: Yahoo Yahoo is a giant in the world of fantasy sports, but its app hasn't gotten a meaningful update in years. Ahead of the 2024 NFL season, though, the company is rolling out a completely overhauled version of the Yahoo Fantasy Sports app that brings both a cleaner design and a huge amount of new content for fantasy players.The new app is divided into three sections. The first thing that appears when you open the app is a list of all your fantasy teams across sports - football is by far the most popular, but Yahoo also offers fantasy baseball, basketball, and more, and part of the team's goal with the new app is to get you playing new fantasy games. There's also a News tab with dedicated content for fantasy players and a Scores tab that... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6PR0G)
Image: The Verge CrowdStrike refutes Delta Air Lines' allegations that the cybersecurity firm is to blame for a dayslong flight disruption following last month's catastrophic system outage, saying that the airline rejected repeated offers to help restore impacted systems.In an interview with CNBC last week, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the outage cost the company $500 million after more than 6,000 flights were grounded, and that the airline has no choice" but to seek legal compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.While the CrowdStrike issues impacted millions of Windows machines across multiple industries globally, Delta struggled to bring systems back online for several days longer than other affected airlines, and is currently being investigated... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PQST)
Image: The Verge OpenAI has had a system for watermarking ChatGPT-created text and a tool to detect the watermark ready for about a year, reports The Wall Street Journal. But the company is divided internally over whether to release it. On one hand, it seems like the responsible thing to do; on the other, it could hurt its bottom line.OpenAI's watermarking is described as adjusting how the model predicts the most likely words and phrases that will follow previous ones, creating a detectable pattern. (That's a simplification, but you can check out Google's more in-depth explanation for Gemini's text watermarking for more).Offering any way to detect AI-written material is a potential boon for teachers trying to deter students from turning over writing... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6PQP7)
The OnePlus Pad's keyboard case and stylus run an additional $149.99 and $99.99, respectively. | Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge The $549.99 OnePlus Pad 2 may have just recently launched, but the original version remains a worthwhile option that's now undercutting the new model's price by $170. Now through August 6th, you can pick the first-gen OnePlus Pad at Woot for $379.99 ($100 off), its lowest price ever. Sure, the older Pad may not have a 12.1-inch display or a nifty vibrating stylus that makes it feel like you're writing on paper, but its 11.6-inch LCD has some great specs of its own - including a speedy 144Hz refresh rate and sharp, 2800 x 2000 resolution.OnePlus's first tablet was a pleasant surprise when it launched last year, as the brand's freshman effort offered great performance at an affordable price. That's thanks in part to a snappy MediaTek... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PQMT)
The Apple Watch SE in its current form looks just like an Apple Watch. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It's impressive watching Apple sell people virtually the same Apple Watch design year in and year out, adding a feature here and there but changing precious little about the way it looks. It's also fine - nobody actually needs to buy a new watch annually, but it does make the yearly refresh sort of ho-hum.But there's something rumored on the horizon that might invigorate things: the plastic Apple Watch SE. I found the rumor intriguing last month when Bloomberg's Mark Gurman set it loose, but haven't thought much of it since. However, today he wrote to his Power On newsletter subscribers that Apple is using plastic to make the watch more kid-friendly," adding that this could allow for a better array of colors." Then it clicked. There's... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6PQK0)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge We've been living with social media for a long time now - Facebook opened up to the public in 2006 - and that means a lengthy trail of posts stretching back through the years. While this does let you take a nostalgic trip into the past with just a few clicks, it can also bring up some embarrassing and awkward memories.Maybe your Twitter takes from 10 years ago haven't aged well, or there's an ex-partner you'd rather not remember, or you're heading for a job interview and don't want your would-be employers to judge who you are now from your decades-old social media posts.Whatever the reason, you can find and delete ancient social media posts without too much difficulty using the web or mobile apps. (They say that anything on the... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6PQH8)
I didn't ask how much RAM it has. There's no girl math in the world that can make the Breville Oracle Jet make sense for me, but boy is it nice to use.Like most of the gadgets I test, the $1,999.95 espresso machine has a touchscreen. It connects to a wireless network and receives software updates that way. But unlike most gadgets I test, the Jet is designed to shoot hot water at high pressure and turn it into coffee.The Jet is an update to Breville's high-end Oracle superautomatic machine. It's kind of a sibling to my Breville Barista Express, but only in the sense of an older sibling who left their modest hometown and got a high-powered job in the big city. I've been testing it for the past couple of weeks, but more importantly, so has my husband. T... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PQAF)
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge ROMhacking.net, a longtime stalwart of the online classic gaming world mostly turned the lights off on Saturday. Nightcrawler, who created and runs ROMhacking, announced that the site, which has hosted community-made alterations for classic games, has stopped taking submissions and will only post news going forward.ROM hacks like those the site hosted can be as minor as replacing the original Mario sprite with his Super Mario Bros. 3 incarnation, or as thorough as Mario Builder 64, essentially a game in its own right that lets you create your own levels for Super Mario 64, a la Super Mario Maker - a Nintendo series that arguably owes a lot to the ROM hacker community.Hobbyist contributors to ROMhacking regularly submitted tweaks for... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PQ79)
It's absolutely brimming with solar power. | Image: EcoFlow EcoFlow's new Power Hat must be the dorkiest piece of headgear I've ever heard of - and I think I love it? It's a wide-brimmed floppy-ish sun hat full of solar cells that you can charge your phone with. EcoFlow says it can charge a 4,000mAh smartphone to capacity in as fast as 3-4 hours." Sounds ideal for casually scrolling feeds at a campsite or surviving in a sun-blasted, Mad Maxian desert wasteland.According to EcoFlow's specs, the $129 Power Hat's solar cells are made from a thin, flexible material called passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) monocrystalline silicon. It offers roughly 12-watt charging via the USB-A and USB-C connectors on the underside of the brim. The whole thing weighs 370 grams. Image:... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6PQ5Y)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Judi Dench, Keegan-Michael Key, and Awkwafina are among multiple actors and influencers" whose voices could become part of Meta's AI offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The company is apparently working to wrap up deals quickly so it can develop and show off the new voices at its Meta Connect conference in September.Specifically, at least one tool will be a digital assistant product called MetaAI," according to multiple unnamed sources in a New York Times report. Meta is negotiating with all of the top talent agencies in Hollywood to secure the voices, the Times writes. And it may pay the actors who sign on millions of dollars." Meta doled out similarly fat stacks to the celebrities represented by the recently-discontinued Meta... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6PQ2V)
Image: Warner Bros. M. Night Shyamalan's latest is a pitchy mess about who gets a pass. Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6PQ2W)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia has reportedly told Microsoft and at least one other cloud provider that its Blackwell" B200 AI chips will take at least three months longer to produce than was planned, according to The Information. The delay is the result of a design flaw discovered unusually late in the production process," according to two unnamed sources, including a Microsoft employee, cited by the outlet.B200 chips are the follow-up to the supremely popular and hard-to-get H100 chips that power vast swaths of the artificial intelligence cloud landscape (and helped make Nvidia one of the most valuable companies in the world). Nvidia expects production of the chip to ramp in 2H," according to a statement that Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo shared with T... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6PQ1P)
It's not the most fun, but reliability goes a long way. Continue reading...
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