The Verge

Image: Apple Apple is continuing its run of streaming sci-fi with the upcoming Dark Matter, a thriller about a man who... kidnaps himself. The first trailer looks appropriately trippy and follows a physicist played by Joel Edgerton who is abducted into an alternate version of his life." The show involves him trying to get home while navigating this new multiversal reality, which is powered by a big black box that he invented.The nine-episode-long show is based on the novel of the same name by Blake Crouch and also stars Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, Dayo Okeniyi, and Oakes Fegley. It starts streaming on May 8th with a two-episode premiere, and subsequent episodes debut on Wednesdays after that.Dark Matter joins a growing list of... Continue reading...

The tempo restrictions effectively ban most popular Western music in the region of Chechnya, if it wasn't already restricted. | Image: Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images People partial to a shindig in the Russian republic of Chechnya are about to find their music options will be rather limited. The region is introducing a ban on tunes that don't conform to the Chechen sense of rhythm." In a statement translated by The Guardian, Chechnya's Culture Ministry announced last week, From now on all musical, vocal and choreographic works should correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute," effectively criminalizing anything the region considers to be too fast or too slow.The ban requires local artists to rewrite their music to comply with the restrictions by June 1st, or else they won't be allowed to perform publicly. Borrowing musical culture from other peoples is inadmissible," said Chechen Culture... Continue reading...

DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo is announcing a new bundled subscription service, Privacy Pro, that offers an additional layer of privacy beyond its existing offerings. Users who pay $9.99 per month will get access to a VPN that uses the open-source WireGuard protocol, on-device personal information removal, and 24/7 identity theft restoration. While users of DuckDuckGo's private browser and/or search engine are no fans of online tracking, PrivacyPro seems geared towards the most cautious of its user-base - who are also willing to pay extra for an encrypted internet connection.DuckDuckGo's full array of offerings have long been free to use, including its browser, search engine, various plug-ins, even its email protection service. PrivacyPro is the... Continue reading...

The new protections for blurring nude images will start rolling out globally in the coming weeks. | Image: Meta Instagram is preparing to roll out a new safety feature that blurs nude images in messages, as part of efforts to protect minors on the platform from abuse and sexually exploitative scams.Announced by Meta on Thursday, the new feature - which both blurs images detected to contain nudity and discourages users from sending them - will be enabled by default for teenage Instagram users, as identified by the birthday information on their account. A notification will also encourage adult users to turn it on.These efforts follow longstanding criticism that platforms like Facebook and Instagram have caused harm to their youngest users, from harming children's mental health and body image, to knowingly platforming abusive parents and creating... Continue reading...

The new 2024 VanMoof S5 in Amsterdam where the majority of this UK-owned company still works. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Big question: can you trust the new company to build a better S5 and A5 electric bike? Continue reading...

A long list of features, but how many do you really need? Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Two former executives of the firm that recently purchased Truth Social are embroiled in a lawsuit related to the acquisition of Trump's social media company, Wired reports. The former CEO of the Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) - the special purpose acquisition company that was created to purchase the Trump Media & Technology Group - is suing his successor for allegedly hacking his private accounts as part of a coup d'etat."The details are fairly messy. Patrick Orlando, the CEO of DWAC until March 2023, claims he was ousted by Eric Swider, a Trump Media board member who was appointed CEO immediately after Orlando was fired. (Swider served as CEO until March of this year.) Orlando filed the suit against Swider through the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook rolled out the ability for Messenger users to share 4K photos back in 2017. Now, Meta has announced that users can share HD photos in the app. Confused? We were, too, so we asked about it. The short answer is that, here, HD means 4K, and now 4K photos are... more 4K?Facebook Messenger comms team representative Liz Sweeney clarified in an email to The Verge that 4K (specifically, 4,096 x 4,096 pixels per inch) shared photos were more compressed before, and how they looked was dependent on the network conditions of both the sender and receiver." Now, Sweeney says they won't be as heavily compressed, and users will have a new HD" button that enables 4K sharing. And if you don't tap the button, photos will share in 2K instead. ... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Another Apple Store is trying to unionize. This time, it's a group of 104 employees in Short Hills, New Jersey, who filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Tuesday, as reported earlier by Bloomberg.If the unionization efforts are successful, the Apple Store employees would join the Communications Workers of America - the union that represents other Apple Store employees, along with employees of AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and more.Four other Apple Stores have moved to unionize within the past couple of years, but only the retail locations in Oklahoma City and Townson, Maryland, have successfully formed a union. These efforts haven't come without some pushback from Apple, however.Last year, the NLRB... Continue reading...

You can get a lower-end TU690T for free when you preorder Samsung's glare-free QD-OLED S95D. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Who doesn't want a free TV? If you were eyeing Samsung's new anti-glare OLED or one of the many models it announced back at CES, Samsung and Amazon are both still offering a free 65-inch TV when you preorder select 2024 models. You'll have to act quickly, though, as the ongoing buy one, get one promo ends tomorrow, April 11th.Granted, the free TV is an entry-level TU690T from 2022, which is a pretty basic 4K TV with a 60Hz panel and only two HDMI ports. But if you were already thinking of picking up the 2024 version of Samsung's OLED S95D, its artsy Frame TV, the Neo QLED 8K, or Neo QLED 4K, the TU69OT can still serve as a decent secondary TV for a spare bedroom or garage. It lacks modern features like local dimming and variable... Continue reading...

It's looking like the troubled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has lost one of its most important assets: Yuri Lowenthal, the voice actor who played the prince, famously narrated the entirety of the original 2003 game, and is currently renowned for playing Peter Parker's Spider-Man in the excellent Insomniac games.Yesterday, Tom Henderson, currently one of the most trusted voices in gaming leaks, reported that you should forget everything you know" about the Prince of Persia remake - and revealed that Lowenthal would no longer be in the role.Ubisoft would not tell me whether he's still attached to the project; Lowenthal's agent said he can't comment because he's under an NDA. Those non-denials are not confirmation, but... Continue reading...

The Aqara Motion and Light Sensor P2 is the company's first motion sensor that doesn't require a Zigbee hub. Aqara's Thread-based Motion and Light Sensor P2 ($33.99) has been on my smart home wish list since it was announced way back in 2022 - and now, it's finally here. My home runs on motion sensors, and I've been using Aqara's Zigbee-based ones for years. They're among my favorites due to their low price, small size, simplicity, and rock-solid reliability. But they require a hub, which adds complexity and makes them harder to recommend.What makes the new P2 different is that it uses Matter-over-Thread instead of Zigbee. This means that, in theory, it will connect directly to your smart home platform of choice - Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, etc. - no Aqara Zigbee hub needed. It's also $10 cheaper than the Eve Motion ($49.95), the... Continue reading...

Art from the Monopoly mobile game produced by Marmalade Game Studio. | Image: Marmalade Game Studio / Hasbro Monopoly - a board game about forcing people into bankruptcy by buying up as much real estate as possible - does not seem like something that would make for an entertaining cinematic escape from reality, but Lionsgate plans to test that theory.Variety reports that a Monopoly movie is in the works at Lionsgate that will be produced by Margot Robbie's LuckyChap - the same outfit that backed Birds of Prey, Barbie, and Saltburn. In a statement about the new film, Lionsgate film head Adam Fogelson expressed his confidence in LuckyChap's clear point of view" on the Monopoly IP and excitement about the possibility of the game becoming another blockbuster for the production outfit.Hasbro, which also owns the rights to the Transformers IP, has... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is previewing a new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface today that includes the social features and UI you'd normally find in the Xbox dashboard. The new interface includes access to a web version of Xbox party chat, so you can use a browser to join a call with friends instead of the dedicated Xbox desktop and mobile apps.The updated web interface also includes the ability to find and manage Xbox friends, send messages, view user profiles and achievements, and even access notifications. Microsoft is testing this initially with Xbox Insiders before rolling this interface out to all Xbox Cloud Gaming users.As this new interface is part of Xbox Cloud Gaming, most of it will also be available on smart TVs and Meta's Quest VR headsets,... Continue reading...

The G502 has stellar ergonomics, sensitivity, and customizability for a reasonable price. | Image: Logitech I've tried many gaming mice over the years, but I always seem to come back to Logitech's G502 Hero. I started with the wired version many moons ago, and it's just as good as the wireless model if you don't mind it staying tethered to your PC. It has the advantage of having zero latency (although the wireless model is close) and it's the more economical choice, too. The wired model is even cheaper than usual over at Amazon right now, where it's close to an all-time low at $35.99. That's about $14 off its usual price of $49.99. Best Buy also has it for a dollar more at $36.99.The G502 uses a 25,600 DPI Hero sensor, which offers so wide a range of sensitivity tuning that you should have no problems getting your cursor or turning speeds... Continue reading...

Image: Ford Ford unveiled the 2024 Mustang Mach-E, with more range, faster charging, and quicker acceleration than past models.Ford is the No. 2 seller of EVs in the US but still trails far behind Tesla in terms of total number of sales. The Elon Musk-run company has seen its market share in the US slip quarter over quarter but still commands over 50 percent of the EV market. As such, Ford is tweaking its flagship EV in the hopes of improving its market position.The 2024 Mach-E will now travel around 10-20 miles farther than previous model yearsThe 2024 Mach-E will now travel around 10-20 miles farther than previous model years, Ford says. The rear-wheel drive motor configuration with extended battery range now boasts a total EPA-estimated... Continue reading...

Microsoft's Surface Pro X. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft's annual developer conference, Microsoft Build, will focus heavily on Windows on Arm and new Windows AI features this year. The Verge revealed earlier this week that a special Surface and AI event a day before Microsoft Build will include a focus on beating Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air with new Arm-powered Surface devices and a big new Windows AI feature. Now, Microsoft is all but confirming this.Microsoft has listed out the developer sessions for Build today, including two that mention the next generation of Windows on Arm" and a brand-new Windows AI feature." The next generation Windows on Arm session will include details on industry-leading performance" for apps, likely a nod to Microsoft's ambitions of beating Apple's... Continue reading...

The TEA expects to save between $15 and $20 million per year by using its new automated scoring engine." | Image: The Verge Students in Texas taking their state-mandated exams this week are being used as guinea pigs for a new artificial intelligence-powered scoring system set to replace a majority of human graders in the region.The Texas Tribune reports an automated scoring engine" that utilizes natural language processing - the technology that enables chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT to understand and communicate with users - is being rolled out by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to grade open-ended questions on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams. The agency is expecting the system to save $15-20 million per year by reducing the need for temporary human scorers, with plans to hire under 2,000 graders this year compared to the... Continue reading...

A Divi Divi tree, which always points southwest because of the island's trade winds. | Image: Hans W. Hannau / Carol Burns and Jane Suter Collection Aruba is backing up its history on the Internet Archive, a first for the digital preservation site. The Archive announced on April 8th that it was opening the portal to Coleccion Aruba, giving worldwide access to more than 100,000 of Aruba's historical documents. The works include materials that Aruba began collecting under its national library and archives after it became a country under the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986.According to the Internet Archive, the Aruba collection includes about 40,000 documents, 60,000 images, 900 videos, 45 audio files and seven 3D objects for a total of 67 thematic and/or institutional (sub)collections." Besides adding everything to its own servers, the Archive says it's also backing everything up... Continue reading...

Image: Bulgari The Italian luxury brand Bulgari has broken the record for the world's thinnest mechanical watch yet again. Its new Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC watch measures just 1.7mm thick - about the same thickness as your typical strand of spaghetti, as reported earlier by Dezeen.Bulgari has long held the record for the world's thinnest watch, but it had to go even thinner following the 2022 release of Richard Mille's 1.75mm RM UP-01 Ferrari watch. The result is the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Ultra COSC, which comes with an optimized" 40mm case that's even thinner than a coin." Bulgari somehow managed to fit all 170 components that power the wearable within its case, some of which you can see at work with the openwork dial.Bulgari uses... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Sonos will release a substantial update to its mobile app for both Android and iOS on May 7th, The Verge has learned. Based on screenshots provided by people familiar with the company's plans, the app is receiving a fresh coat of paint. Sonos is also working to make product setup easier and strengthen connectivity between its many speakers. As always, the specific release date is subject to change if the company encounters any last-minute issues.The revamped app will roll out as an update to the Sonos S2 app that the company released in 2020 when it forked off some of its oldest products and left them on the legacy S1 platform.It changes up the current S2 app design by ditching the bottom navigation tabs and putting everything onto... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Finding files on your Mac drive can get tricky - especially when you're not sure exactly what it is you're looking for. Apple being Apple, file management just works" most of the time, but that's not always the case if you need to hunt down something that's buried deep.There are a couple of ways to look for files on macOS: a quick and simple way and a more comprehensive and advanced way. If neither of those work, you've got third-party tools you can turn to as well. (If you can't find what you're looking for after you've exhausted all of those options, it might be time to admit that the file isn't actually there.)The quick and easy method: Spotlight Spotlight is the quickest route to finding a file. You can use... Continue reading...

Image: Roku Roku announced" its Pro-tier series of TVs back at CES but provided little in the way of details at the time. But now, we've firmly entered the season when 2024 TVs begin actually shipping, so today, the company is sharing more on what sets these models apart from its self-branded budget TVs released last year - and the many Roku TVs available from other manufacturers.Like Roku's other products, the appeal all boils down to simplicity and ease of use. These TVs will automatically adjust and optimize their picture (and brightness) from scene to scene based on what content is being displayed. Roku calls its version Smart Picture Max" and says its picture quality engineers have obsessed over performance. A less advanced version, Roku... Continue reading...

The ad campaigns for the Medicube Age-R Booster-H eventually wore me down. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge It's got nothing to do with whether it works. It's how I'm trapped in TikTok's neverending product-recommending algorithm. Continue reading...

Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images Microsoft reportedly locked down a server last month that exposed passwords, keys, and credentials of Microsoft employees to the open internet, as the company faces mounting pressure to bolster its software security.According to Techcrunch, three security researchers at SOCRadar - a company specializing in detecting corporate cybersecurity weaknesses - discovered that an Azure-hosted server storing sensitive data linked to Microsoft's Bing search engine was left open with no password protection, meaning it could be accessed by anyone online. The server contained a variety of security credentials used by Microsoft employees to access internal systems, housed within various scripts, code, and configuration files.The exposed credentials... Continue reading...

Starting on Wednesday, all but the smallest ISPs will be required to publish broadbandnutrition labels"on all of their plans. | Image: FCC It appears that a nearly eight-year-long battle by the FCC to require internet companies to display information on the costs, fees, and speeds of their broadband services is finally over. Starting on Wednesday, all but the smallest ISPs will be required to publish broadband nutrition labels" on all of their plans, the regulator announced. The FCC's intention behind the labels is that they'll allow consumers to more easily comparison shop between plans and avoid any hidden fees.The next time you shop for either a standalone home or fixed internet plan, or a new mobile broadband plan, you should notice such a label. Each label will include monthly broadband prices, introductory rate details, data allowances, broadband speeds, and links... Continue reading...

Part of a filtration system designed to filter out PFAS forever chemicals from the drinking water supply at Well #2 of the Horsham Water and Sewer Authority facility in Horsham, Pennsylvania, on August 22nd, 2019. | Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers / NurPhoto via Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized rules for the amount of certain forever chemicals" allowed in drinking water. This is the first time the US has placed legally enforceable federal limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), chemicals so ubiquitous that they've likely already made their way into most Americans' bloodstreams.There are thousands of different kinds of PFAS used to make products resistant to water, stains, and heat. Before potential health risks came to light, these chemicals became staple ingredients in everything from nonstick pans, food packaging, fire-fighting foams, and fabric protector to dental floss and menstrual products. The chemicals' hallmark hardiness also means that they... Continue reading...

Cruise will look to get its driverless cars under control before it takes on new passengers. | Getty Cruise has announced that it's resuming tests for its fleet of self-driving taxis in Phoenix, Arizona , though not with passengers just yet. The autonomous vehicle maker says it will start with humans behind the wheel, with no passengers and no autonomous driving mechanisms engaged.In California, lawmakers banned the GM subsidiary from operating its vehicles in the state after one of them ran over a San Francisco pedestrian and dragged them over 20 feet in October, after another vehicle threw the victim into the robotaxi's path. That was just weeks after another incident where one of Cruise's vehicles collided with a fire truck after failing to properly yield to the truck's emergency signals.The company's been dealing with the fallout... Continue reading...

Photo by Nathan Howard / Getty Images This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.I hope you all had a great weekend/eclipse/first moment of NYC sunshine. Today, I've got a look at Ted Cruz's eyebrow-raising arrangement with iHeart and news on two new acquisitions. Let's get into it.iHeart doesn't pay Ted Cruz for hosting Verdict. It pays a Ted Cruz super PAC.This is certainly one way to raise campaign money. Sen. Ted Cruz hosts an iHeartMedia podcast, Verdict, which performs reasonably well among right-wing political shows. He does not get paid for hosting the podcast, but reporting in recent weeks from Forbes and the Houston Chronicle shows that iHeart has paid more than $630,000 to a super PAC that supports... Continue reading...