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by Jay Peters on (#6H67T)
Illustration: The Verge On Friday, two days after Threads finally started publicly testing ActivityPub integration, Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared a thread on Threads detailing the company's plans for its continued integration with the fediverse. Right now, it's possible to follow a few Threads accounts (including Mosseri's) from other platforms, but Meta has much bigger plans for Threads interoperability that Mosseri says will take the better part of a year" to realize.Here's what's in the works, according to Mosseri.
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-09-16 19:47 |
by Sheena Vasani on (#6GB68)
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge Gift-giving doesn't have to eat up all of your time and money - and we've rounded up an assortment of inexpensive gifts to prove it. Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6GK6C)
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge We've pulled together a king's ransom of fun and unique gift ideas for all the dads in your life so you can spoil them no matter your budget. Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6H662)
Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Researchers found Microsoft's chatbot on Copilot provided false and misleading information about European elections.Human rights organization AlgorithmWatch said in a report that it asked Bing Chat - recently rebranded as Copilot - questions about recent elections held in Switzerland and the German states of Bavaria and Hesse. It found that one-third of its answers to election-related questions had factual errors and safeguards were not evenly applied.The group said it collected responses from Bing from August to October this year. It chose the three elections because these are the first held in Germany and Switzerland since the introduction of Bing. It also allowed the researchers to look at local contexts and compare responses in... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H663)
Illustration: The Verge Apple has paid $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit over its Family Sharing feature, and you might be eligible for a payout, as reported by MacRumors. The settlement, which you can read about on a dedicated website, stems from a 2019 lawsuit accusing Apple of misleading users about the apps you can use Family Sharing with.Family Sharing is a perk that lets you and up to five other family members share subscriptions to Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Card, and Apple Arcade. It also lets you share subscriptions to third-party apps if the developer allows it. That part is what the lawsuit takes issue with, arguing that Apple misrepresented the ability to share subscriptions to non-Apple... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6H664)
The Coral Restoration Foundation digitally stitched images of a reef together to create this 3D photomosaic. | Image: CRF Time is running out to save the world's coral reefs, so conservationists are turning to every tool they can to protect vanishing reefs - including AI.In Florida, the race is on to restore reefs by planting" corals raised by humans. It's an upward battle as rising ocean temperatures stress already struggling reefs. Tracking the progress is essential but tedious work.In the past, coral conservationists would have had to physically swim out to reefs to take notes on individual corals they'd planted using a pencil and waxy, waterproof paper. It can't scale with the scale of your restoration effort. And eventually, you'll spend more time monitoring coral restoration than you will actually doing coral restoration," says Alexander... Continue reading...
by Verge Staff on (#6G991)
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge The world can be an expensive place. Fortunately, we've assembled 30-odd gifts that are designed to keep your holiday spending (mostly) in check. Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6H63V)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are now available to download for free on Meta's Quest VR headsets, as reported by Android Central. They appear to be the web versions of the apps, so while there's a lot that's very familiar about them, after giving the apps a whirl from inside a Quest 3, I can tell you that the virtual office experience still has a few quirks.The first hurdle is logging in. While you don't need a paid Microsoft 365 account, when I opened up Word, I had to log in by typing my long Microsoft account password. (The option to log in with a security key failed when I tried it; the other choices were to log in with a GitHub account or a company account.) Since I don't have a Bluetooth keyboard lying around, that meant... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H63W)
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you haven't enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don't need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website (via @wario64).After Google announced the discontinuation of its Stadia cloud gaming service last year, the company said it would let its controllers live on as wireless Bluetooth gamepads compatible with PCs, Macs, phones, and other systems. It also rolled out a special web-based tool in January that you can use to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller. Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Google previously gave users until December 31st, 2023 to complete the... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6H5XR)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Mere days after Twitch updated its content policy to permit certain kinds of sexual content, the platform has withdrawn the portion of the policy permitting artistic nudity."Effective today, we are rolling back the artistic nudity changes," the update read. Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won't be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium." Mature-rated games will not be affected by the rollback and subject to the new policy.
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by Justine Calma on (#6H5XS)
Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Google will soon store Maps users' location history locally on their devices instead of in the cloud, a big change that will make it more difficult for law enforcement to access the data.Controversial geofence warrants" allow law enforcement to gather tech companies' data on mobile phones that have passed through a certain area during a specific time period. The FBI has used the warrant to collect information about a Black Lives Matters protest in Seattle as part of an investigation into attempted arson, for instance.With privacy concerns and the potential for geofence warrants to turn anyone at the scene of an alleged crime a potential suspect, Google has faced pressure for years to change the way it stores users' location history.... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6H5XT)
Nanoleaf's smart holiday string lights are compatible with Matter, so they can work with a wide range of smart home platforms. | Image: Nanoleaf If you've got a holiday party or gathering coming up, Nanoleaf's Essentials Matter Smart Holiday String Lights will help set the mood without putting a dent in your wallet. Typically $119.99, right now, the 65-foot string lights are only $44.99 at Best Buy, which is significantly cheaper than they were on Black Friday and a new all-time low.If you're looking for a piece of decor that'll get everybody in the Christmas spirit, these twinkly string lights are it. With 250 addressable LEDs capable of displaying more than 16 million colors and an IP44 rating, they'll make any tree, fireplace, or porch pop. The lights also come with festive preset scenes and will even dance along to the beat of holiday tunes. Plus, the Wi-Fi string lights... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6H5RG)
Marc Corfmat was a teenager when he began to compete for Lego's ultimate prize: the chance to design an official set. He and his brother Nick had been building custom Lego creations ever since they were kids, sometimes in California, sometimes during vacations at their grandparents' home in La Rochelle, France. They shared their models on YouTube and posted their creations to Lego's website, but interest from the Lego world came slowly, if it came at all.Then, in 2020, the brothers started having some luck. The Lego Ideas program gives fans the chance to turn their designs into reality, offering both fame and a small fortune - 1 percent of net sales - to anyone who can convince 10,000 peers and The Lego Group that their set deserves to... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6H5GS)
The Vivo X100 Pro in blue. | Image: Vivo Even in tiny smartphone cameras, lenses matter. Vivo seems to agree since lens improvements are a major emphasis on its new flagship smartphones: the Vivo X100 and Vivo X100 Pro. They launched in China first on November 13th, and now Vivo is releasing them internationally with matching 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screens.The X100 will be available in Southeast Asian markets, including India and Indonesia, and the higher-tier X100 Pro will also be available in European markets. And no surprise - the US isn't getting either of the devices.Like the X90 Pro before it, the X100 Pro offers a 50-megapixel one-inch-type main camera - a huge sensor by smartphone standards. Vivo says it's been tuned with Optical Precision Calibration" for consistent... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6H5EH)
Image: Sony Naughty Dog announced Thursday that it's canceled the multiplayer game it was building in The Last of Us universe.The studio says it has been in pre-production on The Last of Us Online even while working on The Last of Us Part II. We were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed," according to a blog post about the news.However, to release and support The Last of Us Online we'd have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games," Naughty Dog says. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog's... Continue reading...
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#6H5CP)
The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Mailchimp, one of the podcast industry's best-known sponsors, recently reached out to Pineapple Street Studios about making a new show. Pineapple and Mailchimp first collaborated in 2019, producing narrative ads for Mailchimp and branded series. So given their longstanding relationship, Pineapple Street staff were shocked when management at their parent company, the radio giant Audacy, informed them at a meeting on October 3rd that the new Mailchimp contract required all work on the series to be performed by non-union workers.Many of the producers who worked on Mailchimp projects in the past, or would take on a new branded series,... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6H5CQ)
Curio The musician Grimes has developed an interactive AI plush toy for children which can converse with and learn" the personalities of their owners. Grimes and toy company Curio created the line of toys in partnership with OpenAI, as first reported by The Washington Post. Grimes, who voices all three toys, is also an investor and advisor for the product.The three plush figurines are named Gabbo, Grem, and Grok - not to be confused with the AI chatbot named Grok owned by Elon Musk, a former partner of Grimes. Curio told the Post that the AI plush toy Grok and chatbot Grok are unrelated. The toy Grok is a shortening of the word Grocket," which Grimes said she coined due to the fact that her children with Musk grew up in the vicinity of... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6H5AP)
Alexander Skarsgard. | Photo by Marc Piasecki / WireImage Another day, another sci-fi announcement from Apple TV Plus. The streamer is continuing to expand its presence in the genre with the news that it's adapting The Murderbot Diaries novels from author Martha Wells.There's no word yet on when the show will premiere, but it'll be a 10-episode-long series and feature Alexander Skarsgard as the lead. Chris and Paul Weitz will serve as showrunners, while David S. Goyer - who helms the Apple TV Plus adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation - will be one of the executive producers.If you haven't read the books - you can check out our review right here - Apple says the adaption is about a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients.'" In... Continue reading...
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by Verge Staff on (#6GM35)
Photo Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales and Cath Virginia / The Verge We've assembled a collection of quick-hit gifts that can be issued within seconds, freeing you of shipping concerns and in-store shopping. Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6H57X)
Photo: Netflix No thank you for waking me up. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H57Y)
Image: Google Google is releasing a tool to help users diagnose problems with their Pixel phones. Users can launch the app by entering #*#7287#*# on the dial pad, allowing them to check whether their phone is working correctly before or after a repair.There are a bunch of diagnostic tools available within the app. While users can run a full diagnostic test to detect issues across the entire device, there are also options to run individual tests for physical defects and problems affecting the phone's display, sensors, and connectivity. The new tool is available on all Pixel phones in English. Image: Google Aside from the diagnostics app, Google is introducing redesigned repair manuals the company says are easier for technicians... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6H54T)
Image: The Verge Online shopping giant Temu is suing its competitor Shein, saying the fast fashion giant is using Mafia-style" intimidation tactics on merchants.In the suit filed on Wednesday, Temu says Shein has deployed increasingly aggressive strategies to illegally interfere with Temu's business," including intimidating merchants who list their products on both platforms and issuing tens of thousands of illegitimate copyright takedowns.Temu and Shein have previously sued each otherShein recently has gone so far as to falsely imprison merchants doing business with Temu, including detaining merchant representatives in Shein's offices for many hours while Shein confiscates the merchants' electronic devices, obtains access to proprietary Temu... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6H54V)
A screenshot of Neko Atsume Purrfect. Sure, Meta's Quest VR headsets have games like Beat Saber, a VR Assassin's Creed, and access to the entire Xbox Cloud Gaming library, but starting today, you can play Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector, a VR take on the classic cat-focused mobile game Neko Atsume.The game is adorable. The cats have that same cartoony and slightly vacant look that makes them so endearing in the mobile game, and they get up to plenty of shenanigans. But because you're playing in VR, you'll also be able to do things like pet" the cats and pick them up using your controllers.I was given early access to the game ahead of today's launch, and I've messed around with it for about 30 minutes. Like with the phone version of Neko Atsume, Purrfect is not a... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6H54W)
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Cruise, the self-driving unit of General Motors, will lay off nearly a quarter of its employees, or 900 workers, after grounding its fleet in response to an incident in which a hit-and-run victim became pinned under a Cruise vehicle and then was dragged 20 feet to the side of the road.After the incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's permit to operate driverless cars in the state. The company then grounded its entire fleet nationwide. (It had vehicles in Arizona, Texas, and Florida as well.) In response to the pause in operations, GM said it would reduce spending on Cruise and appoint its own executives to oversee the company.In response, several top executives have left the company, including... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6H54X)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. | Image: Rockstar Games Netflix just released its biggest games yet. The Grand Theft Auto trilogy - which includes GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas - is now available on both iOS and Android, and the games are all free to play if you're already a Netflix subscriber. But while the streaming service has offered mobile games for a while now (and added some excellent titles to its library), actually finding games you want to play can be a bit fiddly. In the mobile Netflix app, every game is confined to a single row, which means lots of scrolling around icons that don't seem to be in any particular order.It's definitely easy to miss things. So here's a handy trick for finding all the games Netflix offers - and it works on both Google Play and the App Store.It's... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H516)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission could soon stop cable companies from fining customers who cancel their subscriptions early. In a release on Wednesday, the FCC voted to move forward with a rule that eliminates junk fees" from cable and satellite providers.The rule, which FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel first proposed last month, tackles the fees cable and satellite providers sometimes charge when customers cancel their subscriptions before the end of a contract. In addition to doing away with early termination fees, the proposed rule would also require providers to give subscribers a prorated credit or rebate for the number of days left in their billing cycle upon cancellation. The proposed rule passed with a 3-2 vote.Consumers... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6H517)
The 15-inch M2-powered MacBook Air delivers more screen real estate than its smaller counterpart, along with two more speakers. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The new M3-powered MacBook Pros are powerhouses: but if you just need a good all-around laptop for everyday computing needs, they might be overkill. It's a better idea to save the money and opt for one of Apple's entry-level models instead, especially as both are currently on sale. Right now, the 15-inch, M2-powered MacBook Air has returned to its best price of $1,049 ($250 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, while the 13-inch M2-equipped MacBook Air is $899 ($200 off) at Best Buy. Both are base models with 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM.The 15-inch MacBook Air boasts a larger and sharper 15.3-inch screen as well as a far better speaker array than the smaller model. Otherwise, though, both laptops are similar, with the same fantastic battery life, a... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H518)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The next time you sit down to watch YouTube on your TV, you might notice fewer ads breaking up the video you're watching. That's because YouTube is making ads on TVs appear less frequently, but in exchange, you'll have to sit through longer commercials.YouTube started testing longer but less frequent ad breaks in September, and now they're launching across all TVs. The change means you'll see an updated countdown timer in the bottom-right corner of your screen that will now show how long you have left until the entire ad break ends or when you can skip. GIF: YouTube YouTube previously displayed how many ads were included in the break in the top-left corner of your screen, along with a countdown timer for each... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6H519)
A mockup of the upcoming Rivian electric van for AT&T. | Image: AT&T Rivian finally has a second customer for its commercial electric vehicles. Today, AT&T announced it's spinning up a pilot program to switch its commercial fleets to EVs, including Rivian's commercial van and R1 platform trucks.AT&T is Rivian's first customer to purchase commercial EVs outside of the automaker's long-exclusive deal with Amazon. In 2019, Amazon agreed to purchase 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian, but the retail giant reportedly only met bare minimum orders of 10,000 units per year, adding fuel for Rivian to try and end its exclusivity agreement.AT&T's first Rivian EVs are expected to join the fleet in early 2024. However, there are no details on how many vehicles are in the initial pilot or whether there are more orders... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H51A)
Image: Intel Intel is taking the wraps off its next generation of CPUs. During its AI Everywhere event on Thursday, Intel revealed all the details on the Core Ultra - no longer Core i" - mobile processors that will be part of its Meteor Lake lineup, promising better power efficiency and performance thanks to a new setup that splits tasks across different chiplets.Intel says its Core Ultra 7 165H chip offers an 11 percent improvement in multi-threading performance when compared to competing laptop processors, like the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, and Apple's in-house M3 chip. It also offers a 25 percent reduction in power consumption when compared to the previous Intel Core i7-1370P and has up to 79 percent lower power than... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H51B)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Image: Getty Images Elon Musk is planning to open up a university in Austin, Texas, according to a report from Bloomberg. A tax filing for Musk's charity, The Foundation, reveals that the billionaire wants to contribute $100 million to build STEM-focused primary and secondary schools before opening a university dedicated to education at the highest levels."The Foundation filed the tax exemption application with the Internal Revenue Service in October 2022, and Bloomberg says it was approved in March of this year. As noted in the filing, the university will offer instruction by experienced faculty" in subjects like math, science, engineering, and physics, in addition to hands-on learning experience including simulations, case studies, fabrication/design... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6H4X2)
Illustration: The Verge Google is about to launch its grand plan to block third-party cookies in Chrome that many websites use to track your activity across the web for profit.Starting on January 4th, Google will start testing its new Tracking Protection feature that will eventually restrict website access to third-party cookies by default. It will come to a very small subset of Chrome users at the start, specifically to one percent of users globally. Afterward, Google plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies for all users in the second half of 2024.If you're randomly selected to try Tracking Protection, Google will notify you when opening Chrome on desktop or Android. If there are issues detected by Chrome while you're browsing, a prompt will appear... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6H4X1)
Image: GM Cadillac is releasing the name and a few images of its next electric vehicle, the midsize Vistiq SUV, which the automaker expects to slot in between the Lyriq and Escalade IQ in terms of size and price.The three-row SUV is expected to hit dealerships sometime in 2025 as a model year 2026 vehicle. It will also join the entry-level Optiq in Cadillac's growing lineup of zero-emission vehicles.The three-row SUV is expected to hit dealerships sometime next year as a model year 2025 vehicleVISTIQ adds another compelling EV to the Cadillac lineup, reinforcing our commitment to an electric future," said John Roth, vice president of Global Cadillac. Our brand now has an EV entry in most luxury segments, offering customers a range of... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6H4X0)
The new Training Peaks integration lets you directly import custom workouts from the Apple Watch. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge The holiday season is arguably not for training. The major races of the year are done! Yet Apple and TrainingPeaks are getting a head start on next year's resolutions with a new integration that lets you directly import custom workouts to the watch.If you're unfamiliar with TrainingPeaks, it's an app that helps endurance athletes find training plans for their next half marathon, triathlon - you name it. If you want, it also has a coaching service that matches you up with an accredited coach to customize your plan based on your individual schedules, performance, and needs. The idea is to take some of the guesswork out of what you should be doing to prepare for an event.The integration itself is simple. It's based on a new watchOS 10... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6H4T6)
Google's Nest Renew service for its thermostats will soon be under new management. | Image: Google Google's Nest Renew service is leaving Google and merging with the OhmConnect energy management platform to form a new company called Renew Home. Venture capitalist firm Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), which backs OhmConnect and is putting $100 million into the new company, announced the move, saying it will create the country's largest energy transition resource."Renew Home ... will help accelerate the growth of the virtual power plant (VPP) industry," SIP CEO Jonathan WinerNest Renew and OhmConnect both help smart home users leverage connected devices to take advantage of cheaper or cleaner power when it's available. Launched in 2021, Nest Renew is a service for Google Nest Thermostat users that lets them shift the energy... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6H4T5)
Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Tax prep company H&R Block released a new conversational AI chatbot that answers taxpayer questions.AI Tax Assist, accessed through paid versions of H&R Block's DIY tax software, lets users ask questions on tax rules, possible exemptions, and other tax-related issues. It also points people to a human tax expert for more personalized advice, though the company said it is working on supporting AI-powered personalized advice as well.In a demo, the company showed how users with complicated tax filing statuses - say a gig worker - can start their tax returns. They can then ask AI Tax Assist for information like, What can I deduct as business expenses as an Uber driver?" The AI will provide a list of allowed deductions, and the user can... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6H4QN)
Image: The Verge Meta's Twitter competitor, Threads, is now available in the European Union, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced. Today we're opening Threads to more countries in Europe," Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Threads. The launch follows the service's debut in the US and over 100 other countries across the world, including the UK, in July 2023. But until now, Threads hasn't been available to the 448 million people living in the EU, and the company has even blocked EU-based users from accessing the service via VPN.To coincide with today's launch, Meta is giving users in the region the ability to browse Threads without needing a profile. Actually posting or interacting with content will still require an Instagram account, however. The move was... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6H4QP)
Proton Proton has released a desktop version of its Proton Mail app that will give users full access to both Proton Mail and Proton Calendar and (eventually) the ability to view your emails offline. The desktop app is available in beta is optimized for both Windows and macOS, and encrypts sent emails end-to-end just like with the browser version, according to the Swiss company, while offline access to emails will be available soon."Technically, it's been possible to access your Proton emails offline through a desktop email app, but you had to use the Proton Mail Bridge to configure your accounts to work with other IMAP / SMTP email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and others. Proton's desktop app, on the other hand, will let you... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6H4QQ)
Image: Opera Opera GX now includes a button you can hit when your embarrassing browsing session risks exposure to prying eyes. It's designed to quickly mute playback from all tabs and switch to a new window of safe content during an, ahem, unexpected drop-in or when your boss catches you watching too much Twitch when you should be glued to Excel.The new panic mode can be activated using the F12 button on a keyboard, so all you 60 percent keyboard lovers will need to bind the one function key nobody (apart from developers) uses right now. Opera lets you pick a website to designate as your safe tab, with pre-installed options for YouTube, Twitch, and Wikipedia. You can press F12 again once the coast is clear to bring back your tabs. I... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6H4H2)
Image: Beeper Here we go again: After investigating reports that some users aren't getting iMessages on Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud, Beeper says that Apple seems to be deliberately blocking" iMessages from being delivered to about five percent of Beeper Mini users. The company says that uninstalling and reinstalling the app fixes the issue and that it's working on a broader fix (though that apparently won't be in place tonight).Apple didn't immediately reply to a request for comment about Beeper's new claim, and it hasn't replied to my original request for comment, either. But given that the company has already blocked Beeper Mini before, it's not too surprising that it seems to be taking action against the app again.
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by Sean Hollister on (#6H4FJ)
Parker Ortolani / The Verge The Verge, your source for Tesla Cybertruck windshield wiper news, is unreasonably happy to potentially reveal: a Cybertruck windshield wiper replacement may cost as little as $165 for the entire arm and blade assembly, or $75 for just the wiper blade itself.That's the word from Tesla watcher Nic Cruz Patane, who, like all good windshield wiper enthusiasts, has seemingly been paging through the Tesla parts catalog for the Cybertruck but, unlike the rest of us, seemingly has access to prices for each part. We can see the same page, without prices, and it appears to be one single wiper blade after all. Screenshot via Nic Cruz Patane (Twitter/X) Twitter embeds weren't working so I took a screenshot. The... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6H4FK)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Twitch is updating the way it responds to sexual content. As part of the change, the streaming platform will now allow some previously prohibited content - as long as it has a label to warn viewers.Twitch has long struggled with moderating content containing sexual material and has faced backlash for its uneven handling in the past. While Twitch notably banned Indiefoxx over what the streamer claimed was a wardrobe malfunction, the company chose to warn - not ban - top streamer Pokimane for accidentally showing a Pornhub page. Twitch also recently banned a female creator who appeared to be streaming while topless.The platform will now allow deliberately highlighted breasts, buttocks or pelvic region" if the stream has a Content... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6H4FM)
Illustration: The Verge Meta announced in a blog post update yesterday that it will apply an obscure Instagram setting to Threads that lets users control how much fact-checked content they see in their feed. Meta says its fact-checking is intended to address misinformation, so effectively, users will be able to decide how much they want to see controversial topics on the site.The controls have three levels: Don't reduce," Reduce," and Reduce more." While none of the choices can hide content entirely, they will affect the ranking of posts that are found to contain false or partly false information, altered content, or missing context."To get to the setting from Threads, users will need to tap the two lines in the upper-right corner from the profile tab,... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6H4DH)
Illustration: The Verge PowerPoint for the web now lets users insert videos with closed captions and subtitles into presentations, reports Windows Central. It should make presentations created in the Microsoft 365 suite more accessible to Deaf people or those hard of hearing, but the feature also offers other benefits.You can add closed captions in multiple languages, allowing users to connect with audiences worldwide, and captions also make it easier to watch videos in loud environments or quietly without disturbing people around you. It's also become a feature people expect to see as support for subtitling expands in apps like TikTok, Netflix, Zoom, and more.To embed a video and insert captions, users must first create closed caption files in the WebVTT... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6H48N)
Image: The Verge As if publishers and users didn't have enough reasons to reconsider their connections to the platform formerly known as Twitter, all outgoing links from X stopped working Wednesday afternoon. A problem with the URL redirect that captures activity before sending users on their way sent people to a simple error page saying, This page is down. I scream. You scream. We all scream... for us to fix this page. We'll stop making jokes and get things up and running soon."After about an hour or so of that happening, the problem was fixed, although we haven't seen any public acknowledgment of the issue from the @Support account, CEO Linda Yaccarino, or X owner / CTO Elon Musk.If this sounds familiar, it's because something similar happened in... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6H48M)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple will require law enforcement to obtain a court order before the company hands over details of customers' push notifications from now on. As Reuters reports, Apple quietly updated its guidelines for law enforcement page on Monday with language specifying that search warrants and court orders are now required for it to give up The Apple ID associated with" an Apple Push Notification Service token. The new policy follows revelations that both Apple and Google have been providing details about the notifications to governments.Apps can push" notifications to your phone so that you receive alerts, like a text message or incoming email, even when the app itself isn't open. But the process involves potentially sensitive information... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6H48P)
Image: Meta Xbox Cloud Gaming is arriving on Meta's range of VR headsets today. A beta version of the cloud gaming app is now available for the Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro headsets, allowing you to stream hundreds of Xbox games with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, a controller, and a Quest headset.The beta app is available from the Meta Quest Store, and you'll simply need to pair a supported Bluetooth controller to start playing. You can use an Xbox controller (that supports Bluetooth), a PS4 one, or even Nintendo's Switch Pro controllers. Support for PS5 controllers is coming in the future," according to Meta. Image: Meta The Xbox Cloud Gaming app on a Quest headset. There are a variety of display sizes for an... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6H48Q)
Illustration: The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the platform is beginning to test making Threads posts available on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-supporting services. Zuckerberg wrote that making Threads work with the interoperable standard will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people."Joining the fediverse - the decentralized world of social media that includes Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other services that all interoperate through ActivityPub - has been on the Threads team's to-do list since the very beginning. Instagram head Adam Mosseri told The Verge in July that he believed decentralizing the platform was key to making it relevant to a new generation of creators. I think we might... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6H459)
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro sound good, are compact, and - most importantly - purple. (Yes, they also come in white and black.) | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are once again selling for their best price of $159.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The noise-canceling earbuds with 24-bit audio support are among the smaller and lighter options from the current top-flight class of wireless earbuds, making them a very comfy choice. They're also a pretty easy choice if you use Samsung devices, since, in addition to putting out some great quality sound, the Buds 2 Pro feature head tracking and spatial audio with Galaxy phones. Plus, that bora purple color option is just so fun looking.Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.If you live near a Target retail store, you can take advantage of a major one-day deal on Microsoft's flagship Xbox console. Target is... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6H45A)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will have to skip trash day in Sweden as the country's labor groups continue to protest the company's anti-union policies. Reuters reports the country's Transport Workers' Union will refuse to pick up waste at the automaker's workshops in solidarity with Tesla autoworkers who've been on strike since October 27th.Tesla has resisted collective bargaining agreements worldwide, but Sweden's strong labor culture is continuing to test the automaker's policy.After 130 workers at Tesla repair shops walked out, the first show of solidarity came from union dockworkers who refused to unload Tesla vehicles from cargo ships in early November. Then, on November 20th, postal workers joined the effort by refusing to deliver mail to Tesla,... Continue reading...
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