The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic is one step closer to opening its iOS games store in the European Union. As part of its 2023 year in review, Epic Games announced Apple has reinstated its developer account, which means it will finally be able to let users download Fortnite on iPhones again.Epic first announced plans to bring its game store and Fortnite to iOS in January, but it wasn't clear whether Apple would grant it a developer account.In 2020, Apple pulled Epic's developer account after the company began using its own in-app payment option in the iOS version of Fortnite, sparking a lengthy legal battle over whether Apple's behavior was anticompetitive. But even after the trial ended, and neither company emerged a clear winner, Apple still refused to... Continue reading...

Sony's WF-1000XM5 offer better noise cancellation and sound than the prior model. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Presidents Day is on Monday, February 19th, and many retailers are already showing their patriotism the best way they can: by discounting big-name appliances and gadgets. Jokes aside, there are actually a ton of good deals available, which we've highlighted in our larger roundup of the best Presidents Day deals. eBay's sale, in particular, is one of the more noteworthy promos. That's because now through February 19th, eBay is taking an extra 20 percent off select products - including already discounted goods like LG's brilliant C3 OLED.However, if you're not in the market for a new 4K TV, Sony's WF-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM5 are also available for some of their best prices to date at eBay (via BuyDig). The XM5 earbuds are down to their... Continue reading...

Paramount Both Paramount Plus and Peacock have been working hard to court subscribers in order to further solidify their respective statuses as lasting players in the streaming space, but according to a new report, the platforms' parent companies could be considering a unique partnership.The Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast and Paramount have been in recent talks about a potential streaming partnership that could see Paramount Plus and Peacock being offered to subscribers together as a package deal. Along with making access to the two platforms comparatively cheaper than buying separate subscriptions, the partnership would help Comcast and Paramount produce significant cost savings - from spending on programming to marketing."Word of... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge From console exclusives to rumored new hardware. Continue reading...

Time for Samsung and Google to make some room in the midrange. Continue reading...

The Verge Microsoft announced yesterday that four Xbox-exclusive games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch soon, opening up a new strategy for Xbox to be on more screens. Just two hours before Microsoft's big announcement, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer explained the company's new Xbox vision in an internal memo to employees.The Verge has obtained a copy of the memo. It's the first time Spencer has fully outlined a new strategy where every screen is an Xbox" to employees, after an internal town hall meeting earlier this month didn't address multi-platform games directly.Microsoft didn't directly mention Xbox everywhere" or every screen is an Xbox" during its official Xbox podcast yesterday, but it's not too dissimilar to what the company... Continue reading...

Google's description of the feature in Search Labs. | Image: Sterling Google is testing a new Talk to a Live Representative" feature that allows the company's software to call a business on your behalf, navigate through its phone tree, wait on hold, and then notify you when there's a real human being available for you to speak to. The test, which is available now as a Search Labs experimental feature, was spotted by X user Sterling.As 9to5Google notes, the feature sounds a lot like the Pixel's Hold for Me," but with a couple of key advantages. First, it's available across all phones rather than just the Pixel 3 and newer. And second, Talk to a Live Representative" offers to actually proactively call a business on your behalf, rather than being something you enable once you've already placed a call and... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Microsoft has fixed an issue where its Edge browser was again misbehaving, this time by automatically importing browsing data and tabs from Chrome without consent. I personally experienced the bug last month, after I rebooted my PC for a regular Windows update and Microsoft Edge automatically opened with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update.I asked Microsoft repeatedly to explain why this behavior had occurred for myself and many other Windows users, but the company refused to comment. Microsoft has now quietly issued a fix in the latest Microsoft Edge update. Here's how Microsoft describes the fix:

Illustration: The Verge A report from Bloomberg says Apple has expanded internal testing of new generative AI features for its Xcode programming software and plans to release them to third-party developers this year. Apple also reportedly looked at potential uses for generative AI in consumer-facing products, like automatic playlist creation in Apple Music, slideshows in Keynote, or AI chatbot-like search features for Spotlight search.The search upgrade could let iOS and macOS users make natural language requests, like with ChatGPT, to get weather reports or operate features deep within apps.While other tech giants have been more prominent in releasing AI research and products, in the past few months, Apple released an open-source machine learning framework... Continue reading...

The Verge Taken on their own, today's gaming announcements from Microsoft might not seem all that earth-shattering. A handful of unspecified Xbox games are coming to rival platforms, the subscriber numbers for Game Pass have grown, Diablo IV will lead the rush of Activision Blizzard titles on Game Pass, and more hardware is on the way, including a powerful next-gen console and possibly a handheld. But they all point to a future that Microsoft hasn't exactly been shy about: making Xbox into more than just a console.In an internal memo to employees, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer explained the strategy like this:

Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has surpassed 60 Senate co-sponsors, enough supporters for it to pass through the chamber, the bill's authors announced on Thursday.The support marks a major milestone for the legislation, which seeks to create a duty of care for tech platforms to mitigate certain dangers to young users and allow them to opt out of algorithm-based recommendations. If it becomes law, it would be among the most significant kids' online safety statutes since the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which went into effect in 2000.The bill's lead champions, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), also announced new changes to the text of the legislation, which seem aimed at addressing concerns that... Continue reading...

The new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Lego set. | Image: The Lego Group Lego has officially revealed its $220 take on Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, coming March 4th, and it looks incredible.It also looks a lot like a fan design!This fan design, which twice gathered the required 10,000 votes to become a Lego Ideas set and was rejected by Lego each time: Image by Hanwasyellowfirst A 2021 Lego Ideas submission. I definitely prefer the more thatched, lively look of Lego's official playset, though - and it's worth noting Lego has repeatedly recognized that particular fan designer in a different way.Hanwasyellowfirst" also created The Mountain Windmill, which went on to earn its creator well over $100,000 in estimated royalties after Lego greenlit it to become a... Continue reading...

The Era 100 is a great starter speaker for anyone new to Sonos. | Image: Sonos I've been reluctant to jump into the Sonos game because I know just how addictive it can be once you've crossed over - like Pringles, I know I won't stop at just one. It's hard to keep resisting deals like the one we're seeing at Woot today, though. Now through February 29th (or while supplies last), you can buy a two-pack of Sonos Era 100 speakers with a 90-day warranty for $409.99, which is about $90 off the price if you were to buy two speakers separately.I'm eying the Era 100s as starters for building out my dream home theater, which I intend to pair with something like the Sonos Arc and Sonos Sub. Each Era 100 features two tweeters and a built-in woofer for drivers, which makes it a powerful speaker on its own. While the allure... Continue reading...

Image: Blizzard Diablo IV will be the first Activision Blizzard game coming to Xbox Game Pass, launching on the service on March 28th.Once Microsoft completed its billion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard, fans speculated that its games would arrive immediately on the subscription service. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in October of last year, right when the deal closed, that fans would have to wait until 2024 before games like Call of Duty would start showing up on the service. That time is now, but instead of Call of Duty, we're getting Diablo IV.Diablo IV was one of last year's big hits and its seasonal updates - we're now on Season of the Construct - continues to provide a fresh experience for players. Bringing the game to Game... Continue reading...

The Verge Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers. That's up 36 percent from the 25 million Microsoft previously reported more than two years ago. Microsoft revealed the new 34 million figure in an official Xbox podcast today, as part of an announcement that some Xbox exclusives are coming to the PS5 and Nintendo Switch.It's the first time Microsoft has disclosed fresh Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers since announcing its Activision Blizzard acquisition in January 2022.Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously admitting he had been seeing growth slow on Xbox Game Pass for consoles. We're seeing incredible growth on PC ... On console, I've seen growth slow down, mainly because at some point you've reached everybody... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube now lets creators add and remix music videos in their Shorts. In its post announcing the feature, YouTube points out that creators can use music videos from artists like Beyonce and Maggie Rogers - even as TikTok fights with the record label representing them. The timing suggests it's a direct response to TikTok's current music licensing battle.Earlier this month, TikTok lost tracks from artists like Taylor Swift, Drake, and Olivia Rodrigo due to a dispute with Universal Music Group (UMG). TikTok and UMG never renewed their licensing deal after the music label accused TikTok of trying to bully" it into a bad deal and claimed the social platform wants to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music."... Continue reading...

Photo by Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images New York City is the latest government to go after big tech companies for allegedly addicting kids to their platforms.Several city agencies, including NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Department of Education, filed suit against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Google, accusing them of fueling the nationwide youth mental health crisis." The city charged them with public nuisance and negligence.The city claims that the platforms' design features, including recommendation algorithms and likes, addict children to the services and manipulate them into spending more and more time online.The lawsuit adds to a growing wave of litigation from state and local governments that target tech platforms for allegedly addictive features... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Our new Thursday episodes of Decoder are all about deep dives into big topics in the news, and for the next few weeks, we're going to stay focused on one of the biggest topics of all: generative AI.There's a lot going on in the world of generative AI, but maybe the biggest is the increasing number of copyright lawsuits being filed against AI companies like OpenAI and Stability AI. So for this episode, we brought on Verge features editor Sarah Jeong, who's a former lawyer just like me, and we're going to talk about those cases and the main defense the AI companies are relying on in those copyright cases: an idea called fair use.All the big generative AI models from every company are tried on huge swaths of data that are scraped from... Continue reading...

With a design that clings to your outer ear, these earbuds are unlike anything the company has made before - and Bose hopes they'll find more success than its unconventional products of the past. Continue reading...

Following its successful deployment, the Nova-C spacecraft now faces a two-week journey to reach the Moon's south pole. | Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images A robotic lunar lander built by private aerospace company Intuitive Machines was successfully launched by SpaceX on Thursday, with hopes of being the first American spacecraft to successfully touch down on the Moon's surface since the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The Nova-C lander named Odysseus" was carried into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launched from Cape Canaveral at 1:05AM ET on February 15th.The launch was originally scheduled to take place on Wednesday but was delayed due to concerns regarding the temperature of the rocket's methane fuel. Shortly after liftoff, SpaceX confirmed that the IM-1 mission's Odysseus lander had been successfully deployed and that the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that delivered it into... Continue reading...

Transparent screens, touch-sensitive keyboards, and stylus support. | Image: Evan Blass / Lenovo Leaker Evan Blass has offered another look at Lenovo's transparent laptop concept ahead of its presumed unveiling at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month. The new leaked press image shows two of the concept laptops on a desk, with one of the devices being visible through the transparent screen of another. This is our second look at the concept device, after WindowsReport published leaked press shots of it earlier this month.See-through screens aren't exactly a new technology. They've been cropping up in concept devices for over a decade, and Samsung even showed off a transparent laptop concept back at CES 2010. But 14 years later it seems like companies are ready to actually commercialize the technology. We've already... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia surpassed Alphabet in market capitalization on Wednesday, only a day after it overtook Amazon. Bloomberg is reporting that the chip maker's stock is now worth $1.83 trillion, beating the Google owner's $1.82 market cap by a hair. This makes Nvidia the world's fourth most valuable company in the wake of the AI boom, after Microsoft ($3.04T), Apple ($2.84T) and Saudi Aramco. The company is currently making the H100 chip, which powers the majority of LLMs in use today, including OpenAI's ChatGPT and the majority of AI projects from Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.The world's largest tech companies are involved in an AI chip arms race, with each of them hoping to create their own GPU chip to topple Nvidia's virtual monopoly. Ironically,... Continue reading...

Collage of Stabie Cascade art | Stability AI Stability AI's newest model for image generation is Stable Cascade promises to be faster and more powerful than its industry-leading predecessor, Stable Diffusion, which is the basis of many other text-to-image generation AI tools.Stable Cascade can generate photos and give variations of the exact image it created, or try to increase an existing picture's resolution. Other text-to-image editing features include inpainting and outpainting, where the model will fill edit only a specific part of the image, as well as canny edge, where users can make a new photo just by using the edges of an existing picture. Image: Stability AI Stable Cascade images generated from the prompt Cinematic photo of an anthropomorphic... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A report from the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP) alleges that X has been selling premium subscriptions to subjects of US sanctions, including leaders of the US-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah. The TTP report identifies 28 accounts that were granted checkmarks under owner Elon Musk's paid verification plan, evading rules that formally state they're banned from using it. The allegations raise new questions about how strictly social media platforms should vet users - after the Supreme Court ruled just last year that the platform formerly known as Twitter was not responsible for abetting a terrorist attack.The TTP report lists the full series of sanctioned entities that got verified on Twitter. The wide range of names... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla rolled out two changes in its latest vehicle software update - 2024.2.6 - that appear to be aimed squarely at battery issues that immobilized cars during an extreme cold weather event in January. One of those new features will tell Tesla drivers how much time they can expect until their battery is warm enough for DC fast charging, while the other will automatically defrost the charge port.According to the update's release notes published by Not a Tesla App, the charge port will start warming automatically when drivers use the car's navigation feature to get to a charging station. Frozen charge ports could be one of the issues that left drivers stranded during an extreme cold snap in Chicago earlier this year, especially if the... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft tweeted that its annual Build conference for developers will take place in Seattle from May 21st through 23rd. The announcement tells everyone to expect to hear updates about AI, Copilots, and more."The 2023 event marked a return to the in-person portion, and this year's event promises to take place both in Seattle and online. Last year, Microsoft ramped up AI efforts that now include tools for developers like Copilot Studio and Windows AI Studio, while its growing AI ambitions around Windows and Microsoft 365 will surely be front and center again.No schedule of events for this year's gathering has been posted yet, and the page is currently inviting potential attendees to sign up to find out when registration opens. On the... Continue reading...

The Asus ROG Ally, with the Xbox app on Windows. This is not enough. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge The Nintendo Switch is on track to become the bestselling game console of all time. Sony's PS5 will likely surpass the Xbox One's entire lifetime sales later this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft's newer Xbox Series X and S, with their comparatively disappointing exclusive games, are firmly in third place yet again - and it doesn't look like Xbox Game Pass will ever fill the gap.Microsoft isn't planning to take this lying down. It's among the largest video game companies in the world now that it owns Activision Blizzard, and it's going to act. This Thursday, we expect the company to reveal a seismic shift in strategy, one where it could bring Xbox exclusives like Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield, even Indiana Jones to PlayStation and / or Switch.To... Continue reading...

Image: Aspyr I have been waiting for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered for 21 years. That's when I first played the second entry in the series, it having been a gift" from my mother's boyfriend who gave me both his PlayStation and a handful of games - sans jewel cases - for no other reason than wanting to free up some space in his closet. I played it ceaselessly, enamored with the game's action and puzzles and the fact it was the first game I ever owned that starred a woman. But after reconnecting with the Tomb Raider II portion of Aspyr's remaster, I'm left asking: what in the natural hell was 15-year-old Ash thinking?Playing Tomb Raider II on the Switch - it's also available on Xbox, PC, and Playstation - was an exercise in self-flagellation, with the... Continue reading...

SVG images and text descriptions fed into Keyframer are automatically converted into animation code. | Image: Apple Researchers at Apple have unveiled Keyframer, a prototype generative AI animation tool that enables users to add motion to 2D images by describing how they should be animated.In a research paper published on February 8th, Apple said that large language models (LLMs) are underexplored" in animation despite the potential they've shown across other creative mediums like writing and image generation. The LLM-powered Keyframer tool is being pitched as one example of how the technology could be applied.Utilizing OpenAI's GPT4 as its base model, Keyframer can take Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) files - an illustration format that can be resized without interfering with quality - and generate CSS code to animate the image based on a text... Continue reading...