The Verge

Counter-Strike 2 | Image: Valve Counter-Strike 2, the highly anticipated upgrade for CS:GO, has finally arrived. Valve announced today that it's launching CS2, which comes with some major updates like improved smoke grenades, redesigned maps, and improved network features.After years of rumors, Valve announced CS2 in March and opened up a limited test. The updated game is based on Valve's Source 2 engine, giving the game a much-needed facelift, reworked audio, UI enhancements, and upgraded Community Workshop tools. There's even a new tick-rate-independent gameplay" that Valve describes as a way for servers to know the exact instant that motion starts, a shot is fired, or a nade is thrown."You can download the 27GB CS2 for free from Steam, with its listing... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is testing a DALL-E-powered text-to-image creator in Microsoft Paint for Windows 11, the company announced in a blog post. Called Paint Cocreator, the tool creates art based on a description the user types out.Alternatively, users can select an art style, and Cocreator will then generate three variations. After choosing the one they like, customers can then edit the artwork by, for example, adding layers - a feature that's also new to Paint.It remains to be seen how well OpenAI's latest DALL-E image generation model converts text to image, however - previous generations of DALL-E have struggled to correctly interpret text input. Aside from that, DALL-E has been prone to gender and racial bias. In its blog post, Microsoft says... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI posted today that ChatGPT can once more trawl the web for current information, offering answers taken directly from current and authoritative" sources, which it cites in its responses. The feature, called Browse with Bing, is only open to those with Plus and Enterprise subscriptions for now, but the company says it will roll it out to all users soon."Microsoft's Bing Chat on Windows, in the Edge browser, and in third-party browser plugins could already return live information from the web, and so can Google's Bard in Chrome and other browsers. Both also offer links when searching, as ChatGPT's Browse with Bing feature now does. Meta just announced at Meta Connect that it will also use Bing to power real-time web results in the... Continue reading...

Image: EA EA has delisted all prior FIFA games from major storefronts, including Epic Games, Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PS5. The titles, up to and including FIFA 23, are no longer available for purchase. The move, which was first spotted by analyst MauroNL, comes just two days before the upcoming EA Sports FC 24 is set to release.The content is not totally lost: FIFA 23 is still technically available to EA Play subscribers through its collection of legacy titles known as The Play List." Some DLC packs are also still available for purchase, per Kotaku's reporting.FC 24 will be the first iteration of EA's annual soccer video game to lack the FIFA branding. Soccer fans got their first glimpse of gameplay during a livestreamed event earlier this... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Fortnite's in-game currency is getting a price adjustment - and it'll make V-bucks more expensive in a number of countries. The pricing change goes into effect on October 27th, and it impacts the following countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States (as well as countries that use the USD in their Fortnite storefronts).These adjustments are based on economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations, and follow similar pricing alignments recently completed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico," developer Epic Games said in a statement, when announcing the changes.The changes aren't huge, but they'll be noticeable to those who spend... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is pushing a new ChromeOS update that introduces significant upgrades, including a new look, some useful battery charging controls, accent color accessibility settings, and more (via 9to5Google).ChromeOS, now on stable version 117, adopts Google's Material You" design philosophy, the radical new look introduced on Android 12 in 2021. The change is most prominent in the newly redesigned Quick Settings view that now has easier-to-select (and read) rectangular buttons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other settings compared to the previous small circle icons.Updated ChromeOS devices will also get a new notification panel on the bottom right of the screen, giving you easier access to new messages, emails, and other alerts from apps. The... Continue reading...

Image: Artifact Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram's co-founders, is adding a major new feature: the ability to post. So far, the app has been an aggregator for news and links from around the internet, but you're going to be able to add posts directly to the app.Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Artifact, announced the new features onstage in a conversation with Casey Newton at the Code Conference on Wednesday. The new feature is a logical next step from Artifact's recently launched update that lets users share links. This new feature means you won't just be limited to links; your posts can include things like a title, text, and photos. The posts will also have unique URLs, which should make them easier to share on different apps... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox is adding a new feature that will let you better manage your game captures. Starting today, you'll have the ability to set your game screenshots and clips to be automatically backed up in OneDrive, where they're easy to access from a phone or PC for editing and sharing.This also comes with a significant update to how Xbox stores your gamer moments (y'know, the good ones, not the other kind) in the cloud. Now, clips and screenshots that are stored on the Xbox network will be deleted after 90 days. Don't worry, though, Xbox will tell you if there's anything on the network that's marked for deletion so you can save it or move it elsewhere.If you have anything on the Xbox network that you want to keep around for longer, you can bulk... Continue reading...

The Meta Quest 3. (It has two controllers, not just the one you see here.) | Image: Qualcomm Meta has just fully revealed its Quest 3 virtual reality headset and announced its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, and they've both got Qualcomm silicon inside. There's a new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 in the Quest 3 and a new Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 in the Ray-Bans that boasts onboard AI.We've known since the beginning that the Quest would feature a Snapdragon chip with double the GPU performance to drive its higher-res displays, but the Ray-Bans are a slight surprise - and so is the XR2 Gen 2's baked-in hardware processing for head, hand, and object tracking. Image: Qualcomm Leveraging a custom XR design in the Visual Analysis Engine (EVA), Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 accomplishes over 50% power and latency reduction compared to... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge In a rare interview, Meta's CEO dives into where AI is going next, the new Quest 3 headset, and his ongoing rivalry with Elon Musk. Continue reading...

Meta's first look at the Quest 3 came back in June. | Image: Meta Meta Connect, the company's annual conference, is back for 2023. It's bringing a lot more details about the Meta Quest 3, the successor to Quest 2. Continue reading...

Meta Connect's shifting logo. | Image: Meta Meta Connect, the annual product summit from the company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the headsets formerly known as Oculus, will reveal its latest announcements in less than an hour.Meta Connect 2023 kicks off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and the company's pitching it as a two-day virtual event focused on AI and virtual, mixed and augmented realities." Which, we all know, means the company will fully reveal its Quest 3 headset, appeal to gamers, and attempt to wash the stink of Quest Pro away.If you're like me, you're probably wondering - how exactly do I watch it? Because Meta hasn't been 100 percent clear on that point.If you click the big Watch" button on the company's Meta Connect website right now, it'll simply take... Continue reading...

Young Portuguese citizens (C) arrive at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, for a hearing in a climate change case against 32 countries, on September 27th, 2023. | Photo by FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP via Getty Images A groundbreaking climate hearing went down today in the European Court of Human Rights. The youngest plaintiff in the case is 11 years old; the oldest is 24. They all survived wildfires that raged through Portugal in 2017. And they've filed suit against 33 governments in Europe, saying their planet-heating pollution violates their human rights.The case, Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Other States, was brought by a group of six young people from Portugal in 2020. If successful, they could get a legally binding decision that pushes countries - including the 27 EU member states - to act faster on climate change.As in many other places young people are leading the way and demonstrating that there are legal avenues through... Continue reading...

Image: Getty The Republican debate kicks off at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, tonight, where the potential candidates for the 2024 presidential election (with one predictable exception) will take the stage for a second time.Only seven of the Republican Party's candidates will appear onstage this time around, as not everyone we saw during the last debate made the cut. If you're interested in tuning in, here's what you need to know.What time does the Republican debate start?The second Republican debate takes place on Wednesday, September 27th, at 9PM ET / 6PM PT.How do I watch the second Republican debate?The two-hour debate will air live on the Fox News Channel and Fox Business, while a Spanish-language... Continue reading...

Jabra's latest flagships are also some of its toughest thanks to their IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. | Image: Jabra At this point, it would be an understatement to say there are a lot of wireless earbuds to choose from. There is something to be said about a competent platform-agnostic pair that takes a more targeted approach to features instead of relying on ecosystem tricks, which is precisely what Jabra aims to do with the Elite 8 Active.Right now, Jabra's latest pair of premium earbuds are on sale for the first time at Amazon, Best Buy, and Jabra's online storefront for $179.99 ($20 off).Like their lauded predecessor, Jabra's Elite 8 Active are designed with fitness buffs in mind. They boast adaptive ANC and eight hours of playback per charge, along with Jabra's ShakeGrip coating, which helps secure them during rigorous exercise without the... Continue reading...

The Yale Assure Lock 2 Plus works with HomeKey, so you can open it with your wrist instead of your hand if you have an Apple Watch. | Image: Yale Yale has expanded its Assure 2 lineup with two new smart locks: one with support for Apple's HomeKey and one with a fingerprint reader. Both are firsts for the company, but unfortunately, you have to pick one or the other - there's no model with a fingerprint reader and HomeKey. While the locks can work with all the major smart home platforms, neither works with Matter, and there's no ETA on its arrival. But it's not for lack of trying.The Yale Assure Lock 2 Touch ($199) adds a fingerprint reader but is otherwise identical to the existing Yale Assure Lock 2 - one of our favorite smart locks. It comes in keyed or key-free versions but is touchscreen only (the standard Assure 2 has the option of a physical keypad).Like the other Assure... Continue reading...

Why watch the road when you can watch Kylie Minogue's new video instead? | Image: Daniel Golson Drive Pilot is a Level 3 autonomous system, meaning you can take your hands off the wheel and - more notably - your eyes off the road during certain conditions. But are we ready to give up this much control? Continue reading...

Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images European Union regulators have reprimanded Elon Musk after X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, was found to contain a higher ratio of misinformation and disinformation in a new report. X, formerly Twitter ... is the platform with the largest ratio of mis/disinformation followed by Facebook," the European commissioner for values and transparency, Vra Jourova, said in comments reported by The Guardian.The comments coincided with the publication of a new series of reports as part of the EU's Code of Practice on Disinformation. These included a third-party analysis from TrustLab, which says that discoverability of posts containing misinformation and disinformation was highest on X, meaning that for a given search containing... Continue reading...

Altman recently called on former Apple designer Thomas Meyerhoffer - a Jony Ive hire - to create the retina-scanning Orb (pictured) for Altman's Worldcoin crypto project. | Image: Worldcoin Apple's former chief design officer, Jony Ive, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are allegedly exploring opportunities to collaborate on building an unspecified artificial intelligence hardware device," according to two sources speaking to The Information.There's currently no word on what the device will be, or what purpose it serves. The Information claims that Ive and Altman, who are friends, have been discussing what new hardware for the AI age could look like." It's currently unclear if the device will be created by OpenAI or a third-party manufacturer, or indeed if the duo will decide to build the device at all.This wouldn't be the first time that Altman has partnered with a former Apple designer on new hardware. Thomas Meyerhoffer -... Continue reading...

As of midnight, the Writers Guild of America will no longer be picketing. Instead, members of the union will be poring over new details on the contract negotiated with the AMPTP and deciding whether they will vote to ratify this new contract.(Disclosure: The Verge's editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.)The WGA dropped a summary of the contract tonight and it's historic. The flashiest wins for the WGA are around pay increases and artificial intelligence. The pay increases are significant across the board, with notable increases for "high budget subscription video on demand" (think Netflix) and streaming films.AI is the flashy thing... The data is the game changer."The WGA says writers of... Continue reading...

Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images After a nearly five-month-long strike, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is telling its members to lower their picket signs. In a post, the WGA said its Negotiating Committee, WGAW Board, and WGAE Council all voted unanimously to recommend the three-year agreement reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. They will end their strike at 12:01AM PM on Wednesday, sending writers back to work, with a ratification vote scheduled for between October 2nd and October 9th.A summary explaining terms of the deal has been posted so that we can see details of their agreement for the first time, as well as the 94-page deal (embedded below) which is scheduled to remain in effect from September 25th, 2023 through May 1st,... Continue reading...

The $219.99 Floodlight Cam E340 is one of four new Eufy security cameras equipped with a dual-camera system. | Image: Eufy Anker's smart home brand Eufy is revamping its camera lineup with a new SoloCam battery-powered outdoor camera ($199.99), Floodlight Cam E340 ($219.99), Video Doorbell E340 ($179.99), and Indoor Cam S350.The signature hardware feature of the new line is its dual lenses - with one camera that's wide angle and one telephoto for zooming in to better identify faces and license plates. But there's also a new standout ability: cross-camera tracking and video splicing. Source: Eufy, GIF by Umar Shakir / The Verge Multiple cameras tracked this Amazon delivery worker from the vehicle to the gate, and Eufy outputs a spliced video for you to watch. This technology is taken from the banking and traffic industry," Eufy... Continue reading...

Photo by Gary Miller / FilmMagic The 2023 League of Legends World Championship is taking place in Korea this year, and to celebrate, Riot has tapped one of the country's hottest bands to perform the annual anthem. Girl group NewJeans - best known for earworms like Super Shy" - will be behind the new song. It's called Gods" and is set to be released on the evening of October 3rd.Riot is no stranger to working with big artists for musical collaborations, having partnered with the likes of Imagine Dragons and Porter Robinson in the past; last year's Worlds anthem was courtesy of Lil Nas X, who also performed at the event's opening ceremony in San Francisco. The songs typically have an epic feel meant to hype up the event, making NewJeans - with their purposefully... Continue reading...

Image: Apple This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hello Hot Podders, Amrita and Ariel here! Today we're bringing you a co-bylined issue of the newsletter, mostly out of necessity. We've got a whole mess of news to dive into: Apple takes a big(ish) step toward integrating its audio apps, Google Podcasts is defeated by YouTube Music, and Spotify launches a new AI tool for podcasters.Google Podcasts is dead, long live YouTube MusicWell, this was predictable. Tuesday morning, YouTube announced that it will be sunsetting Google Podcasts as it increases its focus on making YouTube Music a podcast destination. The app will be discontinued next year.As part of this process, we'll be... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tom Cortese, Peloton co-founder and chief product officer, is stepping down from his role. In a press release shared on Tuesday, Peloton says it will replace Cortese with former Twitter executive Nick Caldwell.After nearly 12 years of pouring myself into Peloton and serving our Members, I have decided it is time to move on and create space for new perspectives," Cortese says. I'm eager for new growth for Peloton and for me personally, but I'm also excited to support and watch this next phase of Peloton's evolution."Cortese isn't leaving the company completely. Peloton says he'll enter an advisory role on November 1st to support its vision and growth." Cortese has held a pivotal role at Peloton, where he led the company's development... Continue reading...

Image: CMF CMF, the affordability-focused brand owned by Nothing, has launched its first line of products: the Buds Pro, Watch Pro, and a 65W GaN fast charger.The Buds Pro are a pair of wireless earbuds that offer a solid set of features at a 49 / $49 price tag. The buds come with hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC) that uses microphones on the inside and outside of the bud to detect and cancel out noise with a depth of up to 45dB. Image: CMF The earbuds also feature transparency mode, which lets you hear the sounds around you in case you want to stay aware of your environment. With noise cancellation switched off, the Buds Pro should offer up to 11 hours of playback on a single charge (or up to 39 hours with the case).... Continue reading...

Newegg's caption for this photo was Joseph Olmedo of Newegg examines a graphics card to determine its condition." Joseph, you're doing great, man. | Image: Newegg Newegg will now take your old GPU off your hands in exchange for a trade-in credit on a new one. The Newegg Trade-In Program, which soft-launched earlier this month but was officially announced today, gives you a modest bit of cash back on your new GPU and Newegg a steady stream of cards to refurbish and resell.Estimated trade-in values range from $30 for a 4GB AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT all the way up to $561 for an Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti 24GB. You check your trade-in value by clicking the big ol' Check Your Trade-In Value" button on the product page for a GPU and selecting your card from a drop-down menu. Despite the GeForce GTX" card in the photo above, Newegg won't take cards older than the AMD RX 5000 series (launched in July 2019) or... Continue reading...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Eddy Cue, in a dark suit, peered down at the monitor in front of him. The screens in the Washington, DC, courtroom had briefly malfunctioned and left witnesses with only binders, but now the tech was up and running - showing an image of three iPhones, each demonstrating a part of the phone's setup process. Cue squinted down at the screen.The resolution on this is terrible," he said. You should get a Mac." That got some laughs in an otherwise staid and quiet courtroom. Judge Amit Mehta, presiding over the case, leaned into his microphone and responded, If Apple would like to make a donation..." That got even bigger laughs. Then everybody got back down to business.Cue was on the stand as a witness in US v. Google, the landmark antitrust... Continue reading...

Photo by Steven Ferdman / Getty Images The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced plans to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules meant to guarantee fair access to the internet and its information, five years after they were repealed by then-president Donald Trump in 2018.Previous net neutrality rules adopted in 2015 classified broadband service under public utility rules and prevented internet service providers from blocking websites, throttling traffic, or charging more for faster access to certain services. According to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the commission is expected to conduct an initial vote on reinstating these rules next month during an October 19th meeting.Net neutrality is one of the most widely discussed issues in telecommunications... Continue reading...

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Apple just released macOS Sonoma, and along with the new 14.0 version of its operating system, there's an update for its standalone Studio Display monitor that addresses some of our issues with its much-derided webcam (via MacRumors). Now, the Studio Display's camera offers manual control over framing and zoom, which you can adjust by moving the image back and forth or in and out within the video preview window.From Apple's update notes:

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Getting around Windows 11 is a lot easier if you know a keyboard shortcut or five. You can then speed through tasks and across apps without having to fumble around for the mouse and trackpad (or even take your eyes off the screen).These are some of my favorites that I turn to again and again on a daily basis. From helping you go between apps more quickly to navigating your system, there should be at least something here for everyone.Get a closer lookNeed to see something on-screen at a larger scale? Hold down the Win key and then tap + (the plus key) to launch the Magnifier utility. You can then tap the same shortcut again to carry on zooming in or use Win and - (the minus key) to zoom out.See apps across desktopsWindows 11 lets you... Continue reading...