The Verge

The MSI Claw gaming handheld. | Image: MSI The MSI Claw will be one of the first handheld gaming PCs with an Intel Core Ultra processor inside - and the second with a variable refresh rate (VRR) screen. Previously, the Asus ROG Ally was the only handheld with that dynamic gameplay smoothing display feature, and it's one of its biggest advantages, and - after a lot of back and forth - MSI has now triple-confirmed that the Claw will contain a 7-inch, 1080p, 48-120Hz VRR screen too.Earlier today, I published that it wouldn't have a VRR screen, after explicitly fact-checking that with the company on Friday and being told that it would require manual setup to hit a 48Hz or 60Hz refresh rate if you'd rather go lower than the full 120Hz on offer.However, MSI continued to insist that... Continue reading...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Apple's new plan to comply with the European Union's tech regulations has already drawn criticism from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and Spotify. Now Microsoft is weighing in with its own concerns, calling the App Store changes in the EU a step in the wrong direction."Apple has proposed a new Core Technology Fee for apps that want to operate on third-party app stores in the EU. It will require developers using third-party app stores to pay 0.50 for each annual app install after 1 million downloads. Apple will also still take a 17 percent commission from the developers who choose to use third-party payment processors.Apple's new policy is a step in the wrong direction," says Xbox president Sarah Bond in a post on X. We hope they... Continue reading...

Embracer Group, the company attempting to forge one video game publisher to rule them all, has just presided over another round of layoffs. Eidos Montreal is letting go of 97 game developers and support staff, the company announced today on X, shortly after Bloomberg's Jason Schreier scooped that the studio has canceled an unannounced Deus Ex video game. Image: Eidos Montreal The global economic context, the challenges of our industry and the comprehensive restructuring announced by Embracer have finally impacted our studio." The global economic context, the challenges of our industry and the comprehensive restructuring announced by Embracer have finally impacted our studio," wrote Eidos Montreal. Eidos... Continue reading...

There's a lot to like about the Kobo Elipsa 2 compared to something like the Kindle Scribe, especially with today's discount. | Image: Kobo As much as I like physical books, I'm planning a move and considering consolidating my collection to make that process more painless. You might be in the same boat, or perhaps you want a more convenient way to knock out your beefy reading list for the new year. If that sounds like you, you might want to consider the Kobo Elipsa 2E, which is currently on sale for $349.99 ($50 off) direct from Rakuten Kobo.In addition to reading ebooks on its large E Ink display, you can use the ad-free Elipsa 2E to take notes using the included stylus. In fact, we consider it the best ebook reader you can buy for that purpose - one that's even better than the Kindle Scribe given you can write directly on any page in any book. (The Scribe only supports... Continue reading...

Amelia Krales General Motors' shift from an internal combustion engine-producing company to one that makes electric motors is sputtering. EV sales are up, but growing slower than expected. The company's next-generation Ultium platform, in particular, isn't meeting expectations. GM's new electric trucks and SUVs seem perennially delayed - or full of buggy software.I think I have an easy solution to a lot of these problems: bring back the Chevy Volt.Remember the Volt, GM's scrappy Toyota Prius fighter from the mid-2010s? The company was lauded when it first came out in 2010 as a prescient bet on vehicles with electric powertrains. And it was undeniably a very good hybrid. The first-generation model got 36 miles of electric range before the gas... Continue reading...

Bundles freshly harvested chard. | Photo by Waltraud Grubitzsch/picture alliance via Getty Images One of the most ambitious assessments yet of our global food system calculates the health, environmental, and economic losses of business as usual. It also outlines what governments can do to reap trillions of dollars' worth of benefits by producing food more sustainably.All in all, the damages caused by the current system - how food is produced, marketed, and consumed - add up to $15 trillion in losses a year. That includes health costs associated with poor nutrition, biodiversity loss, climate change, and other environmental harms. In short, our food systems are destroying more value than they create," says the report published today by economists and scientists with the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC).It's time for a... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update. I don't use Microsoft Edge regularly, and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser. Bleary-eyed at 9AM, it took me a moment to realize that Microsoft Edge had simply taken over where I'd left off in Chrome. I couldn't believe my eyes.I never imported my data into Microsoft Edge, nor did I confirm whether I wanted to import my tabs. But here was Edge automatically opening after a Windows update with all the Chrome tabs I'd been working on. I didn't even realize I was using Edge at first, and I was confused why all my tabs were suddenly logged out.After the shock... Continue reading...

Perfectly Imperfect founder Tyler Bainbridge The dream of the early internet is alive in PI.FYI, a new app spun out from Perfectly Imperfect. Continue reading...

The Galaxy S24 Ultra is packed with top-tier hardware, but its highly touted AI features are hit-or-miss - and the price is higher than ever. Continue reading...

Image: Zoom Zoom's Vision Pro app will launch alongside Apple's new headset on February 2nd and let wearers use its persona" (a digital avatar based on their face scans) during video calls. Whoever they're calling will see their facial expressions and hand movements as if they're not wearing a headset, much like Apple's FaceTime app for the Vision Pro.The upcoming Zoom app will also take advantage of the Vision Pro's augmented reality capabilities, allowing it to blend in with users' physical environments while surfacing as a floating window. These features will be available when the app launches with the headset on Friday, February 2nd.However, Zoom says it plans on bringing more features to the app later this spring, including something called... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In case the hubbub of the holidays made you forget all about (or completely miss) Amazon's news about putting ads in Prime Video, we're here to remind you that commercials are coming today - unless you pay more money, of course.Amazon just so happened to break the news right after Christmas, leaving a lovely email in users' inboxes (that most people probably weren't even checking at that time) to announce the rollout of ads. The new ad-free plan will cost an extra $2.99 per month, bringing your $14.99 per month Prime subscription to $17.98 per month or your $8.99 per month standalone Prime Video subscription to $11.98 per month. You won't be automatically transferred to the new ad-free plan, but you can preorder" the new tier from A... Continue reading...

SLIM landed close to its target, but engine troubles during the descent saw the lander flipped upside-down and unable to properly recharge its solar batteries. | Image: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has been resurrected, over a week after the probe ran out of electricity following its troubled lunar touchdown on January 20th, leaving it upside-down and its solar panels pointing in the wrong direction. On Monday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that communication with the SLIM spacecraft had been re-established, and operations to hunt for clues about the Moon's origins had resumed.JAXA had predicted that a change in sunlight direction could allow the probe's battery to be recharged from its awkwardly angled solar panels. It's unclear how long this power will last - the agency previously said that SLIM was not designed to survive a lunar night, which will next... Continue reading...

The Nomad Stand offers 15W of wireless iPhone fast charging for $100. | Image: Nomad Nomad's Stand is the latest Qi2 charger to hit the market, offering up to 15W of wireless charging speed to Qi2-compatible phones like the iPhone 15. The accessory was announced in late December, but it's now shipping in a choice of black or white for $100 from Nomad's website.It's $100 price point makes the Stand $10 cheaper than Nomad's equivalent MagSafe model, the Stand One, and offers the same up to 15W" charging speeds and magnetic attachment compatibility as Apple's MagSafe (Apple helped develop the Qi2 charging standard). The bad news is that Nomad's $100 asking price doesn't include the required 20W power adapter - you just get a USB-C to USB-C cable. Image: Nomad Nomad's Stand in black. Nomad's... Continue reading...

Arc Search browses the web for you and then builds you the webpage you wanted. That's the idea, anyway. | Image: The Browser Company / David Pierce A few minutes ago, I opened the new Arc Search app and typed, What happened in the Chiefs game?" That game, the AFC Championship, had just wrapped up. Normally, I'd Google it, click on a few links, and read about the game that way. But in Arc Search, I typed the query and tapped the Browse for me" button instead.Arc Search, the new iOS app from The Browser Company, which has been working on a browser called Arc for the last few years, went to work. It scoured the web - reading six pages, it told me, from Twitter to The Guardian to USA Today - and returned a bunch of information a few seconds later. I got the headline: Chiefs win. I got the final score, the key play, a notable event" that also just said the Chiefs won, a note about... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge X has blocked searches for Taylor Swift in reaction to a recent trend of graphic AI fakes of the world-famous recording artist being posted to the site. Right now, if you search Taylor Swift" or Taylor Swift AI" on X, formerly Twitter, you may see a Something went wrong" message. X head of business Joe Benarroch acknowledged the temporary" measure, meant to prioritize safety," according to The Wall Street Journal. But it's very easy to get around, as we found out when trying some searches after Platformer's Casey Newton posted about the block yesterday.Rearranging the words in your search to Taylor AI Swift" or simply putting quotation marks around Swift's full name both returned results as of this writing, for example. Even... Continue reading...

Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 23, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about the sudden rise in freight train heists and the strange state of Air Jordans, watching Jon Stewart's Mark Twain Prize speeches all over again, wondering if I should buy an original Macintosh on eBay instead of continuing to pay my mortgage, scheming to get my hands on the real" Star Wars lightsaber, tracking at-home workouts with Weller, and trying to replace doomscrolling on my phone with the Chess.com app.I also have for you a new show from the Silicon Valley creator,... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge X says it will hire 100 full-time employees for a new trust and safety office in Austin, Texas, according to a Saturday report by Bloomberg. The plan comes, as the article notes, just a few days before CEO Linda Yaccarino's scheduled January 31st hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding X's handling of child sexual exploitation moderation.The team would reportedly focus mainly on CSE and would be the first proper trust and safety team since Elon Musk gutted it shortly after purchasing the platform formerly known as Twitter. X updated a blog post about its CSE moderation approach to mention the new office yesterday, as well, though it doesn't reveal what the new team will be doing, nor when the office will open.The... Continue reading...

Nomad's minimalist Base One Max 3-in-1 is on sale for $95. | Image: Nomad Fancy phone chargers are nice, but they're often too expensive to justify the cost. Nomad's Base One Max 3-in-1 is one of those rare unicorns that delivers a lot of value for your money, however, thus making it worth the splurge. After all, the device can simultaneously charge a MagSafe-compatible phone, your Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods (or another Qi-compatible device) - that's something not even Nomad's forthcoming Qi2 charger can do. What's even better is that Nomad is currently selling the hefty, MagSafe-certified charger in both black and silver for its Black Friday price of $95 ($55 off).Designed with metal and glass, Nomad's minimalist slab will look slick on any desk or bedside table. It's also powerful, delivering up to... Continue reading...

Still frame from a teaser reel of Lumiere clips | Image: Google Google's new video generation AI model Lumiere uses a new diffusion model called Space-Time-U-Net, or STUNet, that figures out where things are in a video (space) and how they simultaneously move and change (time). Ars Technica reports this method lets Lumiere create the video in one process instead of putting smaller still frames together.Lumiere starts with creating a base frame from the prompt. Then, it uses the STUNet framework to begin approximating where objects within that frame will move to create more frames that flow into each other, creating the appearance of seamless motion. Lumiere also generates 80 frames compared to 25 frames from Stable Video Diffusion.Admittedly, I am more of a text reporter than a video person, but... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Many of us are hyperaware of the multitude of ways we can be tracked with modern technology, so you may feel like you don't need to add another to the mix. But knowing the whereabouts of trusted friends and family can be useful a lot of the time, and it's something you can do from your Android phone.It's worth saying at the start that you stay in control of who can see you and when - and you can stop location sharing at any time if someone in your life goes from being trusted to distrusted.I've used this many times to figure out where to meet someone or to check when guests are going to arrive so I know exactly how much time I've got left to tidy up. It can be helpful for parents, too, to know their kids are safe and where they're... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Was it a joyous outage where you got to relax, or did something mission-critical go wrong? Either way, a portion" of Microsoft Teams went down Friday for over eight hours - with outages in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to status updates from Microsoft's official account.At 8:17PM ET Friday, Microsoft tweeted that the worst is over, but that the company was still mopping up, with a handful of issues still ongoing. Shortly after midnight Saturday, the company called the all-clear: we've confirmed that our Microsoft Teams service and features have been restored or have returned to optimal health," it writes.So yeah, if you couldn't communicate with your colleagues via Microsoft's biz comm... Continue reading...

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Legislation needs to be passed to protect people from fake sexual images generated by AI, the White House said this afternoon. The statement, from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, came in response to a question about the spread of fake sexualized photos of Taylor Swift on social media this week.Jean-Pierre called the incident alarming" and said it's among the AI issues the Biden administration has been prioritizing.Of course Congress should take legislative action," Jean-Pierre said. That's how you deal with some of these issues." She did not refer to any specific legislation that the White House was backing.There should be legislation, obviously, to deal with this issue."The images spread across X in particular on... Continue reading...

Image: Beeper In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Beeper announced it's removing the Beeper Mini app from the Google Play Store and moving the iMessage bridge to the Labs" section of its cloud version. No new users will be able to use Beeper Cloud to gain entry into Apple's messaging service, but the chat app acknowledged that iMessage may still work on Beeper Cloud for some existing users. Beeper also made the iMessage bridge (which it noted cost $750,000 to build) open source.The company doesn't plan to provide help or troubleshooting to current users who run into problems with the iMessage fix, as it's now fully focused on our mission beyond iMessage" and building a universal, multi-network chat app."After Apple blocked Beeper's iMessage for... Continue reading...

Image: Mozilla Apple's new rules in the European Union mean browsers like Firefox can finally use their own engines on iOS. Although this may seem like a welcome change, Mozilla spokesperson Damiano DeMonte tells The Verge it's extremely disappointed" with the way things turned out.We are still reviewing the technical details but are extremely disappointed with Apple's proposed plan to restrict the newly-announced BrowserEngineKit to EU-specific apps," DeMonte says. The effect of this would be to force an independent browser like Firefox to build and maintain two separate browser implementations - a burden Apple themselves will not have to bear."In iOS 17.4, Apple will no longer force browsers in the EU to use WebKit, the underlying engine that... Continue reading...

Is this what Gen Z really looks like? | Image: Getty Okay, Gen Z. Sit down, babes. It's time to talk.I have seen multiple reports that you are worried about whether you are aging like milk." (I guess this is a thing on TikTok, an app I am too old to care about.) Like, yes, I think it is extremely funny to tease you, but also, generally, I like you guys and am kind of worried about how neurotic you are making yourselves. It is - to borrow a phrase - time to stop, drop, and roll yourself back to sanity.Do you know how many times since my 40th birthday I have uttered the magic words: I am 40. I don't have to care about this"?I am not interested in the question of whether you are aging faster than millennials. I don't think you're scared of looking old. I think you're scared of being old.... Continue reading...

OnePlus' no-frills flagship stands tall against the competition. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge With the impending launch of Samsung's Galaxy S24 series, OnePlus surely hopes to hitch a ride on the buzz train as upgrade season begins. The newly announced OnePlus 12 arrives on February 6th, however, you can currently get a free storage upgrade if you place a preorder before then. Both Amazon and Best Buy are selling the 512GB model with 16GB of RAM in black or green for $799.99 ($100 off). You'll note that the price tag is identical to the price of the lower-end, 256GB model, so there's no good reason to pass up double the storage if you plan on buying OnePlus' latest Android phone at launch.We've already had some personal time with the OnePlus 12, and while it's not exactly blowing the competition away in any specific area, we... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple is finally opening up the iPhone to sideloading and alternative app stores - at least in the European Union. It's also allowing developers to use third-party payment processors in their apps. This is all part of Apple's efforts to comply with the EU's new Digital Markets Act (DMA), and at the surface, these changes make it seem like Apple is giving in to regulatory pressure.But some developers are already responding with criticism about Apple's new guidelines. Epic Games CEO (and part-time Apple critic) Tim Sweeney notably called out the changes as hot garbage," even as Epic announced it would be launching its own app store through them. That's because Apple's new business terms come with some pretty big disadvantages -... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple is finally opening the iPhone to third-party app stores in the European Union, kicking off a potentially vibrant, unwieldy, and eclectic new era for its app ecosystem. At least, it might, depending on how developers respond to a hurdle that is at once tiny and immense: a 0.50 fee.Apple is introducing a new fee structure for apps that want to operate on these third-party stores. On the surface, it looks great: apps pay no cut of sales to Apple if they're distributed via a third-party store. And if a developer still wants to be distributed via Apple's App Store, too, the cut drops from the traditional 30 percent fee down to 17 percent. It's an even lower 10 percent fee for qualifying small business" apps, down from the original 15... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft revealed last week that it had discovered a nation-state attack on its corporate systems from the Russian state-sponsored hackers that were behind the SolarWinds attack. Hackers were able to access the email accounts of some members of Microsoft's senior leadership team - potentially spying on them for weeks or months.While Microsoft didn't provide many details on how the attackers gained access in its initial SEC disclosure late on Friday, the software maker has now published an initial analysis of how the hackers got past its security. It's also warning that the same hacking group, known as Nobelium or as the Midnight Blizzard" weather-themed moniker Microsoft refers to them, has been targeting other organizations.N... Continue reading...

Putting the temperature sensor on the rear... was certainly a choice for body temperature scans. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Earlier this week, Google updated the Pixel 8 Pro to let its strange new temperature sensor finally take readings of human bodies. I regret to inform you that, having used it, it doesn't make this feature any less baffling.To measure body temperature, you have to sweep the phone's infrared temperature sensor over the side of your forehead, right above the temporal artery. So far, nothing super odd here. Just this month, I got to check out the Withings BeamO, a 4-in-1 multiscope that also has you scan the same kind of sensor over the same artery to measure your temperature. The difference is the BeamO was quite easy to use, while the Pixel 8 Pro was incredibly finicky. Screenshot: Richard Lawler / The Verge You've... Continue reading...

Twinkly's smart string lights can make any room look dreamy for less than $50. | Image: Twinkly If budget-friendly" and high-quality" sound like oxymorons to you, you're in for a surprise. As it turns out, you can buy many great gifts without completely draining your savings account, which makes it easy to pick up a present for your anniversary, a birthday party, or one of the many other gift-giving occasions strewn throughout the year.Finding the right gift can still be tough, though, even when there is a sea of inexpensive items for under $50 to choose from. That's why we've put together a selection of techy gift ideas, ranging from disposable cameras and wireless earbuds to home security gadgets. We've also highlighted an array of last-minute gifts that are more unique than your run-of-the-mill gift card - including game... Continue reading...

In this marshy coastal region between Texas and Louisiana, the proliferation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects, massive facilities that receive and liquefy gas from pipelines, then transfer the LNG to ships for export, unsettles residents, who consider the plants to be a threat to their coast. | Photo by FRANCOIS PICARD/AFP via Getty Images The Biden administration announced a pause on new gas export projects today, saying it needs to better assess each project's economic and environmental impact. The decision won't affect ongoing exports, just pending decisions on liquified natural gas (LNG) exports to countries with which the US has no free trade agreement.During this period, we will take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America's energy security, and our environment," Biden said in a statement today. This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time."During this period, we will take a hard look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America's energy security, and our... Continue reading...

Samsung's S24 Ultra as announced in the US earlier this month. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung's Galaxy S24 lineup has launched in China, and the company is tapping Chinese tech giant Baidu to power its Galaxy AI features, CNBC reports. There's no mention of Google, whose Gemini foundational models are powering Samsung's Galaxy AI features in Western markets. Instead, the Chinese launch focused on Baidu's Ernie, the chatbot that launched last August.The list of AI translation, summarization, and text formatting features on the Chinese version of the Galaxy S24 will be familiar to anyone who kept up with its US-based launch. There's also real-time call translation like we saw earlier this month, and the phones are even getting a version of Google's Circle to Search feature.Now featuring Ernie's understanding and... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google appears to be readying a version of its popular Chrome browser for Windows on Arm. X (formerly Twitter) user Pedro Justo spotted a native version of the browser for Windows 11 Arm-powered devices in the latest nightly builds of Chrome in the Canary channel.Google's release of a Chrome Canary version for Windows on Arm is a surprise, and we've reached out to the company to clarify when it plans to bring this to the stable channel. I have installed and tested the Canary version to verify it's an ARM64 version. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge An ARM64 native version of Chrome on Windows 11. While Microsoft has long supported an Arm version of its Edge browser, also based on Chromium, Google has... Continue reading...