The Verge

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images Ford is postponing $12 billion in EV factory building, including a planned battery factory in Kentucky. The reasons given were an unwillingness by customers to pay extra for its electric vehicles. You see, they're too expensive, and now Ford's massive transformation into an EV company is now going to take a lot longer than before.Ford's EV business continues to lose money, around $1.3 billion this past quarter in adjusted earnings. So far this year, Ford has lost $3.1 billion on its EV spending and has said it's going to lose a total of $4 billion for the year.The Kentucky plant, a mega campus" that builds lithium ion batteries for electric cars, would be put on holdThe Kentucky plant, a mega campus" that builds lithium ion... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta is going to let you make polls and insert GIFs right from the Threads post composer, the company announced on Thursday. Later in the day, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed that the company is testing view counts on Threads posts and pinned posts on profiles and in your replies.The polls and GIFs features are now rolling out, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated by making a post with a GIF and another post with a poll. They're small additions, but they're features you have been able to do on X (formerly Twitter) for a very long time.Zuckerberg's poll has three options (you can include up to four) and a timer that counts down how long users have to vote in the poll in real time, which is a nice touch. To be able to see the results... Continue reading...

Xiaomi's 14 phones run a new Android skin called HyperOS designed to run across different kinds of devices. | Image: Xiaomi Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is just a couple of days of old, and per usual, Xiaomi has already announced new flagship phones that put it to use. The Xiaomi 14 and 14 Pro will be exclusive to China before a likely global (minus the US) launch, but for now, the AI-heavy feature set and a new Android skin called HyperOS give us a pretty good idea of what's to come in 2024.The Xiaomi 14 comes with a 6.3-inch screen, and the 14 Pro offers a 6.7-inch screen. They each claim a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and they're both LTPO displays with 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rates. The 14 comes with a flat display and narrow bezels measuring 1.61mm on three sides - there's an itty-bitty chin with a 1.71mm bezel along the bottom.The 14 Pro's... Continue reading...

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Xbox's latest update adds a way to map controller buttons to keyboard keys. If you have the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and the Xbox Adaptive Controller, you can now assign specific keyboard keys to buttons on your controller. This should make it easier to play games that have limited controller support or just have a lot of different controls.Microsoft first released this feature to Xbox Insiders in August, and now it's rolling out to the Xbox Accessories app on both PC and console this week. With this feature, you can now map any button on your controller, such as your left bumper, to the keyboard key of your choice. Image: Xbox While you can also map as many modifier keys, like Ctrl, Shift, Alt, and... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Apple has released the developer beta of iOS 17.2, and it includes the Journal app, a digital daily diary for users to log their activities.The Journal app was first announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the company frames it as a way for users to self-reflect and practice gratitude.A feature of the Journal app that's raised questions is how it uses machine learning to prompt user entries, using data like photos, workouts, location data, and more - perhaps good for people who need a little bit of inspiration. But as my colleague Victoria Song wrote at the time, not all our memories are happy, and it's not hard to see how an AI-powered prompt machine could go awry.9to5Mac has more details about features... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI is forming a new team to mitigate the catastrophic risks" associated with AI. In an update on Thursday, OpenAI says the preparedness team will track, evaluate, forecast, and protect" against potentially major issues caused by AI, including nuclear threats.The team will also work to mitigate chemical, biological, and radiological threats," as well as autonomous replication," or the act of an AI replicating itself. Some other risks that the preparedness team will address include AI's ability to trick humans, as well as cybersecurity threats.We believe that frontier AI models, which will exceed the capabilities currently present in the most advanced existing models, have the potential to benefit all of humanity," OpenAI... Continue reading...

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge These misleadingly simple gadgets are some of the most useful smart devices you can have in your home. Continue reading...

Most of us associate the name Lisa Frank" with kittens, unicorns, and dolphins leaping out of neon oceans, but after watching the trailer for Focus Features' Lisa Frankenstein, you might have to add reanimated corpse boyfriends" to that list.From director Zelda Williams and writer Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein tells the story of Lisa (Kathryn Newton), a gloomy high schooler who - like most of her peers - feels deeply misunderstood by the world. Like most of the teenagers in her orbit, Lisa longs to be with someone who can relate to her disdain for the drudgery of everyday life. But whereas Lisa's friends all pine for living, breathing boys, she only has eyes for a seemingly long-dead corpse (Cole Sprouse).When Lisa somehow manages... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is reorganizing its Xbox gaming and marketing leadership, less than two weeks after acquiring Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is promoting Matt Booty to president of game content and studios, including the new responsibility of ZeniMax, and Sarah Bond to Xbox president, overseeing all Xbox platform and hardware work. On the marketing side, chief marketing officer Chris Capossela is stepping down after 32 years at Microsoft.The Xbox changes mean Booty will now lead an expanded organization inside Microsoft Gaming that now includes ZeniMax and Bethesda. ZeniMax will continue to operate as a limited integration entity led by Jamie Leder, President and CEO, reporting to Matt," explains Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in an... Continue reading...

The Velop Pro 7 3-pack. | Image: Linksys Linksys has released the Velop Pro 7, its newest Wi-Fi 7 mesh router, which it says is so smart, it can fix itself - and it's convinced enough of this that it plans to phase out its router management app. Like the Velops before it, you can buy Linksys' new kit one at a time or in two- or- three-pack configurations. The router costs $399.99 for one, $749.99 for two, or $999.99 for three.This is usually where I would tell you about the specs. But first, we need to talk about the app thing. While briefing me on its new routers, Linksys said its customers have overwhelmingly told it that they just don't like needing to use an app to manage their network, so it's looking to phase it out. It won't happen immediately, but that's the goal.... Continue reading...

The album art for Now and Then." | Apple / Capitol Were it not for WingNut Films' machine assisted learning tech, Peter Jackson's 2021 The Beatles: Get Back Disney Plus docuseries might not exist the way it does today, and that very same artificial intelligence that made that project possible is why the music group's final song will soon be available to the public for the first time.Earlier this year, Paul McCartney teased that the same tech Jackson used to de-mix and isolate all of the Beatles' speaking voices in old footage had also made it possible to recover John Lennon's vocals from an old cassette of Now and Then" - an unfinished track recorded as a demo back in the 1970s. Today, the group announced that, after decades of lying in wait, Now and Then" is finally being released as... Continue reading...

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, promised to scrap the hidden fees plaguing its ticketing service earlier this year. But one senator says the company's not doing nearly enough.In a letter to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino Wednesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called on the company to turn on an all-in" pricing filter that it added this year by default. Klobuchar said it's still too difficult" for users to turn on the filter that's buried within a tab that gives no indication that it contains" the option in the first place.Millions of Americans rely on your company for the chance to see their favorite artist, band, or sports team," Klobuchar wrote. In return for their business and trust, your customers expect a... Continue reading...

MIH's Project X EV looks like a toy car, but full humans can fit inside. | Image: MIH Don't give up on the dream of a small electric car just yet. At the Japan Mobility Show 2023, there's a tiny car designed for city driving and powered by Gogoro scooter batteries that owners can swap out and drive away without waiting around at a typical EV charging station.The car is called Project X (for now) and is built by the Mobility in Harmony Consortium (MIH), which is led by manufacturing conglomerate Foxconn. The vehicle is short in length, stubby, and looks like a cute toy but not too far off from a Smart Fortwo. However, Project X can fit a third person in the back. The space where a fourth seat could have gone is taken up by two angled Gogoro battery back slots for easy insertion and removal. Image: MIH ... Continue reading...

The second-gen HomePod looks just like the original, but it has an updated driver configuration and slightly better smart home applications. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple's flagship HomePod smart speaker rarely goes on sale after returning from the grave, but right now, you can get the white version for $279.99 ($20 off) at B&H Photo. B&H is also selling the black version for a slightly higher $289, saving just 10 bucks for those who want a more discreet look to their Siri-powered speaker.The second-gen HomePod is a lot like the original that debuted back in 2018, but the successor adds handy temperature and humidity sensors to be a little more smart home-y, and it has a nice integration with the Apple TV streaming boxes. (You can link two of them as a stereo pair for TV audio.) The HomePod's signature sound from the original model is mostly the same here, with an emphasis on rich, balanced audio... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is adding a range of new AI-powered features to Maps, including more immersive navigation, easier-to-follow driving directions, and better organized search results. The end result is an experience that will likely remind many users of Google Search.Some of this news has already been announced, like Immersive View, which is now coming to more cities. Other aspects are intended to enhance previously available features, like EV charging station availability.But the biggest takeaway is that Google wants Maps to be more like Search: a place where people can obviously come get directions or find coffee shops and EV chargers but also enter vague queries like fall foliage," latte art," or things to do in Tokyo" and get a whole... Continue reading...

Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Ford have reached a tentative agreement to end the union's six-week strike against the automaker. Last month, workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis factories walked off the job in targeted work stoppages timed just as the large automakers shift to producing more electric vehicles than ever before.The strike has roiled the auto industry, costing each company hundreds of millions of dollars each week in lost production and throwing the industry's shift to electric vehicles on ice. An agreement with Ford puts more pressure on GM and Stellantis to strike a deal with the union.According to preliminary reports, Ford agreed to a 25 percent increase in wages, plus cost of living increases, that will bump... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is rolling out audio and video calls. Several users on the platform, including some of us here at The Verge, have received a notification when opening the app, stating: Audio and video calls are here!"There's also a new Enable audio and video calling" toggle within the app's settings, which says you can turn the feature on and then select who you're comfortable using it with." It includes options to allow audio and video calls from only people in your address book, people you follow, verified users, or all three. You can then make a call by opening a DM with another user, selecting the phone icon in the top right corner of the screen, and choosing audio or video call. S... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Social messaging platform Telegram has blocked channels used by Hamas, but only on Android phones due to violations of Google's app store guidelines. According to CNBC, two channels - hamas_com and al-Qassam brigades - were cut off for Android users, though other channels the group uses, like Gaza Now, are still accessible.Telegram blamed the blocks on Google's app store guidelines, according to reporting in The Jerusalem Post. Users reportedly see an error saying the channels can't be viewed on Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store," implying that the ban doesn't extend to the app when it's downloaded from elsewhere or used on another operating system.A Google spokesperson, who asked to be quoted anonymously due to the... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple will try to better differentiate its AirPods lineup as new models launch over the next couple of years, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. That will include phasing out both the second-gen and third-gen AirPods when a successor is announced sometime next fall. Gurman claims that the third-gen regular" AirPods haven't sold particularly well and partially attributes this to consumers frequently opting for the older, cheaper second-gen pair, which Apple has continued to sell.To avoid facing that problem again, Apple plans to simultaneously launch two sets of fourth-generation AirPods in 2024. Both sets will sit beneath the AirPods Pro, with pricing remaining similar to where it is today, but the two SKUs will... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail's emoji picker on the web is getting a long overdue upgrade that lets you pick skin tones and gender preferences for certain emoji, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday.Previously, when composing emails in Gmail on the web, if you used the emoji picker, there was no way to select a skin tone or gender preference for certain emoji like hand gestures or emoji featuring people. You could still add emoji with skin tones or certain genders to those emails in other ways, such as copying and pasting the emoji from Emojipedia, but that's obviously not the most ideal solution.Google is changing that starting Wednesday. With Gmail's new emoji picker, you'll be able to pick skin tones and gender preferences by clicking a little... Continue reading...

With the Series 9 and Ultra 2, you can double-tap to use the primary function of an app without touching the display. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Double tap has arrived with watchOS 10.1. The gesture allows you to control your supported Apple Watch (Series 9 and Ultra 2) with a pinching motion, all without ever having to touch the display. The idea is to give you a way to interact with the watch if you don't have both hands free - like when you're cooking, carrying groceries, or are on a walk and holding a cup of coffee.While the feature may seem familiar to Assistive Touch, there are a few key differences. I go into it in-depth here, but the gist is Assistive Touch is a full navigational system designed for people with limb differences, whereas double tap is more like double clicking on your computer mouse. You use it to perform the primary" action of an app at a given moment.... Continue reading...