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by Umar Shakir on (#6FVP4)
Lexus LF-ZC concept. | Image: Lexus Lexus announced new concept electric vehicles for Japan's Mobility Show, including the new LF-ZC, which is a four-door luxury car that the company plans to use as a basis for a real one that will launch in 2026. The luxury Toyota brand also presented a second concept called the LF-ZL which the company says is for a guilt-free luxury lifestyle."The LF-ZC, which stands for Lexus Future Zero-emission Catalyst," has a low-hanging roofline that smoothly transitions from the hood to the rear. The windshield is long and goes over the heads of the front passengers for an expansive field of vision. The profile and rear shape look like it draws some inspiration from Toyota's no-longer-ugly Prius. They're about the same length, too: 187 inches... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-09-16 06:02 |
by Emma Roth on (#6FVP5)
Image: The Verge / Getty Images Sam Bankman-Fried will testify at his criminal fraud trial on Thursday as he faces charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering related to his failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.During a conference call on Wednesday, attorney Mark Cohen confirmed Bankman-Fried will take the stand. The move isn't much of a surprise, considering the time Bankman-Fried spent speaking on his own behalf between the collapse of FTX last year and his eventual arrest last December.We're going to put on three witnesses - then our client," Cohen said during the call, according to the Inner City Press.Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, is accused of stealing billions in customer funds and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. So far,... Continue reading...
by Chris Welch on (#6FVP6)
Image: Sony I'm very intrigued by Sony's revamped PS5 and its removable disc drive. It streamlines the console's manufacturing process, and the new model is a good amount smaller than the original, even if it doesn't necessarily look so from every angle. But there might be one noteworthy quirk with the new $499 Disc version: it's likely you'll need an internet connection to get the optical drive working with the PS5 hardware it's attached to.As noted by Video Games Chronicle, this is according to images of the box for an upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III PS5 bundle that will ship next month. At the bottom of the back, there's a line that says internet connection required to pair Disc Drive and PS5 console upon setup." The going theory,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6FVP7)
Image: Puzzmo / Angie Wang Game designer Zach Gage is leading a team in building a modern space to enjoy your crossword puzzle. Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6FVP8)
Alexa won't work with IFTTT anymore soon. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge The team behind IFTTT (short for if this, then that") wrote in a blog post that Amazon is cutting the service off from Alexa beginning October 31st. Once the integration is severed, users won't be able to ask Alexa to trigger IFTTT applets. Certain automations will stick around in the IFTTT app, but some will be archived on November 1st unless you take action.If your IFTTT applets use a specific phrase or question as the trigger (Alexa, trigger..." or Alexa, what's on my to-do list?"), that will convert to using an IFTTT button widget that you can either use in the app or add to your smartphone's homescreen. But all other triggers set up through Alexa - say, an automation that runs when you add something to your to-do list - will be... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6FVP9)
Image: OpenAI Fighting against data used to train AI models has become more poisonous.A new tool called Nightshade allows users to attach it to their creative work, and it will corrupt - or poison - training data using that art. Eventually, it can ruin future models of AI art platforms like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, removing its ability to create images.Nightshade adds invisible changes to pixels in a piece of digital art. When the work is ingested by a model for training, the poison" exploits a security vulnerability that confuses the model, so it will no longer read an image of a car as a car and come up with a cow instead.The MIT Technology Review reported that Ben Zhao, a professor at the University of Chicago and one of the... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6FVPA)
Image: Amazon Amazon is beta testing AI image generation tools for its advertisers, offering an easy way to create backgrounds or scenes around whatever product ad buyers are hoping to sell. The company says the new feature is designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that helps improve their ads' performance."This could prove to be a quick, convenient option for brands that would otherwise be stuck working with boring standalone images of a product against a white background. Amazon says putting products in a lifestyle scene can lead to 40 percent higher click-through rates.This solution is helpful for advertisers of all sizes - enabling those that do not have in-house capabilities or agency support to... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6FVPB)
These people were adults. This is how adults talk now. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Michael M. Santiago, Bloomberg, Klmax, Whyframestudio, Yevgen Romanenko, Pixhook, Peter Dazeley, Jimkruger, Getty Images It is one thing to type the world YOLO, jokingly, on Beyonce's internet. It is another thing entirely to hear it explained in a court of law. The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried has been, in its vocabulary, tragically millennial. (Disclosure: I am also a millennial.)Christian Drappi, a former Alameda software engineer, was put in the position of explaining YOLO - you only live once" - as well as the phrase a YOLO thing" to anyone who might be unfamiliar. He was testifying about a recording of an Alameda all-hands meeting in which Caroline Ellison, then the CEO of Alameda, confessed to taking FTX customer funds. In the recording, Drappi said I'm sure this wasn't, like, a YOLO thing" in response to the confession.Asked about the phrase,... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6FVJR)
The Blink Video Doorbell pairs best with the Sync Module 2, but the wireless hub isn't absolutely necessary. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Whether you want to keep tabs on trick-or-treaters or protect your holiday gifts from would-be porch pirates, a good video doorbell or security camera can come in handy during the holidays. Lucky for you, Amazon-owned Blink is offering up to 60 percent off a host of models as part of its Halloween sale, which runs through November 5th.The sale spans a range of smart security products, including a three-pack of Blink Mini cameras for $39.98 ($60 off). If you're looking for something to protect your porch, however, you can pick a Blink Video Doorbell with the latest Blink Outdoor security camera for just $89.99 (half off) at Amazon. The retailer is also selling the Blink Outdoor 4 for an all-time low of $71.99 ($48 off) if you don't need... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FVJS)
Image: GM A little more than a year after announcing an ambitious plan to co-develop a lineup of affordable electric vehicles, General Motors and Honda are scrapping the deal - or at least just that one aspect of the deal.Announced in April 2022, the plan was to build a series of affordable EVs on GM's flexible EV platform with its Ultium-branded battery packs. At the time, GM and Honda said they expected to begin production of millions" of these affordable EVs by 2027.After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment, we are ending development of an affordable EV," Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in the interview with Bloomberg, which was the first to report the news.We are ending... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6FVJT)
These tablets are only small" by Cintiq standards but they still carry the lineup's loft prices. | Image: Wacom Wacom has unveiled the Cintiq Pro 17 and Cintiq Pro 22 - two new additions to its popular family of Cintiq display drawing tablets, providing more compact options for creative professionals who prefer to work with a smaller screen. As noted by PetaPixel, the Wacom Cintiq Pro 17 is available to purchase immediately for $2,499.95, while the slightly larger Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 will be available this December for $2,999.95.Sharing the same (albeit smaller) grip-handle design as the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 that was released last year, the new 17.3-inch and 21.5-inch models both feature a 3840 x 2160 (4K) 120Hz touchscreen capable of displaying up to 1.07 billion colors. That includes 99 percent DCI-P3 and 95 percent Adobe RGB color gamut... Continue reading...
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by Erika Hayasaki on (#6FVJV)
Like many instructors, Janani Umamaheswar occasionally checks Rate My Professors to monitor her course reviews. The site offers a loose barometer of how you are doing as a teacher, especially early in a career in academia. Since users post anonymously, including criticisms and rants, the site can also become a fount of anxiety.When negative reviews do appear, any professor might speculate: How often are people checking my page? Could this reflect poorly on my future employment? And in particular, who posted the criticism? They might run down the mental list of students who received low grades or did not get a requested extension or rarely spoke in class. They might wonder if a user is even a former student or if they ever took their... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6FVJW)
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3. Five years ago, DJI paired its super-stable drone cameras with a postage-stamp-size screen to create the Osmo Pocket, a tiny vlogger cam. It was neat, and its successor had a handful of key improvements.But the new Osmo Pocket 3, announced and shipping today, has more than a handful.While the baby steadicam now starts at $519 - a huge hike over its $349 predecessors - it's got a way larger sensor, way larger touchscreen, faster autofocus, far faster charging, more battery life, built-in wireless, built-in joystick, a third microphone, and a nifty rotating screen that satisfyingly clicks into portrait or landscape while automatically switching your filming aspect ratio. Portrait mode. I haven't gone out on a real... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FVJX)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Intel's latest 14th Gen chips aren't a huge improvement over the 13th Gen in gaming performance, but a new Intel Application Optimization (APO) feature might just change that. Intel's new APO app simply runs in the background, improving performance in games. It offers impressive boosts to frame rates in games that support it, like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus.Intel Application Optimization essentially directs application resources in real time through a scheduling policy that fine-tunes performance for games and potentially even other applications in the future. It operates alongside Intel's Thread Director, a technology that's designed to improve how apps and games are assigned to performance or efficiency cores... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6FVG4)
Mainstream and TikTok fame collides. | Image: TikTok TikTok is taking its viral sounds offline and hosting an in-person music festival in December, the company announced today. And of course, the entire thing will be livestreamed via TikTok Live.The event, called TikTok In the Mix, will feature top artists like Cardi B, Anitta, Charlie Puth, and Niall Horan - as well as the lesser-known artists behind the soundtracks to hundreds of thousands of videos.The company describes TikTok In the Mix as the For You page come to life, with performances, small business pop-ups, and creator activations" happening at the event. The festival will take place in Mesa, Arizona on December 10th, and fans will be able to purchase presale tickets via the TikTok app on Friday.Hopefully the crowd will... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FVG5)
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Dave the Diver cast a line and reeled me in when I played through it on Steam Deck earlier this year. It's lured once again on Nintendo Switch.Sorry, I had to get the fishing puns out of the way. But if you haven't yet played Dave the Diver, a delightful experience that somehow mixes roguelike spearfishing exploration and a time management sushi restaurant simulator into one of the most joyful games of the year, the Nintendo Switch version is a place to get your feet wet.The game is packed with different types of activities, and as Polygon's review says, Dave the Diver's vast number of mechanics shouldn't work but somehow do. The shark meat of the game is capturing or hunting fish and aquatic life during the diving portions of the... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6FV6M)
Microsoft Edge now pops up a poll after you press the Download Chrome" button. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Google Chrome download in Microsoft's Edge web browser? How many times will the company try to steer me away?Let's check!One: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge There's no need to download a new web browser," reads the top of a search for Chrome download" in Microsoft Edge. Two: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Microsoft edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft," reads a pop-up that appears after you land on Google's site. Three: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge We love having you! Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6FV4X)
Stylish, yet impractical! | Image: Lenovo Today at Lenovo Tech World 23, many things happened. There was a lot of talk about AI. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and his leather jacket were there. There were some celebrities I was probably supposed to recognize. And Lenovo dusted off its bendable phone concept and let it out into the light for nearly two full minutes!Almost two hours into the keynote, Lexi Valasek with the Motorola Innovation Research team took the stage with the latest iteration of Moto's bendy concept phone. Like the one Motorola showed off at Tech World 2016, a couple of years after it was acquired by Lenovo, it's a large smartphone built around a flexible OLED display that can bend backward to wrap around the wrist, cuff-style.This version does seem more... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FV4Y)
The Apple TV app's ambitions have always been huge. | Image: Apple Apple appears to be working on a revamp of its TV app that the company hopes will turn it into users' go-to place for all their shows, movies, and more. A new Bloomberg report says Apple is planning to remove its apps for buying and renting content and bundle that with its streaming content, channel-subscription options, and more. The new app could launch as early as this December on the Apple TV box, across Apple's other platforms, and on the other TV operating systems the Apple TV app is available on. (The fact that the Apple TV is distinct from the Apple TV app, which is not the same as Apple TV Plus, and that Apple TV is available on Roku" is a technically true phrase never fails to blow my mind. These names! But I digress.)In a... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FV4Z)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack has retired its integration with X (formerly Twitter) because of X's API changes introduced earlier this year.According to Slack, X's API changes affected the functionality of the integration, which led to the decision to retire it. Slack's integration with X relies on access to its API, and changes to that API this spring impacted the integration's functionality and the services it supports," Rod Garcia, Slack's VP of software engineering, said in a statement to The Verge. The Twitter app for Slack has not been functional since X implemented these changes, so we have removed the app from the small set of customer workspaces that still have it installed. For more information, please see our update on Slack's feature retirements... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FV50)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft just posted the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $56.5 billion in revenue and a net income of $22.3 billion during Q1. Revenue is up 13 percent, and net income has increased by 27 percent. Devices revenue has been hit hard again this quarter, even if Windows has recovered slightly. The star of Microsoft's earnings are cloud services and Office, though.Windows OEM revenue, the price that PC manufacturers pay Microsoft to put Windows on laptops and PCs, is up 4 percent this quarter. It's a surprise increase, given we've seen a general weakness in PC sales over the past year, with Windows OEM revenue suffering throughout Microsoft's entire 2023 fiscal year. Photo by... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FV51)
Illustration: The Verge Everybody's coming for Google, but Google is doing just fine, according to parent company Alphabet's third quarter earnings on Tuesday.While Google has been dealing with fierce competition on all sides and is investing a lot into infusing AI into as many products as it can, its ads business, the company's bread and butter, is still humming along. The Search business earned $44 billion, an 11 percent jump year over year.The big question coming up is how Google's focus on AI will impact that core business. Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience is still only available on an opt-in basis, so we don't yet know how much it'll impact the company's ad business.Google is already moving to head off that problem. On Google's earnings... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6FV52)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap's business has been on life support for a while now, with Apple's ad tracking changes on iOS, competition from TikTok, and a combination of other factors leading to a collapse in its revenue growth.That said, all is not lost: based on the third quarter earnings results that Snap announced on Tuesday, its ads business appears to finally be on the upswing. Total revenue grew to nearly $1.2 billion, an increase of 5 percent from the same time last year. Snap is still a money-losing company, though. It posted a net loss of over $368 million for the quarter, slightly higher than the year-ago period.While the return to revenue growth is certainly a welcome sign, Snap's management team continues to be in a state of flux. Jerry Hunter,... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FV53)
The AI Pin has a projector, it seems, instead of a screen. | Image: TED Humane's first gadget, the AI Pin, is currently slated to launch on November 9th, but we just got our best look at it yet thanks to a somewhat unexpected source. Before it has even been announced, the AI Pin is one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023," along with everything from the Framework Laptop 16 to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 to the Bedtime Buddy alarm clock.The write-up is brief and relatively light on details, but there are a couple of new details, along with the best photo we've seen yet of the device. It appears the AI Pin will attach magnetically to your clothing, and uses a mix of proprietary software and OpenAI's GPT-4" to power its many features. (If you remember, that includes everything from making calls to... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FV54)
Image: Apple It looks like Apple is rolling out Pay Later to all users in the US. As spotted by MacRumors, the buy now, pay later service is now widely available within Apple Wallet and is featured on Apple's homepage.First announced in June 2022, Apple Pay Later lets users make a purchase and then pay for it in a series of four installments over the course of six weeks without any interest or late fees. If you thought the service was already out, that's because Apple initially launched it on select iPhones and iPads in March. Users can use Pay Later on purchases between $75 and $1,000.Earlier today, MacRumors noticed that Apple had removed the mention of a prerelease version" from Pay Later's support documents, a sign that Apple had been getting... Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6FTX1)
The Verge If you own a Galaxy smartphone and you haven't already discovered the Samsung Good Lock app, I'd recommend getting it installed at your earliest opportunity. It's packed with tweaks, tools, and options that build on top of what Samsung already puts into its One UI version of Android.Good Lock lets you take much more control over how your phone interface looks as well as helping you to do more with your phone. Whether you want to design your own clock face for the lock screen, switch between apps more quickly, or change the behavior of the S Pen stylus, Good Lock can help.Getting startedTo get started, open the Galaxy Store on your Samsung phone, then find and install the Good Lock app.The app works by using mini apps called... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FTX2)
Image: Getty The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's robotaxi permit effective immediately." The General Motors-backed company had recently been involved in several safety incidents, most recently a hit-and-run by another driver that resulted in a pedestrian trapped under one of Cruise's driverless vehicles.Among the reasons cited for the suspension: Cruise's vehicles are not safe for public operation"; the company allegedly misrepresented" the safety of its vehicles; Cruise's vehicles could pose an unreasonable risk to the public"; and permits can be revoked if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road."The DMV has... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6FTX3)
Wyze's new video doorbell is its first with local recording. | Image: Wyze Smart home company Wyze has a new doorbell cam. The Wyze Video Doorbell v2 is a 2K-capable doorbell camera with a head-to-toe view of your porch and local recording via a microSD card. Costing just $39.99 (plus shipping), it's a wired doorbell (there's no battery backup) and is an upgrade from the original Wyze Doorbell.The camera comes in black, and the local storage feature allows for 24/7 recording. You have to buy the microSD card separately (it supports up to 256GB), but if you choose not to, you won't need to pay a subscription, as Wyze offers free 12-second recordings when the doorbell is pressed. There are very few doorbells that offer 24/7 continuous video, and fewer still for free. The Verge's top pick video doorbell, the Nest... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FTX4)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with a Windows Phone. | Image: Getty Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is the third chief executive of the software giant to admit the company has made some serious mobile mistakes. Satya Nadella took over from former CEO Steve Ballmer in 2014 and, just over a year later, wrote off $7.6 billion related to Microsoft's acquisition of the Nokia phone business.In an interview with Business Insider, Nadella admitted that Microsoft's exit" from the mobile phone business could have been handled better. Asked about a strategic mistake or wrong decision that he might regret, Nadella responds:
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6FTX5)
Look at that magnificent fella on the far left - every bit as imposing as the real deal. | Image: Lego If you're bummed about Dune: Part Two being delayed until March 15th, 2024, Lego's latest Icons set might be the ideal fix to tide you over. The Dune Atreides Royal Ornithopter - a 1,369-piece replica of the Imperium's favored flapping flying machine - is now available to preorder for $164.99, with a release date set for February 1st, 2024.While both the Dune (2021) and upcoming Dune: Part Two movies have PG-13 ratings, this Lego set is a premium-quality" model designed for adults. When assembled, it features flappable fold-out wings, deployable landing gear, and a cockpit that can be opened to place in one of the eight included mini figurines of the franchise's cast. Image: Lego When the wings are fully... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6FTX6)
Illustration: The Verge You know that thing in Apple Photos and Google Photos where they'll just randomly generate a generically titled video slideshow that sometimes includes just the worst pictures? Google says that, soon, you'll be able to ask Google Photos to make them for you! The company will start rolling out an update that lets you choose the parameters for the videos you want the app to make instead of just passively waiting for them to happen to you.Even if the app still sometimes makes objectively bad choices for the videos it creates, this is a great update. In fact, it's one of those features that, if you weren't immediately annoyed it wasn't there all along, you might see this news and think, Hey, yeah, why is this just now happening?" ... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6FTS7)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Dozens of states sued Meta on Tuesday, accusing the company of putting profit ahead of the safety of its young users.The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court, argues that Meta unlawfully misled the public about the harms its products, like Facebook and Instagram, could impose on children and teens. By implementing a business model meant to maximize time on the platform, Meta contributed to a youth mental health crisis, the complaint says.Over the past decade," the lawsuit says, Meta has profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans."Meta has profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans."The complaint alleges that Meta knowingly... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FTS8)
Image: Apple Apple is gearing up for another product launch event on October 30th at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. The company has started sending out invites for everyone to tune in to the event, called Scary Fast" on Apple.com Monday night, following rumors Apple is preparing to reveal updates for the Mac lineup.Apple's page for the event shows an animation of the Apple logo transforming into the Finder icon, further suggesting that new Macs are on the way. Earlier this week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple might be planning a surprise Mac-centered product launch" event.So far, rumors suggest that Apple could reveal a refreshed 24-inch iMac, along with a new MacBook Pro. As reported by Gurman, Apple's inventory of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FTS9)
Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Chevy Bolt owners might have the option to receive a $1,400 payout from GM as compensation for dealing with the cars' defective EV batteries that required a software range limiter to prevent them from catching fire.As reported by Engadget, the new offer from GM comes as the company deals with a class action lawsuit stemming from two Bolt recalls that, over time, grew to include nearly every model ever released.To qualify for the offer, owners must install a final remedy" software update on their Bolt through a Chevy dealership by December 31st, 2023. Owners will get a letter that grants them access to a web form to accept the money in the form of a Visa e-gift card.However, it's not without strings attached. According to the terms... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FTSA)
Image: YouTube YouTube Music is finally letting you change the cover art of your playlists. While you still won't get to upload your own image, you can now make a custom image using generative AI.As shown in the below GIF, you can create AI-generated art by tapping the pen icon in the bottom right corner of your playlist's cover art. You can then select the category that you want your image to fall into, like animals, food and drink, colors, nature, or travel.From there, you can either hit randomize" or choose from several prompts, such as creating a pug in the style of a Medieval Gothic painting." The AI will output five different images for you to choose from. Once you hit save," that art will become the image representing your playlist. ... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6FTSB)
The Switch OLED has a bunch of small improvements beyond its screen, like a better kickstand and revised dock. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Expectations may be high for an often-rumored Nintendo Switch 2, but until Nintendo announces something new, the best option around remains the Switch OLED. Since it's been such a big year for Nintendo games, there's really no shame in getting a Switch so late into the console's lengthy lifecycle, and you can do so with some very good deals.The Nintendo Switch OLED model with either white or neon red and blue Joy-Con controllers is on sale once again for its lowest price of $289.99 ($60 off) at Monoprice. The OLED model is the best Switch for those who spend a lot of their game time in handheld mode since its seven-inch OLED display is a little larger than the standard model and offers much better picture and color quality (yes, even... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FTP3)
Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge General Motors announced the delay of production of its upcoming slate of electric vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox EV, Chevy Silverado EV, and GMC Sierra Denali EV. The news comes amid a broader environment in which EV demand is softening and prices are dropping, even as sales continue to grow year over year.The delay in production of just a few months" is intended to protect pricing and enhance viability, GM CEO Mary Barra said. The adjustments will make the trucks more efficient and less expensive to produce, and therefore more profitable" in the future.GM is also pulling its near-term targets for EV sales in a nod to slower-than-expected demand growth. The company had said it would sell 400,000 EVs in North America from... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6FTP4)
Mahershala Ali as G.H. and Myha'la as Ruth. | Image: Netflix Most people like to think of themselves as having some sort of game plan ready in the event that apocalyptic things start going down. But in the new trailer for Netflix's upcoming film Leave the World Behind, from director Sam Esmail, a lack of planning seems to be a big part of what has everyone running scared.Based on Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel by the same name, Leave the World Behind tells the story of two families who unexpectedly find their fates intertwined just as a massive blackout shuts down most of the Eastern Seaboard's power grid. When Amanda (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) rent a house in Long Island, they assume they'll be able to get out of the city for a much-needed quiet weekend vacation with their... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6FTP5)
Photo by VCG via Getty Images By 2030, transportation and electricity around the world will be far greener than it is today, according to the latest forecast from the International Energy Agency. Imagine 10 times more electric vehicles on the road. Renewables make up half of the world's electricity mix. Solar panels alone generate more electricity globally than the entire US power sector does today.That's the picture the International Energy Agency (IEA) paints in the World Energy Outlook it published today, which is based on governments' current energy policies. The IEA was established to help safeguard global energy supplies after the 1970s oil crisis. Now, shoring up energy systems means bringing renewables online to prevent more extreme climate change -... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6FTP6)
Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge After 30 years teaching law, the internet policy legend is as worried as you'd think about AI and TikTok - and he has surprising thoughts about balancing free speech with protecting democracy. Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6FTK5)
Image: Crunchyroll If you're a Prime Video subscriber, beginning today, you can start streaming Crunchyroll, the popular anime service, right from inside the Prime Video app. The companies have announced a global distribution agreement that allows Amazon to offer Crunchyroll as one of its Prime Video Channels. Prime Video Channels are optional add-on services that come at an extra monthly cost. But there's a convenience aspect in that Amazon handles all billing, and more importantly, you can watch these channels directly inside Prime Video without having to hop between numerous entertainment apps.In the case of Crunchyroll, that's a good thing, as its app available for smart TV and set-top platforms can be buggy and annoying to navigate. Now, you can skip... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6FTK6)
The Air 2 glasses in their graphite and red models. | Image: Xreal Xreal is opening preorders for its latest generation of augmented reality glasses, the Xreal Air 2 and Air 2 Pro, for a November release in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy. The glasses are a follow-up to the first-generation Air glasses released last year under the company's former name Nreal. Starting at $399, they plug into phones, computers, and a variety of gaming devices to project a display through a pair of sunglasses.The Air 2 glasses are an iterative upgrade from the original $379 Air. They use Micro OLED displays to project a 1920 x 1080 pixel display in front of your eyes, the same resolution as the original Air. But they promise a brighter image than their predecessors (500 nits, compared to 400 nits on the Air) and... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FTK7)
Image: Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Wonder's online multiplayer keeps making me think of Elden Ring.Nintendo's latest Super Mario game has a clever online multiplayer mode. When you connect online, you'll see near-invisible versions of other players throughout the game's islands and levels as they also travel the Flower Kingdom. It's a lot like how you see the outlines of other players as you traverse the Lands Between, and in Wonder, Nintendo created some smart ways for your fellow compatriots to help you out.While in a level, you'll see up to three other players jumping and elephanting their way through whatever series of dastardly obstacles Nintendo has cooked up for that location. But these aren't just Mario Kart-like specters to measure yourself... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6FTH3)
The number of people paying for Spotify Premium rose three percent to 226 million on a quarterly basis as the streaming service announced price increases across the US and several other global markets. Spotify's monthly active users (MAUs) also rose to 574 million as of September 30th, a four percent increase from last quarter. Both rises were slightly above Spotify's forecast.Comparing performance year over year, Premium subscribers were up 16 percent while MAUs were up 26 percent. Spotify says the net growth in monthly active users was the second largest third-quarter increase in its history.Spotify's latest subscriber figures came as part of today's earnings report, which covers the three months ending September 30th. In the midst... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FTH4)
Texts is a messaging app... for all your messaging apps. | Image: Texts Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, Tumblr, Pocket Casts, and a number of other popular web properties, just made a different kind of acquisition: it's buying Texts, a universal messaging app, for $50 million.Texts is an app for all your messaging apps. You can use it to log in to WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal, iMessage, and more and see and respond to all your messages in one place. (Beeper is another app doing similar things.) The app also offers some additional features like AI-generated responses and summaries, but its primary purpose is to unify your many inboxes into a single interface.Matt Mullenweg, Automattic's CEO, says Texts is not just a product acquisition but also the beginning of a huge new... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6FTH5)
Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images Data workers urged lawmakers to protect their rights ahead of a Senate meeting with artificial intelligence leaders on Tuesday.In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), workers and civil society groups demanded Congress guard against a dystopian future" of surveillance and low wages for the people in charge of training AI algorithms.The contributions of data workers, often invisible to the public, are critical to advancements in AI," the letter read. Congress should develop a new generation of economic policies and labor rights related to prevent corporations like Amazon from leveraging tech-driven worker exploitation into profit and outcompeting rivals by taking the low road."The letter was sent ahead... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6FT73)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge PimEyes, a public search engine that uses facial recognition to match online photos of people, has banned searches of minors over concerns it endangers children, reports The New York Times.At least, it should. PimEyes' new detection system, which uses age detection AI to identify whether the person is a child, is still very much a work in progress. After testing it, The New York Times found it struggles to identify children photographed at certain angles. The AI also doesn't always accurately detect teenagers.PimEyes chief executive Giorgi Gobronidze says he'd been planning on implementing such a protection mechanism since 2021. However, the feature was only fully deployed after New York Times writer Kashmir Hill published an article... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FT74)
Toyota's Land Cruiser Se concept. | Image: Toyota Toyota is bringing the content for its 2023 Japan Mobility Show showcase that includes an all-electric Land Cruiser SUV concept that could either be a serious contender to duke it out with competing three-row EVs or just a premature look for things to come.The Toyota Land Cruiser Se" has an angular boat-like appearance with a long hood, swooping windshield, and rounded rear end with a visor taillight design. The seven-seater concept also comes with some size specs: it has a 120.08-inch wheelbase and is 202.76 inches long, 78.35 wide, and 67.13 tall. It's got a wider stance and a shorter height than the real gas-powered 2024 Land Cruiser, which has a wheelbase of about 112 inches.The extra space between the wheels likely accounts for... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6FT4E)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The long-awaited EU AI Act is still under debate as European lawmakers can't agree on how to regulate foundation models, and it's unlikely to pass regulation before December.As first reported by Reuters, Spain, which currently heads the EU, is pushing for more regular vetting for vulnerabilities and the creation of a tiered system of regulation depending on the number of users a model has.European lawmakers have had three trilogues (a three-party discussion between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission) around the AI Act, with a fourth expected to happen this week.Another meeting has been set for December, if none of the parties agree on anything this month. This has sparked concern... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FT4F)
Image: Murena The Murena 2, the follow-up to last year's de-Googled and privacy-focused Murena One smartphone, is now available to back on Kickstarter and has pulled in more than $156,000, far exceeding its $26,437 goal.The big update for this new model is a physical privacy switch that, when toggled on, disconnects the front and back cameras as well as the microphones. (It's kind of like the privacy switches we've seen for some laptops.) The Murena 2 also has a second physical switch that, when activated, flips on airplane mode to disconnect the phone from networks and turns on do not disturb mode.As for other hardware specs, the Murena 2 has a 6.43-inch screen with a 1080 x 2400 resolution, 128GB of storage, a 4,000mAh battery, and a MediaTek... Continue reading...
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