The Verge

Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images Rapper Pras Michel, known by many elder millennials as a member of the Fugees, claims his former lawyer mishandled his criminal conspiracy case by using AI to write closing arguments.Michel, who was convicted by a Washington federal court in April for conspiracy to defraud the US, and his new legal team filed a motion for a new trial. First reported by Politico, the team alleges Michel's former lawyer, David Kenner, used an experimental AI program to write his closing argument, which made frivolous arguments, conflated the schemes, and failed to highlight the key weaknesses in the government's case."They pointed to Kenner giving a quote to a press release for a company called EyeLevel.AI, which says Kenner's use of its platform in... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is upgrading Android's Play Protect malware protection system to help it spot malicious apps that change their identifiable features to avoid detection, the company has announced. This enhancement will help better protect users against malicious polymorphic apps that leverage various methods, such as AI, to be altered to avoid detection," Google's blog post reads.The update follows a rise in this so-called polymorphic malware," which is harder for Google's existing systems to detect. So now, in addition to checking newly installed apps against existing scanning intelligence and using techniques like on-device machine learning, Play Protect will also recommend a real-time app scan when installing apps that haven't been scanned... Continue reading...

Google's search box: not just for Google searches anymore. | Image: Google Google is making a few changes to the way its search and address bar - known as the omnibox - works in the Chrome browser. The changes are individually pretty small, but there's an important and somewhat unexpected trend in them all: Google is making it easier for you to move around the web without having to do so many Google searches.If you're in Chrome on desktop or mobile, the browser will now try and correct your URL typos, so when you type thevrege.com or ninteendo.com, you'll get autocomplete suggestions based on the right site and not whatever is behind those misspelled domains. The omnibox's autocomplete will now be smarter in general, predicting the site you're looking for based on keywords rather than just guessing what URL... Continue reading...

Image: Rarlab If you use WinRAR, it's time to update to the latest version after a serious security vulnerability has been discovered that's already in use by attackers. Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has found that multiple government-backed hacking groups have been exploiting the WinRAR vulnerability since early 2023.A patch is now available, but many users still seem to be vulnerable," says TAG in a blog post detailing the WinRAR exploit. TAG has observed government-backed actors from a number of countries exploiting the WinRAR vulnerability as part of their operations."WinRAR versions 6.24 and 6.23 both include a fix for the security hole, but the app doesn't update automatically, so you'll have to manually download and install the... Continue reading...

These bots move shelves around so humans don't have to bring around the forklift. | Image: Amazon Amazon is rolling out expanded robotics operations at fulfillment centers built on updated sorting machines, robotic arms, and its Roomba-like mover bots. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon's latest inventory processing system, which the company calls Sequoia, can speed up delivery fulfillment by 25 percent and launched this week at a facility in Houston.The new system has robots designed to work alongside humans instead of replacing them, according to Amazon. Director of robotic storage technology David Guerin says that a significant portion of its operations will use them in the next three to five years.The building blocks of Amazon's latest system have already been in view, as the company has discussed the developments of... Continue reading...

A leaked image of the Oppo Find N3. | Image: Evan Blass OnePlus founder Peter Lau has already confirmed that the OnePlus Open shares its design with the Oppo Find N3, but new leaks are shedding light on just how similar the two devices look. The biggest difference is that the OnePlus Open is getting a global launch, while the Oppo Find N3 is exclusive to China.Last night, leaker Evan Blass shared a set of images showing what appears to be the Oppo Find N3. The images show the device in four colors - black, green, gold, and red - along with marketing materials that reveal some potential specs. That includes a 5.8mm thickness, 245g weight, and a 4,805mAh battery that's supposed to fully charge in 42 minutes. The leaks also show off the fingerprint sensor on the side of the phone, as well as... Continue reading...

The Grounded G2 is built atop GM's BrightDrop Zevo 600 platform. | Image: Grounded It's not quite a replacement for diesel RVs, but the latest all-electric camper van from Grounded is getting there. The G2 claims a fully loaded range of 250 miles from its 165kWh vehicle battery, which easily trumps the Grounded G1's range of 108 miles. It can be configured with up to 640W of rooftop solar and a hefty 10kWh house battery that can be charged from the main battery. It's not cheap, with a starting price of $195,000, but living in the future never is.The G2 is radically different from any other offering on the market," said Grounded CEO Sam Shapiro, a former SpaceX senior software engineer who worked on Starlink. It's a profound step toward a future of fully electrified motorhomes, and makes sustainable travel truly... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is embracing news from authoritative sources" at a time when Meta is reluctant to promote hard news or politics on Threads and X owner Elon Musk has taken a dismissive stance toward legacy media." Google's video platform is rolling out a new immersive watch page experience" on mobile that's designed to suggest more news content when users are watching news videos. It also plans to spend $1.6 million to promote the creation of news content for its shortform Shorts service.The new YouTube watch page will appear when you open a video that has a newspaper icon and will highlight relevant longform videos, livestreams, podcasts, and Shorts videos beneath your currently playing content. We believe this updated news experience will... Continue reading...

Image: Nintendo When a Super Mario game gets really good, you can't help but move around in your seat. I find myself leaning into jumps as if it'll give me an advantage and ducking my head down to avoid flying enemies. Even after a few decades of playing these games, it's an instinct I can't seem to avoid - and I was never sitting still while playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the Nintendo Switch.Wonder is the first brand-new side-scrolling Mario game in over a decade and the first mainline entry in the series since Super Mario Odyssey in 2017. It's also one of the best titles in the franchise to date. Wonder manages to pull from classics like Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, while firmly updating the formula with a seemingly inexhaustible... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is giving creators better tools to show certain product ads exactly when they want to in their videos. According to an announcement on Wednesday, YouTube creators will be able to add timestamps to products they tag in their videos so that a shopping button appears at an opportune moment while you're watching. GIF: Google A GIF showing the timestamp tool. It's a little thing, but it could make things easier for companies and creators that are working together on a video. I imagine both a creator and a sponsor will be happy about giving the creator control over when the shopping button appears. (Creators might also appreciate the controls given that YouTube is taking some other ad options away starting in... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Today, we've got a joint issue looking at why Apple's latest iOS update could cause download numbers to go down and featuring a talk about brand safety with Spotify's director of global advertising platform integrity.Apple tweaked automatic podcast downloads in its latest iOS update. That could impact download numbers moving forward.When Apple released iOS 17 in September, it included an adjustment to how automatic downloads work on podcasts. That may make your eyes glaze over, but it's a little change that could have a big impact on download numbers, at least in the short term.Could is the key word here since it will take some... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google Chrome on iOS and Android devices will look for possible typos in URLs and suggest corrections for you, Google announced in a blog post on Tuesday. This new accessibility feature for mobile versions of Chrome was promised earlier this year when Google released the same feature on Chrome for computers.Google says the URL typo detector will help people with dyslexia or otherwise are language learners. However, after updating my Chrome app on iOS, it doesn't seem to be here just yet, as it's not correcting my mistakes such as www.microspft.com or www.nintwndo.com. When it does show up, it could help keep people from ending up on dubious websites if they accidentally enter the wrong URL. Image: Google Left:... Continue reading...

Image: EA There's a whole host of great games hitting Xbox Game Pass throughout October, including the grisly Dead Space remake that's arriving just in time for Halloween. The Dead Space remake offers a complete overhaul of the original 2008 sci-fi horror title, and it's headed to Game Pass for cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X / S on October 26th.But if you can't wait until then, the Yakuza spinoff Like A Dragon: Ishin! is available to play through Game Pass on cloud, console, and PC starting today. Here's the rest of the games coming to Game Pass through the end of the month and when they're arriving:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is sunsetting its blockchain-based Community Points product, the company announced on Tuesday. A Reddit admin (employee) shared the announcement about Community Points, which uses the Ethereum blockchain, on a few subreddits, including r/CryptoCurrency (which had its own moons" crypto token), r/FortniteBR (which had its own bricks" token), and r/EthTrader (which had its own donuts" token).The value of those tokens has, predictably, fallen off of a cliff, as CoinDesk reports drops of between 60 and 90 percent. Some Reddit posters claim thousands of dollars in value disappeared from their wallets immediately, while others are pointing at transactions made just prior to Tuesday's announcement that they think are suspicious.C... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft OpenAI's GPT-4 large language model may be more trustworthy than GPT-3.5 but also more vulnerable to jailbreaking and bias, according to research backed by Microsoft.The paper - by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Center for AI Safety, and Microsoft Research - gave GPT-4 a higher trustworthiness score than its predecessor. That means they found it was generally better at protecting private information, avoiding toxic results like biased information, and resisting adversarial attacks. However, it could also be told to ignore security measures and leak personal information and conversation histories. Researchers found that users can bypass safeguards... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Xbox chief and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed that Activision Blizzard games aren't coming to Xbox Game Pass anytime soon. In the latest official Xbox podcast, Spencer confirms there's not going to be a big drop of Activision Blizzard games into Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks and that we won't see any until 2024.Here's what Spencer had to say:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has released more details about its PS5 cloud streaming feature for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, including bandwidth recommendations and a detailed FAQ page coinciding with the Japanese launch of the service on October 17th.The most interesting bit is the bandwidth recommendations, which seem relatively modest. Sony recommends 52Mbps for 4K, 38Mbps for 1440p, 23Mbps for 1080p, and 13Mbps for 720p. The games will run in HDR or SDR at 60Hz. Possibly of interest: those are the recommended settings; the minimum bandwidth is as low as 5Mbps for 720p and 38Mbps for 4K.Most of the rest of the post just confirms what we already knew. For now, you can only stream PS5 games to your PS5. And you won't be able to stream from the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New US rules blocking the export of most artificial intelligence chips to China will build upon a sweeping set of restrictions introduced in October 2022.Nvidia makes sought-after AI chips like the H100, and the AI boom has proven to be profitable as its valuation has expanded beyond $1 trillion. Last year's restrictions meant the US-based company couldn't sell the H100 to China, so it introduced a lower-specced H800 that could get around the US's rules - but with the new rules, Nvidia won't be able to sell that chip or its A800 chip to China, CNBC reports.These new restrictions are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of these controls, close loopholes, and ensure they remain durable," according to a press release from the... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia looks to build a bigger presence outside GPU sales as it puts its AI-specific software development kit into more applications.Nvidia announced that it's adding support for its TensorRT-LLM SDK to Windows and models like Stable Diffusion. The company said in a blog post that it aims to make large language models (LLMs) and related tools run faster.TensorRT speeds up inference, the process of going through pretrained information and calculating probabilities to come up with a result - like a newly generated Stable Diffusion image. With this software, Nvidia wants to play a bigger part in the inference side of generative AI.Its TensorRT-LLM breaks down LLMs and lets them run faster on Nvidia's H100 GPUs. It works with LLMs like... Continue reading...

Photo by Bill Pugliano / Getty Images General Motors' plan to make more electric trucks has run into another snag. The company had originally planned to kick off production of its EV trucks at its Orion facility in Detroit in 2024 - but now it won't get started until late 2025.GM said it's delaying production to better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand." Another reason cited is engineering improvements" aimed at improving profitability.Orion is where GM currently builds its Chevy Bolt EV and EUV, both of which are ceasing production at the end of 2023. GM has said it will build a new Chevy Bolt based on the automaker's Ultium battery and drive technology - but has yet to say when that vehicle will go into production.GM said it's delaying... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Meta will now let you block Instagram from collecting your data across the apps and websites you visit. The company says that it's expanding the ability to disable this kind of tracking to Instagram, allowing you to review which businesses are sharing information with Meta, disconnect specific activity, or clear the collected information.You can now find this feature, called Activity Off-Meta Technologies, within the platform's Accounts Center. It was previously only available for Facebook. Meta receives information from third-party websites that use its business tools, such as the Meta Pixel, which tracks users on the web and allows Meta to serve personalized ads on its platforms. Image: Meta You can now... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Roblox - a company that builds a hugely popular virtual experiences platform, recently introduced its own spin on video chat, and even created an in-Roblox career center - is transitioning away" from remote work and will be asking a number of our remote employees to begin working from our headquarters in San Mateo by next summer," CEO David Baszucki wrote in an email to staff shared publicly on Tuesday.Like many other companies, Roblox will be shifting to a model where employees are expected to work three days in the office (Tuesday through Thursday). Staffers will have until January 16th, 2024, to decide if they want to stay on at the company under the new rules. If an employee chooses to stay at Roblox and relocate, the company... Continue reading...

Image: Studio Ghibli When Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron finally hits North American theaters, it'll be doing so with some star power. Distributor GKIDS announced the English voice cast for the animated feature, which debuted in Japan earlier this year, and it includes some big names: Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson, and Florence Pugh.The news came alongside a new poster for the film:

Mayor Eric Adams during a press conference at City Hall Blue Room on Tuesday, October 10th, 2023. | Photo by Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images Thanks to artificial intelligence tools, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has sent a barrage of robocalls to residents in languages he doesn't speak.That includes thousands" of robocalls in Spanish, more than 250 in Yiddish, more than 160 in Mandarin, 89 in Cantonese, and 23 in Haitian Creole, The City reports. That's triggered pushback over how ethical it is for Adams to portray himself to potential voters as someone who speaks their native language when he actually doesn't.This is deeply unethical, especially on the taxpayer's dime. Using AI to convince New Yorkers that he speaks languages that he doesn't is deeply Orwellian," Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), said in a s... Continue reading...

EHang executives accept certification for the EHang 216-S. | Image: EHang Holdings Life is amazing in 2023 - we have tiny computers with amazing cameras in our pockets; massive, dirt-cheap (or free!) TVs; cars that (sort of) drive themselves - but where are our flying cars and jet packs? The flying cars are at least in China, or that's where they'll get their first real commercial flights, anyway. EHang Holdings said last week that the government there issued it a certification to start actual passenger trials in the country.The company will be allowed to take passengers on aerial tours, which Bloomberg reported it will offer through local partnerships in Xinjiang province and Shenzen. The type certificate," issued by CAAC, China's aviation authority, signifies that its E216-S air taxi fully complies with CAAC's... Continue reading...

Image: Snap It might've taken a few years, but now Snapchat will finally let you embed the videos, lenses, and stories from its platform onto the web. While Snapchat previously didn't allow users to embed videos due to the fleeting (and often private) nature of its posts, giving users this ability is another sign that it's trying to bolster its shortform video feed - Spotlight - to compete with TikTok and Instagram.That means you might come across playable content from Snapchat when scrolling through a website or reading an article online. Snapchat shows how this might look in its announcement of the feature, which contains an embedded lens and a spotlight video. You can click to view any embedded videos directly from the webpage you're on, as well... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill comes on Decoder to discuss her new book, Your Face Belongs to Us, and what the spread of facial recognition technology means for the future of privacy. Continue reading...

With a traveler-friendly design and superb comfort, Bose's latest flagship headphones right the course after the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 - but they don't come cheap. Continue reading...

Workers erect a steel tower at the 220kV line project in Jiangsu Province, China, on October 16th, 2023. | Photo by Costfoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images Governments and utilities need to add or replace the equivalent of virtually all the world's power grids by 2040 to reliably keep the lights on while cleaning up pollution from the power sector. That's 80 million kilometers (nearly 50 million miles) of infrastructure that needs a major upgrade, according to a first-of-its-kind report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) today.Without that overhaul, countries risk missing their climate goals and worsening climate-related disasters like storms and fires that are already walloping power grids. Today's aging grids are often teetering on the edge of power shortages, something that could become an even bigger problem as homes, buildings, and transportation go all-electric.We... Continue reading...

The latest version of Samsung's 32-inch The Frame can turn itself off to conserve power like larger models. | Image: Samsung Halloween hasn't even arrived yet, but holiday sales are already starting to pop up everywhere. Best Buy and Target held their own last week to rival Amazon's fall Prime Day, and now, it's eBay's turn. Right now, eBay is taking 20 percent off select items as part of its Holiday Head Start Sale" through 11:59PM PT on October 22nd when you apply offer code HEADSTART at checkout.All kinds of items are on sale, including the very well-specced 17-inch LG Gram 17 laptop, which is $839.99 ($660 off), while refurbished headphones like Bose's QuietComfort 45 and QuietComfort II are just $159.20. One of the better deals available, however, is on Samsung's latest 32-inch The Frame TV, which is down to an all-time low of $478.39 ($119.60 off) via... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Apple has announced a cheaper Apple Pencil that comes with USB-C. The iPad accessory will cost $79 and comes with a sliding cap that reveals the USB-C port. It also attaches magnetically to the side edge of an iPad - even the 10th-generation model Apple released last year.The cheaper price means that the Pencil doesn't come with some of the more advanced features as the first- and second-generation accessories. The device doesn't support pressure sensitivity, wireless pairing and charging, or the double-tap feature that lets you switch between tools. However, it still supports hover with M2 models of the iPad Pro. Image: Apple The first Apple Pencil model used a Lightning connector that jutted out of it to plug... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Some Pixel 6 users are reporting strange issues after updating their devices to the new Android 14 OS, which launched on October 4th for Pixel devices. One critical-sounding bug that seems to have spread to multiple users is losing access to internal storage, which ends up in a complete loss of data. Others seem to have other odd issues, like repeat UI launcher crashes. A Verge tipster pointed out the reports, which show a pattern of striking users with multiple user accounts set up on their devices.The original poster reports storage is full" errors once they rebooted following an overnight update to Android 14, while another commenter said they lost access to internal storage entirely. The Android 14 update launched officially last... Continue reading...