 |
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6KFEA)
Segway's new Navimow i robot lawn mower is now available in the US on Amazon. | Image: Segway Following its launch in Europe earlier this month, Segway's Navimow i series robot lawn mower is now available in the US. As one of the first robotic mowers under $1,000 that can navigate autonomously without a boundary wire, its arrival could be the beginning of the robot lawn mower going mainstream.The Navimow i series has two models: the i105N costs $999 and covers 0.125 acres, and the $1,299 i110N can manage up to 0.25 acres. It uses Segway's Exact Fusion Locating System 2.0, a vision-enhanced real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS system with a camera for outdoor mapping. It can also avoid obstacles and navigate around trees, shrubs, garden borders, and even animals and people as it cuts your lawn.According to the company, the new lawn... Continue reading...
|
The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-02-03 23:33 |
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6KF8R)
Image: Getty Microsoft has hired Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman. In a post on X, Suleyman announced that he's joining Microsoft as the CEO of a new team that handles the company's consumer-facing AI products, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge.Suleyman will also serve as executive vice president of Microsoft AI and join the company's senior leadership team that reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella. Suleyman co-founded the AI lab DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google in 2014.DeepMind has remained a pioneering AI force within Google. However, Suleyman hasn't been part of the division in many years. He was placed on leave in 2019 over controversy surrounding some of the projects he led, according to a report from Bloomberg.... Continue reading...
|
by Wes Davis on (#6KF8S)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The US is heading into its first presidential election since generative AI tools have gone mainstream. And the companies offering these tools - like Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft - have each made announcements about how they plan to handle the months leading up to it.This election season, we've already seen AI-generated images in ads and attempts to mislead voters with voice cloning. The potential harms from AI chatbots aren't as visible in the public eye - yet, anyway. But chatbots are known to confidently provide made-up facts, including in responses to good-faith questions about basic voting information. In a high-stakes election, that could be disastrous.One plausible solution is to try to avoid election-related queries altogether.... Continue reading...
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KF8T)
Lego's Dungeons and Dragons set is ready to roll. Tap here to ENHANCE. | Image: Lego Grab your dice and get ready to (literally) assemble your adventuring party next month - Lego has finally unveiled the 3,745-piece Dungeons & Dragons set it co-developed with Wizards of the Coast as the tabletop roleplaying game celebrates its 50th anniversary.The $360 set, called Red Dragon's Tale," was inspired by Lucas Bolt's fan design, Dragon's Keep: Journey's End," and retains many of the same features. There's a tower, a bridge, a tavern with a removable roof, and yes - both a dungeon and a dragon. Image: Lego / Lucas Bolt This is Bolt's original fan design... Image: Lego ...and the official Lego set that's available to buy from April 1st. Image: Lego... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Chris Welch on (#6KF8V)
Image: Aleksandar Vaci For years, there's been a dedicated community of tech tinkerers who've built unofficial Macs" out of PC hardware or successfully gotten macOS running on a laptop that ran Windows in a past life. But now, some of those enthusiasts believe the Hackintosh dream is becoming more and more untenable.This blog post by Aleksandar Vaci, highlighted by 9to5Mac, runs through some of the difficulties that seem to be growing by the day. In a nutshell, macOS Sonoma removed support for many drivers that were found in Intel Macs a decade ago. Vaci says these drivers were the key ingredient to many fully functional Hackintosh builds." It's still possible to cobble together a Hackintosh with the Sonoma OS, but you'll have to be comfortable with some... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6KF8W)
Passion. You can feel it, can't you?" begins Bloom, an AI NPC from Ubisoft in collab with InWorld, and Nvidia. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge For the past three months, ever since I spoke to the AI NPCs in Nvidia's cyberpunk ramen shop, I've been wondering: Which game developer will take a flying leap on this controversial and intriguing tech? If you said Ubisoft," the company that's always raising its hand to play with VR, NFTs, interactive TV shows, secondary screens and more, you'd be half right.Last night, I played three prototype segments of an experimental Ubisoft demo featuring the company's just-announced Neo NPCs" - one of whom tried to convince me to join the resistance against powerful megacorps by playing on my emotions. Another walked me through an infiltration plan on a whiteboard, letting me convince" her that we should knock out the lights or hack the... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KF8X)
Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images The speed in which automakers will have to phase out their gas-powered vehicles in favor of ones that are all-electric will be determined Wednesday, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to release its new vehicle emissions rules.Environmental groups are hoping for a sped-up timeline that will put the country on the path to an all-electric fleet by the early part of next decade, while automakers are pushing for a slower adoption that allows the industry to meet consumers' needs.First announced in April 2023, the EPA's original proposal would have resulted in battery-electric vehicles accounting for 37 percent by 2027, 60 percent by 2030, and 67 percent by 2032 - a dramatic increase over the current EV sales... Continue reading...
|
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KF8Y)
All of Disney Plus' Star Wars spinoff series have been focused on Jedi and other heroes aligned with the light side of the Force. But the first trailer for The Acolyte from executive producer Leslye Headland is a reminder that, in order for there to be true balance, sometimes darkness has to win.Set in Star Wars' High Republic era long before the events of The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte will tell the story of how a revered Jedi Master's (Lee Jung-jae) investigation into a string of grisly murders brings him face-to-face with a lethal warrior (Amandla Stenberg) from his past. Stenberg's character definitely seems like they might be the murderer in question as they pull knives on yet another Jedi (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a canteen on what... Continue reading...
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KF50)
The Covert Protocol demo shows how AI is being used to create unique NPC interactions. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia is showing off how developers have started using its AI digital human" tools to voice, animate, and generate dialogue for video game characters. At the Game Developers Conference on Monday, the company released a clip of Covert Protocol, a playable tech demo that showcases how its AI tools can allow NPCs to respond in unique ways to player interactions, generating new responses that fit the live gameplay.In the demo, players take on the role of a private detective, completing objectives based on conversations with AI-powered NPCs. Nvidia claims that each playthrough is unique," with players' real-time interactions leading to different game outcomes. John Spitzer, Nvidia's vice president of developer and performance... Continue reading...
|
 |
by David Pierce on (#6KF51)
Illustration: The Verge There are few bigger jobs at Google than being the person who runs Search. As of today, there's a new person in that seat: Liz Reid, who has been at Google for more than 20 years and has most recently been leading the company's efforts with AI search, known as Search Generative Experience (SGE).Reid's promotion is part of a bigger change within Google's Search team. Pandu Nayak, a longtime executive overseeing ranking and quality, is now going to be chief scientist of Search. He'll be replaced by Cheenu Venkatachary, who has also been working on AI products in Search. Meanwhile, Cathy Edwards, who led a lot of the work on Google News and Google Discover, is taking a job on Google's long-term bets team.In some ways this is just a lot of... Continue reading...
|
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6KF52)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Assets from Turbosquid Pitchfork exploded as the music industry changed, then was cut down to size by another wave of technological change.Was that it? Continue reading...
 |
by David Pierce on (#6KF1K)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Delivery apps seem like a good idea, and it's obvious why they're handy to have around. It's also often unclear whether delivery apps actually work for anyone involved. They make your stuff more expensive, often in hard-to-see ways. They take huge fees from restaurants that need it to survive. Drivers don't get the pay or benefits they should. And in many cases, even the apps themselves don't make any money! What are we doing here?Into that messy equation comes a man named Tony Delivers. Tony Illes has become something of a folk hero in the Seattle area by advertising a much simpler and more human strategy. With a bunch of simple signs and a $5 delivery fee, he's starting something of a delivery revolution from the seat of his bike.O... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Sheena Vasani on (#6KF1M)
All three chargers deliver up to 15 watts of power to compatible iPhones. | Image: Nathan Edwards / The Verge Few things test my patience more than waiting for my phone to charge when I'm in a rush, which is why Qi2 chargers are a godsend. They deliver fast, certified MagSafe charger speeds without the price tag, and right now, many of Anker's new, Qi2 certified versions are down to all-time lows. Amazon's selling the new version of our favorite MagSafe-compatible battery pack, the Anker MagGo Power Bank, for $47.99 ($22 off). That's just $8 more than its predecessor and a discount you can also find at Anker with code WSTDMXPG8FSD. Amazon is also selling the MagGo Wireless Charging Station (Foldable 3-in-1) for $82.49 ($28 off) and the 8-in-1 MagGo Orb for $69.99 ($30 off). Anker's matching prices as well, though you'll have to apply the code W... Continue reading...
|
by Jon Porter on (#6KF1N)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta says it's offered to reduce the price of its ad-free subscription for Instagram and Facebook in Europe to address regulatory concerns, Reuters reports. Speaking in a hearing with the European Commission, Meta lawyer Tim Lamb said the company has offered to drop the price from 9.99 to 5.99 for a single account and 4 for any additional accounts" in its discussion with privacy regulators in an attempt to get to a steady state."Lamb said 5.99 is by far the lowest end of the range that any reasonable person should be paying for services of this quality" and hoped that the regulatory uncertainty" will settle down quickly." It reportedly made the offer to cut its prices to data protection authorities earlier this year.The... Continue reading...
by Georgina Torbet on (#6KEZF)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images The old fear has come back.' Continue reading...
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6KEN7)
The Verified Product Security Mark is a new labeling program from the CSA designed to help users easily identify what cybersecurity protections an IoT device has in place. | Image: CSA As useful as connected devices like video doorbells and smart lights are, it's wise to exercise caution when using connected tech in your home, especially after years of reading about security camera hacks, fridge botnet attacks, and smart stoves turning themselves on. But until now, there hasn't been an easy way to assess a product's security chops. A new program from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the group behind the smart home standard Matter, wants to fix that.Announced this week, the CSA's IoT Device Security Specification is a baseline cybersecurity standard and certification program that aims to provide a single, globally recognized security certification for consumer IoT devices.Device makers who adhere to the s... Continue reading...
 |
by Wes Davis on (#6KEN8)
Image: The Verge Today, Steam launched Steam Families, an overhaul of its family sharing system. The new system gets rid of limits on how many people can play games from one library, makes buying games for your kids easier, and adds new parental controls and sharing options.Before, you needed to use two different systems - Family Sharing and Family View - if you wanted to share your library but limit which games your kids could play. Also under the old approach, only one person at a time could play a game from another's library. Now - to use Steam's example - if you're playing your copy of Portal 2 and someone else wants to play Half-Life from your library, that's fine. They'll only be booted if you start up Portal 2 while they're playing it from your... Continue reading...
|
by Sean Hollister on (#6KEKJ)
The Blackwell B200 GPU. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia's must-have H100 AI chip made it a multitrillion-dollar company, one that may be worth more than Alphabet and Amazon, and competitors have been fighting to catch up. But perhaps Nvidia is about to extend its lead - with the new Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 superchip." Image: Nvidia Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds up his new GPU on the left, next to an H100 on the right, from the GTC livestream. Nvidia says the new B200 GPU offers up to 20 petaflops of FP4 horsepower from its 208 billion transistors. Also, it says, a GB200 that combines two of those GPUs with a single Grace CPU can offer 30 times the performance for LLM inference workloads while also potentially being substantially more efficient. It... Continue reading...
 |
by Nilay Patel on (#6KEGQ)
Photo by Rick Kern / Getty Images for Vox Media Cyberpunk design has been all the rage for several years now - this very website was once awash in neon colors and hard edges, you might recall - but Figma CEO Dylan Field says he sees glimmers of optimism taking over.
|
 |
The Supreme Court is skeptical of restricting the White House from talking to social media platforms
by Lauren Feiner on (#6KEGR)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos via Getty Images During oral arguments on Monday, both liberal and conservative justices on the Supreme Court appeared wary of imposing broad limits on how the government can communicate with social media companies about problematic content it thinks should be removed.The case at issue is called Murthy v. Missouri, and it asks the court to determine whether the Biden administration's communications with platforms coerced the companies to take down content, like misinformation about covid vaccines, thereby violating the First Amendment. It also asks the court to consider whether the government's encouragement to take down such posts actually transformed the platforms themselves into state actors.But several justices seemed skeptical of the arguments... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6KEGS)
Photo by Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC via Getty Images YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) has struck a deal with Prime Video to host a new reality competition series called Beast Games. The show will have 1,000 contestants competing for a $5 million reward, which the press release claims is the biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming." There aren't any details yet about what kinds of challenges Beast Games contestants will participate in.It's a remarkable turn of events, even for someone who's hosted many similar competitions on his YouTube channel, like recent ones where people from every country competed for $250,000 or a group of people from ages 1 to 100 went head-to-head for $500,000.In 2021, Donaldson made a Squid Game in real life video for his YouTube... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Ash Parrish on (#6KEE1)
A group of gamers has mobilized a harassment campaign against a story consultant company, marginalized developers, and journalists in protest of what they see as forced' diversity in gaming. Continue reading...
|
by Quentyn Kennemer on (#6KEE2)
There aren't many smartphones that can do what the Pixel 8 does at this price. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you're in need of a solid smartphone upgrade without the bill creeping into mortgage territory, there aren't many better options than the Google Pixel 8. When you can get one for under $500? Even better. The 128GB unlocked model is down to $499 ($200 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store. That's $50 cheaper than the price we saw during Black Friday last year. The 256GB model is also $200 off at those retailers, bringing it down to $559.99. Both are down to the lowest prices we've seen so far.The Pixel 8 is really solid, especially if you're not interested in the gimmicky extras that can bloat the user experience on other devices. Google has optimized the software specifically for its custom Tensor G3 chipset, which offers... Continue reading...
by Tom Warren on (#6KEE3)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is holding an AI event in the morning on Monday, May 20th - right before Build 2024 starts. In an invite emailed to media, Microsoft says CEO Satya Nadella will talk about the company's AI vision across hardware and software."The event won't be livestreamed and will only be open to journalists who attend the event in person. Microsoft's special event will focus on upcoming Surface hardware and changes to Windows that are all focused on AI. While the software giant is holding a business-focused Surface event later this week, sources familiar with Microsoft's plans tell The Verge that the May 20th event will include the consumer versions of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6.These consumer Surface devices will run on... Continue reading...
 |
by Gaby Del Valle on (#6KEAW)
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is rolling out three $5 million AI pilot programs across three of its agencies, The New York Times reports. Through partnership with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, DHS will test out AI models to help its agents with a wide array of tasks, including investigating child sex abuse materials, training immigration officials, and creating disaster relief plans.As part of the AI pilot, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will use generative AI to streamline the hazard mitigation planning process for local governments. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) - the agency within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that investigates child exploitation, human trafficking, and drug smuggling -... Continue reading...
|
by Mia Sato on (#6KEAX)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is leaning in even more to its app being used like a search engine.Creators making money on the platform will now be paid based in part on how well their content meets what other users are searching for. TikTok calls this metric search value," and it's one of four core elements in determining creator payouts. TikTok announced the change as part of its new monetization program, called Creator Rewards.This metric is the TikTok version of search engine optimization (SEO). One tactic in SEO is keyword research, where publishers make content that aligns with what searchers (the vast majority of whom are using Google) are looking up. On TikTok, search value is whether a creator is posting content that is about topics users are... Continue reading...
 |
by Mia Sato on (#6KEAY)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Today, YouTube announced a way for creators to self-label when their videos contain AI-generated or synthetic material.The checkbox appears in the uploading and posting process, and creators are required to disclose altered or synthetic" content that seems realistic. That includes things like making a real person say or do something they didn't; altering footage of real events and places; or showing a realistic-looking scene" that didn't actually happen. Some examples YouTube offers are showing a fake tornado moving toward a real town or using deepfake voices to have a real person narrate a video.On the other hand, disclosures won't be required for things like beauty filters, special effects like background blur, and clearly... Continue reading...
|
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6KEAZ)
Rivian owners will be able to charge their electric trucks and SUVs at Tesla Supercharger stations starting today at 9AM PT / 12 PM ET, the company tells The Verge. The news comes after several Rivian owners noticed a software update allowing Supercharger access over the weekend.Rivian was one of the first automakers to announce plans to adopt Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its future EVs. For current owners, Rivian will send out a Tesla-made adapter free of charge, much like Ford started doing last month.The adapter will allow Rivian owners to connect Tesla's charging plug into their vehicles' portThe adapter will allow Rivian owners to connect Tesla's charging plug into their vehicles' port. The company's... Continue reading...
 |
by David Nield on (#6KEB0)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Some days away from the home or office can seem like a constant battle against battery life: your phone is dying, your laptop is dying, and your smartwatch is dying. Despite all of the advances we've seen in tech in recent years, battery life doesn't seem to be getting much beyond the standard 24 hours of use for a lot of devices.Limited by the physical restrictions of their hardware, manufacturers are putting battery-saving tweaks into software instead, like the Low Power Mode you'll find on the Apple Watch and the iPhone. These settings can actually make a difference, and they're available on Wear OS, too.In Victoria Song's Pixel Watch 2 review last year, she mentioned being impressed by the improved battery life compared to the... Continue reading...
|
by Emma Roth on (#6KE7S)
Things started getting tense about halfway into the interview. | Image: Don Lemon Show Don Lemon has published the tense" interview with Elon Musk that got his show canceled on X. During the interview, Lemon touches on various topics related to hate speech on X and Musk's own views on right-wing conspiracy theories, with the billionaire becoming noticeably irritated by the interview's end.Things start to take a turn about halfway into the interview. Lemon asks Musk about his comments on illegal immigration and the far-right great replacement theory" and then turns to the topic of content moderation. Lemon asks whether better content moderation on X would let Musk avoid some of the criticism of his posts about the great replacement theory.I don't have to answer questions from reporters," Musk responds. Don, the only... Continue reading...
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6KE7T)
The former CEO of Cyanogen has a plan for a platform-agnostic gaming operating system. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Nilay Patel on (#6KE7W)
Photo by Rick Kern / Getty Images for Vox Media The leader of design toolmaker Figma on life after the failed Adobe deal and what comes next in a live interview from SXSW. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6KE7X)
The new Text to Texture" feature is now available in the Adobe Substance 3D Sampler 4.4 beta. | Image: Adobe While many developers are working out how generative AI could be used to produce entire 3D objects from scratch, Adobe is already using its Firefly AI model to streamline existing 3D workflows. At the Game Developers Conference on Monday, Adobe debuted two new integrations for its Substance 3D design software suite that allow 3D artists to quickly produce creative assets for their projects using text descriptions.The first is a Text to Texture" feature for Substance 3D Sampler that Adobe says can generate photorealistic or stylized textures" from prompt descriptions, such as scaled skin or woven fabric. These textures can then be applied directly to 3D models, sparing designers from needing to find appropriate reference materials.T... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jon Porter on (#6KE2Y)
Sony's PlayStation VR2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge After producing in excess of two million units of its latest virtual reality headset, Bloomberg is reporting that Sony is hitting pause on production to try and shift its unsold inventory. The PlayStation VR2 launched last February for $549 as an accessory for the PlayStation 5, but IDC data suggests that shipments have declined each quarter since.Bloomberg suggests that the problem is a lack of content for the headset. The PSVR2 is compatible with a handful of AAA games including Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7, and entries in the Resident Evil series, as well as a range of smaller titles. But, at $549, the headset costs more than the PS5 itself, so expectations are high. Bloomberg notes that Meta and Apple have faced... Continue reading...
|
by Jon Porter on (#6KE1G)
Last year's iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is reportedly in active negotiations" with Google to bring its Gemini generative AI technology to the iPhone, Bloomberg reports, and has also considered using OpenAI's ChatGPT.CEO Tim Cook has already confirmed that Apple is spending a tremendous amount of time and effort" on artificial intelligence features, and plans to release them to its customers later this year." Bloomberg's report suggests that the AI features built into Apple's products could eventually be powered by a mix of first- and third-party AI models. Apple's models could power on-device generative AI with iOS 18, releasing later this year, while cloud-based AI features like text- and image-generation could come via partnerships with the likes of Google.If a... Continue reading...
by Allison Johnson on (#6KDZY)
Is it upper midrange? Is it lesser high-end? Hard to say. | Image: Qualcomm Qualcomm just launched a new chipset that's designed to sit just below its current flagship in terms of capabilities and price. The Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 aims to bring most of the 8 Gen 3's features - including support for on-device generative AI models - to more affordable phones. It represents a new tier for the top-of-the-line 8-series chips, and it's also a little bit confusing.Before we get into all that, let's start with the straightforward stuff: the 8S Gen 3 includes a GPU similar to the standard 8 Gen 3, though it has one less performance core and runs at a lower frequency - the prime core runs at up to 3.0GHz versus 3.4GHz on the 8 Gen 3. The new 8S Gen 3 also uses a previous-gen modem, the X70 5G, which includes Wi-Fi 7... Continue reading...
 |
by Emilia David on (#6KDW2)
Image: The Verge On March 11th, Elon Musk said xAI would open source its AI chatbot Grok, and now an open release is available on GitHub. This will allow researchers and developers to build on the model and impact how xAI updates Grok in the future as it competes with rival tech from OpenAI, Meta, Google, and others.A company blog post explains that this open release includes the base model weights and network architecture" of the 314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model, Grok-1." It goes on to say the model is from a checkpoint last October and hasn't undergone fine-tuning for any specific application, such as dialogue."As VentureBeat notes, it's being released under the Apache 2.0 license that enables commercial use but doesn't include the... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Victoria Song on (#6KCAN)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge When Apple stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air last week to make way for the new M3 version, I mourned the loss of the M1 Air's iconic wedge shape. But perhaps that was a bit premature.Walmart announced Friday that for the first time, you can buy the M1 MacBook Air from its online store (and in-store soon) for a discounted $699. On Friday morning, Best Buy was still charging $999.99 but has since dropped its price to beat Walmart's deal and is currently offering the same laptop for $649.99.Looking at Walmart and Best Buy's sites, these are new laptops and not refurbished models, which makes the $699 / $649.99 price compelling. That said, you only get to choose the base model, which comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. I'd... Continue reading...
|
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6KDNK)
Image: A24 The magic of writer / director Julio Torres' Problemista lies in its imaginative production design and its thoughtful deconstruction of the American immigration dream. Continue reading...
 |
by Jay Castello on (#6KDKW)
Image: Caleb Wood Scavengers Reign is a beautiful exploration of a complicated, fascinating, sometimes brutal ecology. Nidus is also a beautiful exploration of a complicated, fascinating, sometimes brutal ecology. Their approaches and styles are different, but the underlying themes share a connection - and an artist. Caleb Wood is an animator and now game developer who worked as a concept artist on Max's sci-fi show while simultaneously solo-developing his recently released arcade bullet hell game.Having begun his animation career 15 years ago, Wood decided that he wanted to figure out game development in 2020. Nidus was meant to be something simple that he could use to teach himself programming. But because I'm able to produce some pretty good art... Continue reading...
|
 |
by David Pierce on (#6KDJE)
Cath Virginia / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 30, 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 playing the fun puzzler Close Cities, scrounging up money to buy TikTok, reading the latest in my favorite spy-thriller series, debating becoming a mansion squatter, testing Today for simple tasks, taking notes on this great video about the editing in Oppenheimer, and yelling SPACE!" while watching the most recent SpaceX launch.I also have for you a new AI productivity tool, a great way to find stuff to watch, some new shows about old events, and a deep dive into the collapse of the Apple... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Wes Davis on (#6KDA7)
Starship Home, a cozy mixed-reality game for the Meta Quest 3, is trying to get to the heart of what makes a game meaningful in mixed reality." That's according to developer Doug North Cook, who wrote on Reddit that the game, which turns your environment into a custom spaceship and you into an intergalactic horticulturist, is indie studio Creature's first answer to that question."A Meta Quest blog post says players will customize their starship by strategically placing virtual windows, control panels, and other components" in their room. Outside the windows, the game's trailer shows you'll see things like space creatures, planets, cloud-tops, and travel animations as you leave planets. When players land on a planet, they'll collect... Continue reading...
|
by Wes Davis on (#6KD9A)
Image SpaceX's Starshield unit has had a classified contract with the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since 2021 to build a network of hundreds" of spy satellites for the agency, Reuters reports today, citing unnamed sources familiar with the program."A Wall Street Journal report in February listed a classified $1.8 billion SpaceX contract with a then-unnamed government agency. Now Reuters has attached a name, and that it's to build a network of hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits."The report didn't say when the network will be operational or what other companies are involved. It does mention that a US database of space objects lists satellites deployed by SpaceX... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6KD8A)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Federal prosecutors asking questions about Meta are "looking into whether the company's social-media platforms are facilitating and profiting from the illegal sale of drugs," according to unnamed sources in a report today by the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors reportedly sent Meta subpoenas last year seeking records on violative drug content on Meta's platforms and/or the illicit sale of drugs via Meta's platforms."A Meta spokesperson told the Journal that, The sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services. Meta proactively cooperates with law enforcement authorities to help combat the sale and distribution of illicit drugs."The WSJ said TikTok did not respond when... Continue reading...
by Kevin Nguyen on (#6KD4Z)
Kab Inc. The legendary Japanese composer wanted to record his final concert. So he asked his son, Neo Sora, to direct it. Continue reading...
 |
by Sheena Vasani on (#6KD50)
Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds drown out noise exceptionally well while delivering enjoyable sound. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Working from coffee shops can be great, but noisy neighbors can make it hard to focus. If you're looking for a way to drown out the noise without being rude, the best noise-canceling earbuds have thankfully returned to their best price. Best Buy, Walmart, and Bose are all selling the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds for $249 ($50 off).In addition to top-notch noise cancellation, the wireless earbuds sound great with a new immersive audio component. Bose also improved voice call performance, so you should have no problem making calls from cafes, while the transparency mode remains crystal clear. The buds are now designed to fit even more securely in your ears while retaining perks like IPX4 water resistance, so you don't have to worry... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Lauren Feiner on (#6KCVG)
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images An unusually fast process. A classified briefing. Phone lines clogged with teenagers in near tears." The bill, meant to force the sale of TikTok, passed by a landslide. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6KCVH)
Image: Playstack I'm sorry, there's simply no escape. The addictive magic roguelike poker game Balatro, which grossed $1M in eight hours, sold 500,000 copies in 10 days, and has now been played for 1,742 years, is now coming to iPhone and Android too.That's the word directly from the game's anonymous solo developer LocalThunk and their publisher Playstack Games, who participated in a verified Reddit AMA earlier this week.The game originally shipped for consoles and Windows PCs - and was briefly banned from some storefronts over a ratings mistake. It's back, and there's also now a MacOS port that you can access by buying the game on Steam.The full Reddit AMA has loads of insight into Balatro's development process, including their biggest... Continue reading...
|
by Ariel Shapiro on (#6KCSX)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge This week, Spotify announced a new feature to let audiobook authors and publishers tease their new releases. Countdown Pages, which debuted for music artists last year and has been used by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, let fans pre-save an upcoming title and have it pop into their library when it's released. The page is adorned with a large countdown clock - with a timer going down to the second - to get listeners excited. The feature's not revolutionary, but it is in line with how Spotify differentiates itself as an audiobook provider.Getting ahead of a new audiobook is pretty standard. On traditional platforms like Audible, you can preorder the title, and it will show up in your library on release day. But most people... Continue reading...
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6KCSY)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony is reportedly working on a PlayStation 5 Pro model that may well include a far more powerful GPU that's up to three times faster than the existing PS5 models. YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead claims to have gotten access to a technical overview document for the PS5 Pro, codenamed Trinity, and now Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming reports that the leaked specifications are accurate and the console is currently set to release during the holiday 2024 period.Screenshots from the technical document include a mention of 67 teraflops of 16-bit floating point calculations, which works out to around 33.5 teraflops of single-precision compute. That reportedly works out to a 45 percent rendering performance improvement over the PS5. The existing... Continue reading...
|