The Verge

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google's Tensor 3 and AI-touting Pixel 8 phones have been joined by a cheaper versio, the Pixel 8A. Continue reading...

The Verge TikTok is suing the US government over the new law that would force the short-form video app to be divested from its China-based parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the US.In a court filing submitted Tuesday, TikTok says Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok" and calls the move unconstitutional." TikTok argues that a sale from ByteDance isn't possible and that the law would force a shutdown" by January 19, 2025.For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide," the lawsuit... Continue reading...

Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Wordle players no longer have to worry about missing a daily puzzle. Today, The New York Times is launching a new feature for subscribers that will let them access an archive of past Wordle puzzles. The archive is rolling out now for those with a Games" or All Access" subscription and will include more than 1,000 past puzzles, though it sounds like not everyone will have it right away; the Times says that the rollout is expected to take place over the next couple of months." At launch, the feature will be available on both mobile and desktop, and the Times says it will be coming to its Games app in the coming weeks." Image: The New York Times This expansion is not just about playing past puzzles; it's about... Continue reading...

Aloe is the new coral. | Photo: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Pixel 8A is officially here, with very little in the way of surprises since it leaked to all heck over the past few weeks - as Google hardware always does. The 8A gets Google's latest processor, adds a bunch of new AI features, and still starts at $499 in the US. But the very best news is that the 8A adopts the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro's seven years of software support, which is just unheard of in a midrange phone.The 8A retains the same general shape and size as its predecessor. But its 6.1-inch screen gets a couple of significant updates: the top refresh rate is now 120Hz, up from 90Hz, and the panel gets up to 40 percent brighter, up to 2,000 nits in peak brightness mode. They're important upgrades, especially since the 8A's main... Continue reading...

Image: Hugo Herrera / The Verge Dotdash Meredith, publisher of People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, Food & Wine, and InStyle, signed a deal on Tuesday with OpenAI to use AI models for its ad-targeting product, D/Cipher. In turn, Dotdash Meredith will license its content to ChatGPT.With the partnership, OpenAI will bring content from Dotdash Meredith publications to ChatGPT, link to the articles in the chatbot, and train AI models with its articles. (Presumably, this also includes an archive of all the previous sexiest men alive.)Dotdash Meredith and the AI company will also collaborate on new AI features for the magazine's readers.Dotdash Meredith will use OpenAI's models to upgrade D/Cipher, which helps advertisers find consumers through the content... Continue reading...

An aerial view shows homes destroyed by a tornado on March 15th, 2024, in Winchester, Indiana. | Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images Verizon's first responder network inked a deal to share its drones with the National Weather Service in the hopes of rapidly" deploying the drones to survey the aftermath of storms and tornadoes.The US copes with more tornadoes than any other country, and millions of Americans have been under tornado watches this week as storms sweep across the Central US.Not only will the new partnership allow the National Weather Service (NWS) to quickly assess storm damage, but drone footage could also inform research into tornado behavior. There's still a lot scientists don't know about tornadoes. A better understanding of how they form could help the NWS issue earlier and more accurate warnings to people, which could ultimately help save lives.... Continue reading...

Image: Apple New OLED iPad Pros, bigger iPad Airs, and new accessories are expected. Continue reading...

Image: The Verge In an email to staff sent this morning, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty announced the closure of several game studios, including Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and more. According to the email, as first reported by IGN, Booty wrote the reason for the closures was due to a reprioritization of titles and resources." Some staff at the affected studios will be relocated while other studios will completely shut down.Redfall developer Arkane will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda," says Booty. Redfall's previous update will be its last as Microsoft is ending all development on the game. Servers will remain online for... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Whatever it's called, it sounds like it's coming soon. Continue reading...

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images Grocery delivery service Instacart is expanding into restaurant takeout thanks to a new partnership with Uber Eats.In the coming weeks, Instacart will add a new feature for restaurant delivery, with the back-end mechanics powered by Uber. The listing of restaurants will be provided by Uber, the transaction will be overseen by Uber's software, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats couriers. The only difference is that everything will take place within Instacart's app or website. Image: Uber Neither company would share the financial details of the deal, so we don't have any insight into how much Instacart is paying to use Uber's food delivery software. Uber spokesperson Noah Edwardsen said that... Continue reading...

Users will need to buy new versions of products like the YubiKey 5 NFC (pictured) to benefit from the firmware update. | Image: Yubico Yubico is getting ready to launch refreshed versions of its YubiKey 5, Security Key, and Security Key Enterprise Edition series authentication hardware that aim to help organizations move away from password-based protections. On Monday, the company announced the new security keys with updated 5.7 firmware will be available in late May, providing enhanced security features like expanded passkey storage and the ability to enforce setting more complex PINs.Existing YubiKey hardware cannot be updated with the new 5.7 firmware for security reasons, so users will need to purchase new keys (which currently start from $25 for the Security Key NFC) to benefit from the upgraded protections. These include enterprise attestation, current FIDO2... Continue reading...

Nintendo throws a bone to Switch fans. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has thrown Switch players a long-awaited bone alongside announcing its end-of-year financials results, confirming the console's successor will be unveiled before April, 2025. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said that a next-generation Nintendo Switch console will be announced within this fiscal year" - giving the Japanese gaming giant a deadline of March 31st, 2025. That aligns nicely with its current Q1 2025 rumored launch.Regarding the Switch 2 console announcement, Furukawa said:

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images NASA will attempt to send a pair of astronauts to space aboard Boeing's Starliner aircraft for the first time soon, but not today. As the the astronauts settled into place, officials scrubbed Monday night's planned launch attempt at around 8:30PM ET, due to a faulty oxygen relief valve observation" on the ULA Atlas V rocket's Centaur second stage. Another launch window is available on Tuesday night, but it's unclear whether they will be able to reset that quickly.Starliner has faced several delays over the years, with its first uncrewed test flight in 2019 ending in failure before it successfully docked at the International Space Station in 2022. While Starliner's first crewed flight was supposed to take place last May, NASA delayed... Continue reading...

Image: Yahoo! Auctions (Japan) Over on the Japanese Yahoo Auctions site, someone has listed an apparent pre-production version of the Super Famicom - the Japanese counterpart of the Super Nintendo (SNES). It's similar to the console Nintendo eventually released in 1990 but with some stand-out differences, like a headphone jack and volume wheel on the side. Video game collector and historian Chris Kohler called it god-tier Nintendo collector bait."Some other variations include a big red power switch and the fact that the controller ports are on the left side of the console, rather than centered as they were in the eventual production model. There's also what looks like the console's expansion port on the front, rather than the bottom where it lived on the final... Continue reading...

Not a Chromecast remote with a new button. | Image: AFTVnews Google's rumored Magic Button" shortcut for Google TV has been spotted in the wild on a real-world remote for an upcoming streaming box... made by Walmart.AFTVnews got hold of Walmart's still-unreleased Onn 4K Pro - a Google TV-powered streaming box - and the remote features the new star button in the top right corner. The device simply calls it the customizable button," and it can be programmed as a shortcut to an app or to allow you to change inputs. It replaces the dedicated TV input button on previous Onn streaming box remotes. Image: AFTVnews Google's new button is introduced on non-Google hardware. The button has been leaking as part of Google TV-adjacent hardware for years, but it hasn't actually... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge As people try to find more uses for generative AI that are less about making a fake photo and are instead actually useful, Google plans to point AI to cybersecurity and make threat reports easier to read.In a blog post, Google writes its new cybersecurity product, Google Threat Intelligence, will bring together the work of its Mandiant cybersecurity unit and VirusTotal threat intelligence with the Gemini AI model.The new product uses the Gemini 1.5 Pro large language model, which Google says reduces the time needed to reverse engineer malware attacks. The company claims Gemini 1.5 Pro, released in February, took only 34 seconds to analyze the code of the WannaCry virus - the 2017 ransomware attack that hobbled hospitals, companies,... Continue reading...

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, speaks during a climate initiative event at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, on Thursday, January 16th, 2020. | Photo: Getty Images Microsoft is doubling down on a controversial plan to capture carbon dioxide emissions from wood-burning power plants. It announced a contract with energy company Stockholm Exergi to capture 3.33 million metric tons of carbon emissions from a biomass power plant in the Swedish capital in what is potentially the biggest deal of its kind to date - equivalent to taking more than 790,000 gas-powered cars off the road for a year.It's supposed to help Microsoft meet its goal of capturing more planet-heating carbon dioxide than it produces as a company by 2030 and then removing as much CO2 from the atmosphere as it has ever emitted since its founding by 2050.But the jury is still out on whether wood-burning power plants actually help fight... Continue reading...

Image: Schuurman There's a lot riding on Sonos' first pair of wireless headphones; CEO Patrick Spence has expressed confidence that the new product category will be a huge revenue driver for his company after Sonos has faced cooling demand for its speakers. The headphones are expected to ship sometime next month, but today, we're getting a first look at the hardware design - and we now know what they'll be called.You're looking at the Sonos Ace headphones. These images were prematurely published by authorized Sonos parts dealer Schuurman. The main image reveals quite a few buttons on both ear cups, a toggle switch of some sort, and a premium build that seems fitting of headphones expected to be priced around $450. The Schuurman website shows a price of... Continue reading...

Image: Samsung In its quest to carve out a chunk of the OLED TV market, Samsung has, until now, focused on the premium end with impressive QD-OLED models. But today, Samsung announced the entry-level S85D series of OLED TVs, bringing the fight to LG Electronics at lower price points as well.And here's the interesting thing: these sets almost certainly include OLED panels manufactured by LG Display. Samsung placed a big order for them last year to help meet its production needs, establishing a business alliance that would've been unthinkable in the not-too-distant past.The S85D comes in 55-inch ($1,699.99), 65-inch ($2,099.99), and 77-inch ($3,399.99) sizes - and inevitably, you'll be able to nab them for less once retailers start discounting the... Continue reading...

Image: Arrowhead Game Studios Stand down, Helldivers. Your battle is won. Late last week, Sony announced that Helldivers 2, one of the most popular multiplayer games of the year, would require Steam players to link their account to a PlayStation Network account. After a weekend of strong player backlash, including review bombing the game on Steam, Sony reversed course earlier this morning and will no longer require PC players to link to a PSN account.

Illustration: The Verge Google is streamlining the process of setting up two-factor authentication (2FA). Instead of entering your phone number first to enable 2FA, you can now add a second step method" to your account such as an authenticator app or a hardware security key to get things set up.This should make it safer to turn on 2FA, as it lets you avoid using less secure SMS verification. You can choose to enter a time-based one-time passcode through apps like Google Authenticator, or you can follow the steps to link a hardware security key.Google offers two options to link a security key, including by registering a FIDO1 credential on the hardware key or by assigning a passkey to one. If you have a Workspace account linked to an organization and want to... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI and the developer platform Stack Overflow have announced a partnership that could potentially improve the performance of AI models and bring more technical information into ChatGPT.OpenAI will have access to Stack Overflow's API and will receive feedback from the developer community to improve the performance of AI models. OpenAI, in turn, will give Stack Overflow attribution - aka link to its contents - in ChatGPT. Users of the chatbot will see more information from Stack Overflow's knowledge archive if they ask ChatGPT coding or technical questions. The companies write in the press release that this will foster deeper engagement with content."Stack Overflow will use OpenAI's large language models to expand its Overflow AI,... Continue reading...

Both the second- and third-gen AirPods are on sale for some of the lowest prices we've seen. The same goes for the latest AirPods Pro. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple's AirPods should be on every iPhone owner's list of earbuds to try before exploring third-party options. The wireless earbuds offer a wealth of exclusive features for Apple users, and they make for a great Mother's Day gift or replacement for an aging pair of earbuds.Fortunately, the second-gen AirPods are down to $79.99 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy right now, which is just $10 more than they were during Black Friday. The third-gen AirPods, meanwhile, are also matching their all-time low of $139.99 ($30 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, while the second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C can be had for $179.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and Target (also an all-time low).If you're after a simple pair of AirPods and could care less for... Continue reading...

Image: Supergiant Games The wait is over: Hades II launches in early access today. The game was slowly rolled out to select players during its technical test period that began last month. After that testing period - in which players got to experience the game's opening area, fight the first boss, and meet a smattering of new gods and characters - early access grants players an in-progress build of the full game.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla's brutal round of layoffs entered its fourth week, with more employees posting on LinkedIn and elsewhere about receiving notice that their time at the company has come to an end.The most recent layoffs, which were first reported by Electrek and Business Insider, appear to be hitting different segments of the company, including software, services, and engineering. Employees said they received layoff notices over the weekend and on Monday.It's unclear how many employees have been affected. Business Insider reported at least seven employees posted about being laid off on Sunday.The layoffs first started last month, when Tesla began laying off what was said to be at the time 10 percent of the company's global workforce of... Continue reading...

Be safe out there! | Photo by Carmen Mandato / Getty Images I don't know what the explanation is - warm weather? too many histamines? too much Benadryl? - but we have once again entered Meltdown May, a season in which vulnerable specimens go absolutely wild on social media. We are not even a full week in, and folks, this one looks like a doozy. The Kendrick Lamar / Drake feud escalation alone is a formidable front that threatens to envelop much of the music industry.But even if you don't command the follower count of an extraordinarily popular rapper, knowing how to prepare for Meltdown May is the best way to avoid its dangers: becoming the main character of Online.Warning signs of an incoming meltdown include spending too much time on social media, especially Instagram and Twitter; searching... Continue reading...

The Kindle Paperwhite is our favorite Kindle, with waterproofing both the entry-level model and the Kindle Scribe lack. | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Whether mom's a bibliophile or you're looking to gift a graduate something useful as they head to college, Amazon's Kindles are great presents that we've highlighted in both our Mother's Day and graduation gift guides this year. They're even more attractive buys now that they're down to their best prices of the year.Right now, for example, Amazon's latest Kindle with ads and 16GB of storage starts at $79.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is just $5 shy of its all-time low price. The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite with ads and 16GB of storage starts at $114.99 ($35 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, while even the base Kindle Scribe is down to a new all-time low starting at $239.99 ($100 off) at Amazon and Target.Both the... Continue reading...

Image: Apple Apple's newest band honoring LGBTQ+ communities is a brightly fluorescent Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, Apple's one-piece braided yarn band that stretches over a wearer's wrist. The band will be available for $99 at Apple retail locations or through the company's online store starting on May 22nd in the US and Canada - and elsewhere on May 23rd.The new Pride band, looking far less like it sprang forth from the early '90s than last year's Sport band, will be available in both 41mm and 45mm sizes, making it compatible with the Apple Watch Series 4 or later and all versions of the Apple Watch SE. If you haven't had one of the Braided Solo Loop bands, I hear you're in for a treat. (I haven't had one, but The Verge's David Pierce quite... Continue reading...

Image: Beat Games Beat Saber players using Meta's first Quest headset soon won't be able to compete against friends. In an updated support page, Beat Saber's developers say they're ending multiplayer support, along with updates and customer service for the Quest 1 starting November 2nd, 2024.Quest 1 users will still be able to play the game after the change goes into effect. They can also continue to access multiplayer features and updates by playing the game's PC version through the Meta Quest Link. But this is a bigger hassle than just booting up the game from a headset - and it also requires players to have a PC that can run the game.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Robinhood's cryptocurrency division could soon be in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In an 8-K filing submitted on Saturday, Robinhood revealed that it received a Wells notice from the SEC's staff recommending the agency take action against the trading platform for alleged securities violations.Robinhood says it received the Wells notice after cooperating with the SEC's requests for investigative subpoenas about its crypto listings, custody of cryptocurrencies, and the platform's operations. A Well notice is a letter from the SEC that warns a company of a potential enforcement action. The SEC's response could include an injunction, a cease-and-desist order, disgorgement, limits on activities, and / or civil... Continue reading...

Photo illustration by The Verge / Photo: Polestar Polestar, now a more independent brand distinct from Volvo, is gearing up to deliver its most affordable cars yet. Continue reading...

Randy Travis in 1987. | Photo: Mark Junge / Getty Images For the first time since a 2013 stroke left country singer Randy Travis unable to speak or sing properly, he has released a new song. He didn't sing it, though; instead, the vocals were created with AI software and a surrogate singer.The song, called Where That Came From," is every bit the kind of folksy, sentimental tune I came to love as a kid when Travis was at the height of his fame. The producers created it by training an unnamed AI model, starting with 42 of his vocal-isolated recordings. Then, under the supervision of Travis and his career-long producer Kyle Lehning, fellow country singer James DuPre laid down the vocals to be transformed into Travis' by AI.Besides being on YouTube, the song is on other streaming platforms... Continue reading...

Photo taken during the Eta Aquarid meteor shower in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka on May 5th. | Photo: Thilina Kaluthotage / NurPhoto via Getty Images If you've got clear skies and want an excuse to get away from town, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower is roughly at its peak and should be going strong tonight. Made up of remnants of Halley's Comet that the Earth passes through, this annual shower is active from April 15th to May 27th and can show up at a rate of about 10-30 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.You can see the Aquarids starting around 2AM local time in the Northern Hemisphere, radiating from the Aquarius constellation (though you'll want to look 40-60 degrees around Aquarius to see them). Weather permitting, conditions are pretty good for watching them since the moon is in its late waning period and won't be reflecting much light. Try to plan your... Continue reading...