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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FGRF)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge General Motors is ramping up its efforts to create a better technology experience for software developers to make cool apps for its vehicles - and, notably, the vehicles of its competitors.GM announced a new vehicle services definition called uServices" for the automotive software developer community. In essence, uServices is meant to serve as GM's own API for other software developers to build apps that can work across multiple lineups of vehicles. The automaker is also submitting the new definition to the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA), a global alliance focused on the development of open standards and technologies for connected vehicles.This new definition aims for standardized software to securely access vehicle... 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 11:03 |
by Jon Porter on (#6FGRG)
The homepage promoting the new feature. | Screenshot by Jon Porter / The Verge SpaceX has published a new webpage to promote its upcoming Starlink Direct to Cell" service that plans to offer cellular connectivity to existing LTE phones" via satellite. The website, which PCMag reports went live earlier this week, notes that the service will initially be limited to texting services in 2024, with voice and data functionality following in 2025, alongside support for IoT devices.Direct to Cell works with existing LTE phones wherever you can see the sky. No changes to hardware, firmware, or special apps are required, providing seamless access to text, voice, and data," SpaceX's website reads. The Elon Musk-owned space company announced plans for the service last year alongside US partner T-Mobile. The... Continue reading...
by Allison Johnson on (#6FGRH)
OnePlus' first folding phone arrives soon with the alert slider intact. | Image: OnePlus The OnePlus Fold is set to arrive on October 19th, and this is our first official look at the folding-style phone. In an official teaser image provided to The Verge, it looks to be a relatively thin design with at least one fan-favorite feature: a three-stage alert slider.OnePlus president and COO Kinder Liu isn't being shy about the phone's potential. In a conversation conducted via translator with The Verge late last month, he told us it would bring the foldable experience to new heights." That's a big claim to make about your first entry into a market where Samsung has dominated for years, but according to Liu, this device - which parent company Oppo will release under another name - has been a long time coming. His statements... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FGP1)
Image: AVerMedia It's nearly three years since HDMI 2.1 consoles like the Xbox Series X and PS5 launched and we're finally seeing HDMI 2.1 capture cards appear on the market. AVerMedia is launching its $299.99 Live Gamer ULTRA 2.1 (what a name) HDMI 2.1 USB capture card today, offering streamers and gamers the ability to play the latest consoles with 120Hz options turned on and still capture at 4K/60fps.Streamers have been eagerly awaiting 4K/60fps capture over USB, as right now there are limited options for capturing this resolution and frame rate over USB, especially as Elgato's 4K 60 S+ was discontinued late last year. Most have had to opt for PCIe capture cards instead.AVerMedia's latest capture card supports up to 4K/144Hz pass-through, complete... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6FGKD)
Image: The Verge X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has identified and removed hundreds" of Hamas-affiliated accounts, and has taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content" in the wake of terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel. Yaccarino's letter comes in response to concerns raised by EU commissioner Thierry Breton that X is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation," in possible violation of the EU's tough new Digital Services Act (DSA).The back-and-forth between X and the European Union comes as the EU implements the DSA, which imposes obligations on large online platforms to remove illegal content and mitigate risks to public security more... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6FFQZ)
Illustration by Lucia Pham / The Verge The waning hours of Prime Big Deal Days are upon us. There are still a ton of discounts on all kinds of tech products, but here are the ones that are worth your time. Continue reading...
by Sheena Vasani on (#6FF9W)
Apple's entry-level iPad is matching its best price to date at Amazon and Walmart, where you can snag it for just $249. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Apple rarely discounts its own products, so if you want to score a great deal on a pair of AirPods or a MacBook, it's best to set your eyes on third-party retailers like Amazon. If you missed out on the Apple discounts we saw during the first Prime Day, however, Amazon's October Prime Day event has brought some of them back. Despite the fact we're down to the final hours, we're still seeing steep discounts on Apple Watches, iPads, and even the new second-gen AirPods Pro with USB-C, which launched less than a month ago.Below, we've rounded up the best Apple deals you can currently get at Amazon and other... Continue reading...
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6FGAS)
Her ex-boyfriend told her not to write anything down she wouldn't want to see in The New York Times, then leaked her love notes to The New York Times. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Michael M. Santiago, PM Images, Getty Images And his very valuable" hair, too. Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FGAT)
Illustration: The Verge The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has informed Microsoft that the company owes back taxes of $28.9 billion plus penalties and interest" for the tax years 2004 through 2013, according to an SEC filing.Microsoft's corporate VP for worldwide tax and customs Daniel Goff responded to the audit in a blog post, and says the company has changed its corporate structure and practices since the years covered by the audit. The issues raised by the IRS are relevant to the past but not to our current practices," Goff states.The IRS's proposed adjustments don't reflect the amounts the company paid under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to Goff, who claims that could decrease the final tax owed by up to $10 billion. Additionally, Microsoft... Continue reading...
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by Alex Cranz on (#6FGAV)
Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge Crunchyroll is in the news today, and I'm gonna get to all of that. But first, a moment of silence. When I saw Crunchyroll in a headline flying across my RSS feed, I thought for sure it was the streaming service announcing it has fixed its app for smart TV. Instead, it launched a new FAST channel and settled a class action lawsuit.Crunchyroll, which is owned by Sony, who purchased it from AT&T and WarnerMedia, is one of the primary ways to get anime legally and inexpensively in the United States. It frequently airs shows at the exact same time they air in Japan, it carries both dubbed and subtitled versions of those shows, and it has an enormous library featuring what feels like every major anime of the last 20 years.But Crunchyroll... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6FGAW)
Single-use disgarded vapes in a Lidl, Recycling Bin on May 4,2023 in London, England. | Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images Invisible" e-waste - from disposable vapes to toys and tangles of cables - is piling up and robbing supply chains of valuable materials. A new analysis counts up all the small electronics people often don't recognize as e-waste, and the numbers are wild.The weight of all the vapes tossed out annually across the world equals three Brooklyn Bridges, it estimates. Altogether, vapes and other small consumer items considered invisible" weigh in at 9 billion kilograms (9 million metric tons) a year. That's like half a million dump trucks worth of electric toothbrushes, ugly holiday sweaters adorned with LEDs, drones, and other small electronics. Lined up bumper to bumper, those trucks would span from Nairobi to Rome.The weight of all the... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6FGAX)
Image: WNYC This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.On Wednesday afternoon, staffers at WNYC's podcast division sat down for an all-hands meeting looking for answers. Last week, 6 percent of New York Public Radio's workforce was let go - with most of the cuts targeting its podcast vertical, WNYC Studios.LaFontaine Oliver, CEO of New York Public Radio, said the nonprofit would be shifting its current strategy of producing both national radio shows and on-demand podcasts to a new model known as broadcast to podcast." The podcast studio would focus on shows that can work for both broadcast audiences in New York and online audiences globally, he said. For the most part, WNYC will no... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6FEQ0)
All kinds of PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch games and accessories are on sale. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Amazon Prime Day is one of the best times of the year to save on a wide variety of video games. Titles released in the last few months are getting some decent discounts (which still beats paying full price), and many older games from the last few years fall to their best bargain-bin prices (which is great for stocking up on those Man, I've been meaning to get around to that one" games).Here, we'll go over all the best gaming deals we can scrounge up during Prime Big Deal Days across PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X / S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. We're also on the lookout for hardware deals on things like... Continue reading...
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by The Verge Staff on (#6FB3P)
Illustration by Lucia Pham / The Verge For the second year in a row, Amazon is holding a second Prime Day event in the fall. This year's two-day deal blitz - aka Prime Big Deal Days - began yesterday, October 10th, and runs through today, October 11th, presenting Amazon Prime members with yet another opportunity to get a head start on their holiday shopping before Black Friday and Cyber Monday arrive.As you might expect, the best deals are on Amazon's own devices, including Echo smart speakers and displays, Kindles, Fire tablets, and Amazon's smart TV lineup. However, we're also seeing steep discounts on other electronics as well, such as noise-canceling earbuds, gaming accessories, smartwatches, laptops, and various smart home accessories (including video doorbells). Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6FG8T)
Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Starting next week, T-Mobile will move subscribers of some of its older unlimited plans to new (and, in some cases, more expensive) options, the carrier has confirmed to CNET.The plan will apply to users on the One, Simple Choice, Magenta, and Magenta 55 Plus plans, according to documentation posted on Reddit. Impacted users will be informed by an SMS and email," and the new plans will take impact beginning with the November billing cycle. The price increases customers see will vary depending on their plan, but most can expect a bump of $5 or $10 per line.T-Mobile clarified to CNET that those impacted can opt out of the move and stay on their old plans. In order to do so, you'll need to call T-Mobile's Customer Care support line.
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by Chris Welch on (#6FF4A)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.We're moving deeper into fall and inching toward the holidays, which means enticing discounts on wireless earbuds and headphones are starting to become more frequent. Amazon's October Prime Day 2023 is a great opportunity to nab enticing deals on products from Apple, Beats, Bose, Google, Samsung, Sony, and other brands.Whether you're shopping for noise-canceling buds or something with a semi-open design for outdoor workouts, there's a nice selection to pick from. We'll be updating the list of deals over the course of both days to highlight our favorite sales.Apple / Beats headphones and earbuds
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6FF47)
Amazon's Echo Show 10 is one of many Alexa devices on sale. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Aside from Black Friday, there is no better time to buy an Alexa-infused smart device than one of Amazon's own Prime Day events. Amazon is more than happy to chuck tons of deals your way in an effort to convince you to adopt an Echo smart speaker or smart display and put one (or a dozen) in your home.Yes, it's kind of a small Trojan horse to ensure you're hooked on Amazon's smart home ecosystem, but many of these devices offer some handy utility when it comes to around-the-house helpfulness - like playing music in multiple rooms, getting weather and news alerts, making video calls, and controlling connected... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6FF4B)
Take $400 off the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.It feels like we just had Prime Day, but here we are again. For whatever reason, there aren't a ton of great smartphone deals this time around. Maybe it's that the timing is off - the iPhone 15 series just came out last month, and the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro were just announced last week and haven't even shipped yet. But there are still good deals to find on the Pixel 7A, the Moto Razr Plus, and the Samsung Z Fold 5 and Flip 5, plus various accessories.Maybe we've passed peak prime day and we're all going to wake up soon, as if from a bad dream. No? Alright. There are some decent deals over on our main October Prime... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6FEY7)
Prime day is here, and so are wearable discounts. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Now that product launch season is fully underway, it's a good time of year to find deals and discounts on your favorite smartwatches and fitness trackers, especially if you don't mind getting last year's models. This year's updates have been pretty iterative, so it's a good opportunity to potentially save on more premium materials like stainless steel and sapphire crystal.Sorting through all the different colors and models can be a headache, so we've rounded up the best deals below. Just keep in mind that you'll need an Amazon Prime subscription to participate. And when you're done snagging a smartwatch or... Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6FG5H)
Lightroom Mobile is getting ready for the HDR photography future. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Right in time for Android 14, Adobe has added support for Ultra HDR image editing in Lightroom mobile for Android. Google's newest OS supports the new image format, and it stands to make a big change for the better in how our smartphone photos look. Being able to make edits in Lightroom will let discerning smartphone photographers have plenty of control over the final product - but it'll be a while before most people can actually see the finished product on their own devices. Viewing an HDR image requires the right display and software that supports the format, which most people don't have at the moment.Importantly, Ultra HDR isn't the bad kind of HDR we're all tired of. It uses a wider range of light and dark tones to express an image... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FG5J)
Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Search is the biggest business in the business. And for anyone wanting to make it big in search, the fastest way to win is in Safari. Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6FF7P)
The new Deebot X2 Omni robot vacuum launched last week and is already on sale. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge It's another Prime Day - or Prime Big Deal Days, in Amazon parlance - which means another day to save a dollar or two on some great new gear for your smart home. Whether you're looking for a robot helper to clean your floors, an extra set of eyes to watch over your property, or another smart speaker to bark commands at Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, there are some good bargains to be had during Amazon's fall Prime Day event.As usual, robot vacuums are seeing some decent sales, including on the top-of-the-line models that don't see discounts as often as the rest of the bunch. (My advice is to never buy a bot that's not on sale because they're always on sale.) Ecovacs' newest flagship robot vacuum, the X2 Omni, launched last week and is... Continue reading...
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by Jon Bitner on (#6FG23)
The crisp OLED display on the Amazfit GTR 4 is easily one of its best features, if not the best. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Looking to add a smartwatch to your wrist but not excited about spending over $300 on an Apple Watch Series 9 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 6? Lucky for you, the Amazfit GTR 4 - a budget wearable that offers many of the same features - is matching its all-time of $169.99 at Amazon ($30 off) as part of the retailer's fall Prime Day event.In terms of specs, the GTR 4 offers an abundance of fitness tracking features, including over 150 sports modes and the ability to withstand up to 50 meters of water pressure. It also features multiband GPS - a rarity at this price point - as well as a host of sensors for monitoring your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and stress levels. It can even last up to two weeks on a single charge, so long as... Continue reading...
by Tom Warren on (#6FG24)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is now blocking Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from activating a copy of Windows 11. It's been a loophole that has existed for years, allowing people to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 or 11 free of charge.Microsoft originally announced the changes to block Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys from Windows 11 late last month, but at the time, we saw that keys were still activating, and it wasn't clear when the block would actually come into force. As of this week, Windows 7 keys are now fully blocked from clean installs of Windows 11, Microsoft confirms to The Verge. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge Windows 11 won't activate Windows 7 keys anymore. I've tested several Windows 7 keys on a clean... Continue reading...
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by Michael Bizzaco on (#6FG25)
Like other Anker goods, the Sport X10 are known for offering reliable performance in an affordable package. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you're tired of your earbuds always falling out when you're running on the treadmill or working out, it may be time to finally invest in some exercise-friendly audio. That's where Anker's Soundcore Sport X10, one of our favorite pairs of wireless earbuds, come in. Normally $69.99, the rotatable in-ears are currently receiving the discount treatment at Amazon as part of the retailer's fall Prime Day event, which sees them marked down to an all-time low of $51.99 ($18 off).The Sport X10 solve one of the biggest problems for gym-goers: the irritating sensation you feel when your earbuds are starting to jettison from your ears. The platform-agnostic buds are equipped with ear loops like other workout-friendly earbuds, but unlike the... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6FG26)
You can save $30 on the annual Disney Plus plan by signing up before the price goes up on October 12th. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Like nearly every streaming service these days, Disney is raising the prices of its ad-free Disney Plus and Hulu plans. Starting tomorrow, October 12th, Disney Plus will go from $10.99 per month to $13.99, while its annual ad-free plan will go from $109.99 to $139.99. In addition, Hulu's no-ads tier will increase from $14.99 a month to $17.99.Thankfully, there's still time to save on either plan ahead of Disney's price hike. If you subscribe to a year of Disney Plus Premium today, you'll be able to get a full year for $109.99 before having to fork out an extra $30. Just make sure to mark your calendars as you'll be charged $139.99 on the next billing date, which will be a year from now.You can also save if you subscribe to the... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6FG27)
Google's addressed a lot of what annoyed me about the first Pixel Watch, but repairability and continued Fitbit integration are still question marks. Continue reading...
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by Allison Johnson on (#6FG28)
These might just be the Pixel phones we've been waiting for, but it all depends on how much trust you're willing to put into Google. Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6FFYE)
Image: Adobe / The Verge Some of the most exciting developments announced during Adobe's annual Max conference involve the company's experimental technology previews, and this year is no exception. Eleven new AI-powered prototype tools and features are being showcased under the events Sneak" program today, including an impressive video upscaler and Project Stardust - an object-aware editing engine" teased last week that automatically identifies individual objects in photographs so they can be easily moved, changed, or deleted.Adobe uses Sneaks to both showcase the future technologies it's currently working on and gauge public interest that could direct how they're developed going forward. Not every Sneak is destined to make it into Adobe's product catalog,... Continue reading...
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by Kevin Nguyen on (#6FFYF)
Courtesy of Master Mind Ltd In Perfect Days, Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) is a bathroom cleaner. He starts his day early, gets a coffee from the vending machine, pops a classic rock tape into the stereo, and drives his van to various public restrooms, where he gets to work. He scrubs and tidies the sink meticulously. The various parts of a bidet are wiped. He uses a small mirror to check the underside of a toilet to make sure it's sparkling in places no one will ever see.I don't love work, but I love stories about work. The stakes of a job are so obvious and familiar that you get to skip the explanations of motive (we don't need to know why Don Draper wants to be a good ad man). What you gain instead is usually a process story - the illustrative part, where you get to... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6F17P)
NASA curation team members, along with Lockheed Martin recovery specialists, look on after the successful removal of the sample return canister lid. | Image: NASA / Robert Markowitz Seven years after the OSIRIS-REx mission launched, a capsule containing rocks captured from the asteroid Bennu in 2020 landed in Utah last month. Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6FFV1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Delete Act yesterday, making it possible for Californians to either ask data brokers to delete their personal data or forbid them to sell or share it, with a single request. Right now, Californians have similar rights under a 2018 state law, but they had to ask each company individually, and that's a tall order given the almost 500 data brokers operating in the state.The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) must create a way for people to make this request by January 1st, 2026. The CPPA was established in 2020 by the California Privacy Rights Act.By August 1st, 2026, data brokers will have to check for and honor new requests every 45 days. After removing the data as requested, brokers... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6FFV2)
Illustration: The Verge Despite being dealt a considerable setback in its patent infringement proceedings against Google, Sonos appears confident that it will ultimately prevail against the Big Tech competitor it has for years accused of copying its technology.In a statement provided to The Verge late Tuesday night by spokesperson Erin Pategas, Sonos described itself as the primary innovator in the wireless home audio category" and said, We have proven that Google - a latecomer - has infringed on our invention of foundational customer experiences including setting up and syncing speakers, as well as other important features like group volume and stereo pairing."The statement also goes over Sonos' motivations for taking the fight to Google in the first... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FFV3)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a new rule that it hopes will put an end to hidden junk fees that some businesses often add as a surprise when consumers are checking out.The agency is currently seeking public comment on the rule, known as the Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, after having already collected 12,000 comments last year from individuals, businesses, law enforcement groups, and others on how deceptive fees affect them.FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement that by hiding the total price, these junk fees make it harder for consumers to shop for the best product or service and punish businesses who are honest upfront." FTC adds that tackling junk fees through its nearly 100-year-old legal... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6FFV4)
Image: Polar Polar announced the Polar Vantage V3 with more ways to measure activity, faster processing, and offline maps.The Vantage V3, the latest version since 2020's Vantage V2, is now available for preorder and retails for $599.90 / 599.90 in three colors: night black, sky blue, and sunrise apricot. It can be bought as a set with Polar's H10 heart rate monitor for $649.90 / 649.90.The watch will be available in stores by October 25thPolar Vantage V3 uses the company's biosensing technology, Polar Elixir, which it says measures cardiovascular activity, the nervous system, and body temperature and then translates those numbers into data. Users could use the data - blood oxygen saturation, skin temperature, and the heart's electrical signals... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6FFC3)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.For this fall Prime Day event, laptops of all shapes and sizes are on sale. If you're looking for a good bargain but aren't sure where to start, we've filtered out all of the best options for you to consider. Most of the best deals are at Amazon itself today, but there are a few gems at other retailers, and we've included them here, too.If you want to learn more about our top picks, check out our guide to the best laptops you can buy.Apple MacBook deals
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6FFR1)
Image: Adobe Adobe has developed an experimental AI-powered upscaling tool that greatly improves the quality of low-resolution GIFs and video footage. This isn't a fully-fledged app or feature yet, and it's not yet available for beta testing, but if the demonstrations seen by The Verge are anything to go by then it has some serious potential.Adobe's Project Res-Up" uses diffusion-based upsampling technology (a class of generative AI that generates new data based on the data it's trained on) to increase video resolution while simultaneously improving sharpness and detail.In a side-by-side comparison that shows how the tool can upscale video resolution, Adobe took a clip from The Red House (1947) and upscaled it from 480 x 360 to 1280 x 960,... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6FFR0)
The 2023 Framework Laptop 13 has a new AMD option, and it's a stellar performer. Continue reading...
by Jon Porter on (#6FFR2)
A screenshot of Dropbox Dash, an AI-powered search tool that pulls together information from across apps and services, not just Dropbox. | Image: Dropbox Dropbox has announced several changes coming to its file hosting service including a new web interface, an open beta for its AI-powered universal search feature, upgrades to another AI feature that's in alpha, and another early alpha of a new video collaboration tool.Let's start with the new web interface, since it's something most Dropbox users are likely to encounter as it rolls out, regardless of whether they engage with the service's more advanced features. There's a new action bar that'll sit across the page to offer quick access to features like screen recording, folder creation, and file uploading. File previews have also been redesigned, with Dropbox claiming these will make it easier to edit images, videos, and PDFs. There's a... Continue reading...
by Jon Porter on (#6FFKX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mozilla is testing a new built-in Review Checker" feature for its Firefox browser that rates how reliable a product's customer reviews are. The experimental feature was initially spotted by MSPowerUser, and Firefox's senior director of product management Byron Jourdan confirmed that the company is testing the functionality with a limited audience in the United States," in a statement given to The Verge.Fake reviews are a big problem for online retailers, which have had to take increasingly aggressive measures to stop malicious actors from using them to boost the ratings of their products. Amazon has previously taken down tens of thousands of reviews deemed to be fraudulent, and has even taken legal action against individuals who... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6FEPZ)
Illustration by Lucia Pham / The Verge It's that time of the year again. Amazon's latest Prime Day event, Prime Big Deal Days, is now upon us. The exclusive sales event unofficially kicks off the early, early holiday shopping season, and with it comes a cavalcade of deals and discounts. Some are bound to be repeat deals you may have encountered during a random sale, while others are matching their best price to date or dropping even lower.If you're in the market for earbuds, headphones, smart home devices, smartwatches, or Android phones, you're likely to find a worthwhile deal. For each great deal, however, there are likely to be 20-odd trash ones that are crowding the space for your attention. That's why our team of reviewers and expert deal hunters is working tirelessly... Continue reading...
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6FEYD)
Photo: Epicka Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway, for more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Every month or so, we like to ask our staff about their favorite stuff - whether it's pet toys, travel aids, kitchen gadgets, or straightforward tech. And the results are usually very different, very interesting, and a lot of fun.Since Amazon is currently pushing a lot of deals through its current Prime Day sales, we looked through some of our recent favorites" articles and found deals on a lot of the tech, kitchen tools, travel aids, and pet toys we like. So we thought we'd list a few in case you have read about them in the past and thought, well, that sort of sounds good, but it's a bit pricey. (Or - that's... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6FFC4)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Utah's Division of Consumer Protection (UDCP) is suing TikTok over allegations that the app's addictive nature" harms children and that TikTok deceptively obscures its relationship with ByteDance, its parent company in China. The state's lawsuit is the latest in a long-and-growing string of bans and legal action from US-based governments and organizations to rein in TikTok's popularity, generally on espionage fears.Utah Governor Spencer Cox accused the company of misleading parents that its app is safe for children" in a press release announcing the lawsuit today. He said the app illegally baits children into addictive and unhealthy use" with features that encourage young users to scroll endlessly in order to make more advertising... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FFC5)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit's new usage-based API pricing is now in effect, and while the potential costs forced many third-party apps to shut down, a handful of apps are pivoting to paid subscriptions to help pay for Reddit's API fees. On Monday, the developer of one surviving iOS app, Narwhal, announced the monthly fee for the app: $3.99 per month.Narwhal's developer, who goes by det0ur on Reddit, went into more detail about the fee in a Monday post. Reddit is now charging a substantial fee to use the API to power Narwhal," det0ur wrote. This fee will be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands a month depending on how many people subscribe. The only goal of this subscription is to cover the costs of using the API." The monthly fee is set to come... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6FFC6)
She didn't even get equity! | Photo illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Bloomberg, Getty Images Bankman-Fried thought Alameda's brand wasn't as good as FTX's - so he put his sometime-lover in charge of it. Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6FF9V)
Can't wait to put a Sparkle Orc into my computer. | Image: Sparkle One YouTuber says it humiliates Nvidia's RTX 3050! Another says it takes on AMD's RX 6600. But while both these things are true and it sounds like a decent 1080p card, the new $180 Intel Arc A580 probably isn't the budget GPU you've been waiting for.For one thing, both that Nvidia card and that AMD card weren't great when they were new! Ars Technica called the RTX 3050 an overpriced 1080p GPU" over 20 months ago. The AMD RX 6600 is two years old this month. Still, those are the cards in the same price band as the new Intel A580 - since the RX 7600, RTX 3060, and RTX 4060 cost more.The better comparison, and problem for Intel, is that the company's own Intel Arc A750 is a superior gaming card for just $10-$20 more, as Tom's Hardware... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6FF9X)
Sony's WF-1000XM5, our favorite pair of wireless earbuds, are on sale. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Amazon's fall Prime Day event is underway. For more deals we recommend across all categories, check out our full roundup here.Despite what the name might suggest, Amazon's fall Prime Day event isn't just a day filled with deals for Prime members. Thanks to competing sales from retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, everybody can take advantage of steep discounts without needing to pay a monthly premium to join in on the fun.In some cases, retailers are matching Amazon's pricing, meaning you can score the same discounts available to Prime members on items like the Kindle Paperwhite and Echo Pop. There are also terrific deals available on other gadgets, including noise-canceling headphones, tablets, and smartwatches. To make the deal... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FF9Y)
Illustration: The Verge Google is enabling the ability to stream 1080p-quality webcam feeds during group calls for Workspace subscribers. The company first enabled the high-quality video feature back in April; however, it only worked during one-on-one sessions at the time. Now, the feature is extending to group calls on the web that include three or more participants.To opt in to the new feature, participants who have Full HD (or better) webcams will need to turn it on by accepting a prompt that'll automatically appear on the join screen. Once enabled, a 1080p icon will appear on the upper right of the video box to confirm it's on. People in the meeting can view the higher-quality video if the enabled user is pinned or if the viewer has a large enough screen... Continue reading...
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by Jon Bitner on (#6FF7M)
Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite Kids is exactly the same as the base model except it comes with a few welcome add-ons. | Image: Amazon As far as ebook readers are concerned, it's hard to do better than the Kindle Paperwhite. Luckily, if you've been trying to get your kids into reading or have been waiting to pick up a Kindle for yourself, Amazon is offering a big price cut on the latest Kindle Paperwhite Kids as part of its October Prime Day event, dropping it to just $109.99 ($60 off). Alternatively, you can pick up the standard Paperwhite with ads and 8GB configuration for $94.99 ($45 off), its best price to date.Boasting a vibrant, 6.8-inch display and adjustable color temperature, Amazon's mid-tier ebook reader is our top choice for most people. The Kids edition is exactly the same as the ad-free Kindle Paperwhite released in 2021, with the only difference being... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6FF7N)
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images EU commissioner Thierry Breton warned Elon Musk in a letter today that X, formerly Twitter, is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU" after Hamas attacks in Israel. Breton also reminded Musk that the Digital Services Act (DSA), which went into effect in August, sets very precise obligations regarding content moderation."The commissioner wrote that illegal content flagged by relevant authorities" was still on the site, signifying that nothing had been done about it. The DSA, he noted, requires X to remove such content quickly and objectively. He added that Musk's platform needs to have proportionate and effective mitigation measures" to deal with risks to public security and civic discourse" that... Continue reading...