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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Scratch the surface of Windows (and macOS), and you'll find a command line console underneath, a lingering remnant of how these operating systems started out: as user-friendly graphical wrappers built on top of text-based, monochrome interfaces.If you're as old as I am, you might remember having to launch apps and games on a computer by typing out text commands, rather than pointing and clicking. The modern-day methods are much easier, of course, but the old ways are still available - and they're actually still useful for multiple tasks, as the list below shows.To begin with, Windows kept the Command Prompt utility as a reminder of its MS-DOS roots. That was later joined by PowerShell (Command Prompt with extras), and in the latest... Continue reading...

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 53, 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 reading about Beyonce and Rosanna Pansino and Bowen Yang, pouring my life back into Todoist, watching the end of The Grand Tour, catching up on some My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes, seeing if the Pixel Recorder app can replace my trusty voice recorder, and moving Headspace to my homescreen to see if it helps me meditate more. (So far... no.)I also have for you a truly wild new pair of AR glasses, a Batman-adjacent show on HBO, a great new book about the end of Twitter, a funny twist on... Continue reading...

Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media Jony Ive has confirmed that he's working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI hardware project. The confirmation came today as part of a profile of Ive in The New York Times, nearly a year after the possibility of a collaboration between Altman and the longtime Apple designer was first reported on.There aren't a lot of details on the project. Ive reportedly met Altman through Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and the venture is being funded by Ive and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs' company. The Times reports it could raise $1 billion in funding by the end of the year, but makes no mention of Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank CEO rumored last year to have invested $1 billion in the project.The project only has 10 employees... Continue reading...

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Back in the Mad Men days, the only thing that might interrupt the corporate blandness of a workspace might be a photo of your family or maybe a coffee cup with a funny saying. But nowadays, especially if we're working at home, we can have some pretty interesting, weird, or just plain nice-looking items on our desks.We asked the folks here at The Verge what they have on their desks or in their offices that they keep just for the hell of it - because they like it, because it means something special, or just because. Here are some of the answers we got.A looping gif of our late cat Pouncey on my keyboard's LCDAntonio G. Di Benedetto, commerce / deals writer GIF: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The LCD on the... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Brazilian fan account owners might have a reason to rejoice, as X could be returning to Brazil. According to the New York Times, in a court filing Friday night the company agreed to abide by the Supreme Court's request in order to have the countrywide ban lifted:

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Ford has a good thing going with its next-gen infotainment system - whether you use CarPlay or not. Continue reading...

EcoFlow's Alternator Charger helps keep all your tools and toys charged when driving away from civilization. Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge In a late Friday email, X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the launch of a new video tab" feature (resembling a TikTok-style endless scroll, according to a source at X) and an X-exclusive reality series, called The Offseason, starring soccer star Midge Purce, and produced by investor Alexis Ohanian.This announcement comes shortly after a gathering of X partners and clients at the New York office on Tuesday, while Yaccarino works to retain advertisers and content creators - both vital to the platform but steadily fleeing due to the behavior of its owner, Elon Musk.Yaccarino added that Purce and Ohanian came to the office to share more about the upcoming premiere of The Offseason - which is set to go live October 18. X has been securing... Continue reading...

Image: OceanGate A former OceanGate contractor, Antonella Wilby, testified before a U.S. Coast Guard panel on Friday that the company's Titan submarine, which imploded last year during a dive to the Titanic's wreckage, relied on an incredibly convoluted navigation system.As Wilby described it during the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing, the Titan's GPS-like ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system generated data on a sub's velocity, depth, and position using sound pings. Screenshot: U.S. Coast Guard video courtesy of Pelagic Research Services Images of the remains of the Titan submarine lying on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean were shared as part of the US Coast Guard hearing, That information... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images Cards Against Humanity sued SpaceX for allegedly trespassing on and damaging its property in Texas. The company behind the card game is asking for $15 million in damages, according to its complaint against SpaceX, filed in Texas state court on Thursday, but has also said it will accept Twitter.com in compensation."SpaceX has been using the pristine vacant property" in Cameron County, Texas, without permission for around six months, the suit claims. Cards Against Humanity bought the plot in 2017 as part of a stunt to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for [former President Donald] Trump to build his wall." SpaceX has since acquired many of the vacant lots" on the road surrounding Cards Against Humanity's property,... Continue reading...

The Bio Bidet BB-1200 can be controlled using a wireless remote or through the Bemis Living app. | Image: Bemis Bemis has announced its Bio Bidet BB-1200 toilet seat is now available, allowing luxuries like unlimited warm water, a heated seat, and an air dryer to be activated using a smartphone app.The company claims the BB-1200, which first debuted at CES 2024 last January, is the first North American bidet toilet seat that is controlled by an app and affordably priced." Kohler announced a similar product at CES 2024 with its PureWash E930 bidet seat that can be operated using the Kohler Konnect app or through voice commands. It was immediately available to order in January for $2,149, but its price has since dropped to $1,597.50. Image: Bemis The Bemis Living app allows multiple users to configure profiles that cater to... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported Intel had been approached by fellow chip giant Qualcomm about a possible takeover. While any deal is described as far from certain," according to the paper's unnamed sources, it would represent a tremendous fall for a company that had been the most valuable chip company in the world, based largely on its x86 processor technology that for years had triumphed over Qualcomm's Arm chips outside of the phone space.The New York Times corroborated the report on Friday evening, adding that Qualcomm has not yet made an official offer for Intel."If a deal were made - and survived regulatory scrutiny - it would be a massive coup for Qualcomm, which reentered the desktop processor market... Continue reading...

8BitDo's Retro Keycaps include options for both ANSI and ISO layouts. | Image: 8BitDo 8BitDo is now selling a set of keycaps featuring the same Nintendo Entertainment System-inspired design as those used on the Retro Mechanical Keyboard it debuted last July. While the keyboard is now available in four styles, including Commodore 64 and Famicom designs, only the NES-style keycaps are currently available on their own.The $49.99 8BitDo Retro Keycaps set includes 165 PBT keys with legends printed using dye-sublimation for added durability. The expanded set allows the keys to be used on larger keyboards with a dedicated number pad. 8BitDo's $99.99 mechanical keyboards are only available in a shorter tenkeyless layout. Image: 8BitDo The set can be used on keyboards featuring as small as a 65 percent... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is planning to allow Windows 11 users to customize the Copilot key that has started shipping on new laptops and keyboards. The Copilot key is configured as default to launch Microsoft's Copilot app on Windows 11, but the company is now testing the ability to use it to launch other apps instead.A new beta build of Windows 11 includes the customization changes, available for testers today. You can choose to have the Copilot key launch an app that is MSIX packaged and signed, thus indicating the app meets security and privacy requirements to keep customers safe," explains the Windows Insider team in a blog post. The key will continue to launch Copilot on devices that have the Copilot app installed until a customer selects a... Continue reading...

Sadly, Theory 1 isn't going into production. | Image: Lotus Lotus revealed its new Theory 1 electric sports car, a concept that the automaker says embodies the future of intelligent performance vehicles."It's a visual aid for Lotus' new Digital, Natural, and Analogue (DNA - get it?) design principles on which it plans to base its performance vehicles for the modern era.Theory 1 features Lotus' new Lotuswear" interior that promises an immersive and personalized driving experience. It adapts physically to the driver and passengers, making seats more comfortable and communicating with lights and haptic feedback that can tell you when to make a turn, for example.The interior materials are lightweight robotic textiles built by MotorSkins that use inflatable pods in the seating and steering... Continue reading...

Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge A security researcher revealed a catastrophic" vulnerability in the Arc browser that would have allowed attackers to insert arbitrary code into other users' browser sessions with little more than an easily findable user ID. The vulnerability was patched on August 26th and disclosed today in a blog post by security researcher xyz3va, as well as a statement from The Browser Company. The company says that its logs indicate no users were affected by the flaw.The exploit, CVE-2024-45489, relied on a misconfiguration in The Browser Company's implementation of Firebase, a database-as-a-backend service," for storage of user info, including Arc Boosts, a feature that lets users customize the appearance of websites they visit.In its... Continue reading...

A worker demonstrates how lithium is recovered from brine at a Standard Lithium facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, US, on Thursday, July 20, 2023. | Photo: Getty Images The US Department of Energy announced today plans to dole out more than $3 billion to over two dozen battery projects across 14 states. The money will go toward processing critical minerals, building batteries and their components, and recycling batteries. It's part of the Biden administration's push for more domestic manufacturing to support its climate goals.Batteries are an increasingly hot commodity needed for electric vehicles and to store renewable energy from solar and wind projects. New battery facilities are cropping up all over the US thanks in part to federal support in the form of grants, loans, and tax incentives.New battery facilities are cropping up all over the USThe funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure... Continue reading...

Image: Square Enix On Friday morning, Sony released a system update for the PlayStation 5 that may help with graphical bugs and crashes reported by Final Fantasy XVI players after the last PS5 firmware update.Sony says today's update (version 24.06-10.01.00) simply improves system software performance and stability" and doesn't mention any specific fixes for the game. But a post shared on the official Final Fantasy XVI X account earlier today says it's been released in response to the crashes and graphical bugs" reported by players.

These can be all yours. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We've got a new pair of our favorite noise-canceling headphones, and we're giving them away to celebrate the recent relaunch - err, refresh? - of our weekly deals newsletter. All you have to do is sign up for the new and improved Verge Deals, which continues to serve as a free weekly summary of some of the best tech deals on the web.The headphones we're gifting are none other than the Sony WH-1000XM5 (a $399.99 value), which feature excellent active noise cancellation, a comfy fit for lengthy listening sessions, and detailed, balanced sound. Unsurprisingly, they have been a mainstay of our holiday gift guides since they launched in the middle of 2022, and they remain one of our top picks when it comes to noise-canceling headphones to... Continue reading...

There's three motors inside this one. | Image: Rivian Rivian is now shipping its electric trucks and SUVs with a tri-motor configuration, adding an extra power boost over the dual-motor version. The new 850 horsepower powertrain uses Rivian's new in-house Enduro motors, with one in the front axle and two in the rear axle.The new tri-motor setup underpins Rivian's newly redesigned Gen 2 models, which launched earlier this year in just a dual-motor configuration.As reported by Inside EVs, these 2025 Rivian models are the first from the company to get a tri-motor setup, as the previous generation only came in dual and quad-motor setups. Rivian will start shipping its Gen 2 quad-motor version early next year. Image: Rivian Rivian's R1T lineup right now. ... Continue reading...

Anker is recalling three additional power banks, citing a manufacturing defect in their lithium-ion batteries. | Image: Anker Anker has issued a recall notice for its Anker 334 MagGo Battery (PowerCore 10K, model number A1642), Anker Power Bank (model number A1647), and Anker MagGo Power Bank (model number A1652). The company says a manufacturing defect can cause the power banks' lithium-ion batteries to overheat and potentially cause a fire risk.It's the same issue that triggered a recall in June for another Anker power bank. The company says only a small number of batteries were affected by the defect but that it's recalling all of the portable chargers out of an abundance of caution." Image: Anker The recalled power banks can be identified by looking for their name, model, and serial numbers on the back or bottom of each device. T... Continue reading...

Image: Maira Erlich / Bloomberg via Getty Images For more than two weeks, Brazilians have been without access to X. Brazil's Supreme Court blocked the platform after Elon Musk failed to comply with court rulings. As X evades the ban and Musk's companies work slowly toward a resolution, the real concern for many isn't just the absence of social media. It's Musk's power play over the government as he backs Brazil's far right.X was banned on August 30th after months of back-and-forth between Musk and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The conflict began in April when Musk publicized government requests for information and then removed all restrictions imposed on X profiles by Brazilian court orders. Moraes responded by including Musk in an investigation over organized political... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Hey, folks! Every week for the past four years, the team behind Verge Deals has combed the web, looking for the best deals and discounts on the tech we love most at The Verge. We pride ourselves in having tried and tested every product we recommend - well, almost every product - and we continue to share those deals with our readers via our daily deal coverage and Verge Deals newsletter. That being said, everyone could use a little change every now and again.No, Verge Deals is not going away - quite the contrary, actually. We've given our newsletter a fresh coat of virtual paint to reflect our new(ish) colors and design language, and we plan to continue to deliver a fresh batch of deals to your inbox every Friday afternoon. This time,... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge The iPhone 16 is great. But it's great in pretty much exactly the ways you'd expect it to be great - gone, it seems, are the days of big new ideas about these slabs of glass we all use all day. And that's basically okay! But it does make you wonder: could you just train an AI to tell you everything you need to know about the new iPhone?On this episode of The Vergecast, we find out. Joanna Stern, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal and a forever friend of The Verge, comes on the show to tell us about her adventures building the Joannabot, an AI chatbot that knows a lot about iPhones and basically nothing about anything else. We ask Joannabot some questions; we take some of your questions and present them to the Joannabot (and a few to... Continue reading...

Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images Microsoft just signed a deal to revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. If approved by regulators, the software maker would have exclusive rights to 100 percent of the output for its AI data center needs.Constellation, the owner of the Three Mile Island plant, announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft earlier today, which should see the site coming back online in 2028, assuming regulators approve it.The reactor that Microsoft plans to source its energy from was retired in 2019 for economic reasons and is located next to a unit that was shut down in 1979 after the worst US nuclear accident in history. The plant that Constellation plans to reopen can generate 837 megawatts of energy, enough to power more... Continue reading...

Everyone's iPhone camera might look a little different with the new Photographic Styles. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge When I walked into the building that houses the Steve Jobs Theater for the iPhone 16 launch last week, the first person I saw taking a photo of the room wasn't using an iPhone; they were using a compact digital camera.I'm not talking about a fancy Ricoh GR III. I'm talking a PowerShot, Cybershot, or a Coolpix - something with 6 megapixels and a CCD sensor that makes anything above ISO 1600 look like confetti. These cameras are in style right now with a certain subset of photographers, tired of phone photos looking overprocessed," running straight in the other direction to the hard contrast and blown highlights of those early digital sensors. What's old is new again, and artificially bright shadows are out.Apple's reaction to the... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is overhauling the illustrations it uses throughout its products and services to make them less flat and more playful and interesting. The previous iteration of illustrations was heavily vector-based, with a flat illustration style that can be found throughout apps like Microsoft Teams, Skype, Office, and even parts of Windows. Now, Microsoft is shifting toward 3D designs that bring back skeuomorphism, together with more colorful and playful designs.Our studies showed that while our illustrations could be described as colorful, inclusive, and genial on a surface level, they were received within consumer culture as uninteresting and emotionless," explains the Microsoft Design team in a blog post outlining the new... Continue reading...

The two new proceedings are meant to assist Apple in complying with its interoperability," according to the EU. | Cath Virginia / The Verge The European Commission has opened new proceedings under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that will see the bloc instruct Apple on how it can comply with its interoperability obligations. The two specification proceedings" focused on iOS and iPadOS will conclude within six months.Under DMA, Apple is required to provide third parties free and effective interoperability" with hardware and software features controlled by iOS and iPadOS. Now the EU is going to help Apple understand what that specifically means.Today is the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations through constructive dialogue," said outgoing EU competition chief Margrethe... Continue reading...

Image: Firaxis / 2K Games Netflix's newest games are actually a bit old. During its Geeked Week 2024 presentation, the streaming service revealed it's adding Civilization VI and Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition as well as a host of other titles to its ever-increasing and legitimately impressive gaming lineup.For Civ 6, players will have access to all the game's expansion packs that were a part of the Platinum Edition version of the game. Meanwhile, Netflix will host the Champion Edition of Street Fighter IV featuring all 32 fighters released over the game's lifetime. Also, iOS and Android users will be able to compete against each other online exclusively via Netflix. Neither game has a launch date just yet, with Netflix saying both are coming soon.Street... Continue reading...

Netflix The second and final season of Netflix's Arcane finally has a concrete release date, but it looks like the episodes won't all be dropping at once.This evening, during the final night of this year's Geeked Week showcase, Netflix and Riot announced that Arcane's final season will be a three-part event. Act One is set to premiere on November 9th, Act Two debuts on November 16th, and Act Three drops on November 23rd. Along with the the new dates, Netflix also released yet another teaser trailer showcasing how sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell) will be drawn back into battle with one another as the war for control of Piltover reaches its climax.The team behind Arcane still has plans for more animated projects set in the... Continue reading...

Image: Netflix It's not clear how much of Avatar: The Last Airbender's story Netflix will fit into the next season of its live-action adaptation, but we now know who will be portraying the series' take on Toph.During Netflix's ongoing Geeked Week event, the streamer announced that Miya Cech (Beef, American Girl: Corinne Tan) has been cast as Toph Beifong, the blind earthbending prodigy whose unique skills end up making her a formidable part of Team Avatar.Previously, executive producer Jabbar Raisani teased that, much like in the animated show, Toph's arrival will add new complications to Team Avatar's group dynamics as they continue on their quest to defeat the Fire Nation. Given that Netflix's Avatar is set to end with its third season, Toph... Continue reading...

The Verge's Sean Hollister picking up his new passport at the post office. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge If you read my colleague Sean Hollister's positive experience renewing his US passport online through a beta website from the State Department - without needing to ship his old passport - I have good news for you: that experience is now available for everyone. You can access it right here.Instead of printing a paper application and mailing it with a check, Americans can now renew their passports through a secure process that will save time and effort," Secretary of State Antony Blinken writes in an announcement about the program.Right now, the renewal website is showing a six- to eight-week estimate for processing times, and the State Department notes that mailing times aren't included in that estimate. That all means you may not get... Continue reading...

Californians can now add their driver's licenses or state IDs to their Apple Wallets. | Image: Apple Apple announced that starting today, California residents can add their driver's licenses and state IDs to Apple Wallet on their iPhones and Apple Watches as part of the state's mobile driver's license (mDL) pilot program.As announced last month, up to 1.5 million pilot participants can add the documents to Apple Wallet by scanning their driver's license or state ID card using their iPhone and then providing a scan of their face using a series of facial and head movements" as an added security measure. The scans will need to be verified by the state before the documents are made available in Wallet.However, as it's still only authorized for limited usage, the state DMV advises users to continue carrying their physical IDs, too.S... Continue reading...

The Hipstamatic Party! Disposable Camera app saves event organizers from having to chase down guests to get their photos. | Screenshot: Apple App Store Hipstamatic's new Party! Disposable Camera app is designed to digitally replicate the experience of guests snapping candid photos at a wedding or other event using a disposable film camera. There are no film development fees afterward, but it's only free if your guest list is no larger than five people.At its core, the app is yet another attempt to streamline the process of collecting all the smartphone photos that guests take during a special event. Using a custom QR code generated by a host, guests are directed to download the Party! Disposable Camera app and join the specific event. All the photos taken through the app will be collected into a single private gallery the host and guests can view and comment on.There are similar... Continue reading...