The Verge

The Light Antenna One promises up-to-gigabit network connections with infrared light. We've known for over a decade that blinking light bulbs can transfer substantial quantities of wireless data, not just dumb infrared commands to your TV. Now, the IEEE standards body behind Wi-Fi has decided to formally invite Li-Fi" to the same table - with speeds of between 10 megabits per second and 9.6 gigabits per second using invisible infrared light.As of June 2023, the IEEE 802.11 wireless standard now officially recognizes wireless light communications as a physical layer for wireless local area networks, which is a fancy way of saying that that Li-Fi doesn't need to compete with Wi-Fi. Light can be just another kind of access point and interface delivering the same networks and/or the same internet to your device.In fact,... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has lost what may be its final attempt to block Microsoft from buying Activision Blizzard. It's the second loss for the FTC after a US federal judge denied its request for a preliminary injunction earlier this week to block Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard until the conclusion of a separate FTC administrative case.The FTC appealed the decision by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, and now the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied its request for emergency relief to prevent Microsoft from closing the deal until the result of the FTC's appeal is complete. Image: US Courts The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filing. Microsoft welcomed the denial late on Friday. We... Continue reading...

Ten days after a federal judge in Missouri barred the Biden administration from contacting tech companies about posts protected by the First Amendment, the White House is temporarily no longer under that ban. Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals paused that judge's order - at least until the higher court has time to weigh in more fully itself.Originally, Judge Terry Doughty suggested that the Biden administration may be suppressing millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens," writing that the government had already used its power to silence the opposition" by suppressing speech opposed to covid-19 vaccines and the validity of the 2020 election, among other things.(It's true that, for a time, social networks... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is ending its Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan. The plan had already spread to eight countries as of February, allowing Xbox Game Pass members to share benefits with up to four other friends or family members. There's no sign if it will ever return.A Microsoft spokesperson has now confirmed to Eurogamer that the Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan will come to a close on August 15th:

Xbox's Larry Major Nelson" Hryb at the Xbox One launch event in New York City. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Larry Hryb, an Xbox employee perhaps better known by his Major Nelson" alias, is leaving Microsoft, he announced on Friday. Hryb has been a major face for many of Xbox's marketing activities since the days of the original Xbox and Xbox Live online service, through the launch of the Xbox 360 and all of the years since.After 20 incredible years, I have decided to take a step back and work on the next chapter of my career," he tweeted. As I take a moment and think about all we have done together, I want to thank the millions of gamers around the world who have included me as part of their lives."In January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said coming changes would reduce the company's workforce by 10,000 employees, or about 5 percent of... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge With both writers and actors on strike, the future of Hollywood is at stake. Continue reading...

Image: CNBC Bob Iger has a lot to say about Disney's future. During a 40-minute interview with CNBC, the CEO talks about what the company could look like over the next four (or more) years under his control - and it could drastically change some of Disney's biggest brands.One of those changes includes slashing the company's spending on Marvel and Star Wars-related content. As for why, Iger says the influx of Marvel TV shows diluted focus and attention," on its films, resulting in disappointing performances at the box office.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was one of those films. It raked in just $463 million, making it one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies of all time. Although that performance improved with the release of Guardians of the... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Feels like the spam calls are picking up," my editor said to me today. Yes, it does. A glance through my call log from this week showed one incoming real call and 10 incoming spam calls.We wrote a bunch about this in 2019 - here are some ideas for protecting yourself, and yes, I have chosen the nuclear option - and if anything, the situation has gotten worse. The FCC has made some idle threats against carriers, but I have yet to see any real action. At this point, I despair. The FCC doesn't care; the carriers don't care; the cost of spam is low for spammers, and the fact that they are ripping apart networks? Doesn't seem to matter.It feels like a tide of bullshit is risingI didn't use to avoid the phone. As a teenager, I spent hours... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As rumors mount for a Windows 12" release for next year, Microsoft confirmed and named a new Windows 11 23H2 update planned for the fourth quarter of 2023.Microsoft hasn't yet revealed what's in it, but the company does have many unreleased features in the beta testing pipeline that could be included. One of the big new items is Windows Copilot, which takes the GPT generative AI tech being used in Bing and Microsoft (Office) 365 and gives users an OS-wide personal assistant - and is available to test now.Another feature to look out for is the release of the next File Explorer: it includes tabs, favorites, and a modernized look. Meanwhile, gamers may enjoy native RGB lighting settings coming to Windows 11 to make clunky... Continue reading...

Image: Studio Ghibli / GKIDS The mysterious new film from legendary animation studio Studio Ghibli and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki will be titled The Boy and the Heron in North America, according to an announcement from distributor GKIDS. The movie came out on Friday in Japan under the title Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (translated as How Do You Live?), but GKIDS is only saying that it will be out in theaters later this year."Ahead of the film's release, Studio Ghibli only shared the Japanese title and a couple of images of some kind of bird-like creature - there hasn't even been a trailer - so there are a lot of unknowns about what the film might actually be about. That was an intentional strategy.A poster and a title - that's all we got when we were children," Studio... Continue reading...

Widget, widget, widget, weee. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The macOS Sonoma public beta is now live, and if you fancy being an early adopter, you can go ahead and download it.A whole bunch of new features are baked into this release, several of which are essentially ported over from iOS and will make your Mac computer look a heck of a lot more like an iPhone while you're using it. One of these is widgets. You can now place a variety of interactive widgets right on your desktop, including Podcasts, Weather, and Calendar, and it's very easy to do.There are a couple ways to do it, but I'm going to show you the easiest one. Seriously, it will take you maybe two minutes.How to add desktop widgets in macOS Sonoma

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It is impossibly hard to play games released before 2010. Continue reading...

Yes, that burger was as good as it looks. I don't particularly love editing my photos on a regular old slab phone anymore. Even on something large like the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the aspect ratio demands more zooming and panning than I'd like. Slapping on a quick filter or making some light tweaks is fine, but anything more than that and I'm itching for my Mac or an iPad. None of this is the fault of software, mind you; Adobe's been on a run of some phenomenal Lightroom updates this year, and indie developers like the team behind Pixelmator are impressively keeping pace. That aspect of editing has never been better or more capable; it's having to work within the confines of a small screen that's the real limitation.So as I was helping with our Google Pixel Fold review last month,... Continue reading...

Phones rule everything around me. I don't have hard data on this, but most people probably rank switching to a new phone somewhere around dental cleaning" and trip to the DMV." A few years ago, I felt that way, too. Dozens of phone reviews later, switching devices has become just as routine as taking out the recycling every week.Sure, sometimes things get mucked up and I have to tag in my wireless carrier (thanks a bunch, eSIM), but I'm living proof that it's possible to switch to an entirely new phone every week without suffering any serious emotional or social consequences. And you can, too! I promise it's not as painful as it seems.I'm living proof that you can switch to a new phone every week without suffering any serious emotional or social consequencesMost... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Over the last eight months, disparate segments of the public have clamored to integrate generative AI software like OpenAI's ChatGPT into their daily lives - and especially into their work.Everyone from doctors and online marketers to students and tennis announcers is experimenting with bringing AI tools into the fold. Aspiring millionaire spammers are using chatbots to speed up their junk generation, while artists are using AI art tools like Midjourney to beat out human competition. At least one lazy lawyer tried - and failed - to cut down on the research they needed to do. The promise of maximizing output and saving time is driving much of the experimentation."News outlets are among the institutions that have latched onto this... Continue reading...

Photo by Vernon Yuen / NurPhoto via Getty Images China has released new guidelines on generative AI services, limiting their public use while encouraging industrial development.Reuters reported the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) softened its stance compared to draft rules in April. These new interim regulations will take effect on August 15th. The guidelines only affect organizations offering generative AI services to the public. Other entities developing the same technology but not for mass-market use do not fall under the measures.The rules (translated via Google Translate) retain some wording from the April proposal. They continue to mandate generative AI services must adhere to core values of socialism" and not attempt to overthrow state power or the socialist... Continue reading...

The green version of the Buds 2 will save you more green today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Even two days after Amazon Prime Day, there are still some lingering deals sticking around, but here's one that somehow got slightly better. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 in olive green are on sale for $79.96 ($70 off) at Amazon (with slightly delayed shipping). That about matches the all-time low price of the very capable noise-canceling earbuds. They may not be as fancy as Pro" models from Samsung or Apple, but they nail the essentials for Bluetooth wireless earbuds, and they sound good. The Buds 2 even have a great feature that much pricier earbuds from the likes of Beats and Bose often omit - wireless charging.If olive green isn't your jam, the graphite and lavender colors are also available at Amazon for $10 more - still a very... Continue reading...

Image: Sanrio / Sunblink The makers of Hello Kitty Island Adventure want you to know the game has nothing to do with South Park.Back in 2006, South Park finally made itself relevant to me with its World of Warcraft episode. In the episode, the boys take up the MMO and try to recruit Butters to join them. He refuses, explaining that he has simpler tastes, preferring to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure instead.It's a throwaway line, meant to elicit nothing more than a sneer from the gamers watching that Butters would dare admit aloud to playing something so childish. But though the game sounded exactly like a PlayStation 2 Japanese-only launch title or something that was on a CD-ROM for Windows 98, it didn't actually exist.That is until now.Announced late... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you've invested hours in achieving high scores, exploring open worlds, and leveling up, then you absolutely don't want someone you live with - or a passing guest - to sit themselves down in front of your console and interfere with all that hard work.Whether you use a PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, or Xbox Series S, you can configure multiple user accounts so that games, achievements, and apps belong to you and you alone - while giving other people the chance to play on the console as well.And you have a couple of options, depending if these are registered users or guests. Users who already have their own Sony or Microsoft accounts will only need to enter the credentials for these accounts once and can protect those accounts with a... Continue reading...

Image: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images House Republicans came to the defense of Elon Musk Thursday, tearing into Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan over an agency investigation they claim borders on obsession" with Twitter and its owner.The blustering support for the billionaire dominated a Thursday House Judiciary Committee hearing overseeing the agency's work under Khan's leadership. The committee's chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), set the tone right out of the gate, calling Khan's leadership a disaster" and suggesting that the FTC's Twitter probe was politically motivated.Why are you harassing Twitter?" Jordan pressed Khan Thursday. This wasn't harassment. It was a shakedown."The hearing came hours after Musk asked a federal court to end the FTC's investigation... Continue reading...

LG CEO William Cho (pictured above at CES 2023) has revealed how the company plans to squeeze additional revenue out of its customers. | Photo by David Becker/Getty Images LG Electronics is looking to squeeze some additional cash from its customers by going all in on advertising and subscription offerings for its home appliances and televisions. It's part of a plan to increase global annual revenue from the $51 billion reported last year to almost $79 billion by 2030. Part of that growth strategy is to get webOS - the operating system running LG smart TVs - onto more external TV brands and other product groups."On Wednesday, LG CEO William Cho announced the Korean tech giant's intention to transform itself into a smart life solution company" by diversifying its current business portfolio and creating a business model that focuses on customer engagement." LG's new growth strategy will introduce a... Continue reading...

At press time, we weren't provided images of the rally-inspired Mustang Mach-E, so please enjoy this photo of the Mustang logo until such images become available. | Image: Ford Ford announced a first-ever" rally-inspired Mustang Mach-E for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, which kicked off this week. And what's more, the special-edition EV will be available to order in the US and Europe later this year.We don't have much more information about the Mustang Mach-E Rally, as Ford would not provide specifications or images of the vehicle before the publication of this article. But the company did say the EV would be a true off-roader with a focus on speed and performance - as is typical of vehicles designed for the notoriously hilly Goodwood Festival.The freedom to venture off the asphalt and beyond the beaten path"Mustang Mach-E took the freedom and fun of Mustang and made it free from emissions.... Continue reading...

Image: Lego All the Lego news that Verge readers deserve. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is sunsetting its current coins and awards systems, meaning you soon won't be able to thank a kind stranger for giving you Reddit Gold for one of your posts.Awards are little icons on posts you might have come across while scrolling around Reddit, and they're given by other users to show appreciation for a post. Perhaps the most commonly-known award is Reddit Gold, which shows up as a gold medal with a star, but there also reaction awards and awards specific to certain communities. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge See all those icons? Those are awards. To buy an award, you need to use Reddit Coins, but if you don't already have some, you aren't able to get any more of them as of Thursday, according... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The biggest Reddit community that's still private as part of the Reddit protest is now encouraging its users to congregate elsewhere: Discord and Substack.If you currently try to visit r/malefashionadvice, which has more than 5 million subscribers, you'll be greeted with a page that suggests you visit the community's Discord and Substack instead. r/malefashionadvice was a great resource for fashion conversation and guides, and the Discord and Substack offer alternative homes for those resources. Specifically, the Discord lets members of the community chat amongst themselves and post about things like fits and inspiration, while the Substack hosts a lot of guides. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge One of the... Continue reading...

The AMPTP proposal will sound familiar to Black Mirror fans. | Image: Netflix During today's press conference in which Hollywood actors confirmed that they were going on strike, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's chief negotiator, revealed a proposal from Hollywood studios that sounds ripped right out of a Black Mirror episode.In a statement about the strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said that its proposal included a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members."When asked about the proposal during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland said that This groundbreaking' AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day's pay, and their companies... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Months after Elon Musk announced that some Twitter users will be eligible to earn money via ads on the platform, popular creators are finally getting an update: the money is coming within the next 72 hours."The revenue sharing program is only available to users who pay for a Twitter Blue subscription and is driven by ads placed in the replies to tweets. So far, payout amounts are ranging from a few thousand dollars to nearly $40,000 for accounts with a few million followers. In a thread, Twitter says it will expand eligibility to more creators later this month.

Image: SAG-AFTRA After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union representing about 160,000 of the entertainment industry's American laborers will begin striking at midnight tonight.This afternoon, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced that the union's national board has unanimously voted to go on strike in direct response to the AMPTP's refusal to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers."Crabtree-Ireland said that while SAG-AFTRA - which represents thousands of actors,... Continue reading...

Now, if only Starfield could get here a little quicker. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's not often we see sold-out Amazon Prime Day deals suddenly resurrect from the dead less than a day after the event ended, never mind on a console like the Xbox Series X. That's why it's worth jumping on this rare deal while it's still around. Right now, you can pick up Microsoft's next-gen console on sale at Dell for $449.99 ($50 off).Unlike the smaller Xbox Series S, the Series X features a built-in Blu-ray drive, allowing you to play both physical games and digital titles. It's equipped with 1TB of storage - twice that of the Series S - and more processing power, which, combined with the console's support for 120Hz gaming, make it a noticeable step up from Microsoft's entry-level system. It's also a great way to tap into one of... Continue reading...

Microsoft's new Aptos default font. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is replacing its Calibri default font with Aptos, a new sans-serif typeface that's inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography. Previously known as Bierstadt, Microsoft has been on the hunt for its new Aptos default font over the past couple of years. The software giant commissioned five new custom fonts for Office in 2021, and the Aptos font was picked as the default after years of feedback.Today we begin the final phase of this major change where Aptos will start appearing as the new default font across Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel for hundreds of millions of users," explains Si Daniels, a principal program manager at Microsoft, in a design blog post today. And, over the next few months it will roll out to be the... Continue reading...

Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating ChatGPT creator OpenAI over possible consumer harm through its data collection and the publication of false information.First reported by The Washington Post, the FTC sent a 20-page letter to the company this week. The letter requests documents related to developing and training its large language models, as well as data security.The FTC wants to get detailed information on how OpenAI vets information used in training for its models and how it prevents false claims from being shown to ChatGPT users. It also wants to learn more about how APIs connect to its systems and how data is protected when accessed by third parties.The FTC declined to comment. OpenAI did not immediately... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ripple's XRP token was an investment contract when the company sold it to institutional investors, a judge ruled today. The case, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is one of the biggest in determining whether tokens are securities. Though this is an intermediate ruling in a larger case, it's still significant.In the ruling, Judge Analisa Torres found that Ripple's $728.9 million sales of XRP to institutional investors - hedge funds, etc. - were unregistered securities offerings. However, the programmatic sales and those by Ripple's CEOs weren't. The case will go to a jury trial to decide other claims.There are long-standing questions about whether cryptocurrencies are actually securitiesIn the suit, the SEC alleged... Continue reading...

The rear of 2022's Nothing Phone 1. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Our constantly updated list of all the information about Nothing's second phone. Continue reading...

Form, function, and a good midrange phone. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The former CEO of the fallen Celsius crypto lending company, Alex Mashinsky, and the company's chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, have been arrested on charges of committing securities fraud, according to Bloomberg. On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed charges against Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon for inflating the price of Celsius' crypto token, called CEL, while lying to Celsius customers about the token, their activities, and the company's overall health.The DOJ claims Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon illicitly manipulated the price of CEL," causing investors to buy the token at inflated prices. The DOJ claims that selling their tokens, even as Mashinsky told Celsius customers he wasn't selling, pulled in $42 million for... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you're using the new macOS Sonoma beta, you might want to know about a glorious new bridge between ecosystems that lets Mac Chrome users connect with their iCloud passwords. Apple has updated its iCloud Passwords Chrome extension with a new feature that lets you directly pull passwords from iCloud, keeping you from needing to open Safari or migrate your iCloud passwords to another password manager.Apple software engineering manager Ricky Mondello tweeted about the new feature yesterday. Mondello explained that the Chrome extension can also AutoFill passwords and one-time codes, save new passwords, and lets you right-click QR codes to set up code generators.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge US policymakers hope to require online platforms to disclose information about their algorithms and allow the government to intervene if these are found to discriminate based on criteria like race or gender.Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) reintroduced the Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act, which aims to ban the use of discriminatory or harmful" automated decision-making. It would also establish safety standards, require platforms to provide a plain language explanation of algorithms used by websites, publish annual reports on content moderation practices, and create a governmental task force to investigate discriminatory algorithmic processes.The bill applies to online platforms" or any... Continue reading...

Image: Susie Allnutt / Netflix We're approaching the end of an era for Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher. When the final episodes of season 3 drop on July 27th, it will mark the conclusion of Henry Cavill's run as Geralt of Rivia, with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role for subsequent seasons.In a new trailer, Netflix shows what fans can expect in those last episodes - and it looks like a big, bloody war. At one point, Geralt's sword shatters in battle, suggesting his new big bad enemy is a tough one, and the trailer ends with him saying, There's no coming back from this." Now that's ominous.The first half - or volume, as Netflix calls it - of The Witcher's third season started streaming in June, and it was clearly setting up this kind of large-scale conflict... Continue reading...

Cowboy sends you its love. | Image: Cowboy Belgian e-bike maker Cowboy has released a free app to keep rival VanMoof owners on the road now that the Dutch company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.The Bikey app - get it... bike key - can generate and save a VanMoof owner's unique digital key, which might be needed if the company's servers are ever taken offline. It also provides basic access to the VanMoof e-bike's settings. The key can be exported elsewhere for safekeeping.The app currently only works with S3 and X3 e-bike models, the most common VanMoof e-bikes currently on the road, with support for new S5 and A5 e-bikes on the way. It's in beta and is iOS only for now, with an Android beta releasing soon. Cowboy says that nothing is shared outside of the app," not... Continue reading...