The Verge

Image: Bethesda Starfield is one of the most demanding games on PC that we've seen recently, with even the RTX 4090 paired with AMD's latest Ryzen 7800X3D just about hitting 60fps on average at 4K with all the settings maxed out. As reviewers and testers scramble to figure out why Starfield is so heavy, the experts over at Digital Foundry have discovered some obvious differences between AMD and Intel / Nvidia systems.If you're on Intel and Nvidia you're getting a bizarrely worse experience here in comparison to AMD GPUs in a way that's completely out of the norm," explains Alexander Battaglia in a detailed 32-minute tech analysis of Starfield on PC.AMD is Starfield's exclusive PC partner," with Bethesda and AMD engineers working to optimize the game... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge You may not think of it this way, but you probably hear AI voices all the time. When you're talking to Alexa or Siri, that's a model trained on human speech to be able to say almost anything. Did you ever have a celebrity give you directions on Waze? AI. And every time you watch TikTok and you hear that slightly too chipper voice speaking the captions aloud, that's AI all the way down. Heck, Apple's AI will even read you a romance novel before you go to bed.AI systems are getting good at turning text into believable speech in almost any language and almost any voice. And on this episode of The Vergecast, the first in our three-part miniseries on AI, that voice is mine. We trained a bunch of different AI bots with the sound of my voice -... Continue reading...

A screenshot from the game Borderlands 3. | Image: Gearbox Software Embracer Group is reportedly looking at selling off Gearbox Entertainment, the maker of Borderlands, as the gaming conglomerate searches for ways to make money following the collapse of a major funding deal earlier this year. Reuters reports that Embracer is already shopping the studio around but warned that a deal may not happen."This is the latest dip in the rollercoaster ride that has been Embracer's last few years. The company has pieced together an immense gaming and entertainment portfolio through a nonstop series of acquisitions, which has brought together the comics group Dark Horse, Tomb Raider maker Crystal Dynamics, and franchising rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, among other properties.Obviously, this cost a... Continue reading...

Note: This content is not displaying properly in Apple News. Please use this link instead.Apple's product events have always been more than sales pitches - they're essentially technology entertainment: presentations that run as long as feature films and make bold promises about how technology is changing and why Apple's new products are (supposedly) the ones leading the charge. The events are undeniably popular. Apple's last iPhone event, in September 2022, has 31 million views on YouTube alone.If you're here, you've certainly seen coverage of Apple's keynotes. Maybe you've tuned in live for a few of them (or a whole bunch, as all of us at The Verge have). We dug through our memories for some trivia questions to see just how well you... Continue reading...

RIP Lightning. You were proprietary, which was annoying, but you were so easy to plug in. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Lightning connector really only had two jobs: be tiny and be foolproof. Apple developed the new port for the iPhone 5, which at the time was simultaneously the largest, thinnest, and lightest iPhone the company had ever made. That made every millimeter of space and milligram of weight matter. For nearly a decade, Apple's go-to connector had been the 30-pin Dock Connector, which was positively gigantic - about four times the size of a standard Micro USB plug. The Dock Connector was also fragile and a bit fussy. You had to stick the cable in just so in order to get the little hooks on the end to attach to the port. After a decade of Dock Connector, Apple needed something better.When Apple introduced Lightning at its annual fall event... Continue reading...

A rehoming pound for preloved robot pups. | Image: Sony Sony is launching a new sustainability program to ensure that even robot dogs are for life, and not just for Christmas. Five years after releasing the ERS-1000 Aibo - a reboot of its popular line of autonomous entertainment" robot dogs from the late 90's - Sony Japan is now launching an Aibo foster parent program" to help ERS-1000 owners who have cancelled their Aibo Cloud Plan to donate the gadget to a worthy cause.According to a machine translation of the Japanese press announcement, Sony will test and repair ERS-1000 units donated to the program before providing them to medical facilities, nursing homes, and other organizations that could benefit from emotional support robots like Aibo. Sony says it plans to charge Aibo foster... Continue reading...

Surprise! More robot vacuums. iRobot launches its new j9 Plus robot vacuum line, featuring a new auto-empty dock that can refill the robot's water tank. | Image: iRobot iRobot's newest robot vacuums are smarter and more powerful, and the mopping bot can scrub your floors more deeply. At least, that's what the company is claiming as it launches its newest flagships: the $1,399 Roomba Combo j9 Plus vacuum / mop and the $899 j9 Plus vacuum. Both models are available to pre-order now at irobot.com in the US and Canada. iRobot also launched two midrange robot vacuums that can mop last week.iRobot is clearly feeling the pressure from its many, many competitors. These latest models focus on bringing more smarts, power, and scrubbing action to keep up with the likes of Ecovacs, Roborock, and Dreame, who are launching ever more fantastical home cleaning bots.The new Roomba Combo j9 Plus is the first robot... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge A WhatsApp for Android beta update (version 2.23.19.8) that came out today contains a new screen called Third-party chats, reports WABetaInfo. For now, the screen is neither functional nor accessible by users, according to WABetaInfo. But its title is a strong clue that this is likely the first step to opening Meta's encrypted messages app to cross-platform compatibility.The beta comes just days after the European Commission confirmed that WhatsApp owner Meta meets the definition of a gatekeeper" under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires communication software like WhatsApp to interoperate with third-party messaging apps by March 2024. WABetaInfo tweeted a screenshot of the screen:

The Verge Disney is releasing a 100-film Blu-ray collection on November 14th called the Disney Legacy Animated Film Collection (via The Wrap). Preorders will start on September 18th at Walmart.com, and we regret to inform you it will cost $1,500, according to The Wrap.The collection includes movies from both Disney and Pixar, all crammed into three volumes of discs that span Disney's entire feature film history from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to this year's Elemental.What's really impressive is how little filler this package seems to have. Scrolling through the list that The Wrap published, it has every single movie I'd have wanted to see, like all of the Toy Story movies, both of The Incredibles, The Black Cauldron, Frankenweenie,... Continue reading...

The iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island is expected to land on all iPhone 15 models this year. Exciting is overrated, anyway. Continue reading...

There are many like it, but this Breville Barista Express is mine. Zen and the art of espresso machine maintenance. Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Google Photos isn't just a place for storing and sorting your photos and videos - both the web interface and the mobile apps come with a slew of image editing tools so you can spruce up and enhance your pictures before sharing them with the wider world.Google regularly updates these editing tools, and a significant upgrade just arrived on the web. There are new features here (some of which were previously available only on the Android app), including preset color profiles and more granular control over existing features such as brightness and contrast adjustment.All you need to do to try them out is open your browser and navigate to Google Photos. Open an image, click the edit button in the top-right corner (it looks like a series of... Continue reading...

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 5, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, first of all, hi, hello, welcome, and second of all, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about the remarkable pettiness of Disney CEOs and the crypto world's most obvious scams, watching a whole lot of US Open tennis and this wild home-renovation show that's all about VR, drafting fantasy football teams, nodding vigorously at this story about the scourge that is Rotten Tomatoes, trying to figure out how to keep my car off the internet after reading this new Mozilla study, shouting from the rooftops that everyone needs to stop using LastPass and change all their... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Elon Musk's X Corp. is suing the state of California over AB 587, a state bill requiring social media platforms to report to the state attorney general, semiannually, how they're tackling moderation of certain categories of speech. The complaint alleges that the bill violates federal and state free speech laws because it compels companies like X Corp. to engage in speech against their will," as they're forced to settle on definitions for politically-charged" issues like hate speech or racism.X Corp.'s complaint explains that it's difficult to reliably define" hate speech, misinformation, political interference, and other content categories. It adds that defining them is often fraught with political bias" because there's no accepted... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney has announced that until October 11th, it will offer a three-month deal on Hulu plus Live TV for $49.99 per month. The $20-a-month discounted subscription, which includes ad-supported Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus, comes right as the final weekend of the US Open championships gets underway and the first NFL games of the season happen.Disney's Hulu trial is well-timed, given its spat with Spectrum leaving cable customers with legally dubious options for watching some of the year's biggest sports events.That includes tennis player Daniil Medvedev, who last week said he had to use pirate streams to watch the US Open while playing in it since the hotel TVs were connected to Spectrum. Medvedev, who won the tournament in 2021,... Continue reading...

Finally, the kind of treatment Nintendo's 34-year-old handheld deserves. | Image: Grid Happy Saturday, dear readers! If you're anything like me, chances are you have a soft spot for older tech, specifically the kind of borderline-ancient gadgets and gizmos that often find their way to the landfill or the shoebox under your bed. If so, I'm here to tell you that Grid Studio is running an anniversary sale through Sunday, September 10th, offering discounts on an assortment of framed, nostalgia-inducing gadgets.In terms of what's available, you have some options. The original Game Boy and iPhone 4S - which are on sale for $169 ($130 off) and $99 ($70 off), respectively - are surely the star of the show at 40 percent off, but you can still save 15 percent on a range of other aging, oft-forgotten tech with offer code T15. This... Continue reading...

This one that I got off Amazon for $20 is alright. But it doesn't do everything I need it to. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge I like big phones, but I cannot lie. They come with tradeoffs. Namely, despite having large hands and piano fingers, my iPhone 14 Pro Max doesn't always feel secure in my grasp. That's fine when I'm in bed, surrounded by soft blankets and pillows. It's less fine when I'm trying to text one-handed on public transit or running errands.I first encountered this problem with my first Big Phone, the iPhone XS Max. Get a PopSocket, everyone said. So I did. I had to begrudgingly admit it worked, even if they were ugly as sin. I even upgraded to a PopWallet Plus. But like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun. I'd thought because my original PopSocket had never fallen off, the PopWallet Plus was safe.It was not. Photo by... Continue reading...

The University of Oklahoma blocked TikTok on its devices and networks in December 2022. | Photo by Tharaka Basnayaka / NurPhoto via Getty Images When he first read the email announcing that public universities in Texas had been asked to ban the use of TikTok on their campuses, UT Dallas student Eric Aaberg feared the worst. As a full-time content creator with over 10,000 followers on the platform, the app was central to his life. Would he be forced to delete it? Would he be punished if he were caught using it?I was like, Oh my gosh, are you serious?'" Aaberg recalls. That's so BS. There's no way."Then he learned the reality. UTD was making TikTok inaccessible on its campus-provided networks. For him, that was the extent of the ban.Aaberg immediately relaxed. I was like, Oh, that's nothing,'" he says.Texas is one of over thirty US states that have enacted restrictions... Continue reading...

Image: Wyze Some Wyze security camera owners reported Friday that they were unexpectedly able to see webcam feeds that weren't theirs, meaning that they were unintentionally able to see inside of other people's houses. A Wyze spokesperson tells The Verge that this was due to a web caching issue.Earlier on Friday, users on Reddit made posts about the issue. Went to check on my cameras and they are all gone be replaced with a new one... and this isn't mine!" wrote one user. Apologies if this is your house / dog... I don't want it showing up as much as you don't want it!"I am able to click the events tab and see ALL the events on this random person's camera INSIDE their house," wrote another.I don't know why, but I can see someone else's... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit can now translate posts into eight different languages when viewing them on Reddit's iOS or Android apps or on the web while logged out, according to a post from a Reddit admin (employee). To start, posts can be translated into English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Swedish.I tried it out by looking at this post in r/France. It's in French, but when logged out on the web, I can translate it to English by clicking the Translate" link at the top left of the post. When logged in on the iOS app, I can see the Translate" link, too.Since I don't speak French, I can't speak to the quality of Reddit's translation. (The admin said in a comment that the company is currently using Google services for... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber might be expanding beyond ridesharing and food deliveries. A snippet of code seen by Bloomberg includes a new Chore" option, which appears to let users hire people through the app for various jobs.The code suggests that users may be able to hire a worker - reportedly called a tasker" within the app - for at least one hour, as reported by Bloomberg. In addition to specifying the job they want done, users will also have to state how long it might take and when the worker should show up.From there, Bloomberg reports that users will have to enter their address, much like on Uber's food delivery and ridesharing apps. The app will then determine the cost based on the time required" to complete the job. It's still not clear what... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge The giant metaverse platform is huge with kids and getting more popular with adults. Continue reading...

Screenshot from Roblox's RDC 2023 keynote video Roblox really wants to move beyond being an app for kids, and that includes making it a place where adults actually meet and date. As he closed out Friday's Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) 2023 keynote, CEO David Baszucki predicted that thousands" of adults will meet and form real-life relationships" in dating experiences on the platform over the next five years.It's a wild idea, but Roblox is now in a place where this prediction could feasibly come true. The company recently added experiences that can only be played by users who have verified that they are 17 or older, meaning that people hanging out in those exclusive experiences can be relatively sure they're spending time with people who are old enough to be there. Next year,... Continue reading...

Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film in a decade, probably won't be his last after all. Studio Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka told CBC News that not only does he not feel like retiring anymore, he's actively coming into work to create yet another film.Other people say that [The Boy and the Heron] might be his last film, but he doesn't feel that way at all," Nishioka told CBC, through a translator, at the Toronto International Film Festival (via Gizmodo).He is currently working on ideas for a new film. He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he's not going to announce his retirement at all. He's continuing working just as he has always done."That seems... pretty definitive?And really,... Continue reading...

Donald Mustard at the 2018 Game Awards. | Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images Donald Mustard ran a successful studio that showed what the Xbox and iPhone were capable of. Then, he became the face of one of the biggest and boldest storytelling experiments in history, to borrow a phrase, with Fortnite's massive metaverse.Now, he's done: Mustard, chief creative officer at Epic Games, says he's retiring this month.

ChatGPT has limits, and pairing Captain America and the Winter Soldier is one of them... sometimes. | Image: Disney / Marvel AI-generated fiction has become a subject of perpetual fascination for me. It's the bane of some writers' existence, yet it's increasingly cropping up across both commercial storefronts like Amazon and noncommercial writing sites like Archive of Our Own (AO3). While some creators painstakingly train their own tools, many simply plug prompts into an off-the-shelf commercial chatbot, particularly OpenAI's ChatGPT. And ChatGPT is not a rarefied artist's tool. It's a platform, which means every word that goes into and comes out of it is moderated to avoid offense and controversy. That raises a fascinating question: what stories should you be allowed to make an AI system tell?Apparently, not ones about Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes being... Continue reading...

Image: Getty Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, is still facing blowback over claims it tricked people into using its free" tax filing service that wasn't actually free. In a ruling on Friday, the Federal Trade Commission's chief administrative law judge (ALJ) ruled that Intuit deceived consumers" and engaged in deceptive advertising."The ruling includes several pages of commercials and online ads where Intuit advertised its Free Edition" software. While the name implies that the service is, well, free, people wound up having to pay to use it - sparking a lawsuit from the FTC and a $141 million payout to affected users. Meanwhile, Intuit's actually no-cost Free File version, which it launched in partnership with the IRS, remained... Continue reading...

Image: Mega / Target In the year of our lord 2023, you will be able to purchase a brand-new Xbox 360 - but there's a catch. You'll have to assemble it yourself. A full seven years after Microsoft stopped production on what was its bestselling console, block builder company Mega has revealed a 3:4 scale replica of an Xbox 360 that's available exclusively at Target starting October 8th.

The Dbrand Arachnoplates, for PS5. | Image: Dbrand Would you rather have a spider-tastic PS5 designed to promote a very specific game or one that looks like a work of art? Dbrand pitches its new Arachnoplates as a substitute for Sony's sold-out Spider-Man 2 console covers - but I actually think they look better!Here are the original Sony plates, as a refresher: Image: Sony Now, here's Dbrand's Arachnoplates again: Image: Dbrand Image: Dbrand Image: Dbrand It's a bit more graphic novel, a bit more obviously Spider-Man vs. Venom, and without any corporate logos in the way. No easter eggs this time, either, says CEO Adam Ijaz - the product is strictly focused on better execution than anyone else in the... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google just released a teaser video of the Pixel Watch 2, and while the smartwatch looks awfully similar to the original, there are some notable differences, such as a new crown, IP68 rating, and a totally different sensor array.In the run-up to its Made by Google launch event on October 4th in New York, Google's been leaking" glimpses of its upcoming Pixel lineup, including Thursday's closeup of the Pixel 8 Pro and the much smaller Pixel 8. However, our looks at the Pixel Watch 2 have been relatively fleeting. This new video, while short, is the first time we've been able to confirm some real differences in terms of design. (Yes, I replayed the video several times and held up my own Pixel Watch as a reference.)For starters, the... Continue reading...

SpaceX Starship prototype | Image: SpaceX The first orbital launch attempt for SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy booster in April ended explosively about four minutes into its test flight, and the FAA isn't ready to clear a follow-up attempt yet. Today, the agency closed its mishap investigation and said the report identified 63 actions that need to be implemented by SpaceX before launches can resume. They include redesigns to prevent leaks and fires, a redesigned launch pad, and other fixes.A new post from SpaceX discussing Upgrades ahead of Starships's second flight test" appeared shortly afterward that didn't directly reference the 63 actions, but its details on why the first test flight lost control reflect what the FAA says needs to be addressed.

Image: Procreate Digital illustration software company Procreate has announced Procreate Dreams, its new 2D animation app for iPad that aims to provide animation tools that anyone can use, regardless of their animating experience. Procreate Dreams will be globally available to download from the App Store on November 22nd for a one-time purchase of $19.99 - a rare sight in an industry that has widely transitioned to subscription pricing models.Designed for touch, Procreate Dreams features tools like Performing that enable users to automatically add keyframes to a project using gestures that record the animator's actions in real time. Procreate claims the tool will forever change the way creatives animate" by allowing them to instantly respond to their... Continue reading...

The all-in-one Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro delivers good picture quality despite its small size. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge Don't you wish you could bring your TV with you while traveling? Sure, you can keep up with your favorite shows using your phone or tablet, but watching content on a small screen just isn't as enjoyable. Luckily, the Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro is a portable projector that'll allow you to watch content more comfortably. Regularly $599, it's down to its all-time low of $479 ($120 off) when you buy it directly from Xgimi using promo code XGSUB-G3H0T.Despite the fact it's small enough to fit in a backpack, the MoGo 2 Pro offers good picture quality - more so in the dark - with support for HDR10 and built-in Chromecast. It can project images up to 200 inches, though you'll enjoy the best picture quality at 30 inches. As an extra perk, the Android TV... Continue reading...

Apple's adaptation of Victor LaValle's The Changeling transforms the novel into an even more chilling tale about the things that keep parents up at night. Continue reading...

The Chromecast with Google TV HD remote from 2022. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google might have a new Chromecast with Google TV in the pipeline, and its remote seems to house some extra buttons compared to the previous version. Android deep diver Mishaal Rahman dug into the latest Android TV 14 beta release and found a system video showcasing the outline of what looks like a brand-new remote designed to control Google TV software.The new remote bears a resemblance to the current flat pill-shaped remote, first introduced in 2020, with an iPod-like dial (minus the touch sensitivity) toward the top on the front. But now, the six main control buttons seem to have scattered to make room for what could be a new volume or channel rocker matching the diameter of the face buttons. Image: Mishaal Rahman ... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge This is Platformer, a newsletter on the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy from Casey Newton and Zoe Schiffer. Sign up here.Today, let's talk about the US government's first major antitrust trial against a tech giant in a generation. If the Justice Department succeeds in its case against Google, it could lead to radical change around the web. But almost three years after the case was filed, it's not clear that the government lawyers will be able to bend antitrust law far enough to secure a victory.I.On October 20th, 2020, the US government formally accused Google of illegally maintaining a monopoly on its search and search advertising businesses. By striking deals with Apple, telecoms, and device manufacturers to make its... Continue reading...

Some limitations for the in-development feature will cap how many emoji you can apply to a single email. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is developing emoji reactions for Gmail that would make the email platform feel a little more like a messaging app if released. The feature was first reported a few weeks ago by The Tape Drive after some code was discovered in the iOS Gmail app that would allow users to react to emails with an emoji, just like similar emoji reaction implementations found on rival platforms like Outlook.Additional evidence has since been found in the latest Gmail APK for Android that supports the claim. As reported by Google leaker AssembleDebug, the APK contains several lines of code that directly refer to emoji reactions. Details are a tad sparse, but one line from the APK code says the feature is coming soon" and that you're among the first... Continue reading...