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by Mitchell Clark on (#64W78)
The Belkin accessory that Apple showed off during its announcement of Continuity Camera — an iOS 16 / macOS Ventura feature that turns your iPhone into an excellent webcam — is now available for $29.95. It uses a hook, which also doubles as a kickstand, to latch onto your laptop’s display and MagSafe to hold your phone up in portrait or landscape mode so its cameras can see you.Belkin’s press release also says that there’ll be a version of the mount meant to be used with desktops and external monitors coming soon, but for now, the “for notebooks” is the only version that’s available. It’s compatible with most of Apple’s laptops, including MacBook Airs from 2018 on, 13-, 14-, 15-, and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and even the MacBook Retina... Continue reading…
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The Verge - All Posts
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2024-11-28 04:30 |
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by Justine Calma on (#64W4W)
The Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant, operated by Saudi Aramco in June 28, 2021. The plant is designed to process 4 billion standard cubic feet per day of sweet gas as pilot project for carbon capture technology. | Photographer: Maya Siddiqui / Bloomberg via Getty Images The business of capturing carbon dioxide from industrial emissions is booming around the world. The technology is gaining popularity as a way for companies to limit the pollution they produce that causes climate change. But even as it grows, the carbon capture industry is holding tight to its ties to oil and gas.Across the globe, the capacity to capture and store planet-heating carbon dioxide has grown by 44 percent over the past 12 months, according to a new report from think tank Global CCS Institute, which advocates for carbon capture and storage (CCS). That includes projects to scrub CO2 out of smokestack emissions from a veritable pantheon of the most notorious pollution sources: power plants, natural gas processing plants, oil... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#5XQ0E)
It’s a likable device, but OnePlus still has some work to do Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#64W4X)
Image: Microsoft After releasing the Windows 11 2022 Update with something new for everyone last month, Microsoft is now bringing even more features to its latest OS today. Top of the list is tabs in File Explorer, alongside suggested actions to make it easy to call people and the Task Manager shortcut returning to the taskbar.Windows users have been waiting years for tabs in File Explorer, and the feature also includes a refreshed design that makes it easier to quickly access folders or find favorite files. The new File Explorer design includes tabs to navigate multiple folders in a single window and the ability to move tabs around freely. Microsoft originally tested tabs in Windows 10 apps four years ago in a feature named Sets. File Explorer tabs... Continue reading…
by Ash Parrish on (#64W4Z)
Image: Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa / Twitch Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa has revealed she and her pets are safe, she is in control of her finances, and her spouse is no longer living with her and seeking help. The news comes after the content creator, one of Twitch’s most popular and highest paid, revealed she was a victim of intimate partner violence at the hands of her husband. During a stream on October 16th, Siragusa revealed she was married, a fact she said she was forced by her husband to keep secret in order to not “ruin the business model.”Content warning: this article contains references to intimate partner violence.Clips of that stream circulated on social media featuring a tearful Amouranth being berated by her husband over the phone. She shared that she was afraid to... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#64W20)
Image: EA Nearly a decade after The Sims 4 launched, EA has confirmed that the next major entry in the franchise is in the works. At a Sims livestream event, the company announced Project Rene, described as “the next generation The Sims game and creative platform.” It sounds very early in development and far from release — hence the codename, instead of being announced as The Sims 5 — but the company did provide a few early details.Here’s the official description:
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by Mitchell Clark on (#64W21)
So long, and thanks for all the streams. | Image: Apple Apple appears to no longer be selling the Apple TV HD, a less expensive alternative to its 4K streaming boxes, in its store (via MacRumors). The HD was a long-standing product in Apple’s lineup, originally announced in 2015 as the fourth-generation Apple TV and becoming the budget option as Apple rolled out 4K models — such as the one it announced today.In 2022, the HD didn’t make a ton of sense; starting last year, it came with Apple’s new remote, which was nice, but it was $149 and used Apple’s A8 processor from the iPhone 6. Meanwhile, the new Apple TV 4K starts at $129, has the much newer A15, double the storage, and of course, supports much higher resolution content (not to mention HDR). The HD maybe kind of sort of (but not... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#64W22)
Google is updating its Android apps ahead of the launch of its Pixel Tablet (pictured) next year. | Image: Google Google is rolling out a series of user interface updates for its Chrome browser on Android tablets as it prepares for the launch of its Pixel Tablet next year. The update started rolling out to a small number of users last week but should reach the majority in the coming days. It includes changes to how Chrome handles tabs on Android, new drag-and-drop functionality, and an option to have the browser always request the desktop (rather than mobile) version of a website.Google has been making a big effort in recent months to improve the usability of Android apps on large-screen devices like tablets. It announced plans to update over 20 of its own Android apps earlier this year, and it’s also worked to optimize TikTok, Zoom, and Facebook.... Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#64W23)
Count ‘em: that’s 14 function keys. | Image: Apple Apple has a new keyboard case for its redesigned lower-end iPad, the Magic Keyboard Folio, and unlike the company’s other keyboard covers for its tablets, this case has an entire row of 14 dedicated function keys.The order of the cover’s function keys largely mirrors what you might already be familiar with from Apple’s computer and laptop keyboards. On the left, you have access to keys like escape and brightness changers, and on the right, there are keys for things such as media playback and volume.Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio comes in a two-piece design. The keyboard attaches to the bottom of the iPad while it’s in landscape mode and also has a large trackpad. The back panel / stand combo, which can be set up at different viewing... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#64W24)
You’ve got until November 6th, 2023, to file for a refund. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In May 2021, Peloton and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled the troubled Peloton Tread Plus after several reports of injuries and the death of a child. As part of the recall, Tread Plus owners were given until November 6th, 2022, to get a full refund. Now, Peloton and the CPSC say they’re extending the refund period for another year.“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled Tread Plus treadmills,” the CPSC said in a statement. It also noted that, to date, Peloton has received 335 incident reports, with the number of reported injuries increasing from 72 to 87 since the recall was first issued. According to the CPSC, roughly 125,000 Tread Plus units were recalled in total.Tread Plus owners will now have... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#64W25)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge With the release of Firefox 106, the company announced a new panel called Firefox View, which lets you keep track of the recently closed and open tabs across all your devices. This panel hides in the tiny Firefox logo in the top-left corner of the browser, beside the first tab you have open.Firefox View shows a list of up to 25 recently closed tabs, making it a little easier to find that article you clicked on but hadn’t read all the way through yet. And if you’re signed in to your Firefox account on devices aside from your computer, like a phone or tablet, Firefox View will show a “Tab pickup” section that shows a list of the open tabs you have across your synced devices. Image: Firefox Firefox View shows up to... Continue reading…
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by Monica Chin on (#64VZ7)
Look how tall it is. | Image: Lenovo In a promotional video for its Tech World 2022 event, Lenovo showed off a laptop with what appears to be a rollable screen. In a brief working demo, you can see the screen of what appears to be an old-school notebook slowly begin to rise from the keyboard deck, unfurling into a display that is monstrously, disconcertingly tall.My initial impression is that this thing looks a bit... tall. It’s not clear from the video whether I could stop the screen anywhere I wanted in the progression or whether I’d need to fully unroll it every time. It’s also not clear exactly how tall the display gets. Eyeballing the video, it looks like the display gains an additional 50 percent or so in height, meaning it might grow from 9-ish to 13.5-ish inches... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#64VZ8)
The Atom’s clamping system should accommodate most Android phones with the cases left on. | Image: Turtle Beach Hot on the heels of releasing its first cloud-focused controller, Turtle Beach is announcing a dedicated game controller for Android phones. The new Turtle Beach Atom is focused on mobile gaming and cloud streaming, as it’s solely an attachment for Android phones. The Atom’s left and right halves attach to a phone via clamps and connect to it via Bluetooth 4.2, which should save the hassle of having to remove your phone’s case each time you want to play.This $99.99 Android controller is available to preorder now and set to launch on November 14th in three colors: red, black and teal, and black and yellow. The latter is officially licensed by Xbox, complete with a branded guide button and one month of Xbox Game Pass included for new... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#64VZ9)
Lightning one end, USB-C the other. | Image: Apple The base model iPad’s switch to USB-C has made using an Apple Pencil with the tablet... complicated. The new 10.9-inch tablet only works with Apple’s first-generation Pencil, which requires a Lightning port to charge. That’s a little bit of a problem when the new iPad uses USB-C.Apple’s solution, naturally, is a dongle. A “USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter,” to be precise, although from what I can tell, it’s technically a USB-C to Lightning port adapter. Apple’s press release notes that the adapter will be included in the box with new Apple Pencils for $99 and will be available separately for $9 for existing Pencil owners. “A new USB-C to Apple Pencil Adapter is required for pairing and charging,” Apple’s press release unequivocally... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#64VZA)
Photo by Gotham / GC Images On Monday, Kanye West, now legally known as Ye, announced that he would buy Parler, an alternative social media platform, in a surprise move that has sparked both interest in the platform and concern for the billionaire rapper’s plans. But the move comes at a perilous time for Parler, which has seen months of stagnating usage and at least one attempt to find a buyer for the platform before Ye.According to a source familiar with the discussions, Parler’s parent company, Parlement, has been trying to offload its social media platform to potential buyers over the last few weeks. One prospective buyer described Parlement’s asking price for the platform as wildly inflated, and said they were stunned by the site’s low number of daily active... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#64VZB)
The new Apple 4K TV. Alongside the redesigned iPad and the iPad Pro with the M2 processor, Apple announced a new and improved version of the Apple TV 4K. The big news with the third-gen Apple TV 4K is that it has a faster A15 Bionic chip (the previous model has the A12) and support for HDR10 Plus. The accompanying Siri Remote has also been updated, with Apple adding a USB-C port instead of Lightning. The streaming box starts at $129, which is even cheaper than its predecessor, and it will be able for purchase in stores on November 4th. We have yet to test the new model but will soon, so keep an eye out for our review.Where to preorder the Apple TV 4KWhile the Apple TV 4K won’t be available until November, you can preorder the streaming device from the A... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#64VZC)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Workers at Amazon’s ALB1 warehouse near Albany, New York, have voted against unionizing with the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). There were 406 no votes and 206 yes votes, with 918 hourly full-time and regular part-time associates at the fulfillment center being eligible to vote, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). There were 31 challenged ballots, which was not enough to affect the winner.According to organizers, the union campaigned on improving pay and safety at ALB1. In the lead-up to the election, Amazon raised wages for all fulfillment and transportation employees, but union leaders at ALB1 responded by saying the $17 an hour the company offers isn’t enough. According to the ALU, Amazon has responded to the union... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#64VZD)
Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker. | HBO Max Despite the ever-presence of Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story on American television during the holiday season, you rarely hear people talking about the first two sequels (plural) in part because none of the original actors returned to reprise their roles. But that might not be the case with HBO Max’s upcoming A Christmas Story sequel from director Clay Kaytis, a film that seems as if it’s going tap into every bit of nostalgia that it possibly can in order to explain its existence.A Christmas Story Christmas follows as a now-adult Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) returns to his childhood home with his heart set on giving his own children the kind of unforgettable holiday experience that defined his youth. Along with Billingsley, Ian... Continue reading…
by David Pierce on (#64VZE)
One of Mmhmm’s rooms involves hanging out in floating bumper copters. | Image: Mmhmm/David Pierce Phil Libin doesn’t buy the whole “enterprise metaverse” thing. Libin is the CEO of Mmhmm, a company making software for video creation and video chat, and he’s convinced that the future of work doesn’t involve putting on a headset every morning. He has lots of reasons — the technical overhead, the exhaustion that comes from wearing a headset for hours at a time, the total lack of image fidelity — but keeps coming back to one in particular. “How am I going to have my coffee if I’m wearing this thing on my face?”Libin tells me this in an Mmhmm chat inside a “room” in the app that features two slowly bouncing copters on top of a Sega Genesis-looking background. Libin’s video feed is just his head; his actual background has been... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#64VWH)
Image: Apple Apple has taken the wraps off a new iPad, and it comes with some pretty major design changes. The device has a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with flatter edges, giving it a much sleeker look and, for the first time on an iPad, moves the webcam to the longer side of the display.The new model uses USB-C connectivity instead of a Lightning port this time around, making it the last modern iPad model to make the switch. The company also ditched the headphone jack on this device (which is a pretty big bummer) as well as the home button. Apple has instead chosen to put Touch ID on the power button, bringing the device in line with newer models of the iPad Pro and iPad Mini. The device comes with support for Wi-Fi 6, and the cellular... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#64VWJ)
Photo by David Pierce / The Verge This year Apple split the release date for the tablet version of its mobile operating system away from the release of iOS 16, and the company just announced the iPadOS 16 update will roll out starting on Monday, October 24th. The new iPads announced today will ship with the latest software on them, and it will be available as an update for the base model iPads (5th gen and later), iPad mini (5th gen and later), iPad Air (3rd gen and later), and all iPad Pro tablets.Based on our experiences with preview versions, one big reason for the delay is the addition of Stage Manager, a new addition for iPadOS 16 that’s supposed to bring laptop-level multitasking. It should be able to take better advantage of the M1 (and now, in new iPad Pro... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#64VWK)
Using the dock to play through Portal 2 co-op is a great idea. | Image: Valve I’ve been waiting for Valve’s official Steam Deck dock for quite a while, so when the $89 accessory finally went on sale earlier this month, I ordered one right away. A few months ago, I wrote about how Steam Deck has changed the way I buy games in part because I believe I’ll be able to access my games on Steam for far longer than I can on other platforms. But I wasn’t ready to go all in because playing the handheld on my TV wasn’t as smooth an experience as it is on the Nintendo Switch.To be fair, TV gaming has never been the intention of the Steam Deck, as it’s clearly designed to be a portable device. But I’ve been testing the dock to see if it makes playing on my TV easier anyway. To me, it makes the Steam Deck even more useful; the... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#64VWM)
Image: Apple Apple has just announced the new sixth-generation iPad Pro. The company’s latest flagship tablet is powered by the M2 chip that first debuted in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. It’ll be available in the same two screen sizes as before: you can choose between 12.9-inch and 11-inch sizes. Preorders open today and it’ll be in stores on October 26th starting at $799 for the 11-inch and $1,099 for the 12.9-inch model.As with the 2021 refresh, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro features Mini LED display technology for improved black levels, better contrast, and more impactful HDR performance, while the smaller model sticks with a more basic screen. Both support Apple’s ProMotion feature for refresh rates up to 120Hz.The latest... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#64VSG)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Memory is a tricky thing. Some of us are great at attaching names to faces, while others (and here I raise my hand) have always had a problem with remembering names, especially when you meet someone out of context. For example, imagine the embarrassment when someone you know from work suddenly shows up at a friend’s party, and you spend the next hour trying to remember their name.As a result, I’m always looking for a way to be able to put a name with a face. One tool I sometimes use is Google Photos. For years now, the app has used steadily improving AI to put names to the faces in your photos so that you can, say, look at a photo and be reminded of the name of your best friend’s cousin, whom you met at a party five years ago. On the... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#64VSJ)
Amazon’s new Kindle shares many of the features that make the Kindle Paperwhite terrific, including a sharp screen and USB-C support, but for $40 less Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#64VSH)
An almost worthy successor to the excellent Nest Hello, the new Nest Doorbell wired is faster, smarter, and sleeker and has better video quality. But spotty behavior on 2.4GHz networks lets it down. Continue reading…
by Casey Newton on (#64VPZ)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge The journalists behind a controversial series of stories tell us they haven’t been hoaxed. We’re not so sure Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#64VQ0)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge On Microsoft’s eBay page, you can score big price cuts on Sonos products. This sale was picked up by Slickdeals, which pointed out that the offer code COUNTDOWN22 can be applied at checkout to save 20 percent on either the Sonos Arc soundbar in white, the Sonos Beam (white, first-generation), or the second-gen Sonos Beam in white. Deals on Sonos gear were nonexistent during Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale. And if you can’t wait until Black Friday nears, this could be a great opportunity to score the savings that you may be looking for.The $899.99 Arc will go down to $719.20 after using the offer code. If you’d rather use it on the second-gen Beam soundbar, that’ll go from $429.99 (already a $20 discount) to $343.99. Given that it has... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#64VQ1)
Image: Sony Sony is launching its new DualSense Edge Wireless Controller in January priced at $199.99. The “high performance” controller is fully customizable, much like Microsoft’s Xbox Elite controllers, and includes removable analog thumbsticks, rear buttons, changeable stick caps, and multiple control profiles.The DualSense Edge allows owners to change out stick caps for three types: standard, high dome, and low dome. There are also two swappable back buttons (half-dome or lever) that can be mapped to any other buttons, much like paddles found on other controllers. You can even replace the stick modules, which will be sold separately. Image: Sony Everything that’s in the carrying case for Sony’s DualSense Edge. Sony... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#64VQ2)
A fully customized Xbox Elite 2 controller. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is bringing its Xbox Elite 2 controllers to the company’s Xbox Design Lab today. You can now order a custom color variant of the Xbox Elite 2 starting at $149.99, with options to buy and personalize separate Elite Accessory Packs or purchase all of the Elite components with the controller for $209.99.There are a variety of colors to pick from, and most of the external parts of the controller can be customized. That includes the body, back case, D-pad, bumpers, triggers, thumbsticks, and buttons. “You can even choose between a cross-shaped or faceted D-pad and for the first time ever in Xbox Design Lab, color-customize the thumbstick base and ring,” explains Microsoft in a blog post. You can also customize the colors on the... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#64VQ5)
Image: Adobe / Frame.io Camera giants Red and Fujifilm are partnering with Adobe and Frame.io to connect cameras directly to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Announced today at Adobe Max 2022, specific models of Red and Fujifilm cameras will be able to natively upload images or footage directly into the Adobe Creative Cloud without requiring users to first transfer files onto a computer.Red video cameras have previously supported camera-to-cloud functionality via the use of an external video encoder, but this new collaboration will allow both the Red V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL to directly upload up to 8K RAW files into Adobe cloud from the camera, without the need for additional hardware.You’ll be able to shoot up to 8K RAW and then upload the footage as fast as your... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#64VQ4)
New one-click functions are coming to help speed up edits for novice and veteran Lightroom users alike. | Image: Adobe Adobe is releasing new AI features for its Lightroom suite that aim to speed up some of the more tedious parts of image editing. That includes improving masking workflows and removing unwanted elements from your images.AI masking is being upgraded with new tools such as Select People, Select Objects, and one-click Select Background. The Select People feature can automatically detect and create layer masks in high detail, even on specific areas of a subject. The face, body, skin, eyes, teeth, lips, hair, and more can be detected with a single click, eliminating the time-consuming need to carefully create your own masks and generally speeding up the image editing process. Image: Adobe Areas of a subject such as... Continue reading…
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by Shubham Agarwal on (#64VQ3)
Vincent Kilbride / The Verge On August 15th, an alarming email popped up in the inbox of Diana Pearl, a New York-based news editor. Someone in Moscow had logged into her verified Twitter account, it said. Pearl was familiar with the email content’s theme as it resembled previous automated correspondence from Twitter — featuring a minimal white background, black text, and blue links.Fearing her account’s safety, Pearl clicked the link inside the email that supposedly would instantly let her secure her account and entered her existing password on the following webpage to update it.Moments later, a message arrived in a Telegram group. All it contained was a screenshot of Pearl’s Twitter profile and a link. Three hours later, the admin texted, “Sold.”Pearl had... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#64VQ6)
Foxconn founder Terry Gou introduces the prototype Model B. | Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images Foxconn’s chairman and CEO Liu Young-way hopes to one day be in a position to produce electric cars for Tesla as the iPhone assembler expands into transportation. Liu made the comments at the unveiling of two new Foxconn electric car prototypes — the Model B crossover and Model V pickup truck — which the contract manufacturer hopes will serve as reference designs for companies who want to outsource manufacturing of their own EVs.“Foxconn is not in the business of selling its own EV brand,” Liu said at its annual tech day, in comments reported by the Financial Times. “I hope one day we can do Tesla cars for Tesla,” he added.The company has ambitious targets for its fledgling EV business. “Based on our past records for the PC and... Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#64VMR)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta says it will accept a ruling by the UK competition watchdog to divest itself of social media GIF library Giphy.A spokesperson for Meta, Matthew Pollard, told The Verge: “We are disappointed by the CMA’s decision but accept today’s ruling as the final word on the matter. We will work closely with the CMA on divesting Giphy.” When asked if the divestment would apply to all of Giphy’s international operations, Pollard said: “Yes, this applies globally.”Meta was originally ordered to sell Giphy last year but appealed the ruling. Today, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that Meta had failed on five of the six objections raised in its appeal. The CMA said that the... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#64VMV)
DuckDuckGo’s new Duck Player offers a more private way for users to watch their favorite YouTube content. | Image: DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo is rolling out its web browsing app for Mac users as an open beta test. Designed for privacy, the app was announced back in April as a closed beta, but is now available for all Mac users to try before its official public launch.The desktop browser includes the same built-in protections we’ve seen already featured in DuckDuckGo’s mobile apps, combining DuckDuckGo’s search engine, defenses against third-party tracking, cookie pop-up protection, and its popular one-click data clearing ‘Fire Button.’ Image: DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo’s web browser integrates some of its most popular search engine features, such as the ‘fire’ button that clears your browsing data. Some additional features have been added to... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#64VMT)
New features are available for Photoshop for iPad, as well as the desktop Photoshop application and Photoshop for web beta. | Image: Adobe / Danner Orozco Photoshop is getting some new collaboration tools and AI capabilities to help remove some of the more tedious parts of image editing. Announced at Adobe Max 2022, these new features include improvements to automated object selections, content-aware fills, file-sharing collaboration, and content crediting to ensure proper attribution of work. The new features are shipping in updated versions of Photoshop for desktop, iPad, and web (beta) rolling out today.First up, improvements to the Adobe Sensei AI mean that higher-quality object selections can be made in the desktop Photoshop app. The Object Selection tool was originally introduced back in 2020, allowing users to quickly select an object with a single click, negating the need to... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#64VMS)
The 2024 Rolls-Royce Spectre is the automaker’s first foray into electrification. | Image: Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce revealed its first all-electric vehicle, the 2024 Spectre, an ultra-luxury coupe with an estimated 260 miles of range and a price tag that is sure to make even the wealthiest choke on their tea. For those who can afford it, the Spectre is expected to make its first customer deliveries starting in late 2023.The Spectre marks the first step toward a fully electrified Rolls-Royce lineup, which the company has said it will achieve by 2030. That stands in contrast to the company’s parent company, BMW, which has yet to declare when it expects to transition to 100 percent EV sales. (Mini, another BMW-owned brand, has also said it would be all-electric by the end of the decade.)The Spectre marks the first step toward a fully... Continue reading…
by Chris Welch on (#64VJ3)
Image: Google Google TV added kids profiles to the platform in 2021, giving young viewers their own portal designed to showcase only age-appropriate content. Today, the company is building upon kids profiles with new features, including parent-managed watchlists, recommendations on the homescreen, and supervised usage of the normal YouTube app. All of these software capabilities begin rolling out today and will continue to reach Google TV customers over the next several weeks.Managed watchlists are exactly what they sound like: parents can add movies and TV shows to a universal watchlist that will appear on the child’s Google TV homescreen. This will make it easy for them to progress from one video to the next. Adding content to a kids profile is... Continue reading…
by James Vincent on (#64VJ5)
Sample images generated by Stable Diffusion. | Image: The Verge via Lexica Stability AI, the company behind popular text-to-image AI program Stable Diffusion, has raised new funding that values the company at around $1 billion (according to a report from Bloomberg citing a “person familiar with the matter”). It’s a significant validation of the company’s approach to AI development, which, in contrast to incumbents like OpenAI and Google, focuses on open-source models that anyone can use without oversight.In a press statement, Stability AI said it raised $101 million in a round led by Coatue, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and O’Shaughnessy Ventures, and that it will use the money to “accelerate the development of open AI models for image, language, audio, video, 3D, and more, for consumer and enterprise use... Continue reading…
by James Vincent on (#64VGB)
FedEx’s Roxo robot was able to navigate autonomously, but was overseen by human operators at all times. | Image: FedEx FedEx is stopping development of its last-mile delivery robot, Roxo. The news was first reported by Robotics 24/7, with FedEx confirming to the publication that the company would be shifting focus away from the bot to more “nearer-term opportunities.”Roxo was announced in 2019 as a collaboration with DEKA, makers of the iBot wheelchair, which used multiple sets of wheels to “walk” up and down stairs, and raise its user from a sitting level to eye-height. Roxo also used multiple sets of wheels to climb steps and curbs. The robot had a top speed of 10mph, a cargo capacity of 100lbs (45kg), and was able to autonomously navigate around cars and pedestrians using cameras and LIDAR sensors. Human operators were used to oversee its movements... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#64VGC)
The Ear 1 earbuds released last year for $99. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nothing is hiking the price of its debut Ear 1 earbuds from $99 to $149, the company’s CEO Carl Pei has announced. Citing “an increase in costs,” Pei said that the new price will come into effect on October 26th. No price changes were announced for Nothing’s more recently-announced Phone 1 smartphone.In a followup tweet, Pei justified the price increase by noting the amount of development effort that’s gone into the earbuds since their original release last year. “When we started developing it, we only had 3 engineers,” the CEO said. “A year later, we have 185. During this time, the Ear 1 has received 15 firmware and tuning updates, and is a completely different product to when we launched it.”
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by Andrew Webster on (#64VEZ)
Image: Epic Games Spooky season has arrived in Fortnite. The game’s most recent patch has ushered in Fortnitemares, the annual Halloween event, and it includes the ability to turn into a werewolf.As part of the update, there’s now a DJ hanging out at the Reality Tree, and players can perform a ritual to get access to an item called “howler claws” that results in the werewolf transformation. (If you don’t play Fortnite, I promise that sentence actually makes sense.) With the claws equipped, you’ll have a sense ability to find other players, a new melee attack, and a double jump. It sounds similar to the wraith-like abilities from 2020.Elsewhere, the update also brings a new Zero Build version of the classic horde rush mode, the return of... Continue reading…
by Allison Johnson on (#64V98)
The device appears to extend and retract with the push of a button. | Image: Motorola At parent company Lenovo’s Tech World 2022 event, Motorola is showing off a rollable mobile phone in a quick video demo. With the press of a button, the screen extends and retracts, with a moving wallpaper to match.The demo video only gives us a glimpse of the front of the device, and the screen appears to wrap around the phone, rolling up from the bottom edge. At least as far as prototypes go, this concept appears to be on the “operational” side of the spectrum — there are at least battery and cellular indicator icons on screen. The rolling display is a flexible OLED panel, measuring 6.5 inches when extended and retracting down to “just over” 4 inches. Image: Motorola The device wallpaper expands and contracts... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#64V7Z)
Looks like 4K’s back on the menu, boys. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube has ended the experiment that locked the ability to watch videos in 4K behind its $11.99 a month premium membership, according to one of its official Twitter accounts (via 9to5Google). Earlier this month, the company made waves when it confirmed with a series of now-deleted tweets that some of its users were part of a test meant to explore “the feature preferences Premium & non-Premium viewers,” and asking users to provide feedback on the idea.The idea of having to pay to access higher resolution videos was a divisive one, with some users calling it a sign of the platform’s downfall, and others saying it was understandable given the cost of streaming 4K content. YouTube’s announcement that it had “fully turned off” the... Continue reading…
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by Emme Hall on (#64V6T)
The 2024 Celestiq is not your typical Cadillac. The low-volume ultra-luxury Celestiq is the second EV in Cadillac’s lineup and features a host of 3D-printed parts for extensive customization Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#64V6V)
The FuboTV Sportsbook app. | Image: FuboTV On Monday, the live TV streaming platform FuboTV dropped a shocking announcement with its decision to immediately close its gambling business, Fubo Gaming, and the Fubo Sportsbook product. It came at the same time FuboTV reported preliminary earnings results of over 1.2 million subscribers and income for the quarter that exceeded its prior guidance.In a world where advertising-supported media has struggled to scale steadily, and even the biggest subscription video giants are looking shaky, streamers across the industry have looked at gambling as a reliable source of revenue in the years to come. FuboTV had promoted Multiview tech to show multiple games at once in a single stream, plus overlays on live sports broadcasts and games that... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#64V6W)
Two thirds of new hires in 2021 didn’t last 90 days. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last year, only a third of Amazon’s new hires stayed with the company for more than 90 days before quitting, being fired, or getting laid off, according to leaked documents obtained by Engadget. The report is the latest indication that Amazon is having serious issues retaining employees, and it reveals the company’s estimate that its attrition rate costs it almost $8 billion a year across its global consumer field operations team.The report, which is based off internal research papers, slide decks, and spreadsheets from Amazon, claims that workers are twice as likely to leave by choice, rather than because they were laid off or fired. It also says that the issue is widespread throughout the company, not just with warehouse workers; from... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#64TZ1)
The Fossil Gen 6 smartwatches are eligible for the upgrade to Wear OS 3 starting today. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Last week, Fossil announced the Gen 6 Wellness Edition, its first Wear OS 3 smartwatch. But starting today, the company is also beginning to roll out the Wear OS 3 update for patient owners of existing Gen 6 smartwatches. The update has a few significant omissions, but one of the more surprising ones is Google Fit — an app that was once preloaded onto nearly every Wear OS 2 smartwatch. The app is also missing from the newly launched Pixel Watch.First reported by 9to5Google, the lack of Google Fit was confirmed in an update that Fossil posted in r/WearOS. The gist is the Google Fit app hasn’t been updated to support Wear Health Services, a new system layer in Wear OS 3 that collects health data for apps in a more battery-efficient way.... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#64TZ2)
Destroyed houses, hotels and railway tracks pictured during ongoing cleanup efforts in the Ahr Valley region following catastrophic flash floods on August 4th, 2021, near Dernau, Germany | Photo by Thomas Lohnes / Getty Images Earthquake sensors can detect fast-moving floods barreling toward them, new research finds. That information is especially valuable to people working on early warning systems for floods, which could give people crucial time to get to safety, preventing deaths and flood damage, according to the authors of a recently published paper.Communities in Germany’s Ahr Valley experienced a devastating flood that washed away homes and killed almost 200 people in July 2021. Studying that disaster, the researchers discovered that a nearby seismometer station — intended to monitor earthquakes — detected valuable details about the flood as it was happening.“If the data stream from that station had been available and analysed as our research now... Continue reading…
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