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by Sean Hollister on (#6C878)
A Ukrainian drone. Ukraine has been using all manner of weaponized drones to push back Russian troops. | Photo by Andriy Zhyhaylo/Obozrevatel/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images Cops can’t attach weapons to drones in Illinois, starting today — and they can’t use drones for facial recognition unless they’re attempting to counter a terrorist attack, preventing “imminent harm to life,” or making sure a suspect doesn’t get away.But they can do something they couldn’t before in Illinois: fly over public events at all.Today, the state signed the Drones as First Responders Act into law (via Hacker News). The new act modifies another one from 2014 — the Freedom from Drone Surveillance Act, which has banned law enforcement from using drones to “gather information” in the state (aside from terrorist or imminent harm situations) for the past seven years.The new bill is designed to prevent shootings like the one at... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-07-05 02:17 |
by Victoria Song on (#6C879)
Bezels are back, baby. | Image: WinFuture Rotating bezels are back, baby. At least, that seems to be the case according to newly leaked photos of Samsung’s next-gen Galaxy Watches.The Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic photos come from German tech site WinFuture, which has a solid track record when it comes to this sort of thing. But aside from the Classic’s return, there isn’t anything too exciting to look at in these leaked marketing stills. Mostly because the Galaxy Watch 6 looks like the Galaxy Watch 5, which looks like the Galaxy Watch 4. Meanwhile, the Watch 6 Classic looks pretty much like the Watch 4 Classic. Image: WinFuture The Galaxy Watch 6 sure looks like the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5. The vanilla Galaxy Watch 6 will purportedly come in 40mm... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#6C87A)
A screenshot of rif is fun for Reddit. | Image: TalkLittle On Thursday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told me that the developer of rif is fun for Reddit (RIF), a popular third-party Reddit app for Android, did not want to work with Reddit on the company’s planned API pricing changes. However, the developer, Andrew Shu, tells me that’s not the case — and shared emails with The Verge that appear to back him up.During the interview, I asked Huffman if Reddit could give developers more time to implement the API changes, which Shu has already said are forcing him to shut down RIF at the end of the month. Here’s exactly what Huffman said in response (emphasis mine):
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by Alex Heath on (#6C87B)
The Meta Quest 3 headset ships later this year. | Image: Meta Government scrutiny of how tech companies handle their underage users is continuing to heat up. A flood of bills in Congress on this topic seeks to strengthen the power of regulators and even ban kids under 13 from social media entirely.Enter Meta, which is lowering the minimum age for its Quest headsets from 13 to 10. After I heard about the plan and contacted Meta for comment this week, spokesperson Joe Osborne confirmed it and shared a blog post about the news that the company is planning to publish soon. It says that parents will have to approve the creation of a kid’s account and that Meta will only recommend apps that are rated safe for that age group. Ads also won’t be shown to kids.Perhaps most importantly, a 10 to... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#6C87C)
Hot foldable summer, y’all. | Image: MySmartPrice Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 leaks and rumors have all pointed to a larger cover screen on the upcoming phone, and a new alleged render published by MySmartPrice continues the trend. The image shows the Z Flip 5 with a gloriously big cover screen, which is exactly what we want. And by we, I mean me personally. I want this.The Galaxy Z Flip 4’s outer screen measures just 1.9 inches. It’s fine for checking the weather and reading notifications, but the small size limits the kinds of actions you can take with it, like typing out responses to texts. It’s also not ideal for framing up selfies with the outer cameras — one of the benefits of a flip-style phone — because the preview image is literally the size of a postage stamp. I checked.That... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#6BY9K)
Illustration by Hugo Herrera for The Verge It’s easy to blame trackers when fitness goals don’t go according to plan, but sometimes the problem lies closer to home. Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#6BY9M)
Image: Nintendo If you’re 20 or so hours into Tears of the Kingdom and you don’t have Autobuild, you’re doing it wrong.Last week, there was a tweet going around asking that now Tears of the Kingdom’s been out a few weeks, what advice would you share? Lots of people left valuable nuggets of information like fusing rubies to your equipment that can keep you warm during the Rito quest-line (just, y’know, don’t fuse ‘em to anything wooden). Another good piece of advice: use Ascend more! Are you using Ascend already? Great! Use it 1,000 percent more!I shared that unless your Purah Pad’s power wheel is complete, you are not done with the tutorial, emphasizing that Autobuild is an easy-to-miss but life-changing ability. My mentions were then flooded with... Continue reading…
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by Monica Chin on (#6BY9N)
Image: Future Publishing via Getty Images Computex, one of the biggest trade shows of the year for the laptop and PC space, begins in a couple of days. A number of companies will have big announcements, but the most anticipated event of the week is Nvidia’s keynote, which will open the show on Monday morning.The keynote speaker will be Nvidia’s founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who — in case you missed it — added $7 billion to his net worth a few days ago following the company’s massive Q1 earnings report.Nvidia hasn’t publicly released much information about the topics Huang will cover; Computex revealed that the talk would include “advanced developments in the fields of accelerated computing and artificial intelligence.” Needless to say, we expect AI to feature heavily.... Continue reading…
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by Thomas Ricker on (#6BY9P)
Two humans and a beagle named Hank spent two weeks and 2,000 miles in Europe with a Ququq camping box to preview the future of #vanlife. Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#6BY9Q)
Image: Google Google has finally started to roll out the beta of Magic Compose, its new Messages feature that uses AI to help you write text messages. However, as pointed out by Android Police, the feature comes with a pretty big caveat: it will send up to “20 previous messages” to Google’s servers to generate suggestions — even if you’re using RCS with end-to-end encryption (E2EE).Google outlines these conditions on its Magic Compose support page, noting that it will send these messages, along with any included emoji, reactions, and URLs, to its servers to help its AI craft an appropriate response. The company adds that it won’t send any messages with attachments, voice messages, and images but notes “image captions and voice transcriptions may be... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#6BY9R)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google has been ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million for infringing on the company’s smart speaker patent. A jury verdict issued in a San Francisco courtroom on Friday found that Google’s smart speakers and media players infringed on one of two Sonos patents at issue.The legal battle started in 2020 when Sonos accused Google of copying its patented multiroom audio technology after the companies partnered in 2013. Sonos went on to win its case at the US International Trade Commission, resulting in a limited import ban on some of the Google devices in question. Google has also had to pull some features from its lineup of smart speakers and smart displays. Image: United States District Court for the Northern District of... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6BY9S)
Halle Bailey as Ariel. | Image: Giles Keyte Halle Bailey’s turn as The Little Mermaid’s Ariel is inspired, but the movie’s lackluster sense of visual magic does her very few favors. Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#6BY9T)
I’m sorry, I don’t have any invites. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge One of Bluesky’s potentially biggest features is here: custom algorithms, or what it calls “custom feeds.” The idea is that you can subscribe to feeds that have algorithms tuned to showcase different kinds of posts than what you might see in Bluesky’s main “What’s Hot” feed.In practice, the custom feeds work a lot like Twitter lists. Similar to those, you can pin specific custom feeds, and they’ll show up at the top of your timeline as different tabs to pick from. You can pick which feeds to pin from a new “My Feeds” menu in the app’s sidebar. By default, that tab has feeds for “What’s Hot” (“Top trending content from the whole network”), “What’s Hot Classic” (“The original What’s Hot experience”), “Bluesky Team” (“Posts from members of... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#6BW0Z)
Image: Warner Bros. Discovery Today marks Warner Bros. Discovery’s big debut of Max, the new streaming service that bundles all of the company’s entertainment together inside one single destination. All the eggs are going into one basket, and yes, HBO is still getting a prominent focus — even if it’s no longer in the name.I got an early preview of Max at Warner Bros. Discovery’s New York City office last week, and I was initially struck by just how closely it resembles the HBO Max app that it’s replacing. The homescreen, show and movie pages, and general user experience will feel instantly familiar to everyone switching over. But just because it looks similar doesn’t mean it’s a recycled app: Warner Bros. Discovery has largely rebuilt Max with a focus on simpler... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6BW10)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge After fleshing out its vlog-focused camera lineup with the full-frame ZV-E1, Sony is now updating its bread-and-butter point-and-shoot that kicked off the ZV family. The new ZV-1 II is an $899.99 camera with a one-inch-type sensor, wider zoom lens than its predecessor, and various quality-of-life improvements over the ZV-1 of 2020. While the 20.1-megapixel resolution and ISO range remain the same, the new model opts for a wider, more vlog-friendly zoom lens and various conveniences like a USB-C port when it launches in June.The original ZV-1 was very much an offshoot of the longstanding RX-100 line — a longtime favorite for people who wanted a compact camera with good image quality for stills — with enhanced video features and a better... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#6BW11)
Illustration: The Verge Apple has signed on to a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement with Broadcom, a chipmaker based in the US. The company announced the news on Tuesday, saying it will continue to work with the chipmaker to develop 5G components and other wireless connectivity parts.From the announcement:
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#5PJTM)
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge Yes, of course you want to back up your iPhone. As we all know, despite phone cases and the latest protective glass and careful engineering, disaster — in the form of cracked displays, lost devices, and three-year-olds who think it’s fun to sit on your latest phone — can happen. When that happens, you want to have all your data backed up.The easiest way to go is to back up using iCloud, which is not only simple to set up but also makes it just as simple to set up a new phone if your old one is no longer available. (You can also back up to other services, such as Google Drive, but it isn’t nearly as convenient.) Or, if you’re an iPhone user who is steadfast about retaining your privacy, you can back up your iPhone to your Mac or Windows... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6BW12)
Image: Epic Games Some more spider people are swinging into Fortnite today. As expected, Epic announced today that both Miles Morales and Spider-Man 2099 will be added to the in-game item shop ahead of next week’s premiere of Across the Spider-Verse (Part One).Here’s what the characters look like in the battle royale:The two skins join a surprisingly large number of spider people in the game, which started way back in 2021 when the original Spider-Man debuted as part of Chapter 3. (Miles’ co-star Gwen joined the roster last year.) The update is more than just some new characters, though: it will also include the return of the web shooter items, which let any character swing around the island as if they were Spider-Man. There are also some new quests,... Continue reading…
by Umar Shakir on (#6BW13)
Amazon Fire Max 11 with productivity accessories, including a new keyboard with trackpad and a stylus. | Image: Amazon For years, Amazon’s Fire tablet lineup has consisted of smaller seven-inch, medium eight-inch, and larger 10-inch screen options, but now the company has a new one that stretches it up to 11. The Fire Max 11 is Amazon’s biggest-screened tablet yet, and it also sheds the plastic bodies the other models have for a more premium-feeling aluminum one.Despite the sleeker design and slim bezels, it isn’t exactly a premium tablet like the iPads and Galaxy Tabs of the world. It’s still very much a budget-friendly media consumption device, just like Amazon’s other Fire tablets, and even then, it’s not that cheap; instead of paying $150 for Amazon’s previous biggest screen model, the Fire HD 10, the Max 11 starts at $230. However, that extra $80... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6BW14)
The Playdate is the size of a Post-it note, and it is loved. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge $199 gets you a system with 24 games and plenty of indies to sideload. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BPV7)
Jadeja (pictured) is expected to take over from current CEO Nicolo Laurent by the end of 2023. | Image: Riot Games Nicolo Laurent is stepping down from his role as CEO of Riot Games and will be succeeded by the company’s current global president, Dylan Jadeja, according to an official statement issued by Riot. Laurent is moving to an advisory role to focus more on his family after six years in the CEO position. The CEO transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.Laurent has been a major part of Riot Games since the company was just a “40-person startup” in 2009, before stepping into the role of CEO in 2017. Under his leadership, Riot Games has been accused of fostering a sexist “bro culture,” during which Laurent was personally accused (and later cleared) of sexual misconduct against his former executive assistant.
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by James Vincent on (#6BPV8)
Image: Anthropic An often overlooked limitation for chatbots is memory. While it’s true that the AI language models that power these systems are trained on terabytes of text, the amount these systems can process when in use — that is, the combination of input text and output, also known as their “context window” — is limited. For ChatGPT it’s around 3,000 words. There are ways to work around this, but it’s still not a huge amount of information to play with.Now, AI startup Anthropic (founded by former OpenAI engineers) has hugely expanded the context window of its own chatbot Claude, pushing it to around 75,000 words. As the company points out in a blog post, that’s enough to process the entirety of The Great Gatsby in one go. In fact, the company... Continue reading…
by Nilay Patel on (#6BPSQ)
Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge; Photo by Jerod Harris for Vox Media AI is one the deepest platform shifts ever, says Google’s CEO, and he’s not worried about being first. Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6BPQE)
WiZ’s new home monitoring service uses light bulbs and cameras to protect your space. | Image: Signify WiZ is launching a new home monitoring feature that leverages the smart lighting company’s existing motion-sensing Wi-Fi smart bulbs. Paired with a new $70 indoor security camera, WiZ Home Monitoring can alert you to potential intruders in your home. Using WiZ’s unique SpaceSensing feature — which detects changes in Wi-Fi signal strength caused by movement to turn lights on or off the lights — the system can send an alert to the WiZ app when motion is detected. The new camera can then show you what’s going on.The WiZ Home Monitoring Starter kit, which includes three WiZ A19 full-color smart bulbs and one camera, will be available starting June 15th for 159.99 Euro with US pricing not set. Or, if you already have a couple of WiZ bulbs or... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6BPQF)
Link stepping into a magical place within Hyrule. | Image: Nintendo Breath of the Wild featuring over 100 puzzle-filled shrines rather than being built around The Legend of Zelda’s more traditional dungeons was both one of the most refreshing aspects of the 2017 game. It was also one of the most potentially polarizing — especially for those who’d grown to love the old formula of Link taking down dungeons one at a time using his specialized weapons. Ahead of Tears of the Kingdom’s release this week, Nintendo revealed that classic dungeons would be making their return all throughout the new game, and it was easy to get the impression that meant Link would be spending a lot of time in heavily-themed, cordoned-off fortresses scattered across Hyrule.In some instances, that’s very much the case. But... Continue reading…
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by Alex Heath on (#6BPGV)
NBCU’s head of global advertising and partnerships, Linda Yaccarino. | Photo: Charles Sykes/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Elon Musk says he has found a new CEO for Twitter and that “she” will start in a matter of weeks. It’s most likely going to be Linda Yaccarino, the current head of advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal.I wish I could say with certainty that it’s her, though the deal doesn’t seem to be totally done. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that she’s “in talks” for the job, and Dylan Byers of Puck says Musk “plans” to give it to her. Unfortunately, her spokesperson is ghosting me and Twitter has resorted to responding to press inquiries with a poop emoji.I do know, however, that Yaccarino has been angling for the job and telling friends she wants it. The advertising world is certainly gossiping that it’s her. She recently hosted... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#6BP97)
Live by the poll, get replaced by the poll. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Elon Musk has announced plans for a new Twitter CEO but hasn’t said who it is. In a tweet on Thursday, Musk says that he has “hired a new CEO for X/Twitter” and that “she will be starting in ~6 weeks.” Musk will instead assume the role of executive chair and chief technology officer, “overseeing product, software & sysops” of Twitter.According to Dylan Byers of Puck News, the new CEO will be NBC Universal advertising executive Linda Yaccarino, citing two unnamed sources.
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by Jay Peters on (#6BPEQ)
Image: Artifact Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, has a new feature that makes it even more of a news-focused social media app. With the latest version of the Artifact app, you can now follow individual writers. Articles from those writers will be prioritized in your feed and you can opt to get notifications when those writers post.Writers can also claim their profiles on Artifact to get a verified checkmark beside their name in search and in Artifact’s comments. (Writers can only claim profiles on iOS, but it’s coming to Android soon, Systrom tells The Verge.) Yes, Artifact lets users comment on individual articles, meaning those comments live outside of stories that may already have comment... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6B78B)
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge It’s okay to cheap out on a gift for mom as long as you go with something thoughtful. Lucky for you, we’ve gathered recipe books, board games, and plenty of other ideas to consider. Continue reading…
by Nathan Edwards on (#6BP39)
Everyone knows the Pixel Tablet’s dock is just a dock. What this article presupposes is: what if it weren’t? I’m not surprised; I’m just disappointed.As expected, Google launched the Pixel Tablet at its Google I/O developer conference yesterday. It’s an 11-inch Android tablet with a “charging speaker dock,” and when it’s on the dock, it looks and functions like a Nest Hub Max, Google’s top-of-the-line smart display. Google kept saying the Pixel Tablet was “like” a smart display, while insisting that it isn’t one.The thing is, when the tablet is docked in Hub mode, it certainly seems like a smart display. The tablet acts like a digital photo frame. You can talk to Google Assistant. You can use it as a smart home controller. You can Chromecast audio and video to it. Those are all things the Nest Hub does. The dock, which comes with the tablet,... Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6BPBK)
It’s almost time to drop in, folks. | Image: Nintendo Did you preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the Nintendo eShop? Cool. Wait, did you also preorder it using Nintendo’s Game Voucher so you got it for cheaper? Even better — extra points for you! But regardless of how much you paid, if you opted for the digital version of TOTK, you should fire up your Switch and get downloading if you’d like to start playing when the game goes live in the US tonight a 12:00AM ET on May 12th.While Tears is already playable in time zones that live in the future, and players are already getting up to, well, umm... stuff — we here in the States get to begin at midnight ET / 9:00PM PT (curse you, left-coasters and your respectable bedtimes tonight). TOTK is a 16GB download from the eShop, so... Continue reading…
by Sheena Vasani on (#6BPBM)
Image: Lego The clock is ticking if you’ve yet to buy your mom a gift. While it might be too late to pick up some items before Mother’s Day arrives on Sunday, not all hope is lost. As it turns out, there are still a number of great gifts — including the latest Kindle and Beats Fit Pro — that will arrive on time, many of which are also discounted in the run-up to the holiday.We’ve rounded up a selection of the best last-minute gifts below, along with a few digital ideas for the true procrastinators among us. We’ve also curated a wide-ranging Mother’s Day gift guide should you need a little more inspiration as well as a wallet-friendly gift guide for those working with a tighter budget.Finally, before we dive into the gifts, be aware that you’ll... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BPBN)
The Clip Editor allows you to quickly grab sections of your livestream and edit them effectively for vertical video formats. | Image: Twitch Twitch is launching a new web-based desktop clips editing tool to help streamers grow their audience by sharing curated snippets of their content to other platforms. The aptly named Clip Editor tool is rolling out today, allowing users to easily edit livestream footage directly from the Clip Manager in the Twitch Creator Dashboard.Streamers can use the Clip Editor tool to convert their recording to a portrait mode orientation at the click of a button, suitable for vertical video platforms like TikTok. Those clips can also be directly exported to YouTube Shorts within Clip Manager. Image: Twitch You can only upload directly to YouTube Shorts for now, but the edited clips can also be saved for use on other... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#6BP96)
The seat on certain Peloton bikes may break during use. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton is eager for people to know it’s more than “that bike company.” Unfortunately, those bikes are at the heart of the beleaguered fitness company’s latest woes. Today, Peloton and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a voluntary recall of 2.2 million Peloton Bikes after 35 reports of seats either breaking or falling off during use.A Bloomberg report offers some more details about the faulty seat. Namely, the part that attaches the seat to the bike frame could potentially break off at the welding joint. Of the 35 reports, 13 resulted in injuries, including a fractured wrist, lacerations, and bruises.The affected bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods retail and online stores as well as on Amazon.... Continue reading…
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by Richard Lawler on (#6BP98)
Photography by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge During a launch event for the Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC, Roanne Sones, the head of Xbox devices, discussed how the device is “making us think differently about the experiences” for gaming on Windows PCs.Specifically, she called out how today’s consoles let you quickly resume a game and said the ROG Ally pushes Microsoft to think about that for PCs as well: “How do we think about integrating this into the Windows platform?” Another focus is on making it easy to immediately pick up where you left off, moving from gaming on a PC to a session that’s ready to go on this kind of handheld.Sones has made similar comments before, as my colleague Tom Warren points out. During another ROG Ally event in April, she discussed working with... Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6BP3A)
A handheld window to Windows gaming. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Asus ROG Ally is the first mainstream competition for the Steam Deck, and while its Windows operating system may be both a blessing and a curse, it’s exciting to see the handheld PC gaming arena slowly grow. If you’re looking to get an Ally of your own, warts and all, preorders are now open at Best Buy for the higher-end model with an AMD Z1 Extreme processor costing $699.99 and due out on June 13th.As for the base model with a standard AMD Z1, that’s not expected until the third quarter of 2023 — though it will also be sold at Best Buy, which for now, is the exclusive Ally retailer. (I guess that makes Best Buy an Ally ally?)Our own Sean Hollister had mixed praise for the ROG Ally, as it’s a powerful device whose biggest fault is... Continue reading…
by Monica Chin on (#69W60)
Several companies have tried pricey Chromebooks with premium builds and gorgeous screens. HP’s Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is just the latest — and it’s a solid machine, but some hiccups with battery life, weight, and connectivity keep it from being a really great buy. Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#6BP0P)
Image: CLO Virtual Fashion Epic Games and digital fashion company CLO Virtual Fashion have purchased shares in each other, the two companies announced on Thursday. The press release doesn’t specify how much each level of investment actually represents, but it’s a clear sign of Epic’s interest in virtual fashion as another aspect of its growing metaverse ambitions.CLO Virtual Fashion offers tools like fashion design software that already integrates with Epic’s Unreal Engine and a marketplace where garment designs are bought and sold. Epic has been pushing for Unreal Engine to be used beyond game development — it’s becoming increasingly popular in the automotive world — so it makes some sense that Epic wants industries like fashion to use Unreal Engine as well.“... Continue reading…
by Sean Hollister on (#6BP0Q)
The Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC is officially on preorder today for $700, shipping June 13th — but there’s also a less expensive, less powerful model shipping in Q3 for $600 that reviewers haven’t yet been able to try.Asus PR told us it wouldn’t have pricing and availability for that model today, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see official confirmation! Screenshot by Sean Hollister / Image by Asus Pricing. Better still, it looks like Asus isn’t skimping on storage, as it’ll come with a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD for that price. (Leaked data suggested it’d have a 256GB SSD.)Considering Valve charges $650 for its 512GB Steam Deck with a last-gen processor, that model is starting to look like a pretty good... Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6BP0R)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Just a few months ago, Netflix was proud to announce that it was putting on its first-ever in-person upfront week presentation in New York City alongside other networks and streamers vying for advertiser cash, like NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. But after being tipped off by the NYPD about striking WGA writers planning to protest outside of the event, Netflix has suddenly decided to shift to an all-virtual presentation with no celebrities in attendance.AdWeek reports that Netflix’s move to cancel its in-person upfront at New York City’s Paris Theater in favor of a new “produced to stream” presentation came after the streamer was made aware of the plans of local WGA members to demonstrate — plans that the WGA... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#6BP0S)
Image: Raycast Raycast, the full-featured launcher for Mac, has announced an $8 per month Pro subscription (billed annually) that adds new AI and syncing features, along with the option for unlimited clipboard history, as reported by MacStories.The Pro subscription expands on Raycast’s existing launcher functionalities, which are quite extensive. It replaces the app’s existing search bar with “Quick AI,” allowing you to ask it to come up with blog post titles, solve programming problems, and more.You can copy and paste the answer into whatever you’re working on or bring your conversation into Raycast’s new AI Chat feature. This AI-powered chatbot lives in a resizable window that you can toggle with an assignable hotkey.There are also new AI... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#6BP0T)
The tail of a dead beached whale is seen on Rockaway beach on December 13th, 2022, in the Queens borough of New York City. | Photo by Bryan Bedder / Getty Images Whales are washing up along the east coast of the US. Offshore wind opponents blame future wind farms. Experts see a different threat. Continue reading…
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by James Vincent on (#6BNXQ)
The draft legislation will ban mass facial recognition, among other uses of AI, but has yet to be confirmed as law. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The EU has taken a step closer to enforcing strong regulation of AI, drafting new safeguards that would prohibit a wide range of dangerous use cases.These include prohibitions on mass facial recognition programs in public places and predictive policing algorithms that try to identify future offenders using personal data. The regulation also requires the creation of a public database of “high-risk” AI systems deployed by public and government authorities so that EU citizens can be informed about when and how they are being affected by this technology.The law in question is a new draft of the EU’s AI Act, which was approved today by two key committees: the Internal Market Committee and the Civil Liberties Committee. These committees... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6BNXR)
Image: Volvo Volvo announced that it was delaying production for its next-generation flagship electric SUV, the 2024 EX90, citing a need for further “software testing and development.”The EX90, a seven-seater luxury family-mover with 300 miles of range and a starting price under $80,000, was expected to go into production in late 2023 and hit showroom floors in early 2024. Now production won’t start until the first half of 2024, the Swedish automaker said in a statement. That likely means customers won’t take delivery until the second half of the year.“Demand for the Volvo EX90 remains high and to ensure a high-quality introduction of the car and to maximize customer benefit from its technology from day 1, Volvo Cars needs additional time in... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6BNXS)
The 7A’s lovely coral color is exclusive to the Google Store, but it also comes in charcoal, light blue, and white elsewhere. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google actually did it. It made a new, very good, fairly affordable midrange phone and started shipping it right away. And not only is the Pixel 7A already released into the world for you to buy but also you can have your pick of some nice deals and early bird incentives. When you pick up the new Pixel 7A for its regular $499 price, Google is throwing in a $100 credit toward a pair of Pixel Buds (making the Pixel Buds A-Series free or the noise-canceling Pixel Buds Pro $99.99) and a free Case-Mate case (a $25 value). Meanwhile, retailers like Best Buy and Amazon are offering a $50 gift card with your purchase.The 7A costs $50 more than the Pixel 6A it replaces, but that extra money nets some nice upgrades like wireless charging, a... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#6BNVD)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is skipping raises for salaried employees this year. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees that only hourly workers will receive raises and blamed the move on the uncertain state of the economy.“We are clear that we are helping drive a major platform shift in this new era of AI, and doing so in a dynamic, competitive environment while also facing global macroeconomic uncertainties,” Nadella wrote. “We must maintain a leadership position in our at-scale businesses of today, generating enough yield to invest and lead in the next wave, while staying on the frontiers of both performance and efficiency.”While Microsoft will still offer salaried employees bonuses and stock awards,... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6BNVF)
Image: Apple One of Apple TV Plus’ biggest series is coming back for a second season this summer. Today, the streamer announced that season 2 of Foundation — the sci-fi epic based on the stories of Isaac Asimov — will premiere on July 14th. The new season will be 10 episodes long, with new episodes dropping on Fridays, and you can get a brief taste in the debut teaser trailer above.Foundation debuted back in 2021 and was notable in particular for its complexity, with a story that spanned multiple centuries. The second season will continue that tradition by taking place quite a long time after the first. Here’s the description:
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by Sean Hollister on (#6BNVE)
A big step forward for Windows handhelds — but is Windows the way forward at all? Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6BNRX)
Photo by Zeng Hui / Xinhua via Getty Images Nintendo is a company whose success ebbs and flows. The glory days give way to lean periods, but things inevitably rebound. It happens in cycles. The quiet times of the GameCube gave way to the breakout mainstream popularity of the Wii. The humbling days of the Wii U are what paved the way for the transformative success of the Switch. And now, on the eve of the launch of what could be the biggest game of the year, we might just be seeing Nintendo at the peak of its powers.What’s notable about this particular moment is how it extends beyond video games. It started earlier in the year when Nintendo launched Super Nintendo World in Los Angeles, a theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. (It followed a similar attraction in... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6BNPV)
Image: Nintendo Let me tell you about the time I got stranded on an island floating in the sky.Much like its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom begins in a sort of training area. In this case, it’s a series of interconnected islands high up in the sky, where you’re able to not only unlock your initial abilities but also learn the basics of how to use them. There are even helpful ancient robots around to give you tips.It’s here that I first got access to Ultrahand, an ability that lets Link magically pick up objects, including stuff much too big for him to hold, and fuse them together. It looks something like this: Image: Nintendo One of the first and most obvious uses for this skill is to build bridges. You... Continue reading…