by Mia Sato on (#6FWJH)
Thai Food Near Me, Dentist Near Me, Notary Near Me, Plumber Near Me - businesses across the country picked names meant to outsmart Google Search. Does it actually work? Continue reading...
The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-12-21 11:48 |
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6FWFR)
A Greek tragedy in the Southern District of New York. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Michael M. Santiago, Bloomberg, Klmax, Whyframestudio, Yevgen Romanenko, Pixhook, Peter Dazeley, Jimkruger, Getty Images The prosecution's case against Sam Bankman-Fried had a lot of collateral damage. Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FWDE)
A drone flying outside of that abandoned train station that Ford wants to turn into an innovation hub. | Image: Michigan Central Detroit's Michigan Central Station, the once beautiful but now abandoned train station that Ford is rehabilitating into an innovation and technology hub, is about to be swarmed by drones.The Ford subsidiary that operates the train station, Michigan Central, announced today that it's teaming up with the state's Department of Transportation (MDOT) to test out the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAM), or drones, to deliver medicine, food, and other small items to nearby residents. Image: Michigan Central The drone delivery testing will take place in what's being called Detroit's Advanced Aerial Innovation Region, an area within a three-mile radius of Michigan Central Station in which drones can conduct deliveries... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FW6J)
Photo by Michael Swensen/Getty Images The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Ford have reached a tentative agreement to end the union's six-week strike against the automaker. Last month, workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis factories walked off the job in targeted work stoppages timed just as the large automakers shift to producing more electric vehicles than ever before.The strike has roiled the auto industry, costing each company hundreds of millions of dollars each week in lost production and throwing the industry's shift to electric vehicles on ice. An agreement with Ford puts more pressure on GM and Stellantis to strike a deal with the union.According to preliminary reports, Ford agreed to a 25 percent increase in wages, plus cost of living increases, that will bump... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FW50)
Image: Valve Valve announced Wednesday that it has released SteamVR 2.0, launching the major update exactly a month after the surprise launch of the SteamVR 2.0 beta in September.In this release we're bringing all of what's new and exciting on the Steam platform into VR," Valve says in a Steam post. This is our first big step in a larger ongoing effort to better unify the Steam ecosystem for all users, providing a more consistent experience across devices. This update also allows us to add new Steam features in the future much faster and more frequently."SteamVR 2.0 has been a long time coming, with Valve saying in a 2019 year-in-review Steam post that it was hard at work" on the update. Here are some of Valve's highlights for what you'll find... Continue reading...
by Allison Johnson on (#6FW51)
The Magic Capsule technology is coming to Honor's next flagship. | Image: Honor We were expecting - and we got - a lot of talk about generative AI this morning when Honor CEO George Zhao took the stage at Qualcomm's 2023 Snapdragon Summit. But the announcement of its Honor 6 flagship came with a surprising detail: it includes a feature that lets you interact with the device using your eyes. With some notable concerns about privacy implications, it looks kinda cool.The keynote briefly featured a rendering of what this technology will look like, showing a woman looking at her phone with a snippet of the Uber app running at the top of the screen - something like a Live Activity. By changing the direction of her gaze, she opens the app in full.Honor calls the technology Magic Capsule, and describes it as eye-tracking... Continue reading...
by Alex Heath on (#6FW38)
Mark Zuckerberg. | Image: Meta The rumors of Threads' early demise have been exaggerated.Meta's competitor to Elon Musk's X has hit just under" 100 million monthly users since it was released in early July, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday during his company's quarterly earnings call.We're three months in now, and I'm very happy with the trajectory," he said, echoing the bullish comments he made about how Threads is doing during a recent interview with The Verge. We're now getting to the point where we're going to be focusing on growing the community further. From what we can tell, people love it so far."As the head of Instagram explained at the launch of Threads, Meta sees an opening to seriously compete with the platform formerly known as Twitter now... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FW39)
Illustration: The Verge X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is rolling out audio and video calls. Several users on the platform, including some of us here at The Verge, have received a notification when opening the app, stating: Audio and video calls are here!"There's also a new Enable audio and video calling" toggle within the app's settings, which says you can turn the feature on and then select who you're comfortable using it with." It includes options to allow audio and video calls from only people in your address book, people you follow, verified users, or all three. You can then make a call by opening a DM with another user, selecting the phone icon in the top right corner of the screen, and choosing audio or video call. S... Continue reading...
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by Ariel Shapiro on (#6FW0T)
Image: The Verge Big changes are coming to Spotify's royalty model, according to Music Business Worldwide (MBW). If and when they are implemented in early 2024, it will raise the bar for who gets paid from music streaming on the platform - and direct more money to major labels and artists.Two of the three proposed changes should be relatively uncontroversial. According to the report, Spotify will fine music distributors (including labels) for fraudulent activity detected on their tracks. Streaming fraud is pretty widespread, and a crackdown is long overdue. The second change will raise the minimum length of play time for noise tracks (background noise like rain, static, etc.) before they start earning royalties. Currently, any track that gets played for... Continue reading...
by Umar Shakir on (#6FW0V)
Stay immersed for a bit longer, but maybe not as immersed. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Meta is rolling out a software update that lets Quest 3 users eke out more battery life at the expense of graphics quality.In addition to this new Battery Saver mode, the v59 update also gives VR streamers a way to keep track of YouTube Live Chat within the headset, includes more reactions and stickers in a chat, adds legs to your avatar in Horizon Home, and enhances the Activities tab to easily find friend recommendations and drop in to play. Another note says that the Remote Display app from the Quest Pro will become available for Quest 3 and Quest 2 over time," allowing wearers to project their own computer screen into a VR environment.With the new update, users can switch to a lower graphics output setting on Meta Quest 3 that... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6FVXF)
Image: Meta Meta's newest update to Horizon Worlds, its 3D social network, adds some useful changes, but while reading the v133 patch notes, I chuckled more than once because of things Meta probably didn't intend to be funny.Arguably the biggest addition is a new time spent" feature. The dashboard shows you how much time you've put into Horizon Worlds over seven days and how that time is divided between playing in VR and on web / mobile. Image: Meta A screenshot of Horizon Worlds' time spent" dashboard - but I don't know anyone who plays for four hours per week. We should be cognizant of how much time we're spending staring at screens. But given Meta has been struggling to keep Horizon Worlds users, how many people... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6FVXG)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Social messaging platform Telegram has blocked channels used by Hamas, but only on Android phones due to violations of Google's app store guidelines. According to CNBC, two channels - hamas_com and al-Qassam brigades - were cut off for Android users, though other channels the group uses, like Gaza Now, are still accessible.Telegram blamed the blocks on Google's app store guidelines, according to reporting in The Jerusalem Post. Users reportedly see an error saying the channels can't be viewed on Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store," implying that the ban doesn't extend to the app when it's downloaded from elsewhere or used on another operating system.A Google spokesperson, who asked to be quoted anonymously due to the... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6FVXH)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple will try to better differentiate its AirPods lineup as new models launch over the next couple of years, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. That will include phasing out both the second-gen and third-gen AirPods when a successor is announced sometime next fall. Gurman claims that the third-gen regular" AirPods haven't sold particularly well and partially attributes this to consumers frequently opting for the older, cheaper second-gen pair, which Apple has continued to sell.To avoid facing that problem again, Apple plans to simultaneously launch two sets of fourth-generation AirPods in 2024. Both sets will sit beneath the AirPods Pro, with pricing remaining similar to where it is today, but the two SKUs will... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6FVXJ)
Image: Konami Fresh off the launch of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, Konami is showing off a new look at the next major entry in the series. The previously announced remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 - which now has the fancy name Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - was revealed mostly via a CG trailer. But the latest trailer is an in-engine" look at the game, providing an early glimpse at the gameplay. It's short, but it has much of what you'd expect: sneaking around in swamps, climbing along ledges, and lots of takedowns from behind. The game is being built using Unreal Engine 5.Delta - yes, that's how it's pronounced - still doesn't have a release date, but it's coming to the PS5, Xbox, and PC. Series creator Hideo Kojima isn't... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FVXK)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail's emoji picker on the web is getting a long overdue upgrade that lets you pick skin tones and gender preferences for certain emoji, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday.Previously, when composing emails in Gmail on the web, if you used the emoji picker, there was no way to select a skin tone or gender preference for certain emoji like hand gestures or emoji featuring people. You could still add emoji with skin tones or certain genders to those emails in other ways, such as copying and pasting the emoji from Emojipedia, but that's obviously not the most ideal solution.Google is changing that starting Wednesday. With Gmail's new emoji picker, you'll be able to pick skin tones and gender preferences by clicking a little... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6FVSS)
This year's iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has officially released iOS 17.1, the latest version of its iPhone operating system. The update has been available in beta since late last month, during which time its biggest new feature has arguably been the ability to continue AirDrop transfers over a cellular connection if the two connected devices move out of Wi-Fi range after the sending process has started. Apple announced the feature back at its developer conference in June, but it didn't arrive in time for the main iOS 17 release last month.As shown in iOS 17.1's beta releases, the update includes a handful of other minor tweaks and additions. There's a new Favorites feature for Apple Music that lets you add songs, albums, playlists, and artists to your library and signal... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6FVST)
With the Series 9 and Ultra 2, you can double-tap to use the primary function of an app without touching the display. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Double tap has arrived with watchOS 10.1. The gesture allows you to control your supported Apple Watch (Series 9 and Ultra 2) with a pinching motion, all without ever having to touch the display. The idea is to give you a way to interact with the watch if you don't have both hands free - like when you're cooking, carrying groceries, or are on a walk and holding a cup of coffee.While the feature may seem familiar to Assistive Touch, there are a few key differences. I go into it in-depth here, but the gist is Assistive Touch is a full navigational system designed for people with limb differences, whereas double tap is more like double clicking on your computer mouse. You use it to perform the primary" action of an app at a given moment.... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6FVSV)
Double tap officially arrives on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 today as part of the watchOS 10.1 public release. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge; Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Swipes and buttons are the norm, but Apple's double tap gesture opens a future where your smartwatch could be even less dependent on your phone. Continue reading...
by Emilia David on (#6FVSW)
Image: Google With generative AI exploding everywhere, Google will start requiring that Android apps include a way to report offensive AI-generated content and follow new moderation rules around what kind of AI content is acceptable.Apps using AI-generated content will be required to add a button to flag or report offensive material early next year to remain in Google's Play Store.Google wants the reporting process to be as easy as possibleUsers should be able to report without needing to navigate away from the app, similar to already existing in-app reporting systems today.The company said its AI-generated content policy covers AI chatbots, AI-generated image apps, and apps that create voice or video content of real people with the use of AI.... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6FVSX)
Lily Gladstone and Martin Scorsese. | Image: Apple Scorsese's latest demands - not asks - us to witness the horrors the US has wrought upon the Osage Nation and understand some of what it means for Indigenous people to survive in this country today. Continue reading...
by Ariel Shapiro on (#6FVSY)
Image: The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.In pursuit of profit, Spotify looks to AI rather than original content for its podcasting futureSpotify shareholders are thrilled with the company reporting an operating profit for the first time in a year, sending the stock up nearly 10 percent on the news. The revenue bump was in large part due to the streamer's $1 price increase earlier this year, but executives also pointed to the downsizing of the podcast operation - which included hundreds of layoffs and the dissolution of Gimlet and Parcast - as a contributing factor. The adage that content is king" no longer applies, with Spotify increasingly focusing on tools that will... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6FVSZ)
The tool is accessible from the three-dot menu on image search results. | Image: Google Google is starting to roll out its new About this image" tool, which aims to provide essential background information and context about images in Google Search. The feature was first announced at Google's I/O developer conference in May, and now it's rolling out to English users globally. You can access the feature from the three-dot menu that appears in Search and Google Images results. The search giant is also announcing updates to its Fact Check Explorer initiative and AI-powered Search Generative Experience.The About this image" tool is designed to show you the origins of an image, including its metadata (when available), and provide vital context about how it's been described by news and fact-checking sites over time. So you... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6FVT0)
Image: Viz Media As Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, a continuation of the popular Bleach anime - one of the Big Three" of shonen anime series - continues its run, viewers were excited to see fan-favorite character Yoruichi make her first appearance in the show. But that excitement soured as fans and voice actors argued on social media over who has the right" to voice a character of color, invoking the specter of racism versus nostalgia in voice casting.On October 7th, Afro-Latina voice actress Anairis Quinones announced on X (formerly Twitter) that she had been cast to voice Yoruichi in Thousand-Year Blood War.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6FVP4)
Lexus LF-ZC concept. | Image: Lexus Lexus announced new concept electric vehicles for Japan's Mobility Show, including the new LF-ZC, which is a four-door luxury car that the company plans to use as a basis for a real one that will launch in 2026. The luxury Toyota brand also presented a second concept called the LF-ZL which the company says is for a guilt-free luxury lifestyle."The LF-ZC, which stands for Lexus Future Zero-emission Catalyst," has a low-hanging roofline that smoothly transitions from the hood to the rear. The windshield is long and goes over the heads of the front passengers for an expansive field of vision. The profile and rear shape look like it draws some inspiration from Toyota's no-longer-ugly Prius. They're about the same length, too: 187 inches... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FVP5)
Image: The Verge / Getty Images Sam Bankman-Fried will testify at his criminal fraud trial on Thursday as he faces charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering related to his failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.During a conference call on Wednesday, attorney Mark Cohen confirmed Bankman-Fried will take the stand. The move isn't much of a surprise, considering the time Bankman-Fried spent speaking on his own behalf between the collapse of FTX last year and his eventual arrest last December.We're going to put on three witnesses - then our client," Cohen said during the call, according to the Inner City Press.Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, is accused of stealing billions in customer funds and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. So far,... Continue reading...
by Chris Welch on (#6FVP6)
Image: Sony I'm very intrigued by Sony's revamped PS5 and its removable disc drive. It streamlines the console's manufacturing process, and the new model is a good amount smaller than the original, even if it doesn't necessarily look so from every angle. But there might be one noteworthy quirk with the new $499 Disc version: it's likely you'll need an internet connection to get the optical drive working with the PS5 hardware it's attached to.As noted by Video Games Chronicle, this is according to images of the box for an upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III PS5 bundle that will ship next month. At the bottom of the back, there's a line that says internet connection required to pair Disc Drive and PS5 console upon setup." The going theory,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6FVP7)
Image: Puzzmo / Angie Wang Game designer Zach Gage is leading a team in building a modern space to enjoy your crossword puzzle. Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6FVP8)
Alexa won't work with IFTTT anymore soon. | Image: Wes Davis / The Verge The team behind IFTTT (short for if this, then that") wrote in a blog post that Amazon is cutting the service off from Alexa beginning October 31st. Once the integration is severed, users won't be able to ask Alexa to trigger IFTTT applets. Certain automations will stick around in the IFTTT app, but some will be archived on November 1st unless you take action.If your IFTTT applets use a specific phrase or question as the trigger (Alexa, trigger..." or Alexa, what's on my to-do list?"), that will convert to using an IFTTT button widget that you can either use in the app or add to your smartphone's homescreen. But all other triggers set up through Alexa - say, an automation that runs when you add something to your to-do list - will be... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6FVP9)
Image: OpenAI Fighting against data used to train AI models has become more poisonous.A new tool called Nightshade allows users to attach it to their creative work, and it will corrupt - or poison - training data using that art. Eventually, it can ruin future models of AI art platforms like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, removing its ability to create images.Nightshade adds invisible changes to pixels in a piece of digital art. When the work is ingested by a model for training, the poison" exploits a security vulnerability that confuses the model, so it will no longer read an image of a car as a car and come up with a cow instead.The MIT Technology Review reported that Ben Zhao, a professor at the University of Chicago and one of the... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6FVPA)
Image: Amazon Amazon is beta testing AI image generation tools for its advertisers, offering an easy way to create backgrounds or scenes around whatever product ad buyers are hoping to sell. The company says the new feature is designed to remove creative barriers and enable brands to produce lifestyle imagery that helps improve their ads' performance."This could prove to be a quick, convenient option for brands that would otherwise be stuck working with boring standalone images of a product against a white background. Amazon says putting products in a lifestyle scene can lead to 40 percent higher click-through rates.This solution is helpful for advertisers of all sizes - enabling those that do not have in-house capabilities or agency support to... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6FVPB)
These people were adults. This is how adults talk now. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos by Michael M. Santiago, Bloomberg, Klmax, Whyframestudio, Yevgen Romanenko, Pixhook, Peter Dazeley, Jimkruger, Getty Images It is one thing to type the world YOLO, jokingly, on Beyonce's internet. It is another thing entirely to hear it explained in a court of law. The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried has been, in its vocabulary, tragically millennial. (Disclosure: I am also a millennial.)Christian Drappi, a former Alameda software engineer, was put in the position of explaining YOLO - you only live once" - as well as the phrase a YOLO thing" to anyone who might be unfamiliar. He was testifying about a recording of an Alameda all-hands meeting in which Caroline Ellison, then the CEO of Alameda, confessed to taking FTX customer funds. In the recording, Drappi said I'm sure this wasn't, like, a YOLO thing" in response to the confession.Asked about the phrase,... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6FVJR)
The Blink Video Doorbell pairs best with the Sync Module 2, but the wireless hub isn't absolutely necessary. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Whether you want to keep tabs on trick-or-treaters or protect your holiday gifts from would-be porch pirates, a good video doorbell or security camera can come in handy during the holidays. Lucky for you, Amazon-owned Blink is offering up to 60 percent off a host of models as part of its Halloween sale, which runs through November 5th.The sale spans a range of smart security products, including a three-pack of Blink Mini cameras for $39.98 ($60 off). If you're looking for something to protect your porch, however, you can pick a Blink Video Doorbell with the latest Blink Outdoor security camera for just $89.99 (half off) at Amazon. The retailer is also selling the Blink Outdoor 4 for an all-time low of $71.99 ($48 off) if you don't need... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FVJS)
Image: GM A little more than a year after announcing an ambitious plan to co-develop a lineup of affordable electric vehicles, General Motors and Honda are scrapping the deal - or at least just that one aspect of the deal.Announced in April 2022, the plan was to build a series of affordable EVs on GM's flexible EV platform with its Ultium-branded battery packs. At the time, GM and Honda said they expected to begin production of millions" of these affordable EVs by 2027.After studying this for a year, we decided that this would be difficult as a business, so at the moment, we are ending development of an affordable EV," Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in the interview with Bloomberg, which was the first to report the news.We are ending... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6FVJT)
These tablets are only small" by Cintiq standards but they still carry the lineup's loft prices. | Image: Wacom Wacom has unveiled the Cintiq Pro 17 and Cintiq Pro 22 - two new additions to its popular family of Cintiq display drawing tablets, providing more compact options for creative professionals who prefer to work with a smaller screen. As noted by PetaPixel, the Wacom Cintiq Pro 17 is available to purchase immediately for $2,499.95, while the slightly larger Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 will be available this December for $2,999.95.Sharing the same (albeit smaller) grip-handle design as the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 that was released last year, the new 17.3-inch and 21.5-inch models both feature a 3840 x 2160 (4K) 120Hz touchscreen capable of displaying up to 1.07 billion colors. That includes 99 percent DCI-P3 and 95 percent Adobe RGB color gamut... Continue reading...
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by Erika Hayasaki on (#6FVJV)
Like many instructors, Janani Umamaheswar occasionally checks Rate My Professors to monitor her course reviews. The site offers a loose barometer of how you are doing as a teacher, especially early in a career in academia. Since users post anonymously, including criticisms and rants, the site can also become a fount of anxiety.When negative reviews do appear, any professor might speculate: How often are people checking my page? Could this reflect poorly on my future employment? And in particular, who posted the criticism? They might run down the mental list of students who received low grades or did not get a requested extension or rarely spoke in class. They might wonder if a user is even a former student or if they ever took their... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6FVJW)
The DJI Osmo Pocket 3. Five years ago, DJI paired its super-stable drone cameras with a postage-stamp-size screen to create the Osmo Pocket, a tiny vlogger cam. It was neat, and its successor had a handful of key improvements.But the new Osmo Pocket 3, announced and shipping today, has more than a handful.While the baby steadicam now starts at $519 - a huge hike over its $349 predecessors - it's got a way larger sensor, way larger touchscreen, faster autofocus, far faster charging, more battery life, built-in wireless, built-in joystick, a third microphone, and a nifty rotating screen that satisfyingly clicks into portrait or landscape while automatically switching your filming aspect ratio. Portrait mode. I haven't gone out on a real... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FVJX)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Intel's latest 14th Gen chips aren't a huge improvement over the 13th Gen in gaming performance, but a new Intel Application Optimization (APO) feature might just change that. Intel's new APO app simply runs in the background, improving performance in games. It offers impressive boosts to frame rates in games that support it, like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus.Intel Application Optimization essentially directs application resources in real time through a scheduling policy that fine-tunes performance for games and potentially even other applications in the future. It operates alongside Intel's Thread Director, a technology that's designed to improve how apps and games are assigned to performance or efficiency cores... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6FVG4)
Mainstream and TikTok fame collides. | Image: TikTok TikTok is taking its viral sounds offline and hosting an in-person music festival in December, the company announced today. And of course, the entire thing will be livestreamed via TikTok Live.The event, called TikTok In the Mix, will feature top artists like Cardi B, Anitta, Charlie Puth, and Niall Horan - as well as the lesser-known artists behind the soundtracks to hundreds of thousands of videos.The company describes TikTok In the Mix as the For You page come to life, with performances, small business pop-ups, and creator activations" happening at the event. The festival will take place in Mesa, Arizona on December 10th, and fans will be able to purchase presale tickets via the TikTok app on Friday.Hopefully the crowd will... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FVG5)
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Dave the Diver cast a line and reeled me in when I played through it on Steam Deck earlier this year. It's lured once again on Nintendo Switch.Sorry, I had to get the fishing puns out of the way. But if you haven't yet played Dave the Diver, a delightful experience that somehow mixes roguelike spearfishing exploration and a time management sushi restaurant simulator into one of the most joyful games of the year, the Nintendo Switch version is a place to get your feet wet.The game is packed with different types of activities, and as Polygon's review says, Dave the Diver's vast number of mechanics shouldn't work but somehow do. The shark meat of the game is capturing or hunting fish and aquatic life during the diving portions of the... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6FV6M)
Microsoft Edge now pops up a poll after you press the Download Chrome" button. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Google Chrome download in Microsoft's Edge web browser? How many times will the company try to steer me away?Let's check!One: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge There's no need to download a new web browser," reads the top of a search for Chrome download" in Microsoft Edge. Two: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Microsoft edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft," reads a pop-up that appears after you land on Google's site. Three: Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge We love having you! Can you please take a minute to tell us why you are trying... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6FV4X)
Stylish, yet impractical! | Image: Lenovo Today at Lenovo Tech World 23, many things happened. There was a lot of talk about AI. Nvidia's Jensen Huang and his leather jacket were there. There were some celebrities I was probably supposed to recognize. And Lenovo dusted off its bendable phone concept and let it out into the light for nearly two full minutes!Almost two hours into the keynote, Lexi Valasek with the Motorola Innovation Research team took the stage with the latest iteration of Moto's bendy concept phone. Like the one Motorola showed off at Tech World 2016, a couple of years after it was acquired by Lenovo, it's a large smartphone built around a flexible OLED display that can bend backward to wrap around the wrist, cuff-style.This version does seem more... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FV4Y)
The Apple TV app's ambitions have always been huge. | Image: Apple Apple appears to be working on a revamp of its TV app that the company hopes will turn it into users' go-to place for all their shows, movies, and more. A new Bloomberg report says Apple is planning to remove its apps for buying and renting content and bundle that with its streaming content, channel-subscription options, and more. The new app could launch as early as this December on the Apple TV box, across Apple's other platforms, and on the other TV operating systems the Apple TV app is available on. (The fact that the Apple TV is distinct from the Apple TV app, which is not the same as Apple TV Plus, and that Apple TV is available on Roku" is a technically true phrase never fails to blow my mind. These names! But I digress.)In a... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FV4Z)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Slack has retired its integration with X (formerly Twitter) because of X's API changes introduced earlier this year.According to Slack, X's API changes affected the functionality of the integration, which led to the decision to retire it. Slack's integration with X relies on access to its API, and changes to that API this spring impacted the integration's functionality and the services it supports," Rod Garcia, Slack's VP of software engineering, said in a statement to The Verge. The Twitter app for Slack has not been functional since X implemented these changes, so we have removed the app from the small set of customer workspaces that still have it installed. For more information, please see our update on Slack's feature retirements... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6FV50)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft just posted the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $56.5 billion in revenue and a net income of $22.3 billion during Q1. Revenue is up 13 percent, and net income has increased by 27 percent. Devices revenue has been hit hard again this quarter, even if Windows has recovered slightly. The star of Microsoft's earnings are cloud services and Office, though.Windows OEM revenue, the price that PC manufacturers pay Microsoft to put Windows on laptops and PCs, is up 4 percent this quarter. It's a surprise increase, given we've seen a general weakness in PC sales over the past year, with Windows OEM revenue suffering throughout Microsoft's entire 2023 fiscal year. Photo by... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6FV51)
Illustration: The Verge Everybody's coming for Google, but Google is doing just fine, according to parent company Alphabet's third quarter earnings on Tuesday.While Google has been dealing with fierce competition on all sides and is investing a lot into infusing AI into as many products as it can, its ads business, the company's bread and butter, is still humming along. The Search business earned $44 billion, an 11 percent jump year over year.The big question coming up is how Google's focus on AI will impact that core business. Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience is still only available on an opt-in basis, so we don't yet know how much it'll impact the company's ad business.Google is already moving to head off that problem. On Google's earnings... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6FV52)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap's business has been on life support for a while now, with Apple's ad tracking changes on iOS, competition from TikTok, and a combination of other factors leading to a collapse in its revenue growth.That said, all is not lost: based on the third quarter earnings results that Snap announced on Tuesday, its ads business appears to finally be on the upswing. Total revenue grew to nearly $1.2 billion, an increase of 5 percent from the same time last year. Snap is still a money-losing company, though. It posted a net loss of over $368 million for the quarter, slightly higher than the year-ago period.While the return to revenue growth is certainly a welcome sign, Snap's management team continues to be in a state of flux. Jerry Hunter,... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6FV53)
The AI Pin has a projector, it seems, instead of a screen. | Image: TED Humane's first gadget, the AI Pin, is currently slated to launch on November 9th, but we just got our best look at it yet thanks to a somewhat unexpected source. Before it has even been announced, the AI Pin is one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023," along with everything from the Framework Laptop 16 to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 to the Bedtime Buddy alarm clock.The write-up is brief and relatively light on details, but there are a couple of new details, along with the best photo we've seen yet of the device. It appears the AI Pin will attach magnetically to your clothing, and uses a mix of proprietary software and OpenAI's GPT-4" to power its many features. (If you remember, that includes everything from making calls to... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6FV54)
Image: Apple It looks like Apple is rolling out Pay Later to all users in the US. As spotted by MacRumors, the buy now, pay later service is now widely available within Apple Wallet and is featured on Apple's homepage.First announced in June 2022, Apple Pay Later lets users make a purchase and then pay for it in a series of four installments over the course of six weeks without any interest or late fees. If you thought the service was already out, that's because Apple initially launched it on select iPhones and iPads in March. Users can use Pay Later on purchases between $75 and $1,000.Earlier today, MacRumors noticed that Apple had removed the mention of a prerelease version" from Pay Later's support documents, a sign that Apple had been getting... Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6FTX1)
The Verge If you own a Galaxy smartphone and you haven't already discovered the Samsung Good Lock app, I'd recommend getting it installed at your earliest opportunity. It's packed with tweaks, tools, and options that build on top of what Samsung already puts into its One UI version of Android.Good Lock lets you take much more control over how your phone interface looks as well as helping you to do more with your phone. Whether you want to design your own clock face for the lock screen, switch between apps more quickly, or change the behavior of the S Pen stylus, Good Lock can help.Getting startedTo get started, open the Galaxy Store on your Samsung phone, then find and install the Good Lock app.The app works by using mini apps called... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6FTX2)
Image: Getty The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's robotaxi permit effective immediately." The General Motors-backed company had recently been involved in several safety incidents, most recently a hit-and-run by another driver that resulted in a pedestrian trapped under one of Cruise's driverless vehicles.Among the reasons cited for the suspension: Cruise's vehicles are not safe for public operation"; the company allegedly misrepresented" the safety of its vehicles; Cruise's vehicles could pose an unreasonable risk to the public"; and permits can be revoked if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road."The DMV has... Continue reading...
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