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by Emma Roth on (#6EG0E)
Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The attorneys general from all 50 US states want lawmakers to establish a commission dedicated to investigating the impact of AI on child exploitation, as reported earlier by The Associated Press. In a letter to Congress, the attorneys general say that the proposed commission should come up with solutions to prevent the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).As outlined in the letter, the attorneys general point out that bad actors can train an AI using images of abused and non-abused children to create deepfakes while also animating new and realistic sexualized images of children who do not exist, but who may resemble actual children." The letter adds that readily available AI tools make this process easier than... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-11-06 01:03 |
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6EFXS)
Say what? | Illustration: Laura Normand / The Verge I see Elon Musk has pivoted from pretending he's going to physically fight Mark Zuckerberg to pretending he is going to sue the Anti-Defamation League. Okay. There are people who still take Musk seriously, and I wish them well on their journey. This blog is for the rest of us.Obviously, there's a level of attention-seeking behavior at play. Some of this is financially motivated: Musk is perhaps the most important influencer in the world. His tweets move markets. And he faces the same problem as other influencers. The danger of being too famous is overexposure - people get sick of you.Why make this threat in the first place?Musk's public persona is an important marketing tool. Consider his appearance on Saturday Night Live: Tesla... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EFXT)
GIF by DeckButtons Would you spend $40-$60 on artisan buttons for your Steam Deck? What if they were cast by hand from custom resin molds, made by just one guy in the USA?I imagine it would depend on how they look - but thankfully, they look amazing. GIF by DeckButtons Such shimmer. Today, Greg Leddy is following up his TouchProtect touchpad and button skins and custom-painted ColoredControllers with the new DeckButtons.com, a shop where he exclusively sells buttons and D-pads for your Steam Deck. Each one is cast in a custom two-part silicone mold of his own design, itself created from a master button he 3D prints from resin, hand-sands, and finishes to emulate the Steam Deck's own slightly sandy shell texture.Leddy sent me... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EFXV)
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple's upcoming App Store for its Vision Pro headset will include all compatible iPhone and iPad apps by default." In an update on Tuesday, Apple said it will release the new App Store with the developer beta of visionOS this fall.Both iPad and iPhone apps will appear alongside visionOS apps in the new App Store. As Apple has said previously, it will automatically import iOS and iPadOS apps to its new mixed reality operating system with no additional work required." Developers can still optimize their apps if needed.By default, your iPad and/or iPhone apps will be published automatically on the App Store on Apple Vision Pro," Apple notes. Most frameworks available in iPadOS and iOS are also included in visionOS, which means... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6EFXW)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge There are messaging features inside of TikTok, but nobody really thinks of TikTok as a messaging app. The company appears intent on changing that, though: its parent company ByteDance is hiring for a slew of roles on a team called TikTok Social," which seems to be tasked with turning TikTok into a much more powerful messaging system.The listings, which were first spotted by Axios, are vague in the way that all job listings tend to be, but they make TikTok's ambitions clear. We are the messaging team on TikTok," a listing for an engineering lead says. Our team's mission is to facilitate meaningful user connections through TikTok's messaging experience, which is still in its infancy." Another listing, for a backend tech lead, says the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EFXX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon will charge $1.99 per delivery for in-garage deliveries that used to be free if the customer wants to get them made outside of their designated weekly Amazon Day," as described in an update to Amazon's blog post. Screenshots of in-app notifications posted on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit by subscribers note the new policy kicks in starting on October 4th.Amazon spokesperson Amanda Gan confirmed the new policy and said in an email to The Verge, We will change the free default option for Amazon Key In-Garage Delivery to Amazon Day with Key Delivery. Customers will have more flexibility and control over their Amazon deliveries using Amazon Day with Key Delivery, including the ability to choose their delivery day and combine... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFXY)
Getty Images Nintendo's going to let us figure out who the next voice of Mario is on our own. In an interview with IGN, Nintendo of America's president, Doug Bowser, said that the company doesn't plan on revealing Charles Martinet's replacement until folks roll credits on Super Mario Bros. Wonder.I think people have recognized this when they see Super Mario Bros. Wonder, they'll hear a different voice," Bowser told IGN. And we'll let that play out and that'll be within the credits, and people will learn who the new person is at that point in time, but we don't plan to make any announcement in advance of that."Last month, Nintendo announced that Martinet, the longtime voice of video games' most iconic character, would be stepping back from the... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6EFXZ)
Image: Maxon Cinebench, the classic benchmark test that PC enthusiasts (not to mention Verge laptop reviewers like myself) use to measure the CPU performance of their devices, has gotten a major update, developer Maxon announced. The main thing to know is that the new release, dubbed Cinebench 2024, will introduce GPU benchmarking. This is a feature that Cinebench hasn't had since version 15, which came out a decade ago.The way Cinebench has worked in the past, for those unfamiliar, is that it renders an image over and over for a set period of time and measures how quickly your hardware can do it. Interestingly, it looks like Cinebench will use the same image (Maxon calls it a consistent scene file") for both CPU and GPU testing. This means you'll... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6EFY0)
Animated Neelix! | Image: CBS Studios CBS Studios just announced Star Trek: very Short Treks, a set of five animated shorts from Casper Kelly (the Too Many Cooks" guy). The first of them will debut this Friday - Star Trek Day - in honor of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series. You can catch the (brief) trailer below.The shorts will feature characters from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, The Original Series, Discovery, and The Lower Decks. Animation styles visible in the trailer run the gamut from indistinguishable from The Animated Series" to just the regular Lower Decks style."After the first episode (Skin a Cat") launches Friday, the rest will follow on Wednesdays, starting on September 13th; they'll stream on StarTrek.com and the Star Trek... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EBRV)
Apple's latest iPad Mini is one of many Labor Day deals still kicking around. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Labor Day may mark the unofficial end to summer and the beginning of the school year for many students, but it's also one of the last big sales weekends before the holiday shopping season ramps up ahead of Black Friday (and Amazon's next not-Prime Day event).Thankfully, if you didn't get a chance to cash in on the Labor Day sales over the weekend, there are a number of deals still available. We've combed through the various Labor Day sales and promos still on offer, compiling a list of the best deals here. Not every item is on sale for its best price to date, but there are some solid deals available on a range of quality, Verge-approved devices and accessories you can't go wrong with.Earbud, headphone, and speaker deals
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6EFTJ)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge This summer, Google began rolling out its new Topics API, which allows a browser to share information with third parties about a user's interests while preserving privacy." A part of Google's new Privacy Sandbox, the API is supposed to replace the third-party cookies that have been following us around for many years now, reporting where we go and what we buy, among other info.The Topics API was included in July's Chrome 115 release, and if you don't have it yet, you will soon. If the idea of sharing information about your interests with third parties doesn't thrill you, you can easily turn it off. Here's how:In Chrome, start at the three dots in the upper-right corner and go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Ad privacy. (Or just... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6EFTK)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge A number of Spotify users began to notice something strange over the last day or so: the in-app lyrics, which typically pop up under the currently playing song, were suddenly locked away under a paywall. Instead, they saw only a notification bubble saying, Enjoy lyrics on Spotify Premium," with a link to sign up. Many Spotify listeners were not enthused.Spotify tells us that the feature is only a test. At Spotify, we routinely conduct a number of tests, some of those tests end up paving the way for our broader user experience and others serve only as an important learning," says CJ Stanley, Spotify's co-head of global communications. We don't have any further news to share at this time."
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by David Pierce on (#6EFTM)
Meta didn't build those massive offices in the Bay Area just for them to sit empty, you know? | Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Starting today, Meta's offices are going to be full again. The company has been saying since June that any employee assigned to an office - which means anyone not formally designated as a remote employee - will be required to be in that office at least three days a week. Now, CNBC reports that the mandate has gone into effect.Over the last three years, Meta went through the same cycle of remote work as an increasingly large number of other tech companies. When the pandemic began, the company found it was surprisingly productive even with everyone at home, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others began to wax poetic about the remote and distributed future of work. Zuckerberg himself estimated that in the next decade, we could get to about... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFTN)
Image: Larian Studios You're gonna be spending a lot of time down, down, down by the river. Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EFTP)
Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit's moderator purge could have real impacts on reliability and information safety as it rushes to replace mods with inexperienced, poorly vetted volunteers, according to Ars Technica. With testimony by both expelled former moderators and some of those who replaced them, Ars Technica's report shows the trouble with the company's push to quickly replace the mods who sent their subreddits dark, marked them NSFW, or turned them into jokey John Oliver fan forums earlier this year.Reddit began removing protesting moderators in June and said it would continue doing so until morale improves unless subreddits opened back up. Since then, Reddit has been trying to replace those it's expelled.The Ars Technica piece lists several examples... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFTQ)
Larian Studios The companions in Baldur's Gate 3 have redefined the term player-sexual," or the idea that a character's romantic and sexual orientation are firmly and solely fixed on the player. Usually, in a game that allows you to romance other characters, it takes a moment for the sparks to really start flying. There's a general buildup of flirtations before you get to have a romantic interlude with your chosen somewhere around a game's climax. (See what I did there?)In Baldur's Gate 3, there is so little time between the initial I like you" and visiting Boning's Gate that a whole speedrun category has been developed around getting to a sex scene as quickly as possible, with the world record currently sitting at two minutes and four seconds.... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFQG)
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images On the heels of the Labor Day weekend, United Airlines briefly issued a nationwide ground stop order, citing a systemwide technology issue." The order was lifted around 10 minutes later.We are experiencing a systemwide technology issue and are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights that are already airborne are continuing to their destination as planned. We will share more information as it becomes available," the airlines said in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter). Thank you for your patience as we work on a resolution to get you on your way as soon as possible."United did not immediately provide any details about why it issued a ground stop and how it was able to lift it so quickly.
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by Allison Johnson on (#6EFQH)
That's Android with a capital A, sir. | Image: Google Google is releasing a grab bag of updates to its mobile apps and services, including an At a Glance Google Assistant widget, enhancements to its Lookout visual accessibility app, and Zoom calls in Android Auto. This comes with a side of branding updates designed to remind us that Android is fun but also a serious Google product. It all arrives as we anticipate Android 14's imminent release, which is a slightly less exciting milestone when you realize that most new Android features come throughout the year in updates like this rather than in one big OS platform upgrade. Image: Google At a Glance surfaces useful things like current weather updates and travel info. The new At a Glance widget takes a useful Pixel... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFQJ)
Clive, much like this deal, is on fire. | Image: Square Enix With so many major game releases happening this year - and even this week - you could almost forget that a new mainline Final Fantasy dropped just a couple of months back. Well now, it's already on a sizable sale. Final Fantasy XVI is selling for $49.99 ($20 off) at both Amazon and Best Buy, its lowest price yet.Final Fantasy XVI is the most gritty and blood-soaked installment of the series to date, taking a chapter or three from George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones when it comes to sex and political intrigue. It may be rote to describe it as this ain't your daddy's Final Fantasy," but once you hear main protagonist Clive drop some f-bombs, it will be clear. The game also brings some interesting new twists on series mainstays, like... Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFQK)
Image: VW How do you tweak a classic hot hatch for the electric era? If you're Volkswagen, you simply announce that the I" in GTI now stands for intelligence" instead of injection" and call it a day.Just kidding. Obviously, VW went much further in unveiling the new GTI concept, or ID.GTI, which had its official debut at IAA Mobility in Munich this weekend. The reinterpretation of the 1976 original GTI has a lot more state-of-the-art tech and an electrified powertrain. But moreover, it could signal the future of this particular form of quick-footed hatchback.The VW ID.GTI is just a concept, but a production version will be coming to Europe at some future date. The US market may be part of the mix as well, but time will tell.The VW ID.GTI... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6EFQM)
Not our finest moment. | Screenshot by Sean Hollister / The Verge Baldur's Gate 3 sounds like a fantastic single-player experience. I wish I'd tried that instead of playing with my closest friends!This isn't about difficulty: I fully expected to be beaten, shot, stabbed, and otherwise destroyed for taking on enemies too fast. I just wish developer Larian had designed a multiplayer experience that gave me the first freaking clue what's going on.Want to make sure you don't miss an important conversation that might determine the course of the game? Better make sure you're watching your companions' character portraits on the left of the screen like a hawk! At any moment, they might click on something or walk somewhere that triggers a cutscene, and a tiny conversation indicator is the difference... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6EFQN)
Sincerely Accra" is a part of the Gold Coast Report podcast network. | Image: GCR This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hope everyone has had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. For today's issue of Hot Pod, I have a Q&A I conducted with Afripod's chief content officer and head of strategy, Kevin Y. Brown. The African podcasting platform - headquartered in Kenya - is considered the largest in the continent and is in the middle of an interesting partnership with radio stations. I got to hear Brown's thoughts on the new initiative and - as well as how Afripods is spreading awareness of podcasting as a medium throughout Africa. I also have a lightning round of deals and announcements for today's issue.Since I'll be off for the rest of the week, Hot Pod will... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFKX)
I, too, charge my devices in a blank void of solitude. | Image: Nomad After toying with lower-cost magnetic Qi wireless charging for a minute, Nomad is back on its proper MagSafe charger kick. The premium accessory maker is announcing a new multi-charger that's meant to charge your iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch all at once and look good doing it.Nomad's Base One Max 3-in-1 is a $170 MagSafe charger that can simultaneously fast-charge a compatible iPhone at 15W (hey, it's fast for an iPhone, okay?), an Apple Watch, and a set of AirPods or other wireless earbuds with Qi charging built into their case. The 3-in-1 weighs a hefty 1.7 pounds (755 grams), comes with a detachable 6.6ft / 2m USB-C cable, requires a 30W power adapter (not included), and comes in black or silver colors that can both be ordered... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EFKY)
Oh, hey, a strawberry. | Photo by Wes Davis / The Verge Niantic has a new Pikmin AR experiment for your mobile browser, called Pikmin Finder, that lets you pluck pikmin from any old place and send them off to collect treasure for you (via Nintendo Life). It's basically a cute, distilled version of 2021's Pikmin Bloom, and unless you're just hopelessly charmed by Shigeru Miyamoto's imaginary garden creatures, it's only good for a couple minutes of diversion. And the only official acknowledgment that it exists appears to be a support article.Niantic has had trouble lately, so it's not a surprise this was released so quietly. Between summer layoffs, a studio closure, and a lawsuit alleging internal sexual bias, the beleaguered company hasn't put its best foot forward lately. Niantic has a lot... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFKZ)
New Discord update for Xbox. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is rolling out a new Xbox dashboard for September that includes the ability to stream your Xbox gameplay to Discord friends and variable refresh rate (VRR) improvements for the Xbox Series S / X consoles. The dashboard update also includes the new Xbox voice reporting feature and a new way to pair accessories to Xbox consoles.The updated Discord functionality means you can now stream your gameplay to anyone on Discord. It's built into the Parties & Chats section of the dashboard, and a new stream your game" option now appears once you're connected to a Discord server. You can customize your stream quality, and the feature arrives just in time for tomorrow's release of Starfield.This Discord stream feature is only one-way,... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6EFM0)
Image: Nintendo It's September, so naturally, it means it's time to announce all the holiday video game bundles. And as inevitable as Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You" being the number one song in America in October, Nintendo is releasing yet another Mario Kart 8 Deluxe holiday bundle.This non-Switch OLED bundle comes with three months of Nintendo Switch online. But, if you want all the extra courses and characters added over the years, like Birdo, Kamek, and Petey Piranha, you'll have to purchase the Booster Course DLC for $25 or sign up for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack at $50 for a year's subscription.This year, Nintendo's also offering an Animal Crossing: New Horizons bundle for the Switch Lite. (Remember that game? It... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFM1)
The camera isn't much bigger than the E-mount itself. | Image: Sony Sony's got a teeny-tiny new box camera that's small and light enough to be sent into the sky on a drone, and it's packing the high-resolution 61-megapixel full-frame sensor of its A7R V camera.The Sony ILX-LR1 is a new E-mount full-frame mirrorless camera that's only a bit larger than an average deck of playing cards and weighs just half a pound, yet it has the latest Bionz XR processor and supports 4K video up to 60 fps. That's an incredibly small package for a lot of imaging output, but it also lacks an electronic viewfinder, a screen of any sort, a standard handgrip, and even a battery. This $2,950 camera, expected to launch in December, is tailor-made for flying on high-end drones and specialty industrial uses - like surveying and... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFM2)
The gap between the keyboard's two halves gives you so much room for activities (or a trackball). | Image: ZSA Ever wonder what it might feel like to be an astronaut who's concerned about avoiding carpal tunnel while working their nine-to-five desk job? Now there's a keyboard to help you live that fantasy.ZSA is today releasing another Space Age-looking mechanical keyboard: the $365 Voyager. Like the similarly priced Moonlander Mark I before it, the ZSA Voyager is a split ergonomic keyboard. It's designed to relieve some wrist and shoulder stress by allowing you to type with your hands further apart than traditional boards, fine-tune the height and tenting angle of each side, and reduce the overall amount of movement necessary to type. But what's unique to the Voyager is just how short and compact it is for an off-the-shelf keyboard.The... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFFT)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft will finally stop forcing Windows 11 users in Europe into Edge if they click a link from the Windows Widgets panel or from search results. The software giant has started testing the changes to Windows 11 in recent test builds of the operating system, but the changes are restricted to countries within the European Economic Area (EEA).In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links," reads a change note from a Windows 11 test build released to Dev Channel testers last month. I asked Microsoft to comment on the changes and, in particular, why they're only being applied to EU countries. Microsoft refused to comment.Microsoft has been ignoring default browser choices in its... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6EFFW)
Image: Roberto Baldwin for The Verge BMW says it will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud software to manage data from its autonomous vehicles.The company has a preexisting deal with AWS to handle data from its connected cars. Now, the German automaker is expanding that deal to include data from its next-generation advanced driver-assist system (ADAS), which is partly powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon Ride Vision platform.Generative artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and storage capabilities"BMW says AWS will help provide cloud storage from data related to generative artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, machine learning, and storage capabilities to help accelerate the delivery of highly automated BMW vehicles."The AWS software will... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EFFV)
Image: Bethesda Starfield needs a modern CPU for the very best settings and experience. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EFFX)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok has started transferring European user information to its newly launched data center in Ireland. In an update on Tuesday, TikTok says it's working on opening two additional data centers in Europe, including one in Norway and another in Ireland.TikTok's move to open a data center in Ireland comes as the European Union clamps down on large online platforms with the Digital Services Act, a rule that has forced TikTok to make its algorithm optional for users in the EU.TikTok says it's working with the NCC Group, a UK-based security company, to audit its data controls and protections, monitor data flows, provide independent verification, and report any incidents." It adds that only approved employees" can access the controls and... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6EFFY)
It's got nice features like hair-trigger lockouts, but what is up with these cheap-o looking LED strips? | Image: PowerA Accessory maker PowerA seems to know that RGB gamer lights are all the rage, but its new Xbox controller and LED strips have very strong We have gamer lights at home!" vibes.PowerA's new RGB-infused peripheral is the Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X / S with Lumectra. It's a $44.99 wired gamepad available in black or white with some nice sounding features, like hair triggers, two customizable rear buttons, four-zone RGB lighting with three preprogrammed modes, and a detachable USB-C cable (a nice upgrade over PowerA's cheaper models still plagued by Micro USB ports).That all sounds well and good, but the new wired Advantage also has some wireless tech - no, it doesn't have any official Xbox wireless connectivity like... Continue reading...
by Justine Calma on (#6EFFZ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta plans to deprecate" the News tab in Facebook's bookmarks section in the UK, France, and Germany. That's typically been company speak for removing a feature. The changes are supposed to go into effect in early December, according to Meta.As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short form video," the company said in a press release today.This is the latest action Facebook has taken to make news a lower priority on its platform. It's also another step toward mimicking shortform video content on TikTok.As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EFG0)
Image: Latch Latch, the commercial access company run by the founder of Ring, is expanding beyond smart locks. The company announced today that it's rebranding to Door.com with the goal of offering an overarching platform that gives independent service workers, like drivers, housekeepers, and dog walkers, a platform to grow their businesses.After founding Ring in 2013, Jamie Siminoff sold the company to Amazon in 2018, where he continued to work until leaving in May of this year. The next day, Latch announced that it had acquired Siminoff's four-month-old stealth startup, Honest Day's Work, and Siminoff became the Chief Doorman of Latch (but will soon become CEO). Honest Day's Work aimed to create a full-building operating system designed to help... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6EFAA)
A rendering of what ocean-based climate tech could look like. Caltech researchers are developing technology to filter CO2 out of seawater to allow oceans to absorb even more of the greenhouse gas. | Image: Caltech More than 200 scientists have signed onto a letter pushing for responsible" research into ways to trap planet-heating carbon dioxide in the world's oceans. They want to take urgent action on the climate crisis, while making sure they don't trigger any new problems by relying on oceans to help in the fight.Polluters have trashed the world's atmosphere with carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. That blanket of pollution is already warming the planet and causing more extreme weather disasters. One way to keep climate change from getting worse is to take some of those historic emissions out of the atmosphere.Oceans already do that for us, absorbing and holding around 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. What if humans could... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EFAB)
Image: Bethesda Softworks Starfield isn't even officially out of early access yet, but one of its mods has already generated controversy within the community. The mod in question adds support for Nvidia's DLSS 3 upscaling technology, which Bethesda omitted to include in Starfield in favor of AMD's rival FSR 2. But users have been critical of modder PureDark's decision to lock DLSS 3's more advanced frame-generation features behind a subscription to their Patreon. The free version of the mod only supports DLSS 2, which offers upscaling but not frame generation.Attempting to charge users for mods is a controversial topic, as Bethesda and Valve discovered when they teamed up to let modders charge for their Skyrim mods via Steam in 2015. The move was so... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EF6M)
The keyboard comes in a choice of black, white, or pink. | Image: Logitech Logitech has a new mechanical gaming keyboard it's announcing today: the Logitech G Pro X TKL Lightspeed. It's available now for $199 in a choice of three colors (black, white, and pink) and three switch types - linear GX Red, tactile GX Browns, and clicky GX Blues. The keyboard arrives alongside a new mouse, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2.As its name suggests, the Pro X TKL Lightspeed can connect to a computer using Logitech's Lightspeed dongle, which offers a 1000Hz polling rate. That should feel far more responsive than Bluetooth, which this keyboard also supports, but typically polls at a less responsive 125Hz. There's also the option of a wired connection via the USB-C port on the top of the Pro X TKL Lightspeed, which also... Continue reading...
by Sean Hollister on (#6EF6K)
The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 mouse. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge I called it the real magic mouse, but I can no longer look at my award-winning Logitech G502 Lightspeed quite the same way - because I've just been spoiled by a new mouse that's roughly half its weight.Logitech has just announced the G Pro X Superlight 2, the fastest and lightest mouse the company's ever made, and after spending a very long Labor Day weekend blasting baddies and clicking desktop files, I'm already finding it hard to go back. Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge It's not quite ambidextrous; you still only get your Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 buttons on the left. The $159 Superlight 2 weighs just 60 grams (2.1 ounces), down from the original 63-gram mouse and way lighter than my 114 gram G502... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EEYV)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft and Apple are reportedly pushing to keep Bing and iMessage, respectively, off a list of gatekeepers" subject to new European regulations. Financial Times reports that both companies are privately (and separately) arguing that their services aren't large or powerful enough to justify earning the restrictions of the Digital Markets Act, a rule designed to promote competition in tech.The European Commission is set to publish a list of designated gatekeepers on September 6th, naming overall companies as well as specific services they offer. These powerful platforms, defined based on their revenue and user numbers, will be required to meet a slew of interoperability and competition rules. Apple and Microsoft - along with Amazon,... Continue reading...
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by Adi Robertson on (#6EEVF)
Photo by Adi Robertson / The Verge A Korean news report suggests Meta is partnering with LG to release a successor to its high-end Quest Pro virtual reality headset in 2025. As spotted by UploadVR, Maeil Business Newspaper writes that Meta has struck a deal for a joint venture with LG. The resulting headset is rumored to be priced at around $2,000 and use LG displays, as well as other parts from LG subsidiaries like LG Innotek. Maeil Business Newspaper furthermore claims Meta will release a low-end Quest headset in 2024 that could cost under $200.Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge, and some of the details of the report seem unintuitive. $200 would be a major price drop for the consumer Quest; the Quest 2 sells for $299 after Meta... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6EEPH)
The SwitchBot S10 robot vacuum and mop costs $1,199.99 and comes with an auto-empty / charging dock plus a battery-powered water refill dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge After previewing its latest robotic invention earlier this month, SwitchBot officially launched the S10 robot vacuum and mop at IFA 2023 in Berlin last week. The $1,199.99 bot, coming to Kickstarter in October, features an automatic water refill station that does away with the bulky water tanks housed in giant auto-empty docks that have become the hallmark of top-of-the-line floor cleaners from Roborock, Ecovacs, etc.Unlike those models that clean and dry their dirty mops in a small sink" in the dock, the SwitchBot S10 has an internal roller brush mop that it cleans using a squeegee method as it vacuums. This means no standing water or scuzzy mop left to get smelly.VIDEO: My hands-on demo of the new SwitchBot 10 and its automatic... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6EEPJ)
The Digital Stage" stretches across the entire dashboard. | Image: Audi The Audi Q6 E-tron comes with not one, but three screens tacked on its dashboard. As you can see in the first images of the electric vehicle's interior, the three-screen setup - dubbed the Digital Stage"- stretches from the driver's side to the front passenger, with each display sporting different sizes and features.The driver gets two displays nestled within a free-standing hub that gently curves on both sides. While the 11.9-inch screen dedicated to the gauge cluster and other vehicle information sits directly in front of the driver, it connects to a 14.5-inch touch infotainment display that extends beyond the right side of the steering wheel. Audi says special ambient lighting" makes the setup appear to float" at night. ... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6EEKQ)
Though many of Godzilla's recent appearances in Western-produced projects have framed him as something of a misunderstood hero, Toho's upcoming Godzilla Minus One from writer / director Takashi Yamazaki is going to take the king of the monsters back to his roots as a horrific metaphor for nuclear devastation.Set in the immediate aftermath of World War II at a time when Japan had been left hobbled by the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Godzilla Minus One tells the story of how the country plunged even further into turmoil and chaos when the titular kaiju is awakened for the very first time. Between ongoing efforts to rebuild destroyed neighborhoods and tend to the countless people left injured by the war, resources are already... Continue reading...
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6EEGR)
Ambient noise podcasters can apparently still make cash through subscribers, lister support, and automated ads. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Spotify is pulling select advertising privileges for white noise podcasts - a type of ambient noise podcast that involves looping relaxing sounds like rain or static - in a bid to boost the audio streaming company's annual profits. As reported by Bloomberg, Spotify outlined changes to its Ambassador Ads program (which pays creators to read ads promoting Spotify content) in an email to creators on Friday, noting that white noise podcasters will no longer be eligible to participate starting October 1st.Spotify will no longer spend its marketing budget to support white-noise podcasters through ambassador ads, Bloomberg reports. However, such creators can still make money on the platform via paid subscribers, listener support, and automated... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6EEGS)
A Dolby graphic showing a TV connecting to two asymmetrical speakers. | Image: Dolby The best bit of attending Berlin's IFA trade show is when companies use it to offer an early look at tech that'll get a proper" launch later. That's what I experienced with a demonstration of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, a new technology to let you wirelessly connect compatible external speakers to your TV and create an Atmos-enabled spatial audio setup.The most interesting part of Dolby's pitch for the technology is that it's supposedly far more forgiving about where you can place these specialized external speakers. They don't need to be perfectly symmetrical, like the press shots show DTS's similar wireless Play-Fi Home Theater standard. With Atmos FlexConnect, the idea is you can place your external speakers anywhere in the room with... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6EEE4)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has started selling a new black version of the Xbox Series S with 1TB of built-in storage. The only changes over the original white Xbox Series S are a black paint job on the exterior and more storage inside. Priced at $349, it's still one of the most affordable ways to play Bethesda's new Starfield game, which launches on Xbox Series S / X and PC this week.The carbon black exterior now matches the larger Xbox Series X, with the $299 white Xbox Series S still available with its regular 512GB of storage. The increase to 1TB on this black model will allow you to install a modern Call of Duty game and not have to worry too much about how much storage is left over.You're essentially paying an extra $50 for 512GB of additional... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6EEBT)
Hopefully, it won't be too long before PC gamers can also give Torgal a well-deserved scratch. | Image: Square Enix The weekend bore some good news for PC gamers wanting to get in on the Playstation 5 exclusive Final Fantasy XVI JRPG. During the Voices From Valisthea" panel at PAX West on Sunday, Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida announced that a PC port is currently in development for the latest addition to the Final Fantasy video game franchise, alongside two paid DLC expansions.No details have been provided regarding a potential release date for the port or DLC, though at least one of the planned expansions will seemingly be set in Valisthea - the regional setting for Final Fantasy XVI. I hope to be able to give you more information on both the upcoming DLC and the PC version before the end of the year, so please stay tuned," said... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6EE42)
Flannery Associates, the company behind land grabs near San Francisco that turned out to be a secret plot to build a city with hundreds of millions in funding from wealthy tech leaders, has revealed a website for the planned city. California Forever is the name of Flannery's parent company, and its site is filled with sunny pictures of a walkable, green city by the bay.The text sets up what it says surveys tell it residents want - good local jobs, walkability, safety, etc. - then makes vague promises not to ruin nearby agriculture and to create solar farms. At the bottom, the site promises walkable neighborhoods and to help solve" infrastructure issues and protect and support" the nearby Travis Air Force base.Former Goldman Sachs... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6EE0X)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Senior YouTube staffers are reportedly worried that its TikTok competitor, Shorts, may eat away at its long-form content, which has for almost two decades been its primary bread and butter, according to The Financial Times. As FT points out, YouTube's ad revenue, though recently improved, had been on a downward year-over-year slide for three straight quarters.YouTube is still figuring out how to reap more ad money from Shorts. Its long-form content lets it show more ads per video, but as short-form content gradually takes over, content creators themselves are uploading fewer long videos, FT writes, citing YouTube staff fretting about internal figures.But whether YouTube's senior staffers like it or not, YouTube has to support Shorts... Continue reading...
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