 |
by Mia Sato on (#6E5KN)
Illustration by Haein Jeong / The Verge News publishers have jumped headfirst into artificial intelligence, using generative AI tools to produce bland travel guides, inaccurate film blogs, and SEO-bait explainers. By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers?Now, a group of tech outlets is attempting to incorporate generative AI into its websites, though readers won't find a machine's byline anytime soon. On August 1st, an AI chatbot tool was added to Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive, promising that readers can get [their] tech questions answered by AI, based only on stories and reviews by our experts."The AI chatbot, dubbed Smart Answers, appears across nearly all articles and on the homepages of the sites, which... Continue reading...
|
The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2025-11-06 02:47 |
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6E5KP)
AI hype or mobile reality? | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge I love a circus, and the Arm IPO is kinda looking like a P.T. Barnum production. As our ringmaster, we have SoftBank, the current majority owner of Arm. On the high wire, with no net, we have AI. Riding an elephant, we have mobile. And doing a contortion act, we have US-China relations.It's been a slow time for IPOs, and the tech industry's major silver lining is the AI boom. The bull case for Arm, the Cambridge, England-based company that designs chips, relies on its ability to move into the AI market. After all, in its current iteration, AI relies on massive data centers, stocked with state-of-the-art chips. But its most recent corporate filing raises some other concerns - and the question in my mind is what matters most to these... Continue reading...
 |
by Andrew Webster on (#6E5GW)
Image: Epic Games Out with the Wilds, in with the Last Resort. Fortnite's latest season kicks off today - bringing the battle royale game up to Chapter 4: Season 4 - and, as teased yesterday, this new drop comes with a heist theme. But not just any heist: this time around, the island has been given a handful of luxurious locations thanks to a new character.Here's the basic rundown of the changes and new lore (yes, Fortnite has lore):
|
by Allison Johnson on (#6E5GX)
Turning your cat photos into shareable stickers is a cinch in iOS 17. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Last year, iOS 16 gave us the ability to cut subjects out of our photos. It was fun! But it wasn't totally clear what you should do with them. That changes in iOS 17, which is still in public beta at the moment. You can download it now or wait until the full release this fall, but in either case, you'll find one excellent way to use your photo cutouts: turn them into stickers.I know. I was skeptical, too. But you have to trust me on this: stickers in iOS 17 are well worth your time, particularly in iMessage. You're going to thrill and impress all of your friends when you turn a grumpy picture of your cat into a tapback reaction, and everyone will want to know how you did it. You can tell em we told you, or just keep it to yourself and... Continue reading...
 |
by Makena Kelly on (#6E55D)
Donald Trump posted his first tweet after getting banned from the platform last year. | Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Donald Trump has made his return to X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.On Thursday, the former president turned himself in at the Fulton County jail on over a dozen charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Over the last five months, Trump has faced criminal charges in four separate cases, but the most recent booking was the first and only time his mugshot was taken. He took the opportunity to make his first post on X since January 8th, 2021. Image: Screenshot of Twitter / X The most recent two posts from @realDonaldTrump That was the day he was permanently banned from the platform by its former management, with the company citing a risk of further... Continue reading...
|
by Jay Peters on (#6E55E)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta's Messenger Lite app for Android is being shut down in September, as reported by 9to5Google. The app launched as a more, well, lightweight way to talk to people on the company's Messenger platform (former Verge staffer Vlad Savov was a fan), but you won't be able to use it after September 18th.When you open the app, you'll apparently see a prompt that pushes you toward the main Messenger app, 9to5Google says. The app also isn't available to download on Google Play if you haven't downloaded it before.Meta confirmed the closure in a statement to TechCrunch. Starting August 21, people using the Messenger Lite app for Android will be directed to Messenger or FB Lite to send and receive messages on Messenger," a Meta spokesperson... Continue reading...
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E537)
Illustration: The Verge Google is finally starting to add support for older Nest Cams to the Google Home app, starting with the first-generation Nest Cam Indoor from 2015, according to a post from Google on Thursday.The support is available in the public preview of the Google Home app, and you can find instructions on how to participate in that program on Google's website. But it might be awhile until you can actually use your Nest Cam Indoor with the app. Once you're in the preview, you'll see a prompt in the Public Preview version of the Home app when you're able to transfer your camera (it may take a couple of weeks as we slowly add more Nest Cam Indoor users each week) and it will guide you through the process," Google says in its post about the update.... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E538)
Illustration: The Verge Google is making some changes to ads transparency and its data that's available for researchers to comply with Europe's Digital Services Act, according to a blog post published Thursday.Regarding ads transparency, the company says that it will be expanding" its Ads Transparency Center to meet specific DSA provisions and providing additional information on targeting for ads served in the European Union," Google's Laurie Richardson and Jennifer Flannery O'Connor write in the post. The center, which Google launched earlier this year, is a searchable repository that lets you find out more about the ads you see on Google's platforms.For researchers, the two execs say that Google is expanding data access for researchers" who might be... Continue reading...
|
by Jay Peters on (#6E539)
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures Dune: Part Two has been delayed to March 15th, 2024, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and it's just one of a few big shifts in Warner Bros.' movie slate. The films are moving around amid the ongoing strikes in Hollywood that have affected production and promotion on many films and TV shows.Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has a new date, too, moving from March 15th to April 12th. The upcoming Lord of the Rings anime, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is shifting from April 12th to December 13th.However, three big Warner Bros. movies set to release in December are, so far, keeping their premiere dates, THR reports. Wonka is still set for December 15th, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is still set for December... Continue reading...
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E518)
Image: Walmart Wing, the drone delivery service owned by Alphabet, is teaming up with Walmart to offer deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In an announcement on Thursday, Walmart says the partnership will allow the retailer to deliver to an additional 60,000 homes.In the coming weeks, Wing will start delivering out of a Walmart Supercenter in Frisco, Texas, before expanding to a second nearby store by the end of this year. The company will make deliveries to homes within six miles of the stores, with deliveries arriving in under 30 minutes." Even though Wing says the drones are highly automated," operators will still keep an eye on them from a remote location.
|
by Victoria Song on (#6E519)
Citizen is temporarily suspending sales of its CZ Smart watch. | Image: Citizen Citizen is temporarily suspending sales of its second-gen CZ Smart watch due to a technical issue." The Wear OS watch, which launched in May, had a feature based on tech from IBM's Watson and NASA to track a person's alertness.It appears the decision stems from negative experiences from reviewers. Michael Fisher - better known as MrMobile on YouTube - noted that Citizen said it would suspend sales after he had reached out to the company about the watch's many issues. That was corroborated by a Wired story, in which reviewer Julian Chokkattu also detailed several bugs, like laggy screens, bad battery life, inaccurate tracking, and watchfaces that can't even tell the correct time.
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E4YJ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is getting closer to releasing a new settings homepage in Windows 11. In an update rolled out to Windows Insiders on the Beta Channel, Microsoft added a homepage with interactive cards" that let you quickly jump into various settings, such as device personalization, Bluetooth controls, account recovery, and more.The page will also surface recommended settings that change based on your specific usage patterns," giving you shortcuts to whatever settings you use the most, such as display, sound, and search permissions. You can see how all of this might look in the image embedded below. Image: Microsoft The new homepage also features recommended settings tailored to your activity. It looks like... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E4YK)
Imagine this but not outside. | Image: Google Google and Taito have added a new indoor mode" to their Space Invaders AR game, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. In this new mode for Space Invaders: World Defense, the game autopilots your ship through a pregenerated world so you can focus on using your thumb to shoot the aliens.The new indoor mode was kind of fun for the few minutes I messed around with it. The game has a charming wireframe-y vibe, and mashing the screen to blast the Space Invaders was satisfying. I'm not a huge fan of waving my phone around outside to play a game, so I appreciate that this indoor mode is an option.
|
 |
by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6E4YM)
Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa. | Image: Monarch Tractor Praveen Penmetsa is bringing the AI craze to farms. His company, Monarch Tractor, makes an electric tractor powered by an Nvidia AI platform that allows the vehicle to drive itself through farm fields and work autonomously. The first machines rolled out of the company's Livermore, California headquarters last year.Now, Monarch Tractor is scaling up production in partnership with a Foxconn plant in Ohio, and Penmetsa is coming to the Code Conference to talk about it. He'll chat with The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel about making AI accessible, building in the US, and broader concerns around tractor repairability as their technology becomes all the more advanced.Penmetsa joins a host of other tech and business leaders who'll be... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Justine Calma on (#6E4VB)
In an aerial view, burned cars and homes are seen in a surrounding that was destroyed by a wildfire on August 18th, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Tech giants have accumulated vast properties across Hawaii while Native Hawaiian residents fight to keep their land. It's a fight that's heating up in the aftermath of the deadly fires on Maui. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E4VC)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is testing a new YouTube feature that lets you hum or record a song to search for it.If you're part of the YouTube experiment for the feature, you can hum or record three or more seconds of a song so that Google can try to identify it, according to a support page. Once YouTube identifies the song, it will show you relevant content about that song. Basically, it's a Google-y take on Shazam, which is owned by Apple.Not everyone will have access to the experiment at first, though. Google says it's rolling out to a small percentage of people across the globe who watch YouTube on Android devices."This feature isn't entirely new for Google, as it introduced a hum-to-search feature in the Google app and Google Assistant in 2020.... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Victoria Song on (#6E4VD)
If your smartwatch is stinky, it's time to give it a quick clean. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When was the last time you cleaned your smartwatch? These are devices you wear 24/7, and if you took off your watch right now, there's a good chance you'd find dead skin, sweat, oil, and grime all over it. A gunky sensor array isn't the best for health tracking, and crusty charging contacts are also less than ideal. If you've experienced any skin irritation or smelled something funky - this may be why.Plus, I hate to break it to you, but your straps are also filthier than you think. A recent study found that nearly 95 percent of smartwatch wristbands contained high levels of bacteria, including Staphylococcus, E.coli, and Pseudomonas - particularly on porous materials like rubber, plastic, and fabric.The good news is that cleaning... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6E4QZ)
These are Meta's old Ray-Ban Stories - not the new ones. | Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge How will Meta convince you to buy its next Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses after a reported 90 percent of buyers abandoned them after purchase? Meta has a plan! The second-gen glasses will let you livestream video to viewers who can talk back to you.Tech journalist Janko Roettgers says he's seen internal documents that show the second-gen Ray-Ban Stories will not only let you stream video directly to Facebook and Instagram but also let viewers whisper in your ear.Live streamers will be able to directly communicate with their audience, with the glasses relaying comments via audio over the built-in headphones," Roettgers writes at Lowpass. The device should also have improved battery life and better cameras" - that's a quote from... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emilia David on (#6E4R0)
Illustration by William Joel Open-source AI model repository Hugging Face just got massive investments from Google, Amazon, Nvidia, and Salesforce as demand for AI model access grows.Hugging Face, which acts like GitHub for machine learning and other AI models, codes, and datasets, raised $235 million in a Series D fundraising round, reported CNBC. This latest financing brings Hugging Face's valuation to $4.5 billion, just one of the many businesses benefitting from investors' interest in generative AI.Investors in this round included Google, Amazon, AMD, Intel, IBM, Nvidia, and Salesforce, all of whom have invested significantly into generative AI foundation models or processors running these models.Clement Delangue, Hugging Face CEO, tells The Verge the new... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E4R1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is laying off a little under" 7 percent of its workforce, affecting about 5,000 roles at the company. The move will mostly impact workers in corporate, back-office, and technology roles, with those in retail or customer care positions remaining unaffected.Other carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, are contending with layoffs, but T-Mobile specifically promised to keep adding jobs following its merger with Sprint in 2020. Despite this commitment, the company laid off hundreds of workers shortly after, while a 2021 report from The Wall Street Journal found that T-Mobile employed 5,000 fewer people at the end of 2020 when compared to before it merged with Sprint.What it takes to attract and retain customers is materially more... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E4R2)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2020. | Image: Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel / Tribune News Service via Getty Images The US Department of Justice is suing Elon Musk's SpaceX over allegations that it discriminated against asylees and refugees in hiring. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the DOJ claims that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX discouraged refugees and asylees from applying to the company by wrongly stating that SpaceX can only hire U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents."The lawsuit states SpaceX failed to fairly consider" and refused to hire" the asylees and refugees who ended up applying anyway. It also alleges that SpaceX wrongly claimed" that the US's export control laws allowed it to only hire US citizens and lawful residents. Additionally, the DOJ claims SpaceX hired only" US citizens and green card holders... Continue reading...
|
by Ash Parrish on (#6E4R3)
Image: Larian Studios There's a big subset of gamers that have not yet been able to experience the chaotic joy of Baldur's Gate 3 - console players. While we know that BG3 is releasing on the PlayStation 5 on September 6th, Xbox players have had no idea when to expect the game to hit their console of choice.That situation got a little clearer with a tweet from Larian Studios' CEO Swen Vincke saying that Xbox players can expect Baldur's Gate 3 this year."
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E4R4)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Sony Interactive Entertainment, the division of Sony that's responsible for PlayStation, is acquiring the high-end headphones maker Audeze, according to a press release. Sony says that the acquisition will strengthen SIE's efforts to continue innovating when it comes to the audio experience of PlayStation games."Audeze will operate independently and still make products for multiple platforms, though Sony notes that it will be benefiting from being a part of the PlayStation ecosystem." Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.Sony's press release highlights how Audeze's headphones use patented technologies and unique planar magnetic drivers to deliver an outstanding sound experience" for consumers and recording professionals. Sony... Continue reading...
|
by Jay Peters on (#6E4R5)
Image: Epic Games It's that time again: Epic Games is launching another major season of Fortnite on Friday, and a day ahead of the start of the season, the company debuted a cinematic trailer that hints at some of what you can expect.A big feature of this season appears to be heists. The trailer shows a band of Fortnite characters sneaking into an elaborate building, disabling laser traps, and tossing a suitcase that turns into a gun. (Fortnite has done heists / secret agent themes before, and I'm curious what this new season will bring.) It also appears players will also have to contend with a vampire named Kado Thorne - hopefully he factors heavily into whatever Epic has up its sleeve for the next Fortnitemares event.The trailer gives a preview of... Continue reading...
 |
by Sheena Vasani on (#6E4M5)
The Beats Studio Pro look similar to their predecessor but sound and drown noise out better. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge It's not often you see significant discounts land on gadgets that were just released a month ago, which is why even we're taken aback by today's Beats Studio Pro deal. After a long six-year wait, a new pair of Apple-owned Beats headphones were finally released in July, and they're already a whopping $100 off at Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.The new over-ears look similar to their predecessor, the Studio 3, but are more comfortable with better noise cancellation and a natural-sounding transparency mode. They're also the first Apple headphones to support lossless audio over USB-C, which allows for improved sound quality, while new features like spatial audio with dynamic head tracking also help. Admittedly, their noise cancellation and... Continue reading...
|
by David Pierce on (#6E4M6)
Amazon's still showing a football game... but it has some ideas about what else it can do. | Image: Amazon This NFL season, if you watch a Thursday Night Football game on Amazon Prime Video, you're likely to see all sorts of new on-screen stuff. If a team finds itself in a late-game drive with everything on the line, you might see a graphic telling you whether the team should go for it on fourth down. When the quarterback snaps the ball, the broadcast might automatically highlight the most open receivers down the field. And as the team marches down the field, you might see lines on the field not just showing a kicker's field goal range but the exact spot from which he's more than 50 percent likely to nail the game-winner.For its second season as the official broadcast partner of Thursday Night Football, Amazon is leaning on AI tools and... Continue reading...
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6E4M7)
The jumbo-sized Ultra is the battery champ of the Apple Watch line, lasting up to two days with average use. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge We're inching closer to September's Apple event, and along with a rumored iPhone 15 lineup, we're likely to see a new Apple Watch. There are some rumors of a new model and color option for the Apple Watch Ultra, but we'll have to see if Apple's flagship smartwatch gets the annual upgrade cadence. In the meantime, the Apple Watch Ultra is nearing its one-year anniversary and is on sale for a sizable $100 off. You can get it with a green alpine loop strap or a yellow and beige trail loop strap for $699.99 when checking out at Amazon.The Apple Watch Ultra is built for the more hardcore outdoors and fitness crowds, with an extra-large 49mm display, battery life that can last up to two days (or more in low-power mode), and helpful extras... Continue reading...
by Tom Warren on (#6E4M8)
Image: Bungie Destiny 2: Lightfall was unusual for Bungie. The now Sony-owned studio hyped up Lightfall as the beginning stages of the biggest light vs. darkness battle we've ever seen. The battle begins here and now," said Commander Zavala in an epic launch trailer. The in-game reality felt, for many, like the story writing was lackluster. Even six months on, Lightfall has mostly negative reviews on Steam, a sign that fans were expecting more.There's now a lot riding on The Final Shape, the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion that's set to conclude the light and darkness saga of Destiny in February - a story that's been told for nearly 10 years now. But with unease in the Destiny community, how is The Final Shape going to draw unhappy or lapsed players... Continue reading...
 |
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6E4M9)
The fourth generation of Blink's wireless outdoor camera adds person detection. | Image: Blink Amazon's budget smart camera company Blink is bringing person detection to its flagship battery-powered camera. The Blink Outdoor 4 smart security camera also comes with a new design, upgraded image quality, and improved motion detection, while keeping the brand's signature two-year battery life on just two AA batteries.The camera launches today, August 24th, priced at $119.99 for a one-camera system with a Sync Module 2, and $109.99 for an add-on camera. (The cameras require the module.)Person detection on a security camera is helpful to reduce unwanted alerts by providing the option to be notified only if someone is outside your property, not just something like a cat walking past or a tree blowing in the wind.Blink's is powered... Continue reading...
|
by Emilia David on (#6E4GG)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta has released a tool called Code Llama, built on top of its Llama 2 large language model, to generate new code and debug human-written work, the company said.Code Llama will use the same community license as Llama 2 and is free for research and commercial use.Code Llama, Meta said, can create strings of code from prompts or complete and debug code when pointed to a specific code string. In addition to the base Code Llama model, Meta released a Python-specialized version called Code Llama-Python and another version called Code Llama-Instrct, which can understand instructions in natural language. According to Meta, each specific version of Code Llama is not interchangeable, and the company does not recommend the base Code Llama or... Continue reading...
by Umar Shakir on (#6E4GH)
Platinum Black Ford F-150 Lightning with a smoked light bar and matte black finish. Ford's making a special new factory matte black Platinum Black edition of its all-electric F-150 Lightning truck. Revealed today, this Lightning looks like Batman's Tumbler Batmobile from The Dark Knight trilogy, with some glossy finish remaining on the door handles, roof, and elsewhere. Ford spokesperson Susannah Evans tells The Verge that under the factory wrap, the vehicle is finished with Ford's glossy agate black paint.Ford will only make 2,000 of these murdered-out pickups that start at $97,995, which is about $6,000 more than the regular Platinum tier and roughly the same as the price before Ford dropped prices on the truck in July.In today's announcement, Ford says that midway through the second year of production, it is on... Continue reading...
 |
by Chris Welch on (#6E4GJ)
Illustration: The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery's Max service is making a bigger push into news with a new 24/7 CNN stream that's scheduled to debut on September 27th. It's called CNN Max, and in a press release this morning, the company said the new service will be part of an open beta for news that will enable experimentation with product features, content offerings, and original storytelling, all with the input and feedback from the Max community."CNN Max will be available across all of Max's subscription tiers. But you shouldn't confuse it with CNN's linear cable network; this isn't quite that. You'll see many familiar faces; Max says CNN Max will feature some of CNN's tentpole shows like Anderson Cooper 360, The Lead with Jake Tapper, Amanpour, and The... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6E4DT)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Intel is getting ready to launch its 14th Gen desktop processors later this year and now MSI has accidentally spilled all the details. VideoCardz spotted a training video on MSI's YouTube channel that includes important details on Intel's unannounced 14th Gen processors, codenamed Raptor Lake-S Refresh. MSI says on average Intel's 14th Gen processors will be three percent faster than the 13th Gen, but the Core i7 will see a big 17 percent bump to multithread workloads.The video, which The Verge was able to briefly watch before it was made private, reveals that the core counts of the Core i5-14600K and Core i9-14900K will remain the same as their 13th Gen equivalents, but the Core i7-14700K is getting a boost to its performance cores.... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6E4DV)
Several users have been contacted by scammers using the identify of real Waymo employees. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Several users of Adobe's art-themed social media platform Behance have encountered an elaborate scam in recent weeks involving fraudulent job offerings from people claiming to be recruiters at autonomous driving tech company Waymo.Detailed information about how the job scam is being operated was published by u/Impressive-Fox-6719 on the Behance subreddit, warning other Behance users to be wary of fake Waymo recruiters offering high-paying design roles. According to the post, the scam is a common fraud scheme that involves sending users a fake job confirmation following an interview" on Skype, and a cheque to begin purchasing office equipment. After confirming the deposit to the scammers, the money is then instead sent to another person... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jon Porter on (#6E4BB)
Renders from the Android app show a camera with a similar design to that seen in the FCC listing. | Image: Philips Hue via Dave Zatz First came a report from a reputable blog, then came a series of blurry images via the FCC, and now The Verge can exclusively reveal renders of Philips Hue's forthcoming entry into the smart home security market. The images come to us via Dave Zatz of ZatzNotFunny, who spotted them in an update to Philips Hue's Android app released this week, and suggest that the smart lighting company is set to imminently announce its entry into the smart home security market.The images show one Nest-style smart home security camera of a total of four that the company is rumored to be preparing for release, and its design matches up with photos that leaked via the FCC earlier this week. Alongside the images of the camera, there's a render of what... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Tom Warren on (#6E4BC)
Microsoft says it's investigating reports of a Blue Screen of Death with an UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR" error message that's been cropping up on some Windows 11 PCs after installing an update released earlier this week. The latest KB5029351 update includes the usual monthly fixes, but it appears to be causing issues when used with some MSI motherboards.We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft. We will provide an update when more information is available," reads a support note on Microsoft's Windows health center.I've personally experienced this issue on a Windows 11 gaming PC, which is running an Intel Core i9-13900KS on an MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi motherboard. A number of Reddit users have... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E40Q)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Gmail may add an extra verification step when you try to do things like adding a forwarding address and editing your filters, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The extra step could help prevent a bad actor who has access to your account from filtering emails in ways you don't expect or forwarding emails to a new address without you knowing.Here are the specific scenarios where Google may add the additional step, from Google's post:
|
|
by Emma Roth on (#6E40R)
Illustration: The Verge Following reports that Google gave up on its Project Iris AR glasses in June, a new report from Insider suggests that the company's plan to launch a mixed reality headset with Samsung is also facing setbacks.The rumored device, which is apparently called Project Moohan internally, is supposed to offer a mixed reality experience powered by the Android platform. It has reportedly been in the works since at least last year, tracking with the vague announcement Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm made earlier this year about creating a mixed reality platform.But Project Moohan has become a political headache" at Google. Sources tell Insider that the partnership makes it more likely for Samsung to call the shots on product features" and that it... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E3YD)
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge A test version of Google Chrome on iOS now lets you put the address bar on the bottom of the screen, as spotted by MacRumors contributor Steve Moser. It's a nice change that lets you move the address bar closer to your thumb - though notably, it comes two years after Apple moved the URL bar to the bottom of Safari by default with iOS 15. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge The new Chrome feature was available for me through the version of the app you can get via TestFlight. There are two ways to change the location of the address bar. The easiest is pressing and holding on the bar, which brings up an option to switch its position. You can also change the bar's location from Chrome's settings. (A colleague in the UK... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E3YE)
Illustration: The Verge In a major reversal, Apple is now expressing support for a right-to-repair bill in California, as reported by TechCrunch and iFixit. In a letter to California Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, Apple says it endorses the SB 244 bill, which requires manufacturers to give customers and independent repair shops the appropriate tools, manuals, and parts to repair damaged electronics and appliances.Apple supports California's Right to Repair Act so all Californians have even greater access to repairs while also protecting their safety, security, and privacy," Apple said in a statement to The Verge. We create our products to last and, if they ever need to be repaired, Apple customers have a growing range of safe, high-quality repair options."... Continue reading...
|
by Sean Hollister on (#6E3YF)
Images: GuliKit GuliKit, the company whose patented Hall effect joysticks are sweeping the industry with both aftermarket gamepads and drop-in replacements for your Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, is now putting Nintendo and Microsoft on notice in a very different way.I don't know how else to say this: the company's new docking station looks like a Super Nintendo, and its new controller looks like an Xbox Elite. Thankfully, that means they both look great!
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E3VT)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Wednesday, Reddit was acting up again. Some of us at The Verge ran into some issues browsing the site, including threads with blank comments and some pages with a 504 Gateway Timeout" message.The key issue seemed to be that comments weren't loading when you were browsing Reddit's website when not logged in. In an Incognito Chrome window on desktop, I could see that people posted comments but couldn't actually see what they wrote. At the bottom of the screen, Reddit's website showed messages that said, We had a server error..." I saw this issue when logged out on Reddit's mobile website as well. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Before I originally published this story, I occasionally ran into the 504 errors... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6E3YG)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Roughly three months after joining Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft among the world's trillion-dollar companies - on the back of the AI boom - Nvidia is now making far more money than it's ever made before.The company raked in $13.5 billion in revenue since May, it revealed in its Q2 2024 earnings, with the unprecedented demand for its generative AI chips blowing past any difficulty it might have had selling desktop and laptop GPUs into a shrinking PC industry. Data center accounted for a record $10.32 billion of that revenue, more than doubling in just one quarter, and Nvidia made $6.188 billion in profit as a result - up 843 percent year over year. And while gaming is more than a billion dollars short of pandemic highs, it was... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#55E2R)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Not that long ago, a friend sent me a preview of a book that she was about to have published and asked me to read it. I was delighted - but unfortunately, the copy she sent was formatted as a PDF. And since I usually read books and other documents using my phone, I knew already that this was a recipe for eyestrain.I spent a frustrating three days squinting at my screen until somebody reminded me that you can email a PDF to your Amazon account in a way that will convert the file so that it is formatted for easy reading on a Kindle or the Kindle app. I tried it, and it worked like a charm, making the document much easier to read.If you ever find yourself faced with the same problem, here's how to convert a PDF so it can be easily read... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Victoria Song on (#6E3VV)
Both studies show that it's possible to decode brain signals into speech at a rate of about 60-70 words per minute. | Image: Stanford Two separate studies published today in Nature indicate that, in the future, brain-to-computer interfaces (BCI) could help restore communication for people who can't speak due to severe paralysis. In both studies, researchers used brain implants that could pick up brain signals, which were then translated into sentences on a screen using algorithms. While this isn't a new concept, the exciting thing is that both research teams were able to do this much faster and more accurately than existing technologies.In the study from Stanford, researchers implanted electrodes into the brain of a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in two areas associated with speech. The BCI was designed to detect brain activity when the patient was... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Monica Chin on (#5P2VA)
Here are the best cheap Chromebooks and laptops you can buy. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales You can get a good laptop on a budget; you just have to know which one to pick. Here are what we recommend for those looking to spend anywhere from $300 to $800 on a new laptop for school, work, or play. Continue reading...
|
 |
by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6E3RE)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Tornado Cash developers Roman Semenov and Roman Storm have been charged with three conspiracy counts in an indictment unsealed today. Storm has been arrested and Semenov remains at large, according to a statement from the Southern District of New York.Tornado Cash is a so-called mixer," a privacy service meant to obscure the trail of ownership for cryptocurrency that passes through it. The mixer knowingly violated" US sanctions and laundered more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds," according to a statement from US Attorney Damian Williams. While publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew that they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes."T... Continue reading...
|
by Ash Parrish on (#6E3RF)
Image: BioWare BioWare is laying off approximately" 50 people, according to an announcement from the studio's general manager, Gary McKay.In order to meet the needs of our upcoming projects, continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard of quality, and ensure BioWare can continue to thrive in an industry that's rapidly evolving, we must shift towards a more agile and more focused studio," McKay wrote. As part of this transition, we are eliminating approximately 50 roles at BioWare."News of the layoffs comes as BioWare is in the midst of development on the next Mass Effect title and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. BioWare announced Dreadwolf back in 2018 (known then only as Dragon Age 4) before going silent for two years. Then, during Gamescom 2020, B... Continue reading...
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E3RG)
Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images Hollywood producers are trying to turn up the pressure on striking writers - but writers aren't biting. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) publicly released its counteroffer to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on Tuesday, which details proposals surrounding AI, residuals, streaming data transparency, and more.This is the same counteroffer that the Hollywood studios first presented to writers on August 11th, with the AMPTP claiming it addresses all of the issues the Guild has identified as its highest priorities." As outlined in the document, the AMPTP proposes higher wages and streaming residuals, along with a requirement of at least two employees in the writers' room and a guaranteed minimum of 10 weeks... Continue reading...
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E3RH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games will let developers keep 100 percent of their net revenues from the Epic Games Store for six months if they choose to make their games or apps exclusives for that time through its new First Run program, the company announced on Wednesday.Typically, Epic lets developers keep 88 percent of their revenues, with the company taking a 12 percent cut. For developers who launch a product through First Run, the split will return to 88 / 12 once the six months are up.Developers who choose to participate in the Epic First Run program will see a few other benefits as well. Epic says First Run games and apps will be presented to Store users with new exclusive badging, homepage placements, and dedicated collections" and will be featured... Continue reading...
|