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by David Pierce on (#6DT1S)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi friends! Welcome to the first-ever edition of Installer. My hope here every week is to be your guide to all the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. My original pitch for this was just what if we just found all the cool apps/videos/creators/whatevers every week and put it all in one place," and that's what Installer is here to be.Normally, these won't start with a long preamble about How It All Works, but seeing as we've never done this before, I'll try and explain things as we go. First and most important: Installer absolutely positively does not work without you. I'm going to do my best to find great new stuff every week, but I'm also hoping you'll tag me in funny posts, DM me hilarious memes, and email me (i... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-11-06 06:03 |
by Richard Lawler on (#6DSNZ)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Some iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro owners have complaints reminiscent of the bad old days of batterygate," reporting that with less than a year of service on the clock, their phones are already reporting more battery degradation than expected. Sam Kohl of AppleTrack tweeted in July that his iPhone 14 Pro had already dropped to a maximum capacity of 90 percent, a much faster dropoff than previous iPhones he'd owned, and the thread shows many other people with the same experience.Kohl followed up with a video posted yesterday about the issue, saying it makes it hard for him to recommend the phone, especially considering how much it costs with a price of $999.
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by Brandon Widder on (#6DSGC)
The Roomba j7 Plus offers everything you could want in a robovac, including an auto-empty dock. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge There's a reason people still often refer to robot vacuums as Roombas." The company behind the well-known robovac series, iRobot, has spent decades iterating in the space, resulting in some of the best robot vacuums you can buy. The Roomba j7 Plus is a great example, one that's on sale at Wellbots for Verge readers for $549 ($250 off) - its lowest price to date - with coupon code VERGE200.While still pricey, the j7 Plus brings together a host of terrific features for under $550. Its dual rubber roller brush system is great at picking up dirt off your floor, while its intuitive AI obstacle avoidance ensures it will steer clear of cables, stray pairs of shoes, and even pet waste. It's also known to receive new features - a recent update... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6DSGD)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Today's kids are tech-savvy at a very young age, but you might not want your children sitting down in front of a PS5 without some guardrails in place. Sony has built parental controls right into the software for its console, and they can be used in combination with the user profiles feature to put limits on what your kids are able to do.These limits cover everything from the number of hours your kid can spend gaming to how much they can spend on in-game purchases, and it all ties into the accounts you've got configured on your console. The bulk of these parental controls can be managed on the web as well as on the PS5, though new child accounts must be created on the web.Family management on the webFirst of all, you need to tell Sony... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DSEG)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Three years ago, video chat appeared set to revolutionize the way we work. All we actually got was slightly better video chat.Video-first communication obviously became much more important to many with the covid pandemic. With people suddenly forced to use video chat for work, school, and even to visit with their families, there was a rush of interest in apps and platforms that promised to make the concept of sitting in front of a webcam a bit more exciting.Remember when video chat apps were everywhere?Lots of companies rolled out ways to watch videos together. Meta rolled out 50-person Messenger Rooms. Video messaging apps Houseparty and Marco Polo blew up. Hopin tried to make virtual events feel more like an in-person conference. M... Continue reading...
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6DSEF)
This $400 kitchen bin eats your leftovers and promises to turn them into chicken food rather than landfill. A nicer-smelling kitchen and less waste are great, but not at this price. Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6DS09)
Image: BwE (X) Sony has been rumored to be working on a revision of the PlayStation 5, often referred to as the PS5 Slim, that includes a removable disc drive. Now images and a video have leaked of a PS5 model that looks slimmer and slightly shorter, and may well have a removable disc drive.The first image leaked of the rumored PS5 Slim in a Chinese forum earlier today, and now a leaked video provides a better look at this rumored device. The video, from Better Way Electronics, an Australian PlayStation repair specialist, shows off the plastic case of a potential future model of the PS5. It has a bulge for the disc drive, a curve in the middle with a smaller space for vents, two slits on each side of the case, and dual USB-C ports on the front instead... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DS0A)
The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Threads that he's ready to fight" X owner Elon Musk but not to believe that there's a scheduled date until he confirms it.Musk claimed Friday morning that the fight would be livestreamed on X and Meta," and that everything you'd see on camera will be ancient Rome." Italy's culture minister promptly indicated in a statement that the planning isn't as far along as Musk suggests, nor will any event actually be held in Rome. Now Zuckerberg is indicating that the rest of the details are a surprise to him, too.I love this sport and I've been ready to fight since the day Elon challenged me," Zuckerberg said. If he ever agrees on an actual date, you'll hear it from me. Until then, please assume anything he... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6DS0B)
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been on house arrest in California since December while awaiting trial on fraud and money laundering charges over the crypto exchange's collapse, but today he was sent to jail, as first reported by Inner City Press.Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the former billionaire remanded after prosecutors pushed to have his bail revoked, citing violations that included Bankman-Fried's admitted usage of VPN software that he said was to watch an NFL game and the judge's view that he had attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice."Docket entry from Friday's Bond Revocation Hearing:
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by Sean Hollister on (#6DRX0)
Image: HP Were you hoping Canon might be held accountable for its all-in-one printers that mysteriously can't scan when they're low on ink, forcing you to buy more? Tough: the lawsuit we told you about last year quietly ended in a private settlement rather than becoming a big class-action.I just checked, and a judge already dismissed David Leacraft's lawsuit in November, without Canon ever being forced to show what happens when you try to scan without a full ink cartridge. (Numerous Canon customer support reps wrote that it simply doesn't work.)Here's the good news: HP, an even larger and more shameless manufacturer of printers, is still possibly facing down a class-action suit for the same practice.As Reuters reports, a judge has refused... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6DRX1)
Hugo Herrera / The Verge Last night, when I was settling up at the dive bar, I began thinking once again about the tradeoffs of technology. I was thinking about it because I paid in cash.Post-pandemic, it seems that more people than ever are using credit cards for payments; they are now the vast majority of transactions, according to a report from Capital One. Not that my life is representative - I am a freak - but this bears out among my friends as well. I am frequently the only person carrying cash.Some of this is just that I like cash; it inherently makes it easier for me to budget because I can't spend money I don't have. I also enjoy that it doesn't sign me up for stores' email lists. And - I did tell you I was a freak, didn't I? - there is very little in... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6DRX2)
Microsoft is bringing generative AI to frontline field workers by integrating its Copilot AI assistant into its field services platform, streamlining workflows but also enabling supervisors to know what technicians are doing on the job.Copilot, first introduced in March, is already on Microsoft 365 enterprise platforms and was first used by desk-bound employees who wanted AI to generate text for PowerPoint presentations. (It's distinct from the Github service of the same name.) Now, Copilot will be added to the Dynamics 365 service used by field workers like cable technicians and electric repair personnel, among a swathe of other jobs in facilities, manufacturing, and healthcare.With Copilot, service requests sent via Outlook will... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6DRX3)
The-long standing iTunes Movie Trailer app with an ominous banner on top. | Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Apple's classic iTunes Movie Trailers app for iOS is miraculously still around, but MacRumors reports that it won't be for much longer. The more-than-decade-old app that lets people watch film trailers and previews and get movie theater showtimes will soon wind down. But Apple won't be getting out of the trailer screening business. Instead, based on a new banner appearing on the top of the Trailers app, it appears the trailers will end up in the Apple TV app.Apple TV app is the new home of iTunes Movie Trailers," reads the banner on the top of the aging Movie Trailers app. The same banner message also exists on the top of the classic iTunes Movie Trailers website, which is still live and retains a blast-from-the-past circa-2009 Apple... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6DRX4)
Despite the push toward advanced heart health features, a pair of Yale studies finds those most at risk of cardiovascular disease aren't using tech to improve their health. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There's no shortage of apps and wearables that aim to help people improve heart health. However, a pair of recent Yale studies find that those with the highest risk of heart disease are less likely to use this type of technology - even as tech companies add more heart health features to their devices.In these paired studies, we found that individuals at highest cardiovascular risk were least likely to use wearable devices, such as smartwatches, or use technology on their phones to track and improve their health," Rohan Kera, a senior author on the study and assistant professor of medicine and at Yale School of Medicine, said in a statement.Published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology: Advances, one study on health apps... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6DRX5)
Image: The Verge We've already seen the design thanks to leaked renders and marketing images, so how about the next best thing to having them on your own head? The Verge has obtained numerous real-world photos of Bose's upcoming headphones, the QuietComfort Ultras. They look quite sleek and combine design elements from the company's recent models with a more premium overall style.The photos confirm that these headphones will be able to fold down (unlike the Noise Canceling Headphones 700) and they'll include a new capacitive volume slider in addition to the other physical buttons. That's the thin line protruding out from the side of one of the ear cups.On the Noise Canceling Headphones 700, you had to swipe your finger up or down the right ear cup for... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6DRT6)
Image: Larian Studios Today, Larian Studios shared a ton of interesting player stats for Baldur's Gate 3, the seriously massive RPG boasting over 10,000 unique endings and 174 hours worth of cutscenes. Those stats included class / race breakdowns, total number of hours played, and how many times players have pet the dog. Let's take a look at what y'all were getting up to.Slight spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 to follow.According to Larian, the most popular race is half-elf aka spicy human" and the most popular class is paladin. More interestingly, players have spent a combined total of 88 years in the character creator. That's a lot of time, so I have hope that players are making more than just a basic human like most did during the early part of Early Access.... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DRT7)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom has updated its terms of service and reworded a blog post explaining recent terms of service changes referencing its generative AI tools. The company now explicitly states that communications-like" customer data isn't being used to train artificial intelligence models for Zoom or third parties. What is covered by communications-like? Basically, the content of your videoconferencing on Zoom.Here's the key passage from the newly-revised terms:
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by Dane McMillan on (#6DRQ5)
Every weekend, The Verge's editor-at-large will tell you about the best and Verge-iest stuff you should know about Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6DRQ6)
Image: Poncle Keeping up on the latest news, updates, and musings on this juggernaut of an indie game. Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6DRQ7)
Image: Rockstar Games Rockstar Games is working with a popular mod developer team to bring in official support for roleplay servers to the company's games. Announced today, Rockstar says it's partnering with the Cfx.re team," the creator of the FiveM and RedM modding tools that lets players make and play through entirely custom experiences in games like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2.The status of the arrangement isn't entirely clear, even though Rockstar stated in the release that Cfx.re is now officially a part of Rockstar Games," without going into detail about how that's happening.
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by Justine Calma on (#6DRQ8)
An aerial image taken on August 10th, 2023, shows destroyed homes and buildings on the waterfront burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. | Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images Maui faces a long road to recovery from the devastating blazes this week - Hawaii's deadliest natural disaster since 1960. At least 55 people have died. Lahaina, the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom for a time before the US annexed the islands in 1898, is still smoldering.Fire experts in Hawaii knew the land was primed to burn. It hasn't always been that way; fire risk arrived on the islands relatively recently in Hawaii's history. That risk is growing, but there's a lot that communities can do to adapt.To understand how fire came to be a looming threat in Hawaii and what to do about it, The Verge spoke with Elizabeth Pickett, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization. The nonprofit organization works with... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6DRQ9)
These are the best prices yet on the M2 Pro MacBook Pro. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you're in need of a speedy laptop that can handle some extensive creative workflows with long battery life, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything better than Apple's latest crop of MacBook Pros. And with the base-model 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro processor now selling for $1,749 ($250 off) at Amazon, you won't find a better deal than this right now. But if 512GB isn't enough storage, the 1TB configuration is also on sale for its own all-time low of $2,199 ($300 off) at both Amazon and B&H Photo.The 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro looks just like the redesigned model that came before it in 2021 - which is totally fine since that was an excellent return to form for Apple's Pro laptops. It's got the same MagSafe charger, three Thunderbolt... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6DRQA)
Image: MySmartPrice Bose is nearing the announcement of its latest flagship headphones and earbuds, according to leaked images published by MySmartPrice. Both products will reportedly be branded under a new QuietComfort Ultra" name when they ship in the coming months. The QuietComfort Ultra headphones look like a mashup of the Noise Canceling Headphones 700 and QuietComfort 45; they lean more heavily on the latter's overall design, but you can see some premium upgrades to the headband and ear pads.The $400 Noise Canceling Headphones 700 were announced back in 2019. Technically, they're still the company's top-of-the-line product, so the timing is about right for a sequel. But the fact that Bose came back two years later and announced the QuietComfort 45... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6DRKN)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images This story originally ran in Hot Pod Insider, a newsletter from The Verge on podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here.American Public Media and Audacy's Cadence13 will exit a multiyear advertising partnership at the end of August - roughly a year before its intended end date, Hot Pod has learned from APM. Neither company has disclosed the exact reasons for the contract's termination or its timing, though APM cited changing market dynamics" and Audacy referred to the deal as onerous." The public radio broadcaster will take ad sales and brand partnerships for its podcasts in-house as a result.Given the changing market dynamics, APMG, Audacy and Cadence13 have mutually decided to end their partnership, effective August 31st,... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6DRE6)
There's no word yet on when the new feature will start rolling out. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is reportedly planning to introduce a new Android feature that will let users link their various Android devices together, similar to Continuity features across the Apple ecosystem. Android expert Mishaal Rahman posted about the potential feature, noting that it could allow Android devices that are signed into the same Google account to communicate with each other.This could enable features like Call Switching," which allows users to jump between connected devices during calls, and Internet Sharing," which Android Authority speculates could be an easier way to quickly set up a personal hotspot across the linked devices. Apple has a similar call-switching feature called iPhone Mobile Calls" that allows users to make and... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6DRE7)
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Microsoft has shut down its Cortana app for Windows 11. A new update is rolling out for Cortana that simply disables the digital assistant three years after Microsoft also discontinued its Cortana apps for iOS and Android.If you attempt to launch Cortana on Windows 11 you'll now be met with a notice about how the app is deprecated and a link to a support article on the change. Microsoft is now planning to end support for Cortana in Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams Display, and Microsoft Teams Rooms in the fall of 2023." Surprisingly, Cortana inside Outlook mobile will continue to be available," according to Microsoft. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge Cortana has been discontinued in Windows 11. Cortana... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6DRBR)
Circling! Underlining! And more! | Image: Google Google is adding a new annotation feature to its Slides presentation software that'll let users doodle on their work while presenting it. The search giant hopes that having the ability to circle, underline, draw connections or make quick notes" will make for presentations that are more engaging, interactive and impactful."While Microsoft PowerPoint users have long had the ability to doodle on their decks, Google Slides users haven't been so lucky. In response, people have developed workarounds like using Chrome extensions like Annotate and Web Paint to draw over their browser while presenting. Needless to say, having the feature natively built into Slides should be much simpler.Releasing for everyone in the coming weeksAccording... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DQBC)
EMBARGOED until February 1st 2023 at 1PM ET | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge After a brief delay, Samsung has announced the launch of its beta program for One UI 6, its version of Android that's based on this year's Android 14 release. Key features for this next revision are a simplified design and more customization options.On the design front, many elements have been tweaked to create a more modern look and feel," according to a press release from Samsung. That includes a new default font and new emoji you can use from the Samsung Keyboard. The company has also updated the look of the Quick Panel so that you can more easily get to commonly-used features. Image: Samsung Two screenshots showing what you can expect in Samsung's One UI 6. As for customization, One UI 6 will let you... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6DR7X)
The Verge The Twitter Blue - pardon me - X Premium Ads Revenue Sharing payouts that were supposed to roll out last week have been delivered, as the @Support account posted the news Monday night. Asked about the delay, X employee Eric Farraro said the late Friday announcement of a delay came only once the company was sure payments would not go out.As for future rounds, he wrote, We've done payouts to a much smaller number of creators before, but scaling to thousands of creators adds new challenges in terms of engineering, operations, and support. Having completed the initial wave of payouts yesterday, repeating that process is an easier task."We've seen some of the emails sent to participants in the program, and while the payments showed up,... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6DR7Y)
Image: Instagram A new Instagram feature allows users to add music to their grid posts - and Olivia Rodrigo is the first person to do it.The feature was introduced today by Rodrigo, who used it to unveil her new song, bad idea right?" Instagram users can attach a song of their choice to soundtrack a carousel post with multiple photos, similar to how tracks can be added to Stories or Reels. The feature appears to be in the process of rolling out to users.
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6DR52)
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Waymo and Cruise were approved to operate their paid robotaxi services 24/7 in San Francisco after a contentious six-hour public hearing in which residents voiced their support and opposition to the vehicles. It's a big win for autonomous vehicle operators, who have spent tens of billions on the technology with very little return.The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted 3-to-1 in favor of allowing the two companies to operate their vehicles at any hour of the day throughout the city of San Francisco while charging for rides.Today is the first of many steps in bringing AV transportation services to Californians," CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said at the end of the hearing. (Reynolds, a former general counsel at... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6DR0Z)
LG's 27-inch OLED monitor. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge OLED might be the future of monitors, but first, they need to finish addressing burn-in fears. In my recent review of LG's 27-inch OLED desktop gaming monitor, I wrote how the company's warranty explicitly excludes burned-in images resulting from improper usage." And when I reached out to clarify, I couldn't get a straight answer about burn-in coverage from the company.But after four months of conversations with The Verge, LG Electronics has changed that warranty. LG now has a two-year burn-in warranty for its OLED gaming monitor in the US, Christopher De Maria, LG's head of consumer PR for North America, tells The Verge.The new warranty, which De Maria says also applies retroactively to any LG 27GR95QE-B monitors that have already... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DR10)
Image: Square Enix Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, a new game in the FFVII universe, will be released on iOS and Android on September 7th. The game brings together moments from other FFVII titles, adds some new ones, and will let you experience the journey of a young hero Sephiroth." You can preorder it on the App Store and preregister for it on Google Play right now ahead of the official launch.Ever Crisis' art style takes inspiration from the original PlayStation release's blocky characters but updates it so that Cloud actually has hands. I think it looks quite charming, and it's one of the reasons I want to play the game for myself.
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by Victoria Song on (#6DR11)
It's less violently green in person, but what I appreciated was how it changes up the feel of the watch without me having to do anything. | Image: Nomad It's no surprise that most fitness trackers have swappable straps these days. Watches - smart or otherwise - are a fashion statement, people have different needs from their wearables, and everybody's skin reacts differently to certain materials. But after trying out Nomad's new glow-in-the-dark Apple Watch strap and Samsung's hybrid eco-leather strap this week, I find myself yearning for straps that serve multiple purposes.Nomad's strap launched earlier this week, and it's as straightforward as you can get. It's the definition of business during the day, party at night. In normal lighting, all you see is a normal cream-colored strap. In the dark, it turns day-glo green. I'll admit it's not the most practical strap - it's a subtler glow... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6DR12)
Image: Daniela Vladimirova / Flickr Aug X released Augie, an AI-powered video creation platform incorporating a voice cloning feature to read ad copy without booking a recording studio.Partnering with ElevenLabs, Aug X lets users record their or someone else's voice and clone it to use for other short videos. The Augie platform, aimed primarily toward marketers and social media teams, lets people quickly add narration, photos, text, and music to videos without needing to learn audio and video editing.Jeremy Toeman, founder of Aug X, said the company wanted to add a voice cloning feature after realizing some people do not like speaking into a microphone or recording voice-overs.You'd be surprised at the number of people who've used our voice cloning feature that came... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DR13)
Image: Roblox Roblox has created a virtual career center inside Roblox where people can learn more about the metaverse platform, prepare for interviews at the company, and attend events hosted by Roblox itself, according to a blog post. In the future, some initial interviews will even happen directly in the experience, Roblox says.You can get an idea of what it looks like in this video, which I've also embedded at the top of the post. You'll see what it's like to work here and how you can join us in shaping the future of human connection and communication," says a voiceover in the clip. In the experience, you can go to places like a lobby (with plaques featuring the company's values), a library, an auditorium, a boba cafe, and more.I briefly... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6DR14)
Image: Wisk.aero Wisk and Archer, two leading air taxi startups, have settled their legal dispute over allegations of stolen trade secrets, avoiding a jury trial that would have cast a negative light on the emerging aviation technology sector.Wisk, a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing, sued Archer in 2021 for allegedly stealing its trade secrets and infringing on its patents. A judge sent the lawsuit to trial in June, but now, the two sides have settled the dispute.Wisk said it will become the exclusive provider of autonomous flying technology to Archer, should Archer decide to pursue a self-flying aircraft. Boeing will invest in the private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing that Archer released today as part of its second quarter earnings... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DR15)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is slashing the number of in-house brands it offers on its marketplace. The retail giant plans on cutting 27 of its 30 private-label clothing brands as it looks to cut costs and stave off antitrust scrutiny, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.Over the years, Amazon has created dozens of private-label brands across a variety of departments, most of which operate without Amazon branding, such as Solimo, Wag, and Mama Bear. However, this cutback will leave Amazon with just three in-house clothing brands: Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection, and Amazon Aware.Additionally, the WSJ notes that Amazon is ditching some private-label furniture brands as well, including Rivet and Stone & Beam. Sources close to the... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6DQYD)
Image: The Writers Guild of America After recently meeting to discuss the possibility of resuming talks about a new labor contract, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are now set to return to the negotiation table this Friday - more than three months into Hollywood's writers strike.Variety reports that the AMPTP plans to meet with the WGA this Friday to present a formal response to the guild's list of proposals for a new labor contract, which includes changes like improved minimum rates, a larger percentage of streaming residuals, and staffing requirements for writers rooms.In an email sent out to WGA members, the union said that AMPTP president Carol Lombardini personally reached out with the request... Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6DQYE)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Many app homepages have gotten incredibly busy, filled with suggestions and ads, many based on your previous searches or stuff you've read / written / watched in the past. YouTube is certainly no exception - in fact, it's one of the worst offenders - but recently, Google's video service announced that users now have a choice. If you turn your watch history off and have no significant prior watch history," all that confusion will disappear, and your homepage will only show the search bar and the Shorts, Subscriptions, and Library buttons.In other words, you'll have a clean, simple, easy-on-the-eyes YouTube page.The change in the home feed is being slowly rolled out over the next few months, but it doesn't hurt to be ready for it. The... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DQYF)
Photo by Adam Bow / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images NFL RedZone, the NFL's excellent whip-around show that jumps from game to game to showcase highlights and key moments as teams are about to score, is coming to the NFL Plus subscription service. It wasn't a total surprise: RedZone host Scott Hanson had teased the announcement on Wednesday. NFL Network is also being added as a perk for subscribers.NFL Plus launched last year with two tiers: NFL Plus and the more expensive NFL Plus Premium, which added the ability to watch game replays. A key caveat with the service, however, is that you can't watch live local and primetime regular season and postseason games on anything bigger than a tablet (like your TV), which might be a dealbreaker for some people - unless they own that new 14.6-inch S... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DQV9)
Illustration by The Verge Substack wants to make the platform a better place for readers and will be adding features to its reading apps so that they feel increasingly useful and fun," co-founders Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi said in a post on Thursday. Substack is perhaps best known as a place for writers to build newsletter audiences and make a living from their work, but the co-founders spelled out a vision for how Substack itself can be a better place to actually read things as well.The internet revolutionized reading, but instead of a utopia, it has delivered a mess," the co-founders said. The main places where we read online today are cacophonic, stressful, and milking our minds for ad dollars." They acknowledge that there are nice but... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6DQVA)
Image: Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3 just changed the game. I don't mean the fact that it's become the second most played game on Steam right now, catching up to Steam mainstays CS:GO and DOTA 2. I don't mean how it's enjoying incredible success without elements like a battle pass or microtransactions. And I don't even mean how it's a game crafted to appeal to a wide range of players across race, gender, and sexuality. Any one of these qualities alone makes Baldur's Gate 3 an incredible game.On Thursday, with yet another hotfix, Larian Studios blew the doors off the hinges for what a developer can do with a game with one simple sentence: As of today, we're also reactivating cross-saves as we near our PlayStation 5 launch." (Cross-saves were deactivated... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6DQVB)
A screenshot of a video showing LK-99 partially levitating. A group of researchers who developed the material say it's evidence that LK-99 is the world's first room-temperature superconductor. Experts are skeptical. | Image: A screenshot taken of a video uploaded to ScienceCast byHyun-Tak Kim LK-99 hasn't turned out to be the miraculous superconductor some people initially claimed it was.The newly discovered material made headlines after a research team claimed it was the first room-temperature superconductor, which could revolutionize our energy system. Speculation that it could bring on a perfect power grid or easily make trains levitate sparked a frenzy to test whether LK-99 really was as game-changing as portrayed by the original team.But the results so far indicate that LK-99 is not a superconductor, at room temperature or otherwise. A slew of research groups have released studies that counter claims originally made about LK-99.With a great deal of sadness, we now believe that the game is over. LK99 is NOT a... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6DQVC)
Image: Blizzard There's hope that the game's new story missions and game type will win back fans disappointed by PvE's cancellation. Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6DQVD)
It's no The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but Skyward Sword HD is still worth revisiting in 2023. | Image: Nintendo It often feels as though we encounter a buy two, get one sale every other month or so, whether that's on video games, keycap sets, or other tech. GameStop's latest promo lets you get two for the price of one, however, allowing you to pick up an assortment of Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox games at a steep discount for a limited time.The full list of available titles is pretty staggering, with many of the best BOGO deals being on Switch titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, the ever-moody Metroid Dread, and Live A Live, the last of which is really just a playable short story collection masquerading as an old-school RPG. That said, the current promo also applies to next-gen standouts like the fantasy epic Elden... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6DQVE)
Photo by Oscar Del Pozo / AFP via Getty Images After weeks of back and forth, the Federal Election Commission decided that it will, maybe, make rules regulating the use of AI-generated content in political ads.At an open meeting Thursday, the FEC voted to open up the petition for public comment, kicking off a process that could result in new rules governing how campaigns use AI going into effect before the end of the year. The petition, filed by the advocacy group Public Citizen, calls on the commission to leverage its authority to punish fraud by creating rules banning candidates and political parties from using AI to misrepresent their opponents.The need to regulate deepfakes and other deceptive uses of AI in election ads becomes more urgent with each passing day"The need to... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6DQVF)
Image: Bethesda Softworks Two years after the surprise announcement and release of a remastered version of the original Quake, Quake II is getting a similar glow-up to coincide with the start of QuakeCon. Its remaster, which is simply titled Quake II, is available today for $9.99 for PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation. It's available as part of a Game Pass subscription if you have one, and if you already owned Quake II via the Microsoft Store, Steam, or Good Old Games (GOG), the new version should be available as a free update.From the screenshots and trailer released today, developer id Software looks like it's stuck pretty close to the 1997 original for its remaster. But the remaster is packed with modern conveniences, including cloud saves, 4K Ultra... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DQVG)
Screenshot taken from a Kai Cenat YouTube video. On Wednesday night, streamer Kai Cenat went live on Twitch for the first time since his chaotic Union Square giveaway event in New York City on Friday. Thousands of people descended on Union Square after Cenat and another streamer promised to give away prizes like PS5s and gift cards, and Cenat has been charged with at least two counts of inciting a riot and unlawful assembly for the gathering.After Friday, I've come to realize the amount of not only power but influence that I have on people," says Cenat. And I'm saying that to say this: I am beyond disappointed in anybody who became destructive that day. That shit is not cool." (You can watch a shortened replay of his stream on YouTube.)Cenat added that none of that was my... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6DQQM)
Corey Hawkins as Clemens and Aisling Franciosi as Anna in The Last Voyage of the Demeter. | Image: Universal The Last Voyage of the Demeter turns one of the most riveting chapters from Bram Stoker's Dracula into a soggy feature-length horror that never finds its sea legs. Continue reading...
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