The Verge

Image: The Verge WhatsApp has committed to making its terms of service agreements more transparent in the European Union after the platform published a highly confusing new policy that made users believe it would share their data with Facebook. In a press release posted to the EU Commission’s website, the agency says WhatsApp will make it easier for users to reject terms of service updates and will more clearly outline what happens when they do.The Meta-owned messaging app caused confusion when it rolled out a new privacy policy in 2021 that appeared to give WhatsApp permission to share user data with Facebook. At the time, it even stated users would lose functionality if they didn’t agree to the new terms. WhatsApp later clarified that the policy would... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is holding a special event later this month where it plans to detail “the future of work with AI” and demonstrate how its ChatGPT-like AI will work in Office apps like Teams, Word, and Outlook. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and head of Microsoft 365 Jared Spataro will hold an event on March 16th at 8AM PT / 11AM ET.The Verge revealed last month that Microsoft was planning an AI event in March to demo how its new ChatGPT-like AI will transform its Office productivity apps. After announcing and demonstrating its Prometheus Model in its new Bing search engine last month, it’s now time to see where Microsoft will take this further in the world of work.The Information previously reported earlier this year that GPT models from OpenAI... Continue reading…

Rashida Jones in Silo. | Image: Apple Apple has another dark drama coming to its streaming service. Today, the company showed off the first teaser trailer for Silo, a dystopian series based on the novels by Hugh Howey. It starts streaming on Apple TV Plus on May 5th.The show follows the story of the last 10,000 people left on Earth, who live deep underground in the titular silo to avoid the poisonous surface world. However, the origin of the silo itself remains a mystery and, as the official description explains, “any who try to find out face fatal consequences.” The show stars Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, David Oyelowo, Rashida Jones, and Tim Robbins.Silo joins a growing list of dramas on Apple TV Plus that start with the letter S:... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has lowered the price of its most expensive EV models in the US, reducing the cost of a new Model S by up to five percent and Model X by up to ten percent. The pricing updates are already reflected on the Tesla website, and as Reuters reports, come just days after Chief Executive Elon Musk announced plans to increase production at Tesla’s Shanghai facility in order to meet the soaring demand caused by previous price cuts.Following the latest cuts, a new Tesla Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid — the performance versions for both vehicles — now share the same price of $109,990. Meanwhile, the base Tesla Model S AWD is now $89,990, down from $94,990. When Tesla first unveiled its redesign for the vehicle back in January 2021, Model S... Continue reading…

Image: Valve Valve’s on the precipice of launching a major update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, according to a report from esports journalist Richard Lewis (via Forbes). Sources close to the situation tell Lewis that Valve could finally release a new version of the game on the company’s Source 2 engine as early as this month.Lewis, who has broken big CS:GO stories in the past, says he’s told that Valve already enlisted a group of professional CS:GO players to try out the updated game at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Migrating the game to the Source 2 engine, which is used by some of Valve’s other games, like Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, could allow for better performance and graphics.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge DJI’s no longer producing AeroScope, the drone-detecting system accused of helping Russians target and attack Ukrainian drone pilots, as first spotted by UAV Hive (via DroneDJ). The device’s product page now displays a pop-up that reads: “The Aeroscope is no longer in production. For the latest in DJI technology, please view our product recommendations below.”You can close out of the notification and view the entirety of AeroScope’s product page, which still has an order form for DJI dealers at the bottom. The China-based DJI hasn’t formally announced the discontinuation of the product, and it’s still not clear whether existing AeroScope devices will lose functionality, or if the platform’s going away forever. According to UAV Hive,... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge With all the hype surrounding ChatGPT, it’s no wonder other companies are vying for a piece of the AI-powered chatbot game. Companies are betting that we’re at a decisive moment in the artificial intelligence industry, where products that adopt and build upon the budding technology could have the potential to reshape technology as we know it — not to mention shake up the Big Tech hierarchy.The stakes are high, and technology’s biggest players don’t want to be left behind as breakthroughs in AI make it more accessible — and much more interesting — to users. While tech giants like Microsoft and Google have already introduced their versions of conversational AI tools built using large language models (LLMs), other lesser-known companies... Continue reading…

The M1-equipped iMac released in 2021. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s readying a new iMac that could launch as early as the second half of this year, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While the new iMac will reportedly feature the same 24-inch display size as the previous model, it’s expected to come with a more powerful M3 chip made with a 3nm process.The new iMac isn’t expected to enter mass production until at least three months, Gurman notes, but could still start shipping in the latter half of this year in the same colorways as its predecessor, including blue, silver, pink, and orange. Gurman says the new iMac is at “an advanced stage of development” and that Apple’s currently “conducting production tests of the machine.” This tracks with previous rumors from Gurman, which... Continue reading…

Amazon’s HQ2 project in Arlington, Virginia. | Image: Getty Images Amazon’s putting the construction of its second headquarters in Virginia on hold as it looks to cut costs across the company, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and CNBC. While Amazon’s still expected to complete the first phase of its headquarters this June, the company’s pausing work on the larger portion of the project located across the street.The company’s Arlington, Virginia-based headquarters, dubbed HQ2, is supposed to consist of two parts: Metropolitan Park, an “urban campus” capable of housing 25,000 workers, and PenPlace, a complex with three 22-story buildings and a corkscrew-shaped glass tower standing 350 feet tall. PenPlace, the second phase of the project, is the portion affected by the delay.John Schoettler, Amazon’s... Continue reading…

Recent iPhone Pro models can access a camera feature called ProRAW for more flexible image processing. | Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge When Apple announced the iPhone 12 Pro, it introduced a powerful new camera feature: ProRAW. This feature is available now for all Pro and Pro Max models, starting with the 12 series and newer, and if you’re picky about your photo processing, it’s definitely a feature worth checking out. ProRAW combines the benefits of computational photography with traditional RAW image capture — kind of the best of both worlds.So why would you want to use ProRAW in the first place? Let’s go back to digital photography school. A traditional RAW image file preserves a lot more of the information that’s captured when you take a photo. Usually, your iPhone’s camera will process that data into a HEIF or JPEG image, throwing away the extra data and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, should be considered a joint employer for a group of YouTube Music contractors. The workers are currently attempting to organize with the Alphabet Worker’s Union, and the NLRB’s decision could mean that the tech giant has to negotiate with them if they vote to unionize in an upcoming election.The workers are directly employed by a company called Cognizant, which acts as an Alphabet subcontractor. However, the NLRB believes that Google has enough control over their “benefits, hours of work, supervision, and direction of work” that it counts as a partial employer, according to Bloomberg.“We are proud to win a precedent setting victory not just for... Continue reading…

Image: @MaxWinebach Apple partnered with a bank in 2021 to let small businesses lease new M1 Macs for as low as $30 per month, with easy options to upgrade if and when more powerful devices are released. Now that’s no longer being offered, and businesses that had signed up will now have to sign up for a different program from CIT Group, the bank Apple partnered with, or go another route to get their computers.A business that reached out to The Verge shared an email from CIT Group (aka First Citizens Bank) confirming the Mac Upgrade Program has ended. Now the bank is requesting the business to switch to its FMV lease or continue to lease the equipment at the same monthly rate — though it would run indefinitely with no buyout option. The Verge contacted both... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The electric and digital transformation of the car industry comes with a lot of promises for a better tomorrow. Electric vehicles could dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector; connected cars will give us access to services and features we don’t currently enjoy; over-the-air software updates could eliminate high repair costs; and automated vehicles may make driving significantly safer.But it’s worth remembering that, at the end of the day, car companies are just out to make a buck, not make the world a better place.This week, it was revealed that Ford applied for a patent on a system that would use connected car technology to better aid in vehicle repossession. News of the patent’s publication was first r... Continue reading…

Sharpshooter insect with pee droplet excreta on the anal stylus. | Image: Bhamla Lab, Georgia Tech The glassy-winged sharpshooter is an insect so impressive when it pees it could inspire more efficient designs for water-resistant devices.Saad Bhamla was in his vegetable garden in Atlanta, Georgia, when he first noticed the feat. The sharpshooter forms neat, round pee droplets that it flicks away with lightning speed. Bhamla, a Georgia Tech assistant professor of biomolecular engineering, whipped out his iPhone to take some slow-motion videos.“The more I zoomed in, the more I realized that it was doing something interesting,” Bhamla tells The Verge.“The more I zoomed in, the more I realized that it was doing something interesting”It turns out the sharpshooter accomplishes something with its urine that hasn’t been documented in a... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Nintendo has taken down the online features of the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon today due to an unspecified security vulnerability. VGC reports that the games were taken offline at 11:30PM ET last night and that the company suggests the fix could take days (via IGN). The Nintendo Switch versions of the games are not affected.At time of writing, Nintendo’s server operational status page currently has this message posted:

On March 29th, new owners of a Ring Alarm security system will have to pay for a subscription to control it when they’re not home. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Yet another company will charge its customers more money for using existing features as the subscription-based smart home becomes the norm. Amazon-owned Ring is making several free features part of its paid subscription program starting on March 29th. As of that date, if you have a Ring video doorbell or camera, you will no longer have access to Home and Away Modes in the app without a paid subscription, starting at $3.99 a month ($39.99 a year). Modes is a simple way to tell all your cameras to stop detecting motion when you’re home and start when you leave.Additionally, all new users of the Ring Alarm system on or after March 29th will have to pay for a Ring Protect plan to arm and disarm the system from the app, use the Modes... Continue reading…

Photo by Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images A new bill in Texas would require internet service providers inside the state to block sites that provide abortion information, as well making it illegal to host or even provide domain registration for sites that help people in Texas obtain or pay for abortions.The bill, filed February 23rd by representative Steve Toth, attempts to crush access to services that ship the pregnancy-terminating drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, as well as aid funds that raise money to cover the cost of abortion-related expenses. Under the new bill’s rules, it would be unlawful to “create, edit, upload, publish, host, maintain, or register a domain name for an internet website, platform, or other interactive computer service that assists or facilitates a... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Ford is enjoying its newfound status as the No. 2 seller of electric vehicles in the US. In the interest of maintaining it, the automaker is boosting production of its lineup of plug-in vehicles, including the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit.Ford started accelerating production of Mustang Mach-Es this week, making changes at its factory that will enable it to double its hourly assembly and bring its annual manufacturing run rate to a targeted 210,000 units by the end of 2023. Ford also announced it would slash prices on the Mustang Mach-E after the No. 1 EV seller, Tesla, also reduced its prices.This represents the second time that Ford has said it would boost production of the Mustang Mach-E this year. Last January,... Continue reading…

Image: Stability AI / Blender A popular app for 3D artists just received an accessible way to experiment with generative AI: Stability AI has released Stability for Blender, an official Stable Diffusion plug-in that introduces a suite of generative AI tools to Blender’s free 3D modeling software. Third-party plug-ins offer similar functionality, but Stability AI’s own implementation will likely be more polished, and the company is promising regular updates.The add-on allows Blender artists to create images using text descriptions directly within the software — just like the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generator. You can also create images using existing renders, allowing you to experiment with various styles for a project without having to completely remodel the... Continue reading…

It’s a luxury purchase through and through, but Sennheiser’s new soundbar carries forward many of the original Ambeo’s strengths. Unfortunately, it also suffers from short-sighted missteps. Continue reading…

You can save $170 on the mic-less version of the Sonos Arc when you buy it refurbished today. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos makes some of the best speakers and soundbars you can buy, but they come at a high price and are typically only on sale during major shopping holidays. Thankfully, Sonos is currently running a sale on a range of refurbished goods, making today a great opportunity to snag speakers like the Sonos One SL for cheap before the forthcoming Sonos Era 300 and 100 hit shelves, presumingly later this month.If you’re new to buying refurbished electronics, know that Sonos cleans and tests each product and that they come with a one-year warranty in case anything breaks. Sonos offers a 45-day money-back guarantee if you’re unhappy with your purchase as well, in addition to free shipping and the same accessories you’d get if you’d purchased the... Continue reading…

Get your laptop with actual ports, and get a great deal. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Ever since the release of the M2 generation of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, we’ve been waiting for some huge discounts on the previous-gen M1 models from 2021. That day is here now and in two flavors. The M1 Pro-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro with expanded 1TB SSD is on sale for $1,999.97 ($500 off) in space gray at Amazon. Or, if you prefer more screen real estate, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and base 512GB of storage is $1,999 (another $500 off) at Best Buy.While two grand is no small amount for a laptop, these are the best discounts to date on these excellent computers. You’d be hard-pressed to find other offerings with this much performance at these prices. The newer M2 generation chips may offer some refinements to both... Continue reading…

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Last September, the world watched in delight as NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in a test of planetary defense. The idea of the DART mission was to see whether an impact from a spacecraft could change the trajectory of an incoming asteroid in case such a looming disaster ever threatened the Earth.The impact and its aftermath were observed by telescopes all across the planet and by several in space, including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, and preliminary data showed that the test had been successful in changing the orbit of this asteroid. Then scientists got to work analyzing all the data they had collected for more insights.This week, five new papers in the journal Nature reveal more about what... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Today, let’s talk about a subject that crosses my mind with every generative-AI startup pitch that lands in my inbox: who’s going to make the real money off artificial intelligence?Last week the productivity startup Notion announced that Notion AI, a suite of tools based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, had entered general availability. For $10 per user per month, Notion can now summarize meeting notes, generate lists of pros and cons, and draft emails.Notion AI is among the first in a wave of companies that are racing to capitalize on growing interest in generative AI. This week Snapchat made available a ChatGPT-based chatbot called My AI for subscribers to its $4-a-month Snapchat Plus offering. The educational app Quizlet announced a... Continue reading…

There’s even a new windows shortcut to directly open the audio menu without clicking the taskbar. | Image: The Verge A new enhanced audio mixer is coming to Windows 11 that allows users to make individual volume and audio output adjustments directly from the taskbar. The updated volume mixer was officially revealed as part of the new Preview Build 25309 which is being rolled out to testers in the Windows 11 Insider Dev channel.When released, the updated mixer will be located inside the Quick Settings panel on the Windows taskbar, which can be accessed by clicking on the volume icon. Microsoft has also added a new Windows keyboard shortcut (Win + Ctrl + V) to open the mixer directly. The mixer allows users to quickly switch between audio outputs (i.e. headphones, speakers, etc), as well as adjust the volume of individual apps and toggle spatial audio... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony might be forced to detail its PlayStation exclusivity deals and how much it pays for “blocking rights” to keep games off rival services like Xbox Game Pass. The FTC has sued to try and block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition and kicked off a legal discovery process with Microsoft sending subpoenas to Sony to force it to reveal records, internal documentation, and emails from the company’s PlayStation unit.Kotaku spotted that the FTC’s chief administrative judge D. Michael Chappell has now sided with Microsoft’s request for details of Sony’s PlayStation exclusivity deals. The request cover deals made after January 1st, 2019, including fees or agreements that prevented publishers from placing games on Xbox Game Pass. The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Following monthslong questions about how CNET uses artificial intelligence tools, longtime CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo will step down from her role and take on a new job: senior vice president of AI content strategy and editor-at-large, according to an internal draft memo circulated today, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge.In her new role, Guglielmo will work on machine learning strategy at Red Ventures, the private equity-backed media company that acquired the tech news site in 2020. Adam Auriemma, the former editor-in-chief of a different Red Ventures outlet, NextAdvisor, will become editor-in-chief. NextAdvisor, a personal finance outlet, appears to no longer be active — the site’s Twitter account hasn’t posted... Continue reading…

Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. | Image: Paramount Plus Star Trek: Discovery both carved out a foothold for the franchise in the streaming space and gave people a compelling reason to sign up for Paramount Plus back when it was still CBS All Access. But with its upcoming fifth season, the series will be coming to an end.This evening, CBS Studios announced that Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season, due out sometime in “early 2024,” will be its final one and that the show’s cast and crew are gearing up for a year of “celebrations and appearances at key events in markets around the world” in the build-up to the season’s premiere. In a statement about bittersweet news, executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise expressed their gratitude to Discovery’s fans and said... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s U-shaped hinge might make way for a new shape this year. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge We have good reason to believe that Samsung will put a new kind of hinge in its next flagship foldable, and a South Korean trade publication has just supplied more confirmation. Spotted by 9to5Google, The Elec reports that Samsung has started reliability testing a new water drop-style hinge for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5.The new hinge design would make the folded phone thinner and help reduce the appearance of a crease with the main screen unfolded. But according to this report, Samsung is testing the hinge to withstand 200,000 folds like the last one, which falls short of longevity claims from recent competitors like the Honor Magic VS and Oppo Find N2 — both rated to 400,000 folds.The Elec’s report does mention that the hinge... Continue reading…

It’s expensive, yes, but not unreasonably so for the world’s fastest gaming display. | Image: Dell / Alienware Time to ready your bank account — Dell has just revealed the price of its 500Hz Alienware gaming monitor. The Alienware AW2524H will launch in North America on March 21st for $829.99 (or $1,099.99 CA), making this the fastest gaming monitor in the world that you can actually buy… at least for now.The 24.5-inch Alienware AW2524H technically has a native refresh rate of 480Hz (which is still blisteringly fast), but this has been overclocked to hit 500Hz. That speed comes with a few caveats — namely that it’s limited to a 1080p resolution, though that’s to be expected, as most high refresh rate screens are similarly capped because of bandwidth limitations. And speaking of screens, this comes equipped with an anti-glare IPS screen rather... Continue reading…

Google’s Keep’s new single note widget on Android | Image: Google Google is introducing a new widget for its notes and lists app Keep, which lets you put a single interactive note on your home screen. With it, you can check items off a list, which could be handy for a to-do or grocery list.While you can force one of Keep’s current widgets to show just a single note using the tags system, doing so isn’t as simple as just selecting one to display on your home screen. Plus, Keep’s existing widgets don’t have the level of interactivity that Google’s promising with its new widget; if you try to mark off checkboxes, it’ll just open the app instead of actually checking it off like the single note widget does. Gif: Google The new Keep single note widget will let you keep a checklist on... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Online counseling company BetterHelp has agreed to pay $7.8 million to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it improperly shared customers’ sensitive data with companies like Facebook and Snapchat, even after promising to keep it private. The proposed order, announced by the FTC on Thursday, would ban the same behavior in the future and require BetterHelp to make some changes to how it handles customer data.According to the regulator, the sign-up process for the company’s service “promised consumers that it would not use or disclose their personal health data except for limited purposes.” However, the FTC alleges that the company instead “used and revealed consumers’ email addresses, IP addresses, and health... Continue reading…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California, on March 14th, 2019. | Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Last night, as he presented Tesla’s latest “Master Plan” to investors, Elon Musk attempted to cast his company as one that would usher in “a sustainable energy Earth.” But that’s going to be really hard to do if Musk doesn’t get his own house in order first.Tesla makes electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries to store renewable electricity. A transition to clean energy will need those things. But making those things also needs to be done sustainably and humanely. That requires transparency and accountability, the kind of thing we’re not used to seeing from Musk and his companies.Let’s start with some basics. For any company that says it cares about the planet, divulging how much pollution it produces is one of the first steps... Continue reading…