The Verge

A man walks with his donkey in the Tafilalet oasis on October 27th, 2016, near Morocco's southeastern oasis town of Erfoud, north of Er-Rissani in the Sahara Desert. The oasis is at risk of disappearing as the area is drying up due to global warming. | Photo by Fadel Senna / AFP via Getty Images Sucking planet-heating carbon dioxide of the atmosphere doesn't reverse all the effects of climate change, new research tells us. Carbon dioxide removal, as it's called, can sound like science fiction - but many companies are already counting on it to undo some of the damage caused by their pollution.Companies might try to prevent their greenhouse gas emissions altogether, or they might try to clean it up after the fact. That's why we're seeing all kinds of brands, from Microsoft to the Houston Texans, saying that they'll plant trees or invest in new technologies that are supposed to filter CO2 out of the air. But even if they're successful in trapping CO2, does it reverse the consequences of creating that pollution in the first place?N... Continue reading...

Image: DoorDash DoorDash has added Apple CarPlay syncing to its Dasher app, which delivery workers use to accept deliveries and get to your house. For workers with Apple's infotainment system software in their cars, that means they can spare their phone batteries the cruel and unusual punishment of hours of daily use in the sometimes hot, harsh environment of their car's dashboard.Dasher VP of logistics Austin Haugen says CarPlay support is one of the most highly requested features among the Dasher community," which makes sense. Phones are great for mapping and directions in cars, but they can introduce big problems when you rely on them for your job. Image: DoorDash The Dasher app with Apple CarPlay syncing in action. For... Continue reading...

The matte screen of Samsung's latest Frame TV really helps it blend into your walls as art. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung's Unpacked presentation may have brought new announcements of Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 phones, new smartwatches, and some new tablets, but one of the best Samsung deals right now is on its wall art-inspired The Frame TV from last year. Woot is currently offering a variety of Samsung Frame TV models - ranging from 32 inches to 85 inches - for exceptional prices.For example, the 55-inch Samsung Frame TV is $1,087.99 ($412 off), and the 65-inch model is $1,397.99 ($602 off). The latter is a great size for many people looking to go big, but if you want a gargantuan Frame, you can also get the 85-inch version for $2,697.99 (about $1,600 off).While The Frame may not be an OLED panel or have the lowest latency and VRR for gaming,... Continue reading...

That's certainly one way to try and draw in more advertising revenue. | Illustration: The Verge According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Twitter (now called X) started offering some advertisers in the US and UK a 50 percent discount on video ads running beside trending topics under the platform's Explore" tab earlier this week, among other discounts."The offer is timed around the Women's World Cup but also conveniently ends on July 31st - a week prior to another change to Twitter's ad policy. Starting August 7th, advertisers that haven't reached certain spending thresholds will lose their official brand account verification. According to emails obtained by the WSJ, brands need to have spent at least $1,000 on ads within the prior 30 days or $6,000 in the previous 180 days to retain the gold checkmark identifying that... Continue reading...

Image: Google Google will start highlighting apps in Google Play that offer good full-screen support on Android tablets and foldables - and shaming the ones that don't. The company announced the changes in a blog post yesterday in a clear bid to get developers on board with supporting larger screens for the OS.

Image: Glowforge Glowforge, the company that makes desktop laser cutters for a whole range of crafting projects, has revealed a new entry-level machine that's a little less pricey than its premium counterparts. Priced at $1,199, the Glowforge Aura lets you cut and engrave various materials across a compact 12-inch workspace.The Glowforge Aura comes equipped with a six-watt laser that can carve up hundreds of different materials, including fabric, leather, paper, acrylic, rubber, cardstock, paper, glass, coated metal, marble, and even chocolate. That opens up a vast number of potential crafting projects, which range from keychains and decorative signs to nightlight covers, jewelry, and a whole lot more. Image: Glowforge If you don't... Continue reading...

The new Xbox Home UI. | Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft first started testing a new Xbox Home UI nearly a year ago, and the company is now ready to deliver it to all Xbox owners. Starting today, an overhaul to the Xbox Home interface is rolling out to all Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One consoles, with more space for backgrounds and quick access to the store, search, and settings.The new Xbox Home experience will start rolling out today to a subset of all Xbox consoles," according to Ivy Krislov, senior product manager lead for Xbox experiences. This means that some customers will need to wait a few weeks to get their hands on it." Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge The new Xbox Home UI. The biggest change you'll notice immediately is a reworked UI that... Continue reading...

Image: Skip Bolen / Peacock It's pretty safe to say that 2023 has been a breakout year for video game adaptations in film and TV. From the weekly drama of The Last of Us on HBO to the family-friendly blockbuster success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, these adaptations are no longer the maligned flops they once were, which is what makes Twisted Metal on Peacock so curious. It's based on a popular PlayStation series but one that hasn't had a new entry in over a decade. And for much of the first season's runtime, it also barely has anything to do with the vehicular combat games that it's pulling from.At a time when game adaptations are striving more than ever to be faithful to their sources while also trying to thrust them into a new medium, Twisted Metal stands... Continue reading...

Image: Apple The first season of Invasion was a prelude to war with an alien species, and now, the battle is really breaking out. At least, that's sure how it looks in the new season 2 trailer for the Apple TV Plus series.While the show initially detailed the early days of an alien invasion, showcasing how events unfolded from multiple perspectives across the globe, the second season takes place 121 days after the strange, creepy creatures set down on Earth. The trailer hints at an organized counterattack from humanity, while also teasing an Arrival-style situation focused on figuring out how to communicate with the alien force.Season 2 of Invasion starts streaming on August 23rd, with the 10-episode run lasting through October 25th (new episodes... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and the mapping company TomTom have launched an initiative to take on Google Maps and Apple Maps. The four companies formed the Overture Maps Foundation last year with the goal of creating interoperable map products - and now, the group has released its first open map dataset.With this data, third-party developers can create global mapping or navigation products of their own, allowing them to go head-to-head with Google Maps and Apple Maps. According to Overture, the release includes over 59 million places of interest, along with data on buildings, transportation networks, and administrative boundaries. Image: Overture Maps Foundation Overture collected over 59 million places of interest... Continue reading...

Each tablet comes with the S Pen stylus included. | Image: Samsung During Samsung's Unpacked event today, the company announced the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 phones, but that wasn't all - it also presented a new Galaxy Tab S9 tablet lineup. The Galaxy Tab S9 starts at $799.99, while the S9 Plus and S9 Ultra start at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. While they won't be available until August 11th, you can preorder them - with the Galaxy S Pen included - starting today.Powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy version of Qualcomm's top-tier processor, the new tablets are expected to be faster than the Tab S8 series from 2021. The Tab S9 tablets and S Pens are now IP68-rated for dust and water resistance, which is a feature we don't often see in non-ruggedized tablets. Along with a more durable... Continue reading...

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images Lyft is exploring a sale of its bike and scooter business, which includes New York City's popular Citi Bike. The news comes several months after the struggling ridehail company laid off a third of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs.Lyft has received strong inbound interest in our bikes and scooters business," the company said in a statement. It's only logical for Lyft to listen to credible proposals and explore strategic partners and options in several forms to serve more riders in more cities."Whether Lyft strikes a partnership with an investor that infuses cash into the division or sells the business outright remains to be seen. Either way, Lyft wants the rental bikes and scooters to continue to be listed on its app so... Continue reading...

For his latest project, Ken Pillonel - the modder best known for creating an iPhone with a USB-C port - is attempting to improve the design of the charging case of Apple's AirPods Pro. The true wireless earbuds have been criticized by right-to-repair advocates for a construction that relies heavily on glue, which makes it difficult to replace components without breaking the case.I am taking on a significant project to demonstrate how one of the most popular gadgets today - Apple's AirPods Pro - could have been easily made repairable with minimal effort," Pillonel says in a press release. My primary objective is to encourage consumers to be more mindful of their choices and to motivate manufacturers to prioritize sustainability."With... Continue reading...

New and upgraded customer deals start from tomorrow, with discounts for existing Verizon Mobile customers available from August 11th. | Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Attention football fans - Verizon is running a limited-time promotion that'll hand out free (or discounted) NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions to new mobile and home internet customers, and those who upgrade. From July 27th, new customers enrolling in select Verizon home internet packages or purchasing select smartphones within the Unlimited Plus Mobile plan will be eligible for an NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV, saving fans up to $449 for the season.This deal won't apply to all new Verizon customers - just those who sign up for specific products. For example, the deal only applies to Unlimited Plus Mobile customers who purchase a new Samsung Galaxy S23 Series, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Google Pixel Fold, Pixel 7,... Continue reading...

Press images of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which is expected to be announced today. | Image: EVLeaks Just hours before Samsung's latest Unpacked event where the company is expected to announce its latest foldables, wearables, and tablets, leaker Evan Blass has shared a more or less complete look at the company's forthcoming lineup via his restricted Twitter account. All that's missing are the official prices.Blass has published over a dozen images in total, which appear to show Samsung's promotional webpages for the devices ahead of their official unveiling. The pages show a pair of foldables (the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5), a new Galaxy Watch 6 smartwatch lineup, and a range of Galaxy Tab S9 tablets. There are images aplenty of the new devices, as well as confirmation of key features that have been rumored for months. ... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stood on a stage in Los Angeles to introduce the company's new car to the world: the Model 3. There was just one problem. The car didn't exist yet.In episode one of Land of the Giants: The Tesla Shock Wave, we're diving into the tumultuous production of the Model 3, Tesla's first electric car for the masses. Tesla became a giant in the auto industry based off the success of the Model 3, an affordable EV that seamlessly blended cool tech with an affordable price. But the car very nearly drove Tesla out of business - and, along with it, the company's capricious, bombastic leader, Elon Musk.Remember that in 2016, Tesla had only ever made three cars: the niche Roadster, and the premium-priced Model S and... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a paper sent to EU policymakers, a group of companies, including GitHub, Hugging Face, Creative Commons, and others, are encouraging more support for the open-source development of different AI models as they consider finalizing the AI Act. EleutherAI, LAION, and Open Future also cosigned the paper.Their list of suggestions to the European Parliament ahead of the final rules includes clearer definitions of AI components, clarifying that hobbyists and researchers working on open-source models are not commercially benefiting from AI, allowing limited real-world testing for AI projects, and setting proportional requirements for different foundation models.The AI Act holds promise to set a global precedent in regulating AI to address... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has started the rollout of its new 5G tech that can deliver speeds of up to 3.3Gbps using carrier aggregation, which combines four different 5G channels into one for devices that can handle it (only Samsung's newer Galaxy S23 phones at the moment), similar to a trick used by Wi-Fi routers to create a faster connection.That's even faster than what you'd get out of mmWave 5G, which is more heavily touted by Verizon and AT&T as also being capable of extremely high speeds - Ookla recently reported download speeds of up to 1.6Gbps in the US. However, it has limited range and device support and is easily hampered by common impediments like trees and buildings.The four channels T-Mobile is using include repurposed 1,900MHz spectrum... Continue reading...

Image: Samsung Samsung's second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year is just days away, and it's going to be filled with new products. In addition to the highly anticipated launch of Samsung's next-gen foldables, we're also expecting Samsung to announce updates to its Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Tab lines.If you're curious about the upcoming Unpacked, we've rounded up all you need to know about the event below.When is Samsung Galaxy Unpacked?Samsung will hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 26th, 2023, at 7AM ET or 4AM PT. Unlike Galaxy Unpacked events in the past, this one will take place in Seoul, South Korea.Where can I watch Galaxy Unpacked?There are several places on the web where you can watch Galaxy Unpacked, including live from Samsung's website or on S... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has a new place to share product recall info for products purchased on its site. The personalized alert page can help consumers learn if anything they've bought on Amazon has known issues that make it dangerous to keep using.Amazon says it always proactively" notifies customers about items purchased on its site that are part of a recall or otherwise have safety alerts. But now the company is creating a dedicated place where it says customers can be more aware of recalls issued on items ordered from Amazon. Customers will also get a personalized email" with details on the product recall, plus an alert banner plastered on their your orders" page. Image: Amazon A sample of how the new recall and safety... Continue reading...

Getty Images This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Today, I'll dive into Spotify's second quarter earnings call this morning. Despite layoffs and the shutdown of a number of podcasts, it'll be a while until we see the benefits from a thriftier company. I also have an update on actor-hosted rewatch podcasts - and news of a new podcast coming to public radio.Your favorite TV rewatch podcast is here to stay - but don't expect any new onesGossip Queens and Pod Meets World aren't going anywhere during the Hollywood strike. After a number of TV rewatch podcasts halted their programming due to confusion over whether they break the Hollywood strike's rules, the SAG-AFTRA union clarified its... Continue reading...

Emma Roth / The Verge After replacing Twitter's little blue bird with an X logo, Elon Musk changed it again. On Tuesday afternoon, Musk replaced Twitter's X logo with one that has slightly thicker lines - but then said he would reverse the change.I don't like the thicker bars, so reverting," Musk writes on Twitter. The logo will evolve over time." You can see how the two logos compare in the image embedded above.The updated logo had already made its way to Twitter's homepage, and Musk even changed his profile picture to match. Neither logo has made an appearance in Twitter's mobile app, however.

Image: OpenAI OpenAI shuttered a tool that was supposed to tell human writing from AI due to a low accuracy rate. In an (updated) blog, OpenAI said it decided to end its AI classifier as of July 20th. We are working to incorporate feedback and are currently researching more effective provenance techniques for text," the company said.As it shuts down the tool to catch AI-generated writing, OpenAI said it plans to develop and deploy mechanisms that enable users to understand if audio or visual content is AI-generated." There's no word yet on what those mechanisms might be, though.OpenAI fully admitted the classifier was never very good at catching AI-generated text and warned that it could spit out false positives, aka human-written text tagged as... Continue reading...

Image: ABC / Christine Bartolucci General Hospital, the longest-running American soap opera, is turning to scab writers to keep the show going amidst the Writers Guild of America's ongoing strike. One of the show's writers, Shannon Peace, shared the news on her Instagram account, saying, Starting next week, the show will be penned exclusively by scab writers which is heartbreaking."According to Peace, the show has run through all the scripts that were written before the strike began and has now employed non-union writers in order to keep the show on the air. Typically, people who cross picket lines to perform struck work are met with derision, but Peace acknowledged that the current situation is unique for soap operas. (Disclosure: The Verge's editorial staff is also... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is promoting chief financial officer Ruth Porat into a new role, according to a press release about Alphabet's Q2 earnings. As part of the newly created role of president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, Porat will oversee Alphabet's Other Bets" investments and work more closely with policymakers and regulators.The new role will be effective on September 1st, 2023, and the company will search for a successor as the CFO of Google and Alphabet. Porat will still report to CEO Sundar Pichai.Porat's promotion comes at an important time for Alphabet / Google. Policymakers around the world are working on potential regulations over artificial intelligence, and it seems likely that... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Starting today, Twitter Blue members can download videos shared on X by other subscribers. That's according to an update to an X Help Center article titled How to share and watch videos on Twitter."The update says all new videos will be eligible for downloads unless the poster specifically opts out. There's also an age limit - if your account is under the age of 18," then downloads won't be turned on. (Presumably, that means any person whose account says they're under 18.)And of course, if your Twitter Blue-subscribing account is set to private, no one other than subscribers you've allowed to follow you can see the video, let alone download it. To opt out of having your videos be downloadable, you can do that on a per-tweet basis -... Continue reading...

Image: Eero Eero could bring its easily managed mesh routers to landlord-managed Wi-Fi networks in your next rental. The company has a new program called Eero for Communities, and for renters, it means that they'd only need to log in to the existing Wi-Fi setup to get online after moving in. Eero is well known for its user-friendly setup and management, and it tends to work much better than ISP-provided Wi-Fi / modem combo units, even if some of its routers can be flaky.According to the press release, residents will still be able to control the Eeros via the Eero app on their smartphone and can even sign up for Eero Secure, its subscription service that gives users access to features like Eero's extra security, ad blocking, a VPN service, and Eero... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft just posted the fourth and final quarter of its 2023 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $56.2 billion in revenue and a net income of $20.1 billion during Q4. Revenue is up 8 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent. As expected, Windows and devices revenue has been hit hard again this quarter, but Xbox has rebounded somewhat - at least on the content side. Microsoft's cloud, office, and server businesses continue to make up for a weaker PC market.Microsoft's entire fiscal 2023 hasn't been great for its Windows and devices revenue compared to fiscal 2022. Windows OEM revenue, the price that PC manufacturers pay Microsoft to put Windows on laptops and PCs, has dropped significantly for the entire fiscal... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge The brand-new Following feed in Meta's Threads won't always stick around if it's your preferred way to use the app.The much-needed Following feed is unfortunately a bit hidden: you can make it appear by tapping the home icon at the bottom of the screen or the Threads logo at the top. Once you see it, you can switch between Following," which shows posts in reverse-chronological order, and For You," which is the algorithmically sorted feed the app has offered since launch.But a few of us at The Verge noticed that Threads will occasionally rehide the Following feed and bring you back to the For You feed after you open the app. (You can test it for yourself by force closing and reopening the app.) Unfortunately, it sounds like that's by... Continue reading...

Tab Groups live here. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you're using Safari but you're not using Tab Groups, well, it's time to change that.Tab Groups, as the name implies, allows you to group a selection of tabs together and essentially set them aside for future use. For example, if you have a bunch of tabs you use for work and a bunch of tabs you use after work, you can cordon these tabs off into batches so that they don't get in each other's way. You can use your work tabs at work and, when you're finished, swap them for your after work" tabs with just one click.You might also have different Tab Groups for different assignments at work or different school projects. Folks who share a computer might have different Tab Groups for each user. The possibilities are endless.Here's how... Continue reading...

Lidya Jewett as Angela Fielding and Olivia Marcum as Katherine. Though Warner Bros.' 1973 adaptation of The Exorcist is an iconic piece of horror cinema, none of the studio's subsequent sequels ever really managed to make all that much of a splash. Only time will tell whether that also ends up being the case with Universal and Blumhouse's new trilogy of Exorcist features from director David Gordon Green, but the first trailer for The Exorcist: Believer definitely makes it seem like the revival's cooking with gas.Set in the same continuity as the original film, The Exorcist: Believer tells the story of how widower Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) struggles to save the life of his young daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) after she and her friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) vanish suddenly one day only to... Continue reading...

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is fed up with companies exaggerating their environmental credentials.There's far too much greenwashing in the system," he said in a recent interview. For Scaringe, it's all too easy for a company to obfuscate the source of its power consumption, especially when it doesn't actually create any new capacity for renewable energy. And consumers aren't discerning enough to tell the difference.This is just so conceptually complex," he said, making a clear distinction between companies that buy renewable energy to cover their own emissions while also creating new capacity and those who want to pay a teeny little incremental amount more to get the ability to pat ourselves on the back and say we're using renewable... Continue reading...

No launch date has been provided for GM's new Chevy Bolt as the company tackles production issues impacting its Ultium battery packs. | Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images General Motors announced today that it's developing a next-generation Chevrolet Bolt based on the automaker's Ultium battery and drive technology to deliver great affordability, range and technology." It's following three electric vehicles Chevrolet is already scheduled to launch this year: the Equinox and Blazer SUVs and the Silverado pickup truck.GM CEO Mary Barra said during the company's Q2 earnings call that the new Bolt will be brought to market on an accelerated timeline" but didn't provide specific details regarding a launch date for the affordable EV after GM announced in April that it would stop manufacturing the original model that was plagued by fires and an expensive battery recall.Our customers love today's Bolt. It... Continue reading...

Image: FromSoftware As the Fires of Rubicon heat up, FromSoftware has released an in-depth look at Armored Core VI's gameplay. The roughly 13-minute presentation covered everything from armored core movement capabilities and customization options to the kinds of enemies you'll face as the mercenary 621.Check it out.From the story trailer that was released last week, we know that, in AC6, you'll take up the mantle of 621, a bioengineered human whose only purpose is to pilot mechs under the guidance of your handler, Walter. We also know that you'll be fighting for control of the mysterious but volatile resource coral, native to only one planet in the galaxy: Rubicon.In Armored Core VI, your mechs are heavy, but they can move. It's really fascinating to... Continue reading...