The Verge

Apple’s Live Activities and always-on display are a showcase for what our phones could be. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The always-on display, Live Activities, and Dynamic Island tease a frictionless future where we spend less time in apps. Continue reading…

Rebecca Ferguson in Silo. | Image: Apple The latest sci-fi series on Apple TV Plus is more than just another post-apocalyptic drama. Continue reading…

The touchscreen offers quick access to earbud settings along with extras like timers and even a flashlight. It’s not a super compelling addition right now, but this is only the beginning of what’s sure to become a trend. Continue reading…

There’s currently no release date, but garage door controls are available to try in the Google Home public preview. | Illustration: The Verge Controls for smart garage doors are coming to the Google Home app. The feature has already started to roll out to some users, with one Reddit user (spotted by 9to5Google) posting an image of the large pill-shaped open / close toggle controls that have silently appeared on the app. Image: u/MickotheNestPro The design mirrors Google Home’s usual pill-shaped toggle. We should note that this feature has only landed on the preview Google Home app so far and doesn’t have an official release yet. Google is currently in the process of overhauling its Home app to prepare for Matter and has been testing the updated version since October last year. Given Google’s I/O event is just around the corner, we might get some... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge After years of multibillion-dollar investments, “just around the corner” promises of robotaxis, and predictions that today’s children might never need to learn to drive, 2022 ended with a hard wake-up call for the autonomous car industry.High-profile crashes made headlines instead of big technological leaps. Major companies raised the white flag and retreated from the effort. And the demise of respected tech leader Argo AI left investors and industry officials alike wondering if they can’t do it, who can?But even with a newfound understanding that driverless cars are years or even decades away, automakers and tech companies alike are still aiming for that goal. And big investments in driverless technology are being made, proving that... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The deadline to claim the titles included in the PlayStation Plus Collection is fast approaching, meaning you’ve got until May 9th to claim the dozen-plus PS4 classics that are included as part of a PlayStation Plus subscription. Eurogamer notes that the list currently includes some absolute cracking games like Bloodborne, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, The Last Guardian, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.Sony launched the collection alongside the PlayStation 5 console back in 2020, allowing owners of its new console to catch up on some of the biggest games of the previous generation. It was a neat incentive to subscribe to PlayStation Plus, and a reminder of the wealth of PS4 titles available to play via backwards compatibility in the... Continue reading…

AMD’s AI-capable MI300 data center APU is set to arrive sometime later this year. | Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images Microsoft has allegedly teamed up with AMD to help bolster the chipmaker’s expansion into artificial intelligence processors. According to a report by Bloomberg, Microsoft is providing engineering resources to support AMD’s developments as the two companies join forces to compete against Nvidia, which controls an estimated 80 percent market share in the AI processor market.In turn, Bloomberg’s sources also claim that AMD is helping Microsoft to develop its own in-house AI chips, codenamed Athena. Several hundred employees from Microsoft’s silicon division are reportedly working on the project and the company has apparently already sunk around $2 billion into its development. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw has, however, denied that... Continue reading…

ChatGPT isn’t out of the EU’s data privacy woods just yet. | Illustration: The Verge The European Union’s fight with ChatGPT is a glance into what’s to come for AI services. Continue reading…

Like Amazon’s Echo speakers, its various smart displays come in a range of sizes. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s current Echo lineup offers a broad selection of smart speakers and displays that can fit just about anywhere in your home. Whether you want to place a voice assistant in your living room, replace the bulletin board in your office, or pick up a touchscreen-enabled device to showcase recipes in the kitchen, there's an Echo device for just about every occasion and use case.Regardless of why you might want one, there’s always a way to save on Echo devices, from the last-gen Dot to the wall-mounted Echo Show 15. Even when they’re selling at full price, for instance, Amazon offers a 25 percent discount when you trade in select devices, meaning there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are on sale.Below,... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Apple surpassed Wall Street expectations and said it had reached an all-time high in services revenue and set a new March quarter record for iPhone revenue in a report on its second quarter earnings on Thursday. The numbers show continued demand for the iPhone 14 lineup even as substantial upgrades (including USB-C connectivity) approach this fall. But Apple’s other divisions, including Mac and iPad, were down year over year.“We are pleased to report an all-time record in services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” CEO Tim Cook said in the company’s earnings release. He told CNBC in an interview that, unlike... Continue reading…

This is the company that Pluto TV’s co-founder is reportedly working on. | Image: Telly The co-founder of Pluto TV, Ilya Pozin, wants to give away free ad-supported TVs — yes, you read that right. That’s according to a report from Janko Roettgers in his Lowpass newsletter, who says the free television set will come with a second, built-in screen dedicated solely to ads and a soundbar.Instead of profiting from TV sales, Roettgers reports Pozin’s new company, called Teevee Corporation, would make money off of the ads that appear on TV’s secondary screen. The idea isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds, as Vizio, for example, already makes far more money from ads and commissions than it does from selling TVs.Sources tell Roettgers that the built-in screen would be about the same height as a smartphone and stretch across the... Continue reading…

Slack GPT will eventually provide conversation summaries with a single click. | Image: Slack With Slack GPT, natively integrated AI features are being developed for Slack that could help boost productivity without disrupting how users already interact with the platform. Some examples include directing the tone and length of messages composed directly in Slack and even attending Huddles on your behalf, summarizing them along with any unread messages you may have missed.Introduced at the Salesforce World Tour event on Thursday, Slack GPT is a new generative AI experience that has three main focus points: the aforementioned natively integrated AI features, customizable automated workflows, and a dedicated Einstein GPT app for Slack. It’s going to be a while before any of these features are available to everyday Slack users, but... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge From the Pixel 7A to the rumored Pixel foldable, here’s what we’re expecting out of Google’s hardware division in May and beyond. Continue reading…

Image: Asus The 2023 model of Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 is now available for purchase. The release, first announced in January, brings a 504-zone Mini LED screen, Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus feature, and AMD’s Zen 4 CPU architecture to the bestselling gaming line.The new G14 can be purchased at Best Buy or on Asus’ website for a purported starting price of $1,429.99. I’m not seeing a model for this price available on Asus’ store, however, but I have found several models currently selling at Best Buy. It appears that the $1,429.99 model includes an Nvidia RTX 4050, a Ryzen 7 7735HS, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and 512GB of storage. I’m not going to recommend most people buy that model (the combination of the low-powered RTX 4050 and limited storage is not great... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu is adding a few new channels to its live TV lineup. That includes the local PBS stations that are available across the country, PBS Kids, and the Magnolia Network.Hulu says local PBS channels and PBS Kids will start streaming on its Live TV subscription in “the coming months,” which includes shows like American Experience, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, and Nature. While PBS first brought its local channels to YouTube TV in 2019 and later started airing them on DirecTV Stream, the broadcasting company also offers local stations available to stream from its website.Meanwhile, the Magnolia Network, a home-improvement-focused channel, will join Hulu’s live TV lineup on May 25th. This channel airs shows like Fixer Upper, Beach Cottage... Continue reading…

AI was a hot topic at the 2023 Game Developers Conference. | Image: GDC The early days of AI in game development have been full of questions and murky answers. Continue reading…

Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s mostly unreliable tunnel digging venture, has won the approval to expand its “Vegas Loop” system to — wait for it — 69 stations. Nice? Not really.The tunnel system is Musk’s supposedly futuristic idea to alleviate road traffic by shifting some of that bumper-to-bumper traffic underground. The expansion, approved by the Clark County Commissioners, allows The Boring Company to construct 25 miles of additional tunnels for a total of 65 miles and 18 additional stations.The original vision for the Vegas Loop was 51 stations and 29 miles of tunnels — so this represents a pretty big vote of confidence in Musk’s idea of an underground network of Teslas whizzing through tunnels that are only slightly larger... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Xbox that’s had fans questioning the state of Microsoft’s console gaming business. First, there was news of a 30 percent drop in Xbox hardware revenue, followed by the CMA’s decision to block Microsoft’s giant $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, and topped off by Redfall launching earlier this week to a very lukewarm reception.When you combine all of this with a quiet year of Xbox releases in 2022, Xbox fans are wondering when Microsoft is going to deliver a slew of triple-A games like we saw with the Xbox 360 generation.“We’re not in the business of out console-ing Sony or out console-ing Nintendo,” says Xbox chief Phil Spencer in an interview with Kinda Funny Games. Spencer said s... Continue reading…

It’s got a rower and a treadmill, guys. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peloton isn’t keen on the fact people mostly think of it as that bike company, which is why CEO Barry McCarthy says the company will “relaunch its brand” later this month so that more people are aware that it does other things, too. Part of that is relaunching the Peloton app with a new tiered subscription structure.There’s no information on the pricing just yet, but on today’s Q3 2023 earnings call, CFO Liz Coddington said the “app tiers will have different amounts of content variances” depending on the price. Only users who have bought Peloton hardware and pay for All-Access membership will get everything Peloton has to offer.McCarthy also noted on the call that unaided awareness for the Row is at 4 percent, while the Guide, its... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple Arcade is getting 20 new games, and that includes the exclusive launch of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle roguelike.The game, called TMNT Splintered Fate, is a top-down co-op roguelike that has Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael fighting their way through enemies as they search for Master Splinter, who’s gone missing. You can team up with friends or go it alone as you traverse New York City while enlisting help from other characters like April, Metalhead, Casey Jones, and more along the way.

Mozilla is jumping on the Mastodon train but taking a very different approach. | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images If you want to be a member of Mozilla.Social, Mozilla’s new Mastodon instance, you’re not allowed to harass other users. You’re also not allowed to use derogatory language about gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, age, ability, or any other “physical, social or cultural attributes or classifications.” You can’t spread misinformation and disinformation, either. Or impersonate someone. Some of these are normal policies, some are unusually heavy-handed, and they’re all hard to litigate. But Mozilla’s stance is pretty simple and extremely unusual in the social media universe: if it’s debatable, it’s gone.“We’re not going to advertise that we’re some kind of neutral platform,” says Steve Teixeira, Mozilla’s chief product officer. He says... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Waymo is dramatically expanding its robotaxi service areas in Phoenix and San Francisco as it seeks to gain new customers, generate more revenue, and make a convincing argument that self-driving cars are more than just an expensive fad.In Phoenix, the company’s autonomous Jaguar I-PACE vehicles will now cover a total of 180 square miles, or roughly twice the size of its current map and four times the size of the area that the company served when it first launched its ride-hailing operation in 2020.Waymo’s two distinct service areas, Downtown Phoenix and the East Valley communities of Tempe, Gilbert, Mesa, and Chandler, will be connected for the first time. And the company’s robotaxis will also now serve the town of Scottsdale, known... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft is testing new updates to its Photos app for Windows 11, including a Spot Fix tool for fixing up blemishes in photographs and a new slideshow feature. Windows 11 testers in the Canary and Dev Channels can get access to these new features immediately and they should be available to all Windows 11 users in the coming months.The new slideshow experience lets you view your photos in a slideshow format with the usual animations and transitions and cheesy soundtracks. “This was a top feature request we received from the community since launching the new Photos app in Windows 11 last Fall,” says Yvonne Hsieh, a principal product manager for Windows Photos. Image: Microsoft The new slideshow feature in Photos... Continue reading…

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The White House announced more funding and policy guidance for developing responsible artificial intelligence ahead of a Biden administration meeting with top industry executives.The actions include a $140 million investment from the National Science Foundation to launch seven new National AI Research (NAIR) Institutes, increasing the total number of AI-dedicated facilities to 25 nationwide. Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI and other companies have also agreed to allow their language models to be publicly evaluated during this year’s Def Con. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also said that it would be publishing draft rules this summer for how the federal government should use AI technology.“These steps build on the... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is making its Bing GPT-4 chatbot available to everyone today, no more waitlist necessary. All you need to do is sign in to the new Bing or Edge with your Microsoft account, and you’ll now access the open preview version that’s powered by GPT-4. Microsoft is also massively upgrading Bing Chat with lots of new features and even plug-in support.This open preview launch comes nearly two months after Microsoft experimented with removing the waitlist for its new Bing Chat feature. The chatbot originally launched in a private preview in February, and Microsoft has been gradually opening it up ever since. Image: Microsoft Chat history in Bing Chat. Microsoft is now adding more smart features to Bing Chat,... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is revealing a big upgrade for its Bing chatbot today that adds image and video answers, restaurant bookings, chat history, and some smarter Microsoft Edge integration. These new features also coincide with Microsoft making Bing Chat available for anyone to try, moving from private to public preview.Perhaps the biggest addition is a new Actions feature in Bing Chat and Edge. You’ll now be able to use Microsoft’s Bing AI to complete tasks without having to navigate back and forth between sites. So if a search result recommends a restaurant, it can then find a reservation time that works for you and help you book it all in the chat interface. Image: Microsoft Bing Actions can book you a restaurant table.... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission proposed sweeping changes to how Meta operates, accusing the company of violating a suite of child privacy protections, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).In a press release, the agency alleged that Meta violated a 2020 privacy order it had reached with the agency to resolve its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The proposal cites instances in which the company misled parents on the extent of their abilities to control who their children communicate with over services like Messenger Kids and misrepresented the access the company grants third-party app developers to private user data.“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The security team at Meta is acknowledging broad occurrences of fake ChatGPT malware that exists to hack user accounts and take over business pages.In the company’s new Q1 security report, Meta shares that malware operators and spammers are following trends and high-engagement topics that get people’s attention. Of course, the biggest tech trend right now is AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard, so tricking users into trying a fake version is now in fashion — sorry, crypto.Meta security analysts have found about 10 forms of malware posing as AI chatbot-related tools like ChatGPT since March. Some of these exist as web browser extensions and toolbars (classic) — even being available through unnamed official web stores. The W... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord is taking away the four-digit tag that it puts after its usernames as it looks to make it “easier to connect” with other users. As noted in a post on Discord’s blog, this change will force most users to change their usernames, as Discord will no longer have the four-number tag that distinguishes one person with the same username from another.Instead of having a four-number discriminator appended to your username, you will now have a unique alphanumeric username with the “@” symbol in front of it. You’ll also get to choose a non-unique display name that can include special characters, spaces, emoji, and non-Latin characters, making the platform a lot more like other mainstream social networks, such as Twitter and Instagram. It... Continue reading…