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by Ash Parrish on (#6E9AF)
Panic / The Verge Today, Panic put on its very first game publisher showcase. The showcase was short but very sweet, featuring some of the most interesting and innovative indie games coming to PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Switch. Here are all the highlights, including a surprise announcement from the makers of Untitled Goose Game.ArcoArco comes from an international team of developers, artists, and storytellers. It's a tactical action game that pits regular people against an all-powerful corporate gang. In the reveal trailer, the diverse landscapes exude so much ecological detail rendered in pixel graphics, and the combat seems like a real-time action game. Arco is due on Steam in 2024.Thank Goodness You're HereThank Goodness You're Here, or TGYH for... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-03-23 11:20 |
by Emma Roth on (#6E9AH)
Image: iFixit via YouTube McDonald's ice cream machines are so notorious for breaking that it's become a meme. But now we may have some glimmer of Shamrock Shake-flavored hope: not only has iFixit performed a teardown of McDonald's machines, but it's also petitioning the government to let it create the parts required for people to fix them.As shown in a video posted to YouTube, iFixit purchased the same ice cream machine model used by McDonald's and spent hours trying to get it up and running. The machine spit out numerous error codes that iFixit says are nonsensical, counterintuitive, and seemingly random, even if you spent hours reading the manual."Despite consisting of easily replaceable parts," such as three printed circuit boards, a motor and belt, and a... Continue reading...
by Wes Davis on (#6E97B)
The new WhatsApp native app for macOS. | Image: Meta WhatsApp has released a redesigned, native WhatsApp app for macOS that brings group calls to Apple's desktop operating system. The app supports up to eight people in a group video session and as many as 32 in an audio call, both of which will have the same end-to-end encryption featured in its app on other platforms. The app was previously in open beta.In addition to video calling, users can drag and drop files into chats, and the company says the app also shows more chat history. The design, Meta says, is intended to be familiar to Mac users," with a UI that better suits the larger screen of a desktop machine. Indeed, the app borrows a lot more from the macOS built-in Messages than the previous app, as you can see in this screenshot... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6E97C)
The iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro. | Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple's next big product launch is nearly here. The company just sent invitations for an event on September 12th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, where the company is expected to announce the iPhone 15 lineup and new Apple Watches.In the invite sent by Apple, the company says its Wonderlust" event will take place live from Apple Park. The invite also includes the Apple logo in gray, blue, and black, which may tease the color options that the iPhone 15 Pro lineup is rumored to come in. Image: Apple Apple's event invitation. The iPhone 15 lineup will probably be the star of the event. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are expected to look a lot like the iPhone 14 but with a couple of key differences. The notch at the top of... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6E97D)
Image: Firaxis Games It seems like Steam has a new themed sale event every other week, and this week, it's Strategy Fest. As part of the sale, which started officially yesterday and lasts until 1PM ET on September 4th, you can get deals on a slew of strategy games of all stripes.Of course, you can expect all the fan favorites to be deeply discounted. Civilization VI is at a there is no real justification for not buying it" price of $5.99, or 90 percent off, while Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition is half off at $19.99.But if you're new to strategy games or strategy game-curious, those titles can be a bit overwhelming as starting points. Fortunately, Steam curated this bundle of games widely to include titles you might not think of as strategy games... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6E97F)
Image: Samsung You can't just stick any regular TV out on the back porch and expect it to survive; there's a reason outdoor TVs usually sell for a hefty premium. They're designed to withstand the elements over an extended time while offering enough brightness to overcome direct sunlight. Samsung has a special line of outdoor TVs called The Terrace that's part of the company's lifestyle" series, which also includes The Frame, The Sero, and The Serif. And today, it's adding the biggest-sized screen to that lineup yet: a new 85-inch Terrace is now available for preorder. And it costs $19,999. Yep, a buck shy of 20 grand.It's worth highlighting that Samsung has made some fresh upgrades for this 85-inch model. It now offers Neo QLED" picture technology... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6E97E)
Image: Specialized Specialized announced the second e-bike from its resurrected Globe brand, the Haul LT, a long-tailed (the LT" in the name) cargo bike with fat tires, a sturdy aluminum frame, and a $3,500 price tag.A quick recap: in 2022, Specialized announced it was bringing back its defunct Globe logo for a lineup of heavy-duty e-bikes that could carry a ton of stuff but wouldn't break the bank. The first, the Haul ST, went on sale earlier this year and instantly won accolades for its utility, ride quality, and whimsical design.A Class 3 e-bike with a 700-watt rear-hub motor and 772-watt-hour battery, the Haul LT looks every bit the Haul ST's successor. Design-wise, the two bikes are nearly indistinguishable, aside from the extended rear rack.... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6E97G)
Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge How do you define what it means to be you in the all-digital 21st century - and how should systems protect that? Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6E930)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube wants to give content creators who violate its guidelines a second chance. Creators will now get the option to take an educational training course" when they receive a community guidelines warning, and in exchange, YouTube will lift that warning from their account.YouTube previously issued a lifetime warning to channels that violated its content guidelines and removed the video in question. The lifetime warning stayed on a YouTuber's account forever and preceded the strikes that a creator would receive for breaking its rules again.Under YouTube's new policies, the platform will still take down the video in violation of its rules, but it will give creators a chance to get rid of YouTube's warning by having them take a class... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6E931)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When the Securities and Exchange Commission denied Grayscale its petition for a Bitcoin ETF, that action was arbitrary and capricious," an appeals court ruled today. The SEC ruling has been vacated.Last year, Grayscale applied for the approval for the fund and was denied. An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a pooled investment that is tied to a specific set of assets, which might be an index, a sector, a set of commodities, or something else. Grayscale's is something else" - Bitcoin. That could let large investors, such as pension funds, invest in Bitcoin.The SEC has previously approved ETFs that track Bitcoin futures, but not so-called spot ETFs, which directly track Bitcoin price. Grayscale wanted to convert its Bitcoin trust to... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6E932)
Samsung's smart appliances will work in LG's ThinQ app. | Image: Samsung The smart home is all about interoperability these days. First came Matter, making Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung play nice, and now large appliance manufacturers LG, Samsung, GE, and Vestel are going all kumbaya.Today, at the IFA tech show in Berlin, LG and Samsung announced that before the end of 2024, their respective smart home apps will be able to control each other's appliances and TVs. So, LG's ThinQ app can tell you when you left the door open on your Samsung Family Hub smart fridge, and Samsung's SmartThings app can set your LG washer to delicate mode. You should also be able to control each company's TV's with their competitors' apps.This cooperation is the work of the Home Connectivity Alliance, an industry coalition... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6E933)
Khabib Nurmagomedov has Conor McGregor in a chokehold. | Photo By Stephen McCarthy / Sportsfile via Getty Images The NFL, NBA, and UFC are looking to inject some urgency into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to have the law shut down illegal livestreams sooner. The sports organizations believe that the law needs to define more specifically how quickly a DMCA takedown notice should take effect, according to a letter they sent to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seen by TorrentFreak.DMCA was signed during the Clinton administration in 1998 and specified that takedown notices be processed expeditiously," as written in Section 512 of the act. In the letter sent to the USPTO, dated August 23rd, the NFL, NBA, and UFC urge the government to change the expeditiously" verbiage to instantaneously or near-instantaneously."When I... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6E935)
iOS and web users of Google Photos can conceal sensitive images and videos from their feeds and other apps. | Image: Google Some updates are rolling out across Google Photos that should make it easier to secure and access your sensitive images across all of your devices. Starting today, the Locked Folder feature - which allows Android users to hide specific photos and videos behind a passcode - is coming to iOS and web users, with a new option to back up Locked Folders to access those encrypted images across multiple devices with the help of Google's cloud.The Locked Folder is a neat feature if you have any sensitive (okay, let's be real here - nude) images or videos you'd rather keep away from prying eyes. Not only do Locked Folders provide a layer of password protection but also protected files won't appear in your photo feed or other apps, which should... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6E934)
The Making of Karateka. | Image: Digital Eclipse With The Making of Karateka, the studio continues to refine its interactive documentaries, providing a video game-native way of presenting the classics. Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E936)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Auracast makes it possible to share high-quality audio with an unlimited" number of devices, and now, Samsung says it's bringing Auracast to its Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and its newest Neo QLED 8K and MicroLED TVs with a rollout starting in September. The company doesn't say if this means an unlimited number of Galaxy Buds can connect to the TVs, but it will certainly be more than the current limit of two.Samsung reminds you in a footnote in its announcement that range and physical interference will still be factors in determining how many earbuds can connect to the TV - it's still wireless data transmission, after all.Bluetooth LE Audio, which is the standard that enables Auracast, was introduced last year, bringing with it a promising... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6E937)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta took down thousands of accounts in what appears to be the largest known cross-platform covert influence operation in the world," the company said in a transparency report published today. The operation targeted more than 50 platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X (previously Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit.The campaign promoted positive commentary" about China and Xinjiang province, where the Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses and forced labor targeting members of the Uyghur ethnic minority. Other posts criticized the US, Western foreign policies, and journalists and researchers seen as critics" of the Chinese government, according to Meta.The influence campaign was based in China but targeted... Continue reading...
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by Chris Welch on (#6E8ZF)
Image: Marshall Marshall earbuds seem to be aimed at people who want a little more edge and to stand out from Apple's ubiquitous AirPods. The guitar amp company has already released several generations of buds, and today, it's announcing its latest pair. The $199 Motif II ANC will be available on September 12th, and they're said to offer improved noise cancellation and 10 additional hours of total battery life compared to the prior model. Marshall says you can expect six hours of continuous playback or a total of 30 hours including the charging case.The Motif II ANC are also Marshall's first buds to be LE Audio-ready. This future-proof technology delivers higher quality audio, while increasing the streaming range and improving audio sync, for a... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6E8ZE)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge By the end of this month, porn will get a lot harder to watch in Texas. Instead of clicking a button or entering a date of birth to access Pornhub and other adult sites, users will need to provide photos of their official government-issued ID or use a third-party service to verify their age. It's the result of a new law passed earlier this summer intended to prevent kids from seeing porn online. But it's also part of a broad - and worrying - attempt to age-gate the internet.Texas may be the biggest state rolling out anti-porn rules, but it's not the first. In the last year alone, more than half a dozen states have passed similar legislation and even more are looking to follow suit. While these rules are focused on adult content,... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6E8ZD)
Sony is twinning it. Sony is once again trickling down high-end camera features to newer lower-cost models while simultaneously making some confounding design decisions. The new cameras are the $2,199.99 Sony A7C II and the $2,999.99 Sony A7C R, a pair of compact mirrorless twins that look and function mostly the same except for the resolution of their sensors. This pair of cameras are successors to 2020's compact and well-regarded A7C. They are due to launch in September along with a new $2,299.99 Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 II ultrawide zoom lens.The A7C II's price puts it at $400 more than the first-generation model at launch, which is a steep increase. Sony typically keeps older models around even after they've been updated, though, so it will likely still be... Continue reading...
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6E8ZG)
Courtesy of Netflix Netflix doesn't have the best track record with comic book adaptations, but the streamer's first trailer for The Killer from director David Fincher looks like it might be a hit to watch out for.Based on the 1998 comic book series created by writer Matz and artist Luc Jacamon, The Killer tells the story of an unnamed hitman who, after years of expertly murdering targets and leaving no trace of his involvement, starts to slip up in ways that make him question his grasp on reality.Like the comic, the new teaser trailer details how - aside from his marksmanship skills - a big part of what makes the killer (Michael Fassbender) so deadly is his preternatural patience and strict adherence to a professional code that's always running through... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6E8ZJ)
Snapchat users will soon able to create their own Dreams in the Memories section of the app. | Image: Snap After releasing its My AI chatbot earlier this year, Snapchat is now jumping on the AI selfie bandwagon with a new feature called Dreams.Located in the camera roll section of Snapchat called Memories, Dreams are the company's own take on the generative AI selfies that one-off apps like Lensa have already popularized. After uploading a series of real-life selfies in the app specifically for Dreams, Snapchat displays a series of eight-photo packs to choose from with themes like doppelgangers or back-to-school.The first pack of Dreams is free to make and each additional one costs $1 as an in-app purchase. Snapchat users in Australia and New Zealand are getting access to Dreams starting today, followed by access opening up to the rest of... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6E8ZH)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Grubhub's bringing Amazon's cashierless Just Walk Out technology to some colleges, the company announced today. The food delivery service will first focus on rolling out the tech to colleges, starting with Loyola University Maryland next week before expanding nationwide.The tech is capable of identifying items taken from and returned to shelves so students and staff can buy food from on-campus stores without waiting in line. After scanning a QR code in the Grubhub app, the company will automatically charge their Grubhub-linked meal plans or other stored payment methods after they leave the store.With Just Walk Out technology and Grubhub, students, faculty, and staff will find a convenient way to purchase the items they need with a... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6E8ZK)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you have an Android phone or tablet, your Google account is intrinsic to everything you do, from checking emails in Gmail to making payments with Google Wallet - which is why you're prompted to log in to a Google account every time you set up a new Android device.However, Android doesn't limit you to one Google account per device. As with Windows and macOS, you can set up multiple logins and switch between them. This means, for example, that you're able to share an Android tablet with your partner or jump between work and personal Google accounts on your phone.Each different user on a phone or tablet gets their own customization settings (for wallpapers and homescreens), their own space for photos, documents, and other files, and... Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6DZ0B)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Over the last few months, Elon Musk's X, which was formerly known as Twitter, has been a bubbling cauldron of strange advertising decisions, continuous upheavals, and weird overflows of testosterone.Not that Twitter has ever been calm waters. Before Musk, Twitter was the social media world's most reliable double-edged sword. One minute, you were retweeting a funny meme account and enjoying some wholesome discussion about your current TV binge fixation, and the next, you were being buried by a harassment campaign or finding your day ruined by a thread that makes you want to throw your laptop through the window.Either way, if you're now on X or were ever on Twitter, it's a good idea to take precautions with your posting history since,... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6E8VK)
Next time you zone out in a meeting, Meet can help you catch up on what you missed. | Image: Google If Google Meet's new AI tools are as good as advertised, you might never need to pay attention to another meeting again - or even show up at all. At its Cloud Next conference today, Google revealed a handful of new AI-powered features coming soon to Meet.One of the biggest new AI-enabled features is the ability for Google's Duet AI to take notes in real time: click take notes for me," and the app will capture a summary and action items as the meeting is going on. If you're late to a meeting, Google will be able to show you a mid-meeting summary so that you can catch up on what happened. During the call, you'll be able to talk privately with a Google chatbot to go over details you might have missed. And when the meeting is over, you can... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6E8VN)
With SynthID, you should be able to edit a photo all you want without destroying the AI watermark. | Image: Google The Google DeepMind team has believed for years that building great generative AI tools also requires building great tools to detect what has been created by AI. There are plenty of obvious, high-stakes reasons why, says Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. Every time we talk about it and other systems, it's, What about the problem of deepfakes?'" With another contentious election season coming in 2024 in both the US and the UK, Hassabis says that building systems to identify and detect AI imagery is more important all the time.Hassabis and his team have been working on a tool for the last few years, which Google is releasing publicly today. It's called SynthID, and it's designed to essentially watermark an AI-generated image in a way... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6E8VM)
Google Chat now looks more like Slack. And Teams. And everything else. | Image: Google Google is making some big changes to Google Chat, its answer to Slack and Microsoft Teams. The messaging app - aka The Product Formerly Known As Hangouts - is getting a new design, some features that will feel distinctly familiar to Slack and Teams users, and a lot of Google's new Duet AI collaboration tools. Most of the new features are rolling out later this year and early next, but they add up to a much more useful and competitive Chat platform.Duet is the flagship new feature and potentially a reason for a lot of Workspace users to start using Chat. You can use Duet to search and ask questions about all your stuff in Drive and Gmail and summarize both documents and conversations. You'll also be able to use AI-powered autocorrect in... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6E8VP)
Image: The Verge General Motors is using conversational AI chatbots to handle simple OnStar calls, freeing up the service's human employees to address more complex requests, the company said Tuesday.GM offered more details about its use of AI to coincide with Google's Cloud Next conference. GM has been working hand in hand with the tech giant on a number of fronts, including Google's built-in infotainment software and OnStar.The automaker introduced its OnStar Interactive Virtual Assistant in 2022, which utilizes Google Cloud's conversational AI technologies to provide responses to common inquiries, as well as routing and navigation assistance. And GM is already planning for future uses of AI in its vehicles.GM offered more details about its use of... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6E8VQ)
Duet AI is meant to be a collaborator and a productivity tool all in one chatbot. | Image: Google / The Verge Google announced today that it is rolling out its Duet AI assistant across all of its Workspace apps, including Gmail, Drive, Slides, Docs, and more. The Duet tech has been in testing for a while, the company said, with more than a million people already kicking the tires on Google's virtual assistant. Now, it's coming to anyone paying for Google's Workspace apps.Google announced Duet AI at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, pitching the collection of features as a helpful collaborator in all your Google apps. You might ask Duet to turn your Google Docs outline into a deck in Slides or have it make a chart out of the data in a spreadsheet. Duet can also be a creative tool - you can prompt it to write an email response,... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6E8VR)
Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft has created custom limited edition Xbox consoles for years, but it's now offering up a way to customize your existing Xbox Series X console without having to buy a new one. The new Xbox Series X wraps were announced last week, with a Starfield-branded version arriving in October, followed by camo editions in November. I've been trying out the Starfield one.The Xbox Series X wrap folds down neatly into a package that's the width of the console, and when attached will cover all the sides fully with the exception of the rear. It feels very similar to Microsoft's Surface Pro keyboards: soft to touch, thin, and lightweight. The wrap fits snugly around an Xbox Series X and is held in place by velcro at the rear.
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6E8RZ)
You get a choice of storage but both available models ship with a fixed 12GB of RAM. | Image: Oppo Oppo has officially unveiled the Find N3 Flip - the company's latest clamshell-style foldable smartphone - at a launch event in China. It arrives six months after sales of the Find N2 Flip predecessor began internationally, and just a month after Samsung's global launch of the Galaxy Z Flip.A global release date and price hasn't been provided for the Find N3 Flip, but Oppo claims in a press release that it'll be coming soon" to international markets. It's also unclear if Oppo will release the N3 in the US, unlike the N2 Flip.While sporting a similar clamshell design to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, Oppo's offering differs in its camera array which might give it an edge. Compared to the Z Flip 5's 12 megapixel main camera and a 12... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6E8HP)
Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images When Elon Musk livestreamed a drive through Palo Alto, California on Friday afternoon, he was holding his phone - which is plainly and clearly illegal under California law. But the Palo Alto Police Department won't be issuing a fine, it tells The Verge, because police didn't witness the crime themselves.Had an officer observed the driver with the phone in their hand, they could have issued the driver an infraction ticket for violating California's handsfree law," writes Palo Alto PD Captain James Reifschneider.As no officer witnessed it happening in person at the time of occurrence, though, no ticket is forthcoming," he told me via email.There's no question that Musk was in control of the vehicle: he was forced to stop his Full... Continue reading...
by Emma Roth on (#6E8DT)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has a message to employees who don't want to return to the office: It's not going to work out for you." That's according to a report from Insider, which says Jassy made that statement during a meeting earlier this month.While Amazon ordered its employees to return to the office for three days per week starting in May, many Amazon employees weren't happy about the decision. Thousands of workers signed a petition against the mandate and staged a walkout in response.That clearly hasn't changed Amazon's position on the matter. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Insider, Jassy told workers, It's past the time to disagree and commit," adding that if you can't disagree and commit... it's probably not going to... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6E8BP)
Image: The Verge The next version of Microsoft's Edge web browser might end up with fewer features than before. The new Edge version 117, which is currently in beta and expected to turn stable on September 14th, according to Neowin and 9to5Google, has five features slated for removal. Those features include Math Solver, Picture Dictionary, Citations, Grammar Tools, and Kids Mode.Microsoft previously mentioned the deprecation" of these features in its last beta channel release notes on August 25th. The company said the reason is to improve end user experience and simplify the More tools menu." Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge The More Tools menu on a stable release of Microsoft Edge. As Microsoft tries to get more people... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E8BQ)
AMC's logos as seen in the trailer for the second season of Dark Winds. | Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge A handful of AMC Plus shows, including Fear the Walking Dead and Killing Eve, will have a temporary home on Max, Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service, starting September 1st and going through October 31st. Statements provided to multiple outlets by executives from both services' parent companies make it clear the goal of the deal is to help AMC Plus while adding more content to Max, which is good because, with the strikes in Hollywood bringing productions to a halt and the challenges AMC is facing in the cable space, both companies probably need it.This promotional arrangement with Warner Bros. Discovery is a terrific opportunity to serve up some of our most popular and critically acclaimed programming to millions of Max... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6E88M)
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI finally released a version of ChatGPT that promises to protect business data as more companies consider using the platform but worry about privacy and security.In a blog post, OpenAI said ChatGPT Enterprise offers better security and privacy, unlimited high-speed access to GPT-4, more powerful data analysis so companies understand information much faster, and the ability to ask more complicated questions to ChatGPT.Privacy and security have been a concern for businesses who fear their data could be used to train ChatGPT and are worried that using the tool might accidentally expose sensitive customer information to AI models. OpenAI said users of ChatGPT Enterprise will have control and ownership over their data, which will not... Continue reading...
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by Nathan Edwards on (#6E88N)
Google Home automations just got a lot more powerful. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Google Home is getting smarter. In a pair of blog posts published today, Google announced a bunch of new automation starters and actions rolling out in the Home app as well as some really cool features coming to the script editor for those enrolled in Public Preview.The new starters in the Home app include the ability to trigger routines when devices open or close, in response to temperature or humidity changes or occupancy sensing, if devices are plugged in, start charging, or dock or undock, or if the volume is muted or unmuted. Image: Google The new automations go a long way toward making Google Home an actual smart home platform. New actions include opening or closing devices (like shades), pausing or... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6E88P)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is once again flirting with a $35 minimum for non-Prime subscribers to qualify for free shipping. It's currently testing the increased minimum order amount, which has been set at $25 since 2017. The price actually started at $25 before Amazon raised it to $35 in 2013, then raised it again to $49 in 2016, when it began lowering it to $35 and, later, $25. (Yes, it's all very confusing.)Amazon's ongoing roller-coaster ride of pricing naturally pushes people toward its $139 per-year Prime membership - where you don't have to worry about minimum order amounts on items that qualify for free two-day shipping (or faster).CNBC's reporting indicates that the minimum order hike hasn't yet rolled out to all non-Prime accounts, and a quick... Continue reading...
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by Georgina Torbet on (#6E85Y)
Photo by Paul Hennessy / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A new crew recently arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), ready to begin a six-month stint of life in orbit. During its stay, Crew-7 will work on scientific research, including a new suite of experiments into the effects of spaceflight on the human body over time - information that could be crucial to future crewed missions to the Moon and beyond.The crew consists of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.The launch had been scheduled for Friday, August 25th, but was delayed by around 24 hours for an extra safety review of the valves in the Dragon's environmental control and... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6E85Z)
Poe is now available on the web, iOS, Android, and the Mac. | Image: The Verge Poe, the AI chatbot platform created by Quora, has added a slew of updates, including a Mac app, the ability to have multiple simultaneous conversations with the same AI bot, access to Meta's Llama 2 model, and more. It's also planning an enterprise tier so that companies can manage the platform for their employees, according to an email that was recently sent to Poe users.As my colleague David Pierce wrote in April, Poe's ambition is to be the web browser for AI chatbots. Adam D'Angelo, the CEO of Poe's parent company Quora, also sits on the board of OpenAI and thinks that the number of AI bots will keep increasing. Poe wants to be the one place where you can find them all.I think there's going to be this massive ecosystem similar... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6E860)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Elon Musk's Tesla almost ran a red light while livestreaming a demo of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software. Musk was also livestreaming the demo while in the driver's seat, violating Tesla's rules for its advanced driver-assist technology. Oh, and he kind of doxxes Mark Zuckerberg, too.The roughly 45-minute video was meant to demonstrate the prowess of v12 of Tesla's advanced driver-assist technology, which has yet to be released to customers. And while the vehicle appears to be operating safely for the majority of the trip, it still ends up being a bizarre experience - which is typical of all things Musk.
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by Wes Davis on (#6E861)
An alleged image of the iPhone 15 USB-C port. | Image: Majin Bu Apple said last year it will bring USB-C to the iPhone, and now alleged pictures of the iPhone 15's USB-C port hint at light blue and green colors for Apple's new non-Pro phones, according to leaker Majin Bu (via AppleInsider). The images, which were shared on X (formerly Twitter) this morning, show three naked USB-C modules in the two colors, as well as a dark, black shade. In addition, Majin Bu shared pictures of somewhat crude mock-ups of the phone, including one with an apparently off-center hole for the USB-C port.
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by Umar Shakir on (#6E862)
A rendering of Mercedes-Benz's charging hub. | Image: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz announced its first electric vehicle DC fast charging hubs will launch in the fourth quarter of 2023, with the first station locations coming to Atlanta, Georgia; Chengdu, China; and Mannheim, Germany. The so-called Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging Network" will have 2,000 chargers installed worldwide by the end of 2024, the automaker said.At the beginning of this year, Mercedez-Benz announced it would go halfsies on spending about $1 billion with solar company MN8 Energy to build out a major worldwide charging network for electric vehicle owners. At the time, its plans included the installation of more than 2,500 DC fast chargers provided by ChargePoint at 400 hub locations in North America.Today, Mercedez-Benz says it... Continue reading...
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by Elizabeth Lopatto on (#6E82P)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Today, the SEC announced its first enforcement action against NFTs in a case that was settled by Impact Theory, the NFTs' issuer.The SEC said the NFTs issued by Impact Theory were unlicensed securities. The company agreed to a cease-and-desist order, paid $6.1 million in penalties, and agreed to destroy all of the NFTs in question still in its control. Impact Theory will also eliminate any royalties that it might have received from sales of those NFTs on secondary markets.It's not clear whether the enforcement action means the SEC broadly views NFTs as securities offeringsIn 2021, the company sold three tiers of NFTs that it called Founder's Keys. Impact Theory invited potential investors to view the purchase of a KeyNFT as an... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6E82Q)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge DoorDash is launching a new answering service for restaurants that could put you on the phone with AI when ordering takeout or delivery. With the new service, restaurants can have AI field phone calls and take orders from customers, with live agents available to support customers at any time."The answering service is supposed to pick up every phone call that restaurants receive, making it easier for staff to manage takeout orders while juggling in-person customers. When someone calls in, the AI-powered service will attempt to upsell them by offering curated recommendations to complement their meal," while also offering multiple language options. Meanwhile, callers who have ordered from the restaurant before will get the chance to... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6E82R)
Image: Matt Jewell Hey, remember when Foxconn bought a bunch of buildings around Wisconsin just before an election and said it was building innovation centers" around the state in a transparent attempt to build support for the giant tax credits it was given to build an LCD factory that never arrived? Yeah, it's selling two of those buildings. The news was first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, which got a quote from Foxconn saying that selling its Green Bay property, known as the Watermark building, will add to the vibrancy of the city's downtown." Very good.You might recall two of these buildings, in Eau Claire and Green Bay, because The Verge's Josh Dzieza went and looked in the windows months after they were purchased and noticed they were empty.... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6E82S)
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images This story originally ran in Hot Pod Insider, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Hope everyone who attended Podcast Movement is replenished and recovered! Last week, I sent a special recap of the conference to Insider subscribers of Hot Pod - which we're now making available to everyone for free.Tomorrow, I'll be back with more in-depth news, analysis, and goodies related to the conference and more.Want more from Hot Pod Insider? Sign up here - the first month is free.Podcast Movement 2023: the good, the bad, the uneventfulWhat does being a podcaster" mean in 2023? It's a descriptor that covers YouTube-native creators like Ethan and Hila Klein of the H3 Podcast. It applies to... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6E82T)
Illustration: The Verge Google and Meta tend to pay their software engineers more than their peers in Big Tech, according to new data from Blind, an anonymous forum for tech employees.Apple and Microsoft, meanwhile, pay the least for entry-level engineers on average, though compensation tends to become more comparable across Big Tech for senior talent. Amazon's promotions can take longer than its peers, and its pay ranges for engineers are the widest.The data is based on self-reported compensation packages from Blind users from January of last year to this month. While public companies have to report the average annual compensation for all their employees compared to what their CEOs make, this kind of level-specific pay data is closely guarded unless you are... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6E82V)
Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge The 13-inch Apple MacBook Air with M2 is on sale for its lowest price to date, dropping to just $899 ($200 off) for the base model at Best Buy. The M2 Air starts with 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and an eight-core M2 processor, though if you prefer stepping up to the 512GB model with faster storage and a 10-core chip, that's also $200 off and selling for an all-time low of $1,199 at Best Buy.The M2 MacBook Air earned our top rank of all laptops not long after it was released in fall of 2022; at the time, it started at $1,199. It got a $100 price cut once Apple introduced the larger 15-inch version, so getting that same laptop for just $899 is a bit of a steal now. The M2 Air is an excellent everyday machine that's super thin and light... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6E82W)
This banana is being operated by a Da Vinci Xi robot located in Los Angeles. No 5G was involved. | Image: Dr. Kais Rona / Instagram A couple weeks ago, I asked Vergecast listeners to send me real-world examples of meaningful 5G experiences since the 5G hype-industrial complex so intensely overpromised what the tech would deliver. My go-to example is the impressive network capacity at NFL stadiums, which has allowed thousands of people to simultaneously livestream the Eras Tour at every stop, but that's basically all I can think of.What I was not expecting was for so many people to send me versions of a video that shows a banana getting stitches in a robotic surgery device, with the captions claiming that the surgery is being done remotely over 5G. This video has had an incredible journey; it has been reposted dozens of times across multiple platforms, all with the... Continue reading...