The Verge

India is now the first nation to successfully achieve a soft landing near the Moon's southern pole. | Photo by INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP via Getty Images India's Chandrayaan-3 mission has made space travel history today by successfully achieving a soft landing near the south pole of Earth's Moon, just days after Russia's Luna 25 spacecraft crashed while trying to land in the same region. India is now the fourth nation to achieve a soft Moon landing and the first to have successfully touched down on the lunar south pole - a little-explored area of the Moon that's believed to contain water ice.Three other nations - the US, China, and the former Soviet Union - have all previously achieved a soft landing near the Moon's equator, a safer region with (comparatively) amiable temperatures and terrain and reliable sunlight to recharge solar-powered instruments. During a live stream of the... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has announced that businesses can now fine-tune GPT-3.5 Turbo using their own data - OpenAI claims the resulting custom model can match or exceed the abilities of GPT-4 for certain tasks. Later this fall, the company says it will open up the arguably more advanced GPT-4 for the same purpose.Fine-tuning lets businesses essentially hone ChatGPT to a more focused model that's especially efficient for certain tasks. The supervised training would make a bot that's unique to the client company so that it offers, say, reliable responses in a specific language or with more concise wording. Until now, business customers were limited to GPT-3 variants for this, like davinci-002 or babbage-002.The model would come pre-trained, like GPT-4,... Continue reading...

HBO and Max content leader Casey Bloys. | Photo: Warner Bros. Discovery HBO and Max content leader Casey Bloys is coming to the Code Conference next month to discuss the state of streaming and the company's big rebrand with Vox senior correspondent Peter Kafka.Bloys spent nearly two decades working on HBO's programming and has overseen a parade of critical and cultural hits, from Game of Thrones to Succession. Now, he has to expand that sensibility to include programming that fits in the context of Max - the much broader new streaming service that includes a world of content from DC, Discovery, Food Network, and more.The platform's transformation into Max comes as streaming services are finally starting to feel some pressure. Their days of rapid growth and endless content budgets are behind them, and... Continue reading...

Photo by Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images Google has made clear it is going to use the open web to inform and create anything it wants, and nothing can get in its way. Except maybe Frank Sinatra. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft Paint could be the next Windows app to get the AI treatment. According to a report from Windows Central, Microsoft is exploring ways to bring AI-powered features to the app in Windows 11, which could include the ability to generate a canvas based on a text prompt.Sources tell Windows Central that the AI feature will be powered by the same technology behind Bing's Image Creator, a tool that spits out an image based on your description. You can see how the integration might look in what appears to be an internal mock-up posted by Windows Central.The image shows a Magic Paint" button, along with a sidebar that lets you enter a description of an image for it to generate. It seems like you can then transfer that image to your... Continue reading...

Vehicles and housing structures are partially submerged after Tropical Storm Hilary flooded a community of unhoused people on August 21st, 2023, in Cathedral City, California. | Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images Disasters have no borders, and a summer of unexpected catastrophe across the US shows it. California is notorious for drought and fire, not tropical storms like Hilary that barreled over Los Angeles this week. The East Coast expects hurricanes, not the pollution nightmare triggered by smoke that drifted in from blazes hundreds of miles away. Hawaii's native greenery isn't supposed to burn, and yet fires engulfed Maui.Climate change is sending new calamities to new places - a phenomenon that can be observed not just in the US but all over the world. It's piling disaster upon disaster on communities figuring out how to adapt to these new realities. Often, they're faced with some new crisis while still recovering from a previous one.C... Continue reading...

Image: Clay Enos / Netflix Zack Snyder is heading far from Earth for his next film. The director of 300 and Justice League just revealed a teaser trailer for Rebel Moon, a sci-fi movie coming to Netflix in December. This is the first proper look at the film, though Netflix previously released a behind-the-scenes featurette at its Tudum event in June. Today's trailer was revealed as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live in Germany.Rebel Moon appears to be Synder's attempt at creating his own sci-fi epic. Here's the basic premise:

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is surprise launching Age of Empires IV on Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One consoles and Xbox Game Pass today. The latest game was announced for Xbox consoles last year with a 2023 promise, and Xbox Cloud Gaming players will also be able to stream Age of Empires IV.Age of Empires IV originally launched in late 2021 on PC, and Microsoft added the title to its PC Game Pass service. Microsoft has added a tutorial to the console port of Age of Empires IV, which helps players get used to the controller layout. There's also optional cross-play multiplayer support between PC and Xbox players and full keyboard and mouse support.Real-time strategy (RTS) games aren't an obvious fit for consoles and controller play, but Microsoft released... Continue reading...

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Microsoft Designer, the company's free AI-powered design tool, is now broadly available to Edge users in the US. This means you can access Designer from Edge's sidebar, allowing you to generate designs without opening up a separate tab or program.After launching Designer last year, Microsoft announced in April that it would build the tool into Edge. The integration lets you create a number of designs, such as social media posts, fliers, greeting cards, invitations, and more - all from Edge's sidebar.Once you enter a prompt, Designer's AI will pull up a grid of suggested designs, complete with text and a photo. You can also tweak any of these designs to your liking, whether you want to swap out a photo, add an illustration, or change... Continue reading...

Image: Level Infinite The Command & Conquer series is getting another mobile game. The new title, Command & Conquer: Legions, offers a reimagined storyline," a new approach to strategy gameplay" that opens endless strategic possibilities," and includes iconic heroes and villains, factions, and a vast array of units" from the series, according to a blog post.Legions is set to launch later this year on iOS and Android. There will be a closed beta test on Android that kicks off this month in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the Philippines.The game is being released by Level Infinite, which has reached a licensing agreement with Command & Conquer owner, EA. Level Infinite is also working on Assassin's Creed Codename Jade, a mobile entry... Continue reading...

Image: Bungie The first saga in Destiny's universe is coming to an end with an epic battle between light and darkness. Destiny's light and darkness saga has always been about The Traveler, a mysterious entity in the universe of Destiny that hangs motionless in the sky as a source of light for Destiny players. Now, The Traveler is asking Destiny 2 players for help, and it's time to answer that call on February 27th.A mysterious enemy, The Witness, has already entered The Traveler, and now, Destiny 2: The Final Shape players will have to venture inside to help defeat The Witness. What awaits inside is the Pale Heart, a first linear destination that's unlike anything we've seen in Destiny during its nearly 10-year history. Image:... Continue reading...

Photo by JC Olivera / Getty Images Opening Night Live 2023 will have over two hours of trailers and announcements. Just don't expect too many world premieres. Continue reading...

Image: Suzanne Tenner / Lucasfilm Ltd. At this point, live-action Star Wars shows are no longer novel. In fact, it's getting pretty crowded out there, with everything from the ongoing adventures of The Mandalorian to series like Andor, Obi-Wan, and The Book of Boba Fett. So, a new story like Ahsoka needs to do something a little different to stand out from the ever-growing pack. And in its first two episodes, the series manages to do just that by focusing on a very specific and important part of the Star Wars mythos: mystery.The show starts out like classic Star Wars, complete with a title crawl (this time in red text) followed by a massive spaceship slowly making its way through the inky expanse of space. The story - which takes place roughly during the same period as The... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix won't charge DVD.com customers for any discs they still have after September 29th, the company announced from its DVD.com account on X on Monday. That generous offer, combined with Netflix's recent announcement that it may send customers as many as 10 extra discs from their queues, means that some people might end up with a bunch of disc copies of movies, courtesy of Netflix.DVD.com customers will need to visit a special link on DVD.com by August 29th to apply for the promotional offer. Netflix will then send up to 10 random discs based on the movies in the subscriber's queue.

The Atari 2600 Plus. | Image: Atari Atari has announced it's relaunching its most well-known console as the Atari 2600 Plus on November 17th for $129.99, with preorders open now. It's a fully functioning, 80 percent scale, HDMI-outputting version of the console that comes with a 10-in-1 game cartridge. Atari says it even supports both 2600 and later 7800 game cartridges and will work with the original joystick and paddle controllers.Aside from being a little smaller and gaining HDMI and USB-C ports, the 2600 Plus is mostly unchanged. The front bears a strip of wood paneling with a light-up Atari logo, while four toggle switches flank its cartridge slot. Atari says the cartridge socket is a little bigger to help with sticking cartridges. On the back by the HDMI and USB-C... Continue reading...

Image: Xbox Microsoft has shared the minimum PC specs you'll need to play Forza Motorsport when it's released on October 10th. While it looks like it'll be playable across a range of PCs (in addition to Xbox Series X / S consoles), you'll still need some high-end specs if you want to play the game on ultra settings.Forza Motorsport can run at native resolutions up to 4K and beyond," as it also supports ultrawide resolutions. The game lets you leverage Nvidia's DLSS 2 and AMD's FSR 2.2 upscaling technologies. But if you're looking for DLSS 3 support (or DLSS 3.5, now), a blog post says, We will continue to optimize and improve Forza Motorsport on PC after launch."Additionally, it offers shader pre-compilation and pre-caching that should mitigate... Continue reading...

We'll likely get a proper look at the cameras soon if Philips officially unveils them at IFA. | Image: Philips / FCC The first images of what are believed to be Philips Hue's new home security cameras have emerged online, just a few weeks after rumors first emerged that the company was entering the smart home security market. First spotted by the German-language tech site Hueblog, at least two of the four speculated camera models have now been granted regulatory approval by the FCC.The registration documents contain some technical details alongside a breakdown of the cylindrical camera unit. The images show the black variant (though a white model will also supposedly be available) both with and without a battery unit. The battery adds some considerable length to the camera if you're not looking to buy the wired version.According to a warning... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft announced a restructuring of its proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition earlier today that involves transferring cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. It's a big change in Microsoft's $68.7 billion deal that's designed to appease UK regulators that blocked the acquisition earlier this year, but it might also trigger a refresh review from the EU.The Commission is carefully assessing whether the developments in the UK require another notification to the Commission," says European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta in a statement to The Verge.Another notification to the EU could signal a further review of a deal that regulators at the European Commission cleared earlier this year.... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Meta is finally launching a much more capable web app for Threads, the company announced on Tuesday. You'll be able to post, interact with other posts, and look at your feed, spokesperson Christine Pai tells The Verge. It's set to roll out over the next few days, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says.So far, Threads on the web has essentially been a glorified way to look at somebody's profile - you couldn't even like or reshare a post even though the web app included the buttons to do so. (If you clicked them, Threads would show you a QR code to download the mobile app.) The new desktop web interface looks a lot like the one in the mobile app, though with some small differences; the navigation icons are on the top of the page, and to switch... Continue reading...

Razer's new razor has no RGB, but it'll shave ya. | GilletteLabs After all this time, Razer made a razor. Well. Technically, Gillette made a razor and put Razer's branding on it. Finally, a razor for gamers!Don't confuse this with the Razer Razer, this year's April Fool's Day joke. That was an RGB gaming mouse with an electric shaver built into it. As fun as it would be to have a quick way to get a bunch of beard hair into your keyboard, the reality here is both smarter and more disappointing.To be more specific: they took the five-blade GilletteLabs with Exfoliating Bar and slapped Razer's acid-green-and-black color scheme and snake logo on it. No RGB, which feels like a missed opportunity to tie into Razer's vast Chroma ecosystem and sync your razor to your laptop, headset, keyboard, mouse, mousep... Continue reading...

Image: Ozlo The first two pairs of Sleepbuds found a passionate customer base, but it wasn't large enough for Bose to keep them around. Now, a startup is bringing them back with added health tracking - and they play music, too. Continue reading...

Image: Nvidia Nvidia is introducing DLSS 3.5 this fall with a new AI-powered Ray Reconstruction technique that's designed to improve the quality of ray tracing. Unlike DLSS 3's Frame Generation, which was limited to just RTX 40-series GPUs, DLSS 3.5 will boost ray tracing across all RTX-series GPUs going back to the RTX 20 series.Nvidia is primarily targeting DLSS 3.5 at games that offer path tracing, often known as full ray tracing, as opposed to titles that use ray tracing just for select elements like shadows or reflections. Cyberpunk 2077 will get support for DLSS 3.5 with its Phantom Liberty DLC releasing on September 26th, which also adds the path tracing previewed earlier this year. Alan Wake 2 will also launch on October 27th with DLSS 3.5... Continue reading...

That precious suit has never looked better. | Image: Nvidia A community of modders is developing a ray-traced Half-Life 2 remake using Nvidia's early access RTX Remix platform, and Nvidia is debuting its first trailer for Gamescom. Half-Life 2 RTX: An RTX Remix Project will not win any awards for good naming, but the beautified update to the PC's iconic first-person shooter from 2004 may easily win the hearts of those of us with a soft spot for a little nostalgia and high-res headcrabs.The project is the combined efforts of four Half-Life 2 mod teams, now formed as Orbifold Studios, using RTX Remix to rebuild the game using PBR (physically based rendering - not the cheap beer) properties and adding new geometric details. The remake uses RTX IO for fast and smooth asset loading, seen recently in P... Continue reading...

Image: Nvidia Nvidia is starting to roll out access to PC Game Pass and Microsoft Store titles on its GeForce Now streaming service this week. PC Game Pass subscribers will be able to start streaming titles through GeForce Now on August 24th, including first-party Microsoft games like Deathloop and Grounded as well as third-party titles like No Man's Sky and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord.While PC Game Pass and Microsoft Store games will be available on GeForce Now, not all of them will be available to stream immediately on Nvidia's service. Nvidia has done the work to integrate the Microsoft Store into GeForce Now, but it still needs to onboard all the games that are available on a PC Game Pass subscription.That means PC Game Pass subscribers and... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram and Facebook users in Europe are getting more options to opt out of Meta's recommendation algorithms, the company has explained in a blog post today. According to Meta's president of global affairs Nick Clegg, European users will be able to access features like Reels, Stories, and Search on Facebook and Instagram without seeing content that's been ranked by Meta's recommendation algorithms.For example, on Facebook and Instagram, users will have the option to view Stories and Reels only from people they follow, ranked in chronological order, newest to oldest," Clegg writes. They will also be able to view Search results based only on the words they enter, rather than personalized specifically to them based on their previous... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Microsoft is restructuring its proposed Activision Blizzard deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The transfer of rights is designed to appease regulators in the UK that are concerned about the impact Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion deal will have on cloud gaming competition. The restructured deal has triggered a new regulatory investigation in the UK that could last until October 18th.To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on cloud game streaming raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, we are restructuring the transaction to acquire a narrower set of rights," says Microsoft president Brad Smith. This includes executing an... Continue reading...

The Verge X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, is testing stripping headlines from articles shared on the site. The move was initially reported by Fortune, before X owner Elon Musk confirmed it directly. Posts would only include the lead image and the URL, unless the person or publisher posting the link adds their own text, per materials the outlet viewed.The image would still serve as a link to the article, but there's no word on a timetable to roll it out or confirmation that it will ship at all. It's something Elon wants," a source is quoted as saying, They were running it by advertisers, who didn't like it, but it's happening."

Photo by Sean O'Kane / The Verge The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is opening a query on Ford's response to a recall last year that affected almost 49,000 Mustang Mach-E vehicles, as reported by Automotive News. The June 2022 recall was issued due to a malfunction involving overheating of the electric SUV's high-voltage contactors, which, at worst, can make the EV suddenly lose power on the road, increasing the risk of a crash.Occurances would often follow high-speed battery charging or repeated fast acceleration sessions.Ford issued an over-the-air (OTA) software update to respond to the recall, which was designed to reduce power if the contactors got too hot - in hopes of preventing sudden power loss and possible damage to the contacts.... Continue reading...

Eve's promised products, circa 2020. | Image: Eve Every time I write about Dough - the PC gaming monitor company formerly known as Eve - some people tell me to stop! They say Dough scammed them out of money or shipped their monitors too late to matter or ghosted their attempts to get customer support.Today, I'm here to tell you about an opportunity and a promise.The opportunity: Dough now wants to fix its bad reputation. The company now claims that if you fill out this Customer Issue Resolution Form, you can get your refund or other kinds of help fast. Dough tells The Verge it's already issued 25,000 refunds without the form, with only 2 percent outstanding, and that it's now taking care of customers as quickly as a few hours after they ask.The promise: If you contact Dough and do... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Over the weekend, word spread about a problem affecting old tweets, and eventually, we narrowed it down to anything posted before December 2014, either with an image or a link that had been shortened by Twitter. A post by Tom Coates alerted many people to the problem and he noted that a 2014 Ellen DeGeneres selfie from the Oscars that took the crown as most retweeted ever" was even missing its image.Now the @Support account at X, the company formerly known as Twitter until Elon Musk rebranded it, says, Over the weekend we had a bug that prevented us from displaying images from before 2014. No images or data were lost. We fixed the bug, and the issue will be fully resolved in the coming days."There are no details mentioned in the... Continue reading...

Try Galaxy lets you see what OneUI looks like on two iPhones. | Image: Samsung Hey, wait a minute, that Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is actually just two iPhones in a trench coat!That's the idea behind the latest update to the Try Galaxy web app, which, when running on two iPhones, offers a Samsung One UI demonstration spread across both screens. Samsung says it lets iOS users try out the foldable's benefits, like watching content on an immersive" screen, or sample productivity features like dragging and dropping across both screens thanks to its multitasking abilities - something Samsung does well and that even the iPad could use work on.To make it happen, you just have to visit the website or scan a QR code on two iPhones, add the web app to your homescreen, and then tape them together (the tape is my own... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is discontinuing the Kinect - again. The company officially stopped manufacturing the depth camera and microphone in 2017 and brought it back in a new form in 2019 as the Azure Kinect Developer Kit. Now, Microsoft is ending production of that, too, but it has partnered with some outside companies to provide options available for people who need similar types of devices.If you want to get one of the remaining Azure Kinect Developer Kits, they'll be available to buy through the end of October or until supplies last," Microsoft's Swati Mehta said in a post on the company's website. If you already have one, Mehta promises that you can keep using it without disruption."As the needs of our customers and partners evolve, we... Continue reading...