The Verge

Your Prime Video experience is about to be downgraded unless you cough up an extra $3 each month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has announced plans to start placing limited advertisements" in TV shows and movies running on the company's Prime Video streaming platform, to allow the e-commerce giant to continue investing in compelling content." According to Amazon's press release, the ads will first be introduced on Prime Video content in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada on an unmentioned date in early 2024," with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later that year.Amazon says it doesn't have plans to change the current price of its Prime memberships in 2024, and Prime members will be notified of the change several weeks before the ad injections begin, along with details to sign up for the ad-free option. US-based Prime members will be... Continue reading...

Microsoft takes its next step towards a passwordless future. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft's incoming Windows 11 update will introduce public support for passkeys - a passwordless login technology that instead uses your face, fingerprint, or device PIN to sign into accounts. Announced at Microsoft's AI and Surface launch event on Thursday, the latest Windows 11 update (available from September 26th) will allow users to create, manage, and store passkeys, and use them to access supported websites and services using their device's own authentication systems.Microsoft began testing passkey management in the Windows Insider developer channel back in June, so this Windows 11 update is bringing the technology into general availability.Windows 11 passkeys are created through Windows Hello. Passkeys can be accessed on both... Continue reading...

Image: 20th Century Studios No One Will Save You wastes no time getting started. After a brief setup, it gets right to the action: a home invasion that's actually an alien invasion. What follows is an incredibly tense, surprisingly quiet mix of sci-fi and horror, just the thing for a fall evening at home.The movie - which is streaming now on Hulu - comes via writer and director Brian Duffield, who previously wrote similar genre twists The Babysitter and Love and Monsters. It centers on Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman who lives alone in a big, isolated house and who - for reasons that aren't clear until much later in the story - is either ignored or hated by basically everyone in town. But she keeps herself busy making dresses, constructing a model village,... Continue reading...

The Steam Deck. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve has been clear it wants to build a Steam Deck 2 - and equally clear that a faster handheld wouldn't arrive soon. Now, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais tells The Verge and CNBC that it could be late 2025 or beyond before it raises that bar - because it wants to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.I don't anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years," he told me via email.Here's the whole quote:

Illustration: The Verge X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers. The company said in a PSA" on Thursday that Circles will be disabled by October 31st.After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle," X wrote in a post on its help center. You will, however, be able to remove people from your Circle," and the company gave instructions on how to do that.Twitter (not X) officially launched Circles (which it called Circle") in August 2022; Elon Musk wasn't yet the official owner of the company. (At that time, he was trying to get out of his deal to buy it.) But in April,... Continue reading...

Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images Intel has wrapped up its annual Innovation event in San Jose, where the chipmaker gave us a glimpse of what's coming down the pipeline over the next few years. In case you don't have a spare hour and a half to sit down and watch CEO Pat Gelsinger's keynote, here are some important things we learned.Meteor Lake will launch on December 14th If you haven't guessed, AI was kind of a theme here. The company officially introduced its Meteor Lake" generation (known officially as the Intel Core Ultra) to the world at the Innovation keynote. These will succeed the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake" line; they will be the first chips built on the new Intel 4 process and its first with a dedicated AI coprocessor inside.They're also... Continue reading...

Amazon's first projector project, the Amazon Glow, folded in failure last year. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon is reportedly working on a projector that would turn any surface in your home into a screen, as reported by Reuters. People familiar with the matter told the news organization that the projector is designed to do things like beam a recipe on the wall above a stove and make Zoom calls that track you as you move around the house.A touch interactive projected screen is an obvious move for the ambient smart home that Amazon has long proposed, one where the tech appears when you need it and disappears when you don't. I mean, that's literally the definition of a projector.When I reviewed Amazon's first attempt at a smart projector, the now-discontinued Amazon Glow, I said that it would have made more sense as a smart home control... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Mastodon, the federated microblogging platform, has been updated to version 4.2, which comes with massive improvements to search and the web interface, particularly for logged-out and first-time users.One of Mastodon's many charming qualities is that, unlike Twitter X, Bluesky, Instagram, and most other social media platforms, the user base is split across thousands of instances, each of which can decide to federate with or block any of the others.This is good in many ways. You can get a nice little intentional community going on your local server, and servers that are filled with abusive, illegal, and harmful content and / or users are widely ostracized. But it presents some, shall we say, unintuitive workflows for people used to... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta's in-development edit button for Threads might let you edit posts within five minutes of publishing them, as reported by developer Alessandro Paluzzi on X (formerly Twitter). Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed shortly after the app's July launch that an edit button was on the list of potential features, and now that Paluzzi has discovered some details about it, perhaps the feature will be available more widely sometime soon.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has added support for passkeys, a passwordless sign-in method that uses your fingerprint, face scan, or other methods to give you access to your online accounts. As spotted earlier by NintendoSoup (via 9to5Mac), Nintendo now lets you register and use a passkey to sign in to your account from a variety of different devices.To add a passkey to your account, head to accounts.nintendo.com from the device you want to use the passkey. Once you sign in to your Nintendo account, hit Sign-in and security settings > Passkeys > Edit. Then, select Register a new passkey and follow the steps to complete the setup process on the device you're using.Right now, Nintendo only supports passkeys on devices with iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or... Continue reading...

Image: PBKreviews via YouTube Want to get a look at the inside of the iPhone 15 Pro? The flagship handheld hasn't even started shipping yet, but the folks over at PBKreviews have already taken apart the device, revealing the redesigned midframe chassis, along with all the components nestled beneath the iPhone 15 Pro's screen and glass backing.The video starts with the careful removal of the display using a screen disassembly device and a plastic pick. From there, PBKreviews disconnects the screen from the body of the phone and removes a series of cables. That's when we get a good look at the iPhone 15's camera assembly, which has three Phillips screws holding it down. Image: PBKreviews via YouTube The camera assembly on the iPhone 15 Pro. A... Continue reading...

One of the Show 10's best features is its swiveling stand, which allows it to follow you as you move around the room. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon may have announced a new soundbar, a third-gen Echo Show 8, and a slew of other devices during its recent fall hardware event, but one thing it didn't introduce is a successor to the Echo Show 10. That means the third-gen model introduced in 2021 remains the latest version, one that's on sale at Amazon for $184.99 ($65 off) when you redeem the on-page discount or use promo code ECHOSHOW10. (Note: at least one of our staffers could not see the optional, so just be aware that it may not be available in all instances.)Amazon's Alexa-equipped Echo Show 10 continues to be the best smart display you can get for video calls - especially given Google's Nest Hub Max is dropping support for Google Meet and Zoom. Overall, the Show is a... Continue reading...

The Razer Fujin. | Image: Razer I sit in a Herman Miller Aeron every single day - so my eyes absolutely popped when I saw the Razer Fujin for the first time.I know, lots of chairs have tried to duplicate the Aeron's legendary stretchy mesh ergonomics and iconic shape since its 1994 debut. What's so special about this one?Well, the company's $1,049 Fujin Pro model adds the two most desirable upgrades for the Aeron, IMHO: the twist-to-adjust lumbar support, and the adjustable matching headrest that launched an entire aftermarket company to do what Herman Miller wouldn't. I gush about the Atlas headrest on my chair to anyone who'll listen. Image: Razer The Razer Fujin Pro. Image: Razer The Fujin Pro's headrest goes... Continue reading...

You can put Lego Mario coins inside! | Image: Lego For the past few years, Lego has been releasing a collection of intricate, affordable sets for adults who want a touch of green in their lives without pruning or watering, like the Lego Bonsai Tree, Orchid, and Succulents. Now, there's a Mario set fit to join them.Lego's just introduced the Lego Super Mario Piranha Plant, a $60 540-piece set that looks absolutely fantastic without breaking the bank. It kinda-sorta is a bank, too: you can hide at least a couple coins inside! Two Mario coins come with the set. Image: Lego You can open up its chompers, pose its stem and leaves, and Lego says you can literally build it from the ground up - so the Piranha Plant emerges as if it's growing out of the pipe," reads the... Continue reading...

Hyundai's home charger install deal only works with residential properties. | Image: Hyundai If you were holding off on buying an EV because you didn't know where to start on getting a home charger installed, Hyundai's new deal might help you out. The automaker is now offering a free home electric vehicle charger plus up to $600 off the installation cost with the purchase or lease of select Hyundai EVs.Hyundai is offering up the ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charger on the Hyundai Home Marketplace. The charger is currently listed at $549 on the website and supports up to 50 amps, which could get you around 37 miles of driving range per hour of charging. The additional $600 installation credit applies only to services ordered through Hyundai's website.To qualify for the deal, you'll need to follow this process:

Image: Larian Studios The next Baldur's Gate 3 patch (launching tomorrow) is adding the No. 1 thing players have been asking for: a barbershop. Starting tomorrow, the Magic Mirror will be added with Patch 3, which will give players the ability to change the appearance of their characters.Finally.

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has revealed the Surface Hub 3, the latest version of the company's all-in-one collaborative touchscreen device. Unlike its predecessors, the Surface Hub 3 supports smart rotation and portrait mode, allowing users to physically rotate the screen to a vertical orientation while the layout updates automatically.The Surface Hub 3 comes in two sizes: 50 and 85 inches. As is the case with previous devices, the Surface Hub 3 is meant to live in conference rooms as a replacement for TVs and monitors. The device runs Microsoft Teams on Windows, which means the device will offer a consistent experience across all meeting spaces," allowing users to effortlessly transition from one room to another." Microsoft says the Surface Hub will... Continue reading...

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2. We've just had a chance to play with Microsoft's new Surface Studio Laptop 2 after it was announced at a special event" in New York City. Visually, it doesn't look a lot different than what came before it, but the trackpad is greatly improved, the specs inside upgraded, and there's a new AI-focused neural processing unit that's designed to light up some AI-powered experiences in Windows 11.The Surface Laptop Studio 2 retains the same unique fold-over design as its predecessor but makes the laptop all around more capable. It runs on one of Intel's 13th Gen i7 H-class processors and can be specced with an Nvidia GPU, including the RTX 4050 and 4060, between 16 and 64GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. It still has a 14.4-inch... Continue reading...

Okay, but you just know there is an Apple fanboy somewhere who would love this. | Image: Google Google is revisiting the Get The Message" publicity campaign started last year to pressure Apple into adopting the Rich Communication Services, or RCS, messaging protocol. The latest installment includes new content and a cheesy video advertising a fake iPager" gadget - a jab at Apple for converting iMessages texted to Android devices into old-fashioned SMS and MMS.iPager isn't real, but the problems that Apple causes by using SMS are," said Google in the video description on YouTube. Let's make texting better for everyone and help Apple #GetTheMessage and upgrade to RCS."RCS offers several improvements to messaging, including end-to-end encryption, read receipts, and the ability to share high-resolution photos and videos.... Continue reading...

Copilot will be available when you need it and out of the way when you don't." | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Today, Microsoft announced a new unified Copilot experience in Windows 11, launching on September 26th. The new everyday AI companion," now called Microsoft Copilot in Windows, will be seamlessly available across all the apps and experiences you use most," including the Windows 11 desktop, Microsoft 365, Outlook, the Edge browser, and (uh) Bing.During the event, Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer, called Copilot a handshake between you and technology - available when you need it and out of the way when you don't."In a post announcing Copilot on Microsoft's website, Mehdi wrote:

Siri can now play your Spotify playlists on your HomePod. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge A new feature in iOS 17 finally sets Spotify free - allowing you to use the voice assistant to start your Spotify session directly on your HomePod, hands-free.The capability (spotted by 9to5Mac) allows you to start an AirPlay session from your phone using a Siri command. So now you can say, Hey Siri, play The National on Spotify" to your HomePod, and Siri will route the command through your phone and start streaming Spotify on the smart speaker.It's a workaround, but it works. When The Verge's Dan Seifert tried it, Siri on the HomePod responded, To use Spotify, I'll need to AirPlay from your iPhone," but it just proceeded to do so, no action needed. This prompt sometimes popped up; other times, Siri just responded with on it."Your... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft has just wrapped up its September event, where it made several major announcements. Not only did we see some new Surface devices, but Microsoft also shared some updates about the new AI features coming to its products.You can check out all the news from Microsoft's event below.A more powerful Surface Laptop Studio 2 Image: Microsoft Microsoft has finally revealed its new Surface Laptop Studio 2. The company calls it the most powerful" Surface it has built to date, as it comes with Intel's 13th Gen i7 H class processor, Nvidia's RTX 4050 or 4060 GPU, and 64GB of RAM. It also features a more adaptive touchpad that Microsoft calls the most inclusive" yet.The Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at $1,999. You... Continue reading...

New Surface Laptop Go 3. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft has revealed a new third-generation model of its Surface Laptop Go line during its Surface event today. The company's new notebook will launch on October 3rd, have up to 15 hours of battery," and command a starting price of $799.The new Surface Laptop Go 3 is not to be confused with the non-laptop Surface Go, a smaller and less performant version of the popular main Surface tablet line. The 12.4-inch Surface Laptop Go 3 is the company's latest cheap and light notebook offering for those who aren't looking for a powerhouse but like the Surface style.Just as the WinFuture leak suggested, Microsoft's latest Laptop Go release looks similar to the previous Surface Laptop Go 2 but has some new internal upgrades. The previous... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft announced it will soon add access to OpenAI's DALL-E 3 image generator for users to create images right in a chat.DALL-E 3, which will be released for ChatGPT's enterprise users in October, will allow people to type a couple of sentences to create a photo. Microsoft did not specify when DALL-E 3 on Bing will come out.The company also added new shopping features to Bing. Bing can ask users specific questions on how a product will be used or other more personalized questions so people can pinpoint the right product that suits their needs. Bing also lets people find and use discount codes. These more personalized answers work as Bing also now remembers previous chats.Bing was one of the first Microsoft products to take... Continue reading...

Photo by Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp on Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Murdoch will exit his roles at both companies in mid-November and will be appointed as chairman emeritus of both companies.For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles," Murdoch reportedly wrote in a staff memo Thursday. Our companies are in robust health, as am I."In true Succession style, Murdoch's eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, appears to be his heir apparent. Lachlan will be taking over as the sole chair of News Corp, the company that owns a vast number of newspapers, magazines,... Continue reading...

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is ready to talk more about its AI plans at a special event" in New York City today. We're expecting to hear about three new Surface devices, with the Surface Laptop Studio 2 the main flagship device that could be part of a bigger AI push for Windows.The event comes just days after former Surface and Windows chief Panos Panay announced his resignation from Microsoft. Panay won't be presenting at the event anymore, and we're expecting to see Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's head of consumer marketing, instead. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will also appear on stage.Microsoft won't be live streaming this event so you can follow along with the latest here. The event starts at 10AM ET / 7AM PT and should run for around an hour. Our own... Continue reading...

Amazon hardware exec Dave Limp during the company's 2023 devices showcase | Image: David Pierce Amazon's assistant now has its own Alexa LLM poised to improve the brains in your smart home thanks to its extensive knowledge of smart home APIs. Continue reading...

Sleep. | Image: TIFF This year is shaping up to be a good one for horror, particularly on the festival circuit. Things kicked off nice and early at Sundance with the impressive quartet of Birth/Rebirth, Talk To Me, In My Mother's Skin, and Infinity Pool. This month at TIFF, meanwhile, I watched another four movies that each add something interesting to the genre. What's most impressive about these films is how, when combined, they really show off the breadth of what's possible under the horror banner. You'll wince and cover your eyes, but you'll also laugh.SleepSleep is the first feature from director Jason Yu, and it really taps into a common fear: namely, that something absolutely awful is going to happen when you're sleepwalking. It follows a young... Continue reading...

The annual Code Conference is set to kick off next week, but one of our headline speakers won't be there: GM CEO Mary Barra and her new EVP of software, Mike Abbott, have dropped out of the show, citing the ongoing UAW strike and contract negotiations.Mary and Mike unfortunately needed to change their plans to be at Code," writes GM spokesperson Brandee Barker. They are staying focused on the ongoing labor negotiations and supporting internal operations through the strike. They have long been supporters of Code and want to return to a future conference."That's great and all, but we were very much planning to ask Barra about that strike and how negotiations are proceeding - she told CBS that things still have a ways to go" last week.... Continue reading...

You can purchase Pixel Fold parts separately or bundled with iFixit's repair tools. | Image: iFixit The prospect of having to repair your own Pixel Fold just became a lot less daunting thanks to Google's continuing partnership with device repair specialists iFixit. As spotted by 9to5Google, iFixit's website now provides multiple repair guides that instruct Pixel Fold owners on how to replace their broken phone components, in addition to stocking the genuine Pixel Fold parts needed to complete the job.Among the parts available is a kit to replace the Pixel Fold's flexible inner screen. It costs $899.99 (or $909.99 when bundled with iFixit's Fix Kit toolset) and includes the inner OLED display, a flexible glass panel, batteries, display bezels, side buttons, and fingerprint scanner. You can also buy some of these components separately,... Continue reading...

Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images Well-connected CNBC anchor David Faber cites people close to negotiations between the major Hollywood studio producers and striking writers, saying the sides hope" to finalize a new deal tomorrow. The WGA strike began in early May before the actors (SAG-AFTRA) also went on strike in mid-July, marking the first time that has happened in 63 years.They cited some similar issues in trying to protect members' livelihoods as streaming entertainment grows and as studios begin to use generative AI tools in the entertainment business.

Image: Fujifilm Polaroid recently tried pushing the envelope with the new Polaroid I-2 instant camera, and now Fujifilm's taking a stab at it, too. On Wednesday, the company announced it's releasing a new kind of instant film product geared for kids, the Instax Pal digital camera bundle, for $199.95 in late October.The Instax Pal is essentially a palm-sized, round digital camera that doesn't print any photos and lacks a built-in viewfinder. Instead, it outputs images using the companion app, and you can then print these photos via the included Instax Mini Link 2 smartphone printer. The price also includes a 10-pack of Instax Mini film, which is a nice extra that Fujifilm's instant cameras don't often come with.I'm not going to lie: my first thought... Continue reading...

Image: TSM Shopify is entering the League of Legends arena. On Wednesday, Shopify announced that its Rebellion esports brand will be acquiring TSM's spot in the League Championship Series (LCS), the pro circuit for US League of Legends esports.The move marks a major change of the guard in the LCS. TSM, one of the biggest esports organizations in the world, got its start as a scrappy League of Legends team; the TSM acronym stands for Team SoloMid, which references a solo League of Legends player occupying the middle lane of the game's multi-pronged map. In the mid 2010s, TSM was one of the most successful teams in the LCS, and the organization has entered other esports, signed Twitch streamers, and even bought an esports app.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has officially halted its plans to extract a two percent fee from Prime sellers who don't use its in-house fulfillment. The company reportedly planned to start collecting the fee on October 1st, on top of the 8-to-15-percent commission it already gathers from merchants. After Bloomberg broke the story today based on information it had seen from inside Amazon, we reached out to the company to verify the decision.Amazon PR manager Jonathan Hillson told The Verge in an email that the 2% Seller Fulfilled Prime fee was intended to cover our costs," but added that the company decided not to move forward because it was afraid seller sentiment related to the fee" could affect participation in the program.Hillson went on to say Amazon... Continue reading...

Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge Elon Musk said earlier this month that no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant," but an alarming new report from Wired seems to contradict Musk's statement. Public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and seen by Wired indicate that Neuralink's macaque subjects were euthanized after suffering various complications, including bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema."Wired writes that the documents show a male monkey was euthanized in March 2020 after his cranial implant became loose," with the necropsy revealing the failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection."On Tuesday, Neuralink announced it's starting in-human... Continue reading...