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by Justine Calma on (#6E1Q8)
Palms are hit by strong wind and rain from Tropical Storm Hilary in the deserts of Southern California on August 20th, 2023, in Palm Desert, California. | Photo by David McNew / Getty Images California is notoriously dry this time of year. Yet, over the course of a single day this weekend, some desert areas were hit with more than a year's worth of rainfall.Hurricane Hilary threw California into a state of emergency after more than 80 years without a tropical storm making landfall there. This kind of storm is unusual for California, and it will probably remain a rare occurrence. Even so, strange and extreme weather is a hallmark of climate change. And experts say it could have more curveballs in store that the state should be preparing for.There probably will not be a whole lot more [hurricanes that move into the southwestern US] in the future. But when they do happen, they'll be much more like Hilary," says David... 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 13:04 |
by Jay Peters on (#6E1M9)
Image: Konami The new Metal Gear Solid collection that bundles Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will be coming to PS4, Konami announced on Monday. The collection, which officially has the unwieldy name of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, had previously been announced for PS5, Xbox Series X / S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Konami said it made the decision to release a PS4 version in response to the many requests we have received from fans worldwide" but noted that it would only be available as a download ver" (aka digital release). The post also doesn't specify when the PS4 version might be released; on other platforms, the... Continue reading...
by Victoria Song on (#6E1MA)
It's a gamechanger if Google can figure out multiday battery life for the Pixel Watch 2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge While reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, I was surprised how much its small gains in battery life impacted my overall attitude toward the watch. It got me wondering whether my opinion about the Google Pixel Watch would change if its paltry battery life was just a smidge better. So, the second I wrapped up my Samsung review, I booted up the Pixel Watch.I had reason to hope because Wear OS watches sometimes have the annoying quirk of getting better after the fact. For instance, battery life for the first day or two after setup is often the worst. Sometimes, it's so crappy I wonder if I got a defective unit. But after a few days to about a week, the watch learns your usage patterns, and it gets a little better. Even more annoying is... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6E1MB)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has determined that two of its former workers are responsible for a massive data leak that includes personally identifiable information on over 75,000 employees, TechCrunch reports. According to a filing with the state of Maine's attorney general office, Tesla's data privacy officer, Steven Elentukh, reported the breach as insider wrongdoing," leaking employee information including social security numbers.The Maine filing includes a template letter by Elentukh written to send to affected employees in the state. It confirms that Handelsblatt, the German media outlet recipient of 100GB of Tesla's data, had notified Tesla on May 10th that it had received confidential information.The investigation revealed that two former Tesla... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E1H4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile announced it's offering a yearly phone upgrade plan called Go5G Next for $100 per month for a single line. It's a pricier companion to the $90-per-month Go5G Plus plan with bi-annual upgrades the carrier debuted earlier this year.The prices from T-Mobile's announcement assume you're using automatic payments, which come with a $5 discount per line that's separate from the company's $5 fee for in-store payments.Every other aspect of the plan looks to be the same as that lower-tier Plus" plan: it offers unlimited calls and texts, Netflix Basic (or Standard if you're on a family plan), Apple TV Plus, unlimited mobile data, and 50GB of broadband-quality data.There's a caveat, though. T-Mobile won't deem you upgrade-ready"... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6E1H5)
The new Xbox Series X console wraps. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has created a series of Xbox Series X console wraps that are designed to be a more affordable option instead of purchasing a separate limited edition console. One of the first Xbox console wraps will be one for Starfield, which will launch on October 18th, priced at $49.99.The console wraps aren't stickers like you'd find from Dbrand; instead, they fasten to an Xbox Series X thanks to a velcro hook and loop enclosure. The plastic Starfield wrap includes panels that look similar to the limited edition Starfield-branded Xbox controller. Key internal console components are highlighted through outlined access panel and game-inspired graphics," explains Monique Chatterjee, senior design director at Xbox. Image:... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6E1H6)
The LG C3 is the jack-of-all-trades OLED TV for most people who enjoy both watching TV and playing games. | Image: LG The 65-inch LG C3 OLED TV is on sale for $1,896.99 ($702 off) at Amazon. The 4K TV is an exceptional jack-of-all-trades set with four HDMI 2.1 ports capable of up to 120Hz refresh with VRR, making it ideal for gaming. It's also got those signature deep black levels for seeing detail even in dark cinematic movies and TV shows.The LG C3 is the follow-up to one of our go-to TVs, last year's C2. The new TV shares many similar specs with the C2, but it's brighter, faster (thanks to a new processor), and has some user interface refinements in its webOS-based operating system - like a handy Personalized Picture Wizard that guides you through a step-by-step process to help set up the C3's picture mode without as much fuss.Between the NFL... Continue reading...
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by Amrita Khalid on (#6E1H7)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Creators on Apple Podcasts will now be able to find out a lot more about who their most devoted listeners are and where they're coming from. The company today is launching subscription analytics tools that will show podcasters how many listeners started a free trial, the percentage of those who converted to a paid subscription, what type of plan they're subscribed to, and geographic breakdowns. While Apple has made analytics on regular listeners available since 2017, this new set of analytics will give podcasters more intel on the subscription side of their business.Creators can also see the breakdown between annual and monthly subscriptions. At a virtual briefing attended by The Verge, Apple's global head of podcasts, Ben Cave, said... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6E1H8)
Palestinian embroidery is a centuries-old tradition. Can digitizing hard-to-access patterns help preserve it for a new generation? Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6E1H9)
Image: Disney Disney is releasing physical copies of The Mandalorian, Loki, and WandaVision. All three Disney Plus shows will become available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray later this year, marking the first time that Disney has brought its streaming-only series to home video.While the physical edition of WandaVision will include the complete series, the release of Loki on Blu-ray will only include the first season. Additionally, The Mandalorian's first and second seasons will be split into two separate discs. Image: Disney You can preorder the physical copies starting on August 28th, with the release date for each one as follows:
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by Emilia David on (#6E1HA)
YouTube is partnering with record labels to establish rules for how AI-generated music is treated on its platform, including monetization opportunities for both companies and creators.The platform said in a blog post it would invest in building its rights management system Content ID, update its policies on uploading manipulated content, and deploy generative AI tools to help detect videos that violate its rules.Generative AI systems may amplify current challenges like trademark and copyright abuse, misinformation, spam, and more," YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said. But AI can also be used to identify this sort of content, and we'll continue to invest in the AI-powered technology that helps us protect our community of viewers, creators,... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6E1DD)
Image: Apple Invasion was a curious addition to the sci-fi TV landscape when it debuted in 2021. For much of its runtime, it barely felt like science fiction at all. We all knew something alien was happening - it's right there in the show's title, after all - but the story was much more focused on the human-level drama going down as the world steadily succumbed to the invading forces. The result was a show that started very slowly, though things did eventually pick up mid-season. Ultimately, season 1 felt like a prologue to a much bigger story.With all of that setup out of the way, the second season starts out much more exciting - and it doesn't let up for the first few episodes.Note: this write-up is based on the first five (of 10) episodes of... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6E1DE)
Image: Amazon Amazon is updating its recently launched Fire TV Channels app. The free, ad-supported streaming platform has a new sidebar that lets you navigate through different categories of content along with a new slate of shows.Fire TV Channels first launched in May with a lineup of free shows, live news, music videos, and sports from over 400 different providers, such as ABC News, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, America's Test Kitchen, Martha Stewart, and others. But now, Amazon says the app will also include content from Variety, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, TV Line, Funny or Die, GameSpot, Honest Trailer, and more.Meanwhile, the new app's sidebar lets you sift through all the different types of content available on the platform,... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6E1DF)
Martinet at the launch of Super Mario Galaxy. | Photo by Stephen Kelly - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario for over 25 years, will no longer be voicing the iconic character, according to a tweet from Nintendo. Martinet has voiced the character since the '90s, appearing in mainline Mario titles like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Mario Galaxy as well as countless spinoffs.Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With this new transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games," Nintendo's statement reads. It has been an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him."The news that Martinet will no longer be voicing Mario arrives after speculation about why Mario's... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6E1AD)
Leviton's new Decora Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug-in Switch is the first to work with Matter. | Image: Leviton Smart lighting manufacturer Leviton has a new outdoor smart plug that's the first to work with Matter. The Decora Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug-in Switch costs $54.99 and is available now at Amazon and The Home Depot. Part of Leviton's Decora Smart Wi-Fi lighting and load control line, it's the company's fifth product to support Matter, following adding Matter support to two of its in-wall switches and smart plugs last month.The outdoor smart plug works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, has on / off functionality (there's no dimming), and a built-in light sensor for automating any lights you plug into it to turn on at night and off during the day. This is a neat feature you won't find on a lot of smart plugs and means you don't need to use any app or... Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6E181)
Image: Samsung Almost two years after its initial announcement in October 2021, Samsung says the first game to support the HDR10 Plus Gaming standard is nearing release. That game is The First Descendant, a free-to-play third-person shooter from Nexon which is running an open beta starting September 19th.Samsung's announcement doesn't specify which platforms the game will support HDR10 Plus Gaming on, but we're assuming it's PC rather than consoles given neither Sony nor Microsoft have announced support for this latest HDR format on their platforms. On PC, Nvidia announced it was adding support for HDR10 Plus Gaming to its RTX and 16-series graphics cards in November 2022.HDR calibration without the slidersThe big advantage being advertised for... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6E160)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Department of Agriculture announced nearly $700 million in funding Monday to expand high-speed broadband access in rural communities across the country.The USDA's ReConnect Program is providing $667 million in grants and loans for broadband projects in 22 states and the Marshall Islands in areas that lack access to speeds of at least 100Mbps down and 20Mbps up. Recipients of this funding will be required to build out infrastructure capable of providing upload and download speeds of 100Mbps, surpassing the Federal Communications Commission's current speed minimums of 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up.The reality is, we have faced some challenging times in rural places"The reality is, we have faced some challenging times in rural... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E0YV)
Illustration: The Verge Meta will launch the web version of Threads, its competitor to X (formerly known as Twitter) early this week, reports The Wall Street Journal. A web version has been frustratingly missing since the short-form posting service began.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is working on adding the feature along with better search (well, search at all, really - right now, you can only search for usernames on the platform) earlier this month, and that it would be ready in the next few weeks."However, WSJ writes, its sources say the feature's launch plans aren't final and could change." Mosseri posted on Threads last week that Meta had been testing an early version internally for a week or two," but that it needs some work" before... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E0V7)
Luna-25 launching from Russia earlier this month. | Photo by Xinhua via Getty Images Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft failed to land on the Moon, Roscosmos, Russia's state-run space corporation, announced today. In a statement, the organization reported that the lander ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon." It would've been the country's first Moon landing since 1976.Luna-25 entered orbit around the Moon last week, and was meant to orbit for just five days before landing on Monday, August 21st, but over the weekend, Roscosmos said it was analyzing a technical glitch" that occurred as it was preparing the craft to move to a pre-landing orbit. Now the organization says Luna-25 has been lost.Russia was pushing to beat India's Chandrayaan-3 mission to land on the Moon. That spacecraft also... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E0SG)
Dr. John Warnock in 2009. | Photo by Patrick Tehan/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images Adobe co-founder Dr. John Warnock passed away on Saturday at the age of 82, Adobe announces today. A cause of death has not been released; he is survived by his wife, graphic designer Marva Warnock, and his three children.Warnock founded the revolutionary software company Adobe with his partner, the now-late Dr. Charles Geschke, in 1982. Marva Warnock designed the company's original logo, and Adobe released its first program, the desktop publishing software Adobe PostScript, two years later. Warnock served mostly as the company's CEO until 2000 and was co-chairman of the board along with Geschke until 2017. Warnock remained on the company board of directors afterward.Warnock was one of the greatest inventors in our generation with... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E0NB)
The SwitchBot Curtain 3 on a telescoping rod. | Image: SwitchBot SwitchBot has announced the Curtain 3, a smart curtain controller it says will be quieter than the Curtain 2, and twice as strong. The company also claims a new, improved (and separately available) solar panel will offer true unlimited battery power," something the previous panel didn't quite achieve. The Curtain 3 and the SwitchBot Solar Panel 3 will retail for $89.99 (89.99 / 89.99) and $25.99 (25.99 / 25.99), respectively, when they release on August 25th.The Curtain 3 is, as the name suggests, the third iteration of the company's smart curtain controller. It can now pull up to 36 pounds (16kg), according to the company, which is more than double the Curtain 2's 17lb weight limit. Like the Curtain 2, the new curtain controller... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6E0KH)
Good Omens second season highlights how good queer and disabled representation could be in the fantasy genre. | Image: Amazon Warning: Spoilers ahead for season 2 of Amazon Prime's Good OmensWith the release of the second season of Good Omens on July 28th, writer Neil Gaiman has officially (and rather devastatingly) put any accusations of queerbaiting to bed. Leaving very little room for interpretation, Crowley and Aziraphale - the respectively demonic and angelic main characters of the Amazon fantasy-comedy series - engaged in some distressingly emotional snogging during the last moments of this season's final episode, thereby ending over 30 years of speculation about the nature of their relationship. The fight is over. The shippers have won.Well, not just the shippers.I'll provide some context for those of you who aren't chronically online: shipping"... Continue reading...
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by Richard Lawler on (#6E0GQ)
The Verge X, which was formerly known as Twitter until its recent rebranding, is having a problem displaying old posts that came with images attached or any hyperlinks converted through Twitter's built-in URL shortener. It's unclear when the problem started, but it was highlighted on Saturday afternoon in a post by Tom Coates, and a Brazilian vtuber, @DaniloTakagi, had pointed it out a couple of days earlier.As it is, it appears to affect tweets published prior to December 2014, judging by posts visible on my own account. No videos are affected (Twitter only added native image support in 2011 and built-in videos in 2016), but links to YouTube, for example, are now just text with a t.co URL that doesn't work. Image: Screenshot... Continue reading...
by Monica Chin on (#6E0GS)
I've never seen a laptop that looks quite like this. I've also never seen a laptop with its particular set of problems. Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6E0GR)
Image: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome back to issue No. 2 of Installer, your guide to all the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. Thanks so much to everyone who's been emailing, commenting, sending feedback, and telling me what you want to see in this series going forward. I love chatting with you all about what you're building, what you're binge-watching, and everything else.Two housekeeping things: first, a bunch of you told me you didn't like the whole (link)" thing, both for aesthetic and accessibility reasons. Fair and fair! So we're just scrapping it. From now on, it'll be simpler: I'll bold the most important link - the direct link to the thing we're talking about - and regular link everything else. Thanks to everyone who emailed and... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E06J)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled on Friday that AI-generated artwork can't be copyrighted, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter. She was presiding over a lawsuit against the US Copyright Office after it refused a copyright to Stephen Thaler for an AI-generated image made with the Creativity Machine algorithm he'd created.Thaler had tried multiple times to copyright the image as a work-for-hire to the owner of the Creativity Machine," which would have listed the author as the creator of the work and Thaler as the artwork's owner, but he was repeatedly rejected.After the Office's final rejection last year, Thaler sued the Office, claiming its denial was arbitrary, capricious ... and not in accordance with the... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E03H)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla owners with iPhones can now use Siri to trigger Apple Shortcuts automations without turning to paid third-party apps like Tessie to do so. The Tesla app's newest update, version 4.24.0, dropped with a release note saying Access your vehicle controls and climate from the Apple Shortcuts app."To use Siri with Shortcuts, all you have to do is invoke Apple's digital assistant and say the name of your automation. It's a little clunkier than actual Siri integration, because to trigger Shortcuts automations, you have to memorize the names you've given them and repeat them verbatim, but it's probably the best Tesla owners will get, at least for now.Still, Shortcuts support is a little undersold in the release notes. You can... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6E01J)
Image: The Writers Guild of America The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) wrote in an update yesterday that bargaining talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are ongoing after the two resumed negotiations just over a week ago (via Deadline). The WGA also says the talks will continue next week.The guild and movie studios re-started negotiations after meeting earlier this month for the first time since the strike began over three months ago (and less than a month after the Screen Actors Guild also began striking). The strike hasn't been without its toll. Earlier this week, Amazon reportedly blamed a questionable choice to re-cancel its A League of Their Own TV series on the strike, and a remake of Fritz Lang's silent film classic Metropolis was... Continue reading...
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by Sheena Vasani on (#6DZZG)
Multiple retailers are discounting the PS5 right now, too, meaning you don't necessarily need to buy it from Sony. | Image: Sony Deals on the PlayStation 5 come once in a blue moon. That's why we're here to remind you that Sony's excellent PS5 promo - which has been running since August 6th as part of Sony's larger summer sale - is set to end tonight at 11:59PM PT. Until then, you can buy the disc-based PS5 at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Sony for $449, its lowest price yet.Sony's ongoing promo is specifically for the standard model (not the Digital Edition), which allows you to play both digital and physical games thanks to a built-in Blu-ray drive. It's an excellent console overall, with a trove of exclusives to take advantage of, a terrific controller, and a solid subscription service in the form of PlayStation Plus. Obviously, it would be better if it was... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6DZXA)
Madden 24 has some audio issues right now. | Image: Electronic Arts PlayStation 5 and PC Madden 24 players are dealing with annoying popping and crackling audio and disappearing sound channels. A post on the Madden subreddit says that, during games, half the audio cuts out then returns with some static whenever a play ends and a cutscene shows. The issues appear to mostly affect gamers with surround sound audio setups, whether via speakers, soundbars, or headphones.The Verge's Nilay Patel confirmed the issue was happening on his PS5 while using Dolby Atmos rig, and continues even after switching the PS5's output to just stereo. Throughout the Reddit post, users say they hear loud popping sounds every few seconds or whenever they pause the game, suggesting that the problem comes from a change in output.... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6DZXB)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge If you've treated the kids in your household to an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you'll of course want them to have fun - but you'll also want to put limits on what they can do on the console, especially if they're younger children.These consoles are built with all the necessary options for adding child profiles and managing what those profiles can do. The features all tie into a larger Microsoft Family Safety feature that works across multiple devices, and it's free to use as part of your existing Microsoft (and Xbox) account.The level of detail you can go into is impressive, right down to which specific websites your child can look at. If you don't want to configure every option individually, there are preset profiles you can... Continue reading...
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by Jessica Lucas on (#6DZXC)
TikTok's dissociative identity disorder community thinks doctors don't know what's going on. Some doctors feel the same about them. Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DZ0A)
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Baldur's Gate 3 is a delight on Steam Deck - even though I sometimes can't tell what's going on.I suspected that might be the case going in. Everything I had seen about Baldur's Gate 3 before I downloaded it promised a vast, sprawling adventure, and all the streams of the game I watched on Twitch featured incredibly detailed characters and worlds. I'm sure most of those streamers were running the game on top-of-the-line rigs. I suspected that the Steam Deck, which recently had some troubles with The Last of Us Part I, might not be the best place for me to play Larian Studios' new RPG.That said, the game just looked like so much fun, and since it won't be coming to PS5 until September, I really wanted to find a way to play it sooner. I... Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6DZGP)
Yuga Labs owns Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and other NFT series. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Two of the biggest names in the NFT space are clashing over the future of how the tokens' creators get paid. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, said today that it would block the ability to trade its newer NFTs on OpenSea by February 2024. The move is meant to protest OpenSea's decision to stop collecting royalties on behalf of NFT creators - a huge blow to Yuga's business.One of the big promises of NFTs was that their original creator would get a cut every time they were resold. For companies like Yuga, which saw explosive prices on its Bored Ape collection for a time, those royalty fees added up to tens of millions of dollars (a blog post suggests the number was $35 million for Bored Apes alone just... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZF2)
MindGeek was acquired by a private equity company earlier this year. | Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic MindGeek, the owner of Pornhub and other adult entertainment websites, has a new name: Aylo. The company says the rebrand represents the need for a fresh start," as reported earlier by the New York Post.After MindGeek CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Tassillo stepped down from the company last year, the private equity company Ethical Capital Partners took over MindGeek this past March.The decision to rebrand the company as Aylo, comes in response to the need for a fresh start and a renewed commitment to innovation, diverse and inclusive adult content, and trust and safety," the post reads. The new brand identity will be implemented across all company communications, marketing materials and digital platforms."Even with a total... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DZF3)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge California has significantly expanded a pilot program allowing citizens to get a digital driver's license / identification card that's accessible on their mobile phones (via 9to5Mac). The digital ID, which the California DMV is calling an mDL" (mobile driver's license), can be used for things like getting through airport security or proving your age when buying alcohol.The free pilot is now open to 1.5 million participants, according to the DMV's website for the program. You can sign up for it by downloading the CA DMV Wallet" app on iOS and Android.If you choose to sign up for the state's digital IDs, there's a few caveats to be aware of. The DMV stresses that you'll still need to carry your physical ID or driver's license given... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZF4)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A report from ad quality transparency platform Adalytics suggests that YouTube served adult-focused ads on almost 100 videos considered made for kids." Some of these ads reportedly involved content inappropriate for children, such as car wrecks, medical injuries, and clips from TV-MA shows. Adalytics found that the websites linked in the ads transmitted cookies to their devices that could serve targeted ads to kids, too.As pointed out by Adalytics, Google's own policies say ads on content made for kids must not use third-party trackers or collect personal information without getting permission from a parent. Dan Taylor, Google's vice president of global ads, reiterates this policy in a response on Google's website, where he calls... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6DZCW)
Don't buy the SanDisk Extreme. | Image: Western Digital Eleven days ago, we sent these questions to Western Digital's head of PR and published them publicly on The Verge:
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by Adi Robertson on (#6DZCX)
Image: The Verge Elon Musk says X's - formerly Twitter's - block feature is on the chopping block, repeating his long-standing gripe against the basic social networking feature. Block is going to be deleted as a feature', except for DMs," Musk said in an X reply on Friday. He followed up with another post: It makes no sense."Musk has made his feelings about blocking known in the past months. In June, he said that Twitter should remove blocking in favor of a stronger form of mute," and he's complained about large block lists and mass blocking campaigns against users who subscribe to Twitter Blue. But he also has a long history of promises that are delayed or never implemented - and removing the block" feature might be a particularly unpopular... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6DYC4)
Illustration: The Verge A Microsoft travel guide for Ottawa, Canada, prominently recommended tourists visit the Ottawa Food Bank, as spotted by Paris Marx until it was removed after this article was originally published. (You can see the article in full here.) The food bank was the No. 3 recommendation on the list, sitting behind the National War Memorial and above going to an Ottawa Senators hockey game.We reported in 2020 about Microsoft laying off journalists at Microsoft News and MSN to replace them with artificial intelligence. However, the company says its content is not generated by the AI we're now used to in the form of large language models powering tools like the Bing chatbot or ChatGPT. Instead, the content in Microsoft's story was generated... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6DZAF)
The lauded successors to the original Beats Studio Buds launched just over three months ago. | Image: Beats Things move quickly in the deals space - and I'm not simply referring to how fast AirPods and certain retro-fueled controllers can sell out when they become available or dip below a certain price threshold. The Beats Studio Buds Plus launched a mere three months ago, yet they're already on sale in black for just $129.95 ($40 off) at Woot, which is an additional $20 off the sale price we saw during Prime Day.The Beats Studio Buds Plus are a much-needed revamp of the original Beats Studio Buds from 2021. They offer better sound, improved noise cancellation, and superior battery life, affording you up to six hours of listening per charge (or nine with ANC turned off). They're a great option if you own both Apple and Android devices, too,... Continue reading...
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6DZAG)
Image: Lamborghini The concept, which was revealed during Monterey Car Week, is a preview of the Italian supercar company's fourth pure EV model, coming in 2028. Continue reading...
by Justine Calma on (#6DZAH)
Hurricane Hilary swirls off the coast of Mexico as smoke covers the central United States. | Image: Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(CSU / CIRA & NOAA) The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for southern California today as Hurricane Hilary barrels toward the US and Mexico. This is the first time this kind of alert has been issued for sunny SoCal, which is more prone to drought and fire this time of year than hurricanes.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours," according to the National Hurricane Center. The watch is in place from the Mexico-California border to the Los Angeles-Orange county line as well as for Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours"There are... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6DZ71)
Image: Disney Ahsoka, Disney's next big Disney Plus Star Wars show, will now premiere on Tuesday nights at 9PM ET / 6PM PT, Disney announced on Friday. That means the first two episodes of the show will now be available the evening of Tuesday, August 22nd.It's only a slight shift from Ahsoka's original premiere date of Wednesdays. But since Disney Plus shows typically come out in the middle of the night, this new air time might make episodes easier to watch the moment they debut.Personally, I'm a huge fan of the change. I'm old and go to bed early, so it's hard for me to stay up late to watch new episodes of shows right when they air. Since I live on the West Coast, I can now watch Ahsoka at the extremely reasonable time of 6PM PT and still be in... Continue reading...
by Jay Peters on (#6DXG0)
Image: Windows Report Valve's Steam Deck might be getting more competition. Last month, Windows Central reported that Lenovo is working on a handheld gaming PC that runs Windows called the Legion Go. On Wednesday, Windows Report published what appear to be the first images of the upcoming device. And on Friday, Windows Report shared more leaked photos - including one showing AR glasses that might work with the device.Based on the images from Wednesday, Lenovo's take on a PC gaming handheld looks similar to devices such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, but it also has a lot in common with the Nintendo Switch. According to Windows Report, the Legion Go has an eight-inch screen, images show two Joy-Con-like controllers that can be removed, and it even... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6DZ72)
Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco collided with a San Francisco Fire Department truck late Thursday, CNBC reports. A passenger riding inside the Cruise self-driving vehicle suffered non-severe injuries" and was transported in an ambulance, according to an official company post on X (formally Twitter) this morning.The company says its car, which was driverless at the time, entered the intersection on a green light" before getting struck by an emergency vehicle." The post noted that the fire department vehicle was on its way to an emergency scene, suggesting the possibility that the Cruise vehicle did not yield to an emergency vehicle. The crash occurred around 10PM local time in the Tenderloin district of the city.We are... Continue reading...
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by Emilia David on (#6DZ73)
Mondelez logo with Oreos. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images Creating an ad can be tricky and costly, and more brands see generative AI as a means to make that process less painful.Reuters reported large advertising agencies like WPP and multinational corporations like Unilever look to generative AI to cut marketing costs while making more ads.WPP clients Nestle and Mondelez, makers of Oreo and Cadbury, used OpenAI's DALL-E 2 to make ads. One ad for Cadbury ran in India with an AI-generated video of the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan inviting pedestrians to shop at stores. WPP's CEO told Reuters savings from generative AI can be 10 to 20 times."Unilever created its own generative AI advertising tools and used them to write spiels for one of its shampoo products.But as more brands look to... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6DZ74)
Users woke to find that their Bambu printers created designs all by themselves. | Image: Bambu Bambu will issue multiple fixes for the unusual bug that caused some of its 3D printers to start pumping out designs by themselves - and in some cases, damaging the printer in the process. In an official blog post, Bambu details multiple new features that could prevent the 3D printers from going rogue in the future.On Wednesday, some Bambu users woke to find that their 3D printers had created new unwanted prints overnight - without any prompts or supervision by users. Not only did those prints damage some devices when they attempted to print a second design atop ones they already printed out but it also raised concerns about potential fire risks. Bambu traced the issue back to a cloud server outage - specifically, they sent extra MQTT... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6DZ3X)
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Xbox Series S may sometimes go a little unloved, but Microsoft's tiny white box isn't just a QHD-capable console with 512GB of storage - it's also a veritable deals machine. That's because, unlike its bigger sibling, the Xbox Series X, the Series S often sees some worthwhile sales. Right now, for instance, Target is offering a special online-only bundle that includes a free digital game when you buy the Xbox Series S for $297.99.In all, there are about 50 eligible Xbox titles to choose from, including more recent hits like Diablo IV, MLB The Show 23, Hogwarts Legacy, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, along with a handful of other digital titles that normally retail for $69.99. And the Xbox Series S on offer is the Gilded Hunter... Continue reading...
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by Victoria Song on (#6DZ3Y)
The scale's Eyes-Closed Mode gives you an alternative way to interact with your weight and body composition data. Continue reading...