The Verge

The girls are fightinggggggg. | Illustration by Hugo Herrera / The Verge Following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week, a lot of companies and entrepreneurs have been making the flight to — at least perceived — safety. That means the biggest banks have been getting more deposits: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.“Everyone is asking, ‘Where should we bank? Where is it safe to bank?’” Ryan Gilbert, founder of Launchpad Capital, told Silicon Valley Business Journal. “When you think you bank with the safest bank in your ecosystem, and they disappeared overnight, you realize it’s impossible to predict an earthquake.” He moved his account to Chase.“Where should we bank? Where is it safe to bank?”Startups such as Brex, Mercury, and Meow have also benefited. Brex specializes in... Continue reading…

The Brother HL-L2305DW is a laser printer that just prints. It is fine. | Image: Brother Here’s the best printer in 2023: the Brother laser printer that everyone has. Stop thinking about it and just buy one. It will be fine!Seriously, ask around or just look in the background of Zoom calls: there’s a black Brother laser printer sitting there. Some people have the bare-bones Brother HL-L2305DW, which costs like $120. We have the $270 Brother MFC-L2750DW, which adds a sheet-fed scanner, because my wife is a lawyer and scans things for judges or whatever she does with it. It doesn’t matter. We only bought that one to replace our previous Brother laser printer that we lost in a move, and even then, I didn’t even look at the model numbers. It has been connected to our Wi-Fi for like six years straight, and I have never replaced... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google Glass largely went off sale to consumers in 2015, and Google has since been focusing on how the headset could be useful for businesses and developers. But even those efforts have come to an end. The company is no longer selling Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, Google spokesperson Patrick Seybold told The Verge. A help document spotted by 9to5Google says the company will end support for the AR headset on September 15th.According to the company, the devices should still work after that date, but it’s not planning on releasing any software updates. The support cutoff also extends to the built-in Meet app and repair service. “The app may stop working at any time after September 15, 2023,” warns Google’s support page, before saying... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft appears to have removed the waitlist for its new Bing Chat feature, so now anyone can sign up and use the GPT-4-powered chatbot. Windows Central spotted that if you try and sign up for the new Bing, it will simply unlock immediately. The Verge has tested this on multiple Microsoft accounts, and access was granted immediately with an email confirmation.If you want to try and get access to the new Bing, then head over to bing.com/new and hit the “join waitlist” button and sign in with your Microsoft Account. You should get access immediately.We asked Microsoft whether it has fully removed the waitlist or if it’s a bug, and communications director Caitlin Roulston said, “During this preview period, we are running various tests... Continue reading…

Wemo’s smart home light switches work well... but now only with HomeKit. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Wemo, Belkin’s smart home company, has paused development of Matter smart home devices. In an email exchange, Jen Wei, Vice President of Global Communications and Corporate Development at Belkin, confirmed that, while the company remains convinced that “Matter will have a significantly positive impact on the smart home industry,” it has decided to “take a big step back, regroup, and rethink’’ its approach to the smart home. Wei went on to write that Wemo will bring new Matter products to market when it can find a way to differentiate them. It seems like Wemo might be concerned its smart home gear is becoming commoditized.During CES 2022, Wemo announced it would bring Thread-compatible, Matter-compliant products to market when that new... Continue reading…

Ali Wong as Amy Lau and Steven Yeun as Danny Cho in Beef. | Netflix For many people, the waves of rage that take hold whenever someone cuts them off in traffic come as quickly as they go, but that could not be further from the truth for the aggrieved strangers in the first trailer for Netflix and A24’s upcoming series Beef from Lee Sung Jin starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.Before the pair first meets one fateful day, neither Danny Cho (Yeun) nor Amy Lau (Wong) have any way of knowing just how hopeless, burned out, and adrift the other is feeling about their personal lives. Though Amy seemingly has it all — a loving husband named George (Joseph Lee), kids, and a beautiful home — she can’t help but feel there’s something deeply important missing in her life that her family can’t fix. Danny, a contractor... Continue reading…

Photo by Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images NASA has revealed the new spacesuit that astronauts will wear to explore the Moon under the Artemis program. Created by Axiom Space, the new suit is designed to improve mobility for astronauts working on the lunar surface.Developed for the Artemis III mission, which will see the first woman and person of color walking on the Moon, the prototype suit was revealed at an event on Wednesday, March 15th. The prototype includes a dark gray cover, which was designed by costume designer Esther Marquis, who worked on the TV series For All Mankind, but the actual suit will be white for thermal reasons.The prototype includes a dark gray cover, which was designed by costume designer Esther Marquis, who worked on the TV series For All Mankind“... Continue reading…

Image: OpenAI Yesterday, OpenAI announced GPT-4, its long-awaited next-generation AI language model. The system’s capabilities are still being assessed, but as researchers and experts pore over its accompanying materials, many have expressed disappointment at one particular feature: that despite the name of its parent company, GPT-4 is not an open AI model.OpenAI has shared plenty of benchmark and test results for GPT-4, as well as some intriguing demos, but has offered essentially no information on the data used to train the system, its energy costs, or the specific hardware or methods used to create it.Should AI research be open or closed? Experts disagreeMany in the AI community have criticized this decision, noting that it undermines the... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro outperform the Beats in sound quality and noise cancellation, but the Beats Fit Pro have some strengths of their own — especially if you’ve got an Android phone. Continue reading…

The smart ring is adding a number of features that center around circadian rhythms. | Image: Victoria Song / The Verge Over the past year, wearable makers have started adding sleep profiles, or chronotypes, associated with cute cartoon animals to help users better understand their circadian rhythms. For instance, Fitbit Premium users can discover whether their wonky sleep patterns mean they’re a giraffe or a tortoise, while Samsung Galaxy Watch owners can find out whether they’re a sun-averse mole or a nervous penguin. So it’s hardly a surprise that the feature is now coming to the Oura Ring sleep tracker — though, regrettably, it doesn’t come with any adorable animals. Image: Oura The new body clock feature will tell you how well your sleep habits align with your chronotype’s “optimal” schedule. Starting this week, Oura users... Continue reading…

Zipline’s P2 Zip drone can dock at a partnered facility to charge and let down a “droid” for workers to drop a package into. | Image: Zipline Zipline is revealing its new drone delivery platform today that the company says is capable of making a 10-mile delivery in 10 minutes, precisely placing packages on small targets like a patio table or the front steps of a home.The new drone, which Zipline calls the Platform 2 (P2) Zip, uses a system of wires that lets down the package inside a cute little mini-bus-looking container the company describes as a “delivery droid.” The P2 Zip hovers more than 300 feet above the ground at the delivery point, keeping its blades and noise away from people (and trees and wires and buildings) to let down its tethered droid instead.The droid has the ability to steer with propellers as it’s coming down, then lands and softly drops its payload.... Continue reading…

Image: Mojang Microsoft is launching an early access version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on ChromeOS today. The game will run on Chromebooks thanks to the Android support of ChromeOS, and Minecraft will include cross-device play with friends, the marketplace, and support for playing on Realms.Mojang, the Microsoft-owned developer of Minecraft, originally launched Minecraft: Education Edition on Chromebooks in 2020, but this special edition required a school license or an Office 365 Education account. The early access version of Minecraft that’s launching today is limited to Chromebooks that meet these minimum specifications.“Early access means that in this first stage, only selected Chromebook devices that meet the minimum requirements will get... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge LinkedIn is expanding its suite of artificial intelligence features, this time adding tools that will generate content for user profiles and job descriptions.One tool announced today will scan user profiles for skills and experiences and spit out suggested copy or summaries to add to other profile sections. The company says it still recommends users review and edit what the tool has generated “to ensure it is accurate and aligns with your tone and experience.” LinkedIn will begin testing the tool starting today and expand access to all LinkedIn Premium subscribers over the course of the next few months.Another employment tool promises to make writing job descriptions “faster and easier” and “streamline” the hiring process. Employers... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI’s latest language model, GPT-4, has officially been announced, but what can it do that its predecessors couldn’t? Here are some of the biggest features and use cases to emerge so far. Continue reading…

A Samsung smartphone identified a blurry photo of the Moon and added detail to create the above image. | Image: u/ibreakphotos Samsung has published an English-language blog post explaining the techniques used by its phones to photograph the Moon. The post’s content isn’t exactly new — it appears to be a lightly edited translation of an article posted in Korean last year — and doesn’t offer much new detail on the process. But, because it’s an official translation, we can more closely scrutinize its explanation of what Samsung’s image processing technology is doing.The explanation is a response to a viral Reddit post that showed in stark terms just how much extra detail Samsung’s camera software is adding to images when taking a photo of what appears to be the Moon. These criticisms aren’t new (Input published a lengthy piece about Samsung’s moon photography in... Continue reading…

BloodPop with Lady Gaga at the 2023 Oscars. | Image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images The confluence of gaming and music continues as BloodPop — a producer known for working with the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé — has announced a new game studio. Called Genpop Interactive, the studio’s ambitious goal is to “drive forward the next-gen of music, fashion, and gaming culture.”To start, the studio — which currently has a headcount of more than 25 developers — will be making a “third person shooter with novel movement and combat mechanics.” The studio’s first round of investors includes Ed Fries, co-creator of the original Xbox, and Japanese entertainment firm Good Smile Company. There aren’t really any other details, but in a statement, BloodPop said that the goal is to move beyond gaming and tap into broader pop culture:

Image: Epic Games Remember when I told you how Epic Games accidentally revealed a new version of 2007’s Unreal Tournament 3 that would be completely free on Steam, EGS and GOG with “no microtransactions and no strings attached?” That was three months ago. Unreal Tournament 3 X still hasn’t been announced, and the company still declines to confirm or deny whether it’s happening at all.“Thank you for checking in. We have no new information to share on this,” Epic Games comms director Dana Cowley tells The Verge.As of this writing, an extensive description of the unreleased Unreal Tournament 3 X still appears on Steam. I check almost daily, and I don’t think the page has changed at all in the past three months. The game’s apparently been in the works... Continue reading…

Image: Wizards of the Coast I’m usually immune to the charms of Magic: The Gathering’s special crossover sets (although the Bob Ross lands collection almost got me). But this Lord of the Rings-themed collection has pretty much obliterated all of my willpower because these cards are. so. frigging. cool!I love seeing Frodo and Sam and Aragorn and Arwen rendered in cards that pay homage to their personalities and their big hero moments in the story. I think it’s really clever that Sam’s card, Samwise the Stouthearted, can be flashed in at any time and will return a dead creature to the battlefield, just like when he showed up to rescue Frodo from Shelob’s clutches. Image: Wizards of the Coast The card for Tom Bombadil — who is either whimsical... Continue reading…

Image: Waze Electric vehicle owners who prefer Waze to other navigation tools, rejoice: the Google-owned company is adding EV charging stations to its route planning tools in an effort to improve the experience for plug seekers.Starting today, Waze users can input their vehicle information into the app, as well as their preferred plug type, and Waze will find the nearest stations along their route. The feature will roll out to users globally in the “coming weeks,” the company says. (How it will work at launch is up for debate: some users were reporting being routed to gas stations instead of EV chargers.) Waze briefly trialed adding EV chargers to its route planning tool back in 2021 in partnership with Volkswagen. But that trial... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft Build is back, and this time, it’s taking place both digitally and in person from Seattle, Washington. The company has officially announced that its annual developer conference will start on May 23rd and last through May 25th, with pre-day workshops starting on the 22nd.Last year, Microsoft held a virtual and more limited in-person event due to the covid pandemic. While Build presents an opportunity for developers, students, engineers, engineers, and technology professionals to learn more about Microsoft products, it’s also where Microsoft shares major updates for Windows and its suite of productivity apps.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera system is at the center of the recent Moon-gate controversy. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung’s faked Moon photos are a small step for smartphone photography — not a giant leap. Continue reading…

Increasing accessibility is always good, but so is fixing the issues your customers have been complaining about. | Image: The Verge Fitbit users haven’t been too pleased as of late, but while there’s a lot that Google could do to make things better, its latest announcement ain’t it.At its The Check Up event earlier today, Google announced it’s opening up more of Fitbit’s Health Metrics Dashboard to nonsubscribers. The company says that any user with a compatible device — aka a Pixel Watch or Fitbit device — will be able to view their daily, weekly, monthly, and 90-day trends for breathing rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, and resting heart rate. Nonsubscribers will also get personalized insights whenever their data deviates from their long-term baselines.It’s always nice to see companies add extra value to free tiers. That said,... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is currently experiencing a big outage affecting its websites and apps, according to the company’s status page. I’m consistently seeing an error message when trying to load Reddit on my Chrome browser.“We’ve identified an internal systems issue and are working to determine a fix,” the company wrote at 12:56PM ET on its status page. The preceding message, from nearly 40 minutes before, notes that Reddit is “is currently offline.”

Floating solar panels in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea, on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. More than 92,000 solar panels floating on the surface of a reservoir are able to generate 41 megawatts, enough to power 20,000 homes. | Image: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images Thousands of cities around the world could power themselves entirely with solar panels floating atop water reservoirs, according to new research. It’s a relatively easy way to generate renewable energy locally while also conserving water.Solar arrays suspended over water, or floatovoltaics, work similarly to those spread out over land. The panels sit on a raft instead of on parking lots, rooftops, or other grounded mounts. But they haven’t been deployed in many places around the world yet and only produced as much electricity as less than 1 percent of the world’s land-based solar farms in 2020. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows just how much potential cities could tap into with this emerging... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI just announced its next-generation GPT-4 AI language model, but it turns out that there’s already been a major application using it: Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing.“We are happy to confirm that the new Bing is running on GPT-4, customized for search,” according to a blog post from Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing. “If you’ve used the new Bing in preview at any time in the last six weeks, you’ve already had an early look at the power of OpenAI’s latest model.”The AI-powered Bing chatbot provides summarized answers to your search queries in a way that’s intended to feel more conversational than a list of blue links. Microsoft has previously said that the new Bing is powered by what it called the “Prometheus” model,... Continue reading…

Image: OnLeaks and Smartprix Google’s upcoming Pixel 8 Pro may have a redesigned camera bar and a flat display, according to new renders of the unannounced device from OnLeaks and Smartprix.The most noticeable change to the camera bar is that all three cameras will be visible in one big oval cutout instead of being partially separated like they are on the Pixel 7 Pro. Per the renders, the 8 Pro’s camera bar will also have a mysterious new sensor under the flash. Smartprix speculates that the sensor could be a macro or depth sensor but says that its “specific function remains unknown.” Image: OnLeaks and Smartprix If you look closely, you can see a second oval for what’s presumably the wide and ultrawide. As for the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen,... Continue reading…

Image: OnLeaks and HowToiSolve The Google Pixel Fold could be available as soon as the second week in June, according to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt. The reliable leaker tweeted on Tuesday that the phone will come with 256GB base storage and that you’ll be able to get it in either a black / dark gray color or white.The foldable has been rumored for a long time, and there have been whispers that it would be announced sometime in the next few months. However, a January report from The Elec threw some cold water on that idea, saying that the screen wasn’t even set to go into production until July or August.

Illustration: The Verge After months of rumors and speculation, OpenAI has announced GPT-4: the latest in its line of AI language models that power applications like ChatGPT and the new Bing.The company claims the model is “more creative and collaborative than ever before” and “can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy.” It can parse both text and image input, though it can only respond via text. OpenAI also cautions that the systems retain many of the same problems as earlier language models, including a tendency to make up information (or “hallucinate”) and the capacity to generate violent and harmful text.OpenAI says it’s already partnered with a number of companies to integrate GPT-4 into their products, including Duolingo, Stripe, and Khan... Continue reading…

The refurbished base iPhone 13 Pro‌ model starts at $759 rather than $999, its original price when sold new. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge One of the best things about new Apple phones is how quickly prices on older models start to fall shortly after. If you’ve been waiting for a good deal to drop on the iPhone 13 lineup, you might want to head on over to Apple’s online store because Apple’s just added a bunch of discounted refurbished iPhone 13 devices.In case you’re unfamiliar with what buying refurbished entails — basically, Apple thoroughly cleans, tests, and repackages each preowned product. It also throws in a one-year warranty for extra peace of mind, making these good options for bargain hunters.The best deals are available on the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro and ‌ 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro‌ Max, which Apple no longer sells in new condition. The refurbished base iPhone 13... Continue reading…

Multiview early access is arriving in time for March Madness. | Image: YouTube Today, YouTube TV is launching early access testing for multiview, a feature that will allow subscribers to watch up to four different programs at the same time. “Those who are part of early access will receive an email and see an alert about this feature in their YouTube TV experience,” YouTube wrote in a blog post. There’s no way to manually opt in at the moment. “We’ll gradually roll out availability to all members over the coming months,” the company said.But don’t get too excited. While multiview will heavily factor into YouTube’s plans for NFL Sunday Ticket coverage, right now, it’s very limited. Like, strictly limited to sports. YouTube says early access customers will be able to “watch up to four, pre-selected different streams... Continue reading…

The upcoming speakers from Sonos usher in a new... period for the smart audio company. | Image: Sonos Sonos’ new hotly anticipated Wi-Fi-connected bookshelf speakers, the Era 100 and Era 300, are inching closer to their March 28th release and can now be preordered at multiple retailers. There’s been quite a bit of hype and buildup for these new speakers, thanks in no small part to a mountain of leaks and teases but also because the Era 100 and 300 are kicking off new lines for Sonos while the sun will set on popular models like the Sonos One and Play:3.The new Sonos Era speakers will incorporate more features into the meatier parts of the Sonos home speaker lineup, like Bluetooth, line-in, and new spatial audio capabilities. So if you’re hyped and want to get your own at launch, here’s more about the Era 100 and Era 300 speakers,... Continue reading…