 |
by Dan Seifert on (#6BMVX)
The Pixel Fold is a smartphone that opens up into a small tablet. Google is finally giving Samsung some competition in the folding phone space with the Pixel Fold, a device that transforms between a standard smartphone and a small tablet by folding in half. Continue reading…
|
The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-02-06 09:03 |
 |
by Allison Johnson on (#6BMVZ)
It’s $50 more than the Pixel 6A, but some key upgrades keep Google’s A-series at the top of the midrange class. Continue reading…
|
 |
by Sean Hollister on (#6BMW0)
Is this woman real? Google’s blog post doesn’t say. | Image: Google Generative AI is all the rage — and Google has found two new ways to put the tech in the palm of your hand.First, it’s announcing Magic Compose, a new feature in Android’s default Messages app that’ll let you respond to texts with auto-suggested responses “based on the content of your messages” so they sound like you, or pull a Grammarly and make them sound more “concise” and “professional,” or even imitate a famous style. Image: Google Me? I can’t wait to put it to work on those pig butchering scammers who keep pretending they’ve got the “wrong number.” The beta’s coming this summer.Second, as part of a Pixel-exclusive next month, Google’s adding generative AI wallpaper where “you can answer suggested prompts... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BMW1)
Stay ahead of potential threats by checking if your Gmail address has been published to the dark web. | Image: Google A new security feature coming to Google accounts could inform you if your email address has been published on the dark web. At Google I/O today, the search giant announced plans to roll out a handful of new security features designed to better protect those using Google products and services, including spam protections for Google Drive and improved search history deletion in Maps.The company is expanding its “dark web report” feature to all Gmail accounts in the US over the coming weeks, which scans to check if your Gmail address is appearing on the dark web and advises on steps that users can take to bolster their online security. The password manager built into the Chrome browser already does a fairly good job of nagging you to keep... Continue reading…
|
by James Vincent on (#6BMW2)
Project Tailwind is just a concept for now, but it’s a very intriguing one. | Image: Google Google has announced a lot of AI projects at its I/O conference this year, but the one that has me most excited is just a prototype: Project Tailwind.Essentially, it’s an AI notebook trained on your documents that you can query like a sort of personalized tutor or writing companion. Google framed it as a tool for students, but it could have a lot more potential for anyone who deals with a lot of text in their life.“Like a real notebook, your notes and your sources power Tailwind,” said Josh Woodward, a senior director of product management at Google. “How it works is you can simply pick the files from Google Drive, and it effectively creates a personalized and private AI model that has expertise in the information you give it. We’ve... Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#6BMW3)
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Google just revealed some big AI-focused updates to Search and Workspace at Google I/O, and you can now sign up to test them on a dedicated Labs page. They’re a little ways down the page: scroll until you see “Learn More” buttons, and you can click on those to go to the pages that actually let you sign up for the tests.Generative AI tools are all the rage right now, but they’ve also made some famously bad blunders. By letting users opt in to test these early products, Google can get feedback on the new tools by positioning them as “experiments” that may change and improve throughout development.In addition to the Search and Workspace experiments, you can also sign up to test two other products. Project Tailwind is something that... Continue reading…
 |
by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6BMPW)
Image: Getty This year, Google has a lot to prove — and at least one product to unfold. Continue reading…
|
by James Vincent on (#6BMSB)
Google is adding generative AI tools to apps like Docs, Gmail, and more. | Image: Google / The Verge In March, Google announced a bunch of AI features for its Workspace suite of apps in an effort to keep pace with Microsoft’s rapid integration of similar tools. At Google I/O, the company has new branding for this effort — Duet AI — but the features themselves are still not yet widely available to the general public. The company also teased a new feature called “Sidekick” that’s able to read, summarize, and answer questions on documents across different Google apps.Duet AI covers a range of generative AI tools for Google’s productivity apps. As we detailed earlier this year, that includes writing assistance in Docs and Gmail, image generation for Slides, automatic meeting summaries for Meet, and more. But at Google I/O, the only real n... Continue reading…
by James Vincent on (#6BMSC)
PaLM 2 is Google’s latest and greatest AI language model. | Image: Google Google has announced PaLM 2: its latest AI language model and competitor to rival systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4.“PaLM 2 models are stronger in logic and reasoning, thanks to broad training in logic and reasoning,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai onstage at the company’s I/O conference. “It’s also trained on multilingual text spanning over 100 languages.”PaLM 2 is much better at a range of text-based tasks, Google senior research director Slav Petrov told journalists in a roundtable prior to the model’s announcement at Google’s I/O conference, including reasoning, coding, and translation. “It is significantly improved compared to PaLM 1 [which was announced in April 2022],” said Petrov.As an example of its multilingual capabilities,... Continue reading…
 |
by James Vincent on (#6BMSD)
Google is adding a ton of new Bard features at its I/O conference today. | Image: Google Google is adding a smorgasbord of new features to its AI chatbot Bard, including support for new languages (Japanese and Korean), easier ways to export text to Google Docs and Gmail, visual search, and a dark mode. Most significantly, the company is removing the waitlist for Bard and making the system available in English in 180 countries and territories. It’s also promising future features like AI image generation powered by Adobe and integration with third-party web services like Instacart and OpenTable.Collectively, the news is a shot in the arm for Bard, which was released two months ago for select users in the US and UK. The chatbot — which Google still stresses is an experiment and not a replacement to its search engine — has c... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6BMSE)
Image: Google Google’s latest Photos trick is a feature it’s calling Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to let you make major edits to a photo without professional tools. The company revealed the feature at Google I/O 2023.Google shared a couple examples of Magic Editor in action that are both pretty cool. In one, a photo of a person in front of a waterfall, Google entirely moves the person further to the side of the photo, erases people in the background, and makes the sky a prettier blue. Watch this GIF to see it all happen: GIF: Google In another photo, Magic Editor scoots a child on a bench closer to the middle of the photo, which generates “new” parts of the bench and balloons to the left to fill in the space. In this... Continue reading…
|
by Jay Peters on (#6BMSF)
Image: Google Google Maps is bringing its recently launched Immersive View to your travel routes, which could make it much easier to understand where you want to go. The new feature, which Google calls Immersive View for routes, was announced at Google I/O 2023 on Wednesday.Immersive View currently offers a 3D view of a place and adds information like weather or traffic to give you a better idea of what’s going on at that location. (It’s kind of like Apple’s Flyover view but with more detail.) By bringing the Immersive View to route planning, you’ll be able to get a bird’s-eye view to help you better visualize the landmarks and buildings you might see while navigating somewhere new. Google will even let you see traffic simulations so that you can... Continue reading…
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6BMSG)
Image: Nuro Robot delivery startup Nuro announced plans to layoff a portion of its workforce and to pause its commercial operations as it pivots to more research and development. The news comes amid a broader set of financial challenges for the burgeoning autonomous vehicle sector.Nuro grew too rapidly in recent years thanks to an abundance of capital, a zero interest rate environment, and a growing sense of competition. But the company has since run into economic headwinds that are challenging the entire tech industry.Last November, Nuro laid off 20 percent of its staff, or about 300 employees. Additional layoffs will come later this week, Nuro said in a blog post — though it didn’t disclose how many workers would be affected.“Last month, we... Continue reading…
by Andrew Webster on (#6BMPX)
David Tennant and Michael Sheen. | Image: Amazon A few years after the show debuted, Good Omens is finally getting its second season. Amazon announced that season 2 of the show will start streaming on Prime Video on July 28th. Series co-creator Neil Gaiman will return as executive producer and co-showrunner, and much of the main cast is back as well. That includes leads Michael Sheen and David Tennant, alongside the likes of Jon Hamm, Doon Mackichan, and Gloria Obianyo.While season 1 largely followed the events of the novel of the same name from Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Amazon says that the new episodes will expand on it. Here’s the official description:
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6BMM8)
Image: SnoopyTech via Twitter Yet another leaked teaser for the Pixel Fold has surfaced just hours before its expected launch at Google I/O. In a promo video by leaker SnoopyTech, Google highlights just how thin its flagship foldable really is and also shows off how you can prop the device up on a table when watching videos.The ad offers a look at what multitasking on the device might be like as well. As shown in the clip, a user has a video call open in one panel when the device is unfolded, while Google Drive is open in another. They’re also able to drag and drop files across both screens.
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6BMM9)
Image: Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is going to have big dungeons with distinct designs, Nintendo confirmed in a developer Q&A published Wednesday. One of the biggest questions for Tears was whether it would offer something different from Breath of the Wild’s Divine Beast dungeons, which all had a largely similar aesthetic. Now, we know that there will be more variety to look forward to.Here’s the relevant passage from the Q&A, and it’s worth reading in full:
|
by Sheena Vasani on (#6BMHY)
Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro are $50 off and available at their all-time low price. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge It’s another holiday, so of course there’s yet another sale — and quite a few, in fact. In honor of Mother’s Day, everyone from Amazon to Fitbit is offering discounts on an array of tech and assorted accessories. Many of these will arrive in time for Mother’s Day, too, so not only will you be able to gift Mom the new AirPods Pro or Kindle, but you’ll save some money in the process. And don’t worry if a pair of AirPods is outside your budget, either; there are plenty of affordable deals on Bluetooth trackers, Lego sets, smart speakers, and more.Below, we’ve collected some of the best Mother’s Day tech deals (and then some) for your convenience. And just in case you need some extra help narrowing your options down, be sure to also peruse... Continue reading…
 |
by Mia Sato on (#6BMFX)
Image: Etsy Couples looking for more bespoke or personalized wedding gifts will have the ability to create a registry on Etsy.The platform known for handmade and vintage items has added a wedding registry option, available to users starting today. Couples can create and add items to their list, and guests will be able to search for and purchase gifts off of registries on Etsy.In addition to handmade and vintage items for sale on the platform, couples will also be able to add custom gifts to their registries and specify customizations — names, colors, designs, or other personalization that sellers offer.On the seller end, the process of fulfilling registry orders will be the same as others, but sellers will see a badge signaling it was... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Justine Calma on (#6BMFW)
An end view of one of Helion’s prototypes. | Image: Helion Microsoft just signed a jaw-dropping agreement to purchase electricity from a nuclear fusion generator. Nuclear fusion, often called the Holy Grail of energy, is a potentially limitless source of clean energy that scientists have been chasing for the better part of a century.A company called Helion Energy thinks it can deliver that Holy Grail to Microsoft by 2028. It announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft this morning that would see it plug in the world’s first commercial fusion generator to a power grid in Washington. The goal is to generate at least 50 megawatts of power — a small but significant amount and more than the 42MW that the US’s first two offshore wind farms have the capacity to generate today.“It’s the most... Continue reading…
|
 |
by James Vincent on (#6BMFV)
Illustration: The Verge Google has had a rough six months. Since ChatGPT launched last November — followed by the new Bing in February and GPT-4 in March — the company has failed to establish its AI credentials. Its own offering, the “experimental” chatbot Bard, compares poorly to rivals, and insider reports have portrayed a company in panic and disarray. Today, at its annual I/O conference, the company needs to convince the public (and shareholders) that it has a meaningful response. But to do that, it needs a new playbook.Google is undoubtedly a leader in AI research. As its executives like to point out, it was Googlers who created the transformer architecture that powers chatbots like ChatGPT. Just as significantly, it was Googlers who drew attention to... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Umar Shakir on (#6BMDT)
Nighthawk M6 Pro router, now unlocked. | Image: Netgear If you’re in the market for a portable hotspot, whether to have safer internet connectivity in airports and hotels or to get connected in a rural vacation home, you might have considered Netgear’s incredible M6 Pro router available through AT&T. However, if you didn’t want to be locked to a carrier, Netgear’s unlocked options for 5G mobile routers only included the mmWave-lacking M6 and the shorter-ranged non-6E Wi-Fi having M5.That’s changing, as the company’s newly-released unlocked M6 Pro (MR6550-100PAS) finally brings a more comprehensive solution that combines all of those models’ features. But it also comes in at a high price of $999.99 — a $200 premium over the regular M6, and more than double the price of the $459.99 AT&T-locked... Continue reading…
|
by Becca Farsace on (#6BMDV)
The Nikon Z8 packs impressive specs into a small body. When I reviewed the $5,496.95 Nikon Z9, I said that “Nikon finally put itself in the professional mirrorless camera race, and in a lot of ways it’s now winning.” I said this because, while most camera manufacturers went small and light, Nikon made a big, heavy mirrorless camera with very high specs that felt made for working professionals.The company has now taken those great specs and put them into a smaller $4,000 body. The new Nikon Z8 boasts a 45.7MP stacked CMOS sensor that, thanks to the Expeed 7 image processor, can shoot RAW photos at 20fps for over 1,000 frames. There are also autofocus readings up to 120fps. And impressive video specs: 12-bit N-RAW at 8K 60fps or 4K 120fps. The Z8 can shoot video in 12-bit... Continue reading…
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BMBV)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is launching a new flight booking tool for its UK customers as part of the company’s wider efforts to expand into other travel markets. Hopper, a Canadian-based travel agency, and Uber announced the partnership to sell national and international flights through the ride-sharing app on Wednesday.Uber has already introduced app bookings for flights for some UK users and is planning to make the tool more widely available across the entire region “in the coming weeks,” as reported by The Financial Times. Andrew Brem, General Manager for Uber in the UK, told the publication that this is “the latest and most ambitious step” that the company has taken in its pursuit to create a one-stop shop for all travel booking needs — a so-called... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jon Porter on (#6BMAF)
Dell’s U3224KB, the 6K 32-inch monitor it announced back at CES, is going on sale today for $3,199.99. That’s over $1,000 cheaper than Apple’s 32-inch $4,999 Pro Display XDR, which also targets professionals with a similar high resolution 6K panel. But Dell’s monitor packs in a host of other features like a built-in webcam, speakers, and KVM switch to allow it to work with two computers simultaneously. Dell’s pricing reveal joins the launch of a new 38-inch curved ultrawide display from the company.Obviously, the specs of Dell’s and Apple’s monitors aren’t identical. Most notably, Dell’s monitor is DisplayHDR 600 certified, suggesting a peak brightness in the region of 600 nits versus 1,600 nits on Apple’s monitor. There’s also no... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BM7T)
Image: Google Footage of the Pixel Fold has appeared in a YouTube ad ahead of its anticipated announcement at Google I/O later today. As reported by 9to5Google, the unlisted YouTube video features numerous NBA stars and multiple close-up shots of the upcoming Pixel Fold in everyday use.Titled “Google Pixel x NBA: The Greatest Watch Party,” the link was shared in a tweet posted by the official Google Pixel account last night. It seems Google published the link prematurely as the tweet teasingly instructed readers to “check back in tomorrow.” That said, the tweet also includes a picture of MVP Joel Embiid clearly holding the Pixel Fold, so probably best to not think too hard about it.
|
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6BM1K)
Image: Team Cherry We’ll be waiting a little while longer for Hollow Knight: Silksong. The years-in-the-making sequel to the excellent Hollow Knight was supposed to release within 12 months of the 2022 Xbox June showcase, but a representative for the game said Tuesday evening that the title will be missing that release window.“We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing,” Matthew Griffin, who works on marketing and publishing for the game, posted on Twitter. “We’re excited by how the game is shaping up, and it’s gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can. Expect more details from us once we get closer to release.”
|
by Jay Peters on (#6BM0P)
Image: Meta Meta will no longer let creators using its Horizon Worlds social VR playscape make dedicated events, the company announced as part of the platform’s v109 update notes on Tuesday. It’s a surprising shutdown of a feature that some creators hoped would someday see improvements.In March, I published a story about Horizon Worlds creators who run an in-VR comedy club, the Unknown Theater, and how they organized a VR protest over Meta’s treatment of events on the platform. The protestors took issue with changes that made community-organized events much more challenging to find, which poses a problem for the club’s regularly-scheduled shows, and the way Meta gave more prominence to high-profile events featuring big name stars like Carrie... Continue reading…
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6BKZY)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is making some big changes to direct messages and expects to introduce encrypted DMs on Wednesday, according to Tuesday evening tweets from the company and owner Elon Musk.Let’s start first with the immediate changes. As detailed in a tweet from the company’s support account, you can now reply to specific messages (which work like the in-line replies you might be familiar with in iMessage) and react to messages with any reaction instead of a limited few. I just downloaded the iOS app to my phone and both features were there. You can access them by pressing and holding on a specific message.
|
 |
by Richard Lawler on (#6BKTK)
Image: Tucker Carlson via Twitter Just weeks after leaving Fox News amid the wreckage of its $787 defamation lawsuit settlement with Dominion over lies about the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson has announced his show is coming back soon in “a new version,” but this time, it’s on Twitter.In a three-minute video haranguing the mainstream media circus he’s spent his career as a part of, Carlson insists that “the only one remaining” platform allowing free speech is Twitter, as opposed to the cable news outlets that he calls propaganda outlets.
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6BKW2)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge PlugwalkJoe, aka Joseph James O’Connor, a UK citizen connected to the 2020 Twitter hack affecting many high-profile accounts, including Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Apple, has pled guilty to cyberstalking and other crimes. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that O’Connor has been extradited to the US.In 2020, PlugwalkJoe and unnamed co-conspirators gained access to Twitter’s administrative tools. Using that access, the co-conspirators were able to tweet from several accounts belonging to major companies and celebrities. This allowed them to promote a Bitcoin scam that raked in almost $120,000.DOJ:
|
 |
by Chris Welch on (#6BKW3)
Beats could release multiple new products in the coming weeks. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Beats seems on the cusp of having a fairly busy spring. We already know that Studio Buds Plus earbuds are on the way (and likely soon), thanks to a premature Amazon listing. And now 9to5Mac is reporting that a refreshed set of Studio Pro noise-canceling headphones are also in the works after being spotted in the release candidate build of iOS 16.5 that went out to developers yesterday.Citing sources familiar with the headphones, 9to5Mac says we can expect more powerful noise cancellation and an improved transparency mode. The $350 Studio 3 headphones — still being sold by Apple as of now — don’t offer any passthrough / transparency mode whatsoever. But Beats did a pretty good job with the feature on the Solo Pro headphones released in... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Amrita Khalid on (#6BKW4)
Photo by Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.This week is an exciting one for the audio industry, with Podcast Upfront around the corner and awards season underway. This week, we’ll look at a new community audio project on Bluesky and Spotify’s expansion of its audio ad network in Europe. I also briefly connected with journalist Connie Walker, who won a Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting yesterday.SkySpaces is bringing live audio to BlueskyIt’s been a rough few months for live audio. Spotify shut down Spotify Live. Clubhouse cut half its staff. And Twitter Spaces seems to be at the bottom of Elon Musk’s ever-shifting priorities list (not to mention he’s fired most of the team... Continue reading…
|
by Andrew Webster on (#6BKRN)
Image: Private Division Game Freak is best known as the studio behind the mainline Pokémon games, including recent releases like Sword / Shield, Legends: Arceus, and Scarlet / Violet. But the developer is expanding its repertoire for a new release currently codenamed Project Bloom. There isn’t much detail on the game, but it’s described as “a brand-new action-adventure IP.” The studio released a single piece of concept art, which you can see above.To release the game, the studio has partnered with Private Division, a publishing label under the Take-Two umbrella, which previously published titles ranging from The Outer Worlds to OlliOlli World. “We’re ready to help Game Freak unleash their potential and we’re honored to be the first Western publisher to work... Continue reading…
by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6BKM4)
Image: TED Buzz has been building around the secretive tech startup Humane for over a year, and now the company is finally offering a look at what it’s been building. At TED last month, Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhri gave a demonstration of the AI-powered wearable the company is building as a replacement for smartphones. Bits of the video leaked online after the event, but the full video is now available to watch.The device appears to be a small black puck that slips into your breast pocket, with a camera, projector, and speaker sticking out the top. Throughout the 13-minute presentation, Chaudhri walks through a handful of use cases for Humane’s gadget:
 |
by Umar Shakir on (#6BKM5)
Photo by Zac Goodwin / PA Images via Getty Images International online sports broadcasting company DAZN has joined a global task force that aims to shut down pirated and unauthorized sports streaming operations worldwide. The new group is operated by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which counts giants like Amazon, Apple, NBC Universal, Netflix, Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros. among its members.Unauthorized streaming sources can often be the only available option for people to watch certain teams and matches subject to complicated broadcasting deals, locked into high-priced bundles, and blackouts. With more tech and entertainment companies using sports as a sweetener for their services (NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, MLS / MLB for Apple TV Plus, and Thursday Night... Continue reading…
|
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6BKM6)
Taiichiro Yoshida’s “Jolteon” | Taku Saiki / The Pokémon Company We’re still quite a ways out from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s big DLC drops, and it’s not clear when the newest Pokémon anime will start airing outside of Japan. But anyone looking for an artful Poké-fix might want to start thinking about visits to Los Angeles this summer to take in The Pokémon Company’s upcoming Pokémon × Kogei craftwork exhibition.Today, The Pokémon Company announced its new collaboration with Japan House Los Angeles to bring Pokémon × Kogei, a collection of over 70 pieces of handcrafted art from 20 different artists working in a variety of mediums, to the US for a five-month-long exhibition. In a press release about the exhibition, The Pokémon Company president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara said that it was an honor to... Continue reading…
 |
by Jay Peters on (#6BKM7)
Image: Amazon Amazon’s new “Amazon Anywhere” shopping experience lets you shop for real-world goods inside of games and virtual worlds. The company shared some details of the experience on Tuesday, and you can already try it inside Niantic’s just-launched Peridot game.In Peridot, once you’ve linked your Amazon account, you’ll be able to buy things like shirts and a Peridot-themed pillow right inside the app. (With the shirts, you can even specify things like fit type, color, and size.) Once you’ve made your selection, the app will show you the final price and an estimated delivery date before you check out.You can get an idea of how it all works in this video from Amazon.“We’re creating a new landscape for shoppable entertainment and digital... Continue reading…
|
by Nilay Patel on (#6BKGY)
Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Airbnb is revamping its Rooms feature while eyeing AI and betting on work from anywhere. Continue reading…
 |
by James Vincent on (#6BKGZ)
Image: Anthropic Anthropic is a bit of an unknown quantity in the AI world. Founded by former OpenAI employees and keen to present itself as the safety-conscious AI startup, it’s received serious funding (including $300 million from Google) and a space at the top table, attending a recent White House regulatory discussion alongside reps from Microsoft and Alphabet. Yet the firm is a blank slate to the general public; its only product is a chatbot named Claude, which is primarily available through Slack. So what does Anthropic offer, exactly?According to co-founder Jared Kaplan, the answer is a way to make AI safe. Maybe. The company’s current focus, Kaplan tells The Verge, is a method known as “constitutional AI” — a way to train AI systems like... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6BKH0)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Wendy’s is partnering with Google to create an AI chatbot that can take orders at its drive-thrus, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. The fast-food chain has plans to bring its first “Wendy’s FreshAI” enabled drive-thru to a Columbus, Ohio, restaurant in June.The chatbot will be able to take verbal orders from customers who line up at Wendy’s drive-thru kiosks, all with the hope that it will help reduce long wait times. Wendy’s worked with Google to build a tailored chatbot on top of the company’s existing large language model (LLM), which it’s bound to reveal updates about at its Google I/O event on Wednesday. This all goes along with Google’s push into AI, as its Cloud unit sells the idea of companies commissioning their... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BKH1)
Illustration: The Verge Chinese authorities have detained a man in the Gansu province in Northern China for allegedly using ChatGPT to write fake news articles. The move appears to be one of the first arrests made under China’s new anti-AI guidelines, which (among other restrictions) prohibit artificial intelligence services from being misused to distribute “false information.”The suspect, identified only by his surname Hong, is accused of using OpenAI’s chatbot to generate news articles describing a fatal train crash that officials say was “false information,” according to a police statement reported by South China Morning Post. After discovering the article on April 25th, authorities found multiple versions of the same story with different accident locations... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6BKH2)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge The issueStreaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, and HBO Max have chosen to protect their copyright by placing a black overlay over any screenshot made of one of their videos.Quick fixShut off hardware acceleration on any Chromium-based browser.The full storyBack in 2018, before I was on staff at The Verge, I was working as a freelance writer. Things had gotten a little slow when a friend sent me an ad from a production company looking for extras to play “Jewish Resort Guests” for an episode in the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It sounded like fun, so I applied — and was offered two days of work in two separate scenes.Cut to today. Recently, I was telling the story, and a friend asked if I had... Continue reading…
|
by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6BKD0)
Forget the tool rack; stay focused on the wiper. | GIF: Tesla We here at The Verge are committed to delivering to you hard-hitting journalism that touches on the defining issues of our times. Issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, free speech, and, of course, the Tesla Cybertruck’s comically oversize windshield wiper.Yesterday, Tesla teased a new accessory for the Cybertruck: a tool rack that attaches to the bed of the electric pickup truck. At first glance, this would seem to be an obvious accessory to offer to truck customers, many of whom are contractors and tradespeople with a wide variety of tool storage needs. The Cybertruck aspires to be a truck for all types of people, and a tool rack helps illustrate the types of accessories that will be available when it eventually comes... Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6B9E5)
This is what it must feel like to preorder for full price and not get at least some small gift or swag for free. | Image: Nintendo If you’re looking to buy yourself a ticket aboard the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hype train and preorder the game ahead of its impending launch on Friday, you might as well get some cool extra bonuses. Some retailers are offering free preorder incentives like a wooden plaque or an art print, which are a nice bonus that doesn’t cost anything extra. Or, super-fans willing to plunk down extra money can get the fancy Collector’s Edition with lots of accouterments (if it ever becomes available again, sadly).So which way to preorder nets you the most benefit? There’s already one method that allows you to save $20 on the game, but that’s only on the digital version and exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Here, we’ll go... Continue reading…
 |
by Victoria Song on (#6BKD1)
These odor generators can either be stuck into a wearable mask or on a pill-shaped holder that adheres underneath the nose. | Image: Nature Communications Smells have always been hard to recreate in virtual reality, but researchers may have figured out a solution: wearable odor generators.Researchers from Beihang University and the City University of Hong Kong detailed two types of device formats in a paper published today in Nature Communications. The first type is a wearable that attaches to the skin directly under the nose. The other is a soft mask. (You can see both demoed in the videos below.) The former can create two scents while the latter can create up to nine scents. Both generators contain scented wax that can be heated in about 1.44 seconds to release the desired scent in a localized area.Altogether, the researchers were able to generate 30 different scents, including... Continue reading…
|
by Tauriq Moosa on (#6BKAY)
Image: Microsoft I have not felt genuine devastation about a game in some time. Devastation at the state of this game, devastation that one of the best studios seemed forced to push out a product before it was ready, and devastation at having to continue playing. Arkane Austin’s co-op first-person vampire shooter Redfall drained any enjoyment, even from its early hours.Arkane is a studio renowned for innovative, clockwork-like designed games, promoting player intellect over destruction. Games like Dishonored and Prey see players in carefully crafted worlds, with multiple approaches to solving a problem in precisely designed levels. Their worlds feel alive, dark, and unique. All of that is missing from Redfall.Redfall feels like a game from the Xbox... Continue reading…
 |
by Ash Parrish on (#6BKAZ)
Image: Bethesda We know so little of Starfield, only that it’s from Bethesda, involves stars and fields in some configuration, and that Microsoft and Xbox desperately need it to be a hit after Redfall’s pretty terrible launch. But now, thanks to a new ESRB description, we know... honestly, not that much more, but at least we now know there’s plenty of drugs, lots of blood, and possibly jetpack sex.The ESRB summary starts with a description of who we’ll be playing as: “players assume the role of a miner tasked with finding Artifacts across the galaxy.” From the 15-minute gameplay showcase last year, we know these mysterious artifacts are a key plot point but still have no clues about what they are, what they do, or why they’re so important.After that,... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Brandon Widder on (#6BKB0)
Bose’s QC Earbuds II boast multipoint Bluetooth support, phenomenal ANC, and plenty of other notable features. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Just in case you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past couple of weeks, you should know that Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Thankfully, if you have yet to pick up a gift — or fancy a pair of noise-canceling earbuds for yourself — Bose is currently discounting a slew of our favorite devices in the run-up to Sunday, March 14th.There’s quite a bit on offer, including some of the best discounts we’ve seen on the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and QuietComfort 45 headphones, both of which offer excellent comfort, a natural-sounding transparency mode for letting outside noise in, and some of the best noise cancellation you can get regardless of form factor. Bose’s ongoing promo drops the QC Earbuds II to $249 ($50... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Emma Roth on (#6BK8E)
Image: Apple Apple is bringing Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to the iPad. Both apps will be available for $4.99 per month or $49 per year on iPad starting on May 23rd. For comparison, buying Logic Pro on a Mac costs $199.99, and buying Final Cut Pro normally costs $299.99.The video and music editing apps will come with enhancements specifically for iPads. Final Cut Pro, for example, will come with a new jog wheel that’s supposed to make the editing process “easier than ever,” allowing you to navigate the magnetic timeline, move clips, and perform edits using just your finger and multi-touch gestures. Image: Apple A new feature called Live Drawing lets you use your Apple Pencil to draw and write directly on top of video content.... Continue reading…
|
 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#6BK8H)
Image: _H0x0d_ (Twitter) Microsoft is expanding preview access to its Microsoft 365 Copilot, a digital assistant based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 that brings AI-powered capabilities across Microsoft 365 apps and services. The tech giant has also announced a new indexing tool that lets Copilot more accurately report on internal company data, alongside some new Copilot features for apps like Microsoft Whiteboard, Outlook, and PowerPoint.The company is launching the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program — an invitation-only paid preview that will initially be rolled out to 600 global customers. Prior to this expansion, just 20 customers have been able to test the Microsoft 365 Copilot. Those new customers will be asked to pay an unspecified amount for the privilege,... Continue reading…
|