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by James Vincent on (#653FW)
A robot wields a paintbrush — but AI artwork is created with algorithms not oil paints. | Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has criticized companies “racing” to commercialize AI art generators, saying firms aren’t thinking through the potential legal and ethical hazards of the technology.In an interview with The Verge, Peters reiterated Getty Images’ rule against selling AI content (which it banned in September), while announcing a new partnership between the company and Israeli firm Bria to offer AI-powered image editing tools. Getty Images’ stance on AI-generated content marks a clear difference with rival Shutterstock, which announced today it will be integrating AI art generator DALL-E directly into its site’s offerings.“I don’t think those questions have been answered.”“We took a step around AI-generated imagery to... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-07-10 04:46 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#653FX)
Hinge users can now display what pet they own and their zodiac sign to help find their perfect match. | Image: Hinge Hinge users can add their zodiac signs and pet information to their dating profiles starting today.The new zodiac signs feature allows users to add their sun sign — that’s another term for your main star sign — to profile vitals. If you don’t think you’d be compatible with a Libra, or want to be upfront about being a Scorpio then you can skip the awkward questions and get straight to the point, making the information readily available for any potential dating partners.Google search trends show that interest in Astrology has been growing in recent yearsInterest in Astrology has been growing in recent years, with Google Trends showing that searches for “birth chart” and “star sign” spiked during 2020 and 2021, which might explain the... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#653EC)
The store is due to open soon in London’s Soho district. | Image: Nothing Nothing plans to open its first physical retail location in London’s Soho district before Christmas this year, the company has announced. The store will be located at 4 Peter Street, between Gosh! Comics and the London outlet of fashion brand Supreme. News of the store comes a day before Nothing is due to announce its latest pair of earbuds, the Ear Stick, which it will sell at the store alongside its other devices.In the past, Nothing has used pop-up locations to promote and sell products, but this is the first time the company will have a permanent retail presence. Nothing CEO Carl Pei has said in the past that his ambition is for Nothing to compete with Apple, which has long operated a global network of stores to offer sales and... Continue reading…
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by Thomas Ricker on (#653CS)
From left to right: the new River 2 Max, River 2, and River 2 Pro family of portable batteries from EcoFlow. | Image: EcoFlow Big-ass battery maker EcoFlow is announcing the redesigned River 2 series today fitted with long lasting LFP (LiFePO4) batteries and lots of ports to power your AC and DC devices. These are batteries sized to power your weekend away or a music festival.The River 2 series consists of three batteries that vary by storage capacities, maximum AC power (pure sine wave) output, and charging ports:
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by Tom Warren on (#653BB)
Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia says it’s investigating two reports of RTX 4090 cards that have had power cables burn or melt. Reddit user reggie_gakil was the first to post details about their Gigabyte RTX 4090 issues yesterday, showing burn damage on the new 12VHPWR adapter cable that Nvidia ships with the RTX 4090. The connection on the actual card was also damaged and melted.A second Reddit poster replied to the same thread showing off similar damage to an Asus RTX 4090 graphics card power connector.“We are investigating the reports,” says Nvidia spokesperson Bryan Del Rizzo in a statement to The Verge. “We are in contact with the first owner and will be reaching out to the other for additional information.” Image: reggie_gakil (Reddit)... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#653A0)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp went down in a major outage affecting the communications app for two hours today. The service started experiencing issues at around 3AM ET, with users greeted with a “connecting” message. WhatsApp web also showed a “make sure your computer has an active internet connection” error. The issues affected users globally, and were resolved around 5AM ET.“We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today. We’ve fixed the issue and apologize for any inconvenience,” says Meta spokesperson Joshua Breckman in a statement to The Verge.This was the first major WhatsApp outage since the service went down as part of a massive outage that also took down Instagram, Messenger, Oculus, and Facebook last year. That outage took nearly... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#65308)
Photo by Abigail Bassett for The Verge Toyota may have finally announced an electric vehicle strategy last year, but new reporting suggests that the automaker could be headed back to the drawing board. According to Reuters sources, an internal group at Toyota is tasked with working out plans to improve its current e-TNGA flexible EV platform or for developing a new EV architecture.The e-TNGA platform is already in use in the all-electric bZ4X crossover SUV and is (for now) planned to underpin the upcoming 2023 Lexus RZ 450e.As these changes remain under discussion, Toyota reportedly is also suspending development on certain other EV projects, including a compact electric cruiser (inspired by the FJ Cruiser) and the Toyota Crown hybrid sedan. The existing strategy called... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#652YX)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Best Buy’s new MacBook upgrade program locks you into three years of monthly payments before giving you the option to upgrade to the latest and greatest machine (via Apple Insider). Called Upgrade Plus, it lets people with approved credit finance either a MacBook or MacBook Air via Citizens Bank.As an example, Best Buy says you can purchase the $999 M1-powered MacBook Air for as low as $19.99 for 36 months and then pay out the remaining $280.35 in month 37 to keep the device. That is, assuming you qualify for a zero-percent APR offer — the program’s FAQ indicates offers may carry interest of up to 29.99 percent, depending on creditworthiness.But if you don’t want to pay the higher amount on that last payment, Best Buy says you will... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#652YY)
Currently, there’s no explanation for why the election’s being called off. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Amazon Labor Union has withdrawn its petition to hold an election at an Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, California, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the National Labor Relations Board. It’s a sharp-turn around for organization efforts at the facility, known as ONT8; the petition was filed on October 12th, and the NLRB had confirmed that there was a sufficient showing of interest to proceed with the election, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Suhauna Hussain.It’s unclear why the petition was withdrawn or if it has any relation to the ALU’s recent loss in Albany, New York. The withdrawal request isn’t currently publicly available, but petitioners don’t have to tell the NLRB why they’re withdrawing, according... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#652XB)
The final update for Chome on Windows 7 and 8.1 is scheduled to be released in early February. | Illustration: The Verge Google will release the final version of Chrome for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 sometime next year. Chrome 110, which is tentatively scheduled to be released on February 7th, 2023, will be the last version that supports the two older Microsoft operating systems, according to a Google support page (via Android Police).This could be a bigger deal than you might think. Despite Windows 7 first being released in 2009 and Microsoft officially ending support for it in 2020, data suggests that the operating system is still running on a whole lot of devices: as recently as last year, that number was estimated to be at least 100 million PCs. That means a lot of people could soon be both an unsupported operating system and an unsupported web... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#652XC)
It seems like Disney’s following in Netflix’s footsteps. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge If you subscribe to Disney Plus’ upcoming ad-supported tier, you may miss out on features that are available to other subscribers. Some code discovered by MacRumors’ Steve Moser suggests that GroupWatch and SharePlay — features that let you remotely watch a movie or show with friends and family — won’t be available if you’re using the $7.99 version of Disney’s service (via XDA).Disney didn’t immediately reply to The Verge’s request for comment on whether it’s actually planning to not allow ad-supported users to watch content with it or Apple’s system. The code seems pretty unambiguous; it’s a tooltip saying, “Groupwatch and Shareplay unavailable for accounts on the ads tier.” However, it could always be a placeholder or a decision that... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#652VM)
The Wikipedia logo | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Wikipedia is one of the sturdiest survivors of the old web, as well as one of the most clearly human-powered ones, thanks to a multitude of editors making changes across the globe. But after celebrating the site’s 20th birthday last year, the Wikimedia Foundation is turning to new — and more heavily automated — tools in search of its next wave of contributors. It’s adding features designed to ease users into making their own edits, including suggestions for easy first steps like cross-linking different articles. It’s doing so while trying not to weaken the bonds of its individual communities — and, the Wikimedia team hopes, possibly even making them stronger.Wikimedia has been testing extra features for newcomers since 2019, and it’s... Continue reading…
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#652VN)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge At a staff meeting this afternoon here at The Verge, several people started complaining about the problem of keeping their fabric-covered tech clean. It turned out that this is definitely a problem in search of a solution.For example, if you are keeping an Apple HomePod Mini, a Google Assistant speaker, or an Amazon Echo in your kitchen, the device is going to start accumulating crumbs and grease really quickly. Not to mention the pet hair that the fabric is going to attract or what it will look like after being carried from room to room by grubby little four-year-old hands.So how do you keep them clean?I looked it up in various sources, and most agreed: there are a few things you can do to try to keep the surface of your... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#652VP)
There’s an additional battery-saving setting that, combined with Low Power Mode, can get you an estimated 60 hours. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Apple Watch Ultra can now last even longer on a single charge. In watchOS 9.1, Apple has added a workout setting that extends battery life to an estimated 60 hours by reducing GPS and heart rate readings.Battery life estimates for the Ultra can be a little tough to parse. The official line is that the watch lasts up to 36 hours with normal use and up to 12 hours during an outdoor run. However, Apple also introduced a Low Power Mode in watchOS 9 that limits or disables certain features to last enough to finish an Ironman race — roughly 14-15 hours. But to get that 60-hour estimate, you have to enable both Low Power Mode and the new “Fewer GPS and heart rate readings” setting.The vanilla Low Power Mode turns off the always-on... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#652SC)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Justice Department has announced charges against two Chinese intelligence officers, accusing them of attempting to obstruct a US investigation into the telecommunications giant Huawei.In charging documents made public on Monday, defendants Guochum He and Zheng Wang were accused of working on behalf of the Chinese government to obtain confidential information and trial evidence related to a Justice Department investigation into Huawei. US law enforcement officials declined to name the company, but both CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported that the case concerns Huawei, which is the subject of an ongoing trade secrets prosecution.“This case exposes the interconnection between PRC intelligence officers & Chinese companies, and it... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#652SD)
Image: Microsoft The Microsoft Surface Duo and Duo 2 are getting Windows-like UI tweaks, as well as the improvements that come with Android 12L, an operating system built specifically for devices with larger screens. In an update on its blog, Microsoft shared some of the changes coming to its folding phone, which include revamped icons, colors, and controls made to look as if they’re on a Windows device.We first heard Android 12L’s coming to the Surface Duo back in March, and after some testing, the update is rolling out on Surface Duo devices now. According to Microsoft, the refreshed look extends to the Duo’s Quick Settings and System Settings menus, as well as the Pen menu that appears when using the Surface Slim Pen 2.Just like on a standard... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#652SE)
Song of Nunu will now be launching sometime in 2023. | Image: Riot Forge Riot Games is delaying two League of Legends spinoffs from its Riot Forge publishing label to 2023. 2D action-platformer Convergence (styled Conv/rgence) and the single-player adventure game Song of Nunu were set to release in 2022, but now they’re being pushed to next year. With the delay, the development teams can have “a little more time to put on some finishing touches,” Riot wrote on the Forge Twitter account on Monday.Riot announced the Riot Forge label in 2019, which works with outside studios to create games in the League of Legends universe. Convergence is being developed by Double Stallion Games, while Song of Nunu is being made by Tequila Works.
by Mitchell Clark on (#652SF)
(Henry Cavill’s) Superman returns. | Image: Henry Cavill on Instagram Henry Cavill is letting people know that he’s not done playing Superman (via The Hollywood Reporter). In an Instagram post on Monday, he posted a promotional image of himself as the superhero, along with a video where he says, “I am back as Superman.” His announcement comes after he made a cameo appearance in Black Adam, DC’s latest movie, and as we’re starting to hear reports that a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel is in the works.In his video, Cavill calls the image and his appearance in Black Adam “just a very small taste of what’s to come.” The caption also references “the dawn of hope renewed” and says that people’s patience will be rewarded.
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by Justine Calma on (#652Q0)
Plastic, Styrofoam, and other trash drain down from storm channels and wash up along the banks of Ballona Creek after the first major rain of the season in Los Angeles, California. | Photo by: Citizen of the Planet / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images We’ve known for years that plastic recycling rates are low, but they’ve managed to get even worse. The state of plastic recycling in the US is so abysmal that no plastic packaging can even be considered recyclable, according to a new report published today by environmental group Greenpeace.Households in the US tossed out 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, says the new report. Just 2.4 million tons of that plastic was recycled, or just under 5 percent — compared to 8.7 percent in 2018.With so little of the waste recycled, no type of plastic used in the US meets an industry-backed standard for what’s considered “recyclable,” says GreenpeaceWith so little of the waste recycled, no type of plastic packaging used in the US meets an... Continue reading…
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by David Pierce on (#652MN)
Vincent Kilbride / The Verge Have you ever wondered where your “random” password came from? Is there such a thing as a not-random-enough password, or maybe a too-random password? How long should that password be, anyway, and why won’t some platforms let it be longer? Oh, and which VPN should you use, and how should you know? And really, what’s the worst a compromised website can do to you?These are the kinds of cybersecurity questions we all encounter every day. By now, you probably know the basics: use multi-factor authentication whenever you can, have a password manager with different passwords for every service, and if you ever catch yourself telling someone your credit card number over the phone, hang up immediately. But so many other questions come up all the... Continue reading…
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by Cameron Faulkner on (#652MP)
The microSD card slot is located on the bottom of the Steam Deck, beneath the right speaker. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you get a Steam Deck, slide in a microSD card, format it, and begin installing a game, you might notice something: incredibly slow download speeds. Like “Is my internet broken?” speeds. There seems to be something happening for some Deck owners, including myself, that prevents your removable microSD storage from being able to operate at full speed.There is a fix for it that doesn’t take too long, but note that you’ll need to reformat your microSD card during this process, so you will lose your game installs and anything else you have stored on your card.But first, a disclaimer that it’s possible that your microSD card is, in fact, what’s slowing things down. My colleague Alice Newcome-Beill tells me that you should buy one that has... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#652MQ)
Nick Barclay / The Verge More and more Americans are getting their news from TikTok, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.The percentage of people getting news from TikTok has tripled since 2020; around 10 percent of all US adults now regularly get news on the app. For adults under 30, that number jumps to 26 percent.People already on TikTok are also shifting how they use the app, in this case increasingly as a source of news. One-third of adult users on the app say they get their news on the platform, up from 22 percent in 2020. TikTok becoming more of a news app is in contrast with other platforms, where Pew found that news consumption was stagnant or trending downward. On Facebook, for example, 54 percent of adults on the platform said they were... Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#652MR)
Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. | Marvel Studios Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania’s first trailer makes it clear that the movie’s going to be a family affair that brings back all of Scott Lang’s loved ones for an adventure that looks more than a bit like whatever’s going on in Strange World. But the trailer also reveals something rather interesting about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next big Avengers-level villain, Kang the Conqueror, is stepping onto the scene and setting the stage for what’s to come.Director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania will tell the story of how Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and Hope’s mother Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), all end up getting transported to the Quantum Realm after Scott’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn... Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#652HS)
Image: Apple Apple has released macOS 13, also known as Ventura, the latest version of its desktop operating system. It includes features like the Stage Manager window management system, the ability to edit and unsend iMessages like you can in iOS 16, and the Continuity Camera feature that turns your iPhone into a webcam.Ventura, announced earlier this year at Apple’s WWDC conference, also includes a variety of improvements to stock apps and utilities. Mail, for instance, will let you schedule emails and undo sending one, and the Spotlight search system is now able to take actions like setting alarms and running shortcuts. Safari is also getting the ability to login to websites using PassKeys, a standard being pushed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#652HT)
iPadOS 16 is finally here. | Photo by David Pierce / The Verge Apple has officially released iOS and iPadOS 16.1, along with macOS Ventura. For iPad, it means that Apple’s tablet platform will finally be getting iOS 16 features like iMessage editing and undo send in Mail. But it also marks the official release of the Stage Manager multitasking tool, which has been unpopular and buggy throughout the iPadOS betas.My colleague David Pierce didn’t mince words in July: “I hate Stage Manager,” he wrote in his preview. Three months on, it still has some big issues, David noted in today’s review that “Stage Manager might be shipping, and it has gotten better since its first nonsensical beta, but it’s definitely not done.”Now third-party apps can use Live ActivitiesApple did delay iPadOS 16 from its... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#652HW)
You can pick between the Trail Loop, Alpine Loop, and Ocean Band based on the type of athlete you are, but it’s got to fit your daily life, too Continue reading…
by Tom Warren on (#652HV)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is launching its own version of the Mac Mini today with a $599 PC that’s designed for developers to build native Arm apps for Windows 11. Known previously as Project Volterra, the Windows Dev Kit 2023 (what a name) will be available today in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US. Developers will be able to purchase the device, but really anyone wanting a miniature Windows on Arm machine can buy one, too.The Windows Dev Kit 2023 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 platform with 32GB of RAM and 512GB of NVMe storage. There are also two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports at the side and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports at the rear, alongside an Ethernet port and Mini DisplayPort.There’s also a... Continue reading…
by James Vincent on (#652HX)
A series of AI-generated selfies created using the Facetune app, with the prompt used to create the selfie written below. From left to right, the images are in the style of M.C. Escher, the Top Gun movie, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. | Image: The Verge Like any novel technological development, text-to-image AI models are slowly moving from the R&D stage to the phase of “making weird stuff for social media.”Case in point is the phenomenon of the AI-generated selfie, which splices your likeness with different artistic styles and themes using machine learning. Think of it like the next Snapchat filter: a quick way to make your face look goofier than normal. Or goofy in a different way.There are a few methods to make your own AI-generated portrait right now, like the free web tool DrawAnyone. Just head to the site and upload some selfies, let the system process your likeness, and then pick an output style for your new portrait. A fair warning: you’ll probably have to wait a few hours... Continue reading…
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by Nicole Wetsman on (#652HY)
Gamers are better at attention and memory tasks. | Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Kids who play video games have better memory and better control over their motor skills than kids who don’t, according to a new study looking at adolescent brain function.Video games might not be responsible for those differences — the study can’t say what the causes are — but the findings add to a bigger body of work showing gamers have better performance on some tests of brain function. That lends support to efforts to develop games that can treat cognitive problems.“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a statement.The study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#652HZ)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is increasing the prices across its services, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and its overarching Apple One subscription, according to a report from 9to5Mac. This marks the first time the company has raised the prices of these services in the US.Here’s a breakdown of the new pricing:Apple Music for individuals will increase by $1 a month to $10.99, or by $10 for the annual plan, which will now cost $109 a year. Apple Music for families is going up by $2 a month to $16.99. The voice plan introduced last year, which lets you access the company’s music library via Siri, is staying the same at $4.99 a month.Apple TV is going up by $2 a month to $6.99 or $20 annually to $69.Apple says musicians will get more money thanks to... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#652FF)
Spooky season is also savings season. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Spooky season may soon be coming to a close, but deals season is still in full swing. First off, you can buy the latest version of the Amazon Echo smart speaker for just $49.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, or Target. This $50 discount is the lowest price for the fourth generation of Amazon’s smart speaker. While it came out in 2020, and the smaller Echo Dot just got a fifth-gen release, the ponderous Echo just got a handy new feature added via firmware update. Now, if you have an Eero mesh Wi-Fi router you can use the fourth-gen Echo to extend its network.But the Echo does a lot more than extend a Wi-Fi network, as it’s actually got a pretty formidable sound output for a small speaker. It can fill most rooms with music, and it even has some... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#652FG)
Image: Bethesda Game Studios Unlike Skyrim, which has seen a launch on just about every console generation three times over, Fallout 4 has been, until now, contained to one console generation. But today, Bethesda announced Fallout 4 will be getting a next-gen refresh. According to the announcement on Fallout’s website, the update is due for release in 2023 and will feature a high-performance mode, bug fixes, and bonus content.Accompanying the next-gen news was also a wealth of updates for Fallout 76. There’s a Halloween event going on from now till November 8th, and starting on October 25th, Fallout 76ers will be able to pick up one free item per day that celebrates the series’ 25th anniversary. Since the Fallout series is apparently old enough to rent a car,... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#652FH)
The One UI 5 update has landed on some Samsung Galaxy S22 series phones across Europe. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Reports are emerging from Galaxy S22 series owners that the stable version of Android 13 is now available to download following weeks of beta updates. As reported by Android Authority and Sammobile, European Galaxy S22 users have taken to Twitter and Reddit to confirm the One UI 5 update, which doesn’t appear to be available to the US market at this time.Samsung hasn’t explicitly mentioned a release date for One UI 5; however, it does appear that the tech giant intended to start rolling out the update today if a freshly dropped tweet and video introduction are anything to go by. Android Authority also confirmed that the update landed on its UK-based review unit. The update is almost 3GB for users who aren’t already using the beta... Continue reading…
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by David Pierce on (#652D1)
I do love my Stage Manager messaging command center. But even that would be better with better multitasking. | Image: Apple / David Pierce There is really only one big idea inside of iPadOS 16. The new operating system comes with plenty of improvements and upgrades, of course — editable messages, a Weather app (finally), improvements to most of Apple’s built-in apps, and some extremely clever new Live Text features — but most of that is already available on the iPhone through iOS 16. There’s nothing wrong with an iterative update, of course, and by the time you hit version 16 of anything, you’re not likely to be breaking much new ground.Stage Manager, though, is an almost entirely new thing. It’s the one feature in iPadOS 16 that has the actual potential to change the way you use your iPad (provided you have a compatible model — third-gen iPad Pro or newer, fifth-gen iPad... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#652D0)
PayPal is introducing passkeys as a means for its users to quickly and securely log in to the payment service. | Image: PayPal PayPal has announced today that passkeys are being added as a new, password-less login method to secure PayPal accounts for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users on PayPal.com, with plans to expand passkeys to other platforms as they add support. PayPal passkeys are rolling out to US customers today and will be available to “additional countries” in early 2023.Passkeys are a new type of login credential that replaces passwords with cryptographic key pairs. They are resistant to phishing attempts and are designed to avoid sharing passkey data between platforms, addressing the weakness of current password-based authentication. Passkeys are supported by Apple, Google, and Microsoft, who have pledged to bring the FIDO Alliance standard to their... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#652CZ)
Rose Winters can use her magic powers to help fend off zombies. | Image: Capcom Resident Evil Village’s DLC made me scared of the doorways in my own home. It happened after an intense sequence in Shadows of Rose, the story campaign included with the new Winters’ Expansion. I figured there was no way Capcom could top the horrifying baby monster from Village, but here we are.Note: light spoilers about the premise of Shadows of Rose and a vague description of one moment follow.In Shadows of Rose, you play as Rose Winters, the daughter of protagonist Ethan Winters from Resident Evil 7 and Village. Unlike those two games, Shadows of Rose features a third-person perspective, which was a bigger change than I expected. In Village’s standard first-person view, I was laser-focused on what was in front of me and fearful of... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#652D2)
YouTube’s redesigned UI shown on TV, laptop, and phone | Image: YouTube YouTube announced some new design changes that are rolling out now, including pinch-to-zoom for everyone and precise seeking with a more usable preview to help you find the section of the video you’re looking for.YouTube’s new pinch-to-zoom feature lets you zoom in on videos the same way you do on photos. If this sounds familiar, it’s because YouTube started testing the feature with YouTube Premium subscribers in August. It’s (finally) getting precise seeking as well, which should help you rewind (or fast-forward) videos to an exact location. When scrolling through a video, YouTube will open up a frame-by-frame view, making it a lot easier to find and watch a certain section. Image: YouTube This will make it a... Continue reading…
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by Chris Person on (#652AA)
Lille Allen / The Verge I’ve always wanted a skeleton key — not a real one, but the kind you would see in a cartoon that opens any door immediately. The idea of just being able to slip in anywhere, smoothly and discreetly, has always been a secret dream for me.Of course, time changes and so do keys. Your front door might still use a metal key, but offices and industrial facilities are more likely to use some kind of wireless keycard, whether it’s NFC, RFID, or some other radio signal. So what does a tappable skeleton key look like?What is it?The ChameleonMini is a tool that allows you to emulate and clone high-frequency contactless cards and read RFID tags. It functions as an NFC emulator and RFID reader and can sniff and log radio frequency (RF) data. From... Continue reading…
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by Dan Seifert on (#65283)
Apple’s latest base-model iPad cribs a lot of features from the more expensive iPad Air. But it also is considerably more expensive than before, making it a tough sell. Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#65282)
The multi-color anodized and sandblasted finish on this keyboard is quite a sight to behold in person. Angry Miao’s new anime-inspired keyboard with user-adjustable stiffness is made by sickos, for sickos, and it instantly made me want to bust out my Master Grade Gundam model kits from the early aughts and get painting. But sometimes, I did feel like this keyboard was better to look at than to use.The Angry Miao Adjustable Flex Alice (AM AFA) is the company’s first Alice layout keyboard (a newer ergonomic style with contoured keys, a gap in the middle, and a split space bar). It’s also another over-the-top science fiction-inspired design — this time drawing a likeness from the transforming VF-19 Advance fighter jet of Macross. It’s very on-brand in its over-engineering and obscene price, being machined from a 4.4-pound block of solid... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#65281)
Bravo to OnePlus for dropping the gimmicky macro camera. | Image: OnePlus OnePlus is bringing its signature fast charging feature to a lower price bracket in the Nord N300 5G. It includes 33W wired charging (with a charger in the box!) and will sell for $228 — an appealing proposition since most flagship phones don’t even include charging that fast. The N300 also bears a striking resemblance to parent company Oppo’s K10 5G, released in India earlier this year. It makes a few tradeoffs to hit its low price point, and we’ll be curious to see how they pan out.The Nord N300 uses a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset with 4GB of RAM, which is a shift from the Snapdragon processors used in its previous Nord devices sold in North America. The N300 also breaks away from previous budget OnePlus devices by opting... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#65269)
Apple’s collaboration with U2 included special edition iPods. | Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images In a new memoir, U2 frontman Bono has spilled the beans on the internal discussions that lead to two of the band’s high-profile collaborations with Apple. The first saw the band star in one of the company’s iconic iPod ads, while the second is much less fondly remembered, and involved Apple pushing the band’s newly released album into the hands of everyone with an iTunes account. The anecdotes appear in Bono’s upcoming book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, extracts of which have been published by The Guardian.According to Bono, the Vertigo music video came about after members of the band met with then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs in October 2004 to pitch its upcoming song “Vertigo” as the soundtrack to one of the iPod’s silhouette commercials.... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#6524J)
Rupert Grint in “Dreams in the Witch House.” | Image: Neflix An eclectic mix of eight short stories from some of the best directors in horror Continue reading…
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by David Zipper on (#6524H)
Thomas Hedger / The Verge Automakers tout advanced driver-assistance systems like adaptive cruise control and emergency braking as a solution to the epidemic of traffic fatalities. But what if they’re just convenience features? Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#6521P)
Lindelof at the 2020 Writers Guild Awards. | Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for WGAW You can add another name to your list of filmmakers attempting to develop the next Star Wars film: Damon Lindelof. Deadline reports that Lindelof, who rose to prominence as the co-creator of Lost and more recently won multiple Emmys for his work on HBO’s TV adaptation of Watchmen, is developing and co-writing the film, although it’s unclear who his writing partner could be. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who worked on several episodes of Ms. Marvel, is reportedly in talks to direct.The Star Wars franchise has been absent from the big screen since 2019’s Rise of Skywalker, with various in-development efforts coming to nothing (so far). Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has been working since 2017 to create a new trilogy of new Star Wars movies... Continue reading…
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by Thomas Ricker on (#6520T)
Easier to use and stable. But let’s check in again after a few months. Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#651P1)
Nick Barclay / The Verge The Wire, an independent news outlet based in India, retracted its story that accused Meta of granting an Indian politician special permissions to remove posts on its platforms. In an update posted on Sunday, The Wire says it has decided to retract its report after “certain discrepancies” emerged in the evidence it used to back up its claims.“Our investigation, which is ongoing, does not as yet allow us to take a conclusive view about the authenticity and bona fides of the sources with whom a member of our reporting team says he has been in touch over an extended period of time,” the outlet explains. “We are still reviewing the entire matter, including the possibility that it was deliberately sought to misinform or deceive The Wire.”So... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#651G7)
Nick Barclay / The Verge Facebook might ban news sharing in Canada if the country passes legislation forcing the company to pay news outlets for their content (via The Wall Street Journal). In a post shared on Friday, Facebook parent company Meta says Canada’s proposed Online News Act falsely presumes that it “unfairly benefits from its relationship with publishers.”First introduced in April, the Online News Act compels online platforms like Facebook and Google to share revenue with the publishers they aggregate their news from. The goal of the bill is to ensure news outlets are fairly compensated for their work. Canada’s House of Commons Heritage Committee held a meeting about the legislation last week, but Meta says it wasn’t invited.If this type of law... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#651DH)
Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro. | Photo by Avery White for The Verge The next Mac Pro is rumored to come with chip options “that are at least twice or four times as powerful” as the not-yet-released M2 Max. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says Apple has ramped up testing of the high-end Mac in preparation for its expected launch next year.In his Power On newsletter, Gurman says the machine will feature new and more powerful in-house chips, nicknamed the “M2 Ultra” and “M2 Extreme.” The two variations pack 24 and 48 CPU cores, respectively, along with 76 and 152 GPU cores, and 256GB of memory. That’s compared to the base M2, which comes with 8 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, and the rumored M2 Max, which will supposedly feature 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores.Gurman also shares a Mac Pro... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#651DJ)
PopSocket’s battery bank isn’t a small accessory. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge We’re smack in the middle of new phone season and getting close to the time when some of us are going to have to start worrying about wish lists and stocking stuffers, so I want to look at an accessory that may be on some people’s radar: the PopGrip JumpStart, a $35 battery bank that attaches to your phone via PopSocket’s quick release mechanism and provides around a 50 percent charge via a built-in Lightning or USB-C cable.When I first heard about it, I hoped that the JumpStart would be both a good battery bank and a good way to hold my phone. Unfortunately, I found that it was relatively mediocre at the first job and worse at the second, making it a bit unclear who exactly this product is for.I will say a few nice things before I... Continue reading…
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