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by David Pierce on (#6F984)
A banana bed, as created by DALL-E 3. | Image: OpenAI The image generator inside the AI-powered Bing Chat is getting a big upgrade today: Microsoft announced that OpenAI's latest DALL-E 3 model is now available to all Bing Chat and Bing Image Creator users. It has been rolling out over the last week or so, first to Bing Enterprise users and then to Bing Image Creator, but now it's open to everyone.Bing is getting DALL-E 3 access even before OpenAI's own ChatGPT does - that's scheduled to happen this month, but only for paying users. Microsoft is likely to be the most popular image generating tool for a while.DALL-E 3 is, of course, the third version of OpenAI's image generating model. The company says it understands prompts far better than before and can create images that are both more... Continue reading...
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-08-06 01:33 |
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by Wes Davis on (#6F985)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge At Zoomtopia 2023 today, Zoom announced Zoom Docs, a collaboration-focused modular workspace" that integrates the company's Zoom AI Companion for generating new content or populating a doc from other sources - you know the drill by now.Along with the Mail and Calendar offerings launched during last year's event, Zoom Docs is another step toward a full office suite alternative to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, which both have started to integrate AI-powered tools of their own, dubbed Duet AI and Copilot, respectively. The company says it will be widely available in 2024.Like other AI helper software, users can ask Zoom AI Companion to do things like summarize meetings, chats, and information from inside Zoom Docs or generate... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6F986)
Emoji reactions are coming to a Gmail inbox near you. | Image: Gmail It's finally here - the tool that could turn your email inbox into a nightmare or a pure delight, depending on your POV. Google is adding the ability to react to an email with an emoji.First rumored last month, Google has now confirmed it is bringing emoji reactions to its Gmail service. The feature will roll out gradually, starting with Android users and coming to web and iOS users over the next few months. Image: Google An animation of how emoji reactions will work. Happily, you'll be able to unsend" just as you can with a regular email (for those times when you accidentally hit the thumbs-down emoji.) When you have access, you'll see a at the bottom of a message. Click on that to choose your emoji from... Continue reading...
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by Sean Hollister on (#6F951)
Founded and funded by ex-Apple designers: a portable USB-C blender. Continue reading...
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by Barbara Krasnoff on (#6F952)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge IssueAs Chrome continues to develop - or, rather, as Google continues to tweak it - it is more and more likely that you may find features that you weren't aware of or suddenly be confronted by an icon that means absolutely nothing to you. This happened to me recently when I noticed an icon that resembled a pair of twinned diamonds to the left of the bookmark star in my address bar. Your first question might be: what is that double diamond symbol? The second: what is a service handler? I hovered my cursor over the triangles to find out what they were and was greeted with the phrase page wants to install a service handler."Thanks. Clear as mud. What is a service handler, and should I let the page install it?Quick... Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6F953)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon deployed a secret algorithm to gauge how high it could raise prices before its competitors stopped increasing their prices as well, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.The existence of the algorithm, codenamed Project Nessie, was first revealed late last month in a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission accusing the e-commerce giant of violating US antitrust law. The FTC's public complaint alluded to Project Nessie, but the section was heavily redacted. According to the Journal, Nessie would inflate prices and monitor whether other retailers, like Target, would follow suit. If the competing retailers maintained the lower price, the algorithm would automatically revert Amazon's to its normal... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6F954)
Image: Microsoft Microsoft is announcing the third generation of its OneDrive cloud storage today, complete with the company's AI-powered Copilot system, a Fluent design refresh, and big improvements to the way businesses share and use cloud documents.OneDrive hosts trillions of files for consumers and businesses, with 2 billion files added every single day. Microsoft is now overhauling a lot of the experience of working in OneDrive for businesses, with many quality-of-life improvements that will make managing and using files a lot better on the web, in Windows, and in Microsoft's various Office apps. Image: Microsoft The new OneDrive web view. Microsoft is overhauling the main OneDrive web app with a new Fluent design. It... Continue reading...
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by Kevin Nguyen on (#6F955)
Image: Film at Lincoln Center Gary Johnson has a particular set of skills. He talks to strangers about offing loved ones: family members, business partners, or anybody close to them that they want dead. In imaginative detail, he tells them how he'll murder them. There's a contract, money is exchanged, an agreement is made. But the thing about Gary is that he isn't actually a killer; he's working with the cops.In director Richard Linklater's Hit Man, that's how the sting works. Someone admits they want a person killed and passes Gary the cash. That's enough evidence for the police to make an arrest. And Gary (Glen Powell), the guy posing as the hard-boiled killer who's going to fulfill those contracts? When he's not acting, he's as normcore as they come, a philosophy... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6F91Z)
There's more good stuff to watch than ever - if you can afford it. | Image: Amazon Whether you subscribe to Netflix, Disney Plus, Peacock, Hulu, or just about anything else, the cost seems to always be going up. And it may not come down anytime soon. Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6F920)
Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic Grimes is suing Elon Musk to establish a parental relationship" with one of their three children, according to the New York Post. Details of the lawsuit remain under seal, but TMZ speculates that it revolves around their youngest child, Tau, after Grimes said that Musk will not allow her to visit one of their children.Last month, Grimes posted on X - the site formerly known as Twitter - that she was pursuing some sort of legal action against Musk. Tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer," she wrote in a response to Walter Isaacson, who was promoting his biography of the Tesla CEO.The lawsuit, filed September 29th in California, is meant to establish the child's legal parents when their parents are not married. A... Continue reading...
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#6F921)
A satellite in space. Dish Network will pay the price for failing to move its EchoStar-7 satellite out of harm's way. | Shutterstock The FCC has issued its first fine for space junk to Dish Network for not properly deorbiting its satellite. The company admitted it was liable for not shifting its EchoStar-7 to a safer spot and will pay a penalty of $150,000 and implement a compliance plan.Space debris - non-functioning manmade materials floating around space - can pose a hazard to working infrastructure, including the ISS, which has had run-ins with debris in the past. According to the FCC, defunct satellites like Dish's can also interfere with the nation's terrestrial and space-based communication systems by increasing the risk of damage to satellite communications systems."This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6F922)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge As Meta continues to take steps back from news promotion on its platforms, its head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, is leaving the company, reports Axios. She was hired in 2017 to help news organizations get their content in front of users as the company pushed to make Facebook a major news aggregator.Brown will continue to remain affiliated with Meta" as a consultant, according to internal documents Axios viewed. Meta, during her tenure, added a News tab, worked to get big licensing deals with news publishers, and even offered grants through its Facebook Journalism Project to help fund struggling local news outlets.Brown said in a 2018 Code Conference interview that her job was not to go recruit people from news organizations... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6F923)
Photo: Blizzard The Florida Mayhem won what is likely the last Overwatch League Grand Finals in a 4-0 blowout over the Houston Outlaws. Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6F924)
The BlenderCap (right) attaches to a bottle (middle) to produce smoothies and other blended drinks (left). | Image: Cruz Jony Ive is leading an interesting life post-Apple. The latest news from the famed designer is that he's invested an undisclosed amount in Cruz, the company behind a USB-C-powered bottle cap with built-in blades that's designed to turn drink bottles into portable blenders. Cruz launched the $129 BlenderCap back at CES earlier this year. The device comes with a 32-ounce vacuum insulated bottle but is also designed to fit on other wide-mouth bottles from companies like HydroFlask.Although Cruz seems like a left-field investment for Ive, it makes more sense given the company was founded by former Apple engineers Matthew Moore and Dakota Adams, who were part of the team that built the original Apple Watch as well as some iPhone components.... Continue reading...
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by Jay Peters on (#6F925)
Image: Peter Wynn Thompson The monthly price of ad-free Discovery Plus is jumping up in cost from $6.99 per month to $8.99 per month (plus taxes), Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Tuesday. The new price is effective Tuesday, meaning that if you're already a subscriber, you'll see the higher price on your next billing cycle on or after November 2," the company says. The streaming service's ad-lite" tier will stay the same price, meaning you can still get it for $4.99 per month.Discovery Plus gives you access to more than 70,000 episodes of shows from networks like TLC, HGTV, Discovery, and Lifetime, meaning it's a great choice for people looking to watch reality shows and unscripted series. Just read my colleague Emma Roth's article about why she pays for... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6F926)
Stop trying to make segmented consumption of media happen (please). | Image: Paramount Pictures Today is Mean Girls Day, a date that fans of the 2004 teen comedy may recognize as the same day that heartthrob Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett) asked Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) what day it is (It's October 3rd."), and Paramount Pictures has found an unusual way to celebrate the occasion. The studio has created an official TikTok account where you can watch the entire movie for free - provided you're happy to do so over multiple video snippets.The entire 107-minute long movie has been split into 23 clips, emulating a popular method of streaming piracy on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube that's used to circumvent restrictions on the length of uploaded videos and avoid being flagged by copyright detection software. Rather than... Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6F8YX)
Only Murders in the Building. | Image: Hulu It all began with Natasha Lyonne calling bullshit. At the start of the year, Peacock premiered its first great original series with Poker Face, a Rian Johnson-helmed whodunit created in the mold of classic mystery-of-the-week shows. Since then, it's been a surprisingly fruitful period for mystery shows on streaming services, from the return of The Afterparty to the third season of Only Murders in the Building, which wraps up on Tuesday evening.At a time when streaming networks tend to default to either big-budget blockbusters or low-budget reality hits, the resurgence of the mystery genre has been very welcome. Each of these three shows helps to fill in a nice middle ground once occupied by the likes of Murder, She Wrote and Columbo.... Continue reading...
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#6F8YZ)
It'll soon be easier to stop receiving those annoying marketing emails you subscribed to. | Image: Google Google is preparing to enforce new Gmail requirements that aim to reduce spam, improve email security, and make it easier to unsubscribe from commercial email senders. The new requirements will be imposed on bulk senders - defined as those who send over 5,000 messages to Gmail accounts each day - by February 2024.As part of the requirements, Google will begin enforcing a clear spam rate threshold for bulk email senders to prevent them from bombarding Gmail users with unwanted messages. Gmail's existing bulk sender rules advise senders to keep their spam output below 0.3 percent, but this is currently worded as a recommendation. Google says the change should result in less spam clogging your inbox.The update will force bulk email... Continue reading...
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by Nilay Patel on (#6F8YY)
Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge Microsoft's Kevin Scott sat down with us at Code to talk about Bing's competition with Google, the race to acquire and develop high-end GPUs, and how art can survive in the age of AI. Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6F8Z0)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is planning to increase the cost of its streaming service yet again, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The streamer will reportedly issue the price hike a few months" after the Hollywood actors strike ends, which could happen in the coming weeks.As reported by the WSJ, Netflix will raise prices in several markets globally," starting with the US and Canada. It's still not clear how much Netflix will raise prices, and Netflix declined to comment. Netflix raised prices across all of its plans last year, bringing the ad-free Standard tier to $15.49 / month and the Premium plan to $19.99 / month. The company also rolled out a $6.99 / month ad-supported plan and later axed its mid-tier $9.99 / month basic ad-free... Continue reading...
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#6F8Z1)
Tom Hiddleston as Loki. | Image: Marvel Studios Loki's second season feels like the MCU making a valiant attempt at getting its multiverse together. Continue reading...
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by Jon Porter on (#6F8Z2)
An unofficial render of what the OnePlus foldable could look like. | Image: OnLeaks via SmartPrix As the Oppo sub-brand's foldable nears release, here's the story so far. Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6F8Z3)
Image: Naughty Dog Naughty Dog is reportedly cutting some of its contracted staff. According to a Kotaku report, the Sony-owned studio is not renewing the contracts of around 25 temporary workers across numerous departments, with quality assurance staff primarily affected. Full-time staff were apparently not impacted.Naughty Dog is one of the jewels in Sony's first-party crown, developing platform-exclusive hits like The Last of Us and the Uncharted series. Back in January, a live-action interpretation of The Last of Us debuted on HBO to critical and social acclaim, but apparently, that popularity has not been enough to support continued development on its Last of Us multiplayer project.Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that development on the... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6F8VJ)
The new SteelSeries Alias Pro microphone. | Image: SteelSeries I've been a big fan of SteelSeries' gaming headsets over the years, but I've always paired them with a dedicated XLR microphone for improved quality when I game with friends on Discord, hop on Zoom calls for work, or occasionally stream on Twitch. Now, SteelSeries is filling the gap in its gaming lineup of accessories today with the new Alias and Alias Pro microphones, designed with gamers and streamers in mind.Both of SteelSeries' new microphones are a first for the company, with a pill-shaped design that nests into a sturdy stand or attaches to a boom arm. Both use a custom one-inch condenser capsule that's bigger than what we typically see on gamer-focused microphones, combined with a cardioid pattern. The new... Continue reading...
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by Becca Farsace on (#6F8VH)
The iPhone 15 Pro Max takes great portrait photos. | Photo by Sam Price-Waldman for The Verge What many folks are calling a slow year of advancements in the iPhone 15 lineup is far from true for the iPhone 15 Pro Max's camera. Willy-nilly use of the word lenses" aside, there are more framing options this year thanks to extra digital lenses and a dedicated 5x telephoto lens. The video quality is now the best you can get on a smartphone and even offers a ProRes log output. Photos of people at night have improved dramatically. And a software trick allows you to add a portrait mode blur effect after a photo is taken. These are some of the small changes that make for a better experience, but as a professional photographer, there is still a missing piece.Every year, I set out to take 1,000 photos with the newest smartphone camera... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6F8VK)
Photo by Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images A hit-and-run in San Francisco last night launched" a pedestrian in front of a Cruise robotaxi, the company said Tuesday. The robotaxi braked aggressively to minimize impact," while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. The condition of the struck pedestrian is unknown at this time.The crash was the latest in San Francisco to involve a driverless vehicle, as hundreds more have hit the road recently for 24/7 commercial service. With more robotaxis have also come a number of crashes, most of which have been minor, though a handful have involved injuries.The crash was the latest in San Francisco to involve a driverless vehicleLast night's crash took place at 9:30PM on Fifth Avenue just south of Market Street, according to... Continue reading...
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by Brandon Widder on (#6F8VM)
Amazon's big-screen Kindle Scribe still isn't perfect, but it's certainly better than it was when it first launched. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge We're now less than a week out from Amazon's October Prime Day and, as expected, Amazon has already started to drop discounts on Echo speakers, Fire tablets, and other items ahead of the two-day shopping event. The current promo also extends to the Kindle Scribe and the latest Kindle Kids, which are on sale at Amazon and Target starting at $264.99 ($75 off) and $79.99 ($40 off), respectively.If you're deciding between the two e-readers, the differences are pretty stark. The Kindle Kids is basically a kid-friendly version of Amazon's entry-level Kindle, which remains our top pick when it comes to ebook readers. It offers identical performance to the standard edition, only it comes with a case, an extended two-year warranty, and a year... Continue reading...
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by Tom Warren on (#6F8VN)
Microsoft's SkiFree-like game appears when setting up a Surface Laptop Studio 2. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is making the Windows 11 setup process a little more entertaining, at least on some laptops. I unboxed the Surface Laptop Studio 2 yesterday (read Monica Chin's review here) and noticed that Microsoft now prompts you to play the modern version of its SkiFree game while you wait for updates to be applied.It's the same secret surfing game that Microsoft added to its Edge browser three years ago, a fun little Easter egg that's very similar to the SkiFree skiing game that was released as part of Microsoft's Entertainment Pack 3 for Windows back in 1991. Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Playing Microsoft's surfing game. The game appears as an option if there are outstanding Windows updates available or if... Continue reading...
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by David Nield on (#6F8VP)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge You can't have missed Microsoft's attempts to stuff generative AI into almost everything it makes, from Bing search to the Windows OS. And it continues: the most recent update for Windows 11 has rolled out Copilot to all users.If you're new to Copilot, it's very much like the AI you can chat with via Bing search, with a few Windows-specific features: the ability to launch apps, for example, or manage screenshots pasted to the clipboard.It's worth bearing in mind that it's early days for the toolIn its announcement of the feature, Microsoft says that Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance." However, it's... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6F8VR)
Microsoft's new Surface Laptop Studio 2 has new chips, a new touchpad, and a very, very high price tag. Continue reading...
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by Andrew Webster on (#6F8VQ)
Image: Epic Games Epic Games will be introducing age ratings to all Fortnite experiences starting later this year. The new system will go into effect on November 14th and will include all first and third party playable content" in the game, which basically means everything built in the Creative mode. The ratings will be powered by the International Age Rating Coalition, which works with the likes of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and Pan-European Game Information (PEGI).Here's how the company describes the process:
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6F8RS)
Image: Instacart Instacart is expanding its payment options next year to include Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and other supplement health benefits for grocery deliveries. The move comes after the company began accepting food stamps as payment earlier this year.The program, which will be administered through Alignment Health, will allow anyone who receives health insurance through Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and other eligible programs to use their plan-sponsored funds to purchase eligible groceries, wellness essentials, and over-the-counter medications for delivery via Instacart," the company said.The goal is to improve access to nutritious food and over-the-counter medicines for seniors, many whom experience food insecurity as a result of... Continue reading...
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#6F8PR)
Image: Ford Ford announced a new Flash" trim of the model year 2024 F-150 Lighting, with a bigger screen, longer range, and a heat pump to help improve battery conditioning on those colder days. The company said it is also expecting to make more F-150 Lightning deliveries to customers later this year after a factory shutdown restricted Ford's supply of the electric truck.Ford says it is targeting an EPA-estimated range for Flash of 320 miles, which would fit neatly in between the automaker's Standard Range and Long Range models. The F-150 Lightning Standard Range typically gets less than 300 miles of EPA-estimated range, while Extended Range variants can travel as far as 350 miles on a single charge.Ford says it is targeting an EPA-estimated... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6F8D9)
Illustration: The Verge It was bound to happen eventually: a company has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Elon Musk's X Corp. over its renaming of Twitter (via Reuters). The company in question is X Social Media LLC, an ad agency from Florida that alleges X Corp. is guilty of violating Florida common law because of unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement," as well as the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.X Social Media (hereafter referred to as XSM to make this article easier to write) writes in the complaint that it has used its registered trademark, X SOCIALMEDIA," continuously since 2016. XSM claims it has already suffered loss in revenue that correlates with X Corp.'s rebrand and use of the mark X.'"It's... Continue reading...
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by Umar Shakir on (#6F8DA)
Queen B with that exclusive all-gold link band and original Apple Watch Edition. | Image: Beyonce.com It was never clear who the $10,000 to $17,000 18-karat gold Apple Watch was for, beyond celebrities and the ultrarich, but I hope whoever bought one way back in 2015 expected Apple to stop supporting them at some point. That day has come. Apple has now internally listed all first-gen Apple Watch models, including the solid-gold Edition, as obsolete," MacRumors reports.Apple's obsolete label doesn't just mean the end of software support. That ship has sailed; the original Apple Watches (widely referred to as Series 0) never updated beyond watchOS 4.3.2 in 2018. It means the end of hardware support: the company will no longer provide parts, repairs, or replacement services.The solid-gold Apple Watch Edition was something of a passion... Continue reading...
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#6F8AK)
The Pixel Buds Pro may not be getting a replacement this year, but new software tricks are always welcome. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Google Pixel Buds Pro may be getting some nifty new software features that should sound a bit familiar if you were paying attention to the latest tweaks for Apple's AirPods Pro. According to notable leaker Kamila Wojciechowska (@Za_Raczke), Google plans a software update for its flagship earbuds that includes conversation detection, a hearing wellness monitor, and clearer call quality going both ways.The first feature sounds similar to Apple's Conversation Awareness that just came to all second-gen AirPods Pro earbuds, with Google's implementation automatically pausing your media playback and activating transparency mode once the Pixel Buds Pro detect the wearer is talking. Though, before Apple, Sony had already implemented this... Continue reading...
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by David Pierce on (#6F8AM)
Satya Nadella appears in DC for US v. Google. | Image: Getty Images On the stand in US v. Google, the Microsoft CEO said he'd do just about anything to make Bing better. Google's lawyers said he should have been doing that for decades. Continue reading...
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by Makena Kelly on (#6F87J)
Illustration by Laura Normand / The Verge Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), is being sued for defamation over posts he made falsely accusing a man of pretending to be a neo-Nazi to stir up a false flag" operation earlier this year.The suit was filed in Texas court Monday by Ben Brody, a 22-year-old California man, as first reported by HuffPost. Brody accused Musk of having triggered a massive harassment campaign against him through a series of misleading posts about an Oregon neo-Nazi brawl this summer.In June, a fight broke out between two far-right groups at an Oregon City pride festival. Footage of the fight circulated across social media, and soon, users started falsely claiming one of the men was a federal agent and attempted to identify... Continue reading...
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by Ash Parrish on (#6F87K)
Image: Sebastien Martin-Schultz / Blizzard Hours after the Florida Mayhem were crowned the 2023 Overwatch League Grand Champions, the Overwatch League itself has likely come to its end. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) this morning, Blizzard said that it's working on building our vision of a revitalized esports program."
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by Emma Roth on (#6F87M)
Image: Charlotte Hornets YouTuber MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, has struck a new partnership with the Charlotte Hornets that will plaster his snack company's logo on the NBA team's jerseys. The Charlotte Hornets announced that Feastables has become the team's official jersey patch partner for the 2023-2024 season.Not only will the Feastables logo appear on the jerseys belonging to the Charlotte Hornets, but it will also be stitched on jerseys for the Greensboro Swarm, the NBA G League team affiliated with the Hornets, along with the Hornets Venom GT, an NBA 2K League esports team. The Charlotte Hornets will even include Feastables branding in the backdrops it uses for press conferences and interviews. Image: Charlotte Hornets Here's... Continue reading...
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by Alex Heath on (#6F87N)
Photo by Rick Kern / Getty Images for The Sandbox X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has made a special revenue sharing deal with Paris Hilton and her media company, 11:11. It even includes a custom hashtag for a word that Hilton has been trying to popularize since at least 2019: sliving."A combination of the words slaying" and living," sliving is supposed to be Hilton's new that's hot," her catchphrase that was inescapable in the early 2000s. Now the year is 2023, and Linda Yaccarino, fresh from her interview on the Code stage, is posting #sliving" to a site called X.
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by Nilay Patel on (#6F87P)
Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung is reportedly set to formally launch cloud gaming inside the Samsung Game Launcher on Galaxy phones at its developer conference this week on October 5th, according to the Korea Economic Daily.The new cloud service, which has been in slowly expanding beta for a few months now, is targeted at mobile games, unlike most other cloud gaming plays, which generally offer PC and console games. It seems like Samsung's approach is more or less designed to recover the game-install-ad revenue lost as various ad targeting restrictions have gone into place over the past few years.That's not just cynicism - take it from Samsung's Jong Hyuk Woo, who told VentureBeat in August that 90% of the people who have expressed interest in a game... Continue reading...
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by Mia Sato on (#6F84M)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok users might be able to pay not to see a deluge of ads in the future.Android Authority has screenshots of TikTok prompting users to select between staying on the free version of the app with ads or upgrading to an ad-free experience. According to the screenshot, some users have the option to pay $4.99 a month to not see ads.TikTok didn't immediately respond to The Verge's request for more details or to questions about the availability of the paid version.A test of an ad-free tier comes as TikTok is working aggressively to diversify where its money comes from. TikTok Shop, the platform's in-app marketplace, has been moved to the main navigation bar for some users, and the company has been pushing ads and coupons, hoping to entice... Continue reading...
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by Wes Davis on (#6F84N)
An image of the new folding phone. | Image: OnePlus / Oppo OnePlus and Oppo are releasing the same foldable phone under different names, OnePlus confirmed in an announcement emailed to The Verge today. The company says that Oppo chief product officer Peter Lau, who co-founded OnePlus, directed teams at both companies to develop the phone in tandem to be released under both brands in different markets, though the email did not say which phone will go where.OnePlus didn't name the phones in the announcement, but they're the phones rumored to be called the OnePlus Open and the Oppo Find N3. Image: OnePlus / Oppo The alert slider lives on. GSMArena recently reported a rumor that the Oppo Find N3 will be a Chinese exclusive, while the OnePlus Open will get an international... Continue reading...
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by Monica Chin on (#6F7Y3)
This is the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. Google has introduced Chromebook Plus, a new certification that's meant to help shoppers identify high-quality Chromebooks to buy. Much like Intel's Evo program for Windows PCs, the Chromebook Plus branding will be awarded to laptops that meet a set of minimum requirements. The idea is that even a shopper who's not familiar with PC specs can see the Chromebook Plus" label on a product and be assured that Google thinks it's a good product.Chromebook Plus devices must have:
by Umar Shakir on (#6F84P)
The new Genki Alpine collection. | Image: Human Things Gaming accessory company Human Things is coming out with new Genki ShadowCast external capture cards that feature higher-quality recording for livestream sessions, plus a slightly souped-up new Covert Dock GaN charger for Nintendo Switch. The company is crowdfunding its new Alpine collection" on Kickstarter, including ShadowCast 2, ShadowCast 2 Pro, and Covert Dock 2.The Genki ShadowCast 2 Pro capture device supports up to 4K video at 60 frames per second and can handle HDMI passthrough with HDR and VRR. The company claims it has an instant setup process - just plug your gaming system (for example, a PS5) into the ShadowCast 2 Pro hardware, then plug in a USB-C iPad or a computer. You can capture video through Genki Studio (now on iPad)... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6F84Q)
Image: The Verge Apple will no longer provide customer support on X (formerly Twitter), as spotted earlier by MacRumors. When you try to send a direct message to the Apple Support account, it now instructs you to visit the general support page on Apple's website.The account will similarly respond with an automated reply for any message you send it. After asking the account about an issue with an iPhone 15, Apple support replied saying: It sounds like you have an issue with your iPhone. We can help, but to provide the best support we'd like to continue this conversation in another support channel." The message also included a link to Apple's iPhone support page. Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge The Apple Support account now... Continue reading...
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by Jacob Kastrenakes on (#6F81C)
Artwork for Beyonce's Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce. | Image: Beyonce Beyonce is bringing her Renaissance tour to theaters, making her the second pop superstar this season to turn a blockbuster concert into a moviegoing experience. Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce will hit theaters across the US, Canada, and Mexico on December 1st - AMC, Cinemark, and Regal are all selling tickets already. AMC says it'll be going global at some point, too.The announcement comes a month after tickets for Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour concert film broke preorder records, doing $26 million in ticket sales in just one day. Swift's film was only available at AMC during that preorder window, which likely means a wider availability for Renaissance.While concert films hitting theaters isn't a new phenomenon, Swift's immense success... Continue reading...
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by Emma Roth on (#6F81D)
The Pixel 8 Pro unboxing video shows off a matte black backing and a black camera bar. | Image: PBKreviews via YouTube The Pixel 8 launch event is just days away, but someone has already gotten their hands on Google's upcoming smartphones. In a pair of unboxing videos posted to YouTube by PBKreviews (via 9to5Google), you can see the packaging for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, along with a brief glimpse at how they look.The videos don't really add much to the flood of leaks we've already seen leading up to the event, but they show how both phones come neatly packaged with a USB-C cable, a manual, and a Quick Switch adapter, which you can use to transfer the contents of your old device to the Pixel 8.We also get a good look at a couple of color variations for the new devices. While the Pixel 8 unboxing video shows off a shiny gray color and a silver camera... Continue reading...
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by Justine Calma on (#6F81E)
AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 test satellite is 693 square feet in size. | Image: AST Mobile via Business Wire The enormous, next-generation communications satellite BlueWalker 3 has become one of the brightest objects visible in the night sky, according to new research published today in the journal Nature.While BlueWalker 3 is groundbreaking for its ability to essentially turn ordinary smartphones into satellite phones, it might also usher in a new generation of satellites that create way more light pollution than their older, smaller predecessors. Rapidly growing mega-constellations of internet satellites are already mucking up researchers' observations of worlds beyond Earth. BlueWalker 3 is the brightest satellite in low Earth orbit yet, and astronomers fear it's just the tip of the iceberg.If it does become an issue, then it's going to... Continue reading...
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