The Verge

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2 looks to be a minor update of the prior model, with faster performance and new connectivity options. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 during its recent hardware event in New York City, introducing the two laptops alongside a flurry of AI-powered features for Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and Bing. The high-end Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at $1,099, while the Surface Laptop Go 3 starts at $799; both are slated to launch on October 3rd at 12AM ET.Although the forthcoming laptops look similar in design to their predecessors, the new Surface devices arrive with upgraded processors, better battery life, and other minor spec bumps. We've yet to fully test either laptop, but if you want to preorder them ahead of their official release, you can already do so via various retailers. Here's what you should... Continue reading...

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge The new FineWoven iPhone cases are very bad," according to my colleague Allison Johnson, so you probably shouldn't buy one. Still, I've been curious to learn more about them, and iFixit's new teardown just gave me even more information than I could have thought to ask for: it put one of the new cases under a microscope, tested how it stood up to things like hot sauce and coffee, and tore the thing apart - and, best of all, photographed every step of the way.There are some incredible zoomed-in photos of the fabric, for example; that black thing in a post from iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens is a human hair included for scale! Another photo shows how the fibers are affected when cut by a knife - it's not pretty.

Lightning and USB-C, oh my. | Image: Asicen Did you hear the iPhone 15 has USB-C now? That's a great thing and long overdue, but it does mean that there will be a period of transition where some of us end up having to deal with both Lightning and USB-C iPhones in our lives, particularly if we live with someone who isn't buying the new iPhone right away.This is particularly cumbersome if you share a vehicle and want to use CarPlay in it - you'll need a way to hook up your new USB-C iPhone and maintain a Lightning connection for the other person using the car. You could do this with multiple cables, of course, and switch it every time you get in the car, but who needs that hassle? For the past couple of years, I've used this three-headed cable to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto... Continue reading...

Quantic Dream is famous for choose-your-own-adventure games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, where protagonists can die along the way - and apparently, Disney and Lucasfilm have signed off on that idea for its upcoming Star Wars game, Star Wars Eclipse.There's no game over. Anyone can die, anything can happen, and the story sort of continues," Quantic Dream marketing VP Lisa Pendse told IGN at the 2023 Tokyo Game Show.One of the big focuses we've had when we announced Star Wars Eclipse was to make sure it was clear that this is actually an action adventure game that has all of the elements that you would come to expect and want from a Quantic Dream title, which is intricately branching narratives, multiple playable... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Imagine, for a moment, if you didn't have to select emails one by one to archive, delete, or mark as read. 9to5Google is reporting that Gmail for Android now has a Select all" button that selects 50 emails at a time. Images: 9to5Google Select 50 at a time. Now, a certain kind of reader will surely ask: why doesn't the select all" button select all the emails? I salute you, friend. But Gmail for Android has infinite scroll, so selecting all the emails would really be all the emails, not just, like, a page worth of them.Maybe they should rename the button instead.Desktop Gmail also lets you select 50 emails to begin with, but it doesn't call the button select all," and there's an extra select all... Continue reading...

Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 3 is live, beefy, and oh boy, does it implement some fixes I am happy about - and some that terrify the daylights outta me.First and foremost, welcome Mac users! You're now able to play on Mac. Make sure you check out the minimum specification requirements, and don't forget to uninstall and reinstall the game (if you played Early Access) to ensure a smooth transition to the full release.Also, the Magic Mirror is live, so players can give their characters a much-needed haircut (or complete facial rearrangement).With those two big updates out of the way, we can dive into the details of this patch. Like I mentioned, it's big.Light spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 3 follow.One thing I mentioned in my PS5 review is... Continue reading...

Screenshot by Chris Welch / The Verge As excited as I am to pick up a new iPhone 15 Pro Max later today, every release day for Apple's latest phones brings back a nagging feeling: I still miss 3D Touch. Introduced on the iPhone 6S and lasting through the XS and XS Max, this feature could determine how much pressure you were applying to the screen with each finger press, and software could respond differently based on the level of force.I remember having my mind blown by the live wallpaper animations, which would play (and then rewind back in reverse) based on how hard or softly I was pressing down. 3D Touch also brought other useful tricks like peek" and pop," which let you preview a link or other content with a light press and then fully open it with a firm one.To... Continue reading...

A trainer taking a selfie with a Houndour and an Okidoggi. | Nintendo The Pokemon games may be in their open-world era, but Scarlet and Violet's new DLC proves that a little bit more focus on smarter, more linear gameplay can work wonders. Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given preliminary approval for Microsoft to proceed with its $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal. The CMA had originally blocked the acquisition over cloud gaming concerns, but Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. In a memo to employees (included below), Xbox boss Phil Spencer called it a positive development and a welcome indicator that our hard work is bringing us closer to our goal."The CMA considers that the restructured deal makes important changes that substantially address the concerns it set out in relation to the original transaction earlier this year," the CMA said in a press... Continue reading...

The $180 Echo Hub is designed to be wall-mounted but can be used as a tabletop device with a separate mount. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon was keeping close guard over its new Echo Hub smart controller in the demo room at today's big hardware event. But I managed to get a few seconds of hands-on with a working tabletop unit before it was whisked away. I also put it through its paces on the wall-mounted version, and while it responded to touches promptly in some cases, it's no iPad - or even Fire tablet.Maybe it's asking too much to have a powerful tablet that controls your whole smart home, mounted on your wall, for under $180. The Echo Hub did promptly turn on a nearby lamp when I tapped on." It swiftly activated a Baby Crying Routine that started lullabies playing on an Echo Show 5. It accepted swipes and presses with good response times - faster than the... Continue reading...

Your Prime Video experience is about to be downgraded unless you cough up an extra $3 each month. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has announced plans to start placing limited advertisements" in TV shows and movies running on the company's Prime Video streaming platform, to allow the e-commerce giant to continue investing in compelling content." According to Amazon's press release, the ads will first be introduced on Prime Video content in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada on an unmentioned date in early 2024," with France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia to follow later that year.Amazon says it doesn't have plans to change the current price of its Prime memberships in 2024, and Prime members will be notified of the change several weeks before the ad injections begin, along with details to sign up for the ad-free option. US-based Prime members will be... Continue reading...

Microsoft takes its next step towards a passwordless future. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft's incoming Windows 11 update will introduce public support for passkeys - a passwordless login technology that instead uses your face, fingerprint, or device PIN to sign into accounts. Announced at Microsoft's AI and Surface launch event on Thursday, the latest Windows 11 update (available from September 26th) will allow users to create, manage, and store passkeys, and use them to access supported websites and services using their device's own authentication systems.Microsoft began testing passkey management in the Windows Insider developer channel back in June, so this Windows 11 update is bringing the technology into general availability.Windows 11 passkeys are created through Windows Hello. Passkeys can be accessed on both... Continue reading...

Image: 20th Century Studios No One Will Save You wastes no time getting started. After a brief setup, it gets right to the action: a home invasion that's actually an alien invasion. What follows is an incredibly tense, surprisingly quiet mix of sci-fi and horror, just the thing for a fall evening at home.The movie - which is streaming now on Hulu - comes via writer and director Brian Duffield, who previously wrote similar genre twists The Babysitter and Love and Monsters. It centers on Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman who lives alone in a big, isolated house and who - for reasons that aren't clear until much later in the story - is either ignored or hated by basically everyone in town. But she keeps herself busy making dresses, constructing a model village,... Continue reading...

The Steam Deck. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve has been clear it wants to build a Steam Deck 2 - and equally clear that a faster handheld wouldn't arrive soon. Now, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais tells The Verge and CNBC that it could be late 2025 or beyond before it raises that bar - because it wants to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.I don't anticipate such a leap to be possible in the next couple of years," he told me via email.Here's the whole quote:

Illustration: The Verge X is planning to shut down Circles, a feature that lets you share posts with a limited group of people instead of all of your followers. The company said in a PSA" on Thursday that Circles will be disabled by October 31st.After this date, you will not be able to create new posts that are limited to your Circle, nor will you be able to add people to your Circle," X wrote in a post on its help center. You will, however, be able to remove people from your Circle," and the company gave instructions on how to do that.Twitter (not X) officially launched Circles (which it called Circle") in August 2022; Elon Musk wasn't yet the official owner of the company. (At that time, he was trying to get out of his deal to buy it.) But in April,... Continue reading...

Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images Intel has wrapped up its annual Innovation event in San Jose, where the chipmaker gave us a glimpse of what's coming down the pipeline over the next few years. In case you don't have a spare hour and a half to sit down and watch CEO Pat Gelsinger's keynote, here are some important things we learned.Meteor Lake will launch on December 14th If you haven't guessed, AI was kind of a theme here. The company officially introduced its Meteor Lake" generation (known officially as the Intel Core Ultra) to the world at the Innovation keynote. These will succeed the 13th-Gen Raptor Lake" line; they will be the first chips built on the new Intel 4 process and its first with a dedicated AI coprocessor inside.They're also... Continue reading...

Amazon's first projector project, the Amazon Glow, folded in failure last year. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Amazon is reportedly working on a projector that would turn any surface in your home into a screen, as reported by Reuters. People familiar with the matter told the news organization that the projector is designed to do things like beam a recipe on the wall above a stove and make Zoom calls that track you as you move around the house.A touch interactive projected screen is an obvious move for the ambient smart home that Amazon has long proposed, one where the tech appears when you need it and disappears when you don't. I mean, that's literally the definition of a projector.When I reviewed Amazon's first attempt at a smart projector, the now-discontinued Amazon Glow, I said that it would have made more sense as a smart home control... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Mastodon, the federated microblogging platform, has been updated to version 4.2, which comes with massive improvements to search and the web interface, particularly for logged-out and first-time users.One of Mastodon's many charming qualities is that, unlike Twitter X, Bluesky, Instagram, and most other social media platforms, the user base is split across thousands of instances, each of which can decide to federate with or block any of the others.This is good in many ways. You can get a nice little intentional community going on your local server, and servers that are filled with abusive, illegal, and harmful content and / or users are widely ostracized. But it presents some, shall we say, unintuitive workflows for people used to... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta's in-development edit button for Threads might let you edit posts within five minutes of publishing them, as reported by developer Alessandro Paluzzi on X (formerly Twitter). Instagram chief Adam Mosseri confirmed shortly after the app's July launch that an edit button was on the list of potential features, and now that Paluzzi has discovered some details about it, perhaps the feature will be available more widely sometime soon.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nintendo has added support for passkeys, a passwordless sign-in method that uses your fingerprint, face scan, or other methods to give you access to your online accounts. As spotted earlier by NintendoSoup (via 9to5Mac), Nintendo now lets you register and use a passkey to sign in to your account from a variety of different devices.To add a passkey to your account, head to accounts.nintendo.com from the device you want to use the passkey. Once you sign in to your Nintendo account, hit Sign-in and security settings > Passkeys > Edit. Then, select Register a new passkey and follow the steps to complete the setup process on the device you're using.Right now, Nintendo only supports passkeys on devices with iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or... Continue reading...

Image: PBKreviews via YouTube Want to get a look at the inside of the iPhone 15 Pro? The flagship handheld hasn't even started shipping yet, but the folks over at PBKreviews have already taken apart the device, revealing the redesigned midframe chassis, along with all the components nestled beneath the iPhone 15 Pro's screen and glass backing.The video starts with the careful removal of the display using a screen disassembly device and a plastic pick. From there, PBKreviews disconnects the screen from the body of the phone and removes a series of cables. That's when we get a good look at the iPhone 15's camera assembly, which has three Phillips screws holding it down. Image: PBKreviews via YouTube The camera assembly on the iPhone 15 Pro. A... Continue reading...

One of the Show 10's best features is its swiveling stand, which allows it to follow you as you move around the room. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon may have announced a new soundbar, a third-gen Echo Show 8, and a slew of other devices during its recent fall hardware event, but one thing it didn't introduce is a successor to the Echo Show 10. That means the third-gen model introduced in 2021 remains the latest version, one that's on sale at Amazon for $184.99 ($65 off) when you redeem the on-page discount or use promo code ECHOSHOW10. (Note: at least one of our staffers could not see the optional, so just be aware that it may not be available in all instances.)Amazon's Alexa-equipped Echo Show 10 continues to be the best smart display you can get for video calls - especially given Google's Nest Hub Max is dropping support for Google Meet and Zoom. Overall, the Show is a... Continue reading...

The Razer Fujin. | Image: Razer I sit in a Herman Miller Aeron every single day - so my eyes absolutely popped when I saw the Razer Fujin for the first time.I know, lots of chairs have tried to duplicate the Aeron's legendary stretchy mesh ergonomics and iconic shape since its 1994 debut. What's so special about this one?Well, the company's $1,049 Fujin Pro model adds the two most desirable upgrades for the Aeron, IMHO: the twist-to-adjust lumbar support, and the adjustable matching headrest that launched an entire aftermarket company to do what Herman Miller wouldn't. I gush about the Atlas headrest on my chair to anyone who'll listen. Image: Razer The Razer Fujin Pro. Image: Razer The Fujin Pro's headrest goes... Continue reading...

You can put Lego Mario coins inside! | Image: Lego For the past few years, Lego has been releasing a collection of intricate, affordable sets for adults who want a touch of green in their lives without pruning or watering, like the Lego Bonsai Tree, Orchid, and Succulents. Now, there's a Mario set fit to join them.Lego's just introduced the Lego Super Mario Piranha Plant, a $60 540-piece set that looks absolutely fantastic without breaking the bank. It kinda-sorta is a bank, too: you can hide at least a couple coins inside! Two Mario coins come with the set. Image: Lego You can open up its chompers, pose its stem and leaves, and Lego says you can literally build it from the ground up - so the Piranha Plant emerges as if it's growing out of the pipe," reads the... Continue reading...

Hyundai's home charger install deal only works with residential properties. | Image: Hyundai If you were holding off on buying an EV because you didn't know where to start on getting a home charger installed, Hyundai's new deal might help you out. The automaker is now offering a free home electric vehicle charger plus up to $600 off the installation cost with the purchase or lease of select Hyundai EVs.Hyundai is offering up the ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charger on the Hyundai Home Marketplace. The charger is currently listed at $549 on the website and supports up to 50 amps, which could get you around 37 miles of driving range per hour of charging. The additional $600 installation credit applies only to services ordered through Hyundai's website.To qualify for the deal, you'll need to follow this process:

Image: Larian Studios The next Baldur's Gate 3 patch (launching tomorrow) is adding the No. 1 thing players have been asking for: a barbershop. Starting tomorrow, the Magic Mirror will be added with Patch 3, which will give players the ability to change the appearance of their characters.Finally.

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has revealed the Surface Hub 3, the latest version of the company's all-in-one collaborative touchscreen device. Unlike its predecessors, the Surface Hub 3 supports smart rotation and portrait mode, allowing users to physically rotate the screen to a vertical orientation while the layout updates automatically.The Surface Hub 3 comes in two sizes: 50 and 85 inches. As is the case with previous devices, the Surface Hub 3 is meant to live in conference rooms as a replacement for TVs and monitors. The device runs Microsoft Teams on Windows, which means the device will offer a consistent experience across all meeting spaces," allowing users to effortlessly transition from one room to another." Microsoft says the Surface Hub will... Continue reading...

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2. We've just had a chance to play with Microsoft's new Surface Studio Laptop 2 after it was announced at a special event" in New York City. Visually, it doesn't look a lot different than what came before it, but the trackpad is greatly improved, the specs inside upgraded, and there's a new AI-focused neural processing unit that's designed to light up some AI-powered experiences in Windows 11.The Surface Laptop Studio 2 retains the same unique fold-over design as its predecessor but makes the laptop all around more capable. It runs on one of Intel's 13th Gen i7 H-class processors and can be specced with an Nvidia GPU, including the RTX 4050 and 4060, between 16 and 64GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. It still has a 14.4-inch... Continue reading...

Okay, but you just know there is an Apple fanboy somewhere who would love this. | Image: Google Google is revisiting the Get The Message" publicity campaign started last year to pressure Apple into adopting the Rich Communication Services, or RCS, messaging protocol. The latest installment includes new content and a cheesy video advertising a fake iPager" gadget - a jab at Apple for converting iMessages texted to Android devices into old-fashioned SMS and MMS.iPager isn't real, but the problems that Apple causes by using SMS are," said Google in the video description on YouTube. Let's make texting better for everyone and help Apple #GetTheMessage and upgrade to RCS."RCS offers several improvements to messaging, including end-to-end encryption, read receipts, and the ability to share high-resolution photos and videos.... Continue reading...

Copilot will be available when you need it and out of the way when you don't." | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Today, Microsoft announced a new unified Copilot experience in Windows 11, launching on September 26th. The new everyday AI companion," now called Microsoft Copilot in Windows, will be seamlessly available across all the apps and experiences you use most," including the Windows 11 desktop, Microsoft 365, Outlook, the Edge browser, and (uh) Bing.During the event, Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer, called Copilot a handshake between you and technology - available when you need it and out of the way when you don't."In a post announcing Copilot on Microsoft's website, Mehdi wrote:

Siri can now play your Spotify playlists on your HomePod. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge A new feature in iOS 17 finally sets Spotify free - allowing you to use the voice assistant to start your Spotify session directly on your HomePod, hands-free.The capability (spotted by 9to5Mac) allows you to start an AirPlay session from your phone using a Siri command. So now you can say, Hey Siri, play The National on Spotify" to your HomePod, and Siri will route the command through your phone and start streaming Spotify on the smart speaker.It's a workaround, but it works. When The Verge's Dan Seifert tried it, Siri on the HomePod responded, To use Spotify, I'll need to AirPlay from your iPhone," but it just proceeded to do so, no action needed. This prompt sometimes popped up; other times, Siri just responded with on it."Your... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft has just wrapped up its September event, where it made several major announcements. Not only did we see some new Surface devices, but Microsoft also shared some updates about the new AI features coming to its products.You can check out all the news from Microsoft's event below.A more powerful Surface Laptop Studio 2 Image: Microsoft Microsoft has finally revealed its new Surface Laptop Studio 2. The company calls it the most powerful" Surface it has built to date, as it comes with Intel's 13th Gen i7 H class processor, Nvidia's RTX 4050 or 4060 GPU, and 64GB of RAM. It also features a more adaptive touchpad that Microsoft calls the most inclusive" yet.The Surface Laptop Studio 2 starts at $1,999. You... Continue reading...