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by Jon Porter on (#68VTY)
An electric car being charged at a motorway service station. | Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images The European Parliament has given its formal approval to new vehicle emissions standards that would effectively ban the widespread sale of combustion engine cars and vans in the 27-country bloc by 2035, the organization announced today. Three hundred forty members voted in favor of the rules, versus 279 against, and 21 abstained. An initial agreement on the new rules was reached last October, which calls for all cars and vans sold in the EU to emit zero CO2 emissions by the middle of next decade.The rules still have a couple more stages to go through before becoming law. They need to be formally endorsed by the Council of the EU and be published in the EU Official Journal. But Reuters notes that final approval is expected to be given by... Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
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| Updated | 2025-12-23 09:03 |
by Jess Weatherbed on (#68VV1)
Eligible device owners can opt themselves in or out of the Privacy Sandbox on Android beta at any time in the settings menu. | Image: Google Around this time last year, Google revealed it was working on a multiyear initiative to improve privacy and remodel ad tracking on Android phones, bringing the mobile platform in line with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature for iOS. Following the release of an early developer preview last April, Google says the first beta for Privacy Sandbox on Android will start rolling out tomorrow to a limited number of Android 13 devices, allowing users and developers to test the new technology in the real world. Access to the beta will expand “over time,” and devices selected to participate will receive an Android notification informing users of their eligibility.The Privacy Sandbox on Android is a set of tools that aim to create a new... Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#68VV0)
Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. | Image: Marvel Studios Watching the third Ant-Man film is sort of like being on a Marvel-themed acid trip that’s actually pretty fun until it comes to a confusingly abrupt halt. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#68VTZ)
Discord’s new video livestreaming features allows smaller content creators to broadcast and screen share directly to their community Discord servers. | Image: Discord Discord is already a beloved communications platform for YouTube and Twitch’s livestreaming communities, but now the company is taking its own first significant step into the livestreaming industry. Announced today, Discord has updated its Stage Channels feature to support video, screen sharing, and a text chat for viewers to interact with hosts and each other. The update is available now and is supported across all Discord desktop and mobile applications.Stage Channels were first introduced as a live audio feature in March 2021, enabling users to broadcast conversations between designated speakers and moderators to a room of virtual listeners, much like Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse. Where Stage Channels were initially limited to... Continue reading…
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by Nilay Patel on (#68VV3)
Photo illustration by Will Joel / The Verge Mozilla chair Mitchell Baker on competing — and cooperating — with Google, Apple, and the rest of Big Tech. Continue reading…
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#68VV4)
Image: Samar Haddad / The Verge IssueThe Chromebook screen doesn’t rotate in tablet mode.Quick fixHit Ctrl > Shift > Refresh, or fix it in Settings.The full storyOne of the nice things about many Chromebooks is that you can fold the keyboard back (or detach it) and use it as a tablet. However, something may occasionally go wrong so that when you try to use it as a tablet and physically rotate it, the screen on your Chromebook won’t make the 90-degree rotation that you need. This can be really irritating — but there are a couple of very easy ways to adjust it.How to fix itYour Chromebook’s screen should rotate 90 degrees every time you put it in tablet mode — in other words, when you fold the keyboard back or remove it and hold the device like a tablet. If it’s... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#68VV5)
The latest Kindle Paperwhite is nearly matching its best price to date at Amazon. | Image: Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Today is officially Valentine’s Day, which means that, like most holidays, retailers are running up some awesome promotions in honor of the fact. While many involve deals on your typical V-Day gifts — you know, flowers, jewelry, chocolates, etc. — some of them actually involve steep discounts on a range of tech. In fact, we found sales on everything from Amazon’s latest Kindle and the budget-friendly Fitbit Inspire 3 to Apple’s noise-canceling AirPods Max.For your convenience, we’ve collected some of the best Valentine’s Day tech deals currently available. Oh, and if you’ve yet to buy a Valentine’s Day gift for the loved one in your life (romantic, platonic, or otherwise), we’ve put together a couple of last-minute digital gift ideas.S... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#68VNT)
The price is right for the OnePlus 11 5G — $699 to be exact — but after a tumultuous few years for the company, is anyone buying? Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68VNV)
Image: Primate Labs Geekbench, the popular cross-platform benchmarking software, is getting a big update. According to its developer, Primate Labs, Geekbench 6 has new and updated tests that are meant to fully test modern hardware and apps using datasets that are more representative of the workloads you’ll see in the real world.A lot of the changes from Geekbench 5, which was released in 2019, involve testing your computer with more data. Test photos have more megapixels, and there will be more of them for import tests. The maps and PDFs are bigger, and the device being tested will have to compile more code with Clang. The data has gotten some updates too, with the HTML and PDF workloads feature more modern designs.The benchmark also has new tests meant... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#68VNW)
Image: Apple The third — and possibly final — season of Ted Lasso will premiere on Apple TV Plus on March 15th. The news was revealed via a brief teaser trailer, which doesn’t reveal much about the upcoming story but does show the main cast crafting their very own “believe” signs. Brett Goldstein still definitely looks like a real human.Season 3 was previously pegged for a spring debut. It will be 12 episodes long and marks a change of sorts for Apple; while the streamer typically releases new shows on Fridays, Ted Lasso will debut weekly episodes on Wednesdays instead. As for the story, here’s the official premise:
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by Makena Kelly on (#68VNX)
Image: PETE MAROVICH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, is set to appear for a third confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday.First nominated in October 2021, Sohn’s confirmation has been held up by a combination of shaky Democratic support and bad-faith Republican attacks on her record. The resulting stalemate has blocked the nation’s top telecommunications regulator from tackling White House priorities like reinstating net neutrality and expanding high-speed broadband nationwide.In an opening statement viewed by The Verge Monday, Sohn is expected to call out the telecom industry for helping to slow-walk her confirmation.“I believe deeply that regulated entities should not choose... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68V4M)
Illustration: The Verge Google Photos appeared to break for many users following Apple’s latest iOS 16.3.1 update. Several Verge staff members, as well as people on Twitter, report that the app crashed on launch, making it impossible to access or manage your Google photo library.Google released an updated Google Photos app (Version 6.23.1) early Tuesday morning in the Apple App Store that “fixed user-reported issues.” Subsequent user reports suggest it solves the crashing issue at launch.While the problem wasn’t universal — a few people, myself included, were able to open Google Photos just fine — the crashing did appear to be relatively widespread. Other Google apps, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps, all seemed to be working fine.It’s unclear... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#68VGH)
Image: Microsoft You might be receiving flowers, chocolates, or heart-shaped gifts today, but Microsoft is delivering an arrow straight through the heart of Internet Explorer. The software giant is retiring Internet Explorer today, permanently disabling the browser through a Microsoft Edge update on most versions of Windows 10.Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer in June last year, sunsetting it in favor of Microsoft Edge, with support officially withdrawn for IE 11. But today’s update to Microsoft Edge will make sure you can no longer launch Internet Explorer 11 on most client versions of Windows 10. There are some exceptions, including Microsoft’s Long-Term Servicing Channel for Windows 10 and versions like the Windows 10 China Government... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#68VCS)
Image: Microsoft Google’s AI chatbot isn’t the only one to make factual errors during its first demo. Independent AI researcher Dmitri Brereton has discovered that Microsoft’s first Bing AI demos were full of financial data mistakes.Microsoft confidently demonstrated its Bing AI capabilities a week ago, with the search engine taking on tasks like providing pros and cons for top selling pet vacuums, planning a 5-day trip to Mexico City, and comparing data in financial reports. But, Bing failed to differentiate between a corded / cordless vacuum, missed relevant details for the bars it references in Mexico City, and mangled financial data — by far the biggest mistake.In one of the demos, Microsoft’s Bing AI attempts to summarize a Q3 2022 financial... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#68V80)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Thousands of T-Mobile customers in the United States reported significant network problems on Monday night, with many unable to place calls or carry out other basic functions. Issues were reported across the country, with users from California to New York saying that service was up and down or completely unavailable for extended periods.DownDetector spiked and showed over 80,000 reports of problems. Owners of Apple’s iPhone 14 phones said their signal status showed no cellular connection whatsoever — instead defaulting to the emergency SOS satellite indicator.By late evening, the carrier seemed to be getting a handle on things, but customers weren’t pleased with the disruption.Responding to complaints on social media, T-Mobile said it... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#68V4K)
The Lexus RZ 450e SUV is the last electric vehicle announced by parent company Toyota. | Image: Lexus Toyota’s incoming CEO said the automaker would release “next-generation” electric cars under the Lexus brand by 2026. This is just one part of a new strategy in development to overcome problems linked to a slow and expensive EV manufacturing process.Toyota will also be expanding its current EV lineup, which currently consists of the bZ4X crossover SUV (which required a recall to make sure its wheels don’t fall off) and the Subaru Solterra EV built on top of Toyota’s e-TNGA flexible EV platform. Lexus has yet to release its RZ 450e SUV that’s based on the same platform.Koji Sato, who is currently the president of Lexus, will replace Akio Toyoda as president and CEO of Toyota on April 1st. During a press conference on Monday, Sato said... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68V2H)
The first of several Elon tweets that appear in my For You feed. | Screenshot: Emma Roth / The Verge For many of us, Twitter’s “For You” is full of tweets and replies to tweets from Elon Musk. Not everyone is getting the Elon-first feed, but on Monday afternoon, more than a few people noticed something was different.Several of us here at The Verge are seeing more Musk replies than usual, and I personally counted five at the very top of my feed, with many more sprinkled in between tweets from other users. The same is true for some accounts that don’t even follow Elon Musk.In an apparent acknowledgment, Musk tweeted “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh .… ‘algorithm’,” early Tuesday morning.
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by Umar Shakir on (#68V0Z)
The Ram 1500 REV electric truck looks like a regular Ram truck now. | Image: Stellantis Stellantis revealed its new Ram 1500 REV electric truck with an ad during the Super Bowl yesterday, and it’s not looking quite like the lean-roofed, futuristic brute concept that the automaker shared last month.The preproduction Ram 1500 REV now looks very similar to the current gas-powered Ram pickup trucks on the road today. Even the interior, including the infotainment screen, would look wholly familiar to recent Ram owners. Stellantis’ design direction for the REV echoes what Ford did with its F-150 Lighting electric pickup, which looks very similar to its combustion engine counterpart as well.The Ram 1500 REV will be available starting Q4 2024, according to its website. EV-curious Mopar diehards and others in the market for an... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68V10)
Image: Framework Google appears to be testing a feature that would let Chromebook users set custom keyboard shortcuts throughout the OS (via Ars Technica). While it doesn’t currently work, About Chromebooks’ Kevin Tofel found a keyboard shortcut editor in the ChromeOS 111 beta that can be accessed by enabling flags with names like “enable-shortcut-customization-app” and “improved-keyboard-shortcuts.”The screen, which is accessible through the settings app, shows you the list of shortcuts that are available in different parts of the OS and apps, as well as the default keybindings for them. The experimental version lets you add alternative shortcuts, according to Tofel and Ars Technica, though they unfortunately don’t seem to work — you can set shortcuts,... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#68TZE)
The cycle tracking feature has been FDA registered, complies with CE marking, and has been approved by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. | Image: Samsung, Natural Cycles With the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 series, the company finally added temperature sensors to its smartwatches. The only thing was that the sensors didn’t really do anything when the smartwatches launched last year. But that’s about to change. Samsung is partnering with fertility app Natural Cycles to bring temperature-based period tracking to the wrist.Samsung’s press release says the feature will give users “more detailed insight” into their cycles but is a little vague on what those insights are. Advanced period tracking as well as digital fertility features come in several forms. For instance, Apple uses the temperature sensors on its Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra to give menstruating users retrospective ovulation estimates. However, it... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68TY1)
Concept art for C-Smash VRS. | Image: Sony Cosmic Smash, a sports and puzzle game from Sega arcade systems and the Dreamcast, is being “reimagine[d]” for the PlayStation VR2, according to a Sony blog post. The new version will be called C-Smash VRS (which apparently “stands for VR and Versus”), and while it doesn’t have a release date yet, Sony has announced that it’ll be releasing a demo for the game on March 23rd.The trailer shows off what appears to be a space theme and a small slice of gameplay where someone smacks a ball toward an opponent and wall. Sega advertised the original game as a mix of “virtual reality squash” and block-smashing gameplay, similar to titles like Blasterball or Breakout. You can watch some gameplay of the original Cosmic Smash here, which... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68TT0)
Illustration: The Verge Apple has released iOS 16.3.1, which includes “optimizations” for the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro’s Crash Detection feature that’s been criticized by some search and rescue personnel for setting off false alarms during winter activities like skiing and snowboarding. The update also includes fixes for iCloud settings and Siri requests for Find My, and Apple has released new software for tvOS, HomePods, and the Mac as well.The Crash Detection feature on new iPhones and Apple Watches is meant to alert emergency services if you’re unresponsive after a “severe car crash” and is on by default. But as people have been hitting the slopes, some officials have said that the feature’s resulted in several false reports that tie up first responders’ time... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#68TT1)
Turbines in Macarthur, Australia. | Image: Vestas One of the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers says it has a potentially groundbreaking solution for the industry’s enormous plastic waste problem. Last week, Vestas announced that it found a novel way to break the plastic in turbine blades down into virgin-grade material. That way, instead of cluttering landfills, it can be recycled to make new turbines.Here’s why that’s a tall order — like, literally colossal. Modern turbines with blades longer than the height of the Statue of Liberty are quickly taking over land and sea. They’re super sturdy, built to withstand the elements for decades. But once they’re decommissioned, they typically become waste. Globally by 2050, turbine blades are expected to become 43.4 million tons of... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#68TQM)
Image: Nilay Patel / The Verge Ford announced a $3.5 billion electric vehicle factory in its home state of Michigan, where it will produce EV batteries with a lithium iron phosphate chemistry that it says are more durable, faster charging, and more affordable than its current lineup of EVs.Ford will develop the LFP batteries alongside China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), a global producer of EV batteries — though the automaker stressed that it will own and operate the plant outright through its wholly owned subsidiary and that the Chinese company will only provide “knowledge and services.” The construction project will generate 2,500 jobs for the region, with initial production expected to commence in 2026.Ford claims it is the first... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68TQN)
The company says its headset is six times lighter than “traditional” VR headgear. | Image: BigScreenVR Bigscreen VR’s first virtual reality headset is surprisingly small, weighing in at just 127 grams, or around 4.5 ounces. Despite its size, the wired-only and PC-only headset, called Beyond, doesn’t compromise on specs, offering OLED displays with 5120 x 2560 resolution, up to a 90Hz refresh rate, and a range of customization options.The device comes with pancake lenses, which allow the headset to have a thinner and lighter form factor with “massively improved optical clarity” when compared to other devices that use Fresnel lenses, like the Valve Index. It also features a 90-degree field of view along with built-in SteamVR tracking that’s compatible with SteamVR base stations, controllers, and accessories. The headset fully supports the... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#68TQP)
Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is working on several new features to boost usage and expand its older audiences in the US, according to a new report by The Information.Among the features in the works is a paywall, allowing creators to set a price on their content. Viewers would pay $1 — or some other fee chosen by the creator — to watch videos, according to the report. Exclusive content only for paying fans is a tactic other companies like Instagram have tried in an effort to entice creators to use the platform. On Instagram, for example, creators can share subscriber-only posts, Reels, stories, and other content not available to other followers.TikTok is also testing a revamped creator fund that’s already underway in France and Brazil and could begin to... Continue reading…
by Jay Peters on (#68TQQ)
Ellie and Joel in The Last of Us: Part I. | Image: Sony The huge success of The Last of Us’ HBO series has seemingly led to a big sales bump for the newly released remaster of the first TLOU game. According to a new report from the NPD Group, The Last of Us: Part I jumped from number 36 on its best-seller chart in December to number 11 in January, the month the series premiered.The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt saw its own boost in popularity following the release of Netflix’s The Witcher series in 2019, while Cyberpunk 2077 jumped up Steam’s charts after Cyberpunk: Edgerunners came out in September. But for The Last of Us, Sony had almost definitely been preparing for a rise in interest in the series due to the show, so I’m guessing it’s not too surprising to see that the game is selling more.The... Continue reading…
by Tom Warren on (#68TQR)
Image: Bungie Ahead of the Destiny 2: Lightfall DLC launch later this month, Bungie is laying out the company’s plans for Destiny 2 for the year ahead and beyond. There are some big changes on the way for players. Chief among them is making Destiny 2 more challenging to play and some hints at a big overhaul for the Power leveling system that Bungie has used for years.While Bungie keeps adding new content to Destiny 2, it has become increasingly easy to conquer bosses and challenges in the game, even at the so-called Grand Master level that’s supposed to challenge players the most. It’s also super difficult for new and returning players to play alongside friends without investing hours into leveling up.“While we are still committed to offering... Continue reading…
by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#68CMC)
Image: The Verge A few gift ideas for that special someone in your life that aren’t just candies, chocolates, or cringe. Continue reading…
by Sheena Vasani on (#68TQS)
The Apple Watch Ultra is on sale for $729.99. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Welcome to a new week, dear readers! Today, we’re starting off our roundup with an excellent deal that more adventurous Apple aficionados out there will love. Right now, the most capable smartwatch Apple’s ever made — the Apple Watch Ultra — is currently $729.99 at Amazon (for select customers) at checkout as well as at Costco for members through February 14th. That matches the wearable’s all-time low price and is the lowest we’ve seen it sell for so far this year. If you’re not eligible for either deal, fret not because you can also buy the wearable for $749 at Amazon and Best Buy, which is its second-best price.For more active types, Apple’s rugged Watch Ultra may be wiser to buy than the Apple Watch Series 8 (which, by the way, is... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#68TK0)
Image: Deep Silver If you’ve been waiting for Dead Island 2, the zombie-fighting game that was first announced in 2014, got trapped in development hell, emerged again with a February 3rd release date in June, and then was delayed to April 28th, I have some good news: the game is actually going to come out a little bit sooner. Dead Island 2 has gone gold and will now be released a week earlier on April 21st, Deep Silver announced on Monday.
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by Emma Roth on (#68TK1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New York regulators have ordered the cryptocurrency firm Paxos to stop issuing Binance USD (BUSD) — the third largest stablecoin by market cap and pegged to the US dollar — over concerns that it can’t “safely” issue the token, as reported earlier by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.This comes as Paxos faces a potential lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the BUSD token. Sources close to the situation tell The Wall Street Journal that the agency is planning to sue the company “for violating investor protection laws.” The SEC reportedly sent a Wells Notice to Paxos — or a letter that the regulator uses to inform a company or individual of potential violations and enforcement actions.In a notice posted to the... Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#68TK2)
Arlo Pro 2 is among the legacy Arlo cameras affected by the newly announced policy. | Image: Netgear Security camera company Arlo is reversing course on its controversial decision to apply a retroactive end-of-life policy to many of its popular home security cameras. On Friday, Arlo CEO Matthew McRae posted a thread on Twitter, announcing that the company will not remove free storage of videos for existing customers and that it is extending the EOL dates for older cameras a further year to 2025. He also committed to sending security updates to these cameras until 2026.The end-of-life policy was due to go into effect January 1st, 2023, and removed a big selling point — seven-day free cloud storage — for many Arlo cams. McRae now says all users with the seven-day storage service will “continue to receive that service uninterrupted.” But... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#68TF8)
Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El. It’s still hard to believe that Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Flash is actually happening given its years of production setbacks and star Ezra Miller’s recent brushes with the police related to a number of troubling situations. Scandals be damned, The Flash is on its way, but by the look of the movie’s first trailer, Miller’s Barry Allen isn’t going to be the real big-ticket draw here.Loosely based on DC’s Flashpoint comics event, director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash will follow Barry across the multiverse as he embarks on a haphazard journey into the past, where he hopes to prevent his mother’s death. By tapping into the power of the Speed Force, it’s (relatively) easy enough for him to travel through time by really pushing his... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#68T6W)
Unofficial renders of the Xperia 1 V, | Image: OnLeaks / Green Smartphones The design of Sony’s next smartphone, rumored to be the Xperia 1 V, appears to have leaked in unofficial renders published over the weekend by OnLeaks and Green Smartphones. And true to form, the company is doing… nothing too exciting, sticking with the same design as the previous Xperia 1 IV. Squint, and it’s hard to tell the two phones apart, with their vertical camera bumps, squared off edges, and tall aspect-ratio displays.That doesn’t mean we’re expecting the Xperia 1 V to be identical to last year’s phone. Green Smartphones reports that its ultra-wide camera could be upgraded to use a 48-megapixel sensor (up from 12-megapixels), and there’s also a chance it could ship with 16GB of RAM rather than 12GB. Although the screen is... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68T6X)
Image: Illumination Mario’s plumbing ad was one of several big new trailers from the Super Bowl. Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68SVX)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Comcast wants Xfinity subscribers to pay up for Peacock. In a post on Twitter, the Comcast-owned NBCUniversal confirmed plans to stop offering free access to Peacock Premium to Xfinity subscribers on June 26th, 2023 (via Variety).Peacock Premium, which normally costs $4.99 per month, is an ad-supported plan that has been available to Xfinity customers at no extra cost since the service first launched in 2020. Details about the change first emerged in a post on Reddit, which an NBCUniversal representative later confirmed to Variety and The Streamable.
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by Emma Roth on (#68SPS)
The RGBDeck mod just isn’t ready yet. | Image: Adam Honse / Reddit As cool as the Steam Deck looks with RGB lighting, you might not want to attempt to mod your device just yet. One Reddit user who tried the mod found that while adding the RGB LEDs doesn’t draw a significant amount of power from the battery, it can cause pretty big issues with the Steam Deck’s motherboard.The “RGBDeck” mod started making the rounds on Reddit earlier this month, with u/WUBBSY documenting the process of affixing a small microcontroller and LED strips to the device. They topped it off with a transparent backing from JSAUX, allowing the lights to shine through the case while the Steam Deck’s switched on. The end result gives the Steam Deck a nice pop of color (in a very gamer PC kind of way).
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by Emma Roth on (#68S4C)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ford’s gearing up to announce a $3.5 billion battery plant in Marshall, Michigan, according to a report from Automotive News. In an advisory obtained by the outlet, the automaker says it will reveal the news of the factory on Monday in partnership with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a company that creates lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), including the Mustang Mach-E.While Ford still hasn’t confirmed any of this, the company has since announced a press conference on Monday at 1:45PM ET, where it will share its plans to “rapidly scale EVs and make them more accessible to customers.” Michigan reportedly offered $1 billion in incentives to attract the automaker’s factory, which is expected to... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68S3Q)
Opera’s new tool summarizes webpages, and it apparently works on Verge articles! | Image: Opera Opera’s adding a ChatGPT-powered tool to its sidebar that generates brief summaries of webpages and articles. The feature, called “shorten,” is part of the company’s broader plans to integrate AI tools into its browser, similar to what Microsoft’s doing with Edge.As shown in a demo included in Opera’s blog post, you can activate the feature by selecting the “shorten” button to the right of the address bar. From there, a sidebar with ChatGPT will pop out from the left, which will then generate a neat, bulleted summary of the article or webpage you’re looking at.Opera’s announcement comes just days after Microsoft revealed the AI-powered Bing and Edge. While the company’s search engine will offer access to an AI chatbot that provides... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#68RWG)
Illustration: The Verge Googlers are talking all about the company’s announcement of its ChatGPT rival, Bard — and many aren’t happy with how things went. According to a report from CNBC, Google employees are calling the launch of the AI chatbot “rushed” and “botched” in posts across the company’s internal message boards, with many targeting CEO Sundar Pichai.Google announced Bard earlier this week in a bid to get ahead of Microsoft, which took the wraps off of its ChatGPT-powered Bing a day later. But when the company tweeted out a demo of Bard on Monday, several users pointed out that it contained a factual error. Meanwhile, a presenter at Google’s search event on Wednesday forgot the phone they were going to use to show off one of Bard’s features, and some... Continue reading…
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by Brandon Widder on (#68RTN)
The second-gen AirPods Pro have returned to $199.99 once again, their lowest price to date. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Welcome to the weekend, dear readers! Microsoft’s forthcoming, ChatGPT-powered browser and Nintendo’s latest Direct event may have dominated the news cycle as of late, but there were a number of headline-grabbing discounts peppered throughout the week. And while we typically reserve our weekend roundups for new deals, we figured we’d take the opportunity to run through some of the highlights you may have missed — you know, with V-Day coming up and all.First up is Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro, which have returned to an all-time low of $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. We highlight them often, yes, but that’s namely because they’re a great pair of wireless earbuds if you’re already entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.... Continue reading…
by Monica Chin on (#68RTP)
It’s the ultimate big-screen gaming experience for the ultimate price. Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#68RTQ)
Image: Wizards of the Coast I need help.I haven’t logged into Marvel Snap for about a week now — just when the new Quantumania-themed season has begun. Now what, you ask, could be powerful enough to drag me away from a game I have made my ministry since its launch?The big daddy, the OG, the original Magic: The Gathering.Magic’s latest set, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, has gotten to me in a way that defies even my expectations. I play paper Magic in casual in-person games with friends pretty regularly and have been content with that. But there’s something that’s irresistible about this set, with its horrifying flesh creatures with too many teeth, that has compelled me to play the digital version, Arena, non-friggin’-stop.This all started when I told my husband... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#68RR0)
We all get tired of Bluetooth sometimes, and the IE 200s are a nice reminder of what we’ve lost by trading the headphone jack for wireless convenience and platform-specific earbud features. Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#68R78)
Pictured: the FCC’s map of LTE coverage in the US. | Image: FCC Cell network coverage maps have always been dubiously accurate in the US, and even the ones released by the FCC in 2021 come with a ton of asterisks. A company called Ranlytics is hoping to make a much more accurate picture by attaching equipment to some of the mail trucks that are already driving to many locations in the US to deliver parcels and letters (via Light Reading). The data it collects will provide info on coverage quality “in a given town, on a given road, even at a given address”says the company’s CEO Keith Sheridan in an interview with The Verge.In a press release earlier this week, Ranlytics says it’s working with the US Postal Service to measure AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s 4G and 5G networks in Seattle and that it’s... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#68RBG)
Image: The Royal Family Jony Ive and his design firm LoveFrom designed the emblem for the coronation of King Charles III, according to a new page on the Royal Family’s website. The emblem will be used throughout the festivities surrounding the king’s coronation in May and on official coronation merchandise.“It is such an honour to be able to contribute to this remarkable national occasion, and our team is so very proud of this work,” Ive said in a statement about the emblem. “The design was inspired by King Charles’ love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world.“The emblem speaks to the happy optimism of spring and celebrates the beginning of this new Carolean era for the United Kingdom. The gentle modesty of these natural forms... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#68RBH)
The Fitbit Sense 2 didn’t inspire much confidence in the future of Fitbit smartwatches. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Fitbit recently filed a patent application (pdf) for a force-sensitive display that would enable blood pressure readings on wearables. But even if patents did guarantee success — which they don’t — the past few months make it hard to be confident in the future of Fitbit smartwatches.First things first, you shouldn’t read too hard into any patent filing. While it can give you a sense of what a company’s working on, it’s a legal tool for companies to effectively call dibs on a particular innovation. In the claims section of this filing (via Wareable), Fitbit outlines a force-sensitive screen combined with a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that, when pressed, can estimate your blood pressure.What’s neat about this concept is that it’s... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#68R94)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is running ads for companies including Nokia, The Wall Street Journal, and Mailchimp alongside tweets from Holocaust deniers, according to a report by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters for America.Media Matters reviewed five Twitter accounts belonging to neo-Nazis, antisemites, and Holocaust deniers and found that ads for prominent companies were being slotted next to tweets from the accounts. The reach of the five Twitter accounts, which include writers, a “pseudo-academic organization,” and white nationalist YouTubers, ranges from a couple thousand followers to tens of thousand.All five of the accounts are subscribed to Twitter Blue, the subscription service that’s become one of Elon Musk’s main priorities since taking... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#68R95)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit doesn’t seem to be too worried about the AI-powered conversational chatbots like the ones Google and Microsoft revealed this week, based on a statement the company shared with The Verge. Shifting from traditional search to ChatGPT-like bots could erase the strategy of appending “reddit” to your searches to find human-sourced information instead of SEO-optimized garbage.But Reddit believes the chatbots won’t replace actual human connection.“AI chatbot technologies are still new and something we’re exploring and keeping our eyes on,” said Reddit spokesperson Nick Singer. “Though, there will always be a need for genuine community and human connection, which can be aided by tools like this. We see chatbots being used in fun and... Continue reading…
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