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by Chris Welch on (#69VCB)
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple’s second-gen AirPods Pro outperform the Beats in sound quality and noise cancellation, but the Beats Fit Pro have some strengths of their own — especially if you’ve got an Android phone. Continue reading…
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The Verge
| Link | https://www.theverge.com/ |
| Feed | http://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml |
| Updated | 2026-02-07 00:48 |
by Justine Calma on (#69V4S)
Deep Green CEO Mark Bjornsgaard. | Image: Deep Green Installing a mini data center could become a more sustainable way to heat public swimming pools in the UK. One data center, which is roughly the size of a laundry machine, has already been installed underneath a swimming pool in Devon County. Seven more similar setups are in the works across the UK, BBC News reports.It’s a practical partnership that helps the pools and data centers solve expensive technical problems. Since most of the electricity computers consume is eventually released as heat, data centers need to cool down their hardware. Public pools need to heat themselves up but face skyrocketing energy costs that have pushed many pools in the UK to close.“We see that supply and demand as two sides of the same coin.”“We see that... Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#69V4T)
The smart ring is adding a number of features that center around circadian rhythms. | Image: Victoria Song / The Verge Over the past year, wearable makers have started adding sleep profiles, or chronotypes, associated with cute cartoon animals to help users better understand their circadian rhythms. For instance, Fitbit Premium users can discover whether their wonky sleep patterns mean they’re a giraffe or a tortoise, while Samsung Galaxy Watch owners can find out whether they’re a sun-averse mole or a nervous penguin. So it’s hardly a surprise that the feature is now coming to the Oura Ring sleep tracker — though, regrettably, it doesn’t come with any adorable animals. Image: Oura The new body clock feature will tell you how well your sleep habits align with your chronotype’s “optimal” schedule. Starting this week, Oura users... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#69V4V)
Apple’s second-gen Magic Trackpad is $25 off. | Image: Sean O’Kane / The Verge Happy hump day, readers! We’ve got a few good deals today to help you power through the midweek slump. First up, Apple’s white Magic Trackpad is on sale for $103.99 ($25 off) at Amazon and Target, which is the best discount we’ve seen this year. The trackpad offers a wide glass surface so you can more comfortably scroll through websites on your Mac, iPad, or even Windows device. At the same time, the trackpad is so much more than just a very spacious extra mouse but is an accessory that also allows you to perform additional time-saving actions. That’s thanks to support for customizable gesture controls and Apple’s Force Touch technology, so you can, say, use your fingers to quickly zoom into an article or simply hard-click on an address... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#69V4W)
Zipline’s P2 Zip drone can dock at a partnered facility to charge and let down a “droid” for workers to drop a package into. | Image: Zipline Zipline is revealing its new drone delivery platform today that the company says is capable of making a 10-mile delivery in 10 minutes, precisely placing packages on small targets like a patio table or the front steps of a home.The new drone, which Zipline calls the Platform 2 (P2) Zip, uses a system of wires that lets down the package inside a cute little mini-bus-looking container the company describes as a “delivery droid.” The P2 Zip hovers more than 300 feet above the ground at the delivery point, keeping its blades and noise away from people (and trees and wires and buildings) to let down its tethered droid instead.The droid has the ability to steer with propellers as it’s coming down, then lands and softly drops its payload.... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69V4X)
Image: Devolver Digital You might finally be able to play Devolver Digital’s Enter the Gungeon arcade cabinet at your local arcade sometime soon. House of the Gundead, a light gun arcade game set in the Enter the Gungeon that was first announced in 2019, is set to hit a handful of arcades in “the coming weeks,” Devolver announced on Wednesday.Based on Devolver’s description, it seems like House of the Gundead will mix Enter the Gungeon’s roguelike action with arcade light gun shooting. “Explore and explode your way through an ever-evolving series of procedurally generated floors protected by the dangerously endearing Cult of the Gundead,” Devolver wrote in a press release. “Discover uniquely fantastic weapons, wild power-ups, and hidden secrets as you gun down... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69V4Z)
Image: Mojang Microsoft is launching an early access version of Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on ChromeOS today. The game will run on Chromebooks thanks to the Android support of ChromeOS, and Minecraft will include cross-device play with friends, the marketplace, and support for playing on Realms.Mojang, the Microsoft-owned developer of Minecraft, originally launched Minecraft: Education Edition on Chromebooks in 2020, but this special edition required a school license or an Office 365 Education account. The early access version of Minecraft that’s launching today is limited to Chromebooks that meet these minimum specifications.“Early access means that in this first stage, only selected Chromebook devices that meet the minimum requirements will get... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#69V4Y)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge LinkedIn is expanding its suite of artificial intelligence features, this time adding tools that will generate content for user profiles and job descriptions.One tool announced today will scan user profiles for skills and experiences and spit out suggested copy or summaries to add to other profile sections. The company says it still recommends users review and edit what the tool has generated “to ensure it is accurate and aligns with your tone and experience.” LinkedIn will begin testing the tool starting today and expand access to all LinkedIn Premium subscribers over the course of the next few months.Another employment tool promises to make writing job descriptions “faster and easier” and “streamline” the hiring process. Employers... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69V50)
Image: IFC Films This one’s for the BBMers and email enthusiasts — BlackBerry, an upcoming movie about the eponymous phone, has gotten a trailer. It stars Jay Baruchel (possibly best known for his role as Hiccup in the How To Train Your Dragon series), Glenn Howerton (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and Matt Johnson, who’s also directing the project.It looks like the movie will cover how the keyboard phone became the de facto business communicator and how it ended up losing to the smartphone. Perhaps one of the saddest shots in the trailer is Johnson’s Doug and Baruchel’s Mike Lazaridis watching Steve Jobs announce the iPhone, but there’s also a surprising amount of screaming and smashing phones as the characters work to get their company off the... Continue reading…
by Andrew Webster on (#69TZY)
Image: Bethesda Softworks Bethesda’s Ghostwire: Tokyo, which is equal parts action-packed and creepy, is finally coming to Xbox consoles soon. The developer announced that the game will be available on the Xbox Series X / S, as well as Xbox Game Pass, starting on April 12th. Ghostwire originally debuted last year on both the PS5 and PC.In addition to the new platform, Ghostwire is also getting a major free update called “Spider’s Thread,” which will similarly be available starting on April 12th on all platforms.It includes a few additions. First, there’s a new game mode focused on action, where players can fight through a gauntlet of enemies that includes more than 120 different levels, collecting upgrades along the way. For the main campaign, there will be... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69TZZ)
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI’s latest language model, GPT-4, has officially been announced, but what can it do that its predecessors couldn’t? Here are some of the biggest features and use cases to emerge so far. Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69V00)
Image: Carrot Weather / Brian Mueller Carrot Weather, the forecasting app best known for its amusing (and often sassy) weather updates, has introduced a ChatGPT-based chatbot that allows users to chat directly with the app’s irreverent personality using as much profanity as they can stand. Releasing globally today on iOS, version 5.10 of Carrot also expands its high-quality radar maps, notifications, and weather alerts to more countries.You can ask the new Carrot chatbot for weather updates — which it’ll provide with the app’s usual scalding insults — alongside more recreational interactions we’ve come to expect from ChatGPT’s generational AI, such as asking the bot to play a text-based adventure game or write a script for a crime drama. Users who find the chatbot’s... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#69TV8)
T-Mobile is buying Mint Mobile, the budget-friendly mobile carrier that’s partially owned by Ryan Reynolds. In a post published on Wednesday, T-Mobile announced that the deal’s valued at up to $1.35 billion and comes as T-Mobile looks to build out its prepaid phone offering.The acquisition should close later this year and involves a 39 percent cash and 61 percent stock purchase of Mint’s parent company, Ka’ena Corporation. The price could change, however, as it depends on Mint’s performance.
by Tom Warren on (#69TV9)
Image: Activision Microsoft has signed a fourth deal for Call of Duty access with Ubitus, a white-label cloud gaming service that has helped many publishers stream their games to Nintendo Switch. This latest deal comes just a day after Microsoft signed a similar 10-year deal with Boosteroid to bring Xbox PC games and Activision Blizzard titles like Call of Duty to the cloud gaming service.Ubitus, a Taiwan-based cloud gaming provider, has been quietly using its technology to bring big games to the Nintendo Switch and elsewhere over the past decade. The supernatural thriller Control arrived on the Nintendo Switch in 2020 thanks to Ubitus, and both Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Resident Evil 7 run on Ubitus’ cloud gaming streaming technology.
by Victoria Song on (#69TVB)
For once, there’s practically no tradeoff between an always-on OLED display and long battery life. Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69TQ4)
A Samsung smartphone identified a blurry photo of the Moon and added detail to create the above image. | Image: u/ibreakphotos Samsung has published an English-language blog post explaining the techniques used by its phones to photograph the Moon. The post’s content isn’t exactly new — it appears to be a lightly edited translation of an article posted in Korean last year — and doesn’t offer much new detail on the process. But, because it’s an official translation, we can more closely scrutinize its explanation of what Samsung’s image processing technology is doing.The explanation is a response to a viral Reddit post that showed in stark terms just how much extra detail Samsung’s camera software is adding to images when taking a photo of what appears to be the Moon. These criticisms aren’t new (Input published a lengthy piece about Samsung’s moon photography in... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#69TQ5)
BloodPop with Lady Gaga at the 2023 Oscars. | Image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images The confluence of gaming and music continues as BloodPop — a producer known for working with the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé — has announced a new game studio. Called Genpop Interactive, the studio’s ambitious goal is to “drive forward the next-gen of music, fashion, and gaming culture.”To start, the studio — which currently has a headcount of more than 25 developers — will be making a “third person shooter with novel movement and combat mechanics.” The studio’s first round of investors includes Ed Fries, co-creator of the original Xbox, and Japanese entertainment firm Good Smile Company. There aren’t really any other details, but in a statement, BloodPop said that the goal is to move beyond gaming and tap into broader pop culture:
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by Jon Porter on (#69TKG)
The Samsung Galaxy A34 (left) and A54 (right). | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge Samsung’s Galaxy A34 and A54 are the latest additions to its popular midrange A-series. Although both phones offer a number of upgrades over last year’s models, the most striking thing for me is how much they both look like this year’s Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus.The camera bumps of the A33 and A53 are gone, leaving three simple camera lenses per phone in their wake. It makes both look more premium to me, and Samsung is promising flagship-level support periods of up to four generations of major Android updates and five years of security patches.The Galaxy A54 will go on sale on April 6th in the US starting at $449.99 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. In the UK the A54 is releasing this month starting at £449 for 8GB of RAM and... Continue reading…
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by Sean Hollister on (#69TAM)
Image: Epic Games Remember when I told you how Epic Games accidentally revealed a new version of 2007’s Unreal Tournament 3 that would be completely free on Steam, EGS and GOG with “no microtransactions and no strings attached?” That was three months ago. Unreal Tournament 3 X still hasn’t been announced, and the company still declines to confirm or deny whether it’s happening at all.“Thank you for checking in. We have no new information to share on this,” Epic Games comms director Dana Cowley tells The Verge.As of this writing, an extensive description of the unreleased Unreal Tournament 3 X still appears on Steam. I check almost daily, and I don’t think the page has changed at all in the past three months. The game’s apparently been in the works... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#69TAN)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company founded by ex-OpenAI employees, has launched its AI chatbot, Claude. While the tool does much of what OpenAI’s ChatGPT can, Anthropic says its early clients report the tool’s “less likely to produce harmful outputs” and is “easier to converse with.”Like OpenAI, Anthropic also has big tech backing: Google invested $300 million into Anthropic in February. The company’s chatbot — similar to ChatGPT — can provide summaries, answer questions, provide assistance with writing, and generate code. You can also tweak the chatbot’s tone, personality, and behavior, which sounds a bit more comprehensive than the “creative, balanced, and precise” settings Bing’s chatbot offers.
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by Ash Parrish on (#69TAP)
Image: Wizards of the Coast I’m usually immune to the charms of Magic: The Gathering’s special crossover sets (although the Bob Ross lands collection almost got me). But this Lord of the Rings-themed collection has pretty much obliterated all of my willpower because these cards are. so. frigging. cool!I love seeing Frodo and Sam and Aragorn and Arwen rendered in cards that pay homage to their personalities and their big hero moments in the story. I think it’s really clever that Sam’s card, Samwise the Stouthearted, can be flashed in at any time and will return a dead creature to the battlefield, just like when he showed up to rescue Frodo from Shelob’s clutches. Image: Wizards of the Coast The card for Tom Bombadil — who is either whimsical... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69TAQ)
Image: Waze Electric vehicle owners who prefer Waze to other navigation tools, rejoice: the Google-owned company is adding EV charging stations to its route planning tools in an effort to improve the experience for plug seekers.Starting today, Waze users can input their vehicle information into the app, as well as their preferred plug type, and Waze will find the nearest stations along their route. The feature will roll out to users globally in the “coming weeks,” the company says. (How it will work at launch is up for debate: some users were reporting being routed to gas stations instead of EV chargers.) Waze briefly trialed adding EV chargers to its route planning tool back in 2021 in partnership with Volkswagen. But that trial... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#69T6X)
Illustration: The Verge Microsoft Build is back, and this time, it’s taking place both digitally and in person from Seattle, Washington. The company has officially announced that its annual developer conference will start on May 23rd and last through May 25th, with pre-day workshops starting on the 22nd.Last year, Microsoft held a virtual and more limited in-person event due to the covid pandemic. While Build presents an opportunity for developers, students, engineers, engineers, and technology professionals to learn more about Microsoft products, it’s also where Microsoft shares major updates for Windows and its suite of productivity apps.
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by Allison Johnson on (#69T6Y)
The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera system is at the center of the recent Moon-gate controversy. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung’s faked Moon photos are a small step for smartphone photography — not a giant leap. Continue reading…
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by Victoria Song on (#69T6Z)
Increasing accessibility is always good, but so is fixing the issues your customers have been complaining about. | Image: The Verge Fitbit users haven’t been too pleased as of late, but while there’s a lot that Google could do to make things better, its latest announcement ain’t it.At its The Check Up event earlier today, Google announced it’s opening up more of Fitbit’s Health Metrics Dashboard to nonsubscribers. The company says that any user with a compatible device — aka a Pixel Watch or Fitbit device — will be able to view their daily, weekly, monthly, and 90-day trends for breathing rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, oxygen saturation, and resting heart rate. Nonsubscribers will also get personalized insights whenever their data deviates from their long-term baselines.It’s always nice to see companies add extra value to free tiers. That said,... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69T70)
Image: Lexus Toyota has been criticized for being slow to release its first dedicated electric vehicle, but one could argue that the delay has given the world’s largest automaker ample time to survey the competition as it sets its own plans into motion. Today, the company’s luxury brand Lexus announced pricing details for its first EV, the RZ 450e, and as you can see, it’s a lot less than most other luxury EVs currently out there.The RZ 450e comes in two trim levels: Premium and Luxury. The Premium version with all-wheel drive and 18-inch wheels starts at $59,650, including delivery charges, while the 20-inch variant starts at $60,890. The Luxury trim with AWD starts at $65,150.That’s significantly less than a lot of the competition, like the BMW... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69T56)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is currently experiencing a big outage affecting its websites and apps, according to the company’s status page. I’m consistently seeing an error message when trying to load Reddit on my Chrome browser.“We’ve identified an internal systems issue and are working to determine a fix,” the company wrote at 12:56PM ET on its status page. The preceding message, from nearly 40 minutes before, notes that Reddit is “is currently offline.”
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by Jay Peters on (#69T72)
Hyper Light Breaker, Heart Machine’s 3D action-adventure follow-up to indie hit Hyper Light Drifter, got a thrilling new gameplay trailer on Tuesday and a fall 2023 release window for early access availability on Steam.Hyper Light Drifter is renowned for its challenging 2D action that smartly juggles melee and ranged combat, and Breaker looks like it will carry over that finely tuned action into a much more expansive experience. Unlike Drifter, which was a 2D game in a set game world, Breaker is a roguelike that takes place in both handcrafted and procedurally generated environments. However, like Drifter, you’ll be able to play Breaker with a friend.Based on the trailer, the art design in Hyper Light Breaker looks awesome, with lots... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#69T2X)
Floating solar panels in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea, on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. More than 92,000 solar panels floating on the surface of a reservoir are able to generate 41 megawatts, enough to power 20,000 homes. | Image: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images Thousands of cities around the world could power themselves entirely with solar panels floating atop water reservoirs, according to new research. It’s a relatively easy way to generate renewable energy locally while also conserving water.Solar arrays suspended over water, or floatovoltaics, work similarly to those spread out over land. The panels sit on a raft instead of on parking lots, rooftops, or other grounded mounts. But they haven’t been deployed in many places around the world yet and only produced as much electricity as less than 1 percent of the world’s land-based solar farms in 2020. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows just how much potential cities could tap into with this emerging... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69T1A)
Illustration: The Verge OpenAI just announced its next-generation GPT-4 AI language model, but it turns out that there’s already been a major application using it: Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing.“We are happy to confirm that the new Bing is running on GPT-4, customized for search,” according to a blog post from Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing. “If you’ve used the new Bing in preview at any time in the last six weeks, you’ve already had an early look at the power of OpenAI’s latest model.”The AI-powered Bing chatbot provides summarized answers to your search queries in a way that’s intended to feel more conversational than a list of blue links. Microsoft has previously said that the new Bing is powered by what it called the “Prometheus” model,... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#69T2Y)
Citadel Station looks as colorful as ever. | Image: Nightdive Studios The long, long-awaited System Shock remake has gotten a firm release date: May 30th. Developer Nightdive Studios announced the news this morning, confirming the game will arrive on PC through Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. Following its launch there, it will come to PlayStation 4 and 5 as well as Xbox One and Series X and S “in due course.”The System Shock remake was announced back in 2015, soon after developer Nightdive tracked down the elusive rights to the classic cyberpunk horror series. The game hit a hard speedbump in 2018 and was put on hiatus, but it was resurrected, and we’ve gotten incremental updates over the past few years, most recently a surprise demo in February. The game was given a March release window with no... Continue reading…
by Barbara Krasnoff on (#69T2Z)
Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge With the exception of old movies, most of us are used to seeing our screens in full color. However, grayscale — in which you see nothing but black, white, or shades of gray — can be useful, even when it comes to your smartphone.To begin with, people who are intensely colorblind will find a screen that has been switched to grayscale much easier to work with (since otherwise, certain colors can be difficult to distinguish). It may be good for the rest of us as well because grayscale is said to be much easier on the eyes — so using it at night could give your optics a rest. (In addition, forcing all your videos to go grayscale might finally convince you to put down the phone and get some sleep). If used during the day, you might be less... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69SY0)
Image: OnLeaks and Smartprix Google’s upcoming Pixel 8 Pro may have a redesigned camera bar and a flat display, according to new renders of the unannounced device from OnLeaks and Smartprix.The most noticeable change to the camera bar is that all three cameras will be visible in one big oval cutout instead of being partially separated like they are on the Pixel 7 Pro. Per the renders, the 8 Pro’s camera bar will also have a mysterious new sensor under the flash. Smartprix speculates that the sensor could be a macro or depth sensor but says that its “specific function remains unknown.” Image: OnLeaks and Smartprix If you look closely, you can see a second oval for what’s presumably the wide and ultrawide. As for the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen,... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69SY1)
Image: OnLeaks and HowToiSolve The Google Pixel Fold could be available as soon as the second week in June, according to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt. The reliable leaker tweeted on Tuesday that the phone will come with 256GB base storage and that you’ll be able to get it in either a black / dark gray color or white.The foldable has been rumored for a long time, and there have been whispers that it would be announced sometime in the next few months. However, a January report from The Elec threw some cold water on that idea, saying that the screen wasn’t even set to go into production until July or August.
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by James Vincent on (#69SY2)
Illustration: The Verge After months of rumors and speculation, OpenAI has announced GPT-4: the latest in its line of AI language models that power applications like ChatGPT and the new Bing.The company claims the model is “more creative and collaborative than ever before” and “can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy.” It can parse both text and image input, though it can only respond via text. OpenAI also cautions that the systems retain many of the same problems as earlier language models, including a tendency to make up information (or “hallucinate”) and the capacity to generate violent and harmful text.OpenAI says it’s already partnered with a number of companies to integrate GPT-4 into their products, including Duolingo, Stripe, and Khan... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#69SY3)
The refurbished base iPhone 13 Pro model starts at $759 rather than $999, its original price when sold new. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge One of the best things about new Apple phones is how quickly prices on older models start to fall shortly after. If you’ve been waiting for a good deal to drop on the iPhone 13 lineup, you might want to head on over to Apple’s online store because Apple’s just added a bunch of discounted refurbished iPhone 13 devices.In case you’re unfamiliar with what buying refurbished entails — basically, Apple thoroughly cleans, tests, and repackages each preowned product. It also throws in a one-year warranty for extra peace of mind, making these good options for bargain hunters.The best deals are available on the 6.1-inch iPhone 13 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max, which Apple no longer sells in new condition. The refurbished base iPhone 13... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69SY4)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Even though Spotify HiFi still hasn’t launched after being announced more than two years ago, some kind of lossless experience is still on the way, Spotify co-president Gustav Söderström said in an interview with The Verge. But don’t get your hopes up for any specific information about when.“We announced it, but then the industry changed for a bunch of reasons,” Söderström said on the latest episode of Decoder. “We are going to do it, but we’re going to do it in a way where it makes sense for us and for our listeners. The industry changed and we had to adapt.”Originally, Spotify said its plan was to launch HiFi as a premium tier by the end of 2021. Since then, Apple Music and Amazon have offered lossless music at no extra charge, and... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#69SY5)
Multiview early access is arriving in time for March Madness. | Image: YouTube Today, YouTube TV is launching early access testing for multiview, a feature that will allow subscribers to watch up to four different programs at the same time. “Those who are part of early access will receive an email and see an alert about this feature in their YouTube TV experience,” YouTube wrote in a blog post. There’s no way to manually opt in at the moment. “We’ll gradually roll out availability to all members over the coming months,” the company said.But don’t get too excited. While multiview will heavily factor into YouTube’s plans for NFL Sunday Ticket coverage, right now, it’s very limited. Like, strictly limited to sports. YouTube says early access customers will be able to “watch up to four, pre-selected different streams... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#69SY6)
You’ll see the employee on your screen, but they won’t see you. | Image: Apple Apple’s launching a new way to buy an iPhone. Instead of picking one up at the store or placing an order on Apple’s website, now you can get the best of both worlds by shopping for a device online with the help of an employee over a one-way video call.The feature, called “shop with a specialist over video,” lets you chat with an Apple specialist on desktop or mobile who can guide you through the process of buying an iPhone, as well as provide more information about different iPhone features, trade-in offers, financing, and iOS. While you’ll see the person on the other end of the call in a thumbnail that appears on your screen, they won’t see you. That means you can even make the call from a device that doesn’t have a camera, although... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#69SY7)
The upcoming speakers from Sonos usher in a new... period for the smart audio company. | Image: Sonos Sonos’ new hotly anticipated Wi-Fi-connected bookshelf speakers, the Era 100 and Era 300, are inching closer to their March 28th release and can now be preordered at multiple retailers. There’s been quite a bit of hype and buildup for these new speakers, thanks in no small part to a mountain of leaks and teases but also because the Era 100 and 300 are kicking off new lines for Sonos while the sun will set on popular models like the Sonos One and Play:3.The new Sonos Era speakers will incorporate more features into the meatier parts of the Sonos home speaker lineup, like Bluetooth, line-in, and new spatial audio capabilities. So if you’re hyped and want to get your own at launch, here’s more about the Era 100 and Era 300 speakers,... Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#69SVK)
Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok is adding a new feed dedicated exclusively to science, tech, engineering, and math content — with additional moderation before videos appear in the feed.The STEM feed will live next to the two existing feeds, Following and For You, and will surface content for users looking specifically for trending science and technology videos. US users will begin to see the feed in the coming weeks.Not all science and technology content will land on the STEM feed. TikTok says that, in order to be eligible for the feed, videos will need to pass additional layers of vetting by partner organizations focused on trust and safety efforts. Image: TikTok TikTok partner organizations will vet videos before they’re added to the... Continue reading…
by Alex Heath on (#69SVJ)
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Gustav Söderström has worked at Spotify for a long time; his first big project was leading the launch of its mobile app back in 2009. That makes him the perfect company leader to talk to about Spotify’s recent redesign, which introduces a visual, TikTok-like feed for discovering new content on the app’s homepage. As his boss, CEO Daniel Ek, put it last week, it’s “the biggest change Spotify has undergone since we introduced mobile.”With the title of co-president and chief product and technology officer, Söderström is responsible for not only how Spotify looks and feels but also all of the AI work happening behind the scenes to power its increasingly important recommendations. According to Söderström, it turns out that improving those... Continue reading…
by Emma Roth on (#69SP3)
Project Kuiper’s most compact satellite dish weighs just one pound. | Image: Amazon Amazon has revealed a range of customer terminals that connect to its broadband satellite network, Project Kuiper. In a blog post published on Tuesday, Amazon says its designs are “smaller, more affordable, and more capable” than competitors, such as the terminal offered by Elon Musk’s Starlink.The company’s first device is Project Kuiper’s “standard” customer terminal, which Amazon initially revealed the design for in 2020. It measures less than 11 inches square and one inch thick. The terminal weighs less than five pounds — not counting its mounting bracket — and is capable of offering speeds of up to 400Mbps. Amazon says it expects to produce this terminal for less than $400. Image: Amazon Amazon’s standard... Continue reading…
by Sheena Vasani on (#69SP4)
Both the base model and the LED-equipped upgrade are on sale for $15 off. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Reading this half-asleep? We feel you. The first week after the clock springs forward can feel like hell, but today’s lead deal might help you adjust a little easier. That’s because you can currently buy Amazon’s latest Echo Dot with an LED display for $44.99 ($15 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The model without the LED display, meanwhile, is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for just $34.99 ($15 off).As an Alexa-enabled smart speaker, the fifth-gen Echo Dot is a versatile gadget. You can use it to set alarms to help you wake up, and it comes with a handful of perks the average alarm clock lacks. This includes a temperature sensor that’s capable of triggering Alexa Routines, which allows you to program the smart speaker to... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#69SP5)
Christian Convery in season 2 of Sweet Tooth. | Image: Netflix The coziest dystopia around is coming back for its second season very soon. Netflix announced that season 2 of Sweet Tooth, the postapocalyptic series based on Jeff Lemire’s graphic novels, will start streaming on April 27th.For the uninitiated, Sweet Tooth takes place in a world ravaged by a pandemic but also one where hybrid children — adorable creatures that are half-human, half-animal — have started to appear. The coincidental timing means that most humans blame the pandemic on the hybrids, and the world predictably descends into chaos. What makes the show unique isn’t just the hybrids but also its star: Gus (Christian Convery) a little boy with antlers, an insatiable desire for sweets, and a contagious level of hope and optimism.T... Continue reading…
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by Emma Roth on (#69SP6)
Image: OnLeaks via The Tech Outlook Nothing’s latest pair of wireless earbuds have leaked just one week ahead of their launch. In a set of images shared by @OnLeaks with The Tech Outlook, we get our first glimpse at what appears to be the Nothing Ear 2 earbuds, which look nearly identical to the Ear 1 buds, complete with a partially transparent stem and wireless charging case.The only noticeable difference between the design of these new buds and their predecessors is, of course, the “Nothing ear (2)” branding on the stem. However, if you look closely, you can see that Nothing moved the noise-canceling microphone to the top of the stem instead of the very bottom.As you can see in the below gallery, the Nothing Ear 2s also feature a red and white dot to indicate which one... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69SP7)
Image: The Verge Microsoft is now rolling out its Bing AI-powered chatbot in a sidebar inside its Edge browser. The Bing sidebar was initially only available in dev versions of Edge, but it’s now rolling out to stable versions of Microsoft Edge on both Windows and macOS.The new sidebar appears as a big Bing button at the top left of Edge, and hovering over or clicking on it will activate the new Bing chatbot experience. If you’re a member of the Bing preview, you can use the chat function to ask the chatbot questions or the compose option to generate text for emails, blog posts, letters, and much more. Image: Microsoft The new Bing sidebar in Microsoft Edge. As the sidebar is based on the context of the page you’re viewing in... Continue reading…
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by Alex Heath on (#69SP8)
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta will lay off an additional 10,000 employees through multiple rounds of cuts over the coming two months, close hiring for 5,000 open roles, and cancel more low-priority projects, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday. These cuts come just four months after he laid off 11,000 employees, or 13 percent of the company, last November.The first wave of layoffs will start this week and impact Meta’s recruiting organization, followed by a second wave for tech roles in April and a third focused on business roles in late May. “My hope is to make these org changes as soon as possible in the year so we can get past this period of uncertainty and focus on the critical work ahead,” Zuckerberg wrote in a memo to employees that was also posted o... Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69SP9)
Art from Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon. | PlatinumGames / Nintendo PlatinumGames’ new Bayonetta prequel for the Nintendo Switch is a breezy change of pace for the series that exceeds by keeping combat simple and satisfying. Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#69SH2)
Netgear’s new NightHawk RS700 Wi-Fi 7 router. | Image: Netgear Netgear’s releasing a new Nighthawk router that trades in the sci-fi spaceship look the line adopted in 2018 for a more monolithic tower design. The new Nighthawk RS700 will cost $699.99 when it launches this spring with looks that are more akin to the AmpliFi Alien or Linksys Velop routers. This is also the first of the line that’s equipped with Wi-Fi 7 — the upcoming IEEE specification that promises the lowest latency wireless connections yet.Other devices we’ve seen announced with support for the new spec include a few from TP-Link and Asus; however, just like this one, they’re not available in stores yet.The yet-to-be-adopted Wi-Fi 7 standard (known as 802.11BE) is designed to succeed Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 7’s biggest... Continue reading…
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