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by Mitchell Clark on (#69EPV)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, should be considered a joint employer for a group of YouTube Music contractors. The workers are currently attempting to organize with the Alphabet Worker’s Union, and the NLRB’s decision could mean that the tech giant has to negotiate with them if they vote to unionize in an upcoming election.The workers are directly employed by a company called Cognizant, which acts as an Alphabet subcontractor. However, the NLRB believes that Google has enough control over their “benefits, hours of work, supervision, and direction of work” that it counts as a partial employer, according to Bloomberg.“We are proud to win a precedent setting victory not just for... 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 02:33 |
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by Umar Shakir on (#69EJQ)
Image: @MaxWinebach Apple partnered with a bank in 2021 to let small businesses lease new M1 Macs for as low as $30 per month, with easy options to upgrade if and when more powerful devices are released. Now that’s no longer being offered, and businesses that had signed up will now have to sign up for a different program from CIT Group, the bank Apple partnered with, or go another route to get their computers.A business that reached out to The Verge shared an email from CIT Group (aka First Citizens Bank) confirming the Mac Upgrade Program has ended. Now the bank is requesting the business to switch to its FMV lease or continue to lease the equipment at the same monthly rate — though it would run indefinitely with no buyout option. The Verge contacted both... Continue reading…
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by Patrick George on (#69EFG)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The electric and digital transformation of the car industry comes with a lot of promises for a better tomorrow. Electric vehicles could dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector; connected cars will give us access to services and features we don’t currently enjoy; over-the-air software updates could eliminate high repair costs; and automated vehicles may make driving significantly safer.But it’s worth remembering that, at the end of the day, car companies are just out to make a buck, not make the world a better place.This week, it was revealed that Ford applied for a patent on a system that would use connected car technology to better aid in vehicle repossession. News of the patent’s publication was first r... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#69EFH)
Image: Team Ninja The developers are marketing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty all wrong. I’m sure the fact that it’s a Soulsborne-like released in the midst of the Great Elden Ring DLC winter is no doubt appealing. As is the fact that Team Ninja, the game’s developers, got Masaaki Yamagiwa — a producer on Bloodborne and the Demon’s Souls remake — to work on the game. The combat is also enticing, familiar enough for Soulsborne fans to get a handle on but just different enough to be interesting and exciting. All are excellent points with which to attract players to the game.But what they should have done was lead with this simple fact:Zhao Yun — one of the Five Tiger Generals, my absolute No. 1 favorite character from every Dynasty Warriors game, and my brother... Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#69EFJ)
Where are the money birds? | Illustration: Laura Normand / The Verge On February 3rd, Elon Musk made a big announcement. “Starting today, Twitter will share ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads,” he said, later adding that you’d have to be subscribed to Twitter Blue Verified to get your cut. We here at The Verge spent the rest of the day waiting for more information about the program or for official support documents going more in-depth on how the whole thing would work.After a month, it hasn’t appeared. Both the Twitter Blue and Twitter Creators accounts have been silent about the feature, it’s not mentioned on the Twitter Blue signup page, and Musk doesn’t appear to have brought it up since his initial announcement. I also wasn’t able to find anybody claiming that they’ve... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#69EBG)
Sharpshooter insect with pee droplet excreta on the anal stylus. | Image: Bhamla Lab, Georgia Tech The glassy-winged sharpshooter is an insect so impressive when it pees it could inspire more efficient designs for water-resistant devices.Saad Bhamla was in his vegetable garden in Atlanta, Georgia, when he first noticed the feat. The sharpshooter forms neat, round pee droplets that it flicks away with lightning speed. Bhamla, a Georgia Tech assistant professor of biomolecular engineering, whipped out his iPhone to take some slow-motion videos.“The more I zoomed in, the more I realized that it was doing something interesting,” Bhamla tells The Verge.“The more I zoomed in, the more I realized that it was doing something interesting”It turns out the sharpshooter accomplishes something with its urine that hasn’t been documented in a... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#69E7B)
Image: Nintendo Nintendo has taken down the online features of the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon today due to an unspecified security vulnerability. VGC reports that the games were taken offline at 11:30PM ET last night and that the company suggests the fix could take days (via IGN). The Nintendo Switch versions of the games are not affected.At time of writing, Nintendo’s server operational status page currently has this message posted:
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69E7C)
With Ash Ketchum having finally managed to become a Pokémon champion, the Pokémon anime’s gearing up to introduce a new generation of young trainers whose adventures will take them to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Paldea region and beyond. Though we’ve seen some of the new protagonists and their partner pokémon, a new trailer for the upcoming series gives them each a proper introduction and hints at what all they’re doing to discover as they set out to explore the world together.Though Liko, the new anime’s protagonist, originally hails from Paldea, where she’s a student, her journey with another young trainer named Roy and Friede, a pokémon professor partnered with a Pikachu, will span the entire pokémon world as the trio catch various... Continue reading…
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by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy on (#69E26)
On March 29th, new owners of a Ring Alarm security system will have to pay for a subscription to control it when they’re not home. | Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Yet another company will charge its customers more money for using existing features as the subscription-based smart home becomes the norm. Amazon-owned Ring is making several free features part of its paid subscription program starting on March 29th. As of that date, if you have a Ring video doorbell or camera, you will no longer have access to Home and Away Modes in the app without a paid subscription, starting at $3.99 a month ($39.99 a year). Modes is a simple way to tell all your cameras to stop detecting motion when you’re home and start when you leave.Additionally, all new users of the Ring Alarm system on or after March 29th will have to pay for a Ring Protect plan to arm and disarm the system from the app, use the Modes... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#69E7D)
Photo by Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images A new bill in Texas would require internet service providers inside the state to block sites that provide abortion information, as well making it illegal to host or even provide domain registration for sites that help people in Texas obtain or pay for abortions.The bill, filed February 23rd by representative Steve Toth, attempts to crush access to services that ship the pregnancy-terminating drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, as well as aid funds that raise money to cover the cost of abortion-related expenses. Under the new bill’s rules, it would be unlawful to “create, edit, upload, publish, host, maintain, or register a domain name for an internet website, platform, or other interactive computer service that assists or facilitates a... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69E7E)
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Ford is enjoying its newfound status as the No. 2 seller of electric vehicles in the US. In the interest of maintaining it, the automaker is boosting production of its lineup of plug-in vehicles, including the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, and E-Transit.Ford started accelerating production of Mustang Mach-Es this week, making changes at its factory that will enable it to double its hourly assembly and bring its annual manufacturing run rate to a targeted 210,000 units by the end of 2023. Ford also announced it would slash prices on the Mustang Mach-E after the No. 1 EV seller, Tesla, also reduced its prices.This represents the second time that Ford has said it would boost production of the Mustang Mach-E this year. Last January,... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69E7F)
Image: Stability AI / Blender A popular app for 3D artists just received an accessible way to experiment with generative AI: Stability AI has released Stability for Blender, an official Stable Diffusion plug-in that introduces a suite of generative AI tools to Blender’s free 3D modeling software. Third-party plug-ins offer similar functionality, but Stability AI’s own implementation will likely be more polished, and the company is promising regular updates.The add-on allows Blender artists to create images using text descriptions directly within the software — just like the Stable Diffusion text-to-image generator. You can also create images using existing renders, allowing you to experiment with various styles for a project without having to completely remodel the... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#69E7G)
It’s a luxury purchase through and through, but Sennheiser’s new soundbar carries forward many of the original Ambeo’s strengths. Unfortunately, it also suffers from short-sighted missteps. Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#69E52)
You can save $170 on the mic-less version of the Sonos Arc when you buy it refurbished today. | Image: Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos makes some of the best speakers and soundbars you can buy, but they come at a high price and are typically only on sale during major shopping holidays. Thankfully, Sonos is currently running a sale on a range of refurbished goods, making today a great opportunity to snag speakers like the Sonos One SL for cheap before the forthcoming Sonos Era 300 and 100 hit shelves, presumingly later this month.If you’re new to buying refurbished electronics, know that Sonos cleans and tests each product and that they come with a one-year warranty in case anything breaks. Sonos offers a 45-day money-back guarantee if you’re unhappy with your purchase as well, in addition to free shipping and the same accessories you’d get if you’d purchased the... Continue reading…
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by Antonio G. Di Benedetto on (#69E53)
Get your laptop with actual ports, and get a great deal. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Ever since the release of the M2 generation of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, we’ve been waiting for some huge discounts on the previous-gen M1 models from 2021. That day is here now and in two flavors. The M1 Pro-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro with expanded 1TB SSD is on sale for $1,999.97 ($500 off) in space gray at Amazon. Or, if you prefer more screen real estate, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and base 512GB of storage is $1,999 (another $500 off) at Best Buy.While two grand is no small amount for a laptop, these are the best discounts to date on these excellent computers. You’d be hard-pressed to find other offerings with this much performance at these prices. The newer M2 generation chips may offer some refinements to both... Continue reading…
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by Makena Kelly on (#69E54)
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Democrats introduced a bill Thursday to protect sensitive health and location data from being sold to online advertisers.The Upholding Protections for Health and Online Location Data (UPHOLD) Privacy Act aims to resolve lingering concerns over the online safety of abortion-seeking patients. Introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the bill would ban the use of personally identifiable health data from being used for targeted advertising and bar the sale of precision location data to data brokerages.“For too long companies have profited off of Americans’ online data while consumers have been left in the dark, which is especially concerning in light of reports that some social media... Continue reading…
by Mitchell Clark on (#69E27)
Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the Meta Quest Pro, the company’s mixed and virtual reality headset focused on business users, will be getting a substantial price cut, going from $1,499.99 to $999.99. Likewise, the 256GB version of the Quest 2 will be going from $499.99 to $429.99.Meta says its goal is to “create hardware that’s affordable for as many people as possible” and that it’s lowering the Pro’s price to make its tech “available to even more businesses and professionals around the world.”According to the company’s hardware roadmap, which was published by The Verge earlier this week, it doesn’t seem like the high-end VR headset is getting a follow-up for at least a few years. Given that context, a price drop of this... Continue reading…
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by Georgina Torbet on (#69E28)
Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Last September, the world watched in delight as NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid in a test of planetary defense. The idea of the DART mission was to see whether an impact from a spacecraft could change the trajectory of an incoming asteroid in case such a looming disaster ever threatened the Earth.The impact and its aftermath were observed by telescopes all across the planet and by several in space, including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, and preliminary data showed that the test had been successful in changing the orbit of this asteroid. Then scientists got to work analyzing all the data they had collected for more insights.This week, five new papers in the journal Nature reveal more about what... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#69E55)
A close-up of asteroid Dimorphos with a digital chalk outline of where DART crashed into it. | Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL Remember last September when NASA crashed a spaceship into an asteroid to see what would happen? Well, an investigation team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL) released a paper confirming that the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission wasn’t just for fun; it proves that humanity can deflect asteroids and also actually save the planet.NASA outlined the conclusion in a new blog post on Wednesday, explaining that the “kinetic impactor” technique, which APL writer Ajai Raj jokingly defines as “smashing a thing into another thing,” could indeed be used as an effective means of planetary defense.“These findings add to our fundamental understanding of asteroids and build a foundation for how humanity can... Continue reading…
by Umar Shakir on (#69E29)
A close-up of asteroid Dimorphos with a digital chalk outline of where DART crashed into it. | Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL Remember last September when NASA crashed a spaceship into an asteroid to see what would happen? Well, an investigation team led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL) released a paper confirming that the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission wasn’t just for fun; it proves that humanity can deflect asteroids and also actually save the planet.NASA outlined the conclusion in a new blog post on Wednesday, explaining that the “kinetic impactor” technique, which APL writer Ajai Raj jokingly defines as “smashing a thing into another thing,” could indeed be used as an effective means of planetary defense.“These findings add to our fundamental understanding of asteroids and build a foundation for how humanity can... Continue reading…
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by Casey Newton on (#69E2A)
Illustration: The Verge Today, let’s talk about a subject that crosses my mind with every generative-AI startup pitch that lands in my inbox: who’s going to make the real money off artificial intelligence?Last week the productivity startup Notion announced that Notion AI, a suite of tools based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, had entered general availability. For $10 per user per month, Notion can now summarize meeting notes, generate lists of pros and cons, and draft emails.Notion AI is among the first in a wave of companies that are racing to capitalize on growing interest in generative AI. This week Snapchat made available a ChatGPT-based chatbot called My AI for subscribers to its $4-a-month Snapchat Plus offering. The educational app Quizlet announced a... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69DT0)
There’s even a new windows shortcut to directly open the audio menu without clicking the taskbar. | Image: The Verge A new enhanced audio mixer is coming to Windows 11 that allows users to make individual volume and audio output adjustments directly from the taskbar. The updated volume mixer was officially revealed as part of the new Preview Build 25309 which is being rolled out to testers in the Windows 11 Insider Dev channel.When released, the updated mixer will be located inside the Quick Settings panel on the Windows taskbar, which can be accessed by clicking on the volume icon. Microsoft has also added a new Windows keyboard shortcut (Win + Ctrl + V) to open the mixer directly. The mixer allows users to quickly switch between audio outputs (i.e. headphones, speakers, etc), as well as adjust the volume of individual apps and toggle spatial audio... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69DT1)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Sony might be forced to detail its PlayStation exclusivity deals and how much it pays for “blocking rights” to keep games off rival services like Xbox Game Pass. The FTC has sued to try and block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition and kicked off a legal discovery process with Microsoft sending subpoenas to Sony to force it to reveal records, internal documentation, and emails from the company’s PlayStation unit.Kotaku spotted that the FTC’s chief administrative judge D. Michael Chappell has now sided with Microsoft’s request for details of Sony’s PlayStation exclusivity deals. The request cover deals made after January 1st, 2019, including fees or agreements that prevented publishers from placing games on Xbox Game Pass. The... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#69DEP)
Metroid Fusion. | Image: Nintendo Now that Game Boy and GBA titles are part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Nintendo is starting to roll out some classics: and next week that will include Metroid Fusion. It’ll be available to subscribers starting on March 8th.The side-scrolling adventure originally hit the GBA back in 2002, and it represented an interesting evolution of Super Metroid’s 2D design. Here’s the basic set-up:
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by Mia Sato on (#69DC9)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Following monthslong questions about how CNET uses artificial intelligence tools, longtime CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo will step down from her role and take on a new job: senior vice president of AI content strategy and editor-at-large, according to an internal draft memo circulated today, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge.In her new role, Guglielmo will work on machine learning strategy at Red Ventures, the private equity-backed media company that acquired the tech news site in 2020. Adam Auriemma, the former editor-in-chief of a different Red Ventures outlet, NextAdvisor, will become editor-in-chief. NextAdvisor, a personal finance outlet, appears to no longer be active — the site’s Twitter account hasn’t posted... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69DCA)
Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham. | Image: Paramount Plus Star Trek: Discovery both carved out a foothold for the franchise in the streaming space and gave people a compelling reason to sign up for Paramount Plus back when it was still CBS All Access. But with its upcoming fifth season, the series will be coming to an end.This evening, CBS Studios announced that Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth season, due out sometime in “early 2024,” will be its final one and that the show’s cast and crew are gearing up for a year of “celebrations and appearances at key events in markets around the world” in the build-up to the season’s premiere. In a statement about bittersweet news, executive producers and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise expressed their gratitude to Discovery’s fans and said... Continue reading…
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by Allison Johnson on (#69DCB)
The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s U-shaped hinge might make way for a new shape this year. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge We have good reason to believe that Samsung will put a new kind of hinge in its next flagship foldable, and a South Korean trade publication has just supplied more confirmation. Spotted by 9to5Google, The Elec reports that Samsung has started reliability testing a new water drop-style hinge for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5.The new hinge design would make the folded phone thinner and help reduce the appearance of a crease with the main screen unfolded. But according to this report, Samsung is testing the hinge to withstand 200,000 folds like the last one, which falls short of longevity claims from recent competitors like the Honor Magic VS and Oppo Find N2 — both rated to 400,000 folds.The Elec’s report does mention that the hinge... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69DCC)
It’s expensive, yes, but not unreasonably so for the world’s fastest gaming display. | Image: Dell / Alienware Time to ready your bank account — Dell has just revealed the price of its 500Hz Alienware gaming monitor. The Alienware AW2524H will launch in North America on March 21st for $829.99 (or $1,099.99 CA), making this the fastest gaming monitor in the world that you can actually buy… at least for now.The 24.5-inch Alienware AW2524H technically has a native refresh rate of 480Hz (which is still blisteringly fast), but this has been overclocked to hit 500Hz. That speed comes with a few caveats — namely that it’s limited to a 1080p resolution, though that’s to be expected, as most high refresh rate screens are similarly capped because of bandwidth limitations. And speaking of screens, this comes equipped with an anti-glare IPS screen rather... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#698S5)
Google’s Keep’s new single note widget on Android | Image: Google Google is introducing a new widget for its notes and lists app Keep, which lets you put a single interactive note on your home screen. With it, you can check items off a list, which could be handy for a to-do or grocery list.While you can force one of Keep’s current widgets to show just a single note using the tags system, doing so isn’t as simple as just selecting one to display on your home screen. Plus, Keep’s existing widgets don’t have the level of interactivity that Google’s promising with its new widget; if you try to mark off checkboxes, it’ll just open the app instead of actually checking it off like the single note widget does. Gif: Google The new Keep single note widget will let you keep a checklist on... Continue reading…
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by Mitchell Clark on (#69D9G)
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Online counseling company BetterHelp has agreed to pay $7.8 million to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it improperly shared customers’ sensitive data with companies like Facebook and Snapchat, even after promising to keep it private. The proposed order, announced by the FTC on Thursday, would ban the same behavior in the future and require BetterHelp to make some changes to how it handles customer data.According to the regulator, the sign-up process for the company’s service “promised consumers that it would not use or disclose their personal health data except for limited purposes.” However, the FTC alleges that the company instead “used and revealed consumers’ email addresses, IP addresses, and health... Continue reading…
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by Umar Shakir on (#69D9H)
Image: Dashlane Password manager app Dashlane is releasing a new feature that lets you create, store, and sync passkeys on smartphones running the upcoming Android 14 OS. A developer preview released last month adds new abilities to Android that let third-party password managers use the logins with compatible apps on the platform.A passkey, of course, is a passwordless login built on the FIDO standard, designed to make it hard for malicious parties to phish access from users since there’s no password to steal. Once authenticated, a computer, smartphone, or specialized secure hardware device like a YubiKey completes the passkey login using biometrics like Face ID, fingerprint readers, or a PIN.Apple, Google, and Microsoft have adopted passkeys and are... Continue reading…
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by Justine Calma on (#69D9J)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California, on March 14th, 2019. | Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Last night, as he presented Tesla’s latest “Master Plan” to investors, Elon Musk attempted to cast his company as one that would usher in “a sustainable energy Earth.” But that’s going to be really hard to do if Musk doesn’t get his own house in order first.Tesla makes electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries to store renewable electricity. A transition to clean energy will need those things. But making those things also needs to be done sustainably and humanely. That requires transparency and accountability, the kind of thing we’re not used to seeing from Musk and his companies.Let’s start with some basics. For any company that says it cares about the planet, divulging how much pollution it produces is one of the first steps... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69D9K)
Image: Tesla Elon Musk isn’t ready to pull back the curtain quite yet.During the Q&A portion of Tesla’s Investor Day event in Austin, Texas, last night, Musk was repeatedly asked about the company’s next-generation low-cost electric vehicles. For years, Musk has been promising smaller, cheaper vehicles made possible by a more efficient, less expensive manufacturing process. But the closest we got were images of two vehicles covered in white sheets, one shaped like a small car and the other seemingly like a van.Investors begged Musk for more details. A name! Some specs! A timeline! More importantly, a price! But Musk dodged each question like it was a liability lawsuit. “We will have a proper product event, but we’ll be jumping the gun if we’re to... Continue reading…
by Alex Cranz on (#69D5F)
Worf interrogates a new friend (enemy). | Photo by Trae Patton / Paramount Plus We’re three episodes into the final season of Star Trek: Picard, and it’s now much, much clearer exactly what kind of enemy Picard and company are facing. Continue reading…
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by Mia Sato on (#69D5G)
Fagiani / The Verge Just weeks after news broke that tech site CNET was quietly using artificial intelligence to produce articles, the company is doing extensive layoffs that include several longtime employees, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation. The layoffs total around a dozen people, a CNET staffer says, or about 10 percent of the public masthead.The layoffs began Thursday morning and were announced internally via email by Red Ventures, the private equity-backed marketing-turned-media company that bought CNET in 2020. In the email, a Red Ventures executive suggested the cuts were made to focus CNET on areas where the site can succeed at bringing in traffic on Google search — a top priority for the company.“To prepare ourselves... Continue reading…
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by Adi Robertson on (#69D5H)
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images The White House has issued a new cybersecurity strategy that addresses, among other things, the role of large tech companies in preventing cyberattacks. The strategy document calls to “rebalance the responsibility to defend cyberspace,” shifting responsibility for things like ransomware attacks off of individuals, small businesses, and local governments. It also singles out China as “the broadest, most active, and most persistent threat to both government and private sector networks.”President Joe Biden’s plan outlines goals rather than immediately implemented rules. But if passed into laws and regulations, it would expand cybersecurity requirements for companies that run digital infrastructure the White House deems critical. That could... Continue reading…
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by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69D5J)
Disney Pirates of the Caribbean aside, Disney’s movies based on its theme park attractions have never really popped the way it hoped for. But if there’s one takeaway from the first trailer for director Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion, it’s that the studio is hell-bent on figuring out how to make these things work, no matter how long it takes.The new Haunted Mansion tells the story of single mom Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) as the duo moves into a sprawling, old mansion in Louisiana’s French Quarter and quickly realize that the place is downright infested with ghosts. Rather than doing the sensible thing — moving — or trying to deal with the haunting themselves, Gabbie enlists a ragtag group of spiritualists like... Continue reading…
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by Ash Parrish on (#69D2T)
Image: Behaviour Interactive The video game film adaptation machine keeps merrily chugging along with Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster teaming up with Behaviour Interactive to produce a feature-length film adaptation of Dead By Daylight.The announcement of the new venture comes days after Blumhouse shared that it’s starting its own gaming division. Atomic Monster founder and CEO James Wan said in the announcement, “In Dead by Daylight the Behaviour team has created a love letter to the world of horror, building an incredible environment teeming with atmosphere and terrifying villains — perfect for a scary cinematic adaptation.”A Dead by Daylight adaptation makes more sense than whatever Pixels was or whatever the live-action Pac-Man movie might be. If... Continue reading…
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by Chris Welch on (#69D2V)
Image: Movies Anywhere Movies Anywhere has proven to be one of the most pro-consumer things to emerge from the entertainment world in ages. You buy a movie on one digital service, and then you get to watch it across numerous other services and hardware platforms. It’s one of those cases where “it just works” actually rings true — though Paramount Pictures, MGM, and Lionsgate deserve to be shamed in perpetuity for never getting behind the cross-studio effort.But occasionally there’s news that makes me at least a little worried about the future of Movies Anywhere. Take today, for example: as noted by Cord Cutters News, Disney-owned Movies Anywhere has announced that it will end its Screen Pass feature as of May 1st. Screen Pass allowed Movies Anywhere users to... Continue reading…
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by Andrew J. Hawkins on (#69D0J)
Image: Ford Ford announced the creation of a new wholly owned subsidiary called Latitude AI to lead its efforts to develop a hands-free, eye-off, unsupervised driving system. The company has rehired about 550 employees from Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle operator that shut down last year after Ford pulled its funding.Latitude AI will be based in Pittsburgh, which is where Argo AI was previously headquartered and has emerged in recent years as a hub of AV research and startups. Additional engineering hubs will be set up in Dearborn, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California. The company also will operate a highway-speed test track facility in Greenville, South Carolina.Latitude AI will be based in Pittsburgh, which is where Argo AI was previously... Continue reading…
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by Andrew Webster on (#69D0H)
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Panic, the company behind the adorable Playdate handheld, is holding an event next week to share some updates on new games and the device’s upcoming storefront. The update — called Playdate Update — will be 13 minutes long and take place on March 7th at 12PM ET. The company says that it “will be focusing on some new games coming very soon to the handheld,” along with Catalog, an upcoming storefront for new releases.Playdate first started shipping handhelds last April (though not everywhere), and Panic says that more than 25,000 units have been shipped to date. At launch, the device came bundled with a season of games from notable developers like Zach Gage and Keita Takahashi, but Playdate owners could also sideload games released... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69D0K)
You may not look like yourself, but TikTok’s Bold Glamour face filter appears far more advanced than previous beauty effects we’ve seen. | Image: The Verge / Jess Weatherbed TikTok rolled out new AI tools for filters last month. But the company won’t say if its new Bold Glamour effect uses them — and the reaction to the filter isn’t entirely positive. Continue reading…
by Charles Pulliam-Moore on (#69D0M)
The characters of Krapopolis. | Image: Fox Krapopolis, Fox’s animated series from Dan Harmon about a family of deities, monsters, and humans trying to keep an ancient city running smoothly, seemed like it might not ever see the light of day judging from the way Fox kept bumping its release date back. But according to a new report, Fox is still committed to the project and its accompanying NFT marketplace — so much so that it’s already given Krapopolis an order for another season.Deadline reports that Fox has ordered a third season of Krapopolis ahead of its new planned premiere date sometime in the fall / winter television season bridging the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. Originally, a small preview of Krapopolis was intended to air in November of last year, but those... Continue reading…
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by Georgina Torbet on (#69D0N)
Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images NASA has successfully launched four astronauts on a journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew-6 astronauts launched in a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle carried by a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:34AM ET on Thursday, March 2nd.The crew will travel throughout the day and arrive at the ISS at around 1AM ET on Friday, where they will join the four members of Crew-5 plus three more crew members, for a total of 11 people on board the station. This won’t last for long, however, as the Crew-5 astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth in another Crew Dragon in a few days’ time.“Congratulations to the NASA and SpaceX teams for another history-making mission to the... Continue reading…
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by Tom Warren on (#69D0P)
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is likely to be approved by EU regulators, Reuters reports. The software giant struck licensing deals with Nintendo and Nvidia recently, and Reuters says these deals are likely to satisfy lawmakers in Europe to help Microsoft clear its $68.7 billion deal.The European Commission is reportedly unlikely to demand that Microsoft sell any Activision Blizzard assets as a condition of regulatory approval. That’s a contrast to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which offered up possible remedies last month that include Microsoft being forced to sell off Activision Blizzard’s business associated with Call of Duty.EU regulators are scheduled to decide on Microsoft’s... Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69D0Q)
A hapless idiot (me) replacing the battery in HMD’s Nokia G22. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge Hands-on with HMD’s repairable Nokia and three more phone trends from MWC we hope are here to stay. Continue reading…
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by Jon Porter on (#69CVH)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s fourth wave of DLC tracks will be released on March 9th, Nintendo has announced. As with previous updates, the wave will include eight tracks that are mostly returning from previous entries in the series. However, it’ll also include an additional playable character, Birdo. This fourth wave was initially teased during a Nintendo Direct last month with a vague “Spring 2023” release date.The fourth wave includes a brand-new course called Yoshi’s Island. This will sit alongside Riverside Park from the Game Boy Advance game, DK Summit from the Wii version, Mario Circuit from the DS, Waluigi Stadium from the GameCube, and three tracks from the Mario Kart Tour smartphone game — Amsterdam Drift, Bangkok Rush, and Singapore... Continue reading…
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by Sheena Vasani on (#69CVJ)
Belkin’s MagSafe-equipped BoostCharge Pro can handle everything from AirPods to Android devices. | Image: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge Why buy three different chargers to juice up your gadgets when you can buy one? That’s the beauty of Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe, which is on sale for $127.49 ($22 off) when you buy it direct from Belkin with offer code CHARGEF23.The BoostCharge Pro — which is currently one of our favorite magnetic chargers — is a tree-like stand that can simultaneously charge MagSafe-compatible iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods that sport a wireless charging case. The convenient, durable device delivers 15W MagSafe charging speeds along with the faster charging speeds afforded by the newer Apple Watch Series 7, Series 8, and Ultra. Plus, it offers enough space underneath the phone and watch chargers that you can use... Continue reading…
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by Jay Peters on (#69CVK)
Image: Evil Empire Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is a meaty Dead Cells DLC update that adds things like bosses, stages, and even characters from Konami’s vampire-hunting series. But behind it all are more than 60 Dead Cells-themed Castlevania songs, including 51 remixes of classic tracks and 12 original compositions. I got to speak with composer Yoann Laulan about bringing Castlevania’s music to Dead Cells.“I was really excited to be able to add a little bit of something to these amazing, very important tracks in video game history,” Laulan said. “But at the same time, [it wasn’t] that easy, because it’s something that’s kind of sacred. I wouldn’t say it was an easy task to do.”The Castlevania series has a rich library of fantastic music from... Continue reading…
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by Jess Weatherbed on (#69CVM)
The FAQs for Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite are being updated to ban AI-generated content from the community marketplaces. | Image: Paizo Paizo, publisher of popular tabletop roleplay games (TTRPG) like Pathfinder and Starfinder, has made its position clear: AI-generated art and text isn’t welcome across its games, be it official or fan-made. In a Twitter post, Paizo said it would update its contracts in the coming days to mandate that any work submitted must be created by a human. This ban on AI-generated content also extends to the community content marketplaces for Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite, which allow creators to sell third-party content based on Paizo’s IP.“Since we launched the company in 2002, Paizo has made its reputation with the assistance of countless traditional artists and writers, who are just as integral to the success of our games as our... Continue reading…