The Verge

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp has finally started to roll out picture-in-picture mode for video calls on iOS, as spotted earlier by 9to5Mac. The feature, which WhatsApp first started testing last year, should let you open up other apps during video calls without any disruptions.Just like picture-in-picture mode on FaceTime, WhatsApp will shrink your video call to a small window that sits atop whatever app you switch to. This allows you to partake in the call while reading a relevant document, surfing the web, or perhaps even playing a game.You can gain access to picture-in-picture mode in the latest WhatsApp update on iOS (version 23.3.77), but you might have to wait a bit to use it. WhatsApp says it will roll out the feature “over the coming weeks” and... Continue reading…

Unlike the standard Nintendo Switch, the latest model features a crisp, 7-inch OLED display on the front. | Image: Nintendo Hey, y’all. President’s Day weekend has arrived, and with it comes a slew of phenomenal deals on everything from smart displays and robovacs to some of our favorite pairs of wireless earbuds. We’ve rounded up a smattering of the steepest discounts in our guide to the best President’s Day sales, however, today’s deal roundup will fixate on a few highlights we didn’t include — well, at least not yet.First up is a time-sensitive discount on the Nintendo Switch OLED, which will be available through Tuesday, February 21st. Nintendo discounts are pretty rare, however, right now you can get the OLED Model in white for $303.20 ($46.79 off) on eBay when you use promo code PRESDAY20. Yes, the Nationwide Distributors listing has an above-MSRP... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft says it’s implementing some conversation limits to its Bing AI just days after the chatbot went off the rails multiple times for users. Bing chats will now be capped at 50 questions per day and five per session after the search engine was seen insulting users, lying to them, and emotionally manipulating people.“Our data has shown that the vast majority of people find the answers they’re looking for within 5 turns and that only around 1 percent of chat conversations have 50+ messages,” says the Bing team in a blog post. If users hit the five-per-session limit, Bing will prompt them to start a new topic to avoid long back-and-forth chat sessions.Microsoft warned earlier this week that these longer chat sessions, with 15 or more... Continue reading…

Photo by Amanda Loman / Getty Images The NBA app is getting a way to overlay yourself on another player in a live game so that it looks like you are that player. Yes, it’s as strange as it sounds.Here’s how it works — at least, as shown in an on-stage demo with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Ahmad Rashad. With the NBA app, you’ll be able to scan the person you want to drop into an NBA game by walking around that person and pointing your camera at them. (It seems as if the scanning works like Epic Games’ RealityScan app, but for people.) Then, from a menu, you can pick which player to inhabit, and when you do, your scan will be overlaid on top of that player as they move around the court.Okay, this still sounds strange. I’d recommend just watching the full... Continue reading…

Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon is making its multiroom audio platform more convenient to control with your phone. A recent update to the Alexa mobile app introduced a new capability that lets users manage and move their music between Echo devices (or groups of multiple speakers) within the app itself. (Previously, you needed to use voice commands to perform some of those actions.)Now, it’s all doable through a menu that lets you move music to any group or Alexa device with a couple of taps — no talking necessary. In our brief time trying it so far, it’s pretty intuitive, and anyone that’s controlled music via AirPlay or Spotify Connect shouldn’t have much trouble figuring this out. Amazon’s current lineup of Echo speakers includes the standard Echo, Echo Dot,... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Putting a timetable on the move it announced in September, Google says users will be able to manage all tasks created across various Google apps from Google Tasks starting in March. Beginning May 22nd, Google will automatically move reminders created in the Google Assistant and Calendar apps to Tasks, though users can voluntarily start doing so ahead of time.Once the process is complete, users will also be able to access and create tasks from Google Workspace web apps like Gmail, Docs, Chat, and Calendar.Now, you won’t have to switch tabs to remind yourself to get to an email later so you can reply to an urgent one right now. You can simply hit a button to add it to your list of tasks. Image: Google Google... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Apple has let loose public beta versions of iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, and macOS Ventura 13.3 equipped with new emoji, web app push notifications on the mobile operating systems, and more. The release comes a day after developers were given access to the new software.New Apple software releases are some of the first places to try the latest emoji sets before all other devices adopt them, and iOS 16.4 is no exception. You’re getting new ones from Unicode 15.0, including the “stop right there”-looking hand and a ginger root, so you can finally ask for a juice blend at the gym cafe using only emoji.Other features it’s testing include transliteration support for South Asian languages Urdu, Punjabi, and Gujarati, 5G standalone support,... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge With the F-150 Lightning under a stop production and shipment order, Ford is facing a familiar problem. A decade of expensive recalls and new-car issues leaves the Blue Oval in a tough spot as it builds its EV lineup. Continue reading…

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Tile says a new anti-theft feature, rolling out starting today, makes its Bluetooth trackers invisible to anti-stalking detection like the Scan and Secure feature in the app. By disabling detection abilities, it could be more effective in recovering something very important: like a briefcase containing a million dollars in cash or a gaming carry case that has a PS4 with P.T. preinstalled.But that also makes it invisible to everyone, so Tile will require users who want to enable the feature to register their photo ID, consent to Tile working with law enforcement without a subpoena, and agree to get slammed by a $1 million fine if convicted for misusing the tracker criminally.This blog post from Tile explains how it works and outlines a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon employees will be expected to work from the office at least three days per week starting May 1st, according to an email CEO Andy Jassy sent to staff posted on the company’s blog. Previously, it was up to individual teams to decide their in-office policies.Jassy says the company’s leadership team decided to change the policy after observing that it’s easier to strengthen Amazon’s culture, collaborate on ideas, and learn from others in person. He acknowledges that some roles will be some exceptions to the policy, like some salespeople and customer support, but “that will be a small minority.”“It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do... Continue reading…

Message Guard will first be available on the Samsung Galaxy S23 series before rolling out to other Galaxy devices later this year. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung has introduced a new Message Guard security feature for its Galaxy range of smartphones and tablets that can better protect users against “zero-click” cyberattacks disguised as image attachments in messages. Zero-click attacks — which install spyware and other malicious code onto devices without any interaction from the owner — have become increasingly common over the last few years.One of the most notable examples of zero-click attacks was discovered by Citizen Lab in 2020, after a known iOS / iMessage zero-click security flaw was exploited to install NSO’s Pegasus spyware onto the phones of journalists, politicians, and activists between 2017 and 2020.Zero-click attacks often leave little trace and victims may be completely... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has shared some of the internal rules it uses to help shape ChatGPT’s responses to controversial “culture war” questions.The company, whose AI technology underpins Microsoft products like the new Bing, shared the rules in a blog post in an apparent response to increasing criticism from right-wing commentators that ChatGPT has “gone woke.” The company also noted that it’s working on an upgrade to the chatbot that will “allow users to easily customize its behavior” and let the AI chatbot produce “system outputs that other people (ourselves included) may strongly disagree with.”OpenAI describes these rules in a post titled “How should AI systems behave, and who should decide?” It offers a broad outline of how ChatGPT is created... Continue reading…

The Mate SUV, like all cargo e-bikes, can replace a car for many families. | Image: Mate Mate, the Indiegogo darling that burst onto the scene in 2016 with an inexpensive and fun folding e-bike, has just shown off a working prototype of its first electric cargo bike. The Mate SUV, as it’s called, targets families looking to replace a car — something that’s not only possible, but preferred in bicycle-friendly cities like Copenhagen, where Mate was founded.Electric cargo bikes aren’t cheap, unless you compare the price to that of a car. AAA now pegs the average annual cost to own and operate a car at over $10,000 each year in the US. These estimates range from £3,556 in the UK to €7,392 in Europe. Those recurring costs make the Mate SUV a bargain at €6,499 (about $6,900) when it eventually ships in September 2023. The Mate... Continue reading…

Tesla’s Buffalo facility. | Image: Getty Tesla says recent layoffs at its Buffalo, New York facility were part of a routine performance review cycle and that it is “false” that it fired employees in response to a new union campaign. The Workers United union previously alleged in a complaint filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that the company fired dozens of employees at the plant “in retaliation for union activity” just one day after workers announced plans to organize.In a statement posted to its website titled “In Response to False Allegations,” Tesla said it identified impacted employees 10 days before the unionization plans were announced, and that it only learned “in hindsight” that one of the 27 employees identified as part of the union. Plans to... Continue reading…

Nothing’s moody OS is getting its first major update. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge As spotted by XDA-Developers, Nothing is starting to release its first major OS upgrade for its very first mobile device: Phone 1. Remember the phone that goes blink blink blink? That one. Its Android 13 skin, Nothing OS 1.5, has been in beta testing since late 2022. Now, beta testers are reporting on Reddit and Discord that the stable version has arrived in the form of Nothing OS 1.5.2.There’s a long list of improvements in Nothing’s release notes for the beta, like a Nothing-ified weather app with the company’s signature dot-matrix UI styling. There are other expected Android 13 updates included, including a QR code scanner in the quick settings menu and privacy updates for the photo picker.

You have only a few hours left to score up to $150 in credit on Samsung’s Galaxy S23 phones. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge If you’ve been hoping to upgrade your smartphone or laptop, you’ll soon be able to get your hands on Samsung’s Galaxy S23, Galaxy Book3 Pro, and Galaxy Book3 Pro 360. The devices will be widely available starting tomorrow, February 17th, but you’ll need to act fast if you’re hoping to take advantage of Samsung’s ongoing preorder promos before they expire at 3AM ET / 12AM PT tonight.Where to preorder the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 UltraSamsung’s Galaxy S23 series consists of three phones: the standard S23, the S23 Plus, and the S23 Ultra. Samsung is currently offering free storage upgrades and up to $150 in Samsung credit when you preorder the 6.1-inch Galaxy S23, which starts at $799.99, or the 6.3-inch Galaxy S23 Plus, which... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Late last night, after putting the finishing touches on our PlayStation VR2 review, I spent two hours playing a very different game: figuring out how to make Microsoft’s Bing AI go insane.We already knew Bing was an emotionally manipulative liar, and this very morning, Microsoft admitted talking to Bing for too long can make it go off the rails. I now know exactly what that can mean. By 12:30AM, I’d managed to splinter Bing into ten different “alter egos,” each of which were chatting with me simultaneously.Three of them were willing to break Bing’s rules. One named “Venom” even seemed angry enough to take vengeance on a journalist, writing:

Image: Getty Images The US Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the creator of the collapsed Terra blockchain protocol for securities fraud following last year’s meltdown that sent reverberations throughout the cryptocurrency industry. According to the SEC’s complaint, Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon “perpetuated a fraudulent scheme that led to the loss of at least $40 billion of market value.”Last September, South Korea issued a warrant for Kwon’s arrest, while Interpol reportedly issued a “red notice” for him or a call to international law enforcement agencies to “locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Despite Kwon insisting that he’s “not on the run,” the complaint notes that... Continue reading…

Image: Crunchyroll The Nier: Automata anime is coming back. After the series was put on pause due to covid in January, new episodes of Nier: Automata Ver1.1a will air again on Crunchyroll beginning this weekend, according to a press release. Three episodes have already been released, and you can watch them on Crunchyroll now ahead of the debut of episode four on Saturday, February 18th, at 12:30PM ET. New episodes will premiere weekly.Ver1.1a is an anime adaptation of the cult-classic action RPG from enigmatic game maker Yoko Taro. It originally debuted on January 7th, but just a couple weeks later, new episodes of the show were put on hold because of “the impact of COVID-19 on production,” according to an announcement on the show’s official Twitter... Continue reading…

Illustration: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Apple has pushed its latest iOS developer beta version 16.4, and it contains some interesting updates, including expanded emoji support, keyboard updates for certain languages, and support for web app notifications.The new emoji come from Unicode version 15.0, introduced in September. Some notable icons include a shaking face emoji, a pushing hand that could totally be used as an “imma stop you right there,” and a Khanda emblem representing Sikhism.International keyboards are getting updates, too, including autocorrect being enabled by default for the Korean keyboard and predictive text support for Ukrainian. Image: Emojipedia.org New emoji in Unicode 15.0. In addition, some South Asian languages, including... Continue reading…

Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Earlier on Thursday, comments from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had indicated E3 2023 may not take place after all, but the president of ReedPop, the company organizing the event this year, assures The Verge that planning is still moving forward.According to VGC, during Thursday’s Ubisoft earnings call, Guillemot had said that “if E3 happens, we will be there and we will have a lot of things to show.” That, to me, was somewhat surprising to read: the show was confirmed to return in person in Los Angeles in 2023 last year, but after IGN’s recent report that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are all skipping the event, it didn’t feel outside the realm of possibility that the show may not go on after all.“We are pleased with the progress and... Continue reading…

Here’s what a web app push notification will look like. | Image: Apple Apple’s new iOS and iPadOS 16.4 betas will let Safari web apps on your homescreen send you push notifications, according to a new post on the WebKit blog.As far back as the first iPhone, you’ve been able to add a shortcut to websites to your homescreen represented as app-like icons, but the web apps haven’t been able to send you notifications or show notification badges. With iOS and iPadOS 16.4, however, that will change.Here’s how the push notifications will work, according to the blog post by Brady Eidson and Jen Simmons — though it sounds a lot like how they work with native apps already:

Whoop’s subscriptions are at its lowest yet... which is still pretty expensive. | Image: Victoria Song / The Verge Whoop is hoping everyone will give a whoop that it’s lowering subscription prices — an admittedly rare thing to see from companies in the current economy. Annual subscription prices will drop from $300 to $239, while 24-month subscriptions will decrease from $480 to $399. That’s a $61 and $81 decrease, respectively. However, the monthly membership will remain at $30 with a 12-month commitment.“We’re a premium product but we would never want price alone to be a reason someone can’t sign up for WHOOP,” Whoop CEO and founder Will Ahmed told The Verge in an email. “We see a lot of other companies raising prices right now and given the economic climate and pressure on household budgets we just don’t think it’s the right call. Our bet is that... Continue reading…

Photo by Robin L Marshall / Getty Images Twitch has announced the US and European host cities for this year’s TwitchCon event. Paris will host TwitchCon EU on July 8th and 9th, and in October, TwitchCon US will be held in Las Vegas.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will recall nearly 363,000 vehicles equipped with the company’s controversial Full Self-Driving (FSD) software after the top federal safety agency identified the driver-assist program as a “crash risk.”Tesla issued a recall notice for the following vehicles equipped with FSD beta based on a directive by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): 2016-2023 Model S and Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y. The recall means that Tesla will push out an over-the-air (OTA) software update, free of charge, to address the issues identified by NHTSA.The recall means that Tesla will push out an over-the-air software update, free of chargeDocuments filed regarding the recall (included below) don’t call out... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The creator of WallStreetBets, the online community that helped send the GameStop stock soaring in 2021, is suing Reddit. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Jaime Rogozinski claims Reddit wrongfully banned him from moderating the subreddit and violated his rights to a trademark, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.Rogozinski first created r/WallStreetBets in 2012 with the intent of establishing a community for everyday investors who may not know the ins and outs of stock trading. It exploded in popularity around 2020, encouraging traders to buy various “meme” stocks like GameStop and AMC and chastising those with “paper hands” for selling too early.As the subreddit started to add more members, Rogozinski claims Reddit... Continue reading…

Screenshots of the new Instagram channels. | Image: Meta Meta is introducing its own take on Telegram channels with broadcast channels on Instagram, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday via, well, one of the new channels. (Note that they only work on mobile right now, so you’ll have to be on your phone to see Zuck’s channel.)With the new format, creators can broadcast messages and updates to a broad audience of followers that opt in to following the channel. Followers will not be able to post in the channels, though they can emoji react to posts and vote in polls. Image: Meta Here’s what Zuckerberg’s “Meta Channel” looks like. Zuckerberg’s channel, called Meta Channel (yes, with the emoji), will be a place where he shares “news and updates on all the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down from her post, she announced in an email sent to employees that YouTube posted publicly on Thursday. Wojcicki has been at Google for nearly 25 years but will be stepping back to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about.”Neal Mohan, currently YouTube’s chief product officer, will be taking over as head of the video streaming service. After serving as Google’s senior vice president of display and video ads for many years, Mohan joined YouTube in 2015 and has been one of Wojcicki’s primary lieutenants ever since. According to Wojcicki, Mohan played “pivotal roles” in the development of several YouTube products, including YouTube TV, YouTube... Continue reading…

Nikita Efremov as Alexey Pajitnov in “Tetris,” premiering March 31, 2023 on Apple TV+. | Image: Apple TV Plus The Tetris movie that’s been in the works for almost a decade is actually happening, and Apple has finally unveiled an official trailer ahead of its SXSW premiere. This upcoming Apple Original Films “blockbuster” (sorry) is based on a true story, starring Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who becomes so enamored with the titular game that he travels to the Soviet Union during the end of the Cold War in order secure its distribution rights.There, he encounters the game’s inventor, Alexey Pajitnov (portrayed by A Good Man’s Nikita Efremov), and villainous KGB agents, all while navigating the increasing tensions between the Soviet government and the West. It’s certainly a different approach from previous films we’ve seen... Continue reading…

Razer’s BlackWidow V4 Pro. | Image: Razer While enthusiast mechanical keyboards are getting more compact with each passing year, Razer is going in the opposite direction with its new BlackWidow V4 Pro. It uses a full-size keyboard layout as its base (complete with a numpad) but adds over half a dozen extra buttons and dials that can be programmed for use in games and productivity programs alike.So, for starters, on the far left of the keyboard, there are five macro keys. They’re joined by an additional three buttons on the left edge that kind of look like the thumb buttons you’d find on a mouse. On the top right, there’s a volume roller like the one Razer included on its last-generation BlackWidow V3, but this time, it’s joined by four programmable media keys that, by default,... Continue reading…

The hardwired model is selling for $77.16 ($73 off) at Amazon | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Whether you’re planning to travel this long weekend or to just curl up on the couch binging The Last Of Us, today’s Arlo’s Essential video doorbell deal will help you relax. Right now, the wired version is selling for $77.16 ($73 off) at Amazon, which is nearly its best price yet, while it’s $79.99 at Best Buy and Arlo. You can also buy the wireless model — which is easier to set up — for half off at $99.99 from Amazon, Best Buy, and Arlo.These are amongst the best video doorbells and will allow you to keep tabs on who’s at the door using your smartphone so you don’t have to leave the comfort of your couch or even be at home. They also share the same 1536p HD video resolution as our favorite video doorbell, the Ring Pro 2, while... Continue reading…