The Verge

This EcoFlow Smart Control Kit consists of a Smart Home Panel and two Delta Pros for up to 7200W of output. | Image: EcoFlow EcoFlow is now selling Whole-Home Backup Power Solutions that bundle together a variety of the company’s products that are already available a la carte. The kits are basically a more scalable version of Tesla’s Powerwall+ without the long installation wait times, that also remains portable so you can take some of that idle power with you for an off-grid getaway.The new EcoFlow kits make it easy to choose the right amount of backup power for your needs and budget. Prices start at $3,699 and approach $20,000 if you want unlimited emergency power. That’s a lot of money (even after a US tax credit) compared to noisy gas generators, but EcoFlow’s emission-free kits don't require maintenance and could also help reduce your day-to-day energy... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission is looking to ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts, which companies put in place to prevent employees from going to work for competitors or leaving to start similar businesses. On Thursday, the regulator issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, saying that the clauses hurt innovation and “decrease competition for workers,” which leads to lower wages overall.While the proposed rule, which you can read here, would benefit workers across industries, it’s especially relevant in tech.For years, we’ve seen big tech companies attempt to get workers at every level to sign noncompete contracts — Kickstarter’s union fought against them while it was bargaining with the company, Acer sued a former CEO... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton is starting off 2023 with a $19 million fine. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the company has agreed to pay the civil penalty to settle charges that the company knowingly failed to immediately report safety issues with its recalled Tread Plus. The fine will also resolve charges that Peloton continued to sell 38 Tread Plus units after the recall in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act.As a refresher, Peloton recalled both of its treadmills — the Tread and Tread Plus — in 2021. While the Tread’s issue was a wobbly screen, the more premium Tread Plus caused multiple reports of injuries and, in one instance, the death of a small child. Because of the Tread Plus’ slatted belt and raised deck,... Continue reading…

Air travel is still a hellscape, but at least the Wi-Fi will be free. | Photo by Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images After hinting that it would be coming in 2023, Delta has confirmed that all SkyMiles members will get free in-flight Wi-Fi as part of a partnership with T-Mobile. The wireless carrier already offers free Wi-Fi on Delta flights to its subscribers, but starting on February 1st, that program will expand to any SkyMiles member, regardless of whether they’re a T-Mobile customer. But — as it so often does — this free service comes with a side of targeted advertising.Not every flight will include free Wi-Fi at first; Delta is starting domestic. According to today’s news release, “most” mainline domestic flights will be included at launch, and by the end of 2023, the service should be available on more than 700 planes. The company plans to add... Continue reading…

The 5G version is coming very soon at a not-outlandish price. | Image: Razer Razer and Verizon co-announced the pricing for the 5G-enabled Edge gaming handheld during CES 2023. It’s launching on January 26th for $359.99 when you add it as a new tablet line to your account. With an installment plan, Verizon says the math works out to $10 per month for 36 months. This pricing is available for a limited time, but a timeframe wasn’t provided by Verizon, so we’ve followed up to find out. The retail price for the 5G model is $599.99, which is $200 more than the Wi-Fi-only model.We first heard about the Edge (Razer’s revival of the awkward 2013 tablet-handheld hybrid) in October 2022. It has a 6.8-inch OLED screen with a fast 144Hz refresh rate, and it sits snugly in between the Kishi V2 Pro, a modified version of the... Continue reading…

The new split-screen Android Auto UI. | Image: Google The Android Auto look and feel has evolved greatly since we reviewed it in 2015, but now its biggest update is starting to roll out to all users, introducing a split-screen UI that can let you see more things at once. Keeping the map on screen while also adding one or two other panes makes it a bit more like Apple’s current approach to CarPlay, and Google says its focus is on creating a “more personal, easy-to-use experience from behind the wheel.”Wherever the inspiration comes from, I appreciate it. Dubbed “Coolwalk” in testing over the last year or so, the new UI has been publicly available in beta form for several months after it was publicly announced in the spring, and as a longtime Android Auto user, I’ve had it in my car.While... Continue reading…

Image: Volvo Google is rolling out a brand-new high-definition version of Google Maps for cars with the tech giant’s native Android Automotive operating system. The HD maps will provide granular details that were not previously available, like lane markings, road signs, and traffic barriers.The first vehicles to get the new HD maps will be the Volvo EX90, the Swedish automaker’s new flagship electric vehicle due out later this year, and the Polestar 3, the Volvo-backed performance marque’s first SUV. The Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 will share the same platform, Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA2), and both use Android Automotive, which is Google’s native in-car operating system. Image: Polestar Both Volvo and Polestar... Continue reading…

Image: Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz, MN8, and ChargePoint are joining forces to install 400 fast electric vehicle charging hubs across the US in a major bid to boost EV sales and improve the nation’s struggling EV charging infrastructure. The project will cost approximately €1 billion ($1 billion), which will be split 50-50 between Mercedes and MN8.Starting this year, the companies will begin the work to construct hundreds of new hubs, which will include more than 2,500 DC fast charging plugs. MN8 Energy, an offshoot of Goldman Sachs Asset Management focused on solar power and energy storage, will help finance the project using ChargePoint’s EV charging hardware and software, the companies said.“This is for us a strategic decision to really put our... Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images One of the world’s most prestigious machine learning conferences has banned authors from using AI tools like ChatGPT to write scientific papers, triggering a debate about the role of AI-generated text in academia.The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) announced the policy earlier this week, stating, “Papers that include text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT are prohibited unless the produced text is presented as a part of the paper’s experimental analysis.” The news sparked widespread discussion on social media, with AI academics and researchers both defending and criticizing the policy. The conference’s organizers responded by publishing a longer statement explaining their thinking.... Continue reading…

Image: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Want the joys of analog audio but the convenience of wireless speakers? Victrola has an option for you: at CES, the company is introducing a new turntable called the Stream Onyx that’s capable of streaming records straight to a Sonos system.The Stream Onyx is certified for Works With Sonos, meaning it can wirelessly transmit audio to Sonos speakers. As a result, you can easily play vinyl records through your entire Sonos system without needing to install any extra equipment. Instead, you use the Victrola app to connect the turntable to your Wi-Fi and Sonos system.This is Victrola’s second Works with Sonos turntable, following last year’s $800 Stream Carbon. The Stream Onyx shaves that price down a touch — to $599 — by shaving off some... Continue reading…

Kickboxing is coming to Fitness Plus next week. | Image: Apple Just in time for New Year’s resolutions, Apple is adding a massive update to its Fitness Plus service. Starting next Monday, the company is adding kickboxing workouts, a series of classes set to Beyoncé’s music, and sleep meditations. The service will also add three new trainers and kick off a new season of Time to Walk.With kickboxing, Apple’s expanding its roster of equipment-free full-body cardio workouts. The classes will feature rounds of kickboxing moves that are then combined into a final one-minute, all-out intensity interval. Users can select from 10-, 20-, and 30-minute long classes. Apple has also recruited Nez Dally, a Muay Thai fighter who became the first woman to compete in Thailand with a hijab, to co-lead the classes... Continue reading…

Every Thursday, The Verge’s deputy editor will peel back the curtain on the tech industry’s most influential players for paid subscribers Continue reading…

A streamer wearing Audio-Technica’s new headset. | Image: Audio-Technica Audio-Technica has taken its popular M50X headphones and added a built-in microphone to create a headset that the company claims is perfect for livestreaming content creators.There are two models available in total. The ATH-M50xSTS comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and XLR microphone connector (with a one-fourth-inch adaptor in the box), while the ATH-M50xSTS-USB has a USB-A connector and USB-C adaptor in the box. But the most important spec is that both headphones use the same 45mm drivers that have made the M50X headphones so popular across the internet. Image: Audio-Technica The boom arm can be flipped up to mute the headset’s mic. As my former colleague Vlad Savov wrote in 2018, the original M50... Continue reading…

The Tapo Smart Video Door Lock. | Image: TP-Link TP-Link is expanding its smart home lineup with an array of new products, including a new video door lock, a dual video doorbell, two robot vacuums, and a whole range of Matter-compatible products.For starters, the Tapo Smart Video Door Lock features a clever design that combines all the features of a lock, doorbell, and camera. You can unlock the door with a few different methods, including facial recognition or using the built-in fingerprint sensor. TP-Link allows you to unlock or lock the door remotely with the Tapo app as well, which you can use to generate temporary user codes, view lock activity, and receive lock notifications.Since the device also functions as a video doorbell, it rings when pressed and automatically records... Continue reading…

Photo by STR / AFP via Getty Images You can’t spend any time on Instagram or TikTok without hitting a drop shipping scam or a flashy direct-to-consumer startup. You’ll see a nice set of pans in your feed, only to find out later that the company itself doesn’t hold any inventory and is outsourcing to somewhere in China. Or you will look at a nice pair of workout shorts in the store and will wonder, “I wonder where they make those?”What if I told you there was a fun, quick way to find out exactly who supplies companies with their goods? Enter ImportYeti, a free-to-use and user-supported tool by David Applegate to track company suppliers.ImportYeti works by searching the bill of lading for companies to see what cargo they are importing, where it comes from, and what the... Continue reading…

Schools have adapted to disruptive technology before — ChatGPT is the latest challenge to educational norms. | Photo by Nicolas Villalobos via Getty Images The New York City Department of Education has blocked access to ChatGPT on its networks and devices over fears the AI tool will harm students’ education.A spokesperson for the department, Jenna Lyle, told Chalkbeat New York – the education-focused news site that first reported the story — that the ban was due to potential “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.”“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” said Lyle.ChatGPT was released last November by San Francisco-based AI company OpenAI, and has sparked a huge debate over... Continue reading…

The BMW i Vision Dee is basically KITT with a kidney grille. | Image: BMW KITT with a kidney grille? With a minimalist design, a HUD across the whole windshield, and a digital assistant that talks back, this could be the most polarizing BMW concept yet. Continue reading…

This is where the magic will happen. | Image: AMD AMD has announced its new Ryzen 7000 mobile CPUs for laptops. The list is a real who’s who of mobile processor architecture, including Zen 4, Zen 3 Plus, Zen 3, and Zen 2 chips.The potential star of the show is the “Dragon Range” Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7945HX, which has 16 cores and 32 threads, frequencies of 2.2-5.4 Ghz, 80MB cache, and 55-75 watt TDP. I repeat — 16 cores in a laptop. These aren’t Intel’s little efficiency cores. These are 16 full Zen cores in a laptop’s chassis.This may seem like an underdog compared to Intel’s top 13th-Gen chips, which have 24 cores — Intel has claimed that its Core i9-13980HX is the “world’s fastest mobile processor”. This chip, however, only has eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, while all... Continue reading…

AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture is coming to laptops in February. | Image: AMD AMD is bringing its RDNA 3 graphics architecture to laptops this year. The chip giant is promising RTX 3060-level desktop graphics on the latest laptops featuring its new Radeon RX 7600M XT GPUs. That’s games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla running at 100fps at 1080p, Borderlands 3 hitting 106fps, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider reaching 142fps.At the top end, AMD will offer laptop manufacturers the Radeon RX 7600M XT or RX 7600M. The RX 7600M XT has 32 teraflops of performance paired with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The RX 7600M has 28 teraflops of performance with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. Both discrete GPUs are built on the RDNA 3 architecture and a 6nm process and will support AV1 encode and decode. That’s good news for streamers or content... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Panos Panay is the man in charge of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft hardware, and he has CEO Satya Nadella’s ear. So when he says that AI is the future of Windows, we’re definitely paying attention.“AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows, quite literally,” he told an audience at AMD’s CES 2023 press conference, pausing for effect.“quite literally”The context: AMD has just announced its new Ryzen 7000 mobile processors, and the company’s boasting that they’re the first x86 chips to contain a dedicated AI engine — one that, it claims, also happens to be 20 percent faster than the one in Apple’s MacBook Pros with M1 Pro chips.(Dragging Apple was a bit of a theme during the early part of AMD’s keynote, though it’s... Continue reading…

Sony During Sony’s CES 2023 presentation, the company shared that it’s working on a new accessibility controller kit, codenamed “Project Leonardo”.Sony shared in an official blog post that it consulted with video game accessibility advocates like AbleGamers and SpecialEffect to create a controller that is “highly configurable” and “works in tandem with many third-party accessibility accessories.”Leonardo’s kit features PlayStation 5 face and trigger buttons that can be swapped around a wide circular gamepad as well as a joystick which can be repositioned relative to the gamepad. It will also come with accessories in a variety of shapes and sizes for “players to find a configuration that works for their strength, range of motion, and... Continue reading…

Image: Withings Plus Samsung has a new range of TVs to show off, and Qi wireless charging is getting an upgrade. Continue reading…

There’s a tiny OLED display right at the top. | Image: Asus Asus is releasing a new Xbox PC controller later this year that has a built-in OLED display and a host of connectivity options for PC. The ROG Raikiri Pro has a tiny 1.3-inch OLED display above the Xbox button that will display custom animations, battery or microphone status, and more.The OLED display (128 x 40 resolution) will largely be used for swapping profiles during games, or for checking charging or mic status, Bluetooth pairing, and running text or animated wallpapers. The custom animations remind me a lot of the OLED display that replaced the Xbox “jewel” on the revamped Duke controller in 2018, or the classic Sega Dreamcast controller. Image: Asus The OLED display in action. Two buttons at the top of... Continue reading…

Sony and Honda’s joint mobility venture announced a new vehicle brand, Afeela, for the company’s first electric car, set to go on sale in North America in 2026. A prototype was unveiled during Sony’s presentation at CES in Las Vegas Wednesday.Much is still unknown about the new brand, but Sony Honda Mobility CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said the car would leverage Sony’s experience with AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality to present a unique EV.“Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility”“Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship where people feel the sensation of interactive mobility and where mobility can detect and understand people and... Continue reading…

That’s a higher number than expected. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon’s ongoing layoffs will affect around 18,000 workers, according to a memo from CEO Andy Jassy, which says that the “majority” of the roles being eliminated will be in Amazon Stores and People, Experience, and Technology organizations.That’s significantly more than previously rumored — in November, The New York Times reported that the company was aiming to cut its workforce by around 10,000. In September 2022, the company said it had around 1.5 million employees in total.Amazon will have laid of 18,000 people between the November cuts and the ones announced todayThe news of the expanded layoffs was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said that they would affect “over 17,000 workers.” Jassy’s email notes that... Continue reading…

The Modular Lego Store, one of the first official unofficial Lego sets. | Image: Krisnow Have you ever wanted to be a Lego designer? Now’s your chance — if you create an original Lego set starting February 1st, 2023, you can compete to be one of up to five unofficial sets that Lego will officially produce. Up to 20,000 of your set will be sold to fans around the world, and you’ll even get paid — designers get 5 percent of the proceeds.They won’t come in a traditional Lego box, mind you, and they won’t be sold in stores. They’ll exclusively be part of the online “BrickLink Designer Program,” where the boxes look like this: Image: Lego The Modular Lego Store in its Bricklink box, from an earlier competition. But make no mistake — these are sanctioned, sold, produced, and shipped by Lego itself,... Continue reading…

The Schneider Pulse smart electrical panel, one component of this system. | Image: Schneider Electric I don’t know if Schneider Electric will be the one to crack it, but I like what it’s promising here at CES 2023 — a smart home where the electrical circuits themselves are smart enough to keep your house powered, save on your energy bill, manage solar, and charge electric vehicles, all through a single app.Schneider Electric isn’t a household name, but there’s a good chance you’ve got one of its Square D circuit breakers in your home — the company says four in 10 US households already do. Today, it’s announcing an ecosystem of gadgets that won’t be hidden inside your walls, including:

Signs warning of health risks are posted outside the gates of an abandoned uranium mine in the community of Red Water Pond on Monday, January 13th, 2020. | Image: The Washington Post / contributor via Getty Images A new analysis of uranium and arsenic contamination in drinking water shows ugly evidence of how environmental racism persists in the US. Counties with more Latino residents and American Indian residents have been burdened with “significantly higher” concentrations of arsenic and uranium in their drinking water, the new research shows. In some of the most contaminated areas in the US, larger proportions of Black residents have also been linked to more of the toxic metals in public water systems.“The racial and ethnic makeup of your community should really not be connected to the quality of the water that you drink. And this is something that needs to be taken very seriously,” says Irene Martinez-Morata, lead author of the research... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Lidar hardware company Luminar announced it has acquired Civil Maps, a lidar data company based in San Francisco. The acquisition brings ultra-detailed and automatically updating 3D maps of various cities into Luminar’s fold as it plans to bring fully autonomous vehicles into reality.Luminar will integrate the Civil Maps assets, which include navigation data, into its Sentinel platform. Sentinel is the company’s full-stack software suite solution that’s currently in development for lidar-equipped cars, like the upcoming Volvo EX90.The news comes during CES 2023, where Luminar is set to showcase vehicles from its partners, Volvo and Chinese automaker SIAC. The vehicles are equipped with fully integrated lidar systems, including a fairly... Continue reading…

Samsung’s new SmartThings Station is a smart home hub, a wireless charger, and a SmartThings Find device. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge A little over three years after getting out of the smart home hardware game, Samsung is back with a new smart home hub. And this time, Samsung has figured out a way to make you actually want to put a device hub in your home: by building it into a wireless charging pad.The SmartThings Station is a chunky charging puck that supports Matter and Thread to connect devices like TVs, speakers, thermostats, lighting, and plugs to SmartThings. It also works with the new smart home standard Matter to onboard devices to any Matter platform.And, of course, it can charge your gadgets. The Station doubles as a 15W fast wireless charging pad for Galaxy smartphones and earbuds (it will charge other phones, just not as fast). I am definitely here for... Continue reading…

Photo by Massimo Bettiol/Getty Images Ken Block, who died tragically in a snowmobile accident this week, was an entrepreneur, a racer, and a social media god. But at his core, he was always an enthusiast. We were all fans. Continue reading…

Guess which one is the Chromebook. | Photo by Owen Grove / The Verge For years, the HP Elite Dragonfly has been one of the most sleek, luxurious, and exorbitantly expensive business laptops you can buy. The new Dragonfly Pro is HP’s attempt to market those models to a broader, consumer-focused, and more price-conscious audience. There’s a Windows-based Dragonfly Pro, and there’s a Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, and while we don’t know the pricing yet, the hope is that they will be cheaper than their business counterparts.I spent a few minutes with the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook and the Dragonfly Pro, and they seem nice. They’re well-built and pretty-looking (and I’d be shocked if they weren’t, coming from HP). They come in black and white options. But the first thing you’ll probably notice is that the... Continue reading…

TCL’s NXTWear V headset concept is just one way the company hopes to put screens on your face. | Image: TCL TCL’s displays are in TVs, smartphones, and maybe in the near future, the metaverse, too. At least, the company wants to make the screen that gets you there. At CES 2023, the company is announcing its latest experiments with wearable displays, including a VR headset and mixed reality glasses. Plus, its personal display glasses, which have only been available in limited markets, are now heading for the US. It’s kind of a “cover-all-your-bases” strategy for whatever the future of display technology looks like.The company’s NXTWear S glasses are the latest version of its wearable display — kind of like a TV contained in a pair of (sort of) ordinary-looking glasses. They aren’t AR or VR glasses; they plug into a device like your phone or... Continue reading…

Image: TCL TCL is overhauling its TV strategy for 2023 by ditching the company’s long-running 6-Series, 5-Series, and 4-Series branding in favor of two new lines: higher-end sets will be part of the Q-Series, while more value-focused TVs will fall under the S-Series. Within the two segments are six different models in all.Let’s cover the best first, shall we? With its flagship QM8, TCL is promising double the peak brightness of its best Mini LED TVs from 2022 — and those were already fairly impressive in their own right. Set to come in screen sizes between 65 inches and 98 inches, the largest QN8 packs in more than 2,300 dimming zones. TCL claims that’s the most of any 4K Mini LED TV on the market — and even more than 8K models. The QM8 features... Continue reading…