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The smaller sibling to UE's Epicboom offers plenty of punch for its size. But it's a little thin on features to justify $250. Continue reading...

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 47, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, so psyched you found us, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been reading about Skibidi Toilet and the future of mall brands and the legacy of Bell Labs, watching Dirty Pop and catching up on Cobra Kai, downloading every single podcast episode mentioned in this excellent Reddit thread, writing stuff down with Napkin, and trying desperately to figure out what I forgot to pack for vacation. I've also been trying new blueberry muffin recipes all week - thanks to everyone who sent me one!Speaking of which: As I mentioned last week, Installer is taking a summer... Continue reading...

Photo by Tristan Fewings / Getty Images Following reports that the Russo brothers were in talks to helm more features for Marvel, the studio confirmed at this year's San Diego Comic-Con that the pair will be directing two new Avengers films.During Marvel's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the studio announced that the Russo brothers have signed on to direct Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars - the former of which will see Robert Downey Jr. return to the MCU as Doctor Doom. Doomsday is due out in May 2026, while Secret Wars will follow in May 2027.

Image: Apple The end of the world just got a little closer. Apple confirmed that the much-anticipated second season of its postapocalyptic series Silo will start streaming on November 15th.Silo premiered last May and was renewed before the first season finished. Apple first teased season 2, alongside the return of Severance, at WWDC 2024. (Severance's second season will start streaming in January.)Based on the trilogy of novels by Hugh Howey, Silo is set in the distant future and follows the remains of humanity, who live in giant underground bunkers - the titular silos - to avoid the deadly world outside. The season 1 finale ended with a big twist that made it clear there's a lot more going on than the show initially lets on. It also only covers... Continue reading...

Image: Hulu It only takes a few minutes before Futurama's new season starts explaining non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, a concept most people probably haven't thought about for more than a year.Despite being set in the far future, Futurama has always been comfortable commenting on modern life. There have been episodes about smartphones and 3D printers that use sci-fi nonsense to complicate the concepts in a way that makes them funny. That has largely continued to be true over many years (and cancellations). But in its Hulu revival last year, the show really started to mess up the balance, and its topical jokes began to overshadow the sci-fi gags. The upcoming 12th season struggles even more to find a Futurama-style twist on absurd... Continue reading...

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge I've got a stack of bookmarked, favorited, and saved-for-later web articles that I'm going to get around to reading one day... but haven't. I think that part of what puts me off working through that list is that reading on the internet, especially longer pieces, can be a slog. On most sites, besides the text and pictures that matter, you've got a constant flurry of ads, pop-ups, panels, and media to deal with.You can avoid this problem by using a bookmarking app such as Pocket, which offers an easier way to both save and read longer content, or you can buy a separate reading device such as a Kindle. However, if you don't want to deal with another app or device, there's another way. Most popular browsers now come with some kind of reading... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Kiryu is getting a live-action makeover very soon. At Comic-Con today, Amazon revealed the first look at its upcoming adaptation of the Yakuza game series, with the show Like a Dragon: Yakuza (not to be confused with the game Yakuza: Like a Dragon). The streaming series will follow original Yakuza hero Kazuma Kiryu.Amazon says that the show showcases modern Japan and the dramatic stories of these intense characters, such as the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, that games in the past have not been able to explore." Kiryu will be played by Ryoma Takeuchi, while Kento Kaku also starts as Akira Nishikiyama. The series is directed by Masaharu Take.Of course, Yakuza joins a wave of gaming adaptions for TV, which has included The Last of Us on HBO, P... Continue reading...

Disney / BBC The Doctor Who franchise is about to get even bigger with a new spinoff series that, interestingly, doesn't seem like it's going to focus on everyone's favorite Time Lord.During the Doctor Who panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, Disney and the BBC announced that The War Between The Land And The Sea - a new series written by Russell T. Davies and Pete McTighe - is on the way. Rather than the Doctor, the new show will revolve around a group of humans as they work together to face the Sea Devils, a race of ancient, ocean-dwelling creatures who first appeared in Doctor Who back in 1972.Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient are set to reprise their roles as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Colonel Ibrahim, respectively, but they will also... Continue reading...

SpaceX is targeting Saturday, July 27th for its next Falcon 9 launch carrying 23 Starlink satellites into orbit. | Image: SpaceX SpaceX has completed its investigation into what caused an engine failure during a Falcon 9 launch on July 11th. The company has submitted a mishap report" to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is ready to return the Falcon 9 rocket to flight as soon as tomorrow.The company's investigation team, working with the FAA, was able to determine the July 11th failure was caused by a liquid oxygen leak that developed during the initial burn of the Falcon 9's second stage engine. It says the leak originated from a crack in a pressure sensor sense line that's part of the rocket's oxygen system. A clamp that normally constrains the sense line had come loose, subjecting it to excessive engine vibrations that eventually caused it to... Continue reading...

A critically endangered California condor chick that will soon fly for the first time is seen at its nest site on a cliff above the drought-stricken Colorado River on August 31st, 2022, in Marble Canyon, Arizona. | Photo: Getty Images Conservationists will be able to release more California condors into the wild thanks to a record number of chicks hatched at the Los Angeles Zoo this breeding season. It's the latest success in an incredible conservation story for North America's biggest flying bird.A total of 17 chicks hatched at the zoo this season, which came to a close with the last little one arriving in June and thriving." That beats a 1997 record of 15 chicks in one season. The zoo credits the accomplishment to a new strategy it developed for minimizing the birds' contact with humans.The result is more condor chicks in the program and ultimately more condors in the wild," Rose Legato, curator of birds at the Los Angeles Zoo, said in a press release on... Continue reading...

Image: OnLeaks via Android Headlines While there's been no shortage of Pixel 9 leaks over the past couple of days, a new ad for the device seems to have leaked in full - and it shows off a new feature that makes sure you aren't left out of a group photo.The feature, seemingly called Add Me," appears in a leaked ad shared with Android Headlines by OnLeaks. The ad shows someone using a Pixel 9 to take a picture of two friends in front of a van. After snapping a shot, the photographer trades spots with her two friends, allowing her to get a picture in front of the van - only the Pixel's display shows the phantom-like image of the two friends standing beside her. Her friend snaps a photo, and boom, she appears in the picture as if she were there the entire time.Judging by... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge X uses your data to train its Grok AI assistant, but if you'd like to opt out of that, you can do that right from your settings menu. It is accessible on the web right here, or you can find it yourself if you click the three dots menu, then Settings and privacy," then Privacy and safety," and then Grok."X's @Safety account wrote in a post on Friday that the setting is available to all users on the web now and will soon be rolled out on mobile."

An Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, one of the first types that was identified to sometimes crash games this way. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge On Monday, it initially seemed like the beginning of the end for Intel's desktop CPU instability woes - the company confirmed a patch is coming in mid-August that should address the root cause" of exposure to elevated voltage. But if your 13th or 14th Gen Intel Core processor is already crashing, that patch apparently won't fix it.Citing unnamed sources, Tom's Hardware reports that any degradation of the processor is irreversible, and an Intel spokesperson did not deny that when we asked. Intel is confident" the patch will keep it from happening in the first place. (As another preventative measure, you should update your motherboard BIOS ASAP.) But if your defective CPU has been damaged, your best option is to replace it instead of... Continue reading...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Samsung's upcoming One UI 7 update could bring some pretty big changes to the look of its Galaxy devices. Leaked screenshots @chunvn8888 shared with Smartprix show Samsung's Android skin with tweaks to the quick settings and notification panels, along with UI elements that take on a rounder appearance throughout.As shown in the leaked screenshots, it looks like Samsung may split the notification panel from the quick setting shade. The unified shade in One UI 6 has you swipe down once to access your notifications and again to reach your quick settings (unless you're using instant access) - but that may change in One UI 7.You might also notice that the shaded elements surrounding the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons trade their squircle shape... Continue reading...

Bev Priestman, head coach of the Canadian Olympic women's soccer team, has been suspended for the rest of the Paris Games. | Photo by Vaughn Ridley / Getty Images The plot in Canadian soccer's Olympic drone spying scandal thickens. A TSN report alleges that the Canadian men's and women's soccer teams have been spying on opponents - with and without drones - for years.Earlier this week, the Canadian Olympic women's soccer team landed in hot water after the New Zealand team spotted a drone flying over their practice. The incident was reported to French authorities, and it was discovered that the drone operator was Joseph Lombardi, an unaccredited analyst" with the Canadian squad. Lombardi and assistant coach Jasmine Mander were subsequently sent home, while head coach Bev Priestman voluntarily withdrew from the opening match against New Zealand. Priestman has since been suspended from the Games... Continue reading...

If you're using a newer iPhone, ESR's latest car mount is just as fast as an official MagSafe charger. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge At this point, I can confidently say that the new Qi2 wireless standard has found its footing. Everyone from Anker to Nomad now offers a selection of speedy Qi2 chargers, with the HMD's forthcoming Skyline being one of the first Android phones to support the MagSafe-like standard. However, despite the influx of competition, ESR's wireless car mount remains one of the cheapest Qi2 chargers available - especially now that it's on sale at Amazon for $22.99 ($17 off).If you own an iPhone 12 series phone or newer, ESR's Qi2 Magnetic Wireless Car Charger (Halolock) is a straightforward solution for topping off your device while on the go. You can affix the magnetic mount to your dashboard or most air vents using the provided clip or flexible... Continue reading...

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge Google is dying. Google is unstoppable. Somehow, right now, it feels like both of those things are true. For the first time in more than a decade, there appear to be products that might actually threaten Google Search as the centerpiece of the web - including OpenAI's new SearchGPT. And yet Google Search continues to dominate the market and make truly unfathomable amounts of money.On this episode of The Vergecast, we discuss the launch of SearchGPT, Google's latest earnings, and the increasingly brazen ways AI companies are scraping the web for their own purposes. Who will win the future of search is anyone's guess, but one thing's for sure: the way the web used to work doesn't work anymore. We need new rules, new norms, and new ideas... Continue reading...

The Nest Hello video doorbell can now be fully migrated to the Google Home app from the Nest app. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Google announced this week that it's rolling out support for its Nest Hello doorbell in the Google Home app. This allows you to transfer Google's original video doorbell camera - aka the Nest Doorbell (wired, first-gen) - from the Nest app to Google's Home app. Google is also bringing its garage door detection feature out of public preview, making it available to all users with compatible hardware. This uses a Nest Cam to alert you when your garage door is left open.Garage door detection launched last fall in Google's public preview - a public beta where users can try out upcoming features - but it's now available to all Nest Aware subscribers in the US and Canada. (Nest Aware starts at $8 a month / $80 a year.)The feature works with... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Valve has introduced some changes to Steam that should make it easier to find and install playable game demos. In a new events blog post, Steam said the Great Steam Demo Update" was based on developer and player feedback, with new functionality that makes demos behave more like standalone games hosted on the platform.For one, demos can now have a store page that's completely separate from the main game, allowing developers to display demo-specific content like trailers, screenshots, and supported features. These pages will also display buttons to both install the demo and visit the main game's store page, and allow players to leave demo-specific reviews.And if a demo becomes available for a game that users have on their wishlists, or... Continue reading...

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Microsoft has started testing a new way to access your Android phone from directly within Windows 11's File Explorer. Windows Insiders are now able to test this new feature, which lets you wirelessly browse through folders and files on your Android phone.The integration in File Explorer means your Android device appears just like a regular USB device on the left-hand side, with the ability to copy or move files between a PC and Android phone, and rename or delete them. It's certainly a lot quicker than using the existing Phone Link app. Image: Microsoft Android phones will appear inside File Explorer. You'll need a device running Android version 11 or higher, be part of the Windows Insider program, and the... Continue reading...

Image: Peacock It looks like Peacock is getting a solid dose of horror very soon. At San Diego Comic-Con, the streamer showed off a very brief teaser for its upcoming thriller series Teacup, while also confirming that it will start streaming in October.According to Peacock, the show follows a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive." It's helmed by showrunner Ian McCulloch - best known as a producer on the Western hit Yellowstone - and based on the novel Stinger by Robert McCammon. In a statement about the adaptation, McCulloch had this to say:

Image: Epic Games Epic Games plans to bring Fortnite to the third-party iOS app store AltStore PAL, which is only available in the EU. The company made the announcement in a Thursday blog post about its strategy for mobile stores, and it says it expects to announce support for at least two other third-party stores soon."While Epic says that it plans to bring our own mobile games including Fortnite to other mobile stores that give all developers a great deal," it didn't provide a specific timeline. In addition to Fortnite, Epic also plans to bring Rocket League Sideswipe to AltStore PAL, spokesperson Natalie Munoz tells The Verge.When reached for comment, AltStore's Riley Testut pointed to Epic's post and said that we're very excited to be bringing F... Continue reading...

California Gig Workers Union members gather outside the Supreme Court in May. | Photo by Lea Suzuki / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash workers in California will remain independent contractors after the state's Supreme Court upheld Proposition 22, as reported by CalMatters. The unanimous decision issued on Thursday is a win for ridehailing and food delivery services, which have spent millions campaigning for Prop 22 to avoid having to classify gig workers as employees.While Prop 22 guarantees workers some protections, such as 120 percent of the local minimum wage for each hour spent driving, a health insurance stipend, and reimbursement for job-related injuries, it's far from the full range of benefits Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and other services would've had to provide if workers were classified as employees.

Image: NASA NASA and Sierra Space blew up another space habitat in June, and everyone is smiling about it. That's because the full-size inflatable structure in this ultimate burst pressure" test only failed after exceeding NASA's recommended x4 safety levels by 22 percent.Sierra Space's inflatable structure, known as a Large Integrated Flexible Environment, or LIFE, had its last stress test in January. LIFE is built from basket-weaved Vectran fabrics" that strengthen once inflated. It's intended to be used as a component in the Orbital Reef space station project involving NASA, Blue Origin, and Sierra Space.This second burst test will get us the design, repeatability, and architecture as we go towards our certification of the pressure shell of... Continue reading...

Apple's UWB trackers remain a cheap, convenient way to keep tabs on all your belongings. | Photo: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Over the past month or so, we've seen a flurry of new Bluetooth trackers, from Motorola's forthcoming Moto Tag to ESR's Find My-compatible wallet. That being said, if you're an iPhone user, Apple's AirTag remains the best option - one you can still grab at Amazon and Walmart for an all-time low of $23.99 ($5 off). You can also buy a four-pack of trackers at Amazon and Walmart for around $89 ($10 off), though be aware that you can often buy the bundle for $15 less.Despite having launched several years ago, Apple's AirTags pack plenty of utility. The ultra wideband (UWB) location trackers provide ultra-precise tracking if you're embedded in the Apple ecosystem, as they allow you to easily leverage the company's extensive Find My network... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today on his WhatsApp channel that WhatsApp now has 100 million monthly active users in the US as of July 25th.According to WhatsApp, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Seattle are among the fastest-growing markets in the country. However, the company says it's experienced significant growth" in Southern states as well, with more than 10 million users in Texas.This is the first time data pertaining to users has been released since Meta's acquisition of the messaging app and demonstrates how the messaging platform, already the biggest messaging app in the world, has experienced tremendous growth in the U.S.," WhatsApp spokesperson Ashley O'Reilly wrote in a press release.Since purchasing WhatsApp... Continue reading...

The Nutribullet Flip's high-torque motor is strong enough to blend ice and most fruits. | Image: Nutribullet Nutribullet's new Flip incorporates a blender into an insulated stainless steel tumbler that looks no larger than a typical travel mug. If you don't have enough time in the morning to blend your breakfast, the rechargeable Flip works anywhere you don't mind making a bit of noise. (Maybe skip the crowded subway.)The $99.99 Flip isn't Nutribullet's first single-serve blender, nor is it the company's first rechargeable one. What sets it apart from past offerings is that the blender part - including blades, an 11.1-volt electric motor, and a rechargeable battery - are all incorporated into the Flip's lid, instead of into a removable base that gets left behind. Image: Nutribullet You can drink and pour from the Flip's... Continue reading...

Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela onstage at Vox Media's 2023 Code Conference. | Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media Runway trained its AI text-to-video generator on thousands of YouTube videos and pirated films, according to a report from 404 Media. A spreadsheet of training data obtained by the outlet includes links to YouTube channels belonging to major entertainment companies, such as Netflix, Disney, Nintendo, and Rockstar Games, along with creators like MKBHD, Linus Tech Tips, and Sam Kolder.There are also links to channels owned by news outlets like The Verge, The New Yorker, Reuters, and Wired. The channels in that spreadsheet were a company-wide effort to find good quality videos to build the model with," a former Runway employee tells 404 Media. This was then used as input to a massive web crawler which downloaded all the videos from all... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge OpenAI is announcing its much-anticipated entry into the search market, SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet.The search engine starts with a large textbox that asks the user What are you looking for?" But rather than returning a plain list of links, SearchGPT tries to organize and make sense of them. In one example from OpenAI, the search engine summarizes its findings on music festivals and then presents short descriptions of the events followed by an attribution link.In another example, it explains when to plant tomatoes before breaking down different varieties of the plant. After the results appear, you can ask follow-up questions or click the sidebar to open other... Continue reading...

Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images The Associated Press has apparently retracted a fact-check published yesterday with the headline, No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch." As of Thursday morning, the article page displayed a page unavailable" error message.The fact-check references a few joke social media posts that have been circulating that claim the Republican vice presidential nominee wrote in his book Hillbilly Elegy about having sex with a couch.One tweet reads, In his dreadful novel, Hillbilly Elegy,' JD Vance described having sex with a rubber glove secured between cushions on his couch. Republicans chose him to be one heartbeat away from becoming POTUS. Voters in NC, the U.S. furniture capital, should be particularly horrified." (Fact-check: H... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google's Gemini AI chatbot will be able to respond to you more quickly and process more content in prompts thanks to an upgrade to the company's Gemini 1.5 Flash AI model.With the upgrade to 1.5 Flash, you'll see across-the-board improvements in quality and latency, with especially noticeable improvements in reasoning and image understanding," Amar Subramanya, VP of engineering for Gemini, says in a blog post. Gemini's context window, or the amount of chunks of text that an AI model can process at once, is also getting quadrupled to 32K tokens, Subramanya says.1.5 Flash, which was announced at Google I/O in May, will be available in the free version of Gemini on the web and mobile starting today, according to Subramanya.Google is... Continue reading...

The set perfectly recreates the pixelated 16-bit Mario and Yoshi sprites from Super Mario World. | Image: Lego Lego has announced its latest collaboration with Nintendo at San Diego Comic-Con: a pixelated recreation of Mario and Yoshi from the 16-bit Super Nintendo classic, Super Mario World. Like Lego's Art sets, it's a 2D creation meant for display but also includes hidden moving mechanisms, bringing Yoshi to life.The 1,215-piece set stands over 15 inches tall when assembled and features a yellow-caped Mario riding Yoshi atop a grass-covered hill. The front of the set is assembled from Lego tiles and looks to be a very accurate recreation of the 16-bit sprites used in Super Mario World. Image: Lego The mechanisms powering the display piece's animations are all left exposed on the back. But when you turn the set... Continue reading...

Image: Android Headlines Google's Pixel Buds Pro 2 could bring back the wing tip design we saw on the first generation of the Pixel Buds. A series of images shared with Android Headlines by reliable leaker OnLeaks show the buds with a slight bulge opposite the ear tip.The wing isn't as prominent as the so-called stabilizer arc" that protruded from the original Pixel Buds. Our review of those buds from 2020 mentioned that the arc could cause discomfort after wearing them for long periods of time. Hopefully, the more subdued wing on the Buds Pro 2 won't do the same. Image: OnLeaks via Android Headlines Other than the wing tip, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 appear to trade their predecessor's black grills for larger ones that match the color of the... Continue reading...

Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images Southwest Airlines is about to change how it handles customer seating by switching to assigned and premium ones, a significant change from the sit-anywhere-you-want setup it's had for over 50 years. The transformation comes as Southwest reported some turbulence in its earnings, with a 46 percent drop in profits for the second quarter, as reported by WSJ.In a press release, Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the changes will be based on employee and customer feedback. Jordan called offering seats with premium legroom and assignments transformational" but did not offer a timeline or how it would look. The Airline said it has conducted simulation and live trials that helped it make the decision, and that customer preferences have... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge The ClaudeBot web crawler that Anthropic uses to scrape training data for AI models like Claude has hammered iFixit's website almost a million times in a 24-hour period, seemingly violating the repair company's Terms of Use in the process.If any of those requests accessed our terms of service, they would have told you that use of our content expressly forbidden. But don't ask me, ask Claude!" said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens on X, posting images that show Anthropic's chatbot acknowledging that iFixit's content was off limits. You're not only taking our content without paying, you're tying up our devops resources. If you want to have a conversation about licensing our content for commercial use, we're right here."