The Verge

Image: General Motors General Motors teased an electric Chevrolet Blazer SS, which will make its debut later this year. The Blazer EV will be the first electric vehicle from Chevy to feature a performance SS model.There’s not much to go on here except an image of the charging port illuminated by a LED ring. An accompanying video shows the charging port closing in a pretty cool fashion. And then we see the SS badge on a hubcap, which tells us that this is going to be a high performance version of the Chevy Blazer.There’s not much to go on here except an image of the charging portChevy’s gas-powered SS variants feature V8 engines, dynamic handling capabilities, and adjustable suspensions. The electric Blazer SS will lack the former thanks to its electric... Continue reading…

Inscriptions like this provide first-hand evidence of the thoughts, language, and society of ancient Greece. | Photo by: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Machine learning techniques are providing new tools that could help archaeologists understand the past — particularly when it comes to deciphering ancient texts. The latest example is an AI model created by Alphabet-subsidiary DeepMind that helps not only restore text that is missing from ancient Greek inscriptions but offers suggestions for when the text was written (within a 30-year period) and its possible geographic origins.“Inscriptions are really important because they are direct sources of evidence ... written directly by ancient people themselves,” Thea Sommerschield, a historian and machine learning expert who helped created the model, told journalists in a press briefing.“It’s really difficult for a human to harness all... Continue reading…

US director Kogonada arrives for the screening of the film “Flag Day” at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on July 10, 2021. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP) | Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge, Photo courtesy Getty Images After Yang’s director discusses the film’s wider unseen world Continue reading…

Robot vacuums like this Roomba i3 can respond to voice commands from Google Assistant. | Image: iRobot Robot vacuums are great for getting the dirty work done for you (admit it, you never cleaned under the couch before you got one, right?). And while these busy little bots can be set on a schedule in their accompanying smartphone apps, or sent on a run with a push of their button, connecting them to Google Home gives you more ways to command them to do your bidding, including just with your voice.The majority of robot vacuums with smartphone apps will work with Google Home for voice control through the Google Assistant, although some have more capabilities than others. All of them can be ordered to start and stop, some can be sent home to their dock, and others can be commanded to clean a specific room.You can also use your voice... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Adobe’s social network Behance is adding support for the Polygon cryptocurrency platform, letting users more easily showcase Polygon-based non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The company is touting Polygon integration as a more environmentally conscious way for artists to create NFTs, which Behance began supporting late last year. While that eco-friendliness is debatable, it’s part of Adobe’s ongoing expansion into crypto — as well as an attempt to placate artists that are worried about its potential negative effects.Polygon works on top of the popular Ethereum blockchain, and it’s got a smaller energy footprint for individual crypto transactions; it also avoids the massive transaction costs associated with Ethereum. (On the other hand,... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Citing “recent world events”, Nintendo has announced it will delay the release of Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp.

Nvidia’s RTX 3090 Ti. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia announced its RTX 3090 Ti at CES earlier this year, promising more information by the end of January. Nvidia has since remained silent about pricing or a release date for the RTX 3090 Ti after rumors suggested the card had been delayed due to hardware issues.VideoCardz now reports that Nvidia is planning to launch the RTX 3090 Ti on March 29th. The site has obtained what appears to be RTX 3090 Ti embargo details for the launch of the card, with the March 29th date and 6AM PT timing for GPUs at retailers. Reviews of the RTX 3090 Ti are also reportedly scheduled for March 29th, too.Nvidia has only provided basic specs for the RTX 3090 Ti so far, and we have no idea on pricing yet. Nvidia previously revealed that the RTX 3090 Ti... Continue reading…

Gotham Knights, Warner Bros. Games Montreal’s next open-world Batman-themed RPG, has gotten a new release date: October 25th.Originally announced in August 2020 for a 2021 release, the game was delayed to an unspecified 2022 date early last year, with the developers explaining that they needed “more time to deliver the best possible experience for players.”Gotham Knights lets players suit up Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood (either solo or with a second player) as they try to bring order to Gotham City following the death of Batman (although if you think for a second that the Caped Crusader is actually dead here, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn Gotham to sell you).

Joseph Wyman Brown uses tintype photography to make modern photos. The cameras he uses to make tintypes are slightly bigger than the one he’s holding. | Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge Joseph Wyman Brown captures modern people with 19th-century photography Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max chips were a GPU-shaped warning to Nvidia and AMD last year, and now Apple has cranked up the heat with its new M1 Ultra. Apple claims it will rival Nvidia’s giant RTX 3090 graphics card, the fastest GPU on the market right now. But how does Apple think it can beat an RTX 3090? It turns out, last year’s M1 Max has some secret sauce inside.Apple’s new M1 Ultra is a surprising combination of two M1 Max chips, fused together to create a single powerful chip. The M1 Max has a secret high-speed interface that allows Apple to combine two chips into one. The result is an M1 Ultra chip that has double the CPU cores, double the memory, double the memory bandwidth, and most importantly, double the GPU cores.Apple calls... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Sim courtesy Xmiramira Amira Virgil learned to mod The Sims 4 to combat the game’s poor presentation of Black skin Continue reading…

Samsung’s new display tech debuts in a gaming monitor Continue reading…

A solid laptop for a solid grand Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Nothing, the startup lead by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, will announce its product roadmap for the year on March 23rd at 9AM ET, the company announced today. Nothing is calling the event “The Truth” and says attendees can RSVP via its website: nothing.tech. The company is also announcing a new $70 million funding round today, which Pei says will give it “the fuel to realize the next phase of our vision of a seamless digital future.”The announcement of the event comes as Nothing is reportedly gearing up to launch its first smartphone by next month, according to a recent report from TechCrunch. Then, in an apparently leaked photo, Pei was seen showing off a smartphone to Qualcomm’s CEO Cristiano Amon. It comes a little over a year after... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge How I became a real trackball sicko Continue reading…

White House / Flickr President Biden is poised to issue a new comprehensive strategy for the federal government’s treatment of cryptocurrency, the White House announced on Wednesday. The White House described the pending executive order as “the first ever, whole-of-government approach to addressing the risks and harnessing the potential benefits of digital assets and their underlying technology.”“The rise in digital assets creates an opportunity to reinforce American leadership in the global financial system and at the technological frontier,” the White House said in a release describing the order, “but also has substantial implications for consumer protection, financial stability, national security, and climate risk.”“an opportunity to reinforce American... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lumen, a US firm that provides essential internet services, says it’s pulling out of Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s the second major company of its kind to do so in less than a week, following a similar announcement from rival Cogent last Friday, and is the latest example of a ‘digital Iron Curtain’ growing between Russia and the West.In a blog post, Lumen said it was shutting down all business in Russia “due to increased security risk” in the country.“We have not yet experienced network disruptions, but given the increasingly uncertain environment and the heightened risk of state action, we took this move to ensure the security of our and our customers’ networks, as well as the ongoing integrity of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney Plus’ big ad experiment will arrive on the service later this year, meaning that users will have the option of sitting through advertisements in exchange for a slightly cheaper plan. On the one hand, that’s great news for streamers on a budget. Ad-supported plans give consumers a lot of flexibility to sign up for pricey services they may otherwise pass over. But it’s also a nice little workaround for boosting subscribers fast — something services are keenly aware of as they fight for our attention and our money.“We’re seeing an evolution of the market away from the monolithic business models of old,” Paul Erickson of research firm Parks Associates tells The Verge. “A lot of the players in the market, they’re not going to just... Continue reading…

Apple’s 3-meter long Thunderbolt 4 cable. | Image: Apple Apple is listing a new 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable on its store for $159, which is arguably far too much for a cable. But given the scarcity of other Thunderbolt 4 cable options over 2 meters in length, it might be your only option.The listing coincides with the announcement of Apple’s new Mac Studio, which includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports on its back to connect to displays and other devices. Apple’s also selling a 1.8-meter cable for $129 that ships in two to three weeks. Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 Pro cable says it’s “coming soon.”Apple’s 3-meter Thunderbolt 4 cable won’t have much, if any, competition when it arrives. Whether it’s Belkin, Caldigit, CableMatters, or Plugable, no major cable manufacturer (that I’ve found)... Continue reading…

Taiwanese electric bike company Tern announced a more affordable version of its popular line of cargo bikes. The Tern Quick Haul is as slim and approachable as the company’s other bikes, but with a slightly discounted sticker price.For years, Tern’s GSD and HSD models have delighted customers looking for powerful, high-performance e-bikes with plenty of cargo space. Now, the company is introducing a slightly smaller model for city-dwelling customers who care as much about parking and storage as they do about hauling kids or groceries.Another major selling point is the starting price. The Quick Haul lineup comes in two models: the D8, a Class 1 e-bike with a top speed of 20mph, which starts at $2,999; and the P9, a Class 3 bike with a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo “strongly believes” that the upcoming MacBook Air redesign will feature an M1 chip, instead of the widely expected “M2” upgrade. Kuo made the comment to 9to5Mac following a tweet where he predicted an “all-new” design for the laptop with more color options and no Mini LED display.The redesigned MacBook Air had previously been reported to have an M2 chip by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple can of course decide its own nomenclature for its chips based on marketing reasons, but if the M1 naming scheme follows the A-series chips in iPhones and iPads, the next number up would denote an upgrade in the CPU design. The M1 chips, including the M1 Pro, Max, and the just-announced Ultra, all use... Continue reading…

F-Zero X is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack library on Friday March 11th. The futuristic racing game now comes complete with online multiplayer, which of course was not included with the original version on the Nintendo 64.The sequel to popular SNES racer F-Zero, F-Zero X was released in 1998. It wasn’t the most visually lavish game even by N64 standards, but that was by design. Nintendo’s focus was making sure that the fast-paced game could run at 60 frames per second with 30 racers on the track, which was a technical achievement at the time.F-Zero X will be the thirteenth N64 game to be added to the $49.99-a-year Expansion Pack tier of Nintendo Switch Online. Last month saw the release of The Legend of Zelda:... Continue reading…

The pressure isn’t just at the pump. | Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge As US gas prices hit record highs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems like electric vehicles may not be a safe haven for those looking to save money. That’s because Russia plays an important part in the production of the nickel that ends up in batteries used by many electric vehicles — a metal that’s rocketed up in price even faster than oil.On February 25th, nickel was trading on the London Metal Exchange for around $24,000 a ton, according to The Wall Street Journal. By March 8th, it was trading at $80,000 (down from a peak of over $100,000), and the London Metal Exchange had suspended trading. There are a few reasons for the massive uptick in price — because it’s 2022, there are financial shenanigans involved, but... Continue reading…

Apple launched a new Magic Mouse today, March 8th, 2022. It’s a slick-looking black version. It also still has its charging port on the bottom — meaning that six and a half years after its introduction, Apple still seems to think that the best way to charge the mouse is by flipping it over (rendering it useless) and plugging in a Lightning cable.Here’s a little secret: I copied and pasted most of that last sentence from an article I wrote about this exact issue nearly a year ago, when Apple introduced a whole line of colorful Magic Mice and had the opportunity to change how they charge, but didn’t. Apple has kept this charge-on-the-bottom design since October 2015.“Like a beetle with its legs in the air”My former Verge colleague Nick... Continue reading…

Alex Castro / The Verge If you can’t connect to Spotify or Discord, then no, it’s not just you or your internet connection. Both services acknowledged problems on Tuesday afternoon. However, this time, the culprit doesn’t appear to be any kind of massive DNS or Amazon Web Services (AWS) problem. Sure, Apple’s event servers are still operational, and we haven’t lost access to security cameras or robot vacuums, but the coincidence is still unusual.According to Discord, after restarting its streaming service to fix one problem, a new issue caused a failure of its API, and as of about 30 minutes ago, they were still investigating. The Spotify Status account tweeted at 1:22PM ET that “we’re looking into it” but didn’t offer any other details about what’s going on.A... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is working on a tool that should let you “archive” certain apps to help free up space on your device. In a blog post, Google explains any app with the feature will let you partially uninstall it, shrinking the app down by about 60 percent without removing it completely.Archived APKs are much smaller and “preserve user data until the app is restored”It does this by creating a new type of APK (Android Package) — otherwise known as the guts that make an app functional on your device — that it calls archived APKs. As Google points out, archived APKs are much smaller and save all your data until you restore it, bringing it back to its original size. The feature will become available to developers with the Bundletool 1.10 release, but... Continue reading…

Find out how the new Mac Studio stacks up Lining up with many of the last-minute rumors, Apple’s Peek Performance event revealed that we’ll have a new compact Mac machine to look forward to. As you might expect, the new Mac Studio can be equipped with either the M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra CPU. In addition to a new processor, the Mac Studio boasts an impressive number of connectivity options.The Mac Studio bears a striking resemblance to the 2020 version of the Mac Mini. According to our review by Chris Welch, this model of the Mac Mini offered an “appealing price for the power it offers.” And thanks in part to the M1 CPU, provided “blazing performance.”On the other end of the spectrum is the Apple Mac Pro, which debuted in 2019 and was reviewed by The Verge’s own Nilay Patel.... Continue reading…

The new iPhone SE for 2022 maintains the longstanding home button with Touch ID. | Image: Apple Now that the dust has settled from Apple’s “Peek Performance” event, we know that the latest entry in the iPhone lineup is the iPhone SE (2022). It’s a new iteration of the budget model from 2020, and it’s set to launch March 18th with preorders opening on March 11th. This new iPhone SE rounds out the entry-level offering from Apple, coming in at a slightly higher price of $429 (an increase of $30) and equipped with the latest A15 Bionic CPU, 5G compatibility, a slightly larger battery, and more durable glass on the front and rear.There’s a lot to like in the 2022 iPhone SE — especially if you love a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and home button — even if it still has a dated design with a smaller 4.7-inch screen and big bezels. So how... Continue reading…

Exhaust rises from a chimney of the Heizkraftwerk Lichterfelde natural gas-fired power and heating plant stands on November 03, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. | Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images The European Union announced new plans today to swiftly shrink its reliance on Russian gas and accelerate its transition to clean energy. Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and continued threats to further squeeze Europe’s gas and oil supplies have made clean energy an even more critical priority.“It is time we tackle our vulnerabilities and rapidly become more independent in our energy choices. Let’s dash into renewable energy at lightning speed,” European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a March 8th statement.Over the next year, the European Commission says it can drastically cut its gas use by changing how it heats homes and powers buildings. Russian gas accounted for nearly half of the bloc’s gas... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is launching a version of its site as a Tor onion service, optimizing it for the privacy-protecting and censorship-evading network. Software engineer Alec Muffett announced the news today on Twitter, describing it as “possibly the most important and long-awaited tweet that I’ve ever composed.” The Tor network has also been added to Twitter’s supported browsers page.Twitter’s onion service is available at https://twitter3e4tixl4xyajtrzo62zg5vztmjuricljdp2c5kshju4avyoid.onion while using Tor Browser or a similar tool. While you could already access Twitter’s ordinary website via Tor, the newly launched version adds more layers of protection to the already anonymized browsing experience and is designed specifically for the network.... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple just introduced the third-generation iPhone SE, and it has some nice improvements, including support for sub-6GHz 5G and an A15 processor. But Apple is also claiming it has longer battery life, and it seems that’s in part because the phone has a physically larger battery — a fact about the new iPhone SE that the company confirmed on background in a group briefing with reporters.Apple hasn’t shared the battery capacity, so we’ll have to wait for teardowns to see exactly how much juice it has. But comparing the new SE’s tech specs page with the old one, Apple is promising some decent improvements.For the third-generation SE, Apple is promising up to 15 hours of video playback, up to 10 hours of streaming video playback, and up to... Continue reading…

Better.com As if things couldn’t get more ridiculous at the online mortgage lender Better.com, where 900 people were laid off over a Zoom call this past December, the company reportedly issued another wave of layoffs by inadvertently notifying employees via its payroll app, as first reported by TechCrunch.According to TechCrunch, the company was supposed to announce this round of layoffs on March 8th but later pushed it back to March 9th after news of the original date got out. Better apparently forgot to change the date on its accompanying Workday app, though — unsuspecting employees reportedly saw severance checks appear in the app at 12AM on March 8th.Better CEO and co-founder Vishal Garg was criticized for firing hundreds of employees over a... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has just finished its Peek Performance event, where it introduced a new version of the iPhone SE with its latest mobile processor and 5G, a new desktop Mac aimed at creative professionals, and an external monitor that doesn’t have a $5,000 starting price (finally). If you’re looking for a quick round-up, here are the biggest announcements Apple made in its hour-long presentation. Image: Apple Apple now has four chips in its M1 lineup. Apple M1 UltraApple announced a new addition to its Apple Silicon lineup, with the M1 Ultra. The TL;DR is that it’s basically two M1 Max chips put together, supporting up to 128GB of RAM. Apple says it’s eight times faster than the standard M1 chip. The M1 Ultra will be... Continue reading…

Both the Mac Studio and the Mac Studio Display begin shipping on Friday, March 18th. | Image: Apple Following a host of late-breaking rumors, Apple officially announced a new Mac during its “Peek Performance” event today, adding another machine to its expanding desktop lineup. Each configuration of the Mac Studio, as it’s called, will feature either Apple’s M1 Max or its new M1 Ultra processor and will start at $1,999 and $3,999, respectively. Apple also introduced the forthcoming Studio Display, a new monitor designed as a companion to its new desktop machine, one that starts at $1,599. Both devices are available for preorder starting today and will begin shipping on March 18th.If you’re looking to preorder the Mac Studio or the monitor ahead of our reviews, we’ve compiled a list of retailers currently offering the new devices.Where... Continue reading…

The Magic Trackpad, dragonglass edition. | Image: Apple Apple announced a new Mac and monitor at its Peek Performance event, but let’s talk about what we were all really hoping for in our heart of hearts: a black version of the Magic Trackpad. Please hold your applause, and let the darkness consume you.It’s been a second since the company has sold a dark version of the trackpad separately. The space grey (which was decidedly lighter than the version on Apple’s store now) version was discontinued early last year. The black and silver version was available — if you bought a Mac Pro. In fact, the Mac Pro product page still says that the “matching trackpad can only be purchased with your Mac Pro” at time of writing. But nobody would do that just to get a black trackpad. (Please do not tell me... Continue reading…

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Apple has finally discontinued the 27-inch iMac. Minutes after Apple’s Peek Performance event wrapped, the last of the Intel iMacs disappeared from its online store.It’s not as if this news is surprising. Ever since Apple announced it was switching to its own chips, the Intel iMac’s days were numbered. That said, the 27-inch iMac was still available after last spring’s Spring Loaded event, which introduced the 24-inch M1 iMac. It made sense. At the time, there wasn’t really another option for people who wanted a larger desktop screen that wasn’t the ludicrously expensive Pro XDR Display.There’s also less of a reason to keep the 27-inch iMac around now that the Studio Display has arrived. The Studio Display adds 5K on a 27-inch... Continue reading…

Apple’s new Mac Studio has officially arrived on the scene as the most powerful computer powered by its in-house Apple silicon chips yet — including the new M1 Ultra processor the company announced alongside the new desktop computer. But the Mac Studio’s power doesn’t come cheap: while it starts at $1,999 for the entry model (powered by an M1 Max chip) and $3,999 for the cheapest M1 Ultra version, getting a fully specced-out machine will set you back an eye-watering $7,999.You’re getting some serious bang for your buck, at least (which it had better, given that it costs more than a 2011 Honda Accord): an M1 Ultra processor with the full 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU configuration (instead of the 48-core GPU on the “base” M1 Ultra), 128GB... Continue reading…

Apple has just announced its new Studio Display, a 27-inch 5K Retina display with a built-in webcam. While it isn’t quite as high-end as Apple’s Pro Display XDR, the Studio Display has one big advantage over it: for the $1,599 you’ll pay for the monitor, you’ll also get an included stand.The lack of a stand was one of the biggest criticisms of Apple’s $4,999 (starting price) 6K Pro Display XDR when it was announced in 2019 — and perhaps more outrageous was that Apple’s official stand accessory cost an eye-watering $999. Fortunately, Apple isn’t forcing you to pay that kind of premium to be able to stand the Studio Display on your desk.That said, the base-level stand with the Studio Display only lets you tilt its angle. If you want to... Continue reading…

Image: Instagram Instagram has introduced new tagging options that can display more detail about a person to help credit collaborators. Enhanced tags will show the roles of collaborators — like photographers, artists, writers and others — who work on content but aren’t always immediately visible unless mentioned by a post’s creator.In announcing the updated tagging options, the company acknowledged that many collaborators’ work goes into creating the content users see on the app.“For many Black and underrepresented creators, crediting is an entryway to building a sustainable career as a creator, while combating cultural appropriation and ensuring the world knows who is driving culture,” Instagram says in its announcement.Instagram suggests the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s rolling out its highly anticipated iOS 15.4 update next week. The update, which has been in beta since January, comes packed with an array of exciting new features offering improvements to the overall user experience.iOS 15.4 introduces a mask-friendly Face IDApple doesn’t pinpoint an exact release date, but it may become available as an update starting on March 18th. This is the same day Apple’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro with sleek green finishes become available. As noted on the press release, each phone will ship with iOS 15.4, so it would only make sense to launch the update on the same day.iOS 15.4 brings a mask-friendly Face ID that makes it possible to unlock your phone while wearing a face mask, a feature that... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple just announced a new external display during its “Peek Performance” event. The Studio Display is designed to be the ideal companion for the company’s Mac lineup — including the brand new Mac Studio desktop powered by the M1 Ultra chip. With a starting price of $1,599, this is Apple’s first monitor targeted at prosumers in many years.The Studio Display has a 27-inch, 5K screen encased in an aluminum enclosure. The display can reach up to 600 nits of brightness, supports P3 wide color, and also works with macOS’s TrueTone feature. Its specs are quite similar to the panel from the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac, though brightness topped out at a lower 500 nits on the iMac. Above the Studio Display’s screen is a 12-megapixel ultrawide... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has announced the Mac Studio, a desktop system that looks like the Mac Mini on the outside but packs a lot more power on the inside. The Mac Studio features both Apple’s M1 Max chip and a new, even more powerful processor, the M1 Ultra. It looks a bit similar to the Mac Mini, but Apple claims that the new device will be faster than even its top-of-the-line Mac Pro. Image: Apple Not as huge as the Mac Pro. The chassis is 3.7 inches tall; Apple claims it “fits perfectly under most displays” and will remain quiet under heavy workloads. The rear includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI, and an audio jack. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. The front... Continue reading…

An indie developer-led initiative to raise money for charities providing relief in Ukraine has already raised over $1 million in a little over 16 hours. Over 700 creators on itch.io put together the Bundle for Ukraine, a collection of over 900 indie games and more with all proceeds going to charities providing relief assistance in the country.

The next generation of Apple Silicon chips has arrived with the announcement of the company’s new M1 Ultra SoC (system on a chip), the latest entry to Apple’s M1 chipset lineup that’s even more powerful than the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips its released so far.The key to the M1 Ultra is the Apple’s UltraFusion architecture — effectively, Apple is fusing together two separate M1 Max chips into a single, massive SoC, thanks to the 2.5TB/s inter-processor connection that the M1 Max offers. That design lets Apple double virtually all the specs from its M1 Max chip on the M1 Ultra: 20 CPU cores (16 performance and four efficiency), 64 GPU cores, a 32-core Neural Engine for AI processing, and up to 128GB of RAM. All told, Apple says that the... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has announced an update to the iPad Air a year and a half after it gave the tablet an iPad Pro-style redesign. Much of that redesign is still intact, but the new iPad Air model has been updated with a faster M1 processor, first seen in Apple’s Macs. It also supports 5G, and the USB-C port is up to twice as fast with 10Gbps of data transfer speeds.It’ll be available starting at $599 for the Wi-Fi only model, rising to $749 for the Wi-Fi and Cellular version. It’ll come with 64GB or 256GB of storage, and available colors include gray, pink, purple, blue, and a silver/gold cross Apple is calling “starlight.” Pre-orders open this Friday, and the tablet will be on sale from March 18th.Apple says the iPad Air’s M1 processor, which was... Continue reading…

Instagram’s label for Russian state media. | Meta Instagram has started hiding follower information for private accounts in Russia and Ukraine, the latest response by the social app to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops.In a corporate blog post on Tuesday, Instagram parent company Meta said it was “hiding information about people’s followers, who they’re following, and people who are following each other for private accounts based in these two countries.” It also confirmed the rollout of labels people will see when sharing links to Russian state media, and that Instagram was demoting such media in its main feed and Stories tray. In addition, media under the control of the Russian government isn’t being recommended in Instagram’s Explore section or in Reels, its TikTok... Continue reading…

Image: Rockstar Games The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S versions of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online will be released on March 15th, and from now until June 14th, you can snag them at a big discount. It seems like the next-gen versions will offer some nice upgrades, including graphical improvements and better loading times, so they could be a good buy if you have wanted to jump back in or experience the games for the first time.Here’s how the pricing shakes out, and if you preorder the games, they’ll begin preloading on your console. If you’re lucky enough to have snagged a hard-to-find PS5, that platform has the better deals.

Image: Apple Peek inside Continue reading…