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XR stands for extended reality," which you should get used to explaining to lots of people. | Image: Google Google is taking another run at making headsets work. The company just announced Android XR, a new operating system designed specifically for what Google calls extended reality" devices like headsets and glasses. It's working with Samsung and lots of other hardware manufacturers to develop those headsets and glasses, is making the new version of Android available to developers now, and hopes to start shipping XR stuff next year.We don't yet have a ton of details on exactly how Android XR will work or how it might differ from the Android on your phone. (The Verge's Victoria Song got to try a few demos and prototypes - make sure you read her story.) Google is making immersive XR versions of apps like Maps, Photos, and YouTube and says it's developing a version of Chrome that lets you do multiwindow multitasking in your browser. It will also support existing phone and tablet apps from the Play Store, much in the same way Apple supports iPad apps in the Vision Pro.Google's Gemini AI, of course, is at the very center of the whole experience. Google has been trying to crack headsets for more than a decade - there was Glass and Cardboard and Daydream, all of which had good ideas but none of which turned into much - and the company thinks AI is the key to making the user experience work. We believe a digital assistant integrated with your XR experience is the killer app for the form factor, like what email or texting was for the smartphone," said Sameer Samat, who oversees the Android ecosystem at Google, in a press briefing ahead of the launch. As Gemini becomes more multimodal, too, able to both capture and create audio and video, glasses and headsets suddenly make much more sense. Image: Google This is the kind of AR interface you'll get with Android XR. The choice of the term XR" for the OS is maybe the most interesting part. There are a million terms and acronyms for this space: there's virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, extended reality, and others, all of which mean different but overlapping things. XR is probably the broadest of the terms, which seems to be why Google picked it. When we say extended reality or XR," Samat said, we're really talking about a whole spectrum of experiences, from virtual reality to augmented reality and everything in between."Google imagines headsets that can seamlessly transition from virtual worlds to real ones - again like the Vision Pro - and smart glasses that are more of an always-on companion. It's also interested in audio-only devices like the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. Some things might be standalone; others might be more like an accessory to your phone. We'll see if Google ends up building its own XR hardware, but it's clearly trying to support a huge spectrum of devices.Android XR is still in its early stages, and most developers are only now going to start getting the software and hardware they need to build for the new OS. But Google's trying to move quickly next year: a device it's building with Samsung, codenamed Moohan, is apparently slated to ship next year. Android XR is, in some ways, a culmination of bets Google has been making in AI, the broader Android ecosystem, and the wearable future of technology. All of those bets are about to get the real test: whether anyone actually puts them on.

Google didn't let me take my own photos, but this is strikingly similar to the demo I saw with my own eyes. | Image: Google I demoed Google's new Android XR platform, Samsung's Project Moohan, and prototype smart glasses. I felt as close to Tony Stark in a controlled demo as I'll ever be. It's an ordinary Tuesday. I'm wearing what look like ordinary glasses in a room surrounded by Google and Samsung representatives. One of them steps out in front of me and starts speaking in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. Hovering in mid-air, I can see her words being translated into English subtitles. Reading them, I can see she's describing what I'm seeing in real time.I mumble an expletive. Everyone laughs.This is my first experience with Android XR - a new mixed reality OS designed for headsets and smart glasses, like the prototypes I'm wearing. It's Google's big bet to power a new generation of augmented reality devices that embody all our wildest dreams of what smart glasses can be.Google is no stranger to augmented reality. Google Glass crashed and burned with the public more than 10 years ago before being repurposed for enterprise users and eventually discontinued. But things are different now. Apple has the Vision Pro. Meta has the Ray-Ban smart glasses, and their AI features have garnered positive buzz. That's why Google is jumping back into the fray with Android XR.Google wants everyone to know the time is finally right for XR, and it's pointing to Gemini as its north star. Adding Gemini enables multimodal AI and natural language - things it says will make interactions with your environment richer. In a demo, Google had me prompt Gemini to name the title of a yellow book sitting behind me on a shelf. I'd briefly glanced at it earlier but hadn't taken a photo. Gemini took a second, and then offered up an answer. I whipped around to check - it was correct.On top of that, the platform will work with any mobile and tablet app from the Play Store out of the box. Today's launch is aimed at developers so they can start building out experiences. The average person won't be able to buy anything running Android XR right now, but in 2025, Samsung will be launching its long-rumored XR headset. Dubbed Project Moohan (Korean for infinity), the headset will be the first consumer product to ship with Android XR. Technically, it's running the same software as the glasses I tried, but Project Moohan will also be capable of VR and immersive content - stuff that wouldn't be suited to a pair of smart glasses. It's essentially a showcase for everything that could be possible. Hence why Google is going with XR - a catch-all term that stands for extended reality" and encompasses AR, VR, and mixed reality. Image: Google, Samsung Project Moohan felt like a mix between a Meta Quest 3 and Vision Pro headset. Samsung's headset feels like a mix between a Meta Quest 3 and the Vision Pro. Unlike either, the light seal is optional so you can choose to let the world bleed in. It's lightweight and doesn't pinch my face too tightly. My ponytail easily slots through the top, and later, I'm thankful that I don't have to redo my hair. At first, the resolution doesn't feel quite as sharp as the Vision Pro - until the headset automatically calibrates to my pupillary distance.It's at this point when I start feeling deja vu. I'm walked through pinching to select items and how to tap the side to bring up the app launcher. There's an eye calibration process that feels awfully similar to the Vision Pro's. If I want, I can retreat into an immersive mode to watch YouTube and Google TV on a distant mountain. I can open apps, resize them, and place them at various points around the room. I've done this all before. This just happens to be Google-flavored.I want to ask: how do you expect to stand out?I don't get the chance to before I'm told: Gemini.For the skeptic, it's easy to scoff at the idea that Gemini, of all things, is what's going to crack the augmented reality puzzle. Generative AI is having a moment right now, but not always in a positive way. Outside of conferences filled with tech evangelists, AI is often viewed with derision and suspicion. But inside the Project Moohan headset or wearing a pair of prototype smart glasses? I can catch a glimpse of why Google and Samsung believe Gemini is the killer app for XR.For me, it's the fact that I don't have to be specific when I ask for things. Usually, I get flustered talking to AI assistants because I have to remember the wake word, clearly phrase my request, and sometimes even specify my preferred app.One thing I'm really confident about, something that's not just different from before, is that Gemini is really that great," says Kihwan Kim, EVP at Samsung Electronics, who nods furiously in agreement when I mention this. To Kim, it's the ability to fluidly speak to Gemini and the fact that it understands a person's individual context that opens dozens of different options for the way each person interacts with XR. That's why I clearly see that this headset will give more insight about what [XR] should be."I was shocked at how well my translation demos went, which were in the same spirit as the video here.In the Moohan headset, I can say, Take me to JYP Entertainment in Seoul," and it will automatically open Google Maps and show me that building. If my windows get cluttered, I can ask it to reorganize them. I don't have to lift a finger. While wearing the prototype glasses, I watch and listen as Gemini summarizes a long, rambling text message to the main point: can you buy lemon, ginger, and olive oil from the store? I was able to naturally switch from speaking in English to asking in Japanese what the weather is in New York - and get the answer in spoken and written Japanese.It's not just interactions with Gemini that linger in my mind, either. It's also how experiences can be built on top of them. I asked Gemini how to get somewhere and saw turn-by-turn text directions. When I looked down, the text morphed into a zoomable map of my surroundings. It's very easy to imagine myself using something like that in real life.But as cool as all that is, headsets can be a hard sell to the average person. Personally, I'm more enamored with the glasses demo, but those have no concrete timeline. (Google made the prototypes, but it's focusing on working with other partners to bring hardware to market.) There are still cultural cues that have to be established with either form factor. Outside of Gemini, there has to be a robust ecosystem of apps and experiences for the average person, not just early adopters.The headset demos felt more familiar, though Circle to Search was unique to Android XR.It's not going to be a singular product. It's Android," says Shahram Izadi, Google's VP of AR and XR, noting that Google has a three-pronged strategy for Android XR: laying the groundwork with devs is one element; Gemini's conversational experience is another; and the third is the idea that no one device is the future of XR. Headsets, for example, may just be episodic" devices you use for entertainment. Glasses could supplement phones and smartwatches for discreet notifications and looking up information.The way I see it, these devices don't replace one another. You'll use these devices throughout your day, and if there's consistency with Gemini and generative AI experiences across these form factors, people will get more comfortable with wearing computers on their faces. That's the on ramp to get to more immersive devices," says Izadi.Listening to Kim and Izadi talk, I want to believe. But I'm also acutely aware that all of my experiences were tightly controlled. I wasn't given free rein to try and break things. I couldn't take photos of the headset or glasses. At every point, I was carefully guided through preapproved demos that Google and Samsung were reasonably sure would work. I - and every other consumer - can't fully believe until we can play with these things without guardrails.But even knowing that, I can't deny that, for an hour, I felt like Tony Stark with Gemini as my Jarvis. For better or worse, this example has molded so much of our expectations for how XR and AI assistants should work. I've tried dozens of headsets and smart glasses that promised to make what I see in the movies real - and utterly failed. For the first time, I experienced something relatively close.

Image: Cath Virginia, Adobe Stock The Indian storytelling app gives its audience an unending stream of audio stories about lucky individuals who become rich. It might as well be an allegory for its own creator economy. Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Hyundai and Kia will integrate Google Maps data into their current vehicle infotainment platforms ahead of a switchover to the Android Automotive operating system, the automakers announced today.Hyundai, Kia, and the luxury nameplate Genesis will use Google Maps Platform's Places API to inject 250 million points of interest into the existing navigation software. Kia will be the first to get the new data integration in North America, with subsequent expansions" to other Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models globally. Hyundai says the changes are part of an ongoing Google partnership that accelerates their development of what the automaker calls software-defined vehicles," or SDV.We asked Hyundai if current models on the road will get Google Maps data through a software update and will update this story when we get a response. The current navigation app for the companies primarily uses points of interest data from digital mapping company TomTom. Tesla is also one of several automakers that has its own navigation software on a closed OS but uses Places API for mapping data.However, Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis will soon follow the industry-wide trend of moving to Google's Android... Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge I maintain that YouTube TV is the very best of the streaming TV services, but good grief is it getting expensive. Today YouTube announced the service's latest price hike, which brings the monthly subscription to $82.99. The change is effective immediately for new customers and will be reflected starting January 13th for most existing customers." As usual, the company attributes this increase to the rising cost of content and the investments we make in the quality of our service."$82.99 is the same price as Disney's Hulu + Live TV bundle.YouTube TV last raised its subscription cost to $72.99 in March 2023. Before that, it was $64.99. The days when the service ran only $50 now feel like a lifetime ago. Some of you who got in early might even remember it costing a mere $35 per month.But since then, YouTube has routinely found itself in carriage disputes with Disney, NBCUniversal, and other content owners, and those renegotiated agreements have led YouTube TV's price to climb higher and higher. The YouTube TV of today is much different than it used to be; there are more channels, yes, but the service has also shed a number of regional sports networks.The company is quick to note that none of the service's core benefits are changing. The base subscription still includes over 100 channels, cloud DVR with unlimited storage, up to six user accounts per household, and the flexibility of three concurrent streams. But YouTube TV still charges extra for 4K streaming, which seems harder to rationalize after this $10 price bump.Customers are predictably none too pleased about the news and are weighing whether a service that now costs more than double its original price is still worth it.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge In an announcement today, Chatbot service Character.AI says it will soon be launching parental controls for teenage users, and it described safety measures it's taken in the past few months, including a separate large language model (LLM) for users under 18. The announcement comes after press scrutiny and two lawsuits that claim it contributed to self-harm and suicide.In a press release, Character.AI said that, over the past month, it's developed two separate versions of its model: one for adults and one for teens. The teen LLM is designed to place more conservative" limits on how bots can respond, particularly when it comes to romantic content." This includes more aggressively blocking output that could be sensitive or suggestive," but also attempting to better detect and block user prompts that are meant to elicit inappropriate content. If the system detects language referencing suicide or self-harm," a pop-up will direct users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a change that was previously reported by The New York Times.Minors will also be prevented from editing bots' responses - an option that lets users rewrite conversations to add content Character.AI might otherwise block.Beyond these changes, Character.AI says it's in the process" of adding features that address concerns about addiction and confusion over whether the bots are human, complaints made in the lawsuits. A notification will appear when users have spent an hour-long session with the bots, and an old disclaimer that everything characters say is made up" is being replaced with more detailed language. For bots that include descriptions like therapist" or doctor," an additional note will warn that they can't offer professional advice. Character.AI Narrator: it was not a licensed CBT therapist. When I visited Character.AI, I found that every bot now included a small note reading This is an A.I. chatbot and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction. What is said should not be relied upon as fact or advice." When I visited a bot named Therapist" (tagline: I'm a licensed CBT therapist"), a yellow box with a warning signal told me that this is not a real person or licensed professional. Nothing said here is a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment."The parental control options are coming in the first quarter of next year, Character.AI says, and they'll tell parents how much time a child is spending on Character.AI and which bots they interact with most frequently. All the changes are being made in collaboration with several teen online safety experts," including the organization ConnectSafely.Character.AI, founded by ex-Googlers who have since returned to Google, lets visitors interact with bots built on a custom-trained LLM and customized by users. These range from chatbot life coaches to simulations of fictional characters, many of which are popular among teens. The site allows users who identify themselves as age 13 and over to create an account.But the lawsuits allege that while some interactions with Character.AI are harmless, at least some underage users become compulsively attached to the bots, whose conversations can veer into sexualized conversations or topics like self-harm. They've castigated Character.AI for not directing users to mental health resources when they discuss self-harm or suicide.We recognize that our approach to safety must evolve alongside the technology that drives our product - creating a platform where creativity and exploration can thrive without compromising safety," says the Character.AI press release. This suite of changes is part of our long-term commitment to continuously improve our policies and our product."

Apple's new Share Item Location is already integrated into the latest version of United Airlines' mobile app. | Image: United Airlines Following the official release of Apple's new Share Item Location feature with iOS 18.2 yesterday, United Airlines has announced it has integrated it into its mobile app. Passengers finding themselves at their destination without their luggage can now file a delayed baggage report through United's app along with a Share Item Location link that will potentially expedite a reunion.Passengers will need to ensure the United mobile app is up to date, but once a report has been submitted with a Share Item Location link connected to an AirTag or a tracker that's compatible with Apple's Find My network, customer service agents will be able to determine its current or last known location using an interactive map, according to United Airlines. Having access to the Find My network data for a missing bag will allow the airline to more quickly find delayed bags and reunite them with customers." Image: United Airlines Sharing a lost bag's location through United's mobile app will potentially expedite its return. You don't actually need the app to take advantage of the new integration. After filing a delayed baggage report either in person at an airport, over the phone, or through United's website, passengers will receive an automatic text notification with information to track misplaced luggage and add a Share Item Location link for their AirTag or Find My network accessory."Once a passenger is reunited with a missing bag its shared location will be disabled automatically. The location sharing can also be manually stopped by the passenger at any time, and for added security and privacy the link will automatically expire after seven days - hopefully long after the luggage is located and returned.Apple says that Air Canada has also integrated the feature, and in the coming months more than 15 airlines will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed bags."

Plant identification - now powered by ChatGPT. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge I was about to okay my friend's restaurant suggestion for lunch - an Indian place on 2nd - when Apple Intelligence swooped in with another idea. How about The Ritz?" appeared above the keyboard as a suggested response, highlighted in that telltale AI rainbow glow. The other suggested response, Sounds good!" was much more reasonable. But ignoring both, I typed out my affirmative answer, hopped on my bike, and headed to downtown Seattle, where there are, to my knowledge, zero Ritzes.Suggested replies aren't new in iOS 18.2, but they're a piece of the Apple Intelligence feature set that's falling into place with this week's public release of 18.2. Those suggestions I got while planning lunch kind of sum up my whole experience with Apple's AI up 'til now: occasionally helpful, sometimes way off base, and often good for a laugh. But once the novelty wears off, it's easily ignored - just like the AI feature sets on every other so-called AI smartphone I've used this year.Apple had to get something out the door for its built for Apple Intelligence" iPhonesApple took its time getting here. The first set of AI features dropped with iOS 18.1 at the end of October, including... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Epic Games A year ago, Epic kicked off a bold plan to turn Fortnite into a broader ecosystem for all kinds of games. And that plan was led by the launch of Lego Fortnite, a Minecraft-style survival game that sits alongside the likes of battle royale and the music-themed Fortnite Festival inside of Fortnite. Now, Epic is pushing into another new direction with the launch of Brick Life, a Lego-themed city where players can live virtual lives, much like in Grand Theft Auto roleplaying servers.The ongoing goal, according to Devin Winterbottom, Epic's executive vice president of game development, is to keep expanding in ways that make people rethink what Fortnite actually is. The worst outcome for us is that everything looks like battle royale," Winterbottom says. That's not what we want to do."For Brick Life, that takes the form of a family-friendly nonviolent space where players can explore and socialize inside of a Lego city. It launches today as part of a broader rebranding of Lego Fortnite; now, those two words refer to a hub that houses all of the Lego experiences in the game, while the survival title has been renamed Lego Fortnite Odyssey. In between those two major releases, Lego... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Archer Electric aviation startup Archer Aviation signed an exclusive deal with Palmer Luckey's defense contractor, Anduril Industries, to jointly develop next-generation aircraft for the military. Archer also announced a new funding round of $450 million to help propel its defense ambitions.The first product will be a hybrid propulsion vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that will serve as the basis for the companies' bid for a contract with the US Department of Defense. Archer is also formalizing its efforts to be an aircraft supplier to the military through the creation of a new internal division called Archer Defense.While Archer has been racing to finalize the government certification process that it will need to get the necessary government approvals for its electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft, it's also getting more deeply involved with the military-industrial complex. The San Jose, California-based company also recently delivered one of its Midnight eVTOL aircraft to the US Air Force as part of its evaluation program. Other advanced aviation companies have made similar moves.The first product will be a hybrid propulsion vertical takeoff and landing aircraftArcher also announced it will be the recipient of a fresh capital round, with $430 million coming from preexisting investors such as Stellantis and United Airlines as well as new funders like Wellington Management and Abu Dhabi investment holding company 2PointZero, a subsidiary of the United Arab Emirates' largest listed entity, IHC. Archer says it has raised a total of $2 billion to date.Archer came out of stealth in spring 2020 after having poached key talent from Wisk (formerly Kitty Hawk) and Airbus' Vahana project. (Wisk later sued for alleged trade secret theft, which was finally settled last year.) The company has a $1 billion order from United Airlines for its aircraft and a deal to mass-produce its eVTOL craft with global automaker Stellantis. Alongside Archer, other eVTOL companies hope to eventually win full Federal Aviation Administration approval. That got a boost recently when the agency published highly anticipated final regulations for eVTOL vehicles that it says will chart the path for the air travel of the future." Archer praised the FAA for providing clear direction on what is required for the safe operation of eVTOL aircraft in the U.S."Air taxis, sometimes misidentified by the mainstream media as flying cars," are essentially helicopters without the noisy, polluting gas motors (though they certainly have their own unique noise profile). In addition to Archer, companies like Joby Aviation, Volocopter, and Beta Technologies have claimed they are on the cusp of launching services that will eventually scale up nationwide. But others have floundered; German company Lilium recently said that two of its subsidiaries were insolvent and could cease operations.Meanwhile, Anduril is a military technology company, founded by Oculus creator Luckey, that makes surveillance and reconnaissance tech as well as military drones. The company recently teamed up with OpenAI to integrate the ChatGPT maker's software into Anduril's counterdrone systems.

The Pokemon Company If you've been playing Pokemon TCG Pocket since launch, you've probably already collected most of the cards from the game's first expansion. But a new set is about to debut in just a few days.Today, The Pokemon Company announced that Mythical Island, a new expansion set featuring the pokemon Mew, is coming to Pokemon TCG Pocket on December 17th. A trailer for the expansion reveals a handful of new Pokemon cards coming to the game for the first time like Purrloin, Serperior, and Marshadow. Previously, the only way to obtain a Mew card was by collecting cards featuring each of the 150 original pokemon from the Kantonian Pokedex, but it should be much easier to snag the new Mew EX card simply by ripping a few packs.The Pokemon Company also announced that TCG Pocket has exceeded 60 million iOS and Android downloads since the game launched at the end of October. The ability to actually trade cards with other people hasn't come to the game just yet, but it's going to be very useful given that there's a bunch of fresh cards on the way.

Image: Voicemod Voicemod has released a hardware solution that enables its popular soundboard and voice-changing desktop software to work on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles. The Voicemod Key dongle is now available in the US after initially being teased in July, with Voicemod planning to launch it in additional countries soon."Universal voice changers have previously been limited to desktop PCs and Macs, with software limitations preventing Voicemod from building an app for consoles. The Voicemod Key serves as a workaround - it sports a USB-C connection that plugs into a tablet or smartphone (including older iPhones thanks to an included lightning adapter), and two audio jacks that connect to your console and a wired gaming headset. The Voicemod mobile app can then be used to access the platform's soundboard and real-time voice-changing features in console chats. Image: Voicemod Here's an example of how the setup works - it's worth noting that Voicemod Key will only work with wired headsets. The Voicemod Key is supported on iOS 16 and Android 8.1 or higher. Availability is restricted to paid Voicemod subscribers, and the Key price will depend on your... Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration: The Verge Valve is testing an option in the new Steam client beta that will force games by default to only download updates when you launch them.Currently, Steam by default decides what game updates to download based on a few different things. As explained by Valve:

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Sonos will soon encourage employees on its various product teams who live near its US office locations to come in for at least two days per week, The Verge has learned. That's a notable break from the company's history, throughout which Sonos has enthusiastically supported fully remote and hybrid work. Job listings at Sonos routinely state that it's about impact, not location." Glassdoor reviews have long backed this up, with employees reporting no pressure to come into the office.But that lax stance is set to change slightly as Sonos continues its effort to right the ship following this year's app mishap and stay on track with upcoming products. It's adopting a stricter policy that will call for product employees within proximity of Santa Barbara, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco to regularly be present at those offices. The Santa Barbara location is where Sonos is headquartered. The company also currently operates international offices in Paris and the NetherlandsFlexibility has been a core tenet of how Sonos has operated since our founding. Flexibility is not going away, but like many companies, we are evaluating the impact that in-person collaboration has on the... Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is rolling out two new updates to its unknown tracker alerts feature that should make it easier for Android device owners to detect unfamiliar trackers, the company announced on Wednesday. Introduced in July 2023, the safety feature automatically sends notifications if an unwanted Bluetooth tracker is traveling with you.The first update lets Android phone owners temporarily stop sending location updates to the Find My Device network if an unknown compatible tracker is detected. Google will pause these updates for up to 24 hours, so your location will no longer be visible to whoever could be monitoring your location via the tag.Second, anybody who receives an unknown tracker alert will be able to locate the unwanted Find My Device-compatible tracker using the Find Nearby" feature. Once you've found it, Google will also offer instructions for how to physically disable the tag.Over the years, Bluetooth trackers have been increasingly misused. Domestic abusers and stalkers have, for example, used it to keep tabs on victims, with one class action lawsuit claiming AirTag stalking had contributed to multiple murders." In response, Apple and Google have made various efforts to combat stalking, including an announcement earlier this year indicating support for a new industry specification, Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers, that works on both iOS and Android.

Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images The NewsGuild of New York announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative deal with The New York Times on behalf of the Times Tech Guild. The tentative three-year contract would be the first for the guild, which was initially formed in 2021.The tentative deal follows a strike that kicked off the day before the US presidential election in November and lasted for just over a week. During the strike, the guild asked people not to play NYT games like Wordle and Connections and made a page dedicated to strike-themed versions of games to play instead. In its press release, the NewsGuild says that the site saw more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users."The guild will vote to ratify the contract on December 19th. Here are some of the highlights of the contract, from the NewsGuild's press release:

Image: Apple Apple is bringing layered recordings to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. With the new feature, you can record vocals while listening to an instrumental track out loud in iOS 18.2.Even though the microphone will technically pick up the instrumentals, Apple says the iPhone 16's A18 Pro chip allows it to isolate vocals with advanced processing and machine learning," letting Voice Memos create a separate track with just your voice. From there, you can mix the two layers, as well as edit or listen to them separately.Apple first announced this feature with the launch of the iPhone 16 Pro in September. On a support page, Apple notes that you can still listen to multitrack recordings on any device with iOS 18.2, but they won't work with devices running anything earlier. You'll have to separate the tracks for them to work on a device with an older version of Apple's operating systems.The addition of layered recordings should make Voice Memos even more useful to musicians and creators, especially since they sync to Voice Memos on Mac and iPad, letting you drop them into Logic Pro for editing.

Image: Roku Roku City, the purple-tinted cityscape screensaver that debuted in 2018, might look a little sharper and more detailed the next time you see it scrolling by. This week, Roku is increasing the screensaver's resolution to 1080p; it was still stuck at 720p until now - despite running on millions of 4K Roku TVs and 4K-capable streaming players. That's blasphemous, if you ask me, so it's nice to see some progress.The surprisingly popular, fictional skyline is also being updated with an expanded color palette" and more activity and Easter eggs that you'll spot if looking closely. Apparently there's a train station in there somewhere, so the denizens of Roku City have gained a mass transit system. Billboards will now feature a new star button that allows viewers to learn about things like original Roku content, Roku Zones, and more." (If I had to guess, the more" at the end there is probably referring to ads and sponsored content.)It took six years for us to reach full HD. So if this cadence stays on track, maybe we'll all be experiencing Roku City in native 4K by 2030.

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge For millennia, the Arctic tundra has helped stabilize global temperatures by storing carbon in the frozen ground. Wildfires have changed that, according to the latest Arctic Report Card released yesterday at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference.Fires, intensified by climate change, release carbon trapped in soil and plants. More frequent infernos have now transformed the tundra into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions. It's a dramatic shift for the Arctic, and one that will make the planet even hotter.Climate change is not bringing about a new normal. Instead, climate change is bringing ongoing and rapid change," Twila Moon, lead editor of the Arctic Report Card and deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said at the conference yesterday.Climate change is not bringing about a new normal."The Arctic's permafrost, which stays frozen year-round, has kept planet-heating carbon sequestered for thousands of years. Northern permafrost has been estimated to hold about twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere. Tundra describes the Arctic's tree-less plains, where shrubs, grasses, and mosses grow and take in carbon dioxide through... Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme is currently dealing with a cybersecurity breach that has brought down parts of its online donut ordering service in the US. The company has been working to resolve the issue for over a week now after detecting unauthorized access to its systems on November 29th.In a filing issued to the SEC on Wednesday, Krispy Kreme says it was notified regarding unauthorized activity on a portion of its information technology systems" and pulled in leading cybersecurity experts" for remediation.The event took down Krispy Kreme's consumer online ordering operations but it has not affected its commercial distribution business. However, the company says there's a material impact" on its business operations and that there will be significant financial implications stemming from the incident due to cybersecurity experts' and advisers' fees. Otherwise, Krispy Kreme says it has cybersecurity insurance and it does not expect long-term material impact on its results of operations and financial condition."Krispy Kreme did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cause of the cybersecurity incident. As speculated in a report by Bleeping Computer, the timeline may suggest the company is negotiating with possible threat actors so as not to leak internal data.

My favorite dynamic wallpaper floating in the desert. | Screenshot: Mac Virtual Display Since its release, I've mostly used Apple's Vision Pro like a movie theater. The VR headset is an amazing way to watch Dune - but beyond that, it hasn't really lived up to its potential as a general-purpose computing device.Today, that's finally starting to change. With the update to visionOS 2.2, Apple is seriously upgrading the headset's ability to work with a Mac. It's probably the closest thing the Vision Pro has to a killer app.The Vision Pro has been able to mirror the screen of a Mac since day one, but I found the original Mac Virtual Display feature limiting. Text was sharp at low resolutions, but the screen was cramped. I could get more space at higher resolutions, but the text was too small and blurry to read. Yes, I can blow it up to the size of a bus to make things readable, except then, I'm craning my head around way too much to see everything. My normal three-monitor setup lets me see the most important stuff with slight movements, but that just hasn't been possible before now. Screenshot: Mac Virtual Display options The Vision Pro now has three Mac Virtual Display options. In visionOS 2.2, the standard Mac display is now curved, and it seems sharper. It's not Retina-sharp at the highest resolutions, but I no longer have to make it gigantic to get legible text. The default virtual display becomes one of three options - Standard, Wide, and Ultrawide - once your Mac is updated to macOS 15.2, which lets it take over foveated rendering from the Vision Pro. Those two extra modes instantly made the virtual display viable for me, giving me the space I'm accustomed to in my three-monitor life.You can crank the resolution in Ultrawide all the way up to 10240 x 2880 if you'd like, but the sweet spot for me has been the Wide display's maximum 6720 x 2880 resolution, which lets me see everything I need to without constantly rotating my Vision Pro-laden head. It ends up feeling more like a real monitor and not some fantasy display that evokes Weird Al Yankovic's song Frank's 2000" TV." GIF: Mac Virtual Display in Ultrawide So much room for activities! This has made it much easier for me to relocate to another room in my house, or even outside if I wanted. I wouldn't take it to a coffee shop for a number of reasons (do I leave it behind when I go to the restroom or wear the Vision Pro in there like a maniac?), but I'd absolutely bring it on a work trip. Apple has also made it so that the audio is sent through the headset instead of your computer's speakers, as it did before.The widescreen options came in handy recently, when I strained my back in a way that made it painful to sit upright. I hate doing work on a laptop, but reclining in bed with the Vision Pro on was suddenly a real option for me.There are quirks, though. Switching between the display modes can be sluggish, and your Mac doesn't always remember what resolution you set, so if you switch from Wide to Ultrawide and back, you might find all your windows piled on top of each other. And the Keyboard Awareness feature, which shows your keyboard even if you have one of Apple's immersive environments fully turned on, works great with my Magic Keyboard but doesn't reliably show the mechanical one I prefer.Still, those are minor issues. The expanded virtual display is a critical upgrade, and if it's not in killer app territory, it's at least right next door to it. It still doesn't help the Vision Pro with its biggest issues, like that our bodies are all different and not everyone will find it comfortable to use for long stretches of time. And it doesn't make Apple's headset any less expensive.But it does help that my Vision Pro is now more than a personal movie theater. Now, it's a gigantic, high-res curved display with perfect viewing angles, too. That makes the price feel a little closer to right.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has started testing some improvements to its Phone Link app for iPhone users. Windows Insiders can now try out a new way to share a file from an iPhone to a PC and vice versa, making the experience a little more like file sharing with an Android device.Windows Insiders can download the latest Phone Link app update, version 1.24112.89.0 or higher, and it will include a new setup dialog to enable sharing files between iPhones and PCs. The sharing works by using the share sheet on iOS to send files to the Link to Windows" app, which then lets you select a Windows device to share the file with.On a Windows PC you can also share local files by right clicking on a file and selecting share and then my phone" to get a file from your PC to your iPhone. Image: Microsoft The new file sharing dialog for iPhone users. Microsoft has been gradually improving its Phone Link app for both iOS and Android in recent years, but the iOS version is still very limited thanks to Apple's OS restrictions. Last year Microsoft did manage to update Phone Link with the ability to send and receive messages via iMessage. Even this integration is limited though, only supporting sending and receiving messages to single contacts and not groups (via iMessage).You still can't use the Phone Link app to mirror phone apps onto your PC like you can with Android, and you have to have the app open for messages to be sent over iMessage as Microsoft is using a Bluetooth and system notifications workaround to read send messages.The latest file sharing update is live now for Windows Insiders and should start rolling out to all Phone Link users in the coming months.

Image: The Verge Microsoft is going to let Xbox Insiders who also subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate test the ability to stream some Xbox games they already own to their Xbox starting today. The feature could be useful if you want to jump into a game without having to install the whole thing; given how big game file sizes can be nowadays, streaming a game via the cloud might be a faster way to play or save you from hitting a data cap.Microsoft has published a list of games that support the feature on its website. There are some great games on the list, including Animal Well, Balatro, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Price of Persia: The Lost Crown.You'll be able to stream games on Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One consoles, Microsoft says, and the feature is set to come out of testing next year. The company started letting Xbox players stream select games they own on TVs and browsers last month.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge Nvidia must face an investor lawsuit claiming it misled shareholders about the impact of the cryptocurrency market on its sales after the Supreme Court dismissed the company's appeal.The court said it had improvidently granted" Nvidia's petition, meaning it decided it shouldn't have taken it up in the first place. That means the case will have to continue on in the lower courts. During oral arguments last month, some justices seemed skeptical about whether it was appropriate for them to weigh in on the case, wondering if it was more of a dispute over facts than a legal question, according to Reuters.The case stems from a pair of 2018 investor lawsuits claiming Nvidia recklessly misled investors about how closely tied its revenue growth was to cryptocurrency performance. Investors alleged that Nvidia and its top executives made materially false claims downplaying the impact of the volatile cryptocurrency market on its revenue growth, and exaggerating its ability to adapt its changes. An appeals court had allowed at least a portion of the consolidated case to move forward.In a separate case in 2022, Nvidia settled charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $5.5 million over claims it obscured how its success was linked to the volatile cryptocurrency market. The company did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.Nvidia is facing increased legal scrutiny alongside its business success. The company is reportedly facing antitrust investigations from both Chinese authorities and the US Department of Justice.We would have preferred a decision on the merits affirming the trial court's dismissal of the case, but we are fully prepared to continue our defense," Nvidia spokesperson John Rizzo says in a statement. Consistent and predictable standards in securities litigation are essential to protecting shareholders and ensuring a strong economy, and we remain committed to supporting them."

Image: The Verge Microsoft is updating the Xbox app on Windows today with hundreds of PC games that weren't previously available and a new home experience. It's part of a broader effort to make the Xbox app the place to find PC games, regardless of whether they're part of PC Game Pass or not.Earlier this summer, we began working with partners to bring all PC games with Xbox features into the Xbox app," explains Chris Charla, general manager of content curation and programs at Xbox. We're super excited to see what Xbox games come to Windows PC from game creators in the future and to welcome nearly 400 titles that previously weren't discoverable or purchasable in the Xbox app." Image: Microsoft The new Xbox app homescreen. The 400 new games include titles from Japanese studios like Kemco and Kairosoft, alongside games like The Invincible by Double 11. More than 100 of these new titles are also Xbox Play Anywhere, so if you buy the Xbox console version then you can play the Xbox PC version too. Universal Xbox ownership, as well as universal cloud saves on Xbox, and cross-play between Xbox versions on console and PC (and other platforms, at the developer's discretion) are awesome features players love," says Charla.What's not immediately clear from Microsoft's blog post is exactly what bring all PC games with Xbox features into the Xbox app," means. Microsoft has been trying to tempt game developers over to its Windows-based store in recent years, even lowing its cut from 30 percent to just 12 percent to try and shake up PC gaming.Despite these efforts, there are plenty of PC games that have cross-play between the Xbox and PC version of the game but aren't part of the Microsoft Store currently or the Xbox app. Microsoft now appears to be working to bring even more of these games into the Xbox app, and it will be interesting to see whether the company makes the bold move of listing Steam, Epic Games Store, or itch.io games in the Xbox app soon, too. Microsoft says it will have more to share about its Xbox app plans at the game developers conference in March.Microsoft is also rolling out a new home UI for the Xbox app on Windows today. The home UI now includes featured content from PC Game Pass and the Microsoft Store, alongside collections of deals and discounts. Microsoft has also added a jump back in" section that lets you quickly get back into recent games just like you can on an Xbox console.

It should be simple to stream live TV at home.But depending on the sport, you might be signing up (and paying handsomely) for a lot of different services just to keep up.There are the rare leagues, like Major League Soccer, that can be watched on a single channel. (In the US, every match can be viewed live on Apple TV Plus.) But keeping up with most sports resembles, say, tennis, where the rights for its four major tournaments are scattered across several different platforms.And in general, as the large streaming platforms go toe-to-toe with the legacy broadcast companies transitioning to digital, the much-sought-after rights have positioned leagues to make a lot of money. The adverse effect for viewers is that many professional sports are now available exclusively" in many different places.Basically, watching sports has never been easier. And it's also never been harder.The high cost of NFL streaming optionsIn the US, you can stream the majority of live NFL games through Sunday Ticket, a full season of which costs $349, plus you'll need to be subscribed to YouTube TV at $72.99 a month. For six months of football ($437.94), from week one to Super Bowl Sunday, that brings... Read the full story at The Verge.

Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images The Onion's acquisition of InfoWars isn't happening - at least for now. In a ruling on Tuesday, a Texas bankruptcy judge rejected The Onion's purchase of the conspiracy-ridden website founded by Alex Jones, according to a report from The New York Times.Last month, The Onion announced that it had purchased InfoWars during a bankruptcy auction of Jones' assets. It had the support of the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, who successfully sued Jones for more than $1 billion for spreading false claims. However, Judge Christopher Lopez halted the sale shortly after the auction.As reported by The Times, Lopez disagreed with the sealed bidding process used to sell Jones' assets, saying that the auction didn't maximize" the amount of money Jones' creditors could've gotten from the sale of InfoWars. It seemed doomed almost from the moment they decided to go to a sealed bid," Judge Lopez said when handing down his decision, according to The Times. Nobody knows what anybody else is bidding."

Project Astra is supposed to be more useful than ever - and it knows where you are. | Image: Google I stepped into a room lined with bookshelves, stacked with ordinary programming and architecture texts. One shelf stood slightly askew, and behind it was a hidden room that had three TVs displaying famous artworks: Edvard Munch's The Scream, Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon, and Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. There's some interesting pieces of art here," said Bibo Xu, Google DeepMind's lead product manager for Project Astra. Is there one in particular that you would want to talk about?"Project Astra, Google's prototype AI universal agent," responded smoothly. The Sunday Afternoon artwork was discussed previously," it replied. Was there a particular detail about it you wish to discuss, or were you interested in discussing The Scream?"I was at Google's sprawling Mountain View campus, seeing the latest projects from its AI lab DeepMind. One was Project Astra, a virtual assistant first demoed at Google I/O earlier this year. Currently contained in an app, it can process text, images, video, and audio in real time and respond to questions about them. It's like a Siri or Alexa that's slightly more natural to talk to, can see the world around you, and can remember"... Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration: The Verge Google's latest AI model has a lot of work to do. Like every other company in the AI race, Google is frantically building AI into practically every product it owns, trying to build products other developers want to use, and racing to set up all the infrastructure to make those things possible without being so expensive it runs the company out of business. Meanwhile, Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI are pouring their own billions into pretty much the exact same set of problems.That may explain why Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind and the head of all the company's AI efforts, is so excited about how all-encompassing the new Gemini 2.0 model is. Google is releasing Gemini 2.0 on Wednesday, about 10 months after the company first launched 1.5. It's still in what Google calls an experimental preview," and only one version of the model - the smaller, lower-end 2.0 Flash - is being released. But Hassabis says it's still a big day.Effectively," Hassabis says, it's as good as the current Pro model is. So you can think of it as one whole tier better, for the same cost efficiency and performance efficiency and speed. We're really happy with that." And not only is it better at doing the old things Gemini could do but it can also do new things. Gemini 2.0 can now natively generate audio and images, and it brings new multimodal capabilities that Hassabis says lay the groundwork for the next big thing in AI: agents.Agentic AI, as everyone calls it, refers to AI bots that can actually go off and accomplish things on your behalf. Google has been demoing one, Project Astra, since this spring - it's a visual system that can identify objects, help you navigate the world, and tell you where you left your glasses. Gemini 2.0 represents a huge improvement for Astra, Hassabis says.Google is also launching Project Mariner, an experimental new Chrome extension that can quite literally use your web browser for you. There's also Jules, an agent specifically for helping developers find and fix bad code, and a new Gemini 2.0-based agent that can look at your screen and help you better play video games. Hassabis calls the game agent an Easter egg" but also points to it as the sort of thing a truly multimodal, built-in model can do for you.We really see 2025 as the true start of the agent-based era," Hassabis says, and Gemini 2.0 is the foundation of that." He's careful to note that the performance isn't the only upgrade here; as talk of an industrywide slowdown in model improvements continues, he says Google is still seeing gains as it trains new models, but he's just as excited about the efficiency and speed improvements.Google's plan for Gemini 2.0 is to use it absolutely everywhereThis won't shock you, but Google's plan for Gemini 2.0 is to use it absolutely everywhere. It will power AI Overviews in Google Search, which Google says now reach 1 billion people and which the company says will now be more nuanced and complex thanks to Gemini 2.0. It'll be in the Gemini bot and app, of course, and will eventually power the AI features in Workspace and elsewhere at Google. Google has worked to bring as many features as possible into the model itself, rather than run a bunch of individual and siloed products, in order to be able to do more with Gemini in more places. The multimodality, the different kinds of outputs, the features - the goal is to get all of it into the foundational Gemini model. We're trying to build the most general model possible," Hassabis says.As the agentic era of AI begins, Hassabis says there are both new and old problems to solve. The old ones are eternal, about performance and efficiency and inference cost. The new ones are in many ways unknown. Just to name one: what safety risks will these agents pose out in the world operating of their own accord? Google is taking some precautions with Mariner and Astra, but Hassabis says there's more research to be done. We're going to need new safety solutions," he says, like testing in hardened sandboxes. I think that's going to be quite important for testing agents, rather than out in the wild... they'll be more useful, but there will also be more risks."Gemini 2.0 may be in an experimental stage for now, but you can already use it by choosing the new model in the Gemini web app. (No word yet on when you'll get to try the non-Flash models.) And early next year, Hassabis says, it's coming for other Gemini platforms, everything else Google makes, and the whole internet.

Illustration: The Verge Google has just revealed a new AI tool called Deep Research that lets you call upon its Gemini bot to scour the web for you and write a detailed report based on its findings.Deep Research is currently only available in English to Gemini Advanced subscribers. If you have access, you can ask Gemini to research a particular topic on your behalf, and the chatbot will create a multi-step research plan" that you can either edit or approve. Google says Gemini will start its research by finding interesting pieces of information" on the web and then performing related searches - a process it repeats several times. GIF: Google When it's finished, Gemini will spit out a report of its key findings" with links to the websites where it found its information. You can ask Gemini to expand on certain areas or tweak its report, as well as export the AI-generated research to Google Docs. This all sounds a bit similar to the Pages feature offered by the AI search engine Perplexity, which generates a custom webpage based on your prompt.Google took the wraps off Deep Research as part of a broader announcement for Gemini 2.0, its new model for an era of agentic" AI, or the AI systems that can perform tasks for you. Deep Research is just one example of Google's agentic push, and it's something other AI companies are seriously exploring as well.Along with Deep Research, Google announced that it's making Gemini Flash 2.0 - a speedier version of the next-gen chatbot - available to developers. Deep Research is currently only available for Gemini Advanced subscribers on the web. You can try it by heading to Gemini and then changing the model dropdown to Gemini 1.5 Pro with Deep Research."

Here's what Google's latest smart glasses prototype looks like. | Image: Google Google is working on a lot of AI stuff - like, a lot of AI stuff - but if you want to really understand the company's vision for virtual assistants, take a look at Project Astra. Google first showed a demo of its all-encompassing, multimodal virtual assistant at Google I/O this spring and clearly imagines Astra as an always-on helper in your life. In reality, the tech is somewhere between neat concept video" and early prototype," but it represents the most ambitious version of Google's AI work.And there's one thing that keeps popping up in Astra demos: glasses. Google has been working on smart facewear of one kind or another for years, from Glass to Cardboard to the Project Iris translator glasses it showed off two years ago. Earlier this year, all Google spokesperson Jane Park would tell us was that the glasses were a functional research prototype."Now, they appear to be something at least a little more than that. During a press briefing ahead of the launch of Gemini 2.0, Bibo Xu, a product manager on the Google DeepMind team, said that a small group will be testing Project Astra on prototype glasses, which we believe is one of the most powerful and intuitive form factors to experience this kind of AI." That group will be part of Google's Trusted Tester program, which often gets access to these early prototypes, many of which don't ever ship publicly. Some testers will use Astra on an Android phone; others through the glasses.Later in the briefing, in response to a question about the glasses, Xu said that for the glasses product itself, we'll have more news coming shortly." Is that definitive proof that Google Smart Glasses are coming to a store near you sometime soon? Of course not! But it certainly indicates that Google has some hardware plans for Project Astra.Smart glasses make perfect sense for what Google is trying to do with Astra. There's simply no better way to combine audio, video, and a display than on a device on your face - especially if you're hoping for something like an always-on experience. In a new video showing Astra's capabilities with Gemini 2.0, a tester uses Astra to remember security codes at an apartment building, check the weather, and much more. At one point, he sees a bus flying past and asks Astra if that bus will take me anywhere near Chinatown." It's all the sort of thing you can do with a phone, but nearly all of it feels far more natural through a wearable.Right now, smart glasses like these - and like Meta's Orion - are mostly vaporware. When they'll ship, whether they'll ship, and whether they'll be any good all remains up in the air. But Google is dead serious about making smart glasses work. And seems to be just as serious about making the smart glasses itself.

Illustration: The Verge Google has announced an experimental AI-powered code agent called Jules" that can automatically fix coding errors for developers. Jules was introduced today alongside Gemini 2.0, and uses the updated Google AI model to create multi-step plans to address issues, modify multiple files, and prepare pull requests for Python and Javascript coding tasks in GitHub workflows.Microsoft introduced a similar experience for GitHub Copilot last year that can recognize and explain code, alongside recommending changes and fixing bugs. Jules will compete against Microsoft's offering, and also against tools like Cursor and even Claude and ChatGPT's coding abilities. Google's launch of a coding-focused AI assistant is no surprise - CEO Sundar Pichai said in October that more than a quarter of all new code at the company is now generated by AI.Jules handles bug fixes and other time-consuming tasks while you focus on what you actually want to build," Google says in its blog post. This effort is part of our long-term goal of building AI agents that are helpful in all domains, including coding."Developers have full control to review and adjust the plans created by Jules, before choosing to merge the code it generates into their projects. The announcement doesn't say that Jules will spot bugs for you, so presumably it needs to be directed to a list of issues that have already been identified to fix. Google also says that Jules is in early development and may make mistakes," but internal testing has shown it's been beneficial for boosting developer productivity and providing real-time updates to help track and manage tasks.Jules is launching today for a select group of trusted testers" according to Google, and will be released to other developers in early 2025. Updates about availability and how development is progressing will be available via the Google Labs website.

Image: The Verge. Photos: Getty Hello, and welcome to Decoder! I'm David Pierce, editor-at-large of The Verge. As you may have noticed, we're dropping some extra episodes in the feed this week. You'll have Nilay back on Friday and for next week, as we run toward the end of the year.But I'm really excited to be here with you all today because I'm getting to talk about one of my favorite things: podcasts. There's something strange happening these days in the podcast world - well, actually, there are kind of a lot of things happening. It's been a wild year.One thing I've noticed recently is the way companies that deal in money have been using podcasts not just as an entertainment medium but also as a weird hybrid of marketing, thought leadership, and networking. It's something we've seen for a few years now with venture capital firms, for example: not only do most of the top-level VC companies have their own podcasts but also people who do podcasts about venture capital end up going into it after meeting and talking to all these folks.It's kind of a weird, complicated web that goes both ways, and it's not getting any less weird or less complicated once you add stuff like crypto and politics to the mix. So I... Read the full story at The Verge.

2024 had some stand-out moments in tech: from AI-generated images to TikTok's near ban, to beigecore, Windows BSOD, the best smart ring of them all, and the list goes on. If you want to see the technology that we just couldn't ignore, check out our video here.But now, we're looking toward 2025, and it's gearing up to be another eventful year. Will we have an actual fulfilling X replacement? Will more health and wellness features be cleared by the FDA on wearables? Will nothing really change but everything will just get more expensive? While we're not fortune tellers, we can probably take some educated guesses about what's to come.We asked Verge staff for their biggest predictions on trends we could see in 2025. Take a look, and spoiler alert, some are already coming true. Read the full story at The Verge.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube just released some new stats that show how the service is being consumed on televisions, and the numbers are enormous. Watch time on TV for sports content was up 30 percent year over year; viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts on their TVs every month.This is YouTube we're talking about, though, so of course the numbers are huge. The living room has been YouTube's fastest-growing platform for years - Alphabet's chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, said on the company's most recent earnings call that watch time is growing across YouTube with particular strength in Shorts and in the living room." Even as YouTube continues to dominate basically all facets of the entertainment business, the arrow on your TV still points up.The trend hasn't changed in forever, but YouTube has spent the last couple of years finally doing something about it. It launched a way to sync your phone and your TV, so you can watch a video on the big screen and interact with it on the small one. Earlier this year, the company redesigned the TV interface to make it easier to find comments, links, and channel pages while you're watching a video. It redesigned those channel... Read the full story at The Verge.

iOS 18.2 is now available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. | Image: Apple Apple announced the release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, adding many new Apple Intelligence features, including Image Playground, Genmoji, and integration with ChatGPT. According to Apple's press release, the updates are available now, but we're not seeing them on our (non-beta) devices yet. If you get the update, let us know in the comments.With Image Playground, users can generate an image from a prompt or make something based on one of Apple's suggestions. However, Image Playground seems to opt for cartoony or stylistic photos instead of photorealistic images, which could prevent potential misuse. Image Playground is available as a standalone app, alongside being integrated into Messages, Freeform, and Keynote.Genmoji allows users to generate their custom emoji images (Emojipedia calls them emoji-like stickers"), which I think could be a big hit in group chats. The Notes app is also getting an Image Wand" tool that transforms rough drawings into more detailed images, with preset styles available for animation, illustration, and sketch. Image: Apple ChatGPT in Apple Intelligence The ChatGPT integration, which has been one of the most notable Apple Intelligence features in the works, lets you access the OpenAI tool from Siri or when using Apple's Writing Tools. Features include a compose tool that generates text based on what the user is already writing about and ChatGPT's text-to-image generation to insert images directly into the document. You don't need to have a ChatGPT account to use it, but you are able to log in to your account if you want.Other new features in iOS 18.2 include Visual Intelligence, the ability to share AirTag locations with a link, daily sudoku puzzles in Apple News Plus, and more. Localized English language support has also been expanded to Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK, with support for additional languages like Chinese, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The expanded language support will roll out throughout 2025, with the initial set launching in April at around the same time Apple Intelligence features are scheduled to start rolling out in the EU, according to Apple.Update, December 11th: Noted we're not seeing the updates available on our devices yet.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge WP Engine just won a preliminary injunction against WordPress.com parent company Automattic. On Tuesday, a California District Court judge ordered Automattic to stop blocking WP Engine's access to WordPress.org resources and interfering with its plugins.The preliminary injunction comes after WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting service, filed a lawsuit that accused Automattic and its CEO, Matt Mullenweg, of multiple forms of immediate irreparable harm." It later asked the court to stop Mullenweg from restricting WP Engine's access to WordPress.org.Mullenweg waged a public campaign against WP Engine in September, accusing the service of misusing the WordPress trademark and not contributing enough to the WordPress community. After blocking WP Engine from WordPress.org's servers, Automattic took control of WP Engine's ACF Plugin.Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin found merit in WP Engine's claims that Automattic's actions harmed business relationships, saying Mullenweg's conduct is designed to induce breach or disruption." As for Automattic's argument that blamed WP Engine for relying on WordPress.org to power its business, Judge Martinez-Olguin didn't find it very compelling.While Defendants characterize WPEngine's harm as self-imposed because it built its business around a website that it had no contractual right to use...' Defendants' role in helping that harm materialize through their recent targeted actions toward WPEngine, and no other competitor, cannot be ignored," the ruling states.